A few minutes later, Gu Zhisang opened the door of the room, poked his head out and said to the police officers and Ge Liaochan outside:
"She has some things to tell you. Do you want to come in and take notes?"
The police officers were surprised, and one of them nodded and said, "Miss Gu and I will go in."
There were recording and monitoring equipment in the room, so other police officers went to the observation room to turn on the equipment and watch everything that happened in the room from the surveillance screen.
After the police officer and Ge Liaochan entered the room, they saw Gu Zhisang sitting there with a calm look on his face.
The female suspect opposite had a dazed look on her face, with tears still on her face, as if she had suffered a heavy blow and her entire energy and spirit had been drained away.
After the two of them sat down, Gu Zhisang's voice continued:
"Why am I so sure that you have encountered a supernatural event? It's because I can see that there is a dark energy in your fate, floating on your face in a grayish manner, but I can't see the specific reason and cause and effect. This shows that what you encountered is not just an ordinary encounter with evil spirits or being infected by evil spirits."
"Without knowing the cause and effect, I can't get the full picture, let alone help you solve your problem. Are you still unwilling to confess?"
The police officer and Ge Liaochan looked at each other and were both surprised.
Judging from what Gu Zhisang said, this suspect was involved in the sale of children and filling the lake with them for sacrifice. It is very likely that she has other crimes to her credit?!
The woman looked painful, and after a long while she choked up and said, "Okay... I'll tell you everything."
The woman knew that Gu Zhisang was forcing her and trying to trick her, but compared to being punished by the law, she was more afraid of the ghost taking her life and that her family would be implicated.
For so many years, she has been worried and anxious about her past mistakes.
Making up her mind to tell everything made her feel relieved.
The woman's surname was Yao and her name was Fang. As Gu Zhisang had seen, she was 35 years old, divorced once and had no children. She currently opened a delicatessen with her boyfriend and lived in the suburbs of the city farthest from the "Shennv Lake".
The reason why she lives there is not because of the low housing prices or anything like that, but because Yao Fang herself is very afraid of water.
'Goddess Lake' is a place she never wants to mention in her life.
Yao Fang sobbed, "In the summer when I was eleven years old, my cousin took me and my cousins out to play. The place we went to was Shennv Lake, where we swam..."
More than 20 years ago, most cities in Hunan Province had not yet been renovated and rebuilt.
At that time, there were no rows of trees planted on the shore of "Shennv Lake", no iron nets were erected or signs hung to remind people not to go into the water or go to deep water areas. The lakeshore was still a mixture of sand and mud.
Due to the hot weather, few families could afford air conditioning in the 1990s. When summer came, the locals' favorite thing to do was to take a dip in Shennv Lake, which not only cooled off the heat but also saved money.
Yao Fang was very young at the time, but she was naturally afraid of water. She had tried to swim once when she was young but never learned it. So every time she went into the water, she could only dabble in the shallowest area and never dared to let the water cover her belly.
Or you can only rent a swimming ring.
She clearly remembered that at that time there were always a few uncles and aunts setting up stalls on the shore of "Shennv Lake". All the swimming rings were inflated and the style was the same - four equal sections of rubber in blue, white, red and yellow were pieced together.
The regular style one hour rental cost $1.50, and the one with the Hello Kitty image printed on the rubber cost $2, which was not cheap at the time.
Many people think that swimming is just a matter of splashing around a few times and they can learn it, so there is no need to wear a swimming ring.
Because of this, the 11-year-old Yao Fang was ridiculed by her cousin, who said she was a poor swimmer and even snatched her swimming ring and made a fuss.
Sullen Yao Fang swam away by herself, and her cousin and aunt were busy teaching her little cousin, who also couldn't swim, how to swim, so they had no time to take care of her. They just told her not to swim too far.
Because she was wearing a swimming ring, Yao Fang was not that scared. She floated on her back in the water. When she came to her senses and realized something was wrong, the swimming ring under her had already deflated by half!
A small hole appeared in the rubber somewhere and at some point, and it started to leak air.
Yao Fang was terrified, but the more she struggled, the faster the already shrinking swimming ring leaked, and she could only cry and scream.
But she had drifted outside the deep water line. It happened that the deep water area, which used to be populated by several swimming enthusiasts, was unusually deserted today, and her voice could not attract the people who were bustling about on the shore.
Just as Yao Fang was crying and wailing in despair, someone finally noticed something was wrong with her and swam towards her.
