[Folk Horror] Ten Days of Mourning

What does it feel like?

Probably just jumped into the swimming pool and swam hundreds of meters laps and laps. My body was sore from swimming, and the water got in my eyes. I finally crawled out of the pool with my eyes closed, and collapsed on the ground exhausted.Every joint in my body is sore as if it has been dismantled and reassembled, my eyes are closed, but the lights in the indoor swimming pool are very dazzling, right?I can feel the light source through a layer of eyelids, and I can't ignore it. In the end, I can only open my eyes that are stinging from the water, and welcome the light of the world again.

This is what it feels like when you force your eyes open.

"You finally woke up!" The friend's voice was soft and anxious.

You notice yourself in your friend's arms, her slender arms wrapping around your body in a tight hugging gesture.Her coat is on you, and it still smells of her shampoo.

…The timing was completely wrong, but you still made a heart attack once, sat up like an electric shock, lowered your head and said "It's okay, it's okay" a few times, and your eyes moved to the face of Goddess Zhao.

"Witch Zhao..." you said, "Is your master's surname Qian?"

You remembered why Grandma Qian looked so familiar.

You've seen her in the portrait of Goddess Zhao's house.

Goddess Zhao said in surprise, "How do you know?"

"Where are all the belongings of Grandma Qian?" You didn't answer directly, but asked back while rubbing your sore legs.

Goddess Zhao had a strange expression on her face: "Why are you asking this?"

"I saw Grandma Qian." You let out a breath.

"Did you see it?! What did you see?" To your surprise, Goddess Zhao, who has always stayed out of the way, was inexplicably excited. She took a few steps forward, almost approaching you, and even stretched out her skinny hands towards you. Loudly plant, "Say it! Make it clear!!"

Without thinking, your friend stood up in front of you and stopped her, otherwise Goddess Zhao might come up and grab you for questioning.You were taken aback, and before you could fully react, you heard your friend ask: "Old man! Don't get excited... What's wrong?"

Goddess Zhao panted hard, her chest heaving like a plastic bag blown by the north wind.After recovering for a long time, she sat back at the table with a dry voice: "My master... well, that happened in 1990, and in that year, she let go... she left in a hurry, and told me before she left. , except for the account book, everything else was buried with her... I just thought she was planning for a rainy day, who knew? She really just closed her eyes and left me behind..."

"Can I see the ledger?"

Goddess Zhao glanced at you: "How can I show you this thing?"

The friend hurriedly said: "Goddess Zhao, please help me and send the Buddha to the west, okay?"

Goddess Zhao shook her head: "You don't need to say, I've already recruited spirits for you, and I will still help with this little help--little girl, your friend and you have a really good relationship, and this kind of thing is mixed with you , closer than sisters, even the couples in the village are not so good."

You blushed a little, and quickly coughed twice to cover it up, but when the friend in front of you turned his back to you, it seemed that his ears were also red.

Goddess Zhao left for a moment, took back a thick old booklet, and handed it to you with a blank expression.You quickly take it over and look it up, and it's really what Goddess Zhao said, only two places of your grandfather's name can be found.

In 1975, give your father a good birthday.This is what you heard from Goddess Zhao.

In 1990, I held a funeral for your Taigong...Is this the memory you saw when you invited the spirit?Grandma Qian came to help your grandfather with the funeral. Taking this opportunity, your grandfather told her about Yinshen and asked her for help.

In 1990, that is, this year, Grandma Qian died.

... No matter how you look at it, I feel that it has something to do with Yinshen.

Probably because your expression is too obvious, Goddess Zhao curled her lower lip, showing a slightly mocking expression: "Little girl, don't think about it. I don't know about others, my master, her death... probably has nothing to do with your family's Yin God." .”

"Why are you so sure?" My friend asked directly.

"Because my master committed suicide," Goddess Zhao said in a flat tone, "Suicide, I didn't even leave a word to me, so I ended up on my own. After so many years, I was left to think for myself, and I couldn't figure it out after thinking about it for half my life. I Master...he ended it by himself."

