Something so horrible had happened, and the ward was a mess, so why was everyone acting like they'd just realized something was wrong? Weren't they right outside the door? And the door was open...
Are these people really human, or is he still trapped in an illusion created by ghosts?
Li Xiu stared at the group of people rushing into the room in shock and doubt. He was so scared that he was almost going insane and wanted to hide in the corner of the room uncontrollably.
Fortunately, Teacher Xu had also come to his senses by then. The man's face was grim, but his expression had regained its previous composure. He raised his hand and gently tapped Li Xiu's forehead, mumbling a few mumbled incantations.
Li Xiu felt a chill run deep into his forehead, following the point where Teacher Xu's skin had made contact with his. The young man jolted awake, and the next second, he felt his mind lighten, and he instantly became much more awake.
At this time, Li Xiu looked at the time again and found that the battle that seemed extremely long to him had actually only lasted for one or two minutes.
and...
"They probably couldn't see anything just now. This is the most common case of ghost covering the eyes. Don't be afraid. Oh, and that thing is gone."
As if sensing Li Xiu's fear, Teacher Xu stood in front of him and explained to him in a somewhat tired tone.
*
The commotion in the night ward lasted only a short while.
Not long after Teacher Xu made a phone call, everything returned to normal.
At least that's what it seems.
The man gave Li Xiu a thick coat and then moved with the now-awake Qiao Yang. However, he didn't find another ward to accommodate Li Xiu. Instead, he took his apprentice and the young man straight to the hospital parking lot.
Teacher Xu gestured for Li Xiu to follow Qiao Yang into the car.
The car was just an ordinary secondhand Honda, looking nearly scrapped. As soon as Li Xiu got in, she noticed a string of copper coins hanging from the rearview mirror. The red string wrapped around the coins had faded, giving it a quaint and peculiar look. There were copper bells hanging from each corner of the car, but even after the car rocked several times when she got in, no sound came from them.
"This thing only makes noises when it's near a yin object. The more sinister the object, the louder the noises will be if it's closer."
Seeing that Li Xiu was staring at the copper bell, Qiao Yang leaned over and whispered an explanation in his ear.
In addition, Li Xiu even saw a bronze portrait of the Chairman on the center console of the car, and some hundred-yuan bills were pasted on the roof of the car.
Qiao Yang: "Well, these are actually used to ward off evil spirits."
Li Xiu: "Oh."
It has to be said that the furnishings in the carriage were all filled with a bit of unreliable charlatanism, but when Li Xiu looked at those strange things, he only felt an indescribable sense of security.
"Come, come, drink some hot water..."
Before leaving, Teacher Xu filled a thermos with hot water from the nurses' station. He then fetched two paper cups from nowhere, poured water into each, and handed them to Li Xiu and Qiao Yang.
After taking the hot water, Li Xiu realized that his fingers were so frozen that he could not feel them anymore.
"Teacher Xu, we've already chased that...that Red Lord away. He won't come back, right?"
Li Xiu sipped the hot water in small sips, and it took her a long time to muster up the courage to ask in a low voice.
After hearing this question, Teacher Xu was silent for a moment, then took off his glasses and wiped them.
He did not answer the question directly.
"Are you scared of what happened just now?"
He suddenly asked.
Li Xiu nodded.
"...Fear."
In fact, you can guess it without answering. The boy's eyes are still red, obviously he was scared before.
It's not like Li Xiu hasn't been to a haunted house or seen a horror movie before. Honestly, the haunted houses and horror movies people create have scarier, gorier scenes. But even the most realistic haunted houses and the most brilliantly plotted movies can't compare to the fear Li Xiu just felt.
Until now, recalling what just happened, Li Xiu still feels powerless.
Looking at Li Xiu's frightened face, Teacher Xu smiled bitterly.
"Although it's a bit unreasonable, Li Xiu, from now on you must be braver and can't continue to be scared like this."
The man whispered.
