The place where Officer Jiang stopped was in front of a shop on the second floor of the food court.
With the help of flashlight lighting, we saw that the shop was about 20 square meters in size. Outside the shop door, the shop's signboard was still hanging on it. Although the signboard was very worn, the words on it could still be read.
It’s clear: XXX Noodle House…
Seeing this, I was suddenly stunned for a moment, and then I came to my senses. I took a flashlight at the door of the noodle shop and scanned around it. I was a little shocked.
I said to San Fatty: "San Fatty, have you noticed something is wrong with this store?"
The third fat man's voice was also solemn: "Yes... there are some."
After a while, he turned around and asked Officer Jiang: "Officer Jiang, why is this shop the cleanest among the surrounding shops? Wasn't most of the second floor covered in fire? Why did I see that this shop was on fire?
No trace of the past?"
Yes, that's what's wrong with this shop. Compared with the shops on both sides, this abandoned noodle shop is a bit too clean. Among the shops around, you can see it on the walls of any one.
It was quite conspicuously charred, but only in the noodle shop in front of us, the decoration on the walls still maintained its original color.
In fact, if the contents of this store had not been emptied out now, and there was quite a thick layer of dust in many places inside, I would not have been able to tell that this place, like other places, had suffered a fire.
.
Officer Jiang seemed to have expected that we would ask this question, and said without thinking: "You two, this is a legend. You don't know that the fire almost destroyed half of the people on the second floor.
The shops were all on fire. Although the food court hadn't opened yet that day, many store clerks had already arrived at the store to prepare for the opening. But in such a big fire, why didn't anyone die at that time, not even the injured?
No, do you know why?"
The third fat man blinked and said, "Didn't they escape early?"
Officer Jiang shook his head: "With such a big fire, how could everyone have time to escape? If you had looked carefully just now, you could have discovered that the fire actually started from the left and right at the same time. At that time, some of the store clerks were killed.
Trapped by fire, there is no way to escape.”
I wondered: "But didn't you mean..."
"Yeah, I heard that at that time, those guys thought they were going to die, so they gave up escaping and started calling their families to leave their last words. But at that time, someone suddenly discovered that both sides of the second floor were burning.
I don’t know why, but I just avoided this noodle shop. I don’t know the specific situation. I just heard from the people at the time that the flames burning on both sides were along the ceiling before approaching this noodle shop.
The pipeline was bypassed and burned away.”
Pipeline?
I raised my head after hearing this and used a flashlight to shine on the top of my head. I found that I could indeed see a clear black burn mark on the ceiling. What was strange was that these burn marks turned a corner near the noodle shop and went directly around.
Walked away from the noodle shop!
At this time, Officer Jiang continued: "Those who were trapped at the time later hid in this noodle shop collectively. It was not until the fire brigade put out the fire that they discovered that two people were trapped in this noodle shop.
There were more than ten people, and no one was injured."
I was a little confused and asked: "What's going on? Why is this noodle shop the only one that was not affected? Didn't the people from the fire brigade explain it at the time?"
"How to explain it?" Officer Jiang exclaimed, "Even those in the fire brigade have never seen such a weird thing. There is no official explanation, and some people just make random guesses, saying that the miracle is caused by the God of Wealth offered in this noodle restaurant.
, this rumor caused quite a stir in the city at that time. Because it involved feudal superstition, the official had no choice but to ask the fire brigade to come forward to refute the rumor, saying that the situation at that time was caused by the terrain around the noodle shop. Of course, this
This is just an official excuse. No one knows what exactly happened, whether it was a manifestation of gods or a coincidence of terrain."
Speaking of this, Officer Jiang suddenly thought of something: "By the way, in fact, as for the reason why those children came here, the director of our station raised a possibility at that time. He said that those children might be because of this rumor.
So I came here to see the gods who cause miracles."
The third fat man snorted and said, "Coming to see the gods in the middle of the night? Once or twice is okay, but do they need to come every day?"
"Who knows?" Officer Jiang shrugged, walked around the noodle shop, and spread his hands to us: "That's the thing. I came here during the day and saw nothing. You two, if you don't believe it, you can
See for yourself.”
After hearing this, San Pang and I walked in politely and walked around inside. Unlike the surrounding shops, it was obvious that people often came and went in the noodle shop, so except for the corners, there was not much dust inside.
But other than that, there's nothing strange here.
Officer Jiang also showed us a small cabinet hanging on the wall, saying that the rumored statue of the God of Wealth was placed here.
We took a quick look and found that the cabinet was empty, and the statues inside had been taken away long ago. However, there was a white porcelain bowl on the bottom floor of the cabinet. The porcelain bowl looked a bit worn and still shabby.
There is a chip, which may have been used to place tributes. What's strange is that the inside of the porcelain bowl is quite clean, and there is no trace of dust in it.
But other than that, this porcelain bowl is just a broken porcelain bowl. I'm a little bit surprised why this thing is still here and hasn't been taken away. But obviously, this porcelain bowl is not the clue we are looking for at the moment.
There is no connection.
Putting the porcelain bowl back in its place, the third fat man continued to walk around the noodle shop, and also looked at the kitchen and warehouse. After confirming that there was nothing inside, the third fat man still seemed a little unwilling to give up, so he asked me to join him.
Check the entire noodle shop again.
In the end, we dug three feet into the ground. Not only did we sweep the entire noodle shop floor, but we also repeatedly confirmed that there were no hidden compartments in the noodle shop. During this period, Officer Jiang also looked puzzled.
Look at us.
After struggling for more than an hour, I was already yawning a lot. I turned around to look at the third fat man. He also looked sleepy, but he seemed to be planning to search again.
I hurriedly said: "Three Fatty, forget it, there seems to be nothing else here."
"No way." The third fat man said a little puzzled, "If there really is nothing here, what on earth are those children doing here?"
"This is what you have to find out." Officer Jiang smiled and then walked out.
At the door, he turned back and waved to us: "You two, let's go first. There is really nothing else to find here."
Third Fatty was obviously not a believer in evil. I couldn't stand it and said to him: "Three Fatty, let's go first. If you really want to see it, you can come back during the day."
After my persuasion, the third fat man gave up the idea of continuing the search and followed Officer Jiang out of this dark and dirty food court.
By the time we walked out and returned to the police car, the sky was getting a little brighter, and some pedestrians starting the early morning shift began to appear on the road.
After sitting back in the driver's seat, Officer Jiang asked us what we should do next. I looked at the third fat man, who had an unhappy look on his face and seemed to be a little discouraged because he didn't have any direction just now.
Seeing this, I pushed him and asked him to quickly decide where to go now?
The third fat man opened his mouth and was about to say something, but his eyes suddenly seemed to be attracted by something outside.
Immediately, the third fat man opened the car door and said to us: "Sijiu, Officer Jiang, there is a breakfast stall over there. Let's go and have something to eat first." After saying that, without waiting for our reply, the third fat man went to look for himself.
I walked past a stall in the distance.
I said sorry to Officer Jiang, who smiled and said he was hungry too, and the two of us followed.
When we arrived at the breakfast stall, the three fat men had already ordered a bunch of food and sat on the chairs set up by the stall owner to eat. Officer Jiang and I had been working hard all night and were a little hungry, so we each ordered something and ate our heads off first.