Chapter 40. A handful of incense ash
As I said, having been in this industry for many years, I am very sensitive to any abnormal phenomena around me. When I felt a chill in my neck, I subconsciously reached out and touched it, wondering if it was dripping on me, but it was a feeling of blowing. Is it windy? How could the wind only blow in such a small place? The assumptions and speculations went through my head quickly, and then I turned my head.
Hu Zongren and I were standing facing the direction outside the school, that is, behind the two of us was the toilet where we had peed just now. On the left is the men's restroom, and we are standing outside. So I said to Hu Zongren, did you feel a cool breeze just now? Hu Zongren said no, I said how do I feel that someone is standing behind me and blowing on my neck. Hu Zongren laughed and said Are you a little nervous, this daylight, you and I are specialized in this, which little ghost has such courage to dare to come to find death.
I smirked a little, but I decided to investigate, because I was physically and mentally exhausted from the trouble with the brakes, and I was a bit of a soldier now. So I told Hu Zongren that you just wait for me outside for a few minutes, and I'll go in and have a look. By the way, I also reminded him that this toilet is often a place with a high incidence of haunted rumors.
After saying that, I turned around and went into the toilet, and there was no one in the toilet, so I probed one grid after another. There was a very choking smell in the toilet, so if there were really ghosts in this place, it would be difficult to distinguish by the smell. After looking around, the compass needle didn't move, but the little yellow paragraphs written on the toilet door made me happy. Just as I was turning to walk out, I bumped into something soft head-on.
I was taken aback, and I was about to see that something was wrong, so I hit it without a word. But I heard a voice in my ear, "Oops! After seeing it clearly, I realized that I bumped into Mr. Huang. Only then did I settle down and say, Mr. Huang, you really scared me. Teacher Huang said, I saw that you hadn't come over, and I just wanted to go to the toilet, so I came to look for you. I said okay, we'll wait for you outside.
Later, Mr. Huang took us to have tea outside the school, and then talked about the situation of the school, and by the way, under the questioning of Hu Zongren and me, he mentioned a lot of rumors that the school was haunted in the past. For dinner, he took us to eat a food stall nearby, and I still have a lot of thoughts about the red oil crayfish in that store, and then pour boiling oil on it after stir-frying, sprinkle it with peppercorns and cumin, first put it in my mouth to suck a mouthful of delicious juice, and then slowly eat the shrimp meat with a tong, leaving a fragrant mouth. I fooled around until 10 o'clock in the evening, because we had to run errands, so we didn't drink, and when we returned to school, except for the lights in the dormitory area, it was dark and quiet. Only a few crickets were heard occasionally.
When I first entered the school in the afternoon, I noticed that there was a basketball court not far from the school gate, and the basketball court continued to walk, passing by a transfer to the teaching building. Earlier, I saw the tree outside the window in the classroom, which was between the basketball court and the teaching building, there was a walled wasteland like a fort, and Mr. Huang also said that the location of the basketball court and the new school gate was not the school, so the scope of the school was only to that fort, because the enrollment situation was good later, and the teaching quality was also relatively outstanding in the city, so the land was acquired to expand the campus. The trees we saw were planted next to the walls of the former school.
Walking to the bottom of the teaching building, the large iron door on the ground floor has been locked. Mr. Huang is often the head of the grade because he often has to prepare for classes or correct homework, so he has an iron door key in his hand. After entering, Mr. Huang locked the door from the inside, but did not turn on the light in the corridor, but led us to the classroom on the second floor in the dark. When Mr. Huang walked to the door of the classroom, he suddenly became visibly scared. I've been reassuring him and telling him not to worry, we two knowledgeable people are here, and we can't make a mess. He calmed down and opened the door, then turned on the lights in the classroom. In order not to attract the attention of others, Hu Zongren and I quickly closed the curtains on the side of the student dormitory.
Then the first thing I did was to go to the ashes I had sprinkled earlier, and see if there were any signs of movement. Incense is a sacrificial item that we are often exposed to, and many people may have burned a lot of incense from childhood to worship their ancestors, but few people may know what the reason for burning incense is. Incense is generally three sticks for one column, because the number three has a special meaning for Chinese. For example, there are only three things, three cares, inferences from one another, and three thoughts, so in the impression of Chinese, three often represents a limit. That is, if it is more than three, things may not be salvage or messed up. Therefore, the three sticks of incense are used for worship and are a great respect for the gods. In China's two major religions, Taoism and Buddhism, both have the habit of lighting incense, but the gods they worship are different, but the essence is the same. As a metaphysical aspect, in addition to the meaning of respect, burning incense also has the meaning of attracting souls and summoning souls. In metaphysical view, after the ghost smells the smell of incense, it will follow and receive worship. So this is also for what I have always told my friends around me that if there is no Buddha statue at home, it is best not to burn incense at home. Because maybe you are showing your respect, but you don't know what this pillar of incense has brought you.
