matchmaking

Dark clouds gather traces, and night swallows daylight.The distant mountains are like ink barriers, and the shadows of nearby trees are whirling.

The night came in a hurry, and the two stayed at that family's house that night.

Although many people in Yujia Village have been relocated, it is not as bad as what the driver said. Most of the young people go out to work, and the rest of the middle-aged and elderly people work at home.

There were only four people in the family they lived in. The eldest son was studying in other provinces, and as for the youngest daughter—the husband sighed deeply and kept his mouth shut, talking about the cemetery in their village instead.

"You guys are so lucky. It rained so hard today, and the ground is loose," the man said in a thick dialect, smoking a dry cigarette, "behind the cemetery is a deep pool of water. Everyone in our own village stumbled and drowned." died."

The cigarettes seemed damp, exuding a faint grassy smell, and the remaining smoke curled up in the courtyard.

Luo Youning followed his words and asked: "I heard the driver say in the car today, have any strange things happened in the village in recent years?"

The man's face changed slightly, and he glanced at Luo Youning warily: "There can be something strange, it's not all just rumored by those helpers."

Luo Youning didn't feel discouraged even when he hit a wall, so he tapped on the side and wanted to ask more questions.

The man was a little evasive, and finally stood up and said bluntly that he was going to help in the kitchen.

The man's back was facing them. He was obviously in his prime, but his back was bent like an old man with vicissitudes.The cigarette smoked his throat, and his voice sounded like rough paper being scraped and rustled: "The road is being built in the village recently, and there are potholes everywhere. It's not safe to go out with a flashlight. Don't run around after dinner at night." gone."

Luo Youning thanked him, and watched the man's back disappear around the corner.

The dangling light bulbs attached to the eaves of the verandah attracted countless flying insects, and even more flying mosquitoes and midges sneaked up in the dark, biting ankles and wrists all over, and mosquito repellent was not enough.

Qiao Jing sat next to him and bowed his head to answer text messages. His subordinates called from time to time to ask for instructions. He was inseparable from everything in the company, but he was willing to throw everything away and accompany him to this remote mountain.

His mind was in a mess, wrapped in heavy iron and heavy stones, dragging him into an endless abyss.

The evil spirit crawled from hell to claim his life. Luo Youning doubted whether he could escape this disaster. He hesitated, "Can we really solve it tonight?"

Qiao Jing put away her phone and glanced at him: "There will always be a way."

He can always be so calm, as if everything is under his control, and accidents never happen without him.

Qiao Jing asked him, "Did you throw the ax that killed him back into the pond?"

Luo Youning was a little hesitant: "It should have been thrown into the pond, not necessarily... I don't remember very clearly, the follow-up treatment is mostly done by Dayu," he tried to get rid of the cocoon from his memory, but suddenly he really remembered something, " By the way, when Dayu's grandma just left, she told me that what we were looking for was at the entrance of the village?"

Qiao Jing pondered: "Does it mean his bones or the ax that killed him?"

Luo Youning couldn't remember it anymore, so she said, "Why don't you go and look for it tomorrow morning."

"There is no time, he will definitely come to you tonight," Qiao Jing said, "We will go tonight."

Luo Youning couldn't figure it out: "Since his bones are located at the entrance of the village, it is unlikely that his bones were buried at the entrance of the village. Maybe it was the axe? But we were the ones who handled the ax back then, so we ran to the entrance of the village for no reason."

"Maybe someone else has found that axe." There are too many messes to sort out one by one, and they are already here anyway, Qiao Jing said, "I'll find out at night when I look for it."

The remaining people in the village kept secret about this, and they couldn't find out why, so they had to find out by themselves.

Luo Youning was thinking about something, and from the corner of his eye he caught sight of the thatched thatched hut diagonally opposite. The long handle of a half hoe protruding from it was half-closed against the firewood gate. Something, has shifted its peeping eyes since they spoke, and is still staring at them for a moment.

This feeling tempted him to stand up unconsciously, and walked over there step by step.

Fortunately, Qiao Jing reacted in time and grabbed his arm: "What's wrong?"

"There's something inside." Luo Youning stared at the crack of the door and couldn't move his foot. "I seem to hear someone calling my name."

