Chapter 8 The Mystery of Death
On the twenty-third day of the fourth lunar month, it’s 01:22 in the morning.
After receiving the call, Gu Yunqing and Ye Miaozhu came to the arch bridge located downstream of the river and waited quietly for the arrival of Ning Zhe and Feng Yushu.
Ye Miaozhu leaned on the guardrail of the stone bridge, leaning on Gu Yunqing's shoulder with one hand, looking down at the call history displayed on the screen of his mobile phone. The call record was not long, only 2 minutes long. It was Feng Yushu calling, but it was Ning Zhe who spoke.
Ning Zhe explained the following three pieces of information to them in concise sentences.
1: Xie Sining died, and his body was soaked in the river. The cause of death is unknown
2: An unknown person took over Xie Sining’s identity and followed Zhang Yangxu, with unknown motives
3: That thing used Xie Sining’s mobile phone to call Feng Yushu Telephone
Ning Zhe believed that the 'thing' used Xie Sining's mobile phone to call Feng Yushu for some unknown secret purpose, and that they happened to find Xie Sining's body by the river. The counterfeit's weird actions failed to achieve the desired effect.
Once its purpose is achieved, something terrible may happen.
"What a coincidence." Ye Miaozhu put his lips to Gu Yunqing's ear and whispered.
Gu Yunqing's ears twitched, and he asked in the same low and hoarse voice: "How do you say it?"
"According to Ning Zhe, the ghost who replaced Xie Sining just called Feng Yushu, they found the real Xie Sining's body floating in the river. "Ye Miaozhu said softly, "Don't you think this is too much of a coincidence?"
"It's indeed a coincidence." Gu Yunqing raised his head and pointed with his chin at a collapse gap on the arch bridge: "This hole happened to collapse when Ning Zhe walked across the bridge, and he almost fell from here and died. "
Ye Miaozhu nodded: "Yes, Feng Yushu said that it was because Ning Zhe accidentally committed a taboo that he was so unlucky."
"But I don't think this is bad luck." Gu Yunqing said: "Just imagine, if the bridge deck did not collapse, Ning Zhe and Feng Yushu crossed the bridge normally, and Feng Yushu received a call from someone pretending to be Xie Sining on the way back to the ancestral hall, then they... could still... hair Found a body in the river?"
"...It's hard to say, but there's a good chance it won't."
"That's right." Gu Yunqing hissed lightly: "If the bridge deck didn't collapse. , Ning Zhe will most likely not be able to discover Xie Sining There is no way to know the truth that Xie Sining is dead, and there is no way to see through the fact that she has been impersonated by something..."
Gu Yunqing said, his tone became more and more gloomy: "Ning Zhe's kick Go into the air, with it It is better to say that it is the misfortune caused by breaking the taboo."
"But there is no God in Hejia Village." Ye Miaozhu's eyes became solemn: "There are only snake gods here."
< br>
"Yes, there is only the snake god, so it may be the snake god helping him. But why should the snake god help him?" Gu Yunqing put the phone back on the screen, put it back in his pocket, and whispered: "Feng Yushu said that Ning Zhe accidentally violated It's a taboo, so it's unlucky, but did she tell you which taboo Ning Zhe violated? "
Traveling? Burial? Funeral? Or a sacrifice? Don't even know.
“This village is very strange, and the people in the village are also very strange.” Ye Miaozhu said softly.
"So if you want to get out alive, you have to be 12 minutes vigilant about everything." Gu Yunqing deeply agreed.
The two waited by the bridge for a while, and two figures appeared on the street not far away. Ning Zhe and Feng Yushu finally arrived.
"You're really late." Gu Yunqing greeted Ning Zhe with a smile.
"I can't help it. I broke a taboo today, so I don't dare to run too fast." Ning Zhe put on a Sima face and looked very distressed: "I really don't know where I broke a taboo, to be like this. Unlucky, I almost fell to death when I crossed the bridge."
"Don't you know what taboo you have violated?" Ye Miaozhu also became worried: "Then it seems that we have to be careful. And...are you sure that salvaging Xie Sining's body will not violate the taboo?"
Burial, funeral, etc.? All related to dead people.
"It is possible, but you still have to fish it out." Ning Zhe said lightly. Ye Miaozhu was speechless.
Indeed, Xie Sining's death is undoubtedly an important clue if we want to uncover the fog shrouding Hejiacun. Even if there is a certain danger, it is better than running around like a headless fly.
“Let’s go, the current of this river is not urgent, but so much time has passed, her body should have drifted quite far.”
After Ning Zhe finished speaking, he took the lead and walked down. Bridge and walked quickly downstream along the river bank. The three of them followed.
As Ning Zhe said, the river running through Hejia Village is relatively slow, even a little too slow. The rows of willow trees on both sides of the river dropped green leaves, like a sticker. Moving quietly downstream on the river, very slowly.
The four of them ran downstream along the river, never forgetting to keep their eyes on the river. They could see the bright white moon reflected in the river and the round pebbles at the bottom covering the river.
“Found it.”
After walking for a long time, Ning Zhe finally saw Xie Sining washed ashore on a gentle bluestone slope downstream of the river. This is Hejia Village. Where the village women were washing clothes, Xie Sining's wet, pale body was spread out on the ground like a piece of tattered clothing.
Everyone quickly stepped forward. No need to say anything, Gu Yunqing and Ye Miaozhu lifted the body one by one, while the other unbuttoned Xie Sining's clothes and began to inspect it.
“The body has been soaked in water for a long time, and its body temperature has cooled down, so it is impossible to estimate the time of death.”
"There are no open wounds on the body, and there are no marks of blunt force blows or bruises, which excludes the possibility of death from trauma."
"There is no internal bleeding, and it is most likely not death from internal injuries."
< br>"There was no obvious accumulation of water in the lungs, and he was not drowned, but He was thrown into the river after his death."
"No signs of poisoning have been found yet, and the possibility of poisoning has been initially ruled out, but without professional testing equipment, it cannot be completely determined."
< br>The more they checked, the more doubtful Gu Yunqing and Ye Miaozhu became.
"There is no external injury, it is not drowning and suffocation, and there are no signs of poisoning. No matter from the inside or the outside, we can't find the cause of Xie Sining's death." Ye Miaozhu's expression became more and more solemn, biting his lip and said: "It's like... nothing Premonitory acute sudden death, or direct "Brain death."
Gu Yunqing held Xie Sining's shoulders with both hands, looked up at Ning Zhe who looked thoughtful, and then turned to look at the sparkling river, where the bright white moon floated gently. The water reflected his own sad face.
"What's going on? How did Xie Sining die...?"
Gu Yunqing gritted his teeth slightly. The confusing situation made his hair stand on end, although he tried his best to control himself not to think about those strange forces and chaos. Strange things about God, but it is obvious that Hejiacun is such a place that cannot be deconstructed using conventional thinking.
"How did Xie Sining die?" Ning Zhe crossed his arms. He understood that there might be a vital secret behind this question, which was related to whether he could survive here.
Just when everyone was lost in thought, suddenly, a burst of water broke the silence of the river under the moonlight.
A warm and fresh corpse slipped from the gentle slope of the bluestone where the laundry was done, and fell headlong into the rushing river water, causing a splash of pale water.
Gu Yunqing is dead.
"...Are you kidding me?" Ning Zhe's expression froze.
Did the ghost that replaced Xie Sining kill Gu Yunqing? If so, how did it kill people?
(End of this chapter)