Ghost Blowing Lantern II

This underground passage occupied by countless wild rats is connected to a cave like an underground hall. There are many boulders buried in the ground of the hall, and there are many passages with the same structure around it. I never expected that on the stone wall of this cave, It is actually engraved with the statue of the "Huang Xiangu" from Huangpizi Temple.

This scene carved behind the stone wall had already been noticed when we discovered the natural emerald stone screen like a stone wall. However, these inscribed carvings were very old and the stone wall was peeling off and blurred. If we did not wipe off the dust with our sleeves, It is really difficult to identify.

At this time, I was standing in front of the stone wall. Through the dim light, I noticed the weird and evil face of the weasel at a glance. This portrait of a yellow-skinned head and a woman's body would make other people feel troubled when they look at it. . Because of the unexpectedness, I almost dropped the cigarette in my hand to the ground. I quickly pinched the end of the cigarette with my fingers, put it on my mouth and took a deep puff, which calmed down my surprised and unexpected mood.

The low-quality cut tobacco was mixed with dead leaves, and the smoke that came out after taking a puff was like a smoking chimney when lighting a stove. Ding Sitian next to me choked and coughed. She waved her hand to drive away the smoke: "Are you just that? Can't you smoke less? If you get addicted to cigarettes at such a young age, it will be difficult for you to stop smoking in the future." I think Ding Sitian is full of advantages. The only small flaw is that she cannot tolerate others smoking. Whenever she sees me When smoking with a fat man, she would always talk about Comrade Lenin quitting smoking. Comrade Lenin lived in poverty when he was young, and he was also addicted to smoking. One time, Lenin's mother said to him: "Dear Vladimir Milyich, you Can't you smoke less?" As expected of a great mother, what she said was different. Didn't she directly ask you whether you could stop smoking? But can you smoke less? What a great philosophical statement this is. It is both gentle and kind, but also respectful of others. It is worthy of being a woman among women. After his mother said this with such earnest words, Comrade Lenin never smoked again.

At this time, Ding Sitian mentioned this matter again and persuaded me to follow the example of great people and let me quit smoking. But my mind was all on looking at the portrait of "Huang Fairy" and I didn't pay much attention to her words. My eyes were tight. Staring at the carvings on the stone wall, Ding Sitian answered half self-deprecatingly, half coping: "Well... Isn't it just about quitting smoking? I think quitting smoking is actually not difficult at all. I have quit more than a hundred times in the past six months. …”

Ding Sitian saw that I was absent-minded in my answer and was concentrating on looking at the stone wall, so she followed my gaze and looked over. The carvings on the stone screen were extremely complicated, and the evil image of Huang Xiangu only occupied a corner of it. When she saw the hateful weasel face clearly, she was also startled, covered her mouth with her hand, and almost screamed.

The weasel-faced woman in the painting has a very strange posture and behavior, as if she is muttering something in her mouth and doing some magic. There is a large box with ancient patterns in front of her, the mouth of the box is half open and half hidden, in front of the stone wall. In the middle, there was a woman lying upright. The woman was wearing a mask and gorgeous scale clothes. Her lying posture was particularly stiff, and she seemed to be a carefully dressed corpse.

Under the female corpse and the "Huang Fairy", there is a bird with long feathers that sounds like a chicken and a pheasant. It is flying upwards holding a vague human figure. I have been in the Northeast mountainous area for half a year. Although the location is remote, it is still I have seen many mysterious folk customs preserved at the lowest level of the folk. Looking at this strange-looking bird, I found that its shape is very similar to the "soul-inducing chicken" in the folklore of Daxinganling.

Legend has it that after a person dies, he turns into a ghost, and a ghost returns. His essence returns to heaven, his flesh returns to earth, his blood returns to water, his pulse returns to rivers, his voice returns to thunder, his movements return to wind, his eyes return to sun and moon, his bones return to wood, and his tendons return to wood. Return to the mountains, teeth to stone, ointment to dew, hair to grass, and breath to the dead and return to the underworld.

A person's life depends on one continuous breath. Once his breathing stops and he dies, this yang breath will immediately fall into the vastness of the earth. In this concept and custom, when someone in the family dies, a rooster must be slaughtered immediately and given as a rooster. The blood is smeared on the corpse. It is said that the soul of the rooster can carry the soul of the deceased and make the soul ascend to avoid falling into reincarnation and suffering catastrophe. In the village where I jumped in line, there were people who danced the master dance, that is, the shaman dance, and also performed the shaman dance for the dead. The goddesses and divine men who worked as "soul-drawing chickens" were all beaten up during the movement. I only found out about them when they confessed their crimes during the criticism meeting.

At this time, the fat man saw that Ding Sitian and I were watching endlessly, so he came over to join in the fun. The three of us saw that the content on the natural emerald stone screen was bizarre and absurd. It was really difficult to get a glimpse of the mystery. We could only guess based on what we saw in our eyes. It seemed that this What is recorded on the natural jade stone screen is that "Huang Xiangu" performed magic and used a method similar to "soul-inducing chicken" or "paper bird". You can also see it in some caves in the mountainous area. A similar ancient sacred bird totem is commonly known as the Dayu Death Bird by the locals. This sacred bird can only attract the souls of the dead, and rescues the soul of the masked female corpse from the underworld with the intention of resurrecting it. The inseparable box of "Xiangu" is probably the source of her evil magic.

This is completely different from my previous guess. It seems that the "Hundred Eyes Cave" surrounded by countless bizarre legends is definitely not the place where the tomb robbers "Ni'erhui" hide treasures. Are the boxes transported deep into the grassland to summon the soul of a dead ghost who has been dead for thousands of years?

Thinking of this, I couldn't help but feel a sudden shock in my heart, and I became more and more curious. Seeing how old this natural emerald stone screen was, I thought that the female corpse wearing the mask must be an ancient person. Who is she? Where are you now? What happened after the bandits from the "Ni'erhui" came here? Is the legend about the disappearance of people and animals near Baiyan Cave related to this? And... all kinds of thoughts are going up and down in my mind, but the more I think about it, the less I have a clue.

The fat man suddenly slapped his thigh: "Speaking of Lao Hu, I suddenly remembered something. What do these buried stones look like to you? The more I look at them, the more familiar they look. Have we met somewhere before?"

My attention was focused on the box of "Huang Xiangu". I was guessing what rare things were in the box. I was interrupted by the fat man's words while I was thinking. I took the opportunity to look at the stones buried in the ground. After a few glances, I suddenly remembered that in many old houses in the deep mountains of Daxinganling, round rocks are placed in the corners of the house. Some are half buried with soil, and some are simply placed directly in the house. We educated youth have just settled in In the mountains, I didn't understand the practice of placing stones in the house, and thought it was completely meaningless. Later, I became familiar with the mountain people in the villages, and after asking around, I learned that these stones were left behind before liberation. In the early years, people used this method to ward off evil spirits and exorcise ghosts. Ancient books mentioned: "If you bury stones everywhere, there will be no ghosts in your home." These stones are used to suppress ghosts. Among the people in the Northeast, zombies and hanged ghosts are used to haunt people. There are many legends about it. People living in the barren mountains gradually formed this custom in order to ensure their safety. As for the specific age when it started, it is impossible to verify now.