Human dimension reduction

Qiao Zhou was in a good mood after getting rid of a greased paper bag that was occupying his hands. It was rare that he kindly reminded the three unlucky guys who still seemed to have their own selves. The woman in the homemade blue coat is holding a vegetable basket and going out to buy vegetables.

The bun on her head was neatly combed, tied in a round ball on the back of her head, her cheeks were drooping, and she had a benign face. When she saw a stranger approaching, a trace of suspicion flashed in her eyes: "This gentleman... "

Qiao Zhou stopped in a hurry: "It's my first time here too, and I don't know the way, big sister, where is the cheapest cemetery here?"

The woman was stunned for a moment by his question: "Grave... Graveyard?"

The middle-aged man in front of her showed a sad and sad expression: "I came from another place, my little daughter's jaundice is gone, and all the money on my body has been spent on medical treatment. The cemetery contacted by the hospital is too expensive..."

When he said this, he rubbed his woolen soft hat embarrassingly, and the poverty and sorrow of being forced by life appeared in his expression.

"Oh..." The woman relaxed without doubting him, nodded sympathetically, and stretched out her hand to show him the route, "There are two, one is in the east, you have to go a little far, the one in the south is closer..."

After listening to Qiao Zhou, he sincerely thanked her, put on his hat and walked in the direction she pointed.

As expected, the cemetery was not very far away. He found it after walking for half an hour. On the edge of the desolate city, undulating tombs stretched away, withered vines and old trees, a group of crows twittering, and the graves with tombstones and grass swept away. There is nothing wrong with saying that they are mass graves.

In this prosperous and barbaric era, the wine and meat of rich families stinks, the roads are frozen to death, and it is completely realistic. Once a person wandering on the street dies, he only deserves a roll of straw mats—most people don’t even deserve to have straw mats.

Qiao Zhou sniffed the strange smell of rotting bones and incense candles in the air, stood by the side for a long time, then reluctantly raised his feet, and walked in along the path stepped on by his predecessors.

Many skinny corpses were randomly thrown on the mound and covered with a thin layer of soil. Qiao Zhou's cold gaze swept across them without stopping.

His attention is all on those new graves. Some graves will use simple wooden boards to make tombstones. Stone materials are also expensive things in this era. At least poor people can’t afford them. Write the year of birth and death of the owner of the tomb.

The new grave is easy to recognize, the soil on the top of the grave is moist, and there are still white flags floating in front of the grave. Qiao Zhou looked through each piece of the grave patiently, and finally stopped in front of a tombstone. His eyes were fixed on the last line: Born in the early years of the Republic of China On January [-]th, he died on April [-]th in the sixth year of the Republic of China.

The crimson cinnabar has drawn a circle of lines on the wooden sign, and the twists and turns are like ghostly symbols, which is very evil to look at.

The joss sticks in front of the grave have not been burned out yet, and the earth is heavy in color, so it should be the burial that took place today.

Qiao Zhou stared at the curved painting in the melody for a while, bowed deeply to the tombstone three times, then picked up a rotten board that had fallen on the ground, rolled up his sleeves and started... digging the grave.

"What are you doing!"

The puppet got out of his pocket, and the whole puppet was dumbfounded.

In its short life, it has never seen a guy who is more inconspicuous than Qiao Zhou. Don't they human beings pay great attention to personal morality and think that the dead are the most important?Why did it encounter a strange creature who robs like eating and digs graves like returning home!

This guy has no bottom line!

Not to mention that he is so proficient in robbing and robbing. He is so skilled in pinching people like a blind master who has been working in a massage parlor for many years. How can he even do such things as digging graves without psychological burden?

Sitting in Qiao Zhou's pocket, the living puppet watched the soil on the grave rise like heavy rain, and the soil layer was reduced at an unimaginable speed. For some reason, he suddenly felt sincerely grateful for his promise to serve Qiao Zhou earlier. .

It didn't want to think about what Qiao Zhou would do to it if it didn't agree.

"Dig the grave, can't you tell?" Qiao Zhou answered the puppet's question patiently, taking a break from his busy schedule, with pure concern for its IQ in his tone.

The puppet froze for a moment, then rushed to the top of its head: "I know you are digging a grave, I mean why are you digging a grave! Do you know this person?"

Qiao Zhou quickly denied, "I don't know."

The puppet moved its mouth and asked with difficulty: "Then why do you want to..."

Qiao Zhou slammed the board into the soil, patted the ash on his trouser legs, bent down, and the puppet realized that he had already dug the grave.

This kind of grave is not so densely piled up, the soil layer is loose, and a large layer can be removed by scraping it off. Qiao Zhou waved the wooden board and dug up the mound without much effort, and saw the small coffin inside. .

It is said that it is a coffin, but it is just a composite of several thin wooden boards nailed together, but what is creepy is that these thin wooden boards are nailed with long yellow talisman paper, and the cinnabar part drawn on it has been buried by the soil. The water vapor swam away, and the fluffy ground condensed into balls of red. Qiao Zhou turned a blind eye to the obviously abnormal scene in front of him, and while prying the corners of the wooden board, he replied to the puppet: "Because children are relatively light, they are easy to hold. .”

Here he pried the wood recklessly and creaked, and the puppet was in a panic, in case someone found a bastard here prying the coffin...

It doesn't care about the talisman paper pasted on the coffin. To be precise, it doesn't know what the normal burial procedures of human beings should be like. After all, it's just a puppet that stays in the operating room of the hospital all year round.

It crawled out of Qiao Zhou's pocket, and with a heart that didn't exist, it began to let Qiao Zhou relax. While letting it go, it still spurned itself in its heart. Why on earth did it want to let this hateful human being loose!Wouldn't it be nice to let him be caught and killed!

