☆, Chapter 27 Soul Capture
It turned out that he had accidentally touched a bowl on the shelf nearby. It was large, with a layer of yellow grease on the edge. But it wasn't the grease that made him want to vomit, but the contents of the greasy bowl: a bright red lump of meat from an animal whose origin was unidentifiable. The strong, fishy smell was unbearable, making him nauseous.
"This is really crazy! What the hell is this?" The second brother shook his hands, feeling that he was really unlucky today.
Instead, Xu Wang looked at it for a while, pursed his lips, and gave the answer.
"This is a deer fetus. It's the fetus or placenta of a sika deer or red deer."
To put it bluntly, it's a beauty product for women, but it's incredibly toxic when eaten. It would be fine if it were made into pills or processed as traditional Chinese medicine, but it's quite rare to see it served fresh like this.
"But why would a grown man like that school worker eat this?" The second brother's unintentional words left Xu Wang and the other two stunned.
Yu Jiuyin replied coldly, "Maybe there is a woman in this room."
"Fuck you, Brother Yu, don't be so scary at a time like this." Thinking back to what the dorm manager had said about the incident where the school worker called in the middle of the night and saw six women drying clothes, the four people in the room felt a chill down their spines.
"Let's check everywhere, especially the building opposite. Since there is no one inside, how did he witness the deaths of six girls?" Xu Wang was the first to calm down and asked everyone else to disperse and check.
Yu Jiuyin didn't move. He first took out his phone and sent a text message, then stood by the French window, lost in thought. Reflected by the light from the room, the French window acted like a giant mirror, clearly showing not only Yu Jiuyin's face but also the positions and movements of everyone in the room.
Only the occasional distortion caused by the unevenness of the glass gave the room an indescribable sense of weirdness and danger.
This calm before the storm made Yu Jiuyin's face look ugly.
The two-bedroom, one-living-room apartment wasn't very big, especially since it was bare of furniture, making it even easier to search. Ninety percent of the items hanging in rows of six on the wall were tattered and of no use at all. As for the bedside tables and desk drawers, they were also completely empty.
Xu Wang and the other two walked around twice but found nothing. Forget finding any clues related to Yun Yue. The house was so clean it looked like no one had ever lived there. They had even found the source of the stench: a mountain of fresh deer fetuses. It wasn't a corpse hidden in the house as they had imagined.
"Brother Yu, what are you thinking about?" Xu Wang walked over to Yu Jiuyin and followed his gaze through the glass. The next second, however, his hair stood on end. He saw a clear footprint on the rice at the door, as if someone was standing there and spying on them.
But Yu Jiuyin seemed not to notice and talked about another topic, "Xu Wang, tell me, what did that school worker see here?"
"What else could it be? Isn't it what he said? Just like when we watched the clouds and the moon that day."
"But Yunyue wanted to take Zhaocai away. Why didn't he take those six girls away after he spied on them for half a year? Any girl wouldn't be able to remain calm when encountering such a thing. Besides, the distance between the two buildings is so great. He has a balcony across from them and can be said to have excellent eyesight. But the part about the electric fan must be hanging inside the house. How did he see it?"
"Yu Jiuyin's question made everyone confused. And the indescribable sense of danger became more and more intense.
What you see is naturally terrifying, but what you can't see is even more terrifying. At this moment, the third child in the inner room suddenly cried out in surprise, as if he had made a new discovery.
"Fuck, Brother Yu, come and see, this mirror is awesome!"
"What's wrong?" Yu Jiuyin left the window and went into the inner room, and found that the third brother was holding a small palace hand mirror.
"Brother Yu, don't move, I'll do it." The third brother was very excited. He held up the mirror and pointed it at Yu Jiuyin's face. Then he moved closer and closer to Yu Jiuyin. Yu Jiuyin's face in the mirror kept changing.
At the farthest point, he appeared to be a young man in ancient clothing. But when he got closer, he inexplicably had fox ears growing on his head.
"Fuck, Brother Yu, you are a vixen in this life!" The boss looked at him in amazement.
