August 1st, Sunday, 6:15pm.
Beiquan and Jiang Nan'an got off the taxi.
The driver lowered the window and pointed to a fork:
"You walk down this road, and you can see the reservoir when you go down the slope."
Following the driver's instructions, the two quickly found the reservoir where Luo Yanyan drowned.
The place where Luo Yanyan fell into the water was in the deep water area. Beiquan and Jiang Nan'an circled east while the sky was still bright, and soon found a scene that matched the surveillance video.
Jiang Nan'an pointed to the yellow isolation tape on the railing that had not been torn clean:
"It should be here, right?"
Beiquan nodded.
He released two groups of gadgets and asked them to help cover the two surveillance cameras nearby, and then began to arrange the scene of the conjuration while no one was around.
Beiquan didn't want to use the method of "calling the soul", which was earthy and easy to attract attention, and simply opened up a yin and yang path for himself.
The so-called "Yin-Yang Dao" is the road that allows people from the yang world to "walk" to the underworld.
He took out a compass from the black suitcase and sighed while determining the direction:
"Actually, I'm not very good at this, but I can't help it."
After determining the direction of the Yin-Yang Dao, Beiquan took out another roll of red thread and carefully wrapped it around the bushes and branches on both sides of the "walking path".
Jiang Nan'an is responsible for watching the wind, like a vigilant meerkat, watching out for innocent passers-by who may approach at any time.
After Beiquan wrapped the red line, the sunset had completely sunk below the horizon, the afterglow faded, and the sky was completely dark.
"almost."
Beiquan looked down at his watch, it was 7:12 p.m., a quarter of an hour.
He scratched the tip of the middle finger of his right hand, and squeezed out a drop of blood, which dripped onto the thin red line.
As soon as the blood bead touched the red line, it moved on its own as if it had life.
It was like a bright red ladybug, slowly crawling forward along the thin line, getting smaller and smaller until it disappeared completely.
"Okay, you help me keep an eye on it, don't let others break in."
Beiquan smiled at Jiang Nan'an:
"I'll be back when I go."
After he finished speaking, he lit a white candle, held it with a bone china plate, held it in his hand, then turned around and walked into the Yin-Yang Dao.
As soon as you enter the Yin-Yang Dao, Beiquan can feel the difference between the "inside and outside" worlds.
Although the surrounding scenery has not changed, the Yin-Yang Dao is obviously quieter, so quiet that you can't even hear the sound of the wind.
If I had to describe it, he seemed to be in a long and narrow transparent tunnel.
The space here is quiet, closed, and deep, with twists and turns that can't see the end, which makes people suddenly have the illusion that as long as you go down, you will always walk into the underworld.
"Ah."
Beiquan curled the corners of his lips and smiled softly.
- The long-lost scenery is still a little nostalgic.
He thought to himself.
When people walk in the yin and yang way, the concepts of time, space, distance, etc. will become blurred, and even the watch will stop moving unknowingly.
The only thing that can tell Beiquan how long has passed is the white candle in his hand that burns shorter and shorter.
Going deeper, some shadowy shadows began to appear on the Yin-Yang Dao.
These shadows are light in color and look like translucent silhouettes of white and gray. Some retain human silhouettes, while others have completely lost their human form, just like a drifting cloud of smoke.
But Beiquan knew that they were not the Luo Yanyan he was looking for.
He held a pair of earrings in his hand, which were the relics left by the girl.
In the live video left by Luo Yanyan, she often wears this pair of pearl earrings, which shows that they are her favorite things.
When the folk goddess conjures the soul or goes out of the shadows, most of the family members need to provide the deceased's personal and commonly used items. Generally speaking, most of them are clothes that are often worn or accessories that have been worn for a long time.
Beiquan came to the door as a friend, and for whatever reason, it was impossible to ask Luo's mother for a girl's personal items.
So he could only let Guan Hu Suying help sneak into Luo Yanyan's room, and quietly took away the pair of pearl earrings she left in front of the dressing mirror.
Now, with the pair of earrings in his hand, Beiquan has more than 90% confidence that he can find Luo Yanyan among the wandering ghosts on the road of Yin and Yang.
Sure enough, when the white candle was about to burn halfway, Beiquan saw a gray phantom curled up by the roadside.
Not long after the new death of the wandering soul, he still maintained a complete human form, his figure was like life, and even the details of the dress were clearly identifiable.
It was wet all over, with long hair that was slightly naturally curly attached to the side of the neck, sitting with his knees tucked, his face buried in his arms, and he couldn't see his appearance at all.
Beiquan walked to the shadow, stretched out his hand, and patted it gently.
His palm went straight through the wet shadow—the energy was too weak, even on the Yin-Yang Road, Beiquan couldn't touch him.
Beiquan simply shook it in front of Bai Ying with a white candle.
