Chapter 50: Zhu Ling X Ghost Burial Descends

  "I also know these things, but I suddenly decided to want to gamble on the humanity of the two-faced monster baby."

  "But, Lanlan, your bet is too big."

  "Wei Ruolan said: 'I've made up my mind! Let's go back to Leigong Inn now.'"

  On the way back to Leigong Hotel by hitchhiking, I thought a lot and everyone was silent. I looked at the vast fields on both sides of the road, with green rice seedlings rolling in the wind like wave after wave of green waves. Farmers wearing gray clothes were scattered among these waves like small gray stones. The sky presented a thin and clear blue color, with gray bird flocks flying over the low sky. Occasionally, some low houses appeared, standing alone in the green woods, with uniform red bricks and black tiles, and lively children playing and flashing by.

  These scenes suddenly bring up a very sad and lonely feeling. The world seems so peaceful, stable and quiet, with everyone living strongly on this land, either in sorrow or happiness, just like the resilient dogtail grass by the river in Xiayuan Village.

  I suddenly remembered the insert song "Ordinary Road" sung by Pu Shu in Han Han's movie "The Continent": I used to be like you, like him, like that wild grass and wild flower... I remember listening to this song alone in the dark cinema. It reminded me of my solitary life over the past 20 years, growing up in an orphanage in Longcheng before middle school. Life in the orphanage wasn't as united, loving, and warm as outsiders thought it was.

  All these years, I've always told myself, Zhu Shisan, you're never alone, because your shadow is always by your side accompanying you. So I've never thought about who my parents are, because I think they abandoned me and we don't have any relationship anymore.

  I suddenly felt that I was thinking too much, a bit like a literary young man who likes to indulge in sentimental sighs and lamentations. Not only did I smile wryly, but I also said: "Riding in the car is so boring, and everyone isn't talking, why don't we sing a song under this beautiful scenery?"

  "Alright, President, what song are we going to sing?"

  "Ordinary Road", will you?

  "Meet, of course!" So we sang loudly in the back of this bumpy tricycle, all the way singing back to the Lei Gong Hotel.

  We returned to the Lei Gong Inn, and Kui Ruo Lan said: "Are we going into the forest, to that wooden house?"

  I thought for a moment and said, "No need, I know how to find the two-faced baby."

  We've got everything ready and set off for Shangyuan Village. Chen Qiuyang said, "Director, you say we're going to find Hongmei, can we really find the Double-Faced Baby?"

  "Yes, I previously suspected that Hongmei was the mother of the Two-Faced Infant, but later Goat Beard confirmed that the mother of the Two-Faced Infant was Qingjiang's sister, Qingcheng. However, there is a close relationship between Hongmei and the Two-Faced Infant. It seems to listen very much to the Two-Faced Infant."

  We arrived at Shangyuan Village. Hongmei seemed to have known we were coming for her, sitting at the door, smoking a cheap cigarette.

  She said: "I knew you would discover this secret, no wonder the double-faced baby didn't hurt her heart. It's just a baby, although if calculated by birth age, it is actually 17 years old, but its IQ is only at the level of a baby."

  I said: "All these years, have you been raising it?"

  Hongmei said: "No, it has been self-sustaining in the Leigong Mountains all along, I've never managed it. But it listens to me. As for the reason, I won't tell you."

  "Where is it now? We need it."

  Hongmei said coldly: "I know you want it to operate on this beauty. But I'm really sorry, I don't even know where it went now."

  "Are you unaware of it or don't want it to help us?"

  Hongmei looked at Chen Qiuyang with a very strange expression on her face, and said: "I recognize you, you helped me before. So, I'll return the favor to you as well. But, I really don't know where it went now. It's not that I'm unwilling to help your friend, because this surgery thing was its idea in the first place. It quite likes your beautiful girlfriend."

  Hongmei paused for a moment and said: "You go to the mountains behind the Leigong Mountains, it may appear to find you."

  After leaving Shangyuan Village, we crossed the fields and returned to the Leigong Mountains. We headed deep into the mountains. If the Double-Faced Demon Infant was indeed searching for Rouran, it would have found us in the dense forest by now. However, things didn't go as smoothly as expected this time, and the Double-Faced Demon Infant failed to appear.

  We went to the wooden house, but didn't find any trace of the two-faced baby. We had no choice but to return to the Leigong Hotel. We went to the restaurant for dinner, and I said to Kui Rulan: "The more I think about it, the more I feel that what we're doing is too childish. Rulan, we've staked your life on a baby, which isn't secure at all. After dinner, let's accompany you back to Longcheng."

