Once inside, Zhou Ming turned on the lights and breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing the statues of deities and the cinnabar threads and other items used to ward off evil spirits.
Back at headquarters, I felt a bit more confident.
I carefully placed the pair of red cloth shoes wrapped in newspaper on an old octagonal table, instead of throwing them directly on the ground, and then pasted a yellow talisman on each of the four corners of the table.
Zhou Ming slumped on the sofa, his eyes vacant, muttering to himself:
"It's over, she followed me. She won't let me go. Why? I have no grudge against her!"
"Alright, stop scaring yourself. At least so far, she doesn't seem to have done anything drastic to you." Luo Tianhe was getting a little annoyed by his nagging.
I glanced at him. If being possessed by a ghost just now wasn't considered an extreme action, then she really didn't do anything.
"She kept pestering you, wanting you to take her to the ridge, and she was humming a song on the radio at the time..."
I moved a chair and sat down in front of Zhou Ming, looking directly into his eyes.
“This vengeful ghost is definitely up to something. If you want to live, you can’t just hide. You have to help us find out what’s going on.”
"How...how do I do it?" Zhou Ming's voice was hoarse.
"We must find out the origin of this female ghost. She definitely didn't haunt you for no reason! Think carefully, apart from soliciting customers or passing through the western suburbs before last night, have you encountered anything strange recently?"
"Or have you heard of any strange things that happened in Willow Lane in the past? Especially those involving young women wearing red clothes."
Upon hearing this, Zhou Ming clutched his head, ran his fingers through his hair, and tried his best to recall.
The muscles in his face were contorted with fear and strain.
“Strange, strange. Right, about half a month ago, also at night, I drove a customer to the old factory area in the western suburbs. On the way, he started talking strangely.”
When Zhou Ming suddenly spoke, my eyes lit up.
Li Huai and Luo Tianhe couldn't help but look over as well.
"He kept saying that things weren't safe in their area, that there were always shadowy figures in red clothes loitering around the alley entrances, especially at the end of Willow Alley, where nobody dared to walk at night!"
"He also said that there used to be a pretty girl in Willow Lane who seemed to like wearing red clothes, but then she disappeared. Some people said she ran away with someone, while others said she was murdered and buried in that messy graveyard on the ridge!"
"What else did you say? Did you mention the girl's name? Or who she was related to?" I quickly pressed, as these were all important clues.
Zhou Ming shook his head: "I was focused on driving at the time and didn't think to ask too many questions. He seemed to have mentioned her name briefly, something like Fang. He said that girl had a hard life, she was with a guy in the alley, but that guy later married someone else."
As a taxi driver, shouldn't you be a chatterbox, rambling on and on to everyone you meet?
I couldn't help but feel speechless. The taxi drivers we had encountered before were all incredibly talkative and trusting, but with Zhou Ming, I was too lazy to ask any more questions.
"What about that kid who climbed the social ladder? What's his name?" Luo Tianhe interjected.
"No, they didn't say that." Zhou Ming smiled wryly.
The clues are still too fragmented. A girl, possibly named Fang, died in Ling many years ago due to heartbreak and became a vengeful ghost, wandering in the western suburbs, especially around Willow Lane.
He's been very active lately and has gotten entangled with the unlucky Zhou Ming.
This kid is really unlucky. He goes to the western suburbs every day, and there are so many people in Willow Lane, and quite a few people see him, but they just keep bothering him.
I frowned and observed Zhou Ming for a long time. He didn't seem to have any special destiny like Li Huai. He was clearly just an ordinary person.
This is really weird.
"Secondly," I said, looking at Zhou Ming, "do you have any older family members or relatives who know the teachers in the western suburbs well, especially long-time residents from the Liushu Township area?"
Zhou Ming thought for a moment, and this time he didn't have to put in much effort to answer, "Yes, yes, my great-uncle. He used to live in Willow Lane, but he moved away later. The old man is almost eighty years old and loves to talk about the past all day long. He used to work in a factory when he was young, and he knows a lot about the old things in the western suburbs!"
"Alright, we'll go find your great-uncle first thing tomorrow morning." I made the decision. We had to find out about this red-clothed female ghost's background as soon as possible in order to figure out a way to deal with her.
As soon as I finished speaking, Li Huai, who had been silent until now, suddenly pointed to the corner of the living room wall, his voice trembling slightly: "Yan, Brother Yan, that newspaper..."
We looked in the direction he pointed and saw the newspaper package on the octagonal table.
It was originally just a casual wrapping.
But at this moment, the corner of the wrapping, the rough edge of the newspaper, slowly curled up on its own.
The sound of the newspaper curling wasn't loud, but in the deathly silent room, it was like a thunderclap.
Zhou Ming yelled and rolled off the sofa, shrinking into the corner with his hands covering his head. Li Huai was also startled and jumped up, hiding behind me!
Luo Tianhe grabbed the baton and stared intently at the package.
My scalp tingled, and my back was instantly soaked with cold sweat.
But at the same time, I also felt a surge of determination.
This thing is really pushing its luck! It dares to be so arrogant on my turf!
We can't wait any longer; we have to get rid of this thing now!
"Li Huai, go to the kitchen and get the iron basin and salt!" I shouted to Li Huai, then took out the yellow talisman, bit my finger, and drew a blood talisman in mid-air.
To be honest, I didn't want to deal with her like this, since I felt that the female ghost seemed to want to go home, or perhaps she had some unspeakable suffering.
And most importantly, she hasn't killed anyone so far, but now I feel I can't tolerate it anymore.
"The sky is clear and the earth is bright, the yin is turbid and the yang is pure. With my essence and blood, I bind your evil spirits!"
The blood talisman transformed into a streak of light, descending upon the newspaper wrapped around the red cloth shoes.
Just as the red light was about to touch the newspaper, it was as if an invisible hand tore it open from the inside, revealing a pair of dazzling red cloth shoes.
And one of the red cloth shoes twitched upwards very slightly, as if an invisible foot was slipping inside.
At the same time, the temperature inside the room plummeted, instantly turning it into a cold storage room.
A surge of malevolent and malevolent energy erupted from the shoe like a volcanic eruption, colliding violently with the blood talisman.
The blood talisman suddenly flashed brightly, its light flickering erratically, and countless cracks appeared on the surface of the cloth shoes.
I groaned, felt a sweet taste in my throat, and almost spat out blood.
The female ghost's resentment was far stronger than I imagined; even the blood talisman almost couldn't suppress it.
"The salt is here, the basin is here!" Just then, Li Huai staggered out, carrying an old ceramic basin filled with opened bags of salt.
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