"You suspect that this teacher is the murderer of the little girl!" The boss said without hesitation.
I nodded and said, "According to the testimony of the proprietress and the nearby shopkeepers, the streets were very deserted at that time, and no other pedestrians passed by except the teacher. The time when Cai Shaomeng left the back of her house was about 7:30, the proprietress was very quiet. It was found that her accident was about 7:35, which means the murderer's murder time was less than five minutes. If she really died of homicide, then the murderer could only be the teacher. Because if the murderer was murdering After hurriedly fleeing the scene, it will inevitably attract the attention of people in nearby stores."
"Okay, since your words are conclusive, I'll trust you for the time being. If you fail to dig out this so-called assistant teacher, I won't spare you." The boss swung me away with a wave of his hand.
I drove with Zhen Zhen to investigate this educational assistance organization suspected of being involved in the death of eight children surnamed Cai. Our destination was two adjacent villages, Wang Village and Liang Village, but instead of going directly to the villages, we went to the county police station to learn about the situation of the other seven children.
Wang Da, the policeman on duty at the county's pipe station, was very at a loss for our request to consult the relevant files. He told us that although several children died in a row, they were all accidental deaths, but they just happened to happen together, and he didn't understand why we still need to investigate. Although he felt that our investigation into the causes of death of these seven children was purely superfluous, he was very cooperative in helping us find relevant files.
According to the records of the archives, fourteen days before Cai Shaomeng's accident, the fifth sister and brother of Cai's family in Wangcun did not return all night, and his father Cai Quan reported the case to the police station the next day. . On the third day, Cai Quan reported the case again, and the police on duty only made a record, but still did not file a case. It was not until the fourth day that Cai Quan went to the police station for the third time to file a case, but he did not send police officers to search for the missing Cai's fifth siblings.
On the same day, villagers in Wang Village found the bodies of five children floating on the water in a fish pond near the village's primary school.
On the third day of the disappearance of the children in Wangcun, that is, twelve days before Cai Shaomeng's accident, Cai Fen and Cai Fang, sisters of the Cai family in Liangcun, were found floating in a cistern not far from their residence. The police who arrived at the scene did not find anything special, thinking that they just slipped and fell into the cistern, so they only made simple records and did not file a case for investigation.
These records are almost the same as what Uncle Qingsheng said, but they are a little more detailed. Zhen Zhen became furious after reading through the files, and asked why Cai Quan reported the case twice before, but neither of them had been filed and dealt with!
To this question, Wang Da responded lightly: "The wild child in the countryside is not running around every day. If anyone has lost a child and asks us to find it, then we don't even have time to sleep."
"How can you say that? We are receiving wages from taxpayers, so it can be perfunctory. If the father of the child reports the case for the first time, you will immediately go out and find these children, and they may not have an accident. !" Zhen Zhen glared angrily at Wang Da, showing her teeth and claws, scaring the latter to retreat unconsciously.
I was afraid that she would beat each other up, so I quickly grabbed her.
"You must have never been at the grassroots level, so you don't know the situation. Although it is said that a case can be reported within 24 hours of disappearance, it usually takes ten days and a half to file a case, and the case is not even filed." It is a gift to Cai Quantian.
"Why!" Zhen Zhen roared at him, if I hadn't pulled her, she would have rushed over and kicked him.
"It's not to increase the detection rate..." Wang Da explained timidly: "Cases like disappearance are usually thankless, and even if all the police force is used, it may not be possible to find the person. If the person is not found, the case cannot be closed. Closing the case will naturally lower the detection rate.”
When he said this, Zhen Zhen was about to attack again, I pulled her hard and whispered in her ear: "Most grassroots police stations are like this, many police officers say 'do less and do less mistakes, it's good not to do it' For the principle of doing things. When I was in the anti-picking team, I encountered similar situations every day. After the owner's property is stolen, if the thief is not caught on the spot, even if the police on duty report the case to the pipe station, the police on duty will only casually To be a perfunctory record of the owner will not file a case at all.”
"No wonder the current security is so bad!" Zhen Zhen glared at me fiercely, as if the bad security was caused by me.
In this regard, I can only show helplessness with both hands.
After leaving the county police station, we headed to Liangcun, hoping to learn from the parents of the Cai sisters about their circumstances on the day of the accident. But when we got there, we found that it was not the right time.
