Lu Yingjiu and Jing Xian came to Ye Feng's room.
There were talisman papers, various pens, and scissors scattered all over the floor. It was in a mess, as if robbers had just come in and there was almost no place to stand.
The half-person-high cardboard box had been opened. Ye Feng took out the things inside and placed them outside.
A note.
A pair of bronze keys.
And a little green alligator doll.
There are three things in total, and they don't look heavy at all.
Ye Feng unfolded the note first, and the four of them squeezed together to read it.
The note has turned yellow and the handwriting is old.
103486
Xiao Li said: "Brother Ye Feng, is this the bank card password left by your uncle? You are going to get rich."
"No matter how rich he was, the second master didn't leave any savings. He donated all the money he could." Ye Feng said, "He left with nothing."
Ye Deyong was married, but his wife died early without leaving any offspring, so he treated Ye Feng as his own grandson.
When handling his funeral affairs, although Ye Feng was still young, the Ye family explained everything that should be made clear to him, including the whereabouts of the inheritance.
Xiao Li asked: "What could this be?"
"I don't know." Ye Feng shook his head, "He never mentioned it to me."
"Could it be private money?"
"I really don't know." Ye Feng still shook his head.
He picked up the second thing.
The bronze key was very heavy, and slightly longer than his palm. It should correspond to a huge door.
Xiao Li: "Brother Ye Feng, what is this?"
Ye Feng studied the key for a long time and said, "I don't know."
Lu Yingjiu said: "How come you don't know anything? Didn't you say that the Second Master would kiss you?"
Ye Feng scratched his head hard: "But he has a weird temper! No one knows what he's thinking! He's extremely bad at expressing himself, and it's not easy for him to explain things to you clearly. For example, if you say 'last night's meal was terrible', he can beat around the bush and talk about it for eighteen times, from Qin Shi Huang to Liu Bei and Zhang Fei. And you know what, last night's meal was really terrible."
"That is to say, he tends to go off topic when talking." Lu Yingjiu summed it up for him.
"That's right!" Ye Feng slapped his thigh, "In short, he is very good at talking nonsense, and his train of thought is novel."
Xiao Li also took the key and looked at it, then interrupted: "I understand. This must be used to open the safe. After opening it, enter the password on the note."
Lu Yingjiu said, "Has Chu Banyang not paid you recently? You talk about money all the time."
"Alas," Xiao Li smiled sheepishly, "I haven't been hired yet, and I only earn 3,000 yuan a month. I'm a bit tight on money lately."
Ye Feng gave up thinking and put the key and the note together for the time being.
He picked up one last thing.
The crocodile doll didn't look big, but it was very heavy. Veins on his arms bulged just from holding it.
Most of the weight of the carton comes from it.
Lu Yingjiu said, "You know what this means, right?"
"I know this one," Ye Feng put the doll in front of him, making a dull "bang" sound, "It was my toy when I was a child. I loved it the most. When I was in elementary school, I hugged it every day when I slept, and I cried when it was taken away. Later, my family moved, and it disappeared at that time. I thought it was lost, and I cried for a long time. I didn't expect it to be here with Second Master."
He touched the crocodile doll. The texture was furry under his hand, and it was the familiar feeling in his memory.
He said, "Why is it so heavy... Is there something inside?"
Xiao Li's eyes lit up: "It's installed with a safe!"
Lu Yingjiu said, "I'll talk to Chu Banyang later and ask him to give you a raise."
Ye Feng weighed the crocodile again, and after a few seconds, he said with pain: "Let me cut it open and take a look."
When Ye Feng was a child, he would never have imagined that after many years, he would have to cut the hair of his beloved little crocodile with his own hands.
Ye Feng picked up a pair of scissors, turned the crocodile over, and cut a small hole in the middle of its abdomen.
There is something inside the crocodile.
He reached in, pinched a little and—
The dust was scattered in the air.
Seeing that the gray cloud was about to pounce on him, Lu Yingjiu only felt a breeze blowing in front of him.
The wind blew away all the dust and went in the opposite direction without landing on him at all, choking Ye Feng and Xiao Li and making them cough repeatedly.
Lu Yingjiu: “…”
He turned around to look at Jingxian.
Jing Xian looked guilty, as if what had just happened had nothing to do with him.
He was pretending so well that it was really fake. Lu Yingjiu subconsciously wanted to poke him, but before he could reach out his hand, he stopped.
Then he secretly retracted his hand.
Fortunately, he didn't poke, he thought. After knowing Jing Xian's identity, the meaning of this little action seemed to have changed a little, it was hard to explain.
… He felt like he was just flirting with Jing Xian.
Ye Feng coughed and said, "What the hell is this!"
