Village Chief Tian shouted at Liu Dashao, “Run, why are you still standing there?”
Under the moonlight, Liu Dashao turned around and gave Village Chief Tian an awkward smile.
Seeing the eerie grin on Liu Dashao’s face, Village Chief Tian broke into a cold sweat and asked, “What’s wrong with you? Don’t scare me like that!” He took a few steps back as he spoke.
Liu Dashao suddenly burst into laughter and said, “Uncle, I thought you were braver than me. Looks like you can be scared too. Look carefully—it’s not a ghost, it’s just a paper doll.” With that, he hugged the female paper doll to his chest.
Hearing it was only a paper doll, Village Chief Tian finally felt relieved. As he approached, he saw clearly that the figure in Liu Dashao’s arms was indeed made of paper. Looking around, he noticed more paper-made items like houses and sedan chairs. Under the moonlight, those paper figures could easily be mistaken for ghosts by anyone not paying close attention.
The two were actually sitting beside a newly built tomb.
In rural traditions, after someone was buried, paper-made replicas of gold and silver mountains, sedan chairs with bearers, and golden boys and jade girls were placed beside the grave. These paper figures symbolized that the deceased would have children and servants to accompany them in the afterlife. These items were left at the grave for a while before being burned. Coincidentally, the two had chosen this new grave to rest on.
“Stop fooling around,” Village Chief Tian teased Liu Dashao. “If you like girls so much, I’ll introduce you to a girlfriend when you grow up. Put that paper doll down quickly, or she might turn into a ghost and come to your house tonight.”
Startled, Liu Dashao pushed the paper doll away and asked fearfully, “Really? You’re not lying to me, are you?”
Seeing that his words had frightened Liu Dashao, Village Chief Tian suppressed a laugh and added, “Why would I lie to you? I heard from the elders that graveyards have heavy yin energy. If a paper doll absorbs too much yin energy and then your yang energy, it can become a spirit. At night, it will follow your scent and come for you.”
“What should I do then?” Liu Dashao asked anxiously.
Village Chief Tian burst into laughter and said, “You really thought a female ghost would come for you? I was just kidding!”
“Oh, so you were just scaring me! You almost scared me to death!” Liu Dashao glared at Village Chief Tian.
Village Chief Tian retorted, “Didn’t you scare me just now too?”
“Whatever, whatever, whatever!”
By this time, the night had grown late, and the silver moonlight bathed the ground. Crickets chirped mournfully in the distance. After some discussion, the two decided to head back home.
Just as they stood up, Village Chief Tian suddenly heard someone calling his name. His heart leapt into his throat again. He thought he might be hearing things, so he dug his little finger into his ear.
Seeing this, Liu Dashao said, “Uncle Tian, why are you digging your ears while walking? Be careful not to damage them. My neighbor Wang the Deaf once dug his ear while walking, slipped, and ended up deaf.”
Village Chief Tian lowered his hand and asked Liu Dashao, “Nephew, did you hear someone calling my name? It sounded like it came from far away.”
“Nonsense!” Liu Dashao snapped. “Earlier at Lingguan Temple, you used the same trick. You should come up with something new. People believe you the first time you cry ‘wolf,’ but not the second or third. Besides, in this remote wilderness, who else would call your name besides me? Don’t try to scare me again.”
Village Chief Tian’s face turned red as he defended himself, “I’m not lying. I really heard someone calling my name, maybe Guoqiang’s voice. Why else would I dig my ear for no reason?”
After observing Village Chief Tian carefully, Liu Dashao concluded that he wasn’t joking and said seriously, “Uncle Tian, whatever you do, don’t respond. If you answer, your soul might be taken away. Ghosts often mimic the voices of people you know to call you.”
As soon as he finished speaking, a distant voice shouted, “Tian Guangrong! Tian Guangrong! Where are you? Answer me!”
This time, both of them heard it clearly. Tian Guangrong was terrified and stared at Liu Dashao in panic, asking, “What should we do now?”
Liu Dashao cursed, “Damn ghosts won’t leave us alone. Just got rid of shadow ghosts, and now we have soul-stealing ghosts. What rotten luck we have! Time to run!”
