Under the dark night sky, the biting cold wind ruffled the weeds in this ancient graveyard.
At the farthest away from the ancestral graves of the village, there was chaos after the robbery. The old tombstone had fallen, and the coffin that was buried deep in the ground had been dug out and tossed to the side. The cover had been broken open, and the bones inside had all been stolen. There was not even a trace of it left behind.
"Perhaps it is because they have a different culture when they are away from home. Old Dog Uncle's family is very strange in our village."
Chen Shu sat on a military stool that someone had brought over. His expression was complicated as he slowly recounted the events of the past.
Be it the young Gu Jun, the middle-aged Xue Ba, or the old Yao Sinian, everyone begged the old man to tell them everything he knew about Old Dog Uncle's family, no matter how ridiculous it sounded.
Some elders liked to talk about the past with their juniors, and Chen Shu was one of them.
"There were about ten people in his family. The adults all looked very strange, and the younger ones looked no different from us. I was still a kid at the time, and I was just like everyone else, mocking Old Dog Uncle for being ugly and an outsider. But Old Dog Uncle never got angry at us, and I have never seen him get angry.
"Initially, everyone wanted to chase them away, but Grandpa told them to stay. But they were outsiders, and they did not marry off their daughter or take a wife. Normally, no one would go to their house. They lived at the end of the village, and almost all of them lived in the mountains. They chopped some wood and mixed it with mud to build a few houses, and they formed a circle around their house … "
At this point, Gu Jun could not help but ask, "Is Old Dog Uncle's old house still there?"
Village Head Chen continued to act as the translator. Chen Shu sighed and said, "No, it's all collapsed and rotted away … It's not a place for people to live. It's been fifty to sixty years, and you youngsters still don't know why." Village Head Chen added one more sentence as the translator. "I really don't know. It's just that the place is filled with Yin energy, and the feng shui is not good."
"At that time, I was still young. I liked to run around, but I was also afraid to go there."
When Chen Shu talked about this incident that happened more than eighty years ago, it felt like a lifetime ago. "Old Dog uncle and his family did not raise pigs, chickens, or ducks. They did not even have a dog, but there was always a strange smell coming from their yard …"
Gu Jun raised his eyebrows. The others also realized the situation. Strange smell?
But at this time, the 90-year-old village elder in a wheelchair said contemptuously, "Shuhuai, isn't that the smell of a fox? Why do you keep saying that it's weird?"
They were referring to the smell of fox odor. Most of the people in the country did not have fox odor, but there were some who did.
"It is not the smell of a fox. You do not remember it as clearly as I do …" Chen Shu sighed. It was too tiring to argue with an old friend. "I have no idea what that weird smell is. It is very smelly, like the stench of a dead body … When we were young, there were dead bodies floating in the river, and the smell is very similar …"
A thought crossed Gu Jun's mind. Old Dog Uncle's strange appearance, the smell of dead bodies, could it be that Old Dog Uncle and his whole family were really zombies?
"We used bamboo poles to poke the dead bodies downstream, or else they would have been left there. But no one wanted to do this kind of thing. In the end, it was Old Dog Uncle's family who took over the job. After that, no one in the village chased them away anymore, but they also avoided them even more. "
Chen Shu heaved a long sigh. His wrinkled face turned pale. "The strange things that I told you about also started around that time …"
"At the time, I had to go up the mountain to collect firewood every day, so I would pass by their house every day. Every time I walked past their house, it was very uncomfortable. There would always be someone there, either in the yard or at the door. They would not do anything but watch you walk away without saying a word.
"I can't remember which day it was, but one time, when I walked past their house, I heard banging noises coming from inside. It sounded like something was banging against the wooden door, and there was a low growl that sounded like some kind of wild animal … That's why I was wondering if Old Dog Uncle's house was hiding some kind of roe deer."
More than eighty years later, Chen Shu still could not understand these things.
"It was a time of war, and it was not easy to have a full meal. If we wanted to have some meat, we had to wait until the festival. I wondered if Old Dog Uncle's family had caught some kind of wild animal from the mountain and was hiding it at home to store it as food … I went back to tell my father and uncle, and they went to find Grandpa. They wanted Old Dog Uncle to share some of the roe deer meat with everyone. "
Gu Jun frowned. Xue Ba, Uncle Dan, and the rest also felt a sense of danger …
"F * ck," Lou Xiaoning grumbled. It sounded like she was going back to the red door again.
But Chen Shu still lived to be ninety-five. "Grandpa really went to ask Old Dog Uncle, and after that, Old Dog Uncle really did bring out a whole roe deer to share with everyone. After everyone ate the roe deer meat, they slowly accepted them. Even after Old Dog Uncle died, he would be buried here.
"But when I heard the sound of the roe deer being slaughtered, it did not sound like it. The strange sound disappeared for a while … and then it started again.
"At the time, I was young and brave. I wanted to get a better look. One day, I climbed up a nearby tree and stared at their yard …"
At this point, Chen Shu paused. His mouth opened and closed a few times before he was able to continue speaking in that horrifying voice.
"I hid there until midnight. I was hungry and cold. I was about to climb down the tree when I suddenly saw … Old Dog Uncle's family walk out from the house into the yard. They were walking in strange footsteps, chanting some kind of strange language. They walked in circles … It felt like this was their custom.
"But I really saw it! In the middle of the yard, a strange shadow crawled out from the mud …
"I was so scared that I almost fell off the tree … I felt like they had noticed me. I did not dare make a sound, and I did not dare to look again …
"I don't know what happened next. When there was no more movement in their courtyard, I immediately ran back home. Along the way, I noticed that all the animals in the village had stopped barking. They stopped moving like they had lost their souls. The next day, they all died.
"At the time, the whole village had no idea what was going on. They thought it was someone from the neighboring village who had come to poison them. I told Grandpa about it, but after Grandpa went to talk to Old Dog Uncle, he told me that it was just a dream and told me not to bring it up again. "
"How could it be a dream? I saw it clearly … But this thing never happened again. The strange sound from Old Dog Uncle's family disappeared as well. They behaved themselves."
"I have no idea whether it was a dream or not."
Chen Shu finished his story with a sigh. The fear from back then was still etched in his eyes. "What was that shadow? I really have no idea …"
Village Head Chen was embarrassed that the old man was spouting nonsense in front of so many leaders, but he still translated it honestly. After all, he was not the only one who understood the local dialect of the Eastern State.
At the same time, the members of the Demon Hunters, Yao Sinian, and Gu Jun all had dark expressions on their faces. Many thoughts crossed their minds … Summoning ritual?
The family of Old Dog Uncle, be it the zombies or the summoning of zombies, they were closely related.
What kind of connection was there? Then, Yao Sinian used his phone to show Chen Shu a few pictures. There was the withered face of the leader of Lai Sheng Company, the Necro-skins, but Chen Shu shook his head, indicating that he had never seen them before.
"Elder Chen, take a look at this portrait." Yao Sinian changed to another picture. Before he showed it, he purposely told Gu Jun not to look at it because it was related to the nightmare.
"Huh?" This time, Chen Shu gasped in shock. "Yes, it looks old, but that is how Old Dog Uncle looks like!"
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