Chapter 17: The Cave on the Barren Slope
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At this time, my great-grandfather's prestige in Sanwangzhuang was almost on par with the old people in the village, and the old and young in the village respected him very much, and felt that he was an all-powerful good man.
Pity the hearts of parents all over the world, but unfortunately my great-grandfather is not omnipotent, for those lost children, he can't do it at this time, he is also a father, knowing the importance of children to parents, can only comfort these villagers, saying that after the government sends someone over, they will definitely be able to find their lost children.
Several villagers couldn't help but be disappointed when they heard this, counting on those officials and officials of the government was far less reliable than counting on my great-grandfather's promise, but my great-grandfather really couldn't help it at this time, the child's disappearance now seems to be absolutely man-made, he is just a grass people, not a county master, he has the ability to subdue and expel ghosts, but he has no power to punish and enforce people.
However, my great-grandfather knew very well at this time that the disappearance of the child was man-made on the one hand, and on the other hand, because the ghost was haunting, and now it seems that it is a collusion between humans and ghosts. But this is the first time my great-grandfather has encountered such a thing.
Judging from what the little girl said, the missing children should have been taken captive by the ghost child after being led out of the house in the middle of the night, especially the little girl mentioned her neighbor Chubby, the little girl said, she hasn't seen Chubby for a long time, what does this mean? It shows that Chubby is also a missing child, and he is dead at this time, and the ghost is used again after death.
After the villagers dispersed, my great-grandfather took the child and returned home. The little girl was distracted at this time, clamoring to find her father, and my great-grandfather patiently coaxed her for a while.
After about an hour, it was completely dawn, and if we calculated the time we have now, it should be about six o'clock in the morning.
At this time, there was a chirping of scolding and chaotic footsteps from the courtyard, and my great-grandfather hurriedly led the girl out of the house.
"Master Xuanyi, I'll bring the rich man of Wei here."
Walking in the front was Wang Yushu, with a smile on his face. Behind him were three people, the one in the middle was a big fat man, gorgeously dressed, although he looked very decent, but he had a fierce face, and next to him, there were two Tsing Yi shirts on the left and one on the right, and at a glance he knew that it was an entourage or something.
The big fat man saw the little girl standing next to my great-grandfather at a glance, and without saying a word, he rushed up and grabbed the little girl's pigtails, and raised his hand to hit him, and my great-grandfather hurriedly stopped him.
In ancient times, patriarchy was preferred, giving birth to a boy was called "Tian Ding", and giving birth to a girl was called "Tian Kou", which means that the family added a mouth to eat, in today's words, giving birth to a girl is to add a useless foodie.
The big fat man is the girl's father Wei Damao, and later my great-grandfather heard that he gave birth to five girls before and after, and he was stunned that he didn't have a son, and the girl was lost, and he didn't plan to ask for it, and the family could still eat less, but I didn't expect it to be found back by my great-grandfather.
As soon as Wang Yushu went to Wei's house and told Wei Damao, Wei Damao became angry and complained that my great-grandfather had brought his daughter back, but he didn't dare to attack after seeing my great-grandfather. My great-grandfather has never heard of him, but he has heard of my great-grandfather, Wang Banxian's high-level disciple, and he is also a half-immortal-level figure, plus my great-grandfather has an old man with hands and eyes, just with his Wei Damao, a local tyrant level, he can't afford to provoke at all, so he sprinkled his anger on the girl.
After some tossing, my great-grandfather finally persuaded Wei Damao's anger to stop, Wei Damao didn't even thank him, and led the girl away.
My great-grandfather silently sent them outside the village, stopped at the head of the village, and looked at the little figure of the little girl being pulled by Wei Damao from a distance, and he sighed "sigh".
When I came home from the village, my great-grandfather saw a few people dressed as officials standing outside the door, as if they were waiting for him at the door.
When my great-grandfather got closer, he found that the village chief was also there, talking to these officials, and the village chief saw my great-grandfather coming back and hurriedly introduced him.
It turned out that after my great-grandfather told the village chief about the barren slope, the village chief asked his eldest son to report the case to Yanjin County, and the county lord heard that the child disappeared from the case with eyebrows, and was found back one, and felt that the opportunity for his promotion and fortune had come, and the child's disappearance at this time was nationwide, and there was no place in the country to solve the case.
So the county magistrate sent his most powerful catcher to Sanwangzhuang with the eldest son of the village. These fast catchers are more intelligent, and they have also solved a few small cases, and they are also a little famous in Yanjin County.
After he led a few catchers to the village chief's house, he immediately asked to see my great-grandfather, and wanted to ask my great-grandfather to take them to the barren slope to identify the scene.
After the village chief explained the intentions of several officials, my great-grandfather smiled and agreed.
