The Exorcist

Chapter 36 Who is the groom?

For some reason, even though she couldn't see the face of the man named Anan, Xiaoxia felt that he was extremely familiar. She wanted to carefully identify it again, but at this moment she felt that the picture in her mind suddenly blurred, and with the sound of footsteps coming upstairs, the illusion completely disappeared.

It's Ruan Zhan who's back.

As soon as Xiaoxia heard it, she could tell who the owner of the footsteps was. This made her not frightened, but she was a little panicked. She hurriedly took off her shoes and stuffed the package of wedding clothes back into the bamboo curtain under the altar. later. When she stood up, she saw Ruan Zhan walking down the stairs quickly.

"Is something wrong?" he asked, with concern on his face.

"Hmm - no." Xiaoxia hesitated for a moment, but decided not to tell him what the man in the water said. Because the warning of the man in the water kept lingering in her mind - "Don't tell the man named Ruan about this! He will do bad things! Remember, be sure to remember!"

"Then why did you come downstairs? And it's very messy up there." Ruan Zhan glanced at Xiaoxia doubtfully. He knew she didn't want to cause him trouble, but he didn't want her to hide anything from him.

"I heard something moving downstairs, so I came to take a look. Look -" Xiao Xia raised her hand, "I'm carrying the Bloodwood Sword! Also, the talisman you left for me is also in my pocket. There, nothing will happen."

Ruan Zhan nodded. Although he still felt something was wrong, he didn't want to ask any more questions. "Okay, let's go upstairs first. I want to hear you tell me what happened just now."

He knew that her feet were inconvenient, so he came over and carried her upstairs. Xiaoxia snuggled into his arms, feeling grateful for her foot injury. If it hadn't been for this injury, she wouldn't have been treated like this.

"I think if you are not in a hurry, you should not use your time and space distortion technique, right?" At such a close distance, you can even feel each other's breathing. Xiaoxia clearly saw that Ruan Zhan's face was a little pale, and couldn't help but suggest road.

“――――”

"Because after all, it is something that goes against the laws of nature. I heard Wan Li say that it is also a kind of spell casting. If you do it too often, you will be injured."

"Okay, after this incident, I won't be needed if you can. Now tell me what happened tonight." Ruan Zhan agreed, gently putting Xiaoxia on the bed, and he sat on the bamboo chair beside him. He went up and listened to Xiaoxia's detailed explanation of tonight's events. He breathed a sigh of relief and fell into deep thought.

He is so tired!

On this side of the river valley, sitting on the hill, besides Naman Village, there are two other villages. Through non-stop investigation over the past two days and one night, the suspicion of one of the villages has been basically eliminated. In other words, that village had nothing to do with what he was investigating. That's because that village is far away from Naman, and another village called 'Najin' is inextricably connected with Naman.

Both villages were built after liberation. The residential areas are not divided according to ethnic groups. Instead, various ethnic groups live together, including Zhuang, Miao, Bai, Lisu, Pumi and Yi. Although the villagers There are some slight differences in religious customs, but because they respect each other, they have integrated well with each other, and intermarriage between different ethnic groups began a long time ago.

In this incident, the first thing that caught his attention was the ghost in cape clothes. Although she seemed to be a minor character, her pair of beautiful embroidered shoes showed that she was the first thread in this mess of clues, so the first thing he investigated was her origin.

According to the elders in the village, only during the Cultural Revolution, a bride died in a nearby village because she fell in love with an educated youth, but her parents forced her to marry a local young man of the same ethnic group, so this beautiful Miao girl threw herself into the river on her wedding day. .

This sounds like an ordinary and tragic love story, but after Ruan Zhan went to Najin Village to inquire about the young girl, he discovered that the sad groom was actually from Naman Village!

The clue points back to Naman again!

That vine! That vine! The only clue left by Guan Zheng before his death was Huang Boheng's hometown and the place where the real Yang Muyou passed through Myanmar. It is even more likely that it was the place where the 'dead spirit Yang Muyou' possessed people and began to cause harm to the world. In addition, this What he learned in the past few days made him very sure that all the secrets would be revealed here!

When he learned that the groom was from Naman Village and came back to inquire about the situation, he found that the villagers, who had always been cheerful and simple, were very secretive about this and never mentioned anything about the groom's family. When I was forced to ask more questions, I just said that the groom's family later moved to who knows where.

