Chen Yanyan's voice was clear when she was calm, but now it was screaming so loud that it could pierce one's eardrums.
The door of the ward was wide open, and people outside could hear the slightest noise. If she shouted like that, the whole floor would probably be alarmed.
However, Lu Yingjiu and Jing Xian did not react at all. They did not try to escape, close the door immediately, or comfort her. They did not even raise their eyebrows.
No one came in from outside. Both the nurses and the patients were doing their own things. A young man with a broken leg walked through the door slowly on crutches, without even looking inside.
It was like an invisible barrier that isolated the room.
Chen Yanyan suddenly realized something and shut her mouth tightly.
Although she had not been involved in exorcism since she changed her name, she still understood the basic principle: Lu Yingjiu did not take out the talisman paper or make hand gestures in front of her just now. In other words, this barrier that was cast down at some unknown time was...
Her eyes swept across Lu Yingjiu's shoulder and fell on Jing Xian.
Jing Xian leaned against the door casually and smiled at her. That smile was evil and handsome, and there was no smile in his black eyes. Looking into such a pair of eyes, Chen Yanyan's teeth began to tremble unconsciously, and her intuition was shouting.
—Did this person want to kill me just now
This thought suddenly popped up in her mind, but she thought it was too outrageous, so she forced it down. Looking at Jing Xian again, she felt that there was a monster lurking under that impeccable face.
Chen Yanyan's hands and feet were cold, and a shadow suddenly fell in front of her eyes.
Lu Yingjiu took the coat from the bedside and put it on her: "We didn't see anything, put your clothes in order. Don't do this again in the future."
Chen Yanyan gritted his teeth and hastily pulled on his clothes: "… What are you doing here? Especially Mr. Lu Yingjiu, I have seen your photo and know that you are a suspect. Are you afraid that the clues from that year will be exposed, so you come here to kill people and silence them?"
Lu Yingjiu pulled a chair and sat down.
His personality is completely different from Jing Xian, he is much gentler and more reserved, and seems to be very approachable. He said: "If I want to kill you, you would have died in the wilderness, no one would be able to find you, and I would not leave any traces."
The tone is relaxed.
He was not trying to convince Chen Yanyan: it was just a simple statement, and it didn't matter whether others believed it or not because it was a fact.
Chen Yanyan looked at the two people in front of him again, and finally realized belatedly: these two people are not normal people.
Lu Yingjiu said: "I just want to know what happened at the time. There are still some doubts in this case, so I won't beat around the bush. I found that your family members turned into ghosts and were in the bar where the crime occurred. Your grandmother, Chen Minlan, also appeared in the community near the bar."
Chen Yanyan's eyes widened.
Lu Yingjiu continued, "Chen Minlan was pestering a waiter in the bar. Maybe the waiter knew some clues. After that, she even took the initiative to come to me - this is also an important reason why I want to investigate."
Chen Yanyan was so shocked that she saw Lu Yingjiu and Jing Xian in her clear eyes. After a long pause, she finally spoke: "Did they... say anything?"
"No." Lu Yingjiu shook his head, "But unfortunately, they are no longer sane and can't communicate."
"Where's the waiter?"
"He couldn't think of it." Lu Yingjiu omitted the part that Jin Xiaoyang had already gone.
Chen Yanyan lowered her eyes.
She looked even slender, almost pitiful, and the weight of her figure seemed to climb up her back in an instant. A girl so young and pretty was very lovable when she did this - even though she was hysterical like a madman two minutes ago.
Jing Xian stood up and went to the corridor to get a glass of water. He carefully mixed the hot and cold water, making sure that the temperature in his palm was just right, then he carried the glass of water back to the room and walked to the bed.
Chen Yanyan raised her head, looked at him, and whispered, "Thank you..."
Jing Xian handed the water to Lu Yingjiu: "Drink slowly, be careful of the heat."
Chen Yanyan: “…”
Lu Ying took a sip of the wine, put it in front of the bed, and continued to talk to Chen Yanyan: "The car accident that caused your fracture was not caused by an accident, right? I can still feel that there is a ghost entangled with you. And you have been going to the hospital very frequently in the past few months, sometimes with a sprained foot, sometimes with various minor illnesses. It seems that you are haunted by a ghost."
