treacherous world

The dead cat that ran out added a little weird atmosphere to the journey.

Bai Yutang pulled Zhan Zhao forward, but felt that it was getting darker and darker, which was a bit inexplicable.

"Why is it so dark?" Bai Yutang couldn't help frowning, it's not like he hasn't walked around at night, even if there is no moon, it wouldn't be so dark.

"The wind is also light." Zhan Zhao said suddenly, "It seems that there are thick clouds in this area?"

"Yes." Bai Yutang nodded, "The ancestral hall is right in front."

"Oh...Brother Bai." Zhan Zhao called Bai Yutang suddenly.

Bai Yutang stopped and looked at him.

"Actually, I can walk by myself." Zhan Zhao moved his hands, Bai Yutang looked down, his wrist was still in his hand.Letting go, the atmosphere was a little awkward.

Zhan Zhao took a step forward and felt that his shoulders were touching his shoulders, so he said, "If there are pits and stones, please remember to tell me."

"Uh, good." Bai Yutang nodded, and walked forward side by side with Zhan Zhao, paying special attention to whether the road under Zhan Zhao's feet was smooth... It seemed that Zhan Zhao didn't really like the feeling of being taken care of.

Although the journey was weird, nothing happened again, and the two went up the mountain quite smoothly.

This horse belly ancestral hall is indeed very dilapidated, and there are no lights, Bai Yutang listened, but there was no voice.

"Is there no one?" Zhan Zhao was a little disappointed, "I thought there would be a few little hooligans here."

"Maybe you don't dare to live anymore." Bai Yutang took out a fire pocket, and looked around with the faint light.

The inside of the ancestral hall is quite gloomy, especially the horse belly statue in the middle of the main hall that is neither human nor ghost.

There are still a few piles of extinguished bonfires on the ground. It seems that some people have indeed lived here before, probably those wandering wild children.

"It should have been a while since no one came." Zhan Zhao said, sniffing around, "Do you smell a musty smell?"

"I smell a lot." Bai Yutang frowned and said, "There is also the smell of corpses."

"It's from the mass graves behind." Zhan Zhao said, patted Bai Yutang, "Shall we go and see?"

Bai Yutang couldn't help frowning, "Look at the mass grave?"

Zhan Zhao smiled, "I don't know if there will be anyone nearby, so let's go around the temple first."

Bai Yutang found a relatively dry place in the main hall and lit a bonfire... The surroundings immediately became bright.Looking around, there is nothing unusual. The white walls have peeled off a lot. I wonder if those children are naughty, and there are many black paintings on the walls...

Bai Yutang walked over slowly, looking at those paintings, at first he thought they were drawn casually, but after a closer look, "It looks like the ones your elder brother drew on the bedside."

Zhan Zhao was taken aback when he heard that, "Really?"

Taking out the portrait of the fourth son and their rubbings for comparison, Bai Yutang nodded, "The words on the bedside are part of a whole wall of doodles."

There are a lot of willow sticks that have been burnt to black charcoal thrown by the wall... There are also small black handprints on the wall, obviously, these were drawn by the children.

"It's impossible for those children to live in Room No. [-] in Tianzi, so the eldest brother has been here?" Zhan Zhao got some clues and fumbled for them.

Bai Yutang hurried over, "Where are you going?"

Zhan Zhao grabbed the hair on Bai Yutang's chest with one hand, "I'm looking for you."

Bai Yutang pulled his hair back and let him put it on his shoulders, "Do you want to look around to see if there are any other clues left by your elder brother?"

Zhan Zhao nodded, "Sure enough, he is a bosom friend."

When Bai Yutang heard that "confidant", he was inexplicably awkward.In a blink of an eye, I saw a candlestick on the altar with half of the unburned candles on it.

Bringing the candles and preparing to light them on the bonfire, Bai Yutang discovered something...

"Here are some bones."

"What bones?"

"Very small and thin." As he said, Bai Yutang picked up the fire with a branch, and found a few burnt mouse skins.

"It's a mouse."

"Oh." Zhan Zhao nodded, "It's probably because the children have nothing to eat, so they made roast mice for dessert."

Bai Yutang frowned slightly, put down the firewood, and stood up, "But the cat ate the mouse and died."

"The child is dead too...isn't it?" Zhan Zhao asked back.

The two suddenly felt strange again.

After a long time, Zhan Zhao suddenly said, "By the way, I discovered one thing."

Bai Yutang looked back at him, "What?"

Zhan Zhao tapped his chin lightly with his fingers, and said, "I found that when you talk to me, you don't call me by my name."

Zhan Zhao suddenly said such a sentence, but Bai Yutang had a hard time answering it.

"When we first met, you didn't talk to me. Later, when we got to know each other a little bit, you started to say 'ah' and 'hey', and now you just talk directly."

