Night Road

The moment I saw the corpse, my face turned ashen. Grandma had told me that if we ever saw a floating body, we absolutely couldn't go into the river. And if we saw a corpse walking in the river like it was surrendering, we had to get away from the riverbank immediately and run for our lives!

Zhang Yi Dan followed my gaze and saw the strange corpse that had appeared beside Huang Dong at some point. He immediately yelled, "Damn it, are you stupid, Huang Dong! Hurry up and get out! Can't you see the dead body next to you?!"

My friends were all stunned, and Huang Dong's face was pale. However, his family lived near this river, and it wasn't the first time he'd seen a floating corpse. Relying on his status as the class leader, Huang Dong immediately put on a stern face and said boldly, "Scaredy-cat Zhang Yi Dan, calling yourself brave and bold, why are you so afraid of death? Haven't you ever seen a dead body before? This river has one or two every month!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he watched in disbelief as his friend beside him was pulled underwater as if he had disappeared. A string of bubbles immediately appeared on the surface of the water!

Huang Dong's face turned green with fear. He opened his mouth wide, about to call for help, when he felt something grab his leg and a tremendous force pull him into the water! He lived by the river, so his swimming skills were not bad. At first, he thought it was just weeds catching him. However, when he tried to swim away, he was suddenly pulled to the bottom of the water. [Ran Wen Book Repository]

"Huang Dong!" Zhang Yi Dan was fiercely loyal. Seeing his friend being pulled into the water, he instinctively didn't care about anything else and was about to jump in to save him.

I watched from the riverbank as Huang Dong and his friend were dragged into the water by the strange corpse, completely helpless. Besides being helpless, the chilling sensation behind me intensified again, almost like an alarm.

"Yi Dan, don't go to your death! Run! Go find an adult!" I grabbed Zhang Yi Dan and ran. I had already seen the strange corpse's dark, hollow eyes seem to be looking at me. If we stayed any longer, something unimaginable would definitely happen!

With Zhang Yi Dan being dragged away by me, my few friends, let alone saving anyone, ran crying for their lives, following us. We finally found adults on the riverbank and even called the police.

I didn't dare to go with them. I pointed to the spot where they fell from a distance and kept Zhang Yi Dan from going back.

The next day, the principal sorrowfully informed us that Huang Dong and his friend had drowned. Afterwards, I heard the adults say that when they were recovered, both of them had their eyes wide open. One of the adults who went to retrieve them also died. The matter was only settled after the police arrived.

Zhang Yi Dan and the other friends were grateful to have escaped with their lives. Afterwards, they obeyed my every word and never dared to swim in the river again.

At that time, I wondered if the reflection in the water that was pulling at my clothes was the child bride Grandma married for me?

Was she not human, but a ghost?

To understand my invisible Sister Wife, my young self became curious about Grandma's magic. Over the following years, I studied all her old books and read many novel and wonderful methods for exorcising ghosts, summoning ghosts, and even raising ghosts.

Although Grandma knew I was studying her things, for some reason, she didn't stop me.

But unfortunately, even though I clearly knew these strange arts, I never had the chance to use or verify them until I went to college and started working.

As for why, perhaps it was because I didn't have the opportunity, or perhaps because my life used to be filled with an all-powerful Grandma, and now with my invisible Sister Wife's constant "warnings," my life had become calm and undisturbed, thus I had no chance to use them.

However, the techniques that should have faded with time, with Grandma's death, I was forced to use them, and even caused a great disaster, sliding into the gloomy profession known as "Ghost Raising Dao."

It was the sixteenth of July that year, and I was in my twenties.

I received a letter from Grandma. The letter said she wouldn't live past the fourteenth of July and instructed me not to attend the funeral, not to return to the village, to forget the people and events in the village, and never to return even if I died, only then would I be safe and have a peaceful life.

The letter was forwarded to me by my mother. Calculating from the date specified in the letter and the current date, if I believed what the letter said, Grandma had already been dead for two days.

Unless one's death date was set by someone else or it was suicide, ordinary people could not determine their exact date of death. In my impression, Grandma was almost omnipotent, how could she set a death date for someone?

Grandma lived in a remote place without a phone. My mother lived in the county town and would often visit her. Only she understood Grandma's recent situation best.

So, I didn't believe what the letter said. Instead, I called my mother on my phone and told her the contents of the letter.

I asked about Grandma's recent condition, such as whether she had shown signs of senile dementia recently, whether the relatives and friends in the village were well, whether any neighbors had conflicts with Grandma, and so on.

My mother was surprised when she received my call, but she was dismissive. She said she had just visited Grandma a few days ago and she was in good health, telling me not to worry. When she returned, she even gave her a cage of eggs and two bags of glutinous rice. Her relationship with her neighbors was also good, and they saw her off with warmth and affection when she left.

I frowned after listening and suddenly remembered Grandma's dream the night before, feeling uneasy.

In the latter half of the night on the fourteenth of July, I dreamed that Grandma came to see me. Her face was pale, and on her shoulder sat a little girl in a red dress with an equally pale face, smiling and waving to me, but saying nothing.

I wanted to walk over, but Sister Wife's hand kept holding me. I wanted to look back at her expression, but I couldn't turn my head at all.

When I woke up, I was covered in sweat but inexplicably sad.

For over twenty years, whenever I encountered danger, it was Sister Wife who helped me overcome misfortunes. But what did the dream represent? What happened to Grandma?

