Four o'clock in the morning.
The house was quiet, but outside there was still the sound of rain falling, hitting the windows and eaves, making a clattering sound.
Lu Yingjiu was sleeping soundly.
He has never had a good sleep and his efficient sleep time is not long. Most of the time, he is half asleep and half awake during the long night, and will wake up at the slightest movement.
That's why he always took the opportunity to catch up on some sleep during the day.
It's rare for him to sleep well now.
But Jingxian didn't.
Ghosts don't need sleep, sleeping is a way to force themselves to pass the time.
Jing Xian went to sleep before so that he could maintain his false identity as a "human" in front of Lu Yingjiu. Now that he has been exposed, there is no point in pretending anymore.
He woke up after sleeping for three or four hours. Now there was no sound outside except the sound of rain and wind.
Everyone is asleep, the whole world seems to be at a standstill, and nothing is happening.
It's like a story has been paused, all the actors have temporarily left the stage, the red curtain has been slowly drawn back, and the velvety folds have covered everything. One has to sit in the auditorium for several hours before the show can start again.
Jing Xian was lying in bed thinking that humans always waste a lot of time, which is really inefficient.
Obviously their life span is limited, unlike the priests who have the capital to squander their lives, they are still hindered by trivial matters.
Waste time to relax, otherwise you will lose your hair due to stress; waste time to sleep, otherwise your mind will collapse. Unlike ghosts, they can work hard for hundreds of years without rest, just for a good reincarnation.
There is no day or night in the ghost world, the pace is fast, life and death happen every moment, a noisy drama that never stops. He sat in the highest position, watching countless disputes with cold eyes, without much fluctuation in his heart.
but…
He turned his head to look at Lu Yingjiu.
The room was pitch black, but darkness never became an obstacle for him.
He could see Lu Yingjiu's fair profile. Her eyelashes cast a very light shadow on her face, and occasionally she would tremble slightly - even his heartbeat seemed to tremble.
… If it was this slow pace, he was willing to do it.
I don't know if it's because he has a physical body, but all kinds of fresh and unprecedented emotions burst out when facing Lu Yingjiu.
The boredom of the night was good, the joy of getting along was good, wandering around the slaughterhouse was good, and walking down the stairs carefully in the rainy mountains was good... Even the bustling noises in the restaurant, the smell of disinfectant in the hospital, and the feeling of muddy water sticking to the trouser legs were all new experiences.
He felt that he was experiencing little by little, and that he was "alive".
But all this is not as interesting as counting eyelashes to welcome the wine tonight.
Jingxian had nothing to do during the past few minutes and had counted Lu Yingjiu's eyelashes several times - this activity was very effective in relieving his boredom, and he even felt that he could count them again.
One, two, three, four...
Jing Xian counted and counted until he forgot to count, and he thought of the big diamond ring again.
-In fact, he had studied the gift for a long time and had been planning it since before meeting Lu and welcoming the guests.
Before they met, it was the Black and White Impermanence who gave him advice.
The ghosts had seen the roadside wine-offering several times during the Night Parade of the Hundred Demons.
The first time he saw it, Lu Yingjiu stomped on a little kid's head and crushed it. The full moon was hanging high in the sky. There was no expression on his delicate and handsome face. He took out a men's handkerchief and slowly wiped the blood off his hands.
The second time, Lu Yingjiu took Mao Tuanzi and walked slowly on the long street. The evening breeze was blowing gently, just like an ordinary person walking his dog in the cool breeze... except that Mao Tuanzi was holding a fresh ghost hand in his mouth.
The third time, Lu Yingjiu was finally tired and sat on a bench to rest. If the one serving him tea and water was not the thousand-year-old monster he had just captured, the scene would have been relatively peaceful.
The impermanence looked at each other with respect, then looked at each other—
This person is too dangerous. No matter how you look at it, you are worried that their Ghost King will be subjected to domestic violence!
As expected of him, he is the Ghost King. Even his target is so unique!
In order to save the Ghost King who might be beaten up, Hei Wuchang stuck out his long tongue and suggested very tactfully that people in the world of the living still prefer to take things step by step. What's more, they are one man and one ghost... So one must be cautious when giving gifts.
This is the problem of the ghost world.
Jing Xian not only thought for himself, but also ordered ghosts and gods to help him think. A group of demons and monsters racked their brains, but they still couldn't figure out the aesthetics of the people in the world.
