Chapter 109: Substitute, have you gone to Chang'an?
Lin Zhuyue and Shi Can locked their dorm door and left, one after the other, sprinting towards the on-campus hotel. Upon arriving, they immediately found the elevator and took it to the fifth floor, where Bowie was staying.
As soon as the elevator door opened, Lin Zhuyue and Shi Can felt the evil energy coming towards them. They didn't even need a compass to be sure that there was a ghost on this floor.
"Knock, knock, knock."
"Knock, knock, knock."
The knocking sound continued, sometimes close, sometimes far away, and it seemed like there was more than one door being knocked on.
Lin Zhuyue and Shi Can looked at each other, one of them took out the talisman paper and the other summoned the Lingwu Jue Ren. Together they cautiously left the elevator hall and entered the corridor on the fifth floor.
When they reached the end of the north-south corridor, turned right and entered the east-west corridor, Lin Zhuyue saw from afar a white shadow in the hazy black fog.
The shadow noticed the presence of Lin Zhuyue and Shi Can and turned to face them. However, she was shrouded in a hazy mist from head to toe, and Lin Zhuyue couldn't see her face or figure clearly.
Shi Can reacted with incredible speed. Like an arrow shot from a bow, he charged directly at the ghost, his blade in hand. Just as he reached close, twisting the blade to strike with the flat of its back, the ghost's figure faltered, dissolving into a wisp of white smoke, slipping away from Shi Can's blade.
Shi Can frowned and muttered:
"You run pretty fast..."
"It seems he has left."
Lin Zhuyue walked quickly to Shi Can and said,
"I can't feel her presence anymore."
Shi Can put away his sword and analyzed:
"She always harassed these high school girls, but as soon as you and I got close, she left immediately. It seems she's a ghost that likes to be around living people and is afraid of spiritualists."
Lin Zhuyue felt a strong sense of doubt and asked:
"Speaking of which, why did she appear in the hotel? According to our previous judgment, she stayed in the dormitory for personal reasons or for the dormitory building's reasons. She shouldn't have left the dormitory. Was it because Xiaoyi's roommate played the Pen Fairy and provoked her, which led her to follow her here?"
Shi Chan leaned against the wall between the two doors, raised his hand, put his fingers to his chin, and thought seriously for a while.
After a moment, he asked:
"Do the two girls who play with pen spirits live on this floor?"
Lin Zhuyue didn't understand Shican's meaning for a moment:
"……What?"
Shi Chan explained: "If it was the act of 'playing with the pen fairy' that provoked the ghost, then both people would be at fault. The ghost shouldn't only be entangled with one person. How unfair, isn't it?"
Although according to urban legend, if the game of summoning the spirit of the pen is played by two people, the person with the main hand will bear greater risks than the person with the secondary hand.
However, for spiritual masters, there is no distinction between the main hand and the auxiliary hand when summoning the Pen Fairy. As long as the Pen Fairy is used, the person will be beaten with eighty lashes.
Lin Zhuyue understood, took out his phone and said:
"I'll ask Xiao Yi."
Lin Zhuyue sent a message to Bowie.
Bowie replied almost instantly.
"They don't live on the same floor. There are twelve of them in the entire dormitory, and only she and the girl named Song Zhen live in Room 5023 on the fifth floor."
Lin Zhuyue added,
"Xiao Yi said that if the soundproofing of the floors is okay, the ghost should have been knocking on the door on the fifth floor and not been to other floors."
Shi Can nodded and said:
"Then this ghost is most likely coming for your sister or that girl named Song Zhen... Although I don't understand why she knocked on so many doors instead of just your sister and Song Zhen's room."
At this moment, a door opened not far away.
"elder sister."
Bowie popped his head out of the room and said,
"I heard you talking. At first I thought it was an illusion, but after receiving the message I felt you were probably here, so I opened the door to take a look. Sure enough, you were there."
"Didn't I tell you not to open the door no matter what?"
Lin Zhuyue sighed, walked towards room 5023, and asked as he walked,
"Is it convenient for boys to enter the room?"
Bowie nodded. "Yeah, that's convenient."
Shi Can then took a step forward.
Bowie and Song Zhen's room was a standard one, not very large, unlike the one the hotel had assigned to Lin Zhuyue and Shi Can, but it still had all the necessary amenities. Besides, at a time like this, a smaller room would make one feel safer. A large, overly spacious room would only make one more suspicious.
Lin Zhuyue and Shi Can entered the room. Lin Zhuyue sat on Bowie's bed, while Shi Can pulled out the bench in front of the TV cabinet and sat down.
Bowie was quite brave and she trusted her sister, so she did not show any fear even when faced with such a situation.
Song Zhen's situation is not very good.
She was wearing thick cotton pajamas, sitting on the edge of the bed, head bowed, rubbing her hands together. Because of fear, her hands and feet were a little cold, and her lips and face were not very good.
"Have you ever done anything weird before?"
Shi Chan went straight to the point and added,
"Think carefully about things that may be related to metaphysics."
Bowie was the first to raise his hand:
"I bought Pop Mart blind boxes with my junior high school classmates and vowed to exchange ten years of my life for the hidden box."
Lin Zhuyue asked, "Did you win?"
Bowie replied, "My classmate won the lottery."
