At this moment, if Chu Banyang was really a peacock, Lu Yingjiu would see that all the hair on his body had stood up and became disheveled.
But humans are good at hiding their emotions after all.
Chu Banyang kept a stern face, his whole body was extremely stiff, and he felt flustered, nervous, and uneasy, mixed with a bit of shame after his secret thoughts were exposed.
After a long while, he finally squeezed out a cold voice from his throat: "What are you talking about in your sleep? How could I possibly like you?"
"Oh," Lu Yingjiu nodded without any expression on her face, "I just asked, just in case. If it's a misunderstanding, then I apologize."
He jumped down from the railing and said, "Come on, let's go back to the classroom."
Then, there was silence between the two.
Lu Yingjiu was walking in front, and Chu Banyang followed behind with a stern face. There were several times when they were so nervous that they stumbled.
God can testify that Master Chu has never been so embarrassed since he became an adult. There was no one around him, but he felt that everyone in the world was looking at him. In just half a minute, sweat broke out on his back.
He inexplicably thought of Chu Qianju's words.
Chu Qianju said: "If you meet someone you like one day, you must be more straightforward to express it. If you keep hiding it, how will others know? I'm afraid you will miss it."
A strong sense of uneasiness permeated Chu Banyang's heart.
As they were almost at the classroom, Chu Banyang managed to utter another sentence: "Why are you asking me this question? Where have I been? Have I ever given you such an illusion?"
"Nothing." Lu Yingjiu thought for a moment, "I just suddenly had this feeling."
He doesn't quite understand things about feelings.
After meeting Jing Xian, he realized for the first time what it felt like to like someone. Then, when he looked at Chu Banyang again, he had this thought in his mind.
Lu Yingjiu said: "I just thought that even if there is a ten-thousandth chance that this is the case, I have to explain it to you clearly."
"... Can you explain it clearly?" Chu Banyang asked.
Lu Yingjiu hummed softly and said, "Let me make it clear that I already have someone I like."
Chu Banyang stood still.
There was an expression of almost shock on his face. He stood there for a long time, unable to move any further.
Lu Yingjiu didn't notice his abnormality and left the classroom.
In the classroom, Wu Runzhi was still sitting in his seat, talking to Fang Yu, as if he wanted to finish talking about everything he had said over the past few years.
Fang Yu turned into a ghost, filtering out all the irrationality in his words, nodding and listening, and bursting into hearty laughter when he heard something funny. He patted Wu Runzhi's shoulder and almost laughed to tears: "Old Wu! Where do you get so many funny stories!"
"And more," Wu Runzhi said, "I was on a business trip before, and I went to another place. After I ate a dish, I realized that it was made of insects! I was scared to death... That game console you always wanted to buy has been released for two generations. When can we play together?"
After saying that, he started crying again.
In a moment, Fang Yu was laughing beside him, he was crying, and outside another fellow fell off the window sill and died...
The scene was extremely chaotic.
When Jing Xian saw him leaving the classroom, he immediately raised his head and said, "Yao Gou asked me to tell you that two girls just said they wanted to go to the dormitory building to play with pen fairy."
Lu Yingjiu knew from what he heard that the two men were definitely in great danger.
The ways this class of people commit suicide are so varied that it's hard to guard against them.
He held his forehead and said, "Let's go and check the situation, maybe we can save them..."
He and Jing Xian went towards the dormitory building.
The dormitory building was quite empty, with not many people, and what was more, most of them were blurry black shadows, standing still.
Lu Yingjiu said as he drank: "Did Yao Gou tell you the dormitory number?"
Jing Xian said, "On the 4th floor."
They went up to the fourth floor.
The fourth floor was deadly quiet and deserted. Looking into the dormitories, all I could see were empty beds. It didn't look like anyone was living there, so it was a good place to secretly play ghost games.
Lu Yingjiu asked again: "What is the specific room number?"
