Chapter 138 Butterfly
When Chen Chuan arrived at the company, he met a man in his thirties wearing the official uniform of the affairs department. The man's eyes lit up when he saw Chen Chuan and he took the initiative to come forward and shake hands with him.
"This must be Expert Chen, right? I'm Wang Bian from the Jia County Government Affairs Office. Expert Chen can call me Secretary Wang or Little Wang." He seemed very enthusiastic. Instead of having the airs of a Government Affairs Office employee, he was deliberately trying to please.
Chen Chuan shook his hand and said, "Hello, Secretary Wang."
After greeting each other, they sat down. Secretary Wang sighed and said, "This strange story has been causing panic among the people lately. We really have no other options, so we contacted Yangzhi City. A colleague from the Government Affairs Office recommended your company to me. Oh, I heard that you solved the flying head monster incident before. Incredible, amazing."
Chen Chuanshuo said, "I heard the general idea before coming here. Secretary Wang, can you tell me more about it?"
Secretary Wang said distressedly, "Oh, that's what happened..."
Following his narration, Chen Chuan, Ren Shu and others gradually understood what was happening.
Due to local customs and habits, many young people in Jia County like to get tattoos. Recently, someone found that a butterfly-shaped pattern appeared on their body inexplicably, and it could not be washed off.
Because this tattoo is very beautiful, bright and lifelike, and seems to dance as the body moves, people who have this tattoo will show it off to others. But when asked how they got it, no one can explain it clearly.
But these young people soon discovered that something was wrong, because the number of these tattoos increased almost every day, and in just a few days, their entire bodies were covered.
What is most frightening is that these tattoos will overlap densely with each other, and once there is no free space on the body, they will turn into real butterflies and fly out from the body, not only on the surface of the skin, but even in the internal organs.
Only then did people realize that the tattoo was actually inside the body, but it was invisible, and in the end, all that was left of the person was a pile of rotten flesh and bones full of holes.
When Director Wang said this, he also showed a look of horror. He had also seen the corpse and vomited on the spot. He had nightmares for several days after returning. The first thing he did when he got up in the morning was to check his whole body to see if there was a similar butterfly tattoo.
In just ten days, the local government office received more than a dozen similar cases, and these were the ones that were reported. It is unknown how many more there were that were not reported.
It would have been fine if only the civilians were in trouble, but the officials of the Government Affairs Office were also worried that they and their relatives and friends would be infected with this thing, so they ordered these people to be arrested. However, this was only a temporary solution and such incidents continued to occur afterwards.
The most troublesome thing is that some people, for some reason, deliberately tattooed this kind of thing on their bodies after hearing about this incident, which made it more difficult to deal with the matter, forcing them to look for experts everywhere to deal with it.
After hearing this, Chen Chuan's expression became more serious. He thought for a moment and said, "I understand the situation. I need to look up some information on this matter and will get back to you this afternoon."
Secretary Wang said, "Okay, then I'll leave it to Expert Chen. I'll wait for Expert Chen's reply at your company."
After Chen Chuan returned, he looked through the strange story materials Cheng Zitong had given him. These days, he would look through them every night in his spare time to increase his knowledge and understanding, but due to the sheer volume, he still hadn't been able to finish reading them.
He checked the compiled catalog and finally confirmed that there was no butterfly tattoo in the collected ghost stories. This means that this is a ghost story that Cheng Zitong has never seen or heard of.
He didn't have a high degree of confidence in accepting such a commission, so he could have simply refused it. However, after careful consideration, he decided to give it a try.
As he encountered more strange stories and saw more examples, he also gained some experience.
Most of the strange stories encountered before, including those mentioned in the materials, were fixed in a certain place and the scope was not too large. They might cause chaos in a certain place, but unless there were human-driven or involved factors such as the Flying Head Cult, they were generally not enough to cause social unrest and unrest.
Strange stories like this that can spread often have a root cause. As long as the root cause is eliminated, the problem can be solved.
Actually, the ghost stories he had handled before were mostly based on data and previous experience, so he just had to follow the procedures. But this kind of thing was something he had never seen or heard of before, and he had never handled it himself.
But as he received more and more commissions in this area, he always encountered similar strange stories, so this time he did not intend to avoid it, but tried to take the initiative to solve it.
However, even though he had an idea, he did not lose his caution. He called Cheng Zitong, asked him about the matter, and told him his analysis.
After listening to this, Cheng Zitong said, "Xiaochuan, your thinking is correct, and the premise is accurate. Sometimes, it's not the strange story itself that influences your judgment, but the people themselves."
Chen Chuanshuo said, "Teacher, I understand what you mean. Ghost stories affect people, so solving them actually starts with handling the human factors, and the human factors are often more complicated than the ghost stories themselves."
"Right." Cheng Zitong said, "So you have to be mentally prepared. Solving ghost stories isn't just about the stories themselves. Especially outside of Yangzhi City, you have to be even more careful."
Chen Chuanshuo said: "Teacher, I understand."
Cheng Zitong hummed, "If there's anything you need me to solve, just give me a call."