She was a young girl in her early twenties, also wearing a rented swimming ring, but she didn't put it on her body. Instead, she used her arms to hold on to the outside of the ring and swim.
She swam to Yao Fang's side, dragged Yao Fang's body out of the limp swimming ring, put on her own, and said breathlessly:
"Little sister, where are your family members? Why did they let you swim to such a deep place by yourself? This is too irresponsible. And the quality of this swimming ring is also poor. Don't be afraid. It's okay. Let's swim to the shore and I will take you to find the person who rented it!"
The young girl's face was covered with tears and she was filled with indignation.
She also just learned how to swim this year and came to the "Shennv Lake" to practice duck swimming. In order to prevent exhaustion and incorrect posture, she rented a swimming ring and swam with her hands on her back. She saw a little girl waving in the deep water from a distance, so she swam over to take a look.
So the two of them prepared to swim towards the shallow water, with one in the circle and the other holding onto the circle with one arm.
Yao Fang was already frightened out of her wits. After she had finally calmed down a bit, the young woman clinging to the edge of the swimming ring suddenly sank.
She only had time to scream before the water covered her head and almost overturned the swimming ring and Yao Fang inside it.
It was like...like something was pulling at her from under the water, dragging her down.
"Help..." The woman struggled continuously, and her only support was the edge of the swimming ring that she was holding tightly.
During the beating, her hand grabbed Yao Fang's collar. The completely frightened little girl could only cry and forcefully pull her hand away;
During the struggle, Yao Fang's feet kicked her chest and abdomen several times, making the situation of the girl, who was already losing strength, even worse.
Soon the girl, with too much water in her lungs, was no longer able to struggle.
She stretched out her five fingers tightly, her face twisted in pain from suffocation, and her bloodshot eyes stared at Yao Fang. She wished Yao Fang could grab her hand and help her...
The incident occurred suddenly and ended quickly.
After two or three minutes, the water surface gradually returned to calm.
The girl disappeared completely.
Yao Fang remembers the last scene very clearly. The girl's face was submerged in water, and countless bubbles rolled up from the bottom of the water, blurring the woman's bloodshot eyes.
She was so frightened that she was shaking all over and swam towards the shore crying. Her aunt and her family on the shore realized that their niece was missing and were looking for her anxiously, when they saw her swimming back with her face covered in water and looking pale.
My aunt heaved a sigh of relief and said, "Where have you been, you damned girl? You scared us to death!"
Yao Fang sobbed and wanted to tell her aunt's family what had just happened, but when she looked back at the calm lake, her eyes were full of fear.
She knew clearly that the sister must have drowned.
He drowned in order to save himself.
If I tell it myself, I will definitely be scolded to death by my family and neighbors. I will be regarded as a murderer and will have to pay compensation and go to jail.
Due to various hesitations and panic, she did not say it at that moment and chose to conceal it.
After returning home, Yao Fang had a high fever that wouldn't go away and was sent to the hospital for an IV drip. She was in a daze and slept for the whole day.
Her dreams were filled with the painful and desperate look in her sister's eyes when she looked at her for the last time.
After waking up in shock, Yao Fang heard her parents chatting beside the bed. They said that something happened in "Shennu Lake" yesterday. A female student drowned in the lake. When her body was found, it was swollen and floating on the lake.
While peeling an apple, my mother said with regret: "What a pitiful thing for a good girl. I heard she was a top student who was admitted to a university in another province. When she went to practice swimming, the swimming ring she rented got deflated..."
"Let's see if you can force Fangfang to learn swimming again. It's so scary. She's afraid of water, so stop pushing her!"
Dad looked at the newspaper and whispered, "You don't know the inside story. It is said that the woman who drowned had several black handprints on her legs and ankles! People are saying that she was taken as a substitute by a water ghost!"
Yao Fang, who was secretly listening in the room, opened her eyes wide and uncontrollably.
She had been thinking about what would happen if she was caught by the police and went to jail...
However, since there were no eyewitnesses who saw the female student saving the man that day, and she had indeed rented a swimming ring from the shore, the police also fished out the shrunken swimming ring along with the body. It was determined that it was indeed damaged by natural causes and leaked air.
Since all the rental styles were the same, no one thought that the swim ring was not for girls at all;
She had given it to someone else before.
No one would have thought that this incident would be related to a little girl.
When she learned that the case was classified as drowning, Yao Fang, who was already hesitant, seemed to have even more reasons to escape.
