Ch128 - Evil Spirit (2) — Footprints

Su An: “Ahhhhhh!”

Su An screamed in his head for a while, trembling and shaking, but finally managed to hold on with tears in his eyes.

Zhou Hao and Chen Tian caught him. Yu Su’an’s face turned pale. Zhou Hao looked at him twice and thought that troublesome Mama’s scared look was a bit cute, and laughed: “Teacher, it’s not that serious. Just looking at a corpse scared you to this point.”

Having said that, he still helped Su An up firmly with his hands.

Yu Su’an came to his senses. He tremblingly adjusted his fallen glasses. Did he see it wrong just now?

In addition to being frightened and a little bit uncontrollable in curiosity, Yu Su’an cautiously walked to the coffin again. When he lowered his head, he saw that the body was not abnormal except for being slightly stiff.

The village chief stared at him closely, his eyes cloudy, “Teacher, do you think it should be burned?”

Logically speaking, it should be burned. After all, cremation is a national policy. However, in areas where cremation is not practiced, the state also allows burial.

More importantly, Yu Su’an knew that each place had its own customs, different funeral cultures, and different burial methods. Before he understood the culture of Xijing Village, it was best not to give advice.

Yu Su’an said seriously: “Village chief, I am an outsider, and I don’t understand the funeral culture in your village. You have to discuss what to do with the family of the deceased.”

The village chief looked at the three family members who were slumped on the ground with cold eyes. He turned around and smiled warmly at Su An, “Okay, okay, teacher. I’ll ask someone to take you to a place to rest. By the way, there are four of you in total, right?”

He looked behind Su An, his eyes especially stayed on Qin-Qin for a few seconds, and murmured, “Oh, there is a little girl here.”

“Yeah, there’s still a girl here,” Exclaimed the village elder brother who brought Su An over, “Our village hasn’t had a little girl from outside for many years.”

Qin-Qin, who was stared at by them, trembled in her heart and lowered her head to hide.

The village chief asked the village elder brother to take them to find a place to rest, and the village elder brother led them out of the crowd. Su An took one last look at the coffin. The coffin lid covered the corpse’s pale face. He shuddered without leaving any trace, and protected Qin-Qin while his eyes wandered among the villagers.

Seven of the ten villagers here are men, and the remaining three are two middle-aged women and a silver-haired old woman.

It seemed that there were very few young girls or even little girls.

“Brother,” Yu Su’an asked, “How many people are there in your village?”

The village elder brother: “There are a total of thirty-six households in our village, with a population of 118.”

The village elder brother talked to them about the village affairs, talking endlessly and spitting. Even the most hospitable people were not as enthusiastic as him. Zhou Hao said casually: “Uncle, are all the people in your village as hospitable as you?”

The village elder brother laughed loudly, he rubbed his hands and said: “Yes, the people in our village are very hospitable. When you get some rest tomorrow, I can take you around our village. Even though our village is small, it has a lot of good things! There is beautiful scenery everywhere.”

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“Our place has the most water,” The village elder brother said with a smile, “You can’t count the small rivers and big rivers. Our village is called Xijing Village.Ai you, there are many wells, I’m sure you’ll be amazed!”

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“Thank you,” Su An looked inside the room and asked, “Brother, are there many vacancies here?”

“There are too many,” The village eldest brother said without changing his smile. His yellow teeth seemed to be covered with black mud, “If you don’t want to live in this house, we have other vacant houses.”

Yu Su’an quickly shook his hand, “No need.” He paused and asked, “Just walking along the way, I saw that all the houses in our village have been neatly tidied up. Only the one in front of the corner is in tatters, as if it had been abandoned for more than ten years, and there was still a circle of open space around it. Brother, is there any difference in that house?”

The expression of the village elder brother suddenly changed.

This seemed to be a taboo question. The village elder brother’s smile was no longer that formulaic and enthusiastic. He hurriedly found an excuse and said: “It’s nothing, no one lives there. My mother-in-law is still waiting for me. Teacher, I’m leaving first. You guys need to rest first.”

Looking at his back as he quickly left, Qin-Qin whispered: “Teacher, are you talking about the house with a yard full of weeds that we just passed by?”

Su An nodded, and Qin Qin hesitantly said: “Looking at this uncle, it seems like that house can’t be mentioned.”

Zhou Haohun didn’t care and said carelessly: “If you think about it with your brain, you will know that a place like this will have some ghosts and legends. Someone might have died in that house, and the locals regarded it as a haunted house. The more remote and narrow the village, the more feudal and superstitious it is. I guess in this place, you have to use firewood to boil water, and there may not even be electricity. ”

Chen Tian called them into the house: “Teacher——? Come in quickly.”

Qin-Qin followed Yu Su’an closely into the yard. She was timid. She is also a little afraid of strangers. At this moment, in her heart, the serious and responsible Teacher Yu is the most trustworthy person, “Teacher, I’m a little scared…”

“We’ll leave tomorrow,” Yu Su’an locked the door, fearing that it would not be safe, and found two long pieces of wood, one on the left and one on the right, to press against the door, and whispered, “Don’t be afraid, the teacher, Zhou Hao and Chen Tian are all here. We will go tomorrow whether it stops raining or not. If it doesn’t stop, the worst we can do is to put in more effort and use manpower to push the car. We can still drive it by pushing it onto the cement road.”

Qin-Qin felt a little more at ease, “Okay, teacher, let me get some water and clean up the house first.”

