The room was getting darker and darker, and the flame of the candle was getting shorter and shorter, until finally even the last bit of blue flame couldn't hold on, flickering on the wick. The banging on the door did not stop, and gradually became stronger as the wick of the candle became weaker.
Several times, Su Jinzhi almost thought that the door couldn't hold on and was about to fall to the ground. He himself was afraid of ghosts, so he was so frightened that his face was pale and cold and sweating. He spit a few times, and kept his eyes fixed on the brazier, not daring to look to the side.
"Ah!"
But at this time, there was a shrill scream from outside the house. The voice came from the throat under extreme fear. Feeling at ease will only intensify the fear in people's hearts. Su Jinzhi's clenched hands were full of cold sweat, but fortunately, the candles in this room can no longer play a lighting role, so no one can see his face.
Su Jinzhi took a deep breath and turned to look at Xie Lincheng, thinking that maybe he would not be afraid if he looked at Xie Lincheng.
However, when he turned his head, he met Xie Lincheng's gaze directly.
In those dark gray eyes, there was an orange fire jumping, and everything else was full of him.
Su Jinzhi's pupils narrowed slightly, no wonder the banging on the door didn't stop, Xie Lincheng was half-hearted!
"Concentrate." Su Jinzhi got up from the chair, walked to Xie Lincheng and knelt down with him, bumped him lightly with his arm, and pretended to speak relaxedly, "I'm fine."
Xie Lincheng knew that he should concentrate on it, and apologized to the ancestors of the Xie family.
But he also remembered that young people are afraid of ghosts.
Xie Lincheng couldn't concentrate on admitting his mistakes to his ancestors and saving his own life, and he didn't care about the youth's feelings at all. But if he doesn't concentrate, this almost eternal night can't end, it's simply an endless loop.
"I'm really fine." The young man reiterated to him again, his voice was obviously trembling, but he tried his best to pretend that nothing happened.
"Forget it..." An old voice suddenly came from outside the door, with the unique hoarseness of old people who have passed the age of seventy, but Xie Lincheng suddenly opened his eyes wide when he heard this voice, and looked towards the door.
The wooden door was pitch black, and nothing could be seen.
The banging at the door has not stopped, but it has become much weaker.
Su Jinzhi was most afraid of the ancient wooden doors with small diamond eyes, and he didn't dare to look out of the door through the diamond eyes, because he was afraid that he would see nothing but a pair of eyes looking at him .
"He's a good boy..." the old man whispered again in a hoarse voice.
As soon as he finished speaking, the banging on the door stopped.
The candles in the room flickered twice and brightened again, casting a warm yellow light in the room. At the same time, the ghost paper and ingots in the brazier in front of Xie Lincheng began to burn—they just watched a lot of candles poured into the brazier. The Ming paper and Yuanbao couldn't be burned.
The grievances of the ancestors of the Xie family were really great.
But when you think about it, anyone who wants to protect their children and grandchildren will end up being burned by their children and grandchildren, and let their ashes be scattered on the ground to be trampled on by others. If you think about it, you will not be happy, let alone Mr. Xie, who is not dead yet. Yes, the resentment in my heart is probably deeper.
Su Jinzhi looked at the dancing flames in the brazier and asked Xie Lincheng: "That's..."
"My grandfather." Xie Lincheng replied, "It turns out that my grandfather still remembers me..."
Xie Lincheng knew why old master Xie called him back and gave him the Xie family's main house. Mrs. Xie knew that the generation of the Xie family was not very good, so he wanted to run away. He was afraid that the Xie family would be defeated in this generation, so he asked him to come back. I hope he can bring some descendants of the Xie family, and I also hope... He can stay in Qingzhen.
After all, the roots of the Xie family are in Qingzhen, but there is still a gap between Qingzhen and the big cities Xie Lincheng lived in before. Mrs. Xie was worried that all the descendants of the Xie family would leave the home of the Xie family and never come back again, so he recalled Xie Lincheng. coming.
But he didn't expect this to become his death talisman.
"Of course I will remember, after all, he is your ancestor..." Su Jinzhi sighed, and before he finished speaking, he was hugged by Xie Lincheng next to him.
"Third Lord..." Xie Lincheng hugged him tightly, rubbing his tall nose bridge against his neck, and suddenly said something inexplicable, "Fortunately, I didn't raise dragon fish back then."
"... What does this have to do with raising dragon fish?" Su Jinzhi couldn't help asking him. Although raising dragon fish may not necessarily avoid this disaster, having dragon fish at home can guarantee the peace of the house to a certain extent. There is no harm at all. While Xie Lincheng was talking, his lips touched the skin of his neck from time to time, and his fiery breath aroused many sensitive bumps on his body. Su Jinzhi avoided it, but was hugged back by the man.