In the end, she chose to conceal the matter, remain silent, and keep it to herself.
From then on, she never dared to go to the "Goddess Lake" again, let alone go swimming.
The rapidly passing time gradually soothed Yao Fang's inner guilt and anxiety. She had her own life and family, and had long forgotten what happened in her childhood.
Until three months ago
Yao Fang curled up and hugged her arms, her voice trembling: "That night I closed the shop and returned home, washed up and went to bed. I felt something heavy on my chest, as if something was pressing on me and I couldn't breathe. My clothes and body were also stained with cold and sticky water stains..."
She recalled the scene of that night with a painful expression.
At first Yao Fang thought she was having a nightmare, but when she had difficulty breathing, she suddenly woke up from the dream and found herself covered in cold sweat as if she had been fished out of the water, and her body was shaking uncontrollably.
"It's really cold in the room. I want to use my cell phone to call my family, but, but..."
Yao Fang shuddered. "I turned my head and saw a blurry shadow standing beside the bed. Its hair was dripping with water, all falling on the edge of my pillow! My fingers couldn't move, and I couldn't even close my eyelids..."
Seeing that Yao Fang was about to collapse from fear due to her own memories, Gu Zhisang stood up and walked to her side, saying, "Don't resist me."
Through the empathy of power, Gu Zhisang recalled Yao Fang's memory and "saw" the vague ghost figure that night.
Everything was just as she said, she was being "sleep-paralyzed" and couldn't move at all.
He could only stare with his eyes wide open in horror, watching the shadow getting closer and closer to his face, and finally he saw a familiar face in the distorted and blurry fog.
The ghost girl's face was swollen and her wet hair was dragging on Yao Fang's neck, and the touch felt extremely real.
'Why didn't you save me?'
'Why don't you tell everyone the truth?!'
Yao Fang sobbed and tears streamed down her face.
She finally remembered why the ghost girl's outfit looked familiar. Wasn't this the older sister who saved her when she was a child but was captured by the water ghost and drowned? !
Just when she thought she was going to suffocate to death, the door opened from the outside and it was her boyfriend who came back.
The boyfriend was also frightened after turning on the light, but he was only frightened by Yao Fang.
She stood straight and twitching like a stranded fish, the sheets beneath her were soaked, her face and head were wet, it was hard to tell whether it was sweat or tears.
Such horrific scenes occurred several times over the course of three months, and Yao Fang was completely frightened.
She began to fear the night and was unwilling to sleep, for fear that she would be pursued by wronged spirits.
Later, when her father was fishing for fish and shrimp in the center of the lake, he lost his balance and was tripped by the rope and fell directly into the water.
Although he climbed up again immediately with the help of his companions, Yao Fang thought that it was still the female ghost who was causing trouble.
Just when she was about to collapse, she saw a seemingly plausible post on a local forum, in which the poster said that he had encountered strange things related to the "Goddess Lake". She thought that the situation was very similar to her own, so she sent a private message to the poster.
Unexpectedly, they were not the only ones in the same situation. Several other people came to them and they formed a small group.
Yao Fang whispered:
"In fact, we all know that everyone has some guilt related to the lake. Every day, people in the group ask what to do, saying that they want to find a master to collect all the dirt in the lake... Until a few days ago, a child drowned in the lake again and the body was not found. The group leader heard that the adults in that family wanted to perform a ritual, so he mobilized us to participate."
"You all know what happened next."
The police officer's pen never stopped recording, and he was filled with emotion.
The police officers outside who heard Yao Fang's words also went to investigate the 23-year-old files. Unexpectedly, they really found the file of the drowning female college student.
This incident was even reported in the local newspaper at the time, but the girl was used as a slightly negative example, as a warning to remind people not to go to deep water areas at will.
Gu Zhisang said calmly, "You can also investigate the other three people in this direction. They must have been related to someone who drowned in Shennv Lake in the past, and they may have even been the key reason for the other person's drowning."
Maybe if you dig deeper, you can find a hidden murder!
"good!"
Yao Fang asked anxiously, "If I confess everything you said, you can help me solve this matter."
Gu Zhisang pulled the corner of his lip and said coldly: "Don't worry about this. That ghost was a good person who accumulated virtue and did good deeds in his life. There is no reason for him to be infected with evil power and destroy his foundation for someone like you. I will stop it based on this reason."
Yao Fang looked embarrassed and said hesitantly, "But I didn't do it on purpose. I didn't let the water ghost catch her and drown her. I was just a child at the time and I couldn't swim. How could I have saved her?"