All this information was written in the file that Chen Xiaoling gave him, and he had already read it on the way here.
Chen Yanyan asked: "Can you feel the yin in my body?"
She had met several exorcists before, but none of them could detect it at all, unlike Lu Yingjiu who could see it at a glance.
"Yeah." Lu Yingjiu said, "And I can see that it has been following you for many years... Let me think, 5 years? Or 6 years? Before, it was not strong enough, and some hormone stimulated it. If you let it go, your life might be in danger. This time it was your wrist, and next time it's crushed, it might be your head."
Chen Yanyan's hands trembled.
Lu Ying leaned forward slightly and continued, "Although I don't know why you didn't think of asking the Chen family for help - maybe you don't want to contact them even if you die, or maybe you don't realize the seriousness of the situation. In any case, my suggestion is this: I will help you exorcise the ghost, and you tell me the details of what happened back then. I don't have a hobby of exposing people's scars, and I will never ask any more questions except for the case itself."
Chen Yanyan said subconsciously: "It's the same if we find another powerful exorcist. It doesn't necessarily have to be you."
"You can try." Lu Yingjiu smiled, "But do you dare to gamble?"
If you win the bet, you get to keep the secret. If you lose the bet, you lose your life.
Chen Yanyan glanced at her left hand. The painkiller had worn off and the wound was aching slightly. She closed her eyes again, and the truck that was roaring towards her seemed to still be in front of her. Her bicycle was deformed by the collision, and she flew five or six meters away. When she landed heavily, a strong smell of blood filled her throat. In her blurred vision, she could only see the wheels of the bicycle slowly turning in the air. The noise around her was far away, as if across the deep water, someone was shouting: "Something happened!"
At that moment, she really thought she was dead.
It was just as the doctor said, she was lucky this time.
She had heard of Lu Yingjiu's name many times, and had sought him out to exorcise ghosts, but no one could get the chance, no matter how hard they tried.
She bit her lip: "... But," she quickly glanced at Jing Xian, hesitated for a long time before speaking, her voice as thin as a thread, "I, I don't know if you are the murderer... What if you are a bad guy..."
Lu Yingjiu said, "If I were the murderer, would I have gone to so much trouble to ask you for details? I should be the one who knows the case best. When you first saw me, you didn't even recognize me. Back then, I was not a serious suspect at all. Aren't you the one who knows this best?"
His voice has a convincing power.
Anyone who has heard of him knows that he had a very good reputation when he was the chief, and he was the conscience of the ghost exorcist: if he promised to protect the client, then the client would never get into trouble; if he promised to find the evil ghost, then the whole family of the evil ghost would be rooted out. In addition, his pleasing and friendly appearance and calm temperament, no matter how you look at it, he has nothing to do with "evil intentions".
Chen Yanyan was silent for a long time.
It was hard to tell what psychological struggle she was going through, but as she looked at Lu Yingjiu, her expression gradually softened.
After a long time, she took a deep breath and said, "Okay, I'll tell you. In fact, the ghost in me is the ghost that killed my family back then..."
Lu Yingjiu and Jing Xian looked at each other.
Chen Yanyan clenched her hands. "At that time, my classmates and I said we wanted to play a game of courage together, so we found an abandoned building called the 'Dongdong Slaughterhouse' and played a game of right and wrong. You should know the rules."
Lu Yingjiu nodded.
He lowered his head and searched a bit. He found that the Xidong slaughterhouse was between Lujiang City and Yuantai City, in the middle of nowhere and there was no village or shop nearby. He had no idea how those kids got there.
Chen Yanyan continued, "While we were playing, we realized something was wrong. It seemed like there was really one more person among us. We were scared and left immediately. Then, I took a taxi to the KTV to celebrate my brother's birthday. Unexpectedly, unexpectedly..." She closed her eyes, "I took the ghost with me. You all know what happened next. I was the murderer who killed them... Now it's finally my turn."
Lu Yingjiu said: "It's not anyone's fault. Sorting out the doubts and finding out the truth is the best comfort you can give them."
Chen Yanyan closed her eyes and nodded, then sighed and continued, "There were three people playing the game, me, my best friend Fan Xin, and our two boyfriends. Fan Xin... Fan Xin also left home not long after that, and it must have been this ghost that caused her. As for the two boys, I didn't contact them later."
