Chapter 034
I don't know much about runes, and the only time I came across them was on the box of the blood amber pendant. But these are obviously not as detailed as the one on the box. But since Ding Ding said so, if these ghosts really come out, the three of us will probably lose our lives.
The coffin appeared out of nowhere, and there were so many ghost tombs inside it. And there was that person who disappeared inexplicably. I couldn't figure out what all this had to do with my sleepwalking.
Ding Ding pulled me again and said, Tan Xi, the handwriting of these runes is the same as that on the blood amber box.
I was stunned for a moment and said, "You mean these things belong to my mother?"
Tintin nodded.
I said it was impossible. According to my uncle, my mother never touched these things after my father left, and I have never seen them once since I was a child.
Ding Ding said, if you don't believe me, take out the jewelry box and compare it. But the color of the red paper has not faded, and the mark of the rune is not old. These ghost tombs must have been unearthed no more than half a year ago. Where have you been for the past six months?
Of course I haven't been in my hometown for the past six months, so I don't know my mother's condition, but why would she suddenly do this kind of thing when she hasn't dealt with ghosts and gods for many years?
Tintin put down the ghost tomb in his hand and said, "That being said, I'm not sure. There are at least five or six hundred ghost tombs here. My mother has never caught so many ghosts in all these years. If all these were done in just half a year, then your mother must be very powerful!"
I didn't say anything. These things were out of my control. Since I couldn't open them, I would just follow what I had learned before and put them all in the sun. They would be wiped out sooner or later.
Lin Tian said don't be anxious, these things must be placed here for a purpose. Since they are your mother's things, don't we plan to summon her spirit? If we can see your mother, just ask her.
I was silent for a while, and I felt that this was true. Instead, Ding Ding frowned and said, "Tan Xi, I thought about it this morning. There is a human-faced tree in your yard. If we summon your mother's soul, it will definitely be sucked into the tree. This end is very tragic."
I glanced outside through the window on the roof and saw that the tree was now bare, with all its leaves fallen to the ground, and its branches looked ferocious like a demon with bared fangs and claws.
I had originally planned to destroy the tree, but after thinking about it for a long time, I realized that cutting it down would not do any good. If I set it on fire, even though this is the old city, it is still in a town after all. Burning a tree would make too much noise and would probably cause a lot of trouble.
I certainly don't want my mother's soul to be sucked away by this tree, but if I don't ask many things clearly, I'm afraid that the problem will snowball and get bigger and bigger, and even to the point where it can't be handled.
Before I could say anything, Ding Ding came closer again. He stretched his head in front of me, looked at the human-faced tree in the yard, and said, "Besides, if your mother really came, even without the influence of this tree, everything in your dream would come true." I am not sure whether the ghost omen will come true, but if it does, what terrible things will happen is beyond my imagination.
I kept silent. I thought of everything Ding Ding said, but I firmly believed that my mother would not do anything to harm me. Moreover, although the ghost omen is basically in place now, the possibility of it coming true is still very low.
In addition, no one should know more about the blood amber than my mother. Without my mother's help, we would be completely helpless as to whether Ding Ding could survive.
However, compared to all these, what matters to me most is that I really want to see my mother, I really want to see her!
The last time I saw her was during the Chinese New Year, but because of work reasons, it was also the peak period of the Spring Festival travel rush. The whole world might have been on holiday, but we could only take a half-day break on the afternoon of New Year's Eve, go home for a reunion dinner, and then return to work early the next day.
I still remember that night, my mother cooked a lot of dishes, and there were only two of us at home, watching the Spring Festival Gala on TV all night. Although such days were dull, they become more and more precious when I think about them now.
It seems that since I went to college, I have been spending less and less time at home, and less and less time with my mother.
I still remember the conversation with my mother at that time. We watched TV, sometimes laughed, and sometimes expressed our opinions on the program. My mother listened to me quietly beside me. That day was no different from any other day, except that when I left the next day, my mother stood at the door to see me off and said, "When you have time, come back and visit me."
I smiled and nodded, but I didn't expect that this farewell would become a farewell forever.
Even when my mom died, I wasn't there for her.
Because of this, I have always felt guilty. But after I encountered the ghost, I thought more than once whether I could see her again. Now I have a chance, no matter how dangerous it is, I don't want to give up!
I asked Ding Ding if there was any way to temporarily disable the human-faced tree?
Seeing my firm attitude, Ding Ding sighed and said that there was a way, but it could only be controlled for a short while.
I asked, how long will it take?
Ding Ding pouted and thought for a while, then said maybe half an hour at most.
