At first glance, that voice sounded like a woman crying, but if you taste it carefully, it seems that not only one woman is crying, but there are countless women, accompanied by the sound of rushing water, coming from not far away.
They may have encountered an extremely sad event, or they may have experienced some terrible experience. Because they are powerless, they are sad, resentful, and cursed. Such feelings are revealed from the cry, and it is even more desolate in the desolate night. .
However, in the middle of the night, the people in the village had already fallen asleep. In addition to the crops, there were two imperial mausoleums outside. Where could there be a woman crying outside
It's clearly not human.
Before hearing the cry in person, Tang Fan also felt that the descriptions of the old village chief and others were a bit alarmist, but at this moment, he felt this feeling firsthand.
The deep resentment and grief contained in the cry, sometimes sharp and high-pitched, sometimes low and cold, is like a knife digging deeply into the flesh and blood, which is not something that an ordinary person can utter at all. Creepy and unavoidable.
The wind seemed to be particularly strong tonight, and the doors and windows were banging, and the crying continued to blow in along with the wind.
Tang Fan has calmed down. It's not just because Sui Zhou is by his side, but his usual calm and calm character has returned. It is with this character that he used to travel alone, travel far and wide, and have countless times. After several times of crisis, finally turned the corner.
He listened for a moment, turned his head slightly to the side, leaned close to Sui Zhou's ear, and asked in a low voice, "Can you go out to check?"
Sui Zhou looked solemn, nodded, and the two started to get up and get dressed.
Because it was windy at night here, and they went out, they only took off their outer clothes even when they were sleeping. It was convenient to put them on at the moment, but they were all dressed up in the blink of an eye. Sui Zhou moved faster and opened the door.
The wind was strong outside, and the water level also rose. Accompanied by the sound of the rushing river, the cries seemed to be less clear than before, but Tang Fan knew that it was just an illusion. In fact, the cries were always there. He looked up, trying to identify the source of the sound.
Unexpectedly, he thought the voice came from the river, because whether it was the information he got from the old village chief or the descriptions of the magistrate He and others, there seemed to be something hidden under the Luo River. The extremely terrifying existence caused people to be dragged into the water frequently, but now it sounds like the cry came from the direction of Yonghou Mausoleum.
Is it really someone who is pretending to be a ghost
Tang Fan and Suizhou exchanged glances, and they found that there were several figures in the next room, and they were approaching Tang Fan and Suizhou.
It's Ponzi and the others.
The villagers must not dare to come out and watch it out of curiosity, let alone Yin Yuanhua, Zhao Xiancheng and others, if they hear it, they will pretend not to hear it.
What a coincidence. Yesterday, the county magistrate said that he hadn't heard the sound for a long time. Tonight, Tang Fan and the others appeared again just after they rested here.
Pang Qi and other Jinyiwei approached, and asked Suizhou in a low voice, "Brother, do you want to go over and take a look?"
Although the voice was still a long way from them, everyone subconsciously lowered their footsteps and voices.
Sui Zhou nodded and headed towards the Emperor's Mausoleum first, and the others naturally followed.
As mentioned earlier, Luohe Village is built on the edge of Yonghou Mausoleum. This is to make it easier for the villagers to guard the mausoleum. The villagers are not unhappy. After all, this does not delay farming. That means that the feng shui here is good, and everyone is honored.
But all these ideas changed completely a year ago. Everyone lived next to this mausoleum. Every day in the middle of the night listening to ghosts crying, and the river god arresting people, they were scared to death. So when Tang Fan and the others came here in the evening , I felt that the faces of the villagers I saw at the time had a look of fear on their faces, and they thought they were ignorant to do this. After I heard the voice with my own ears, I realized that the villagers' reactions were actually normal.
I don't know if it's because of suspicion, but everyone just feels that the closer you get to the emperor's mausoleum, the more gloomy wind blows.
Even the daring and lawless Jin Yiwei, such as Pang Qi, shuddered.
The grief and grief that seemed to be complaining lingered endlessly, as if there was no need to breathe.
There is nothing to fear about being a human being. The most fearful thing is to surpass the existence of your own cognition. There are a few people in this world who truly believe that there are no ghosts and gods. Sacrifice, the worship of ghosts and gods has long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people of the Ming Dynasty. No matter how fearless people are, at best, they can only worship ghosts and gods and keep them away, rather than completely disbelieving them.
Tang Fan will never take the initiative to admit the existence of these things, but he will never deny that they do not exist. From his point of view, people have a way of being, ghosts have a way of ghosts, and heaven has a way of heaven. Whether they exist or not, they cannot deviate from their own way and commit murder, arson, and harm to others.
Things like this time, stealing the imperial mausoleum and killing one's life, these are all crimes, no matter whether it is a person or a ghost, as long as the crime is committed, it must be repaid and brought to justice. This is Tang Fan. Persistence in mind.
