Eliminator

Chapter 5 Gathering Souls and Beads
I didn't expect Uncle Geng to take me to the countryside.This is a village on the outskirts of Yucheng, and cars can't get through the village entrance.Uncle Geng let me look at a box and went inside first.

Uncle Geng has always been going to the countryside by himself. This time, I don’t know why he called me, and said with a serious face that no matter what he saw today, he must keep his mouth shut, especially not to Chen Mu.

The countryside is not like a city. Although it was just getting dark, the surrounding area was already quiet. I was alone guarding the van. If there were not a few houses with lights on in front of me, I really felt lost in the world.

My eyes fell on Uncle Geng's box. This box is an old-fashioned suitcase, not an antique treasure, but it is Uncle Geng's treasure.Every time he goes to the countryside, he will take this box with him.Once Chen Mu wanted to see what was in the box, but was severely scolded by Uncle Geng.I stared at the box, and couldn't help reaching out to touch it. Just when I unconsciously wanted to open the hidden button of the box, Uncle Geng's voice came from outside.

"Come down." Uncle Geng stood not far away, holding a flashlight in his hand, and shook it at me.

I hurriedly took the box and got out of the car.

Uncle Geng took my box and walked forward, saying to me as he walked, "Follow me for a while, don't say a word."

"Okay." I nodded.

Walking into the village, passing through several dark lanes, turning a corner, we came to a brightly lit house.At a glance, I saw two paper figurines and a paper horse standing on both sides of the door of that house, and there were white plain flowers hanging on the door.

This is a typical funeral decoration in Yucheng, but it is strangely quiet.

A man stood at the door with a dull expression, holding a mahogany sword with yellow tassels in his hand.Seeing Uncle Geng, he immediately greeted him.

"Has everyone left?" Uncle Geng asked.

"It's all ready as you said." The man nodded.

"This is the guy in my shop, young man, he is very energetic, let him go outside with you." Uncle Geng introduced me.

"What do you bring?" The man asked me, looking at me.

"Grandma has a leg, this is a boy, I don't know how to do it." Uncle Geng stared at him and walked in.

The man smiled at me and said nothing.

This is an ordinary rural house, with the main room in the middle and guest rooms on both sides.According to the customs of Yucheng, when an old man dies, he must stay in the hall for three days.In the yard is a funeral shed, which is filled with various paper figurines and paper bundles.

The man and I followed Uncle Geng to the guest room on the left, and then handed me the mahogany sword in his hand, "Hold this, if you have something, just wave it down."

Uncle Geng raised his head and glanced at him, "Grandma has a leg, didn't you say that he doesn't know how to do it, so he holds his own."

I sat in front of Uncle Geng, who opened the box and took out something from it, which turned out to be a fan.Just one look and I was drawn to the fan, which is definitely a good thing.First of all, the fan bone is jet black, similar to ivory and black jade, and the fan surface is made of cloth but is more delicate than cloth.

"This is the spiritual bone fan? It really is a good thing!" The man seemed to be seeing Uncle Geng's fan for the first time.

"Get down to business." Uncle Geng put away his fan and stood up.

It was just me and that man in the guest room.We started chatting casually.The man's name is Hou San, and he is also an antique dealer, but he usually goes to the countryside to collect goods by himself, and then transfers them to Uncle Geng when he finds a suitable one, and earns a little difference from it.What happened today, under Hou San's narration, I gradually understood.

This village is called Qianzhang Village, and most of the ancestors in the village moved here from Shaanxi.You know, Shaanxi is a treasure land of geomantic omen, so the ancestors hid a lot of good things.Among them, the most valuable are the four luminous pearls of Empress Dowager Cixi.

As we all know, Empress Dowager Cixi died on October 34, Guangxu 22, and was enshrined in a large golden nanmu coffin that had been prepared. In 1928, soldiers and bandits under Sun Dianying brazenly robbed Cixi Mausoleum.After splitting open the golden silk coffin, the soldiers discovered that the Empress Dowager Cixi was as lifelike as she was sleeping.According to Sun Dianying's recollection, the reason why Cixi could not rot physically was because there was a priceless luminous pearl in her mouth.There is not only one night pearl. It is said that there are nine night pearls on Cixi's phoenix crown.

In June 1900, the invading soldiers of the Eight-Power Allied Forces invaded Beijing. The Empress Dowager Cixi did not allow the people to fight back against the invaders.Li Lianying, the chief eunuch who was in charge at the time, was not around, so she asked a court lady surnamed Wang to take her to Ximen Hotel and hand it over to someone sent by Li Hongzhang.

