I thought there was nothing I could do. I was afraid that even if I pressed him, he wouldn't say another word. Gan Mu stopped in front of me, staring at me with his sneaky snake eyes and spitting out that ugly letter. I cursed a few words in my mind, thinking about you, you beast, sooner or later I will cut you into pieces and make a pot of soup!
So I turned around and left Senior Qin's house, standing in the alley confused. There was no way, he only gave me one day, so I had to seize every minute, because I didn't know what this address actually meant, but no matter what, I had to go and take a look.
So I took the time to find the way and inquire. With the help of a kind-hearted local man, I walked through several small alleys and came to the edge of a hospital. This hospital is located on the roadside, with a small road at the side entrance winding towards the hillside behind it. I asked the hospital staff on duty, and he told me that the so-and-so road on the note was the path up the mountain.
I looked at the time and found that I had been delayed for a while because I had been looking for the way. It was already past two o'clock in the afternoon, and it took me more than two hours just to find the way. But if someone is familiar with the nearby terrain, it would only take me one-third of the time to find it.
So I thanked the person on duty and followed the path up the mountain. The number on the note made me look for it for a long time. It says No. 22, but I found No. 20 and No. 24. I also found No. 21 and No. 23 on the other side of the road, but I couldn't find the house number of No. 22. According to general rules, the houses on both sides of the road are arranged in the order of odd and even numbers, so even if several houses are far apart, they will not miss the numbers.
Judging from the nearby environment, although there are other people living there, they all look like rural houses. The place I am at now is already halfway up the mountain. It may take about ten minutes to walk uphill from the hospital, but there is a narrower road on the side of the road, which leads directly to the hospital. Probably to facilitate nearby residents to see a doctor, a convenient road was built.
I searched back and forth between House No. 20 and House No. 24 for a long time, but there was no trace of House No. 22 on the roadside. So I began to think that house No. 22 was not on the roadside, but slightly away from the roadside. place? While I was thinking this, a thin old man who looked like a farmer carrying a hoe walked past me. Looking at his outfit, I knew he was a local, so I asked him, "Sir, do you know where No. 22 is?"
The uncle was a bit deaf, so I asked him several times before he understood. After finally understanding, he pointed in the direction away from the road and said that it was over there without a house number, but there was only one house over there without a house number. When you see it, just go in. Then he asked me instead, "What's the matter? Are you here to pick me up?" What a pity, these years...
After saying that, he walked away without looking back, leaving me stunned. Why do you want me to pick someone up? That place is a school? nursery? prison? Watching him walk away, I didn't ask any more questions. I thought I would find him anyway and I would find out later.
The place the old man was pointing to actually happened to be the vacant area between No. 20 and No. 24. For some reason, some of the houses at the foot of the mountain were quite close together, but halfway up the mountain, there were actually two houses. There should be a long distance between houses. I didn't think much about it at the moment, so I followed the direction the old man said.
But this journey took a full ten minutes. Fortunately, the road was specially built and relatively smooth, so it was not strenuous to walk. Soon I found the house, which was alone on the edge of a small mountain col. There was a wall and a guard box at the door. There was an old man sitting next to the guard box. He was probably about the same age as the old man when I asked for directions. There were no signs or writing on the wall, and there was no five-star red flag on the roof, so I didn’t think this was a school. It's even less like a prison, because the prison will never send an old man to guard it.
However, the strange thing is that if this old man is guarding the door here, he should be facing outside, which is the direction I came from, but he is sitting upright, facing the direction of the house in the yard. His head was always facing the house, as if he was looking at something.
Maybe it was because I was walking loudly, but the old man noticed someone approaching when I was about twenty meters away from the door. But he just turned his head and looked at me without saying a word. I saw someone there, so I was secretly happy. At least I could find out some things by asking. So I stepped forward, took out the small red piece of paper that Senior Qin had given me earlier, and then asked the old man if this was the such-and-such road number.
