No, no...
I did not self-panic, forcing myself to calm down.
Ordinary people could never be a match for Old Gong. He could tear off an arm from any of the twenty-eight jailbirds.
There were no signs of a fight around here.
Then, at the break of dawn, someone passing by here accidentally took away something valuable?
Bending down, I examined the ground closely.
Indeed, I found some footprints, and higher up there were broken branches and signs of truncation!
Lightening up and lifting my spirits, I quickly chased after the direction.
There were traces of broken branches along the way, as if someone had hacked a path through.
After several minutes, there was some movement up ahead.
In a slightly open area, there was a middle-aged man, around fifty years old, holding an ax in one hand and holding onto a tree with the other. He was breathing heavily and struggling.
He was carrying a backpack and had a bag hanging on his shoulder, which contained Old Gong's night pot.
I noticed him, and he also heard the commotion from behind. He turned his head.
Our eyes met for a moment, and I frowned. He seemed startled and started to run away.
In a flash, I lunged forward. He let out a yelp of surprise, losing his balance and crashing to the ground.
When he hit the ground, I happened to step on his lower leg with my foot. He let out a cry of pain, shouting, "It's broken! Oh, it's broken..."
Ordinary people?
I only just moved my leg away, but my speed was lightning fast, and I grabbed his backpack and bag from him.
Stepping back two steps and increasing the distance, the man trembled as he got to his feet, sweat beads popping out on his forehead. He touched his leg, wincing with a twisted expression.
"Don't take other people's things." My tone was neutral.
He stared at me in a daze, swallowing repeatedly.
"Did you not drown?"
"Yes?" I replied.
The man looked embarrassed and nervous, muttering that he was a villager from Niuxin Village. He had gone to gather herbs and mushrooms in the morning and saw someone in the water on the hillside. When he chased down, the person was gone. He only saw something on the shore.
He guessed that I might have drowned, so he conveniently picked up the things.
I only realized this just then.
What puzzled me was that there was a village nearby.
Before I could say anything more, the man wiped the sweat from his forehead and continued, "Brother, it was a misunderstanding. But how did you end up swimming here? The Bujiang River is incredibly treacherous. You're lucky; I don't know why, but the water is slower today... Otherwise, the current would have swept you away..."
My expression remained unchanged as I simply said, "I came from Niujian Village on the other side and naturally swam here from Niujin Village."
I spoke with him politely because he was an ordinary person, and I had no reason to be hostile to ordinary people. At the same time, I also wanted to tell him that in the past few days, he should stay away from here and not let anyone else from his village come near.
But I didn't expect him to be startled and stare at me blankly, "You came from Niutui Village?"
"Is there a problem?" His reaction made me even more confused.
The next second, my heart subtly shrank.
This man knows something about the secrets of Niutui Village?
"That village is haunted... It's impossible for people to pass through. You actually came here?" The man kept wiping sweat off his forehead, looking shocked and doubtful.
"Haunted? Can you elaborate?" I asked again.
The man, however, pursed his lips, acting as if he was shy and secretive, and hobbled forward with a limp.
I took a deep breath and walked quickly in front of him, pulling out a small amount of cash.
Money can make ghosts push the mill, which is a tactic I often use, that is, spending money to find out information.
The man kept swallowing as he looked at the money. After I gave it to him, he quickly put it away and then started looking me up and down. Suddenly, he asked, "Did you have the temple's meat soup?"
My heart suddenly jumped.
Does he know that there is meat soup in the temple?
"No." I shook my head and answered.
"That's why... That's why you haven't died..."
The man wiped the sweat off his forehead again, leaning on his injured leg as he leaned against a tree, and then began to speak.
In fact, Niuxin Village is a very small village. Today, there are no more than fifty households in the entire village.
He was originally working outside, but in the past two years, the overall environment has been sluggish. The construction sites were either left unfinished or stopped mid-construction. Wandering around for half a year without making any money and even having to pay for car fare and accommodation, he decided to return to the village. Now, he mainly gathers herbs and mushrooms. During fair days, he can also make some money.
Because Niutui Village is haunted, they find it especially inconvenient to come and go from the small village nestled in the mountains, Niuxin Village. They have to take a one-hour detour along a mountain path.
This is also one of the reasons why the population of Niuxin Village has been decreasing over the years.
In fact, the initial Niutui Village was the place where Niuxin villagers migrated from.
That place was originally uninhabitable due to frequent landslides and floods.
Until one year, a villager girl even managed to get to know a prominent figure in the area. That was a man with a good reputation throughout the ten-mile and eight-mile region.
The scholar rearranged the Feng Shui at the entrance of the mountain for the sake of marrying the village girl in an eight-lift sedan chair, thus preventing the area from being affected by floods and torrents.
Some villagers, motivated by this, moved there and formed a small village.
Years later, the village girl passed away, leaving behind a child who depended on the scholar for support.
Located at the mouth of the mountain pass and with a river called Bujiang, Niutui Village became the center of local markets, becoming increasingly prosperous.
But the good times did not last long.
One day, a group of villagers caught a white bull in the mountains!
The scholar was alarmed and ordered the villagers to release the white bull immediately, claiming that it was a manifestation of the mountain's anger and a spiritual being. He even punished the few villagers who had caught it with physical abuse.
If nothing else had happened, Niutui Village would have remained peaceful.
Unfortunately, some people just don't believe in evil spirits.
The few villagers who were beaten up later teamed up with some outsiders from other villages and went to the mountain, catching the white bull and killing it by the riverside that night. The blood dyed the entire river red!
Even more shockingly, he cooked a big pot of meat and had the villagers share it!
The scholar tried his best to stop them, but the meat had a strange and enticing aroma. It was hard to resist.
With this, he originally planned to take the child away from the village.
As a result, his aunt who took care of the child managed to get a bowl of soup from somewhere and gave it to the child to drink.
He was extremely depressed and even vomited blood.
From that day on, no one could leave the village. No matter how far they went, they would inevitably return to the village at night.
Even worse, there would be a ghostly white bull dragging around an empty skeleton, carrying a bloody bull's head, walking door to door in the village! The river water became more violent, and there were signs of flooding and even landslides!
At this point, I was filled with a myriad of doubts, and at the same time, I felt a subtle chill.
Why would the scholar, who forbade people from eating meat or drinking the soup, himself brew the soup and cook the meat?
Also, the ghostly white bull... I have never seen it myself...
Of course, I didn't interrupt the man.
He paused for a moment, took a breath, and then continued, "After that, the scholar did something. He collected the bones of the bull and had the villagers dig a deep pit at the site of the ancestral hall, burying him and the pile of bones alive inside. He even built a shed over it, inside which there was an altar dedicated to the bull!"
"After that, the village finally calmed down..."
"But kind words are hard to persuade a stubborn ghost... Soon after, another accident happened..."
