The woman with long hair cascading down to her waist, and bewitching big eyes, gazed charmingly into the distant horizon. Although the world was in black and white, her refinement was still apparent.
"Stop!" Just as I took another step, a commanding voice echoed from all directions.
It was my grandfather's voice. I quickly halted and looked around, but I couldn't see anyone.
Grandfather's voice rang out again: "Mingyang, don't go in. Take a step back, walk out of the ghost gate, and you will see a white rooster. Hold the red string around the white rooster's neck and keep walking, no matter what sound you hear, don't look back!"
I didn't know if this was an illusion or reality, but since my grandfather's voice could reach me, it meant he already knew what was happening around me.
Glancing at the woman once again, I slowed down and started walking backward.
As I walked out of the ghost gate, not far away, there was indeed a black rooster. The black rooster kept clucking and frantically ran forward, grabbing the red string on the ground, as if it had gone mad.
I followed closely, fearing that the thin red string would snap. After running for a while, a chilling wind suddenly swept over, and I faintly heard the sound of spirits and wolves getting closer from behind.
My grandfather's instructions made me dare not look back. Although I was extremely fearful, I still closed my eyes and ran forward quickly.
"Mingyang, why are you running so fast? Wait for me!" Du Xiaolan's voice came from behind. I shook my head vigorously, telling myself it was just an illusion, it was not real.
"Yin Mingyang, I died so tragically, why won't you save me? Why are you running back alone!" The voice of Luo Changsheng, who died tragically in front of me in my childhood, also entered my ears.
All of it was meant to make me look back, whether or not there was anything terrible behind me. Even if there were consequences, I couldn't look back.
"Mingyang, Nang Feng and I are behind you, slow down!" Jiang Xiumei's voice came, and I covered my ears, pretending I didn't hear anything.
"Mingyang, stop!" Grandfather's voice suddenly came fiercely.
I quickly stopped and asked loudly, "Grandfather, what's wrong?"
Grandfather said anxiously, "You're running in the wrong direction, quickly run in the opposite direction!"
"What?" I was puzzled, looking at the speeding black rooster, and was about to turn around, but then I stopped this impulse suddenly.
If I were going in the wrong direction, my grandfather would have told me first and not at this moment. This must have been an intentional disruption of my voice. I loudly exclaimed, "You're not my grandfather, my direction is not wrong!"
The other side let out a long sigh, whether it was compromising or brewing the next sound, there was no further response.
After running with the black rooster for a long time, a bright light suddenly appeared in front of me. The black rooster stopped in front of the light, and after I ran past it, it clucked once, nodded its head towards the light.
Ahead was possibly the place to leave the underworld. I didn't hesitate and rushed in.
In that instant, all the past events seemed to rewind rapidly like a movie.
The scenes were very fast, so fast that I didn't even have time to see them clearly before they flashed past. But the scene that appeared right when I was born, I could see very clearly. When I first came into this world, in our old house, the young man who attempted to kill me showed a very strange smile.
"Ah!" I shouted, and abruptly opened my eyes.
"Mingyang, are you okay? You almost scared me to death!" I turned my head towards the voice and saw Du Xiaolan sitting anxiously on the edge of the bed, looking at me.
Looking around, it was a hospital ward, and there was an intravenous drip in my arm.
Realizing where I was, I asked, "What's wrong with me?"
Du Xiaolan said, "I don't know. That day at the western restaurant, you suddenly ran off, and I followed you into a building. But when we reached the top floor, I found you lying on the ground, breathing very weakly."
Remembering my grandfather's voice within the gates of death, I hurriedly asked, "Did anything happen during that time?"
Du Xiaolan said, "After the rescue, you were safe, but you didn't wake up. I had no choice, so two days ago I called your hometown, and your grandfather said he had a way and asked me not to worry."
Upon hearing the phrase "two days", I asked urgently, "How long have I been unconscious?"
"It's been a week."
"What? A week?" I was completely astounded.
After losing consciousness, I felt like I had only experienced half a day, never did I expect it to be a whole week.
Du Xiaolan seemed startled by my voice and trembled a bit. I quickly apologized, saying, "I'm sorry."
She waved her hand and said, "It's okay."
I took out my phone and dialed my grandfather's number. After it rang for a while, my grandfather's voice came through the phone, "Mingyang, you're awake."
I responded and asked, "Grandfather, how did you know I entered the gates of death?"
"Your friend called and I inquired about it. If there was no mistake in the time, you had already entered the gates of death on the fifth day, and that's why I pulled your soul back from there." My grandfather's voice was very calm, as if this matter was insignificant in his eyes.
I told him everything the young man in the short sleeves had said to me, and my grandfather let out a faint exclamation and said he didn't know about these matters. Without further inquiry, he hung up after confirming that there was nothing wrong at home.
I threw my phone on the pillow. Du Xiaolan looked at me and asked in a low voice, "Mingyang, why did you speak so chillingly to your grandfather just now?"
I told her everything that happened to me at the gates of death. Xiaolan covered her mouth in shock and asked, "Is there really ghosts in this world?"
"There are!" I nodded heavily, recalling the scene I saw when my soul left my body, and said to Du Xiaolan, "And the wedding company we work for is definitely not that simple."
She seemed to perk up and asked, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing, it's just my feeling." I chuckled dryly but didn't tell her what I had seen.
From the first day I worked here, I had been very puzzled. A normal wedding company did not seem as desolate as ours. And all the things I had encountered during this time were all related to spiritual bodies. It seemed that our real customers were not living people, but spiritual bodies.
Letting out a long sigh, because of my special constitution, it's not easy to change jobs. I lay back on the hospital bed, staring blankly at the energy-saving light on the ceiling.
With a creak, the door of the ward was pushed open with great force. I raised my head slightly and saw a woman in a white gauze gown walk in.