Chapter 92: The Nine Mirror Rooms of the Soul
The next time Wang Fengxu saw the bun shop owner Meilan was the day after the Taoist ceremony. He had just bought a bus ticket back to Qingcheng Mountain.
Actually, it would have been even quicker to take a taxi to the next county town and then the high-speed rail, a mere twenty minutes. But he found the fare too expensive, so he went to the town's old bus station to wait for the four o'clock bus. The bus station was located on the other side of the Luhua River. Bored with waiting, Wang Fengxu went for a walk along the riverbank. Early winter in Shu wasn't cold at all, about the same as the beginning of autumn in the north. He relied on his youth and impetuousness, so he didn't even wear quilted tunics, preferring the single-layered clothing of spring and autumn.
His hair grows fast. Two weeks without a trim and it's scratching his neck again. Wang Fengxu couldn't save any hair, so he decided to give it up altogether. He figured it was still early, so he might as well get a haircut under the bridge. The hair salons in town were incredibly expensive, costing fifteen yuan for a wash, cut, and blow-dry. Nothing could compare to the quality of the old man under the bridge. He'd just hang a small mirror and set up a bench, and he'd smooth over any man's or woman's hair, for only five yuan.
What a good deal! This kind of old man should be promoted under bridges all over the country.
He walked slowly. Hulu Town was sparsely populated in early winter, and the ferry service on the river was sporadic. The boatmen liked to gather under the bridge to chat and play cards, then go out to solicit customers when business opened.
Wang Fengxu narrowed his eyes and saw that there seemed to be a lot of people gathered in front of him, most of them looked anxious, as if something had happened.
He put his hands in his sleeves and quickened his pace. After a while, he heard a child crying.
A familiar pale face lay on the shore, soaked all over, pupils unfocused, and when I sniffed, it was already dead.
The ambulance arrived quickly in the town, and people rushed to help carry the stretcher. From their conversations, Wang Fengxu understood the whole story.
On her child's birthday, Meilan took him rafting. For some unknown reason, he fell off the boat. When the boatmen helped to rescue him, he had already drowned.
But the boy kept shaking his head, muttering absentmindedly that his mother had been murdered and that the body was not his mother.
Everyone just thought that the child was stimulated and mentally ill.
Old Zhong, who helped with the salvage, was an old acquaintance of Meilan. He could tell at a glance whether the body was hers. He sighed and said it was a sin, secretly wiping away tears, and said with emotion: "This family has a bad fate."
Yes, it’s bad luck.
But Wang Fengxu inexplicably thought of the God of Wealth at the Three Death Gates, and was certain that all this was not a coincidence.
He secretly pulled the boy over and said, "Tell me what happened. Don't cry. I know you're not lying. The corpse was just a decoy, designed to scare people."
The boy stopped crying and looked up to find it was him. He was surprised. He recalled what had just happened. His mind was in chaos and pain. He sobbed and tried to organize his words: "I saw the uncle who came to buy buns every day. He, he rubbed my mother's tongue... Wuuuuu... He is a bad guy! He took my mother away!"
As he said this, he burst into tears again.
Wang Fengxu was in a trance for a moment.
At that time, he did not have a deep understanding of the Three Death Gates, and only occasionally dug out some strange stories from his master's wife.
The Three Death Gates have been known as "listening generals" since ancient times. The so-called four listening generals are also because they always appear together in groups of four.
Of course, some people also say that no matter where you are, there must be four of these things within a hundred miles.
Tingjiang are the eyes and ears of the Three Death Gates, like mosquitoes, flies, snakes, and rats that can't be driven away. They usually lurk in the shadows, but when necessary, they can also serve as messengers or surveillance agents. Where do these seemingly humanoid beings come from? It's been said that those who have made deals with the Three Death Gates repay their debt by becoming "Tingjiang."
The listener has no tongue, but can learn to speak.
Every word they spoke did not come from their heart. Moreover, a general had only a limited number of opportunities to speak. Every time he delivered a message or said one more word, the red thread on his mouth would spread an inch, until his mouth was completely sewn shut.
At that time, the judge would cut off the general's head and seal it in a kitchen god temple in a cave.
