Deserted Village Apartments

Chapter 18 No.15
There was a special smell in the corridor of the mental hospital, and the sunlight came in from a window on one side, which didn't seem to be in harmony with the imaginary atmosphere.But a muscular male orderly brushes past me and lets me know that this is still a special place.

I gently pushed open a ward, only to see a young girl curled up under the warm sunshine, her name is Chunyu.

Last night, Ye Xiao told me that Chun Yu had been found and taken to the hospital.So I decided to go and see her, whether out of sympathy or duty, and whether she was really crazy or not.

The doctor told me just now that Chunyu was unconscious when she was brought in yesterday, and she couldn’t answer any questions, she was murmuring what she was talking about, maybe she was overly frightened, so she became schizophrenic.The doctor didn't expect me to get anything out of her mouth, he thought that Chun Yu might have to go through a long treatment to recover.

Now, Chunyu slowly raised her head, the way she stared at me was like a lamb before slaughter, so desperate and helpless.My heart trembled slightly, am I that scary?However, would she be where she is today without my novel "Desolate Village"?Thinking of this, I bowed my head speechless.

Unexpectedly, Chun Yu spoke first: "You are finally here."

"Did you know I'm coming?" Or have you been waiting for me to show up?
"Yes, I know you will come to me. Tell me, are all three of them dead?"

Strange, didn't the doctor say she was crazy?However, now her tone of voice is steady and calm, and her look and expression are also normal, without any signs of mental illness.

Facing her question, I am in a bit of a dilemma. If I tell the news of Su Tianping's death, will it irritate her?I could only force a smile and say, "Don't worry too much, you're very safe here."

"Forget it, I know where this is." She spoke in a more mature tone, as if she was no longer that little girl, "You must have come to ask me, what happened in the deserted village?"

"Maybe so, but I already know something."

"Su Tianping told you?"

"Yes, I talked to him."

But Chun Yu shook his head and said, "Then you still don't know something."

"What's the matter?"

Her eyes were suddenly in a daze, and she paused for a moment before she could speak: "That well—"

"well?"

My heartbeat quickened immediately.

"Yes, there is a well in the backyard of Jinshidi, about the secret of that well." Chun Yu's breathing became a little short, she smoothed the hair on her forehead and said, "The day before leaving the barren village, Su Tianping and Han Xiaofeng stayed in the Jinshi Building, while Huo Qiang and I went for a walk outside the old house. We inquired about an old man among the villagers. We heard that he was the oldest person in the deserted village. familiar."

"Have you found the old man?"

"Yes, this old man has gray hair and a big beard. He is at least over 80 years old. Like other villagers in the deserted village, he looked at us strangely, and then told us a story about a pawned wife—— "

"Wife?"

"Do you know what the pawn wife means?"

"Yes, I know, go ahead."

"In the early years of the Republic of China, Ouyang's family in the deserted village was very rich, but Mr. Ouyang had no children for many years, so he rented a poor man's wife as a pawn wife. Later, the pawn wife gave birth to a son for the master, but she always wanted to have a son. After escaping from Jinshidi and meeting her former husband and son, the master locked her in the backyard. Finally, one day, the pawn wife escaped from Jinshidi and was about to fly away, but was caught by the Ouyang family. The master decided to use the last severely punish her."

"Chen Jing—"

I slowly spit out these two words.

Chun Yu was obviously surprised: "You know this story?"

"Yes, the pawn wife was sunk in the ancient well. From then on, no one dared to go to the backyard again."

Suddenly, I thought of Xiaoqian, she also told me this story, obviously this story should be true.

Chun Yu continued: "But you must not know that the old man who told us the story is the son of that pawn."

"The son of the pawn wife?"

"It's the son born to the pianist's wife before she entered the Ouyang family. The old man said he hated the Ouyang family very much. In fact, all the people in the barren village don't like Jinshi. After 1949, the Ouyang family fell, and no one paid attention to them." Home, this family guards the old house like a lonely ghost, the number of people is getting rarer and rarer, and now it seems that it is completely extinct."

I sighed: "This is the retribution in the dark."

Chun Yu nodded, and she seemed to have difficulty speaking: "Besides... the old man also said that the barren village was a... leprosy village in ancient times."

"Leprosy Village?"

This is the first time I've heard of it.As for my statement in the novel "The Deserted Village" that the people in the deserted village were immigrants from the north after the Jingkang Change in the Song Dynasty, it was entirely out of my fiction.

"Yes, in ancient times, lepers were discriminated against. They were kicked out of their homes and wandered around pitifully. Many lepers gathered together in order to survive, and traveled long distances to this desolate coast, and named their place a deserted village. .However, before they arrived here, there had been a family that had settled here for generations, and that was the Ouyang family."

