The Haunted

Chi Yan thought for a while and nodded in agreement.

But he didn't leave right away, but returned to the place where they parked the motorcycle, took out the lighter and lit the two talismans.This talisman is called a guiding talisman. Zhu Hui's family and the two police officers have not been able to return after walking on this road before. He suspects that there may be strange things on the road. With this guiding talisman, he is not afraid of ghosts hitting the wall or other things. What ghost means, can find the way back.

The two rode slowly along the road, paying attention to the situation on both sides of the road while riding.The motorcycle ruts on the ground gradually became less obvious, and the path of the path stepped on by people gradually disappeared, and there was a mess of mountains and forests ahead.Just as the two of them were not sure which direction to go and hesitated to decide to return, Chi Yan saw a faint light ahead.

He stopped his motorcycle and climbed up a big rock next to him to look in that direction—not a little light, but a whole area, which looked like a small village.

Chi Yan climbed down from the rock, motioned Song Jin to go up and look, stood below and looked up to his friend and said, "Da Song, do you think there is a village over there? Have you heard of other villages and towns around here?"

When Chi Yan was in high school, he followed his mother to City R, and has been living in the urban area since then, except for traveling around during holidays, he rarely went to nearby counties.He knows the general location and names of the eleven counties under City R, but he has no idea about the villages and towns under those counties. It is only because of this incident that he knows that there are two towns under Pinggu County. They are called Fengshui and Qingyao.

Song Jin jumped off the rock and nodded: "There is a village. I checked the maps near Fengshui and Qingyao many times before, but I didn't notice that there was such a village, but this mountain belongs to Pinggu County and Huilin County. The boundary of the county, if you go further there, you should reach Huilin County, so I may have overlooked it."

There are nearly [-] villages near the towns of Fengshui and Qingyao. If it is not for on-site inspections, it is easy to overlook this village that does not belong to the jurisdiction of Pinggu County. After all, it is not on the normal route between the two towns.

He hesitated for a moment, and asked, "Chizi, should we go back to check the situation in that village now and come back tomorrow during the day, or go directly to have a look?"

It is already 45:[-] in the evening. Judging from the scale of the lights seen just now, the village should not be small, and there may be dozens of households at least.

Chi Yan could see that Song Jin probably wanted to continue the investigation. This village, which had been neglected before, was likely to provide some clues about the five missing people.He estimated the round-trip distance and time, and suggested, "How about we continue walking and rest in the village?"

It’s very cold in the mountains at night, he doesn’t wear enough clothes, and he can’t stop shivering while riding a motorcycle in the wind. Now he is eager for a warm room to warm him up, preferably under the covers Take a good rest here.It takes about an hour to ride back to Fengshui Town or to Qingyao Town, but it takes another 10 minutes to reach the village depending on the distance.

Song Jin nodded: "Okay, you stop at the entrance of the village. I'll go in and check the situation first. If you see that I haven't come out after a quarter of an hour, don't hesitate. Go quickly and go back to the town to get the rescuers." What he was afraid of at this time was not demons and ghosts, but worried that the village hidden in the mountains, as shown in some TV dramas, was actually harboring criminal gangs. Zhu Hui's family and the two police officers might have found out that They were hijacked or even killed because they lost their location.Thinking of this possibility, he couldn't sit still.

Chi Yan nodded, turned over and got on the motorcycle, and the two followed each other and continued towards the village.

Sure enough, after walking towards the village for about ten minutes, the mountain road gradually opened up, and the road into the village became clearly visible.Although the network signal is still intermittent, the mobile phone can also receive the signal, but the network speed is very slow and intermittent.

With the signal and network, it is much more reassuring. Opening the map, you can find that the village they are in is called Hejia Village. Song Jin was still worried, so he found a place with a good signal outside the village and called him. Master, I reported my current location and the relevant clues I found, and asked the other party to help check the relevant situation of this Hejia Village.

The other party checked back and found that everything was normal. This is an ordinary village. The only thing that is slightly special is that most of the villagers in this village moved here from the south many years ago.

After hearing this answer and reporting her whereabouts, Song Jin was obviously relieved, and took Chi Yan directly into the village.The light was still on in a canteen at the head of the village. Song Jin stopped the car and went to buy a pack of cigarettes and two bottles of water, and inquired about the situation by the way.

The owner of the canteen pointed out to them that there is a guest house not far away, which is the only restaurant and hotel in the village.Song Jin and Chi Yan decided to rest here for the night and spend the day in the village tomorrow to inquire about relevant news before making any plans.

