Las bellezas del Palacio Frío Una mujer sutil y seductora

Capítulo 19

Someone knocked on the door with several burned rabbits and pheasants and asked, "Boss, want some game?"

The shopkeeper glanced at them, curled his lip, and said, "Several people have already come today. Sell them all to me for twenty yuan!"

The man shouted, "You're robbing me!" and slammed the door shut as he left.

The boss muttered to himself, "Today is Ghost Festival, and I don't know if encountering such a strange thing is a good thing or a bad thing."

One man, who had just sold some wild game and bought some wine, began to talk to another: "Yesterday I really encountered a ghost! I was walking back from playing cards in the middle of the night, near Carp Ridge, when I saw that sacred mountain across the river was on fire. Within minutes, flames shot into the sky, even turning the river red. I saw countless dark things running around everywhere, some even jumping into the river. I thought to myself, 'Oh dear, I hope there won't be another forest fire.' My dad, I heard, also encountered a similar fire when he was a child, and luckily, there was lightning and thunder, and heavy rain extinguished it."

I figured with the moon so big tonight, there wouldn't be any rain, but it must be dangerous. I was just about to go to town to report the fire...

His companion interrupted him immediately: "You're thinking of calling the police? I don't believe it even if you beat me to death. You're probably just thinking about stealing more wild animals!"

The young man slammed his hand on the table, his face turning pale with rage: "Bullshit! Even though I'm a scoundrel, I still have some sense! If a fire spreads, our house won't be spared either! I kindly invited you for a drink, and you humiliate me instead!"

His companion quickly apologized profusely, and after a long pause, asked with a fawning smile, "And then what happened?"

The man said angrily, "There was no 'later'!"

After saying that, he buried his head and drank in silence.

Jiang Ping ordered a dish and bought a bottle of baijiu (Chinese liquor). He sat down, filled their glasses, and said with a smile, "Brother, don't be angry. You only told half of your story, and I was lucky enough to overhear half of it. You piqued my interest, but I couldn't listen to the end. How about this, I'll treat you all to this bottle of liquor as an apology. How about you finish your story?"

When the young man saw the waiter bring out a fragrant twice-cooked pork, his face relaxed, and he said happily, "No problem, no problem, but I'm afraid you'll think I'm bragging!"

Jiang Ping smiled and said, "You seem like a straightforward person. We've only just met, and you don't want anything from me, so why lie? Just tell me."

The man took a sip of his drink and continued, "I turned and ran a few steps towards the town when I heard thunder behind me. I looked back and saw something truly eerie: the moon was bright, but several dark clouds were rising above the sacred mountain, growing larger and larger. The fire in the middle of the barren mountain was about to go out, except for one large tree that was still burning, like a giant torch! The fire was spreading and expanding in circles, and it looked like it was about to burn the surrounding trees. At that moment, it suddenly started to rain, and the rain was incredibly heavy!"

It went out in the blink of an eye—literally in the blink of an eye, no exaggeration! Looking at the clouds again, they were gone! I realized that the dark, darting thing must be wild game from the mountains, so I quickly took off my clothes and waded across the river. Sure enough, I caught several burned rabbits, pheasants, and civets.

I shook my head; these scenarios are probably easy to imagine.

The boss, engrossed in the conversation, interjected mockingly, "So, you were the first one there? How come you only caught a few wild animals? Even that idiot scavenger who came later took more than you."

"You know nothing! You're lucky you even survived yesterday!"

I thought to myself, "I'm rich!" I'd only picked a few when suddenly I heard a loud bang, and something flew high up from the other side of the mountain. I looked up, and there it was—a huge, dark thing flying towards the river. Then I heard a loud crash, and a spray of water several meters high! I looked down and saw it was a large tree stump, the same big tree from the middle of the barren mountain. I was terrified. I heard a man's voice panting heavily. I was terrified, and quickly grabbed the game I'd picked, carrying a few pieces at a time, and ran towards town! I dropped a few along the way, but I didn't dare stop to pick them up!

His companion couldn't resist teasing him: "If you're really scared, you should just leave without taking anything and run!"

The young man, feeling embarrassed, was about to explode again, so Jiang Ping quickly asked, "Did you hear a middle-aged or elderly person making that sound?"

The young man said, "How could I hear that clearly! I was scared out of my wits!"

Is anything chasing you?

"No, if we did, we'd be drinking here!"

This is another surprise; I didn't expect to hear about something like this.

Jiang Ping thanked them and returned to our table.

Brother Wang knew we had been to the sacred mountain, and his eyes were full of questions, but he didn't dare to ask too many.

Jiang Ping frowned and said, "The situation is getting stranger and stranger than I expected."

I asked, "Did you ask for instructions yesterday? What did you say?"

