Don’t Open The Door

In the early years of the Tang Dynasty, after Li Shimin quelled the rebellion, he began to popularize imperial examinations nationwide and recruit talents. One day, Shangguan Bo, a scholar from Shunying County, went to the capital to take the exam. He missed Sutou on the way. Seeing that it was getting dark and there were still no people around, he and Shutong couldn’t help but rush forward desperately, turning around. At the top of the mountain, they suddenly found a small inn in front of them.

Shangguan Bo was very happy in his heart, and hurriedly urged the book boy to leave quickly. When he reached the door, he found that there was a large mass grave behind the inn. He had no choice but to tell the book boy to prepare to spend the night here.

Walking into the yard, a one-eyed old woman was chopping firewood. Seeing a guest coming, she enthusiastically let Shangguan Bo and Shutong into the room. The old lady told them that they were the only ones staying today, and they could choose any room they wanted. Seeing that there was an evil spirit in this inn, Shangguan Bo chose a guest room on the upper floor near the stairs, and asked to share the same room with the book boy.

After settling down, the old lady brought them water for washing their feet, and brought them two bowls of hot noodles, saying that they were called “Gongcheng Noodles”. Hearing this, Shangguan Bo was very happy, and asked the book boy to take out a bunch of copper coins and reward the old woman.

After taking the money, the old woman told Shangguan Bo in a low voice: “Don’t open the window when you sleep at night, and don’t open the door if someone knocks on the door in the middle of the night, absolutely, absolutely…”

Hearing this, Shangguan Bo was very puzzled. He wanted to ask more questions, but the old woman had already gone downstairs.

Just in case, Shangguan Bo told the book boy not to turn off the lights at night, but the book boy didn’t care, he pulled out a short knife from the bag and said, “Master, don’t be afraid, I have learned kung fu for a few years anyway. , Ordinary gangsters absolutely don’t have to be afraid, you sleep yours, and then watch mine!”

Even so, Shangguan Bo still couldn’t sleep well at night. It seemed to be the second watch, when he was in a daze and was about to fall asleep, there were a few light knocks on the door.

“Who?” Shangguan Bo suddenly sat up and asked boldly. Just as he finished speaking, the knock on the door suddenly became louder, and then a dull and sad voice came in: “Open the door, open the door…” Then A gloomy cool wind blew into the room and blew out the candles on the table.

“Who the hell is pretending to be a ghost? Be careful that I will beat you to the ground!” The book boy got up from the bed in a daze, and opened the door with a knife, while Shangguan Bo turned pale with fright, and got into bed I couldn’t help shaking.

Suddenly, he heard the book boy let out a scream of “ah”, just like the desperate and sad sound made by a wild animal when it was attacked before dying, and then there was a “plop”, and the outside became The eerie silence. Shangguan Bo felt his eyes go dark and passed out.

“Hey, hey, wake up…” In the dimness, he was pushed awake. Shangguan Bo opened his eyes and saw that the old woman was standing in front of him, and it was already bright outside the window.

“Where’s the book boy? Where’s my book boy?” Shangguan Bo got up, pushed the old woman away, and ran to the door, but there was nothing outside the door. He looked down and found a pool of blood on the ground, and there was A small ball of paper. He stretched out his hand to pick up the ball of paper, opened it, and couldn’t help taking a breath. The head of the book boy was drawn on the paper. With just a few strokes, it was lifelike and extremely expressive. Under the head portrait was written the seventh day of June. Shangguan Bo knew it was Shutong’s birthday. He took a closer look and found that the painting was painted with blood. The bloody portrait had a sinister smile like a god of death, with an indescribable smile of fear and evil. Shangguan Bo let out a cry of surprise and passed out again.

“Oh, silly boy, what kind of door did you open…” the old woman helped him onto the bed while sighing. In the evening, Shangguan Bo Youyou woke up. He got up and wanted to leave, but he fainted and fell on the bed again. The old woman rushed over when she heard the sound. He said: “Those with a radius of tens of miles and no villages or shops in front of them, rather than wandering in the wild in the middle of the night, it is better to stay here for the night and leave tomorrow.”

“But, but this place is too scary. I really can’t stay any longer. What happened to the door knocking at night?” Shangguan Bo asked hoarsely.

Upon hearing this, the old woman fell silent, and after a long time she said: “Don’t ask so many questions, young man, you will know when the time comes. Remember that as long as you don’t open the door, nothing will happen. “After she finished speaking, she walked out without looking back, and closed the door gently.

