Chapter 1 The Dead at the Wedding Banquet
Many people should have seen a movie called "Blind Mountain".
The heroine in this movie is a woman who was abducted and trafficked into the mountains and forests. She tried her best to escape, but she was always captured again and again when she was about to succeed in the end.
Some people may think that this is necessary for plot design.
But in my opinion, this movie is truly terrifying, and it reminds me of an incident many years ago.
That was a trafficked girl who had no intention of dying because of me...
To start from the beginning, I have to talk about my hometown, Wantangou.
Bentiangou was barren and backward, and the surrounding land yielded little from anything, so those with a little bit of ability chose to escape from this place.
My father is one of them. When he was young, he learned the craft from an old carpenter for half his life. After he gave birth to me, he opened a coffin shop in the city.
Although this industry is not very flattering to say, it actually makes a lot of money. After all, few people will bargain when buying coffins.
My ordinary life lasted for a long time. One day when I was in high school, my father received a letter.
The letter was sent from my hometown, saying that the village chief's son was getting married and invited us back to have a dinner.
My father seemed to have expected this, so he quickly packed it up and took me back that day.
Wantangou is far away from the county seat, and it took us two full days to get back to the village.
At the village chief's house, my father received a very warm reception. The village chief took the initiative to get him to drink and even asked us to stay here.
After eating and drinking for a while, I felt the urge to urinate, so I sneaked to the latrine to pee.
As soon as I took out the bird and before I could pose it, I suddenly smelled an unusual smell of blood.
There was only a fence between the latrines and the pig pens in the countryside. At first I thought something had happened to the pigs, but when I looked up, I was almost scared to death.
There is a woman in that pigsty!
She didn't have any clothes on her body, she just lay naked on the pigweed, only her head was covered with a red hijab.
Her originally attractive body was covered with scars from beatings, covered with blood and bruises, and she looked extremely miserable.
I took a cautious look at her and realized that this woman actually dyed her hair, which was still orange-red. She was obviously different from the rough women in the village. She seemed to be a city girl.
When I looked at her, this woman seemed to have noticed me.
Her eyes full of despair suddenly lit up, and she didn't know where she got the strength to crawl towards me using her hands and feet, and she weakly begged: "Help... help!"
I had never seen such a battle before, and I subconsciously took a step back in fear.
It was at this moment that a roar suddenly came from behind.
"Xu Yaomao, what are you looking at!"
A strong village woman rushed over and pushed the naked woman into the pig pen in front of me.
She then glared at me fiercely: "Eat your food, or I'll beat you to death if you wander around again!"
I felt a little guilty. This shrew was the village chief's daughter-in-law and had a very hot temper. She might really dare to hit me.
"My name is Xu Dezhi, not Xu Yaomao!"
I ran back and shouted something.
Xu Yaomao is my nickname. I originally had several older brothers, but they all died before they were a month old. People in the village said this was because my father had done evil things in the past and retaliated with retaliation.
My father was noncommittal and only told me that he spent a lot of money to keep me.
I ran all the way back to the yard, grabbed my dad and told him what had happened.
After hearing this, he was silent for a while, and then he whispered to me: "Just pretend you didn't see this. I will take you back after the wedding ceremony."
I was stunned for a moment: "Dad, what is happiness?"
He didn't answer me at first, but then maybe he thought I was annoyed, so he said perfunctorily that it was a good thing anyway, having a big sister in the city to hug me.
He also said that he owed the village chief's family a favor for this and asked me not to cause trouble for him.
I felt chilled after hearing this, why is it still related to me?
The wedding banquet was held until dark, but I lost my appetite. Lying on the wooden bed in the guest room, I kept hesitating whether to call the police.
I actually wanted to save people, but I was also afraid that my father would be involved. What if the police came and took my father away too?
After worrying for a long time, I drifted off to sleep.
As a result, I didn't sleep for long when I was woken up by a high-pitched scream.
"It's dead! It's dead!"
The yard suddenly became chaotic, with footsteps and noises everywhere.
I couldn't sleep anymore, so I got up and ran into the yard with a large group of people.
I rushed in and took a look. I was so scared that I didn't pee!
