Les trois histoires de fantômes de Jinzhong Deux Tai Sui détruisent la ville

Chapitre 24

Looking back now, these were all loopholes, and I was completely unaware of them at the time!

Sun Jingfeng ran out of the alley and jumped in front of an empty taxi.

"Are you out of your mind?" This was the first time the driver had ever been so rude to a passenger.

"Fifteen minutes, Fuxing Road, two hundred yuan."

The accelerator roared to life the next second. "Good passenger," the driver thought.

Xu Xu didn't go to the Ouyang family yesterday. After escaping from the air-raid shelter, she specifically called Ouyang Wenlan to apologize, promising to go this morning. How long has she been gone? When she woke up, Sun Jing was still asleep, so she couldn't keep track of the time. Half an hour, an hour, an hour and a half?

As for preparing for witchcraft, if Ouyang Wenlan suggested that Xu Xu cooperate with a rehearsal, she would absolutely not refuse.

In 1969, Wen Zhenhe was not in the underground hall, but Ouyang Wenlan certainly was. Wen Zhenhe was just a newly joined experimenter, and definitely a secretive newcomer unknown to most of the experimenters.

All the experimenters wanted to possess the wizard's skull exclusively, which is why it was donated to the state; no one else could have it, and this was a prerequisite for resolving the conflict. Given this, the experimenters could never tolerate any of their kind being in such a close position to the wizard's skull.

It must have been some ambitious experimenter who secretly cultivated Wen Zhenhe in order to obtain the wizard's skull. Who else could this person be but Ouyang Wenlan?

Details flashed through Sun Jing's mind, quickly piecing themselves together. How ridiculous! An elaborate scam, the so-called search for human weaknesses—ha! He and Xu Xu, those two self-righteous con artists, had been caught in someone else's trap from beginning to end, dancing to the beat set by others.

The entire process was under the enemy's control, but... to hell with the process, the result is what matters.

Sun Jing clenched his fist. Wen Zhenhe won the process, but lost the result. Now, he was going to win the second one.

Xu Xu, carrying a lead box, walked beside Ouyang Wenlan.

"Luckily, they changed the box. If it were still that safe, I wouldn't be able to carry it," Xu Xu said.

Ouyang Wenlan turned his head and smiled slightly at her.

The lead box contained the wizard's skull. For some reason, holding it in my hands while walking always made me feel slightly dizzy. Didn't Sun Jing say that the skull sent by the Dongbo Museum was fake? Maybe I didn't sleep enough last night, Xu Xu thought.

"You surprised me so much! I thought it was just some preparation or rehearsal."

“Since you weren’t here yesterday, I calculated it myself according to the Shang Dynasty calendar. If we strictly follow the rules of that time, the only day for praying for longevity is today. The next suitable day will be more than a month away. We can’t borrow this wizard’s skull for that long.”

"What am I supposed to do in a little while? I know nothing about witchcraft."

“You don’t need to do anything,” Ouyang Wenlan said gently. “You just need to hold the wizard’s skull.”

"Should I hold it like this?"

Ouyang Wenlan laughed, "Of course there is no such box, but it would be a little scary for a little girl like you to hold a dead person's bone."

"No way. I also have a lot of oracle bones, they're all just bones. Besides, these aren't just ordinary human bones, they're national treasures."

"It's good that you're not afraid. Actually, I know that any talk of prolonging life is just wishful thinking. This is just for show. It can't really be like the Shang Dynasty, where they even used human sacrifices. So if you feel uncomfortable, we can go back."

"You're already here, and you're still saying things like that? You really look down on me." Xu Xu glared at him, and Ouyang laughed heartily.

Xu Xu's phone suddenly rang, but she was holding the lead box with both hands and couldn't answer it.

The phone rang two or three times and then stopped. Xu Xu asked Ouyang Wenlan to help her take the phone out of her coat pocket to see who was calling.

“It was Sun Jing who called you,” Ouyang Wenlan said, glancing at the caller ID. “The signal might be bad here. Call him back after we’re done.”

With a soft click, the door behind me closed.

"This...this is?" Xu Xu looked at the passageway in front of her in surprise.

"Have you ever heard of the ossuary 300 kilometers underground in Paris?" Ouyang Wenlan's tone turned sinister. "Like what you see now, a passageway entirely built of bones."

Xu Xu's face paled, and she stammered, "Shanghai... how come there are some here too?"

Ouyang Wenlan suddenly burst into laughter, reached out and slapped Xu Xu on the head, "You said you weren't afraid, take a closer look at what this is, be careful not to drop the box and break your skull."

