Chapter 50: Sealing the Tomb

This time, Old Master Jiang’s actions seemed too simple to everyone, even to me, his disciple. Compared to the dazzling magic he used in the past, Old Master Jiang’s actions this time were too simple.

He just took the glutinous rice, looked left and right at the stone door, found a position, and pasted the talisman on with the newly steamed glutinous rice.

What is this?

Everyone looked at each other, but dared not question his actions. Only I saw a red alien creature embedded in the stone door in a trance the moment the talisman was affixed to the stone door.

This silver talisman is definitely not simple, even I have this feeling.

This feeling was only momentary. When I came to my senses, I realized that I had just been paying attention to the old man’s actions, but not the stone door. Now I realize that the stone door is too strange.

What can I say? The outer frame of the stone door is carved directly into a large mouth, and I don’t know what kind of animal it is. The two sharp fangs are even more terrifying.

The stone door is carved with strange reliefs. I don’t know what those carvings are, but they are all little people no more than half a meter tall, with bony skeletons and protruding bellies, surrounded by leaves. The strange thing is that the faces of those little people are all abnormally prominent noses and sharp fangs.

The reliefs are extremely vivid. Anyone who looks at those little people has a feeling that they are hungry, very hungry. You can almost see them drooling and looking at anything with greedy eyes, wanting to swallow it all.

The little people in these reliefs are all worshipping a coffin, and on the coffin is carved a strange smile, half-smiling, half-not smiling, with a very strange look in their eyes, as if they are clearly greedy, but trying to pretend to be compassionate. The smile is just a simple smile, with no extra carving to express anything, but everyone feels that the owner of that smile is a woman.

And in the center of the coffin is a heart that is bleeding. The heart makes people not want to look at it a second time because ordinary people can feel the spitefulness.

This is not my wild speculation. The pork next to me is a good proof of my thoughts: “Sanwa, I saw that pig-like thing. It feels like the whole world owes it something. It’s like it’s asking me for a debt.”

I don’t know how to explain this phenomenon, I don’t understand it either, but those strange and extraordinary feelings disappeared after the talisman was affixed for a short while. The stone door became ordinary, and I could no longer experience that cold feeling.

After the old man Jiang had pasted the talisman, he came back and said only one sentence: “Bury it. It’s best to give a heads-up to the person in charge here. Don’t let ordinary people come near here. If something happens, no one can take responsibility.”

After that, the old man took me and Su Rou’s hands and walked out.

“Master, where are we going?” Is this it? Are we leaving?

Old Jiang ignored me and turned to the old Wu master and apprentice and said, “Want to go to my apprentice’s house for a cup of tea?”

“No, I’m going to the old Lin’s place in town to buy some tobacco leaves. If I’m late, they’ll be gone. You should come to my place with your apprentice some other time. I’ll treat you both to something good.” After that, Old Wu took Xiao Ding away.

“Lao Lin’s tobacco leaves, huh, how does this old Wu know about this good stuff?” Old Jiang muttered to himself for a while, but still took me and Su Rou’s hands and walked out.

I said, “Master, is that all? Where are you taking me?”

“Where? Back to your home! What do you mean it’s over? You have to come back tonight. What about the lonely souls?” Old Jiang let go of my hand, patted my cheek, and then continued to walk with me.

At this time, Su Rou was so excited that his fat body was shaking. He said, “Master Jiang, I haven’t even seen a real ghost yet. Can you take me with you tonight?”

I was really impressed by Su Rou. I never noticed how bold he was. Today, he asked to see a ghost. What was the reason for this?

“No! I have no reason to bring you out in the middle of the night! You want to see ghosts? Haha, you just have to follow Sanwa, and you’ll have plenty of opportunities.” Old man Jiang directly rejected Su Rou.

Su Rou was a bit dejected, but then he thought, that’s true. If he ran out in the middle of the night, his father would punish him by not letting him eat for a week.

Forget it, I’ve seen a lot of new things today. Thinking about this, Su Rou was excited again, still acting like he didn’t have a care in the world.

I still can’t get over that stone door, so I asked, “Master, what is carved on that stone door? It makes me feel uncomfortable.”

On hearing this, the old man Jiang’s face fell and for a moment he didn’t say a word.

