He Huai'an really couldn't understand. He hadn't slept much, until it was almost dawn, and he slept sluggishly for a while.
It was dawn, the rain did not stop, and it seemed that it would not stop for a while.
Song Qingluo and Lin Banxia woke up very early. The two called He Huaian. After a simple wash, the three went to the main room and saw the village chief and his carefully prepared breakfast.
"Village Chief." He Huai'an said directly, "What were you doing outside our window last night?"
The village chief was smoking his dry cigarette, and the faint smoke blurred his face. He said vaguely, "I'm afraid something will happen to you."
That person was actually him last night, He Huai was relieved, and said, "What can happen to us?"
"Remember the night before?" said the village chief, "I had a fight with my nephew and the others. My nephew was hanged in the yard, and he was hanged at your door. I'm afraid something will happen again tonight. , come and have a look."
This makes sense, He Huaian snorted.
"What are you going to do with that girl's corpse?" said the village chief, "Just leave it like this? It's unlucky..."
He Huaian whispered, "We will take her back when this is over."
The village chief said: "Then you should take her away today, otherwise you will have to deal with the village's rules." He said coldly, "The dead cannot be left outside, and if they are left like this, they will kill the living. of."
He Huai'an glanced at Song Qingluo and asked for advice, Song Qingluo casually broke the compressed biscuits in his hand and put them into his mouth, and said softly: "Then you can send her back, and by the way, go outside to supply some supplies and come back - if If you can go."
"Okay." He Huai was relieved.
"Do you want to eat this breakfast, I will accept it if you don't eat it." The village chief knocked on the table hard.
There is a hearty breakfast on the table, including steamed buns, pancakes, and thick boiled white porridge with the aroma of rice. This is great for the three of them who haven't eaten well for a few days. lure. But because Song Qingluo told him not to eat the food here yesterday, no one moved.
Seeing that they didn't speak, the village chief collected all the food, turned around and left the yard.
Song Qingluo instructed: "He Huai'an, you go and send Mu Xinsi's body back. Lin Banxia and I are going to investigate the matter. You should take care of your own safety."
He Huaian nodded: "Okay, Mr. Song, I will be back as soon as possible."
Song Qingluo said, "No, if you can really go out, you don't have to come back. Please notify the outside world and send at least four more armed men in."
He Huaian was slightly taken aback: "Mr. Song, do you know something?"
Song Qingluo said softly, "Just guessing, just to be on the safe side."
He Huaian said hello, got up and went out.
He didn't know where Lin Banxia and Song Qingluo were going to investigate. This was not something he should care about. What he had to do was to follow Song Qingluo's orders and do everything he wanted to do by himself.
Mu Xinsi's body was still in the bedding, He Huaian put on rain gear, carried her on his back, and headed towards the parking place with an umbrella.
The parking place was not far from the village chief's residence, on a flat field behind the yard. He Huaian saw the car parked there from a distance through the rain screen, and pressed the car key in his hand.
But the headlights didn't come on.
Seeing this, He Huai'an felt a chill in his heart, and he couldn't help but quicken his pace and walked towards the car. However, when he walked to the side of the car and saw the tragic situation in the car, he understood what Song Qingluo said: "If you can go."
The car was vandalized, the window was smashed with a large hole, the instrument panel was completely destroyed, and the steering wheel was violently removed.
He Huaian froze in place, he thought that when he came to this village, the biggest resistance he faced was heresy, but at this time he realized that Song Qingluo's idea was right, he first had to face Yes, it is the villagers who are full of malice towards them.
He Huai'an turned his head and looked at the low building behind him that merged with the rain curtain. At this moment, he seemed to be able to see through the glass the pair of vicious eyes hidden in the building. They could not wait for these foreigners. People die soon, in that irresistible accident.
He Huai'an carried the corpse silently and walked back slowly. The rain blurred his vision, and he could only lower his head and walk slowly on the muddy road, moving forward with difficulty. Perhaps because there was no hope of leaving, the way back was more difficult than the way back, and his legs became heavier, as if cement had been poured into his muscles.
