Yin Shou Shu

Chapter 201 The Non-Existent Female Ghost
Ran Qing's words made the old woman's body stiffen suddenly.

A hint of panic appeared on its shriveled and wrinkled face.

Although people become more intelligent as they grow older, it is difficult for an old man who has been trapped in the closed and primitive rural countryside and the ravines of the loess land his entire life to gain much knowledge.

Ran Qing's simple two sentences made the old man uneasy and panic.

Seeing this, Ran Qing had to comfort him: "Don't be nervous, old man. I didn't say I would take your grandson in."

"But aren't you afraid of living with a dead body every day?"

Ran Qing silently watched the changes in the old man's expression, wanting to confirm whether the old man knew that he was also dead.

The old woman sat down weakly, lowered her head and said slowly: "My grandson is indeed dead, but he usually doesn't remember that he is dead."

"He talked to me every day, cooked for me, helped me look after the shop, and also played cards and drank with his friends."

"He just won't leave Longchang Street anymore. When the red door isn't open, he's no different from a living person. He won't harm anyone..."

When the old man talked about "harming people", his expression was a little stiff.

Apparently, this grandson of his is not as harmless as he claims.

But under the gaze of Ran Qing and Long Zongshu, the old man still tried hard to defend his grandson.

"I'm an old man, and I don't have many years left to live."

"My husband froze to death seven years ago after drinking and sleeping in the snow."

"There is only one son and three daughters."

"My three daughters are married far away and can only come home a few times a year."

"My son is out hauling goods all year round, so I'm the only grandson at home with me."

"He was hit on the head during an argument and buried. But he returned home three days after the burial and has never left me since."

"I've thought it through. He doesn't know he's dead anyway. There are many dead people like him on Longchang Street, all living at home as if they're still alive."

"I know he's dead, but as long as I pretend I don't know, he's still my little grandson."

"As for if he goes crazy someday and kills me... that's perfect. I don't have many years left to live anyway."

The old man murmured bitterly and lowly, then looked at Ran Qing and the others with pleading eyes.

"My two little ones, I'm really afraid that you might take my grandson away, but everything I said is true."

"The ghosts on Longchang Street are very fierce. Three people who are more experienced and powerful than you have died. You should leave quickly and don't stay here."

"I advise you to leave because I am really worried about you."

The old woman spoke in a mournful and sorrowful tone. At least at this moment, her sorrowful words of complaint and pity shook Ran Qing.

——Even though Ran Qing knew that more than half of what she said might be false.

Ran Qing shook his head and said, "Old man, you don't have to complain to me."

"We can tell you the truth, the three of us are indeed here to catch ghosts, but our appetite is small, and we don't plan to catch all the ghosts in Longchang Town."

"We are here to catch only one ghost. We will leave immediately after catching that ghost and will not harm your precious grandson."

"Of course, the premise is that it doesn't harm us..."

After Ran Qing said this, the old woman's expression suddenly relaxed a lot.

It asked quickly, "Which ghost are you trying to catch? Tell me, and I might be able to call it into this room for you, so you can catch it right away."

The old woman even offered to help. She lived on the street, and if the ghost couldn't tell whether it was dead or alive, she could indeed call it home.

By then, Ran Qing and the others will have set up a trap in advance and will be able to capture the ghost quickly.

And it won't alert other evil spirits on the street.

This was also the idea that Ran Qing came up with.

Now that he heard the old man speak on his own initiative, Ran Qing did not hesitate to tell him the appearance of the evil ghost cursed by the fortune-teller's card.

"...It was a female ghost, seemingly in her early twenties, wearing a tattered Miao costume. There was a deep bruise on her neck, as if she had been strangled."

When the curse of the destiny card was successful, Ran Qing could vaguely see the face of the cursed evil spirit.

Ran Qing described the appearance of the female ghost to the old man.

But after listening to Ran Qing's description, the old man hesitated.

"Well... there's no such female ghost on Longchang Street," the old woman said. "Ah, are you mistaken?"

"I see ghosts walking around outside every day, but I have never seen this female ghost."

"There aren't any Miao people wearing Miao clothing on Longchang Street. This area is mostly populated by the Buyi and Shui ethnic groups, so the Miao people have to go across the river to find more. It's too far away, and those Miao people across the river usually don't come to Longchang for the market. They all go to Yangmei Faer or Guobuga."

The old woman spoke the common sense she knew, and the older generation habitually used derogatory terms for the Miao people in private.

Ran Qing and Long Zongshu looked at each other and were about to speak.

At this moment, Mo Li's nervous cough suddenly sounded at the door.

As soon as they heard the cough, Ran Qing and Long Zongshu stood up immediately, knowing that something was happening.

He and Long Zongshu stood up and just happened to see a hunched black figure walking towards the grocery store on the street through the gap between the shelves.

Bloody human skin was chopped off the hunched monster's body. The ferocious and glaring patterns on the monster's face were terrifying.

Mandrill...

The mandrill that I encountered at the mutton noodle stall before actually appeared!
Just as Ran Qing was about to take action, a pale, wrinkled, and dry arm quickly grabbed his arm from behind.

Ran Qing turned around and saw the old woman looking at him nervously.

The old man lowered his voice and said, "That's a mandrill in disguise! It eats people! It's very vicious! He killed my nephew yesterday, peeled off his skin and disguised it as a human, but he didn't know I could see through him... You must not speak."

As soon as the old man finished his instructions, Mo Li had already retreated into the dimly lit room with Xiao Mianhua.

The mandrill monster covered in bloody human skin followed closely behind him, hunched over, stepped through the door, and saw a group of people standing behind the shelves.

The monster paused for a moment, and its strange yellow eyes swept across everyone's faces.

Then, a hoarse, low, parrot-like, fake voice came out of its throat.

"...Aunt San, we have a lot of guests today."

As the mandrill spoke, he reached out and threw a limp dead chicken onto the ground. "This is the corn chicken that Xiao Sanyong asked me to buy for him. Where's Xiao Sanyong? Did he go out to play cards again?"

While the mandrill was speaking, its strange yellow eyes kept moving around among the people, as if observing which of the three living people had more tender flesh and blood.

The mandrill's eerie, false voice that made one's hair stand on end turned into a strange, sharp laugh.

"Are you three from outside? I think we've met before..."

(End of this chapter)