Chapter 2 Underworld Show
When the traffic is sparse enough in the middle of the night, the wide road can show some of its own truths, those scars that are invisible under all kinds of turbulence during the day.
Although I am a third-rate detective, based on respect for this profession, I will go all out for every commission.
The easiest way to tell if a girl is lying is to go to the unlit road at the right time and look for the underworld show in the advertisement.
Turn on the computer to search, and the Wudeng Road in Jiangcheng does exist.
In the mouths of old Jiangcheng people, this road has another very special name – “screw knot top”.
“Screw knot top” actually means “pile corpses and roofs”. During the Anti-Japanese War, this was the largest massacre field in Jiangcheng. Residents nearby said that street lights cannot be installed here at all. Once installed, they will be turned off the next day, either by someone or inexplicably.
The light bulb was taken off, but the tungsten wire inside was broken, and no one dared to install a new light bulb afterwards. Walking in the alley and playing the flashlight will also turn off inexplicably. Any electric things can’t be used in the alley at night, and motorcycles and battery cars have to be pushed.
Nearby people usually don’t come out at night. So if you meet someone at the “Screw Knot” at night-it may not be a person.
“The company opened in this kind of place, so it really deserves the name of its underworld show.” Frankly speaking, I am a logical atheist. After an afternoon of data collection, I am even more sure that this is not a good show of pranks.
“It’s up to tonight to see if it’s true or not.” Putting on casual clothes, he stuffed the advertisement and the electric anti-wool device into his trouser pocket, and drove to the destination by bicycle.
The unlit road is in the old town. When I arrived here, it was already dark and there was still drizzle in the sky.
“It’s really unlucky.” It’s easy to injure yourself with an electric shock device on a rainy day. If you meet a gangster, it will be embarrassing.
Wandering in the intricate alleys, with old buildings on both sides, the locals are very unfriendly to me, an outsider, and they will come forward and ask, as long as they mention the word “unlit road”, they will leave in a hurry with their hands waved .
Without any hints, I wandered around like a headless fly until after ten o’clock in the evening and still haven’t found the legendary unlit road.
The rain became heavier, and there was a mist between the sky and the earth. I wanted to find a place to shelter from the rain, but there was not even a decent store in the surrounding alleys.
There are only a few storefronts, and there are still paper houses, spirit horses, wreaths and shrouds in the store, which is obviously a dead business.
It was raining harder and harder, so I had no choice but to bite the bullet and hide in the shroud shop, but what I didn’t expect was that as soon as 11 o’clock, the shopkeeper turned off all the lights and lit two white wax, Give me a black umbrella when I go to the grave, and urge me to leave.
“These people are too weird.” Holding a black umbrella, standing in the rain, at a glance, the whole alley was not even a ray of light.
“No lights on the road?” I shivered for no reason, walked alone for twenty minutes, lost my way after going around, and just when I took out my mobile phone to call the police for help, I happened to see someone on the other side of the road. An old lady waved to me.
“It’s dark and rainy, why is she outside alone? Where’s her family?”
Grandma’s clothes were wet by the rain, and the old man was alone, looking much more miserable than me.
She waved anxiously, and I quickly approached to hold an umbrella for her, “Grandma, you…”
Lightning flashed, and when I looked down, I saw Grandma’s raised face. It was bloodless, and the wrinkles that crawled out from all directions were like folded bean skins, covering the entire old face.
“I lost something, please help me find it.”
The old man’s voice trembled, as if he was dying, this was the last request before he died.
I forced myself to calm down, “Don’t worry, what did you lose?”
Grandma’s cloudy eyes rolled up to both sides: “I lost my little grandson, and it’s in this alley.”
She pointed to the dark road, and limped into it as if possessed by a demon.
“Grandson? A living person?” For some reason, I remembered all the rumors about unlit roads on the Internet, and stared at the old man’s back, my hairs stood on end.
“Impossible. The so-called ghosts, gods, and Buddhas are all scaring themselves. My current situation should be caused by a specific environment that triggers human’s instinctive reaction to uncertain events.” The human body will produce a self-protection when facing danger mechanism, that is, fear and avoidance.
