Strangers

According to the myth, nothing in heaven or earth could kill Balder but mistletoe.The origin of this myth becomes clear if we assume that the prototype of Balder was the oak tree.Through observation, the primitive people saw that the oak tree shed its leaves every year, but the mistletoe growing on it was always green all the year round. They naturally came up with a concept that the mistletoe was the center of the life of the oak tree, so it was necessary to kill Baldur. time, the mistletoe had to be cut first.

Xie Yu read this, took the sticky note, wrote a serial number neatly, tore it off, and pasted it on the page.

On a cloudy day, the breeze blew through the outdoor cafe on the fifth floor of the hotel. The waiter put down a cup of coffee on the round table in the corner: "Mr. Xie, use it slowly."

He nodded.

Stretching out his left hand, he opened the jar on the table, picked up four sugar cubes and threw them in.

Xie Yu froze instantly.

Seeing the cup clinking with the spoon in his left hand, he immediately cursed in a low voice, raised his right hand, grabbed it back and pressed it under the table.Due to the tight grip, the blood circulation stopped at the wrist, and blue blood vessels bulged out from the back of the hand within ten seconds.

The cold sweat on his forehead gradually seeped out.

"You are here." Suddenly a voice came.

Xie Yu was startled, and looked up only to find a person standing by the table.

"Well, I called your mobile phone, but you didn't bring it with you. Your sister picked it up. She told me to come here to find you. I went upstairs and knocked on the door, but no one was there. The floor attendant said that you might be drinking coffee here." Wei Yuan pulled Open the chair and sit down.

Xie Yu calmed down and pretended to be relaxed: "What's the matter?"

"The hospital's case is closed, and I'll report to you."

"Let's talk about it." Xie Yu didn't want to talk too much, and lied, "I have an appointment, and I will be there in 2 minutes."

"Then I'm sorry to bother you." Wei Yuanyang scratched his head, "You don't look very well, are you okay?"

"It's okay." Xie Yu concealed his panic, took a sip of coffee with his right hand.

Wei Yuanyang's observation ability is not bad, he looked down and saw the other hand under the table trembling slightly: "Are you all right?"

"It's okay." Xie Yu said firmly.

"Then I'll go back first." Wei Yuanyang stood up to leave, but stopped there.

Xie Yu frowned: "What?"

"No." Wei Yuanyang turned his head innocently, "You're pulling my arm."

Xie Yu almost spilled a cup of coffee on the table, and immediately pulled his left hand back.

A man and a woman at the next table laughed and discussed.

Xie Yu glanced over coldly, the two stopped talking, he stood up abruptly, put away the book and left, Wei Yuanyang was a little embarrassed in place, but after a while, he turned back again.

"Come here." Xie Yu's voice was not loud, but in an orderly tone.

Wei Yuanyang could only follow to the stairwell in a daze.

Xie Yu looked at the ground and coughed: "There is a reason for that just now. I have a problem with my left hand, which is a hand syndrome. It is a neurological disease, which means that it will make some actions that are not controlled by the brain, so just now Your behavior is not out of my personal will, so don't worry about it."

"What's there to care about." Wei Yuanyang waved his hand generously, "But this sounds a bit scary, have you been to the hospital?"

"I've seen it, it's useless." Xie Yu said succinctly, looking down at his open left hand, "This disease has been present since childhood, the frequency of attacks is very low, and it doesn't have much impact on life. Haven't committed a crime until just now."

"Could it be a psychological reason?" Wei Yuanyang asked.

"No." Xie Yu put his hand down.

"Then how did you heal it two years ago?"

Xie Yu recalled for a few seconds: "I can't remember clearly."

Wei Yuanyang patted him on the shoulder: "Actually, don't think about it too seriously, maybe it's because you're too tired, just take a rest." Seeing that the other party didn't respond, he persuaded, "Actually, it's normal if you can't remember clearly. , I often do the same thing, I saw a name on my phone the day before yesterday, and there was a call record with him last month, but I can’t remember who it is this month.”

