Splendid peasant girl busy farming

Chapter 11965

"I'll go and let them go home when it's barely dawn tomorrow!"

According to Wang Hongtao, the couple had been wailing and howling like ghosts for the past two days and nights, and were almost completely out of shape.

During the day, when Wang Hongtao went to deliver food, the couple acted erratically, crying and begging Wang Hongtao to let them out, saying that the ancestral hall was unclean and that at night it was full of people, just like being in Washi. They were being driven crazy.

Wang Hongtao said these things to Yang Huazhong in private, but Yang Huazhong did not believe him. As the village head, Yang Huazhong often patrolled around the ancestral hall at night every December.

Especially on New Year's Eve and Lantern Festival, Yang Huazhong, as the village head, would go to the ancestral hall twice in the middle of the night to replenish the three-legged bronze cauldron with incense sticks as thick as a child's arm.

Yang Huazhong had never experienced what Mai Lao Er and Tie Shi had described, so he didn't believe it.

Wang Hongtao didn't believe it either, because before Yang Huazhong, Wang Hongtao was the village head, and he had patrolled the ancestral hall before, and had never encountered anything unusual.

So after the two village leaders pondered it together, they came to the conclusion that the couple had been locked in a dark room and had scared themselves so much that they had developed mental abnormalities and would be easily startled by the slightest noise.

So tonight at the Luo family's dinner table, Yang Huazhong simply reaffirmed the specific time for the people being sent down to the countryside with Yang Ruoqing.

As for the other things, Yang Huazhong didn't mention them at all, feeling it was unnecessary to say them and cause unnecessary panic.

Unlike the lively gathering at the Luo family's house at the village entrance, at this moment, if we convert the time to Beijing time, it should be around 7:30 PM, almost 8 PM.

But because this was in ancient times without electricity or the internet, especially on a winter night when the ground outside was covered with thick snow, most families had already eaten only two meals a day by this time of day. Before it even got dark, the whole family would wash their feet and go to bed early.

The village, which was bustling during the day, was now extremely quiet. Occasionally, the footsteps of a few people who had visited each other at night could be heard returning home, or a few dogs barking in the distance.

The ancestral hall is actually located, in a precise sense, on a straight line in the very center of Changping Village. This is the location that the feng shui master was consulted when the ancestral hall was renovated.

The ancestral hall is very long, with three courtyards in total, connected by two skylights in the middle.

The innermost section, adjacent to the front wall, is lined with shrines covering the entire wall, each containing the ancestor of a particular surname in the village.

In earlier years, Wang and Chen were the most common surnames in Changping Village. During the old ancestral hall period, Chen, in particular, was placed in the very center of all the shrines.

Later, the Yang and Luo families rose to prominence, and now the Yang family's ancestral tablet is placed in the center. Next to it is the Luo family's ancestral tablet, followed by the other families' tablets.

Therefore, the relationship between ancestors and descendants is sometimes mutually supportive.

The blessings of ancestors bring prosperity to their descendants.

In some cases, the younger generation makes a difference, and the ancestors bring glory to their family.

The small dark room where Mai Lao Er and Tie Shi were imprisoned was next to the ancestral hall in the middle, near the right side door. After entering, you would find a winding alley.

The alley is nearly fifty meters long, which is not very long, but because the alley is lined with walls on both sides and has no windows or skylights, it is almost completely dark inside.

When someone dies in the village, the deceased is carried through this 50-meter-long dark alleyway from the side door into the ancestral hall. They are only carried out through the main door of the ancestral hall during the funeral procession. This has been a long-standing custom in Changping Village.

Even when it was the old ancestral hall, it was arranged like this. So, in the eyes of the villagers of Changping Village, this fifty-meter-long dark alley is a unique road. Sometimes, the village children would grab each other's clothes and line up to crawl through this alley for a thrill, somewhat like the adventure houses of later generations.

The small dark room where Mai Lao Er and Tie Shi lived happened to be in this alley. The small dark room used to be a pigsty of a family near the ancestral hall. Because it was next to this alley, the pigsty was abandoned.

Tonight, it's very quiet outside, and as time goes by, it becomes even more utterly silent.

Mai Lao Er and Tie Shi, however, could not remain calm. The couple had stopped arguing long ago, and they did not push each other away as before. At this moment, the two of them hugged each other tightly, curled up in the pile of hay in the corner, covered with the quilt.

