There is a kind of mountain in this world, which is shrouded in a thick fog all year round, and it is impossible to see its true face.

Such places are often the most dangerous for those who depend on the mountains for their survival.

Because it is very likely that you will get lost in the woods in the mountains, go farther and farther, and eventually die of hunger and thirst in some uninhabited place, and will not be found until a long time later.

What's more, there are many more deadly dangers besides getting lost.

Like beasts, like poisonous snakes, like unknown traps...... There are many mysteries and mysteries; Paranormal events.

In the words of the elderly, the yin qi in places that do not attract sunlight all year round is too heavy, which is more suitable for those aliens to survive, so it is also easier to happen those things that are not usually seen.

"Sometimes, even if you get lost, it's because a little ghost covers your eyes, so you can't see where you are."

Probably every child living in the mountains has heard similar warnings to some extent. But for young people, stories like this not only do not frighten them, but rather stimulate their curiosity and challenge them.

It is for one reason or another that every few years, there will be so many unlucky people who are idle and run to the mountains by themselves.

"The story takes place in a mountain near here, you see over there, that perennial foggy hill, we people here are used to calling it Ghost King Mountain. When I was a child, I heard from the old man that there was a big mansion on the mountain, and the ghost king came from the underworld to live in it...... Oh, by the way, in the words of your young people nowadays, it's called a vacation, and that's where the ghost king stays when he comes to the sun world for a vacation. ”

An old man sat by the river, holding a slender fishing rod in his hand, staring at the calm water, telling a ghost story that had existed for a long time when he was a child.

The old man had a white beard, dark skin, a face full of deep wrinkles, a pair of rough hands holding a fishing rod in his hand, and a few clear veins protruding from the back of his hand. Wearing a tattered shoulder bar vest, a pair of army-green trousers, trouser legs pulled up to the knees, and a pair of mud-stained plastic slippers on his feet, he seemed to be an old farmer who had been farming all his life.

Those travelers were eating a bunch of colorful snacks on the ridges by the river, and when the old man stretched out his hand to the mountain bag that he said was shrouded in thick fog all year round, they all raised their heads and looked at the small mountain bag.

The mountain is really not big, and it is considered to lift it up to say that it is a small mountain, but more strictly speaking, it can only be regarded as a small bulge in the center of the col in the middle of several high mountains, and it is hidden in a blue mountain, and it is impossible to find it if you don't look closely.

"The old people in our town used to say that in weather like now, the ghost king and his old man came to stay, and if he entered the mountain at this time, he would definitely die!" The old man shook the fishing rod in his hand, shook his head and sighed: "It's not my old man who deliberately stopped you, if you want to go, go there, be careful that you will be directly gnawed by the ghost king's little ghosts when there are no bones left." If you want me to say that you will stay in the town for a few days, it will not be too late to wait until this rain has passed before you go into the mountains! You're right? ”

The travelers glanced at each other a few times, and finally introduced an older middle-aged man as a representative to communicate with the old man.

The middle-aged man looked thirty or forty years old, wearing a heavy jacket, a camera around his neck, a Chinese face, a mediocre appearance, but his eyes were very bright and sharp.

"Old man, aren't we in a hurry?" He leaned over to the old man, took out a cigarette and handed it to him: "Looking at the weather, if this rain falls, it is estimated that it will take several days, and a few of us will come out to play during the holidays, you said that if you wait in the town for two or three days, how to play, you may not be able to catch the plane if you go back directly!" You say yes. ”

The old man smoked a cigarette, seemed to be in a better mood, and had a smile on his face.

"I'm not really trying to stop you, but it's really hard to get into the mountains right now. And you said that you young people want to go out and find where you can't play, and you have to go to such a ravine that doesn't even have a name, what fun can there be! ”

As he spoke, the fishing rod in the old man's hand trembled, causing a circle of ripples on the water.

The old man's eyes lit up, and he immediately pulled the rod with all his might.

"Oh, old man, you said that you are telling such a bunch of ghost stories here, and it is strange to tell us that we can't go into the mountains." Among the few people stood a young girl, she held the brim of her hat, and said to the old man with a smile: "You see what era it is now, we must believe in science, oppose superstition, what gods, ghosts, and ghost kings from the underworld...... It's all a lie! ”

As she spoke, she rummaged in her backpack for a while, took out a palm-sized electronic instrument, and handed it to the old man: "Look, the latest satellite locator, you won't get lost with this thing, don't worry, tell us the way into the mountain, okay?" ”

"Not good, not good." The old man also learned the girl's delicate tone and shook his head at her with a smile: "Don't mess with me here, even the fish have been scared away by you, and you want to play elsewhere, Ghost King Mountain is really not able to enter at this time." ”

The fish that had just bitten the hook was very shrewd, and after being dragged out of the water again, it twisted a few times, broke away from the hook, and jumped back to the surface.

