Légende du village de Baima

Chapitre 3

Old Ji had another problem: he trembled, he trembled violently.

He was trembling all over, trembling incessantly, even in his sleep, he kept trembling and waking himself up, so his sleep was very poor, which made the trembling even more severe.

Old Ji's trembling had been a problem for years, so he had developed a skillful way of eating, able to put food into his mouth at the precise angle and with just the right amount of force. This was how Lin Hong saw him; watching the old man deftly put food into his trembling mouth with his constantly trembling hands, and then use his trembling oral cavity to help push the food down, was indescribably comical. At the time, Lin Hong thought her father had brought her to see a magic show, and she giggled incessantly. Later, she realized it wasn't.

The reason why her father took Lin Hong to see Old Man Ji was because Lin Hong had been having nightmares before she was five years old. She was often so frightened by the things in her dreams that she would cry loudly and wake up crying.

Lin Hong's nightmares were very strange, always featuring the same bloody and horrifying scenes, and always beginning with the sound of terrifying footsteps.

In the dream, heavy footsteps sounded, approaching from afar, carrying a terrifying power.

The footsteps grew closer, and a terrifying figure was projected onto the dimly lit wall. Lin Hong struggled in terror, trying to escape the oppressive shadow, but no matter how hard she struggled, she could not break free from this horrifying dream.

She knew she was trapped in a dream, but she couldn't wake herself up.

In her dream, she saw herself bound hand and foot, the walls of a dark room splattered with gruesome blood, some dried, some still slowly flowing. A chilling, sinister atmosphere permeated the surroundings, an atmosphere that instilled despair.

Footsteps were already close at hand, and a huge black shadow loomed over them.

A terrifying face drew near to her. She cried out, a desperate wail, unable to make out the face clearly. She only vaguely sensed that the figure was holding a white candle, slowly bending down towards her. Wax dripped onto her bare skin, the burning sensation sending shivers down her spine. The indistinct face let out a strange laugh, a sinister and chilling laugh, like an evil hand reaching into her body, as if to rip out her internal organs.

She was filled with fear of the face in her dream, yet she was powerless to resist it and could only wail in despair. The pitiful wail was so horrifying that it caused her great physical discomfort.

She could clearly hear the sound of her teeth chattering in fear, the rapid, clattering sound instantly amplified and filling the entire world. In her trembling panic, she lost control of her bladder, drenched in sweat, and woke up howling from the nightmare.

She screamed desperately, trying to sit up, but the sheets were soaked with sweat and she was too weak to move. Her parents were awakened by her desperate cries and got up to shake her vigorously. It was like grasping a lifeline. She clung to her mother's hand and screamed shrilly, not daring to open her eyes for fear of seeing that she was still in a nightmare.

Before Lin Hong was six years old, this terrifying nightmare haunted her, keeping her awake at night. Night after night of violent convulsions and spasms eventually caused her to develop severe epilepsy.

Her family took her to the hospital for examinations several times. The doctors, following standard medical advice, diagnosed that Lin Hong's brain cells had been damaged, and the lesions were causing electrical activity in the brain, leading to recurrent episodes of sudden, temporary brain dysfunction. They couldn't determine the location or extent of the lesion, but based on her symptoms, Lin Hong's main symptoms included loss of consciousness, limb convulsions, frothing at the mouth, clenched teeth, upward rolling of the eyes, and incontinence. The doctors told Lin Hong's parents that without prompt treatment, she could even suffocate and die in severe cases.

The doctor's diagnosis was fine, but after examining Lin Hong, nothing was found wrong. Without even identifying the lesion, treatment was out of the question, let alone prompting it. All the doctor could do was prescribe the cheapest phenytoin, but even after taking the medication, Lin Hong remained plagued by nightmares. Finally, someone, desperate and grasping at straws, suggested, "This child might have offended some evil spirit. Let Old Ji take a look and exorcise it for her."

