Ghost Blowing Lantern II

I hurriedly asked why. It turned out that the old shopkeeper had a great reputation during the Republic of China. Everyone in the black and white circles knew about Baoding Mansion's "Salesman Li". Many guests from all over the world came here to order strange things from him. Many years ago, there was a businessman with an abacus who specially came to order a "gold steel umbrella" and left a diagram and the secret recipe of the alloy ratio. However, when the old shopkeeper finished making the "gold steel umbrella", the merchant turned out to be "Huang Heyi" "He left without a trace" and never came back to get his umbrella. Now, after so many years, it is expected that that person is no longer alive.

I took the "gold steel umbrella" in my hand and looked at it again and again. The material felt and felt the same as the previous handle. With this thing with me, I dared to walk back and forth even through mountains of swords and seas of fire. I couldn't help but feel a burst of ecstasy. I didn't bother to bargain at the moment, I just paid the price according to the price offered by the old shopkeeper.

I saw that Shopkeeper Li was also an "old Jianghu". Maybe I could get some information from him, so I asked him where "Qingxi Town" was? Was there a great king whose head was beheaded in ancient times?

The old shopkeeper said: "Seeing that you have spent a lot of money to buy these sharp instruments, and you are all experts in knowing the goods, when you come to Wushan this time, you are definitely not doing something trivial. Moreover, you are so generous with money, and there is a lot of anxiety in your eyebrows. Presumably it's not a matter of making money. If I read it correctly, it's probably a matter of rescuing someone in distress. We are both from the rivers and lakes, so we should naturally help each other. However, I am also a guest here and have been suffering from old illnesses for decades. On weekdays, I rarely go out and don’t know much about the local scenery, so I’m afraid I won’t be able to help.”

I politely said: "We have accepted the old shopkeeper's wishes. We are just going to find others to inquire." After that, I wanted to take everyone to leave.

The old shopkeeper said: "Wait a minute, I haven't finished speaking yet. I only have a god-granddaughter named Yao Meier. Her family is originally from Qingxi. Why don't you let her tell you about it." He called Yao Meier over and asked him to come over. She came to talk about things in Qingxi Town.

Yao Meier didn't know what we wanted to do, so she asked curiously: "Qingxi Town? It has been gone for more than ten years. There are hanging things on the road, making it impossible to get there. What are you doing with it?"

I heard the old shopkeeper say that Yaomei'er's ancestral home is Qingxi Town, and I thought to myself: "Finally, we have found a solution." I quickly asked about it and found out that there was a very ancient town in the Wushan Mountains called Wu Town. The place name of my home is known to everyone in the local area.

However, it is said that this place is where Wuxian Tomb is located, so people in the town avoid the word "Witch" and call the town "Qingxi". Many outsiders don't know this. There are mineral resources in the mountains, which are extremely rich. It has suffered many wars, and the resources in the mountains are increasingly depleted, the population is gradually lost, and it is becoming more and more deserted.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the whole country was "preparing for war and famine." In order to implement the three defenses of "air defense, poison prevention, and nuclear prevention", war-ready air-raid shelters and warehouses were rebuilt in the original mines. Around 1971, the residents near Qingxi were It was moved to several surrounding counties, but there were many mines in the area and the earth's crust was severely damaged. Sections of the air-raid shelters were repaired and collapsed, and the construction progress was not smooth. However, as current events changed, the air-raid shelters were half built before being abandoned and abandoned. As time went by, the entire ancient town It has long become a forgotten no man's land.

Although Yao Meier is from Qingxi, her surname is not Feng, and she does not know that there is a legend about the headless king in ancient times. When the people of Qingxi moved to the town, she moved here with her family. Her parents died, leaving her alone. One was taken in by the old shopkeeper.

Yaomei'er left home at the age of eleven, and she still remembers most things in Qingxi Town. She said that there are three roads in Qingxi, one is the waterway. It is midsummer now, and the water in the rivers has surged, and it is dangerous and difficult to travel; the roads are in disrepair for a long time. , there are landslides in many places, and it is impossible to pass; only a section of the ancient plank road is still intact. The plank road was built in the Qin Dynasty and is only five feet wide, so it is called "Five Feet Road". It takes a lot of trouble to go around the mountain through the ancient plank road.

