Little Wei was still very weak, so after discussing it, we decided to leave two close companions to take care of him while the rest of us returned to Shanghai.
On the train back to Shanghai, Fatty and I slept on the upper and lower bunks. At that time, we were on a green train, and it was very shaky. In addition, the train was very noisy, so I couldn't sleep at night and lay in bed reading the ancient book with a flashlight.
After wandering around the Mosuo tribe, I became increasingly aware of the mysterious and unpredictable nature of this world. The creatures Fatty mentioned, like the water ape, and the peculiar business people like Old Hei and Zhu, who made a living by selling spirits and demons, really opened my eyes.
The "Water Ape" recorded in the "Mountain Wilderness Tales" turned out to be true, and I was even more curious about the other mysterious creatures recorded in the book.
The flashlight was dazzling, and combined with the majority of traditional characters in the book, it was hard for me to read.
Fatty on the upper bunk started snoring heavily after lying down for a few minutes. After reading for a while, my eyes became tired, so I closed the book and saw some strange things at the back of the book.
Upon a closer look, the back of the book was torn, but there were some words written on the edges, very small, and not on every page, mostly concentrated at the back.
I squinted and carefully examined it, and realized that what was written was more like symbols than words, some of which I recognized as the Buddhist swastika, but I didn't understand the other symbols. Maybe these were the annotations left by someone who had read the book before.
Since I couldn't understand it, I just closed my eyes to rest. I was probably tired because I fell into a deep sleep after a while.
In the middle of the night, I felt something rubbing against my face. Since I didn't want to open my eyes and was comfortable sleeping, I casually waved my hand, but after a while, I felt something rubbing against my face again, feeling itchy. I rubbed my eyes and sat up.
Opening my eyes, I was almost scared to death! I saw a terrifying old woman's head floating in front of me, her hair all white, with deeply wrinkled skin and green eyes filled with evil. And the scariest part was that this old woman didn't have a body, only a head floating in the air!
I wanted to shout as soon as I opened my mouth, but strangely, I couldn't make a sound when it reached my lips. The old woman was staring at me coldly, and as her mouth slowly opened, I could see many insects crawling out of it—centipedes, cockroaches, bedbugs, and earthworms—all falling on my body.
I waved my hands frantically as the insects kept increasing. I was scared but, for some reason, I couldn't shout out.
Sleep paralysis? That thought immediately came to my mind, but I quickly denied it. Sleep paralysis wouldn't feel so real, and the body wouldn't be able to move.
In a desperate situation, I reached out to push the old woman in front of me, but as soon as my hand touched her face, I heard a sudden shout.
"Ouch!"
I woke up completely with that shout, realizing that it was just a dream. I wiped the sweat on my forehead with my hand. The guy on the upper bunk shouted at me, "What the heck are you doing, not sleeping properly and grabbing my feet!"
Looking closely, I found out that the guy had a bad sleeping habit, with his feet hanging outside. So, I was trying to grab his feet.
"Sorry, I just had a bad dream."
I quickly apologized, but lying on the bed, I felt puzzled. The dream just now was too real, with those insects and the old woman's hair brushing against my face, as if I had just woken up.
Feeling strange, I reached for "Weird Tales in the Mountains," but couldn't find anything similar to ghosts or monsters after searching for a while. However, I had concerns in my mind, so I didn't dare to sleep much in the second half of the night, staying awake until dawn.
When I returned with the hot water the next day, I saw the awake guy sitting on the bed, staring at me blankly and looking somewhat unwell. I waved my hand in front of him, and then he came to his senses, muttering, "I had a bad dream last night."
"Haha, what a coincidence."
I casually said as I helped myself to some cookies.
"Yeah, it felt so real, as if it really happened."
The guy grumbled, and I became interested, asking curiously, "What did you dream about?"
The guy scratched his head, thought for a moment, and said, "I dreamt of an old woman with very long hair, and her face was so scary. She was spitting out insects from her mouth, I wanted to shout but couldn't. Then she left, and when I woke up, it was already dawn."
As soon as he said that, I stood up immediately, staring at him and saying, "Damn, could it be possible! I dreamt the same thing last night, an old woman spitting out insects at me, oh my!"
Two people having the same bad dream was almost impossible, making me uneasy and afraid that something else might happen.
"Did that old woman talk to you?"
The guy turned back and looked at me.
I shook my head, and then he said, "Could it be that we encountered a wandering ghost?"
The so-called wandering ghost refers to unclean things that may be present on public transportation such as trains and long-distance buses. Especially when traveling to mountainous areas, some wandering souls and lost ghosts end up on these modes of transportation and, ignorant of the local situation, they stay on the train. Because of the large number of people, this rarely happens, but it's not impossible. What the guy said had some possibility.
A guy with great courage, the guy had also encountered many difficulties on the journey, so he was also a little scared. I thought for a moment as I held the teacup and said, "Let's see tonight, and when we get to Shanghai tomorrow, we should go to the temple to burn incense, then everything will be fine."
After a day of train travel, when it was night, both the guy and I were quite awake and afraid to fall asleep. However, people were truly exhausted, and our willpower was not enough to keep us awake, so we eventually fell into the land of dreams.
In the late of night, I heard strange laughter. After waiting for a few seconds, I woke up immediately and opened my eyes, but this time it wasn't the old woman from last night, it was a child with only a head!
This child had no body, only a head, with rosy cheeks as if heavily made up like a dead person, while the rest of the skin was pale and it kept giggling "hehe" non-stop.
Having had the experience from last night, I felt slightly calmer today. If they were indeed wandering spirits, they didn't seem to have any malicious intent. If I could understand their demands and find a way to satisfy them, I might be able to resolve the situation.
I opened my mouth, but still couldn't speak. The child floated in front of me, its face very close to mine. I tried to mouth some words, but the next moment, a horrifying sight made me swallow the words that were just about to come out.
To my surprise, the child's eyes had a long, slender white snake moving around inside. It emerged from its left ear, then slipped into its left eye, then emerged from the right eye, tilting its head, staring at me with its black eyes. Finally, it slowly moved closer to me, hissing.
Since I was afraid of snakes from a young age, I felt a sinister aura emanating from the snake. I involuntarily stepped back, but my body quickly hit the wall of the train. The white snake kept approaching me without showing any intention of attacking.
Instinctively, I raised my hand to shield myself, but the white snake suddenly leaped from the child's body and coiled around my arm. I immediately tried to shake my arm to get rid of the snake, but it wrapped tightly around my arm like a rope.
"Hehe..."
The headless child kept grinning slyly. I became increasingly anxious, and the snake tightened its grip, turning the skin of my entire arm purple.
In desperation, I took out the protective charm hanging around my neck. As it glowed, the headless child immediately showed a frightened expression and hastily retreated.
Seeing that the charm given by Daba was effective, I felt relieved. The child retreated to the doorway and then looked at me coldly, with a terrifying gaze. The face of a child suddenly turned into that of a fierce monster.
Suddenly, I felt a chill in my head, and I woke up abruptly. Fatty was standing in front of me, and I was drenched in sweat, with a large wet patch on my body.
"What's wrong? Did you dream of that old woman again?" Fatty asked with concern.
"Not this time, it was a child, but thankfully Daba's protective charm worked, and the child ran away," I sighed in relief, and looked at the area where the white snake had coiled around my arm. To my surprise, my face changed once again.
There were clear marks on my arm from where the white snake had coiled, red marks that seemed as if a snake had truly coiled around my arm before!