The woman I saw in the pig pen yesterday was lying motionless by the well at the moment.
She committed suicide, with ropes tied around her body, and a hole as big as a bowl on her head. Her blood mixed with blood flowed down, dyeing her whole body scarlet.
Her originally pretty face was completely ruined. The eyebrow bone on the left side and the bridge of her nose collapsed together, and there were pits on it, as if it had been hit countless times.
The hair on my head stood on end when I saw it - what kind of despair and resentment is this, which can make a person so cruel that he can knock himself to death...
Thinking of this, I feel horrified.
The village chief also rushed over at this time. His face was a little ugly. After driving away the villagers who were watching the fun, he stood in the yard without saying a word.
The village chief's wife was not afraid at all. Instead, she kept yelling, saying that tens of thousands of dollars were wasted and people would die if she was left unattended for one night.
Perhaps the word money irritated the village chief. He came to his senses, stared at my father and said, "Carpenter Xu, this is all the fault of the youngest in your family. You have to pay for it."
As soon as he finished speaking, several young men in his family surrounded my father.
My father blew out the cigarette in his mouth, glanced at the village chief, and said, "I'll pay the money, but I won't care about that anymore."
The village chief didn't hesitate at all: "Just give me the money, and you don't need to get involved in the rest."
"Okay, I'll go back and get the money."
My father didn't talk nonsense. He told me to stay here for the next few days and left the village.
In the following days, I was sent to live in a side house by the village chief’s wife.
There were women's clothes everywhere in this room, including two sets of foreign brands. I knew without guessing that the woman who had just died must have lived here before.
I couldn't help but have some random thoughts. Every night, I always felt that the room was extremely cold, and I couldn't sleep well for several days.
If this were an ordinary person, they would be scared out of their wits. Fortunately, my family sells coffins, so I have seen a lot of these things. Otherwise, I really don’t know if I would be scared out of my mind.
Three days have passed and my father has not come back yet.
These days, there are always different people coming to the village chief. They all look very panicked, and many of them even quarrel with the village chief.
A few days passed and I still didn't see my dad.
As time went by, the attitude of the village chief's family towards me became less good. They often muttered that my father had run away and looked at me less friendly.
I couldn't hold it in any longer and asked the village chief about my father's whereabouts.
The village chief didn't answer me. Instead, he scolded my father for not being a good person. He also said that if it weren't for him, things wouldn't be like this.
I couldn't help but retort: "It was obviously you who killed her, what does it have to do with my father!"
"You know a hammer."
The village chief snorted coldly, glanced at me, and suddenly showed a strange smile: "Xu Yaomao, do you know where that woman is now?"
I was so frightened by his expression that I stammered: "Where are you?"
"Under the willow trees on the mountain."
The village chief looked at me meaningfully: "Maybe you will see her soon."
I didn't understand what he meant, I just thought he was threatening me, and I didn't dare to talk nonsense.
I haven't eaten much this day, and I've been feeling uneasy, always feeling that something is going to happen.
At night, this feeling became more intense. It made it difficult for me to fall asleep for a long time.
I don't know how long I was tossing and turning, but I vaguely heard the sound of footsteps.
Snap, snap.
The sound was very soft, as if coming from far away, and there was a long interval between each sound. It was a bit unlike the sound of normal people walking around.
...can't it be a ghost?
I don't know why this idea came to me, and my heart was pounding wildly.
After a while, I suddenly felt the footsteps getting closer and closer to me.
I didn't dare to sleep anymore, so I got up and hid behind the window to look outside.
Soon, I saw the village chief's wife coming out of the building.
She walked to the yard with a very weird posture, as if she was lame, her steps were heavy and then light, and she was giggling as she walked.
This scene almost made me wet my pants. This woman’s smile was so terrifying!
Her mouth was grinning to the edge of her ears, saliva was dripping down, her eyes were dazed, and she never blinked!
Pat. Pat…
She kept circling around the well in the yard, walking for almost seven or eight minutes, and then suddenly stopped, like a robot that had run out of power, and stopped in place.
I breathed a sigh of relief and wanted to leave the window.
As a result, at this moment, she suddenly turned her head!
Chapter completed!