Floating to your side (23)

She was the only one standing at the door of the store from beginning to end, so where did the “you guys” come from?

Shen Tang stopped right where she was and looked at the old man unkindly. She was a little skeptical when Wen Ting said something was wrong. It seemed that this invitation was originally a banquet for a rich man.

"Can you see him?" Shen Tang raised her eyebrows and looked at the old man beside her. At the same time, her cell phone started ringing, forcing Shen Tang to quickly open the phone and take a look.

It was Liu Ling calling.

Shen Tang quickly answered the phone, and Liu Ling's voice came slowly from the other end of the phone, "Xiao Tang, why haven't you come over yet? They have ordered the food and are waiting for you! I'm still upstairs now and will be down soon. Don't stand outside in the cold wind, hurry inside and warm yourself up."

Liu Ling said a few words hurriedly and was about to hang up the phone, but Shen Tang called her.

"Wait, I have something else to ask you," Shen Tang said word by word, and gradually retreated to the back of the store, but his eyes always fell on the calm old man, "What is the relationship between the owner of this store and you?"

"It's a relative of mine. What's wrong?" Liu Ling paused after answering her question. "Xiao Tang, did you see something?"

Shen Tang didn't say anything, so Liu Ling hurriedly explained.

"It's like this. My relative has seen a sorcerer before, and he has something that can see Ah Piao. If he has offended you in any way, I apologize to you on his behalf."

"Are you carrying something that can see Ah Piao?" Shen Tang murmured, but he did not relax his vigilance. He looked the old man up and down, then turned his head to glance at Wen Ting, indicating with his eyes whether he saw anything wrong.

Wen Ting stared at the shop owner for a while, his eyebrows slightly furrowed, and a hint of contemplation appeared on his face.

"Well, let's go in and see what they are going to do." Wen Ting moved in front of Shen Tang and stared at the old man standing at the door for a while. After staring at each other for a long time, he suddenly half-bent over and waved his hand in front of the other person's eyes, "Old man, aren't you afraid of me?"

The strange thing is that the old man could clearly see Wen Ting, but he did not react to Wen Ting's actions. It was as if he had seen this kind of person many times and did not take Wen Ting's little action seriously at all.

"You two should stop wasting your time on me. Xiaoling has already called you in. I just opened this store, and I don't like to ask too many questions about my customers." The old man's sharp eyes passed over Wen Ting. Although he did not show obvious hostility, Shen Tang always felt that this man had some purpose towards Wen Ting.

Forget it, it’s pointless to stay in front of this store, I might as well go in and take a look, maybe I can find out something.

Shen Tang and Wen Ting looked at each other, then opened the door of the shop and walked inside. The wind chimes outside the door began to ring again, making a noisy sound.

After entering the house, Shen Tang immediately observed the layout. The furnishings in the house were no different from those of ordinary shops. Could it be that she was overthinking it? Liu Ling just wanted to visit her relative's house because she won the award, and invited them to bring in business?

"Didn't you notice?" Wen Ting stayed beside Shen Tang. He looked back at the old man who hadn't caught up with him for the time being, and then he whispered in Shen Tang's ear, "The feng shui of this house is not good."

Bad Feng Shui? Shen Tang didn't pay attention to this question until Wen Ting mentioned it. Only when he mentioned it did Shen Tang put aside the furnishings in the house and thought about the location of the store. Unconsciously, she recalled some things that her original grandfather had taught her.

"What are you looking at, Shen Tang, come and sit down!"

There was a table of people sitting not far from them in the room. The leader of the society was sitting nearby. Seeing Shen Tang looking around, he called out to him in confusion, but Shen Tang acted as if he didn't hear him and stared at the ceiling.

"It can't be such a coincidence, right?" Shen Tang looked at the thick black evil spirit swirling on the ceiling. Although there were no ghosts in the house and Wen Ting did not feel the source of the evil spirit, Shen Tang still felt a chill on his back and walked slowly to the seat where the table was sitting.

"Shen Tang, why are you in a daze?" The person in charge saw that the girl was still absent-minded even after sitting next to him, so he stretched out his hand and waved in front of her face, which brought Shen Tang back to his senses.

"Oh, I'm fine, I'm fine," Shen Tang laughed dryly twice, stared at the ceiling quickly twice and then looked away.

If she guessed correctly, something bad must have happened in this store. If, as Liu Ling said, her relative had been with a sorcerer for a while, why would they choose such an unlucky place as the location for opening a store? It was a big mistake to open a store in a place where someone had hanged himself.