It didn't realize what Qiao Zhou said just now after spurning itself, and immediately went to the room angrily: "I'm asking why you dig a grave and steal a corpse!"

He did it on purpose!Deliberately pretending not to understand!

Qiao Zhou raised one corner of his mouth and said happily, "Ah, this..."

The man opened the thin wood and looked inside like a sleeping six-year-old boy. He was wearing a half-new black cloth, and his hair was abnormally thick black. , there was a touch of carmine on his lips, and the low temperature in winter prevented the corpse from seriously decomposing. Only his slightly pale complexion could tell that his life had stayed in the past.

Qiao Zhou stretched out his hand to pick up the little child, adjusted his posture, with a look of sadness on his face, and said slowly, "My child died at such a young age, of course I want to find the best mortician for him." .”

At this moment, it seemed that he had really become the father of this young child, and was experiencing heartbreaking grief for the death of the young child.

The puppet stared at him dumbfounded, Qiao Zhou glanced at the silly puppet on his shoulder, and clicked his tongue: "If you don't dig graves and steal corpses, do you want me to kill people?"

He showed a toothache-like expression as if thinking of something: "Your gameplay... is a bit violent? I personally don't like this kind of players who don't follow the rules of the game."

The puppet is almost suffocating. Does digging a grave follow the rules?It might be better to say that the person who digs graves just to see some mortician is a real rule-breaker!Is the game you design really anyone willing to play? !

The child's body was soft, except that he didn't have the temperature that a human body should have. He looked like a living person. Qiao Zhou sat on the ground, hugged him on his lap, and gently clamped the child's chin with two fingers, carefully sizing him up. Looking at the child's face, he took out a veil from his pocket, and applied it neatly to the child's face. After wiping it three or two times, the veil was covered with red, white, and various powders and oils.

Looking at that child again, there is no such thing as a peaceful and innocent sleeping appearance, it is clearly a hideous and distorted face of a venomous ghost!

"The person who put on makeup on him is amazing. This technique can be said to be a miracle." Qiao Zhou raised his head in amazement, and even he felt a little uncomfortable because of the child's corpse's too ferocious appearance.

After wiping off the snow-white makeup powder and bright red lipstick that concealed the complexion, the child's complexion was blue and white with purple, a small mouth that was almost dark, and the bulging blue and purple blood vessels around the eyes were hideous like spider webs. They were deliberately adjusted into a peaceful and smiling face Because of this true appearance, he appeared even more terrifying and resentful. Anyone with a discerning eye could tell that the cause of this child's death was definitely not simple, at least he was full of resentment when he died.

What is the reason that makes a six-year-old child have such deep evil thoughts?

The purpose of the runes painted on the tombstone is unknown, but the paper symbols nailed on the coffin are obviously used for repression rather than protection. Repression of a six-year-old child?The problem here is obviously worth looking into, but it's a pity that Qiao Zhou is not of the nature to draw his sword to help when he sees injustice, he is just happy that he is lucky this time.

The puppet grabbed Qiao Zhou's clothes: "How do you know that the person buried below is like this?"

In its understanding, Qiao Zhou would definitely not do useless things. He dug the grave to steal the corpse to find the undertaker, but he chose this grave, which shows that he should know the things in this grave.

"I don't know." Qiao Zhou's answer was beyond the puppet's expectations.

He folded the red, white and white handkerchief and put it back in his pocket: "There is a circle of cinnabar-painted runes on the tombstone. Either the people here are too superstitious, or the owner of the tomb below is a bit evil. Anyway, no matter what the reason is, it's all right." You can bring it to the mortician."

"Didn't that girl from Paramount say that all matters of the dead are in the hands of the undertaker. My son died in such a wicked way, so he doesn't care?"

Qiao Zhou took off his coat and wrapped the child tightly so as not to scare passers-by. Although he felt that monsters on the road should not be afraid of corpses, he is a good man with a sense of public morality after all, and he is willing to be considerate within the atmosphere within his ability. other's.

So, on a hot afternoon in the winter sun, shop owners and residents in Liuzi Lane in the south of the city who were basking in the sun saw a middle-aged man who was haggard and decadent, with red and swollen eyes, and his body was covered in mud and gray. Holding a roll of things wrapped in a coat, he staggered into this alley, also known as "Baishi Street".

"I'm looking for an undertaker... the best, the best undertaker..."

The voice of this desperate and distressed man was hoarse, his speech was like a whisper, and his eyes were wandering. He was obviously overwhelmed by the great sadness, and he could only repeat this sentence in a murmur.

"I'm looking for an embalmer... I want the best, I want the best..."

He kept repeating this sentence, and the white market owners who were used to similar scenes exchanged knowing glances with each other and looked at him sympathetically.

This age, this reaction, and the size of the thing in my arms...

The one who died must be the child whom he cherished so much, maybe the only child he had been looking forward to for many years.

An old woman who was folding paper ingots put down her work and went up to help him. The desperate father looked at her and murmured: "I'm looking for the best embalmer..."

The old woman looked sympathetically, and pointed in one direction: "I know, you came to find Mr. Lan, right? You are resting right now. Go to the end and find the one with the white lantern. Mr. Lan doesn't like to talk. Just go in by yourself."

The middle-aged man nodded bewilderedly and absent-mindedly, and walked in the direction she pointed, with one foot deep and the other shallow, passing through the silent eyes of everyone.

The alley was not long, but it was twists and turns, and was so narrow that two people could barely walk side by side. He walked through it alone, and soon disappeared from everyone's sight.

Orchid.

The man with a sad face chewed the surname in his heart.

Could this be the person he was looking for?