Chapter 38 chapter eight

Year 2009. July and a half, Hungry Ghost Festival. There is no ghost festival atmosphere in this city, and most people on the street don't know about Ghost Festival—maybe she is the only exception?Still looking young, most people would guess her age wrong.Entering the subway station from Yaxin Life Plaza, she is wearing a long white dress, showing her white and slender ankles, stepping on black flat shoes, her long black hair is draped over her shoulders, her face has light makeup, and her lips are smeared. Dispensable color, carrying a simple handbag. Her name is Ouyang Xiaozhi. From the walking steps to the platform, on the escalator next to her, there are a pair of eyes looking at her.

Perhaps it was because of the subway coming into the station, there was a sudden gust of cold wind, and the long black hair was lifted like silk, just passing the back of the other person's hand holding the escalator. At first glance, he looks like a fourteen or fifteen-year-old boy, quite handsome, tall, with delicate features. The boy followed the escalator up and out of the station, but Xiaozhi walked down the steps to enter the station. is it him?She searched for this face in her heart, and in an instant she passed by. When she walked to the subway platform, she couldn't help but glance back, but the boy had already turned to the walking steps, almost rolling and crawling down.

Ouyang Xiaozhi quickened her pace to avoid him, passed through the bustling crowd, just as a group of trains arrived at the station, and quickly hid in the opened door. On the platform, he was still rushing forward. Although he was thin and flexible, he could only forcibly push people away when he encountered someone he couldn't get around.The passengers who got off the bus became stumbling blocks. Because he was pushed away by him, a man punched him in the back angrily, causing him to lose his center of gravity and fall to the ground. The boy lay on the ground in pain, and looked up to see her face.

"Wait a minute!" When he got up screaming, there was a warning sound before the door closed, and Twig huddled in the corner of the door, looking at him on the platform. The moment he rushed to the front of the carriage, the inner and outer doors closed at the same time, isolating him and her from the platform and the tunnel. His face could still be seen through the thick glass, she pointed to the car door to the boy, meaning to be careful. When the train started, he frantically knocked on the glass door outside, chasing her for more than ten meters, until he was thrown far away.He was subdued by the subway staff, pressed under a few big hands, his cheek pressed against the cold ground, watching the entire platform tilt until it collapsed...

"Ouyang Xiaozhi." Finally, with his lips touching the ground, he calmly called out her name. She had driven into a deep tunnel with the train, and although she didn't hear that sentence, she knew very well in her heart—it was him. During the most crowded time in midsummer, the smell of sweat is everywhere.There seems to be a ghost hiding behind everyone in the carriage. Today is their festival, which is both the Ghost Festival and the Yulan Basin Festival. "Yu Lan" in Sanskrit means "save the upside down". Half an hour later, she got out of the subway station, changed to a bus, and arrived at Nanming Road in the suburbs.

The gloomy factories and wilderness have long been replaced by various real estate buildings, huge billboards erected on the street, and Carrefour and Printemps.It is no longer five-ton Dongfeng and bicycles running on the road, but golf, Mazda, Audi, Mercedes and BMW.The bus station is still in the old place, but the stop sign has been replaced long ago , followed by the movie preview of "The Twilight Saga".Opposite is Nanming High School, which has hardly changed in the past 14 years. There is a bronze signboard next to the imposing school gate, and a few more medals issued by the Education Bureau.Grocery stores are long gone, replaced by high-end residential complexes.Across the rolling traffic, she stood quietly on the side of the road. From time to time, high school students walked out of the school gate, probably returning to school during the summer vacation. The boys and girls fought together, and they might soon be separated with tears.

Suddenly, she saw a familiar face, which has changed from youth to vicissitudes, which is awe-inspiring - Zhang Mingsong. Ouyang Xiaozhi watched from a distance, his eyes had the potential of a perverted murderer. He was carrying a briefcase. He looked to be in his forties. His hair was neatly combed, his beard was clean-shaven, his waist was straight, and his eyes were piercing.When he walked out of the school gate, the students bowed their heads one after another. It seems that he is still the god in the hearts of the students, the most famous math teacher in the whole district.Back then, many people paid high prices to ask him to be a tutor, but now the market has doubled many times.A parking strip was set up on the side of the road at the school gate, Teacher Zhang got into a black Nissan Bluebird, turned around and drove away quickly.

After walking several hundred meters, she discovered that between the two construction sites, there was a path overgrown with weeds, vaguely the path of the Witch's Quarter back then. She saw the tall chimney, hidden by buildings under construction.Although there is a simple wall around it, the door is open.The entire factory has long been closed, and most of the original site was occupied by developers, except for a part squeezed between two buildings, so it survived. The ruins have been dilapidated a lot, touching the outer wall of the factory building carefully, the rough cement and exposed brick particles are like rotting dead skin.Walking into the factory building on tiptoe, the ground is full of discarded garbage, and the sour smell of feces exudes from the corners, presumably left by homeless people and migrant workers nearby.She moved to the tunnel, the deep stairway to hell, hidden in the shadows.

As soon as I stepped down the steps, there was a certain cold feeling, penetrating from the soles of the shoes to the top of the head.Shrinking back like an electric shock, he leaned his back against the wall and gasped for breath.As long as you enter that space, the legendary place called the Witch's Quarter, there will be a sharp knife piercing your back vest. Her heart ached for no reason, forcing her to kneel down to the ground and drool in a cold sweat. In 1988, she was only an eleven-year-old girl, and she came to this place, facing that round hatch... Time is more than twenty years apart, but it seems that it has never faded, at noon when the sun is strong.She still remembered those boys from Nanming High School, one of whom had a blue birthmark on his face.They walked across the road in front of the school and sat under the shade of the trees to eat their lunch.A hungry little girl lurks behind her like a ghost.She hadn't eaten meat for many days, her saliva was almost dry, and she quietly stole a piece of chicken leg from a boy's lunch box.

