Ghost Alley

Introduction:

Have you ever had this experience? You arrive in an unfamiliar place, but the scenery feels familiar, as if you've been there before, even though you've never actually been there before. Or, when you're doing something, you have a vague feeling that you've experienced it before, and you can even recall what will happen next, and then it actually happens.

A friend once told me about this experience: He went on a business trip to a city he had never been to before. After dinner, he went for a walk and suddenly felt that he had been there before, and the scene was exactly as he remembered. He remembered buying a newspaper from a newsstand on the street, and sure enough, he saw a newsstand there.

So he bought a newspaper and wondered what would happen next. He vaguely remembered that a cyclist would fall at the intersection, so he stood there and waited. But after waiting a long time, nothing happened. He thought he was being ridiculous, shook his head, and turned to leave. Just a few steps away, he heard a loud crash behind him. He turned around and saw a young man on a bicycle had fallen at the intersection.

Feng Junzi also consulted many friends in the fields of metaphysics and religion about this matter. Some told Feng Junzi that this is called "wisdom eye," which allows one to see the past and future; others told Feng Junzi that this is "predictive ability," a supernatural power inherent in everyone. The reason why people living in the mortal world cannot feel it is because many things have blinded our minds; it can be said that each of us is like a precious mirror covered in dust.

Feng Junzi remained skeptical of this explanation. His skepticism stemmed from the fact that he had never learned about these things in textbooks, while his partial belief arose from the fact that some events did indeed occur in strange ways. For example, several years ago, one night, Feng Junzi had a very clear dream about a stock that hit its daily limit up. The next morning, the stock actually did indeed hit its daily limit up; Feng Junzi watched in astonishment as it climbed from the previous day's closing price to the limit up price.

After that experience, Feng Junzi kept dreaming about having the same dream again, hoping it would bring him wealth. Unfortunately, he never had another dream like that to awaken his clouded wisdom, and the result was—

result--

result--

As a result, Feng Junzi developed the habit of sleeping in late, and he still hasn't changed it.

Volume 1: Ghost Girl Drifting Away

1-1, Haier Mountain Villa

"Please stop talking, I'm so scared!"

“You’re scared of this too? Let me tell you another story, and you’ll find that the previous story wasn’t scary at all.”

It was an evening in 2002 at the Haier Villa at the foot of Laoshan Mountain in Qingdao. A group of people were sitting in a private room of the restaurant telling ghost stories. The one who said he was scared was Xiao Tang, the office secretary, and the one who wanted a story was Xiao Gao, the driver and assistant of Chairman Bi. They were a group of employees from a securities consulting company.

The man sitting in the middle was Lao Bi, and next to him was Feng Junzi, also a securities analyst at the company, but not permanently based in Qingdao. He had to return to headquarters for business, and Lao Bi, feigning enthusiasm, took the whole group to Haier Villa for the weekend. After dinner, with nothing to do, looking at the dark and eerie night view outside the villa, someone started telling ghost stories. Ghost stories are like that—they sound scary, but the scarier you are, the more you want to hear them; they're really quite interesting.

After Xiao Gao finished telling his even scarier story, Xiao Tang and Xiao Wang, the two young women in the audience, were trembling with fear. Feng Junzi looked at the group and didn't know whether they were brave or cowardly, so he decided to test them. He said, "Actually, what's scary about ghost stories isn't the story itself. Anyone can make up a story. The real fear comes from each person's inner feelings, especially the feeling of imagining being there."

"Teacher Feng, what kind of ghost story is truly scary?"

"Don't speak, just listen to the wind outside the window. I'm going to tell you a story." Feng Junzi said with a deliberately gloomy expression, "Once upon a time, there was a group of people who locked themselves in their rooms at night and told ghost stories. You know, it's not just people who like to listen to stories, other things do too. Hearing these people telling their stories, these things couldn't help but come over to listen. — Don't look around, even if there's something there, you won't be able to see it."

Feng Junzi's words sent chills down everyone's spines, and no one dared to utter a sound. The private room was quiet, save for the sound of the wind outside. With a half-smile, Feng Junzi continued, "When these people were telling their story, they attracted those things, but the doors and windows were all closed, so they couldn't get in. At that moment, these things tried to squeeze in through the cracks in the windows. If you listened carefully to the 'hissing' sound in the wind, you would have noticed it, but unfortunately, they didn't realize it at the time."

Seeing everyone holding their breath and listening intently, Feng Junzi secretly tucked a coin under his chair with his right hand and flicked it behind him. The coin struck the windowpane with a sharp, piercing sound, startling everyone into screams and shouts, like a pot boiling over.

"Teacher Feng, you can't talk like that! You'll scare people to death!" Everyone was both surprised and amused, and they all scolded him.

"Alright, alright, everyone stop shouting," Xiao Gao said. "Teacher Feng is quite good at studying psychology; he can really scare people to death. But has Teacher Feng ever seen a real ghost?"

"Of course not, has any of you seen him?"

Xiao Gao said, "Of course none of us have seen it, but we all know there's a place where it exists, right here in Jimo City, Qingdao." Jimo is a county-level city under the jurisdiction of Qingdao, and everyone present except Feng Junzi is from that place.

After Xiao Gao finished speaking, the room, which had been noisy just moments before, suddenly fell silent again. Someone interrupted, "Xiao Gao, stop talking."