This time, Jing Xian did not answer him.
Lu Yingjiu waited for a long time but received no answer.
Then his hand felt heavy, and Jing Xian simply pushed open an empty dormitory and dragged him there.
Road to welcome wine:
Before he could react, Jing Xian had already pushed him into the corner and started kissing him madly.
Road welcomes wine:?
He was completely bewildered, his hand gently placed on Jing Xian's arm, but he was powerless to resist, and could only let Jing Xian conquer him, forcing out a few muffled groans.
Jing Xian was particularly strong this time and held him down and kissed him for a long time.
In the end, Lu Yingjiu snorted softly and pushed him away a little, and Jing Xian stopped reluctantly, but still did not let him leave.
Lu Yingjiu was forced to shrink between his arms and the wall, with his warmth still on her lips, and smiled, "What's wrong with you?"
Jing Xian didn't say anything for a while before he said in a muffled voice, "... I don't know. But I was sitting in the classroom just now, and suddenly I felt very unhappy. The jealousy was pouring out like a fountain - just like the day you got married, when I was so angry that I woke up."
Lu Yingjiu: “…”
It seems that the jealous radar has started working again.
Jing Xian said, "I'm so jealous. Did you talk to that guy surnamed Chu on the rooftop?"
"Nothing." Lu Yingjiu said, "I just asked him about his relationship with Chu Qianju, and then asked him if he liked me... Hmm."
Just as he finished speaking, Jing Xian pressed him down and kissed him again, and he hummed softly a few times.
He finally pushed Jing Xian away again, and Jing Xian said: "I haven't been with you for a few minutes, and you've found someone else again..."
"What?" Lu Yingjiu didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "I told him clearly that I already have someone I like."
"Did you really say that?" Jing Xian's eyebrows raised with joy.
"Why would I lie to you?" Lu Yingjiu reached out and touched his head, "Stop being jealous."
Jing Xian hugged him for a while before he was satisfied and said, "I was thinking that if you hadn't explained it clearly to him..."
"What about you?" Lu Yingjiu asked.
Jing Xian didn't answer, but his eyes drifted towards the bed next to him.
Lu Yingjiu: “…”
Suddenly I felt that I was in danger just now.
He patted Jing Xian on the shoulder and quickly comforted him, "Just trust me a little. I'm not such a scumbag."
"I trust you very much." Jing Xian touched the side of his face, "But trust is one thing, and jealousy is another."
"Good, you are worthy of being called a jealous person." Lu Yingjiu said with a smile.
After such a commotion for a while, the two finally arrived at the student dormitory.
Just as Jingxian had said, there was a piece of paper on the desk in the dormitory, with numbers from 1 to 10 and "yes" and "no" written on it, and there was already handwriting from the Pen Fairy on it.
The black pen fell to the ground, and the two girls huddled in the same bed, shivering.
Lu Yingjiu picked up the pen and asked, "Did you invite the spirit of the pen?"
Girl A nodded: "Yeah, yeah, that's right..."
Lu Yingjiu asked: "What questions did you ask it?"
Girl B said: "We asked how it died."
When asking for the spirit of the pen, the most taboo thing is to ask about how he died. These two questions are definitely a mistake.
Seeing how flustered they both were, they definitely didn't send the Pen Fairy off properly, and they were probably going to die. The key point was that they were already ghosts, and Lu Yingjiu couldn't do anything to change the illusion.
Sure enough, just as he was thinking this, girl A suddenly screamed: "Ah! My head hurts!"
After saying this, his head tilted and he stopped breathing.
Girl B also covered her head with her hands, her face showing pain, and after a while she said, "Ah, I'm dead."
Then died.
The two corpses turned into black mist and dissipated.
Lu Yingjiu: “…”
It was a wasted trip. He calmly called Wu Runzhi and told him that two of his classmates had died again.
Wu Runzhi sobbed again, hung up the phone, and continued crying while hugging his good brother Fang Yu.
