Mountain spirits and ghosts, demons and fairies, from a series of books such as the Classic of Mountains and Seas, Liao Zhai and so on, have been described and recorded, sometimes I feel that they are far away from me, and sometimes I feel that they are close to me, because everyone is familiar with the mouths of the older generation when they are young.

So there are often questions, is it true? Or is it fake?

Of course, this cannot be verified. Curiosity and fear are innate traits in every human being, and they are in their genes.

I have been a vegetable and fun-loving child since I was a child, and children in the countryside of northern Jiangsu have done one thing when they were young, catching cicadas, the larvae of cicadas that have just broken the ground, will pass through our pass in the process of climbing from the soil to the trees. After being caught, there are only two kinds of consequences, one is to be eaten by us, and the other is to be eaten by us after being sold. Catching cicadas is generally at 8-9 o'clock in the evening, just after the rain is better, rural summer nights, it is dark, snakes, rats, insects and frogs are running around, and the shadows in the grove are full of flashlights. I just never go with a large army, where I am remote, where there are few people, around the graves, on the edge of the broken house, I don't know what to be afraid of, I just want to catch a little more than others.

It's this feature that makes me remember some of the strangeness in the mouths of adults, so that I can find time to research, of course, children's thinking jumps fast, so I forget it quickly, haha~ But I can vaguely remember a few:

Turtle Monument

I heard this from my grandmother, and she told us about it one morning when she came home from the field. There is a river called Wuhe in my village, which is a branch of the river in Yimeng Mountain, Shandong, and the river water is very clear and clear, and small fish and shrimp are clearly visible. Our village has land in the south, east, west, and west, and so does my house, and the land on the east side is the farthest from the village, and after the five rivers pass through the village, it continues to extend far from the east. The elderly in the countryside work in the fields very early, usually starting at 5 o'clock, and a professional farmer knows the importance of time. This morning, my grandmother started earlier than usual because she had something to do during the day.

At 4 o'clock in the morning, when the rooster first began to crow, she was already in the field, and the sky was still in a hazy state, and the range of the naked eye was only 10 meters. After finishing the preparations, the grandmother carried a bucket to fetch water from the five rivers, which have been stepped out of the road for years with high flood control dikes and a distance of about 10 meters from the bottom of the river. Along with the direction of the river, it also extends downward, and everyone who lives by the river knows that almost everywhere there is a river or a village. Grandma climbed over the embankment and walked down a few cautious steps, when she suddenly noticed a high stone standing on the ground on the bank of the river, shaking from time to time. Just at the usual point of taking water, my grandmother walked straight over, and when the distance was two meters, I was surprised to find that it was actually a stone in the shape of a stone stele, which was not big, about 35~40 cm high and about 10~15 cm thick. Underneath the stele was an A4 paper-sized turtle, which had caused the shaking just now. The turtle was black and dirty, I don't know if it was mud or it was the same color, it stretched its long neck, and it was trying to move into the water, as if it wanted to drink water, and it also seemed to want to climb back into the water, and the stone tablet pressed on its back also caused a lot of pressure on it. Grandma wanted to read the words on the stele, so she unconsciously took a step forward, and the sound of her shoes stepping on the leaves and dirt broke the balance. I saw that the turtle changed its slow motion just now, and "swished" into the water, and the stone tablet also fell to the ground in response, and there was nothing but bursts of water waves on the surface of the water. Grandma went up and turned over the stele, and found that there was no handwriting on the front and back of the stele, and there was nothing else except the lonely stele.

The farm work was in the body, and the grandmother didn't bother too much, so she went as usual. I have also seen stone statues with turtle steles in books or on TV, and the real ones are unheard of, whether what my grandmother saw is true or not, but at that time, the impact on me was still quite great, so that every time I went to the river, I would subconsciously look around, always wanting to find something.

White Flying Snake

In the 90s, there was a huge lack of entertainment for children in the countryside, and I spent most of my time playing with a group of friends. Because everyone is a left-behind child, and their parents are away all the year round, there is no concept of time for children to play together, until the grandparents come back from the farm work to cook and shout, everyone will reluctantly disperse.

