Yin Shou Shu

Chapter 2: Vertical Chopsticks

Ran Qing wanted to go to school late at night.

The things he had seen since childhood would wander aimlessly back to the places where they had been in life in the first few days after death.

If Li Hongye had truly encountered danger and been murdered, then the Third Middle School teaching building, now under the cover of night, was the most likely place to see her. As a high school student, Li Hongye had spent nearly every day in this building for the past two years.

If she died, she would definitely come back.

But when Ran Qing stood up to watch, he saw the scary old man standing in the courtyard of Old Chen's house downstairs.

This made him hesitate.

When Ran Qing came back from evening self-study, he saw this thing standing at the door of Old Chen's house.

But he didn't dare to look any further, he just walked around it silently, as if he didn't see anything.

Having been able to see certain things since he was a child, he knew that those things were not scary as long as he did not provoke them.

Most of the time they just wander around unconsciously, or stay in the same place for a long time in a daze.

But the old man tonight was obviously abnormal.

It seemed to have come back with Xiao Erwa. This kind of thing that would follow a living person home... This was the first time Ran Qing had seen it.

Now several hours have passed, and the old man is still standing there coldly, motionless, and he has been staring at the room where the little Erwa is.

This eerie and strange old man made Ran Qing feel fear instinctively.

But at this moment, the crying of a child downstairs, which had stopped for a while, suddenly became shrill again.

Hearing the crying, the skinny old man standing under the light at the door seemed to move.

Ran Qing's heart trembled, and he hurriedly shrank his head and hid under the window, not daring to look any longer.

Even the sound of breathing was slowed down as much as possible.

He tried to shrink into the corner of the bed under the window, not daring to make any sound.

When he was a child living in a village, his grandmother told him that if he encountered anything unclean, he should not look at it, care about it, or listen to it.

As long as you don't provoke it, nothing will happen.

His grandmother's guidance allowed him to grow up safely. But tonight's situation was different from any other time before.

The Chen family downstairs were unaware of the danger outside the house.

After the child's crying, the voice of Xiao Erwa's grandmother was heard.

"...The bone isn't twisted. I've been applying medicinal wine for so long but it hasn't healed yet. I might have bumped into something."

"Today, Xiao Erwa went to play in the mountains behind. He said he saw an old man by a grave. Maybe he bumped into someone."

"Zhuangke" is the local dialect of Yuezhao, which means "to encounter evil spirits".

Obviously, the medicinal wine applied by Xiao Erwa's mother had no effect, and Xiao Erwa's grandmother finally couldn't hold it in any longer and wanted to use her own method to help her grandson.

When it comes to encountering evil spirits, the elders in Yuezhao have their own set of time-honored folk remedies to deal with it.

However, Ran Qing, who had been able to see dirty things since childhood, knew very well that the folk remedies often used by the elderly were actually of little use.

But the grandmother of the little Erwa downstairs has already started to get busy.

Soon, the sound of chopsticks hitting porcelain bowls was heard downstairs.

The crisp sound of jingle bells was mixed with the low apology of little Erwa’s grandmother.

"...Men and women, young and old, in front of and behind the mountains and houses, please be magnanimous. My little Erwa bumped into you accidentally, it was not intentional."

"If you feel pain or resentment, please go find whoever you need to find, and don't bother my little Erwa."

"Here is a bowl of rice and water for everyone, young and old, men and women, to enjoy. After you have finished your rice and water, please return to your temples if you have them, and to your halls if you have them. Those who don't have halls or temples, please disperse. Don't linger around in front of or behind the windows..."

Then came the sound of chopsticks being raised, and the sound of an old man rinsing his mouth with rice water in a bowl and then spraying the water at his little grandson.

Ran Qing is very familiar with this process.

Although his grandmother never held chopsticks upright, he had grown up in the village and had seen many other elderly people use the method of holding chopsticks upright and calling souls to exorcise evil spirits.

Based on what he had witnessed since childhood, these procedures would have no effect even if completed.

Even if there are really unclean things nearby, they will not be interested in the spilled water and rice.

