CH 10

“Ghost… keeper?”

“Yeah, you have ghost lines on your left arm.” 

Zhou Xun explained: “Newly-raised ghosts can’t see the light, so they are wrapped with bandages. If ghost spots appear, it means that you have successfully raised a ghost. After the one-month stabilization period, you can go to the Public Security Bureau to apply for a training class.”

“I guess it was the ghost boy who wanted to devour you, but who would have thought that the ghost qi would cause the heaven and the earth to change, causing the sky to fall! It has nowhere to hide except your body, so now it has become a domestic ghost by mistake. It is because of it that you fell off a cliff and didn’t die. That ghost boy is badly broken. Even if it’s just a remnant, I estimate its potential to be ranked within 1500 at least! It’s not easy for ordinary people to recoverit, but it’s also your own luck.”

The sequence of facts was very logical, but Wu Rong remembered clearly that the ghost boy’s phalanx had been swallowed by him, and his soul was gone, how could he be subdued again?

If it’s true as Zhou Xun said, a ghost has entered his body… 

Wu Rong unconsciously held his left arm and said in a low voice, “Was I the only one at the bottom of the cliff at that time?”

“Yup.”

“I……”

Wu Rong paused.

He originally wanted to tell about the ghost in red, who could tear apart thunder, but Wu Rong remembered that he had swallowed the ghost boy’s phalanx and felt his strength increase, as well as the vision he saw when he fell off the cliff. Just as he was about to speak, he swallowed it. What happened to him was clearly not normal. The ghost boy kept calling him ‘King’. Originally, Wu Rong never cared, but now he found it absurd.

Could it be that he will really become a ghost after he dies?

Once this kind of thing is confessed, the next result wasn’t for him to decide. Wu Rong hated the feeling of losing control and didn’t want to be restrained in any way.

For no reason, Wu Rong thought of Fu Qing. 

Only he could see his dead face, and maybe he can understand what happened to him. Zhou Xun stood in front of him but he didn’t feel anything at all. There was no way to even say it.

Seeing that Zhou Xun was still looking at him, Wu Rong paused, his eyes fell on his empty left arm: “Your hand…”

“Hey, it’s just a broken arm, it’s good that I didn’t lose my life, just grow another one at any time.”

Unexpectedly, Wu Rong would take the initiative to care. Zhou Xun was a little flattered. He shook his sleeves and didn’t care: “Now the way back is broken, we can only stay in the guest house for a while. Don’t you want to go back to Xijiang? It’s almost here, and when you recover from your injury, your family can pick you up.” 

“Um.”

The village where his grandmother lives was not in the Xijiang River, but in the more remote mountains and old forests, and there were almost no primitive Miao villages unearthed by outsiders. There were many mountains in the southwest border. In ancient times, there was a saying that there were 100,000 mountains. The mountains were high and the roads were dangerous and the traffic was inconvenient. Unless people in the stockade came out to pick them up, they would definitely get lost in the mountains. His grandmother is old-fashioned and conservative. She has never been out of the mountains in her life. It’s just that some young people in the village fortress go out to work in Xijiang and do some cultural performances and the like.

Originally, it was certain that someone would pick up Wu Rong when the train arrived at Xijiang, but who would have thought that such a serious accident would happen on the road.

Itbe Wec abiv tlw lc vfajli rbwf rwjii qgbyifwr atja tf wluta fcmbecafg lc atf fjgis vjsr bo gjlrlcu utbrar, remt jr atf utbrar qgfrrlcu atf yfv lc atf wlvvif bo atf cluta, ktfc tf rjk qjqfg wbcfs jcv rwfiifv lcmfcrf jrt, tf kjcafv ab fja la, jcv rb bc, jcv atfc abiv Qe Ebcu ab ajxf ubbv mjgf bo tlr lcpeglfr jcv ifoa, ifjnlcu Qe Ebcu lc atf gbbw jibcf. 

He looked down at his bandaged left arm, clenched his fists, it worked as usual. Wu Rong got up and closed the curtains, turned on the small bedside lamp, and then untied the bandage and glanced. The scarlet blood pattern started from the wrist and went all the way to the elbow. The pattern was not simple. It was very delicate. After looking at it for a long time, it made people feel dizzy. Zhou Xun said that at the beginning of the blood pattern, no one knew what it would look like in the end.

After all, if the same person raises the same ghost, even if they are both starving ghosts, they can have different effects on different people. Maybe the ghost pattern will disappear in a few days – just like withered flowers, some people are just not suitable for raising ghosts. Even if every effort is made to get the ghost pattern, it cannot be maintained. Therefore, having a ghost pattern does not count as a formal entry into the ghost-raising industry. Only after the ghost pattern has stabilized for a month can you go to the Public Security Bureau to ‘register the ghost’.

