Die Landschaft ist wie ein Gemälde

Kapitel 30

He asked me in a muffled voice, "Are your friends outside?"

I nodded.

The door opened.

"Ruoxi!" The forest rushed in and grabbed me. "You scared me to death! Why did you run off all by yourself?"

"Great forest! Mingyang is here! He's right here!"

He looked up and saw Mingyang, and his strong arms that were holding me loosened instantly. Their eyes met, but Mingyang's gaze was unfamiliar.

“Great Forest, Mingyang is so strange. He seems not to recognize us at all. That... old man, he even calls him Dongzhi.”

After calming down, Da Senlin turned to me and said, "You really are something. This Doubie Chrono Classic was a gift from Mingyang. How could you use something so valuable as a phone bill payment?"

"I... my wallet was stolen. By the way, how did you know I was in this room?"

“The whole building is pitch black, except for this one house with a light on. I guess you might be here.” He put his watch on my wrist and whispered to me, “That’s why I brought you here to find Mingyang. He’s been delayed at this little river mouth for some reason. The person who gave me the clue told me that he seems to have forgotten his identity. But the fact that he is Mingyang cannot be changed. Just look at his ghost eyes; it’s a mark that’s been there for a lifetime.”

I blinked and asked him, "You mean he doesn't remember anything from before?"

“Possibly. It could also be blocked by some kind of barrier, like hypnosis…” Big Forest turned to the old man, “Grandpa! You should also tell me why no one lives in this building except your family, right? I just heard the people doing small business downstairs say that this building is a rather famous ‘ghost building’ in the river mouth!”

What?

I was genuinely surprised.

The ghostly knocking outside continued, sending chills down one's spine.

Mingyang winked at me: "Don't worry about him, he'll keep knocking all night, you'll get used to it."

"You've gotten used to this?" Unbelievable.

"It stopped making noise at dawn." He seemed genuinely used to it.

“Master,” I asked, “since this is a haunted building, why don’t you find somewhere else to live?”

The old man smiled calmly: "It's the same everywhere. People don't haunt ghosts, but ghosts haunt people. No matter how far I go, the ghosts that want to haunt me won't let me go. Just like you, you've already traveled tens of thousands of miles away from where you used to be, but have the vengeful spirits that followed you let you go?"

Section 74: The "Ghost Building" at the River Estuary (2)

I was startled. He knew I had the ability to see ghosts the moment he saw me; this old man was no ordinary person! "Does the ghost outside the door have a grudge against you?"

The old man gently stroked the black box in his hand: "Everyone thinks it's only right that my wife came back to me, but he doesn't think so..." He hugged the box, silently turned the pulley, and went back to the bedroom.

"What's wrong with him?" I asked, puzzled, as I watched his retreating figure.

"He probably misses his mom," Mingyang replied.

"Why... are you still calling me 'Mom'?" I asked in surprise. "Mingyang! Look at me again, who am I?"

"Just passing by?" He turned his head and smiled.

"No!" I exclaimed, grabbing my wrist in a panic. "Look! This is the Doubie Chrono Classic pilot's watch you gave me, look closely! It's a gift from you!"

"Oh ho..." he laughed, "I don't remember, did I? But this watch is really a fine one!"

The mist in his eyes was so thick and confusing that it left me bewildered.

"Mingyang?" He pointed to himself, puzzled. "Is my name Mingyang?"

"Yes! Di Mingyang!" I was talking to a brick wall.

The great forest stepped aside, silently watching us.

"What should I do?" I cried out to him for help. "He doesn't recognize me anymore!"

He thought for a moment, then slipped into the old man's bedroom.

"Hey! My dad's resting, don't disturb him." Mingyang reached out to pull him.

I stopped it.

"You want to harm him?" Mingyang was horrified and pushed me away.