And so, the father took Lin Hong to find this old man, Ji. When they arrived, the old man was having lunch, and six-year-old Lin Hong happily witnessed the scene described above.

When Lin Hong arrived, she had heard people say that the reason why Old Ji was always trembling was because he was frightened in the hospital morgue when he was young.

This story has been circulating in the Ji family for many years, with several different versions. None of the versions have been acknowledged by Old Ji, but it seems that such a thing does not need his approval.

9)

When Old Man Ji was young, hospital morgues didn't have refrigeration equipment. Bodies had to be kept in the rooms until the deceased's family gave their consent and signed the necessary papers before cremation. So, on the beds in the morgue, there were bodies covered with white sheets. These bodies had died from drowning, fights, accidents, or drugs. But regardless of the cause of death, all the bodies shared one common characteristic: horror.

The morgue doors are never locked. Someone once suggested that they should be locked, not to prevent the dead from escaping—the dead don't run away, that's common sense. But living people might mistakenly wander into the morgue. This suggestion is reasonable, but hospital doctors and nurses wouldn't make that mistake, so this suggestion, unrelated to the hospital itself, ultimately went unheeded.

The morgue was supposed to be locked, but it wasn't, and as a result, Old Man Ji accidentally walked in.

It was already late at night when Old Man Ji was sleeping at home. Suddenly, he felt an itch in his ear. He reached out to scratch it, but just a hair's breadth away, a cockroach crawled into his ear. Old Man Ji was so frightened that he screamed and jumped up, then ran out the door and rushed to the hospital.

He ran all the way to the hospital, rushed into the emergency room and started shouting for a doctor, but the doctor wasn't in the examination room. He could feel the cockroach crawling around in his ear. Old Ji was anxious and scared. He couldn't wait for the doctor to return, so he ran along the hospital corridor to the backyard, hoping to find a doctor as soon as possible.

He ran around the hospital grounds like a headless fly, when suddenly he saw a door slightly ajar. Without thinking, he pushed it open and went inside.

As soon as he entered the door, Old Man Ji felt a chill run from the top of his head to the soles of his feet.

By the dim light streaming in from outside, he saw several beds on the floor, each with a person lying on it, their entire bodies covered by a white sheet, except for their grizzled feet sticking out. This was the hospital morgue.

Startled, Old Man Ji even forgot about the cockroach that had crawled into his ear. He turned around and tried to run away, but due to excessive fear, his legs wouldn't obey him and he couldn't move at all. He could only stand there blankly, looking at the cold corpses.

The morgue was completely dark, but the eerie moonlight, after being refracted several times, seeped in, casting a pale blue light and shadow over everything in the morgue, revealing it to Old Man Ji.

Old Ji stared blankly for a long time, then suddenly realized what was happening. A chill ran through him, his legs went weak, and he just wanted to turn around and leave immediately. Just then, the corpses in the morgue suddenly moved, startling him so much that his mouth involuntarily opened wide, his eyes bulged, and he stared intently at the corpses, unable to look away.

He witnessed the most terrifying thing: the corpses on the bed slowly rose to their feet. The white cloth covering their heads fell silently, revealing several ashen faces. Some of these faces were already rotting, some were bruised and bloodied, and one corpse was clearly the victim of a traffic accident, its entire head flattened by the wheels of a car. Even more horrifying than this corpse was a female corpse, who had likely died from poisoning. Her face was ashen, and her dark purple tongue dangled from her mouth. These corpses stood up, staring intently at Old Man Ji with their unchanging, grotesque expressions, and moved stiffly and slowly toward him.

Old Man Ji was so frightened that his mind went blank. He watched as the horrific corpses surrounded him, and he even heard himself shout in a strange voice, "What are you doing up? Who told you to get up? Lie back down!"

After shouting this out of nowhere, Old Man Ji finally came to his senses. He screamed and turned to run away, but the fear was too intense. His upper body twisted and he ran wildly into the distance, but his legs remained stiff and weak, causing him to lose his balance and fall.