I reread the letter, pondered for a long time, and decided to return to Grandma's house. I hadn't been back for nearly a year. Even if it was dangerous, I couldn't care about that much.

Moreover, the handwriting on the letter was very messy, in Grandma's unique style. Hidden within it was an old yellow paper talisman with brownish-yellow writing.

I had seen this type of paper talisman before and recognized it. It was written with human blood, and its color had changed over time.

In my early years, I often played with Grandma's paper talisman books, drawing random symbols, so I was very sensitive and familiar with these things.

After careful study, I even figured out the function of this paper talisman. It was something I had seen in Grandma's books before, called a "Spirit Communication Talisman," which could ward off evil spirits and communicate with ghosts.

More importantly, it was written with the vital blood of a person's middle finger, which shortened one's lifespan. Therefore, it was classified as a rather overbearing talisman. No one would draw or play with such a thing unless it was absolutely necessary.

Perhaps Grandma meant for me to avoid evil spirits and not to rush into danger, or perhaps it was just to protect the letter. But in any case, this abnormal behavior made me feel worried.

Furthermore, the place where I was working part-time was a gallery in a shopping mall, and business was not good. The boss often threatened to fire me because of my taciturn nature.

This incident gave me an opportunity. So, without telling anyone anything, I didn't collect my remaining wages. When I finished work, I returned to my rented room, packed my bags, and took the express bus back to Grandma's house.

My mother's residence and Grandma's village were in different directions, so I didn't inform her about my return. Actually, I was afraid she would worry, because my premonition this time was not good either.

Premonitions could be attributed to the sixth sense, unexplainable, but often a foresight in the darkness.

Grandma's village only had about twenty households, which was what I called Xiao Yi Hamlet. It was located deep in the mountains and forests, making it difficult to reach by transportation.

To enter the village, one had to walk several kilometers of dirt road from Kang Long Village, making it impassable in the rain.

When I transferred to a van to Kang Long Village, everything went smoothly. It wasn't raining, but there was a lot of fog, and visibility was not high.

I checked my digital watch. It was 6 PM. The sky wasn't too dark yet. It got dark late in the south, only after 8 PM. So, according to the time, if I entered Grandma's small village, it would be just around dark.

If Grandma was fine, I could still have a hot meal.

Thinking this, I picked up my simple backpack and headed towards the small path, intending to return to Xiao Yi Hamlet.

"Young man, it's so late. Are you going to Xiao Yi Hamlet?"

As I walked along the secluded village path, an elder who had just gotten out of a van kindly asked me.

"I'm visiting relatives."

"It's late, why don't you stay a night in the village? This road isn't easy to travel at night," the elder warned me, a hint of hesitation in his expression.

I knew what he meant. Xiao Yi Hamlet had poor transportation and was the last village in the area. Outsiders wouldn't come here unless they had relatives, and with Grandma's reputation, over time people started saying Xiao Yi Hamlet was eerie and haunted. So, at night, no matter how rushed or urgent things were, no one dared to travel the roads of Xiao Yi Hamlet after dark.

But that was before they knew about Xiao Yi Hamlet's situation. After all, I had lived there for most of my life. There was no one there I didn't know. I remembered when I used to study in town and would often get back around five or six in the evening. Returning to Xiao Yi Hamlet then was perfectly normal.

When I was young, I hadn't seen real mountain spirits or ghosts, so I was quite bold. The key thing was, Grandma didn't say anything even when I walked home at night, and I had gotten used to it.

Seeing that I insisted on leaving, the elder's expression was no longer joking, and he didn't dare to say anything more. No one in this region liked to control others, especially those heading to Xiao Yi Hamlet.

What kind of place is Xiao Yi Hamlet? Legend has it that before the founding of the country, there was a small town further inside Xiao Yi Hamlet. A plague at the time took all the living residents. Xiao Yi Hamlet wasn't even called a hamlet then; it was just a burial ground outside the small town, a place to store corpses. It lay abandoned for who knows how many years until Grandma arrived. Only then did Xiao Yi Hamlet become a place with fewer than twenty households.

Of course, I only heard this story from Old Man Zhang, a neighbor, and didn't take it seriously.

The night was cool like water, and the path was narrow and difficult.

The bushes and trees were as dense as ever. When the night wind blew, they rustled loudly. Occasionally, night birds would cry, creating an indescribable eeriness.

The mountain path was shrouded in mist; visibility was only about six or seven meters. Even if a familiar person walked towards you, you'd only see a shadow without hearing their footsteps.

Rustle, rustle, rustle.

I don't know how long I walked when a sound, like footsteps or perhaps an animal moving through the bushes, started to echo beside me. I wasn't some saint or devout believer, so I stopped when I heard the sound, fearing it might be a wild snake or something borrowing passage nearby. I broke off a branch to hold in my hand.

However, when I stopped, the sound also stopped. This surprised me. I remembered when I used to come back, my friends would often play pranks like this. A hint of amusement arose in my heart, and I continued walking.

When I started moving again, the sound resumed. I wondered if it was that guy Zhang Yi Dan. When we were kids, he often came out at night to catch field mice and would still play pranks on people he met on the road. But I heard he's married now. Could he be out catching mice tonight for his wife's special meal?

Moving through the mist, a black figure suddenly blocked the path ahead. I saw his back from a distance, and my expression darkened. Wasn't this Zhang Yi Dan, with whom I used to play quite a bit when we were kids?