After realizing that there was an extra person in the tour group, Wei Xun looked at the list of tourists. Surprisingly, he also found that there were nine people on the list.
He believed in his cognitive abilities. They hadn’t deteriorated so much that he was unable to remember the eight original tourists. However, Wei Xun didn’t feel the slightest sense of incongruence when he looked at the nine names.
When Miao Fangfei came to buy the bamboo basket, Wei Xun also observed her while she was bargaining. There was no problem with Miao Fangfei. She didn’t discover that there was one more “person” in the tour group, and she even bought eight baskets.
However, she noticed the ninth bamboo basket specially put out by Wei Xun. When she left, she looked a little grim.
“Is the extra person a human or a ghost? Or another local?”
Wei Xun muttered to himself, and he thought of how he killed the zombified flying fox left commander in Little Dragon Farmstead. When he got Pingping’s blood grudge dagger, the note that came with the dagger suggested that there might be a spirit of resentment residing in the dagger, but Wei Xun didn’t notice any spirit of resentment in the dagger.
It seemed that since then, there was one more “person” in the tour group.
It seemed that the extra “person” had likely appeared during one of the attractions from the second scenic spot. Or, perhaps, it was a special existence that was meant to test the tourists.
“Spirit of resentment?”
Wei Xun chuckled and said with great interest, “I have never seen a real spirit of resentment…I really want to see it.”
It was a pity that tour guides couldn’t step in for such matters and remind them of this. Although it was a pity, Wei Xun could only sit back and watch.
“With so many points, what can I do?”
Wei Xun’s attention shifted after a while. He looked at the Travel Services’ product list happily and wanted to purchase many things. He lingered on the three items, [Natural Birth Experience], [Caesarean Section Experience] and [Difficult Birth Experience].
Although the prices were high, he would have a true experience of how it felt, and he felt the amount of time was reasonable. It was much more cost-effective than experiencing 10 minutes of period cramps. Unfortunately, the goal of this experience coupon was to make one feel how much hard work pregnant women put in to give birth. Even a natural birth took six to eight hours. This was Wei Xun’s “first child,” so the time would take longer than that. He couldn’t spend such a long time during a tour.
“What a pity.”
Wei Xun smacked his mouth and said regretfully. However, he was not as regretful as one would imagine him to be. This was because up until now, the mental stimulation brought by this tour had gone beyond his physiological pursuit of pain.
“Hehe, hehehe……”
“Ahaha——”
A baby’s pure laughter echoed in the room, ethereal and frightening. Suddenly, he heard the sound of an electric current crackling, and the bright light on the ceiling flickered and went dark. It was already gloomy outside, so when the room suddenly darkened, it was as if the room was covered with an ominous mist.
The baby’s laughter sounded faintly discernible, with the last sounds of laughter coming from under Wei Xun’s bed. The originally soft and warm big bed grew cold and wet, as if it was soaked in a cold stream of water. It was so cold that Wei Xun shivered and couldn’t concentrate on looking at the list of items he could purchase.
“Hey, I’ll say, little baby, you’re a bit annoying.”
Wei Xun complained, “Fine, come out. I have heard you laugh for long enough.”
Wei Xun sat up, and something cool touched his ankle. It was like a lump of ice had bundled around his leg. He looked down and saw there was a bluish-gray wriggling mass of meat around his ankle.
“Heehee, hahaha——”
The turquoise ball of meat raised its head, revealing a deformed, twisted, and underdeveloped face, appearing like five holes on a flat surface. It had no eyebrows, eyelids, nose, or lips, and its skin was so thin that you could almost see the capillaries hidden below.
The umbilical cord was still attached to the ghost baby’s protruding belly. This gray rope was very long and extended behind Wei Xun. Wei Xun wanted to turn his head and look behind him, but his neck was strangled and a sense of suffocation descended upon him.
He didn’t know when the ghost baby’s umbilical cord had wrapped around his neck.
“Play with us……”
“Come play with us……”
“Heehee, hahaha——”
The umbilical cord around his neck grew tighter and tighter, until it was wrapped so tightly that it became difficult for him to breathe. Still, Wei Xun didn’t feel any emotions, and even touched the head of the ghost baby.
There was no unknown sticky liquid, maggots, rot, mildew, or stench.
The baby’s skin was smooth, tender, and a little brittle, as if the baby had been soaked in formalin for a long time. Because its skin was lacking in tenacity, when Wei Xun accidentally pressed a little harder on it, the skin cracked.
