Nightmare? Like not like it. It was as if I was blindfolded on the edge of a cliff and would have broken my bones if I didn't care, and I didn't have to. There was a nameless and great fear in my heart, but I couldn't accurately describe it.

I asked Ma Ming, "What time is it?" ”

Ma Ming glanced at his watch: "Half past two in the morning." What's wrong? Have you rested? After resting, we are about to go. ”

I hugged my slightly stinging head and muttered, "Why is it half past two in the morning?" As soon as I blurted out the words, I was stunned first. Again? Why do I say 'again'?

"What are you muttering there by yourself?" In a trance, Ma Ming had already sorted out his backpack and equipped his luggage, and beckoned to me: "Although you have a nightmare, it should be enough to recharge your energy after sleeping for so long, let's go, it's time to deal with that ghost baby." ”

I didn't move, as if I couldn't get out of the great sense of nothingness, and I muttered, "I feel as if I've forgotten something important." ”

Ma Ming said: "Okay, little girl, I don't have time to give you sadness now, the most important thing for you now is to get rid of the ghost baby." ”

I was pulled up by Ma Ming involuntarily, and then I reflexively followed him and walked into the left tunnel.

I picked up a stone from the ground and was about to mark the route in the corner of the wall around the bend, only to find that there was already a scratch mark here. After thinking about it, it may have been left behind by the previous explorers. Just in case, I marked it as my own.

Standing at the door of the room, I looked at the dark room and asked Ma Ming, "Will you let me in alone?" I think something is wrong. ”

Ma Ming tied the rope that the bell did not ring to me, and said, "Are you afraid? ”

I shook my head and said, "No, it's not scared...... I just don't think something is right. ”

Ma Ming obviously took my words on the spot, and I was able to do it myself. He tied a rope made of hemp rope and a charm with a yellow background of cinnabar around my waist, and accidentally touched the bell on the way, but the bell did not make the slightest sound. When Ma Ming saw my expression, he explained: "This bell is not bad, it is just ......."

"It only rings when you meet yin, right?" I asked.

Ma Ming was choked and touched his nose sneeringly: "That's right, that's it." You don't know anything, don't you? ”

I checked the gear I had brought. Soil mine bombs, brought; Flashlight, brought; Lighter, brought. I saw Ma Ming burning incense, and preemptively said: "You have to come out before the incense burns out, otherwise as soon as the ghost baby is suppressed, my life will be in danger." ”

"Uh, yes. When you go in, in addition to burning the cradle chair, you also have to put ......"

"The scarecrow puppet that Ma Wen was sending was also burned." I continued. It's like a student who catches his mouth, and the teacher's clichés have been repeated countless times in my mind. But why I was able to do this, I don't know. It's a sense of déjà vu, a very familiar sense of déjà vu.

Ma Ming stopped talking, his eyes narrowed, and he looked at me with an inexplicable gaze. I asked, "Why do you see it that way...... "Me?"

Before the word 'I' was spoken, my face suddenly cooled, and my tongue then tasted salty, it was Ma Ming who suddenly threw a handful of black dog blood from his small jar and sprinkled it at me, the rich and smelly fishy smell almost suffocated me, and the slimy plasma texture on my face was also very uncomfortable.

I wiped my face with my sleeve and was angry: "Ma Ming, what are you doing?!" ”

Ma Ming's expression was very indifferent, and he breathed a sigh of relief indifferently without a trace: "You suddenly became so smart, I thought you were possessed by evil spirits." ”

Me: "......"

I shifted the subject back to the previous one and hesitantly asked him, "I'm just assuming...... You say, is it possible that it wasn't Ma Wen who killed those people? ”

"Why do you say that?"

"You think, there are two ghosts in Qingtong Manor. The little ghost is much more fierce than the female ghost, and I have never heard of the little ghost killing, only the female ghost is scary. Could Ma Wen have deliberately killed people so that those people would not come to explore the manor and be killed by the ghost baby? "There's another layer of speculation that I haven't said yet. Could it be that the reason why the female ghosts in Qingtong Manor killed people was that those who had seen female ghosts were only frightened, and those who had seen little ghosts were directly killed? And the reason why Ma Wen came forward to be scary was to make people go to Qingtong Manor and kill innocently when they encountered a little ghost.

"Honestly, unlikely." Ma Ming ruthlessly rejected my conjecture: "You have seen the scene reappear before, to be honest, it is impossible for a person to have a good heart after suffering such torture and dying." ”

I choked and retorted, "But she ...... me."

