Chapter 45

Chapter 45

"What, my grandpa fell and broke his leg!"

Lun Sheng was completely stunned. He was picked up by Shan Grandpa by the river. Although grandpa and grandson often lived a life of one meal hungry, one meal full, when they missed a meal, it was the grandpa and grandson who missed it together, so their feelings were truly sincere and deep.

Tan Wen Bin's eyebrows jumped excitedly, wishing he could do a few pirouettes right where he was. He finally had a chance to see a dead body!

Li Zhui Yuan felt a little guilty in his heart. Calculating the time, it was almost after he went to Xi Ting Town to play mahjong and won money. At that time, Shan Grandpa took half of his money.

Alas, indeed, this dirty money is really not good to spend.

"Still stunned doing what!" Li San Jiang shouted at Lun Sheng, "Quickly go prepare the tools and set out!"

"Oh, okay." Lun Sheng immediately went into the house to get his things. This time, he wasn't just going back to see his grandpa, he also had work to do.

"Grandpa Li, I want to go too, take me with you."

Tan Wen Bin wished he could hang on Li San Jiang's body, afraid that he would be shaken off again this time.

"Okay, okay, okay, I'll take you."

Li San Jiang agreed directly, because the phone call from over there said that the dead body had been drifting and sinking in a section of the river, and several villagers had seen it, but when people were gathered to look for it, they couldn't find it.

This kind of dead body, not to mention the danger, just requires effort to find, so bringing one more person is necessary.

"Great Grandpa."

"What is it, little Yuan Hou?"

"I want to go visit Shan Grandpa."

"You should, let's go together then."

Lun Sheng, in a hurry to go back to see his grandpa, pedaled the tricycle very quickly.

The three people sitting in the back all grabbed the edge of the car uncomfortably.

Because the middle area of the car was occupied by three bundles of things that were too large.

Li San Jiang's tools, Li Zhui Yuan's tools, plus Lun Sheng's own tools, Lun Sheng had all loaded them.

"I say, Lun Sheng Hou, why did you bring so many things? We're going to salvage a dead body, not build a house for your family."

Lun Sheng didn't reply. He pedaled too fast, and the wind whistled past, making it impossible to hear the complaints from the back.

Li San Jiang was also too lazy to waste his breath. He took out his compass from his chest and began to calibrate it seriously.

Li Zhui Yuan took out the purple compass from his bag and also began to calibrate it. Since he wanted to find a dead body, he definitely needed to use this.

As for the one in his great grandpa's hand, it couldn't find a dead body. Its only use was to take everyone to the South Pole to find penguins.

Just as they arrived outside Shan Grandpa's house, they could see through the half-collapsed wall that Shan Grandpa was sitting alone in the yard, with his plastered leg resting on a stool. He was holding a red sweet potato in his hand, peeling the skin while eating, and his false teeth were placed on the side.

Li San Jiang got off the car, and his voice arrived before he did.

"I say Shan Pao, even if your teeth are not good, you can't go drinking thin soup!"

Shan Grandpa's red sweet potato dropped to the ground. Knowing that the old man knew about his fall into the manure pit, his old face immediately turned red. He quickly grabbed the crutch beside him and wanted to stand up and jump back into the room to close the door.

But because he was too hasty, he didn't maintain his balance well and fell directly to the ground.

At this moment, footsteps from behind were already approaching.

The angry Shan Grandpa pounded the ground hard with his fist, biting his lip!

Li San Jiang reached out to help him up, made him sit down, and then helped him pat off the dirt on his body.

Shan Grandpa said angrily, "Who let you come!"

Li San Jiang ignored his sharp words and laughed, "Shan Pao, if something happens, you still need to send someone to inform me. We are old partners of so many years after all. To tell you the truth, you can't just leave without a sound, I would be lonely."

These words were very sincere, and Shan Grandpa's expression softened:

"San Jiang Hou..."

"Even if you want to die, you can't die in a manure pit! It's good that you were discovered early. If you had soaked for a night, when I came to handle your funeral and sit vigil, I would still have to endure the smell to change your shroud. How dirty!"

Shan Grandpa: "..."

Li San Jiang pulled out two cigarettes, held one in his mouth, stuffed one into Shan Grandpa's mouth, then glanced around and shouted, "Zhuang Zhuang."

"Coming!"

Tan Wen Bin took out a matchbox, struck a fire, and successively lit cigarettes for Li San Jiang and Shan Grandpa.

