The soul-calling flag is the symbol of the ferryman.
Just like the gentlemen in the old society who had to be surrounded by people and show off when they went out, this soul-calling flag is the ferryman's show.
Seeing the soul-calling flag is like seeing the ferryman.
Everyone has three disasters and five difficulties, and corpses, ghosts and monsters are no exception. When people are in trouble, they naturally ask for help from their relatives and friends, but when those things are in trouble, only the ferryman is stubborn and dares to take them into the Yinren Inn.
It is said that some old demons and ghosts who know the business have to come forward and bow three times after seeing this soul-calling flag, as a courtesy, to make themselves familiar with it. Some flatterers even pick some old medicinal herbs and wild fruits from the mountains and offer them with both hands, hoping that when they are in trouble in the future, the ferryman can lend a hand in time.
At present, this soul-calling flag is standing here, which is a silent provocation to us.
I really can't figure out where this old guy got the confidence from? Not long ago, he was suppressed by my master and couldn't raise his head. How come he is so confident in the blink of an eye?
"Jingzhe, follow me, let's go in in the dark and beat him, and then dig a pit and bury him!"
Maybe it was because my master was here to support him, Lao Bai was full of courage, saying that the ferryman came to my door, he must be asking for my debt, thinking about our things of the ritual officer, he wanted to avenge me, and pulled me towards the wooden house without saying anything.
I was caught off guard by his sudden courage, and I wanted to say that there was something strange in this matter. The tuberculosis corpse brought us here, but it ran away by itself. This was obviously a trap, and maybe people had been prepared for it. I hurriedly looked back at my master, but saw that he stood with his hands behind his back and nodded silently at me. I felt more at ease, thinking that he should want us to take the lead and find out what happened. With him supporting me, I felt much more at ease.
The sharp mountain wind poured into the small broken house, and there were bursts of sounds like the wailing of evil spirits in the house, which was very shrill.
The house was already very broken, and there were many damaged places on the wooden boards around it. After Lao Bai and I found it close, we squatted down along the window sill and looked inside through a gap two fingers wide.
The wooden house was empty and quite dilapidated. There was a lot of garbage, and even excrement in the corners. I don't know which wicked ghost came here to relieve himself. There was a foul smell. There was a shrine in the middle, and on it stood a statue about 30 to 40 centimeters high. It was a man wearing animal skin and with horns, holding a fork in one hand and a knife in the other, with a bow and arrow on his back.
That was the mountain god, and the hunters in the mountains used to worship him.
Below the mountain god, a man was sleeping on the ground with his back to us. He was wearing a thick cotton jacket in such weather, and looked very bloated.
I could tell at a glance that the sleeping man was the ferryman!
Really sleeping?
I looked around for a long time, but I didn't see any special arrangement in the house.
Lao Bai was overjoyed and whispered to me that the tuberculosis corpse we chased like a rabbit running all over the mountain must have run here subconsciously, but forgot to notify the old thing and sold the old guy alive.
I glanced at him sideways, thinking, you old man, how did such a stupid judgment come out of your head?
Lao Bai didn't care about that. He quietly touched the door, picked up a thin wooden stick from the ground, inserted it into the crack of the door, and scratched it up and down. Soon, there was a "clang" sound from the inside of the door. It should be that the bolt was lifted. I was shocked. I stared at the ferryman for a long time. Seeing that he didn't move, I was relieved.
Creak!
Lao Bai secretly pushed the door open and waved and winked at me.
"You fucking bastard, you let me sweep the mines in front again."
I cursed in a low voice, and finally got in through the crack of the door. There was no way. I knew Lao Bai's grandson too well. If I didn't go in first today, his feet would be so angry that he couldn't move at all.
The ferryman was still sleeping, sleeping quite sweetly, turning a deaf ear to the wind, his body was slightly ups and downs, and his breathing was very even.
I tiptoed closer, stared down at the other person's deeply wrinkled black face, confirmed that this was the ferryman, and immediately raised the Heavenly Official Blade high, but hesitated when the time came.
