Poison (Twenty-three)
Died a month ago? Then who was the person he spoke to on the phone a few days ago? Moreover, he had put a talisman on the handrail before going upstairs, and he hadn't noticed anything unusual in all the time he had been here.
Yu Shu took a breath without leaving a trace and repeated the address: "This is Lane 5, Building 6, right?"
The old lady held the door handle, ready to close the door at any time, and the resentment in her eyes became more intense and obvious.
She lowered her cloudy eyes and stared at Yu Shu's shadow for several seconds before speaking again, "It's on the fourth floor of Building 6, Lane 5. The family you're looking for has a child named Wang Zhiyao who attends No. 6 Middle School, right?"
The old lady closed the old iron door, leaving a crack for her voice to pierce through. "His child hasn't been home for a long time, but he doesn't live on campus, so I don't know where he went. Are you here to look for him, or does his father owe you a gambling debt?"
Yu Shu looked at the serious expression on the wrinkles on her face, and a chill instantly spread through his heart.
So where did Wang Zhiyao go before he returned home, and how did the new wounds and bruises on his body come about?
He didn't dare to think further, but his mind kept popping up thoughts uncontrollably, such as the thought that Wang Zhiyao was gone just like his father.
While Yu Shu was stunned, the old lady spoke earnestly, "Young man, I don't know why you are looking for their family, but listen to what I, an old woman, say. When you go back, you must jump over the fire basin to get rid of the bad luck."
"Grandma, can I ask you something?"
The door hinges creaked, and the sound of the iron door closing represented the old lady's rejection of him.
Yu Shu wanted to call Jiang Yu, but his phone showed no signal. The last time this happened was when Yu Dingan came back to life.
He looked around warily, but felt nothing strange. It looked like an old building that had been ravaged by time.
Yu Shu ran as fast as he could, and when he reached the third floor, his cell phone signal instantly returned to full strength.
He felt something was wrong.
Sure enough, except for the fourth floor, the signals on the other floors were all normal. There must be something fishy on the fourth floor.
That’s right, uncooked rice and three chopsticks stuck upside down.
Yu Shu remembered seeing a description of incense sticking upside down in Jiang Yu's pile of books.
Three incense sticks are inserted upside down, burning at both ends. Incense is a mysterious object, imbued with vitality, and used to honor the gods and spirits of heaven and earth. Inserting it upside down is disrespectful and, through this impure object, can create a curse, bringing misfortune and harm to all.
Although incense and chopsticks are two different things, if the chopsticks and incense are made of the same material, they will have the same effect.
Yu Shu turned back and knocked on the old lady's door a few times.
"Grandma, can you tell me who put the chopsticks and uncooked rice by the door of Room 402?"
The door was open a crack, but no one was visible. The old lady said unhappily, "Young man, please leave now. I really didn't know it was here. It's been over a month."
The family on the fifth floor came downstairs and just heard Yu Shu's words, so they stopped and said, "I went out to work the night shift that night, and the voice-activated light wasn't on. I saw a tall, skinny guy squatting at the door. It must have been set by some gangster. It's a pretty chaotic village in the city."
Yu Shu smelled the faint scent of disinfectant on the young woman and looked down to see a pair of nurse shoes.
"I'm sorry, but could I take up a moment of your time?" Medical staff are not too superstitious and should be willing to talk to him.
The woman thought about it. She studied medicine and didn't really believe in metaphysics or ghosts. Besides, it could be explained in a few minutes and wouldn't take up too much time, so she agreed.
"It's not convenient to talk here, let's talk while walking." She glanced at the door of 401. Although she was not afraid, the old man had to be considerate of others. It was always impolite to say something that others didn't like at their door.
Yu Shu displayed a standard smile without any warmth: "Thank you very much."
"I've only been here for half a year, so I'm not very clear about it, but I often hear beatings and scolding. At first, I would go downstairs to try to mediate, but after a few attempts, it was completely useless, so I stopped interfering in other people's family affairs."
"I remember clearly that in March, his dad beat him up in the alley downstairs. He was really brutal, hitting him on the shoulder with a glass bottle and shattering it. His dad was like, 'Why don't you bully others when they bully you? It's you who started it first. Not only did you do it yourself, but you also had the nerve to call the police and embarrass your father.'"
The woman shuddered as she spoke.
I really don't know what kind of mentality he had when he gave birth to Wang Zhiyao. He doesn't act like a father at all. When his child was bullied and came home to seek help, he actually said that the child deserved it and thought it was shameful to ask the police to intervene to protect his rights.
There was no emotion on Yu Shu's face, but his hands were clenched into red fists behind his back.
The woman added, "Look." After that, she opened her circle of friends and showed Yu Shu the video she had recorded while watching the fun.
The words she relayed had been embellished, and the original words were full of Cantonese obscenities that were unbearable to hear, with the words "mother" and "reproductive organs" interspersed every few words.
Yu Shu felt even more depressed after reading it.
"Are you that child's teacher?"
"He was hospitalized due to burns, and his relatives have never come to see him, so I thought of coming to see what's going on." Yu Shu avoided talking about his identity.
"No wonder I didn't see him go home for so long. It turns out he was in the hospital." The woman stepped into the bus stop and waved goodbye to Yu Shu.
"Thanks."
"It's just a casual thing."
Out of gratitude, Yu Shu waited until the woman got on the bus before turning around and leaving.
He wanted to explain today's events to Jiang Yu, but after several calls, no one answered. He then tagged a few people in the work group chat and sent private messages to colleagues, but received no responses.
Yu Shu thought something had happened to Jiang Yu and his group, so he drove back in a hurry and almost ran a red light. When he entered the yard, he saw Jiang Yu feeding the fish.
