Hei Deng Xia Huo
Chapter 106 My Love (11)
The world of the dead is not as peaceful and quiet as people imagine, but full of incomprehensible strangeness.
Turn on the recorder, Steven. It contains what you need to say to yourself."
"..."
Li Ang frowned, looking at the psychic who had suddenly become melancholic.
The Explorer's title skill was working normally, revealing the secret deep in the other party's heart: "I don't want to die yet."
The other two middle-aged and elderly couples, Steven's parents, both had the secret, "Steven needs to kill her."
I don't want to die yet?
Judging from her appearance, this psychic was over seventy years old, somewhat old and decayed.
Not wanting to die might mean not wanting to die of natural causes.
Or it might mean that this abnormal event would pose a danger to her.
And Steven's parents next to her are very interesting...
Li Ang's mind raced, his expression still calm. After a moment of thought, he reached out and pressed the recorder button, continuing to play Steven's own recording.
"Steven, this is a recording for myself.
By the time I hear this recording, I should have already entered astral projection...
My wife, Mavis, and I were married, had children, until the accident happened...
She died, died of mental stress.
I was useless. In the last days of Mavis's life, her mental state was close to collapse, constantly crying and begging me to let her go, to leave here.
But I didn't have the courage to grant her wish. I was too cowardly.
After she died, I fell into pain and despair, but I had to be strong. We still had two children.
I took care of the children, explaining to them that their mother had gone to a place far, far away, peaceful and quiet.
But every night, I would cry silently alone.
When she came back from another world, I was so happy and joyful that I even took the initiative to try to contact her.
Talking to the air by the bed, talking to the piano that made sounds on its own, talking to the swing, naively thinking we could be like before.
I was wrong, terribly wrong.
She did come back from another world, in an even more insane state.
The house alarm kept ringing at night.
In the basement, the dolls that Mavis had collected in a locked, explosion-proof glass cabinet before her death would often be taken out by something and thrown on the ground.
The monitor in the children's bedroom constantly captured a slender black figure just standing there, staring at Robin and Lynn's bedside.
When I woke up in the morning, my legs would have many inexplicable scratches—scratches that I was very familiar with, from our long-dead black cat, Hope.
The situation quickly spiraled out of control.
Robin's school informed me that Robin had almost used a box cutter in class to dig out a classmate's and his own eyeballs.
The teacher tried to stop him but almost had a finger chopped off.
Afterward, he said he heard his mother's voice, that his mother told him to do it.
To protect my son and daughter, I tried to move.
But even if I took the children to New York, to Washington,
Even if I entrusted the children to my parents to raise,
Weird things would still continue to happen.
What's that saying? The bonds of family cannot be broken?"
In the recording, Steven chuckled bitterly and continued, "My parents offered me advice when I was at my wit's end.
They found a professional psychic who was said to have been recognized by the American Church.
She claimed to have a way to make Mavis give up harming us.
The way is to have me perform astral projection..."
Suddenly, a burst of static noise came from the recorder, drowning out Steven's words.
"Hmm?"
Li Ang raised an eyebrow.
The sound from the recorder was intermittent, unclear. After a while, it returned to normal.
"...Astral projection is actually having the psychic guide me, allowing my soul to enter the world of the dead. There, find Mavis.
The more angry and vicious a spirit is, the more powerful it will be in the world of the dead.
I don't know Mavis's condition, but if I don't do anything,
Robin and Lynn will definitely die.
And I absolutely cannot allow that to happen."
Static noise sounded again.
*Zzz, zzzzz, zzzzz—*
Li Ang narrowed his eyes, filtered out the static, and listened to the recording.
"...The world of the dead, also known as the spirit world, is based on the real world.
If the plan goes well, I will wake up in the house we live in.
I must protect my family.
This recording is to prevent my memory from becoming disordered after I wake up from astral projection.
Wish me luck, Steven."
