Chapter 182 Straw Man

"Is this song widely circulated in your area?" Luohe asked, his striking blue eyes making him stand out among the group.

Being watched by those eyes, the woman couldn't help but lower her head, her voice growing softer and softer, "Actually, it's not very widespread, just near my hometown."

Through the woman's introduction, everyone learned that she came from a small place. In her hometown, there was a shrine dedicated to the deity represented by the straw figure.

Every year, as the cherry blossoms were about to wither, people would come to the shrine to ask the shrine maiden for a straw figure. The straw figure they received would be taken home and placed under a cherry tree.

Luohe's gaze swept across the faces of several women. Those who were more timid lowered their heads, trembling.

Withdrawing his gaze, Luohe looked at the woman who had spoken, "Are you...all from the same place?"

"Yes," the woman replied softly, "we moved here together. The people in Grey Stone Town...are all from my hometown."

Everyone understood what the woman meant. The Japanese in Grey Stone Town all came from the same place. It seemed that the soldiers had first occupied the place by force, and then brought their families and fellow villagers with them.

After all, Japan was an island nation, and its land and resources were very scarce.

This was common in wartime, a prototype of the pioneer corps.

Based on military occupation, cultural aggression was carried out to gradually blur the sense of identity of the people of the country. Compared with simply resorting to force, this was the means of destroying a country and exterminating its people.

"What's your name?" Jiangcheng asked, staring at the woman.

The woman hugged the child in her arms and said in a small voice, "Just call me Yoko."

Jiangcheng nodded and said directly, without wasting time, "Okay, Yoko, have you always been around here?"

Hearing this, Yoko suddenly raised her head, a hint of panic flashing in her eyes. Seeing this, Jiangcheng calmly explained, "Don't be afraid. I may have some questions to ask you in the near future."

"We haven't always been here. We are all...all..." Yoko couldn't finish her sentence. Obviously, their current situation was not good.

Probably wherever they could find a bite to eat, they would go, without a fixed place to stay, and even be driven from place to place.

"How about this? Stay around here for the next few days. I may come to find you at any time," Jiangcheng said, "As a reward, I'll take all of these things of yours, how about it?"

Hearing this, the eyes of several women lit up. They carefully raised their heads, looking at Jiangcheng's face, as if trying to discern whether what he said was true, or whether he was simply teasing them.

"Hurry up, how much money?" Jiangcheng frowned.

"No money, one...one for one mantou," Yoko said quickly, holding up a finger.

She was still holding a mantou in her hand, which Jiangcheng and the others had just given her, and she hadn't had time to eat it yet.

"Okay," Jiangcheng agreed, and pointed to a corner not far away, where there was a very simple stall, with white steam rising from the stove. The huge steamer was filled with layers of mantou.

They had bought their mantou from here.

"Do you see that stall? I'll talk to the owner later. You can go there to get mantou to eat these days. I'll deposit some money in advance, and your accounts will be deducted from it."

"But you can only eat mantou, don't even think about dishes and baozi, and you can only eat them, not take them away, understand?" Jiangcheng asked.

Yoko and the others nodded repeatedly, "Understood."

As he was leaving, Jiangcheng turned around and warned them that if he came and found they were not there, then the agreement would be void.

"Wait," Jiangcheng, who had already taken a few steps, heard someone call out. He turned around and found Yoko running up in small steps. She was carrying a cloth bag, which was bulging. Yoko stopped and looked at him very seriously, "You forgot to take your things."

The remaining Japanese women stood not far away, watching.

Opening the cloth bag, it was filled with small toys, crude dolls sewn from scraps of cloth, small mirrors, wooden combs, and the like, that they had seen before.

They were all things that they couldn't use.

"Keep them for yourself, we have no use for them," Linghuyong refused very simply, he didn't have a good expression towards these women.

Just as everyone was about to leave, Yoko seemed to have made up her mind and took out a very small cloth bag from her wide sleeve.

The cloth bag was wrapped tightly around her arm, and it seemed to contain something very precious.

This action aroused everyone's curiosity. They watched Yoko carefully open the cloth bag little by little, seemingly worried about damaging something inside.

But just as everyone saw what was inside, they were first stunned, and then a chilling cold enveloped them.

"Please accept this gift," Yoko held up the gift with both hands and bowed deeply to Jiangcheng, "Consider it my way of repaying you!"

Under the gaze of more than a dozen pairs of eyes, a roughly made straw figure lay quietly in Yoko's hands, exactly the same as those seen on the altar in the Feng residence.

"This straw figure..." Zhao Xingguo looked at Yoko, his throat moving a few times, "Where did it come from?"

......

Half an hour later, in a teahouse on the street, the waiter was carrying a huge teapot upstairs to make tea for the guests in the private room.

Originally, he wanted to say some pleasing words to ask for some tips, but after feeling the oppressive atmosphere in the private room, the waiter wisely retreated.

In the private room, four people were sitting around the only table: Jiangcheng, Lin Wan'er, Luohe, and Zhao Xingguo. The rest were standing behind them.

A straw figure wrapped in cloth lay quietly in the center of the table.

Perhaps it was a psychological effect, but the face without facial features became more and more eerie the longer one looked at it, as if it would pull out a strange smile at any moment.

Zhao Xingguo looked a little irritable. The scalding tea was drunk in one gulp, and the teacup was placed on the table with a "thud." "This straw figure is the same as the one on the altar. I think Pan Du's current state is also related to the straw figure," Zhao Xingguo said fiercely.

After all, everyone remembered that Pan Du was the first person to touch the straw figure on the altar.

What was even more surprising was that Yoko said that she had obtained this straw figure from the shrine in her hometown, and because she had not found a suitable opportunity to make a wish, she had been carrying it with her.

"Could it be that this ghost is not from our local area, but from Japan?" Pi Ruan's question sounded a little strange at first, but upon closer inspection, it was very appropriate.

"Perhaps it's not just the ghost inside the door, the disciple who bears this door may also be from Japan," Luohe analyzed, "The disciple is Japanese, and he followed his companions from afar to Grey Stone Town, but couldn't withstand the erosion and was backlashed by the door. The ghost behind the door ran out."