Das Geheimnis des alten Hauses

Kapitel 16

Reply [84]: "I was drinking a latte when my casual gaze fell on the face of the European sitting at the next table. I noticed that he was staring intently at me. Once I saw that look, my intuition told me that this foreigner must have fallen in love with me at first sight. My boyfriend next to me did not notice that I was making eye contact with someone else. He was happily unfolding a map and identifying every street name on it."

"Sure enough, the European looked at me for a few minutes before finally standing up and approaching us. My gaze never left his face until he stopped, because... because he was so incredibly handsome. He had jet-black, slightly curly hair, deep-set eyes, a tall and imposing figure, and a prominent aquiline nose—he looked like Apollo, the sun god, straight out of a painting!"

"My boyfriend finally noticed that something was wrong with me. He looked up and saw the foreigner. But the foreigner completely ignored him and only nodded slightly to me, telling me that his Chinese name was Tang Shijing."

“Originally, I thought my gaze was just a fleeting encounter with a handsome local in a foreign country, a slight flutter of the heart like admiring a work of art. I never expected that he would actually come up to me and talk to me…” Zhi Mei gasped for breath, “What surprised me even more was that Tang Shijing spoke fluent Chinese. Without the slightest hesitation, he directly confessed his love to me and asked me to go with him immediately!”

"His tone was so confident that it startled both my boyfriend and me. My boyfriend immediately told him to stop joking, but Tang Shijing coldly replied, 'Don't you want to live?' I thought... I thought Tang Shijing was going to hit me, even though my boyfriend was a basketball player in school and was half a head taller than Tang Shijing. However, I noticed that Tang Shijing's eyes had become very strange, as if... as if he could kill my boyfriend with just one finger..." Seeing this, I felt extremely uneasy. I immediately pulled my boyfriend away and asked him to come back to the hotel with me. Tang Shijing didn't follow. After we got back to the room, we thought it was just an accidental conflict, but we never expected... that very night, just before my boyfriend and I were about to go to bed, I saw Tang Shijing standing on the roof of the building across the street outside my window!

“Jianxiang, do you know? Our room is on the seventh floor! The building across the street is a Roman-style commercial rental building with nine floors in total, and the roof... the roof is designed as a spire, and Tang Shijing is wearing a black robe and standing on the spire, which is impossible to climb!”

Sword's ears were ringing.

"I was stunned because Tang Shijing was looking at me and smiling. Although I drew the curtains, I couldn't sleep all night. I didn't tell my boyfriend about it, but I kept urging him to pack his bags and leave Venice the next morning."

"Our next stop was Malta. It was a trip I had been looking forward to for a long time because I love Das Hammite's 'The Falcon of Malta,' but after we arrived in Farretta, the capital of Malta, I found that I had no interest in sightseeing at all, and I felt like Tomson was following us the whole time."

"On the third day, while visiting the ruins of the Tasia Temple, Tang Shijing appeared. This time, my boyfriend couldn't hold back anymore and gave Tang Shijing a good beating. Unexpectedly, Tang Shijing said that my boyfriend had finally been cursed and would lose his life within twelve hours. My boyfriend scoffed at this and warned him not to follow us anymore."

"As a result... as a result... that evening, my boyfriend took out his Swiss Army knife and slit his own throat on a suburban road near the hotel."

Zhi Mei seemed to be sobbing uncontrollably as she recalled the horrific memories. "Tang Shijing... Tang Shijing appeared again. He lit a fire and burned my boyfriend's body right in front of me... I... I couldn't stop him at all! Tang Shijing even said to me with a sinister look that he had lived for over five hundred years and that anyone who tried to stop him would not have a good end." I was so scared at that time that I couldn't even run away... I can't imagine why I had such courage back then... I told Tang Shijing that I was willing to be with him, and he was very happy to hear that, and the warm smile that I had shown him when I first met him returned.

