Jiajing Spiritual Records

Ning Cheng followed Uncle Wang's persuasion and stayed in the Su Mansion to rest, but Geng Yang insisted on refusing, and wanted to go to the Xile Buddhist Temple in the capital together with Xu Kong.Seeing that they couldn't persuade him, everyone let him go.

It was evening when Ning Huan returned to Ning Mansion.He felt uneasy, and he didn't know how Ning Bo explained to his parents during the few days when he disappeared.The days of going to school in the past six months are only a handful, and this time it seems that he must be reprimanded by his father.

Ning Huan walked into the main room, but he didn't see Ning's father and Ning's mother. He grabbed the young servant next to him and asked, "Where did my father and mother go?"

The boy replied: "Master and Madam have gone to pay homage to the Buddha of Joy."

"Xile Buddha!" ​​Ning Huan suddenly felt a muffled "buzz" sound in his head, "What are they going to do to pray to Xi Le Buddha?"

The servant raised his head in doubt: "Young master, don't you know about the Buddha of Joy? I heard that the Buddha is effective."

"Where are they now?" Ning Huan asked eagerly, if he had only left for a short time, he should be able to chase them back quickly.

"Calculating the time, the master and madam will probably be back soon." The young man replied cautiously, he looked at Ning Huan with a puzzled face, and thought to himself, could it be that he said something wrong, why did the young master's expression change when he heard that? so bad.

At this time, there was a sound from the door outside.The servant raised his head in surprise: "Master, it is the old lady who has returned."

Father Ning walked in and met Ning Huan.He looked Ning Huan up and down, and frowned slightly: "I was looking for you! Where have you been these few days?"

"Father, I heard that you went to pray to the Buddha of Joy?" Ning Huan ignored Father Ning's questioning and eagerly asked for confirmation.

"Don't mention it." Ning's father didn't say a word, but Ning's mother beside him replied with a dejected expression, "It is said that only ten people are allowed in the Xile Buddha Temple every day, which made me and your father wait outside for a day. .”

When Ning Huan heard that his parents hadn't seen Xi Le Buddha, he breathed a sigh of relief, and said in a calm tone: "Father, mother, you must never believe anything about Xi Le Buddha!"

"Why?" Ning's mother asked suspiciously, "But people in the palace say that the god and Buddha are efficacious, and even many empresses go to pay homage, and mother expects to find you a well-behaved and obedient daughter-in-law."

"Mother!" Ning Huan directly stopped Mother Ning's irrelevant topics, curled his lips and said, "I'm only eighteen."

"What's wrong with the eighteenth? Your father's nemesis, Wang Shilang, is already a grandfather. He went to ask Xi Le Buddha for a child, but he didn't expect his third aunt to conceive him the next day..."

Ning Huan puffed his cheeks helplessly, and simply ignored Mother Ning's nagging.He raised his eyes and looked at Father Ning: "Father, this matter is not trivial, do you know that this Buddha of Joy is related to the assassination of the emperor by the commander?"

Father Ning's expression changed drastically when he heard the words, and he hurriedly asked, "You...where did you hear it from?"

Ning Huan twitched the corners of his mouth and smiled "hehe", but didn't say anything, he was afraid that if he opened his mouth, he would be reprimanded by Ning's father.Father Ning frowned, and said in a deep voice: "From now on, don't inquire about things about Jin Yiwei, those things are all about losing your head!"

"Got it, got it." Ning Huan replied perfunctorily.

Father Ning fell into contemplation, and seemed to be talking to himself: "No wonder the Jinyiwei in the imperial city has been withdrawn recently, so it is like this."

Ning Huan thought about the worried expression on Su Xian's face when he went out, he pursed his lips and said: "There should be something hidden about this matter, father, you'd better avoid this muddy water."

Father Ning nodded: "I know about this matter." His eyes fell on Ning Huan, his eyes were full of scrutiny, "You too, since the emperor is afraid of Jinyiwei, you should stay away from those Jinyiwei , be careful to get into trouble, do you hear me?"

Ning Huan nodded numbly, completely absent-minded.After a while, Ning's father turned his back, recalled the initial questioning of Ning Huan, and said again with a serious face: "You haven't said where you have been fooling around these few days?"

Only then did Ning Huan twitch the corners of his mouth and smiled: "I...I'm back, haven't I?"

"I guess, I went out with that Suqian again." Mother Ning shook her head.

Ning Huan curled his lips, and looked up to see Father Ning's face showing an attitude of not giving up without asking, his footsteps slightly backed up, turned around and slipped towards his room, panting while running, "I'm going to study, and the dinner will be brought directly to the study, so don't call me."

"Stinky boy!" Father Ning scolded behind Ning Huan, "Stop!"

....................................

It was night, and the watchman rang the bell for the third watch, and Ning Huan was lying on the bed without any sleepiness.There was only one candlestick lit in the room, which could barely illuminate half of the corner. The faint candlelight swayed slowly along the breeze passing through the carved latticework, casting Ning Huan's figure on the white wall for a moment.Next to Ning Huan's pillow was a copy of "Qingping Shantang Storybook". He rested his hands behind his head and held a lake pen on the tip of his nose. The wind made the pages rustle.

