Long night dreams

Chapter 1 Wedges
Zhang Er, a truck driver, drinks watered-down rice wine in a dingy roadside shop while watching a disc played on an old TV set above the counter that blares a blah blah blah blah.

Zhang Er is a rough man. He likes to watch lively martial arts movies. Of course, it would be even better if it is a third-grade pornographic movie with dewy points.

But that day, the roadside store was playing a foreign science fiction film. He glanced at the DVD cover that the proprietress' daughter put on the table. It was an American film called "Butterfly Effect".He really couldn't arouse any interest, so he spat, cursed and walked out of the roadside shop, and got on his big Dongfeng truck.

For Zhang Er, the truck driver, of course he did not know that "butterfly effect" is a term in physical topology, which means that in the chain of things, as long as a small link changes, it will cause a series of problems in the future. The change.In other words, a butterfly flapping its wings in the Amazon jungle in Brazil will cause a tornado in Texas, USA.

Zhang Er doesn't care about these things. In fact, once he gets on the truck, he has already forgotten the words "butterfly effect" on the envelope. Where he went, he just wanted to finish his work early before returning to this roadside shop, and use words to please the proprietress's young daughter.When he was flipping through the cover of the video tape just now, he clearly saw the girl looking him up and down with seductive eyes.Thinking of this, a flame ignited in Zhang Er's heart, and he could feel that somewhere in his body was quietly changing.

In order to suppress the flames in his body, Zhang Er opened the car window, wanting the cold wind outside the window to cool down his hot cheeks, unexpectedly, as soon as he opened the car window, a few grains of coal sand flew into his eye sockets inside.A sharp pain forced Zhang Er to close his eyes. For a long-distance driver, closing his eyes while driving is a big taboo, so Zhang Er quickly stepped on the brakes. He remembered that there was a turn ahead. He couldn't remember whether it was a left turn or a right turn, and it seemed that there was both a left turn and a right turn ahead.Zhang Er suddenly found that his memory seemed to be deviated, even the scene he saw a second ago turned into a mess.

Maybe there is a fork in the front, but which way should the car go?Although the brakes have been stepped on, who knows where the truck will hit if you don't turn the steering wheel?

Just a moment of hesitation, Zhang Er felt that the rear of the truck bumped slightly, as if it had hit something.Zhang Er yelled inwardly. You must know that he bought the truck with a loan, and he simply used the money to join a fleet. All the repair costs had to be paid out of his own pocket.At this time, the truck stopped on the road with a "crack".

Zhang Er rubbed his eyes and got out of the car. When tears came out of his eyes, they also washed away the coal sand in his eyes.He walked to the rear of the car and found a shallow scratch, which he didn't know was scratched by something.He looked back to see that the truck had hit a roadside sign.

Zhang Er shrugged his shoulders annoyedly, spit out a mouthful, cursed bad luck secretly, then continued to get in the car, stepped on the accelerator, and the truck drove quickly along the winding mountain road.

The truck driver named Zhang Er will no longer appear in this story, he is just a passerby.But he didn't know that the suspension of his car had just rubbed against the sign on the side of the road, and knocked the direction originally indicated by the sign.Of course, he would never think of that sentence - a butterfly in the Amazon jungle in Brazil flaps its wings lightly, and a tornado will be set off in Texas, the United States.In fact, he had never heard of it at all.

After Zhang Er's truck gradually went away, a dense dark cloud came from the horizon, and the sky became dim.Suddenly there was a thunderclap out of nowhere, the lightning rushed past, and a short light came, which happened to be reflected on the roadside sign.There is a sharp arrow on the sign, and in front of the arrow are several blood-red artistic words - Cursed Village, 1000 meters.

Of course, the direction pointed by this road sign is no longer the original direction...

Undecomposed Ancient Corpse

The sky in early winter is always very gloomy, with thick clouds piled up in the sky, and it feels like it is about to collapse at any moment.The leaves of the sycamore trees on the side of the road in Dongwu Community have all fallen, leaving only bare trunks.

The bark on the trunk peeled off piece by piece, exposing the yellow-brown flesh inside, and occasionally a bit of viscous pus dripped from the wound of the tree, and then condensed into a dark ointment-like thing, which made people feel sick. There is always a shocking feeling at first glance.

In this season a year ago, the property management of the community called several flower workers to renovate a grove full of sycamore trees in the Dongwu community into a green lawn.When a young gardener dug up the earthen bunker in the open space and scraped away the floating soil on it, he saw pieces of mottled and fragmented rotten boards.

Another experienced flower worker said that it was an old coffin!

A few bold flower workers dragged the coffin out from under the floating soil, and exposed it to the still warm sunshine in early winter.

It's just that in the process of dragging the coffin, there were thick or thin cracks.

The flower workers thought they would smell rot, but what they smelled was a strong smell of spices.

The gardener who first discovered the coffin found a crowbar and pried open the wooden board on the top of the coffin. He thought he would see a white skeleton, but when he opened it and saw what was inside, he was terrified immediately. He took a few steps back and sat down on the ground, breathing heavily, his chest heaving unceasingly.

Several flower workers mocked his timidity with contempt, while he pointed to the coffin and said with a trembling voice: "There is a living person in the coffin! It is a living old lady! Her eyes are fixed on me. !"
Of course, there will be no living people in the coffin.Several flower workers tremblingly walked to the side of the coffin, only to see that lying inside was the corpse of an old woman with a ruddy complexion, her eyes were slightly opened, revealing a trace of coldness.

