“Summoning the soul?”
Why would Tunshe Nalin be here summoning the soul?
“Put me down, I’ll go ask him what’s going on!” I struggled to get down to the ground, and suddenly my ankles tightened, and my feet seemed to be tied by an invisible force, unable to move. I knelt on the ground. Mo Wei turned around to help me, but at this moment he seemed to see something, and his whole person froze there, and his eyes slowly moved upwards.
“Hehe…”
A sound similar to the roar of a wild animal came from above my head.
I raised my head and saw a pair of white eyes without pupils. A human-shaped black shadow was crawling upside down on the beam of the house. The next moment, it pounced down.
“Ahh—” Mo Wei was knocked to the ground by the black shadow. With a ‘bang’, a ball of fire exploded on his chest, and the black shadow immediately bounced to the side—it was a faceless man, with his limbs twisted on the ground, but his face, chest, and abdomen were facing upwards, his mouth was weirdly grinning to the corners, revealing a long tongue full of sharp teeth, which curled in the air.
—It’s that kind of “corpse slave”.
“Ahhhh—”
Mo Wei and I screamed at the same time. He rushed over and grabbed me and tried to run, but my feet were nailed to the ground. I pushed him hard and said, “Run, don’t worry about me!”
“I won’t abandon you!” Mo Wei gritted his teeth and threw the backpack containing the camera at the corpse slave. He bent down and wanted to hold me, but the corpse slave pounced over again, grabbed the hat on the back of his sweatshirt with pale hands, lifted him up in the air, and threw him out like garbage, and rushed out of the house.
“Mo Wei!” I was dumbfounded. I felt my calf tighten and was gripped by cold hands. Before I could turn around, the world turned upside down, and I was picked up and carried horizontally.
“Tunshe Nalin?” Seeing who had picked me up, I was startled. I quickly looked around, noticing that the terrifying corpse slaves had disappeared without a trace. I wondered if they had gone after Mo Wei. Unable to see or hear what was happening outside, I shouted towards the door, “Mo Wei!”
When I didn’t hear any response, I panicked and grabbed Tunshe Nalin’s wrist: “Tunshe Nalin, go check on my friend. There was a monster here just now!”
“Friends?” Tunshe Nalin frowned. “I sent you to this town, for just half a night. How come you, have made friends?”
“We just met.” I had no time to ask him about why he came here to summon the soul. I struggled to get down from his arms, but I saw countless bloody ghosts emerging around me. I was shocked and hugged Tunshe Nalin and buried my head in his chest.
“Ghost… there are ghosts. Did you summon them?”
His cold fingers fell on the back of my neck and pinched it. He didn’t answer but hugged me tighter and walked slowly towards the door of the house. I looked at the door through his fingers. Mo Wei was lying there, with blood oozing from his forehead, and he seemed to have been knocked unconscious.
“Wake up, Mo Wei!” I yelled at him, and the fingers on the back of my neck tightened again. Tunshe Nalin actually held me and stepped over his body and ignored him. I looked up in shock and saw the bloody ghosts surging behind him, gradually approaching Mo Wei.
This haunted house… will devour him.
“Tunshe Nalin, please save him, you are the one who brought these ghosts here!”
“Who said I was the one who brought them here?” He lowered his head and said indifferently, “I was just in there, paying tribute to old friends, that’s all.”
I was stunned. Could it be that Mo Wei made a mistake?
“Then put me down, we will help him, and we will go together.”
He paused: “Are you not afraid anymore?”
My heart skipped a beat. I saw his lips were tightly clenched, with a hint of anger, and his tone was even a little cruel: “If we miss the time, we won’t be able to get out anymore.”
I grabbed his collar, anxiously: “I can’t care about that anymore, save him!”
“Cock-a-doodle-doo—”
At this moment, a rooster crowed from a distance.
In an instant, the ghosts that were crawling out of the haunted house disappeared without a trace.
I breathed a sigh of relief and shouted again, “Mo Wei!”
“It’s almost dawn, he will be fine.” Tunshe Nalin said coldly, holding me and walking straight out the door. Although this town is hidden in the shadow of the snow-capped mountains and the sunrise cannot be seen, we can still see the sky getting brighter in the distance, giving the snow-capped mountains a golden edge.
He tugged the brim of his cloak lower, took it off, wrapped it around me, and carried me down the stone steps. As I glanced back, I saw Mo Wei unsteadily getting up behind the slowly closing door, and only then did I feel completely at ease.
“Da, da, da…”
We walked down the stone steps, and as the sound of horse hooves approached, a white horse came from the woods. Tunshe Nalin carried me onto the horse’s back. Just as I was about to get on the horse, my stomach started to rumble, and it began to ache again. I covered my stomach and said, “I’m hungry again. Tunshe Nalin, shall we go to town to have some breakfast?”
