Chapter 127 The Story

Fang Yang had indeed driven there.

He had guessed what Wei Yuan wanted to do, and sure enough, Wei Yuan's next sentence was to immediately drive to his father's residence. Fang Yang opened his mouth, glanced at the few ghosts in the distance, but still couldn't refuse.

The Fang family had a solid foundation, but most of the relatives were scattered abroad. Fang Yang was Fang Hongbo's only son, and he later started a family abroad, after which Fang Hongbo lived alone.

Fang Yang started the car tremblingly, his eyes constantly darting towards the rearview mirror.

A pair of red embroidered shoes sat quietly in the corner of the back seat.

The naked eye saw nothing, but Fang Yang had just had his eyes opened by the willow leaf, and had watched as the bloated water ghost and the halberd-wielding ghost with a large hole in his chest got into the car. However, at this moment, the effect of the willow leaf eye-opening technique wore off.

The naked eye still saw emptiness.

But Fang Yang still felt a chill down his back.

Beside him, Wei Yuan also took a sword down from the wall. In addition, there was a dark, powerful-looking thing, and he loaded the armor-piercing rounds into the magazine one by one right in front of him. Having experienced what he had, Wei Yuan deeply felt the convenience of firearms.

Not to mention anything else, last time he forced out the heretical sect's stand-in technique.

If he got close, there might be a risk of being ambushed.

Ranged firearms were much safer, one shot at a time.

The founding patriarch of Daoist techniques probably never imagined that later generations would have such convenient things.

Fang Yang's car moved steadily on the road. Because Fang Hongbo lived in an old district, it had gradually become dilapidated with urban planning. It was only a little after eleven o'clock, and the outside was empty with hardly anyone around. Fang Yang was distracted, looking at the empty back seat in the rearview mirror, when Wei Yuan's shout of "Watch out!" brought him back to his senses.

He saw an old man in black Chinese-style clothing standing by the side of the road ahead, he didn't know when.

Fang Yang instinctively slammed on the brakes, breaking out in a cold sweat.

The old man stretched out his arm, making a gesture to stop the car, as if he wanted a ride.

At this time, at this location, with such a strange old man stopping the car, Fang Yang only felt goosebumps all over his body. It was only Wei Yuan, who was holding a sword next to him, that made him feel a little more at ease. He was just about to drive around him.

Wei Yuan looked at the slightly smiling old man, thoughtfully, and said:

"...Let him in the car."

Fang Yang looked at Wei Yuan in disbelief, but he was also a little flustered when he encountered this kind of thing, and Wei Yuan seemed to be specialized in dealing with this kind of thing. Helpless and disoriented, he had no choice but to let the old man into the car.

By the time his thoughts caught up, the old man had already opened the car door and sat in the back seat as if nothing had happened.

Fang Yang gripped the steering wheel and asked where he wanted to go. After the old man replied, Fang Yang immediately felt his scalp explode. The place the old man wanted to go was where his father had lived alone before his death.

Fang Yang's heart beat wildly, his hand gripped the steering wheel, and he was almost frozen.

Wei Yuan bumped him with his arm as if nothing had happened, and he came back to his senses slightly, starting the car stiffly.

Streetlights flashed past on both sides.

They had already entered the old district.

Both sides of the road were old houses, the walls covered with ivy and other greenery. On both sides of the road were drooping old trees, and the darkness made it seem gloomy. All that could be heard was the sound of the car. Inside the car were three people and two ghosts, not saying a word.

"It's a bit stuffy on the road."

The old man looked at the lights outside and smiled, "How about I tell you a story to relieve the boredom?"

Fang Yang clenched his teeth tightly, afraid to speak.

Wei Yuan smiled, leaned back in his chair, looking very relaxed, and said:

"Alright."

……………………

In the ancient times of this Divine Land, not really that ancient, just to the Great Ming Dynasty more than a hundred years ago, there were some evil trades. The most evil of them were those that earned money from the living and ate the food of the dead, such as executioners, corpse drivers, and barbers who shaved the dead.

In ancient times, someone in a certain place committed a major crime and was waiting to be beheaded at noon.

The person's uncle worked in the yamen (government office), and the family came to him, hoping that he could save his nephew's life. But how could he save someone who had committed a capital crime? But the uncle really found a way, saying that this execution would not be in the downtown area, and perhaps he could bribe the executioner to make a false cut, only breaking the rope without cutting the flesh.

Then the nephew would pretend to be dead and roll into the weeds next to him, and might survive.

But it would require a large sum of money.

The whole family sold their property, and the uncle spent money in various ways, finally arranging everything.

On the day of the execution, the nephew was very nervous, but he firmly remembered his uncle's words. As soon as the blade flashed, he felt his neck loosen, and he quickly rolled into the ditch and remained motionless, taking advantage of the fact that others still had to be beheaded. He crawled to another place, got up, and ran away immediately.

Escaping death, a great sorrow and joy, the nephew ran all night in one breath and ran directly to his uncle's house.

After entering the door, he kowtowed and bowed to express his gratitude for saving his life.

But the uncle was shocked and turned pale.