I immediately unfolded the map and asked Yao Meier to draw directions. It would be best if I could explain in detail the specific locations of the "mines and air-raid shelters" in Qingxi Town.

At this time, the old shopkeeper said: "Why are you looking at the map? Just let Yao Meier lead you to Qingxi. If you have a chance in the future, you can take her out of the mountains and let her see the world and learn some real skills." .”

I didn’t expect that the old shopkeeper would let Yao Meier be the guide for the expedition. Although I wanted it, on the other hand, I was afraid that she would be in danger. We went into Wushan to look for ancient tombs, just to save people. Shirley Yang, Fatty and I Needless to say, these three people, Sun Jiuye is also a person who has undergone a real test, and how can Yao Meier withstand the risk? If she has three shortcomings, wouldn't I be "tearing down the east wall to make up for the west wall"?

I was about to refuse, but I heard the old shopkeeper say: "My sister is smart and courageous. She has studied with me for many years and has taught me everything she can. She is also a child who grew up in the mountains. She has traveled across mountains and ridges. The words will definitely help you a little."

Yao Meier refused to agree, so she said to the old shopkeeper: "Otherwise, now that you are old, who can I go to take care of my godfather for dinner and tea?"

The old shopkeeper said: "Silly boy, my god is over eighty years old this year. How many days do you still have to live? How can you stay in the mountains and waste your time in the mountains when you are like a flower? Are you willing to marry that big man in the future? Do you have a bald head? Although I am getting old, my vision is still there. I see that these kite brothers have the most benevolent and righteous temperament. They are all people who want to do great things. Just follow them to explore the world. , make a fortune, make a lot of money, if the godfather is not dead by then, you can pick him up and go out with you to enjoy the happiness."

The old shopkeeper insisted on letting Yao Meier lead us into the mountains, and entrusted me to take her to the city to do things in the future. Shirley Yang and I discussed it for a while and felt that it would be best to have a local person to guide us, and we would not let her take risks ahead. , so I agreed and accepted her as my junior sister. In fact, I don’t know where this generation came from.

At this time, Professor Sun came in from the outer room and said, "I just went out to take a look. The car seems to be leaving. We have to hurry up and get on the road."

Drivers in the mountains are unwilling to wait for others, so we had to pack some groceries we needed and hurriedly said goodbye to the old shop owner of "Honeycomb Mountain". The five of us each carried their backpacks and hurried out of the grocery store. We jumped on the truck that had started. The car drove out of the small town in the mountains, its body shaking constantly.

I sat in the back seat and looked at the "Golden Steel Umbrella" in my hand. I thought to myself that it was such an adventure. I hoped that I could take this as a sign and find the "Tomb of the Earthly Immortal" smoothly. Thinking of this place, I immediately asked Yao Meier if there were any legends about "earth immortals" near Qingxi?

Yao Meier said: "There is a saying in my hometown that the earth immortal is buried in the tomb of King Feng, but the common people say that the earth immortal is a demon immortal, so the tomb is the tomb of the demon immortal, because the earth immortal knows magic and is the most charming." You can live forever after entering the ancient tomb, and deceived many people into being buried alive with him. However, these were all legends in the early years. Now no one knows whether the story of the Demon Immortal Tomb is true or false, but Qingxi Town does have surnames. Sealed.”

I wanted to find out more about it, but I saw that Yao Meier was a little reluctant to leave the old shopkeeper. She reluctantly looked out the car window, so I comforted her and said, "I left home when I was several years younger than you are now. Shouting the slogan that there is a vast world and great potential, I went out thousands of miles to exercise, and this fat man went with me back then."

The fat man became excited when he heard me mention the prosperous years of those years: "I was just a kid at that time, and all I could think about was how dare you laugh at Huang Chao's lack of husband. My sister, you are in your early twenties, and you are still acting coquettishly with the old shopkeeper? But back then, Fatty When I was only eighteen years old, I went to the mountains alone at night to watch young girls. I encountered a ghost, and the sky and the sky were calling me for help.

After all, Yaomei'er is young at heart and very curious. When the fat man said he had encountered a ghost, he couldn't help but ask us what it was about?

I wanted to test Yaomei's courage. If she was scared to hear even a ghost story, I might as well send her back quickly. I said to her, "I've heard about this. After I joined the army, the fat man was in the Northeast." Talking about what happened in the mountainous area really makes my head spin. Anyway, we are just sitting in the car with nothing to do, so I will let the fat man tell you."

