Chapter Ten Paper Man Hanging Him

  While Wenjing was busy in the kitchen preparing breakfast, I asked Youmo if he had seen Wenjing when he sent me home last night. Youmo said not only did he see her, but Wenjing also scolded him with a tone of reproach for taking a sick person out to have fun and getting muddy all over!

  I asked again, at that time, apart from Wen Jing, did you see anyone else?

  Don't ask me what I mean, I'll just say the doubts in my heart. Last night, someone must have wiped my face for sure. I don't know how many times I woke up, but there was a head on the bedside table, so I touched it casually. It was short hair, quite prickly. Then I touched her face again, and the stubble on her chin was also quite prickly. I felt confused and dazed, so I reached into her collar and pinched twice...

  You whispered to me: "What's going on? Is it a boy or a girl?"

  I recall the feeling at that time and honestly said: "It's like an underdeveloped girl, but it could also be a fat man, you know what I mean?"

  Don't even ask how quietly developed it is.

  To be honest, I really didn't know, even if she was a small-breasted woman, she shouldn't have grown a beard. Last time the old man appeared, Wenjing seemed to have lost her memory, so I guessed that last night the old man was in my house, taking care of me for the first half of the night and then switching with him for the second half. Based on Wenjing's intimacy with me when she had a fever, the old man poisoned me, and last night I took him for Wenjing and pinched him twice...

  I feel like I'm about to kick the bucket, and who knows, maybe even get chopped up into little pieces.

  After a moment of silence, Yu Mo said that the test results for the black apple had come out, and it was non-toxic, just natural decay.

  I felt a slight chill and stared blankly at You Wu, saying that An Su was indeed a ghost.

  With the appearance of the dead old lady, one more An Su can be accepted.

  He seemed to want to say something but held back again, so I asked him what he wanted to say?

  Yu didn't even crack a smile, and his expression was exactly the same as when he refused to tell me about Wen Jing's poisoning in the hospital. This time it was even more serious, no matter how hard I pressed him, he gritted his teeth and wouldn't say anything. Finally, he said: "Let's eat first, we'll talk after we see the old man from the paper mache shop. If I tell you now, I'm afraid you'll be scared to death!"

  After having breakfast, I asked Wenjing to change her clothes and go out together. Yu Wei was waving his hands like a windmill, saying "Don't bring her, don't bring her". Wenjing's eyes were full of suspicion and resentment, as if I wanted to get rid of her and let her wander around.

  We were still a few hundred meters away from the Wenmiao Street, so we pulled over and walked there. Yu Mo took out a tightly sealed canvas bag from the trunk, inside which were two pairs of smelly cloth shoes. He started telling me about his experience at the foot-washing city last night, saying that in his over 20 years of life, he had never been so humiliated!

  A crowd had gathered outside the paper shop, and we hurriedly squeezed in. The shop was cordoned off with police tape, and there were police officers bustling about inside and out. I was startled and quickly asked a middle-aged man standing next to me what had happened here.

  A middle-aged man said mysteriously: "Last night, the paper-made man killed the old man who made the paper bed!"

  This sentence left me speechless. The middle-aged man asked with a hint of pride if I didn't understand. I nodded, and he explained in detail.

  There are many barbecue stalls in this small alley, and every day they are bustling until very late at night. As a result, the shops along the street also close very late. Last night, just before midnight, many people saw the strange old man from the paper mache shop, who had tied a rope around the neck of each paper mache person and hung them one by one from the beams of the house. A middle-aged person said that there was only one dim lamp in the shop, and from a distance, it looked like many children wearing colorful clothes hanging themselves together!

  Because the old man had just opened a shop here for a few days, he was not familiar with the neighbors, and he was strange every day, so last night people looked at him from afar as he went crazy, and no one came up to ask questions until all the paper men in the store were hanged, the lights went out, and the door was open. The old man didn't know where he had gone.

  This morning someone came to buy things and shouted for half a day, but no one entertained him. The neighbors only surrounded him when they finally found that among the hanging paper people, there was one that was very abnormal.

  Wearing black cloth shoes, the back of his feet tightly wrapped, a gust of wind blew in, the paper man lightly floated away, only this one remained as stable as Mount Tai. Someone pushed him and only then discovered it was a corpse.