Seeing their expressions suddenly turn serious, Feng Junzi realized that everyone knew what Xiao Gao was talking about, which meant he was serious and not joking. Feng Junzi's curiosity was piqued, and he pressed Xiao Gao, "What? Is there really such a place? You have to tell me, I want to go and see it sometime."

At this moment, Lao Bi spoke up: "There is indeed such a place called Ghost Alley, and all of us from Jimo know about it."

1-2. The precious mirror is covered in dust.

The Chinese have a long history of drinking yellow wine. Yellow wine is more popular in the south, with the famous production area being Shaoxing. It's less common in the north, hence its limited production areas. However, a special type of yellow wine called Jimo Laojiu is produced in Jimo, Shandong. Jimo is now under the jurisdiction of Qingdao and is only 20 kilometers from Liuting Airport.

Ghost Alley is located in Jimo. This isn't some mythical place; it's a real alley. If your curiosity is really strong, you can go and see for yourself. Feng Junzi, also driven by curiosity, couldn't resist going to see it for himself after hearing everyone's descriptions.

Ghost Alley is just an alley, a typical passageway between rows of houses. However, Ghost Alley is unique in two ways: First, it's extremely long, with no side streets—over a mile long. If you enter, you either have to turn back or go directly to the other end; there are no turns. Second, the houses on either side have neither windows nor doors. For some reason, all the doors and windows face the opposite direction of the alley, making it a completely enclosed passageway, except for the two exits at the beginning and end. Walking through this alley, you might hear many sounds coming from the houses on both sides, but you will absolutely not see a single person. This alone is enough to frighten the timid.

The residents living on both sides of Ghost Alley seemed to live in peace. It was a working-class neighborhood, and of course, the truly wealthy wouldn't live in such a place. The alley was eerie even in broad daylight. Even in the height of summer, standing at the entrance, one could feel a chill in the breeze blowing through the alley, and faintly, one could hear the wails and howls of ghosts.

What's it like inside Ghost Alley? Nobody knows for sure; it seems like no one has been inside for many years. Occasionally, mischievous kids will stand at the alley entrance after school, testing their courage. A few of them will cautiously walk into the alley, but after only a few steps, someone will always scream, and then they'll all run back like madmen, as if the slowest one will be dragged in by something. Xiao Gao and Xiao Tang had similar experiences when they were little.

Feng Junzi is a person who loves the unusual and always looks for trouble. When he heard about such a place, he naturally wanted to check it out. His flight was at nine o'clock the next night, so he had a whole day to spare. He kept pestering Xiao Gao to take him to see Ghost Alley, and Xiao Gao had no choice but to agree.

The next day, Feng Junzi slept in again, not leaving Haier Mountain Villa until noon. Xiao Gao drove him to the airport, making a detour to Jimo to see the legendary Ghost Alley. The mountain air was fresh, and the jagged rocks and peaks that looked menacing at night became beautiful scenery under the sunlight.

Feng Junzi saw a spring on a mountain peak not far away, where water flowed down from between the rocks like a thin chain. He pointed to the spring and asked Xiao Gao, "Is this Laoshan mineral water?"

"Yes, there are many mountain springs here. I hadn't noticed before. It must have rained a few days ago."

"It's related to rain, but this spring water is groundwater, not rainwater. How come you don't know about mountain springs when you're in Qingdao?"

"What's this about a mountain spring? Groundwater? The groundwater level isn't that high, how could it be gushing out from the mountain?" Xiao Gao asked curiously.

"The groundwater level on flat land is certainly not this high. The rise in the groundwater level is due to the pressure of the mountain. Because of the pressure of the mountain, groundwater will seep out from the cracks in the rocks, which is the mountain spring. Of course, the more rain there is, the more groundwater there will be, and the more mountain springs there will be."

Feng Junzi actually only had a superficial understanding of geomechanics; he was just chatting idly with Xiao Gao. As they talked, the car left the Laoshan Scenic Area and headed towards Jimo.

As they approached Jimo city, Xiao Gao saw a large group of people gathered outside the gate of a construction site by the roadside, making a racket and doing something he couldn't understand. Xiao Gao muttered to himself, "What are these migrant workers doing gathered there? This is a project of the Jimo municipal government, and it's already completed."

“They’re demanding their wages. The building is almost ready for handover, but they haven’t received the outstanding payments. The contractor owes these migrant workers six months’ wages, and they’ve come to collect the debt today,” Feng Junzi replied without hesitation.

"How can this be? Is nobody going to do anything about it?" Xiao Gao asked angrily.

"Nobody cares right now, but don't worry, someone will start paying attention after a while. It won't work if they don't."

"Why? Who would care?" Xiao Gao asked curiously.

Feng Junzi replied thoughtfully, "Did you see those mountain springs? They'll gush out when the pressure is too great, and even spurt out when the pressure gets too high. Sometimes it's very dangerous. The number of migrant workers like this is growing larger and larger in cities these days. If they can't get paid to go home, they'll become stranded in the area. If this group of dissatisfied people gathers more and more, it could cause trouble at any time, like a powder keg. After a few incidents, the leaders will take it seriously."

"Is it because you care about the masses?" Xiao Gao then asked.

"No, it's defusing the fuse of the bomb, making his own position secure. It's like the stock market releasing some positive news every now and then to trigger a rally. Just wait and see."

“Teacher Feng is right,” Xiao Gao suddenly realized something and a

……