Originally:
Shadow Ghost
"Shadow ghost, yin and yang road, don't turn back, Ching Ming hangers, lone head grave, lamp of the underworld, cross the night road, two realms of life and death, ghosts turn back ......"
It's already spring. But the weather in March is still cold to the bone. Outside the window on the branches of the tree has been the size of the fingernail tip buds, but by the cold air frozen shivering. The old man said, "The spring cold is colder than the ninth day of the third month." In addition to the cold drizzle, there is absolutely no joy of spring, but instead everywhere through the bone-chilling cold and depression.
I am a person who does not like to get up early, but today there is a section of art class arranged in the morning first period, so can only boss reluctant to endure the bone-chilling cold from the quilt climbed out.
There are a lot of stores selling breakfast around the entrance of the school, the old man Li who sells buns is one of the stores with good business, so it can be said that my breakfast is solved there every day.
I bought a few buns as usual and ate them while hurrying. It can't be helped, getting up really late. If Bai Yi hadn't reminded me that today was an inspection of the teaching office, I guess I could have stayed up for another moment.
Sighing and biting into the buns, I hurried to the school. At this time, the old man who sells buns, Li's pair of withered pole-like hands tightly pulled me, and stuffed two big meat buns into my bag.
When I looked at him, I was puzzled, "Mr. Li, what are you doing?
Old man Li looked around with an odd face, to make sure that there is no one else, opened his mouth and said to me, "Mr. An, can you help me ask Mr. Bai to help, my granddaughter has always said that Mr. Bai is very powerful to come. But I'm not familiar with him, but you have always taken care of my business, you can help me call him ah?"
The old man spoke a mouthful of Mandarin with a strong accent, and it took me half a day to understand that he wanted me to help him ask Bai Yi for help, and that's why he gave me two big meat buns for nothing.
It's true that the old man's granddaughter is also a student at the junior high school, and it's not surprising that she knows Bai Yi. I just wondered what the old man wanted with Bai Yi, asking him to help his granddaughter with her tutoring. So I asked, "Master, do you want Mr. Bai to help your granddaughter with her tutoring?"
The old man waved his hand nervously and brought his head closer. Lowering his voice, he said to me "I, my granddaughter is probably haunted by a ghost!"
I was flabbergasted, originally I didn't believe in ghosts and gods in the world, but since the last night of the return of the spirit of the night after my Marxist materialist thought is so disintegrated. I also like the old man lowered his voice and asked "Ghosts?"
The old man nodded and dragged me into the inner room of the bakery. The room was a mess, with steamers everywhere and several large bags of flour stacked in the corner. The old man moved a stool for me to sit on, and then began to reminisce about the events of not so long ago.
"My granddaughter is a child who doesn't like to talk to others, and I haven't seen her get along with any of her classmates. At most, only find two children together to jump rubber bands, she just like to jump rubber bands. Recently, she did not look for someone to jump, and more than usual do not care about people, almost in addition to going to school to eat and sleep, the other time is dazed. I thought at first that there was a falling out with the kids. Just the other day I saw something that scared half the life out of me!"
The old man gulped and sucked in his breath and said on "That night I was preparing the buns I was going to sell tomorrow morning, the buns were wrapped at night and steamed early in the morning. When I was packing up, I found my granddaughter jumping up and down on the street corner by herself. I thought to myself what is this girl doing. I approached and shouted twice, the girl did not turn around. As if she did not hear me shouting her the same, or a strong up and down jumping, I was strange, and shouted loudly two, the girl look also do not look at me. Suddenly I feel there is something wrong, this turning corner only me and my granddaughter, but ...... but ...... next to the wall actually have three people's shadow.
Old man Li stretched out his withered wood-like fingers and tremblingly made a gesture of three.
Continued "I was scared to hold my granddaughter to run, but the shadow suddenly also back, pulling my granddaughter's shadow not to let go. Then I felt my granddaughter was being dragged, and surprisingly strong. I thought to myself, "It's over! It's over! I've run into something dirty. This old man of mine has lived enough, but my granddaughter is still young ah, how can I give this ...... ghost thing drag away? I am a cross hearted. I used all my strength and gritted my teeth to run back. I didn't expect to grab my granddaughter's strength actually gone. I carried my granddaughter back to the room and guarded her bedside for a night.
The next day when I got up, she was as good as new. I thought I was senile, but, but! On my granddaughter's arm since there was a child-sized handprint. That's when I was sure that what happened last night wasn't a dream!"