The female corpse has not rotted, and the muscles exposed on the arm still maintain a delicate texture. When the old flower worker dared to touch it, he was surprised to find that the arm even maintained a little elasticity-this is a long-term corpse. Ancient Corpse!

Girlfriend cheating?

After the ancient corpse came into contact with the air, its color gradually became dull. Dark mucus oozes from the corpse. After a while, it emits a stench, and the originally full body slowly withered away.The flower workers found a mat to wrap up the ancient corpse and threw it aside, which frustrated the archaeological experts from the Bureau of Cultural Relics who came later.

However, after the news got out, many elderly people in the city said that this ancient corpse that had not decayed had actually absorbed the aura from the heavens and the earth, and that the old lady who died many years ago had actually turned into a fairy long ago. .

And her fairy energy also passed through the underground soil and was absorbed by the surrounding plane trees...

Therefore, although these sycamore trees were later transplanted to the sidewalks near the community, countless superstitious elderly people flocked here one after another, and stubbornly peeled off the bark of the sycamore trees despite the dissuasion of the property security.They just hope that the bark will bring health and good luck to their family.

After all, the health and good fortune of the family is the most eternal hope of the elderly.

Guo Haoran shrugged his shoulders and walked along the sidewalk to his home in Dongwu Community, his eyebrows were tightly knit together, and he held a few registered packages that he had just picked up from the post office.He glanced at the sycamore tree on the side of the road in the community. The afternoon sun passed over the bare and unobstructed sycamore tree and shone on his body. It was warm, but his eyebrows frowned even tighter.

The wounds on those tree trunks stared at Guo Haoran like eyes, which made Guo Haoran feel an indescribable feeling in his heart.This feeling is like there are countless small reptiles in the body, trying to get out of the capillaries on Guo Haoran's skin and expose to the sun.

Guo Haoran was in a very upset mood. He just called his wife Ye Mei, but the phone was still turned off as usual.Ye Mei is a dancer of the Municipal Song and Dance Troupe. Two years ago when the singing and dancing industry was in a downturn, Ye Mei voluntarily left her job and went to work as a lead dancer in a nightclub with a good business.You earn a lot of money, but you have to work day and night.

Guo Haoran is not worried about this. He is a freelance writer, and he usually sleeps during the day and rushes to write at night.What he was most afraid of was whether Ye Mei would make friends with other men in a messy place like a nightclub!After all, men who can go to nightclubs have more or less money in their wallets, and Guo Haoran is just a low-level suspense writer, and his writings are not published in magazines, only one or two thousand a month royalties.In his heart, there was a deep sense of crisis, and he was very afraid that Ye Mei would leave him quietly one day without saying anything.

This feeling of Guo Haoran has come more rapidly recently.

During this time, he often found that when he called Ye Mei, Ye Mei's cell phone was always turned off. "The phone you dialed has been turned off, please call again later." A cold sentence will always make Guo Haoran fall into the extremely cold ice cellar.

He also asked Ye Mei, Ye Mei always said that there is a new dance in the nightclub, she is the lead dancer, in order not to be disturbed, so she must turn off her mobile phone.At first Guo Haoran also believed Ye Mei's statement, but today he was completely sad.

Guo Haoran went to that nightclub earlier today and met the owner there.The fat man in his 50s with a shy stomach picked the food crumbs off his gold teeth with a toothpick, and arrogantly told Guo Haoran an unbelievable fact——Ye Mei died three months ago. After leaving the nightclub, this fat man with gold teeth doesn't know anything about where she works now.

Ye Mei didn't dance in the nightclub anymore!But she still brings home a lot of money every month.

What is she doing now?Could it be...

Guo Haoran felt a dull pain in his heart, he guessed that what he was most worried about finally happened.Maybe, Ye Mei already has another man outside.

Back home, Ye Mei was not at home.Guo Haoran felt a little depressed, he threw the registered parcel he just picked up from the post office on the table.He lit a slender cigarette and sat by the window for a while, the curling smoke gradually enveloped his whole body.

His heart was getting more and more confused, he stood up suddenly, walked to the desk, and picked up the package and mail.

First, he opened a package, which contained an idle book called "The Prophecy of Nostradamus and the Nine Stars", which Guo Haoran ordered from an online bookstore when he was bored with drafting.But now he is not interested in this, so he threw it aside and picked up another package.

This is a package sent from a certain city in the southwest, judging from the size, it should contain a book.As a writer of suspense novels, Guo Haoran often receives new books from colleagues, and this time is no exception.He tore off the transparent glue on the package, and a book that was still beautifully bound fell from the cover onto the table with a "snap".

"Night Burial", this is a horror novel written by a novelist named Zhuang Qin.Guo Haoliang didn't know Zhuang Qin, but only had occasional exchanges on the Internet. After Zhuang Qin's new book was published, Guo Haoran also sent a polite email to ask Zhuang Qin for a copy. Unexpectedly, it was only a few days later. Really got it.

As a rule, as long as you receive a book from the author, you are obliged to write a book review for the other party.So Guo Haoran walked to the window with "Night Burial" in his hands, and read it carefully in the warm afternoon sun.

This story takes place in a remote village in the Southwest called "Cursed Village". The author's imagination is so rich that he links a funeral custom in Southwest folklore with Haitian voodoo and drug crimes.Although the story is simple, Guo Haoran read it with gusto.After three hours, the sky gradually darkened, and he just finished reading the whole book.

When he turned to the last page, he saw that there was a beautiful piece of paper clipped on that page.At first he thought it was a bookmark, but when he took it out to have a look, he realized that it was a tourist brochure with a few artistic characters printed on it - "Welcome to Curse Village".

(End of this chapter)