Kid A: "Give me your head. A bloody head is the most fun. You can kick it with a ball."
Kid B: "I think giving a bag of eyeballs as a gift would definitely be very masculine."
Little Ghost C: "Give me dentures? They can be used until old age, how romantic."
Jing Xian: “…”
Even with his hair he knew something was wrong.
At this moment, Jing Xian was tossing and turning in his bed in the hotel, still struggling with this problem, thinking about how to find out Lu Yingjiu's opinion.
The rain was getting louder and the wind was banging against the windows.
Lu Yingjiu was still sleeping soundly, completely unaware that Jing Xian had been thinking about so many things and had made a long list of gifts for him, ranging from roses to marshmallows, from diamond rings to skulls.
Until the clock in the room silently pointed to six o'clock.
“Boom boom boom!”
There was a knock on the door, breaking the tranquility of the rainy night. Lu Yingjiu's eyelashes trembled, and he turned over.
“Boom boom boom!”
A few more sounds.
Lu Ying sobered up and said incoherently with his eyes closed: "Jingxian, go open the door."
It was a very tiring day, climbing the mountain and looking for spiders. He was too lazy to open his eyes. He knew Jing Xian would definitely wake up earlier than him, so he simply let Jing Xian deal with it.
Unexpectedly, Jing Xian said, "No."
Road to welcome wine:
Jing Xian: "I'll wait until you wake up before I open it. I won't let other men see you sleeping!"
Lu Yingjiu: “…”
He was too embarrassed to tell Jing Xian that many people had seen his sleeping face, from his high school roommates to his colleagues in the ghost-exorcism world, so there was no need for him to take precautions.
He was really helpless, so he sat up drowsily, yawned, and put on his slippers.
Jing Xian then went over to open the door.
The man outside was wearing red clothes, and there was a very thin man wearing a pair of gold-rimmed glasses next to him.
The red-clothed girl's face was filled with guilt: "I'm sorry, sorry, did I disturb you?"
Jing Xian was indeed annoyed by their interruption, so he suppressed his temper and asked, "What do you want?"
Lu Yingjiu slowly walked to his side and turned on a light.
It was too bright all of a sudden, and the two of them squinted.
"It's like this," the man in red pointed at the man with gold-rimmed glasses, "He's a friend of mine, and he just came here to do a live broadcast. He just ran into some problems, so I thought of coming to you guys to ask about it."
The man with gold-rimmed glasses had a pretty good attitude and kept saying sorry for bothering you.
Lu Yingjiu leaned against the door frame and said, "What happened? Tell me about it."
His tone was sleepy, and his mind was actually clear, but he just didn't show it in action in time.
Jing Xian stood side by side with him, and wanted to put his arm around his shoulders so that he could lean on him. However, he was stopped by Lu Yingjiu's eyes, which probably meant that there were people here, so don't do anything rash.
The hug was really too obvious.
So Jingxian changed his route midway and put his arm around his waist, but his arm was blocked by the door frame and could not be seen at all.
Lu Ying was too drunk to bother with him, so she just glared at him and that was it. The soft and tough touch of his penis was excellent, and Jing Xian was very satisfied, and even had more patience with the two people in front of him.
The man with gold-rimmed glasses didn't know why, but the man who opened the door for him, who had a fierce look in his eyes just now, suddenly became much gentler.
But this was a good thing after all. He secretly breathed a sigh of relief and continued, "I have a friend who I haven't been able to contact since yesterday afternoon. I called him more than a dozen times and went to his room to check, but there was no one there."
Lu Yingjiu asked: "Should we go out? The signal is not good in many places here."
"No, no," the man said. "Before he disappeared, I told him he was going to play with the Pen Fairy, which is what the live audience likes to watch. I was a little suspicious whether the Pen Fairy had anything to do with his disappearance, so I went to watch his live broadcast replay. Can I show it to you too?"
He added: "Oh yes, you can call me A-Long, my friend is called Zhao Ziming."
Lu Yingjiu frowned slightly.
It was obvious at first glance that Aaron was an outsider, so his friend must be one too.
Although summoning spirits during the day would most likely fail, such a thing could happen in a sanatorium. Zhao Ziming was simply courting death.
He said, "You should know that something happened on the mountain, right?"
