Chapter 35 Chapter 35
"Hey, why are you running? Stop and talk."
"I'm talking to you, little demons."
At nine o'clock in the evening, in the sand dunes far away from City X, in an area seldom visited by humans, such a confusing scene appeared.
"No, what is this?"
"What have you been doing?"
Ning Su saw that the tumbleweed dunes were not far from the program crew. In addition, the staff of the X City Monster Bureau were still working outside, so many people noticed his movements.
"Mr. Ning?"
The staff hesitated for a moment and immediately followed. However, in just a moment, Ning Su's figure was already far away.
"What is this for?"
Now that night has fallen, the surrounding environment has cooled down and various creatures on the sand dunes are gradually waking up.
Running around suddenly at this time is obviously not a reassuring thing.
This staff member was not in the combat sequence but a civilian. He did not dare to chase after them, so he stamped his feet and rushed back to find other help.
Ning Su, who attracted the attention of others, did not realize that his unauthorized departure had attracted other people's concern. At this moment, he was concentrating on chasing the rolling tumbleweeds.
If the slight demonic aura he just felt made Ning Su suspicious, then the other party's behavior of running away as soon as he saw him made his suspicion increase by several points.
"Why are you running?"
While chasing, Ning Su's speed was not slow, it could even be said that he was walking on flat ground.
However, this was the home ground of the tumbleweed monsters. When they saw that they could not catch up with Ning Su, they started to cheat. While Ning Su was not paying attention, they grew roots and then, with a "whoosh", all of them burrowed into the ground.
Ning Su: “?”
Who did you learn this bad habit of burrowing into the ground when you can't win?
Ning Su had no luck in chasing the tumbleweed monster, so he had to return empty-handed. Coincidentally, at this time, Director Lin from the X City Monster Bureau also caught up with him.
I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw Ning Su was safe and sound.
"But have you found anything?" After confirming that Ning Su was fine, Director Lin quickly shifted his attention to the case.
"We encountered a group of little monsters." Ning Su said.
"Ah?" Director Lin was stunned for a moment, "Are you saying that there is a monster near our camp?"
Clearly, they had installed real-time monitoring equipment when they were stationed there. Logically speaking, if there were any little monsters nearby, it would be impossible for them not to be detected.
What's more, all monsters have a sense of territory, especially the timid little monsters.
They are the staff here, and the tumbleweed monster still appears even though they know this. It is really strange.
"Go back and take a look?"
A few minutes later, Ning Su and others saw the real-time monitor of evil spirit that Director Lin had just mentioned.
"What version is this?" Ning Su asked curiously, looking at the instrument which was completely different from the one used by the Monster Bureau in City A.
"Version A01." Director Lin said.
The young man next to Director Lin who had just come to pick up Ning Su endured it for a moment, but then he couldn't help it and ruthlessly exposed Director Lin: "The version from ten years ago."
“…”
While Director Lin was looking a little embarrassed, Ning Su tested the rather old detector in front of him.
Sure enough, for stronger demonic energy, the detector will make some noise, but if the demonic energy is very little and subtle, the detector will not react at all.
"Well, in that case, those tumbleweeds are most likely monsters." Director Lin defined nonchalantly.
"It looks like a big problem."
Not only do these little grass monsters appear silently beside the camp, they also run away when discovered.
Although the second half of the sentence is Ning Su's description, which contains subjective emotions that cannot be ignored, the clue of the tumbleweed monster is indeed an important breakthrough when there is no progress in the missing case.
Now that the key suspect had been identified, the focus of the X City Monster Bureau's work instantly shifted.
After a while, they contacted the bureau's archives and retrieved the information about the tumbleweed monster.
"They have no criminal record." After receiving the file from the bureau, Director Lin took a look at it first, and he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw this item.
At least from this point of view, if the two human guests were really taken away by the tumbleweed monster, their lives would not be in danger for the time being.
But this was obviously not enough to reassure all the monsters. After reading this, Director Lin continued to look at other file contents.
The tumbleweed monster is a small herb monster, considered an invasive species. Many years ago, it was not considered a native monster of China, but took root in this land with the seeds brought by travelers.
