Chapter 8 Eight, nightmare

The lights in the room were not turned on, and fog poured in from the window, filling the sky, and the only light came from Xiangru's laptop.It was turned on, and the screen was dark blue, reflecting Xiangru's face, blue and white. No, this isn't Xiangru, Xiangru is already dead, and the ones standing in front of me can only be——Touqi, Resurrection Night, Nian'er's dance—could it be, could this be a ghost?What the hell did I do? "Ah..." I screamed, but Nian'er jumped up and covered my mouth, and at the same time leaned down quickly, and shouted in my ear: "Shut up!"

Xiangru looked at us in surprise and asked, "Hongyan, Nian'er, what are you doing?" "Let's make a bet, I'll tell you the answer later." Nian'er smiled calmly, pulled me into her room, turned around and closed the door, and turned on the light. As soon as she let go of her hand, I collapsed on the ground, with fine cold sweat streaming down my back.I know, I've seen hell! I'm really going to hell!There is a ghost, Xiangru's ghost, she is back! Now she lives under the same roof as us - our Sanxiangju has become a haunted house! "Nian'er, what should I do? That...that is..." I muttered, confused, knowing that I was seeing a ghost, but I didn't even dare to say the word "ghost".

Just the night before, I hugged Xiangru's clothes and called for her soul to return, but now I know that when it comes to confirming that a ghost can really exist without the body, I am actually unable to bear it. My friendship turned out to be the same as Bai Rutong's love, but Ye Gong loves dragons. Nian'er squatted down beside me, holding my hand tightly, she was equally nervous, but more determined than me. "Hongyan, listen, what I'm about to say may seem unimaginable to you. Even I myself have heard of it all the time, but I never thought that I would actually meet——Xiangru has come back to life. The aura does not dissipate, coupled with the unfulfilled wish, and we summoned her soul, she really came back. This kind of situation is called 'nightmare' in terminology."

"Nightmare?" I was baffled, as if listening to sleep talk—ghost talk is indeed not much better than sleep talk. The mist poured in endlessly from the window, the cold, wet and sticky mist, as if the messengers of hell were waving their banners.When I left this morning, the windows were closed, who opened them?Is it Xiangru?How can there be so much cold fog?Has the return of Xiangru opened the gates of hell to us?Are these things that are surging restlessly, mist or ghosts? I hugged my shoulders, trembling so much that I could hardly make a sound, I could only repeat one word in a daze: "Night?"

"Yes, Yan." Nian'er answered me, maybe it was an illusion, her voice sounded so gloomy and cold in the mist, like the king of hell deciding a case. "If a dead person has a strong spiritual power to condense the original form, she will return to the Yang. But when she is still in the Yang, she does not know the fact that she is dead. She will forget some things related to her death. Things no longer think rationally like normal people, and they will be in a trance, and the degree of trance depends on the strength of each person's mental strength. Now, we don't know how much Xiangru remembers the things in his life, nor does he Knowing what is the real power that makes her come back, I have to test her little by little, be careful with her, and never speak recklessly to provoke her."

"Get along with each other?" I stuttered in shock.With a ghost?Want to talk to her and test her memory?What if she doesn't remember what happened before she was alive, but only knows to talk nonsense? "Do we have to get along with her?" "Of course." Nian'er replied seriously, and at the same time increased the strength in her hand to cheer me up, "Hongyan, listen to me, you have to cheer up. Xiangru is our friend. Although she is dead, her soul is kind. There is nothing to be afraid of. She will not harm us. Instead, we will help her—and only we can help her.”

"How can we help her?" "Resurrected people do not know that they are dead. Their souls live in the world, just like sleepwalking. They cannot be awakened by others, so they are called 'nightmare'. You also know that no matter what a sleepwalker does, you must not disturb him. Let him go, you can't wake him up, and you can't stop him, otherwise that person will be in danger. It's the same for Yan, you can't be reminded of the fact of her death, and you can't let her know the truth." "What if she knew the truth?" "Then you will really die." Nian'er sighed, word by word, "Soul, fly, soul, scattered."