Xie Lincheng laughed lowly when he heard him ask this question, his voice was low and magnetic: "Because... raising Mr. Su can avoid all evils."
Shortly after the banging stopped, it was broad daylight.
But there was no sunlight outside. Although the sky was bright, it was a gloomy white light. Xie Lincheng took out his watch and found that it was already nine o'clock in the morning, but Xie's house was still quiet. Like no one there.
A Ping was very good at observing words and expressions, seeing Su Sanye and Marshal Xie hugging each other so intimately, and it was dawn outside, he took the initiative to leave.
Su Jinzhi was lying in Xie Lincheng's arms, and after being completely relaxed physically and mentally, he was so tired that he couldn't open his eyes. Xie Lincheng and he stayed up all night last night, but Xie Lincheng didn't have such a dilapidated body like him, who stayed up all night Apart from a few bloodshot eyes, his eyes were still clear. On the other hand, Su Jinzhi himself, his eye circles that had been a little bit blue due to his serious illness for three days became deeper and darker, and the humidity in the morning was heavy, Su Jinzhi would still start coughing like a consumptive ghost dying of illness Woke up.
Xie Lincheng quickly picked him up and put him on the bed, but Xie Lincheng himself staggered a few times while walking, and almost fell to the ground with others and himself. After all, he had been kneeling all night, and the part from his knees to his calves was already numb. After he carried the young man to the bed and tucked in the quilt, Xie Lincheng rubbed his legs and said to Su Jinzhi, "Sir, please sleep for a while, I'll go down first." have a look."
"Be careful..." Su Jinzhi was about to fall asleep, and he didn't forget to tell Xie Lincheng to be careful. He didn't know what happened to the rest of the Xie family who had no one to protect him. He really wanted to go out with Xie Lincheng to have a look. But now he felt that his head was as heavy as lead, and his upper and lower eyelids were tightly closed, and he couldn't even open them.
Xie Lincheng liked him so much when he was lying on the bed muttering softly, and felt sorry for his pale face, so he leaned over and kissed him lightly on the lips. He took off his mourning clothes and opened the door to go out, intending to ask the chef to make a bowl of medicinal porridge for the young man, and drink it when he wakes up. Xie Lincheng walked a few steps downstairs, and saw that the servants of the Xie family had already woken up, were cleaning the table and setting up breakfast, and when they saw him come out, they respectfully called out "Marshal".
Xie Lincheng said "hmm" and didn't speak. He walked around the hall a few more times and found that his soldiers were also there, dutifully guarding the door.
Look, there is nothing wrong with it.
But he couldn't be the only one to see the hell last night, could he
Xie Lincheng frowned and thought for a while, and suddenly realized something was wrong—the Xie family was too quiet. He used to be at this spot every day, and he could hear the second aunts, younger cousins, and uncles talking in the Xie family house. There were noisy voices, but today he didn't see any of them, so he felt that the Xie family was quiet.
"Have you seen the second lady?" Xie Lincheng asked a random servant, the second lady is Xie Linyu's mother, she is usually the loudest at this point, but today she didn't even see a shadow.
"No." The servant replied, "but I heard from the servant girl who took care of the second lady that she knocked on the door of the second lady and the second master this morning, but no one answered. She thought she was still sleeping, so she didn't go back."
These wealthy families do not have business on weekdays, and it is common for them to lie in bed occasionally. If they wake up their dreams, they will be punished. It is not like these slaves have to get up early every day to do things, so the maid shouted a few times. No one answered, so she left quickly, planning to call again at lunch time, and if there was no answer, she would consider opening the door and going in to see if the lady and the master were sick.
"Still sleeping?" Xie Lincheng raised his eyebrows, "Is it impossible that all Xie's family members are sleeping?"
The servant couldn't answer Xie Lincheng's question. After all, Xie Lincheng was telling the truth. They didn't see a single master of the Xie family except Xie Lincheng all morning. It couldn't be that the Xie family was lying in bed collectively, right
But before they could find the answer, the answer came to their door.
"Let me go back... let me go back!"
There was a commotion outside the compound. Xie Lincheng heard the shout that sounded like Xie Linyu's mother, raised his eyebrows and walked out. He saw Xie Linyu and his mother who came back with Master Xie Er helping each other. They were all wearing their middle clothes when they were sleeping, but the originally clean and white middle clothes were stained with black and brown stains. It was hard to see what those stains were from a distance, and there were many behind them. Thanks to the family, they are all in a mess.
Especially their feet, which were shoeless and covered with dark brown mud from sole to ankle.
Xie Lincheng stood at the entrance of the hall with fists folded, looked at their distressed appearance and said coldly: "Hey, cousin and second aunt, where did you go to play, why did you come back so early in the morning?"