The couple's bodies, hidden under the blankets, trembled incessantly, like cotton being fluffed, with no discernible pattern.

Every now and then, the two would quietly lift the covers and steal glances outside, especially at the door of the small dark room, which was their primary focus.

At the slightest disturbance, the two became extremely nervous, exclaiming in alarm, "They're here! They're here!"

But after the two shouted, there was no response outside. They waited for a while, but there was still no response.

The two of them were extremely uncomfortable, huddled under the covers. Finally, they pulled the covers down, poking their heads out and gasping for breath.

"It's tonight. After tonight, we can go back at the crack of dawn tomorrow. Wife, just grit your teeth and bear it!"

"Yeah, it's just one night, right? We can handle it!"

Just as the couple were encouraging each other, a noise suddenly came from the previously quiet doorway.

The couple seemed to have been frozen in place, neither daring to move, but both straining to listen.

Outside, in the midst of the stillness, clear footsteps suddenly broke the silence.

Judging from the footsteps, there was more than one person; there should have been four, five, or six.

"Oh no, it's really here!"

"Don't make a sound, quickly hide!"

The couple quickly pulled the blanket over their heads. At that moment, the footsteps outside became clearer and clearer, each thud resounding like a thunderclap in their hearts.

The two were so frightened that they dared not move, relying entirely on their ears to discern the sounds outside.

Based on last night's experience, these "people" walked through the dark alley outside, heading towards the ancestral hall.

Once you're inside the ancestral hall, that's pretty much it; all the noise and sounds will come from inside the ancestral hall.

So the couple just needed to grit their teeth and endure the time it took to drink a bowl of tea, and wait for those "people" outside to pass by.

But tonight, the footsteps didn't go towards the ancestral hall; instead, they stopped at the door of the small dark room.

Then it stopped moving, and all the previous sounds went out at that moment. It was so quiet outside that it was as if nothing had happened.

This puzzled Mai Lao Er and Tie Shi, who were hiding under the covers. Neither of them could understand what was going on.

"Husband, look, have they left yet?" Tie Shi said in a low voice.

Mai Lao Er dared not, shaking his head vigorously: "You can look if you want, I dare not!" "You're not a man!" Tie Shi muttered, and then suddenly pinched Mai Lao Er's waist hard.

It hurt and itched at the same time. Mai Lao Er let out a howl and was squeezed out from under the covers, completely exposed to the air.

The air outside was not only cold, but also strange.

After being pushed out by Tie Shi, Mai Lao Er instinctively wanted to squeeze back into the quilt.

However, his body seemed to be bound by some invisible rope, and he couldn't move at all!
Although he was facing the door of the dark room from the side, he seemed to have eyes in his head and could sense that there was something at the door of the dark room.

It was one of those 'people' whose footsteps sounded strange earlier.

He and Tie had already seen those 'people' last night. At first, when they heard the noise and footsteps, they were quite happy, thinking that Wang Hongtao and his group had come to deliver food, or that Yang Huazhong and his group had a change of heart and came to release them ahead of time.

But when the two of them rushed to the door of the dark room following the sound, they found that the sound was not coming from the ancestral hall at all, but from the dark alley.

As villagers of Changping Village, they knew better than anyone what that alley was used for.

Moreover, they only heard a noise last night, but didn't see what it was clearly; it was just a black and white 'human' shaped thing.

The two immediately realized something was wrong; they had encountered something unclean, so they shrank back under the covers in fright.

Those strange people walked past the door and went straight into the ancestral hall. They cried and made a scene in the ancestral hall for a long time. The noise was just like the noise that used to be made in the ancestral hall when someone in the village died.

But at this moment, out of the corner of Mai Lao Er's eye, he noticed that those things were not heading towards the ancestral hall like they had the night before, but were all stopped at the entrance of the small dark room.

There were so many people, tall and short, fat and thin, that they crowded the entrance.

Pairs of eyes peered into the small, dark room.

The previous commotion had long since ceased, and even the distant winter night wind and the barking of dogs outside had vanished without a trace. It was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. Old Mai could even hear his own heartbeat, thump! thump! like the beating of a drum!

Cold sweat rolled down his forehead, and he tried to close his eyes, but then he felt a chill on his neck.