The old man sighed, hung some bait on the hook again, and threw it to the surface.

"Don't talk about science, superstition, or anything here, I've lived for so many years, and I naturally know what I can believe and what I can't believe." He shook his head at the middle-aged man, waving his hand to drive them away: "Let's go, don't think about asking others, there are only a dozen people in this place who know how to go to Ghost King Mountain, except for me, they are a group of old things who have half of their bodies in the ground, and their brains are more confused than the other, and it is in vain for you to ask others." ”

The young girl pursed the corners of her lips and showed a mocking smile, and was about to open her mouth to refute, but was stopped by the middle-aged man who took the lead raised his hand.

"Old man, we finally found a place where no one was around during Golden Week and wanted to take a few photos, we can't just say that we can't go back like this." As he spoke, he lowered his voice, leaned close to the old man's ear, and whispered to him: "Actually, I believe in your old man, I am tired of running out with such a group of children to collect wind, and it would be good if I could stay in the town for a few days and go back." But you know, young people nowadays, they don't believe in evil. Otherwise, you can tell them what happened in that place before, and the ghost stories on each side will do, don't look at that little girl's hard mouth, in fact, she is too timid, tell a story to scare her, she may be the first to make a fuss about going back, how about it? ”

As he spoke, he secretly stuffed a pack of cigarettes into the old man's trouser pocket, then patted the old man on the shoulder and winked at him.

The old man looked at him in surprise, then looked down at the cigarette case in his trouser pocket.

"How scary to say." The middle-aged man folded his hands, nodded at the old man, and whispered, "Please be old, don't let me listen to these children making trouble." ”

"Alas!" The old man sighed again, simply put away the fishing rod, looked at the group of young people who were giggling, and said loudly: "Young people now, they just don't believe in evil, and those who go on the pole want to die!" I don't want to think about it, that place used to be a place where there were no people in the village overnight, and there were no dead or dead people, so I still had to go there, and I was careful to be caught and replaced by dead ghosts! ”

The middle-aged man immediately snickered when he heard this, but immediately changed to a serious expression, and began to act in harmony with the old man.

"What did you say, old man?" He pretended to be surprised, and looked at the old man with wide eyes: "All of a sudden, there is no one from the village? Didn't you say that there was no one living in that place? ”

"Now no one lives, everyone is dead, but no one lives." The old man put his legs into the river and washed the mud off his feet: "But there were still people living in the past few years, and if you want to hear it, I can tell you about it." ”

Several young people also seemed to be attracted by these words, and they approached the old man's side, waiting intently for his next step.

"Oh, it's been a long time since I talked about this, and I've heard from others, dozens of people in a village say no, you say it's not scary!"

The old man made an exaggerated grimace at the young men, making the crowd laugh.

"It's been 20 years since I started talking about this, when my youngest son was just born and my eldest was just starting elementary school. There are also people living in the Ghost King Mountain......"

The old man who told the story was named Sun Dongliang, and he was called Liangzi by the people in the town when he was young.

Twenty years ago, he was already past the end of his life, and he went to the mountains with a few people to collect wild meat, and sold it to buyers in the big city in the town, making a little difference to support his family.

The mountain range near his home is not small, and there are more than a dozen villages scattered around that are mainly hunting, among which the small village that lives at the foot of Guiwang Mountain is the most famous.

There are two reasons for the fame: first, although the road in Guiwang Mountain is not easy to find, there are many animals in the mountain, and all of them are fat and strong. The second reason is more bizarre, it is said that from the eighty-year-old toothless old lady in that village, to the three or four-year-old children who can't understand the words, they all know more or less a little bit of small means of exorcism and spirituality, at this time in the nearby ten miles and eight villages are very famous, whose children lose their souls, or the old man is inexplicably sick, someone will run to the village to shout, just find someone to basically solve the matter.

The village may sound mysterious, but there is no shortage of contact with people outside the village. For hundreds of years, it has maintained a close relationship with the world, but somewhat independent and alienated, and has been passed down from generation to generation on the side of the mountain, where the legend of nine deaths is born.

