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 trembled 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
姚芳蜷缩着抱着自己的手臂，声音颤抖：“那天晚上我关了店门回到家，洗漱完上床睡觉，迷迷糊糊间我觉得自己的胸口上方特别沉重，就像被什么东西压着喘不过气来，并且衣服和身体也被冷冰冰黏糊糊的水渍染湿了……”
她回忆着那晚的情景，神情痛苦。
一开始姚芳以为自己在做噩梦，可当她呼吸都有些困难后，她猛地从梦中惊醒，发现自己像从水中捞出来一样满身的冷汗，身体止不住地发抖。
“屋子里特别冷，我想拿手机给我家人打电话，可是、可是……”
姚芳打了个寒战，“我一偏头，就看到床边‘站’着一团模糊的影子，它头发湿哒哒地滴着水，都落在我的枕头边缘！我的、我的手指一动不能动，眼皮也闭不上……”
眼瞧着姚芳要被自己的回忆吓崩了，顾之桑起身走到她的身边，说道：“别反抗我。”
通过力量的共感，顾之桑回溯了姚芳的记忆，‘看’到了那晚模糊的鬼影。
一切都如她说的那样，她被‘鬼压床’了根本动不了。
只能惊恐万分地大睁着眼睛，看着那团影子和自己的脸越贴越近，最终在那团扭曲模糊的雾中‘看’到了一张略显熟悉的脸。
女鬼的面目胀青、头发湿哒哒地拖在姚芳的脖子上，触感异常真实。
'为什么不救我？’
'为什么不告诉所有人真相？！’
姚芳呜咽着眼泪直飙。
她终于想起来女鬼的一身装扮为什么眼熟了，这不就是小时候救了她、却被水鬼抓了替身溺水身亡的大姐姐么？！
就在她以为自己要窒息而死时，房门从外被转动，是男友回来了。
男友开灯之后也被吓住了，只不过是被姚芳吓到了。
她像一条搁浅的鱼挺直在**抽搐，身下的被单都被水浸湿，满脸满头湿漉漉的，分不清是汗水还是眼泪。
这样的可怕场景在三个月中陆续出现了几次，姚芳的胆子都吓破了。
她开始害怕夜晚、不愿意睡觉，生怕自己被冤魂索命。
后来她爸爸在湖中心捕捞鱼虾的时候，没站稳被绳索绊了一下，直接掉水里去了。
虽然马上在伙伴的帮助下重新爬上来，但在姚芳看来，这也是那个女鬼在作祟。
就在即将崩溃的时候，她在当地的论坛看到了一条似是而非的帖子，里面是一个帖主说自己遇到了有关‘神女湖’的怪事，她看着觉得和自己的情况很像，于是就私信了贴主。
没想到有同样情况的不止他们，前前后后还有几个人找了过来，他们拉了一个小群。
姚芳低声说道：
“其实我们心里都清楚，大家都是或多或少有点和那大湖有关的亏心事，每天群里都有人在问怎么办，说要找大师把湖里的脏东西都收了……直到前几天那湖里又淹死了个小孩儿，尸体找不到了，群主听说那家大人想要做法事，就动员我们一起参与。”
“再然后的事情，你们就都知道了。”
警员记录的笔尖就没停过，心中感慨不已。
而外面听到姚芳的话的警员也去调查了二十三年的老旧卷宗，没想到真的让他们找到了当年女大学生溺水的档案。
当时这件事还上了当地的报纸，只不过女孩儿是被当成了稍微有些反面的例子，被用来当成警示、提醒老百姓不要随意去深水区的幌子。
顾之桑语气平淡道：“其他三个人你们也可以沿着这个方向查，他们过去一定和某个在神女湖中溺亡的人员有所关联，甚至是导致对方溺水身亡的关键原因。”
说不定往深里挖掘，还能发现被掩藏的命案呢！
“好！”
姚芳语气焦虑，追问道：“你说的我要是什么都招了，你就能帮我解决这件事。”
顾之桑扯了下唇角，语气冷淡：“这一点你放心，那阴魂生前积德行善是个好人，没理由要为了你这种人染上孽力毁了根基。就凭这一点我也会阻止它的。”
姚芳脸色难堪，呐呐说道：“可我不是故意的，不是我让水鬼抓她溺死她的，我当时也是个小孩子啊我不会游泳，我怎么救她？”
顾之桑轻嗤，“你真不明白它的怨念究竟从何而来么？”
“它从来都没有后悔过舍己救人，也并不是因为你没有救了它而怨恨，它所愤怒的是你的胆怯、自私、狼心狗肺。直到死它的父母和世人都不知道，它生前是一个勇敢的英雄，本应该是父母的骄傲。”
