The Haunted

Chi Yan thought about it for a while, but still followed after gritted his teeth.

The old lady seemed to be staggering, but actually walked very fast, Chi Yan had to trot to catch up with her.

In the end the old lady came to a dark and simple one-story house, stood in the room and waved to Chi Yan who was outside the door.

If a ghost beckons you to come in, you cannot answer.

Chi Yan tightened his grip on the only ghost talisman left in his pocket, thought for a while, and followed in.

The old lady was still walking forward while muttering: "Only the mother-in-law dies of old age, and the mother-in-law will not harm anyone."

Chi Yan followed the old man into the house, the room was very dark, the windows were all covered with black plastic sheets, impervious to light, the old man's face was pale in the darkness.

Chi Yan couldn't help clenching his fists, and when he lowered his head, he saw a raised figure on the low bed leaning against the wall, it was Song Jin.

He looked at the old man in surprise and gratitude: "You..."

"The little girl hid the man in the attic, and the mother-in-law will bring him here when she sees it." The old lady looked at the young man in front of her, "The mother-in-law will not harm anyone, and the mother-in-law cannot save anyone."

She looked at the sky outside: "The search for Nuo is about to start, and you will be found out here. Those two young people will be found out."

"I'm afraid I can't go now."

Chi Yan followed the old man's words and looked at the time, it was already five o'clock in the afternoon.

It was one o'clock in the afternoon when he left Hejia Village with that, and he didn't even feel that such a long time had passed.

She pointed in the direction of the Nuo Temple: "Young man, go and hide in the temple. The Nuo God will save you."

As the old man said, his voice was hoarse, his expression on his face was still stiff and flat, but there was sadness in his cloudy eyes.

Chi Yan nodded and responded, thanked the old man and prepared to take his leave and leave.

Before leaving, he couldn't help asking: "Grandma, what kind of people are those two young people who were found?"

"It's two servants who came here to find someone."

That should be the two police officers.

Chi Yan had already dragged Song Jin out of the door, and finally looked back at the old man, and said softly, "Why doesn't mother-in-law leave?"

He believed that the old man could understand what he meant.

The old man pointed to the sky: "I can't go, my mother-in-law died a step too late, I can't go. No one can go."

The leaden gray sky was dark and gloomy, like a huge hood, enveloping the entire village in it.

In fact, Chi Yan already felt that something was wrong. When he dealt with those two little ghosts, after they were burnt out, they all seemed to be sucked into this sky.He specially drew the death talisman with blood for the girl doll, but it didn't work.

After Chi Yan helped Song Jin go out, he did not go to the Nuo Temple to escape as the old man said, but went to the village entrance to pick up the motorcycle.He didn't believe that the Nuo Temple could save them. If it could, why didn't the old man let the two police officers hide in the temple last time?If there is really a spirit, how can he sit back and watch the village under his protection become a hell on earth?

When the old man said that, he was just praying for a miracle with the last bit of pious belief and hope.

Because she knew they had run out of time and couldn't run away.

But Chi Yan still wanted to give it a try, and accepting his fate easily would only lead to death.

The road from the old man's house back to the entrance of the village seems to be infinitely stretched.In other words, the road is still as long, but after noon, the time of day is shortened a little bit.It was obviously not a long way, but when he walked to the entrance of the village with Song Jin, it was completely dark.

The time displayed on the phone is eight o'clock in the evening.

The rope was no longer there, so Chi Yan worked hard to fix Song Jin to the motorcycle, and started riding the motorcycle outside the village with maximum horsepower.

After riding for about 10 minutes, the road ahead began to become flat and open—they returned to Hejia Village.

The guide can only be used once, and this time, the guide is no longer effective.

Chi Yan cursed secretly, and rode out again, this time completely ignoring the road, riding in the direction of Bagua Shengmen, but half an hour later, he saw the familiar signboard of the canteen at the entrance of the village.

Two hours later, Chi Yan, who had tried all possible methods, stopped at the entrance of Hejia Village.The motorcycle is out of gas.