Hearing this sentence, Xie Yu had a flash of inspiration: "Is that person surnamed Qi?"

"How do you know that!"

"Sure enough." Xie Yu instantly recovered his normal eyes, "Things are progressing, come with me."

On the eighth floor, as soon as they got out of the stairwell, the two bumped into the man and woman at the next table again.This time Xie Yu didn't care, he swiped his room card without stopping, and pushed the door with Wei Yuanyang in front of them.

☆, test

Standing at the porch of 8013, Wei Yuanyang was dumbfounded.

The five-star standard suite is extremely spacious, with three display screens on a large table in the center, and the wires are neatly bundled on the floor.There are two cabinets next to it, the big cabinet is for books, all kinds of mystery novels, classics of literature, history and philosophy, and natural science magazines are categorized;On the wall opposite the cabinet is a cork board, three meters wide, nailed full of photos, newspapers, and post-it notes, and the printed screenshots of the web pages are marked with red pens.

"Are you the FBI Wuhu Road Sub-district Office?" Looking at this detective story-like scene, Wei Yuanyang immediately forgot that he was a policeman.

"Yes." Xie Yu took out a stack of documents from the bedroom and spread them on the table, "This is the investigation record about Guixintang."

Wei Yuanyang picked up the top copy, with the company logo of Guixintang printed on the title page.

"Can you tell what the painting is?" Xie Yu asked casually.

Wei Yuanyang stared at the axisymmetric pattern with curled lines: "Cabbage?"

"Forget it." Xie Yu pulled it back and handed him another document.

Wei Yuanyang opened it, read it, and closed it: "It's okay."

"What's okay." Xie Yu didn't understand.

"It's a good thing I didn't have any trouble with you." Otherwise, I definitely don't know how I died.Wei Yuanyang swallowed back the second half of the sentence.

"Is Qingming Festival celebrated?" Xie Yu pushed his glasses, "Let's get down to business, what do you think about this?"

"You tell me to take it easy." Wei Yuanyang pulled a stool and sat down, lowering his voice, "Actually, I also visited some old students of Jingfang recently, and listening to them talk about Guixintang, I always feel that it is a bit like ..."

"A cult organization." Xie Yu didn't shy away from it. "Indeed, it fits the characteristics of a cult in some aspects. It uses spiritual training to develop students, control thoughts and behaviors, and deify the instructors, especially the legal person Xun."

"There is a problem here." Wei Yuanyang questioned, "For a company as big as Guixintang, if it was a cult, it would have been thoroughly investigated by the relevant departments, but in fact it hasn't exposed even a single bit of sex."

"There are two possibilities." Xie Yu analyzed, "First, we misunderstood it. Those cases are just unrepresentative cases, and they are extremes that are allowed in the huge student base; second."

"There are people on it." Wei Yuanyang pointed to the ceiling.

"This is next." Xie Yu spread out a pile of papers, and the photos of Mrs. Sun and Director Li slid out. "Not long ago, I recommended Guixin Jingfang to these two people. Based on their feedback, I sorted out' Regarding the events of Haiziyin and Musi Daba, the one that caught my attention the most was the new boss named Qixie."

Wei Yuanyang opened the phone book: "Do you think he has something to do with this 'Old Qi'?"

Xie Yu didn't answer, and took out a backup address book from the drawer. Sure enough, the same string of numbers was found on it, and marked with the word "Qi".

"This is a landline number. I'll ask someone to check the address and call history." Wei Yuanyang called back the criminal police team to explain the situation, and waited for news from his colleagues.

"I have a guess now." Xie Yu tapped the word Qixie circled in red pen, "This person once had contact with us to a certain extent, but just last month, for some reason, we lost part of the memory."

"It's very possible, combined with the two cases you mentioned, including the hypnotic ability of the female assistant, and her charm. In the face of this bunch of inexplicable things, losing a memory is nothing at all." Wei Yuanyang just said. , suddenly had an idea, "Could it be that your strange problem is also related to this?"

Xie Yu heard the words, and looked at his left hand unconsciously: the breakthrough of the "Three Cities" series, the fiancée's remorse, alien hand syndrome, lost memories...

