I kind of couldn't believe my ears.

So I stammered and asked, "So... Could it be that the cat hid behind the grave, and Granny Yang couldn't see it, so she thought it was the grave that was meowing? Aunt Xu said, when your master heard about this in the morning, he also asked so. Granny Yang said that she also thought so at that time, so she stepped forward to take a look, but found no trace of the cat, so she put her ear to the edge of the grave to listen, and was sure that it was the cat's meow coming from the grave.

This was so surprising that I knew that if Master had heard about it, even if he had never encountered it before, his strong curiosity and thirst for knowledge would have made him immediately agree to help without hesitation. So I asked Aunt Xu, what else did Granny Yang say? Aunt Xu said that she didn't say much else, but when she heard the cat meow, she was so frightened that she sat on the ground, her feet were weak and she couldn't get up, so she sat face to face in front of the three graves and listened to the cat meow all night.

Aunt Xu said that Granny Yang had the strength to go down the mountain after dawn this morning, so she went straight to me to find you. This Granny Yang seems to have been frightened a lot, covered in mud, last night, it is estimated that it was enough for her.

Aunt Xu couldn't provide more information, because she said that after the master heard about it, she immediately agreed to go. Just two or three hours before you get back to the village, you're leaving.

Since it took me about two hours to come back from Tianjia Village, and after I took care of the affairs of the Tian family, it was actually close to noon, and when I arrived at Aunt Xu's house, it was already about two o'clock in the afternoon. That means that the master left at lunchtime, and Aunt Xu said that Granny Yang was the master who came to find her this morning, so I was basically able to calculate that there was at least an hour's journey from Aunt Xu's house to Granny Yang's house.

So I hurriedly asked Aunt Xu, where is Granny Yang's house, I am going to find my master. Aunt Xu said, just five miles from the grave of your master, there is only one small road there, if you go there, you will not find the wrong way. The only house you see on the edge of the farmland when you walk to the back mountain is Granny Yang's house.

So I quickly drank a large glass of water, immediately put on the satchel I had just brought back and had not had time to organize, and went out.

In the past, I came to Houshan very rarely, but when Master first took me to the village for refuge, he went to worship once during the Winter Clothes Festival, and both times Master took me with him, and we always had to sit by the grave and chat, and listen to Master tell some stories about my master, as well as the stories of Master's brothers. Although my master had several apprentices, my master was the one who accompanied him to the end, and he was the only one who came back every year to worship.

Therefore, I yearn for my master's skills, and I also have respect for him. So when I passed by the grave of my master, I still had to respectfully kowtow to the pillar incense. The master is no longer young, and since Granny Yang is a mother-in-law, her legs and feet must not be so sharp. I am a young man, the foot is relatively fast, and I was already walking very quickly, when I found the only path to Granny Yang's house, I rushed all the way, five miles away, I arrived quickly.

When I saw that room, it seemed to be relatively poor, because there were only one or two lonely rooms, and it was impossible to tell if one of the rooms was still a thatched house. Except for the doorstone, which is a small step paved with stones, everything else is dirt. The walls of the room look white, but the red mud lining is still exposed under the mottling. So it was a mud-walled house, and the roof was like most other rural houses, with a few wooden beams and tiles on the top, and a dark green wooden door on the side of the wall, and a cast iron sign nailed to the wall on one side of the door.

The sign has a shining five-pointed star with four words written in revolutionary script - "Glorious Martyrs". So I was sure that I was not wrong, and when I saw that the door was open, it meant that there was someone in the house. Aunt Xu said that Granny Yang lived alone, so the door was open now, indicating that the master was also in the house.

According to what I know about Master, I have calculated the footsteps of the two of them on the way, and it should have been less than an hour before I returned to this house. I pushed open the door and went in, and saw Master and a short old woman in a blue cloth jacket sitting face to face around a brazier, and Master was a little surprised to see me coming, so he asked me why are you here? I said that Aunt Xu told me about it, tell me that you are here, and I will come.

