Just as he walked into the Ji family yard, Ji Mingxia saw a black shadow floating in front of him.
He looked closely and saw a figure standing at the door of the living room, waving at him slowly.
It was late at night. The mountains in the distance were dark, the rice fields outside the village were dark, and it was dark inside the Ji family's house.
The villagers seemed to have all gone to bed early, and every house was pitch black. For Ji Mingxia, the only source of light in the world at that moment was the street lights on the roadside of Jiaoye Village.
However, the street lights can only illuminate the Ji family’s yard at most, and cannot illuminate the Ji family’s house.
The dark shadow stood at the junction of the yard and the house, a looming human figure, standing there silently, waiting for Ji Mingxia to fall into the trap.
Ji Mingxia clenched the phone in his hand, stopped the phone at the page where he could turn on the flashlight at any time, and then walked inside step by step relying on his memory.
When Ji Mingxia reached the threshold, the black shadow had disappeared.
The hall inside the house was pitch black as if it were your fingertips. The weird thing was that Ji Mingxia had a vague feeling that the house seemed quite "lively".
The entire Banana Leaf Village was quiet.
Ji Mingxia always felt that Jiaoye Village at night didn't seem to have any living people living in it. It was so quiet that he could often even hear his own breathing.
However, at this moment, in the hall of the Ji family, chaotic sounds such as "knock knock", "dengdengdeng..." seemed to float in the air.
Sometimes it’s the sound of people walking;
Sometimes it was a whisper;
There were also coughs, cries and laughter, overlapping and coming out;
There were the crying of a baby, the sighing of someone who sounded like a man or a woman, and the coughing of an old man.
These voices came near and far, sometimes behind Ji Mingxia and sometimes in his ears, making Ji Mingxia feel that there seemed to be countless "people" standing in front, behind, and around him, busying about in his living room.
Ji Mingxia listened carefully for a while. When he heard the old woman coughing repeatedly, Ji Mingxia couldn't help but whispered, "Grandma?"
As soon as he finished speaking, the surroundings suddenly became quiet.
It seemed as if everyone was startled by his voice. They all stopped what they were doing, turned their heads, and stared at this "stranger" in silence.
Ji Mingxia suddenly got goosebumps all over his body.
He instinctively wanted to retreat and leave this obviously dangerous place.
But he couldn't walk.
If Ji Mingxia had come here under the threat of Zhou Tao's words before, now that he clearly heard Grandma Ji's voice, he would have backed down.
Ji Mingxia stood at the entrance of the living room, his brain working rapidly.
The layout of the first floor of the Ji family's house is very simple. After entering the front door, there is a small shoe-changing area, followed by the living room. The living room is located at the back, with the kitchen on the left, the guest bedroom on the first floor on the right, and the corridor leading to the second floor.
Grandma Ji's voice just now was far away from Ji Mingxia, so it should have come from the hall.
The hall is mainly furnished with sofas, coffee tables and TV cabinets.
Next to the sofa, there is a side cabinet which is used to store Grandma Ji’s Buddhist beads.
Usually when Grandma Ji has nothing to do, she will sit by the side cabinet and play with her Buddhist beads. Comparing the direction from which the sound came, could it be that Grandma Ji is sitting in the living room
Thinking of this, Ji Mingxia couldn't help but walk towards the sofa.
Compared with the "liveliness" just now, the living room was now dead silent, making Ji Mingxia's footsteps seem particularly loud.
The further you go in, the lower the temperature becomes, as if even the air has become thinner.
Rural courtyards like the Ji family's have always been the most spacious. Both the area and the floor height are far beyond the standard. They were built according to the specifications of wealthy families in ancient times.
But at this moment, walking in the pitch-black Jijia Village, Ji Mingxia felt like he was not walking at home, but was traveling through a narrow and dark tunnel in the mountains.
Waves of chilly air drifted out from inside. Under the influence of this cold breath, Ji Mingxia's body temperature dropped rapidly.
It was still summer vacation, and he had just jogged back home. He was panting and sweating all over, but the sudden surge of coldness seemed to pull him into an ice cellar.
He was wearing a short-sleeved shirt, which had no protection against the cold. His limbs were frozen stiff. Ji Mingxia exerted a little force on the hand holding the phone, overcoming his inner fear of the unknown darkness, and finally walked to the sofa based on instinct.
"Grandma?" Ji Mingxia called again in a low voice.
