Crows circling the corpse

To avoid someone being unkind and throwing her out, Yuanli shut up and started cleaning up. The inn looked clean and tidy, but unexpectedly, there were a lot of black, unidentified objects stuck to the window coffin.

There were not many quilts in the inn's rooms, and it was cold at night, so Yuanli took out the couch. If she really had to sleep on the floor, she would have to go to Ah Xiang's place for soup.

At dusk, crows circled in the sky, flew low around the beams, and cried in groups in the air, which was so irritating that Yuanli closed the window tightly.

There was a rhythmic knock on the door. After Qi Heng spoke, the person outside pushed the door open.

"Sir, you are ready to eat. As you instructed, I have borrowed the kitchen from a farmer's house ten miles outside the town."

After saying that, Xiang Yao quickly prepared dinner and brought a few thick warm quilts to place beside Qi Heng's bed.

The meal was just farm-style dishes. The taste was not amazing but not unpleasant at all. Qi Heng drank a small bowl of white porridge and stood up. Seeing that the host had left the table, Yuanli had to quickly take a few bites and followed Qi Heng to leave the table.

The moonlight tonight was a little dim, and the crows standing on the dry branches were calling tirelessly. Qi Heng was reading by lamplight at night, very interested, while Yuanli was sitting beside him, feeling sleepy.

"Are you sleepy?"

"Sir, it's late. We still have to investigate the case tomorrow. It's better to go to bed early."

Qi Heng put down the book in his hand, and with the help of the warm yellow candlelight, he took out a small white porcelain bottle from his waist, then found the incense altar, poured the powder in the white porcelain bottle into the incense altar and stirred it evenly.

After burning the incense, Qi Heng placed the exquisite incense jar on the small carved table next to the bed. The cool and refreshing fragrance of the silver dan grass penetrated into his nostrils, dispelling drowsiness.

"Since you're sleepy, come over, spread out the quilt and go to sleep. I'll read a book for a while. You don't have to stay up with me."

Seeing that he was not joking, Yuanli had to give up the couch she had prepared and made a soft and comfortable mat on the floor so that it would not make her back uncomfortable before lying down with her clothes on.

As soon as she lay down, Yuanli pulled the back corner of the quilt to cover herself, and the gray and moldy smell rushed into her nose as the warm quilt fluttered.

Qi Heng suddenly warned, "I lit some incense to clear your spirit. Don't sleep too deeply tonight."

"Sir, since you entered this room, have you smelled a musty smell?"

"The smell of gray mold isn't common, but the other smells that permeate this inn are present all the time."

The cries of crows outside the window seemed to be in response to the occasion, rising one after another, making the already strange Qingshui Town even more eerie.

Yuanli wrapped herself tightly in the warm quilt and slept closer to Qi Heng's bedside. She asked softly, "I wonder what smell you are talking about, young master?"

"I'll tell you more tomorrow."

Qi Heng perfunctorily brushed the matter aside, but a lot of strange things suddenly popped up in Yuanli's mind, which made her more and more awake the more she thought about it. She tossed and turned, unable to sleep.

Perhaps hearing the noise of her tossing and turning, Qi Heng broke the silence and suddenly said, "Crows have a varied diet, they enjoy carrion and insects, they have a keen sense of smell, they live in groups and often gather at places where corpses are found."

When Qi Heng's words fell into Yuanli's ears, only "fond of decay" and "a place where corpses often gather" kept repeating in her mind.

When she wanted to ask more questions, Qi Heng suddenly lay down on the edge of the bed, leaned forward and approached her, whispering softly, "Shh, don't talk, listen carefully."

Qi Heng's sudden approach caught Yuanli off guard, and her cheeks flushed. She didn't realize that her eyes were fixed on Qi Heng.

There was a rustling sound beside my ears, and a strong night wind came in through the window, blowing out the flickering candlelight on the table. The room was pitch black, with only the dim moonlight making it possible to vaguely see the mottled walls.

"Excuse me."

As he spoke, Qi Heng rolled out of bed wrapped in a warm quilt. With his left hand, he pulled the raised corner of her back and rushed towards her as Qi Heng rolled over. He lay on his side beside her and used the warm quilt he had just pulled down to wrap them both tightly.

Yuanli's body was pinned down by his right arm, unable to move. Through a layer of warm quilt, they were so close that she could hear Qi Heng's breathing and feel the breath from his nose spraying on her earlobe.

She was completely confused at this moment. When she felt the floor shaking slightly, she started to panic.

After hiding in the quilt for a while, Qi Heng finally lifted the top layer of the warm quilt. A cool breeze blew on his face, and the musty smell it brought with it could not overwhelm the other smells in the room.

Dust invaded her nasal cavity, and Yuanli couldn't stop coughing violently, reaching out her hand to drive away the dust that was swirling around her.

Among those complex smells, the most obvious one was the smell of blood. Combined with the sudden explanation he had just given about the crow, Yuanli finally understood what Qi Heng meant.

It is rumored that crows can smell the special odor emitted by dying animals and even mortals. Crows are fond of rotting corpses and often gather where corpses are piled up, so they are considered an ominous sign.

Since so many crows are flying around here, there must be a lot of corpses hidden here.

Qi Heng lit a candle, and under the warm light, the scene in the room was clearly visible. The walls were dilapidated, with dark red bloodstains on them, which must have dried for a long time.