"Two years ago." Wei Yuanyang said a point in time.

Xie Yu was vigilant, thinking that the other party had noticed something, but saw him looking at the phone: "My colleagues found this number and our earliest call records were two years ago."

"It seems to be true." Xie Yu solved a doubt, and brought out more doubts, as if the thread of a sweater was pulled longer and longer.

And he knew that after all the doubts were stripped away, the nakedness was the truth.

The location of the landline number is No. 137, Beiling Road.

Xie Yu and Wei Yuanyang did not rashly go upstairs and knock on the door. They first inquired with the neighboring shops, but they got different opinions. Some said that there was an old man living in the house, who was ten years old, while others said that there was a newly married young couple. Some people said it was a retired elder sister, and more people shook their heads, expressing that they didn't care at all.

"Could it be that this person surnamed Qi can perform magic tricks?" Wei Yuanyang was confused.

"It's more likely that he modified everyone's memory in order to hide himself." Xie Yu pointed to a restaurant and asked, "It's almost time, do you want to have dinner?"

"Okay." Wei Yuanyang looked back and forth, the hotel is located directly opposite No. 137, it is a good surveillance point.

After ordering two dishes at random, the two chose a seat with the best view and sat down. A local news program was broadcast on the TV in the corner, and a reporter was reporting the incident of a college student committing suicide by jumping off a building.

Xie Yu didn't care about it, and looked sideways at the dark staircase.

"It's fine for me to stare alone." Wei Yuanyang sat opposite, "It's too conspicuous for both of them."

"It seems that you have made some progress in the criminal police team." Xie Yu turned around.

"What does it mean to make progress in the criminal police team?" Wei Yuanyang poked with two fingers, "My eyes are trained to focus on violations. As long as it is sunny, no matter how fast the car drifts, the number plate within 200 meters Can see clearly!"

"Really." Xie Yu picked up the kettle and rinsed the dishes, "What clothes did the people who walked past the door wear just now?"

Wei Yuanyang was taken aback for a moment, and then he let out an embarrassing uh: "I only pay attention to the opposite side, and don't care about anything else."

Xie Yu flicked the water off his chopsticks: "A woman walked by, in her twenties, wearing an army green jacket."

"How do you know!" Wei Yuanyang looked back, and there was a mirror installed on the opposite wall, which clearly reflected the situation outside, including the narrow staircase at No. 137 and the man who went up the stairs.

"That person is—!" Wei Yuanyang whispered.

"Boss, don't eat, pack it." Xie Yu took out a hundred yuan and patted it on the table.

How long it takes for people to reach a collaboration is difficult to count. If the calculation formula can be listed, at least ten variables are involved.

Perhaps the most important of these is only one point: the consistency of action goals.

Strange events, monsters, lost memories, people with the surname Qi.

"Guixin Jingfang...he's there..." Ding Li murmured, wishing he could rush to find someone immediately, he could only suppress this reckless thought with reason.

Xie Yu saw some clues: "It's not working time, he's not there."

Ding Li tried to calm his anxiety, lit a cigarette unconsciously, and seemed to be talking to himself: "Then where is he now... he must be locked up somewhere, no, if he was locked up that day he wouldn't be... ...Since he was able to come out, why did he go back, why didn't he escape, there must be some reason why he couldn't escape..."

"He probably has some tricks in his hands." Wei Yuanyang said a possibility, "But this guy sounds very powerful, so what tricks can he have."

"The handle...the key...weakness..." A voice suddenly played back in Ding Li's mind.

The cigarette that was just lit was put out in the ashtray.

"Tomorrow I will go to Guixin Jingfang to ask for someone." Ding Li said in a deep voice, in a tone that could not be refuted.

"Alright, after investigating for so long, it's time to play the cards." Xie Yu urged, looking at the azure pen holder in the corner of the desk, a flying insect hovered and swished into it.

