It is a small village at the foot of the mountain, with plains on one side, intermittent hills on the other, and high mountains on the back.

Fang Shu opened the military map, he pointed to the small village and said to Zhong Chengbao and Zhang Pingyi: "This is Weiao Village, after this village, and then go inside is the mountainous area." We only need to pass through more than 30 kilometers of no man's land and about 5 kilometers of tourist area to reach our destination. As he spoke, Fang Shu looked at his watch, "It's four o'clock in the afternoon, why don't we spend the night in this small village, we will definitely be able to walk through no man's land tomorrow." ”

After discussion among the three of them, they decided to find a family in the small village to spend the night.

Fang Shu and the three of them are students at a certain university.

At the beginning of the summer vacation, the students of the computer science department of the university spontaneously organized an adventure tour, which was echoed by many people in the school, and the three of them also volunteered to participate in the activity. The main content of the activity is that the participants are in groups of three, with a certain scenic spot in a tourist area (mountainous area) as the destination, and each group of team members must start from the designated place and walk from the starting place to the destination. There are more than 100 kilometers in between, and there are dozens of kilometers (ranging from 20 to 40 kilometers) of mountainous areas.

Prior to this, the promoters and participants took advantage of modern conditions to collect detailed information on the area to be explored. Fortunately, they found a very detailed military map, but even so, there is still a lot of ignorance about the mountains to be crossed, and this military map only indicates a lot of no-man's land in the mountains, and the situation in the no-man's land is also very unclear.

Fang Shu and the three of them were sworn friends at school, known as the "Three Musketeers", they participated in this activity together and asked to be divided into a group. They set out from a small county town, and the first half of the journey didn't seem too difficult to them. It's just that the 20 kilometers or so of walking to Weiao Village are dirt roads that can barely walk people, and it is a little more difficult to walk.

The three of them stayed overnight in a family in Wai Ao Village, and the host was very kind to keep them.

This family has three generations of grandchildren, and strangely enough, they are all women. The oldest was a woman in her sixties, another was a middle-aged woman in her thirties and forties, and the youngest was a little girl who was only eleven or twelve years old. Three generations of grandchildren, three women.

The little girl looked at Fang Shu and them curiously, and she carefully touched Zhong Chengbao's clothes with her hand: "Do you have guns?" ”

The three young men couldn't help laughing, they were wearing the same camouflage uniform, the little girl thought of them as soldiers, and this camouflage uniform was the uniform of their adventure tour.

Zhang Pingyi put his hand in his trouser pocket, and stretched out a finger to push out of his trouser pocket, making it look like the muzzle of a gun: "Yes, do you want to take a look?" ”

The little girl ran out the door and pulled the old woman in: "Grandma, they have guns!" ”

The old woman and Fang Shu laughed together.

Just after dinner, the people of the small village seemed to have gathered in this house. Three college students came to such a remote village to spend the night, and it was as if a small troupe had come to this small village. Obediently, three college students from the city, but it's not a simple matter.

The strange thing is that most of the men in this small village seem to be women, and there are a few men, all of them old and young, but what about the prime men in this small village?

The women of the village, especially the younger ones, gathered around the three young college students and asked ridiculous questions, and the older ones laughed and listened to the young people chattering and laughing.

"What are you doing here? Why did you come to our village? A little girl with big eyes asked Fang Shu.

"We're here to travel, but we can't take a car, we have to walk to the tourist area on two legs!" Fang Shu explained simply.

"When is that going to happen?" Another little girl took it and asked, "Where are you going tomorrow?" ”

"Tomorrow, we will go up the mountain from here, through this mountainous area, and we will reach our destination."

"What? Do you want to go up this mountain behind you from here? Still going to climb over the mountain? A little girl screamed.

Suddenly, the lively atmosphere in the whole room was gone, and all the people stopped talking, and their eyes focused on Fang Shu and the three of them, and there was a strange look in them.

"What's wrong? Is there something wrong? Zhang Pingyi asked the villagers, but no one answered him.

After a long time, the old woman of the master said to them, "Well, you better go back, and don't go up the mountain behind you." ”

"Why?" Fang Shu asked.

"Houshan is an ominous place, listen to the words of the eldest mother, don't go."

"Auntie, we are not superstitious." Zhong Chengbao laughed, but everyone looked at him with strange eyes.

