Yin Shou Shu

Chapter 204 Wandering
The pitch-black night enveloped the mountains and the land. After dark, Longchang Street was pitch black and almost no light could be seen.

During this period, electric wires had not yet been laid to towns and villages in Qiangke.

After nightfall, the town streets merged into the darkness of the surrounding mountains, with only a few doors facing the street lit with dim lights of candles and kerosene lamps.

A cold wind blew across the dark road, bringing with it waves of foul smells.

During the daytime market day, the pig and sheep dung left by the villagers who brought their pigs and sheep to sell piled up on the roadside, giving off a strange smell.

Ran Qing was used to this stench, but Mo Li and Long Zongshu couldn't help but cover their noses.

Instead of turning on the flashlight, they carried the paper figures and walked forward in the dark.

In the countryside, free from urban light pollution, nights are rarely pitch black. While the ground and shadows are difficult to discern, the faint, twilight-like light in the night sky still allows one to make out the outlines of roads and mountains.

If it is a moonlit night, you can even see the road clearly.

However, the sky was overcast tonight and there was no moonlight. The three of them carried the paper figures as they walked forward and could only vaguely make out the scope of the road.

Soon, they arrived outside a large dark iron gate.

An old, rough cement gate stood beside the road. Its two rusty iron doors were closed, but the small door on top was wide open. A two-meter-long wall extended to both sides of the cement gate.

This is the elementary school on Longchang Street. The weed-covered entrance road is lined with evergreen trees. Beneath the dense canopy, the gloomy path is nearly pitch black. All I can see is the loess playground at the end and, beyond that, the eerie school building, silently rising in the darkness.

I don’t know if it’s a psychological effect, but Ran Qing always feels that the school is very gloomy after dark.

Now that I know there are ghosts in this school, that eerie and ominous feeling is even stronger.

And a mandrill covered in bloody human skin was following them at this moment.

Ran Qing and Long Zongshu looked at each other and nodded.

The young corpse named Xiao Sanyong was completely unaware of the monster following behind him. He walked straight into the small door carrying the paper man without stopping, and walked in front to lead the way.

Long Zongshu followed closely behind carrying the paper man, and finally Mo Li and Ran Qing.

The streets of Longchang behind him were dead silent.

In towns without electricity, people have to go to bed soon after dark. Without care, they have no way to enjoy entertainment.

Ran Qing and the others filed in and walked into the dark tree-lined path.

In the tree-lined path on the loess ground, it is almost pitch dark because of the dense tree canopy above.

Ran Qing and Mo Li walked up carrying the paper figures, also without turning on the flashlight.

They didn't look back, unsure if the mandrill behind them had caught up.

But as he walked, when Ran Qing walked out of the tree-lined path and came to the loess playground, there was only the young corpse of Xiao Sanyong carrying a paper man in front of him, and Zong Shu was gone.

Everything went according to plan.

This tree-lined path leading to the school perfectly concealed Long Zongshu's disappearance.

The young corpse Xiao Sanyong, who was walking in front, did not notice that there was one person missing behind him.

He hummed the lyrics of a popular song and walked across the playground carrying the paper man.

Ran Qing and Mo Li followed behind it. The singing of the young corpse spread across the empty playground and gradually disappeared in the night wind.

"...I looked left and right, up and down, and it turns out that every girl is extraordinary."

"I thought and thought, I guessed and guessed..."

The young mummy's slightly raspy singing voice drifted across the empty playground, and it seemed as if there was some kind of echo.

Ran Qing seemed to hear other voices whispering in the shadows around him. But Xiao Sanyong, who was singing, showed no reaction to the unusual movement.

It hummed a tune happily as it walked on the loess playground.

At this moment, Ran Qing and the others were walking on the empty playground. Under the dim sky, they could see everything: the surrounding walls, the teaching building in the distance, the old cement ping-pong table, the black basketball board...

All the shadows in my vision seemed to come alive.

It seemed as if many pairs of eyes were watching them in the darkness, and the chill in the air was growing stronger and stronger.

Ran Qing frowned and slowed down his pace.

At this time, they had already crossed half of the playground. In front of them, they could see a dark building at the edge of the school wall, which should be a toilet, as well as the dark mountains and low hills outside the wall.

Outside the school walls are barren mountains and forests, with no other buildings.

Suddenly, there was a sound of footsteps behind Ran Qing and the others.

The footsteps were approaching quickly. Ran Qing turned around immediately and saw Long Zongshu carrying a paper man following him.

In the dim light, Long Zongshu's face could not be seen clearly.

But his tone was solemn and helpless.

"...The mandrill seemed to know we were ambushing it, and was reluctant to enter the school."

"I waited at the school gate for quite a while, but it just left."

"I don't know if it discovered we were ambushing it, or if it's afraid of the female ghost in the school..."

The three of them had planned a trap, but the other party did not fall into it.

Mo Li muttered softly, "Are mandrills afraid of ghosts?"

Most of the wild beasts in the mountains and forests are ferocious and terrifying, and are not afraid of evil spirits at all.

Powerful beasts like tigers are even called mountain kings. They roam freely in the mountains and forests without any taboos. Even evil spirits have to run away when they see a full-grown tiger.

A tiger that has become a spirit can even turn the people it eats into ghosts and keep them by its side to control them.

Although a mandrill is not as ferocious as a tiger, a mandrill that has become a spirit should not be easily scared away by evil spirits.

Ran Qing recalled the records in "Witchcraft and Demonic Arts" and said, "The mandrill is indeed not afraid of evil spirits, but it also doesn't like them. It hates things that have a yin energy."

"But this school doesn't have any negative energy, and it's far enough away from the well where the female ghost is. Logically, the mandrills shouldn't be so scared as to not come in..."

Ran Qing shook his head and murmured, "It seems that our trap has been discovered by it."

This kind of mandrill that has become a spirit is indeed cunning and not so easy to fool.

Mo Li looked back twice and said, "As long as that mandrill doesn't continue to follow us, it'll be fine."

At this time, the three of them had crossed the entire school playground and arrived outside the dark building next to the wall.

This is indeed a toilet. I can smell a faint stench from about ten meters away.

Xiao Sanyong, who was walking in front carrying the paper figurine, stopped and turned around and said, "We'll be there soon. I'll take you here."

Xiao Sanyong pointed to the corner of the wall behind the toilet and said, "Climb over this wall and walk along the path for a few minutes, and you will reach the haunted well."

"If it's really haunted, then I won't go with you."

(End of this chapter)