Those who have the ability to raise ghosts and celestial masters can enjoy extremely high state treatment, including housing, medical care, children’s schooling, etc., and enjoy martyr treatment after sacrifice. Countless people squeeze their heads and want to enter it for the rest of their lives. At this time, Wu Rong thought “I don’t know why there is a ghost pattern. I am afraid that thousands of people will be envious and jealous, but I have no luck.”

If it is the big ghost, he was afraid it wasn’t him who raised it, but it kept him by its side to drink blood and eat meat. 

It’s just that Wu Rong’s mentality was surprisingly peaceful. He won't bite if he has too many lice, and he won’t worry if he has too much debt. After finding out that he has countless puzzles about his situation, and he may still have a fierce ghost in his body, but he doesn’t worry about death all day long. He almost has no fear of death after several times of dying. When he calmed down, he thought about practical problems.

For example, sending a message of “I arrived safe” to your mother

After wrapping the bandage again, Wu Rong took out his mobile phone, but his hand stopped in his pocket. He was stunned, grabbed something, and slowly opened his hand.

The lavender paper crane laid quietly in his palm, but the top of its head was red and stained with a drop of blood. 

The amulet was gone, but the talisman paper crane was still there!

There was a commotion outside. The Miao family’s local dialect was intertwined with an unknown dialect, and it was getting closer and closer to his room. Wu Rong put away the paper crane with his backhand. The next moment the door was pushed open: “Are you Wu Rong?”

The thirteen- or four-year-old charming girl dressed in Miao clothing, her voice was clear and tactful, like an oriole out of the valley, but her tone wasn’t very good. Wu Rong looked up and saw that the little girl had undisguised resentment in her eyes.

This kind of hostility was like a child who had been robbed of a sorbet. It’s just pure unhappiness, no malice, and the rank was too low to have any impact on Wu Rong. Seeing that he didn’t answer, the little girl flattened her mouth and said in a somewhat blunt Mandarin unhappy: “I’m Aredo, and Mr. Zhai asked me, Sister Ai and Brother Ku to pick you up.” 

“I didn’t know you came so early. My brother and sister were invited to dance by Qingyazhai. I’m the only one who will pick you up. If you don’t mind.”

“It’s okay, I need to heal too.”

Wu Rong said lightly, showing his bandaged left hand: “No hurry.”

“Ah? You still need to recuperate?” 

Aredo was anxious: “But things are in a hurry in the stockade village, Lao Zhai asked me to pick you up immediately.”

“They were invited to dance, I don’t think it’s urgent.”

Wu Rong’s tone remained the same, but the angry Aredo stomped her feet, her face turning red: “Hey! You…”

“Aredo, can you stop making nonsense once you go out.” 

A female voice came from outside the door sternly: “You are not allowed to go down the mountain in the future. If you lie again, I will tear your mouth apart.”

The little girl who was playing in her temper shuddered when she heard it, and immediately stood up obediently like a quail, and whispered, “Sister Ai, I didn’t…”

“Apologize.”

Reluctantly, Aredo bowed her head at Wu Rong: “I’m sorry…” 

As a result, her head was directly pressed and she bowed ninety degrees. The newly arrived woman said embarrassedly to Wu Rong, “I’m really sorry, I didn’t discipline my sister well, I apologize to you.”

She was dressed up, with shiny silver ornaments on her head, it seemed to weigh more than ten kilograms, her oval face was very beautiful, she was graceful, and her Mandarin was also very standard: “Don’t listen to this girl’s nonsense, you are our most honorable guest. Originally, Zhai Lao always wanted to pick you up in person, but Grandma Wu had an accident a while ago and broke her leg, so Zhai Lao had to stay in the fortress, so I told him we would take you back. Bai Gu is in the village. I’ll be waiting for you at the front gate.”

“Grandma broke her leg?”

Wu Rong frowned. In his memory, he didn’t have a deep impression of the old woman. After his mother died in his previous life, he sent the ashes back to Miaojiang and glanced at the old woman. She was a thin little old lady, her face was sallow, and she was so old that she lost her teeth. Wu Rong had no time to take a look at her, and the day after returning home, her grandmother died. 

Calculate the time, it was in a week. Although the world has changed, things have remained largely unchanged until now. The old woman’s bones are brittle, and it is not easy to heal once a fracture occurs. Maybe it is this fracture that makes his grandmother’s already weak physical condition worse.

Wu Rong knew that her mother had a deep affection for his grandmother, and she would definitely blame herself to death for not seeing her for the last time.

“Let’s go.”

He stood up: “Go back to see grandma first.” 