"Doctor Ding, are you sure?" At this time, Wei Yuanyang, like Xie Yu, did not know whether the strange "Old Qi" was an enemy or a friend. In his opinion, Ding Li, who had just met for a long time, was more familiar than Qi Xie. some.

"Sure." Ding Li paused, "Because he was locked up there for me."

"How do you say that?" Wei Yuanyang asked.

"Feeling." Ding Li replied.

"It's a strange feeling." Xie Yu didn't take it seriously.

"Maybe." Ding Li said softly, and also tested the attitudes of the two of them. They didn't care about Qi Xie that much, or they cared about it in completely different ways. One was out of the duty of a policeman, and the other was out of a novelist. interest of.

So he looked up at the clock.

Xie Yu understood: "Then come here first."

Ding Li got up to see off the guests: "If there is any progress, please feel free to contact me."

The next day, in the small square in front of Tianhui Building, an extremely inconspicuous black car backed into the parking space.

Near nine o'clock, there were more and more people going to work, Wei Yuanyang stared at the door through the car window with one-way film.In order not to attract attention, Xie Yu didn't start the car. Feeling a little stuffy at this moment, he opened the sunroof above his head.

"Here we come." Wei Yuanyang said.

Xie Yu watched from a distance, and Ding Li entered the lobby among the crowd.

"For safety's sake, if he doesn't come out for an hour, I'll go up and have a look." Wei Yuanyang made up his mind.

Xie Yu was noncommittal, and continued to stare at the door, and the people next to him couldn't sit still in the past 10 minutes.

"You go, I'll stay here." Xie Yu looked at his watch, "I'll call you in 10 minutes, and if no one answers, I'll call the police."

Wei Yuanyang said yes and immediately chased after him, and soon saw Ding Li standing at the front desk of Guixin Jingfang, so he coughed from a distance.

Ding Li looked around nonchalantly, pretended to answer the phone, and walked towards the elevator hall.

Wei Yuanyang looked out the window and lowered his voice: "How should I say it?"

Ding Li held his mobile phone by his ear: "I said that I wanted to ask Mr. Qi to check Feng Shui for the decoration of the new house, but the receptionist called and said that he was not here."

"Then what are you going to do? Wait like this?"

Ding Li hadn't answered yet, but he heard high heels approaching behind him, and a woman greeted him unhurriedly.

"Isn't this the police officer? What's the matter?" Assistant Qian asked knowingly with her lips curved.

Just as Wei Yuanyang was about to speak, he saw Ding Li turned around decisively and went straight into Guixin Jingfang. He opened an office without knocking, looked in, closed it, and quickly walked to the second one.

Within ten seconds, the entire company was in a commotion.

Wei Yuanyang was thinking whether to control the field or help find someone when the side door of the front desk slammed open, and several men who looked like bodyguards rushed out without saying a word, but was stopped by Assistant Qian.

"It's okay, let him look for it." She seemed to be confident, crossing her arms and said cheerfully.

Ding Li pushed open the last door, and there was nothing but an empty table.The corridor behind was full of onlookers, watching him let go of the doorknob, turned around, walked back slowly, walked up to Assistant Qian, looked directly at her, and said word by word, "Where did you lock him up?"

"Him?" Assistant Qian smiled, "Who is this gentleman asking?"

"Qi Harmony."

"Hehe, sir, you really like to joke, that's our boss, how could we shut him down?"

"Where is he now?"

"Mr. Qi is out on errands."

"When are you coming back."

"Hurry up, let me ask for you." She picked up the phone at the front desk and dialed a number, "You wait, he said he was already downstairs, he will come up now."

Wei Yuanyang's cell phone rang, and he took two steps back.

"How is it?" Xie Yu asked.

"Not dead yet." Wei Yuanyang said.

"Then I'll call back in 10 minutes. The old rule is to call the police if no one picks up."

"Yo." Assistant Qian raised his head suddenly, "Mr. Qi, you are here, someone is looking for you."

Ding Li turned around.

A man carrying a briefcase with a beer belly: "I am the boss here, my surname is Qi, what do you want?"

Ding Li was taken aback, then smiled: "I'm sorry, I found the wrong person."

