Otaku's beauty doppelgänger

Chapter 180 The Disappearing Puppet

Ye Han and Zhou Qian stood under an old concrete arch bridge, silently looking at the old man's residence.

This bridge is located on a small tributary in the upper reaches of the Yongjiang River, about three kilometers away from the western suburbs of Yongcheng. It can be said that it is already in a rural area.

The bridge is not long, about 15 meters, and the width is about four meters. On both sides of the bridge, there is a narrow bridge hole more than one meter high. This was originally a flood discharge hole for the turbulent water to pass through when the river water surged. It's just that this river has never had such a large amount of water, so they have become a decoration.

And now, one of them has become the residence of the old man who scavenged waste.

The entrance of the cave is very close to the ground, and you can step up it with a slight lift of your legs, but the low and narrow space allows people to bend down to enter, and they must always be careful not to let their heads hit the ceiling of the cave.

On the other side of the hole, you can see a dilapidated wooden board standing upright, blocking most of the space of the hole on that side, preventing the cold wind from rushing in unscrupulously, while the remaining part is yellow. The snakeskin bag was worn in the beard, and it would rustle when the wind blew, and cold wind would leak in from time to time, bringing a bone-piercing chill.

It’s hard to imagine how the scavenger with half of his hand missing survived that severe winter.

In those dark nights when the north wind howled, he curled up in this small bridge hole, enduring the seemingly endless cold, waiting for the dawn that he didn't know if he could see it again.

Bending down, Ye Han got into the bridge hole without hesitation under Zhou Qian's slightly surprised gaze.

After entering, my vision suddenly dimmed, and at the same time, a sense of depression and suffocation emerged from the bottom of my heart. This is a natural reaction caused by a narrow space.

The bridge hole was unexpectedly clean and tidy, except for a musty smell caused by not seeing the sun for a long time, there was no peculiar smell brought by the mess that Ye Han imagined.

On the side of the bridge hole close to the wooden board, there are two folded old quilts. However, although the quilts are torn, they are very clean. There are no other stains on them except the yellow marks that naturally occur due to time.

Beside the quilt are some packed clothes. They are placed in a cardboard box. The box has no lid and the sides are neat. On the top of the edge, some tooth marks can be faintly seen.

In addition, some other daily sundries are stored in the bridge hole. Although these sundries look dilapidated, they are very clean and neatly placed.

Obviously, the old man who scavenged waste did not give up his pursuit of life because of his downfall. At the same time, it also shows that before his downfall, he was probably not an ordinary person.

Ye Han bent over and looked at it carefully, and at the same time began to use his Tianxin consciousness to detect.

Suddenly, her expression changed, and she stood up and came to the middle of the bridge. Here was the old man's bed, which was made of several long old wooden boards and covered with a bed of old cotton batting and a blue sheet that had been washed white.

She reached out and lifted up the quilt, pushed it to one side, then stretched out her right hand to grab the middle piece of wood and lifted it gently, and a dark space suddenly appeared.

And in that dark space, there was a huge wooden box.Grasping a corner of the wooden box with his left hand, the huge wooden box was lifted lightly like it was weightless, and then Ye Han put his right hand, and with a flash of his body, he appeared in the open space outside the bridge opening with the wooden box.

At this time, the true face of the box was fully exposed in front of the two of them.

This box has been well preserved, with no signs of wear on any corner or corner. It looks like new, but its simple style, complicated workmanship and faint historical charm all indicate its age. It's been a long time.

Moreover, this box is made of precious huanghuali wood, and the workmanship is extremely exquisite. If it is sold in the antique market, it is very likely to be sold at a high price.

However, such a precious box was hidden under his bed by the old man who scavenged. He would rather live in such a precarious life because of hunger and cold than to take it out in exchange for money. There is obviously an unknown reason for this .

However, what Ye Han pays attention to now is not the value of the box and the story behind it, what she pays attention to is the small amount of abnormal energy left on the box.

The old scavenger is just an ordinary person, but now a precious wooden box containing abnormal energy has been unearthed from his residence. The reason for this has to make people think deeply.

It is very possible that this cold and sharp energy is the key to this case.

"I've seen this kind of wooden box." Zhou Qian stared at the wooden box and said.

"Oh? What is this wooden box for?" Ye Han turned to look at him and asked.

"This is the box that marionette performers use to store their marionettes." Zhou Qian replied calmly. Then, he walked to the wooden box, pulled the copper lock on the mouth of the box and gently lifted it up. The structure inside the box appeared in front of Ye Han.

I saw that the inside of the box was divided into many grids, the largest of which was a large grid that occupied the entire right side of the box, while there were many small grids distributed on the left side of the box.

Zhou Qian pointed to the big grid and said, "This is where the puppets are placed."

Then he pointed to the small grids on the left and introduced them one by one: "This slightly smaller grid holds the puppet's clothes. Generally, puppets have two sets of costumes. If you have a wooden box made of this kind of material, you will at least prepare it. There are five sets. Here are the wooden sticks used to hold the strings, over there are the rouge and gouache used for puppet makeup, and the grid next to them is for paintbrushes."

Zhou Qian spoke slowly, but Ye Han felt a little surprised when he heard it. She didn't expect a small marionette to have so much attention. Serving it is almost like serving a person. What surprised her even more was , Zhou Qian seems to know these things very well, as if he had had deep contact with them before.

On the other side, Zhou Qian has already introduced to the end: "In this grid is the silk thread for lifting the thread. This thread is very important. It must not only be thin, but also very tough. Only in this way can it bear the weight of the puppet without losing weight. It would be easy to spot."

After finishing speaking, he looked up at Ye Han, and said slowly: "This is the top puppet box, only the top puppeteer deserves to have it. And this box must contain extremely precious marionettes, but , and now there is nothing in it, including the extremely thin and extremely tough pulling wire."

"So, you suspect that the old man who lost half of his hand was a top puppeteer before, and the missing silk thread is the murder weapon in this case?"

"Yes, the thread is now in the hands of the murderer, and the old man obviously cannot be the murderer, so the only possibility is..."

"The murderer is the puppet that disappeared." Ye Han picked up his words without much surprise.

When she felt the residual energy, she had this kind of premonition.

At this moment, her cell phone rang. When she picked it up, Hu Fei's voice came from it: "Daji, new discovery is that the deceased Cai Yongming is the owner of the Yongcheng Grand Theater, and he was famous for performing puppet shows." Started!"

(End of this chapter)