beloved does not come back

From Xining to Wuwei, changing trains at Zhangye in the middle, it took more than half a day.

It was evening when we arrived in Wuwei, and when we walked out of Wuwei Railway Station, Yu Lang's cell phone rang.

After hearing him say "yes" twice, he hung up the phone.

"The Ma family is here to pick us up," Yu Lang said, "I'll go to their house tonight."

"Tonight?" Jiang Tianxiao sat on the train with his back sore and legs weak, feeling a little overwhelmed: "...Are you in such a hurry."

Yu Lang nodded: "It sounds very urgent."

"Tonight is tonight," Long Ke patted Jiang Tianxiao on the shoulder: "We'll take care of it for them tonight, get the money early."

Jiang Tianxiao looked at the unfamiliar city lights in front of him, but his premonition was not very good.He couldn't say why, but he always felt that what happened this time must not be as simple as Long Ke said.

Not long after, people from the Ma family came, driving a black van with mud splashed all over the body.

"Boss Yu?" The driver was a middle-aged man, about 30 years old, with a cigarette in his mouth: "Get in the car."

The three of them got into the car, Yu Lang sat in the co-driver, Jiang Tianxiao and Long Ke sat in the back seat.There was a strong smell of smoke in the carriage, mixed with some stench.

"Did you contact me, Mr. Ma?" Yu Lang asked.

"It's me," the man smiled at Yu Lang: "You can just call me Xiaoma. I should be younger than you. I'm just... cough, I'm doing business, and I look old in the wind and sun."

"Okay, pony," Yu Lang nodded at him, with a very friendly tone: "How is the situation at home?"

Xiao Ma's face changed, and the smile on his face disappeared: "This...it's hard to say, let's talk about it when we get there, my brother and father are here, and my mother is staying at my second aunt's house."

"Well, yes."

Jiang Tianxiao and Long Ke looked at each other, but neither of them spoke.

"It's not easy to say" what is the situation?Jiang Tianxiao didn't know what to do.

The street scene outside the window gradually became depressed. At first, there were many tall buildings and neon lights near the train station. Now, Jiang Tianxiao found that they seemed to be in the countryside.

The car stopped.

"Our area is probably in the urban area, but it hasn't been developed much," Xiao Ma said, "walk slowly."

With the help of the street lamp not far away, Jiang Tianxiao took a look, and sure enough there were two narrow alleys in front of him, most of which were small two-story brick houses.It seems that this area should be a village with good conditions.

Follow the pony into the alley, about a quarter of an hour later, the pony stops in front of a half-closed iron gate.He pushed open the door: "Boss Yu, it's here."

The alley was so dark that there wasn't even a street light, Jiang Tianxiao wondered why the door was open at night?Do not close the account at night?Are the folk customs so simple?

Entering the door is the yard, which is not big, and there are two electric cars parked beside it.Entering the room, there is a wooden coffee table in the room, and two men wrapped in cotton jackets are sitting on plastic chairs.The TV was on, but the volume was extremely low, and it sounded like mosquitoes buzzing in my ears.

The two men were an old man and a middle-aged man. The old man was bald and had a huge pimple hanging from his neck. The man looked about 40 years old, very dark, with deep wrinkles on his forehead, and looked very honest.

"Father," Xiao Ma turned sideways, let Yu Lang come forward, and said, "This is Boss Yu."

The middle-aged man stood up, looked at Yu Lang and then at Jiang Tianxiao and Long Ke, his face was a little stiff, but he still enthusiastically shook hands with Yu Lang: "Boss Yu, hello, hello."

"Hello," Yu Lang asked, "You are Xiao Ma's brother, aren't you?"

"Hey...it's me. My name is Ma Baolan. You can call me Master Ma. That's what everyone else calls me."

"Success," Yu Lang turned his eyes and looked at the old man who was still sitting on the chair: "This is the old man?"

The old man stared at the TV blankly, as if he didn't hear Yu Lang's words.

"It's my father," Xiao Ma hurriedly smoothed things over, "He... is old and his brain is not working well... Boss, you sit, let's sit and talk."

With an expression of "I understand", Yu Lang smiled and sat down.Jiang Tianxiao and Long Ke stood quietly behind Yu Lang.

"It's such a thing—"

"Wait a minute," Yu Lang interrupted Xiaoma: "The door seems to be closed, right? Since we're discussing things, why don't we close the door?"

"This..." Xiao Ma glanced at the door: "It's okay... There are no thieves in our area..."

"I mean," Yu Lang said with a smile, "it's a bit cold."

Jiang Tianxiao thought that Yu Lang's level of talking nonsense with his eyes open was really high. Even though the door of the room was closed and there was heating, how could he feel cold.

But when Yu Lang said this, Xiao Ma and his brother, Master Ma, looked at each other, both of them hesitated to speak.

"Why?" Yu Lang looked surprised: "Can't the door be closed?"

"We think this is...the door is open, what's the matter..." Master Ma rubbed his hands: "It's convenient to run..."

As soon as these words came out, Yu Lang also fell silent.

"Boss Yu, it's not that we are timid," Xiao Ma lowered his voice, "It's really...that thing is upstairs..."

"Don't close it if you don't want to close it," Yu Lang said, "Go ahead."

