Qiu Miao: Clay doll holding hands

Gu Wenye looked at Qiu Yanping in surprise. It was the first time he saw Qiu Yanping losing his composure. He frowned slightly and cast his gaze on the pair of clay dolls.

This pair of clay dolls is about the size of an adult man's palm. At first glance, they seem to be nothing special. The left and right hands of the two clay dolls are clasped together, like a close pair of partners. However, upon closer inspection, they are chilling.

There are no eyes on the faces of these two dolls, only a small arc at the lower part of the face, which is a crooked smiling face. The proportions of the two clay dolls' hanging and intersecting hands are extremely abnormal. The hands are long enough to reach the knees, and the fingers are clearly visible, but compared to the length of the arms, the size of the fingers and palms seems too small.

Putting aside the issue of proportion, the fingernails and finger patterns on these two clay dolls are so clear that they are astonishingly lifelike.

Gu Wenye suddenly had a guess in his mind, but he felt that his idea was a bit scary. He didn't say anything, but turned to look at Qiu Yanping. Judging from Qiu Yanping's reaction, he should know something about the inside story.

Qiu Yanping pursed his lips. He heard Gu Wenle's doubt and realized that his reaction was a bit extreme. He glanced at the four people at the table who had stopped eating because of his reaction. He sat down slowly and tried to explain dryly, but he couldn't find an excuse for a while.

Gu Wenye's exit resolved Qiu Yanping's embarrassment. He said, "Along, take the fish away, but keep the pair of clay dolls. Don't do anything with them. Send them directly to my study."

After hearing what his elder brother said and looking at Qiu Yanping's abnormal reaction, Gu Wenle seemed to understand something in an instant. He looked at the small half piece of fish fillet left on his plate and suddenly didn't dare to eat it. He swallowed and put down his chopsticks.

Seeing that the chef was about to take the clay doll away, Qiu Yanping said, "Wait a minute." He pretended to take something out of his pocket, but in fact he took out a small square piece of cowhide from the merit shop in his palm. He said, "Wrap it with this, and try not to touch the clay doll itself."

Aaron nodded in confusion, took the cowhide leather and wrapped the clay doll.

Seeing the three kids' strange reactions, Father Gu asked, "Is there anything special about these clay dolls? Why are their reactions so strange?"

Qiu Yanping looked at Gu Wenye, obviously hoping that Gu Wenye would continue to help him find excuses to get away with it.

Gu Wenye nodded calmly and said, "It was a token from a case at the Prince's Mansion not long ago. I didn't expect to find it in the belly of a fish."

"Prince's Palace?" Although Father Gu still didn't understand, he didn't intend to ask more questions. He nodded slightly and said, "It's a pity that this sturgeon is gone."

Gu Wenye nodded in agreement seriously, and Qiu Yanping felt a little relieved. Father and mother Gu did not understand those things about gods, ghosts, and feng shui. Qiu Yanping didn't know how much he would have to explain and how troublesome it would be if he really wanted to explain them.

After dinner, Qiu Yanping and Gu Wenye went to the study together in tacit understanding. Gu Wenle followed behind like a light bulb and slipped in when Qiu Yanping turned around to close the study door. Qiu Yanping raised his eyebrows and looked at Gu Wenle and asked, "What are you doing here?"

"The pair of clay dolls on the dinner table today are not the keepsakes from the case in the Prince's Palace, right?" Gu Wenle asked.

Qiu Yanping nodded, "No."

"What is that?" Gu Wenle asked immediately, "Or is it something like that? Is it related to the case in the Prince's Mansion?"

Qiu Yanping helplessly looked at Gu Wenle who kept asking questions out of curiosity, "Aren't you afraid of these things? Why do you ask so many detailed questions?"

"Hmm...it seems a bit addictive. Although I'm afraid of it, I still want to mix it in when I encounter it." Gu Wenle thought for a while and replied.

"You're probably calling me a bastard." Qiu Yanping said bluntly.

Gu Wenle: “…”

"What on earth are these clay dolls?" Gu Wen Le was already confused, so he just kept asking.

"I don't know." Qiu Yanping said frankly, "But when I questioned Zhu Wenmin in the Prince's Mansion, he mentioned that he bought the Yuanbao lantern at a stall. In addition to the Yuanbao lantern sold to Zhu Wenmin, there was also the colorful exquisite rope that General Gu and I encountered before. It can lock a person's soul. Zhu Wenmin also said that there was a pair of clay dolls without eyes at the stall."

"I suspect the pair of clay dolls taken out of the fish's belly are the ones Zhu Wenmin mentioned," said Qiu Yanping.

