Editor's note: This is a very good detective crime novel. It moves towards the truth step by step, with bold assumptions and detailed and meticulous thinking and verification. The second aunt who was frightened to death by ghosts, the second uncle who looked for ghosts in the graves every night, the unusual Xie Gui, "I" who was a detective for the first time, and the three skulls on the skull tree, intricately intertwined to create a complex story. situation. Tell fortunes and believe in fortunes, even to the point of killing one's life for money. The sense of fate can always make people get lost easily. There is not too much dialogue between good and evil, and there is no joy of accomplishing great things. There is only heaviness and thoughts about fate and death. Appreciate it and hope more people will share it!
After returning to the village for a half-month vacation, I will report to the Criminal Police Team of the County Public Security Bureau. In other words, I finally became an official criminal police officer.
When I was eight years old, my mother told me my fortune. The blind fortune teller said that I had a noble destiny and that in the future I would "step on a fart bug and hold a cannon in my hand." You don't understand, right? Our place is too remote and our language is vulgar. We still call motorcycles a fart bug and pistols a box gun.
The whole village believed the blind man's words, because in addition to telling my life, the blind man also told my second aunt's fate.
The fate of the second aunt was expressed in a limerick by the blind man: My mother's family carried rice, but it turned into chaff halfway, and a strong wind passed by, leaving all the rice in the basket.
The second aunt's family was rich and had many escorts, but the second uncle was an alcoholic, so he drank even the smallest amount of money. This calculation is equivalent to revealing all the facts about the second uncle's drinking and ruining the family. It is so vivid and vivid that everyone finds it magical. Except for the second aunt who sighs and sheds tears because of her miserable life, many people are eager to try to calculate their own fortunes. .
This calculation made the eight-year-old me straighten up in the village, which means that I should not be underestimated in the future.
Everyone speculated for a long time and thought that I would definitely join the army in the future, and I would be a scout, because only scouts in the army could ride "fart bugs", and holding a "box cannon" would at least be an officer above the company commander level.
My second uncle was the village chief, so when I was eight years old, I imitated my second uncle’s example of walking with my hands behind my back and my chest upright. The situation of commanding ordinary friends to attack the city and seize territory by shouting five and six is more powerful than that of a company commander.
And my current career is to be a criminal police officer. The blind man is right. He has a fart bug on his feet and a cannon in his hand – a detective who is as majestic as the company commander.
This is already the highest honor for our family. I brought this honor back to the village to stay for half a month. Before that, I had been an intern in the Criminal Police Team of the County Public Security Bureau for half a year. I participated in the detection of many cases and felt like I was on the battlefield. of tension and excitement. At the crime scene, life is often interpreted differently. I look forward to the end of the vacation and getting back to work immediately.
When I returned to the village, my second uncle came to me and said, "You are back. Please solve the case in our village first."
"Is there a case in our village? What kind of cases will there be in our village?"
"Our village is haunted."
I smiled unconsciously. "Second uncle, you must have drunk too much again. What do you think I am? My nephew is now a well-known criminal policeman of the Public Security Bureau. Is he back to catch ghosts for you?"
"The ghost scared your second aunt to death."
"Where is the ghost?"
"The skeleton tree at the entrance of the village is haunted."
Of course I know the skeleton tree at the entrance of the village. It is a ginkgo tree that has been passed down in our village for thousands of years. It was as big as several people could hug it. It died a few years ago. The middle of the trunk has withered. There are many caves. Look at the branches and trunk in the dark. , as eerie as a skeleton, people in the village call it the skeleton tree.
"You mean the Skeleton Tree is haunted?"
"yes."
"What's the point of making trouble? Are you scared?"
"Oh, you don't know, your second aunt was scared to death by that ghost."
"How can it be?"
The second uncle said: "Let's go see the skeleton tree tonight."
I nodded. At night, we carried flashlights and walked together to the skeleton tree.
A quarter moon hung in the sky, and the night sky was filled with darkness. We walked slowly on the dirt road in the village, and from time to time a few dogs barked at us.
Half a year in the criminal police team was like meeting the Lord of Hell. We had seen all kinds of dead people. Once we fished out a dead person from the water that had been soaked for several months. It was already a skeleton wrapped in a pile of carrion. Jiang The captain asked me to use a brush to clean the carrion on the bones. I pulled the corpses piece by piece, and then washed them in the water. The white bones came out. The hairs on my hair stood on end as the dirty water washed down. It seeped into my stomach, and I lay on the ground, vomiting as if I had drunk pesticide.
