Chapter 36: That is an eye without an eyeball
The three of them searched the room where the rattle fell four or five times, even looking under the quilt and inside the teacup, but there was really no place for the person to hide.
The footsteps stopped for a long time. The three of them discussed it and decided to check other rooms.
The courtyards on this street all have the same layout. Wen Lanzhi had visited their home before, so she was quite familiar with the place. She took the other two people into the adults' dormitory.
It is said to be an adult dormitory, but at first glance, it looks like a children's dormitory.
The bed was covered with children's toys: small balls woven from bamboo strips, small knives and figurines made of wood. Wen Lanzhi picked up a sword and pointed it at Xuezhi, "Come on, I'm going to kill you!"
Xuezhi also picked up a small wooden knife, and when Wen Lanzhi's sword came down, he deflected it.
Wen Lanzhi praised in an exaggerated tone: "Not bad, the little apprentice has completed his apprenticeship!"
Wu Ciyan took the ball and hit Wen Lanzhi on the head, "Stop playing."
"Oh." Wen Lanzhi immediately put down the sword and followed Wu Ci Yan to search around.
In the cabinet are the children's clothes and shoes from childhood to adulthood. Although they are tattered, they are still much better than those made by their parents. The child's hair crown is polished to a shine. This should be the most valuable thing in this family.
According to the tradition in the demon world, a boy should have a beautiful crown when he is one year old, and a girl should have a beautiful bracelet when she is one year old.
Wen Lanzhi picked it up. There was a word engraved on it: "Yue. I know this child's name is Chen Yue. I've seen him wear this crown before, but I didn't look closely. His father said it was made before he was born, and it cost almost all the family savings."
She put the crown back and said, "You still love your child..."
If this family hadn't died, the child would have grown up happily.
"That's amazing." Wu Ci Yan continued, sounding like he was just saying it casually, with no emotion in his voice, and it was completely unrelated to what Wen Lanzhi said.
"Hmm?" Wen Lanzhi looked at him. "What's so amazing?"
"Medical skills." Wu Ciyan said, "Before the child was born, he knew it was a boy. He had already prepared the hair crown and chosen a name."
"Yeah." Wen Lanzhi came back to her senses. "I don't know about other places, but Wencheng is very patriarchal. Boys can be demon messengers. Don't tell me, there are still a lot of people vying for that brainless job."
Wu Ciyan said, "You don't have to work and you get paid, so of course you're in high demand."
"But," she added, "this family is quite pitiful. They have no money for education, and they don't have any skills. The little money they earn from carpentry is not enough to eat. Although they favor sons over daughters, they are good in other aspects. Fortunately, it was a boy, and there was no actual harm to the child. It's all good, all good."
A few people went to the child's dormitory. The child's dormitory was not much, just a wooden pony, a wooden bed, and wooden balls. Although this family was poor, they were really good to the child and had done everything they could for the child.
Wu Ci Yan turned around and saw Wen Lanzhi standing there in a daze, so he waved at her.
"Oh, here they are." Wen Lanzhi was so engrossed in watching that she had forgotten what she was doing there as she flipped through the toys the couple had made for their children and tossed a wooden ball twice.
The three men searched all the few rooms, even the woodshed at the back, but there was no one there.
Wen Lanzhi wiped the sweat from her forehead and said, "Have they left yet? There's something wrong with our direction."
Xuezhi had always disapproved of this action. Although she hadn't been lazy from beginning to end, her dissatisfaction was already clear on her face. Wen Lanzhi didn't ask him this question, but addressed Wu Ciyan instead.
Wu Ciyan said: "No, I can feel the ghost energy in the house."
"Oh?" Xuezhi looked at him, disbelief written on her face. "Then, sir, take another look. Where is the ghost energy strongest?"
"Yes, sir." Wen Lanzhi's expression was serious. "Can you see that? It's not going to work if we just search around like this."
Wu Ciyan pointed to the room they first entered, "This one."
This room is closest to their tea shop, and the ghost face just now also appeared through this wall, so it must be this one.
