Chapter 9 Chapter Eight: The Secret of the Blood Vial

If it wasn't for the appearance of the photocopied picture, Luo Fei would probably have regarded Yue Dongbei as a superstitious lunatic.But when the "blood bottle" recorded on the picture turned his thoughts to another direction, this direction seems so absurd, you can't imagine what kind of answer it will be connected with. Luo Fei understood Zhou Liwei's surprise and confusion very well, so after making some contact, he immediately took Zhou Liwei to the Longzhou Cultural Relics Appraisal Center. On the way, Luo Fei briefly told the other party about the situation when the "blood bottle" appeared in Longzhou.

About four months ago, the criminal police team of the Public Security Bureau received a report from an informant that a foreign-related cultural relic smuggling activity would be carried out in the Xiyuan Hotel in this city.Because of the seriousness of the case disclosed, Luo Fei personally deployed and participated in the arrest operation on the spot. The operation seemed to go smoothly at first.With the cooperation of the insiders, the ambushed police rushed into the trading site and controlled the situation without firing a single shot.In addition to the informant, there were four buyers and sellers.The shippers were Lao Hei, a local notorious cultural relic dealer in Longzhou, and his two young men.The recipient was a dark-skinned, short middle-aged man who looked like someone from Southeast Asia. Later interrogation confirmed that he was from Myanmar.

When the police entered, the transaction had been completed and the cultural relics had been transferred to the suitcase brought by the Burmese man.The police ordered the man to open the suitcase for on-site evidence collection.Unexpectedly, an accident happened during this process. The Burmese man opened the suitcase, and the interior of the suitcase has been carefully refitted, with excellent fixing and shockproof functions.Obviously, these measures are all about protecting the contents of the box - a uniquely shaped bottle. The bottle looks like a spindle with one corner truncated. It is not very big, ten centimeters high, and the thickest part is only about three or four centimeters in diameter.It is round and smooth throughout, and its material looks very special, like glass or some unknown metal.

Luo Fei and the others didn't know what the bottle was, so they interrogated the suspects present.But several people were silent, and at the moment of stalemate, the Burmese man suddenly grabbed the bottle and jumped out of the window of the hotel room! Because the trading room is located on the 15th floor, the police did not expect his move, and of course they did not take corresponding precautions.When Luo Fei rushed to the window, he discovered that there was a protruding platform between the 12th and 13th floors of the hotel. The man jumped onto this platform, trying to escape! Without any hesitation, Luo Fei immediately jumped down, but accidentally sprained his ankle when he landed.The Burmese man stretched out his arms vigorously, turned over on the ground, jumped up, and ran towards an open room window on the 13th floor.

Seeing that the man was about to enter the window, Luo Fei was unable to chase after him, so he had to fire a gun to call the police.The man ignored it, and in this situation, Luo Fei aimed at his leg and pulled the trigger. The man realized that Luo Fei was shooting at him, and immediately rolled over to avoid it.When he got up again, he stood still in place. Luo Fei came to the man with a limp, only to see that he had a shocked expression on his face, his eyes were full of fear, staring blankly at his right hand. Bright red blood was oozing from his tightly clenched hands. A few seconds ago, he was still running desperately, but at this moment, the strength of the man's whole body seemed to be exhausted in an instant. After a moment of numbness, he let go of his palm, and the bottle just now fell to the ground with a "clang".

There was a gap in the bottle at the waist, and blood was continuously gurgling out of it! Two more policemen came to the platform, and they clamped the man's arms from both sides.The man seemed to wake up suddenly, he let out a heart-pounding cry, and then broke out with astonishing strength, twisting and struggling.The two policemen were caught off guard and he broke free, but what happened next surprised everyone present. The man didn't run away, he just shook his right hand violently, and then wiped his palm on the ground repeatedly.During this process, his expressions and actions are so crazy, it seems that some kind of creepy monster is attached to the palm of his hand!Luo Fei originally thought he was wounded by the bullet in his hand, only now did he realize that was not the case.His palm was intact, except for a lot of blood gushing from the bottle.

The man yelled some words, although he couldn't understand, but the expression of horror was obvious.And this panic undoubtedly came from the blood.Luo Fei even believed that if there was a knife at the scene, the man would cut off his right hand without hesitation, so that the blood would leave his body as soon as possible. Luo Fei and the others didn't know what the bottle was, let alone how blood gushed out when the bottle broke.They just fulfilled their duty as a policeman, kept the bottle as physical evidence, and brought the suspect back to the Public Security Bureau for interrogation.

