Chapter 11 Chapter 8: Mrs. Xiong

We ran forward quickly, first I was pulling her, running, and somehow it became her pulling me.Unknowingly, I came to a house. This is a thatched house, not big, only about ten square meters. "This is my home." The girl turned her head and said to me. Only then did I realize that she is very beautiful, but at the age of nine, she has already revealed her beauty, and when she grows up, she must be a peerless beauty who will ruin the country and the people. "Your house is so unique." Looking at this dilapidated and dilapidated house, I am afraid that it will collapse at any time, I sighed.

"Also, my name is girl. What about you? Where is your home?" She asked like a cannonball. "My family, well, I forgot too." I shrugged. "What about the name?" She asked anxiously. "I forgot too." He continued to shrug his shoulders. The girl pouted, her face full of pity, "What a poor child. It's okay, just stay at my house tonight, my mother-in-law will definitely like you." "Mother-in-law? Do you live with your mother-in-law?" My mother-in-law is my grandmother, my mother's mother. "Well, the girl has always lived with my mother-in-law, come on, come in." She took my hand and entered this dilapidated house.

The house was really small, with only one kitchen and one bedroom. The girl's mother-in-law was very enthusiastic. Seeing my eyes glowing with gold, she warmly greeted me to sit down and cooked us a sumptuous dinner.Why is it night?I looked at the sky outside the house and was a little worried. The woods are always dark, and I can't tell the difference between morning and evening. Sure enough, it was already night, after all, it was getting dark very quickly. "Hey, it's really pitiful. Eat more, eat more, you are too thin." The girl's mother-in-law told me to eat more, and kept bringing me vegetables. She was indeed an unbearably enthusiastic person.

But for some reason, I always feel that she is a bit weird.She looked at me strangely, her shriveled mouth seemed to swallow her saliva every time she looked at me, and her shrunken face shrunk even more, which was terrifying. There is no entertainment in the woods. After dark, we have to go to bed after eating.Since there is only one bedroom, I had to share a bed with the girl and her mother-in-law. My mind was lazy, and I was still wondering where I came from, but when I leaned on the pillow, I became sleepy, and my eyelids seemed to weigh a thousand catties, and I fell asleep quickly. In the middle of the night, I was woken up very suddenly by a strange sound next to my ears. It was a kind of babble, babble, like someone was eating fried beans.

The sound was sharp and extremely uncomfortable.I propped myself up to see clearly, but as soon as I moved, the weird voice stopped, and a very hoarse voice asked alertly: "Who?" The voice was hoarse, like two pieces of wood rubbing against each other, it should be the voice of the girl's mother-in-law. I replied: "Me." The mother-in-law's voice immediately softened, and she said softly, "Hey, go to bed early, and I will take you to the city to find your family members tomorrow." "Hmm. Is mother-in-law still eating at this late hour?" I asked.

"Ouch, when I'm old, I like to eat some peas at night, don't worry about me, you sleep with me," said my mother-in-law. I nodded and lay down to sleep.The harsh swallowing sound sounded again. The more I thought about it, the more something went wrong. I suddenly thought of something, and I almost cried out in fright.No, the girl's mother-in-law obviously has no teeth, how can she eat hard things like peas.So, what is she eating? I pretended to be in a deep sleep, turned over to her side, and squinted my eyes to see what happened. There was still some moonlight in the forest, and the crimson moonlight shone in through the open window. I vaguely saw a monster that looked like a mother-in-law, and it was grabbing the girl's fingers with sharp claws and gnawing hard.This big beauty who will be the most beautiful woman in the future was eaten into her stomach bit by bit.

Girl, I'm afraid she's already dead. I desperately held back my fear, not letting myself yell out, my mind was spinning rapidly, and a noun flashed into my mind.Mrs. Xiong, Mrs. Xiong, she actually slept on Mrs. Xiong's bed. After eating the girl, I am afraid that I will be the next one. No, you must escape, and you must not just die without knowing why.By the way, didn't the elder sister in the Xiong family's story escaped?By the way, maybe that method will work! I sat up pretending to be sleepy, rubbed my sleepy eyes and said, "Grandma, I want to go to the bathroom."

"Little baby, just settle it on the corner of the wall. I will clean it tomorrow." The monster who looked like a mother-in-law hurriedly put the girl on the bed and covered it, and said to me. "I, I would be embarrassed." I pretended to be shy. "Well, it's easy to get lost in the forest. I'll tie you up with a rope, and I'll pull you back when you're done." Then, the monster tied a rope around my waist. It's exactly the same as in the story, it seems that I can really escape!I was secretly happy, and walked out of the room slowly without moving my expression.

