Chapter 14 Paper Man City 11
That night, the lingering black fog over the outer city disappeared without a trace. When Jiang Yuelu arrived, all he saw was a desolate city shrouded in the white moonlight.
Zuixian Tower was less than ten meters away from him, very close.
He turned around again, and this time he had a clear view of the endless long street, but there was no sign of the paper people. For some reason, they gave up chasing him.
This goes against the rules of the question, doesn't it?
What's more, when he left, the hatred that burst out in the eyes of the tall-haired lady and the strongman was so real that they really wanted to eat themselves slowly.
There may be only one reason why he didn't come after me.
There is a mystery behind where he came from - even the paper people in difficult mode dare not resist.
He turned back and looked at the wooden plaque with the three characters "Zuixianlou" written in red on a gold background. The years had left a thick layer of dust on it, but the building had been heavily rebuilt in the early years, and even the plaque was magnificent.
Lord Zhu said that Liu Shitou's body was found in Zuixian Tower in the outer city.
The banquet held by Yifen Town for the group of wizards was held in Zuixianlou. Liu Shitou was in charge of the shadow puppet show that night. He was killed when he arrived in advance to confirm the performance.
This building may still contain evidence of why he died and who killed him. Similarly, it may also contain the enemy who brutally killed him.
Jiang Yuelu took a step forward——
Unfortunately, he can't do that now.
He could only look down speechlessly, staring at the paper doll that was hugging his legs tightly. The eyes made of two pieces of black paper had no highlights, but he could see great desire in them.
"Can you let go first?"
"I'm hungry."
Jiang Yuelu pried open her fingers one by one without saying a word. When someone suddenly grabbed her hand, she wanted to tear it apart the first second, but when she found that the hand was warm, she just let it go.
He came to his senses only after being put on the ground. His eyes without highlights seemed emotionless: "You lied to me?"
She showed her sharp teeth, and her fingernails instantly lengthened several times. Her tone was full of murderous intent: "Give me food!"
"Oh, you have quite a bad temper." Jiang Yuelu squatted down and looked directly into her dead eyes without any highlights, "Whose child is like you? Your attitude is so bad."
She really wanted to kill this nagging person, but when she thought of the delicious taste she had never tasted before, she managed to suppress her intense resentment and hatred.
"No one taught me." She was quite proud.
"Aren't I teaching you?" Jiang Yuelu patted her hands, and the latter couldn't help but shrink back because of the sudden contact with his warm palms.
"Put away your nails and teeth first."
She hissed fiercely, "Give me something to eat!"
Before she pounced on him, Jiang Yuelu held the yellow talisman in his hand and showed it, "I'll say three times, put away your nails and teeth, or I'll eat them myself." As he said that, he really crumpled the yellow talisman into a ball and opened his mouth.
She jumped up in a hurry, her teeth and nails were put away: "Give it to me, give it to me!"
"You also need to change the way you speak." Jiang Yuelu said again.
"Nonsense!"
Seeing Jiang Yuelu opened her mouth again without explanation, she pursed her lips: "... so nagging." Seeing her expression, Jiang Yuelu was stunned for a moment and suddenly thought of her sister.
He sighed and stuffed the yellow talisman paper ball into the paper doll's mouth. It was obviously not a candy, but her face showed a happy expression that only appeared when she tasted sweetness. Only at this time did she act like a child.
"Don't make a fuss yet. I'll give you food later. The better you behave, the more food you can have."
The paper doll was now very easy to talk to. She said "Hmm!" and quickly climbed onto Jiang Yuelu's shoulder and sat down steadily.
-
Zuixianlou has three floors and is more like an inn than a hotel. The first floor is for merchants to rest and spend the afternoon with a plate of peanuts and wine. If you are a distinguished guest, you can go up to the second floor and enter the side rooms.
There is a flowery note on each room, with different names written on them but forming a series.
This is similar to the private rooms in modern restaurants. The restaurants that Jiang Yuelu had visited had different names such as "Jingyuexuan" and "Furongxuan".
The names of the rooms in Zuixianlou are more unique. They are neither flowers nor poems, but a series of words like this:
"Soak", "Cook", "Wash", "Dry in the sun".
These are the four rooms on the left.
The four rooms on the right are similar.
"Beat it", "fish it out", "squeeze it", "steam it".
At first glance, it doesn't look like a restaurant, but more like a nursery rhyme to coax children.
Jiang Yuelu said to herself, "Making paper?"
This was indeed the process of paper forming. He leaned closer to look at the painting pasted on the small window of the wooden door. Under the flowery paper, there was a large water tank with a skull soaked in it. The water covered "its" neck, and it looked like it had difficulty breathing and was in great pain.
