The goal has been clarified, but the difficulty is soaring vertically.
"Brother?" The boss called me again, breaking my trance.
"I'm just interested in that kind of frame, or if there's anyone selling such stuff, you can contact me. Let's exchange contacts, the price doesn't matter." I replied with a firm tone.
The boss hesitated for a moment before saying, "There really is... but it's something a friend of mine left here. It was supposed to be picked up by the customer from me, but the person hasn't been here for three days, brother, would you take a look?"
My pupils slightly shrank.
In fact, what I said was just an evasion, and I had no intention of buying anything else.
But I didn't expect that it would turn out to be a case of making a bad situation worse.
"Let's see," I replied.
The boss, however, seemed somewhat uneasy and glanced briefly at Ju Ying and Zhao Lin.
"No problem, boss, we're pretty bold. We wouldn't shop at vintage stores if we didn't have the courage," Ju Ying said with a smile.
Zhao Lin, on the other hand, seemed to become increasingly awkward, as if he had no idea where to put his hands.
"You stay in the car and wait for us," I told Zhao Lin.
Without needing to be reminded, Ju Ying handed the keys to Zhao Lin.
She thanked me profusely and nodded forcefully, before hurrying out of the vintage store.
The boss finally led us deeper into the store.
At the far end of the store, there are two doors. One is a changing room, and the other is draped with a curtain.
When I lifted the curtain, there was a room without windows, and the faint corpse smell became even stronger.
Even Ju Ying seemed to have noticed something, subtly raising her nose.
The clothes hanging in the room are all sealed with bags.
The boss took down a deep gray suit bag and placed it on the long table in the center of the room, pulled open the zipper.
What caught my eye was a set of very clean, comfortable, and neat suits.
I could see a faint gray mist, and the cold sensation was surprisingly similar to the chilly and lifeless atmosphere of an unfinished building!
"Mr. Kang says he's an atheist and doesn't believe in spirits... but, brother, I have to clarify something to you. Although this suit wasn't taken off a dead person, it's the favorite suit of the dean. He doesn't want to wear it and has been keeping it at home as a treasure. It's worth a lot of money, like this." The boss made a gesture.
"I heard from my friend that the person who made the appointment was involved in the business of collecting and selling deathward talismans, particularly focusing on these dead people's clothes. The deadlier ones are better, as they can be used to make talismans that yield great profits. If you can't suppress it, it's best not to buy... " The boss carefully explained.
I reached out, grabbed the zipper, and swished it shut, closing the suit bag.
The boss was taken aback, clearly disappointed with the result.
"Can you help me pay for it? I didn't bring enough money, and I'll pay you back after I go home." I glanced at Ju Ying.
Then, there was another flash of surprise in the boss's eyes.
He quickly added, "Brother, items like this don't come with returns or exchanges. Are you sure you don't want to take another look?"
"No need," I shook my head.
Ju Ying didn't say much; she took out a delicate pink card case and handed the boss a card.
We left the vintage store with the suit bag in hand.
In an instant, dusk had arrived. The setting sun was inching down to the west, and the sky's light was fading steadily. In the distance, nightfall was rapidly enveloping and devouring the sky.
Suddenly, Ju Ying glanced to the left, her pretty face showing a hint of chill.
I looked over as well, and saw a thin man standing by the side of the road, holding an empty birdcage. It was Sun DaHai!
In the next moment, Sun DaHai quickly made his way towards us.
My heart sank slightly, and I became expressionless.
However, Sun DaHai was coming towards Ju Ying.
"Ha ha, I'm sorry to disturb you, I'm Sun, Sun DaHai," he stopped in front of us and said with a bright smile: "Can I ask for a contact number without being impolite?"
"This is because, Miss, you look a lot like someone my son admires. I'm asking for it on his behalf."
"You also know it's impolite?" Ju Ying's tone was much colder, giving Sun DaHai a cold look.
She wrapped her arm around mine, walked straight to the side of the road. She let go of me and entered the driver's seat. I got in the co-pilot seat.
Zhao Lin at the back saw that we had returned and let out a sigh of relief.
Ju Ying quickly put the accelerator.
I glanced out of the window and saw that Sun DaHai was still watching our car. He slightly tilted his head, looking at us with a bewildered expression.
My heart sank even further.
It's likely that Sun DaHai wasn't paying much attention to me at first.
