Chapter 44#
Those Who Listen to Stories (Part 11)#
After Xia Wenshi wailed for a long time, he finally got back to the main topic and said to him: “Little Ye, the haunted house is closed today, you don’t need to go to work. Woo woo woo, I plan to stay in the temple until the ghost exorcist master I know arrives.”
Ye Sheng, who had an extra day off for no reason, was expressionless. He held the phone, thought for a moment, and asked softly: “Senior, do you have a photo of the corpse hanging on the tree?”
Xia Wenshi was terrified: “Photo? Little Ye, what do you want that for? Aren’t you afraid of ghosts?!”
Ye Sheng explained: “I think maybe this wasn’t done by a ghost.”
“Huh?” Xia Wenshi was stunned: “…I’ll ask.”
He was scared out of his wits at the time, how could he dare to take pictures? But among the onlookers, there were always some bold and curious ones who took pictures of that scene. After asking a few tourists nearby, Xia Wenshi got a photo and sent it to Ye Sheng.
In the photo, under the gray background of a cloudy day, a person was hanging on a strangely shaped tree in the backyard of the temple.
It was a middle-aged man wearing a white polo shirt. His face, crowded with fat, was now full of horror. His lower body, from the roots of his thighs, had both legs chopped off alive, and blood was dripping and gathering on the ground.
Xia Wenshi trembled and said: “The police are still investigating this matter, but I think it was done by the female ghost. Doesn’t she want a pair of legs? We ran to Lingguang Temple, and then she followed us! Later, I chatted with people and found out that this man lived next door to me yesterday. He came to pray for the elderly in the hospital.”
Ye Sheng looked at the picture expressionlessly.
If he guessed correctly, Duan Shi’s skills should be [Tracking] and [Temptation]. She only killed people by making them fall from buildings or get into car accidents.
This was definitely not done by Duan Shi.
The middle-aged man in the photo whose legs were chopped off alive had fear and despair in his eyes, which didn’t look like he saw a ghost, but rather like he saw someone he knew.
After getting the photo, Ye Sheng also sent it to Ning Weichen. After sending it, he was stunned and a little surprised… When did Ning Weichen become the only person he trusted?
After he finished breakfast, he received a reply from Ning Weichen on his phone.
[You saw Duan Shi at four o’clock this morning?]
[Really not considering moving in with me, brother? ^^]
Ye Sheng twitched the corner of his lips and called directly. This number should be Ning Weichen’s real contact information. After connecting, he immediately heard Ning Weichen’s familiar laughter.
“Good morning.”
Ye Sheng didn’t have time to exchange pleasantries with him and said seriously: “I’m off today. Let’s go to Lingguang Temple.”
Ning Weichen smiled faintly: “Lingguang Temple? Brother and I really have a telepathic connection. I happened to plan to go there today too.”
Ye Sheng was stunned.
Ning Weichen said: “I’ll come to Huaian University to pick you up. I’ll tell you in the car.”
Ye Sheng didn’t refuse. He checked the time. He had already walked out of the cafeteria but went back to buy a bottle of hot milk.
When the car arrived at the school gate, Ye Sheng opened the passenger door familiarly and got in.
The weather in Huaicheng was unpredictable. Yesterday it was scorching summer, and today it might be drizzling.
Ning Weichen looked up, smiled brightly and said: “Did you see the news?”
Ye Sheng frowned: “News?”
Ning Weichen: “Mm.”
He then turned on the radio in the car.
However, it was not the Huaicheng Morning News channel, but the radio station Ye Sheng had heard twice in the taxi.
“Little Mouth Tells Stories”.
[Following the suburban cold storage and Wanjing Family Farmers’ Market, this is already the third bizarre death case in Huaicheng.]
[The deceased was forty-six years old this year, a freight worker. He came to Lingguang Temple to pray for his father who was hospitalized due to illness. Unexpectedly, he was brutally murdered last night. His legs were sawed off, and he was hung on a tree branch, dying with grievances. The tragic state of the corpse makes people shudder. The Huaicheng police are still investigating the case.]
[Little Mouth learned that at the scene of Lingguang Temple, a young man insisted that this was the work of the strange tale of Lover’s Lake at Huaian University.]
[I believe that brothers and sisters in Huaicheng are no strangers to the strange tale of the Verification Bridge. That young man is a sophomore student in the Physical Education Department of Huaian University. He told us that the female ghost in the lake claims lives like this: she will knock on your window first and then chop off your legs. He roared at the radio station demanding the government to fill up that lake. Haha, the young man is a bit excited.]
