"This is Cheng Jin." Chen Yang said, pointing at the corpse.
As Chen Yang finished speaking, the air in the building instantly froze into ice.
"Fuck!" Jiang Jiang got up from the ground and scratched the goose bumps on his neck. "He's dead and you're still on duty? A good Chinese employee?"
His voice was full of vitality and yang energy, which dispersed the yin energy around him.
"Why do I feel like he was showing us the way?" Jiang Jiang's companion said, "He deliberately told us that the memorial hall was not open yet, emphasizing its presence in disguise to make us curious. He told us not to wander around, which was an atypical inducement and psychological suggestion. He hoped that we would come in and wander around and find his body."
"Brother, you are over-interpreting this." Lao Xiao's partner shook his head in disagreement.
"How could I over-interpret this? This is just a normal and reasonable analysis."
"That's right!" Jiang Jiang spoke for his companion, "When we were in the living room, didn't the uncle say there was someone? I remember you also said there was someone in the garden, right? That was Cheng Jin. He has been following us and leading the way when necessary."
The little partner was outnumbered, and was defeated.
"Are you ready to start chatting? Is this a tea party? Would you like to have some peanuts, melon seeds, almond candies? Anyway, the bodies have been found now. There are three bodies and one is missing. It's that woman. What does she have to do with it? There are no clues on the first two, but there must be one on the last one." Lao Xiao took off the pretentious headphones from his neck and put them on his ears.
Zhang Qi suddenly screamed: "Brother, what are you doing?"
"Pick out the wooden box." Chen Yang asked Chao Jian to give him a flashlight. He held the wooden box with one hand and used the other to pry open the corpse's stiff and cold fingers.
Zhang Qi gasped, "Brother, this is called being afraid of ghosts? This is called being afraid of ghosts???"
The other four young men also felt cheated.
The wooden box was almost embedded in the flesh of the corpse's joints, making it difficult to get out. Chen Yang wiped the sweat from the tip of his nose with the back of his hand. He asked Zhang Qi for a cigarette, exhaled a long, muffled breath, and went to the side to smoke.
Chao Jian turned off the flashlight and tilted his head towards Chen Yang.
Chen Yang also leaned his head against Chao Jian. Neither of them spoke, but they were able to support each other.
The building fell silent. Jiang Jiang moved closer to the corpse. The smell and stench were fine, but the tongue sticking out was disgusting. This was the first time he had seen a hanged ghost since he started the mission.
"Why not just go all the way and chop off the corpse's left hand." Jiang Jiang gritted his teeth.
"No way. We'll have to cut off our fingers, and the wooden box will be covered in blood." His companion did not agree with his idea. "What if we summon his ghost?"
"Stupid, just come if you want, he can't kill us." Jiang Jiang patted the back of his head.
"It would scare us to death."
"… "
Zhang Qi was inspired by the youth's vitality. He moved closer and squatted to look at the wooden box in the corpse's arms. "This is a Qing Dynasty red sandalwood and gold-painted dressing box."
Jiang Jiang, who was whispering to his companion, was stunned: "Uncle, you even know this?"
Zhang Qi pointed to the bottom of the box: "There is..."
"Introduction, I understand." Jiang Jiang interrupted silently, "From the name, it seems that this box is quite valuable. So, Cheng Jin has been targeted by someone, and he didn't forget to climb over the wall to steal things?"
"Even if this box is valuable, it can't be worth a villa or a luxury car." Zhang Qi hesitated, "I think he stole the box for another purpose, not to sell it for money."
"I still stick to my previous idea. The three of them are from poor families, and each has their own difficulties and expectations. They each made a deal with someone. As long as they agree to do something, they can get a generous reward. They are tempted."
"However, before the plan was completed, they were discovered by the 'they' in the suicide note. They tried to find the three of them and stop them..."
Zhang Qi stopped talking. He didn't know if it was his illusion, but he seemed to see a figure passing by in the yard under the window.
Anyone else?!
“Brother, the memorial hall…” Zhang Qi stopped talking when he saw Chen Yang’s inquiring eyes. He was not sure if he was dazzled just now, so he should not be so startled and wait for him to confirm.
Zhang Qi stood by the window, the cold wind blowing towards his sweaty face.
The hanging corpse swayed slightly back and forth, and waves of corpse stench permeated everyone's breath.
"Oh, right!" Lao Xiao's partner suddenly said, "We came to the bell tower to get out, and it's convenient here. Cheng Jin must have thought the same thing at the time, so he ran here. He was going to jump over the wall from here, but he was caught!"
"He stole something and didn't run away. Did Cheng Jin's wife really know nothing? I don't believe it." Jiang Jiang suddenly had an idea, "Why don't we move the body to Cheng Jin's house and see how that woman will react."
"Stupid girl, seeing her husband's body right after giving birth is unbearable for anyone. She will make a big fuss and then the tourism festival won't be held." Old Xiao sneered, "When that happens, you can just wait to die."
Jiang Jiang got furious, and his companion tried to coax him: "What the man said is right, you are wrong, just admit it and don't embarrass yourself."
