Minors are not allowed to enter

Xie Ran sat on the bed dizzily for a while, he deliberately pretended not to hear it, but after sitting for a few minutes, the knock on the door did not stop, which meant that he would not give up until he opened the door.

Finally, Xie Ran sighed, got up and opened the door as if resigned to his fate.

The summer night is still a bit sultry, when Xie Ran opened the door, a gust of heat rushed to his face, he paused, and then said: "I didn't expect you to be so persistent..."

"But the store manager, you don't look surprised at all." The man outside the door smiled, with a bit of bitterness in his smile: "I can't help it."

"Come in." Xie Ran opened the door a little wider, and let people come in.

He turned on the light, walked into the hall behind the man, "Sit."

The man glanced at his kitchenette: "Can I have a glass of water? It's kind of cold here."

Xie Ran stopped walking towards the seat, turned around and walked towards the kitchen.

Usually he would not take the initiative to pour water for the guests, but now the female assistant is still stuffed in the kitchen, and she only blocked it with a simple cover-up. trip.

"Can I have a cup of hot water?" the man asked, "It's really cold here."

As if to confirm his words, he even shook a bit.

"It's not hot." Xie Ran looked back at him.

"Then let's have a cold glass."

Xie Ran poured water for him indifferently, while raising his body temperature silently in the dark.

His studio is dark and cold all year round, all relying on his own heat balance, but just now... his body temperature seems to have dropped in his sleep, so that now, the room is indeed not like the temperature that should be indoors in summer.

He walked past the female assistant calmly, put the glass of water on the table, and explained in a pretentious way: "Just turned off the air conditioner."

"Your air conditioner is too cold, it's not good for your health." The man thanked him and raised his glass to drink water.

"It's okay," Xie Ran said, "I'm very angry."

The man drank two sips of water and said with a smile: "It's strange here, it's so cold in the room, but the cold water is a bit warm."

The water was naturally warmed by Xie Ran when he held it, he twitched the corner of his mouth, "...the boiling water in the evening may not have cooled down completely."

The two chatted casually for a few words before the man finally got down to business and explained his purpose of coming.

His name is Chu Rong, and he is an old customer of Xie Ran. From time to time, he will come to him to order a painting, sometimes it is a landscape, sometimes it is a portrait, and it is said that it will be hung at home as a decoration.

According to the quantity and size of the oil paintings he ordered, Xie Ran judged that this person's family was well-off, but he didn't know how "well-off" Chu Rong's family was until he heard his narration.

Chu Rong's father is a well-known wealthy businessman in the local area. Over the years, he has gradually retired and delegated authority, leaving the company to Chu Rong to take care of all matters.This time it was Chu Rong's younger brother who disappeared. Chu Rong used all kinds of power but could not find anyone. He was worried that his younger brother would be kidnapped by his competitors, so he found Xie Ran here, hoping that Xie Ran could help retrieve his younger brother's soul so that he Ask yourself what happened.

"After all, he is my only younger brother," Chu Rong said with an anxious look on his face, "If possible, I hope this matter can be resolved as soon as possible, otherwise my father will not be able to hide it."

Xie Ran let out a "huh": "Your father doesn't know yet?"

"Didn't dare to tell him."

Hearing what he said, Xie Ran lowered his head and meditated, without making a sound for a while.

"The store manager..."

"Actually, I'm a little curious. Where did you hear that I can call back souls?" Xie Ran asked suddenly.

Chu Rong was taken aback: "My family has been in business for many years, and businessmen are most particular about 'auspiciousness'. Naturally, there are some secret channels for news..."

This is actually an excuse, which means "it's inconvenient to say". Xie Ran has been in the human world for many years, and he can already understand this level of euphemism, so he didn't ask further, just said, "That's it."

He just thought about it, and didn't say whether he agreed to take the business. Chu Rong didn't get an accurate answer, and he still looked restless.

The temperature in the room seemed to rise a little unconsciously, which relieved Chu Rong's tension a bit. He hesitated for a moment, and asked, "Manager, do you see...?"

"There are some things you may not know." Xie Ran turned his head and glanced at him, "After death, a person turns into a ghost, then crosses the Santu River, then pronounces the sentence in front of the palace, and enters reincarnation... There is a set of rules, this set of rules If it breaks, the soul of the dead can easily find no way back. It’s okay if your brother is not dead, at best, he can’t summon his soul. If he is really dead, I will summon his soul at your request, and he may not be able to enter reincarnation... ...Even so, do you want me to summon my soul?"