The walls on both sides of this one-meter-wide passageway are densely embedded with bones, which would startle anyone who sees them at first glance. However, upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that many tortoise shells are mixed in with these bones, and the others are also different from human bones.

"You scared me like that!" Xu Xu exclaimed. She was genuinely startled. If she hadn't been holding the lead box, she would have jumped up and playfully smacked Ouyang Wenlan on the back.

These are all oracle bones. Millions of oracle bones have been unearthed in Anyang, but the vast majority are uninscribed, and more than half lack even the divination marks from fire. They were stored as raw materials in the past. The value and price of these uninscribed oracle bones are vastly different from those with inscriptions. These are the oracle bones displayed on both sides of the passageway.

"I bought all of these when I was young and just started learning about oracle bone culture. Back then I didn't know anything, so I bought them regardless of whether they had characters or not, and I accumulated a huge pile. Now, no one would want these things even if I donated them, so I just left them here."

Ouyang Wenlan held a bamboo cane in his hand, but didn't use it much. He walked slowly ahead with his back ramrod straight.

“People get afraid of death when they get old, but there’s no use running away from death no matter how far you go. Sometimes I come here to walk in this passageway, look at these bones from thousands of years ago, and smell the scent of death. It makes me feel calm.”

Xu Xu was somewhat surprised by the passageway. Startled by Ouyang Wenlan, she awkwardly reflected on herself, wondering why, despite yesterday's ordeal, she was still so easily startled and lacked composure. Now, hearing him say this, and recalling their recent interactions, she realized that the old man's state of mind and demeanor were quite different from her initial assessment.

Anyway, I'm not planning to continue working on the wizard skull story on him. I'll just go through the motions today and see if I come back in the future.

A black cat crouched on the ground ahead, watching the two of them. Ouyang Wenlan stretched out his bamboo cane and waved it at the cat. The black cat let out a soft meow, turned around, and darted out of the passageway and disappeared.

Sun Jing jumped out of the taxi and saw the black iron gate of the Ouyang family's house. The burning feeling in his heart intensified. He had called Xu Xu earlier, but the call was cut off after a few rings, and when he dialed back, he could not get through.

He raised his hand and rang the doorbell, but in his heart he was wondering what kind of ability the mysterious experiment had given Ouyang Wenlan.

He survived the tragedy of that year, and appears to have suffered no irreparable injuries. Was it good luck, or is his ability exceptionally powerful and terrifying?

Compared to the scene I witnessed in the underground hall yesterday, Wen Zhen's ability to control the wind was practically harmless.

Thinking of this, Sun Jing touched his right chest. He rushed out of the house without thinking, but luckily he was wearing yesterday's vest and had a stun gun in his pocket.

The door opened.

Ah Bao stared at him blankly, as if somewhat puzzled, and then said, "Hello."

"Hello," Sun Jing smiled. "I have some business to discuss with Mr. Ouyang. I'm so sorry I didn't make an appointment."

"Oh." Abao nodded. "But Grandpa isn't here."

"Not here?" Sun Jing's heart skipped a beat. "Where is Miss Xu?"

"Not here. And not here either."

Where did they go?

Abao shook his head.

Sun Jing knew this was a pointless question, so he asked again, "When did they leave?"

Ah Bao looked down, as if calculating the time. Sun Jing was getting impatient. After a while, Ah Bao looked up again and said, "It's been a while, um, quite a while."

Sun Jing could no longer maintain her smile, but fortunately, she didn't need to in front of A Bao.

"Come in?" Abao asked. "Come in, let's sit in the garden outside. It's not very convenient to come inside."

“No, I’m not coming in,” Sun Jing shook his head.

Ah Bao bowed to him and closed the door.

Sun Jing stood there blankly in front of the door for about half a minute, then ran away as fast as he could.

Abao closed the door, thought for a moment, locked it from the inside, and quickly walked into the garden.

With a broad smile, he walked along the clear water channel that circled the building to the back garden. There was an artificial hill there, and the water channel passed through a cave in the hill. Abao also bent down and went inside.

He didn't come out from the other side, but instead went down the stone steps inside the cave to the door of the basement.

Ah Bao opened the door and went inside, ignoring the antiques displayed around him, but picked up a small jar from the table. He scooped out some cat brains from the jar with his fingers, put them in his mouth and smacked his lips, chuckling, before quickly walking to the end of the basement.

There was another door, behind which was a much smaller space that connected to a long, narrow passageway studded with bones.

“Actually, this place doesn’t count as my home anymore, starting from this passageway,” Ouyang Yilan said.

They had now emerged from the passageway into a vast, dark plaza. Perhaps it was larger than a basketball court, Xu Xu thought.

