Chapter 256: Ten Thousand Ghosts in the World
"Have you heard? Someone died again yesterday. It was the eldest daughter of the Zhang family... She suddenly went crazy at night, muttering that she wanted to find her brother . Before her family could stop her, she ran away in the dark."
"Wait a minute, the Zhang family only has one male child, right? How could she have a brother?"
"Who knows? This morning, her family found her in a shallow pond. The water was up to her waist. She was submerged in it, but she was gone. I heard... it was as if she had been submerged for half a month. She was almost unrecognizable. They recognized her by the birthmark on her clothes..."
"It's not just the Zhang family. The two brothers of the Zhao family in Yanqi Village next door are also missing... The day before yesterday, they were drinking with people from our town. We clearly saw them walking back on the main road, but then we saw a red shadow flash by. The two brothers seemed to be blind and turned into the woods... The people in their village have been looking for them for a whole day but couldn't find them. They just went to the city to report the case to the government."
"Hey... if we add them up like this, there will probably be less than a dozen in February, right? It's only the beginning of the month, if it continues like this, I don't know when it will end..."
"Early this morning, I saw Mr. Li and his family driving away... I heard they were moving away from Shuiyang Town and would never come back... The rich and powerful can move away, but how can we poor people survive?"
There were few pedestrians on the deserted street. An octogenarian with a gloomy look was sitting on the street chatting. The cold wind blew, rolling up pieces of white paper, which floated in the air.
The young man walked quickly through the street. He had no time to listen to the idle chatter of these old men. The gloomy sky was suffocating and it looked like a rainstorm was coming.
In such weather, even if it is not yet past You time, the sun may still be hanging on the thick clouds, but it is no different from dark. You can't hang around outside at this time and have to go back home as soon as possible.
The world was becoming more and more unfamiliar and frightening to him. The peace and tranquility he had experienced when his parents were still alive were gone forever. All the changes seemed to be caused by the death of the old emperor of their Yan State.
Originally, the existence of the emperor was too distant for the young man in the small town, so distant that it was not as real as the statue of the land god in the temple.
But five years ago, when the old emperor suddenly passed the throne to his youngest son before his death, the young boy felt the emperor's presence.
I heard from merchants who passed by the town in the early years that the newly enthroned little emperor was too young, so his brothers and even his many uncles were not convinced by him. Within a few short years, they launched rebellions one after another to fight for the throne.
Although most of the rebellions were suppressed and the young emperor's position was secured, the young man could feel that his life was deteriorating at a visible rate.
The first thing that made the young man feel heavy was the taxes imposed by the government, which became heavier and heavier, so much so that when his mother was seriously ill in bed, his father did not even have money to buy medicine.
After his mother died of illness, his father was taken away by the government because he could not pay the increasingly heavy taxes. It was said that he was taken to a faraway place to perform forced labor to repay the unpaid taxes.
Because of his father and his young age, he does not have to pay taxes for the time being. However, this is only temporary. In another year, he will also face the taxes that have caused complaints from many neighbors.
However, he doesn't have to worry about next year now, because he doesn't seem to live to that time. He doesn't know when it started, but everything around him that he can touch has begun to become strange and weird.
Two months ago, a famous cloth merchant and shopkeeper in the county town, along with four of his assistants, were returning from collecting goods. It was already midnight and it is said that they came across a string of red lanterns floating in the air on the official road.
One of the youngest assistants was so frightened that he ran away, while the cloth merchant, the shopkeeper, and several older assistants were so frightened that they dared not move. From that day on, no one saw those people again, as if they had evaporated from the face of the earth.
More than half a month ago, a group of warriors, seemingly pursuing something and avoiding something, passed by the neighboring Jiming Village and stayed overnight. However, when they waited until the next morning, the villagers who hosted these warriors were horrified to find that all these warriors had been beheaded and died tragically in the middle of the night. What was strange was that there was not even a drop of blood at the place where the heads were severed, and all the heads were missing.
The case caused a sensation in the surrounding area, and the county government sent people to investigate. A whole group of detectives suddenly went crazy for some unknown reason, drew their swords and slaughtered the villagers who were watching the incident. After killing all the villagers who had hosted the warriors, they killed each other and eventually all died.
