Monster 1

Do you believe that there are devils in this world?

They escaped from the center of the earth, sweeping this seemingly innocent planet with their sharp knives; taking scars as glory, blood as carnival, and trampled life under their feet.

They have the same heartbeat and pulse as you, but you are just a prey in their eyes.

"Lu Yunxi."

"Want to survive?"

In a dark room, a ray of light slipped in through a small hole in the roof. Lu Yunli stood up and wanted to catch the light, but found that his fingers were severely burned just when he touched it.

But even so, he still wanted to catch it.

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"Lu Yunlai, wake up."

The warm touch came from the shoulder, and Lu Yunli opened his eyes suddenly, grabbed the arm and twisted neatly, and he was only one step away from helping Young Master Xie take off the arm.

Looking at the pale and slender wrist held in the palm of his hand, Lu Yunli's eyebrows twitched fiercely.

——What the hell did I do?

"Awake?"

"woke up."

Lu Yunli quickly let go, and personally held Xie Zhian's arm with both hands, and put it back to its original place, and also helped to flick off a small piece of dust on the down jacket.

Xie Zhi'an looked at Lu Yunli indifferently for a while, and then said.

"I know Zhang Qi. I had a few words with her when I was in the Children's Palace last year."

Lu Yunli, who was still worrying about what kind of expression he was going to make when he heard this, quickly raised his head to look at Xie Zhian, waiting for his next words.

"Zhang Qi is a very beautiful child. I heard that she practiced dancing when she was a child, and her body is very flexible. The teachers in the swimming pool commented that when she is in the water, she is like a little mermaid. In that issue The swimming summer camp is [-] days in total, and you can choose to live in the dormitory prepared by the Children's Palace, or you can choose to go to school. Lin Zeru and Zhang Jing are day students, but Zhang Qi chose to live because his father is not on vacation yet."

"A summer camp class like this will eventually prepare a performance for parents to prove the effectiveness of the teaching, and Zhang Qi is the candidate for the final performance." When he said this, Xie Zhian frowned, as if he was a little confused Can't come up with a very appropriate word: "That is, the most important performer... is in charge of acting?"

"I know what you mean, go ahead."

Seeing Xie Zhi'an's seriousness at ordinary times, I didn't expect to be confused about such a small name, it's really... a little cute.

But this kind of words are only in his mind, Lu Yunli has no idea of ​​praising a man as cute.

"Children are very competitive. Although the teacher said that it was a fair election, some children felt that the teacher was biased. They were very unconvinced, especially Zhang Jing and Lin Zeru. What happened in the middle? I don’t know about the matter, I only know that Zhang Jing was the main performer in the end, and Zhang Qi seemed to have evaporated from the world, and I never saw her again.”

"What do you think Zhang Jing and Lin Zeru did? They were only seven and eight years old last year. What can they do?"

"What can't they do?" Xie Zhi'an tilted his head in doubt, and said seriously: "In February 1993, a murder occurred in Bootle, Merseyside, Liverpool, England. The body of two-year-old James Bulger was found. Along the railway line, and the murderers were two children under the age of ten."

"James has 42 wounds on his body, but none of them is fatal. You can't influence your objective judgment because of your subjective feelings."

"My subjective feelings?" Lu Yunlu chuckled, and he met Xie Zhi'an's gaze without hesitation: "What about you? You think that Zhang Qi's disappearance is related to them because of some small conflicts between the children ? Where is your objectivity? Or what do you know? Xie Zhian, I hope you are here to help and not to cause trouble. This is the special investigation team, not the exclusive detective hired by your Xie family or some special mercenary team, you said It’s best to come to a conclusion with convincing evidence.”

Lu Yun was very irritable, but he didn't know where this irritability came from.

When talking about those dead children, Xie Zhian's tone was too indifferent.It is full of mistrust towards the world - even though it is just two children who have not yet grown up, Xie Zhian is using the greatest malice to speculate on them.

"Can you talk to me well?"

Xie Zhian took out a bottle of drink from his car pocket and handed it to Lu Yunlin, with a slight smile on his face.

He already had a smiling face, but usually because his eyes are too cold, people often ignore the natural curve of his mouth.At this time, the corners of his eyes were suddenly bent, and he looked at others with a smile, like a landscape painting with a touch of color.

In that instant, everything came alive.

Lu Yunjin admitted that he was a person who would be put off by beauty, so he pulled away the can that Xie Zhian handed over without even looking at it, and took a sip.

Very good, sour and refreshing, this soda-flavored rag is worthy of Laoshan White Flower Snake Baicao.

"You deliberately?"

Xie Zhi'an replied puzzledly: "White Snake Grass is sweet and light in nature, and returns to the liver, stomach, and intestine meridian. It can reduce heat, detoxify, and help digestion. Drinking it is good for the body."

Xie Zhi'an's expression was very sincere, even the sincere Lu Yunxi was embarrassed to reply: What kind of rainbow farts are you posting.

Probably because the expression on Lu Yunli's face was too distorted, Xie Zhi'an said belatedly: "I'm sorry, I... I think it tastes good, so..."

"Okay, let's get out of the car first, don't you think the whole car smells like pig feed?"

Xie Zhi'an: ...I don't know what pig feed smells like...