The painting was ruined, and I didn’t need to help him repaint it anymore. Was he going to take me back to the mountain?
Is he still angry with me?
Footsteps echoed from the stone stairs. I looked up and met Mo Wei’s gaze—he was clutching his arm like it had been dislocated, his golden hair in disarray, streaked with blood, and his entire appearance disheveled. Seeing me, he quickened his pace. “Qin Ran, I know where we can make a call. Come with me, I’ll take you there!”
“Hey…”
Before I could respond, Tunshe Nalin tugged on the reins, and the white horse trotted forward, moving through the narrow path in the woods and into the town. It was early morning, and there were few people on the streets. Only an old man, carrying a wooden bucket, was walking along, tapping a wooden stick and shouting, “Steamed cakes for sale! Hot milk for sale!”
He stopped his horse.
“Breakfast, for you to eat.”
“Did you… bring money?” I turned my head in confusion and looked at him, only to see him pull out an agate from his chest button and hand it to the old man. The old man was obviously stunned for a moment, took it, repeatedly looked at it in his palm, touched it, and raised his head in disbelief.
“Young men, this thing is too valuable. I, I don’t have any change!”
“One steamed cake and a bowl of hot milk.” He whispered.
Watching the old man tremblingly opening the wooden barrel, I suddenly felt that this situation was very similar to what the princes in TV dramas would do when they went on a secret tour. I couldn’t help laughing and turned to look at him: “You… you really are something. Don’t tell me that when you sent me to the clinic last night, you also gave them the button.”
When I looked down, I saw that there were indeed two buttons missing from his chest.
Great, I just threw away a few million from this priceless antique robe for him.
I couldn’t stop laughing, but then I noticed that his face was buried even lower under the cloak. I wondered if it was because he was embarrassed by my laughter. Suddenly, something clicked in my mind, and I reacted, “Tunshe Nalin, is it because you’re sensitive to light and your eyes hurt?”
He nodded.
I looked around the small town. “Should we find a place to stay until it gets dark?”
He seemed to hesitate for a moment before replying, “En.”
“Uncle, could you tell me where the inns or guesthouses are in this town?”
Following the street of the small town, we arrived at the third alley the old man had mentioned and stopped in front of a house. Perhaps because the town didn’t have many tourists, this house, which was said to offer lodging, didn’t have any signs. It was built with the typical low door of the Jiangsu region, and a large brass bell hung from the colorful eaves. Below the bell, there was a wooden charm to ward off evil and ensure safety. As the wind blew, the bell jingled.
“Is there anyone?” I called out, and as soon as I did, the wooden charm cracked with a loud “pop” and fell to the ground. The brass bell rang loudly, and from inside came the frantic barking of a dog.
Perhaps due to the noise, the old wooden door of the house creaked open slightly, revealing a single eye that peered outside for a moment. Then, with a loud bang, the door was slammed shut again.
“No, we don’t take guests here. Go away.”
“We’re not guests, I’m the shaman from the Nashe tribe.”
Tunshe Nalin, who had been silent all this time, suddenly spoke up.
There was silence inside for a while, and even the barking of the dog ceased.
With a creaking sound, the wooden door opened again, and a withered old man hobbled out, leaning on a cane. He bent his body and didn’t dare to lift his head, saying tremblingly, “Please, My Lord, come in.”
I was a bit surprised and followed Tunshe Nalin in by bending low. In the center of the low-ceilinged living room was a shrine with a statue of a Buddha on the altar, surrounded by offerings. Seeing that the deity was not the eerie corpse god, I couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief.
“Wuwu…”
A low whimper from a dog came from the side. I looked over and was shocked to see a large, powerful black mastiff. Its front limbs were bent, and its head was lowered, as if it were kneeling like a person. Its tail was tightly tucked, and its whole body was trembling, with a puddle of urine beneath it.
“Is this dog alright…?”
“We have two rooms upstairs, one facing the sun and one facing the shade. Gentlemen…”
Tunshe Nalin extended his hand, with his pale palm facing up. “Just one room, the one facing the shade.”
“Mm. Actually, I can stay in the room facing the sun. I want to get some sunlight…”
Before I could finish my sentence, there was a loud “bang,” and I jumped in surprise. Looking in the direction of the sound, I saw that the golden Buddha statue on the altar had toppled over, and its head had fallen off, shattering into several pieces. The old man shuddered, as if too afraid to look at us, and crawled over to collect the broken remains of the statue.
A wave of unease swept over me, and I felt a chill on my wrist as it was tightly gripped by Tunshe Nalin. He guided me upstairs.
