The innkeeper was smoking in his room, and the foreigner's question again brought back his dusty memories, the figure of a child by the river, the broken doll that fell to the ground, the couple who died mysteriously, everything seemed to appear before his eyes one by one in the course of his day's narration.

In his memory, on the night of the fire, the shopkeeper felt that something was wrong, and he immediately ran back to the house to frantically look for the broken doll, he thought that everything had something to do with the doll, but no matter how he rummaged in the small shack, he could not find it.

He shuddered at the thought of the nightmare before, and judging from what had happened, the couple had abandoned their child, and finally the little boy accidentally fell into the water and died, probably the ghost was attached to this broken doll, and he happened to pick it up, so on the night of the boy's first seven, the ghost completed his revenge.

But soon, the shopkeeper found that he had a wrong idea, if he wanted to abandon the child, why did he choose to choose the river not far from home? Shouldn't it be thrown farther away from home, or in front of a hospital or charity?

The answer is actually very simple, they did not abandon their own child, but killed him directly!

The shopkeeper can fully imagine how the vicious parents put a broken doll by the river to lure their children, and finally pushed their own children into the river and drowned.

Remembering that his wife, daughter and mother had already passed away in an earthquake, and reuniting with his family had long become a luxury that could never be realized in his life, the shopkeeper felt more and more that this murderous couple was inferior to beasts and deserved.

So he never tried to find the broken doll again.

Two days later, he came to the edge of the river alone, threw a string of Buddhist beads down the river, and said to the river: "Little doll, although you used me to help you avenge you, I don't regret it, let alone blame you, I just hope that you will not harm other innocent people in the future, the monk in the temple said that this Buddha bead can dissolve anger, so I begged to give it to you, and you will rest in peace." ”

At that time, the shopkeeper did not know that it was his actions that made this place safe for eight years......

The shopkeeper extinguished the cigarette butt, and his thoughts were pulled back from his memory, and he looked up at the clock, it was almost eleven o'clock, he had been in the habit of going to bed early and getting up early for many years, and it was already very late for him, so he decided not to think about it anymore and went to bed early.

Just as the shopkeeper lifted the futon, his pupils contracted sharply, and his heart stopped beating at this moment.

A tattered doll was lying quietly on his bed, and the strange smile of the little boy in the nightmare appeared on the doll's face.

The shopkeeper immediately collapsed to the ground in fright, and he hurried back into the corner of the room, trying to get as far away as possible from the doll.

And the broken doll came to life at this moment, and the strange smile on its face turned into a terrible and vivid laugh, and it sat up, like a real child, and staggered close to the shopkeeper.

The shopkeeper's mind was blank at this time, and his breathing became an extremely difficult thing, and he read intermittently: "You...... You ......"

The broken doll approached, laughing loudly, and then, like the little boy in the nightmare, its head fell off.

The shopkeeper really hoped that this was also a nightmare, because it ended here eight years ago, but it is still going on...... The head rolled to the shopkeeper's feet, and on that smirking face, a pair of unscrupulous eyes fixed on him, and a gurgling sound came from his mouth.

Then, it actually spoke: "Nosy thing...... You're going to pay the price......"

The shopkeeper didn't understand, he didn't know why the other party wanted to say this to him, the little boy was still thanking him in his dreams, why did he come to kill him now?

He probably didn't have much time to think, for the skull opened its mouth, and salty liquid poured out of its mouth. It was neither white brains nor scarlet blood, but a foul red slime.

The speed of the water was so fast that in a matter of moments, the headless doll and the skull on the ground were already submerged.

The shopkeeper struggled to get up, he tried to open the door, but the doorknob didn't move, he banged on the door and shouted, but to no avail, as if he was locked in an isolated space at the moment, without all contact with the outside world.

While he was doing all this useless work, the water was already up to his waist, and he turned back to look for another way out, only to see the moonlight shining through the quaint papier-mâché-timber window, so he rushed to the window, trying to break through the window to find a final way out. It's a pity that no matter how he lifts the stool in the room and smashes it, it is useless, and the glass in the window mezzanine is as strong as bulletproof at the moment.

The shopkeeper finally gave up, and he leaned against the wall, his life flying by in front of him like a white horse, thinking that he was finally reunited with his dead family.

But this day was not destined to be the time for him to return to his place, just when he decided to close his eyes and wait for death, he suddenly felt a relief in his heart, and the feeling of fear suddenly disappeared, and when he opened his eyes, he found himself lying on the bed, as if everything had never happened, and he had just had another nightmare.

