Ghost Bride 2

Chapter 4

The world seems peaceful; nothing has changed...

"Ruoxi!"

"Ruoxi! Wake up! You're awake!"

Is someone calling me?

I slowly turned my head and saw a familiar face.

"What's wrong with you? Why are you suddenly using so much force? Are you having a nightmare or something?"

Apple was smiling at me, her dimples so real, telling me, "I'm still here with you." I was so moved that I cried, throwing myself into her arms and sobbing uncontrollably. She smiled and comforted me, "It's okay! I've always been here with you! You were just having a nightmare! It'll be over when you wake up." She gently patted my back, but my heart was still pounding.

Even though nothing has changed, and those scenes just now seem like they never happened, my heartbeat remains unchanged. It has indeed been subjected to wave after wave of stimulation, and it's about to explode.

"Am I dreaming?" I asked Apple, unable to believe it. My eyes were definitely open!

“Isn’t this just a dream? Look at him.” Apple pointed to the side.

The jeep was sitting on the yellow earth, staring at me with wide eyes: "I didn't dare to move at all, I'm keeping the evidence!"

"What's wrong with him?" I asked Apple, puzzled.

Apple chuckled: "You must have seen some monster in your nightmare just now, slapping me with all your might! Luckily, I had just stood up to walk around, otherwise I would have been the one you hit. Fortunately, the Jeep is thick-skinned, so a few more hits won't hurt."

The jeep grinned at me and said, "Yeah, it seems like it's an honor for a man to get slapped by a woman."

"Stop joking around and go wash your face!" Apple pretended to hit him.

The jeep got up and sped away.

There was still a bright red finger mark on his face. He must have used a lot of force!

I don't understand. The little boy, Liangdi, seems to be a kind and lovely child. How could he make such a terrifying sound?

“Ruoxi,” Apple slapped her hand loudly in front of me, “Are you imagining things? You look really strange! To be honest, you’re making me a little scared.”

"Huh?" I looked back at her in a panic.

"I'm just worried about you! Don't overthink it! I feel like you're carrying a ton of weight on your mind. It's exhausting to carry too much on your shoulders, do you want to talk to me about it?"

I shook my head. I didn't want her to be as worried as I was before I could figure things out.

Looking back, the thick clouds gradually dispersed, and the original square sunbeam reappeared in the yard. How could I have seen such a strange thing on such a bright and sunny day? Yes, I was completely baffled myself.

"The sun is shining so brightly, let's take all the blankets and quilts out to air them out?" I patted Apple and pulled her back into the house.

"Big Jeep!" Apple shouted at the top of her lungs, "Come quick and help!"

"It's just moving blankets, why do I have to do such a small thing?" He stood idly to the side, unwilling to move.

"Come help me! Hurry!" She went over and grabbed his ear, pulling him straight over. "You've been living like a pampered young master for so long, come help with the work!"

"Isn't being a young master good enough? A soldier who doesn't want to be a general isn't a good soldier. A citizen who doesn't want to be a young master isn't a good citizen either."

"Bullshit!" she scolded him crisply. "You're turning into a pig! Get back to work!"

A wall of red and green cotton quilts was erected in the yard. I took a peach tree stick and banged it hard, sending all the dust from under the quilt flying out and getting into my eyes and ears. We ran away laughing, leaving only the soft sound of our footsteps under the sheets.

Suddenly, I saw strange shoes. Under the blanket, several pairs of feet wearing cloth shoes were moving—one pair of big feet and three pairs of small feet—running hurriedly. Judging from their footsteps, they seemed quite content, hopping and skipping happily.

I was momentarily dazed, and quickly crawled to the other side of the blanket—there was no one there.

Looking to the left, it was empty.

Looking to the right, it was still empty.

Someone walked in through the gate, and I heard a loud "bang," tinged with a hint of defiance. I quickly squeezed through the layers of cotton-padded walls to look outside, and sure enough, they were back.

"Uncle, I have something to ask you."