"For the next week or so, Tang Shijing and I stayed in Warsaw, and he told me more about his past. He said that when he was young, he fell in love with a marquis, but was eventually expelled from the country. Enraged, he decided to learn black magic to avenge himself and win back his lover. More than a decade later, he finally returned and killed the marquis, but the marquis's memory of him was already blurred. He tried to prove his love to her, but she, grieving the loss of her husband, eventually drowned herself. Tang Shijing retrieved her body and stayed by her side until it completely decomposed. A firm believer in reincarnation, he resolved to delve into even more profound arts of immortality, beginning his eternal quest."

"As I listened, I gradually realized that I might look very similar to that Marchioness, and that he had lived all this time just to find that Marchioness named Petrine. For some reason, my fear of him was mixed with a little sympathy."

---hqszs

Reply [85]: "But one day when I saw the portrait of the Marquise in his collection, I realized that I didn't look like her at all. I finally understood completely—Tang Shijing had gone mad!"

“From the newspaper clippings he collected, I finally discovered that he seemed to be constantly murdering young men in love. These men were from all over the world, and like my boyfriend’s death, the methods were extremely cruel yet completely untraceable, so they all became unsolved cases. I don’t know what happened to the girls he targeted, but I felt that my own situation was also very dangerous. So, I secretly thought about an escape plan, and on the day he left home, I took a plane back to Taiwan alone.”

Jian Xiang held Zhi Mei tightly, hoping to stop her grief. "You mean, Tang Shijing came to Taiwan with you?"

Zhi Mei nodded. "Ten days after returning to Taiwan, I met him at Hanshin Department Store. He threatened me to return to Warsaw with him immediately, or he would continue to curse my relatives and friends. I was so scared that I fainted... I think that's when I lost my memory. However, after threatening me, he didn't continue to follow me."

“Although I lost my memory, the fear of him remains deep in my subconscious. I'm so afraid I can't sleep; whenever I close my eyes, the image of him standing on the spire, staring at me, floats into my mind… I met Si-Zao and Yong-Yu, but even though they loved me and gave me a strong sense of security, I was still afraid. And then they were both really killed. Only then did I fully understand that Tang Shi-Jing might have cast a curse somewhere, causing all the men around me to die tragically… That way, he doesn't need to follow me anymore; he calculated that I would definitely go to him…” “Do you know where he is now?”

“In Fengshan,” Zhi Mei said, “he is pretending to be a Mormon and is currently staying at the church.”

“I’ll go find him and ask him to break the curse.” Jian Xiang glanced at his watch. “It will be too late after sunset.”

"You will be killed."

"If we don't go to him, we'll still be killed."

Zhi Mei grasped his hand. "Jian Xiang, I'll go with you."

The brothers from the Fengshan branch of the Mormon Church told Jianxiang that Tang Shijing was out and not currently at the meeting place. Jianxiang immediately expressed his wish to stay and wait for his return. The brother who received them was an obese young man who looked to be under twenty years old. His Chinese was strange, except for his own Chinese name, which he pronounced clearly. He didn't ask many questions and led them to a room used for meetings or scripture readings to wait.

As the seconds ticked by, Kenshin's nerves tightened more and more. Zhi Mei sat silently beside him, their shoulders touching, seemingly conveying each other's unease.

The church is located near the intersection of Caogong Road and Guangyuan Road, opposite the Kaohsiung County Police Station. When they arrived at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on the upper floor of the Land Bank building on their motorcycles, the bright but gentle orange-red light of the setting sun indicated that it was sinking.

After waiting for an unknown amount of time, Jianxiang heard voices coming from the entrance hall. Zhimei looked up at the same time, her eyes conveying her fear; she knew Tang Shijing had returned.

"Brother Tang, your guest... is in the room." The fat brother who had greeted them earlier did not come in.

A burly, handsome foreigner walked in. Upon seeing Zhi Mei, he took a deep breath and said, "Close the door and don't disturb me."

"yes."