☆、Straightforward

An hour later, both mobile phones rang at the same time.

A phone call came from the Affiliated Hospital of Medical University, saying that three patients had jointly reported Ding Li for accepting bribes. The suspected amount was relatively large.

Another call came from the Criminal Police Brigade, saying that a company complained that Wei Yuanyang had abused his power and disrupted its normal operations.

With a beep, the two calls hung up at the same time.

Ding Li stayed calm, turned off the phone and put it back in his pocket, Wei Yuanyang put the phone down and cursed a few words.

Xie Yu looked at his mobile phone, and there was no movement between the two.

"I'm sorry." Ding Li, who was sitting in the back seat of the car, pinched his temples, "I didn't think twice."

"What are you apologizing for?" Wei Yuanyang thumped his thigh, "What is the origin of this crappy company! It's so black and white that everyone is suitable for all ages! Even the police station can get in the way! So soon it was found to be true? Efficiency That's so high! I think it's better to just fire me! I have the right to go home and rest for a big vacation!"

"Expulsion is not enough. Her intention is not to kill them all, but to threaten them." Xie Yu said, the question in his mind surfaced again.

Qi Xie regards herself as an enemy or a friend.

Wei Yuanyang also had the same question, and the answer lingered in his mind for a long time, and finally landed: "The assistant has the ability to hypnotize, even Tan Qigong can be easily eliminated, why not kill us directly."

At this moment, Ding Li understood that his situation was the same as his own, so he said the almost certain guess: "Because she wants to use our personal safety as a bargaining chip, so that he can join Guixin Jingfang and honestly work for them."

"It's clear now." Xie Yu looked at Wei Yuanyang, "You and Qi Xie were originally grasshoppers on the same rope, although you don't remember."

"That's a good thing!" Wei Yuanyang slapped his thigh, "I'll fight them to the death, so there's no need to think about anything else!"

Xie Yu poured cold water on him: "Then you will really be expelled from the police station, and you will also have Dr. Ding's license to practice."

"It doesn't matter if it is revoked, but I always feel that the hospital is too tiring and I want to change jobs." Ding Li didn't hesitate at all, "There is only one problem to consider now, and that is how to find him."

"That's not the point." Wei Yuanyang disapproved, "I think it's easy to find him. The monk can't run away from the temple if he escapes. He has to show his face to solve the case. The biggest problem is that we can't get him out even if we find him. It’s a long-distance meat ticket here, just thinking about it makes me angry.”

"Remote?" Ding Li repeated.

"What?" Xie Yu asked.

"No." Ding Li said, "I just thought of a way to get inside the enemy."

"What way!" Wei Yuanyang asked.

Ding Li smiled: "It's a bad idea, so don't try it."

At four o'clock in the afternoon, the comeback came.

On the 28th floor, Ding Li wrung out a cigarette butt and threw it into the trash can, lifted the backpack on his right shoulder, changed his impatience seven hours ago, and stood at the door of the assistant's office with his hands in his pockets.

"Sir, do you have any advice?" Assistant Qian sat behind the desk.

Ding Li put down his backpack and sat down opposite her, calm and relaxed.

"The boss in the morning is not the Mr. Qi I'm looking for. You and I understand that." He thought clearly and went straight to the point, "Please don't argue, I'm talking to you with [-]% sincerity, and you don't need to talk to me again." Going around in circles. The current situation is very clear. You put him under house arrest and threatened him to work for the company with my personal safety. But it just so happens that something happened in the hospital this morning. I will be suspended for inspection from today onwards. It can be done, it is better to deliver it to your door, and save you the trouble of remote operation in case of any situation."

Assistant Qian raised his eyes: "What do you mean?"

"Isn't the meaning clear? I'm under house arrest with him." Ding Li pointed to the backpack behind him, "I even brought my luggage."

Assistant Qian raised his eyebrows: "Our place is not a small park for people to take a walk after dinner, be careful if you come and go."

"Since I'm here, I don't plan to go back." Ding Li said lightly, "Don't think about it, I'm not here to ask for permission."