Professor Shirley Yang and Professor Sun were also curious and listened quietly. They heard the fat man clearing his throat and speaking in a round tone:

The location was outside the village of Tuanshanyingzi Production Team of Daha Zhanzi Commune. The time was 1970, and it was also a summer night. The midsummer night in the mountains should be very cool, but I don’t know what happened that night. Maybe it was There will be a big thunderstorm, it will be extremely hot and muggy, and there will not be a single star in the sky.

On that day, Fatty Wang and another educated youth were assigned to "watch the field" on the mountain. They were guarding a few acres of land on the hillside. They were planted with corn. The wild boars in the mountains liked to eat this stuff. The more it gnaws, the more it destroys. When it rolls over the corn field, it becomes an alley, so someone has to guard it at night. If they hear any noise, they will come out and knock on the washbasin to drive away the wild boars.

That night, the other educated youth had something to do, so Fatty Wang had to go up the mountain alone to watch the show. He yoked a rabbit during the day, and when he went out, he brought a kettle of clay from the village to cook. He was happy to eat and drink by himself, so he picked up the rabbit in the field and said I hummed an excerpt from the model drama "Red Lantern". After roasting the hare from the inside out, I took a bite of the rabbit meat and drank a sip of the local roast. I felt in a happy mood. I felt that my little life in the mountains was quite nourishing, but it's a pity that I haven't had it recently. The wild boar came out to cause trouble and couldn't find an excuse to fire off two shots to enjoy the fun.

Just as he was enjoying himself, there was a rumble of thunder, and raindrops as big as soybeans fell down. The fat man quickly grabbed the wine bottle and carried the half-eaten rabbit and fled back to the thatched shed to hide from the rain. Unexpectedly, the shed leaked rain everywhere, and he couldn't stay at all. , he thought about it, there was a mill on the other side of the corn field, which had been abandoned for many years, why not take shelter there?

This extremely simple mill has been around since before liberation, but no one has been in it for many years. For some reason, Fatty Wang couldn't care less. He opened the wooden door with his foot and saw that it was dark and full of dust. But it was better than being soaked outside. He poured all the remaining earth-burning food into his stomach, stretched out on the wooden box and fell asleep. Not long after, he was snoring like thunder.

The fat man slept soundly. He didn't know how long he slept until he was half awakened by the sound of thunder. He vaguely wondered why it was never bright at all? I turned over and went back to sleep.

At this moment, I heard a woman crying next to my ear. Fatty Wang was a brave person and he didn't have a heart or lungs. He just wanted to sleep. Unexpectedly, the crying in his ear was getting closer and closer, and he felt like it was about to penetrate into his head. He cursed in a daze: "Why the hell are you crying!"

After being scolded by him, the woman's cry suddenly stopped, but the fat man didn't even think about what was going on, and continued to fall asleep. After a while, he heard a woman say in his ear: "You Don't press my shoes, don't press my shoes, if you press my shoes I will kill you..."

This sentence was so clear that the fat man heard it very clearly even when he was half asleep and half awake. He couldn't help but feel hairy all over his body and sat up. Even though he was so bold, he was already breaking out in a cold sweat. Looking at it again There was no woman in the mill. The sun was shining brightly outside the door, and it was getting bright.

The fat man felt something strange. He cursed a few times and stood up. He saw a pair of women's cotton shoes neatly placed on the wooden board under him, with two dazzling red peonies embroidered on the toes. The fat man wiped the cold sweat from his head, became angry in his heart, and said to himself: "This guy is serious." He picked up two shoes and threw them on the ground, stepped on them a few times, and then walked away. .

After returning to the village, he told people about it. Everyone said that more than ten years ago, a young daughter-in-law hanged herself in that mill. She was wearing a new pair of cotton shoes when she died, and even the shoes were buried in the grave. , no one goes to the mill next to the corn field anymore. How could the fat man see those shoes last night? Wouldn't it be a ghost? Those who had something to do went to the mill again, but they didn't see any shoes. They all said that the fat man secretly drank the local roast and got dizzy.

The fat man was also confused and didn't take it seriously. After so many years, he didn't see any ghost come to claim his life. However, looking back today, he did feel a bit sensational when he stayed in the mountains and slept with the female ghost's shoes all night. Damn it, God knows what kind of evil he hit that night.