I remember one Friday night, because it was the autumn harvest season, and the adults had to work in the fields until they came back late. This gives us a lot of time to play, and to have fun and kill the time waiting. Soon it was dark, and the moonlit night in the countryside was not too dark, and the bright moonlight was scattered in all directions, and the clouds were also faint and faint, and although it was first night, it was like day. At this time, some friends proposed to play Tibetan and Mongolian (hide and seek), and the children in the countryside dared to play this game, where they were remote and where they were hiding in the shadows. Our village is not very large, it is rectangular distribution, one main road is west to east, all the houses are also built along the road, 3~4 rows are built in the back, and then there is a large area of farmland and woods. Therefore, if you play this game, you will run a short distance into the woods and fields, and the people who catch them will usually set up two people. After the proposal was approved, the game began quickly, and everyone scattered to the sound of the countdown. I also quickly ran to the grove, and the reason for choosing the grove is simple: the flowers and plants are deep, easy to hide, and the distance is close. After looking around the terrain, I hid behind a tall grass tree, and hid for about a few minutes, only to hear the sound of someone being caught frolicking not far away, and I secretly rejoiced in my courage and resourcefulness. At this moment, suddenly a white light flashed on the side, and a white shadow floated deep into the grass, driven by curiosity, I stared in the direction of the white shadow, hesitated for a moment, and then quickly followed. After only a few steps, I could see the general shape of the white shadow, which was clearly a snake 🐍, a white snake, and what was even more surprising was that the white snake did not look like a crawl, but flew off the ground. I exclaimed、The little friend who was still looking for people was attracted by my voice,I pointed in the direction of the white snake and shouted loudly, "Look, it's a flying white snake~" Everyone looked in the direction I pointed, only to see the white snake swimming and drilling into a deep grass. I took the lead and chased after it quickly, and when I reached the place, the shadow of the white snake was long gone.

Now I know that the white snake is an albino snake, which is relatively rare, but the skill of flying is really impossible to verify.

villain

Giants and dwarves are often recorded abroad, but few are briefly described in China.

In the past, whenever there was a big market in the countryside, there would be some circuses that went from village to town, doing some performances, including snake girls and bottle people~ all of which were strange performances. I once went in and saw a 40-centimeter-high vase with a human head on the mouth of the vase. Although the villain is in a vase, he can talk to a normal person like a normal person, and he was young at that time and didn't understand the mystery inside, so he was really scared. I heard the adults analyze that it was a disobedient child who was abducted, and then raised in a vase to eat and drink only with a head exposed, and then went to perform to make money when he grew up. After listening to this analysis, we who were naughty followed closely by the adults, for fear that we would also be abducted. Later, however, there was a real villain witness rumor, saying that a peasant woman went to the river to fetch water, and found a child who was drinking water with her neck stretched, so she wanted to go over and ask which child it was. When I walked to the front, I found that it was a small person less than 30 centimeters tall, wearing a strange costume, the peasant woman was frightened and yelled, and the people working around rushed over, and the villain was also frightened and ran away. However, he didn't run far before he was caught and put in a cage, and the villagers immediately called the police, and the villain was taken away by the police.

Later, it was rumored that there was more than one villain, and another farmer along the river found that there was a villain and called the police. At that time, the news of this event was boiling, and curious people went to both sides of the river to join in the fun, wanting to see with their own eyes what the villain was like. It was a really lively time, with groups of people searching along the banks of the river every day. There are also good people in our village who have gone there, I don't know if it was bragging or really witnessing, and one of the people who went with me came back and claimed to have seen it. He said that he searched the bushes on the riverbank with everyone that day, and he walked and walked away from the others, and because he went late, there were many fewer people, and just when he wanted to keep up with the large army quickly, he suddenly noticed that the grass he had just searched shook for a while. He immediately became vigilant and stared at the grass, and after a while, he saw a small head pop out, and then his whole body poked out, sneakily touching the bottom of the river. He shouted, "I found it, come quickly~" The villain did not hesitate to fly to the bottom of the river when he heard the sound, and when everyone arrived, the villain was already gone. After listening to his description, we were all skeptical, after all, he was the only one who saw it.