"I've told you before, the more afraid a person is, the more unstable his soul will be," the man said as he raised his thermos and gestured in the air. He shook his arms, and the remaining hot water in the thermos gurgled.
"As for a person's soul, it's generally difficult for it to escape from their body. But if a ghost keeps scaring someone, each fright will cause the soul to become unstable, and the yang fire in the head and shoulders will naturally weaken. Once the yang fire weakens, the person's soul will become even more unstable, making them even more easily frightened... Once this vicious cycle forms, the person will gradually be possessed by the ghost."
"ah?"
"You see, many people with mental problems are taken to the hospital and asked, initially they just had trouble sleeping or neurasthenia, but eventually, they develop serious mental problems without even realizing it. Of course, some of these people are definitely pathological, but for others, it's closely linked to these supernatural beliefs."
Listening to Teacher Xu's words, Li Xiu's eyes widened little by little.
"Teacher Xu, you mean..."
"I think 'that thing' is deliberately trying to scare you and take your soul away." At this point, Teacher Xu's face became more serious. He stared at Li Xiu and asked solemnly.
"This isn't the first or second time. Your 'brother' is so obsessed with you and wants to take you away. Li Xiu, answer me honestly, have you ever made a wish to that thing?"
Li Xiu was about to shake his head when he heard Teacher Xu say.
"…You may not even be aware of it, but when you offered raw rice to your brother, what were you thinking?"
Li Xiu stopped moving at this point.
The words to deny the wish were clearly on the tip of his tongue, but they were stuck in his throat and he couldn't utter a single word.
Did I really never make a wish to my brother?
It was as if there was a voice in my heart constantly asking myself this question.
When I was bullied by that group of people in school, didn't I long for help? Was there anyone who could help me?
When his grandmother was sick, didn't he wish he was not an orphan, and hoped that someone could become his relative and bear the burden of life for him?
"I, I might, did make a wish."
Li Xiu's voice was trembling and out of tune.
"My grandmother always told me that he was my brother, so sometimes I really wish I had a brother. I could hide under his protection and just focus on studying without having to worry about all those other things..."
Unconsciously, wet tear marks appeared on the boy's cheeks.
"But I didn't mean to do that."
When Teacher Xu saw Li Xiu's expression at the moment, a look of understanding suddenly appeared in his eyes.
"Don't feel any burden. Lord Hong is a very cunning person. Even if you're a selfless monk, if you spend too much time with that kind of person, you'll develop many delusions. Li Xiu, you're just an ordinary student. You want a complete family and want to study hard. That's perfectly normal, so there's no need to blame yourself."
Teacher Xu repeatedly comforted the young man in front of him.
But Li Xiu's tears did not stop. He never thought that the wish he made unconsciously in his heart would eventually lead to such bitter consequences.
Teacher Xu had actually been trying hard to comfort him, and he didn't say it very directly, but Li Xiu was not a fool after all. On the contrary, he was smart enough, so he guessed it even from just a few words - it was his desire to have relatives and someone to protect him that released Lord Hong.
Li Xiu sobbed for a while before raising his elbows and desperately wiping away his tears with his sleeves. He took several deep breaths and forced himself to calm down.
He knew crying was useless.
"Is there really no other way?" Li Xiu asked hoarsely. "Isn't there someone like Lin Zhengying who can subdue demons? There must be such a powerful master in this world..."
Hearing Lin Zhengying's name, Teacher Xu was slightly stunned and his expression froze.
"Ah, actually, Mr. Xu might be even better than Lin Zhengying."
At this moment, Qiao Yang hurriedly began to explain on behalf of Teacher Xu.
"You should watch less of those old-fashioned Hong Kong horror movies. Lin Zhengying and the like are all fictional. If they were real, they wouldn't necessarily be as good as my teacher."
In fact, Qiao Yang's face was still a little pale. While he was desperately drinking hot water, he was trying to defend Teacher Xu.
It's a pity that after hearing this, Li Xiu obviously hesitated.
Before he could respond, Qiao Yang spoke again hurriedly.
