It's raining, it's a bit heavy. The sky gradually turned from gray to dark, and the sound of muffled thunder rumbled from afar. Large raindrops hit the parasol and slid down the edge of the umbrella, converging into droplets and rolling down. Soon, a beaded curtain was formed around the parasol. The two people sitting under the umbrella didn't seem to have any intention of moving indoors, they just tried to move their seats inside. At this point, their chests are pressed tightly against the plastic round table, moving closer to the center of the umbrella, trying not to put their backs in a place where they can be splashed by water droplets.

Shen Mingde lit a cigarette again. He suddenly saw Fang Jiuling, who had finished telling his experience, looking at his pack of cigarettes on the table. Shen Mingde subconsciously moved the cigarette case in his direction for a short distance. Because he doesn't want to saddle himself with the notoriety of "teaching bad boys".

Fang Jiuling took advantage of the situation to let out a "cut" sound, and said contemptuously: "Stingy." ”

The other party's words and deeds made Shen Mingde suddenly feel a "heart-piercing" feeling. He felt that his good intentions had been misunderstood and trampled on. So, he hurriedly explained to Fang Jiuling the various reasons why he didn't provide him with cigarettes. Unexpectedly, the little guy on the opposite side took out "Do unto others what you don't want to do to yourself" to refute himself. He also said that the meeting between him and Shen Mingde was not like a variety of rhetoric based on equality. Shen Mingde's patience was worn out by Fang Jiuling, and his conscience was also stifled in his words. Reluctantly, he pushed the cigarette case to the center of the round table. Seeing Fang Jiuling quickly take out a cigarette from it, Shen Mingde slid the lighter down the table to the other party. Fang Jiuling skillfully lit a cigarette, judging from the posture from lighting a cigarette to smoking, he looked like an old smoker. The guy took a deep breath, spit out a smoke ring in a dashing manner, and then snorted at Shen Mingde. seems to be signaling Shen Mingde to say, "My story has been told, it's your turn".

So, Shen Mingde told Fang Jiuling a simple and concise story about what he had experienced during this period of time. In his story, he deliberately concealed his entanglement with the Chen family's father and son, Xiao Jing's appearance, and downplayed his actions in the nursing home incident. Because he felt that these things had no value to the event itself. Shen Mingde's story, which was expected to be finished in about ten to fifteen minutes, was eventually extended to an hour. The two of them almost smoked a pack of cigarettes during the period. Fang Jiuling is like a seasoned reporter, recording with his mobile phone, and at the same time making notes in a small notebook. Occasionally, he would interrupt Shen Mingde's speech to ask questions or express his own thoughts.

The rain is getting heavier and heavier. Layers of black clouds overrode the ground, and streams of rain crisscrossed the ground. The lightning and thunder seemed to cross the sky with Shen Mingde's story. The noise of the heavy rain pouring on the umbrella almost overshadowed Shen Mingde's voice. At this time, the two had to decide to "change the venue" and continue this unfinished conversation. The two ran through the rain, looking out for each other and crossing the road. When they got into the car rented by Shen Mingde parked across the road, the two of them were already soaking wet. In desperation, Shen Mingde turned into an "ancient" community under the command of Fang Jiuling. In this community, one of the rooms on the second floor of a six-story building is Fang Jiuling's "nest".

The reason why this room gives Shen Mingde a feeling of "nest" is precisely because of its characteristics such as old, small, black, and chaotic. The walls of the house are yellowed and peeling off, as if to speak of its age. The layout of one bedroom, one kitchen and one bathroom announces its volume. In the pitch-black room, the mess of a crime scene seems to explain what happened to it. Fang Jiuling finally returned to his warm "nest". He took off his coat recklessly and changed into pajamas. Then pile up the rain-soaked laundry in the corner of the room. Just next to the wall, five bulging black garbage bags sat side by side. Shen Mingde took the suitcase from the car, and after a brief freshening up in the bathroom, he changed into a clean summer sweatshirt. When he returned to the bedroom, he saw Fang Jiuling stuffing the large plastic potato chips, snack boxes, and drink bottles on the bed and computer table into the garbage bag. Then, he casually threw the garbage bag against the wall, patted the snack residues on his hands, and looked at Shen Mingde with a relaxed expression. It looks like a housewife who has just finished cleaning, and it looks relaxed.

