After hearing Liu Dashao’s words, the village head Tian recalled the strange experience he had at the Lingguan Temple, and cold sweat poured down his back. Although he stubbornly refused to admit his fear, deep inside, he had started to believe Liu Dashao’s story. He began to wonder what he would actually see if he turned around, but then he remembered Liu Dashao’s words and held himself back. Yet, after walking only a few steps, the dreadful thought returned to his mind again. This thought was like a thorn stuck in his flesh, and he desperately wanted to pull it out to feel relieved.
Village head Tian could no longer contain himself—he had to look behind. Even if something really was there, he no longer cared. At the very least, he still had a copy of Chairman Mao’s quotations tucked in his arms! With the five-pointed star shining and the red flag guiding his way, what was there to fear?
Taking advantage of Liu Dashao’s inattention, Village head Tian secretly glanced behind him. This act of looking back nearly made his heart stop beating. He forced himself to suppress his fear and did not cry out. Under the moonlight, besides his own and Liu Dashao’s shadows, there was another shadow moving on the ground, keeping pace with them. Village head Tian looked at Liu Dashao in front of him, who seemed completely unaware, still whistling casually. Furrowing his brow, Village head Tian thought perhaps the darkness had made his eyes play tricks on him. He rubbed his eyes and looked behind again. Strangely, the three shadows he had just seen were now only two. His heart sank completely, and he stood frozen in place, his legs trembling.
Liu Dashao, walking ahead, noticed the silence from Village head Tian and stopped whistling. He turned around and saw Tian standing motionless, feigning ignorance. Liu Dashao asked, “Uncle Tian, what are you doing standing there? Hurry up! Was it my ghost story that scared you?”
Still frozen in place, Village head Tian shook his head and pointed silently behind him with his finger. Liu Dashao followed the direction of Tian’s finger and said, “I don’t see anything?”
Trying to calm himself, Village head Tian glanced behind again. This time, there were only two shadows on the ground—his and Liu Dashao’s.
Liu Dashao widened his eyes and stared at Village head Tian as if he had seen an alien. “I’ve been telling you, Uncle, you’ve been acting strange ever since we left the temple. Did you see something?”
Faking a smile, Village head Tian replied, “Kid, I didn’t see anything. I was just testing your courage, trying to scare you a little. I wanted to see if you’re worthy of being a Red Young Pioneer of socialism.”
“Hey, you told me not to scare you, but you ended up scaring me instead!” Liu Dashao, realizing it was a false alarm, grinned and continued walking forward.
Village head Tian also resumed his walk. But after only a few steps, he involuntarily glanced behind again. This time, there were no longer just two or three shadows on the ground—there were four. One shadow followed behind his own, and another trailed behind Liu Dashao’s.
“There’s a ghost!” Unable to control himself any longer, Village head Tian screamed at the top of his lungs.
“Good heavens!” Liu Dashao was so frightened by Tian’s scream that goosebumps covered his entire body. He turned around and stared behind for over ten seconds before turning back with a reproachful look. “Uncle Tian, haven’t you heard that scaring people can kill them? You keep jumping like that—instead of getting scared to death yourself, you’ll scare me to death first!”
Helplessly, Village head Tian replied, “Nephew, I didn’t mean to scare you. I really saw four shadows behind us just now. At first, there were three. I didn’t believe it myself either. How could two people cast three shadows? When you looked back, there was nothing. But after walking a bit further, I looked again and saw four shadows. Isn’t that strange?”
After hearing Village head Tian’s words, Liu Dashao glanced behind again and said, “You’re clearly mistaken. There are only two shadows on the ground. You must have been scared by my ghost story. I shouldn’t have told you that story in the first place. Look at how frightened you’ve become!”
Village head Tian also turned to look at the ground. As Liu Dashao had said, there were only two dark shadows extending from their feet. It must have been his exhaustion causing visual hallucinations. He said to Liu Dashao, “Let’s go, nephew. Let’s hurry back. I bet my wife is waiting for us.”
The two continued walking forward. They hadn’t gone more than a dozen steps when Peng Jianguo shouted from afar, “Uncle Tian, run quickly!”
Without thinking, Village head Tian took off running. Although he said he was running, in reality, their pace was barely faster than walking. After all, they had walked up and down the path several times and were extremely exhausted. Liu Dashao, being much younger, had more energy. Before long, the tragic Village head Tian was already dozens of meters behind Liu Dashao.
Realizing he had fallen behind, Village head Tian grew anxious. But the more anxious he became, the heavier his legs felt, as if filled with lead. Behind him, he shouted loudly, “Nephew, slow down! I can’t keep up with you!”
At that moment, Liu Dashao was only focused on running forward. He hadn’t realized that Village head Tian had already fallen far behind. When he heard Tian shouting, he finally slowed down and waited. But when Liu Dashao turned around, he nearly collapsed in shock. Behind the staggering Village head Tian, there was a group of blurry figures following closely. There were at least a dozen of them. Judging from their appearances, there were men and women, old and young. They were slowly following behind Tian, keeping the same pace. Liu Dashao noticed that these figures were not like the earlier shadows on the ground. These dozen figures were upright, walking on their own feet. But their arms remained motionless, not even swinging slightly. They looked exactly like walking corpses.
