Une relation tragique

Chapitre 6

Volume One, Chapter Thirteen: The Path of Vengeful Ghosts (13)

Lin Feng still remembered the first time he met Luo Yang. At that time, Luo Yang already looked like he was about to die, but he wasn't quite as completely dead as he is now. The second time they met, he couldn't sense any life force left in him; this time, he had completely transformed into a non-human being.

Lin Feng calmed down. He felt a suffocating cold in the room, as if someone had died a horrible death there. The chill seemed to emanate from the depths of his nerves and heart, permeating the small dormitory room, and carrying a strange, bloody smell.

"You're not Luo Yang! Who are you?"

"Want to know who I am?" Luo Yang's sinister voice made the entire room feel even colder.

Luo Yang slowly turned around, grabbed the back of his head with both hands and tore it off forcefully. In the moonlight, a human face appeared on the back of Luo Yang's head, pale-faced, with sunken eyes and thin lips pressed into a line.

Lin Feng held his breath, while Li Mingsheng behind him was drenched in cold sweat. Luo Yang's body had been discarded, replaced by a woman dressed in ancient attire, her body seemingly dripping with blood. The woman looked at the two of them and softly said, "Have you seen my child?"

This whispered question was like a thunderbolt to Lin Feng. He exclaimed, "You're Erzhuzi's wife!" He saw that the woman had no shadow in the moonlight, and the only sounds in the room were his and Li Mingsheng's breathing; there was no third voice. After the woman revealed her true form, the room became so cold it was almost unbearable to stand in. This indicated that this vengeful spirit was extremely aggressive, haunted by years of grudges and unable to let go, still struggling with the pain of losing her child. It was she who had cursed all the men in Zhang Daoshi's village with the "Hungry Ghost Curse," and ultimately killed them all to heal her wounds.

The woman, her eyes hazy and confused, asked, "Am I Erzhuzi's wife?"

Had she forgotten after all these years? Lin Feng gripped the "Qingyuan Mantra" talisman tightly in his hand, not daring to relax for a moment. He was facing an evil spirit that had been haunting him for nearly sixty years; any small mistake could be fatal. Lin Feng regretted not calling Zhang Daoshi. With their combined strength, they might have been able to fight this female ghost. At this moment, whether he could survive was still a question; he had no confidence at all.

The woman asked again, "Have you seen my child?" Seeing that Lin Feng and the other man didn't answer, the woman's voice rose, her tone becoming sharp, "Have you seen my child?"

Lin Feng took out a lighter and lit the "Qingyuan Mantra" talisman, causing the chill in the room to instantly freeze. Lin Feng shouted to Li Mingsheng behind him, "Aren't you going to run?"

Li Mingsheng quickly opened the door, and the two of them, using the faint light emitted by the "Qingyuan Mantra" talisman, retreated step by step outside. Just as they stepped out, the door creaked shut again.

Even Lin Feng hadn't expected to be able to retreat so easily. This vengeful spirit was the most domineering and powerful he had ever seen in his life. The flame shone with a faint yellow light in the darkness, burning from the outside in. Before long, it had reached the edge, and although it wasn't completely extinguished, only a small red dot remained.

Lin Feng said to Li Mingsheng, "Let's go. I'll find someone to come tomorrow!" He wanted to invite Zhang Daoshi along. What he regretted most was choosing to come at night to avoid being seen. If he had come during the day, there wouldn't have been so much trouble, and he could have easily extricated himself. The "Qingyuan Mantra" talisman emitted its last heat and burned out, plunging the surroundings into darkness. The afterimage on their retinas still made the two of them feel the red dot jumping before their eyes.

The two turned around, only to find the hallway door gone. Looking around, they realized the surroundings had changed. The once narrow corridor had intuitively taken on a different shape. The air was thick with a stench; although they didn't feel cold, the suffocating feeling was intense. Li Mingsheng murmured, "'Ghost wall'?"

Lin Feng grabbed Li Mingsheng's hand and said, "We don't know yet, take out the flashlight." The two had made all the necessary preparations for their nighttime exploration of the haunted house.

Li Mingsheng took out his flashlight and turned it on with a "click," and the two of them exclaimed in surprise at the same time.

Wherever the flashlight beam shone, there were white bones and some not-yet-fully-decomposed corpses, revealing their colorful internal organs and emitting a suffocating stench.