A continuous flame appeared in the field of vision, as well as the clearly audible sound of gongs and drums.As far as the eye can see, there is a group of people wearing Nuo masks, holding candlelight paper lanterns, beating gongs and drums, and dancing with props and swords like those on the stage, walking towards the entrance of the village.Their masks have different colors and styles, some with glaring eyebrows, some with curved eyebrows, and some dull and dull. Under the light of the fire, they flicker on and off, as if they can move.

Behind these people was a large group of villagers who gathered around to watch the excitement, including the owner and wife of the small shop at the entrance of the village, the owner of the guest house, a family of three, and many people who had met Chi Yan and Song Jinchen in the morning and talked to each other when they were inquiring about news.

As night fell completely, the road leading to the outside of the village seemed to be completely blocked, and no matter how Chi Yan walked, he would always go in circles.Those people didn't seem to be walking fast, beating, dancing knives and guns along the way, but in fact they soon arrived at the entrance of the village.Afraid of being discovered by them, Chi Yan quickly dragged Song Jin into the warehouse behind the canteen at the entrance of the village.

There is a door at the front and back of the warehouse. The front door is convenient for people to go in and carry goods to the front counter for sale. The rear door leads directly to the backyard, which is convenient for moving the goods disassembled from the car directly into the warehouse.

Chi Yan locked the front door of the storehouse, and tried to open the door at the back - the door hadn't been used for some time, and it was completely rusted, it couldn't be opened at all, no matter how much he pushed or pulled, it couldn't be shaken .

Chi Yan's face changed, and he realized that this was putting himself and Song Jin in a desperate situation. Just as he was about to open the front door and hide elsewhere, he heard a commotion outside, and the group of "people" had all blocked the entrance of the canteen. the door.From the crack in the door, you can see that they were reading something outside the door, and then a man wearing a red mask and holding a paper lantern led two other people in masks and began to read next to the room. Curse, search.

I think this is what the old lady called "Sou Nuo".The owner of the canteen once said that this ceremony is to chase away evil spirits and plagues.

The three people quickly searched the warehouse. The man wearing the red mask patted on the door and shouted, "Why is this door locked?"

Chi Yan's heart became more and more nervous, hearing the voice from outside pushing harder on the rusty door behind.

Another voice with a strong local accent sounded outside the door: "Uncle, there is a sound from inside the door, and there seems to be something inside."

Chi Yan was so frightened that he stopped moving.

The "people" outside the door were silent for a second, and then there was the sound of metal colliding and the sound of keys being inserted into the lock.

Chi Yan didn't care about it any longer, and used all his strength to raise his legs and kick towards the door with the soles of his feet.

With a "bang", the front and rear doors opened simultaneously.

Chi Yan didn't even dare to look back, picked up Song Jin on his back and ran out.

Faintly, he heard the voice from behind with a local accent: "Uncle, there are two people there, are they thieves?"

"Not thieves, but...ghosts. They have no shadow."

Chi Yan's footsteps paused, and he looked down - under the shadows of the candlelight, neither he nor Song Jin was in sight.

His heart skipped a beat, but he didn't care about thinking too much, he just ran forward desperately with Song Jin on his back.He couldn't get out of the village entrance, so he had to run to the other side of the village. He remembered that they were so close to the hills, maybe they could hide in the mountains.

It is definitely not normal for Song Jin to remain in a coma like this. If he doesn't run out quickly, even if he is not caught by those things, Da Song may not be able to hold on.

The fire behind him was getting closer and closer, Chi Yan turned his head to look, and the leader wearing the red mask was only a meter or two away from him.In such a long line, no one was left behind, including the villagers who were watching the excitement behind, followed closely behind.

People can't run away, and they can't run away from ghosts.

Chi Yan turned his head to look forward, and before he knew it, he had already run outside the Nuo Temple.

At this point, there was no other choice, and these things would catch up with him anytime he moved forward. He held Song Jin tight, knocked open the gate of the temple, and then closed the door tightly, with a bloody painting in the middle of the two doors. A forbidden spell.