“而不是报纸上、邻居口中贪凉凫水溺亡的反面教材。”
说完之后，她便起身离开了房间。
只剩下姚芳一个人的房间恢复了冷寂，她百感交集羞愧不已，泪如雨下。
……
走出房间门之后，仡辽蝉满脸倾佩：“桑桑你这太牛了吧，直接把前因后果都理清楚了！怪不得这几个人心虚到出钱祭祀，恐怕都是干了亏心事被鬼敲门了吧！”
顾之桑轻轻摇头，说道：“不是鬼。”
“啊？”仡辽蝉愣住了。
“姚芳并没有真的被鬼缠身，我诈她的，她晚上遇到的‘鬼压床’也不是真实的。”顾之桑说道：“从始至终她都是被梦魇入侵了在做梦，她所见到的索命的鬼魂其实不是鬼物的魂魄本体，只是鬼魂的怨气凝聚而成的‘魇’。”
“其他几个人恐怕也是如此，因为梦魇太过真实，自己都分不清真假了。”
仡辽蝉没想到顾之桑会这么说，停住了脚步。
顾之桑道：“除此之外，姚芳表示自己之所以如此害怕，是因为那个死去的魂魄会煽动她的情绪，她曾多次有过干脆去‘神女湖’自杀、一了百了彻底解脱的念头。”
“我觉得前天晚上去湖中自缢的大娘，就是这个原因。受到梦魇影响的人肯定不仅仅只有这四个人，只是很多人没有说出来。”
仡辽蝉有些头疼，“这么说此案更扑朔迷离了……”
“没错。”顾之桑说道：“首先在‘神女湖’中溺亡的人大多会变成水鬼，本不可能影响到陆地上的百姓。它们要是有这么强大的能力、能影响也早就作祟了，没必要等到三个月前。”
仡辽蝉顿时了然，接过话题：“所以三个月前‘神女湖’中一定出过什么事情，导致了湖底的水鬼们能力大增，可以将怨气化为梦魇去寻仇索命！”
顾之桑点了点头：“其次男孩儿沉尸一案多半另有隐情，并不能和其他案件归于一谈。”
“总之这桩案子牵扯诸多，想要找到问题的关键点，我们还得去‘神女湖’上看一看。”
想了想仡辽蝉点点头，说道：“可以，我来安排这件事。”
约莫一个小时后，从警署中出来的顾之桑和仡辽蝉再次来到了湖边。
这一次当地灵组的同事给她们租好了一支快艇。
其中一组员面色惆怅，满怀担忧地看着她们，小声问道：“头儿，你和顾指导真的要往湖里去么？之前那位前辈可是受了重伤现在还没苏醒，我担心水里真的有什么东西……”
仡辽蝉道：“放心吧我们就是去看两眼，又不开坛不做法。”
在组员们担忧、紧张的注视下，顾之桑和仡辽蝉坐上了快艇，往湖中央驶去。
越是往湖中开，四周的视野便越宽阔。
顾之桑环顾四周，眼眸中掠过一丝赞叹，道：“这个地方是处风水宝地，湖形外窄内宽藏风聚气，四面西北有高楼可以聚集人运，而东南又环山，可以挡住人地形成的运势在湖中反复吞吐，倒可称上一句‘人杰地灵’。”
“这样的风水湖泊底下，一定有灵物。”
仡辽蝉有些惊讶，问道：“桑桑你的意思是，附近老百姓所说的、看到过的‘河神’应该是真实存在的？！那会不会像之前的同僚们所说的那样……”
“这个倒不会。”
顾之桑缓缓摇头，“这种风水湖泊若是天然形成了灵物，一般都是瑞泽轻易不会误入歧途，除非湖底下孕育的东西从来就不是什么灵物，而是凶物！”
正如她所说，这片‘神女湖’能够吞吐地气人运，对于任何有道行、踏入潜修一脉的人、兽、鬼来说，都是一处宝地。
瑞泽还好说，若是有阴邪之物藏在湖底不断孕育，恐怕会悄无声息地养出大凶之物！
快艇转了两圈之后，来到了‘神女湖’中央位置修建的湖心亭。
顾之桑远远地看到了一片绿荫荫的水生植物飘**在湖心亭的附近，大多是浮萍、莲花等物。
只是越靠近湖心亭廊，她便越觉得湖面上的温度偏冷偏低。
虽然绿植和水面都可以降温，但顾之桑还是隐隐皱了眉头，总觉得有什么地方不对劲。
亭廊的边缘墙壁上熔了不少铁环和链条，这些是方便租船自己划到亭廊的游客停靠上岸设置的。
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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