Witchcraft

  That long-faced young man, although looking sickly, had a great deal of strength in his hands. My mouth was pressed tightly shut by him and my body was held firmly in his grasp, so that I could neither make a sound nor move a limb. However, I saw that he had no malicious intent, and besides, he said something that shocked me greatly - "I can help you find Duan Yuwen". So, after struggling for a while, I calmed down.

  Look, I've stopped struggling now, the strength in his hand eased up a bit, but he still didn't let go completely. Instead, he whispered another sentence in my ear: "I'm going to remove the gu now, it might hurt a bit, bear with it."

  I didn't know what he was saying, but my intuition told me that he had no malice towards me, so I nodded. One of his hands remained firmly pressed on my mouth, while the other hand holding my body reached to the back of my head. Before I could understand what he was doing, a sharp pain suddenly spread from the back of my head throughout my entire body. The long-faced youth had apparently anticipated this reaction, which is why he didn't release his hand covering my mouth.

  I let out a low grunt, the pain making my forehead break out in cold sweat. What was strange was that although I felt the pain, my body seemed to relax all at once. It wasn't until after a while that I came back to myself, and the long-faced young man's hand finally loosened its grip.

  He loosened his grip, and I collapsed to the ground, sitting on my butt. Subconsciously, I reached back to touch the back of my head, and when I looked at my hand, there was blood on it. This time, I saw clearly that it was indeed blood.

  I raised my eyes to look at the long-faced young man, he squatted down and placed something like a glass ball between his right thumb and index finger. I stretched out my hand, and he put that thing in my palm.

  I saw that thing round and rolling, seemingly emitting a faint glow like fireflies, feeling somewhat sticky to the touch, with my blood stuck on it.

  "What is this?" I asked with furrowed brow.

  "Cat's eye." The long-faced young man replied casually.

  "My god!" I was shocked after hearing that, suddenly felt a bit nauseous, and almost as a conditioned reflex, I flung my hand and directly threw that cat eye away.

  That long-faced young man reacted extremely quickly, and in an instant, he stretched out his hand to catch the cat's eye in mid-air. He also whispered, "Don't throw it away, this is a good thing."

  "Good stuff? Then I'll give it to you, I don't want this thing." I backed away.

  "Shh!" The long-faced young man signaled me to lower my voice, and I was taken aback by his reaction, thinking that something else was going to happen, and suddenly became tense.

  That long-faced young man looked at me with this expression and actually stood there smiling foolishly.

  His smile made me feel a bit hurt in my self-esteem, and I hastily said: "What are you laughing at? You don't know how dangerous it was just now in the corridor."

  The young man with a long face stared at me with interest and smiled: "What's the danger, it's just a madwoman!"

  As soon as I heard this, I felt a bit unconvinced. Just as I was about to tell him about the strange things I had encountered in the corridor, he waved his hand and said: "Those aren't all true, some of them are just your own imagination. In short, it's all because of that thing." As he spoke, he made me take another look at the cat's eye.

  "Cut it out, what does this thing have to do with anything?" I said disdainfully.

  He listened to me and chuckled again. I don't know if he was a person who loved to laugh or because what I said was indeed very silly, but he almost always laughed twice before speaking.

  "There's something funny," I said. For some reason, although this person looks a bit sickly, but in his laughter, there is a strong sense of affinity that makes people relax quickly in front of him.

  "Have you ever heard of Gu?" he asked.

  "Gu?" I suddenly thought of what Liu Zhen said to me, and my first reaction was Bu Jin's strange insects, and I couldn't help but feel a chill run down my spine. "I've heard of it."

  "What you're dealing with is a type of cat Gu, but fortunately, this Gu technique hasn't reached the point where it's unbeatable." The long-faced young man said.

  "Are you saying I was just under a spell and all those things were just an illusion?" I asked.

  "It's not all of it, but anyway, it has something to do with this cat eye. Don't believe me? I'll put it back on you and you try again?" As he said that, he brought the cat eye closer to me.

  "Never mind, I'd better give up." I said hastily.

  The young man with a long face laughed even more happily and said, "I don't know any Gu poison techniques, but I do know how to dispel them. I was just trying to scare you."

  I stared at him with wide eyes, thinking to myself that this guy must be crazy. At a time like this, in a place like this, he's making jokes with me? I didn't bother responding to his joke and instead asked: "Haven't we met before?"

  "Are you referring to that time in the hotel toilet?" the long-faced young man asked me back.