“Although these little demons are weak, they seem to be doing well,” Director Lin said.
After looking up the basic description of the tumbleweed monster, his attention quickly turned to the history of this group of little monsters.
A few hundred years ago, when the demon race had not yet withdrawn from mainstream society like they do now, and the big demons could still serve as monarchs of an area, the tumbleweed demon could use its low demon power to get to a relatively high position.
"The highest position they held before was the Prime Minister of Xiliang Demon Kingdom."
The reason for this, to some extent, is related to the personalities of the tumbleweed monsters.
"You know, it also has a name, it's 'fence-sitter'."
Whichever way the wind blows, they roll in that direction.
Although this nature has been suppressed after becoming a demon, there is no doubt that in terms of character, the other party is definitely an expert in judging the situation.
"They are suitable to come to the Monster Bureau to work and help us collect wages." At this point, the young man from the Monster Bureau said quietly.
Director Lin's face darkened. Ning Su couldn't help himself this time and covered up the smile on his face by coughing.
After understanding the characteristics of the tumbleweed monsters, it seems to be of some help to the progress of the case, but in fact it seems like there is a layer of gauze that cannot be penetrated.
"In that case, I'll go ask the humans if there's any situation."
After saying this, Director Lin demonstrated his strong execution ability. After throwing down this sentence, he turned around and looked for humans to communicate.
Seeing him leave, Ning Su couldn't help but pat the tall and strong young man on the shoulder; "Next time when the leader is speaking, remember not to undermine him."
Director Lin, don’t you have any respect?
Using tumbleweeds as a clue, the chaotic case seemed to be split open at once.
The person in charge of the program team had just had an argument with Director Lin not long ago. When he saw Director Lin coming to ask about the case again, he suddenly became a little impatient.
"Tumbleweed, isn't that a very common thing?"
Since they came to this sand dune, they have seen this thing everywhere. At first, they were curious and even took photos happily, but when they got familiar with it, they subconsciously ignored its existence.
"Can you provide more information?" Director Lin asked relentlessly.
Fortunately, although the person in charge of the program team had a bad attitude, the other staff members of the program team were quite cooperative - they were still waiting for the case to be over so that they could go home quickly.
With this thought in mind, the camera crew simply turned on the computer, called up the previously shot footage, and watched it carefully.
After a while, he discovered the clue.
"Hey, why are there tumbleweeds in so many of the scenes we shot before?"
As the photographer finished speaking, several heads came to the screen at the same time.
"Oh my god, is that true?"
They didn't notice it at first, but after being reminded, Director Lin and others realized that in the previously filmed footage, the guests were recording the show on the side, and tumbleweeds could be vaguely seen as the background.
Because these tumbleweeds appeared so frequently, even the program's cameraman had some complaints.
"Isn't it that the frequency of their appearance is a bit too high?"
Moreover, as a cameraman of the program crew, he naturally has an intuition about the position of the camera. In his opinion, these tumbleweeds seem to be in the best position to see the overall situation.
"Are they monitoring us?" For some reason, this thought popped into the cameraman's mind.
“They are always there.”
After reaching this conclusion, the staff of the X City Monster Bureau were silent.
Are they some kind of stupid monsters?
Obviously, when they took over the case, they also checked the content filmed by the program crew.
But there is no doubt that they all ignored this doubt.
Seeing that the atmosphere on the scene was becoming more and more suspenseful, but still not completely certain, the producer of the program became a little impatient.
The guest has been missing for more than 24 hours, and these damn staff are still worrying about the tumbleweeds that are everywhere on the sand dunes.
Can these people really do it?
He was really angry and deliberately asked, "Well, are these tumbleweeds related to the disappearance of the guests?"
"It's hard to say." Ning Su came back to his senses and glanced at the producer.
The producer laughed: "No, you are not saying that this tumbleweed has become a spirit, not only peeping at us while we were filming the show, but also sweeping our guests away, right?"
What kind of hell joke is this?
The producer made himself laugh.
However, after the producer laughed at what he thought was a funny thing, he discovered that no other staff members were laughing except himself.