So I lit incense in the classroom to make the place a point to diffuse the smell of incense. The incense ash is the ash after burning, its natural attribute is fire, the incense ash is scattered as soon as it is pinched, and it is neutral and mild, it can become hot, or it can stick to the body without feeling. Therefore, any interference from an external force may change its form. In many rural areas in China, on the third day after the death of someone in the family, the room where the coffin was stored would be locked, leaving only one window, and the ashes would be sprinkled around the coffin, so that when they opened the door the next day and saw animal footprints on the ashes on the ground, they thought that the soul of the deceased had been taken away and could be buried in the ground. This is actually a relatively ignorant approach, just like the chicken foot god I mentioned earlier, although there are not many of them, no one can guarantee that they will not encounter them. Here, I sprinkle incense ash on the edge of the window and in the crack of the door for the same reason, just to see if there are any strange marks on the incense ash.
I checked the crack in the door first, and there was nothing unusual except for the part of the corridor outside the door that had been blown away by the wind. And when I turned to look at the windowsill, I suddenly felt a shock. I hurriedly called Hu Zongren and Teacher Huang to come to my side, and Hu Zongren came up and shouted, wow, this hand is really ugly.
The incense ash on the windowsill has been pressed out with a handprint. So much so that on the ground against the wall, there was sprinkled incense ash. And in the far corner, where the agility had been noticed earlier, a handprint of incense ash about the size of the windowsill appeared on the table. I put my own hand on the table and compared it, and the handprint appeared smaller, and the place near the wrist was vacant, so the handprint looked like a small part was missing. But it still gives an ironclad fact, that is, after we are gone until we come back, the ghost has returned, and it is not clear that it is not gone at this moment.
Hu Zongren looked at the handprint on the table, turned his head and asked Mr. Huang, what you said before, the figure you saw is about 1.6 meters tall, right? Mr. Huang's eyes were fixed on the incense ash handprints on the table, and although he had long accepted the fact that the classroom was haunted, it was clear that he was still a little unprepared. He replied that Hu Zongren said yes, Hu Zongren said, can be so tall, and his hands are so small, it looks like he is a female ghost.
Then Hu Zongren walked to the windowsill and followed the direction of his hand, and then he said to me that this ghost had crawled in from outside. Sure enough, I went up to see that the direction of my hand was exactly the feeling of coming in from the window by grabbing the edge of the window. Hu Zongren asked Mr. Huang to sit on the other side of the classroom, while I began to use the compass to find a few smart places to look for again. This time, I still found the supernatural reaction in the previous places, and the amplitude of the pointer was slightly larger, but this time, I also found the supernatural reaction in the place where Mr. Huang said that he saw the ghost standing, and it was stronger than anywhere else.
There was nothing on the ground, not even incense ashes, this position was about a meter away from the table where the handprint was pressed, Hu Zongren was guarding the windowsill, holding a talisman in his hand, and the compass was telling me that this ghost was right in front of me, so my heart beat faster. And because I can't see it, it means that it doesn't want to be seen by me, but it doesn't do anything to me, it's just that this sense of oppression makes me feel uncomfortable. So I slowly raised my hand, pointed to the windowsill, and then told Hu Zongren with my eyes to grab a handful of incense ashes and throw them over. Hu Zongren understood what I meant, and he slowly grabbed a handful, and when he scattered the incense ashes in my direction, I closed my eyes tightly.
Closing my eyes is actually just to prevent the incense ash from harming my excellent vision. And when I quickly opened my eyes, I saw some incense ash floating less than a foot in front of me. Before I could react, the ashes suddenly fell to the ground again, and at the same time, there was a sudden tightness on my face, as if you had just washed your face and a cold wind blew your skin to contract. And I felt two very cold air currents in my nostrils along with this sensation. It dawned on me that this feeling was the same as the feeling on the back of my head outside the toilet in the afternoon.
This feeling appeared and disappeared suddenly, and then Hu Zongren and I heard a buzzing sound similar to a sudden tinnitus in our ears, and the long fluorescent tube above our heads in the classroom began to shake, and then Hu Zongren, who was standing at the window, seemed to be pushed by something, and he stumbled into the water dispenser, and then I saw that the curtain on the side of the window seemed to be pulled out of the window by a force, and then it hung down, and the classroom returned to calm, only the leaves outside the window were still rustling.
Hu Zongren stood up and said loudly, no, run away! Then he lay on the window and looked up and down, I just came back to my senses, and immediately said loudly to Hu Zongren, Hu Zongren, take a snapshot! Yes? What kind of photo to take? Hu Zongren asked me, I said you turn on the flash, and there is a random light outside the window, hurry! Hu Zongren quickly took out the phone and clicked, until I stood up and said okay, don't take it, I guess I ran away. Hu Zongren gasped and sat on the ground.
After a short break, he began to look through the photos on his phone, then laughed helplessly, picked a photo, and then handed the phone to me.