Fortunately, time flies, and in the blink of an eye, the campus has entered night. Lights are on in the teaching buildings, and the small paths between the campus are illuminated by the lights.
The next day will be the 24th, the day of separation.
…
While the students were in evening self-study, Lu Yingjiu took Jingxian to Chu Qianju's office.
There was nothing else in the entire office. His desk was clean, with nothing but paper, pen and documents. He was as cold as he was.
Lu Yingjiu opened every drawer and looked through the contents carefully. He also used his lock picking skills to pry open a locked cabinet with a paper clip.
After all, it's a fantasy world, there's no privacy and no rights, everything happened in the past, so there's no need to feel guilty.
Jing Xian helped him look through the documents. It was not enough to cover the entire table with the documents, so he also placed them on the floor.
As he searched, he no longer aged, and approached the road to meet the wine.
Lu Yingjiu was sitting cross-legged on the ground, reading Chu Qianju's notes on the floor, when suddenly a warm body came up from behind.
Jing Xian was behind him, almost hugging him and resting his chin on his shoulder.
"Let's get down to business, let's get down to business." Lu Yingjiu tried to stop him verbally, but didn't reach out to pull him away.
"I'm just doing my job," Jing Xian said. "Arranging documents is not my job."
Lu Yingjiu couldn't refute.
After all, he came from an idol drama background, so Jing Xian really takes dating as a serious matter.
He let Duo Jingxian hold him and look at the same document with him.
After a while, Lu Yingjiu said "Huh".
He took out a completely blank small notebook from a file bag.
The paper is white and delicate, with nothing on it.
But when his fingers touched it, his keen intuition made him realize that there was something wrong with the document.
It has the wavy feel of talisman paper, and the words on it must be hidden by some runes.
He said, "Jingxian, please bring me some paper and pen."
Jing Xian reluctantly let him go and took paper and pen from the table.
Lu Yingjiu took it and drew smooth and complex lines on the paper, gradually forming a strange beast in the shape of a dog.
He gently placed the paper on a blank piece of paper, and after a few seconds, the lines on the talisman paper began to flow and change, like a dog swimming and sniffing for clues.
Chu Qianju's power was so great that even with the exorcism technique he learned a few years ago, it was not so easy to break it.
Lu Yingjiu waited patiently.
After several minutes, a dog barking was heard in the office.
The dog beast on the talisman stopped at a certain spot, sniffing. Lu Yingjiu placed his left hand on that spot, and made a hand gesture with his right hand—
On the blank paper, something like water ripples passed by and disappeared without a trace.
But at least he found a vulnerable spot.
Lu Yingjiu estimated that with the strength of the talisman paper, it might take him half an hour to untie it.
He was about to try again when his hand felt warm. Jing Xian gently placed his left hand on the back and whispered, "Let me help you. I've seen this kind of rune before."
Lu Yingjiu didn't know how ghosts should cooperate with exorcists.
On one side there is a lot of negative energy, while on the other side you are specifically trying to remove the negative energy. No matter how you think about it, they are contradictory.
But Jing Xian somehow deliberately restrained his edge and yin energy. Lu Yingjiu felt the back of his hand was quite warm, and invisible power gathered in the air. When he pinched the seal again, the ripples on the paper immediately showed violent fluctuations, like a tsunami, and the waves surged.
“Sizzle—”
Along with this slight sound, another wave surged past, and handwritten words slowly emerged on the blank page.
I have contacted the Zhang family many times, wanting to inquire about the sacrifice, but when I asked about this matter, they all looked confused. My memory is incomplete, and I can only look through ancient books based on my impressions, but I can't find any clues.
Then on the next page, there is another line of words, which should have been written some time ago.
