The Secret Chamber of the Card Game

Shao Qingge and Ye Qi were wandering in the street. During the day, Qingfeng Town was very lively with people coming and going.Ye Qi noticed with sharp eyes that many children were holding a red rattle in their hands, shaking it when they walked, and the sound was clear and melodious.

Ye Qi saw several children playing together, he walked up to a little boy, leaned over to look at him and asked, "Your rattle is very interesting, where did you buy it?"

Pointing to the street ahead, the child said in a childlike voice, "My mother bought it from Grandpa Zhang. Brother, do you want to play with this?"

Ye Qi smiled and stuffed a piece of candy into the child's hand, and said, "Thank you, I'll buy one too."

The two of them followed the direction led by the child to the end of the street, and they saw a shop specializing in children's toys. There were colorful dough figures, all kinds of beautiful marbles, and a large number of rattles hanging on the walls.

The old man who sells toys should be about 50 years old, with all white hair, a long beard, and a blue cloth shirt that has been washed to fade. He is smiling and looks very kind.Shao Qingge took Ye Qi a step forward, took out a piece of silver from his pocket and handed it to him, and said in a low voice: "Old man, buy me a rattle."

The old man put away the silver, found a lot of broken silver for Shao Qingge, and said: "There are many patterns painted on the rattle, young master, you can choose it yourself."

Shao Qingge took a closer look and found that there were indeed many patterns drawn on the drum surface of the rattle, the most classic being the twelve zodiac signs.

Ye Qi's eyes lit up, and he asked curiously: "If the child in the family is a tiger, don't the parents usually buy a rattle with a picture of a little tiger?"

The old man stroked his beard with a smile: "Yes, what is the zodiac sign of your child, you can buy one corresponding to it."

Shao Qingge looked at Ye Qi and asked, "What do you belong to?"

Ye Qi coughed lightly: "It's a monkey."

Shao Qingge picked out a rattle with a little monkey on it, handed it to Ye Qi with a smile, and then said to the old man: "This big boy in our family has a childlike innocence, and the rattle was bought for him."

The old man looked puzzled, as if he was thinking, is it appropriate for you to play this kind of thing as an adult?

Ye Qi took the rattle with a dry smile, played with it, and asked curiously: "By the way, old man, are there many shops selling rattles in this small town?"

The old man shook his head: "It's just my family, I did all of these myself."

Shao Qingge followed up and asked: "Your rattle is really exquisite, does every child in the town have one?"

The old man looked proud: "That's natural, my craft is not something ordinary people can learn. It can be said that most of the people in this town have bought the gadgets I made."

Shao Qingge and Ye Qi glanced at each other, it seems that this is the key plot NPC.

Ye Qi asked softly: "Old man, you have been in the town for so many years, do you know what happened to the famine 20 years ago? My cousin Zhang lived in Qingfeng Town, and I heard that there was a famine 20 years ago. died."

The old man's face suddenly changed when he heard the word "famine". He sighed and said, "That year was really miserable! Not only our town, but also the nearby Qingzhou and Yuezhou were all suffering from famine. I almost starved to death too. Alas... many people are eating bark and leaves, and some people died in the family, and they just survived by eating the flesh of the dead!"

Ye Qi was terrified when he heard that, he had experienced the nightmare chamber of spades 3, and he survived by eating leaves.The gatekeepers let him survive in the nightmare chamber for 15 days, and he almost couldn't hold on. One can imagine what would happen to a person if he was starved for several months?I am afraid that under the drive of extreme hunger, it is not surprising to eat human flesh and drink human blood.

Shao Qingge handed back the scraps of silver that the old man gave him, and said, "Old man, there was a famine that year, did you hear that someone intentionally killed and ate human flesh?"

The old man accepted the money, nodded solemnly, leaned into Shao Qingge's ear mysteriously and said: "At that time, the pigs, sheep and cattle in the town had been robbed, and there was no food to be found later, so some people set up a Gangs, looking for those who are powerless to resist, arresting them and penning them up, raising them like livestock, and cutting off their flesh to eat when they are hungry..."

Ye Qi's whole body trembled when he heard it. Hunger is indeed unbearable, but let him eat human flesh?He would rather starve to death.What's more, they directly raise the same kind in captivity as livestock, and cut some meat to eat when they are hungry?This is simply more cruel than killing people.

Shao Qingge said in a deep voice, "What happened to those people afterwards?"

The old man smiled wryly and shook his head: "They probably also know that doing this is against the laws of nature. When they came out to arrest people, they were all wearing black clothes and masks. No one had seen their true colors. At that time, everyone was in danger. No one dared to meddle in their own business. After the famine passed, most of the people in the town died, and not many people knew about it."

He looked around and lowered his voice cautiously: "Why are you asking about what happened 20 years ago? I advise you two not to be too curious. Judging by your age, your cousin must have been very young back then, and must have starved to death." of."

Shao Qingge said: "My father asked us to drop by to find out about my cousin. If my cousin really passed away, we can go to the grave to worship and burn some paper money for him."

The old man shook his head quickly: "Don't go, the corpses of those who died of starvation were thrown in the mass graves. I heard that it is not clean there, and there are ghosts haunting them in the middle of the night. People in our town never go to mass graves!"

Shao and Ye looked at each other, and Ye Qi smiled and said, "Understood, thank you, old man!"

Just at this time, Xiao Lou's voice came from the earphones of the two, telling them to return to the inn as soon as possible. Shao Qingge also felt that this matter was unusual, and immediately took Ye Qi back.

