Although the layout of this underground village is almost identical to that on the ground, it is not the same village after all. There is no electricity in the village, and all lighting relies on oil lamps on the roof of the cave and torches hanging outside the houses, making it extremely dark.
Therefore, when Widow Liu and the others passed by me, no one noticed that an uninvited guest came quietly, just a few feet away from them.
After the group left Widow Liu's house, they stopped in front of a stone house not far away. Widow Liu with a mask shouted into the house: "Xiong Liu! Get out quickly."
!The festival is about to begin!”
Immediately afterwards, a man's response came from the room: "I know, I have a stomachache and I'm still in the latrine. You go ahead, I'll be back in a moment!"
I hid aside and listened to their conversation clearly, and I suddenly became confused. I knew the "Xiong Liu" that Widow Liu called just now. When he was on the ground, he lived opposite Widow Liu's farmhouse. He was a man who looked like
A young and strong man in his twenties. But what makes me puzzled is, what exactly is the sacrifice they are talking about?
I know that the sacrificial ceremony is an ancient Chinese sacrificial or memorial ceremony. Although it is modern now, in some villages, on specific days, villagers will spontaneously organize some sacrificial activities to bless the coming year.
The weather is fine and so on. But it's about four o'clock in the morning, and I've never heard of any ritual being held at this time. What's more, if it's just an ordinary ritual, why would people from the village come specially?
To be held in this underground village instead of above ground?
On the other side, Widow Liu and the others left after hearing Xiong Liu's response.
I saw them gradually walking towards the center of the village, so I walked out of the shadows. Just as I was about to follow them, I heard the sound of water coming from the stone house of Xiong Liu's family, and the sound of people gradually approaching the door.
Footsteps.
At this time, I suddenly had an idea and an idea came to my mind.
So, I hid by the door of Xiong Liu's house, squatted down at the same time, took out my pistol from my pocket, and pulled the bullet out of the chamber.
After a while, a man also wearing a Nuo mask opened the door. As soon as he stepped out of the house with one foot, I jumped up and hit him hard on the head with the handle of the gun in my hand.
past.
"Boom!"
The masked Xiong Liu fell backwards without even letting out a scream. I quickly caught him to prevent him from making a sound, and then dragged the unconscious Xiong Liu back to his own room.
.
In the house, I stripped Xiong Liu naked, dug out a few thick hemp ropes, and tied Xiong Liu with a large five-flowered rope. I tied him firmly to the bed, not even letting go of the cracks in his mouth.
He was tightly surrounded with hemp ropes to prevent him from calling for help when he woke up.
After doing this, I found a bowl of herbal tea and poured it on Xiong Liu's forehead. The cold tea gradually made Xiong Liu wake up. When he opened his eyes and saw me in front of him, he started to change his mind from Xiong Liu.
Immediately some vague sounds came out of Liu's mouth, and his body kept shaking, as if he was about to get up from the bed.
I sneered at him and then asked, "No need to pester me. This is the binding technique I learned from Sister Lin. You won't be able to break free so easily."
After hearing my words, Xiong Liu began to have an angry expression on his face. I completely ignored this and started to reload the pistol. Then I put the loaded pistol against his head and asked:
"Tell me, where are the women you kidnapped? Otherwise I will kill you!"
Xiong Liu's figure was shaken, but then a mocking expression began to appear on his face, as if he already knew that I couldn't shoot.
Of course, I couldn't really shoot. In fact, I wasn't so naive as to think that Xiong Liu would cooperate with me easily. After all, judging from the current facts, everyone in this village probably already knew about Qianyi and I's appearance.
As a police officer, of course they would not think that a police officer would dare to shoot and kill people randomly.
But originally I just gave it a try. Seeing that Xiong Liu was not cooperative, I simply decided to carry out my original plan, which was to use Xiong Liu's clothes and mask to disguise himself as Xiong Liu and go see what Widow Liu just said.
At that festival, maybe I can find the whereabouts of Lin Qianyi and the others there.
Thinking of this, I knocked Xiong Liu unconscious again, then I put on his clothes, put on his mask, put the pistol in my pocket, and then walked out of the house.
Dressed up as Xiong Liu, I easily blended into a group of people who came from somewhere else and were heading towards the center of the village.
Because they were wearing masks, I didn’t recognize any of the villagers in the team. However, among these villagers, they seemed to be able to distinguish everyone’s mask. Several people mistook me for someone while walking.
Xiong Liu greeted me several times, and I was so frightened that I didn’t even dare to breathe, so I could only respond with a few squeaks.
Fortunately, as the team continued to advance, more and more masked villagers joined the team from the stone houses on both sides of the road. The attention of the villagers who thought I was Xiong Liu was soon attracted by those
Attracted by new people joining.
As I walked, I noticed the direction of the team, which seemed to be heading towards the ancestral hall. I was a little strange, wondering if there would be ancestral halls for the villagers in this underground village? But this is not the case.
It is indeed possible, because aren't sacrificial activities in rural areas generally held in places similar to ancestral halls?
After walking for about ten minutes, I was almost at the ancestral hall, but I suddenly noticed that a light mist began to appear around me. The mist was so wet that it actually looked like water vapor. Not only that, but going forward
As we walked, the humidity of the air was getting higher and higher, and the smell of sulfur was gradually spreading.
What's going on? Is there a hot spring near here?
I stood on tiptoe slightly, wanting to see what was going on in front of me. When I looked at it, I found that there was no shadow of an ancestral hall directly in front of our team. Instead, there was a shadow in front of us.
On the ground, where the ancestral hall is, there is a huge dark brown altar that is almost three stories high. And behind the altar, there is an obvious stream of water vapor coming out, as if there is really a hot spring behind the altar.
.
In addition, I noticed that on the altar, there were tables and lamps, white candles for worship, and in a circle around the altar, there were more than a dozen large water tanks, each with a
Firewood was burning underneath, and the vat was filled with water, as if something was about to be cooked.
I was a little curious about the hot spring. I looked around and found that no one noticed me, so I wanted to take advantage of the crowds and noise around me to get closer and see what the hot spring was like.
After walking around the edge of the crowd, avoiding their shadows, I actually saw a large blue fluorescent hot spring behind the altar. The hot spring was so large that it almost covered the entire ground.
The size of the ancestral hall.
Not only that, I also noticed that there were dozens of white human bones scattered on the ground at the edge of the hot spring. Those bones seemed to have been corroded by something, and almost no one was complete.
, if I hadn’t seen a few skulls, I really wouldn’t have been able to tell whether these bones were human or animal.
After seeing the scene beside the hot spring, my heart suddenly rose to the edge of my throat. What is going on with these human skeletons beside the hot spring?
At this moment, my ears suddenly caught the conversation of two men not far away wearing one black and one yellow ghost mask, and the content of their conversation almost made me scream.
Because I heard that what those two people said was actually related to Lin Qianyi!
[Author's digression]: Today I have to accompany my wife for a prenatal check-up, so I posted it early.