Shi Chan raised his hand and rubbed his forehead, then asked:
"What does it have to do with you if your classmate wins the lottery? Don't make such an oath in the future. If a passing spirit takes it seriously and helps you win the blind box to take away ten years of your life, you'll cry."
Bowie turned his head away in disbelief.
Song Zhen said, "I, I went to the temple..."
Lin Zhuyue asked, "Which temple? What did you pray for?"
Song Zhen said weakly, "Daxing Temple. I didn't ask for anything. I just prayed for my family to be healthy and everything to go smoothly."
Shi Chan asked, “Is there any information about the temple?”
Song Zhen took out her cell phone and searched for information about Daxing Temple. She opened the encyclopedia and handed the phone to Lin Zhuyue.
Daxing Temple is an old temple with a long history and a great reputation. Although it is not as magical as some palaces in Yuancheng, it is still able to fulfill the wishes for academic success, fame, wealth, health and safety. Therefore, it is a worthwhile tourist attraction in Chang'an.
Lin Zhuyue read the temple's history and looked through photos, and had a preliminary assessment of its nature:
"It's a legitimate temple. There are only benefits to visiting it, no harm... Wait, a temple in Chang'an?"
Song Zhen replied:
"My parents and I went on a trip to Chang'an."
Shi Chan asked, “Did you visit the Terracotta Warriors?”
Song Zhen nodded.
Lin Zhuyue and Shi Can looked at each other.
Found the reason.
Bowie was very puzzled by this and asked:
"Is there something wrong with the Terracotta Warriors? If there are souls among them, then wouldn't they be the old ghosts of the Qin Dynasty..."
"There is nothing wrong with the Terracotta Army itself."
Lin Zhuyue explained,
"But ghosts like to possess human-shaped objects, like sculptures, clothing store mannequins, dolls... The Terracotta Warriors are also human-shaped, right?"
"This isn't the first time the Spiritual Master's House has encountered this kind of situation. Previously, a victim was traveling to Chang'an and taking photos while visiting the Terracotta Warriors, and was haunted by a ghost."
Bowie asked, "And then?"
Shi Can said: "I was insomniac in the hotel, and I was still insomniac when I got home. There were often strange noises at home, such as the faucet turning on inexplicably, the curtains shaking, and footsteps heard in the middle of the night..."
Bowie: “Ah—”
Even though he was brave enough, Bowie felt a little scared.
"But after I came back from my trip, I didn't encounter any strange noises at home. Later, when I came to school, the ghost was knocking on the door of the dormitory, and tonight he was knocking on the door of the hotel..."
Song Zhen asked doubtfully,
"Why didn't she just come to me?"
"I think she wants to find you, but she just can't."
Shi Can took Song Zhen's phone from Lin Zhuyue, looked at the information about Daxing Temple, and said,
"You've prayed for peace at Daxing Temple, haven't you? Perhaps the gods are protecting you, so this ghost has never been able to truly haunt you. Even if you ask the Pen Fairy, she can't do anything to you."
Shi Can changed the subject:
"But you still have to handle it properly. Judging from the extent of this ghost's entanglement, even if you don't find an opportunity to take advantage of it, you will be frightened by it."
Song Zhen has felt fear before.
No matter what Lin Zhuyue and Shi Can say, she will cooperate.
She asked anxiously, "How should we deal with this?"
Shi Chan took out a pair of scissors and paper from his tool kit and cut out a small paper figure. He asked Song Zhen's date of birth, calculated the eight characters and wrote them on the back, then wrote Song Zhen's name on the front and handed the scissors to Song Zhen.
"Cut some hair."
Shi Chan pointed to his forehead and said,
“It’s better to cut the small hairs here, as it’s closer to the scalp and easier to use.”
Lin Zhuyue took the scissors and said, "Let me cut it."
She carefully cut a tuft of fluff from Song Zhen's forehead and handed it to Shi Chan.
Shi Chan taped the fluff together and placed it on the back of the paper figurine's head. He then took out a needle and pierced two holes in the figurine's head. The little paper figurine came to life, standing upright in Shi Chan's palm.
Lin Zhuyue opened the door.
She and Shi Can left the house one after another and said to the two first-year high school girls in the room:
"You two just stay in the room and don't come out."
Lin Zhuyue closed the door.
Shi Can put the paper man on the ground, and tied a circle around the paper man with a red rope. Then he pulled Lin Zhuyue to the corner of the corridor, took out some ash from the pot and smeared it on Lin Zhuyue's face.
Lin Zhuyue reacted after being smeared twice. She dipped her fingers in the ash from the bottom of the pot and smeared Shi Can into a big tabby cat.
After everything was ready, Shi Chan began to chant the mantra.
"Paper people cry, paper people laugh, their emotions are like those of ordinary people. Paper people walk, paper people dance, and they can also walk between heaven and earth. Paper people wear the hair of living people on their heads, and they are no different from ordinary people."
Shi Can read it,
"If there is a spirit looking for the master, please come here quickly and take this body away—"
A hazy mist rose in the corridor.
A wisp of white smoke floated from nowhere, circled around the paper man, and then slowly gathered together, like a fluffy fox tail, wrapping around the paper man standing in the corridor.
Shi Chan put his right index and middle fingers together and lifted them upwards.
The spiritual power injected into the red rope was awakened, and the dark red rope emitted light, forming a barrier that surrounded the paper man and the white mist.
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