Ghost Blowing Lantern II

Amidst the incomprehensible words of the fat man and the swallow, I hurriedly pushed away the dead man's feet hanging on my chest and moved my body back a little. Unexpectedly, there was also a dead body hanging on my back, and I hit it. It started to shake immediately, and there was a sound of thick hemp ropes rubbing against the wood above my head. I didn't know how many hanged people were around in the darkness, so I had to lie down on the ground, but I could still feel the pairs of feet wearing cotton shoes like "pendulums." Generally, it was hanging above my body and rocking back and forth.

I was already breaking out in a sweat. I just fell down the stone steps. I didn’t know where I had left my satchel. I couldn’t find it in the dark, so I had to quickly say to Yanzi: “Swallow, come up to Liangzi! Look where we fell. Here we come." You must not mention the word "fire" near the forest farm, or even words next to the word "fire", such as "light a lamp" or "candle". If you have to say "light a lamp", It can only be replaced by "Shang Liangzi". This is not superstitious, but out of taboo. Just like the fire department that responds to fire alarms, the font size must always be "firefighting" instead of "fire extinguishing".

Swallow just rolled down the stone steps and was knocked to pieces. She was a little confused. After hearing my greeting to her, "Go to Liangzi," she finally came to her senses. She took out a pine candle and lit it. Although the air could circulate in the depths, it was still full of turbid gas that made people's eyes water. It was good to light a pine candle. The weak light was green and cold and clear. There were too many impurities in the air, which blocked the light. Through conduction, the light of a pine candle is not much stronger than a will-o'-the-wisp, and cannot even illuminate an area of ​​one meter square.

Under the flickering candlelight, I was eager to see if there was a hanged man above my head, but I didn't know whether it was because the light from the pine candle was too dim, or because I was dizzy from just rolling around. It was as if a layer of gauze was suddenly covered in front of my eyes. No matter how hard I opened my eyes, I couldn't see anything clearly. The only thing that could be vaguely discerned was the light of the candle. But in my eyes, the candlelight turned into a hazy green light, floating in front of me. Sometimes far, sometimes close.

I rubbed my eyes hard, but I still couldn't see clearly, but I heard someone whispering behind the light, seeming to be saying something to me. I couldn't help but wonder, who was talking? Fatty and Yanzi are both big guns, and they speak with loud and confident voices, but if not them, who is mumbling behind the candle? I could neither see nor hear clearly, but people have a subconscious tendency. The harder they hear, the more they want to hear what is being said. I stretched my neck to get closer.

As my body moved, I suddenly felt a chill in my heart, and I vaguely felt that something was not right. Although I had not yet figured out what was wrong, the hazy light shadow in front of me seemed to have been seen somewhere, and it was approaching. The pine candle was in danger, and I repeatedly warned myself in my mind, but the thought of realizing the danger of the candle could not overwhelm my inner desire to get closer to the candle. I still continued to move forward involuntarily, and was already far away from the pine candle. The green light from the candle was getting closer.

It was clear that he had just touched the feet of the hanged man wearing cotton shoes, and after lighting the candle, the hanged body, as well as the swallow and the fat man, all seemed to have suddenly disappeared, leaving only the flickering bit of the candle. Light, I suddenly thought of the hanged man looking for a substitute, which is to lure people into the noose. Seeing that green light was so close, I wanted to shrink back quickly, but my body felt like it was in a nightmare, and I couldn't stand it at all. I kept using it, but only my head and neck could move at this time. They were all damn will-o'-the-wisps. I was completely driven by the instinct of survival. Without thinking, I tried my best to aim at the green light of the pine candle and blew it out in one breath.

The pine candle's green light, like a will-o'-the-wisp, was extinguished by me in one breath. Instead, the whole cellar suddenly lit up, and the choking stench disappeared. I looked down and saw that I was standing on an earthen bed. On the edge of the kang, my hands were holding a thick hemp rope and wrapping it around my neck. I cursed secretly and quickly pushed the hemp rope aside.

Before I had time to take a closer look at where I was, I found Fatty and Yanzi standing beside me. They were pulling at the hemp rope that had fallen from the roof and planned to hang themselves. Yanzi was holding a lit candle in his hand. Pine candle, but the flame was no longer green. I quickly reached out to take the pine candle from Yanzi's hand, and pulled off the hemp rope in front of them. The two of them coughed and woke up again from their trance.

I didn't bother to think carefully about the nightmare-like and frightening experience just now. I first looked at the surrounding situation. I looked up and saw that deep in the underground cellar was a small house with an earthen kang. We fell down from the stone steps and fell in a heap. On the ground, I didn’t know when I climbed up on the earth kang in a daze, and almost hung myself in the house by stepping on the edge of the earth kang. The size of the inside of this underground cellar is similar to that of an ordinary house. It is very dry inside, with earth stoves, earth platforms and fire pits. , just like ordinary people in the mountains, there are several beams and citrons on top, and there are countless nooses tied with thick hemp ropes hanging on the wood. Raw silk copper wires are added to the hemp ropes, so they will not decay and break like ordinary hemp ropes over time. .

Among the countless nooses, four male corpses were hung. The corpses had been dried by the cold wind in the cellar. The four "old men" all stuck out their tongues and stared. The purple skin of the mummies made death... The expression at the end was even more horrifying. Because the rope had been hanging for too long, the deceased's neck had been stretched a lot.

Swallows are so afraid of ghosts, whether they are mountain ghosts, water ghosts or hanged ghosts. When they see the four thrilling "old men" in the light of pines and candles, they are so scared that they quickly cover their eyes. I He and the fat man didn't say anything for a long time, and it was really unlucky to meet someone hanging on him.

I saw a copper oil lamp at the end of the kang with residual pine oil inside, so I took the pine candle and lit it. The room became much brighter. I held up the oil lamp and shined it with the light, and found four hangings. The dead male corpses were all dressed in the same clothes, black clothes, black shoes, black trousers, and even the hats on their heads were black, except for the belt, socks and hat thorns tied around the waist. , in fact, there are many kinds of red. They are bright red, pig blood red. I don’t see anything special about this outfit, but it shouldn’t be too old. It seems to be from twenty or thirty years ago. I guess the Wong Tai Sin Temple buried in the ground was probably dug out by this group of people. Unexpectedly, they could not get out after entering. As soon as we entered the underground cave, we started to rope ourselves as if we were paranoid. If I hadn't blown out the will-o'-the-wisp, there would already be three more dead people hanging in the cellar. People say that a dead person who hangs himself must trick a living person into hanging himself before he can be reincarnated. Could it be that we were just possessed by "Old Diaoye" and fell under a demonic barrier?

The fat man regained his composure at this time. He pointed at the four "old men" and cursed loudly. He almost let these hanged ghosts get in. Thinking about it made his teeth itch with hatred. There was a vat for lamp oil in the cellar. , the fat man kept cursing while making preparations to pour lamp oil on the hanging dead people and light their sky lanterns.

I thought it would be better to burn them to prevent them from causing trouble and killing people in the future, but as soon as I got up, I discovered that there was a crack in the wall on the side. The crack in the wall was not cracked by the old house, but was left out intentionally. There was still space behind the cellar, but it was partitioned off by an earthen wall. We couldn't notice it in the darkness, but there were two small green lamps peering at us from behind the cracks in the wall above the earthen partition.