Volume 1 Chapter 5: The Police Station is Haunted
The power outage caused a bustle outside. Someone shouted, "Old Zhang, check the power distribution room to see if the circuit breaker has tripped." Someone arranged for police to keep an eye on the cell (confinement room), where two prostitutes who had just been caught tonight were being held. They couldn't let them get away. Several bright beams of light intersected and flashed outside. The police were not short of strong flashlights.
The two guys who interrogated me told me to sit still and not move. One of them went out to see what was going on, and the other stayed in the room to watch me. I sneered in my heart. I was just recording a confession, but now it seems that I am being treated as a murderer. I was angry, but I couldn't just sit there and watch. I took out the soul-chasing flag from my pocket, held it to my mouth and whispered a few words to Ermao. Just then, the policeman opened the door, and I threw the flag out the door.
I lowered my voice so they wouldn't hear me. Plus, there was a sudden power outage and they couldn't adapt to the darkness right away. Not to mention if I threw a small flag out, they wouldn't be able to see me even if I jumped out myself.
I know the reason for the power outage best. It is not a natural accident. I just noticed a strong yin energy sneaking into the police station compound. Ghosts are afraid of light, so there will be a power outage. This is the general rule for them to commit crimes wherever they go. I think the evil ghosts who were driven away by my Bagua copper coin formation will not let it go after the egg corpse aborted. If the target is only me, that would be the best. What I am afraid of is that they will not let Shen Bing go, and will vent their anger on irrelevant people after the abortion. This is the trouble I was worried about before.
Of course, we cannot rule out the possibility that other evil ghosts are causing trouble. After all, tonight is Ghost Festival and all ghosts are released. The police station is the place where most people celebrate the festival. It is normal for someone who suffered some grievances here in his or her lifetime to come and cause trouble.
"Ah" a sharp scream suddenly came from outside, which was particularly harsh in the dark night, and my heart couldn't help but jump.
"Old Zhang is dead. Hurry up and block the gate to prevent the murderer from escaping." The yard was in chaos.
I thought to myself that blocking the gate was useless, as ghosts rarely come in through the gate. Besides, those who dare to come to kill people will never kill one person and leave, and will not stop until they have had enough fun. Thinking of this, I couldn't help but stand up. The policeman who was guarding me took out a flashlight and turned it on, shining it on my face, making it hard for me to open my eyes.
"Hey, hey, sit still, don't try to slip out."
I had no choice but to sit down. Even if I hadn't committed any crime, I couldn't get along with the police. In the police station, they were the king of hell and I was the devil.
The noisy noise outside suddenly died down, as if everyone had disappeared, without a single movement, which seemed particularly strange. I turned my head and looked outside the door, and the beams of the strong flashlights just now were all extinguished. The entire police station was pitch black and very quiet, so quiet that it made people feel uneasy.
The policeman across from me was getting impatient. He stood up, walked around the table, and shone his flashlight outside. He couldn't see anyone in the yard, and he looked a little panicked. He turned to me and said, "Don't move. I'll go out and take a look."
"Wait," I called out to him, "Do you believe in ghosts?"
When this guy heard this, he shuddered all over and almost dropped the flashlight. He looked at me and said with a trembling mouth: "I know you are a sorcerer in town, but don't be feudal and superstitious in front of me. This can't scare me." He said this , but the expression on his face betrayed him. He looked so cowardly, even more cowardly than Shen Bing.
My job is rather mysterious, and people in the town don't know what I do, but the results of the gossip behind my back vary, and saying that I am a shaman is one of them. I don't care, I just smiled and said, "Then go out and have a look. If you encounter anything, don't say I didn't tell you in advance."
This guy's legs are rooted to the ground. I bet if he has the guts to go out, I'll write my last name backwards.
He stood there and looked out for a long time. There was still no movement outside, not even a breath of wind, and his expression became more and more tense. He suddenly raised his legs and walked out. I thought, this is bad, it seems that my last name must be written backwards. But he ran to the door, closed it, turned around and leaned against the door, panting heavily, and sweat was dripping down his forehead.
I have seen shameless people, but I have never seen someone as shameless as him. He said he didn't believe in feudal superstition, but I frightened him into such a cowardly state with just one sentence. It's better this way, the last name doesn't need to be written backwards.
"Brother, is there really a ghost outside?" he asked me with his eyes wide open.
I was amused. Even the way he addressed me had changed. He called me so affectionately. I put on a straight face and put my finger to my lips to silence him. Then I motioned him to come back and stop blocking the door. He was so scared that he covered his mouth and ran back to the table.
In the silence, a rustling sound suddenly came from the yard, like someone walking quietly on tiptoe, or like the sound of leaves blown by the wind. In short, in this strange dark night, it was very distressing to hear. The policeman's face changed, and his body softened and fell into the chair.
I pricked up my ears and listened for a while, and roughly understood what was going on. I took out the eight copper coins from my pocket, strung them with a red rope, bit my middle finger and smeared the blood on the copper coins. I shook my right wrist, and after a series of crisp jingling sounds, the eight copper coins stood up straight, forming a copper coin sword about half a foot long!
"Follow me." I waved to the policeman behind the desk, opened the door and walked out.
When he saw me perform such a trick of turning a copper coin into a straight stick, he was immediately in awe, stood up tremblingly, and followed me out. Inside and outside the door were like two different worlds. Inside the house, my eyes adjusted to the darkness for a while, and I could still vaguely see a glimmer of light, but outside the door was shrouded in a thick black fog, and I couldn't see my hand in front of me!
Under the light of the flashlight, the visibility was no more than two meters. A gust of cold wind blew slowly, making my heart tighten.
The entire police station compound was quiet and seemed empty. The policeman behind me called out his colleague's name loudly several times, but there was no response for a long time. His breathing became more and more rapid .
I patted his shoulder and told him not to be afraid, saying that there was no one else in the police station except the two of us. He became even more frightened when he heard that, and his face turned pale. In order to ease his nervousness, I asked him his name, how old he was, how many years he had been working, and some trivial questions to divert his attention. He was as obedient as a grandson, answering whatever I asked, as if I was the interrogator and he was the suspect.
"Oh, I tripped over something." The policeman named Liu Kun suddenly screamed.
I looked down at the ground and saw a bundle of spirit banners made of white paper. They were taken by filial sons during the funeral procession and finally stuck on the grave and no one took them back. Seeing such things, it was obvious that they were left by ghosts. The rustling sound was the wind blowing the spirit banners. I told him to raise his head and walk, and not to look back. Just follow me and don't run around. There are too many ghosts released on the ghost festival tonight. If I offend any of them, it will be difficult for me to deal with it.
Starting from the spirit flag, there were scattered pieces of white paper money on the ground. This kind of paper money is also scattered during funerals, which is different from the yellow paper money burned during the Ghost Festival. The paper money was scattered from the center of the yard all the way to the gate, like a signpost to guide passers-by . I knew in my heart that this was a way for ghosts to take away souls. Wherever the paper money was scattered, the person who was taken away would be found there. So I walked forward along the paper money without hesitation, and I would definitely find all the missing persons in the police station in the end.
As soon as we walked out of the door, the flashlight shone on a very pale face with blood gushing out of all the orifices, staring at us intently. My heart skipped a beat, and Liu Kun behind me yelled and turned around and ran back. I quickly pulled him back and said, "Look carefully, this is a dead person, not a ghost."
Liu Kun mustered up the courage to look forward, then he covered his chest and said, "Yes, it's Old Zhang."
The old man, who was to be in his sixties, stood straight outside the gate, his eyes bulging out, and against the backdrop of blood, he looked extremely hideous and terrifying.