"It's not superstition, it's true." The old woman sighed, "That's true, it's been more than thirty years, and I only got married here not long ago." The old woman's eyes were confused.

Fang Shu saw that the group of little girls in the village were slipping out one after another.

More than 30 years ago, in the early days of the Wenge period, the small village, although remote, was also affected by the movement. The young people of Wai'ao Village organized a team of their own to fight with the people of the opposite faction. In fact, the so-called opposition faction is just organized by young people from neighboring villages. There has always been resentment between Wei'ao Village and neighboring villages, and the issue of land has been fought from ancient times to the present. Wen Ge made these two rival villages more justifiably fight for the "revolution".

Autumn of that year was supposed to be a season of joy.

After years of natural and man-made disasters, the people who survived the small village were full of hunger, and this unprecedented harvest made the farmers more aware of the importance of land to them. The harvest was laid on the threshing floor in front of the small village, and the villagers were almost unable to support it after many days of hard work. The village chief decided to let the villagers go home and get a good night's sleep, so thirteen able-bodied young men from the village were selected to come to the threshing floor at night to guard the grain.

However, the next day was a nightmare for all the people in Wai'ao Village, a nightmare that could never wake up!

As soon as the day dawned, the hard-working villagers went to the threshing floor under the leadership of the village chief, and they saw the dozen or so young men lying on one side of the threshing floor, probably asleep, and the village chief asked them to wake them up. The people who walked over to wake them up let out a frightened and terrible scream! Whoever saw that scene had nightmares night after night for a long, long time afterward.

The thirteen young men who were still alive last night all died overnight! Moreover, the thirteen lads had their necks cut off with sharp knives, their heads rolled to the side, and the dirt on the side of the threshing floor was stained red with blood! The saddest thing is that one of the young men only has a head left, and his body is inexplicably missing.

The first to wake up in terror and shock was the old village chief, who quickly arranged for a meeting of the village cadres and the old people while calling people to find the body of the dog with only a head. The meeting decided that, first, the thirteen young men who had died were not allowed to enter the old cemetery in the village, because they were ghosts who had died in the village; 2. Ask a gentleman (that kind of god) to do things, and cast a spell on the dead, so that the ghosts of the dead will come out and do trouble; 3. This matter must not be spread to the outside world, in case no woman will marry to the village in the future.

How foolish the above decision was, but at that time, such a foolish decision was accepted by the whole village.

Just as those decisions were being implemented, a little bit of a problem arose.

The dead dog with only a head and no body, after searching, the people in the village found that his body had been dragged to the mountains and eaten by some wild thing.

Dog's mother, before the liberation, was a witch, her witchcraft was famous for dozens of miles, but after the liberation, she was criticized as superstition, and the government forcibly stopped her activities. Later, she married an old man in the village and gave birth to a son, who was a dog leftover. Her old man died not long ago, and now her only son is dead.

Dog Leftover, the famous witch of the past, she refused to let his son's head be buried with the others, she said that she wanted to save her son, she secretly took Dog Leftover's head, and disappeared from it.

The corpses of the other twelve people, after being spelled after the ritual, the old village chief took a few descendants to bury them in the depths of the dense forest on the back mountain, and no one knew where the corpses were buried except for the people who went to bury the corpses at that time.

However, all this is only the beginning of the nightmare of the people of Wai'ao Village.

Not long after, first the old village chief suddenly fell ill and died, and then, the other people involved in the burial of the body died mysteriously and violently within two months, and these people, except for the old village chief, everyone else was a man in the prime of life, who was usually a strong and good laborer, but they all died suddenly without illness or disaster. The number of middle-aged men in the village is rapidly decreasing.

Then, every few years, a man in the prime of life in the village would disappear mysteriously, and most of the missing people disappeared when they went to the back mountain.

Legends slowly began to circulate in the village that the twelve ghosts buried in the back mountain could not be reincarnated because they died horizontally, so they pulled those middle-aged men as stand-ins. When the men in the village came of age, they either disappeared or did not want to stay in the village anymore and went outside, and anyway, they did not come back.

After that incident, the first person to disappear was the husband of the old woman in the family where Fang Shu and they were staying, when the old woman was still a little daughter-in-law, and she was pregnant with a child in her belly.

