Chapter 084
I didn't react for a few seconds. I stared at him blankly, my mind was blank and I had no thoughts at all.
I just saw him looking at me, and the friendly expression on his face felt inexplicably familiar, but when I came to my senses and was about to call him, I felt someone patted my back.
I quickly looked back and found that it was Tintin and the little ghost. They were like ghosts, coming and going without any sound.
Ding Ding looked at me in confusion and asked, Tan Xi, what's wrong with you?
I didn't have time to answer him and was about to grab the man behind me. At that time, I actually felt a little nervous, as if I was afraid that he would run away. But when I came to my senses again, I found that the row of seats behind me was empty, without any sign of anyone at all.
I stood up quickly and scanned the people waiting for the bus around me, but I didn't find any trace of the man.
Ding Ding and Xiao Gui looked at each other with strange expressions. They seemed to be worried that something bad might happen again. They asked me hurriedly, "What's wrong with you? Why have you become so suspicious in just a few minutes?"
I didn’t know how to answer them. I clenched my fists tightly because of nervousness and just asked, where is that man?
Ding Ding still looked puzzled. What are you talking about men!
I don't know if I just woke up or because I was anxious, but my mouth suddenly became dry. I said urgently, it was the man who just sat behind me, who looked exactly like the man in the photo. He was still there just now.
The little ghost frowned and asked, "What photo?" "Is it the black and white one in your phone?" "You must be seeing things. If it's really the person in the picture, how can he look exactly the same, unless he's a ghost?"
I don't know why I reacted so strongly, but when I heard what the little ghost said, I felt like a bucket of cold water was poured over my head. It might be because I had been speculating that this man might be my father, but if he was really a ghost, then my father was dead too? And he had been dead for a long time?
I stood there in a daze, my brain short-circuited for a few seconds, and then I immediately shouted at them, saying that even if it was a ghost, I must find him!
Ding Ding pouted and looked at me, saying, Tan Xi, you must have been confused because of your sleep. The problem is that there are no other ghosts here except the hanged boy. Otherwise, you would not need to tell me. The little ghost and I must have discovered it earlier than you.
The kid folded his hands over his chest, looked at me and nodded affirmatively.
When I heard this, I naturally agreed intellectually, but emotionally I was reluctant to admit it. Regardless of whether that man was my father or not, he was always a person related to my mother, and I could never let him go.
But Tintin and the little ghost were so sure, which meant there were indeed no ghosts here. If it was just Tintin, I might have thought he was playing a prank, but the little ghost was always much more reliable than Tintin. The way they both looked seemed to be telling me that I had to believe this.
I looked at the hanged man blankly and saw him standing beside me with concern on his face, as if even he was denying everything I had just seen.
Seeing their resolute looks, I even began to doubt myself. Could it be that I cared too much about that man that I dreamed about him while I was half asleep?
I wiped the sweat from my forehead and relaxed for a while before asking Ding Ding and the others, "What did you two do just now?"
The little ghost smiled mischievously and pointed to a small room behind him. I looked in that direction and saw that it was the smoking area. The two of them probably had a craving for cigarettes, so they left me and ran to smoke. The hanged ghost was still reliable. He couldn't smoke even if he wanted to, and could only follow me helplessly.
I shook my head and wanted to go to the bathroom to wash my face with cold water. I said goodbye to them, and the kid told me to go quickly and come back soon because it was almost time to board the bus.
I nodded and walked towards the bathroom. My face was soaked in cold water, and I immediately sobered up. Thinking about this trip to Jiuye, Mrs. Jiu made it so mysterious, I guess it wouldn't be smooth sailing.
I looked at myself in the mirror, shook my head and sighed. Just at this moment, a child suddenly came in, took a look in the bathroom, and suddenly walked to my side, tugged at my clothes, and said, "Uncle, your name is Tan Xi, right?"
I looked at him puzzledly. The kid seemed to be only five or six years old, and still had an innocent and romantic look. He stared at me blankly with his eyes blinking. I didn't know why he knew my name, so I looked at him curiously for a while.
I smiled faintly, then squatted beside him and asked him, "It's me, little boy. Is there something you want to talk to me about?"
The child laughed and said someone outside asked me to give this to you.
I stretched out my hand to him, and I noticed that he was holding a note in his hand. I frowned, and just as I took it from him, he ran out with a smile.
I wondered if this was a prank by Tintin or something, and didn't take it seriously at first. But when I read the contents of the note, I was stunned for a moment and rushed out of the bathroom.
There was only one sentence written on the note: Jiuye forbidden land, no one is allowed to set foot in it!
The words on the note were written very neatly. There was no signature, but every stroke was vigorous and powerful. It was obvious that the person who wrote the note was a well-educated person.
