Episode 8 Chapter 82: The Ghost Still Exists
Shan Ranjin also looked at Shi Hu, then shook his head slightly. I looked at him, not understanding what he meant by shaking his head, because I felt that Shan Ranjin knew. Finally, Shan Ranjin shifted his gaze to me, looked at me once, then looked at Shi Hu, but said another sentence: "Shi Hu, you are confused."
Shi Hu's expression remained unchanged, but he stopped looking at Shan Ranjin. Shan Ranjin suddenly stood up and told Shi Hu that he would be in charge of other matters for the time being, and he didn't need to follow up on the progress here. He would report to his superiors and let him take charge of another task, which might calm his hot head. Shi Hu didn't say anything from beginning to end, as if he tacitly agreed with everything Shan Ranjin said.
It all happened so fast that I didn't even know what was going on. The two of them were just playing dumb, and I couldn't get involved in their affairs. I could only watch them. Shan Ranjin told me that from now on he would be directly responsible for my case. I didn't need to contact Shi Hu for anything, and Shi Hu would no longer handle any of my matters. He asked me to contact him directly.
I used to think that they were of the same level, but now it seems that Shan Lanjin is a higher-ranking official and has the upper hand over the other. I wanted to say something, but Shan Lanjin said that this was their internal coordination, so I decided not to say anything.
Since that night, Shi Hu seemed to have disappeared, and I haven't seen him since. Every time I had something to do, I would contact Dan Ranjin instead. I don't know if it was because of habit, but I always felt weird when I contacted Dan Ranjin. Besides, he was always cold and unfriendly, totally unlike Shi Hu who was approachable. So every time I contacted him via text message, and he would call me back after receiving the text message.
That night we moved all the urns to the seventh floor. Shan Ranjin said that he and I would go to the ruins on the outskirts of the city on the weekend to place the hanged man's urn and cloth shoes there. I naturally agreed. But I soon dreamed of such a scene. The hanged middle-aged man was standing at the door of the living room holding his own urn. The whole dream was such a static picture. I also saw a rope hanging in the middle of the living room, but the hanged man was standing at the door of the living room.
In the dream, he pointed at the hanging empty noose rope, and I vaguely heard him say that the gap would be filled, would be filled. I woke up in the echo of this sentence, but when I woke up, I was standing on the coffee table, and my hands were bent and raised on both sides of my temples, as if I was pulling something, and the moment I woke up, I could feel something around my neck, but this feeling disappeared after I woke up.
And I didn't wake up by myself, but was awakened by a sound, the sound was a glass that fell to the ground and broke for some reason. I woke up suddenly like this, and even when I woke up, I kept this action, and then I looked around the living room, and an inexplicable cold air rose from the soles of my feet. I looked at my actions in confusion, and then I got down from the coffee table immediately. I didn't even know what I was doing just now.
The broken glass was in the cupboard next to the water dispenser. After I turned on the light, I saw that the cupboard door was open, as if someone had opened it. My mind went blank and I just woodenly cleaned up the glass shards. If the glass had not been broken suddenly, I would have hanged myself in my dream.
Because Shan Ranjin was such a cold person, we basically had no communication on the way to the ruins, and I didn't tell him about the time I almost hanged myself. It's not that I didn't want to tell him, but every time the words came to my throat, I swallowed them back because when I saw his cold face, it felt like I was deliberately trying to strike up a conversation with him.
The car drove along and soon arrived at that familiar place. This was my second time here, and this was the first time I had doubts. I said that this place had existed for so long, why did it always remain like this and not be demolished. But I immediately realized that I had let the cat out of the bag. Shan Rankin had already noticed something wrong in my voice and turned his head to look at me: "Has it existed for a long time?"
So I could only lie and say that I had looked up a lot of information since the last time I came here, and found that this place has been like this for several years. How come the developer didn't intend to demolish and rebuild it after buying it? Then why did they buy it? Shan Rankin just continued to look at me with that cold gaze, which made me feel guilty. Then he looked away. I don't know if he saw through me. He just said, "Who knows."
Then I held the urn, and Dan Lanjin held the cloth shoes wrapped in white paper. Originally , he was going to hold the urn, but I had a fear towards those black and white cloth shoes, so I stayed as far away from them as possible, so I exchanged with him, even though the urn was not an auspicious thing either.
Shan Lanjin said he didn't know which building 721 was in, so he asked me to lead the way. I also found it strange, but after I came in, I felt very familiar with it, so I naturally walked in that direction. When I got downstairs, I knew I had arrived, so I went upstairs. Shan Lanjin followed behind me all the time, as if I was leading the way.
After we got upstairs, the house was still in a deserted look. Shan Lanjin asked me to put the urn in the middle of the room. Then he put his cloth shoes next to the urn, took out the rosin he brought with him, lit it, and found a gap to insert it in the room. Finally, he gave me a stick and took one for himself. He told me, "Take the incense. We will go back now. When we go back, don't look back no matter who calls you from behind. Also, if you find that the incense suddenly goes out, close your eyes and stand still. Don't move. Don't open your eyes no matter what sound you hear.
At first I thought that I could just send him here, but I didn't expect there were some rules. Dan Lanjin asked me to go in front and he would go behind, so that I wouldn't suddenly disappear while walking. When I heard him say that, I felt weird. What did it mean to suddenly disappear while walking?
But when Shan Lanjin handed me the incense, I heard someone calling me. It was the same as the last time when Shi Hu came here. The voice came from downstairs. I listened carefully and found that someone was calling me. I asked Shan Lanjin if he heard it. Shan Lanjin said he didn't hear it and told me not to pay attention to the voice and go downstairs as he said.
So I walked in front and went downstairs smoothly. I saw Qiao Jie standing downstairs at this time, standing face to face with me, but his face was full of the gloomy aura of death. When I suddenly saw him standing downstairs, I asked, "Qiao Jie, why are you here?"
Just as I asked this, I suddenly realized that the incense in my hand had gone out. I looked at Qiao Jie in horror and saw a weird smile on his pale face. I remembered Shan Lanjin's instructions, so I closed my eyes immediately. But at the moment I closed my eyes, I suddenly felt something pulling me hard. I fell out and opened my eyes involuntarily. I saw Qiao Jie almost sticking to my face with a ferocious look and said to me, "You want to escape, but where can you escape to!"
Then he pulled my wrist hard, and no matter how I struggled, it was useless. His hands were extremely cold, almost as cold as a dead person. He dragged me up from the ground and took me somewhere.
I stumbled along with him. I wanted to close my eyes, but they were open as if they were completely out of control. It was just like trying to open my eyes in a dream but being unable to do so. Qiao Jie pulled me out of the building complex and brought me to an artificial lake. He dragged me to the lake and said to me viciously, "Let's see how you can swim up!"
Then he was about to push me into the lake. I struggled violently. Just when I thought I was going to fall, I suddenly heard a voice in my ear: "Yijie, wake up!"
I suddenly came back to my senses as if I was clicked, but I saw that the person who was pulling me was Shan Ranjin, and I was standing on the embankment of an abandoned artificial lake. It was because Shan Ranjin pulled me that I did not jump down.