I said that was enough time. If something really went wrong, I wouldn’t care and would just burn the tree!
Ding Ding said, since you have made up your mind, then we will do as you say. Anyway, our goal is the other piece of blood amber.
We didn't say anything more. Lin Tian and I covered the coffin again. Ding Ding said he was going to prepare something to scare the human-faced tree, and left the attic first.
I felt a little nervous when I touched the coffin in front of me. I kept thinking about myself sleeping in it. I was frowning. Lin Tian probably couldn't stand me like this and wanted to play a joke on me. He said, "Don't look at me. This coffin is really suitable for you."
When I heard that, I almost fainted and cursed, "Why can't you say something nice?"
Lin Tian then realized that he had said the wrong thing. He coughed, pretended to be serious, and said, I just want to enlighten you.
I sighed and said, forget it, apart from swearing at people harshly, you never fucking know how to comfort anyone.
Lin Tian chuckled and said, “It’s good that you know it.”
I shook my head and prepared to go downstairs to see how Ding Ding was preparing, and to wash the blood stains on my body.
But as soon as he lowered his head, he suddenly saw several heavy footprints on the ground, one deep and one shallow, as if a lame person had walked here. All his attention was previously attracted by the coffin, and he forgot to check the surroundings.
When I saw this, I was shocked. The footprints of the three of us, Lin Tian, were relatively neat, but there were quite a few extra prints on the ground, even going all the way to the exit.
I thought of the black shadow that suddenly disappeared, and saw Lin Tian beside me. My mind suddenly buzzed, and I immediately understood!
Lin Tian was about to go downstairs when I pulled him back. I asked him if the people in the attic had taken the opportunity to go out after I fell asleep while they were guarding downstairs.
Lin Tian frowned and said, "It's impossible. I've been guarding down there the whole time."
I asked again, do you remember everything that happened before ?
Lin Tian was stunned for a moment and didn't speak immediately. But this action confirmed my guess.
Lin Tian's condition seemed to be getting worse and worse. Starting from the human-faced tree, his behavior seemed to be out of his control. And no matter what he did in the middle, he had no memory of it.
If I fell asleep at that time, Ding Ding went downstairs to rest, and Lin Tian suddenly appeared in that situation again, the shadow upstairs could just leave. By the time Lin Tian regained consciousness, the person would probably have run far away!
Lin Tian looked at me, his expression becoming increasingly ugly. His face flushed red, and he grabbed me and said, "Tan Xi, I don't have any impression..."
I told you not to be anxious, just remember if you can, and it’s okay if you can’t. Although that person is mysterious, he has no intention of harming us at the moment.
My words were somewhat comforting, just to avoid embarrassing Lin Tian. He was now in a trance, trying hard to recall what happened earlier, but in the end, he shook his head helplessly.
He made a bitter face, looking somewhat painful, and said, Tan Xi, I really don’t know…
I sighed and said nothing more. Lin Tian's condition was really getting worse. This situation had only occurred once before in the cemetery, but it seemed to be more serious when he came to his hometown. It seemed that the more ghosts there were, the worse his mental state would be.
I thought about it and decided that in order to prevent Lin Tian from doing anything strange again, I asked him to stay with me or Ding Ding as much as possible, so that there would be someone who could control him.
Lin Tian nodded without saying anything to refuse. He probably felt a little ashamed.
We went downstairs together and saw Tintin taking out his luggage and pulling up a red rope with four copper coins tied to it. I didn't know what dynasty they were from.
He pulled the red string around the tree, looked up at the sky, and muttered something, as if he was calculating something. Then, he nailed four copper coins to the four corners of the tree, and pulled the red string up to form a square shape, surrounding the tree.
Lin Tian and I sat in the house and watched him finish all this. Ding Ding came back and said that we had to wait until after dark to summon the souls. When the Yin Qi was at its deepest, the success rate would be the highest. When that time came, I trapped the human-faced tree and then started to summon the souls.
I nodded and asked him what else was needed to prepare for summoning the spirit?
Ding Ding said that he needed my mother's name, date of birth, and things she used during her lifetime. Everything else was not difficult to prepare, but he didn't know these.
I said "Oh", went into the house and wrote down my mother's information, then found a piece of clothing she had worn and asked Ding Ding if it was enough?
Ding Ding said it was OK, and then he took it and put it in his bag, and started to tinker with it again. He moved my grandmother's small incense burner to the table, and took out a bottle of cinnabar from his bag, and started writing and drawing on the table.
Lin Tian and I were watching from the side, but we couldn't help. His strokes seemed chaotic, but the patterns he drew seemed to be very regular.