Chu Rong thought of many reasons for Xie Ran's refusal to accept the business, such as not giving enough money, wrong timing... But he never thought about this possibility.Hearing this, he was stunned and didn't speak for a while.

"And..." Xie Ran's indifferent eyes wandered around from the top of his head to his shoulders and neck, and said indifferently, "May I ask, are you on good terms with your brother?"

He originally thought that Chu Rong would say that the relationship was good.

However, after hesitating for a moment, Chu Rong sighed and asked helplessly, "I have to tell the truth, don't I?"

It is best not to hide the truth in front of doctors, and it is the same in front of warlocks.

Chu Rong has received higher education, so he understands the truth. He thought for a while and said, "When I was young, my father hadn't made a fortune yet, and our family still lived in a remote suburb, where the law and order were not very good... My brother was naughty. At that time, I was abducted by human traffickers. My parents searched for a long time but couldn't find them. If it wasn't for my child, they might have collapsed a long time ago."

Predicting that this would be a long story, Xie Ran sat up straight and made a posture of listening attentively.

"My younger brother's abduction was probably one of the reasons why my father started his business and made a fortune. In this world, he has no contacts or financial strength, so it's really hard to find someone... It's far away. My younger brother was found three years ago. I heard that after he was abducted, he was sold to a remote mountain village, his education did not keep up, and his living environment, customs, and concepts were all different. I arranged for him to study slowly with a private tutor, but it was still..."

Xie Ran understood: "But you still don't get along well?"

Chu Rong lowered his head and touched his nose, then nodded helplessly: "After all, we have been separated for too long."

Xie Ran was thoughtful: "To be honest, I thought he liked you very much."

"How to say?" Chu Rong was a little surprised.

"When you came to pick up the painting on the first day, I felt a breath of dead souls on you." Xie Ran looked at his shoulder, "It was a little stronger last time, as for this time..."

A black-gray layer invisible to ordinary people floated on Chu Rong's shoulders, suspended silently like cosmic dust, motionless.

He said, "It's even more cloudy. Maybe if you wait a little longer, he will come with you. If you have any questions, I'll help you and I won't charge you."

"You mean...he followed me?" Chu Rong was obviously surprised.

"There is no conclusion yet," Xie Ran twitched a wisp of Yin Qi from his shoulder, "It's probably possible."

"But..." Chu Rong frowned and thought for a while, then said, "In a few days, my father and mother will end their vacation and return to China, and then I won't be able to hide it from them. My parents have always felt indebted to my brother because of the abduction and trafficking back then. , If he hadn't had to make up his homework, father and mother had planned to take him on vacation this time... I can't believe how mother would cry when she found out about this."

And he still has another thing on his mind - he didn't take over the company for two years, something like this happened to his younger brother, he really didn't want his father to think he was incompetent.

Besides, it was his brother after all.

No matter how bad they get along, they are also relatives whose blood is thicker than water.

"How about this." Xie Ran tilted his head and thought for a while, then suddenly clapped his hands, and raised his voice, "Jing Xuan, come out for a while."

Chu Rong was wondering that there were other people in the studio in the middle of the night, so he was shocked to see a tall, well-mannered and handsome man wearing a shirt and trousers from the indifferent studio manager who was said to be "don't get close to strangers, and ignore acquaintances". walked out of the room.

In Chu Rong's memory, except for Xie Ran himself, he has never seen anyone else enter that room.

Of course, it is not uncommon for the "inner room" of the store that customers cannot enter, if there are acquaintances of the boss to enter, it is not very rare to put it in other places, but maybe Xie Ran's impression is too "repulsive", so As for Chu Rong, he was a little flustered for a while, and even wondered if he had walked the wrong world line.

Jing Xuan turned into a shape visible to the naked eye, and five people walked to the table and sat down, with just the right smile on the corner of his mouth, he said softly: "What do you want me to do?"

"Look at his shoulder." Xie Ran didn't see his "peacock spreading its tail" at all, and pointed to Chu Rong, "You are more professional in this matter-is this a remnant soul?"

"Ah."

