"I, I'll be embarrassed. --"I pretended to be shy.

"Well, it's easy to get 'lost' in the forest, I'll trip you with a rope, and I'll pull you back when you're done." So saying, the monster tied a rope around my waist.

It's exactly like in the story, it looks like you can really escape! I was secretly happy, and I walked out slowly towards the outside of the room without moving.

As soon as I got out of the door, in a blind spot that the monster couldn't see, I quickly untied the rope and ran desperately into the woods. The monster in the house soon noticed, roared in rage, and chased after it with a claw that broke the wall.

For the first time in my life, I ran as fast as I could, and the sound of the wind whirring behind me kept pouring into my ears, and the monster roared wildly, and it was already chasing not far behind.

Nine-year-olds' are constantly fragile and not fast. Soon the monster chased after it, it was no longer humanoid, more than three meters high, the big eyes 'shot' the faint green light, under the moonlight, the hideous big mouth with sharp teeth, constantly dripping saliva.

It was close, very close, and at the moment when the monster's long, shriveled hand was about to catch me, a ray of light suddenly 'shot' out of nowhere.

"Little night, silent at night, hey, wake up." Someone was calling out to me, and seemed to be slapping me in the face.

So, I woke up.

I saw the sunlight in room 402 again, and I fell to the ground at some point, Zhang San patted my face anxiously, and pinched my position hard.

"I didn't have a stroke." I unceremoniously slapped his hand away and stood up.

I shook my head, and my thinking was still a little 'confused' and 'chaotic': "I don't know, but it seems to be a dream, a very real dream." We arrived at Xiong's mother-in-law. ”

Hearing this, Zhang San's face 'revealed' a strange look.

"How long have I been dizzy?" I supported my head with my hands and massaged my temples a few more times, and then I was a little more sober.

"It didn't take long, maybe just over a minute." He replied absentmindedly.

I'm also a little absent-minded, strange, my body has always been very good, is there any pressure on health, how can I faint without humming? I also had that weird dream, which was so unreasonable.

His gaze slowly swept around, and he found that his body was in a very delicate place. To be precise, at the intersection of the bedroom and the living room. Half of the body went into the bedroom, and the other half remained in the living room. I took a few steps forward, and as soon as I entered the bedroom, I saw something very unexpected.

I saw that the bedroom was destitute, only a dilapidated and barely weighed 'bed' thing piled up with waste paper shells. On the 'bed' was a scarecrow, a scarecrow dressed in a 'girl' child's clothes. I was stunned, and the clothes I wore on the scarecrow gave me a familiar feeling, like I had seen it somewhere.

By the way, the 'girl' child called the girl in the dream is wearing this dress.

The thought struck me like a lightning strike, and I shuddered. How can it be! What's going on here?

I walked over a few steps and picked up the scarecrow, only to see a yellow sheet of paper pasted on the back of the scarecrow, on which was written in some unknown blood: Wuzi year, zodiac rat, Yimao month, Ding Jiri.

This is obviously a Hakka custom called "child soul".

The Hakka people believe that people have three souls and seven spirits, which is different from the traditional Chinese concept of three souls and six spirits, and this difference is not surprising; It has something to do with the long-term evolution of regional culture. Just like the Yeche people of the Hani tribe, they believe that people have twelve souls, and they are arranged in the human body in order of size. The Hakka people's detailed description of the lost soul is quite bizarre, saying that at night they saw a bowl-sized red light rising from someone's roof and flying away, which means that someone in the house has lost their soul.

The so-called is called the soul of a child. The phenomenon of children's soul loss is very common among the Hakka people, of course, the loss of soul here is in a broad sense, including night crying, 'spirit' malaise, lack of food and other symptoms, all of which can be described as soul loss. Children are prone to losing their souls, which is related to the fact that their bodies and minds are still in an immature stage, so it is very easy for "soul stealers" to take advantage of the situation. The soul stealing lady is a 'female' demon who specializes in stealing children's souls in Hakka legends, similar to the witch who rides a broom and flies into the sky and enters and exits from the chimney in Western fairy tales. Because it is volatile, the Hakka people usually pay attention to the protection of children's souls, such as children falling, adults will hold their ears and call: "Three souls and seven spirits are back, three souls and seven spirits are back!" "For example, when an adult crosses the bridge with a child on his back, he also needs to call the child's name, and if the child sleeps, the adult will wake him up.

In the event of a loss of soul, the child's mother should call the soul as soon as possible. Hakka is called the soul of the child, and the simpler ones are called pillows, chickens, eggs, copper coins, etc. Immediately, the mother recites the words and phrases called the soul repeatedly, and once the above things are established, it means that the soul has heard the call and has returned.

