Chapter 11: The Corpse Mover (Part II)

Hearing me ask about this, Lin Qiao'er sighed and said with a sympathetic face: "The girl is Aqing who disappeared that night, but when Xiaoyi rescued her from the forest, she was already dead, and there were no scars on her body, and the villagers said that she was hooked by the evil spirit of the first house, alas, what a beautiful little sister, she was only eighteen years old, it was when she was young, it was really pitiful!" ”

Hearing her say this, I was silent, and I thought of the cry for help I heard from the bottom of the hillside that night, and it was probably Ah Qing's voice.

Maybe she was still alive at the time, or maybe she was being threatened by something. When she was experiencing unspeakable horror and despair, she heard my screams, like a drowning person grasping at the only straw, she frantically cried for help, but I did not listen to it because of fear and cowardice. In the end, she died, in a sense of fear and despair that we all could not comprehend.

If I hadn't been afraid, hadn't flinched, and had chosen to go into the hillside to save people, would it have been a different outcome? Of course, I could have died, swallowed up by that terrible forest, but it was also possible that I saved her, and we both survived, and in the end we were saved by the old man, and that was the perfect ending. Unfortunately, there are never ifs in this world.

The Taoist priest didn't know what happened that night, but when I felt sorry for the young little sister, he patted me and told me not to be sad, because he was obliged to do a ritual for the little sister.

Lin Qiao'er sensed my self-blame, sighed, and grabbed my hand as a sign of comfort. At this moment, the old woman came, and she called all the little sisters at our table away, and sat down.

The Taoist priest was chatting happily with those simple little sisters, and suddenly he was cut across by the old woman, and suddenly muttered unhappily: "Damn, what a domineering old woman!" ”

I hurriedly pinched him, lowered my voice and said, "You have accumulated some virtue in your mouth, you have forgotten the lesson in the forest, this mother-in-law may not be on the same level as the old man!" ”

"Ahh If you didn't say it earlier, you want to kill Dao Ye! ”

The Taoist priest's face turned green in an instant, probably remembering the big centipede, he hurriedly pumped his mouth, and then said with a smile: "Eh, hello mother-in-law, forgive me for not knowing Mount Tai with my eyes, I'm used to having a broken mouth, don't be surprised!" ”

The old lady snorted, didn't care about the Taoist priest's words, and asked me, "Old man, what old man?" ”

"It's the old man in the woods!" The Taoist priest was worried that the old woman would take a grudge against him, so he hurriedly grabbed the conversation as if he was flattering, and said: "That guy, ah no, it's that senior, who can release Gu, a lot of ant-like insects, as well as big centipedes, uh, and spirit witches!" ”

As soon as he finished speaking, the old woman's eyes lit up, she suddenly got up, and asked excitedly, "Where is he?" ”

I didn't expect her to have such a big reaction, didn't she know the old man? So I briefly recounted how she met the old man in the woods and how the old man saved us, and after finishing speaking, I saw that her hands were almost trembling, and she couldn't speak for a long time.

"Mother-in-law, are you alright?" I saw that she was too emotional, and I was afraid that she would be too old to stand it.

She waved her hand, forced her emotions and sat down, looked at me and asked word by word, "What you said is true?" ”

I nodded, and said what the old man had told me to bring: "When he leaves, let me bring you a message, saying that the evil eye has been loosened, so be careful!" ”

Hearing this, her body shook again, and it could be seen that her reaction this time was even more shocked, and I could even see a trace of fear in her expression.

It was a long time before the old woman came to her senses, sighed, and said, "Do you know who he is?" ”

I shook my head, and said in my heart that I don't know, and then I saw her waving to Ah Chang, who was toasting the village elders everywhere, and Ah Chang immediately ran over, and after the old woman gave some advice, she shook her head and left, looking a little hasty.

Perhaps because I went into the forest to save people, Ah Chang treated me much better, first toasting me and the Taoist priest with a bowl of wine, and then saying that his grandmother asked him to greet us, and if he had any questions, he would ask him.

I told the old man about it, but I didn't expect Ah Chang's expression to be bigger than the old woman's, and when he came to his senses, he told us about the old man.

It turned out that the old man was the corpse remover of Aji Village. The so-called corpse mover has also hastily mentioned before, the hanging corpse burial that has been passed down for thousands of years in Ahe Village, after the death of the ancestors, the remains will be buried in the burial forest of the ancestors, hanging between the locust trees, and returning to nature.

Such a funeral custom naturally requires a person who specializes in handling corpses, and after the funeral is completed, the corpse is sent to the burial forest and hung between the locust trees, and the person who engages in this work is the corpse removal.

According to Ah Chang, there are at least seven or eight villages within a radius of 100 miles in the vicinity, and wherever hanging burials are practiced, there must be corpse movers. Except for the corpse remover, if there is an ancestor buried in the burial forest, if his descendants enter the forest, they will be swept away by the souls of the dead who have been stranded by the predecessors, and they will not be able to live forever.