But Yu Jiuyin didn't say anything. He stared at the mirror with increasingly cautious eyes, and even took out the natal copper coin in his hand.
Xu Wang had seen his magic weapon and knew what Yu Jiuyin had discovered. He subconsciously looked at Yu Jiuyin's mirror and then couldn't help but scream.
"Ah!" Xu Wang froze, not daring to move, his eyes filled with fear. The boss finally realized something was amiss. He felt that what he saw was definitely different from what Xu Wang and Yu Jiuyin saw.
He changed his position and stood in the exact same direction as Yu Jiuyin. Then he sat down on the ground in fear.
This was the strangest scene he had ever seen in his life.
From the front, what was reflected inside was not their own appearance at all, but an extremely dark prison. A huge iron electric fan hung overhead, and not far from the fan was a row of clothes drying racks filled with the smell of blood.
They are the prisoners, and the executioner is now going to execute them.
Blood dripped from the tip of the knife. Their hands were tied behind their backs, and they could only stumble forward. The man holding the knife was even faster, and every time he raised the knife, he could ruthlessly cut a piece of flesh from their bodies.
Like sharpening a pencil, layer by layer, until only two pale bones remained. Finally, she would grab their heads, and, in order, stuff them into the clothesline, locking them shut, and then hang their legs from the blades of an electric fan.
Just press the switch and you'll be cut in half in an instant.
Of the thirteen tortured figures, only seven were clear. He didn't recognize six of the girls, but the one standing at the end was all too familiar. It was Yunyue, whom he had been searching for for so long.
As for the remaining six blurry figures, one, judging by his clothing, was a daytime janitor. The other five, no matter how the eldest brother looked at them, looked like Yu Jiu, Xu Wang, and their three brothers.
Thirteen, he remembered, was a very ominous number of deaths. The boss instinctively sensed the danger. At this moment, the woman holding the knife behind them finally revealed her true face. She was the woman who had been in danger in the bathroom that afternoon.
At this moment, she was staring at them with greedy eyes. The boss suddenly found that he could not move.
At first, it was just his eyes that couldn't move away, then his body. The stiffness spread from his fingers, bit by bit. Meanwhile, the woman holding the knife was getting closer and closer. She walked closer, the smile on her lips growing wider.
At first, she smiled gently and beautifully, but the closer she got, the more terrifying her smile became. Her lips stretched to the maximum, revealing her bright red flesh. Her eyeballs bulged violently, almost bursting out of their sockets. In the end, her entire face was torn apart.
"Ah!" The boss wanted to scream, but the sound could only be imagined in his mind. He couldn't move at all. His neck was dead, his limbs were dead, and his waist, chest and abdomen seemed to be non-existent.
She will die, she will kill me. My boss felt like he was going crazy. The feeling of being on the verge of death was too terrifying. Even though it was his second experience, he still felt like he was about to pee his pants.
At that moment, a warm palm slapped his forehead. The boss felt a flash before his eyes, and suddenly his body regained control. He took a step back, collapsing uncontrollably to the ground. It was Yu Jiuyin who had rescued his soul, which had been about to be sucked away by the mirror.
The boss, "Brother Yu," was trembling all over, not knowing what to say. Yu Jiuyin patted him on the shoulder and put a copper coin in his pocket.
"It's okay, tell me what you saw."
"I saw the ghost in the mirror this afternoon. She wants to kill us."
Yu Jiuyin suddenly turned around, facing the mirror and looking at the French window. Then he suddenly understood how the school worker had witnessed the tragic murder of the six girls.
It wasn't what happened in the building opposite at all, it was happening in this room. However, he didn't see it with his own eyes, but saw the scene through the reflection in the mirror of the floor-to-ceiling window.
Just then, the text message he had sent earlier received a response. The dorm manager was working the night shift and hadn't slept either, so after receiving Yu Jiuyin's message, he immediately flipped through his phone's old photos from the Lunar New Year and found a photo of his aunt when she was young and sent it to Yu Jiuyin.
Although it was a black and white photo, it could not hide the beauty and cuteness of the girl in it. However, such a beautiful face did not make people feel pleasing to the eye, but instead made people feel extremely terrified.
