Master asked Long Jiyou, can the crazy woman you mentioned be able to express some things more accurately? If possible, my apprentice and I can ask her. Long Jiyou frowned and said, of course she can speak, but besides having a strong accent, she often fails to convey what she means.
Master said it doesn't matter, you have to give it a try, you can make arrangements.
The time is now approaching 5 pm, and it won’t be long before it’s time to put out meals, and it’s also the time for two groups of staff at the shelter to take over their shifts. Long Jiyou said, if I go in now, I'm afraid the guard at the door will see him when he gets off work later. Otherwise, you should go to the guard to register and leave now, and you two, master and disciple, go outside to find a place to eat first. After dark, the guard has left and the person serving the food has also left, and then I will let you in. From that time until tomorrow morning, you will have plenty of time to get things done.
Master nodded and said that was fine, so he took me away. When I was almost walking to the door, Master pointed at the wooden door that was closed to me and said, do you think the office of the stationmaster of this shelter is right here? I said it should be, even though there was no writing on the door. Master asked again, do you think if you were asked to open the door with your kick, would you be able to do so?
I immediately imagined a particularly cool scene of breaking a door in my mind, and then said, of course, but if this door is broken, that terrible Uncle Long will suffer. Master laughed, took me out, signed at the guard and left, and then we started looking for food everywhere.
In those years, personal commerce was suppressed, which meant that even if you had money and tickets, you could only buy and sell things in state-operated restaurants, department stores, and small shops. My uncle’s teahouse was directly operated by the state, so when the movement that swept across the country began, my uncle was not the first person to be affected. But the second uncle's stall was not. Because it was in a small alley on Baixiang Street, few people came to check it. In the early days of liberation, although personal business was banned, it was not suppressed. This is also the reason why the second uncle suffered a greater loss than the uncle. So we, master and apprentice, found a national-brand restaurant and ate something casually.
During the dinner, Master analyzed what happened this time with me. In his opinion, the biggest possibility is that Long Jiyou mentioned before that a person died in the isolation room in this place more than a year ago. However, there was almost a year without any problems, but in the past month, one person died every week. Although we still don’t know why the vacancy in the middle was due to the lack of further incidents, but the person who died in the house first is very likely to be the thing causing trouble now.
Master also said that the crazy woman Long Jiyou mentioned would behave abnormally the day before she died, and she would be hit four times in a row, so I don't believe it if it is a coincidence. Her madness is also directly related to this incident, and we need to prove it. Now based on what we know about the situation, where do you think we should start?
In fact, I have been thinking about this issue. Although my craftsmanship is not as good as that of Master, I have learned more than 60% of Master's skills. The way I investigate things is exactly the same as his. So I said, if I were to investigate this matter alone, I would definitely first find the information of the person who died more than a year ago. It would be best if such people had names when they were registered. If there is a name, we will By directly using circular light technique and military investigation, you can basically determine whether this guy is causing trouble. Then I will try to get some information out of that crazy woman's mouth, that is, what she saw when she started banging on the door.
I paused and said, if the above two points are met, it will be clear whether this place is haunted or not, and even the motive will be clear, then all that is left is to take appropriate measures to deal with the aftermath.
Master nodded approvingly, and the approving look in his eyes told me that I had indeed received his true inheritance. Master said, what you said makes sense, and I would do the same thing in my place, but you seem to have overlooked a very crucial issue, that is, that crazy woman.
I asked Master in confusion, what happened to that crazy woman? Master said, first of all, she is crazy, and the words of a madman are not accurate. Even if you can communicate with her smoothly, you cannot guarantee which of her words are true and which are false. After hearing what Master said, I thought it was indeed the case, but for a while, I couldn't think of a better way, so I could only proceed according to the plan first. Maybe in the process, more interesting ideas will gradually emerge. Clues of value come.
It was almost completely dark after dinner. After dark, the mountain city will be much colder than during the day. After looking at the time, it was almost time, so Master and I walked towards the shelter again.