She recalled the past.
That afternoon six years ago, the boys and girls packed into the car, left the sunny campus, and went to the gloomy slaughterhouse. The old building was silent under the dark clouds, like a giant monster. They climbed over the rusty iron gate, stepped on the knee-high weeds, walked in with laughter, and joked with each other.
Dark clouds rolled over the head, heavy rain poured down from the sky, lightning tore through the sky, and strong winds blew off the clothes of the young people. No one could have imagined that this was a road of no return.
Lu Yingjiu wrote down the three names and sent them to Chen Xiaoling.
If Chen Yanyan was in danger, maybe the two boys were in danger too.
"So," Chen Yanyan looked at him, "can you kill it?"
She glanced at Jing Xian again—the handsome man was standing behind Lu Yingjiu. Unlike Lu Yingjiu who was listening attentively, he looked nonchalant, as if he was not interested in her story, and even disdained to show false concern. He filled another glass of water, drank it slowly, and kept his eyes on Lu Yingjiu from beginning to end.
Lu Yingjiu thought for a few seconds: "If we invite ghosts for the supernatural game, it would be best to return to the place where they were and then exorcise them. To be safe, we have to go to the slaughterhouse in the cave."
Chen Yanyan's face turned pale: "Want to go back?"
"Yeah." Lu Yingjiu nodded, "There are some suspicious points. You went to the KTV in the evening, and played games in the afternoon. It is very difficult to really attract evil spirits in supernatural games, and the probability is even lower if you play them during the day. What's more, this ghost is very powerful, and it is simply too cruel... From my personal point of view, this is almost impossible to happen."
Chen Yanyan smiled bitterly: "That's because we put some talismans on the wall to invite ghosts before playing the game. I was brave at the time and wanted to invite a ghost, the scariest one. If it was him, it would be easy for him to do this."
"What's your name?"
"Nothing, just an official position. You might laugh at me if I tell you that."
"No way." Lu Yingjiu said, "This is the most crucial clue."
Chen Yanyan clutched the quilt tightly with both hands.
She was really scared, her lips trembling, and after a long while she whispered, "The one I invited is the Ghost King."
"Cough cough cough!" Jing Xian suddenly choked on the water and couldn't stop laughing.
…
Two minutes later, Lu Yingjiu and Jing Xian stood outside the ward.
They were driven out by the angry Chen Yanyan.
The two of them looked at the people coming and going in front of them, speechless for a moment.
After a while, Lu Yingjiu said, "Although I know that's impossible, why are you laughing at others..."
Jing Xian: “… I couldn’t help it for a moment.”
He really thought it was outrageous and laughed again - Qingdeng would say Lu Yingjiu was the suspect, and Chen Yanyan said he was the evil ghost who had killed countless people. It turned out that this family-murder case was a joint crime committed by the couple.
That little girl is really brave enough to say that, where in this world can one invite such a person
He had been to this room once before.
It was the day of Lu Yingjiu’s wedding.
Jing Xian said: "I was really wrong, please don't be angry."
Lu Yingjiu looked at him. His face, which was more handsome than a model's and was meticulously sculpted, was full of sincerity. Lu Yingjiu thought, if he had been even one ten-thousandth as sincere as he was to Chen Yanyan just now, things wouldn't have turned out like this.
Lu Yingjiu: "... Life is not that bad, but you still have to respect others."
Jing Xian promised: "Next time for sure!"
He also thought that although Lu Yingjiu said that he didn't want to be angry, Heibai Wuchang had told him that when you are in a relationship, the other person will say one thing and mean another.
If you say you are not giving birth, you may actually be giving birth.
Saying it doesn’t matter may actually mean it does matter.
But just as Lu Yingjiu was trying to sort out his thoughts, he saw Jing Xian said sincerely: "Don't be angry."
Lu Yingjiu: “…?”
Lu Yingjiu said: "I really don't... um..."
Jing Xian took a half step closer and held him against the door tightly. The force was still as strong as before. Lu Yingjiu fluttered in his arms for a few times, like a cat being pinned down by a large dog. There was no splash at all, but his fur was messed up.
Lu Yingjiu: "What are you doing again?"
"I was wrong!" Jing Xian said, and then hugged her even tighter.