Xiao Li was still coughing: "Ahem, ahem, isn't this what your Second Master left behind?"
"I told you he has a weird temper!" Ye Feng shouted, "A normal person would put dust in his toys! And this is my favorite toy!"
Lu Yingjiu carefully looked at the dust on the ground and felt that it didn't look like ordinary dust. But he obviously had no way to identify what it was with his naked eyes.
He casually asked Jing Xian: "Do you know what this is?"
Jing Xian didn't even blink, and answered fluently: "Ashes."
He had seen this thing in the ghost world.
Lu Yingjiu: “…”
Xiao Li and Ye Feng: "..."
When that person thought about how he was choked and probably swallowed a lot of ashes, he looked like he was about to vomit.
Xiao Li's face was distorted, and he retched a few times. He supported Ye Feng and said, "I now believe that you and Second Master kissed. Even if Second Master is dead, he will be buried in your favorite toy."
"Bullshit!" Ye Feng's face was twisted. "This is definitely not my Second Master. I shoveled his ashes with my own hands, buried part of it, and scattered the rest into the sea! It was scattered cleanly!"
"Then whose ashes are these? Can you tell?" Xiao Li was about to collapse.
“The identity of the deceased cannot be found out from the ashes, they are not bones.” Lu Yingjiu sat down in front of the crocodile doll and rubbed some ashes without any scruples.
There is nothing unusual.
are ordinary ashes, without any negative energy or resentment.
Lu Yingjiu said again: "Ye Feng, you don't understand these three things at all?"
Ye Feng said: "I really don't know anything. I can ask my family, but I don't think it's possible."
Ye Feng went to ask his family, and the elders all said they had no idea.
They all said, "Since it belongs to your uncle, just bring it back and stop studying it."
Everyone knew that Ye Deyong had a strange temper and had tinkered with everything. Putting ashes in toys sounded like something he would do.
It seems that this kind of research will not produce any results.
Ye Feng exhaled, "If possible, I want to go to the sanatorium again. Second Master worked there for decades before he died. If there are any clues, I'll go there."
"It's still early now." Lu Yingjiu looked out the window. The afternoon sun was still bright. "If you want to go, you can go today."
"Okay." Ye Feng stood up.
He had just gotten up when he heard the sound of "Bang, bang, bang!"
There were heavy knocking sounds from outside.
Everyone looked at each other, and Xiao Li stood up and knocked on the door.
The person outside was a young man wearing a baseball cap and jeans, looking a little uneasy: "Hello, I want to ask, are you exorcists..."
Xiao Li did not answer directly, but asked: "Do you need any help?"
He himself had not given out many commissions, but for people like Ye Feng and Lu Yingjiu, especially Lu Yingjiu, it would be normal for them to be recognized.
"Oh, it's like this," the young man pressed his hat to ease his anxiety, "I just saw you in the restaurant. I didn't want to disturb you, but after thinking about it, I still felt that I should come over."
He continued, "I came here with my friend. His name is Zhou Liang, and he's a ghost hunting anchor. You can search for his live broadcast room on 'The Face of Buddha'. It was probably yesterday afternoon when he and a few of his assistants went up the mountain to the sanatorium. Then, I couldn't contact them. No one answered the phone, and texting was useless."
Lu Yingjiu stood up and came to the side: "Is the signal bad on the mountain?"
"No." The young man shook his head again and again, "Look here."
He turned on his phone and on the screen were his psychic anchors, three of whom were broadcasting live from the sanatorium.
The young man said: "His live broadcast room is fine, so the signal should be fine on the mountain. Zhou Liang went up there for live broadcast, and his live broadcast was interrupted yesterday."
It sounds like something really went wrong.
Lu Yingjiu said, "We are just about to go up the mountain. Please give us your friend's contact information. It would be best if you can bring photos with you."
"Okay, okay." The young man agreed hastily, "I'm busy now. Is there anything else you need me to do?"
"No need." Lu Yingjiu thought for a moment and added, "Try to persuade fewer people to go up the mountain."
The young man looked a little embarrassed: "This is difficult. How could they listen to me? I don't have any evidence to prove that the mountain is dangerous." His voice became smaller and smaller.
"It's okay, I'll do my best." Lu Yingjiu said.
He didn't have any hope in the first place, so he would stop as many as he could.
Inside the house, Ye Feng had already put on his backpack and was ready to set off.
…
20 minutes later.
The path up the mountain was not easy to walk on, it was full of potholes and there were many footprints left by the anchors these days. The soil was soft, the leaves on the trees rustled, the birds were jumping around, and the wind smelled of wood and grass.
The environment of this mountain is very good, it has never been developed, and even the roads are so primitive.