With a muffled whimper escaping his throat, Old Man Ji struggled to his feet, but his arms could not support his weight. He finally managed to stand up, but then he heard a ripping sound as a corpse grabbed his collar.

Old Man Ji struggled desperately, tearing his clothes, and was about to run away when the other corpses caught up and pounced on him. Terrified, Old Man Ji whimpered and ran in circles in the courtyard. The corpses moved their stiff bodies, getting closer and closer, slowly encircling him.

A cold night wind swept across Old Man Ji's skin, the pungent smell of formaldehyde almost suffocating him. Most terrifying of all was the stench emanating from the corpses, wisps of smoke and mist enveloping the entire world. Under the pale moonlight, the movement of the corpses caused creaking and popping joints, the eerie sounds growing ever closer, carrying a terrifying force that sent shivers down one's spine. Old Man Ji felt he could no longer run.

The corpses gathered around, their pale blue hands covered in livid mortis, and there was a musty smell from being in the damp morgue for too long.

Old Man Ji retreated in despair, tears streaming down his face for some reason. Suddenly, his back bumped into something, and with a whoosh, a few leaves fell from the sky.

This is a tree!

Without a second thought, driven purely by instinct, Old Man Ji leaped up, grabbing the tree trunk and climbing. It was the first time in his life he'd climbed a tree, and his speed was astonishing. In the blink of an eye, he found himself at the top. Despite his incredible speed, the most terrifying female corpse still managed to snatch one of his shoes away. Her sharp nails scratched his sole, causing a burning pain.

Climbing up the tree, Old Man Ji whimpered in despair, trying to shout for help, but only gurgled in his throat and no sound came out. He watched helplessly as the corpses below struggled to jump upwards, futilely trying to pull him down. When they couldn't reach him, the corpses let out strange cries, grabbed the trunk, and shook it violently. Caught off guard, Old Man Ji almost fell to the ground, but he quickly grabbed the tree trunk tightly with both arms.

The remaining corpses all gathered around, angrily shaking the tree trunk together, trying to shake Old Man Ji, who had escaped to the tree, down.

The tree trunk shook more and more violently, and Old Man Ji clung to it desperately like an ant clinging to a piece of wood in a storm, not daring to loosen his grip for a moment. The tree trunk shook violently, and his whole body shook with it, rattling and swaying all night long. He didn't know when, but dawn broke. The body under the tree was gone, but Old Man Ji was still clinging to the tree trunk, shaking it desperately.

The swaying of the tree trunk had become an instinct for Old Man Ji in his desperate situation. Only through this instinctive mechanical shaking could he hold onto the swaying tree trunk and avoid falling.

When the hospital staff arrived for work, they found someone clinging to the tree trunk and shaking it frantically. They shouted for him to come down, but Old Man Ji couldn't stop shaking. It took the hospital staff a great deal of effort to get him down from the tree. He spun around like a top, shaking so violently that anyone who tried to approach him fell to the ground. From then on, he was left with a strange condition that caused his whole body to shake.

10)

The story is quite interesting. When Old Man Ji was young, he was so frightened by a corpse that he developed a severe tremor. But as he grew old, people inexplicably believed that he possessed the ability to see ghosts and could perceive another hidden world. Whenever people in the neighborhood encountered strange and inexplicable events, they would seek out Old Man Ji for a consultation. The effectiveness of his treatments was unknown, but the old man, who trembled incessantly like a leaf, became famous overnight.

Because of this strange tremor, Old Man Ji never married and had no children to support him. He relied entirely on curing other people's strange and unusual illnesses, and surprisingly, he lived a very comfortable life.

There are many strange legends about Old Man Ji's medical practice.