As soon as I went out, in a blind spot where the monster couldn't see, I quickly untied the rope and ran desperately into the woods. The monster in the house soon noticed it, roared angrily, broke the wall with one claw and chased after it. It was the first time in my life that I ran so fast, and the whistling wind behind me kept pouring into my ears, and the monster roared wildly, and it had already chased me not far behind. Seven-year-olds have weak legs and aren't very fast.Soon the monster chased after him. It had already lost its human form. It was more than three meters high. Its big eyes reflected the green light. Dripping down.

It was close, very close, and the moment the monster's long and withered hand was about to grab me, a ray of light suddenly shot from nowhere. "Xiao Ye, Ye Silent, hey, wake up." Someone kept calling me, as if he was still patting my face vigorously. So, I woke up.I saw the sunlight in Room 402 again, and I fell to the ground at some point. Zhang San anxiously patted my face, and pinched my middle position hard. "I didn't have a stroke." I slapped his hands away politely and stood up. "What happened to you just now? You passed out without any warning, which shocked me a lot." He asked.

I shook my head, my thinking is still a little confused. "I'm not too sure. Anyway, it's like a dream, a very real dream. We met Mrs. Xiong." Hearing these words, Zhang San showed a strange look on his face. "How long have I been dizzy?" I supported my head with my hands and massaged my temples a few times before I regained consciousness a little. "Not long, probably only a minute or so." He replied absent-mindedly. I was also a little absent-minded, strange, my body has always been very good, how could I pass out without groaning?I also had that kind of weird dream, which is really unreasonable. Slowly looking around, he found that his body was in a very delicate place, to be precise, it was at the intersection of the bedroom and the living room.Half of my body entered the bedroom, and the other half remained in the living room. I took a few steps forward and saw a very unexpected thing as soon as I entered the bedroom. I saw nothing in the bedroom, only a dilapidated piece of stuff piled up with waste corrugated cardboard that could barely be called a bed. There was a scarecrow on the bed, a scarecrow in girls' clothes.I was stunned, the clothes on the scarecrow gave me a familiar feeling, as if I had seen it somewhere. By the way, the girl named Yatou in the dream was wearing this dress. The thought hit me like a lightning strike, and I shuddered.how is this possible!what the hell is it?I took a few steps over and picked up the scarecrow, only to see a piece of yellow paper pasted on the back of the scarecrow, with a child's birth date written on it with unknown blood: Wuzi year, zodiac rat, Yimaoyue, Dingjiri. This is obviously a Hakka custom called "calling Erhun". The Hakka people near Lingshan believe that people have three souls and seven souls, which is different from the three souls and six souls in traditional Chinese concepts. This difference is not surprising; it has something to do with the long-term evolution of regional culture.Just like the Yeche people of the Hani nationality, they believe that people have twelve souls, which are arranged in the human body in order of size. The Hakka people describe the details of the lost souls quite strangely. It is said that at night, when they see a ball of red light the size of a bowl rising from someone's roof and flying away, it means that someone in that house has lost their souls. The so-called Erhun refers to the phenomenon of children losing their souls, which is very common among Hakka people. Of course, the loss of souls here is in a broad sense, including symptoms such as crying at night, listlessness, and not eating.Children tend to lose their souls because their bodies and minds are still immature, so it is very easy for "soul-stealing empresses" to take advantage of them. The Soul-stealing Empress is a banshee who steals the souls of children in Hakka legends, similar to the witches in Western fairy tales who fly into the sky on a broomstick and come in and out through chimneys.Because it is easy to lose, the Hakka people usually pay attention to the protection of children's souls. If a child stumbles, an adult will hold his ear and call out: "Come back with three souls and seven souls, come back with three souls and seven souls!" Another example is that when an adult carries a child across a bridge, he also needs to call the child's name. If the child falls asleep, the adult must wake him up. Once the soul is lost, the mother of the child must call the soul as soon as possible. The Hakka people call it the soul of the child. The simpler ones are called pillows, eggs, and copper coins. Immediately, the mother recites the soul-calling words and sentences repeatedly. Once the above-mentioned objects stand, it means that the soul has heard the call and has returned.When the child's illness is a little serious, the mother needs to tie a scarecrow, cover it with the child's clothes, and go out to the wild to call the soul.Calling the soul must be at night, because the soul is a feminine thing, and calling during the day can only play the piano to the cow. Furthermore, it is called by the mother because the mother's voice is the most familiar to the child, and the effect of the call