[Little Mouth connected with the family of the deceased. While in great pain, the family also revealed to us that she and her husband did walk across the Verification Bridge, but that was during the May Day holiday the year before last. Moreover, she and her husband were very loving. We hope that before the murderer is caught, we stop being suspicious and spreading rumors.]
[Compared to the strange tale of Lover’s Lake mentioned by that young man, Little Mouth is more willing to believe that an urban vigilante has really appeared in our city.]
[First it was the eyes, then the tongue, and now the legs. Hiss, hope the police catch the murderer soon.]
Click.
Ye Sheng took the initiative to turn off the radio.
Ning Weichen was focused on driving towards Lingguang Temple.
“Are you going to investigate this deceased person?” Ye Sheng turned his head and asked.
“Mm.” Ning Weichen didn’t hide it from him. Looking ahead, he said with a faint mockery in his smile: “Go meet the hero this city is writing about.”
Ye Sheng was stunned and frowned.
He thought he seemed to have overlooked a key point last night. Is the Story King really present all the time?
But back on the Yinshan 1444 train, when the Story King wrote the first postscript, the Non-Natural Bureau Tianshu detected its aura and sounded the alarm, causing a group of people to rush into the carriage.
Ye Sheng hesitated for a while and said: “Ning Weichen, did you feel any strange aura by the lake yesterday?”
Ning Weichen tilted his head to look at him, his eyes floating with dark light, and smiled: “Yes. But since I came to this city, I feel strange everywhere.”
Ye Sheng said quietly: “I think the Story King was at Lover’s Lake last night.”
Ning Weichen said disapprovingly: “Not necessarily it, maybe its protagonist.”
Ye Sheng: “Protagonist?”
Ning Weichen nodded: “Yes, the protagonist of the story it is currently creating.”
“You said the Story King is creating ‘strange tales’ with ‘strange tales’, I believe it.” Ning Weichen curled the corners of his lips and smiled affectionately: “I also believe that it has been active in China for decades, perhaps gathering inspiration, preparing to create a popular story.”
“It is now focused on telling stories and is not distracted. When it really wants to kill us, it should naturally write us into the story, just like the man who died in Lingguang Temple yesterday. Our names will be told by the daily morning radio.”
Ye Sheng pursed his lips into a straight line, his fingers tapping lightly on his leg, his clear eyes looking straight at the gloomy weather ahead.
The more contact he had, the more obvious the Story King’s horrifying and absurd style became, also carrying a bit of “cruel justice”.
Fortunately, the Story King didn’t take him seriously now, instead giving him ample time to investigate it slowly from other aspects.
Ye Sheng said: “Come with me to Luohu Mansion at the end of the month.”
Ning Weichen rarely refused Ye Sheng’s proposal and smiled: “Okay.”
Ye Sheng handed over the bottle of milk in his hand: “Here, you haven’t had breakfast, right?”
Ning Weichen was stunned. Then he smiled, light and shadow flickering in his dark eyes, serious and gentle: “Thank you.”
The backyard of Lingguang Temple was now completely sealed off, and even the front door of the temple was strictly controlled for entry and exit.
However, Ning Weichen had a special status and was not hindered.
The corpse on the tree had been taken away, leaving only a pool of blackened blood at the scene.
Nothing strange was found.
Ning Weichen looked at the falling leaves and suddenly said: “I rarely walk into temples.”
Ye Sheng didn’t speak. This was actually his first time entering a temple too.
Although his grandmother took many of his things to be consecrated, Ye Sheng never believed in these things.
Ning Weichen said: “I saw a sentence before, questioning believers, are you worshiping Buddha or your desires? Actually, I think this sentence is quite interesting.” He smiled faintly and said meaningfully: “Don’t all human beliefs originate from desires?”
In the pure land of Buddhism, Ye Sheng smelled sandalwood again. The fresh flowers offered on the Buddhist niche and the curling smoke of incense blended together. The sound of the wooden fish seemed to be able to dilute all the restlessness in people’s hearts.
However, all this was far less holy than the green light and lotus fragrance in his memory.
In carriage 44, the missionary’s red talisman really seemed to make one’s soul leave the body and lead to bliss.
“Little Ye?!”
At this time, Xia Wenshi’s loud voice called Ye Sheng back from his memories.
He turned around and saw Xia Wenshi, Huang Qiqi, and Li Guangyun standing in the corridor not far away, staring at them with silly wide eyes.
Ye Sheng hadn’t thought of what to say yet.