When he was about to arrive at the gate of the village chief, He Huaian suddenly felt a little cold. A drop of rain fell on the tip of his eyebrows, along his cheekbones, chin, and finally fell on his chin. He shook his head, trying to shake off the drop of water on the tip of his chin, but when he was shaking his head, he felt a gust of cool air blowing into his ears. He Huai'an's expression froze. He turned his head to the side and saw the face that Mu Xinsi had placed on his shoulder. There was no trace of blood on his face, but it was bruised - this is what a dead person should look like. He Huai thought desperately, he really hoped that the cold breath just now was his hallucination.
Lin Banxia and Song Qingluo didn't know what happened to He Huaian, so they left the village chief's house and went straight to the residence of He's grandfather.
It was an unremarkable earthen house, and without the funeral procession, it was extraordinarily quiet.
Song Qingluo knocked on the door first, and after a while, an old sentence came out: "Who is it?"
Song Qingluo thought about it and said his name: "Jiang Ruonan."
"Ruo Nan?" A pair of wrinkled hands slowly opened the wooden door, and the old man of the He family showed half of his face, and when he saw Lin Banxia and Song Qingluo standing outside, he was slightly stunned, and immediately said with a cold face: "What are you doing with me?"
Song Qingluo stretched out his hand and blocked the door. Although he looked delicate like a doll, his strength did not match his appearance at all. He whispered, "I want to ask you something."
"I have nothing to say." The old man of the He family looked very resistant.
"I haven't asked yet." Song Qingluo said.
The three of them stalemate at the door, and finally the old man of the He family gave in, snorted coldly, let go of Song Qingluo's hand, and Lin Banxia followed behind and entered the house.
At first glance, the room looked very messy, and there were herbs everywhere, some Lin Banxia knew, and some he didn't.
Although he entered the room, Mr. He didn't give them a good look. After sitting down on the chair, he said nothing.
Song Qingluo didn't rush to ask questions, but walked around the room, looking west, full of interest. In the end, Mr. He got impatient first. He tapped the cane in his hand and said, "What the hell are you doing here to find me? Are you just here to watch and play?"
Song Qingluo said calmly, "How many dead people are in your house?"
The old man He said angrily: "You can't control this!"
Song Qingluo said, "Or if I ask another way, how many more people do you want to pretend?"
The old man's face was ashen, if it wasn't for his old age, he would have stood up and started with Song Qingluo.
However, Song Qingluo didn't seem to be able to see his ugly face, and said casually: "This rainy day has been going on for a long time. I read the information before, and there was a flash flood in your place. At that time, it also rained in the village for half a month. You say, if the rain continues, how long will the people in the village live, until you can feed that so-called mountain god with your life?"
Mr. He gritted his teeth and said, "Do you have any solution? If you have a solution, your companion will die so miserably?"
Song Qingluo said: "Dead horses should be treated as living horse doctors. They are all dead anyway. Why don't we let us go to death ourselves? Why do you have to get your hands dirty?"
Old Master He didn't refute, looking at his expression, he was actually moved by Song Qingluo.
"I just want to see the death records of the villagers." Song Qingluo said, "You should have the most complete ones here."
Mr. He didn't speak for a while, just when Lin Banxia thought he would reject Song Qingluo's request, he pointed to a bookcase on the edge of the wall: "The book on the far right."
Song Qingluo walked quickly to the cabinet, took out the record, and quickly looked through it.
Lin Banxia was next to him, and followed Song Qingluo to look at the record, which recorded the date, time, weather, and the cause and location of the deceased in detail.
The first death was on March 11. The weather was fine. The place of death was near the creek at the entrance of the village. The cause of death was that he accidentally slipped while washing clothes by the river, hit the roadside stone and broke his spine. , died on the spot.
