I immediately asked him, I said, Grandpa Young, weren’t you dead? How come you’re here to watch the opera?

Grandpa Young didn’t answer me. Instead, he kicked me on the butt and kept urging me to leave quickly!

I asked him why he wanted me to go. I wanted to finish watching the opera before going back. Grandpa Young looked around, then leaned in and whispered to me that tonight’s opera was invited for Granny Clark's big birthday, and it was being performed for people like them. I couldn’t watch it. In short, he insisted that I go home immediately.

Just then, an old lady with a head full of white hair, skinny as a stick and her face covered in wrinkles, suddenly walked over and leaned her face close to mine, giving me quite a scare.

The old lady smiled and said, “Oh, a new guest has come, how rare! Stay and watch the opera tonight, don’t bother going back!”

At this moment, Grandpa Young started begging her, asking her to let me go home, saying I was his grandson.

After hearing this, the old lady sighed, then patted my head and said she liked me as a child. She told me that if I ever needed anything, I could call her name. She introduced herself as Granny Clark.

I was completely confused and didn’t know what was going on. After Granny Clark left, Grandpa Young dragged me out, got angry, and told me to leave, not to look back, and to keep walking forward to get home.

As we were leaving, he also told me to tell Grandpa that he wasn’t doing too well, had no money to spend, and wanted Grandpa to send him some money.

So, I was scolded all the way back, but when I heard the sound of opera singing behind me, I couldn’t help but turn around to look. But that was a big mistake—what I saw scared me out of my wits...

Chapter Three: The Ditch of the Dead

When I turned around, I saw that there were no houses behind me at all. In fact, the entire village had disappeared.

Where there had clearly been houses before, there was now nothing but a desolate, uninhabited wasteland! The only thing that hadn’t changed was the tall, wild grass, taller than a person, growing everywhere. Scattered across the field were small mounds of earth, dotting the wild grassland.

Seeing this, how could I not understand? Weren’t these little mounds graves?

These graves were scattered all over the wasteland, messy and disorganized, some here, some there. Some had tombstones, others were just low mounds of earth—if you weren’t paying attention, you might not even realize they were graves!

Ghostly lights flickered among the graves—these were clearly the same white lanterns that had been hanging from the door beams of the houses! Looking further into the distance, where the opera was being sung, the place was still brightly lit and bustling, but the stage had vanished. The opera singers were now standing on top of several pitch-black coffins! Below the coffins were pale ghostly figures, and nearby, soul-summoning banners fluttered in the night wind...

Seeing this, I shivered violently, goosebumps covering my whole body. I realized I had seen ghosts.

I was so terrified that I didn’t dare stay a second longer. I turned and ran as fast as I could, not daring to look back!

The moonlight was bright, so I wasn’t running blind, but after running for a long time, I still didn’t see even the shadow of the woods. Looking around, I found I was still in the wild grassland.

Just then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw that same wild rabbit appear again, this time on top of a grave mound to my left. It stood up and glanced at me, then with a “whoosh,” it darted into the grave.

At that moment, I felt that this creature was extremely sinister, and I didn’t dare try to catch it anymore. I just wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. But just as I was about to run, an old man suddenly emerged from behind the tombstone where the rabbit had disappeared, holding a white lantern in his hand. He looked terrifying, and I was nearly scared to death. I screamed and turned to run!

But I hadn’t gone far before another person appeared ahead, dressed all in white and also carrying a lantern.

Just as I was about to turn and run again, I heard that person calling my name, “Ergou, Ergou,” over and over.

As soon as I heard that voice, I wasn’t scared anymore, because it was Grandpa’s voice—he had come to find me.

I answered and ran over. When Grandpa saw me, he was both shocked and delighted, and gave me a good scolding.

I told him there was an old man chasing me, but when I looked back, the desolate wasteland was empty—there was nothing there at all, just some snakes and insects chirping...

Grandpa didn’t say anything, just told me to hurry home. When we got home, Grandpa started asking me how I ended up in the Ditch of the Dead in the middle of the night.

The Ditch of the Dead—was that place really called the Ditch of the Dead? Just hearing the name sent a chill down my spine and made me feel even more afraid.

I’d heard the villagers talk about the Ditch of the Dead before. They said it didn’t always have that name, but after a plague wiped out the whole village, outsiders started calling it the Ditch of the Dead.

The villagers said that the Ditch of the Dead was filled with resentment, and that living people who went there would always run into trouble. Over time, no one dared set foot there again! Although I’d heard the name from the villagers, I never knew where the Ditch of the Dead actually was.

Realizing I’d somehow ended up in the Ditch of the Dead, how could I not be scared? So I told Grandpa everything that had happened that night, from chasing the rabbit, to Grandpa Young, to Granny Clark—I told him everything.