This reminded him of two other situations: First, an old man in the village got excited about talking to him and told him about the incident of the bride drowning in the river. He was immediately pulled back by other old people. , apparently blaming him for talking too much; secondly, the bride’s parents also died one after another shortly after the tragedy, and the cause of death was unknown.

What strange thing happened that made the villagers not want to talk about the groom's family? Ruan Zhan did not press any further. Firstly, he came here as a traveler and collected stories because he was interested in the anecdotes in the mountain villages. He did not want to show off too much. Secondly, he did not want to worry about his own affairs. To push others.

The people here are kind and honest, and have their own unique religious worship, which involves worshiping their ancestors and believing in all living things. The awareness of witchcraft is also quite popular here. So, since they had an unspeakable fear about this matter and believed that whoever spoke out would suffer retribution, how could he force them to tell the truth? That would make them feel quite uncomfortable. When they solve the problem and leave, those who leaked these things may be uneasy for the rest of their lives and will always be under the shadow of being retaliated by witches.

It's better to try it yourself first, he will definitely come up with a way. He has always been unwilling to trouble others with his own affairs. Whether it is embarrassing or difficult, it is all his own business, and he must ultimately solve it by himself!

As for the current predicament they were in, he decided to focus on solving the problem on the marriage that year, and on the groom. Because what stopped them in the wild shop and what harmed Wan Li was all related to the bride turned into a raincoat ghost and the so-called master behind her. When he and Xiaoxia were tracking the strange woman who looked like a savage, she also said that there was a very powerful person and mentioned the bride repeatedly.

Assuming that all this was done by the groom back then, why did he want to hurt them?

There are only two possibilities. One is that he is evil and likes to kill innocent people indiscriminately; the other is that he was bribed by Huang Boheng or the fake Yang Muyou, which is a 'professional' behavior; the third is that the groom himself is one of Huang Boheng and Yang Muyou. one!

Of these three possibilities, he prefers the third one.

But if the groom is Huang Boheng, his age is inconsistent. Because Huang Boheng is only thirty-five years old this year. He came to their city ten years ago and developed rapidly. It was 1969 when the tragedy happened. Even if ethnic minorities married early, he would still be in his fifties.

As for Yang Muyou, it is even more impossible to be the groom, because in the Japanese ghost case in City A, there is evidence that he existed during Japan's invasion of China, and he was already in his forties at that time. In addition, the chance that he is from an ethnic minority is not high. Although it is not yet known why he has anything to do with this simple mountain village, it is impossible for him to become a young ethnic minority with a family and a career in 60 years, and still have to pay a large sum of money. The appearance of marrying a wife and having children. The most important thing is that he is a dead spirit, and he can move around because he is possessed by the real Yang Muyou. There was intrigue between him and the Japanese. He had not fully learned the art of resurrection of the dead. He must have practiced it for a long time to be able to possess people. Even if he could change more than a goblin, he didn't have the energy.

Unless - this groom knows some kind of magic that can ensure his youthful appearance. As for his identity and appearance, they can be completely faked.

From this point of view, there is a great chance that the groom is Huang Boheng!

They came to investigate him and 'Yang Muyou', but they were attacked on the way; he was interested in Xiaoxia, but Wanli who once pretended to be Xiaoxia's boyfriend was fooled; he was born here, but no one knew him; the tragedy that year The groom and his family are missing, and he appears so bizarrely. Putting these clues together, the inevitable result is him.

Also - his senior secretary Bai Jingjing is dead!

Ruan Zhan got this news at night because he had gone to the county town tonight and sneaked into the relevant departments to check the written information of Huang Boheng and the groom's family. He found nothing. Huang Boheng did not exist at all. It is estimated that It's a fake name, but as for the groom's family, there are only two characters, missing. However, this family also has the surname Huang, the Huang couple and their son Huang Shitou.

After finishing this matter, he ran to the post office and called the post office to ask Liu Tie and Ni Yang if there was anything unusual in the store. As a result, they told him that Bai Jingjing, a regular customer in the store, died in a car accident the day before. This news was currently the only topic of conversation in the bar.

