With a few crackling sounds, the firewood was broken and thrown into the stove. Old Man Wang stood up to stir the gradually heating water in the pot, covered it with a wooden lid, hesitated for a moment, and then continued:
"… That boatman was not from our village. He was born about 30 years ago. His family suffered a flood and he drifted here. He became a live-in son-in-law. Ten years later, his wife died and he had no children. He lived in two thatched houses and ferried people across the river outside the village. He fell into the water and drowned last year."
Lu Liangsheng put down the bowl, exchanged glances with the Taoist priest, and asked, "Can the boatman also drown?"
“The boatman is also a human being, why can't he drown?” Old man Wang poured a bowl of cold water and sat down. He called out to Wang Tianshi to come out with the two fish. Hearing the sound of water pouring in the yard and his son's response, the old man moved the oil lamp to the middle of the table.
"… You two must be tired after coming all this way. There is another room next to it. I will go clean it later. Don't leave tonight."
"I never thought about..."
Under the table, Lu Liangsheng kicked him lightly, and when he saw Old Man Wang was about to leave, he asked.
"Why didn't the village invite a wizard to exorcise the ghosts? And why did they say there were no ghosts outside the village?"
The old man who walked slowly to the door stopped, turned around slowly, pursed his lips and sighed.
"That ghost is actually a good friend of mine. He has never caused any harm to the village. He only comes out in the afternoon or evening and sits quietly not far away. That's why I didn't hire a magician. I don't want anyone to take him in. He's really pitiful."
Lu Liangsheng looked at the back figure going to the next room, his brows slightly frowned. Ghosts can come out in the afternoon and dusk
Outside, after butchering the fish, Wang Tianshi went to the kitchen and made a lot of noise, with a few grumblings and complaints.
"If you don't invite a magician, I won't come back." "... You can't bear to see that boatman have pity, but you can't bear to see my son being scared to death?"
"When the time comes, no one will see you off to the grave. Who will be pitiful?"
Lu Liangsheng and the Taoist were both practitioners with sharp senses, so they naturally heard all of this and sat at the table in a rather awkward manner.
The lights flickered, and Lu Liangsheng lowered his voice and said:
"At dusk, before the sun sets, the ghost comes out. Hong Lian can't seem to do that, right?"
The Taoist nodded, circled his fingertips around the edge of the bowl, and stared at the ripples on the water.
"It does have some tricks, I'm afraid it's not just an ordinary ghost."
In the next room, the two beds were almost the same size. Hearing Wang Tianshi's complaints, the father and son retorted a few words. While talking, they remembered that there were two other people around.
"Excuse me, my son and I haven't gotten along well since his mother died..."
He walked into the main room with a smile. In the dim light of the oil lamp, there was no trace of the scholar and the Taoist priest. Only two empty bowls were left on the table. He cried out "Ouch" and called his son in fear.
Wang Tianshi quickly put down the fish in his hand and ran over. The old man pulled his sleeve and pointed at the empty main room tremblingly.
"The scholar and Taoist priest you brought back might be monsters."
In the yard, even the old donkey disappeared.
The night was dark and the village had fallen silent, with only the occasional barking of dogs to be heard.
Crossing the fields and following the country dirt road to the river bank, the dense reeds on the river bank swayed in the wind.
Wow…
There was the sound of quietly flowing water and the tinkling of copper bells in the distance. The old donkey stepped forward with its hooves and excitedly opened its mouth, wanting to bite the reed stalks. The bell on its neck rang and rang as it was led by the scholar along the ground covered with tiny stones.
At the ferry ahead, several small boats were tied to wooden piles protruding from the water, crowded together and slightly undulating. When Lu Liangsheng came over, he saw a dark shadow squatting under a cluster of reeds not far from the wooden piles where the boats were moored.
"Excuse me, can we still cross the river at night?"
Lu Liangsheng stepped forward and raised his hands towards the black shadow. When he got closer, he could see the other person clearly. He was wearing a straw raincoat and a hat that covered most of his face.
"We can cross. Sir, please get on board first."
"Thank you for your help."