"Di Mingyang!" I yelled at him, slamming my head on the sofa. "You once told me that fear is something we create for ourselves, and that you can only be unafraid of ghosts if you conquer yourself. Fear comes from your own heart; once you let go, you are free. You also told me that there is good and evil in the world of ghosts. You guided me to face the fear of the underworld. How can you forget all of that now?"

His body trembled slightly, as if he had remembered something.

We were locked in a stalemate, looking rather comical. He was standing, and I was lying down, but I was speaking loudly to him, and he seemed to have been slightly provoked and stood there dumbfounded.

Just then, Da Senlin pushed the old man's wheelchair out of the bedroom. He first saw Mingyang standing there like a club, and then he saw me scrambling to my feet from the sofa. I was about to say something, but he gestured for me to say nothing, nodded, and seemed confident enough to take Mingyang away.

The old man gazed at the bright sun for a long time: "My son, Dongzhi! What a pity..." He sighed, as if a heavy burden had been lifted from his shoulders, "So be it! Life's gatherings and separations are like a play; when the music ends, people must part. You and I were destined to be together, but even destiny has its limits..."

"Dad! What are you saying?" Mingyang called him—Dad?!

"Sit down!" The old man pointed to the sofa, inviting us to sit down, and instructed Mingyang to boil water and make tea.

“I brought him back from the brink of death in the tropical rainforest of Jinghong,” the old man said. “He had multiple fractures at the time, and if he moved, his leg would break. But he insisted on leaving, saying that someone he cared about was waiting for him. I had no choice but to use hypnosis to seal his memory.”

I can understand; given Mingyang's personality, he'll definitely go back to the cabin to find me. It turns out this old man is truly a wise man.

"Can Mingyang's hypnosis be lifted?" I know that this kind of hypnosis is only temporary; no one can be controlled for a lifetime. Like the hypnosis I was once subjected to, I suddenly woke up after a strong stimulus, like a sleepwalker being woken up by an alarm clock. Although I couldn't accept it, I was relieved.

The old man nodded: "Yes, it's easiest to do with your closest relatives and friends. It's as simple as unbuttoning a button or snapping a finger."

“That’s great!” I said softly.

He stared intently at me: "Who are you to him?"

"Me?" I blushed.

“His fiancée,” Big Forest said quickly.

I glared at him reproachfully, but he pretended not to see it.

The old man said, "Alright! You and I will work together to awaken him. I can sense that your brainwave interference with spiritual power is already quite strong."

Yes. I can feel it myself; my spiritual power seems to be getting stronger and stronger. I wonder if I'll become as calm and collected as my grandmother in the future, able to predict the future and handle everything with ease?

Of course, to hypnotize someone, you must wait until they are completely relaxed and their consciousness is completely unguarded before you can send the hypnotic waves into their brain's magnetic field. Naturally, the closest people are the easiest to awaken dormant memories. This isn't as complicated as organ transplants like heart or lung transplants, and there's no rejection reaction. As long as I can merge into their brain's magnetic field, we can share the same set of brain cell signal fluctuations. This is also why we sometimes have the same dreams, completely identical dreams—because our brainwave signals are so similar that they are indistinguishable.

Section 75: The "Ghost Building" at the River Estuary (3)

Mingyang came out of the kitchen, serving tea with practiced ease. It seemed this old man was no ordinary man; he had not only saved his life but also molded him into a hardworking and loyal son, much like a well-behaved child from an ordinary family. But he hadn't been well-behaved at all before, and had made me cry countless times.

The old man beckoned to him: "Child, come here."

He obediently walked over. The old man said to him, "I lost my son in middle age, and I only have one son, named Dongzhi..." He paused here, two tears welling up in his eyes, but falling slowly.

Mingyang squatted down in front of him in astonishment: "I...am not your son?"

The old man gently stroked his head, full of affection: "If only I had a son this age. My Dongzhi has been dead for nine years. Born on the winter solstice, died on the winter solstice. Fate sometimes plays tricks on you, but you never know where the dark hand pulling the strings comes from. I used the I Ching to predict that my son would meet with misfortune, but no matter how careful I was, I still couldn't change fate. My little Dongzhi, he was only seven years old when he left..."