This accident seemed to be the horn of death. In the next few days, death began to fill the entire village like a thick fog.
Song Qingluo glanced at ten lines and looked at it very quickly. Before Lin Banxia could react, she watched Song Qingluo take out the map of the village drawn by He Huai'an, and began to mark the map with the pen she carried with her.
The black dots are marked on the map one by one, densely packed and chaotic. At first glance, there is no pattern.
Song Qingluo seemed very dissatisfied with this answer, he frowned, staring at the map in his hand, his burning eyes seemed to stare a hole in it.
Lin Banxia was puzzled: "It seems that there is no pattern, why do you look like this?"
Song Qingluo said, "I feel something is not right."
Lin Banxia thought for a moment and thought it was a little weird...
The two stared at the map for a while, then Song Qingluo suddenly began to draw on the map again, Lin Banxia said, "What are you doing?"
Song Qingluo replied, "Take a look at rainy days and sunny days separately."
Lin Banxia suddenly realized that when the symbols of rainy and sunny days were replaced by different symbols, the symbols of sunny days formed a strange pattern. It is difficult for Lin Banxia to describe in words. If he had to say it, it seemed to be the eyes of a reptile. The pupils erected were the only stream in the village. Wherever the pupils reached, there was death represented by the pattern.
The pattern of the symbols of the rainy day is not so regular, scattered in every corner of the village, and there is nothing unusual.
"Why? Why is this happening?" Lin Banxia frowned, "Could it be because the rain has weakened the effect of that thing?"
Song Qingluo pondered: "No, it's not weakening, it's strengthening—"
Lin Banxia glanced at Song Qingluo and understood what he meant.
Indeed, it is not the rain that weakens the effect of the thing, but strengthens it, because the thing has always existed in the water, and when the rain carries an unknown thing and sprinkles it on the whole village, death becomes an irregular thing. And when the sky is clear, only near the stream will be visited by death.
But no matter what, the turbid stream contained a secret that could save the village.
When Lin Banxia and Song Qingluo were talking, the old man He was listening all the time. It was not until the two of them came to a conclusion that he changed his face slightly and said, "Is it the problem of the stream?"
"It should be." Song Qingluo said, "If I remember correctly, your village is full of streams, right?"
Old Master He said, "Then why did everyone drink it, but only those people died?"
Song Qingluo said: "The specific reason has to be found out and studied again." After speaking, the two put down the things in their hands and planned to go to the stream to have a look.
Seeing that they were leaving, Mr. He said in a low voice, "The stream flows down from the mountain, and the source is in a cave. It has been raining a lot recently, and there is also water in the cave. You can't get in..."
Song Qingluo said, "Then we have to go and see first."
Grandpa He hesitated.
Seeing his expression, Lin Banxia said, "Master, do you have anything else to say?"
Mr. He was a little uncomfortable: "Isn't the mountain god really angry?"
Song Qingluo said coldly, "How can there be so many mountain gods."
Mr. He lowered his voice: "Are you living in the village chief's house?"
Lin Banxia was taken aback: "What do you mean by asking that?"
Mr. He stopped talking, shook his head, and muttered something that Lin Banxia couldn't hear clearly.
Song Qingluo was quiet for a while, then thoughtfully said, "Go to the stream to find something first, otherwise everyone will be unsafe."
Lin Banxia thought about it too. So many people have died, and I still don't know what that thing is. It is best to control it first and stop the death in the village. In this way, the villagers will not do drastic things, and their next work will be better carried out.
After asking Father He about the way up the mountain, Lin Banxia and Song Qingluo set off directly towards the cave.
The rain is a little lighter now, but the road up the mountain is still very difficult to walk. Under the scouring of the rain, the road is very muddy, and the steep mountain makes every step very difficult.
Fortunately, Lin Banxia usually likes to exercise, so it is quite easy to climb up the mountain, but Song Qingluo doesn't like getting wet, and she refuses to grab the wet grass next to her. Song Qingluo couldn't come over, so he wiped his hands on his clothes first, and then stretched out towards Song Qingluo: "Come on, it's not easy to go here."