An old man passing by stared at the two of them with an extremely complicated look on his face, as if he was watching the scene of a "love defense war": a remorseful scumbag tried to win back his beautiful ex-girlfriend, and the ex-girlfriend... The beautiful ex-girlfriend Lu Yingjiu raised her head and cursed silently.
After finally struggling out of Jing Xian's arms, Lu Yingjiu held his forehead with his hand and said, "Your way of apologizing is too unique."
"Hugs can make people feel good." Jing Xian said confidently, "How about another hug?"
Lu Yingjiu: "... Don't."
He pushed away Jing Xian's passionate hug and couldn't find a way to refute it. He thought that it was a good thing that Jing Xian didn't go up and hug Chen Yanyan directly, otherwise, the two of them would never be able to clear themselves even if they jumped into the Yellow River.
He took a deep breath, turned around and knocked on the door of the ward: "Are we coming in?"
When the person inside did not answer, he gently pushed the door open. Chen Yanyan wrapped herself in a blanket and turned her back to them without looking at them.
Lu Yingjiu sat down in front of her again and said, "Don't think too much. He doesn't have any bad intentions."
Chen Yanyan didn't say anything.
Lu Yingjiu said: "In theory, I don't think the priests will come to the world with you. Yin and Yang are naturally balanced, and priests will be subject to great constraints when they come to the world of the living, and they will not kill people easily. As for the Ghost King you mentioned, there is no definite conclusion as to whether he exists or not. Even if he does, I don't think you can invite him..." He turned around and glanced at Jing Xian.
Jingxian smiled.
Lu Yingjiu kicked his foot, and he immediately stopped smiling and pretended to be concerned.
Lu Yingjiu said, "You just finished the operation. We will go to the slaughterhouse after you are discharged from the hospital."
"No, we'll go there today." Chen Yanyan suddenly turned around and looked at Lu Yingjiu, "I really can't stand it for another day. You, you must kill it as soon as possible. Just you and me, let's go now!"
She bit the word "the two of us" very hard.
Jing Xian let out a light sigh.
Lu Yingjiu knew what he was dissatisfied with, and said, "He wants to go with me. And it's not just the three of us."
He stood up, walked to the door and pulled it—
The man leaned against the door to eavesdrop, but he couldn't react in time and stumbled and fell into the house.
It's clearly a Xiao Li.
Xiao Li used his hands to support himself and prevented himself from falling flat on his face. Then he raised his head in panic.
Lu Yingjiu raised the corner of his mouth and said, "Hello, how is Chu Banyang doing recently? Seeing that he is still willing to send someone to follow me, he should be quite free, right?"
…
In order to avenge the shame of the bus, Jing Xian got a really good-looking Aston Martin. The sunlight flows smoothly from the front to the rear of the car, dazzling and compelling, and every line of the car body shows a sense of speed.
At this moment, on the highway, it was moving at a speed of… 50 kilometers per hour.
Lu Yingjiu said, "Xiao Li, you'd better drive faster. The minimum speed on this road is 80."
In the driver's seat, Xiao Li trembled and said, "I'm just afraid of a collision. If I get into a collision, even if you sell me, you won't be able to compensate me. Let me see, let's find a rest stop and let Brother Jingxian drive."
Jing Xian leaned against Lu Yingjiu and said leisurely: "I just finished a long drive and I'm tired."
Lu Yingjiu also said: "It doesn't matter. If you really don't have enough money, ask Chu Banyang to pay the ransom for you and release the person."
Xiao Li wailed, "Master will kill me! Next month is his grandmother's birthday, wouldn't it be a good opportunity to kill me to cheer her up? He'll have to pull out my tendons, skin me, and cook my ashes! Brother Lu, how about you do it?"
Before Lu Yingjiu could say anything, he heard Jingxian say, "He didn't get enough sleep. Driving while fatigued is very dangerous. There are three people in the car."
Xiao Li didn't know how to refute, so he said, "Brother Lu! You two are really a pair of accomplices! You are so in cahoots with each other!"
"You don't have to use idioms if you don't know how to use them." Lu Yingjiu said, and Jing Xian laughed beside him.
However, Lu Yingjiu actually didn't know why Jing Xian, who was addicted to driving, suddenly didn't want to drive anymore.
