Tianjin people will never lose SAN

Chapter 11 Shadows in the Rain
"Boom!" The heavy rain continued. Lucy took Joshua back to his room and then returned to the restaurant.

The Devil's Son is back, and it's time for her to pack up and go to bed. It's such a humble and helpless feeling, knowing that the tragedy cannot be changed, but she has to play her role appropriately in the play.

Lucy knelt down beside the statue of the saint, humbly clasped her hands together and prayed silently.

"Bang, bang, bang!" The harsh knocking sound came again in the dark night. Lucy's heart twitched and tightened violently.

Trembling, she picked up her umbrella and opened the door again. A groom wearing a black felt hat was standing outside the door. When he saw the nun opening the door, he politely took off his hat and said:

"Saint's mercy shines on the earth. Do you remember me, Sister Lucy, Old John? The guest in my carriage wants to stay in the monastery for a few days."

Lucy recognized the person in front of her in the dim light of the door. It was Old John, the town's coachman. He often went to the surrounding towns for business and did not attend the monastery services every week.

Old John slightly stepped aside to let the passenger behind him pass, a tall and thin young man in a gray windbreaker and a gray top hat. At this time, he raised the small suitcase in his hand above his head to block the rain, with an inexplicable strange smile on his face.

"Hello, sister. I'd like to stay with you for two nights." The person who came was Liu Yonglu.

After having lunch with Marquette that noon, he found a carriage. Most agents would take a break after completing an investigation.

But Liu Yonglu thought that it would be better to go and find out as early as possible, in case he could get some private work, which would be an extra source of income.

Liu Yonglu was not idle after getting on the carriage. Sleeping was impossible for him. The only thing Tianjin people do when getting on a taxi is to chat with the driver!
"Hey, big brother, are you from Excelsior? Or are you a migrant worker?"

Old John pulled his hat down and glanced back at him without saying anything. He was not in the habit of chatting with strangers.

Liu Yonglu didn't feel embarrassed at all. Seeing that the other party didn't say anything, he continued to ask questions.

"I heard that the cult members are making a lot of trouble. It's better for ordinary people to believe in something else than that. Brother, are there any of your neighbors or relatives who believe in it?"

"Young man, I advise you to say less things that you shouldn't say." Old John said in a deep voice with his eyes twitching.

"Why should I be afraid? Besides, we have to pay back 100,000 yuan to stay away from Excell."

"Pagan? I can't say for sure, but before the light of the saint blessed the entire Mosesad, the swamp was indeed a terrible place. At that time, the swamp had another name, the entrance to hell."

"The entrance to hell? What do you mean?"

Old John took out the wine bottle in his arms, took a sip and continued:
"That happened hundreds of years ago. A deadly plague broke out throughout the kingdom. A large number of people upstream died from the disease. No one knows how many people died. All we know is that in the end there was no one to bury the bodies.

A large number of dead bodies can only be thrown into the river, and then flow into the swamp. With the stinking corpses and polluted water sources, how many people in the swamp can survive? "

As if he had thought of something extremely terrible, Old John took another sip.

"Brother, drink less. Don't you know that you shouldn't drive after drinking? Anyway, many people died at that time, right?"

"A lot of people died? I'm afraid there's not a single person left in the larger towns. Some people fled to the swamps and barely survived by eating catfish and tree frogs in the water."

"I've said so much, what does it have to do with pagans?"

"Don't worry, young man. The ending of a legendary story is usually full of twists and turns. In the next hundred years, the kingdom experienced five or six plagues of varying sizes."

"Get a cat! Why don't you get a cat when you keep bothering with mice?"

The old man was now immersed in the ancient memories passed down by his ancestors and had no intention of scolding Liu Yonglu for his witty interruption.

"Cats? No need, for the Swampers never got the plague again, not once."

"Wow! Is this true? So the god you believe in has become a rat poison."

The old man's words did not actually explain the local rumors about pagans.

But Liu Yonglu was not stupid. He could tell that the so-called pagans might be related to the real history of hundreds of years ago. This was indeed a useful clue.

"Besides the pagans, what other weird things are there in your place now? The weirder the better."

Seeing that he couldn't get any more information out of this thread, he changed the subject.

"A weird thing? Well... there really is one, and it happened in the monastery I often visit."

By now the old man had been brought in by Liu Yonglu. He was sipping the liquor in the pot and telling the story of Joshua.

As they were talking, the sky darkened. Raindrops as big as beans hit the car windows. Old John lit the kerosene lamp on the front of the car and pulled up the awning above their heads. The two of them continued to move forward in the dark night of thunder and lightning.

After driving for another three hours, Liu Yonglu in the carriage felt his body suddenly tilt to the left, and the carriage stopped.

"Brother, I just said that a glass of wine for the driver will bring tears to the family members. Are you trying to drive the car into a ditch..."

Liu Yonglu sneaked out of the carriage and saw that Old John had already jumped off the carriage and was standing in the rain, staring at the wheel that had sunk on the left side.

