The night pushes away the last red glow of the setting sun.
There were lights on in a few houses in the small town at the foot of the mountain. The houses had low eaves and the narrow streets were made of uneven bricks and stones with muddy puddles. It was completely dark and occasionally the barking of dogs could be heard from an alley.
Woof woof woof—
The house dog was barking, and in the misty street, a piece of yellow paper with a square hole in the middle was flying, sticking to the ground, and then being stepped on by the falling donkey's hoof.
Lu Liangsheng and the Taoist priest led the old donkey into the town. The windows that were still lit were extinguished one after another, and the sound of window frames creaking shut could be heard in the darkness.
"What's going on? Isn't it too early to rest at sunset?"
The Taoist looked around, somewhat confused. After a moment, he punched his palm and said, "Is this town haunted?!"
"I don't know. There is an inn ahead. Let's go there first and ask the owner. If there is a ghost, we can help the people here get rid of it."
After resting here for a night, if there really is a ghost haunting the place, we can help the residents here get rid of the harm. It's just a simple task and won't take much time.
There were still lights on in an inn ahead, but from a distance, they looked pale. A waiter was just closing the door, but when he heard the bell, he couldn't help but look up. A scholar in a white robe with apricot patterns came over, leading an old donkey, and next to him was a Taoist priest with a pointed chin and a moustache.
The waiter was guarding the door of the inn, poked his head out and asked in a low voice:
"What can I do for you two?"
Approaching the inn, Lu Liangsheng saw that there should have been big red lanterns at the door, but there were actually two white paper lanterns with a big word "甸" written on them.
It seems that there is a funeral at home. Although it is inconvenient, this town is not big, and there must be only this inn. Lu Liangsheng still asked:
"I wonder if I can get a place to stay?"
"My dear guests, no, there is a funeral at home, so we will not be open for business these two days."
The guy looked up at the night sky, looking a little anxious. After saying this, he slammed the door shut. The Taoist rushed over with his teeth bared and slammed the door hard: "So what if it's a funeral? I don't mind. A bed is enough!"
Amid the shouting, Lu Liangsheng raised his head and followed the shop assistant's gaze towards the night sky. The moonlight was cold, and a dark cloud slowly floated away, covering a corner of the sky.
There's nothing strange about it.
After thinking about it, he called Sun Yingxian who was still knocking on the door, and simply continued walking forward with the old donkey to see if there were other inns.
From Jinzhou to Huaiyizhou and then to the north, the two spent most of their time in the mountains and fields. Occasionally they stayed in a hotel, but that was several days ago.
"It's just a funeral. We can move a bed somewhere. It's not a big deal."
“Maybe others would be afraid of it.”
After saying this, they had almost walked down the street. It was pitch black and there was no other inn in sight. Lu Liangsheng smiled, flipped up his sleeves and threw them behind him. It seemed that he would have to sleep outside again tonight.
"Old Lu, there's a house over there that's lighted. Let's go over there and stay the night."
Following the direction the Taoist was looking, an old man was moving a bench into the eaves of a house facing the street at the end of the street.
"Father-in-law!"
Hearing someone suddenly calling him, the old man was startled and instinctively stepped over the threshold and hid behind the door, sticking half of his face out.
Seeing that they were two strangers, I felt relieved.
"Who are you two? Why did you call me?"
Although he spoke, he was still hiding behind the door, as if he was ready to close the door if something went wrong.
"Of course he is a good man."
The Taoist priest, carrying a yellow cloth bag, dodged and ran under the eaves, bowing casually.
"I just want to discuss with my father-in-law whether I can borrow a place to stay."
The light from inside the house shone through the gap in the door. The old man with his head wrapped squinted his eyes and took a closer look at the Taoist's appearance. The baggy Taoist robe was put on his thin body, like a monkey putting on clothes, and his hair was casually tied up. He didn't look like a serious monk.
He waved his hand quickly.
"No, no, there's no bed for you."
"This old man."
When the old man was about to close the door, Lu Liangsheng, who was leading the donkey outside the eaves, loosened the reins, stepped forward, bowed, and spoke first.
"This Taoist priest and I traveled a long way to Heling Prefecture. When we passed by your place, we originally wanted to stay at the inn in front of us, but there was a funeral there, and we had nowhere else to go. We happened to see that the old man hadn't closed the door yet, so we came over to disturb him. This Taoist priest has been sleeping in the open air for several days and has caught a cold. His tone was not good, and I am really sorry."
As he said this, he winked at Sun Yingxian, who glared back and coughed a few times.
Hearing a few loud coughs, the door of the opposite room opened a little more. The old man saw that the person who was speaking was dressed as a scholar and his tone was gentle and polite, so he stepped back, took the oil lamp on the table and leaned out of the door, shining it on the two people and the donkey behind them. There were pots and pans hanging on the bookshelf, so he nodded and opened the door completely.