"The Ouyang family lived with the leprosy patients and formed a deserted village together?"

"But I don't know why, no one in Ouyang's family was infected with leprosy. Most of the leprosy patients from outside can live to the age of death, raise children, and pass on their offspring. After more than ten generations of reproduction, leprosy The disease gradually disappeared from the barren village."

"It's unbelievable. Leprosy was considered a terminal disease in ancient times. No one can cure this disease."

"That's true, so hundreds of years have passed, and very few people dare to enter the leprosy village."

"This is also the reason why the barren village is isolated and conservative, isn't it?"

"Yes, but it's not just these." Suddenly, Chun Yu's eyes became strange, "For hundreds of years, there have been such legends in the barren village-there is a big unknown secret hidden somewhere in the barren village. , all foreign intruders will be cursed by this secret."

I suddenly took a deep breath, looked at Chun Yu's strange expression, and said slowly, "Will all intruders be cursed?"

"That's right, none of them can escape."

Chun Yu's answer was decisive.

But the problem is - I'm also a "foreign intruder".

I felt as if I had been hit by something, and I was stunned for a while, lowered my head involuntarily, and fell into deep thought.

However, Chun Yu seemed to be possessed by a demon, repeating the same sentence in his mouth: "None can escape...none can escape...none can escape..."

Unbelievable, she looks like a little witch now, and the words in her mouth are like ancient spells, repeating in my ears non-stop.I looked at her face nervously and said loudly: "Chunyu, what's wrong with you, wake up quickly."

"None can escape...none can escape...none can escape..."

She seemed to have become another person, her eyes were staring blankly at the front, her head was shaking according to the words in her mouth, the shaking frequency was getting faster and faster, which made my head dizzy, and I quickly called out to the nurse .

At this time, with the violent shaking of Chunyu, the pendant hidden in her arms jumped out.In an instant, my eyes seemed to be stung by something - the pendant was a jade ring.

I couldn't care less about Chun Yu's madness anymore, and stared straight at the jade ring on her chest—it showed a strange color, which made my eyes shake with her.

Several strong male nurses rushed in, and finally subdued Chunyu, and then a nurse gave her an injection.During Chun Yu's fierce struggle, the pendant rope around her neck broke, and the jade ring fell to the ground.I immediately bent down to pick up the jade ring, and stepped aside to look at Chunyu.

After about 10 minutes, the nurses exited the room.Chun Yu finally regained her composure and looked at me with a tired face.

I shook the jade ring at her and said, "I'm sorry, your things fell out."

Chun Yu narrowed his eyes, looked at the jade ring for a while and said, "No, it's not mine, you can take it away."

"Then whose is it?"

She said in a strange voice: "It belongs to the deserted village."

"Desolate village?"

I took a closer look at this jade ring, it was slightly thicker than ordinary rings, it was mainly translucent turquoise, but on the side of the ring, there was a weird dark red.

In an instant, my hand seemed to be touched by electricity, and I recalled what Su Tianping said in my mind.That's right, they broke into a mysterious underground palace in a barren village. In the innermost secret room of the underground palace, they found a mysterious jade letter containing a jade ring.

——This jade ring is exactly the same as what Su Tianping described.

Suddenly, I stared at Chun Yu and said, "This jade ring should be in the underground secret room of the deserted village?"

She looked a little scared and nodded immediately.

"At that time, Huo Qiang's flashlight was smashed, so you took advantage of the darkness to steal this jade ring from the secret room?"

"Yes, you can take it away." Chun Yu said tremblingly, her eyes were so indifferent.

At this time, the nurses came in suddenly, and they helped Chunyu to send her to the inpatient area.Chun Yu was very obedient and walked out, but when she reached the door, as if she suddenly remembered something, she turned around and said to me: "There is another photo——"

"What picture?"

I immediately rushed to her side, but the nurse grabbed her hand and pulled her out.Chun Yu grabbed the door frame with his other hand and said hastily, "A photo about a deserted village was taken away by Han Xiaofeng."

Before I could answer, Chun Yu had already been dragged into the corridor by the nurse. She forcibly turned her head to look at me, showing a strange expression, and quickly disappeared from my sight.

I stood alone at the door, recalling Chun Yu's last words, my body seemed to be frozen by something.

At this moment, that little jade ring is tightly clutched in my palm.

Slowly spread my palms, some beads of sweat were sticking to the jade ring, I gently wiped off these beads of sweat, it felt like panning for gold in water.Suddenly, out of some instinct, I put the jade ring on the tip of my finger, and just as I was about to put it on tentatively, my cell phone rang suddenly.

I shivered, stuffed the jade ring into my pocket, and then picked up the phone.

