Without further ado, let's start from the beginning.

It is not a short journey from Changtu Mansion City to Bamian, that day Mr. Peng, Li Lintang and the young man who came to beg to "see things", even if it was a carriage, the three of them left the Sun Temple and rushed to the place when the sun had set in the West Mountain. Haijiatun, where the incident occurred, is very close to Bamian City, and it is said that it is on the edge of the city.

The road is a long time for the group to travel, and the old man in the village has already prepared a place for the gentleman who came to see the matter. After talking about resting for a day, I will get up tomorrow morning and then explore the root of this matter in detail.

The old man who entertained Mr. Peng and Li Lintang was surnamed Tang, and he was the leader of this village. The old man was not tall, he looked to be in his sixties, and his white beard hung down. But the person is very energetic, short-dressed, carrying a small stick, sitting in the house with his back straight.

Seeing that the two of them had put down their belongings, Tang Li opened his mouth: "The two of you are invited." I have heard of Mr. Peng, and he is famous far and wide. I just don't know what this master is called? ”

Li Lintang is also used to pretending to be a monk, and he saluted and declared the Buddha: "Mida Buddha, the donor calls me an iron monk, and Mr. Peng is my senior brother on 'neighborhood'." ”

"Okay...... It's okay......" Tang Li was brushing his beard, "matter, have you heard that Housheng has made it clear?" ”

Mr. Peng made a gesture and said he was courteous: "Uncle, I didn't understand much." The lad didn't speak very clearly. I want to know if it's the jackals or the beasts or the devils, you'll have to tell us more about it. ”

"Wolves? The yamen said it was a wolf! Tang Li struck the ground twice with his stick, "But who has ever seen a wolf that has taken a livestock into the water and left?" Besides, as soon as the wolf came, it was a group of Wuyang, how could there be no wolf hair in the nearby wilderness? ”

"Did you report it?" Li Lintang frowned slightly and asked.

"Don't you dare not report to the official!" Tang Lizheng's face changed color for a while, "At first, it was just a dead animal, but then I went out to fight wolves and went into the wilderness, and I couldn't come back after being alone." There is also a great god of our local area, who also folded the inside. He said he was going to hunt demons, but when he went, he disappeared! Who would dare not report to the official now? That's a fatality. However, the yamen took the case and insisted that it was a beast attack. It's summer! The beast of the beast will not go up and down the mountain. ”

"Did you find the body?" Mr. Peng asked.

"No......" Tang Lizheng lowered his voice a little, as if speaking loudly would attract something unclean, "those people just lost it for no reason." Mo said that it was a corpse, and he didn't even pick up a bone. ”

"This is strange," Li Lintang touched his chin, "Senior brother, do you think it will be a 'mandrill'?" ”

"Mandrill" is a legendary one-legged ghost. The earliest in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas" there is a record of "a human face with long arms, a black body with hair, a heel, a smile when he sees people, and a cover of his face, so he escapes". Folk legends and notes, such as "Strange Tales from Liaozhai" and "Notes on Reading Wei Caotang" are also mentioned.

Mr. Peng thought for a moment and said, "Not like that! Mandrill is just a legend, and I haven't heard of that monk ever meeting a mandrill since this dynasty, let alone taking it. Moreover, the mandrill eats the viscera of livestock, which is only a family saying, and it is not enough to rely on...... Uncle, are there any special footprints or marks around those shaved animals? ”

"Nope." "We also looked carefully into the ground, and we didn't see any other animal footprints, only people." Speaking of which, many people's horses in our village are not their own, but are raised on behalf of the rich people in the city. Mr. Peng, Iron Mage, if you two can't hold this evil thing, our village will suffer a great sin. ”

"Don't worry, the two of us will do our best." Mr. Peng gave up his hand again, "But we are still confused about this matter, we really don't dare to make a package ticket, saying that we will definitely be able to handle it." Otherwise, tomorrow you will take us to see the living creature that has been cut out of its belly, and we will make up our minds. ”

"That's not a coincidence," Tang Li spread his hands, "Look at what you said, meat is more expensive!" That beast is going to have maggots by now. When the horses that were raised on behalf of them died, the owners of the horses in the city were taken back, and the other pigs, cows, and sheep were either eaten or taken to the city to sell meat. ”

Li Lintang gasped when he heard this: "You guys are also fat!" I don't know what killed the flesh of an animal, and you dare to eat it? ”

Tang Lizheng listened, smiled bitterly and waved his hand: "Croppers can't practice things, and we can't help it." We were scared, but we weren't stupid. They cut off a small piece of meat from the wound and fed it to the dog, and the dog ate it before letting people eat it and selling it. ”

Mr. Peng sighed: "In other words, the thing that killed livestock and kidnapped people didn't leave any traces?" ”

Tang Li was thinking carefully for a while, and then took the small stick a little: "No." ”

Mr. Peng smiled bitterly: "Okay, uncle, tell me, what strange things happened in this village before?" For example, someone brought something back from outside, or someone built a house and dug up something? ”

"When you say that, I think of something!" Tang Li said with a straight face, "Is it a corpse?" ”

"Count!" Li Lintang patted the edge of the kang, "You talk carefully." ”

"A few days ago, a man died in our village, a mason." Tang Lizheng said, "He is in his fifties, and his wife is long gone, so it is not considered to be an untimely death, nor a sudden death, or he is sick and left." As you all know in this summer, you can't stop the first seven burials, and according to the rules, it's three days. ”

"Then how did you cheat the corpse?" Mr. Peng asked.