Tang Shijing indeed looked exactly like a male deity from a painter's work. Jian Xiang was already quite confident in his appearance and physique, but seeing him made him feel utterly inferior. However, his sixth sense told him something else—even among deities, there are evil gods who commit heinous crimes and have blood on their hands.

Tang Shijing ignored Jian Xiang's presence and sat down facing Zhi Mei. "You're willing to come back to Warsaw with me?"

---hqszs

Reply [86]: "No, I won't go with you." Zhi Mei's expression was disgusted, "I don't love you at all!"

"Why? Why?" Tang Shijing suddenly became agitated, looking like a furious lion. "Since I came to Taiwan, countless girls have fallen in love with me at first sight, but I haven't paid them any attention at all. Don't I have any charm at all? Why won't you love me?"

"Because—because you are evil. You are too evil."

Tang Shijing fell silent; he was clearly displeased with Zhi Mei's words. However, Jian Xiang did not sense any hatred from him towards Zhi Mei.

"Then why did you come to see me?"

"I want you to break my curse of murder!"

Tang Shijing's tone was full of sarcasm. "Who's cursed?"

“It’s him.” Zhi Mei glanced at Jian Xiang, and he instantly felt her boundless tenderness. At the same time, he also realized that she hadn’t mentioned the fact that she was also cursed.

"Your new boyfriend?"

"You...you have no right to hurt the person I love so much!" Tears began to well up in Zhi Mei's eyes.

“Zhi Mei, I can’t do it,” Tang Shijing said, his smile still full of joy. “That curse can’t be broken.”

"……What did you say?"

“Zhi Mei, I think you don’t fully understand—I’m willing to do anything you ask of me. However, even if you agree to come back to Warsaw with me, even if I wanted to help you break the curse, I’m powerless. Your boyfriend is doomed.”

Zhi Mei's tears slid from her eyes and fell onto the table. She couldn't continue speaking.

"Tang Shijing, how exactly did you set this curse?" Jian Xiang finally couldn't hold back any longer and asked, "I can somewhat understand why Meimei's boyfriend slit his throat in front of her, since he had physical contact with you. But me... and Meimei's other boyfriends, they don't know you at all, and they've never had any contact with you. I don't know how you're going to cast this curse?"

In fact, Jian Xiang's focus at this moment was completely different from Zhi Mei's. Driven by a detective's instincts, he had been investigating these murder cases for so long in order to uncover the truth behind the terrifying magic. He wasn't actually that concerned about his own safety.

"Are you really interested?" Tang Shijing, who had only just entered, finally looked directly at Jian Xiang. "Alright, then I'll tell you. My mentor, the great magician Cornelias Agrippa..." "Agrippa is your teacher?"

Faced with a person who has lived for five hundred years, Jian Xiang couldn't help but have the illusion of traveling through time.

"That's right, I am one of his direct disciples. During his lifetime, he invented a type of black magic that was the most lethal in the modern era, called 'Judas's Prison Gate'. This was designed by my mentor for the governor of the Saxon province of Germany to deal with political traitors. Anyone cursed by this magic will be hunted down by the evil spirits of hell."

"The principle of the magic is actually very simple: as long as the 'Key to Breaking the Seal' is engraved on the palm of the cursed person, if the cursed person opens any door with their hand afterward, it is equivalent to opening the gates of hell. And the blood flowing from the palm with the 'Key to Breaking the Seal' engraved on it has a pungent smell that becomes an indicator for evil spirits to snipe at. If the cursed person knocks on the door while opening it, they will be more likely to attract evil spirits that hear the sound."

"In other words, the 'Gates of Judah' were completely different from the simple 'Ghost Eye'. It could indeed make people see ghosts, but the real purpose behind it was to murder political enemies. In order to lower the guard of political enemies, the name of 'Ghost Eye' was used as a lure, so that people who were curious about ghosts would be cursed without their knowledge."

"Precisely because its purpose is to murder the enemy, my mentor would certainly not invent a murderous magic that can be exorcised. The 'Gates of Judah' must be a place of no return, so as to ensure that the enemy is certain to die."