“Ah, I’m sorry, baby.”
Wei Xun gave the baby an insincere apology, and felt quite satisfied. This ghost baby was much easier to accept than the illusion of the rotten corpse he saw previously.
“Call out your little friends. If you want to play, then of course it’s livelier if everyone can play together.”
He heard the sound of numerous ghost kids laughing under his bed, so Wei Xun didn’t believe there was only one ghost baby who was wrapped around his foot here. Although he had no experience in dealing with children, in his childhood, Wei Xun was the king of the children in their backyard. He was great at playing with little kids.
Seeing that he had agreed very straightforwardly, the umbilical cord wrapping around Wei Xun’s neck loosened, and its dark eyes stared at Wei Xun. In addition to the malicious resentment, it appeared a little confused. Wei Xun ignored its confused look and took the opportunity to get up from the bed, squatting beside the bed and suddenly lifting the sheets that were falling off the bed.
“Hurrah, surprise!”
The ghost babies crowded under the bed like a group of baby rats: ?
“I’ve always wanted to raise a little brother to play with.”
Thinking about the limited time he spent with his elder brother in childhood, Wei Xun felt somewhat nostalgic and said with a smile, “I know you want to find your mom and dad. It’s a pity that you can’t have a good father like me, but you can be my little brother.”
“Elder brother will play with you.”
“How about we toss a ball together? My elder brother used to play with me this way.”
Wei Xun pulled the ghost babies out from under the bed one by one, like a cat catching mice. He piled them on the bed and arranged them according to their size, before getting out of bed and turning around. He couldn’t find any ball around him to use, so he opened the Travel Services’ list of purchasable items and picked a ball to buy.
[Function: A favorite ball of ghost babies. This ball can make them feel the warmth they felt back when they were in the womb.]
[Note: This is the placenta of a pregnant woman who gave birth to a ghost baby. Be careful~ The grievances of pregnant women are entangled in it. If you don’t use the ball properly, she will be angry]
For Wei Xun, who was extremely rich, a thousand points was just a mere sprinkle of points. He quickly confirmed the purchase, and a purplish-red ball a little bigger than the size of a table tennis ball appeared in Wei Xun’s hand.
It seemed soft and light, but in fact, it was as heavy as an iron ball and carried a deep chill. If you looked carefully, you could vaguely see a sad and pale ghost face on the ball.
The instant Wei Xun took out the ball, all the ghost babies looked over. Although he was stared at by so many pairs of hollow, black eyes, Wei Xun was not afraid. He tossed the ball, and the eyes of the ghost babies moved up and down following the ball.
“It’s very simple. I throw the ball out, then you pick it up and return it to me.”
Wei Xun was in high spirits. He drew a circle in the air with the hand that was holding the ball, and watched the ghost babies’ eyes as he moved his hand in a circle again. He laughed and threw the ball out.
“Go!”
.
“You said that you saw a grave. It should have been the grave of a fetus.”
Back where the tourists were, after hearing Zhao Hongtu’s narration, Miao Fangfei frowned slightly, rubbed her temples, and said slowly, “I seem to have heard that in the mountains of Xiangxi, some stockaded villages isolate themselves and follow various ancient traditions.”
“In their perspective, babies have souls only after birth, and babies before birth are just ‘fetal flesh,’ which is just a mass of meat that is indistinguishable from good or evil. If the pregnant woman is many months into her pregnancy and the baby she miscarried already has a human form, if the flesh isn’t properly dealt with, it’s very easy for Gu insects or wild ghosts to drill themselves into it.”
“This is why they will eat this fetal flesh.”
As she spoke, Miao Fangfei looked at her teammates quietly. Guide III never did meaningless things. When she found that he had placed out nine bamboo baskets to show her, Miao Fangfei vaguely realized that something was wrong. However, back then her legs went cold. It was as if a chilly wind blew over her, disrupting Miao Fangfei’s line of thought.
She came back now to count the number of her teammates, and instantly, her heart went cold.
It was an eight-person tour group, so when did one more person appear? The most terrifying thing was that Miao Fangfei didn’t feel any sense of incongruence!
Making use of the opportunity while everyone was discussing, Miao Fangfei observed everyone. Her expression was still calm, and no one knew what turbulence was stirring in her heart. But at the same time, Miao Fangfei always felt dazed——like she hadn’t slept for three days and nights. Her body was very tired, and her originally clear thoughts grew messy.
Shit——
Her heart was on guard, but she was unable to remind her companions. Her sight went dark.