This experience was a real thing that the fat man encountered when he jumped in line. However, when he talked about it in the car, he was deliberately showing off and refused to tell the story. part.

But Yaomei'er was so courageous that she couldn't scare her at all. She just thought it was a bit exciting and novel, and didn't care how scary it was. She also made fun of the fat man's arrogance, and told a scary story without being able to tell it vividly.

I nodded secretly: "This girl really has the courage to do something difficult and dangerous." I was about to ask about the legends near the Dixian Ancient Tomb, so I took the opportunity to say that Yaomei'er's courage is really extraordinary. Do you always hear this in your hometown? Ghost story? You might as well tell us some.

Yao Meier said that Qingxi Town has a very old history. Wu salt mines have been open for hundreds of years. Wu salt is a special kind of geological salt that can be processed into edible salt. In ancient times, the salt tax was very heavy, and the salt mined privately had to be discarded. Most of the people are digging and mining secretly in order to make huge profits. Therefore, there are hundreds of large and small mines in Qingxi area. They were almost exhausted by the Qing Dynasty, and no new salt veins can be found in the mountains. , coupled with the subsequent massive construction of air-raid shelters, holes were everywhere in the mountains.

Various "natural, artificial, and semi-artificial" caves and caves are crisscrossed and overlap each other. Some places are tens of miles deep. It is difficult for outsiders to walk. If you dig deep, you will inevitably see many strange things. , so there are various legends. She often went to the mines to play. Anyway, she was not very sensible at that time and did not feel scary.

Hearing these situations, I couldn't help but secretly complain, seeing that this last bit of hope was about to be thrown into the East Ocean. Various projects in Qingxi have almost dug through the mountains, but no one has ever discovered the "Earth Immortal Ancient". "Tomb", I wonder what means the "Guanshan Taibao" used to cover up the sky? It is also possible that the "Fengwang Tomb" is just a myth and does not exist in the world at all.

However, what Yao Meier said mentioned "salt mining in caves". Witch salt is an extinct resource and is no longer available. When I was an engineer in the past, I had never heard that it could be mined in the mountains. Salt comes out, but this matter is somewhat consistent with the saying in the ancient riddle of the Earth Immortal: "Dig wells to cut salt, and ask ghosts for money."

Thinking of these, I thought: "What a great king, but he has no head; if his wife does not come, the mountains will not bloom; he will burn firewood and cook the liver and lungs; he will dig wells and cut salt, and ask ghosts for money; there will be hundreds of bird paths. Step nine, if you want to visit the earthly immortal, first find Wuyang..." He asked Yao Meier if he knew what secrets were hidden in these words.

Yao Meier was also at a loss. She had never heard of the Feng family's secret message about seeking immortality. She didn't know what kind of riddle it was, but it said "dig wells to cut salt and ask ghosts for money." , must refer to the ancient town of "Qingxi", and it is unmistakable. In the old days, the pits of the Caiwu Salt Mine were called "salt wells", which is just a local name in this town, and most outsiders have never heard of it.

The "Wushan Salt Mines" are all occupied by local wealthy families, and the poor have to work as "coolies and kiln slaves." There is often methane in the Wu Salt Mines, and groundwater gushes out of the ground at any time. Miners and kiln slaves often have to bear many risks when working in the mines. A large number of kiln slaves often died underground in the wells, so local people said: "Dig wells to cut salt and ask ghosts for money."

I finally have some clues, but with this paragraph, it is still difficult to understand the whole meaning. I guess if I want to understand the mystery of "Dixian Village", I still need to decipher the first sentence "What a great king, with body and headless" and follow the steps step by step. It is gradually speculated that the old residents of Qingxi Town have long been scattered all over the place. It is impossible to find a few more people to inquire. Those ancient legends must be older than the tombs of the Ming Dynasty. People today may not be able to know it. In my mind My thoughts were cluttered, and I was paying no attention to it. I saw outside the car window where the clouds had cleared and the mist dispersed, and a green and tall mountain peak appeared in the distance. It was so beautiful, so beautiful, so quiet and hazy that it caught my eyes. (To be continued. If you want to know what happened, please log in. There are more chapters. Support the author and genuine reading!)