Dazed.The cold word seized me, and I could not respond. Nightmare, return to the yang, spiritual power, disintegration... These concepts, which I would never have imagined at ordinary times, appeared in front of me so strangely at this moment. "Then, what should I do now?" I looked at Nian'er for help, as if praying to the gods. Nian'er is like a deacon's witch at this moment, with shining eyes, issuing orders: "Just like a normal person, go out, say hello to Xiangru, chat, eat together, drink tea, watch TV, as usual. Don't expose she." "And, have a meal with a ghost?" I almost fainted. Isn't it enough for a ghost to enjoy a little bit of human fireworks and smell it?Will she ask us to burn everything she needs to eat and clothe her?Or what if she recruited other ghosts to have a meeting together and wants us to help them fulfill their wishes?Will we be possessed?Will he be sucked into Yang Qi?

"Nian'er, I can't do it, I really can't do it." I moaned, with a splitting headache. "If you can't do it, you have to do it. Don't you want the three of us to be together again?" "But these are two different things. If I can save Xiangru, I would do anything for her, but she is already dead, and the dead cannot be with the living. She is not human, she is, she is..." "Then, go out and tell Xiangru loudly: You are dead, don't come to us again. She will disappear immediately and never appear again." Nian'er threatened me, "Do you want to do this? Are you afraid of ghosts?" Just go out and tell her, I guarantee that Xiangru will not hurt you, I guarantee that her soul will disappear and disappear! Do you want to exorcise ghosts, or not? Say it, go, go!"

"I……" Nian'er ignored me, opened the door abruptly, and said loudly as she walked out: "Xiangru, Xiangru, Hongyan has something to tell you." "Really?" Xiangru walked over in a fluttering manner, looking at me faintly, "Hongyan, what do you want to say to me?" "I, I..." I swallowed and said tremblingly, "I have a cold, and I want to ask you for some cold medicine." "Are you catching a cold? Did you get caught in the rain? No wonder you're shaking." Xiangru nodded without thinking, and drifted all the way to her own room, opened the door, walked in, and came out again, holding two pills and a glass of medicine in her hand. water.

