I met the village head and Uncle Li and his wife at the gate of Lu Dayong's yard with Si Jiangchen.
They came specifically to find me.
The village head of Lu Village, naturally, also had the surname Lu. His name was Lu Erzhong, and his family had been prominent in the village since his grandfather's generation.
Even now, Lu Erzhong had been the village head for over twenty years, so his family was undoubtedly the most powerful in the village.
It was a pity that for some unknown reason, starting from Lu Erzhong's generation, the village head's family had seen a decline in population. Lu Erzhong's elder brother had no descendants, and he himself had only an only daughter, who was just twenty years old this year.
Originally, Lu Erzhong planned to buy an apartment in Beijing and help his daughter settle there.
However, something happened to his daughter right after her twentieth birthday at the beginning of summer.
Summer began in the fifth lunar month in China. Although Lu Village was in a mountainous area, there were still about a hundred mu of wheat fields that yielded some harvest.
As the village head, Lu Erzhong didn't rely on the harvest from the fields for a living. So, out of self - sacrifice, he took a few mu of poor - quality land on the slope of Miaofeng Mountain.
After the wheat harvest, his daughter Lu Xiaojuan went to watch over the threshing ground in the fields and didn't return home even after the sun had set.
Although Miaofeng Mountain wasn't very high, it was extremely steep. There were many deep mountains and dense forests that even the local villagers had never ventured into.
Lu Erzhong and his wife were panicked. They took their yellow dog and went up the mountain to look for her.
At the edge of the field, Lu Xiaojuan's phone was neatly placed on a stool, but there was no sign of her.
The Lu family's yellow dog traced the scent all the way and led the couple deeper into the mountain.
After passing a mountain col, they reached the old cemetery of Lu Village.
Generations of ancestors from the village were buried here.
The overlapping tombs covered an area of about six or seven square miles. Several tall poplar trees stood upright under the setting sun. The huge white - eyed knots on the tree trunks seemed to stare coldly at the panicked Lu Erzhong and his wife.
Lu Erzhong's wife was scared. She started scolding their yellow dog and said to her husband, "Xiaojuan is a timid girl. She wouldn't even dare to go far when coming to pay respects to the ancestors during festivals.
How could she possibly come to such a place by herself?!"
Unexpectedly, just as she finished speaking, they heard strange giggles coming from one of the old tombs.
Lu Erzhong's wife was so frightened that she collapsed on the ground. It was their yellow dog that ran towards the sound and barked wildly at an old solitary tomb.
Lu Erzhong summoned his courage and followed with the sickle he used for harvesting wheat.
Behind the nearly one - meter - high earthen mound, a large hole had somehow collapsed, revealing a coffin that had rotted to a dark brown color. The top board on one side of the coffin's head had rotted through, and that eerie laughter was coming from inside.
Lu Erzhong gathered his nerve, cursed loudly, and kicked the coffin board to pieces. Inside the coffin was a naked woman.
Despite such a commotion, the woman seemed completely unaware. She still stuffed the already decayed and fragmented burial clothes into her mouth.
Lu Erzhong almost turned around and ran away. Fortunately, the yellow dog wagged its tail desperately, barked, and dragged the woman out by her hair.
At this time, Lu Erzhong's wife got up from the ground. As a woman, she was more observant. She immediately recognized that the woman the yellow dog had dragged out of the tomb was her daughter Lu Xiaojuan, whom they had been searching for.
This made the couple even more terrified!
If they had encountered a ghost, they could have just run away.
But now it was their own daughter, obviously possessed by a ghost and her body was being harmed!!
Lu Erzhong didn't dare to make a fuss. He told his wife to go home and get some clothes to cover their daughter's shame, then carried his daughter down the mountain quietly.
Fortunately, it was already dinner time, and no one on the village street saw them.
Lu Xiaojuan was brought home without any mishap.
However, from that day on, Lu Xiaojuan started to go crazy... She didn't recognize her parents at all. Every day, she either wanted to go out to find her man or strip herself naked and lie in the courtyard to bask in the sun.
Lu Erzhong was extremely worried.
Lu Xiaojuan was already engaged. Her future in - laws were fellow villagers who ran a mountain - specialty store in Beijing. They originally planned to hold the wedding after Xiaojuan went to the city in the second half of the year.
Who would have thought that in May, such a thing would happen to Lu Xiaojuan!
If word got out that his daughter had been molested by a ghost, it would be embarrassing for their family, but the more important thing was that his daughter's whole life would be ruined. I'm afraid no one would dare to arrange a marriage for her in the future!!
Therefore, Lu Erzhong had no choice but to tie Lu Xiaojuan up in the room and tell people outside that his daughter had gone to the city to travel with her classmates.
He secretly searched everywhere for powerful mages to exorcise the ghost and cure Lu Xiaojuan.
Unexpectedly, after consulting three or four so - called powerful witches and sorcerers and spending tens of thousands of yuan, Lu Xiaojuan's condition got worse.
Previously, although Lu Xiaojuan didn't recognize people, she still ate something. But now, she had developed a murderous intent towards Lu Erzhong and his wife.
When Lu Erzhong's wife was feeding her daughter, Lu Xiaojuan bit her on the cheek and tore off a piece of flesh.
Lu Erzhong was no better. One night, Lu Xiaojuan rubbed the ropes loose and picked up the kitchen knife at home. She almost chopped off his head. If he hadn't woken up instantly and dodged, he would have been a decapitated ghost under his daughter's knife!
After that, the couple didn't dare to leave their daughter's side for a moment.
They didn't dare to mention looking for a mage anymore.
Today, Uncle Li and Aunt Li returned to the village from the Wei family's villa. By chance, they mentioned that Wei Yuan had invited me, a rather capable mage, to exorcise the resentful ghost from his body. Lu Erzhong then had the idea of inviting me. He asked Uncle Li and his wife to take him to find me.
However, they never expected that Si Jiangchen and I would crawl out of the abandoned kiln of Lu Dayong.
The zombie Lu Dayong was a decades - long secret of Lu Village.
Lu Dayong could dig treasures for them!!
The villagers of Lu Village didn't have to leave their hometown and go to big cities to work like the villagers in other remote mountain villages.
They could live a prosperous life just by relying on Lu Dayong!
When Lu Dayong was alive, he was a tomb raider.
After being poisoned by the corpse toxin due to betrayal from his accomplice, he crawled out of the tomb and ate some chickens and ducks. Then he somehow gained self - awareness. He actively found the then - village head, Lu Erzhong's father, and asked the villagers to deceive outsiders into the village for him to eat. In return, he would continue to search for "rich tombs" in the mountains, take out the treasures, sell them in the ghost market, and distribute the profits as welfare to the villagers of Lu Village.
This "mutually beneficial" relationship between Lu Dayong and Lu Village had lasted for two generations. Lu Erzhong was afraid that we would discover where Lu Dayong was hiding.
But on the other hand, he wanted to give it a try and asked me to take a look at Lu Xiaojuan's ghost - related illness.
After weighing the two options, Lu Erzhong decided to invite Si Jiangchen and me to his home first.
If I could cure Lu Xiaojuan's illness, he might spare our lives. If not, the cliff on the shady side of Miaofeng Mountain would be our final destination!
Lu Erzhong had already... harbored murderous intent!