Gu Zhisang sneered, "Don't you really understand where its resentment comes from?"
"It never regretted sacrificing itself to save others, nor did it resent you for not saving it. It was angry at your cowardice, selfishness, and ruthlessness. Until its death, its parents and the world did not know that it was a brave hero in life and should have been the pride of its parents."
"Rather than the negative examples of people drowning in the water because of greed for cool water as reported in the newspapers or by neighbors."
After saying that, she stood up and left the room.
The room, with Yao Fang alone, returned to its cold silence. She was overwhelmed with emotions and felt extremely ashamed, with tears streaming down her face.
…
After walking out of the room, Ge Liaochan was full of admiration: "Sangsang, you are amazing. You have straightened out the cause and effect! No wonder these people were so guilty that they paid for the sacrifice. I guess they did something wrong and got a knock at the door from the ghost!"
Gu Zhisang shook his head slightly and said, "It's not a ghost."
"Ah?" Ge Liaochan was stunned.
"Yao Fang wasn't really haunted by a ghost. I lied to her. The 'sleep paralysis' she experienced at night wasn't real." Gu Zhisang said, "She was dreaming from the beginning to the end, invaded by a nightmare. The ghosts she saw were not the real souls of the ghosts, but the 'nightmare' formed by the resentment of the ghosts."
"I'm afraid the same is true for several other people. The nightmare is too real and they can't tell the difference between truth and falsehood."
Ge Liaochan didn't expect Gu Zhisang to say that, and stopped.
Gu Zhisang said: "In addition, Yao Fang said that the reason why she was so scared was because the dead soul would stir up her emotions. She had thought many times about going to the 'Goddess Lake' to commit suicide and end it all and get rid of it completely."
"I think the old lady who went to the lake to hang herself the night before yesterday was for this reason. There are definitely more than just these four people who are affected by the nightmare, but many people haven't spoken out about it."
Ge Liaochan had a headache. "This makes the case even more confusing..."
"That's right." Gu Zhisang said, "First of all, most of the people who drowned in the 'Goddess Lake' would become water ghosts, and it would be impossible for them to affect the people on land. If they had such powerful abilities and could affect people, they would have caused trouble long ago. There was no need to wait until three months ago."
Ge Liaochan understood immediately and took over the topic: "So something must have happened in the 'Goddess Lake' three months ago, causing the water ghosts at the bottom of the lake to have greatly increased abilities, and they can turn resentment into nightmares to seek revenge and take lives!"
Gu Zhisang nodded: "Secondly, the case of the boy's body being sunk probably has other hidden stories, and cannot be lumped together with other cases."
"In short, this case involves a lot of things. If we want to find the key to the problem, we have to go to the 'Goddess Lake' to take a look."
After thinking for a while, Ge Liaochan nodded and said, "Okay, I'll arrange this."
About an hour later, Gu Zhisang and Ge Liaochan came out of the police station and came to the lake again.
This time, colleagues from the local spiritual group rented a speedboat for them.
One of the team members looked at them with a melancholy expression and was full of worry. He asked in a low voice: "Boss, are you and Coach Gu really going to the lake? The senior was seriously injured and hasn't woken up yet. I'm worried that there is something in the water..."
Ge Liaochan said: "Don't worry, we are just going to take a look, we are not going to open the altar or perform any rituals."
Under the worried and nervous gaze of the team members, Gu Zhisang and Ge Liaochan got on the speedboat and headed towards the center of the lake.
The further you drive into the lake, the wider the view becomes.
Gu Zhisang looked around, a trace of admiration flashed across his eyes, and he said, "This place is a Feng Shui treasure land. The lake is narrow on the outside and wide on the inside, which can store wind and gather energy. There are tall buildings in the northwest to gather people's luck, and there are mountains in the southeast to prevent the luck formed by people and land from repeatedly swallowing and spitting out in the lake. It can be called a 'place with outstanding people and beautiful scenery'."
"There must be spiritual things under a lake like this."
Ge Liaochan was a little surprised and asked, "Sangsang, you mean that the 'River God' that the local people have seen and talked about should really exist?! Then will it be like what my colleagues said before..."
"That won't happen."
Gu Zhisang shook his head slowly, “If this kind of Feng Shui lake naturally forms spiritual creatures, Rui Ze will generally not go astray easily, unless the things bred under the lake have never been spiritual creatures, but evil creatures!”