“Damn it! Uncle Tian, run faster!” Liu Dashao shouted desperately at Village head Tian while making frantic gestures.
Hearing Liu Dashao’s shouting and seeing his terrified expression, Village head Tian immediately understood. It seemed the things behind him were catching up, so he instinctively turned around. Then he screamed “Ahh!” and bolted toward Liu Dashao, asking as he ran, “Good heavens! Nephew, what are those things?”
Liu Dashao grabbed Village head Tian’s hand as he arrived and said, “I don’t know either. Those things are too scary. Could they be ghosts?”
“We’re doomed! We’ve encountered ghosts! So they really do exist in this world!” At this moment, Village head Tian no longer cared about science or any ideology. He panted heavily as he spoke.
The two ran forward for about ten more minutes until they were completely out of breath. They found a raised mound of earth and sat down to rest.
Liu Dashao asked Village head Tian, “Uncle, why did you look back too?”
“Ah!” Village head Tian gasped between breaths, “It’s all because of what you said. You claimed you saw something strange behind, and I didn’t believe you. I wanted to check for myself, and now look what happened—I saw ghosts!”
Liu Dashao laughed bitterly, “Haha, now you believe me, right?”
Village head Tian didn’t reply but nodded repeatedly, “I believe you now. If I didn’t, I might’ve lost my life.”
After sitting down, Village head Tian lit a cigarette and said to Liu Dashao, “What kind of cursed place is this? How come we haven’t been able to get out after walking so long?”
“Wow, Uncle! You’ve got Dayuantuan cigarettes! (a popular cigarette brand during the Liberation era.) Give me a couple to try!” Liu Dashao, smelling the strong smoke from Tian’s cigarette, looked envious.
“Go away! Go away! What are you smoking at your age!” Village head Tian glanced at Liu Dashao’s pitiful look and slapped his hand away.
“Uncle, can I just smoke one?” Liu Dashao begged.
“Alright, alright. Here’s one. But don’t do it again,” Village head Tian reluctantly tossed him a cigarette. Liu Dashao immediately became delighted, holding the cigarette to his nose and inhaling deeply as if in ecstasy. After a while, he said, “I’m not exactly sure either. I only know this is a graveyard, with many corpses buried around here. Although I don’t walk this path often, I’ve passed through it once or twice a year. In my memory, it shouldn’t take this long to get through. I don’t know why it’s taking so long tonight.”
The two turned to look at each other and simultaneously widened their eyes in horror: “Oh no! It’s the ghost wall!”
Village head Tian said grimly, “Oh no! It seems we really have encountered wandering ghosts. We won’t be going home tonight.”
Liu Dashao grabbed a handful of sand from the ground and threw it out, saying, “I’ve heard elders say that wandering ghosts really exist in this world. They say that travelers who meet wandering ghosts will keep walking in circles no matter how hard they try to escape. Only when the rooster crows at dawn can they finally leave.”
Upon hearing this, Village head Tian suddenly slapped the back of his head and exclaimed, “Right! How could I forget that ghosts fear roosters crowing the most? I can crow!” With that, he stood up and stretched his neck toward the night sky, crowing loudly, “Ooooo—Ooooo—Ooooo!” Then he proudly asked Liu Dashao, “Nephew, how was my crowing? Did I sound like a real rooster?”
Liu Dashao laughed and said, “Uncle, that wasn’t a rooster crowing. It sounded more like a hen brooding.”
Village head Tian laughed and said, “Look, my crowing worked! Those ghostly shadows haven’t followed us anymore.”
Hearing this, Liu Dashao suddenly remembered—they had been sitting here for quite a while. If those things caught up again, it would be a real problem. He had almost forgotten the danger. He quickly looked behind. Fortunately, the shadows hadn’t followed again. If they had, he might have died of fright. Liu Dashao stood up and said to Village head Tian, “We should go back quickly.”
“Go back?” Village head Tian’s face twitched. “Nephew, this is a graveyard! We must have been targeted by these ghosts. What if we meet those ghosts again?”
“Don’t worry. I have a bamboo pole in my hand. Whoever comes first will get a beating.” With that, Liu Dashao picked up a bamboo pole.
Seeing white paper stuck to the bamboo pole, Village head Tian asked, “Where did you get this bamboo pole from?”
Liu Dashao pinched his nose and proudly said, “I pulled it out from the ground behind me. There are many more. I’ll get one for you too. Any problem with that?”
He crouched down, but as soon as he tried to pull one out, his body suddenly trembled in fear, and he immediately threw the bamboo pole away, shouting, “Ghost!”
Upon hearing this, Village head Tian turned around and was also so frightened that he stood frozen. Right in front of them, just a few meters away, suddenly appeared something that looked human but wasn’t. Both figures wore ancient clothes, the period unclear, but definitely not modern. Both had pale white faces. Under the moonlight, they stared directly at Liu Dashao and Village head Tian.
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