In the messy hall, there was a depressing atmosphere. A man and a woman were sitting in opposite corners. They were Cai Guangyao and Liang Juan, the parents of the Cai sisters. At this moment, Liang Juan seems to be still immersed in the pain of losing her beloved daughter, staring blankly at her daughter's textbook and certificate, as if looking for her daughter's breath. While Cai Guangyao was drinking Erguotou, he pointed at his wife and scolded him, blaming the other party for not taking good care of his daughter.
Cai Guangyao was dizzy and dizzy, and questioning him would only be a waste of time, so I'm going to focus on Liang Juan. However, Liang Juan's mental state is not very good. She just muttered to herself that her two daughters are very good and sensible, especially her sister Cai Fen, who never has to worry about her, and often wins first place in reading.
When I asked about the situation on the day of the incident, she suddenly held my hand and said in a slightly nervous tone: "My elder sister has always been very sensible, she will never take her to play in dangerous places, absolutely not, absolutely …”
"Is that reservoir dangerous?" Zhen Zhen asked.
Liang Juan replied nervously: "Last year, a pig fell into it and drowned. My sister also knows this, and she will never take her there to play."
Liang Juan told us a lot about the Cai sisters in nonsense, but it seems that there is no direct connection with their deaths. And her mental state is getting worse and worse, I'm afraid I can't ask anything if you continue to ask, so we have to leave first.
Later, we came to Wang Village and found Cai Quan who was doing farm work in the fields. Unlike Cai Guangyao and his wife, he was still immersed in the grief of losing his children, but when I mentioned his children, he couldn't help but feel sad, the corners of his mouth quivered, and he muttered to himself in frustration: "If the ghost with a hidden mirror is If I want to find a maid, I have to send those three stinky girls over, how can even the fourth and the youngest catch up..."
"Hidden Mirror Ghost? What is Hidden Mirror Ghost? Does it have anything to do with the deaths of your five children?" Zhen Zhen asked in surprise.
"The Ghost of Hidden Mirror is a terrifying evil ghost. People in our village are very afraid of her..." Cai Quan sat on the ground beside the field, picked up a bamboo tube and smoked a hookah, while telling us a terrible legend circulating in Wangcun . His narration is very disorganized and mixed with a lot of dialect slang, but I can barely understand it. The legend he narrated goes something like this—
This should have happened before liberation. At that time, there was a landlord named Wang Shou. Because he was very rich, and almost all the farmland in Wang Village belonged to him, he naturally became the village head.
He has a son named Wang Qing. Relying on his father's wealth, he often makes a fortune in the village, and the villagers are very afraid of him. Maybe he did too many bad things. One night, after drinking the flower wine, he fell into the fish pond and drowned when he returned home. When he died, he hadn't asked for a wife. According to the custom at the time, he was not considered an adult without a marriage, and he could not have a tomb erected when he died.
Although Wang Shou had several wives and concubines, he only had one son, Wang Qing. Of course, he could not even have a tombstone after his death. So he went to the goddess for help and arranged a ghost marriage for his son.
(Zhen Zhen asks: "What do you mean by relatives?")
The ghost kiss is to arrange blind dates for the dead. The goddess will ask the family members of both parties to put their spiritual cards in a room where no one is in the room, let them get along quietly for a while, and then ask them if they are willing to be a ghost couple. If both parties are willing, arrange a ghost marriage for them, if not, arrange another ghost marriage.
Wang Shou is rich and powerful, and it is reasonable to say that it is not difficult to get a ghost daughter-in-law. As long as he opens his mouth, let alone a ghost daughter-in-law, even if he wants to get a working daughter-in-law, some people will rush to be the daughter-in-law. However, although many people were willing to climb up the relationship with him, they all returned disappointed. The reason is that every time the goddess asked Wang Qing's wishes, he was furious at the goddess, scolding the goddess for randomly looking for some vulgar fans to perfunctory him.
The goddess was wrong enough. Not only did she bring all the young daughters who died in the past three years to Wang Qing, but she also brought several living daughters, but Wang Qing didn't like any of them.
Since his son has not been able to pick a ghost daughter-in-law who agrees with him for a long time, Wang Shou will naturally not give the goddess a good face. The goddess had no choice but to ask Wang Qing what kind of daughter-in-law he wanted. Wang Qing said that what the goddess brought before was either a maid or a peasant family girl. This time, the goddess finally understood his intentions, so she asked around to find out where the daughter of a big family died early.
