Since the Red Rain incident, the world has become strange, with three types of monsters: 'monsters', 'nightmares' and 'gravemen' appearing one after another.
The monsters are some people who mutated after taking an overdose of Red Rain.
At first, they will retain some sense, but as time goes by, these people's temperaments will gradually become cruel and bloodthirsty, and eventually they will have no sense at all, and they will become neither humans nor ghosts.
They may be deformed into double heads and multiple eyes, or jump like grasshoppers, or dive like fish...
It is extremely difficult for ordinary people to deal with it, and only those who practice it can be killed.
Nightmares are monsters encountered by some people who accidentally fall into the dreamland of Red Rain after taking Red Rain.
Simply put, it means being killed in a dream.
There is only a little information about it:
[This monster is the victim’s inner demon! 】
What is inner demon?
Hatred, greed, delusion, obsession, resentment, obsession, etc. are all inner demons.
For example, if you hate or fear someone very much, over time, this person becomes a demon. Even when sleeping, the other party will appear as a nightmare.
Even if the other person is dead, he will still be in his heart for a long time.
Another example is that you are very greedy for a certain treasure, but you can't get it. Over time, serious inner demons developed that were difficult to eliminate.
This is the case for Lin Jiaoyue.
Because the food contained a drug containing the ingredient 'Red Rain', he fell into a coma and began to have nightmares, thus entering the Red Rain dreamland.
And the nightmare that tried to kill her in the dream was Lin Jiaoyue's inner demon.
This is also the reason why Li Nanke did not choose to kill the nightmare immediately after it appeared, but instead carefully observed the opponent first.
He wanted to know, what is Lin Jiaoyue's inner demon?
After all, as a well-known rich girl in Dongqi County, she has no worries about food and clothing, so there should be very few people who offend her on weekdays.
Why does such a carefree young lady have such serious inner demons?
Is it fear of someone? Or hate or envy someone?
Or...obsessed with someone?
It's a pity that I couldn't tell the difference at the time. Seeing that Lin Jiaoyue's life was in danger, I had to rescue her.
In addition to the 'monsters' and 'nightmares', the most troublesome thing for the Night Patrol Division is the 'grave people'.
It also allowed people to truly experience the 'resurrection from the dead'.
The various cases are horrifying.
In the tenth year of Tianwu, old man Ding, a fisherman, heard someone knocking on his door in the middle of the night.
After opening it, he found that standing outside the door was actually his son who fell into the water and died three days ago!
In the twelfth year of Tianwu, Boss Hu, a merchant in the cloth business, saw his wife, who had been poisoned half a month ago, sleeping next to him in the middle of the night.
In the early years of Yuanfeng, the villagers of Laowen Village in Xiangzhou saw the village chief who was supposed to have been dead for six days at midnight.
...These monsters who 'resurrected from the dead' are called grave men.
After ten days, they will disappear on their own.
But anyone who has been in contact with them before will turn into a pile of bones after ten days. Unless the 'resurrected' monsters are killed in time.
Unlike monsters, these grave people look no different from ordinary people.
They have no magic power or mutation, and they still retain the memories and even emotions of the living people, just like living people.
This is also the most troublesome point for the Night Patrol Division.
When there are emotions, some people will deliberately conceal them and not report them, which will eventually lead to disaster.
For example, the cloth merchant, after seeing his beloved wife resurrected, secretly hid her in the back room and chose to hide it from outsiders.
Ten days later, he turned into a pile of bones at home.
Of course, there are also people who don’t know about it.
In the early years of Yuanfeng, Aunt Xu, who was weaving at home, was very happy when her son, who had gone to Beijing to take the exam half a month ago, suddenly returned home.
But ten days later, Aunt Xu and fourteen other people in town who had come into contact with her son were all reduced to white bones.
Later, after investigation by the Night Patrol Department, it was discovered that his son had been killed by robbers on his way home after taking the exam.
The most important thing is that the grave man does not know that he is dead.
It will appear out of thin air in the place where the deceased lived. Although it possesses the memories and emotions of the deceased, it has no memory of the time of death.
The brain will also be in a confused state immediately after resurrection.
He only vaguely remembers what he was doing some time before his death.
Unless it sees its own body, or learns from others that it has already died.
This is the case for Sister Xu's son. After being 'resurrected', he was in the wilderness. He only remembered that he was in a hurry to go home after the exam, but he didn't know that he had been killed by bandits long ago.
He returned home in a daze, and ended up killing his mother and other friends.