The wooden part of the bed in the room was covered with claw marks, and except for the warm quilt she was lying on, everything else was covered with dust and sawdust.

Judging from the blood spray, four or five people must have died in this room.

Yuanli sat curled up on the ground, with a warm blanket covering her head to block the dust from the ceiling, her eyes filled with a mixture of disgust and fear.

In comparison, Qi Heng seemed much calmer. Yuanli was accustomed to his indifference to monsters, which was inappropriate for a mortal.

Suddenly, the dust and wood chips around began to float up and return to their original positions. The claw marks on the wooden furniture closed up like growing flesh, and the ground began to shake slightly again.

"If you back down, you can escape from my side at any time."

Yuanli quickly shook her head to show her determination. Qi Heng smiled and said, "Don't panic. This is just a warning from the person behind the scenes. No one will be killed."

After saying that, Qi Heng refocused his attention on the incense jar in his hand. He opened the iron lid, put three fingers together, and continuously pinched out the incense ash and sprinkled some in every corner of the room.

Until the dust in the room completely disappeared, the scene before my eyes was completely different from before, and everything returned to tranquility as if nothing had happened.

After finishing everything, Qi Heng sat back on the bed and said, "Go to sleep. There won't be any more unusual movements tonight."

Yuanli nodded and lay down. Standing at the scene of an unjust death, she could no longer sleep peacefully. The hidden blood claw marks were still vivid in her mind.

She forced herself to stay awake despite her sleepiness until the first crow of a rooster rang in her ears, and then she took a nap.

When a rooster crows, all ghosts will avoid it.

This sentence was taught to her by Wen Yici.

The next morning, Yuanli woke up naturally, and the dark circles under her eyes revealed her fatigue from the previous night.

Pushing open the window, Yuanli leaned on the railing on the top floor and looked at the street. At this moment, Qingshui Town had returned to its former tranquility. The streets were full of smoke and the vendors were shouting and selling as if nothing had happened.

Yuanli was wondering when two familiar figures passed by the street. She bent down and leaned forward to take a closer look. They were the child who sold Cuju yesterday and his blind grandfather.

The child had a calm expression on his face, still carrying his two bamboo baskets towards the town entrance.

"What are you looking at?"

Yuanli wondered, "I saw that kid yesterday. He was beaten by soldiers for violating state law by selling Cuju balls. Because my Gu Master identity was revealed, he and his grandfather were able to escape during the chaos. But he's here again."

Qi Heng looked in the direction of his finger and said, "Let's go to the street and take a look."

The two of them packed up as quickly as possible and went out, following closely behind the grandfather and grandson. But even though she had changed out of her Miao skirt from yesterday, people in Qingshui Town still stole glances at her from time to time.

The child placed the basket where he had set up his stall yesterday. After the blind old man found his way to sit down, the child took off the rags in the basket, folded them carefully, and placed them on the blind old man's legs to keep him warm.

Then he began to fiddle with the bamboo in the basket carefully. Passers-by slowed down their pace to pay attention, but just like yesterday, they took a few glances and left in a hurry.

Whether it was the children's words and actions or the reactions of passers-by, everything was the same as yesterday. Yuanli could even guess what would happen next.

To confirm her suspicions, Yuanli randomly picked a porridge stall and walked over. As soon as she approached the stall, the owner glared at her and impatiently said, "Go away! We don't sell it. Go look somewhere else."

It is true.

Yuanli got the answer in her heart and showed a satisfied look. On the contrary, Qi Heng showed displeasure and clenched his fists with his hands half hidden in his sleeves.

She took Qi Heng and walked the same route as yesterday. When they returned to this place, before they got close, the crowd suddenly became noisy, and a few soldiers pushed the people towards them with ferocious looks.

Yuanli tilted her head slightly towards Qi Heng and whispered, "Believe it or not, that leading soldier will kick over his bamboo basket later."

Qi Heng turned his head and looked at her when he heard the sound. A noisy sound was heard, and the leading soldier kicked over the child's bamboo basket just as Yuanli said.

"If I say that everything in front of you happened yesterday, will you believe me?"

Qi Heng nodded without saying anything, his expression showing no surprise at all, as if he understood the truth thoroughly.

"As you can see, everything in Qingshui Town is just repeating a specific day. The person behind the scenes lacks the power to maintain this situation until midnight, then exhausts their energy and returns to their original state. They relax for a moment and then recharge their energy to recover."

"Repeating the same day?"

His explanation made sense of all these strange things. It turned out that what was out of place in Qingshui Town was not her dress or her identity, but the fact that she was a stranger who disturbed the person behind the scenes.

"Well, that's all I know at the moment. As for who's behind this... I can't confirm it either."

"If the thing behind you isn't a person, are you afraid?"

"Why should I be afraid of a monster? Human hearts are far more terrifying. If I want to live and not look like an alien, don't I have to deal with them? If I were truly a monster, it would be much simpler."

Suddenly, heart-wrenching cries came from the crowd. Yuanli looked in the direction of the sound and saw a wall of people surrounding the source of the sound. Yuanli stood on the high steps and looked over. The eye-catching blood was particularly obvious on the snow.

The officers and soldiers pinned the grandfather and grandson to the ground and beat them. The white-haired old man had already died, and the child became weaker and weaker as the heavy blows on his back hit him until he died completely.

What killed him was the crutch that the white-haired old man used.