"..." Jiang Jiang snorted, "My nose is crooked from anger."
My companion sighed, "Isn't it time for you to get your nose fixed? I told you not to get your nose fixed, but you didn't listen and insisted on spending that money... Ugh!"
Jiang Jiang covered his mouth and dragged him back.
Old Xiao clicked his tongue.
Chen Yang smoked for a while and watched the kids playing around. He felt that fresh blood was very important for a team.
But fresh blood is not easy to stabilize and it disperses as time goes by.
"If the body is hung here, won't the tourists see it during the tourism festival? There will be just as much commotion." Lao Xiao's partner is a boy with a mushroom head. His facial features are very small, as if they were shrunk by half by some tool. He is quite cute. But now he raised a question, which was met with contempt and disgust from Lao Xiao.
"Has his stupidity passed on to you?" Lao Xiao pointed at Jiang Jiang and said to his partner, "The NPC wants us to find out who killed Guan, Cheng and Ye before the Tourism Festival comes. Find out what happened. The day after tomorrow..." Lao Xiao looked at the time on his phone. It was already past midnight. He changed his words and said, "No, it's tomorrow. Tomorrow is the Tourism Festival. We must find out what we need to find tonight. The Tourism Festival after that is the second mission. This body is useless, so it will naturally be gone. Do you understand?"
“Oh…” The mushroom-headed boy shrank his head and huddled beside Lao Xiao like a quail.
Chen Yang put out the cigarette butt between his fingers. The tourism festival must be held well. This is the evil spirit's obsession. There are two bodies and a pile of body parts in Guan Xiaoyun's house. He locked the door of the main gate and the main room to cover up the wind.
"Let's leave it at that for now." Chen Yang said. That night, the fool played the role of a hanged ghost in front of Cheng Jin's wife. He was imitating Cheng Jin.
It is very likely that the fool saw the process of his death.
"Leave it as it is for now. Let's find the idiot as soon as possible." Chen Yang met the gaze of his teammates, "Bring him here."
Chen Yang finally asked, "Just in case, someone needs to stay behind to guard the body. Who's willing?"
Lao Xiao lazily raised his hand: "Me and the idiot next to me."
Mushroom-headed boy: “…” He put his legs together and said seriously, “Don’t worry, we will take good care of the body!”
Chen Yang gave a few instructions and called the others to jump out of the wall. Jiang Jiang and his companions went to notify the teammates who were sleeping at home according to the address, knocking on the door one by one and calling people for a meeting.
Chen Yang, Chao Jian and Zhang Qi went to two other closed scenic spots. They met the two groups of people on the way and learned that there was nothing unusual in the two places, and there were no corpses.
So where is Guan Xiaoyun's body
At 2:30 in the morning, a shabby courtyard was filled with people. This was the meeting point.
Those task participants who got out of bed were full of resentment. Even though they knew they were on a mission and everything was for the purpose of finding clues, they still couldn't control their emotions.
Resentment leads to complaints and complaints.
"The scenic spot is not big, but not small either. There are more and more tourists. How can I find it?"
"No, Mr. Chen, didn't you ask us to look for it during the meeting yesterday morning? Why are you still asking us to look for it? We can't find it at all."
"The only characteristic is that he's a little fat, that's all. How can we find him?"
"… "
"Most of the people in the team have never worked together before, so they are not familiar with each other and have no friendship. Everyone is equal, and there is no one giving orders."
"I want to say that the most taboo in completing a mission is to not shoot here and there. Everyone has limited energy, and we cannot waste it on things whose value has not yet been determined."
"… "
"That idiot copied Cheng Jin's death. Doesn't that prove something? We are all newcomers, right?!" Zhang Qi saw Chen Yang being targeted, and he shouted in defense, "You can't say that. Some newcomers are still very smart!"
The irritable crowd instantly became a punctured balloon. They were silent. All right, they would continue to look for the fool at dawn tomorrow. No, they would not sleep anymore. They would look for him soon. If they could not find him, they would turn themselves into fools. Maybe they would go crazy before they became fools.
Their brains couldn't cool down and were about to explode, so they wanted to find an ice hole to crawl into.
Chen Yang suddenly looked towards the gate of the courtyard. At the same time, Zheng Zhiqin put down the leg that was against the wall. Miss Qiao moved her slender white fingers, extinguishing the orange-red flame between her fingers.
Two or three seconds later, a warning voice came from the team: "Stop talking, someone is coming this way!"
The lights of more than a dozen flashlights disappeared in an instant, and the yard fell into darkness. All around them were disordered breathing. They were like a group of zombies released from a cage. Anyone who stepped into this small yard would be torn to pieces by them.
Chen Yang pinched Chao Jian’s palms twice.
Chao Jian bent down and lowered his head, putting his ear close to Chen Yang's mouth.
Chen Yang moved closer to him and said in a low voice, "I'll go to the door to see what's going on. You wait here for me."
I didn't say "I'll be back soon" because I was afraid that he would remember the painful past and the place where his flesh was dug out would start to hurt again.
Chen Yang walked towards the courtyard gate by feeling the wall. Occasionally, he met a tasker, who would cooperate and make way for him.