Li Hongzhang is in charge of negotiating with foreigners about the withdrawal of troops.At that time, the court lady was only 17 years old, and Empress Dowager Cide warned her to be careful all the way, if she lost her mind, she would be taught to drop her head.The court lady hid the beads and thought as she walked: "This is the treasure of our country, how can I give it to foreigners?"So they hid.Since then, there has been no news.

Until 64 years later, these four night pearls were found in a worker's family living in Baishulin, Xi'an.The family's surname is Wu, and the husband and wife are workers in a chemical plant.Once when doing cleaning, a child unpacked a dirty, greasy little pillow for cleaning, and found a red cloth bag inside, and when the red cloth was removed, there was another layer of yellow cloth.A layer of oiled paper, and a layer of tissue paper inside the oiled paper, wrapped four longan-sized, glittering and shining night pearls.So far, these four luminous pearls were able to see the light again.

Hou San received an antique from the Qin Dynasty in Qianzhang Village a long time ago, which made him a lot of money, so he paid close attention to every household here.A week ago, he passed by here again, wanting to see if there was anything he could collect.But I feel that the people in the village are mysterious. Under his continuous coaxing and deception, I finally learned from a villager that an old lady surnamed Wu in the village died. A night cat came from somewhere and jumped over the corpse, and Mrs. Wu opened her eyes.What's even more bizarre is that she kept making a strange sound, and her hands were shaking.

There have been legends in the countryside since ancient times that the wild cat jumped into the coffin to cheat the corpse, and with the various situations after Mrs. Wu opened her eyes, all relatives and friends ran away in fright.Even Mrs. Wu's son locked the main room tightly and dared not go in.People in the village called the police, but the Wu family was afraid of what the police would do to the old man, so they refused to let him in.

Hou San visits antiquities all the year round and has seen many things.The so-called wild cat jumped coffin is nothing.He went to Wu's house, and through the locked doors and windows, he saw Mrs. Wu lying inside, her eyes indeed open.In order to understand the reason of the matter better, he asked someone to open the lock and went in by himself. After carefully looking at the current situation of Mrs. Wu's expression, he asked Mrs. Wu's son some things.Then he said that he could find someone to help, so he excitedly found Uncle Geng.

Hou San told Uncle Geng about the situation, and Uncle Geng concluded that there must be something foreign on Mrs. Wu's body.

The so-called foreign objects, the ancients began to refer to animals, among which "Shan Hai Jing" is the most comprehensive.Over time, foreign matter refers to something that has special miraculous effects in ancient objects.To put it simply, the luminous pearl is a foreign object. There used to be something called a cold crystal, which was a small piece, but it was a good product for escaping the heat.Later, the cold crystal gradually decreased and evolved into the current crystal.Even the most common crystals will feel cool when worn in the hot summer.

Uncle Geng came to Wu's house with Hou San, and Mrs. Wu was indeed in the same situation as Hou San said, with her eyes wide open like a bell, her hands trembling slightly, and the voice was transmitted from her throat.

They told Mrs. Wu's son that they could help, but only if they didn't make it public.So Uncle Geng went back to fetch the guy and asked Hou San to stay at Wu's house.

"What the hell is that foreign object?" I asked.

Just as Hou San was about to answer me, we heard a crackling sound from the next door, as if something had been knocked over.Hou San's expression changed, and he immediately picked up the mahogany sword in his hand and rushed out.

I followed Hou San, and when I opened the curtain of the main room, I saw a gloomy and stiff old lady wearing a shroud standing in the corner of the east wall. Her eyes were round and big, and a few strands of white hair stuck to her forehead. For some unknown reason, there was some white powder on the face, which looked hideous and terrifying.The most bizarre thing is that she is wearing two pointed black Shou shoes, standing there like a ballet dancer.

"How did you cheat the corpse?" Hou San quickly stood beside Uncle Geng.

"Xiao Leng, get out." Uncle Geng glanced at me, then waved the spiritual bone fan in his hand.

Uncle Geng's words seemed to immediately remind Mrs. Wu in the corner. Her body creaked a few times, and she slowly faced me, her mouth moved slightly, and her eyes pierced me like a knife.

This is the first time I have seen a fraudulent corpse. I have heard it before, seen it on TV, and read it in novels, but I have never encountered it in reality.Now being stared at like this, I feel sore and limp all over. I want to run but I can't exert any strength.

Hou San next to him picked up the mahogany sword and wanted to rush over, but Uncle Geng stopped him, "Don't hurt her."

This time, Mrs. Wu took advantage of the loophole and jumped in front of me in a few strokes.

I suddenly collapsed to the ground, and I couldn't help crying in my heart, it's over now.

"Your grandma has a leg." Uncle Geng behind scolded loudly.

I felt a gust of cold wind blowing towards my face, and in desperation, I stretched out my hand to cover my head, and had no choice but to resign myself to fate.

(End of this chapter)