Chapter 10 Chapter 9: The Secret Inside the Box

That night, Chen Hao still left the thin monkey behind, while Zhou Jue returned home with the black oil bottle cat.As soon as he got home, his mother asked him why he was missing so early in the morning.He said nonsense that the teacher of the folklore class was working on a special project, and the teacher attached great importance to him, so he was asked to be his assistant.This kind of lie can be perfectly woven by Zhou Jue with his toes. Zhou Jue returned to his room, and began to recall everything that happened today in his mind.In the photo, he did see someone who looked like Lao Zhao, which was a big blow to him. In fact, he also suspected that there was something wrong in the library at the beginning, but Lao Zhao is usually as shrewd as an old fox, how could he be with seven people? Does the ring matter?Still, the dead body in that photo was definitely his.Also, the person who collected knives also appeared in the photo, what does this mean?Since he was in charge of the library, he had to work hard.He was tossing and turning in bed, planning to use the excuse of going back to visit them tomorrow, to see if he could find any clues about five years ago.Zhou Jue felt that there was something in the library that he didn't know.

Just when Zhou Jue was getting ready to take a shower and eat, his mother came in with a Coke and said, "By the way, I'll tell you something." Zhou Jue raised his face and asked impatiently, "What's the matter?" "We have a new neighbor upstairs," said my mother. Zhou Jue said nonchalantly, "So what, just nod and say hello next time." The mother curled her lips and said, "That's right, that man seems to have brought a child with him, and there is always the sound of a child crying..." Seeing that her son was really tired, she closed the door and let him have a good rest.

That night, Zhou Jue and the others suffered from severe insomnia, and Chen Hao even spent the whole night analyzing the photos. In one night, his study was in the same style as the office of the criminal investigation department.The photos were hung on the wall with ropes, there were a lot of waste papers that Chen Hao crumpled up on the floor, and the desk was a mess.The thin monkey took a nap for a while, and when he woke up, he saw Chen Hao sitting alone between a pile of papers and several stacks of books, smoking a cigarette, his originally handsome face was covered with a dark gray shadow.He greeted him, and went to Fat San to check about the book.

Zhou Jue came to the library again, and everyone was very enthusiastic, talking and chatting nonsense with a smile.During this period, Zhou Jue paid great attention to Lao Zhao's words and deeds, but Lao Zhao still looked like that, and he couldn't detect the truth at all. Gu Lao said that without a new force like Zhou Jue, he would have to do all the physical work by himself, so he really couldn't bear to part with him.Zhou Jue finally managed to lead the matter to five years ago in this topic. Zhou Jue casually said: "You always said, didn't you come here when I wasn't there in the past? By the way, there was a girl who came to work here at that time, and she was still my senior sister."

When Gu Lao heard that Zhou Jue was pulling on Chen Rulan, his expression was a little stiff, but he didn't suspect anything when he saw that Zhou Jue was still relaxed in chatting. Zhou Jue continued: "It's a coincidence that a few days ago I heard a few classmates talking about this woman. I heard that she was a beautiful woman, but I don't know what happened, she went crazy, and then disappeared directly." Old Zhao's face changed slightly, and Zhou Jue laughed out loud in his heart, it seemed that he was right in probing.He struck while the iron was hot and said, "And let me tell you, I heard that she disappeared because she was entangled in something unclean. She is probably dead. It seems to have something to do with a book..."

Gu Lao looked at Lao Zhao, the guilty smile on his face was gone, and his eyes began to wander.And Lao Zhao's eyes also became a little cold, he said with a dry smile: "Xiao Zhou, where did you find out all this?" Zhou Jue also smiled patiently and said: "It's hard to say if this is gossip, don't you two have any news to disclose? So that I can dispel those 'gossips'." Old Zhao nodded meaningfully and said, "Then, why do you think we will know about that book?" Zhou Jue squinted his eyes at Old Zhao and said, "Uncle Zhao, I never said you would know about that book."

Lao Zhao was at a loss for words for a while, and found himself completely trapped by Zhou Jue.The corners of his eyes twitched, barely keeping a smile on his face.Zhou Jue knew that these two old guys were already close.Zhou Jue's face also showed a mystery at this moment, he sneered and said: "Uncle Zhao, Mr. Gu, it's not that I didn't remind you, I also heard a rumor that someone saw Chen Rulan appearing near the library recently, and……" Elder Gu asked nervously, "And what?" Zhou Jue said in a low voice, "She was wearing a shroud, her hair was disheveled, and she said she was coming back to find the other six people..."