After several inquiries, the goddess finally found out that a large family surnamed Cai in the county town had two daughters. Among them, the youngest daughter died before she was sixteen because she was frail and ill since childhood, and Master Cai was intending to find a good one for the youngest daughter. home. However, the Cai family is also a big family in the county, so Mr. Cai is not willing to go to a rural place like Wangcun.
In order to find a suitable ghost daughter-in-law for his son, Wang Shou brought his son's spiritual card and went to the county town with the goddess to visit Mr. Cai to arrange the marriage.
Although Mr. Cai was reluctant to go to the countryside, he was not the kind of arrogant white-eyed wolf, and he was still polite to Wang Shou, a small landlord from the countryside. The two put their children's spiritual cards in their rooms, and then went to the living room to drink tea and chat, waiting for the goddess to tell them the result of their marriage.
Originally, no matter what the outcome of the relatives was, whether the two parties were willing or not, they would be at peace with each other, and at best it would be a waste of time. But Master Cai's eldest daughter, out of curiosity, wanted to know what kind of person her younger sister's relatives were. She even sneaked out of the room of her sister and Wang Qingming's relatives, and took a peek inside through the crack of the door.
When she saw it, something happened!
After the relatives came back, the goddess told Wang Shou that although Wang Qing did not like the second miss of the Cai family, he liked the eldest miss of the Cai family, and also said that he would only marry her. Forget the blue-headed ghost. Wang Shou is now in a difficult situation. If his son is looking for a daughter from a poor family, then no matter whether the other party is dead or alive, he will have a way to organize this marriage for his son. However, the son's eye turned out to be the eldest daughter of the Cai family.
("Blue-headed ghost" refers to a male ghost who has normal fertility, but has never had sex with a woman, and died before the end of his yang life. Legend has it that the green-headed ghost has a very low status in the underworld, and will not only be bullied by other ghosts It is the most miserable kind of ghost. In the Cantonese dialect, "green-headed ghost" is often used to ridicule others for not being male or female, and it means cursing each other's short-lived.)
Master Cai is a well-known and respected person in the county town. In terms of wealth and power, Wang Shou can't match it. This time, he is willing to marry Wang Jiaming. For the other party to let the living eldest daughter marry her deceased son, it would be a fool's dream.
However, Wang Shou only has this son. Since he insists on marrying the eldest Miss Cai family, he can't control so much, so he told the goddess that no matter what method he uses or how much it costs, he will ask the Cai family anyway. The eldest is a daughter-in-law.
Money can make ghosts run the mill. In order to earn a considerable amount of big red envelopes, the goddess buys Miss Cai's close maid with a heart, and inquires about each other's living habits. It turns out that Miss Cai already has a sweetheart, and every time she meets her sweetheart, she will dress up carefully.
After the goddess learned about it, she asked the maid to secretly take out the mirror and lipstick Miss Cai used to make up, draw a spell on the back of the mirror, and put poison in the lipstick, and then put the maid back in place.
When the unknowing Miss Cai dressed up with lipstick stained with poison, her lips were poisoned and she died immediately. At this time, she was facing the mirror painted with the spell, and the mirror sucked her soul into the mirror. Later, the goddess secretly bought the mirror with a lot of money and the maid, and easily obtained Miss Cai's soul.
Although the goddess's organs were exhausted, she did not expect that Miss Cai was wearing a bright red dress when she was dressed up. When she discovered the problem, it was too late, because Miss Cai had turned into a ghost.
In order to fulfill his son's wish as soon as possible, Wang Shou immediately organized a ghost marriage for his son on the night that the goddess brought back the mirror containing Miss Cai's soul. When the goddess put the mirror and Wang Qing's spirit card together, Miss Cai immediately understood what was going on, and was angry that she was killed by them, so she avenged them.
It was the full fifteenth month that night, and the moonlight happened to shine on the mirror. Miss Cai rushed out of the mirror with the aura of the moonlight. Whoever the moonlight reflected on, she strangled to death. The first one to suffer was the goddess who killed her, and the next ones were the servants of the Wang family.