Two days after her husband's disappearance, news came from a neighboring village that two young people from the neighboring village had suddenly gone insane. The two crazy people kept saying that they had seen the ghost of the dog, and that the ghost of the dog had gone to the two of them to ask for their lives. It was only then that the people of Wai'ao Village understood that the thirteen young men who had died were killed by two people sent by martial artists from another faction in the neighboring village, and it was the two crazy people. However, there was no longer any young and strong person in the village to seek justice from the people of the neighboring villages. Later, some people in the surrounding villages also said that they had seen the missing people in Wei'ao Village outside, but no one knew whether there were any of them, because none of the missing people had been heard from.

Speaking of this, the old woman shed tears: "My life is really bitter, the first one to disappear is my old man who is a dead ghost, but not long ago ......" The old woman's voice choked, "The belly left by my old ghost is also missing in the back mountain, leaving his daughter-in-law and daughter who is only ten years old." ”

The middle-aged woman and the little girl saw the old woman crying and wept along.

"Forget if the cow is gone, Tie Dan has to go up the back mountain to find it, tell him not to go to the back mountain to look for it, he just doesn't listen, sure enough, once he goes up the back mountain, he never comes down." The old woman cried and said, "Child, the eldest mother kindly advises you, don't go up the back mountain!" ”

After listening to what the old woman said, no one spoke. After sitting for a while, the people in the village went back, and Fang Shu and the three of them also went to sleep.

In the room, the three of them were silent for a long time, and Zhang Pingyi asked, "What should we do tomorrow?" ”

"What to do? Of course you're going, you're scared? Zhong Chengbao pulled the quilt and fell asleep.

"Sleep, I'll get up tomorrow in the morning!" Fang Shu patted Zhang Pingyi's shoulder and fell asleep.

Early the next morning, Fang Shu and the three of them finished breakfast, and despite the old woman's dissuasion, they headed for the back mountain.

The little girls and daughters-in-law in the village all ran to the end of the village, watching Fang Shu and them walk up the back mountain, and every look at them was full of incomprehension, as if they were holding a farewell ceremony for the remains, as if they were looking at three dead people. This kind of gaze made Fang Shu feel a chill in their hearts.

The steps of the three men were a little heavy, but they still walked quickly.

The scenery in the mountains is truly beautiful, with wild flowers blooming along the paths, and various birds calling out all kinds of sounds in the forest. The light mist flowed slowly through the forest, and the clouds on the horizon turned red little by little, like a young woman applying makeup, applying lipstick layer by layer, beautiful and fine.

The three young people were gradually attracted by the early morning scenery in the mountains, Zhong Chengbao whistled with the sound of birdsong, Fang Shu also folded a leaf, "squeak" and "squeak", Zhang Pingyi couldn't help but get excited, humming a tune-out tune. The three young men had forgotten the shadow of last night's story in the village.

After half an hour's walk, it was getting harder and harder, and there was no road in the mountains, so they had to walk up the alluvial waterways and bare rocks to avoid the dense woods and small bushes.

Suddenly, Zhang Pingyi, who was walking at the end, bent down with an "ouch", and Fang Shu hurriedly turned around and asked him what was wrong.

"My stomach hurts, I seem to want to have diarrhea, it must be that the food in the village is not clean." Zhang Pingyi said while looking around, "I'll go over there to, you wait for me." As he spoke, he plunged headlong into a nearby forest.

"Lazy people have a lot of and pee." Zhong Chengbao smiled and sat down on a protruding stone, and Fang Shu also sat beside him. The two opened the map and studied, and as they studied, they found their current location on the map and made a mark.

But it was said that Zhang Pingyi walked into the woods with his stomach covered, and saw a big stone in the woods at a glance, he walked over and put down the backpack behind him, turned around and walked behind the stone.

Suddenly, Zhang Pingyi's feet were empty, he stepped into a hole, and then the whole person fell, as if on a slope, stumbling and rolling down, hitting the cave wall from time to time. Zhang Pingyi didn't care much, just held his head in his hands and let himself roll all the way. I don't know what I bumped into, and Zhang Pingyi's body rolled off before it stopped.

Zhang Pingyi made sure that he was no longer falling, so he slowly let go of the arms holding his head and opened his eyes to take a look. It seemed to be a cave, but for some reason, it wasn't dark, and there was a faint dim light that fell unevenly on the ground in front of him. Zhang Pingyi quickly got up from the ground, and he opened his eyes to look around.