After a long silence, the old man revealed his shameful past:

"After my son died, my daughter-in-law ran off with someone else. I'm a geological surveyor, and I'm away from home most of the time. When I returned, the house was deserted and desolate. Not long after, someone came to my door with an urn, saying it contained my wife's ashes. The person said she died in a traffic accident. But my wife wasn't the worst off. The man sitting next to her was almost completely gone; he had been crushed in two by a truck carrying steel bars. I heard that when the traffic police arrived, the man only had a pair of feet and a leg left; the rest of his body was just a pile of mud."

"When I heard this, I understood. This man, smashed to pieces, seemed to be the culprit who abducted my wife. For a while, I was depressed, drinking heavily every day, and my career was ruined. But what was even more tragic was that one morning I woke up and suddenly couldn't move my lower body. The soft tissue muscles in my legs had atrophied abnormally and were hanging down on the floor. I am a scholar who studies ancient and modern geology, but I am also very obsessed with the I Ching. I have been familiar with the Eight Trigrams and the supernatural since childhood, and I have predicted the people I will meet and the things I will see in the future. But this is the only thing. Suddenly one day, I couldn't walk, and I had no premonition at all. It's also very strange. I went to the hospital for a checkup, but they couldn't find anything wrong with my legs. The doctors all said that there was no disease in my legs, but I really couldn't walk anymore."

He patted the wheelchair beneath him: “I have been very dependent on it ever since then. I never expected that this summer, when the Jinghong Nature Reserve invited me to give a small seminar on the natural conditions there, I would unexpectedly find a son there.” He looked at Mingyang with great satisfaction, “This son was not a waste. He takes good care of me and is very filial. He takes care of my three meals a day, baths, back rubs, and physical therapy. I really can’t live without him.”

Mingyang stared blankly, and I became even more certain that the man in white carrying a basket to buy groceries that I had seen at the market that morning was him. He really was a young master unlike any other!

“However, I also noticed his abnormality. He can see things that ordinary people can’t see, and he can predict where disasters will occur.” He pointed to Mingyang. “This child said that he hears knocking on the door every night. I told him not to open the door because I know this building is haunted. Ever since my wife’s ashes came back, there has been no peace in the stairwell, and strange things happen from time to time. A child went missing after school and was found dead in a ditch a few days later. Another woman fell down the stairs and lost her seven-month-old fetus… After these strange things happened, the neighbors complained and said that it was my wife’s vengeful spirit that came back to cause trouble. I used the Five Elements and Eight Trigrams to set up a magic gate in the building to ward off ghosts and evil spirits. But the vengeful spirit in the building became more and more ferocious, and its spiritual power seemed to be increasing day by day. After the residents of this building gradually moved away, it became eerie and terrifying at night.”

I asked him, "Is it your wife's vengeful spirit that has returned?"

He shook his head: "My wife is an honest and kind person, she wouldn't do something so hurtful."

"So honest and kind, and he ran off with someone?" the Great Forest murmured.

The old man touched the urn containing the ashes on his lap: "Huijun was fifteen years younger than me. It was truly a loss for her to marry me. But I believe the vengeful spirit that's causing trouble isn't her, it definitely isn't."

"It was a man." I remember the man's head lying on the back of my hand, and it made me feel very uncomfortable.

“It must be him.” The old man actually laughed. “He thinks I stole Huijun from him. Even if it was a dead person he stole, it was still me who stole her… So he’s resentful and comes to make trouble every night.”

“That shouldn’t be!” I exclaimed. “He was the third party who broke up your family, so he shouldn’t have turned into a vengeful spirit to disturb the living.”