As for how the Grave Man appeared, the Night Watch Division gave a preliminary answer after detailed analysis.
That is to think about it every day and dream about it at night, and then be resurrected!
for example--
Due to an accident, Aunt Xu accidentally drank medicinal materials mixed with 'Red Rain' ingredients, and fell into a red rain dream.
She is usually kind and has no inner demons, so there are no nightmares.
But because Aunt Xu was very concerned about her son who was going to Beijing to take the exam, she dreamed of her son in the red rain dream, which eventually led to the resurrection of her dead son.
The same goes for boss Hu, a cloth merchant.
Because he missed his wife so much, he accidentally resurrected his wife in Hongyu's dream after taking Hongyu by mistake.
In addition to coincidence, there are also people who deliberately 'resurrection' their relatives or loved ones.
Knowing that it would lead to disaster, but in order to see the person he missed again, he took the risk of taking 'Red Rain' to revive him, which eventually led to tragedy.
Of course, not everyone can be resurrected.
Only those who died accidentally during the third watch could be resurrected.
Those who die of old age, die of illness, or even commit suicide cannot do this.
For example, the wife of a cloth boss was poisoned by her maid and died suddenly of the poison around midnight.
For example, Aunt Xu's son, because he was anxious to get home, chose to rush out in the wild at midnight, and ended up encountering robbers and bandits.
After summarizing, these three types of monsters can be briefly summarized.
Monsters: Mutated people.
Nightmare: Monster in dreams, transformed by inner demons.
Grave Man: The dead are 'resurrected'.
But no matter what kind of monsters they are, they all arise due to the 'red rain'.
——
By the time we ate, it was completely dark.
The entire night was dark, as if thick ink was dripping down from a high place, evenly smearing it into darkness, with only the cold moon hanging high.
Mr. Turtle was still lying in front of the door, his eyes slightly closed, and he was resting his mind.
Sister Goose stood proudly under the bright moon, with some vague and slanting shadows imprinted on the surface of the pool.
It was peaceful outside and inside.
Li Nanke picked out the candle wicks, took the bowls and chopsticks from his wife, and said with a smile: "This is the so-called 'candlelight dinner,' and it's quite romantic."
The couple sat across the table.
Although it didn't reach the point of "raising the case to raise eyebrows", the atmosphere was hardly sentimental.
"Are there any patients coming this afternoon?"
Luo Qianqiu asked.
Li Nanke shook his head and answered honestly: "I was a little tired, so I closed the door and went to sleep. As for whether anyone knocked on the door, I don't know. As you know, I sometimes sleep very hard, and the sky falls. I’m afraid it’ll be hard to wake up even if you come down.”
Finally, the man joked: "But you can ask Sister Goose or Lord Turtle, they should know better."
Hearing this, Luo Qianqiu smiled and rolled her eyes: "Does your husband always like to entertain people like this? How about you go and ask on my behalf?"
"Of course you can, but they have to be skilled."
"What technique?"
Luo Qianqiu's appetite was whetted by her husband, and she looked at him curiously with her ethereal and soft eyes.
Li Nanke said freely: "Madam, did you say before that they are not spiritual beasts? I happen to know such a way. Put them in a pot and boil them first, and when they are cooked into broth, we only need to drink it, and we can dream with them. Let’s meet and communicate.”
The man's tone was full of ridicule, but also seemed to have a hint of seriousness.
It seems like he really thought about it.
Knowing that her husband was joking, Luo Qianqiu still showed an expression of interest: "Is it really so magical?"
"Why don't you try cooking this old bastard first?"
Li Nanke looked at Mr. Turtle who was lying at the door with his eyes closed and concentrating. He licked his lips and encouraged his wife. "If you don't talk about anything else, drinking soup is really a beautiful thing."
Perhaps sensing the man's greedy gaze, Lord Turtle quietly retracted his head into his shell.
Sister Goose hesitated and hid in the pond.
Luo Qianqiu shook her head helplessly, picked up a piece of crab meat and put it into the man's bowl. Her sweet voice was full of anger: "If you really cook and eat them, Master is afraid that he will break your bones and throw you into the wolf's den." There’s a meal inside.”
"Master, is he very cruel?" the man asked curiously.
In his memory, Li Nanke had no memory of the old Taoist priest who adopted him. He relied on his wife's fragmentary mentions to make associations.
"It's very fierce. I remember when I first brought you here, you had a lot of whip wounds on your body."
The woman looked sympathetically. "It was all beaten by Master."
Whip...injury?