Do I dare to drink the water poured by the ghost?Guaranteed that the water is not Mengpo soup, drinking it will forget everything?Or, it might be the water in the underworld, which is bitter and astringent, and it is melted by bones.I rushed to the bathroom, couldn't help but vomited again. Through the door, I heard Xiangru sighing: "Hongyan's body is really worrying, she is always sick..." Xiangru came back just like that, with the posture of a person and the mind of a ghost. I comforted myself that since there are vegetative people with only physical bodies and no life in this world, there can naturally be ghosts that exist purely by "spiritual power".This is just a natural form, it exists objectively, and there is nothing to fear. No matter Su Xiangru is a human or a ghost, she is our friend, we must protect her, help her, and be with her. She is still wise and loves to write, but she doesn't know how to laugh very much, and she always rushes to write as if she is pressed for time.I don't want to eat or drink, and I don't feel sleepy. I have to draw the curtains in broad daylight, and I am instinctively afraid of light, but I can't explain why.She smokes fiercely, as if she can be full by smoking—sometimes I think, maybe the most suitable thing for her is a few sticks of fine sandalwood? I've always been amazed at the real reason for her return, but if she didn't mention it, I didn't dare to ask, for fear of disturbing her. One day when I came home, I saw her putting on makeup in front of the mirror. Lipstick, face powder, blush... I applied it layer by layer, trying hard to melt like painted skin. "Xiangru, are you in good spirits today?" I greeted her. Spirit.If ghosts are a kind of spiritual power, then Xiangru's spirit is better than anyone else's.Because she has nothing but spirit. "Hongyan, why have I put on makeup for a long time, but my face is still so pale?" Xiangru looked in the mirror distressed, "I want to make myself look better." I sighed, and walked over to pick up the paint: "I'll help you paint." Gently dipping, sweeping, smearing, and then gently evenly, her face suddenly had a bit of spring.Xiangru was a little overjoyed: "It's still your ingenuity, why do I even forget to put on makeup now?" No, it's not that she forgot to make up, but that the world's cosmetics are not suitable for her.Only by borrowing my hand can those rouge and gouache come alive. "Hongyan, I feel that I am becoming more and more useless. I don't know how to make up, I don't know how to do housework, and I don't seem to remember many things. I'm always in a trance and can't concentrate." Xiangru pointed at her "You don't let me go to work, you don't let me go out, you don't even let me read newspapers, I'm very bored, I really want to go out for a walk, maybe breathing fresh air will be better?" "You can't go out." I was anxious, but I immediately suppressed myself, put on a calm tone, and persuaded her like a child, "You had a car accident and your brain was concussed, you will inevitably feel in a daze, the doctor said that the memory loss is only temporary Symptoms will get better soon." The "car accident" was Nian'er's idea, and she used this excuse to explain why Xiangru always felt pain and why she had to take a long vacation to rest at home.We used this reason to put her under "house arrest" to prevent anyone from seeing her, awaken her dream, break her nightmare, and drive her out of her wits. "The soul flies away." What a terrible curse.It seems to be a hideous sharp sword hanging above our heads, and it will roar down at any time, split Xiangru in two, and kill again. No.Xiangru cannot be allowed to know the truth.Can't let anyone hurt her.We cannot be separated again. For Xiangru, we will do whatever we can to spare no effort, just to keep her in the world for one more day, one more day.As long as she's with us, it doesn't matter if she's human or a ghost. "Xiangru," I comforted her, "the doctor said that you are not in good spirits and cannot be stimulated anymore. The heavy traffic on the street is not good for your recovery. If you really want to go out, wait a little later, we will go to the top of the mountain to watch the stars .” "Alright." Xiangru sat down with her arms around her shoulders, with a painful expression on her face. I was a little uneasy and came over to hold her hand.That hand was cold and sticky, soft as if there were no bones. "Xiangru, what's wrong with you?" "I'm in so much pain, my whole body hurts, it seems to be riddled with holes." Xiangru looked down at herself, with a confused expression, and muttered to herself, "There seem to be a hundred holes in my body, and every hole is bleeding. Confidante, I, life would be better than death." She bent down in pain, her voice was choked, but she didn't cry—Nian'er told me that ghosts don't have tears.Their tears were collected by ghosts with missions and merged into Huangquan... I stepped forward to support her.She was so light that she was almost weightless, but I still couldn't bear her pain. How could she not be in pain? That day, wearing the hand-painted silk robe I gave her, she climbed over the rose railing and fell from the eighteenth floor like falling flowers.Rose petals scattered around, tangled with her long hair, bloody.Her eyes were wide open, and her whole body was as inhuman as a broken doll. The funeral home workers took a lot of effort to sew her body up... I feel pain for Xiangru. Life is better than death.Xiangru said that her life would be better than death, but I didn't tell her, in fact, she was already dead, but her soul lingered.For the betrayal of love, for the indifference of human nature, she is unwilling to face it alive. She has chosen death, and she has chosen the most decisive and cruel one.A person, who no longer cherishes his own life, does not even want to keep a complete body, but his soul is reluctant to go, and he has to work hard through life and death, reverse yin and yang, and reunite for an unfulfilled wish. Return to the human world and stay in the world. She is indeed "dead" than "life". The only good thing is that she forgot about that interview, about the tragedy of rape, about her own humiliation and torture, and about Bai Rutong—he hurt her so deeply that she would rather die. Unwilling to face it, so deep that she would never remember it again. Xiangru's soul, just like her life, is always contradictory. At night, I vaguely heard a strange sound, as if there was singing coming from the sky, or someone singing and dancing next door, circling back and forth, but I couldn't hear it clearly. I was terrified, but I couldn't help it, put on my nightgown and went out.When I walked through the living room, the wind chime made a panicky sound without wind. I felt cold all over, but I couldn’t stop walking. Typing against