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墨書 Inktalez
On the Second Day of the Lunar New Year, the whole family gathered at Grandfather's house once again.
Regardless of how the adults felt, the children were overjoyed. Hu Ruoyun's brother, Xiao Hu, and sister, Xiao Feng, played happily with their uncle, Cousin from Second Aunt's family, and their cousin. Grandmother and Grandfather had brought out all the delicious treats they had prepared, allowing the kids to eat whatever they liked!
Aunt's younger brother had gotten married before the New Year and was accompanying his Sister-in-law to visit relatives on the second day. Naturally, Aunt's visit to her Maternal Family was also rescheduled to Junior Three. This year, there was no lingering discomfort about seeing Third Aunt.
To be honest, during the New Year visits, conversations among relatives were lively but rarely serious. Topics ranged from how the winter wheat was growing to when they would start watering the fields again, and how fertilizer prices had risen from nine to eleven yuan—just typical family chatter.
Speaking of watering the fields, Second Uncle-in-law Qi Hongwei shared a humorous story from his childhood about an incident that occurred one summer during the transition to autumn involving a childhood friend who encountered something strange.
Zhang Fen was a large cemetery for families with the surname Zhang located at the eastern edge of his village. It was said to date back to the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Due to its age, large graves were often surrounded by smaller ones, and even when digging new graves, they would sometimes unearth old ones! Because of its antiquity, many graves had no descendants left.
When he was young, there was no electricity in the village. At night, Zhang Fen became a vast expanse of eerie darkness. Uncle recalled that when he was in middle school and walked to school at night, he could still see flickering will-o'-the-wisps among the dirt graves. Legends about Zhang Fen were numerous.
Due to frequent power outages caused by insufficient electricity supply, villagers would take advantage of any electricity available during both day and night to water their fields. Regardless of the time, whoever finished watering would go knock on doors to notify the next household.
One night around two o'clock, Uncle's childhood friend Zhang Shengli finished watering his fields. As his parents packed up shovels and hoses, Zhang Shengli was tasked with notifying their neighbor Old Man Han that it was their turn to water. However, getting to Old Man Han's house required passing through Zhang Fen!
Riding his bicycle in the dark, Zhang Shengli felt terrified already. Just as he reached Zhang Fen, his bike suddenly became immobile; it felt as if something was pulling him back with great force! Terrified, he didn’t dare look back. He abandoned his bicycle and ran towards the village while shouting for Old Man Han to come water the fields. He covered his head with a blanket and slept until dawn before daring to retrieve his bike left by Zhang Fen.
When he finally got there, he couldn’t help but laugh at himself for being so scared; it turned out that a fertilizer bag had gotten tightly caught in his rear wheel.
As casual conversation flowed, Second Uncle-in-law shared this amusing story about his childhood friend. Once he opened up about it, it seemed impossible to stop; after taking a sip of Large Leaf Tea, he began recounting more legends about Zhang Fen.
In his youth, not only were there no televisions but radios were also scarce. The cultural and entertainment life of rural people was extremely limited. Whenever word spread that there would be a performance or storytelling in a nearby village, people from villages ten miles around would flock to see it. There was a tale about someone from their village who went to another village to watch "lantern opera" (which referred to nighttime performances). Because he had dinner late, everyone else had already left in groups by the time he set off alone.
With no moon in the sky and hurrying along for what felt like ages, he could faintly hear drums and gongs from the stage ahead and see a glow in the dark that seemed like stage lights. He quickened his pace but after walking for what felt like an eternity, the sounds remained ahead while the distance to the light seemed unchanged… At that moment, he began to panic: could it be that he was caught in a "ghost wall"? The more frightened he became, the more uneven and treacherous the path beneath him felt.
After walking for quite some time longer with still only sounds and lights ahead—yet remaining just as elusive—he found himself increasingly anxious…
At that moment, the person was terrified to the core, feeling as if his feet were weighed down with lead, unable to move.
Eventually, he simply rolled over and lay on the ground, falling asleep: it was what it was; let things be as they may!
As the rooster crowed and dawn broke, he suddenly woke up to find himself lying in the middle of Zhang Fen's graveyard, having spent the night there! Around one of the new graves were his footprints.
—He hadn’t even left the village that night; he had just been circling around this new grave.
When we were kids, if a child was being unruly and wouldn’t stop crying, their mother or grandmother would say: "If you cry again, I’ll throw you into Zhang Fen!" The child would immediately quiet down.
Third Aunt’s husband became animated and took over the conversation:
According to the elders, there is a Black Dog Spirit at the East End of our village that comes out at night to scare people. For a while, as soon as dusk fell, no one dared to pass through the East End.
There was a man in the village named Er Dadan who never believed in ghosts or respected gods.
That autumn during harvest time, when farm work was extremely busy, one day before dawn, Er Dadan took his ox and plow to work. As he reached the East End of the village, he suddenly heard barking behind him, as if a rabid dog was about to catch up.
The ox he was leading seemed frightened too, mooing and refusing to move forward, tugging at its reins wildly. Even more alarming was that the plow on his shoulder sounded as if something were banging against its blade, clanging loudly!
As the barking grew closer and seemed almost beside him, Er Dadan suddenly dropped his plow and grabbed his Cowhide Whip from his back, swinging it fiercely behind him!
With a loud crack, the boisterous barking turned into a pitiful wail.
Then everything fell silent before dawn. From that point on, there were no more disturbances from the Black Dog Spirit at the East End.
Later on, after an unknown amount of time had passed, a woman in the village suddenly went mad: she began barking like a dog with an eerily realistic sound. Even more astonishingly, she could leap over half-height earthen walls and climb onto roofs made of mud bricks. She could even jump from one house to another as if walking on flat ground.
The old villagers said that she was possessed by the Black Dog Spirit. Aside from her physical form, everything else about her resembled the behavior of a fierce dog.
Her family tried to communicate with her, but all they received in return were menacing barks.
One of her aunts, unable to bear it any longer, approached her and said, "I know you were once the 'Immortal' of Village East End. Please, spare my nephew's wife!"
The woman possessed by the Black Dog Spirit seemed to find a sense of existence in this moment, letting out a cold laugh without responding.
Her aunt continued, "Everyone here knows how powerful you are; no one can challenge you! Let my nephew's wife offer you the proper respect..."
Hearing this, the possessed woman became smug. "For so many years, whether it's the land deity or the City God, no one has ever intimidated me here!" Her voice was sharp and thin, completely unlike the woman's usual tone. Then she casually added, "Heaven doesn't care, Earth doesn't care, but I fear only Er Dadan in this village..."
Her aunt listened intently and quietly sent her nephew to call for Er Dadan.
The woman possessed by the Black Dog Spirit sat there in a dog-like posture, gesturing wildly while frothing at the mouth and babbling incoherently. Suddenly, the crowd parted to reveal Er Dadan, casually holding a cigarette and wielding a Cowhide Whip as he walked in!
Panic erupted as someone let out a terrified scream, and a dark shadow dashed away. The possessed woman then slumped down as if completely drained of energy.
The elder declared that the Black Dog Spirit had "left."
Just then, Grandma interrupted Uncle's chatter about ghosts and spirits during the New Year festivities. She began clearing the table to prepare for the feast.
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