I thought of Zhiniang, who asked me to find this old man. If I really beat him to death with a stick, what would happen to Zhiniang? Besides, although this old man had bad intentions, he was still kind to me. Without him, I might not have survived that night.
Maybe my master was right. I was indeed a bit soft-hearted and not decisive enough in killing.
While I was thinking about it, the old man in his sleep seemed to have noticed something. He smacked his lips a few times, opened his eyelids, and when the corner of his eye glanced at me, a gleam of light flashed in his eyes.
However, this light was cold in my eyes, and the surrounding environment felt full of murderous intent. When the other party got up, his hand trembled, and the Heavenly Official Blade fell immediately.
"Bang!"
This stick hit the ferryman's forehead firmly, knocking me back and forth, rolling my eyes, and almost fainting.
"Old thing, do you still recognize me?"
Lao Bai shouted and rushed over, his movements were quite fast, I only felt a black shadow flashing in front of me, and the ferryman was pressed under his buttocks. The poor old man was in his seventies and looked dry. Lao Bai was such a fat and plump man, he jumped three feet high and sat down, almost crushing him to death, leaving only his head exposed, "Ah ah" humming non-stop, rolling his eyes, and couldn't even say a complete sentence.
"What are you still standing there for? Go ahead, wait till the old guy turns over, and you'll have something to worry about."
Lao Bai shouted.
I was in a state of high tension, and when I heard him shouting, I subconsciously swung another stick at the ferryman's head. This time the old man couldn't bear it, his head tilted, and he stopped moving.
"Is he dead?"
My hands are still shaking, and I know how much force I used with these two sticks. Two big lumps have appeared on the ferryman's head, like horns, one on the left and one on the right, and they are particularly symmetrical.
"If he dares to die, I dare to bury him!"
Lao Bai snorted coldly, stood up and tried the ferryman's breath, and said unhappily: "The old man is really tough, he didn't die even like this."
As soon as he finished speaking, his head tilted, and a mouthful of sticky phlegm was spit on the ferryman's face, and I didn't have time to stop it.
"I say, are you avenging me?"
I spread my hands: "A gentleman can be killed but not humiliated, it's not worth it, you don't have any grudge against him, right?"
"You are right!"
Lao Bai said: "More than ten years ago, I met this old guy in southern Anhui. At that time, my buddy almost died on the roadside in order to get two treasures. As a result, I met this old guy. He sprinkled a bag of hemostatic powder on me and said that my life and death depended on my own luck. Then he took away the treasure I exchanged for my life, leaving me nothing, and said that it was his reward..."
At this time, my master and others just walked in.
When Lao Bai saw my master coming, he immediately went to instigate, wanting to dig a pit to bury the ferryman alive.
"Tie him up first!"
My master didn't agree. He looked at the ferryman deeply and said, "I just happened to have a few questions for him later. Let's keep him alive for now."
After that, he took out a few pills from his arms and stuffed them into Zhang Xinya's pockets, asking Zhang Xinya to feed them to the ferryman. As a result, Zhang Xinya walked up and saw that the ferryman's face was covered with sticky phlegm. She wanted to pinch his mouth open but there was no place to start. So she stuffed the pills into Lao Bai's pocket viciously, saying that whoever did the evil should deal with it himself.
Lao Bai's face was so depressed that it turned black. He looked back at my master and didn't feel like saying anything else. He could only do this thing that would only bring him back to his feet.
The old ferryman was very tough, even to the point that I was surprised. After taking a few pills, he woke up in a short while.
As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw Lao Bai and I standing in front of him, shaking his head and mumbling something, but his voice was hoarse and I couldn't hear a word clearly.
"No one will kill you without knowing the truth."
My master sat opposite the old ferryman, waved to Lao Bai and me to move aside, and said lightly: "Calm down first, I have a few words to ask you."
The old ferryman calmed down and swallowed hard, but I saw that his mouth was very dry, without a single spit, so I took the remaining mineral water from Brother Yaozi in the afternoon and handed it to him.
The old ferryman drank some water tremblingly, and his condition improved a lot.
Who would have thought that the ferryman who was so glorious in the past would now say the first thing he said when he opened his mouth: "Is there anything to eat? Give me something to eat..."