----

After leaving the residence of Goddess Zhao, you continue to wander around the village.Originally, Goddess Zhao asked you if you need to find a chance to invite the Yin God again tonight, and try to ask the Yin God to extend your life for a few more years.You were going to make a quick decision, and you agreed, but at the door, your intuition suddenly sounded the alarm, telling you that something is wrong, something you have overlooked, and something you have not realized!

Eventually, you trust your vague feelings and just say you'll think about it in the afternoon.

After summoning the spirit, you feel that you have become a tenth-level handicap, struggling to walk and stumbling.Your friend has been supporting you, saying that he has experienced the hardships of supporting the elderly in advance, and was beaten by you for an excuse.

In the end, you plan to go to the infirmary of the village clinic. Although recruiting spirits should not really affect your body, it is safer to have a look.Don't be afraid of ten thousand, just in case.

The village clinic is a room with a small courtyard. There are patients sitting in the courtyard and chatting by hanging water. The room inside is a bit dark, with human acupuncture points and hygiene rules posted on the wall. There are also two or three hospital beds. At the moment, only an old man is lying there. .You turn to the left, and the side room is the consultation room. There is a wooden table with medicine, a stethoscope, and a blood pressure monitor. On the other side is a wooden bed full of used medicine bottles, piled up like a mountain.

There is a doctor who is on duty and shows you a look, and concludes that you may be suffering from sub-health and cramps. It is best to sit and rest here.

Sitting among the patients, listening to the chatter of these old people, your heart moved slightly: Since you feel that there is something neglected, why don't you take this opportunity to inquire more about the situation?

For example... In your grandfather's narration, the last part of the Yinshen ceremony, the little snake that got into the grandfather's body.

"I was bitten by a snake again at home the day before yesterday." You have made up your mind, and with a natural expression, you joined the patients' chat with these words.

"Snakes? That's normal. We don't have any around here. It's just that there are so many snakes, it's scary-has the doctor seen it? Isn't it poisonous?"

"No, no, it's just an ordinary little snake." You ask again, and your friend sits quietly beside you, and you don't need to look to know that she is trying to remember every answer, "Do we have that kind of little snake here? It's the red one. , a little snake like a red thread?"

"I've never seen this kind of snake before. Are you mistaken, little girl?"

The other patient was an old lady who had been on the phone with her son before. She just put it down for half a minute and just listened to everyone chatting in silence. At this moment, she suddenly answered: "That's not sure..."

"Why not?" The friend asked immediately, scratching his head.

"We have a river god here, and the river god is a big spirit snake." The old lady said the information that Goddess Zhao said, "With the river god here, there may be any small snake."

"Since we have a river god, why is there no river temple here?" My friend continued to ask, you have already told her what you saw on the road just now, your friend knows what to ask

"Yes, there used to be." The old lady's answer surprised you, and you blurted out: "Where is it?"

"Didn't we go to Hetou to burn paper every winter solstice and Zhongyuan? It was for the river god. Huh, you young people don't know these things. Come on, let me ask you, little girl, do you know why you gave it to the river god?" The burning paper should be at Hetou, not somewhere else beside the river?" The old lady raised her finger and waved it around, looking complacent, as if she was showing off her knowledge of the village's history, "——Because, the Hetou used to be It was the River God Temple, but it was demolished after superstition was broken, and the Earth Temple was built in the [-]s. Do you understand? The current Earth Temple is the same as the River God Temple back then, and the owner of the temple has changed!"

"Oh..." You responded inexplicably.

That is to say, the yin god beheading the statue of land was revenge for the statue of the land god occupying the magpie's nest?Thinking about it this way, this yin god is really bound to take revenge, which is not good news for you.

In addition, the Heshen Temple was demolished during the era of breaking superstition, which was after the founding of the People's Republic of China.In this way, in 1940, the Heshen Temple should still exist.

Could it be that the place where your grandfather invited the Yin God in your memory was the River God Temple at that time, or the Earth Temple now?