Anecdote of the Yellow River

Chapter 40

I remember that during the summer vacation when I was seven years old, I went out on a boat with my grandfather.Grandpa received a business that day. A little girl drowned in the Yellow River in Panshi Village upstream of our village. The little girl's parents asked Grandpa to go out on a boat to help salvage the body.At the same time, the little girl's parents also sent a coffin specially prepared for the dead daughter.

Before setting out on the boat, Grandpa took a big red rooster, chopped off its head, and sprinkled its blood on the deck, singing a strange sacrificial speech: "Dear King... You must bless your descendants... ...You are an immortal god...Let all the wandering souls go back...Give us a safe ancient road along the Yellow River...Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee..."

I also knelt beside Grandpa and sang decently after imitating his tone.

After singing a song, put the lighted incense candle in a bowl of snow-white glutinous rice, put the chicken head in the middle of the bow, worship three times devoutly to the chicken head, and put the sticky rice with incense candle on it and the big red rice. The rooster sank into the Yellow River together.

This is a rule passed down from the ancestors. Before leaving the boat, the corpse hunter must pay homage to the King of the Yellow River to ensure safety.

The summer sun is very poisonous, making people feel hot and painful.Our corpse boat was a small boat with a black awning. Grandpa let me hide in the awning to enjoy the cool air, and I sat on the deck smoking a pipe, staring at the river without moving.Grandpa's skin is as dark as charcoal, which is the result of years of exposure to the sun.

We left the boat in the afternoon, until the evening, and finally found the little girl's body.The little girl's body was already soaked, and the clothes on her body were probably washed away by the river water, leaving her naked and floating in the river water.

Grandpa rowed the boat over, took out the corpse net, and focused on the floating girl's body.The corpse net is said to have been handed down from the ancestors, and its shape is similar to a net spoon. It is a long pole cut from peach wood, and a large black net is wrapped around the pole.The corpse-hunting net has passed through the hands of countless corpse-hunters, and the position of the handle has been worn black and shiny.There are many strange patterns engraved on the body of the shaft. I heard from my grandfather that it is a corpse pattern.

It is said that the big net is not an ordinary net, it is woven with the hair of a virgin girl, then soaked in black dog blood for three days and three nights, and finally exposed to the sun for 49 [-] days.Only the corpse net woven in this way can restrain the evil spirit of the dead body, so as to avoid horrible corpse changes during the process of recovery.

The little girl's body was pushed by the surging water of the Yellow River, and quickly approached our awning boat. I held my breath and widened my eyes.I saw Grandpa raised the corpse net high above the top, swung it in an arc beautifully, and then with quick eyesight and quick hands, he stretched into the water and caught the girl's body in a net.Immediately afterwards, with a sharp upward lift, the little girl's wet body was fished out of the water and placed on a black straw mat.

A strong corpse smell hit my face, and I had to pinch my nose.

Grandpa was no stranger to the smell of dead bodies. He squatted down and took a closer look at the little girl, then sighed heavily: "It's a crime for such a young girl to leave!"

While talking, Grandpa took out a yellow talisman from his pocket, on which a red charm was drawn with cinnabar. I recognize this kind of yellow talisman, which is called the corpse-fixing talisman.Every time before picking up the corpse, my grandfather would prepare a few sheets in advance. According to my grandfather, the corpse-fixing charm has the effect of fixing the corpse and preventing the sudden death of the dead.

Snapped!
Grandpa stuck the mortal charm on the middle of the little girl's forehead, then reached out and grabbed the two corners of the straw mat, flipped it forward quickly, wrapped the girl's body skillfully, and carefully placed it in the coffin .

After all, I was still young at that time, and with such a dead body next to me, I felt terrified in my heart. It would be a lie to say that I was not afraid, and urged my grandfather to call it a day and go home.

At that time, the shadow of the moon was already slanting to the west, and grandpa slowly rowed the oars. Today's body retrieval went very smoothly, and being able to return the little girl's body to her parents was considered a merit.

When it reached the middle of the river, the Wupeng boat suddenly stopped moving.

At first we thought it was a vortex, but we soon realized something was wrong.

If it was a vortex, the boat should also be spinning, but at this moment, the awning boat did not move at all, as if it was fixed on the river surface. No matter how hard grandpa paddled, the awning boat remained motionless.

Then, something even weirder happened.

I saw a lot of black threads coming out of the river, densely packed and tangled together indiscriminately.

When I looked carefully, I was so frightened that the black lines in the river were all hair strands!

Those hairs were thick and dense, spreading rapidly in the river, like a big black net, enclosing our small boat with awning in the middle.And those strands of hair seemed to be alive, and they "climbed" up along the side of the ship without a sound.No wonder our boat with the awning can't move, it turned out to be entangled by the hair under the water.

But why are there such weird strands of hair emerging from the bottom of the river?
Where did these strands of hair come from?
Grandpa's face suddenly changed: "Not good! I met a corpse holding a boat!"