I interjected and asked "So has your granddaughter met anything else since?"
The old man was a bit agitated and clenched his fists and said to me "Yes, there is! As long as the middle of the night, my granddaughter will go to that corner. I couldn't stop her, I locked her in her room, and she actually hit her head against the door. And those things are hanging around my door, in the middle of the night, I heard the sound of knocking on the door, went to open the door, but there is obviously a shadow. But there was clearly a shadow. My granddaughter jumps there almost every night." When she finished speaking, she covered her face with her hands and whimpered in pain.
I see that a seventy-year-old old man here to me this little young man with a snotty nose and tears, is really a bit to see. So I got up and stood up, patted the old man's hand, and told him that I would convey the matter to Bai Yi, and that I would persuade him to come and help.
The old man thanked me profusely and gave me five or six big buns with different traps. I walked out of his store and looked at the corner he said he was on, which was actually just the corner of an intersection.
This is the old town, it seems that many years have not been renovated, the road is very small, almost can not drive in large motor vehicles. There are a lot of forgotten corners in this city, and because there is no city management for a long time, a lot of garbage is piled up there in a haphazard way, and to be honest, apart from being a little bit dirty, I can't really see anything strange about it.
The morning was delayed by the old man for a long time, and it was impossible not to be late. The result is that the teaching office of the Pan bald (his last name is Pan, head as a glossy oily eggs) caught, lecturing me as if in the lesson of the son. And also pick some of the sinking sesame rotten grain mistakes to say things, a big thing, after he infinitely magnified hard to mention a new height, a new level. The company's website is a great place to find out more about the company's products and services, and to learn more about the company's products and services!
Passed a morning, noon lunch break I sullenly sat in the office, organizing the afternoon class materials needed, ready to pour through the finished to eat. Instead, my mouth kept muttering about how to make that Pan baldness from a balding completely metamorphosed into a bald head.
Baiyi's desk happened to be directly across from mine, and when the office was cleaned out, he finally let out a poof, and then couldn't stop laughing.
Baiyi's desk happened to be directly across from his, and when the office was cleared, he let out a poof, and then couldn't stop laughing!
I couldn't help but slam the book down, and said with a cold face "Smile Smile Smile Smile, your kid will have pigtails to be caught in the future, and I'll see how you'll be scolded by Pan Baldin as a grandson!"
He saw that I really angry, so also do not laugh, only the mouth is still slightly oblique cocked, obviously, he is still in the inner joke me.
"It takes you that half a day to buy a bun, and I've already kindly told you to get there early, it's Pan Baldy picketing today. And you're actually 45 minutes late, a whole class ~ bro! Very good, very strong."
I remembered Old Man Li's weirdness after he mentioned the buns, so I leaned forward and leaned in a bit before narrowing my eyes and saying "Do me a favor? I'm sure you'll be interested in this one."
Baiyi shrank back as if he was uncomfortable, then raised his eyebrows and asked what it was. I then told him exactly what the old man had told me in the morning.
Only to see him bowed his head and thought about it, and muttered something in his mouth, then looked up at me and said very seriously "Lunch is on you, and we'll go to Li's house together in the evening."
"Me again! I don't have any money" My paycheck was already pitifully small. If I didn't rely on my parents' charity, I guess I'd have to sleep on the street.
The entrance to the school was bustling in the evening, with students letting out of school, and cars getting noticeably more numerous, and vendors selling all sorts of snacks and knick-knacks at the entrance, making a racket almost as loud as they had been in the morning.
Bai Yi and I went to Old Man Li's stall. The business there was obviously not as good as in the morning, and appeared a bit cold, old man Li was alone, watching the stove, and from time to time glancing into the room.
I walked up to old man Li first and told him with a smile that I had called Bai Yi. If there is anything let him help, in fact, the heart still hold a grudge for the money for the two green pepper shredded pork at noon ......
Old man Li saw us coming and immediately stood up, stalls are not even cared about and pulled us into the room. I felt the old man's helplessness and anxiety, who does not care about their children. We sat down and the old man made us tea. Everything was entertained and he sat down across from us, looking at one of the doors of the room with some bleakness and fear in his eyes.
"Mr. Bai, you can come to see is really good, I heard that you know a lot about these, and you have learned, like us who have not studied really do not know how to do ......" The old man is obviously very constrained, speech also borderline, I heart Funny learned will also come to help you see this, directly call a counselor in place.
