Tomb Keeper

Chapter 14 Reconciliation with the Village Chief (1)

This day, I slept until 10 am and didn't get up.Washing my hair and feet with Mama Zhou's rice washing water might really help. After being so frightened, I slept peacefully and didn't even have a nightmare.After getting up, I went downstairs. The sun had already illuminated half of the yard. The black cat was basking in the sun with its stomach turned over. The rooster was looking for food near the base of the wall. Its feathers were as red as fire.

Ye Zi was answering the phone in the main room, and I heard her last words were, well, that's it, the dead cannot be resurrected, and choosing a good cemetery is also a comfort to the living.Seeing me coming in, she put down the phone and said, you look good. I didn't answer her words, but said, it seems that your business ability is really strong, and you can speak well to customers, no wonder I let you act as an agent Supervisor.She said, this supervisor is not easy to do, so let me arrange for you to visit the tomb at night, and you will make up ghosts and ghosts to embarrass me after only one night.You know, when you went to the city to run errands a few days ago, I also visited the tomb at night by myself, and nothing happened.

Ye Zi treats me like this makes me anxious.I said, there is a woman named Shuiyan living under the back mountain, you know, if it wasn't for the ghost chasing me all the way, how could I run down the back mountain?Originally, I didn't want to tell Ye Zi about meeting Shui Yan, but wanted to observe her secretly for a period of time, but she thought my encounter with a ghost was a fabricated story, so I had no choice but to tell the whole story.

Ye Zi laughed after listening to my story.She said, Shuiyan's family thought I was a ghost, didn't they?Well, you will go to her house with me now.Otherwise, I can't bear the burden of her child crying to death in the future.

Just go, this is a good opportunity for me to observe and understand the leaves.We went out of the courtyard together and headed towards Shuiyan's house along the road at the foot of the mountain.Halfway there, an oncoming motorcycle stopped in front of us, and the young man who was driving got off the bike and said, Ye Zi, where are you going?Ye Zi said vaguely, go for a walk.The young man patted the back seat of the motorcycle and said, I'll take you there.Ye Zi said, Brother Luo, no need, didn't you see that I still have colleagues along the way?After finishing speaking, Ye Zi and I continued to walk forward.When I looked back after walking for a while, the young man was still standing there looking at us.I said to Ye Zi, that man is so strange, still staring at us, Ye Zi said, don't care about him.I asked again, who is this Brother Luo?Ye Zi said, he is the son of the village chief, who runs a cement precast factory and wanted me to work as an accountant in his factory, but I refused.I said, it's good to be an accountant, why not?She said, I like guarding the tomb.There was a "thud" in my heart, there must be a secret in this unreasonable logic.

When I was approaching Shuiyan’s house, I saw yellow paper with words written on many trees along the way. I stopped in front of a tree and read the words on the yellow paper——

children cry at night,

Please read it;

If you don't cry,

Thank you Jun Wanfu.

I asked the leaves, what does this mean?Ye Zi said that this is a rural custom, or witchcraft, and if more people read it, children will stop crying at night.It seems that Shuiyan tried every means to keep the child from crying.

When she came to Shuiyan's house, she was stringing corn cobs on the open space, and was going to hang the corn on the eaves to dry.Seeing us coming, she stood up and said to me, why, did you call Ye Zi?Last night my brother regarded you as a thief, that was a misunderstanding, what else do you want?You don't know, there are always some strange noises outside my room until midnight, we have to guard against it.

Ye Zi said, yes, what happened last night was a misunderstanding.But there is still a misunderstanding that needs to be cleared up today.

Shui Yan asked in confusion, what is the misunderstanding?Ye Zi said, is grandma at home?Tell her to bring out a sewing needle.

The old woman came out, holding a sewing needle in her hand, Ye Zi took the needle and pricked her arm in the blink of an eye, then she raised her arm for Shui Yan and the old woman to take a closer look.Look, what is this bright red thing?Is it blood?Ghosts don't have blood, right?

Shui Yan and the old woman nodded in agreement.Shuiyan said embarrassedly, we never said you were a ghost.It's just that there are always people in this area who are suspicious of you.

Ye Zi said to Shui Yan, don't listen to those nonsense.Your husband is working outside, so you should focus on raising the child well.If the child cries all the time, it must be because he is not feeling well, so he needs to see a doctor.As Ye Zi said, she took out another red envelope and stuffed it into Shui Yan. I haven't congratulated the child yet, let's make it up today.Shuiyan declined for a while, then accepted the red envelope, and said gratefully, thank you, in the future, if there are people making noise at your place, just stay at my house.