...Ordinarily, that's the way it should be. After the old man put his chopsticks up, he poured the rice and water in the bowl out the door.

The sound of water and rice spilling on the ground was extremely harsh in the silent night.

After a few minutes, Xiao Erwa's grandmother breathed a sigh of relief.

"It's gone! The redness and swelling on the little boy's foot has gone down! He must have bumped into something."

Old Chen’s wife had applied medicinal wine for a long time, but after several hours, the swelling on Xiao Erwa’s ankle did not go down and became even more swollen.

At this time, just a few minutes after Xiao Erwa’s grandmother held up the chopsticks, the effect appeared?
Ran Qing, who was curled up in the dark, was stunned for a moment when he heard the discussion of Xiao Erwa's family downstairs.

This result completely refreshed his understanding.

Are vertical chopsticks really useful?
Is the redness and swelling on Xiao Erwa's ankle really related to the scary old man who followed him?

Thinking back carefully, the eerie old man was missing his right foot below the ankle. That was exactly the same as the swelling on Xiao Erwa's ankle.

Ran Qing frowned. He curled up in the darkness and waited for a long time until the voice of Xiao Erwa was heard downstairs.

"Grandma, I need to pee."

Little Erwa, who had been crying for several hours, now had a weak voice.

But the swelling in his ankle really healed and he was even able to go out to pee.

Ran Qing heard the sound of the door opening downstairs, and finally couldn't help but lie down by the window and secretly peeked out from the edge of the window.

Down below, in the narrow courtyard at Old Chen's doorstep, the terrifying old man in black shrouds had vanished. Under the dim light, a small, solitary puddle of water lay on the cement floor.

Little Erwa, whose ankles were still slightly swollen, was standing on the cement step at the door with the support of his grandmother to urinate.

The children's urine was splashing in the gutter beside the road, making a splashing sound.

But apart from the sound of water splashing, the Qingyuan Road shantytown, shrouded in darkness, was so quiet that it was a little creepy.

Obviously, the scary old man had gone away, the courtyard in front of Old Chen's house was empty, and Xiao Erwa's ankle had returned to normal. It seemed that everything was fine.

But Ran Qing, who was hiding behind the second-floor window and watching everything, felt an inexplicable chill down his spine as he looked at the dark and silent night.

This spine-chilling feeling was even stronger than when I saw that scary old man before.

But in Ran Qing's vision, he couldn't find anything that could make him feel afraid.

This awkward feeling of intuition being at odds with vision made Ran Qing feel creepy.

At the door of Old Chen's house, the little boy, who had just finished peeing, was already jumping and skipping back to the house with his grandmother. Everything seemed so normal.

Ran Qing stared at the courtyard below, trying to figure out what was going on.

With the door on the first floor closed, the Chen family, who had been tormented by their youngest son's crying for half the night, finally decided to go to bed.

The dim light bulb hanging on the roof went out, and the only light still on in the dark Qingyuan Road also disappeared into the darkness.

Hereby——

The slight sound of the cheap light bulb on the roof going out was extremely harsh in the dark night.

When the lights went out, the gloomy and deep darkness came overwhelming, drowning all of Ran Qing's vision in an instant.

But at the last moment when the light disappeared, Ran Qing, who was curled up at the edge of the window, suddenly had his pupils constricted, and he finally saw something.

——A dark figure with head lowered and hands hanging down stood quietly on the slope in front of Old Chen’s house.

There was clearly nothing there before, and Ran Qing couldn't see anything with his eyes.

But at the last moment when the lights went out, that thing suddenly emerged in the darkness.

In a split second of sight, a cold and chilling sense of fear gripped Ran Qing's throat, making it almost impossible for him to breathe.

He is no longer the old man in the black shroud.

The dark figure that appeared on the slope was a woman in a bloody school uniform.

She lowered her head weakly, her skin was pale and bloodless, clearly a corpse.

The instantaneous eye contact almost made Ran Qing's heart stop beating.

This school uniform... belongs to their school!
(End of this chapter)