Tomb Keeper

Chapter 10 Leaf's Room (3)

At the dinner table that day, I casually talked about why the driver who came here in the morning honked his horn desperately. Zhou's mother took my words and said, "It's not surprising. More than two years ago, a car was hit and killed at that turn." A mother and son, people, where did they leave in the end, they will always come back to see.

I was surprised to say, there is such a thing?Are the mother and son buried in this cemetery?Zhou's mother said, they are all from the neighborhood, how could they spend this money?There is plenty of land in front of and behind the house.Those who come here to buy cemeteries are all from the county and provincial capitals.

Yang Huzi kept silent, just immersed himself in eating, as if he was used to this kind of thing, after putting down his job, he suddenly arranged a special task for me.At midnight tonight, you go to the back mountain for a walk.He told me seriously that a new tomb has just been built today, and that grave robbers should be prevented from trying to get there.

Grave robbery?I said it was impossible, since all the ashes are buried now, what is there to steal?

Yang Huzi said, hey, you don't know that, tomb robbers always hope that there are rings, bracelets and so on buried in the tomb.The company headquarters has informed me that this kind of thing has happened in some cemeteries, and we need to be vigilant and strengthen inspections of new graves.So, you go there to check it out tonight, and then go with someone else tomorrow night.You have been here for several days, and you are familiar with the situation of the cemetery, right?

I quickly said that I was not familiar with it, and Ye Zi took me around, but I didn't go to the back mountain.If you really want me to go tonight, ask Ye Zi to go with me.

Ye Zi immediately said firmly, I'm sick, didn't you see that I just took medicine before meals?

Yang Huzi twirled the beard on his chin with his hands and thought about it, and said, how about it, ask the dumb to go with you, it's settled like this, I'll give you a flashlight later.

I'm miserable.I thought about refusing, but Yang Huzi will definitely tell me to leave if I do that, and my plan to uncover the dense fog here will be in vain.

I remained restless in my room until midnight.During this time, I wanted to flick through the "Strange Tales from a Liaozhai Studio" that Ye Zi lent me to waste time, but I felt creepy after reading a page.Putting down the book, I thought of singing to strengthen my courage, so I sang Jay Chou's "Nunchaku" in a low voice.The more I sang, the more energetic I became, amidst gusts of wind and water, I suddenly became a crackling martial arts hero.

Suddenly, Yang Huzi knocked on the door and told me that it was time.So I took the flashlight and went out, and the mute was already waiting for me in the yard.

In the middle of the night, it was also the time when Yang Huzi had calculated that the tomb robbers might come and go, and the mute and I had gone deep into the vast cemetery.It is said to be vast, but in the darkness at this time, only the things illuminated by the flashlight can be seen.The stone slabs on the path were one after another, weeds sprouted between the stone slabs, and the grass blades trembled, but they didn't feel the wind.I tried not to let the flashlight shine on both sides of the path. I didn't want to see the endless piles of graves and tombstones on both sides holding me as if I was walking between the gates of hell.

I asked the dumb man, has the back mountain not arrived yet?As soon as the words came out of my mouth, I realized that the words were in vain.Ten dumb and nine deaf, I had no choice but to follow him to the end.

As the path keeps turning, I feel that I have reached the back of the mountain.Suddenly, the mute yelled "ahhh", and grabbed my flashlight to shine forward - a new grave appeared in the light circle of the flashlight, a pole of the soul-calling flag stood alone on the grave, and a layer of firecrackers was spread beside the grave Red and white confetti left behind.

We walked over and walked around the tomb without seeing anything unusual. In front of the tombstone, there was a remnant of scented wax, several piles of black paper money ash mixed with gray and white, and a pile of fruits, which were piled up in front of the tomb in the shape of "pin".When I shot the flashlight at these fruits, I suddenly saw that half of one of the fruits had been eaten, and the remaining half was still full of tooth marks.

I couldn't help gasping, and immediately pulled the dumb over, pointing to the fruit for him to see.The dumb man gestured to me, still yelling "ahhh", but I couldn't figure out what he meant.

In any case, it cannot stay here for long.I gestured to the mute to go back, and started to escape from this place.After walking a few steps, the dumb man chased after me, grabbed my arm, and asked me to go to another fork.The mute yelled earnestly, thinking he would have no bad intentions, so I followed him into the side road.Not far away, he grabbed the flashlight and took a picture of another grave, and walked over, only to see the inscription on the tombstone—the tomb of Yao Leilei, and the date of life and death below is "1990.7.19-1998.8.2", and then The inscription below reads "Mother Yuan Yanjie stands in mourning".

My heart suddenly became heavy.Presumably this is a single mother who buried her eight-year-old son here.Although the tomb has existed for ten years in terms of time, I can still feel the sorrow of a mother here.