Lu Yunli opened the car door, and stood on the ground facing the wind for a while, then rubbed his nose and put on the hat on his coat, as if he wasn't the one who didn't change his face at the murder scene.

Xie Zhi'an also couldn't figure out whether Lu Yunzhang was really smoked like this, or if he was just pretending, so he could only bring the topic back to the case without embarrassment.

"Actually, I didn't take it seriously when Zhang Qi didn't come to the summer camp at the beginning. I thought it was an understandable behavior. Until recently, a girl in our group told me about this story."

"The day I met that?"

"Huh?" Xie Zhian, who was suddenly interrupted, waited for a while, then nodded hesitantly: "Yes, can I continue?"

"Thank you, classmate, you can continue talking, you don't have to ask the teacher every time."

"Well. After the school here was revoked, most of the teachers were assigned away. There was only one female teacher named Li Qiu. Seeing that the children here were pitiful, she stayed. And Li Qiu is Zhang Jianguo His wife, both of them are hardworking and kind people."

"But Zhang Jianguo resigned at the beginning because he was hired by a private tutoring institution. When he was free on weekdays, he came here to take care of the children. The housing prices here are not expensive, and life is good. However, Li Qiu last year He died of an illness in August, the cause of which is unknown, and it was less than a month before the end of the summer camp."

"Zhang Jianguo moved away in September, which can be explained as being unable to continue to live in the place where his wife died, but the most important point is... Zhang Qi, Zhang Jianguo's daughter, has disappeared from the world since July, not only I, even the residents here have never seen her."

"Zhang Qi dropped out of school early and even disappeared, Li Qiu passed away due to illness, Zhang Jianguo moved, and then two children died recently. These things must be related, and the most important thing is that 'their three children are only in the summer camp. Over social'."

'In a house where no one lives, there will be ghosts and ghosts staying in it after a long time. '

Human heart or ghosts, who is more terrifying?Why isn't a good building open to the people who came after?No one came to live like she said?

Lu Yunli stretched out his hand and patted Xie Zhian's shoulder: "It seems that it is not a waste of help. With you, I think the old fritters can tell the truth. Let's go, I will show you the normal state of the market here."

There are still dirty alleys, and the crumbling houses are close together, as if they will not fall if they support each other.The cordon in front of the alley where the murder happened has been taken away. Yesterday I heard that someone was sent to clean up the rubbish in the alley, and they even posted a useless note at the entrance of the alley—— It is strictly forbidden to litter here.

Under the note, there was a piece of ice cream paper neatly lying on it. It was white, and it was blown by the wind and floated directly into the alley.

But a day later, Aunt Liao looked at the two young men standing outside the door, sighed heavily, and turned sideways to let them into the room without saying anything.

Aunt Liao's house is a large room, which is divided into two parts by a door curtain, and the coffee table, TV and pots and stoves are messy outside.

Aunt Liao didn't even greet them, she took a cigarette and lit it, and took a photo from the cabinet in her mouth, and took it on the coffee table.

It was a group photo of a gentle-looking woman wearing a white coat, holding a small dumpling in her arms, and smiling gently at the camera.

That was probably the most ordinary smile of a mother in the world, full of love and longing for the future.

It is precisely because it is full of hope that it makes people feel more depressed.

"The people who live here are the lowest and most ordinary people in society. Being wiped out at random is like erasing a stain on the window. No one cares. The qualification to run the school is withdrawn as soon as it is withdrawn. Those who tried to get into the urban elementary school entered the urban elementary school, and those who had no choice became wild monkeys one by one. The Zhang family and his wife are good people, and they can't stand it, so they come to help teach these children."

"I'm not sure what happened to the little girl of the Zhang family, but Li Qiu committed suicide because of depression. Such a girl who usually loves to laugh was lying in the room covered in blood. Zhang Jianguo sat on the side, moving Not moving, like a dead man."

"When he moved out in September, he gave me some money and told me not to rent out this building, saying it was..." When Aunt Liao said this, she reached out and wiped her eyes: "It's because I'm afraid of my mother. The two girls want to come back one day to take a look, but find that there are strangers living in it, how frightening it must be.”

"The day before the body was found, Zhang Jianguo came back. He was wearing a suit and leather shoes, and he looked very energetic. He chatted with me for a long time, saying that he was thinking about it, and that he felt that people should still be full of hope. go down."

"As a result, the body was found in front of that house the next day. I really...don't want to believe that he did it. How could a person who likes children so much do such a thing?"

Lu Yunlin took two sheets of paper from the table and handed them to Aunt Liao who was crying: "Believe it or not, everything has already happened, and the results haven't come out yet, I hope it's not him."

When he came out of Aunt Liao's house, the surrounding fog had cleared, Lu Yunli stomped his feet, reached into his pocket, and waved at Xie Zhi'an with the cigarette case: "Do you mind if I smoke?"

"fine."

Seeing Lu Yunxi finish smoking a cigarette in silence, Xie Zhian asked puzzledly, "Why do you want to give Aunt Liao hope for something that is almost certain?"

"Hope?" Lu Yunli shook his head: "Do you think that is hope?"

"Otherwise? Didn't you say I hope?"

"That's not hope. That stuff is called bubbles. If you wake up a little bit, it's gone."