Chapter 011: Bardo
Uncle Zhong's words scared me to death. It was really an unexpected disaster. I got on a pirate ship. I have to do it. Sooner or later I will become an idiot.
The three of us packed up and left the house. Li Daming had a car and drove us straight to Wang Yue's house. On the way, I asked him how he knew where I lived. Li Daming smiled and said, "I just asked around. There are so many colleagues, one of them must know. I can tell you that the job that suits me best is not sales, but detective."
When I heard this, I felt so uncomfortable. You are prying into other people's privacy and you think you are right.
We soon arrived at Wang Yue's residential complex, entered the building using the password, and then entered her home. We went straight to Wang Yue's bedroom. After opening the door, I walked straight in. Li Daming shook his head and said, "It's full of black smoke inside. I don't have your bracelet to ward off evil spirits."
Because the bracelet was there, it could break this illusion. I didn't care, I just stood at the door and watched them both.
Uncle Zhong sighed: "Although Wang Yue is young, she is definitely a leader among the ghost messengers and has many skills. I can't disperse the black smoke here, so I can only provide temporary lighting." He took out a red candle from his bag, lit it, and it burned out a faint red light.
He walked in front holding a candle, Li Daming followed behind, and I walked in carefree, knowing that I could do whatever I wanted with the bracelet.
The two people were in very strange postures, groping in the dark, like they were performing a pantomime, which made me want to laugh. Uncle Zhong suddenly asked, "Xiao Lin, where is the mirror?"
I hurried over and led them to the mirror on the wall. Uncle Zhong held a candle and trembled as he came to the mirror. He and Li Daming were reflected in the mirror. When I saw the scene in the mirror, my heart skipped a beat. The background of the mirror was a dark black smoke, and Uncle Zhong and Li Daming were vaguely visible in it. It was an indescribable eeriness.
I turned my head to look at the two people beside me. Uncle Zhong was fine, but Li Daming looked a little hesitant and scared. It was really strange that the mirror could reflect the black smoke, but I couldn't see it in reality.
This is of course due to the bracelet. But I still find it very strange. Does the black smoke exist objectively, or does it not exist at all and is just an illusion? Anyway, in this room, I have become an outsider. This phenomenon has caused me to think deeply about what is subjective and what is objective.
I was just thinking about it when Uncle Zhong said, "Xiao Lin, it's almost midnight, let's start the ritual without delaying any longer."
I agreed.
Uncle Zhong asked me to sit cross-legged in front of the mirror. The mirror was sealed high on the wall and might have been tilted at an angle. When I looked up, I could see the full view of myself.
Uncle Zhong said, "The bracelet Wang Yue left for you has psychic powers. And this mirror is the key tool for you to communicate with her. In other words, Wang Yue left behind her body, but her true soul should have entered the mirror. You need to use the bracelet to leave her soul and enter the mirror to communicate with her."
I was stunned. This was too mysterious.
"Uncle Zhong, are you saying that Wang Yue's soul is trapped in the mirror and can't get out?" I asked tremblingly.
Uncle Zhong said, "Your understanding of the meaning of a mirror is too narrow. A mirror is not a world in itself. It is just a door that connects to another world."
Li Daming was very interested and asked what kind of world that was. Was it the underworld? The mirror led to the underworld? Then could the mirror in my house also lead to the underworld?
Uncle Zhong frowned and scolded, "What are you asking? Buddha said that you can't tell. You want to know everything!"
Li Daming shook his head, his face full of confusion as the question could not be answered.
Uncle Zhong came up behind me, pressed his hand on the Baihui acupoint on the top of my head, and said slowly: "Lin Cong, when I borrowed your soul, I found that you have some talent. When you were a child, could you see things that ordinary people can't see?"
I thought carefully, "It seems that I did, but I was very young and I can't really remember. Every time my father came home, he would bring back some stones and show them to me, asking me to tell where they came from. It seemed that at that time, I could see who had touched these stones."
"Oh?" Uncle Zhong asked, "What does your father do?"
"Geological exploration." I sighed silently in my heart. My father has been missing for two years.
"What happened afterwards? Have you ever had a similar experience again?" Uncle Zhong asked.
I didn't want to talk about this topic anymore, so I just said "hmm". "Later, I had a fever frequently. I remember when I was in kindergarten, I had to get an IV drip every now and then. My father took me to a temple in the suburbs of Shanghai. I don't remember what happened next, but I never had a similar experience again."