Ning Weichen had already placed his fingers lightly on his shoulder, standing in front of the red wall of the temple, raising his head to greet Xia Wenshi, his smile beautiful and brilliant: “Hi, Senior, didn’t expect to meet you guys here.”
Ye Sheng: “…”
Ye Sheng: “…………”
It had to be said that with Ning Weichen by his side, Ye Sheng’s social troubles could be reduced by at least ninety percent.
Ning Weichen introduced himself as “Ye Sheng’s friend”, appearing completely as a clean young man with clear eyes. He was completely different from the favored son of heaven at the banquet and the lazy and dangerous young master.
In a few words, he explained the reason for appearing here, and at the same time, he could ask many questions Ye Sheng wanted to ask with a smile.
Li Guangyun was crying and complaining like a fool.
“I really don’t dare to go back. As soon as I close my eyes, the person hanging on that tree becomes me. I know I was wrong, I will never dare to cheat again woo woo.”
Huang Qiqi was so scared by the hanging corpse in the morning that she didn’t have time to pay attention to him, and her mental state was very poor.
Xia Wenshi looked sad, bit his lip for a long time, and then said: “Junior, I chatted with people about that person later. Originally, I felt guilty, thinking he died because of us, but now I think he deserved to die.”
Ye Sheng sat in the guest room, lowered his eyes, and stared at the white smoke rising from the glazed incense burner. He was silent for a long time before raising his head and asking: “Why?”
Xia Wenshi said: “Because this man is a beast. He and his wife are famous scumbags on that street. He came to the temple to pray because his father was hospitalized, but his father—was beaten into the hospital by him in the first place!”
“The man lost his original house due to gambling, so he dragged his wife to grab the old man’s house. His father was over seventy years old and was driven out of the house by him to sleep under a bridge. Later, after being found and educated by the neighborhood committee, he took him back, but whenever he felt slightly unhappy, he would punch and kick the old man. This time it was even more excessive. He kicked the old man directly down the stairs! Seventy years old, at this age with osteoporosis, any fall could be fatal.”
“The old man entered the ICU of Huaicheng Third Hospital and is in critical condition. And he probably couldn’t stand the gaze of the neighbors, so he pretended to run to Lingguang Temple to pray.”
When Xia Wenshi talked about this matter, his eyes were full of anger. Although society promotes that “violence against violence” is wrong, everyone believes in karma.
This man now had his legs cut off and was hung on a tree, as if God couldn’t stand it anymore and gave him retribution.
After hearing this, Ye Sheng looked at Ning Weichen immediately.
Ning Weichen rested his chin on his hand, smiling and looking at him.
Xia Wenshi said: “Pah, it’s really bad luck for such a beast to die in a temple!”
After hearing this, Huang Qiqi’s face looked a little better: “This is probably called ‘don’t do bad things, don’t be afraid of ghosts knocking on the door’.”
“…”
Li Guangyun, who had done bad things, suddenly cried even louder.
Ye Sheng raised his eyes and said quietly: “Senior, I don’t think the female ghost of Lover’s Lake will come again.”
Xia Wenshi: “Huh? Why?”
Ye Sheng said: “Even if she comes, it’s useless for you to hide in the temple. Your guest room has no windows, but the dead man lived next door to you. Your room structure is the same.”
Xia Wenshi: “…”
Xia Wenshi: “Damn, Junior, I wouldn’t have thought of this if you didn’t say it. What should we do then? The master I know said he won’t arrive until tomorrow.”
Ye Sheng thought to himself, you know a fart master.
“Go back. Maybe the ghost thing has always been you scaring yourselves.”
Li Guangyun was unhappy when he heard this, blowing snot bubbles from his nose, and defended with red eyes: “Impossible. The ghost my sister drew is exactly the same as the one I saw on the Verification Bridge—how could a child lie?”
Ye Sheng directly wronged him: “Children won’t lie, you will.”
Li Guangyun: “…”
Li Guangyun: “???”
Facing the questioning gazes of Xia Wenshi and Huang Qiqi, Li Guangyun was about to cry: “How could I lie to you? I’m wronged, believe me. Ye Sheng, I’m wronged!”
Ye Sheng knew better than him how wronged he was. That was all he had to say, so he got up and left.
After going out, Ye Sheng saw Butler Li inside the temple.
Butler Li smiled politely at him, called out “Mr. Ye”, then turned his gaze to Ning Weichen and said gently: “Young Master, I retrieved the surveillance footage of the temple. Indeed, no one entered or exited here last night.”
Ye Sheng raised his eyebrows and said: “Person? Are you so sure it was a human crime, not an anomaly?”
Ning Weichen chuckled lightly and said lazily: “The prerequisite for a hero is human.”
