Episode 5 Chapter 049 Layout
Shi Hu asked me, but who could I ask? So I naturally said I didn't know. Shi Hu said he would ask the property management for the surveillance footage. I thought that since I had to ask the property management for the surveillance footage so many times because of my matter, I was afraid that the way the property management looked at me would have changed a long time ago. But since this has already happened, would I have to face it and die? So as I said, life must go on.
Because grandma and the others came to see me yesterday afternoon, and I hadn't told Shi Hu yet, so I took this opportunity to tell him. After hearing this, Shi Hu asked if this was true. I said they would come back today to set up a case to summon ghosts. I saw Shi Hu think about it, and finally told me that they didn't go directly to the police station or to him and Shan Lanjin, but came directly to me, as if there was some reason. Then he said that he would pretend that he had never heard of this matter and didn't know about it. I can just contact them myself. Judging from grandma's expression, it doesn't seem like she is playing tricks. She should be here to help me sincerely and to help Master Nan.
Maybe because he knew the old lady would come, Shi Hu went to the property management to get the surveillance camera and never came up again after dawn. He just called me to tell me that the surveillance camera had been obtained and he went to do other things first, asking me to be careful. As for the old lady, she came at noon, and she came with her daughter-in-law, but her daughter-in-law was holding something in her hand, which should be used to summon ghosts.
After coming in, the old lady greeted me, and then her daughter-in-law lit incense. The old lady held the incense and bowed in all directions in the house. After bowing, her daughter-in-law took out an incense burner and placed it on the coffee table. The old lady inserted the incense into the incense burner, and then her daughter-in-law took out some plates. The things on the plates were not like the dried , but miniature toys that were made of paper and pasted directly onto the plates. There were paper people, paper baskets, and so on.
What is more special is a piece of wood, which is square and seems to be an old wood. It has a dark red color and you can tell it is a good piece of wood just by looking at it. I asked what it was. The old lady said it was a piece of wood for suppressing evil spirits. She put this piece of wood outside. She told me that when I feel there is something around, or that something is causing trouble in the house, I can hit this piece of wood for temporary peace. This piece of wood is specially brought for me, because the table for summoning ghosts needs to be set up for three days and three nights. During these three days and three nights, it is inevitable that something will disturb me. Whenever I feel that I am being disturbed by something, I can just come to this table and hit it.
The old lady was indeed thoughtful. After the table was set up, her daughter-in-law took paper money and opened the doors and windows of my house. Then, every door and window was circulated with paper money. I asked what the reason was. The old lady said that this was to lift the ban and let those things in. As long as this was done once, even if the doors and windows were closed, those things could come and go freely without any taboos.
I said that all these things had come in, so what should I do inside? The old lady said I didn't need to worry, that the dead would go with the dead, and the living would go with the living, and as long as they didn't interfere with each other, there would be no problem. As for how to avoid interference, the old lady tied a string on my wrist. The string was black and white. I remembered that in my hometown, this kind of string would only be tied on the body when someone died, and it would be tied around the waist to express mourning. Now that the old lady tied such a string on me, I felt a little weird. The old lady said it was a dead person's string. If it was tied on me, those things would not be able to sense the living energy in me, and would not disturb me.
Of course, just a string like this wouldn't work, so the old lady used something to grind some water for me to drink. She said that if I drank the water for three days there should be no problem. But she warned me not to untie the string, and she tied a knot in my hand to prevent it from falling off.
After doing all this, I asked the old lady if this was enough. She shook her head and said, "Of course not. There are some restless things in my house that need to be treated. Although they cannot be driven away, at least they should not make trouble in these three days." As she spoke, the old lady's daughter-in-law took out a few bowls. They were all earthen bowls. Even in the countryside, no one uses them anymore. The peculiarity of this bowl is that the bottom of the bowl is padded with tin foil and paper money, which looks like there is something in the bowl.
I saw that she was holding seven such bowls in total, and then the old lady walked in front holding incense, and she followed behind. Whenever the old lady bent down to worship with incense, her daughter-in-law would put the bowl upside down, then take out something and put it on the upside-down bowl, and then insert the unlit incense sticks into it. Only then did I realize that this was a piece of potato specially used for inserting incense. Master Nan had also used it, and it was wrapped in paper paper.