"I'm exhausted..." The old woman angrily smacked herself with a towel, wiping the cement off her body, and went back into the house.

"Where did you go?" I asked my uncle.

He looked somewhat flustered: "Ah..."

"If it's really difficult, I won't ask." I saw the soft, yellow mud under their shoes. With such thick soil, they must have gone up the mountain. "I mainly want to ask if five strangers ever came to our house? A young couple, a ten-year-old girl, an eight-year-old boy, and a youngest boy, probably less than three years old."

Section 11: The Bleeding Jujube Tree (5)

The uncle's eyes widened, bloodshot veins appearing in them: "What...do you know?"

It seems there really is a problem.

"Am I right? The names of these three children are Meixue, Dongzi, and Liangdi, right?"

My uncle's body shook violently, trembling with fear.

I pressed on: "Please tell me how they are, where are they now?"

"You recognize him?" The uncle's voice sounded desperate.

"I've seen it. The youngest boy even asked me for eggs to eat!"

"Ah?" At this moment, his fear instantly entered his pupils, which flickered and then dimmed.

Please tell me the truth.

What is the truth?

"What exactly happened to our family? I ran into Uncle Guo, the cowherd, at the village entrance, and he completely ignored me. When Grandma was alive, the Lan family was so respected! No one ever avoided us with hostility or resentment. What happened to our family? Please tell me the truth!"

The uncle exclaimed in shock: "You child... your Uncle Guo has been dead for more than three months!"

These words made my heart race. Uncle Guo is dead? So, I've seen a ghost again in Shebupo? Nine years after seeing Brother Xiaohui's spirit when I was a child, I've seen a ghost again in this land? Then...? Meixue, Dongzi, Liangdi... whom I saw before... are they also no longer alive?

I stared at my uncle in astonishment, recalling that bizarre dream in which the female corpse in the coffin said to me: "Give it back! Give it back to me..." "Uncle, do you owe Liangdi's mother something? I suspect her spirit is lingering in this courtyard, demanding something."

"What?" The uncle was shocked again. "Her... soul... is here?"

What are you still hiding from me? I want to know.

My uncle walked away silently, not wanting to talk to me anymore.

A heavy weight is pressing down on my heart, making it hard to breathe. Be careful...

In the afternoon, I went back to the backyard to look at the small Buddhist shrine. It was dark and quiet inside, and I couldn't see anything. But suddenly... it seemed like something was moving.

My heart skipped a beat, and I almost cried out. The pitch-black Buddhist hall was shrouded in mystery and darkness, as if covered by a black cloth. There was only one light flashing, which was a pair of eyes that were also watching me, blinking and wide open.

"Who's inside?" I swallowed twice and asked softly.

No one answered me. It was eerily quiet.

Is anyone inside?

It remained quiet and still.

Just as I was about to ask a third question, suddenly those eyes in the darkness moved, rushing towards me at lightning speed. I jumped aside in fright, feeling as if those eyes were about to pounce on me…

There was no movement for a long time.

I stood frozen to one side of the Buddhist hall, too stiff to move, and dared not peek through the crack in the door any longer. Like a child who had lit a firecracker and run away, only to find it hadn't exploded, I wondered if something was wrong, yet worried that if I went closer to investigate, it might suddenly explode. I was also afraid that some ghost or monster might rush out from behind those two small doors.

It was three in the afternoon, and the sun was still blazing hot. How could there be any ghosts causing trouble? I even relaxed and wondered if the dark, chilly atmosphere of the Buddhist temple was a perfect hiding place for ghosts. But that didn't make sense either. How could ghosts dare to disturb a sacred place like this?

I must have been imagining things. When I went to check again, a tiny head peeked out from the large gap under the two small doors. My heart immediately calmed down; it was just a cat. It was thin and bony, looking at me innocently, and meowed twice. Was it hungry? I was about to find some food for it when suddenly, a gust of wind blew down many large red dates from the best-growing jujube tree in the corner of the yard. I picked up the cat and went to collect the dates to feed it, but it suddenly became agitated and struggled violently, jumping away. I tried to lure it with dates, but it retreated even further, trembling and unsteady.

