Chapter 42: The Desolate Mansion's Strange Happenings

  After sending off Wang Li and Lao Lv, the room became unusually quiet. Tang Ao returned to the living room, sat on the sofa with a photo album in his hands, and carefully examined it with furrowed brows. Su Tong didn't know if Wang Li had said something that made Tang Ao feel uneasy, but he felt slightly nervous as he approached him, looked at the photos, and then looked at him again.

  "It's not as exaggerated as Wang Li said, she's a dramatic person, so when describing things, she'll always be a bit exaggerated. You're not familiar with her yet, so you might not be used to it. If you have the chance to interact with her in the future, you'll understand. Don't forget that." Su Tong said to Tang Xiao.

  Tang Ao came back to his senses, looked at Su Tong, and waved his hand: "No, it's just the opposite. Your friend actually reminded me that the face a person is least familiar with is their own face. When you look in the mirror, you see a processed version of yourself. Normally, no one can spend most of their time looking in the mirror every day, so they're not particularly sensitive to their own appearance. If your friend hadn't pointed it out on purpose, I wouldn't have noticed that I've changed so much, almost to the point where I don't look like the same person anymore."

  "It's not that exaggerated, I think it's just that you're a bit darker and more robust than before, but that's normal. People's temperament changes over time, and at different stages of life, it's natural to have differences. Right? Some people develop late, some early, I had a classmate who didn't grow taller until high school, and then in his first year of college, he grew 3-4 cm, that's typical of developing late, maybe you're the same, and only started changing after entering university?"

  Tang Ao shook his head: "Do you remember what that female ghost said after I drove her out of your body? She said I wasn't the original either. Do you know what this means?"

  "What's the point of taking that female ghost's words seriously!" Su Tong said disapprovingly, "I just told you earlier, she must have been disrupted by your plan, so she intentionally tried to disgust you and provoke you into doubting. If you really take it seriously, you'll be deceived. Do you remember how you dealt with her just now? You gave her the talisman water! That talisman water can expel a possessing ghost from its host body, and she was very cautious at first, letting you drink it before she did. If what she said is true, that you're not an original product, why didn't your soul escape? Isn't that right? And look at her possessing me now - although she can only control my physical movements, she doesn't have any of my memories, so she's not even clear about our relationship, and she's never seen a smartphone before. But you, do you have this kind of reaction? Definitely not, right? That's why I said it, taking the female ghost's words seriously is really being deceived."

  Tang Ao smiled, nodded, and put the photo back in the album: "You're right, I won't think wildly anymore. Now the most important thing is to seize the time to search for materials, make preparations, and avoid having too many dreams."

  "Okay, then I'll go with you and help you find materials or something." Su Tong hurriedly expressed his cooperation.

  Tang Ao agreed, but in fact he was very clear that Su Tong couldn't help him with anything. The few ancient books about Taoist magic and talismans he had dug up himself would be almost like reading heavenly script to Su Tong. Just now, however, he had thought of some other things from the photo, but didn't say them out loud for fear that Su Tong would be scared if she heard them. The drastic change in appearance was still something he couldn't let go of, and he vaguely felt that there seemed to be some secret hidden here, related to his own serious illness, related to his abnormal recovery after the illness, and related to his sudden and inexplicable enlightenment. He urgently wanted to know what had happened during his serious illness, but unfortunately there was no way to find out. The female ghost's words had left him with great doubts, and Su Tong's mention of a spirit that looked six or seven parts like himself had only added to his confusion.

  A mysterious entity suddenly appeared in the abandoned mansion, facing countless evil spirits inside. The mysterious entity was able to emerge unscathed, as it is a world where the strong prey on the weak, whether in the mortal realm or the underworld. According to Su Teng's account, the mysterious person not only could protect himself but also create a barrier to shield his unconscious self, which is something an ordinary ghost cannot do.

  Unfortunately, when Su Teng went to look for him, the mysterious person had already appeared. No one knows when he disappeared because Su Teng was injured by him and hadn't woken up yet. Where did he come from? Where did he go? Will he appear again? Tang Xiao couldn't grasp these questions. He only knew that the mysterious person wasn't friendly to Su Teng, so after thinking about it, he decided to keep Su Teng within his line of sight until this matter was thoroughly resolved. Only then would he feel more at ease.

  Two people entered the study, Tang Ao handed his laptop to Su Tong, letting her browse the web or look up materials, anything she wanted, and then he himself buried his head in books again, only occasionally losing focus and drifting off to think about other things, not as focused as before.

  "Hey! Snap out of it!" Su Tong had been searching for something on her laptop, and when she looked up, she saw Tang Ao staring at a page in front of him with a serious expression. His eyes were fixed on one spot, unmoving, as if he was gazing into space. She waved her hand in front of his face, laughing and calling out to him to come back to reality. "I thought you were really studying for once, but it turns out you've been staring at the same page for over a minute! You haven't even moved your eyes except to blink. What's on your mind that's got you so spaced out? Your attitude isn't serious enough, I'm criticizing you!"

  Tang Ao came back to his senses and laughed: "Alright, you caught me red-handed. But since you observed me so carefully, I reckon you were also slacking off a bit? Let's not laugh at each other for taking a hundred steps when we've both taken fifty!"

  "This time you're wrong, I've been searching for information about the abandoned house on Changqing Mountain all along. I've searched online for half a day, but there's not much to find. Most of it is just copied and pasted from other websites. The house was built before liberation, the owner is unknown, and it was abandoned due to war, that's all. There's no other information." Su Tong said.

