Siheyuan: tomb robbing? I am serious about hunting.

Chapter 1139: Pressure

The two adobe houses were built next to the old locust tree. Some of the thatch on the roof had turned yellow, and there were several cracks on the walls. Li Jianguo sighed, took out a cigarette from his pocket, lit it, and took a puff: "It's like this when I first came here. When I first came here last year, I also suffered from insomnia for several days." As he spoke, he handed the cigarette to Chen Jianjun, "Want to have a smoke?" Chen Jianjun waved his hand: "No, I don't smoke." Li Jianguo smiled, put the cigarette back, and continued smoking. He took a few puffs of his cigarette, then suddenly leaned close to Chen Jianjun's ear and lowered his voice: "Jianjun, don't open the window at night, and don't listen to the sounds under the locust tree." Chen Jianjun's heart skipped a beat. He remembered the "rustling" sound he heard at night, and hurriedly asked: "What's wrong? Is there something wrong under the locust tree?" Li Jianguo glanced at the sleeping Lin Xiaomei, and leaned closer to Chen Jianjun: "Last month, an educated youth didn't believe in evil. He heard a sound under the locust tree in the middle of the night, so he opened the window to see. As a result, he had a high fever the next day and kept talking nonsense. He said he saw a woman in a blue cloth shirt picking up hair under the locust tree. Later, the commune sent a doctor to see him, but he couldn't find anything wrong. In the end, his family came to take him away. I heard that he took more than a month to recover after he returned home." Chen Jianjun felt even more panicked. He remembered the "rustling" sound he heard under the locust tree at night, and the wet soil at the roots of the tree. Could there really be a woman in a blue cloth shirt under the locust tree? "Then...what's going on with that woman?" Chen Jianjun asked in a low voice, his voice trembling a little. Li Jianguo took a puff of his cigarette and frowned: "Who knows? People in the village say it's the ghost of Lao Zhou's wife. Lao Zhou's family used to live in this house. Three years ago, Lao Zhou's wife died of complications during childbirth, and even the baby was not saved. Lao Zhou couldn't bear the blow, and hanged himself on the locust tree that night. Since then, there has been unrest under the locust tree. People often hear strange noises, and some people have seen a woman in a blue cloth shirt wandering under the locust tree." Chen Jianjun felt cold all over when he heard this. He shrank into the quilt, his eyes involuntarily looking towards the back window. The moonlight outside the window was very bright, and through the hole in the hemp paper, a thin beam of light was cast on the ground. At this moment, there was a sudden "bang" sound outside the window, as if someone had hit the trunk of the locust tree with something heavy. The sound was so loud that it shook the window. Chen Jianjun and Li Jianguo were both startled. Li Jianguo quickly covered his mouth, signaling Chen Jianjun to be quiet. Then, the rustling footsteps began again, this time even closer to the window, as if they were right under it. Step by step, they slowly circled the house. The footsteps were light, yet distinct; with each step, one could hear the scrape of cloth shoes against the dirt. Chen Jianjun clenched the enamel pot in his hand. It was a gift from his mother, emblazoned with the words "Serve the People." Holding it now was the only way to soothe his fear. Cold sweat streamed down his spine, soaking the clothes he wore underneath. Moonlight filtered through the holes in the hemp paper, casting a long, thin shadow on the ground. The shadow was slanted at first, then slowly shifted with the footsteps. Suddenly, it wavered, then lifted itself upward, like a hand climbing up the window frame. Chen Jianjun's heart was about to jump out of his chest. He stared at the shadow closely, not daring to breathe. Li Jianguo was also frightened and his face turned pale. He quickly blew out the light, and the room suddenly fell into darkness. In the darkness, the "rustling" footsteps continued, walking around the house again and again. Chen Jianjun and Li Jianguo sat on the kang, motionless, until the daybreak, when the footsteps gradually disappeared. Chen Jianjun hardly slept that night. He stared at the dark window, his mind full of Li Jianguo's words and the shadow climbing up the window frame. He didn't know that his days in Guhuai Village had just begun, and more strange things were waiting for him. When the shadow of the man in the blue cloth shirt crowed for the first time, Chen Jianjun closed his eyes in a daze. The shadow that climbed up the window frame last night was like a thorn in his mind, and he couldn't get rid of it. He always felt that the "rustling" sound of footsteps was still ringing in his ears. When he closed his eyes, he saw the slender shadows swaying on the ground in the moonlight. He was so scared that he opened his eyes several times and stared at the dark roof in a daze. When he woke up again, it was already light outside the window. The voices of villagers and the "clang clang" sound of hoes hitting the ground came from the yard. Chen Jianjun rubbed his heavy temples, but he felt that his eyelids were too heavy to lift up, his eyes were full of red bloodshot, and his face was also tired and pale. He sat up and found that Li Jianguo had woken up a long time ago and was sitting on the kang smoking, with cigarette butts scattered all over the floor. His face looked uglier than him. "You didn't sleep well either?" Chen Jianjun asked. Li Jianguo nodded and put out his cigarette on the ground. "Who could sleep with all that noise last night? I listened to those footsteps circling the house for half the night, and it died down in the middle of the night." He glanced out the window and lowered his voice. "Hurry up and wash up, and then come with me to the village to get familiar with the surroundings. By the way, don't tell the villagers about what happened last night; they're superstitious about it." Chen Jianjun responded and quickly put on his clothes. He wore a blue cotton shirt his mother had made for him, slightly faded from washing, with a patch on the cuff. He folded the quilt and gathered the hay on the kang. Then he picked up the enamel pot beside it and went to the well in the yard to wash up. The well was in the corner of the yard. The platform was covered with moss, and the well rope was thick with grime, showing that it had been used for many years. Chen Jianjun cranked the well wheel and lowered the bucket into the well. The water was cold, and the freshly drawn water was lightly steaming. He scooped up a handful of water and splashed it on his face. The cold water instantly sobered him up, but the uneasiness in his heart did not diminish at all. After washing up, he was about to go back to the house when he saw several villagers gathered under the old locust tree. They all frowned, pointed at things on the ground, and sighed from time to time. Chen Jianjun's heart skipped a beat, and he remembered the strange things that happened last night, and hurried over. When he got closer, he could see the scene under the roots of the locust tree clearly. His heart suddenly rose to his throat, and the hair on his body stood up. There were a few strands of long black hair scattered on the mud. The hair was black and shiny. Unlike the dry hair of ordinary villagers, it had a smooth luster. Those long hairs were entangled in a few withered grasses, as if they were deliberately placed there. Next to the long hair, there was a broken coarse porcelain bowl lying on the ground, with the shards scattered all over the floor. One of the shards was stained with a dark red substance that had dried up and stuck hard to the porcelain surface, looking like dried blood. "What's going on?" sighed an old lady in patched clothes. Her hair had turned completely white and was wrapped in a blue cloth. She was leaning on a jujube wood cane with the head polished to a smooth shine. She poked the long hair on the ground lightly with her cane, her face full of worry, "It's been three years since the Zhou family incident, why hasn't it settled down yet? Is something going to happen again?" "Yes, it just calmed down a while ago, why are these things popping up again?" A middle-aged man carrying a hoe next to her took over,