"Really? What if I don't agree?"

Ding Li conjured a scalpel out of nowhere.

"You think I'm afraid of this?" She didn't care.

"Of course not." Ding Li shook his head, "But if it was me who died here, how do you think he would react?"

Assistant Qian finally frowned.

Ding Li smiled and flashed his blade: "The fish died and the net broke? Or a happy consensus?"

Assistant Qian didn't say a word. This was some kind of game, betting on whether he would seriously stroke his own carotid artery.She mobilized all her intuition to observe her opponent. The man's smile and tone were very gentle, but there was a certain certainty and even madness in his eyes. If he was too agitated, he might really risk his life.

Finally she stood up: "Hand over all your electronic devices, house arrest should look like house arrest."

Ding Li knew that he had won the first game.

Detained by bodyguards, he entered the elevator, got out of the garage, and sat in a black Mercedes-Benz. He watched the bustling streetscape and freedom go backwards together, and unknown dangers came oncoming.

In Lanjingxuan, Ding Li opened the door.

In front of the floor-to-ceiling windows of the living room stood a man, with his back facing each other, dressed in plain clothes, holding a folding fan behind his back.Hearing the sound of the door, he turned his head, concealed his surprise for a moment, and narrowed his eyes with a half-smile.

A pair of Dingli once thought that they only need to look at each other for a second to solve all doubts.

"Aren't you welcome?" Ding Li shrugged.

"You are welcome to throw yourself into the trap." He walked over, with tears lining the corners of his eyes.

Xiaotao brought dinner and took it out the door.

Ding Li looked at the delicious food on the table, and then he felt hungry: "Ah Jing, no wonder you don't want to leave when you come, there are luxury cars and mansions, and there are beautiful girls delivering meals to your door. There is only such a big table for one meal. .”

Qi Xie handed over the bowl and chopsticks: "So you are jealous and want to grab resources?"

"Yes." Ding Li nodded.

"Then you can eat as much as you want. I will ask Assistant Qian to withdraw the report from the hospital and send you back tomorrow."

"Don't even think about it, as long as you are trapped in Guixintang for a day, I will stay here with you for a day."

Qi Xie sighed: "I'm a bit regretful now, if I didn't go back to the prison that night, you must still be your doctor well."

"What did you do when you went back that day?"

"do not you know?"

"Vague."

"That's good."

"What's the matter?" Ding Li stared at him, "I don't believe you just brought me medicine and also washed my clothes."

"Why." Qi Xie picked up a ball of rice.

"That little thing is not worth your risk to go back."

"Who said it's a trivial matter? Every time you have a fever, you won't be able to recover. If you don't take medicine as soon as possible to suppress it, who knows how long you will be sick."

Ding Li was so moved that he was speechless for a moment, and then felt that something was wrong: "Based on my understanding of your character, if this is the case, you will not admit it."

Qi Xie sneered: "You can grasp my character by how many things you remember about me."

"I don't remember one thing, but I know it." Ding Li vowed, "It's like you don't need to remember who taught you to add one plus one, but you will always know that it is equal to two."

"That's interesting, I haven't thought about this level yet." Qi Xie stopped his chopsticks, "I went back to my room that day because you dug out the things in my closet."

"I only took one of your clothes to wear, and I don't remember digging out any shameful things."

"There is a kind of worm called silverfish in that cabinet, which always destroys clothes. I don't want to kill them directly, so I put a thing in it."

"Mothballs?"

"Yes, this 'mothball' ran out while you were turning over your clothes. If you don't catch it in time, it will die in the sun."

"Is it a monster?"

"If 'yokai' means something spooky and weird, then it is."

"Why can't I see it."

"How can you see it if you don't even know its name?"

"What's it called?"

"Do not want to tell you."

Ding Li filled a bowl of soup by himself, but watched him not moving his chopsticks for a long time: "You don't want to eat?"

"You don't care about me." Qi Xie tilted him.

"That's right." Ding Li stretched out his hand, "Give me back my memory."

