Chapter 1054: The Finishing Touch (4000 Words)

The fat man looked at the fluttering paper man above his head and felt that it was not a paper man. It was clearly a hanged ghost disguised as a paper man.

Suddenly, a hand reached out and touched the fat man's arm. He was caught off guard and almost jumped up in fright. He turned around and saw that it was Jiang Cheng.

Following Jiang Cheng's line of sight, he saw a paper man hanging in mid-air, swaying slightly.

The paper man is shorter than most paper men, and is painted in a festive bright red. I have heard of the saying "Fat Man" about Guys and Dolls, so this paper man should be a paper boy who was buried with him.

Because of the angle, the boy's face was hidden in the shadows and he couldn't see it. But as his eyes fell on the boy's feet, a few seconds later, the fat man's shoulders shook and his breathing suddenly became rapid.

The soles of the boy's paper feet were dirty, stained with grass and mud.

A picture appeared uncontrollably in Fatty's mind. The paper boy left the house with a smile on his face in the dark night, lined up with other paper figures, and walked to Wu's house with strange steps. Mansion, carried away several large coffins in the mourning hall, and then placed the coffins by the Dushui River. Taking advantage of the darkness, they returned to the house and waited for them to come.

‘Wait for them to come!!’

Thinking of this, Fatty's pupils suddenly shrank. These guys deliberately left holes for their group to find! As soon as this thought appeared, it quickly occupied Fatty's brain and couldn't get rid of it.

What's even more frightening is that there is more than one problematic paper figure in the room. Judging from the footprints, there must be at least a dozen. Moreover, the fat man cast his eyes on the man leading the way, feeling more and more weird about him too.

Everyone has one thing in mind. Not only must they be wary of the paper figures around them, but they must also always pay attention to the teammates around them. They may be replaced by ghosts if they are not careful.

"Oh, that's not the case." The man leading the way shook his head in annoyance, "I really don't know where this woman went. Forget it, let's go back and do business."

Leaving the room where the paper figures were stored and coming into contact with the outside air again, Du Moyu couldn't help but let out a long sigh of relief. He actually felt like he was coming back from the dead. Being stared at by those paper figures who knew there was something wrong was really too much. It’s hard.

"You're right. It seems that the woman hasn't come back here. Let's go back first." Jia Jinliang wiped his forehead. There was sweat on his forehead. It wasn't like he was pretending. He was really scared.

Before I took a few steps away from the papermaker's house, I was bumped into by several people. It was the old man I had met not long ago, and several old villagers who looked busy and rushed to greet them, "Masters, you are welcome." It turns out to be here!”

"Is something wrong?" Lei Mingyu didn't give the old man a good look.

"Yes, of course there is something." The old man said hurriedly: "The wife of the papermaker in the village has disappeared. We have searched the whole village but can't find her. No, I also want to go to the papermaker's house to have a look. "

"No need to go, we just came out of the paper maker's house, the woman is not there." Zhou Qing said quickly

The old man frowned, "Not there? No way, where else could she go as a woman? There were our people watching by the river, but she didn't go to the river either.

"Village chief, please let go of the people who are looking for you in advance. Have you forgotten what the watchman told you?" a middle-aged man next to the old man urged.

When they heard the word "clockkeeper", everyone had different expressions, knowing that there was a new task.

As expected, the old man who was the village chief patted his forehead and showed an annoyed and apologetic expression, "I'm sorry, I forgot the most important thing. The night watchman told me to let all the masters go." A final farewell to Shopkeeper Zhou.”

"He's the paper maker. People in our village call him Shopkeeper Zhou." Worried that Jiang Cheng and the others wouldn't understand, the village chief explained, "Masters, please don't ask me how to do it, because I don't know. I'll update it later. People will tell you.

After saying that, the village chief took out a small wooden box from his body like a magic trick. After opening it, there were some wooden sticks inside, which were flat and looked like ice cream sticks to the fat man.

"Come on, all the masters, please draw the lots first. It's not difficult. I won't bother all the masters to go with you." The village chief handed the wooden lot to him with a smile on his face, but his smile looked unnatural.

Everyone had to draw, and this time without Fatty’s help, Jiang Cheng won the prize as expected.

Turning the wooden stick over, there is a section on the back that is red, as if it was painted with blood.

After the village chief saw it, he nodded to Jiang Cheng, "That's it. Masters with red signs on the back of the wooden sign please follow me. The remaining masters should go back and rest. Thank you for your hard work last night.'