Sure enough, the two walked forward for another 30 meters and saw a rectangular signboard with white letters on a red background, with the words "guest house" printed in Song typeface.The façade is not big, and dim and pale incandescent light shines through the door. You can see an old-fashioned counter inside, and a middle-aged man is sitting behind the counter.

After the two entered, the man put down the game console in his hand when he heard the noise, stood up and said, "Do you want to stay at the hotel?"

There is a light tube hanging on the roof. The light tube has not been replaced for a long time. Both ends are black, and the middle is foggy, making a buzzing sound, and the light projected is not very bright.

Chi Yan lowered his head and took another look at the game console. The black and white pixel screen showed the scene of a tank battle.He remembered that he also had such a game console when he was five or six years old, and it was bought by his mother for him from outside. Before meeting that person, that game console had accompanied him to spend a lot of boring and boring time.I didn't expect that there are still people playing this kind of game console, presumably it should be used by the shop owner to pass the time.

The two asked for a double room, and after paying the bill, the owner personally took them into the room with the key.The door here is still opened with a key instead of a key card.The three of them chatted casually along the way, Chi Yan and Song Jin pretended that they were traveling nearby, they got back late, the weather was cold, they happened to be passing by, so they planned to stay one night before leaving.

The owner of the store told them that the Chinese New Year is just over now, not many people come to stay, and now there are only two guests in the store.There are no clerks in the store, and the daily cleaning, checkout and other tasks are done by him and his wife. In addition, there is their eight-year-old daughter in the guest house.

The guest house is not big, with two floors. The first floor is the counter, the restaurant and the residence of the owner's family. There are seven or eight rooms on the second floor. The owner showed them the room, left the key and left.

The environment of the room is not good. There are white walls on all sides, which are slightly yellow. If you look carefully, there are stains left by bugs or other things.There is no bathroom, and there are only a table, a chair and two beds in the room. Fortunately, the white sheets look relatively clean.

Song Jin didn't care much, and Chi Yan was not a pampered person.Although his mother loved him, she never spoiled him, and the only person who could be called spoiling him was that person.After returning to the grandfather's house with his mother, his mother's health deteriorated day by day. Grandpa and grandma are both old people over the age of sixty. At home, he must be self-reliant. Not only can he not rely on the elders in the family, but he must take care of his mother as much as possible. And grandpa and grandma three people.Under such circumstances, the little temper that was spoiled by that person when he was young quickly faded away.

Therefore, Chi Yan is not picky about the accommodation environment. The only thing that I think is not good is that there is no heating in the guest house. The room is unoccupied for a long time, and it feels very cold. Even if I have been indoors for more than two hours, I wrap myself in a quilt When he woke up, it was still difficult to get rid of the chill in his body.

Chi Yan took the phone and looked at it. It was already 11:30 in the evening, and Song Jin had already fallen asleep on the bed next to her, snoring lightly.The room was dark, the curtains were drawn, and the night outside could not be seen. The village was very quiet, as if they had all fallen into a deep sleep.

He got up lightly, took the door key and mobile phone, locked the door and went to the bathroom.Each room in the guest house does not have an independent bathroom. There is a public toilet and a small bathroom at the end of the corridor.The corridor was very dark, maybe it was because there were not many people living there and the lights were not turned on to save electricity, so Chi Yan could only use his mobile phone to follow the path and walked to the innermost bathroom.

After coming out of the bathroom, Chi Yan also took out his mobile phone and turned on the flashlight to shine on the corridor.Bright white light flickered for a moment, illuminating a small figure standing on the other side of the corridor, facing him.

That thing is not big in stature, like a child, but has a big head.Chi Yan didn't look carefully at that moment just now, only vaguely saw that face with a curved upward smile, but there were no whites in the pupils, staring at him motionlessly.

Chi Yan suddenly thought of the earth-bound spirit he met in the bathhouse in his third year of high school. He also had the same pale and dull face, just like a clay statue in a temple, always with the same, upward smile, no matter what Wherever you go, it will look at you.

His heart suddenly rose, and he shouted: "Who!" At the same time, he flashed the flashlight of his mobile phone to shine there again.

When it was swept by the light, the thing let out a little girl's giggle.

"What's the matter?" The shopkeeper's inquiry came from the first floor, followed by the creaking sound of going upstairs, and then with a "snap", the lights in the corridor were turned on.

