Chapter 65. Chastity Archway And Ancient Village
Arc 3 : Supernatural Horror Movie Nightmare.
The lady boss worked very efficiently. While pouring tea for everyone, she continued: “He used to live alone in the ancient village, but now the house is vacant. The government even protected it, saying it was a cultural relic and would not let us repair it.”
Seeing that the lady boss seemed to be eager to talk, Du Yan calmly began to ask questions: “It’s not very convenient for an old man to live alone in the village, right?”
When the lady boss heard this, she seemed to have found a soulmate and started talking nonstop: “That’s right. In fact, we had been persuading him to move out and live with us so that we could take care of each other. But he didn’t want to, so we had to go back to see him often.”
Du Yan followed up with another sentence: “Old people are probably nostalgic, and they don’t want to change the place they are used to living in.”
“That’s true. The house in the ancient village was passed down from my husband’s ancestors. It’s said to be quite old.” The lady boss said: “At first, my husband refused to move in. Later, when the children grew up, they said there was no internet and it was inconvenient, so they wanted to move out. So we built a house outside and moved in.”
Liang Fei interrupted and asked: “Are there still places without the Internet these days?”
“Forget about the internet. The power lines in the village are all aging. There are power outages all the time. This is a cultural relic protection unit. They won’t easily do any repairs. There is no running water. If you want to drink water, you have to fetch it from the well in the center of the village. Only the elderly can live here.”
The lady boss stopped what she was doing and sighed: “My father-in-law was the same. No matter how much we persuade him, he insists on living there alone. When the store was busy, we often couldn’t go in to take care of him for two or three days. That’s how the accident happened.”
“Accident?”
Du Yan finally heard the key point. Logically speaking, if the old man died of natural causes, he would normally go directly into reincarnation, and the events in the dream would not have happened.
“My father-in-law was a very stubborn person with a strong personality and didn’t like to ask for help. The light bulb at home broke. We were busy with the store and didn’t go into the village for two days. He didn’t ask us. He put up a chair to change the light bulb, but the chair collapsed, and he fell to the ground. He was sent to the hospital and died a few days later.”
At this point, the lady boss paused and said: “That chair was a family heirloom. It was said that it was passed down from an ancestor who was an official. Someone offered a high price for it, but the old man was reluctant to sell it.”
“A chair that can be a family heirloom must at least be made of mahogany, right?” Du Yan asked.
“Yes, the style seems to be called an armchair. I heard about it from a person who came to buy the chair.” The lady boss said: “The old man actually treasured the chair and took good care of it. But after all, it’s old, so it’s normal for it to fall apart.”
“Later, the old man was still thinking about his precious chair while lying on the hospital bed, and said he wanted to burn it… Ai, here it comes!”
Before the lady boss could finish her words, she heard the boss in the kitchen calling her to come over and help.
Du Yan smiled and said: “Madam, go and get busy.”
When Du Yan was talking to the lady boss, everyone at the table was silent and listened to their conversation. For some reason, no one wanted to say anything.
Only after the lady boss left did the atmosphere at the table become lively again.
Xiao Lang asked Du Yan: “Are you interested in these stories?”
Du Yan responded casually: “I came out to collect folk arts. A painting will be more vivid if there is a story behind it.”
The story about the old man on the wall and his precious chair did not make people who had completely forgotten what happened in their dreams feel any different.
The story ended like this. After finishing the meal, everyone followed the sign and walked towards the ancient village.
Near the entrance of the village, the path was blocked, and a ticket office was set up next to it. The ticket price was not expensive, about a few dozen yuan.
Xiao Lang went to buy a ticket. The seller pushed the ticket out through the small window and then said in a stiff tone: “You have to get out before 5 pm. The place will be cleared in the evening.”
Xiao Lang took a few travel brochures from the shelf next to him, and then the group officially entered the ancient village.
The further they go inside, the fewer modern buildings they see until they cross a stone bridge, and it feels like they have traveled through time and space to another world.
After crossing the stone bridge, there was a tall memorial archway with the traditional Chinese characters ‘Chastity’ written on it. The memorial archway should have been carved from white jade, but after years of erosion, the originally clean white memorial archway has turned a grayish blue.
The delicate carvings above the archway were also a bit blurred by wear and tear, and the line of text under the word chastity that commends virtue and martyrs was also a bit blurry. Only the word ‘Fan Shi’ can be vaguely made out.
Zhou Tian was a typical young literary woman, and she was very interested in this unique building that looks old.
She ran directly to the archway, took photos with her phone for a long time, then handed the phone to Wei Zizhe, and asked her boyfriend to take photos of her.
Du Yan stood not far away, his eyes staring at the top of the archway, the so-called Chastity Archway. Du Yan sneered in his heart. This archway was not as glamorous as it appeared on the surface.
