"It's just a casual question." Jiang Yu's tone was very light, as if he was asking it seriously, but also as if he didn't take the other person seriously.
Li Daoxuan picked up the porcelain cup and said, "Everyone will be busy with work tomorrow, so we won't drink anymore. Now I'll use tea instead of wine to welcome you two."
Don't hit a smiling person, especially when the other person's smile is almost perfect.
Jiang Yu and the other two picked up their teacups and gently touched them with Li Daoxuan's. The porcelain cups collided, making a crisp sound, making the dining table particularly quiet.
The village chief was used to dealing with people on a daily basis, so he could easily notice that the atmosphere between the two groups was not right.
It looked like they had a cooperative relationship, but in fact they were very distant. He kept hearing "sir" all the time, which made his back stiff. He always felt as if the table would be overturned at any time.
In order to prevent the illusion from coming true, after everyone finished toasting, the village chief hurriedly said with a smile: "Work is more important, I won't urge you to drink, everyone, eat your food, eat your food."
The biggest feature of farm meals is that they are organic and natural, completely different from the greenhouse vegetables sold in city markets.
Chen Ling had a very satisfying meal that night. Seeing that everyone had almost finished their meal, he took the initiative to stand up and help the village chief's wife clean up the dishes.
Jiang Yu stood up to help and went into the kitchen. Chen Ling asked him in a low voice: "How do you know he has been to Yuhe Mountain?"
"I asked someone in the underworld to look up his life history..."
"You were the one who authorized someone to check, right?" Chen Ling couldn't free his hands, so he raised his elbow and rubbed the man's arm in an ambiguous way.
Jiang Yu glanced at him and did not deny it. "His biography shows that he did go to Yuhe Mountain twenty years ago."
Chen Ling nodded: "But he is smart and didn't lie."
Even if you don't go to the underworld to check the life stories of the living, if you spend a little more effort, you can send someone to find out in the world of the living.
After all, both Qingxuan Temple and the Special Investigation Department are well-known, and they keep records of every person sent out on a mission.
After putting down his bowl and chopsticks, Chen Ling drove Jiang Yu out and stayed to wash the dishes himself.
"Little brother, how can I let you do this? Put it down, I'll do it." Cuifen walked in and saw the young man had rolled up his sleeves and started working, so she hurried out to stop him.
"It's okay. Helping with the work can help me digest my food." Chen Ling put the washed bowls on the stove. The white tiles were clean without any oil stains.
Looking at other places, they were also clean and tidy, with no mess at all after cooking.
"Auntie, do you usually clean the stove first after cooking?" Chen Ling stacked the washed bowls together, but felt that the cleaning effect was not good, so he put a lot of detergent in.
Just slide your finger inside a few times and bubbles will come out.
The young man's white hands were already stained with oil. Cuifen swallowed back her words to chase him away. "Well, I'm used to cleaning up after cooking to avoid making everything dirty."
Chen Ling nodded and said casually, "Oh, by the way, the old couple in the village who just died are having a funeral. You should go and help them."
"You, how do you know?" Cuifen was surprised.
"I smelled the scent of paper money on you before." Chen Ling pretended to be curious and asked in a low voice, "Auntie, is the water in our village really that powerful?"
"What's the big deal?" Cuifen pushed her hair behind her ears and turned sideways, facing the young man.
Chen Ling automatically blocked the other party's attitude of not wanting to talk more and continued, "When we first arrived in town, we found a place to have some breakfast and accidentally heard the uncle who shared the table mentioned it. He said that the lake water in our Blue Lake Village is very special and can help people get rid of pain."
Cuifen suddenly turned around, her gentle eyes became sharp: "It is true that there is such a thing, and my husband should have told you about it. But brother Chen, my husband and I have a different attitude. I don't think it is a good thing."
She paused, her voice heavy: "If possible, I hope you won't delve too much into it."
Chen Ling tilted his head and looked at her, confused: "The village chief did tell us. Auntie, excuse me, why do you have an opposite attitude to the village chief?"
Cuifen sighed and whispered about the incident of someone drowning in the water in the past.
"People have drowned in that lake more than once. It was only after that accident ten years ago that people were completely banned from fetching water from the lake."
"I remember that the weather was very hot, and four children, about 12 or 13 years old, took off their clothes and went swimming. But somehow, none of them came up. I heard from my older brother who happened to be on a nearby mountain and witnessed the drowning of several people that the children were fine at first, but when they were about to reach the middle of the lake, they all suddenly sank, as if... as if they were dragged under by something..."
