(→ In the winter rain for several days, the light snow on the boulevard melted early. The red maples on both sides fell, and the dead branches condensed with the raindrops. Rin came out of the house and walked out with an umbrella embroidered with light blue bamboo.

The rain was not heavy, but this winter rain was extremely cold, and under repeated reminders from her mother, Xiao Rin changed into a slightly thicker, coffee-colored coat. She doesn't walk fast, and she inadvertently glances at her surroundings. Turn left in the park, and at the end of the road is a school, which is now winter vacation, and the school is silent except for a lonely old man who is still boiling water in the communication room to keep warm.

In the years she was away, the town changed so quickly that she felt a subtle sense of estrangement when she wasn't always at home.

After the merger into Fenghua City, the town has developed rapidly in terms of economy and construction under the focus of policies, and after several years of development, it has been completely detached from the original simplicity. Dozens of high-rise buildings, busy roads, and two newly built schools are in many ways no worse than the downtown area of Fenghua City.

Of course, the flow of people in the small town has also increased dramatically because of the integration of the city.

Where there is policy support, there is a good opportunity for development, this signal businessmen are as conspicuous as a nautical beacon, with the tilt of the policy, a large amount of capital investment has been gathered here. Shopping malls, hotels, supermarkets, and other facilities have also popped up in a very short period of time.

......

"Have you heard, Xiao Wang, who worked the night shift in the supermarket last night, had an accident. ”

"You just know, now they're all sent to the city. ”

Passing by a newly opened 24-hour supermarket, two housewives next to Rin chatted as they walked.

Hearing that the neighbor was lagging behind, her friend hurriedly added a correction. Recently, the strangeness that has permeated the continuous town has spread, and there have been more incidents of fainting, so it is not surprising that the residents are talking about it. Although the town has developed rapidly in all aspects, ah, this change has not been too long after all, and the interpersonal relationship in the town is still much closer than in the city.

They are still in the kind of social circle that is linked by acquaintances and neighbors.

Another housewife looked at her suspiciously, and asked, "Why, isn't our hospital here also very good?" Everyone who has a serious or minor illness goes to the town hospital, and the doctor is also very good. By the way, I heard that some time ago, I also transferred a few doctors from the city hospital. ”

"Hehe, don't you know, some of the people from the former advanced hospital have been discharged from the hospital and gone home to recuperate. ”

"Go home to recuperate?

"How is it possible, there are several people in the hospital now, but none of them have woken up. ”

"That's why, it's not better to live in the hospital, it's difficult to stay at home, and I want to go home to recuperate. ”

"Ah......h After all, it is foreseeable that many of the families with financial difficulties among those hospitalized this time will gradually be unable to support themselves when the treatment is fruitless and the money is like water.

“...... It's even more annoying than I thought, what a troublesome guy. ”

Passing by the two of them, Rin sighed, her eyes dark.

He raised the umbrella in his hand and looked up at the sky, the gloomy and deep clouds did not disperse, and the sky was gray.

The rain was not heavy, it was sparse, and the cold was still there.

.........

At night, the sky is hazy.

Because of the recent increase in more and more outrageous rumors, the townspeople are already worried. There are few pedestrians on the streets at night, except for the vehicles rushing by. Under the street lamp, Rin in a coffee-colored fitted coat slowly walked into a community.

Xinqiao District, in addition to the tree-lined community, is another resettlement area for the residents of the original town.

The environment around Xinqiao District is not good, the community is close to the highway intersection, and you can hear the noise of high-speed vehicles passing by when you sleep in the house at night. The setting in the community is not very complete, except for a small garden in front of the house, there are no other facilities, maybe it is more appropriate to call this a dormitory.

Xiao Rin walked into the door of the unmanned community, there was no one by the garden, and through the window without curtains, several families could be seen eating. A sixty-year-old man is watching TV with his granddaughter, a sensible girl is washing her mother's dishes, and a haggard young woman is washing her old mother's feet......

Xinqiao District is a resettlement community for some poor families in the town, and when the government relocated these families with financial difficulties, they not only gave them houses, but also received a lot of compensation.

So, even though the environment is not ideal, the residents who live here are very satisfied.

Room 308 is located on the third floor of the innermost house, and is a side room.

The windows and doors were closed, leaving no gaps.

Xiao Rin knocked on the door a few times, and the sound echoed in the empty hallway, and no one responded inside.

After waiting for a while, she pushed the door straight into the house.

......

As soon as you enter the door, you can hear the steady tone of the CCTV news broadcast

Turn on the loudest TV, confined doors and windows.

The hallway is dirty, and it looks like it hasn't been cleaned for a few days.

