In Changshan County, there was an old man surnamed An, who usually enjoyed farming. One autumn, the buckwheat he had planted ripened, and after harvesting it, he piled it up at the edge of the field ridges. At that time, there were thieves in the neighboring villages who would steal crops, so Old Man An had his farmhands load the crops onto carts under the moonlight and transport them to the threshing yard overnight. After they left, he stayed behind to patrol, resting with his head on his spear in the open field. He had just closed his eyes when he suddenly heard the sound of someone stepping on the buckwheat roots, making a “crack, crack” noise. He suspected a crop thief had come and quickly looked up, only to see a giant ghost, more than ten feet tall, with red hair and a scraggly beard, standing very close to him. Shocked, the old man didn’t have time to think; he leapt up and fiercely thrust his spear at the ghost. The ghost let out a thunderous howl and disappeared.
Fearing the ghost would return, the old man shouldered his spear and headed home. On the way, he encountered the returning farmhands and told them what he had just seen, advising them not to go back. However, the farmhands were skeptical. The next day, while everyone was spreading out the buckwheat to dry in the yard, they suddenly heard a noise in the air. Old Man An, terrified, shouted, “The ghost is here!” and ran off, with everyone following him in panic.
A little while later, they gathered again, and Old Man An told everyone to prepare more bows and arrows in case the giant ghost returned. The following day, the ghost indeed came back. Everyone fired their arrows at once, and the ghost, startled, fled. For the next two or three days, it did not return.
After the buckwheat had been threshed and stored in the granary, the yard was left scattered with messy straw. Old Man An ordered the farmhands to gather the straw and pile it into stacks. He climbed up himself to stomp the straw down, the stack standing several feet high off the ground. Suddenly, he looked into the distance and cried out loudly, “The ghost is here again!” The farmhands hurried to find their bows and arrows, but by this time, the giant ghost had already pounced on Old Man An, knocked him down, and bit off his forehead before escaping. When the farmhands climbed to the top of the straw stack, they saw that a palm-sized piece of bone had been bitten off Old Man An’s forehead, and he was unconscious. They quickly carried him home, but he soon died. After that, the ghost never appeared again, and no one knew what kind of monster it truly was.
0 Comments