me. There was no light in the room, and the blue-white fog filled the whole room, only the blue light of the computer screen reflected Xiangru's outline, her body was almost transparent under the fluorescent light, and it seemed that she herself was a luminous body——I suddenly thought of that blue light Like what - phosphorescence. And that strange sound came from the edge of that light.The erratic light is like a sea of ​​hatred, filled with countless restless old souls, who are moaning, whispering, pouring out, and singing. Like lightning, a thought flashed through my mind, and I suddenly understood the reason for Xiangru's return: A Chinese Girl Lies Her Soul.Yes, she really did it, not only now, but just a few days ago, she had come back to write "A Chinese Ghost Story" which she hadn't finished yet.She once promised that she would write the stories of a hundred ancient beauties and complete a book "Long Fame" with us. Live forever.These are the true face of immortality, it is their power concentrated that makes the fragrance return to yang, and now they are with us - mixing the two worlds of yin and yang into one, the dust refuses to return to dust, the earth refuses to return to dust, The water of the underworld flows to the ground, but the living live in the shadows. I held my breath, only to feel that my hair root to my fingertips were frozen. I didn't dare to make a sound to disturb the ghosts, and I couldn't move my footsteps to let myself leave.Those flying souls seem to penetrate my body, they revel unscrupulously, and regard this place as their resting paradise, everywhere.And our bodies are the containers that support them. I thought of the legendary White Snake and Xu Xian—if Fahai saw me now, he would probably be able to see a black cloud above his head, right? Xiangru was typing with her back to me, her long hair shawls, thick as hell. I was so afraid that she would suddenly turn around. I'm afraid she will turn around and still have long hair. I can't control my cranky thoughts, and I am suffocated and crazy with fear.I wanted to scream, and even passed out immediately, so that I wouldn't have to suffer through the long night again.However, time is frozen here. The female ghost from thousands of years ago is with the new ghost who just passed away, ghosts and people are also together, and I, facing the "living" ghost of my good friend, grieves her physical pain. die young.Why am I not crazy? The house is so damp it looks like it's raining.And I stood like a poisonous mushroom in the rain. Why is it so wet, cold and sticky all around, and why is there the sound of running water?Am I really in my own house?Still at the bottom of the well? The ancient well, the well of the harem—deep and cold, dry and bottomless. Did an innocent court lady die in this well?The daughter who dies violently is often the most beautiful and charming. After death, the ghost will linger and turn into a ghost, performing a legend of a Chinese ghost story. There is wind in the well, there is whimpering in the wind, what is it talking about?Even if there is grievance, it has been said for more than 1,300 years, and it should be finished.Both grievances and grievances disappear, and the dust returns together. The story in this well has long been turned into smoke and ashes. Why are you still entangled?What did they come to me for?Even if the person who fell into the water wanted to find a substitute for the dead ghost, it was already thousands of years ago.They should have been reincarnated a long time ago, so what does it have to do with me? When there was still water in the well, it must have been very cold and dark, and the walls of the well were covered with moss, which was slippery and sticky. When the woman was thrown into the well, she was not dead, but she was about to die soon.She struggled desperately to get out of the well, her sharp fingers clawed hard along the wall, grabbing pieces of moss one after another, and finally she died in the water when she exhausted all her strength.That well has since been sealed and dried up, making it impossible to drink water and keep people close.The fallen flowers floating at the mouth of the well gradually withered and rotted, emitting a smell similar to blood... The harem will always be the biggest and darkest secret of the imperial court, full of extravagance and cruelty, tricks to fight for favor and plots to seize the throne. prosperous era. There are cold palaces in the harem.It was a well on the ground, the same deep cold, the same loneliness, and the same covered with suffocating moss.The same whimpering wind echoed.In the Lenggong of the Tang Dynasty, Concubine Mei wrote the poem "Nagamen has no grooming all day long, why should pearls comfort the lonely", and declined a pearl of Tang Xuanzong's sentimental commemoration; , lived in the Yaohua Palace, survived the fire twice, and finally had a great fortune, two wastes and three establishments, and the last laugh; the cold palace in the Qing Dynasty not only lived in queens and concubines, but even more strangely, Yingtai was made into a living room. The Jedi actually put the short-lived Emperor Guangxu under house arrest... There is also Yongxiang in the harem, which is the underworld in the palace, where the criminals are imprisoned, and all the most tragic and cruel things happen here.The most terrifying legend of Yongxiang in history comes from Lu Zhi, the empress of the Han Dynasty.After Liu Bang's death, she not only poisoned Ruyi, the son of Mrs. Qi who was competing with her own son for the throne, but also cut off Mrs. Qi's hands and feet, fumigated her ears, gouged out her eyes and cut her tongue, and threw her into the cesspit of Yongxiang. swine".And this torture was later followed by Empress Dowager Cixi, who did the same to concubine Li, whom Emperor Xianfeng loved during his lifetime, and soaked her in a wine tank, unable to survive or die... Standing at the bottom of the well, I can really hear the cry of history, which is endless.I want to say to the wind: No matter what has been here, it is over, let it blow away, don't resent any more, just like that, the wind will be gone, and it will disappear without a trace... But I can't make any sound, and I can't make any movements.God, why am I not crazy? After an unknown amount of time, I opened my eyes and found myself sleeping in my own room, on my own bed.Was everything last night a dream?But the memory is clearly so clear. I think I'm really going crazy, and in the next minute, there seems to be a ball of numbness stuck in my throat, as long as there is an earth-shattering shout, I will go crazy, just like in many movies. Perhaps I would rather be mad, if madness could be freer than saneness. However, Xiangru let me know that even death cannot escape, so can madness do it?