The old man was shocked, left us to catch the child, and said to my sister-in-law: "Xing'er, don't worry, what's going on?"
We were all curious, so we turned to look at the eldest sister-in-law. She said that she had just taken her son to visit the grave with Gen'er, which should be her husband's nickname. She lit the incense, candles and ingots, and then she found that the grave had been moved and there were signs of renovation, so she hurried back.
Without saying anything, the old man took the child and headed west. We felt that the old man had a kind heart. Besides, seeing the situation, Genzi was his son, and there were only the old man and his widowed mother at home, so we wanted to help them, so we followed him. The cemetery was two miles west of the village, and the old man and his sister-in-law stopped in front of a grave.
It was indeed moved, and some of the soil was not filled back, so the grave looked a little small. I have heard of the renovation of the grave soil, but it is usually tomb robbery or corpse stealing. Tomb robbery is needless to say, corpse stealing is the most hateful. Because there is a saying of ghost marriage in folk culture, some men and women who are not of marriageable age will get married on each other's graves after death. This is a very common custom. But if the girl's family cannot find the girl or does not agree, corpse stealing will occur, stealing the girl's body and burying it in their own children's grave.
But this is a grown man, who would care about his body? This is a bit strange.
When the old man saw the grave, he sat down on the ground, sighed deeply, and said with tears in his eyes: "My poor son, he didn't even have a body after his death..."
My eldest sister-in-law started crying bitterly, and my youngest son also cried with his mother, which made us feel sad.
I walked over, squatted down, and said to the old man, "Uncle, don't be sad yet. Could it be the work of tomb robbers? Who would steal a corpse?"
The old man shook his head and said, "Nephew, you don't know, but there are always bodies missing here. Many people have reported the case, but after so many years, the police still haven't solved it. They said that there were no footprints left on the grave, no clues at all, and they can't find out at all. I don't know why these unscrupulous people would steal other people's bodies?" Then he started crying again.
I stood up and frowned. Yes, what can you do by stealing someone's body? Wang Zijun came over and whispered, "Stealing corpses can make a lot of money. It is said that some organs can still be used, especially those of young and strong people, which can be sold for a good price."
This is the first time I heard that a corpse can be sold for a good price. I ignored him and walked around the grave. The thief really didn't leave any traces. Damn it, could it be a ghost? I squatted down and looked at the grave for a long time, and suddenly I found a problem.
There were a few unclear fingerprints on the grave soil, which were particularly long and thin, and at the end of the fingertips, a thin and sharp mark actually extended forward. I suddenly thought that it was indeed a ghost digging the grave, and the ghost's nails were so long that it was creepy to look at.
It is not uncommon for ghosts to dig graves. When I was a child, my father told me that some poor ghosts wanted to build their own houses in the underworld because no one worshipped them. They needed Yin wood. Although willow wood and other Yin wood are Yin wood, they are not as good as coffin wood. So they dig graves to steal coffins, burn them with ghost fire, and then go back to the underworld to collect wood.
So, some graves were dug up for no reason and the coffin lids were burned into ashes. That was the work of those poor ghosts.
But there were no ashes around the grave? Could it be that the coffin was burned and then filled up again? But I was too embarrassed to suggest digging up the grave. The grave had already been moved, and it was really not appropriate to move it again, as it would damage the feng shui of the grave.
The old man and his daughter-in-law cried for a while, then burned paper money and returned to the village very sadly. Looking at their appearance, we also felt very heavy-hearted. Now we couldn't even scratch our own itch and had no energy to care about this matter. So we got back in the car and drove to Ren Village.
This time when I left the village, I didn't see any movement from Shen Bing's soul. But I felt that Shen Bing's soul seemed to have heard our voices, especially mine, and might still be angry, hiding on purpose and refusing to see me. So there's no need to worry that she will go far away. As long as we keep calling her soul, one day we will be able to move her and bring her back to us.
Ren Village is six or seven miles away from Gui Village. Like Gui Village, it is surrounded by barren mountains and no villages can be seen nearby from afar. It seems quite secluded, just like the two slopes in the northeast and south.
There may not be many people living in this village. Most of the houses are ruins and overgrown with weeds. It looks desolate. From a distance, it has a spooky and strange feeling. Even in broad daylight, it gives me goose bumps.
Damn it, the old man was not exaggerating. This village is a real ghost village!
Otherwise, even in broad daylight, just looking at it from a distance would scare me. Fortunately, I wandered into Gui Village last night and didn't come here, otherwise I don't know how I would have spent the whole night.
After entering the village, there were weeds everywhere and not a single intact family could be seen. Qu Mo, Wang Zijun and Ma Yunxi all seemed a little nervous. Wang Zijun said, "Isn't this an empty village? It seems like no one has been here for a long time." As he spoke, a look of fear appeared in his eyes.
I nodded and said, "Everyone, be careful. Although the evil spirits dare not show up in the sun, they can still use ghost magic to attack us by hiding in the dark." As I said that, I took out copper coins and a peach wood sword from my pocket, ready for battle.
Qu Mo shook his head: "I haven't noticed anything wrong yet."
"Look ahead, there's someone sitting outside the door." Ma Yunxi, who was sitting in the passenger seat, was the first to notice the situation.
There really is someone living in this ghost village, an old lady who looks to be over 80 years old, wearing ragged clothes, sitting on the door step to bask in the sun. The late autumn sun is still a bit poisonous, but the old lady actually squinted her eyes, looking quite comfortable in the sun.
We drove the car up to the front and got out. Qu Mo walked up to the old lady and politely called her "Auntie". The old lady seemed to be deaf and still squinted her eyes and ignored her.
Wang Zijun raised his voice and called out. The old lady finally opened her cloudy eyes and looked at us for a long time before asking, "Where are you from?"
He was able to recognize people and asked us where we came from, so he was not confused. Qu Mo then asked the old lady if she had seen a young man with two little girls coming here.
The old lady frowned and was speechless for a long time. Wang Zijun repeated it loudly again, and she said "Oh" and shook her head at us: "I didn't see it. You can look for it yourself. The village is big and there are not many families living here. If someone passes by here, we can't see it."
Qu Mo asked about the situation in Ren Village. The old lady told us that there are five families living in the village now. They are either lonely elderly people or have children with dementia or disabilities. They have no way to make a living if they move out, so it is better to stay in their own homes. This village is haunted, but it is not as weird as the rumors outside. The old lady has lived for 86 years and has seen everything. Those ghosts just want some paper money and come back in the middle of the night to bark, so the timid ones are scared away.
I blinked my eyes. Ghosts screaming in the middle of the night, how could ordinary people stand it? I have encountered countless ghosts. Even if I encounter a dead thing, I still feel scared, let alone ordinary people. It is a shameful thing for ghosts to be scared, but there is nothing I can do. It is the shadow left by the time I caught fish with Ermao when I was a child. It has been lingering in my heart for many years.