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墨書 Inktalez
Chapter 129 Weasel
As I approached, I realized that the man standing on the roof was about twenty years old. However, at that moment, he appeared dazed and was wandering back and forth on the Roof.
The crowd gathered below were clearly locals from the village. Upon witnessing the man's actions on the Roof, they expressed great concern, shouting for him to "come down quickly" and "don't do anything reckless." It seemed as if the man had thoughts of ending his life.
This was a two-story tile-roofed house. Although jumping down directly might not necessarily lead to death, his behavior was indeed frightening. Particularly, an elderly Woman among them was crying and pleading with the man on the Roof to come down, urging him not to do anything foolish, saying that if he died, she wouldn't be able to live either.
Seeing this situation unfold, I couldn't help but curiously ask the villagers surrounding us what had happened and why he had gone up to the Roof.
The villager I addressed glanced at us and, noticing we were outsiders, frowned slightly while sizing us up. Then he said, "Are you gentlemen who travel the world?"
I nodded. Upon seeing my acknowledgment, a glimmer of surprise appeared in his eyes as he exclaimed, "You really are gentlemen! That's wonderful!"
Without answering my previous question, he turned and ran over to the sobbing Old Woman, pointing at us and saying, "Aunt Liu, two gentlemen have arrived; perhaps they can save your Son."
Hearing this, everyone turned their attention to us, and the Old Woman looked at us as if we were saviors. She rushed over and knelt before us, pleading, "Gentlemen, please save my son! He has been possessed by a Dirty Thing!"
Upon hearing this, both Cao Qilong and I were taken aback. We thought to ourselves that trouble seemed to follow us wherever we went; we had only been traveling for a few days and had already encountered such a situation again.
At that moment, I activated my Open Third Eye to look up at the Roof. Indeed, I saw that the man had someone on his back—a white-bearded Old Man. He had a sharp face and was grinning in a strange manner.
However, what puzzled me was that this Old Man did not possess any Yin Qi, meaning he was not an Evil Spirit. This explained why I initially thought the man was contemplating suicide rather than realizing he was possessed.
Noticing something was off, I said to Cao Qilong, "That thing is not a ghost."
Cao Qilong, who didn't understand Yin-Yang Techniques and couldn't use the Heavenly Eye, paused in surprise at my words and asked, "What? If it's not a ghost, then what could it be that's possessing him?"
I didn't answer Cao Qilong because there was no time to speculate about what it could be. After all, lives were at stake; if that man jumped off the roof now, it would be disastrous—he might not die but could end up severely injured.
So I stepped forward and shouted at the man on the Roof: "You dare act recklessly under broad daylight, you bold Evil Spirit! Don't you fear retribution from heaven?"
Upon hearing my challenge, he coldly laughed and replied, "Who is this little Yin-Yang meddling in my affairs? Get lost quickly or I'll deal with you too!"
Originally, I wanted to reason with him, but seeing his unreasonable behavior, it was clear that reasoning would not work. So I decided not to waste any more words with him and quickly formed a hand gesture, angrily saying, "You arrogant fool, let me teach you a lesson today!"
After saying that, I changed my hand gesture and unleashed a Yang Thunder spell towards him. He didn't expect me to actually take action and was startled, hurriedly trying to dodge.
This spell does not harm humans but is aggressive towards evil entities.
As he dodged my spell, he became furious and said, "Today, I will play with you. I will come back for revenge another day!" With that, he jumped directly off the roof...
At that moment, everyone was startled. Since I was closest to the house, I was the first to run over.
Fortunately, I was near the eaves, so when I saw him leap down, I rushed over and caught him. However, even so, we both fell to the ground.
As everyone gasped in shock, I was the first to help the man up. Although he wasn't injured from the fall, he had fainted, and the entity that possessed him had already left his body.
An elderly woman rushed over in worry, tears streaming down her face as she called out her son's name. I told her that her son should be fine; he just had been possessed by that entity and would take some time to wake up. I reassured her not to worry too much.
The elderly woman nodded gratefully for my help. At that moment, some villagers came forward and carried the man back inside to wait for him to regain consciousness.
Curious, I asked the elderly woman, "Aunt Liu, you knew your son was possessed early on. Do you know what kind of entity possessed him?"
Aunt Liu replied angrily, "My son was cursed by an Earth Immortal; this has been going on for over a year. You two gentlemen must help save my son! That Earth Immortal has tormented our family for a year now. This time it couldn't harm my son, but it will surely come back in a few days to cause trouble again. Oh..."