Although this is the first time we have worked together, there is still some tacit understanding between us.
Chen Yang reached the door smoothly and leaned part of his body out. There were scattered red lanterns outside, lighting up in the night wind. The light was a little brighter than in the yard. He saw a vague outline of a thin figure coming towards him.
Gradually, Chen Yang confirmed the man's identity. It was not Cheng Jin, but Xiao Ma. He was on patrol duty and probably sensed something, so he got closer and closer.
How do you explain so many people being in a shabby yard in the middle of the night
Chen Yang rubbed his feet against the stone slabs a few times, then he squatted down, picked up a stone, and listened to Xiao Ma's footsteps.
One step, two steps...
Just when the flashlight in Xiao Ma's hand was about to shine on Chen Yang's face, Chen Yang flicked the stone in his hand away.
"Boom!"
The stone fell to the ground in the distance, and the sound was amplified several times by the silence, clear and moving.
Xiao Ma's footsteps stopped: "Who is it?" He shouted twice again, and walked towards that direction vigilantly holding the electric baton.
Chen Yang lowered his voice: "Let's go!"
The people in the yard took the opportunity to leave. From now on, everyone had a common goal: to find someone, a fool.
When there will be a breakthrough depends on when you find a fool.
Chen Yang asked people to look for it yesterday, but not many people took action, and some did not take it seriously. This time they had to take action. Time was running out, and today was the deadline for the first mission.
Today's team has grown from a hundred to more than sixty people, which is still a lot. As the saying goes, there is strength in numbers, which is true, but it also has disadvantages. When there are too many people, they can't go out together and have to disperse.
In this way, we can't ask residents or tourists one by one whether they have seen a fool, because if we do that, the other party will most likely be asked many times by different taskers.
The noise would be very loud, causing suspicion and panic among people in the scenic area, and order would be disrupted.
Violating the taboo means death. Therefore, everyone can only search for the fool secretly, which makes it many times more difficult.
Leaving the courtyard behind, Chen Yang yawned, put his arm on Chao Jian's shoulder, and pinched his ear with his index finger and thumb: "Why didn't you stand up for me then?" It seemed that his condition had improved a little.
"I don't know how to reason or teach people, I only know how to fight." Chao Jian said, "If you kill them all, you won't have any teammates."
Chen Yang: “…”
He suddenly parted Jian's pale lips and laughed softly: "I have medicine in my pocket, I won't do that."
Chen Yang was stunned for several seconds before he came back to his senses. In fact, before he knew what happened, he searched online for "What would you do if the person closest to you has a manic paranoid personality disorder?" The most common words he found online were: scary, dangerous, suffocating, and stay away.
At that time, Chen Yang was thinking that if Chao Jian attacked him someday, he would be able to survive a few rounds and lose a few pieces of flesh. In short, he would not stand and get beaten.
However, Chao Jian never laid a hand on him.
The corners of Chen Yang's mouth relaxed. He and Chao Jian were on the line of death. They held each other's hands tightly and ran forward.
—They are not only lovers, but also partners who share life and death, with love and faith coexisting.
"Brother," Zhang Qi came over, "Xiao Xue told me that Xiao Li is sick, I plan to go see her."
Chen Yang asked, "Why are you sick?"
"I have a fever and I'm having suicidal thoughts." Zhang Qi sighed.
Chen Yang was silent.
Zhang Qi said hello and left. Chen Yang shouted at his dejected back: "Brother Qi, be careful!"
This is the sentence Chen Yang said most often when he met Zhang Qi in this mission.
"Be sure to pay attention to safety." Chen Yang murmured. His emotions burst out again and he found it difficult to even breathe.
Chao Jian pulled Chen Yang into his arms and said, "Go home."
"Okay, let's go home." Chen Yang's eyes were wet.
Chen Yang went back to take a shower and pulled Chao Jian downstairs. He had something on his mind and couldn't sleep.
Chen Yang held the Shunzhi Tongbao copper coin in front of his eyes. He looked out through the square in the middle of the coin, and everything turned into that shape.
"Are copper coins worth collecting?" Chen Yang asked Chao Jian.
"It's not big. The price ranges from tens of thousands to tens, hundreds, and thousands. It depends on the version." Chao Jian took the rusty brass coin and turned it over. "The back of this one has 'Dong' and 'Yi Li' above and below. The market price is less than 1,500."
Chen Yang said, "A little over a thousand will be fine."
Chao Jian returned the copper coin to him: "It can ward off evil spirits, protect the house, and bring wealth."
Chen Yang's rusty fingertips touched Chao Jian's: "Is this true?"
"The letter is true." Chao Jian said.
Chen Yang raised his eyebrows. Could it be that Cheng Jin was trying to steal the copper coins? The dressing box that he refused to let go of was full of copper coins
After finding the fool to verify some things, Cheng Jin could no longer maintain the same appearance as when he died. He had to find a way to open the wooden box and see what was inside.
Chen Yang and Chao Jian went to the place where they first met the fool, and they expanded the search area around that place.