"You heard me wrong," Qiao Jing dragged him to protect him, not daring to let go of his hand at all: "Let's go into the house."

Luo Youning didn't say a word, but kept turning his head to look at the crack in the door. The moment he stepped into the door with his front foot, he suddenly saw a young and flowery face protruding from the crack.

His face was blue and white, his eyes were black, like a little ghost hiding in the ground and afraid to see anyone.

It was just in time for them to return to the house. The woman had already set the table and chopsticks and urged her husband to call them to eat.

The dining table is placed in the main hall.There are only two tungsten light bulbs hanging in the hall. Time has peeled off the plaster on the wall, revealing the solid brick wall. The calendar turned to a certain day in February ten years ago, and the paper was yellowish, as if it had been frozen there. That day.

Luo Youning noticed that the corners of their altar tables were tied with red cloth, and the ends of the cloth strips were embroidered with patterns, and the words "Hecun is safe" were faintly exposed during the period.

He has lived here for a while, so he knows more or less the customs of the village.Generally, only those who have won the lottery and are responsible for carrying the Bodhisattva in the village temple will tie such cloth strips on the table to show their status.On the Bodhisattva's birthday, the male master of the family would usually tie the cloth around his waist and carry the Bodhisattva around the village.

Since he had carried the Bodhisattva, he must be indispensable for sacrifices and other things in the village.He wondered if the man would know where the man's bones were buried, and glanced over the altar, unexpectedly seeing an extra photo frame at the end of a row of tablets.The edge of the plastic has turned white and cracked over the years, but the color of the photo inlaid in it is still the same. The five or six-year-old girl in the colorful flower field is like a cluster of delicate flower buds.

It was a little far away, but he looked at the little girl with inexplicable familiarity.

The woman earnestly invited them to sit down, and said: "I don't know if the rough tea and light food suit the taste of you people in the city."

Luo Youning came back to her senses, and hurriedly thanked her: "Thank you for your hard work, sister-in-law."

Qiao Jing probably stuffed some money, and this family is honest, killing chickens and geese just made them a table full of good food.

"There is no good food at home, you should eat more." The woman looked a little embarrassed, and repeated, "Eat more."

The man said nothing, and filled a bowl full of rice for them first.

Even if the two of them don't have much appetite, it's hard to refuse the couple's kindness.

The four of them sat at the square table to eat, and there was nothing left to say about the gossip.

The house was quiet for a while, except for the noisy wind coming and going, which made the tungsten lamps hanging from the beams sway, and the shadows swayed accordingly, like wandering spirits.

Luo Youning sat sideways to the door, eating a meal was uncomfortable, he always felt that there was a gaze chasing him.

The light of a tungsten lamp is too dim, and the surrounding shadows are entrenched, as if there are monsters everywhere.

Qiao Jing noticed his strange behavior, put duck meat on his chopsticks and asked in a low voice, "What's wrong?"

Luo Youning's eyes fell on the dark atrium outside the house. He shook his head and just said, "It's okay." Out of the corner of his eye, he glanced at the slightly shaking door panel, and his movements stopped suddenly. He saw it. The extra pair of small leather shoes.

The toe of the shoe is raised slightly, and the bright red color is so conspicuous in the dark.

Something was standing behind the door, and it had been surreptitiously watching them.

Perhaps his face was too ugly, and the woman facing him suddenly asked, "What did you see?"

Luo Youning looked away and forced a smile: "It's nothing, I was wrong."

The woman stared at him and opened her mouth to speak, but her husband slammed the bowl and interrupted the woman's words with a loud jingle. He said, "Go back to the house when you are full. Don't disturb the guests."

The woman bowed her head and didn't say anything until after dinner.

The two went back to their houses after dinner, packed their things and planned to go to the entrance of the village to explore while it was still early.

Luo Youning's spirit has not been very good, his face is pale, and his expression is a little dazed.

Qiao Jing raised her hand to touch his cheek, and asked him, "Did you see something just now?"

"I saw a pair of red leather shoes. It seems to be a little girl, peeking at us from behind the door." Luo Youning seemed not sure about what he saw, hesitantly said, "There is also a photo of the little girl on the altar table in his house, It should be his youngest daughter, she looks familiar to me."

Qiao Jing said: "That man didn't mention his little daughter?"