Wen Lanzhi didn't understand. "She wanted us to save her, so why didn't she show up? The demon sealed the entire yard, not just that one room. She shouldn't be unable to get out."
Wu Ciyan said, "Ghosts all retain their appearance from the moment they died. Except for those who died of old age, most of them look terrifying. To save her, we have to find her body and send her to the afterlife. Her appearance now is completely useless except to scare you. You are so timid that if you scare her away, no one will help her."
Xuezhi keenly caught his words, "You? Young Master is not afraid, why don't you go in by yourself."
"Tsk." Wen Lanzhi nudged Xuezhi's arm with her elbow.
Wu Ci Yan had said before that Xue Zhi was hostile to him, but Wen Lanzhi didn't believe it. Now she sees that it is true.
But I don't know where the hostility comes from.
Wen Lanzhi murmured, "It's nothing more than being beheaded, how scary can it be?"
Wu Ciyan pointed at his own two eyes.
Wen Lanzhi understood and stopped talking about this topic.
When that ghost face appeared on the wall just now, it was not good-looking at all. It didn't even have eyeballs, its entire face was distorted, and its nose seemed to have been twisted off.
Her appearance at her last moment... If she had died after losing her eyeballs, her face wouldn't be distorted. In other words, she didn't die after her eyeballs were gouged out, and she probably didn't die after her nose was cut off. She probably didn't die after the bloody hole in her head. All of this happened while she was alive and conscious.
She felt all the pain clearly and died in despair.
"No wonder there is so much resentment." Wen Lanzhi muttered softly.
After a while, she added, "I believe it has nothing to do with this couple."
As soon as he finished speaking, the door in front of him suddenly fell down.
Seeing that it was about to hit her on the head, Wu Ci Yan grabbed her wrist, pulled her back, and took her away from where she had just stood.
"She is..." Wen Lanzhi said in a trembling voice, "Is she angry with me?"
"Let's go." Wu Ciyan said coldly.
"Huh?" Wen Lanzhi didn't react.
Wu Ciyan had already reached the ladder and said, "Let's go back."
"Ah?" Wen Lanzhi didn't understand. "Are you not going to care about this place?"
Wu Ciyan's tone was a bit aggressive. "She has such an attitude, why should we care about her? If she doesn't want to come out, just stay here. At most, we can call the demon messenger and find a place to lock her up. If she likes it, why should we interfere?"
"Hmm!" Xuezhi felt that this person had made the right choice for once. "Master, I agree. Let's go back. She obviously doesn't want us to take care of her."
Ta-da-da, ta-da-da.
The voice sounded again.
It didn't seem like the sound of footsteps, because there was no one walking around, nor any ghosts.
Seeing Wen Lanzhi didn't move for a long time, Wu Ciyan grabbed her collar, pulled her over, and put her next to the ladder, "Climb."
There was a coldness in his eyes, which was as cold as his skin. Wen Lanzhi was frightened for a moment and hurriedly used her hands and feet to climb the ladder.
Ta-da-da, ta-da-da.
Ta-da-da, ta-da-da.
Endless sound.
"ah!"
The ladder fell apart and Wen Lanzhi fell down, but was caught by Wu Ci Yan and did not fall directly to the ground.
The ladder broke in the middle, the lower part fell apart, and the upper part fell down.
The bone-chilling coldness completely enveloped Wen Lanzhi, and she almost sneezed.
She was being held, but it didn't feel like she was being held by a person, it felt like she was being held by ice.
Even cold-blooded animals rarely get themselves this cold. It's not that they can't stand it, but rather basic human interaction. Living among a group of monsters, it's inevitable that they'll come into contact with cold-sensitive animals, and when there are many people around, physical contact is unavoidable. If they get too cold, they'll automatically stay away.
However, Wu Ciyan doesn't seem like a monster that needs human interaction.
Before Wen Lanzhi could get used to the cold air, the ladder came down and hit Wu Ciyan with a dull sound.
Xuezhi was also hit by some debris, but he was standing to the side and was not injured.
The ladder fell down very quickly, like a thunderstorm, and it was over in a crackling sound.
