Hailing barren city

Tao Rujiu couldn't help shaking his head on the phone.

"I'm not disappointed. I've already thought of a new entry point for reporting. The life of the staff in Hailing City is quite inspiring to me. In fact, I should draw materials from life from the very beginning, instead of blindly aiming to interview celebrities."

"Oh." Ling Li frowned, "That's good. I'm really afraid that you reporters will be unhappy, and a negative report will make me unable to bear it."

For his ridicule, Tao Rujiu repeatedly denied it.At the same time, he also began to wonder if the sharp phone call was purely to make him happy.

"It amazes me how quickly you can change direction."

To be honest, when he heard that Tao Rujiu gave up the interview with him, Ling Li was actually a little disappointed.But since people are still staying in Hailing City, there are still good things to watch in the future.

The last reporter who stayed overnight in the city was so frightened that he fled overnight that he didn't know what was going on now.

Clamping the receiver under his chin, he reached out sharply for a cigarette and lit it.

"Did Reporter Tao go to the underground palace in Hailing City?"

"Ah, I went in the evening."

"How, is it scary?"

Tao Rujiu on the phone was silent for a while.He didn't want to admit it because he didn't want to show weakness in front of Ling Li; however, if the answer was not scary, it would be a denial of the underground palace and Ling Li.

What's more, I was really afraid.

"horrible."

He finally admitted.

"Compared with the daytime, Hailing City at night is completely different."

Ling Li smiled darkly on the phone.

"The scariest thing you've never seen before. It's best not to go out after eleven o'clock. Hailing City was originally built in the outskirts, and it's not very popular."

Tao Rujiu thought that Ling Li was concerned about him, but he was a little moved when he was skeptical.But I didn't expect to hear the following passage again: "I think you are a male diary, so I took you to collect the wind. If you were a female diary with a more sinister spirit, I am afraid that I have already bumped into a 'good brother'. But if Tao Ji is Unfortunately, there is a situation where the insurance company cannot pay, and I can only express my deep regret here."

There was no answer on the other end of the phone for a short time, and it was only after a while that Tao Rujiu answered in a neutral manner.

"President Ling's concern is always in Tao Rujiu's heart."

It could be heard that the young man was angry. The name "Nan Ji" cannot help but make people think.Ling Li even thought that the other party would immediately drop the phone.However, Tao Rujiu's good patience made the man feel like he was bullying the weak.

He decides to end the call.

Tao Rujiu told himself that this is just one of all kinds of faces in the world, because he still wants to be fierce, so he must not let the atmosphere become rigid.The word forbearance was the first subject he was told to learn when he first entered school.

However, when he was ridiculed by others, he still greeted him with a smile. He was always saddened by his own uselessness and weakness.

──Even out of helplessness.

After hanging up the phone and walking to the patio, the people enjoying the cool air had almost left.There was a strong draft in the yard, which relieved a little bit of depression.

Master Lu sat on the wicker chair and asked with a smile, "What's your girlfriend's phone number?"

Tao Rujiu shook his head, just thinking about how to answer, a replay that suddenly flashed in his mind made him open his mouth wide and couldn't say a word.

Only then did he remember that there was obviously no mobile phone signal in that room in the afternoon.

When Tao Rujiu told Master Lu about this matter, he originally wanted to find someone to share the sudden surge of terror.He thought that according to Master Lu's age, most of them would not understand the meaning of "signal".However, before he finished speaking, the old man had already curled his lips and let out a sigh.

"This has been mentioned before."

He motioned Tao Rujiu to go with him to the third courtyard.

"There was a reporter who came here last time, and he seems to be staying in your room. He also mentioned that the mobile phone signal has been gone for a while."

"A reporter came to live here before?"

"Yes. There are three or four."

"Are they all here to collect materials?"

"It should be. It happened several years ago. Anyway, they ran away within two days." Master Lu was still a little angrily talking about these things.

"One of them also said that the house is full of ghosts... Oh, what do you call that!"

Tao Rujiu suddenly understood why Ling Li brought him here.

