??

  Little boy? Cha Wenbin immediately asked: "How long ago was that?"

  "It's been over a decade, I suppose." The girl said wistfully: "This road hasn't had anyone walking on it for ages. Back then, running into him always felt so endearing... He looked just like my little brother..."

  More than a decade ago, Cha Wenbin often passed by here alone. On the other side of this mountain pass was Wulipu. In those years, Cha Wenbin had never met anyone on this road. Could it be that the girl saw his past self? As he thought about it, the girl seemed to have discovered something too. Originally, she didn't dare look directly at Cha Wenbin because of the mark on his chest, but now she felt more and more that he resembled a boy from back then.

  The girl's courage increased a bit, and she asked weakly: "Sir, you wouldn't be that little boy from back then, would you?"

  But in Wen Bin's memory, he had never seen a girl here before, let alone who was following him those years. He always came and went alone, the only companion on this mountain path being the green hills and clear waters.

  "Miss, can you tell me what the person who was following behind me looked like? Was it an old man with a sloppy appearance?" He replied that if he admitted to being the boy himself, it would be acknowledging that his master had been following him all along, which would make him feel somewhat uncomfortable. However, the girl shook her head and said: "No, I couldn't see what that person looked like either. He was wearing a bright red outfit and looked very fierce. Every time he would follow behind you until after you passed over the mountain ridge, then he would disappear. Finally, one day he spoke to me and told me to find a substitute...".

  "Hmm" went through his mind, and suddenly, Cha Wenbin's brain expanded. It was him! More than a decade ago, Cha Wenbin was just a young punk. If the red-clothed evil spirit had wanted to harm himself back then, it would have been as easy as turning over his hand. Yet now, listening to this girl's words, he was actually still protecting himself all along. Could it be that he had some sort of connection with him?

  But that red-clothed fierce ghost has always been in Hong Village, and I myself am an orphan, with no relatives or friends, living alone in Wulipu, how could we possibly have any connection?

  Zha Wenbin secretly told himself: "It's either good fortune or bad luck, if it's bad luck, I'll just let it be." Looking at the girl as described by Zhuangzi and Ye Qiu, she indeed had no intention of harming others. Zha Wenbin decided to help her out and said: "I will take your bones to a place where they can rest in peace, help you transcend, and reincarnate soon."

  Following the girl's guidance, walking forward for less than half a mile, what seemed like an ordinary forest actually hid sinister intentions.

  "There was a small stone monument protruding halfway out of the ground right there."

  Zha Wenbin carefully made his way around and found the fire starter under a pile of tree vines, half of a broken stele. The top half of the stele had gone missing, leaving only the bottom half with a single character "葬" (burial), no one knew how many years or months it had been hidden on this mountain ridge. Ye Qiu used his Cold Moon to slowly clear away the dry leaves around him, revealing a dark entrance, just as the girl had said, it was impossible to see the bottom of the pit.

  Ye Qiu picked up a stone and threw it down, after a while, he vaguely heard a "ding" sound. It was said that there were grass dens on the hills around Hongcun Village, which were left over from the People's Liberation Army's mining operations. There were obvious signs of warning all around. In the 1950s, tin and uranium mines were discovered in Hongcun Village, and a troop came to station here because the uranium mine was a radioactive mineral and the main raw material for making atomic bombs. During the five years or so that followed, several underground caves as deep as hundreds of meters appeared in some mountainous areas of Hongcun Village.

  Cha Wenbin took a peek, and the hole emitted a cool air that rushed upwards with a "whooshing" sound. The slightly damp air made his lips tremble lightly, and suddenly, an ominous premonition rose to his heart. Cha Wenbin stepped back and said, "It doesn't seem like a mine shaft. This stele looks old, let's not go down carelessly tonight. We can come back early tomorrow morning with our gear."

  On the way home, several questions arose again. First, the girl claimed that she couldn't leave this forest, but Cha Wenbin checked and found no taboos; second, why did the red-clothed person help himself? Third, where did Bai Qianli go? This series of questions turned his head upside down, it was really one wave after another.

  The next day, Pàngzi went to the town and bought everything they needed, including mining lamps and ropes. Early in the morning, Chá Wénbīn went to Hóng Cūn to deliver the prescription to Lǎo Xià. He didn't want to bother him with what happened afterwards, although he remembered Yè Huān saying that they needed all five of them together for Bái's matter. For now, Lǎo Xià was living a peaceful life, and it was said that Xià Lǎo Liù had already started arranging his marriage. There was a family in ān County with the surname Xú, who were carpenters, with two sons and four daughters. The second daughter was about the same age as Lǎo Xià, and she was elegant and capable. Xià Lǎo Liù was very satisfied.

  Kong Lao Da was busy at home early in the morning, and as soon as Cha Wen Bin arrived, he brought good tea and cigarettes, and his politeness was beyond mention. Since last night's midnight, his unlucky son Xiao Kong had been able to speak with his mouth open, although he still couldn't get out of bed, but the poisonous boils on his body had begun to subside.

