Chapter 5 Chapter Four: The Grim Dead

There is a bright snow-covered world outside the house, but the house just separated by a window gives people a hellish feeling. The source of this feeling is the dead body of Kong Wang hanging from the beams of the house.He looked down at the window condescendingly, as if guarding the entrance to hell. Kong Wang started to stay behind closed doors two weeks ago. Since then, Shunde has put breakfast on the window sill at around 6:30 every day, and Kong Wang puts the empty tableware back to the original place after eating.After the accident last night, several monks in the kitchen went down to the valley to rescue Chen Jian who had fallen off the cliff, so breakfast was delayed.Therefore, it wasn't until around seven in the morning, when Shunde opened the window, that Kong Wang's body was discovered by Luo Fei and the other three.

Two mysterious deaths happened one after another in the small monastery, and Luo Fei began to feel the seriousness of the situation.To deal with this kind of corpse whose cause of death is unknown, it is reasonable to say that the technical personnel of the criminal investigation team should go to the scene to investigate, but based on the current actual situation, Luo Fei decided to go into the house to take a look, after all, he has also received relevant on-site inspections in university. training. In order to maintain the original appearance of the scene to the greatest extent, Luo Fei did not force open the door, but climbed in through the window carefully.Even with Luo Fei's psychological quality, he couldn't help but feel his scalp tingling when he entered the room. The corpse seemed to be staring at him with a strange gaze all the time, which made him feel very uncomfortable.

When Luo Fei tiptoed into the room from the window sill, he seemed to have entered another world no matter from which sensory perception.The room was quiet, the light was very dim, and there was a faint strange smell in the damp and cold air.The smell is very special, like some kind of medicinal material, or some kind of low-quality tobacco, Luo Fei looked around, there was an incense burner full of ashes on a square table in the room, it seemed that this was the only smell possible source. The house is an old-fashioned brick and wood structure, with a beam in the middle.Kong Wang's body was hung on this beam.At the foot of the corpse was a stool that had been kicked down. At least from the superficial appearance, the deceased had hanged himself.

In his previous experiences, Luo Fei had also seen some corpses, some were highly decomposed and some were incomplete, but he had never seen a corpse that brought him such a strong sense of terror like this time.Perhaps the corpse itself is not the cause of the horror. Even if the person hanging on the beam is alive, it is enough to make people dare not look at him suddenly. If there is no congenital disability, then this person must have experienced some terrible accident before his death.The accident severely damaged his spine and nerves.His back was arched, the muscles and features of his face contorted in disbelief.Especially frightening were his round eyes.

Although the man is dead, his eyes still seem to be alive.The bloodshot eyeballs protrude outside, staring down, and the eyeballs are bright red, as if burning with a flame—a flame of anger. Yes, anger!This is the strongest feeling conveyed to Luo Fei by Kong Wang after his death.If there really is another world, the forgetful soul must not rest in peace, but has become the most vicious ghost. Luo Fei stared at the dead Kong Wang, that kind of anger was blowing into his heart like a gust of cold wind, which made him tremble and at the same time gave him a strong urge to explore the source of that anger.

Is there any internal connection between this anger and the mysterious "murderous painting"? Luo Fei has no way of understanding the answer, but he seems to be able to judge one thing: Kong Wang is not suicide. A wronged person will commit suicide, a desperate person will commit suicide, and a sad person will commit suicide, but an angry person will never commit suicide. Although such a subjective judgment is not enough to serve as the basis for a conclusion, Luo Fei still has considerable confidence in his intuition.What he has to do now is to find some real evidence to support his idea.

Luo Fei moved another stool from the side of the bed, and stood close to the corpse.The deceased was short in stature, at this moment Luo Fei had to bend down slightly to be at eye level with his head.At this moment, Luo Fei suddenly seemed to have discovered something strange, he put his nose close to the dead man's head, and took a deep sniff. That's right!The weird smell that filled the whole room actually came from Kong Wang's corpse! Luo Fei pondered for a moment, unable to judge what this smell meant.In short, this is by no means the smell produced by the change of the corpse, and it has nothing to do with the body odor produced by not taking a bath for a long time.