He glanced at Tian Guangrong, and the two took off running. Even as they ran, they could still hear the chilling voice echoing in their ears. It seemed to come from hell itself, unceasing and haunting. Sometimes it called Liu Dashao’s name, sometimes Tian Guangrong’s. Both clenched their teeth tightly, afraid that even a sound from them might attract the ghosts.
They didn’t know how long they ran, but eventually, the voices calling their names stopped. The two finally stopped running.
Suddenly, Liu Dashao said, “I remember hearing from the elders that if you’re lost by ghosts, you can just pee, and the path-blocking ghosts will let you through.”
Gasping for breath, Tian Guangrong said, “Oh right! I remember now. Nephew, you really should have told me earlier. You disappointed the Party’s trust in you! Why didn’t you say something sooner? What are we waiting for? Let’s pee now!”
“I just remembered it too,” Liu Dashao replied.
At this moment, Tian Guangrong grabbed this lifeline. He no longer cared about dignity or elegance. He quickly unfastened his belt and began urinating. Liu Dashao followed suit, unfastening his belt and straining to pee. From a distance, it looked like two streams of water shooting powerfully.
After urinating, Liu Dashao felt a great sense of relief. Seeing that Tian Guangrong was still standing with his back to him, he asked, “Why aren’t you done yet? Didn’t you already go before we entered the graveyard? Are you drinking too much that you have so much urine?”
Tian Guangrong tightened his belt and cursed, “Damn it! If I knew we’d meet path-blocking ghosts, I wouldn’t have peed before entering. Now I strained for ages and barely managed a few drops. Even a cat pees more than me.”
Liu Dashao laughed and said, “If only we could have known earlier!”
Tian Guangrong replied, “That’s true!”
“You see, why has the moon disappeared all of a sudden?” Liu Dashao looked up at the sky.
Tian Guangrong also looked up and said, “Strange! Why are there so many clouds suddenly? Even the moon is covered.”
Neither dared to point at the moon. According to old northeastern folklore, pointing at the moon in the sky meant the moon would point back at you. One moon, two moons, one ear, two ears. Since ears resemble the moon, pointing at it would cause your ears to mysteriously rot away.
After looking at the sky for a while, the moon completely disappeared. Liu Dashao said, “Forget it! We should focus on escaping.”
“Watch out!” Tian Guangrong shouted as he pushed Liu Dashao, who was still looking at the sky. “Nephew, the path is unclear. There’s thick fog everywhere!”
Liu Dashao looked around, but the white fog had already enveloped everything. He cried out in despair, “We’re done for! We can’t even see the path anymore!”
As the saying goes, even a rabbit bites when cornered. Enraged, Liu Dashao jumped up and shouted into the night, “Damn it! If you want our lives, come out and face me! I’m right here, waiting for you to gut me! Show yourselves! Stop playing tricks! I’m not afraid of anything! Even as a ghost, I’ll haunt you so badly the sky turns dark and the sun hides!”
He raised his fists, looking fierce and determined.
Tian Guangrong shouted at Liu Dashao, “Nephew, a wise man doesn’t fight when cornered. Calm down! Let’s just sit here and wait for dawn. It won’t be long now.”
“Easy for you to say! How can I stay calm? We’re worse than ants, being toyed with like this. We don’t even know if it’s a ghost or a person!” Liu Dashao suddenly screamed and fell forward.
Hearing Liu Dashao’s cry, Tian Guangrong quickly got up and asked, “Nephew, are you okay?”
Liu Dashao, lying on the ground, replied, “I’m fine. I must have tripped over something.”
Tian Guangrong walked over, helped Liu Dashao up, and examined what had tripped him. “Look! Isn’t this the bamboo stick I dropped earlier?”
“When did you get a bamboo stick?” Liu Dashao was puzzled.
“Oh, earlier when I saw the paper doll, I thought it was a ghost, so I grabbed it for protection. Later, when I realized it was nothing, I just threw it behind us,” Tian Guangrong said with an embarrassed smile.
“Ouch!” Liu Dashao exaggerated his pain. “Uncle, you nearly broke my hand! You owe me at least three packs of Da Tuanyuan cigarettes!”
Tian Guangrong helped Liu Dashao rub his hand and asked, “Nephew, are you feeling better now?”
Suddenly, Liu Dashao seemed to remember something and asked, “Wait, if this bamboo stick was yours and we left it behind, how did it end up in front of us now?”