"I'm going to die." I wanted to vomit my entrails, but the old forensic doctor kept laughing as he looked at me.
"If you vomit this time, you will become a real detective." The old forensic doctor said.
I said to the old forensic doctor: "After vomiting this time, I won't vomit even if I eat shit."
After I vomited, I really became a real detective. No matter whether it was a person or a ghost in front of me, it could not scare me.
Since then, we have stayed at the funeral parlor late at night and carried dead people at night. We were not afraid at all. I understand what happens after death. After death, people will vomit at best, but they will not turn into ghosts.
If you hear about a person being scared to death by a ghost, there must be a ghost involved.
But the situation is different under this skeleton tree, because there are memories of my childhood here. When we were children, we used to play hide-and-seek here at night, catching ghosts. When we caught a friend, we would shout "Ghost!" Then learn a ghost cry. Then everyone dispersed and ran in a hurry. At this time, it was not people chasing ghosts but ghosts chasing people. The eerie feeling was suffocating and scary. Moreover, there are ghost faces everywhere on the trunk of the skeleton tree. When the moonlight shines on it, there are all kinds of ghosts with hair, hanging ghosts, and starving ghosts on them. In severe cases, I would be so frightened that I would have a high fever, and my mother would climb to the roof and hold the chimney to summon spirits.
Therefore, it is very scary to walk alone at night. When you get to the skeleton tree, you always go around it and try not to provoke the skeleton tree.
At this time, a gust of wind blew by, and the branches of the skeleton tree made a creaking sound like a loose wooden bed.
A black bird leaped into the air from the tree hole with a "hoo" sound, making a strange chirping sound. And there were strange sounds that I had never heard before coming from the top of the tree, like real ghosts.
At this time, the second uncle's body suddenly fell backwards, foaming at the mouth.
"Second uncle, second uncle."
"Ghost, ghost, ghost, I saw a ghost."
"There is a ghost somewhere. You are mistaken. It is a bird, not a ghost."
"It's a ghost, it's really a ghost. Let's go quickly."
I also became frightened, and my hair stood on end. I picked up my second uncle and ran back. I farted twice while running, and I didn't dare to stop even half a step.
I got up early the next morning and came to the skeleton tree. I regretted that I shouldn't have been so panicked. What are you afraid of? Although you don't have a cannon in your hand, as a criminal policeman, if you are so panicked, the villagers will laugh at you if they see you.
I looked at the skeleton tree again and again, but there was nothing strange about it.
I drilled my body into the hollow of the tree, which was filled with stones by naughty children.
I found a rope, tied a buckle, threw the buckle to the top branch of the tree like a knight, and then jumped to the top of the skeleton tree.
I went to the top of the tree. The top was dilapidated and looked more like an indoor scene of robbery. However, I saw several real skulls in a tree hole above.
I was shocked. After half a year in the criminal police team, I was trained to be sensitive to skulls. As a criminal police officer, who dares to look down on a skull. The dead are the most important, and human life is at stake. As soon as they hear that a dead person or skeleton has been found somewhere, the sirens will sound immediately, and the detectives will rush to the scene like firefighters.
And now I was at the scene of the skull.
But I don’t have the excitement and nervousness of discovering important police information.
Because our place is a mountain village, before cremation was implemented, the dead people within a ten-mile radius were carried to the mountain in coffins. This situation has been going on for generations, so that all the hands and feet are covered with graveyards. Some graves are in disrepair and are dilapidated. , dogs will put their heads in the holes and take out human bones or even skeletons. A heavy rain will also flush out the skeletons from the graves.
When we were children herding cattle, we would fall asleep on the grass on the mountain without realizing it. When we woke up, we would find a skeleton not far away. We brought some skeletons into the village as toys for the children to enjoy with each other.
Therefore, it is not strange to see skeletons anywhere in this village. If there is a fuss over this, it is necessary to say that a murder may have occurred in the village, and the scene must be controlled and protected. It must be shocking and have colleagues from the county criminal police team rush over. If it is a dead head picked up in the wild, people will not laugh out loud. . People will definitely say that I am crazy for wanting to solve crimes and crazy for wanting to be famous, and then I will get a reputation of being unstable. You know, it is very scary for a criminal police officer to have a reputation of being unstable. No matter what the criminal police team is doing, it cannot be left to an unstable person.
