Tattoo 1-6 (Experience story adult novel)

Chapter 1

With a shiver in my body, I finally woke up from the nightmare. It was still pitch black outside the window. I fumbled around and found a cigarette box and lighter on the bedside table. With trembling hands, I took out a cigarette and lit it.

When the smoke went down the trachea into the lungs, the heart, which had been beating violently due to nervousness, slowly calmed down under the effect of nicotine.

I picked up my phone and checked the time. It was about five o'clock. I thought that even if I tried to sleep again, I would not be able to fall asleep before dawn. I simply walked into the bathroom naked, holding a cigarette in my mouth, and turned on the shower head...

After taking a shower, I finally felt refreshed. Thinking that it was too early to go to the editorial office, I turned on the TV and took out the leftover food that I had packed from a late-night snack with friends from last night from the refrigerator and heated it up in the microwave. After more than a minute, the microwave made a sound that the heating was completed. I took the plate and sat in front of the TV. While watching the morning news, I satisfied my stomach's need for breakfast with the heated leftover food.

After finishing the food in front of me, I felt a little nauseous, so I quickly made a pot of black tea to neutralize the uncomfortable feeling in my stomach. In this way, I spent the last time before work in a daze, then put on my coat and went to the editorial department to report in as usual.

In the editorial department, my position is somewhat special. Because my actual personnel relationship has always been retained within a certain newspaper group company. His true identity to the outside world is also a journalist under the group company. However, two years ago, the group decided to co-publish a monthly fashion magazine with a luxury goods company. When the editorial department was first established, I was accidentally inserted into the editorial department of this new magazine by the group's human resources department.

Saying that it was a coincidence is actually an excuse, because as a journalist, my colleagues think that my political views are rather radical and extreme, and my previous interviews and press releases have often caused trouble for the group's news department. It is said that a senior official from the Provincial Party Committee’s Propaganda Department even mentioned my name at several meetings. It has been repeatedly emphasized that group company leaders should manage their subordinates well and maintain the positive image of government departments, etc.

If it were any other media company, a troublemaker like me would have been fired long ago. After all, several leaders of my group are veteran media professionals. Although they appear to be submissive in front of the leaders of the competent departments, they still adhere to the professional principle of freedom of news reporting in their hearts, and always protect me intentionally or unintentionally on various occasions.

I was able to keep my current job. However, in their view, my staying in the news department was always a time bomb for the group company. Therefore, when they decided to jointly establish a new magazine with other companies, I was stuffed into the current fashion magazine editorial department by the group company as a co-organizer. He was initially an organizer, and then was deliberately retained by the group in this editorial department. Finally, he was appointed as the deputy editor-in-chief.

I know very well the intention of the group leaders in making such arrangements. But we can also understand their difficulties. In their view, it is basic professional ethics for journalists to report the truth of events and expose social problems. But in today's climate, for the sake of the group's business development, it is better for a "fool" like me who has no political sensitivity at all to stay away from the front line of news reporting and editing. What's more, they also arranged a job for me that seemed absolutely superior and comfortable to outsiders. No matter how dissatisfied I was, I had no choice but to accept their kindness and take a "long-term rest" in the editorial department.

The editor-in-chief and other staff were also aware of my situation and knew that I had absolutely no interest in so-called fashion, so they never asked me to do anything in the editing, publishing, etc. of the magazine.

I spent two years in the editorial department living a "carefree" life, getting paid without doing any work...but the situation has changed recently. At the beginning of the year, several young girls who had just graduated from college joined the editorial department.

Unlike the previous employees, they did not understand the actual reason why I appeared in this editorial department. Therefore, they were extremely dissatisfied with me, the deputy editor-in-chief who "only took the salary but did not do any work." Moreover, young people nowadays are very bold and have no awareness or ideological concept of "respecting old comrades" at all. If they don't like something, they will directly express their opinions at various meetings held by the editorial department, and several times the editor-in-chief has been embarrassed. Considering that this would inevitably affect the unity and cooperation within the editorial department in the long run, I finally decided to take the initiative to find the director and began to take on part of the editing work of the magazine.

Although my original main job was a journalist, I have seen pigs run even if I have not eaten pork. I can actually handle most of the work in the editorial department independently. However, the director took into consideration the real reason why I stayed in the editorial department, so he did not assign me any actual work. Instead, he asked me to help proofread articles or assist with typesetting or design illustrations and covers when I was free.

As a result, I, the "deputy editor-in-chief", have become a de facto "handyman" in the editorial department, doing everything, but none of the work is full-time. I am busy all day long and it seems like I am always doing something, but in fact, nothing I do can be counted. But because I did something, the director gave his opinion, and all the dissatisfaction and criticism against me in the editorial department finally died down.

Yesterday, the head of a department of the group company came to visit the editorial office for guidance. He was a senior of mine in the news department and I was quite good friends with him. We were very impressed by each other when we met again after two years. So after finishing my work, I dragged him out for a midnight snack. During our chat, he revealed to me a piece of news that I thought was enough to change my current life...

"The group company's reporter stationed in the Middle East may have to expand its staff in the near future." "Why?" "You have become dull in the past two years! Don't you care about current political affairs? Libya and Egypt are politically unstable, and the situation in Syria is becoming more and more confusing. It is obvious that there will be huge political changes there in the near future! There may even be a war. Now the company has only four or five permanent staff in the Middle East, which is obviously short of manpower."

Hearing this, I almost instinctively realized the opportunity. Are you going to keep hanging around in the editorial department of this fashion magazine? I am definitely not reconciled. No matter what job I'm doing now, I always consider myself a journalist. As a journalist, only by going to the front line of events and becoming a witness to historical events can one realize the value of one's life.

"Does the company have any requirements for candidates?" I began to ask tentatively. After all, English is the only foreign language I know. In the past, mastering Arabic was a basic requirement for personnel assigned to work in the Middle East.

"There is only one condition, voluntary participation! Even a fool can see that a war will break out over there soon. If you want to get first-hand news information, you will most likely have to go deep into the war zone to shoot and interview. This is a life-threatening job. The seniors don't want the incident of the female CCTV reporter hiding in the hotel to report the earthquake news to happen again in our group company. So the only condition for selecting personnel this time is voluntary participation... Why are you asking this? Do you want to go?" When the senior said this, he suddenly realized the thoughts in my mind. He quickly tried to persuade him.

"Ziyun, I advise you to give up this idea. You are earning a lot in the editorial department now, and you can get money from both sides! Even if the magazine doesn't sell well, you can still get a salary from the group company. And the work is not easy. Such a good job is hard to find even with a lantern. Why bother to take risks in deserts like the Middle East and North Africa? Listen to what your brother said. I know you are bored here, but there will be plenty of opportunities to leave in the future. Why bother to join in the fun?" Faced with the earnest advice of my senior, I pretended to agree in front of him, but deep down I had made up my mind: I must apply to the group.

Because I am a journalist, and after what I experienced before, I no longer care about my own life. For me, I must take this opportunity to try my luck. If I cannot achieve success, I would rather choose to die unexpectedly during the interview process...So, when I sat down at my desk in the morning, I immediately wrote an application to work at the group's Middle East correspondent station, and sent it directly to the mailbox of the head of the group's human resources department via email.

"Next, all I have to do is wait..." After the confirmation email was sent, I leaned back in my chair, thinking about the possibility of my application being accepted. In my opinion, there is a 90% chance that my application will be approved. The dangers of working at a press station are obvious. I still don’t know the situation of most of the reporters in the group company? Some people who have a sense of social responsibility and moral conscience may not have the courage to risk their lives on the battlefield; those who do not have these are just keen on reporting entertainment gossip and tidbits every day; and even more of them voluntarily act as mouthpieces for the propaganda department. The top management of the group company is also very familiar with the situation of the people under their company, otherwise they would not have established only the "voluntary" principle in this personnel selection. Therefore, the number of people who applied must be very small, and as a "troublemaker" who was actually "exiled" by the group company, since I volunteered to go to such a dangerous place to risk my life, I was seeking death, and it had nothing to do with the group company.

After thinking things through, I started looking up recent news reports on the Middle East and North Africa on the Internet. Now that I am sure my application will be accepted, I will start to get into the role I am about to play.

Moreover, for people like me in the industry, the news reports we can see in China are not credible. All the real situations need to be deduced and analyzed from the text of these reports before we can get a small amount of real information and intelligence from them... "Fundamentalism", "Sunni", "Shia"... When these terms are transmitted to the central nervous system of the brain through my retina one by one, the great changes that happened late at night many years ago suddenly appeared in my mind again...

"Aping... Aping... where are you? Come out..." The voice was so soft that it was almost seductive. In the dim light, the naked woman wandered repeatedly in every room of the house. Her tall, plump breasts and round, protruding buttocks, coupled with her swaying and graceful figure, were full of indescribable temptation to me, a sixteen-year-old who was just beginning to fall in love.

If the woman's naked body had not been covered in horrible blood and one hand was holding a sharp knife that was still dripping with my father's blood, all this would have caused me great fear. At that time, driven by physical desire, I would probably desperately crawl out from the narrow space under the bed... The strange graphic symbols drawn in blood on the floor of the mourning hall... The graphic symbols hit my father's body... The candles were burning densely around the room... These scenes were replayed in my mind like slides, just when I was about to lose myself in the painful memories. A shout of "Yan Ping" finally pulled me back to reality from my memories.

Suddenly I woke up and leaned on the desk with one hand, gasping for breath. This made Li Qingqing, who called my name, extremely surprised.

"What's wrong with you?" Li Qingqing, one of the new female college students who joined the editorial department at the beginning of the year, seemed a little at a loss when she saw my current state. Originally, in her mind, I was the kind of guy who just ate and did not work, so she did not have any respect for me at all because of the hat of "Deputy Editor-in-Chief" on my head.

Seeing my distraught look again at this moment, he showed a look of contempt. Seeing that I had breathed a sigh of relief, she coldly told me the reason why she called my name without waiting for me to explain to her the reason for my previous state.

"Someone is looking for you at the door." After saying that, he quickly ran away from me as if he was avoiding a monster.

At the moment, I don’t have the mood to think about too many problems. Still in a daze, I wandered to the door of the editorial office. When he saw the person coming, he forced a smile.

The person who came to see me was Lu Zhihang, my comrade-in-arms during my service in the army. When facing him, I have to cheer myself up and put on a smile, even out of politeness.

After retiring from the army, Lu Zhihang did not apply for a job in an existing company or organization like I did, but instead became a self-employed individual. He was bold and motivated, and his family had extensive connections in his hometown, so he was able to thrive in just a few years and soon became a small boss with considerable wealth. However, Lu Zhihang did not have the lofty ideal of becoming a wealthy businessman. Therefore, after completing a certain degree of primitive accumulation, they can feel at ease to maintain the operation of their existing industries. Once his career enters a state of inertial development, he will have enough time to engage in certain hobbies that he has always been interested in.

To be frank, Lu Zhihang has only two hobbies: one is traveling, and the other is photography. In recent years, he has been traveling and taking photos from time to time with a camera on his back. Unknowingly, he gained some fame among local travellers and photography enthusiasts, and some of his photographs were even recognised by National Geographic magazine.

Some time ago, someone in the editorial department proposed in an internal meeting that in order to cater to the tastes of today's young people, some content related to outdoor sports and travel should be added to the existing sections of the magazine. So I thought of him and contacted him to provide some representative landscape photos and attraction introductions for the next issue of the magazine. At that time, I was not informed of the opportunity to apply to go to the Middle East to report news. At this moment, the other party has been invited. Regardless of whether my application is approved or not, as long as he is still in the editorial department for one day, out of minimum professional ethics, I need to come forward to receive him and discuss and negotiate the matters of new content.

After all, they were comrades-in-arms. They ate and lived together and were very familiar with each other. So even though I tried my best to hide it, Lu Zhihang still noticed my mental discomfort at the moment.

"Aping, did you go catching chickens last night? How come you look listless and absent-minded?" The relationship between comrades-in-arms is one of the so-called "three irons", so there was not too much courtesy and hypocrisy between Lu Zhihang and me. When he saw my look at this moment, he habitually started to make fun of me.

"Tsk, I really want to catch it...but I'm old and weak, and I can't do it anymore. I didn't sleep well last night, so I might have a cold." I explained self-deprecatingly to Lu Zhihang's joke. I brought him to my desk and found a chair for him to sit down.

"Old and weak? You're rubbish, right? You're one year younger than me, right? If I remember correctly, this is your zodiac year... You're already fucking unable to do anything at the age of thirty-six?" Lu Zhihang cursed with a smile while taking out some landscape photos he had taken specially for this meeting from his bag and handed them to me. Although he has been discharged from the army for many years, he still has the bad habits of a soldier. He feels uncomfortable when he speaks without using "national curses".

"Save some time. I'm different from you. You are successful in your career now, with a lovely wife at home and beautiful concubines serving you, and I have two children now. I'm still single... How can I compare with you... Where were these photos taken? Why are they all wearing ethnic minority costumes?" I was subtly exposing Lu Zhihang's "bad deeds" of keeping a mistress outside, as a kind of "retaliation" against him, while flipping through the scenery photos he provided me.

According to Lu Zhihang's previous statement, the photos in his hand were taken when he went on a hiking tour in the southwest region a few months ago. Most of them are landscape photos, but some of them also include some cultural landscape photos. Because ethnic minorities in the southwest region are widely distributed and numerous, people wearing various types of ethnic costumes can be seen in the photos at this moment.

"We have photos from Guangxi, Yunnan, Sichuan, Tibet...which one do you think is suitable? The ones I show you today are all selected by me. I only brought two or three photos from each place and each ethnic group. Once you decide to use the ones from there, I will go back and send the rest to you." Lu Zhihang originally planned to continue arguing with me, but when he saw that I was looking at the photos carefully, he shifted the focus of his attention to the main business we were discussing at the moment.

"This one is Tibetan... um, this one should be Yi... Hey, what ethnic group is this?" While identifying the ethnic costumes in the photos, I asked about the parts of the photos that I had not yet identified.

"This is what you're talking about? It's the Qiang people... This old lady in this picture is the Dai people... And this one is also the Dai people..." Realizing that I had limited knowledge about ethnic minority costumes, Lu Zhihang showed off his knowledge in front of me without any hesitation.

When we were about to turn to the last few photos, a photo of a person in clothing that even Lu Zhihang couldn't recognize appeared in front of us.

"This one...hiss...wait, I don't know what nationality this one is. Let me see the date? It was taken on May 7th...let me think, where was I in May? Oh, this photo was taken casually in a small village east of the Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon. At that time, I was preparing to explore the canyon area with a few other travel buddies, but we went in the wrong direction and accidentally passed by this small village. At that time, I felt that their costumes were somewhat different from those of Tibetans and other ethnic groups, so I took a few photos casually...Don't say that I couldn't recognize them, even the old hands who were traveling with me couldn't recognize what nationality they were?" Lu Zhihang recalled the origin of the photo in front of him and explained to me.

"Didn't you ask at the time?" Seeing that Lu Zhihang still didn't know the nationality of the people in the photos, I couldn't help but start complaining to him.

"I asked...but I remember that the people in that village didn't seem to speak Chinese. There was one person in the group who knew some Tibetan, and we were able to communicate with them in Tibetan. They helped us find the right way, and then we left. But the guy who knew Tibetan told us that the village was definitely not a Tibetan village. Because he had lived in Tibet for a long time, he knew Tibetans very well. According to his judgment, the people in that village probably knew some Tibetan because they had contact with the surrounding Tibetan residents, but they were definitely not Tibetans." At this moment, Lu Zhihang recalled most of his memories about the photo in front of him. But it is still impossible to tell clearly which ethnic group the people and clothes in the photo belong to.

Hearing Lu Zhihang's explanation at this moment, the muscles on my face couldn't help but shrink.

"Okay, let's choose this one." Then I made the decision immediately.

"Choose it? Hey, hey... We don't even know the nationality of the people in these photos, and you want to publish these photos in your magazine?" Lu Zhihang looked at me like a fool, as if I was a rare animal he had never seen before.

"What do you know? You published it just because you didn't know! What do young people like nowadays? They like to hunt for novelty! Just think about it, the mysterious Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon! Ethnic minority villages of unknown origin! Unrecognizable ethnic costumes! This is the gimmick, which can attract attention!" On the one hand, I ridiculed Lu Zhihang, and on the other hand, based on my previous habitual thinking of collecting and editing news, I explained to Lu Zhihang the reasons why I chose these photos. You know, in today's world, a dog biting a person is not news, but a person biting a dog is news.