What was the situation at that time
It seemed like so. Since he said that he wanted to catch up on some sleep in the car, Jing Xian asked Xiao Li to drive the car, Chen Yanyan to the passenger seat, and then Jing Xian insisted on squeezing into the back seat with him.
She looked at him excitedly, with a look that said, "I'm ready, why aren't you sleeping yet?"
Lu Yingjiu looked at him in bewilderment, not understanding what Jing Xian was expecting. Instead, the co-pilot, Chen Yanyan, had just undergone surgery and was not in good spirits, so he lowered his seat and fell asleep. Jing Xian came to sit behind the co-pilot, and when the seat was lowered, the space became narrow, and his long legs felt awkward no matter how he placed them, so he moved his body and got closer to Lu Yingjiu.
Lu Yingjiu lowered his eyes and thought.
The current situation is that the Qingdeng Society does not know that he has found Chen Yanyan, and Chen Yanyan does not know that the Qingdeng Society has reopened the investigation for him. This information gap allows him and Chen Yanyan to act together.
But the truth will come out soon. He actually doesn't have much time, so he needs to sort out the clues before that happens.
As for Xiao Li…
He glanced at the trembling Xiao Li.
Xiao Li simply followed Chu Banyang's instructions and came here, not even knowing that the girl next to him was Chen Yanyan.
He continued to think.
Jing Xian was sitting next to him, and in such a narrow space, they could even feel each other's body temperature and breathing. Gradually, Lu Ying's drunken mind was no longer tense.
They had only met for a few days, but it felt like they had already been through a lot.
Moreover, Lu Yingjiu felt that he should trust Jing Xian very much.
He couldn't find the words to describe that trust, nor did he know where it came from. Subconsciously, he always felt a sense of security when he was with Jing Xian. If he had to put it into words, he could only think of a weird metaphor: it was the kind of security that allowed him to sleep peacefully in the long night when ghosts were rampant.
What is this? An instant hit
The sports car drove forward slowly, passing by several impatient cars, and then quickly overtook them. Lu Yingjiu took a deep breath and suddenly realized that there was a cold breath like a crescent moon coming from Jing Xian.
Very light and pale.
If it weren't for this cramped environment, if the surroundings hadn't been quiet, if they hadn't been crowded together, he wouldn't have noticed.
Lu Yingjiu was stunned for a moment.
Then he lowered his eyes slightly and said, "Respectfully..."
"Hmm?" Jing Xian turned his head to look at him.
Lu Yingjiu: “…”
He smiled and said, "Nothing, I just want to ask you, do you know the Chen family's 'Cloud Weaving Technique'?"
Jing Xian paused for a few seconds.
Those ghost exorcists only taught him common sense. As for how much knowledge the exorcists have, he actually has no idea. He just shook his head: "I don't really know."
Lu Yingjiu glanced at the sleeping Chen Yanyan, and moved closer to Jingxian, lowering his voice, and the two of them were almost rubbing their ears. He explained: "The so-called 'cloud weaving technique' is just another name for it. In the early years, the Chen family made their fortune by cutting off the skin of dead people and making masks. Later, the law was improved, and they also considered the moral issues, so they stopped using human skin and turned to animal skin, such as pig skin, sheep skin or cow skin."
He continued, "I checked and found out that we are heading to the slaughterhouse in Xidong, which is Chen's enterprise - that's why Chen Yanyan brought his classmates here to test their courage. In the past, the Chen family should have used the slaughterhouse to make masks."
"Animal skins are definitely not as good as human skins. They are much stiffer and more likely to be exposed. I once tried a real mask, and it was so lifelike when I put it on that even my closest people couldn't find any flaws. In that commission, the person wearing the mask was a ghost. It pretended to be a human, lured acquaintances to its lair, and then devoured them. In the end, the victims didn't know why their 'friends' wanted to harm them."
"Put on a disguise. You don't even know whether the person you live with day and night is a human or a ghost."
Jing Xian listened carefully, but Lu Yingjiu did not continue.
This silence was a little strange.
Jing Xian tilted his head, and Lu Yingjiu looked up at him. The sunlight shone through the glass, illuminating every eyelash of his. His soft black hair seemed to be coated with a layer of gold.
Lu Yingjiu stared at Jing Xian intently, smiled, and repeated word by word: "I don't even know whether he is a human or a ghost."