Urban Night Returner

The house was as quiet as a tomb.Of course, if you think of Shen Gu lying in the bedroom, it is indeed similar to a grave.Even the active glutinous rice balls didn't dare to make a sound, and lay timidly next to the dog ghost, but they couldn't change their naughty nature, so they couldn't help but use their paws to grab the dog ghost's tail from time to time.The dog ghost flirted with it with its tail, but its eyes were fixed on Zhong Lecen.

Zhong Lecen sat in front of the computer, looked up all the information related to "Nian Beast", and looked at every word carefully.However, there is too little information about Nian Beast in Tianshi's database, and it is actually no different from Baidu.After he finished reading, he began to search for things related to "year".There was no one in the room, so he spoke softly to the dog ghost and glutinous rice balls, as if this could relieve the pressure in his heart.

"The word Nian is written in oracle bone inscriptions from He Cong Ren, with a grain on the top and a man on the bottom. It means that a person carries grain on his back. The original meaning is that the five grains are ripe. You say, why is the Nian beast called Nian? Is it related to grain? Does it matter?"

Naturally, the dog ghost couldn't answer, and looked at Zhong Lecen eagerly.Zhong Lecen rested his head in one hand, stayed up all night, and his eyelids were already a little heavy: "Shuowen said: Years, the grains are ripe. It is also said in Shangshu Zhengyi: Years, the grains are cooked once." Gu Liang "Biography" also said: All the five grains are ripe, so there is a year. So many sayings link the year with the grain, so what is the connection between the Nian beast and the grain? Or is the Nian beast just because every New Year's Eve People who come to eat people are called "Nian"? But since the Nian beast cannibalize people, why doesn't it appear at other times, only on New Year's Eve? Where is the Nian beast at other times of the year? What does it eat? What does it drink? Or is it something else? Time actually eats people, but we don’t know it?”

The ghost dog shook its tail helplessly.It is a Japanese shikigami, how can you understand Chinese culture?What Zhong Lecen said about "Shuowen" and "Shangshu Zhengyi", he didn't understand it.

Zhong Lecen didn't want them to answer either.He has already checked the information on the Internet all night, and he has a vague feeling, but he just didn't catch it.Now he looks drowsy, but in fact, his brain is running at high speed, comparing, selecting, and combining all the knowledge about "year" that he absorbed that night, looking for the most reasonable explanation.

"What the hell is Nian Beast? Since it is a beast, why is it a shadow? Could it be that Nian Beast is not real? Then how did it appear? Especially, why does it only eat on New Year's Eve every year?" One person? Why don’t you usually eat it? Why does it disappear after eating a person once? If it is really a beast, it will only want to eat more after eating a person. For it, people are too easy prey, since it is so easy I got it, why only eat it once? Is it because I don’t like it? No. If I don’t like it, I won’t eat it every year. So, what prevents it from continuing to eat people? What is it? And, every year The history of beasts has been unknown for many years. Will they also breed small Nian beasts? But I have never heard of a second Nian beast. If they do not reproduce, is the Nian beast that appears every year the same one? Eating one person at a time... This, this doesn't look like the behavior of a wild beast, it's more like..."

Zhong Lecen sat up straight suddenly, his eyes widened suddenly: "This doesn't look like a beast, it's more like a sacrifice!"

The dog ghost didn't understand what he was thinking of, but was also infected by his excitement, and stood up and looked at him.Zhong Lecen stared straight at the front wall: "That's right, it appeared when the old year passed and the new year came, and a person was used as a sacrifice. This, this is clearly a sacrifice!" He dragged the keyboard A random knock, "Nian, the sacrifices related to the year...'Nian Festival', there is no...'Sacrifice to the Year', and there is no... What is this? Jiashen 300th Anniversary Festival, no...not at all. Worship to the sky... Yes, there have been sacrifices to heaven since the Zhou Dynasty. Well, there are sacrifices, but they are not servants... Then there are human sacrifices... there are human sacrifices, but they are related to grain... Ah, yes! Look, look at this— ——Headhunting sacrifice valley, Wa people's headhunting sacrifice valley! Find a person's soul to guard the dry valley, so that the grain will grow well."

The dog ghost looked at him blankly, not understanding the relationship between the headhunter and the Nian beast.Zhong Lecen became excited: "Yakumo, do you know? The sage Confucius said that if you lose the etiquette, you will seek the wild. Of course, the 'ritual' and the 'wild' are not what they mean now, but they all live on a piece of land. Some customs are also interlinked. Using people to sacrifice grain is a ritual of human sacrifice. However, the time of sacrifice is at the critical moment when the grain is planted or the flowers are blooming. If the Nian beast is a kind of sacrifice, it is taken in the old year What is the meaning of New Year's Eve? New Year's Eve, what is New Year's Eve? What's the meaning? Well, the word "Chu" means "to go, to change, to replace". It means that the day changes to the new year. If the Nian beast eats people on this day, does it mean that this kind of sacrifice is to get rid of the old and usher in the new? It means to use human sacrifice to eliminate the evil spirit accumulated in a year, and exchange a human life for the new year By the way, could it be that the Nian Beast is not a wild beast at all, but the Nian Beast is the evil spirit accumulated in this year! After offering human sacrifices, the Nian Beast disappears, and in the second year, the evil spirit accumulated in this year will change. It is possible that this explanation is more reasonable. This is why the Nian beast only appears on New Year's Eve and eats people only once a year. Because it originally only exists on the last day of the year But why did the Nian beast not leave this time after eating a person? Is the sacrifice unsuccessful? Then if I use the sacrifice, can I draw the Nian beast out? Can I... get Shen Gu back? But, how? What about the sacrifice? Does it cost a human life too?" He grabbed his phone and dialed Zhong Yi's number, "Second uncle, have you ever thought that the existence of the Nian beast may be a kind of sacrifice..."