"Come in, I believe you."
"Thank you, old man."
Lu Liangsheng bowed, led the old donkey and followed the old man around the eaves to the small door on the back side. The old man held up an oil lamp and watched him tie the donkey to the tree in the yard.
"Where did you two come from?"
"Um... Golden State."
He originally wanted to talk about Jiangnan, but thinking that he didn't know the attitude of the people in the south, Lu Liangsheng just said Jinzhou. He tied the reins and patted the old donkey on the head twice, gave him a look that told him not to make trouble, and followed the old man to the front house.
"Young man, please be careful when entering the house. The threshold is quite high."
When entering the house, the old man gave some special instructions and lowered the oil lamp to illuminate the area under the scholar's feet. Lu Liangsheng took a closer look and found that the old wood of the threshold was quite old, but the difference was that the upper section was darker in color, and it was obviously nailed on.
"Father-in-law, why is your threshold so high?"
The house is spacious. In addition to the kitchen connected to this room, there are two doors not far away. There is a wooden ladder leading to the attic on the right wall. The wooden steps are faded and covered with dust. I think it must have been a family with quite a lot of spare money a few years or even more than ten years ago.
The oil lamp was placed on the table. As the light flickered, the Taoist took the teapot from the old man and poured two cups of water. The old man walked over, moved the bench over, and invited the two to sit down.
"It's not just my family's that has high thresholds. In this town, and in several nearby villages, every household has a high threshold."
The Taoist became interested. He quite liked to listen to strange folk stories, so he quickly poured a glass of water for the old man and handed it to him.
"What's the story here?"
“Well, what can I say? It’s still about preventing…” The old man paused, hesitated, and looked at the door leading to the outside to see if the bolt was locked.
After a long while, he spoke: "You two are outsiders. Is this your first time here? There were many caravans passing through here in the past, but now they rarely come. You two young people are really stupid. You didn't ask around before coming."
"Why is it haunted? Is it a male ghost or a female ghost? Look at what I am wearing."
Sun Yingxian shook his Taoist robe, and took out a few pieces of talisman paper from his yellow cloth bag and slapped them on the table: "There is no ghost there, take me with you, and I promise to cure you completely."
The old man looked at the Taoist priest, then at the yellow talisman on the table, and shook his head: "If it was a ghost, it would be fine, but Taoist priest, that thing... Oh, I don't even know how to start."
Lu Liangsheng frowned slightly. If it wasn’t a ghost, could it be a monster
"Don't worry, old man. Just tell us what you want to say. We are just passing by here. Just treat it as listening to some strange stories. If you meet a master in the future, please ask him to help you solve your problems."
The oil lamp flickered, and moths fluttered around the tiny flame at night. The old man sighed.
"Then just think of it as me chatting with you two to relieve your boredom. Young Master and Taoist Priest, you don't know that this town was fine before, but it has been in chaos since the war. After the fall of Qi, strange things started happening. Within a radius of 20 to 30 miles around the town, all the dead bodies in the mourning halls of families who held funerals suddenly crawled up in the middle of the night and sucked the bodies of the people who were keeping vigil."
The dead got up? This was the first time Lu Liangsheng had heard of this in all his years of practicing Taoism. Could it be zombies
He cast his eyes towards the Taoist priest, who understood and quickly calculated with his fingers under the table, then quietly shook his head towards Lu Liangsheng, roughly meaning:
There is no corpse-raising ground formed by the gathering of negative energy nearby.
Seeing that the two men didn't look surprised, the old man thought they didn't believe it and just sat there smiling bitterly.
"I didn't believe it before. The house you two live in now was built when your family was still well-off. You have a good wife and a son. Ten years ago, my wife died of illness. My son didn't let me keep vigil because I was old and weak..."
The voice paused, then trembled slightly before continuing.
“… But when I woke up in the morning, my son’s face was black and his body was stiff, and my wife was sitting under a tree in the yard outside the house.”
It was dark outside. The three of them were chatting around a shabby square table. Occasionally, dogs barked in the town and the wind blew in from the end of the street.
The white lanterns on both sides of the inn were swaying gently with candlelight.
Rustle…
The branches of the old trees in the backyard of the inn swayed and swept over the eaves. The evening light shone into the room covered with white cloth. In the middle of the room, one could vaguely see a figure wearing a shroud lying with a white cloth on his face.
Separated by a curtain, the shop assistant slept on a makeshift wooden board covered with a quilt, keeping watch on behalf of the shopkeeper, staring tremblingly at the candle-lit mourning hall behind the curtain.
Whoosh…
The wind squeezed in through the crack in the door, the candlelight flickered, and a corner of the white cloth covering the face of the corpse in the mourning hall fluttered in the wind.