Chi Yan also saw clearly what that thing was.It was a little girl about seven or eight years old, but she wore a big white mask like a New Year's doll.The corners of the mouth of the human face on the mask are raised upwards, the eyebrows are happy and the eyes are smiling, the eyebrows are thin, and the eyes are very big, but there are only whites of the eyes and no pupils.

The store owner pulled the little girl into his arms and scolded in a low voice: "Yingying, why didn't you sleep and ran out? Where's your mother?"

The little girl took off her mask and pouted to her father: "Mom is asleep, I can't sleep."

The owner of the store said a few more words to her, snatched the mask away, and drove her to sleep. After watching her daughter disappear downstairs, she turned to Chi Yan, and said a little embarrassedly: "I'm really sorry, my daughter is naughty. There are no guests, so I didn't think about keeping the lamp, did it scare you?"

"No, it's fine." Chi Yan smiled, looking at the mask in the owner's hand, "What is this?"

"It's Nuo noodles. It's used when dancing Nuo. Almost every household in our village keeps one, and I don't know how she got it out." The shop owner explained, "We dance Nuo during the Chinese New Year in our village. It's a kind of ceremony."

"I know. Cui Cui and Nuo Song." Chi Yan nodded, and walked up to take a closer look at the mask.

Nuo is a relatively traditional sacrificial activity. Its history can be traced back to the Zhou Dynasty. When dancing Nuo, people will wear this mask dance called Nuomian. This word was mentioned in "Border Town", saying that the name Nuosong means "sent by the God of Nuo".However, this tradition and this kind of worship of gods are mostly prevalent in Sichuan and Jiangxi. City R is located in the north, and Chi Yan has never heard of a similar ceremony.He remembered what Master Song Jin had told them. Most of the people in Hejia Village had moved from the south many years ago, so it was quite understandable for the villagers to bring this custom with them.As for population migration, there are many reasons. In the past, it was mostly due to natural and man-made disasters, such as drought, flood or war; after the founding of the People's Republic of China, it was mostly dominated by policy factors.However, they didn't need to inquire into why the villagers of Hejia Village moved here. It had nothing to do with the whereabouts of Zhu Hui's family and the two police officers.

The owner of the store didn't realize what Chi Yan was talking about, so he smiled at Chi Yan and left with his mask on.

Just as Chi Yan walked into his room, locked the door, and was about to go back to bed to sleep, he heard a light knock on the door.There were three knocks on the door, but seeing no response, the person outside knocked three more times.

The sound sounded a bit strange, not because of the strange sound, but because of the strange location of the sound.Usually people knock on the middle of the door, and the sound comes from there, but this time, the sound came from the bottom of the door, as if someone was lying on the ground knocking on the door - lying on the ground, one side through the crack of the door below Peeping in, he reached out and knocked on the door.

Chi Yan frowned.

From the moment he entered this village, he always felt an indescribable strangeness.But just can't figure out what's wrong.

He thought for a while, held a ghost exorcism talisman in his hand, unscrewed the lock, and opened the door.

This time there was a corridor light in the corridor, and one could clearly see the small figure outside the door, it was the little girl Yingying just now.

She is short, no wonder the part that knocks on the door is also lower.

The little girl was holding two dolls in her hands, and when she saw Chi Yan open the door, she looked up at him, and said timidly, "Did uncle get scared by me just now? Then let my younger siblings accompany uncle, okay?" She As he spoke, he handed over the two dolls in his arms.

The dolls are a pair, average size, it can be seen that they are a boy and a girl, about the size of the forearm of an adult man, and the workmanship is very rough, as if they were sewn by children themselves.Maybe the little girl sewed it herself.

For a moment Chi Yan didn't know how to respond.He bent down and said in a soft voice: "Thank you, uncle, no need, uncle was not scared just now."

His refusal didn't work, the little girl still insisted on handing him the two dolls.

In the middle of the night, Chi Yan had no choice but to take the two dolls and tell the little girl to go to bed.

Yingying smiled happily when she saw him take the doll, and jumped downstairs.

The owner of the store should still be guarding at the counter. I really don't know how the child escaped her father's sight and ran upstairs.

Chi Yan shook his head, locked the door, and placed the two dolls on the empty table in the room.Anyway, after they check out, the owner will definitely take these two away.

I don't know if it was his illusion, or just because he was too cold, the moment he took the two dolls from the little girl's hands, he actually felt the warm touch like human skin.That feeling was fleeting, and what he held in his hands and placed on the table were still just two rough and crude dolls.