Thriller Night Talk

Chapter 102: Follow me

Translator-Rhapsodite

Editor-PerpetualMreow, Proofreader-Ghostie

August 1, Sunday, 6:15 pm.

Bei Quan and Jiang Nan’an got out of the taxi.

The driver lowered the window and pointed towards a fork in the road.

“Go that way, down the slope, and you will see the reservoir.”

The two followed the driver’s instructions and soon found the reservoir where Luo Yanyan had drowned.

The place where Luo Yanyan fell into the water was deep, Bei Quan and Jiang Nan’an took advantage of the brightness of the day, went around to the east, and soon found a view that matched the surveillance video.

Jiang Nan’an pointed to the yellow isolation tape on the walkway railing that hadn’t been removed.

“This should be the place, right?”

Bei Quan nodded.

He released two clusters of gadgets to cover the two nearby security cameras and then when no one was around, began to set up the scene of the soul summoning.

Bei Quan did not initially want to use the method of “calling the soul” because it was easy to attract people’s attention and so he used Yin-Yang Dao.

The so-called “Yin-Yang Dao”, was the road that allowed people in the Yang world to “walk” to the nether world. In a way, it could also be regarded as a kind of common “Yin Walking”.

He took out a compass from his black suitcase and sighed as he determined the direction.

“Actually, I’m not very good at this, but I don’t have any other options.”

After determining the direction of the Yin-Yang Dao, Bei Quan took out another roll of red thread and carefully wrapped it around the shrubs and branches on both sides of the “trail.”

Jiang Nan’an was responsible for standing in the side like a watchful meerkat, watching out for any innocent passersby who may come near at any time.

When Bei Quan finally finished wrapping the red thread, the sun had completely sunk under the horizon, the afterglow had long-since faded and the sky was completely dark.

“Almost there.”

Bei Quan looked down at his watch, 7:12 p.m., just about a quarter past 7 p.m.

He cut into the tip of his middle finger on his right hand, squeezed out a drop of blood, and dropped it on the thin red thread.

As soon as the blood bead touched the red line, it began to move as if it were alive.

It was like a bright red ladybug, crawling forward along the thin line slowly, getting smaller and smaller until it disappeared completely.

“Okay, keep a close eye on it for me, don’t let anyone break-in.”

Bei Quan smiled at Jiang Nan’an.

“I’ll be right back.”

After saying that, he lit a white candle, held it on a bone china plate and carried it in his hand, then turned around and walked into the Yin-Yang Dao.

As soon as he entered the Yin-Yang Dao, Bei Quan could feel the difference between the “inside and outside” worlds.

Although the surrounding scenery had not changed, the Yin-Yang Dao was significantly more silent, so quiet that even the sound of wind could not be heard.

If he had to describe it, it was as if he was in a long, narrow, transparent tunnel.

The place here was silent, confined, deep, twisting and turning with no end in sight, giving people the illusion that if they continued to walk, they would walk themselves to the nether world.

“Heh.”

Bei Quan curved his lips and let out a very light laugh.

——The long-lost scenery was surprisingly a little nostalgic.

He thought in his heart.

When one walks in the path of Yin and Yang, the concepts of time, space, and distance all become blurred, and even the watch stops moving without one realising it.

The only thing that can tell Bei Quan how long has passed was the white candle that was burning shorter and shorter in his hand.

Going deeper, some shadows began to appear in the Yin-Yang Dao.

These shadows were very light in color and looked like translucent silhouettes of white and grey. Some maintained the outline of human beings, while others had completely lost their human form and looked like clouds of drifting smoke.

But, Bei Quan knew that they were not the Luo Yanyan he was looking for.

He cupped a pair of earrings in his hand, a relic left by the girl.

In the live videos left by Luo Yanyan, she was frequently seen wearing this pair of pearl earrings, which appeared to be her most beloved possession.

When the Shén pó summons the dead or practices dark magic most of the family members need to provide the deceased’s personal and commonly used items. Generally speaking, most of them are clothes that are often worn or accessories that have been worn for a long time.

Even if Bei Quan came to the door as a friend, no matter what, it was impossible to ask Luo Yanyan’s mother for a girl’s personal items.

So he could only ask the little fox Su Ying to sneak into Luo Yanyan’s room and quietly take away the pair of pearl earrings she left in front of the dressing mirror.

Now, with this pair of earrings in hand, Bei Quan was more than 90% sure that he could find Luo Yanyan among the wandering ghosts in the Yin-Yang Dao.

Sure enough, when the white candle was about to burn halfway, Bei Quan saw a grey and white shadow huddled by the roadside.

The wandering spirit was newly mourned, still in full human form. The figure looked as she had been when she was alive, even the details of the dress were clearly discernible.

She was wet, with long hair with a slight natural curl attached to the side of her neck, sitting with her knees tucked, her face buried in the bend of her arm, making it impossible to see her face.

Bei Quan walked up to the shadow, reached out his hand, and gently patted the figure.

His palm went straight through the wet shadow— the energy was too weak, even when inside the Yin-Yang Dao, Bei Quan could not touch the other party.

