Qiu Miao: Being locked outside, embarrassing

Gu Wenye saw that it was getting late. It was already around seven or eight o'clock in the evening when the two of them arrived at Mrs. Bastin's old house. They walked around the house and came out at nearly ten o'clock in the evening. So they wanted to make a phone call to book a hotel to stay overnight so that they could rest up and continue their investigation the next day.

——After all, he saw Qiu Yanping dozing off in the afternoon. He himself could stay awake for a few nights, but Qiu Yanping looked like a person who was used to living in a pampered environment. In addition, he felt a little carsick during the day, so Gu Wenye felt that Qiu Yanping needed to rest.

Qiu Yanping said, "It's the dark and windy night when we should do the real work. Why stay in a hotel?" He laughed and said, "General Gu, don't you think you don't have this little experience?"

Gu Wenye didn't expect Qiu Yanping to be the one who said this. He felt a little amused and asked, "Mr. Qiu, aren't you sleepy?"

"It's only what time now? Only old people go to bed so early." Qiu Yanping said and looked at the time. It was only ten o'clock. He smacked his lips in surprise and said, "General Gu's daily routine... is so regular." He coughed lightly and changed his words temporarily. Thinking of his quick words just now, he chuckled and pretended that he had said nothing.

Gu Wenye choked, and out of consideration for being mistaken for an old man, he could only ask, "Where is Mr. Qiu going now?"

"Back to the house in the suburbs, I can now confirm that there is indeed cat poop under the house," said Qiu Yanping.

The two men drove to a place a few hundred meters away from the house and stopped. They got out of the car and approached quietly. The series of sheep's bleating sounds as if they were about to die beside the house during the day were still fresh in their memory. Qiu Yanping didn't want to alarm others because of those sheep.

There was no light in the house; probably Mrs. Bastin had gone to bed.

Still using the old trick of the journalist, they cut off the power wires and the alarm wires without leaving any trace, and the two of them sneaked into the dark house.

Qiu Yanping did figure out that there was a tomb built under the house, but when he tried to look for the entrance to the tomb according to the theory of "upside down Yin enters Gen direction" in the Five Elements and Eight Diagrams, he could not find the entrance.

Qiu Yanping was puzzled. According to his calculations, the tomb should have been built below here, and the kitchen should have been directly above the entrance and exit when the tomb was built. But he could not find any traces of moving here.

Gu Wenye said, "According to what Mr. Qiu said, the tomb is built under this house. So looking at these changing wall traces, maybe we can find the entrance?" He squatted down and looked along the traces. "Is it the balcony?" he said softly.

Qiu Yanping murmured "eh" and walked towards the balcony, lowering his throat and whispering, "But I figured out that this shouldn't be the case..."

Gu Wenye had already walked onto the balcony. He looked around briefly, his eyes fixed on a wall with a special concave mark. He felt around the mark with his fingers and whispered, "It's an agency. It's hard to open without the corresponding key. I'm not very good at unlocking it."

Qiu Yanping frowned. He took a closer look and found that the mark looked very similar to the necklace pendant on Mrs. Bastin's neck. He touched his chin and said, "It seems that Mrs. Bastin did hide some secrets here."

With the necklace on Mrs. Bastin's body, the underground can be opened. This does not seem to be a big problem for the two people who are already in Mrs. Bastin's house.

But what neither Qiu Yanping nor Gu Wenye expected was that Mrs. Bastin was not in the house at all.

The two men walked around the house, searched all the rooms, and finally determined that Mrs. Bastin was not in the house - unless she was in the vault below at this moment.

"Where did she go?" Qiu Yanping wondered. Shouldn't she just stay quietly in the house and wait patiently for them to send the pair of clay dolls?

"She can easily destroy the clay doll if it is sent to her. What else do we need her to do?" Qiu Yanping pondered. He had too little information about Mrs. Bastin and could not figure out where Mrs. Bastin was. Even a skilled cook cannot cook without rice.

Gu Wenye heard what Qiu Yanping said, and a sharp light flashed in his eyes. He asked, "If the clay doll is destroyed, the two young men's souls will be scattered. What if their bodies are destroyed...? You said that their souls are sealed in the clay doll, so where are their bodies?"

Qiu Yanping paused and said slowly, "The body will not change due to time. It is usually sealed by the caster and the deceased will be resurrected when the time is right. But if the body is damaged, it is no different from the clay doll itself being damaged."