"After choosing these photos, what are you going to do with this section?" Lu Zhihang argued unconvinced.

Although he has gained a lot of knowledge from traveling, after all, different fields require different methods. He is far inferior to me in producing media magazines.

"I'm telling you, this section is just experimental now. It will only take up one page in the next issue, and it will be in the last few pages of the magazine, with luxury goods advertisements on the front and back. Just think of it as a little tidbit in between the advertisements. The main content of the page is the photos you took, and then attach some mysterious captions next to the photos, and then pretend to list the approximate longitude and latitude of this place, and the content of this page will be done. In short, it means that there is a mysterious village in this place, and it is unclear what ethnic group it belongs to. Those who are interested can go and explore on their own!"

When facing an amateur like Lu Zhihang, I fooled him without any hesitation. Of course, it can't be considered a sham, because it is indeed just an experimental insert.

No one in the editorial department took it seriously, so the director gave the task to me and asked me to do it. And I really intended to get it over with as I say now.

After seeing Lu Zhihang off, I continued to sit in my seat bored and meaninglessly waited for the response to my application that might be sent back by the Group’s Human Resources Department. Under normal circumstances, it would take at least three days to respond to such a transfer application, so I once again picked up the photos of people in unknown ethnic costumes taken by Lu Zhihang and stared at them in a trance.

The image in the photo is of a young man with thick eyebrows, big eyes and handsome features. His handsomeness reveals some of the simplicity and honesty unique to mountain people. But as I watched, I suddenly felt that something was wrong, but after thinking about it, I couldn't figure out why I was confused at the moment.

At lunch time, I finally decided to put aside everything in front of me, leave the editorial office, and go out to find food. In the afternoon, Lu Zhihang sent over the rest of the photos he had taken in that nameless village. I picked a few photos at random, found the page editor, and then casually determined the position and order of the photos and finalized the content of this page for the next issue of the magazine.

A week later, the new issue of the magazine was successfully printed and sold. And I also received an official reply from the Human Resources Department of the group company.

"The application has been received and we are waiting for further notification from the HR department." Looking at the official email from the HR department, I seemed to be able to see the gloating faces of my colleagues in the HR department. But now that my application has been confirmed to have been received, all I have to do next is wait.

After sorting myself out, I returned to my rented apartment as usual. While wolfing down the takeaway dinner he brought back, he casually turned on the TV news.

In the news, a beautiful female reporter was interviewing a farmer in a remote village about his views on a recently released rural policy by the central government. Seeing this farmer brother, obviously under the instruction of the reporter, carefully reading the question board with "correct answer" written on it behind the camera, and then stutteringly reciting the picture in front of the camera, I suddenly had an idea.

"White... The skin of the young man in the photo is too white! He doesn't look like someone who has been working outdoors for a long time. The farmer on TV is from the northwest. Due to long-term labor, his skin is rough and dark. The average altitude of the Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon area is above 3,000 meters, and the lowest altitude is more than 800 meters. The intensity of ultraviolet rays is even worse than that in the northwest. How can that young man of unknown nationality maintain such fair skin?" Thinking of this, I suddenly realized the reason for my previous doubts about the photo.

Just then, my cell phone suddenly rang.

As soon as I answered the phone, I heard a strange man's voice on the other end.

"Hello, are you Editor Yan Ping from the editorial department of a certain magazine? I am Huang Yue from the Chengdong Police Station. I would like to ask, do you know Lu Zhihang?" After I gave a clear answer, the police officer named Huang Yue told me an unbelievable news on the phone.

"Lu Zhihang died in his residence at noon today. We checked his phone records and found that you had been in contact with him very frequently these days, so could you please come over here to assist us in the investigation?"

Chapter 2

Lu Zhihang's local residence is located in a high-end residential community in the east of the city. When I arrived at his residence, there were several police cars parked downstairs of his residential unit, and a cordon was set up at the entrance of the unit when the police were investigating a case. Outside the cordon, many people gathered to watch the excitement.

After identifying myself to the police officer on guard at the cordon, I was allowed to enter the apartment building where the crime occurred. As a result, just as I was about to go upstairs, I saw two people in police uniforms coming down from upstairs. One of them saw me and asked. "Are you Yan Ping?" After I answered to confirm, the man introduced himself.

"I'm Huang Yue who called you. The on-site investigation has not been completed yet. It's not convenient for you to go in. We have to go back to the police station now, so you should go with us." Although I really wanted to see the scene of Lu Zhihang's sudden death. But since the police officer named Huang Yue had made the arrangements, I had no choice but to follow him out of the unit door and get on the police car back to the Chengdong Police Station.

After entering the police station, I was taken to a closed room. Although I had never been to such a place before, from the simple furnishings in the room I could tell that this must be the interrogation room of the police station.

There is nothing I can do about it. It seems that the police station has classified me as a criminal suspect. Of course, I am not worried about being wrongly accused. According to what Huang Yue said on the phone before, Lu Zhihang died around noon today. At noon, I was in the editorial office, eating a box lunch and taking a nap. From the time I started work in the morning until I got off work last night, I did not leave the editorial office. There are a lot of witnesses who can prove this.

After sitting in the closed room for a while, Huang Yue brought two policemen into the interrogation room and sat upright on the seat opposite me at the table.

After asking and registering my basic information such as name, age and occupation step by step. Huang Yue began to get to the point.

"What is your relationship with Lu Zhihang?" "Comrades-in-arms and very good friends." "You have been in frequent contact with him recently. Is there something going on?" Faced with the other party's inquiries, I honestly explained the reason for my frequent contact with Lu Zhihang. Because I had anticipated what the police might ask me, I also deliberately brought with me the latest issue of a magazine that had just been on sale for two days. After finishing the explanation, I stood up and placed the magazine in front of Huang Yue. In front of him, I opened the new page of the "Outdoor Sports Section" that I was responsible for producing, pointed to the pictures in it, and explained it to Huang Yue again.

The attitude is good and the facts are clear. Huang Yue was very satisfied with my performance. After roughly looking at the photos taken by Lu Zhihang on the color pages, Huang Yue had someone open the door of the interrogation room and then signaled me to leave the room. After I walked out of the room, I vaguely heard the conversation between Huang Yue and two other police officers at the scene.

"It should have nothing to do with him. I have just contacted his editor-in-chief. He was in the editorial office until the end of the afternoon and had no time to commit the crime." "That's for sure. If he was the murderer, how could he come here so honestly to cooperate with our investigation?" After hearing this conversation, I knew that my suspicion had been completely ruled out by the police. Thinking of this, I felt relieved for no reason.

When I was a reporter, I interviewed and reported on the various dark sides of the public security system in the process of solving cases.

I also know about forced confessions and torture. Fortunately, Huang Yue is different from the police officers I have interviewed and reported on before. He basically acts based on the principles of facts.

After thinking all this through, I suddenly realized that I had to quickly inform several other comrades who had a close relationship with him and me about Lu Zhihang's death. So he made a phone call in the corridor of the police station.

Several comrades who received the news over the phone had the same reaction. First they couldn't believe it, then they were shocked and lamented the unpredictability of life. They all expressed their willingness to come to the city where Lu Zhihang and I live as soon as possible. At the very least, they will definitely attend Lu Zhihang's funeral.

My act of making a phone call in the aisle naturally attracted the attention of people passing by in the aisle. However, after confirming that it had nothing to do with it, most people returned to their own affairs. Only a policeman in uniform who entered the police station halfway through the gate seemed to have some interest in me after hearing the content of my phone call. He leaned against the wall a few meters away from me and silently watched me. Only after I notified the last comrade and put his cell phone into his pocket did the policeman slowly walk up to me.

"Are you the comrade-in-arms of the deceased Lu Zhihang?" The other party obviously knew my identity from the content of my conversation.

So I started by pointing out the relationship between Lu Zhihang and me.

"Yes... May I ask who you are?" I frowned and responded hesitantly at the short policeman in front of me with a somewhat funny and strange appearance. Although it was the first time we met, the other person's appearance really made me feel some natural rejection. Especially the other person's red and swollen rosacea, which makes people feel uncomfortable and disgusted when seeing it.

"My last name is Wu, Wu Zhongjun. I happen to be one of the police officers responsible for investigating the case of your comrade-in-arms. If you don't mind, could you please have some time to chat with me?" The short policeman in front of him spoke quite politely.

"Your officer Huang Yue has already interrogated me just now? What? He's asking again?" I was feeling a little depressed at the moment, mixed with grief over Lu Zhihang's death. According to my original plan, after leaving the police station, I was going to contact Lu Zhihang's wife Lin Meimei. As Lu Zhihang's closest friend in this city, I had to visit his family to express my condolences. But the appearance of the police obviously disrupted my subsequent itinerary.

"Haha, Officer Huang is just following the routine to question you. I want to talk to you just to learn some social information about the deceased Lu Zhihang. Of course, if you have other urgent things to do, we can make an appointment to talk later." Wu Zhongjun remained polite and courteous.

Seeing Wu Zhongjun like this, I felt embarrassed to just leave. I thought that if I didn't talk about it today, the other party would want to continue the conversation later, so I might as well just tell the other party everything they needed right here. The future of the province is still unclear. After understanding this, I nodded, indicating that I agreed to his request to talk. So, I followed the policeman named Wu Zhongjun into another office in the police station.

"Finally it's not an interrogation room..." After entering the room, I breathed a long sigh of relief. This office has sofas and water dispensers, and it is obviously the place where the police officers of the police station work on a daily basis. Compared to the depressing interrogation room, people at least feel more comfortable here.

Wu Zhongjun made me a cup of tea in a paper cup, handed me a cigarette, and then dragged a chair next to the desk and sat down. I took the cigarette, took out my lighter and lit it, then asked. "Officer Wu, what do you want to know?" "The family situation of the deceased, such as who are the immediate family members, where are they now, etc...."

After hearing what Wu Zhongjun said, I looked at him impatiently and said. "You should ask these questions to Lao Lu's wife! Why are you asking me?" Seeing my expression, Wu Zhongjun did not show any displeasure. After looking at me calmly for a moment, Wu Zhongjun said solemnly: "From the time we arrived at the crime scene until now, the deceased's lover has not appeared. We called her, but her phone was at the crime scene..." "Then who reported the case?" Hearing Wu Zhongjun's answer, my heart skipped a beat and I asked hurriedly.

"The deceased's downstairs neighbor. The reporter was taking a nap at noon because he could not sleep because of the continuous noise of heavy objects falling to the ground upstairs. So he went upstairs and knocked on the door to express his opinion. As a result, he knocked for a long time, but the deceased did not open the door.

The downstairs neighbor angrily called 110 to complain about the noise disturbance caused by the deceased. The 110 patrol police thought it was an ordinary civil dispute, so they went to mediate. When I arrived, I knocked on the door again but to no avail. Seeing no response at the deceased's residence, the 110 patrol officers originally planned to leave, but just before leaving, one of the patrol officers smelled a strong odor of blood in the corridor. Out of a sense of responsibility, the two patrol officers called a nearby locksmith and forced open the door of the deceased's residence, only to find that the deceased had died in the living room of his residence. "Wu Zhongjun patiently told me the whole process of discovering Lu Zhihang's death scene.

"So it wasn't his wife who reported the case? You said his wife left her cell phone at the crime scene? That's strange, his wife never leaves her cell phone behind... Well, maybe she forgot it at home..." After hearing what I said, Wu Zhongjun immediately started asking his questions.

"Is the deceased's lover called Lin Meimei?" "Yes, that's right." "Where does this Lin Meimei work? Where can I find her?" "Municipal Commercial Bank. Lao Lu's wife used to work at the Rural Credit Union in their hometown. After she came to live here with Lao Lu, she quit her job there and applied for a job at the commercial bank here..."

While I was telling Wu Zhongjun what I knew about Lu Zhihang's marriage and family situation, I began to recall the scene when I first saw Lin Meimei... The first thing Lu Zhihang did after returning to his hometown after retiring from the army was to get married under the arrangement of his family elders. At that time, our group of veterans had just been discharged from the army for less than a year, and most of us were still unemployed. My personnel files are still kept at the Civil Affairs Bureau, and I receive unemployment benefits from it every month. So when we learned that Lu Zhihang was going to get married, we comrades had plenty of time and energy to celebrate for him.

As soon as I came out of the long-distance bus station, Lu Zhihang picked me up. When we entered the township where Lu Zhihang's hometown was located, Lu Zhihang, who was driving, pointed to a sign of a local rural credit union on the side of the road and said, "Look, that's my wife!" I looked up and saw an extremely beautiful girl's image on the sign. The girl was wearing the work clothes of the local Rural Credit Union and had a smile on her face. She looked dignified and approachable. Next to it is the promotional slogan of the Rural Credit Union.

"Fuck, you're so lucky. How old is this girl?" Looking at Lin Meimei's beautiful face on the bulletin board, I couldn't help but feel a little jealous that Lu Zhihang could marry such a beautiful girl.

"Seventeen years old..." "She was already working at seventeen?" "Her father is the director of the Rural Credit Cooperative. It's a piece of cake to get her in." Lu Zhihang answered disapprovingly.

"She was only seventeen years old, and you could do that to her? Damn it, you pedophile!" The memory ended with Lu Zhihang and I playing and laughing in the carriage. In a sense, the marriage between Lu Zhihang and Lin Meimei was a standard "political marriage". Lu Zhihang's father was the party secretary of his hometown at the time, his uncle was the police station chief, and his uncle was the Minister of Armed Forces. It is no exaggeration to say that the Lu family has absolute power in their hometown. However, the Lu family is considered a scholarly family. They have always been in harmony with other local families and have a good family reputation.

Lin Meimei's father is the director of the county rural credit union. Lu Zhihang's family is powerful, Lin Meimei's family is rich... Their marriage was a typical product of the so-called "combination of power and money" in that era. The reason why Lu Zhihang was able to become rich quickly in a short period of time was largely related to his marriage with Lin Meimei.

I told Wu Zhongjun what I knew about the family background and social relations of Lu Zhihang and Lin Meimei. Wu Zhongjun took out his notebook and carefully recorded all the information I told him.

By the time I finished my explanation, he also had a general understanding of Lu Zhihang's specific situation.

"Does the deceased have any children?" After recording the last content, Wu Zhongjun raised a new question.

"Yes, my son is fifteen years old and my daughter is three years old..." As soon as I said this, I realized that I had let the cat out of the bag.

Lu Zhihang is rich, so like most so-called "successful people" five or six years ago, he kept a young "mistress". This woman gave birth to a little daughter for Lu Zhihang three years ago. Several of us close comrades knew about this, and we even contributed money to celebrate for Lu Zhihang when the girl was one month old. However, we, the comrades, kept the fact that Lu Zhihang had a "second home" a secret from Lin Meimei and other outsiders. However, in Lu Zhihang's household registration book, there is only one son listed in the children column.

Sure enough, the meticulous Officer Wu reacted quickly, although from another angle.

"The son is fifteen... and the daughter is only three? The age difference is quite big..." "Well, that girl is not his wife's... well, you are a man too, you should understand..." Faced with Wu Zhongjun's suspicion, I could only hope to laugh off the topic.

But it was obvious that Officer Wu regarded this situation as a new clue and immediately began to ask questions about Lu Zhihang's mistress and the little girl.

I had no choice. Thinking that Lu Zhihang was already dead, this matter would be exposed sooner or later, so I had to tell the other party what I knew about Lu Zhihang's mistress. After saying this, Wu Zhongjun closed his notebook with satisfaction and stopped "interrogating" me. After the questioning, Wu Zhongjun did not have any intention of letting me leave. While I was talking just now, another police officer entered the room and handed some files to Wu Zhongjun. At this moment, Wu Zhongjun picked up the files and started chatting with me casually.

"Your name is Yan Ping... Oh, and your former name is Yan Ziyun." "Ah, it's called a former name, but it's actually my courtesy name." "Foster name? Yan Ping Yan Ziyun... These names rhyme. But few people choose courtesy names nowadays..." "My courtesy name was given to me by my uncle, who is a Chinese teacher in an elementary school. He's very particular about it."

"Your name is Ping. Wouldn't it be more appropriate to use Zijun as your courtesy name?" I was a little surprised to hear Wu Zhongjun say this. I realized that this policeman with an ugly rosacea in front of me was actually a person with some cultural background.