Ling Li must have known the weirdness of this ancient city, so he wanted to use it to tease him, or make him retreat, just like the reporters in front.

Should you hold back?The young man was in a trance, and Master Lu still hadn't finished talking.

"I heard from one of the reporters that if there is no signal on a mobile phone, it's called...interference. Ghosts are different from things in Yangjian. If they are close to those TVs, tape recorders, mobile phones and other things, there will be interference. Hey...I can't say it, anyway. What they mean is that when there is no signal on the phone, there are ghosts in the house."

"You mean, so they were scared away by the cell phone signal thing?"

If it is only for this detail, it would be too much of a fuss.

"Of course it doesn't stop. But the specific reason is unclear. Those people were scared away and never came back. No one in the city knows what they hit. I heard that they often talked about Hailing City being haunted in Xiyao. It's frightening."

Tao Rujiu nodded, the mobile phone's abnormality might be due to the magnetic pulse in the ground, as for the haunting, it might be based on rumors.

"Then Master Lu, have you ever seen a ghost?"

"Of course I've seen ones like will-o'-the-wisps. But I don't have those with blue faces and fangs." The old man was very sure.

"The children in the troupe also heard from others that real ghosts can't be seen just by seeing them."

Hearing what the class leader said, Tao Rujiu felt a little more at ease.However, looking back at his hut, it was dark with the lights off, and he felt a little uneasy.

"Ms. Lu, I want to change a room, can I?"

Master Lu showed a troubled look.

"Accordingly, this is not a guest house, so we only prepared this one room. In summer, it would be fatal to share a bed with others."

Tao Rujiu also understood this, so he nodded and stopped talking.On the contrary, Master Lu was afraid that something might happen to him, so he took the initiative to take out a large number of keys from his waist.

"Why don't you come with me and see which other rooms are clean and usable."

Because there are shop assistants and theaters in the first entrance, there are no people to live in, and the second entrance is also filled by people from the theater troupe.Master Lu still led Tao Rujiu around the third entrance, went upstairs, and reckoned he chose a room that was fairly airy to open.

The interior furnishings could not be seen clearly in the dark, but there was a stronger smell of wax than downstairs.

"There is no electric light in the upstairs room. If you live here, just take a flashlight, take a shower and go upstairs to sleep."

Tao Rujiu responded, and suddenly remembered that the electronic torch he took in the underground palace in the evening was still on him, so he took it out of his pocket and opened it.

The green light jumped twice and "burned" soundlessly.The small room was immediately filled with pale green, illuminating the face of a woman with the same pale green, which was placed less than five centimeters away from Tao Rujiu's right face.

"scare!"

Because it wasn't the first accident tonight, Tao Rujiu was more or less prepared, he just yelled in a low voice and took a big step back.But Master Lu thought that something serious happened to him, so he hurriedly supported him from the side.

The white-faced woman was still standing where she was, motionless.It was from her that the strong smell of wax and oil filled the room.

This is a wax figure.And there is more than this one in the room, the vase, the inkstone and even Ruyi and the bonsai are all made of wax.

"These are all the decorations and dummies that were originally placed downstairs and in other yards. If there is no place to put them, they are piled up on the second floor. You can sleep well today, and I will ask them to help you move them tomorrow."

Tao Rujiu looked at Master Lu, and then looked back at the wax products all over the room.

"Master Lu, I think I'd better go downstairs."

The bathroom built by the theater troupe was in the garden, and it was almost eleven o'clock when Tao Rujiu returned home after taking a bath.The lights in the other rooms in the courtyard were all extinguished one after another.All around are the chirping of golden bells and crickets, and the sound of shells and wind chimes being stirred by the sea breeze on the stage.

Pull the notebook out from under the bed and import the records in the voice recorder.According to Tao Ru's old habit, he still had to make some brief conclusions, but he didn't want to recall what happened today.

The clock quickly jumped to eleven o'clock, Tao Rujiu turned off the light and lay down on the bed, wrapping himself in a towel blanket.At night in the suburbs, the cold air slipped in through the gaps in the antique doors and windows.Tao Rujiu could even feel them piled up in the open space in front of his bed, turning into a blurred white figure.He buried his head in the blanket amidst the buzzing of mosquitoes in his ears.

