Chapter 25: Possessed by a ghost

The cemetery. The mere thought of the cemetery gave me goosebumps, because I had a bad experience there. This time, my second sister was going to run there again! At this time, don’t tell me that there are no ghosts or gods in the world. After all this happened, even though I was very young, I felt that my worldview had been overturned.

I was scared, I was really scared, but I couldn’t stop, I couldn’t give up on my sister. The cemetery felt like a dark, deep hole to me, and as soon as my sister ran into it, she would be swallowed up!

My sister really did run towards the cemetery. I followed her for a while, and when I was already out of breath, I saw her run into the village’s graveyard.

In this graveyard, the village does not know how many generations of people have been buried here. It is said that during the war, many unknown people were buried here. On ordinary days, if it is not to pay respects to their ancestors, the villagers will not come here at all.

After my sister ran into the graveyard, she stopped, and I also stopped behind her, panting. I was about 10 to 20 meters away from her, and I really couldn’t run any more.

Half crouching, I panted heavily. I raised my head and just wanted to say something to my sister, but I noticed that she had suddenly turned around.

I don’t know if it was the wind that scattered the clouds, or some other reason, but at this time there was already a faint crescent moon hanging in the sky. Because the clouds had not dispersed, the moonlight was dim, but even so, I could clearly see my sister’s face not far from me.

My sister’s expression was strange, looking at me with a smile, but her eyes seemed to contain a lot of things. It was definitely not the pure eyes of my simple sister. In short, in the light of the moon, it was as scary as it could be!

At this time, my parents also caught up with us. My mother half-hugged me, and my father, without even taking a breath, said to my second sister, “Xiao Juan, what are you doing at this late hour? Go back with Dad!”

My sister still had that expression, looking at my father with a half smile, as if she was looking at a stranger, and she didn’t say a word.

My father walked towards her step by step, shouting, “Xiao Juan, let’s go home.”

“Hahaha…” My second sister suddenly burst into laughter. The sound was crazy and unfamiliar, as if she was laughing at how ridiculous my father’s proposal was.

“Xiao Juan, what are you laughing at?” My mother had already started to cry. My mother couldn’t accept the way my second sister was behaving.

My sister stopped laughing, looked at my father with contempt, and then turned and walked again. This time, she didn’t run, but climbed up a large mound behind her, and soon climbed to the top of the mound.

“Don’t come over.” My sister, who had climbed onto the grave, suddenly pointed at my father and said in a very strange voice that was not my sister’s at all.

“Xiao Juan, let’s go home.” My father was unwilling to listen at this time, and he still walked towards my second sister.

“Hahaha…” My sister on the grave began to laugh wildly again, but then she put her hand in her mouth and bit down hard. I don’t know how hard she bit, but she bit down so hard that blood flowed from my sister’s wrist.

“Xiao Juan…” my mother began to cry.

“Don’t you touch my daughter!” my father almost shouted in anger, but he dared not move again.

Seeing that my father was not moving, my second sister on the grave finally stopped biting her hand. She looked at my father again with that contemptuous look, sat down on the grave, and then something even more strange happened.

My second sister actually sat on the grave and started singing opera!

“Beautiful scenery, beautiful scenery, beautiful scenery, beautiful scenery, beautiful scenery, beautiful scenery, beautiful scenery, beautiful scenery, beautiful scenery, beautiful scenery, beautiful scenery, beautiful scenery, beautiful scenery, beautiful scenery, beautiful scenery, beautiful scenery, beautiful scenery, beautiful scenery, beautiful scenery, beautiful scenery, beautiful scenery, beautiful scenery, beautiful scenery, beautiful scenery, beautiful scenery, beautiful scenery, beautiful scenery, beautiful scenery, beautiful scenery, beautiful scenery, beautiful scenery, beautiful scenery, beautiful scenery, beautiful scenery, beautiful scenery, beautiful scenery, beautiful scenery, beautiful scenery, beautiful scenery, beautiful scenery, beautiful scenery, beautiful scenery, beautiful scenery, beautiful scenery, beautiful scenery, beautiful scenery, beautiful scenery,

I really don’t know what kind of opera to appreciate, but I simply feel that in such an environment, sitting on a grave, no matter what my second sister sings, it will make people who see it have nightmares.

My second sister continued to sing, and my parents and I could only watch from below.

I was distressed and helpless, and I was afraid, but I didn’t dare to move an inch. Even as a little girl, I was sad just thinking about leaving my second sister here alone to sing opera, let alone my parents?