When the child is a little sick, the mother needs to tie a scarecrow, cover it with children's clothes, and go out into the field to call the soul. The soul must be called at night, because the soul is a 'yin' and 'sexual' thing, and during the day it will only be called to the ox to play the harp. In addition, the mother's voice is the most familiar to the child, and the effect of calling will be better. The mother walked forward with the straw man on her back, calling the child's 'milk' name, and a person behind her learned the child's voice and answered at any time. The soul-calling words recited by the mother are very casual, and they can be used to use food and playthings to lure, or they can be intimidated by demons in the night, in short, all the means of coaxing, 'luring', and intimidation that are usually useful to children can come in handy, and their purpose is nothing more than to make the lost three souls return as soon as possible.

Of course, it is impossible to verify whether the lost soul can be returned. After all, the origin of folklore often comes from a certain subjective belief of human beings, and once the belief is lost, the custom itself ceases to exist. Could it be that I was influenced by the soul of a child? Looking at the scarecrow in my hand, I was puzzled.

No, calling the soul is obviously calling the soul back.

Thinking of the fragmented situation that I have encountered in the past two days when many old feudal customs have been changed, I suddenly lack self-confidence. I'm afraid that this ritual called the soul of a child has also been changed, not to summon the soul back, but to summon the soul of the person.

While I was thinking about it, Zhang San had already checked the remaining two rooms, and found nothing more, nor did he see anyone. In short, 402 was empty, and the intruders had taken the family of three to the empty building.

"Did you find anything?" Zhang San asked with some frustration.

I shook my head, my eyes still slowly moving around the house: "Strange, how did those people escape?" There is only one staircase in this building. ”

"The ghost only knows, maybe it's disguised into something else, and he went out of the 'door' generously." Zhang San said depressedly.

"It shouldn't be possible, it takes at least two people to 'get' this family of three out, and I haven't seen four adults and a child going downstairs to 'go out'. Not to mention four adults, not even a small child has never been in and out. There must be something going on here. ”

I turned around slightly, and then gestured to Zhang San with my hand. A hint of difference flashed on Zhang San's face, and then he wandered around the house without moving.

Slowly walking to the bed, he jerked up and kicked the cardboard under the bed.

The cardboard was subjected to a huge force of impact, and all of it was thrown upwards, revealing the appearance under the bed. We looked at each other and couldn't help but take a deep breath.

There were two bodies under the bed, a man and a woman, both of whom were not very old, but they were only in their early 20s. Very much in line with the description of the owner by the security guard downstairs. I crouched down to check on them, and the two of them hadn't been dead for long, and they even had residual body temperatures. The cause of death was suffocation due to being tightly strangled by a rope and not being able to breathe.

Zhang San and I glanced at each other, both a little helpless. Obviously, the murderer was a hasty murderer, probably the first time I knocked on the 'door' out of fear that they would make a noise. These two people were indirectly killed by me.

I was a little depressed and uncomfortable. I smiled bitterly and was about to say something, when Zhang San suddenly pushed me forward, my feet quickly changed positions, and my left 'leg' Chu Li flicked slightly, and kicked behind me.

I was pushed to the foot of the wall, and before I could see clearly, I heard a 'pop' and then the sound of someone hitting the wall. I used my hand to borrow strength on the wall, turned around quickly, and just saw three figures fighting with Zhang San.

Where were these people hiding? We searched the whole house once, but we couldn't find them. I looked around in confusion and saw that the window on the opposite side was wide open. Damn, I didn't expect these guys to actually turn out and stand on the fence on the third floor, no wonder they couldn't find it.

All three of them are very good in terms of tactics and are orderly in attack and defense. I saw them going back and forth, preparing to block Zhang San to the wall. Zhang San looked at these three people coldly, with no mercy in his hands, and he was a Tai Chi massage hand as soon as he came up. This kung fu is very good with less to more, and the effect is very good, and his palm technique is like a cloud of water to block the offensive of those three people. The three of them were not in a hurry, and the division was clear, two of them attacked his 'chest' abdomen, while the remaining one focused on the lower plate. The guy who captured the plate has the best kung fu, is agile, and uses both hands and feet, much like the 'leg' method of a certain tribe in Qingcheng. I am not familiar with kung fu, although the old man Yang Junfei and the old 'woman' Lin Zhiyan always want to instill this kind of thing in me, but I am not cold. It's not that I hate violence, it's that I'm more inclined to use my brain to figure things out. However, under their frenzied indoctrination, they still remembered a lot of things.