Seeing Aunt Liu so certain made me even more curious. I first comforted her not to be too anxious and assured her that we would do our best to help if we could.
Aunt Liu nodded and sighed before explaining the situation.
It turned out that Aunt Liu's son was named A-Lang. He was quite remarkable in the village; he had attended university and was the only educated person in the area. After graduating three or four years ago, he returned home to become a village official and soon got married and had children. He could be considered an outstanding young man in the village.
Last year, for some unknown reason after attending university and becoming a village official, A-Lang threw away the ancestral tablet of their Guardian Spirit that had been worshipped by their family for generations. Aunt Liu was very frightened at the time and wanted to dissuade him, but since he was the head of the household, she couldn't stop him and ended up being scolded by her son for being too superstitious.
Not long after throwing away the Guardian Spirit's tablet, their chickens started disappearing one by one—today one less chicken, tomorrow another—almost as if something were taking them away without a trace. One day while A-Lang was idly at home, he suddenly heard his chickens making a commotion outside as if they were frightened. He ran out only to see a weasel carrying one of his chickens away.
Furious about this, he followed the trail of chicken blood and feathers. Their house had a small courtyard with four mud-brick rooms facing south; one room on the east side was unoccupied and contained a large wooden coffin inside. At that time, earth burials were still common practice; having a coffin at home for emergencies wasn't considered unlucky; on the contrary, it was said to bless elders with longevity.
While searching in anger, A-Lang ended up opening the coffin and found a nest of weasels inside—besides one large one, there were several young ones as well. In his rage, he picked up a hoe and attacked the weasels without thinking twice. As a result, the large one escaped while all the young ones were killed by him.
When Liu Aunt learned about it, she was quite frightened and told A-Lang that weasels are not to be messed with because they will take revenge.
It is known that in many areas of folklore, weasels are commonly regarded as mysterious creatures. Their enigmatic nature is no less than that of ghosts in people's minds. People both hate and fear them, so most adopt a respectful distance. As a result, many here dare not call them by their name and refer to them as Old Huang.
Why do people both hate and fear them? Because it is said that they can possess humans. Descriptions of weasel possession are generally consistent: there are two types of weasels, one called the talking weasel, which can borrow a person's voice to speak. The other is the thieving weasel. The thieving weasel cannot possess people; it only steals a few chickens and is not considered frightening. The talking weasel is the one to fear, but no one can distinguish which type is the thieving weasel and which is the talking weasel. Therefore, any weasel is treated with the same reverence.
The spirit of the talking weasel is very powerful; a person possessed by it may cry and laugh at the same time, speaking to themselves in a manner indistinguishable from a weasel, discussing topics related to the weasel's needs.
It is also said that when a talking weasel possesses someone, it suffers greatly itself. In some hidden place within a hundred steps of the possessed person, it either hangs in mid-air or curls up stiffly. Family members have many methods to rescue the possessed: they can whip with a peach branch, use needles to prick acupoints while chanting spells, or sweep with a broom. Another method is to find the weasel and gently touch it so it runs away; this will immediately cure the possessed person. It is crucial not to kill it; if killed, the possessed person will lose their sanity until death.
In summary, there are many superstitious beliefs about weasels in folklore, and older people firmly believe in them.
Returning to the main point, Liu Aunt scolded A-Lang for killing that family of weasels, but A-Lang rebuked her for being too superstitious. Seeing that the mother weasel had already been killed, Liu Aunt regretted it was too late and only prayed that this family of weasels was merely "thieving weasels" and not the kind that could possess humans—because "talking weasels" hold grudges and can bring disaster upon you for three generations.
However, what you fear often comes true. Within half a month, A-Lang's wife suddenly committed suicide by drinking pesticide despite being perfectly fine before. When she died, it was terrifying; she foamed at the mouth and continuously vomited yellow bile, her expression twisted in pain while she grinned and muttered, "You killed my children; you killed my children," before she soon passed away.
At that time, they had two sons: the older one was still too young to understand, and the younger one was still nursing. These two little ones lost their mother just like that; it was truly pitiful.
People began to say that it was because A-Lang killed the weasels that he angered the spirits and brought disaster upon himself. Others claimed it was because A-Lang shouldn't have thrown out their Guardian Spirit from their home, which angered it and led to punishment for their family. In short, there was much gossip in the village at that time...
If you think this was the end of it, then you are gravely mistaken.
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