A magnetic female voice rang from the phone: "Hi, I'm Nie Xiaoqian."

is her?I hadn't seen her for a few days, and when I heard her voice suddenly, I felt an indescribable feeling in my heart, and I said foolishly, "Where are you?"

"I was in the subway bookstore where I met last time, so where are you?"

"Psychiatric hospital."

"My God? They locked you in?"

Anyone who heard such an answer would probably faint.I also secretly said with a smile: "I'm sorry, I didn't make it clear just now. I am visiting a patient in a mental hospital."

"Hey, you can't go to that kind of place casually."

That's when I tentatively asked, "Can we talk now?"

"Okay, I'll wait for you in the bookstore, but you have to hurry up, or I can't wait and I'm leaving."

"Row."

After finishing the call, I quickly ran out of the room, leaving only the sound of hurried footsteps echoing in the corridor of the mental hospital.

After leaving the mental hospital, it only took me 10 minutes to arrive at the bookstore in the subway.

When I stepped into the bookstore panting and looking for Xiaoqian among the rows of bookshelves, I suddenly heard a small voice behind me: "You are late."

I let out a sigh of relief, and when I turned around, I saw Xiaoqian. She was wearing a black dress and her hair was tied up in a ponytail. She looked a little different from last time.

"Who do you go to see in a mental hospital?" She asked me in a special pose.

"Spring rain."

"The female college student who went to the deserted village?"

"She's crazy."

Xiaoqian's expression became serious: "Why?"

"I don't know. Of the four college students who went to the deserted village, two died one after another after returning to Shanghai. The other boy also disappeared, and his life and death are unknown now. Chunyu has gone crazy and was locked up in a mental hospital. "

"It was like a nightmare."

"That's right, it's just a nightmare." I sighed softly, and Chun Yu's voice seemed to be heard again in my ears, "Just now in the mental hospital, Chun Yu told me a story about a deserted village—the pawn wife and the well. Yes, the story she heard in the deserted village is exactly the same as the one you told me."

Xiaoqian nodded and said confidently, "Now you should trust me, right?"

"Well, I believe you. Chun Yu also told me that there is a secret hidden in the barren village, and all outsiders who enter the barren village will be cursed by this secret." I stared at her His eyes asked, "Xiaoqian, is this true?"

She seemed a little scared, avoiding my eyes and said: "I don't know... I don't know... I'm sorry, I suddenly feel flustered."

I suddenly lowered my head and asked, "What's the matter? Are you feeling unwell?"

"No, no, don't make random guesses." She cut me off firmly.

"Well, I won't ask any more questions, you'd better go back and rest early."

As we talked, we had already reached the door of the bookstore, and she said flatly, "Then where are you going?"

"I'm taking the subway now to go to Chunyu's university."

Xiaoqian seemed to be excited again: "What are you doing there?"

"There is a photo related to the barren village. According to Chun Yu just now, that photo was taken by Han Xiaofeng."

"Then let's go."

As she said that, she walked out, and I was a little confused: "Go? Where are you going?"

"Go to that university, didn't you say you want to find that photo? I'll go with you."

I was overwhelmed by this answer, and I said with some embarrassment: "What are you going to do? This matter has nothing to do with you."

"As long as it is related to the deserted village, I must participate, let's go—"

Xiaoqian pulled me to the ticket gate of the subway, and I asked in a daze, "Then you don't go to work at the ice cream shop today?"

"It's still a part-time job anyway, so it doesn't matter if you don't go for a day occasionally."

As she was talking, she had already passed through the ticket gate, and she turned to me and said, "Are you going or not, or I will go by myself."

So, I could only bite the bullet and walked in, and walked to the platform with her.

While waiting for the bus, I suddenly asked softly, "You will regret it."

She replied coldly: "No, the one who regrets is you."

The subway train came whistling, we hurried into the carriage, but suddenly fell silent, letting the train take our bodies through the tunnel at high speed.

I didn't say a word all the way, just stared blankly at the front window, in the dark tunnel, our faces floated on the window glass, I felt she was looking at me, but I couldn't see clearly Her eyes were like looking at a blurry mirror, and there was a person hidden behind the mirror.

After more than 20 minutes, we returned to the ground and came to Chunyu's university.

When I found Han Xiaofeng's dormitory and wanted to take a look at the things she left behind, a teacher stopped us. It must be that the death of Huo Qiang and Han Xiaofeng made the school very nervous and did not dare to let more people know.

In desperation, I can only boast that I am Han Xiaofeng's relative and I want to take her belongings away.But the teacher said that Han Xiaofeng's belongings had been sorted out and handed over to her family members.

Xiaoqian and I walked out of the girls' building in disappointment, and suddenly a few girls walked up to us, holding the fourth issue of "Sprouting" in their hands.I hastily stopped them cheekily and told them that I was the author of the novel "Desolate Village" and that I wanted to ask them about Han Xiaofeng's situation.

