Kaleidoscope of Death

The Yin residence was a traditional tomb, and although it was very different from the Yang residence, it had to pay attention to feng shui.

As Gu Longming and Lin Qiushi talked, they looked around the courtyard. The courtyard was large, and apart from the place where they lived, there were other landscapes and buildings.

Between their dwelling and the other dwellings was a dense patch of acacia trees. Although Lin Qiushi did not know much about feng shui, he did know that acacia trees were said to attract ghosts.

Lin Qiushi noticed that those acacia trees were tied with a string of bells strung with red ropes, which would jingle when the wind blew. At first glance, it sounds quite pleasant, but at night, the sound of the bells must sound a bit ominous.

The first thing you need to do is to take a look at the newest addition to your home, which is the newest addition to your home.

Gu Longming shook his head and sighed when he saw this, and said, "The dragon is trapped in the shallows and surrounded by walls on all sides, and this is the fierce water. He said, "I have been round this house, and I think that those who can live in it without any trouble are really great men."

Lin Qiushi reminded him, "We're the ones living in the courtyard now."

Gu Longming: "...then we're pretty awesome."

As they were talking, they heard the sound of gongs and drums beating outside, and they went to the door to see that it was a group of people on the street carrying a live pig towards the distance.

This group of people were dressed in the red clothes used for sacrifices, and the atmosphere seemed festive. However, if one looked closely, one would notice that each of their faces were very heavy, and there was even a hint of fear in their eyes.

"Where are they going?" Gu Longming asked in a small voice.

Lin Qiushi shook his head, "I don't know, let's go over there and take a look?"

"OK." Gu Longming rubbed his fists.

Along with them, there were other people in the team who heard this voice, but some of them were scared and didn't want to leave the courtyard, but a few of them, like Lin Qiushi and the others, chose to go and see where the group was going.

So six or seven people were sneaky and secretly followed the ritual team towards the distance.

They crossed the streets and walked through a small forest, and saw the sacrificial procession finally stop in front of a river next to a small town.

This river seemed to be the main stem of the one that had been introduced into the courtyard where they lived, and its waters were so dusky and raging that even from a distance they could hear the surging waters.

The ritual people arrived at the water's edge and put down the live pigs they were carrying, Lin Qiushi originally thought they would throw the pigs directly into the river, but he didn't want the group of people to actually pull out a rattle from their pockets and start chanting something over and over again, the group of people were far away, and their voices were mostly muffled by the fierce water sounds, most people couldn't hear what they were chanting, but Lin Qiushi heard them clearly, and what he heard the group of people chanting was exactly what was written in the clue: "In fear of heaven, in fear of earth, there is a crying boy in my house, a past benefactor chanting three times, sleeping until dawn.

Only after reading it a few times did the group throw the live pig into the river.

The pigs struggled a few times in the water and then quickly sank.

However, as soon as they took a few steps forward, they heard the sound of a heavy object landing on the ground, and when they turned back, they found that the live pig was actually thrown back by something.

Seeing this scene, Lin Qiushi was slightly shocked, he clearly saw that the live pig's body was covered with densely packed blood red teeth marks, as if it had been bitten by something. The bitten pig was still alive, and its mouth was howling miserably.

When the sacrificial crowd saw this sight, they instantly blew up, a panicked expression appeared on almost everyone's face, they didn't seem to dare to stop by the river anymore, and hurriedly ran towards the direction of the small town, looking like there was literally some monster behind them that was about to chase after them.

Gu Longming said, "There's something in that river..."

Lin Qiushi shook his head, "Not a good thing anyway."

Gu Longming muttered, "What kind of messy River God Festival, I think it's the Water Ghost Festival."

Lin Qiushi heard the words but his heart was moved.

They were talking, but they saw two of the few people who had followed with them stand up from the shadows towards the river, and it looked like they wanted to carefully examine the pig and the things inside the river.

Gu Longming turned his head to look at Lin Qiushi, foolishly, "Aren't we going to go over and take a look? There might be some key clues over there?"

"Don't go." Lin Qiushi didn't want to risk his life, "Have you forgotten how fast that group of ritualists ran?" It's like there's a fierce ghost by the river. Just like this and still make it to the top, it's either stupid or has some kind of trump card to lean on.

The two men arrived at the river and looked at the pig first.

The pig used for sacrifice was still alive, its mouth screaming in pain, the blood from its body dripping down the river bank into the dusky river water. The two men didn't find any clues on the pig, so they propped their heads up and looked inside the river, one of them seemed to see something and let out a scream, "There's something, don't go over-"

But by the time he said that it was too late, the other man's foot had just landed on the bank of the river, and it was as if something had directly grabbed his ankle and started dragging him into the river.

