The ancestral home of the Lu family is located in the suburbs of Qingzhou Prefecture, covering an area of more than 50 acres. It is divided into three roads: middle, east and west. Each road is a five-entry courtyard with more than 200 large and small rooms.
According to the description in the book, Gu Xu knew that this place was once the most magnificent place in the entire Jiaodong Province.
Five steps to the first floor, ten steps to the pavilion; the waist of the corridor is unobtrusive, and the eaves and teeth are high.
There are countless maids and servants, and there is an endless stream of guests coming and going.
It can be said that "the palace of gods in Kinmen and Yuhu, the home of concubines in Guidian and Lan Palace".
But now, this magnificent mansion has become deserted.
The vermilion door has faded and the metal door knocker is rusty.
The surrounding gray grass, white dead trees, empty windows, and dilapidated walls add to the gloomy and dull atmosphere of the place.
Gu Xu and Chu Fengge got off the carriage and walked towards the gate of Lu Mansion one after another.
A dilapidated plaque hangs crookedly above its gate, with the four powerful characters "Scholarly Family" written on it.
Gu Xu knew that these four characters were written by the late emperor himself decades ago - at that time, the Lu family was full of royal family members and prosperous like flowers blooming brocade and fire spewing oil.
Who would have thought that decades later, this huge family would collapse like a building and be lost in history?
Gu Xu was silent for a few seconds, put the "substitute bracelet" that Luo Si first gave him on his wrist, held the "Ghost Killing Talisman" and "Breaking Sky Bead" tightly in his hand, and then said to the people around him Chu Fengge said: "Master Chu, let's go in!"
Chu Fengge took a deep breath.
Although the expression on Chu Fengge's face was very calm, Gu Xu noticed that the hair on his neck stood up at some point.
"Master Chu, are you afraid?" Gu Xu asked with concern.
“You’re the one who’s afraid!” Chu Fengge snorted coldly.
After that, he put his hands behind his back and walked into the Lu family's haunted house through the door with his head held high.
Gu Xu smiled, followed his pace, and walked in.
…………
After entering the Lu residence, the two of them first saw a tall screen wall, which majestically blocked their sight.
There is a colorful mural on the screen wall - if Gu Xu saw it correctly, it should be a scene of a group of dignitaries drinking and having fun in the garden.
Gu Xu once read in a Feng Shui book that the evil spirits of ghosts usually come and go in a straight line - and building a screen wall inside the courtyard gate can block external ghosts to a certain extent.
"Unfortunately, the ghost this time should be inside the mansion. This screen wall is of no use." Gu Xu thought silently.
Then the two walked around the screen wall and entered the hanging flower door.
On both sides are the chaoshou verandas, and in the middle is the hall.
The hall is a hall that communicates the front and rear courtyards and allows people to walk through.
In the center there is a fallenThe dusty screen on the ground has become tattered by the erosion of time.
On the pillars of this corridor, there is a short couplet hanging -
First couplet: Bamboo, rain, pines, wind and moon;
Lower face: The sound of tea, smoke, piano, and books.
"It is indeed a famous literary youth family throughout the country!" Seeing this couplet, Gu Xu couldn't help but sigh in his heart, "This couplet is really literary and artistic!"
But At the same time, his mood became more solemn.
If he had to use two words to describe the feeling of this dilapidated mansion for Gu Xu, it would be "too quiet" and "too ordinary".
They walked through the two courtyards without seeing any trace of ghosts, nor any figures or corpses of the missing monks from the Exorcism Department.
Not to mention any clues related to the "Jinghong Pen" or the "Frost" curse.
Only saw gray walls, dead trees and branches, collapsed screens, broken porcelain, and fluffy moss under the eaves.
Their breathing and footsteps are the only sounds in the courtyard.
"Master Chu, did you find any clues when you came here last time?" Gu Xu asked Chu Fengge while observing the surroundings carefully.
Chu Fengge did not answer.
His eyes were staring straight ahead, his lips were trembling slightly, and his handsome face was bloodless.
Gu Xu had never seen Chu Fengge look so out of sorts.
"How terrible did Mr. Chu see when he came to this haunted house last time?" Gu Xu secretly speculated in his heart, "How could it leave such a deep psychological shadow on him?"
He frowned slightly, grabbed the talisman in his pocket with his right hand, and prepared to walk towards the hall to look for clues to the "Frost Melt" spell.
However, at this moment, a change occurred.
In the deserted courtyard, the sad and melancholy sound of the cave flute suddenly sounded.
His voice is whining, like resentment, admiration, weeping and complaining.
There seems to be a magical power that can make people recall sad past events and shed tears uncontrollably.
Gu Xu's mind immediately recalled a description in the information: "...In addition to poetry, Lu Shiyao, the concubine of the Lu family, is also proficient in music and is especially good at playing the flute. She once performed a song "" at a banquet. "Burial of Snow" made all the guests burst into tears and their clothes were wet..."
"Could it be that the person who caused trouble in this mansion is really Lu Shiyao's dead soul?" Gu Xu silently guessed.
As the flute sounded, frightening changes also occurred in the house.
The sun's rays disappeared instantly.
The vision of the two became dim.
The surrounding walls, windows, columns, eaves, etc. all rotted and fell to the ground like mud, and like pieces of paper that had been roughly torn apart, they quickly decayed and decayed.
Subsequently, these scenery all turned into ice sculptures and icicles, the ground is covered with snow and scattered with frozen corpses.
Gu Xu felt a strong chill rush into his bones.
According to common sense, as a practitioner, he can use his true energy to withstand the severe cold - even in the coldest winter, he does not feel the slightest chill.
But now, the cold air in Lu's haunted house made him shiver uncontrollably, his ears hurt, his lips were black and blue, and his fingers became extremely stiff, almost losing consciousness.
"Gu...Gu Xu, look at the couplet in front of you!" Chu Fengge pointed forward, his voice trembling because of the cold, "It...it has changed." !"
Gu Xu immediately looked in the direction he pointed.
I saw that the poetic and picturesque "bamboo rain, pines, wind and moonlight, the sound of tea, smoke, piano and books" had long since disappeared without a trace.
In its place, there is a scrawled couplet written in blood-red handwriting——
First couplet: The sea of suffering is boundless and there is a shore;
Second couplet: There is no door to hell. It's your own fault.
"There is no door to hell..."
Seeing this word, Gu Xu immediately turned his head.
Then he discovered that the door behind him had long since disappeared.
…………
Notes:
(1) “Five steps to the first floor, ten steps to the pavilion; "——"A Fang Gong Fu" by Du Mu of the Tang Dynasty
(2) "There is no end to the sea of suffering, and there is no way out of hell." - "Illustrated Book of Cause and Effect: Picture of Hell in Disguise"