One advantage of talking to Jiang Ping is that you don't need to understand everything he says; he can understand what you're saying.

“He said he had never left me, and that sigh came from him because he saw me groaning in my nightmares. Of course, he may have also overheard your conversation.”

"So what do we do tonight?"

"God did not answer. I think he probably didn't know what would happen either; he wasn't good at predicting. In short: play it by ear."

"If he forces you to help, will you..."

"I don't know, sigh! Didn't you talk about destiny? The power of justice might appear at the last moment, just like in the movies," Jiang Ping sighed.

Brother Wang asked, "Are you going again today?"

Jiang Ping said, "Yes, we have to go. I want to ask you a question."

Brother Wang was flattered and said, "Please speak."

"If some Miao people from other places move to that sacred mountain tomorrow, wouldn't you find it strange?" Jiang Ping asked casually.

Brother Wang chuckled and said, "Are you kidding? Who would dare live on that mountain? Didn't you say it's haunted?"

Jiang Ping smiled and said, "If they move in first thing tomorrow morning, with nothing but bare bodies, would you help them?"

"How can we not help them? Where did they come from? Why didn't we hear anyone in town talking about them? In our poor area, we only hear about people moving out, not moving into the mountains."

"Oh, their ancestors used to live over there. When the Japanese attacked Yunnan, they threw poison gas into the mountains, killing many people. The original place became uninhabitable. So the remaining people moved away from here, leaving their homes and living pitifully in the deep mountains and forests. Their ancestors appeared to them in a dream, telling them to return here because after so many years, the mountains are now habitable. Maybe we'll arrive tomorrow. You're not afraid, are you?"

Brother Wang chuckled憨厚ly and said, "How could that be? That land has never been inhabited, and it originally belonged to someone else. We moved here from Guizhou after Liberation. They've been living deep in the mountains all this time? Poor thing, they must have suffered a lot!"

"Yes, if that's how you think!" Jiang Ping breathed a sigh of relief.

I didn't know what to feel. I suddenly remembered a scene from the film "Sophie's Choice," where the Nazis forced Sophie to choose between her son and daughter—who should live and who should die. How helpless she must have felt! She couldn't make a third choice, and every choice would leave her with a lifetime of guilt, never finding peace of mind. In fact, she hadn't done anything wrong.

I think the same goes for Jiang Ping. We can't criticize him for anything. He just has a little more magic power, which doesn't mean he can control anyone's fate.

No matter what choice he makes, I won't blame him. I can only be thankful that this final decision wasn't made by me. I can't bear such a heavy burden of life, and I don't even want to think about it.

While waiting for others, Jiang Ping bought some food and several quilts for Brother Wang, and told him to go back first, saying that we would be staying at their house that night and wouldn't be going there in the afternoon.

He then inquired in detail about the route from the town to the sacred mountain. Brother Wang said the road was easy to walk; just walk straight to the riverbank and follow the river upstream. It would only take an hour and a half.

They finally arrived around 11:00 AM.

Tian Juan jumped out of the car and grabbed me, excitedly saying, "We couldn't hear from you all yesterday! No cell phone signal, no reply to texts, we were so worried! We only found out there was no signal here when we got back to the hotel in the evening and received your voicemail. How are things?"

"How were your days, everyone?"

“Great! Look, I even bought a digital camera. These are the photos we took. What do you think?” Tian Juan excitedly took the camera out of her bag to show me.

Jiang Ping then told them about our whereabouts yesterday.

The photos were all taken well, with many pictures of Mr. Bian and Mrs. Tian together. The man looked dignified and the woman was elegant and beautiful, but there was always a faint trace of sadness between their brows.

"Which one do you think is the best? I like this one the most!" Tian Juan pulled out a photo. It was a group photo of the three of them. Mr. Bian and Tian's mother were sitting on a park bench, and Tian Juan was standing behind them with her arms around their shoulders. The three of them had their faces close together and were all smiling brightly. Tian Juan was especially playful, squeezing her eyes and sticking out her tongue to make a funny face, like an innocent child.

“It is indeed the best!” I know that each of them has been waiting for this photo for many years.

That afternoon, we had a long talk in a private room at a small karaoke bar in town. We didn't talk about the impending disaster; we talked about life experiences, love, family, friendship, life and death, art—almost everything. Everyone was witty and engaging, thoroughly enjoying themselves, as if they were savoring an incredibly delicious spiritual feast. We Chinese always bury our emotions so deeply. Is it only when facing death that everyone's deepest passions are unleashed?

As time goes by, pleasure slowly elevates, while sorrow slowly erodes the heart. Beautiful places are fleeting, and grand feasts are hard to repeat! The genius Wang Bo, thirteen hundred years ago, captured this state of mind in just eight characters!

