Chapter 43: Honest officials are hard to judge
She was really scary at that time, as if she was possessed by an evil spirit. Her numb eyes turned fierce in an instant, and there was a sharp light like a knife, with rust stains, I think it was the smell of blood. Like a wild cat with fried hair, it looks haggard, but every hair that stands up is sharp.
"Okay, okay..." Finally, I said to her, "Then what should I do so that you will believe me?"
She did listen, calmed down a little, and took a small step back. Miss Tao took a deep breath and her murderous eyes cooled down.
"unless……"
"unless?"
"You go find the treasure," she said, "and give it to me."
I don't understand. But he thought about it and told her: "It's not impossible, but do you really trust me? Besides, I'm not here for it, but for you. Do you know where that thing is?"
"I don't know. If I knew, I would have gotten it a long time ago." She said coldly, "I dare not say that I know. If I told it like this, the people who came to visit before would hold me hostage and force me to talk to them. Let's die together. When the time comes, I won't even know how I died. Even in my own home, I can't care about my own safety, let alone outside... I can't trust anyone except my family, and I shouldn't trust anyone. This is He told me."
I glanced at the bed again, looked at her again, and asked sincerely: "Then do you believe me?"
She didn't speak, just looked at me. Her big eyes were round and round. Under the too-long hair curtain that had not been taken care of, she looked like a little animal hiding under the cabinet and under the table. She secretly looked at the outside and made a calculation in her heart. .
"What do you want it for?"
"Do you know what kind of treasure that is?" she asked me.
She is actually very smart, which is a good thing because it allows her to survive alone in this crisis-ridden world.
"Yes." I nodded truthfully, "Although I don't covet it, I have indeed heard of such a thing. It is a special kind of clam. It is said to be the treasure of the dragon clan, and it is also said to be related to the shark clan. How to live in exile At this point, I have no idea. I just heard that that thing has the power to make people immortal."
"It can also cure all the ills in the world."
I nodded again. It seems that she is also aware of this matter, and sincerely hopes to cure her brother, and is definitely not fleeing here in exchange for money. But people often underestimate their greed. Many people think this way at first, and then think that way again when they are faced with huge benefits. They may even betray their relatives and friends, even if they have had life-and-death acquaintances. It can also be left behind. I see examples like this all the time. Of course, I won't doubt her relationship with her brother because of something that hasn't happened yet. At least at this moment, at the moment, her thoughts are so sincere and vivid.
"I can find it for you, as long as you wait here for me to come back. By then, whether I can find it or not, whether the magic weapon can work or not, you must leave here with me."
She looked at me with that special look again, and I knew that she had been shaken. Things went smoothly after that. I discussed it with her and got up and set off. I promised her that whether I found it or not, I would come back here and give her an explanation - if I could still find my way back here. The forest was very scary, and it was rumored that the curse started near the forest and spread throughout the village. The trees in this forest are difficult to see in other places. They basically do not grow alone. They are all in patches - very big patches. Their most important features are that they are dark and tall, and are as hard as iron and difficult to burn. Each tree looks like an elongated cone in appearance. There are no branches at the lower end of the tree, and those that are are at very high places. After the first thunderstorm in summer, they produce leaves, which then dry up and fall off immediately after the first autumn wind. So every step I took through the snow was not on soil, but on thick rotten leaves. If the tree does not rot, the leaves will rot very hard and will turn into soil in the second summer. Even if this kind of tree dies, it will remain on the ground for many years, and in summer it can still grow leaves from the remaining nutrients in its branches.
I was the girl Tao Zhu who visited me at noon that day. Holding my Kagura bell, I walked in the woods step by step until dusk. Those trees have many broken marks like eyes, like birch trees, so vivid that they seem to blink at any time. It's just that in contrast to the birch tree, the outside is black and the traces inside the bark are white. It reminds me of a friend... that's all. I kept walking until it was almost dark.
Then I turned around and asked, "When are you going to take action?"
I know she has been following me.
No one answered behind me. It was getting late, and the entire forest took on a hazy hue. She was hiding behind a certain tree, and her small figure was easily obscured by the trees that were not thick. When she didn't show up, I continued.
"The knife on the chopping board is more like a meat cutter than a vegetable cutter. But you don't always have such conditions here. If you put a kitchen knife on it, I won't be suspicious. I can do it. Suddenly, you are probably not prepared. There are some bones not far away, some of which look like human ones. Of course, you can also interpret it as an attack by wild beasts."
Miss Tao Zhu came out, holding the sharp knife in her hand. The setting sun fell on the slightly rusty blade, giving it a blood-like color. That knife should have killed a lot of people.
"Is that all your evidence?"
She was eerily calm. But I know that with her appearance like this, she probably doesn’t want to continue acting. She wanted to know how much more I could tell, so I continued.
"The water at noon was also problematic. It was laced with poison. The medicine was always in the bowl, always ready. In the forest, there were also many bones, not just of animals - not just those killed by predators, More people died in traps. There were also many traps cleverly hidden by the heavy snow, such as bear traps, ropes, potholes, etc. My eyesight and luck were good enough, and I haven’t fallen into the trap until now. You just wait. It’s nothing less than that.”