The Burmese man's mood has always been unstable, and he has been repeating the same words in horror.After translation, the Chinese meaning of these words mainly has two sentences. One sentence is: "It's broken!" Another line reads: "The devil will rise!" Because the man has foreign status, he was deported back to his country after simple processing.Luo Fei and others mainly interrogated Lao Hei. Lao Hei's crimes are certain and irrefutable, but there are some mysteries that cannot be solved. The first is to provide the source of goods.According to Lao Hei, this mysterious supplier has never appeared, and the communication between them has been carried out through telephone and Internet.The supplier first provided photos and videos of the goods, and told Lao Hei to find a new home in Myanmar.Under his guidance, Lao Hei successfully found the interested buyer, that is, the short black Burmese man.For a small bottle, the Burmese actually offered a price of one million U.S. dollars, and paid a 30% deposit in advance.Lao Hei immediately accepted the supplier's offer of 5 million RMB.Then the two parties still completed the transfer of money by not meeting each other.So until he was arrested, Lao Hei not only couldn't tell the true identity of the supplier, he couldn't even tell whether the person was a man or a woman.

Another mystery concerns the bottle.What exactly is a bottle?Why is it worth so much money?What about the blood in the bottle?Where does Burmese fear come from?All this old black is unaware of.Luo Fei could only send the bottle to the Cultural Relics Appraisal Center, hoping to find the answer through professionals.Fortunately, these will not affect the nature of the case. Lao Hei will soon be judged fairly by the law, and Luo Fei gradually neglects to pursue these details in his busy work. But now, Luo Fei had to face these problems again.Because he clearly remembered that the broken bottle was exactly the same as the "blood bottle" pattern provided by Yue Dongbei in terms of appearance.

In the past few months, the person who has done the most research on this "blood bottle" is undoubtedly Zhu Xiaohua, deputy director of the Cultural Relics Appraisal Center.After receiving Luo Fei's call, he has been waiting in the office for the other party's arrival. Compared with Luo Fei, Zhu Xiaohua's mood at this time is undoubtedly very happy.For a scholar, is there anything more wonderful than someone rushing to your door to listen to your research results? After Luo Fei and Zhou Liwei arrived, the three of them didn't exchange too many pleasantries, and quickly got down to business.

