The silent man threw down the cigarette in his hand, his temper flaring. “It’s because that woman was too stubborn, like a bull. I told her long ago to stay in the village and give me a son. I wouldn’t let her go hungry.”
“In the end, she tried to hack me to death with a knife in the middle of the night. If I hadn’t reacted quickly, I would have been the one killed.”
The smile on Tang Guo’s face disappeared. “Oh, so she was hacked to death by him.”
“Enough, enough, stop talking about it,” the old man said impatiently.
The old woman’s face suddenly changed. “Old man, Yongzi, do you think the female ghost causing trouble in the village could be Ji Yufei?”
Ji Yufei was the original owner’s friend.
Tang Guo had not expected Ji Yufei’s ending to be so tragic.
Back then, the original owner had not been able to enter the village, so she did not know Ji Yufei’s fate. Even until Fang Yunchi destroyed her, she had known none of this.
“That… hard to say.” The old man stopped smoking. The three of them looked at one another and could not help recalling that night.
Ji Yufei had acted obedient for two days. They thought she had truly become compliant. Unexpectedly, that night she grabbed a kitchen knife and hacked at Yongzi.
Yongzi reacted quickly, but his arm was cut. He pushed Ji Yufei away and shouted, alerting the other two.
They rushed in and seized Ji Yufei. The cut on Yongzi’s arm hurt terribly. Seeing the kitchen knife on the ground, he did not think at all. He picked it up and hacked fiercely at Ji Yufei.
They clearly remembered that when Ji Yufei breathed her last, she was smiling. She said, “It’s good to die. It’s good to die. If I can’t escape, then dying is better.”
Only later, seeing the room full of blood, did they come to their senses.
It was raining outside. That very night they dragged her body out and buried it.
Now, thinking back and linking it to the recent deaths in the village, they felt uneasy.
“Didn’t the village send someone to invite a Taoist?” the old woman asked.
“Yes, Sanwazi has already gone. He travels outside often and has many connections. He should be back in a few days,” Yongzi replied.
The old woman hesitated. “How about tomorrow we go see Ji Yufei and burn some paper for her?”
Yongzi was somewhat impatient, but thinking of the men who had died unnatural deaths, he still nodded. “Fine. We’ll burn some tomorrow. When the Taoist comes, if it really is her, we won’t spare her.”
Soon, the three of them went back to their rooms to sleep.
Tang Guo sat on the rooftop of the village house. The little ghosts were still around her. She took out a soul replenishing pill. The little ghosts caught its scent and cautiously approached, wondering if it was for them.
“It’s for you. Quickly solidify your soul forms. I have something to ask you later.”
Hearing Tang Guo’s words, the little ghosts no longer held back and absorbed the pill.
Over half the night, their soul forms gradually solidified, and they were finally able to speak.
They looked at one another and then bowed to Tang Guo.
They had died in the village. There was a Buddha statue at the village entrance, and they could not leave. Their already unstable soul forms had become even more dispersed because of the statue.
Many like them had already turned into resentment that surrounded the village.
Because of that Buddha statue, the resentment could not do anything to the evil people in the village.
“Do you know Ji Yufei?” Tang Guo asked. “The girl those three were talking about just now, the one they hacked to death.”
The little ghosts nodded repeatedly and pointed toward the village entrance.
“She went out?” Tang Guo frowned.
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