I looked at Bai Yi, he did not answer, just blew the tea leaves, sip tea, and then continue to wait for the old man's words. I think if then go on, to the night things can not be accounted for clearly, so it first opened his mouth to say "old white ...... you see, this thing may only be your help, the old man may be blurred eyes, but that child is not once or twice in such a situation, if it is really if the eyes are blurred, not so many times, ah! If it is really eye blurred, not so many times ah, that is cataracts ......" Feeling that he also said more and more unreliable, I then simply stop mouth dry laugh two, pick up the teacup to concentrate on drinking tea.
Bai Yi obviously do not like me to interrupt first, inclined his head to me frowned. Then he turned to the old man and said, "I've heard most of your granddaughter's things from Anzong. But there are some details that I can't tell if I haven't seen with my own eyes, if you don't mind we'd like to come back at night to take a look. It won't be too long of a disturbance, I just have some things I want to make sure of."
Of course the old man wouldn't mind, and not only did he thank us profusely, but he also wanted to keep us for dinner. Without waiting for us to excuse ourselves, he ruffled his sleeves and went to cook.
We are also embarrassed, but the two bachelor youth, in addition to the daily dining room to solve the livelihood of the big plan, this meal problem is really no place to send. As for the kitchen that is never go to, so can have dinner to rub is also considered to take advantage of a cheap ......
Dinner time we saw his granddaughter, the girl is obviously on the two teachers to come to the house for dinner feel a little surprised and overwhelmed. Mosquito-like greetings, and then do not raise their heads to eat. The atmosphere is obviously very stiff ......
I coughed and wanted to ask Lao Li's granddaughter's recent study situation, how is also a teacher should be concerned about it.
"Li Oi student, do you have any problems with your studies lately?" I regretted asking this, it's not like I know the main subject ......
"Very well, thank you teacher for your concern." Your daughter still didn't look up and continued to eat.
"Li, do you feel anything when you walk at night lately?" Bai Yi asked.
The girl suddenly raised her head to look at Bai Yi, but quickly but lowered it again and said softly "No, didn't feel anything."
"Didn't anyone call your name?" Bai Yi was still asking
The girl's hands were shaking a little, she put down her chopsticks and didn't eat or look up at us. The old wall clock on the wall clattered, the heat of the meal slowly rose, the girl's face felt a little blurry for a moment.
Baiyi frowned and looked across at the child, slowing his voice slightly "Are you sure you didn't hear someone call your name?"
"I didn't, I just ...... heard someone reading a children's song. A very strange children's song. I don't know what it was, he kept reciting it. And then there was no sound ......" the girl broke off after freezing
"Can you tell us what kind of children's song?" With a few imperceptible nods, Bai Yi continued to press the issue.
The child looked up, but a wry smile appeared on his white face and said "I can't, because this is a secret."
I said "Your secret with whom?"
The girl got a little anxious and shook her head and said shaking her head and said "I can't tell you guys, 'he' would be upset."
I was a bit speechless, it was so pointless to ask anything like that. A children's song, that's so weird. What kind of children's song could make a girl play with a shadow every day. I looked at the old man again, he was a bit agitated, probably couldn't stand his granddaughter's weird behavior, and had been suppressing his fear. Suddenly he opened his mouth and recited "Shadow ghosts, yin and yang road, don't turn back, Qingming hangers, lonely graves, lamps, crossing the night road, two realms of life and death, ghosts turn back ......"
The girl stared at her grandfather with wide eyes and looked at the old man with the kind of eyes that were almost angry and shocked, grudgingly. eyes and resentment at the old man.
The old man's face paled as he said "That's what the boy recited, I remember ......"
The girl was so angry she stood up and walked towards the door. Old man Li grabbed hold of Li Oi and pulled her inside, almost dragging her with him.
Bai Yi looked out the door, the cold streetlights shining on the concrete road, uneven, then turned back and said to me who was feeling strange "Go, go out and take a look."
It was already completely dark, obviously the weather was not good, there was not even a moon. There were no pedestrians outside the house at all in that cold. It was a gray, dreary scene except for where the streetlights shone, and the rusty iron gates rattled in the wind. An occasional feral cat strung out from the base of a car, but immediately went into another dark space.
I wrapped my shirt around me to keep the cold wind from blowing into it. Bai Yi walked beside me and said, "I'm going to call out a name now, you help me to call out together, if you see anything, don't panic, I'm here, nothing will happen. But remember not to stop. Walk one step and shout once, understand?"