"Who is that person? He actually sells such strange and dangerous things." Gu Wenle was a little surprised when he heard this. He had heard the stories about Fu Yangsheng and the Yuanbao lantern, and knew the uses of these two things. So in Gu Wenle's opinion, the danger level of the clay doll with fish blood on it placed on Gu Wenye's desk instantly rose to the level of the Yuanbao lantern. He moved a step away from the desk. The pair of clay dolls were the type that could only be viewed from a distance and not played with.

Gu Wenye frowned. Qiu Yanping had not mentioned these to him at the beginning. He asked, "Besides the clay dolls, is there anything else on that person's stall?"

"According to Zhu Wenmin, there was also an embroidery painted in red with varying shades of red. As for the others, he said he had no impression of them," said Qiu Yanping.

"There are others..." Gu Wenle said hesitantly, "That guy is really a dangerous guy..."

Qiu Yanping fell silent as if in tacit agreement, and for a moment no one in the study spoke.

Gu Wenye frowned as he looked at the pair of clay dolls. There seemed to be nothing wrong with the dolls except that they looked a little weird. But when he thought about it, the colorful rope around Fu Yangsheng's neck and the Yuanbao lantern in Huang Qice's bedroom, didn't they both look normal at first glance?

However, this time the object in question somehow ended up in their hands. This was really strange. Gu Wenye asked, "What does Mr. Qiu plan to do with the pair of clay dolls?"

"Well, leave it with me first. Your study can't hold this kind of thing." Qiu Yanping said. It might not cause any problems if it was placed in Gu Wenye's study for a short time, but if it was left there for a long time, something unexpected might happen. Qiu Yanping was worried about leaving this kind of thing with unknown details next to Gu Wenye, so he offered to take it.

Gu Wenye nodded. Qiu Yanping must have a tool to suppress these strange things. He said, "Okay, I will send someone to check those with clock-like marks on their wrists. Mr. Qiu will keep these clay dolls for the time being. Please be careful."

Qiu Yanping was about to respond when Gu Wenle interrupted him again. He asked in confusion, "What clock and what mark?"

Qiu Yanping twitched his lips. Gu Wenle missed too many classes.

"You explain it. I'll take the clay dolls away first." Qiu Yanping said. He wrapped the clay dolls with cowhide leather and took them away. Cowhide leather can isolate evil things from direct contact with people, minimizing the possibility of being affected.

Qiu Yanping brought the pair of clay dolls back to his own small villa. Because his villa had previously tempered the three long rulers of Lu Ban, Ding Lan and Xun Long, it attracted a small thunder from the sky, making the villa particularly righteous. No evil spirits dared to run rampant here.

Qiu Yanping took the clay doll out of the cowhide. His eyes froze and his brows suddenly frowned. The two dolls' hands, which had been holding each other, suddenly separated for unknown reasons.

Before Qiu Yanping could figure out what was going on with the pair of clay dolls, Gu Wenye came back to haunt him.

Qiu Yanping looked at Gu Wenye, who had just separated and came back a few minutes later, and raised his eyebrows in confusion, "What's wrong?"

"I had a guess earlier, but I forgot to verify it." Gu Wenye said, "The hands of this pair of clay dolls are so lifelike and weird. I want to compare the patterns on their hands with the information on the Interstellar Citizen Archives Network."

Qiu Yanping was stunned for a moment, then he reacted and whispered, "Do you think the hands of these two clay dolls are human hands?" He paused, thinking of the disproportionately small hands, "Are they...baby's hands?"

Gu Wenye said, "Perhaps, it is also possible that it was made based on someone's hand shape. I would like to investigate based on this clue." He then asked, "What about the pair of clay dolls?"

Qiu Yanping touched his nose, "Well... don't be too surprised." He warned in advance, and then took out the clay dolls to show Gu Wenye, "I don't know what happened, these two clay dolls became like this."

Gu Wenye was stunned for a moment when he saw the two clay dolls' separated hands. He blinked and asked after a while, "What does this mean?"

Qiu Yanping shook his head helplessly. "This is the first time I've encountered such a situation. I don't know much more about them than you do."

Upon hearing this, Gu Wenye comforted them, "It's okay, I'll take them for analysis first, and I'll be back soon." He wrapped the pair of clay dolls again with cowhide leather. He glanced at the two clay dolls' empty faces with only one of them curled up at the corner of the mouth. His hand paused, and a sense of weirdness surged in his heart. He attributed this to the strange appearance of the two clay dolls.

"Is General Gu okay?" Qiu Yanping asked when he saw Gu Wenye pause.

Gu Wenye coughed lightly and shook his head, saying, "These two little kids do look a bit annoying. I'm fine, I'll be back soon." After he finished speaking, he nodded slightly to Qiu Yanping, then grabbed the cowhide package and turned to leave.

Qiu Yanping looked at Gu Wenye's back thoughtfully. It seemed a little strange that someone like Gu Wenye, who was used to such scenes and usually remained calm, would be affected by the strangeness of this pair of clay dolls.