Jiang Tianxiao couldn't help but glanced at the stairs outside the house. It was so quiet upstairs that he couldn't hear a single sound. What could be there--to frighten the two big men so much that they dare not close the door?

"That's right, my sister-in-law passed away in July last year," Xiao Ma lowered her voice, "She died from cervical cancer... We finished the funeral for my sister-in-law, and my brother felt uncomfortable, so he went to live in the store—— My family opened a small shop in the city to buy some aquatic products. My brother and my sister-in-law used to live upstairs, but my brother no longer lived upstairs, and the upstairs was empty, and there was nothing wrong with it... This year's Chinese New Year, my brother will come back to live, and then—”

"Thorn-"

Xiao Ma's words were interrupted by a sharp voice, Jiang Tianxiao turned his head suddenly, only to see that the TV screen went black.

"Hey," Master Ma went over and turned on the TV, "This is the problem with this TV..."

"Little Ma, continue talking," Yu Lang said, "Master Ma is coming back to live, and then what?"

"Then something went wrong at home..." Pony's voice trembled.

Jiang Tianxiao looked past Xiao Ma and Master Ma, and turned to the old man of the Ma family.He kept staring at the TV, but just now the TV went dark for a while, and he didn't respond.Jiang Tianxiao thought to himself, does this old man already have dementia?

"At first, in the middle of the night, there was a sudden sound of thump, thump, thud." Little Ma paused, and bumped into Master Ma with his elbow: "Brother, why don't you tell me?"

The fear was evident on Master Ma's face: "I came back to live, but I didn't live in the house we used to live in, the hut next door... In the middle of the night, there were waves of noises, as if...something hit the bed board... But there's nothing in that room...it's an empty room..."

Yu Lang nodded and asked calmly, "Then have you visited that house?"

"I've seen it... I've seen it twice," Master Ma rubbed his face vigorously: "I missed it once, but I caught up with it the other time... There is nothing in the room, but it is that kind of sound."

Jiang Tianxiao imagined that there was a strange sound coming out of nowhere in the empty room...it was a bit weird.

But he has experienced so much with Yu Lang, this level is "a bit weird".

"Well," Yu Lang carefully wrote down Master Ma's description on his mobile phone: "Is there anything else?"

"The two brothers thought that such a loud noise would not be a problem during Chinese New Year, so we asked an imam from a nearby mosque to come and take a look."

Yu Lang raised his eyebrows: "Imam? Are you...Muslims?"

"No," Xiao Ma said, "but we have a lot of Hui people here, and one of my buddies happened to know that imam, so I asked him to come and take a look."

Well, Jiang Tianxiao knows that monks and priests do things. This is the first time I have heard of imams doing things. Sure enough, one side has its own characteristics.

"The imam came in the afternoon, prayed in the room, and read the scriptures for a long time... Then he said that he could only determine what was causing the trouble."

"I still need 1000 yuan for this," Xiao Ma said, "We have no choice but to give it, but he said, it's a child! This must be wrong, where did the child come from?"

Yu Lang raised his eyebrows: "Master Ma, how long have you been married to your sister-in-law?"

"Ten... 18 years."

"Haven't you had a child in 18 years?"

"Hey," Xiao Ma sighed, "My sister-in-law is not in good health and can't give birth."

"...So," Yu Lang nodded, "Well, let's continue."

Xiao Ma looked at Master Ma, and said, "We sent that imam away. As a result, that night, there was the sound of fingernails scratching the door... sizzling..."

Yu Lang: "Did you go to see it this time?"

"We didn't dare," Xiao Ma clenched his fists, "but the next day... the next day..."

His fists trembled, and so did his shoulders.

"Don't be afraid, I can handle it," Yu Lang comforted, "Just keep talking."

"The next day, there was a bloody handprint on the wall of the roof of the house... We were really frightened. On the first day of the Lunar New Year, we ran all the way to find a feng shui master introduced by others, and they all said it was amazing. The feng shui master Here we come, looked around, pasted several talismans for us at home, and left two pieces of mahogany in the house."

"Well, mahogany is indeed exorcising evil spirits." Yu Lang said.

"But that night there was another sound of fingernails scratching the door. None of us dared to move. We saw it when we got up in the morning, and saw...the bloody handprints on the talisman...the peach wood was also crushed. Later we found it again. It's useless to see it with two people... My sister-in-law's natal family was also frightened when they found out, and then I saw your contact information, Boss Yu, on the Internet..."

"I see," Yu Lang got up: "Has that voice appeared in the past two days?"

"It hasn't happened in the past two days," Xiao Ma said, "This voice has been heard for a few days..."

"According to the situation you described, there should be some unclean things," Yu Lang folded his arms, his tone relaxed: "But it's not a very difficult situation, don't worry."

"...Hey, that, that's good," Xiao Ma nodded again and again: "We really have no choice but to rely on you—ah!!!"

Before he could finish speaking, he suddenly jumped behind Yu Lang!

With trembling fingers, Master Ma pointed upstairs: "It's...started again..."

Jiang Tianxiao was taken aback.

Indeed, there was a clear, sizzling sound from upstairs, resembling the sound of fingernails scratching on a wooden board.