The innkeeper was sitting in his room smoking a cigarette. The foreigner's question today once again brought back his long-gone memories, including the figure of the child by the river, the broken doll that fell to the ground, and the mysterious death.
A couple, everything seemed to appear before his eyes one by one during his narration during the day.
In the memory, on the night when the fire broke out, the shopkeeper felt that something was fishy. He immediately ran back to the room and frantically searched for the broken doll. He thought everything was related to the doll, but even though he was in the small shack,
I searched for it but couldn't find it.
Thinking of the previous nightmare, he felt shuddering again. Judging from what had happened, the couple abandoned their child, and the little boy accidentally fell into the water and died. Maybe the evil spirit was attached to the broken doll, and he happened to pick it up.
He came back, and on that first seven nights of the boy's life, the wronged soul took its revenge.
But soon, the shopkeeper discovered that his idea was wrong. If he wanted to abandon the child, why would he choose to abandon the child by the river not far from home? Shouldn't he abandon it further away from home?
Or at the door of a hospital or charity?
The answer is actually very simple. They didn't abandon their child, they killed him directly!
The shopkeeper can completely imagine how these vicious parents placed a broken doll by the river to lure their children, and finally pushed their children into the river and drowned.
Remembering that his wife, daughter and mother had already passed away in an earthquake, and that being reunited with his family had become a luxury that he could never realize in his life, the shopkeeper felt even more that the parricide couple were worse than animals and deserved their punishment.
So he never tried to find the broken doll again.
Two days later, he came to the edge of the river alone again, threw a string of Buddhist beads into the river, and said to the river: "Little baby, although you used me to help you take revenge, I don't regret it either.
, I don’t blame you, I just hope that you will not harm other innocent people in the future. The monk in the temple said that this Buddhist bead can resolve anger, so I asked to give it to you, and you can rest in peace."
The shopkeeper didn't know at the time that it was his move that kept this place safe for eight years...
The shopkeeper put out his cigarette butt and his thoughts were pulled back from his memories. He looked up at the clock and saw that it was almost eleven o'clock. He had been in the habit of going to bed early and getting up early for many years. This time was already very late for him.
, so he decided not to think too much and go to bed early.
Just as the shopkeeper opened the quilt, his pupils contracted sharply and his heart stopped beating at this moment.
A broken doll was lying quietly on his bed, and the strange smile of the little boy in the nightmare appeared on the doll's face.
The shopkeeper was so frightened that he collapsed to the ground. He quickly retreated to the corner of the room, trying to get as far away from the doll as possible.
And the broken doll also came to life at this moment, and the weird smile on its face turned into a terrifying and vivid laughter. It sat up, like a real child, and staggered closer to the shopkeeper.
The shopkeeper's mind went blank at this time, and breathing became extremely difficult. He muttered intermittently: "You...you..."
The broken doll approached step by step, laughed loudly, and then like the little boy in the nightmare, its head fell off.
The shopkeeper really hopes that this is just a nightmare, because the dream eight years ago ended here. Unfortunately, everything is still going on at this moment... The head rolled to the shopkeeper's feet, and the evil smile on his face.
She stared at him with lifeless eyes and made a gurgling sound from her mouth.
Then, it actually spoke: "You meddlesome thing... you have to pay the price..."
The shopkeeper didn't understand. He had no idea why the other party was saying this to him. The little boy was still thanking him in his dream back then, so why did he come to kill him again now?
He probably didn't have much time to think, because the head opened its mouth, and salty liquid rushed out from its mouth. It was neither white brain nor scarlet blood, but a kind of dirty red mucus.
.
The water flow was so fast that in just a short moment, the headless doll and the head on the ground were submerged.
The shopkeeper struggled to stand up. He wanted to open the door, but the door handle wouldn't move. He banged on the door and shouted, but to no avail. It was as if he was locked in an isolated space at the moment and had lost all contact with the outside world.
Just when he was doing these useless efforts, the water was already up to his waist. He turned around to look for other ways out, only to see the moonlight filtering in through the simple paper-wood structure window, so he struggled to trickle towards the window.
He wanted to break the window to find the last way out. Unfortunately, no matter how hard he picked up the stool in the room and smashed it, it was useless. The glass in the laminated window was as strong as bulletproof at the moment.
The shopkeeper finally gave up and leaned against the wall, his life passing before his eyes like a fleeting moment, thinking that he would finally be reunited with his dead family.