After a while, the man who claimed to be a staff member of the X City Special Management Bureau reached out and patted his shoulder:
“You are very talented.”
"Come work in our Special Administration Bureau."
Producer: “?”
At this point, although the people have not been found, after this search, we can at least confirm that the disappearance of the guests should be related to these tumbleweed monsters.
After several hours of investigation, it was almost dawn. The humans in the tents began to yawn, and even a few civilian monsters looked a little listless.
"Let's take a break." When the case got stuck again, Director Lin had to temporarily stop the investigation.
Walking out of the tent of the program crew, Ning Su couldn't help but frown.
He was still somewhat dissatisfied with the progress of the case - so much time had passed, but it had only moved forward one step.
If he had known earlier that he would have been more resolute, he could have caught a tumbleweed monster directly.
As long as they had a tumbleweed monster, they could avoid many detours.
As if he could see that Ning Su was in a bad mood, Director Lin couldn't help but comfort him, "Don't think too much."
In fact, compared with their previous case handling speed, the progress this time was much faster.
And all of this is thanks to the young cub in front of him.
"Thinking too much will keep you from growing taller." Director Lin blurted out.
Ning Su: “?”
Although the director of the X City Monster Bureau seemed unreliable, there was no doubt that his words had completely brought Ning Su out of his wild thoughts.
Returning to the tent assigned to him by the Monster Bureau, Ning Su thought about it over and over again but couldn't come up with a solution. Finally, he simply gave up and took out his cell phone.
Because there are human buildings nearby, although this place is far away from the city, there is still a pretty good mobile phone signal.
Ning Su opened the Internet and soon received new messages.
"Brother Ning, have you been to City X?" Hai Yu asked on WeChat.
It turned out that although Ning Su had his ticket bought by Director Tan and boarded the plane through a special channel, as long as his information was entered into the flight system, he would be tracked by his fans.
Someone knew Ning Su's itinerary hours ago.
Therefore, many people took advantage of the time and encountered Ning Su at the X City Airport and took photos of the airport.
Ning Su: “?”
Wait.
It turns out that those cameras and long guns seen at the airport before were not for the guests of the variety show, but for him?
Hearing Ning Su's question, Hai Yu was speechless for a second: "Of course."
Although the lifestyle variety show "Impossible Journey" filmed in City X is also quite popular, most of the guests are low-key actors, who can't compare with Ning Su, a celebrity who has been very popular recently.
For example, the picture of someone encountering Ning Su at the X City Airport not long ago has become a hot topic on social media.
To some extent, their agency's previous decision to abandon Sun Zhou and sign Ning Su was the right one.
Even so, the people in the agency probably couldn't imagine that Ning Su was so appealing to the general public.
Ning Su has not appeared for such a long time since his last live broadcast, but many people still miss him.
Of course, this is also closely related to the fact that Sun Zhou’s second account has been liking Ning Su’s related Weibo posts.
"I see."
After finding out some useless truths from Hai Yu, Ning Su nodded lacking interest, still thinking about the case in his mind.
Even when Hai Yu tentatively asked him if he had participated in the show "Impossible Journey", Ning Su did not respond.
Hai Yu could only sigh and reported several quarreling posts using his secondary account.
Not long ago, after some fans learned that Ning Su had arrived in City X, some people speculated whether the latter had appeared on the variety show "Impossible Journey".
There is nothing wrong with the question itself, but there are always extreme fans of the show who hate people like Ning Su who became famous through hype, and they make some sarcastic remarks on the Internet.
Ning Su’s fans saw this and started arguing with the other party.
While Hai Yu and Ning Su were chatting, the fans' quarrel had already escalated into a war.
Looking at the fans and haters on the internet, Hai Yu just found it a little funny - if it were any other artist, the agency would have taken action long ago.
But who told him that his brother retired a long time ago?
After finishing the conversation with Hai Yu, Ning Su still did not rest - in fact, in the entire camp, except for a few humans who could not hold on, all other people and monsters were still awake.
After briefly recalling everything that happened today, Ning Su hesitated for a moment and finally clicked on the ginseng spirit’s WeChat.
"Help."