Shen Gu wondered if he had time-traveled.He was dizzy for a few seconds, and when he opened his eyes, he stayed in this place.The ground under his feet is indeed the ground, and the surroundings are also smelly and damp, so he is sure that he is not in the belly of the Nian beast.

Where the hell is this?It was so dark that no matter how good his eyesight was, he couldn't see anything.Shen Gu stretched out his right hand, and Jin Tiezhiying emerged from his palm, but with some difficulty.He wanted to use Jin Tiezhiying to explore the road and go forward, but he touched it as soon as he stood up. He stretched out his hand to feel it, and it was dirt.Shen Gu frowned and thought for a while, then groped around, the left and right sides also hit the wall when reaching out, but the front and back were not blocked.He thought for a while, and concluded that he should be a place similar to a tunnel, but this tunnel is extremely narrow and short, and an adult can't stand upright at all.

Could it be in the intestines of Nian Beast?Shen Gu rubbed his head.The dizziness just now was severe enough.He had never fainted before, no matter whether it was a car, an airplane or a boat, he never knew what fainting was, but just now, the world was spinning and he almost threw up, and he didn't even know when he sat on the ground.Now the feeling of dizziness is gone, but I always feel that the soles of my feet are a little soft and not very solid, as if my feet are not stepping on the ground but floating in the air. If I don’t stomp hard, I don’t seem to feel the solidity of the ground. .

Shen Gu didn't like this feeling.What a sniper wants is stability, and this kind of vain feeling is very bad.He leaned his back against the tunnel wall to rest for a while, but the lightness under his feet did not recede in the slightest.

It was dark and quiet all around.Shen Gu senses his surroundings with his ears and skin.There was no sound at all, but the air was flowing, blowing weakly on his face, indicating that the tunnel was leading to the outside.Using the gold and iron to explore the way, Shen Gu walked in the direction of the wind.The ground was undulating, as was the tunnel roof, and he had to be half hunched.That's it, I don't know when the head will be bumped.After walking in the dark for a while, there was a faint sound coming from the front, Shen Gu listened carefully, it was like a girl crying.In such a dark and dead place, the sudden indistinct crying sound really makes one's scalp explode.Now that Shen Gu has heard too much about ghosts and ghosts, he can't help thinking in the direction of ghosts, and he clenches the Golden Tiezhiying in his hand.

After walking a dozen more steps, the crying became clearer, and there was a little light ahead.Shen Gu regained his spirit and quickened his pace.Turning a corner, the pale yellow light became brighter. Shen Gu could see clearly the narrow tunnel by the light. It should be dug by hand. My heart skipped a beat—this, seems like a mine.

The light was right in front of her, and the crying sound could be clearly heard. It really was a girl's voice, and there were two more.Shen Gu walked a few steps forward, and the tunnel in front of him suddenly became wider. There were some pit logs in a mess at the four corners, and a miner's lamp was hung. Two girls sat under the lamp, hugging each other and weeping softly.Shen Gu took a step forward and coughed softly.Startled, both girls looked up together, and the one on the left even screamed.Shen Gu quickly stopped and shook his hands at them: "Don't be afraid, I'm not a bad person."

The two girls looked at him with terrified eyes. The one on the right was calmer and asked with a trembling voice, "Who are you? How did you get here?"

"I—" Shen Gu felt that this question was a bit difficult to answer, and it was really weird that two girls suddenly appeared in such a place, "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

The girl suddenly became vigilant: "You answer first."

Shen Gu looked at them by the dim light of the miner's lamp.All of a sudden, his heart tensed up, and even his scalp tingled, because he recognized this calm girl, who was the first person who disappeared in the Nian Beast incident, and he had seen her photo at that time.Although her hair is disheveled now, Shen Gu still recognized her.However, if he remembered correctly, of course, he would not remember wrong at all, because she was already dead, and even the body had been digested by Nian Beast until only bones remained, and Shen Gu saw it with his own eyes.But now, she was sitting here perfectly, staring at him.

"Zhang Jie?" At this point, even the solid voice changed a little.

"You know me?" The girl was surprised, "How did you know me?"

Shen Gu didn't bother to answer, he went to see another girl first: "Wang Jingjing?"

