With Ji Lianyun's words, Han Ankang and Lin Guijing continued to guard the mourning hall, while Lin Yun and Tang Ning went to knock on the villagers' doors late at night.
When Lin Yun knocked on the door at first, there was no sound in the room for a long time, as if it was an empty house. Lin Yun turned around and looked at Ji Lianyun.
Ji Lianyun was still lazily lying on top of Tang Ning, seemingly not interested in anything else but every part of her body. From time to time, he would bury his face in Tang Ning's neck and take a deep breath in ecstasy.
Tang Ning felt so itchy that he used his elbow to nudge Ji Lianyun. Ji Lianyun smiled and said, "Stop it!" Then he continued to sniff Tang Ning's scent obsessively. Tang Ning was so obsessed that he even suspected that Ji Lianyun wanted to lick his neck.
—Who is making such a fuss
Tang Ning frowned, and suddenly remembered that every time he went to pet a cat, he would turn the soft and warm Kai Xin over and bury his face in its snow-white belly. If Kai Xin's hind paws twitched and wanted to struggle, he would dazedly yell at Kai Xin to stop making trouble.
Oh, if Kai Xin made a coquettish meow at this time, even though he knew that the meow was a scolding to him, he would instead become even more intoxicated.
I even hope to scream out louder out of joy.
"If this one is closed, should we go to another one?" Lin Yun asked.
The tears at the corners of Tangning's eyes had not yet dried, and his cheeks were already slightly red from embarrassment. He secretly stepped on Ji Lianyun's toes, and Ji Lianyun then raised his head with a condescending look. His cold gaze passed over Lin Yun and fell on the tightly closed wooden door. He calmly said, "Kick the door open."
Lin Yun was already feeling a surge of frustration in his heart. Although his expression was calm, he exerted no strength on his feet and kicked the locked wooden door open with a bang.
The room was dark.
Lin Yun turned on the flashlight and saw a skinny and hunchbacked old woman sitting at the head of the bed, holding an equally skinny baby in her arms. Both pairs of eyes were exposed to the dazzling flashlight.
The old woman and the baby in her arms didn't even blink under the strong light, and there was an indescribable weirdness between the old and the young.
Tang Ning took a small step back and shrank into Ji Lianyun's arms.
The old woman was still holding the baby in her arms. She was wearing dirty clothes and sitting on the dirt-covered bed. She had a cold expression and gloomy eyes. There was nothing for the baby to eat in the house, so it was no wonder that the baby in her arms was so thin that only skin and bones were visible.
"We have something we want to know from you." Lin Yun said.
As Lin Yun spoke, the baby in the old woman's arms rolled his eyes, stared at Lin Yun, and made a sucking motion with his mouth.
The old woman silently put her skinny fingers into the baby's mouth. Tang Ning saw that everything else on the old woman's body was dirty except her ten fingers, which were so clean that they were pale and looked as if they had been soaked in some liquid, with the skin and flesh almost separated.
"Excuse me, do you know an old lady who likes to listen to operas? She can sing the Henan opera "Mulan"?" Lin Yun did not describe the appearance of the ghost lady, because after Tang Ning came out of the illusion, she could not remember what the ghost lady looked like. She only remembered that the other party had an unpleasant voice.
The old woman still stared at Lin Yun silently, her aged face looking particularly eerie under the white light.
Lin Yun also fell silent.
The only sound in the old house was the sound of a baby sucking his fingers. Then, Ji Lianyun, who had been leaning on Tang Ning, suddenly coughed slightly.
The sound of his cough was very light, but the baby who had been sucking his fingers hard suddenly stopped, closed his eyes as if he was sleepy, and curled up in the old woman's arms, not making a single sound.
The old woman who had been silent all this time hugged the baby in her arms and said in a dry voice, as if she had not spoken for a long time: "I don't know anyone who likes to listen to opera, but there is an old woman whose daughter likes to sing this."
"Daughter?" Lin Yun frowned, thought for a moment and asked, "Did the old woman you mentioned only give birth to a daughter?"
"She also gave birth to a son named Wang Si, who hanged himself."
Tangning's eyes widened. Was Wang Si the uncle who hanged himself? Was the ghost lady and Uncle Wang mother and son?!
Tang Ning was a little unsure at first, but as the old woman in front of him recounted what happened that year bit by bit, Tang Ning was certain that the old woman she was talking about was the ghost woman.
It turns out that the ghost lady's husband died early, leaving behind a son and a daughter. Uncle Wang is the ghost lady's son. The ghost lady treats Uncle Wang very well and has spoiled her only son since he was a child. She doesn't treat her daughter as well as her son. It's probably a pot of rice, Uncle Wang eats, and the ghost lady and her daughter drink soup together.
The ghost grandma's daughter was very beautiful, with a good face and figure. She joined a drama troupe and planned to learn opera. She studied very hard and gave all the money she earned to the ghost grandma. She often sang opera for the ghost grandma in the dilapidated old house. Her favorite song was "How are these women inferior to boys?" After singing, she would lie on the ghost grandma's lap and ask with a smile, "Mom, do I sing well?"
I think it should be very nice to hear, because the ghost grandma's daughter is said to be going out and joining a bigger and better troupe in the future.
