Chang'an Catching Demons

Chapter 3: West City Shadow Play

A few days after the case of the chamberlain's house was closed, something strange happened in Chang'an West City.

A merchant reported the incident, saying that after closing the shop at night, he always heard the sound of bamboo in the empty shadow theater next door, mixed with the laughter of children. But the owner of the theater died half a year ago. The shed has been locked and full of dust. Where did the sound come from?

Chen Feng took the catcher to check twice, and only found a few scattered shadows in the corner of the shed. Other than that, there was no abnormality. But as soon as they left, the sound of the night sounded on time, and the merchants in the West City were panicked, and even the night market was mostly deserted.

"Shadow Theater?" Su Yao nibbled on the candy man and her eyes were bright. "I know that house. I used to play "Mu Tianzi will meet the Queen Mother of the West". The shadow is vivid, and even the queen mother's phoenix crown is decorated with real gems."

Lin Yu was sitting in front of the tea stall and wiping the peach wood sword. Hearing this, he raised his eyes and said, "How did the playmaster die?"

"I heard that it was an emergency," Su Yao thought for a moment. "But someone said that the night before his death, the lights in the studio were on all night, and there was a quarrel, as if it was for a new shadow."

While talking, Chen Feng rushed over with sweat on his forehead: "Lin Yu, go and have a look. This morning, someone found that the door of the theater was open, and there was... a new shadow inside."

When the three of them arrived at Xishi, the sun had just passed noon. The shadow studio was lonely in the depths of the alley, and the black doorway was like a mouth that was about to swallow people. Chen Feng pushed open the door, and a smell mixed with mold and tung oil came to his face.

There was indeed thick dust in the shed, and the tables and chairs were covered with dust. Only on the wooden frame in the center of the stage, there was a brand-new shadow hanging - a girl with a double bun, with exquisite eyebrows and eyes, gold lines on the jacket, and a strange light in the dim light.

"That's it," Chen Feng pointed to the shadow. "The old man who came to take out the garbage this morning found it. He said that last night's laughter was very clear, just like the girl was laughing in front of him."

Lin Yu approached the stage, and just as his fingertips were about to touch the shadow, the shadow's eyes suddenly moved! Su Yao whispered "ah" and fixed her eyes again. Her eyes returned to their dark appearance, as if it was just an illusion.

"It's not an illusion." Lin Yu said in a low voice, took out a piece of paper from the cloth bag and gently covered the shadow. As soon as the rune paper was pasted, black smoke came out with a "sizzling", and the corners of the girl's shadow's mouth were like a grinning curve.

"This shadow... is it made of living human skin?" Chen Feng's face suddenly changed. In his early years, he saw evil magic in the countryside. He used livestock skins to make puppets, but he had never seen such a realistic one.

"It's not human skin," Lin Yu twisted a little ash from the burning talisman paper. "It's a donkey skin mixed with the blood of a new person, and it has been sealed with a spell." He looked at the backstage of the stage and said, "I'm afraid the cause of the death of the drama master is not simple."

The backstage is more chaotic than the front shed, with more than a dozen broken shadows piled up, and there is a locked wooden box in the corner. Chen Feng pried open the box, and there was a layer of red velvet cloth inside, and there was a palm-sized wooden sign engraved with the word "A Man" engraved on it, and there was a yellow prescription next to it.

"A Man... It seems to be the daughter of the theater master who died early," Su Yao recognized the handwriting on the prescription. "My mother knew the old man in the city and said that this recipe was used to treat children's shock. I heard that A Man disappeared when he was five years old."

Lin Yu picked up the wooden card, and a vague word "Li" was engraved on the bottom of the card. The master of the drama group is surnamed Zhao. Who is the character 'Li'?" He was pondering when a gust of wind suddenly blew outside the shed, and the oil lamp on the top of the stage swayed and went out.

In the dark, the girl's shadow suddenly floated up, hanging in the air, making a giggle, as sharp as nails scratching wood. Then, the broken shadows in the backstage also came to life one by one. Some turned into armored generals, and some turned into old old maws with canes. They still held small weapons in their hands and surrounded the three people.

"It's a shadow demon!" Lin Yu protected Su Yao and Chen Feng behind him, and the peach wood sword came out of the sheath. "These shadows are soaked with resentment, and they have become evil!"

The general's shadow stabbed with a small long spear. Lin Yu hit the sword, and the tip of the gun hit the peach wood sword, and Mars burst out. The old woman's shadow spit out a puff of black smoke and smelled pungent. Chen Feng swung the knife to cut it, but the knife passed through the shadow and could not hurt it at all.

"They are afraid of light!" Su Yao suddenly shouted, took out a fire fold from her arms, and lit an oil lamp next to her. The moment the light turned on, the shadows stalled, and the color on their bodies faded a little.

Lin Yu immediately understood, wrapped the charm on the peach wood sword, and led the fire of the oil lamp to swim on the sword: "Take fire as Yang, break this evil!" He swung his sword at the girl's shadow. Where the fire swept, the golden thread on the shadow burned in an instant, and the giggling stopped abruptly.

The girl's shadow fell to the ground and struggled to get up. Lin Yu stepped on its torso and asked sternly, "Who made you? Did you kill Master Zhao?"

Piying's eyes turned around and suddenly said in a tender voice, "It's him... It's him who brought me back to life... He said, as long as I help him avenge him, I can accompany my father forever..."

"Who is he?"

"The surname is Li... He said... He is my father's younger brother..."

Before the words were finished, there was a muffled sound outside the shed, as if someone had been knocked out. Chen Feng rushed out and saw a middle-aged man in a blue cloth shirt lying on the ground, with a tied old man lying next to him, who was the one who found the shadow this morning.

"This is Master Zhao's younger brother, Carpenter Li," the old man said tremblingly, "He found me this morning and forced me to come to the studio to play this shadow, and said... and said that he wanted to make Master Zhao's soul restless..."

After being woken up, carpenter Li saw that the matter was exposed, so he simply broke the can and said, "What if I did it! That old thing stole my secret recipe and robbed my sweetheart, causing me to be on the street! His daughter deserved it, and he himself deserved it!"

It turned out that Carpenter Li and Master Zhao learned to be a shadow in their early years, and they had a grudge because of the secret recipe and love affair. Master Zhao became famous by secret recipes, but Carpenter Li had a grudge in his heart. He secretly learned the evil art. He used the eight characters of A Man's birthday and his own blood to make this girl's shadow, and also put chronic poison in Master Zhao's medicine, killing...