Legend has it that there was once a beautiful new bride who, after getting married and moving into a new house, would dream every night of a hideous man on top of her. She would wake up from these nightmares almost every night. Her husband took her to the hospital, but no amount of medicine helped; the nightmares only became more vivid. Eventually, whenever she closed her eyes, she could see the hideous man making lewd gestures and winking at her. Haunted by this terrible nightmare, the beautiful new bride grew thinner and thinner each day. Finally, she sought out Old Man Ji, asking him to exorcise the evil spirit from her dreams.

After hearing about his new bride's illness, Old Man Ji went to her house without a word. He looked around, then pointed to a corner of the wall and ordered someone to dig it up. Inside, they found a paper box covered with yellow paper, containing a painting of the man the new bride kept seeing in her dreams. On the back of the painting were four lines of characters, which those who had seen them said were someone's birth date and time. Following Old Man Ji's instructions, the painting was burned, and the new bride's illness was completely cured; she never had nightmares again.

Meanwhile, a patient was brought into the hospital, almost completely burned to a crisp. He had been drinking with friends in a tavern when his body suddenly caught fire. Before anyone could react, he was screaming in agony as he was burned to a crisp amidst the raging flames.

Later, people learned that the man whose body suddenly burst into flames was a bricklayer who had built the new house. While building the house, he saw the new bride and, coveting her beauty, used evil magic to seal his portrait and birth date inside the wall, haunting the bride's nightmares ever since. Unexpectedly, he encountered Old Man Ji, who had seen countless ghosts, and lost his life in the process.

Mysterious legends like these abound, and Old Man Ji, terrified by the corpse, was almost portrayed as Zhong Kui, a demon-slaying immortal. It was said that Old Man Ji's greatest skill was seeing children who cried at night; if a child couldn't sleep soundly and cried incessantly at night, Old Man Ji would usually solve the problem. Hoping that Old Man Ji could cure Lin Hong's nightmares and epilepsy, Lin Hong's father brought his daughter to him.

When the father brought Lin Hong into the small mud house, Old Man Ji was shivering as he ate on the earthen bed. The father carefully placed two packets of pastries on the bed and told Old Man Ji about his daughter's situation. Old Man Ji seemed not to be listening, continuing to eat his cornbread and drink his vegetable soup while shivering. Finally, Old Man Ji finished eating, shivering contentedly as he choked on his food. He beckoned Lin Hong to come closer. Lin Hong was a little scared and clung to her father's leg, refusing to let go. Old Man Ji didn't seem to mind; he moved closer to the edge of the bed, stared into Lin Hong's eyes for a long time, and then said:

"Why isn't this child fully awake?"

“She doesn’t sleep well,” the father complained. “She wakes up crying as soon as she falls asleep, and if she cries too hard, she has seizures. Look at her, she’s five years old and she’s so thin.”

“Well, I mean,” Old Man Ji shook his head in confusion, “this child, she’s not awake yet.”

“Ah—ah, yes,” the father said, scratching his head anxiously, not understanding what Old Man Ji meant.

"Let the child play outside for a while," said Old Man Ji. "If he plays for a while, he won't be afraid of strangers anymore."

Then, her father sat on the kang (a heated brick bed) chatting with Old Man Ji. Lin Hong squatted by the door playing by herself for a long time. Later, her father let her play by herself and rode away on his bicycle. Lin Hong saw a robin land in the yard and ran over to look. At this moment, Old Man Ji reached out and called her over. She was no longer afraid of this strange old man who kept trembling, so she ran over and asked, "Grandpa, did you really see a ghost?" Old Man Ji chuckled and patted her head: "What ghost? There are no ghosts in the world."

“Yes,” Lin Hong said, her eyes wide. “I heard my dad and mom say that you were scared and kept trembling because you encountered a ghost.”

Seeing Lin Hong's serious expression, Old Man Ji found it amusing and asked with a chuckle, "What did your dad and mom say?"