Song Qingluo hesitated for a moment, but still grabbed Lin Banxia's hand. Lin Banxia immediately pulled Song Qingluo over. He originally thought that Song Qingluo should be quite heavy. After all, he was very strong. Yes, before Lin Banxia could react, he was already in front of him.
"Let's go." Song Qingluo said softly.
Lin Banxia glanced at him, said nothing, and continued to climb up.
Mr. He said that the cave can be found by following the stream from the foot of the mountain. Because the stream is the only water source in the village, it is well taken care of on weekdays. However, in the past month or so, the stream has surged and the cave has been submerged. For the most part, no one left. They are young and it only takes about an hour to climb up, but even if they find the cave, they may not find what they are looking for.
Lin Banxia didn't think too much about these things. What was the situation, he didn't know until he got there.
Along the way, the two of them were silent. When the cave mentioned by Mr. He appeared in front of them, Lin Banxia glanced at the phone. It took them about forty minutes, which was a little earlier than planned. .
Just like what Mr. He said, the cave has been filled with water. The shallower water level is about the bend of the calf. The water quality is not bad, but there are also many branches and residual leaves floating in it.
When Song Qingluo saw the water, he frowned again. Lin Banxia knew that he didn't like water, and said, "Otherwise you'll be waiting outside, and I'll go take a look first?"
"No." Song Qingluo did not agree, "You are too dangerous alone."
Lin Banxia said, "Don't you like water?"
Song Qingluo pursed her lips: "I just don't like it..." He hesitated for two seconds before making a decision, "Let's go in together."
Lin Banxia wanted to persuade again, but seeing the firm look on his eyebrows, he had to give up.
So the two rolled up their trouser legs and walked carefully into the cave.
The further he went inside, the darker the light became. Song Qingluo took out a waterproof flashlight from his backpack to illuminate it. Lin Banxia walked behind, observing the surroundings as he walked.
This is a very ordinary-looking cave, with a river in the middle and refurbished roads on both sides, but because of the rising water, the road was also flooded, and they could only walk inside with water. At first the water could still be seen to the end, but it got darker and darker behind, and the water under my feet was turned into an uncomfortable deep black by the darkness.
Song Qingluo's breath was lighter than usual. He lowered his head, his eyes seemed to be searching for something in the water. Lin Banxia joked: "Fortunately, this is a small stream, otherwise what if there is some terrible snake or something in it."
Song Qingluo looked back at Lin Banxia, and said calmly, "It may be, we didn't see it." His skin was snow-white and seemed to glow in the dark, but his hair and pupils were pure black, and it seemed He can suck all the light around, what a contradictory person... Lin Banxia looked at his face and was stunned for a few seconds.
Song Qingluo didn't pay attention to what Lin Banxia was looking at, and still stared at his feet intently, and took a few steps forward.
Lin Banxia said, "Huh?"
Song Qingluo said, "The water inside is too deep, it looks like a pond."
Lin Banxia took a flashlight and found that the road was broken in front, and something like a cistern appeared. It should be the source of the stream. Although it was still clear, the light of the flashlight could only penetrate a part.
Lin Banxia lit it with a flashlight for a while, and said, "Could the thing you said be inside?"
Song Qingluo said, "It's possible."
Lin Banxia thought for a while and said, "I'll dive in and have a look."
Song Qingluo looked at him and said nothing.
"I can't see anything like this." Lin Banxia said, "I saw that the water wasn't very deep, so I dived in and looked to see if there was anything special..."
Song Qingluo was silent, as if considering the danger of letting Lin Banxia sneak in. There might be some danger here, but other than that, there seemed to be no other good way.