Master nodded and said, "It's okay to come, you can still help." So I said to the old woman, you are Granny Yang, right? I am Master Lin's apprentice. Granny Yang smiled and said, Young man, I know who you are, and I am looking for you today. Although she was smiling, she still looked frightened. This old woman is about seventy years old, she can live alone in the mountains, farm and eat by herself, and has experienced ups and downs all her life, although I don't know if she lost her father at a young age, but at least she lost her husband and son in middle age, and she has experienced two of the three major tragedies in her life, and she can live for such a long time, so she must be relatively strong in her heart. And it was such a powerful rural woman who was so frightened that she had to find someone to help.

Master said to me, did Aunt Xu tell you about the situation here? I nodded and said I had told some, but she didn't know the specifics. Master said, "That's right, I was about to start investigating things, and I just happened to tell you some of the contents when you came."

It turned out that on the way back to this room between Master and Granny Yang, Granny Yang also told Master a little bit of other information, saying that in the past six months or so, she has often encountered some strange things, but the people in the mountains are rough, and she has never considered such a direction as superstition of ghosts and gods, and she forgot about it in her heart as soon as the matter passed. It was only last night that she was so frightened that she sat in front of the grave for a night against the cold winter night wind, and then she recalled those strange things, and the more she thought about it, the more she felt that something was wrong, and she felt that these things were related.

Master said that since about half a year ago, Granny Yang's house often heard some strange noises at night, at first she always thought that her old cat was catching mice, but then the movement began to gradually become a little bigger, sometimes when she got up in the morning, she found that the stools had fallen to the ground, and the electric lights often began to flicker on and off, but the lights were fine. Sometimes when I sleep in bed, I can hear the sound of intervals on the roof tiles, and I feel that something is walking on it, and another time, the roof tiles are directly missing, if it is falling, it should start to fall from the side, and there should be broken tiles on the ground, but I can't find anything.

So Granny Yang blamed all these movements on her old cat, thinking that the old cat had knocked over the chair, that the old cat had scratched the wire, that the old cat had run on the roof, and that the old cat had lifted off the roof tiles.

But since then, these things have happened more and more frequently, and even things that can't be done by cats have happened. For example, when I went to bed the first night, I turned off the lights outside the house, but when I woke up the next morning, I found that the lights were on. Another example is the wall calendar hanging on the side of the dining table at home, sometimes I forget to tear up today's day, but the next day I find that the calendar is torn, but I don't have the impression that I tore it off.

When Master said this, his eyes looked at the wall on one side of the room, and I followed his gaze and saw a small iron nail nailed to the wall, and on top of it hung a calendar that tore one page a day. The date of the stay above happens to be today. So I asked Granny Yang, do you have the habit of tearing up calendars on weekdays? Sometimes, once a person's habit lasts for many years, it gradually becomes a natural behavior, and they are not very impressed by what they do or don't do.

Granny Yang said that she does have such a habit, this person is old, and she knows that she doesn't have much time, and every time she tears off a page, she earns another day, which is already enough. But a few months ago, I had a heat stroke and didn't move much, so I slept in bed for two days, and I was groggy for those two days, and I basically never left the room, so I naturally forgot to tear up the calendar. I'm actually skeptical about this, because even if you're drowsy, people always have to eat and drink Lazar, and when you pass by the calendar, you might tear it up. The habit that has been cultivated over the years has gradually become part of the activity, as if we keep blinking when we are awake, but at the end of the day, we blink our eyes countless times, can we really remember it deliberately?

I put my thoughts out there, because Master is here, and I'm not afraid to say something wrong. The master nodded, indicating that there was indeed such a possibility, but Granny Yang said, "Well, even if I tear it off every day, then where do I lose it?" I also have a habit of throwing it into the firewood room, and these papers can be used as a fire primer when the fire is lit, but I once found that I did not remember that I had torn up the calendar, but the date of the calendar coincided with the day, and I did not find the day that I tore off in the firewood room.

Granny Yang sighed and said, I think I'm old, I'm starting to get confused, I didn't take it to heart at all, if it wasn't for last night's experience, I might never think about those things again for the rest of my life, thinking about it before and after, I always feel that there is a feeling of being weird everywhere.

It is true that people sometimes encounter a puzzled thing, and after that, every slightly strange thing will involuntarily think about these aspects. So I asked Granny Yang, apart from these speculations, have you actually seen some things, or more specific things?

Granny Yang thought about it and said, I dreamed of my wife who had been dead for many years, does this count?