Before falling asleep, Ye Gui was thinking whether to ask Teacher Li for food tomorrow or try his luck to see a doctor for a family. He remembered that the girl in the daytime should be giving birth, but he was not a midwife, and the old woman was very cruel and would not let him deliver the baby.
Ye Gui slept in a daze until midnight, and suddenly he saw countless pairs of eyes looking at him, emitting a dim green light in the gloom. Ye Gui wanted to escape, but his body could not move.
Seeing these eyes approaching him, they were embedded in swollen and burnt faces, and the skin of the faces oozed out bean-sized liquids, whether pus or sweat. One of them was the face that he saw on the bridge, which suddenly cracked, with bloodstains hanging from the corners of the eyes, and the smile at him was even more chilling. Ye Gui closed his eyes in fear, hoping that this was his nightmare. After closing his eyes for a while, he opened them again, but to his disappointment, the face still existed. What frightened him even more was that the other swollen faces all turned into Da Ah Fu, laughing at him naively and heartlessly.
Ye Gui struggled desperately to escape, but his body seemed to be nailed to the bed, and there was no escape. Suddenly, a cock crowed, and Ye Gui jumped up from the bed, and then he saw that there was nothing in front of him. Ye Gui was stunned for a long time, knowing that he was still dreaming, but this nightmare was too real.
Ye Gui wiped the sweat from his forehead, stood up and washed up, and decided to go to Teacher Li first to ask for something to eat. After all, the opportunity to seek medical practice was not very certain.
Ye Gui walked to the bridge, but Teacher Li had not come yet. Teacher Li finally came at noon. Teacher Li saw Ye Gui waiting for him and immediately took out a steamed bun and handed it to Ye Gui. Ye Gui had been relying on Teacher Li's charity for a long time, and they didn't care about it anymore. It turned out that Teacher Li went to name a family who had just given birth to a child.
Although Teacher Li did not mind his kindness to Ye Gui, Ye Gui still remembered every meal of help from Teacher Li. While eating the steamed buns, Ye Gui thought of how he was all alone and could not even support himself. He was so heartbroken that he could not help but blink his eyes to prevent tears from flowing out.
After Mr. Li had arranged his stall and sat at the fortune-telling table, he saw that Ye Gui's eyes were red. He made a living by reading people's minds and fortune-telling, so of course he knew that Ye Gui was thinking about his own life experience again. It was difficult to persuade him.
"Teacher Li," Ye Gui suddenly said to Teacher Li, "Why don't I take you as my teacher?"
"How can this be possible!" Teacher Li said, "You come from a family of doctors, how can you do such a lowly job as I do?"
"They are all of the lowest class," Ye Gui said. "I don't think I can support myself by practicing medicine."
"What about your father?" Teacher Li said, "Teacher Ye was a good doctor, but unfortunately he died young. How can you cut off your family's medical skills?"
"But no one wants to see me for treatment?" Ye Gui said, "What's the point of knowing medical skills? No one is willing to ask a young doctor like me to see a doctor."
"Listen to me," Teacher Li comforted Ye Gui, "I run a small fortune-telling stall. Although I don't make much, it's enough to support you so that you don't starve. But you said you want to give up practicing medicine and learn fortune-telling from me. Don't do that."
"What's wrong with that?"
"I don't have any special skills except fortune-telling," said Teacher Li, "but practicing medicine is different. Practicing medicine really saves people from danger. There is no benefit in having one more fortune-teller in the world, but I don't want to lose a good doctor."
"How am I a good doctor?" Ye Gui smiled bitterly.
"You will become a good doctor. It's settled. If I have food to eat, you are indispensable." Teacher Li changed the subject and asked, "What disease did the granddaughter of the family in the south of the city you visited yesterday have?"
"I took her pulse," Ye Gui answered truthfully, "and it is true that the fetus is damaged."
"Although I don't know any medical skills, I can tell that the unmarried woman is pregnant." Teacher Li sighed, "It's better to avoid such things. Her grandmother is not willing to make it public unless it's absolutely necessary."
"But that woman already has a baby." Ye Gui said, "I saw it with my own eyes. And there is also a young man in her family."
"Is the old lady sure that her house is haunted?" Teacher Li asked immediately.
"Yes." Ye Gui said, "But how can a ghost make a woman pregnant?"
"Did you really see a young man and a baby?"
"It's absolutely true!" Ye Gui said, "The old lady can't see him, but the man also thinks that I can't see him."
"It seems that the old lady was right. Her house is haunted and her granddaughter is haunted by a ghost." Teacher Li said, "There is a kind of ghost that specifically seduces young women. It's called Ghost Wutong."
In fact, the legend of Wutong is widely spread in Jiangnan, and there is also a Wutong Temple for worship. Most of the people pray for money in the Wutong Temple. However, there are more cases of ghost Wutong harming the people, mostly seducing women and causing hatred, but it is rare to hurt people's lives.
Ye Gui was young, so it was natural that he had never heard of this matter. Teacher Li had been fortune-telling for a lifetime, and he had heard many rumors.
Teacher Li told Ye Gui the general story of Wu Tong. Ye Gui thought that such matters of ghosts and gods had nothing to do with him, but he was worried that the woman was about to give birth. If there was no midwife to deliver the baby, the woman would be in great danger given her weak body.