He flipped through the tourist brochure in his hand, and the first page spent a lot of space introducing the origin of this memorial archway. It was basically about a virtuous woman two hundred years ago. This woman, Fan Shi, lost her husband when she was young and worked hard to raise her posthumous son. After her son became successful, she followed her husband and hanged herself at home with a piece of white silk.
Zhou Tian had already finished taking photos, and everyone was preparing to move on, but Xiao Lang discovered that Du Yan did not follow.
He looked back and saw Du Yan leaning against the archway, looking at the top of it very seriously: “Du Yan, is there any problem with this archway?”
Du Yan seemed to have just come to his senses, retracted his gaze, and walked over: “Nothing, I just saw something quite interesting.”
Du Yan and Xiao Lang walked forward side by side. After a few steps, he turned back and looked at the memorial archway.
The blue-gray memorial archway stood quietly at the entrance of the village. However, there was something out of place at the top of the memorial archway. It was a pair of exquisite embroidered shoes in bright red, which should have been worn by girls in ancient times when they got married.
The more they walked, the more they felt that this ancient village was indeed unique. The roads under their feet were all paved with bluestone slabs. Over the years, moss grew in the gaps between the slabs, making them bumpy and uneven.
When they step on it, it seems that they can hear the lingering singing of time with every step.
The path was long and deep, only wide enough for two people to walk side by side. The old houses on both sides were not high, but for some reason, the bright sunshine outside seemed unable to fall on this path.
The whole trail has a cool feeling that doesn’t belong to summer.
Most of the old houses were built with bluestone bricks, and moss grows between the gaps between the bricks. Although this was a cultural relic protection unit, Shunping was just a small town with a not very developed economy. The government does not have much money to repair the ancient village. Apart from some representative buildings, many houses have collapsed in half, leaving only a few bluestone walls.
As they walked along the bluestone road, they began to feel something was wrong. After all, the ancient village was a tourist attraction. Although there were not too many people, they did not encounter any other tourists along the way.
Zhou Tian stopped, rubbed her arms, and said: “Do you think it’s a bit strange? Why can’t we see anyone else except us?”
Xiao Lang said: “In fact, the ancient village was quite popular before, but the tunnel collapsed some time ago, and many people didn’t know it was open to the public. Fewer people came during this period.”
Wei Zizhe laughed at her: “Didn’t you say that when you travel, you hate crowded tourist spots with no atmosphere at all? Doesn’t this just meet your requirements?”
Zhou Tian looked a little sad: “That’s what I said, but there are too few people.”
While the few people were talking, the path had come to the end, and the view in front of them opened up. What came into view was the most solemn building in the entire village.
Ancestral hall.
Compared to the run-down ordinary houses, the ancestral hall was quite new and looked a bit out of place. It seems that it has been repaired and maintained every year. The lacquer painting at the main entrance of the ancestral hall was very bright in color, and the lacquered red door was tightly closed.
Liang Fei seemed very interested in this ancestral hall. He walked around the gate several times and turned back to ask: “Why is the door closed?”
Xiao Lang explained: “People with other surnames are generally not allowed to enter the ancestral hall in the village, so it must be locked.”
“Really?” Liang Fei was a little unwilling to give up, and raised his hand and gently pushed it: “I want to see more.”
Du Yan said: “I advise you not to go in.”
“Ah?” Liang Fei was startled for some reason and retracted his hand.
But it was too late. The door didn’t seem to be locked at all. It just slowly opened with a push. The door looked very heavy, but it opened silently.
Liang Fei was a little panicked and waved his hands repeatedly: “I, I didn’t mean to do that. I didn’t use any force at all. I just touched it lightly. How come the door opened?”
The scene was indeed a little weird, and everyone held their breath, fearing that they would see something they shouldn’t see behind the door.
Unexpectedly, there was nothing behind the wooden door.
Liang Fei patted his chest and said: “I was scared to death, but why is there nothing in here?”
Xiao Lang explained: “It’s a normal phenomenon. Our local ancestral hall is only used when there is a major event in the village. For example, to worship ancestors or to keep the body of an elderly person for a few days after his or her death.”
Liang Fei held onto the door and peered inside: “However, the lacquer paintings above are very exquisite, and the masters are among the people.”
After hearing what he said, people gathered around to see the decorations inside the ancestral hall.
Xiao Lang did not stop them, but just said: “You just need to look from the door. Outsiders should not go in and offend.”
Du Yan’s eyes fell on the ground. There was a patio at the entrance of the ancestral hall. The sunlight shone through the patio and cast a shadow on the ground of the ancestral hall. Perhaps it was because of the big tree outside.
Or maybe it’s because of something else.
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