"Okay." In the end, Song Qingluo agreed with Lin Banxia's proposal. He handed the flashlight in his hand to Lin Banxia, "Just take a look. Even if you see something, don't do it—"
Lin Banxia said yes with a smile. He bit the flashlight with his teeth and unbuttoned his shirt, revealing his well-proportioned upper body. He handed the shirt to Song Qingluo and said vaguely, "I'm going."
Song Qingluo said, "Don't take off your pants?"
Lin Banxia thought for a while, then shook her head to show that she couldn't take it off. When she turned around to jump into the water, she was pulled by Song Qingluo. Song Qingluo pointed to the flashlight in his mouth: "Don't bite, take it. In your hand, the water here is not drinkable, and you try not to enter it."
Lin Banxia snorted and obediently did as Song Qingluo said.
Holding the flashlight, he turned around and jumped into the icy water. This small pool was not too big. Lin Banxia quickly dived to the bottom. The light below was very dim. The bottom of the pool is covered with a layer of fine sand, and there are dead branches and rocks on it. Lin Banxia touched it for a while, but found nothing, so she floated to the surface and changed her breath.
"I didn't find it, I have to look again." Lin Banxia wiped her face.
"Okay." Song Qingluo stared at him.
After diving into the water again, this time, Lin Banxia searched more carefully. To his disappointment, he still found nothing. When he floated up this time, Song Qingluo saw that he still hadn't been found, and thought: "You can feel the best part of the pool. Below, that thing should have been here for over a month, probably covered in sand."
Lin Banxia nodded and dived into the water for the third time. After listening to Song Qingluo's suggestion, he began to rub his hands into the fine sand carefully, and after a while, he made new discoveries. His fingers touched something soft, not like the cold and stiff sand around him, it was more like... the texture of meat. Lin Banxia let out a sigh of relief and pushed the sand and stone to the side with force. Soon, what was buried inside was exposed, and it was really a mass of meat.
To be precise, a mass of rotten, unidentified torso of a creature.
This thing is huge, almost filling the entire pool. I don't know how long it has been soaking. The color has been soaked into a terrifying pale white, and its appearance is deformed and swollen. In the dim water, it looks so terrifying. This is what Lin Banxia touched just now. If it were an ordinary person, he would definitely be choked to death by fright, but fortunately, Lin Banxia stabilized, and his movements froze for a moment. Then, he floated to the surface and panted: "I found it, there is a very large mass of rotten meat under it, is it doing something wrong?"
"No, it's definitely not rotten meat." Song Qingluo's tone became lighter. If you have something, you're afraid you won't be able to find it. "If you look for it, there must be something special."
Lin Banxia snorted, took another deep breath, dived again, and went straight to the carrion he discovered just now. He dug hard for a while before revealing most of the rotten flesh. It was strange to say that, under normal circumstances, the rotten flesh would float up. I don't know if the mass was too heavy, but it sank to the bottom of the water. Lin Banxia groped on it carefully, trying to find the special thing Song Qingluo said, but I have to say, the touch is absolutely amazing, sticky and soft, even Lin Banxia felt a little uncomfortable. He tried his best to restrain the strange discomfort, and after touching it for a while, he finally felt something hard in the soft flesh. Lin Banxia took a closer look and found that it was a strangely shaped stone.
Is this a stone? When he saw the appearance of this thing through the dim light of the flashlight, a question popped into Lin Banxia's mind, how could there be such a strange stone? Its appearance is hard and cold, its shape is like a coiled snake, and there are scale-like lines on it, which is very strange to the touch. The moment Lin Banxia touched it, he had an indescribable feeling. The cells all over his body seemed to be screaming, warning him to stay away from this strange object—
The next moment, Lin Banxia let go of his hand. A series of bubbles spewed out of his mouth, and he floated to the surface of the water in embarrassment, coughing loudly.
The author has something to say:
Lin Banxia: I want to eat grilled sausage
Song Qingluo: Eat, eat big ones, are two enough
Lin Banxia: Enough is enough.
Ji Leshui: I suspect that the two of you are driving but there is no evidence.