Chapter 48: Pretend to be dead
When Xie Liang came out of the mourning hall, the little girl was still there stubbornly guarding the old woman's body. Xie Liang began to wonder whether the little girl in the copy was a living person or just a set NPC.
Or perhaps these NPCs all possess human souls, just like Su Yubai, who is trapped in a small world for some reason and repeatedly plays a single role.
The accident happened at around three in the morning. When the second and third groups were meeting, the little girl who was kneeling quietly next to the old woman suddenly laughed softly.
She rushed to the altar, grabbed the white rice on the table with both hands and stuffed it into her mouth. After stuffing the white rice, she also stuffed the raw black fungus, peanuts and other vegetables on the table into her stomach, muttering:
"I'm hungry, so hungry, I need to eat, give me something to eat!"
The voice was old and hoarse, and it was not something a little girl could make.
Everyone in the mourning hall was startled. Wang Li looked at the girl fearfully: "What happened to her..."
After the little girl finished eating all the food on the altar, she turned her head towards them. Her eyes were bloodshot as she stared at Wang Li. Then she stretched out her hands to the level of her shoulders and jumped quickly in front of Wang Li.
Before Wang Li could react, the girl grabbed her neck tightly. The people nearby were so scared that they stepped back.
Wang Li endured the suffocation and said with difficulty: "Li...Jianguo, please save me...save me..."
Seeing this, Li Jianguo hurriedly tried to pull the girl's arms apart, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't pull them apart.
"How come this girl is so strong! What are you guys standing there for? Come and help!" Li Jianguo shouted to the people standing still nearby.
At this time, the few people came to their senses and rushed forward to pull up the little girl. Two of them held the little girl's waist and dragged her out, one held the little girl's legs and pulled her out, and the other one shouted that she was a zombie and ran out in a hurry.
The little girl seemed to be extremely hungry and kept making impatient roars. Suddenly, she turned her gaze from Wang Li's neck and pounced on Li Jianguo who was pushing and pulling her.
The little girl climbed onto Li Jianguo's shoulders using her hands and feet, opened her mouth as wide as possible, and her flat teeth instantly turned into long and sharp teeth. Then, she quickly bit Li Jianguo's neck.
"Ah!" Li Jianguo screamed and yelled at Wang Li, who was gasping for breath, "Go out and call for help!"
Wang Li reacted quickly and ran out. As soon as she reached the door of the mourning hall, she bumped into Xie Liang and others who were about to enter.
Lu Bubu covered his chin, gasped and said, "Hiss! Big sister, take it easy, you're about to knock your soul out."
"Come and help, damn it!" Li Jianguo yelled at the people outside the door.
Xie Liang looked up following the sound and saw the man named Li Jianguo with his neck tightly bitten by the thin little girl, with blood gushing out of his neck.
Xie Liang was shocked and quickly looked around: "Oh no! The lights are out!"
Xu He walked quickly towards Li Jianguo. He held the little girl's head with one hand and pressed the other hand on Li Jianguo's neck, forcing them apart.
"Ah!" Li Jianguo let out a scream. The little girl had actually bitten off a piece of bloody flesh from his neck.
The little girl's lips were stained with his blood. She swallowed the piece of meat in her mouth with a "gulp" sound without even chewing.
Xu He held the little girl tightly. It was obvious that the little girl was very strong. The veins on Xu He's forehead were bulging.
Shi Xiaoyin hurriedly ran towards Xu He. She stretched out her hands and covered the girl's terrifying scarlet eyes. The little girl's struggle gradually eased.
Xie Liang quickly ran to the altar and began to search in his bag.
Lu Bubu: "What the hell, what's going on?"
"The oil lamp on the table cannot be turned off!" Xie Liang said without raising his head.
"What? This one?" Lu Bubu said, pulling out a lighter from his pocket and quickly lighting the oil lamp. "Brother? Is this okay?"
As soon as Xie Liang found the matches, he looked up and saw that the oil lamp on the altar had been lit. He couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. Then, he reached out and picked up the incense table with the soul-guiding incense on it and walked towards the little girl.
Xie Liang first walked around the little girl holding the soul-calling incense, then raised the burning incense to the girl's nostrils. At this time, the little girl, who had been struggling, gradually calmed down and intoxicatedly smelled the wisps of white smoke from the burning soul-calling incense.
"We also need a soul silk to guide the soul." After Xie Liang said this, he turned his head and looked around to find the soul silk.
Shi Xiaoyin was puzzled: "Soul Silk?"
"Well, it is said that after a person dies, his soul is without a master and will temporarily rely on the soul silk."
After looking around, Xie Liang finally found something that might be the soul silk.
There was a bowl of raw rice on the altar, most of which was covered by the old woman's portrait. A square piece of paper with words written on it was stuck on it. It should be the simple soul silk made by the bereaved family.
Xie Liang pointed at the bowl of raw rice on the altar and said to Lu Bu, "Bu Bu, help me bring the soul silk from the altar over here."
Lu Bubu walked in the direction Xie Liang pointed, picked it up, and turned around to ask, "Is this the thing?"
"Yes, that's it."
Xie Liang, using Lü Bubu's hand, pulled out the soul silk from the raw rice. His other hand, holding the incense table, slowly moved towards the soul silk. At this moment, wisps of white smoke began to slowly drift towards the soul silk.