When Gu Lao heard this, he couldn't help but staggered. He supported the bookshelf and looked at Lao Zhao. Lao Zhao's face was uncertain, while Zhou Jue looked at their expressions coldly.Old Zhao finally said slowly, "Xiao Zhou, just speak up if you have anything to say. Did you see something you shouldn't?" Zhou Jue still said with a blank expression: "Uncle Zhao, I don't understand what you're saying. What are the things that shouldn't be seen?" At this time, Mr. Gu, who had been in a state of mental breakdown, suddenly said: "It is impossible for her to come back. If she comes back, is she still a person?"

Old Zhao immediately interrupted Old Gu sharply: "Old Gu, what nonsense are you talking about!" Gu Lao didn't listen to Lao Zhao's words, but turned his head to look at Zhou Jue, with fear and uneasiness in his eyes, he said, "Son, you must have read that book too..." Hearing this sentence, Zhou Jue felt as if his back was hit by an ice cube, and his tone was not as relaxed as before, he hurriedly asked: "Mr. Gu, tell me first, why is she not considered a person? " Mr. Gu pursed his lips, hesitated for a moment, then grinned and said, "If she really came back, she is a ghost, so I ask you, is she really back."

Contradictions appeared in Zhou Jue's eyes, Chen Rulan hadn't come back obviously, he was trying to blackmail these two old guys by saying that, but it seemed that the dose of medicine was too high, these two old guys were obviously bluffed.The problem is that the arrow is on the string and has to be fired. Now it is said that I am lying to you two elders. All this is false. It is estimated that Zhou Jue will be beaten into a pig's head in the next second, and he will never try to make a sentence again.He gave a guilty hum and said, "That's right...it is said that he really came back..."