"Qian Qin is not in good condition." Chen Yang said that when they gathered in the afternoon, Qian Qin and Zhang Jinyang did not show up. He was worried that something had happened to them. Fortunately, that was not the case. Both of them came this time.
Chao Jian looked indifferent.
Chen Yang entered an abandoned guesthouse and pushed the bushes with a branch in his hand: "My brother died last fall. It's already the spring of the second year, and he still hasn't come out."
"His hair has all turned white." Chen Yang changed the place to search. Only Qian Qin knew how many of Qian Han's things were taken away by his death.
Chen Yangzhi stood up and looked around the homestay under the night sky. In the mission in Laoji Village, newcomer Qian Qin appeared with a domineering face and a kitchen knife in his backpack. He could cut off Xu Dingyi's limbs and set up a formation to rescue Wang Kuanyou from the ghost wall. He also found the loophole in ancestor worship, and partnered with Xiao Xiang to kill all the "Jiang Da". He believed that the loopholes in the rules were set for people to use.
He doesn't talk much, but he is very hardworking and has a very personal style.
Chen Yang didn’t know how many tasks Qian Qin had completed so far. He only knew that the other party would never be the same as when he first met him.
So, the background of the mission they are in is "the rules do not reward props to old taskers". The more tasks they do, the more determined they are not necessarily. Sometimes it is just the opposite. The newbie period is the best state, and the values of each aspect decrease all the way and collapse in the later period.
Whether your status is declining or rising depends on whether you have lost anything.
Chen Yang exhaled lightly. Behind the horoscope of his life were countless threads, tightly entangled together. As long as he gently plucked one of them, the direction of everything would change.
It's very mysterious. Every tasker has his own destination, whether it's long or far.
Chen Yang never stopped expressing his feelings, and Chao Jian knew why he was like that, so he just let him go.
One of them was talking while the other was listening, and before they knew it they had searched the entire homestay but couldn't find any trace of the fool.
The hazy light of sunrise brushed across the weeds and gently touched Chen Yang's eyelids.
Not cold, a little hot.
Because in that halo, there was Chao Jian's kiss.
Everyone was looking for the fool, and there was nothing unusual in the bell tower. Lao Xiao and his partner were playing Run Fast, and they both had a deck of cards, and removed two kings.
The corpse and the big bell hanging on the opposite side greeted the sunset glow.
"Three sevens." Lao Xiao threw the cards.
The mushroom-haired boy was looking at the shaking body. His foot was kicked. He rubbed his eyes and looked at the cards: "Don't you want to bring it?"
"No, damn it." Lao Xiao kicked him again, "Speed up."
"You're a bit annoying for not bringing anything." The boy bit a card and gnashed his little fangs.
When he first started this mission, he found that his emotions were seamlessly connected and he couldn't concentrate. Now he has slowly calmed down and returned to his usual level.
But Lao Xiao is not good enough, he is quite agitated.
"when"
A dull sound suddenly sounded nearby, and the corpse hit the old clock!
The young man was so frightened that his hands shook and all the cards fell into his arms. He looked at Lao Xiao with a pale face.
The bell is ringing!!!
"Knock it if you want." Lao Xiao looked at the cards in his arms. They were really bad. "What kind of crap is this? With the cards you have, why don't you surrender as soon as possible? Why are you struggling so hard?"
The young man opened the wooden window and looked down. The grass and trees were blown all over the place by the wind, and a crisp sound was heard amid the rustling sound.
A flowerpot on a stone pier fell down. The pot did not break, but a lot of soil spilled out, and the beautifully trimmed little welcoming pine was also in a mess.
The cold air in the wind blinded the boy's eyes. He blinked reflexively, and a figure suddenly appeared in his field of vision.
If Chen Yang were there, he would be able to recognize it was Xiao Ma.
But the boy didn't recognize it, and he subconsciously closed the wooden window without controlling the movement.
Just when the wooden window was about to be slammed shut, a hand reached out from behind the boy, stopping his movement and avoiding the danger of disturbing the person downstairs.
The young man was still in shock: "Old, old, old..."
"Shh." Lao Xiao put a finger on his dry lips and leaned out.
He's a skinny guy with a red armband, from the management office.
What are you doing? Why are you here so early? Lao Xiao picked his eyes and smacked his lips.
The boy's head was close to Lao Xiao's. He bit his lip anxiously. There was only one clock and one body on the second floor. There was no place to hide people. If that person came up, they would have to jump out of the wall.
When the boy was thinking this, he saw the man suddenly raised his head.
In a flash, Lao Xiao pulled his partner to his side, and they both fell to the ground.
Lao Xiao felt pain in his back, he groaned, pinched his partner's face with his hands, and decided to lose weight after this mission, and lose weight quickly!
Ah, it’s so heavy.
Xiao Ma didn't do anything else. He just picked up the fallen flowerpot and cleaned up the dirt and broken leaves on the ground.
After walking a few steps, Xiao Ma turned around, put the broom and dustpan in his hands aside, then stood at the bottom of the stairs, bending over towards the building.
There is a big Buddha on the first floor of the bell tower, facing the entrance.
The pony looks like he is worshipping Buddha.
