Hekou Town, afternoon.
From Shengtian to the east, passing through five towns and one city, you will arrive at Hekou Town. After crossing the river mouth and going east, it is the boundary of Dongyun City. A grass river flows through Baicheng and joins the river here, so this place is also called Caohekou.
The town is a long and narrow island, just at the confluence of the river and the river. There is a barrage at the north end, which is connected to the land, and there is also a bridge downstream, which is connected to the land.
There are more than 20,000 mu of peach trees planted on the island. Every spring, the mountain is full of peach blossoms, which are colorful and enchanting against the emerald green river. The local government is also vigorously developing the tourism industry, and holds the Peach Blossom Festival at the end of April, attracting countless tourists to watch it.
But this year is a bit abnormal. Just at the end of March, the peach blossoms on the island have already bloomed, and there are endless outdoor groups coming here to play.
"Eat and drink enough, free activities! There will be a bonfire party at night, everyone come!"
"That said, why don't you come after paying the money?"
"Team leader, I heard that there is also roasted whole lamb here? How about trying a whole lamb?"
"Okay, I'll ask, if the price is right, I'll make one."
There were more than 30 people in this group, and the group from Sheng Tian arrived at Hekou at noon, had a whole fish feast at the villa first, and then toured the whole island.
Peach blossoms are gaudy, one or two are not beautiful, but when thousands of them are put together in one place, they are as bright as clouds.
Kazuki’s pink buds are like a girl with bright eyes, stretching her waist in the spring breeze. The mountains, slopes, and fishing boats on the river are all filled with a faint fragrance of flowers.
"Click to the left, okay, look at the camera."
"Crack!"
A young woman took a photo of her parents and felt very satisfied. She said with a smile, "You still have to pick the background for the photo. Look at how beautiful this tree is..."
"Slap!"
She let go of her hand suddenly, the camera fell to the ground, and her body shook.
"An'an, what's the matter?" Mom asked hurriedly.
"It's okay, I'm just a little dizzy." She rubbed her forehead, her eyes were brightly colored, and reluctantly replied.
"Hypoglycemia, let's take a break."
Dad helped her sit on the picnic cloth, took out a piece of chocolate and handed it over. At this moment, I heard two voices from the side:
"vomit!"
"vomit!"
He turned his head to look, but it was a young couple who also felt unwell, they began to vomit while holding on to the tree trunk, and all the fish soup they ate at noon spattered out.
Dad frowned, and was just about to change places, but he found noisy and concerned voices sounding one after another. The nearby group members also began to have fever, vomiting, dizziness, and even fainted directly.
The team leader rushed over in a hurry, looked at the situation, and said frightened: "It's broken, it may be food poisoning!"
"Everyone go back to the villa first, don't stay here!"
"Help each other out, especially if you're alone."
Under his command, a group of people returned crookedly to the villa, and some impatient buddies came up and shouted: "Where's the boss? Come out for me!"
"What happened?"
The boss heard people swearing at the street, and came out with his eyes wide open to argue, but when he saw it, he immediately said, "Oh, it's none of my business!"
"Fart! The meal I just had at your house is none of your business or anyone's business?"
"Don't make false accusations, my fish is all natural and pollution-free, so many people have eaten it!"
"It's important to save lives, hurry up and call 120!" Others persuaded.
"How can there be so many people calling and sending them directly to the hospital, there just happens to be a bus!"
As he said that, a group of people boarded the bus in a mess, and the buddy grabbed the boss and said, "Follow me!"
The boss was like a little chicken, and he didn't dare to resist. He just kept begging: "Brother, if it is really my responsibility, I will definitely take it. Please don't call the police, or my business will be over!"
…
Shengtian, City Hall District.
Jiang Chaofan was sitting in his office, secretly flipping through a book, and paying attention to the movement outside from time to time.
Although his surname is Jiang, he has nothing to do with Xiaozhai's family, and even his job is somewhat relative - he belongs to the Investigation Division 4 of the Special Branch.
The members of the investigation department usually come from the police and military system, and he is also a good hand in criminal investigation.
Thirty-six branch bureaus across the country focus on the capital and Shengtian. The former is the imperial capital, and the latter has two immortals, so they have to guard against it. As the deputy director of the fourth division, he is considered a middle-level backbone and has an independent office.
But at this moment, the book he was holding in his hand was obviously a little eye-catching: "Dongzhen Daojing".
This is a Taoist scripture published publicly on the market. It tells some mysterious theories, interesting stories about gods, and persuades people to follow the Tao. He bought it for three days and had already read half of it. Although there were annotations in ancient Chinese, he had never touched it before, and it was still very difficult to read.
