Deserted Village Apartments

Chapter 5 The Second Day

Sure enough, at midnight the next day, my e-mail received a reply from the other party——

Hello there:

I said you don't have to reply.But since you acknowledged the existence of the well, why was it omitted from the novel?
As for how exactly I came to know about that well, sorry I can't answer that question for you.

With all due respect, after reading your "Desolate Village", I have a feeling - if you didn't deliberately hide something, then you never went to a deserted village at all.Because there are so many mistakes in your novel, when I remember, I will point them out to you one by one, if I don't, then you are lucky.

Tell me, have you ever been to a deserted village?

This time the ending is not signed, looking at the aggressive text in this email, I really can't imagine what the other party will look like?
After hesitating for a moment, I replied——

Hello there:

who are you?
I think our current communication is like two children playing hide-and-seek in a big house. Both of them believe that the other cannot guess where they are hiding, but they can guess exactly where the other is hiding.

Again, "Desolate Village" is just a novel of more than 2 words.

What is a novel?I think novels are dreams, and all novels are the novelist's dreams.Regardless of whether it is a dream or a nightmare, no matter how real the dream seems, there is always a distance between dreams and our lives, so we like dreams and novels.

Well, believe it or not, I have actually been to deserted villages.

However, the barren village in the novel and the barren village in reality are two completely different worlds, otherwise it would not be called a novel.

Finally, I have a small request, can I leave your signature?

After the reply was sent, I turned off the computer and sat in a chair thinking for a long time.Ever since "Desolate Village" was published in "Sprout", my mind has been in a mess.Strange, I can't remember now, what was in my mind when I decided to write this novel a few months ago?

The memory seemed to be broken into pieces all of a sudden, and I couldn't put it together. I tried my best to search in my mind until that cold winter afternoon——

Yes, I remember that day when it was said that it was going to snow, I looked up at the sky, looking forward to the moment when the snowflakes would dance.All around me are noisy human voices, exuding a stale smell that has not been known for hundreds of years.By the way, I went to the second-hand book market that day. I stood on the aisle in the middle of the market, and there were old book stalls on both sides.Let me tell you, I have always liked collecting, especially thread-bound old books. It is not a collection investment, but a pure love of antiquities. At best, it can be regarded as "rescuing cultural heritage".The snow did not fall for a long time, so I lowered my head and walked to both sides, and stopped in front of a booth selling clear-edition thread-bound books.

In a thick stack of thread-bound books, I found an old book called "The Ghost of the Ancient Mirror". The title of the book was so strange that it immediately attracted me to open its title page.The author's signature is "Desolate Village Madman". It was printed by Hangzhou Gushan Bookstore in the 43rd year of Qianlong's reign. There are several collection seals on the inside pages of the book. Except for some yellow pages, there is no sign of damage or insects. The cover and back cover It is also relatively complete. It has been more than 43 years since the 200rd year of Qianlong's reign. It should be good that this book can be preserved like this.

But the stall owner's asking price was too high. He really regarded the book as an antique. In fact, even if it was auctioned, it would only be a few hundred yuan.But this book is really good, not only because it is well preserved, but more importantly because of the text inside, I just had a special feeling after turning over a few pages.Just as I was hesitating over this book, suddenly a wet thing fell into the palm of my hand and slowly melted into water——

It's Snow Seeds!I looked up in surprise, and it was snowing in the sky.I couldn't hold back the excitement in my heart, and taking advantage of the sudden joy, I readily handed over the money to the stall owner.With this unexpected "Ghost in the Ancient Mirror", I hurried back home excitedly.

When I got home, the snow had stopped. Although I still feel a little distressed about RMB, at least I am the new owner of this thread-bound book.I waited patiently until night, and there was only a small orange light on in the room, the effect was like candles lit by the ancients.Finally, I respectfully opened this "Ancient Mirror Ghost Story".

It turns out that this is a notebook-style book, divided into dozens of small articles. I can't tell whether it is a novel or an essay. Most of the records are anecdotes and anecdotes in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.The name of the first note in the book is "The Story of the Ghost in the Ancient Mirror". It is about a woman in the Ming Dynasty who died unjustly, and the ghost remained in the ancient mirror.This story made me gasp, and what's more, there are illustrations of paintings - there is an ancient bronze mirror in a boudoir, and there is no one in front of the mirror, but a man who is combing his hair is reflected in the mirror. woman.

