Chapter 27 He’s back (1)

“Xiu Yun, usually when a spirit haunts someone, it’s because they have some unfinished business. My husband, for example, was worried about me and our orphaned mother when he died, and he couldn’t bear to leave, so he haunts me. Why don’t you ask what the spirit that haunts your second sister wants?” Mrs. Zhou said sincerely.

“But that thing doesn’t seem to have any unfinished business. I feel like she’s just going to get my second sister and won’t stop until she’s dead.” My mother was bitter, but she could still say a few words of truth to Mrs. Zhou, after all, the two of them had shared the same joys and sorrows.

After a long pause, Mrs. Zhou said to my mother with a rather heavy expression on her face, “This thing may be an evil thing. I heard that when Mr. Zhou was alive, he said that this kind of ghost is ordinary, an ordinary ghost. There is a kind of ghost that is an evil ghost, and even he is afraid to provoke it. That kind of ghost has a lot of grievances and no scruples. Anyway, it is annoying to be haunted by it. In this matter, I’m afraid you have to find Master Jiang.”

“I looked for him, but after so long, there’s still no news. I’m so worried…”

At that time, communication was far less developed, and my parents had no other choice but to wait.

Three days passed, and the village became gloomy because of my sister’s situation. The peace and tranquility of the past was gradually disappearing. Everyone had something on their mind, and they met less often to chat and say hello. Every night, every household went to bed early, but many people could still hear the strange sound of opera in the middle of the night.

Because my second sister’s condition had become so serious that every night after 11 o’clock, she would sing as she walked to the grave.

I dare not say, and I dare not admit, that in my heart I think my second sister is about to die. Now in the daytime, she almost never opens her eyes. When she occasionally opens her eyes, the look in her eyes is no longer the same as it was a few days ago, but rather a vengeful look that carefully examines everyone in my family, as if she is thinking about something.

I knew that it was definitely not my second sister, but the female ghost! Look, the female ghost can even haunt my second sister in the daytime. Isn’t my second sister dying?

I was very sad when I thought about this, but I could do nothing about it.

I thought about the night in the graveyard and the tiger claw hanging around my neck. I wanted to take it off and give it to my sister, but my parents stopped me. I didn’t even have a chance to secretly put it on her.

Because they were now guarding my sister day and night, my father had not worked for several days.

Finally, I couldn’t hold it in any longer and asked my father, “This thing really works, why don’t you let me put it on my sister?”

My father thought about it for a long time, and finally answered me for the first time with a helpless look: “If you take it off, I’m afraid the consequences will be even more serious, and something even more unexpected will happen. Besides, it’s not certain that it will save your sister. I will do my best for your sister, but I can’t afford to lose another son.”

What my father meant was a little difficult for me to understand at the time, but I understood that if I took it off, something even more terrible would happen, and I couldn’t take it off.

So, I was powerless. It felt like a cold hand was gripping my little heart, making me feel heavier and more oppressed than ever before.

Three days later, an old man appeared in the village.

The old man was dirty, wearing a gray short-sleeved polyester shirt with his chest bared, and a pair of pants with baggy legs and a bulging crotch, tied with a piece of cloth. The funny thing was that the bulging pants, one leg of which was raised above his knee, and the other was just hanging down, looked like he had just finished working in the fields.

If you look more closely, the gray shirt he is wearing is actually white! It’s just that it’s so dirty that you can’t see the color.

His hair was messy, his beard was tangled, and there were some inexplicable marks on his face, which were hard to tell whether they were dust or dirt.

This old man appeared in the village in the afternoon without a sound, carrying two hands on his back. He looked around the fields in September with his shifty eyes, and occasionally laughed.

It was as if he was also admiring the fields in September, and the ripe crops were so abundant.

This old man made the village children, aged six or seven, feel puzzled and wary, but the adults in the village felt a sense of familiarity for no reason. This image was too familiar to them. Wasn’t this the old man Jiang who had disappeared from the village for a long time?