But, as he was leaving the vintage store, he kept looking at Ju Ying.
Ju Ying seemed somewhat unnatural in her demeanor at the time.
Even more, Sun DaHai didn't leave and waited outside the store, still wanting Ju Ying's contact information...
He also said that Ju Ying looked a lot like someone his son admires.
The person Sun Zhuo likes...
Sun DaHai must have seen him.
It's impossible that it was just because she looked like someone else, so he came to get her contact information.
As the car moved on, the silhouette of Sun DaHai quickly disappeared from the window.
"Zhao Lin, I'll send you back first. Your Tang brother will deal with your brother's matter as soon as possible, so don't worry." Ju Ying opened her mouth softly, breaking the silence in the car.
Zhao Lin replied softly that it was good.
Not long after, we arrived at Caoxi Road, Fanghua Community.
When Zhao Lin got out of the car, she still thanked us.
Ju Ying pursed her lips, and the chill on her face deepened. There was also a hint of resentment in her eyes.
"You have a younger sister, or a sister? Do you know Sun Zhuo? Even have a close relationship with him?" I asked.
Ju Ying's body trembled slightly, and she closed her eyes.
"Foes always cross paths," Ju Ying bit her lower lip and her voice carried a hint of hatred.
"I'll tell you about it, but for now, you should focus on dealing with the abandoned building. Don't look for Sun DaHai in a hurry. The whole family is quite sinister, and he will probably notice your familiar face."
"Mm."
I nodded, not asking Ju Ying any more questions.
"Where should we go now?"
"No need to go anywhere," I replied to Ju Ying while laying the suit bag on the co-pilot's platform and opening the zipper.
The gray mist grew thicker as the night deepened.
The smell of corpse became even stronger and could be clearly smelled.
Ju Ying covered her mouth and nose, and opened the window.
My eyelids were pounding violently, and I said in a hoarse voice, "This is an authentic dead person's clothing, taken straight from a corpse. If the store owner isn't lying to us, then he's been deceived by his friend. And it's not just a piece of dead person's clothing..."
I clenched my index finger.
However, the wound on my index finger had already healed.
I took out a razor blade and cut my left index finger.
"What are you doing?" Ju Ying's phoenix eyes also showed surprise and confusion.
"Let me try."
I pressed the tip of my left index finger against the collar of the inner shirt of the suit.
The stinging sensation was more than ten times stronger than when I felt Tang Qianqian. It was as if fine steel needles were piercing my index finger flesh, or as if the biting cold of winter pierced my body repeatedly, making my finger stiff.
In a daze, the gray mist seemed to be like a pair of tiny hands, climbing out of the suit and then onto my body.
My vision was blurry and overlapping, and everything around me disappeared.
I could hear a faint tapping sound, and my fingers no longer felt numb and painful but instead a sudden tremble.
I saw an empty room with four white walls and a bed in the center.
My peripheral vision also caught a glimpse of a hand, gently tapping on a desk.
The trembling sensation that came from my index finger was slight, as if the wooden tremor had originated there.
The next moment, my vision seemed to rise and move towards the wall beside the end of the bed.
There was a very large mirror facing the wall.
A person appeared in the mirror.
A man of average stature, dressed in a very clean, comfortable, and tidy suit.
His hair was neatly short, but he had deep creases on his neck. His face was pale, with wrinkles all over. His eyes were dark and reddish, and there were marks from glasses on his temples. However, there were no glasses now.
The old man in the mirror kept leaning forward as if he was trying to push through the frame.
And my gaze was continuously drawn closer to the mirror's surface.
The eyes in the mirror were almost touching my line of sight.
It was evident that I had sensed the old man, who was looking at himself in the mirror.
In the mirror, the old man pressed his index fingers against his eyes, pulling back his eyelids very wide.
He seemed to be carefully examining his eyes, as if something had appeared in them...
I could clearly see his dark red pupils and every blood vessel on his red-tinged sclera.
I could even see his shadow reflected in the pupil, his image inverted.
No, it's not just his shadow. At the deepest part of the reflected image, there is a face...
Suddenly, the smile on the old man's face widened.
"I see you."
It's hard to describe the voice, it sounds very gentle, like a skilled doctor who is particularly friendly to his patients.
But intuition told me that the voice was insincere, as if it was trying to deceive someone.
"I see you, come out!" His tone suddenly became harsh, shrill, and he violently pinched his right eye!