"Shan Pao, come live at my place. Come back when your injury is healed."

"No, just broke a leg, can eat and drink by myself, no problem."

"Then let Lun Sheng come back to take care of you?"

Shan Grandpa hesitated for a while, but still shook his head: "No need, Lun Sheng lives quite well at your place. Eats well, sleeps well, and is also stronger. The child is having a good life, why would I hold him back?"

These words sounded very touching, but Li San Jiang waved his hand and said, "Lun Sheng Hou, quickly go into the room and look at the rice jar and oil can."

Lun Sheng ran into the room, and soon ran out again, surprised: "Grandpa, did you really sell all the rice flour and oil I bought for you last time?"

They had to scrape the scattered bits from the jar to sell it. To what extent must one be destitute to do this?

Shan Grandpa exhaled a smoke ring, hoping to block his embarrassed face with it:

"Don't know what happened those two days, always played big cards and always lost, always lost but always saw hope, it was simply evil."

"Heh, so you don't let Lun Sheng come back, are you afraid that if Lun Sheng comes back, you won't have enough red sweet potatoes to eat?"

Shan Grandpa turned his face away and didn't speak.

"I say you old Shan Pao, at least you are a grandpa, if you don't leave something for your grandson, don't be so wasteful with the family. In a few years, Lun Sheng Hou will want to find a partner. Look at your broken house, which family's girl will be willing to marry him?

Look at me again, how I save family property for my family's little Yuan Hou. Later, let alone in the city, among the girls in this area of the countryside within ten li and eight villages, won't my family's little Yuan Hou be able to pick freely?"

Shan Grandpa suddenly grasped the key point and asked: "What, little Yuan Hou can't return to Beijing?"

Li San Jiang's face changed, and he took a long drag on his cigarette.

"How did you mess up, even the child's Beijing household registration is lost?"

"You shut up!"

"You also don't tell me to shut up. I'll just shut up. Otherwise, I'll have a proper talk with you about the benefits of household registration."

Li Zhui Yuan walked up to Shan Grandpa and asked: "Shan Grandpa, your leg isn't serious, is it?"

"Not serious, not serious, just rest and it'll be fine." Shan Grandpa waved his hand a little awkwardly.

He didn't know when he took the money last time, it was only later when he went back to the mahjong table that he heard clearly. It turned out that the main player was that little child, not the bigger child. His own Lun Sheng was just running errands, and the principal was still little Yuan Hou, but he had unexpectedly taken away half the money.

But that money was already all lost, and he couldn't return it. Thinking about what he had done, he truly felt ashamed to death.

"Lun Sheng Hou." Shan Grandpa looked at Lun Sheng, "Later, you must listen to little Yuan Hou's words."

If he couldn't return the money, then he could only compensate with the person.

Lun Sheng nodded: "Grandpa, I understand."

"Arrived? I say, arrived?" The local village head's shout came from outside. He was the one who made the phone call earlier.

Shan Grandpa still didn't understand what was going on and asked: "What?"

Li San Jiang said in a bad mood: "If there wasn't a dead body here, we wouldn't have known your leg was broken."

"Then you hurry up and get busy. Get the work done."

"Um."

Li San Jiang was about to stand up when he heard his great-great-grandson say: "Great Grandpa, you just stay here and chat with Shan Grandpa. Lun Sheng bro can go."

Shan Grandpa said uneasily: "Lun Sheng is still not steady, right?"

Li Zhui Yuan: "Shan Grandpa, Lun Sheng bro wasn't steady before, but it's different after following my great grandpa. You'll see when you wait."

Shan Grandpa curled his lip: "You little Yuan Hou."

Li San Jiang was quite happy to hear this and patted his knee: "Okay, let Lun Sheng Hou go find that dead body first. If there's a problem, come back and call me immediately."

Having successfully persuaded his great grandpa to stay at home, Li Zhui Yuan immediately waved to Lun Sheng.

Lun Sheng understood. After carrying one set of corpse salvage tools, he threw little Yuan's set to Tan Wen Bin.

Then the three people followed the village head to a section of the river. The river surface wasn't very wide, but both banks were covered in trees, and the reeds on the bank were dense, severely blocking the line of sight.

"Just this section. These days, many people have come and told me they saw a dead person floating on top. I brought people several times but couldn't find it. It's really strange.

If not, you find it first. If you need people, then go to the village and call me. I still have some urgent matters to attend to there."