This balance was upset one day twenty years ago when a few foreign college students were upset.

Even today, so long later, no one can figure out what happened at that time. One can only speculate about what happened at that time from the mouths of merchants who often go to the mountains to buy game, and restore a vague truth.

And the merchant, who lived in the village for a day before the village disappeared and escaped by chance, was always secretive about the matter, and refused to reveal a word no matter how others asked, and only when he was drunk a few times did he tell some of his friends some of the inside information of the year.

And this acquisition businessman named Liu Qiang happened to be a friend who partnered with Liang Zi to do business. What's even more coincidental is that Liang Zi was present when he was drunk several times.

It was also late autumn, the temperature was already very low, and there was still frost on the mountain roads late at night. Liu Qiang drove the three-wheeled truck he had just bought on the road cautiously, for fear that if he was not careful, the car would slip and fall down the mountain.

In fact, he has never liked the place of Ghost King Mountain, and he always feels that it is very evil, and he is still running in this mountain at night, and he also feels a little bottomless in his heart.

If it weren't for Liang Zi's stupid and bold family who had just added a son, he couldn't be busy, I wouldn't have done this job alone!

He was complaining about his situation in his heart, and when he looked up, he saw a few fires on the mountain road that should be empty.

There was a swaying figure near the firelight, and there seemed to be a faint voice coming from the closed window.

Liu Qiang stepped on the brakes, feeling that his frightened soul was about to fly.

He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, rolled the window open a little bit, and looked ahead.

The cold night breeze blew through the cracks in the window into the car, bringing with it the noise of a few young people giggling.

Liu Qiang carefully observed the firelight in front of him for a while, and finally could determine that the shadows that were swaying under the firelight seemed to be living humans.

He opened the window completely and shouted ahead, "Hey, those guys in front, what are you doing here!" ”

The original loud noise disappeared in that instant.

Qiu Chan, who was about to lose her life, howled hysterically, and the surrounding leaves made a small sound with the night wind.

Liu Qiang swallowed a mouthful of saliva and sat nervously in the car waiting for the other party's answer.

It's too reckless, this is Ghost King Mountain, who knows what the hell is over there.

Fortunately, the figures next to the fire were not some kind of man-eating monster or a murderer who had escaped to the mountains as he had imagined.

That's just a couple of young students.

Twenty years ago, there was no such term as "traveler" or "backpacker". If those students were placed now, Liu Qiang probably wouldn't be so surprised.

However, in that era, this kind of thing was quite new to people when they were on vacation to find a deep mountain that was not a tourist area to travel.

So fresh that Liu Qiang even regarded them as runaway children at first.

After making sure that the students had come out to play with the consent of their parents, he took them with him and drove to the destination of his trip, the nameless village at the foot of the Ghost King Mountain.

In fact, when he first heard that these children were lost in the mountains, he didn't want to take them with him.

And those students actually didn't want to be with a middle-aged man like him who looked very suspicious.

In particular, this kind of cargo tricycle has only a small cab, and at most two skinny girls can barely fit in addition to the driver, and the rest can only sit in the back of the car, caressed by the wind.

However, in the end, because Liu Qiang's little compassion was suddenly activated, he felt that he couldn't leave these little cubs alone; After hearing that a hot meal could be eaten in a village not far ahead, several students reached an agreement and stuffed the two girls next to Liu Qiang, while the remaining three boys sat in the dirty car body.

However, when the car really drove into the village, Liu Qiang once again felt regret.

Because of a delay on the road, when he arrived at the entrance of the village, it was already close to ten o'clock.

The whole village was brightly lit - it was their rule that they had to keep a light at night when they went to bed, and if the lights went out, the family would have an accident in a few days.

In normal times, Liu Qiang only needs to go to the house of a familiar hunter and knock on the door, and he can spend a few nights, and after he has collected all his things, he can just leave directly. Everyone is quite familiar, and no one takes it seriously after eating and drinking for nothing.

But this time, he also brought a few strangers he didn't know, including men and women, and a group of children, so it was really inconvenient to find a random place to squeeze around.

In desperation, Liu Qiang had no choice but to go to the village chief.

The village chief's house is in the center of the village, is a quaint mansion, it is said to have been there since the Ming Dynasty, miraculously survived so many years of various natural and man-made disasters, still standing in this small village, occupying two-thirds of the entire village area.

The village chief, not so much the village chief, is the patriarch of the Shi family, the largest family in the village, is a man in his fifties, who used to be a hunter, born with a strong force, a red face, and his voice can be heard from afar when he speaks.

