Chapter 11 - Going up the mountain

Just as Lu Qingjiu was about to ask a question, he thought of something. His heart squeezed in his chest.

As the three people went deeper into the forest, the sobs also started sounding closer. Lu Qingjiu kept a close eye on the surrounding patches of grass, but the entire time, he didn’t see any traces of a child. Suddenly, from behind him, Zhu Miaomiao reached out a hand and tugged at his shirt. In a shaky voice, she asked, “Why… why doesn’t it seem like it’s a child that’s crying.”

Lu Qingjiu looked back at her, a questioning look in his eyes.

“There seems to be something in the grass…” Zhu Miaomiao was a little scared now. She retreated back two steps and pointed at the patch of grass in front of them.

Yin Xun looked over at the grass. He walked forward two steps, bent down, and felt out something from within the patch of grass. Lu Qingjiu was standing right next to him and instantly recognised what Yin Xun was holding with just one look. …It was actually a pair of kids’ shoes. The shoes were dirty and worn, the canvas was stained with mud, and whatever details it had had been completely obscured.

As Yin Xun picked up the shoes, his expression instantly changed. Lu Qingjiu hurriedly asked, “Yin Xun, what’s wrong?”

Yin Xun looked over at them, replying in a hoarse voice, “Do you still remember what I told you last time, about how a kid from our village drowned to death?”

Lu Qingjiu answered, “…I remember.”

“When they found his body, it was missing a few things,” Yin Xun smiled bitterly, “Including a pair of red shoes…” Clearly, the pair of shoes in his hands, were the very ones missing from the remains of the child who had drowned. What he just couldn’t understand, was why they would appear here, in the patch of grass before them.

A layer of cold sweat formed on Lu Qingjiu’s palms. The most frightening thing was, just as Yin Xun had picked up that pair of tiny red shoes, the child’s sobs had suddenly stopped.

“What do we do?” Zhu Miaomiao was a little panicked, she said in a small voice, “Let’s just go.”

“Let’s go,” Yin Xun agreed.

However, just as they walked forward two steps, the voice of a little child rang out once more. But this time, he wasn’t crying. He was giggling merrily. The sound of laughter made the skin on their scalps crawl. Unconsciously, they quickened their pace, wanting to quickly leave this place. But the original short journey had suddenly become excruciatingly long. The three people travelled through the woods for a long time, but never made it back to their original path, and their surroundings just became more and more unfamiliar.

“I’m really scared.” Next to Lu Qingjiu, Zhu Miaomiao asked in a small voice, “Are we lost?”

“Seems like it,” Lu Qingjiu smiled bitterly.

Next to them, Yin Xun who had been silent up till now, finally spoke softly, “Should we throw these shoes away?”

“What do you mean?” Lu Qingjiu asked.

“There’s a custom in the village,” Yin Xun said, “It’s said that one shouldn’t carry with them clothing dead people wore at the time of their death, or else they’ll have lingering attachments and won’t be able to reincarnate.” He waved around the pair of little red shoes he was holding, and continued, “Could it be that these are the reason why we can’t leave this place?”

Lu Qingjiu replied, “Then just toss them.”

Actually, he had no knowledge whatsoever on such things. Even though he’d occasionally run into some strange things, as long as he’d pretended to not see them, they’d just go away. Only when he returned to this village, did he finally have some real contact with such things.

Yin Xun nodded, then carefully placed the shoes in the patch of grass beside him. The minute he released his hand, the sound of a child’s crying once again started ringing in their ears. These cries were shrill with despair, causing Yin Xun to stumble in shock.

“Ah… Seems like it’s started to rain,” Zhu Miaomiao said, “How long have we been on this mountain?”

At some unknown time, the sky had already turned completely dark. Heavy black clouds drifted along in the sky. The forest was abnormally quiet, to the point that they could even hear pitter-patter of raindrops falling onto the leaves of the trees.

“It’s already 8pm.” Lu Qingjiu looked at his phone. There was no signal. They been wandering around here, utterly lost, for a full two hours, but from beginning to end, they had no way of finding the correct path out of the increasingly eerie forest.

“Oh no, we need to walk faster,” Yin Xun had an ugly look on his face, “If it gets dark and starts raining, it’ll really be troublesome.”

As to why exactly this would be troublesome, he didn’t say.

…maybe I should add a horror tag hehe :3c