Ma Ming stared at me and said seriously, "That's just because you look like the young master of the Shen family." If you hadn't grown like this, you'd have lost your life several times by now. ”

I was so stunned that I couldn't think of a rebuttal. I stepped through the door with an indescribable sense of familiarity, fumbled to the edge of the bed, put my hand under the pillow, and felt a chuckle in my heart.

The pillow is empty underneath.

I lifted my pillow, and the rotting ash of the straw hit me in the face. On the bed, under and off the bed, in front and back, left and right, there was no trace of the scarecrow doll. Could it be that Ma Wen took it herself? This doubt just came to my mind, and I quickly denied it. No, not Ma Wen. It was someone else who took it. Because in my memory, at some point, after the last escape, before this time I came in, at some point...... The scarecrow doll does exist in this place.

I didn't find the scarecrow, so I didn't bother anymore, got up neatly, and turned to the central area where the cradle chair was placed. The flashlight in his hand flickered twice and went out, I don't know if it was out of power. I patted the flashlight and there were two batteries in my pocket, but I didn't change them. When the flashlight came on again, I found myself in an empty area, a cradle chair in the dark space, under a lonely halo of light, windless, creaking and swaying, exuding an eerie sense of silence.

I closed my eyes and didn't look at it, but followed the impression I had in my original memory. I walked slowly, but trying to be safe, I put one hand in my trouser pocket, and I suddenly remembered that there was a hole in my trouser pocket, and I reached in to prevent the lighter from falling down the loophole, and held it tightly. I silently counted four, three, two, and one in my mind, and when I counted to one, I opened my eyes, and the real cradle chair appeared in front of me.

I breathed a sigh of relief, I felt like a player who had beaten the level countless times, the process was as familiar as if it had been walked many times, and the speed was accelerated by proficiency. If it were my first time here, I wouldn't have been able to do it so skillfully, and I might not have touched the cradle chair by the time the incense was burned.

There was a fragmentary murmur in the ears from just now, and at this moment, the murmur suddenly became louder, and it was the shouting of the horse: "Don't burn, come out quickly!" The incense is gone! ”

How can it be? At my own rate, the incense wasn't half burned at all. I opened my eyes in shock, and the ghost baby was lying in the cradle chair, with a rattle in his little hand, giggling at me.

Even I myself was shocked by my cold-bloodedness, and I barely hesitated, I threw the lighter and gasoline directly into the cradle chair, and stepped back in the sudden surging fire, the ghost baby first screamed, and the body melted like a plastic bag in the heat, and then the python swallowed the elephant and cracked its huge mouth, like a pale and twisted mask floating up from a rancid river, and the spirit rolled in the stomach bag, and a light that seemed to devour everything shone from its open mouth.

I stared into its eyes, and that's when I noticed the look in it. Undisguised malice, cat-like eyes high up in the mouse toyer. I suddenly fell into a rage that I had never been able to control, and I could barely control my emotions and rushed forward with my fists: "You bastard...... bastard"

I didn't make it to it. Ma Ming rushed into the room and yelled at me, "Are you crazy!" He put his hands under my armpits and dragged me out of the room. I suddenly had a strong realization that I couldn't leave this room. Once I leave this room, all my hard work will be in vain. I struggled violently under Ma Ming's hands, and Ma Ming could barely suppress me, thinking that I had been stimulated by the ghost baby and went crazy, so he punched me directly under the ribs. I almost threw up, I couldn't say what I was going to say, and my whole body suddenly softened.

As Ma Ming dragged me out, I looked at the familiar room that kept receding, my brain twitched violently like electricity, and countless memories and images flooded into my mind.

I remember, I've been through this, I've been through it many times! I was desperate to perceive the ghost baby's intentions, and it wanted to play tricks on me in such a cycle over and over again, and then regain my memory at the last moment, enjoying the pleasure of being defeated by the truth—

I struggled: "Ma Ming——!! ”

……

"What are you yelling for?" Ma Ming, who was squatting next to him and packing his backpack, turned to look at me: "You have a nightmare?" ”

I gasped for air, my whole body was grabbed by a sense of despair, and my clothes were soaked with sweat. Something in my head was going blank and speeding away. And I know that this is not the first time.

I looked at Ma Ming and asked, "Are you real?" ”

Ma Ming's appearance looked shocked and blinded, and he resisted the urge to roll his eyes: "What's wrong with you, suddenly falling into the world of idealism and doubt?" ”

I shook my head and said, "No, I just have a huge sense of unreality. What is it really? What is fake? Is there really a clear boundary between the real and the unreal? If so, how can we tell that we are in reality and not in a dream...... Depend on! What are you doing? ”

I hugged my thigh and wailed, and Ma Ming just pinched my leg hard. He looked like an old god, and narrowed his eyes like a master outside the world: "Does it hurt?" Pain is not a dream. ”

Although I know that what Ma Ming said is true, and my current thoughts are neurosis. But the powerless despair in the dream was so powerful that it almost broke through my psychological defenses and drove me crazy. Perhaps out of order to protect myself, I made a bold decision: I wanted to validate my dream. It's like someone waking up from a dream crying and laughing, and going crazy in reality is nothing compared to the despair of the cerebral cortex stimulated by a tragic memory.