“The local people’s reaction combined with the rumors on the Internet, as well as the grandma in front of me, their behaviors are all weird, as if they are deliberately creating a terrifying atmosphere.” A prank, now many variety shows are doing everything they can to pursue ratings, and all kinds of heavy-duty programs are emerging one after another. Maybe in places I don’t know, there are more than a dozen cameras installed to follow the whole process.
Thinking about it this way, my sense of fear suddenly diminished, and I held up my umbrella and entered the depths of the alley at the same time as Grandma.
After a long time, I, who had lost my way for a long time, was already broken, but it was Grandma who was walking and suddenly stopped.
“Baby grandson, don’t run around next time…”
“Found it?” I was a little surprised, followed the old man’s gaze, and my eyes slowly widened.
On the cold steps lay a tattered doll wet by the rain!
The old man hugged the doll affectionately, not caring about the mud and water stains at all, as if he was treating a newborn baby with care.
“She, she is a lunatic?!” I actually ran with a crazy old lady for more than an hour in the rainy night!
“Oh, oh, doll, don’t be angry, I’m here to apologize to you. I shouldn’t have lost my temper just now, and I threw you to the ground with all my strength. It stained your new floral dress, and it fell on your face. It’s mud. It must still hurt, right? I’m so sorry! I’ll shoot your dirty clothes, wash your face if it’s dirty, rub it for you if it hurts, and from now on, we won’t be separated.”
The old man picked up the doll and went away singing nursery rhymes. Apart from a wry smile, I also had a little sympathy for the old man. He was over seventy years old, and there was only a tattered doll by his side.
Thinking of this, I chased after him, and gave the old man the black umbrella in my hand: “It’s raining heavily, take the umbrella, go home quickly.”
Grandma took the umbrella and froze for a moment.
“Be careful on the old road, see you later.” The rain soaked my clothes, and I hid on the steps where I picked up the doll to avoid the rain. .
“For seventy yuan, I worked really hard.” The commission had no clue, I squatted on the ground, habitually wanting to light a cigarette, but the moment the lighter was turned on, I saw the outer wall of the small building The house number on it – “No. 44 Unilluminated Road”.
The flame went out in a blink of an eye, I took out the small card, put my face closer to confirm again and again: “It can’t be such a coincidence, can it?”
The mountain is poor and the river is full of doubts, there is no way out, and there is another village where the willows are dark and the flowers are bright. This is exactly the place I am looking for.
“The address in the advertisement does exist, and things are getting more and more interesting.” I pressed the switch of the anti-wolf device with my palm, and I was just about to enter the corridor when my clothes were suddenly pulled.
“Who!”
Turning around and taking out the anti-wolf device, the crackling electric arc was very clear in the dark night.
“Grandma?” The old man holding the puppet stood behind me at some point, and I, who had received an A+ in the actual combat quality of the police academy, didn’t notice it at all.
“Young man, it’s dark, don’t run around.” The old man blocked the doll’s sight with his body, and slipped a handkerchief out of his sleeve as if unintentionally.
“Little mouse, go up to the lampstand, steal oil to eat, but can’t get down. Meow meow, the cat is coming, ji li gu lu roll down…”
Singing nursery rhymes and coaxing the puppet in his arms, the old man disappeared into the rainy night.
I picked up the handkerchief left by the old man. It was pure white, like the white silk used for hanging, and I held it in front of my eyes. There was an antique short poem on it.
“Wu Wei is so poor that it is difficult to throw away paintings,
The origin of the internal affairs lies in Dixiang.
If you have a son, you must have a land,
There is no way out between the ghosts and the heart is boundless. “
After reading it twice, I broke out in a cold sweat. This is an acrostic poem. If you connect the first word of each line, that is—there is a ghost in the house!
“Is she a lunatic?” Combined with the old man’s previous words, the meaning she wanted to express was very clear. Although it was obscure, at least logically speaking, there was no problem.
“Are there really ghosts in the world?” Looking at the dark corridor, I hesitated for a moment before walking in.
For a detective, what attracts him most is never the result, but the process of cracking the unknown.
My eyes gradually got used to the darkness, I felt the mottled wall and walked along the stairs to the basement.
“No. 44 Wudeng Road, 4th floor underground, room 444…”