However, this day was destined not to be the time for him to return to his position. Just when he decided to close his eyes and wait for death, he felt relieved and the feeling of fear suddenly disappeared. When he opened his eyes, he found that he was lying on the bed,
It was as if what had just happened had never happened and that I had just had another nightmare.
There was a sudden knock on the door, and the shopkeeper almost fell off the bed in fright. He asked in a trembling voice: "Who is it...?"
"Me, Elbert, we met during the day, and my friend, we heard some noises, are you okay? Do you need help?"
The shopkeeper was relieved when he heard the voice of a living person. He responded: "No...it's okay...I must have had a nightmare. I'm sorry for disturbing the guest officer..."
Another voice came from outside the door, and it was Wang Xu: "Shopkeeper, please open the door. That was not a dream just now. You are in danger now. Let us come in to help."
When the shopkeeper heard this, he felt something was wrong. How could they know about his ghost encounter? Could it be that the person outside the door was not the same Elbert during the day at all! But...
Wang Xu's voice came again: "Your worries are groundless and wrong. If we hadn't come, you would have been drowned in the hallucination just now. So now, please open the door, otherwise we will come in by ourselves."
."
The shopkeeper remembered that they had sent someone upstairs to fix the lock on the door in the morning, and thought that even a mere door would not be able to stop these two people. Furthermore, after thinking about it again, he realized that what this man said made sense, so he got up and walked towards the door.
: "Here we come, wait."
He opened the door a crack and saw Elbert's face, then slowly opened the door and said: "You two, please come in and talk."
After they sat down, Wang Xu was the first to speak: "As for how I know the thoughts and memories in your mind, you don't have to ask, and I can't explain it to you. Now, please tell Elbert the hallucination you just encountered.
That’s it.”
The shopkeeper was also a sensible person, and he knew that these two people were definitely not good people in the market, but maybe some Taoist masters who caught ghosts, so he told them what he had just seen without hesitation, and also added some details about the Eighth Route Army.
The details of years ago. When he told Elbert the story before, he omitted the matter of throwing beads into the river, but now he knew everything and told it in great detail.
After listening to the narration, Albert thought and said: "This is very similar to the illusion I saw last night. The method of killing is also drowning..."
Wang Xu was as calm as water at this moment. He said calmly: "This thing is very unusual this time. In fact, it picked its victims at random before. But it attacked you last night because you have spiritual consciousness but are not strong."
, it can gain stronger power after killing you. As for the one who attacked the shopkeeper just now, he wants revenge..."
Albert felt like there was something wrong with Wang Xu from just now. From the moment he left Yan Li's room to when Wang Xu asked him to come with him to rescue people, Wang Xu seemed to be a different person in this short period of time. He was still the same person just now.
It shows a method similar to mind reading, which always feels much more reliable...
"Brother Wang...you seem to already know what you are going to deal with this time?"
Wang Xu did not answer, but turned to the shopkeeper and said: "Shopkeeper, your inference is wrong. What we have to deal with this time is not ordinary evil ghosts, but something more powerful. I think back then, we were given
The master of your prayer beads has seen some clues in you, so he used your hand to complete a seal, but you knew nothing about it...
However, that 'thing' has always held a grudge against you, so it came back to find you after it got rid of its restraints. It originally wanted to kill you after killing enough people here, but the appearance of Elbert and I made it change its plan.
It's ahead of schedule. It's scared. After coming into contact with my spiritual consciousness last night, it felt danger and accelerated its revenge."
The shopkeeper became nervous: "You two, I have long seen that you are not ordinary people. You are definitely the gods from heaven who have descended to earth. Please save me! If you want money..."
Wang Xu waved his hand to signal him to shut up: "We don't need money, the gods and arhats don't need money, just think of it this way." He stood up and said to Elbert: "Go out with me once, today
Let’s settle this matter later.”
When the shopkeeper heard that they were leaving, he hurriedly said: "Wang Shenxian, you and this foreign god are gone, what should I do if that thing comes to me again?"
Wang Xu knew that he had this question, so he replied: "I will set up a formation around the inn so that no evil things can get in after we leave."
The shopkeeper felt a little relieved after hearing this and sent these two people out of the door.
The two walked out of the inn. After all, the air in the suburbs at night was relatively fresh, which made people feel refreshed.
Wang Xu really started to circle around the inn, mumbling something while Albert followed behind him with a puzzled look on his face.
Suddenly, Wang Xu stopped and said, "Don't stare at me with your spiritual vision. It's not what you think."
Albert still kept a distance from Wang Xu with some caution: "As far as I know, Brother Wang doesn't know how to set up any formations. Who are you!"