Xiao Lou held down the headset and asked, "Has everyone arrived?"

Shao Qingge said: "Ye Qi and I are back."

Chu Huaying said: "I asked a few homeless beggars in an alley and got some clues."

Gui Yuanzhang said: "I went to the local academy to investigate. Don't worry, I'm wearing an invisibility cloak, so I can protect myself."

Yu Hanjiang appreciated the efficiency of his teammates very much, and he simply said: "Okay, everyone first summarizes the clues you know, and we can go to the ghost town to investigate in a targeted manner at night."

Ye Qi said positively: "Let me talk first. We found the owner of the rattle drum in the small town and got two clues: first, the twelve zodiac signs are painted on the drum surface of the rattle drum, which usually correspond to the child's zodiac signs; Second, during the famine 20 years ago, someone set up a mysterious organization to capture those who had no resistance and raise them in captivity as livestock."

When Xiao Lou heard this, he was slightly surprised—it might be difficult for modern people to imagine the feeling of not being able to eat a full meal for several months due to famine. Xiao Lou once heard people talk about the chaos of famine. People" such terrible things happen.It's good to eat dead people, but to eat living people...a special organization was set up to raise people in captivity as livestock, which is too cruel!

Chu Huaying added: "I found out about it from a lame tramp. This gang is called [Hound Dogs]. They have a very ferocious wild dog that smells people and looks for targets. They usually come out at night. They only The elderly, children, and women who are weak in resistance are caught and raised in captivity, and those raised in captivity are called "human sacrifices", and they cut their flesh when hungry, and drink blood when thirsty."

Human sacrifice?That is to say, "people" as edible livestock?

Lu Jiuchuan couldn't help cursing: "Fuck, circle up the same kind to eat, this fucking is worse than animals!"

Yu Hanjiang frowned and said, "Where is Guilao?"

Gui Yuanzhang said: "I found a classmate of the eldest son of the Zhao family, Zhao Zeping, in the academy. It is confirmed that Zhao Zeping married a woman from Qingzhou eight years ago. Her surname is Qin. The family is in the silk business. It is said that He is very beautiful, and the two gave birth to a son a year after their marriage, and his wife disappeared three years ago, and her family even came to visit her."

After synthesizing this information, Xiao Lou analyzed: "During the Great Famine 20 years ago, the mysterious gangs raised weak old people, children, and women in captivity, and used them as 'human sacrifices' to eat their flesh and drink their blood. Cruel. Those in captivity experienced more terrible pain than Ling Chi before they died. If someone escaped by chance, or some of their relatives knew about these things, they would return to Qingfeng Town to take revenge—this is currently more reasonable motive for committing the crime.”

Yu Hanjiang added: "The murderer is thoughtful and possesses a kind of sorcery. He can manipulate the living and the dead, and act according to his instructions. We don't know the specific manipulation method yet. But what is certain is that the Zhao family, The Chen family, all of them were controlled by him to go to the mass grave on that rainy night three years ago. Xiao Lou was in a hurry to call everyone back just now, because he was afraid that the murderer would control one of our teammates. In the dark, I am in the light, so be careful."

Xiao Lou continued: "After leading those people to the mass grave, the murderer imitated the famine of that year and starved everyone to death. During this period, he might even manipulate zombies to scare those people, keeping them in a state of fear and hunger all the time. State. Our autopsy found that the deceased was terrified, and there was no food residue in the stomach and duodenum, which can prove the rationality of this speculation."

Yu Hanjiang said: "In the mourning hall of the Zhao family, there are people offering incense. Judging from the name of the spirit tablet, the most likely reason is that the wife and children of Zhao Zeping, the eldest son of Zhao, did not die in the Zhao family extermination case. Perhaps, she happened to escape the murderer's eye." The Devil's Palm, went back to set up the mourning hall, secretly offered incense to the family. She must know something."

He paused, and then said: "In addition, it is not ruled out that it is a coincidence that the two missing families have rattles at the same time. After all, all the children in the town will buy rattles. But if it is not a coincidence, then, as a key prop clue, the rattle Likely related to the murderer."

Xiao Lou took out the rattle drum he got from the Zhao family, and said, "The pattern on the surface of this drum is a little tiger. The child of the Zhao family should belong to the tiger? Liu Qiao, where is the one you found in the Chen family?"

Liu Qiaodao: "It's also a painting of a little tiger."

Xiao Lou was stunned: "How could it be? According to the information obtained by Senior Gui, Zhao Zeping got married eight years ago and gave birth to a child seven years ago; and Chen Yu of the Chen family, the scene of his wife giving birth is in the ghost town at night. I saw it, it happened to be a rainy night three years ago, and the two children were four years apart, so it doesn’t make sense that the zodiac signs on the rattle are the same, right?”

Ye Qi looked at the rattle with a monkey pattern in his hand, and said, "That's not right. The old man who sells toys has rattles for the twelve zodiac signs, and the price is the same. As a parent, you must buy it for the baby according to whatever it is." No one will buy a tiger zodiac pattern for a child who is a monkey, right? The two rattles have the same pattern, could it be..."

Yu Hanjiang said in a low voice, "It was left by the murderer."

As soon as the words fell, a clear voice suddenly came from outside the window.The sound is crisp and sweet, and the "dangdang" sound of the bullet hitting the drum seems to be able to penetrate all barriers and reach people's hearts.

As the sound sounded, the surroundings suddenly became extremely quiet.

—that was the sound of the rattle.