This is indeed a cave, but the first thing that imprinted into Zhang Pingyi's eyes was the human skeleton on the side of the cave wall! It was a series of bones lying there horizontally, and the bones of each skeleton were intact!

On the side of the cave there is a very dim oil lamp in a groove in the wall of the cave. This made Zhang Pingyi feel extremely weird, this cave full of human bones, and oil lamps are burning, why do people come to add oil very often?

Zhang Pingyi turned around slowly, he felt as if his bones were rusty, and the strange feeling made him tremble. “…… Nine, ten, eleven, twelve...... "He counted the bones, twelve, exactly twelve!" Could it be that this is the place where the people of Weiao Village buried the dozen or so young men who died?

As Zhang Pingyi's body slowly turned, his face became more and more pale, and finally his gaze froze, his face was pale as if a dead man, he was so afraid, what did he see?

A meter in front of him there was an earthen platform made of clay, and on the earthen platform was a human head! And that human head is still flesh and blood! He was placed in a wooden dish, and there was some transparent liquid in the dish, through which the neck of the human head could be easily seen, as if the human head had been cut from the neck, and the skin and attached muscles could be seen slightly turned outward at the incision. The eyes of the human head were closed, and he looked like a sleeping person, but he was not connected to his body, who was he? Is he dead or alive?

Zhang Pingyi rolled his eyes, he saw that there was a single skeleton next to the earthen platform, this skeleton was smaller than the twelve, could it be that this skeleton belonged to a woman? Zhang Pingyi was stunned for a moment, could it be that this human head is the leftover human head of a dog? Could it be that this skeleton on the side of the earth platform is the dog leftover mother, the old witch? So, the human head was preserved by witchcraft? Is he alive? Zhang Pingyi couldn't help but be curious, he walked towards the earthen platform, he wanted to touch the human head, to see if the human head was still like the head of a living person.

Walking to the edge of the earthen platform, Zhang Pingyi lowered his head and looked at the human head carefully, and after looking at it, he couldn't help but reach out and want to touch the human head. At this moment, Zhang Pingyi suddenly saw the human head and opened his eyes! He even grinned at Zhang Pingyi, and a puff of white smoke erupted from his mouth. Zhang Pingyi's exclamation was muffled in his throat, and he fainted as soon as his eyes were closed.

When Zhang Pingyi woke up, he saw that he was still in a cave, and a person in camouflage uniform was standing in front of him with his back to him. "Fang Shu!" Zhang Pingyi called that person, and the person turned around when he heard the shouting, and Zhang Pingyi almost fainted again! The face of the man in the camouflage uniform of their expedition tour team was the face of the human head on the earthen platform just now!

Zhang Pingyi only realized that he was wrong at this time, why did he seem to be on that earthen platform? Zhang Pingyi's face must have been ugly, he couldn't feel his body anymore, and then, as soon as he looked down, he saw the wooden plate and the earthen platform in front of him...... He couldn't see his own situation, but he could imagine it now, his head was resting on the wooden plate of the earthen platform, and his body was the camouflage body attached under the human head!

This is the old witch's sorcery!

Zhang Pingyi closed his eyes, "Are you a dog?" ”

"Huh?" The man's surprised voice also had a smile, "You know the dogs? ”

Zhang Pingyi wanted to nod, but found that he couldn't even do the simplest action himself, so he could only say, "Yes, I spent the night in your village last night, and I heard that story." Zhang Pingyi opened his eyes.

"Do you know the Iron Egg?" The man laughed, "I'm an iron egg!" ”

Zhang Pingyi was stunned, "Are you an iron egg?" ”

"You know the first half of the story, but you don't know the second half." Iron Egg said, "I'll tell you! The dog's mother wanted to use witchcraft to save her son, and the first thing she thought of was to replace her son's body from being eaten by wild animals with the corpses of the twelve dead ghosts. Iron Egg said and snorted at the twelve skeletons.