I don’t know whether it was the Buddha who entered his dream or he dreamed of the Buddha, but his shoulders trembled slightly.
There was a faint sob in the wind, which disappeared in a flash.
Everyone spent the day looking for the idiot, and it was not until the evening that the idiot's information was found. Zheng Zhitan found it at a very clever time.
Zheng Zhiqin was squatting on the bridge at the innermost part of the scenic area, smoking, when he accidentally saw a timid figure. The look reminded him of an old friend, so he followed it.
The young man's facial features under the mask were deformed, but he didn't have squinting eyes, which was a little worse than the old man. Zheng Zhitan didn't have any desire, he just simply wanted to find someone to chat with.
The young man is a resident of Sanlianqiao and grew up here. Since he is ugly, people of similar age around him hope that he will not go out unless necessary, so as not to scare tourists and affect the reputation of the scenic spot. His family also does not want him to run around and be bullied, so he only comes out after dark.
When Zheng Zhitan met him, he had just gone out.
Zheng Zhitan did not expect that this little episode would bring clues.
The young man had played with the fool two or three times. He said that the relationship between them was as pure as water.
Zheng Zhitan: "Where does the fool usually go?"
The young man clenched the mask in his hand cautiously: "Uncle, what do you want to do?"
Zheng Zhiqin was dressed in a suit and looked handsome. When he smiled, the fine lines at the corners of his eyes looked mature and charming. "I'm a writer and I'm currently writing. He's the type of person I want to try this time. I want to get some material."
The young man seemed to understand, but not quite. He looked at him with eyes full of admiration and respect: "The idiot runs around everywhere, without a fixed place. The few times I met him were at night, in different places." After a pause, the young man said, "I only know his home address."
"Good boy." Zheng Zhiqin touched his deformed face.
Zheng Zhiqian went to the fool's house, and before he got close he heard the old man's heart-wrenching screams.
That's the fool's grandmother.
Zheng Zhiqin frowned. The idiot had already gone out to play? He shook the half-smoked cigarette between his fingers, and a pinch of ash fell on the stone slab, which was blown away by the wind.
Not long after, Zheng Zhiqin sat in the main room of the fool's house and took a handful of peanuts handed to him by his grandmother as his friend.
"Eat, eat." The old lady looked at him.
"Okay." Zheng Zhitan smiled. He hadn't eaten peanuts for eight hundred years.
Perhaps it was because Zheng Zhiqin's temperament as a workplace elite was so intimidating, and he had no reason to lie, so the old lady believed him.
The grandson finally has a friend. The old grandmother is both happy and curious. The grandson is confused as to how he can make friends with others.
Zheng Zhiqin said that he was a photographer who came here to look for inspiration. He had taken photos of the fool and that was how they got to know each other. He also said that the fool could not be completely ignorant and as long as one had patience, one could communicate.
The grandmother's cloudy eyes were full of doubts: "When has my grandson ever gone out? He has always been at home. I locked him in the room."
Zheng Zhitan said jokingly: "He told me that he often comes out to play, and every time he does so after you fall asleep. He is quite smart." This was revealed to him by the young man. The fool is silly, but not really silly.
The old lady was stunned when she heard this: "This bastard!"
Although his tone was angry, his expression was full of happiness. His grandson actually knew how to do this.
Zheng Zhiqin learned from the old grandmother that more than ten years ago, when the fool was in junior high school, he went to school as usual. When he was found, he was covered in wounds. When he woke up, he became stupid and didn't know what had happened.
The grandparents and grandson had just moved in recently and were living in a relative's old house. The old grandmother didn't tell anyone about her grandson, so the neighbors didn't know that a fool had come to Sanlianqiao.
This is also the main reason why it is so difficult for taskers to find their targets.
The old lady usually falls asleep at this time, but today she ate too much porridge and woke up to go to the bathroom. She then discovered that her grandson was not in the room and she panicked.
"It's getting dark." The old lady was worried. "Mr. Zheng, can you take me to find my grandson? I'm afraid it will be difficult to walk on the road if it's too late."
Zheng Zhitan ate the peanuts in his hand: "I don't know where he is."
The old lady was completely dumbfounded: "Didn't you always send my grandson back?"
Zheng Zhitan shook his head: "He always comes back on his own."
The old lady's face, covered with age spots, was serious: "It's impossible. He doesn't know the way home."
"It's my own home, how could I not recognize it?" Zheng Zhitan said with a smile.
The old lady's dry fingers on her legs trembled: "It's good to know that you can go home, it's good to know that you can go home..."
She wiped her eyes and sighed, "I'm old now, and I don't know how many years I can live. I was afraid that he wouldn't be able to live alone after I was gone. I wanted to find him a wife, but I was afraid that he would bring harm to her. Now it's good that he ran away and came back on his own. It's good."
The old woman kept mumbling and crying. Zheng Zhiqin chatted with her for a while, then left after eating the peanuts. No one knew where the fool had gone.
As soon as it gets dark, every scenic spot in Sanlian Bridge takes on a mysterious color, which is very attractive for hiding people.