"The trap can only be set in the largest area that can be reached during the day, otherwise I won't be able to go back. After all, there is nothing here... I don't believe anyone can survive the next day, so I followed you. You are indeed an accident. .”
She suddenly grinned, and the smile seemed to be cut from her face with the knife in her hand. The previous numbness was swept away, and it was different from the anger, but full of vitality. She is very powerful and pretends to be the same. If I had not known the truth, I would have almost been deceived by her. If she were to become an actress, I'm afraid she could live a much richer life than she does now.
"Everything you've done so far is within my expectations." I responded.
"What else do you know that you can tell me about?"
She played with the knife in her hand, throwing it high and catching it steadily, very skillfully. She only wore two layers, not even the blankets in the house, she was really cold-resistant. The sun was about to sink completely, stretching our shadows very long. This confirmed that Tao Zhu was indeed a living person and not a ghost.
"I also know that you and your brother are not from this village. When it was still called a village, there was no family with the surname Tao, so you are not born and raised here. You were also the one who spread the rumors about the treasure. .That Tridacna really was here a long time ago. I'm afraid you also came here for this reason, but I think you must have looked for it. It's not there. But Mr. Tao Ji can't move around anymore, so you can only stay here like this. . Those who are not looking for the treasure, tell them what happened, entertain them, and then let them go; those who come looking for the treasure, kill them and get rid of them. But you are not just for the money of those people."
It was fine when she said other things, but the last sentence made her expression change. In the dusk, the last light of the sun disappeared, and there was only a layer of cold blue light on her face. Before long, this color will disappear. She would melt into the darkness and slit my throat with expert fighting skills.
Tao Zhu may not want to hear what I say anymore. She gripped the knife tightly and moved forward. But I keep talking.
"Your words are false, but your story is true. You and your brother have indeed experienced similar things and suffered a lot. But you are not satisfied with living an ordinary life, you also want to live well. So men were thieves and women were prostitutes, cheating and kidnapping, and harmed many people until they came to this village. Then... your brother lost his life for some reason, which is a destined result. The curse does not exist, it was you who killed the people in the village. As revenge. Even so, your brother couldn't survive. There is a place in your house for the ceremony, and there are traces of the magic circle. I don't know where you learned it, but it does work. You Killing people, not just to get money, but also to get their lives.”
She rushed towards him, her legs as nimble as a rabbit. She jumped up with enough speed and strength to kill him with one blow. I dodged, but she didn't hesitate. Then she slashed with her backhand, twisting her arm so much that it was almost dislocated. Ordinary people couldn't do it. Even so, she was still very strong, and I avoided it again. She plunged the knife into the "eye" of the tree, and the blade did not even penetrate an inch of the iron-hard trunk. Pulling it out was more tiring than cutting it in.
Tao Zhuzhen was crazy. She attacked me without any rules and told me to shut up. But I didn't listen, I still gave in, dodged step by step, and kept mumbling:
"You respect and love your brother, but in order to extend his life, you have done extraordinary things and taken many detours. But extending the life of the dead is not called extending a life, it is called borrowing, and a loan cannot be repaid. This must be done by the living. Voluntarily, but you don't want to sacrifice yourself, so you will lose him again. So you use a special spell - probably learned from the Death Shadow Pavilion to renew the life of the person you killed, and use another He used a spell to lend his life to Tao Ji. No one has been here for a long time, so he lay back down again. Your brother is not sick, but dead."
"He's just sick! He's just sick! He can't speak or move, that's all. He's not dead! He's not - dead!"
In rage, she finally stabbed my chest with the knife. I felt my flesh being cut open and warm blood escaping from my body.
But I still advised her:
"Don't do this kind of thing again. If other impermanent ghosts come, I'm afraid you will be dead. I know you are loyal and filial, and I don't want to destroy you. Come with me...accept the punishment you deserve. I will let you When the deceased returns to his soul and is reincarnated, do not make things difficult for him.”
She knew that I was an impermanent person, and her face was so fierce that she could almost show her fangs and she panicked for a moment. She let go of her hand tremblingly, but the knife was still stuck in my chest. I pulled out the knife, and the blood quickly retracted from the wound on my clothes, making it clean again. Her eyes didn't know where to turn, she took a few steps back and fell into the snow.
"Don't take me away!" Her face turned fast, "You can't take me away!"
Her voice was also trembling, and I just felt heartbroken, not only because of the knife just now.
She trembled and crawled over, pleading: "Please, you can't do this, you can't... He died for me. I know that I have never done anything clean. I sold myself for money and harmed others for money. But, I don’t agree with the person who tried to belittle me that day. I didn’t want to do his business, but he insisted... When my brother fought with him, it’s not like this has never happened before. It happened a lot. times, but my brother has never lost. That time..."
She kowtowed every time she spoke, and the snow in front of her melted, revealing withered black leaves.
