Experiencing a life-or-death moment for the first time, I screamed in fear, got up without regard for the pain, and ran back home.
Before I got home, I saw my grandparents waiting anxiously at the door. I rushed into their arms and, losing control of my emotions, told them about what had just happened. Grandpa's face changed, and he let grandma go to Luo Changsheng's house to inform them of the news.
He lit a brazier at the door, had me step over it, spat, and then let me go back to my room to rest.
I had many nightmares that night, all about Luo Changsheng covered in blood, asking me why I didn't help him and why I ran back alone. I slept very restlessly, and when I woke up the next day, I found out that Luo Changsheng had died terribly. Even one of his eyeballs had been knocked out, and he had died before the ambulance arrived.
Luo Changsheng's parents, who were elderly when their son was born, couldn't bear the blow and both went crazy. The incident caused a great sensation at the time, with both television stations and newspapers coming to interview. It was said that the driver kept saying during the interrogation that he saw a ghost.
He saw two students being dragged by a person lying on the road in the middle of the road and stepping on their heels. He tried to brake but it didn't work. In a panic, he saw a figure in the rearview mirror pushing a big truck desperately.
My grandfather finally told me that five years ago, there was an accident in the section of road where the accident occurred. Two men returning from night shifts were hit by a truck and their bodies were torn apart. The two dark figures I saw were the ones looking for scapegoats.
On the seventh day after Luo Changsheng's death, my grandfather took me to the intersection and burned a lot of paper money, which lessened my sense of guilt.
It was because of Luo Changsheng's death that I was once again labeled with misfortune, an ominous label. Many people said that it should have been me who died, that I brought about Luo Changsheng's death. But because of my highly respected grandfather, many people didn't dare to openly say such things and could only point fingers behind my back.
After Luo Changsheng was buried, I thought the matter had passed, but on the seventh day after his death, something chilling happened.
There is a custom in my hometown that after someone dies, there is a memorial day every seven days. The first one is the seventh day and the last one is the forty-ninth day. Only after the last one can the person be considered truly dead.
Behind the yard in my hometown, there is an orchard, and in the front yard, there are several peach and plum trees, with two bungalows in the back yard. When my parents were not at home, I stayed in one and my grandparents in the other.
On the seventh day after Luo Changsheng's death, I was sound asleep when I heard a moaning sound coming from the orchard. Growing up in the countryside, I often heard the sound of cats in heat, so I didn't think much of it and continued to sleep under the blanket.
But the sound became louder and more urgent, so I got up, put on my clothes, and took a flashlight, intending to chase away the damn cat.
I was quite daring, holding a flashlight in one hand and a stick in the other as I walked outside. The orchard was dim, and as I followed the source of the sound, I reached the front of my house where the sound was getting closer. It seemed that the cat was hiding in the outhouse.
I swallowed hard, turned off the flashlight, and mustered up the courage to lift the stick and went inside.
"Wow!" I shouted, thinking that the cat would be scared and frantic, but to my surprise, not only did that not happen, the sound became even louder.
I thought the cat was very bold, so I turned on the flashlight to see just what cat was so unafraid. As soon as the flashlight turned on, I saw a person crouched in the corner of the outhouse.
The person was covered in blood, one eyeball hanging outside its socket, the other eye looking at me full of sorrow, and the "moaning" cry from the mouth suddenly stopped as it wailed at me, asking why I didn't come to save it, why I ran back alone.
Luo Changsheng!
The name flashed in my mind, I felt my pants get wet, let out a scream, threw down the flashlight, and ran back inside. The wind whistled in my ears, and at that moment, I didn't care if Luo Changsheng was chasing me. When I got back home, I hurriedly closed the back door.
In the moment I closed the door, I heard a terrifying laughter coming from the orchard.
My commotion woke up my grandfather, who put on some clothes and came to see what had happened. I stood at the door, trembling, and told him that I saw Luo Changsheng in the outhouse, crying and laughing at me.
My grandfather, accustomed to dealing with the dead, opened the back door and walked around, then came back with the flashlight I threw away, saying there was no one in the outhouse, and asked me if I was seeing things.
How could I have seen things in that setting? I pointed to my pants which were still dripping, and my grandfather calculated with his fingers, saying tonight was the seventh day after Luo Changsheng's death, and that he might have come back to find me.
Crying is one thing, but I'm afraid when he laughs. This laugh would indicate that Luo Changsheng wanted to pull me down with him.
Hearing this, I was so scared that I almost fell to the ground, and crying, I asked my grandfather what to do. He was calm and said that the trouble caused by a little kid who died violently wouldn't be too big, so he went to the front yard, broke off a branch from a peach tree, and tapped on me with it, then told me to sleep with him.
I was so scared that I didn't sleep that night, and the next day, before dawn, I saw my grandfather get dressed and leave. I wanted to get up, but I was so exhausted that I couldn't even stand.
When my grandfather came back, he was holding two roosters, one black and one white, and I watched as he placed four bowls filled with white rice in the east, west, south, and north directions in the yard.
After finishing these things, he sat in the yard and smoked a pipe, with a red and white thread tied around the necks of two roosters.
To his surprise, the two roosters didn't run around, but stood like stakes, motionless.
I wanted to see what grandpa would do next, but I was really tired and fell asleep on the heated brick bed. When I woke up, it was already past seven in the evening. Grandpa said I had been scared out of my wits by Luo Changsheng, and told me to tightly hold the red thread tied to the white rooster and take a circle in the fruit tree grove, and he reminded me to pick a piece of green grass when I came back.
When I heard this, I absolutely refused and insisted on asking grandma to go with me. Grandma had no way but to agree.
As I and grandma went out, grandpa was busy with his work in the yard. The white rooster seemed to know the location of the fruit tree grove and went straight there as soon as it left the door. I followed closely behind, while grandma kept calling my name by my side.
When we arrived at the fruit tree grove, I couldn't help but shudder, but fortunately, there was nothing in the outhouse. But where Luo Changsheng had squatted previously, there was a piece of grass over half a meter tall.