When it came to business, Jing Xuan immediately became serious, took a trace of black air from Chu Rong's shoulder and rubbed it back and forth, carefully identifying it, "There is still some residual consciousness...but it's not enough to say anything."

"How about a little more?"

"Maybe we can try to communicate..." Jing Xuan thought for a while and said, "But I can't guarantee that sometimes whether we can communicate or not depends on whether the dead soul's desire to talk is strong or not... But then again, if there is only so much , this person is probably still alive."

"what?"

The question was sent by Chu Rong, but Xie Ran looked over with a question mark in his eyes.

Jing Xuan had no choice but to explain patiently: "When a person is dying, there will be some death anger. If the obsession is deep, it is not impossible for this kind of 'remnant soul to find relatives by itself'."

Chu Rong really thought that his younger brother was completely cold. After all, he disappeared for almost half a month and there was no news during that time. Hearing what Jing Xuan said, he dubiously ignited a glimmer of hope.

If the younger brother is still alive, that is of course the best.

He was still thinking with his head down, Xie Ran had already opened his mouth: "If you are still alive, then it is best to go back and look for..."

"To tell you the truth, store manager." Chu Rong sighed, "I have entrusted the police and some friends who are 'not very good at the stage' to help, but so far I have not got any useful clues, so I just want to ask He...at least he knows what kind of place he is being held in?"

My younger brother has been missing for nearly half a month, and it is almost impossible to remain in a coma all the time. People will be hungry, need to eat, and need to excrete. There is always a chance to open their eyes and see where they are.

Jing Xuan: "Let me try it."

He closed his eyes, and then, Xie Ran saw black mist rising from his body like smoke, drifting towards Chu Rong's shoulder. Then, as if they were having a conversation, they touched each other tentatively.

I don’t know what they “communicated” about. It took a long time before Jing Xuan opened his eyes, “He is in pain, bleeding, locked in a dark room, and I have seen a very high chimney, all I can feel is this. , and, better find him as soon as possible, he's in bad shape."

"Chimney..." Chu Rong frowned and thought for a while, then suddenly remembered something, and stood up abruptly, "Thank you, manager, and this..."

"Just thank him." Jing Xuan said.

"Then thank you, the store manager!" He hurriedly took two steps outside, then suddenly turned around, and said to Xie Ran, "If I can successfully find my brother, I must thank you very much!"

He left in a hurry, and the glass door at the store entrance rattled back and forth.

"Kang Bang".

It was so late, and there would be no other business, Xie Ran went to the door symbolically and locked it. When he came back, he passed by the kitchen, remembering the incident of pouring water for Chu Rong just now, he couldn’t help asking: "Her teacher hasn’t done it yet?" arrive?"

"It's only been a few days...Are you in a hurry?" Jing Xuan walked over, "Before he said that there was a ceremony to be presided over, calculate the time, probably the day after tomorrow?"

Xie Ran's mobile phone was not very useful, in order to contact the mysterious "teacher" of the female assistant, he temporarily threw the mobile phone to Jing Xuan.

Jing Xuan is not very familiar with the new technology in the human world, but he is not stupid. He already knew how to use it after touching it all afternoon. He didn't tell Xie Ran about his contact with the "teacher", so Xie Ran didn't know exactly what they would do. When will we meet.

Xie Ran let out an "oh".

As long as Jing Xuan still remembers to deal with her, he doesn't really care about the exact time. Xie Ran walked past Jing Xuan, opened the door, and prepared to move the drawing board out to draw something.

——then was grabbed by Jing Xuan.

Xie Ran tilted his head: "Huh?"

"It's been so long since I slept..." Jing Xuan stared at the circles of his eyes suspiciously, "Why do you still look so tired..."

"……how could I know."

As Xie Ran said, he yawned involuntarily, and a little physiological tears dripped from the corners of his lazy eyes.

That little water drop moved Jing Xuan's heart inexplicably, and he suddenly remembered something: "By the way, have you eaten recently?"

"I don't eat with you every day..."

"I'm talking about 'food'." Jing Xuan repeated.

Xie Ran's eyes widened all of a sudden, he looked at him innocently and said, "Eat."

"It's not a good habit to lie to others..." Jing Xuan looked into his eyes and judged for himself, "Just now when you were sleeping, your body temperature dropped, right?"