Chapter 132: A different world beneath the well
Ma Lao Ba seemed to have disappeared from the face of the earth, disappearing without a trace inside and outside Jushuitun Village.
This was what Du Yunzhang and Luo Mei reported when they followed the guidance of their Cao Gang brothers and arrived at the end of the secret passage to meet Yin Chuan and Linlang.
"Can't find him?" Yin Chuan thought for a moment. "Then there are perhaps two possibilities. One is that he's inside the church, hanging out with Clark and his gang of believers. The other possibility is that he's the 'him' I asked Luo Mei to track, and that he met up with the organization's members and boarded the boat together to leave Jushuitun."
Luo Mei quickly shook her head. "No, the person I'm following is definitely not Ma Lao Ba. I heard their conversation, and the accent he used was not Ma Lao Ba's at all."
"Then it can only be that Ma Lao Ba is in the church right now!" Linlang said.
"Oh right," Yin Chuan suddenly thought of something, "Have you ever been to Ma Lao Ba's house to look for him?"
"We went, and he wasn't home."
"What's the situation at his house now?"
"What's going on? There's no one here."
"Does his house look like a butcher's?"
"Butcher?" Luo Mei shook her head. "He doesn't have any livestock like pigs or sheep at home. But he does have a chicken coop, so he must have raised a few chickens."
"No... he really does look like a butcher," Du Yunzhang corrected him. "He has a few oilskin aprons hanging out at home, along with a few pairs of sleeves, all greased and twisted. These are all typical butcher attire."
"Are there no knives or anything like that?" Linlang asked.
"I didn't find that."
Yin Chuan nodded and lowered his head to think for a long time.
"Brother Yin, you just said something was wrong. What exactly is wrong?"
Yin Chuan rested his chin on his hand and said thoughtfully, "Just now you said that you initially followed Yu Zhenzhu's entourage along the aqueduct to a secret passage. There, through a door, you could hear the Satanists' sacrificial rituals and the whispered conversations of important figures. Obviously, that's where the Satanists' true activities are. However, we came all the way here from the hospital secret passage and didn't find the passage you originally took. This is a bit strange."
"Let me interject," Luo Mei, standing beside him, couldn't help but speak up. "The secret passage I followed the person you mentioned last night actually leads directly to the passage Linlang left a mark for me on the first day, which is the aqueduct you mentioned."
Yin Chuan's eyes lit up, "Oh? Are you talking about this place?" He pointed to a secret door on the right that looked like a wall.
"Yes, I can take you for a walk."
In this way, Luo Mei used the previous method to open the secret door, one person in front, and three people behind, and entered the secret passage one after another. According to his memory, Luo Mei led Yin Chuan, Lin Lang and Du Yunzhang in the dark secret passage, turning and stopping, and finally reached the exit of the secret passage.
"Isn't this... the entrance to the water diversion tunnel where I chased Yu Zhenzhu's men when I came here?" Linlang exclaimed.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, here—" she pointed to the edge of the cave wall, "there's the mark I left for Luo Mei!"
"That's strange," Yin Chuan frowned, "Why did the passage leading to the Satanic cult disappear when you came here?"
"How about we go back again?" Luo Mei said.
The others all agreed and turned back, walking straight all the way until they reached the entrance to the secret passage under the church.
"That's not right!" Linlang was a little confused. "Why am I back again? How come I can't find the road I took at the beginning?"
"Don't be anxious. Think carefully about how you left at that time," Yin Chuan reminded.
Linlang tilted her head and thought for a moment. "At that time... I walked straight ahead along the water diversion tunnel. At the end, there was a T-junction. I turned left. There were stairs leading up there. At the end, there was a wooden door. Beyond the door was the place where the Satanic Cult held sacrifices."
"What about turning right?" Du Yunzhang asked impatiently.
"If you go right, there's a straight passage, and then you're under a well in the village."
"A well?" Yin Chuan suddenly had an idea. "Lao Du, Luo Mei, when you searched the entire Jushui Village, where did you find a well?"
"It seems that there is only one next to the old Ma family's house..." Luo Mei seemed to have guessed what Yin Chuan meant, "Oh...you mean..."
"Let's go! Let's go to the well next to Lao Ma's house!"
The four of them returned to the hospital through the underground tunnel and headed straight for Ma Laoba's residence. The old Ma family's house was in the northwest corner of Jushuitun Village, not far from the church. It was a small house surrounded by a fence, and the well was just outside the fence on the east side.
"It's this well!" Linlang recognized at a glance that this was the well she had climbed out of when she came out of the secret passage.
"Let's go down and take a look." Du Yunzhang was a little impatient to go down the well.
"You reckless guy! Aren't you afraid of an ambush down there?" Luo Mei glared at him and pulled him.
"Hey, you're looking down on me, aren't you?" Du Yunzhang said, pulling out his handy mirrored box from his waist. "I have this weapon in my hand, what can those bastards do to me?"
Luo Mei rolled her eyes at him with disdain. "Come on, if you go down there stupidly, and they're setting up an ambush, you'll probably die down there. I'd better go down with you, so you don't get beaten to a pulp without anyone above knowing."
Du Yunzhang was not stupid either. He understood that Luo Mei still cared about him. He scratched the back of his head and chuckled, then went down the well with Luo Mei.
"You must be careful. If there is any danger, don't confront them head-on!" Linlang kept reminding them from above.
"Don't worry, wait for our news." Luo Mei responded.
After they disappeared into the well, Yin Chuan said to Lin Lang, "You stay here and watch. I'll go check at Ma Lao Ba's house."
"Okay, go ahead. I'll call you if there's any movement here."
Yin Chuan walked into the Ma family's house alone. Although it was surrounded by a fence, the area was much larger than that of other households in the village. There were several plots of land in the yard, apparently used to grow some simple vegetables, but they were now overgrown with weeds, obviously no one had tended them for a long time. There was also a chicken coop in the corner of the yard, empty except for some chicken feathers and chicken manure.
There were three houses in the courtyard: a north-facing room and two side rooms. Near the north-facing room, under the eaves, were two drying ropes, with several pairs of sleeves hanging from them. Yin Chuan touched them and found obvious oil stains on the sleeves. He walked into the room and took a look. The light was dim and the smell of stale oil was strong. On a nearby chair lay several long gowns, also stained with oil and blood.
It seemed the Ma family was indeed butchers, but the one thing a butcher should have was missing: a butcher knife. Generally speaking, even butchers working outside the home needed to bring their own knives; otherwise, the knives provided by customers would be difficult to use, significantly impacting their efficiency in butchering.
Yin Chuan searched inside and outside again, but still found nothing.
Just as he was pondering the doubts in his heart, he suddenly heard a muffled gunshot from outside, followed by Linlang shouting: "What happened in there? Come up quickly!"
Yin Chuan hurriedly jogged back to the well and heard several screams of "Ah...ah..." coming from the bottom of the well.
"What's going on?" Yin Chuan asked Linlang.
"I don't know. I suddenly heard Luo Mei and Du Yunzhang shouting a few times inside, and then there was a gunshot."
As they were talking, Du Yunzhang's voice came from the bottom of the well: "Old Yin, Linlang, come down and take a look! Hurry!"
Judging from his tone, he seemed very nervous, even a little frightened.
"What the hell is going on down there?"
"It's hard to explain in a few words. Just come down and take a look."
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