"I didn't delete your memory, it's stored in your mind well, but you can't read it." Qi Xie put his chopsticks on the empty bowl, "There are strange things happening every day in the world, but people can live like this Orthodoxy, because they automatically ignore what is incomprehensible, or distort it to make it understandable. And my written words have the power to make those things that are ignored by people be forced as an objective existence face."

Ding Li remembered what the Gua Po's adopted daughter said: "Then you also belong to something that cannot be understood by others."

Qi Xie smiled: "What do you think?"

"You promised me last time, if I find you, you will tell me everything,"

"I regret it, can't I?" Qi Xiong said, washing the dishes and chopsticks, and stacking them neatly back on the dinner plate.

Seeing him enter the study, Ding Li followed him in after finishing the meal.

"What are you doing here?" Qi Xie sat at the table without looking up.

"What are you writing?" Ding Li leaned forward.

Qi Xie snapped his notebook shut: "I want to be alone now, if you're bored, you can go out and watch TV."

"Okay." Ding Li turned and left.

Hearing that he agreed very readily, Qi Xie was obviously angry, but he didn't bother to take care of it. He finished writing the diary and read the book for a while before returning to the living room.The hall was dark, Ding Li sat on the sofa with his arms folded and stared straight ahead, but didn't respond when he saw him coming.

"What are you doing?" Qi Xie walked into his line of sight.

"Watching TV." Ding Li tilted his body, "Don't block it, I can't see it."

Qi Xie couldn't hold back his laughter, and turned on the floor lamp for him: "Look slowly if you like, I'll go to sleep first."

Ding Li glanced at the grandfather clock: "It's only nine o'clock now."

"Work at sunrise and rest at sunset. For a night owl like you, living is against the laws of nature." Qi Xie turned into the corridor, his voice gradually weakened, "The first room on the right is the guest room, and there is your bedding in the cabinet. Good night."

Heard the door slam and waited long enough.

Ding Li reckoned that he should be asleep, so he tiptoed back to the study, trying to find the notebook he wrote just now, to see if he could find more clues.Flipping around on the desk, there were no, there were some old books stuffed in the cabinets, nothing like it, he went around behind the desk, pulled the drawer, and locked it.

He must have taken the key.Thinking so, Ding Li walked gently to the door of the bedroom and pressed the handle.

Qi Xie lay on his side, facing outwards, his arms resting on the pillow, motionless.

Ding Li slowly touched the side of the bed and listened carefully to see if he was fast asleep, but he didn't hear the sound of breathing.Thinking that he had made a mistake, he stretched out his index finger and approached his nostrils, but he didn't feel any breath flow.Holding on to the last chance, Ding Li touched Qi Xie's left hand resting on the pillow, and a corpse-like coldness came from his fingertips, piercing straight into his heart.

☆, Li Lingshan

With a hypothermic body, no breath or pulse, Dingli even felt a smell coming into his nostrils at that moment.

The only smell in the mortuary, the smell of the dead.

He was used to this smell, but when it emanated from someone he was familiar with, it was indescribably terrifying.

"Ah Jing! Ah Jing!" Ding Li patted him on the shoulder hard, his voice trembling.

Qi Harmony moved, barely opening his eyes.

"How are you!" Ding Li pressed his arteries, but there was still no beating, "Speak! What's wrong with you? Palpitations! Does your chest hurt? Do you feel dizzy?"

"What are you arguing about?" Qi Xie blocked him impatiently, sitting up with the pillow on his back and scratching at his hair.

Everything is like just waking up.

Ding Li hated that he didn't have a stethoscope at hand, so he grabbed Qi Xie's shoulder and pressed his ear against his left chest.

There is no heartbeat.

"Hey, don't touch your feet." Qi Xie pushed his head away, feeling the hands on his shoulders trembling slightly, and finally couldn't bear it, and smiled, "Scared you? I'm fine."

"You are dead, do you need endotracheal intubation and cardiopulmonary resuscitation?" Ding Li joked, but there was only worry in his eyes.