Ye Sheng twitched the corner of his mouth and said to Butler Li: “Where is the surveillance footage? Let me see.”
Butler Li was very astute. After several contacts, he knew that the request made by the Young Madam didn’t need to be asked of the Young Master at all. Anyway, the Young Master would only agree unconditionally.
He smiled kindly and said: “Okay, follow me.”
Ye Sheng entered the temple’s surveillance room and focused on the recording around 2 AM yesterday. During the time the body was hung on the tree, the surveillance was blocked, but a person couldn’t appear in the temple out of thin air.
To prevent people from stealing money from the merit box, the temple’s surveillance system was very comprehensive.
Ye Sheng’s gaze fell on the moment of 2:27 AM, and he said: “Stop.”
After Butler Li paused the surveillance.
Ye Sheng’s pupils stared coldly at that wall.
The surveillance footage at night was black and white. The red wall appeared dark at night, and its bottom seemed to be darker than elsewhere.
After watching, Ye Sheng quickly left the surveillance room. Because of Ning Weichen’s company, Ye Sheng walked into the scene unhindered and came to that wall.
His vision and hearing were very good. Besides that, there was his sense of touch. Ye Sheng reached out and gently touched the wall. He felt a damp chill, but he couldn’t touch any water or blood. His fingertips only felt the dry and cold wall surface.
He had experienced a similar touch before, in… that western-style building of the Qin family villa.
Those swarming ghost children had now been completely destroyed by Luo Xingyan.
Qin Wenrui was locked up in the police station.
Cheng’en Hospital and the surrounding area were merged into a shopping mall.
But did things end just like that?
Ye Sheng thought of the search interface of ‘search’.
[Category Section: Story King]
[Ghost Name: Ghost Child]
[Ghost Level: E-rank]
[Overview: As soon as the ghost children are born, their mothers tell them to find their fathers. The ghost children searched for a long time and finally found their fathers. The ghost children like their fathers so much, dreaming of sleeping with their fathers.]
It turned out—he had always missed the keywords in the overview. Missed the crucial… “mother” in the ghost child story.
Ye Sheng suddenly felt a surge of hostility and irritability in his heart.
Ning Weichen followed, leaned down, smiled and blinked: “What’s wrong with you?”
Ye Sheng didn’t speak.
Ning Weichen sighed and comforted: “Don’t be anxious, brother.” He smiled, but there was a chill in his eyes: “As a listener of the story, always be more patient than the storyteller. Don’t follow the rhythm of his story.”
Ye Sheng calmed his emotions and said calmly: “Don’t worry, I’m not anxious. It tells its story, I do my thing.”
He wouldn’t follow this stupid postscript monster.
He just wanted to know now how the Story King chose Duan Shi.
He wanted to find its true figure from the stories it created before and expose its background.
Instead of entering its current rhythm and being played around by it.
Ye Sheng said concisely: “This wall has an aura similar to ghost children. The A-rank anomaly Luo Xingyan sensed in the western building may not have disappeared and is still in Huaicheng. And it is closely related to the emerging ‘hero’ of this city.”
Ning Weichen nodded thoughtfully.
Xia Wenshi and Huang Qiqi finally went back. After Li Guangyun cried and shouted to no avail, he went back home dejectedly.
The first thing he did when he got home was to seal the window in his sister’s room tightly.
He was on tenterhooks and didn’t sleep all night.
Then… he arrived safely at the next day?
After Xia Wenshi woke up, he found that Li Guangyun didn’t come to the haunted house to go crazy early in the morning, and was also puzzled.
He was tense all day yesterday, and only today did he have time to check his recruitment results.
Several people came to apply for NPC, but the one who attracted his attention the most was a person whose avatar was a patch of red.
This person was incredible.
As soon as he came up, he sent him a string of information like checking a household registration.
[Your name is Xia Wenshi? ID number xxxxxxx, graduated from Huaian University, 24 years old, living in Building B23, Bihaiwan, Longcheng Street, Jinqu District, the boss of “Scare You Jump” Haunted House at No. 444 Huaian Middle Road?]
Xia Wenshi: “…”
Do you have a problem? Is this really a private message from a recruitment app, not him filling in information at a public security agency?
Xia Wenshi was afraid that this scammer would pop out a sentence in the next second: “Your bank card is now frozen, you need to enter a certain amount to confirm it is you.”
So he replied cautiously: Hello, yes.
After getting the reply, the scammer sent a smile with satisfaction and said like a boss.
[Oh, it’s you. I’ll come to apply tomorrow afternoon.]