We could only stand guard!

The cold wind blew in gusts, the waning moon was sometimes visible, and my sister was so engrossed in her singing that she would sometimes stand up and perform a few movements.

When the sky finally brightened and the village rooster finally crowed for the first time, Erjie stopped singing. She looked at us with an indescribable look in her eyes, and suddenly fainted on the grave.

At this moment, we were like taut strings that had finally been relaxed. We all let out a sigh of relief. My mother even sat down on the ground with me in her arms. She had stood motionless all night guarding my sister. My mother’s legs had long been numb, and she had been supporting herself with sheer willpower.

My father was no better. He moved his hands and feet a little, and after recovering, he plucked up the courage to approach the mound where my sister was sitting. He pulled her down, put her on his back, and started walking. My mother and I quickly followed.

My sister was unconscious on my father’s back. My mother, feeling sorry for her, touched my sister’s body, which was as cold as if she had just been soaked in cold water. This reminded her of the feeling she had when she touched Widow Zhou, and her heart ached, and she began to shed tears again.

On the way, we met Wang Laohan, an old man in the village. When he saw our family, his face looked a little bad and he came over and asked, “What happened to your second sister?”

My parents were stammering and didn’t know what to say, and I didn’t know how to respond, so I just kept quiet.

Wang Laohan didn’t seem to care much about it either. After listening to my parents’ prevarication for a while, he politely said something about paying attention to the child’s medical treatment, and then said to my father with a very unpleasant expression on his face, “Lao Chen, I was on night watch in the field last night, and it wasn’t very peaceful.”

“What happened?” My father was actually not listening to him, and he was very concerned about my second sister.

But Wang Laohan really wanted to talk to someone, and he didn’t care about my father’s perfunctory response. He said directly, “Since midnight last night, I’ve been hearing a woman singing opera. The voice is so terrible, like a ghost, it scared me to death! Old Chen, did you hear it?”

Hearing Wang Laohan say this, our family all felt a chill in our hearts. My father hurriedly said he hadn’t heard anything, and then he comforted Wang Laohan and carried my second sister back home.

When we got home, my eldest sister was already waiting for us with breakfast. Seeing her red eyes, I knew that she had also been awake all night.

Later, I learned that my sister had also been woken up by my cry the night before. She had wanted to come with us, but my father had stopped her and told her to stay in the house. She had also been worried all night.

When she saw my father coming back with my second sister on his back, my eldest sister asked very worriedly, “Dad, what happened to my second sister?”

My father sighed and didn’t answer. My mother went to close the gate of the courtyard and said after a long time, “We’ll talk about it later.”

Then my mother told my eldest sister to get some hot water and wash my second sister all over. Then my father carried my second sister to bed and covered her with a thick quilt.

Finally, my father put out the cigarette in his hand and said with a heavy heart, “I’m going to the market. It’s time to find Master Jiang.”

My sister and I were confused and couldn’t help but ask, “Which Master Jiang?” but didn’t get any answer.

My father went to the market that morning, carrying a bottle of wine and a box of cigarettes. They were gifts from people he had befriended, and he didn’t want to enjoy them himself.

In 1974, with the development of the times, the township government office on the market also installed a telephone. My father knew about it, so he didn’t have to go to the town.

My mother and I went with him. My mother was there to ask for leave for the three children. My second sister would definitely not be able to go to school. My eldest sister had to stay home to take care of my second sister. As for me, my father said inexplicably, “Master Jiang probably would like to hear the voice of the third child the most.”

I really didn’t know who Master Jiang was, and I didn’t understand why he would be happy to hear my voice, but at this time, I wouldn’t cause trouble for my father. Even if I was thinking about it, I didn’t ask anything.

When we arrived at the town, my father found an acquaintance to accompany him. Without much effort, he was given the right to use the telephone after giving some gifts. He took out a piece of paper that looked very old from his pocket and handed it to the person helping in the office, saying, “Please help me make a call on this phone.”

The hand-cranked telephone looked so mysterious to my father that he had no idea how to use it. It was great that someone else could help him make a call.

The man looked at the paper and asked in a somewhat shocked tone, “You don’t have any relatives in Beijing, do you?”

Beijing? My father was stunned. He never imagined that the phone number that the old man copied for him was from Beijing! At that time, how could ordinary people understand where the phone number was from?

The old man became even more mysterious in my father’s eyes.