But this matter is difficult for me. If it is a murder case, I turn a blind eye. Once the truth comes out in the future, I will bear the reputation of being insensitive. Who are you, you are a criminal police officer, you saw three skulls, they were placed together, and in front of your fellow villagers, after you saw them, you left as if nothing happened? Do you still want to be in the criminal police team in the future?
Oops, this is embarrassing me, what can I do?
I decided to use my power as a detective and try my best to explore the depth and depth of the water here.
The second uncle woke up and looked in a daze.
"Second uncle, did you find anything else at the scene?"
"Scene? What scene?"
"That's where my second aunt died."
"It was raining heavily at the time, and your second aunt and I didn't know what was going on, so we didn't know what was left there. However, someone picked up an ax there."
"Axe? Who picked it up?"
"Your mother, didn't your mother tell you?"
Oh my god, what a coincidence.
I immediately went home to look for the axe, which was placed carelessly behind the door.
Is this the ax that appeared at the scene? This is an ordinary axe.
If it was lost by someone in the village, no matter who it was, they would search from house to house in the whole village, so it wouldn't just lie there carelessly.
"Mom, has no one ever come looking for this axe?"
"Yes, don't you think it's strange? After I picked up this ax under the skeleton tree, everyone in the village saw it. No one recognized the ax. Maybe it was thrown by a passerby."
"Mom, tell me, how did my second aunt die?"
"Your second aunt died of a strange disease. She said she saw a ghost at night and was frightened to death by the ghost. That night your second uncle went to town to drink. When he came back after drinking until midnight, he fell and fell under the skeleton tree. Your second aunt Seeing that your second uncle never came back, I took a flashlight to look for him. When I found him under the skeleton tree, I met a ghost. The ghost scared me out of my soul. How can a person survive without eating or drinking? He kept shouting "Gui Gui Gui Gui". He died a few days later, with his eyes open when he died. I have never seen such a scary death appearance, how pitiful."
"Did uncle scare her?"
"That won't happen. They are a couple after all. You don't understand this aspect. When people become a couple, they are like the left hand and the right hand. No matter what, the left hand will not scare the right hand to death."
I admire my mother's expressive ability. My mother has been accustomed to being short-tempered and has developed an excellent eloquence, so that she can easily explain the ins and outs of this matter to me. The mother used a left-hand and right-hand metaphor, basically ruling out the possibility that the second uncle scared the second aunt to death.
"So, what else happened in our village that night?"
"Then I can't remember clearly."
"Think about it, Mom, you must think about it. Your memory has always been very good, especially for things that have nothing to do with our family."
"Yeah, let me think about it."
My mother has told the Zhang family about her son becoming a criminal police officer a thousand and two hundred times. Now she may see a sense of urgency and seriousness on my face. There is also an exclusive news that she will be the first to tell. Spread people’s excitement.
"I remembered that it was going to rain that night, and three people who purchased medicinal materials wanted to stay at Xie Gui's house in our village. I don't know whether they lived there or not. But then those three people never came to our village again, and they never came to our village again. Never been here, just like disappeared.”
three people? Three skeletons? My heart tightened and I shivered.
"What kind of people are these three?"
"Three men, all in their thirties or forties. I heard they are from Henan. They push small carts and often come to our village to buy medicinal materials."
“Do they often live in our village?”
"I don't stay here very often. I only stay here when it rains."
"Mom, this ax needs to be hidden. It can't be left carelessly here."
I asked my mother to hide the ax immediately.
Xie Gui's family is digging a well. They hired people from other villages to dig a well.
Our place is remote, and there is a reservoir on the mountain. We usually carry water from the reservoir, but in recent years, more and more people think that the water in the reservoir is dirty, so they have to dig their own wells to get water. In fact, the water in the reservoir is from mountain springs, as clear as water. The villagers thought it was dirty because they said the mountains were full of graves. Those who died from liver cancer, stomach cancer, cerebral hemorrhage and epilepsy were buried in the mountains. After a rain, those who had never died were buried in the mountains. Couldn't all the water flowing from the dead bodies be collected into this reservoir? The fish in the reservoir are fatter than those elsewhere. People are not fish. Fish will gain weight if they eat this water, and people will be unlucky if they eat this water. Is the water in this reservoir still drinkable? So far, no one in the village has suffered from a disease more serious than a cold, and three to five people have lived past the age of ninety. But human life is more controlled by psychology. At noon that day after I brushed the bones of the dead, I felt like I was vomiting to death in front of the white rice. I didn’t even eat a grain of rice, because when I saw those rice grains, I thought of the white rice. bones of the dead. Of course, I believe that the water in the reservoir is clean. Between the cemetery and the reservoir, there is a long stretch of green hills, green forests, and field soil. They work around the clock like the human immune system, intercepting the disease for us. Infiltration of various viruses.