What's wrong?

The cat darted away in a half-circle, as if some demon stood behind me. But when I turned around, I saw nothing. Ghosts don't appear in daylight; what was it afraid of? I examined the jujube in my hand; its color was such a vibrant, delicate red, it was almost pitiful to behold.

In the blink of an eye, the jujube in my palm melted. Just moments ago, it was a plump, round fruit, but in an instant, it turned into a pool of blood-red liquid. I shook the liquid off my hand in astonishment, as if I were throwing away a hot piece of coal, only to find that it left a blood-red mark on my palm that I couldn't rub off no matter how hard I tried.

A wind picked up, rustling the leaves in the yard, sometimes fiercely, so fiercely that it bent the tree trunks. To my astonishment, I discovered that the best-growing jujube tree seemed to be raining down a red rain; with a crackling sound, large red jujubes fell to the ground, only to transform into a thick, blood-like liquid mid-air…

Section 12: The Bleeding Jujube Tree (6)

I was terrified and tried to run away as fast as I could, feeling a chill run down my neck and a tingling sensation on my scalp.

I was still shaken when I reached the courtyard. I slowly opened my palm and looked anxiously at the brand-like red mark, only to find that there was no mark on my hand, as clean as if I had been washed.

What's going on?

Apple and Jeep chased after me from another side room, laughing and frolicking. They were still overjoyed when they saw me. I asked them where they were going. They replied that they were going to the backyard to pick dates to eat. "Your uncle and aunt are out again. If we don't pick them now, they'll complain when they come back."

I frantically tried to stop them, but Apple wouldn't listen. The two of them brushed past me from the left and right and ran into the backyard.

"Hello! Hello!"

I exclaimed and chased after them into the backyard.

But everything was normal, as if nothing had happened, as if not even the wind had blown by.

"Where are the fallen red dates on the ground?" Apple protested. "Ruoxi, are you kidding me?"

The jeep had already climbed up the tree in no time. It was knocking down dates from the top, while apples were caught below, with everyone cheering and shouting.

I'm starting to have doubts again. Am I really having delusions?

No! That's not right! It can't be that simple.

I could sense an unusual gloom in the courtyard; this gloom contained resentment, and it seemed as if a powerful vengeful spirit was trying to control my brainwaves. What were they trying to tell me? Were they giving me a hint? But why didn't they just show themselves to me?

I looked up at the sun; it was blinding.

At that moment, I made a decision: I would come back to this backyard tonight. In the dead of night, I would come alone. Hiding like this only makes things worse. I need to talk to the ghosts. What grudge could they hold that even this place, where the Buddhist shrine is located, could cause such a disturbance, sending sand and stones flying?

By evening, there was still no sign of my uncle and the others.

I was just heading to the kitchen to prepare dinner for the three of us when Apple came back from playing outside. She yelled at me, "Ruoxi, where's the laundry detergent?"

"Do the laundry now? It's getting dark, let's do it tomorrow!"

"It's not clothes, look..." She pinched her nose and held something up high.

"What is that?" It was dark and blurry, and I couldn't recognize it.

"High-end sneakers for the Jeep!"

"Hmm, how did it get like this?"

"Yeah! You tell me how pathetic that guy was. We saw a duck by the rice paddy, and on a whim, he chased after it, only to step into a manure pit. It stank so badly, it stank so badly..."

“That’s a septic tank, a place for growing fertilizer.” I chuckled. “You guys are lucky, you’ve stepped on a landmine on your first trip to the countryside.” Actually, they didn’t want to leave, but more so because they wanted to escape the noisy city. This village was barren, and although it didn’t have idyllic scenery, the air was fresh, quiet, and pleasant. The novelty and fun seemed to make them take a trip for two.

Give her the brush and laundry detergent, and she immediately gets to work like a dutiful wife.