I cried and asked my grandpa: "Grandpa, what is a corpse boat? I... I'm so scared..."

"My son, don't be afraid!" Grandpa said to me, "Those drowned people carried a lot of grievances and refused to be reincarnated after death, turning into water ghosts to harm people. We have encountered water ghosts now, and they used The hair is entangled with us, not letting us leave, trying to drag us into the water!"

"Then... what should we do then?" When I heard that we were being haunted by water ghosts, I almost cried in fright.

Grandpa took out a copper coin from his pocket and stuffed it in my palm. The copper coin was old and rusty, and there were dark green copper flowers, like moss, which was ugly.There is a square hole in the center of the copper coin, and a discolored red string is wrapped around the center of the square hole, which is cold in the hand.

I don't know what my grandfather gave me this copper coin for.Because of extreme fear, I held the copper coins tightly, and tears rolled down my cheeks.I clearly felt that my body was shaking, and it was shaking very badly.

Grandpa said to me in a deep voice: "Baby! Don't be afraid! Now I heard from Grandpa that you go and lie in that coffin. No matter what sounds you hear later, don't come out. Do you understand?"

As soon as I heard it, I was scared, what? !Want me to lie in the coffin? !Isn't there the little girl's body in the coffin? !

"Grandpa, why do you want me to go inside the coffin?" I had a bitter face, tears rolling in my eyes.

Grandpa stared at the strands of hair that "climbed" onto the side of the boat, and said in a hurried voice: "Water ghosts only look for the breath of living people. If you lie in the coffin, water ghosts will think you are dead, so they won't come looking for you! Quick! Get into the coffin! It's too late!"

"But...but there is a little girl's body in the coffin?!" Thinking of the little girl's staring eyes, my legs were trembling.

"The little girl's body won't kill you! But the water ghost below will kill you! Get in!" Grandpa snapped at me.

I looked at those strands of hair in horror, and some strands of hair had already crawled up my insteps. I gritted my teeth, turned and ran to the stern, and pushed open the coffin lid. Vomit.

Although wrapped in a straw mat, I could see the extremely pale and swollen corpse face of the little girl at a glance. The corpse talisman was blowing loudly, and I always felt that she was smiling at me.

I was so terrified that I held my breath, and I bite the bullet and crawled into the coffin to lie down.I was like a stiff piece of wood, lying straight on top of the little girl's corpse. The little girl's corpse was swollen and limp, but I felt as if there were thousands of sharp thorns on my back, and my whole body was hairy.

Grandpa walked over quickly, and I saw his face as old as bark appearing outside the coffin.

"Grandpa, you...why don't you come in?" I asked shyly.

"Baby! Don't talk! Don't make a sound! Don't push the coffin lid yourself! Lie quietly in the coffin, and grandpa will rescue you later!" After saying this, grandpa pressed his hands down, and the coffin The lid squeaked shut.

"Grandpa..." The words choked in my throat and I didn't shout out, and my eyes were suddenly dark.

Thick darkness surrounded me, the surroundings were pitch black, and there was no light at all. I felt extremely terrified. It turns out that lying in the coffin is such a feeling. I don’t know if people will feel afraid after death!

The little girl's body was icy cold. I was trembling all over, and I closed my eyes tightly. The strong smell of the corpse made me dare not breathe.I put my hands on my chest, tightly holding the copper coin my grandfather gave me in my palm, and suffered repeatedly in tension and anxiety.

There was a dead silence in the coffin, as if it was a dark world isolated from the world. I couldn't hear any sound, and fell asleep drowsily in the extreme tension and fear.

I don't know how long I slept, but I heard a creak, the coffin lid opened, and my grandfather's face came into my eyes again.

Grandpa stretched out his hand and pulled me out of the coffin, patted my head lovingly and said, "Baby, are you alright?"

I shook my head, my body was still trembling, and I couldn't speak for a while, and my whole body was soaked in cold sweat.

Grandpa was wet from head to toe, and the strands of hair on the water surface were gone. A crescent moon hung obliquely in the sky, and the silver moonlight splashed on the water surface, peaceful and serene.

I looked back at the coffin behind me, and the little girl in the coffin seemed to be still smiling at me!
It may be that I was overly frightened. This incident left a deep shadow on my young mind, and I suffered from a serious illness after I went back.In those days when I was sick in bed, I often didn't say a word for a whole day. When I closed my eyes, the swollen and deformed face of the little girl would appear in front of my eyes.Moreover, I am particularly afraid of the dark, especially in that small dark space, I feel depressed and uncomfortable.

It wasn't until many years later that I traveled with Professor Ye to the north and south, and entered many catacombs and space investigations, that this dark phobia gradually improved.

However, at this moment, this kind of dark fear that has not appeared for a long time came to my heart again.

There was a thick darkness in front of me, I didn't know where I was, the fear in my heart made me sweat profusely, my hands fumbled around subconsciously, and then I touched a soft mass.

(End of this chapter)