She said sternly with a crying voice:
‘Don’t come back! Your father won’t lose his life, so don’t come back this week. Just live over there in the school. Your teacher and I have agreed, she’ll lend you some money for food first. When the family is safe… I will call your teacher, and you can come back, do you hear me?!‘
Bai Shigu was confused and felt strange at the same time.
It was true that there were wolves in the mountains, but those animals lived deep in the mountains and would not wander around the village. His father went up the mountain just to collect things and catch rabbits. How could a wolf bite his leg off?
His mother’s vague and frightened words also made him nervous. He always felt that something had happened at home.
But under his mother’s stern instructions, and even threatened the relationship between them, mother and son, the boy suppressed his anxiety and uneasiness and did not go home.
A boy one year older than him in the same school was from the same village as him.
In the past weekends, they all rode back to the village together. The next day his mother called, and the boy rode his bike to go home.
Bai Shigu was a little nervous and talked to the boy, asking him not to go home yet.
He said that his family also called his teacher and sent a message, asking him not to go back this week, saying that it was not safe on the way home.
But the other party didn’t take it seriously at all.
How could a road that had been walked for two years be unsafe?
The boy laughed at Bai Shigu, saying that he was timid and listened to his mother.
Bai Shigu didn’t say anything when he saw that he couldn’t persuade him, but he was still worried in his heart because he knew that if it weren’t an important matter, his mother wouldn’t stop him from going back. Especially, now that his father’s leg was broken.
On Sunday, the boy didn’t return to school. The next day, Bai Shigu went to his class to find him, wanting to ask if the boy knew about his family’s situation after returning to the village.
As a result, the boy’s classmates said he didn’t come all morning, and the teacher came to the class to ask in the morning.
This shows that the boy from the same village didn’t ask for leave from the teacher in advance, and he disappeared.
That afternoon, Bai Shigu couldn’t help but borrow the teacher’s mobile phone again and call his mother at home.
One was to ask about his father’s leg injury, and the other was to ask why the boy didn’t come back after returning to the village.
His mother on the other end of the phone didn’t say anything for a long time before speaking in a hoarse voice:
‘Shigu, I will tell you the truth. Our village has been in turmoil recently. It seems that something has entangled us.’
‘Your father and your second uncle went up the mountain to hunt rabbits. For no reason, a wild wolf with red eyes pounced on them and attacked people actively, as if it had lost its mind…’
‘In addition to your father being bitten on the leg by a wolf, other families in the village also had strange things happen. Some people wanted to leave the village to take refuge, but… Anyway, they couldn’t leave, so I dare not let you come back!’
‘I’m afraid that if you come back, you will encounter something bad, then your father and I will not live!’
Bai Shigu was shocked when he heard it. His first reaction was that his mother was joking with him.
Although there were some legends about mandrills and wild men in the village, they had never seen them.
He suddenly thought of something in his mind and asked hurriedly:
‘What about Zhuangzi?’
Zhuangzi was a boy from the same village who was one year older than him and went home on Saturday night instead of staying at school.
His mother on the other end of the phone was silent for a long time before slowly speaking with a trembling voice:
‘Zhuangzi’s mother called his teacher and told him not to come back! But he refused to listen and returned secretly without telling his family…’
When Bai Shigu heard this, he had a vague suspicion of something bad in his heart.
Sure enough, he heard his mother continue:
‘Zhuangzi’s mother was panicked on Saturday night. She said she dreamed that Zhuangzi was covered in blood at the entrance of the village. She woke up in the middle of the night, crying and howling that her child must have been in trouble. Then their family went to the road outside the village in the dark with a lamp.’
‘As a result, they found him not far from where Zhuangzi’s mother dreamed! He was lying face down on the ground covered in blood… his stomach was torn, and his internal organs were eaten out by something!’
His mother said in a crying voice that when their family saw Zhuangzi’s miserable state at first, they were so scared that she fainted on the spot.
The next day, on Sunday, their whole family was crying and making a fuss, saying that ghosts and wolves beset the village.
The child was gone, so the family naturally couldn’t think of asking for leave from school.
No one knew what Zhuangzi encountered on the way home that evening.
But what was certain was, he must have suffered inhuman torture.
Hearing this, Bai Shigu couldn’t help but imagine those scenes in his mind and became scared.
Then his mother repeatedly told him not to return to the village, but how could he rest assured that his parents were still in the village?
In the following week, he often borrowed the phone of his class teacher to contact his family and gradually learned more strange things that happened in the village, which made him very anxious.
His class teacher was a young female college student who had just graduated two years ago. She came from another province to teach in their town school. She knew more and had more channels than these mountain children.
Those days, Bai Shigu always went to borrow her phone and made calls in the office.
After listening to some of it, the class teacher knew about the strange things happening in Watuo Village.
She also gave Bai Shigu a suggestion, saying that there was a very popular metaphysical variety show on the Internet now, and the contestants help those who encounter evil spirits and ghosts to see things and catch ghosts for free.
Why not let the adults in their village contact the program team?
After listening to it, Bai Shigu borrowed the phone of the class teacher and saw the “Spiritual Affairs” program team. He was very moved and called his mother at home to tell her.
But the middle-aged woman, who had never left the village, had never been to school, and hardly ever used the Internet, didn’t believe that any kind-hearted person from another province would travel to this remote place to help them solve the incident.
She just told Bai Shigu not to worry about it and focus on studying at school.
In the end, Bai Shigu, who was worried, got the staff’s contact information from the program team’s official website with his class teacher’s help and mustered up the courage to call the “Spiritual Affairs” program team for assistance.
He hoped the program team could help their village and solve those strange incidents.
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