Lin Feng suddenly realized that this was the basement of the dormitory building. Xiao Jie Jie had mentioned in the school history that the dormitory building had a basement, but she couldn't find it anywhere. Now, she didn't know why she was in it.

What Lin Feng didn't know was that this building was already there when the city government built the school. Seeing that the building was quite good and sturdy, they didn't demolish it, intending it for the teachers to live in. When the construction workers tried to open the basement, they couldn't. Later, they broke down the door, and the first worker to enter bled from his vent and died, his face turning purplish-blue. Everyone else found it very eerie, and no one dared to go down. The construction team discussed it and filled the basement entrance with concrete, so the school records only mention that there used to be a basement there.

Li Mingsheng, drenched in cold sweat, asked, "How did we get here?"

Lin Feng grunted and didn't answer. Heaven knows how he suddenly ended up in this godforsaken place.

The two men glanced around briefly; there were at least a hundred skeletons in the basement, their origins unknown. Lin Feng took the flashlight and shone it around, trying to find a way out. But after looking around, he was extremely disappointed; the entire basement was like a closed box, with no way out at all.

Avoiding the rotting corpses, Li Mingsheng endured the nauseating stench and knocked on all four walls. The sounds were muffled, clearly from solid earth.

Li Mingsheng looked at Lin Feng with disappointment. After thinking for a long time, Lin Feng said to Li Mingsheng, "Close your eyes, put your hands on my shoulders and follow me!"

Li Mingsheng didn't ask any more questions, turned off the flashlight, and put his hand on Lin Feng's shoulder.

Lin Feng bit his index finger hard, drawing blood profusely. He then splattered the blood around him, shouting, "Break!"

The blood on his fingertips congealed, but he still couldn't find a way out. With a heavy heart, Lin Feng bit down on his wrist. He shouted "Break! Break! Break!" repeatedly, spraying blood everywhere.

The massive loss of blood left Lin Feng increasingly weak, and his strength seemed to be draining away with the blood. Just as Lin Feng felt despair, he suddenly noticed a faint light flickering ahead.

Lin Feng was overjoyed; it was finally done! He hurried forward. Li Mingsheng followed closely behind Lin Feng with his eyes closed.

The light grew brighter and brighter; as it drew closer, it became clear that it was the Bagua (Eight Trigrams) that Lin Feng had placed at the entrance. They were just one step away from exiting.

Suddenly, a strange force came from behind, pulling hard on their bodies and preventing them from leaving.

Lin Feng turned around and grabbed Li Mingsheng tightly. Li Mingsheng shoved Lin Feng hard and shouted, "Go!" Lin Feng was pushed away by Li Mingsheng and rushed out. But Li Mingsheng was grabbed by something and couldn't get out.

Lin Feng gripped Li Mingsheng's hand tightly and said, "Come out quickly."

Li Mingsheng strained with all his might, trying to break free from the strange force binding him, but the force behind him was unexpectedly strong, instead dragging Li Mingsheng back two steps.

Lin Feng panicked and grabbed the Bagua tablet next to him, throwing it at Li Mingsheng's back.

With a loud "bang," the Bagua seemed to strike something, bursting into flames. Li Mingsheng suddenly felt a lightness in his body and rushed out.

The two lay on the ground and realized that the place they came out of was the entrance to the dormitory building where they had just come in.

Just as the two were celebrating their escape, the air around them suddenly turned cold and a voice slowly said, "Have you seen my child?"

Lin Feng was almost in despair. He had lost too much blood and had no strength left to fight her.

Volume One, Chapter Fourteen: The Path of Vengeful Ghosts (14)

Lin Feng looked at the woman and cursed, "Damn it!" He then waited for death in despair.

Li Mingsheng refused to surrender and leaped up with a somersault. He turned and kicked the woman, a move he was particularly skilled at. He had once broken the neck of the fourth brother's corpse with a single kick during the day, demonstrating his extraordinary prowess.

But women are, after all, ghosts, and cannot be fathomed by ordinary people. Just as Li Mingsheng was about to kick the woman's head, she merely flicked her sleeve, and he was instantly reduced to rolling on the ground.

The woman was clearly enraged by Li Mingsheng's attack. Her face was full of anger, and before Li Mingsheng could stand up, she shot out a long tongue and wrapped it around Li Mingsheng's neck.