It turned out that the executioner had been temporarily replaced today due to some matter, and that knife had fallen in earnest.

When the nephew heard this, his face changed, he reached out and touched his neck, and immediately his body and head separated, dying on the spot.

After the story was finished, Fang Yang's face was pale.

His father had been dead for four months, but now he was alive like a normal person.

Could it be like this too?

Seeing the old man smiling at himself in the rearview mirror, the old man slowly said: "This is what they mean by speaking it out, revealing it. Some people are dead and don't know they are dead. They still think they are alive and living with normal people, but once it is said, they will immediately fall to the ground and die."

Fang Yang felt that the old man's words were alluding to something, his hands gripping the steering wheel, pale and white.

At this time, Wei Yuan smiled, adjusted the position of the broken sword, and said:

"Speaking of which, I recently saw a story too."

………………

Also an evil trade that was not among the lowest of the low in ancient times.

Grave robbing, eating the food of the dead.

In ancient times, there were two brothers in Handan City who were uneducated and unskilled, so they had to engage in the trade of robbing people's graves. They were different from others when they robbed tombs. The two brothers divided the work. The elder brother was strong, and went down to rob the tomb at night in black clothes. The younger brother relied on pretending to be a ghost to prevent accidents.

If they were unlucky and were discovered, he would dress in white and act as a vengeful ghost.

People who passed by were already frightened because they were walking in a graveyard, and they were frightened out of their wits, turning around and running away. The two brothers relied on this trick to travel north and south, successfully and smoothly. One day, taking advantage of the dark and windy night, they prepared to rob a new grave.

When they arrived at the place, they found that a colleague had already arrived first, and their attire was exactly the same as their own.

The two brothers discussed, "It must be someone in the same business."

In the grave robbing business, people only looked at the skill, regardless of who came first.

The two brothers had been eyeing this grave for a long time, so how could they give up? They also thought that anyone who robbed a grave must revere ghosts and gods, and their courage would be lowered by seventy percent when robbing a grave. They might as well scare him and scare them away, so they pretended to be vengeful ghosts and approached.

The older brother took a few steps, carefully looking at the two people's attire. Although they were dressed the same in black and white, their hats were very high, and they were holding chains and crying sticks. He was shocked and cold sweat dripped down. How could this be someone in the same business? It was clearly Black and White Impermanence come to collect souls. But the younger brother couldn't hold back his temper and screamed like a ghost.

It would have been better if he hadn't screamed, but the scream sent the younger brother to his death.

The two turned around and ran towards the younger brother. The older brother's body was stiff and unable to move, and the younger brother fell directly to the ground, and was caught up by the Black and White Impermanence.

The Black and White Impermanence laughed eerily: "Using him to deliver the mission is enough." Saying that, he hooked the younger brother with a chain, dragged out his soul, turned around and disappeared. The older brother hurried forward and touched him, and the younger brother had already lost his breath. Only then did he know that the grave was empty, and it was a method used by those who were about to die to avoid death, used to confuse the ghost messengers. It was just pitiful that the two brothers came forward at this time, and instead became scapegoats.

This second story was also extremely strange, and Fang Yang's scalp tingled with cold sweat.

At this time, they were in front of Fang Hongbo's solitary residence, but Fang Yang still couldn't step on the gas pedal.

The old man looked in Wei Yuan's direction and said:

"Little brother, is this story telling us to be careful of those who are supposed to be dead but aren't, and not to get close to them easily, lest we become scapegoats?"

Fang Yang's palms trembled.

Wei Yuan smiled and said:

"No, no, it's just saying that two brothers pretended to be ghosts to scare people, but instead really encountered ghosts."

"The fake met the real and didn't know it, and insisted on running into it themselves."

The old man didn't understand his meaning, but a fishing net suddenly appeared from somewhere and covered him head-on. The mysterious old man was unable to react. He struggled desperately in shock, but he couldn't break free at all. In the blink of an eye, he was tightly bound by the fishing net.

When Wei Yuan was telling the story, the water ghost and the halberd ghost in the back seat had probed that the old man had no real ability, but was obviously inextricably linked to Fang Hongbo's affairs. After Wei Yuan finished the last sentence, the two ghosts understood and directly grabbed him.

This catch was good, it turned out that this was not an old man at all, but a man in his forties.

He had just put on makeup to look like an old man.

Wei Yuan had long wanted to find the person who spread the evil arts. He had not expected that he would actively run into his hands in this way. At this time, Fang Yang finally drove the car in front of the building, his palms pale. Wei Yuan carried the man out of the car, and Fang Yang finally stood at the door.

He slowly raised his hand and knocked on the door.

Knock, knock, knock—

"Dad?"

ps: The source of the story is a folk tale that I saw by chance, slightly adapted and added in to embellish it.

In order to introduce the current situation in a way that is not so dry ~

I checked the origins, and some said that the first one came from Story Club, and some said that it was from "Nan Huaijin's Book". The movie "Sih Jei" also had a similar scene. The second one seems to come from Ji Xiaolan's "Notes from Yuewei Thatched Cottage", but of course it is not strict, after all, I did not go to see it myself, so everyone can just have fun ~