The sentry at the door has been closed, and the big iron gate is closed tightly. After all, in a place like this that accommodates homeless people, there is no need to keep a guard at night. When Master walked to the door and knocked gently, the door soon opened with a creak. Through a small gap, Long Jiyou waved to us to be silent and come in quickly. He hid most of his face behind the door. Caution is a good thing, but being overly cautious makes people feel a little timid.
As the door closed with a clang, Long Jiyou breathed a sigh of relief. After turning on the light in the corridor, he said to the master a little anxiously that just when the two of you went out for a walk, that crazy woman knocked on the door again.
What he meant was that within one day, another person would die in that isolation room. The master snorted and said, what a coincidence, if this madwoman really hits the door once and kills one person, then as long as the master and the apprentice are here, no matter what, they will not let this happen.
So Master said to me, you should go into the stationmaster's office now, find the booklet, and see if there is anything written on it about the death of a person a year ago. Long Jiyou exclaimed, "It can't be helped. If the stationmaster turns around and finds that the door has been pried open and things have been rummaged through, he will definitely investigate. There are only two people on duty here, so it will be easy to find me." of. I said to him, don't worry, the small window on the door is big enough. You just need to find me a screwdriver. I will go up and remove the small window and find the booklet. Since this is doomed, If it has to be solved tonight, then before we leave tomorrow, everything will be returned to its original position without anyone noticing.
Maybe it was because Long Jiyou had no other way to open the door, so he hesitated before agreeing. While I was removing the small window, Master asked Long Jiyou to carefully recall the times he knew that the crazy woman knocked on the door, and what month and day they were on each occasion.
I'm pretty quick with my hands and feet. Since I learned from my master, if something in my house is broken, as long as it's not particularly complicated, I can basically repair it, so it's not difficult for me to remove this small window. Soon I climbed through the hole in the small window and entered the door. Since this wooden door was padlocked by the stationmaster when he left the office, even if I entered the room, I could not get out. There are windows in this room, but I didn't dare to turn on the light. It's better to be careful. So even though the entire shelter door is currently locked and in a closed state, I still have to be careful like a thief.
Long Jiyou told me before I came in that it was a file bag made of kraft paper. There was a bookcase next to the stationmaster's desk, which was placed in the compartment with the glass door. The kraft paper cover is distinguished by year. Since this is just a record and not top-secret information, it is not locked.
According to what Long Jiyou said, I quickly found a volume with 1966 written on the cover among a pile of kraft paper portfolios. But just to be on the safe side and to avoid looking through the window again because I missed something, I also found two bags from 1965 and this year, 1967.
Then I went back the way I came, and when I turned out, I saw Master and Long Jiyou squatting on the ground, whispering to each other, and Master even making gestures with his hands. I walked up to Master and said to him, I got the things. Have you remembered the days here? Master nodded, and then said to me, judging from what your Uncle Long told me just now, including today, this woman hit the door five times in total, and four people died. Because the first time she hit the door, Long The uncle doesn’t know, so we can’t make random guesses, but looking at the last four times, I found a pattern. The time between every two times this woman knocked on the door was exactly seven days apart.
Seven, a number that is so mysterious to us. People return to their souls seven days after death, and choose to leave or stay on the seventh seven days. The importance of the Big Dipper has been emphasized countless times in Taoist classics. In this shelter, a person dies once a week, and a crazy woman hits him every week. One door, one week, exactly seven days. So the reason why Master used the word "just" is because he wanted to tell me that this seems to confirm the so-called seven-day cycle of reincarnation. Assume that the ghost causing trouble here is still one person every seven days, but it is for the seven-day cycle of reincarnation. To be honest, isn't it too late to start causing trouble after more than a year after death?
Master saw that I was silent, so he said to me, "Don't you understand yet?" This is an evil spirit looking for a substitute.
