Book Synopsis
Book Tags
Donation Rankings
Comment
0 Comments
You May Also Like
墨書 Inktalez
On the Second Day of the Lunar New Year, the whole family gathered again at Grandmother's house.
No matter how the adults felt, the children were overjoyed. Hu Ruoyun's younger brother, Xiao Hu, and sister, Xiao Feng, played happily with their uncle and cousins from Second Aunt's family. Grandmother and Grandfather had brought out all the delicious food they had prepared, allowing the kids to eat whatever they liked!
Aunt's younger brother had gotten married before the New Year and was accompanying his Sister-in-law to visit relatives on the second day. Naturally, Aunt's visit to her Maternal Family was also rescheduled to Junior Three. This year, there was no longer any awkwardness about seeing Third Aunt.
To be honest, during the New Year, when relatives gathered together to chat warmly, there weren't many serious topics to discuss. Conversations revolved around how the winter wheat was growing, when to prepare for watering it again, and how fertilizer prices had risen from nine to eleven yuan—just typical family chatter.
Speaking of watering the fields, Second Uncle-in-law Qi Hongwei shared a humorous story from his childhood about an incident involving a childhood friend in his village during one summer-autumn transition:
Zhang Fen was a large graveyard for the Zhang family located at the eastern end of his village. It was said to date back to the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Because it was so old, large graves were often surrounded by smaller ones, and even when digging new graves, they would sometimes uncover old ones! Due to their age, many graves no longer had descendants.
In his childhood, there was no electricity in the village. At night, Zhang Fen became a vast expanse of eeriness. Uncle recalled that when he was in middle school and went to school at night, he could still see will-o'-the-wisps flickering among the earthen graves. The legends surrounding Zhang Fen were numerous.
Due to insufficient power supply, power outages were common. Everyone took advantage of electricity whenever it came on to water their fields. Regardless of the time of day or night, once one family finished watering, they would go door-to-door notifying the next family.
This time, Uncle's childhood friend Zhang Shengli finished watering around two in the morning. As his parents packed up shovels and hoses, Zhang Shengli was tasked with going in the dark to notify Old Man Han's family that it was their turn to water. However, getting to Old Man Han's house meant passing through Zhang Fen!
Zhang Shengli rode his bicycle home in the dark alone. He was already terrified but found that he couldn't pedal past Zhang Fen; it felt as if something was pulling him back with great force! Frightened, he didn't dare look back. He abandoned his bicycle and ran back to the village, shouting for Old Man Han to come water the fields. He covered his head with a blanket and slept until dawn before daring to retrieve his bike left by the road near Zhang Fen.
When he finally got there, he couldn't help but laugh at himself for thinking there were ghosts; it turned out that a fertilizer bag had gotten tightly caught in his rear wheel!
As they chatted idly, Second Uncle-in-law shared this funny story about his childhood friend. Once he started talking, it seemed impossible to stop. After taking a sip of Large Leaf Tea, he began recounting more legends about Zhang Fen.
When he was young, there were no televisions or even many radios; rural entertainment was extremely scarce. Whenever word spread that someone from that village was performing a play or telling stories, people from villages ten miles around would come to watch. There was a tale about someone from their village who went to see a "light show" (referring to nighttime performances) in another village. Since he had dinner late and everyone else had already left in groups by the time he set out alone.
With no moon in the sky and hurrying along for quite some time, he could faintly hear the sounds of drums and gongs from the stage ahead and see a flickering light in the dark—likely from stage lighting—which made him quicken his pace. However, after walking for an unknown length of time, he realized that while he could still hear sounds ahead, the light seemed just as far away… At that moment, he began to feel anxious: what if he had encountered a "ghost wall"? The more scared he became, the more uneven and treacherous the path beneath him felt.
After walking for what seemed like ages with still only sounds and lights ahead—always just out of reach—he grew increasingly unsettled!
At that moment, the person was terrified to the core, feeling as if his feet were weighed down with lead, unable to move.
Eventually, he simply rolled over and lay on the ground, falling asleep: it was what it was; let things be as they may!
As the rooster crowed and dawn broke, he suddenly woke up to find himself lying in the middle of Zhang Fen's graveyard, having spent the night there! Around one of the new graves were his footprints.
—He hadn’t even left the village that night; he had just been circling around this new grave.
When we were kids, if a child was being unruly and wouldn’t stop crying, their mother or grandmother would say: "If you cry again, I’ll throw you into Zhang Fen!" The child would immediately quiet down.
Third Aunt’s husband became animated and took over the conversation:
According to the elders, there is a Black Dog Spirit at the East End of our village that comes out at night to scare people. For a while, as soon as dusk fell, no one dared to pass through the East End.
There was a man in the village named Er Dadan who never believed in ghosts or respected gods.
That autumn during harvest time, when farm work was extremely busy, one day before dawn, Er Dadan took his ox and plow to work. As he reached the East End of the village, he suddenly heard barking behind him, as if a rabid dog was about to catch up.
The ox he was leading seemed frightened too, mooing and refusing to move forward, tugging at its reins wildly. Even more alarming was that the plow on his shoulder sounded as if something were banging against its blade, clanging loudly!
As the barking grew closer and seemed almost beside him, Er Dadan suddenly dropped his plow and grabbed his Cowhide Whip from his back, swinging it fiercely behind him!
With a loud crack, the boisterous barking turned into a pitiful wail.
Then everything fell silent before dawn. From that point on, there were no more disturbances from the Black Dog Spirit at the East End.
Later on, after an unknown amount of time had passed, a woman in the village suddenly went mad: she began barking like a dog with an eerily realistic sound. Even more astonishingly, she could leap over half-height earthen walls and climb onto roofs made of mud bricks. She could even jump from one house to another as if walking on flat ground.
The old villagers said that she was possessed by the Black Dog Spirit. Aside from her physical form, everything else about her resembled the behavior of a fierce dog.
Her family tried to communicate with her, but all they received in return were menacing barks.
One of her aunts, unable to bear it any longer, approached her and said, "I know you were once the 'Immortal' of Village East End. Please, spare my nephew's wife!"
The woman possessed by the Black Dog Spirit seemed to find a sense of existence in this moment, letting out a cold laugh without responding.
Her aunt continued, "Everyone here knows how powerful you are; no one can challenge you! Let my nephew's wife offer you the proper respect..."
Hearing this, the possessed woman became smug. "For so many years, whether it's the land deity or the City God, no one has ever intimidated me here!" Her voice was sharp and thin, completely unlike the woman's usual tone. Then she casually added, "Heaven doesn't care, Earth doesn't care, but I fear only Er Dadan in this village..."
Her aunt listened intently and quietly sent her nephew to call for Er Dadan.
The woman possessed by the Black Dog Spirit sat there in a dog-like posture, gesturing wildly while frothing at the mouth and babbling incoherently. Suddenly, the crowd parted to reveal Er Dadan, casually holding a cigarette and wielding a Cowhide Whip as he walked in!
Panic erupted as someone let out a terrified scream, and a dark shadow dashed away. The possessed woman then slumped down as if completely drained of energy.
The elder declared that the Black Dog Spirit had "left."
Just then, Grandma interrupted Uncle's chatter about ghosts and spirits during the New Year festivities. She began clearing the table to prepare for the feast.
Comment 0 Comment Count