Xu Duoduo heard Ye Ling introduce herself, her transparent body drifting over to Chu Tian.
She looked at Chu Tian’s appearance and giggled as she said to Ye Ling, “Hehe, this little fellow is quite timid. Just now, I blew a couple of breaths behind him, and he was trembling all over.”
Chu Tian felt a flush of embarrassment. No wonder he had felt a chill on the back of his neck; it turned out this hundred-year-old young female ghost was causing trouble.
Ye Ling smiled and said, “Alright, Duoduo, tell them about the Ye Li Cat. You’re the most familiar with that place among us. Even the information I have comes from the files of the Ninth Division.”
Chu Tian noticed that after Xu Duoduo appeared, Ye Ling’s demeanor changed entirely. She was no longer cold but was smiling all the time.
No wonder Ye Ling had said she invited her; it was because she was familiar with the people of this so-called Ye Li Cat village.
Upon hearing this, Xu Duoduo sat down next to Chu Tian.
She first fell into thought. Then, on her translucent face, her playful expression disappeared, replaced by a somber one as she slowly began to narrate.
Forty-four years ago, a strange incident occurred in a village in the Qinling Mountains.
This village had always been isolated from the outside world. Even the invasion of Long Country by the island nation back then did not affect it.
In 1987, a period of rapid development for Long Country, this village welcomed its first outsiders.
It was a drilling unit dispatched by the state, specifically to drill wells for water supply in remote mountainous areas, to solve the problem of difficult access to water.
At that time, when this drilling unit arrived at the village, they were refused entry. Their repeated attempts to negotiate were unsuccessful.
However, they couldn’t simply withdraw. Returning without completing their mission would surely result in disciplinary action.
The platoon leader of this unit thought of a win-win solution: they decided to drill the well outside the village.
It was not far from the village, and the villagers could easily use it, eliminating the need to trek down the mountain for water.
Similarly, they could complete their mission and report back to their superiors.
After surveying the area, they selected a spot about twenty meters outside the village entrance and began to lower the drill bit.
Initially, drilling a well in a mountainous highland was very difficult. This drilling team had previously had to lower the drill bit many times before successfully striking water.
This time, they were extremely lucky; they hit the mark on the first try. A few hours later, water gushed out.
The villagers, who had been observing from within the village, saw that these outsiders were truly here to help them and that they had indeed found water. They were also overjoyed.
From initial vigilance, refusal, and rejection, their attitude turned to warm hospitality.
The platoon leader, seeing that water had been found, ordered the wellhead to be temporarily sealed and then began to dig down manually along the path of the drill bit.
At that time, cement pipes could not be transported to the mountain, so they couldn't be used to construct a cement well.
They could only use the most primitive method: digging manually and then building the well structure with stones.
They worked until dark. The platoon leader had planned to continue working through the night.
However, it began to rain heavily. Seeing that these soldiers were genuinely helping them, the villagers invited them into the village to shelter from the rain and provided them with housing.
Upon entering the village, the platoon leader said, “Village Chief, this courtyard is unoccupied. We’ll shelter here from the rain!”
The village chief replied that arrangements had already been made for the soldiers at his home and told the platoon leader that this courtyard was not clean and that there were unclean things there.
The platoon leader immediately said, “We don’t believe in that. This place is close to the village entrance, so we’ll just rest here briefly and resume our work once the rain stops.”
The village chief couldn’t persuade the platoon leader otherwise, so he reluctantly agreed to let them enter the courtyard at the village entrance.
This courtyard appeared to have been recently renovated. The brick walls and plastered walls were all newly built.
The courtyard was large, and there were many rooms inside.
A platoon of soldiers, plus the members of the drilling team.
A total of forty-eight people squeezed into the rooms and began to live and cook there.
At this point, Old Man Jin, the leader of the drilling team, finished securing the drilling equipment and was the last to enter the house.
After entering, he looked around.
Then, he suddenly pulled everyone from the drilling team and tried to get them to leave the house.
He also insisted that everyone move out.
For this matter, he even argued with some of the soldiers.
Upon hearing this, the platoon leader ran over from another room to inquire what had happened.
Old Man Jin pointed to the ceiling beam and said with his toothless mouth, “This house is a prime example of a haunted house. You will meet with disaster here.”
Everyone looked up in the direction he pointed.
There were seven knife marks on the ceiling beam.
All the soldiers, including the platoon leader, didn’t understand what it meant.
Old Man Jin slowly explained, “Each knife mark represents someone who hanged themselves from this beam.
In the Shaanxi region, there’s a custom that if someone hangs themselves in a room, a mark is cut into the ceiling beam.
There are seven marks on this beam, representing that seven people hanged themselves to death here.
Perhaps this is why this courtyard was empty.”
After Old Man Jin finished speaking, the soldiers and drilling team members became agitated.
A flash of lightning illuminated the scene, making them feel as if they saw seven corpses hanging there.
However, the platoon leader was unwilling to believe it. He pointed at Old Man Jin, calling him superstitious and talking nonsense.
In the 1980s, it was a time when superstition was being suppressed.
As a platoon leader in the army, he had worked hard to reach his position and naturally adhered to the Party’s decisions.
Old Man Jin sighed and did not argue with him, but he took his son and daughter and left the courtyard.
The other drilling team members hesitated.
At that moment, the food was ready, which immediately dispelled their thoughts of following Old Man Jin.
Old Man Jin’s son and daughter followed him, trying to persuade him.
But he adamantly refused to go back and strictly forbade them from returning to that courtyard.
The three of them huddled in a donkey shed at the village entrance for the entire night.
The next morning, the heavy rain finally began to subside.
That night, nothing ominous happened as Old Man Jin had predicted.
After breakfast, everyone resumed their work.
Because of the overnight rain, the cleared well was filled with silt and rainwater.
The platoon leader first arranged for men to go down and clear the silt.
Suddenly, one of the men clearing the silt at the bottom of the well began to yell mournfully, his voice extremely desolate.
Everyone thought something had happened and hurried to the well opening to look down.
However, after shouting for a while, the person returned to normal. When others asked him what he was shouting about, he claimed he hadn't shouted at all.
As everyone was wondering about this, the other three people at the bottom of the well suddenly also started to yell, their cries overlapping and even more chilling.
After a continuous ten seconds, these individuals returned to normal, and when asked, they also claimed they hadn't shouted.
Then, everyone dispersed, believing that the four of them were bored at the bottom of the well and were playing a prank on everyone.