Chapter 44:

Xu Siya’s purposes

Although the village chief and his wife felt uneasy, they still retained their basic ability to think.

As Jing Qizhen and the others analyzed the situation, they had no intention of hiding anything, and the village chief and his wife who were listening felt increasingly unsettled.

The village chief hesitated. “Wait, wait, what are you talking about? What do you mean Erya’s power is at the weakest on her death anniversary and what does this have to do with Siya?”

Hearing his question, Jing Qizhen responded directly, “Xu Erya likely had nothing to do with the projection of the oil pan hell. On the contrary, it is Xu Siya who possesses a book called ‘Journey to Hell’ that describes scenes from the oil pan hell—”

Among them, only the elderly Grandma Fang, the middle-aged Old Xiao, and Jin Guijuan were relatively familiar with the daily life in the village. The others were completely in the dark about the villagers’ usual habits.

Meanwhile, the village chief and his wife, being locals, might interpret the same story in a completely different way than Jing Qizhen and the others.

However, to Jing Qizhen’s surprise, upon mentioning ‘Journey to Hell’ and the oil pan hell, the village chief and his wife exchanged glances in silence.

The village chief’s wife hesitated a little before she whispered, “We also have the book ‘Journey to Hell’ in our house…”

“…What?” Everyone was momentarily stunned.

Seeing their shocked expression, the village chief’s wife was somewhat taken aback by their reaction. She hesitantly stammered, “…I-I’ll go get it and show it to you.” After saying that, she went into the inner room to look for it in the cabinet.

Lu Lingxi, who had a background in a military academy and a ‘pure and loyal’ spirit, stared at the village chief with innocent Bambi-like eyes and couldn’t help but exclaim in frustration, “You’re the village chief! Aren’t you a Party member? How can you believe in these superstitions nonsense?”

The village chief looked helpless and said while on the verge of tears, “I didn’t believe it at first!”

“And now the whole village has ended up like this?” Jing Qizhen rubbed his forehead with one hand and added in equal exasperation.

The village chief explained, “Yes! I even went to report it at the town’s police station. The police officer came back with me to the village but then, everything was gone the next day and he suggested I go to the hospital to see a real doctor instead of just relying on the village’s unskilled doctor. He said if I’m seriously ill, I should go to the hospital. But the villagers all said they saw it that day, yet the police just didn’t believe me!”

Jing Qizhen who was still rubbing his forehead: …

Old Xiao couldn’t contain his curiosity and asked, “So, what happened after that? Did you go to the police station again the next year?”

“A year had already passed, so who still remembers this incident? But the following year, it happened again and everyone got together to discuss. We finally realized that it was Erya’s death anniversary. Everyone in the village knew that Erya died unjustly but it was her parents doing, so there was nothing we could do. Anyway, Erya didn’t hurt anyone and it only happened once a year while late at night, so it didn’t interfere with work during the day. People just lament in private and didn’t think much more of it…” narrated the village chief.

Everyone glanced at each other and for a moment they were speechless.

After holding back for a while, Manman finally blurted out, “Everyone in the village has… quite an open mind about this…”

“Well, what else can we do? Erya is gone. At most, when we go to pay respects to our ancestors around Qingming, we mention her to the ancestors and hope they can help her if they see her.” The village chief sighed.

Jing Qizhen: …

It was really the most practical, superstition-filled-with-socialist-characteristics mindset that hard-working villagers might have.

As they spoke, the village chief’s wife returned with a stack of books of all shapes and sizes. Among them, aside from the familiar copy of ‘Journey to Hell,’ there were all sorts of strange cult books and even odd rural ghost stories…

However, it looked like some pages in ‘Journey to Hell’ had been torn out, probably being used as kindling, and although the cover was still there, the second half of the book was missing.

Jing Qizhen directly picked up the ‘Journey to Hell’ and shook his head slightly as he whispered, “It’s just an ordinary book, not the same as the one in Xu Siya’s hand.”

His companions naturally understood Jing Qizhen’s implication without further explanation.

The village chief and his wife, on the other hand, couldn’t help but ask, “What’s different?”

“The ‘Journey to Hell’ in Xu Siya’s hand can summon the oil pan hell. The book in your home shouldn’t be able to do it, right?” Jing Qizhen replied directly.

The village chief and his wife shook their heads at the same time. The village chief also wondered aloud, “But why would a child like Siya summon an oil pan hell?”

“That’s what we’ve been trying to figure out. By the way, village chief, have you ever heard the nursery rhyme ‘Jingle Bells’ before?” asked Jing Qizhen.

The village chief shook his head again.

Jing Qizhen fell into deep thought. “They can see the oil pan hell but can’t hear the nursery rhymes?”

Manman said, “The last time we were at the Xu family’s house, the village chief and the others did not see the projection of the oil pan hell.”

Lu Lingxi had already taken a pen and drawn two columns on the back of the calendar pages, writing the names of Xu Erya and Xu Siya at the top.

Jing Qizhen looked at Lu Lingxi’s notes and said thoughtfully, “Let’s list all the questions we have first.”

Lu Lingxi: “Got it!”

Soon, under Xu Erya’s name, Lu Lingxi wrote down all the relevant clues that everyone had mentioned, including the strange little girl, the broken tombstone, the Christmas reindeer music box, and the ‘Jingle Bells’ nursery rhyme.

As for Xu Siya’s name, the content was relatively simple, with only the ‘Journey to Hell’ and the oil pan hell written underneath.

Grandma Fang added, “We haven’t found the reason why the plants on the mountain aren’t growing properly. I remember Little Jing said that when you, Manman, and Yan Hong were in the mountain ravine, you saw a place where the plants were thriving?”