The hut has no curtains, and the light of the full moon casts the shadows of osmanthus and camphor trees in the garden into the house, turning into weird tentacles swaying gently on the blanket.In his imagination, Tao Rujiu saw that round moon turned into a huge one-eyed eye, which descended and peeped into the room through the cracked window lattice.

Tao Rujiu's nerves were always tense, and amidst the tension, he gradually became hazy.After all, running around all day consumes more than just physical strength.

The Sandman invaded, and the young man lay in the dreamland. It was quiet and stable at first, but after a while, the tranquility was interrupted by the faint sound of opera singing in the distance.

He listened intently, the sound came from the stage in the front yard.

Tao Rujiu got out of bed and opened the door, the yard was pale with the full moon.The leaves fell on the ground quietly, and there was no one around, only he walked out of the third courtyard with the sound of opera.

There was the sound of gurgling water in the atrium.

Everyone in the troupe was gone, and the doors and windows upstairs and downstairs were wide open, only the bubbling water from the well overflowed, flooded Tao Rujiu's ankles, and climbed up his calves little by little.

He waded through the well water and walked into the first courtyard.Sure enough, silk and bamboo were played on the stage.Sing a song he's never heard before.Tao Rujiu stood behind the colonnade, the moon as big as a lantern fell on the tiles on the roof of the stage, illuminating the surroundings brightly. On the stage, a man and a woman were singing in wedding costumes.

There are no women in the theater troupe, Tao Rujiu was wondering who the bride on the stage was, and her eyes fell to the audience inadvertently.

The red curtain has been raised, and the two nailed coffins inside have been opened.A wet red trace slipped out of the coffin, landed on the mossy ground, and snaked up the narrow stairs leading to the stage.

The singers wore heavy make-up, bright red, and the wedding clothes were originally red, but after singing for a while, the clothes and head began to turn black and moldy, and finally, every step the danjiao took, a string of tassels would fall off.

Tao Rujiu looked at both sides of the stage, and the accompaniment of the theater troupe was also there, but it seemed that there was a tulle covering their faces so that they could not see their facial features clearly.He looked over one by one, trying to identify them, but finally his eyes fell on the bluestone clearing directly in front of the stage.

The moonlight illuminated a row of antique tables and chairs, and a silver-white person sitting in the center.

That was exactly the white shadow that Tao Rujiu had glimpsed in the underground palace.

Bai Ying sat on the antique armchair, but raised his right hand and tightly grasped a young man standing beside him.

The boy is Qin Huakai.

"Flowers! Blossoms!"

Tao Rujiu hid behind the pillar and whispered.I want to call the flowers to my side.However, the sound of the music suddenly became louder and covered his voice. Tao Rujiu tried to go around behind the white shadow, reaching out to reach Qin Huakai's sleeve.

But he bumped into Baiying's shoulder by accident, and that feeling was as hard as knocking on a tombstone.

Bai Ying turned his head stiffly and grabbed Tao Rujiu's wrist with his left hand.

Its hands are as cold as rough leather.Tao Rujiu wanted to get rid of it, but met its face that could be seen clearly under the moonlight.

It was cast in silver, with an expressionless face.

A silver mask covered the upper half of its face coldly, leaving only the deep pupils and dark eyes.

Tao Rujiu opened his eyes wide, he recognized this half of his face.

It seems fierce.Black-haired instead of blond, fierce in a mask instead of sunglasses.

Just as "Ling Li" firmly grasped Tao Rujiu, the music on the stage stopped abruptly.

The dim-faced members of the troupe put down their musical instruments and sat quietly on the folding stools. Even the pair of dead actors on the stage stiffened and looked straight at them.

In the dead silence, the sound of gurgling water became clear.And it turned into a hasty knock on the door.

knock knock knock.

The waist door of the atrium was slammed by the well water, and the door panel shook violently. The well water flowed from the crack of the door to the front yard, forming the outline of a big hand, groping on the ground.

"Is anyone... is anyone..."