"Don't answer the phone?" Yu Shu held the back of Jiang Yu's head and tilted his head upwards.
Jiang Yu did not resist, and let You Shu manipulate him like a doll with an expressionless face.
"Mute, didn't hear it." Jiang Yu just took out his mobile phone and a new message popped up.
"I asked other people for help but got no response."
"Who cares about you after get off work?" Jiang Yu scattered another handful of fish feed and asked lazily, "What's the matter?"
"There are three chopsticks stuck upside down at Wang Zhiyao's door. His father died a month ago."
Jiang Yu was stunned, holding his hands in the air and forgetting to take them back.
I originally thought that the victims were limited to the perpetrators of school bullying and the participants in the burial alive case, but I didn't expect that the fire would spread to Wang Zhiyao.
But if Wang Zhiyao's father had died a month ago, Wang Zhiyao would definitely have been contaminated by evil spirits, but he had never sensed any signs of filth from Wang Zhiyao.
"When did the practice of sticking chopsticks upside down happen?" Jiang Yu brushed off the grass leaves on his pajamas and walked into the house.
Yu Shu followed him in: "A little later than Wang Zhiyao's father died."
Jiang Yu paused for a moment, and a rough idea came into his mind.
Seeing Jiang Yu remained silent, Yu Shu pressed on, "What's wrong?"
"The chopsticks stuck upside down are meant to let Wang Zhiyao's father go home. At the same time, it also acts as a confinement, trapping his soul in that house, preventing him from leaving."
As Jiang Yu spoke, he took off his pajamas and changed clothes in front of Yu Shu.
The muscles in his arms, chest and lower abdomen were tight and well-proportioned. The simple white T-shirt made his muscles stand out even more. The black bullet-shaped torso was wrapped in something very heavy. His long legs were slowly raised and put into light blue jeans, hiding the strong and powerful lines of his legs.
Yu Shu thought that they were all men and had everything they needed, so he watched Jiang Yu change his clothes without any thought of avoiding it.
"Who is it and why do they want to trap him?" Yu Shu hissed, puzzled.
Jiang Yu noticed Yu Shu's gaze and jokingly asked, "Looks good?"
"Yeah, there's meat when she takes off her clothes." Yu Shu didn't realize Jiang Yu was teasing him and said seriously.
Jiang Yu narrowed his eyes and smiled.
Yu Shu didn't understand, so he went back to Wang Zhiyao's father and asked, "Who should I ask?"
"I heard from their neighbors that it was a tall, thin boy who did it."
Jiang Yu's inner guess became clearer.
Bullying and abuse are both forms of oppression by the superior against the inferior. Their essence is the challenge and mental discipline of patriarchy against the inferior.
Long-term bullying and abuse will make people fragile and sensitive. Some people may develop a subtle dependence mentality under the oppression of patriarchy and the catalysis of extremely pathological environment. They hate and despise it but no longer escape it and are willing to endure it.
He suspected that Wang Zhiyao was the one who put the rice in the wrong place.
Although he was often beaten by his father and used as a punching bag, he still could not accept his father's death, so he would rather have an unclean thing at home than face reality.
But if you think about it carefully, you can easily overturn this idea, because Wang Zhiyao has always shown a strong desire to escape from the pain. He is a very smart child and he must know that sticking incense upside down is asking for trouble and making himself fall into the quagmire again after finally being freed.
And, most importantly, he never felt anything wrong with Wang Zhiyao from beginning to end. He was just an ordinary, malnourished, skinny high school boy.
"Although many of the people who got into trouble were related to the burial alive incident back then, there is another unwritten rule: they are all related to Wang Zhiyao." Yu Shu frowned and analyzed.
"I don't think this is a coincidence. Is it possible that the poison is possessing Wang Zhiyao?"
Jiang Yu was expecting Yu Shu to come up with some novel ideas, but he instantly wilted when he heard about possession. Perhaps Yu Shu had forgotten that living people couldn't handle poison. If Wang Zhiyao had even had any contact with poison, he wouldn't be in such good spirits.
"This speculation is unreasonable."
"But Wang Zhiyao seemed like a completely different person. He looked cheerful and sunny, completely different from his previous cautious and timid self."
"If you had also suffered such severe physical injuries and mental stimulation, you might also suffer from psychological stress trauma." Jiang Yu mercilessly stopped Yu Shu from saying anything further.
"Are you still stunned? Let's go." Jiang Yu held the elevator door button and shouted.
The elevator door was like a picture frame, framing Jiang Yu's lazily leaning against the inner wall. The whole picture exuded a Japanese comic-like comfort, in stark contrast to his slightly anxious shouting.
"Where are you going?" Yu Shu ran over quickly.
Jiang Yu casually pressed the car key: "Hospital, there's another fire."
The situation is getting more and more serious.
In just two days, more than twenty people have been in trouble. Including those mentioned in the news just now, there are exactly thirty-two people.
Moreover, when they went to stake out the area last night, the number of souls who jumped off the building at No. 6 Middle School increased from eight to twenty-four. If nothing unexpected happens, there will be no more repeated falls from the building at No. 6 Middle School tonight.
"Are these the last few students today?" Yu Shu fastened his seat belt and asked knowingly.
Jiang Yu stared at the rearview mirror and slowly moved the car out. "Probably. It was Zhong Guanxi this afternoon, and I just received news that the one on fire was Lin Wenxue."
In the afternoon it was Edison Chung, now it’s Man Suet Lam?!
Yu Shu's heart skipped a beat. He was quite impressed by these two people, not only because he sent them to the hospital, but also because of the order in which they were recorded in the hospital's patient record book.
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