[Folk Horror] Ten Days of Mourning

"The air in the country is just different!" are the first words your friend will say after jumping off the bus.

From the high-speed rail to the bus station, after several days of bumps and bumps, you finally got close to your hometown.Hearing such an energetic sentence, you unconsciously lamented your friend's vitality, and replied with a smile: "It's still far from my hometown, so now you're feeling emotional?"

Your hometown is in a small village in the south. Although the place is remote, the economy has been good in recent years, roads have been built, and sometimes people from nearby counties come to experience the farmhouse.It happened to be a holiday on May [-]st, and you were free when you were free, so you took your enthusiastic friends from the city back to your hometown to play.

After waiting outside the bus station for a long time, your father appeared in your field of vision riding on the electric tricycle. Your friends have already switched to the door-to-door guest mode. One mouthful of uncle, the mouth is so sweet, your father couldn’t help but laugh out loud. There were also laughter and laughter on the way to take you to your hometown village.All the way from the customs to your childhood fun, I heard my friends nodding and winking at you.While embarrassed, you couldn't help but smile.

This is the first time you have a friend close enough to bring back home for the holidays.Although you have never told anyone... this is the first time you have fallen in love with someone else, even if you are both girls, you still want to keep the throbbing in your heart, the sourness and happiness brought by this throbbing.

You've been happy all day.

You forgot all the travel and dust along the way, your parents warmly entertained your friend, and you took her to visit your bedroom from childhood to adulthood, played with her for a long time, and made more beds together A quilt.The thought of you all going to sleep in the same bed this holiday season, in the place you've been used to since childhood, makes your heart skip a beat.Fortunately, it happened that your cousin's little grandson was celebrating his [-]th day, so the two of you had a farm banquet together.

My cousin is all red, toasting everywhere. You can also see his little grandson, who is white, with fleshy arms and legs, very cute, and makes people feel happy.

After drinking for three rounds, your friend whispers to you that she is a little tired from sitting, and you decide to take her home to rest first.

You are not the kind of particularly extroverted girl, otherwise you wouldn't be bringing your friends back to your hometown for the first time since you were young.Your parents are used to the fact that you left early, so you know it by nodding your head. Your relative’s house is not far from yours. After all, the village is so big, so you decided to walk back together.

On the way, you met the witch.

You know her.

The sorcerer's surname is Zhao, and she usually lives a little far from the center of the village. It is said that sorceress Zhao is an abandoned baby picked up, and the person who picked her up is also a sorceress, so there is no talk of adoption, and I don't know if there are any procedures. Decades ago No one can tell what happened to her, but she was raised as an apprentice anyway.Later, when the master died, Goddess Zhao became a Goddess naturally.You haven't been studying in Murakami since junior high school, and you didn't stay for a very long time, that is, you came back to live during the holidays.After careful calculation, I haven't seen her for many years.

Wrinkles on Goddess Zhao's face increased a few more times, she was holding her small cage in her hand, she was wearing a blue cloth shirt, and she was carrying a small yellow cloth bag, as if she suddenly appeared from the road, before you and your friends could react, she Already greeted with a smile.

Although modern society pays attention to science, there are still some superstitions in the countryside.These witches are not so majestic now, they can be like the old society, they are both witch doctors and priests in the village, and they are respected by others.Now most of them are rushing to wedding banquets and hundred-day banquets, saying a few auspicious words and getting some small money; or they are going to talk nonsense at funerals, and occasionally help superstitious old people organize traditional funerals.It seems that you two are dressed like city people, and there is something to squeeze, so Mistress Zhao greeted with a smile on her face: "Oh, you two beautiful girls! Blessed, do you want to figure it out? It can distinguish bad luck and good luck, give it a try! If you don’t allow it, you won’t be charged!”

"Ah, fortune-telling?" My friend got a little interested, "Is it working?"

"Spiritual, it's amazing," Goddess Zhao smiled, "I, Goddess Zhao, have been in the village for decades, who says I'm not good enough?"

To be honest, you are not interested in these things, but your friend is very curious, and Goddess Zhao insisted that it is not bad if you want to spend some money to get a lottery, so you nodded in the end and asked Goddess Zhao to make a divination for you.

After getting permission, Goddess Zhao took off the black cloth covering the small cage that she carried with her, and inside were more than a dozen sparrows, chirping and chattering, each with a thin string tied to their feet, and the other end was wrapped around the witch's wrist.Goddess Zhao murmured a few words, "Be good, be good, be good, be good." She took out a pile of folded and square small yellow paper from her yellow cloth bag, and sprinkled it into the sky with words, and it immediately scattered all over the ground, like a lot of copper coins.Your friend is watching it attentively, just like watching a magic show. You are very familiar with this set, so just watch your friend's reaction and give her the spoiler in a low voice: "Don't blink, the next thing is to watch the house."

Sure enough, Goddess Zhao released two sparrows from the cage, and the two fat, chirping little creatures immediately flew up with flapping wings, causing Goddess Zhao to flick her wrists and pull the string, and they landed on the ground in unison, looking like a trained sparrow. He pecked all over the ground in a regular manner, as if he was picking and choosing among the signatures all over the floor.My friend held his breath, and you also looked away. The two little sparrows quickly picked up a piece of yellow paper, flapped their wings and handed it to Goddess Zhao. Goddess Zhao laughed and put the two little things together It was indeed a bit bluffing to send the child back to the cage in one go.

"Come on, come on, two little girls, let's take a look at the signatures." Goddess Zhao said, and handed the two signatures to you and your friend respectively.

You leaned over to your friend and urged: "Come on, let's take a look at yours first."

Your friend smiled at you, and opened her yellow paper with great interest, and there were four large characters of "Lan Xinhui Zhi" on it.Goddess Zhao immediately exaggerated and flattered: "Oh! Just look at the little girl, you are the number one female champion!"

Although it's all a trick to deceive people, who doesn't like others to praise themselves?You watched your friend happily give the sorceress ten yuan, and you were in a good mood. You opened your yellow paper casually, and now your friend came over with a smile, muttering endlessly: "Let me see what do you……"

The moment your eyes fell on the yellow paper, you two froze.

Logically speaking, the signatures all over the floor should be auspicious words for auspiciousness, so no matter which one the sparrow picks, the result will be the same.Of course, even if you want to write a few photos and sign them, they should generally be "extremely happy but also worrying", "the boat goes to the heart of the river to shoot the sky", "staying at home", "shooting the moon in the water", etc. It vaguely reminds people to be careful, and it is best to trick people into buying talisman papers to eliminate disasters.

No matter what it is, you can understand it. Logically speaking, it should be like this... That's why you couldn't distinguish the words on the yellow paper in the first place.

The yellow paper reads: "Ten days of continuous mourning, filial daughters take heart."