The corpse mover is a profession that has been passed down from generation to generation, and it cannot be passed on, because even if someone else learns all the skills of the corpse mover, he will have an accident when he enters the corpse forest, without exception throughout the ages. The old man we met in the woods was the last corpse mover in Aji Village, and because of his special profession, he had the same status as the old woman in Aji Village, if not higher.

However, two years ago, the old man never came out after sending a corpse into the forest, because there was no corpse movers, and Ah Ji Village had not buried the body in the forest for two years, and everyone thought that something had happened to him inside, but they didn't expect the old man to live in it, which is really embarrassing.

When I saw Ah Chang talk about the regret on his face when the custom of hanging corpses was broken two years ago, I couldn't help but want to scold my mother, and said that you dogs don't go in to take a look, what have you fucking fed with dead people over the years, if your ancestors can speak, they may have to scold you like something.

Thinking about it, I can't say these words as an outsider, but after hearing about the hanging corpse burial custom here, the Taoist priest's face changed, as if he wanted to say something, but after looking at Ah Chang, he still held back.

I asked Ah Chang how to get from here to Fengyang, he was very enthusiastic to describe the general route to me, and said that I would draw a map after the banquet was over, and after I thanked him gratefully, he continued to go back to toast the elders in the village, and there were only three of us left at this table.

"What, little layman, are you going to Fengyang?" The Taoist priest asked me suspiciously.

I nodded, and said that our original destination was Fengyang, and we just happened to get lost here.

I didn't think about it, as soon as I finished speaking, the Taoist priest immediately answered excitedly: "Okay, little layman, the poor Taoist will go with you!" Those dog-day townsfolk almost killed Dao Ye, and the poor Dao must go to ask for an explanation, besides, my 20,000 yuan legal fee has not yet been settled! ”

I was a little speechless, and said that this guy is really an unscrupulous Taoist, but I have also experienced life and death with this guy, although he is a little obscene, but he is a person worth befriending, and he has been to Fengyang, this way will not be lost again, and if there is an emergency, one more person will also take care of it, so I agreed.

After that, I told him to go back and get ready, and while it was still early, we would leave immediately!

The Taoist priest complained a little, saying that it was too hasty, and the few little sisters he had just talked about were not close to each other, and I was leaving, and he lost a lot. I said then you stay, just be here as a son-in-law, don't worry about eating and drinking, how good, he immediately shook his head, and said that it's better to forget it, let's go, anyway, there is a big beauty on the road to accompany him, and he will not lose.

As he spoke, he looked at Lin Qiao'er with a lewd expression, and the result was naturally obvious, and there was an extra red slap mark on his face.

Soon, I asked for the map he had drawn from Ah Chang, and when the old woman heard that I was going to Fengyang, a hint of discoloration flashed in her eyes, and she stopped talking, and finally gave me a handkerchief embroidered with an unknown vine, telling me to be careful, if I needed help, I could take this handkerchief to find a person named Lin Dongyang.

I took the handkerchief, thanked me, and drove away to the joy of the crowd.

The trail in the mountains is quite difficult to walk, but after driving for more than an hour, I finally saw the road, which is a little dilapidated, but it is better than a dirt road full of potholes.

As he was driving, the Taoist priest suddenly asked: "I said, little layman, do you think that the old woman's words just now are very strange, is there something strange in Fengyang Town?" ”

I nodded, I realized this just now, but she didn't want to say it and couldn't help it, so she had to be cautious.

"Hey, by the way, you just stopped talking during the banquet, what are you going to say?" I remembered that the Taoist priest seemed to have something to say during the banquet just now, and there were no outsiders at the moment, so I asked directly.

The Taoist priest sat in the back row, and through the inner rearview mirror, I could see that he had a solemn expression.

"Little layman, you and I have both witnessed that kind of demon vine with our own eyes, but you only know one of them!"

I heard him say this, and hurriedly asked the reason, he took a deep breath and said: "That kind of vine is recorded in Taoist classics, called blood-eating vine, often parasitic on the body of acacia, willow and other trees through the underworld, ten years thick and one inch, a hundred years long and one zhang, but in the case of blood food, it can be psychic for ten years, a hundred years into essence, and a thousand years into a monster." In my opinion, the largest vamphivir vine in the burial forest has been continuously supported by hanging corpses for thousands of years, and its vine has been as thick as a bucket wheel, and its length is immeasurable, and the most terrible thing is that this vine has become a demon, and it is a fluke that we can escape from its bloody mouth that day! ”

I was puzzled in my heart, saying that the bauhinia vine and rooster blood could not restrain it, then it was nothing to be afraid of, and the Taoist priest immediately retorted: "So, you only know one of them!" ”

"The poor road was hung under the ghost vine for a day and a night, and I have witnessed the true face of the ghost vine, do you know that what you saw that day is just a small branch of the ghost vine, the real ghost vine, if it is spread out, I am afraid that within a radius of more than ten miles, it will not be placed! Fortunately, what you and I encountered that day was only a split stem, otherwise not to mention the bauhinia vine juice, even if it was the dragon's blood grass and the blood of the Yang Essence that became a sperm, it would be helpless! ”