Lin Hong recounted what she had overheard about Old Man Ji encountering a ghost in the morgue. Old Man Ji laughed heartily and said, "Anyway, it's not that different. But what Grandpa encountered that night wasn't a ghost. It was a few daring young men who made a bet to spend the night in the morgue. They were bored at night and tried to scare Grandpa when they saw him, but Grandpa is brave and wasn't frightened by them."

Lin Hong asked curiously, "Grandpa Ji, since they didn't scare you, why were you trembling so much?"

"Well... well," Old Man Ji was exposed by Lin Hong, but fortunately, he was old and wrinkled, so he didn't blush or feel embarrassed. He chuckled and said to Lin Hong, "Grandpa is old, so he keeps trembling. Let's not talk about this anymore. Now, look at Grandpa and listen to what Grandpa is saying, okay?" Lin Hong blinked, puzzled, and nodded.

So Old Ji took Lin Hong's hand and walked out the door. He pointed upwards: "Sky," pointed downwards: "Earth," pointed into the air: "Bird,"... as if teaching Lin Hong about the world. With each word, Old Ji would carefully gaze into Lin Hong's clear, bright eyes. Later, Old Ji got tired and lay back down on the kang (heated brick bed) to shiver and sleep for a while. When he woke up, he started looking into Lin Hong's eyes again and saying: "Cat," "Dog," "Cannon," "Grass,"... Old Ji's words became increasingly incoherent and chaotic, sometimes mentioning the sky, sometimes the ground, making Lin Hong's head spin. But Old Ji seemed even more exhausted. He continued until evening. When he said "little turtle," Lin Hong's eyes suddenly became confused. Old Ji clapped his hands in relief: "Finally found it!" Then Old Ji squatted down, put his hands on Lin Hong's shoulders, and said:

"Grandpa will teach you to recite nursery rhymes, okay?" Lin Hong jumped for joy upon hearing this, repeatedly shouting her approval.

The nursery rhyme that Old Man Ji taught Lin Hong was one she would never forget. Ever since she memorized the rhyme, Lin Hong never had nightmares again and would sleep soundly until dawn.

That nursery rhyme is very simple; otherwise, it wouldn't be a nursery rhyme.

The tortoise is thin and doesn't gain weight.

Skin covering hard bones

Four paws and one head

Three years to reach my doorstep

Old Man Ji told Lin Hong that whenever she had free time, she should recite this nursery rhyme, and she should also recite it several times before going to sleep at night. Lin Hong especially liked the little turtle in the nursery rhyme, so she recited it constantly every day. To the Lin family's delight, since she started reciting this seemingly meaningless nursery rhyme, Lin Hong's epilepsy had miraculously recovered. The father was overjoyed and bought many things to give to Old Man Ji. Old Man Ji happily accepted them all, and then told the father:

"Your child isn't fully awake yet, and I can't wake her up. I can only keep her quiet and see how things go. Maybe she'll wake up on her own when she's older. If she wants to do anything, please don't stop her. Once she wakes up, everything will be fine. Remember that?"

The father, Nuonuo, looked at his lively daughter chasing butterflies outside, his face full of confusion and bewilderment. He couldn't understand what Old Man Ji meant when he kept saying that his daughter wasn't fully awake.

Chapter Two: A Mysterious Romance

1)

Sure enough, it was from this time that Lin Hong began to squat on the ground and scribble randomly with a twig. Each drawing was more or less the same, but none of them ever satisfied her. Later, when she started elementary school, she was often absent-minded in class, scribbling on her books with a pencil. While most girls did well in elementary school, Lin Hong was an exception. She seemed to always be in a daydream state, her gaze unfocused and her mind elsewhere, even doodling on her test papers during exams.

Lin Hong's parents remembered Old Man Ji's instructions: "Let the child do whatever she wants, and never stop her." So they let Lin Hong squat on the ground drawing by herself, but never interfered. This process continued until she was in the fourth grade of elementary school, when Lin Hong's drawings finally took shape.

