The Old Gods Are Whispering

  Chapter 23 The Threat of the Clown

  Gu Jianlin took a deep look at the old man in the wheelchair.

  He looks really old, but his gray hair is neatly combed, his face has experienced deep wrinkles, his eyes are as warm and clear as jade, and his back is straight even in a wheelchair.

  Like a cedar on the edge of a cliff, it is tall and tough.

   I have to say that this hexagram is not very professional, and the divination is also done in a very simple way, and the interpretation of the hexagram is also very simple, it seems like an ordinary amateur.

   But he still wrote down this sentence, and then thanked him.

"Um."

  The old man nodded in satisfaction, his wise forehead raised slightly, and then put away the six copper coins.

   "Then what, the old man will give me a fortune too?"

  Cheng Youyu leaned over, rubbing his hands and looking eager to try, he has always been so familiar.

  The old man did not raise his head, and said flatly: "I won't count for you, didn't you just say that I am unprofessional?"

  Cheng Youyu was shocked. He thought that the old people were deaf, but he didn't expect to hear all this.

  Seeing this scene, Gu Jianlin felt a little guilty in his heart.

  Because he had a premonition that the old man deliberately wanted to tell him something through fortune-telling.

  At this time, a man in a suit and leather shoes came over with three packs of warm babies, and said with a smile, "Please take it, welcome to come next time. If you need anything, you can come back anytime. We will be closed tonight."

   "The store has just opened, you are the first batch of customers, let's make friends. This is our store's business card, you can call if you need it urgently."

  He handed out the business card, then turned around and pushed the back of the wheelchair, and said, "Teacher, it's time to rest."

  The old man hummed lightly, and was pushed into the back door by him.

  Gu Jianlin took the business card and watched the two leave.

  He hesitated for a moment, then closed his eyes, and used life perception on the two people in front of him.

  In the quiet night, the rhythm of everything in the world echoed in his ears again.

  After practicing last night, he has been able to accurately distinguish the target in the noisy melody.

  However, the perceived result surprised him a bit.

  The life rhythm of the man in the suit is like a fire, burning vigorously and surging.

  As for the wheelchair old man, it was like a dead void, silent and extremely depressing.

   "What are you looking at?"

   Su Youzhu asked curiously while holding the three-pack warm baby.

"nothing."

  Gu Jianlin asked casually: "Speaking of which, do you also believe in divination?"

  Su Youzhu shook his head: "Just ask casually, and you won't lose anything."

  ·

  ·

   After Gu Jianlin and Su Youzhu came out of the grocery store, they briefly ate wild wontons beside them, and then went back to school.

   It is worth mentioning that Cheng Youyu, the fat man, also followed with the cheek, talking and laughing along the way.

   From time to time, he would gossip about things that the siblings didn't know about.

   Until 10:30 in the evening, the lights downstairs in the girls' dormitory were basically turned off.

In the small garden downstairs, you can vaguely see some couples whispering reluctantly under the tree, and some even hugged and gnawed directly. The rustling sound came, which was quite exciting to watch. .

   "Well, I'll drop by here, you guys go ahead."

  Cheng Youyu paused with a smile on his feet, showing a connotative expression: "I won't be a light bulb anymore."

  Gu Jianlin knew that he had misunderstood, but it was too troublesome to explain.

  The main reason is that Su Youzhu has an indifferent expression on his face.

   It seems that even if they are mistaken for a couple who will go into the woods later, it doesn't matter.

  Gu Jianlin saw this, so there was no need to explain further.

   "Brother Lin, please take care of the basic exam! If you are assigned to an exam room, please help me!"

Before Cheng Youyu left, he suddenly reminded with a serious face: "Well, Fengcheng is not peaceful recently, you should have heard about it? Many students went crazy with a cry. I heard the news, recently There are often people like this around the school, you'd better not go out these few days, and stay in the school honestly."

  He asked again: "Especially recently there has been a pervert who abused animals near the school."

   Gu Jianlin's heart moved slightly, the fat man seemed to know something, and he was deliberately reminding himself.

"okay, I get it."

  He nodded slightly: "Thank you."

  After talking about the matter, Cheng Youyu resumed his smiling face again, and walked away at a pace that his relatives did not recognize.

  Gu Jianlin watched him leave, then turned to the girl next to him and said, "Take a good rest these few days, and I will come on time to bring you brown sugar water. If you need anything, just tell me, and I will go out and buy it for you."

  Su Youzhu glanced at him, thinking, can you also buy feminine products?

   "Anyway, just stop running around."

  Gu Jianlin asked seriously: "Do you know?"

  Since Lu Zicheng's arrival, coupled with the gradual infiltration of investigators from the Aether Association in the school, coupled with the animal cruelty incident just now, it seems that everything indicates that something will happen next.

"understood."

  Su Youzhu took off the coat she was wearing and handed it back to him: "Good night."

  Gu Jianlin took it over and hummed, "Good night."

  The door of the girls' dormitory was closed, and Su Youzhu's figure disappeared into the corner of the corridor.

  Gu Jianlin turned around and left with his coat in hand, walked through the playground and garden alone, and returned to the boys' dormitory.