Lu Lingxi let out a soft ‘Ah’ and casually drew a simple sketch depicting a tombstone with a small circle of dense plants around it and a large circle of dry, withered plants on the outside.

Jing Qizhen thought for a moment before he took the pen from Lu Lingxi. He added two words ‘broken tombstone’ on the tombstone and then drew a few arrows pointing inwards.

Immediately, he followed up by adding a parenthesis behind the ‘strange little girl’ with (Xu Siya’s appearance, Xu Erya’s memories, a child’s mindset).

Manman stared at the newly added information and suddenly said, “Looking at it this way, with Xu Siya’s appearance and Xu Erya’s memories… isn’t that weird little girl a mix of both?”

Jing Qizhen paused slightly. “She has both Xu Erya and Xu Siya’s characteristics?”

“Yes.” Manman nodded.

Jin Guijuan said, “We still don’t understand why that weird little girl has Xu Siya’s appearance when her memories come from Xu Erya.”

When the village chief and his wife heard them, they couldn’t help but feel a jolt of anxiety and asked in worry, “What weird little girl?”

“The day we entered the village, we met a ghost. The child looked like this,” Jing Qizhen explained briefly.

Probably because the oil pan hell had appeared every year on Xu Erya’s death anniversary, the village chief was firmly convinced of the ghostly encounters surrounding Xu Erya.

The couple looked at each other and the village chief’s wife whispered, “Isn’t this a common occurrence?”

Jing Qizhen and others were immediately stunned.

“What?!”

“Is it common?!”

The village chief’s wife waved her hands at them desperately. “Keep your voice down, keep your voice down!” She then continued, “If someone passes away and their soul cannot rest in peace due to some reason, they might appear in dreams or even attach themselves to a family member to express their thoughts. Isn’t that common thing?”

“…but that weird little girl suddenly disappears like smoke every time,” replied Lu Lingxi.

The village chief’s wife casually responded, “That’s the proof she’s not human!”

Lu Lingxi: …

Wait, why does it sound quite reasonable?

Jing Qizhen reached out and patted Lu Lingxi on the shoulder. “Don’t take it too seriously. Strange things can happen in strange places at any time. In erosion areas, this way of thinking might actually make sense.”

Then, Jing Qizhen recalled the scene when the strange little girl appeared. “The first time she appeared, she saw Little Lu climbing a tree and asked him a question. After I answered, she left.

“The second time she appeared, Little Lu was mending a cotton-padded coat. She took hers and asked me another question, then left again—”

The village chief’s wife immediately said, “This means that her yearning has been fulfilled, so she could disappear in peace!”

Manman complained quietly, “Clearly, she was shocked by Little Jing’s answer.”

Jing Qizhen: …

The village chief’s wife now understood what Jing Qizhen and the others were discussing, so she straightforwardly shared her opinion, “Since Erya died tragically, isn’t it normal for her soul to be restless and for her to haunt the village in the form of her younger sister?”

Jing Qizhen tried, “It seems she doesn’t even realize that she is Xu Erya—”

Before Jing Qizhen could finish speaking, the village chief’s wife interrupted, “A person has three souls and seven spirits. If they lose any soul or spirit, they might forget who they are and only remember the obsession they had in life.”

Lu Lingxi pulled out his notebook again, started taking notes, and suggested, “We can add this subject to learn once we return!”

Jing Qizhen: …

The reasoning was truly impressive, quite admirable.

Realizing that the village chief’s wife was unexpectedly logical in this regard, Jing Qizhen simply continued to ask, “Then what do you think about Xu Siya summoning the oil pan hell? By the way, where did the ‘Journey to Hell’ books come from?”

“Are you sure Siya created the oil pan hell?” The village chief’s wife asked.

Jing Qizhen nodded and replied affirmatively, “Yes.”

The village chief’s wife responded, “Then it depends on what Siya does next!”

Jing Qizhen: “She headed toward the Xu family’s house…”

At that point, Jing Qizhen suddenly froze. Thinking about the confrontation between Xu Erya and Xu Siya, an idea suddenly came to his mind. “I know! After she got ‘Journey to Hell,’ she went back home! That is her purpose!”

“Wasn’t what Xu Siya did a waste of time then?” Yan Hong frowned. She was at home before and already had ‘Journey to Hell’ in her hands.

Manman also started to understand and she scratched her hair as she thoughtfully conveyed, “I think I get what Little Jing means. When Xu Siya was at home, the oil pan hell was only a projection, which means the Xu family might have some power to suppress her.”

Jing Qizhen nodded. “Yes. When she followed us and asked us to take ‘Journey to Hell’ out of the Xu family’s house, she probably wanted to escape the suppression from the Xu family!”

After all, Xu Siya was still just a child, so even in the erosion area, her power was limited.

But thinking back, even in the last erosion area, the female ghost Ms. Li only managed to capture the two monsters, the scumbag and the mistress, after Jing Qizhen and the others disrupted a certain balance…

Xu Siya’s actions might be similar to the female ghost Ms. Li!

With this realization, Jing Qizhen decisively said, “We’re going to the Xu family’s house! That weird little girl is probably also there!”

Jin Guijuan suddenly remembered something that Xu Siya had told her before. She froze and said in a flustered, “I… I think I know what Xu Siya wants to do.”

Immediately, everyone turned their attention to Jin Guijuan.

Jin Guijuan’s lips trembled slightly but she remained calm as she explained, “Xu Siya once told me that she was afraid of hell, so she didn’t dare to die. The only thing she was not afraid of was the oil pan hell because it smelled so good… That child probably has made up her mind to die but still has some survival instincts left. So she wants her mother to die, so she won’t be afraid anymore…”