C24

The leopard told me to prepare a lot of things. We didn't get them ready until it was almost dark." There was yellow paper, hemp rope, kerosene lamps, a six-sided paper box with a white paper paste on it. There was a flag (it turned out to be a soul flag), and something was written on it, like a talisman, and a few words seemed to be written on it. There were also two paper men, a woman and a little boy. The woman's cheeks were deeply rouged, her nose and eyes were painted in a picturesque fashion, the little boy was painted in a playful way, and he wore a hat on his head. The three of us ate dinner at night and waited at the Flower Cat's house. We would set off when the time was right.

My parents didn't want me to get involved because going to the south of the mountain in the middle of the night would scare them. They were worried that something would happen if I went there, but I had already decided that nothing they said would help.

Just as we were about to leave, the glass suddenly ran over and insisted on going. I advised him to make his mouth go dry, but it was useless. The kid didn't know what he was up to, but he still signed a life-and-death contract, indicating that it was none of our business if anything happened to him. I couldn't understand what was going on with him, to have such enthusiasm for something like this, to be able to ignore his life.

In the end, we didn't have much else to do, so we could only reluctantly agree to let him go. It was almost eleven o'clock when the cat told me to light the kerosene lamp and put it in the white paper box to cover it. She repeatedly told me not to let the wind blow it out.

Then we set off. We chose the east road to go to the south of the mountain. Firstly, the east road was closer to us. Secondly, this road was easier to walk on. At first, Uncle Fu took the banner and led the leopard cat to the front, the two paper men in the glass between them, and I carried a backpack containing other items. At the back, I held a white paper box covered with a kerosene lamp, and the light from the lamp illuminated the road through a layer of white paper.

As the leopard cat was walking in front, its eyes could only rely on Uncle Fu Li's support to walk, so its speed was very slow.

It was now the middle of the night, and the entire village was silent and deserted in the darkness. Occasionally, a dog would bark from the yard on both sides of the road, and then silence would follow. The only reason they said the eastern road was better was because it was a dregs road. However, this "good" was relatively speaking. Because a few years ago, when the mountain was opened for quarrying, a tractor had to be used to carry the stones out, and the tractor had to carry too much weight. Furthermore, they frequently came in and out of the city. Fortunately, it didn't rain. If it did, the ruts would be filled with water, so it would be hard to tell the depth of the rain. Therefore, he had to be careful walking during the day. This road was originally going to be built, and it was said that the higher-ups had allocated some money for this construction. However, there was no response. Eighty percent of the funds had already been divided among the people involved.

We started on the road from north to south, and as we walked through the mountains and into the southern territories and westward, the leopard cat let me take the lantern and lead the way, while he and Uncle Laifu walked at the back. What he meant was, my righteous spirit, my fiery spirit, is that no evil spirit dares to run into me as I walk in front.

This was a purely natural dirt road, and every step he took would cause the road to sink in. The road was completely unrecognizable, and the dry weather had caused the sand on the road to be half a foot thick. On both sides of the road were connected patches of farmland. Inside the fields were all kinds of beans, about ten centimeters high, and most of the land was still exposed. Occasionally, a gust of wind would blow over, and one could clearly feel the dust on their face.

Originally, our group was still chatting about home, but as soon as we arrived at Shan Nan, all of us went silent, our eyes vigilantly looking around us. Glass probably could not handle this kind of pressure, so she whistled, trying to release her emotions. However, she was kicked by the leopard and scolded it again, saying that it was attracting evil spirits.

He could not keep his face in check. He groaned in discontent, but did not dare to act. He could only remain silent.

In half a minute the glass whistled again. This time, when he whistled, I felt something was wrong. There was a slight itch on my forehead. I didn't know if it was the dust that was splattering on the scar on my forehead, or if something was coming over.

I looked up and around me. There was nothing unusual except for a breeze.

"Glass, shut up. Why don't you know what's good for you?" I snapped without looking back.

"It wasn't me." Glass answered with a trembling voice and a hint of fear.

I was startled and immediately broke out in a cold sweat. The whistle definitely wasn't made by the glass. That's because when the glass wall replied to me, the whistling didn't stop. I stopped and looked back at the glass, and the two paper men stopped. Under the illumination of the oil lamp, the paper man's face constantly darkened and changed color. It was extremely eye-catching, with two pairs of eyes wide open, carrying a strange look. I looked at the leopard cat and Uncle Laifu. They had stopped four to five meters behind the glass. They seemed to have noticed something was wrong and had stopped a long time ago.

"Uncle Li, what's wrong?" I asked.

The leopard cat made a gesture of silence, and at the same time, it pricked up its ears as if it was trying to hear something. After a while, the whistling sound disappeared. The leopard said, "It's fine. They were just playing around. Let's keep walking and not talk."