Section 76: The "Ghost Building" at the River Estuary (4)

"Perhaps!" The old man seemed to have transcended worldly concerns, and turned to Mingyang, saying, "Child, it's time to return the sealed memories to you."

A white light rose from the old man's eyes, gradually becoming intensely bright until everything around us was a blinding white, and we could see nothing at all...

Eighteen years ago, I lay in a cloth bag embroidered with red flowers, sucking my thumb. Oh! I was an infant in swaddling clothes. A little over two months after my birth, I witnessed something incredibly strange. The autumn wind was bleak, and the sun had turned pale. A young couple stood in my grandmother's Buddhist shrine, leading a seven-year-old boy. My grandmother praised the boy as a clever and bright child, his clear eyes sparkling with a dazzling light, so clear, so innocent, as if he could see nothing, yet also as if he saw through the entire world. The young couple asked my grandmother how they could help this boy, born with ghost eyes, to overcome his inner turmoil and drive away the fear of the lingering spirits surrounding him. My grandmother told him there was no other way; the ghost eyes were a gift from heaven, something he was born with. But this child was not unfortunate; he would become strong and courageous, with a willpower far exceeding that of ordinary people. Various trials would follow, and in the future, he would find a virtuous wife, a woman who would help him through hardships…

A beam of white light suddenly disappeared from the room, and we were jolted awake as if by an unnatural airflow. After a violent cough, the old man spat out a mouthful of blood.

I rushed over to help him up, but he waved his hand at me and reassured me that it was okay.

Mingyang stood frozen in place, but I knew he had woken up. Time, like a bright, incandescent tunnel, rapidly assaulted his brain's magnetic field, twisting the past as if an invisible key had suddenly turned it 180 degrees. He felt a wave of dizziness, then saw the surprise in my eyes: "Little Crow?"

I knew he remembered, remembered it perfectly. But this poor old man in front of me, I'm afraid, had completely disappeared from his memory. The old man gave me a mysterious smile: "Some things are exchanged for equal value. You can't have this and that, without losing anything. That's impossible."

"But how can we thank you?" After all, he saved Mingyang and then returned him to us.

The old man pointed in the direction of the door: "I'll send you out in a bit. You should head east without looking back and walk out of this building. That ghost shouldn't bother you anymore."

"And what about you?" I asked him.

"Don't worry about me. If this ghost could really harm me, it would have done so long ago. I haven't been holding back for so long. My knowledge of divination isn't just for show. You should leave now! If I stay in this building, the ghost won't be able to escape and harm others."

"But..." Before I could say anything more, the old man had already pushed me away.

He wheeled himself to the door and took Da Senlin's hand: "I'll give you a string of Buddhist prayer beads. These beads have a spirit; if you encounter a ghost, they can temporarily protect you." The old man slipped a string of purple clay prayer beads onto Da Senlin's wrist and pushed him away forcefully. "Go! Don't stop. Ghosts also have illusions and tricks; sometimes what the eyes see is not real. Just trust your heart, and go quickly!"

The door was flung open, and a sudden gust of wind arose, making it impossible to open one's eyes.

"Go out boldly! If you can't open your eyes, then don't look!" came the old man's final shout from behind, and then the door slammed shut.

I was holding Mingyang's hand in front and tugging at Da Senlin's clothes from behind, running frantically down the stairs. We ran for half an hour, and the downward stairs still seemed to stretch on endlessly. What was going on?

After Mingyang stopped, he quickly looked back. The stairs behind him vanished instantly, and what lay behind him was a dark, bottomless abyss.

Huh? Where's the big forest?

I broke out in a cold sweat. There was no one behind me. When did I lose him?

"We've been tricked!" Mingyang exclaimed in alarm. Suddenly, the steps beneath his feet began to shift...

Suddenly a cold wind swept through, making my face feel cold and tight.

I asked Mingyang, "Should we walk back?"

The steps beneath our feet had slid down like a conveyor belt, and even though we stood still, we were being carried down with them.