Although from a professional point of view, the case of the Monster Bureau should not be leaked to the outside, the problem is that among the monsters he knows, the ginseng spirit monster has the widest bloodline, is the oldest, and understands the little monster's mind best.
Apart from the ginseng spirit, he couldn't think of a better person to ask.
"What's wrong?" Since entering the interview stage, the ginseng spirit has spent a lot of money to buy himself a lot of liquid fertilizer.
When reviewing, it will soak half of itself in liquid fertilizer, relying on human technology to support its preparation journey.
At this time, it happens to be handling other matters.
Ning Su gave a brief account of the case and mentioned the situation of the tumbleweed monsters. After a while, news from the ginseng monster came back.
"It's probably true that they captured humans."
Ginseng Spirit is even more certain about this conclusion than Ning Su.
"They are the ones that can approach humans silently and capture them without leaving any trace."
In order to support his point of view, the ginseng spirit even found a picture of tumbleweed on the Internet.
When the tumbleweed rolls with the wind, the entire grass will become a ball. According to the size of the tumbleweed monster described by Ning Su, there is absolutely no problem for a person to fit inside the sphere.
After confirming this, the ginseng spirit mentioned another point: "We plant demons don't eat humans. If we capture people, it's definitely not for ourselves."
If that’s the case, why are these tumbleweed monsters going to so much trouble to do all this?
What benefits are there that make it worth the other party taking the risk of being arrested by the Demon Bureau to do this?
Ning Su recalled Director Lin’s introduction to the tumbleweed monsters not long ago, and a light suddenly flashed in his mind.
A few minutes later, Ning Su and Yu Xi appeared in front of the tent of the variety show production team again.
"What's the matter with you guys again?" The producer was almost driven crazy when he saw Ning Su coming back.
Ning Su didn't answer, but winked at Yuxi behind him.
Yuxi stretched out his hand with a smile and waved it in front of the producer. The latter's irritated expression immediately disappeared, and after a while, he came back to his senses.
"Oh, never mind. Just come in." When he spoke again, there was a hint of intimacy in the other person's tone that he himself could hardly detect.
Seeing this, Ning Su once again confirmed that Yuxi's innate skills were probably at the spiritual level.
With the intervention of Yuxi's magic power, the producer who was usually cautious and reserved in front of others finally opened up.
"Oh, our job is really hard."
When you trust someone, you can't help but start by complaining, and the producer is no exception. So, in the next half an hour, Ning Su and the other demons passively listened to the complaints of the middle-aged man.
There is no need to mention the common industry rhetoric such as "talent is not appreciated". The producer focused on describing the difficulties in establishing his team.
It turns out that the reason why this program is named "Impossible Journey" is because in addition to the program's main themes of travel and scenery, it also invites some impossible guests.
For example, the two guests who disappeared this time, they are both actors. When they were young, one of them had starred in a hit drama, but also had conflicts in the crew.
In the next ten years, both of them have made better progress in the circle, but they have never met each other. If one of them is present at an event, the other will definitely refuse.
As a result, the hatred between the two people has been engraved in everyone's heart for so many years. The program team thought of this and invited both of them at the same time by taking advantage of their official background.
"...You are really awesome." Hearing this, Ning Su couldn't help but sigh.
The producer said bitterly: "It's all for traffic."
If there is no gimmick at all, how can they stand out among so many travel variety shows nowadays?
"But our show is definitely filmed carefully." Although the gimmicks they found are a little bit attractive, their show really wants to have some meaning.
In other words, he sincerely wanted to resolve the old grudges between the two former rivals and reconcile them.
In order to achieve this goal, a lot of effort was put into the setting of the program.
During yesterday's filming, they specially set up the scene, took out the costumes, and asked the two actors to repeat a play they had collaborated on that year.
“What did they film?”
Since there were some problems during the filming of this part, the producer was not satisfied and it was not part of the inner cylinder they had filmed, so it was not shown before.
At this time, because of the existence of Yuxi, the producer did not mind the trouble and found the segments that were about to be discarded from the camera.
"Look, this is a scene from an old TV show."
