Strange Tale

Early the next morning, Si Ren was woken up by Qilin and Huan'er's screams.

The only bed was occupied by two little ghosts, so Si Yan had to spend the night in the outhouse with the broken fortune-telling table.The table was hard at first, so Si Ren tossed and turned for a long time before he fell asleep, but within a few hours of sleeping, he heard a sharp and piercing cry from the back room: first Qilin, then Huan'er.

When Qilin opened his eyes, he saw a ghost sleeping next to him for no reason—it was a female ghost. He screamed in fright, and then Huan'er was startled by his voice and started to scream.Qilin didn't understand what was going on, so he continued to scream instinctively.

Si Ren rushed into the room and pressed his mouth, "What are you doing?!"

Qilin pushed away the ring on Si Ren's hand, "What's going on here?"

"Well, this..." Si Ren scratched his head, "It's a bit of a long story."

After reassuring Huan'er and lying down again, Si Ren took Qilin outside.First, I briefly told him about Huan'er, and then asked him why he was arrested by Jin Ji.

It turned out that after Qilin left the Buji Pavilion that day, he saw that the rain was getting heavier and heavier, so he ran to the stone archway to shelter from the rain.After avoiding the rain for a while, he found that there was a demonic aura gathering in the direction of Beishan outside the city, so he went straight to Beishan out of curiosity.

In fact, the place Qilin saw where the demonic energy gathered was the place where Si Ren broke in by mistake the next day and was almost discovered, the place where Du Wan had set up an enchantment to fight Jin Ji.And those evil spirits were condensed precisely because Jin Ji summoned all the monsters near Yancheng.This is why after the rain, Si Ren found that the evil spirit that had been entrenched in the sky of Yancheng had dissipated.

When Si Ren entered the enchantment, he was afraid of being discovered and did not dare to cast spells, but Qilin is a goblin, so he was caught by Dudu Wanfa as soon as he entered.Du Du thought he was Jin Ji's man, and when he defeated the demon army at noon the next day, he brought Qi Lin and the other captured monsters back to the General's Mansion.At that time, Long Jiu had already been attacked by Jin Ji in Jicuitan and then taken to the ruined temple in Yuying Mountain by Si Ren.So the unicorn is often found.In this way, Qilin was separated from other goblins and put into a decent room.

Later, when Long Jiu recovered from his injuries, he saw Qilin and knew that he had accidentally broken into the barrier, so he said he would send him back to the Buji Pavilion.But Qilin heard that Si Ren was with Long Jiu for those two days, so he was not in a hurry to find him, so he simply said in a fit of anger that he would not go back, and asked Long Jiu not to tell Si Ren that he was in the general's mansion.Long Jiu had no choice, fearing that he would run around in the General's Mansion again, so he had to send someone to temporarily arrest him.

Then Long Jiu went out to eat and met Si Ren, and Qi Lin was just about to calm down and was about to go home when he was captured by Jin Ji who went to the general's mansion to steal the paper figurine.Fortunately, Jin Ji didn't make things difficult for him, but just asked him about his relationship with Si Ren, and then took him to the wine cellar and locked him up.No beating, no scolding, good food and drink, but he was not allowed to leave.Qilin tried several times to escape but failed, and in the end he could only wait there obediently, knowing that Si Ren would find a way to find him.

Si Ren figured out what happened, and told Qi Lin about Jin Ji.

Qilin was dumbfounded, "That Dragon Nine...can actually destroy souls?"

"It's not whether he can, the question is how dare he?"

"Yeah, I'm too brave."

"He doesn't seem to be afraid of anything. Except for a knife called the Shendi Dagger."

"God's dagger? Is there anything special about it?"

"do not know."

Someone knocked on the door.

Si Ren rubbed his temples and stood up, "What's the matter? You won't be safe since you come back."

Si Ren opened the door, and a young man rushed in, "Mr. Si! It's not good!"

Si Ren frowned and looked at the man, "Are you from the Hao family?"

The Hao family is dead.Since last night, three members of the Hao family have fallen ill one after another. Seeing a doctor for treatment didn’t work immediately. All three of them died early this morning, and one of them was the uncle of Xiao Bao who went to Huan’er’s house with Si Ren at that time. ──Hao Chengye.

Si Ren had to make a trip because of the strangeness of human death.But looking at Qilin who had just recovered and Huan'er who was still asleep in the room, he was a little worried.

Buji Pavilion is next to a small road on one side and a medicine shop called Xuanhuju on the other.The owner of the pharmacy is surnamed Ma, and the proprietress is a warm-hearted sister-in-law. Sometimes Si Ren would trouble her to help cook for him when he went out without a unicorn.Although Qilin is not a child, it is still difficult for him to cook by himself.

Si Ren went to Xuanhuju, and said that another little cousin came, and asked Aunt Ma to take care of her together.Then he confessed to Qilin a few more words and left with the Hao family.