He seemed to have some problems with the five young men who had arrived unexpectedly, but in the end he didn't say anything, and arranged for them to stay in empty rooms.

Before a few people went to sleep, the village chief came to warn them that it was best not to go out at night.

As a result, the students sneaked out in the middle of the night and didn't come back until it was almost dawn.

The next morning, when Liu Qiang woke up, he saw the village chief in a rage, and the silent crowd gathered around the village chief's door.

The three layers of the crowd surrounded the gate of the village chief's house, and at a glance, it seemed that the whole village was coming.

Men and women, old people and children, all stood there quietly, looking at the young people who stood in front of the village chief with a hateful look, and the dogs he scolded were bloody.

Liu Qiang had just put on his clothes, and before he could ask what was wrong, he was pulled aside by an acquaintance of Orion, who secretly told him to hurry up, and sneaked out of the village while no one found him.

Otherwise, when the villagers find out that Liu Qiang brought these children to the village, they may have to clean up with him.

Later, Liu Qiang secretly ran away, and when we went there again half a month later, there was no one in the village. But the doors of every house were open, and there was an empty coffin in the hall, and I don't know why. We didn't dare to stay any longer, but walked around the village for a while and then ran back. The old man finished telling the story in one breath, which didn't sound very scary, looked at the young people in front of him with an unfathomable expression, pointed to their heads one by one, and said: "Those young people are just like you, they are disobedient, and they end up killing themselves, and they also affect the people of a village." ”

"I have a question." The girl who was chattering before had a somewhat ugly face at this moment, but she still held back the fear in her heart and asked tremblingly, "Why can't you go out at night, what are the rules there?" ”

"It's not all nights that you can't go out, it's people who die and you can't go out at night." The old man looked at the beautiful girl and lit a cigarette: "It is said that when the people in that village are alive, they will watch the gate for the ghost king, and when they die, they will go directly to the ghost king's men on an errand." So if someone in the village is gone, park the coffin on the road, and the ghost king's men will come to pick them up in the middle of the night. If you go out at this time, you will be picked up as if you were a dead man by the messenger who came to pick you up. ”

"I still don't think it's very believable." The girl was still trying to find the mistake in the story: "In that case, the students went out in the middle of the night, didn't they come back well?" So there is no such thing as a ghost king picking up people, and you, as well as the people in that village, are all scaring yourself. ”

"No, little girl, you don't understand anything, let me tell you." When the old man said this, the expression on his face suddenly became serious: "Only the people in that village can go to the ghost king's errands, if there are outsiders, they will be directly sucked dry by the ghost king's messenger, the reason why those children did not die that day, according to Liu Qiang, when they went out in the middle of the night, they stopped in the coffin on the road and took something, which is said to be a tribute to the ghost king." As a result, the ghost king was angry and took away the entire village. ”

"Then ......" The girl lowered her head and thought for a while before she asked another question: "Is that ghost king called the ghost king, isn't it the black and white impermanence of the Ten Palaces Yama or something?" ”

"The ghost king is the ghost king, what else can I call it." The old man waved his hand at her, with a look of disgust: "What Ten Halls Yama is still impermanent, we have never seen this thing." ”

"Listening to what you always say, this place does seem to be quite dangerous, and even I am a little scared." The middle-aged man smiled and said to the young people below, "Why don't we go back to the town and look at the map first, and see if we can find another route." What do you guys think? ”

Several young people looked at each other a few times, as if they were a little hesitant.

"O you! Look at the heavens! The middle-aged man pointed to the sky and said to them, "It's going to rain soon, don't you see that the old people are ready to go home?" Let's go back quickly, because when it rains, we'll have to go back drenched. ”

The young men glanced at the sky a few times in unison. After a few more minutes of discussion, they decided to listen to the leader first, and went back to town to talk.

The cloudy sky makes people feel a little depressed, a few swallows are hovering back and forth against the ground, and the air pressure in the air is so low that people can't breathe.

From time to time, a few lightning bolts streaked across the sky, making a "boom" sound.

"It's going to rain." The middle-aged man glanced up at the sky, quickly followed the old man carrying the fishing rod in front of him, and turned back to urge the students who were following him.

"You go quickly, otherwise you will catch a cold in the rain and be careful to be caught by the ghost king and stewed and eaten."

Reluctantly, several young men followed the footsteps of the two in front of them and ran quickly towards the town.

(To be continued.) )