Li Mingsheng felt something wet and sticky wrapping around his neck, tightening its grip. He tried desperately to pull it off, but to no avail. Soon, Li Mingsheng was almost suffocating from the tightness.

Seeing the critical situation, Lin Feng took out a talisman from his pocket, dipped his finger in the bloodstain on his wrist, and quickly drew a line on it. He then leaped up with all his might, rushed to Li Mingsheng's side, and pressed the talisman onto the tongue wrapped around Li Mingsheng's neck.

As soon as the talisman touched the woman's tongue, it emitted a puff of blue smoke and a foul stench, then suddenly burst into flames and caught fire.

The woman's tongue was burned by the "Yellow Talisman" mixed with blood by Lin Feng, and she let out a sharp cry. Her tongue slipped out slightly, and Li Mingsheng quickly put his hand inside, panting heavily. Before he could break free, her tongue tightened again.

The woman reached out and, somehow, was in front of Lin Feng, grabbing his neck. Lin Feng tried his best to pry her hand off, but she wouldn't let go. Lin Feng's vision blurred, his chest tightened, and he was on the verge of collapse.

Suddenly, an aged voice shouted, "Hit!" A streak of red light entered the woman's body, emanating from her chest. The woman screamed, releasing her grip and tongue, and swung her sword in a swift motion, sending a figure swiftly dodging away. The woman cleaved the peach wood sword embedded in her body in two, the remaining part still stuck in her chest.

Lin Feng knew it was Zhang the Taoist priest who had arrived, and he felt relieved before fainting.

Dressed in a yellow robe, Zhang, holding several talismans, shouted: "You wicked creature, dust to dust, ashes to ashes! You have already killed a hundred people in the past, and you still refuse to repent!"

The woman's body was making a constant hissing sound, like a deflated tire. It turned out that the spot where Zhang the Taoist priest's peach wood sword had pierced her was rapidly festering and rotting, emitting a foul stench.

It turned out that Zhang the Taoist lived nearby. That evening, he inadvertently discovered that the resentment at the school had reached an unprecedented level. It seemed that someone had angered the vengeful spirits, so he rushed over. Just then, he found Lin Feng and Li Mingsheng struggling desperately on the verge of life and death.

So he waited for an opportunity, and while the woman was distracted, he launched a sneak attack from behind, striking her hard and severely injuring the vengeful spirit, greatly diminishing her resentment. Otherwise, even though Zhang the Taoist's magic had far surpassed that of his master, he still wouldn't have been able to confront the female ghost head-on.

The female ghost let out a long howl in the cold moonlight. Zhang the Taoist priest leaped up, his movements nimble and agile, not at all like a 70-year-old man.

Li Mingsheng, lying to the side, was dumbfounded; the old man's skill greatly surprised him.

With a flick of his wrist, the Taoist priest sent the talisman flying straight towards the female ghost. The ghost dodged it, and the talisman stuck to a tree behind her.

After a few rounds, Zhang the Taoist priest had used up all the talismans in his hand.

Li Mingsheng thought to himself, "This is it, I'm doomed. The old Taoist priest made a grand entrance, but he only managed to do so much."

The female ghost sneered, "Old man, you're out of tricks already?" and suddenly pounced on Zhang the Taoist.

She had only taken a few steps when a screen of light suddenly appeared in front of her. The female ghost crashed into it, screamed in pain, and staggered back a few steps.

Zhang the Taoist priest laughed heartily. It turned out that he had already set up a Bagua (Eight Trigrams) at the door, and the talisman he had just used had only unknowingly forced the female ghost into the circle.

Seeing the situation suddenly reverse, Li Mingsheng thought to himself: "Old foxes are indeed shrewd; he has unknowingly restrained the female ghost and tricked the vengeful spirit."

Zhang the Taoist priest flicked a spark from his hand, which landed on the talisman that had just fallen to the ground, instantly igniting a large fire.

The female ghost was surrounded by fire, looking terrified, screaming and shouting, and struggling left and right.

The female ghost in the firelight suddenly stopped struggling, lowered her head, knelt in the middle, and began to sob softly.

The Taoist priest sighed, "Alas, what a tragedy! If only I had known this would happen, I wouldn't have done it in the first place."

The female ghost raised her head, and the bloodstains that had covered her face and body were gone, revealing a delicate face with two lines of clear tears. She knelt down in the middle of the fire circle and kowtowed three times to Zhang the Taoist priest, saying, "Thank you, Master, for your help! You have guided me to enlightenment."