To the southwest of Sanlian Bridge lies the site of an old girls’ school. The two-story building looks solemn under the dim light of the setting sun.
Three taskers pushed open the iron gate and walked in. There were several swings standing in the layers of flower beds, and in the middle there was a small European-style fountain, which had long since dried up.
The school yard was very large, and it took the three of them a long time to search it completely, but unfortunately they found nothing.
"What should we do now?" Xiao Ai asked.
"We have finished searching downstairs, let's go upstairs." Xiao Zhang wiped the sweat off his face and neck. They were already very tired after walking all the way from outside. Fortunately, the stairs leading to the second floor were not long. The dark red wooden stairs were obviously painted later and reflected slightly under the light.
"Dongdong..."
They walked up the stairs. Some of the wooden planks were shaking, so they had to be very careful when stepping on them.
"What are the people in the management office thinking? They haven't repaired the stairs even though they are so broken." Xiao Yuan, the only man in the team, complained.
"careful!"
A piece of wood was missing and Xiao Yuan almost stepped on empty air. Fortunately, Xiao Ai reminded him from behind. Xiao Yuan couldn't help but complain about the management office again.
"Let's check all the classrooms." Xiao Zhang said.
"Okay." Xiao Ai said.
Xiao Yuan was a little nervous: "Hurry up, I have to run before it gets completely dark. My last mission was in a kindergarten, and it was full of child ghosts. It was too scary."
They looked into the classroom through the window glass. It was very dark inside and they could barely tell that there was no one inside.
"Where on earth is this annoying idiot hiding?" Xiao Yuan became more and more annoyed.
Xiao Ai: "Yeah, we worked for nothing all day."
"I haven't had a sip of water yet. I'm almost dying of thirst." Xiao Zhang echoed.
"There's a faucet over there, why don't you go there and drink some." Xiao Ai looked around and found that there was running water not far away, and she was a little thirsty herself.
Little Zhang walked over, opened his mouth and put it under the faucet, turned the valve frantically with one hand, and waited for a long time, but not a drop of water came out.
"No water! Ahhh!! No water!!!" Xiao Zhang was so angry that he was about to collapse.
When Xiao Ai and Xiao Yuan saw this, the excitement in their eyes dimmed.
Since they couldn't drink the water, the three of them could only continue checking. After a while, they suddenly stopped.
There was a bottle of mineral water on the windowsill of a classroom not far ahead!
"Why?"
Xiao Yuan was stunned. He ran over, picked up the water, checked the expiration date, and found that it was still new.
"Who put it here?" Although he was confused, he still unscrewed the bottle cap, drank a few sips himself, and wanted to pass it to others. Xiao Ai hesitated and did not take it. Only Xiao Zhang took the water and drank two sips casually.
They walked forward for a while and found a bottle of mineral water on the windowsill of a classroom.
"Haha... I'm lucky, another bottle of water." Xiao Yuan picked up the water and said with a smile.
Xiao Ai's expression changed: "Look ahead!"
The three of them looked forward quickly, and saw that on every windowsill in front of them, there was the same bottle of water. Countless bottles of mineral water were arranged in an oddly neat pattern, extending all the way to the far end.
The water was like a strange signpost, guiding the three people forward. They walked for a long time and finally came to the corner of the corridor. They turned the corner and found that the windowsill of the classroom in front was empty and there was no water.
But they did not feel relaxed at all in their hearts, because not far from them, a person was sitting there on the ground with a silly smile on his face, and his slightly plump body was swinging like a pendulum.
"It's him!"
"He's the idiot! We found him!"
Facing the three people who were almost crying with joy, the fool acted as if he heard nothing. There were more than a dozen bottles of mineral water at his feet, and he just kept fiddling with them.
"One bottle for you, one bottle for me, one bottle for you, one bottle for me..."
He put a bottle of water in front of himself, and then put another bottle of water opposite the empty one, as if he was sharing water with someone, repeating this over and over again...
"Hey! Idiot, stop playing in the water, we have something to ask you." Xiao Yuan yelled. He was very young, and this was his third mission. He didn't have much experience, but he still had that blood in his veins. This mission was particularly explosive.
The fool ignored him and just focused on dividing the water.
Xiao Yuan cursed: "Fool, can you hear me?"
The fool still ignored him. Xiao Yuan's face became a little distorted because of anger. Xiao Zhang was also very angry. They were about to go over when Xiao Ai interrupted them.
"Let me try." Xiao Ai said as she walked in front of the fool. She squatted down and said to him gently, "We are looking for someone. You know where the person is, right?"
The fool's swaying body suddenly stopped, he looked up and grinned at Xiao Ai, then continued to sway his body.
Just when Xiao Ai wanted to get up in disappointment, the fool actually picked up a bottle of water, put it in front of her, and said, "One for you!"
Then he picked up another bottle of water, placed it at his feet, and said happily, "One for me!"
Then he looked up at the other two and placed a bottle of water in front of them: "One for you and one for me."
"One for you, one for me."
The fool stopped only after all three of them had been given water. The smile on his face gradually faded, revealing a hint of struggle and reluctance.
"Okay, I'll give you one too." He gently placed a bottle of water in the empty space next to the three people, as if there was another person there.