"The two characters, Jun and Yun, actually have the same meaning. During the Three Kingdoms period, there was a Wang Ping in Shu Han, and his courtesy name was Zijun. My uncle probably thought that the courtesy name Zijun was too repetitive, so he gave me the courtesy name Ziyun."

In the past, people in China did not choose courtesy names at random. The name and courtesy name had to have similar meanings. For example, Guan Yu, whose courtesy name is Yunchang.

"Yu" means wings, and the character "Yunchang" means that with wings one can soar in the clouds. Therefore, there is a connection between Guan Yu's name and surname. Most modern people have almost forgotten this point.

As a journalist and now working in a magazine editorial department, I am basically considered a person in the cultural circle. Among the people I have come into contact with and know, there are also some who give themselves courtesy names just to show off their taste. However, courtesy names are often chosen only for the sake of rhyming or sounding elegant, without considering the connection between the name and the courtesy name at all.

"That makes sense. Ziyun is a good courtesy name..." Having said this, Wu Zhongjun smiled, then raised the file in his hand with an apologetic expression. What Wu Zhongjun said was like a heavy hammer hitting my heart... "When I was chatting with you just now, I took the initiative to have someone check your personal information at the Municipal Bureau. Now I unexpectedly discovered that you are actually related to a vicious murder case that happened twenty years ago..." When Wu Zhongjun looked at the information in his hand with a smile, and tried to uncover the old events that I had tried hard to forget and conceal in a soothing tone, my body couldn't help but tremble violently, and then, a bloody smell rushed from my body to my head, my body tilted, I lost consciousness, and fell on the sofa.

"According to this information, you are a survivor and witness of a murder case that happened twenty years ago. You were sixteen years old at that time, right? ... Yan Ping... Mr. Yan! What's wrong with you?" Wu Zhongjun was originally reading relevant information about the murder case with his head down, talking casually. When he found that I had no reaction, he raised his head to look at me. As soon as he saw me, he realized that my condition was abnormal. He quickly dropped the documents in his hand and rushed to the sofa. While pressing my philtrum, he loudly greeted other staff members in the police station. Half an hour later, I was rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment... When I woke up, it was already evening two days later. When I opened my eyes, the familiar face of my cousin Yan Guang came into view.

He is my closest and only relative now. It's not surprising to me that it appears beside me at this moment.

Seeing me open my eyes, Yan Guang showed a look of joy. "Brother, you're finally awake. You've been lying in bed for two days... Can you speak? Tell me quickly, what did those bastards from the East Cheng Police Station do to you? If they did anything excessive... I, your brother, will seek justice for you even at the cost of my own life..." Hearing Yan Guang being so impulsive, I quickly spoke out to stop him. "They didn't do anything, I fainted on my own!" The reason I stopped him immediately was because I was really afraid that Yan Guang would go to the police station and cause trouble!

This guy is my uncle's only son. My uncle is an elementary school Chinese teacher and is considered a small intellectual. But his only son took a completely different life path from his uncle and me. This guy is a real gangster. And now he has a high status in the underworld of this city.

He has hundreds of younger brothers and lackeys under his command, and has long been entrenched in the urban-rural fringe area in the northwest of the city, ostensibly running several foot massage parlors and bath centers. But privately he was engaged in loan sharking and private gambling business. Normally, gangsters wouldn't dare to provoke the police, but my cousin is a lunatic. Among all the "gang bosses" in this city, he is the most crazy and often does some eye-catching things. Fortunately, he has a smart "military advisor" named Yang Mengjun by his side. He has repeatedly advised him and tried to resolve his various foolish behaviors, which has kept him safe until now.

At this moment, Yang Mengjun was also nearby. When he saw me stopping Yan Guang from causing trouble at the police station, he quickly spoke in agreement.

"Brother Ping said that he fainted on his own, and it had nothing to do with those people in the police station. Brother Guang, you should calm down. Brother Ping's health is the most important thing now. I think we should contact the hospital and let Brother Ping stay in the hospital for two more days..." As he spoke, he shifted Yan Guang's attention to my health. Because he knew that Yan Guang and I had a deep brotherly relationship.

Sure enough, after Yang Mengjun said this, Yan Guang immediately forgot the idea of ​​going to the police station to cause trouble, and focused on asking about my current physical condition. A small crisis disappeared with the cooperation between Yang Mengjun and me.

Yan Guang arranged for someone to go through the procedures for extending my hospital stay and left two of his younger brothers to look after me in the hospital. Then he took Yang Mengjun and a group of thugs and left the hospital. After he left, I learned from the two younger brothers that when Yan Guang learned that I had fainted and was hospitalized, he rushed to the hospital immediately and stayed by my bedside for two full days and two nights. When I learned of this, I couldn't help but sigh.

Late at night, the two brothers who were taking care of me couldn't help but feel tired and started snoring while sitting on the chairs in the ward. I couldn't sleep lying in bed.

"I don't know how the police are investigating Lu Zhihang. Damn it... Until now, I don't even know how Old Lu died. Was it an accidental death? A sudden illness? Or was he murdered?"

"But it seems that the police officer named Wu Zhongjun seems to be very interested in the case. Perhaps this can be an opportunity to reopen the investigation of that case. When I chose to work as a journalist, my original intention was to use the opportunity of being a journalist to urge the police to start reinvestigating the bloody case that happened in my family 20 years ago. More than ten years have passed, and all my efforts have been in vain. I thought there was no hope and was ready to give up completely. But I didn't expect that because of Lao Lu's death, the case in my family is now in front of the police again..." Just when my mind was full of random thoughts. The door of the ward was gently pushed open.

I was so immersed in my own thoughts at the moment that I didn't notice who entered the ward. At this time, it could only be the nurse making rounds.

However, when I realized that the intruder had come to my bed and had not made any sound for a long time, I suddenly turned my head and looked at the person who entered the room in surprise.

A young man who looked to be in his twenties, wearing a camouflage uniform and tight clothes, stood in front of my bed and looked at me calmly. I was shocked and was about to warn the two caregivers who were already asleep, but the young man seemed to have guessed my thoughts and put his hand in front of his mouth to make a silence gesture.

The young man’s behavior made me temporarily give up the idea of ​​calling for help. After all, I am a grown man, and I am lying in bed resting now mainly to make my cousin Yan Guang feel at ease. In fact, I can feel that my physical condition is fine. Even if the young man in front of me wanted to use violence against me, I was absolutely sure that I could resist immediately. It makes me look timid.

Just like that, the young man and I looked at each other face to face for a moment, and I noticed that there was an obvious teardrop mole under the young man's left eye. The young man suddenly said something that made no sense. "Survivor..." "What did you say?" I looked at him blankly.

At this moment, thoughts are racing in my mind. Wu Zhongjun had used the title "survivor" to refer to me before, but at that time Wu Zhongjun had already seen the information about my murder case twenty years ago. And this young man who inexplicably appeared in front of my bed actually called me by the same name. How could this not shock me?

"Fortunately... you haven't been contaminated." After saying this nonsensical remark, the young man immediately turned around and left the ward.

At this moment, I seemed to be controlled by some mysterious force. I watched the young man turn around and leave, and I just sat on the hospital bed and watched him leave. During this process, I almost lost control of my body.

"Eyes... there seemed to be some strange light shining in the young man's eyes. When that feeling was a flashing light blue light, I lost control of my body..." After an unknown amount of time, I finally recovered from the extreme shock, and gradually, my body began to accept the control of my brain.

I sat on the hospital bed, gasping for breath, recalling the incredible physical feeling I had before. At this moment, I also gave up the idea of ​​getting up and chasing after the young man. After such a long time, I don’t know how far the young man has gone. However, when I came to my senses, I realized that the young man left something on the floor when he left. I took a closer look and was surprised to find that this thing was very familiar to me.

It is the latest issue of the journal that the editorial department has just released...

Chapter 3

I groped my way down from the bed, trembling, and squatted down to pick up the magazines and periodicals left behind by the young man.

When I was flipping through it, I realized that the other party had marked a discount on a page in the journal, and the marked page was the cover page I made using the magazine photo taken by Lu Zhihang... Holding the magazine, I sat on the hospital bed and did not sleep all night.

The next morning. My two brothers and I finished breakfast in the hospital cafeteria, and I originally planned to go back to the ward to sleep.

After a night of high energy and wild thoughts, I felt extremely tired. However, when I climbed onto the bed and prepared to go to sleep, an unexpected guest came into the ward.

Wu Zhongjun, who had been questioning me about Lu Zhihang's interpersonal relationships in the police station, suddenly brought someone into my ward. I was already surprised by Wu Zhongjun's appearance, and when I saw clearly the person who appeared with Wu Zhongjun, I couldn't help but be stunned.

The person who appeared next to Wu Zhongjun turned out to be He Antang, my and Lu Zhihang's former comrade-in-arms.

He Antang was not a soldier of the same year as Lu Zhihang and I. He joined the army two years earlier than Lu Zhihang and I. During the recruit training period, Lu Zhihang and I and a few others were new recruits, while he was already a squad leader. However, he was not the squad leader of Lu Zhihang and me, and he did not have much interaction with us during the recruit company stage. However, when the troops were assigned to companies, Lu Zhihang and I were assigned to the regiment where he was. When he finished his training mission and returned to the regiment to report, he and the staff of the regiment who came to receive the soldiers acted as our recruits.

Because of this reason, he became the first comrade-in-arms that we new recruits got to know after joining the company. Although he never led us directly, he had participated in the training of us soldiers after all, so after we were assigned to the company, he took good care of us soldiers. Among his group of veterans, he was the one who had the closest contact with me and Lu Zhihang. This close relationship continued even after we were discharged from the military.

He was one of the comrades I notified before I fainted. But as far as I can remember, after he retired from the army, he went to Xinjiang, where he panned for gold and planted cotton. Later, for some unknown reason, he met the daughter of a local cadre of the Production and Construction Corps and eventually became her son-in-law. Among the comrades whom I deliberately notified the news, he was the one who was farthest away from my city. He confirmed on the phone that he would come, but in my prediction, he should be the last one to arrive among our group of comrades. However, unexpectedly, before the other comrades arrived, he was the first to appear in front of me.

When the two brothers arranged by Yan Guang saw unfamiliar people, especially a man in police uniform, appearing in the ward, they almost instinctively showed vigilance and hostility in their eyes. Wu Zhongjun seemed to be accustomed to the attitude of these two people at this moment, and there was only an apologetic smile on his face. As soon as He Antang entered the room, his attention was all on me, and he naturally ignored the two escorts with ferocious expressions.

"Aping...Zhihang is in trouble. Why are you lying in the hospital now? What happened between you and him?" After confirming that the patient lying on the bed was me, He Antang strode straight to my side. He reached out and held my arm and shook it, on the one hand to confirm my physical condition, but also to show a natural sense of closeness.

"Old squad leader, it's hard to put it into words..." Seeing my best comrade-in-arms at this moment, I was naturally excited. But when I thought of Lu Zhihang, I didn’t know how to talk to He Antang.

"It's my fault. I didn't know Xiao Yan was not feeling well, and I forced him to learn about Lu Zhihang's family and social relationships. As a result, he fainted in the police station." I didn't know how to start the conversation with He Antang, but I never thought that Wu Zhongjun would take the responsibility on his own initiative.

Hearing Wu Zhongjun say this, He Andang turned around and showed a reproachful expression. "Old platoon leader, I know you're a police officer now and it's your job to question witnesses to understand the situation, but you've gone too far! How can you question people to the point of fainting just to understand the situation?" "Old platoon leader?" Hearing He Antang say this, I looked at Wu Zhongjun in surprise. Perhaps noticing my surprise at the moment, He Antang hurriedly began to explain.

"You don't know? Old Wu and we are from the same unit. When I was assigned to the company, he was my platoon leader. But when your batch of soldiers were assigned to the company, he was transferred to the brigade headquarters as a staff officer, so you have never seen him." When I heard this, I suddenly realized. Wu Zhongjun looked embarrassed. "Ah Wu... Xiao Yan is from our army, didn't I know about this beforehand? If I had known that we were all comrades, do you think I would have stopped him at the police station for questioning? I would have definitely found time to visit him at home."

"Okay, okay, okay..." He Antang also realized that the three people present were strictly speaking comrades from the same unit, and there was no need to dwell on some small misunderstandings, so he patted my shoulder gently and immediately tried to smooth things over. "We are not outsiders after all. I think there doesn't seem to be any major problem with your health, Aping. Let's not talk about this anymore." After saying that, He Antang pulled a chair and sat next to my bed and started talking to me.

"Aping, I already know about Zhihang's situation. The old platoon leader also introduced the situation to me on the way here. Tell me, how could such a thing happen in Zhihang's family..." Seeing that I showed a confused expression at He Antang's words at this moment. Wu Zhongjun realized that I had been unconscious for the past two days and had no idea what was going on outside, so he quickly took over the conversation.

"Let me explain it. It's like this, Xiao Yan... After you fainted, I sent you to the hospital, and then went back to the police station to continue investigating Lu Zhihang's case with my colleagues. This morning, the Criminal Investigation Brigade and the comrades in the station who participated in the investigation reached a preliminary conclusion on the case..." "Confirmed? Do you mean Zhihang's case has been solved?" I immediately became happy when I heard Wu Zhongjun say this. My comrade died unexpectedly, and I don’t even know how he died. But when I heard that the case was solved, it meant that there was a conclusion to Lu Zhihang’s death. Thinking of my comrade’s spirit in heaven, I naturally felt relieved. "It's just a rough judgment. Strictly speaking, it can't be said that the case has been solved." However, once the suspect is found and physical evidence such as the murder weapon is discovered, I think the truth behind Lu Zhihang's death will be revealed. "How did Zhihang die? Who killed him?" I asked hurriedly.

Wu Zhongjun hesitated and looked at the two bodyguards who were still staring at him and He Antang. I understood what he meant and immediately made a gesture to the two men. The two brothers understood each other and left the ward, closing the door. Then Wu Zhongjun calmly told me about the progress of the police station in solving the case in the past two days.

"Originally... the case hasn't been solved yet, so I shouldn't reveal the details to you. But you and I are comrades-in-arms, and Lu Zhihang, who unfortunately died, is also my comrade-in-arms. So, I think I should tell you some information." Hearing Wu Zhongjun say this, I nodded repeatedly. Wu Zhongjun noticed my urgency at the moment, and then began to explain the case and the public security personnel's ideas for solving the case.

"Lu Zhihang was stabbed to death in his own home. The on-site investigation found no signs of broken doors or windows, or intruders. In addition, there were no signs of Lu Zhihang fighting with others. And from our experience, the wounds that caused his death could not have been self-inflicted. So, in the end, we concluded that Lu Zhihang was most likely stabbed to death by someone he knew when he was completely defenseless... So, it must have been an acquaintance. Because only acquaintances can freely enter and exit Lu Zhihang's residence, and only acquaintances could have attacked him when Lu Zhihang was completely defenseless."

"So, that's why you became suspicious of me after seeing me at the police station, and then interrogated me on the pretext of understanding the situation?" At this moment, I finally understood why Wu Zhongjun suddenly became interested in me after hearing my phone call at the police station, and pulled me aside to interrogate me continuously.

"Yes, it's also because of the lack of communication among the people in our office. I didn't even know that Xiao Huang had already taken a statement from you. You were at your workplace at the time of the crime, and there was sufficient evidence, so you didn't have the time to commit the crime. You should have seen the statement Xiao Huang and others took from you, as well as the certificate given to you by your colleagues at work. I wouldn't have asked you all sorts of questions, or even asked someone to go to the police station to check your criminal record." At this point, Wu Zhongjun showed an apologetic look on his face again.

I waved my hands to indicate that these things were not important. What I was more concerned about at the moment was the specific progress of the public security department in the Lu Zhihang case. Wu Zhongjun understood and continued speaking.

"Next, we will start investigating Lu Zhihang's friends. However, until last night, we have not contacted Lu Zhihang's lover Lin Meimei. She has not returned home, and she has not appeared at her workplace after Lu Zhihang's death, so..." "So you think that Lin Meimei's suspicion has suddenly increased now?" Wu Zhongjun said this. How could I not understand the meaning of Wu Zhongjun's words. However, thinking about his comrade being killed by his own wife is a difficult topic to talk about, so Wu Zhongjun was somewhat reserved when telling the story.