Cuifen's eyes flashed with fear, and her hand holding the rag trembled a few times. "How can a place where people drown be a good place? Yes, I admit that drinking the water can indeed relieve people's pain, but if you connect the two things and think about it carefully, it will feel very weird."
Chen Ling stared at the other person's face seriously. The woman was very nervous and full of rejection of Lan Hu.
Cuifen took a breath and lowered her voice a few degrees: "Little brother, I'm not afraid of you laughing at me, but I'm quite superstitious. Yes, I admit that those old people died with smiles on their faces, which makes people feel that they passed away peacefully. But if you look at it for too long, it will become creepy."
Chen Ling remembered the smiling face of the old lady of the Yuan family.
It may seem okay at first glance, but if you maintain the same arc of smile all the time, it will give people a rigid and weird feeling.
He asked: "Those two old people who just passed away..."
"I went to see, and saw the same smile." Cuifen rinsed the rag under the tap twice, looked up and said, "I was going to continue helping them today, but I was really scared. Every time I passed by a coffin, I couldn't help but look through the gap in the coffin to see who was inside. I always felt like they would jump up at any moment!"
"What nonsense are you talking about!" The village chief's voice suddenly rang out from the kitchen door.
He was holding a pile of bones from the dinner table wrapped in newspaper and glaring at his wife with a fierce look on his face.
Chen Ling smiled and spoke for Cuifen: "I just want to chat with Auntie casually."
The village chief was unhappy and said, "Little brother, don't listen to her nonsense. She loves to fantasize. She once told me that she saw a ghost by the lake. If this happened decades ago, it would be feudal superstition and she would be arrested."
"Ghost?" Chen Ling looked at the village chief.
The village chief actually didn't believe in ghosts and gods: "That thing is just a lie. If there really are ghosts, how come I haven't seen them before?"
Chen Ling nodded and continued to wash.
Seeing that the other party had no intention of speaking, the village chief touched his nose in dismay and turned to look at his wife: "Go get some fruit."
"Okay." Cuifen was used to working hard and her hands and feet were very quick. She quickly took out the fruit from under the cabinet, peeled and cut it, and brought it out.
She smiled and said, "Eat some fruit to help digestion."
Wu Weiwei spotted the most beautiful peach with his sharp eyes, reached out to take it, opened his mouth and took a bite. It was sweet and juicy, with a rich fruity aroma, which instantly relieved the greasiness that was still squeezed in the esophagus.
Seeing the woman was about to leave, he hopped on one leg and followed her into the kitchen.
"Why are you here?" Chen Ling put the washed dishes into the cupboard and pointed to the small stool in front of the stove. "Sit down."
Wu Weiwei bit a peach and complained, "It's so boring outside. The three of us are getting more silent than each other."
There was a tense feeling that made people feel uncomfortable.
Chen Ling asked: "What's Jiang's reaction?"
"What kind of reaction can he have? He hasn't said a word since you entered the kitchen. The village chief couldn't continue talking after a few awkward words." He shook the peach in his hand. "So, I asked Aunt Cuifen to bring out some fruit to ease the atmosphere."
Chen Ling leaned back and looked outside.
I could sense the tense atmosphere even from such a distance.
The village chief, an ordinary person, is really suffering because he is sandwiched between three extraordinary people.
He didn't want to get involved in what was happening outside for the time being. Right now, Chen Ling was more concerned about another thing: "Auntie."
Cuifen was busy pouring two dishes together. When she heard this, she looked up and said, "What's wrong?"
"I want to ask, the village chief just said that you have seen a ghost by the lake before." Chen Ling's eyes were very bright under the light, as if he believed the village chief's casual words.
Cuifen was stunned for a moment, and asked in a low voice: "Do you believe it?"
"Believe it." Chen Ling said, "There are all kinds of things in this world. Just because you haven't seen them doesn't mean they don't exist."
The time when Cuifen first saw the ghost happened to be when she had just recovered from a serious illness and was in the worst health. The old people said that people's yang energy is very low at that time, so they must not walk at night.
One day, she came back from a follow-up visit at the county hospital. Because of a recent heavy rain, the road was very difficult to travel on.