Hearing his voice, the second lady raised her head tremblingly, and when she saw Xie Lincheng in a clean suit, her eyes were full of disbelief, and she muttered: "...you, why are you okay?"
The other Xie family members were also very shocked when they saw Xie Lincheng's face. They stared at him with wide eyes and kept talking to themselves, "Why is he all right?", "Did he go out?" and so on.
Xie Lincheng listened, and couldn't help frowning. He narrowed his eyes and carefully looked at the stains on the second lady and Xie Linyu.
Brown is mud, black... is charred ash.
With a flash of inspiration in his mind, Xie Lincheng suddenly had a bold guess—they didn't sleep in the burnt tomb of Xie's family last night, did they
Xie Lincheng guessed right.
Except for him, everyone in the Xie family woke up this morning in the burned ruins of the Xie family's cemetery. He was not the only one who saw a ghost last night, except for the servants and his soldiers, everyone in the Xie family saw a ghost.
Needless to say, the second lady, last night she saw such a blood-eyed female ghost lying next to her, she screamed and passed out; and Mr. Xie Er, who was going to make convenience in the middle of the night, just came out of the hut when he saw the ghost by the side of the road. There was a man squatting in the bushes. The man was wearing white clothes and silver-white hair. He looked like an old man, but he kept humming "Wuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu..." which sounded like a child's mournful cry.
Seeing a man in white squatting by the side of the road in the dark night, no matter what, it is a bit intrusive, not to mention that he kept making such a shrill and strange cry. The second master Xie's scalp was numb from his crying, and he took a deep breath. In one breath, he quickened his pace and walked towards the room, but just after turning a corner, he saw the old man in white squatting on the side of the road with his back facing him, crying more and more terribly, and shaking his body back and forth.
But what is extremely strange is that the old man shook his head and then suddenly leaned forward, hitting the ground heavily, and screamed sharply at the same time, when he tilted his head back, Master Xie Er could see clearly his face.
Master Xie Er was about to start crying with him now, he was indeed an old man, his face and ear wrinkles were as deep as orange peel, his eyes were squeezed into a thin slit, but his mouth was smiling , made a treacherous sound of "hee hee", the corners of his mouth were almost cracked to the base of his ears, and with just a sway, the old man's body moved forward again, and the laughter in his mouth turned into crying again, when he shook again When he came back, he didn't squat down on his back, but his head suddenly turned around, turned 180 degrees with his body, without a smile on his face, just staring at Master Xie Er like that.
Master Xie Er yelled and ran forward, but he couldn't get out of this way. The old man was always on the side of the road, staring at him with such a strange posture. Master Xie Er ran a few times Circle, finally pouted his eyelids and passed out.
After waking up, they found that all Xie's family members were standing in the burned ruins of Xie's ancestor's cemetery.
That's right, they were standing. Their ankles were buried in a shallow layer of soil, and they could come out of the ground with a light push, but their hearts seemed to be covered in a thick layer of soil. , suffocated to the point of being unable to breathe.
But maybe it was because I was not the only one who woke up in the cemetery. Although everyone had lingering fear and looked very pale, they still helped each other back from the cemetery.
But at this moment, they saw Xie Lincheng, who had been hated all along, standing unscathed in the hall of Xie's house and looking down at them. The depression, fear, and doubt in their hearts suddenly became a pot of rotten porridge, boiling in their chests. .
"It's you, right!" Xie Linyu ran towards Xie Lincheng with red eyes, and wanted to punch him with a wave of his hand.
Xie Lincheng just turned his head slightly to avoid Xie Linyu's punch, and at the same time raised his leg to trip Xie Linyu, causing him to fall into the mud.
"Is my cousin stupid?" Xie Lincheng rubbed his foot on the steps twice, as if he had stepped on something dirty, disgusted, "What did I do?"
Xie Linyu got up from the ground and said bitterly, "You sent us all to the graveyard!"
"Yes, I did it." Xie Lincheng responded generously, "So what? What can you do with me?"
"you!"
Xie Linyu was at a loss for words for a while, but he also knew that Xie Lincheng couldn't have done this. Even if he had supernatural abilities, he couldn't send them all to the Xie family grave without waking up any of them.
But even if Xie Linyu didn't dare to admit it... This matter may have been done by the ancestors of the Xie family...
Su Jinzhi was woken up by the noise. He opened his eyes with difficulty, and some tears were stimulated by the dazzling light. He blinked twice to make his vision clearer, and then propped up the bed to get up. Before he could straighten up, he was caught People into a warm and generous arms.
"Are you awake?" The man's low voice rang in his ears, but it was almost drowned by the sudden sound of firecrackers.