Shen Mingde looked at the only room in the room, the debris scattered on the ground, the messy books, the mountains of garbage, and a pillow and a set of bedding on a double bed. He asked, "Could it be that Fang Jiuling has no parents?" Could his parents have put up with him? Did his parents allow him to wander around all day and not go to school? And so on. Fang Jiuling replied to him without reservation, this is an old house in the family. It was with great difficulty that he managed to win a temporary residence for an "independent" life. As for the way to fool your parents into not going to school, it's simple. Because almost every high school will have a few "bad students" who can't be messed with. As a result, Fang Jiuling often provoked them. Of course, it is inevitable that you will be beaten. After being beaten, Fang Jiuling would disguise himself as a gloomy personality, and occasionally lose his temper at home for no reason. Over time, he established himself as a child with mental illness due to the "school bullying" incident. So, he used this "bitter meat trick" to achieve the purpose of temporarily suspending school.

Seeing that Shen Mingde seemed to have questions about himself, Fang Jiuling pointed to the clock hanging on the wall, indicating that it was past noon. Fang Jiuling took out two boxes of instant noodles, but Shen Mingde had no appetite. So, he soaked noodles for himself and took out a bottle of drink to "entertain" Shen Mingde. After that, he opened the notebook again and urged Shen Mingde to finish the story just now.

After finishing his story in a few minutes, Fang Jiuling's instant noodles could also be opened. The guy was obviously hungry and ate the noodles in large gulps with the heat while flipping through his notebook. Shen Mingde had a headache when he smelled the greasy fragrance of instant noodles. After Fang Jiuling's permission, he took out a pack of cigarettes from his suitcase, and this time, he didn't forget to throw one over Fang Jiuling. Then, he asked Fang Jiuling to show him the stories of those crazy women saved in the computer. Fang Jiuling woke up the computer on the desktop and asked him to look at it himself. Shen Mingde clicked on a folder called "Novel Materials", and rows of audio files appeared on the monitor. There were a total of sixty-eight audio files, and Shen Mingde immediately clicked on one of them, only to hear a young woman's voice whispering in a low voice.

Fang Jiuling, who was full of noodles, suddenly came to his side and said, "This story is not interesting. I'll put one on you, maybe you'll be interested. ”

Fang Jiuling held the instant noodle box in his left hand and swiped the mouse wheel with his right hand. For a moment, he hovered the arrow of his mouse on an audio file named "041" and double-clicked it. With the opening of the player, Shen Mingde heard the sound of insects. The audio appears to have been recorded on a single night, during which you can hear the sound of insects, a few barking dogs in the distance, and the occasional call of birds such as night owls. The young female voice rang out about two minutes after the audio played. With heavy breathing and a thick northeastern accent, she told a little story:

"In ancient times, there was a rich man Pan, and he got acquainted with a monk by chance. The monk taught him to use his youngest daughter as a "tribute" and asked for the "method of immortality". The rich man Pan pondered that he was about to get "immortality", and he had two sons by his side, so what was the use of having a little daughter? So the rich man agreed.

After the youngest daughter became a "tribute", he received "eternal life". Two years of peace have passed. Unexpectedly, two years later, thieves broke out, and the two sons and their families were ghosts under the knife. Pan's rich man's property and land were swept away. When he was wandering alone, he met the monk again. The rich man made a request to bring his youngest daughter back. The monk said that the two of them were destined, so he agreed to this request.

The two returned to the place where the rich man Pan asked for "eternal life". The mountains here are deep and the branches are full of strings of heads. The rich man was very frightened, so he asked the monk where he was. The monk replied: 'Difu Huangquan'. After hearing this, the rich man Pan took the road and fled. ”

The story is very simple, there is no scary background music, and the story is brilliantly told. However, Shen Mingde felt a chill down his spine when he heard it. He turned his head slowly as if he was going to be, and asked, "You mean to say that the place where I met Gao Shan Xing is the 'underworld'?" ”

Fang Jiuling put the instant noodle box on the ground without any scruples, pulled out two tissues and wiped his mouth, and then casually threw them to the wall, while saying, "I didn't say anything." It's all in the story. But I think this little story is very informative. Didn't you notice the problem? Look ha. The youngest daughter of the rich man Pan made a 'tribute' and entered the so-called 'Difu Yellow Spring' of the monks. The two sons of the rich man Pan died, didn't they go to the 'Difu Yellow Spring'? After the rich man Pan was alone, he wanted to take back his little daughter, why didn't he ask the monk to take back his sons? The answer is very simple, that is, Pan Laocai did not go to the same place until his youngest daughter and his sons. His youngest daughter is still alive in the so-called 'Yellow Springs of the Underworld', while his two sons are really dead. ”

"But if the rich man knows this, why did he run away?" Shen Mingde asked.