Passing by the kitchen, she paused.

The faucet, which was screwed to the limit, was entangled in a piece of hair, and a few drops of water oozed from the whitish towel from time to time.

After a few glances, Rin continued inward.

The hall was very messy, with dirty clothes, beer bottles, food bags, and all kinds of garbage piled up in the room. Obviously, the owner here has no intention of cleaning up.

Walking through the brightly lit hallway, Rin pushed open a hidden door.

Ordinary bedroom, a single bed, a wardrobe, a TV cabinet, a TV...... The simple arrangement, obviously the TV was still on, but the owner shrunk into the quilt and covered himself tightly, and even Xiao Rin didn't react at all when he came in.

"Come out, I'm not it......" looked at a young girl huddled on the bed, tightly wrapped in a quilt.

Xiao Rin gently walked to her side, she pulled the quilt and stroked her messy hair: "Can you tell me about it?" What happened at that time, when I came to the scene, the 'black shadow' had already attacked Mr. Luo. I asked Mr. Huang, but he didn't know what had happened before that...... Can we talk?"

The girl, who had wrapped herself in a quilt, was about seventeen or eighteen years old, and if you ignored her haggard complexion and thick dark circles, she could be said to be a beauty. But at this moment, she looked lost and depressed, and when she heard the word 'black figure', her godless eyes suddenly trembled, and even her body tensed.

"Peace of mind...... Everything will be fine, everything will be fine. Rin gently stroked her head and whispered to soothe, her voice with the breath of a 'requiem', which had the wonderful effect of calming the mind and calming the mind.

The small spell was simple but practical, and the girl's frightened eyes slowly calmed down.

“...... I... Ahem, I ...... "Maybe I haven't spoken for a long time in a nervous state, the girl's voice was dry, and she coughed before she could say a word."

"Drink saliva first, don't be in a hurry. Rin turned to a glass of water and handed it over.

Rin's voice was soft and quiet, with a wonderful calming power.

After drinking the water and closing her eyes to rest, the girl finally slowly talked about the events of the time.

The girl was an employee of the Qingxi Hotel, and she happened to be present on the day of Manager Luo's accident. It was time to get off work in the morning, and Manager Luo had just left because the hotel had been closed for rectification, so some of the part-time workers had already left, so she and the other four people were left to do the final tidying.

The room was tidied up, and when it was almost noon, one of them suddenly noticed that something was wrong around him, and cried out in horror...... That's when they noticed the anomaly around them.

There was silence, and the inn, which could only be considered quiet, fell completely silent, and there was no more sound. Everything but them was shrouded in an invisible mist, as if it was far, far away from them.

"It's hard to describe...... It's like through a veil, you can always see what's behind the veil close at hand, I feel so scared, and the people around me seem to be getting farther and farther away from me. Saying this, she shrank back, held Xiao Rin's hand in horror, and shook it hard.

"I was afraid, afraid that in a moment I would be alone, that something strange would come out from behind that invisible veil...... Tear me apart, kill me, eat me, I'm so afraid!"

Before they could figure out what was going on, the 'black shadow' appeared in front of them...... Frightened, she collapsed on the floor, watching as the black shadow stunned the rest and disappeared into the hallway.

"I was so scared that I didn't dare to move. ”

"After that, have you ever seen that black figure?"

"Nope. After a moment of silence, the cup she held in her hand trembled: "No more, I hurriedly escaped from the Qingxi Hotel, and I didn't dare to go again." ”

"That's right......" Xiao Rin nodded.

At this moment, Rin, who was about to say something, suddenly saw the girl in front of her dilated her pupils and looked out the window motionlessly...... The glass of water in her hand had fallen on the bed, wetting the dry sheets. The girl didn't care, she clutched a talisman-like object around her neck and covered it tightly.

“......... Strange?"

Rin turned around, and through the swept curtains, he could see a house on the other side.

Across the window, a dark shadow was hovering in front of a family.

"Damn it!"

"Damn it, damn it, you guys... Damn ......"

With a curse-like whisper, a thick aura of resentment permeated the surroundings.

"You all deserve to die, you all deserve to die, you deserve to die...... Damn it!"

Far away, that strong, extremely simple resentment still reached Rin's ears, making her frown.

"It's okay, it's okay, now you can sleep peacefully. Hugging the frightened girl, Rin increased the power of the requiem spell: "It won't hurt you, really! Sleep, sleep,"

Slowly, the girl was already asleep, but there was still some fear between her eyebrows.

"If you had to choose, would you want to have this memory?" Rin asked inwardly, looking at the sleeping girl.