Su Jinzhi raised his hand to rub his forehead, but someone took a step ahead of him and gently soothed his headache. Su Jinzhi buried his head in Xie Lincheng and rubbed it twice before he opened his mouth and said, "What's going on outside?"
Because just after waking up, Su Jinzhi's voice was a little hoarse, and his voice was also very low, if it wasn't for Xie Lincheng who hugged him, he might not be able to hear what he was saying clearly.
"My second aunt and the others invited a Taoist priest to do it at home." Xie Lincheng smiled coldly, "I still do it, I think it's more like a demon."
"Did you offer incense to the grandfathers?" Hearing that it had nothing to do with Xie Lincheng, Su Jinzhi didn't care.
"It's up." Xie Lincheng came back to kowtow to the ancestors of the Xie family after Xie Linyu finished, but the rest of the Xie family completely forgot that they had invited the Taoist priest to make tablets for the ancestors of the Xie family yesterday. Instead, he invited someone back to exorcise the evil spirits.
"You seem to have a fever again." Xie Lincheng hugged Su Jinzhi, and said after putting it on his forehead for a while, the temperature of the young man's forehead was a little high, and he knew that he must have burned again when he touched it.
Xie Lincheng's heart tightened, and he quickly stuffed Su Jinzhi back into the quilt, even more annoyed at the second wife and his party who woke him up.
"You sleep for a while, I'll get you medicine."
Su Jinzhi is weak and loves to be sick. Every time he goes to bed late, he wakes up with a fever the next day. A Ping mentioned this to Xie Lincheng early this morning. Watch Su Jinzhi wake up and feed him.
With regard to Su Jinzhi's matter, Xie Lincheng has always been honest, so he went to the kitchen to fetch the medicine by himself. When he got to the kitchen, besides Su Jinzhi's medicine pots, there were several pots of medicine baked on the medicine stove.
Those medicines belonged to Xie's family. They were frightened last night, and they must be sick after spending the night in the cemetery with the cold wind. Moreover, he heard that several young children were already a little delirious and began to talk and go crazy. That's why I cooked the medicine and took it.
But after Xie Lincheng poured Su Jinzhi's medicine into the bowl, he saw a few maids walking out with the medicine dregs.
The dregs left over from boiling the medicine are unlucky, they will be gathered together and burnt. Seeing this, Xie Lincheng asked A Ping to follow him out to have a look.
But A Ping waved his hand directly: "Marshal Xie, don't look at it, they are definitely going to pour the medicine residue on the road, passers-by step on the medicine residue, it will take away bad luck."
Xie Lincheng paused and asked him, "How do you know?"
"The last time the third master got sick was because he stepped on the medicine residue." A Ping said, "Someone put the medicine residue in the third master's sedan chair."
"I see." Xie Lincheng took a deep breath, and walked towards his bedroom with the medicine bowl in his hand.
But to Xie Lincheng's surprise, Su Jinzhi woke up again, stood at the window with the small window open and looked down.
The following is how the Taoist priest invited by Xie's family is doing.
"You're still sick, why did you get out of bed?" Xie Lincheng saw that he was wearing thin clothes and was still standing at the window blowing the cold wind. He grabbed his own robe and went up to put it on for the young man, his tone became a little tough.
Su Jinzhi didn't care about his tone of voice, he smiled weakly at Xie Lincheng with a pale face, raised his hand and grabbed his cuff and refused to let go.
Xie Lincheng thought he was being coquettish with him, and he was a little flattered, coughed twice and said in a soft voice: "I brought you porridge, you drink the porridge first and then take the medicine."
"Okay." Su Jinzhi obediently agreed, but his hand was still holding Xie Lincheng's sleeve corner.
Seeing him relying on him so much, Xie Lincheng's heart became softer, and he took the porridge and blew it cold to feed Su Jinzhi: "Okay, okay, the third master doesn't want to eat by himself, I'll feed you, okay?"
Of course, Su Jinzhi didn't want Xie Lincheng to feed him so he pulled the hem of his clothes, he was cowardly. Because he just saw a ghost.
Hell in broad daylight.
He just looked down on the bed, originally curious about how the Taoist priests invited by the Xie family would exorcise evil spirits, but he didn't expect that when he stretched out his head, he saw the Xie family members holding a pair of pale and bloody hands at their feet.
Those hands seemed to come out of the soil, grabbing their ankles tightly, as if they were going to drag them into the ground.
What was even more frightening was that there were paper figurines standing beside several people.
The faces of those paper figurines were strange, with smiles on their faces. Su Jinzhi had a psychological shadow on the paper figurines, and his scalp felt numb when he saw them. What's more, one of the paper figurines saw him and turned to smile at him. smiled.
Su Jinzhi's legs went limp immediately, and he didn't realize that these paper figurines were the ones standing beside the coffin of Mrs. Xie when he died.