Looking at the thick night and the messy graves outside the window, Shangguan Bo had no choice but to decide to stay here for another night. He boldly jumped out of bed and lit all four candles in the room, and the whole room suddenly became brighter, and his heart was a little calmer.

But I don’t know when the wind picked up outside, and it seemed like hundreds of people were crying in a low voice. Sweat dripped off Shangguan Bo’s body. To build up his courage, he took out a stick from behind the bed, held it in his hand and kept looking around.

“Bang bang bang” suddenly there was another knock on the door, followed by the voice of the book boy: “Master, open the door! I’m back…”

Shangguan Bo breathed a sigh of relief, jumped out of bed and was about to open the door when he suddenly remembered the puddle of blood outside the door in the morning, didn’t the bookboy die? Where did he come from, maybe it’s a ghost? He shivered, and quickly jumped back on the bed, holding the stick tightly with both hands, staring at the door without blinking.

“Open the door, open the door.” The voice of the book boy outside the door became slow and sad, with a trace of yin in his tone, and a cold air blew from the crack of the door, exactly the same as the scene last night. Shangguan Bo lowered his head inadvertently, and found a lot of blood dripping in from the door, and the ground was covered with blood in a short while. At this moment, the candle suddenly went out, and the room became pitch black. Shangguan Bo was so frightened that he lost control of his hands and feet and broke out in a cold sweat. Even though the voice outside the door became more and more shrill, he dared not move…

Finally, after the cock crowed three times, the sound outside the door gradually faded away, and the surroundings became silent again.

When it was daybreak, Shangguan Bo finally put a heart into his stomach. He was about to get out of bed when there was another knock on the door, which scared him and quickly retreated to the corner of the bed.

“Sanggong, are you up?” Following the voice, the old woman opened the door and walked in, strange! The door of the room last night was not locked at all, and the blood on the ground was gone.

But why can’t people outside come in at night? Shangguan Bo told these questions to the old woman, the old woman just smiled, put the breakfast in her hand on the table and went out without saying anything.

Shangguan Bo was determined to leave this horrible place as soon as possible. He simply cleaned up and ran downstairs to bid farewell to the old woman.

The strange thing is that the old woman didn’t take his rent at all, and even returned the bunch of copper coins that the book boy had given to him. Before going out, the old woman gave him a small bundle and told him that a little donkey was prepared for him outside the door, let him ride on the donkey, and asked him to open the bundle when he was writing his name on the gold list. request to do so.

Shangguan Bo wanted to give the old woman donkey money, but she refused to accept it, and just kept urging him to go on the road. Shangguan Bo had no choice but to get on the donkey and hit the old woman with a deep oar. Then, as soon as his legs strengthened, the donkey started to run along the official road. Behind him came the hoarse voice of the old woman along the wind: “When the time comes, we must Do as it says.”

After walking for a long time, Shangguan Bo discovered that there were mass graves everywhere, and he couldn’t see the end for hundreds of miles. He couldn’t help secretly thanking the donkey that the old woman gave him, otherwise he didn’t know that he would end up in this terrible grave. How long does it take to walk in the pile! Strange to say, with this donkey, he arrived in the capital very smoothly, and never encountered any strange things again.

Shangguan Bo found a hotel not far from the examination room and stayed there. He asked the staff to tie up the donkey and ordered that the donkey must be fed with good fodder. At night, he couldn’t sleep in the room, so he opened the bag given by the old woman, and found that there was only a thick book inside, but when he opened the book, there was no word in it, it was a book without words!

Shangguan Bo felt very strange. He turned the book over and over several times, but still found nothing. In the end, he only found a few words on the cover of the book: When the gold list was inscribed, the Sabbath of the ghosts.

Thinking of the adventures of those two nights, Shangguan Bo put the book back into his bag in a state of anxiety. There must be some secrets in it, and he decided to study the book after the exam. The next morning, the hotel clerk came in and said the donkey was missing! He and his buddies ran to the stable to have a look. The rope that tied the donkey was thrown aside, but the donkey was gone. Shangguan Bo didn’t give up. He looked around carefully and found a paper-cut donkey on the ground. Holding the paper donkey, he couldn’t help feeling dazed for a while. He had really met a ghost these days. Shangguan Bo couldn’t help but smiled wryly, left the paper donkey and walked away without saying a word.

On the day of the scientific expedition, the mass grave always appeared in front of Shangguan Bo’s eyes. Thinking of the disasters brought to the country and the people by successive years of wars, he couldn’t help but feel quite emotional, so he decided to write an article on the theme of war and national development The article expresses his feelings, thinking of this, he wrote vigorously, writing all the words in one go.