After Zhou Jue finished speaking, Lao Zhao seemed to have snapped the last control nerve, let out a low growl like a wild animal, grabbed his hair in pain, and bent down, while Gu Lao still stood stiffly.Zhou Jue quickly went to help Lao Zhao, who clutched his chest as if having a heart attack, and asked in pain, "Is she really back?" Zhou Jue was really tangled up now, after all, being questioned with such an expression, it would be too inhuman to make up lies.His eyes hesitated, Lao Zhao grabbed Zhou Jue's shoulders, pulled him to his side, and whispered in his ear, "Have you really seen her?" Zhou Jue bit his lip, nodded his head ignorantly, and the strength in Old Zhao's hand suddenly loosened.At this time, Elder Gu grabbed Zhou Jue and said, "Son, have you read that book?" Zhou Jue finally nodded honestly. Tears welled up from the corners of Gu Lao's eyes. He said, "Uncle Gu, I can't help you. I can only give you a word. This book itself is a trap. Escape, the faster you escape The farther the better..." After Gu Lao said this, he walked back without looking back, leaving Lao Zhao and Zhou Jue behind.Old Zhao had no strength at all, he just murmured repeatedly "she's back"... But Zhou Jue's heart seemed to be trapped in a cold quagmire, sinking bit by bit.Zhou Jue saw that the temptation was too intense and the two old men couldn't bear it at all, he felt a little regretful, and wanted to say something to make up for it, but Old Zhao waved his hand, tried to stand up straight, and tremblingly wanted to go back . Zhou Jue hurriedly stepped forward and helped Lao Zhao to the lounge. He found that there was no Gu Lao in the office.At this time, Old Zhao was like an old monkey who had been in great danger, his eyes didn't have a single focus.Zhou Jue is very afraid that he will become like this in the future - a monster who doesn't know whether he is alive or dead, and is always afraid of everything around him.Thinking of this, he felt a little guilty, he was too hasty, at least he shouldn't have threatened these two with the matter of Chen Rulan, obviously his purpose had not been fully achieved, these two old fellows were really scared out of their wits, and wanted to It must be more difficult to ask what to ask than before.However, Gu Lao's last words made Zhou Jue very scared. "The book itself is a trap"... What does this mean? He settled Lao Zhao, thought for a while, and decided to go back to the old book area where he found the book, to see if he could find any clues.Intuition told him that the time to control the situation was getting less and less. Soon Zhou Jue came to the old book area. It was still too dark to see a ray of sunlight. He remembered that it was the same atmosphere that time. He first heard footsteps, then the figure of a woman, and then the book appeared ...The past events played over in Zhou Jue's mind like a movie. While Zhou Jue was wandering in the old book section, the half-opened warehouse next to him was suddenly pushed open from the inside out.Before Zhou Jue could react, he saw a huge mouse jumping out of the warehouse. Its sneaky eyes glanced at Zhou Jue, and immediately disappeared under the bookshelf.Zhou Jue was sure that there was absolutely no way to open the door with the strength of this big mouse. He swallowed to moisten his rough and dry throat, and then took a step towards the door. He felt his feet were as limp as cotton. The warehouse is still full of waste newspapers and bundles of old books. In the corner, Zhou Jue also found a lot of rat droppings. It is estimated that this place is almost becoming the old den of those guys.Zhou Jue covered his nose, searching here and there. Zhou Jue noticed that there was a camphor wood box under a large pile of old newspapers. In the past, he came here several times to store old newspapers, but he had never seen such a box. Now, suddenly there was such a big wooden box painted red , is really very abrupt.Zhou Jue removed the bundles of newspapers from the box. There was no pattern on the box. It felt like the dowry that every family would buy when they got married in the 1950s. He found that there was still a lock on it, but the lock was useless.He found one of the smallest flathead screwdrivers in the warehouse, and it fit just fine.Zhou Jue gently closed the door of the warehouse. Almost no one came here. As long as he didn't make too much noise, no one would notice if he pried a small box. Five minutes later, Zhou Jue unlocked the lock, and then impatiently opened the box, but the contents inside were beyond his expectation.Zhou Jue withdrew his body and sat down on the ground. He adjusted his breathing and got up, and looked into the box tremblingly... There was actually a skeleton inside. The corpse should be a woman. Her hair was very long, and her jet-black hair was dull. She lay dead on the gray-white skeleton. Restraining Zhou Jue, it was difficult for him to even breathe.The corpse was wearing a moon-white shroud, and Zhou Jue vaguely felt that this woman might be the mysteriously missing Chen Rulan. But Zhou Jue immediately felt puzzled again, he didn't work here for a day or two, why had he never seen such a box?And how did Chen Rulan die? Who killed her? He comforted himself and said, "It's all rotten to the point where only the bones are left. I won't cheat the corpse, I won't cheat the corpse..." Zhou Jue didn't expect that he would have such an exaggerated