Fang Jiuling looked at the rain curtain outside the window and said, "I don't know about this." All in all, the pattern I found from these stories is that those who have attained 'longevity' have no example of going back, and those who have attained 'longevity' have few good results. Whoever has attained 'immortality' can see the 'evil'. However, they will resort to various means to exorcise evil spirits. For example, there is a story about an 'immortal' who exorcised evil spirits by worshipping the Buddha. But the weather was dry, and the face of the wood carved Buddha was cracked. So the man was scared to death. There are also people who play the lute to ward off evil spirits. But one day, the strings broke, and he was scared to death. There are also people who ask a priest every year to exorcise evil spirits. Later, the Taoist priest accepted the black money from the enemy, deliberately got drunk, and kicked over the incense case. The man was also scared to death......"

Shen Mingde suddenly interrupted him and asked urgently, "How many stories are there?" After those people were 'scared to death', what was the state of death? ”

Fang Jiuling looked at Shen Mingde and smiled knowingly. He lit his cigarette unhurriedly and said, "There are no less than a dozen such examples. In some stories, people are scared to death. However, there are three or five stories that describe the so-called 'scared to death'. One of them is what you call a 'living corpse'. Another is to be like that mad woman, who spontaneously combusts without fire and then disappears without a trace. I guessed what you were thinking. ”

Shen Mingde and Fang Jiuling looked at each other and smiled, and said, "It seems that after getting 'immortal', this 'exorcism' method is really diverse. ”

Fang Jiuling pretended to be mysterious and said, "I don't think so. 'Exorcism of evil spirits' should be 'emphasizing the spirit but not the form'. ”

When Shen Mingde asked, "What do you mean by this", Fang Jiuling stood on the balcony connected to the bedroom with a cigarette in his mouth. He silently looked at the torrential rain outside the window, and seemed to hesitate for a moment before turning around and saying, "No ritual of exorcism is truly effective. What really works is the 'faith' of man. There are many kinds of exorcism rituals that appear in the story. However, it is only when people are convinced of that ritual that the purpose of exorcism is achieved. This is probably the old saying, 'faith is spiritual'. I didn't tell you that, because maybe one day you too will become an 'immortal.' Maybe you'll find a ritual that suits you. At this point, I said that it was broken, so wouldn't the ritual be ineffective for you? But then I thought again. After all, there are two sides to this approach. On the one hand, it can give you temporary peace; On the other hand, if something happens to the ritual you believe in, it can lead to serious consequences. ”

Shen Mingde nodded indifferently, even if he accepted the other party's kindness. Perhaps because of the idea that "disaster is not coming, it is none of my business", Shen Mingde has not seriously considered whether to become an "immortal". What he hoped for most at this time was that Fang Jiuling could give him a copy of the audio of the madwoman's story. However, his offer was rejected by the other party. Fang Jiuling hugged the computer case like a hen protecting her chickens, and said fiercely that those were his own property and the inspiration for his novels. Then, seeing that Shen Mingde didn't force it, this guy gradually put his mind at ease.

When asked "what other important information is there in those stories", Fang Jiuling proudly talked about his "research results". When he returned to Nanjing, he also took the initiative to read some materials on psychology and psychiatry. Later, it turned out that the story of the crazy woman, although bizarre, was very logical. Few mentally ill people can tell a complete story as coherently and coherently as she does. So Fang Jiuling eliminated his prejudice against that "crazy woman" and pondered those stories repeatedly. It took a lot of time to study the story, and the main difficulty was not the language barrier. Although the madwoman had a strong northeastern accent, Fang Jiuling was generally able to understand. The main difficulty lies in the fact that all the stories do not have a clear chronological order such as dynasties or years. And these stories sound like a "chronicle" of a certain god. Therefore, only by asking for chronology may be able to read this "chronicle". Later, Fang Jiuling found a way to judge the approximate age by some nouns that appeared in the story. For example, in one story, the protagonist is called "filial piety". Because "filial piety" in the Han Dynasty was an important indicator of the appointment of officials in the investigation system. Therefore, Fang Jiuling thought that this story happened in the Han Dynasty. However, in the same story, the word "Wako" appears again. This is difficult for Fang Jiuling. Because the piracy of the "Wako" only arose during the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, it is difficult to determine the timing of this story. It wasn't until he consulted a lot of information that he finally understood that the word "filial piety" was also used as a nickname for people in the Ming and Qing dynasties. This allowed Fang Jiuling to roughly determine the time of this story.