'Disappear, disappear! never show up, how I wish I had never experienced such a thing, this damn thing. The girl who had gone to sleep did not answer, but the fear that came out of her heart was so strong.

In that case...... Then forget about it, forget about this kind of encounter. Rin reached out and tapped softly on the center of her brow, weaving a barrier of common sense for her. Theoretically, everyone can encounter fairies, demons, ghosts, and monsters, but the common sense that everyone has received since childhood will form a barrier that belongs to common sense in his cognition, and will obscure the anomalies that he has inadvertently witnessed.

But ah, the barrier of common sense does not exist absolutely, everyone accepts different knowledge, some people believe in ghosts, some people don't, and the barrier in their hearts is not the same. Some people see ghosts and gods but find all kinds of excuses to deny them, and some people completely remove this barrier of common sense that binds them under a special experience.

What Rin did at this point was to rewrite the common sense that had long been shattered in her mind. From now on, memories of the past may not change, but ghosts and the like are just stories for her. Her own past experiences will also be accepted by her as events like ghost adventures.

"It's all over and you'll sleep well tonight. ”

Covered with a quilt by her, Xiao Rin left here calmly. She never makes choices for others, but the person in front of her has already made his own choice. Now that she has made her choice, she will help her to complete it, and it is better for her that the fear of this memory is gone.

After walking out of the room, Rin walked across the street.

She was outside the room just across from her, looking out the window.

There was nothing unusual in the house, there was a mother and daughter inside, the mother was tutoring her daughter in her homework, and the black shadow that had just lingered outside their door had long since disappeared. Xiao Rin didn't bother, and walked towards the next place where the black shadow appeared.

......

A family on the edge of town, not far from Qingxi Inn.

The family's surname is Wu.

The Wu family has a poor life, with an elderly father, a daughter-in-law of her dead husband, and a grandson who is not successful.

"Dad, you rest early, I'll do these things. "My daughter-in-law, who is only forty-three or four-year-old, looks a little haggard. , dark circles under the eyes, and heavy bags under the eyes. Dressed in a dark blue apron, she snatched a woven bamboo basket from her stubborn father.

"Ahem, you go to sleep first, I'm tired from being busy all day, I'm old but still a little useful. "The old man is nearly seventy years old, and his originally straight back has been bent by the tragic life. His dark cheeks are branded with the traces of time, and his stubbornness is even more imprinted.

He died of his wife more than ten years ago, and soon his son died in an accident. The orphans and widows left behind were living in poverty, and the old man relied on the bamboo weaving skills he learned when he was young to maintain this broken and marginal home.

"Dad, it's okay. I've been in good health lately, so you can go to bed first. ”

"Alas, then you should go to bed early," the old man slowly walked into his room.

The daughter-in-law took the bamboo basket that was being woven in the old man's hand and skillfully weaved it.

Under the dim light, the daughter-in-law, who was already sleepy, squinted her eyes and stretched, and then plunged into it again.

The orange-yellow lights slowly turned white......

Orange...... Orange...... White!

Pale!

Not like the warmth of incandescent light, it was a hue that made people feel cold from the bottom of her heart, she had never seen before, but it was so uncomfortable.

The daughter-in-law, who felt that something was wrong, tightened her clothes, raised her head to look, and suddenly broke out in a cold sweat!

Not far away, outside the old man's room, a black mass was trying to get inside!

"Ahhhhh!!h

"Dad, wake up, there's something dirty in the room!!!" she rushed forward and shouted loudly from the house, ignoring the danger.

The dark shadow ignored her, and slowly walked towards the house.

The old man had already fallen asleep, and he was so tired that he did not wake up even when his daughter-in-law exclaimed. But the son in the other room had already woken up: "Mom, what are you doing, you don't let people sleep at night!"

"Hurry up and run out of the house, there's something dirty in the house!" the mother shouted at the sight of her son.

"What a dirty thing, don't be so superstitious...... Ahhhh After a flurry of exclamations, he hurried out of the house.

"Don't come back until the sun comes out!" the mother shouted, backing in front of the dark shadow.

"Gods bless, gods bless. Out of panic, she instinctively grabbed the amulet she had asked for at the small temple in the mountains a few days ago, and while holding the amulet, she prayed loudly.

Something strange happened, and the dark shadow shook and stopped in place.

After a while, it slowly disappeared.

The strange thing was gone, and she sat down on the ground, clutching the crumpled talisman paper blankly.

"The gods have blessed me?!"

**

A pair of eyes were watching the scene in front of her, and Rin focused her gaze on the amulet in her hand.

After a long time, she looked away, squinting in confusion.

“...... This amulet seems to be a little familiar. ”