Third watch

"Could it be that these deformed people were not caused by intermarriage of close relatives." Wang Xiaoming frowned, "It's all news from other places... Most of the couples on the death list have different surnames. Intermarriage between people is likely to cause teratogenicity, "

"It's not scientific." Lu Xiaolu pointed out, "I've heard it every day."

"It's okay if it's not scientific." Ye Xun said, "That's why we came here."

For a while, the four of them fell silent in the dark.

Ye Xun is right. If Hongdeng Village produces a large number of deformed people due to the intermarriage of close relatives, it should be the government to provide popular science education.

"In such a village, what important reason does it need to use this method to control the purity of blood relationship?" Ye Xun said.

Zhong Yi frowned and was about to speak when he suddenly heard a noise outside, the four of them shuddered and returned to the room lightly.

The little white dog sat on the bed and listened for a while: "Both the village chief and his wife have gone out."

Wang Xiaoming: "What happened outside?"

"Zhou Jin's snoring is really loud." The little white dog answered irrelevantly.

Zhong Yi frowned and asked, "Where is Master Bai?"

The little white dog tilted his head and pretended to be stupid.

Zhong Yi stared at it for a while, and had no choice but to give up.

This night, Zhou Jin was probably the only one who could sleep in this house.

At dawn, the wife of the village head came back, and she tied her hair and gave them slivers. Zhou Jin asked where the village head had gone, but the wife of the village head paused, and said that someone beat his wife last night, and the village head went to mediate.

Today's Red Lantern Village is more deserted than yesterday. In the morning, Ye Xun told Zhou Jin that he wanted to find a place to take pictures, and Zhou Jin readily said that he would take them to the back mountain to play.

The village chief's wife pulled her face and told him not to mess around.

"Where am I messing around, people who came from a long way, always have to commemorate before leaving, the scenery behind is good." Zhou Jin said.

The wife of the village head said in a low voice: "You play, but don't wander around."

Zhou Jin said: "I definitely understand, I won't go past the entrance of the black hole."

The village chief's wife looked at them: "You can just walk around the village."

After he got out of the door, Wang Xiaoming asked Zhou Jin: "What is the entrance of the black hole?"

"Ah, that place is not good." Zhou Jin said: "Behind Hongdeng Village is Yaya Mountain. There is a black hole at the foot of the mountain, and there is a small river going in. The old man used to say that there was an underground dark fire inside. It’s a fire, and it’s very ominous, and it’s very ominous, and I never let people get close to it since I was a child.”

"Is that place far?" Wang Xiaoming asked again.

Zhou Jin shook his hand: "It's not very far, but you can't go, there—"

Before he finished speaking, there was a sudden noise in the distance, interspersed with cursing and crying, which was very abrupt.

Several people glanced at each other, and immediately rushed over to have a look - but Wang Xiaoming was very disturbed to find that there was a large circle of people around the child's house yesterday.

The group of people shouted and talked, many of them were talking in dialect, and the four of them, Wang Xiaoming and Wang Xiaoming, couldn't understand it.

They are outsiders, so it's not easy to squeeze in to join in the fun, but Zhou Jin got in and came out after a long time, his face pale.

"Something happened." Zhou Jin gasped and said, "You -- go back first. Something happened..."

Lu Xiaolu hurriedly said, "What happened?"

"Zhou Limin is dead." Zhou Jin said: "The man in this family died, and his wife was howling inside, saying that there was a fire at home last night, and her man was-was-burned to death."

Although the scene was chaotic, the four of them were still very conspicuous. Zhong Yi had already seen that many people were paying attention to them, so he pulled Zhou Jin aside.

"Did the village chief come to fight the fire last night?" Zhong Yi asked.

Zhou Jin was a little dazed: "My father is also inside...but...things are very strange."

At this time, Zhou Jin also reacted: "He told me to go home quickly and not to watch here. He said that Zhou Limin died too badly, I am afraid it was very violent."

"There was a fire here last night?" Ye Xun frowned: "I can't tell."