Lun Sheng nodded: "Okay Village Head, you go get busy."

The village head took out a cigarette and handed it to Lun Sheng. Lun Sheng didn't want it. Little Yuan was too young, and the last time Tan Wen Bin took one and clipped it behind his ear.

After the village head left, Li Zhui Yuan held the compass and stood at the edge of the river.

Why the village head left was probably because he also didn't have much hope of finding the floating corpse today. He had probably organized people to search this river area before, but all in vain. Bringing in a corpse salvager was like treating a dead horse as a live one, at least to give the villagers an explanation.

Tan Wen Bin had completely entered the zone, and with a serious face asked: "Little Yuan bro, should I and Lun Sheng split up and walk along the river bank to look?"

"Bin Bin bro, you go ahead, Lun Sheng bro will follow me."

"Is it because my vision is stronger than his?"

"It's because if Lun Sheng bro isn't by my side, I'm afraid I'll be in danger alone."

"Then... then I'll follow by your side to protect you."

Li Zhui Yuan knew he was a bit nervous. Nothing strange had happened in the village, and the villagers who saw the dead body were able to leave safely, proving that the dead body was probably just an ordinary floating corpse.

But since Si Yuan Village could have water burials from the Southern Liang period, he now truly dared not be too confident and was still careful and cautious in his actions.

Holding the compass, he walked slowly along the river bank. After walking for a long distance, he still didn't find anything abnormal in the feng shui or the weather. Of course, he also didn't find the dead body.

Tan Wen Bin asked: "Could it have drifted to another watershed?"

"Possible." Li Zhui Yuan pointed to the water surface, "It's also possible that there is a leak somewhere below the river that is sucking the corpse down."

"Can something like that happen?"

"Like the plug at the bottom of a bathtub at home."

"Then that means we have to dive to find it? I say, why did you bring so many things but not think about getting a set of oxygen tanks?"

Lun Sheng: "These tools are specifically for that kind of dead body that can move."

"Oh, good stuff." Tan Wen Bin patted his backpack.

Unknowingly, they had already walked to this bend in the river. There was a newly built bridge ahead.

Li Zhui Yuan stopped. They had already walked through the watershed described by the village head once, and there was still nothing.

Tan Wen Bin poked Lun Sheng's arm and asked: "Uh, have you encountered this kind of situation where you came to salvage a dead body but couldn't find it before?"

"Yes, I remember that time my grandpa and great grandpa, they would set up an offering table and do a field ritual to 'call the person', letting it float out by itself."

Tan Wen Bin heard this, moved closer to Li Zhui Yuan, and asked: "Little Yuan bro, can you do this?"

Li Zhui Yuan frowned slightly.

Tan Wen Bin immediately said: "It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter if you can't. You are still the most amazing in my heart, bro."

Li Zhui Yuan shook his head. He could.

The books of Wei Zheng Dao and Qin Liu's family actually recorded quite a few "call person" methods.

But the problem was, his great grandpa and Shan Grandpa probably just learned the form. If it succeeded, it was because of their deep skill. If it failed, it was because this dead body was not ordinary. It was mostly a matter of luck.

But he, he could truly select the position according to the feng shui and weather and set up a sacrifice to lead it. He truly could.

But the more he truly could, the more he dared not use it blindly. Maybe this dead body had already drifted away and wasn't here? Moreover, there were many graves nearby, and the situation inside the river was also unclear. If he really set up a sacrifice, what if he didn't call out the dead body but instead called something inexplicable?

"Let's cross the bridge. We'll walk back from that side."

Li Zhui Yuan walked onto the bridge. This was a concrete slab bridge with no railing, and it was as wide as three concrete slabs.

When he walked to the middle of the bridge, Li Zhui Yuan suddenly felt the surrounding weather change. He lowered his head to look, and the compass needle also appeared disordered.

He silently recited the 《Liu Shi Wang Qi Jue》 while turning a circle on the spot, then stopped. He looked at the needle inside the large and small circles on the compass and began to calculate.

Lun Sheng stood silently beside him. Tan Wen Bin stretched his neck curiously to peek. He felt that the way little Yuan held the compass and spun around just now was too stylish. It was a pity he was young. If he were older, relying on this demeanor, which small factory boss wouldn't invite him to come and turn a few circles before opening?

Li Zhui Yuan stamped his foot. He hadn't felt it when he walked along the river bank earlier. Only after he was on this bridge did he discover that the position of this bridge was just at a dragon suppression point.