She stole the dog's leftover head and waited on the hill for the twelve dead ghosts to be buried. However, it was still very hot at that time, and after the burial gang had gone, the old witch found the burial place, and the twelve corpses had already begun to decompose. The old witch had to find another way, she used witchcraft to save the dog's remaining head, and then put witches in this hole, so that this hole became a witch hole, and then she used all her life to make a witch, if someone fell into this hole, he only had to be curious to walk within a foot of the dog's leftover head, and the dog leftover used witchcraft to replace the person's head, and his own head grew on this person's body, just like me and you just now. Zhang Pingyi sighed.

Tie Dan continued, "Then the old witch died, and someone in the village accidentally fell into the hole, and the dog Yu replaced the man's head, and that man was my father. Because my father and Gou Yu are both from Waiao Village, and they have a blood relationship, Gou Yu taught my father the magic of witchcraft when he left. Later, the people who kept falling here were all from our village, and the casting of this witchcraft has been preserved. Since you also know such a thing, I will tell you about this witchcraft casting, and you can wait here for someone to come! ”

Tie Dan told Zhang Pingyi about the witchcraft spell as he spoke, but Zhang Pingyi looked at him stunned: "I didn't hear clearly, you come over and say it again." Tie Dan took two steps forward and said it again.

"I still don't know, can you come closer and tell me?" Zhang Pingyi pleaded with a face.

Iron Egg took another step forward, but he suddenly became alert, "You want to trick me into approaching you?" It's not that easy! He spoke aloud about the witchcraft spell again, and then said to Zhang Pingyi, "I'm leaving!" ”

Zhang Pingyi sighed, "Do you want to go back to Weiao Village?" ”

"Back to the village? No! If I don't go back, people will know about it when I go back, and I won't be caught as a monster! Iron Dan said as he strode towards the entrance of the cave without looking back.

More than ten minutes passed, and Zhang Pingyi hadn't come out yet, Fang Shu couldn't help but say, "Hey, Zhang Pingyi has been gone for so long?" ”

"Hey, don't you know him, he often squats in the bathroom for half an hour." Zhong Chengbao said with a smile.

The two waited for another seven or eight minutes, and Fang Shu's face suddenly changed, "It's been too long, let's call him." Fang Shu shouted Zhang Pingyi to the forest, but no one answered. Zhong Chengbao's face also changed, the two looked at each other, and a chill slowly rose. Fang Shu and Zhong Chengbao called Zhang Pingyi as they walked into the woods, but no one answered.

The light in the woods was dim, and Fang Shu saw Zhang Pingyi's backpack on a large rock at a glance. The two walked towards the stones, and Fang Shu, who was walking in front, called Zhong Chengbao: "Look! ”

There is a black hole behind the boulder, and if you don't look closely, it's hard to see this hole at once, and there is grass growing on the edge of the hole, and the grass has traces of being crushed.

"Maybe Zhang Pingyi fell." Fang Shu shouted Zhang Pingyi at the entrance of the cave, but no one answered. Fang Shu took out a flashlight and shone it into the hole, the hole was going down a slope, and there was a small bend not far away, and the light of the flashlight could not completely shine into it. Fang Shu looked at Zhong Chengbao, "He may have fainted, I'll go down and take a look, you prepare a first-aid kit." ”

"Oh!" Zhong Chengbao shouted, "I forgot the first aid kit at my mother's house!" ”

"How?" Fang Shu frowned.

"It was the eldest lady who accidentally cut her hand, I took the purple potion to wipe her, and I forgot to put it back when I took out the first aid kit." Zhong Chengbao muttered in defense.

"In this way, you hurry up and go back to get the first aid kit, I'll go down and get Zhang Pingyi up first!" Fang Shu said that he had turned on the flashlight and walked down the hole.

Zhong Chengbao put down his backpack, "You, be careful!" ”

Fang Shu looked at him, "It's okay, you can go quickly!" ”

"Hey!" Zhong Chengbao looked at Fang Shu and turned around and walked towards the cave, and also turned around and ran quickly down the mountain.

When Zhong Chengbao was about to run down the mountain, he suddenly saw a person wearing camouflage uniforms on the road ahead, who seemed to be Zhang Pingyi, "Zhang Pingyi!" Zhang Pingyi! Zhong Chengbao shouted, "Why did you come here?" He caught up with the person in front of him and patted the man on the shoulder, but the man turned around, but it was not Zhang Pingyi, he was a strong man in the countryside with dark skin and rustic hairstyle.