Accompanied by the "Zzz—Zzz" of static,
The recording ended.
Li Ang looked at the tape that had stopped spinning inside the recorder's transparent plastic cover, frowned, leaned back, and lay down on the sofa, saying nothing.
"That's the whole truth of the matter."
The psychic took a deep breath and said to Li Ang, "Steven, your son and daughter are safe at your aunt and uncle's house.
I'm here to help you."
"Hmm."
Li Ang calmly nodded, glanced at the old psychic woman, and said peacefully, "What is your name, madam?"
"Just call me Barbara."
The psychic smiled. "Your father, Louis, and mother, Ada, are old friends of mine from many years ago. They're the ones who found me this time."
"Okay, Barbara."
Li Ang nodded and said, "Barbara, you're a psychic, right?
Your plan is to have Steven perform astral projection, find Steven, that is, my wife, Mavis, in the so-called spirit world, right?
What is Steven supposed to do after finding her?"
The old woman was stunned. "Huh?"
Li Ang said calmly, "According to the recorder, the more angry and vicious a spirit is, the more powerful it will be in the world of the dead.
Just now, in the spirit world, I encountered several fatal threats, and I didn't even see Mavis's face.
My memory was disordered at that time.
Was it you who called me out when I wanted to leave the spirit world?"
"Yes."
The old woman nodded. "I can roughly sense your state in the spirit world here and guide you.
The tattoo on your arm is what I provided."
"You can see me in the spirit world?"
Li Ang raised an eyebrow. "What about the flashlight in my hand?"
"That was also my help."
The old woman said, "In the spirit world, the living can never compete with the evil spirits of the dead.
From the outside world, I guide the goodness in your humanity to form a conceptual light,
Thus, temporarily sealing the evil spirit."
Li Ang asked, "Temporarily sealed, which means it can't be completely sealed?"
"That's right."
Barbara said with a bitter smile, "Among all the evil spirits I've encountered, Mavis, I'm sorry, your wife, is the most bizarre.
Her mental state was very unstable before she died, and even more bizarre after becoming a spirit.
Those strange phenomena in the house that you saw in the spirit world,
Such as the wooden dolls, the black cat, the dead rabbit doll, and even the mechanisms added to the room,
Are all extensions of her power."
Barbara paused after speaking. Li Ang followed her gaze.
He saw that there was no fingerprint-unlocked gate behind the living room of this house.
Barbara continued, "The only good news is that although she is very gloomy, she is generally lazy.
She often seals her main body in the bedroom on the second floor.
What you have to do is find her,
Find a way to make her stop harassing the living, that is, you and the children."
"How to stop her?"
Li Ang frowned. "You want me to reason with an evil spirit?"
"Uh... you could say that."
Barbara nodded. "Many times, evil spirits just retain their habits from when they were alive.
For example, the evil spirits of serial killers will continue to look for victims.
They don't even know they're dead.
When they are told the evidence that they are dead, the spirit will become, uh, become 'non-aggressive' because they can't accept reality.
And, Mavis essentially loves you too. If you can calm her down,
Tell her the truth,
There is a high probability that you can make her stop."
"Heh, tell the evil spirit to talk about materialism and not be superstitious?"
Li Ang grinned. "So, what if it doesn't work?"
"If it doesn't work..."
The psychic's expression became serious. She exchanged glances with Steven's parents and slowly said, "Then the only thing left is to destroy her."
"Destroy?"
Li Ang raised an eyebrow. "Evil spirits can be destroyed?"
"Evil spirits are subjective, they exist because they believe they exist. The things that killed them once can kill them again in the spirit world."
The psychic said, "Before Mavis died, she swallowed a large number of sleeping pills..."
"Wait,"
Li Ang interrupted, "You want me to find sleeping pills and feed them to the evil spirit?"
"No, no, no,"
The psychic said helplessly, "Evil spirits exist subjectively, they are conceptual things.
