Temporary partner

Ji Yan was taken aback, Zu Tianyang shook his head at him, probably because it was winter, and the snake was sleeping like a coiled city mosquito coil, so it didn't notice their existence.

Zu Tianyang pulled him forward quickly: "This season, there are many hibernating animals in the cave, try to walk in the middle of the road."

Ji Yan nodded. He lit a cigarette with a lighter and took a deep breath to refresh himself. The two of them walked forward cautiously under the light of the hopping sparks.

There was a faint light ahead, and when they were about to reach the cave, they suddenly found an iron gate there.The iron gate was deeply wedged into the stone, blocking the passage. There was a lot of moisture in the cave, and the iron gate was already covered with rust. Zu Tianyang walked over and shook the iron gate twice, and the whole cave made a loud creak. He choked his voice and remained motionless.The iron gate is very strong, and the iron pillars are welded on it, which looks like a prison fence. Zu Tianyang saw a huge iron lock hanging on it. He picked it up and saw that the lock cylinder was clean.

After finally getting here, he was trapped by an iron gate. Ji Yan shook the iron lock unwillingly. Seeing that Ji's gas tank was about to explode, Zu Tianyang quickly pushed him aside, lit it with a lighter, and took a closer look. Look at the lock cylinder.

"One word lock."

Ji Yan looked back at him.

Zu Tianyang smiled at him: "Light up for me."

Holding the lighter, Ji Yan watched Zu Tianyang take out the Swiss Army Knife from last time, and pulled out a spring-like wire from it.Zu Tianyang skillfully tied the two iron wires together, hooked one and stabbed the other into the lock cylinder, and moved it a few times, but the iron lock still remained motionless.

At first, Ji Yan tried to comfort himself that he was not the same as Zu Tianyang, that he was not an accomplice, but after staring at it for a while, he still couldn't pry it open, and couldn't help but said: "Is it too rusty, or think of other ways... ..."

Zu Tianyang stared at the lock cylinder, wiped the sweat on the tip of his nose: "It's not rusty, but why is it so difficult to open?"

The principle of the one-word lock is not difficult. Zu Tianyang re-nested the wire into a hook, fiddled with the keyhole, and the flame of the lighter became weaker and weaker. Finally, when Zu Tianyang tried for the third time, the big lock There was a clicking sound.

Zu Tianyang removed the lock.

Ji Yan pushed open the iron door, Zu Tianyang was not in a hurry to go out, he took the lock and weighed it, this big iron lock was not even tied with an iron chain, it was directly hung on two iron bars, this kind of iron lock There is not even a gap in the door.

Ji Yan walked to the other side of the iron gate and lit the lighter. Compared with the opposite side, this side seemed to be wider, and there were some straws thrown in the hole. Ji Yan was afraid of snakes, so he didn't dare to go forward to look. On a protruding stone slab, he found that some solidified objects remained on it, so Zu Tianyang went up to smell it: "wax oil."

It seems that there used to be guards here, Ji Yan said: "Is it possible that after opening this road, outsiders are afraid that outsiders will enter the village without authorization, so people have been guarding here?"

Zu Tianyang nodded: "It is possible."

The flame on the lighter jumped twice, and it was quickly reimbursed. Fortunately, the cave was not too dark, and light was seen not far away. Zu Tianyang said: "This is not a small project. A hole is blown out, and we can move forward." fried, but it's dangerous and labor-intensive."

Ji Yan also couldn't figure out what was going on, and gradually they saw the exit in front, both of them breathed out involuntarily, the light became brighter, and the appearance of the cave gradually became clear, the entrance of the cave was overgrown with weeds, almost completely covering it up. When he got here, Ji Yan picked up the hay and got out of the hole. The outside was already covered in silver, his eyes had been in the cave for a long time, and when he came out suddenly, he felt the white light was dazzling.

