Chapter 23: Soul Arrest
It was already late at night when Tu Lanxun returned to the convenience store.
Her clothes smelled damp, and her skin was sticky. She wiped herself from head to toe with a towel, wondering why she had forgotten to get a bigger water heater and why she had to hire someone to install a shower head.
Dejected, he returned to the second floor and flung himself onto the sofa bed. He hoped he wouldn't have a fever tomorrow. Tu Lanxun wanted to curse N, but then he thought better of it. He was only getting wet to save his life in the swimming pool.
She turned over, and the thought of a new mattress tomorrow made even the uncomfortable sofa bed seem much more adorable. Then she fell into a deep sleep.
In the dream, Tu Lanxun seemed to be back in her old large bedroom. The bed was soft and the quilt was soft, but her hands and feet were tied together. The slightest movement would cause the tape to tear her skin painfully.
The soft bed turned into a concrete floor, the surroundings were dark and gloomy, and the tape wrapped around his hands like a snake behind his back.
She tried to shout, but her mouth was sealed with tape, her cries for help trapped in her throat. The pungent smell of dust and paint filled her nostrils, and she began to cough. She felt groggy, her lungs and pharynx like a balloon, unable to expel air, and she suffocated...
The tape was torn off by a hand with a "swoosh". A man's voice was like an owl in the night: "No one will come to save you, hahahaha..."
Before Tu Lanxun could see the man's face clearly, he started coughing heart-wrenchingly.
“Cough cough cough!”
She was woken up by her coughing on the sofa bed. The cough was not severe, but she was covered in sticky sweat. She touched her face and found it was a little hot, but her body was not cold. She probably caught a cold but did not have a fever.
Tu Lanxun lay there for a long time before he raised his upper body. Fortunately, his head didn't hurt, but the dream made him shiver.
The sky outside the window was still bright, and the light shining through the curtains was filtered into a soft dim light. No wonder she didn't feel uncomfortable from the sun, but just had a few palpitations.
Wait, curtains?
When did the curtains on the second floor of the convenience store go up? They were a rare dark green, made of a very solid yarn, lined with a layer of soft white yarn to neutralize the dullness of the color. If blown by the wind, they would look like a piece of flowing jade.
It has a spooky aesthetic, but it’s certainly tasteful. You don’t have to guess who created it.
Tu Lanxun stared at the Roman columns in a daze. The sunlight formed a row of small holes at the top of the curtain. There were no such holes when he slept last night.
When she went downstairs, the first floor of the convenience store was brightly lit with sunlight, and there were a lot more things. The floor scrubber and vacuum cleaner were placed against the wall, and the two mattresses had also arrived, covered with plastic film and thin wooden support boards.
N was standing upright indifferently, holding a long-handled spoon, watching over the pot and cooking porridge.
"Where does the rice come from?" Tu Lanxun walked over. The cash register was replaced with a larger retractable table, which was now pulled out to its maximum size. An electric steamer and an electric frying pan were placed on it. Six of the eight main dishes that had not been touched much yesterday were already steaming on the plates, and the other two were still being heated.
If N's eyeballs had not been covered with cracks and if he had not strangely only taken off the glove on his left hand, she would have almost thought that it was a nanny or a young man.
"I asked someone to deliver it. Go brush your teeth and wash your hands, then come over for dinner." N gave orders.
Tu Lanxun was startled again when she entered the bathroom. The water heater was already installed, and the showerhead gleamed silver. Had she slept so soundly that she didn't even hear the sound of it being installed?
Even the mirror she had broken was replaced.
After eating fast food at convenience stores for two days, Tu Lanxun finally had a meal with a touch of home. It was a little strange to eat with N. There must be a stick of incense burning next to him, with a wisp of smoke curling up, as if he was being worshipped by someone for no reason.
She looked around, but the computer ghost didn't show up. She called out twice but no one came out. She thought she was afraid of N. Tu Lanxun used a clean plate to serve her a "self-service" meal and kept it warm in the electric steamer.
The phone dinged, and the ghost girl said: "Boss... please give me another piece of candied banana... just one piece will do, if you give me more I'm afraid I'll get beaten..."
Tu Lanxun thought, N wouldn’t be that stingy.
But it turned out that the computer ghost girl was prescient.
N held the bowl with his gloved right hand and the chopsticks in his left. Six of the eight dishes were sweet, and Tu Lanxun took a little more than two chopsticks of the braised beef tripe with mushrooms. N's voice came over gloomily: "My order was a failure?"
Tu Lanxun turned his chopsticks towards the Su's Braised Pork and chuckled twice, "No, it's really well ordered."
A few slices of sweet and sour lotus root and a spoonful of sweet bean and corn kernels were dumped into her bowl with the serving chopsticks and spoon. N: "You don't eat any vegetables at all."
She's a pervert, he loves sweet food, but he can't stand her eating salty food. Now he even controls her eating meat or vegetables.
Why doesn't he work as an urban management officer in the city, a network administrator in an Internet cafe, or a water pipe in a public toilet?
After dinner, N sneered, collected the dishes, and went to the bathroom to wash up. Tu Lanxun huddled at the cash register, burped softly, and began monitoring the online store.
The "Broccoli Store" had only been online for two or three days when several more orders came in. The computer girl had already transferred the address and product number to the distributor's warehouse. The commission seemed small but it still hurt. Tu Lanxun thought that it would be great if he could directly manage the warehouse himself in the future.