I waited patiently for the old man to answer me, but Su Rou, without knowing when, took the bag of rotten boiled potatoes from his clothes and began to eat them.

I waited for a long time, but didn’t see the old man answer. I looked up, but all I saw were the old man’s eyes staring at the ‘rotten potatoes’ in the meat.

“Little fat boy, what are you eating?” The old man smiled, and I felt a chill run down my spine.

“Boiled potatoes.” The crispy meat said indistinctly as he stuffed potatoes into his mouth.

“Is it delicious?” the old man asked persistently.

“It’s done. Sprinkle some salt on it. It’s delicious.” Su Rou replied while eating. He had no idea what the old man meant. After all, I had only been with my cheap master for two days, and I still didn’t know what he meant when he asked about the rotten potatoes.

“Fatty, give me some to eat.” After a long silence of nearly half a minute, the old man suddenly shouted angrily, startling me and Su Rou. Su Rou, in particular, almost dropped the potato in his hand.

“Really, I’ve asked you so many times, but you never gave me anything to eat.” The old man grabbed the potato from Su Rou’s hand and began to eat it, muttering to himself.

Su Rou wanted to cry but had no tears. I felt that my face had been completely ruined by this old man. Su Rou was my good friend. I had witnessed him snatch a potato from a child’s hand…

My mind was in a complete mess, so I quickly changed the subject: “Master, you haven’t told me what’s carved on the stone gate yet.”

I guess he must have eaten the potatoes. The old man was in a good mood and answered very directly while munching on them: “Hungry ghost, it’s the kind of guy who eats everything.”

“Cough… cough…” Su Rou coughed violently, and the potatoes in his mouth were sprayed out. It was estimated that he coughed too hard, and some potatoes came out of his nose, making him look as awkward as possible.

After coughing, Su Rou looked directly at me, as if to say that we both understood without having to communicate. The old man was eating potatoes that he had stolen, and he was especially emphasizing that he had stolen the potatoes from a child.

Unfortunately, even if I had the courage of a hundred and twenty, I wouldn’t dare ask the old man if he was a hungry ghost. As for Crispy Meat, even if he had the courage of three hundred and sixty, he wouldn’t dare ask if the old man had anything to do with hungry ghosts.

The old man finished eating the potatoes without a care in the world, clapped his hands, smacked his lips a few times to make sure there was no more crispy meat, coughed twice, and then pretended to be arrogant, walking ahead with his hands behind his back. I guess he was addicted to being the boss in front of crispy meat.

I looked helplessly at the crispy meat, unable to express my feelings in my eyes. I had to hurry up and catch up with the old man.

“Master, are hungry ghosts also ghosts?” I asked. The carving on the stone gate had left a deep impression on me, and I always felt that these hungry ghosts looked a little different.

“Hungry ghosts are just a name. Strictly speaking, they are not ghosts. They are a type of creature. What exactly they are is explained differently by the Buddhist and Taoist schools! The carving you saw is the demon of the hungry ghosts. The coffin they worshiped and buried… should be the ghost mother. Do you know where the legend of the folk ghosts eating people comes from? It’s actually talking about hungry ghosts, not ghosts that are transformed by the souls of the dead.

After the old man Jiang finished speaking, I shuddered. In fact, for me now, I am almost numb to ordinary ghosts, but which child is not afraid of this cannibal ghost? I glanced back at Su Rou, and his goosebumps were rising up his neck. This kid is even worse than me.

I really wanted to know more about hungry ghosts, what kind of ghosts were there, and what kind of existence did hungry ghosts have in the eyes of the master, but I didn’t dare to ask. I guessed that Su Rou, who was standing next to me, didn’t dare to listen either.

Fortunately, the old man didn’t want to say much, just saying, “More than a hundred years ago, hungry ghosts almost disappeared from this world. I didn’t expect there to be such a tomb here… Alas, that place is evil. You two should go less often. Did you hear that?”

Su Rou and I agreed, who would go to see a ghost that wants to eat people? And the ghost’s mother, just thinking about it makes my heart cold.

After saying this, the old man became silent, and his expression was also different from before, heavy. I didn’t know what he was thinking, and anyway, Su Rou and I didn’t dare to ask. After so many things happened today, neither of our brains could fully digest it.