What's in the depths II

"Grandpa, we have already set up the statue of the mountain god, and we are waiting for you to preside over the ceremony." The ghost-looking young man in the village flatteringly supported the trembling old man with a dragon head and a cane.

The old man was over [-] years old, with a gray beard, cloudy eyes, and patches of age spots on his face. He looked terrifying, and at first glance it was chilling.

With the support of the young man, the old man moved slowly towards the dim ancestral hall with small steps.

The outside of the ancestral hall is covered with red silk made of gauze material, and there is a brown-red wooden statue in the middle of the ancestral hall.

Pig blood was sprinkled on the wooden platform for visiting the statue, and several plucked chickens were lying in a distorted posture in front of the statue.

The old man took three sticks of incense from the young man, lit them on the candlestick, shook his veined hands like sifting chaff, then he bowed three times respectfully to the statue with the blue face and fangs, chanting:

"Master Mountain God, your new ancestral hall has been repaired, we welcome you to rest here, and please bless our village with good weather and prosperity—"

The surrounding villagers also hurriedly put their hands together, imitating the old man and bowing to the statue, worshiping devoutly.

After the ceremony, the young man ran back and forth to bring tea and water to the old man, rubbed his waist and beat his legs, not to mention his humble appearance. At best, he was respecting the elderly, but at worst, he was dogleg and flattering.

The old man rubbed his crutches, looked at the young man who seemed to be quite discerning with his cloudy eyes, then leaned slightly, leaned into the young man's ear and asked softly:

"Where is the girl?"

The young man froze for a moment, then looked around cautiously. He squatted and moved forward a little bit, close to the old man's face: "It's still in the woodshed."

"How long will it take for her father to come back?"

The young man rolled his eyes: "If you walk fast, it will take three days."

The old man nodded and wrote something on the ground with a cane in his hand. Then, he stood up and looked at the monstrous river in front of him. Wrapped in thick fog, an old fishing boat in the middle of the river dangled on the surface of the river, which seemed to be full of people. Meaning of loneliness.

At sunset, a large number of villagers surrounded the village headed by the old man called "Uncle and Grandpa". Very eye-catching.

Tears flowed across the full red lips, precariously falling on the tip of the delicate chin.

The girl who seemed to be only in her early twenties was wearing an embroidered wedding dress. The heavy phoenix crown made her unable to lift her head. She could only stand helplessly in front of everyone with her hands clasped and her head bowed.

In the expressions of those people, there are reluctance, jokes, and infinite expectations.

The girl's eyebrows were worried, her willow eyebrows were furrowed, she looked at the mountain connecting the village with the outside world, looking forward, as if she was waiting for someone to arrive.

The village chief patted the girl's forehead and shoulder lightly, and said regretfully, "Don't wait, your father won't come back."

After hearing these words, the girl's eyes turned red instantly, she bit her lower lip, and then walked away from the crowd to the dilapidated fishing boat parked by the river.

A wide river connects the mountains in the distance. The further you go, the narrower the river becomes, and finally extends to a dark place with no light in the distance——

There were noisy footsteps by the river, and a boy wearing a patched waistcoat staggered forward on the river, chasing the direction where the girl left by boat, and shouted loudly:

"Axiu! Come back quickly! They lied to you! Your father is not dead at all! He is delivering the goods in the city right now and will be back soon!"

The girl vaguely heard that someone was calling her name, but when she looked back, it was just a long river hidden under the thick fog——

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"51, 52... Fifty... Three... It's over, it's over." Yu Yuan let go of his hand, and the tension device in his hand fell to the ground.

"Hey, Yu team, you can't do it." Zhao Qin teased, then looked up at Yun Qian who was sitting on the side facing the computer screen in a daze.

"Xiaoyun, come and try?"

Yunqian came back to his senses, tilted his head and looked at Zhao Qin: "Leave this alone, you guys come and have a look."

A few people searched for their reputation and walked up to Yunqian, and saw him pointing to the number one most searched entry on Weibo on the screen:

"A monster appeared in the mountains."

"According to tourists, they witnessed a horrifying naked wild monster at Changsheng Mountain, a national triple-A scenic spot, at around three o'clock in the afternoon on October 23. The monster had unusually long nails and sensitive movements. Living by preying on wild livestock and poultry, a tourist approached quietly and wanted to take pictures, but was discovered by a wild monster and scratched the tourist. The tourist is currently being sent to the hospital for emergency treatment."

Yu Yuan stroked the mustache on his chin and murmured: "What year is this, monster? You're here to confuse people again, aren't you?"

"It's hard to say, more than one tourist has seen this monster. It's impossible for them to talk nonsense about the so-called wind and waves." Yunqian scrolled the mouse wheel and continued to read the comments below.

"It's probably some kind of mountain monkey or something. You know that people nowadays are exaggerating. They spread the word ten to one hundred, and the taste changes after passing it on." Yu Yuan felt that this was just a joke and nothing to worry about. .

Until a call came from the police station, yelling that something had happened, Yu Yuan asked what was going on.

The people at the police station paused, then said slowly:

"A village below Changsheng Mountain held a celebration last night, and all those who attended the celebration died overnight."

Yu Yuan's eyes widened: "They're all dead?!"

"Yes, more than a dozen people, all of them died. The village was originally poor, and there were only forty or fifty people in total. The rest were women, children, sick and disabled people who did not participate in the celebration."

"How did you die?"

"The methods of death are all kinds of strange. Some of them were pierced by sharp knives, and some... looked like they were bitten by wild beasts."

Yu Yuan stared at the computer beside Yunqian in a daze, and the hot search entry "A monster appeared in the mountain" on the screen was particularly eye-catching.

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Since the forensic department of Huiyuan City Criminal Investigation Bureau was formally established, it was the first time to take over so many corpses at one time. Thirteen corpses were neatly placed on the mortuary table. Overcrowded", several forensic doctors shuttled back and forth among the corpses, very busy.

Yunqian stood outside the door, looking at the bloody corpses, and sighed helplessly.

"Could there really be so-called monsters in this world?" Even as a policeman, when faced with such an unimaginable tragedy, Zhao Qin even began to doubt the authenticity of "there are no ghosts and gods in the world".

"No matter how capable a person is, it's impossible to kill so many strong men by himself."

As soon as the words fell, a small policeman hurried in outside the door, holding a list in his hand.

"Team Yu, we compared the identities of the deceased, but it was rather strange, because in addition to the thirteen dead, there was also a woman who disappeared and no body was found. When I asked other villagers, they all said they didn't know where she was. .”

Yu Yuan looked up: "The name of the deceased."

"Luan Qian, 21 years old."