  Tang Ao thought for a moment and asked, "Have you tried going to that kind of forum where people talk about ghost stories and supernatural events? As far as I know, our local forum website has a discussion section called 'Ghost Stories', I suggest you go check it out."

  "How did you even know this?" Su Tong asked Tang Hao while searching for the local forum's URL.

  Tang Ao smiled and said: "Because I just discovered that I have a bit of intuition in this aspect, I was very curious, but unfortunately, there were no materials available to understand these things. After searching online, I stumbled upon a discussion forum by chance. Later on, after I coincidentally found those books, I gained some understanding of the mysteries and numerology. When I went back to look at the posts in that discussion forum again, I discovered that although it's inevitable for forums to have fabricated or exaggerated content, not all seemingly absurd content is necessarily false, there are actually some reliable things on it."

  "Who would have thought!" Su Tong heard Tang Ao say this and found it very interesting, his curiosity was immediately sparked. Thinking about it, if he hadn't experienced all sorts of strange encounters these past few days, would he have believed in such bizarre things? Probably not. So, while some outlandish stories might be fabricated to attract attention, it's also possible that there's truth hidden within. As a social reporter, Su Tong had developed the professional habit of speaking with facts, so he usually scoffed at things that sounded absurd. But now, thinking about it, he realized that in the future, he should leave some room for doubt. After all, the world is full of unknowns, and just because he didn't understand or know something, didn't mean it wasn't true.

  Tang Ao knew that she had taken his words to heart, so he added another sentence: "In this world, there will never be a case of 'wind coming from an empty cave', only artistic processing based on facts. That old mansion has been standing on Evergreen Mountain for many years, and those seven children won't be the first ones to experience its strange side. If they can't find a way to solve the problem this time, they might not be the last batch either. You can search online to see if there are any related posts, but even if there are, it's not necessary to believe them completely. Let's filter out the sensationalized parts based on our own experiences and leave only the facts. That way, we can roughly figure out what really happened."

  Su Tong nodded: "I understand, don't be distracted, focus on reading your book! I'll take a look at the forum."

  Tang Ao nodded, this time he indeed concentrated his mind and carefully studied the book. His last solo adventure in the abandoned mansion was a bit embarrassing, as he had not yet accomplished anything before being affected by the evil spirit's curse. However, from another perspective, he could be said to have benefited from misfortune, as his spiritual power had increased significantly due to the unexpected encounter, which also boosted his confidence.

  When he first obtained this ancient book, he had tried some of the recorded spells and talismans out of curiosity, but unfortunately, his skills were still shallow, and some things were completely impossible for him to achieve. For example, the paper crane used to send the female ghost to the temple to resolve her grievances required a certain foundation in Taoist magic, which he had not yet mastered at the time.

  Although Tang Ao thought it was interesting and tried to mimic the technique, the result was naturally ineffective. Some more powerful and complex talismans could be copied, but when used, they were like useless paper. The techniques for drawing symbols in mid-air were also lacking in his grasp, and now was precisely the time when he urgently needed to make up for lost time.

  As for why his spiritual power suddenly increased so rapidly and without warning, Tang Ao couldn't explain it clearly either. To him, becoming stronger was always a good thing; having acquired greater abilities, he had to learn how to use them and bring out his skills.

  Su Tong was unaware of Tang Ao's mental activity, she was carefully selecting posts related to Changqing Mountain Villa from the ghost story discussion forum. One thing Tang Ao said was right, there were indeed many contents about Changqing Mountain Villa in the ghost story discussion forum. Su Tong picked one with the highest heat and the most comments, and read it carefully.

  The person who posted this article said that he had once gone for a walk alone in Changqing Mountain because of his bad mood. As he walked, he inadvertently turned to the side of the mountain with sparse population and found a large mansion there. Just as he was wondering, a flash of lightning suddenly appeared, followed by a loud thunderclap, and big raindrops fell from the sky, instantly soaking him wet. The sky was filled with thunder and lightning, which was very frightening. The person who posted this article did not dare to walk through the forest down the mountain in such weather, so he ran to the eaves of the mansion to take shelter from the rain. Coincidentally, a young woman upstairs opened the window and looked out, saw him standing at the door, and asked what he was doing there. The person who posted this article explained that he happened to be walking here and it suddenly started raining heavily, so he could only hide in the rain here. The woman was very kind and said that it was cold outside in the rain, why not go inside and sit for a while? The person who posted this article thought that he had never been to a villa before, and going in would broaden his horizons, so he agreed.

  The woman came downstairs to open the door for the poster, letting him in. The light in the house was even darker than outside, but it could be seen that the decoration was luxurious and magnificent, very elegant. The poster secretly guessed that this family should have a lot of money, they just wanted to live quietly.

  The young woman was quite enthusiastic towards the posting person, and couldn't see a bit of the rich man's airs. She asked if the posting person was thirsty or not, and whether they wanted to drink some hot tea to drive away the cold. At that time, it was already deep autumn outside, and the weather had become very gloomy. The posting person didn't refuse the woman's kindness, so the woman turned around and went into the kitchen. Not long after, she came out with a cup of tea in her hand and handed it to the posting person. The posting person thanked her and was just about to drink when suddenly a flash of lightning flashed by outside the window, illuminating the dark room in an instant.

  However, on the white wall behind the woman, only the shadow of the person who posted it was projected.

  That woman has no shadow.

  Follow the official QQ public account "LOVE" (ID: love) for the latest information at any time.