The candlelight alarmed the girl, she slowly raised her head, her expression was blank and her eyes were cloudy, but her facial features were undoubtedly Luo Yanyan.
"follow me."
Beiquan spread out his hand and showed a pair of pearl earrings in his hand, "I'll take you home."
Luo Yanyan saw the earrings, her dazed eyes became slightly clearer, her lips twitched twice, but she didn't make a sound.
But Beiquan understood her lips.
"Yes, go home."
Beiquan smiled at her, with a sincere and firm tone:
"This is not where you should be, you have to go back, go back to your own house, go back to your mother's side."
The word "mother" seemed to touch Luo Yanyan.
Her lips moved silently again, and then she slowly stretched out her hand, floating her translucent fingers on Beiquan's hand.
Beiquan said to Luo Yanyan:
"Follow me."
After all, he "holds" the girl in one hand and holds a white candle in the other, following the guidance of the red lines and bloodstains left by himself, and walks back in the direction he came and went...
&&& &&& &&&
Because Beiquan promised to send the girl home, they had to ask Luo Yanyan about everything before returning to Luo's house.
Unlike Mo Fan, who stayed in the bathroom of the rented house for more than half a year, the newly-dead soul has not yet reached the seventh stage. Whether it is memory, logic or way of thinking, it is very close to the one before his death, and communication is relatively easier.
It's just that Jiang Nan'an is literally a tough guy from head to toe. Beiquan couldn't directly photograph his soul to share with Luo Yanyan. , I used "character" to answer questions with Yi Yi.
The surrounding area of the reservoir was already very desolate, and it was even more inaccessible after dark. Beiquan and Jiang Nan'an simply found a secluded and secret corner nearby and opened an altar on the spot to ask fortune-telling.
Like the previous time, Beiquan set up an incense burner, put on pearl earrings that "loaded" Luo Yanyan's soul, tied a red thread as a "traction", and placed a fine sand tray in front of the incense burner, holding chopsticks and whispering. A spell was cast.
Soon, the chopsticks stood on the sand table, and with Beiquan's gentle grip, a regular circle was drawn on the spot.
"Luo Yanyan, how did you die?"
Beiquan asked.
Chopsticks quickly wrote the answer on the sand table:
[suicide.]
This answer was completely within Beiquan's expectations.
He asked again:
"Why did you kill yourself?"
The chopsticks moved again, and this time the answer was one more word than the previous one:
[I will die.]
"What's the meaning?"
Beiquan tried to understand the meaning of these three words:
"You mean, you know you're going to die?"
The chopsticks marked the affirmation with a circle.
Beiquan pondered silently, quickly thinking about the deep meaning behind Luo Yanyan's answer.
If Luo Yanyan just felt that she was tired of living, then she should say "I want to die".
But what she said was "I'm going to die".
Compared to being passive and world-weary, Luo Yanyan's answer is more like a terminally ill patient, who may not want to live, but knows that she cannot escape death, and she can only accept the arrangement of fate, facing the inevitable arrival in the near future of death.
Beiquan's eyes flashed slightly.
If that's what he guessed, things get interesting.
The girl is healthy, does not worry about food and clothing, and does not seem to have serious emotional problems. Why do you think she will die
So Beiquan asked:
"Why do you know you're going to die?"
The chopsticks roamed the sand table for a while, and then wrote two words one stroke at a time:
[prophecy.]
"what!"
Jiang Nan'an, who was watching, cried out in a low voice.
Aren't the first two strokes of the word "pre" in "prophecy" just a small hook under "乛"
Could it be that Mo Fan's soul wanted to write the word "pre"
Jiang Nan'an's eyes widened, like a goldfish out of water, he pointed to the sand table, silently but exaggeratedly compared the mouth shape of "Mo Fan".
Beiquan nodded calmly.
Obviously, he also thought of Mo Fan's unfinished message.
"Someone predicted you would die?"
Beiquan then asked:
"Do you believe?"
The chopsticks drew circles again, and Luo Yanyan said she believed it.
Immediately afterwards, before Beiquan continued to ask, the chopsticks moved again.
It wrote a few words stroke by stroke.
The strokes are clear and the meaning is simple, but they look so shocking when seen together.
[everyone else].
The sand table was not big enough, so she could only write half of the fifth word, but Beiquan and Jiangnan'an could see at a glance that it was the word "death".
- Everyone else is dead.
This is what Luo Yanyan wants to say.
Beiquan frowned slightly.
If he didn't misunderstand, Luo Yanyan wanted to tell them that her suicide was inevitable.
Because long before she acted, someone had predicted everything.
And not only she, but others also received the same prophecy, and they all came true.
Beiquan sank his face, erased the handwriting on the sand table, and then asked the last question:
"Who told you the prophecy?"
Chopsticks wrote two words:
[Xu Lei.]