Thinking of this, Ye Gui was about to go to the south of the city again to persuade the old woman. Suddenly, Teacher Li stopped him and asked, "You said that young man thought you couldn't see him?"
"Yes."
"Is it true that the old lady can't see him?"
"It's true," Ye Gui suddenly realized, "I saw with my own eyes that the young man walked in front of the old lady, and the old lady didn't know anything. Also, the old lady came to see you yesterday, right in front of you, but you didn't see it either."
"But how can you see it?" Teacher Li looked at Ye Gui, "You shouldn't be able to see it either."
Ye Gui suddenly realized this point, why he could see things that others could not see.
Teacher Li immediately faced Ye Gui and carefully looked at his forehead and face. "Do you see a lot of strange things at night now?"
"That's right." Ye Gui replied, "I have nightmares every night and feel like there are so many people in the room."
"You must have encountered something in the prison," Teacher Li thought for a long time before saying, "There are many innocent ghosts in the prison, and their resentment is still there, so it's possible that they entangled you, but how could you see the ghost Wutong that you shouldn't have seen?"
Ye Gui was also speechless and could not understand.
Teacher Li immediately entrusted the fortune-telling stall to the owner of the tavern next door and decided to go to the south of the city with Ye Gui.
Teacher Li was not younger than Ye Gui, and his legs and feet were not in good condition. He took a small boat to the south of the city. The water route was shorter than the land route, and he arrived at the old woman's house in the south of the city in the afternoon.
The two men got off the boat and walked under the big locust tree, where they saw seven or eight monks performing a ritual in the yard. An elderly monk was holding a wooden bowl and chanting sutras.
And from the house came the miserable cry of a woman.
"It must be a miscarriage," Ye Gui said. "It's premature birth."
When Teacher Li and Ye Gui heard the sound of a woman giving birth, Ye Gui became anxious and rushed into the house immediately, but was stopped by a monk who was performing a ritual.
The old woman came up to Ye Gui and said, "You can go back. There is no patient in my house. My granddaughter is obsessed with Wutong."
"Your granddaughter is about to give birth," Ye Gui said anxiously, "Can't you hear the sound?"
The old woman said angrily, "Go back. I have invited the senior monks from Jinshan Temple to help me suppress the evil. This must be resolved today!"
At this time, Ye Gui suddenly noticed that the walls of the house were different from the last time he came. They were painted with gold lacquer, and the patterns were all incomprehensible Sanskrit, or they were Buddhist mantras. There were two iron chains hanging on the wall. Ye Gui looked carefully for a while and finally understood that there was only one iron chain, but the chain was very long, and it went around the house twice, tying up the whole house. There were several palm-sized bells hanging on the iron chain.
These monks are tying up the house with iron chains!
Ye Gui thought of this in his heart. Suddenly he heard a child crying, and then he looked in the direction of the crying and found the young man.
The young man stood at the door of the house, holding the crying baby, but he did not try to comfort the baby. He just stared blankly into the house. From his posture, it was obvious that he was thinking about the woman who had just given birth in the house.
Why doesn't he go in?
This thought flashed through Ye Gui's mind, and suddenly he understood – iron chain!
This young man was afraid of iron chains. Ye Gui immediately remembered the iron chain under the feet of the woman in labor last time. The function of this iron chain was not only to lock up the old woman's granddaughter and prevent her from escaping, but also to be a magic weapon to deal with this young man.
Because this young man is the Wutong mentioned by Teacher Li.
Ye Gui looked at the Wu Tong in front of him. Judging from his concern for the mother, he was actually no different from an ordinary person. Perhaps he was actually a human being, just a person that others could not see. He was not as hateful as Teacher Li portrayed him to be.
The crying of the baby and the screaming of the woman in labor in the house, one outside the house and one inside the house, intertwined with each other. Ye Gui saw that the young man was already shaking all over, and then, the young man wanted to rush into the house.
The following scene seemed very slow to Ye Gui. He saw the young man bend down, but then pull back, and then try to raise his legs again, but he couldn't move forward.
Moreover, Ye Gui suddenly discovered that the monks who were performing the rituals were all looking at the young man, but their eyes were hesitant.
They looked at the young man after hearing the baby's cry. Ye Gui looked at the monks who continued to chant the mantras and scriptures. Are there really ghosts listening? But they were very excited because they were chanting the scriptures faster and faster.
The young man finally couldn't bear it anymore, and rushed into the house with his head down. Then his body hit the iron chain firmly. All the bells hanging on the iron chain shook violently at the same time, ringing anxiously.
The monks rushed forward and chanted. Would there really be ghosts coming to listen? They surrounded the young man, and the old monk raised the demon-subduing pestle. Then the three middle-aged monks beside him stretched out their hands and raised a fishing net, and caught the young man – Wutong – in the net.
Ye Gui also saw something else. When the five-link rod hit the iron chain, the chain stuck to him tightly, so he could not escape at all before the fishing net was covered.
No one can see Wutong. And Wutong can't see the chain.
Not only is it invisible, the iron chain will attract Wutong's body. All things in the world are mutually reinforcing and mutually restraining, and this iron chain is the natural enemy of Wutong.
But having the iron chain alone is not enough. These monks also found Wutong's weakness. Without this weakness, Wutong would not take the risk. It is obvious that although Wutong cannot see, he knows the existence of the iron chain and is fully aware of its effect on him.
This weakness is the young girl who is giving birth.