"Cough... cough..." He Andang, who had been silent before, coughed twice unconsciously. Only now did I understand why he had said before, "How could such a thing happen in Zhihang's family..." I guess Wu Zhongjun had already told him the public security agency's analysis and judgment of the case.

At this point, the three people in the ward lowered their heads unconsciously. Especially He Antang and I, our comrade-in-arms died unexpectedly, and both he and I had a thought of seeking justice for our comrade-in-arms. But now the public security organs have pointed the finger of suspicion at the wives of our comrades... This has put us comrades in an awkward situation where we have the energy but nowhere to use it. After all, it is difficult for an honest judge to judge family affairs. If Lu Zhihang’s death was really caused by the family conflict between him and Lin Meimei, there is no room for us comrades to intervene. Moreover, we all knew that Lu Zhihang had a mistress outside, and the only person he concealed was Lin Meimei. If Lin Meimei developed hatred towards Lu Zhihang and killed him because of this incident, we comrades would probably also be to blame.

"This is just our preliminary judgment now! We have also learned some information from Lin Meimei's workplace. It is said that Lin Meimei may have a lover outside, and her behavior in recent times seems a little strange to her colleagues. A number of mistakes have occurred in the business she has handled..." Probably feeling the depressing atmosphere in the room, Wu Zhongjun hurriedly continued to speak. But when he mentioned that Lin Meimei might have a lover outside. He Antang and I regained our spirits.

This is the way people think nowadays. When they feel they may need to take responsibility for something, they become depressed. But when they realize that it is not their fault, they will immediately become extremely interested.

If Lin Meimei killed someone out of anger because Lu Zhihang was keeping his mistress, then it would be difficult for He Antang and I to feel hatred towards Lin Meimei. And if Lin Meimei murdered her husband because she had a new lover outside, He Antang and I could stand on the moral high ground and morally lash out at Lin Meimei without restraint...

"So, now the Criminal Investigation Brigade has begun searching for Lin Meimei's whereabouts throughout the city. In addition, people have been arranged to go to her hometown to look for her. Before Ah Wu and I came here, the people from the brigade had already set off." At this point, Wu Zhongjun shook his head.

"Alas, this society nowadays..." Although he still said according to his professional habit that Lin Meimei was just a suspect, in my opinion, Wu Zhongjun had probably already confirmed Lin Meimei as the murderer in his heart.

"By the way... Lin Meimei's whereabouts are unknown, and what about Zhihang's son Lu Song? Have you looked for him? I remember that the child should be boarding at school." At this moment, I suddenly thought of another person who was directly involved in this family tragedy. That was Lu Zhihang’s fifteen-year-old son Lu Song. It now appears that he is the ultimate and most damaged victim in this case.

"I'm afraid he's with Lin Meimei." Wu Zhongjun looked helpless at this moment. "We also sent people to the school where Lu Song was studying. But we got the news that not long after the incident, Lin Meimei went to the school to pick up Lu Song. This is also the location and time that we know Lin Meimei was last seen... " When Wu Zhongjun said this, the ward fell into silence.

I don’t know how much time had passed, but I was so exhausted that I couldn’t help but yawn. The silence in the room was thus broken.

"What's wrong? Aping, didn't you sleep well last night?" He Antang asked hurriedly with concern.

"Well, I almost didn't sleep the whole night because I was thinking about Zhihang." Of course, I would not tell the two people in front of me that a mysterious young man broke into my ward last night. Zhihang's case gave me a natural excuse, so I lied to the two of them without thinking.

"Is that so... Then you should just lie down and sleep peacefully! Besides me, Li Feng and Liu Tao seem to have arrived as well. I will discuss Zhihang's matter with them. You should just rest up in the hospital. If there is really anything we need to talk to you about, we will come to the hospital to discuss it with you. Do you think this is okay?" He Antang immediately told him his arrangements.

"We need to arrange for someone to go over from Zhihang's hometown...Here, his family is the only one living in the city. I remember that his mother is old and in poor health, so the people who go over should be careful when informing her of the news, and it's best to try to hide it from the old lady..." I agreed with He Antang's arrangement, but I still couldn't help but remind him of the issues that needed attention.

After all, although we are comrades-in-arms and close friends, Lu Zhihang and I live in the same city, so we are closer to each other and know each other's family situation better.

"I know, I know." He Andang obviously thought I was nagging, so he stood up, took Wu Zhongjun and left the ward. Only after He and Wu left did I feel at ease lying down on the bed.

When I learned the news of Lu Zhihang’s death, I felt at a loss what to do in the face of such a sudden situation. Now the appearance of He Antang makes me feel more stable and secure.

"My comrades are still reliable... Let them take care of Zhihang's funeral first." As I was thinking about it, I fell asleep unconsciously.

When I woke up, I looked out the window and found that the sky was dim. Then I looked at my mobile phone charging on the bedside and realized that I had overslept. I slept until after six in the evening.

Hearing the noise in the ward, two brothers arranged by Yan Guang walked in from outside the corridor. After talking to them for a few sentences, I found out that they were craving for cigarettes. They were worried that smoking in the ward would create polluted air and would be bad for my rest, so they ran to the corridor to smoke. In addition, seeing that I slept soundly, they did not disturb me during lunch time, but took turns going out to the hospital cafeteria to eat.

After talking about eating with them, I realized that I was already starving. So he got up and discussed the issue of dinner with the two of them. The food in the hospital cafeteria was not to my taste, so my two brothers mentioned that there was a famous casserole restaurant outside the hospital, so I decided to go there with them to dine.

My body has actually fully recovered, but due to Yan Guang's kindness, I decided to stay in the hospital for two more days for observation. So the nurse on duty didn't mind me eating out. So I walked out of the inpatient department with my two brothers and came to the alley behind the hospital through the back door. The casserole restaurant that the two brothers mentioned is located in this alley.

When we arrived at the stew restaurant, we found that business was booming. Many patients and their relatives who were hospitalized in the hospital and were not used to hospital meals chose to eat here. Because the alley is narrow, urban management personnel seldom come here. The restaurant owner took advantage of the location and placed the tables and chairs directly on the alley. When my two brothers and I arrived, there were no empty seats left. But after confirming that we wanted to eat, the boss immediately arranged for the waiters to set up a simple table for us on the street. My two brothers and I dragged three chairs and sat down. One of the characteristics of the casserole restaurant is the fast service of food. The three of us ordered the dishes, and before the two brothers had even finished their cigarettes, the dishes they ordered were brought up by the waiter like a flowing stream.

I was indeed quite hungry at the moment, so when I saw the dishes coming, I immediately started to eat them with relish. He lowered his head and ate the casserole dish, and even ate three bowls of rice before he filled his stomach. The two brothers who were accompanying me had just had lunch and were not as hungry as I was, so they each ordered a bottle of beer, drank, ate, smoked and chatted. I had filled my stomach at this point, so I ordered a bottle of beer and drank it to kill time while chatting with the two of them.

The two brothers in front of me were indeed uneducated. The content of their conversation was nothing more than some grudges in the underworld and each other's "glorious experiences". After chatting for a few sentences, I felt quite bored and immediately stopped talking, just listening to the two of them bragging. But because of this, I was bored and vaguely felt that I was being watched from a certain direction.

Perhaps it is because of my more than ten years of career as a journalist that I have unknowingly developed an extraordinary sensitivity. Especially when I am conducting secret interviews and following up on certain news leads, this sensitivity often helps me turn danger into safety. The unique sense of crisis at this moment made me alert.

I looked around quietly with the corner of my eye. Apart from the tables full of customers dining together, I didn't notice any suspicious people nearby. But when I expanded the range of my peripheral vision, I quickly found the source of my nervousness.

At the door of a convenience store about 20 or 30 meters away from me in the alley, a man wearing sunglasses, leaning against the counter and pretending to talk on the phone caught my attention. The man was of average height, about 1.70 meters, and was wearing a loose sports top with a hood, and loose sports pants. I couldn't tell his actual body shape. The hood of the dress was covering his head, and he was wearing sunglasses, so his appearance could not be seen clearly. But it was obvious that the gaze I felt before was radiating from this person's position.

After confirming the other party's location, I lowered my head, picked up the wine glass and took a sip... Because of my profession, I offended a lot of people. Because I exposed the shady food processing chain, I was hacked to death in the street; and because I revealed the scandal of collusion between officials and businessmen, I was offered a reward by the underworld; over the past decade, I have experienced endless dangers. However, thanks to my cousin Yan Guang's reputation in the underworld, the extensive interpersonal relationships of many comrades, and the private protection of the group's leaders, I managed to cope with it. The past two years spent in the editorial department have allowed me to live a rare two years of peace. I was quite surprised that someone secretly following me appeared at this moment.

"Keep drinking and chatting... There's someone over there following us..." I naturally took out a cigarette from the cigarette box that the two brothers placed on the table, lit it up as if nothing had happened, and whispered a reminder to them.

Although the two brothers are just Yan Guang's henchmen, they have been following Yan Guang in the underworld for several years, and they are both smart, otherwise Yan Guang would not have arranged for them to accompany and take care of me in the hospital. When they heard my low warning, they all reacted, but like me, they did not show any abnormal behavior on the surface and continued to chat and laugh without showing any expression.

After two or three minutes, I called the waiter over to settle the bill. After paying the money, I asked them to leave. When I stood up, I noticed out of the corner of my eye that the man in sunglasses also put away his phone... just as I expected. When my two brothers and I walked in the opposite direction towards the back door of the hospital, the man in sunglasses immediately left the door of the convenience store and followed us from a distance.

"Don't look back, that guy has hooked us..." I didn't say anything, and one of the two brothers quietly reminded me and the other.

"What should we do? Should we let him follow us?" another person asked for my opinion.

"There are three of us, why should we be afraid of him! When we get to the hospital entrance, if he dares to follow us in, we will kill him at the corner of the door." The brother who spoke first made the decision immediately.

In a sense, the insights and thinking of Yan Guang and his two henchmen are far inferior to mine. But in comparison, these two people have much more experience than me in dealing with the current situation. So when the first person made the decision, I nodded slightly, approving his decision.

The distance from the restaurant to the back door of the hospital is only forty or fifty meters. In a moment, we arrived at the back door. There was a guard room at the back door, but when the three of us arrived at the door, there was no one in the room. Considering that it was lunchtime, the security guard should be heading to the cafeteria for lunch. Seeing this situation, the two brothers signaled to each other and quickly hid their bodies on the left side of the gate, while I continued to move forward.

After walking about ten steps, I heard a sound coming from behind. I quickly turned around and saw the man in sunglasses being hugged tightly from behind by one of the brothers, while the other brother reached out and grabbed the man in sunglasses by his collar without any hesitation.

"Let me go! What are you doing?" the man in sunglasses shouted in panic. The shout was not a big deal; my two brothers and I were all shocked when we heard it. Because at this moment the voice coming from the man in sunglasses was actually a woman's voice... The brother who was holding the man in sunglasses' collar reached out and took off his sunglasses. Although it was dark at the moment, a beautiful woman's face was still accurately reflected in front of my eyes.

Curved eyebrows and big watery eyes. She has an oval face, a dimple, and a small black mole above her right eyebrow that is quite obvious but inadvertently adds to the charm of this woman. I quickly memorized the woman's appearance in my mind.

"I was just about to ask you what the hell you want to do?" After the brother in front of the woman realized that the person following her was actually a woman, he signaled the brother behind her to let go. After all, the other party is a woman. Even if she has bad intentions towards the three of us, she has an absolute advantage in terms of gender, with a three to one number ratio. He could tell that the woman in front of him posed no threat to the three of us. Since it does not pose a threat, there is no need for the brothers behind to control the opponent's actions from behind. Moreover, if a man hugs a woman tightly from behind, it is likely to cause misunderstanding among passers-by.

"You have been following us since we had dinner. What do you want to do?" the brother in front of the woman shouted loudly after his companion let go of his hands.

"This road is not yours... Can't I go anywhere? What gives you the right to say that I followed you?" The beautiful woman was not afraid at all at this moment and opened her mouth to refute.

"While we were sitting there to eat, you were pretending to be on the phone in the convenience store, but you were watching us the whole time. When we checked out and left, you immediately stopped talking on the phone and followed us. We turned into the back door of the hospital, and you immediately sped up and followed us in. If this isn't stalking, what is it? Also, it's already this late, and you're still wearing a pair of sunglasses. Miss, do you think we're fools?" Seeing that the brother in front of the woman had his eyes wide open and was about to give the woman a cold look, I hurriedly questioned the woman while walking over to stop him. After all, this is the back door of the hospital. Although there is no one here at the moment, someone may pass by soon. But I don't want to attract attention by having any physical conflict with this beautiful woman.

Chapter 4

Hearing my question, the woman turned her head and looked at me.

Before, because it was dark and the distance was far, I only noticed the woman's facial features. Looking at her closely now, I realized that the woman in front of me was actually very young. Her fair face without any makeup made me sure that she was probably only eighteen or nineteen years old.

After hearing my question, the woman looked at me and raised her eyebrows. Then a pair of rosy lips turned up: "That's what you take for granted, right? I just happened to walk the same road as you, and you suspected that I was following you. Are you all delusional? Also, I can wear my own sunglasses if I want to, what does it have to do with you? You are meddling too much!" I frowned and waved my hand to stop the reckless behavior that the brother next to me wanted to do in anger. Because there were pedestrians around the gate, if the two Yan Guang brothers used violence at this moment, it would probably bring unnecessary trouble to both of them and me.

"Okay, it seems that we misunderstood you. I apologize to you. Now we have to go back to the inpatient department. Don't tell me you are going to the inpatient department too?" When I found out that the stalker was a woman, I felt much more relaxed. In my opinion, it is unlikely that the people and forces I have offended in the past would arrange for such a young and beautiful woman to follow me and wait for an opportunity to take revenge. They could easily find an enforcer more powerful and threatening than this woman. After realizing this, I began to suspect that there might really be a misunderstanding between us and this woman.

Since it was a misunderstanding, I took the initiative to apologize to the other party and just let the matter go. Because many things, if entangled with women, will add countless troubles, and now, I really don’t want to cause myself any trouble.

"Tsk, what do you mean? Do you really think I'll follow you three stinky men? I'm not going to the inpatient department!" Seeing that I gave in, the woman's tone became arrogant. But I have no interest in arguing with her since she has made it clear that she will not follow us. I immediately called for the two brothers to leave together.

However, after my two brothers and I walked more than ten meters, I suddenly heard the woman behind me shouting: "Survivor!"

When I heard this name, I turned around and looked at the woman. The woman gave me an almost provocative sneer, her white teeth in her open mouth sparkling under the dim lights of the surrounding buildings... "Catch her..." Hearing the woman's call to me, I almost instinctively called the two people beside me to catch the other person and ask her clearly. When the woman saw the two brothers beside me turn around, she turned around and ran out the back door. Her speed was so fast that it was completely beyond the expectations of the three of us. My two brothers and I followed her out of the back door of the hospital and into the alley. When we looked around, we couldn't see any trace of the woman.

"Fuck... Is this woman a sprinter? She runs so fast?" Seeing the target disappear completely.

One of the brothers exclaimed in disbelief.

I stood blankly at the back door of the hospital.

"Survivor..." This is what the mysterious man who appeared in front of my bed last night called me.

Is there any connection between him and the woman who appears now? My brain was instantly confused... When I returned to the inpatient department, I ignored the dissuasion of my two brothers and immediately found the doctor on duty to complete the discharge procedures.

For the two people arranged by Yan Guang to accompany me, their job is to accompany and protect me. Apart from that, they have no right to prevent me from being discharged from the hospital on my own initiative. Therefore, the two of them could do nothing about my persistence and stubbornness.

My discharge from the hospital meant the end of both of their jobs. Seeing me leaving the hospital in a hurry, the two of them could only rush to Yan Guang's residence to report. I took the opportunity to get rid of the two of them, went home, packed my personal belongings, and immediately rushed to the long-distance bus station.

In the bus station, I stared at the cover page of the magazine that I had made by hand and left in the ward by the mysterious camouflage uniform. In the photo at the bottom, in the background behind the man in unknown ethnic costume, there is something similar to a Tibetan Mani altar that attracted me.

Mani piles are also called "god piles" and "Bangduo" in Tibetan. They are altars used by Tibetans to drive away evil and pray for happiness. As a journalist, I must have rich knowledge of humanities, so I have learned some relevant knowledge about Mani piles in the past. The Mani pile behind the man in the photo seems quite unusual to me at this moment.