"The main reason for this mishap is the thing that's been haunting you. It's incredibly strange and ferocious! I swear I've never seen anything so ferocious. It's also incredibly bizarre. It's not afraid of true fire or cinnabar, and it can even possess my body and take away my spirit. How could an ordinary evil spirit possibly do that? Even the thing at the Xiao family could only control a corpse at best. It's nothing like what's happening now. It's completely immune to all poisons, water, and fire. There's nothing we can do to it."
As he spoke, Qiao Yang's voice became filled with confusion.
"I still don't understand what the hell this thing is. Li Xiu, what on earth did you offer it? Why is it so powerful?"
Just as Qiao Yang was mumbling, Teacher Xu's cell phone suddenly rang.
The man immediately picked up his phone and took a look, but just with that one look, Teacher Xu's face changed.
"Teacher Xu?"
"what happened?"
Xu Qinghe lost control of his emotions for a moment, and the atmosphere in the car suddenly became tense. The other two people in the car looked at Teacher Xu eagerly, and their voices were also tinged with panic.
However, this time, even someone as calm as Teacher Xu couldn't keep up the nerve to pretend nothing had happened.
After all, the person who sent the message was his fellow disciple.
At this moment, the communication software is repeatedly playing the surveillance video transcribed from the funeral home.
The blurry camera is facing a room used for funerals.
Teacher Xu immediately recognized it as the room where Li Xiu's grandmother's coffin had been laid to rest. At the time, Li Xiu was still hospitalized, and Teacher Xu had helped with her grandmother's funeral arrangements. But then, under the surveillance camera, she saw her grandmother's coffin being slowly opened without anyone touching it.
Immediately afterwards, an old lady with a pale face sat up straight from the coffin.
The old man's eyes were gray and cloudy.
The undertaker applied a thick layer of powder to the old woman's face while preparing her appearance. Under the surveillance camera, the old woman's face looked particularly white.
The old lady who had been dead for a long time twitched slightly, and then she crawled out of the coffin stiffly.
It can be clearly seen through the camera that when the old man landed, his heels were raised high.
The old man walked stiffly out of the door and disappeared from the surveillance camera's range.
…
If it weren't for the rapidly jumping timeline on the surveillance camera, the scene before my eyes would have looked like a horror scene deliberately cut out of a horror movie.
But Mr. Xu in front of the mobile phone screen knew better than anyone that it was not a horror shot at all, it was a real thing that happened.
Li Xiu's grandmother turned into a zombie.
Teacher Xu, who is usually the calmest and most gentle, finally cursed when he saw this scene.
"I'm such a pig-brained fool...why didn't I think of that?!"
Why have Li Yu's ashes never been found? The reason is very simple.
Before Grandma Qi died, perhaps voluntarily or bewitched by the power of ghosts, she hid Li Yu's ashes in her body - yes, she ate Li Yu's ashes.
"No wonder it became so fierce—"
After a brief moment of loss of composure, Teacher Xu immediately figured everything out.
Originally, the only reason Red Lord could move around in the outside world was because he relied on the ashes he was offered as a carrier. But now, he finally had a physical body.
"Once an evil spirit like this takes on a physical form, it becomes a physical form. Once it takes form, it becomes difficult to dispel it with invisible exorcism spells or something like that—"
Thinking of this, a layer of cold sweat broke out on Teacher Xu's back.
"No, Li Xiu, we can't let you stay here any longer. The yin energy in the hospital is too strong. Your ghost brother is so obsessed with you that he won't let you go so easily. That thing will definitely come looking for you again."
As he spoke, Teacher Xu hurriedly tightened the thermos cup, then started the car and was about to take Li Xiu away.
At this time, Li Xiu also realized the urgency of the situation from Teacher Xu's whisper.
The already frightened boy's face turned pale.
"Fang Qianan."
At this moment, another boy's face suddenly appeared in Li Xiu's mind. He subconsciously grasped Qiao Yang's sleeve and asked hurriedly.