"No one knows the whereabouts of Mrs. Bathgate's two children until now. They must have been hidden by Mrs. Bathgate..." Qiu Yanping said. He pursed his lips, but he understood that this did not mean that Mrs. Bathgate would never be found. People or corpses would never disappear for no reason. There would always be traces left.

"It would be dangerous if the bodies of the two children were found by Mrs. Bastin." Gu Wenye frowned. As he spoke, he saw Qiu Yanping suddenly squat down and look at a place with his head tilted.

Gu Wenye's heart skipped a beat. Seeing Qiu Yanping's strange behavior, he asked, "Mr. Qiu?"

"Is there a Mars there?" Qiu Yanping said as he stood up and strode over.

Gu Wenye looked in the direction Qiu Yanping said. Near a metal basin, there was a pile of things that looked like a pile of gray-black rags at night. He bent down and looked sideways like Qiu Yanping did. Qiu Yanping had already gone over to stir the pile of things. Indeed, he could still see small flames appearing and disappearing sporadically.

He stood up suddenly and walked over quickly. Qiu Yanping brushed off the dust on the paper and said, "It's not completely burned." He squinted to make out the contents on the paper. It looked like an address, but the specific street number had been burned clean. Only a district name and a farm with half a name could be seen.

"Check what this place is." Qiu Yanping said, and Gu Wenye had already turned on the computer to search.

Qiu Yanping glanced at the open balcony. The papers might have been burning well in the basin. If they continued to burn for a while longer, they might have been burned out. However, because of their entry, the wind from the balcony rolled the thin papers out.

"Nowadays, all information is transmitted via optical computers. Why do we still have to go through so much trouble to send messages?" Qiu Yanping couldn't understand why. Even an old-fashioned person like him could operate the optical computer after receiving information on it a few times. There was no reason for Mrs. Bastin to use paper to send messages.

Gu Wenye eliminated irrelevant information and narrowed the scope of the search while saying, "If this address is really where the bodies of the two children are hidden, then Mrs. Bastien's use of paper to send the message is the right choice." He explained, "The optical computer will leave traces of browsing, and the interstellar police have the right to track it down. On the contrary, paper is a tool that is gradually disappearing from sight. It is not easy to be detected, especially since Mrs. Bastien has already burned these papers. If we hadn't come in and it was a coincidence, no one would have found it."

Qiu Yanping said "Oh". He really wanted to say that there were more secret methods in their time. Even if the paper was placed in front of them, few people could tell what was on the paper. But after thinking about it, he kept his mouth shut to avoid being questioned by Gu Wenye.

"Found it." Gu Wenye magnified the information on the computer, "It's the farm owned by Mrs. Bastin..." He was a little suspicious. If Mrs. Bastin wanted to hide the bodies of the two children, why would she hide them in the property owned by Mrs. Bastin? Was she trying to play a rebellious game? This was too risky.

"Let's go and take a look first." Qiu Yanping said.

Neither of them felt confident. They had already wasted a lot of time in this house. Although judging by the extent of the burning papers, Mrs. Bastin had not been away for too long, they still left a lot behind. If the bodies of the two children were really stored in the farm, Mrs. Bastin would probably be able to get them even if they rushed there.

Mrs. Bastin was indeed at the farm. She looked at the farm with mixed feelings. This was the place where they had spent their entire childhood. It was their father's farm. Later, their father and mother died of illness one after another. They had to sell the farm because all their savings were spent on medical expenses. She had always been reluctant to leave it, but she had never expected that her sister had secretly bought the farm a few years ago and registered the ownership of it under her name without her knowing it.

The letter clearly marked the time when Mrs. Bathgate bought the farm. The terrible accident had not happened yet, and her birthday was three months later. Mrs. Bathgate knew her too well, and the farm should have been her birthday present. But the accident made them have no time to care about their birthday.

Mrs. Bastin walked into the only house with an attic on the farm. They had spent eight years in this house. She still remembered the attic upstairs, which was only half the height of an adult. A small dim light could not illuminate the attic at all. The deep part of the attic where the light could not reach was like a big dark mouth, ready to swallow her at any time.

She walked slowly towards the attic, which was the most terrifying place in her childhood, but also the warmest place in her memory.