I asked the mute loudly, what do you want me to see this grave for?What are you doing?At the same time try to express my doubts with gestures.The dumb man half-raised his outstretched hands, and at the same time stretched out his tongue in a frightening manner.I pointed to the grave and stuck out my tongue and said, do you think this child is a ghost?The mute nodded in approval, and then gestured with his hand under his chin.I understand, Yang Huzi is afraid of this brat.

Strange to say, after seeing this child's grave, my fear of this midnight cemetery suddenly eased a lot.Perhaps it was the power of human emotion that infected me. The word "Aili" left by a mother on the tombstone made me no longer regard the tombstone as a cold and terrifying thing.On the way back, my flashlight not only shone on the path, but also intentionally or unintentionally swayed on the graves and tombstones beside the road. It was not until I remembered the half-eaten fruit in front of the new grave that the sense of fear shrouded it again. I.

I finally got back to my room.I let out a sigh of relief, the arduous task assigned to me by Yang Huzi was finally completed.I turned off the lights and went to sleep, but there were always grave mounds and tombstones in front of my eyes.I turned over, but suddenly something kicked under my feet.I sat up and touched it, like a shoe.I turned on the light and saw clearly that what I was holding in my hand was a black round cloth shoe with a white sole, very thin.I suddenly realized, aren’t these the kind of shoes worn on the feet of dead people walking the road to hell?
I yelled and threw the ghost shoe behind the door.I wanted to yell "Come on", but my mouth was wide open, but I couldn't make a sound as if I was holding my breath.

I decided to leave the cemetery.I don't think many people have experienced the feeling of a nervous breakdown. I think it is scarier than a near-death experience.

What happened in my room in the middle of the night yesterday, everyone was startled by my howling.However, I did not get sympathy and help. On the contrary, this bizarre incident caused me to receive some doubts and accusations.First of all, Yang Huzi, he picked up the shoe and looked at it and said, well, when you went to the cemetery just now, did you laugh and laugh by the new grave, or did you sit on the tombstone with your butt?So the dead will use this method to warn you.I hurriedly declared that I had never done any disrespectful behavior near the new grave, and asked the mute to testify to me.Yang Huzi turned his head to the mute, and the mute screamed and gestured "Ahhh", I don't know what he meant, but Yang Huzi still believed that I deserved what I deserved.At this time, Mother Zhou took the scary shoe and looked at it and said, well, this matter has nothing to do with the old man buried in the new grave. Judging from the size and style of the shoe, it is a women's shoe.Having said that, Mother Zhou stared at me for a while, and then asked, has it been a long time since you burned paper for your girlfriend?Falling off a plane is bad enough, if you don't burn some papers often, of course she will come to you.I couldn't argue for a while, but in short, I suddenly became a heartless person.

At this time, Poet Feng who was standing in my room spoke.He pointed to the small yellow flower I put in the bottle and said, where did you get this flower, did you pick it from the grave?But in this cemetery, apart from my fiancée's grave, where is there such a flower?It was planted by me, you picked it, you deserve to be punished.I was in a hurry to show that I didn’t know anything about it. The dumb man picked the flower for me, but Poet Feng couldn’t let go of his resentment. He said angrily, hum, dumb, what does the dumb know?It's not that you asked him to pick it.

Among the voices of questioning and accusations against me, only Ye Zi remained silent and cast a sympathetic look at me.After everyone had dispersed, I was about to throw that terrible shoe out of the window when I suddenly heard movement outside the door. I walked over and saw a note slipped through the crack under the door.I picked up the note and took a closer look at it under the lamp. It said "It's better to go back" written on it.

Yes, it’s better to go back. This reminder made me breathe a sigh of relief like a lost person at night seeing Beidou.I looked at the ghost shoe thrown on the ground, and it was a women's shoe. Maybe the people here didn't tell the truth about its origin.I think the biggest possibility is that Zihua's dead soul is at work.She told me in the car not to stay here, and then called here in the middle of the night to find me.But I insisted on going my own way, and she had to use this method to get me out of here.I looked again at the note that was stuffed in from under the door. Whether these words were written by the leaves or the purple flowers made it difficult for me to determine for a while.

I'm starting to prepare to leave here.First of all, I should return the little yellow flower that is about to wither to the grave.I called the mute into the room, gave him the flowers, let him take them away, and gestured to him the shape of the grave with both hands.But the mute dragged me, which meant that I had to go too.I thought about it and it made sense, so I went to the safekeeping room to get three sticks of incense, and went to the cemetery with the mute with the flowers.The tomb is also on the back hill. Under the noon sun, there are more grave mounds here than on the front hill. Looking up, one of the grave mounds is really full of these small yellow flowers.I returned the flower I brought back to the flowers, and then I put three sticks of incense in front of the grave and lit it.At this time, I found that Poet Feng was wandering not far away, and I thought he would never blame me again from now on.

(End of this chapter)