Zhu Xiaohua looks to be about forty years old, tall and slightly fat; on his round face, he wears a pair of black-rimmed glasses, revealing a somewhat simple and honest demeanor.On the desk in front of him was a small rectangular glass box, which contained the bottle Luo Fei just mentioned. Zhu Xiaohua picked up the glass box and showed it, and said with a smile: "Officer Luo, you two came here for it, right? I have spent a lot of attention on it in the past few months." "Can I have a look?" Zhou Liwei stepped forward and pointed to the box.It should be the first time he saw this mysterious bottle, his eyes were focused and sharp. "Please feel free." Zhu Xiaohua handed over the box generously, "This thing is unbreakable. It is made of a very special material, which is extremely strong. Even if it is hit by a bullet, it just cracks." Just a slit. We put it in a glass case, purely for the convenience of storage." Zhou Liwei took the box in his hand and looked at it carefully.Sure enough, the bottle only had dimples and cracks at the place where the bullet hit, and the shape of the bottle remained round and spindle-shaped all day long, and it shone with a dark mysterious luster.From the appearance point of view, this bottle is indeed exactly the same as the bottle on the copy paper left by Yue Dongbei. "If I'm right, your research should be fruitful, right?" Luo Fei said to Zhu Xiaohua when Zhou Liwei frowned and thought about it. You can see clearly on your face. "Yes." Zhu Xiaohua replied excitedly, "This is a very rare cultural relic. Judging from the time, it should have been manufactured three or four hundred years ago." Luo Fei and Zhou Liwei glanced at each other, this time coincided with Yue Dongbei's narration. Zhu Xiaohua didn't pay attention to the listener's reaction, and continued on his own: "It has extremely high research value in many fields, including history, culture, ethnicity, even witchcraft, casting, etc. If it weren't for the That shot of yours is truly the most exciting archaeological discovery in recent years." When Zhu Xiaohua said the last sentence, the regret in his tone was obvious.Luo Fei was infected by him, and couldn't help but feel a little guilty: "The incident happened suddenly, and I couldn't do anything better in a hurry. The bottle was damaged, it's really a pity." Zhu Xiaohua shook his head disapprovingly: "No, no, the damage is second to none. In fact, this bottle is just a container, and the things in it are the most worthy of attention. Hehe, the highly fresh human blood from hundreds of years ago , What a shock this will cause in the fields of medicine, archaeology, and biology!" Although he had seen the "blood" oozing from the bottle with his own eyes, Luo Fei was still somewhat shocked when he finally got the confirmation from an expert: "Really? Is that bright red liquid really blood? How is that possible?" Save it until now?" "This is the magic of this bottle. Its material and casting method may become a mystery. But what is certain is that after the bottle is cast, a completely airtight vacuum is formed, which has an excellent fresh-keeping function ...Of course, after the bottle is broken, this function is completely lost. When you delivered the bottle to me, it was delayed for a while, and the blood had already dried up, and the value of all aspects was greatly reduced!" "But why seal the blood in the bottle? Could it be that there is something terrible hidden in the blood?" Luo Fei connected the behavior of the Burmese man with the strange cases that occurred recently in Longzhou City, and naturally produced some Guess: Could it be that the blood contains ancient pathogenic substances?But then he shook his head again. This guess is unreasonable in many places. The simplest point is: he was the first person in Longzhou to be exposed to blood, but he is still safe until now. "Scary things?" Zhu Xiaohua replied with a smile, "No, it's not that mysterious, we're not discussing a science fiction novel. These bloods are ordinary human blood, except that they are a little older, and the blood flowing in your veins The liquid is no different. As for why it is sealed in the bottle? Hehe, this question has troubled me for a long time. I spent more than two months searching all kinds of materials, unofficial history and even folk The legend finally found the answer." Luo Fei and Zhou Liwei all stared at Zhu Xiaohua with wide eyes.Zhu Xiaohua felt a strong sense of satisfaction from their reactions. He licked his lips triumphantly, and continued: "This behavior is related to the witchcraft spread by certain ethnic groups. Strictly speaking, it should be regarded as a curse." "Curse?" Luo Fei raised his eyebrows, and signaled the other party to continue talking with expectant eyes. "Yes, curse." Zhu Xiaohua nodded vigorously, speaking as if he was giving a formal lecture, "Some ethnic minorities on the southwestern border of our country, including some small countries in Southeast Asia, the local residents have such a superstitious understanding : After a person dies, his whole body, blood, hair, etc. must all return to the dust, so that he can get the chance to be reincarnated.” "Oh." Luo Fei's eyes flickered for a moment, and he guessed along Zhu Xiaohua's train of thought, "If the blood of a dead person is sealed in this bottle and never sees the light of day, then this person will never be reborn? " "Yes, his soul will always be floating between Yin and Yang, without any support. Of course, this is just a superstition." "It is indeed a very vicious curse. However, such a method seems to be rare in history?" Luo Fei made this judgment based on the rarity of the "blood bottle". "There are two reasons for this." Zhu Xiaohua explained, "One is that it is very difficult to make the 'blood bottle', and the method is only passed down from generation to generation among the priests of certain ethnic minorities. Strictly forbidden. Only used in very extreme cases with the permission of the tribal leader.” "For example, the extreme hatred of a certain person by the whole tribe?" "It's one condition, another is extreme fear of someone." "Extreme fear?" Luo Fei frowned, seemingly puzzled. "These peoples believe in fatalism. Life after life is rewarded with kindness and hatred. If a person was very vicious in life, people will fear that he will continue to do harm after reincarnation, and may curse him after death." "En." Luo Fei nodded, and Zhu Xiaohua helped him reveal many mysteries related to the "blood bottle", but he still had a key question to answer, "Then whose blood is in this bottle?" ?” Zhu Xiaohua curled his lips and smiled helplessly: "I can't answer you now. You just sent such a bottle, and you don't have any other clues." Luo Fei also realized that this question of his was a bit difficult for someone to force. After hesitating for a moment, he asked, "Do you know Li Dingguo?" "Li Dingguo?" Zhu Xiaohua was stunned for a moment, "I know, he was a general who resisted the Qing Dynasty in the late Ming Dynasty, right?" "Some people think that this blood bottle may be related to Li Dingguo." "Who said that?" Zhu Xiaohua was concerned about this issue first. As for Yue Dongbei, Luo Fei found it difficult to speak. After hesitating for a while, he said, "A person who specializes in history." "I have also studied a lot of history, why have I never found anything like this?" Zhu Xiaohua immediately questioned. "He claimed to have studied the history books of Burma." Zhou Liwei finally couldn't help but said, "But I think he is a charlatan at all." Facing Zhu Xiaohua's questioning gaze, Luo Fei recounted Yue Dongbei's theory not long ago. "Absurd, nonsense!" Zhu Xiaohua shook his head again and again, then he seemed to think of something, and asked in surprise, "Officer Luo, how do you agree with such a statement? Professor Zhou, I have doubts about you for a long time. You are studying psychiatry, why did you come to me." Luo Fei smiled bitterly, and told Zhu Xiaohua about the strange medical cases in Longzhou City in the past few days. Zhu Xiaohua is usually busy with research and has little contact with the outside world. This is the first time he has heard of this incident.He opened his mouth wide in surprise, and after a long silence, he suddenly said: "All of this must be a man-made conspiracy! That Yue Dongbei, I think he is very suspicious!" Zhou Liwei turned his head and looked at Luo Fei with narrowed eyes. Obviously, he very much agreed with Zhu Xiaohua's point of view.