This place has no roads at all; to get to the county seat, you have to walk over a hundred li of mountain paths. Needless to say, there’s no electricity or telephone, because this godforsaken place is basically still like ancient times. Although the conditions were tough, both Monkey and I found it quite novel, since we had never seen such great mountains before. Along the way, we listened to the locals talk about pheasants, wild boars, hares, and such, which made both me and Monkey so eager that we couldn’t wait to grab a hunting rifle and run into the mountains.

When we arrived at the village, the village Party secretary received us. His surname was Wang, about fifty years old. As soon as we met, he shook our hands tightly, so excited as if he had never seen educated people before, calling us “educated youth” with every sentence, making both me and Monkey feel quite embarrassed.

At that time, it was all about “educated youth going to the countryside, self-reliance.” We stayed at Mr. Martinez’s house for one night, and the next day, the secretary arranged our work. He assigned me and Monkey to the village’s second production team, and even specially arranged a place for us to live.

This village had few people, and the houses were scattered. The place the secretary arranged for us was an old house at the foot of the mountain, which was a bit more remote compared to other houses in the village, as the nearest household was six or seven hundred meters away. Before leaving, the secretary told us that if we needed anything, we could go to him, and told us to try not to go out at night, and especially not to go to the place with bamboo on the right side of the house.

Hearing this, both Monkey and I became curious. Not going out at night, we could understand—after all, in such deep mountains, wild animals were not uncommon. But not going to the bamboo grove on the right side of the house, that puzzled me. I quickly turned to look to the right of the house and saw that about a hundred meters away there was a flat area with a dozen or so bamboo stalks growing. Since there weren’t many bamboos, it was easy to see that there were many large slabs of bluestone on that flat ground. At first glance, that place looked like some kind of ruin.

I was curious. Other than looking like a ruin, that flat area didn’t seem dangerous at all, so why couldn’t we go there? So I voiced my doubts to the secretary.

The secretary just threw out, “That place is haunted. Anyway, if you don’t want to lose your lives, don’t go there!” Then he left us…

Watching the secretary’s departing figure, both Monkey and I were dumbfounded. We thought, even if we weren’t sure whether ghosts existed, we wouldn’t dare to talk about ghosts and spirits so casually—after all, you could get criticized for that. Was this old man really not afraid of getting into trouble?

Monkey came over and, looking at the secretary’s back, said to me, “Hey, Old Foster, we’re the Chairman’s iron guards! I think this village is really suffering from the scourge of monsters and demons. Why don’t we just forget about farming and wholeheartedly help the Chairman sweep away the feudal poison in this village!”

I rolled my eyes at him and said, “You’re an outsider—don’t end up getting yourself swept away. I think the secretary is just looking out for us. Stop coming up with those bad ideas.”

Monkey chuckled a few times, then pointed at the bamboo grove and said, “Why don’t we go check it out right now? I want to see where all these ghosts are. If a ghost really shows up, I’ll just tie it up and take it to Beijing for a parade, as an example of ‘monsters and demons.’”

I smiled at him, glanced at the bamboo grove, then turned back and told Monkey to stop bragging and hurry up and pack so we could rest early.

Time passed quickly. As educated youth in this village in Jinzhou, our daily work wasn’t too heavy. We just helped out at the edges of the fields, doing odd jobs. It wasn’t that we didn’t want to do more, but they simply wouldn’t let us, afraid we’d just get in the way.

Back then, everyone worked together and ate together in the village canteen. The food wasn’t great, but every now and then there’d be some wild game. Otherwise, who knew if we’d even get to eat meat once or twice a year.

We worked during the day, and at night everyone would gather to chat. Outside the mountains, people were busy “overthrowing all monsters and demons,” fighting tooth and nail, but here in the mountains, every night the villagers would tell us ghost stories. Even though both Monkey and I didn’t believe in ghosts or spirits, listening to their stories every night still made us glance around nervously, afraid something might suddenly appear nearby.

After listening to the villagers’ ghost stories each night, we’d return to our place by torchlight. Although Monkey always said he didn’t believe in ghosts and only believed in communism, every time we walked back with torches, he never dared to walk behind me or in front of me—he insisted on walking side by side with me. I laughed at his cowardice, but he claimed it was so he could better discuss communist ideology with me.

They say there are more people and more “yang energy” in the city, but fewer people and weaker “yang energy” in the mountains, so there are more hauntings in the countryside. That’s actually quite true. Less than a month after coming to this village, Monkey and I really did encounter something inexplicable!

Chapter 10: Ghost Fire

That day, Monkey and I must have eaten some bad wild fruit and got stomachaches. By night, both of our stomachs were churning nonstop, and it went on until midnight.

There was only one outhouse outside, and Monkey had been occupying it, so I had to squat in the grass next to the outhouse to take care of business.