  "I know, but I've decided to wait one more day."

  We ordered a plate of sugar and vinegar ribs, a plate of boiled fish, and a plate of tomato and egg soup. I picked up a piece of golden brown sugar and vinegar ribs and put it in my mouth, chewed for a few times, and said: "These sugar and vinegar ribs, I think there's something strange about them. Everyone don't eat first."

  My tongue's taste buds have become abnormally sensitive since I drank that bowl of meat soup in the stone cave on Mount Xian in Liu Long Village.

  I used a spoon to forcefully break apart the pork ribs and saw some meat that looked very familiar.

  This time I didn't jump into a rage, I just gave Chen Qiuyang and Kui Rulan a look. Now there are only 7 people eating in the restaurant, very quiet, and the landlady of Leigong Inn is also nowhere to be seen.

  I actually suspected that there was a problem with the kitchen of this restaurant at first glance. The last time the police investigated the case of ice tea shredded meat, they conducted sampling investigations in the kitchen, unfortunately, there was no result.

  I decided to go into the kitchen myself and take a look. I took advantage of no one noticing, came to the kitchen door. The kitchen was slightly ajar, I pushed the door open with force and rushed in quickly. Because I wanted to catch them off guard.

  But what I didn't expect was that when I rushed into the door, my foot wasn't stepping on solid ground, but instead stepped into empty space. In an instant, I fell down and plunged into darkness, then heavily crashed to the ground and fainted.

  When I came to, I found that I, Chen Qiuyang and Kui Rulan were all tied up with ropes on three wooden stakes. It gave me a feeling of being back in Liu Long Village where Du Jie's father had us bound. And these three stakes made me think of the three stakes in the forest of Leigong Mountain Range that had three skeletons tied to them.

  We are now locked in an underground room, empty and pitch black, with only a small window in front of me that lets in a white beam of light. And in the corner of the wall, steward Zhu Huiling is standing with his back to us, his hands raised high, using his ten fingers to constantly rub against the grayish-white wall, making a sharp noise.

  "The culprit was indeed him, the one who killed so many people and put minced meat in iced tea. It was this restaurant waiter, Zhu Huiling." Chen Qiuyang said viciously: "I spit on it! I previously sympathized with his struggles online, but it turns out he's another pervert."

  Waiter Zhu slowly turned around, his pale and thin face had a strange expression that was terrifying, like an undead. He smiled strangely and said: "Pervert? Haha, I'm just imitating what I wrote to restore reality."

  "Reduced? Iced tea? Could it be, could it be that you're the author of that horror novel 'Ghost Burial'? I've read it, in the second part, at the beginning, there's a severed finger head in the iced tea, are you...are you..."

  Zhu Ling laughed maniacally and said, "I'm truly honored. I didn't expect to meet a fan of my book 'Ghost Burial' here. Since you've read it, I think you should also know what your ultimate fate will be. I need everything in 'Ghost Burial' to come back to life, every content that appeared inside to appear in real life."

  "I said: 'You'd better not get in any deeper, or you'll never be able to turn back!'"

  "Turn back? I never thought I could turn back. From the moment I wrote the first word of 'Ghost Burial', I knew I couldn't turn back."

  I'm not a writer, I won't write. Although my university major was Chinese Language and Literature, also known as the Chinese Department in people's mouths. But the reason why I chose the Chinese Department when filling out my college application was that I knew the Chinese Department didn't require learning math, my math scores were too poor, and I never passed math in high school for three years.

  The waiter in front of me now, Zhu Huiling who wrote the online novel "Ghost Burial", has obviously fallen into a strange circle of writing, suffering from mental illness - he has poured all his emotions into it and cannot extricate himself. Now he can no longer distinguish between his world and the real world. It is said that many people, especially horror writers, often develop manic-depressive disorder.

  I said: "Yours, I believe there are still many book fans waiting for your updates in front of the computer. You can't keep going wrong."

  Waiter Zhu Xueling raised his head, staring at me and said: "You don't know anything, do you? I've always treated my 'Ghost Burial' as my child. I nurtured it for four whole years, four years! Ten months to carry a baby, others only need ten months to give birth to an infant. Four years, how many fours years are there in one's life?"

  Chen Qiuyang said: "I used to be a web writer too, I understand your feelings. In short, you don't have to kill us, do you? We are not the characters in your 'Ghost Burial'!"