The thing in the river seemed to be extremely powerful and didn't even give the person a chance to react, the person let out a scream and plopped down into the river.

"Xiao Yu, Xiao Yu-" the remaining man by the river cried out the name of his friend in a mess, "Xiao Yu-"

The dusky river water began to swell as if it was boiling, with blood mixed in it, and the little rain that was pulled into the river was silent.

Lin Qiushi heard the child's clear laughter, he looked towards Gu Longming and saw his face was pale.

"You heard it too?" Lin Qiushi asked him.

"Hear what?" Gu Longming was unsure.

Lin Qiu would say, "Then you are frightened?"

Gu Longming was silent for a moment before he whispered, "I saw something that pulled him into the water." His eyes took on a bit of fear, "It was... a pair of children's hands."

A pair of blistered white, already swollen, hands that belonged to a child.

"Let's go." Gu Longming didn't want to stay here any longer.

Lin Qiushi saw that there was no more movement by the river and nodded to get up.

The two of them returned to the city and found that the entire small town was now in a very strange atmosphere. People on the streets were whispering, either with fear in their eyes, or looking numb.

And seeing them, the two outsiders, there was something else amidst this fear and numbness. Although Lin Qiushi was reluctant to admit it, he recognized it as an expression called excitement.

"Fuck, why are their eyes like that." Gu Longming was a bit fed up, "It's like a pervert seeing a girl, I've already changed my skirt ah."

Lin Qiushi: "......." he didn't say anything, thinking that I'm afraid that you're wearing a skirt competently is also a pervert's role.

A gust of wind hung over, and the red lanterns hanging on the street were blown around as if they were a bright flame. Although it was going to be a festival, there wasn't a festive atmosphere here, instead everyone was afraid of the birth of the River God in seven days.

Lin Qiushi found a random shop and after going in to buy something, he politely asked about the River God's festival.

The owner, a middle-aged man in his fifties, had a look at them and said somewhat reluctantly, "This is our special festival here, in order to pray for good winds and rains..."

Lin Qiushi said, "Just that?"

"Just so." The boss cleaned around with a feather duster in his hand and muttered, "Or else what else."

Lin Qiushi said, "What about the ritual?"

The boss was vague, however: "It's just throwing the animals into the river to feed the river gods..."

Gu Longming has always spoken directly: "Just livestock? You don't end up throwing people in there, do you?"

The boss actually got angry at the news, "How is that possible! If you don't believe me, you can follow along and see for yourselves, what was thrown, can't you see it?"

Gu Longming said, "Then why..."

He wanted to ask why then a child's hand was sticking out of the river, but Lin Qiushi gave him a gentle tap, so the words that came to his lips were replaced with, "Then why are those people so afraid of the river?"

"I've said it's a river god, if it's a god, then it must have a temper." The boss was impatient, "Okay, okay, I'm going to do business, and you're asking questions and not buying-"

"Who says I won't buy it." Gu Longming said, "Can you pay for it? If Alipay doesn't work, WeChat works too."

The boss was expressionless: "I only accept cash here."

Gu Longming heard regretfully: "You can't do this, sooner or later you will be eliminated by the times, I'll tell you..."

Before he could say anything, he was pulled away by Lin Qiushi.

Lin Qiushi felt that if he didn't pull Gu Longming away, it was highly likely that this product would amp up the advantages of non-cash payment on the spot. Non-cash payment was indeed quite easy to use, but at least you had to have a smartphone ah, and besides, this was still inside the door, could you still buy some special products back?

"What are you arresting me for?" Gu Longming jerked his sleeve up, clearly not having said enough, "I haven't finished my sentence yet..."

He said here, noting Lin Qiushi's expression, and laughed dryly twice, "Just kidding, just kidding."

But everyone else in this area seemed to be reluctant to mention this matter of the River God's sacrifice, they asked a few passersby afterwards and got vague clues. All they knew was that the River God's birthday was seven days later, and that the entire small town would be attending then.

At noon, Lin Qiushi and Gu Longming returned to that courtyard for lunch.

The lunch was quite sumptuous though, everyone ate at separate tables, Lin Qiushi had sharp ears and could take in most of the conversation.

"Is that shrine really okay?" Someone was whispering.