After a while, Ji Yan gradually got used to it. He squinted his eyes and looked forward. Through the dense hay, there was a rice field in front of him. Zu Tianyang also came out of the cave. Paddy field, I couldn't tell where it was for a while.

Ji Yan looked back, the cave was twists and turns, he didn't know which direction he came from, and he didn't know if this was Yufa Village.The sight at the foot of the mountain was too poor, Zu Tianyang led him forward, they walked along the field ridges, and soon there was a thick layer of mud on their feet.

The fields in the village are so vast that you can't see the end at a glance. In the cold winter months, the land is deserted and looks even more desolate. There are two or three scarecrows erected on the side of the road, some of which are still wearing human clothes. They are deeply inserted into the ground. , There is still a pile of stones piled up under the wooden pile, standing upright, with thick snow falling on the body, the birds are not afraid of them after snowfall, and occasionally stand on the head of the scarecrow to look around, except for the scarecrow, here There are also earthen tombs piled up one by one in the fields, reflecting a bleak scene in the snow.

They walked through the rice fields and soon came to the road. Zu Tianyang looked back, and found that this road came down from the mountain where they passed through the cave just now. It was the only way from the market to Yufa Village. There are vast fields on both sides, and the straight road leads to the east entrance of Yufa Village.

The two were walking along the road, when Ji Yan suddenly stopped: "Then what are you doing?"

Zu Tianyang also noticed that in a field ahead, a group of people gathered together, as if they were surrounding something.Zu Tianyang wrapped his clothes tightly: "Go and have a look."

In the bare crop fields, besides the scarecrows, there are many mounds of graves. It is a custom in the northern countryside that many farmers will be buried in their own fields after death. A piece of yellow cloth is pressed on each grave. There are very few monuments, most of which were hastily buried.Some pay more attention to hanging a paper streamer around the tomb, or stringing a string of paper money and ingots.Most of these grave mounds have some weeds growing. When the weather is cold, the grass has dried up and turned yellow.

In front of a crooked scarecrow in front, several people are also surrounding a new grave, and they used to be people who went to the grave.

Rural grave visits are more particular. Generally, paper is burned during festivals, and most of them are carried out at night. This family does not take the usual way. Zu Tianyang squinted his eyes to look at the graves in front of them, and he could tell that they had been carefully cared for. There is not a single weed on the top of the grave, and there are several circles of paper flowers on the grave, and several plates of fruit tributes are placed in front of it.

It was a burly man who went to the grave, leading a short old lady, and next to him was a woman in a black coat with a sack on her back, walking back and forth in front of the grave.This wasn't too strange at all, but they placed offerings in front of the grave, and there were seven or eight spectators behind them.

Ji Yan and Zu Tianyang looked at each other, walked into the crowd, and asked one of them in a low voice: "Master, what are you doing?"

The old man looked at him and shook his head, but there was a woman holding a child next to him: "Look at the great god catching ghosts!"

Catching ghosts?Zu Tianyang raised one eyebrow slightly, only feeling that this word appeared frequently recently.

At this moment, I saw the woman in black muttering something, suddenly took out something like a wooden sword from the sack, placed a picture of a woman in front of the grave, gestured to the picture, and muttered something. .After a while, he took a sip of water and sprayed it on his head.

Zu Tianyang looked at it for a while, then whispered to Ji Yan: "The haunted ghost that Ding Dong mentioned is Yufa Village, right?"

Ji Yan is also thinking about this matter. Most of these small cases of pretending to be ghosts are handled by the police station. They neither hurt people nor make money. I believe that mysterious species like ghosts and gods that linger in existence can most arouse everyone's interest.The frequency of the discussion soon surpassed the case of the missing girl and became a pastime in the small town.

When Ding Dong said it yesterday, he didn't pay attention. Who knew that not far from the cave was the birthplace of the ghost story. Ji Yan realized that this matter was not easy, and Zu Tianyang, who was next to him, had already started asking the women about ghosts. The ins and outs of the story.