Chapter 007 Linjiangxian (I)
Perhaps it was because he had a chilly aura of winter all over him. Ni Su saw the corpse lying at his feet gushing with blood, and even under the moonlight, there was a whitish hot mist.
The mountains and fields are empty, only the cicadas are chirping.
"Dead, all dead?"
Ni Su heard a servant's terrified cry behind her. She turned around and saw the two men lying on the car door, shaking like a sieve.
Ni Su turned around again and saw dead bodies strewn across the mountain path, while the figure who had just been standing not far away had disappeared.
She was cold all over. She took a deep breath and forced herself to stay calm as she returned to the carriage. She took out some Jiaozi from her bag and gave them to the two servants.
"Miss, who saved us?" One of the servants, holding the coins in his hand, realized what was happening and asked in a trembling voice.
"have no idea."
Ni Su pursed her lips and said after a moment, "You followed me out here. If you go back to the Ni family, Second Uncle will not let you go. It's better for you to just take the money and leave."
"But young lady, you..."
The thinner servant hesitated, but someone beside him pulled his clothes, and he stopped talking. Thinking of the blade that almost cut his neck, he was still scared.
"Thank you, young lady! Thank you, young lady!" The dark-skinned servant pressed the back of the other servant's head, and the two of them kowtowed together and expressed their gratitude repeatedly.
This incident had frightened them both, and the journey to Yunjing was long, who knew if they would encounter such a thing again along the way? Ni Su knew that she couldn't keep these two people, so she watched them hurriedly get out of the car and run along the mountain road into the dark wilderness, and soon they disappeared.
While she was sitting in the car, she could still smell the blood outside from time to time.
The curtain of the carriage had been cut by the bandit, and the moonlight spread out at her feet. Ni Su stared at it and suddenly asked tentatively, "Are you still here?"
Her voice was very soft, as if she was talking to herself.
On a hot summer night, a light breeze suddenly blew across her face, ruffling the light hair by Ni Su's ears. Her eyelashes trembled slightly, and her gaze moved towards the window covered by the bamboo curtain.
Her heart was beating so fast in her chest that she almost held her breath and mustered up the courage to open the bamboo curtain.
The very faint moonlight shone on her face. Ni Su saw him standing by the window. His whole figure was a little faint, the kind of faintness that was almost translucent.
It seemed that as long as she touched him, he would melt into the mist in an instant, just like he did that day in the cypress forest at the mountain temple.
Ni Sushu lowered the curtain and sat in the car, clutching her skirt tightly with both hands. After a long silence, she finally found her voice again: "You... have been following me?"
The gentle breeze was like some kind of silent answer.
Ni Su turned her head and looked at the bamboo curtain, "Why are you following me?"
"The dead cannot return to the mortal world unless they are called upon."
Outside the curtain, the voice was flat, sharp and dead silent.
Ni Su immediately remembered the winter clothes that she had burned with her own hands. Her lips trembled, "It was an old wizard who asked me to help him."
Ni Su woke up as if from a dream and took out the beast bead from her sleeve.
"What's that in your hand?"
The people outside seemed to sense something.
Ni Su pursed her lips, hesitated for a moment, and then reached her hand out of the window.
The bamboo curtain made a slight sound when it hit the window. The very young man tilted his head towards the sound. His eyes were cold and clean. He raised his hand and groped forward as if tentatively.
His cold finger bones suddenly touched her hand, and Ni Su trembled all over, as if wrapped in ice and snow. In a brief moment, the animal bead between her fingers fell into his palm.
His eyes were dull, his fingers lightly stroked the lines on the beast bead, his eyelids moved slightly: "It's him."
"who?"
Ni Su keenly heard his two words of certainty.
"Youdu Tubo."
Youdu? Tubo?
It’s not that Ni Su has never heard of the name “Youdu”, but the most common saying nowadays should be Huangquan or Hell. But who is Tu Bo?
Why did he set up this plan to lure her to attract this living soul?
"If you don't leave now, you may be confronted by the authorities."
The beast bead was thrown in from outside and rolled to her feet. Ni Su was brought back to her senses by his words. She knew that he was reminding her that someone was coming.
Ni Su had no choice but to pick up the animal bead and pulled the reins awkwardly. The carriage was moving crookedly on the mountain road. Ni Su couldn't figure it out, but he didn't dare to delay and moved forward in one direction.
After walking for a long time without seeing the city walls of Qiao Town, Ni Su realized that she seemed to have gone in the wrong direction. Fortunately, she found a dilapidated mountain temple to stay temporarily.
A candle was lit in the temple. Ni Su sat in the haystack with her knees hugged, in a trance for a while, her face wet with tears.