Unexpectedly, they all liked the novel "Desolate Village" very much, and immediately talked a lot around me, leaving Xiaoqian aside.However, when I asked about Han Xiaofeng, they all became frightened, and no one dared to speak anymore.

However, when I was about to leave, a girl suddenly stopped me: "I remembered, Han Xiaofeng still has a storage box, I'll take you there."

Xiaoqian and I followed the girl, left the dormitory area, and walked into the lobby of a building.On the side of a wide corridor, there are many storage boxes inlaid, which are about the size of letter boxes.The girl recognized Han Xiaofeng's box at a glance, because Han Xiaofeng's name was pasted on the box.

Then, the girl quietly left.

Facing Han Xiaofeng's name on the box, I murmured, "But what if we don't have the key?"

But Xiaoqian reached out and pulled the door of the box, and actually opened the small storage box.

However, I still shook my head and said, "After Han Xiaofeng died, the school must have opened this box. It seems we won't find anything again."

"Let me take a look."

Xiaoqian reached into the box, but only found out a large mass of waste newspapers. It seemed that everything of value had been taken away.But she still didn't give up, and seemed to be groping around inside the storage box. Suddenly, she frowned slightly, and took out a photo from the box.

"It's stuck on top of the innermost layer," she gasped.

"No wonder it wasn't discovered by the school."

I took the photo from Xiaoqian, and found that it was an old black and white photo, the color was a little yellowish, and it felt crunchy in my hand, as if it would break easily.

The photo is a family portrait of a family, there are five people in total - an elderly couple sitting in the front row, both seem to be in their 70s, the old man is lean and lean, wearing a long gown, with long beard and hair It was also worn very long, and it looked very old-fashioned; the old woman was wearing a cheongsam, with a lot of powder on her face, she was as pale as a zombie.There should be a young couple in the back row. The man looks like he is 27 or 20 years old. He is wearing a neat suit and looks elegant, just like the young master in "The Family of Gold Fans". Holding a baby in swaddling clothes, she was wearing a short-sleeved cheongsam popular in the Republic of China, revealing a pair of white and tender arms like lotus root. Her face was thin and beautiful, and her eyes were slightly melancholy. She didn't look like a plump young mother. .

Xiaoqian and I were both stunned. It seemed that the characters in this photo looked at us as if they still had some kind of life, especially the young woman with the baby in her arms. Her strange eyes seemed to be able to penetrate The time of this old photo.I couldn't help but said to myself: "Strange, how can I feel this way?"

Look carefully at the background in the photo, it seems to be in a spacious living room, there seems to be a piano behind it, there is a large fireplace on the wall, and there are several wall lamps on it.

The one with a fireplace must be an old-fashioned bungalow, but it is impossible to have such a house in a barren village?
Suddenly, Xiaoqian turned the photo over, and I found words on the back of the photo, which seemed to be written with some kind of black paint——

"Photographed in a deserted village apartment in Shanghai on April 37, [-]"

I read this sentence softly, and in the middle of reading it, I suddenly felt a little hairy on my back.

Xiaoqian also opened her eyes wide, and said in a daze, "My God, maybe we really found something."

"Wait a minute, let's calm down for a moment—the 37th year of the Republic of China? Converted to AD, it would be 1948. The Gregorian calendar was used during the Republic of China. April [-]th in the Gregorian calendar should be Qingming Festival."

"This photo was taken on Qingming Festival in 1948?"

I nodded, but then frowned again: "It's just——what exactly is the Shanghai Deserted Village Apartment?"

"At least in Shanghai."

"Chun Yu said that this is a photo about the deserted village. It should be more than just the four words 'a deserted village apartment'. This photo must have been found in the old residence of the Jinshi in the deserted village, and then it was put away by Han Xiaofeng. She will The photos were brought back to Shanghai and carefully hidden in this storage box."

Xiaoqian seemed to understand all of a sudden: "So, the five people in this family photo must be the Ouyang family?"

"That's right, this should be the family portrait taken by Ouyang's family in Shanghai. I didn't expect that Ouyang's family in the deserted village lived in Shanghai."

"And there is an apartment in a deserted village in Shanghai." Xiaoqian added.

I felt a headache again. Looking at this old black and white photo, I felt an indescribable strange feeling in my heart.So I put the photo away, carefully tucked it in my notebook, and stuffed it into my bag.

Finally, Xiaoqian and I left here and walked out of the campus before dark.Although we found this picture, we were all very depressed.Maybe every time there is a new discovery, it means that there is a more difficult and dangerous road to go between us and the secrets of the deserted village.

Where exactly is the "Desolate Village Apartment"?

(End of this chapter)