Through research, Fang Jiuling finally summed up a thread of these seemingly scattered stories: in the land of the Central Plains in ancient and medieval times, there was a kind of monster that spread a frightening "plague" to people. This "plague" is spiritually devastating. The reason why it is likened to a "plague" is because it is contagious. Fang Jiuling estimated that this was the reason why many demons and monsters were born in folklore. Fortunately, the popularity of Taoism, Buddhism and other religions at that time, as well as people's desire for goodness during the heyday of the dynasty, had a countervailing effect on the spread of the "plague". At the same time, there is a secret organization that is expelling and exterminating this monster. They have been acting stealthily and unknowingly. From the few words in the story, it is speculated that the reason for the covert operation may have been to avoid causing panic in society, which is how this monster spreads the plague. This organization is loosely structured and complex. They should have a well-established set of code cutouts inside them to help them connect. And within the organization, the characteristics of the members' titles will also make colleagues recognize each other as their own. Some of the summarized internal rules of the organization have been written in the novel, such as: Tianxuan Shangren, Kuixing Xiande, and so on. These people are usually disguised as medicine men who are merchants, fortune tellers, and Taoists who wander. This organization eventually defeated the main body of the monsters. However, they did not find an effective way to destroy the monster. Perhaps for one reason it cannot be eliminated. The reason for this may be that when the monster spreads the plague, it may also spread its own clones. It is said that once the main body of the monster dies, then the doppelganger of the monster will "break out of the cocoon" at the same time. That's right, the mad woman's story uses the word "cocoon". The meaning should be to come out of the human body. This would lead to an even greater disaster. Humans may have to face five, ten, or even hundreds of these monsters. Because no one knows how many doppelgangers this monster has spread.

Shen Mingde felt a little funny after listening to it, but after comparing it with his own mysterious experience, he changed his way of saying it and asked, "And then you wrote these into a novel?" So do you think the so-called 'Yamamiro' is the doppelganger of that monster? Later, he was taken to the Northeast and sealed? Recently, that monster broke the seal and came out to make waves again? ”

Fang Jiuling replied solemnly: "No, no, no." The monster was sealed in the Antiquity or Middle Ages. Since I don't believe in ghosts and gods, I think it's a plant or animal that can cause horrific hallucinations in humans. A 'seal' is a way to put something like a seed into a person's body. However, the man found a no-man's land and hid. In this way, the monster is prevented from spreading through fear. If I sealed this monster, I would never keep it at home, would I? Therefore, the hinterland of the Central Plains back then was definitely not suitable for sealing this monster. So they send it to the northeast or the northwest. As for what the monster is doing now, I don't know. But I haven't broken the seal yet. At least not completely lifted. Through your experience, I feel the duality of 'Yamamira' and its followers. On the one hand, the believers who live in the lakeside village live a secluded life. They did not actively 'proselytize,' and on the other hand, they did not reject the occasional 'destined person'. Isn't that a contradiction? In your story you mention the 'Nu Dance'. That's not the kind of faith that the Northeast should have. So I guess that the inhabitants of the lakeside village may have also migrated from the Central Plains. Over a long period of time, they developed a belief of their own. They see themselves as the communicators of the 'Yamamira' and at the same time the guardians of the seal. On the one hand, they use 'immortality' as bait to spread fear. On the other hand, he kept 'Changsheng' as a secret and didn't let too many people know about it. ”

Shen Mingde had a sad look on his face, and gently stroked his right wrist and lamented: "I really don't know if I should embrace 'Immortal' or help them keep this secret?" ”

Fang Jiuling suddenly diverted the topic and asked Shen Mingde if the Xiao Jing he was talking about was beautiful. At this time, he had been avoiding the question just now, and at this time, Shen Mingde had to take out his mobile phone and put Xiao Jing's photo in front of Fang Jiuling.

Fang Jiuling said with a wicked smile: "People are really contradictory animals. ”

Seeing Shen Mingde's face full of doubts, he explained: "In my opinion, you also have two sides. Under the pretext of looking for people, under the banner of 'exploring secrets', you have accompanied a beautiful woman to hang out until now. Even if you have this 'brand' now. However, you still don't know what your true purpose is. ”

Shen Mingde was just about to refute, but a thunderbolt seemed to shake the ground. Like a dreamer who was awakened by the thunder, Shen Mingde swallowed his rebuttal back to his stomach and began to think about his own experience and Fang Jiuling's words. He has always seen himself as an innocent bystander who has been drawn into the incident. In the early stage, he was looking for Zhou Tengfei, and later got this "brand", and now it has become a tool for the Chen family and his son to deal with Gao Bowen. In retrospect, weren't you the one who drove the whole thing?