Yin Shou Shu

Chapter 304 Ghost

Ran Qing vaguely saw some fragmented images flashing by.

However, the images were too fragmented and blurry, with only a few occasionally clear.

These vivid flashbacks are the most profound memories of a middle-aged woman's life.

In those blurry, fragmented pieces of memory, he saw a damp mountain village shrouded in mist after the rain, and a big yellow dog squatting at the village entrance.

I saw a man smiling as he pulled cookies from his pocket and handed them to me, and I saw a scruffy little girl running behind me, sniffling.

These are the childhood memories of middle-aged women.

I was clearly not a participant; I was just an observer.

Yet, at this moment, Ran Qing still felt a touch of warmth.

...but only a little.

The fragments of memory that then surfaced before my eyes were all dark, damp, eerie, and cold scenes with a faint blue hue.

A jar crawling with poisonous insects, Gu worms tearing and biting in the pit, and a couple standing by the pit with gloomy faces.

The scene was incredibly clear, with every detail visible, even the tiny hairs on the poisonous insects were clearly visible.

This fragment of memory stands out starkly among a sea of ​​blurry and indistinguishable images.

It is a shadow that middle-aged women can never forget and that is etched in their hearts.

Ran Qing, from a first-person perspective, saw "her" slender, petite child's arm reach into the pit, and one after another, poisonous insects crawled up, tearing at her flesh...

The video had no sound, and didn't even convey any sense of pain.

Even just seeing the images made Ran Qing's scalp tingle.

He saw "his" hand trembling painfully in the image...

The subsequent memories became blurry again.

But what can be vaguely seen are some mountains and forests, caves, poisonous insects, jars, and Gu poison...

Those blurry images, with their dark and cold tones, were devoid of any warmth.

These eerie and sinister things seemed to permeate the woman's entire childhood.

In that blurry memory, Ran Qing saw "her own" hand gradually grow larger, and her perspective gradually rise.

The snotty little girl who followed behind "herself" has gradually grown into a young woman.

She had braids and often tenderly bandaged and washed "her" limbs.

Then there was another little boy with a runny nose and all dirty.

But there are very few pictures of this little boy. Most of the time, he is seen squatting alone in the mud playing or sitting on the embankment in a daze.

The parents in "my" memory are also gradually growing old.

Ran Qing saw that "she" had been to many places, and was even able to walk alone in the mountains, caves, and dark underground, without needing her parents to accompany her.

The girl with the braided pigtails stopped wiping her body.

A young, handsome, and refined man appeared beside her.

Then came the wedding...

In her incredibly clear memory, Ran Qing saw a young girl in a bright red wedding dress, happily arm in arm with a man wearing a flower on his chest, toasting the villagers at a feast in the village.

From "one's own" perspective, however, one is in a dark and secluded corner, far from the crowd, silently watching that scene.

This scene was equally clear and detailed.

Ran Qing could even see the tiny freckles on the bridge of the girl's nose in the wedding dress.

Subsequent memories became blurry and fragmented.

They are all things in dark and cold colors.

Ran Qing couldn't even deduce what the middle-aged woman had gone through from those blurry images that looked like nothing more than mosaics.

It was only vaguely discernible that she was wandering around and had left her home and village.

The image that became clear again was of the girl who had put her hair up and no longer wore braids. She had become much gentler and more loving, holding the hand of a bewildered little boy.

The younger sister, now a married woman, smiled and said something. The bewildered little boy looked timidly at "himself" and called out something. There was no sound in the scene, but Ran Qing could tell from the lip movements that he was calling for his aunt.

Aunt...

This scene was also captured with crystal clarity, showing every single detail.

Ran Qing even felt a pang of heartache in her daze.

Then, the woman's memories became blurry once again.

And it's even more messy than before.

Ran Qing couldn't even deduce from those blurry, pixelated images where she had gone or what had happened.

Such vague and fragmented memories could not leave any images in her mind, and it seemed that she lived a muddled life for a long time afterward.

But those images, blurred to the point of being nothing more than mosaics, visibly became increasingly dark and cold in tone.

It seems to foreshadow that the life of a middle-aged woman is gradually sliding into an abyss...

until……

Ran Qing's heart skipped a beat.

It was another incredibly clear scene, so clear that almost every detail was visible.

He saw the funeral procession, the villagers surrounding the grave, Ran Jianfei bustling about by the grave, and little Ran Qing being held by an old man at the edge of the crowd.

This is the final moment of the coffin being lowered into the burial chamber.

The image is incredibly clear, with a distant perspective; the middle-aged woman is standing far away, watching.

In that cold-toned memory, the only thing radiating a faint warm yellow glow was the coffin that was buried.

A nameless sadness lingered in Ran Qing's heart.

Then, the scene changed again.

It became even more blurry and confused.

Fragmented memories flashed by rapidly; I don't know how much time had passed.

A clear image finally appeared before Ran Qing's eyes.

However, what he saw was a series of eerie mounds rising in the cold moonlight and darkness, and dark figures standing in the mounds.

The dark figures surrounded a coffin. The coffin lid was opened, and a sinister figure sat on the coffin.

His skin was deathly pale, his eyes were eerily black, his long, thin, black fingernails were like ghostly claws, and he was covered in tattered hemp clothing, looking like a corpse just dug out of a grave.

But all the shadowy figures were gathered around the corpse, seemingly speaking to it with reverence and expectation.

The eerie and unsettling corpse coldly swept its dark, sinister eyes over everyone.

Its bluish-black lips moved, and it actually spoke.

It seemed to be pointing out something to everyone...

Just as Ran Qing was trying to decipher what the corpse was saying through its lip movements, the pale and eerie corpse suddenly turned its head, as if it had sensed something.

Its dark, eerie eyes stared straight at Ran Qing.

His cold, chilling gaze seemed to pierce through people's hearts and transcend time and space.

Ran Qing, who was in a dream state, suddenly felt a jolt in her heart.

He actually fell directly from that dreamlike state...

"I saw!"

Ran Qing, who was lying on the floor, suddenly sat up, her hair standing on end.

He looked at the dimly lit room before him, the corpse of his aunt lying beside him, and Mo Lilong Zongshu surrounding him in shock and worry.

Ran Qing said stiffly, his face grim, "The leader of the ghost-raising people is not a living person."

"It's a ghost!"

"They're working for ghosts!"

(End of this chapter)