Yin Shou Shu

Chapter 92 Dangerous City

At dawn, Ran Qing woke up from hunger with a dull pain in his stomach cramps.

In the dimly lit, enclosed room, suspended dust particles floated in the air like frozen stardust.

The porcelain plate on the bedside table was covered with brown oil stains, and the bones that had been gnawed clean last night were piled up in the trash can in strange shapes, like some unfinished modern sculpture.

The sound of a TV could be faintly heard from the room next door.

Ran Qing couldn't understand the strange Japanese accent, accompanied by sad and gentle music, but he felt inexplicably sad.

Mo Li and Xiao Mianhua were still watching TV...

Ran Qing fumbled to turn on the light bulb in the room and saw that the time on the old clock on the bedside table jumped to 04:27 - only two hours after he lay down.

The salty taste of the duck neck seasoning still lingered between his teeth, but his stomach was so hungry as if he hadn't eaten for three days and three nights.

"...It seems like wasting too much energy is really bad for your health."

Ran Qing dragged his sore body to sit up.

After sleeping for two hours, he was no longer sleepy.

But all the muscles in my body are sore, like the aftereffects of high-intensity exercise.

The most serious thing was the hunger in his stomach, which made his stomach hurt.

Ran Qing walked to the corner and opened the two boxes of pastries Mo Li gave him.

A box of mung bean cakes and a box of wife cakes, the gift boxes are packaged very delicately.

But Ran Qing was so hungry that his eyes turned green. He had no time to study the beautiful gift box. He quickly opened it and gobbled it all up.

As a large amount of carbohydrates and sugars were consumed, the hunger in the stomach was quickly replaced by a feeling of fullness. Ran Qing sat in the room and breathed a sigh of relief.

He could clearly feel his body digesting the food quickly.

Seeing that it was still early, Ran Qing, who had already eaten and slept enough, took out the real test paper, sat under the light and started to do the questions.

The final exams have just ended, so you can be a little lazy, but you can't neglect your studies.

Last night's summoning of spirits, confronting the witch, and casting curses... these successive successes finally gave Ran Qing the confidence to be a ghost walker.

His biggest flaw was that he had no master to teach him the skills personally, but he was sure that he could become a ghost walker by reading books and thinking on his own.

"... Prepare for the next two days. Once the spell on the destiny card is successfully cast, we can go to the field."

Ran Qing muttered to himself.

Ran Qing was no stranger to the well in Changba.

I have seen it twice before in the Wujiang ghost world.

Now Ran Qing has chosen it and wants to dig up its real-life lair...

Shaking his head to get rid of these complicated thoughts, Ran Qingan began to do the questions with peace of mind.

When it was almost dawn, he went out to the nearby vegetable market and bought ten pig eyes.

This was Ran Qing’s first time going to the vegetable market on Park Road.

But when the vendors heard that Ran Qing only wanted pig eyes, they all acted just like the vendors at Kangle Market, and they all kindly and enthusiastically gave Ran Qing the pig eyes for free.

Two of the pig eyes were sacrifices from the evil master when he was wearing a mask last night. Before dawn, Ran Qing threw them into the dark shadows, and the two pig eyes were snatched away by a mountain monkey that suddenly jumped out.

Ran Qing took the remaining eight fresh eyeballs home, soaked them in the mud wine he had made earlier, and buried them in the mud next to the cement courtyard in preparation for catching ghosts.

After finishing all this, the sky finally brightened.

Ran Qing went into the house, put on his school uniform, put on his schoolbag, carried his own canvas bag, and walked towards the school.

Inside the canvas bag was his demon mask and other items he used to sneak into the underworld. Now that the fog had cleared in Yuezhao City and there were no sneaky evil creatures roaming around during the day, there should have been no danger, but Ran Qing remained cautious.

He always remembered that there might be something wrong with Ouyang Xue in his class.

Moreover, the evil den he encountered in the elevator building last night made Ran Qing feel a little uneasy.

He vaguely felt that something was wrong with this city.

Meng Laoqi had come to warn us before, saying that the countryside was dangerous.

But now it seems that the city is not safe either.

The mysterious man who worships ghosts in the elevator building is definitely not a good person.

The vendors in the two vegetable markets were abnormally enthusiastic towards him... There might be more people from the underworld and mysterious sects in this city than imagined, otherwise these pork vendors would not be so considerate.

When Ran Qing returned home from school at noon, he saw Xiaomianhua sleeping soundly at the gate of the yard.

There was complete silence in Mo Li's room. He didn't know whether the girl was asleep or had gone out.

Ran Qing fried three dishes, heated up the rice, and asked Xiao Mianhua to eat together.

Little Cotton, who was trembling with fear last night, now completely forgot that fear.

By the fire, she happily shared with Ran Qing the cartoons she watched last night.

“…The discs Mo Li bought are so pretty!”

While eating, Little Mianhua danced happily and said, "That boy named Jianxin is so handsome!"

"Even though I don't understand what he's saying, I really like it. This is what makes good TV."

As she spoke, Little Mianhua began to complain about her past life: "Auntie always liked to listen to those weird folk song tapes or watch folk song CDs. Songs like 'Eating Wild Flowers with Feet Upwards in the Sky' and 'Eldest Sister-in-law Likes to Play with Her Younger Brother-in-law'... They were boring and unpleasant to listen to, and not at all good to watch."

Little Mianhua complained about Aunt Liu's old-fashioned aesthetic taste.

Ran Qing was stunned when he heard this: "Ah? Aunt Liu still likes watching TV?"

There is no TV or DVD player in this house.

Little Cotton nodded: "Yeah, Auntie used to love watching TV, and she even fought with Mo Li for the TV."

"After someone used a DVD player to harm her, my aunt stopped watching TV. She said that some people now use DVD players and TVs to cast curses on people. This strange black magic can even affect ghosts, and it can be very troublesome if you offend them."

"So my aunt sold the TV and DVD player a long time ago."

Little Cotton, whose memory is confused, can't remember exactly how many years have passed.

But Mo Li was still at home at that time, it was at least two years ago.

But it wasn't surprising when I thought about it. Aunt Liu was so rich before. Even though her house was shabby, she had all the appliances in her house. She had a washing machine, a rice cooker, a telephone, and a TV and DVD player.

Ran Qing wanted to ask about the past events of Aunt Six, but the silly little Mianhua found it difficult to explain the whole story accurately.

Ran Qing asked for a long time but still couldn't figure out how Aunt Liu was cursed by someone using a DVD player.

He could only put this question aside for the time being and focus on eating.

After dinner, Ran Qing used the landline in the house to call Lao Yangpi, the owner of the paper-making shop.

"Boss Yang, please prepare four straw raincoat paper figurines for me in the next two days. I need them."

Old Sheepskin, who had a rough appearance like a bandit, was an old friend of Aunt Liu and did a lot of odd jobs for her.

Now that Sixth Aunt has passed away, this network of connections has also been passed into Ran Qing's hands.

Ran Qing simply made a request, and Lao Yangpi knew what to do. He just had to go and pick up the goods when the time came.

(End of this chapter)