Although the river was a small river, and this dragon was also as small as it could be, the pattern was complete.

Looking at the surrounding environment again, it was truly rare to see a bridge built at a bend in the river. Generally, they were built at straight sections of the river.

However, even if it was a dragon suppression point, there was nothing special about it, let alone an evil position.

But if one wanted to utilize it and deliberately change it to an evil position...

Li Zhui Yuan lowered his head, looked at the concrete slab under his feet, and said: "Lun Sheng bro, go to the river bank and look under the bridge, at the position where I am stepping now."

"I'll go!"

Tan Wen Bin put down his things and quickly ran down the bridge. When he reached the river bank, he couldn't see clearly enough and unexpectedly walked directly into the river without a word.

Although this river was a small river, the middle was quite deep. If there was a leak trap inside, it would be easy to suffocate an adult.

Lun Sheng squatted at the edge of the bridge and reminded: "Be careful, don't let us have to salvage you later."

"The rotten mud under this river is quite deep! I just went to the edge of the river." Tan Wen Bin carefully probed forward. His mentality now was that since he had finally bought a ticket into the amusement park, he had to actively experience it to get his money's worth.

Finally, he dared not go any further. Although he was still quite far away, he could see clearly under the bridge. He looked up, his gaze was bright, and he immediately backed away several steps, shouting towards the people above: "Little Yuan bro, there are big iron nails, nailed to the back of the bridge, right at your foot position."

"Are there seven of them?"

"Ah?" Tan Wen Bin moved forward two steps again, while maintaining his balance and counting, "Right, seven of them."

"Is the area around the nails red?"

"Right, it's red, like red paint has been painted on."

Indeed.

What was originally just an ordinary dragon suppression point, when changed like this, directly became a dragon bleeding.

Li Zhui Yuan turned around and looked towards the bend in the river. The vitality of this section of the watershed flowed out here, and the evil energy was cut off. It was equivalent to utilizing the natural environment here to create a feng shui formation.

But why didn't he notice anything abnormal when he walked here earlier?

Li Zhui Yuan immediately thought of a possibility: the evil energy was sucked away by the dead body!

There was cutting and sucking, forming a dynamic cycle here.

No wonder after some villagers saw the dead body, they didn't see it again. Because it floated out when it was sucking the evil, and sank down when it finished sucking.

So, this matter was not a simple floating corpse salvage. This was someone setting up here to raise a corpse!

Li Zhui Yuan realized that putting himself on the evil side and working backwards from the results seemed to have a quite high success rate.

But he wasn't very happy. Instead, he was a little troubled. How could he so easily substitute himself into the opposite side?

Furthermore, the arrangement of this feng shui formation was too petty.

To use his great grandpa's words that he often said at the wine table: No, you just pour so little, are you raising fish?

If he were to arrange it, he could work in several places, at least bring in the evil from outside to form a counter-rush. This is what is called true catalyzing and raising a corpse. Your current method is only called corpse preservation.

"Look, the book you read is not of good quality."

Li Zhui Yuan reached out and patted his forehead: No, what am I thinking about?

No, this is not his fault, it is Wei Zheng Dao's fault.

Before, he just simply read the book and didn't have a deep understanding of the concepts. After he really started practicing, he felt something was wrong. Wei Zheng Dao's book was all about "righteous path content". He only taught you how to represent the righteous path to suppress and kill dead bodies.

But this guy's narrative style and content arrangement had many places that could be reversed. Many righteous taboos and errors, when used in reverse, were just another extreme side.

This guy was clearly flying the flag of the righteous path and acting against it.

"Little Yuan, are you okay?" Lun Sheng asked with some worry.

"Lun Sheng bro, I'm okay. Someone set up a formation here..."

"Wait for me, wait for me, wait for me to get there before you talk!"

Tan Wen Bin shouted while running wildly, afraid of missing this scene.

However, his shoes and pants were just wet, and he stumbled a bit while running fast. When he rushed to Li Zhui Yuan and Lun Sheng's front, he directly lost his balance.

If Lun Sheng's strength hadn't been great enough to reach out and grab him, everyone might have been knocked into the river by him.

"Hehe hehe, sorry, sorry." Tan Wen Bin squatted down and said while squeezing his pants, "Now you can talk."

"Someone set up a feng shui formation on this bridge. That corpse shouldn't be someone who drowned by accident, but was placed here. He is using this small river section to raise a corpse."

