Thriller Night Talk

"Oh?"

Beiquan asked, "What's so strange?"

Zhu Hongluo raised his hand and tapped on the sloping wall beside him.

"As the two of you have seen, the people who will live in the 'paper cottage' are lonely ghosts who have not received incense and sacrifices, and are poor and clinking."

Beiquan nodded.

Of course he knows the rules of Paper City.

Except for a few special cases, most of the ghosts who walk through Huangquan Road after death are people who have not made any major mistakes during their lifetime and can reincarnate normally.

But before crossing the Naihe bridge to drink Mengpo soup and go to the next life, they still have to wait in the underworld for a period of time, ranging from a few years to decades to hundreds of years, and this paper city is their temporary residence.

As for the paper houses the residents lived in, the paper carts they rode, and all the daily necessities they used, they all came from the funeral ceremony, as well as the incense sacrifices of relatives, friends, and descendants in the yang world.

But not all the dead are worshiped.

A soul who has not enjoyed incense and offerings for many years will become a "poor ghost" in the literal sense, without even a place to stay.

So this building, which is called "paper cottage" by the residents of Paper City, came into being.

The homeless ghosts would collect scraps of paper and build a "room" in one corner of the building.

Over the years, the "paper cottage" has become more and more tired and taller, and it has become bigger and bigger, and it has become the scale that Beiquan and Wei Fuyuan see now.

In a sense, "Paper Shanzhai" is also equivalent to an alternative slum in this city.

As for how many "people" live in this complex and distorted building, even the old residents who have lived here for a hundred years can't tell. I am afraid that only the managers of Paper City can give a more accurate estimate. The numbers are up.

"But, it shouldn't be."

Zhu Hongluo pointed to himself.

"Although I am away from home and I am not married, there are still many family members who are still alive. If I die, why not even have a funeral? And for a whole year, I even ate half a mouthful of incense. No, this is too abnormal!"

Zhu Honglong is a scholar after all, even after death, his mind is still clear.

At the beginning, he died for no apparent reason, and when he didn't know the rules of the paper city at all, he was really helpless.

But one year is enough for him to be familiar with and understand this place.

For example, Paper City has a complete management system. Although the sun does not rise and the moon does not set, the concept of time passing is similar to that of the human world.

For example, there will be ghost messengers patrolling the city every twelve hours to ensure the law and order in the city.

For example, offerings from Yangjian will automatically appear in the hands of the residents of Paper City, which is safer and more efficient than SF Express.

For example, there are various forms of offerings, and they are not limited to a fixed model. In recent years, ghosts who have died recently have even brought a lot of novel electronic products here.

Generally speaking, the operation of Paper City is fair.Zhu Hongluo guessed that this was all an arrangement for the "residents" to live and work here in peace and contentment, waiting to be reincarnated.

However, although there are many dead ghosts in the paper city, there are few of them like him. Even though his relatives and friends are still in the world, he can't even bear a piece of paper money or a stick of fragrance.

Zhu Hongluo knew his family well, so he felt that there must be something strange about this matter.

During this year, he did not give up collecting information from various channels, in order to find out the truth one day, and then submit the evidence to the ghost messengers patrolling the city.

It's a pity that Zhu Honglong is only a scholar after all.

In the case of unequal information, no matter how he guessed, he would not know that he was taken away by someone.

Someone used his body to pretend to be his identity to live in the underworld for another year, and even committed a major case of murder and skinning, killing three people in succession.

Since no one in the world knew that he was actually "dead", Zhu Honglong naturally would not receive worship and offerings from relatives and friends.

However, Bei Quan did not intend to tell the other party everything that happened after his "death".

He just smiled and said:

"I see."

Then Beiquan stood up and was about to say goodbye.

"I will take care of your life here."

Now that he had obtained the information he wanted from Zhu Hongluo, he naturally wanted to reciprocate the courtesy.

Now that Zhu Hongluo's body has been taken away, according to the records of the underworld, it is equivalent to not only dying one year late, but also dying twice. This is a big trouble for Zhu Hongluo .

Not only will he not be able to eat the incense offerings he deserved, but the sins committed by the person who took the house in the world may also be planted on him, affecting his reincarnation.

Therefore, Beiquan promised to be "responsible", not only for Zhu Hongluo's basic necessities of life in Zhicheng, but also to help him settle the impact of "seizing the house" on him.

Of course, it is not easy to do this, and it will make Beiquan owe a lot of favors.

However, Beiquan has always believed that everything has a cause and effect.

Since Zhu Hongluo confessed so unreservedly everything he encountered during his lifetime, as a reward for this "good cause", Beiquan will definitely fulfill the "compensation" he promised.

Zhu Hongluo solemnly thanked Beiquan.

In fact, he guessed that these two people "came down" from the underworld to find him, and there must be more complicated inside stories that have not been mentioned.