  I nodded and thought to myself, "Of course it was that one time. As if we had seen each other many times before."

  I wanted to say something else, but he suddenly covered my mouth again and whispered, "Don't make a sound, someone is coming."

  As soon as I heard this, I immediately quieted down and perked up my ears to listen for any movement in the corridor. Sure enough, after I had quieted down, a faint sound of footsteps echoed from the corridor. Judging by the sound, the footsteps were moving very slowly, as if they were probing something.

  I looked at the long-faced young man's expression and found that his mouth corners rose, saying softly: "Your girl is coming up."

  "What's wrong?" I was startled, but my mouth was tightly covered by him and I couldn't say a word. I struggled for a few times, but it was in vain, so I gestured with one hand while making "woo woo" sounds: "The corridor is too eerie, it's dangerous, can't let her come up."

  "Shut up!" The long-faced young man seemed to be somewhat angry at my disobedience, and suddenly increased his grip. Although he looked a bit sickly, it was mostly due to his thin and tall body and pale face; now that I took a closer look, this guy was definitely not a good person.

  The two of us leaned against the door, quietly listening for a while. Before long, the footsteps stopped. Next, a rustling sound like a tidal wave echoed in the corridor, followed by a sharp meow.

  The young man with a long face heard this voice, grinned again and seemed to be excited, saying: "That girl has finally decided to take action, but in my opinion, that girl is not necessarily the opponent of that madwoman."

  I was left bewildered by his words, having no idea what he was talking about. He didn't wait for me to respond and said, "I have to go help that girl out, that madwoman is not easy to deal with."

  After he finished speaking, he loosened his hand and was about to leave the room. I hurriedly pulled him back and asked: "You just said you could help me find Duan Yuwen?"

  "Right," he replied, "don't be in a hurry, wait till I help that girl deal with that madwoman first."

  "Who are you?" I asked.

  The young man with the long face was taken aback, turned his head to look at me and said: "My name is Liang Zan. Instead of worrying about me, you'd better go take a look at your friend, he's lying on the bed inside."

  After he finished speaking, he opened the door in a flash and closed it after a glimpse of his figure. I was pondering over what the long-faced young man had said, my friend, so he must have been referring to Liu Zhen. The room was somewhat dimly lit, with only some faint light shining in from outside the window. As I entered the room, I found that there was a bed there, which I had not noticed before, and Liu Zhen was actually lying on it.

  What surprised me was that Liu Zhen was almost covered in injuries, especially his face, which I didn't know if it was scratched by a cat or something else, and at this moment it was already blurry with blood and flesh, to the point of being unrecognizable.

  I was shocked and my heart skipped a beat, from the moment I entered the corridor, I didn't know when he disappeared from behind me, nor did I know what happened to him during this period of time, and yet he ended up in such a state.

  Fortunately, Liu Zhen's breathing was still there, although it sounded a bit heavy, but the frequency was still very stable, and he shouldn't have suffered any fatal injuries.

  As I thought about it, I suddenly felt a little scared, remembering the hair that had wrapped around my neck earlier, and the female ghost with a pale face. Now that I think about it calmly, the fluffy and wet thing I touched when I turned back might have been the ghost's head. But why didn't it kill me directly at the time? Why did it play tricks on me, leading me to open that door? Fortunately, the thing didn't succeed in the end, which made me feel a little lucky, but apart from that, I was more confused.

  Logically speaking, at that time, the female ghost (I really don't want to call it that, but I couldn't find any other suitable words) had completely taken control of me. And judging from its attitude, it was clear that it wanted my life. But why did it let go of its "prey" at the moment when it was about to succeed?

  Moreover, I recall the scene at that time, she seemed reluctant to let me go, but rather seemed to have been frightened by something, or even hurt, so she let out a miserable cry and left me far away.

  What is it that makes that thing feel afraid? Is it because I look too ugly? I thought to myself, no way, if even female ghosts are superficial these days, then a mediocre man like me might as well be dead.

  Suddenly, I remembered something. A few days ago, in the Wenshan Mountains, Ajuna from the Miao village had drawn a strange symbol on my face, it felt like some kind of totem. Could this have something to do with Ajuna? Was it her symbol that saved my life? Or did Ajuna, the great shaman, have foresight and know that I would soon run into something unclean?

  I remembered what Father said, Ah-Jiu-Na was once his lifesaver, and I somehow sensed something in the dark.