discovery. He stepped back several steps in a row, thinking that he must inform Chen Hao as soon as possible that the body of his dear old sister has been lying in a big box for an unknown how long. .As he backed away in a hurry, he felt like he had bumped into someone who was as stiff as plaster. Zhou Jue took a deep breath, panted several times, then turned around and asked, "Who?!" Zhou Jue turned around but didn't see anything. He scanned the warehouse in embarrassment. Except for his own breathing, he couldn't hear any movement at all. But earlier, he clearly felt that there was an extra person behind him, and this person There was not even a trace of human breath, and he felt as if he had bumped into a corpse. Just when he was stunned and terrified, he suddenly heard the sound of the warehouse door being locked, and he ran back quickly, but he didn't know who locked him in the warehouse.He thought to himself, maybe Gu Lao and Lao Zhao are going to kill him to silence him.But why did they want to kill him? He slammed it hard, the small broken door was already very old, logically, it only took three or four slams, and the door would be knocked open.But the strange thing is that Zhou Jue bumped it ten times in a row, and his shoulder and arm hurt so much that he couldn't feel it, and the door didn't move at all. Zhou Jue looked back at the big box, then took out his mobile phone and dialed Chen Hao's number. Zhou Jue felt that his voice was trembling, and he said into the microphone: "Brother Chen, hurry to the library, I may have found your sister." After speaking, he glanced at the big box again. Chen Hao on the phone asked, "What do you mean? You said my sister is in the library?" Zhou Jue calmed down slightly from the panic, swallowed and said, "Brother Chen, let me tell you, you must calm down. I found a large wooden box in the warehouse that had been containing a female corpse. I suspect that the corpse may be Your sister Chen Rulan's, but I'm not sure, now I'm locked in the warehouse and can't get out!" Chen Hao was silent for a few seconds, Zhou Jue heard his breathing getting heavier and heavier: "Are you sure that body belongs to Ru Lan?" Holding his forehead, Zhou Jue glanced at the corpse again, then immediately looked away, and said, "I can't be sure, but it should be a female corpse. Find a way to get me out first." Chen Hao said: "Don't worry, I'll come over right away, and then you can see what else is in that box." Zhou Jue twisted his face and said, "Brother Chen, the difficulty is too high. The corpse is still lying there. You don't want me to dig it out, do you?" Chen Hao's voice was a little angry, and he scolded: "You are only good for this? If you let you see it, you can go and see it. What are you afraid of? It will crawl out and bite you to death? By the way, don't hang up the phone, keep talking , Tell me immediately if you find anything, I'm heading for you!" Zhou Jue pouted aggrievedly, but did as he did.He held the mobile phone in his left hand, and reached into the box with his right hand, just like this all the way down.He felt that the hair was very rough and dry, like flax that had been soaked.Under the corpse, Zhou Jue found a bag. The bag was very ordinary, just an ordinary handbag, but it looked very old on the outside. If it was thrown outside, no one would go back to pick it up. Zhou Jue quickly pulled out the bag, like taking out a safe key from a box full of poisonous snakes.He opened the tote bag, which contained a half-used pack of tissues, a lip balm, and a paper packet.Zhou Jue put down the handbag, then opened the paper bag, and there was something like a CD and a clay tablet inside.The pattern on the clay tablet looks very weird, like a certain symbol of Taoism, and also like a map.Zhou Jue repacked these things and stuffed them into his backpack. He said to the mobile phone: "There is a lady's handbag with a CD and a clay tablet in it..." Chen Hao's breathing was very rapid, he asked: "Look again, see what else is there, and... can you confirm the identity of the deceased?" Zhou Jue smiled wryly and said, "It's unlikely, don't say I haven't seen Chen Rulan, even if I have, this skeleton is wearing a shroud, it's already a pile of white bones, I really can't recognize it." Chen Hao's voice was a little low, and he said, "Can't you confirm it?" Zhou Jue repeated it, and Chen Hao asked him to look for any valuable clues. Zhou Jue wanted to turn over the corpse's head again, but when he stretched his hand between the pile of hair, he actually felt human skin!And this kind of skin doesn't feel like a dead person's touch, but like a living person's.He can feel the delicateness and elasticity of the skin.He was so frightened that he quickly withdrew his hand, and the cold sweat on his forehead immediately slid down his neck, and he felt like his spine was frozen. Zhou Jue hurriedly shouted tremblingly into the phone: "Chen Hao! There is something wrong with this corpse!" Zhou Jue found that there was no sound on the other end of the phone, and looked down to find that the phone was turned off.He remembered that it was fully charged last night, why did it run out of power so quickly?Zhou Jue didn't dare to think too much, the more he thought about it, the more frightened he felt.There was only him and that weird corpse in the whole warehouse. At this time, the emergency safety light suddenly turned on, and the whole