Yin Shou Shu

Chapter 83 Soul Calling
On the 20th day of the sixth lunar month, Sunday, the moon is waning.

In the pitch-black night sky, the pale moon was half hidden in the darkness, like a broken and shriveled longan.

Under the gloomy night, Ran Qing brought Little Mianhua to the open space in front of Li Hongye's building. Overgrown weeds trembled in the night breeze, and a centipede curled up in the cracks of the concrete floor suddenly flashed in the shadows.

On the old residential building, the mottled cement exterior is piled up like an old man's cracked skin. On the third floor, the crooked iron railings and the clothes hanging out to dry hang stiffly like corpses.

The last time he and Little Mianhua came here, they ran into two terrifying witches.

Two weeks had passed, and the building didn't seem to have changed much. In the darkness, there were no policemen, the ones Ran Qing was worried about, and no strange figures wandering around.

The disappearance of Li Hongye's parents did not seem to cause much unrest here, and the residents continued with their lives.

In the few rooms with lights on, the sound of the residents' televisions can be faintly heard.

Just after dinner time, most families sit in front of the TV to watch prime-time TV dramas, which is the most important pastime and entertainment in this era.

"...Send Jinling Deputy General Ma Guocheng and former Shuntian Prefecture Governor Long Kedo to the court to answer questions!"

The sound of the TV floating in the darkness made Ran Qing a little dazed.

He didn't know what TV show this was, as he hadn't watched it in a long time, but he subconsciously felt a yearning for it.

Growing up, he hardly ever watched TV.

The village where he lived still had no electricity, and every household needed kerosene lamps for lighting after dark. Television was something that young Ran Qing had never heard of.

Later, when I arrived in the city, I finally saw electric lights and learned about high-end and magical appliances such as televisions, refrigerators, and washing machines.

But poor students who live in junior high school do not have the opportunity to experience television.

After standing downstairs and listening and observing for a while to confirm that there was indeed nothing unusual in the building, Ran Qing quietly went upstairs with Xiaomianhua.

Li Hongye's parents disappeared, and the police must have come to this house many times.

But they probably didn't find any clues.

Ran Qing stood in the dark corridor. After a careful inspection, he took out the key and carefully opened the door of Li Hongye's house. He walked in quietly with Xiao Mianhua and put on shoe covers.

There was a faint smell of dust in the dark room.

The house had not been cleaned for two weeks and the doors and windows were closed, and the air was extremely stuffy.

——Someone has indeed been in this room.

The last time Ran Qing and Aunt Liu left, they opened all the windows.

But the layout of the room remains the same as last time.

Ran Qing did not turn on the light, but walked in the darkness with a canvas bag on his back and an expressionless face.

He had to make sure there was no living person in the room before he could start the ceremony with peace of mind.

Turning on the lights was out of the question. Everyone nearby should have known that Li Hongye's family was missing. If someone saw the lights on in the house, it would cause trouble.

Fortunately, there was light from the street lamp outside the window, and there were also lights in several rooms in the next building. In the dim light, Ran Qing's eyes could vaguely make out the general situation.

A hint of coldness flowed in his eyes.

After becoming a ghost walker, his vision in the dark seemed to have become stronger.

The dark room seemed to him to be covered with a layer of strange light green glass.

Ran Qing quietly checked the entire house to make sure there was no living or dead person in the house.

Finally, he walked into Li Hongye's bedroom.

To summon the soul and ask ghosts, there is no more suitable place than the deceased's bedroom, except for the grave.

Ran Qing carefully closed the bedroom door, drew the curtains, took things out of his canvas bag and began to arrange the room.

Seeing this scene, Little Mianhua was stunned for a moment. "Ah? Ran Qing, are you summoning spirits here?" Little Mianhua was a little frightened. She thought Ran Qing was here to take something.

Ran Qing glanced at her and said, "This is the fastest place to summon spirits."

"But there's more than just Li Hongye living in this house!" Little Mianhua began to tremble again: "What if those two blood corpses are summoned out..."

The first time you do something secret, you're going to do it this big?
Little Cotton was frightened and wanted to escape.

The blood corpse is an extremely evil and strange thing.

The closest relatives are refined into blood corpses, and their souls are locked in the corpses through special burial methods. They are tortured by evil spirits and resentment day and night, and their souls will become extremely ferocious and cruel.

This kind of vicious and evil magic was mentioned in the writings left by Aunt Shen Er and Aunt Liu, who were full of disgust and fear towards it.

Although Li Hongye was suspected to have been liberated, the blood corpses transformed from her parents' bodies were still buried in the pine forest behind Meihua Mountain.

Ran Qing is just opening the Yin Altar now, so he can't afford to offend those two blood corpses. He can only find a way to deal with them later.

But if he summoned the souls in the house where the blood corpses had stayed when they were alive, he would most likely summon the wronged souls locked in the two blood corpses.

Until then……

Little Cotton was shivering.

Ran Qing glanced at the timid girl and said, "They will definitely come."

"As long as I summon Li Hongye's soul, the two blood corpses will be attracted, no matter where they are."

"The three of them might be tied together."

Ran Qing expressionlessly sprinkled the incense ash in the canvas bag onto the floor, forming a circle beside the bed.

Then he carefully took out a cheap red plastic round mirror and placed it carefully in the circle formed by the incense ash.

He took out two white candles and placed them in front of the mirror.

The red strings tied to the bones were neatly placed at Ran Qing's feet and behind him.

Finally, Ran Qing took a deep breath, opened the wardrobe in the room, and found Li Hongye's No. 3 Middle School uniform among those beautiful skirts and clothes.

The cleaned sports uniform exudes a faint fragrance.

The whole wardrobe is filled with a light fragrance, like the scent of laundry detergent, but much fresher.

Ran Qing looked at the school uniform in his hand, and without hesitation, he took off his own school uniform that was washed white and put on Li Hongye's school uniform jacket.

When summoning spirits and asking ghosts, it is best to wear the clothes taken from the deceased's body.

But Li Hongye's body was burned, and Ran Qing could only find one of the items Li Hongye had worn in her lifetime from the closet.

This school uniform is better than those colorful skirts.

It was just one size smaller than Ran Qing's, and after putting it on, Ran Qing felt a little uncomfortable. His nose seemed to be filled with the scent of Li Hongye.

Ran Qing shook his head and threw those complicated thoughts out of his mind.

Now is the time to get down to business, no time for idle thoughts.

He sat in front of the mirror, took out his demon mask and put it on the back of his head, then took out a stack of cut origami, a clean bowl, a bottle of blood, a piece of thick rice paper, and a gel pen from his canvas bag.

Finally, after lighting a candle and sitting in the dark bedroom, facing the cold mirror, Ran Qing poured the blood in the bottle into a bowl and placed paper and pen in the middle of the candle.

In the mirror, the face of a person wearing Li Hongye's clothes swayed and trembled in the candlelight, and his lips moved and he murmured.

"The candle flame jumps three times, and the stream in front of the door circles three times..."

(End of this chapter)