Wen Lanzhi was not frozen for long, and soon the cold left her.
Spring did not come suddenly. Although the ice and snow had melted, some residual warmth remained on her body, making her subconsciously want to wrap herself tightly.
Wu Ciyan swept away the residue on his body.
Wen Lanzhi helped him remove the dirt from his shoulders and said, "Thank you, you saved my life again."
Wu Ciyan sneered and said disdainfully, "Help? Are you so willing to die? Can this kill someone?"
Wen Lanzhi turned her head and saw the dark face again. She was so scared that she took two steps back and fell into Wu Ci Yan's arms, but was pushed aside by Wu Ci Yan.
"A-choo!" This time he sneezed.
Wu Ciyan was stunned for a moment, but soon returned to normal.
The face opened its mouth again, and a hoarse sound came out of its throat, like a small animal growling: "Sorry, no... Sorry, no... Sorry..."
"That's enough." Xuezhi was a little impatient.
The same trick isn't scary if you do it twice.
No one is afraid of her now.
Her face was visibly stunned. After a moment, she said, "I can't go out."
Her voice was very rough, probably because her throat was injured.
Wen Lanzhi looked at Wu Ciyan and saw him nod. She said, "Okay, then we'll help you again."
The face disappeared again.
Wen Lanzhi turned around reluctantly and walked into the house.
Bang, bang, bang.
Wu Ciyan turned the rattle in his hand twice.
Xuezhi glared at him.
Bang, bang, bang.
Xuezhi glared at him again.
Bang, bang, bang.
"Tsk!" Xuezhi was about to speak when Wen Lanzhi stopped her.
"What are you two doing?" Wen Lanzhi separated them. "Let's go look in the cabinet again to see if there is any secret door."
Wu Ciyan asked, "Which room next door does this correspond to?"
Wen Lanzhi said, "It's the room the young master is staying in."
Wu Ciyan said, "Oh," and said, "That's not right."
Wen Lanzhi uttered a puzzled "hmm".
Wu Ciyan said, "This room is much smaller than mine."
"Really?" Xuezhi took two steps back and looked around. "It's about the same. You feel it's different because there are more things here. There are two more cabinets than ours."
"No, I'm not mistaken." Wu Ciyan pointed to the roof, "If we make a hole here, we should be able to see it."
Xuezhi shook her head, "I can't tell."
As soon as she finished speaking, the roof broke apart, and a piece of board fell down, brushing the edge of Xuezhi's cheek and falling to the ground, as if venting her dissatisfaction. A hole almost as big as the one next door had appeared in the roof.
Wu Ciyan said unhappily, "Did you see that?"
"I see." Wen Lanzhi spoke before Xuezhi, "There's a hole in our roof. If we dig a hole in the same place, we can still fit another bed over there, but this side is directly next to the wall, so there's no room at all."
Xuezhi knocked on the wall. "You mean, there's an extra wall here, and the female ghost is trapped inside?"
Bang bang bang.
A sound came from inside the wall, very loud, as if in response to him.
Xuezhi subconsciously stepped back.
Wen Lanzhi said: "We still have to find a secret door."
"It's not that troublesome." Wu Ciyan stepped forward and knocked on the wall.
A crack appeared where he knocked, and the cracking sound was so light that it was almost inaudible.
He knocked again, and the wall broke into small pieces of bricks that fell down, leaving a hole just big enough to fit a finger.
Wen Lanzhi lit a candle and came over.
The candlelight could only illuminate a limited area, so she stepped forward and helped Wu Ci Yan hold it.
Wu Ciyan said, "No need, I can see clearly, stay away so it doesn't hit you."
"Oh." Wen Lanzhi really didn't know what knocking on the wall was, so she stood a little further away.
"Master..." Xuezhi called her.
"Hmm?" Wen Lanzhi looked at him.
Xuezhi pointed to the black hole in the wall, and Wen Lanzhi looked in the direction his finger pointed.
Inside that black hole, there is another pitch-black hole.
It's an eye without an eyeball.
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