Chapter 3: The knife seller
The cold wind in the Lin family's yard suddenly grew stronger and stronger, blowing Lin Xianyu's hair up, but what was even more strange was that the cold wind seemed to only blow towards the Lin family, and the treetops of the nearby houses did not even move.
"Pa" Lin Xianyu suddenly felt someone patting her shoulder. The place where she was patted felt a bit cold and piercing. She suddenly felt as if there were bursts of panting sounds near her left ear, as if someone was blowing into her ear.
"Dad, did you call me..."
Lin Yuan had his back to her, but he turned around when he heard Lin Xianyu calling her. His scalp instantly felt numb. The head of his daughter was pressed against his back and was deformed, and it was impossible to tell that it was a face. The other person's hand was hitting Lin Xianyu's shoulder, and his snow-white eyeballs were drooping on her shoulder.
The drooping eyeball moved strangely, and Lin Yuan had a feeling that the single eye seemed to be staring at him.
"Woof woof, woof woof woof..." The family that lived in a yard separated from the Lin family raised two Labradors. Suddenly, they rushed towards the fence separating the two yards. For a moment, the sound of dog barking was deafening.
Lin Yuan raised his arm and pointed at his daughter's back with trembling hands. He opened his mouth but couldn't utter a word. The words got stuck in his throat.
Lin Xianyu was about to cry. She saw her father standing in front of her. Who was the person blowing into her ear from behind and putting his hand on her shoulder?
"Dad, Dad..." Lin Xianyu collapsed instantly, crying and not daring to move.
No matter how scared he was at this moment, the natural instinct between father and daughter was still there. Lin Yuan stepped forward and grabbed his daughter's arm, pulling her towards him. Lin Xianyu suddenly fell into Lin Yuan's arms, and the figure behind her seemed to be bounced away immediately.
At this time, the opponent's figure could be seen more clearly. Except for the deformed head, there was no good part of the body. Generally speaking, the opponent seemed to be pieced together from various pieces.
"Dad, is that you?" Lin Yuan said in a horrified tone, "We are your family. We are here tonight to celebrate your 7th day of mourning. What are you doing? Have we ever been unfilial to you when you were alive?"
The black shadow didn't seem to listen to Lin Yuan at all. It floated in front of the two of them, as if it wanted to move forward but was afraid to do so.
Lin Yuan hugged his daughter, gasping for breath in fear. He seemed to remember something in an instant, and reached out to pull out a piece of horn bone from his neck. It was the horn bone of a northern Tibetan yak, which he had obtained from a great lama a few years ago.
“Woof woof, woof woof…” The two Labradors barked even louder. The barking in the dark night spread far away, and almost all the houses nearby were disturbed by the noise.
"Lao Lin, what's going on?" The neighbor next door saw two Labradors clinging to the fence and came over to ask.
Lin Yuan pointed at the shabby figure and asked stutteringly: "You, didn't you see it?"
The neighbors were all confused. They turned their heads and saw that only the father and daughter were in the yard. They frowned and asked, "What are you looking at? Isn't today the seventh day of the funeral for your old man? It's almost time now, why hasn't the ladder been burned yet?"
"Gulp" Lin Yuan swallowed his saliva, not knowing how to explain: "No, nothing"
"Swoosh" the figure in the corner seemed to look at the horn bone on Lin Yuan's neck with fear, shook it a few times and then dispersed.
The two Labradors next door immediately became quiet and stopped barking. After being scolded by their owner, they were taken back. Lin Xianyu and Lin Yuan were paralyzed all of a sudden.
This kind of thing, if you tell it to others, they may not believe it, and it can have a bad impact.
The ladder in the yard was still lying on the ground, the shriveled offerings were placed aside, and in the living room, Lin Yuan was puffing on his cigarette, with several cigarette butts already in the ashtray. Lin Xianyu was huddled on the sofa with his arms folded, his eyes a little dull.
Nowadays, when online consultation is very developed and supernatural thriller novels are selling well, if you encounter something incomprehensible, you may not believe it, but you can still understand it a little bit.
Lin Xianyu buried his head in his arms and choked up as he said, "Dad, is that a ghost?"
Lin Yuan's hand holding the cigarette butt froze, and he said in a daze: "It should be...right, hey, what kind of sin is this, what is the old man doing?"
"Dad, do you remember?" Lin Xianyu raised his head and said hurriedly, "On the day grandpa was buried, a young man came to our old cemetery. He said that something strange would happen in our house on the seventh day after grandpa's death."
Lin Yuan pinched off the cigarette butt that had already burned to the butt, frowned and said, "The one who threw a kitchen knife?"
Lin Xianyu hurriedly jumped up from the sofa, went upstairs to her bedroom, and took out an ordinary kitchen knife from her bag. At that time, she thought it was a bit strange that a foreigner who had just arrived in Caofeidian could know the day of her grandfather's seventh day. No one cared about the kitchen knife at that time, but Lin Xianyu subconsciously put it away.
She returned to the living room and put the kitchen knife on the table. "He said he would wait in Caofeidian for three and a half days. If anything happens to our family, we can take this kitchen knife to the hotel near the train station to find him."
Lin Yuan pursed his lips and looked at the kitchen knife on the table. He then took out his cell phone, found a number and dialed: "Help me find someone, about 24 or 25 years old, wearing a navy blue robe, with short hair... He should be living in a hotel near the train station. Call me back as soon as you find him, as soon as possible, I need news within half an hour."
Lin Xianyu took out the car keys from her bag and said, "We'll go there now."
Twenty minutes later, the father and daughter drove to the roadside of the square in front of the station and stopped for less than five minutes. A man came over, looked at the license plate, then reached out and knocked on the window.
Lin Yuan lowered the car window, and the other party lowered his head and said respectfully: "Mr. Lin, we have found the person you are looking for. He is in the hotel in front and has been staying here for three days. The hotel owner said that this person rarely goes out. He only goes out once in the morning and once in the evening and comes back in about half an hour. The rest of the time he stays in the room. It's the first room at the end of the second floor."
"Thank you for the trouble." Lin Yuan nodded. Lin Xianyu took out his wallet from his bag, pulled out a few bills and handed them over, saying softly, "Thank you."
The other party waved his hand and turned away: "You're welcome, Mr. Lin, as long as we can handle the things that the higher-ups have told us to do, that's all."
The car drove to the side of the train station square. After Lin Yuan stopped the car, he hurriedly opened the door and walked into the hotel with Lin Xianyu. The two of them walked directly through the lobby and went up to the second floor. When they arrived at the door of the first room at the corner, before they could reach out and knock on the door, the door opened with a "creak".
Wang Jingzhe was still wearing the robe, with a canvas bag slung across his body. He glanced at the kitchen knife in Lin Xianyu's hand, stretched out his hand and said, "Give me the knife, and... I want money, too."
The Taoist monk who sells knives on credit is very accurate in his predictions!