Luo Fei didn't know whether this smell was related to the things he was concerned about, and he had no idea about the source of it, so he could only put this doubt aside for the time being.He began to carefully examine the body's surroundings up and down, and made some corresponding judgments based on this. The body was hung with a white strip of cloth about four centimeters wide, about two meters in length, tied into a loop 30 centimeters above the left side of the deceased's face.Luo Fei glanced around the room, and soon found the source of the cloth strip: the sheets on the bed were messy, with obvious tear marks, and the texture and color were exactly the same as the cloth strip.

The deceased had rigor reactions all over his body, with obvious upper extremities and less severe lower extremities; the cornea was partially opaque, but the pupils were still identifiable.It was preliminarily determined that the time of death was six to ten hours, that is, between 10:30 last night and 2:30 this morning.This is just before and after Chen Jian's fall from the cliff, and there is at least some connection between the two deaths in terms of time. The deceased was dressed neatly, it can be seen that he had not gone to bed before the incident.Luo Fei checked the vital parts such as the chest, abdomen, face and brain, and found no trauma, only obvious bruises on the neck. Judging from the cause of death, it can be preliminarily determined that he died of suffocation.

In order not to damage the scene as much as possible, Luo Fei still stood on the stool and looked around the house after briefly inspecting the corpse.The furnishings in the room are very simple, a bed, a cabinet, a table, and two stools (one on the ground and one under his feet).The only strange thing is that there is a large water basin in the corner under the window, and a bunch of grass-like plants are soaking in it. Luo Fei got off the stool, walked closer, picked up a plant in his hand and looked at it.Brilliantly green and with unusually large leaves, this plant is sure to stand out among the grass.

