Grandpa got up and opened the door, and I was woken up. I heard their whispered conversations, and since it was quiet at night, I heard them all the time.

The horse butcher gasped and said, "Brother Yue Yun wants to save me!" ”

Grandpa asked, "What's wrong?" What are you doing in the middle of the night? If you have something to say, you can come tomorrow morning. Grandpa said as he let the horse butcher into the house and sat down on a chair.

The butcher threw the pig's intestines and lungs on the table, and said, "Take this little thing." You have to help with this, and you have to help if you don't help. ”

Grandpa asked, "I don't know what to do, how can I help you?" ”

So, the horse butcher lowered his voice and said, "I hit a ghost today......"

Grandpa was startled, and hurriedly got up to cover the door, and the rustling of footsteps in the room was clearly heard by me, who was not sleeping in the next room. I was attracted by the butcher's words, pricked up my ears to listen carefully to their conversation, and heard the trembling of my hand on the bed.

The horse butcher's voice trembled slightly, and he said, "I didn't come back until late today, and when I passed by the ghost den on the way, I heard someone talking in the mountain pass. I thought to myself, who else is talking in the barren mountains and mountains at such a late hour? And in a place where almost no one wants to come during the day? ”

I heard the clanging of teacups, then the sound of water, and I thought my grandfather was pouring tea for the horse butcher. Grandpa said, "Yes." There are many children who have died young, and it is a place where many taboos are buried, except for a few young and bold people in the village, other people have to walk around there during the day. ”

The horse butcher continued, "I think so too, I am not afraid of ghosts or believe in ghosts. I was curious, so I crouched behind a big rock and listened to what they had to say. If you don't listen to it, forget it, when you listen to it, it scares me when you hear it! ”

Grandpa asked softly, "Why did it scare you?" ”

The horse butcher said mysteriously, "I hear the voices of a little boy and a little girl. ”

Both Grandpa and the horse butcher paused for a moment. The night was silent, and I looked up at the moon outside the window, pale as paper.

The horse butcher took a sip of tea and said, "The girl's voice said that the horse butcher's daughter-in-law is pregnant again, and you are going to harm him again?" As soon as I heard that they were me, I was even more strange, crouched down behind the stone and listened. The boy's voice said, of course it was going to hurt him. The girl's voice said, "What are you going to do to him?" The boy's voice laughed a few times, and the sound was unpleasant, like an abrasive cloth wiping a chair, which gave me goosebumps all over my body, and I couldn't stop shivering. The boy's voice said, "I want him to have a life or not to feed." ”

Grandpa was also surprised: "How can you have to live and not raise?" ”

The horse butcher said, "The girl's voice asked the same question. The boy's voice said, "I will be reincarnated in the womb of that woman, and I will die at twelve o'clock in the evening on the seventh day after birth, and then I will come and play with you." If she is born again, I will be like this again. Let him have a son and die a son. Later, they made an appointment to meet in this ghost den after the death of my daughter-in-law's child. ”

Grandpa inhaled hissedly. I stood up next door and felt cold in the quilt.

"You have to save me, Brother Yue Yun. My daughter-in-law's belly has been big for a few months, and she is about to give birth. If I get killed by that dustpan ghost again, I won't be alive anymore. The horse butcher begged.

What I would like to tell you is that the ghosts of children who die after birth are called kotomi ghosts by the inhabitants of the Tokoyama area. The bodies of the children had to be carried out and buried with a tool called a dustpan. The used dustpan could not be brought back, so it was put upside down on the child's grave. It is an old rule that the graves of the ghosts should not be built on any hill, but should only be concentrated in a remote col. And that col is what people call "ghost den".

The elders of the village said that the childlike innocence of the ghosts is still there, and because many of them are buried together, they often come out to play together after the sun goes down, and they especially love to play with fire. Someone once saw several ghost fires floating on the side of the "ghost nest" from a distance, and heard indistinct giggles. The next day, as if smoked, the man kept shedding tears, and his two eyes were redder than a rabbit's, and it took seven hundred and forty-nine days to return to their original state.

The grandfather persuaded the horse butcher and said, "Your daughter-in-law has not yet given birth, and she will not be able to harm you for the time being." It's too late today to figure out a way to deal with it right away. You go back first and get some sleep. I'll help you figure it out, we're relatives in the line, can I help you. However, it is difficult to deal with the ghost of the dustpan, and it is not difficult to say that it is not difficult. Okay, okay, let's not talk about it so much. You go back first, and I'll look for you when I figure out how to do it. After saying that, he lifted the pig intestines and lungs on the table and asked the horse butcher to take them back. The butcher of the horse said many words of gratitude, and did not take back what had been sent.

Grandpa persuaded and pushed the horse butcher out of the house, and then closed the door to sleep. But I heard my grandfather tossing and turning in bed, and got up again to drink tea in the middle, and after a while, the sky began to turn white, and the rooster outside began to crow. I didn't dare to close my eyes all night, I was scared and curious.