The Taoist priest Zhang clasped his hands and said, "Go."

The female ghost said, "This place is a place of extreme yin and death, where resentment gathers and entangles. I, a humble woman, wish to use my own strength to dispel this boundless resentment."

Taoist Zhang nodded and said, "Go ahead. If it weren't for the wickedness of people's hearts, this place of resentment and desolation might not be able to accomplish anything!"

The female ghost bowed again and said, "Yes," slowly becoming transparent in the firelight, and finally disappearing into thin air. The fire in the wind gradually died down, and Li Mingsheng could no longer feel the icy chill, only the warm evening breeze that made him feel very comfortable.

The Taoist priest behind him said, "Why aren't you taking that young man to the hospital?"

Li Mingsheng exclaimed "Ah!" and then remembered that Lin Feng had lost too much blood and had fainted.

After thanking Zhang the Taoist priest, they picked up Lin Feng together, ran to the school gate, put Lin Feng in the car, and started the car.

Inside the car, Zhang the Taoist shook his head and said, "You two are far too reckless!"

As Li Mingsheng drove, he said, "I'm sorry, we didn't expect things to get this serious!"

The Taoist priest suddenly smiled and said, "But it's thanks to you that she got her attention, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to deal with her."

While unconscious, Lin Feng kept calling out, "Little Jie Jie, the third person!"

Li Mingsheng asked curiously, "What third person?"

The Taoist priest Zhang also said, puzzled, "I don't know either!"

Volume One, Chapter Fifteen: The Path of Vengeful Ghosts (15)

Zhang the Taoist realized something was wrong and said to Lin Feng, "Explain yourself clearly, what third person?"

Lin Feng seemed to regain some consciousness and tightly gripped Zhang Daoshi's hand, saying, "Please, there's still Xiao Jie Jie in danger!" After saying that, he fainted.

The Taoist priest Zhang exclaimed anxiously, "This is all so incoherent, what am I supposed to do!"

Li Mingsheng said, "Don't worry, I know where he is. Let's get him to the hospital first." Li Mingsheng sped up and drove Lin Feng into the hospital. As soon as they entered, Li Mingsheng pulled out his police ID and demanded that the doctors do everything they could to save him, promising to cover all the expenses. Then he got in his car and drove off at breakneck speed with Zhang Daoshi to Xiao Jiejie's place.

Fortunately, there weren't many cars on the road, and Li Mingsheng quickly arrived at his destination.

When Li Mingsheng got downstairs, he was dumbfounded because he only knew which building it was, but not which apartment it was. Having no other option, he ran to the community security office at the entrance to check.

The security guard kept giving the two men strange looks. One was a policeman, and the other was an old man in a Taoist robe. How did these two end up together? Curious, the guard asked, "Officer, what's going on? What are you doing? Catching ghosts?"

Li Mingsheng was sweating profusely with anxiety, and casually replied, "Okay!" Finally, they found out. Li Mingsheng and Zhang Daoshi burst out of the door, leaving the dumbfounded security guard standing there.

"Xiao Jie Jie! Xiao Jie Jie!" Li Mingsheng pounded on the door and shouted Xiao Jie Jie's name loudly.

Seeing that the door remained closed for a long time, Li Mingsheng was getting increasingly anxious. This was a new type of security door; he couldn't break it open even if he wanted to.

The door opened silently, and Xiao Jie opened her sleepy eyes and said, "Come in!" Without looking at the two of them or paying them any attention, she lowered her head and walked towards the living room.

Li Mingsheng noticed that Xiao Jie Jie seemed fine, but she seemed different from how she was during the day, though he couldn't quite put his finger on it. He turned to look at Zhang Daoshi, whose expression was grave, and saw Zhang Daoshi walk inside first.

The Taoist priest Zhang whispered to Li Mingsheng, "She's possessed," before going inside.

Li Mingsheng was startled by Zhang Daoshi's words, but with Zhang Daoshi by his side, he felt much calmer. This case had truly broadened his horizons; things like "suddenly reanimated corpses," sudden decomposition, mysterious dormitory buildings, and terrifying basements—he had seen everything he had never seen before in his life in a single day.

It turned out that ever since Li Mingsheng and Lin Feng left, Xiao Jie had been feeling uneasy and anxious. Unable to sleep alone, she watched TV in the living room. As darkness fell, her unease grew stronger.