the last priest

Zha Wenbin and the others slipped away from the inn in chaos, and when they returned to their hometown, their mentality was much better than before.

The biggest difference between the countryside and the city is that miracles are performed every day in the city, while legends are repeated one after another in the countryside.

Some legends sound absurd. For example, people in our village often say that there is a kind of ghost on the mountain called "White Shegui".

The first time I heard this word, it was also told to me by adults.For children in the countryside, the fields, rivers and mountains are our biggest playgrounds. The adults are usually busy with farm work and rarely have time to control the children, so they made up some non-existent ghosts and ghosts to scare the children.

It was in such a situation that "White Shegui" came to our ears.

It is said that there is a ghost in white clothes on the mountain, who will turn into a small animal and lead people up the mountain, and then people will get lost in the mountain, and finally they will be found a few days later with only a piece of human skin wrapped in white bones.This story, which sounded a little scary back then, did prevent us from going up the mountain to play to a certain extent, but there are still children who are not afraid to challenge the limit.Because the temptation for us in the mountains is too great, all kinds of wild fruits, when you are lucky, you can dig out one or two bird nests or turn over a turtle.

This kind of "white camera ghost" was only heard but not seen in the past. Gradually, its image in the minds of us children began to become blurred, and it was not so scary.As time passed, the threats from the adults began to wear off.

Ah Fa is a middle-aged man with a slightly disabled right leg. He is a few years older than my father. He also has a son named Longlong, who is one year older than me and can be regarded as a childhood playmate.

They are all farmers, and they inevitably have to deal with mountains all year round. Their family also lives on the side of the mountain, with a bamboo forest behind them.At that time, earthen stoves were still used in the countryside, that is, firewood.

It is difficult to light this firewood directly, so people use dry bamboo branches, fold them into small handles, light them, and put dry firewood on top, which is called starting a fire.Therefore, usually, we also call this bamboo branch a kindling.

Because there are large bamboo forests in the northwest of Zhejiang Province, there is no need to stock up on kindling matches.When cooking, just go to the back of the yard to pick up some and break it off.

That day, our family had already finished dinner, and the whole family was chatting in the yard.The weather has already begun to fall. Although it is not as hot as in midsummer, it can still make people unable to sleep in the first half of the night.

At around eight o'clock, a flashlight rushed into the yard of our house, and a woman's voice asked anxiously, "Did you see my Ah Fa?"

The person who came was Ah Fa's wife, a woman with particularly big breasts, not to mention how smart she was, but she was quite straightforward, with a loud voice and a little bit of a rush to do things.Ah Fa's leg was disabled since he was a child. This woman did not dislike him, but gave birth to a pair of children for him.

Seeing that it was her, my mother got up, ready to give up her seat, and said, "No, what's wrong?"

The woman panted heavily, and said with a loud voice: "Oh, I was so anxious, I asked him to find a match before I made dinner. He went to the backyard. I waited for a long time and didn't see him, so I went to find him." , I don’t know that there is no one. I thought it was something temporary, and I waited for a long time, but there was still no one. You also know that his legs and feet are not convenient. I asked outside and said that I had never seen him. The good-looking person disappeared for some reason. gone."

It would not be surprising if someone else disappeared, for example, the men slipped out to play cards.But that was at mealtime. Ah Fa usually rarely interacted with people, and he was basically either working or staying at home. He disappeared at this time, which really made people feel a little abnormal.

Seeing that the woman was about to cry, my mother hurriedly sent my father to help find her. At first, my father muttered that a big living person could still get lost, maybe there was something urgent to go to.

Our village is not big, with a population of only a hundred households, but it is not concentrated. It is laid out along the direction of the river. It takes about two kilometers to walk from the beginning of the village to the end of the village, but every household knows each other. It is really necessary to inquire about a person. Where to go is not difficult.

The situation is obviously a bit bad. I asked all over the first half of the village, and they all said that they had never seen anyone.Because if Afa left the village, he would definitely pass by this road.Since they all said they hadn't seen it, the person must still be within the village, so they continued to search inside.