There was a creaking sound from the sofa, as if the person sitting on it moved slightly in response to Ji Mingxia's call.
Ji Mingxia plucked up his courage and reached out his hand towards this position.
He touched a cold body.
The rough skin wrapped around the stiff limbs felt cold and hard, like a corpse that had been frozen for a long time.
A strange laugh sounded in Ji Mingxia's ears.
Ji Mingxia was startled, and suddenly let go of his hand. He took a step back in confusion, his face pale.
He had just let go when the thing he touched fell from the sofa to the ground. A faint green light came from somewhere and was faintly reflected on the thing.
Ji Mingxia took a closer look and realized that this was not his grandmother at all, but the "Eternal God" that Zhou Tao worshipped in the small supermarket!
After being knocked down by Ji Mingxia, "Eternal Life" fell on the ground face up with its face slightly tilted. Coincidentally, its eyes were squinting, and by some strange coincidence, it was staring at Ji Mingxia.
Those eyes flashed with resentment, and the skin on his face was deathly pale. Combined with the bleak green light, he looked even more terrifying than a corpse!
Ji Mingxia's face was filled with horror. He took several steps back, then turned around without any hesitation and ran towards the door.
Maybe because he was too surprised, Ji Mingxia was not careful during this period and tripped over several things!
Accompanied by the sound of "dong dong dong" several things falling, Ji Mingxia fell to the ground along with several daily necessities on the coffee table.
Most of the items on the coffee table were Grandma Ji's daily necessities, including a fruit plate, a tissue box, a coin box, etc. A large pile of things fell to the ground and were scattered around Ji Mingxia.
Ji Mingxia trembled several times all over and looked at the statue in horror for several times. Then he stretched out his hand, grabbed something nearby and threw it at the statue.
After throwing it away, Ji Mingxia picked up another coin box, quickly got up and rushed out the door.
The tissue box hit the statue, making a muffled sound.
Ji Mingxia, holding the coin box in his hand, finally ran to the door, but the door was closed without his knowledge.
He was startled for a moment, then turned around and rushed to the kitchen door. There was a small balcony next to the kitchen with a security net that could be opened, leading directly to the lawn in the backyard.
However, just as Ji Mingxia walked into the kitchen, he bumped into something head-on.
The touch was the same as that of a dead body. The statue that was just on the sofa actually ran to the kitchen again, blocking Ji Mingxia's way!
After Ji Mingxia knocked down the statue, he took several steps back and knocked over things on the kitchen bar cabinet again.
This time, what fell to the ground were various porcelains and glass cups.
"Bang, bang, bang" chaotic sounds kept echoing in the house. The flying glass fragments hit Ji Mingxia's feet. Ji Mingxia stood beside the dining table, his face pale, his whole body shaking, as if he was about to faint at any time.
The entire Ji family had turned into an enclosed space at this moment, and Ji Mingxia was trapped inside it, with a dead end in front of him and a statue behind him.
With nowhere to escape, Ji Mingxia leaned against the dining table, as if he had lost all his strength. He slowly sat down and buried his head in his knees. Although his expression could be seen, his constantly trembling body was enough to make him collapse, like a frightened ostrich waiting to die.
At this time, Zhou Tao, who had not spoken for a long time, spoke faintly from the side: "Mingxia, Grandma Ji is still waiting for you."
Ji Mingxia shrank his body and ignored everything.
Zhou Tao's voice came out again: "If you come again, she will die."
Hearing this, Ji Mingxia finally reacted. His voice trembled slightly, and muffled sounds came from under his arm: "Zhou Tao... we have no grudges against you, why... did you do this... Were you good friends who grew up together..."
"Yes, we are good friends." Zhou Tao suddenly sighed when he heard Ji Mingxia's question, "Mingxia, do you know how shocked I was when I saw you? You will never understand how I felt at that moment. We are obviously good friends, why do we have completely different destinies?"
Ji Mingxia said: "You, you may have cancer, but you have recovered... What difference can there be between us?"
"You don't understand. You know everything." Zhou Tao sneered, "This is why I came to you. Why is your life so good and yours so miserable? Fate is too fair, right, right. So, for the sake of balance, you are destined to return to Jiaoye Village at this time and meet me..."
"I understand what you are saying." Ji Mingxia said tremblingly.
"It doesn't matter if you understand. You just need to agree to make a deal with me." Zhou Tao said. His voice gradually drifted to Ji Mingxia's side from a distance. When he saw Ji Mingxia's fragile appearance, he almost couldn't wait to get close to Ji Mingxia and tempted him, "As long as you agree, I will release your grandmother immediately. How about it?"