The girl was obviously timid, and kept hiding behind Zhang Jie, until she heard her name before showing her face carefully: "You——I don't know you."

Shen Gu was stunned.That's right, the two girls in front of him were the two that were eaten by the Nian Beast, and he himself was the third one that was swallowed by the Nian Beast. So—they are all—dead?

"How do you know me? What do you do?" Zhang Jie asked a series of questions.Shen Gu was still in shock, and instinctively blurted out: "I'm a policeman."

"Police?" Wang Jingjing's eyes lit up, "Are you here to save us? Where are my parents? And Guangqiang? Where are they? What is this place? How can we get out?"

Shen Gu looked into her hopeful eyes and didn't know how to answer.Wang Jingjing's eyes were red from crying, her face was covered with black and gray, and her clothes were wrinkled and in a mess.The same goes for Zhang Jie.But the eyes of the two people suddenly brightened after hearing his answer, so Shen Gu couldn't tell them that they were dead anyway.

"Yes. I came looking for you. But I—I also got lost and got in here, and now I don't know where to go. But we can find our way. Can you tell me how you got here?"

Zhang Jiejian talked a little bit: "I took a client to see the house at night. After seeing it, I walked to the station alone. Suddenly, it seemed that someone hit me on the neck with a sharp object, and I didn't know anything. Then When I woke up, I was in a dark place, and when I saw a light, I touched it, and finally came here.”

Wang Jingjing whispered: "Me too. I was knocked out when I was walking on the road, and I was here when I woke up. When I saw Zhang Jie, I thought I could go out..." As she spoke, her tears flowed again down.

Shen Gu thought for a moment: "How long have you stayed here?"

The two girls shook their heads together. Zhang Jie said, "We don't have a watch or a mobile phone. We don't know. Anyway, it seems to be a long time. I think it's a day, right?"

Shen Gu pondered for a while: "It's been a day? Then what do you eat and drink?"

"Ah?" Zhang Jie was stunned for a moment, "We didn't eat anything... By the way, I didn't feel hungry at all."

"I'm not hungry either..." Wang Jingjing said blankly, "Then, does that mean we haven't been here for a long time?"

Shen Gu's heart sank for a moment.They have been missing for more than a day and a night, and Zhang Jie has been earlier, but now they don't feel hungry—ghosts don't get hungry, unless they are starving ghosts when they die.

"Comrade policeman, what should we do now?" Zhang Jie looked at Shen Gu anxiously.No matter how daring she is, she is still a girl. Just now, she tried her best to comfort Wang Jingjing, but now a man suddenly came, she was relieved and at the same time even more scared.

Shen Gu was silent for a while, and was about to speak, when suddenly there was a dull loud noise from a distance, the miner's lamp shook violently, soil and stones fell down with a splash, Wang Jingjing screamed in fright.Following her cry, there were several more muffled sounds, and the earth and rocks fell more violently, and several large pieces fell on their feet, but luckily they did not hit them.Shen Gu looked left and right, and there were cracks in the few pit logs, which seemed to be precariously pressed by the roof of the tunnel, and one of them was directly broken, obviously the quality was not very good.Shen Gu remembered that he had heard that there were strict standards for the variety and size of pit wood, but these few pieces of wood didn’t look too thick, and there was a moth-eaten hole in the broken one, which should be nothing at all. qualified.The muffled sound just now sounded like an explosion. If it was in an underground mine, it was most likely a gas explosion. If the vibrations reappeared several times, the pit logs would not be able to hold up at all, and the tunnel must collapse.

"Let's leave first—" Shen Gu hadn't finished speaking when suddenly there were noisy voices and bright lights in the tunnel when he came, and after a while, three or four people ran away from there. come out.Everyone was wearing old and dirty work clothes, with a gray face, and several places on their faces and hands, blood mixed with mud.Just as they ran out, the ground shook heavily, and the entrance of the tunnel collapsed.The last person who ran looked back and shouted: "My brother is still inside!" He turned around and wanted to run in, but was grabbed by another person: "You are crazy! Go back and die!" In just a few seconds, the tunnel entrance has been sealed.The man yelled, put his head in his hands and knelt down.Several other people looked at him, and the one who pulled him just now said: "Daniu, don't cry, we are stuck here now, it's important to find a way to get out first. One life is one."

Zhang Jie and Wang Jingjing looked at these people in panic, but they didn't seem to have noticed that there were already three people in the tunnel. One looked around with a dim miner's lamp on his head, pointed behind Zhang Jie and said: "Look, that opening has also collapsed. But if we dig from there, we should be able to go up to another level, not far from the top."

Zhang Jie opened her mouth wide, looked at them, then at Shen Gu, and couldn't help standing up: "They—" Before she finished speaking, the man had already picked up a shovel on the ground and walked over.Zhang Jie instinctively hid to the side, but Wang Jingjing was still sitting there, she didn't have time to stand up, she just turned her body to the side, so she and Zhang Jie watched in horror as the man passed through half of her body , went directly to the other end of the tunnel.