Chi Yan pondered for a while, but after gritting her teeth, she followed.
The old lady looked faltering, but she actually walked very fast, and Chi Yan had to trot to catch up.
In the end, the old lady walked into a dark and simple bungalow, and stood in the room and waved to Chi Yan who was outside the door.
If a ghost beckons you to come in, you can't answer.
Chi Yan squeezed the only ghost exorcism talisman left in his pocket, and after thinking about it, he still followed suit.
The old lady was still muttering as she walked forward: "Only mother-in-law dies of old age, and mother-in-law will not harm anyone."
Chi Yan followed the old man into the house. The room was very dark, the windows were covered with black plastic sheets, and the light was not permeable. The old man's face was bluish white in the darkness.
Chi Yan couldn't help clenching her fists, and when she lowered her head, she saw a bulging figure on the low bed against the wall, it was Song Jin.
He looked at the old man in surprise and gratitude: "You..."
"Little girl hid people in the attic, and mother-in-law moved them when she saw them." The old lady looked at the young man in front of her, "Mother-in-law won't hurt people, and mother-in-law can't save people."
She looked at the sky outside: "The search for Nuo is about to start, and you will be found here. Those two young people will be found."
"I'm afraid I can't go now."
Chi Yan followed the old man's words and checked the time, it was already five o'clock in the afternoon.
It was one o'clock in the afternoon when he took that to leave Hejia Village, and he didn't even think that such a long time had passed.
She pointed in the direction of the Nuo Temple: "Young man, go to the temple to hide. The Nuo God will save you."
The old man said this, his voice was hoarse, the expression on his face was still stiff and flat, but there was sadness in his cloudy eyes.
Chi Yan nodded, responded, thanked the old man and prepared to leave.
Before leaving, he couldn't help but ask: "Mother-in-law, what kind of people are the two young people who were found out?"
"It's two officers who came here to find someone."
That should be the two police officers.
Chi Yan had dragged Song Jin out of the door, and finally looked back at the old man and said softly, "Why doesn't my mother-in-law leave?"
He believed that the old man could understand what he meant.
The old man pointed to the sky: "I can't go, my mother-in-law died one step late, so I can't go. No one can go."
The lead-grey sky was dark, like a huge hood, shrouding the entire village in it.
In fact, Chi Yan had already felt that something was wrong. When he dealt with the two little ghosts, after the little ghosts were burned to the ground, they all seemed to be sucked in by the sky. He specially painted the reincarnation symbol with blood for the girl doll, but it was useless.
After supporting Song Jin, Chi Yan did not go to the Nuo Temple to escape as the old man said, but went to the village entrance to get a motorcycle. He didn't believe that the Nuo Temple could save them. If it could, why didn't the old man let the two police officers hide in the temple last time? If you really have a spirit, how can you sit back and watch the village under your protection become a hell on earth
When the old man said that, he was just praying for a miracle with the last bit of pious faith and hope.
Because she knew they had no time to run away.
But Chi Yan still wanted to give it a try. Accepting his fate easily was the only way to die.
The road from the old man's house back to the entrance of the village seemed to be stretched infinitely. Or the road is still as long, but after noon, the time of day is shortened a little bit. It was obviously not a long way, but when he helped Song Jin to the entrance of the village, the sky turned completely dark.
The time displayed on the phone is 8pm.
The rope was no longer there, so Chi Yan laboriously fastened Song Jin to the motorcycle, and started riding the motorcycle with maximum horsepower to the outside of the village.
After about ten minutes of riding, the road ahead began to become flat and open - they returned to Hejia Village.
The guide sign can only play a role once, and this time, the guide sign has no effect.
Chi Yan scolded secretly and rode out again, this time without looking at the road at all, riding in the direction of Bagua Shengmen, but half an hour later he saw the familiar sign of the village shop.
Two hours later, Chi Yan, who had tried every possible method, stopped at the entrance of Hejiacun. The motorcycle is out of gas.