In addition to Jiang Cheng, there were four other people who won the red lottery: A Biao, Zhou Qing, Du Moyu, and Zhou Qingzhang.

"Why do you still have me?" Abiao's voice was hoarse, and it sounded pleasant. He clenched the wooden stick tightly, and the ferocity he displayed in an instant was chilling.

But Lei Mingyu seemed to be watching a joke, folding his arms on his chest, squinting his eyes and mocking: "Maybe you escaped the fate of your life last night, and I will make up for it today.'

A Biao looked at him quickly, and the two people's eyes met, neither letting go of the other, and the air became anxious.

In the end, Jia Jinliang jumped out to smooth things over. Chen Hao also pulled Lei Mingyu and said something with a smile, and the latter's expression eased a little.

Zhou Qing and Du Moyu gathered around Wu Jiada. After saying a few words, they were interrupted by the village chief, "Masters." The village chief said, "Let's get on the road now.

The word "on the road" instinctively made everyone repulse, "Let's go now, why are you in such a hurry?" Ji Hongshan frowned, he still had many things to ask the Wu family, and it would take time.

But the village chief said that it was the watchman who gave the instructions, and everyone had nothing to say, so the two teams separated, and those who were not drawn went back, while Jiangcheng Du Moyu followed the village chief.

To Jiang Cheng's surprise, after walking for only a few minutes, the village chief stopped, pointed to a courtyard with an open door and said, "Masters, take a rest here first. There are 4 rooms in it, which are enough for you. Once you get in, don’t leave. The watchman will come to you later and tell you what to do.”

After saying that, without waiting for Jiang Cheng and the others to ask questions, the village chief and his entourage walked away in a hurry, their backs hurried.

"Ha, this old guy runs really fast!" Zhou Qing stared at the back and said angrily.

Everyone bravely walked into the yard. The yard was not big or small. There were several complex houses on the east and west sides, separated by a wall in the middle. Various clothes were hung on the wall, which gave it a sense of life.

Ji Hongshan took a look and pointed to a room on the east side, "Zhou Qing and I will be here.

"What?" Zhou Qingzhang asked in a low voice: "Although it doesn't look normal here yet, it's better for us to live together to make it more dangerous. I'm afraid the night watchman won't come until night."

Because of Lei Mingyu, Abiao now generally dislikes Zhou Qingzhang, "Didn't you hear what the village chief said? He specifically mentioned that there are four rooms in the yard. If we live together, it will only bring security." .'

A Biao's words were indeed not standard. The cold tone and broken Mandarin made Jiang Cheng not feel scared but made Jiang Cheng want to laugh, but he held it back.

In the end, as expected, A Biao chose to live with Du Moyu and Zhou Qing on the east side, while Jiang Cheng and Zhou Qingzhang had no choice but to live in a room on the west side.

The four nominal groups of people each chose four rooms and lived separately.

The facilities in the room were very complicated. Jiang Cheng found a clean chair and sat down. What was rare was that he found a dark pot and opened the lid. There was cooked gruel inside.

The porridge is still warm.

After drinking the porridge, Jiang Cheng looked much better and had the energy to think about the situation he would face next.

At present, it seems that everything that happens in this village is related to the so-called Dahe Empress, who is the eldest lady of Zhang Junyu's house. She was sacrificed to the river god 10 years ago. 10 years later, the village was plagued by bad luck, and she died. People were also rumored privately to be married to Empress Dahe.

These people all disappeared unknowingly at night. When they were found again, they were floating in the river.

But the village chief said that Miss Zhang Junyu did it voluntarily.

Jiang Cheng also talked to Fatty about this. Fatty insisted that the village chief was not telling the truth. They must have tied up the person and threw him into the river, but Jiang Cheng felt that the matter was not that complicated.

It can be seen from the house that the Wu family is one of the largest families in the village. Even if the village really needs to choose a woman to sacrifice to the river god, Miss Zhang Junyu should not be chosen.

The information currently available is limited, and Jiang Cheng can only make two vague guesses for the time being.

First, the most direct guess, as the fat man said, is that the village chief did not tell the truth. Miss Zhang Junyu was forced to do so. The whole thing was a conspiracy against the Wu family. As for whether it was motivated by money or something else, it is still needed investigation.