People in the village also suspected that the water in the reservoir was poisonous, but few people dug wells. Why did Xie Gui's family dig wells?
I passed by Xie Gui's house on purpose.
Xie Gui smiled at me. In terms of seniority, Xie Gui is a generation older than me. I call him Uncle Xie.
"Uncle Xie, we need to dig a well at home."
"Yes, the water in the reservoir is dirty."
"I worked as a police officer, and then I realized that the water was dirty. If a dead person is soaked in the water for a month, the meat will be like a steamed bun soaked in water. It will be loose and loose. You can pick it up with a slight tug. You said you let the dead person die? Is the water after soaking dirty?"
I looked at him closely to see his reaction.
There is a kind of people who have poor psychological endurance and poor self-control. They are happy and worried. The other kind of people are just the opposite. They are not afraid of the collapse of Mount Tai before their eyes. These two types of people are common among the people we live in, even in remote rural areas. Of course, because our village is remote and the folk customs are simple, and people's hearts are like a well with clear water rising upwards, without a control valve, few people have such self-control. I hope Xie Gui in front of me is like this, but I also wish he would see me panic like my second uncle when he saw a ghost.
Xie Gui had a smile on his face, and the expression on his face was very natural and calm.
"I brought back good tea leaves from the county. When water comes out of your well, I will use your well water to make tea and drink it." I said.
"Okay." Xie Gui replied.
The contact with Xie Gui still made me feel a little strange, because when I stopped in front of him, he didn't even warm up. For example, he said: "Xiao Lin, our family dug a well today and killed a goose. Come to us." Let’s have dinner at home.” It’s just a warm greeting, not a real invitation. If I were invited, I wouldn’t really go. Almost everyone in our village would say such kind words, but Xie Gui didn’t say it, so maybe there was something really going on.
But that night, Xie Gui brought a large bowl of goose meat to my house.
"It's a goose that was killed at home, so Xiao Lin can have a taste of it."
"No way." I hurriedly declined.
"Xiao Lin, you are now promising. It is rare for a golden phoenix like you to fly in our village. In the future, my sons will have to rely on you to take care of them."
"I heard that their academic performance is very good."
"Oh, I will need more help from you in the future."
Xie Gui put down the goose meat and left.
Looking at Xie Gui's back, it seemed that there was something unusual about his behavior, but after careful consideration, it was difficult to tell what was different.
Is there something wrong with that well?
At night, I really couldn't sleep, so I tiptoed to the well. The well was like a big eye open, emitting a deathly light, as if all the secrets on the skeleton tree were hidden in this deathly light.
Looking around the bamboo forest and woods, the bamboo leaves under the moonlight show an unimaginable uniformity. The divine light comes and goes, and the yin and yang appear, showing a strange and strange beauty.
At this time, it seemed as if a black shadow flashed in the bamboo forest. I quickly raised my foot to chase after it. Unexpectedly, my foot slipped and with a "boom", my whole body fell into the deep well. The bottom of the well was dark, and even if there were any secrets, I couldn't pry into it. My body was lying on a pile of clay. If it hadn't been for this pile of clay, I would have become a ghost in the well.
How did I fall into Xie Gui's well? At this time, I was really like a frog in a well. How could I still have the spirit of a detective? When I looked up at the sky, the broken shadows of bamboo leaves in the sky became complicated and messy, playfully showing their beauty and mystery. The cut moonlight was like broken silver. Throwing the earth into the well makes people feel as if they have arrived in Hades.
I didn't dare to scream. If the black figure found me falling into the well and turned around, he could quickly push down the soil beside the well and bury me alive in an instant. I didn't dare to shout. I couldn't let Xie Gui know that I fell into the well. I had to wait and wait for tomorrow to come. However, soon there were footsteps, and the sound came straight to the well, and my heart skipped a beat.
"Who is it? Who is in the well? Is it a human or a ghost?" It was Xie Gui's voice.