"According to my mentor's research, theoretically speaking, the 'Gates of Judah' can be considered one of the most outstanding inventions in the history of witchcraft. First, the cursed person has nowhere to escape; as soon as night falls, evil spirits will surround him at any time. He will be unable to sleep due to mental tension, which will seriously affect everything he does, including his political influence. Second, the only way for him to survive is through self-imprisonment. He will no longer have the opportunity to conspire with the enemy or contact others; he can only obediently hide in the secret room until one day the evil spirits break in and end his life. Isn't that wonderful magic?"

"But the 'Gates of Judah' was ultimately abandoned by my mentor. Because its premise was flawed. Not every political enemy wants to experience the feeling of seeing a ghost, nor would anyone be foolish enough to allow their enemy's henchmen to draw a magic pattern on their palm. Although its destructive power is so terrible, it is extremely difficult to deceive an enemy into believing that they are cursed."

As Jian Xiang listened, he gradually sank into despair. If Tang Shijing's words were true, he and Zhi Mei had no chance of survival.

It is believed that Chung Sze-tsao and Xia Yong-yu tried every means to survive after being cursed, but in the end they could not escape death.

---hqszs

Reply [87]: "It was many years after my mentor died that I discovered the existence of this magic in his manuscripts. At that time, I had gradually come to understand the true meaning of the art of immortality and longed to continue to study profound magic so that one day I could surpass my mentor's achievements and become a greater magician."

"Having gained eternal life, I began to learn the languages of various countries, study all kinds of knowledge, and delve into important texts of witchcraft from different regions. I have been trying to solve the fundamental flaw of the 'Gates of Judah'—I must find a way to make this magic work without relying on the will of the cursed. Finally, I found a completely new way to use the 'Gates of Judah' from the human subconscious!"

"The human subconscious...?"

"It's hypnosis, sleep talking, and somnambulism."

Jian Xiang was speechless—his sense of dread returned! Before Tang Shijing could even explain, Jian Xiang felt a chill run down his spine as he made full connections to the nouns he mentioned.

"You mean...you mean..." Jian Xiang felt his body trembling violently as he spoke. "You first hypnotized Mei Mei, instructing her to cast a spell on her sleeping partner while she was asleep, and then...and then..." He wasn't sure if he could finish the sentence: "The person who hears the spell will begin to sleepwalk, taking out a knife in their sleep to carve the 'Key to Breaking the Seal' on their palm, and opening a door, unconsciously and automatically completing the magic that kills themselves..." "I never expected your comprehension to be so high," Tang Shijing said calmly. "That's right, I want all the men Zhi Mei loves to perish, so that Zhi Mei will completely give up and return to my side. No one but me can possess Zhi Mei."

Zhi Mei looked incredulous and shook her head desperately to the side.

"Aren't you afraid that when Meimei returns to your side, she will also lay the door of Judah's prison on you in your sleep?"

“I can break the hypnotic spell of sleep talking. Besides, I’m not afraid of ‘Judah’s Gate’,” Tang Shijing said confidently. “I’m a wizard with great magical power.”

Jian Xiang finally fully understood the final truth behind this series of horrific murders. On the other hand, he also thought that the reason Zhi Mei also had nightmares might be because Xia Yongyu's powerful hypnosis, while capturing her memories, also disrupted the mechanism of her subconscious, causing the nightmares that originally existed in her mind to flow back into her sleep process... At this moment, Zhi Mei suddenly pulled out a pistol and pointed the muzzle fiercely at Tang Shijing's forehead.

"Meimei!"

Even if Jian Xiang cried out in alarm, it was too late to stop Zhi Mei's actions.

“It’s no use doing this, Zhi Mei,” Tang Shijing remained unmoved even in the face of deadly weapons. “I am not the one who cast the spell; you are. However, even if you kill me or shoot yourself, it won’t change anything. I just said that once the spell has begun, it cannot be stopped. This will not change if either of us dies.”

