Chapter 3

"Don't listen, don't look, hurry up and go!" Jiang Yue whispered sternly.

"Second Brother, he's calling my name, calling me San Gou!" San Gou, known for his wild and bold nature, actually sounded a bit uneasy at this moment.

He grabbed Jiang Yue, refusing to let him move forward.

"Second Brother, it's Tang Tou, Tang Tou is calling me!" San Gou was even more anxious and uneasy.

"Who is Tang Tou?"

"The son of Tang Youqing from the village. A few years ago, he was carried away by a bear and had half his head bitten off."

San Gou's reminder made Jiang Yue recall the story.

He rarely returned to the village, but he had heard of this tragic tale. According to the villagers who searched for the body, the child died a terrible death and was buried with half his head missing.

Thinking of this, Jiang Yue felt a chill run down his spine.

Without a word, Jiang Yue picked up San Gou and started to leave. However, San Gou was uncooperative, flailing and covering his ears, kicking his legs, and shouting hoarsely.

"I didn't see your head, I didn't see it. Tang Tou, your head was bitten off by the bear."

At San Gou's age, his determined resistance was hard for Jiang Yue to handle. He had to put him down. The yellow paper had already burned up, but fortunately, he still had half a pack of cigarettes in his pocket.

He took out three cigarettes, lit them with difficulty, and bowed three times to the air.

"Each ghost has its own master, do not seek the innocent. The yin and yang are separate, each should follow their own path..."

In situations like the one San Gou encountered, either a ghost had taken the path of the living, or a living person had mistakenly entered the path of the dead.

Before the three cigarettes were halfway burned, San Gou gradually calmed down. Although fear still lingered in his eyes, it was within a normal range.

Following San Gou's unsettled gaze, Jiang Yue used his hoe to clear the grass and found a mass grave.

There was some movement at a small mound. On closer inspection, it was a yellow weasel. A tilted soil tablet with the faint character "Tang" was beside the mound.

"Is Tang Tou buried here?" Jiang Yue asked.

San Gou shook his head, unsure: "He's the same age as me, and we used to play together a lot. He was only seven when he was carried away. I was at my aunt's place in town when he was buried, so I don't know where he was buried."

The yellow weasel was strangely evil. Instead of fleeing at the sight of people, it turned around and looked at them curiously, even nodding as if greeting them.

"Let's go." Jiang Yue felt that everything today was bizarre, and he didn't want to stay a second longer.

The rest of the way down the mountain, San Gou, who was usually chatty, was unusually quiet.

It wasn't until they reached the bottom of the mountain that San Gou muttered, "Second Brother, do you believe me? Just now, it was Tang Tou calling me. He was waving with half his head, asking if I saw his half head!"

Jiang Yue wanted to scold him but found his words pale and powerless.

"San Gou, during the Qingming Festival, lonely spirits have no home to return to. Maybe Tang Tou was just lonely, and since no one came to pay respects, he greeted you."

Jiang Yue wanted to slap himself for saying such a thing to comfort a child.

To his surprise, San Gou beamed, "Second Brother, only you would believe me. If I told my aunt or my older sister, they would slap me."

Well!

This kid's mind didn't work like a normal child's. He didn't seem to need comforting. Those empty words probably wouldn't work on him.

Their conversation and banter lightened the oppressive atmosphere.

Just as Jiang Yue was about to speak, he suddenly pulled San Gou.

As San Gou stumbled forward, a large white cat suddenly darted out from the grass where he had been standing. Even in broad daylight, its green eyes were eerie enough to make one's hair stand on end.

Fortunately, the white cat's sudden pounce was not directed at them.

On the other side of the grass, a large snake was coiled, its triangular head raised high, its tongue flicking at the white cat, clearly in a state of high alert.

It was a venomous pit viper, locally known as a "tortoise shell flower," extremely toxic and highly aggressive!

At the Nine Mile Pavilion, a white cat was fighting a pit viper.

Another heart-stopping and bizarre scene.

From a biological perspective, a cat and snake fight wasn't unusual.