She knew that Ni Zong was willing to spend so much money to capture her because he must have discovered that Cen had sold the land and farm, and knew that the money was in her hands.
This all proves one thing.
Mother, gone.
With red eyes, Ni Su clenched her teeth and buried her face in her arms. Suddenly, she felt a breeze blowing across her back. Her shoulders trembled and she instinctively sat up straight.
She didn't look at the temple door behind her for a long time, but she said, "Why are you helping me?"
There was an uncontrollable sob in his voice.
Although the flames coming from the temple were dim, they shone on Xu Hexue's face. His eyelashes blinked, and his empty eyes actually gained a bit of divine light. He moved his gaze and saw clearly the girl who was curled up in the haystack with her back to him inside the temple gate.
"What year is it now?"
Ni Su waited for a long time before she heard his sudden question. She did not turn around, but answered truthfully, "The nineteenth year of Zhengyuan."
The nineteenth year of Zhengyuan.
Xu Hexue was stunned.
One month on earth is equal to half a year in Youdu.
He had been in Youdu for nearly a hundred years, while he had only been in the human world for fifteen years.
Ni Su didn't hear him speak again, but when she looked at her own shadow on the ground, she remembered the phantom she had seen before. She couldn't help but ask, "Why did I see my brother's shadow behind you in the cypress forest outside the Big Bell Temple that day?"
"Maybe I was touched by his soul fire."
Xu Hexue stood under the eaves with a cold voice.
"What do you mean?" Ni Su didn't dare to think about anything for so many days. She turned her head suddenly, and the candlelight illuminated her red eyes. "Are you talking about my brother..."
The candle flame flickered, and the figure outside the door, which was originally fainter than the moonlight, suddenly became more real.
"The Netherworld is separated from the human world by the Hate River. New souls often appear in the reed bushes beside the Hate River, and some of them are the soul fires of those who have left their souls."
Only when a person suffers from the disease of soul separation will there be sporadic soul fires like fireflies falling on the bank of the water of hatred, and only his blood relatives can see the phantom transformed by the soul fire.
"Why would my brother suffer from the soul-leaving syndrome?" Ni Su's heart was extremely confused. Thinking of her mother's instructions, her eyes became hot again.
I wonder if my mother is now by the river of hatred or among the reeds?
Ni Su suppressed her sadness and raised her eyes. The person was tall and slender, with his back to her, and he was looking up at somewhere in the long night.
Looking at him this way, he seems to be no different from ordinary people.
He seemed to sense something and turned his head abruptly. His clear and cold eyes met her gaze and he opened his pale lips slightly: "Ni Su."
He had heard her called that more than once.
I also know that she is going to Yunjing .
Ni Su stared at him in a daze.
"I have been summoned by you and cannot leave you even a step in the human world, but I also have unfinished business." Xu Hexue stared at her, "In this case, why don't we make a promise. When we go to Yunjing, I will help you find your brother, and you will help me achieve my wish."
In the dilapidated temple in the mountains, the summer night was endless. Ni Su waited for a long time before speaking: "What is your unfinished business?"
"Same as you, looking for someone."
"Looking for whom?"
Xu Hexue lowered his eyes when he heard the voice, and Ni Su followed his gaze and fell on the silver line of words on the edge of his sleeve.
"Old friend."
He was brief.
Perhaps it was because of that friend who had clearly prepared this winter coat and written a petition, but had not burned it for a full fifteen years. Ni Su remembered what the old monk said that day.
Ni Su didn't say anything, and he stood outside the door without making a sound either. She found that his shadow on the ground was a floating, white, furry light.
Ni Su shouldn't have the courage to travel with ghosts.
"good."
Ni Su's throat tightened, but she met his gaze, "As long as you don't hurt innocent lives and don't cause unnecessary trouble, I can promise you."
Then she lay down on the haystack, her back to him, and closed her eyes.
But she couldn't sleep at all.
Not to mention that there is a ghost outside the door that cannot be shaken off,
When she closed her eyes, she saw her mother's face and her brother's face. Moists appeared in the corners of Ni Su's eyes. She sat up again, found a piece of dry food from her bag, and ate it bite by bite.
She turned around and saw his shadow again, furry and with a tail, like an unknown creature, lively and cute.
Ni Su looked up and unexpectedly met his eyes.
She didn't know that there were tears in her eyes. She just saw him staring at her, and then she lowered her eyes to look at the dry food in her hand.
Ni Su took out a piece and handed it to him.
But he didn't move, and his expression was dull.
Ni Su took back the half cake, stared at the candle flame for a moment, then took out another candle from her bag and tentatively handed it to him: "You ghosts, do you like to eat this?"
