Chapter 20: The Old Doctor's Notes

  When we arrived at the train station, You Wu suddenly realized that he hadn't bought a ticket. He asked Liu Wei Min what to do, but Liu just smiled and nodded without saying anything, and walked ahead with his head down. We had no choice but to follow behind him. You Wu whispered to me, "I must have offended old man Liu."

  Ordinary people always worry about gains and losses. Before, I was afraid that Liu Weimin was a swindler, but now I'm somewhat flustered, worried that I've offended Wenjing's only savior. Just as I was considering whether to apologize, I saw two casually dressed men walking over.

  They were all about 1.8 meters tall, with short hair, and walked up to Liu Weimin with an air of confidence, simultaneously raising their right hands. Liu Weimin coughed, and the two men put their hands down again. I was shocked, feeling that their previous action seemed like a salute? Which means these two men were military personnel?

  Liu Weimin said a few words to them, and then let us follow behind him. He slowly walked into the waiting room, without buying tickets or queuing up, and was led by staff onto the train. Yu Wenfeng's eyes were wide with excitement, and he whispered to me in a low voice, "Liu Weimin must be a big shot, taking the train has its own special passage."

  I also have this feeling, the only thing I'm curious about is that big shots shouldn't be in first class on a plane?

  After getting on the train, he entered a soft sleeper compartment, where there was another English-style man. He also wanted to salute with his hand but was stopped by Liu Weimin. The man saw us and showed an enlightened expression, then smiled at us and picked up a password box from the bed with both hands, handing it to Liu Weimin with great respect, saying: "Old master, this is what you want."

  Liu Weimin said a thank you, and then opened the box. Yu Wu and I stretched our necks to take a look. Inside the silver metal case lined with black soft cloth, quietly lay... a wooden stick tied to a withered grass, just like the grass whip my grandfather made for me when I was little.

  Liu Weimin took a look and then took over the box, still on the bed, sat down with a big smile, and said to the three men: "Go back."

  Three men's faces stiffened, and the one in charge looked at us first, then said with some difficulty: "Old master, are you safe?"

  Liu Weimin smiled warmly, but said in a tone that brooked no argument: "Go back!"

  The three men didn't say much more, and with a respectful "yes", they turned around and left, without giving us another glance. After they left, Liu Weimin asked me, "Are you staying or leaving?"

  He hastily shouted that he must follow the leader's body, horse in front of him, and absolutely not retreat before the battle.

  While talking, he also winked at me and made eyes at me, afraid that I would leave, but in fact, how could I bear to leave? I have already thought of hugging Liu Weimin's thigh and calling him grandpa.

  I think Liu Weimin brought us to the train station for a reason, he doesn't lack younger brothers, those three men's demeanor and quality are far better than mine and You Wu's, if he didn't even bother to bring such small fries along, naturally he wouldn't use us two useless people either.

  After careful consideration, I found myself to be quite cheap. At first, I thought Liu Weimin was the leader and believed in him from the bottom of my heart. Later, he said that he only knew some big shots, so I had some doubts. Now that Liu Weimin's identity is confirmed to be extraordinary, I think he will definitely stand up for the ordinary people. To put it nicely, this is called believing in the government; to put it harshly, it's just my fate to be ruled.

  Yu carefully sat down next to Liu Weimin and asked if he needed a massage service. Liu Weimin burst out laughing, saying that they had misunderstood again. This kind of person is an object of admiration for high-ranking officials, and it's not unusual for someone to assign a few bodyguards to him.

  It doesn't matter what position Liu Weimin holds, anyway, one sentence from him can bring great benefits to You Wu, so You Wu didn't dwell on this topic and instead asked him, "What's the use of the things in that box?"

  Liu Weimin took out a whip made of grass, skillfully cracked it to create a flower shape, and asked me: "Wang Zhen, little friend, you grew up in the countryside since childhood, haven't you seen this thing before?"

  When I was a child, my grandfather often came to play with me. He even gave me three straws and a wooden stick, and I could weave something similar. But the expression of that man just now was clearly the attitude of holding the imperial jade seal, so this grass whip must be extraordinary. I told him I had never seen it before.

  "It shouldn't be." Liu Weimin frowned and said: "This is a unique thing in your hometown of Jinan."

  He handed the grass whip to me, and hurried over to look at it with me. In terms of appearance or feel, it was like an ordinary grass whip, three straws woven into a braid tied to a wooden stick, every cowherd in my hometown had one.

  I really couldn't think of it, so Liu Wei Min stopped making riddles and told us that this whip was called a dog-beating whip.

  I suddenly realized that funeral customs vary from place to place. In our hometown, when someone passes away, they will fill the coffin with all sorts of things, such as insoles, buns, and even this grass whip called "dog-beating whip". It's said that when the deceased soul is on its way, wild dogs will come to bite it, so they use the whip to drive them away.

  If it were an ordinary dog whip, no one would have traveled thousands of miles to give it to Liu Weimin. He said that this dog whip had evolved and should be called a ghost whip.

  "The reason ordinary people can't beat ghosts is that they can't withstand the fight, but this whip can. Many years ago, in your Jinan, there was an old Taoist who died and went to the Yellow Spring Road, where he was avenged by his enemies. He used the dog-beating whip in his hand to shatter many wild ghosts. Later, I coincidentally obtained this whip and found that ordinary people holding it can also withstand ghosts."

  Liu Weimin said with a straight face, without revealing his excitement: "Old man, the road to Jiangxi is full of dangers, so you want to give us two whips for self-defense, right?"

  Liu Weimin's face suddenly turned into a pig's liver, and he opened his mouth several times but couldn't say anything. He took a few deep breaths, turned his head to look out the window, and only then did he realize that he had misunderstood. This whip was left by Liu Weimin for himself to use.

