Siheyuan: Tathagata's Palm suppresses the entire courtyard!

It all started on an ordinary night. That night, Xu Mingjie worked overtime until late and came home exhausted. He dragged his heavy steps into the courtyard. The courtyard was quiet, with only the rustling sound of the wind blowing the leaves. Xu Mingjie opened the door and a cold wind blew in his face, making him shiver involuntarily. Although it was summer, the wind was unusually cold.

He closed the door and prepared to go to the kitchen to drink some water. Just as he reached the kitchen door, he suddenly heard light footsteps behind him. Xu Mingjie turned around abruptly, but saw that there was no one. His heart tightened, but he quickly comforted himself that it might be due to being too tired from working overtime and hallucinations.

He poured a glass of water and returned to the living room, where he found an old book on the coffee table had fallen to the ground. He had accidentally found the book in the attic, and its yellowed pages and worn cover showed that it was very old. Xu Mingjie picked up the book and was about to put it back on the bookshelf when suddenly a yellowed photo fell out from between the pages.

The photo showed a man wearing Qing Dynasty clothing, with a solemn face and eyes that seemed to be staring at someone outside the photo. Xu Mingjie looked at the photo and felt an inexplicable chill in his heart. He felt that he should have seen this face before, but he could not remember where he had seen it.

The next day, after Xu Mingjie got up, he still felt that what happened last night was a little strange, but he didn't take it seriously. At work, he accidentally mentioned the photo to his colleagues. His colleague Lao Wang is an old Beijinger who is quite knowledgeable about Siheyuan culture. After listening to Xu Mingjie's words, his face changed slightly and reminded him: "Siheyuan has rules, especially old houses. It's best not to touch the things inside."

Xu Mingjie's heart skipped a beat, but he thought Lao Wang might be trying to scare him, so he didn't take it too seriously. However, as time went on, Xu Mingjie discovered that more and more strange things were happening in the courtyard.

At night, Xu Mingjie often heard whispers coming from the yard, like several people whispering, but every time he went out to check, he found nothing. A few times, Xu Mingjie even heard the sound of an old-fashioned carriage passing by the gate, but the alley outside the gate was already empty. Even more strange was that every time he tried to record these sounds, the recording equipment would always malfunction.

One day, Xu Mingjie came back from outside and found that his bed was covered with a thin layer of dust, as if no one had lived there for a long time. Even more bizarre was that he had just made the bed in the morning, but the pillow was wet, as if someone had cried on it.

Xu Mingjie finally felt uneasy and decided to find out the history of the courtyard house. He read a lot of information and gradually learned that the former owner of the courtyard house was an imperial physician in the Qing Dynasty. Legend has it that this imperial physician had a high status in the court, but because he was involved in a palace conspiracy, his entire family was eventually executed. Since then, the courtyard house has been considered an ominous place. Several families have moved in, but without exception, they all moved out within a short period of time.

Xu Mingjie thought his situation might be related to these legends, but he did not believe in ghosts and gods, so he decided to uncover the secrets of the courtyard through scientific methods. He purchased some modern equipment, including infrared cameras and temperature sensors, to try to capture any abnormal phenomena.

On the first night after the equipment was installed, Xu Mingjie nervously waited in front of the surveillance camera, waiting for any possible abnormality to occur. After midnight, the temperature sensor suddenly sounded an alarm, indicating that the temperature in the yard had suddenly dropped by more than ten degrees. At the same time, the infrared camera captured some blurry images, as if there was a figure moving in the yard.

Xu Mingjie stared at the screen with bated breath, the image becoming clearer and clearer. He saw several figures in the yard, wearing ancient Qing Dynasty costumes, as if they were talking in a low voice, but also seemed to be just repeating certain actions. Xu Mingjie remembered what Lao Wang said, could these images be the souls of those who were executed?

Just as he was about to conduct further research, the image on the screen suddenly disappeared and the temperature returned to normal. Xu Mingjie felt that the situation was becoming more and more bizarre, but he was still unwilling to give up and was determined to get to the bottom of it.

However, the strange things did not stop there. In the next few days, Xu Mingjie found more and more inexplicable phenomena in the yard. Every night when it was quiet, the trees in the yard would move without wind, and the branches and leaves would make rustling sounds, as if whispering. Occasionally, he would see a shadow flashing outside the window, but every time he went out to check, there was nothing.

One night, Xu Mingjie had a strange dream. In the dream, he returned to the Qing Dynasty. The courtyard was brightly lit, and the imperial physician stood in the middle of the courtyard. The imperial physician's face was pale, but his eyes showed an eager expectation. He walked towards Xu Mingjie, as if he was silently telling something, but Xu Mingjie couldn't hear clearly.

After waking up from the dream, Xu Mingjie was sweating profusely. He felt that this dream was not accidental, as if the imperial physician was conveying some kind of message to him. Xu Mingjie decided to study the history of the imperial physician in depth, perhaps he could find clues to solve the strange things.

As the investigation deepened, Xu Mingjie discovered that the imperial physician did have many enemies when he was alive. It was said that he had made a big mistake in a palace incident, but the truth had never been made public. Xu Mingjie speculated that this might be the reason why the imperial physician's ghost lingered.

Xu Mingjie has always felt like a heavy stone was hanging in his heart recently, as if an invisible hand was tightly grasping his heart. Ever since he dreamed of the imperial physician, he has been having similar dreams every night. The courtyard in his dreams is always filled with an indescribable sense of oppression. The courtyard is brightly lit but not warm, and the figure of the imperial physician becomes clearer and clearer. Every conversation in his dreams seems to be one step closer to the truth, but at the same time, it also makes him feel more and more uneasy in reality.

That night, Xu Mingjie had just turned off his computer and was going to bed early. Not long after he went to bed, he heard a familiar sound - a slight knocking sound coming from the patio. The sound was intermittent, as if someone was tapping the floor, but when he listened carefully, it became vague.

"Here it comes again..." Xu Mingjie cursed in his heart, and then his inner uneasiness gradually grew. He knew in his heart that this was not the first time, but he still couldn't get used to it, and couldn't treat this weird sound as insignificant background noise. In fact, he vaguely felt that this sound seemed to be trying to attract his attention, or even calling him to find out what was going on.