From a distance, Si Ren saw the car of the General's Mansion in front of the gate of the Hao family compound.The originally heavy mood suddenly became a little more excited, and he quickened his pace unconsciously.

When we came to the mourning hall that hadn't been arranged in time, the members of the Hao family surrounded the coffin with three floors inside and three floors outside.The person who brought Si Ren in was about to announce loudly, but Si Ren raised his hand to stop him.

Walking slowly into the crowd, Si Bian heard Mr. Hao saying: "...I was fine at dinner yesterday, but I heard that I fell down as soon as I got back into the room. I hurriedly asked the doctor to see it, and the doctor said It was poisoning, I took some antidote, and I looked fine at the time, but I didn't expect this morning..."

Master Hao couldn't continue, his voice began to choke.

Si Ren glanced at the coffin, the person inside was covered with a white cloth, Si Ren thought it should be Hao Chengye, probably because of his ugly death, he covered it with the cloth.

"I remember Brother Chengye is your eldest son, right?"

The person who asked the question was Ye Chang, and Si Ren followed the voice to find where he was standing, and then carefully searched around him: there were a few people in the public security station, but there was no Long Jiu.Si Ren couldn't help feeling a little disappointed.

"Yes, Chengye is my eldest son." Master Hao nodded and admitted.

He often asked again: "Don't say it's three people, what about the other two?"

"The other two are servants. Their family members came and said they didn't want to pursue the cause of death, so they took the remains away."

"Don't want to investigate the cause of death? Why?"

"This... because of fear."

"Fear?"

"Well, they didn't say it, but I know it must be because of fear."

"afraid of what?"

Master Hao reached into the coffin and grabbed a corner of the white cloth covering the corpse.The rest of the Hao family immediately retreated.Si Ren stood still, and everyone noticed him.

"Ah, Mr. Si, when did you come? I've been waiting for you."

Master Hao was about to walk towards Si Ren, Si Ren hurriedly greeted him and stood beside Master Hao and Ye Chang, "Just arrived."

And often nod to him.

Si Ren also nodded, "Why are you here?"

"People from the Hao family went to the public security station to report the crime in the morning, and I happened to be there."

"Oh? Master Ye Chang also has friendship with Mr. Hao?"

"When I first entered the city, I was invited to have dinner together. The general was busy at the time, so I attended on his behalf."

"Oh, so." Si Yan turned his head to look at the corpse in the coffin, "Master Hao, don't you want to..."

"Ah." Master Hao stretched his hand in again.

The white cloth was uncovered with a swipe of the floor, and Si Ren and Ye Chang were dumbfounded—the corpse in front of them was only dry skin wrapped around a pair of bones, and the whole body was yellow and white, with sunken eyes, exposed articulate teeth, shrunken lips, and collapsed abdomen.Death is no ordinary horror.

No wonder Mr. Hao said that the family members of the two servants who died were afraid. Anyone can see that most of the dead died of evil things.

Si Ren bent down to smell the corpse's face, then held his already stiff chin and looked left and right. Finally, he took out a silver hairpin from his backpack.

Captain Qin of the public security station pressed his hand, "What are you doing?"

Si Ren looked at Master Hao, and Master Hao turned his head away, "Mr. Si, please check as you please."

The silver shank turned golden yellow after being inserted into the corpse and then pulled out. Si Ren took out a small bottle and poured liquid from it to rinse it, but the golden color on the silver shank still did not fade.

Si Ren raised his head, "Master Hao, can someone take me to the place where I found you this morning?"

Master Hao nodded happily, and Captain Qin also sent two people to go with him.

When they returned to the mourning hall, Master Hao was arguing with Ye Chang and Captain Qin.Si Ren walked over to ask what happened.Master Hao grabbed Si Ren as if seeing a savior, "They...they insisted that Chengye was killed by Chengzhi!"

Master Hao has two sons, the eldest is Hao Chengye, the second is Hao Chengzhi, and Hao Chengzhi is Hao Xiaobao's father.The Hao family is in the cloth business, and Yancheng is located in the north. Apart from the store in Yancheng, the Hao family needs someone to take care of it, and the silk brocades in the south also need someone to regularly receive the goods.According to the rules, the eldest son should inherit the family business, so Hao Chengzhi was responsible for going out to receive the goods.

A few days ago, Hao Xiaobao was sick and Si Ren came to Hao's mansion and has not been able to see his father, because Hao Chengzhi traveled far away.As soon as he came back yesterday, something happened to the Hao family.So I often guessed with Captain Qin: receiving the goods is a hard job.Could it be that Hao Chengzhi felt unbalanced because he had done so much for the family but was not qualified to inherit the family property, so he poisoned his brother to death.And those two servants happened to be Hao Chengye's people, so it's not unreasonable to be poisoned to death together.