"Raise a corpse?" Tan Wen Bin opened his mouth, "Wow, that sounds really exciting."

Lun Sheng asked: "Then little Yuan, what should we do?"

"There are two choices. One, I break his formation, and that dead body will float up. Two, directly find his home."

Lun Sheng was about to ask how to find it, but he held back.

Bin Bin couldn't hold back and asked: "How to find it?"

Li Zhui Yuan pointed to the stone tablet at the bridge pier: "The name of the person who donated to build the bridge is written there."

Tan Wen Bin touched his head: "Right, damn, why do I feel so stupid."

Lun Sheng hummed in agreement.

Building bridges and paving roads has been a matter of accumulating virtue since ancient times, especially in the countryside. Funding allocation is often insufficient, and many times, people have to find ways to solve part of the funds for roads and bridges themselves. If it's an average of the whole village, that's one thing. If the main part is donated by a single person, their name will generally be carved on the stone tablet.

Li Zhui Yuan came to the stone tablet. Only one person's name was written on it, proving that he built this bridge alone... Zhou Yong.

"Let's go ask the village head. This person should live in the village. It's impossible to throw a corpse here and then go on a long trip."

"I know where his house is." Lun Sheng pointed in one direction, "His house is in the north corner of the village." Tan Wen Bin: "Is his family very rich?"

Lun Sheng shook his head: "There aren't many families in the village whose lives are worse than ours. His family is one of them."

Li Zhui Yuan thought for a while: "Then let's go to his house. Let's lay the matter open and make it clear, so we don't salvage it here and he throws it back."

Tan Wen Bin blinked and muttered in a low voice: "This is a corpse, not fish fry."

Lun Sheng said: "Little Yuan means that if we only deal with the corpse and not the living person, it might cause follow-up trouble."

Under Lun Sheng's lead, the three people walked towards the north corner of the village.

On the way, Tan Wen Bin asked: "Uh, should I call my dad over?"

Lun Sheng: "Do you want your dad to know that you are living at grandpa's house and not studying, but instead coming to salvage a dead body?"

Tan Wen Bin's voice suddenly dropped a bit: "Isn't this a murder case? Shouldn't it be handled by the police?"

"Bin Bin bro, this is not necessarily a murder case. He is raising a corpse. You can understand it as preserving the corpse by utilizing feng shui patterns. If he killed someone, there's no reason to spend this effort."

"Oh, I see, I understand."

"Lun Sheng bro, wait for you to be ready. If there's any special situation, just act directly to ensure our safety."

"Um, don't worry, little Yuan, I know."

Liu Yu Mei and Uncle Qin's families were all considered "family". So, this was the first time Li Zhui Yuan encountered a colleague outside. His heart was still a little nervous.

Zhou Yong's house was even more broken than Shan Grandpa's house. Shan Grandpa's house at least had a broken yard. Zhou Yong's house didn't even have a fence and was still a mud house.

Now, villagers in the countryside were all working hard to build two-story buildings. To still be living in a mud house without even a single brick and tile flat house truly belonged to the bottom tier of village life.

Tan Wen Bin didn't understand: "Such a person, still fully funded to build a bridge?"

Lun Sheng: "He was a worker at the Xing Ren farm machinery factory before, but later his wife and child both got sick, so he couldn't work and just farmed at home and took care of them."

Tan Wen Bin: "Then are his wife and child still there?"

"Still there. The last time I rode my bike past his house, I still saw his wife and child sitting at the door sunbathing."

Saying that, Lun Sheng still turned his head to look at Li Zhui Yuan: "Just last time when little Yuan you were waiting for me at home, when I went to the town market to buy great grandpa rice flour, I just passed by his house and saw them."

Li Zhui Yuan nodded.

The three people walked onto the small dam. On the dam, there was a well covered with a big hat. It was quite clean, of course, also because there really weren't many things.

The door to the room was closed. Tan Wen Bin licked his lips and went forward to push it, but it didn't open. He pushed again, and heard the sound of the door lock hitting inside, "ding ding dang dang".

He turned his head to look at Li Zhui Yuan and Lun Sheng, shrugged, and said: "Looks like we came at the wrong time. The person should have gone out, and the door is locked from the inside."

Li Zhui Yuan glanced at him and asked in return: "Don't you think it's strange that the door is locked from the inside?"

"What's strange? My door is also locked from the inside... oh, right, how could it be like this?"

The wooden door locks in the village are different from the key locks in family buildings.