Generally, the stone slabs of Mani piles are mainly engraved with the six-syllable mantra of Tantric Buddhism, wisdom eyes, various Buddhist statues and auspicious patterns of Tibetan folk customs, etc. However, after careful observation, I found that the patterns on the stone slabs of the Mani pile behind the man in the photo are not these common carvings. The stone slabs were engraved with circles of strange text symbols that I had never seen before, and below the text symbols there were a few stone slabs with Buddha statues carved on them. These Buddha statues were not the common seated statues of Tantric Buddhism, but were actually the extremely rare Tantric Happy Buddha statues.

The Laughing Buddha is unique to Tibetan Buddhism. But even in Tantric temples, there are not many Buddhist temples enshrined, let alone those carved on Mani piles. This made me deeply puzzled, but more important were the strange text symbols on the Laughing Buddha sculpture. Although my mind told me that this was the first time I had seen these strange characters and symbols, for some reason, these symbols gave me a sense of déjà vu in my mind...

"Where? Where have I seen me... Yes, it's right there... The place that I still don't want to recall, nor do I want to go back to again!" Staring at the blurred symbolic image on the photo, I raised my head suddenly and leaned my whole body on the backrest of the seat in the waiting room of the station.

"Is it God's will... Is there something guiding me in the dark? So I came to the station unconsciously?" Thinking of this, I came to the ticket window like a zombie. Purchased a long-distance bus ticket. At this moment, the work in the editorial department, the transfer application, the tragedy that happened in Lu Zhihang's home... everything seemed to have nothing to do with me anymore. I was overcome by an emotion I could not describe. Holding the ticket and magazine, I boarded the long-distance bus back to my hometown.

In the dark night, the bus was driving on the country road. The sparse street lights flashed one by one outside the car window. I looked at the dark world outside the car and fell into memories.

In a sense, our Yan family is a typical scholarly family. According to what my uncle said before he passed away, in my hometown, our Yan family was once a prominent family. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, our family produced several juren and jinshi, and it was once quite prosperous. During the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, due to the warlords' infighting, my hometown suffered repeated disasters and my family fell into poverty. Now there is only one ancestral house left in my hometown. My childhood and youth were spent in this ancestral house... As far as I can remember, I have no memory of my mother. According to my father, my mother died when I was born. I didn’t understand it when I was a child and often cried in front of my father because of it. It was not until I became an adult that I realized that my mother most likely died of childbirth complications.

Children without mothers are generally more miserable and pitiful. But I don't feel much about it because my grandmother is still alive. I was raised by my grandmother, whose presence basically filled the gap left by my mother.

At that time, my grandmother and I lived alone in the ancestral home in my hometown. My father worked in the city and would only come back to visit us on weekends. This situation continued until I went to the city to attend junior high school, after which my grandmother was the only one living in the ancestral home.

When I was sixteen, I experienced a major family change that was hard for ordinary people to imagine. At that time, news came from my hometown that my grandmother was seriously ill, so my father hurriedly took me back to my hometown to visit her. But it was too late. When my father and I arrived at the ancestral home, my grandmother had already passed away. In that era, neighborhood relationships were much closer than they are now, so the neighbors had already helped to deal with most of the funeral affairs before my father and I arrived. My grandmother was put into the coffin and the mourning hall at home was also set up.

That night, my father and I thanked the neighbors who helped us and then kept vigil in the funeral hall. After arriving home and receiving the news that my grandmother had passed away, my father immediately notified my uncle. Before that, he only knew that my grandmother was seriously ill, and my father brought me back mainly to visit her. Now that my grandmother has passed away, my uncle must rush back to attend the funeral. At eleven o'clock late in the evening, my father estimated that my uncle's long-distance bus might be arriving soon, so he asked me to go to the bus station in town to pick him up, and he stayed at home alone to keep vigil. When I arrived at the bus station in the wind and rain, I realized that my trip was in vain.

Due to heavy rain, the road from the town to the county town was blocked by mudslides and landslides. The bus my uncle was on was stopped halfway, and the station staff had no idea when it would arrive. Unable to pick up my uncle, I had to run back to my ancestral home alone in the rain.

When I returned to my ancestral home, I saw a horrific scene that I will never forget in my life... My father was lying naked in the middle of the mourning hall, covered in blood, and was dying. At some point, all kinds of strange and bizarre symbols had been drawn on the ground around my father. I don't know when the mourning hall was filled with candles... I rushed to my father and shook his body desperately. My father was still alive. When he saw me, he used up his last bit of strength to say three words to me: "Hide..." and then he died.

Seeing my father die tragically in front of me, I rushed out of the mourning hall madly in fear. But when I rushed to the gate of my ancestral home, I found that the door was locked from the inside by someone. The bolt was locked tightly with a huge iron padlock, and I had completely forgotten where the padlock key was. I banged on the door desperately and shouted for help, but my voice was drowned out by the strong sound of wind and rain. At this moment, I felt a creepy sound coming from the mourning hall behind me. Driven by the instinct of survival, I rushed into the east wing regardless of everything and crawled under the bed in the room..." This brother has arrived! "Get off quickly, I'm in a hurry to go home and sleep..." The bus driver's urging voice woke me up from my memories. I just realized that the bus had arrived at the station, all the passengers on the bus had gotten off and left, and I was the only one left sitting in my seat in a daze.

I quickly stood up, apologized to the driver, and left the bus with my luggage. Walking out of the station, I looked at the scenery around me feeling a little dazed.

It has been almost twenty years since I left my hometown, and the remote and quiet town has undergone tremendous changes. Outside the station there are many hotels and restaurants with dazzling lights. Although it was late at night, there were still many passengers coming and going and people in vehicles picking up and dropping off passengers gathered outside the station exit. Relying on my memory, I walked along the street for a while. When I approached the edge of the town, the number of pedestrians on the street began to decrease. After walking another half a mile, the eerie scene of the ancestral home with its tightly closed door appeared before my eyes again.

The streets around the ancestral home were deserted, and even the street lights seemed dim. The bloody incident that occurred in this house that year had long made the residents of the town regard it as a haunted house. Now, at night, no one is willing to approach. I stood on the curb more than ten meters away from the gate, staring for a long time, and finally gave up the idea of ​​going back to my ancestral home to spend the night. He turned around and headed back towards the bustling center of the town.

After returning to the town center, I went into a hotel and checked in. After putting my luggage in the room, I went to the street again, found a street stall, ordered beer and midnight snacks, and decided to sit down and eat something before going back to the room to sleep. But just after I picked up the beer and took two sips, I heard shouting and cursing from the foot massage parlor opposite the stall. I lazily looked over and soon saw a scantily clad woman being pushed out of the foot massage room by a man.

The man was obviously drunk and was swearing at the woman and making physical advances. Although the woman was at a disadvantage due to her gender, she was not willing to be outdone. She kept cursing back and also tried her best to fight back against the man's actions. Behind the man, there were several men and women who kept reaching out to hold the man, apparently trying to dissuade him... From their shouting and cursing, I roughly understood the cause of the dispute... The man was obviously a customer of the foot massage parlor, and because he drank too much, he couldn't help but make moves on the girl. The foot-washing girl was obviously a hot-tempered person and certainly didn't want to suffer any loss, so she had a conflict with the male customer. The other men and women were companions who came with the man and employees of the foot massage parlor. What the man is doing is clearly wrong, so they are trying to talk him out of making a big deal out of it.

The dispute in the foot massage parlor naturally attracted the attention of passers-by, and soon dozens of onlookers gathered outside the foot massage parlor. The onlookers blocked my view and I could only hear the booing of the crowd and the shrill screams of the women. The farce lasted for more than ten minutes, and the crowd suddenly dispersed. I was confused and had no idea what was going on. I saw the man who had been beating and scolding the woman before rushing out of the crowd in panic and running towards me. Behind him, the woman who had been insulted earlier chased after him, holding a kitchen knife.

By the time I reacted, the man had already run in front of me, with the woman following closely behind him. I don’t know if it was just bad luck for me, but the man sprained his ankle when he passed by me and fell to the ground. The woman was obviously crazy at this moment. When she saw the man rushing towards her, she rushed to the man's back and started slashing with a knife... Seeing that someone was about to die, I almost instinctively stood up, put my arms around the woman's waist, and pushed her to the ground. The man took the opportunity to stand up, limping away desperately.

As the woman fell, the knife in her hand also fell out. I was worried that the woman would get up and attack with the knife again, so I tried my best to pin her to the ground. The crowd that was watching before and the relevant personnel in the foot massage room finally reacted and rushed over.

I guess he noticed that it was indecent for a man like me to be on top of a woman. Several women at the scene quickly took over my job and worked together to control the angry and mad woman in front of me. I was able to get up from the ground and put my clothes in order.

The crazy woman saw that she could no longer catch up with the man who took advantage of her, so she sat on the ground and cried loudly. The other women at the scene could only surround her and comfort her.

I estimated that the matter should come to an end for the time being, so I turned around and went to the stall owner to settle the bill and then go back to the hotel to sleep. I felt someone patting my back gently. When I turned around, I found that a woman appeared behind me at some point.

"Thank you so much for what happened just now... If you hadn't stopped her, Xiaotao would have definitely hurt that guy... Hey... aren't you Brother Yan Ping?" The woman looked like the owner of a foot massage parlor. As she spoke, she showed a surprised expression and then called out my name.

I was stunned for a moment, but finally recognized the other person's identity from his facial features. "You, yes, you, you are Wen Zhaodi." Seeing that I recognized her, Wen Zhaodi smiled and grabbed my hand. "Brother Yan Ping, it's really you... Why did you come back suddenly? Didn't you say hello to your relatives and friends here in advance?" Hearing Wen Zhaodi say this, I forced a smile. Wen Zhaodi said so, but in fact it was just a compliment. I have never returned to my hometown since the bloody incident at my ancestral home. My uncle and Yan Guang came back a few times, but they were only there to handle some of the family's financial affairs. After my uncle's family and I left, we no longer had any close direct relatives in our hometown. Although the Yan surname is still a big surname in the local area and my ancestors are indeed from the same clan, to me they are all distant relatives beyond the fifth degree of mourning, so I actually no longer have any relatives in the true sense. As for friends, maybe they were friends back then, but it has been nearly twenty years since I left, and the friendship we made in childhood has long since faded.

"Hehe... look at what you said. You know my situation. I don't have any relatives or friends in my hometown." I greeted Wen Zhaodi reluctantly, trying hard to recall the memories of the woman in front of me.

Wen Zhaodi and I were childhood playmates. She is two years younger than me. As far as I can remember, her father worked in a supply and marketing cooperative in a small town. The Wen Zhaodi in front of me at this moment has lost her youthful appearance except for her eyebrows. She has lost her former liveliness and clarity. Under her heavy makeup, she looks worldly. I'm not surprised at all by this change.

"What are you talking about? Am I not your friend?" It can be seen that Wen Zhaodi is truly grateful to me for stopping that woman from committing the crime in time. While talking to me, he winked at the stall owner. The stall is just opposite the foot massage parlor, so the stall owner is probably quite familiar with Wen Zhaodi. Seeing Wen Zhaodi's gesture, he immediately said that I could be exempted from the consumption here.

Wen Zhaodi asked several foot-washing girls surrounding the crazy woman to help her back to the foot-washing room. Then, regardless of whether I was willing or not, she dragged me into a dimly-lit bar on the street. After chatting with each other for a few sentences, I had a general understanding of the other party's current situation.

Although Wen Zhaodi's father was a township official, he could not help her with her future and employment. Therefore, after graduating from high school, Wen Zhaodi went to Guangdong to "work." "Working" was of course a nominal term. In fact, the careers that a girl with no skills and no diploma could engage in were extremely limited. Although Wen Zhaodi did not say explicitly what she did in Guangdong, I could roughly guess it from her words. Fortunately, Wen Zhaodi was smart and never fell for any man's trick. She also did not fall for the vanity common among her peers. After working hard in Guangdong for several years, she saved some money. Ten years ago, Wen Zhaodi returned to her hometown to get married with her hard-earned money. Although Wen Zhaodi successfully concealed her past, she still suffered misfortune in her marriage. It was not because she met the wrong person. Her marriage with her husband was quite happy, but it was extremely short. Only two years after their marriage, her husband died in a traffic accident. Wen Zhaodi, who became a widow, was disheartened by the rumors that she was "unlucky in marriage" and gave up the idea of ​​remarrying. She opened a foot massage parlor in the town and at the same time supported her deceased husband's mother. As a result, she gained some good reputation in the local area over the years.

After listening to Wen Zhaodi's story, I also returned the favor by briefly talking about my experiences after leaving my hometown.

Although it was mostly out of courtesy, being able to meet an old friend and communicate with each other did somewhat ease the uneasy mood I had been in for days.

"So what are you planning to do this time, Brother Yan Ping? You don't have many relatives here now, and our childhood friends are probably not the reason for your return, right?" "I plan to go back to the old house to take a look, because I will be going abroad next, and it will be a question whether I can come back alive. So this time I come back to clean up the things in my old house..." In response to Wen Zhaodi's inquiry, I made up an insincere excuse.

"Your old house?" When Wen Zhaodi heard me mention the ancestral home, she showed some fear. I was not surprised by Wen Zhaodi's expression at that moment. Her grandmother passed away and her father was tragically killed in just one day. Two lives were lost in that house. The name of the ancestral home as a "haunted house" has long been widely circulated in my hometown. When the tragedy happened, Wen Zhaodi was only fourteen years old. Such rumors were naturally fresh in the memory of the fourteen-year-old girl.

However, this incident happened almost twenty years ago, and the fact that Wen Zhaodi, who is already middle-aged, is still so fearful makes me somewhat confused.

"What happened? Did anything happen in that house after I left?" Wen Zhaodi nodded.

I looked at her in surprise. She picked up the beer, took a sip, and began to tell the story.

"I don't know exactly what happened. After the incident in your house, the house became a haunted house. Your neighbors on both sides were afraid and built new houses in other parts of the town and moved away. Now, with your old house as the center of the town, more than ten houses around it have become empty houses. Nothing happened in the few years after you left, but after I came back from Guangdong, I heard that your old house had been haunted since I was in Guangdong. It is said that when it rains, all kinds of messy noises will be heard in your yard. The neighbors across the road and the next door to your house once deliberately climbed the wall on rainy days to see what was going on. But it is said that after looking for several times, they only heard sounds but could not see any figures. They were afraid, so they all moved away. For a period of time, the area around the house completely became a haunted area in the town, and no one dared to go there at night..."

"So that's how it is. No wonder I didn't see a single pedestrian on the road when I went to the old house just now. Except for the street lights, the surrounding houses were all dark." "So you've already gone there? But it should be fine now. There are few pedestrians over there because there are no people living there anymore. The haunted house was dealt with by the town a few years ago." "What? Dealt with?" I didn't quite understand what Wen Zhaodi meant at this moment.

"I mean, the house is no longer haunted now. Even on a thunderstorm day, there won't be any messy noises." Wen Zhaodi explained with a smile.

"What's the reason?" I was stunned.

"A few years ago, a Taoist priest passed by our town. When he passed by your old house, he said that there were ghosts haunting the house. I was not in the town at that time, but the elderly people in the town were very concerned and asked the Taoist priest to find a solution. The Taoist priest must have some skills. It is said that he performed a ritual in front of the door of the house for a whole day. After that, nothing strange happened in that house again. However, the people who used to live there are now accustomed to their new home, so even if it is no longer haunted, they have no plans to move back, so it is rare to see pedestrians there now." Hearing Wen Zhaodi say this, I couldn't help but smile. "I think the Taoist priest is just taking advantage of the haunted house to cheat people out of money, right? "Having been a journalist for so many years, I have witnessed a lot of feudal and superstitious scams like this. Things like "Taoism" are simply a joke in my eyes.

"No money was spent! The Taoist priest didn't charge a penny from the town from beginning to end. He just stayed overnight at Uncle Lin's house and had two meals. I heard that he was hustling at the door of the house for a whole day just to trick people into giving him two meals. He was singing and dancing all day long. Don't you think this is too exaggerated?" "No money?" I shook my head. "You also said that you were not in town at that time. How did you know whether the Taoist priest took the money or not?" "I was not in town, but Uncle Lin, my mother-in-law and others all went to the ritual. Besides, giving money is not something that cannot be discussed. They would not lie to me about this." Wen Zhaodi obviously disagreed with my opinion. Seeing that I still didn't believe it, Wen Zhaodi was obviously a little unhappy.