"By the way, why hasn't Liu Ling come down yet? She just called me to tell me that she was coming down from the second floor." Shen Tang glanced at the people sitting around the table. The tableware in front of them was of various kinds, obviously not taken out of a set of utensils, and the way it was placed revealed an indescribable weirdness.

"Don't worry, she will be down soon." This time it was not someone from the society who answered her, but the old man's voice that slowly came from behind Shen Tang's head, causing the hairs on her arms to stand up slightly.

After answering Shen Tang's question, the old man brought the dish in his hand to the table. His squinting eyes slightly opened, and his purple lips moved slowly, "These dishes will be served one by one. You can eat slowly first. Xiaoling will be coming down soon."

After saying that, he turned and walked towards the kitchen. Shen Tang saw that the old man had temporarily disappeared from his sight, and immediately started talking to Wen Ting in a low voice.

"Wen Ting, there's really something wrong here. It's not that the people from that society are wrong, it's this house and that old man," she whispered, leaning back against the table. The people sitting at the table around her used the various bowls and chopsticks in front of them to pick up the food brought by the old man.

Wen Ting frowned and stared at the dish: "Don't eat the food here."

As he spoke, he slowly moved around Shen Tang and the table, "If I'm not mistaken, the tableware and chairs on the table are all placed in a certain formation."

"Formation?"

Wen Ting nodded: "It is a formation, and an unusual ghost-catching formation. But judging from the time when this formation was set up, it has existed here a long time ago. The evil spirit on the ceiling may be left by the hanged soul that was caught before."

But if this is a formation, then where did the captured Ah Piao go?

Shen Tang was about to ask when Wen Ting guessed her confusion. "Although this ghost-catching formation was set up a long time ago, the mechanism should only be used to trap souls that have not been reincarnated. If no one has forced the souls to be refined, then these souls are probably trapped somewhere in this small shop. Let me go upstairs to take a look. The old man probably won't come up so soon. If they don't know the situation in this house, then it would be a good deed for me to find those trapped souls and release them."

Shen Tang nodded in understanding, and whispered a few words to him, "Then be careful. I'll watch the man's movements from below. If he goes up, I'll scratch your stone to remind you."

Wen Ting was helpless: "You really are willing to attack me. As long as the jade is in your pocket, I can hear everything you say. If the old man is coming up, just say a word and I will come down from the building."

"Okay, I get it," Shen Tang pinched his face with his fingers in a slightly awkward manner, and at the same time, he urged the person upstairs, "Hurry up and go upstairs."

Wen Ting told her that the formation beside the dining table would not be easily activated, but she had to be careful not to drop blood on the tableware. If the tableware touched the blood, the formation would be activated. Even he did not know how wide the formation would be after it was activated, so she had to be careful. After Shen Tang remembered these things to pay attention to, Wen Ting left her side and floated upstairs.

The people in the society started eating the food as if they were addicted. Even though Liu Ling hadn't come down yet, the group of people started eating frantically with their chopsticks.

"Xiao Tang, what were you mumbling about just now? Look, your bowl is still empty. Hurry up and eat something. It tastes pretty good!" The person in charge reminded Shen Tang when he saw that he was slow to eat. Then he talked about Liu Ling's award. "Xiao Ling's work won the award this time, thanks to the last camping trip. Although she had to leave the camp temporarily due to the heavy rain, Xiao Ling still showed what talent is."

"Yes, yes, Xiaoling has an extraordinary talent in painting. I was amazed when I saw the painting. The ancient temple in the painting is so spiritual!" The people at the table responded one after another, and Shen Tang keenly caught the word "ancient temple" in their mouths.

"Ancient temple?" Shen Tang's gaze moved to the faces of the people in front of him, and he thought to himself, is it possible that Liu Ling's painting has the same theme as hers? What a coincidence.

"Yes, I remember now. Xiaotang, you haven't seen her award-winning painting yet, right? Let me tell you, although it rained heavily during the camping trip, Xiaoling still found a good place to paint the ancient temple and the mountain scenery. It's really amazing to recall it!" The boy who had gone with Liu Ling to move things saw that Shen Tang was interested, and immediately told Shen Tang all the details of the painting. However, the more detailed his description was, the weirder Shen Tang's expression became.

In that case, could it be that the painting was the one that Liu Ling begged me to give to her when I went to her house?

"I really haven't seen that painting. Did you take a picture of it? I want to take a look at the award-winning painting." Shen Tang looked at the person in charge. At this time, the other party was chewing the crab that was served on the table. The crab claws just happened to scratch his mouth, leaving a trace of blood. As he ate, the blood was smeared onto the bowl without a trace.

"You want to see it? I just took it. Take a look." The person in charge covered his mouth in pain, then opened the album on his mobile phone and handed it to Shen Tang.