Many of those things, or most of them still retain the consciousness of being human, and they don't even realize that they are dead, so they dare not rush into the temple for a short time.It will take some time before they start breaking into the temple, and it will take a while to break through that spell.

This is the time Chi Yan can buy for himself now, the time to survive.

There is a faint fire in the Nuo Temple. Before the ceremony of searching for Nuo, people should visit the Nuo God in the temple first, so the incense candles on the table in front of the statue are lit.

Chi Yan leaned Song Jin against the wall, and with the help of the faint light of the fire, he looked at the surrounding environment again, thinking of ways to get out of the predicament.

This time he noticed the five faces closest to the door in the wall on the left wall.They look new, the colors are bright, and the masks haven't collected too much dust.

They are also smiling, with happy eyebrows and eyes, but there is a hint of fear and resentment in that smile.

The upper three masks are ordinary white faces, which seem to be a man, a woman and a child; the lower two masks are red, with wide-open eyes, as if they are extremely unwilling, and Chi Yan does not understand the color of these masks in Nuo opera. However, in Beijing opera, red symbolizes loyalty and righteousness.

"It's really possible. During the Chinese New Year this year, the evil spirits were really found."

"There are Nuo noodles. Put evil spirits into the Nuo noodles, and the evil spirits will not be able to come out after being sealed."

"Uncle, stay here, otherwise if you are caught by them, you will be made into Nuo noodles."

"..."

The words of the owner of the canteen and the words of the little girl Yingying intertwined in his mind, Chi Yan only felt a chill in his heart, looking at the five masks, he was speechless.

The day when Zhu Hui's family went out was the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, and the village must have held Nuo dancing and searching ceremonies just like today. The fire was shining in the sky, and the gongs and drums were blaring. The family standing at the fork in the road should be able to easily discover the existence of the village.They walked into the village to ask for help, but they were arrested by the villagers as evil spirits.

The two police officers who searched for the whereabouts of Zhu Hui's family were hidden by her mother-in-law in her own home, but they were still found in the house-to-house search.

The ghosts thought they were human beings, and arrested and executed the human beings as ghosts.

He closed his eyes and turned his gaze back to the statue in the center.

I don't know if it was his illusion, but under the candlelight, this statue is still not burly, it still wears a black-gold mask, and is dressed in a red opera-like embroidered robe, but it seems to be more beautiful than the Nuo statue he saw in the morning. The boy statue of the god prince is much taller.It no longer looks like a child in adult clothes, but more like a statue of an adult figure.

He looked at the statue and frowned.

What kind of god will be worshiped by a group of ghosts; what kind of god will be who sees the yin and yang of this hell on earth turned upside down.Or there is no God at all.

However, at this moment, Chi Yan heard a deep and hoarse voice: "You want to ask me to save you and your friends?"

"I didn't..." Chi Yan said subconsciously, he didn't realize it until he was halfway through the sentence, he looked around in horror, and finally looked up at the god statue on the confession case again—was the god statue talking to him just now?

As if to test his conjecture, the voice sounded again: "You want to ask me to save you and your friends?"

This time, it was certain that the voice was indeed from the idol.

Chi Yan swallowed dryly, and had to take back all the disrespectful thoughts in his head, but he still had doubts about this god statue that suddenly "appeared".Is there really a god in this world?Or is the other party just a kind of ghost, just another ghost with cognitive deviation?Or even a ghost who deliberately tricked him into taking the bait?

He only knows that there is no free lunch in the world, even the gods need human offerings, no matter the other party is a god or a ghost, as long as he can really help him and Song Jin out of trouble, he can consider making a deal with the other party.After all, there are ghosts like mother-in-law who are willing to help them.

Chi Yan nodded, his purpose was very obvious, there was no need to hide it at all.

"Yes, I want to ask you to save us. I just don't know what conditions we need to pay if we want to ask you to save us?"

It is better to make this condition clear in advance.Even if it is really a god, there are evil gods.To put it bluntly, to humans, gods and ghosts are just one thing.

After hearing that, the thing laughed lightly: "You asked me what I want?"

"My condition is very simple, you take the initiative to come over and kiss me, that's enough."