Hearing that he was relieved, the two were overjoyed, and after saying hello to Zhou Xun, the three walked outside. The road leading to the stockade was extremely difficult, rugged and steep, and there were no buses or taxis passing by. An used motorcycle was parked in front of the guest house. The graceful Miao girl with picturesque brows and long legs straddled her legs and sat in the vehicle. Aredo, who had been trained to droop her eyebrows, sat in front of her.

“Come up.”

The motor rumbled, and the motorcycle, like a happy horse, slid up the mountain road. There was a distance from the guest house to the stockade. The whining wind blew past his ears, and the scenery on both sides swept past like wind. The motorcycle ran very fast and drove into the vast forest. At the beginning, there were mountain roads, but in the end there were no roads. There were only trails that the natives had walked for generations. The mountain roads were steep and the motorcycle seemed to be flying over the cliffs.

The cliff made Wu Rong’s eyes dizzy, he closed his eyes, and suddenly heard Aredo’s indignant and aggrieved voice in his ears: “Why must we let a foreigner to inherit ah, obviously Brother Gu is so good, witchcraft, Gu and everything, far and near the village who does not praise him!” 

‘Aredo, I will warn you one last time, you are not allowed to mention this matter after entering the village. ’

Ai Qiao’s tone was stern: ‘Wu Rong belongs to the Wu clan and is the most honorable. Only he can wake up the Gu King. Not to mention this inheritance, even if you give him all the gold and silver, it should be as it is. No matter how stupid you are, I’ll tear your mouth apart. ’

Gu King?

This kind of thing and you’re so open and honest in front of him, is it okay? 

The strange thing is that after opening his eyes, the voices of the two disappeared again, and they stopped abruptly. When he closed his eyes again, the voice of the conversation reappeared. Suddenly something moved, Wu Rong took a closer look and found a small lilac butterfly parked on Ai Qiao’s earlobe. The butterfly was small, the size of a little fingernail, and it fell on the bright white earring like a decoration.

Wu Rong remembered in the guest house, Aredo also had the same earrings on his ears, one on the left and one on the other with Ai Qiao. Wu Rong didn’t care at first, but now he had some interest. The Miaojiang Gu technique in this world is mysterious, and it is hard to imagine the many secret methods, but the inheritance of Miaojiang has always been passed down from father to son, mother to daughter, and the xenophobia was extremely serious, so that Miao Gu was still often considered a legendary thing.

Now it reputation seems to be well-deserved. Maybe they can find a way to deal with this big ghost.

Even though the speed of the motorcycle was very fast, it took more than half a day to finally reach the village. Motorcycles were not allowed to enter the village, and the last mountain road was to be walked. A wooden drum tower could be seen in the distance, and a birch drum made of birch and cowhide hanged on the upper floor. The Drum Tower stood on the only way to enter the village, like a watchtower. In case of emergency, the drum would be beaten, and the sound of the drum could be transmitted far away in the mountains and forests. 

On the first floor, the drums were played, and the neighboring villages responded. The sound of drums was passed down from generation to generation.

In front of the Drum Tower stood several Miao people dressed in exquisite clothing, all of whom came to greet Wu Rong. The young man standing in the middle has a tall and straight posture, with gentle eyebrows and eyes, which made people feel like a spring breeze. Aredo, who had been slack all the time, immediately ran towards him like a happy little bird who had left the cage happily: “Brother Gu, Brother Gu!”

“This girl, alas.”

Ai Qiao sighed with a headache, and explained to Wu Rong: “Whenever children, daughters and grandchildren who go out come back to the village, their relatives and elders will wait in front of the gatehouse with traditional clothes they sewed by themselves. They have to change their clothes before entering the village. The clothes are smoked with special herbs, and if you wear them, the worms in the village will avoid you.” 

“This dress was sewn by my mother-in-law. Bai Gu is the only son of the great Wu Leader in the village. In terms of seniority, it is your cousin. The blood is the closest, and only he is qualified to replace the Grandma Wu to welcome you.”

“Um.”

In regards to their kind feelings, Wu Rong nodded noncommittally, and stepped forward. Others offered him the wine from the horns, Wu Rong drank it, and then it was time to change his clothes.

But this cousin didn’t seem normal. 

At first Bai Gu just seemed a little absent-minded, but when Wu Rong walked in, his eyes widened, his face turned blue, and his whole body trembled, as if he had seen a ghost. When Wu Rong stretched out his hand to get his clothes, he suddenly ducked back, like a rabbit who sees a natural enemy and wants to escape but dare not escape, his face was full of cold sweat, and his voice was trembling: “You…why are you here at this time? Already?”

“Bai Gu, what nonsense are you talking about?”

Ai Qiao wondered: “He is Wu Rong.”

But hearing this, the young man’s face was even more ugly, his face was pale, and he couldn’t believe it: “He is Wu Rong?!” 

The author has something to say: The knowledge related to the Miao tradition comes from “Miao and Dong Culture – Guizhou”