Therefore, when he had no time to stand by himself, and two civilians without weapons to defend himself, walking with a group of Jinyiwei and approaching the strange and inexplicable voice step by step, he did not appear to be much more flustered than they were, on the contrary, he was as usual. Calm and self-sufficient.
As the leader of a team, you don't need martial arts, but at least you need to be able to appease people's hearts at critical moments. Tang Fan did this. Pang Qi and others were a little flustered by the sound, and pressed their hands tightly on the embroidered spring knife. On the hilt of the knife, but seeing that the two leaders were so calm, as if they were also infected, they gradually calmed down.
Although Yonghou Mausoleum is located on a high ground, it is actually a low hill and plain stretched far and near, and there are no mountains and dangers. The field of vision around it is very wide. The moon quietly drilled half of its face from the clouds and sprinkled the moonlight on it. Among the ruins and tiles in the empty plains, there is a bit of desolation of right and wrong.
Not far away, the mausoleum of Yonghou Mausoleum was standing quietly in front of them.
Song Yingzong, who buried Yonghou Mausoleum, was not only short-lived, but also unlucky after his death. His mausoleum was burned as early as the Southern Song Dynasty.
What's more unfortunate is that because an official in the Northern Song Dynasty once participated in Yingzong's funeral, he wrote the layout of Yingzong's underground palace in detail in his book, and as a result, this reference became the master of those literate tomb robbers in later generations. According to the scriptures of Quan, many people went to rob Yonghou Mausoleum and drilled holes from all directions according to what was written above.
Because there is a teacher who is well-known and knowledgeable, Tang Fan has also read the book, and he still knows a little about Yonghou Mausoleum. Now he has seen this former imperial mausoleum with his own eyes, plus the sad cry in his ears. The sound of the horn can't help but sigh with emotion, thinking that no matter how gorgeous this tomb is built, what use is it, the emperor and general will only be a handful of loess after a hundred years, it is better to just find a place to bury it, it will always be better than that. Now, even death is not peaceful.
But this kind of thinking is a bit outrageous, so he just thinks about it, and definitely won't say it.
The problem is that the closer you are now, the clearer the cries of ghosts will be. Everyone feels a string in their hearts, for fear that something unexpected will happen, and the psychological pressure is so great that only Master Tang is still thinking about this kind of thing off the line. The problem, I really don't know whether to say he has a big heart or a lack of brains.
The mausoleum is open all around, and there is no place for Tibetans at all. The cry came from behind the mausoleum.
They walked forward slowly, bypassing the mausoleum that had been dilapidated.
Suddenly, Sui Zhou, who was walking at the front, stopped.
Everyone was caught off guard, and the hearts of the people behind were twitching, and they almost pulled out their knives.
But everyone quickly understood why Suizhou suddenly stopped.
Because in front of them, they still didn't see anyone, some were just messy and wildly growing grass and trees, hung by the wind like ghosts dancing wildly.
And the sound came from a dark hole at the foot of the mausoleum.
The robbery hole was not conspicuous, and it was because of the existence of the sound that they noticed the robbery hole.
The voice is still sad and mournful, like those women who have been imprisoned in the deep palace all their lives, unwilling to wither their years, unwilling to exhaust their youth in the palace, and like those who have suffered unjust torture and died, unwilling to die The soul disappears, so the residual thoughts are left behind, full of boundless resentment, and they refuse to disperse from generation to generation.
If what I heard in the room just now was just the bitter resentment that was sent along with the sound of the wind, then when I got here, I could feel the deep resentment that was magnified ten times or even a hundred times. Everyone's body and even their souls are devoured!
Although they had a hunch for a long time, when everyone saw this three-foot-square hole that could only accommodate one person bending over, they felt the bone-chilling chill on their body.
This is not in the face of vicious bandits or rebels. The situation in front of us cannot be explained by common sense. When people face this kind of environment, their first reaction will inevitably feel helpless.
When they were walking around the mausoleum just now, Pang Qi and other Jin Yiwei had already walked in front of Suizhou and Tang Fan, ready to deal with the unpredictable danger at any time, but at this time, even with the knife in their hands, they still felt a little unreliable. I couldn't help but turn my head back.
They soon saw Tang Fan and Sui Zhou standing there, the former instead took a few steps forward and looked around, while the latter followed Tang Fan, his face as calm as ever.
Pang Qi and the others couldn't help feeling ashamed, and quickly forced themselves to calm down.
Once sanity returns, courage returns with it.
Pang Qi took two steps forward, stopping Tang Fan's footsteps that he still wanted to move forward, and said in a low voice, "Sir, the situation is not yet clear, so don't take risks lightly, it's better to wait until dawn..."
He hasn't finished his sentence yet, and the accident happened suddenly!