What Ye Zi did this time made me think for a long time.She proved to the outside world and at the same time to me that she is not a ghost.Is it to show that the ghost I met last night has nothing to do with her?Actually, I didn't think so, because last night in the dark I couldn't be sure if the ghost was a woman.However, when another night fell and Ye Zi did not make any changes to the arrangement of letting me visit the tomb alone, I began to suspect her.Since she wanted me to leave here out of fear, wouldn't I escape from the cemetery sooner if ghosts appeared again when I was visiting the tomb?Thinking of this, I am not so afraid in my heart, I just want to stick to it, and tonight, I decided to let Ye Zi's design be exposed.

Nearly midnight, I was about to go out, but I couldn't find the flashlight. Only then did I recall what happened last night. I must have dropped the flashlight in the back mountain when I ran away in panic.Fortunately, there are stars in the sky tonight, and it is not so dark on the graveyard, so I went out resolutely.When I went out, I made the courtyard door loud on purpose to let Ye Zi know that I had gone out.

Walking out of the courtyard gate and down the long stone steps, I didn't go up to the cemetery, but walked through the open space full of weeds in front of the gate, and hid behind a big tree.You can see the courtyard gate and stone steps from here. I want to see what she looks like after Ye Zi follows her out.I'm going to follow her to the cemetery, and let me, a ghost, scare her half to death, and then force her to tell the truth.Before dark, I have placed my props behind this tree, which is a round cover made of thatch that is as high as half a person. I cover it from the head, so that the gaps between the grass blades allow I saw the outside world, but when others looked at me, I was a straw man with no head and body but walking on two feet. This kind of monster appeared on the cemetery in the middle of the night, it was scary enough.

My design was perfect, but the courtyard gate on the long stone steps remained motionless, and no one followed it out.I began to doubt my thoughts, if the experience last night was not caused by leaves, then... my back began to feel cold.

Unwilling to be reconciled, I suddenly thought of a hill in front of the mountain. Standing there, I can overlook the small building of the gravekeeper, including the windows of the attic and the platform connecting the attic.I decided to go up to the hill to have a look. If Ye Zi was still in the house, there should be lights on. She has a long-standing habit of reading at night, or dressing up in scarlet pajamas.

In order to meet the leaves halfway, I covered the thatch from my head, and then walked towards the grave hill.The starlight on the cemetery is dim, and the rows of tombstones appear under the starlight, making people feel more eerie than their standing in the darkness.I walked up the hill, and when I looked down at the small building, the scene I least wanted to see appeared, the lights were on in the attic, and there was still a faint figure shaking in the window, which showed that the idea that Ye Zi followed me to scare me was purely My own invention.

I thought of the ghost from last night, with two protruding eyeballs—and the hanged person is said to have protruding eyeballs.I suddenly thought of the girl in the attic who had been hanged many years ago.Yes, there are two people living in the attic, one is tangible and the other is invisible.

At this time, a "wow" suddenly came from the depths of the graveyard, it was the cry of a night bird, the voice was hoarse and shrill, and I couldn't help shaking.The forms of life in this world are different and never connected. My childish thinking tonight can only show that I know very little about the world.

I came down from the hill with trembling legs, and hurried back to my place through the cemetery. At the turn of the grave path, something terrible happened-I heard a heavy snoring, as if someone was sleeping in the cemetery like.In fact, everything is not "as if", because I soon saw a figure lying beside the grave.I stepped back in fear, but tripped over a tombstone behind me.At that moment, I saw the starry sky spinning, and I thought for a moment that people could use dizziness to avoid terror.

Bai Mei from the newspaper office called, but unfortunately I didn't answer it.Ye Zi said, that person said she was your cousin, but I don't think so.Because she didn't say what she wanted from you, and she didn't ask you to call her back. She just said, please tell him that I called.I asked Ye Zidao, why didn't you call me?Ye Zi said, didn't you say, don't call you in the morning, don't you want to sleep for a while?
This is what I said to the leaves.My righteousness is due to the fact that my tomb patrol at night is really too hard and too scary.In any case, this arrangement made me angry with Ye Zi, and I want to fight back for my right, which is don't bother me when I go to bed in the morning.

(End of this chapter)