The position where the old lady put the bowls was roughly the same as the position where Master Nan lit the sea lanterns last time, except that last time he lit six sea lanterns, but this time the old lady used seven bowls. I saw that the old lady put the extra bowl on the coffee table, which I didn't quite understand, and asked why she put one bowl on the table. When I asked, the old lady looked up at the ceiling, as if she was looking at something, then she looked at her daughter-in-law and said, it doesn't hurt to let me see, I will know it sooner or later anyway.
So her daughter-in-law took out a small mirror. I saw that the edges of the mirror were covered with copper. Her daughter-in-law placed the mirror neatly on the coffee table and asked me to look into the mirror at an angle so that I could see more clearly. So I looked into the mirror and saw a person hanging on the ceiling. All I could see clearly from this position were his feet. He was wearing a pair of black and white cloth shoes, which were exactly the same as the pair that appeared in my room.
And the position where it was hung was exactly opposite to where my shoes were neatly placed, which was why my shoes were inexplicably in front of the sofa. I was surprised, but the old lady's daughter-in-law had already taken the mirror away. The old lady said that you can't spy for too long, otherwise it will be discovered and cause trouble, so it's enough to see it and know what's going on.
After the old lady's daughter-in-law took the mirror away, I looked at the ceiling again, but it was completely empty, there was nothing there. After the old lady finished praying, her daughter-in-law put the bowl on the table and put in the incense, and that was it. After that, the old lady reminded me that because they were strangers, they could not live in my house, so they could only come over once in three days to check on the situation, otherwise the strangers' anger would disturb those things.
The old lady reminded me that the house would inevitably be a little cold and gloomy with these things attracted to it, but I didn't need to run away, as these things couldn't see my existence, so I just needed to live my life as usual. Except for not stepping into the places where the bowls were covered, and not touching the desk on the coffee table, if I found anything wrong, I would knock on the wooden stick. If I heard the sound of bowls being knocked, I would light the incense of the bowl that made the sound.
After it was done, the old lady told me that there were seven traces of the bugs in my house, but these things were just lurking there and had no intention of killing me. Among these seven places, the one in front of the sofa was the most difficult to deal with, so the old lady advised me that if I had nothing to do, I should try not to go near the sofa to avoid disturbing it.
After giving me the instructions, the old lady said that there was some unrest outside my house, so her daughter-in-law brought out two stones. I saw that the stones were tied with red and white strings. Then her daughter-in-law gave them to me, and also gave me two folded paper money. She said that where my head is, she should put the stone under the bed to press down the paper money. If my bed is sealed, she should put it at the head of the bed to keep evil spirits away. As for the other one, it was a spare for me, because it is better to be safe than sorry. So if I find that the red and white strings of the stone are loose or broken, or the paper money is missing, I don’t need to reconnect the strings or put the paper money back on, because it will no longer work. The best way is to take the spare one and put it back. However, the old lady advised me that if I really encounter such a situation, it is best to sleep in a different direction.
I remembered everything the old lady said. Then she gave me a wooden hammer and a few wooden nails. She said that we were going to recruit two of them seriously, and the rest were just there to make up the numbers. So whenever I saw these two being recruited, I would use the wooden hammer to nail the nails into their foreheads, and then knock on the top of their heads with the wooden hammer after they were nailed in.
I also collected the hammer and nails. Since the old lady said there were two, they must be the two things attached to me and Master Nan. I said that if that were the case, then I would have nine such things in my house. The old lady said that she couldn't make a judgment for the time being, because she needed to look at the location and origin of the two things before she could know what was going on.
I have to admire the old lady's attentiveness and thoughtfulness. She had thought of almost all the situations. After explaining all these, the old lady and her daughter-in-law went back. After that, I closed all the doors and windows again, and listened to the old lady's words and did not sit on the sofa. I went back to the room and sat at the desk.
There was a bowl under the windowsill in the room, and it was confirmed that there was something in front of the windowsill.
After all, it was the first time for me to do such a thing, and grandma completely trusted me to do it. Although grandma was very thoughtful, I was still a little nervous and uneasy. So I always paid attention to every move at home afterwards, but I found that I was completely overthinking, because there was no noise at all.
Later, until the evening, Shi Hu called me and asked me what to say when the old lady came. I told him what happened, and he didn't say anything, just told me to be careful and hung up the phone. After hanging up the phone with Shi Hu, I suddenly heard the sound of knocking bowls in the living room, so I didn't dare to neglect it and hurried to the living room, and found that it was the one at the bathroom door.