will be better.The mother walks forward with the straw man on her back, calling the child's baby name; a person behind her follows the child's voice and answers at any time. The soul-calling phrases that the mother recites are very random. They can be lured with food and playthings, or they can be intimidated by monsters in the night. Its purpose is nothing more than to make the lost three souls return as soon as possible. Of course, whether the lost soul can return, this question cannot be verified.After all, the origin of folk customs often comes from certain subjective beliefs of human beings. Once the beliefs are lost, the customs themselves will cease to exist. Could it be that I was influenced by Calling Erhun?Looking at the scarecrow in my hand, I was puzzled. No, calling Erhun is obviously calling the soul back. Reminiscent of the fragmented situation in which many old feudal customs have been changed in the past two days, I suddenly lack self-confidence.I'm afraid this ritual called Erhun has also been changed. Instead of calling back the soul, it calls out the soul of the person. While I was thinking hard, Zhang San had already checked the remaining two rooms, but found nothing more, and he didn't see anyone.In short, No. 402 was empty, and the intruders also took the family of three to the empty building. "Did you find anything?" Zhang San asked a little discouraged. I shook my head, my eyes still moving slowly in the house. "Strange, how did those people escape? Obviously, there is only one staircase in this building." "The devil knows, maybe it was Yi Rongcheng who went out through the door openly." Zhang San said depressingly. "It shouldn't be possible. At least two people are needed to get this family of three out. I haven't seen four adults and one child go downstairs. Not to mention four adults, even one child The children have never been in or out, so there must be something going on here." I turned around gently, and then gestured to Zhang San with my hand.A look of surprise flashed across Zhang San's face, and then he wandered around the house calmly. Slowly walking to the side of the bed, he suddenly jumped up and kicked over the cardboard above. The cardboard was subjected to a huge impact, and all were thrown upwards, revealing the appearance under the bed.We both took a closer look and couldn't help taking a deep breath. There were actually two corpses under the bed, a man and a woman, both young, but only in their early twenties, which fit the description of the owner by the security guard downstairs.I squatted down and checked. The two people died not long ago, and their body temperature still remained. Zhang San and I looked at each other, feeling a little helpless.Obviously, the murderer killed them hastily, probably when I knocked on the door for the first time, because I was afraid that they would make a noise, I killed these two people indirectly. I feel a little depressed and uncomfortable.I was about to say something with a wry smile, Zhang San suddenly pushed me forward, quickly changed the position of my feet, flicked my left leg slightly, and kicked me behind me. I was pushed to the foot of the wall, and before I could see the situation clearly, I heard a "snap", and then the sound of someone hitting the wall.I used my hand to borrow strength from the wall and turned around quickly, just in time to see three figures fighting with Zhang San. Where were these people hiding just now?We searched the whole house and couldn't find them.I looked around suspiciously, only to find that the opposite window was wide open. Damn it, I didn't expect these guys to climb out and stand on the fence on the third floor, no wonder they couldn't find them. These three people are very good at attacking and defending in an orderly manner. I saw them back and forth, ready to block Zhang San against the wall.Zhang San looked at these three people coldly, his hands were merciless, as soon as he came up, he was like Tai Chi massage hands. This kung fu is less to more, and the effect of using strength to strike is very good. His palm technique is like flowing water, blocking the attack of the three people without leaking. Those three people were not in a hurry, they had a clear division of labor, two of them attacked his chest and abdomen, while the remaining one specialized in his lower body.The guy who took down the game was the best, with agility and combined hands and feet, very similar to the kicks of a certain tribe in Qingcheng. I'm not familiar with kung fu, although the old man Yang Junfei and the old woman Lin Zhiyan always want to instill this stuff in me, but I'm very cold.It's not that I hate violence, but that I prefer to use my brain to solve things.However, under their crazy indoctrination, they still memorized a lot of things. At least I know that there are also Tai Chi massage hands among the people, but they are all small tricks to strengthen the body. Most of the most refined moves are in the army. If Zhang San has nothing to do with the army, I would not believe it if he was killed. . And those three people mostly use the kung fu of Xishu, which is very delicate, and they are probably some elites. "Hey, Zhang San, save some lives, I want to ask some questions." I yelled, throwing things at the three people from time to time to disturb their sight and hearing. "No problem, I'll stop if I beat them into a stick." Zhang San laughed