Chapter 3: The Ghosts Remain
People often say that things in the world are hard to predict, and it is true. Not only did a wife fall from the sky, but also a copper coin sword fell from the sky, which just corresponds to the principle that all things are both interdependent and mutually exclusive. After giving me a difficult problem, she also helped me solve it. But I wonder, who is this girl, and why did she help me?
I didn't have many friends, and I had almost no friends of the opposite sex, since I was born in a family of a fortune teller. If I had any, it was the silly girl at the east end of the village, known as "Silly Girl". Her family ran a blacksmith shop, so she was good at swinging a sledgehammer, but I didn't believe she could drive away ghosts with a copper coin sword. Besides, Silly Girl never felt shy when she saw a man taking off his pants, and she was afraid of slapping him in the face, so why would she run away when she saw me naked?
Just as I was in a daze, I heard the old blind man in the outer room yelling angrily: "Lei Xueting, you are breaking the rules, are you trying to rob me?"
"I've been touched by you so many times, why do I still follow the rules? I'm going to get everything tonight!" The voice seemed to be a middle-aged woman. But the voice sounded familiar. Oh, I remembered, it was the woman who often let the old blind man touch his bones and tell fortunes.
"You're dreaming!" The old blind man shouted angrily, as if he had started fighting with Lei Xueting. There was a lot of noise and the outer room was in chaos. It was very lively.
After listening to their conversation, I finally understood what was going on. I said, why did this woman, who was dressed like a person from a big city, always come to the old blind man to touch her bones and tell her fortune? It turned out that she had set her eyes on our things. However, the old blind man had sex with her several times and she got nothing, so she couldn't help but come to rob us.
Now we are facing a powerful enemy. No matter what the old blind man wants to do to me, we have to unite against him. Just as I was about to rush out, I found that I had not put on my clothes. I just found my underwear and was about to put it on when I heard Lei Xueting shouting, "Xiao Xi, catch him quickly."
I was still wondering who Xiao Xi was when the girl who had just jumped out of the window jumped back immediately. She was very agile and threw a rope around my neck. I couldn't breathe and I lost all my strength. Then she slapped me on the back of my neck and I lost consciousness.
I don't know how long it was before the girl named Xiaoxi poured water on me and woke me up. I was so sleepy that I thought it was raining. When I woke up, I saw her scooping water from the river with both hands and splashing it on my face. Seeing that I woke up, she sat down by the river, panting, to rest.
This river is more than a mile away from our home. She must be exhausted to bring me, who weighs more than 100 pounds, here. Suddenly I remembered that I hadn't put on any underwear yet. Just as I was about to cover my lower body with my hands, I found that my whole body was tied tightly with ropes, as if I was wearing underwear on my crotch. I was relieved.
She was panting there and ignored me. I started to wonder, who is Lei Xueting, who is always touched by the old blind man, and why did he arrest me? If you say that he kidnapped me for ransom, forget it. According to the old blind man's character of sacrificing his life but not his money, even if his own father was kidnapped, he would not pay a penny to redeem him. Lei Xueting was often touched by him, how could she not understand the old blind man's temper? Besides, the little money he had was not worth anyone's attention.
Could it be for the Ghost Talisman Scripture? I think it is possible. The old blind man cherishes this book very much. Even I, who do not believe in superstition, am obsessed with it and have gone astray. This book must not be an ordinary thing, otherwise the old blind man would not have repeatedly tested me, and Lei Xueting would not have endured the humiliation of being touched by the old blind man all the time.
After understanding this, I felt relieved. The purpose of arresting me was nothing more than to force me to reveal the contents of the Ghost Talisman Scripture because I was a "living scripture". As long as I gritted my teeth and didn't say anything, I believed they wouldn't dare to kill me.
It was quite cold in the second half of the night in late autumn. I was only wearing a pair of trousers. When the breeze blew, I couldn't help shivering all over. I turned my head to look at Xiao Xi who was sitting by the river. There was no movement for a long time. I knew she was waiting for Lei Xueting. But when will that old woman come? Maybe she was held down by the old blind man to feel my bones . I was frozen for most of the night and must have been sick. Just as I was thinking about it, I heard a few gurgling sounds in the river.
At first I thought it was just the bubbles coming out of the fish, so I didn't pay much attention to it. But then it started to gurgle like a pot boiling, and the sound of boiling water seemed very strange in the silent night. Xiao Xi couldn't sit still anymore, so she stood up and turned on the flashlight. When the light came on, I saw half of her face, with fair skin, big eyes, and long eyelashes. She looked like a young and beautiful girl.
She stared at the river and her face changed color. My heart skipped a beat and I thought she must have encountered something unclean. There are many terrible rumors about this river in the local area. It is said that many people have drowned there. The old blind man repeatedly told me not to play by the river. He said that the ghosts here are lingering and often come out to take their place. Once you are caught, even gods can't save you.
Xiao Xi immediately took out a yellow talisman from her bag, and I was relieved. It turned out that she knew how to exorcise ghosts, so I was relieved. But I was very disappointed when she made a hand gesture with her right hand. It seemed that she wanted to make a "thunder hand gesture", but her finger technique was seriously wrong, and it was crooked and weird. Speaking of hand gestures, this is very important in the Ghost Talisman Sutra. As the saying goes, "It is difficult to produce power without a talisman." Whether it is opening an altar to perform rituals or burning talismans and chanting spells, it must be combined with hand gestures, otherwise it will not produce any power.
The magic of the spell is too long to describe, so let's put it aside for now and explain it in detail later. I saw that her finger technique was wrong, so I quickly reminded her: "Xiao Xi..."
"Shut up and don't call me by my name." This girl has a bad temper and doesn't allow others to call her by her name.
"You're fingering it wrong. This won't work."
"What do you know? This is the authentic Maoshan magic!" She turned her head and glared at me, then turned back to continue casting the spell.
I couldn't help but be stunned, not because of her bad temper of pretending to be knowledgeable, but because this girl was so beautiful, just like the actresses in the celebrity posters on the walls of my doghouse. She was so much more beautiful than Xiaoqing that I couldn't help staring at her.
Xiao Xi opened her lips slightly and chanted some spell. After she finished, she shook the yellow talisman in her hand, but nothing happened. She scratched her head and asked, "Why didn't it burn?"
As soon as I finished speaking, a wave of water surged up from the river and splashed all over us. The water drops on our bodies were particularly fishy and smelly. I thought something was wrong and wanted to get up, but I was tied up and couldn't move. Xiaoxi screamed and turned around to run back. Behind her, another wave of water came ashore. There were strands of hair in the water, which suddenly entangled Xiaoxi's ankles and pulled her back to the ground.
Then he dragged her into the river. Just as she passed by me, he grabbed the rope on my body and refused to let go. This time, he dragged me into the river with him. I couldn't swim, and I swallowed a few gulps of river water when I first got in. I almost choked to death. Fortunately, I was calm and quickly closed my mouth and nose, and raised my breath to flow between my chest and abdomen, so I was able to resist for a while.
Xiao Xi was obviously a good swimmer. She struggled to get out of the water but was pulled down again. She grabbed me with one hand and climbed up a small tree by the river with the other hand. When we both emerged from the water, I hurriedly told her to untie the rope on me. This girl was stubborn and shouted at me: "I don't understand, I don't understand, I just don't understand!"
I was so angry that my nose almost got crooked. Just as I was about to say something, the pulling force from below increased, and her left hand that was holding the small tree finally broke free, and we both sank quickly to the bottom of the river.
