After the village chief finished speaking, he seemed to have remembered something sad, and his face was full of sadness.
Twenty-nine lives are indeed quite sad to hear.
But to say sad...that would be a bit far-fetched.
At least this kind of emotion shouldn't appear on the village chief.
After all, they are neither relatives nor friends.
Of course, if there happened to be relatives and friends of the village chief in the troupe, that would be a different matter.
Shen Qiqi thought for a while and asked, "Does the village chief know the people in that theater troupe?"
"More than just acquaintances! Most of the people in the entire troupe were raised by people in our village. It is not an exaggeration to say that they are our relatives!"
Shen Qiqi's words seemed to trigger a certain switch on the village chief's part. He became excited, his head and face turned red, and there were faint veins appearing on his neck.
But soon he slumped his shoulders again, and said sadly: "We were the ones who saved them, but we were also the ones who killed them in the end... If we had known this would happen, we shouldn't have set up a theater at the beginning... It’s all my fault!”
The village chief let out a long sigh and stamped his feet, looking regretful.
In the end, he hugged his head and squatted on the ground, sobbing.
A man in his forties would cry whenever he wanted, and he would shed tears all over his nose, which shocked Shen Qiqi - she could fight, she could catch ghosts and monsters, but this was not advisable. Cry...she really can't do it!
Shen Qiqi was so distressed that she didn't know what to do. She saw a few women chatting not far in front, pushing each other towards them. Then she secretly looked at Shen Qiqi and saw that she didn't show any impatience. , then I became bolder.
A fair-skinned woman said: "Xiangu, don't mind, our village chief just blames himself too much."
"Actually, our village chief isn't to blame for this at all. If we're to blame, it's that damn Wang Dachui!"
"That's right, it's all the fault of that evil-hearted Wang Dachui. If he hadn't poisoned him, nothing would have happened to Brother Xi and the others..."
Shen Qiqi didn't even need to ask, the women started talking to each other one by one.
Shen Qiqi also quickly sorted out the whole story from their words.
On a rainy day eight years ago, a troupe passed by the Prince Consort Village and stayed overnight. It had rained for several days in a row before, and the rain suddenly intensified that night, causing a flash flood. Originally, the troupe's People can completely escape the disaster, but in order to help the villagers move and rescue their belongings, the entire troupe consisted of 29 people, and in the end only 13 people survived.
Among the thirteen people who survived, two of them were old people with inflexible legs and feet, and the remaining eleven were still children in the learning stage.
It can be said that the entire troupe was destroyed in the flood.
On the other hand, for the villagers in this village, because they had the pillars in the troupe supporting them, the casualties were minimal.
After the flood receded, in order to repay the kindness of the troupe, the villagers spontaneously took on the responsibility of feeding the old and weak in the troupe.
And the old and weak in the troupe do not eat the villagers' food for free. In addition to the essential practice time every day, they will also spontaneously help the villagers with work during the rest of the time.
It has been more than five years since the two sides were helped by you.
By the sixth year, the children in the troupe finally grew up and learned enough to go on stage and sing.
The Lantern Festival two years ago was supposed to be the first time their troupe went on stage to sing after resuming operations.
In order to sing the opening scene well, the whole troupe worked hard from top to bottom.
This is their first scene after returning to work, and they have been looking forward to it for several years.
Unfortunately, they failed to wait for the opportunity to go on stage: twenty-nine lives of the entire troupe were lost in the pot of soup and rice the night before going on stage.
...years of wish finally came true.
After several women finished speaking, their eyes were red with sadness, and they raised their sleeves to wipe away tears.
On the contrary, the village chief, who had already cried loudly, calmed down after his emotions were vented, and continued talking.
"Not long after the theater troupe's accident, the village began to be haunted. First, someone found that their dirty clothes soaked in a tub the night before were washed and hung on the clothesline the next day, and then in the yard The wooden piles inside were chopped into firewood, the water tanks were filled, and the weeds in the fields were pulled out..."
The village chief wiped away tears again as he spoke.
Shen Qiqi couldn't help but feel her nose was a little sore.
Cleaned dirty clothes, chopped firewood, water in the water tank... Even if you become a ghost, you are still subconsciously repeating the things you did in your lifetime.
The village chief even swallowed: "Actually, we all know that those children who came quietly to help us in the middle of the night were the children in the theater troupe, so at first, although we were afraid, we never thought about driving them away. Let’s go out of the village. After all, they didn’t hurt us, but they secretly helped us, right?”
Shen Qiqi said in her heart that she might not.
How can the living and the dead live together?
Some injuries are invisible to the eye.
Sure enough, I heard the village chief say: "But who knew that after just a few months, something happened again in the village. The crops in the fields withered for unknown reasons, and more and more people got sick in the village. As soon as the babies arrived, I kept crying at night... The old people said that this was because the children's yin energy was too strong and there was nothing we could do, so we asked for help from the outside... But our intention was not to hurt them!"
The women also said quickly: "Yes, yes, we won't hurt them!"
"We just want to ask Fairy Aunt to help give a message to those children and tell them that we accept your wishes, but... people and ghosts have different paths!"
"Do you think this is okay, fairy?"
After everyone finished speaking, they all looked at Shen Qiqi eagerly.
The latter shook his head.
"Can't."
"..."
Before the village chief and others could show sadness on their faces, Shen Qiqi explained: "Because they are like this now, we can't persuade them to leave. We can only use other methods. But don't worry, it's not a last resort. I promise It won’t hurt them.”
Shen Qiqi glanced at the sun that was only half overhead on the west side of the mountain, and said to the village chief: "While the sun hasn't completely set yet, go to the village to greet some people and ask them to take over the abandoned stage." Clean it up, put all the gongs and drums needed for opera, and then put in as many scarecrows as possible...you have to move quickly."
…
People in the world always like to say, "You're a liar."
That's because ghosts are really easy to trick.
This is the experience Shen Qiqi gained after hanging out with a group of ghosts for many years in her previous life.
But the village chief, who was among a group of scarecrows, didn't think so.
This is the first time in his life that he has seen so many ghosts gathered together!