Bai Yutang opened his mouth and thought for a while - it seems that it is indeed...

"Look, if your name is Zhao Pu, you can just call him Zhao Pu, and you can call him Gongsun. Just Gongsun, Xiaosizi, Xiaoliangzi, Yingwei, and Wangchao Mahan, you call them all, but you don't call me." Zhan Zhao asked earnestly, "I Is the name ugly?"

Bai Yutang didn't understand why Zhan Zhao suddenly cared about this... But then again, Zhan Zhao's name is not easy to call.I have a lot of friends in the world, and Zhan Zhao is the most special one.Let's just call him Zhan Zhao, it seems very special, Brother Zhan?A little hypocritical, as if he doesn't like him calling himself Brother Bai.If three words can be called a name, but with two words, I can't just say "Zhao" casually...

When Bai Yutang thought of that "Zhao", he subconsciously shuddered.

"Huh?" Zhan Zhao leaned closer, although he couldn't see it, he could imagine Bai Yutang's expression now.

Bai Yutang turned his face away, seeing Zhan Zhao's expression that seemed to be a smile but not a smile, he knew that he was teasing him, that expression...

Bai Yutang suddenly opened his mouth and said, "Cat..."

"Another cat?" Zhan Zhao was puzzled, and listened carefully, thinking that there was no reason, since there were cats, he should be able to hear the movement.

The corners of Bai Yutang's mouth slightly raised, "Show the kitten."

……

There was a moment of silence in the hall.

"Ah……"

Zhan Zhao was probably in a daze just now and forgot to take a breath. He was about to speak, but he heard a voice from outside the hall... Huhu...

In the gloomy hall, there was a sudden stop like the panting sound of a wild animal, which made people shudder.

Bai Yutang also let go of his joking thoughts, and turned to go out, but after thinking about it, he turned around and pulled Zhan Zhao to go with him.

After leaving the main hall...by the light of the candlestick, I saw the nearby scene.

On the dark barren slope, there are two green lights not far away.This time it wasn't a cat, the thing was bigger than a cat, it was a wild dog.

Seeing someone coming out, the wild dog turned around and ran away.

"Is it a dog?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"I don't know, go and have a look." As he spoke, Bai Yutang held the candlestick in one hand and led Zhan Zhao to the back of the ancestral hall with the other.

To the surprise of the two, there was a courtyard wall at the back, more than half of which had collapsed. There was a steep slope outside the courtyard wall. From a long distance down the slope, you could see graves and a lot of wild dogs looking for food. It was probably the mass burial pit. .

"I heard the sound of water," Zhan Zhao said.

"Yeah." Bai Yutang looked into the yard, "There's a pool inside, it's quite big..."

As he spoke, Bai Yutang's words suddenly stopped.

Zhan Zhao also heard a "crash" in the sound of water, as if something had entered the water.

"what sound?"

"I didn't see it clearly." Bai Yutang said in a low voice, "There seems to be something in the water, it's not small."

"Big fish?"

"Fish tail...but I still seem to be looking at the hair." Bai Yutang stood there blankly, just a little too fast at that moment, the thing in the pool seemed to be a mermaid.

"Hair?" Zhan Zhao felt incredulous.

Bai Yutang led him into the yard, and went to the pool to look in.

A few bubbles appeared in the pool... The water surface had obviously been shaken just now, and there were waves of waves.Soon, the water in the pool calmed down, and the sound of the water flow disappeared, and a full moon was reflected on the dark water.

Bai Yutang looked at it for a long time, and asked, "Cat... what day is it today?"

Hearing the "cat", Zhan Zhao's eyelids twitched, and said angrily, "Ah, the first month of the month."

"Did I tell you that there is a new moon in the sky?"

"Well, Yueya'er, what's the matter?" Zhan Zhao was a little strange when he heard Bai Yutang's words.

"Why is the full moon reflected in the water?" Bai Yutang couldn't believe himself when he said this.

……

Zhan Zhao was silent for a while, then said, "You can see the moon bullying you."

"Cough cough..."

Bai Yutang was choking on his own saliva, he looked at Zhan Zhao helplessly, and when he looked back, the moon in the water disappeared.I couldn't help shaking my head—has I hallucinated? !

The two stood by the water's edge for at least half an hour, but the water surface was still dark and calm... At this time, the sky was at its darkest.In the silence, there was a slight "creaking" sound from the mass graves in the distance. I don't know if it was the wild dogs gnawing on the bones or the corpses grinding their teeth.

"I can't see it at this time..."

After a long time, Zhan Zhao suddenly broke the silence, "It's very exciting!"

Bai Yutang amused him with his words, and the atmosphere was not as tense as before, "Let's go into the main hall and draw all the pictures on the wall to see if we can find clues. As for the surrounding area, we'll talk about it after dawn.