The one who was taken away by the police was also lost, and as time went on, the anecdote was gradually forgotten.

kook

My aunt told me about this story, something that happened when she was a child.

At that time, there was a commune in the village, and everyone ate a big pot of rice together, and what is memorable in the countryside is the collective river (digging the river). My father would often say that there are more men in the family, and there are more laborers, so there are more jobs. We can't evaluate what kind of lifestyle is worthy of admiration, but each era will have its own specific lifestyle, which may be difficult for us to examine now, but at that time that way is the most suitable.

The site of this incident is still in Wuhe, which is a section of the Five Rivers that flow through our village. In the middle of this section is a stone bridge that was blown up during the war, and the stones used to build the bridge are scattered in the river, forming a road to cross the river by jumping. At one end are the northernmost families of the village, and at the other end is a large bamboo forest with a few mounds in the forest, which is extremely eerie in the evening or at night. But this is also the only way to work in the field, I remember when I was a child, I gathered a dozen friends to explore and fish and steal bamboo shoots, and the heart was more than everything. At that time, my aunt was about 10 years old, and once the village organized collective labor, my aunt did not go with her because she slept too lazy, and she did not see the adults come back until it was dark, and she was afraid of being alone and went along the river bank alone to find the adults in the family. It was dark all the way, and there was a period in the middle of the day and night that was very fast, and it was already dark before I even knew it. When I passed through the broken bridge, it was almost dark, but if I looked closely, I could still see things, and my aunt was more frightened in her heart, and looked around at the adults who wanted to go home early. But it backfired, and she was the only one who was quiet, and the aunt paused for a while, took a deep breath, and rushed forward with her head down. Just as she was about to rush through this section, suddenly a voice came from behind her, not big or small, as if calling her name

"Wuya~ Wuya~ ..."

Because of her young age and poor vigilance, her aunt thought that the adults in the same village were calling her, so she immediately looked back in the direction of the voice. It doesn't matter what I see, my aunt was stunned all of a sudden, and I saw a "person" standing straight in the direction of the voice, how to say it, saying that it was a person because I could see the head and limbs, but I couldn't see the face clearly in the dark. Why do people put quotation marks? Because this man really doesn't know if he can call it a human being, and his head is as wide as his torso with his limbs! From a distance, it looked like a standing cuboid, and it was facing my aunt so directly, and when I saw my aunt turn her face, it didn't make a sound, so it just stood. The extreme fear made my aunt stop moving, forgetting to call for help, and forgetting to run away. I've had the pleasure of feeling this once, but that time I subconsciously ran away, the man and boy I talked about earlier. Fortunately, there was a river between the strange man and his aunt, and the strange man was standing by the bamboo forest at the other end of the broken bridge, and he rushed over without seeing his aunt standing still. Time passed, and my aunt slowly woke up from her fear, and she stared at the strange man, moving forward as she moved, and the strange man moved forward like a shadow. My aunt was desperate、At this moment, there was a sudden sound of a noisy crowd walking and chatting.,It should be the adults who are doing the work have returned.,The aunt secretly breathed a sigh of relief and sat on the ground.。

Soon, the adults found my aunt sitting on the ground, and in confusion, my aunt raised her hand and pointed to the empty other side of the river, and cried. Later, my aunt, who was carried home by my grandfather, had a fever for several days, which is also common in our rural areas, and it is generally referred to as being frightened by unclean things. But the harm is not very great, I was fortunate enough to be scared like this once when I was a child, and then it would be good to take a break. What did my aunt see, I don't know, maybe a ghost? Could it be weird? It could also be a hallucination! But it never really hurt my aunt, maybe it's a species that coexists with us in this world.

Four anecdotes I heard when I was a child have finished talking, and these are the ones I remember more deeply. There are many others, but most of the specific contents are not very clear, such as when I was a child, I saw a small plane flying from my yard, I sent a small snake 🐍 in my small family, and the human bones excavated during the cleaning of our elementary school, etc., the joy of life in the countryside is also here, everyone should be busy during the day, and at night after eating and nothing to get together to chat and tell stories, especially in winter, light a pile of firewood and sit in a circle, while looking at the stars in the sky, while listening to the adults about the parents' short and strange things, it is really pleasant.