"Do you need my help? Help shoveling the mud? Or pushing from behind?"

Old John didn't say anything, but leaned over slightly and carefully took out two flattened crabs from the mud pit under the wheels.

"You guys still produce crabs here, river crabs and sea crabs? They are fat enough." Liu Yonglu also squatted down and poked the dead crab with his hand.

The crab's body was slightly wide, about the size of two adult palms. It was not completely dead, and its claws were still twitching slowly. Under the dim yellow light of the oil lamp, one could vaguely see some special patterns on the green crab shell.

The pattern looked like a human face, or to be more precise, a withered human face with a huge single eye.

"Shut up and leave!"

Old John pushed Liu Yonglu onto the carriage and then swung the whip violently. No matter how the horse neighed, he just kept whipping it, as if some terrible existence was about to come from the swamp woods outside the carriage.

But the mud was too soft and the wheels were stuck too deep, so even though the horses were pedaling hard they still couldn't pull the cart out of the mud.

At this time, a rustling sound came from the dark mangroves around, as if some creature was approaching quickly.

As time went on, the rustling sounds became more frequent. It was not just one or two, but groups of thousands of unknown creatures.

"Damn it! Hurry up, you lazy bastards!"

Old John knew that the quickest way to leave was to clear the mud under the wheels, but after hearing the strange noise, he was even more afraid to jump off the carriage.

Liu Yonglu leaned against the front end of the carriage, pushing his body's center of gravity forward as much as possible, and the black stone in his pocket also knocked against the carriage.

The heavy rain hit the carriage with a crackling sound, while the unknown footsteps in the forest were more sticky and dragging. The two sounds combined together, making people's scalps numb.

Finally, with the two old horses pedaling with all their might, the wheels were pulled out of the mud pit, the carriage swayed a little, and got back on track.

The unknown noises in the woods on both sides seemed to stop suddenly at some point.

Old John wiped the cold sweat from his head. Fortunately, the sound was no longer close. Old John remembered the ancient legend that his neighbor, a fisherman, told him when he was a child.

A terrifying legend about a one-eyed crab that lives in the swamp.

He had no idea what was hiding in the dark mangroves, but those creatures in the dark seemed to stop when they reached the edge of the woods.

At the speed he was driving the horses, they would have had plenty of time to climb onto the carriage, but they remained hiding in the shadows.

Old John could vaguely see densely packed ochre eyes in the dark woods.

What he didn't know was that the black stone in Liu Yonglu's windbreaker pocket had become unusually moist at some point, and even without coming into contact with any liquid, it still emitted layers of moisture.

……

Inside the monastery, Old John had already driven away in his carriage, leaving only Liu Yonglu and Sister Lucy in the restaurant.

Old John mentioned in the car that there were two small houses in front of the monastery, and the nuns would provide accommodation and simple meals for breakfast and lunch for a very low fee.

So when Liu Yonglu arrived in Excel, he went to the monastery first, not only to take on private work, but also to find a place to stay.

"Sir, Joshua has gone back to bed. Let's talk about meeting him tomorrow."

Old John said a few simple words to her before leaving, implying that this strange young man in front of him was actually quite interested in solving the various strange things surrounding Joshua.

Although she didn't believe it, she still had a small hope in her heart. Ordinary people who were in deep misfortune were always like this. As long as there was a glimmer of external help, they would be willing to try it no matter how unreasonable it seemed.

"Tomorrow, sister. I'll reassure you. We are professionals in handling this kind of thing."

Liu Yonglu could also see the suspicion on the old nun's face. He took out his investigator ID from his suitcase and handed it over with his name on it.

Why do we have to hide the name? This is all thanks to Marquette's advice, one of which is that investigators should not use their real names when taking private jobs outside.

There are two reasons. First, taking private work is gray income after all. Although the headquarters may turn a blind eye, both parties have to save each other's face. If you use your real name to do the work in a high-profile manner, you never know whether the headquarters will take advantage of the issue one day.

Secondly, it also leaves a way out for yourself. If things go well, everyone will be happy. But if things don't go well, people can continue to cause trouble for you by using your real name.

Therefore, although most investigators will show their credentials to employers, they will hide their names.

Special Incident Investigation Department? Aunt Lucy secretly raised her head and glanced at Liu Yonglu again. She knew about this official organization, but she didn't expect that the young man in front of her was a member of it.

The reason why they didn't ask them for help with Joshua's matter was, firstly, that time was tight as it would take more than a week to go to New Nurent and back; secondly, the monastery was under the jurisdiction of the church and any request for help had to be approved by the church.

But today this investigator came uninvited, which is great.

"Great, sir, what is your name?"

How to call? What is your pseudonym?
Liu Yonglu really forgot to prepare for this question. When asked so suddenly, his brain went offline and the joke in his subconscious mind came out.

"My last name is Dou, and my name is Dou. You play."

Welcome everyone to comment and read

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(End of this chapter)