Pang Qi first saw the surprised look on Tang Fan's face, and he couldn't help but stop before he finished speaking. He also looked in the direction Tang Fan was looking at, only to see a hand sticking out from the hole.
"Back off!" Ponzi shouted.
Everyone surrounded Tang Fan and Sui Zhou and took a few steps back, but their eyes were fixed on the entrance of the hole for a moment.
It was a hand first, followed by a head. What can be seen right now is definitely not as clear as in the daytime, but from the silhouette, Tang Fan and the others can see that the other party is wearing coarse clothes, and they are also very embarrassed.
"Stop! Who are you!" Jin Yiwei's scolding didn't stop him, and soon the man's upper body had climbed out of the hole. He used both hands and feet, but he was very flustered, as if he was being chased by something, and heard what Jin Yiwei said. , the other party raised his head instead.
At this time, everyone had already adapted to the environment in the dark. With the weak moonlight, I saw that one of the man's eyeballs had been gouged out by something, but it didn't fall off completely. It was drooping on his face and his nose was bitten off. Half, with blood all over his face, looked terrifying.
He also saw Tang Fan and the others, his face twisted for a while, as if he wanted to say something, his mouth made a ho-ho sound, but as soon as he opened his mouth, blood rushed out of his mouth.
While vomiting blood, the man spit out some viscera-like minced meat from his mouth.
Even so, the limbs still crawled out desperately.
This is a very scary scene.
Tang Fan can guarantee that if Yin Yuanhua is here and sees this scene, he probably won't want to eat meat in three years.
But don't talk about Yin Yuanhua, even the Jinyi guards who are used to the torture of the imperial prison and have strong psychological qualities still feel a messy feeling at this moment.
This is not a prison sentence, but in the wilderness, a person suddenly crawled out of the robbery hole of the emperor's mausoleum, and his facial features were almost lost. What would everyone think
There must be a more terrifying existence in the robbery cave to make a person alive like this.
The man used both hands and feet, and finally climbed out of the robbery hole. He seemed to want to ask Tang Fan and the others for help, but in this situation, the enemy and me were unknown, and they didn't even know what happened to the other party. How could Pang Qi and others come forward so easily? Instead, he yelled at him for standing still and was not allowed to move any further.
However, the other party had already lost his mind, and as soon as he saw someone, he would be granted an amnesty, no matter if it was an officer or a companion, and stumbled towards them, ignoring Pang Qi and the others.
Many Jin Yiwei have already drawn their knives, and are ready to give him a knife when the other party pounces on them.
But the man vomited too much blood, and his body couldn't hold it any longer.
At this time, a Jin Yiwei shouted: "Someone came out again!"
Everyone looked at the sound, and sure enough, they saw another figure climbing out from the inside, shouting: "Help! Help!"
"Who!" Jin Yiwei shouted.
The other party didn't care about 3721. When someone responded, he shouted louder: "Help! Help me! Help—"
His voice came abruptly, and under the moonlight, Tang Fan saw that the other party's eyes were wide and round, his hand was still hanging in the air, and he suddenly fell heavily into the soil.
Sui Zhou took a few steps forward, and before everyone could react, he reached out and grabbed each other's shoulders and lifted him up!
Everyone whispered.
Because what he grabbed was just the man's bloody upper body!
As for the man's lower body, it has long been empty, dripping with blood, and he doesn't know where to go. Judging from the fact that he was able to call for help just now, but suddenly encountered a catastrophe, it is obvious that something under the robbery hole bit off his lower body. .
"This person isn't dead yet!" Pang Qi squatted down to check the person who ran out earlier, put a hand on his nose whose original shape was no longer discernible, and said to Tang Fan and the others, "I'm still a little angry!"
Tang Fan also crouched down, and asked in a deep voice, "What did you meet below?"
The man's remaining intact eye moved slightly, and his mouth opened in a small arc, as if he wanted to say something, but he couldn't tell, so Tang Fan had to lower his head and bring his ear closer to listen.
I only heard the other party say: "Monster... save... save me..."
Before I finished speaking, there was no sound in my ears. Tang Fan looked at Pang Qi, and Pang Qi shook his head at him: "No help."
Sui Zhou suddenly said, "The voice is gone."
Everyone was stunned for a moment, and then they realized that the constant and creepy strange noise just now was indeed gone.
This voice came from nowhere, and didn't know when it would end. It came and went without a trace. It was completely unpredictable. The only two people who knew the truth died, and they died so miserably.
Judging from their performance before their death, they must have experienced unusual things. Under this robbery cave, there might be something unusual lurking.
Tang Fan and Sui Zhou looked at each other and felt uneasy as never before.
They originally thought that this was just an ordinary tomb robbery case, plus the ignorance of the local people, digging through the gang, and creating some kind of river god, as long as they came over and caught the tomb robbers and exposed their deception, everything would be solved.