"For example, if Lord Hong becomes so powerful, will he look for Fang Qianan in addition to me? It was Fang Qianan who took me away in the first place..."
When Teacher Xu heard Li Xiu's question, he froze.
*
"Knock knock knock—"
In the Fang family's duplex mansion at the top of the building, Aunt Su, holding a tray, carefully knocked on the closed door.
But after knocking for a long time, the young owner of the room still failed to open the door.
"Xiao Fang..."
Aunt Su stared at the motionless door, her face changing. Finally, she could no longer hide her worry and shouted into the room through the door.
"You may be angry, but you still have to eat. You haven't eaten in days. If you continue to be so hungry, you'll have problems!"
After knocking on the door for a while, the door finally opened slowly.
A boy appeared behind the door.
"Stop knocking. I'm not angry." Fang Qianan rubbed his hair and said tiredly to the woman outside the door, "I just accidentally fell asleep."
"Hey, Qian'an, is this what you did?"
When Aunt Su saw Fang Qianan, she hadn't even breathed a sigh of relief when her eyes met the bright red bloodstains on the boy's clothes.
she asked in panic.
After being reminded by her, Fang Qianan lowered his head and looked at the hem of his clothes. After a moment of hesitation, he replied stiffly: "...I just accidentally had a nosebleed. It's no big deal. It's been like this for the past few days."
"Why didn't you change your clothes when you had a nosebleed? It really scared me to death."
After hearing this explanation, Aunt Su relaxed a little and muttered.
Fang Qianan did have this problem, and he had frequent nosebleeds since he was a child. It was said that it was because of the fragile blood vessels in the nasal mucosa. However, Aunt Su also knew that if Fang Qianan had not been beaten as a child, he would not have developed such a problem.
Smelling the faint smell of blood coming from the boy, a trace of pity flashed in Aunt Su's eyes.
"Well, it's time for you to replenish your body anyway. You just got out of the hospital. Eat something and don't be angry."
She advised.
"Aunt Su, please take it away. I just have no appetite. I'm not angry."
Fang Qianan spoke word by word, with no expression on his face. He obviously had a very handsome face, but now it looked as if it was covered with a plastic mask.
The originally luxurious and comfortable room behind him was already in a mess.
Everything that could be smashed in the room had been smashed, even the sofa that two people couldn't even move and the solid wood desk.
The corkboard on the wall looked as if it had been scraped by a mad beast, revealing the cement underneath. Everywhere was covered with traces of fighting, and in the entire room, not a single piece of furniture remained intact.
Aunt Su looked at everything in the room over Fang Qianan's shoulder, her expression becoming more bitter.
Who would have thought that the tragic scene that looked like the battlefield in Iraq was caused simply because Fang Qianan asked Fang Chengke for his cell phone but failed.
In fact, over the years, Aunt Su has always been biased towards Fang Qianan in her heart.
She could see clearly that Fang Qianan's father was a complete scumbag, and no matter how rich he was, he was nothing.
But...
After what happened a few days ago, even Aunt Su, who had taken care of boys for so long, couldn't help but feel an inexplicable fear towards Fang Qianan...
If a child goes crazy, he or she needs special medical staff to give him or her a sedative.
Moreover, several tall and strong security guards rushed over and almost failed to hold Fang Qianan down.
You have to know that Fang Qianan hadn't eaten for several days at that time.
Most importantly…
At that time, Aunt Su was hiding in the corner of the room and accidentally caught a glimpse of those eyes.
At that time, it seemed as if there were two pupils in Fang Qianan's eyes, squeezed in the same eye socket.
Aunt Su didn't know if she had seen it wrong, but she had nightmares all night when she got home that night and was extremely scared.
"Qian'an, there's really no need." Aunt Su swallowed her saliva and persuaded dryly, "Isn't it just that I didn't give you the phone? Mr. Fang is also worried that you won't get enough rest and won't be able to recover. When the time comes, you can just be soft-hearted in front of your father and ask him to return the phone to you..."