"It only said that his eldest son is studying in other provinces. As for the younger daughter...he didn't say anything. But I don't think he looks quite right." Luo Youning paused, "By the way, he is probably the bearer of the Bodhisattva in the village. Maybe they will know about the man... the corpse."

Qiao Jing was thoughtful, and then said after a while: "I'll ask again. You go to bed and sleep for a while, it's not yet eight o'clock, and we're not in a hurry to go out later."

Luo Youning originally wanted to go with him, but he really couldn't cheer up.I don't know if it's because of returning to this nightmarish place, or because the encounter during the day made Yin Qi permeate his bones, he always felt like a needle was stuck in his temple, which made him panic for a while.

He had no choice but to say: "It's fine if you can't ask, you should come back earlier."

Luo Youning was soon left alone in the room, accompanied by the dim tungsten lamp and the noisy mosquitoes all over the room.

The mobile phone signal is struggling on the edge of a grid, jumping from 4G to E from time to time.Can't get through the phone, can't send text messages.Luo Youning put away her phone and wanted to go to bed for a while, but when she lay down, she looked up and saw the mosquito net hanging down, covering her surroundings vaguely, as if full of erratic ghosts.

Restless, he got up and opened the door wide to let the night breeze enter the room, while he sat down at the table in a daze.

Facing the gray wall, there are several faded certificates, such as "First Prize in the County Elementary School Composition Competition" and "Second Prize in Hexathlon", showing the pride of the parents.

Luo Youning read the certificates one by one, and accidentally saw a photo on the edge of the table.

The negative was overexposed, and the image was pale.The background was blurred into a blurry silhouette. In the corner stood a tall man in a suit, holding a little girl in a pink princess dress by his hand. The little girl was standing beside the man smiling like a flower, and the man's head A piece of the image was cut out, revealing the dark wall below.

Luo Youning stared at the man's figure, of course he remembered this man, this was a nightmare he would never forget.Then think of the hostess mentioning his little daughter...

The light in the room was too dim, and the color of the photo was faded and distorted. For a moment, the smiling face of the little girl in the photo changed. Tongue is gone.

Slopes, dense forests, the cicadas chirping so loudly in summer, the basketball flew too fast and shattered the glass, and a tongueless little princess sat on the sofa in the gloomy living room.

Luo Youning felt cold all over, as if he had stepped back into that horrible house again, and encountered nightmares one after another.

In a trance, he heard someone talking under the window.

The voice is tender and clear, like a little oriole twirling its branches, but it is strange in the thick night.

The voice sang: "Lin Zhongyan, who is hiding. The eyes in the pool, who are you watching. Where are the birds in the corpse forest... the fish in the hidden soul pool are gone..."

This room is in the corner of the yard, backed by a deserted field ridge.

It's midsummer, looking through the window, there are fireflies floating around in the luxuriant vines, like ghosts with no fixed place.

Afraid of seeing something he shouldn't see, Luo Youning hurriedly reached out to close the curtains, but the moment he finished drawing the curtains and turned around, he suddenly found that the mosquito nets tied at both ends of the bedposts were closed together silently, the white cloth was thick and heavy, The curtain hangs down to cover a wooden bed tightly like a sealed coffin.

The breath rolling out of his throat could not stop trembling, Luo Youning pressed his voice and called out: "Qiao Jing?"

The sound was so clear in the dead room, as if it woke up the sleeping demon for a moment.

The mosquito net shook slightly, and a human face slowly protruded from the flat cloth surface.

Luo Youning held his breath and took a step back. He saw a pair of pitch-black leather shoes slowly protruding from the edge of the tent and stepping on the floor mat beside the bed. Blood.

The black leather shoes moved forward, and the evil spirit hidden in the coffin slowly stood up.

The tungsten lamp above the head flickered flickeringly, and the open door seemed to be ordered, shaking creakingly, and was about to close inward.

In the blink of an eye, Luo Youning rushed to the door without even thinking about it. Without hesitation, he grabbed the door handle and rushed out. The moment he stepped away from the door, there were two loud bangs, and the door opened. At the same time as being thrown, the light bulb in the room exploded.

The darkness spread its teeth and claws, swallowing up the illusion of peace.