As long as they think something can kill them, that's enough.
After taking sleeping pills, Mavis tried to commit suicide with a small knife.
Her real cause of death was drug overdose. The knife was also taken away by the police as evidence.
However, before that happened, Mavis had tried to self-destruct.
She once tried to commit suicide with a gun in your house.
Because you found out and stopped her in time, she didn't succeed.
But that gun can be used as a weapon to kill Mavis."
"Oh."
Li Ang nodded. "Okay. So where is that gun?"
"According to what you said before, in the bedroom on the second floor."
Barbara said, "It won't work if you get the gun in the real world.
The spirit world is based on the real world, but it transcends the real world.
In the spirit world, you can only use the items of the spirit world itself.
That is to say, you need to enter the bedroom on the second floor of the house in the spirit world and get the gun."
"Wait."
Li Ang waved his hand. "If I remember correctly, Mavis is in the bedroom on the second floor, right?"
Barbara took a deep breath. "Yes, you can try to persuade her first and make her give up the intrusion.
If you can't, use the flashlight to temporarily seal her, and then get the gun."
Next to her, Steven's parents also said, "Steven, son, I know this is difficult for you.
You love your Mavis very much, but..."
"That's not important."
Li Ang waved his hand, directly interrupting Steven's parents, and said, "I want to know what you can use to prove that I am Steven."
"Ah?"
Steven's parents were stunned. The psychic Barbara was also stunned and subconsciously asked, "What?"
"Judging from the geographical location of this house, the expensive price of the clothes on you two, Steven's parents, and the luxurious decoration,
Steven's family should be quite rich, right?"
Li Ang said lightly, "My memory is disordered, and I don't remember who I am.
And judging from Barbara's performance, this seems to be a very normal phenomenon.
So how do you prove that I am Steven?
Instead of a scapegoat you hired with money?"
"Uh... what?"
It took Barbara a long time to react. "You suspect you're not Steven?"
"Not suspecting, just a reasonable hypothesis."
Li Ang said, "If I were rich, then the best strategy would undoubtedly be to spend money, such as millions of dollars, to hire professionals to serve me.
In the process of astral projection just now, I was chased by those strange things and almost lost my life.
But if I spend money,
Invite a dozen or twenty muscular men with strong blood, mercenary war wolves, urban management teams, redneck hunters,
Enter the astral plane together,
Tear down the house directly, hang up the weirdness and beat it up,
Find my wife and force her to sign a divorce agreement,
Isn't this easier and safer than me personally risking my life and struggling to survive in the astral plane?"
"This..."
Steven's parents were stunned when they heard this. They didn't know what to say at all.
"Also, don't say you don't have money."
Li Ang glanced at them and said lightly, "The recorder said just now that Steven himself moved frequently after the accident, to New York, Washington, etc.
And this house doesn't seem to have been sold or rented out.
Considering the superior geographical location of this community, it should be able to sell for hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars.
Besides, Steven still has you two rich parents.
Steven himself is stupid, why are you two upper-class people also stupid?
Comfort is for the rich,
How can you let yourself take risks?
You know, one person with no power to restrain a chicken is a horror movie,
A group of Arnold Schwarzeneggers, Jason Stathams, Dwayne Johnsons, that's an action movie."
"This, this..."
Barbara was also speechless and couldn't imagine a dozen muscular men lying in the house together and performing astral projection.
Are you spending money to hire people to form a team to go to a dungeon?
"Cough cough."
Barbara coughed and shook her head helplessly. "Steven, that's not how things are."
"Then how are they?"
Li Ang glanced at her and said unkindly, "Can't you do it, or don't you want to do it?
You claim to be a church-recognized psychic.
The whole of America is so big, there must be more than one psychic. Even if you can only let one person enter astral projection at a time,
Then can't you find more psychics?
Could it be that you covet my parents' inheritance and want me to die so you can get a piece of the pie?"