"Bin Bin bro, shout again."

"Okay." Tan Wen Bin shouted while patting the door: "Hey, is anyone home? Is anyone home?"

No one responded from inside.

Lun Sheng at this time sniffed, then spread his hands: "Bin Bin, be quiet."

Li Zhui Yuan saw his reaction and immediately backed away several steps.

He knew Lun Sheng's nose was the most sensitive to smells.

"Little Yuan, there's a corpse smell, very faint."

Tan Wen Bin asked eagerly: "Is it a dead body?"

Lun Sheng shook his head: "Hard to say, the smell is too faint, it could also be something else emitting it."

Tan Wen Bin guessed: "Could it be that after the room door was locked from the inside, the person inside committed suicide?"

Immediately, the two people looked at Li Zhui Yuan together.

Li Zhui Yuan pointed to the window next to him: "Go in and take a look. If you find a corpse, then call the police. If not, then apologize and compensate with money."

Tan Wen Bin walked to the wooden window and pulled it: "Also locked."

Lun Sheng walked over, squeezed him aside, grabbed the edge of the window, and with a heave, the window was completely removed.

Then, Lun Sheng just drilled in.

Tan Wen Bin saw this and also gritted his teeth and followed.

"Zhi ya!"

The wooden door inside the lock was opened, the door was pushed open, and Lun Sheng stood at the door.

"Little Yuan, the key was just placed on the table, I just opened the lock directly."

"Lun Sheng, what are you doing? If there really is a corpse here, you are destroying the scene. How can we explain ourselves as witnesses?"

Li Zhui Yuan walked in from the front door and said: "It doesn't matter, your dad will help us explain."

"But, this isn't my dad's jurisdiction."

"You were playing mahjong in the village, your dad took leave and came in plain clothes to the village to catch you, and then stumbled upon this house, he is the first witness."

Tan Wen Bin swallowed a mouthful of saliva: "Very reasonable."

The space inside the house was not small, but the ground was all small mud pits, not paved with bricks to harden it.

Moreover, many wooden beams were very low, and adults had to be careful not to hit their heads when walking in.

A very standard housing pattern, the easternmost side is the kitchen with a stove, the middle is the hall, with a long cabinet placed against the wall, and on the cabinet is the offering table and god images, the westernmost side is the bedroom.

There were quite a lot of things inside the house. Many things were clearly very broken but still kept and neatly arranged.

Tan Wen Bin and Lun Sheng went to the east and west ends respectively, while Li Zhui Yuan stood in the hall, looking at the god images hanging above.

The leftmost was Guanyin Bodhisattva, the rightmost was the Jade Emperor, and the middle was Jesus.

It's understandable for villagers to hang any god images. It's also very common to mix Buddhism and Daoism, and even Confucianism can be hung. For example, his great grandpa hung Confucius at home.

But hanging a Jesus here was a bit out of place, and the two sides were clearly not in the same style and shape. A discerning eye could see it was not right.

Li Zhui Yuan walked to the cabinet and found that the incense burners in front of Guanyin Bodhisattva and the Jade Emperor had not been used for a long time and were covered in thick dust, not incense ash.

Instead, the incense burner in front of Jesus was full of incense ash. It was clear that it was used often.

But, does Jesus eat incense?

Li Zhui Yuan raised his hand, wanting to open the long cabinet. The design of this kind of cabinet was very similar to a coffin. Only by lifting the cover from above could one see inside.

Each section of the cover had a groove design underneath, like a puzzle piece fitting together. Often, one had to open it section by section to store miscellaneous items or grain.

But he raised his hand and finally put it down. For safety, it was better to wait for Lun Sheng to come.

Lun Sheng and Tan Wen Bin came back.

"No one in the bedroom."

"No one on the kitchen side either."

Li Zhui Yuan asked: "Lun Sheng bro, can you smell where the corpse smell is coming from?"

Lun Sheng shook his head: "After coming in, I can't distinguish it. It's that faint smell everywhere."

Tan Wen Bin heard this and scoffed: "You mean, there's a corpse living and walking in this house, so it leaves a smell everywhere? Don't be so absurd!"

"Bin Bin bro, are you a Ye Gong Hao Long?"

"Ah?" Immediately, Tan Wen Bin immediately thought of why he came. His mind immediately imagined the scene of a corpse walking and living here. His body immediately felt cold and he shivered.

"Lun Sheng bro, open the cover and look inside."

"Okay."