There were no lights here; the spotlights at the far end of the passageway didn't illuminate very far, making one feel as if they were inside a vast, dark mountain. Xu Xu couldn't help but think of the underground hall, though of course, this place was much more spacious.

"Where is this place? An air-raid shelter?"

“By the way.” Ouyang Wenlan nodded, gesturing for Xu Xu to stand and wait a moment. He took out a matchbox from his pocket, handed it to his right hand holding the cane, and used his left hand to strike a match.

The matches were thick and long, made of good quality wood, and would burn for quite some time. Ouyang Wenlan took the matches and walked forward.

“My family’s basement was also converted from an air-raid shelter. From before liberation to the Cultural Revolution, I don’t know how many tunnels were dug. Some of them are still in use today, but many others, like this one, have been forgotten.”

The twinkling lights moved into the depths of darkness, and slowly, one could vaguely see something that looked like a large vat further ahead.

“Large air-raid shelters like this used to have many exits connecting to the surface, but most of them are now sealed off. They are also connected to some smaller air-raid shelters. My family’s shelter, for example, wasn’t connected at first, but it was close to the ground and easy to access. Now, who else knows about this place besides me? As long as they don’t dig a subway, this large area is practically mine.”

As he spoke, Ouyang Wenlan threw the match in his hand forward.

This wasn't a vat, but a large bronze cauldron filled with grease. The moment a spark entered, with a "boom," a raging fire erupted.

The flames shot straight up, the tongue of fire licking the top of the cave before retracting, the tip of the flame still more than a meter high, illuminating most of the cave.

This is a tall, three-legged bronze cauldron. Next to it is a smaller cauldron, and beside the smaller cauldron is a square table on which a calf is lying horizontally. The calf's front hooves are tightly bound, as are its hind hooves. Its neck is stretched out over the edge of the table, its head is drooping and motionless, but its belly is rising and falling slightly. It is obviously alive and has been given a strong anesthetic.

Directly behind the fire cauldron is a circular platform about two meters in diameter and half a meter high, with its surface completely empty.

Aside from these things, there were no other furnishings in the air-raid shelter. In the distance, beyond the reach of the firelight, there were one or two passageways, their destinations unknown.

As I slowly saw the round platform, I was reminded of the crescent-shaped platform in the basement of number fourteen on the small street. This place was perfect for the mysterious and eerie atmosphere of witchcraft. However, such a round platform and such a large cauldron could not have been newly built for a longevity-praying witchcraft.

The doubt had just arisen when she suppressed it again. She had already made a big fuss in the passageway and even frightened Ouyang Wenlan, which was really embarrassing.

Ouyang Wenlan waved to her and said, “Over the years, I have done a lot of research on Shang Dynasty witchcraft, including searching through materials and studying historical records. But you can’t do scholarship by staying in your study. You have to try things out yourself to have the right to speak on them. I have simulated various witchcraft rituals here many times, such as praying for blessings, longevity, rain, and healing. Although some steps are impossible to do, I have gained a lot. But this is the first time I have actually used a witch’s skull.”

With this explanation, the doubts that had been gradually suppressed vanished. He walked up to Ouyang Wenlan, placed the lead box on the ground, and asked, "Is it about to begin? Should I stand on the platform?"

Ouyang Wenlan smiled. "You're really clever."

Just as he was about to explain in detail, he heard hurried footsteps coming from the oracle bone passageway.

Xu Xu turned around and exclaimed, "Huh?" He said, "Why is A Bao here?"

Ouyang Wenlan shook his head: "He's curious about everything. Every time I simulate witchcraft, he has to come over and take a look."

As he spoke, he walked back towards where Ah Bao had come from.

Xu Xu saw A Bao whisper a few words to Ouyang Wenlan at the entrance of the passage. Ouyang Wenlan raised his bamboo cane and tapped A Bao's thigh twice, scolding, "All you do is beggar. At this rate, you'll eat up all the little food we managed to save."

Ah Bao barked "ho ho" like a silly mastiff.

"Then you just stay here and watch, and don't cause any trouble." Ouyang Wenlan sighed after saying that, as if he had no way to deal with this foolish butler, and turned around and walked back.

A Bao followed behind Ouyang Wenlan and stopped four or five meters away from the fire cauldron, looking like a contented spectator.

"Alright, since you're here, lend a hand. My old back can't take much bending over."

The small cauldron contained many items, which Ouyang Wenlan directed Abao to take out one by one.

A sharp ox-ear knife, a well-sharpened turtle plastron, a pair of long-handled iron pliers, a chisel, a drill, a small iron hammer, and a square copper bell.

Ouyang Wenlan shook the copper bell; the sound was hoarse and deep, with a long, lingering echo that reverberated in the air-raid shelter.