  He dryly laughed twice, and then pulled me out to smoke. When we got to a deserted place, he started complaining, saying that Liu Weimin was too stingy, not even giving him any defensive magic tools. If they really clashed with Huang Jinbai, with their skills, it would be like two dishes on the same plate.

  Just as he was saying that, his phone rang. Yu Wu answered it and said a few words, then his face suddenly changed color. He asked me if I remembered the old Chinese doctor who had treated Wen Jing's illness. This morning at dawn, the old doctor had committed suicide.

  That old Chinese doctor was a pretty good person, and later I even searched for his name online, he's one of those famous doctors who are out of my league and have more money than they know what to do with. He came to see Wenjing that day because Yu Wei and his granddaughter were classmates. Now we know the reason why he died under unclear circumstances, but it's not like I dislike him or anything. When I heard the news of his suicide, I was shocked too.

  Yu didn't dare to say: "His granddaughter wants to call the police to catch us. Some time ago, the old Chinese doctor told his granddaughter that if one day he died mysteriously, she would hand over a locked notebook to us two. Now his granddaughter suspects that we two harmed her grandfather."

  The pain of losing a loved one, it's normal to vent to others. I told Youmo to comfort them well and then ask what was written on that notebook. Youmo spoke many sweet words over the phone, making me feel sick, before finally hearing him say: "We're both away from home, you smashed the lock, read the contents to me."

  Pull me into the toilet, especially don't turn on the loudspeaker, two minutes later, it's a woman's voice with a crying tone, speaking smoothly.

  "Meet words like meeting... no matter who you are."

  If you're Xiaomei, it seems that Yu Wei has already died. Listen to Grandpa's words, burn this notebook and forget about Grandpa's affairs, live each day happily.

  If you are Yu Wu, fortunate to have been invited by heaven, you're still alive, but is that friend of yours still alive?... Regardless of whether he's in this world or not, anyway I'm already dead, there must be someone who knows the secret of that matter.

  Don't underestimate me, young friend. I was an apprentice in a pharmacy at the age of six and later practiced medicine all over the world. After being in contact with Chinese herbal medicine for so long, my eyes underwent a change when I was fifty years old. My master said that this was a reward from heaven, and when I reached the age of knowing heaven's will, heaven let me see the true nature of the universe.

  But I think this is not a blessing but an eternal nightmare because I found myself able to see ghosts.

  It's not an ordinary ghost, I can only see fierce ghosts. At the age of nearly 70, I have seen fierce ghosts four times in front and back. The last time was at your friend's home, that night, when Xiaoyu came out of the bedroom, there was a ghost behind her.

  You, little friend, do you think that I, an old man, regard seeing ghosts as a nightmare from which there is no escape, and am too timid?

  It's not actually, what really makes me feel terrified is that every time I see a ghost, I have to be killed by them once.

  In dreams, every night after I saw a ghost, I would be haunted by evil spirits, enduring endless pain and panic.

  Don't you understand? In my dream, I will become the person those evil spirits want to kill. They chase me, tear me apart and make me die in all sorts of miserable ways. And this way of dying will eventually be fulfilled on their real enemies.

  In the past, every family I've seen ghosts in has been completely destroyed. Each time it made me severely ill, but I always managed to pull through. However, this time is different. I feel that my own death is approaching.

  Those three times, I saw a ghost, but the ghost didn't look at me straight in the eye. However, in your friend's home, all the ghosts behind Xiao Yatou were coldly smiling at me.

  You didn't see wrong, they all sneered at me because I saw four fierce ghosts, and I'm sure there's another one in that little girl's bedroom, probably a female ghost.

  At that time, I didn't even have the courage to warn you, and I just wanted to escape quickly. It wasn't until I got into a taxi that I suddenly realized I couldn't escape this time.

  "So I decided to write down these things, so that after I die, I won't take the secrets with me into the grave."

  This was written down by the old Chinese doctor that night. The first one made Yu Wu and I extremely shocked, then his granddaughter read out the second one, which was written two days later.

  "They came, they came, and I didn't guess it. Besides the four I've seen, there's another female ghost. She looks very beautiful. When she appeared in my dream, she stood far away under the dim street lamp, isolated from the world, and her loneliness made me heartbroken. But when she raised her head, that beautiful face had a playful and venomous smile on it. She walked slowly closer, pressed my head into the icy river water, I struggled helplessly, soon turned into a vengeful spirit in the river, until my soul flew out, only then did I see that in this nightmare, the character I played was an old man who looked younger than me, someone I've never seen before."

  The third one was a nightmare from the night after tomorrow.

  "You, Yu Mo Xiao You, this time it was you. The one who killed you was a bridge repair worker, one of the four evil spirits I saw behind that little girl's back that night. Thinking carefully, the place where I almost drowned last night seems to be not far from the newly repaired big bridge near your friend's house. I don't know what your friend has done, but the beginning of everything should have happened on the bridge. Yu Mo Xiao You, you were burned to death. In my dream, I was in unbearable pain."

  When Xiaomei arrived here, Yu Wu and I were both stunned. Then we heard Xiaomei say again: "There are a few more sentences on this page, which should be what he thought of several hours later."

  "Great, I finally got in touch with an old friend, he agreed to come and save me, but I don't know if it's too late, nor do I know if he can handle the five fierce ghosts. Those are fierce ghosts, you know? Back then, my master offended one and sought help from many high-ranking people, yet still lost his life. Especially not a small friend like you, if I die before you, you go ask this old friend for help, at that time, he should be helping me take revenge. I will tell Xiaomei his contact information, let Xiaomei take you to see someone named Liu Weimin."