  His dormitory is on the sixth floor, the first room next to the corridor.

  The four roommates in the dormitory were lying on the bed, and they kept complaining:

   "It's really unlucky. The canteen in the school is terrible, and there is not even a supermarket."

   "Yeah, the aunt who cooks rice shakes as if she has Parkinson's. I'm really convinced by this sixth child."

   "Which of you went out to the supermarket to buy something? Give me some snacks, I'm starving to death."

   "Damn it, the 24-hour convenience store outside is also closed!"

  As soon as Gu Jianlin came back, he heard their conversation, then sat down on the bed, and asked in surprise, "That convenience store is closed, but hasn't it been changed into a grocery store?"

  As soon as this remark came out, the roommates froze for a moment.

   "What grocery store? Isn't that convenience store closed for rent?"

  The roommate said blankly: "The rolling doors are all closed, and there is such a big rental advertisement posted."

  Gu Jianlin was taken aback: "Impossible, there is a grocery store."

The roommate was stunned again: "I just came back from there ten minutes ago. Brother Lin, to be honest, did you lose your mind after the car accident and have memory problems? If there is a grocery store, I will eat it upside down." !"

  Gu Jianlin was silent, he thought of the unusualness of that grocery store again, and couldn't sit still.

  He immediately got up, walked to the rooftop on the seventh floor, and looked across the street by the lights in the night.

  In just a moment, his pupils shrank violently, and his hair stood on end.

  The 24-hour convenience store across the street reappeared at some point. The red and white signboard was still lit, but the store door was locked by a rolling shutter, and there was a rental advertisement posted on it.

   As for the grocery store I saw before, it disappeared strangely.

   Sure enough, his feeling was right.

  It really is not an ordinary grocery store.

  Including the old man in the wheelchair and the man in the suit, it seems that they are not ordinary people.

  Gu Jianlin fumbled in his pocket and found the business card.

  —Wangyou grocery store, phone 138...

  He was silent for a long time, planning to take another look after school tomorrow.

  At this time, a message came in from his WeChat.

  Su Youzhu: "I just returned to the dormitory and found someone put a love letter in front of my windowsill."

  Gu Jianlin was a little stunned, it's been so many years, yet there are still people who express their love in such an old-fashioned way.

  However, the girl's dormitory is on the first floor. If she bypasses the dorm supervisor, she can indeed hand over the love letter on the window sill.

   Su Youzhu's appearance is nothing new.

  Gu Jianlin replied: "Oh, is someone chasing you?"

  Su Youzhu: "I thought so too at first, but after I opened it, I found out that this letter is for you."

  Gu Jianlin was stunned.

   Just when he was puzzled, a picture was sent over on WeChat.

   For a moment, Gu Jianlin narrowed his eyes and subconsciously clenched his palms, making a crisp sound of bones.

   Compared with the content of the love letter, the signature at the bottom is more eye-catching.

  Because it was a strangely pale, clown face painted with colored pencils.

  On the glowing screen, the clown had a sinister smile, and his scarlet lips almost grinned to the ears.

   Just looking at it makes people feel very uncomfortable.

   "At six o'clock in the afternoon the day after tomorrow, see you at the warehouse in the back playground."

   "This is our secret, please don't tell anyone."

   "Otherwise...you get the idea."

   After a long time, the phone screen turned off automatically, and the cold wind blowing from the rooftop.

  Gu Jianlin put his left hand in his pocket, and his right hand clenched the phone tightly. The coat on his arm flapped in the wind.

   "Give the letter to Youzhu, not to me directly."

  He whispered softly: "Is this a threat?"

  Under the flying forehead hair, the boy's eyes gradually became dead silent, as if melting into the night.

  ·

  ·

  Late at night, the lights in the grocery store were still on.

  The old man was sitting in a wheelchair, playing with the six copper coins in his hand, and suddenly said, "Jing Ci."

  The man in a suit and leather shoes was holding a handkerchief, carefully wiping the blue and white porcelain bottle in his hand.

   "Teacher, I am here."

  He asked without raising his head, "Is there something wrong?"

  The old man said lightly: "Is my fortune-telling really that unprofessional?"

  Jing Ci smiled wryly and said: "You are not from the hexagram master path, why do you have to get along with fortune-telling? Could it be that you have been holding on to it since you lost the bet with the one from Laojunshan last time?"

   "If you are a Gua teacher, then I, as a teacher, will no longer lack ostentation when I am outside."

  The old man sighed regretfully: "Speaking of which, the kid I met tonight is quite interesting."

  Jing Ci paused as he wiped the porcelain bottle, and asked with a smile, "Do you mean that he saw the clown's distortion and evolution at a glance, or did he notice us and the anomalies in this store?"

  The old man thought for a while: "It's all there. I didn't expect him to find out the problem of this store so quickly. How about making a bet and guessing whether he can survive?"

   "Then I want to bet on his life."

  Jing Ci put the blue and white porcelain vase on the antique cabinet and said, "After all...you reminded him so much."

   "It's one thing to be reminded, it's another thing to be able to realize it, and another thing to deal with it when you realize it."

  The old man threw six copper coins on the table: "Then I'll bet on him dead."

  (end of this chapter)