"Who... who are you giving it to? There's no one there." Xiao Ai was frightened by the horrifying scene in front of her. She shrank her neck and asked.
"A sister." The fool tilted his head and smiled.
"She... where is she?"
"It's right here!" The fool pointed to the empty place, where there was only the lonely bottle of mineral water he had just placed.
…
The three of them were silent. Unknowingly, a chill crept up their ankles. They stared at the bottle of mineral water with fear and curiosity, but no one spoke.
"Oh." After a long time, only Xiao Yuan uttered a doubtful sound. He squatted down and looked at the bottle of water, and the next moment he slowly picked up the water.
Xiao Yuan is the bravest among the three, and he is the only one who dares to do such a thing.
Under the surprised gazes of the two girls, he looked at the water in his hand, unscrewed the bottle cap, and drank it in big gulps.
“Gulp… Gulp… Gulp…” The water rushed into his mouth frantically.
Xiao Zhang and Xiao Ai were both stunned: "Xiao Yuan, you..."
Soon the two discovered something was wrong. Xiao Yuan was not drinking water at all, but pouring water. Although his mouth was open, he did not make any swallowing movement. The water was simply poured into his mouth.
When his mouth was full of water, the remaining water flowed down like a waterfall, and the clothes on his chest were already completely wet.
"Wow..."
Xiao Yuan kept pouring out the water like this, but no one around dared to make a sound until all the water in the bottle was poured out. Then he slowly put the bottle down and lowered his head. The water in his mouth flowed down the corners of his mouth in a strange way, like two tiny fountains.
"Thank you." He said something vaguely to the fool before the water had dried up. Due to the water in his mouth, the tone of his voice could only be vaguely recognized, but there was one thing Xiao Ai and Xiao Zhang could be sure of, and that was this "thank you".
That's a woman's voice!
"Ah! Xiao Yuan, what are you doing?" Xiao Zhang screamed.
Xiao Yuan was seen stuffing the empty water bottle into his throat little by little, and his mouth kept making "uh uh" sounds, which were so low and creepy. But the mineral water bottle was too big after all. Xiao Li's face was full of pain, but his hands seemed to be out of control, and he kept pressing the water bottle down, and tears fell from the corners of his bloodshot eyes.
He finally swallowed the entire bottle.
His body fell down, twitched for a while, and soon stopped breathing.
"Breaking the taboo..." Xiao Ai covered her mouth at a loss, trembling, "I don't know when he broke the taboo... I don't know, I'm not with him all day."
Xiao Zhang didn’t know either, because her old teammate had died yesterday, and the current two were people she met during this 100-person mission.
Xiao Ai and Xiao Zhang looked at each other, then turned around and ran away.
But they stopped before they had run far. They couldn't run, the idiot was still there, they had finally found him, they had to take him away!
At around five o'clock, Liu Zhi rang the gong to call all the task performers together and notified them to hold a meeting at the old place at eleven o'clock.
That was the deadline.
The case must be fully investigated at that time: what were Cheng, Guan, and Ye going to do before the incident, why were they being targeted, why were they being silenced, and who did it.
Also, whether the thing was done or not.
Ten minutes later, the bell tower was full of people. Xiao Ai and Xiao Zhang, the two heroes who found the fool, were both on the first floor. They were badly injured after experiencing a dangerous situation.
The other people on the first floor wanted to comfort her, but they couldn't, they were all very anxious.
On the second floor of the bell tower, Cheng Jin's body shook, and the fool shook with it. He looked just like what Chen Yang saw that night, with his eyes wide open and his tongue sticking out.
"The night before last, you imitated Cheng Jin. Did you want to tell his wife that something happened to him?" Chen Yang tried to communicate with the fool.
The fool's body swayed back and forth.
Chen Yang said again: "Brother, did you see who hung him up?"
The fool is still shaking.
"Tell me in secret, this is a secret between us, I won't tell anyone else." Chen Yang moved closer to him, put his hands to his mouth, and acted like a child playing a game.
The fool was still swaying, with no intention of saying anything.
Chen Yang couldn't do it anymore, so he grabbed Chao Jian's hand and stepped back to let other teammates who had more ideas take over.
As a result, after more than ten minutes, no matter who asked or what they asked, the idiots were all the same, drooling and grinning. It was useless even if the gods came.
The atmosphere became dry and explosive, as if countless arrows with torches were being shot randomly, and someone could be hit and burned at any time. The night was getting darker, the wind made the wooden windows rattle, and a lighter flew towards the fool.
Just as the lighter was about to hit the fool's head, it was grabbed by a seemingly soft and weak hand.
Miss Qiao held the lighter and asked, "Whose is it?"
No one admits it.
Miss Qiao raised her eyebrows slightly, extremely seductively: "Little coward."
A heavy breath was heard from the crowd at the stairs, and a man rushed forward, his chest muscles bulging in his open leather jacket, with murderous intent, and it was obvious that he didn't want to talk properly.
So Miss Qiao laughed. The man was stunned for a moment. A long white leg passed through his pupils. His nose felt hot and his crotch suddenly felt a sharp pain.