"A temple in Shanghai? Putuo Temple?" Li Daming asked.
"I can't remember it clearly. I was too young at that time. Now when I think about it , it seems like it happened in my previous life," I said.
Uncle Zhong seemed to be thinking about something: "I'm afraid Wang Yue chose you for this reason. Anyway, close your eyes."
I slowly closed my eyes, and I felt as if Uncle Zhong was writing on my neck with his fingers. I didn't know what he wrote, but it was very light and fast, and it was very itchy.
I couldn't help shrinking my neck, and Uncle Zhong shouted, "Don't move!"
I sat on the ground in the same position, my eyes were dry and I couldn't open them, so I simply closed them. I was in a dozing state, neither asleep nor awake.
At this moment, a voice suddenly came from beside him: "Lin Cong."
I suddenly perked up. It was Wang Yue?! I wanted to raise my head, but my head was so dizzy that I couldn't lift it up.
"Lin Cong, I knew you could come, and you didn't let me down." Wang Yue said.
I was furious. Who do you think you are? You've made me suffer so much. Do I still want your approval? I angrily asked, "Where are you?"
I tried to raise my head, but the surroundings were dim and dark. It seemed that I was not in the bedroom, but in the extremely gloomy suburbs at dusk. I could even feel the cold wind blowing across my skin. But I couldn't raise my head, I couldn't see with my eyes, and I could only see very blurry things out of the corner of my eyes. This feeling was very strange.
Wang Yue did not answer me and continued, "Lin Cong, don't blame me. It took me three full years to find someone like you, and finally I chose you. You are kind, smart, and you seem to be a person with good fortune. You will definitely help me. You were able to find this place and hear this recording of mine..."
My heart skipped a beat, thinking how strange it was, it wasn't Wang Yue, and now I was still hearing her recording. Where was this recording stored, was it in the mirror?
"...You used your intelligence to crack the mechanism I set up, which means that you and I have a great chance, and you are my benefactor. As the saying goes, a gentleman never jokes, and I have already said that if you can really help me find my father and help him escape from suffering, I will marry you after you come back to life and be your lifelong good wife and mother..." Wang Yue said.
I sneered when I heard it. Am I rare?
Unfortunately, this is a recording, so I can't refute it directly and can only listen patiently.
"Lin Cong, remember this, I have entered the bardo realm and will face several extremely difficult levels before I can rescue my father." Wang Yue said, "I need your help. Stand up now..."
I couldn't help it, so I screamed suddenly, raised my head, and finally opened my eyes. This moment seemed to have broken the shackles of the nightmare.
I was still standing in the bedroom when I saw Uncle Zhong and Li Daming. Uncle Zhong held up a candle and shone it towards me, his eyes full of confusion.
I told him what happened just now. Uncle Zhong pondered for a moment and said, "You did leave your soul and entered the mirror. This mirror should be some kind of mysterious space, a transit station for you and Wang Yue to communicate. The next step is to do what she said."
"I feel like I've been blackmailed step by step." I frowned: "Why doesn't anyone consider my feelings?"
"That's how you feel." Li Daming squeezed over and said, "If you succeed, you'll get a wife. If you fail, it'll be a waste of time and you'll become an idiot. Wang Yue's plan is to force you to do it. This little girl is amazing."
"Damn it, she is so scheming. If I marry her, it would be no different from marrying an ungrateful Pan Jinlian. I don't know when she will drug me." I said angrily.
Uncle Zhong shook his head: "Not necessarily. I have known Wang Yue longer than you have. She is scheming, but she is not a scheming bitch. She is kind at heart."
"Uncle Zhong, Wang Yue said she was in some bardo realm. What is that place?" Li Daming asked.
Uncle Zhong asked: "Have you ever heard of the first seven days?"
Li Daming looked at me and said he knew. It refers to the first seven days after a person's death, which seems to be called the first seven days.
Uncle Zhong nodded, twirled the beads, and said, "Within seven days after a person's death, he or she has not yet turned into a 'ghost' and has not yet walked the Yellow Springs Road to the underworld. Therefore, the soul during these seven days is called the bardo body. The place where it is located is called the bardo realm. That place is neither yin nor yang, and according to legend, it is the place under the jurisdiction of Meng Po." Just as he said this, the mirror on the wall suddenly made two crisp "creaking" sounds, which scared us in the silence.
Uncle Zhong said, "See, there is a reaction."