Seeing that Ma Ming had packed up those bottles and cans, he put his hands into his backpack, as if he wanted to take something out of it. I stared at him tightly and shouted nervously, "Don't move! ”

Ma Ming was stopped by me, turned his face inexplicably, and stopped his movements for some reason. I swallowed my saliva to moisten my hoarse throat, and said quickly: "I seem to have a dream, I dreamed of what will happen later, don't rush to scold me for being insane, you listen to me first-"

"You will then take out a piece of rope from your bag, which is woven of hemp rope and talismans, and at the end of the rope are two bells that do not ring—of course, because they are called pure heart bells, and they only ring when they meet yin qi; You're going to let me go into the room alone and burn down the baby chair because you've got a curse mark on you and can't do anything about it; You have an incense stick in your bag, and if you light the ghost baby, it will be suppressed, but it will only last as long as that incense burns; You will stop me at the door of the room, because the scarecrow doll that Ma Wen is sending is also in the room, and you asked me to burn it to prevent future troubles-" I watched Ma Ming's expression gradually become serious as I confided every word, and then stopped and asked, "Do you still need me to prove it?" ”

Ma Ming lowered his head and stood in place and pushed his gold-rimmed glasses. It was his usual gesture when he was thinking, and I was relieved that he seemed to have listened to me. But when I thought about it, my heart became heavy again, and I didn't know that the prophet knew Ma Ming's intentions, didn't that mean that what I experienced in my dream was real?

Ma Ming thought seriously for a moment, and as soon as he opened his mouth, my heart hung again-

"I see what you mean. You want to say that we are stuck in a cycle, right? Ma Ming said: "But I think your idea is wrong. Have you ever thought about the possibility, it is very likely that the ghost baby has specially created hallucinations to interfere with your brain and make us give up this action against it out of fear? ”

I didn't wait for him to finish before I hurriedly interrupted: "Then how do you explain what I just said?" Didn't I tell you all about what you thought and what you were going to do? ”

"That's just hysteria in your dreams." Ma Ming pushed his glasses and said calmly: "This is designed into the field of psychology and spirituality, I once studied this discipline in order to resist the intuitive mistakes caused by supernatural events, so let me tell you a brief." ”

Ma Ming spoke quickly, but tried to keep it as fast as I could hear and understand. I understood what he meant, Ma Ming said, the human subconscious is a kind of will with strong logic. The reason why I can speculate about his future plans is only because I have seen his means of exorcism, which I subconsciously deduced using the ability to associate with him.

I shook my head in disbelief. Ma Ming said, "You're crazy. Whether it's the burning of the scarecrow and the fact that I can't end up with the curse mark, they can all be guessed by the cause and effect. Burning incense is a bit difficult to explain, but in some film and television dramas, there are settings where ghosts and gods come out before the incense burns out, and it's not uncommon for you to watch it. ”

"As for the rope, I told you about the function of the heart bell before, have you forgotten?"

In this way, the facts that I said that I thought were ironclad and irrefutable became nothing more than an imaginative union between the subconscious and common sense acting on the brain. I was speechless, and I couldn't help but believe him. It seems that with this explanation, the facts become reasonable.

Ma Ming patted me on the shoulder: "Think about it, the force generated by the earth's pause for one second can cause the world to explode, how can a little ghost who has been born less than a hundred years ago, how can it be possible to turn back time to such a point." ”

I reluctantly accepted his claims. Ma Ming saw that I was not in a good state, and let me rest for a while. I sat on the floor with my back to the wall, my mind and my thoughts were in a mess, thinking about this and there, sometimes almost jumping up and shouting that I was not doing this work, but in the end I was silent and almost compromised.

Ma Ming glanced at his watch, and when the time was almost up, he called me up. I walked around the corner of the tunnel and picked up a stone from the ground to mark the way, but when I looked up, I was stunned by the pale scratches on the wall. I counted them, and there were thirty-six scratches.

I was stunned and said, "There are thirty-six scratches here." ”

Ma Ming glanced at it, didn't take it to heart, and said, "Maybe it was drawn down by someone who was lost before." ”

Is that so?

I hesitated for a moment, leaned over to take a closer look, and after a few moments, a cold sweat broke out: "No. Wrong. ”

"What's wrong?"