Xi Le Buddha, that ghost city that is almost similar to the imperial city, and the demon monk who suddenly appeared, what is the connection between them?

Ning Huan let out a long sigh, Suxian has entered the palace now, and he doesn't know when he will come out for a while.Geng Yang and Taoist Master Xu Kong went to the Temple of Joyful Buddha, but they didn't know what they found.If things are left to their own devices, more people will worship the Buddha of Joy.Ning Huan couldn't help but tremble when he thought of those people in the barrel who were trapped by insects, and what's more, he heard that many empresses in the palace went to pay homage.

Ning Huan was thinking about the day's affairs when suddenly the dim yellow candlelight in the room flickered a few times and went out.

Ning Huanzheng turned around in surprise, only to see a slender black shadow cast on the window lattice of Ning Huan facing him under the pale moonlight outside.It didn't move at all, it seemed to be staring at Ning Huan through the thin layer of window paper.

Ning Huan stood up abruptly, bit his lip and tried to control his breathing. He clenched the knife hidden under the pillow, hurriedly stuffed a stack of yellow talismans into his cuff, pressed his steps, and slowly climbed down. bed.

Ning Huanmao stooped to the door, his heart was pounding as if it was about to jump out of his chest, he took a deep breath, and rushed towards the black shadow outside the door.But who knows that there is no one outside the house.

The moonlight glowed a coquettish red, and everything around seemed to be soaked in a pool of warm red water, which made people feel chills in the back, Ning Huan looked at the window lattice, and a strange black shadow was projected on it again .At this time, a strong smell of blood gradually filled the surroundings, and the clear sound of "tick" and "tick" came from behind, accompanied by the sound of "squeak" thick rope rubbing against the beam...

Ning Huan turned his head stiffly, only to see a human corpse hanging less than three feet behind him.Under the shadowy moonlight, the man lowered his head, his blood-stained wet hair fell from the back of his head, covering most of his face.He was not tall, and his whole body was dry and yellow, but he was wearing an ill-fitting sleeve that hung loosely around his body. "Hehehe" obviously died, and there was a strange sound in his throat.

Ning Huan held the saber and kept backing away.Under the moonlight, two shadows, one long and one short, were slowly cast on the bluestone bricks in the corridor.Looking at the hanging corpse, Ning Huan suddenly felt that the sleeves in front of him seemed familiar.He was taken aback, this...isn't this an official uniform?

"Tick tock", "tick tock", the blood was still smearing under the feet, the scattered white mist seemed to isolate the outside world, Ning Huan approached cautiously, and looked at the corpse in front of him.Under the blood-stained long hair, the blood-colored eyes with cracked canthus looked at Ning Huan.Ning Huan was startled, this...isn't this Wang Zhi, the Wang Shilang who his mother said was old and had a son?It's just that in Ning Huan's impression of Wang Shilang's paunchy appearance and the current mummy, if it wasn't for the iconic birthmark on his face.Ning Huan would never think of going together.At this time, those dark eyes suddenly flashed, and the corpse raised its head.

Ning Huan held the saber and stepped back.I saw a strange smile slowly appearing on the face of "Wang Zhi". His smile became bigger and bigger, and the corner of his mouth almost cracked to the heel of his ear. At this moment, a white substance fell out of his mouth.

The human-faced worm seemed to be well-raised by its owner, it was half an arm long, and its countless legs were wriggling towards Ning Huan quickly.Ning Huan watched coldly, and at the moment when the man-faced worm jumped up, the knife in his hand cut off half of his body straightly, and the thick green slurry was scattered all over the place.

Ning Huan panted heavily, "tick", "tick" the blood on the dead body was still dripping down.Ning Huan watched as the smoke started to rise, did it come from outside?He frowned, clenched the short knife in his hand, and "slapped" the white boot over the bloody puddle under his feet, and crushed the face bug's head again and again.He took a deep breath, turned over and jumped off the side of the wall.

There was no one on the streets in the middle of the night, but as the fog gathered and gradually became thicker, many figures appeared in the depths of the white fog.Ning Huan dodged and hid in a corner on one side.Those figures strode stiffly, dazedly on the street.As they got closer, Ning Huan took a closer look and found that those people were all paper dolls.

Ning Huan suddenly felt that the scene in front of him was familiar, this... Isn't this the scene he saw when he was in the ghost town?Ning Huan was in a bad mood.

Those paper figurines were walking back and forth on the street, and the bustling crowd exuded a dead silence, as if they had crossed into a nether world through a layer of white smoke.The only difference from the ghost town is that the faces of the paper figurines seem to be deliberately imitating living people, showing expressions of sadness, joy, or pain, and those weird and exaggerated expressions emerge one by one on the paper figurines' faces. Inexplicable infiltration.

Ning Huan huddled in a corner as the cold wind blew past his face, and he couldn't help shivering.