Half a month ago, a man in the town screamed in fear, saying that he saw a giant about ten feet tall slowly passing by. However, even though it was very close, no one else saw it except this man. The next day, this man died in his bed at home, torn into pieces, extremely miserable.
...The young man had heard similar horrific rumors half a year ago, especially in places where rebellions and wars had taken place. It was said that some people had even seen the Yin army traveling at night.
The young man at that time just thought it was fun, and listened with great interest to the traveling merchants or warriors from afar, who described these bizarre-sounding tragedies vividly with a bit of panic and fear on their faces.
But the young man now no longer has the same feeling as before, because the terrifying and strange things that were originally extremely far away from him, as if they were on the horizon, are spreading towards his town as if they had grown legs.
Especially in the past two months, strange and terrifying things have continued to happen around him, one after another, and are becoming more and more frequent.
Boom boom
A loud thunder resounded across the earth, and the boy couldn't help but quicken his pace to go home.
When passing an alley, the young man suddenly slowed down. He saw two people from Yizhuang carrying a corpse wrapped in a straw mat out of the dark alley. When a cold wind blew over, the straw mat was lifted up, revealing a face full of maggots. An indescribable stench filled the surroundings.
"That's... a lame beggar..."
When the young man saw the face with his eyes open, he suddenly felt a strong sense of uneasiness and palpitations in his heart. He recognized it.
"How did he die? I saw him begging on the street yesterday. He died less than a day ago, and yet he is rotten like this?"
The two corpse collectors threw the body wrapped in a straw mat onto a cart and left with no expression on their faces, or rather numbness.
The young man stood there and watched for a while, then his expression became more solemn and his brows frowned even deeper. Now, he not only had no relatives, but it was even difficult for him to survive.
His family had no money and was penniless. The only valuable property they had was the leaky house. But in this time of war and chaos, with ghosts running rampant, who would want his shabby house?
Just as the boy was feeling sad and depressed, a small ball hung with colorful ribbons and silk suddenly rolled to his feet. It was a hydrangea, and the bright red silk was even tied into a beautiful love knot.
This is a small ball with festive meaning. If it is thrown from a high place on an embroidered building on a sunny day by a wealthy and unmarried girl, it will be enough to make hundreds of people excited and rush to grab more.
But now, this hydrangea rolled out from a dark alley on the eve of the storm, and lay quietly on the dirty ground covered with mud and unknown blood, rolling at his feet.
“…”
The moment he saw the red hydrangea, the young man suddenly felt a chill rushing from his coccyx to the top of his head. His whole body stiffened and his consciousness and thoughts froze at that moment.
The boy's head seemed to be turning uncontrollably, bit by bit, as he looked in the direction where the red hydrangea had rolled out. That was the alley where the two corpse collectors had just carried out the lame beggar.
"Sir, can you help me pick up the ball?"
In the dim alley, there was a pretty girl in her twenties, wearing a blinding red wedding dress, with a bright smile on her delicate face, and she asked softly.
No, you can't pick it up!
The young man widened his eyes in horror. The girl in front of him with her hair full of jewels and jade could appear in any magnificent place, but she should not appear in this dark, damp and dirty alley.
There was no trace of blood on that pretty face, it was so pale that it reminded the young man of the high-quality rice paper he had seen in the bookstore. A cold and strange aura filled his face.
"good!"
However, the boy who wanted to refuse and escape realized that he had lost control of his body at this moment. A low and hoarse voice, which was completely unlike a voice he could make, came out of his mouth.
Then the young man looked horrified as he watched himself bend down, easily pick up the red hydrangea that had rolled at his feet, and hold it in his palm.
Seeing the poor boy with his clothes full of patches, and the pretty girl in a red wedding dress, holding a red hydrangea, standing in the thick dark shadows, she smiled faintly at the boy.
"My dear, why don't you come and give me back my body?"
Upon hearing this, the young man walked stiffly into the alley and came in front of the girl in the wedding dress. The high walls on both sides blocked the extremely dim light outside the alley, and a chilling and biting breath rushed in from all directions.
“Give it back to you!”
The boy in plain clothes handed the red hydrangea to the girl in wedding dress.
But the girl didn't even look at the red hydrangea, her black and white eyes stared straight at the boy in plain clothes.
