Listening to the old man's story and looking at the dark shadows of the mountains outside the car window, it seemed as if there were yellow-skinned foxes and indescribable monsters hiding in the depths of the darkness, drooling and staring at us ferociously. I felt a chill down my spine.
Arriving at Heixugou, the bus stopped at what the old man called the inn. This place was originally a desolate mountain valley, but because it was convenient to get out of the mountains, many people migrated here, and now it has become the largest village in the surrounding area, with about 70 or 80 households.
The inn was right at the main road as soon as you entered the village. The door was open. There was only a row of houses on the north side, with six or seven rooms. Because we had to pick up passengers from the mountain the next morning, the bus stopped here for the night. The old man said the room rate was very cheap, only ten yuan per person per night.
Shen Bing and I were tempted. The wind was strong and the sky was full of dust. It was unbearable to walk 70 or 80 miles to Nanwupo. The old man lived in a village three miles away. After he persuaded us to leave, he saw that Ya Zi and the woman were not staying in the inn either, so he hurried out of the inn and headed south.
Shen Bing didn't plan to travel at night, but I was worried about the two of them. What if they encountered a monster on the road? I was afraid that Shen Bing would suspect that I had "love" for that woman, so I didn't dare to tell the truth. I told Shen Bing that this inn looked very simple and the house must be very dirty. I specifically used the house of the crazy girl in Bamboo Worm Valley as an example. Maybe this place is not as good as the crazy girl's house. When Shen Bing heard this, she immediately changed her mind. She would rather eat some yellow soil than live in that stinky house that choked people to death.
We ran to the village store and sold a few batteries, and decided to walk the mountain road all night. We wasted a few minutes and went south again, and lost sight of the ducks. Fortunately, the old man in the car showed us the way. We kept walking along the mountain road to the south, and did not turn when we saw a fork in the road. We arrived after walking 70 or 80 miles.
Shen Bing took out a shirt from her bag and covered her head and face, leaving only a pair of eyes exposed. You can't say it was like a hornet's nest. But when she took away the flashlight and looked at it again, she looked like a mountain ghost.
She held my arm tightly, and I walked forward with a flashlight. This narrow path has a hillside on the left and a deep ditch on the right. We walked very carefully because some places are abysses and we could fall into the abyss if we were not careful. The path was rugged and difficult to walk on. After an hour, we only walked less than ten miles. We still haven't seen the two of them, Ya Zi. It seems that they are used to this road and walk much faster. We are afraid that we can't catch up with them.
Now I feel a little regretful, chewing the dust in my mouth, it's so uncomfortable, I really should have stayed in Heixugou for a night. It's too late to say anything now, it's my fault for fooling Shen Bing, she refused to go back even if she was beaten to death. Walking, I saw a pair of shoes, it was a pink women's sports shoe. I remember that woman took off her high heels at the train station and wore this kind of sports shoes.
Shen Bing and I were both surprised. We picked up the shoes and looked at them. The uppers were brand new, definitely left by the woman. We shone the flashlight forward, but couldn't see anyone. We looked to the right, but the flashlight below couldn't illuminate the deep valley. Someone must not have fallen in, otherwise we wouldn't have heard any noise.
But she dropped her shoes on the road, which meant she was in trouble and ran away in a panic. Could it be that the yellow fox was haunted? When she thought of this, her scalp went numb and she looked at Shen Bing. Her eyes were also full of fear, and she asked with a bitter face: "Did they encounter evil spirits?"
I nodded, probably so, so I put the shoes in the bag and said, "Let's go over there and take a look."
We both ran forward as fast as we could, and ran for seven or eight miles in one breath, but we didn't see anyone. Damn it, they must have taken the wrong path, so we chased them like wild dogs, but in the end we caught nothing. We stopped to catch our breath, and looked around with a flashlight. The ravine on the right side was not very deep, and the slope was very gentle. But the slope was covered with big trees, and it was dark inside, which looked very gloomy.
"Look, bumpkin, what's hanging on the branch?" Shen Bing said, pointing to a low tree.
I turned the flashlight over and saw a dark object hanging on the branch. It was too far away to see clearly, but I thought it was a shoe, so I hurried down the hillside. At this time, I also saw footprints on the hillside. I thought someone might have gone down from here.
When I got to the tree, I saw that it was a shoe, a pair with the one we had picked up before. I thought it was not good, so I followed the footprints on the slope into the depths of the forest. As I ran, I had already clenched eight copper coins in my left hand. Suddenly, I felt a cold breath coming towards me, and the tops of several large trees in front of me shook violently. Damn it, there is really an evil spirit, I hope it is not a yellow fox.
Because this thing rarely appears in our plains, and there is no spirit, so we have no experience in dealing with it. It is said that the yellow fox is comparable to the ghost fox, but it is more powerful than the ghost fox. There are often more than one in the mountains. If you offend one, you may get into trouble and have endless troubles that you can't get rid of.
I pulled Shen Bing to stop, took out a talisman from my bag, chanted a spell, burned the talisman and threw it forward. The talisman fire floated quickly forward with the wind in the forest, like a night light, passing through the air, and then extinguished in an instant, returning to darkness. The cold breath suddenly disappeared, and the shaking treetops stopped abruptly.
The forest returned to silence, with only the sound of the wind brushing past ears.
This evil spirit knew how powerful my buddy was, so it didn't dare to fight and ran away. I thought to myself that this thing really gave me face, otherwise we wouldn't know what kind of monster it was, and we might not be able to gain the upper hand if we fought it.
I shone the flashlight back and forth in the forest and suddenly saw a dark shadow between two big trees. I pointed over there and said, "The person is over there, let's go over there."
Shen Bing said "Oh", pulled out the copper coin sword, and held it with both hands. It looked like a Japanese devil holding a Japanese sword. I really wanted to give her a slap on the head.
We ran over and saw a person lying between two trees, face down and covered in dirt. We couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman. I stretched out my foot and gently touched the person's foot and said, "Hey, what's wrong with you?"
The man was motionless, and I didn't know if he was dead or alive. But judging by the shoes on his feet, it wasn't the woman, it should be the duck. I bent down and turned him over, and it was indeed him. His face was covered in dirt, and his eyes were tightly closed. I reached under his nose and felt it, and he was still breathing, so we breathed a sigh of relief.
Just when we were about to pinch him, he suddenly opened his eyes, which scared us. But that wasn't the scariest thing. He then shrunk his head into his clothes and quickly came out again, which immediately made our faces turn pale and the hair on our bodies stand up.