She quickly ran towards the wilderness beside the road, gnawing on the chicken legs while running, but the boys had already noticed and chased after her.Finally, she was caught in the abandoned factory. This eleven-year-old girl had no money on her body and could only hand over a leftover chicken leg bone. So, they decided to punish the "thief". She was imprisoned in the Witch Quarter. Legend has it that ghosts are often haunted in the middle of the night, especially this basement.They threw the little girl in, and shut the hatch tightly—if only the knob was turned tight, not even a god inside could open the door.

In the boundless darkness, she desperately slammed on the cabin door, hoping that someone could hear her cry, or would the boy with the blue birthmark move her to let her out? However, there was no movement outside the door. She was locked in a tomb. At that time, she didn't know how to write the word "cold-blooded". Until my voice became hoarse and I fell drowsily behind the door, the time became so long, the silence was like death, I don’t know how long it has been outside?Is it dark or is it light?Has anyone noticed that she disappeared?Will someone come to her?In a trance, I was hungry again, and my throat was so dry that it was about to burn. Suddenly, some kind of small sound was heard, first hurried footsteps, and then the sound of the cabin door turning. A dazzling electric light shot into the dark ground, she instinctively raised her hand to cover her eyes. The man walked up to her and gently touched her hair, which was dirty, knotted and smelly.He broke her resisting hands and shook her face with a flashlight. At first glance, there was only a blurry shadow, and the electric light was facing her eyes, making it almost impossible to open them.When he put down the flashlight, she vaguely saw his eyes, like two faint candles, unable to fathom what he was thinking?His face was so pale, and the sharp lines were unforgettable. "There really is a little girl!" This was the first sentence she heard from him, but she, who hadn't drank water for a long time, couldn't make any sound. "Are you all right? Are you dumb?" She quickly shook her head, and he finally understood: "You must be tired and hungry, right? You have been locked up underground for two days, how pitiful, come with me!" He took her hand to go out, but she had no strength at all, and she couldn't even walk up the steps of the Witch's Quarter. So, he knelt down and picked up the little girl on his back, leading her out of the dark factory area. It was already midnight outside, with stars overhead, cool wind blowing from all directions, and the steel factory behind was still smoking, as if countless human bones were being burned. "Don't be afraid, I'm a student in Class Three (2) of Nanming Middle School." She lay on the eighteen-year-old boy's shoulder, and with the last bit of strength left, she wrapped her arms around him.The boy's back was cold, but his heart was beating fast.His neck was clean, he didn't smell anything, and there was lush down under his ears.She hung her head weakly and pressed against his cheek, which was the only warm place. She really wanted to go on like this forever, even if she would starve to death soon. He talked to himself as he walked, anyway, no one eavesdropped in the wilderness of the night: "Lu Zhongyue said that a little girl was imprisoned in the witch's quarter because he stole the chicken legs in his lunch box, did you let her out?" ? As a result, everyone said they forgot, didn’t they think that this would kill people? What did they do? If I hadn’t climbed over the wall in the middle of the night, they would have become murderers!” Walking out of the wilderness on the side of Nanming Road, he went to the shanty town with illegal construction opposite, and knocked on the door of the homeless man.Finally, water and food came to save the little girl.And he hastily disappeared into the night, fearing that he might climb over the wall and go back to school. Until the end of the world, she will not forget this face. In 2009, she returned to the devastated witch area, where time had already frozen, and she seemed to hear a cry. Is it the cry of being locked up underground in 1988, or the ghost that lingers after Shen Ming was killed in 1995? Also, a strange smell. He's hiding in the corner of the Witch's Quarter? Ouyang Xiaozhi rushed down frantically, stepping on the damp and dark steps until she reached the solid hatch with a rotary handle. The door was left open. When she pushed open the door and returned to Shen Ming's burial place - in an instant, a shadow popped out. "what!" With a scream subconsciously, the black figure had hit her. It was a bone-to-bone collision. She was knocked down heavily, and the back of her head hit the cold and hard wall. But she still wanted to grab him and slammed into his arm, but he broke free immediately. For a quarter of a second, on the dim tunnel stairs, the back of a man flashed past, and disappeared in a blink of an eye. The pain in the shoulder and the back of the head is unbearable, and I don't know if I have a concussion.She struggled for a long time before standing up, took a staggered step outside, but almost fell to the edge of the iron gate, it was impossible to catch up with him. Just as she was afraid of the thrilling few seconds just now, she smelled a strong smell of cigarettes. Thinking of the flashlight in my pocket, I immediately illuminate this hellish space, which is only about 20 square meters in size. There is some dirty water underground, is it the pool of water that buried Shenming fourteen years ago?There are some strange words on the wall, carved with hard objects, which seem to have the words "Tian Mai". Taking a last look at the Witch's Quarter, a piercing pain burst from his back.Before stepping out of the hatch, she swore she would come back. Back under the setting sun, I took a deep breath, feeling like I was resurrected from the dead.Looking at the monster-like dilapidated factory buildings, the tall chimneys crumbling, and the tall buildings under construction behind, it is like looking back at the past life and the present life. Who is hiding in the Witch's Quarter?