After a while, the little girl's body gradually softened. Seeing that the little girl had calmed down, Xie Liang inserted the soul silk back into the bowl of raw rice and placed it back on the altar along with the soul-guiding incense.
Xie Liang walked towards Wang Li and the others: "Don't you know that the oil lamp cannot be extinguished?"
Wang Li complained: "What does it have to do with us? Who knows when the light went out?"
Xie Liang ignored them and walked back to the little girl.
The little girl was being held in Shi Xiaoyin's arms and looked like she was unconscious.
Lu Bubu squatted on the ground smoking a cigarette and asked Xie Liang, "Brother, what should we do with this girl?"
"Wait until tomorrow, the Sang family should know what to do."
Li Jianguo covered the wound on his neck and said to Xie Liang, "We'll go down first. It's very creepy here." After that, he took those people away.
At around four in the morning, Zhao Mingze came back with a flashlight.
He took the unconscious little girl from Shi Xiaoyin and handed her to his nephew who came with him. He asked the nephew to take the little girl back and hand her over to Wang Po in the village. He also told the nephew not to come here again after the girl woke up.
Afterwards, Zhao Mingze asked Xie Liang and the others to leave the mourning hall first.
After coming out of the mourning hall, Xie Liang and his group sat on the long bluestone steps, chatting idly.
Lu Bubu said listlessly, "Brother, do you have any research on funerals?"
"I haven't studied it. I read a book on this subject out of boredom before," said Xie Liang.
"Xie Liang, you are so awesome. Fortunately, no one died this time because of you." Shi Xiaoyin said.
Xie Liang yawned and said, "It's all luck. I'm not sure if that method will work."
After an unknown amount of time, Xie Liang stretched his body with sleepy eyes and saw several flashlight beams flickering in the jungle not far away. Just as he stood up to take a look, three men with flashlights came out of the jungle.
Among the three men, one was Zhao Batian. The other two had a gray beard, a thin figure, and wore a yellow Taoist robe. The remaining one looked younger, tall and big, wore plain clothes, and carried a large bamboo basket on his back.
The three of them hurriedly passed Xie Liang and his group and walked towards the gatehouse on the stairs.
"Who are those two people?" Shi Xiaoyin asked.
"It should be Mr. Yin Yang and his apprentice." Xie Liang said.
Lu Bubu yawned and asked, "Should we go over and take a look?"
"Well, let's look for clues to the mission." Xie Liang said.
The four of them lowered their steps and walked through the Dharma Hall to the window of the mourning hall. Except for Xu He, the other three stood by the window, looking into the mourning hall through the gap in the window frame.
Inside the mourning hall, a man in a yellow Taoist robe stood beside the wooden bed and reached out to lift the red embroidered quilt covering the old woman.
The old woman lying on the wooden bed had a terrifying face. Her stiff mouth was wide open, looking extremely deep. Her eye sockets were deeply sunken, as if there was no filling in them. She looked like a skeleton with skin.
"The book says that this portrait shows that the person had unfulfilled wishes and was unwilling to leave this world." Xie Liang whispered.
Xu He, who was standing with his arms folded, frowned and said, "A wish?"
Lu Bubu turned around and said, "Brother, the wish is that she might be worried about someone or have something unfinished."
"Stop talking nonsense! Do you think Brother He wants you to explain?" Shi Xiaoyin said.
"Then do we have to find out the old lady's wish and help her fulfill it?" asked Lu Bubu.
"What else? Do we just have to go through the process and the door will appear on its own?" Shi Xiaoyin looked at him with an expression that said, "You're not the one who's asking me." "Tell me something useful. What is the old lady's wish?"
"How would I know? I'm not a worm in her stomach." Lu Bubu said, turning to Xie Liang and saying, "Brother, did you hear what they said?"
"They didn't speak."
Xie Liang turned around and squatted down next to Xu He, giving his previous position to Lu Bubu, where the view was clearer.
"Hey, hey, hey! Brother, they are replacing the soul silk you mentioned, and they have rearranged some places." Lu Bubu waved at Xie Liang while looking at it, motioning him to come over and take a look together.
Xie Liang stood up and moved to the position vacated by Lu Bubu.
The Yin-Yang master in the mourning hall was stroking his gray beard with one hand and walking around in the hall with a compass in the other hand, while his apprentice was holding a bowl of clear water and sprinkling it to every corner of the hall according to his requirements.
"What are they doing? Can you understand, young man?" Lu Bubu looked at Xie Liang as if asking for an explanation.
Xie Liang said helplessly: "I don't understand, I'm not in this line of work, and that book doesn't mention it."
Xu He, who had been silent the whole time, whispered, "Sprinkling water means purification. It can wash away worries and allow the deceased to rest in peace."
Lu Bubu gave Xu He a thumbs up and said, "Brother, you don't talk much, but every word you say is the essence."
Shi Xiaoyin: "From what you said, it seems like the younger brother is not doing well, but the older brother is?"
"That's fine! Don't stir up trouble!" Lu Bubu said, putting his arm around Xie Liang's shoulders. "We won't listen to her. Women always stir up trouble."
Shi Xiaoyin rolled her eyes at Lu Bubu when she heard that.
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