I nodded. Side by side, we walked next to him, so we went step by step from the door of Old Li's store to the corner of the cross that wasn't far away.
"Your daughter Li," Bai Yi said, taking the first step. Nothing happened, and I took the next step and shouted "Li Ooi."
So Bai Yi followed my voice and shouted a second time, taking the second step.......
On the quiet road, Bai Yi and I were the only two people shouting Li Ooi's name. Just when I was about to walk around the corner, I felt that something was wrong, yes! My shadow, turned into two shadows! One was clearly a child. Much shorter than my own shadow. But he was following my steps, exactly as fast or slow as my pace. As if that shadow was mine. I looked at Bai Yi's again, and his shadow was trembling a lot even though it hadn't turned into two. That strange shadow was trying to pull me and Bai Yi's shadow. Sandwiched between us, I squinted to the side out of the corner of my eye, and there was a blurry silhouette of a person that was right in the middle of me and Baiyi.
A cold sweat came down on me then, my hands gripping tighter, almost numbing my senses as well. There was another cry of your daughter's name, a name that was as eerie as a spell. I shouted "Your daughter" after her, my voice shaking, no longer my original tone, hoarse and hollow.
I realized that Bai Yi's voice had also changed, it was a shrill voice like a wildcat's, and it was almost impossible to make out that it was your daughter who was shouting. Not forgetting that I had to keep up without interruption, I shouted back, and the sound didn't feel like it was coming out of my mouth, but rather from my side, shrill as the sound of plastic rubbing together.
The 13th ...... time we were about to reach the corner of the turn. Our voices had become the shouts of three people. Yes, the voices of Bai Yi and I, and then the voices coming from among us. Three voices, three shadows, only 2 in one space were people.
Finally I came around the corner, I could barely stand, I just couldn't imagine what I was carrying, I could feel it all around me.
I licked my lips and squinted at Bai Yi, he suddenly took my hand and didn't continue to call out names, luckily he didn't, I just couldn't hold on any longer either, it felt like screaming!
I stared at the shadow on the wall, it became clear because of the street lamp, and obviously bigger than when I was on the road. The shadow kept bouncing around with regularity, and then a children's song suddenly rang in my ears, "Shadow ghost, yin and yang road, don't turn back, Qingming Hangzi, lone grave, a lamp, the night road, life and death, ghosts turn back ......"
The shadow that we brought in kept jumping around, and then I saw a shadow on the wall. The shadow that was brought to us just kept jumping and the children's song kept repeating. Will the ghost really turn back, I don't dare to look back, and I don't want to look at that creepy million dollar shadow. I suddenly wanted to run and leave this place, it was crazy. This one was a nightmare. But the hand that was gripping me was visibly increasing in strength. I know that I can t run, or I can t run away at all, my shadow and that ghostly shadow are connected ...... which means that thing is going to follow me at any time. I run now I guess my life is gone.
Standing for a long time, you can hear the sound of a few cars passing by. But there still wasn't even half a passerby, only Bai Yi and I stood motionless at the turn, the cold wind blowing me shivering. The children's song finally stopped, and the shadow stopped dancing. It stood still and connected to our shadow, suddenly the shadow stretched out its hand and I felt someone touching me. I couldn't stand it anymore, my teeth were chattering.
"You may leave." Bai Yi said "As for the conditions you want I will help you reach them, I hope you keep your promise."
Suddenly the shadow slowly twisted up, like an ugly black mist, gradually dissolved into the ground and disappeared around the corner. The cool lights still shone on the street, and there were still no pedestrians on the road. The strength holding my hand finally relaxed, and I felt Bai Yi pat my shoulder. I nodded weakly to show that I was fine
"Is it okay? Will it come back?" I relaxed my spirit before I felt my legs going numb from standing. I crouched down, I actually wanted to sit down but this was too lousy. Bai Yi lit a cigarette and looked at me, touching my head.
"No, it's not over yet, because we haven't kept our promise with him."
"What promises?"
"Earlier, I used the Ghost Invocation technique, which is also a kind of séance, altered so that the one that clung to your daughter clung to us. This kind of jutsu can make a ghost promise you to do something, obviously. I asked him to stop haunting the living. Becoming a Buddha or not is at his pleasure, it's none of my business."
"And when did you agree to his request? I didn't promise." I was feeling more and more baffled.
Bai Yi shook his head and yanked me up and headed for Old Man Li's house "Don't stand at the intersection and talk like two idiots, go back to Old Li's house first."