"don't want……"
The girl's blood-red lips slightly parted, her eyes smiling.
"Since you picked up the hydrangea, it belongs to you, and so does I!"
Suddenly, the girl in the wedding dress reached out her hand and touched the boy's face. The girl's hand was colder than the white ice in winter, and instantly half of the boy's face was numb.
The fear that the boy had accumulated since then suddenly erupted at this moment and turned into anger. The hair on his body stood on end, and a rumor that he didn't know whether it was useful or not was suddenly recalled by him.
Under the strong stimulation of the threat to his life, the anger turned from fear and made him bite the tip of his tongue. A warm feeling filled his whole body, and a burning heat spread from his chest.
The sour feeling that made his whole body stiff and unable to move suddenly faded away. At this moment, the boy regained control of his body, and the smile on the face of the beautiful girl in front of him suddenly faded.
It was just a trance. When the boy looked again, the dim alley was empty and the girl in the wedding dress disappeared in an instant.
"Just now...was it an illusion?"
The boy found it difficult to accept the reality, but when he lowered his head and saw what was in his hand, the joy that had not yet emerged on his face froze... The luxuriously decorated red hydrangea was actually still in his hand!
A chill rose from the boy's heart, and he felt as if he had fallen into an icy cave. He hastily threw away the red hydrangea in his hand and quickly left the alley. When the boy fled back to the street, the cold air around him seemed to have faded a little.
When the sudden courage that had just risen up in his heart faded away, only fear remained in the young man's heart. He looked back at the dark alley, quickly quickened his pace, and fled from the alley, but accidentally bumped into a passerby who was also walking in a hurry.
"Where did this young man come from? How could he walk without paying attention?"
The passerby who was knocked off balance started to curse angrily.
At this moment, the young man was in a state of shock and confusion, and just wanted to go home quickly:
"I'm sorry, I..."
However, before the boy could finish his words, he saw the angry passerby become terrified, and suddenly, as if he had seen a ghost, he pointed at the boy's face and shouted in fear:
"Ghost...ghost...ghost handprint!"
The boy couldn't see his own face and didn't understand what the passerby meant.
"He...he's possessed by evil spirits!"
Passersby screamed in fear and crawled away from the boy, as if they were avoiding a disaster.
"He bumped into a ghost!"
The young man stood there in a daze. On the street, a few hurried passers-by were attracted by the shouting and glanced at the young man. Then, their faces changed drastically and they scattered in fear as if they had seen the god of plague.
"That kid... has a ghost handprint on his face! He... he won't live for more than a few days!"
"Don't talk, stay away from him! Be careful not to get into his bad luck!"
"Such a small child, what a pity... I don't know whose son is going to die at such a young age, ah... what kind of world is this."
"Don't you want to live anymore? Stop talking."
Looking at the passers-by running away as if avoiding the plague, the boy's heart sank. He remembered that the strange girl reached out and touched his face. Did she leave something on his face?
The young man couldn't stand the strange looks from passers-by who were avoiding him like snakes and scorpions, so he covered and trotted into a shabby and dilapidated tile house.
After returning home, the first thing the boy did was to use a clay pot with a corner missing to fill half a pot of water from the water tank. Then he leaned over and saw a dark blue handprint with five slender fingers clearly visible on the right side of his cheek in the slightly rippling water reflection. It was extremely glaring.
The young man's face turned livid, then pale. He knew that some unlucky people would run into ghosts at inappropriate times and places, and at this time the ghosts were powerless and could only leave marks and wait until the right time came.
The most suitable time for a ghost to take action is undoubtedly midnight. Perhaps just as passers-by said, he only has a few days left to live. Maybe he won't even survive tonight and won't see tomorrow's sunrise.
The young man felt cold all over. He hurriedly scooped water from the clay pot, slapped it on his cheeks, and rubbed them hard. But even though his cheeks were sore from washing and even bleeding, the dark blue palm print was firmly attached to his flesh and showed no sign of fading.
"What on earth have I done... Why did I have to encounter such a thing!?"
In recent years, the teenager, who had suffered a series of heavy blows, seemed to have been drained of all his strength. He sat on the ground and cried loudly, as if he wanted to vent all the depression and pain that had been accumulated in his heart over the past few years.