"Half dead." Qi Xie pushed the hands on his shoulders, "I'm usually like this. After falling asleep, my heartbeat and breathing will stop, and my body will lose temperature. When I wake up, I will recover a little bit, depending on the amount of exercise. If I sit still , the heart beats about two or three times an hour, and if you run around the house twice, your breathing will speed up."

Ding Li couldn't believe it: "Why is this happening? Don't tell me I was born with it."

"I don't know. I remember that the physical examination in high school was still normal. Since about ten years ago, my heartbeat and breathing have become slower and slower, and my body temperature has gradually decreased."

"Go to the hospital to check."

"Do you want me to be caught in the research institute?"

"Ah Jing." Ding Li looked at him seriously, "Let me dissect you after you die."

"Okay, as long as I die before you."

"That's fine."

Qi Harmony smiled.

"Did you return to normal indicators, I mean heartbeat and breathing." Ding Li asked again.

"There is a situation." Qi Xie paused, "When doing (anti-harmony) love."

Ding Li blinked his eyes and looked serious: "This is a phenomenon worth studying."

"What nonsense." Qi Xie yawned, "Okay, I'm sleepy, and I have to go on a business trip tomorrow, so you should go to bed earlier."

Ding Lin hummed, and wanted to close the door for him, but he always felt uneasy: "Leave your door open, and if you feel uncomfortable, call me at any time.... Good night."

The door of Ding Li's room was also left open all night.

Qi Xie originally thought that he would stay up all night knowing this, whether it was because of his friend's worry or the doctor's curiosity.However, when he walked straight into Ding Li's bedroom early the next morning, he saw the man lying on the bed with the quilt rolled up, sleeping more dead than himself.

"Get up and go out with me, or continue to sleep?" Qi Xie kicked the foot of the bed.

"Sleepy..." Ding Li covered his head, "Sleep another 5 minutes..."

"Then I'm leaving, see you tomorrow." Qi Xie turned around.

"Hey, wait—" Ding Li stretched out his hand to grab him, bang!

One turned over and fell to the ground, he finally woke up, brushed his teeth and washed his face, sat on the dining table and rubbed his eyes.

Qi Xie pushed the plate with breakfast over.

"You don't want to eat?" Ding Li looked at the opposite side sleepily.

"No need." Qi Xie said.

Ding Li picked out a flower roll and handed it to him: "I regret it a bit now."

Qi Xie didn't refuse in the end, and took it over: "What do you regret?"

"Yesterday, I only told my family that I was going to go to other places for training. I left my mobile phone card to Wei Yuanyang, and asked him to send me a message occasionally to report my safety. I was thinking that if one day I accidentally passed on, my grandma would definitely go crazy. gone."

"You know that too." Qi Xie smiled, "But he is still reliable in his work, so you can rest assured."

Ding Li nodded: "How much do you know about Guixintang?"

"Almost zero, only speculation."

"Tell me."

"Actually, it's better to talk about Guixintang than Boss Xun, because everyone in this place obeys his orders. I can even assert that the will of Guixintang is his will, and the goal of Guixintang is his goal."

"Then what is his will and goal."

"I don't know, but I think his plan is divided into three steps. First, use the training class to build momentum, complete the early accumulation, and then search for strangers like me to investigate, and finally use qualified people to achieve his goal. So far, the surname Xun It has reached the second step, and I think that in the near future, the other seven subsidiaries of Guixintang will more or less change from training institutions to other institutions just like Jingfang.”

"Then what's your plan?" Ding Li asked.

"Go forward." Qi Xie said.

"What if there is a cliff ahead."

Qi Xie ate the last bite of the flower roll and wiped his hands: "Negatively speaking, I have no choice. If I don't pass the inspection, not only me, but you will also have to be buried with me. On the positive side, only when I reach the third stage will I be buried." There is a thread that may touch the core of Guixintang."

"You know you can't get out of it once you touch it."

"I know." Qi Xie said lightly.

"and then."

Qi Xie took a sip of tea: "Walk and watch, see the tricks, there is always a way."

Ding Li smiled: "So you are so happy