The howling sound like a pig being slaughtered resounded on the second floor. Although the men on the first floor did not know the specific situation upstairs, they could feel something from the screams and felt a chill.
Miss Qiao straightened her cheongsam and said a few words to the fool, but to no avail. So she walked towards Chen Yang in her high heels and said resentfully, "Little Yangyang, the fool doesn't like me as his big sister."
"He doesn't like me as his brother either." Chen Yang said.
Miss Qiao twitched her lips, glanced at Chao Jian vaguely, and said to Chen Yang: "I'm a little annoyed, let's go downstairs to smoke a cigarette."
The taskers all stepped aside at the same time, and Miss Qiao thanked them lazily, and the girls all blushed.
The crisp ticking sound spread all the way to the exit of the clock tower, and the alluring smell of perfume swirled in the air for a long time.
Next, men, women, young and old, from upstairs and downstairs took turns, but no one could handle the fool.
Chen Yang sat on the stairs, feeling a splitting headache and swearing a lot.
"Why don't you try?" Chen Yang looked at Chao Jian beside him and answered himself, "No, you can't participate."
Chao Jian fed a milk tablet into Chen Yang's mouth: "Don't be impatient."
After saying this, Chao Jian's brow twitched slightly. This was nonsense. There was no way Chen Yang wouldn't be anxious.
The last time Chao Jian saw Chen Yang like this was in the last mission before he was reset. That was also an audit mission, so he was in this state. Chao Jian was in a similar state at that time.
Now Chao Jian is just a bystander, and he can only be an outsider in this game.
When the last ray of light was about to disappear, the fool spoke. He said, "Hide and seek."
"What's hide and seek?" Everyone was confused.
“Hide and seek…” The fool walked outside, repeating those three words over and over again, “Hide and seek… Hide and seek… Hide and seek… Hide and seek…” He was stopped by someone, and his voice became sharp, “Hide and seek!”
"Hide and seek!" The fool jumped a few times, staring at the people who were preventing him from going downstairs with his two round eyes, "Hide and seek!!!"
"Okay, okay, we'll play hide-and-seek with you." Everyone had a premonition of something, and they quickly dispersed and found a place to stay.
Chen Yang was not worried that the fool would get lost because there were many people following him.
So after everyone left, Chen Yang pulled Chao Jian back to the bell tower and went straight to the second floor.
There was no need to keep Cheng Jin's body as it was, so he put him down and asked Chao Jian to help him dig out the wooden box.
Before opening the wooden box, Chen Yang had a lot of guesses. He guessed that it was full of copper coins, or other jade trinkets, but he didn't expect it to be empty.
Empty wooden box, what did Cheng Jin steal it for...
Chen Yang couldn't figure it out. He rubbed his face and took out his phone to check the time: "There are still a few hours left. Is it in time?"
Chao Jian did not respond.
"It's not too late." Chen Yang took a deep breath, "Let's go and see the fool."
It was very dark, but the fool did not fall down. He ran around in the memorial hall. It seemed that he was very familiar with every blade of grass, every brick and every tile in this place and that he came here often.
The number of people secretly following the idiot gradually decreased. They were playing hide-and-seek with the idiot. They couldn't use flashlights, so those with poor eyesight gave up.
By the time the fool ran from the westernmost end of the memorial to the easternmost end, there were only a dozen or so people left following him.
The vine in front of Chen Yang's feet was kicked away by Chao Jian. He looked at the increasingly dark night and wondered how long the fool would have to run. He hoped that as he guessed, he would get something.
"You idiot, don't run away." Zheng Zhiqin's voice suddenly came from behind.
Chen Yang immediately squinted and looked.
The fool stopped in front of a rockery. He grabbed the rocks with both hands, stretched his neck inside, and shouted in surprise: "Hey, I found you!"
Everyone divided into two teams and quickly surrounded the rockery, but found nothing inside.
There was a burst of cursing in the team, and Chen Yang also cursed a few words. He dragged Chao Jian behind the rockery and hugged him to vent his emotions for a while before he felt better.
The fool continued to run. It was already completely dark and Chen Yang could no longer be seen. He was being led away by Chao Jian.
Chen Yang didn't know where the idiot had gone. After some time, he heard the idiot make the same surprised sound as before: "Hey, I found you!"
At this time, there were only seven or eight people hiding behind the pillars. They were exhausted both physically and mentally and did not move, thinking that the fool was still playing.
However, at this moment, no one expected that the fool standing at the door of a small room would be pushed to the ground, and a figure stepped on his feet and ran away.
The fool cried out in pain, rolling on the ground like a child: "Bad guy! I'm going home to tell grandma and let her spank you!"
Chen Yang turned on the flashlight as quickly as possible and shone it over there. It was a woman with a leg injury. She was running with a limp, was thin, and wore a purple windbreaker.
The woman turned the corridor and her profile flashed in Chen Yang's light.
"She is..." Chen Yang's brain worked rapidly. He found the corresponding information and his eyelids twitched wildly. "Guan Xiaoyun, she is Guan Xiaoyun!"
"Catch her—"