  The old man was short and stout, and he often dressed himself up to look like a paper effigy. The neighbors who saw him hanging last night thought it was just another one of his antics, but when they found his body, they realized with a shock that the paper effigies were actually hanging him.

  The gods on Wenmiao Street found something to do, and after some discussion, they came to the conclusion that the paper people made by the strange old man were vivid and had 80% spiritual energy. However, the strange old man was disrespectful to the paper people, often bullying them, and perhaps every night after closing the door, he would hang the paper people one by one on the beam of the house. The paper people could not bear the humiliation and collectively rebelled!

  The gods who said these words are all drinking tea at the police station, the police say that someone disguised as a paper man killed the old man, and quietly dragged me out of the crowd. We found the strange old man yesterday, if we were recognized by people, we might become suspects, it's better to leave.

  We sneaked into the teacher's wife's house, and it was only thanks to the strange old man's cloth shoes that we escaped with our lives. At night, he died. Hiding behind a tree, I asked You Wu what his thoughts were, and You Wu also thought it was too coincidental.

  If the master was looking for the strange old man because of the cloth shoes, he might also be able to find us. Yu Wu thought about it and took out the cloth shoes to prepare to burn them, but suddenly had his wrist grabbed by someone. Yu Wu turned his head to look and was greatly surprised: "Huh? How is it you?"

  The person who caught You Wu was also an old man, over 60 years old, with a sturdy build, and a kind face. He smiled at You Wu and nodded, then said hello to me.

  He grabbed them, and the two pairs of cloth shoes fell to the ground. The old man didn't mind the dirt, picked them up carefully, examined them, and even smelled them. Then he took out a small knife from his pocket, about the length of a finger, cut open the sole of the shoe, and flipped it over. I asked Youmo who this old man was, and Youmo said that he had seen him on the bridge yesterday.

  You Mou didn't expect that when he was chatting with a group of old men, this old man was quietly listening beside him. You Mou thought it was strange and took a few more glances at him. The old man smiled meaningfully at him, and at that time, You Mou felt uneasy, being disturbed by the smile. He had a deep impression of the old man, but didn't expect to see him again here.

  The old man examined the cloth shoes on his own and said: "They were peeled off from a dead body, after wearing them, ghosts can't see you!"

  I don't know what he was thinking, but his eyebrows were furrowed in a deep frown, and he seemed to be contemplating something intently. I felt a bit scared, so I asked Youmo if we should slip away, and he hastily nodded. The two of us quietly retreated, and when we were far enough away, we took off running.

  We fled into the car and discussed the meaning of that sentence. Last night, after putting on cloth shoes at Shifu's house, the cat's meowing disappeared, and when we returned home, Shifu and the old lady also ignored us. Now there is an answer, the black cat and the old lady can be understood, but shouldn't Shifu be a living person? Wenjing accompanied her for several nights, and she went to the construction team to cause trouble during the day, no reason why ghosts are afraid of sunlight!

  Don't lower your head in thought, but I suddenly paused, remembering the familiar scent of dust on those cloth shoes. The first time I saw the old man, he scolded me as soon as he was close, and his mouth also had a similar smell. I remember when I was young, my dad took me back to our village to attend a funeral at a relative's house, this smell was very strong. My dad said it was the smell of rotting corpses mixed with dust.

  Could it be that the old man is a corpse?

  Stammering, I told Yu Wu about the discovery, but he looked at me with a complex expression, without shock, and slowly said something that made me even more terrified.

  He said that day in the hospital talking to me had already thought of it, if I say, among the people I met these days, there is one who is not a human being, he would suspect the old man first, because his appearance made Wenjing become two different people. The reason why he didn't tell me the doubts in his heart was that at that time, he couldn't think of the reason why the old man poisoned me.

  I said, it must be because she dislikes how close I am with Wenjing.

  "You'd better not shake your head, he said: "If he wants to get Wen Jing, the best way is to kill her and take it for himself. Ghosts killing people is a simple matter! But the one who was poisoned was you, and also, Wen Jing's cooking skills won't suddenly improve. I think those few days of loving lunches were made by the old man. Why did he make them for you to eat? No need for me to say it, right?"

  My whole body is chilled and I tremble with fear as I ask you what it means!

  He let out a soft sigh and said, "Never mind that. Aren't you curious about An Su? Let me tell you! The new bridge at the entrance of your company used to..."