dark warehouse was shrouded in a strange fluorescent green, making it extraordinarily gloomy.Zhou Jue couldn't control his soaring fear anymore, he slammed on the door of the warehouse, he didn't expect Chen Hao to rush over in a few seconds, maybe when he appeared, he had already turned into another corpse.Thinking of this, Zhou Jue became even more frightened, but no matter how much he knocked on the warehouse door, no one heard it. Logically, such a voice is definitely a voice in a quiet library, but at this time... no one listened To his knock? Panting heavily, Zhou Jue stopped this meaningless action, when a strange voice suddenly sounded behind him.He turned his head slowly, and found that half of the skeletons that were originally in the box crawled out of the box, and the hair hung outside the box like a black curtain.Zhou Jue was so frightened that a certain part of his heart was cracked. Another voice came out from the pile of hair, that voice was like an old woman over eighty years old muttering something, she said: "It's not over yet...he hasn't appeared yet, there's no end yet..." Zhou Jue leaned against the door panel, now he wished that his body was as thin as a piece of paper, so that he could slip out through the crack of the door.He didn't know if he had a cerebellar convulsion from fright, or if he had become emboldened by the long and terrifying torture, but he actually asked back, "Who is he?" The voice of the eighty-year-old woman continued to appear: "A ghost will appear among the seven people...he is hidden among the seven people. When you are close to the truth, it will be the day he appears." Zhou Jue was sweating profusely. He didn't expect this monster to be able to talk to him. He licked his lips and continued to ask, "What kind of existence is the ring of seven?" The bones made a cracking sound, and she said: "This is a secret that has been hidden for a long time. The key to the secret lies in that book. Reading the end means that 'it' has found you." Zhou Jue hurriedly asked: "So, is there any way to avoid it?" The corpse said darkly: "There is an answer in the book, but the answer is not completely correct. The book itself is a mistake, but it is the only way." Zhou Jue couldn't understand what she meant, but he vaguely knew that it would be very unreliable to follow the contents of the book completely.Zhou Jue wanted to continue asking, but the corpse had already said: "The key to this book is not the development of the story, but the hidden truth behind the story. If you simply speculate based on the development of the story, the final result will only be failure." Zhou Jue asked, "What happens if you fail?" The bones made cracking noises again, and she didn't speak, but Zhou Jue knew that if she failed, it would definitely not be much better than her fate. He tremblingly asked: "Then, then you...are you Chen Rulan?" When Zhou Jue finished asking this sentence, he suddenly felt someone slamming on the door behind him, so he immediately dodged away, and then saw Chen Hao rushing in, sweating profusely and holding a wrench in his hand.Following behind Chen Hao is the curator. Zhou Jue hadn't recovered from the previous fear, he just froze in place. Chen Hao patted Zhou Jue's face several times, Zhou Jue closed his mouth, and Chen Hao asked, "Where are the bones?" Zhou Jue pointed at the wooden box tremblingly, Chen Hao rushed over, looked at the things inside and backed up a few steps, then looked back at Zhou Jue, Zhou Jue obviously hadn't calmed down yet, Just instinctively shrink back.Chen Hao said to him: "Come and have a look." Zhou Jue swallowed, he really didn't want to look at that thing again, but face forced him to bite the bullet and walk forward.He looked into the box and saw that there was no corpse there, but there was only a large pile of black linen, and in the linen was a nest of mice.Chen Hao looked at Zhou Jue with weird eyes, and Zhou Jue's expression at this time could no longer be described in words.The curator said at this time: "Mr. Chen, I'm really sorry, maybe the door was locked suddenly. Fortunately, Xiao Zhou called you, otherwise we wouldn't know there was someone inside. Xiao Zhou, why didn't you call?" Zhou Jue felt that he had lost his reputation and face. On the one hand, Chen Hao was obviously doubting what he said before, but now the curator basically treats him as a fool.He hesitated and couldn't explain clearly, so they followed the curator out.After coming out of the library, seeing that there were no outsiders, Zhou Jue quickly grabbed Chen Hao's arm and said, "Brother Chen, you have to believe me, I really saw the bones, and she even talked!" Chen Hao said: "What did she say?" Zhou Jue looked into Chen Hao's eyes and said, "She said, if we get in touch with the truth, a betrayer will emerge, and we will fail. If we fail, we will be finished!" Chen Hao's heart sank, and he asked, "Do you have the CD and clay tablet?" Zhou Jue nodded. He touched the backpack guiltily, and after confirming that the two items hadn't disappeared, he said, "The items are still there! What I saw before was definitely not a hallucination!" Chen Hao approached Zhou Jue quietly, and when he walked in front of him, he lowered his head and said into Zhou Jue's ear, "I believe in you, look..." After speaking, he stretched out his right hand, on which there was a very long hair . Zhou Jue raised his head in horror, Chen