The Sick Beauty in the Republic of China

After Qi Chensheng finished speaking, they walked as usual, gradually approaching the statues until they walked into them.

All the statues are about the same height as ordinary people. Walking among them is like being in a crowded crowd. From time to time, you will feel that you pass by something, or you are hooked by a stone hand deep in the darkness.

Although everything was still except for Wang Luan and Qi Chensheng, but as the lantern in his hand moved forward, the black shadows cast on the wall seemed to follow them, surround them, and start walking.

No, it's not just a shadow. At this moment, Wang Luan suddenly heard one or two very light footsteps behind him.

He subconsciously wanted to turn around, but his movement turned into a lantern to look at the statues around him, only the corner of his eyes swept behind him without a trace - but there were still only pale statues standing in the dead silence.

"What's the matter, Brother Ninth?" Qi Chensheng half-circled Wang Luan's shoulders, also turned sideways, and asked in a low voice.

Wang Luan raised his eyes slightly, and in the harmonious light of the lantern, the eyes of the two met for a while, and then separated naturally after a while.

"It's nothing, I just feel that this statue, did we just pass by?"

Qi Chensheng held on to the gentleman's stick in his hand, and said in a calm tone that could not detect any unnecessary emotions: "I didn't notice it, let's walk around and see."

After finishing speaking, Wang Luan didn't raise any objection, turned around and walked forward with Qi Chensheng, but the canary that landed on his shoulder opened his eyes, and flowed by in the darkness where no one was paying attention. A few pieces of gold.

One statue after another, following their footsteps, appeared on the road ahead.The dim lantern couldn't reach the end at all, and they didn't know how long they had to go.

Gradually, the statues they passed by became more and more familiar, with similarly damaged faces, broken wings, and shattered bodies.

It was as if an invisible black hand was leading them along the repeated path step by step.

But Wang Luan and Qi Chensheng didn't show any abnormality. They still stopped and stopped, stopping to check the statue from time to time, and then continued to walk forward.

But the footsteps behind them sounded more and more frequently. At first they were very restrained, but gradually they began to panic, fast and anxious as if they were looking for something, and they didn't even care about hiding.

Heaviness, loss, fear, struggle--

Wang Luan didn't look back, but he was able to playfully read from the changing footsteps the rationality of the people behind him gradually collapsing.

"Shen Sheng, do you know why we keep walking the same path?"

After passing by a statue again, he suddenly opened his mouth, his tone was so gentle that when Qi Chensheng looked down at him, his eyes were full of envy.

"Huh? Brother Jiu knows why?"

"Because..." Wang Luan's voice suddenly dropped, as if afraid of being heard by something in the dark:

"Because, we are surrounded by ghosts—"

Silence, as Wang Luan's voice fell, the deathly silence spread quickly with fear.

"Ninth brother, don't scare me." Qi Chensheng said pretending to be afraid while holding on to the gentleman's staff in his hand, but it's a pity that such words came from his mouth lightly, and they really didn't have half the credibility.

But Wang Luan made do and continued: "I didn't scare you. From the very beginning, that ghost has been lying in my ear and talking to me a lot."

"Then what did he say to Brother Jiu?" Qi Chensheng held Wang Luan's hand, slowly leaned over, and asked in Wang Luan's ear.

"He said..." Wang Luan looked sideways at the countless statues in the darkness, and then his voice cooled down a little bit, faint and dark: "He said, he has been trapped here for too long, and he wants us to stay with him .”

"This is impossible, how can we stay here?" Qi Chensheng shook his head, took Wang Luan in his arms and took a few steps forward, and then heard the sound of footsteps following them, stumbling I can no longer control my movements.

"Yes, that's what I told him too," Wang Luan continued as if he couldn't hear the footsteps at all, "So, I discussed it with him."

"I said, I don't want to stay, and I don't want you to stay..."

"But there's another person behind us, why don't we go find him."

After finishing speaking, he and Qi Chensheng turned around tacitly, and looked behind together, as if to appreciate the scene of evil spirits catching people.

And among the countless statues, the sound of fleeing footsteps sounded again. This time they finally saw the figure of that man. He no longer hid, but rushed towards Wang Luan and Qi Chensheng.

Hearing a plop, the man fell to his knees in front of them, muttering incoherently: "Don't come to me, don't come to me..."

Just now Wang Luan used the power of the canary to deliberately set up an illusion, turning this small group of statues into a maze of ghosts hitting the wall, in order to force the people behind them to come out.

But when this person actually came out, Wang Luan was a little surprised. He really didn't expect that the one who had been following them would be the old grave guard whom he had seen during the day.

Could he be the one who killed Ian back then?

