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墨書 Inktalez
Chapter Five Soul Tree (1)
The Shop was burned down, and I felt no sadness. That night, I tidied up the Shop and cleared out all the items that hadn’t been damaged by the fire.
While cleaning, I found a jade pendant in a wooden box. I recognized this jade pendant; I had seen it when I was young. My grandfather said it was a piece of dead jade that could lock Yin Hun. As a child, I didn’t believe my grandfather's words; I only knew he said that this was just half of the pendant, and the other half was with his Shidi. No matter what happened, as long as I took this half of the pendant to find his Shidi, he would help.
The jade pendant was originally made from white jade, but because it had supposedly been buried underground with Corpse for hundreds of years, infused with corpse blood and corpse water, it appeared to have taken on a reddish-yellow color.
One side of the pendant was engraved with the words “Ghost Seal.” I didn’t know what these two words referred to, nor did I know my grandfather’s Shidi’s name or where he lived.
However, my grandfather mentioned before he passed that this jade pendant was very important, so I kept it and placed it in my pocket. Now it was the only thing that could serve as a memory of my grandfather!
The next day, I began repairing the house, but I couldn’t shake off my curiosity about how the fire started. If it truly was as Liu Taiye said, that the fire burst out from the west side of the village, then it seemed quite strange.
A few days later, the house repairs were nearly complete. Unable to contain my curiosity any longer, I followed Liu Taiye’s directions to the west and discovered that something serious had happened in a nearby village!
To the west of our village is a place called Guo Village, named after the numerous members of the Guo Clan. Upon arriving at the village entrance, I immediately felt an ominous vibe because there was an earthen mound at the entrance filled with various sizes of Tomb Mound.
To be fair, Tomb Mounds aren’t unusual; after all, people are born, grow old, fall ill, and die. Where there is life, there is death, and generally in rural areas, when someone dies, they are buried in one place. However, what intrigued me about this village’s earthen mound was that most of the Tomb Mounds were new graves—graves that had just been erected not long ago.
You see, rural villages are typically small with not many residents. It’s normal for a few people to die each year. But looking around at that earthen mound, there were at least a dozen new graves! Many of them were freshly made since several Tomb Mounds still had new Wreaths on them. This piqued my curiosity; could something terrible have happened in this village or some infectious disease have spread?
With these questions in mind, I walked straight into the village…
As soon as I entered the village, I saw a gathering of villagers under a Crooked Neck Tree a few dozen meters ahead. They were in quite a commotion. Curious about what was happening, I quickly approached them.
Standing at the edge of the crowd, I couldn’t see what was going on inside. However, from snippets of conversation among the villagers, I gathered some information. One Woman said: “Sister Zhang has always been such a cheerful person; how could she suddenly hang herself?”
Another Woman replied: “Who wouldn’t think so? I've felt for a long time that there’s something wrong with our village. Perhaps we’ve offended some Evil Spirit, otherwise why would so many women in our village be committing suicide?”
“Aunt Liu, please don’t say such things. Didn’t Old Man Guo ask Great Master about this? The Great Master said everything was fine.”
“If it’s not about offending an Evil Spirit, then what do you think is causing this?”
“I think maybe it’s because Sister Zhang’s mother came to find her. Have you all forgotten that Sister Zhang’s mother also hanged herself?”
There has been an old saying in rural areas that if a relative dies by suicide, such as by taking poison or hanging, that person cannot be reincarnated and will become a lonely ghost. Therefore, these individuals often seek companionship from their relatives.
Of course, rural areas are not short of gossiping and suspicious women. However, from what I heard from them, along with the sight of a branch of the Crooked Neck Tree entwined with a Hemp Rope, I suspected that someone had indeed committed suicide there.
It is not surprising that someone would take their own life, but hearing these women say that many women in the village have committed suicide surprised me. Moreover, when I arrived at the Crooked Neck Tree and noticed that the branch with the Hemp Rope was only about one person high, I sensed that things were not as simple as they seemed.
Can you imagine someone hanging themselves while standing on the ground?
At that moment, the crowd suddenly gasped, as if the person who had hanged themselves had come back to life. Then, the crowd began to disperse, and I could see what was happening among them.
I saw a middle-aged man supporting a woman who was lying on the ground. The woman appeared to be in her thirties; although she had regained consciousness, her face remained pale, and there was a noticeable purple mark around her neck from the rope.
The man, seeing the woman awake, was in tears and urged her to explain why she had done something so foolish and why she felt the need to end her life. The woman seemed completely unresponsive to his words, her expression blank and her eyes dull like those of a dead fish.