After Chen Chuan ended the call, he thought for a while and then called the company to say that he had accepted the assignment and needed to go to Jia County immediately to take a look.
Ren Shu immediately told Secretary Wang about it. When the latter heard that he was willing to set off immediately, he was overjoyed and said yes and that he would come to pick him up immediately.
Half an hour later, Chen Chuan got on Secretary Wang's car and rushed to Jia County. In order to understand the situation more easily, he and Secretary Wang sat in the back seat, while the driver drove in the front. Ren Shu took into consideration that he was going to another county, so the company also sent an empty car to follow him to facilitate his movement back and forth.
Among the six counties of Yangzhi City, Jia County is located in the northernmost part of the southwest and is also the smallest one. The county seat is surrounded by mountains on three sides, making it difficult to enter and exit. However, because a tributary of the Baihe River makes a bend here and is located right at the exit, shipping is relatively convenient and it is not too closed.
After leaving Yangzhi City, it took just over two hours to get to a winding mountain road. After more than ten minutes, the sky on both sides suddenly darkened, and we entered a canyon passage. The light on both sides was blocked by the mountain walls.
Secretary Wang also introduced this place to Chen Chuan. It is called Pingkong Gorge. It was a very famous dangerous place in the old times. It was widened during the period of great development. If you don’t take the water route, this road is the only way to enter and exit the county.
Chen Chuan glanced upwards and saw outposts and wall passages on both sides that were dug out during the great development period.
At this moment, a number of two-wheeled motor vehicles quickly passed by the car. One of them even came in front of the front of the car and lingered for a while before speeding past.
Secretary Wang was a little embarrassed and said, "These are a group of wealthy students, not just from Jia County, but also from several nearby counties. They especially like to pass through here."
After walking about five miles, we finally got out of the canyon. The sky suddenly brightened, making people feel like they were back to the world.
Shops and residential buildings gradually appeared on both sides. Perhaps because the county town was not large in area, the population seemed very dense and there were many people walking on the streets.
Secretary Wang said, "I've arranged a place for Expert Chen to live. The conditions are simple, so please don't mind."
Chen Chuanshuo said, "Don't worry." He picked up the map in his hand and said, "I just looked at it. The butterfly tattoo first appeared in the Chang Street area, as well as Bo Street and here..."
He circled a few places on the map with a pen, drew a large circle on it, and handed it to Secretary Wang. "Secretary Wang, it would be best if you could take some people with you and follow this map."
Secretary Wang took it, looked at it, and said with a more serious expression, "I'll make a phone call." After the car stopped, he went to a roadside phone booth to make a call. After waiting for a quarter of an hour, two vehicles from the local Public Security Bureau drove up. He got in and said to Chen Chuan, "They've called them, Expert Chen. Shall we go right away?"
Chen Chuan nodded and said, "Don't drive too fast."
"OK."
After only ten minutes of driving, they arrived at the street at the edge of the map. Chen Chuan saw the streets decorated with lights on both sides, lanterns hanging high above the shops, and red marks on the cheeks of the people walking by. He asked, "Is this a celebration of some festival?"
Secretary Wang said, "Yes, in two days it will be the local Qiaoshen Festival. The custom is to weave textiles and apply festive face paint. The Government Affairs Office is also worried about any incidents at this time, and hopes this matter can be resolved quickly."
Chen Chuan looked at the second self at this time, because whenever the second self encountered a strange story, he would inevitably become virtual, so he planned to use the simplest method, which was to take a car around the main places where butterfly tattoos appeared. As long as there were people involved in this kind of strange story, they would definitely be observed by him.
Then, if we follow the movements of these people over the past few days, we should be able to find the source if everything goes well.
The area circled on the map wasn't very large, so the car drove around it for over an hour and found nothing. He then said, "Narrow it down and circle it again."
Secretary Wang didn't know what his purpose was, but since he was an expert in dealing with ghost stories, he must have a purpose, so he asked the driver to continue driving according to his instructions.
Next, as the vehicle continued to shrink in range, the driver didn't say anything, but the members of the Public Security Bureau behind him became impatient and came over to complain. Director Wang hurriedly comforted them and looked at Chen Chuan in embarrassment.
Chen Chuan then asked, "Secretary Wang, do you have a night market here?"
Secretary Wang said: "Yes, especially when it's near the Qiaoshen Festival, some young people like to go out at night. The night market is especially lively these days."
Chen Chuanshuo said, "Tell them that if we can't find any clues, we'll continue searching at night. We're asking them to work harder now so we can leave them alone at night."
"well."
After Director Wang said this, the members of the Public Security Bureau stopped talking and instead felt a little sympathetic towards those members who had to run errands at night, and they also felt like they had gotten a bargain.
At this time, the vehicle has reached the innermost block of the area circled on the map. If it passes here, it will have completed the entire area marked on the map.
But at this moment, Chen Chuan suddenly saw the second me suddenly become slightly blurred, and then quickly passed.
He turned to look at the side of the street and saw a bald man with a dull look in his eyes walking past. However, his muscles were unusually strong. His eyes moved and he immediately said, "Wait a minute, stop the car and stop that man."
…
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(End of this chapter)
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