I opened the mobile network and wandered around the room, finally finding a signal in a corner. The internet speed was very slow, but it was better than the agony of having no network.
Quickly opening the webpage, I entered the keywords for dealing with drowned ghosts, and after clicking the search button, it took half a minute for the page to load.
Due to the slow internet speed, I didn't open each one by one, but searched for the most informative keywords inside. When I flipped to the second page, I finally saw a method for dealing with drowned ghosts.
After clicking on it, I waited for a long time, and then hundreds of words popped up.
It mentioned three methods for dealing with drowned ghosts. The first one was that drowned ghosts are afraid of not finding a substitute, which sounded absurd to me, so I scorned it and moved on to the second one.
It stated that if the drowned ghost is dragged onto the shore and exposed to the sun for an hour, the ghost will disperse. This also sounded ridiculous. If one could drag a drowned ghost onto the shore, it would be easy to kill it. There would be no problem of eradicating it.
When I saw the third method, I became spirited.
It mentioned that all types of ghosts are extremely afraid of one thing, and that is the threshold.
The threshold is a thing at the gate of a yard, about twenty centimeters high. It is said that zombies can only jump up to twenty centimeters high, and the existence of a threshold is to prevent zombies from entering the house. With a threshold, they cannot cross it and have to stay obediently at the entrance.
Moreover, there is another explanation for the threshold.
To enter the house, one must step over the threshold. As the threshold is stepped on day after day, the positive energy accumulates, and because it is specifically for dealing with zombies, it is effective against any kind of ghost.
It only mentioned three methods, but did not explain how the threshold can be used against drowned ghosts. Helpless, I had to endure the slow internet and re-entered the keywords.
After more than half an hour, I finally figured out how to deal with drowned ghosts.
Drowned ghosts float in the water because they had not expelled their last breath before death.
A threshold, aged to a certain extent and turned into a one-inch long wooden stake, can be stabbed into the navel of the drowned ghost, releasing the trapped breath. At that point, the drowned ghost would have no way to survive and could only await its end.
With this method, I felt less afraid. Although I came this time to help Bi Ping resolve the issue of ghost marriage, the presence of the drowned ghost made me somewhat uneasy.
I slept very comfortably that night and woke up as usual the next day. Du Xiaolan was still sleeping in the room, so I didn't wake her up. I went downstairs without even washing my face. Uncle Bi was chopping vegetables on the chopping board in the kitchen.
Seeing me get up, he smiled and asked, "Mr. Yin, up so early?"
"Yeah, I'm used to it," I replied after some thought. "Uncle Bi, have any of the households in your village still got an old threshold?"
"A threshold?" Uncle Bi wondered and then suddenly lifted the kitchen knife, asking with vigilance, "What do you need this thing for?"
His surprising behavior puzzled me, but I soon understood.
In my childhood hometown, I often heard the cries of vendors buying old wooden furniture at the doorstep. Eventually, the elders told me that these people were looking for antiques, and the deeper one goes into the mountains, the more ancient furniture can be found.
Judging from Uncle Bi's attitude, it seemed like he had also taken me for one of those people.
Realizing this issue, I quickly waved to him to put down the knife, and then said, "I saw the drowned ghost who dragged Bi Ping into the reservoir, because the drowned ghost is most afraid of door thresholds. So I want to deal with it first, and then it will be considered as avenging Bi Ping."
The cautious look on Uncle Bi's face disappeared instantly, and he threw the knife on the cutting board, repeatedly expressing his respect to me, "Mr. Yin, thank you so much. My son died miserably. If you really kill that drowned ghost, I thank you on behalf of my son."
He was very excited, with the impulse to kneel down to me at any time.
After comforting him for a few moments, I quickly asked where to find the door threshold. Uncle Bi said it was easy. After washing his hands, he asked me to wait for a while and went out to find it himself.
After waiting for more than ten minutes, Uncle Bi came back with a long object wrapped in cloth. He said it was difficult to find this thing since the demolition, but a villager, attached to old things, had kept it.
Unwrapping the cloth, a door threshold about one and a half meters long appeared. The threshold was very old, obviously very old, and it was most suitable to deal with the drowned ghost.
After getting a chopper, I took the threshold to a deserted place at the village entrance and started to chop it.
The threshold was decayed and not easy to chop into a one-inch wooden stake, as many broke into two pieces right after being chopped.
In the end, after chopping two one-inch wooden stakes, I chopped a one-meter-long one.
Seeing the wooden stake that could break at any time, I was very worried. If it broke while I was fighting with the drowned ghost in the water, it would be the end for me.
Carefully storing it, I took the chopper and went back.
When I arrived at the door, Du Xiaolan was stretching and walked out. She was startled when she saw me and pointed to the axe in my hand, asking, "What are you carrying that for?"
"To make something." I put the chopper back and took out a one-inch long wooden stake to give to Du Xiaolan, saying, "Take this for self-defense. If the drowned ghost appears, just stab it in the belly button."
Du Xiaolan shook the wooden stake and asked, "Is this thing reliable? It looks like it's about to break."
"Believe it or not, it's up to you. I've told you anyway." After saying this, I told Uncle Bi that I wouldn't have breakfast and went out for something.
As soon as Du Xiaolan saw me leaving, she quickly told Uncle Bi and followed me closely.
The weather today was a bit dull, and there were many people fishing by the reservoir. I glanced around, and there were seven fishermen around where the drowned ghost might appear.
They couldn't see the ghost, but if I rushed into the water and fought with the drowned ghost, if they thought I was crazy and filmed it to post online, my reputation would be ruined in an instant.
At the moment, I didn't rush to take action. I squatted in a place without people, carefully observing the water's surface. If the drowned ghost dared to appear and hurt someone, even if I was labeled a lunatic, I would destroy it.
But what puzzled me was that I waited for over an hour, and the drowned ghost did not appear in the water.
Du Xiaolan was a bit impatient, looked at the overcast sky, stood up, saying, "Mingyang, I'm going back. This weather is perfect for a long nap."