"It's her. The one in the mirror during the day." The boss recognized her the first time he saw her.
"As expected." Yu Jiuyin raised the corner of his lips, finally figuring out everything. The culprit behind all this was this woman. Her purpose was easy to guess from her appearance. Just looking at those deer fetuses, one could understand her intentions.
She wanted to be forever young and beautiful, and even believed that all the hardships she faced later in life were due to the loss of her looks, which had been her lifeline. Just like her dorm supervisor father had said, she took the joke from her childhood that someone so beautiful could become a young lady as the golden rule.
So now my life is not going well, and it is all attributed to my appearance not being pretty enough.
All I can say is that greed can destroy everything.
"Brother Yu, do you know something?"
"Hmm, witchcraft." Yu Jiuyin pointed at the mirror in the third brother's hand. "If I'm not mistaken, this should be a gadget made by the alchemist in Europe."
"How could it be something from Europe?" The third brother was surprised.
"I don't know either, but based on my current speculation, only witchcraft could have done it. Have you heard of this religious punishment called soul-stealing? They tie a person to a chair with giant mirrors placed on three sides. The mirrors are only covered once a day when they're fed; the rest of the time, they shine the light on the person being punished."
"What kind of punishment is this? Besides being a little tiring to sit, at least I get to eat and drink well, and it doesn't interfere with my sleep." The second brother took it for granted.
"Then you try it."
"Let's give it a try." The second brother, feeling brave, actually turned his face toward the French window behind him. He didn't know if it was an illusion, but the moment he saw his own reflection, he felt as if the shadow was staring at him. That malicious look sent a chill down his spine.
Yu Jiuyin added without hesitation, "Guess what happened to those people later."
"What, what happened?"
"Except for the crazy ones, the rest are suicides."
"The second brother took a breath of cold air and felt that he would never look in the mirror again in his life.
Before Yu Jiuyin finished speaking, he went on to talk about witchcraft related to mirrors.
In reality, this punishment is a simple application of psychology. Those who are frightened to death are mostly driven by their own excessive imagination. Simply put, they scare themselves to death.
But witches have a different view of mirrors. They see mirrors as a medium through which souls can freely roam. And this mirror made of a special material is the key to their soul's release.
"It is said that twelve layers of human skin filled with resentment and the skin of close relatives or peeled off can make people immortal. Do you know why those girls were cut in half?" Yu Jiuyin said sinisterly, "Because thirteen layers of human skin are too difficult to wear, they have to be separated from top to bottom before they can be put on. Do you know what I saw in the hospital?"
"What"
"The janitor's mother has very skinny hands, but she has a bloated body and a round face. Tell me, how many layers of human skin does she have on her body now?"
"I" thought about the scene I saw in the mirror just now and felt like I was going to piss myself again. The six on the clothes drying rack, Yunyue, should be seven.
But Yu Jiuyin didn't answer him. Even after figuring out the general truth, Yu Jiuyin, having learned about the dorm manager's situation, still felt the number wasn't right. If it was thirteen, sixteen girls, Yunyue, the five of them, plus the hospital janitor, would be enough. And what about the husband? He was clearly dead, yet he was still eating with the dorm manager's family. It was clearly the aunt who was using her husband's skin as a disguise.
The more Yu Jiuyin thought about it, the more subtle it seemed. He felt as if he was missing a point that would tie everything together logically.
At this moment, Yu Jiuyin noticed that Xu Wang's expression was not right. He was staring at the door as if he had seen something incredible.
Yu Jiuyin turned to look at the door. Sure enough, the millet somewhere suddenly moved. Although the movement was slow, the grains were clearly visible as they rolled away from their original positions. A delicate footprint also appeared.
Step by step, the footprints slowly approached Yu Jiuyin and the other four. At this moment, the boss suddenly screamed, and an arm suddenly stretched out from the mirror and grabbed the boss's scalp.
The sharp nails opened a cross-shaped cut on the boss's head, and the fingers were inserted into his scalp.
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