By the time she arrived at Blue Lake Village, it was already dark and everything she saw with her naked eyes seemed to be covered with a layer of mist and was not clear.
She was weak at the time and her husband had been called to a meeting in town and had not returned. Even though she was scared, she still mustered up her courage and walked bravely across the field step by step towards home.
This guy, when he's unlucky, even drinking water will get stuck in his teeth.
Only when she took a shortcut did she realize that the path had been washed away by heavy rain.
She was tired, hungry and scared, and just wanted to get home quickly and have a good rest, so she chose a road next to the Blue Lake.
When the lake water was still used for domestic purposes, the village organized everyone to pave stone slabs on the path for safety and convenience in carrying water, making it flat and spacious.
As soon as Cuifen stepped onto the stone road, she began to feel inexplicably uneasy.
Boom, boom, boom, her heart pounded against her chest, making her feel uncomfortable and her vision went dark.
In desperation, she bent over and sat down on a stone nearby, wanting to wait and see. If she could meet a neighbor, she would ask him to help her.
In the end, I didn't meet the neighbor, but I met a child.
The child was probably about five or six years old, thin, with two small pigtails on his head.
She was naked on the top and only had on a pair of barely visible color panties on the bottom.
The little girl was covered in black mud from her face to her body, emitting a strong earthy smell. She appeared on Cuifen's right hand side without her noticing, staring at her with her dark eyes.
When Cuifen found her, she was startled and almost screamed, covering her chest.
My heart, which was already feeling uncomfortable, felt even worse.
She patted her chest, took a few deep breaths, and said to the little girl, "When did you come? You scared me."
The little girl didn't say anything, but just stared at people quietly.
It was already completely dark. Cuifen was so nervous being stared at that she stuttered when she spoke again: "Whose child are you? Your face is so scratched that I can't recognize you."
The little girl grinned and called out sweetly, "Aunt Cuifen."
Cuifen was stunned and thought that this was just an acquaintance.
Di Xin did not relax her vigilance. She looked around and found that for some reason, the shadows of the trees around her became increasingly blurred, as if they were about to merge with the dark sky.
Cuifen swallowed and stood up slowly: "Little sister, Auntie has to go home, you should go back as well."
The little girl stopped talking again.
The drum in Cuifen's heart started beating again, boom, boom, boom, boom. Her heartbeat became faster and faster, and she quickened her pace towards home.
"Aunt Cuifen." The sweet voice sounded again.
Cuifen almost stumbled and fell into the lake.
She turned around suddenly, and the little girl was standing behind her. She looked up and grinned at her again: "Aunt Cuifen, can you carry me home? My feet hurt."
Cuifen looked down along the other person's muddy legs. The flashlight allowed her to see a bruise just above the other person's slender ankle.
The bruises were circular in shape, wrapping around her legs, probably caused by something like a rope.
Cuifen felt compassion, but she still had some sense and did not agree on the spot.
She clenched her fists hanging by her legs, trying not to let her voice tremble: "Whose child are you from? Aunt Cuifen is not feeling well today. OK, I'll call your parents and ask them to pick you up, okay?"
"Aunt Cuifen, please carry me home." The little girl was like a tape recorder and could not say anything else except this.
Cuifen's heart suddenly rose to her throat. Who would appear so suddenly, and who would be so persistent in following her home after appearing? Her breathing became rapid and flustered. Before her brain could react, she had already run forward.
"Carry me home."
"Carry me home."
"Aunt Cuifen, Aunt Cuifen..."
"Don't you want to carry me home?"
The sweet child's voice became distorted and sharp in the end, following her like a shadow, making Cuifen panic.
But what frightened her most was that the road under her feet seemed to have no end.
She didn't know how long it had been when she suddenly heard the sound of dog barking nearby. The barking came from far away and then got closer, until a black dog rushed out from the bushes, stood at her feet and barked at her from behind.
At that moment, Cuifen suddenly realized that it was still getting dark.
The place where she was now was a hundred meters away from where she had rested, but she was facing the opposite direction instead of home.
If she guessed correctly, she had just encountered a ghost wall and had been walking back and forth in the same place.
If it weren't for the appearance of this big black dog, she might have slipped and fallen into the lake, or even been scared to death.
It’s been a long time since the past happened, but Cuifen still feels numb on her scalp when she thinks about it again.
Seeing her fear, Chen Ling comforted her: "It's all in the past. The little girl didn't show up later, which means she has been reincarnated a long time ago."