Second, the village chief told the truth, and Miss Zhang Junyu volunteered to sacrifice. But if this is really the case, then the matter here would be simple, and Jiang Cheng has no clue for the time being.

Tired of thinking, Jiang Cheng lay down on the table to rest for a while. Unexpectedly, he closed his eyes and fell asleep. When he opened his eyes again, it was almost dark outside.

He patted his face to make himself confused, and took out his mobile phone to send a message to the fat man. He tried several times in succession, but it showed that the message was sent successfully.

After thinking for a moment, he dialed Fatty's number again, but he couldn't get through either.

It seems to be blocked here.

An unknown premonition came to mind.

Just when Jiang Cheng was thinking about what news the watchman would bring at night, a sneaky "Zhai Kou Kong Kong" sound came over and approached the door. Jiang Cheng immediately became vigilant.

Then there was a very light knock on the door.

"Who?" Jiang Cheng asked.

"It's me." The outsider answered: "Ji Hongshan." Although the voice was small, it was very muddy and didn't sound like there was anything wrong.

"What are you doing here?'

"I have something to discuss with you." Ji Hongshan said very wisely: "You are worried, I am a human, it is not completely dark yet, if I am a ghost, I will not come here now."

"That's not necessarily true. Ghosts think so too." Jiang Cheng frowned.

After a long period of pulling and pulling, Jiang Cheng finally determined the identity of the other party, but he did not open the door for Zhou Qing, but asked him to jump in through the back window.

After coming in, Zhou Qingzhang was shivering from the cold and his body was shaking. Seeing Jiang Cheng pouring a cup of hot tea, Zhou Qingzhang immediately reached out to take it, "Thank you, thank you, thank you.

"Suck it up_" Jiang Cheng picked it up, smashed it, and then put it back.

Zhou Qingzhang:

"Why did you come to me if you weren't staying in your room?" Jiang Cheng asked rudely.

"I found that Yu Chengmu Junyu also left the room and went to A Biao's place." Zhou Qingzhang said cautiously: "I was worried that they had a conspiracy and wanted to inform you, but there was no signal on the mobile phone, so I had to run here.

"How did you see them?" Jiang Cheng sounded confused.

"It was just getting dark and I was worried something might happen, so I kept paying attention to what was going on outside. I looked out through the crack in the door and happened to see Yu Chengmu Junyu open the door, and then secretly went to Abiao's room.'

Hearing this, Jiang Cheng couldn't help but sigh, and looked at the nominal ally in front of him with caring eyes, "That was deliberately made for you to see. Think about it, if you were them, what would you do in this situation? Open the door?"

"If you want to leave, you should go through the window. The doors on the east and west sides are facing each other. You can see clearly from the hollow part of the wall in the middle. But if you go in and out through the window at the back of the house, you can't see it from the other side at all. That's why I let you go through the window."

Zhou Qingzhang took a deep breath, "That's it." His face changed slightly later, "It seems that they have become suspicious, suspecting that the two of us are cooperating behind their backs."

"I was suspicious before, but now I am sure." Jiang Cheng poured another cup of tea and handed it to Zhou Qingzhang, "And it seems that they also realized that we already know that they are two teams, one bright and one dark."

"We have a tacit understanding with each other now." Jiang Cheng added, taking a sip of tea.

"This is an oversight on my part." Du Moyu looked at Jiang Cheng, "Mr. Jiang, I think it's a good thing for us that the communication is cut off. That old guy from the Wu family knows too much. He was the one who did it last time. He had just killed Pang Xiaofeng, but this time, he had no chance to help the remaining three people.

"Indeed." Jiang Cheng nodded.

"I suspect tonight's mission is related to those paper figures, otherwise what happened during the day would be too strange. We followed the footprints all the way to the door of the papermaker's house, and then were inexplicably brought in to look for someone." Zhou Qingzhang revealed. Thinking expression, "I even believe those paper figures lured us to the door on purpose."

Jiang Cheng fumbled with the tea cup with his hand, "I feel the same way, and the missing woman has not been found yet."

"This is the main reason why I came here. Mr. Jiang, you should also be able to see that this mission is closely related to folk taboos, especially backdoor practices such as funerals. As for the paper figures you may encounter tonight, you know Is there a lot?" After a pause, Du Moyu continued: "Paper making is also one of the most unusual professions, and there are some very weird taboos in it."

"The first rule is that you can't give eyes to the paper man." He suddenly lowered his voice.