Tian Guangrong replied, “That’s what I’m wondering too. I dropped it behind us while we were running forward. How did it get in front of us again?”
They looked at each other and said in unison, “We came back!”
Both felt utterly hopeless. Liu Dashao sat on the ground in despair and said, “We’ve been running all night and still can’t escape this cursed graveyard. I knew we shouldn’t have come this way!”
Feeling guilty, Tian Guangrong sat beside Liu Dashao and comforted him, “Nephew, it’s too late to regret now. We’re already here. Looks like we’ll have to stay here tonight. Don’t try to find a way out. It’s better to wait for dawn and the sound of roosters. With all this fog, even if there’s a path, we might not find it.”
Liu Dashao nodded in agreement and said, “I guess that’s all we can do. I’m so tired. Let’s just sit and take a nap!” With that, he leaned on Tian Guangrong’s back and fell asleep.
At this moment, Tian Guangrong was also exhausted from running all night. But he couldn’t sleep. Looking at Liu Dashao snoring soundly, he smiled bitterly and muttered, “You’re sleeping so peacefully, but I’m suffering. With that sleeping posture, you might be taken away by ghosts without even knowing it.”
Tian Guangrong recalled his grandmother’s words from childhood: path-blocking ghosts usually don’t harm people. They just keep you trapped in one place. Suddenly, he realized why they couldn’t escape despite running for so long—they were trapped by their own fear. Their panic created illusions. They had scared themselves into running in circles, which was exactly what the path-blocking ghosts wanted. Running frantically was futile—it only brought them back to where they started.
As he thought, Tian Guangrong felt his eyelids grow heavy, as if weighed down by lead. He was extremely tired, more tired than after taking sleeping pills. His head nodded forward after a few seconds of resistance, then jerked up again briefly, only to nod forward once more like a chick pecking rice. In his daze, he felt something cold and small touching his face. Slowly opening his eyes, he saw a short child wearing old-style funeral clothes with copper coin patterns, a landlord’s hat, red cheeks, and a pale face. The child looked displeased when Tian Guangrong opened his eyes. It bared its teeth, grinned, and raised its sharp nails, ready to pounce.
“No!” Tian Guangrong jolted awake, shivering.
His hand slid from his knee as he slowly regained consciousness. He muttered to himself, “Thank goodness it was just a dream. I must be too tired to have such a strange nightmare.” He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. Around him, the crickets chirped merrily in the grass, and the two hungry men sat in the endless darkness.
At that moment, footsteps approached from a distance. Tian Guangrong tensed and elbowed Liu Dashao, who was still sleeping soundly on his back. “Nephew, wake up! Listen, something is coming toward us.”
Liu Dashao, now awake, listened carefully and said, “Yes, something is definitely coming this way.”
“Could it be another strange creature?” Tian Guangrong felt uneasy.
“Damn it!” Liu Dashao grabbed the stick that had made him fall earlier and cursed, “Whoever or whatever it is, I’ll hit it with this stick!”
Tian Guangrong pressed Liu Dashao’s shoulder, signaling him to stay calm. “Don’t act rashly. From the sound of the footsteps, it seems like a human. Ghosts don’t make noise when they walk.”
They both looked toward the sound, which was getting closer. The heavy footsteps felt like hammers pounding on their chests.
Liu Dashao’s eyes flickered, and he slowly lowered the bamboo stick. “Who would come here at this hour? Don’t they fear ghosts?”
Tian Guangrong stared at the source of the sound, a hint of hope in his eyes. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s a person! Look, there’s light. Someone must be coming.”
They looked into the fog and indeed saw light approaching, growing brighter. The light was almost blinding, forcing them to shield their eyes.
Suddenly, Liu Dashao screamed, “Ghost!”
“What now? What’s wrong? Why are you making noise again?” Tian Guangrong hurriedly removed his hands from his eyes and was startled. Before him stood a trembling shadow, hunched over with a high hump like a mountain. The figure held a yellow lantern. For some reason, the slightly greenish light illuminated half of its face—half green, half yellow. Its wrinkled face looked terrifying in the darkness, enough to scare anyone to death.
Before Tian Guangrong could ask who the figure was, an angry voice came from ahead, “Little brat, you’re the ghost!”
“How ungrateful! We came all the way to find you, and you call us ghosts!”
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