Aoba Office

By now the sun was setting in the west, and the sunlight was no longer so bright. The dilapidated houses in Crooked Neck Village cast elongated shadows on the ground. There is no wind. Apart from the rustling inside the walkie-talkie, Zhuang Huai's button pressing, and Chen Zian's low voice, there was no other sound.

But I heard the ringing in the distance.

Ding bell…ding bell…

Like a footsteps.

What is clearer than the ringtone is a trace of Yin Qi. It was like the sticky Yin Qi here in Huixiang was flowing from a distance. Before I saw it, I smelled the uncomfortable smell.

Ding bell…ding bell…

My consciousness was a little dazed, as if I saw many shadows.

At this moment, the scene in front of me seemed to have many layers, with many layers of pictures overlapping each other, but the background was all the scenery of Waineck Village. The background is different, the buildings are different, and the roads are also different. As for the biggest difference in those scenes, they are the people on the road and in the house.

People were walking and talking, children were running, and chickens and ducks were strutting across the road.

A breath of life, but also a breath of peace.

Ding bell…ding bell…

I saw the flag rising slowly from the end of the road. I couldn't understand the flying characters on it. It looked like writing or some kind of talisman.

The tinkling bells became louder.

The overlapping images disappeared, leaving only the dilapidated village scene in front of me.

I had already seen the full picture of the flag. However, the first thing I saw about the person holding the flag was not his head, but his shoulders.

That's a headless person.

Ding bell…ding bell…

The bell hanging on the man's waist was ringing, and the headless body walked forward, turned on its heels, and entered the path next to it.

There was a pop.

Chen Zian sat down on the ground and pointed to the place where the man disappeared just now.

I just glanced at Chen Zian and trotted to the intersection of the path.

It wasn't actually a road, just a gap between the two courtyards.

The headless man continued to move forward, and the jingling of the bells did not stop.

I slowly fell behind.

Zhuang Huai and the others also rushed over.

Zhuang Huai and Lu Qiaolan cannot be seen. Zhuang Huai asked me directly what I saw.

Chen Zian answered first: "A Taoist priest! He has no brain!"

His voice was loud, and after he finished speaking, he immediately covered his mouth and looked carefully at the ghost in front of him.

The ghost didn't move and was still moving forward.

The path he chose was not easy to walk. He left the village on a small road and entered the hills.

My heart was beating hard.

The weeds on this road are not that high, and some of the grass has been trampled down. It is obvious that people often walk like this. Or maybe it was the path made by the ghost in front of me.

After walking for about an hour, the ghost in front turned around and suddenly disappeared.

I was in a daze, quickened my pace, and saw the mountain wall covered with grass and vines.

I walked around twice and didn't see any caves or secret passages.

In this regard, Zhuang Huai is more experienced.

He pulled the vine, "It should be behind here."

The vines were entangled and thick, making it difficult to pull them apart with bare hands. After all, you still need tools.

But Zhuang Huai just tried to contact the police station using the walkie-talkie, but failed to contact him.

At this time we took out our mobile phones, but there was no signal either.

This place is really remote and abandoned. It should be because no communication company has placed a base station here.

I couldn't help but think of the bad experience I had during the Chinese New Year.

Losing modern means of communication is a big trouble for people in this era.

"Go back first." I said decisively.

You can't just pop a solution out of thin air while you're here.

We walked back along the original road, and before we reached the village, I heard the ringing of bells again.

Chen Zian was very alert this time. When he heard the sound at the same time as me, he immediately tensed up.

His reaction certainly aroused the vigilance of Zhuang Huai and Lu Qiaolan. They couldn't see or hear. I was used to seeing and hearing. Chen Zian seemed to be a bit fake. When he really saw a ghost, he reacted very loudly, trembling and frightened.

"The ghosts here won't kill you." Lu Qiaolan said.

I have already seen the figure of the headless ghost. He looked exactly like the one we had just followed.

Chen Zian hurriedly got out of the way, and even asked us to get out of the way quickly, saying, "That's different! That's not necessarily the ghost here! He was a foreigner and was killed by the ghost here!"

When Chen Zian said the last sentence, he lowered his voice and was very nervous.

His explanation makes sense logically.

I pulled Zhuang Huai and Lu Qiaolan out of the way, and the headless ghost walked past us.

This time I actually walked past, and I could see it clearly. The flag he was holding should be some kind of talisman drawn on it. The Taoist robe he was wearing looked very ordinary, similar to the clothes of Taoist priests in film and television works. Only the bell hanging on his waist was something extraordinary. The bell was delicate and yellow, but empty inside.

A single bell can only make sound through knocking. Whether it is knocking from the outside or the hanging copper tongue swinging and knocking from the inside, it is the collision of metal that makes the sound. Otherwise, it is an electronic product with a sound-producing device installed.

But this bell could never be an electronic product. It had no copper tongue and no one touched it, so it just made a sound.

Ding bell…ding bell…

In the crisp ringtone, the bell swayed slightly due to the movement of the headless ghost.

I looked carefully and found that the direction of the swing was not quite right. It was not actually moving because of the headless ghost's movements, but seemed to be being pulled by something.

There are also some raised lines on the surface of the bell. The marks are very faint and I couldn't see them clearly.

After the ghost left, I withdrew my gaze and could still hear the sound of bells in my ears.

All four of us were a little distracted.

When they reached the village, Chen Zian said he didn't want to go to that path.

"The road is too narrow. If we encounter him again, we will have no place to hide!" Chen Zian said.

This headless ghost from out of town scared him.

What he said makes sense. We must find another place to walk along the village.

After passing two small courtyards side by side, the long fence broke off and there was a gap.

We didn't know the way, so we could only find the right direction. This place was indeed very dilapidated. At this time, we didn't mind anymore and walked in sideways through the gap in the fence.

What was originally in this yard can no longer be seen.

After walking two steps, I heard the sound of the bell again.

Ding bell…ding bell…

Chen Zian almost exploded and huddled up.

Zhuang Huai raised his eyebrows, "Again?"

My face looked a little solemn.

I originally thought that the ghost might be repeating its actions in life, unconsciously and in a loop, a bit like the death scenes in ghost movies. However, the situation seems to be different from what I suspected.

Ding bell…ding bell…

The ringtone approaches.

The headless ghost came out of the room with a big hole in it.

He walked toward the fence step by step.

After we got out of the way, he didn't do anything to us. When he walked out of the gap in the fence, he didn't turn sideways like we did. Instead, he walked directly over and walked out of our sight in the direction we came from.