loudly, his fists were flowing like water, pulling the person on the left who was annoyed by me and wanted to rush over to finish me off, and brought him back into the battle circle. He blocked all the escape routes of the three of them, and when he saw that some of them wanted to escape, he pretended to be desperate, and the three who beat them cried out in agony. Seeing that he couldn't attack for a long time, the person who attacked the lower body suddenly made a feint and kicked out with both feet continuously, very similar to the legendary scissor legs. His hands were not idle, and he quickly took out a dagger from his arms. "Be careful, some bastard has used a murder weapon." I yelled again. "What are you afraid of? I don't even know if this softie is going to play tricks or not. They are all soft-legged shrimps and can't be hardened." Zhang San kicked it arrogantly, avoiding the knife from bottom to top by the way. I have to admit that the dagger-wielding bastard is really good at kung fu. He uses the dagger so viciously that people will classify it as insidious and despicable when they see it. Compared with his appearance, he has nothing to do. Zhang Sanyue became more and more excited when he played, screaming again and again. "You can't finish it, hurry up and finish it." My eyes were dazzled, and I finished throwing away the things around me, and I had nothing to do, it was very boring. "Don't worry, I still want to hit them begging my father and grandma to kneel down and beg me for mercy." Zhang San's Taiji hand pushed, and the fist of the guy on the right was drawn to the face of the guy with the knife , he almost fell over, but his eyes were swollen and swollen, like a underdeveloped panda. "Fuck, I'm getting impatient." I frowned, impatiently took out a pistol from my pocket, and shot the man with the knife in the leg. He fell to the ground holding his legs. Hearing the gunshot, the remaining two people paused, only to see one of them drew out a knife at a lightning speed and wiped the neck of the fallen man fiercely, and then rushed towards the window in a very tacit understanding. "Where are you running!" Zhang San yelled, and with a sudden movement of his footsteps, his hands were about to grab those two people. Just as he was about to grab them, it was too late and then it was too fast, but the two of them ran desperately and landed on the ground. Borrowing strength, he just jumped out of the window. Damn, these guys are ruthless enough, no matter to themselves or others.This is the real fourth floor!When the two of us looked down from the window, we saw that the two people who fell to the ground were not dead yet, but were struggling to stand up staggeringly, bleeding all over their bodies, probably because of serious injuries. Regardless of the surprised eyes of others, they grabbed the next car and drove away. Zhang San and I sighed at the same time. "What should I do?" He looked at me. I shrugged helplessly: "What else can I do. First check the corpses on the ground to see if there is any useful information." It turned out to be a pity, but as expected, there was nothing on the body at all.No ID card, no bank card, he didn't even wear underwear, only a set of underwear and a dagger that can be bought everywhere. Looking at the dead bodies on the ground, I asked abruptly, "Tell me, how many murders have occurred in Lingshan City in which a family of three died and a child's body disappeared?" Zhang San replied suspiciously: "There are forty-seven incidents in total. Why do you ask this?" "It's been forty-eight now." I was silent for a while, then said, "I have a hypothesis." "What hypothesis?" He suddenly became interested. "It's a very simple assumption. You see, these murders are all very weird, but they have a few things in common. First, they are all families of three; second, all families have children no older than nine years old; third , the parents are dead, but the children are nowhere to be found. Maybe they are not dead yet, after all, there is no way to find their bodies, and it is impossible to determine whether they are dead." "But isn't Tiantian dead? The coroner has already confirmed it." Zhang San asked. "Who knows, isn't her body still lost in the police station?" I curled my lips, "What if some organization has to fake her death because the police came too fast. Or just use other children's body What about a dead body?" "And," I scanned the room with my eyes, "in this family of three, we didn't find the child's body either, right?" "What do you want to say?" Zhang San asked. "Maybe it's a kind of ritual. This kind of ritual needs to use many children under the age of nine as the lead to start it." I said solemnly. "What ceremony." "I don't know, but I'm afraid it has something to do with Mrs. Xiong." I recalled the dream not long ago, and said slowly: "If my guess is correct, this kind of murder will happen one last time." Zhang San was taken aback, and asked reflexively, "It will happen again?" "That's right. Now they only took away forty-eight children. According to the Hakka's old feudal customs, seventy-seven forty-nine is the number of return. There must be another family who will be killed." My eyes through the window Glass, looking at the streets of Lingshan City, the streets are bustling with people, extremely prosperous, but I don't know which innocent family the last murder case will happen. Alas, I am a little tired.