Lun Sheng was good at opening this kind of buckle cover. He first grabbed one side, then pushed it inwards, and then lifted it open.

Li Zhui Yuan stood on tiptoe to look inside and found that it was filled with rice bags. There was a slightly pungent smell, which should be fumigation to prevent rice from molding.

It seemed there was nothing here in the hall, because the only place to hide things here was this long cabinet.

Li Zhui Yuan walked towards the kitchen. Lun Sheng and Tan Wen Bin followed.

The kitchen was just a very standard countryside earth stove kitchen layout. Behind the stove was piled quite a lot of dry grass and firewood.

Tan Wen Bin pointed there and said: "I just checked there. There's nothing in the firewood and grass."

Li Zhui Yuan successively lifted the covers of the water jar and rice jar. The water jar was full of water, and the rice jar was full of rice.

Tan Wen Bin said again: "I also lifted and looked inside here just now, and found no problems. Although this family's life is even worse, the rice jar is fuller than Lun Sheng's house."

Li Zhui Yuan backed away several steps and came behind Lun Sheng and Tan Wen Bin.

He stretched out his finger and pointed at the rice jar: "A family of three lives here, using such a big rice jar, and it's still full of rice."

Families in the city just go out and buy rice when it's gone. Countryside homes have stored grain, but it's also mostly stored. They take a small portion and put it in the kitchen rice jar for daily use, and when the rice jar is almost empty, they go and take some more stored grain to put in.

Lun Sheng looked at Tan Wen Bin, then at the rice jar, meaning, are you going or am I going?

Tan Wen Bin was shaking, but still bit the bullet and nodded. He walked to the rice jar and reached in to stir the rice.

As he stirred, Tan Wen Bin suddenly let out a scream:

"Ah!!!"

Then his whole body slumped to the ground, crawling backwards on his hands and feet.

Li Zhui Yuan and Lun Sheng walked up to look. In the concave area in the center of the rice jar, a cluster of black hair appeared.

Inside the rice jar... there was a person!

No wonder Tan Wen Bin was so scared. Who wouldn't be scared by this scene?

Especially since you can even imagine the posture of this person curled up inside under the big rice.

Li Zhui Yuan closed his eyes, then quickly opened them again, calmed his emotions, and said: "Lun Sheng bro, confirm it one more time."

"Okay."

Lun Sheng didn't say another word. He reached in and continued to stir. Finally, a forehead appeared below the hair. Indeed, it was a person, a girl.

Continuing to stir, he could see the girl's eyes.

Her eyes were completely filled with grain after grain of large rice.

Tan Wen Bin had just stood up and moved over again. After taking one look, he was so scared that he kept backing away.

Li Zhui Yuan averted his gaze. This time he didn't blame Bin Bin for being timid. He also couldn't stand those eyes.

"Little Yuan, I can't continue stirring, unless we scoop out the rice or try to pull her out."

"No need, just leave it like this for now."

"Okay."

Li Zhui Yuan sniffed. He smelled a greasy smell.

"Lun Sheng bro, can you smell something to me?"

"Um, no, still that faint corpse smell, Little Yuan, what do you smell?"

"Why do I smell a little fragrance?"

"Fragrance?"

Li Zhui Yuan shook his head. He looked towards the water jar. The water inside this water jar should not have been changed for a long time. In addition, the house was dark, so the water was not clear, but rather a bit black.

"Bin Bin bro."

Tan Wen Bin immediately shook his head wildly and shouted at Lun Sheng: "Lun Sheng bro."

Lun Sheng didn't hesitate. He was wearing a vest and didn't need to roll up his sleeves. He directly stretched his whole arm into the water jar and started swinging around to fish.

Finally, he pulled out his wet arm and shook it: "Nothing inside."

Tan Wen Bin suggested: "Then, should we go out first?"

Lun Sheng glanced at him: "You were the one who wanted to come in noisily, and you are the one who is scared to death when you see it."

Tan Wen Bin: "Isn't this just a normal reaction for a normal person?"

Li Zhui Yuan walked towards the bedroom. Lun Sheng followed. Tan Wen Bin looked at those eyes in the rice jar again...

Then he immediately turned around and chased after them with high steps.

There were two beds in the bedroom, one big and one small, both with blue mosquito nets hanging over them and cool mats spread on the beds.

On the big bed was placed a stack of very neat quilts, and on the small bed was placed a blanket.