Lu Liangsheng thanked the other party, led the old donkey to the riverside, and looked at the several moored boats.
"Old man, which boat is yours?"
The sound of water splashing on the rocky beach.
The scholar tilted his cheek slightly, and in his peripheral vision, he saw the hunchbacked boatman passing by, his trouser legs rolled up to his calves, leaving a series of water stains where his bare feet had passed.
“This is it.”
The boatman walked onto one of the boats, lit a paper lantern and hung it on the bow.
"Sir, please slow down. I will light the way for you."
There was no shed on the boat, so the old donkey could still squeeze in. However, as it was his first time on a boat, he felt a little uneasy. His limbs were shaking slightly, and he grunted and tried to jump off several times, which made the Toad Taoist in the compartment subconsciously touch the rope around his waist before he felt relieved.
Lu Liangsheng stepped into the boat and stomped his feet on the bottom of the boat, feeling a thumping sound. He reached out and stroked the donkey's head a few times, then lifted the hem of his robe and sat down. He looked straight at the boatman and slightly opened his thin lips.
"Old man, please start the boat."
"Okay, sir, sit tight!"
The old man under the bamboo hat responded in a dull voice, and with a long pole he pushed the boat into the shallow water. The boat floated away from the beach, turned around, stood at the stern, continued to push the long pole, and headed for the other side of the river.
"My dear guest, please remember to sit tight. The water can be bumpy sometimes. It would be terrible if you fall off."
The boat sailed quietly across the water, pushing away the ripples. The lantern hanging on the bow swayed. Lu Liangsheng looked at the old man opposite in the faint light. There were water droplets on his white beard under his bamboo hat. His face was pale and swollen, and his eyes almost bulged out. His whole body was wet, and there was a pool of water on the board where he stood.
Sure enough, it was almost as Sun Yingxian had guessed, he fell into the water and died.
Lu Liangsheng sighed, "It's not okay to just leave it alone."
When he took out the brush from his sleeve, the sound of water splashing was heard and the boatman holding the long pole suddenly spoke, as if he was laughing.
"Sir, do you feel bored? I'll tell you some stories to kill time. Those of us who have crossed the river know that people are not ferried across at night. First, it's unsafe. Second, if there are ducks quacking at night, don't cross. Even if you go over out of curiosity and see cloth or handkerchiefs on the ground, don't pick them up. If you do, you'll lose half your life..."
"… Speaking of which, I have been ferrying people across this river for more than 20 years, and I have never seen anything strange. The water ghosts that the villagers often talk about have never been seen anywhere…"
As if he was really trying to entertain the scholar who was crossing the river, he chattered on and on about many things in the village.
Seeing that he didn't move, Lu Liangsheng put his slightly raised hand down and listened quietly.
"… Fortunately, the village chief often comes to me to drink, but it's not good to drink other people's wine all the time. After drinking for a day, after he left, I thought I should return the favor, so I rowed out... out... Look, my memory is so bad that I even forgot whether I caught fish for the village chief or not. It happened yesterday..."
According to Wang Tianshi's father, the boatman had been dead for at least a year, but his memory only stayed on the day before his death.
In this sense, he has no cultivation at all.
As he was thinking, the boat was about to reach the shore. Lu Liangsheng put the pen back into his sleeve, waited until the bow of the boat lightly touched the river beach, led the trembling old donkey and walked down.
The Taoist who had already flown across the river came over, quickly flipped through the yellow silk bag and was about to take out the talisman paper, but was stopped by Lu Liangsheng.
"Don't do anything. This boatman won't hurt anyone."
"What?" The Taoist put down the cloth bag, tilted his head and exhaled.
"I have never heard of a ghost that doesn't harm people. Even if it doesn't harm people, it will still hurt others if they come into contact with it."
Lu Liangsheng shook his head and denied the Taoist's statement. On the way here by boat, he clearly felt that the old man on the ferry did not absorb people's yang energy. Wang Tianshi fell ill for several days purely because he was scared.
"This boatman didn't seem to know he was dead, and he only remembered what happened the day before his death."