As darkness fell, no one wanted to interrupt the pleasant conversation.

The silence was broken when Mr. Bian's phone rang. He was using a global roaming phone, which could receive outside signals.

He chatted for a couple of minutes, then handed his phone to Jiang Ping.

Jiang Ping responded with a few words, his brows relaxing.

After a while, he hung up the phone and snapped his fingers!

"Okay, mission accomplished!"

We looked at him with surprise, but we were all completely confused.

"It was my nephew who called," Mr. Bian could only provide this much information.

"Do you remember the phone call I made at the train station that day? I told Uncle Bian to look along the riverbank for any newly dug mounds of earth. If there were any, he should use long iron spikes to push them down. If he found something soft, he should use four large peach wood stakes to firmly nail the mound around itself."

"They found it! I told them they absolutely must stay until midnight tonight! Do you remember Wang Anshi's poem: 'The sun shines brightly on ten thousand households at the front gate, as they replace the old peachwood charms with new ones!' Peachwood charms are for warding off evil spirits!" Jiang Ping said excitedly.

Mother Tian said in disbelief, "Is it really over like this? No way!"

Tian Juan hugged her mother tightly: "Do you think Hollywood blockbusters have to have thrilling battle scenes?!"

Mr. Bian and I remained seated, our anxiety growing, not the joy we had imagined. We couldn't confirm that the clan chief's ghost was indeed in the mound, nor could we confirm that he couldn't escape.

"Why aren't you happy at all? Are you overly excited?" Tian Juan asked, her smile fading in confusion.

Jiang Ping also quieted down and said, "You all need to be quiet for a while!"

He closed his eyes, clasped his hands together, and moved his lips slightly, silently reciting something.

The room was eerily quiet. We watched him nervously, and time seemed to stretch on forever.

About fifteen minutes later, he slowly opened his eyes and said calmly, "The two ghosts are indeed under the mound. Old Man Bian and his companions were very lucky to find the clan chief's hiding place in the minutes before sunset. Any later and it would have been too late. The clan chief's ghost is still struggling desperately."

I took out my phone and saw it was almost six o'clock. There were only six hours left until the Ghost Festival was over. Could we buy ourselves another twenty-one years? What if something unexpected happened?

Tian Juan lost her initial joy and sat silently, lost in thought.

Jiang Ping said, "We still can't be blindly optimistic. It would be best if we ate something and rushed to the sacred mountain. The clan chief gave us time to wait on the mountain at 10 p.m.

We ate quickly, bought a few large flashlights, and set off; the moonlight was very bright.

After walking for a short while, an empty small truck passed by, then stopped in front of us. The driver leaned out of the window and asked, "Where are you going?"

"Carp spine! Are you there yet?"

"Get in, I'll give you a ride for a while. It'll take you more than an hour to walk! It's too dark on the road at night, and I'm afraid snakes and insects will come out," the driver said warmly.

We climbed into the back of the truck, which sped along the mountain road, the only sound the roar of the engine. The bright moon hung high above the mountaintop, the peaks receding into the distance. Unable to concentrate, I found myself strangely devoid of fear.

After driving for about twenty minutes, the car stopped at a fork in the road. The driver said, "You can get off now. Go a little further to the right. There is a cable-stayed bamboo bridge over there. After crossing the bridge, turn left and walk a little further to reach Carp Ridge."

Jiang Ping said, "Thank you, we won't cross the bridge."

The driver asked in confusion, "Where are you going? Oh, by the way, the sacred mountain not far from here is haunted at night. I heard there was a fire on the mountain yesterday. Be careful, and definitely don't go there!"

Mr. Bian took out a piece of paper money and handed it over, saying gratefully, "Thank you, sir. Here's twenty yuan, please take it and buy some cigarettes!"

The driver said angrily, "I didn't give you a ride for the money. We never charge for giving people a ride in these mountains! If you feel bad about it, just give me a cigarette. I forgot to buy cigarettes when I came out. Have one to relieve your fatigue."

Jiang Ping pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, threw it through the car window, and shouted, "Take it all! Thank you, let's go!"

The driver waved to us and drove off.

Tian Juan said, "That driver is really brave!"

Jiang Ping solemnly said, "The people here are simple and honest, and they are always willing to help others. There's no need to worry about any bad people. Besides, the driver is upright, so ghosts and monsters cannot deceive him."

I checked my phone; it was almost eight o'clock.

Jiang Ping led the way, and soon they heard the sound of rushing water. A long cable-stayed bridge spanned the river. We had taken the mountain path during the day and hadn't passed through here.

At night, it looks like a giant dragon crossing the river, which is particularly terrifying.

After walking for more than ten minutes, I saw the stone bridge where Brother Wang had been waiting for us during the day.