The four of them packed up two habitable rooms together. An hour later, the village elder brother and his son delivered things. In addition to firewood and bedding, a pot of vegetables and a bucket of rice were also delivered.

The dish is a large plate of stewed chicken. The smell of a whole broiler stir-fried in an earthen stove is too tempting. The sauce-colored soft meat was soft and glutinous. When the villager brother opened the plastic bag, even the little girl Qin-Qin couldn’t help but swallow a mouthful of saliva.

The village elder brother smiled honestly: “You guys make do with what we have to eat, it’s too late today, so I made a dish for you, the rice is all here, a big bucket full! If it’s not enough, you guys can go to my house again to get it, remember where my house is? It’s not far from the end of the village.”

“How can this be acceptable,” Yu Su’an rejected him for several rounds, but when he saw that he couldn’t refuse, he took a porcelain bowl as big as a face and filled it with a bowl of chicken. “Brother, take these back and give them to the children.”

The boy who carried firewood and bedding for them was about fifteen or sixteen years old, with dark skin, thin and silent. Yu Su’an put the porcelain bowl directly into his hand and said with a smile: “Good boy, eat more.”

The village elder brother was polite to him for a while, then saw that it was getting dark, so he turned and left with the child.

As soon as they walked out of the stranger’s residence, the smiles on both father and son’s faces disappeared. They returned home in silence. The child placed the chicken in the center of the table and went to get the dishes and chopsticks neatly.

The wife who walked out of the kitchen lowered her head and wiped her hands. When she walked to the table, she was shocked and asked, “Why did you bring it back?”

“The teacher gave me the eggs,” The father said with a sullen face, smoking a dry cigarette, “Eat it.”

The woman sat down wanting to say something but then hesitated, “Did you get them firewood?”

The son, who had been munching on the meat, said, “Took it and sent it all over.”

The wife looked at the two of them, he sighed suddenly, then picked up the meat with chopsticks and put it into her mouth.

Chewing, she asked vaguely: “Is it burned?”

“The rain is too heavy and we can’t burn it,” The father said. “Someone will be guarding it tonight, and we will burn it in the house tomorrow.”

The son suddenly said: “Mom, have you left any food for sister?”

“Here’s a bowl of rice with a few pieces of meat in it. After your sister finishes eating, go and throw the rice away, but don’t eat the rest of your sister’s food.”

The son said: “I know.”

The chewing sounds of the three people repeated together. The rain outside was getting heavier, the white mist was shrouding the sky, and the sky was getting dark. The family of three was eating slowly in the dark main room.

On the other side, Yu Su’an and the students had finished dinner.

Not a drop of the chicken or soup was left, and the wooden bucket of rice was stripped clean. Yu Su’an watched the students eat and kept nagging: “Eat slowly and chew more.”

When the students put down their chopsticks, Yu Su’an took out barley tea from his bag and made them some tea to drink, so as to strengthen their stomachs and eliminate food, so that they don’t get stuffed up.

He was running around busily, his rustic and old-fashioned plaid shirt dangling in front of their eyes. Zhou Hao clicked his tongue, his brows almost pinching flies. Suddenly he stood up and said, “Chen Tian, let’s go, I’ll boil some water and take a shower with you.”

Chen Tian: “Ah, okay, let’s go.”

The two boys were very energetic and could easily boil a tank of hot water. They let Qin Qin wash first, Yu Su’an next, and they were last.

Even though Zhou Hao was usually very impatient with Yu Su’an, he never shied away from what he had to do. After Qin Qin came out of the bath, Zhou Hao frowned and took the initiative to help Yu Su’an carry a bucket of hot water into the bathing room, and then filled him with a bucket of cold water, “Okay, you can wash.”

Yu Su’an hugged his pajamas and said happily: “Thank you, classmate Zhou.”

Zhou Hao glanced at the change of clothes in his arms, he rubbed his brows with a headache and muttered: “Fuck, why are each one more ugly than the other.”

Yu Su’an didn’t hear it and asked curiously: “What did you say?”

Although Teacher Yu is dressed in an old-fashioned way, his personality is not very likable, he does have the appearance of an educated man, with bright and translucent eyes. No matter who sees him at first glance, they will probably think that he is a teacher.

Zhou Hao coughed, “I said, don’t save the hot water. At worst, I’ll just have to boil it with Chen Tian again.”

Teacher Yu smiled, his eyes turned into moons, “Okay, thank you, classmate Zhou.”

Zhou Hao quickly walked out of the shower room. When the cold wind blew outside, he suddenly woke up and his face turned ugly, “Damn, why did I say that just now? I don’t want to boil water anymore.”

Inside the house.

Su An closed the door and pulled another layer of blue cloth over it. Even though the house had been cleaned, it still smelled of rotting dust, but fortunately the fresh scent of the shower gel masked most of the odor, so it was bearable.

He took off his shirt, bent down and held the table to take off his pants. The old black trouser legs fell off his ankles. His fair skin was set off by the pants, so white that it was covered with a warm glow.

There is no shower in the bathroom, so he can only use wet towels to pour water on his body. Su An hummed a classic old song from ten years ago, spread the towel on his back to keep warm, and poured water over his body.

He was afraid of the cold, so he deliberately used more hot water. The bath was particularly enjoyable and he was so comfortable that he shivered a few times.

Behind him, on the dry ground near the door, a footprint with water stains suddenly appeared.

The footprints were large, like those left by a tall adult man. The footprints seemed to come from the rain, step by step, slowly approaching Su An.

The author has something to say:

Here we go! Let’s change the title, Ghost Stories in Mountain Village is too corny!