Let’s look at the next painting, “Cooking”. It’s still a skeleton, but this time it’s being roasted over a big fire… Jiang Yuelu looked around and found that these eight paintings cannot be viewed independently.
Putting them together, a mysterious and brutal action, like a sacrificial ritual, emerges.
It’s not about making paper, but about making “people”.
When they first lay in the water tank, they were still skeletons, but in the end, they had become flesh and blood. A group of people held hands, stood in the sun, laughed and danced, and no matter who saw it, they would not feel that the sun healed them, but only felt terrified and terrified.
If life could be so easily created, then what of the death and loss he had witnessed?
"Hit, hit them."
The paper doll on his shoulder exhaled a cold breath, and Jiang Yuelu glanced at the wooden door she was pointing at - that was where he decided to go: "Typing Room".
The farewell banquet that was unexpectedly cancelled was held in this box. Liu Shitou died in it a few hours ago, and the smell of death should still be lingering there.
"It seems you are better than I thought."
Because it was praised, the paper doll shook its head and looked very proud.
The wooden door slowly opened inwards, and deep black fog surged out, gathering at Jiang Yuelu's feet as if it had life.
Even though he had not received systematic witchcraft training like Leng Jing and Lin Shenyin, he knew that he should not rashly enter a place without light. He turned around and took a few candles from other rooms, and lit them by rubbing them with fire.
The burning candle flame looked very weak under the moonlight, but once you entered the dark box, you could only rely on it to light the way forward.
Jiang Yuelu looked around and saw that the furnishings inside were no different from the other private rooms he had just passed, except that the tables and chairs appeared cleaner, obviously someone had wiped them in advance for the banquet.
As I approached the window, I saw a pool of dried blood on the ground, with debris like falling snow floating around.
Not far ahead, a copper key appeared. When the candlelight was brought closer, the words engraved on the key were illuminated. It was a clear red character.
Lord Zhu?
Did he leave his keys here when he found the body?
“Woo—woo—”
There were gusts of cold wind outside, and from time to time there were sharp scraping sounds. The wooden windows were banged against each other, causing a series of screams. All the sounds seemed extremely eerie in this closed, dark, and dead room.
He always felt that there was something behind him, but when he turned around, he found nothing.
"Um……"
The paper doll sitting on her shoulder sniffed. Jiang Yuelu asked her, "What's wrong?"
She sneezed and looked at the cabinet in the corner with a disgusted expression: "It stinks, it stinks!"
"Does it stink?" He could smell nothing.
People and ghosts are separated by yin and yang. What people can see is an empty room and clean tables and chairs. What can ghosts see?
The closer he got to the cabinet, the more restless the paper doll became. With a creaky sound, the inconspicuous carved cabinet door slowly opened, and a blood-stained paper knife lay quietly inside.
"The murder weapon?"
It was exactly the same as his judgment.
Jiang Yuelu picked up the paper knife and turned it over to examine it, and found that the length, shape... everything was exactly as he had expected. It could be said that this paper knife completely replicated his imagination of the murder weapon.
It was just too smooth.
The paper doll seemed even more uneasy and tried to jump off his shoulders.
"Student Jiang Yuelu, you have collected information about the "blood of the deceased" and "murder weapon". Do you need to enable the corresponding prompt content for you?"
He nodded.
The student card projected a small screen not far in front of him. He saw Liu Shitou holding a shadow puppet and practicing for the dinner performance. Master Zhu came in and exchanged a few words with him. Suddenly, Zhu Xiuyuan showed murderous intent in his eyes, raised his hand and stabbed Liu Shitou to death with a sharp paper knife.
Blood continued to flow out, forming large, brightly colored flowers on the white paper clothes.
Until his death, Liu Shitou opened his eyes in disbelief. He didn't believe that Lord Zhu would kill him.
The screen went off and the electronic female voice sounded again.
"You have seen all the prompts. Do you want to make your choice now?"
He said without hesitation, "Yes."
The electronic female voice laughed faintly: "Very good. What is your choice on this question?"
Jiang Yue didn't answer in a hurry. Instead, she paced around the room and came to the pool of bright red blood.
"I think the answer is clearly laid out before me."
"The bloodstains are here, proving that Liu Shitou died here. The murder weapon is here, proving the cause and effect I suspected. Moreover, there are special clues proving that the murderer is Mr. Zhu Xiuyuan."
"Well then." The female voice chuckled, "Your choice is Zhu Xiuyuan, that is, A, right?"
"No."
Female voice: “…”
Jiang Yuelu answered in the sudden silence of the system, "I choose D. None of the above answers are correct."
"Master Zhu, Granny Xu, and Butcher Zhang, none of them were the ones who killed Liu Shitou."