The Zhang family and the Chu family often kowtowed to the Heavenly Dao. Led by the Zhang family, the two families held many ceremonies, among which large-scale ceremonies often used sacrifices. The following is a list:
In 1991, at Zenglin Mountain in Yuanhe City, the Zhang family held a ceremony to worship the Heavenly Dao, offering 59 pieces of ordinary talisman paper, 59 pieces of gold-plated talisman paper, and 118 animals to be slaughtered, including 59 lambs and 59 piglets…
In 1988, in Lintian Village, the Zhang family held a ceremony to worship the Heavenly Dao, offering 59 pieces of ordinary talisman paper, 59 strings of exorcism coins, 59 animals to be slaughtered, and 59 incense sticks.
In 1985, in Xianglian Town, the Zhang and Chu families presided over a ceremony to worship the Heavenly Dao and offered…
Lu Yingjiu quickly scanned through these records.
Just as Chu Banyang said, the Zhang family believed that the number "59" represented the way of heaven. Their obsession with it was ingrained in their bones, and everything had to be exactly 59.
They firmly believe that if the number is exceeded or lower than this, God will be angry.
And they were proven to be right.
Heaven accepted all the 59 sacrifices, blessing the two families with a hundred years of health and prosperity.
In the early years, the Zhang family was very wealthy, and when the economy was still not good, they held kowtow ceremonies so frequently, and each time they were on a grand scale. Thinking of their decline today, and their lack of attention, one can't help but sigh.
Lu Yingjiu looked at the lines of text and remembered that after Zhang Nianyun took the photo of him, the number 1/59 was also written.
A very bad feeling came over me.
Jing Xian next to him was also silent, looking at his notes.
Chu Qianju has no memories, but knows that he is cursed by heaven, and he persistently pursues the Zhang family to track down the murderer.
Flipping through his notes, they were filled with his efforts to get in touch with the Zhang family.
However, the Zhang family was extremely xenophobic, and it was difficult for outsiders to pry them open their mouths. After changes in the world, the family gradually declined, and in recent years even the kowtow ceremony was no longer held. Chu Qianju was even more unable to get any information.
Almost a year had passed like this, and Chu Qianju tried hard to recall the past while investigating, traveling all over the country. He put the train and bus tickets in his notebook and flipped through them, filling them up with pages.
Finally, in 2009, the year he died, he went to a small museum in Nanhai, browsed through ancient books, and found a key clue.
Lu Yingjiu turned to the next page and saw what Chu Qianju wrote:
Every 200 years, there is a grand ceremony to worship the Heavenly Dao. The ceremony is different from the usual worship, and it cannot tolerate any mistakes. Every time, the Zhang and Chu families go all out and spend several years to hold this ceremony.
The way of heaven is not satisfied with the use of live animals as sacrifices. After discussing the matter, the Zhang and Chu families made arrangements. First, they colluded with the bandits and soldiers to rob 32 babies from the people. Then, they bribed merchants and officials to buy another 27 babies.
The two powerful families worked together and spent nearly three years to offer 59 babies as sacrifices to the Heavenly Dao in 1500. The youngest of them was less than six months old, and the oldest was less than five years old.
After the ceremony, the child either died with blood gushing out of all his orifices, or turned into a fierce ghost with a green face and fangs. The sound of the wind at the altar was like the howling of ghosts and wolves. For three whole years, people passing by this place could hear the children crying at night, and people called it the "Children's Crying Hill".
The notes recorded shocking and cruel things.
Turn to the next page—
However, despite the two families' caution, the ritual went awry: among the 59 babies, one child with the surname Lu survived and disappeared.
The "59 tributes" were not met, and the ceremony was not completed. The wrath of heaven fell on the Zhang and Chu families, leading to more than a hundred years of misfortune, and almost causing the two families to decline and fall.
Whatever the Heavenly Dao has not obtained, it must be returned. The two families have been searching for the child for a long time, just to return him to the Heavenly Dao.
Returning him to the way of heaven is the end of everything.
I flipped back to the notebook and saw a few scattered sentences.