There is a collective forest farm in the village, and an old couple lives there. They are mainly responsible for checking whether the forest farm has been hacked or not.Usually, they go down the mountain once a week to buy daily necessities, and their family lives in the village.That day happened to be the day when the old couple went down the mountain to do their shopping. They thought the sun was too strong during the day and they were afraid of the heat, so they chose the evening to take advantage of the dawn to drive the mountain road.

When I walked halfway, I met a man holding a handful of dry bamboo branches in his hand. He lowered his head and walked up the mountain road.

The old man saw that this man was not Ah Fa, why he was still running up the mountain at dusk, so he called out.

But Ah Fa was fine, he didn't answer a word, just pretended not to know each other, just walked by himself, and made the old lady a little unhappy: "Look at him like that, like a plague god!"

This old couple was the last person to see Ah Fa that day. When they told Abba about the situation, Abba felt that something might have happened.

There are countless forks on that road. The northwest of Zhejiang is a mountainous area with a high altitude. There are many places in the deep mountains and old forests that no one has ever been to. Experienced farmers usually do not go up easily, let alone a person with no legs. The handy cripple runs thither with a kindling.

When Ah Fa's wife heard about this situation, she burst into tears and stomped on the road, saying that the man of their family had been lured away by the "white camera ghost".

They are all from the villagers. If something goes wrong, just shout, and the helpers can gather half of the village within 5 minutes.

All young and middle-aged men, some with guns, some with hatchets, as well as various flashlights, miner's lamps and torches, some of them even brought dogs.If a person enters the forest at night, God knows if he will see any living people tomorrow, not to mention the presence of wild beasts, there are cliffs everywhere, without a light, it is very possible to step into the air.

The search for the mountain began almost immediately, and people in the village shouted and searched along the side where the old couple met for the last time.

The mountain road is rugged, and what makes it even more difficult is that there are too many forks.The native dogs raised in the countryside look okay in the yard, but after all, they are search and rescue dogs without professional training. A frightened rabbit can make the dogs chase around excitedly. People can only follow the dogs and run without direction. Feelings to speak of.

Everyone dare not go to the forest that is too deep. We can only pray that Ah Fa did not get into it. It is a road that people can walk. It was almost turned over that night. Those of us at home can hear the mountains everywhere. "Ah Fa, Ah Fa" shouts.With Ah Fa's leg strength, he can't actually walk very far, because it's not convenient for him to walk, let alone this difficult mountain road.

But the result is that until dawn, Ah Fa's trace is still nowhere to be found, and no valuable clues have been found.

The first wave of people went down the mountain to sleep with all kinds of guesses, and the second wave of villagers took over their work and continued to search the mountain.For a while, all kinds of rumors about Ah Fa were flying all over the sky. Some said he was crazy, others said he committed suicide, and some even said that he was captured by the "white ghost".

This repeated mountain search lasted for about three days.Three days later, the villagers gradually gave up, because they had also drilled through the most difficult old forests. With the manpower and material resources these days, even if they caught wild boars, at least one row of wild boars was caught. living.

Where is Ah Fa?In fact, he was on that mountain. Many times, people were really close to him, but no one could find him, or he was going around in circles with people.

Ah Fa was finally found. Just when people were about to give up, someone saw Ah Fa standing in front of the [-]-foot cliff, still holding the kindling in his hand, standing there, motionless.

He didn't respond, and everyone didn't dare to approach him, for fear that he would jump off. A few bold ones slowly touched him and hugged Ah Fa's waist, but he didn't resist at all. No food or drink, no strength to resist.

Ah Fa, who was carried down the mountain, didn't say a word, his eyes were empty, and the doctor couldn't explain why. Apart from being a little weak, there was no abnormality in his body. After being put on an IV, he left.

In this way, for a whole week, Ah Fa's eyes never closed, but just stared blankly at the ceiling, no matter day or night, his eyes were always open like this.What's even more incomprehensible is that no matter how hard you try, the kindling in his hand just won't come off.

Still relying on how the women and children in his family cried, Ah Fa remained indifferent.So, just like that, Dad went to invite Cha Wenbin, and wanted to ask him to have a look, did he suffer from some evil?