But in a place like the Nine Mile Pavilion, with its mystical reputation, and with a white cat and a green pit viper, it would be a major event in the eyes of a feng shui expert.

There's a saying, isn't there?

"When the white tiger fights the green dragon, the heavens and earth will be torn apart!"

San Gou, fearless, had already forgotten his earlier fright and was watching the battle with great interest.

This time, Jiang Yue didn't indulge him and dragged San Gou away.

Seeing his brother's serious expression, San Gou seemed to sense something and didn't insist, though reluctantly, he followed Jiang Yue back.

He kept looking back, still eager to watch the spectacle, as if he hadn't just been scared.

"Second Brother! Wait a moment."

After walking a hundred meters, San Gou had another issue.

"Which nerve is misfiring now? This isn't Big Gold Mountain. Don't cause any more trouble."

San Gou opened his mouth wide, staring blankly at the Nine Mile Pavilion behind them.

"Second Brother, look, isn't the main beam of the Nine Mile Pavilion broken?" The usually carefree San Gou was now completely serious.

The Nine Mile Pavilion had a wing-like structure, with the middle higher and the sides lower. The main beam in the middle, like a spine, supported the entire structure, with the rafters on either side like ribs.

A broken main beam meant the core of the building was damaged.

Jiang Yue looked and saw that the Nine Mile Pavilion, which resembled a phoenix spreading its wings, had indeed sunk slightly at the top. The majestic posture of the spreading wings was not as graceful as before, looking more like a sick phoenix.

From a distance, a faint blackish-blue aura seemed to hover over the Nine Mile Pavilion, like a lid covering the pavilion.

If one were to stretch the imagination, that blackish-blue aura resembled a heavy hammer hanging high above the Nine Mile Pavilion!

"What's going on? Strange things happen every year, but today is particularly strange?"

The Nine Mile Pavilion had withstood many storms and remained standing.

Why would the main beam suddenly break?

Although Jiang Yue didn't fully believe in feng shui, he was influenced by his family's traditions and had a deep respect for the natural order and the forces of heaven and earth.

All these events, one after another, were clearly not normal!

Dreams of his birth mother, a fallen photo frame, the shadow of a woman in a flowered dress, easily burning paper money, Tang Tou seeking his head, the battle of the dragon and tiger, and the broken spine of the phoenix...

Even one of these events would be shocking on its own.

Although the Qingming Festival was a special day, for all these events to happen in a few hours, like episodes of a TV series, without any commercial breaks, was too much to be a coincidence.

Seeing his brother's troubled expression, San Gou seemed to understand a little.

"Second Brother, are you worried about Tang Tou? The elders say that if you encounter something unclean, burning paper, lighting incense, and bowing three times is enough. Tang Tou was my friend in life, and he won't haunt me in death."

San Gou's thoughts were simple. He didn't understand the battle of the dragon and tiger or the broken spine of the phoenix.

He saw Tang Tou's incident as a mere coincidence.

Growing up in the mountains, who hadn't encountered a few strange things? Besides, the local saying went that during the Qingming Festival, lonely spirits have no home to return to. San Gou had grown up hearing this, so he was mentally prepared.

Therefore, although the incident was strange, San Gou saw it as an isolated event and didn't think much about it, especially since he was too young to analyze it deeply.

In other words, San Gou understood the "form" but not the "trend."

If the earlier incidents were individual "forms," the battle of the dragon and tiger and the broken spine of the phoenix hinted at a larger "trend."

Of course, this was just Jiang Yue's instinctive feeling based on his family's traditions.

Instincts aside, when it came to the forces of heaven and earth, an individual's power was like a grain of sand in the ocean, likely to have little effect.

Seeing that his brother wasn't responding, San Gou wasn't upset and continued to chatter, "Second Brother, wasn't that snake a green tortoise shell flower? It must weigh over ten pounds. If we caught it and stewed it in a pot, it would be delicious."

San Gou, a mountain boy, had the rugged nature of a mountain dweller.

Traditional mountain dwellers had only two survival logics: either conquer nature or be conquered by it.

Catching a snake and stewing it was just a simple part of their daily life.