"I'm sorry, I recognized the wrong person!" Zhong Chengbao hurriedly apologized to him.

"Nothing!" The man grinned innocently, but walked briskly onto another mountain path.

Zhong Chengbao felt very strange in his heart, that person was obviously wearing the camouflage uniform of their expedition tour team, but he was a rural person, how could this be? Zhong Chengbao didn't think much about it, ran down the mountain and got a first-aid kit, and climbed all the way up the mountain.

Zhong Chengbao returned to the place where he had just left, and at a glance he saw a person sitting by the entrance of the cave, "Fang Shu!" Didn't find Zhang Pingyi? The man turned around in his shout, but it was Zhang Pingyi. Hey, what about Fang Shu? Zhong Chengbao asked Zhang Pingyi.

"Fang Shu? Didn't I see that? Zhang Pingyi's gaze wandered around the entrance of the cave.

"Didn't he go down to you?" Zhong Chengbao pointed to the entrance of the cave and said.

"Really? I really didn't see him, I fell into the cave and fell unconscious, and when I woke up after a while, I followed the light and climbed up to the hole. When I came out, I didn't see the two of you, but I saw these backpacks, and I thought that you must not have gone far, and you will come back to get the backpacks, so I just sat here and waited. Zhang Pingyi said anxiously, as if he was afraid that Zhong Chengbao would not believe it.

"So?" Zhong Chengbao frowned, "It's really strange! Zhong Chengbao suddenly thought of the rural man in camouflage uniform he saw just now, and he couldn't help but tremble in his heart, "Fang Shu won't have an accident, right?" He said as he took out a flashlight from his backpack, "I'll go down and have a look first, and you can take a break." With that, Zhong Chengbao walked towards the cave.

Zhang Pingyi opened his mouth to call Zhong Chengbao, but he didn't shout.

After about ten minutes, a person came up in the cave, Zhang Pingyi swept it with the corner of his eye, and it was Fang Shu who came up. Fang Shu didn't speak, walked to the side of the big rock, picked up his own backpack, put it on his back, and said to Zhang Pingyi: "Let's go!" ”

Zhang Pingyi also picked up his backpack on his back, left Zhong Chengbao's backpack, and left with Fang Shu.

Fang Shu and Zhang Pingyi rushed to the destination of the adventure tour in the evening of the same day. By the time they arrived, there had already been two other groups that had arrived first.

Everyone saw the two of them surrounding one after another, and someone asked, "Hey, where is Zhong Chengbao?" ”

Zhang Pingyi looked at Fang Shu, and Fang Shu was also looking at him, "Oh? Hasn't he arrived yet? He parted ways with us on the way. ”

"How so? Why are you separated? "Everyone was surprised.

"That's right, we had a disagreement at a fork in the road, Zhong Chengbao insisted that we should take another road, we persuaded him not to listen, and he went another way by himself." Fang Shu explained, Zhang Pingyi's gaze wandered and did not look at him.

"Oh, it doesn't matter, more than half of them haven't arrived, so we'll wait." Everyone comforted them.

Two days later, all the people had arrived, and Zhong Chengbao had not yet arrived. The organizers called a meeting and decided that all the people would wait for Zhong Chengbao for another day, and if they couldn't wait, the others would go back first, leaving Fang Shu, Zhang Pingyi and the organizers to call the police and assist in the search. Fang Shu and Zhang Pingyi's faces turned pale and looked at each other.

Who would have thought that on the morning of the next day, Zhong Chengbao came in a dusty manner, wearing a hairy blue Mao suit, a pair of black cloth pants and a pair of black cloth shoes, dressed like a peasant.

Everyone asked Zhong Chengbao what happened, and Zhong Chengbao muttered: "I have an accident, and I can't wear any clothes, and this dress is still bought from rural people, so it's late." Everyone asked again, and Zhong Chengbao didn't say anything.

After returning from the trip, Fang Shu, Zhang Pingyi and Zhong Chengbao were no longer as good as in the past, as if they were avoiding each other, and sometimes they met from afar, and they also turned around and left separately.

The people who participated in this event boasted about their adventures everywhere in the school, and only the three of them, Fang Shu, Zhang Pingyi and Zhong Chengbao, kept their mouths shut and said nothing. Occasionally, when asked, they walked away with a cold face.