At this time, in my great-grandfather's heart, there were also a few incomprehensible mysteries, even if these officials did not come to him to lead the way, he had to take the time to go to the barren slope to have a look, at this time the official messenger invited him to go with him, just let him justify his name.
Here, there is a doubt, I have not been able to figure it out, Sanwangzhuang is on the south bank of the Yellow River, Yanjin County is on the north bank of the Yellow River, logically speaking, Sanwangzhuang on the south bank of the Yellow River should not be under the jurisdiction of Yanjin County on the north bank of the Yellow River, but my grandmother said that the village chief and his eldest son went to Yanjin County to report the case, that is, the official sent by the county magistrate of Yanjin County, I believe my grandmother will not be mistaken. It's a mystery, don't ask me, I don't know what's going on.
Straight to the point. After my great-grandfather came to the barren slope with a few hunters, the traces of the fight and trampling in the night were still there. My great-grandfather pointed out several places to them from memory, one was the place where he met the red ghost, the other was the place where he fought with the red ghost and the green ghost, and the other was the place where he met the little girl.
During this period, my great-grandfather also found the ghost mask with red hair, which he threw away after he picked up the little girl, thinking that the mask was in the way and afraid of scaring the child. At this time, when I took the mask in my hand in broad daylight, it was still terrifying.
The head catcher came over and took the mask from my great-grandfather's hand, looked at it, put it away, and said that this was an important piece of physical evidence.
After my great-grandfather identified these places, the catcher waved his hand at the catchers, and the catchers quickly dispersed, searching all over the mountains and fields on the barren slopes, probably looking for other clues.
At this time, the catcher asked my great-grandfather a few questions, a few common sense questions, such as why my great-grandfather came here in the middle of the night, what he was doing here, and so on. The head catcher knew what my great-grandfather did from the village chief before, and my great-grandfather rescued a child, which made him respect my great-grandfather very much, although this headcatcher didn't believe much in ghosts and gods.
My great-grandfather was honest, not to mention that he was facing an official errand, and 1510 answered.
After listening to this, he asked my great-grandfather, "Mr. Liu, who do you think are the two who snatched the children?" ”
My great-grandfather thought for a while and said, "I Jueli, they may be Taoist priests, because after I grabbed the old man's hair, he combed a bun on the top of his head, and there was a hairpin stuck in the bun. ”
In the Qing Dynasty, the implementation of "hair without head", the man's head was shaved brightly, and a big braid was combed behind it, of which there were only two kinds of exceptions, one was a monk and the other was a Taoist. The old man combed his hair in a bun and inserted a hairpin, and was undoubtedly a Taoist priest, which was easily recognizable at the time.
"Why did the Taoist priest snatch the child?" The headcatcher asked to himself.
At this moment, a fast catcher shouted in the distance, "Catch the head, catch the head, come and see it......"
The head catcher and a few other catchers, including my great-grandfather, all ran towards the catcher when they heard the shouts.
When I got to him, my great-grandfather saw that there was a four-foot square barren meadow, similar to other places, the only difference was that the barren grass here was dead, just like someone pulled out the grass here and buried it back.
At this time, the previous catcher bent down and pulled out a straw rope from the grass nest next to him, and the rope was connected to the bottom of the dead grass.
Under the dead grass, there is actually a hidden wooden flap, one end of the flap is connected with a grass rope, and the loess is paved with loess, and the dead grass is buried in the loess, just like a trap for hunting, but this is not a trap, under the wooden flap is a deep vertical hole, the hole is three feet square, you can see from above that there is a wooden ladder in the hole, and it is estimated that you can go down to the bottom of the hole along the wooden ladder. Because the light outside is relatively strong, it is dark to look into the cave from above, and you can't see the bottom of the cave.
A few catchers stood on it and looked into the cave, although they couldn't see anything, but they looked at each other, this was probably the most bizarre case they had encountered, including my great-grandfather, none of them could have imagined that there would be such a hidden place here on the barren slope, what was in the vertical hole? Could it have something to do with the disappearance of the child?
Because the cave is too dark, and there are not many people here, I don't know if there will be danger hidden in the cave, the head catcher did not dare to let people go down to the cave rashly, on the one hand, he sent people back to the village to find the village chief to borrow torches, and on the other hand, let people go back to the county government to report to the county master, and let him send more people to thoroughly investigate the area of the barren slope.
Half an hour later, the catchers who had returned to the village were about to return, and not only found a few torches from the village, but also brought a few young and strong villagers, led by the youngest son of the village chief.
There were torches, and there were people, so the head catcher began to arrange for people to go down to the cave to investigate. The first to go down were the catchers under the head catcher, and a few of them lit two torches and went down the wooden ladder......