Probably because I met a deaf old man earlier, I spoke a little loudly at the moment. So the old man who looked after the door hurriedly made a shushing gesture to tell me not to make any noise. Then he looked at the house with an alert look on his face and made a palm-down gesture towards me, which meant: Don't talk, let me listen.
I was very surprised at the moment. There were not many people on this mountain, and even a fart could carry the sound far away. What on earth was this old man worried about? Out of politeness, I could only remain silent. I don’t know if it’s because of my encounter with Senior Qin, but it feels like everyone I meet has become weird since last night.
After a short while, the old man turned around, looked at the note in my hand and said, I can't read, but this is the place you mentioned. What are you here for? His tone was a little tight and uneasy. Just his words caught me off guard. Yes, what am I here to do? So I stammered and said, I was also found in a certain place, and it became clear when I mentioned it here. So I really can't answer you, because I really don't know what I am here for.
The old man was not in a good mood and was a little anxious. He said to me, you are so young and why you came here for no reason. Is this a place where young people like you should come? Go back the way you came, don't cause any trouble here. Judging from what he said, he seemed to regard me as someone who was here to cause trouble. But his words made me very confused. This place didn't look like anything special. Why wasn't it a place where young people like me should come? Of course I won't listen to him and go back the same way, because I have to figure out what I am here to do. So I asked the uncle, uncle, you can tell from my accent that I am not a local, so I don’t know what this place is for. Can you tell me?
The uncle looked at me suspiciously, then frowned and asked, "You really don't know?" I nodded and said I really didn’t know. The uncle continued to ask, do you really know nothing? I stood up straight, spread my hands and said helplessly, uncle, what on earth should I know? Do you think I went up the mountain to tease you all day long, right? Only then did the old man believe it, and then said calmly, Oh, it seems that he really doesn't know, this is a morgue.
When the words "morgue" came out of the old man's indifferent tone, I became inexplicably nervous, but I didn't know why I was nervous. For someone like me who has been dealing with life and death all year round, ghosts dare to confront me. What's so strange about the dead? However, I quickly judged based on the old man’s nervous and abnormal expression and unreasonable sitting posture that something was probably going on here.
Logically speaking, the morgue is full of dead people, and it only needs a brave person to guard it. No one would be brave enough to come in and steal things in a place like this. At least I wouldn't dare to do that. Was the old man worried about something in his alert look earlier? But I didn't ask, because after all, I won't reveal my identity easily, and I won't even reveal it if necessary, before I understand the general situation.
So I said to the old man, oh, that's it, someone gave me this address and said they were looking for someone. I see there is anyone else here besides you? The old man snorted and said, Who else would want to come to this unlucky place except an old man like me? And when I first came, I just wanted to look at the gate. Who knew I would encounter such a mess? What a bloody mess in my life, I have to do such an errand!
Listening to his tone, it seems to be a little closer to my guess. There is indeed something weird here. It turns out that Senior Qin set a question to test me and said that my master's approach should be consistent with mine. Apparently, he wanted me to investigate and handle this matter. It’s just that he only gave me one day, and he didn’t know if I could do it. In fact, I had been guessing on the way here that Senior Qin probably didn't really doubt whether I was Master's disciple. After all, based on his experience, he could distinguish this point. When he opened my canvas bag, There should be an answer. And this time he deliberately tested me, probably to test my depth, or maybe it was just a prank.
But what I don’t understand is that since Senior Qin knows that there is something weird here, it means that either he created the weird thing, or someone entrusted it to him. If he was the one who made it weird, then the time should be from when I left the note on his door to three-quarter noon today, which means that during this time period, he should be Been to this place.
So I asked the old man if anyone had been here since last night. That man was quite old, quite tall, and had a big beard? The old man said that he had never seen her before. He only came here in the morning. At least from morning to now, he had only seen me. I asked again, could that be before you come in the morning? Maybe your coworker on the night shift saw it.
The old man was stunned: Night shift? Is this damn place even worth the night shift?