There was a continuous flame in the field of vision, and the sound of gongs and drums was clearly audible. As far as the eye can see, there is a group of people with Nuo noodles in front, holding candles and paper lanterns, beating gongs and drums, and fiddling with the props and swords on the stage, marching mightily towards the village entrance. Their masks are of different colors and styles, some with open eyebrows, some with curved eyebrows, some dull and dull, flickering on and off under the light of the fire, as if they would move.
These people were followed by a large group of villagers watching the excitement, including the owner and his wife of the commissary at the entrance of the village, a family of three, the owner of the guest house, and many others who Chi Yan and Song Jin had met in the morning and talked to when they asked for news.
As night fell completely, the road leading to the outside of the village seemed to be completely blocked, and Chi Yan kept spinning in place no matter how he walked. Those people didn't seem to be walking fast, banging, dancing, knives and guns along the way, but in fact they quickly arrived at the entrance of the village. Afraid of being discovered by them, Chi Yan dragged Song Jin and quickly hid in the warehouse behind the canteen at the entrance of the village.
There is a door at the front and back of the warehouse. The front door is convenient for people to go in and carry goods to the front counter to sell. The rear door leads directly to the backyard, so that the goods removed from the car can be directly moved into the warehouse.
Chi Yan locked the door in front of the warehouse and tried to open the door at the back—the door had not been used for a long time, but it was completely rusted and could not be opened at all. No matter how much he pushed or pulled, it couldn't be shaken.
Chi Yan's complexion changed, realizing that this was tantamount to putting himself and Song Jin in a desperate situation. Just as he was about to open the front door and hide elsewhere, he heard a commotion outside, and the group of "people" had all blocked the door of the canteen. door. From the crack of the door, you can see what they were reading outside the door, and then a man wearing a red Nuo mask and holding a paper lantern led two other people wearing Nuo masks in, and began to read next to the room. Curse, search.
Come to think of it, this is what the old lady called "Sou Nuo". The owner of the commissary once said that this ceremony is to chase away evil spirits and evil epidemics.
The three people quickly found the warehouse, and the man wearing the red Nuo face patted the door and shouted, "Why is this door locked?"
Chi Yan felt more and more nervous, and pushed the rusty door behind him harder when he heard the sound outside.
Another voice with a strong local accent sounded outside the door: "Uncle, there is a voice inside the door, and there seems to be something inside."
Chi Yan stopped in fright.
The "people" outside the door were silent for a second, and then there was the sound of metal crashing and the sound of the key being inserted into the lock.
Chi Yan couldn't care anymore, and used all his strength to lift his legs and kick the door with the soles of his feet.
With a bang, the front and rear doors opened at the same time.
Chi Yan didn't even dare to look back, so he carried Song Jin on his back and ran out.
Indistinctly, he heard a voice with a local accent from behind: "Uncle, there are two people there, are they thieves?"
"Not thieves, but... ghosts. They have no shadow."
Chi Yan's footsteps paused, and he looked down—under the shadow of the shadowy candles, neither he nor Song Jin had a shadow.
His heart skipped a beat, but he didn't bother to think too much, so he just ran forward with Song Jin on his back. He couldn't get out of the village, so he had to run to the other side of the village. He remembered being so close to the mountain, maybe they could hide in the mountains.
It's definitely not normal for Song Jin to be in a coma like this. If he doesn't run out quickly, even if he doesn't get caught by those things, Da Song might not be able to hold on anymore.
The fire behind him was getting closer and closer, Chi Yan turned around to see that the person wearing the red Nuo mask was only one or two meters away from him. In such a long team, there was not a single one left behind, including the villagers who were watching the excitement behind them.
Humans can't run away, but they can't escape from ghosts.
Chi Yan turned his head to look forward, and before he knew it, he had already run outside the Nuo Temple.
At this point, there was no other choice. If he moved forward, he would be overtaken by these things. He held Song Jin tightly, slammed open the gate of the temple, and then closed the door tightly, and painted with blood between the two doors. A forbidden spell.
Many, or most, of those things still retain the consciousness of being human, and they don't even realize that they are dead, so they dare not rush into the temple for a short time. When they start to break into the temple, it will take a while to clear the spell.