However, it now appears that things are far more complicated than originally expected.
Pang Qi asked, "Sir, what should I do now?"
Tang Fan glanced at the two people: "Take this corpse back in good condition first, and talk about it tomorrow."
The group quickly returned to the village.
The village was still silent, and the sound of their footsteps occasionally disturbed the housekeeping dogs outside the house, causing a bark or two.
After the strange cry was gone, the village seemed more peaceful, and it no longer felt gloomy as before. It could be seen that the state was born from the heart, and everything was caused by inner demons.
Tang Fan and Sui Zhou returned to the house, they didn't feel it just now, but now they relax, they felt extremely thirsty, Tang Fan sneezed, and found that he had just sweated outside, only to be blown by the wind and cold. It was hot, and when I touched my back, it was still a little wet.
Suizhou touched the teapot, and the tea in it was cold. Of course, it was more than two hours after they fell asleep, were woken up, walked around Yonghou Mausoleum, and then came back. Soon the sky will be bright.
No one slept well this night, and it was impossible to fall asleep immediately. As soon as Tang Fan closed his eyes, he felt that the man's face without an eyeball had been shaking in front of his eyes.
Sui Zhou took the teapot to the stove in the back to boil water, and soon came with hot tea. The snacks on the table didn't need to be heated, they could be eaten directly. Tang Fan ate two cloud cakes , I finally got some ironing in my stomach.
Seeing that Suizhou was sitting down but there was no movement, he pushed the plate towards him: "You can eat too."
Suizhou picked up a piece of osmanthus cake, but did not put it in his mouth, but asked Tang Fan, "What are you going to do about this?"
Tang Fan shook his head: "With us people, it's not easy to do. There must be something there, the old village chief must know, and he has to ask him again tomorrow. If you go to the court to plead guilty, you will say that the case is too tricky, and you must invite more people from the imperial court to first find out what is going on below, and then slowly figure it out."
This is the safest way, and it is also to prevent Suizhou and the others from taking risks. If Yin Yuanhua's superiors are replaced, maybe they will insist on letting Suizhou and the others go to the robbery cave to take a look first.
But Sui Zhou knew that it was absolutely impossible for Tang Fan to trade other people's lives for his future career.
However, if things continue to develop, it is not up to them to decide. After all, many villagers have died here, and everyone is panicking. If the monster cannot be caught, it will be quiet and peaceful here, and then the villagers will Even if a large living person is used to sacrifice to the river god, people will continue to die.
If Tang Fan explained above, the court might not convict him, but he would definitely use it as an excuse for Tang Fan's inability to escape, and send a higher-ranking commissioner, then Tang Fan and the others would be more passive.
Suizhou understood this very well, so he said: "At that time, I will ask Pang Qi to borrow the fire guns from the Henan Guard Station of Fusi County in Beizhen, and then send a group of people over, and they should be able to go down and check."
Tang Fan's face was solemn, and his mind was immersed in thinking, but this did not prevent him from holding the cloud cake in his hand and sending it to his mouth piece by piece, as if he was doing business without delaying eating, he looked very is funny.
Sui Zhou looked at it with a smile, but he himself didn't notice it. He was seriously considering the feasibility of the fire gun's proposal: "Alright, but we still have to think about it in the long run..."
Before he finished speaking, he saw Suizhou's mouth slightly raised, and he couldn't help but ask blankly, "What?"
"It's okay." Sui Zhou put his fists to his lips, coughed lightly, and returned to his usual cold face. "Don't eat too much. There must be someone who will bring breakfast in the morning. Let's take a break first, or else I'll be out of energy during the day."
The two of them tidied up hastily, this time they didn't even take off their outer clothes, they just lay down with their clothes.
Tang Fan thought that he would definitely suffer from insomnia, but because he was so tired, he fell into a deep sleep after a while.
This time, naturally, he never dreamed again until he was woken up by Sui Zhou.
When he opened his eyes again, it was already bright outside, and there were hot white porridge and side dishes on the table. Tang Fan poured a belly of tea last night, and he was not full. Now seeing these simple but appetizing pickles, Immediately, he moved his index finger, and after getting up to wash up, he followed Sui Zhou to sit at the table and began to eat.
"Zhao Xiancheng is waiting outside. I will let him and Pang Qi go to the old village chief and bring people here." Suizhou said.
Tang Fan snorted: "It's inconvenient to ask questions in the village, let's take it back to the county seat first, you can do what you can, and then leave half of them for me, I want to walk around this village, the origins of those two people last night... "
Before he could finish his words, the door outside was pushed open with a bang.
"My lord! My lord!" Zhao Xiancheng appeared at the door with a pale face, panting: "It's not good, it's not good!"
Seeing him like this, Tang Fan's heart sank: "What's the matter, don't pant, finish your words in one breath!"
Zhao Xiancheng: "The old village chief is dead!"