Wang Shou was so frightened by the terrible scene in front of him that he picked up a teacup and threw it at the mirror, knocking the mirror off the offering table and breaking it on the ground. He thought that if the mirror was broken, Miss Cai would be lost, but he never thought that the mirror was used to imprison Miss Cai's soul. Once the mirror is damaged in any way, Miss Cai's soul will no longer be bound and can move freely between any mirrors.
Overnight, everyone in the Wang family, including the maid and the long-term workers, was killed by Miss Cai, who had turned into a mirror-hiding ghost. After killing all the members of the Wang family, she still felt uneasy and disturbed other villagers from time to time. Although she did not directly harm anyone, she often appeared in the mirror in the middle of the night, which shocked people a lot. Many children were frightened by her, and some older people were frightened to death by her, making the whole village chickens. Flying dog jumps.
Later, a wandering Taoist passed by, and the elders in the village begged him for help to subdue this terrifying mirror-hiding ghost. The Taoist priest originally planned to eliminate the evil for the people and eliminate this evil ghost, but he did not expect that the other party was very resentful and it was not easy to deal with. After a round of confrontation, the Taoist priest not only failed to subdue her, but angered her.
This time, the Mirror-Hidden Ghost was no longer just harassing the villagers, but started killing many innocent villagers. The Taoist priest couldn't deal with her, so he had to negotiate with her, asking her how to stop hurting the villagers. She told the Taoist priest that she was Miss Qianjin during her lifetime and was used to having a maid to serve her, and asked the Taoist priest to find a maid for her.
The Taoist thought that this is not easy, just burn a paper maid for her. However, what she wanted was not a paper maid, but a human sacrifice, and she also designated a girl with the same surname as her. Because she was killed by her close maid, she doesn't believe in foreigners.
Daoist priests are now in a difficult situation. Live sacrifices are done by evil demons, and even if they sacrifice cattle, sheep and livestock, they are despised by the orthodox religion. However, when he discussed the matter with the villagers, most of the villagers were in favor of the sacrifice. After all, enough people have been killed by the hidden mirror ghost, and in order to live in peace in the future, I don't care about one more.
After discussion, the villagers decided to make a girl surnamed Cai, who has been sick in bed for many years, as the candidate for the sacrifice. The villagers told the Taoist priest that the girl was voluntary, and asked her to hold a life sacrifice as soon as possible, so that the mirror-covering ghost would not come back and make trouble.
Although the Taoist priest was reluctant to make sacrifices, it was after all that he angered the Tibetan Mirror Ghost, which made things worse, so he had to obey the wishes of the villagers. He thought that after the sacrifice, he would be able to settle the matter, but he didn't expect that although the girl surnamed Cai volunteered to be the sacrifice, her mother was not willing.
It turned out that the girl's mother was a widow in the village. She suffered a lot to take care of her daughter who was bedridden for many years, and even had sex with men in the village to make a living. The daughter could not bear her mother to endure hardship for herself, so she volunteered to be a candidate for life sacrifice. In order to make the life sacrifice go smoothly, the villagers used excuses to pay for widows.
When the widow found out that her daughter had been sacrificed, she was overwhelmed with pain. In order to avenge the cruelty of the villagers, she put on a bright red dress and hanged herself in front of the mirror in the middle of the night.
After realizing that he made a big mistake, the Taoist felt ashamed of his master, so he was willing to die in exchange for the widow's forgiveness.
After the Taoist priest died, the widow's problem was solved, but the mirror-ghost problem was not solved. Because the Taoist priest performed a ritual for the widow's daughter before her death, to save her dead soul, so that she no longer needed to be the maid of the Tibetan Mirror Ghost, so the Tibetan Mirror Ghost did not have a maid to serve in the end.
Since then, every once in a while, three or two girls surnamed Cai die inexplicably in the village...
After listening to this terrifying legend of the Mirror Ghost, Zhen Zhen asked with a cold expression, "Are they all killed by the Mirror Ghost?"
Cai Quan nodded sadly, and said sadly: "The ghost of the mirror will kill three or two girls named Cai every once in a while, and capture their souls and go back to be maids. It's okay if she catches the maid, why kill them? What about my two sons?"
Although he described this horror legend vividly, it is just a legend in the end, and I don't think it has anything to do with the deaths of the five children. However, in the face of my doubts, he retorted firmly: "This is not a legend, it is true, the night when the fourth and the others disappeared, someone saw the ghost with their own eyes!