Luo Fei couldn't name this plant, but he always felt that it was a little weird and not pleasing to the eye.I don’t know what Kong Wang collected this and soaked it in the house for watching?edible?It doesn't seem to make sense.Luo Fei shook his head, and put the plant in his hand back into the water basin. Even without the frightening corpse, there seemed to be a strange atmosphere in the room.But as far as the case is concerned, Luo Fei has full confidence.No matter how weird the superficial phenomenon is, all the answers must be hidden in this small monastery. I believe that as long as the criminal investigators go up the mountain and do the corresponding visits and investigations well, all the mysteries will be solved. It doesn't make much sense to stay in the house anymore, too many activities will have a negative impact on the next step of exploration, Luo Fei decided to leave the scene.When he came to the door, the door was closed with a hasp lock from the inside, and there was no trace of being hit by an external force on the door frame, but this did not explain any problem, since the window was open, if it was a murder, the perpetrator could have come from In and out there. Luo Fei unlocked it and walked out. More than a dozen monks had gathered outside the door, some were whispering, and some were looking into the window.Kong Jing stood aside with a sad face. "What are you doing here? They're all scattered! Go to your own business!" Accompanied by this scolding, a middle-aged monk walked into the backyard.This man is of medium height, with a thin face, but looks very strong.Because of the deep eye sockets, his first impression is a bit hazy.There are several monks behind him, their clothes are covered with muddy water, and their hair is also wet, but everyone else looks exhausted, but he is still full of energy. What this person said was quite effective, except for Kong Jing and Shun De, all the monks dispersed immediately. Kong Jing took two steps up: "You came back just in time, and something happened in the temple again—Kong Wang died!" The middle-aged monk was taken aback for a moment, and looked towards Kong Wang's room. The scene in the window made him also change his face.He quickened his pace and came to the door of the hut worriedly. Luo Fei just appeared in front of him. The monk stopped and looked at Luo Fei suspiciously. Kong Jing quickly introduced: "This is Director Luo of the Nanmingshan Police Station." Then he pointed to the monk, "This is the head of our temple, Shunping." In the monastery, the status of the master is second only to the abbot, and most of them have great real power.No wonder those monks obeyed Junpei's words just now. Knowing Luo Fei's identity, Shunping relaxed his tense expression a little. Instead of bowing like Kong Jing, he stretched out his right hand to Luo Fei. "Hello, Director Luo." He shook Luo Fei's hand and greeted like an ordinary person. "Hello." Luo Fei's tone was as flat as ever, not revealing his likes and dislikes for this person at all. "I'll take a look inside the house." Shunping seemed very concerned about what happened, and just after finishing his polite words, he turned around and rushed into the house.Luo Fei hastily stretched out his arm to hold him: "The situation is unknown now, so we can't enter the scene yet." Shunping had no choice but to stop. He stared into the room for a moment, and asked somewhat unwillingly, "What about Kong Wang? Just hanging like this?" "For the time being, we can only do this. We must wait for criminal investigation technicians to inspect the scene and determine the cause of death." "Determine the cause of death, didn't he hang himself?" Shunping said while looking into Luo Fei's eyes, as if he wanted to get some answers from it. Luo Fei looked at him without giving in, but the subject changed: "Did you guys just come up from the valley to search for those who fell off the cliff?" "How is the situation? Have you gained anything?" Kong Jing couldn't wait to interject, confirming Luo Fei's guess. "With such heavy snow, we can't get down to the bottom of the valley at all. There is no hope of saving people. Now we are just thinking about whether we can recover the corpses. Sigh, it would be nice not to let them stay yesterday." Shunping curled his lips, as if Full of grievances and unable to vent, he turned around and said, "What is this Kong Wang doing? He locked himself up a few days ago, and now he commits suicide in the temple. Isn't it messy enough?" Luo Fei remembered that it was this Shunping who arranged for Chen Jian and the other three to live in the hut behind the temple, and asked, "You let those three guests live in the hut yesterday, right? Isn't there still room available in the temple?" "There are vacant rooms, but the temple has recently issued a rule that pilgrims are not allowed to stay overnight. It was too late at that time, and I had no choice but to let them make do in that hut first." Junping said, looking at Kong Jing , there seems to be something hidden. Luo Fei gave an "um" in surprise, and looked at Kong Jing, it was the first time he had heard that the temple stipulated that pilgrims were not allowed to stay overnight. Kong Jing saw Luo Fei's expression, and quickly explained: "There is a reason for this. A while ago, a few things were lost in the temple, and it is likely that thieves got in among the pilgrims staying overnight." "Oh? Is the lost thing valuable? Why didn't you report it?" Kong Jing smiled bitterly in embarrassment: "It's just some incense burners and the like, but they can be regarded as old things. At that time, I thought about taking precautions in the future. After all, this kind of thing happened in our Buddhist place, and it's not good to hear it. .” Luo Fei nodded, this kind of thinking is also understandable. Ever since Shunde saw Kong Wang's body at the window, he has been absent-minded and hasn't said a word, looking quite frightened.At this moment, he seemed to have come back to his senses a little bit, and then he nodded silently. Luo Fei hoped that Shunde's cleverness would play an important role in his future work, but he didn't expect him to be so timid. Luo Fei pointed at the room with his hand, and asked Shunde, "Are you always afraid of him?" Shunde shook his head blankly: "No, Master Uncle has always been kind to us." kind?Luo Fei