Hao had quickly hidden his hair in his belt.He patted Zhou Jue on the shoulder and said, "Go, go home." Back at Chen Hao's house, Zhou Jue still had lingering fears. He sat down on the sofa and covered his chest, tremblingly said: "Brother Chen, you really haven't seen it before. It's too scary. It's worse than a three-dimensional horror movie." Really." Chen Hao took out a can of cold beer from the refrigerator and handed it to him: "Drink it, calm down, and tell me about your discovery today." Zhou Jue drank half a can of beer in one gulp, straightened up and said to Chen Hao after heaving a sigh of relief, "I can be sure that Gu Lao and Lao Zhao are one of the seven, and there is this CD and this clay tablet." After speaking, he took out the paper bag from his backpack. Chen Hao took out the paper bag, took out the clay tablet and looked at it, then picked up a piece of copy paper at hand, which had some clay tablet patterns on it, and said, "Do you think these two are very similar?" Zhou Jue took the copy paper and compared it with the clay tablet. The patterns of the two are indeed very similar, but they are not the same.Chen Hao put the clay tablet into the scanner, and then printed out a sheet.He put the two pieces of copy paper together on the table and looked at them for a while, and then he turned out a lot of documents.After that, he turned his back to Zhou Jue and said, "Have you ever heard of Chacha?" Zhou Jue replied with a hum: "The mud pagoda in Tibetan Buddhism." Chen Haodao: "Yes, it is actually an imported word transliterated from Sanskrit, which means copying in Sanskrit. There are some patterns in the clay tablet rubbings left by Rulan that are very similar to the patterns on the clay tablet, but the content of the patterns I don't understand. It cannot be deciphered at the moment.” Zhou Jue held the beer can and said: "The corpse said that if we follow the pattern in the book, we will fail, and one of the seven people will be a ghost. He will kill us all, and we will all be finished." .Now we have five people, and we don’t know when the sixth and seventh will appear. Does that ghost refer to Lao Jiu?" Chen Hao fell into deeper thinking when someone knocked on the door.He opened the door and saw that it was Fat San, Thin Monkey and Feng Laojiu who had come back. The three of them had been running around all morning, sweating profusely. Fat San shouted his mother for a long time at the top of his voice, then sat down beside Zhou Jue, and said, "Brother Chen, the research institute you introduced is too far away, but it broke my legs. But you Don't worry, we did all the demos for me by ourselves, and we didn't let anyone help us at all. Your buddy is really interesting. Not only did you help us fix the machine, analyze the material, but also lied about what we are... Experts from Beijing, could this cowhide have been blown a bit bigger? Right Skinny Monkey?" A trace of anxiety flashed in the thin monkey's eyes, and he nodded. Chen Hao asked indifferently: "It's nothing, I asked him to deal with it like that. Did you find out any materials?" Fat San took a sip of tea, touched his mouth and said, "It's been found out. There is no problem with the paper and ink. The problem is its binding." Chen Hao didn't interrupt, Fat San was still thirsty, so he took another big gulp.He took out a sample and a stack of reports, and continued: "Let's put it this way, book binding in the 1950s basically used thread glue, but now it is basically perfect binding. This book looks like it was in the 1950s." It’s a stuff, so it’s bound with glue. However, in the sample you gave me, we found a special material on our binding line.” Fat San rolled his eyes and asked mysteriously, "Guess... what material is it?" Zhou Jue was so impatient, there was no time to chat with him, but Chen Hao who was at the side said, "Hair?" Fat San snapped his fingers, patted his thigh and said, "Brother Chen, ah! How do you know?" Chen Hao said: "I also guessed." Zhou Jue secretly glanced at Chen Hao suspiciously, Chen Hao's face immediately turned to him, Zhou Jue could only scratch his hair in embarrassment.Chen Hao rolled his eyes at him and said: "This is well-founded, because before you discovered this book, you said that you had seen a woman with very long hair, and also, the nightmare you had and the details of this book Hair is also mentioned in the story. So I think the hair must have played a key role here, and since the fat man said that there is a problem with the thread in the thread glue, it is very likely that the hair was entangled with the thread in." Seeing what Chen Hao said, Zhou Jue was too embarrassed to say anything more, so he laughed a few times in embarrassment, and apologized: "Brother Chen... I didn't doubt you, but I didn't expect you to be so good at guessing." Chen Hao also smirked and said, "So you still doubt me? I don't even know." Zhou Jue laughed even more embarrassedly now, and he eagerly changed the subject: "So, there are human hairs in the lines of this book? Is it women's hair?" Fat San nodded and said, "Sure, it was the 1950s, do you think it's now? All men are gorgeous, their hair is more elegant than women's, I'm sure it's women's hair!" Chen Hao said: "I see, you can put down the report. Now we should move on to the next content." Everyone stopped talking, but stared at the book in the middle of the desk.It's time to start a new chapter...