"I think it's there, but I haven't found it yet." Another person was answering, this person seemed to be the man who had suggested sharing the room yesterday, Lin Qiushi remembered that his name was Yan Shihe and he had teamed up with another girl, that girl's name was Xiao Shallow.

"I don't want to go back in there." Xiao Shallow said, "The atmosphere there is weird, it's so scary."

Yan Shihe said, "You wait outside, I'll go in and take a look."

Lin Qiushi was listening carefully, but he was suddenly startled when Gu Longming slapped him and looked at him, saying, "What's wrong?"

"What are you listening to?" Gu Long Ming whispered, "You can hear it from that far away?"

Lin Qiushi said vaguely, "I can only hear a little."

Gu Longming said, "A little is powerful."

Lin Qiushi: "Well..." he said, "There seems to be an ancestral hall on this small town, we have to go over there and take a look."

"Okay." Gu Longming said, "Let's go after dinner." He stood up and went to add another bowl. It had to be said that Gu Longming's appetite was really good, and he finished off four bowls of white rice by himself, and also ate almost all of the food on the table.

Lin Qiushi suddenly felt that he should have a lot in common with Cheng Qianli.

After finishing their meal, they found a servant in the courtyard and carefully inquired about the location of the small town's ancestral hall and learned that the ancestral hall was just upstream of the river.

Ancestral halls, also known as clan shrines, were the product of the ancient family system, usually used to worship ancestors and occasionally used as a place to deal with important matters within the clan, such as if someone did something that violated the rules of the clan, they would be punished inside the ancestral hall by the clan leader.

It was also because of the important status of the ancestral hall that it was usually the iconic building of the entire family, richly and beautifully repaired.

This small town's ancestral hall was the same.

The door of the ancestral hall was open, and there was a gatekeeper sitting at the entrance, who didn't greet them when he saw them coming, he just raised his eyelids and looked at them for a few times before closing them again without interest.

"Why didn't he stop us?" Gu Longming felt not quite right after entering the ancestral hall smoothly, "Such an important place and you let people just walk in? Their ancestor's tablet was provided inside, so they're not afraid we'll smash it?"

Lin Qiushi said, "It's not quite right." Usually the world inside the door also followed the rules of reality, for example, under normal circumstances, they should have been stopped by the gatekeeper and had to use other methods to get in.

Gu Longming thought about it and didn't come up with a reason, so he had to stop.

Inside the ancestral hall were neatly enshrined plaques, so many that Lin Qiushi couldn't count them clearly. There were incense and offerings in front of the plaques, and it didn't look any different from the other ancestral halls.

But Lin Qiushi always felt that there was something offensive about this place, yet he couldn't grasp it for a moment.

Gu Longming looked east and west, and the more he looked, the more wrong it was: "...This shrine isn't right."

Lin Qiushi: "What's wrong?"

Gu Longming pointed to a tablet placed higher up, "Did you see that tablet?"

Lin Qiushi said, "What?" He looked in the direction Gu Longming was pointing and saw a black deck of cards.

Gu Longming said, "The date is wrong."

Simply put, in the middle of the tablet was the name and social relationship of the person, the left side was the birth date, the right side was the time of death, Lin Qiushi looked at the time and showed surprise, "Only one year old?"

The person recorded on this tablet was actually a one-year-old child, or a young boy who had died prematurely.

Gu Longming shook his head, full of disapproval, "A child who dies is not allowed to enter the ancestral hall."

Lin Qiushi also knew the custom, that is, the folk rule was that a child who died prematurely could not enter the ancestral tomb, because legend had it that such a child died full of resentment, and even hated his parents and siblings.

As they were speaking, the tablet in front of them clattered down from a high place and shattered in half in front of them.

Lin Qiushi and Gu Longming silenced at the same time.

"Haha, it's the wind, isn't it." Gu Longming laughed dryly.

Lin Qiushi didn't say anything, his gaze swept over the tabletops at the top of the ancestral hall and found that the rows were even filled with children's tabletops, the oldest not more than three years old and the youngest only a year old... maybe not even a year old, the people were gone.

And it certainly wasn't the wind that had just smashed the tabletops, there was neither facing the window here, nor was the door half closed, so how could there be wind....

Lin Qiushi looked at the place where the plaque was and said, "Let's go."

Gu Longming begged and quickly got up to leave.

As they left, Yan Shihe and the others happened to come over, so the two sides greeted each other politely.

"What, any new findings?" Yan Shihe asked them.

"I can't tell you guys even if I have." Gu Longming was a very direct person and grinned greatly, "What would we do if you guys took the key and ran away first."