But he didn't ask any more questions, he just stood up and sent Beiquan and Wei Fuyuan to the window.

Before leaving, Zhu Hongluo made a special exhortation:

"It's almost time for ghost messengers to patrol the city, you two must be careful, don't let them notice your identity."

&&&&&&&&&

After Beiquan and Wei Fuyuan came out of the "paper cottage", they did not walk the same way.

They were delayed a little longer by "Grandma" and Zhu Hongluo, and the one-hour time limit was now less than four or ten minutes left.

It's a pity that you can't use Netherfire to take shortcuts in Paper City. Even Beiquan can only take Wei Fuyuan and walk on two legs honestly.

The two walked through the densely packed paper houses, avoiding the main roads with traffic, and only chose those small roads with few people, so that even if they ran on the road, they would not attract the attention of passers-by.

Suddenly, however, they heard the sound of bells and wooden drums.

"Ring-ring-ring-jingle-ring-"

"Boom-thump-"

Two instruments, two rhythms.

One fast and one slow, one high and one low, one clear and one deep.There is a wonderful sense of harmony when combined, which makes people want to stop and listen.

Wei Fuyuan was stunned, and actually stopped.

"Little Wei!"

Beiquan squeezed him hard, moved to Wei Fuyuan's ear, and lowered his voice to remind him.

Wei Fuyuan was shocked and suddenly came back to his senses.

During the two seconds he was in a daze, the sound of the bell and the wooden drum was much closer than before, clearly coming towards Beiquan and Wei Fuyuan.

"I ran into a ghost patrolling the city."

Beiquan grabbed Wei Fuyuan's hand and ran wildly:

"They can recognize the anger of living people, our little disguise is not enough!"

He ran and said:

"Besides, there are so many of them. If they are discovered, it will be very difficult for us to get away!"

Wei Fuyuan: "!!"

Judging from Beiquan's much faster speech than usual and his obviously anxious tone, this time things might really be quite troublesome.

He really wanted to ask what he should do now, but he firmly remembered Beiquan's advice, so he didn't dare to speak easily.

"Ring-ring-ring-jingle-ring-"

"Boom-thump-"

The sound is getting closer.

In the dead silence of the paper city, the sound of bells and drums can be heard far, far away.

The mixed rhythm of the two seems to have some kind of magical power, the closer you are, the more you can feel the power that is so heart-wrenching.

Wei Fuyuan noticed that all the pedestrians and vehicles on the road stopped and stood motionless, like clay puppets, fused with the paper background.

Soon, Wei Fuyuan felt that only Beiquan and him were left in the whole city, still moving.

"This way!"

Bei Quan pulled hard and dragged Wei Fuyuan into a small alley.

Strictly speaking, this can't even be called an "alley", it's just a gap between two paper buildings.

In the alley, some paper-made sundries, old clothes, broken baskets, and reclining chairs that were broken in two were scattered in the alley, blocking the narrow passageway so that it was impossible for people to pass by.

Without further ado, Beiquan suddenly pushed Wei Fuyuan to the ground, lying down beside him, then stretched out his hand to grab a basket, put it on the two of them, grabbed a tattered old quilt, and piled it on the ground. In front of the basket.

The light in the alley was already very dark, but when it was blocked by sundries, it became so dark that he could barely see.

Wei Fuyuan understood Beiquan's intention, but he was very worried whether he could really escape this way.

"Ring-ring-ring-jingle-ring-"

"Boom-thump-"

The sound of bells and drums drew nearer.

Wei Fuyuan finally experienced for himself what it is like to "lose san" that is often said in Cthulhu's world view.

He felt that he was involuntarily attracted by this monotonous but rhythmic sound, and almost wanted to run towards the source of the sound desperately.

The sound of bells and drums has no effect on Beiquan, but he knows the power of ghosts patrolling the city.

So Beiquan firmly pressed Wei Fuyuan on the ground, and at the same time squeezed Wei Fuyuan's hand tightly, as if he wanted to use his sense of pain to drive away the mental interference on his little boyfriend.

There was a continuous duet of tambourines next to his ears, Beiquan's weight was pressing on his body, and there was a faint pain in the palm of his hand.

Wei Fuyuan tried his best to maintain his sobriety.

Through the gap between the broken bamboo basket and the old quilt, he saw a large group of people passing by the exit of the alley.

Because the light is too dark and the distance is not too close, Wei Fuyuan can't see the faces of those ghosts at all. He can only judge from the outlines of those walking past one after another. There are probably many strange shapes among them that are not human-like. s things.

Just when Wei Fuyuan was thinking so vaguely, a figure stopped at the entrance of the alley.

He didn't walk into the alley, but suddenly stretched his neck more than ten times, swinging in the air like a snake.

Then, a head, together with the long neck below, suddenly poked into the narrow alley!