I ran out of the bathroom and looked around, but I didn't see anyone acting suspiciously. In the waiting hall of the train station, you can meet all kinds of people. Although the space is limited, it is still very difficult to find someone who is secretly observing us.
I shouted to Ding Ding and the others, and they quickly ran over and asked me what was wrong.
I showed them the note, and Ding Ding immediately cursed and said, "Damn it, why is there someone following us wherever we go?"
The little ghost looked at the note, put away his evil smile, thought for a while, and asked me, where did this note come from?
I looked around and immediately saw the child who had been there before. He had not gone far yet, so I quickly ran after him. Ding Ding and Xiao Gui followed me, and when they saw me grab the child, they also understood what was going on.
I tried my best to act calm so as not to scare the child by being too anxious. I quickly put on a smile and said, "Little boy, who asked you to give me that note just now?"
The child blinked at me with an innocent expression on his face and said, “The grandfather told me not to tell you.”
I looked up at the little ghost and the others, and saw that they were as confused as I was. I have never been able to deal with children. Fortunately, the little ghost quickly squatted down, put on a fake smile and helped me coax the child. Only then did I realize that the little ghost was quite good at deceiving children. He didn't even blink an eye and managed to get them to talk under the pretext of buying them candy and snacks.
The child thought for a moment and told us that the person who gave him the note was an old man with messy hair.
I thought this was too general. There were probably more than a hundred people like him in this train station. The kid looked at me, telling me not to rush. He smiled and coaxed the kid, asking if he remembered what he looked like.
I thought that even if this little kid remembered, he probably wouldn't be able to describe it. But I didn't expect that the kid thought about it and said directly, "That grandpa was a cripple!"
I was stunned at that time, and looked at Ding Ding as if my brain had short-circuited, and said, "Could it be your father?"
Ding Ding glared at me, pouted, and said, "It's your father! My father died a long time ago!"
I didn't want to argue with him, but the only person who fit the situation was the lame man who looked like Tintin's father. If there was another lame man, could it be a corpse doll? That guy wasn't so kind as to warn me, so it was a good thing that he didn't kill me.
I hurriedly asked where the man had gone, and the child said that after giving him the note, he left without looking back.
I looked around again. I guess this guy didn't want us to find him. Even if he didn't leave, he must have hidden himself . We definitely wouldn't be able to find him.
Now that the situation was clear, I handed the child to Xiaogui to take care of him, and he went to buy the promised snacks. When Dingding heard that he was going to buy food, he hurriedly followed him. Only the hanged ghost and I returned to our original position to wait for the bus. By the way, I thought about the current situation.
Let's just assume that man is Ding Ding's father. Mrs. Jiu left me a message asking me to go to this place. Although it may not be a good thing, I always feel that this trip will probably yield a lot, even if it can be some information that can make things clear.
But the elusive father of Ding Ding suddenly left a message about the forbidden land of Jiuye. There are two pieces of information here. One is that Jiuye is indeed a key place as I guessed. The other is that since it is a forbidden land, this exploration trip will be very difficult. The content of this note is to warn us that after setting foot in, unusual things will definitely happen. I don’t know if we can handle it.
I went there to find out what happened, and Tintin went there to find Mrs. Nine. Although the little ghost didn't have any specific purpose, he was worried about him staying alone in this place, so we had to go.
I put the note into my bag and kept it carefully. Maybe there was some information on it that I couldn't guess.
I waited for a while, and after Ding Ding and the others came back, not long after, we started queuing up to get on the bus.
We bought hard sleeper tickets because it takes two days to get from here to the province of Jiuye, and we couldn't afford seat tickets.
The train started slowly, and the three of us sat in the car and talked about what had just happened. They also had no idea. Ding Ding bought a big bag of snacks, but he finished them quickly. Time passed slowly.
At night, when the lights in the car were turned off, we stopped talking and fell asleep on the bed. As expected, the hanged ghost was hanging on the two rows of beds, which looked very scary.
But I slept very uneasily along the way. The train was moving all the time, shaking and bumping a little, and the noise was very noisy, which made me uncomfortable.
I don't know how long I tossed and turned, but I finally felt a little sleepy and relaxed. But just as I was about to fall asleep, I suddenly felt someone slap me on the face, and I woke up immediately. I saw Xiao Gui and Ding Ding suddenly got up and stood at the head of my bed, looking very unhappy.
I was just about to ask what happened, but the little ghost quickly covered my mouth, pointed towards the window, and motioned for me to look for myself.
I was puzzled and looked towards the window, but it was still covered by curtains and I couldn't see anything.
I got up from the bed, slowly approached, opened the curtains a little, and was immediately stunned.
I saw many pale faces, including their bodies and limbs, tightly pressed against the windows outside the train. When they saw me move, those dull eyes all looked towards me!