Ning Su took a look at the screen and found that the two talented actresses were wearing ancient costumes and speaking lines from the play.
"This is an excerpt from the Chronicles of Ancient Xiliang."
In the early years, when online short dramas were not so developed, TV dramas were the most widely accepted entertainment for people from all over the world.
At that time, similar TV dramas were mainly historical epics, but both the actors' appearance and the quality of the plot were excellent.
Although the two actors are no longer young, they still look radiant and charming when revisiting the scenes from the past.
Facing Ning Su's praise, the producer snorted and laughed: "Of course, this was a hit drama back then."
It was in this drama that the two actresses gave their best performances, so much so that when people mention them now, they still call them by the names they used in the drama.
Ning Su nodded thoughtfully.
At this point, he had already gotten the answer he wanted, so he stopped bothering the producer. After saying goodbye, Ning Su walked out of the tent with Yuxi.
The producer was alone in the tent and it took him a while to come back to his senses.
No, what happened to him just now?
Why do I suddenly like these two people so much, and even want to pour out my true feelings to them?
Thinking of this, and recalling the tumbleweed legend, the producer shuddered and hugged his 180-pound self tightly.
"Not asking anymore?" Yuxi asked curiously after coming out of the producer's tent.
In her opinion, the producer just introduced the content of the program in more detail from another perspective. Can there be any new gains from just these few words?
"Well, I have some guesses."
After a while, Ning Su arrived at Director Lin's tent. As expected, the other party was still working, with files on the table.
"You mean, you want to look up information about the demon king of the ancient Xiliang demon country?"
"right."
Although Director Lin was puzzled, he didn't waste any time and quickly sent the information over.
After opening the information, Ning Su discovered that the Demon King of Xiliang Kingdom was none other than a turtle. In addition, according to the information from the X City Demon Bureau, although the Xiliang Demon Kingdom had long been destroyed, this great demon was still alive.
It’s just that the other party has not made any move for hundreds of years.
The last time the other party appeared was in the previous dynasty.
"Wait, you mean..." Even though Director Lin was slow, he finally reacted at this time.
"Yes, I guess the tumbleweed monsters captured the guests not for themselves, but to please the monster king."
Ning Su looked at the information from the Demon Bureau. According to the lunar calendar, the Demon King's birthday was very recent.
"Besides, isn't the coincidence between the TV series "Ancient Xiliang Chronicles" and the Xiliang Demon Kingdom's Demon King a bit too obvious?"
At this moment, about dozens of kilometers away from the human tent area, a group of tumbleweed monsters emerged from the sand and broke out in a cold sweat.
"Ouch, the demon is scared to death."
"This monster is so strong and abnormal."
Being chased by Ning Su, the psychological pressure on these little demons was much greater than they had imagined. Fortunately, Ning Su did not chase them too far, which gave them a chance to escape.
"Don't waste time. Go back and teach those two humans how to speak. What if something goes wrong in front of the king?"
The birthday of the Demon King is approaching, and how to give gifts is the top priority for the little demons. They cannot afford to slack off, and as soon as they escape from the danger, they can't wait to make arrangements.
"Fortunately, we know that the king likes to watch TV series produced by humans and has secretly chased stars. We are lucky this time."
"Once the king is happy to see them, he will definitely give us a good job."
It has been hundreds of years since the tumbleweed demon clan became the prime minister of the Xiliang Demon Kingdom. Seeing that they are about to regain their glory, the little demons are so excited that their leaves are shaking.
"Hey, why aren't you talking?"
While all the tumbleweed monsters were happy, only one monster remained silent, and its companion couldn't help but ask.
"It's okay." After the demon named Ruo perfunctorily dealt with the other little demons, he couldn't help but feel the contents of his stomach.
Humph, just be happy. Compared to your gifts, my gift is much more important.
As he said this, he couldn't help but touched his stomach again.
This is the audio of another great demon singing in person!
Feeling the increase in demonic power brought by this audio, the little demon couldn't help but shake the leaves.
If the surviving guest were here at this moment, he would probably be surprised to find that the most precious thing in the tumbleweed monster's stomach was his stolen mobile phone which had previously played "Sea Soul".
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