A friend who had gold channels and whom I had contacted before sent a message asking Tu Lanxun to go to a gold shop called "Longfeng Family" in the old city tomorrow to trade. He also sent a quotation, which was a little lower than the prevailing gold price, but acceptable.
Tu Lanxun touched the two gold biscuits in his arms and decided to sell Liu Maosheng's and keep N's for now. In case the day comes when their relationship is severed, he would have to return it to the owner.
After doing all these things, she felt bored again, so she clicked on the blue ghost forum to check posts. There was no difference between ghost posts and human posts. Some were advertising for friends, while others were just venting their boredom and trying to attract attention.
Ah, boring.
Tu Lanxun pulled the computer ghost to play and analyzed yesterday's "detective" experience. The computer ghost was excited and scared when she heard it. When Tu Lanxun talked about finding the bag of Bai Chao's body parts in the university laboratory building, she even exclaimed "Ah".
Computer ghost: "So scary! Boss, you are so scary."
The female ghost covered her eyes. At this moment, only her head was placed alone on the computer screen, her hair hanging down and covering the computer. Two pale hands came out from the screen. Tu Lanxun didn't know who was scarier for a moment.
Seeing how the female ghost could seamlessly blend into the computer and even control the software inside, Tu Lanxun couldn't help but ask, "Hey, does the ghost user on that Qinglan Forum also post by getting into the computer like you do?"
The ghost shook her head like a rattle, her hair rustling against the screen. "There are a few, but probably not many. For example, I was a programmer in life, and only after death did I happen to be able to delve into computers and the internet. Most ghosts probably have their own phones."
"Oh." Tu Lanxun understood.
No, she didn't understand, "...huh?"
I couldn't help but repeat myself: "Ghosts have cell phones?"
The computer ghost nodded. "Ghosts were once human. Who doesn't have a cell phone? And everyone has access to objects. It's easy to get someone else's discarded cell phone. Just pick it up and use it. The worst that can happen is that you can buy an extra charger."
And according to her, mobile phones are circulated among the ghost community. They are either exchanged for money, or if a ghost does not want to die and plans to leave this world and "reincarnate", they will give the mobile phone they got to their good ghost friends.
Tu Lanxun understood a little: "What about the phone bill and data plan?"
The computer ghost girl said, "No. We don't use that. The internet ghosts use is different from the internet humans use. Our internet isn't as diverse as the modern internet. It's just this old-fashioned forum. But if you put in a little effort, you can still see the human internet, but you can't participate, and it's very energy-consuming."
She even felt lucky: "Fortunately, I'm a computer geek, otherwise I'd be exhausted just surfing the Internet."
Tu Lanxun moved the mouse curiously and opened the computer's web browsing history. He saw labels such as "Xiaomei and Xiaoshuai's latest high-scoring horror film clip with blurring", "CP fan fiction 10,000-word high-speed version with car", and "Before bedtime ASMR video with gummy candy chewing" flash by and were deleted at the speed of light by the pale but blushing computer ghost.
The female ghost said coyly: "This is a ghost's privacy!"
Tu Lanxun laughed: "Do you watch horror movies to build up your courage?"
The female ghost became interested and talked non-stop, "It's really scary! The latest one I watched was about a foreigner who brought home a very ugly doll. Who knew that there was a fierce ghost inside the doll, and then..."
As she was talking, she opened the video and showed it to Tu Lanxun. The picture happened to be frozen on the ferocious eyes of the ghost doll. The background was gloomy, which made people get goose bumps. The female ghost couldn't help but cover her eyes.
Tu Lanxun watched the film with a serious expression. He asked, "In this movie, a ghost possesses a doll. If there is a way, can the ghost be completely trapped inside the doll?"
Female ghost: "You mean the anchor? The doll is some ghost's anchor?"
Tu Lanxun flatly denied it: "It's not an anchor, it's a doll or something that has nothing to do with ghosts. Then the ghost is trapped in the doll and can't get out or move, and even the ghost energy can't be released. Is it possible to do it?"
This was clearly beyond the ghost girl's capabilities, but N, who was reading behind the shelf, said, "Okay."
She continued, "If we destroy the object that holds the ghost, such as burning it, will the ghost be released, or will its soul be scattered?"
N concentrated, paused for two seconds, and said, "It depends on the strength. Generally speaking, weaker ones will disappear immediately. Stronger ones will be damaged, but there's a chance they can last until the item is burned."
Tu Lanxun: "We couldn't find Bai Chao before, which means she's trapped somewhere. Although we don't know where her anchor is, maybe..."
The computer ghost was confused and didn't understand why the topic turned to Bai Chao, but she felt that what Tu Lanxun said made sense, so she continued to listen quietly.
N: "Do you think that the stuffed bear that Tang Weining just bought is used to imprison Bai Chao?"
#
The silver-gray Jetta was once again driving on the highway leading into the city.
If Tang Weining intends to use the stuffed bear to imprison Bai Chao's ghost, then there are two problems.
First, where was Bai Chao's ghost stored before this? There must be a place to put it.
Second, Tang Weining's resume shows him to be a normal person, a relatively good one, the kind who's always been rejected according to the rules. He's been "other people's kid" since he was a child. It's not just that he killed people, but where did he learn how to imprison ghosts?
All clues point to his home, which must be hiding a secret.
Tu Lanxun decided to break into the house illegally.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com