At this moment, a villager advised the man not to ask any more questions and to hurry up and carry his daughter-in-law home.
The man nodded and picked up the dazed woman, preparing to head home. Seeing this, I hurriedly stepped forward and grabbed his arm, calling out to him, "Brother, wait..."
The man looked at me with curiosity after I suddenly stopped him. He seemed to recognize me and showed no resentment. Wiping away his tears, he asked, "You... you are Old Man Pan's grandson, right? What is it?"
I nodded and said that since we were from neighboring villages and he recognized me, he probably knew what my profession was. I just wanted to warn him that carrying her back like this might lead to trouble.
I wasn't trying to scare him; given the situation, it seemed likely that something dirty was involved. Although they had managed to save her this time after being discovered quickly, there was no guarantee they would be so lucky next time. Especially in this case where someone could hang themselves without leaving the ground; it suggested they had encountered something sinister. Otherwise, even if someone were feeling hopeless, they wouldn't be foolish enough to hang themselves like that.
Some people might be targeted by evil spirits or hanging ghosts; they can hang themselves without needing their feet off the ground. Some even just need to place a rope around their necks to suffocate.
Some may not believe this, but what I'm saying is true. I remember a child who jokingly took a Hemp Rope and said he would hang himself. He wrapped it around his neck and ended up suffocating himself within moments. There are many such examples; some say mentioning hanging is unlucky and will attract hanging evil spirits. Therefore, one should never casually mention hanging or play with ropes.
Returning to the matter at hand, upon hearing my warning, the man became quite frightened. The villagers nearby recognized my grandfather and understood I wasn't joking; they exchanged words with each other as he began to cry urgently and asked if I had seen something.
I didn't answer immediately but instead asked him if his wife was standing on the ground when she hanged herself.
The man nodded but then began to wonder aloud how it was possible for her to hang herself while standing on the ground.
I replied that this matter was indeed complicated. Then I asked if there had been many deaths in their village recently.
I asked this mainly because I had overheard those gossiping women discussing how there had been many cases of people taking their own lives in the village.
At this moment, not only did that man respond, but all the villagers nodded in agreement, and they were all women who had committed suicide. Some had hanged themselves, some had jumped into wells, and others had taken poison. As the discussion continued, everyone began to murmur about the strange occurrences in the village recently, and they urged me to investigate the cause.
I became even more certain that something sinister was happening in the village, but it was impossible to pinpoint the issue immediately. So I told everyone that I would do my best to find out what was going on, but first, I needed to help this man because if my guess was correct, something would happen tonight.
I then advised everyone to pay close attention and try to prevent any similar incidents from occurring again. After giving these instructions, I went back to the man's house with him.
The man's name was Guo Erdan, and the woman's name was Cuihua. There were no elderly people in the household; they had two children aged around five or six. Although their lives were somewhat impoverished, the couple loved each other very much. The man was hardworking, and the woman managed the household frugally. With two small children, it seemed impossible for Cuihua to casually abandon her husband and children to seek death.
Upon arriving home, Cuihua seemed to have recovered. Her complexion was no longer pale and colorless, and she could walk again. Guo Erdan then asked her why she had wanted to end her life. He expressed his concern for what would happen to him and their children if she left.
To his surprise, Cuihua touched her head and said she didn't know; she just suddenly felt that life was too hard and thought it might be better to die. She added that she didn't know what would happen afterward. As she spoke, she began to cry and said she was very scared.
I patted Guo Erdan's shoulder, signaling him not to ask further questions because I was certain that this was a case of being haunted by something. She had been targeted by some entity, which led her to irrationally consider suicide over a minor emotional distress. There are many such cases; I won't provide examples here.
Guo Erdan understood that his wife's situation was abnormal and worriedly asked me what they should do next in case something similar happened again.
After thinking for a moment, I asked for Cuihua's birth date and calculated a divination. I discovered that there would be another incident tonight (a disaster), and without needing to think further, I knew it likely involved urging her to hang herself again. So I told Guo Erdan that if he wanted to avoid any trouble, there was only one solution: he needed to place a pair of scissors under her pillow tonight and stay by her bedside without leaving for even a moment. As long as he remained there until dawn, everything should be fine.
Guo Erdan nodded repeatedly, promising to follow my instructions. However, after thinking for a moment, he frowned and expressed his worries, asking me to stay with them.
Seeing Guo Erdan so anxious and fearful made me reconsider my decision. I decided to stay not only to keep him company but also out of curiosity about what exactly was causing this disturbance!
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