  After turning around, things are developing in a good direction, so the two brothers are preparing to collect the body for the girl from last night. To say that last night was also strange, the thunder and lightning were tossing and turning all night, not even half a drop of rain fell, today's weather is still gloomy, a layer of dark clouds covering the entire mountain village.

  Arriving at the entrance, Fatso found a sturdy big tree to hang the rope on. This time, the first one to go down was still Ye Qiu. As for how deep that cave was, it's probably hard to imagine. According to the height of this small hill, it was vertically downward and could be level with the river at the foot of the mountain. So when Ye Qiu reached the bottom, his first feeling was cold.

  Soon, Ye Qiu climbed out again with a woven bag on his back. Looking at the bulging bag, he must have found the girl's remains. However, after coming up, he said: "I still suggest you two go down and take a look. This cave seems to lead somewhere else. There is another entrance afterwards, and people are scattered around the entrance of the cave. The skeleton has been there for many years." He also added: "This place was dug by humans, I think it's similar to Shuangyuan Village over there."

  Cha Wenbin thought for a moment and decided to get down to business first. He wasn't particularly interested in this kind of underground excavation work, but the speaker had no intention, while the listener was all ears. Cha didn't show much interest, but that fatty might not be the case, and he asked excitedly: "Lao Er, have you seen anything down there?"

  "As for some withered branches and leaves and stones, I didn't go in there, seeing a stone gate, I came out first."

  "Oh!" Fatso responded with a single word, pretending nothing was wrong, but his mind had already started spinning some wicked ideas.

  The villagers' graves are relatively concentrated, and on the opposite mountain slope, there is a bamboo forest. In front of it, facing the river, the terrain is gentle. Years ago, when people opened up the land to grow corn, someone burned down the forest, but later abandoned the land, which gradually became a cemetery. At noon, several people brought the girl's remains and searched for a place on that mountain slope again. This made Fatso dig a hole and build a grave mound without any relatives or friends. On the tombstone, they only used stones to press two stacks of paper money, and that was it. Because the girl had no name or surname, Zhang Wenbin could only use a wooden board to give her an unnamed monument. At least when she was young, she didn't harm herself, so he performed a small ritual by the grave, burning incense, candles, and paper money for her transcendence.

  Three people who didn't arrive at noon just came down the mountain and met Old Kong waiting at the foot of the mountain, saying that he had specially prepared a banquet to invite Master Cha to take his seat. At first, Cha Wenbin was also unwilling, but Old Kong was very enthusiastic and said that in the afternoon, he wanted to ask him to point out one or two things on the grave mountain, so Cha Wenbin couldn't refuse and had no choice but to agree.

  Mr. Kong's ancestors were from Henan, and he spoke with a authentic Henan accent. People from Henan are known for their hospitality and etiquette. As soon as they arrived, they were arranged to sit in the seat of honor, which is called "shang wu tou" in rural areas, referring to the position directly facing the main door. As soon as he sat down, Mr. Kong came over to toast him with wine, saying that since Zhang Wenbin had helped them so much, they must drink a few cups together. Zhang Wenbin was actually a teetotaler, but couldn't resist the persuasion of the Kong family members. When a group of people gather around you and ask you to drink, it's like they're begging you on their knees. If you don't drink, it would be impolite. With no other choice, Zhang Wenbin reluctantly drank a bowl of wine, but then Mr. Kong said he had to toast his son Xiao Kong again, and after that, he had to toast the rest of the Kong family members. In short, once you pick up the bowl, there's no end to it.

  For the first time in his life, Cha Wenbin was treated as a distinguished guest and ended up being carried to the back room by the enthusiastic crowd after dinner. Cha Wenbin had passed out from drinking, but someone else was still wide awake. Who? Our fat grandpa!

  This guy is still up to no good, he had a few drinks and took advantage of the alcohol to pull Ye Qiu outside, mysteriously wanting to discuss some plan with him.

  What's the plan? Fatso is a clever guy, he knows it's hard to persuade Ye Qiu to do something easily. But Ye Qiu is still a simple person after all. Fatso has been in the Jianghu for many years and knows where Ye Qiu's weakness lies. So he deliberately said: "Old Second, let me tell you something. You don't know how to make money, and Zhaoye likes to be frugal, even when people give him money, he won't accept it. But the three of us are always together, eating, drinking, and having fun, what expenses do we need?"

  Ye Qiu looked at Fatso and thought it was strange, why are you telling me these things? What does it have to do with me? It seemed that in his eyes, money was something that really didn't matter, because Fatso had never seen Ye Qiu carry any money on him either.

  "Let me do the math for you, you don't know how expensive it is to live without a steady income. The three of us need to spend money on food every day, right? And those weird things that Old Zhang is always tinkering with require money to buy materials, don't they? You know, just your last hospital stay cost this much." Fatso waved one hand and said: "You know how much this is? Ah, forget it, I've told you before but you don't understand. What I mean is we can't just sit around and do nothing, my savings are all from when I went to the south with Xiao Yi to make money, and they won't last long at this rate. You can't expect me and Old Zhang to go to the construction site tomorrow and start carrying bricks like Kong Lao Da, can you?"

  Ye Qiu seemed to understand what he said, but his answer was so straightforward: "Oh, I know, but I don't have any money..."

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