Bei Quan simply used the white candle and waved it in front of the white shadow.

The candle flame startled the girl, and she slowly raised her head with a blank expression and cloudy gaze, but her looks and features were indeed unmistakably Luo Yanyan.

“Come with me.”

Bei Quan spread out his hand and showed the pair of pearl earrings, “I’ll take you home.”

Luo Yanyan saw the earrings, and her blank eyes slightly cleared up, her lips mumbled twice but she did not make a sound.

But Bei Quan saw the words her mouth had formed.

“Yes, go home.”

Bei Quan smiled at her, his tone sincere and firm.

“This is not the place for you to stay, you have to go back, back to your own home, back to your mother.”

The word “mother” seemed to have touched Luo Yanyan.

Her lips moved silently again, then she slowly extended her hand, her translucent fingers floating in the air “over” Bei Quan’s.

Bei quan said to Luo Yanyan.

“Follow me closely.”

After saying that, he “held” the girl in one hand and white candles in the other hand, followed the guidance of the red thread and blood left by himself, and walked back in the direction he had come from.

————————–

Because Bei Quan had promised to send the girl home, before returning her to the Luo family they had to question Luo Yanyan herself.

Unlike Mo fan, who’d stayed in the bathroom of the rental house for more than half a year, the newly dead soul was relatively easier to communicate with.

Jiang Nan’an was literally a tough guy from head to toe, but Bei Quan could not directly shoot his soul and make him empathise with Luo Yanyan. After thinking about it, he could only use “Fuji“ to ask and receive answers just like the previous time.

The area around the reservoir was very desolate, and after nightfall, it was even less crowded, so Bei Quan and Jiang Nan’an simply found a secluded and hidden corner in the vicinity and opened an altar to ask for divination.

As he had done in the previous case, Bei Quan set up an incense burner, took out the pearl earrings “containing” Luo Yanyan’s soul and tied the red thread as “traction”. Then he placed a fine sand plate in front of the incense burner, held a pair of chopsticks, and whispered the incantation.

Soon, the chopsticks were erected on the sand plate, and by the gentle grip of Bei Quan’s support, a well-shaped circle was drawn in place.

“Luo Yanyan, how did you die?”

Bei Quan asked.

The chopsticks quickly wrote down the answer on the sand plate.

[Suicide.]

This answer was completely expected by Bei Quan.

He asked again.

“Why did you want to commit suicide?”

The chopsticks moved again, and this time answered with two more characters than the previous time:

[I will die.]

“What does that mean?”

Bei Quan tried to understand the meaning of these three words.

“You mean, you knew you were going to die?”

The chopsticks indicated the affirmation by drawing a circle.

Bei Quan pondered, his mind racing to think about a deeper meaning behind Luo Yanyan’s answer.

If Luo Yanyan simply felt that she was tired of living, then she should have said “I want to die”.

But what she said was “I will die”.

The answer was more like a terminally ill patient who does not necessarily want to live but knows that she will not escape death, and could only accept her fate and face the death that will surely come in the near future.

Bei Quan’s eyes flickered slightly.

If it was as he guessed, then things are getting interesting.

The girl was healthy, well-fed, and clothed, and did not look like she had serious emotional problems, so what made her think she was bound to die?

So Bei Quan asked.

“How did you know you were going to die?”

The chopsticks poked around the sand for a moment before, in one stroke, wrote down two words.

[Pre, Word.]

“Ah!”

Jiang Nan’an, who was watching, shouted in a low voice.

“The first two strokes of the word “prophecy” are a small hook below the word “乛”, right?

Could it be that what Mo Fan’s soul wanted to write was also a “pre” character?

Jiang Nanan’s eyes were wide, like a goldfish out of the water, he pointed at the sand plate and made a silent but exaggerated gesture of “Mo Fan”.

Bei Quan nodded without moving while looking at him.

Obviously, he also associated it with the message that Mo Fan failed to finish writing.

“Someone predicted that you would die?”

Bei Quan then asked.

“Do you believe it?”

The chopsticks drew circles again, and Luo Yanyan confirmed that she believed it.

Immediately afterwards, without waiting for Bei Quan to continue asking, the chopstick moved once again.

It wrote a few words in one stroke.

The strokes were clear and the ideograms were simple, yet when read together it looked alarming.

[Everyone else].

The sand plate was not big enough, so she could only write half of the fifth character, but Bei Quan and Jiang Nan’an could see at a glance that it was the word for “death”.

——Everyone else is dead.

What Luo Yanyan wanted to say was this sentence.

Bei Quan’s brows knitted slightly.

If he understood correctly, Luo Yanyan wanted to tell them that her suicide was inevitable.

Because long before she acted, someone had already foreseen everything.

And she was not the only one, there were others who had received the same prophecy and had fulfilled it one by one.

Bei Quan’s expression dropped. He wiped off the writing in the sand plate and then asked the last question.

“Who told you the prophecy?”

The chopstick wrote down two words.

[Xu Lei.]