nycdaug Chapter 445 [Train] Grave
Chapter 445 [Train] Grave
The basic background has been understood.
"Based on Zhang Qiang's experience, we have a path we can take right now."
Chen Yuetan said, "If we wait in the village until nightfall and see the railway tracks, we'll drive along them and maybe find Tian Qinghe and the others."
The clues provided by Dong Qiaoyue were undoubtedly a shot in the arm, and even Han Bing's expression relaxed considerably. At least everyone was no longer like headless flies, without any direction.
The bus arrived at the village soon.
Like other rural areas in North China, the village was not depicted in detail on the map, only marked with the word "simple".
Zhangzhai.
Looking around, the fields were all barren, with no crops, only weeds.
"This place is so run-down... Does anyone still live in this village?"
Han Bing looked around, her brows furrowing slightly.
He himself came from a rural background, but compared to Zhangzhai, his hometown could be considered a county town.
This place is full of old mud houses, not a single newly built one. It's hard to imagine that in 2025, there would still be a village like this.
Everyone got out of the car. The village only had one main road, and the further they went in, the more desolate it felt.
There isn't even a small shop.
"Has the whole village been relocated?" someone asked. "Didn't many villages get relocated to the city because of land acquisition issues?"
Han Bing raised her hand to call Dong Qiaoyue, but just then, a burst of laughter suddenly rang out from the west end of the village.
The voice sounded very young.
There's someone here... This isn't an empty village after all!
Chen Ji's eyes flashed, and he walked towards the direction from which the wailing sound came.
Soon he saw a mud house where a child was throwing marbles.
There was no one else.
"Where are your parents?" Chen Ji asked.
The child glanced at him, then turned and went back into the house.
After a while, an old man with a hunched back came out. He looked to be in his sixties or seventies and had a face full of age spots.
What are you doing here?
The old man asked.
Chen Ji thought for a moment and said he was looking for someone.
"What?"
"Find someone!" Chen Ji shouted.
He noticed that the old man's hearing seemed to be impaired.
"Who are you looking for?" the old man muttered in confusion. "Where is anyone? They've all left!"
"Gone? Where did you go?"
"They're living the good life in the city!" the old man yelled. "Everyone who stayed here is dead!"
These words made Chen Ji's eyes narrow.
They're all dead...
The survey team members' expressions changed slightly, and Han Bing immediately stepped forward and asked in their dialect:
"Sir, what do you mean by that?"
The old man stared at him blankly, unsure whether he didn't understand what he was saying or hadn't heard him clearly.
"Ahem." Han Bing cleared her throat: "How did those people die?"
"Let me calculate..."
The old man responded slowly, "89, 70, 71, 68, 52..."
He shakily counted on his fingers, repeating numbers until Han Bing's face grew increasingly pale, at which point he mumbled:
"One of them has some kind of cancer, and the rest are all just getting old!"
Han Bing: "......."
He turned his head and said helplessly, "He's talking about lifespan. It seems they all die of old age."
A false alarm.
So, in that case, everyone was actually right.
All the able-bodied people in the village have moved away, leaving behind only the elderly. As time has passed, many of the elderly who remained have passed away.
Does this include the protagonists of those two stories?
Du Tingfeng asked, "Grandpa, do you know Zhang Qiang?"
To everyone's surprise, as soon as Du Tingfeng finished speaking, the old man suddenly raised his head, his cloudy eyes trembling slightly:
"Zhang Qiang..."
"Are you looking for Zhang Qiang?"
The old man's mouth trembled as he cried out, "That's my own brother!"
"You're Zhang Zhu!" Everyone was taken aback.
If you calculate the age, it roughly matches up.
After a short while, everyone roughly understood the situation of Zhang Qiang's family.
It turns out that Zhang Qiang passed away a few years ago, and the child he just saw was his grandson.
Zhang Zhu had also heard about what happened back then and provided some new clues.
After the railway incident, several more disappearances occurred in the village. Without exception, the victims went out at night and were never heard from again.
Some say they were kidnapped by human traffickers, but many more believe that these people who disappear at night are all bewitched by ghosts!
That's why it disappeared without a trace.
As a result, the villagers developed the habit of not going out at night.
Although no similar incidents have occurred in the village since 95, this custom has persisted to this day.
Chen Ji and Du Tingfeng exchanged a barely perceptible glance. They both knew that those people were not necessarily "possessed" by ghosts, but more likely had stumbled upon ghosts repairing the railway.
Or perhaps they simply walked along the railway line and, like Tian Qinghe, vanished without a trace.
This actually confirms that Chen Yuetan's method is feasible.
After giving a perfunctory answer, Han Bing asked how the crazy woman from back then was doing.
The old man was still slow to understand. After talking for a long time, everyone finally realized that he wasn't the same person they were talking about at all.
They were talking about a crazy woman; the old man was referring to a woman named Zhang Feng from the village.
"He may have some dementia."
After leaving Zhang Zhu's house, Han Bing sighed.
They checked each room one by one, and just as Zhang Zhu had said, they were all covered in dust and dirt, indicating that no one had lived there for a long time.
Afterwards, everyone went to check out the nearby fields.
No one was tending to the fields; only tall weeds remained. It was still daytime, and there was nothing related to the railway in sight.
The cool breeze of May blew over Chen Ji.
He gazed at the acres of abandoned fields, dotted with numerous graves, which had remained untouched for countless years, making the landscape appear exceptionally desolate.
“There are no proper cemeteries here.” Du Tingfeng stood beside him and said softly, “Many rural graves are built very haphazardly. In the south, they are usually built in the mountains, but this is a plain, so they can only be built in the fields.”
The two slowly walked toward the nearest grave, which was not too old, probably built no more than ten years ago.
A stone tablet was placed on top of the grave, but it contained no photo, only the name and dates of birth and death.
"Zhang Yan.......1939-2011......"
Chen Ji glanced at it.
This is a woman's name, but her age doesn't match that of a crazy woman.
"Did you say the madwoman's husband was eventually buried?" Du Tingfeng asked.
Chen Ji nodded: "I think so. After all, that era—"
His words stopped abruptly.
Without any warning, a strong, strange smell suddenly entered his nostrils!
Bitter, rotten, and disgusting.
It was... the strange smell from that green train carriage.
At the same time, a cold gaze fell on Chen Ji from above, making his scalp tingle!
He suddenly raised his head, his eyes freezing in shock.
On the tombstone...
A black and white photo was pasted on it.
A photo that should have remained in the old green train carriage.
Chen Ji was all too familiar with the scenes inside.
hospital.
Sickbed.
The only difference is.
The terminally ill monk was no longer curled up on his sickbed, but stood very close to the camera, as if he were about to crawl out—
He stared down at Chen Ji with a blank expression.