Under the cool mats of both beds, several layers of thick quilts were spread as bed pads, making it softer and more comfortable to sleep on.

Lun Sheng pointed at the bottom of the beds and the surrounding clothes cabinets and cupboards: "Little Yuan, I have checked all these places, there is nothing abnormal."

Tan Wen Bin pointed at the quilts and shouted: "Quilts, quilts, why would they cover such thick quilts in the middle of summer?"

Lun Sheng walked over, lifted the mosquito net, and pulled the quilt over to unfold it. Indeed, it was just a thick quilt.

Tan Wen Bin: "Um..."

"Lun Sheng bro, lift up the cool mats of both beds."

"Okay."

Lun Sheng first lifted the cool mat of the small bed. Underneath were several layers of cotton padding.

When Lun Sheng was about to lift the cool mat of the big bed, Tan Wen Bin stepped in front of him, lifted the cool mat, and then continued to pinch one corner of the cool mat with one hand, and the whole person stood on tiptoe and started to tremble.

This was... shaking with fear.

Under the cool mat of the big bed was also thick cotton padding.

But in the middle of this cotton padding was sandwiched a person, an adult woman. She was very thin.

Most areas of the woman's body were covered by cotton padding, only her face, belly, and feet were exposed.

The woman also had her eyes open. Her eyes were completely filled with cotton padding, so full that they looked a bit swollen.

Moreover, the cotton padding at the eyes bulged upwards, like new cotton flowers growing.

"Put it down, Bin Bin bro."

"Okay."

Bin Bin loosened his hand, and the cool mat fell down, covering the cotton padding and the woman inside again.

Immediately, Tan Wen Bin walked towards Li Zhui Yuan. Li Zhui Yuan avoided him. Tan Wen Bin could only walk towards Lun Sheng and reached out to hug Lun Sheng. He needed a hug now.

He was almost crying. In fact, the corners of his eyes were already filled with tears.

He asked with a trembling voice, almost crying: "Little Yuan, what do we do next?"

"Bin Bin bro, don't be afraid."

"I'm not afraid..." Tan Wen Bin stubbornly took a deep breath, but he was pushed away by Lun Sheng the next moment.

He lost his balance and fell back, lying on the cool mat of the big bed.

"Ah!"

Thinking of what was underneath, Tan Wen Bin sprang up like a spring.

"I'm afraid, I'm afraid!"

Li Zhui Yuan patted Tan Wen Bin's arm: "Don't be afraid, Bin Bin bro, let's go call your dad."

"Dad..."

It must be said that when Tan Yun Long's image appeared in his mind, Tan Wen Bin's fear truly eased quite a lot. Even if his dad took off his belt in front of him now, he would feel it was warm and comforting.

Li Zhui Yuan walked out of the mud house first. Lun Sheng picked up the window he had unloaded earlier and planned to put it back, but then he heard Tan Wen Bin shout from inside to wait a moment.

Then he heard a "ka cha" sound, and he locked the wooden door from the inside again.

Immediately, he climbed out of the window himself and let Lun Sheng put the window back.

"Hehe, Little Yuan bro, I locked the door and also wiped the key and lock. This way, there won't be Lun Sheng's fingerprints from opening the lock, and it will save us trouble."

Tan Wen Bin felt that this move of his was very professional.

"When your dad comes, he can also let Lun Sheng bro open the lock. Also, you not only wiped Lun Sheng bro's fingerprints, you wiped all the fingerprints on it."

"This..." Tan Wen Bin realized that he had done something useless and stupid.

"Let's go, we'll go call your dad."

Logically, one person should stay here to watch, but it wasn't suitable for anyone to stay and watch. In the end, all three walked out together.

After walking for a long distance, they heard someone calling from behind: "Hey, Lun Sheng Hou! Lun Sheng Hou!"

The three people turned back and saw the village head riding a bike on the road they had come on earlier. He was waving at them from a long distance: "Lun Sheng Hou, did you salvage it? Did you salvage it or not!"

Lun Sheng raised his hand and shouted back: "Not yet!"

At this time, within the sight of the three people, the village head who had just ridden over on his bike suddenly made a gesture of turning to the left and lifting his hand to greet someone. He also said something and smiled.

Generally, this is a gesture used on the road to greet and respond to people inside houses on the side of the road.

And that position, that direction, was just Zhou Yong's house.

The three people turned their heads together and looked towards Zhou Yong's house.

Although it was a bit far, they could vaguely see a mother and daughter sitting on the small dam.

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