Just as she said, this "Goddess Lake" can absorb and exhale the earth's energy and human destiny. It is a treasure land for any person, beast, or ghost who has Taoism and has embarked on a path of deep cultivation.
Ruize is still okay, but if there is an evil creature hidden at the bottom of the lake and constantly growing, it might quietly give birth to a very evil creature!
After the speedboat turned twice, it arrived at the lakeside pavilion built in the center of "Shennv Lake".
Gu Zhisang saw from afar a patch of green aquatic plants floating near the pavilion in the middle of the lake, mostly duckweed, lotus and other plants.
But the closer she got to the pavilion in the middle of the lake, the more she felt the temperature on the lake was colder.
Although green plants and water can reduce temperature, Gu Zhisang still frowned slightly, always feeling that something was wrong.
There are many iron rings and chains melted on the edge walls of the pavilion. These are set up to facilitate tourists who rent boats and row to the pavilion to dock and go ashore.
Every ship has a chain connected to an iron ring. As long as the hook of the chain is hung into the ring, the boat will not drift with the current.
After getting ashore, Gu Zhisang could more clearly see the lotus flowers, duckweed, and other lush grass leaves around the pavilion.
Not knowing what she saw, her gaze paused slightly, she walked to a cluster of grass leaves, squatted down, and gathered all the long leaf stalks in her hands.
Seeing this, Ge Liaochan also came over and asked, "What's wrong, Sangsang? What did you find?"
"What kind of grass is this?"
"It's rush, a common plant along the riverbank. But...how come it grows in the lake?"
Ge Liaochan also squatted down, reached out his hand and felt under the slightly turbid water, and felt a thick layer of mud on the wall of the pavilion.
Gu Zhisang's face darkened. He sneered as he pulled out the straw in his hand and handed it to Ge Liaochan:
"Look at the top."
I saw that a small part of the top stem of the rush had been cut off artificially, revealing a small hollow hole in the stem, as if this small hole connected the world above the water surface with the world below the water surface.
The strangest thing is that this is not the only grass like this.
If you observe carefully, you will find that the various aquatic plants spreading in all directions around the pavilion in the center of the lake are actually several types of plants with hollow rhizomes.
They have all been pruned to varying degrees, revealing hollow stems.
Before Gu Zhisang reminded her, Ge Liaochan was completely unaware of these details, but when she noticed them, she discovered that the entire center of the lake was like a sieve filled with holes, and it looked a bit weird no matter how she looked at it.
Ge Liaochan vaguely sensed a conspiracy and knew that this was definitely not normal, but she didn't understand the purpose of these plants with hollow stems.
"Sangsang, what is going on?"
"This is why the water ghosts in the 'Goddess Lake' are able to transfer their condensed resentment to the land and affect the people around the lake."
Gu Zhisang walked along the pavilion corridor to the center of the pavilion, and finally couldn't help but scold coldly: "What a sophisticated and vicious method!"
Outside the arc-shaped fence of the pavilion in the center of the lake, there are many hollow aquatic vines entwined, and the layers on the water surface extend all the way to below the water surface.
It is like a 'ladder' made of plant roots, connecting the water surface and the pavilion.
Gu Zhisang said: "These vines should have been carefully designed by someone."
"Like earthbound spirits, drowned water ghosts cannot easily leave the land of death and cannot be reincarnated. The simplest way is to find a substitute. Someone used this pavilion as a connection point between the lake and the land. These hollow plants and 'ladders' are the best tools for water ghosts to climb onto land!"
This kind of 'ladder to heaven' is similar to the Ghost Gate connecting the Yin and Yang paths.
With it, the resentment of water ghosts can take shape on land, turn into nightmares and enter people's dreams, constantly intimidating and bewitching them.
Once a weak-minded unfortunate person is entangled, not only will his energy be exhausted within a few days, but he will also fall into depression and panic;
If the time goes on for a while, it is easy to be influenced by resentment and have thoughts of suicide.
Then he went to "Shennv Lake" and committed suicide by jumping into the lake.
The person who was blinded by resentment will find out after his death that this was not a relief at all, but that he was used as a substitute and taken advantage of.
Became a new water ghost and was locked in the lake.
At this time, Gu Zhisang finally understood why the temperature was lower the closer to the pavilion in the middle of the lake.
That's because the gloomy and evil energy that has been buried under the water for thousands of years from ancient times to the present is evaporating to the surface of the lake through these "ladders"!
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