"A girl in green clothes rides a green dragon, but she kills the white tiger and the golden man. Three flowers bloom in the palace of heaven, and two cranes wander in the palace of Taiyi. They all come to gold, wood, water, fire, earth, so much life, old age, sickness, and death..."
Jiang Chaofan scratched his head, thinking over this passage over and over.
Young girl, blue dragon, white tiger, and golden man are all Taoist terms. In the inner alchemy school, the liver is the dragon and the kidney is the tiger; in the outer alchemy school, the dragon is the lead and the tiger is the mercury. And the maiden is synonymous with Qinglong, and Jinweng is synonymous with white tiger.
"Tsk, this book is too long-winded, is it just for rhyming?"
He thought for a long time before he understood the meaning and couldn't help shaking his head. There is nothing dry about it, it is all empty theories, which can be explained clearly in one sentence, and it must be confused.
He turned a few more pages, and suddenly heard a creak, the door of the office was pushed open, and a person came in and said, "Lao Jiang, the meeting is on!"
"Ah? Oh... right now! Right now!"
Jiang Chaofan was terrified, closed the book in a hurry, pretended to buckle it unintentionally behind the bookshelf, got up and said, "What meeting? Why didn't I receive any news?"
"The group message hasn't been sent yet, and I just got the letter."
The colleague had good eyesight, and had actually spotted it, but pretended not to see it. The two of them walked all the way to the meeting room, the atmosphere was delicate, and they were a bit daring to know what you knew.
The revival of spiritual energy and the reappearance of monks are public information within the Special Bureau. No matter what the idea is, there must be people who are curious and interested in Taoism.
The superiors were clear about it, but they didn't stop it. Of course, they didn't dare to look at it openly.
The two of them arrived at the meeting room. There were not many people. The first and second leaders of the sub-bureau and the first and second leaders of various places were all above the middle level. The director in charge of Sheng Tian's work is called Xie Yuenian, capable and steady, much more reliable than the old boy in Wumu City.
No nonsense, the slide opened with a snap, showing a few pictures.
A director explained: "These are some things we have collected in the past two months after the Spring Festival. The first one is a lilac from Wudaohe. The second one is a magnolia from Sidaohe, and the third one is from Caohekou. The peach blossoms. These plants should be in full bloom in April, but this year they are all ahead of schedule, and they have reached their peak flowering period at the end of March."
Immediately, the picture switched, and a data map was displayed: with Baicheng as the center, east to Yidaohe-Wudaohe-Shengtian. West to Caohekou - Dongquan Town - Langtou County.
Each area is marked with a different color layer, indicating the concentration of aura.
"According to the aura map, these places are closely monitored by us. Except for the few places I mentioned, the plants in other places also show signs of premature growth and maturity. But most of them have no abnormalities, except here..."
The picture switched again and turned into a panoramic map of Hekou Town.
"There was a tourist group here the day before yesterday. There were more than 30 people in the group, and more than 20 people suffered from symptoms such as dizziness, fever, vomiting, and coma to varying degrees. According to reports from colleagues stationed in the local area, there was another small group yesterday. The above symptoms also appeared. However, the hospital's test showed that it was not food poisoning."
"What's the reason?" Someone couldn't help asking.
"..."
The director paused, shook his head and said, "I don't know."
As soon as these three words came out, everyone's faces were ugly. Obviously, the police can't control this matter, it's their job. To be honest, although they have powers, they can't control them either.
This is the most embarrassing part of the Special Bureau. They are all ordinary people. How do they deal with such non-scientific problems? You can't carry rocket bombs on everything, right
Therefore, they always have a kind of contradictory and self-ashamed mentality: the country obviously attaches great importance to it, but they are not capable enough—at least at this stage.
"I think it's better to investigate." A director suggested.
"No need, to put it bluntly, it will be a loss of manpower if you go."
"What about reporting to the headquarters?"
"The General Administration can come down, but we are always like this, so what do we need?"
For a while, there were many discussions and different opinions, but there was no clear result.
Seeing this, Xie Yuenian, who had been silent all the time, frowned slightly, knocked on the table and said: "Okay, okay! That little thought is written on his face, so there is no need to pretend. To be honest, our current strength is very strong. Limited, it’s nothing to be ashamed of. I know that working in Shengtian is very stressful, but let’s think about it in a different way, it’s called being close to the water! If you have a problem, you have to solve it. If you can’t do it yourself, seek help. This is also the way to solve it. Don't be burdened."
"But they, they have their own..." the deputy director wanted to remind one or two.
"Exchange! I know it, we can talk about it!"
Xie Yuenian immediately made a decision, glanced around, and said: "Lao Li, Xiao Jiang, I will leave this matter to you."