She was drawing a large house, located by the river. The house had three floors, and in the window on the third floor, there was a woman's face calling out to the outside.

This painting is typical of children's drawings, with exaggerated figures and disproportionate buildings. Without careful observation, it's impossible to understand what it depicts. Therefore, many people are baffled by it. However, Lin Hong's teacher believed she had a talent for painting and specifically suggested to Lin Hong's father that they find her a painting teacher.

Lin Hong's father worked in a machine factory. He was an honest and simple man, and his most notable characteristic was his taciturn nature. People called him Da Lin. His wife did not work and was almost forty years old when she gave birth to their only daughter, Lin Hong. His love for her was beyond words. He always tried to make his daughter happy, no matter what she wanted.

After listening to the teacher's advice and remembering Old Man Ji's instructions, Da Lin specifically asked Lin Hong for her opinion. Lin Hong remembered that her mind was hazy at the time, and she was in a state of daydreaming with her mind wandering. In fact, she had this problem since she was a child. She could not concentrate on even the most important things, and it was not until middle school that she miraculously returned to normal.

As she grew up, she finally understood what her confused state of mind in her childhood was all about. It was very simple: she was always searching for something, searching for this painting. Since she couldn't find it, she could only keep drawing and drawing in frustration until she was able to paint the painting skillfully. Only then did she let out a long sigh, feeling infinitely relieved as if she had accomplished something, and began to enter the life of a normal girl.

Why was she so determined to find this painting? If only someone could tell her, but Old Man Ji had passed away many years ago, and no one could give her the answer anymore. She could only continue to struggle in her confusion.

Perhaps the painting she is currently creating depicts a scene from her childhood dream, but this conclusion clearly lacks basis. There's no reason why a scene so evocative of the Left Bank would cause a child to have a nightmare.

Lin Hong's father asked someone to find a painter surnamed Lou at the city's cultural center. He took his daughter to visit Lou's home and begged him to take her as his apprentice. Lou acted rashly, seeing the simple-minded worker's sincerity and Lin Hong's intelligence despite her young age, and agreed. Later, he realized he had made a huge mistake; Lin Hong was beyond redemption.

No matter how patiently Teacher Lou explained things like the three sections and five eyes, perspective techniques, and so on, Lin Hong still listened absentmindedly, just like in a classroom. Then Teacher Lou taught her to draw sketches and still lifes, but what Lin Hong drew on the paper was still that same house.

Teacher Lou corrected her and explained it to her again, but she still drew that house.

She stubbornly kept drawing that house, drawing and drawing, for four years until she graduated from junior high school. Finally, she was able to draw the house with skillful technique.

She spent a full sixteen years, a teenage girl relentlessly trying to paint this picture, even though she had never seen it before.

The image shows a small villa in a riverside setting. A quiet, leaf-like awning boat floats on the river. Several silvery-white plants, neither fluffy nor reedy, detach from the surface of the image and sway in the wind. On the opposite bank of the river is the villa that is etched deep in her memory, with its European-style conical tower and Baroque-style arcade, combining decoration and practicality without appearing pretentious.

The villa is grayish-blue in color, leaning towards a dark and cold style, which further accentuates the building's austere style.

Beneath the dark gray buildings lies a path paved with gravel. Cars, parasols, men and women sitting under the parasols sipping beer, and a woman with a shoulder bag walks alone from afar, accompanied by an animal whose shape is not very clear, most likely a dog, and it can only be a dog!

One of the villa's doors was open, while the other appeared to be open but not quite. The iron rings with animal-shaped handles on the doors were so realistic that it seemed you could reach out and pull the door open.

Several star-shaped windows are located on the second floor, two on each side, all tightly closed. There are only two windows on the third floor, also closed, but a woman's face is visible through the glass of one of the windows. The woman's eyes are vacant, as if she is struggling to escape from an indescribable and terrifying state, and she is shouting out loudly.