Volume 1 Chapter 024: The Death of a Living Person
I lay down and took a few glances. I saw that among this group of people, there were about ten people distributed in twos and threes on the periphery. It seemed random, but looking from above, it was clear that these people just controlled all the entrances and exits of this place. In the center, there was a tent, and you could vaguely see someone inside.
Look at the clothes of these people. They are completely different from those in our village. They are much more fashionable. They may be from big cities. I was watching them intently when I suddenly heard a noise behind me.
I stood up suddenly, picked up a stone from the ground, and hid between two rocks beside me. In such a desolate place, it is most likely to encounter some hungry wolves and wild beasts. This is a defensive instinct that my third uncle has cultivated since I was a child.
I saw a figure coming out from behind the big yellow cow. It was a boy, about my age. He was good-looking, with red lips and white teeth. He stood straight, his chest rising and falling, and he was obviously panting heavily.
"Who are you?" The man seemed a little surprised to see me.
"Who are you?" I looked him up and down while swinging the stone. If we only look at his appearance, he is about the same level as me, but the way he is dressed, coupled with the bookish air from inside out, makes me look like a country bumpkin compared to him.
"My name is Gu Sihan." The man smiled and nodded at me, "Excuse me, who are you?"
This man spoke in a very modest manner, which made people feel comfortable. I said my name was Lu Jing, dropped the stone in my hand, sat on the rock, glanced at him, and thought that this man's name sounded effeminate, Sihan Sihan, could it be that his father missed his old lover?
Gu Sihan took a few steps forward, pointed at the stone next to me, and said with a smile, "Do you mind if I sit here too?"
I said it was okay to sit down, the stone was not mine. Gu Sihan thanked me, then climbed up and sat next to me, fanning himself, saying that he was really exhausted.
I looked at him for a few times and saw that his forehead was sweating and he was breathing heavily, so I asked, "Did you climb up from down there?"
Gu Sihan said, "Yeah, I almost couldn't get up. Brother Lu, you climbed up too, right?"
I said yes. Gu Sihan's eyes lit up and he asked, "How long did you climb?"
I estimated the time and Gu Sihan pointed to the direction where I climbed up and asked, "From that side?" Seeing me nod, he said happily, "That's amazing!"
I didn't have a good impression of this person at first, mainly because his dress, temperament and conversation were all a bit out of tune with me. But after a few words, my impression of him changed a bit, and I felt that he was okay and we could continue to communicate.
I was a little surprised. Judging from his appearance, he should have been born in a big city and came from a well-educated wealthy family. Yet he could climb up this rocky slope with his bare hands. I really admired him.
He said he had followed a master since he was young, and this kind of climbing skill was a basic skill, so he was not unfamiliar with it. He asked me again, and I said I learned it from my third uncle, and it was a family skill. He looked curious and asked me what my family did and what industry required this kind of rock climbing skills.
I told him what my family does, thinking that I would scare the shit out of you, little boy. When I was a kid, because my family does this business, I was used to being a weirdo that no one cares about, so I saw this kind of thing a lot.
I didn't expect this guy to be so weird. Not only was he not shy about it, but he asked me excitedly, "Is this line of work very interesting? Do you have to come into contact with corpses often?"
I said, "Yes, I grew up touching corpses with my hands." I stretched out my hands and waved them in front of his eyes. He took my hands and looked at them carefully. After a while, he exclaimed, "Your hands are longer and more symmetrical than mine. How did you train them? Does applying makeup to corpses require special techniques?"
This guy is really a problem baby. I pulled my hand back and glanced at his hands. As expected, they were extremely slender, with neatly trimmed nails and beautiful hand shapes. He said he had practiced playing the piano since he was a child.
I have only read about piano in books, but when I heard Teacher Tian play it, playing the piano seemed to be a very elegant and refined thing. I was a little impressed when I heard that this person could play the piano.
For so many years, I was a lonely child in the village. Except for Lin Yatou who could talk to me, I had no playmates of the same age. It was rare to meet someone who was about the same age as me and who was not shy about talking to me. The two of us chatted excitedly and forgot the time.
I tore off a piece of dried beef and handed it to him: "Try it, it tastes pretty good."
Gu Sihan took it and put it in his mouth to chew, saying: "It's delicious, the taste is very authentic!"
Seeing that he was enjoying his meal, I asked, "You look like you are not a local, right? What are you doing here?"
As soon as I said this, I saw his face change and look gloomy. He sighed and said, "It's because of my sister. My sister has a strange disease."
I thought the group of people at the bottom of the canyon must be his family, so I asked, "What happened to your sister?"
