The Old Man Selling Vegetables

"Sigh, Gou Dan, take your grief into your own hands. At least you avenged your brother!"

"I told you long ago, the day after tomorrow is October 1st, and those strange things will start to stir. Everyone's busy with ancestral worship, guarding the village, and construction. My wife insisted on going back to her parents' home, telling us to delay for a few days, but she wouldn't listen. Now look what's happened, only one of the two fat boys is left. Judging from how this beast is trying to get away with it, who knows what will become of the couple!"

"Keep quiet, everyone. A few of you, dispose of that wolf spirit's body. Third brother, Jianmin, you're brothers from Jianshe's clan, two of you, find someone to clean up Niu Dan's body. The rest of you, gather the rest of my family, take guns and axes, and search along the road out of the village. Whether you find it or not, by four o'clock this afternoon, you either need to go to your child's uncle's house or return to the village. You absolutely cannot stay in the wilderness!"

"Dog Egg, come home with your third aunt. We'll bring you home whenever your uncle comes back!"

"..."

As Zhang Wei had expected, less than half an hour after he called for help, men, women, and children from the entire village put down their work and gathered around. Those with guns brought their guns, and those without brought carrying poles, machetes, sticks, and all sorts of weapons.

Zhang Wei was immediately dragged over by his uncles and aunts from his own family, who checked him over a hundred times before finally holding him in their arms with a sigh and comforting words.

Amidst the commotion, Zhang Wei, holding the hunting rifle, remained remarkably quiet.

Those around them were used to it.

In such a grief-stricken setting, some people remain calm, even indifferent.

But this doesn't mean he wasn't sad. It's just that all the scars were hidden in his heart. Only when his emotions were released, or when the pressure accumulated from seeing things and thinking of people in the future, would he collapse instantly and be unable to control himself.

As for the hunting rifle Zhang Wei was holding... although some people suggested that it was unsafe for a child to hold a gun, they were quickly dismissed by his uncles and elders.

Now that your child is still feeling fear, you want to take away his only sense of security. Are you sure he won't shoot you twice?

You know, this kid may look a bit dull now, but he just killed a wolf spirit yesterday!

A child accomplished something that even adults might struggle to do!

Thus, the matter of confiscating the guns was naturally dropped.

Amid the noise, Zhang Wei was also trying his best to gather as much useful information as possible.

However, it was clear that the adults kept their conversation brief, considering the presence of children. Even so, Zhang Wei managed to gather a considerable amount of useful information.

Liu Family Village is a village at the foot of the Taihang Mountains where people share the same surname. However, for some reason, more than ten years ago, after the country was at peace, many people with different surnames moved into the village, and the entire village was divided into several teams...

The timing is close to October 1st, which is the traditional Cold Clothes Festival and is one of the ghost festivals.

Qingming, Zhongyuan, Hanyi (a traditional Chinese festival), and Dongzhi (the winter solstice) are the four major ghost festivals in folk tradition.

Traditionally, this is a day for ancestor worship, but it is also a time when the gates of the underworld are wide open, and wandering ghosts and monsters emerge from their lairs, leading to frequent supernatural events.

Although some things are no longer as rampant after the founding of the People's Republic of China as they were a century ago, the word "rampant" is relative.

In big cities, it goes without saying that there are a few urban legends because of the dense population and the military's reluctance to intervene; but in villages and towns far from big cities, those things start to appear. Generally speaking, there is no problem, but if you are unlucky, you can still encounter them.

Normally, folk legends would not fall into a deep trough until twenty years later, and most of them would disappear by the time Zhang Wei was born.

Of course, nothing is absolute.

Before entering the Three Realms, the opening introduction made Zhang Wei feel that the present world would hardly be able to maintain a peaceful atmosphere.

However, none of this has much to do with him now.

After the village elders made arrangements, the crowd gradually dispersed. Zhang Wei was led by his third aunt to return to her house for a temporary stay. However, just as they passed the corner of her courtyard wall, they saw an old man with a carrying pole placed by the roadside and a few small cabbages on a urea bag in front of him.

The old man wore a large straw hat, and the half of his face exposed under the shade of the brim showed the dark, cracked skin of an ordinary farmer. A tuft of beard on his chin added to his already peaceful appearance and made him even more approachable.

Out of the warmth of the farmers, although the third aunt was somewhat saddened by the unexpected death of her nephew, she still kindly greeted him: "Uncle, what brings you here selling cabbages? Oh, these cabbages are quite fresh!"

"Hey, it's not that there are wild boars in the mountains, but they've destroyed our vegetable garden. It would be a shame to throw it away, so my wife picked out the old, bad ones and brought out these young ones to exchange for some things to supplement our income!"

"Grandpa, we're all farmers, we can't afford to spend money on vegetables!" Auntie San, holding Zhang Wei, squatted down and looked at the cabbage. "I think your bok choy is really good. Why don't you go to the county town? Maybe the state-run restaurants or factory canteens can offer a reasonable price?"

"Yes, but I'm too old to walk much. I'll rest in the village for a while and see what happens. If no one buys anything, I'll go to the county later!"

The adults were chatting upstairs, while Zhang Wei stared blankly at the dozen or so cabbages spread on the urea bag.

"Hey little sister, this is your baby, he's really handsome! Grandpa has a candy here, want some?"

As he spoke, the old man reached out to pat Zhang Wei's head, but the moment his hand was outstretched, a dark gun barrel was pointed at him. Seeing this, he could only laugh awkwardly: "This kid has quite a temper!"

"My child has been in a bad mood these past few days, please bear with them!"

While they were in the yard, no adult checked whether there were bullets in the hunting rifle. Auntie was really afraid that the old man, being so familiar with his nephew, would tease him again and accidentally shoot him dead, which would be a big problem.

After politely declining the old man's offer of candy, Auntie San got up to leave with Zhang Wei. Unexpectedly, the old man also stood up and stuffed the candy into Zhang Wei's arms, saying, "Hey, I think the child has a good liking for you. Let him keep this candy; consider it my lodging fee in the village!"

"How can that be? Liu Family Village doesn't have the custom of charging tolls. We're not bandits!"

"Here, take it, consider it a sweet treat for the doll!"

"..."

Unable to resist, Third Aunt accepted the candy herself.

Actually, she originally wanted to give it to Zhang Wei, but Zhang Wei refused to take it no matter what. He even prepared to turn the gun in his arms and use it. If her husband hadn't come out just in time and a group of people had blocked the gun barrel, the old man would have almost been shot.

Therefore, Auntie San dared not linger. She hurriedly picked up the candy that had fallen to the ground, said a few kind words, and then turned and left in a hurry.

"Auntie, that old man isn't a good person!"

On the way back, Zhang Wei hesitated for a long time before deciding to explain.