The old man who guarded the tomb already had ghosts in his heart, and he walked around the statue for a long time. He was already panicked at this moment, and felt that the ghost that Wang Luan said was lying next to his ear had already run to him.

He desperately stretched out his hands, and patted his shoulders and ears to disperse them. What he could touch was the void, but he felt even colder, as if the ghost couldn't be driven away no matter how hard he tried.

He was terrified, and hurriedly grabbed Wang Luan's clothes, his cloudy eyes widened: "You, tell him quickly, don't come to me!"

Qi Chensheng frowned, took Wang Luan and took a few steps back, not letting the old man's dirty hands touch him.

Wang Luan didn't seem to care much, looked down at the old man lying on the ground, and asked, "You don't want him to come to you, so what are you doing here?"

The old man was trembling, unable to speak, but buried his face deeply, as if he could escape like this.

The slender gentleman's staff was tapping on the ground, Qi Chensheng stared at him with his broken eyes, and his voice was more harsh than Wang Luan's: "Don't want to say?"

Now the old man couldn't even shiver, his whole body seemed to be frozen from the cold, and after a long while he muttered, "I... this is Father Will, come and let me count the wine in the cellar."

"Really?" Qi Chensheng's words were even more coercive, but the old man gritted his teeth and refused to change his words no matter what.

Seeing this, Wang Luan silently thought about how to continue to press the question, but at this moment, he felt the tattoo under the collarbone start to burn again.

He subconsciously looked at the canary on his shoulder, a dazzling golden light suddenly appeared, covering the little bird, and thousands of broken feathers escaped from the tail of the light, flying long and floatingly to the ground.

Along with the feathers falling to the ground, and the almost transparent phantom of the young man, Ian finally gathered his strength again, transformed from a canary into a human form, and slowly walked from behind Wang Luan to the front of the old man. Looking down at the people on the ground.

"is it?"

"Are you really here to count the wine?"

The old man's body was shaken suddenly, and he raised his head in disbelief. Under the shroud of flowing golden light, he unconsciously grew his chapped mouth, and stared at Ian blankly.

"you--"

"you--"

Wang Luan suddenly felt an indescribable strangeness. The old man looked at Ian with no fear at all, but instead revealed anxiety and...greed.

Just as he thought, the next moment, the old man stood up suddenly, his old body almost made him fall back again, but he still held on, and staggered towards Ian, still talking in disbelief. Said.

"You, why did you come out?"

"Quick, go back! Don't let them see you, go back!"

Ian stood there indifferently, watching the old man's movements silently. The boy's body was just a phantom, and the old man couldn't touch it no matter what.

He waved his hands more and more crazily, seeing that he couldn't persuade Ian, he hit the two "intruders" again.

"Go! Go!"

"Go away!"

"No one wants to take him away!"

"He's here, it's mine, it's mine!"

Seeing that the old man was really going to fight, Qi Chensheng's gray eyes dimmed, he suddenly raised the gentleman's staff in his hand, and swung his backhand at his arm, taking advantage of the opportunity to throw the old man to the ground.

"Ah—" The old man couldn't stand it like this, and immediately curled up on the ground with his arms folded and writhed, the cloth towel wrapped around his head fell down, revealing his gray and messy hair.

At this time, Ian, who was standing quietly by the side, took another step, came to the old man, and bent down following the falling broken feathers.

"It's you."

"You tricked me into coming here."

His voice was very ethereal, light and unreliable, but hatred gradually emerged.

After hearing Ian's words, the old man couldn't care about the pain in his arm, and struggled to raise his head, looked at Ian and kept shaking his head: "No...no..."

"I, I didn't lie to you...I didn't!"

His throat hurt from screaming, but the old man kept saying, "I just want to keep you!"

"Ian, Ian...you are so beautiful, so good-looking...you have a nice voice, and you still smile at me..."

The old head was immersed in some kind of fantasy that didn't exist in the first place, and he kept murmuring: "You are the best person in this church, I saw you... saw your face, your face hands, to hear you sing in church, and to smell your clothes. Every day, every day, it would be great..."

"But why are you leaving!"

"I don't want you to go!" The old man's voice suddenly turned to anger, he kept shaking his head, and then raised his muddy hand tremblingly, wanting to touch Ian's clean face, but The moment he was about to touch it, Ian avoided it.

Ian stood up and looked down at the old man, the broken feathers on his body fell faster and faster.

The old man's ugly old face was reflected in his eyes, and it was deeply engraved in his heart, so that those memories that had been deliberately forgotten due to pain finally surged out again with hatred.

He finally remembered the crimes that took place under the Skoll Church, deep in the dark.