Zhi Mei immediately engaged the safety on her pistol after hearing this.

"I hate you!" Zhi Mei said, tears welling up in her eyes. "You took everything from me... you took away the person I love, I'm going to kill you."

"Meimei, calm down!" Jian shouted. "Tang Shijing, do you know? Meimei has been cursed too!"

"What?" In an instant, Tang Shijing's arrogant and conceited demeanor vanished, leaving him weak and powerless. "Are you telling the truth?"

"Your magic will kill Meimei! Tell me, how do we break the spell?"

“I told you… I told you… the gates of Judah’s prison can never be opened!” Tang Shijing’s tone was vacant: “I really didn’t expect this… Zhi Mei, why didn’t you tell me sooner!”

"Is my life really that important compared to the people I love? Why... why did you... so cruelly kill so many people for my sake?"

"I have always loved you deeply."

---hqszs

Reply [88]: "I could never love you! I hate you! I hate you—" Seeing the situation becoming increasingly tense, Jian Xiang could only repeat his request. "Tang Shijing, aren't you a great magician? Quickly tell me the solution! The sun is about to set!"

“My master’s magic is unsolvable… unsolvable… unsolvable…” Tang Shijing seemed to begin to murmur unconsciously, “Zhi Mei… Zhi Mei… you want to kill me, don’t you? Fine, it’s okay… if my death can quell your hatred, I am very willing to give up my eternal life. As long as you are willing to love me. I love you.”

"Why are you so stubborn? I don't love you, I'm not Petris at all!"

"I love you, I love you so much."

Tang Shijing grasped Zhi Mei's right hand, which was holding the pistol, and pulled the trigger. A deafening explosion erupted in the room, and Tang Shijing's body fell backward, the milky white wall behind him splattered with bright red, thick brain matter and blood.

Jian Xiang's motorcycle screeched to a halt in front of Xia Yongyu's residence. Zhi Mei, clinging tightly to his waist, was still panting heavily. Crimson bloodstains stained her palms, arms, the front of her thin-strapped shirt, and her pale cheeks.

The sounds of explosions, the smell of gunpowder, and the gruesome sight of Tang Shijing's head exploding still lingered in his memory. It remained unclear whether Tang Shijing had taken his own life or whether Zhi Mei had shot him in a fit of grief and rage.

Completely ignoring traffic warnings, they sped through dozens of treacherous intersections, arriving at the residential area on Fuheng Road before darkness fell—there was nowhere else to go. Jianxiang, carrying the still-shaken Zhimei, couldn't return to the Sanmin Police Station, because his colleagues wouldn't believe him; he couldn't return to his home in Lingya District, because there was no time to explain the whole story; and he couldn't return to Zhimei's room, because he had already kicked down her door—a door that couldn't be closed could not protect them… They could only return to Xia Yongyu's house, an empty house whose owner had been murdered and whose whereabouts had not yet been found by the police.

—Besides that, there are other reasons. Reasons that concern life and death.

Zhi Mei remained silent after getting out of the car, not asking why she had come here. Perhaps she was too distraught to ask. Jian Xiang took out his keys, opened the door, and let Zhi Mei go in first before following him in. He then locked the door.

The long gap before the door closed allowed deep purple sunlight to filter through.

A dozen or so advertising letters and various bills were piled on the floor. Jian Xiang silently counted in his mind that it had been more than ten days since he last came in. He saw Zhi Mei looking around at the empty walls and guessed that she was reminiscing about the attachment she had lost.

Although he didn't want to interrupt her thoughts, his reason still urged him to speak: "Meimei, let's go upstairs. The sun is about to set, and we still have important things to do."

Zhi Mei obediently pulled the sword toward her right little finger and followed him up the steps.

"Jianxiang, why did you bring me here?" Zhimei suddenly spoke from behind, "Did you choose the Yongyu family as the final destination of our lives?"

“No,” Jian Xiang said without turning around. “I hope we can all survive.”