"It's me, Xiaolin, I fell into your well."
"Xiao Lin, why did you come to the well so late? Why didn't you call someone? Fortunately, I heard the sound of you falling into the well."
The black figure stood still on the edge of the well and poked his head out. The face was like a few scribbles on a piece of black paper. There was no aura of a human face at all. I felt scared, would he kill me? can you?
"Xiao Lin, I will throw the rope down. You must hold on to the rope, but hold on tightly. I will pull you up."
Sure enough, Xie Gui dropped the rope. I grabbed the rope and quickly judged its thickness and straightness. It is said that the Buddha saved all sentient beings and could send a piece of spider silk into the underworld to rescue the wronged souls there. I accurately judged that the thing that saved me was a rope, not a spider's silk, and that the person who saved me was Xie Gui, not the Buddha. Xie Gui, why did he do this? At this time, his strength was almost close to that of Buddha, because the rope in my hand not only gave me enough upward strength, but was also firm and stable. I climbed up the well along the rope with almost no trouble.
I'm a little embarrassed. There are countless gullies and caves on the ground in this village. They may be smelly latrines or deep watery wells. There is no record of citizens in this village falling into wells and pits, not to mention that I am still a criminal police officer.
"I haven't walked in the village for a few years. The roads are unfamiliar." Xie Gui laughed at his embarrassment.
At this moment, I really doubted my original judgment. Could this Xie Gui be the murderer who made the three skeletons?
My disappearance made my mother and uncle uneasy. If I didn't come back, they would send someone to look for me. I was in a panic and embarrassed to tell them about my fall into the well. In order to divert their attention, I I asked my mother to take out the ax and show it to me.
They all thought that I must have made some new discovery. In fact, I just wanted to divert their attention. I have never been in such an embarrassing situation since the fortune teller told me my fortune when I was eight years old.
I was suddenly startled and started to slap the table. My second uncle was so frightened that he was at a loss.
"Damn it, I finally caught the fox by the tail."
"What's wrong?"
"Look, the handle of this ax can only form such grip marks if it is used by a left-hander for a long time. The person who uses this ax is a left-hander. Who in our village is left-handed?"
The second uncle and my mother were silent.
"Is Xie Gui left-handed?" I asked.
My second uncle and my mother both nodded in agreement.
The Xie Gui who dug the well, the Xie Gui who served the goose meat, and the Xie Gui who just pulled me out of the well. Every time I come into contact with him, don’t I feel that there is something inexplicably different about him? There was something different about him, as if his left hand had scared his right hand to death, so much so that he would stretch out his left hand whenever he did anything.
Is it really him? I couldn't bear to think like this. I could feel the force he used without hesitation when he pulled me out of the well. That force might contain some kind of kindness. Evil is like a deep well, and even a criminal police officer cannot sense its depth.
After all, he saved me just now. If he died as a murderer, he could make another choice. Sinful crimes often turn a person's heart into a bottomless well. You fall into his well without any harm, just because you are a criminal policeman?
However, I clearly felt that the force of his throwing down the rope clearly came from his left hand.
He seemed to be one step closer to the goal I was pursuing, and one step further away.
what do I do?
The next day, I took the ax to Xie Gui's house.
"Uncle Xie, does this ax belong to you?"
"Ah…yes, yes, this ax has been lost for several years. Why is it in your hand?"
"My mother picked it up under the skeleton tree. She didn't know who lost it. I studied it for a long time and found that the person who used this ax was left-handed. My second uncle said that you are the only left-handed person in the village, so I thought of you. .”
"Xiao Lin, you are truly a detective. You will definitely have a great future."
Xie Gui still looked calm. He took the ax, held it in his left hand, and looked at the ax carefully. I knew that at this time, he was not looking at the ax, but at me, so I stood in front of him, not speech. The east wind and the west wind often confront each other in the air like this, so the east wind overwhelms the west wind or the west wind overpowers the east wind. I want to overwhelm him, defeat him, defeat him in the cold light of the ax and my eyes. At this moment, the vast and profound inner strength protruded in the shape of a horn between our foreheads, revealing a kind of tenacity and coldness. My eyes were staring at him, mine were like knives, but his eyes were still so flexible. We held each other in the bright light for a long time, but he remained calm and composed.
"Xiao Lin, thank you for sending me the axe. Thank your mother for me."
He picked up the ax and turned away.