"They", there was no need to ask, they were just a few lonely ghosts. The meaning of the leopard cat's words was that these things weren't evil spirits. It was just that they liked to play around, so they whistled. This made me think of the person I mentioned before who whistled at the ghost competition. In the end, the ghost got angry and made that person's mouth crooked. I couldn't help but feel a little guilty.

"Glass, stop messing around. Everyone only has one life." I whispered.

"Erlang, you don't have to be afraid. They usually don't dare to provoke you."

This sentence was in the depths of my heart. As I was walking at the front, everything that I met would always be under my control. How could I not be afraid? He must have recognized the weakness in my voice and decided I was feeling guilty.

"The more imposing you are, the more afraid they will be and the more they will avoid you." The leopard cat said again.

Astonishing? It was easy to say. Anyone who was placed in this environment would be terrified. Just by looking at the glass, one could tell what was going on. The more afraid you are, the more likely you are to see those things. There was also a saying that people were afraid of ghosts by 30% and ghosts by 70%. Each person had three lanterns, one above their head, one on each shoulder. These three lanterns were like a combination of human and yang energy, and as the flames grew stronger, the demons would always avoid them.

We walked west until we reached the middle of the mountain, just south of the mouth of the trumpet ditch, and stopped at the same time. The surroundings were completely silent. The sounds of crickets could be heard from the bushes by the side of the road. There is only a vague outline of the mountain behind the loudspeaker ditch. It lies quietly in the dark night and it seems that everyone is asleep there, including the lone souls. It seems that the moment we step in, we will wake them up and attract countless ghosts that will continue to haunt us. On the other hand, above the loudspeaker ditch, they could faintly see large and small withered graves, as well as the ghost fire that was floating between the graves. It added another layer of terror to this place. Ghost Flame was a type of phosphorus that was separated from a human's bones. When it encountered air, it would spontaneously combust, forming a natural phenomenon. I kept hinting at myself to think that way, but in this environment, even the so-called scientific explanation seemed so weak that I would consciously assume that the will-o '-the-wisp was a group of wild ghosts with lanterns in search of targets to attack.

"Where are we going first? Is it the bottom of the gulley or the top of the gulley? " I asked.

The leopard lowered its head and thought for a moment. First, it would go to the bottom of the ditch to bring her corpse along before going up.

I took a deep breath and composed myself. I didn't feel that itchy on my forehead, and it didn't seem dangerous. I moved my feet and walked towards the loudspeaker ditch.

There was a small path leading to the mouth of the horn. It was located on the southern side of the mountain and was not located at the foot of the mountain. The path was about two feet wide and there was a field on the left side of the road. The ditch was only two meters wide, and there was no water in it. It was all grass. The path was lined on both sides with thatch, and the grass sloped down into the middle of the road, covering it so that it was not so much a walk as a lie on the grass. The thorns on the grass leaves made his calves itch and hurt.

I carefully walked in front with the lamp in my hand, my eyes never leaving the spot half a meter in front of the lamp. In this area, I could barely see the road under the illumination of the lamp. Halfway there, the glass stepped on my heel and I cursed under my breath. After a while, the guy stepped on me again, and I almost fell down, and I stopped and turned to scold him, but just as I tilted my head, I saw a man's face hanging on my right side, very close to mine, almost touching mine, the whole face was blue, with a strange smile, a mustache, and he was staring at me without blinking. My whole body shuddered and my soul almost flew out of my body. I immediately turned my head around and felt my body go numb from head to toe. I thought to myself, 'Could it be that I have been targeted?'

Don't panic, I reminded myself.

"Are you coming or not?"

I composed myself and turned my head to look to the right. As soon as I saw him, I cursed, "F * ck you! You want to scare me to death? Take it from me!"

It was the paper woman, her glass arms held flat, just in front of me. Maybe the glass was tired, so I changed my position, and after being stepped on twice by him, I suddenly stopped. The glass was so inattentive that it almost hit me. According to this position, it was possible that the paper man was on the same horizontal line as me. But is that really the case? Paper man and real person, man and woman, I still don't know, it was clearly a bearded man staring at me just now. Even if he was in high spirits, he couldn't have mixed up something so obvious. But my forehead obviously isn't itchy, how can I explain that?

I glanced at the glass. "Slow down. Don't keep stepping on my heels and easily extinguish the light. Why don't you take the lead?"

"Who stepped on your heels? You, on the other hand, stop walking and stop. It almost caused us to crash into a car."

At this time, the leopard cat could no longer bear to watch, so she urged in a low voice, "Stop being so noisy, hurry up and leave. I think it's almost time."

I was going to go on arguing with the glass, Bird Man, and not admit it, I thought angrily as I turned around. But then I realized that if I didn't step on the glass, it would be troublesome, I thought.