Chapter 118: Hallucination Ability? That’s Something I Totally Counter!
Wu Xie looked at the thin layer of gloves in Lao Yang’s hand, unable to imagine that this layer of fabric could isolate the eerie effect of this thing: “Are you sure it’s fine wearing gloves? Or… you just didn’t touch it long enough?”
Lao Yang laughed: “How could that be! This thing only—only temporarily weakens the branch’s effect. As soon as I-I touch it, I can feel something—a bit eerie around me!”
Even through gloves, just touching it would cause hallucinations? Wu Xie involuntarily moved a bit farther from that branch, his eyes vigilant: “Then why did you dig it out?”
Lao Yang smiled, slowly taking out the handgun from his lower back under Wu Xie and Lin Yan’s vigilant gazes, pulled out a cigarette, and pulled the trigger: “What, you guys aren’t thinking I’m going to kill someone, are you?”
Wu Xie and Lin Yan watched as he pointed the gun muzzle at himself, then… a flame shot out.
Damn it, even though Wu Xie didn’t know much about guns, he could tell this shape was definitely a handgun. Now telling him this thing was actually a lighter? No way, is this something a person could make?
Lao Yang looked at their shocked and suspicious eyes, exhaled some smoke, put the gun-shaped lighter back with his left hand, then flipped his right hand and magically pulled a crumpled envelope from his pocket: “Look at this, and you’ll know, know.”
Wu Xie hesitated a bit. He still didn’t know what Lao Yang’s goal was. Was this a trap? So he hesitated to take it. Lao Yang saw it, exhaled a puff of white mist and took another swig of alcohol: “What, you don’t even— even trust me anymore?”
Hearing this familiar tone, Wu Xie didn’t immediately believe him, but at least some of the lost trust came back. Thinking about it, what could Lao Yang want from him? If there was really something, there had been plenty of opportunities in the past ten-plus years! So though he rolled his eyes at Lao Yang: “Who told you to deceive me before.” But his hand honestly took the envelope.
Lin Yan leaned over to look too, but found he really couldn’t recognize the writing… “This isn’t Chinese, right?”
Wu Xie gave him a helpless look, feeling deep worry about his cultural level: “This is cursive script.”
Awkward. Though Lin Yan was a college graduate, being able to recognize regular script was already pretty good. Cursive script was beyond his knowledge range. The only thing he knew was Zhang Xu, called the “Sage of Cursive Script.” He was completely clueless about those modern so-called cursive script “masters”… To be honest, he didn’t recognize half the characters on it. The automatic simplified-traditional translation system Chinese people have for regular and clerical scripts seemed to malfunction on cursive script.
Not understanding this writing really wasn’t his fault!
But isn’t Wu Xie studying architecture? How is he so proficient?
Over there, Wu Xie had already looked up and asked Lao Yang: “This is what your cousin left for you? How did he know we were coming?”
Lao Yang shook his head. He had drunk about half of that flask: “I-I don’t know either?… That envelope suddenly appeared in my bag after we got—got off the car. Before that, there wasn’t a single—single movement. Very strange.”
Wu Xie didn’t dare think too deeply. He could accept zombies in this world, but if told there were really ghosts, he truly couldn’t accept it. So though a bit panicked, he could still convince himself that Lao Yang must have leaked the info while buying equipment, and maybe someone who knew his cousin ran into him and told him, leading to this envelope.
The envelope had only one line: “A Jie, absolutely don’t go back, there’s an evil ghost inside the tomb!”
Lao Yang’s surname was Jie, so it was certain this envelope was for Lao Yang. No chance of it being misdelivered.
Lin Yan next to him thought more deeply. From Wu Xie and Lao Yang’s tones, this envelope was from Lao Yang’s cousin who was sentenced to life imprisonment and locked in a mental hospital. If his cousin was really crazy, how was this envelope sent? Who told his cousin this news, and how did they make a mental patient normal again to write this envelope for Lao Yang?
But if his cousin was faking madness…
He glanced at the bronze rod by Lao Yang’s hand, and an idea bubbled up in his mind: Could all the supernatural things about the bronze tree be a setup? Starting from Lao Yang’s cousin, a interlocking scheme?
First, making someone go mad is easy; drugs can do it effortlessly. Small doses secretly in that cousin’s food could create the illusion that he gradually went mad after touching the bronze tree branch. Proving the bronze tree branch’s effect would be even simpler. For example, if someone kept telling their neighbor every day that there’s a person at their doorstep they can’t see, and acted like they could see it, after a long time, wouldn’t the neighbor really think there’s someone at the door?
Of course! This is just basic psychological suggestion and mild hypnosis. If the bronze tree branch didn’t have this effect, then what Lao Yang was doing now wasn’t planting in Wu Xie’s deep mind the fact that “the bronze tree is supernatural”? Then if something happened later, couldn’t it all be blamed on hallucinations from the bronze tree?
Of course, all this speculation rests on the condition that “the bronze tree branch is just an ordinary bronze branch.” But if what Lao Yang said was true… then maybe only the first half holds.
Someone knew Lao Yang was preparing to go to Qinling Mountains, so they secretly communicated with the cousin to dissuade him! Or rather, dissuade Wu Xie! What exactly is fishy about that Qing Dynasty tomb in Qinling Mountains to make them do this?
Lin Yan’s gaze slowly fixed on the bronze tree branch. He felt that to crack these riddles, the first thing to confirm was the authenticity of this branch. And even if the branch really caused hallucinations, it seemed he countered it perfectly? Leaving aside his bloodline, he still had the bronze bell!
So the current problem is, how to get the branch from Lao Yang? Didn’t he not even let Wu Xie touch it earlier?
Thinking of this, Lin Yan quietly tugged Wu Xie’s sleeve. When he turned his head, Lin Yan gave him a look, but curiously asked: “If you can read it, tell me, what does this sentence say? I really can’t read a single character.”
At the same time, with his eyes he asked Wu Xie: Think of a way, can you get the branch from Lao Yang? I want to confirm if that branch really has the hallucinatory power he claims!
Wu Xie thought for a bit, nodded slightly to him, and said: “It’s nothing much, just says for Lao Yang absolutely not to come back, there’s an evil ghost inside the tomb!”
Lin Yan jumped in fright, his attention temporarily pulled back from the branch: “There really is a ghost?” But he recalled what Lao Yang had boasted to him over an hour ago: “Didn’t Lao Yang not touch it back then?”