In 2000, the Zhang family divined and learned that the largest Night Parade of One Hundred Demons in a thousand years was about to occur.
On the one hand, they are worried about the casualties of the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons, and on the other hand, they are eager to revive the family. For them, there is no time.
So, I have to find a way to welcome the wine as soon as possible...
Finished reading the notes.
Lu Yingjiu was silent for a long time.
It was so long that the minute hand on the wall turned around and around. He clutched the notebook in his hand, his back straightened and wrinkles on his fingertips.
Jing Xian wanted to take the notebook, but he didn't want to, still holding it tightly. It wasn't until Jing Xian hugged him and touched his hair soothingly that Lu Yingjiu's body slowly relaxed.
He whispered, "I'm that kid, right?"
Jing Xian hummed softly.
Lu Yingjiu was stunned for a moment, then said: "In the past few years, there has been a saying in the ghost-exorcism world that the balance between yin and yang is becoming increasingly chaotic."
"I have talked with many exorcists and concluded that the more and more frequent appearance of evil spirits and the increasingly similar night parades of a hundred ghosts are all caused by the instability of the avenue and the collapse of the laws."
"We spent a long time discussing whether there was any way to stabilize yin and yang."
He glanced at his notes again and said, "We have discussed how to stop the largest night parade of ghosts in a thousand years predicted by the Zhang family. But now I understand what the best way is..."
"If the Zhang family finds me and continues the unfinished ceremony, although it cannot permanently appease the surging avenue, at least for several days or hundreds of years, the entire world of the living will be much more peaceful. Moreover, the declining Zhang family can get rid of bad luck and start over."
"So that's how it is," he murmured, "So that's how it is. No wonder even the Chen family and the Ye family knew about this. They have been looking for me and monitoring me, just to use me to exchange for the prosperity of the family and peace in the world."
To exchange a person who deserved to die for wealth, peace and well-being.
He gave his love in exchange for everything.
It sounds like a perfect deal.
But is this really fair
From five hundred years ago to now, from a baby who could not even speak and was used as a sacrifice to the current exorcist Lu Yingjiu who is plagued by bad luck, has anyone ever asked for his opinion? Has anyone really cared about his thoughts
Lu Yingjiu's heart was in a state of confusion.
A nauseous and disoriented feeling came over him, with a sense of unreality, as if he had been living in an illusion for so many years.
Now the illusion was shattered beyond belief.
He felt that his struggle against bad luck and fate was like a staged joke.
With what kind of mentality did those people from the aristocratic families watch him become a top exorcist step by step
Is it disgust, fear, mockery and sarcasm
In the chaos, the setting sun completely fell to the ground, and there was no more light between heaven and earth, and it fell into an eternal night. The shadow quickly swallowed up the curtains, swallowed up the tables and chairs, and the flowers on the wall, and drowned the densely packed notes spread out in front of him. The evening breeze blew, cold to the bone, dragging him into the dark tide, strangling his breathing.
However, in this bone-chilling cold, Jing Xian still hugged him tightly.
He said: "Don't be afraid, I will always be by your side."
"No matter who your enemies are, I will tear out their tendons and bones and crush them all. The evil spirits will gnaw on them, and let their souls be tortured in the flames for hundreds of years without dying. I will dig out their eyes and use them as toys, crush their bones and use them as ornaments, and drain their blood to make fine wine. The feast will last for years without stopping."
"I will throw them into the wilderness and let vultures eat their internal organs. I will throw them into the abyss, and in mid-air, their skin and flesh will be cut into pieces by the strong wind. Then I will make their skulls into bright lamps to illuminate the road to the underworld."
He touched Lu Yingjiu's soft black hair, his eyes as deep as the abyss.
After lowering his head and kissing her gently, he smiled and said, "I am a fierce ghost. I can do anything for you."
"So don't worry, nothing can separate us, not time or death."