Mr. Hao didn't believe that his son could do such a thing. He hoped that Si Ren could talk to him for himself, but after he finished talking to Si Ren, he often shared his thoughts with Captain Qin, but Si Ren didn't say a word.Master Hao suddenly became anxious, "Mr. Si, you should say something!"

"Hmm..." Si Ren hesitated and opened his mouth, "This...Master Hao, to be honest, according to the results of my inspection, the uncle was hit by the golden silkworm Gu."

"Golden Silkworm Gu?"

"Yes, a kind of Gu poison. People who raise silkworms to make silk in the south have a lot of this kind of Gu poison in their livestock. So..."

Master Hao was dumbfounded, while Ye Chang and Captain Qin confirmed their speculation even more.

Then Hao Chengzhi was taken away by the people from the public security station. Mr. Hao wanted to cry but had no tears.The Hao family was in chaos.

But of course Hao Chengzhi can't be convicted yet, he is only temporarily detained.Si Ren also felt that this matter should not be that simple, but now the motive, time and cause of death of the deceased all pointed to Hao Chengzhi, and he couldn't think of a reason to defend Hao Chengzhi for a while, so Si Ren could only When he was escorted into the car, he said to Captain Qin: "There is something weird about this, please don't rush to extract a confession from the deputy team."

Seeing Yechang's car driving away, thinking that the Hao family members probably couldn't care less about going out to see them off, Si Ren sighed, and didn't return to Hao's house to say goodbye, so he walked home suspiciously.

It was already noon when we returned to Buji Restaurant, and Mrs. Ma was busy preparing the meal, so Si Ban hurriedly nodded and bowed to thank her.Mrs. Ma waved her hand, "Forget it, Mr. Si, please don't thank me. It's better than anything else if you come back so quickly. If you don't come back, I will go crazy."

"Huh? How do you say that?"

"Your two siblings are simply..."

Before Mrs. Ma finished her sentence, Huan'er's heart-piercing cry came from the room.

"Go and have a look, I'll go back first. I don't think about you two little ones, the old and the young in my family are still hungry and haven't eaten."

"Oh, that's so embarrassing. Sister-in-law, go slowly, go slowly, another day I..."

Mrs. Ma took off her apron and stepped outside the door, "Okay, don't be rude, let's go in and have a look."

When Si Ren entered the room, Huan'er was riding on Qilin's body, beating him and crying.

"What's the matter?!" Si Ren pulled Huan'er off Qilin's body and pressed him aside, "Why are you crying while taking advantage of this?"

Qilin turned over and jumped up, "Smelly girl! I think you are a woman who let you!"

Huan'er pointed at Qilin, and began to complain to Si Ren with blood and tears, "He said I was fat! He said I was a pig! Ah - he said I was a big winter melon!"

Si Ren hugged Huan'er into his arms and glared at Qilin, "You're already old, why do you say that about her?!"

Qilin continued to jump, "She was the one who talked about me first, she said I was a little dwarf with a big head! And you don't know how savage and strong she is! She has been bullying me all morning, okay! I can't bear it anymore!"

Only then did Si Ren discover that Huan'er is taller than Qilin, and she is indeed a chubby little girl.And Qilin really hasn't grown up all these years, Long Jiu also said before that he has a big head.

"Then you can't...ah!" Si Ren just wanted to say a few more words about Qilin, but suddenly felt a sharp pain in his stomach, and he fell to the ground in pain.

Seeing that his expression was not right, Qilin hurried forward to hold his arm, "Xiao Ren, what's wrong with you?"

Huan'er stopped crying, "Brother..."

Si Ren's stomach hurt more and more, and soon he was sweating profusely and couldn't even speak.Qilin gave him his pulse, but he didn't see anything unusual.Immediately afterwards, his stomach turned upside down, and finally he couldn't help standing up and rushing into the kitchen to hold the washbasin and vomit.

Si Ren spat out a silkworm.The silkworm struggled and squirmed in the pot for a moment and disappeared as a ray of golden light. He sat on the ground and covered his mouth: I've been bewitched!

But...why did I get a Gu? !Wait... Only Hao Chengye and two servants in the Hao family were infected... Which two servants are they?Master Hao said he was by Hao Chengye's side, could it be...

Qilin and Huaner ran over.Si Ren grabbed Huan'er, "Have your parents been in Yancheng all this time?"

Huan'er was a little frightened by him, "No... I don't know."

"Then what kind of snacks does your house sell?"

Huan'er's big eyes blinked, "Well... there are soup powder, fried buns, dumplings, and..."

Si Ren understood, he let go of the ring, got up and ran outside.

Qilin chased outside the door, "What are you doing?!"

"I'm going to the General's Mansion!"

"What are you doing at the General's Mansion?!"

"Long Jiu is in danger!"

"What does it matter to you that he is in danger?!"

In the blink of an eye, Si Ren disappeared.