"I know, I know." Aaron nodded repeatedly, "But the embarrassing thing is that Zhao Ziming is a contracted ghost hunting anchor. He has a set amount of live broadcast time every month. He is 15 hours short this month, and he was trapped here by a mudslide, so he had to make something himself, otherwise he would be fined. He said that he had played with the Pen Fairy several times before, and nothing happened, so he thought there would be no problem this time..."
Lu Yingjiu sighed silently.
He said, "Show me the live broadcast replay first."
He let the two men into the house.
Aaron sat down and turned on the playback.
At the beginning of the picture, there is a man with a beard.
He sat at the table. The weather outside was gloomy and it looked like a storm was about to come.
Calculating the time, it was probably the time when Lu Yingjiu and the others went down the mountain.
"Brothers who are new to the live broadcast room, Brother Zhao is going to play Pen Fairy today." Zhao Ziming almost put his face in front of the camera, "If you like it, please follow me. Follow me so you won't get lost!"
There were a lot of comments urging him to hurry up.
It is a bit more troublesome to play with the pen fairy alone. Zhao Ziming put the camera on the table, then crossed his left and right hands, holding a pen. On the paper, the numbers 1 to 10, as well as "yes" and "no" were written in sequence.
"Pen Fairy Pen Fairy," Zhao Ziming said, "I am your past life, and you are my present life. If you want to continue your relationship with me, please draw a circle on the paper."
After a few seconds, the pen moved slowly and drew a line on the paper.
The barrage of comments is swiping the screen like crazy: Keep going, anchor!
I think he wrote it himself.
Too fake
I think maybe... The host is not in a small mountain village, according to common sense, there must be many ghosts
I think it's fake, please go out
"Pen Fairy Pen Fairy," Zhao Ziming continued, "How many days will it take for us to leave the village?"
The pen in the stopped straight on "3".
"Pen Fairy, Pen Fairy, is there a ghost in this hotel?"
The pen stopped at "yes".
A barrage of comments floated over: Brother Zhao, please ask it for me, can I find a job this year
Zhao Ziming asked: "Pen Fairy Pen Fairy, can this audience member with the ID 'Orange' find a job?"
The pen jumped back and forth between "yes" and "no".
Zhao Ziming said, "It seems that the Pen Fairy is not very sure. How about this, can you offer something to the Pen Fairy so that it can bless you?"
"Orange" gave a reward of thirty yuan.
The pen fairy's pen immediately went to "yes".
Lu Yingjiu: “…”
Lu Yingjiu: “…”
This operation woke him up immediately, and all his sleepiness disappeared: I have seen fake pen spirits before, but I have never seen one that is so outrageously fake.
Zhao Ziming directed and acted in this way for a while, and the unbelieving audience left long ago, and the rest of the IQ tax was almost paid.
"Pen Fairy Pen Fairy," he said, "Let's stop here today."
The pen stopped moving.
Zhao Ziming put down his pen and said with a smile: "Today I have experienced the use of a pen fairy. It is quite interesting. The key is that it is very accurate. Ugh - sorry -"
He retched again and his face turned pale.
What's wrong with Zhao? Did you choke
Could it be that the Pen Fairy hasn’t been sent away yet? I’m a little scared…
The big liar is still acting now? I am really convinced
Zhao Ziming patted his chest, finally calming down, and forced a smile, "I don't know what I ate, I feel a little uncomfortable. Dear audience, please wait a moment, I'm going to the bathroom."
He walked into the bathroom while dry heaving, and then there were violent retching and crackling sounds, as if he had vomited a lot of things in the sink.
Hey—I heard a sound, the host didn’t turn off the microphone
Yes, disgusting
Slip, slip, I can't stand it
Zhao Ziming vomited for a while and finally stopped.
The sound of water was heard and quickly disappeared.
Everyone thought he was coming back.
But he didn't.
He didn't come back for the next half hour, until the camera ran out of battery.
The video could directly capture the bathroom entrance, door and window, but there was no one there.
Aaron turned off the video and said, "I watched the video carefully, and he really didn't come out of the bathroom. I just went to his room and saw that the bathroom window was open. His room is on the first floor, and I thought, maybe he climbed out the window... But this doesn't make sense, is he crazy?"
Lu Yingjiu asked: "Is there anything else unusual in the room?"