“Eat, eat it?”
Zhao Hongtu couldn’t stand it, and looked shocked and disgusted. He couldn’t believe it. “That is a child. Could they really bear to eat it?”
“They think it’s just ‘fetal flesh’ that is a very good health supplement.”
Miao Fangfei said faintly, “A fetus without a soul can’t be counted as a person. In their opinions, this ‘fetal flesh’ is a great tonic and contains the purest vitality of a newborn spirit. Eating it can prolong their lives. Therefore, once there is fetal flesh, the stockaded village will even hold a celebration banquet to eat the flesh. The clan leader and old chief of the stockaded village will get a huge portion of it, while the parents of the fetal flesh will get a lot of money. The parents of the fetal flesh can also obtain a small piece of flesh, while others can drink a bowl of soup at most.”
“Leader Miao, how do you know so much about it?”
Yu Hean shivered and cowardly said, “Did, did this really happen in reality?”
“My grandmother told me. She said that there was such a thing in her aunt and grandmother’s stockaded village.”
Miao Fangfei said, “This was a long time ago, so this tradition should have long since been gone.”
“Hongtu, did you see that the wild graves were 133 meters away from the stream, and were made using black soil. There were no offerings in front of the grave, and a red stone slab was pressed on the grave?”
“I haven’t measured the distance, but it was a hundred meters from the stream.”
Zhao Hongtu nodded. Miao Fangfei mentioned too many details, so he looked at her, slightly doubtful. He secretly retreated and cooperated with Hou Feihu, preparing to attack while Hou Feihu guarded him.
“That’s the grave for the ‘fetal flesh.’”
Miao Fangfei ignored the tense atmosphere in the room and spoke quickly:
“My grandmother told me all this. A long time ago, when the Tusi king was still alive, there was a stronghold in the mountains. Everyone died overnight inexplicably, and no one knew why. Later, rumors gradually spread.”
“It was said that the stockaded village had gotten a piece of good fetal flesh and would hold a grand banquet, and they also invited people from other stockaded villages nearby. The mountains of Xiangxi were filled with danger. At this time, it was summer, and a mountain road collapsed. A man who wanted to go to the banquet at the stockaded village had to take a detour, and as a result, he arrived a day late.”
“However, when he arrived at the gate of the stronghold, there was no one to greet him. The man felt it was strange and carefully walked in. Subsequently, he didn’t see anybody in the stronghold. This man felt afraid and hesitated before continuing to walk in, but at this time he had gone to the largest square in the stronghold, by the indoor fire pit where the banquet was held.”
Miao Fangfei’s tone was gloomy. At this moment, no one knew where the cold wind blowing at them was coming from. It startled everyone so much that goosebumps surfaced on their skin.
“The indoor fire pit was filled with dead people, each stacked close together. Everyone in the stockaded village and those who came to the banquet were dead. Only one or two babies in the stockaded village were still alive——Do you know why they died?”
“They all drank ‘fetal flesh’ soup.”
Miao Fangfei sneered.
“But what they drank wasn’t made from fetal flesh, but a baby who had been born prematurely. The clan leader in the stockaded village was seriously ill and in urgent need of medical treatment. It was said that eating fetal flesh can prolong one’s life, so they killed their daughter’s newborn fetus and lied about it being fetal flesh. They did such evil deeds, and although they felt guilty, they still held a big banquet. They invited guests from the surrounding stockaded village in an attempt to use yang to suppress the resentment of the fetus——What a pity.”
Miao Fangfei looked indifferent and numb as she said to herself, “Everyone was dead. Everyone who ate the fetal flesh and drank the soup was dead.”
“Since then, when other stockaded villages ate fetal flesh, they would set up fetal flesh graves by the stream.”
Miao Fangfei said faintly, with a look of disgust, “The placenta of the mother of the fetal flesh is buried in the grave, the grave is piled with animal feces mixed with soil, and a cinnabar slate is pressed on everything. This way, even if the fetus has a soul, it will be pressed into its grave. In the end, it can only be submerged underground and reborn along with the water flow. It can no longer avenge itself and harm the world.”
Miao Fangfei’s indifferent eyes swept across everyone. At this time, all the other tourists noticed that something was wrong. They stood up and took out their weapons, on guard against Miao Fangfei.
Miao Fangfei was not annoyed at the sight. Instead of the tourists, it seemed as if she was looking at something else. Her red lips were hooked up and vaguely revealed a charming, gloomy, and ghostly smile.