Back at the inn, Shangguan Bo was still immersed in his thoughts and couldn’t extricate himself. He took out the book and flipped through it again. It didn’t matter after reading it, he found that the book was densely filled with words!

Coincidentally, one day Tang Taizong Li Shimin was bored for a while, so he took his guards out for a stroll. When he came to a courtyard, he saw that the guards were heavily guarded, and people could only enter and exit with certificates. Papers of candidates from all over the world. Tang Taizong walked in on a whim, took an examination paper and read it, and soon he was attracted by the Wanyan answer paper, so he remembered the candidate’s name.

Back in the palace, Tang Taizong immediately issued an edict, and Yubi personally selected Shangguanbo as the third list Jinshi, and wanted to see him immediately, so the former minister hurriedly sent someone to look for Shangguanbo.

Shangguan Bo was surprised and delighted when he entered the palace. Tang Taizong asked him about the origin of this article in detail. He dared not hide it, so he told Wansui about his adventure in the mass grave, and presented the book to the public. go up.

Emperor Taizong of Tang read the book carefully. It turned out that the place where the mass grave was called Luonanpo. There was a tragic war there. A roster of soldiers.

After closing the book, Tang Taizong sighed repeatedly, yes, years of wars have indeed brought too much suffering to the people. He decided to let Shangguan Bo lead the way, and went to Luonanpo to pay homage.

After more than ten days of trekking, Taizong and his party came to Luonanpo. Shangguan Bo discovered that the inn was gone, and only an endless mass grave was left. The place where the inn used to be was turned into a large tomb bag, which was very eye-catching in the entire tomb.

At this time, the sky was suddenly covered with dark clouds, and there were wailing sounds everywhere on the plains, and a gust of wind blew people so that people couldn’t even open their eyes. Tang Taizong seemed to see the scene of war with corpses strewn all over the field again. He couldn’t help but sighed to the sky and felt deeply depressed. The war was so cruel. He decided to build a requiem temple here to save the souls of the soldiers who died here.

As soon as his order was announced, the dark clouds in the sky immediately dispersed, the whining sound disappeared, and the whole Luoyang Slope became sunny.

Shangguanbo asked Tang Taizong for instructions and asked to stay and supervise the construction of the Requiem Temple, and Taizong happily agreed.

Soon the Requiem Temple was completed, and Shangguan Bo specially asked someone to set up a monument in the temple, engraving the names of all the victims recorded in the book on it.

On the night before his return to court, Shangguan Bo was tossing and turning in bed, unable to fall asleep. At this moment, there was another knock on the door, followed by a voice: “Master, open the door, save me! “

It’s a book boy! Shangguan Bo was about to get out of bed when he suddenly heard an old woman shouting from outside the window: “Don’t open the door, don’t open the door!” Immediately afterwards, there was a mess of footsteps and tearing sounds outside, as if someone was fighting.

“Help me, master!” The book boy’s shout became farther and farther away, and gradually became inaudible. The calm outside the window was restored, and the bright moonlight shone on the window edge, making the whole room seem warm and harmonious.

Shangguan Bo had a good night’s sleep that night. In his dream, the old woman told him that she and her four sons died here like many soldiers. Ghost paradise. One day, after seeing Shangguan Bo, the old woman figured out that he would definitely be named on the gold list, so she tried to get him to bring the book about the fallen soldiers to Tang Taizong, hoping to move the emperor and seek an explanation for the resentful souls. As for his book boy, he was killed because the innocent souls were too angry to speak wild words to him.

Sure enough, Shangguanbo lived up to his mission and invited Tang Taizong to save all the wronged souls. The old woman and the countless soldiers behind her were very moved. They knelt down on the ground together and thanked him for his kindness. Shangguan Bo was very embarrassed and hurried to help the old woman, but the old woman and the soldiers behind her It turned into an auspicious cloud and disappeared, and after a while, the voice of the old woman came from the air: “We are going to reincarnate, and your book boy is also a wronged soul, remember to engrave his name on the monument tomorrow, or you will leave Wherever you go, he will pester you.”

Early the next morning, Shangguan Bo personally carved the name of the book boy on the stele. When he finished the last stroke of the name, a whirlwind rose from the ground and circled him three times. tracked.

Strange to say, there were a lot of boys born in towns near Luonanpo in the second year. Of course, only Shangguanbo himself understood all this.

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