really couldn't connect this word with the angry face he saw just now, he turned his head and glanced inside the door again, showing an incomprehensible expression. Shunping followed Luo Fei's gaze and showed a surprised expression, but he echoed Shunde's words: "Well, he looks a little scary, but he has always been very good-natured, and he has never lost his temper. But His expression is so terrifying now, he really looks like a different person in peacetime. I don't know what unexpected things happened to him?" Kong Jing shook his head from the side, softly as if he was talking to himself: "No, no..." "What's wrong?" Junpei's tone seemed rather impatient. Kong Jing looked up at Junping: "You said he never lost his temper, it's because you haven't been in the temple long enough." Shunping was stunned for a moment: "What do you mean? Did you lose your temper when you saw Kong Wang?" Kong Jing frowned, recalling some dusty past events: "You will be surprised to see Kong Wang now. But for me, this is a familiar feeling: the previous Kong Wang Back again." "Kong Wang in the past? How long ago?" Shunping narrowed his eyes and stared at Kong Jing, "I have been in the temple for ten years." Kong Jing pondered for a while: "It should be...in 1972, that was the first time I saw Kong Wang. His temper at that time was quite different from what you saw later." Luo Fei faintly felt that there was something strange about it, and asked, "What's the specific situation? Tell me carefully." Kong Jing took a look at Shunping, and said, "This Kong Wang, like you, was also a monk halfway. He fell into the 'Death Valley' in Beishan for some unknown reason. It was my master Zhengming who saved his life." .” It was also the first time Shunping and Shunde had heard of this incident.When Kong Jing mentioned "Death Valley", their faces all changed color involuntarily.Especially Shunde, he involuntarily took two steps back and looked at the door in horror, as if he was afraid that the dead Kong Wang would come out from inside. "Death Valley" Luo Fei also knew that it was a steep and deep valley located in the northern part of the mountain.Because of the dangerous terrain, many people used to commit suicide there by jumping off the cliff. Over time, it was named "Death Valley", and some horrible and weird legends were derived from it. This may be the reason why Shunde is so afraid.But now special guardrails have been placed on the cliffs, and nothing happened to Luo Fei when he was in office. Kong Jing didn't seem to care about the listener's reaction, and just continued talking about herself: "When the master carried him to the temple, we didn't expect this person to survive. He was covered in injuries, especially The neck was so badly wounded that I couldn't even straighten my head." This is a cervical spine injury caused by a fall from a height.Luo Fei thought to himself, it is indeed a miracle that he survived such serious injuries. "Master let him live in the hut behind the temple and took care of him personally. My master is not only proficient in Buddhism, but also has a lot of research in Chinese medicine. After about half a month, the man's body and mind slowly recovered. But he didn't appreciate Master's life-saving grace. Every day we could hear him growling and insulting from the hut. At that time, the thing I was most afraid of was to deliver food to the hut, because as long as I saw He, even for five minutes, can scare people for the rest of the day." "Is his anger scaring you?" Luo Fei asked. Kong Jing nodded, and said in a gloomy tone: "I will never forget the scene at that time. His whole face was contorted, his whole body was bursting with anger, and those terrifying eyes were always staring at you viciously—that It's not a person, but a devil, a devil who wants to eat you anytime!" Luo Fei imagined the kind of eyes that appeared on the corpse just now, if those eyes appeared on a living person, it would definitely make people even more frightened. After being silent for a moment, Kong Jing took a breath, and seemed to break free from the horrible memory, and continued: "But my master is not afraid of him at all, and he doesn't even care about those unspeakable insults. He stayed in the hut all night, chanting scriptures and talking about Buddhism, as if he wanted to influence the other party. Gradually, the roaring sound from the house became less and less. But I can still see it when I go by occasionally That person's face was violent, and his eyes were full of anger. Until that happened..." Luo Fei: "What is it?" "One day, Master asked us to prepare paper, pens and paints for painting and send them to the hut. Then the two of them stayed in the hut for a whole day. When the door opened again, he had already undergone a radical change—although The appearance is still so ugly, but the eyes give people a gentle and refined feeling, and there is no anger anymore." "Then they were painting in the house during this day?" Luo Fei felt that this bizarre plot was like listening to a story. Suddenly, he realized something, "Could it be for painting..." "That's right." Kong Jing nodded, "That's the 'murderous painting' that disappeared last night. It was immediately sealed up by Master, and no one was allowed to watch it. Later that person stayed in the temple, and Master collected it. He is a disciple, and his dharma name is 'Kong Wang'." Bad picture!It's this murderous painting again!What exactly was painted there?It can change a person's temperament, but it is mysteriously sealed.More than 20 years later, it was opened again, and homicides occurred one after another in the temple. What kind of connection is there? Questions were entangled in Luo Fei's mind, just like the scattered and tangled balls of thread, you must find the end of the thread in order to sort it out like a cocoon. And this thread, I'm afraid it has to be sorted out before Kong Wang became a monk. After thinking for a moment, Luo Fei asked, "Do you know what happened before Kong Wang became a monk?" Kong Jing shook his head and said: "I don't know about this either. But there are documents recorded when you shave, maybe there will be some information on it." "You go check it now." "Okay, okay." Kong Jing fully agreed, turned and walked to the front yard. At this moment, the walkie-talkie at Luo Fei's waist rang—it was Zhou Ping calling him.