"Brother Yan Ping, if you don't believe me, just go and ask Uncle Lin and the others." I realized her mood and thought there was no point arguing with her over such trivial matters, so I stopped insisting on my opinion. In this way, the atmosphere between us was restored. Realizing that it was already past midnight, Wen Zhaodi asked the bar owner to settle the bill. Walked out of the bar with me.

"How about you stay at my hotel tonight? I'll arrange a sister to accompany you?" As we walked to the door of the hotel, Wen Zhaodi invited me in a teasing tone. The implication is self-evident.

"Why, do you really do that kind of business in your store?" I asked with some confusion because I had experienced that dispute before.

"Yes, but it depends on the person! The guy just now was obviously drunk... You might not get any money if you do his business. And it's up to the girls in my shop whether to accept it or not... Brother Yan Ping, you are so handsome, I guess they are all willing to accompany you." Having said this, Wen Zhaodi covered her mouth and giggled.

Things have come to this point, and I know very well that the other party is making fun of me. After realizing this, I smiled and shook my head. "I rushed here overnight and now I'm really tired. How can I have the energy to deal with those sisters? Don't make fun of me. Let me go back to my room and have some sleep. "Hearing me say this, Wen Zhaodi also realized that I was in low spirits and didn't force me to do anything. After sending me to the hotel gate, he turned around and went back to the foot massage parlor across the street. I returned to my room, lay on the bed and flipped through the cover page of the magazine that I had made myself.

"It's been almost twenty years, and I don't know if my memory is wrong. But I did see the graphic symbols on the Mani pile in the photo around my father's body on that rainy night... But... maybe they are just similar in shape?" "As for ghosts... they only happen during thunderstorms. I guess it must be some kind of sound resonance or a natural phenomenon caused by wind blowing through a certain place, right?"

"It's nonsense that Taoist priests perform rituals to exorcise demons. The symbols appearing on the Mani piles indicate that they are related to Tibetan Buddhism. If there really were something supernatural, how could it be that a Taoist priest would come forward to perform rituals to exorcise it? These are two completely different religious mythology systems. How can they be related?"

"But Zhaodi said that the Taoist priest didn't charge any money... This is a bit strange. Even if the Taoist priest pretended to be a ghost, his purpose was naturally to cheat money. He didn't charge any money and performed rituals in the town for free, which doesn't make sense. Uncle Lin, should be Lin Youcai, the old man Lin who used to live in the south of the town and specialized in handling funerals. When I was a child, I heard that the old man had been a tomb robber when he was young. He was quite proficient in yin and yang, feng shui and other things, and he had beautiful handwriting. He was also a respected elder in the town. Well... It seems that I need to go to him tomorrow to inquire about what happened to the old house after I left." As I was thinking, I fell asleep unknowingly.

Chapter 5

The next morning, I got up early. Although it is an ordinary hotel in the town, the facilities are quite complete and it provides hot water for 24 hours a day. Therefore, I woke up and took a hot shower.

After leaving the hotel, I saw that Wen Zhaodi's footwashing room was still closed. It’s basically closed in the morning if they are not good at fucking them, so it’s normal to sleep in. Therefore, I also gave up the idea of ​​asking her to lead the way to find Lin Youcai. An elderly man like Lin Youcai would not have changed his residence at will if he hadn't had something big happen. And I also heard that Lin Youcai’s residence was chosen by him, and it was the best place in the town with Feng Shui. Although so many years have passed, I think he shouldn't have moved.

After having some breakfast in a small restaurant outside the station, I immediately went to the south of the town to visit Lin Youcai. As I expected, Lin Youcai's residence was still in an old place, but the earth-breasted house that year had turned into a two-story small western-style building. The room on the first floor next to the street is the Lin family’s shop. The reason why I am so sure that the small foreign building is Lin Youcai's home is because as soon as I approached the Lin family's residence, I saw Lin Youcai's son Lin Songtao.

Lin Songtao is a few years older than me. When they were young, the children in the town were naturally divided into playmate circles at different stages due to their age. Lin Songtao is an elder brother to me, Wen Zhaodi and others. Although he didn't play together at that time, for my peers, Wen Zhaodi and I, he was a respectable big brother. He has a good personality and never bullied children younger than him by his age. With this, he was respected by the children of our age group at that time. Therefore, when I saw him sitting at the door of a small western-style building holding a mechanical grinding wheel to polish the stone, I greeted him from a distance.

"Brother Songtao!" Hearing the scream, Lin Songtao looked at me jogging all the way in a daze. When I got close, he recognized me and hurriedly put down the tools in his hand and came over.

"You, aren't you Aping from the Yan family? Ha, ha..." After seeing me, Lin Songtao originally wanted to hold hands with me to show his closeness, but then he realized that he was polishing the stones just now, and his hands were covered with dust. He quickly wiped the clothes a few times before reaching out and holding the other party's arm with me.

After a few words of cold words between each other, Lin Songtao quickly invited me into the room on the first floor and enthusiastically made tea and handed cigarettes.

Thinking that Lin Songtao is a honest person, I have lost a lot of twists and turns in my social circles, and directly told Lin Songtao what I told Wen Zhaodi yesterday that she was the reason I went home. Then he mentioned the matter about the haunted and the practice of Taoist priests in my ancestral home, which showed my purpose of visiting Lin Youcai this time.

"Oh, are you here to inquire about the Taoist priest's practice? I really asked my father about this. Because when the Taoist priest came to the town, I went to Youjiatun to work for people. The Taoist priest stayed at my house and arranged rituals all the things he did." "Well, Mr. Lin now?" "I went out to help people see Feng Shui early in the morning. But I always came back to have lunch at noon. You sit at home and have a drink of tea. When he comes back, you can chat with him." Seeing Lin Songtao so enthusiastic, I stayed at the Lin family with the host and waited for Lin Youcai to return. Because of my arrival, Lin Songtao suspended his work, shouted his wife and children from the second floor, and chatted with me.

Through chatting, I learned that Lin Songtao has now become a famous stonemason in the town and even the surrounding towns, so his family is quite wealthy. In addition to this two-story building with shops in the town, he also bought real estate in the county town. It is just because the town is closer to the nearby quarry and it is convenient for it, so it stays in the town for a long time to live and work. He originally planned to send his father Lin Youcai to the county town to enjoy his fortune. But Lin Youcai stayed because he was nostalgic for his hometown and local villagers.

"If you say this, wouldn't the house in the county be bought for nothing?" "You can't say that... My eldest daughter is now in the county middle school, and she lives now. And no matter how older this kid is, she will go to the county town to study. Then he and his sister will live there." Lin Songtao explained the situation of the house in the county, while lovingly touching the head of his son beside him. Lin Songtao's wife was smiling and joking with her husband.

"It is your brother's excuse to transport materials and save trouble. Now that the transportation is so developed, it doesn't take much more time to transport stones to the county town. To put it bluntly, it's because my father-in-law and your brother are nostalgic and can't bear to leave the land in my hometown." "That's right, sister-in-law, I heard that your Lin family's house is the best place in the town with the best feng shui. Uncle Lin chose this place to live back then, so he really had a vision!" When I was a guest at someone's house, I naturally had to say something that made the other party happy. After hearing what I said, Lin Songtao and his wife were also smiling.

Seeing that it was almost noon, Lin Songtao's wife went to the kitchen to start cooking. Lin Songtao's youngest son was playing in front of his own door. I took this opportunity to ask Lin Songtao about the specific details of the "haunted" in the ancestral home back then.

Wen Zhaodi was in Guangdong at that time, while Lin Songtao had always lived in the town, so he knew better about this.

"It's true that your old house is haunted..." Seeing me asking for details, Lin Songtao opened up.

"After that incident happened to your family, the county public security bureau investigated for several months but failed to catch anyone. Then your uncle came over and locked the house. It was nothing in the first few years. The neighbors next to your family thought that there was a murder case in your house, which was unlucky, and then moved the place. About ten years ago, someone in the neighborhood across the road found that when it was a thunderstorm, there would be inexplicable sounds in your house..." "What kind of sound is it?" I couldn't help but want to confirm.

Lin Songtao frowned, as if thinking about how to describe it. After thinking for a long time, Lin Songtao lowered his head and told me, "Brother, I don't know what to say, but I also ran over to watch the movements with a group of young people in the town on a thunderstorm night. Now, thinking about it, the sound is a bit like the sound of a man and a woman doing that..." "What to do?" I was stunned, but I quickly understood what Lin Songtao meant. It turned out that the sound of men and women having sex on thunderstorms in the old house would appear.

"Well, brother, I'm a person who has experienced it, and it's nothing to hear. But among the young people who followed him to join in the fun, there were men and women. The man was breathing heavily when he heard it, and the women blushed. So, at first, the town thought that someone was pretending to be friends and fell into your old house while taking a thunderstorm day, so after another thunderstorm day, a few brave sluts heard the sound and climbed over the wall and entered your old house..." "What's the result? Have you seen who it is?"

"If you see people, it's not a haunted person! Those guys went in and thought they could catch some adulterers. As a result, they said that they had gone through every room and couldn't see anyone, but the sound kept ringing in each room. The last few guys became more and more afraid as they heard it. They quickly climbed over the walls from the house and escaped..." At this moment, an old voice at the door took over Lin Songtao's words. "Escaped, and then they all fell seriously ill."

Lin Songtao and I turned our heads at the same time, and the short figure of Lin Youcai and Old Man Lin appeared at the door. "Dad" and "Uncle Lin", when I saw Old Man Lin come back, Lin Songtao and I stood up together.

Lin Youcai waved to both of us and signaled us not to be polite, and then sat next to Lin Songtao.

"Aping, when did you come back? What are you going to do when you come to our house?" Old Man Lin didn't seem surprised when he saw me. After sitting down, he asked directly. But before I answered, Lin Songtao asked about his father first. "Dad, Aping has grown up like this now and when he was a child. I have not recognized him for a long time before. Why did you recognize it as soon as you come back? "When I heard Lin Songtao ask, I was also confused. I was only sixteen years old when I left the town. In the past twenty years, my height, body shape, and appearance have undergone significant changes.

But Old Man Lin recognized me at a glance, which also caused me to have doubts.

Old Man Lin didn't keep it a secret, and he explained the reason in one sentence. "You look exactly the same as your father back then. You two fathers and sons grew up as they were young. Can I still recognize the wrong person?" Lin Songtao and I were relieved when we heard Old Man Lin say this. Because my father only came back once a week, Lin Songtao was not very impressed by my father when he was a teenager. Lin Youcai and my father are like Lin Songtao and me now. I now look close to my father at that time, so Old Man Lin recognized me at a glance.

After understanding this problem, I once again repeated the excuse I told Wen Zhaodi and Lin Songtao to the old man for going home. Then he quickly asked Old Man Lin about the haunted situation of the ancestral home.

"Songtao told you just now. Since that time, no one has dared to wander around your house. I have also heard that sound. At first, I felt that it made people blush and heartbeat, but listening for a while will make people panic..." "What's the matter with that Taoist priest?" Actually, I don't care too much about the details of the haunted house. In my opinion, it is likely that it is a natural phenomenon similar to the devil city in Xinjiang. As for the collective illness of a few young men who climbed over the wall, it is easy to explain. It rained so heavily and even ran out to get wet. The chances of causing a severe cold after catching a cold are extremely high. Therefore, after roughly understanding the specific situation of the haunted, I immediately asked about the Taoist priest.

When Lin Youcai heard me ask about the Taoist priest, he glared at me and started scolding me. "What Taoist priest? That's Taoist priest Li Yuan! The Taoist name is Zhi Youzi, he is a master with profound knowledge of Taoism! How can you scream like Taoist priests and Taoist priests?" Old Man Lin's reprimand made me feel a little afraid. This is also due to habits. When I was a child, I was naughty and was scolded by Old Man Lin. I didn’t expect that I am now an adult. Old Man Lin scolded me, but he still was ruthless, regardless of whether I am an adult in my thirties at the moment.

However, the other party is an old man and he has watched me grow up. In front of the other party, I am always a junior, so I can only be timid in the old man’s reproach.

Seeing that I was still absent, Old Man Lin did not cause trouble for me about the title of Taoist priests. Instead, he asked loudly if his daughter-in-law was cooking in the kitchen next door if she had finished cooking. When I got the affirmative reply from Lin Songtao’s wife, I stood up and greeted Lin Songtao and me. "Eat first...Master Li Yuan's affairs, let's talk about it after dinner." Looking at the old man walking out, I couldn't imagine that this old man was nearly 70 years old.

Because of my unexpected visit to the guest, the eldest sister-in-law of the Lin family specially cooked a few more dishes. The farm flavor is extremely refreshing to me, and I unconsciously ate several bowls of rice in one breath. After lunch, the eldest sister-in-law of the Lin family took Lin Songtao's youngest son out to chat, while Lin Songtao returned to the door and continued to polish the stones. And I was called to his bedroom on the second floor by Old Man Lin.

After entering the room and asking me to find a stool to sit down, Lin Youcai took out a small red cloth package from a wooden box and put it on his bed, then sat opposite me and spoke.

"Aping, it's just right for you to come back this time. If your Yan family doesn't show up again, I may consider going to the city to find you." I was a little puzzled when I heard Mr. Lin's words. "Uncle Lin, what do you mean?" Lin Youcai sighed and said, "I'll just tell you! Master Li Yuan accidentally passed by our town and found that there was something wrong with your old house at a glance." "What's the problem?" I looked solemn on the surface, but I found it funny in private. A Taoist priest You Fang who cheated money, said something nonsense. You are always a knowledgeable person, but you actually believe it?

"He said that your ancestral home was occupied by Yin Demon for a long time, and it had become a turning yang land at that time..." "What? What? What? What? What is Yin Demon? Staying? What is the turning yang land?" I was stunned by listening to the words Old Man Lin said. I am a reporter and have been exposed to many messy things over the past ten years. He even followed the newspaper group's investigation team to participate in interviews with many so-called "supernatural" news events. In addition, I also like to read books after work, and I read a lot of things. I know more or less about natural sciences, local folk customs, religious myths, folk legends, Feng Shui and gossip. I have also learned about Taoism, Taoist thoughts and the so-called cultivation methods of Taoism in legends. I have heard of Taoism such as foundation building and elixir formation.

But I have never heard of the words "yin demon" and "turning the yang land" that Old Man Lin said at this moment.

Old Man Lin also looked helpless after hearing my inquiry. "I actually don't understand what you said. It was all told by Taoist Master Li Yuan at that time." I couldn't help laughing when I heard Old Man Lin say this. "Uncle Lin, you have been reading Feng Shui for decades. Yin and Yang Bagua are your profession. You can't even understand what Taoist Master Li Yuan said? How can you easily believe him?" Old Man Lin was teased by me, and his old face turned red for a while. After holding it in for a long time, he explained the reason why he believed in the Taoist priest. "I don't understand what he said, but he can calculate it. He calculates the affairs of your Yan family, so he can calculate it accurately! "What? Is he doing the Yan family accurate?" I don't understand what Old Man Lin said.

"Master Li Yuan calculated that there was a murder case in your Yan family's old house before!" "Uncle Lin, our ancestral home is so big and so good, but no one lives in it. A smart person can guess that something must have happened in the house just by thinking about it. The Priest must be very good at looking at people's faces. As long as he observes your expressions and reactions at that time, he may guess it almost exactly..." "He calculated that your father and your uncle were not born to the same mother!" "What?" As soon as Mr. Lin said the second sentence, I couldn't help but be surprised! Because what Mr. Lin said is considered a secret in my family. Even the villagers in the town know about this. Of course, Lin Youcai in front of him is one of these few insiders.

Although my family has lost its roots in history, when it came to my great-grandfather's generation, he was still considered a big family in the town. Needless to say, the old house covers an area of ​​two or three hundred meters. The more than 100 acres of land outside the town were originally owned by our Yan family. Therefore, when my grandfather was young, he lived the life of a landlord, and his great-grandfather even raised a child bride for my grandfather. After liberation, because his great-grandfather was considered an enlightened gentry at the time, and he was always kind to his neighbors in the town in the past. Therefore, although our family lost its land, it saved its ancestral home and survived the various movements after the founding of the People's Republic of China.