There was a sudden knock on the door, and the shopkeeper almost fell off the bed in fright, and he asked in a trembling voice, "Yes...... Who is it? ”

"I, Elbert, we met during the day, and my friend, we heard some sounds, are you okay? Need help? ”

The shopkeeper was relieved to hear the voice of the living man, and he replied, "No...... It's okay...... I probably had a nightmare, and I was embarrassed to make a noise......"

Another voice came from outside the door, it was Wang Xu: "Shopkeeper, please open the door, it was not a dream just now, you are in danger now, let us come in to help." ”

As soon as the shopkeeper heard this, he felt that something was wrong, how could they know about the ghost themselves? Isn't it the same Elbert outside the door during the day? But......

Wang Xu's voice came again: "Your worries are groundless, and they are wrong, if it weren't for us coming, you would have been drowned in the hallucination just now, so now, please open the door, otherwise we will come in by ourselves." ”

The shopkeeper remembered that they had asked someone to go upstairs in the morning to repair the lock of the door, and thought that even a single door would not be able to stop these two, and after thinking about it again, this man's words made sense, so he got up and walked towards the door: "Come, wait." ”

He opened the door and saw Elbert's face, and then slowly opened the door and said, "Please come in and talk." ”

After they sat down, Wang Xu was the first to speak: "You don't have to ask about how I know the thoughts and memories in your head, and I can't explain it to you, you can just repeat the hallucinations you just encountered to Elbert now." ”

The shopkeeper is also a person who understands, knowing that these two are definitely not good people in the market, maybe some kind of ghost hunter Taoist master, so he did not shy away from telling what he had just seen, and added some details about eight years ago. When he told the story to Elbert before, he omitted the matter of throwing Buddhist beads into the river, but now he knew everything and told it in great detail.

After listening to the narrative, Elbert pondered, "This is the same vision I saw last night, and the method of killing is also drowning......

Wang Xu was as calm as water at the moment, and he said calmly: "This thing is very unusual this time, in fact, it used to randomly select victims, and last night it attacked you because you have spiritual sense, but it is not strong, after killing you, it can gain stronger strength, as for the one who attacked the shopkeeper just now, it is to retaliate......"

Elbert felt that Wang Xu seemed to have a problem just now, from the time he left Yanli's room to Wang Xu's time when Wang Xu came to save people with him, Wang Xu seemed to have changed in a short period of time, and he actually showed a method similar to mind reading just now, and he always felt a lot more reliable......

"Brother Wang...... You seem to already know what you're going to deal with this time? ”

Wang Xu didn't answer, but turned his head to the shopkeeper and said: "Shopkeeper, your set of inferences is wrong, what we have to deal with this time is not an ordinary ghost, but something more powerful, I think back then, the master monk who gave you the Buddha beads has seen some clues from you, so he borrowed your hand to complete a seal, and you don't know anything......

However, the 'thing' has always held a grudge against you, so it came back to you when it was freed, and it wanted to kill you after it had killed enough people here, but the presence of Elbert and I made it plan ahead. It was scared, and it felt in danger last night after coming into contact with my psychic sense, hastening its revenge. ”

The shopkeeper became nervous: "Two, I have long seen that you are not ordinary people, you must be the gods and arhats in the sky, please save me!" If you want money......"

Wang Xu waved his hand and motioned for him to shut up: "We don't want money, the gods and arhats don't want money, just think like this." He stood up and said to Elbert, "Come out with me once and settle the matter tonight." ”

When the shopkeeper heard that they were leaving, he hurriedly said: "Immortal Wang, you and this foreign immortal are gone, what should I do if that thing comes to me again?" ”

Wang Xu knew that he had this question, so he replied: "I will set up a formation around the inn, and the evil creatures will not be able to enter after we leave." ”

The shopkeeper was relieved when he got this sentence and sent the two out of the door.

The two walked out of the inn, and the air in the suburbs at night was relatively fresh, which made people feel refreshed.

Wang Xu really began to circle around the inn, still muttering words, while Elbert followed him with a puzzled expression.

Suddenly, Wang Xu stopped and said, "Don't stare at me with your spiritual vision, it's not what you think." ”

Elbert still kept a distance from Wang Xu with some vigilance: "As far as I know, Little Brother Wang doesn't know how to set up any formations, who are you!" ”