He turned his head and found a face whiter than a sheet of paper, blowing air into his neck right next to his ear!
"Mom!"

He let out a howl, his voice cracking from shouting. The force from that shout allowed him to break free from the invisible force that bound his body and limbs. He could move again, and he slipped into the blankets.

The couple fought over the tattered quilt, neither holding back. As a result, the quilt was suddenly thrown out, leaving both of them completely exposed to the air, their faces facing the door of the small dark room.

The door to the dark room was now open!
White steam rose from the entrance, and from within the steam, a line of people carrying a door appeared.

That door panel was the kind of wooden door that every household in Changping Village had. When a relative passed away, a door would be taken down and placed on two long benches. The body would lie on that door panel for a day or two while the body was kept in state.

Even after they were dressed in their burial clothes and carried into the ancestral hall, they were all carried on door panels.

So in the arguments among the village women in Changping Village, there is a phrase that goes, "You sleepyhead," which refers to this kind of "sleepyhead," and is a very vicious curse.

At that moment, a group of four people appeared at the entrance of the dark room, carrying a plank.

Those four men carrying the plank looked suspicious at first glance.

They were dressed in black clothes and wore tall, pointed white hats. Their faces were as white as their hats. Although they had eyebrows, eyes, and facial features, the way they looked together was bizarre, like clowns playing a comedic role on a stage.

They all had blush on their cheeks, and the corners of their mouths were turned up high, as if they were laughing or crying. Their expressions were really creepy!

When they carried the plank into the dark room, it looked like they were walking, but it was as if they were hopping and skipping, like a shaman performing a ritual.

On the plank they were carrying on their shoulders, a person lay upright.

The man was wearing a white old cloth shroud and a black old cloth hat.

A red lotus flower is painted on the sole of his foot, and he holds a handful of incense in each hand.

The hair beneath the black hat was very long, hanging down from the board like nimble snakes dancing and coiling.

The doorway to the dark room was so narrow that the four men carrying the plank couldn't possibly fit through. Yet, they squeezed through the doorway like paper cutouts, and the men carrying the plank started jumping and making a ruckus inside the dark room.

Behind them came a group of people playing music and scattering paper money. These people were all quite tall, and at first glance, they didn't look like real people at all; they were just paper effigies from a coffin shop.

Men and women crammed the small dark room to the brim, and all sorts of sounds—crying, laughing, and whispering—mingled together, creating an extremely loud and chaotic scene.

Mai Lao Er and Tie Shi were already terrified beyond recognition. The couple were jostled and pushed around by the crowd, crawling along the ground until they finally reached a corner. There, they huddled together, closed their eyes, and trembled. In their hearts, they recited the names of all the gods and Buddhas, hoping that dawn would break soon and the rooster would crow...

However, it's unclear whether they mispronounced the names of the gods and Buddhas, or whether the gods and Buddhas were all asleep and too lazy to pay attention to them.

Anyway, after reading it for most of the day, there was no improvement whatsoever.

Several times, the two of them closed their eyes and tried to hypnotize themselves, telling themselves that it was all an illusion, but every time they opened their eyes, those things were still there, completely treating the small dark room as a place of worship.

They closed their eyes again, forcing themselves to fall asleep, thinking that once they were asleep they would know nothing. But they just couldn't fall asleep!
Why?

Because those 'people' kept teasing them, blowing air into Mai Lao Er's neck, stuffing straw into Tie Shi's nostrils, grabbing their ankles with their cold hands, and even grabbing Tie Shi's shoulders, lifting her off the ground, making her stand with her heels off the ground like she was being punished...

Tie was so frightened that she fainted and collapsed at Mai Lao Er's feet like a lump of mud.

As a result, all those 'people' came over and started messing with Mai Lao Er. Even the person who was lying on the plank got up, pulled Mai Lao Er to lie side by side on the plank, and carried him around in circles in the small dark room...

Mai Lao Er no longer wanted to faint; he just wanted to die directly.

To Mai Lao Er, the chaotic commotion seemed to have lasted for an entire night.

It wasn't until late at night, just before dawn, that someone's rooster suddenly crowed.

The noise in the dark room disappeared in the blink of an eye, as if everything before had been an illusion.

Meanwhile, Old Mai was already on the verge of death, barely clinging to life...

(End of this chapter)