No one has ever seen this small temple in person. Legend has it that within it lies a tongue-hiding tower, made of countless skulls sewn together with red thread. Each skull represents a sealed secret. Every year on the 23rd day of the 12th lunar month, the skulls in the tower begin to sing, relaying the secrets of the human world to the Nine Mountains, allowing the gods to better reward the good and punish the evil.
Of course, legends are often exaggerated.
Wang Fengxu thought that the boy’s mother must have made a deal with the Three Death Gates and was now taken away by the God of Wealth.
He squatted down and patted the boy's head soothingly. "I believe what you said, but others won't. Although it's cruel to say this, maybe your mother has known in her heart that this day would come."
The boy sobbed for a while, then suddenly said, "Can't the police catch that bad guy?"
Wang Fengxu paused and said, "Uncle police, don't worry about this. The cause and effect have been resolved, and he won't appear again."
The boy was silent for a moment, trying to calm down. "I remember what he looked like. When I grow up, I will definitely find that person."
Wang Fengxu was stunned: "What if he changes his face, where will you find him?"
The boy opened his hand, and a vermilion abacus bead appeared in his palm: "I also pulled this off."
Wang Fengxu twisted the bead and took a look at it, feeling surprised. He thought to himself: He is really a newborn calf that is not afraid of a tiger.
"You really want revenge?"
The boy wiped his eyes with his sleeve and nodded angrily.
Wang Fengxu put two fingers together and probed the boy's Baihui acupoint and the center of his eyebrows. These were the gates to heaven and the places where the spirits were hidden. If a person had the aptitude for cultivation, he could often find clues here.
He raised an eyebrow: "Hey, maybe it will work."
The boy looked at him blankly.
Wang Fengxu smiled amiably. "Your vengeance isn't simple, but if you're willing to return to Qingcheng Mountain with me, maybe we'll have a chance to settle the score with that person in the future. What do you think? Do you dare?"
Since this matter involved the Three Death Gates, the Abnormal Control Bureau would inevitably intervene. This boy would either have his memory wiped and be sent to the county welfare home, or to the Abnormal Control Bureau's orphanage to become a future candidate. This child had excellent talent and abundant spiritual energy. Instead of working for the Abnormal Control Bureau in the future, it would be better for him to intercept and take in a little disciple for the Master's Wife to divert her attention and stop scolding the evil disciple.
The boy nodded vigorously, and said in a sobbing voice: "I dare!"
“It will be hard.”
"I'm not afraid!"
"What about death? Are you afraid of death?"
“…I try not to be afraid!”
"Hey, get up, get up! I'm not the one you want to kowtow to. I'm only eighteen years old and I don't plan to accept any disciples yet..."
-
"Is that person dead?" Lin Zhou pointed at the woman lying on the floor in the middle of the living room and asked hesitantly, "What happened to her mouth? Was it caused by that chair? Was my dad also killed by that chair?"
With inspiration drawn from many movies and novels, he had already determined in his mind that the chair was under some kind of terrible curse, causing it to come alive and eat people.
The previous owner's husband and her own alcoholic father might have died at the hands of the cursed chair.
However, after listening to Lin Zhou's story, Wang Fengxu always felt that something was wrong. He glanced at Wang Tianfu, who happened to think of the same thing and nodded slightly at him.
"You mean, when my mother first appeared in Hulu Town, she was mistaken for a water ghost?" Wang Tianfu looked at the boy who was almost the same age as him: "Are you sure there was something wrong with her legs at that time?"
Lin Zhou didn't understand the other party's meaning of the question and nodded in confusion. "I wasn't there at the time. Uncle Zhong saw it. He said the woman was wearing a mask and had a limp."
"That's the problem," Wang Tianfu said confidently, looking at the others. "My mother had no problems with her legs until she died. Even after being made into a general, she didn't become lame. Because generals are no longer considered 'humans', we've seen them before. For convenience, they can simply replace the damaged torso, and they won't be injured."
There was a deep sadness in his ending tone.
Ruan Meng took over the conversation with a complicated expression: "My grandmother's right knee was once injured."
His imaginative brain finally struck a chord, and he conjectured incredulously, "Could it be that the lost soul has taken possession of the little Taoist boy's mother?"
"Let me see." Meng Caiyun half squatted down and pointed his finger at the top of the doll's head. After a while, he sighed and shook his head slightly.