Having said that, when Aunt Su looked at Fang Qianan, she felt a little bit of pity in her heart.
She persuaded hesitantly.
Fang Qianan couldn't help but sneer when he heard this.
"Ha, did he just want to take my phone? If he really wanted me to rest, why did he rush me out of the hospital?"
As soon as Teacher Xu left, Fang Qianan was escorted back to the Fang family mansion by his father, under the pretext of going home to recuperate for better conditions.
"He simply can't wait for me to become a so-called 'mental patient' as well."
When talking about his father, there was no warmth in Fang Qianan's tone.
"Ah? How can you say that—"
Aunt Su's heart tightened, and she spoke hurriedly, just wanting to end the topic quickly.
But Fang Qianan continued talking regardless.
"It's just like how he treated my mom back then. He was so happy when she went crazy, wasn't he? Since she's incompetent, the old man has custody of her, and he can spend her money however he wants. Now that my mom is dying, he's most afraid that I'll inherit her estate, so he's trying to control me, isn't he?"
Aunt Su was about to speak again to persuade her, but when she thought of what happened to the hostess many years ago, she couldn't bring herself to say "You think too much".
Otherwise, how can they be called father and son?
Fang Qianan's guess is indeed possible.
Thinking of this, Aunt Su broke out in a cold sweat. She didn't dare to say anything more. She hurriedly put the tray in front of Fang Qianan's door, made an excuse and left in a hurry.
Fang Qianan stared at the direction the woman left, with a dull look in his eyes.
With a click, he closed the door again.
He still ignored the tray placed at the door.
How many days have you not eaten?
Fang Qianan couldn't remember clearly, but just as he had told Aunt Su before, he really had no appetite.
Walking past the messy furniture debris in the room, Fang Qianan came step by step to the bed where only a mattress was left, and fell onto the bed with a thud.
"Fuck, I wonder what happened to that weakling now... If he had any conscience, he would probably come to me..."
The tall boy looked at the roof and murmured softly.
It was fine when he was in the hospital before. Although Fang Chengke was strict, he could at least get some news about the other party from Teacher Xu who came to visit him.
But now he is completely trapped here.
So annoying.
I want to find A Xiu.
If I had known earlier, I should have killed that damn old man...
A strong sense of violence spread in Fang Qianan's heart.
Remove the spine...
The old man's blood should spray everywhere, right?
It's so old, its skin probably won't be elastic even if it's peeled off.
Besides, he has been messing around for so many years, and he is very dirty...
…
Fang Qianan didn't notice that his eyeballs were trembling abnormally.
He bit his knuckles unconsciously until blood oozed from the deep teeth marks.
But even the sweet and fishy smell of blood could not soothe the hunger and anxiety that kept surging in the body.
It feels like there is an invisible fire burning in my body.
"A Xiu..."
As a last resort, Fang Qianan closed his eyes and began to use "that method" to calm his mind.
He was sketching out Li Xiu's appearance in his mind bit by bit.
The boy whom he had hugged tightly that night.
Because the bed was very narrow, after falling asleep, Li Xiu, who was afraid of the cold, was accidentally taken into his arms.
Fang Qianan even remembered the scent belonging to Li Xiu that he smelled in the darkness.
It wasn't the smell of cheap shower gel at all, but the intoxicating sweet, warm scent of blood that emanated from beneath the snow-white skin.
I'm hungry...
Fang Qianan was somewhat aware that something was wrong with his mind.
No normal person would be hungry and hard thinking about their same-sex friends, right?
But he no longer had the time to care about too much. Only Li Xiu... only his Ah Xiu could calm him down.
Unconsciously, Fang Qianan's breathing gradually calmed down.
He fell asleep.
A pool of dark blood gradually spread across his waist.
The author has something to say:
Xiao Fang (pulling a finger): A Xiu misses me.
(Pulling another finger): He doesn't miss me.
(Pulling out another one): No, he misses me.