"I wasn't there at the time, and I listened to what people said." "That night was the second day of the mourning, and the mason's grandson and a few of the boys of the village were there to keep a vigil—a single man would not have survived the night. At that time, it was already past the middle of the night, and several cubs were sleepy, and the descendants were not far from the coffin to play bridge. ”

"Playing bridge at the wake of the spirit?" Li Lintang listened to it, "This is a good idea, so as not to fall asleep while sitting." Mr. Peng waved his hand to stop Li Lintang's words and motioned for Tang Lizheng to continue.

Tang Lizheng nodded and said, "At that time, I was sleeping, and I was suddenly woken up by the barking of dogs and the sound of people in the village. A few descendants ran away in the village and startled the dogs, and they shouted 'Fraud corpse', 'Fraud corpse', it sounds very scary! I put on my clothes and went out to see, and when I arrived, there was already a circle of people in the mourning hall, and they all had things in their hands, but none of them came forward. I came closer and saw that Father Fusheng, the mason, was sitting up in the coffin, and the coffin board had fallen to the side. ”

"Did you just sit up?" Mr. Peng asked again.

"Just sat up." Tang Lizheng replied, "I didn't think too much about it at the time, I was just afraid that something would happen." You say that this dead man sat up in a coffin by himself, and that was a permeable thing? No one dared to step forward, just about a cup of tea, and then Fusheng's father lay back by himself. In such a large circle of people, two of the brave descendants went up, and when they saw that Fusheng's father was completely silent, they closed the coffin lid. They also nailed the coffin in advance, which was supposed to be done on the day of the funeral. ”

"Have you asked the guards what happened to the corpses before?" Mr. Peng was still asking, and he was very curious about the fact that he had defrauded the corpse and lay back down.

"Can I not ask about that?" Tang Li was hitting the ground with a small stick again and again, "It's not that these descendants are not careful?" They said they had heard a cat bark before the corpse! Tell me, is this the fault of those little bastards who are guarding the spirit? ”

Hearing this, Mr. Peng lost interest.

This thing is too common, and this is how it comes about. It's just that this time they were lucky, and they cheated up the corpse and confiscated their breath, and they lay back on their own.

The so-called "deceitful corpse" is different from corpse transformation, and it is even more different from borrowing corpse to return the soul. When a person dies, there is a saying called "swallowing". There is a breath of "qi" left between the chest and abdomen, which will slowly dissipate after death. If a living creature such as a cat or a dog comes into contact with a corpse before this "qi" dissipates, the "qi" will seduce the soul of an unstable animal to himself, and it will become a "corpse".

The corpse that came up here is naturally not a person, but it is not a ghost either. When the soul of an animal enters a person's body, it is like a round tenon embedded in a square tenon, which is not a thing together, and it will naturally be messed up. This corpse will fall into madness, and will pounce and gnaw at the sight of a living creature. Often a basin of black dog blood or rooster blood can drench the body of this borrowed animal soul back to its normal appearance.

Mr. Peng said very stupidly: "Uncle, is there nothing strange except for this incident?" No one has ever seen something murderous? ”

"Nope." Tang Lizheng shook his head, "No one has ever seen that thing in real terms." Every time it came out, it was in the middle of the night, and some people saw it as a black shadow, like a big ape without a long tail. ”

"Gotcha! This time, it's not a mandrill. Li Lintang patted his thigh, "The mandrill only has one leg, and it definitely doesn't look like a monkey." ”

Since I can't ask anything, I don't have the heart. Tang Lizheng could also see that these two were not very happy, after all, it was his village that found a job for the two of them, and it was natural for people to be unhappy. Thinking of this, he won't be bored here. He said: "The two of you must be tired after a long journey. I'm already asking my daughter-in-law to cook, I'll bring it to you right away, so you can rest here first. After eating and sleeping well today, if there is anything, let's talk about it tomorrow. ”

As he spoke, Tang Li was standing up and about to go out, but before he could take a step, he heard a neighing of a horse in the distance—the voice was a little miserable. This was followed by a loud noise, mixed with barking dogs. There was a voice that really sounded: "That monster is here again!" ”

Li Lintang and Mr. Peng glanced at each other, hurriedly left the house, and rushed to the place where the sound came from.