Watching the light, Zhang Wei may have been affected by my frightened look, and felt guilty.
Neither of us spoke, we just sat there with our eyes wide open.
The old clock in the room had the hour hand just pointing to three. I thought it would be almost dawn now, but I didn't expect it was still midnight.
Perhaps to dispel the remaining fear in my heart, I told Zhang Wei everything I had seen before.
Including seeing Ye Xu and others covering their eyes with wreaths at the cemetery a long time ago, and the old woman selling meat.
"San Man, you said before that there was an old woman selling meat in the middle of the night. Are you stupid? There is no one walking around in the village in the middle of the night. There can be an old woman selling meat in Fengyang Mountain. Don't mean to scare me!
"
Looking at Zhang Wei's pale face, I knew that he believed my words in his heart, but he was just being tough, or more likely, he didn't want to face it.
After all, that horrible piece of meat was just a hair away from entering his mouth.
"It's so late at night that I'd be stupid to scare you."
I recovered a little, said nothing, and went into the house to prepare a place to rest for a while. After a hard time just now, my legs felt as heavy as lead.
Zhang Wei called me outside, "Sanman, I suddenly feel like peeing. Why don't you stand at the door and wait for me!"
Fortunately, this guy can speak out. He is a big boy and he asked me to accompany a girl to the toilet. It seems that he is really guilty.
I replied impatiently, "Wait, I'll fix the quilt."
After laying the kang, I put on my shoes and went to the ground, and stretched out the light rope in the yard.
The courtyard became brighter, and Zhang Weicai held up his trousers and jogged towards the northwest corner of the courtyard.
In rural areas, toilets are always in the northwest corner of the courtyard.
Not as particular as the tap water toilets in the city.
Simply build a small hut, a simple bathroom with walls on three sides and a door on one side, and there is a deep pit inside.
Zhang Wei, who rushed in, didn't mind the odor and continued to yell, "Sanman, we're brothers, just stand at the door and watch me! You can't leave!"
I hummed meaningfully to tell him that I was still there.
Just when I thought I would hear the sound of heavy rain watering the fields, I heard a sound from the side of the open door.
How to describe it? It was a very ethereal sound. I turned around and saw a group of dark figures, not very concrete.
But you can see the head, body, hands and feet, sneaking in from outside the door and peering inside.
"Do you have any shoes? Do you have any old shoes at home..."
I couldn't see the face at all, let alone the facial features. The figure seemed to have no opening and closing of its mouth, and a hoarse, low voice came out of its body and asked directly to where I was standing.
Zhang Wei, such a heartless person, actually talked to me at this time and asked in the latrine, "What, why do you need old shoes in the middle of the night?"
"Someone stepped on my house. It was an old shoe. Do you have any..."
The human-shaped black shadow had already stretched most of its body into the door. I have no doubt that if a normal person had reached this weird angle, he would have fallen face-first into the door.
But the black shadow still maintained that weird angle. The fear that had just dissipated in me suddenly came back, and I felt that this matter was not over yet tonight!
While I was staring at that thing nervously, Zhang Wei had already come out of the hut, and didn't even notice the strange black figure beside the door, arranging his clothes and wandering towards me.
"It's comfortable. I'm feeling relaxed all over. Sanman, you just said you don't have shoes. What are you going to do?"
I was so frightened and frightened that my tongue was no longer in control and I couldn't even open my mouth to speak. I pointed hard towards the door with my hands, hoping that Zhang Wei would understand what I meant.
Although my side was cramping violently, Zhang Wei still didn't feel it. He even touched the back of his neck and said, "Sanman, it's quite cold at night. Why do I feel cold air on the back of my neck?"
Dad, can you stop feeling cold? The black shadow at the door is almost two meters long and is stretching in. It's not far behind you. You should walk a few steps faster and stop wandering like a foreigner!
Maybe it was because my expression was really weird, but Zhang Wei was also alert, looked in the direction of my gaze, and ran away with a squeak.
He knocked me into the door while I was standing at the door, and both of us fell to the floor of the main room.
We both faced the door. The black shadow had appeared at the door, but did not enter the door. It was just floating like that.
The lower body cannot be seen. From the overall feeling, the lower body should still be outside the courtyard door.
He didn't move too far forward. Instead, he avoided the area illuminated by the light and huddled in front of the dividing line between darkness and light and shadow. I couldn't see his facial features clearly, so I could clearly feel it...
He is laughing.
Still smiling proudly.
"I found it...it's this one, and it still smells like me!"
The black shadow's arm-like thing pointed directly at the shoes on Zhang Wei's feet, and there was a hint of joy in his voice.
"What the hell is this! Get out of here, don't come near me..."
Zhang Wei was so frightened that he lost his soul. I was also stiff, and suddenly I wanted to understand what the person in front of me was.
This is what our rural dialect means: having no face. It is said that after the soul dies, its facial features will become blurred as time goes by.
Anyone who encounters these while walking at night will yell, "Go away, you shameless thing. You will die wherever you come from."
They will also comb the hair in front of their forehead desperately towards the back of their head. Old people say that hair belongs to fire and there is a lamp on the forehead. Doing this will make the Yang energy in the body more vigorous and scare away ghosts.
I don't know where I got the strength, so I struggled to stand up, worked hard to move my tongue, and roared with all my strength.
The dark figure standing outside the door actually took a few steps back. It seemed that this trick was really effective.
Even so, the black shadow still had no intention of leaving, and still said, "It's that shoe, it's that shoe..."
Zhang Wei was so frightened that he was on the ground. Not to mention his shoes at this time, he would give him his pants as well as his life. He just pulled off his shoes and threw them out.
I was nearby and didn't even try to stop him.
"Get out of here, I'm too shameless to get out of here, I'll fight you if I'm struggling with you!"
Maybe I was anxious, but my mouth worked so well that I roared out without using my tongue.
To my own ears, it's quite impressive.
A howling wind swept through the courtyard, making us unable to open our eyes. We tried to block our faces with our hands. The door panel of the main room creaked and banged against the wall.
When the wind stopped and there was no longer the weird sound of shouting old shoes around, we carefully put down the arms covering our faces and looked out into the yard.
The strange black shadow disappeared, and the shoe Zhang Wei threw out also disappeared out of thin air.
It was as if nothing had happened. Only the area outside the courtyard gate that was not illuminated by light was still pitch black, like a beast's gaping maw facing the two of us.
After this shameless man looking for shoes came to my door and made a fuss, I didn't even think about lying down and taking a rest. I didn't even dare to stay in the main room.
He and Zhang Wei, who was barefoot, rushed into the back room in three steps and two steps. They sat on the kang with their backs against the wall to feel more at ease.
Looking back on this night's experience, I still can't believe it.
Before the age of eighteen, although I suffered from major illnesses and minor disasters, I had never seen such messy things.
It’s not even close to my birthday, why do I start seeing these!
Could it be that it was really because of my grandpa’s great wish that he could only guarantee that I would reach the age of eighteen? I felt very confused, and pictures were flashing through my mind, making me confused.
It wasn't until there was another sound of movement in the yard outside that I came back to my senses.