"This is the strange thing." Zhou Jin didn't know what to think of, and took another breath: "Let's go... hurry... The thing is very strange."

"What's wrong?" Wang Xiaoming asked.

"My father said that there was no fire last night." Zhou Jin lowered his voice while walking: "He came here in the middle of the night, and there were a few people in the clan. There were no sparks all night. Zhou Limin was fine last night, and he went to feed the chickens at dawn , I didn’t make a sound for a long time, his wife took a lamp to see, and found that the man was burnt in front of the chicken coop.”

Zhou Jin was young and curious, so he bumped into it just now, and saw Zhou Limin's corpse covered by a white cloth, exposing a pair of black and dry feet, like coal fire, very terrifying.

"This is strange. Since there is no trace of fire, how could people be burned to death? Could it be spontaneous combustion?" Wang Xiaoming said.

Before Zhou Jin could answer, a middle-aged man with a livid face walked towards them: "Ah Jin, hurry back, you can't be here anymore."

Zhou Jin said, "Where is my old man?"

"We need to open the ancestral hall." The middle-aged man said, "I will lift Zhou Limin up in the afternoon, and none of you can come out."

Zhou Jin's face also became serious: "Why open the ancestral hall? Zhou Limin..."

"Don't worry about it." The middle-aged man drove them away impatiently: "You guys are leaving today."

He pointed to Wang Xiaoming and the others: "Red Lantern Village will be closed tomorrow, hurry out today."

"Why?" Zhou Jin also asked.

The middle-aged man didn't answer, turned around and left.

At this time, the village chief's wife also came and said that she would help them pack their things and send them out with Zhou Jin.

Zhou Jin is a very face-saving and loyal young man. Seeing his mother's order to chase away guests so bluntly, he also became stubborn and dragged Wang Xiaoming not to leave.

They were really looking forward to it, Ye Xun pretended to be embarrassed by Zhou Jin, and asked in a harmonious voice what happened.

"Is it because of white things?" Ye Xun said: "There should be taboos."

They were right in their analysis. Although Hongdeng Village may not welcome them, and there are hidden places in the writing, in fact, most of the villagers are ordinary farmers, and there are not many twists and turns in their hearts. The wife of the village head was embarrassed for a while, saying that this is not ordinary. It's for their own good to drive away customers.

"If the person is gone, who will drive him away, but Zhou Limin... is ominous." The wife of the village chief said in a low voice.

"Why is it unknown?" Lu Xiaolu said carelessly, "Auntie, we talk about science, don't believe that."

The village head's wife didn't speak, and kept Zhou Jin in custody to send them out of the village, before she breathed a sigh of relief: "You don't ask so many questions, those things are not good."

Zhou Jin said, "I'm from Hongdeng Village. Why didn't you and the old man tell me? If a villager dies, how can we open an ancestral hall?"

The village chief's wife shivered: "You don't understand."

Zhou Jin said: "Then tell me, otherwise we will be so rude."

The wife of the village chief sent them out of the village, and then slowly explained: people in Hongdeng Village are prone to illness at birth, and sick people look strange, and they tend to be unable to support them, so they seldom go out.

Zhou Jin said disdainfully: "I know this too, those freaks have very strange tempers, and they don't see people."

Even though Zhou Jin grew up in the Red Lantern Village, those 'geeks' seldom go out because of their scary looks, and they don't want to meet people, so young people like Zhou Jin, who have lived together for more than 20 years, are rarely seen. , only some soft-hearted old people know which family has such people.

People who have such a person in their family are not willing to accept discussion, so for a long time, people who have a "freak" in their family have locked that person at home, and some have never seen anyone for a lifetime.

"Zhou Limin is not one of those people, even if he is, he doesn't open an ancestral hall." Zhou Jin said, "What do those things have to do with him?"

Wang Xiaoming was a little surprised.

He always thought that Zhou Jin didn't know much about the deformed people in Hongdeng Village, but now it seems that Zhou Jin knew clearly—maybe he didn't know the cause of the deformed people, but he did know that the village where he grew up had a 'second Human-like existence.