"What are you going to do?" Ji Mingxia heard Zhou Tao's voice close at hand, and couldn't help but raise his head, asking with lifeless eyes.
When Zhou Tao saw Ji Mingxia's forehead covered with sweat and pale face, a look of satisfaction appeared on his face.
He felt relieved and said to Ji Mingxia, "I want you to be my human soup voluntarily."
"Human soup?" Ji Mingxia was stunned, as if he completely understood what this meant.
"It's a nutritional supplement for us, a decoction made from human life span. You and your mother have cancer. If it were an ordinary person, they would have died long ago, but we have a secret recipe that allows us to absorb human life span and survive." Zhou Tao explained to Ji Mingxia very patiently, "In the past few years, with the help of the villagers of Jiaoye Village, you and your mother have survived with difficulty. But as time goes by, the effect of ordinary people's life span has gradually weakened. Only some people with special physiques can satisfy us..."
Zhou Tao's voice was close at hand, and he was breathing rapidly as he spoke, like a hungry ghost eager for food: "As soon as you came back, we noticed you. You are the same as everyone else. Mingxia, you two are about the same age, and you grew up together as playmates. But why is God so unfair to you, making you become what you are now, a mixture of a human and a ghost, and you..."
As he spoke, he uttered a few hungry moans from his throat: "You are young, energetic, and full of the power we desire. You alone can satisfy me and my mother... You know, from the moment I met you, I couldn't wait to have you. I want to eat you, I want to become like you..."
As he spoke, he couldn't help but reach out and touch Ji Mingxia's face.
Ji Mingxia only felt a pair of eerie hands touching his cheeks. Although he tried hard to control his emotions, when Zhou Tao's corpse-like body touched him, Ji Mingxia almost instinctively stepped back and avoided his touch.
Ji Mingxia's face was pale, his eyes fixed on the dark void, and he asked Zhou Tao: "Where's grandma? Is she still alive?"
Ji Mingxia dodged in time and Zhou Tao's attack missed.
His hand was still raised in the air. Feeling Ji Mingxia's resistance and disgust, Zhou Tao was not only not annoyed, but even showed a strange smile on his face: "Are you afraid? I will kill you. Look at the entire Jiaoye Village. In the past few years, except for the initial accident, when has anyone died? I just want to get your strength. I will be very gentle..."
Ji Mingxia felt that he was getting closer again, and gritted his teeth and said, "Your goal is to find grandma and make sure she is safe before considering your deal."
"No problem." Zhou Tao looked at Ji Mingxia's pitiful and helpless appearance and agreed to his request very generously.
"Your grandma is just under the stairs. You can see her when you go there." Zhou Tao said.
Ji Mingxia slowly stood up from the ground. Perhaps because his legs were weak, he swayed before he could stand firmly. Because he was shaking all over, he couldn't rush there immediately even though he knew where Grandma Ji was. Instead, he stood there for a few minutes to recover some strength before taking his first step.
Zhou Tao stared at Ji Mingxia carefully, and after confirming that his hands and feet were weak and he had no strength, even walking was difficult for him, he made way and let Grandma Ji out.
Grandma Ji was sitting at the corner of the stairs. Because the room was pitch black, in order to prevent Ji Mingxia from seeing her, Zhou Tao was very considerate and shone the green light that had just shone on the statue on Grandma Ji's body.
Under the pale green light, Grandma Ji sat at the bottom of the stairs with her eyes open, watching Ji Mingxia walking towards her step by step.
At first, Ji Mingxia was worried that this Grandma Ji was fake, but when he got closer and saw the expression on Grandma Ji's face, Ji Mingxia immediately confirmed that it was real.
Grandma Ji remained sober from beginning to end. When she saw Ji Mingxia coming, her usually stern face began to tremble. The look in her eyes when she looked at Ji Mingxia was full of anger and sadness.
Ji Mingxia immediately understood what Grandma Ji meant.
She was angry that Ji Mingxia ran back even though she knew there was danger, but she was also sad that Ji Mingxia was mentally tortured by Zhou Tao and finally agreed to Zhou Tao's request.
Ji Mingxia's grandmother was sitting there. Although her complexion looked a little pale, she was still alive and had not aged. She felt much more at ease.
He pulled the corner of his mouth and tried to give Grandma Ji a comforting smile: "It's okay."