I call my grandfather's child bride "Second Grandma". She is an orphan. After liberation, she could have left my house to live by herself. But one thing is that she was taken in by her great-grandfather while lonely and helpless, and she was grateful to my great-grandfather; the other thing is that because she grew up with her grandfather, she also had feelings for her grandfather, so she stayed at home. My grandfather received modern education, so he did not recognize the "arranged marriage" arranged by his great-grandfather, and he always regarded my second grandmother as his sister. After that, I got married to my grandmother. But I never thought that my second grandma was deeply in love with my grandfather. Even if I had no name or separation, I would not want to leave my house to marry an outsider. As time went by, my grandfather finally had a relationship with my second grandma beyond ordinary men and women.

In this way, my grandfather lived a "happy life" of a monogamous wife and a concubine in secret. You must know that it was the early days of the founding of the country. If such a thing was exposed, my grandfather would definitely die without a burial place. So my second grandmother and grandfather are always brother and sister to the outside world. Moreover, my second grandma is very good at being a human being and well-behaved. I don’t know what method I used to make my grandmother agree to the relationship between her and her grandfather. The family can get along well.

Shortly after my grandmother gave birth to my father, my second grandmother was pregnant. You should know that my second grandmother was a single daughter on the surface. Once this pregnancy was spread, my family would be completely ruined under the social environment at that time. Finally, in order to cover up the facts, when my uncle was born, my grandmother claimed that my uncle was born, so that she could cover it up.

This incident is the secret of my Yan family. At that time, except for the few people who were close to my grandfather, most people in the town were unaware of it. In their opinion, my father and uncle are brothers born to my grandmother one after another, but they didn't know that they were actually half-brothers.

The reason why Lin Youcai knew about this was because Lin Youcai's mother was a barefoot doctor and midwife in the town at that time, and she helped deliver the baby. The old lady of the Lin family is a kind and kind woman. She felt that our Yan family had always accumulated virtue and done good deeds, so she secretly helped our family hide this secret.

"Did that Taoist priest really calculate it?" I was a little confused at this moment.

"My mother and I have kept this secret for your Yan family for decades. Do you think I will still take this matter out and talk nonsense at this age? That's why I said that Master Li Yuan is very knowledgeable, and I can't help but don't believe him..." Lin Youcai sighed.

"Apart from this, what else can the Taoist priest do?" This Taoist priest named Li Yuan was able to calculate the secret of my family by relying on divination, which made me start to shake it at this moment.

"He is considered that your ancestors have passed the Jinshi. Your grandfather has only become a scholar. He also has a wife and two concubines, but your grandfather only passes on his own..." Lin Youcai said with a wry smile.

"Damn... can you calculate this? Could that Taoist priest really have a master of Taoism?" At this moment, my head began to sweat.

Some people know about my grandfather's affairs in the old days of the town, such as Lin Youcai, more or less. But no one in the town knows about my great-grandfather's generation. If the Taoist priest had not calculated it, he would have really not found a place to inquire.

My great-grandfather was the last former Qing scholar in my hometown. Those who know about this are probably no one in the town knows this long ago except for the staff from the county’s history and archival office. But as a descendant of the Yan family, I know it.

My great-grandfather was a scholar in the 22nd year of Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty, that is, in 1896 AD. Although the last Enko in the Qing Dynasty ended in the 30th year of the Guangxu period, that is, in 1904 AD. But my great-grandfather was the last person in the town to win the fame of scholars. My great-grandfather later participated in the last encore, but he failed to go further. So the Taoist priest named Li Yuan said that my great-grandfather only had a scholar's fame, and he was right at all.

As for my great-grandfather's marriage, the Taoist priest was right. In addition to my great-grandmother, my great-grandfather did take two concubines in his youth. But after entering the Republic of China, the National Government advocated the "New Life Movement" and opposed taking concubines. As an "enlightened gentleman", my great-grandfather was somewhat influenced by some advanced ideas, so when the Republic of China promulgated the new marriage law, he immediately terminated the marriage relationship with his two concubines. Moreover, because he divorced those two concubines very early, almost no one in the older generation in the town knew that my great-grandfather had ever had the experience of taking a concubine... The most important thing is that few people in the town knew about the single birth of my grandfather for the generation. Because on the surface, my grandfather also has an older brother. According to my uncle, because my grandfather was born late, his great-grandfather was once worried that his Yan family would be sacrificed. In order to prevent this, his great-grandfather took two concubines and adopted a boy from his cousin as his adopted son, claiming to be a parent-child.

Therefore, few people know that my grandfather was actually a single birth of my great-grandfather, and many people think that my grandfather's generation was two brothers. As for the whereabouts of my adopted uncle, I know... He was a passionate man. During the War of Resistance Against Japan, he finally fought with the Japanese invaders and died in Hengyang, Hunan. When I was a reporter a few years ago, I went to Hengyang to investigate the great uncle's deeds in the War of Resistance.

Seeing me falling into deep thought, Lin Youcai stopped talking. This Taoist priest named Li Yuan calculated a lot of results related to my family, some of which he knew, while others he didn't know. At this moment, he said all these breaths, and he also had a little intention to verify them by myself.

Finally, I sighed and admitted everything the Taoist priest calculated in front of Old Man Lin. Old Man Lin also felt a hint of pride for no reason. Seeing that I was not convinced that the Taoist priest was a liar, Old Man Lin handed the little red package placed at the head of the bed to me.

"When Master Liu Yuan left, he told me that his method of opening the altar only temporarily suppressed the evil spirit in your ancestral home. To completely reverse the process of turning the place into a yang land, the owner of the house must come forward in person. Look, so before he left, he left this small package and asked me to hand it over to you." I took the package and felt light and as if nothing was there.

"Then he told me what the descendant of the Yan family should do?" "No, he said that if the descendant of the Yan family got this thing, he would naturally understand how to do it." Old Man Lin shook and answered.

"What the hell is this Taoist? I don't know what it is in the package? How do I do this?" I was thinking about it in my mind and untied the package. When the package was opened, I realized why the package was so light. It turned out that there were only four light yellow paper in the package, which looked like Taoist talismans.

But when I opened these four talismans, I sat there alone... The yellow paper was not the Taoist seals I saw on weekdays! In addition to the Qinglong, White Tiger, Vermillion Bird, and Black Tortoise drawn on the talisman head, the part of the treasure seal is the kind of strange symbols that Mani had seen on the pile of piles in the title page of my magazine.

"No, it's not exactly the same. Some symbols are not in the photo, and some are arranged in completely different orders!" I came to my senses and observed the symbols drawn with cinnabar on yellow paper again, and soon realized the difference.

"Huh... The talismans left to you by Taoist Master Li Yuan are really unique. These treasure seals do not seem to be common among the Taoist scholars' treasure seals?" Lin Youcai is proficient in Feng Shui and is not unfamiliar with the talismans commonly used in Taoism. At this moment, he couldn't help but be amazed when he saw the symbols on the talisman.

"What? Have you not seen the things in the package before?" "Before Master Li left, he repeatedly told me that he must hand over the things to the descendants of the Yan family. He said so seriously, how could I dare to secretly open the package? Tell you, I have been keeping this package for several years, just waiting for you or your uncle to come back to hand it to you... As a result, you never came back. I am old now, and who knows when I can't walk anymore, so I thought about going to the city recently so that I can hand it over to you."

Seeing me holding the talisman and meditating, Lin Youcai seemed to have noticed my doubts at this moment. "Do you don't know how to use this thing?" "You're right..." When I heard Old Man Lin ask, I replied with a wry smile: "You saw it too. The Taoist priest left me four talismans, but I don't know whether this talisman should be posted or burned. If I paste it, where should I paste it? On the gate of the old house? It was sun and rain, it would probably be abandoned soon. Or should I paste it in the main hall? One or all of them are posted together in each room? Or should I use it for burning, is it burned at the door, or in the patio or in the main hall? I was completely distorted." "That's right, Master Li left these four talismans. If you make a mistake, you won't be anxious to regret it..." Lin Youcai nodded, but he soon remembered something. "But he said when he left that you will naturally understand how to use it after you get it?"

"When Lin Youcai saw my confused expression, he thought about it again and asked me." Are you planning to go to that house next? "I nodded. "It was my father who was killed in that house. To be honest, I was there last night. Don't laugh at me, I'm really scared, so I didn't go in for the night. It's daytime now, and I'm just going to go in and take a look. "What's the joke about this? You old man, I have been dealing with dead people and cemeteries all my life. When your house was haunted, even I didn't dare to pass there alone. Well, I'm fine now, so I'll just accompany you to go there. Master Li can do it and has a high level of Taoism. He said you will naturally know the method of using it. I guess as long as you get to the place, you will understand what he means. I can also see what is magical about the four talismans left by Master Taoist." Lin Youcai said, and stood up from the stool.

Seeing Old Man Lin get up, I walked out with him.

Chapter 6

With Lin Youcai's company, I felt much more at ease for some reason. After leaving the Lin family building, Old Man Lin and I walked to the Yan family's ancestral home at the west end of the town in a short while. It's afternoon, with the scorching sun. The ancestral home is not like the night, and no one dares to approach it. When I saw the gate of the ancestral house, I could see several pedestrians passing by in a hurry.

When I arrived at the door, I took out the door key I specially brought from my handbag. The uncle who locked the ancestral home was the one who locked it. After he passed away two years ago, the old padlock key fell into my hands. At this moment, I nervously inserted the key into the eyes of the old padlock, twisted it gently, and the padlock opened.

It has been more than ten years since the sun and rain, but the lock has not yet grown. This made me realize that there might be some secret I didn't know about this old house. Old Man Lin didn't notice this detail. Seeing that I took out the key and opened the padlock, I reached out and pushed open the wooden door panel.

With a "crunch", the scene in the courtyard of the old house was presented to Lin Youcai and I.

After the door was opened, what I saw was the patio in the yard. The front door is opposite the main hall of the old house. The main hall is divided into two places, and once the front is entered, it is the living room. There are three bedrooms as soon as you enter the back. On the left side of the gate is the West wing room. There are two rooms in the West wing room, one is the kitchen, and the other is the storage room in my memory. Generally, water tanks, vegetables, firewood, coal and other things are piled up. On the right is the east wing room. There are also two rooms, which are not occupied on weekdays and are generally in guest rooms.

Entering the patio, the stone table placed in the middle of the patio and the vacant flower pots piled around the stone pavement caused my memories of my childhood. My grandmother loved potted plants and flowers very much during her lifetime. In the evening in my memory, after my grandmother finished packing the tableware, I lay down on the stone table to do my homework, while my grandmother was busy holding a kettle to water the flower potted plants... "Oh, so many years have passed, and it is still the same here..." Old Man Lin must have seen the things and thought of others, and couldn't help but sigh when he saw the furnishings in the patio. Back then, because the old lady of the Lin family helped conceal my uncle's true life experience, he had a close relationship with my family. Whenever my father came home, he would often come to my house to pull my father to drink a few cups. For him, my ancestral home is also a place where he often goes.

Lin Youcai and I couldn't help but talk about some of my childhood past. As we spoke, we checked the wing rooms on the east and west sides together. When he entered the east wing, Old Man Lin pointed to a bed and said to me.

"If you hadn't been smart that day, hiding under the bed here. Maybe you were also injured in addition to your father." When Lin Youcai mentioned the matter at home that day, I couldn't help asking him about the situation at that time.

"Uncle Lin, I only remember that I fainted from fear not long after hiding under this bed. When I woke up, I was sent to the ward of the county hospital. So I don't remember what happened next. I heard that you were the first to rush into my house to save people... What was the situation at that time?" "I first discovered that it was not me who had the trouble in your house, but Qiu Yongfa's house next door." Walking out of the east wing, Lin Youcai pointed to the house behind the wall of the east wing.

"You Uncle Yongfa made an appointment with someone to go to Qingshi Town to kill pigs, so he got up very early. He had a good relationship with your uncle when he was a child, so he wanted to come over and say hello to your uncle before leaving. He didn't know that your uncle had encountered a landslide and was blocked halfway. As a result, when he came over, his door was closed. He was puzzled at that time, our guards never closed. So he knocked on the door, but he didn't respond after knocking for a long time. He suspected that something was wrong with your family. Then he climbed over the wall from the east wing room. As a result, as soon as he entered the main hall, he scared him halfway to death. Then he climbed over the wall and escaped, screaming the neighbors all over. Everyone broke the door of your house and rushed in to save people. Alas... It's a pity, it was still one step late after all, and your father was already helpless..."

"Then are you old?" "After I left your house that day, I went to Zhang Quan's house across the road to drink. I drank too much and went to sleep at his house. When Qiu Yong sent me to call Zhang Quan, I followed me. The one who found you under the bed in the east wing was your Uncle Zhang Quan. At first, he thought you were also injured, but when he looked at your nose and breathed, he quickly pulled you out of the bed and took you directly to the health center in the town. I remember that your uncle arrived at noon. He first came here to see your father's condition, and then ran to the health center to see you. You were not awake. Your uncle was anxious, so he found a way to ask for a car from the town government and took you to the county hospital."

"When did that police officer come?" "Oh, it's a coincidence. The day before your family's accident, the day when your grandma died, the people in the Lin Family Shop and the people in Youjiatun were very serious about opening the gate and unloading water. Director Zhang of the police station and the people in the police station went to Lin Family Shop with Secretary Liu and Mayor He and the then-stop Secretary Zhang went to Lin Family Shop to mediate disputes. So when Director Zhang came here, he was later than your uncle. I remember that he scolded us as soon as he came. He said that the entire scene was messed up by us and all clues were lost. Fortunately, Secretary Liu finally said good things for us. We are not police officers, so how can we understand those, saving people is definitely the first priority in that situation. As for what the crime scene Director Zhang said, who would pay attention to it?" Lin Youcai said, shook his head. The tragedy that happened in my family back then was also an unbearable past for him.

When I heard Lin Youcai talk about this, my heart became heavier.

As we both talked, we unknowingly moved to the main hall. When I saw the familiar furnishings in the main hall, I couldn't help feeling a hint of dizziness.

That night, in this room, the coffin of my grandmother was placed above the hall... My father fell in the pool of blood in the center of the hall..." A Ping, is it okay? "Lin Youcai noticed the strangeness of my body at this moment, and quickly reached out to support me and helped me to the chair placed on the left and right sides of the main hall.

"No, nothing... I just remembered what happened that night and felt a little dizzy..." I explained to Lin Youcai.

Lin Youcai nodded after hearing this and said. "That's right... Tiansha's murderer, he not only killed someone, but also stole the body..." "What did you say? Steal the body?" When I heard this, I suddenly started and stared at Lin Youcai with wide eyes.

"Yes, that murderer killed your father and carried your grandma's body away..." Lin Youcai looked at me for no reason. It was natural that I should know this.

"My grandma's body was taken away by the murderer?" When I heard this, my facial muscles couldn't help but twitch.

"Don't you know?" Lin Youcai also stared at me in surprise with wide eyes.

I shook my head repeatedly. "Not long after I woke up from the county hospital, my uncle took me back to the city. I always knew that my father was murdered. Uncle had never told me and A Guang about what you said.

"When Lin Youcai heard me say this, he was stunned. After thinking about it, he patted my shoulder and said. "Your uncle won't tell you, I think he should have his own considerations. Think about it now, how old were you and your younger brother A Guang at that time?

What happened here is so terrible. He should be worried that you will be scared after telling you. So I have hidden this from you. However, what he concealed is not a secret in the town. I don’t know the person I have in my life! I guess your uncle may think that as long as you come back one day in the future, you will know everything, so you won’t tell you these things. "I heard what Lin Youcai said makes sense. I nodded and then asked about the situation at the scene at that time.

Thinking that I was now an adult in my thirties, Lin Youcai sat on the chair next to me, pointed at the main hall, and told me what he and his neighbors saw after rushing into the mourning hall that day.