It took me a long time to react. The female voice became anxious, "You chose D? But didn't you say--"
"Didn't I say that the bloodstains and the murder weapon are all here? Even a very convincing video was placed in front of me. Almost all the evidence points to Mr. Zhu, but I just didn't choose him. Are you surprised?"
Jiang Yuelu said slowly: "I would like to ask you something."
"You set a trap for me with such ill intentions. Is this your system ethics as an objective and neutral person?"
"Whether it's the bloodstains or the murder weapon, you put them all in front of me, fearing that I wouldn't trust you enough, and finally gave me a heavyweight hint for free."
"You think I look like a fool, don't you?"
The electronic female voice hummed a few times, sounding like she was suppressing anger and pain. But soon, she laughed sarcastically: "Hahahaha - idiot? Idiot!"
"Before you exposed it, two fools were fooled!"
Jiang Yuelu's mind suddenly flashed with the faces of Leng Jing, Zhao Xiaoxuan and others. The last scene was frozen on their hands together and Chen Chuan's cheering: "Little Deer Team, keep going!"
He didn't move, just stood there quietly listening to the system go crazy.
After a long laugh she cried out, "See for yourself!"
The student card projected a small screen again, and the picture was still this room, but he had no reason to believe that this time it must be true - not long ago, other wizards who did not choose the difficult mode were not troubled by the paper dolls along the street. Under the guidance of Leng Jing and Lin Shenyin, they made the same decision and went to the place where Liu Shitou died to look for clues first, and arrived at Zuixianlou earlier.
He saw this group of people enter the room, and also saw them find bloodstains and paper knives. He was induced to choose Zhu Xiuyuan's wrong option, and the punishment came instantly.
However, this punishment is far more terrible than the previous punishment which was not very painful.
Although no sound could be heard, the room should have been filled with a boiling rustling sound. People stumbled out of the room, and Yu Xiong and Yuan Xiang were trapped in the room. They knocked on the door helplessly but no one responded. In the end, they were killed one after another by invisible ghosts. The death process looked like a complete person being erased bit by bit by a huge, invisible eraser, and in the end only a pile of broken bones fell to the ground.
If he answered incorrectly, he would suffer the same fate.
“It shouldn’t be.”
Jiang Yuelu whispered: "Leng Jing wouldn't make such a stupid choice." Besides, there is Lin Shenyin.
The electronic female voice said coldly, "You mean that student? He didn't seem to agree. He thought it was all too coincidental. But someone insisted on making this choice against all odds, and used his own name to guarantee that it was absolutely correct. Hahahaha!"
"Who do you think that person is?"
An incredible name flashed through Jiang Yuelu's mind.
Although it is incredible, if we want to fight against Leng Jing, it seems that only that person...
"Lin Shenyin!" a female voice laughed shrilly, "It's him!"
"But why am I wasting my time talking to you about this?"
The female voice's emotions changed drastically. She suddenly stopped talking, became quiet, and sighed softly. If she had a physical body, she would definitely be looking at Jiang Yuelu with great regret.
"Although you have passed this test, the road ahead will only be more difficult. Tsk, tsk, tsk, why don't you just die earlier? Why do you have to struggle so hard?"
Her voice gradually faded away, but a rumbling sound was heard under her feet.
The entire Zuixian Tower seemed to have undergone some unusual movement in a moment.
"Since you deny the murder weapon I sent you, then where is the real murder weapon?"
Her voice was barely audible.
"Candidate Jiang Yuelu... please find the answer next."
As soon as the words fell, there was a moment of dead silence, followed by a strange, dense rustling sound that merged into one, like a tide. In an instant, this dead and deserted city came alive, and the rustling sound like mosquitoes passing through was overwhelming.
Jiang Yuelu turned around and kicked the door open. He took a few steps before the collapse and rupture behind him caught up with him.
"Bang!"
He stepped on empty air and fell all over, his whole body in pain. When he finally stopped, he didn't know where he was.
Here, the pungent smell disappeared, replaced by a faint fragrance.
It was as cool as mint, but without the sweetness. For some reason, when he smelled this fragrance, he thought of the snow-covered sky.
“Rustle…rustle…”
here we go again!
Jiang Yuelu struggled to get up, but his whole body was hit and he saw stars in pain every time he moved. He bit his lips until they bled to stop himself from crying out in pain.
Someone made a sound in the silent darkness.
An arm wrapped around his waist, gently and effortlessly leading him into a darker corner.
He didn't know whether the other party was a friend or foe, but he was in so much pain that he didn't have time to avoid it. Just as he was about to move, he heard the other party speak softly.
Young Master Xia said succinctly and was very dissatisfied, "Don't move."
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