A Guest in a Ghost House Chapter 172 Witch Yan’s first love

"At that time, my mother was very fierce. I couldn't go to the school, but I could learn her skills. Among all the other children, I was abnormal. But I was so talented that I learned about 70% to 80% of my mother's skills when I was still a girl. At that time, my mother was no longer come out to help other instead it was me. Gradually, I also had some fame in the surrounding villages. Slowly, I found a lot of weird things that actually started in our village. At that time, the ancient well had not been sealed yet, but there was an old tradition in the village. It said that after the moon appears, it was prohibited to fetch water from the old well anymore. No matter how thirsty people are. Even for people chatting around the ancient well. They had to go from entrance of village to the end of village for drinking water rather than drinking water from the old well. If anyone's family was not obedient, they will be punished fiercely. In the beginning, I didn't recognized why people had to do in this way, until I helped one man got rid of ghost. He was a stranger, I did not know why things was so troublesome. Before this I had never met that kind of tough ghost. At that time I paid tremendous effort trying to remove the ghost from him, but just after one night every time I got rid of a ghost from him, the stranger will be entangled with another ghost. Even if I lived next to the man, I still couldn't find the reason. I had been helping my mother and successful for three years. Because proud and arrogant, I could not accept such a fact that I couldn't deal with it. We lived together day and night, I got a good impression on the stranger gradually. Just at that time, my mother appeared. She said that the stranger drank the water in the old well when the moon rose, and it's impossible to get rid of ghost from him."

Witch Yan stopped. Her face turned red a bit while she talked about that man. But, it was replaced by sad soon. I and Li did not speak, just watching her recalled the past quietly.

"I'm old now, talking such unimportant words may looked silly" Witch Yan did not wait for our answer, but went on to talk about the past.

"I've helped people for so long, and I've never seen any gods. If there was, it turned out that they were just some fake gods, so I certainly not believed in god, and in order to better protect the stranger and find out what was going on. I lived in a house with the man together, gradually other people started some groundless talking about us. But I did not care about them. I still couldn't find out how the evicted ghost is attached to him again. Since this way was blocked. I intended to take another ways. It's said that the reason was he had drank the water from the old well when the moon was risen which annoyed some gods. Then I'll see what kind of gods were there. On one night, I took him to the old well. When I was about to go down, he stopped me to do so. His reason was that I was a girl. He was the only one person who cared about me and treated me as a girl. I couldn't argue with him,and I could only watched him disappear in the old well bit by bit. And the last word he said was "there was a gate below." When I thought I could find out the truth, my mother came and gave me a hard beat. Then I knelt on the beside the ancient well and watching villagers lift the bucket from the ancient well. Unfortunately, there was nothing but only a shadow, a shadow of him. "

Witch Yan turned back her head in a gentle face, her hand was caressing in the air. I then saw him, I didn't know from what time that huge black shadow had been standing at the back of Witch Yan, he was just standing there silently.

Was it, Was it the stranger?

As expected, the next words of Witch Yan proved all this.

"After the shadow came up, my mother's expression was strange. She said I was blessed by gods, gods let the stranger protect me, because he loved me as well as I loved him. I remembered that I was so happy. As well as he was still right there with me, what was the difference between a ghost and a man. But later on, I recognized I was wrong. He has completely lost his consciousness. He was just protecting me instinctively. Since I was banned by my mother, at that time I began to learn everything about the ancient well in all ways. But everything seems to be deliberately hidden, and there were not many information. The only thing I got was the ancient well and the locust tree had existed when the village was found long time ago, and no one knew how long it had been. Nobody knew when the locust tree and ancient well started to become the patron saint of the village, blessing our village had good weather for the crops every year. On one hand, no one asked for a reason, just obeyed this ancient rule. On the other hand, those who had not complied with gods was punished. There were about two kinds of punishments. One was just like the stranger, who was attached by a strange ghost, impossible set free for rest of his life, moreover, he would disappear mysteriously within about 49 days. As for the shadow, it was said that, as long as two people loved each other, if one of them got into the ancient well voluntary he or she would become a powerful shadow and kept protecting the other one against evil. As time passed, young people left here gradually because of the more and more open environment, and more and more young people no longer believed in the legend of ancient well. Until about a decade ago. A young man who had a successful career outside of the village came back suddenly. He was very rich at that time. Thanks to his wealth, villagers had a chance to take a look at luxury cars. The young man known human being very well, he sent almost every family a generous gift. It was said that the young man was doing antique business. He insisted that there was an ancient tomb under the ancient well. He planed to dig down the ancient well. The elderly in village were definitely not agreed with him, but because villagers had accepted his gifts, no one stopped him at that time. Furthermore, the young man promised that he would build a new house for every family. The elderly were persuaded by their children, finally, even the elderly became silent.The young man's team was very professional. Though they didn't believe in ancient legend, they were well equipped. They succeed at getting down the ancient well for several times which gave them enough confident. So, they began to excavate inside the ancient well, but this time, no one was able to return. Later on, lifting machines pulled out countless skeletons and corpses, but no living man. Some of them were recognized as old people who lost their way decades ago. The elderly in the village started to object to dig ancient again. The young man was also frightened and ran away in a hurry. In less than a month, the village found the young man at the entrance of village, and he was cursed by the second kind of punishment. It is no longer important whether the ancient well was god or not. There were so many skeletons in the ancient well that no one dared to take water from it again. Soon, the ancient well was sealed, and no one walked on the road in front of the well. It would also have to thank the young man, anyway, he built a new road for the village."

Witch Yan seemed to have finished the story and no longer spoke. I still had a question in my mind, because she didn't illustrate one thing clearly. What's the second kind of punishment？