Yin Shou Shu

Chapter 148 Countdown to Death

When we returned to Park Road, it was already two o'clock in the morning.

That night, Ran Qing slept very soundly and woke up after only two hours of sleep.

The huge monster with long, thin limbs did not appear, nor did the mother's figure appear.

The Torch Festival really works in exorcising evil spirits.

I just don't know how long this exorcism will last, and whether my mother's figure will return...

After getting up, Ran Qing walked to the main room next door, lit incense sticks, and bowed to the large jar filled with incense ash.

"Please bless us, masters of all generations."

The burning incense sticks were inserted into the large vat, and among the dead faces squirming in the vat, a pale and strange face appeared.

This is the old ghost from the Han Dynasty, it has been completely refined.

Ran Qing drank the medicinal wine made from it, and now there are eight pillars of soul incense burning in the Yin Altar.

After paying his respects to the predecessors as usual, Ran Qing turned and walked into his room and started doing his homework.

He did two papers and reviewed words and ancient poems. It was not until the sky brightened outside that Ran Qing got up and went out.

But then he saw Mo Li walking out of the house with a big iron bowl in his hand.

Mo Li, who had already changed into a little white dress, said to Ran Qing, "I'd like to treat you to mutton noodles. Do you want to go?"

Ran Qing shook his head: "I'll just cook some noodles."

Mo Li likes to eat out most of the time, and only occasionally has a meal with Ran Qing.

Her evaluation of Ran Qing’s cooking skills is that it is edible and not bad.

Ran Qing really doesn't know how to cook. He can only stir-fry a few simple dishes, which he learned from his grandmother.

After watching the girl leave, Ran Qing started to cook noodles.

After he finished eating the noodles and sat at the door to bask in the sun for a while, Mo Li had already returned with mutton noodles.

The girl had finished her meal, but every day when she went out to eat, she would bring a portion for Little Mianhua as well.

"Then Sister Mianhua, please look after the house," the girl said with a smile as she placed a full bowl of mutton noodles in front of the big dog and left with Ran Qing.

They are going to the hospital today to ask Ran Jianfei something important.

But when the two arrived at the hospital, before they even went upstairs, they saw a middle-aged man with a plaster cast and crutches sitting downstairs in the inpatient department basking in the sun.

Seeing the two people coming, the middle-aged man waved calmly to his son and Mo Li.

"This way, this way."

The middle-aged man looked calm and spoke in a relaxed tone. No one could guess that the relationship between father and son had already broken down.

Ran Qing walked up to the man in silence and found that the man looked a little tired, as if he had not slept well in the past few days and had dark circles under his eyes.

"Please sit down," the man pointed to the edge of the flower bed beside him and motioned Ran Qing to sit down.

Ran Qing shook his head: "Just tell me, I'll leave after you finish."

He didn't want to stay with this man for too long. He would feel sick if he stayed with him for even a minute longer.

The man glanced at him sideways, not caring at all. He sat up straight and said, "I checked Meng Laoqi, and he is indeed dead."

"But before Meng Laoqi, several others also died."

He took out a photo from his clothes and handed it to Ran Qing.

This is a group photo. There are nine people in total in the photo, including the young Ran Jianfei, Meng Laoqi, and the younger Aunt Liu.

Apart from that, Ran Qing did not recognize the other people in the photo.

In the photo, these nine people are wearing simple clothes from ten years ago, standing on a cliff with smiles on their faces, with steep cliffs, deep valleys and vast mountains behind them.

Ran Jianfei said, "This is a group photo taken ten years ago. At that time, there was some trouble in Yuezhao City, and the nine of us joined forces to find the Ghost King Coffin."

"But in the end, Lu Baiyin died tragically in Honghe Village, and Long Shangyong died in Tiansheng Lake. I had a falling out with the remaining people, so I left early and didn't go with them to look for the Ghost King Coffin." "But they didn't find the Ghost King Coffin in the end, and everyone returned empty-handed."

Ran Jianfei said indifferently, "But I've asked around these past few days, and now almost all of the nine people in the photo are dead, and they all died within the past six months."

"The first one to die was a Gu Master named Wen Lao Er, whom you don't know."

"Exactly one month after he died, Hei Liu died."

"Of course you don't know him either."

"And just about a month after Pingliu died, Zhao Laosi died."

"After they died, it was your master Mo Baifeng's turn."

"But Sixth Sister's ability to summon ghosts was quite powerful. Even after her death, she used sorcery to reach an agreement with the evil spirits. Even though she was clearly dead, she managed to cling on and survive."

"So for a long time after Zhao Laosi died, the remaining two people were fine."

"It was not until your master was completely dead that Meng Laoqi died in the house inexplicably."

Ran Jianfei looked at Ran Qing and said, "It looks like they provoked some evil spirit back then, and now it's hunting them down."

"According to this order of death, the last person left who witnessed the events is Xiong Guangda."

"Of course, it could also be me. But I left halfway back then and didn't stay with them until the end. The monster you mentioned shouldn't be able to find me."

The man's tone was very calm.

Even though he knew that an invisible monster was killing these evil people and might even target him, there was no panic on his face.

He looked at Ran Qing and said, "I will be discharged from the hospital in two days. Then I will go back to Mawo Village and visit your mother's grave."

"As for you kid, you should be doing your old job of catching ghosts and making wine, right?"

The man said, sneered, and said: "In this case, you can just be a ghost walker in peace. It's none of your business to care about your mother's affairs."

"You don't have the ability to care now."

"Being targeted by that invisible monster, you probably only have two months to live."

"I suggest you drop out of school and stop studying. Go do something you want to do while you're still alive. Don't end up dying while still struggling to study and do homework."

"Even if you become the top scorer in the college entrance examination, it will be too late to save your life."

After the man said this, he looked at Ran Qing with a squint, as if waiting for Ran Qing to get angry.

But Ran Qing looked at him indifferently, without any reaction to these sarcastic and provocative words.

The man tutted his tongue in boredom and shook his head. "I've been thinking about this for a long time these past few days, and I still stick to what I said—what you saw could definitely not be your mother."

"Your mother died ten years ago. There's no way she could have come back as a ghost."

"She certainly didn't die of illness ten years ago. Instead, she was harmed by the evil spirits in the Wujiang ghost world."

Ran Jianfei looked at his son coldly and said, "Ten years ago, something happened in Yuezhao. The gates of the Wujiang Ghost Realm opened wide, and some ancient evil spirits escaped from the depths of the Wujiang Ghost Realm and hid in the human world."

"Your mother was unlucky enough to run into an evil spirit and was killed by it."

"She was completely dead back then. Even if she did come back, she would just turn into an evil spirit and kill you."

"As for the copper coins that allow you to see monsters, forget about them. You can't afford to offend them."

"I suspect there are some scoundrels with black ass hearts hiding in the dark, raising ghosts and refining souls. This kind of thing is mostly done by the bald guys in Southeast Asia."

"With your limited abilities, you can't afford to offend that old guy who raises ghosts and refines souls."

"It would be easier for them to strangle you to death than to strangle a bug."

"Instead of provoking the other party, it is better to throw away both copper coins and live well in the last two months before death."

"If the evil cultivator behind the copper coin comes looking for you, you might not even survive for two months."

Ran Jianfei said indifferently: "That's all I can tell you."

(End of this chapter)