"En." Zhan Zhao nodded in agreement.The two turned and entered the hall.

When the two of them left the yard... the water in the pool suddenly opened up again, and a black head slowly popped out from the center of the pool.

……

Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao returned to the front hall, the bonfire was still burning, and the light made it less gloomy.

Bai Yutang asked Zhan Zhao to sit down on a futon, took out the pen and paper he had with him, and traced the pictures on the wall.

The surroundings became quiet again, only the rustling of paper was left.

Zhan Zhao sat on the futon with his chin in one hand, thinking wildly in his head... Bai Yutang is good at kung fu, and what is rare is that he is also very talented in writing, good at playing piano, chess, calligraphy and painting.According to Gongsun, even if he doesn't know kung fu, he is still a leader in throwing Bai Yutang into Mr. Wen Sheng's group.

Thinking of this, Zhan Zhao couldn't help but click his tongue twice.

Bai Yutang heard his movement, so he asked, "What?"

"Hmm..." Zhan Zhao thought for a while, "From now on, you should call me hello or hey."

Bai Yutang didn't say anything, the corners of his mouth twitched slightly.

After a long time, Yuantian finally turned pale, and Bai Yutang copied the paintings on the entire wall.Putting the paper away, he walked to Zhan Zhao and sat down next to him, heaving a sigh of relief.

Zhan Zhao closed his eyes, his elbows were only on his knees, as if he was resting.

Bai Yutang said, "Worried about your brother?"

"Ah."

Zhan Zhao nodded and asked, "Are you good at communicating with children?"

Bai Yutang thought for a while, "What do you think?"

"Girls are probably better..." Zhan Zhao replied with a half-smile.

Bai Yutang shook his head, "Why do you ask these questions?"

"That little monkey...may not pay attention to us for a while." Zhan Zhao said, "This kind of kid has been bullied since he was a child, and he doesn't trust outsiders."

Bai Yutang turned to look at Zhan Zhao, "Is he similar to your brother when he was young?"

"He should be worse than my brother." Zhan Zhao switched hands, "My brother doesn't have a tail anyway."

Bai Yutang grew up under the care of his elder brother, so he never experienced this feeling, but he probably won't get better. He raised his face, but his eyes fell on the beams of the roof.After looking at it for a while, he couldn't tell why... Bai Yutang suddenly felt that something was wrong with the beam, it was bowed downwards, not straight.

"This is for you." Zhan Zhao took out the badge of Kaifeng Mansion from his waist and handed it to Bai Yutang, "I want to go to the county government office, let's examine Liu Zhenren's body, and you pretend to be me."

After Zhan Zhao finished speaking, he didn't hear Bai Yutang's answer, so he was a little puzzled, "Brother Bai?"

"Huh?" Bai Yutang came back to his senses.

"what happened?"

"It seems..." Bai Yutang stood up as he spoke, and jumped onto the beam.

Zhan Zhao also stood up when he heard the commotion, and after a while, Bai Yutang jumped down, "Looks like we really should go to the county government office."

Zhan Zhao was puzzled.

Bai Yutang glanced at the beam, "I know where the bodies of those three little beggars are!"

……

An hour later, the sky brightened.

Early in the morning, when the policeman Liang Bao got up, he found that there was an extra letter beside the bed, with only one sentence - the body was on the beam of the horse belly ancestral hall.

Liang Bao felt strange, so he went down to the ancestral hall with his hands, and really found the bodies of the three young men on the beam, he couldn't understand it.

At this time, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang also returned to the inn first, and the two decided to have a long-term discussion.

Back in Tianzi No. [-] room, I saw that the fourth son and Xiao Liang had already woken up and were sitting at the table eating snacks.Seeing the two came back, Xiao Liang hurried to order two more snacks.

Zhan Zhao went to the table and sat down, it was considered a rest.

The fourth son held a crab roe bun and stuffed it into Zhan Zhao's mouth.

Zhan Zhao ate the steamed stuffed bun and said with a smile, "Little Si, help me find some clothes after eating, I need to take a bath later."

The fourth son hadn't fully woken up at first, but when he heard the word "bath", he immediately lifted his spirits and asked, "Take a bath?"

"Well, if you rub my back again, it will be the same as before." Zhan Zhao said casually.

Xiao Liang had already brought in some snacks, Bai Yutang sat down, and everyone had breakfast together.

"Hmm..." The fourth son hesitated for a moment, then said, "I won't wash it for you."

Zhan Zhao was taken aback, "Why?"

"I asked Baibai to wash it for you." The fourth son muttered, "Or take a big bucket and you two wash it together."

"Cough cough..."

After the fourth son finished speaking, Bai Yutang choked on the porridge...