Yan Shihe laughed at the words, seeming to find Gu Longming quite amusing.

Lin Qiushi was still thinking about what happened in the ancestral hall when he felt Gu Longming suddenly leaned into his ear and blew out a breath, he shivered at the smell, "What are you doing?"

Gu Longming: "I thought I wanted to talk to you, what, do you think they'll have any other leads?"

Before Lin Qiushi opened his mouth, he heard a crackling sound coming from the shrine behind him, a sound he was too familiar with, they had heard it just now, it was the sound of a tablet falling to the ground and being smashed. Judging from the loudness, Lin Qiushi suspected that the tablet had probably fallen down a good chunk.

Gu Longming also heard it and was a bit confused: "Fuck, what did they do in there, pissing off someone's whole family."

Lin Qiushi: "I don't know..."

The guardians of the shrine also heard the noise, their expressions were angry, and they got up and went in.

A moment later, they heard roaring sounds coming from inside, and then Yan Shihe and his friend Xiao Shallow were driven out in ashes.

Gu Longming the goods put away the gloating on his face, acting concerned and said, "Are you guys okay?"

"Nothing." Yan Shihe said, "There was a little accident." He looked at Xiaoyu.

Shallow, however, was grieving and whispered, "Someone really pushed me, otherwise I wouldn't have fallen on top of that tablet..."

"Don't overthink it," Gu Longming said, "What if it wasn't someone who pushed you."

Shallow almost cried out.

Lin Qiushi thought to himself brother you'd better stop talking.

It was now late, so the four of them prepared to return to the courtyard where they were staying.

The weather inside the gate wasn't even too good, even during the day the sky was gloomy, but around six o'clock, the inside of the small town returned to be as quiet as late night, only the big red lanterns hung lonely in the streets, swayed by the wind.

When he returned to the courtyard, Lin Qiushi saw again the mistress who had received them before.

She had changed her clothes and was sitting in the middle of an acacia tree in the courtyard, holding something in her arms. At first, Lin Qiushi thought she was holding a child, but when he walked over, he realized that what she was holding was not a child, but a small red blanket that looked like a swaddling blanket that had been used for a child.

As Lin Qiushi was looking at it, Gu Longming came back over and blew into Lin Qiushi's ear, "What are you looking at?"

Lin Qiushi was tickled by his blowing air, and helplessly said, "Can you stop blowing into my ears, it's itchy."

Gu Longming said, "The tips of your ears will move when you blow, it's weirdly cute."

Lin Qiushi said angrily, "Pay attention to your female high school student status!"

Gu Longming: "..." he silently pulled out the carrot hairpin from his pocket and put it on his head.

Lin Qiushi: "......." he was convinced.

While they were talking, the hostess had stood up and slowly walked away.

"Come on, let's go eat." Lin Qiushi said.

Gu Longming nodded happily.

One had somehow died by the water today during the day, and there were eleven people left in the house at dinner.

Gu Longming said that every time he ate dinner, it was the happiest time inside the door, and asked Lin Qiushi when he was happiest.

Lin Qiushi said, "When I leave this door."

Gu Longming: "Also right oh..."

Lin Qiushi said, "Are you really entering for the fourth time?" Honestly, he thought Gu Longming was too good, not like the kind of newbie who was entering the door for the fourth time.

"Yeah." Gu Longming wiped his mouth, "But that's what I'm doing outside the door."

Lin Qiushi was shocked, "What do you mean by doing this line of work? Ghost hunting?"

Gu Longming nodded.

Lin Qiushi was silent for a long time, and finally spoke, "There's a ghost outside the door, too?" Could he be any better for an Objectivist.

"No." Who knew that Gu Longming said calmly, "So the alternative is that I'm actually cheating for money..."

Lin Qiushi: ".......Why are you speaking so frankly.

Gu Longming lamented, "I thought I would never have a use for my skills, but I never thought I would actually come to such a pass. So what about you, what were you doing outside the door?"

Lin Qiushi: "Jobless." There used to be jobs, but now he jerked his cat to sleep every day and became a salty fish with no dreams.

As soon as Gu Longming showed his sympathy, he heard Lin Qiushi add, "Occasionally, we take jobs to earn extra money."

Gu Longming: "...We're so close..."

Lin Qiushi: "No discounts."

Gu Longming: "...Lin Lin, you can be so ruthless! But I like it, and I like ruthless you!"

Lin Qiushi thought to himself that if you really liked it, I could be even more ruthless and give you a raise.