Chapter 144
Old man, you believe in ghosts too?
Chapter 144 Old man, you believe in ghosts too? (Bonus chapter for monthly votes: 67)
Four hours later, the two reached the furthest point the car could go.
Chen Miao also saw the village where he parked his car for the first time. As for the kind-looking people... Chen Miao found them quickly.
He was an old man who always had a smile on his face when he spoke. When Chen Miao asked to park his car at his house for a while, the old man readily agreed.
The old man's yard was large, but the gate was small, which really tested Qi Ning's driving skills.
After parking the car, Qi Ning was about to grab his things and leave, but Chen Miao stopped him.
"No rush, let's ask about the situation in Fengmen Village."
Qi Ning was taken aback, then realized it made sense.
Then, Qi Ning saw Chen Miao take out two hundred yuan and hand it to the old man, saying it was for parking fees, and that there would be three hundred more when he returned.
After paying the money, Chen Miao asked about Fengmen Village.
For the first time, the smile on the old man's face disappeared.
"Can't you young people go to some normal places?"
Chen Miao laughed and said, "We just want to take a look; we won't stay."
The old man shook his head.
"That place is no good, don't go there."
After saying that, the old man looked about to leave.
Chen Miao then took out another five hundred yuan, more than the amount in the book, but not by much.
The old man looked at the money stuffed into his hand, thought for a moment, and decided that he definitely couldn't stop the two young men. He might as well tell them more about the situation there, so that they wouldn't do anything reckless.
After all, there aren't many young people this good anymore.
The old man led the two to a table and chairs in his yard and poured them a cup of hot water.
“Fengmen Village, that’s an old village. According to my father’s generation, the former village chief of Fengmen Village was very capable. He led the people of Fengmen Village to become rich and eventually the whole village moved to the outside of the mountains.”
"That's why I say, a village still needs a capable person!"
“You don’t know the geographical location of Fengmen Village. The only thing that makes their lives a little better is the river at the entrance of the village. If they don’t relocate, it won’t be long before the river at the entrance of their village dries up, and they will have no choice but to relocate.”
“If you go over there, just follow that dry riverbed down to the bottom, and you will see Fengmen Village.”
"Here, let me draw a rough sketch for you."
As he spoke, the old man went to get a piece of paper and a pen and began to draw simple sketches of the two of them.
During this process, Chen Miao asked a question.
"Uncle, does Fengmen Village have any strange customs?"
The old man paused, looking at Chen Miao.
"you know?"
"I only heard a general idea, so I came to investigate. We are studying folklore, and investigating more unique folk customs is beneficial to our studies."
Qi Ning glanced at Chen Miao, surprised that the handsome Chen Miao could lie without batting an eye.
The old man paused for a moment, then began to explain after drawing the map route.
Qi Ning listened very carefully, while Chen Miao had already studied the material, so unlike Qi Ning, his goal was to extract more information.
When the old man started talking about those customs, Chen Miao seized the opportunity to ask, "Uncle, the house you mentioned without a threshold is an uninhabited house. If we go there, can we stay there for the night?"
The old man's expression changed.
"Are you crazy? I heard someone went missing there just a couple of days ago, and you still dare to stay there?"
Chen Miao and Qi Ning's expressions changed.
"Someone is missing?"
"Yes, I heard that a kid from a village brought his friend to play in the mountains. They stayed overnight in that village and then started acting strangely."
The old man's brows were furrowed the whole time he said this.
"At first it was fine, he was just running around randomly, but when they went to look for him again, they couldn't find him. Because something similar had happened in Fengmen Village before, no one dared to investigate."
"By the way, I heard that someone even went to a fortune teller. I wonder what happened next."
Chen Miao pressed further, "Did all those who went there encounter problems?"
"No, there isn't one, just one."
Chen Miao nodded, agreeing with what Zhong Cai had said.
It seems the missing person was the hiker Zhong Cai was supposed to rescue, and the fortune teller was Zhong Cai. That means two people have recently disappeared from Fengmen Village. "Is that so? Could this village be haunted?"
"Hey! Young man, how can you talk like that? You can't say things like that!"
The old man glared at Chen Miao.
"Hehe, I was just saying. Uncle, do you know why houses in Fengmen Village that are not occupied can't have thresholds? And why houses that are occupied have thresholds?"
"How would I know? You'd have to ask the village chief of Fengmen Village."
Chen Miao's eyes lit up.
"Village chief? Where is the village chief? I'd like to pay him a visit."
The old man smiled.
"Then you'll have to bring paper money for burning."
"It's strange that Fengmen Village has never had a village chief since that one. But their cohesion remains. Whenever someone is about to be buried, they all gather in Fengmen Village."
At this point, Chen Miao's question arises again.
"By the way, why don't they spend the night in their own village?"
The old man shook his head.
"I don't know, but it should be a rule set by their old village chief. The prosperity and decline of Fengmen Village are both related to that old village chief."
"I'm talking about the village of Fengmen, not the people who left Fengmen."
"It is said that those who left Fengmen Village are doing quite well."
Qi Ning gave a cold laugh.
"Of course it's good. The elderly don't need them to take care of them; they're all sent to the villages. Aren't they living a carefree life?"
The old man glanced at Qi Ning, smiled, and said, "You're a sensible young man."
Chen Miao didn't comment on this, but instead asked, "Grandpa, you said there are no young people in Fengmen Village, so who will cook for those elderly people?"
"Just do it yourself, why would you hire a nanny?"
The old man said casually.
"But they're so old, can they do it themselves?"
The old man was taken aback.
I didn't realize it until I thought about it, and now that I think about it, it really is a bit strange.
Few of the elderly people in his own village who were nearing the end of their lives were able to cook for themselves.
Even if I were to do it, I'd just do it haphazardly.
He heard that peddlers also regularly passed through Fengmen Village delivering various ingredients, including meat.
Do those old guys really need that many ingredients?
"You've come to me with this question. But Fengmen Village has been like this for forty or fifty years. They must have their own methods. Maybe the younger ones are doing the work for the older ones. Who knows?"
Chen Miao also discovered this from the old man's words.
That's about all the information the other party knows; it's unlikely that anything deeper can be gleaned from the old man.
Finally, Chen Miao asked one more question.
"Sir, what's the custom here of putting dried flowers in coffins?"
"Oh, you mean this? It's to take up space."
The old man replied.
"Taking up space?"
"That's right, otherwise, if the coffin is left there, and wandering ghosts lie inside, how can a person still lie down?"
"Old man, you believe in ghosts too?"
Chen Miao's words made the old man feel a little embarrassed, after all, he had previously scolded Chen Miao for talking nonsense.
"I'm not saying I believe in ghosts; it's just a rule passed down from our ancestors. I was just saying it casually. How could there really be ghosts?"
Seeing that the old man was stubborn, Chen Miao didn't say anything more. After adding some water to the bottle, Chen Miao said goodbye to the old man, and the two walked towards the edge of the village.
Target: Fengmen Village.
……
(End of this chapter)