At this point, maybe it was because of Ji Lianyun's presence, the baby curled up in the old woman's arms suddenly babbled, and the old woman quickly put her finger into the baby's mouth. The baby sucked very hard, and the old woman's voice became painful. She continued to tell the rest of the story.
In a village far away from here, there was an old bachelor who wanted to marry the daughter of a ghost woman. He offered a large betrothal gift. In this remote village, every marriage required a large sum of money. Especially when the son was not doing well, the ghost woman sold her daughter regardless of whether she was willing or not, and used the betrothal gift from her daughter to build a new house for her son.
It is said that the old bachelor did not allow the ghost granny's daughter to sing opera, and would not allow her to sing a word. He would often beat her daughter, and the daughter died for some reason. After the daughter died, the ghost granny also fell ill. Some people said that it was the daughter's resentment that haunted the ghost granny, while others said that the ghost granny was inevitably sick because she was old.
In short, the ghost grandma was very ill. She was afraid of troubling her son's family, so she took the initiative to move out of her son's house and lived in an old house that was about to collapse. She had no money and could eat one dish with flies for a week. Sometimes she was incontinent and had no strength to wash, so she slept on dirty bedding, and her body was rotten from sleeping. After a while of living like a ghost, the ghost grandma took a hemp rope and prepared to understand herself.
She did not tell anyone that she was going to commit suicide. She hanged herself quietly in the old house. It was a coincidence that day. Uncle Wang, who had not seen the ghost woman for more than a month, went to the old house to see the ghost woman for the first time. He happened to run into the ghost woman hanging herself, with the rope around her neck and the bench kicked off with her toes.
Uncle Wang saw everything, but he didn't stop it.
He just stood in front of the old house and watched the ghost woman hang herself in front of him.
At this point, Tang Ning suddenly felt an indescribable chill. He held Ji Lianyun's hand and continued to listen to the old woman sitting at the head of the bed telling the story of the past.
After the ghost woman died, the sound of opera singing could be faintly heard from the room where she was hanged. The voice was hoarse and sharp, and very unpleasant to the ear.
Later, Uncle Wang hanged himself in the new house.
It is said that he used the hemp rope to hang himself, and his strength was so great that no one could stop him.
When the old lady came to this point, Tangning couldn't help but feel confused.
Tang Xianheng also hanged himself. Was it Uncle Wang who did this? Why did Uncle Wang keep making trouble and killing so many people? Why did Uncle Wang want to kill him the most now
Tang Ning expressed her doubts, and the old lady holding the baby told Ji Lianyun everything she knew. She said that at that time Uncle Wang's new house was built next to Tang Xianheng's house, and Tang Xianheng knew about that kind of things. Many people said that even if he wanted to stop it, he could have stopped it.
But Tang Xianheng, just like Uncle Wang at the beginning, watched the other party hanged in the room.
Tang Ning was stunned for a moment, and suddenly remembered that on the first day of this dungeon, they asked Uncle Wang about his identity. Uncle Wang said that he was Tang Ning's neighbor.
So that's how it is.
After this story was told, no one spoke for a while. Finally, Lin Yun asked, "Where is her grave?"
"That house was really evil at the time. Her son refused to help collect her body, and everyone couldn't bear to see her rot in the house, so Tang Xianheng buried her in the back of the mountain. Over the years, Tang Xianheng was the only one who would occasionally burn some paper for her."
The old woman stood up tremblingly and said, "I'll take you there."
The skinny baby was held in her arms. When the old woman approached Tang Ning, the strange baby suddenly opened his eyes and stared at Tang Ning.
Tang Ning's scalp went numb, and before he could react, he felt the weight of Ji Lianyun's head on his right shoulder.
Ji Lianyun looked at the baby in the old woman's arms.
The baby suddenly closed its eyes and let out a loud cry. The old woman quickly put her fingers into the baby's mouth and walked in front tremblingly, not daring to expose the baby in her arms to Ji Lianyun's gaze.
In the dark night, Tangning didn't know what to say. He looked at the old woman in front of him and asked, "What about her daughter? Is there anyone to burn paper for her?"
"I don't know about that. She died of illness in another village. I don't know if anyone went to collect her body." The old woman said calmly, "I heard that the family she married into died. Since everyone is gone, then there probably is no one."
"Why?" Ji Lianyun asked, "Do you want to burn paper for her?"
Tangning nodded and whispered, "She is so pitiful."
Ji Lianyun, who was clinging to him like a koala, let out a dull laugh. Tangning was confused. Ji Lianyun kissed his earlobe and whispered to Tangning, "She just wanted to eat you. I forbid you to burn paper for her."
What
Tang Ning seemed to realize something and turned around suddenly. He saw that the small house behind him was shrouded in darkness, with a dangling hemp rope hanging from the beam.
He turned his head stiffly again, and his eyes fell on the ankles of the old woman in front of him. There was no hemp rope tied on them, but there were traces of being tied up with hemp rope for a long time.
He suddenly remembered that in that illusion, he had never remembered what the ghost woman looked like.
However, the ghost woman's voice is exactly the same as the old woman who is telling stories from the past.