Originally there was a car to go to the sanatorium, but it fell into disrepair and is now completely unusable.
Bang!
Xiao Li slapped his calf hard, and when he opened his palm, it was covered with bright red.
He frowned: "There are so many mosquitoes here!"
Ye Feng also said: "My legs are all covered with lumps."
When Lu Yingjiu looked at Ye Feng's legs, she saw several lumps suddenly appearing. Even his hands were spared. The battle was extremely brutal.
In the short few seconds he was talking, another mosquito landed behind his legs.
Lu Yingjiu said, "Excuse me, please bring out the mosquito repellent."
Jing Xian said, "I didn't bring it." He lowered his voice and said, "I don't attract bugs. Come closer."
Lu Yingjiu walked with him all the way and was indeed not bitten.
only…
Lu Yingjiu could not bear it any longer, so she lowered her voice and said, "I saw there was mosquito repellent in your bag, and you are still packing it. Take it out quickly."
Jing Xian was exposed, and with a look of regret he took out the mosquito repellent and handed it to him.
Lu Ying sprayed the wine on himself, then handed the bottle to Ye Feng and Xiao Li.
The man sprayed everywhere, and when the spray hit the scratched areas, he grimaced in pain.
Although the mosquitoes on this mountain are fierce and poisonous, and some are not afraid of mosquito repellent at all, the situation has improved at least.
After walking like this for ten minutes, Ye Feng asked, "Why is it starting to fog up?"
The mist poured down from the mountains like milk, surrounding them in the blink of an eye.
It came suddenly and quickly.
Lu Yingjiu looked around, his vision was blurry, he could only see the vague outlines of trees. He took a deep breath, and felt as if he had inhaled a mouthful of water, the moisture filling his lungs.
Xiao Li scratched his head: "It's strange to have fog in the afternoon. Could there be ghosts? But the mountain area is so large, the yin energy is scattered, and we don't have any simple way to verify it."
"There is a simple way." Ye Feng turned his head, "Lu Yingjiu, is there something fishy going on here?"
Lu Yingjiu: "Yes."
Ye Feng turned around: "Look, isn't this clear?"
Xiao Li: “…”
Visibility dropped rapidly.
Ten meters, five meters, three meters, one meter...
Xiao Li whispered, "I can hardly see your faces."
"Anyway, we're almost there." Ye Feng said, "Let's walk closer." Then he moved closer to Xiao Li.
The road ahead became steeper.
The soil here was very soft and difficult to step on, so they continued forward, taking one deep step and one shallow step.
They reached a short slope, and had to climb up by clinging to the roots of the trees nearby. Jing Xian climbed up in a few steps, easily, turned around, and handed Lu Ying a glass of wine.
Visibility had reached its lowest point. From Lu Yingjiu's perspective, Jing Xian's face was blurry, immersed in white mist.
He took Jingxian's hand.
Jing Xian pulled him up easily.
Xiao Li shouted from behind: "Help me too!"
Lu Yingjiu just turned around and wanted to pull the person back, but he saw an empty person at the bottom of the slope.
Ye Feng and Xiao Li are both missing.
The fog was getting thicker and thicker, and I couldn't see anything on the road.
In the fog, Jing Xian still held his hand tightly, as if afraid that he would get lost.
Lu Yingjiu felt a little... slightly uncomfortable being held by him like this.
He pretended to accidentally break away from Jing Xian's hand and lit a piece of talisman paper.
The talisman paper caught fire and floated beside him.
The heat forced back the thick white fog, just like a raging fire melting ice and snow, and visibility suddenly improved.
Lu Yingjiu walked forward and said, "The center of the fog is in front. Once the ghosts there are dealt with, the fog will dissipate."
Jing Xian nodded: "Yeah."
They walked one after the other in the fog.
There was another small dirt slope ahead. This time, Lu Yingjiu stepped on the soft soil, took half a step faster, and went up first.
After going up, he turned around to look at Jing Xian, but before he could see clearly, he was hugged by him.
Lu Yingjiu froze for a moment—
The man's chest was warm. No matter how hard Jing Xian tried to suppress it, he could clearly tell from the size and aggressiveness of the man that he was taller than himself.
He was clearly not pressing against his left chest, but he seemed to be able to hear the pounding of his heart.
It was the first time that Lu Yingjiu knew that ghosts also had such heartbeats.
He felt stiff from his neck to his back, and he struggled slightly, trying to resist.
Until Jing Xian buried his head in his neck and said in a muffled voice: "Don't try to avoid me."
“…” Lu Yingjiu stopped and took a deep breath, “I didn’t.”
"You have been like this all the way. Just now, too. You deliberately walked a few steps faster to avoid me, right?"
This sentence is not a question.
Lu Yingjiu stopped talking.