Li Nanke was a little confused. His thoughts were not pure at all. He thought of many incredible plots, and the food in his mouth no longer tasted good.
Could it be that Master has a special hobby?
But when he caught a glimpse of the woman biting her lip as if to hold back a smile, she knew she was being teased.
Li Nanke was speechless: "Madam can actually play tricks on her husband."
Luo Qianqiu couldn't help but laugh at her husband's deflated look. She lightly covered her mouth with the back of her white hands, her posture was elegant and graceful, and she was playful yet dignified.
At this moment, the couple who were originally as respectful as strangers became a little closer.
Luo Qianqiu put down her chopsticks and looked at him seriously: "But when Master sent you here, you were indeed covered with bruises and even your hair was cut off. Later, when I was treating your injuries, I... hit you on the head again, I’m really afraid that I won’t survive.”
Hair was cut...
Li Nanke was stunned, thoughtful.
After dinner, Li Nanke took the initiative to help clear the tableware.
Luo Qianqiu soaked the medicinal materials that had been fried during the day several times in special leaf juice, placed them next to the stove to bake for a while, and then put them back into the medicine box.
Li Nanke doesn't know much about medicine, but after experiencing these years, he understands that his wife's medical skills are indeed great.
Everyone who came to seek medical treatment gave me five-star praise.
These 'good reviews' are not fake, because those patients or family members who gave negative reviews will be greeted by Sister Goose.
Even when he woke up from his bed the next day, he could still see Sister Goose standing outside the window, staring at them and observing them secretly.
After finishing her chores, Luo Qianqiu quietly read the medical book.
Li Nanke had nothing to do, so he originally planned to pick up Sister Goose and pet her, but he couldn't find it after searching all over the place, so he had to go back to the house to find a medical book and pretend to read it.
After a while, the man dozed off.
Although he slept in the afternoon, he entered the red rain dreamland to eliminate nightmares, and his mental fatigue had already reached the critical point.
Luo Qianqiu looked amused and said softly: "My husband, please go and rest first."
Without waiting for the man to respond, she stood up and made the bed, then lit a stick of soothing incense mixed with medicine and placed it next to her.
"Aren't you going to sleep?" Li Nanke asked.
He didn't want to play some casual clapping games with each other on the bed. After all, although the two of them were in the same room, they were in different beds.
When it comes to matters between men and women, Li Nanke still respects each other very much.
If you don’t want to, then don’t force it.
The twisted melon is really not sweet.
It's not because he's afraid of being poisoned by the other party.
"No, I want to read for a while." Luo Qianqiu took off the man's coat and hung it on a hanger.
"Okay, then you should go to bed early. Staying up late is not good for your skin."
"Um."
The woman nodded her jade head lightly, fearing to disturb her husband, so she held a candle and walked to the corner table to read.
Perhaps it was because he was too mentally exhausted, or perhaps it was the effect of the soothing incense. Soon Li Nanke fell into a deep sleep, and even occasionally snored a few times.
The moonlight is clear, but the candlelight is muddy.
The moonlight that squeezed in through the window melted into the halo of the candle, illuminating half of the woman's pink neck, which was translucent and white, and the green veins were faintly visible.
It wasn't until the cicadas chirped outside the house that Luo Qianqiu put down the medical book in her hand.
She looked sideways at her sleeping husband on the bed for a while, then stood up and walked out of the house lightly.
The cool breeze stirred up the woman's soft blue hair.
In the thick night, the steep mountain peaks in front of us were as blank as ghosts, and seemed to be wrapped in a layer of gray silver light, as misty as smoke.
Luo Qianqiu looked at the bright moon, lost in thought.
At this time, she was like a white jade statue, standing quietly and pretty.
Watching the thick clouds in the distance getting closer, watching the bright moon like a frozen disc being swallowed bit by bit, watching the night getting darker...
Suddenly, the sound of gongs and banging of clappers were faintly heard from the distant city streets, all three times.
At midnight, the third watch has arrived!
Luo Qianqiu took a deep breath, turned around and entered the house.
She deftly took out a half-foot-long pointed awl from under the table and walked to the bed with light steps.
The man on the bed was breathing deeply and sleeping peacefully.
The woman unbuttoned his undershirt, exposed half of his body, raised the sharp awl high, and murmured: "Mr., the third watch has arrived, it's time to hit the road."
After that, he stabbed into the man's heart!
——
(Author's note: The characteristics of the three monsters have been explained in detail. If you don't understand something, don't worry. The author will explain it many times when writing the case.)