And, he calls them 'those things'.

Zhou Jin's attitude may explain the attitude of some villagers in Hongdeng Village.

Knowing that they exist, but acquiescing to their absence.

Not mentioning it, not talking about it, pretending not to see it, has formed a strange tacit understanding for a long time.

Wang Xiaoming suddenly felt a little sad.

If my family members and fellow villagers in the same village use this view to treat those who are hidden at home, then what is the difference between their existence and non-existence?

People in Hongdeng Village regard these people as a secret that they are ashamed to reveal, especially the previous village heads, who take it as their responsibility to conceal this secret. When it comes to the chances of outsiders getting married, various methods are used to restrain the young people in the village.

The village chiefs are very respectable. They are afraid that after the secrets of Red Lantern Village are revealed, the government will send people to arrest them for research, or they will be bought by a freak show juggling troupe, and 'outsiders' will come to visit Red Lantern Village. They don't want to be treated like monsters by outsiders.

So when outsiders came to Hongdeng Village, the village head was very cautious, and the villagers were all secretive, afraid of being exposed.

"There is a boy in Zhou Limin's family who also has no eyes. He just lost his eyes last night." The wife of the village chief brushed her hair together: "So your dad just went there last night and planned to push into the black hole at dawn. I didn't expect it to be dark before dawn." , Zhou Limin is gone too."

"Didn't Liusheng tell you? Someone came into the village before, saying that the black hole is ominous, and they want to help us seal the black hole." The wife of the village head said a little uneasy: "They said that there are ghosts in the black hole, so the Red Lantern Village There are so many people with strange diseases. At that time, they entered the black hole, and Zhou Limin also went to help."

Wang Xiaoming was about to jump up, but Zhong Yi grabbed him and said calmly, "Is there a ghost? Could it be a Taoist priest?"

The wife of the village chief said: "Who knows. Several people came and said they were going to enter the cave, but they never came out. At that time, three people came out of the village to help them release the boat, and it turned out..."

"Dead." She lowered her voice: "Zhou Limin is the second one. Before you came back, Zhou Mifu was also dead and burnt to the core. The elders in the clan said that the black hole is connected to the underworld, and those Taoist priests entered the underworld and could not come back. gone."

"Hurry up. Zhou Limin is too close to the black hole, and he was set on fire by the will-o'-the-wisp, which is very ominous..." The village head's wife pointed the way to them: "You can see the road along the way."

The four of Wang Xiaoming watched Zhou Jin's mother and son turn back to the village, and only glanced at each other when their backs were out of sight.

Di Ting poked around in Wang Xiaoming's backpack, Wang Xiaoming took it out, and put it on his shoulder like Zhong Yi hanging a cat.

"Is my grandfather in that cave?" Wang Xiaoming asked it.

Little White Dog: "Hmm."

Wang Xiaoming black line.

He understood what Truth Listened to mean—it just snorted, and didn't expressly agree with the sentence.

Di Ting often emphasized to them that secrets should not be divulged, so he always spoke in a secretive way, and Wang Xiaoming took him for nodding in affirmation.

Lu Xiaolu was eager to try: "The cave is really connected to the underworld? Let's go back and have a look?"

If it's true, and they want to go in again, then post it—I just went to the ghost market last time, this time I'll go straight to hell! Is there any levelup!

May I ask who is as awesome as Lu Xiaolu in traveling as soon as he wants to go!

Zhong Yi said, "I can't go now."

"If we don't go back now, they say they will close the road, and the whole village will probably have to do something, so we won't be able to get in." Lu Xiaolu said.

Zhong Yi looked at Wang Xiaoming.

I don't know if it's because Wang Dazhuang finally had a whereabouts, but part of Wang Xiaoming's heart finally fell to the ground.

He met Zhong Yi's gaze, and laughed a few times: "Go back now, and they won't let us in to make trouble. So let's follow the old rules."

Ye Xun: "Oh?"

"We will reopen in the middle of the night." Wang Xiaoming said, stroking the little white dog's buttocks.