Old Li's granddaughter is no longer making a fuss, the old man just used almost all his strength to pull Li Oi, and is now pulling his granddaughter's hand, constantly gasping for air.
When he saw us walk in, he carefully let go of his granddaughter's hand, and the girl walked into her room as disheveled as if she had lost something.
"Old Li, you didn't tell us you've killed before." Waiting for Li Oi to close the door of his room, Bai Yi opened his mouth and asked, the old man's eyes widened when he heard that, his whole body was like an old monkey that had its tail chopped off, jerking violently
I couldn't believe it, how could an old man who sells buns kill someone? I suddenly looked at the old man cautiously, just afraid that he would really pull out some kind of knife to silence us.
The old man's eyes dimmed, and he sat lifelessly on the stool, hissing as if from his throat, "I've killed, killed my own daughter. My own daughter!"
I feel a burst of scalp numbness, although I do not know this old man very well, but I know that he sells the buns are very tasty, very real, and do people honestly. The granddaughter is even more loving. Killing his own daughter, how could it be possible.
"Now you understand what that shadow is," Bai Yi said, still staring at the old man, catching any hint of expression on his face.
The old man clutched his head in pain and his body went limp from the stool, he slumped on the ground and almost shouted in a low voice "I know, how can I not know, I knew when my little daughter recited that children's song, it was the invocation song of my hometown, I taught my bitter daughter as a children's song. It's me who's sorry for her, but she's been an idiot all her life, how can I possibly feed her, she'll end up having to live in pain, might as well be ...... might as well be ......"
I said coldly "Just because of this you killed her, she has your blood on her!"
The old man looked up at me with old tears in his eyes and hissed "At that time I couldn't get enough to eat, I have to think about this family ah!"
"Your daughter is also called Li Ooi, isn't she" Bai Yi asked blandly.
"Yes, I want my granddaughter to be called that, to live in place of my daughter, and as a kind of guilt for her."
"That's where you killed him at the corner, isn't it, I'm surprised there isn't even a grave."
"I ...... I ...... I can't let my old partner know ......"
I Can't listen to this anymore, this old man kills his idiot daughter and then buries her at the crossroad's, turns around and goes back to his day as if nothing happened, just to say his daughter was lost. The poor child was then buried by her own father in the ground not far from her home, just because she was born mentally retarded.
"The deal she wanted me to make was to take her to her real father's side, and I brought her here." Bai Yi looked at old man Li with an expressionless face, old man Li was suddenly horrified to find a black mass of shadows approaching next to his shadow, gradually turning into a human form, he tried to run away but found that the shadow held him in a deadly grip, it was as if he was being torn alive. Old man Li watched in horror as the shadow pulled at him, and he hissed in pain. His shadow began to tumble and tumble, and the two shadows entwined, twisting and fusing like drops of ink in water.
I wanted to go and help, Bai Yi pulled me back and shook his head at me, he said, "A man's sins are paid for with equal pain, he doesn't want his mentally handicapped daughter to be dragged down, so now he has to carry his own daughter's soul, and live with hers. And we can only watch, because, this is the contract between us and the ghost.
When Bai Yi finished speaking, he turned around and left the house, and I turned around to see the ghostly shadow pulling at the old man as if he were a newborn animal pulling at its parents. The old man frantically pulled the light bulb down and threw it out the door, not wanting to see his own shadow, and he ducked under the table, holding his head and shaking himself as if he were trying to shake something off. The old man had obviously gone mad, from the inner room came out Li Oi's low voice "Shadow ghosts, yin and yang road, do not turn back, Qingming Hangzi, lone head grave, a lamp, the road through the night, life and death of the two worlds, the ghosts to turn back ......"
I know the old man has to pay the price of his own selfishness, and Li Oi is a good person. selfishness, while Li Oi is innocent ...... but sometimes the debt is to be paid by the most important people together.
Then the old man's bakery never opened again, and your daughter was taken to another city by her parents, and it was said that the old man went to a nursing home. Some people say that the old man died shortly after the beginning of spring, in any case, now except for his buns are still sometimes mentioned. No one ever talks about him anymore.
That day, I hurriedly walked around the corner, vaguely saw two people shadow, a shadow squatting in the corner, the side of the skinny shadow jumping happily. Echoes in the ears of that beckoning shadow children's song ......
Don't abandon your loved ones for any reason, because they have never left you.