The straight version of classical Chinese looks very eye-catching, and it took me a long time to read this note.But I couldn't stop anymore. Under the dim light, I read one after another, completely immersed in the strange world woven by this "Desolate Village Maniac", until the last one of the notes - " Strange Tales of a Deserted Village".

This last story is very peculiar. It is about a Fujian scholar who went to Beijing to take an exam. In that winter, there was heavy snowfall in the mountainous area of ​​eastern Zhejiang, and the official road was covered by rare heavy snow. place.

At this time, the scholar was suffering from hunger and cold, so he broke into the largest house in the deserted village.The owner of the house is a middle-aged man in his forties who calls himself "the wild man in the deserted village".The host was unexpectedly friendly to the scholar, and arranged a sumptuous meal for him, as well as a large and comfortable room.

That night in the deserted village, there was heavy snow and sea waves. The scholar was discussing scriptures with his master in the old house, when suddenly a woman's shadow flashed outside the door.The scholar walked outside in surprise, but saw that there was no one there, so the scholar went back to his room to sleep.

In the middle of the night, the scholar was awakened by a strange sound.He followed the sound to the door of the next room, licked the broken window paper with his saliva, and found a beautiful woman in the room combing her hair.The young scholar was taken aback. He had never seen such a gorgeous beauty since he was a child.Unable to restrain himself, he quietly walked into the woman's boudoir.The woman was not surprised, but entertained the scholar for tea.Standing in front of the beauty, the scholar expressed his love for the beauty without realizing it, and said that he was not married yet.The beauty did not refuse, saying that she had just overheard the conversation between the scholar and the master, and felt that the scholar was quite capable of helping the world, and secretly admired him.The scholar was overjoyed, and the beauty slept for him that night.

The scholar wakes up the next day, only to find that the beauty has long since disappeared, and even the owner of the mansion has disappeared.At this time, the heavy snow had stopped, and the scholar had no choice but to leave the deserted village.

When the scholar walked to Xilang Town, dozens of miles away from the barren village, he stopped for a moment in front of an unfrozen pond.Suddenly, the scholar yelled, it turned out that he saw his own reflection reflected in the pool water, it looked very frightening, that face was bloodless, like a zombie.The scholar was frightened out of his wits, and found that there was a small wound on his neck, as if he had been bitten by a bat.He hurriedly cut his skin with a knife, but no blood flowed out—it turned out that his blood had been sucked up.After the scholar realized it, he collapsed to the ground and died immediately.

Afterwards, people in Xileng Town passed by the pond and found a young man who looked like a scholar lying on the side of the road, and he had become a zombie.

This story ends here, and there is another illustration on the last page, which shows the young scholar lying on the bed with a small wound on his neck, and the extremely beautiful woman is sitting next to him, with the corner of her mouth It seemed to still have blood on it.

Suddenly, I felt that the last page seemed to be colored, and the bright red blood on the corner of her mouth seemed to flow out of the book.I hastily closed the book, and my back felt cold for a while.

It was already early in the morning, and I finally finished reading this wonderful book called "The Ghost of the Ancient Mirror". The author of this book, "The Madman in the Deserted Village", finally appeared in the story of "Strange Talks in the Deserted Village", and he is the owner of the scary mansion.

I don't know if the story in this note is true or not, and I don't know who this "crazy man in a deserted village" is. As far as his writing is concerned, I think it is not inferior to Pu Songling's "Strange Tales from a Liaozhai Studio".Apparently, this "crazy man from a deserted village" came from a deserted village, so does a deserted village really exist?
At that moment, I was determined to find the deserted village.

Now, this "Ghost in the Ancient Mirror" is still lying in my drawer, I dare not read it again, I just hope to slowly forget it.Thinking about it so far, if I hadn’t gone to the second-hand book market that day, if I hadn’t found this ghostly note of “Desolate Village Madman”, then these incredible things would have happened later, and would the fate of so many people have been changed?

Perhaps, life is created by countless "probability".

(End of this chapter)