After he disappeared, the people in the village also talked about him. Everyone had some sympathy for a lonely old man, even if the old man was very lewd. Some people had worried that Old Jiang might have frozen to death during the very cold Spring Festival seven years ago, but when they mentioned it, everyone denied it.

They were more willing to believe that the old man had gone to stay with relatives. Didn’t his second uncle come here once?

“Is that old man Jiang?” Some villagers in the village began to greet him. The simple villagers had feelings for someone who had been “wandering” in the village for so long, otherwise they would not have felt so close.

“Yes, yes,” Jiang Laoren responded enthusiastically.

“Where have you been all these years? I haven’t seen you for ages,” another enthusiastic villager asked.

“I went to visit my relatives in the north. I missed the chili peppers here, the girls are pretty, and I’m back. By the way, does Liu Fang in the village miss me? You can’t lie to me, tell me the truth, does she miss me?” Old Jiang answered seriously, and the villagers present were all black lines, but in the end they couldn’t help but burst into laughter.

Old man Jiang is just like that, never changing. Liu Fang is the prettiest girl in the village, and Old man Jiang loves to follow others. Once, he was so angry that he chased after Liu Fang with a broom. Even so, he couldn’t chase Old man Jiang away, and the next day he followed Liu Fang just the same.

Fortunately, the villagers later got used to his character, so they let him go. But when he came back, hehe…

“Old man Jiang, Liu Fang is married now, I don’t think she misses you…” one of the villagers joked.

When the old man returned, it was like an injection of vitality into the village, which had been in a state of panic. Everyone was inexplicably happy, and the haze of the past few days seemed to have been swept away.

Liu Fang got married? This sentence was like a bolt of thunder that hit the old man’s heart. The old man immediately became depressed, muttering, “Really, Liu Fang didn’t even consider me, and Liu Fang didn’t even wait for me. I have to go earn a dowry.”

“Alas…alas…alas…” Jiang Laoren sighed repeatedly, looking heartbroken.

Old man Liu Fang was also in the crowd, and he was both angry and amused by the old man Jiang. Who in the village didn’t know that the old man was a train wreck? Let him say what he wants. Look at him. He’s not really going to marry Liu Fang.

“Old man Jiang, the eggplants in my garden are ripe. Would you like to come and eat some fresh eggplants?”

“Old Jiang, the tomatoes in my garden are still hanging on the vines, bright red and delicious. Do you want to…”

“Old man Jiang, my family…”

“…”

“No, no, Liu Fang is married. Today, I’m going to go on a hunger strike and not go!” The old man put his hands behind his back and walked away in a very depressed mood, leaving behind him a trail of laughter.

The people looked at his back and thought that the old man was so funny. They thought that they would definitely get him some fresh produce from the fields some other day, and that they would not let him work! The simple villagers all thought this way.

The old man left in a flash, and the villagers dispersed. They had gotten used to it many years ago. The old man was unpredictable. At this time, some of the more active villagers would wonder when the old man would return. Why didn’t he see any luggage? Is he still living on the mountain?

But they didn’t think too deeply about it. The old man seemed to be very present, but also very inconspicuous. His arrival was just as mysterious as his departure. People seemed to have gotten used to his “appearing and disappearing.”

My family didn’t know that the old man had returned. It was only because of my second sister that my parents hadn’t left the house for several days. Except when my second sister went out to sing opera at night, they would follow her.

Nowadays, my parents rarely take a break.

When the old man was causing trouble in the village, my mother was feeding my second sister porridge. My second sister no longer eats any food on her own initiative. She was already thin, but now she is even more like a skeleton.

My parents were extremely distressed by this situation, and in desperation, they had to finely chop lean meat and vegetables, add some rice, and boil it into a gruel-like consistency. When it cooled down, they forced it down my sister’s throat!

Even so, my second sister swallowed very little and vomited a lot, and the situation was extremely bad.

At this point, my parents’ only hope was the old man. They didn’t believe that he would “break his promise,” and their trust in him was as strong as it had been in the past. However, after a long time, they became impatient, and a large cluster of blisters appeared at the corners of their mouths.