Suddenly, an unusually salty sea breeze blew up in the air, mixed with coarse and hard sand, and polished everything around.The moonlight dimmed and everything began to fade.

The dead man melted like a wax figure, turning into two streams of dark red liquid that flowed back into the coffin, and the troupe opened the door and walked into the well water that overflowed overhead in the atrium.The buildings and curtains of the Cuiying Pavilion began to rot, and were polished smaller and smaller by the sand.Fragments of wax oil, well water, sand grains, and sawdust began to fly in the air, making it hard to keep your eyes open.

The bone-like hands holding Tao Rujiu and Huakai tightly, never let go.

There was another gust of wind, the well water in the atrium was cold and turbulent, and the big hand turned into a huge whirlpool, rolling up the three coffins on the ground and hitting Tao Ru as before.Seeing the blood-red wax poured on him.The young man yelled loudly and sat up suddenly from the bed.

It's a dream, the night is over.

The sky outside the window reveals a faint morning light.The voices of the theater troupe were babbling, coming from a dream.Tao Rujiu rubbed his eyes tiredly, what he couldn't get rid of was Ling Li wearing a silver mask.

He sat on the bed for a while, waiting for the sleepiness to really pass before washing up.I reached under the pillow to find out the glasses and put them on, but accidentally touched two small pieces of soft things.

It's his contact lenses.

"Hi, Tao Tao, how did you sleep last night?"

Xiao Li, who was practicing his voice in the garden, saw Tao Rujiu and enthusiastically joined him.

"You seem to be in good spirits. Congratulations, you have passed your first night in Hailing City."

"I'd rather lose sleep."

Tao Rujiu gave a wry smile.

After washing up, he took the recording pen, sat on the threshold and listened to the troupe practicing their vocals.He burned the contact lens and buried it in the garden. Although there was a chill in his heart, because it was daytime, he was not in a mess.There are still more than ten hours before sunset today, so he can slowly consider whether he will stay or not.

At [-]:[-], the tour bus came to pick people up for breakfast, and the atmosphere became lively when there were more people.

Tao Rujiu saw flowers blooming at the dining table.The young man sat quietly in the corner, drinking porridge and pickles, and there were obviously two thick dark circles on his delicate face.

Thinking of the dream last night, Tao Rujiu took the initiative to sit beside him with breakfast.

"Yesterday you walked away in the melon field and didn't come back. I thought something happened to you."

Huakai put down her chopsticks and smiled, opening her mouth slowly to make a "sorry" mouth shape.His eyes lingered on Tao Rujiu's body, and then slowly stopped on the V-shaped neckline of his blue T-shirt.

"What is this..." His right hand drew four words on the table, and his left pointed to the pendant tied around Tao Rujiu's neck.

It was a small piece of emerald jade strung by a black oil rope, carved into the shape of the Eight Diagrams.

"It's Queen Wen's gossip." Tao Rujiu looked down, untied it and held it in his hand. "This is the amulet my father sought at the Geling Taoist Temple in Hangzhou. It has been consecrated."

Huakai looked at the emerald jade gossip and nodded.At this time, Xiao Li also came over with breakfast.

"What good thing? It also opened my eyes!"

Tao Rujiu spread out the gossip on his hands for him to see, but he didn't expect that Xiao Li wanted to play with it as soon as he stretched out his cat's claws.Fortunately, Tao Rujiu had a quick eye and immediately clenched his fists.

"The consecrated things can only be held by the owner alone. It will be useless if you get angry with others."

Xiao Li hastily withdrew his hands and stuck out his tongue.

"There are quite a few rules here. Don't blame if you don't understand, don't blame if you don't understand."

Tao Rujiu said "it's okay" and tied the gossip back.

"I was born with a negative horoscope and a light bone, so I have carried this bagua since I was a child, so I can be regarded as free from disease and disaster..."

Before he finished speaking, he heard Master Lu yelling behind his head.

"Hey, hey, the three children over there eat faster, and have a sense of time!"

The three of them shook at the same time, and then waved their chopsticks in unison, almost sinking their faces into the porridge bowl.