"No." Aaron said.
Lu Yingjiu said, "Take us to his room."
5 minutes later.
When I opened the door of Room 109, I saw several backpacks and various photographic equipment piled against the wall. On the bed were a mess of shirts and jackets, as well as toilet water, wind-repellent oil and other things, and my wallet was casually thrown on the pillow.
Zhao Ziming was obviously not good at cleaning up. The room was a mess and even the two pairs of socks hanging on the back of the chair were muddy.
Lu Yingjiu pushed open the door of the bathroom.
Clean and spotless.
There was a spider on the ground that was stepped on to death. It was the size of a palm and its green juice had dried up.
Seeing his eyes on it, Aaron explained, "It was behind the door when I came in, and I stepped on it to death."
Red Dress said, "Luckily it didn't bite you. Otherwise you would have ended up lying in bed like my friend."
"Yes, yes." Aaron felt a little scared.
Lu Yingjiu glanced at the sink: "Didn't he vomit? Didn't the vomit remain?"
"This, this should have been washed away by him, right?" Aaron said, "Otherwise it would be disgusting..."
Lu Yingjiu looked around the bathroom carefully and walked into the shower.
There was a wet towel, half-used shower gel and facial cleanser on his head, and a tube of toothpaste hanging next to it like a pickle.
The window was open, just as Aaron had said, and I could see thick grass and a few small flowers. Rain was pouring in, soaking the floor.
Lu Yingjiu stepped on the edge of the window and flipped out.
The strong wind immediately mixed with the rain, soaking him again. It was almost seven o'clock now, and the sky should have been bright, but the sunlight was completely blocked by the dark clouds.
He didn't care about the rain on his body. He took a few steps and looked around: if he went out from here, he could go directly to the back of the village or to the mountain.
He wiped the water off his face and went back into the room.
As soon as I entered, I saw Jing Xian holding three clean towels and putting them on him.
Lu Yingjiu was forced to hold several towels on her head and said, "Assuming Zhao Ziming is a mentally normal person, I think there are three possibilities. One is that Zhao Ziming saw something in the bathroom and wanted to escape, so he could only go out through the window, and then he didn't return to the hotel because he was scared."
Aaron shuddered: "It can't be true that the Pen Fairy wasn't sent away, right?"
"It doesn't look like that." Lu Yingjiu said, "The pen fairy he played was just controlled by himself, and he was just trying to cheat for rewards. But I don't know if other things took advantage of the opportunity." He asked again, "Is Zhao Ziming afraid of spiders?"
"I'm not sure about that. I haven't heard him say that. Do you mean that he was frightened by the spider and climbed out the window?"
"No. If that's all, it can't explain why he didn't go back to his room." Lu Yingjiu frowned slightly, "Show me the replay again."
Aaron sent the URL to her. Lu Yingjiu sat on the bed, turned it up to triple speed, and watched it again.
The clock in the room was captured in the video, and the corresponding time was also displayed in the lower right corner of the video. He paid close attention to it.
Time is continuous.
There is no deletion in this video.
Jing Xian was sitting next to him, and Lu Ying said to him, "I was wondering if A-Long edited the video and murdered Zhao Ziming."
Jing Xian said in reply: "Yes, what a pity."
Aaron: "... Did you two forget that I'm right next to you?"
Lu Yingjiu added: "The second possibility is that the camera ran out of battery when he left the room, so he didn't capture it. For example, he might have fainted while vomiting and didn't wake up until more than half an hour later."
Aaron: "Then why did he lose contact?"
"There is too little information to be clear." Lu Yingjiu said, "If it is the first two possibilities, then Zhao Ziming may still be saved."
"…What is your third hypothesis?"
"Another possibility is that Zhao Ziming never left this room."
Aaron was stunned: "How is this possible? This room is so small. Is he hiding under the bed or in the closet?"
Lu Yingjiu didn't answer.
There was a box of disposable gloves on the sink. He pulled out a pair and put them on.
Then he squatted down, grabbed the spider that was crushed to death, and tried to turn it over. The spider was the size of a palm, and was almost crushed by Aaron, with green juice sticking to its eight long legs.
Lu Yingjiu turned it over, and fortunately the spider's abdomen was still intact: a human face.
The expression was painful and ferocious, as if shouting.
It looks very much like Zhao Ziming's face.