20demayo Chapter 2 Spreading the Tranquilizing Object: A Lifeline
Chapter 2 Spreading the Tranquilizing Object: A Lifeline
"Essential Learning for Qingming Festival! The 'Forbidden Ghosts' Weaving Techniques Passed Down from Our Ancestors—Learn to Avoid Ghosts and Monsters"
The content of the post was obviously fabricated:
A person from the neighboring village left two days ago.
The suona horns sounded until midnight as the funeral procession passed through the village entrance, scattering paper money everywhere.
The air pressure in the village has been frighteningly low these past few days. No one goes out after dark, and even the dogs stay indoors without barking.
At four o'clock yesterday morning, my mom dragged me out of bed.
I asked her what she was doing.
She lowered her voice and said, "Go out and pick willow branches to weave a 'strange but forbidden' brocade."
After what happened in the next village, she went to ask about it. There was an old lady there who knew about these things.
"Willow branches must be broken off and woven before dawn, and must not be exposed to sunlight."
It was pitch black outside, and the fog was skimming along the ground.
She took the scissors to the riverbank to break off willow branches, and I followed behind, my feet rustling on the withered leaves, not daring to utter a word.
Back home, they peeled the skins, wove them into rings, and made a net—the curtains were drawn the whole time…
After posting on the first "weird" forum, Jiang Jun switched to another platform, registered again, and started posting again.
#Shocking! A woman made a willow wreath and hung it on her window during the Qingming Festival; the surveillance camera captured this scene that night!
Switch websites and continue making up stories.
#Help! This Qingming Festival gadget actually works! A step-by-step guide to weaving a "ghostly" design.
#Tested and working! My child no longer cries in the middle of the night, all thanks to this "Gui Bu Xu" (a product name).
Do you believe this? I made a willow wreath, and that night I dreamt of a woman in white walking around my house.
That day, major online platforms across the country were flooded with posts about "Ghostly Prohibition".
In an era where development was distorted and mobile phones were still in the 2G era, this unique and highly internet-savvy headline quickly attracted many readers.
There were posts that were just for fun, posts that were questioning, posts that were half-believing and half-doubting, and posts that were full of profanity.
Jiang Jun blocked the meaningless spam replies and focused on recommending the product to those who were still skeptical.
While it's possible that someone was just playing a prank on him, in this world rife with strange and bizarre things, those who choose to consult the internet about such matters are likely to have genuinely encountered something serious.
*
Cai Liang is a legal news reporter for Qingjiang TV, who frequently reports on various horrific murder cases.
In this bizarre world, reporting murder cases can indeed attract a large number of fans, but it can also easily attract some "good brothers".
A while ago, he filmed a case of a woman who committed suicide by cutting her wrists because of love.
The deceased was young and beautiful, with a good educational background, but she fell for a blond thug.
After the blond-haired man cheated on her, the woman committed suicide in despair.
Looking at the deceased's photo, Cai Liang chatted with the photographer and casually remarked, "Such an outstanding girl, if she were my girlfriend, I definitely wouldn't want to let her down..."
Then he was entangled in a strange tangle.
First, on his way to work, he noticed a woman in white peeking at him from the shadows at a street corner.
But upon closer inspection, there was no one in that corner.
When he arrived at work, his good partner, the cameraman, kept smirking with a strange smile.
He felt uneasy. When he asked the other person, the other person denied it and said that he was being paranoid.
While editing the video of the girl's death scene, the computer suddenly started to lag, the screen flickered, and occasionally there was an eerie red light.
Having worked in this line of work for a long time, Cai Liang had some knowledge of the ins and outs, so he quickly dialed the number of the Department of Supernatural Affairs.
But the person who answered the phone was a weak female voice, speaking slowly, as if she had a breath stuck in her throat.
He drove to the Department of the Supernatural, drove around for a long time, and inexplicably ended up back at his doorstep.
He was not giving up and asked someone to help him report the case to the police.
But as soon as he spoke, the other person's speech suddenly became slow and sinister, as if emphasizing certain words.
He was so frightened that he ran home, turned on all the lights, and hid under the covers.
In a daze, he fainted from sheer terror.
While he was unconscious, he had a dream.
I dreamt of a woman in white, lingering at his doorstep.
He peered through the peephole and came face to face with a scarlet eye.
"Ah—" He screamed and woke up from the bed, his body covered in cold sweat.
"Huff... huff..." He gasped for breath, trying again to report the incident or ask for help, but was still interrupted by that eerie female voice.