This is the time Chi Yan can buy for himself now, to live.
The Nuo Temple is lit by a faint fire. Before the Nuo search ceremony begins, people should visit the Nuo gods in the temple first, so the candles on the offering table in front of the statues are lit.
Chi Yan leaned Song Jin against the wall, and by the weak light of the fire, once again looked at the surrounding environment, thinking about a way to get out of trouble.
This time he noticed the five closest to the door on the side of the wall on the left wall. They looked new, brightly colored, and the masks didn't collect too much dust.
They were also smiling, with happy brows and eyes, but there was a faint hint of fear and resentment in that smile.
The top three masks are ordinary white faces, which seem to be a man, a woman, and a child; the bottom two masks are red, with wide eyes, and they seem to be extremely unwilling. Chi Yan does not understand the colors of these masks in Nuo opera. Meaning, but in Peking Opera, red symbolizes loyalty to the liver, righteousness and courage.
"Really. During the Chinese New Year this year, the evil spirits were really found."
"There are Nuo noodles. If the evil spirits are made into the Nuo noodles, the evil spirits will not be able to come out when they are sealed."
"Uncle, stay, otherwise, if they are taken away, they will be made into Nuo noodles."
"… "
The words of the commissary owner and the little girl Yingying's words intertwined in his mind, Chi Yan only felt a chill in his heart, looking at the five masks, speechless.
It was the fifteenth day of the first lunar month when Zhu Hui’s family went out. The village must be holding Nuo dancing and Nuo search ceremonies like today. The fire was shining in the sky, and the gongs and drums were noisy. The family standing at the fork in the road should easily be able to spot the existence of the village. They walked into the village for help, but were caught by the villagers as evil spirits.
The two police officers who came here to search for the whereabouts of Zhu Hui's family were hidden by their mother-in-law in their home, but they were still found in a house-to-house search.
Ghosts think they are human, and they arrest and execute people as ghosts.
He closed his eyes and turned his gaze back to the statue in the center.
I don't know if it was his illusion. Under the candlelight, this statue was still not burly, still wearing a black-gold mask and a splendid robe like a red robe, but it seemed to be bigger than the Nuo he saw in the morning. The statue of the Prince of God and the boy is much taller. It is no longer like a child dressed in adult clothes, but more like an adult figure.
He looked at the statue and frowned.
What kind of god would be worshipped by a group of ghosts; what kind of god would be when the yin and yang of this hell on earth were turned upside down. Or there is no God at all.
But at this moment, Chi Yan heard a low and hoarse voice: "You want to ask me to save you and your friends?"
"I didn't..." Chi Yan subconsciously said, only halfway through his words did he react, he looked around in horror, and finally looked up at the god statue on the confession - just now, was the god statue talking to him
As if to verify his conjecture, the voice sounded again: "You want to ask me to save you and your friends?"
This time, it was certain that the voice was indeed emanating from the statue.
Chi Yan swallowed dryly, and had to withdraw all the disrespectful thoughts in his mind just now, but he still had doubts about the idol that suddenly "appeared". Is there really a god in this world? Or is the other party just a kind of ghost, just another ghost with cognitive bias? Even a ghost who deliberately tricked him into taking the bait
He only knows that there is no free lunch in the world, even gods need to be worshipped in the world, no matter whether the other party is a god or a ghost, as long as he can really help him and Song Jin get out of trouble, he can consider making a deal with the other party. After all, there are ghosts like their mother-in-law who are willing to help them.
Chi Yan nodded, his purpose is very obvious, there is no need to hide it at all.
"Yes, I want to ask you to save us. I just don't know what conditions we need to pay if we want to ask you to save us?"
It is better to clarify this condition in advance. Even if it is really a god, there are evil gods. To put it bluntly, to humans, gods and ghosts are nothing but the same thing.
After hearing the thing, he laughed softly: "You ask me what I want?"
"My conditions are very simple. You take the initiative to come over and kiss me, that's enough."