"That little girl... is... the daughter of Shen Deping from the village." Cuifen touched her arm covered with goose bumps and said softly, "When I was almost home that day, someone was walking past my house in a hurry carrying something, so I casually asked where they were going."
"They said that Shen Deping's little girl was drowned and was just fished out from the bottom of the Blue Lake this afternoon. We went over to help prepare for the funeral."
"My heart skipped a beat, and I remembered the little girl I met by the lake. I immediately rushed home, took some medicine, and calmed down. I bravely went to Shen Deping's house, and when I entered the door, I saw a body covered in black mud..."
"Fuck!" Wu Weiwei was so excited that he knocked his teeth while biting a peach.
He apologized, wiped his mouth, and felt a little nervous. "Aunt Cuifen, what next?"
"My daughter had just died, and I didn't know whether I should tell my husband about the ghost story, so I went back to discuss it with him." Cuifen smiled bitterly, "You saw it too, he didn't believe it at all, and he said I was too superstitious."
Chen Ling found it funny: "But the village chief also said that drinking the blue lake water can relieve the regrets of dying people. This can also be considered superstition."
Cuifen curled her lips and said, "Ever since I became the village chief, I've been reading Mao Zedong Thought all day long, and I'm becoming less and less convinced of superstition."
"To the outside world, he agreed with the villagers that the blue lake water was a gift from God, but then he turned around and said that they didn't understand science, saying that there must be special substances in the water that cannot be detected by current scientific methods."
At this point, Aunt Cuifen shook her head helplessly, "I listened to him at the time and didn't tell anyone about it. I just went over to help prepare for the funeral and burned some extra paper."
"After that, I actually saw the little girl from Shen Deping's family once more. It was about half a month later. She was floating by the lake like a shadow." As she spoke, her tone suddenly became relaxed: "After that, she may have disappeared. I never saw her again."
Wu Weiwei asked curiously: "Aunt Cuifen, aren't you afraid?"
"I was really scared when I first met him, but gradually I got better." She smiled, "If you don't do bad things, you don't have to worry about ghosts knocking on your door."
This story has been lingering in Chen Ling's mind.
From Cuifen's description, we can conclude that the little girl, like Shen Dazhuang's father, did not reincarnate after her death, but kept wandering around the village.
What made them become ghosts and stay? Was it because they all drank the water from the Blue Lake
And the four half-grown children who were drowned at the same time, what on earth held them back, preventing any of them from escaping...
While thinking, I unknowingly arrived at Shen Dazhuang's small building.
Wu Weiwei pointed to his feet and said, "My feet are not convenient, so I live on the first floor."
There are only three beds in Shen Dazhuang's house. One is on the ground floor, probably for an elderly person with mobility problems, and the other two are in two bedrooms on the second floor.
Wu Weiwei chose the first floor, and Chen Ling directly pulled the old man up to the second floor.
Push the door open and you can see the whole picture at a glance.
There was a double bed that had just been made in the evening, a bedside table without a mirror, and a chair.
This room was cleaned by Jiang Yu. There were two pillows on the bed, covered with a mandarin duck pillowcase made of an old-fashioned towel texture. On the bed sheet underneath, there was a large dark red peony blooming.
Chen Ling sat on the edge of the petals of the big peony, his legs dangling over the edge of the bed, "Brother Jiang, do we still need to fetch water for washing?"
Jiang Yu was silent for a moment: "I'll go."
How could Chen Ling let her man go to fetch water alone? She quickly got out of bed and put on her shoes again, "I'll go with you."
Wu Weiwei was also worried about washing. He was thinking that if the two people upstairs were too lazy to do anything, he would not wash tonight. It would not hurt to get dirty all night.
Just as I sat down on the bed and was about to apply the plaster on myself, I heard footsteps on the stairs next to me.
Soon, Chen Ling knocked on the door: "Let's go fetch some water for washing. You stay here quietly. I'll bring it in when the water is ready."
Wu Weiwei looked grateful: "Brother Chen, you are so considerate."
As soon as he finished speaking, he felt a cold gaze piercing his forehead. Wu Weiwei shuddered and quickly added: "Brother Jiang is so lucky to marry you."
Why marrying? You should say that you are marrying me!
The skin on Chen Ling's ears and neck turned red inch by inch, and he cursed in a weak voice: "Get lost!"