Even the online police reporting platform, once opened, will pop up a video of a woman in white, which is the latest murder case he edited.
He could feel the voice getting closer and closer to him.
It felt so close, like there was only a wall between us, and the sound was coming from the other side.
He frantically tried various methods and, in a daze, opened a forum for "weird" enthusiasts.
The forum posts can be viewed normally, but it's not possible to leave comments.
Once a message is left, the screen will be covered by a layer of illusory bloodstains.
And that soft female voice would be even closer to him.
He stubbornly searched through various posts, hoping to find a solution.
Suddenly, a post caught my eye.
Do you believe it? I wove a willow wreath, and that night I dreamt of a woman in white walking around my house.
He jolted awake, as if grasping at a lifeline, and with trembling hands, clicked on the post.
During the Qingming Festival tomb sweeping, I noticed a new grave not far from my grandmother's grave.
The tomb's occupant was a beautiful young woman who died of illness at a young age.
I had a sharp tongue and said, "It's such a shame someone so good-looking died before even getting married!"
Then, I became entangled with the female ghost.
She first appeared in the corner, then slowly approached... By the third day, she was already a meter away from me.
I have a feeling that the day she can touch me will be the day I die.
Fortunately, I remembered the "Guilty Prohibition" rhyme that my grandmother taught me to make up when I was little...
After reading the bizarre story fabricated by Jiang Jun, a strange light flashed in Cai Liang's bloodshot eyes.
"I'm saved! Hahaha, I'm saved!"
He looked out the window; it was still dark.
He gritted his teeth and opened the door.
The figure of the woman in white appeared at the corner of the left stairwell, staring straight at him with an expressionless face.
Cai Liang simply turned his head away, ignoring her, and rushed down the stairwell on the right.
At the entrance of the residential compound, the security booth was dark and appeared to be unattended.
He looked around and spotted the woman in white standing across the street, her eyes bloodshot, staring at him.
Cai Liang took a deep breath, ignored her, ran to the roadside green belt, found a willow tree, and forcefully pulled off a handful of willow branches.
Because he was so nervous, he used brute force, cutting his palm and drawing blood, but he didn't even bother to cry out in pain.
Two or three minutes later, he grabbed a bunch of willow branches, ignored the female ghost hiding behind another willow tree and spied on him, and turned to run home.
As soon as he entered, he glanced out the window.
It's not even dawn yet!
"Hahaha! There's hope! There's hope!"
Cai Liang cried and laughed at the same time, his hands trembling as he drew the curtains, found the tutorial on making "Ghostly Prohibition" in the post, and hurriedly started weaving.
He was already nervous, and his skills were not as good as Jiang Jun's, so his "Gui Bu Xu" was somewhat crudely made.
"Take a three-foot-long willow branch, peel off the bark, leaving the white part... Hmm, I measured it with a ruler."
"A circle woven into an octagon, with the middle part intersecting to form a grid... also meets the requirements."
He was somewhat neurotic, reciting the incantation on the post over and over again: "Green willow, green willow branches, weave a circle and hang it by the window. Block from all eight directions, seal with a cross, monsters will detour when they see this."
Only when his mouth was dry did he finally make up his mind and hang the "Strange Prohibition" on the window.
However, the event described in the post, in which "the ghosts do not allow" to emit a clear light and a refreshing aura to dispel the gloom, did not occur.
"A lie...a lie?!"
He paced restlessly around the room, his face alternating between pale and flushed, looking like a dead man.
He desperately wanted to rip the "mysterious prohibition" off, yet he clung to a sliver of hope: "What if... what if it actually works?"
He sat blankly in the study for a while, and then felt that the light in the room was a bit dim.
So he got up and drew back the curtains.
"Ah!!!" Cai Liang couldn't help but scream.
Through a pane of glass, a pale face with disheveled hair and bloodshot eyes stared at him at close range.
"My lord, I have found you!" A sinister voice rang out, startling Cai Liang so much that he broke out in a cold sweat and almost wet his pants.
"No...didn't you say at least...three days?" His teeth were chattering, making a "clattering" sound.
He wanted to run, but he was paralyzed by the nightmare, standing frozen in place like a wooden stake.
"That post...that post, was it...a scam?"
The female ghost slowly raised her hand.
The next moment, a sliver of light suddenly flashed across the "Ghostly Prohibition" sign on the window.
A refreshing breeze swept by, and Cai Liang broke free from his nightmare, taking off running.
As he approached the door, he noticed that the female ghost hadn't followed him. He mustered his courage and turned to look out the window, only to witness a bizarre scene.