Gu Sihan's face turned pale. He looked at me with eyes full of sadness and told me everything.
It turned out that Gu Sihan was the eldest son in the family, and he had a younger sister who was two years younger than him. About half a month ago, late one night, there were bursts of strange cries coming from the little girl's room. When the family rushed over to take a look, they saw the little girl curled up on the bed with a blue face and shaking non-stop. There were several scratches on the door frame, as if it was scratched by something with sharp claws.
At that time, they asked her what happened, but the little girl seemed to be frightened, her face was ashen, she didn't say anything, she just huddled in the room and trembled. The Gu family was frightened and didn't know what to do, when they heard another strange cry in the room, and a big black cat ran out from under the girl's bed.
"Black cat?" I asked curiously. People in our industry are particularly sensitive to black cats. There is a record in our ancient books: "Black cats are evil spirits and should be placed in the south." Black cats are black cats and are used to ward off evil spirits. However, many people also believe that black cats are ominous. Because black cats often appear in places with strong evil spirits.
From our perspective, black cats can ward off evil spirits, but they can also easily attract evil spirits. For example, if there is a recent corpse at home, you dare not let a black cat into the house. Because once a black cat touches the corpse, it is easy to cause the corpse to come back to life.
Therefore, most people rarely keep black cats.
Gu Sihan said, "Are you wondering why there is a black cat in our house? It is raised by my sister. It is a large stray black civet cat. It is said that my sister picked it up outside and later raised it at home. My sister is the most favored in the family. If she wants to raise a pet, no one can stop her."
I said "oh" and let him continue.
Gu Sihan said: "As soon as the big cat came out, it whined at us. The whining sound was so sharp and shrill that it made people shudder. My father had the cat driven out and found the best local doctor to treat my sister."
But at first, the doctor couldn't figure out what was going on. He just said that the child was probably stimulated by something and was overly frightened, and forgot to speak for a while. The doctor could only prescribe some medicine to calm the child's mind and spirit.
As a result, that night, something happened again. Late at night, a little girl's shrill screams were heard from the room. Everyone rushed in to see what was happening. They were all shocked to see that the little girl was lying on her back on the bed with her eyes rolled back, upside down, her skirt in tatters, and her body covered with scratches of varying lengths and bloodstains.
The black cat was standing at the head of her bed, its body covered in blood, one of its ears was broken, and one of its legs was limping. When it saw everyone, it started howling strangely, its tail standing up, and its fur standing on end.
Father Gu was so distressed that he flew into a rage and ordered people to catch and kill the cat. The black civet cat was already lame, so it was quickly surrounded and roped up, strangled to death on the spot. Gu Sihan was cautious, saying that the cat was his sister's favorite pet, and if he made a mistake, he would have no way to explain.
After he said this, the civet cat's life was finally saved, but its fate was not much better. The little girl of the Gu family was the apple of her eye. Everyone loved her dearly. Now that they saw the little girl was injured like this, they took their anger out on the civet cat, tied it up tightly with ropes, and threw it into a cage and left it alone.
The doctor who came before ran away after just one look, screaming "What a ghost, what a ghost". Father Gu was furious and took the doctor into his daughter's room. The doctor pointed at the little girl and said tremblingly: "Corpse...Corpse..." but couldn't explain it. As a result, Father Gu slapped the doctor in the face, and the doctor came back to his senses and screamed: "Corpse...Corpse spots! The young lady has corpse spots!"
Even ordinary people know that corpse spots grow on dead people. How can a living person have corpse spots? Seeing that his daughter looked weird but was still breathing, this quack doctor said it was corpse spots. In anger, he threw her out.
Gu Sihan said that it was a pity that his master had gone on a long journey half a year ago and was nowhere to be found, otherwise he could have been invited to come. Later, an elder of the Gu family said that the girl might have been possessed by evil spirits, so they invited some famous Taoist priests and charlatans from the surrounding area to come.
As a result, some said that the cat had lost its soul, some said that it was possessed by a cat demon, and some directly said that the raccoon cat was the murderer who harmed her sister and demanded that the cat be beheaded immediately. There were many different opinions and each one had its own reason.
As a result, after the ritual, the girl's illness became worse. Something that looked like corpse spots began to spread all over her body. The girl's beautiful face was no longer human, her face was ashen, and her body began to rot. This was not an ordinary disease at all. All the doctors were helpless and said that she could only wait for death.
In despair, Gu Sihan suddenly remembered that his master had told him that he had an old friend with superb medical skills who lived in the southern Xinjiang area. Gu Sihan was very intelligent and had a very good memory. Although his master only mentioned it casually at the time, he remembered it and even remembered the man's address exactly.