Regarding this news, Ruan Zhan felt indescribably guilty. He didn't believe that Bai Jingjing would be in a car accident because she must have been retaliated by Huang Boheng. Why didn't he think of this and take protective measures for her? Although she was the one who pestered him first, he temporarily accepted her just to get information.

Naman is a small village. It is just a small black spot on the local enlarged map. On the national map, the entire mountain and the entire valley will not attract anyone's attention. Huang Boheng's fake file Of course he wouldn't mention it, so how could anyone know his origins? It was only because Bai Jingjing had been his mistress for many years that he accidentally learned about it among his bedmates.

Bai Jingjing is a woman with a strict mouth, a sense of propriety, and knows how to advance and retreat. This is why she has been able to sleep with wolves for many years without incident. However, because of his "intention" and his spying, she confided in her drunken Huang Boheng’s little-known secret. Then he used the clues provided by Guan Zheng before his death and Bai Jingjing's information to find him here.

Huang Boheng was brought to his home, so it was easy to find out who had leaked the information. With his ruthless personality, he would not let go of those who betrayed him, so Bai Jingjing was killed! Why had he neglected it before? It was his indifference that caused her death!

Ever since he learned the news, he had been condemning himself, and the guilt in his heart made him breathless. Although he knew that everything could not be made up for, he just couldn't let go!

The women he had relationships with all ended badly, including Nana, Gu Yufang, Bai Jingjing, and now Xiaoxia. However, he will never let Xiaoxia get into trouble again, he will protect her even if he sacrifices everything!

Thinking of this, he looked towards Xiaoxia and saw that Xiaoxia was in a daze, looking full of thoughts.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked.

"Thinking about the basin."

"Did it really just scare you?"

"Yeah. It didn't say anything - it just scared me." Xiaoxia hesitated.

Ruan Zhan shook his head secretly.

Xiaoxia really doesn't know how to hide herself. She is the kind of person who shows her thoughts on her face. She is simple, but easily hurt.

"Don't be afraid, it's just witchcraft." He said softly.

"But it feels very real." Xiaoxia subconsciously touched her neck, "I thought about it later. I heard people say that many divination techniques are viewed with a basin, just like the Witch of the West's crystal ball."

"Well, that's an illusion. As long as you ignore it and you have the Blood Wood Sword to protect you, it won't hurt you." Ruan Zhan said as he picked up a petal on the table, "This is the one that fell in the basin. Only in this way can witchcraft take effect. You should know that the person who opposes us is very good at controlling plants and animals, and his Gu is also refined with this."

"Have we encountered a boss-level character again?" Xiaoxia asked worriedly.

"Don't worry about him. No matter who it is, they can't take my friend's life in front of me! Do you believe me?"

Ruan Zhan's question reminded Xiaoxia of what the man in the water said, and then of the hallucination that occurred at the altar on the second floor.

"Believe, I believe you!" She nodded vigorously to show her determination.

"You can't be wrong."

"Are you leaving again?" Seeing Ruan Zhan stand up, Xiao Xia asked hurriedly.

"I'm going to continue looking for that weird woman. I think there's a high chance she'll appear again nearby."

"But you also need to take a break. Just sit there for another ten minutes!" Xiaoxia looked at Ruan Zhan longingly.

"Don't worry, I'm nearby. If you shout loudly, I can hear you. Moreover, I believe that the ghost will not come again, otherwise it will be the same as the white hand. If he controls the plants, you can use the shotgun, Didn't I teach you how to use it?" Thinking that Xiaoxia was scared, Ruan Zhan comforted her.

Xiaoxia didn't speak, but stretched out her hand to touch the bed. There was a shotgun that Ruan Zhan borrowed from the village. When he left in the morning, he had already done careful defense.

When ghosts come, there are broken flags and charms. When there are physical things, there are shotguns.

"Five minutes, then," she almost begged.

Ruan Zhan hesitated for a moment, but finally nodded in agreement. Unexpectedly, Xiaoxia made further requests, asking him to sit next to her and hold his hands with both hands.

He still didn't reject her, but it was a little strange. He knew that Xiaoxia had a crush on him, but she had never been so clingy to him. This was the first time, but it made him feel like the last time.

Moreover, they said they would only sit for five minutes, but the two of them kept holding hands and sat there for more than two hours!