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墨書 Inktalez
This story was told by the landlord of Qi Liyan.
The old man's childhood friend was a carpenter. In the late 1980s, when electric tools first became available, he was among the first to buy a set to keep up with the trend.
However, he didn't know how to use them properly. While trying to operate an electric planer, he accidentally severed three fingers! At that time, there were no motor vehicles in the countryside, not even a motorcycle. Seeing his friend's hand bleeding profusely, his family panicked.
A Barefoot Doctor hurriedly grabbed some gauze and bandages to perform a simple dressing on the wound. Neighbors came to help, and they fashioned a makeshift stretcher to carry the injured man. A dozen people took turns running for over two hours along the mountain roads to reach the county hospital.
The old man said that one of his friend's arms was completely soaked in blood, and by the time they arrived at the hospital, he had already lost consciousness from blood loss.
The doctors urgently disinfected and bandaged the wound. At that time, there were no microsurgery techniques or finger reattachment procedures available, so three fingers were considered lost.
After blood transfusions and fluid replacement, although the doctors said he was no longer in life-threatening condition, his friend remained unconscious for three consecutive days!
His family was anxious and called out his name by his bedside every day. It wasn't until the fourth day that he finally stirred awake.
When he woke up, he seemed extremely exhausted.
He said he had a long dream where he wandered around a market in an unknown place. The sun was bright but not hot, and both sides of the street were lined with vendors selling various foods: rice noodles with pork intestines, dan dan noodles, tofu pudding, cold noodles, spicy chicken skewers, and sweet glutinous rice cakes... The vendors warmly urged him to try a bite or have a bowl, insisting it was free.
Hungry as he was, his friend wanted to eat and drink but felt guilty about taking food without paying since he realized that all these vendors were people from his village who had passed away years ago... He wondered what was going on.
After wandering around the market for what felt like ages and feeling unbearably hungry, just as he was about to take a bowl of dan dan noodles and had the chopsticks almost to his mouth, he suddenly heard someone calling his name. He turned around in response, and everything on the street vanished as if blown away by the wind. In a daze, he found himself awake again.
The old man said that during those three days, his childhood friend was in "Crossing the Shadow." The market he saw was the scenery of the Underworld; anyone who took a bite or a sip there would never wake up again, as the saying goes, "Once you eat the Underworld Meal, you become an Underworld person."
In our mountainous region, there are people known as "Incense Burners." These individuals generally possess two abilities: one is to divine and ask questions using three burning incense sticks, and the other ability is "Crossing the Shadow": lighting incense, sitting still while asleep, allowing their soul to wander to Fengdu, to meet the deceased Old Friends of the inquirer, delivering messages and conversing across the Yin-Yang Realms; or directly bringing forth the inquirer's deceased Old Friend, guiding their soul into their own body so that the living and the dead can converse directly.
Among them is a legend with quite a comedic effect: two unfilial sons and daughters-in-law caused their father to die with resentment.
Hearing that their father had hidden considerable Hidden Savings, the two couples promised generous rewards to the "Crossing the Shadow" person, asking their father to "possess" them so they could inquire about where the Hidden Savings were stored.
The "Incense Burner" respectfully lit three incense sticks. As the smoke curled up, a mysterious atmosphere suddenly enveloped them. Then they saw the woman who was burning incense suddenly tremble all over like a sieve, her lips moving, but what came out was a Man's Voice: "Unfilial wretches, why did you call me here? When I was alive, you were ungrateful; now that I am gone, you still won't let me rest in peace?"
The Eldest Daughter-in-law couldn't care less about her father-in-law's reproach and boldly replied, "Dad, we didn't do well when you were here; now we regret it. Thinking of you being gone, we can't let you suffer over there... Where did you keep your savings? Please tell us so we can burn offerings of Golden Mountain Silver Mountain Treasure Basin and Child Prodigy Servants for you... so that you can live comfortably over there..."
Anyway, she spoke nonsense meant to placate spirits.
The old man listened seriously. After hearing her out, he not only didn't reveal where the Hidden Savings were but instead scolded his two sons and daughters-in-law for their disobedience and unfilial behavior, recounting each incident as if it were a treasured memory: "Which New Year's Eve was it when you all ate dumplings in the main room while I was served a bowl of Corn Porridge? That time my eldest grandson saw me going hungry every day and secretly took half a bun from your kitchen; you beat that five-year-old child mercilessly...
As for your wives, that's understandable since they are outsiders. But you two are my own flesh and blood! Since I grew old, have you ever let me live a good day?"
They didn't find out where the money was hidden; instead, it became a laughingstock in the village. (Next section: "Mad Talk" and old customs)
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