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Listening to Lin Youcai's story, I sat in the chair and couldn't help but start to tremble... After I woke up, my uncle took me back to the city.后來我也曾經詢問過叔叔家里究竟發生了什么事，叔叔只是告訴我家里祖宅這邊的事情都交給公安局處理了，只是案子還沒有破而已。對于叔叔那時的做法，現在的我當然是理解的。畢竟那時我和嚴光都還是小孩子，他擔心事情的真相會對我和嚴光產生負面的心理影響。不過此刻從林有才這邊了解到了事件的其他細節后，我還是感覺到了一種極度的恐懼感……

「那我奶奶現在在清江縣公墓那邊的是？」「是衣冠冢了。你爹和你奶奶的墓地當時是你叔拜托我去公墓那邊選的。下葬的時候我也在，你奶奶的遺體我們搜遍了鎮子周邊幾十里地都沒找著。所以最后骨灰盒里只裝了你奶奶生前用過的幾件首飾和衣物……唉……我到現在都不明白，那兇手干嘛要偷你奶奶的遺體了……也許……」林有才說到這里頓了頓，似乎欲言又止。

「也許什么？」我趕緊追問道。

林有才用手指敲打了一會椅子的扶手后，似乎覺得此刻告訴我應該可以后，方才再次打開了話匣子。

「阿平啊，你是不知道。你奶奶當初跟著你爺爺嫁到鎮子上的時候，可是在鎮子里引起了不小的轟動呢。你知道你奶奶的家世來歷么？」「這……」我皺了皺眉。祖母的家世我從叔叔那里了解過一些。不過我不理解林有才此刻提到這個有何意義。」了解一點點了。我奶奶是湖南人，具體哪個地方的，我叔叔也沒跟我說過。不過應該是大戶人家的小姐了，在長沙讀中學的時候認識了我爺爺，兩個人自由戀愛，然后跟著我爺爺來了這邊……」

「哈哈……你果然知道的少。」林有才苦笑著搖了搖頭。「你奶奶何止是大戶人家的小姐，據我了解，你奶奶可是出身名門望族。據說你祖父和你奶奶結婚的時候，你曾爺爺曾經為了你爺爺和奶奶的婚事跑了一趟湖南，你知道他是去干什么了？聽說他去拜訪了湖南長沙的王家和茶陵的譚家，請這兩個家族的人出面同你奶奶家那邊協商兩家的婚事。」「長沙王家？茶陵譚家？你說的難道是長沙王闿運？茶陵譚鐘麟？」

聽到這里我當時就蒙了。我曾祖父雖然在歷史上只是個默默無名的地方鄉紳。但青年時代曾外出游學，與那個時代的一些風云人物有過來往。至今在我家中還收藏有曾祖父同楊度、楊昌濟甚至是陳獨秀這些人的來往書信。尤其是陳獨秀，我曾祖父和他是同年的秀才，一段時間之內兩人的書信來往甚至頗為頻繁。我幾年前曾經研究過曾祖父遺留下來的一些文稿和信件，發現他青年時代的思想以及學術理念曾經受安徽桐城學派以及湖南王氏帝王學派的影響頗深，不過到了中晚年則偏向于文學考究之類的，不再關心政治。

「可不是么？據說你奶奶原本同另一個名門望族家的少爺有婚約的。和你爺爺自由戀愛后，擔心家里不同意，是跟著你爺爺他私奔到咱們這的。你曾爺爺倒不反對她們的婚事，但擔心和你奶奶有婚約的那家人以及你奶奶家存心報復，所以特意跑去湖南了一趟，希望王家、譚家這兩個湖南的名門世家出面化解彼此的矛盾。」「那事情究竟解決了沒有？」我此刻已經被林有才說的往事所徹底吸引了。

「解決沒解決我也不知道了，這些也都是我從我娘那些老輩子哪里聽說來的。不過你爺爺奶奶結婚后沒幾年就解放了。那時候這些什么名門世家各個自顧不暇，哪里還有精力追究這些事情啊，不過你爺爺和奶奶結婚的時候，你奶奶家根本就沒派人過來，當時是縣城俞家的人出面，臨時充當了你奶奶那邊的娘家人，你奶奶當時拜了俞家的老爺子當義父，這才讓婚禮辦圓滿了。」

林有才此時提到的俞家是本縣解放前的一家名門望族。據說同江陰俞氏是同宗，至于江陰俞氏則是中國近現代史上非常有名的一個家族了，先后出過俞明震、俞大純等對中國近現代歷史影響頗深的人物。其家族成員現在依舊活躍在海峽兩邊的政壇之中。而且同毛澤東、蔣介石這些中國歷史上的政治巨頭們存在著千絲萬縷的關聯。

說到這里，林有才似乎想起了什么，快七十歲的老臉居然紅了起來。我覺得納悶，忍不住問起究竟。林有才連連追問之下，才又說出了我不了解的一些往事。

「你奶奶年輕的時候可是被公認為鎮上，哦，不，整個縣里的第一美女呢。只不過她平日大門不出，二門不邁的。想見都難得見到一次。我記得那個時候文工團下來演出，只要你奶奶去看，鎮里頭可就是萬人空巷。看演出只是借口，其實都是沖著你奶奶去的……」

聽到這里，我不禁張大了嘴巴，從林有才此時扭捏的態度當中，我意識到，我奶奶恐怕無意中成了眼前這個老頭青少年時代性幻想的物件了。對于祖母的容貌，其實我倒沒有太多的印象，因為在我的記憶中，祖母臉龐是安靜而慈祥的。要說她和鎮上其他的女性有什么區別的話，那或者就是她的白凈了。那時候農村里的女人也沒什么講究，一個個和男人一樣下地扛活打工。所以我印象中老家的女人，無論高矮、胖瘦或者美丑，都有一個共同點，那就是黑。而祖母則顯得格外不同，她皮膚很白，其次便是極其的講究衛生。同老家其他女人相比，祖母永遠給人一種干干凈凈的感覺……終于我忍不住哈哈大笑起來。

林有才見我笑的倡狂，終究耐不住一張老臉。辯解道。「又不是我一個人，那個時候喜歡你奶奶的人多了去了。這鎮上，縣城里，有點能耐的，差不多都在暗地里打你奶奶的主意呢。不過你曾爺爺那邊親朋故舊很多，就算是文革那會的那些造反派頭頭，也沒那個真的敢來招惹你們家的。」

林有才此話倒是實話，我曾祖父交游頗廣，即便是解放后，共和國這邊都有不少高級領導依舊顧念著我曾祖父，而我祖父當年的一些同學和朋友，也在建國后步入了政壇。我父親和我叔叔之所以能夠離開故鄉最終進入城市工作生活，據說也是祖父當年的親友幫了忙所致。

「那你剛才說的也許又是什么意思呢？」「我是說，我猜測你家當年的慘案沒準和你奶奶的娘家以及和你奶奶有婚約的那家人有關吧……」林有才見我將話題轉到了正題，鄭重的告訴了我他個人的猜測。

「此話怎講？」其實我至今對當年父親慘死一事是一頭霧水。而林有才的看法或者能讓我多少明白一些其中的關節所在。

「派出所那邊給你們家的案子定性做故意殺人案。但我卻不這么認為呢……我覺得當年來你們家殺人的那個殺人犯恐怕原本就是沖著你奶奶的遺體來的。只是你爹正好在現場，想必是拚命阻止，因為這個原因，才慘遭毒手的。你想想看啊，要是他的目標是你們父子的話，那他殺了你爹，又找不到你的情況下，就該離開的。為什么臨走，還扛走了你奶奶的遺體？你奶奶都已經過世了，什么人會在她去世后依舊對她懷恨在心，想要打她遺體的主意呢？所以，除了你奶奶的娘家人之外，恐怕就是當初和你奶奶有婚約的那家人了。要知道你奶奶和你爺爺那是私奔。對于那時候的那些世家大族而言，這可是奇恥大辱啊。或者是你奶奶老家那邊有什么特殊的規矩，要在你奶奶死后把什么加諸到你奶奶的遺體之上呢……」

聽著林有才的分析，我禁不住連連點頭。這老頭一輩子從事風水喪事的這些工作，對民間的一些奇風異俗多有了解。我作為記者，也清楚不同的地域往往存在許多在外人看來難以理解的風俗習慣，比如西藏的天葬、穆斯林的葬禮等等。

祖母當年背叛了自己的家庭同祖父私奔，令其娘家和與她有婚約的那個家族蒙受了恥辱，所以那些人才在祖母死后視圖過來搶奪祖母的遺體。至于搶奪遺體來做什么，可能是為了泄憤，也可能是要進行某些儀式以洗刷家族的恥辱。這些就不是林有才和我所能夠猜測的到的了。

不過一想到慈祥的祖母，死后都不得安寧。倒讓此時的我對那個我至今未知的仇人產生了刻骨的仇恨。不自覺的咬牙說道：「那個女人，要讓我找到了她，我必然要將她碎尸萬段……」「女人？什么女人？」林有才顯然注意到了我的話語，詫異的詢問道。

林有才的詢問將我從思緒當中拉回到了現實。面對詢問，我慌張的敷衍了兩句。因為時至今日，我從來沒有將那個夜晚我在祖宅這里見到的一些事情告訴任何人。即便是當初派出所民警來到縣醫院向我詢問現場情況的時候，我也沒有告訴那些員警。至于原因我自己也不明白，或者是因為那夜見到的那個女人實在過于詭異，我即便告訴了員警，行兇者是一個混身赤裸的女性，恐怕員警都不會相信我吧。

林有才見我似乎有所保留，也沒有追根究底。畢竟，他對于我家發生的那些事情而言，只是一個旁觀者而已，和他沒有根本上的關系。因此，既然我不愿意明言，他也就不想多此一舉了。

聊到此時，林有才注意到戶外的光線已近黃昏。連忙提醒我道：「阿平啊，我們來這里是處理李道長留下的符咒的，你看這天色，要再不動手，可就天黑了啊。雖然道長當初施法暫時鎮住了這房子的那個什么陰妖之氣，可到了晚上誰知道會發生什么事情。我可也不敢在此處多呆。你看……」聽到林有才如此說，我才意識到此刻來到祖宅的目的。連忙從提包里取出了道士留下的四張長條形的符咒，拿在手中站了起來，繞著正廳走了一圈。不過，卻始終不得要領。

道家的符咒一般是用來貼在某些地方鎮惡辟邪的，不過有些符則是用來焚燒后施法的。那個叫李源的道士離開時并未交代這四道符咒的使用方法，此刻倒讓我和林有才犯了難。林有才同樣圍著正廳繞了一圈，跟著站在正廳的大門口說道：「你看，你們家這房子，正房這一棟，東、西廂房，再加院子大門。四道符是不是分別貼到這四個地方啊？」「東西廂房各有兩個房間，四道門。不算正房里面的，加院子大門，這可有整整六道門呢。」我搖了搖頭，這顯然無法合理分配手中的四道符咒。

「說的不錯啊，不過從道長留下四道符符頭上的青龍、白虎那些圖案來看，這符應該對應的是東西南北四個方位。只不過不知道具體應該放到那些位置了？

「林有才也意識到他之前的判斷可能是不正確的。

我拿著符紙，坐到了椅子上，低著頭望著正廳的石板地面思索著。

想著想著，我的腦海中猛然浮現出了那天晚上眼前地面的景象……父親倒在地板的中央，圍繞著父親，東北、西北、東南、西南四面的地面布滿了鮮血繪制的那些詭異符號……「難道……」我猛然間從腦中的幻想中警醒過來。

「當時那些符號成菱形分布在父親身體的周圍，形成了一個法陣。而道士留下的這四道符咒如果按符頭中圣獸所示方位排列的話，則是正方形……如果我猜測的沒錯的話，道士的這四道符咒也是一道法陣，而且作用就是為了鎮壓當時的那道菱形法陣！」想到這里，我猛站了起來，迅速的站到了正廳的中央。跟著拿起了道士留下的青龍符咒，雙手捧著，彎腰平平的放置在了大廳正東方的位置。

就在符咒接觸地面的瞬間。不可思議的情況發生了，只見符咒上的圖案和符號猛的發出了耀眼的光芒，刺的我和站在門口望著我不明白我要做什么的林有才兩人眼睛都快睜不開了。當強光消失，我和林有才在低頭一看，只見符咒已經消失的無影無蹤了……」這、這怎么回事？那符咒難道鉆到地下去了？」林有才呆呆的望著眼前發生的一切，完全的無法理解。

「林老伯，看來那個什么李源道長真的有些道行了。你看……」我�頭望著戶外的天空心中拽拽不安起來。因為就在符咒消失之后，外面的天色瞬間發生了變化，不知何時，天空中已經開始堆積起了眾多的烏云，之前原本還格外明亮的光線此刻變的愈發昏暗起來……

「果然如此，阿平，你趕緊了……布陣要快！」林有才成天跟風水八卦打交道，對于道家的那些東西知道不少，此刻他也意識到了道士留下的這四張符咒其實一套法陣。而道家的法陣布置是有時間限制的，既然我已經將第一道符咒打進了地面，接下來便必須將另外三道法陣迅速布下。要是布陣不完整，或者拖拖拉拉，便有可能遭到天地鬼神的反噬。

我此刻哪里還不明白這個道理，立刻側身朝向正南方向，同樣的姿勢，將朱雀符咒放到了地上，又是一陣刺眼的強光…有過第一次的經驗了，我和林有才不再感到詫異，接著我又依樣畫葫蘆的將西、北兩個方向的符咒放置到了地上。當北面玄武的符咒在地面消失不見之后，很快以我為中心的地板四面個方向的地面突然集體浮現出了四道符咒上圖案和符號，那些圖案和符號仿佛有生命一般騰空而起，在大廳的空間之中快速旋轉飛舞起來……我和林有才目瞪口呆的望著此刻眼前的奇景，根本不知道該如何反應。

就在我和林有才呆若木雞的時候，那些飛舞著的圖案和符號忽然四散飛射而出，沖向祖宅的各個房間和角落。整座祖宅之中忽然響起了鬼哭狼嚎般的各種古怪聲響。天井里、大廳內的地面上，猛然冒出了一股股的黑氣，這些黑氣一接觸到那些閃耀著金光的無形圖案和符號，立刻便如同露水被太陽照射一般煙消云散了。

我和林有才看著眼前這種完全超乎人類想像的景象，全都徹底呆滯了。林有才全身顫抖，嘴里不停的念叨著：「金生火旺，交鏈元神。內保形體，外伏魔靈。急急如律令！……金生火旺，交鏈元神。內保形體，外伏魔靈。急急如律令！……」林有才念叨的是道家的」火鈴咒」，是道士施行驅邪法事中經常念誦的咒文。他成天幫人操辦喪事，經常參與一些道士的法會，因此多少懂得一些這些所謂的」道家真言」不過此刻他念誦出來，還真的似乎有些效果，在他念誦聲中，那些無形的符文自身的光芒仿佛更盛了幾分，老宅各個角落中涌出的黑氣在符文光芒的照射之下消失的更快也更為徹底了。

當最后出現的一絲黑氣在符文的映照下消失無蹤之后。在祖宅中四散飛舞的那些符文猛地又一起飛回到了正廳的中央，就在我和林有才的眼前砰然一聲消失的無影無蹤了。

我一下子坐到了地面上，大口的喘著粗氣。正廳門口的林有才此刻也差不多，一屁股坐到了正廳的門檻上，急促的喘息了起來。

畢竟，之前我們兩人目睹的這一切太過讓人震撼和匪夷所思了。雖然實際過程只有短短的數分鐘而已，但我和林有才仿佛經過了生死煎熬一般。

過了不知道多久，林有才忽然「哈哈」大笑了起來。望著我一臉喜氣的說道。

「好了，好了，這下這宅子里的妖魔鬼怪總算清除干凈了。這鎮里頭應該從此太平無事了。」說完，扭頭望了外面的天色。剛才密布的陰云，此刻不知何時已經消散殆盡。只見到西方天空那一抹絢麗的霞光。

我此時也感覺到了一種從未有過的輕松。仿佛這些日子積累在胸中的那股郁悶之氣也隨著剛才那些消失的黑氣一起被排遣了出去一般。

「那個神秘的迷彩服遺留下雜志，讓我注意到了照片上的那些奇特符號，而我又因為見到了那些符號而想起趕回老家一趟，回來之后又藉著道士留下的符咒驅除了老宅這里的鬼魅魍魎……這一切感覺就像是被那個迷彩服的人指引著一般……現在看來，老宅這邊的事情應該算處理完了。我是不是應該想辦法去找到那個穿迷彩服的年輕人問個究竟了……」我一邊思考著，一邊用手支撐著身體站了起來，準備招呼林有才一同離開。就在此時，原本已經消失不見了的四方符咒猛的一下子再次漂浮出現在了大廳的空間當中。

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