The corpse was already dead. Although it was unclear why this woman suddenly regained consciousness after being turned into a listener, she had now used up all the times she could speak and had completely turned into a lifeless shell. The only thing she was thankful for was that she did not have to be thrown into the legendary Tongue Tower and could be reunited with her family and rest in peace.
"When I saw her these past two days, she wasn't lame like Uncle Zhong said," Lin Zhou hesitated, "but when my dad came back two days ago, his right foot was lame. Later I thought... he was possessed by a ghost."
He thought of something and added hastily, "My dad must be possessed by a ghost. Not only is he lame, but he's also singing folk songs from southern Hunan and keeps talking about where he needs to buy a ticket to go. I was a little scared of him, so I didn't dare to talk to him."
Ruan Meng choked and coughed violently a few times. He nervously walked over and pressed the boy's shoulders: "What happened next? Where is your father?"
Lin Zhou hadn't expected this stranger to be more concerned about his drunkard father's whereabouts than he was. He froze for a moment, then stabbed, "He disappeared afterwards. Everyone said he killed Uncle Zhong. Uncle Zhong was kind enough to sew a button for him, but he stabbed him. I saw his clothes in the utility room afterwards. I think he killed someone, took the money, and ran away, and then was eaten by that cursed chair..."
Ruan Meng closed his eyes, scratched his forehead irritably, and paced around the room. After a while, he took out his phone and said, "I have to tell my grandfather. I guess that's grandma's spirit that hasn't left."
Lameness, southern Hunan folk songs, and the fact that these images have appeared in the Lotus Eight Immortals Tower, it is probably the separated soul of Grandma Hu Aqing.
I just don't know how that soul ended up in Wang Tianfu's mother. Both of them were lacking souls and spirits, so it was inevitable that they would feel awkward fighting when sharing the same body. Perhaps this just explains why the woman disappeared inexplicably when Lao Zhong was rowing halfway.
Because both of them have the same obsession in their subconscious mind - to go home.
It’s just that one wants to go back to Cuihu Community, and the other wants to go to Xiangnan, thousands of miles away.
Perhaps when sharing a body, each possesses a certain degree of dominance. The woman asked Lao Zhong to take her to the other side simply because it was the direction of Xiangnan. Midway through, Wang Tianfu's mother regained consciousness and chose to abort her journey, returning to the dock. The two men remained in a stalemate for a long time, until the outsider finally succumbed and found another body—Lin Laoer.
By contacting Lin Laoer's consciousness, A Qing got a new way to go home. There was a bus heading towards Xiangnan at the only bus station in the town, but Lin Laoer had no money, so she planned to spend time saving some.
However, an accident happened again. After killing Lao Zhong, "Lin Lao Er" never appeared in front of everyone again. Combined with the speculation about the bloody T-shirt, perhaps it was really the mantis stalking the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind, and it was the chair that ate the man.
Ruan Meng said this and subconsciously turned around to pull the handle of the main door. His cell phone signal was not good, so he wanted to call his grandfather in the corridor. As a result, when the iron door was opened, there was still an identical mirrored room inside.
What's going on? The illusion hasn't dissipated yet?
He subconsciously thought that it was Wang Tianfu's mother who did it. Now the person was lying in the living room and would probably slowly recover to normal. He didn't take it too seriously. He turned around again and crawled out of the hole that Longzhu had knocked out in the wall.
The receiver displayed a busy tone. I didn't know if it was because the signal was too bad or if no one answered the phone.
Ruan Meng walked around the corridor for a few steps, feeling a little annoyed. He took out a cigarette and put it in his mouth, still not lighting it, biting it to vent his anger.
Suddenly, he noticed that something seemed wrong.
This area of tube-shaped buildings was in the shape of a Chinese character "回". He had only glimpsed it when he had come up here before. The floor opposite also had five households, and one even had smoked sausages hanging in the hallway. But now, that was gone, replaced by a very familiar wall and... a big hole.
It was the hole in the wall that Longzhu had just knocked out.
He could even vaguely see the familiar layout inside through the hole.
Ruan Meng opened his mouth slightly, and the cigarette that was bitten crookedly fell to the ground with a plop.
He leaned on the handrail and stared at the opposite side in disbelief. The green wall skirts and mottled walls, the entire opposite floor was exactly the same as 501.
An entire floor... had become a mirror image? The illusion hadn't been lifted at all, and it had even grown larger!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com