If you look at him from the side, you'll notice that his expression, which he usually controls very well, is slightly tense.
Almost nervous.
Jing Xian spoke in his ear, the heat from his breath making his earlobe hot: "I won't tell you to do anything."
Lu Yingjiu took a deep breath and tried to hold his forehead: "In broad daylight..."
"Oh no." Jing Xian said, "I never thought about things like pressing against the wall, kissing each other, sleeping on the kang, robbing, and imprisoning each other."
Lu Yingjiu: “…”
Lu Yingjiu: “It sounds like you’ve thought about this before!”
He began to struggle again.
Jing Xian was very strong and he couldn't even struggle.
After a few seconds, Lu Yingjiu gave up and stopped: "Let me go first. This ghost hasn't been solved yet."
"Don't worry, it doesn't dare to do anything. I'm here." Jing Xian said casually.
The milky white fog was rolling around like some strange wave, and the humidity was heavy.
They stood like this in the mist, not speaking to each other, each with their own thoughts.
Jing Xian hesitated for a few seconds and spoke again, "I know that I may be very different from what you expect..."
Lu Yingjiu thought to himself, this is totally different.
The sexy female ghost turned into a sexy monk overnight. Although his appearance and physique were different from those of a human, he felt that he would be the sexy one in the end.
Jing Xian stepped back a little, looked at him seriously and asked, "So I want to know, do you hate me?"
“…” Lu Yingjiu pursed her lips slightly.
The light in Jing Xian's eyes dimmed visibly.
There seems to be no point in asking further.
This reunion after 13 years was indeed awkward, and perhaps unsatisfactory - this was inevitable, because for Lu Yingjiu, everything came too abruptly. Not everyone can accept such a person around them.
Jing Xian was about to let go, but his arm was held down.
Lu Yingjiu didn't use much strength, he just wanted to stop Jing Xian's action.
He raised his eyes and looked at Jing Xian: "Jing Xian, I will never hate you."
Jing Xian's expression moved.
Lu Yingjiu took a deep breath and continued, "What you said is that there is something wrong with me. I deliberately avoided you. But it's not because I hate you for doing this. I just, I just need some time to sort out my thoughts."
"For the past 13 years, I have been imagining whether the ghost I married actually existed - what kind of ghost would he be, what would his name be, what kind of personality he would have, what would he like? Would he have the same hobbies as me?"
"Sometimes I wonder where I would be today if there hadn't been this ghost marriage. Or maybe I wouldn't even be alive today and would have died at the hands of some ghost long ago."
"Although my mind tells me that you may never appear in this lifetime, every Ghost Festival, I still wait subconsciously."
"Everyone who knows me knows that I am not a particularly sentimental person, but this matter is always an exception for me."
Lu Yingjiu paused for a few seconds, then used a little force to touch the slender fingers on Jingxian's arm.
He said: "Everyone, including the master who advocated ghost marriage for me, told me that the one I married was a female ghost, and I naturally felt the same way. So in my imagination, you always appeared as a woman, which caused my current shock and confusion."
"But this doesn't mean that I 'expect' you to be a woman. It was just my wishful thinking. How could I ask you to satisfy it?"
"No matter what form you take, I will accept it."
"Because I have always been looking forward to meeting you."
Lu Yingjiu looked at Jing Xian, with a soft light in her brown eyes.
"After so many years, I finally get to see you."
"Thank you, Jingxian."
While he was saying this, Jing Xian was staring at him intently.
After a long while, Jing Xian said, "... I don't need any thanks. You don't hate me, that's enough." He curled his lips, "But ghosts are always greedy and will push their luck. You don't like me now, right?"
When he said this, there was undisguised desire and longing in his eyes.
This strong and ardent obsession is the true face of the goblin—everyone knows what kind of like he is referring to.
Lu Yingjiu sighed and replied, "Yeah. I really can't fall in love with someone who has only been around for dozens of days. I never thought about it this way before. Besides," he hesitated for a moment, "Jing Xian, I don't want to lie to you, nor do I want to make empty promises to you. I'm really not sure if I will fall in love with the same sex. To be honest, I have never thought about this problem..."
"Yeah." Jing Xian said, "I understand."
Lu Yingjiu said, "I'm sorry. I know what you want most from me, but I can't guarantee it. I always thought I was a fair person, but every time I meet you, it seems that I am quite selfish."
"You don't have to apologize," Jing Xian still smiled, "You're not the only one who's wishful thinking - you've never asked me for anything, right? Everything is my own wish. Our fate started much earlier than you think."
He lowered his head slightly, and put Lu Yingjiu's forehead against his, with light in his eyes.
He said: "I am not the one you expected, but I like you the way you are."