Chapter 107 Dream of Twelve Turtle Soup
The deeper the night, the heavier the dew.
The incense and candles on the table in Liuxian Temple were half burned. The bean-sized flames swayed in the wind, casting the man's mottled shadow on the wall, twisted like a ghost.
He knelt devoutly on the mat, curled up deeply, resting his forehead on the cold floor tiles, and kowtowed numbly.
"The bells are ringing, the willow branches are swaying, don't be alarmed by the crying children at night..."
His voice was extremely hoarse, and every word he spoke seemed to be squeezed from his heart.
I recited this nursery rhyme no less than a hundred times, until my voice became sobbing and my voice broke.
Outside the courtyard, under the willow tree, a green figure holding a copper bell stood quietly, his face blurred and indistinct.
"If I had known this would happen, I wouldn't have done it in the first place."
The man shuddered all over and kowtowed with more force, leaving a thick pool of blood on his forehead.
"Madam Liu, please help me, please save me. I will build you a golden statue, a new temple, and everything I have will be given to you..."
Rustle—tortuous pages of books were scattered on the ground, occasionally blown into the air by the draft, and then slowly fell to the ground.
The cyan figure remained unmoved, his voice indifferent, "I can't help you, and I can't save myself either."
The man burst into tears and suddenly let out a loud scream. The candlestick on the incense table was unstable and fell down with a clatter, which happened to ignite the pile of shredded paper on the floor tiles. In a moment, the flames shot up ten feet high and slowly licked the beams... In less than half an incense stick of time, the house was already a sea of fire.
-
"In 2009, Liu Wu died. That same year, the Liuxian Temple was rebuilt."
"Is there any connection between the two? What role did the reporter play in this?"
The Liu family's mud house was built in the field bay, with a sloping earthen slope as the entrance. The courtyard door had been abandoned for a long time and made a rough and unpleasant sound when pushed open. After a few steps, the soles of the shoes were covered with dust.
This is a typical farmhouse with a locked door and cobwebs hanging under the eaves. It must have been uninhabited for a long time.
Some time ago, because a forum post unexpectedly became popular, a group of self-media practitioners came to the courtyard to investigate one after another, but because there was no one in the house, they did not dare to openly pry openly and just took some photos.
But since Meng Caiyun and the others are here, it is definitely not just a simple walk outside the house.
Meng Zhao unlocked the door in a few seconds and was about to open it, but after thinking for a moment, he pulled the other two people back a little further away and threw two paper figures onto the door panel.
One of the paper figures nimbly curled up and squeezed into the gap, while the other one cleverly held the other's hand. The two pieces of paper struggled to exert force with a "hey yo" sound, and opened the door with a "bang". A cloud of dust exploded from under the door frame, and from a distance, it looked like a cloud of smog.
Bai Heng held his laptop in one hand and fanned away the surging dust with the other. "It's so dirty in there! If I had known, I wouldn't have followed you."
Meng Caiyun coughed twice and hurriedly threw out two dust-purifying talismans. The talismans dissipated in the air, as if a drizzle was falling, and the turbulent smoke and dust subsided a little.
The layout of the house was also very ordinary, with a wooden bed, several rows of cabinets, pots and pans piled haphazardly against the wall, and a desk and low cabinet by the window.
The table was piled with some reference books related to instrument making, and the drawers were filled with miscellaneous items, some rolled-up replacement strings and a few screw racks for supporting the guitar body.
Bai Heng felt a little uneasy standing in the room, afraid that she would get covered in dust accidentally. She looked at Meng Zhao, who was rummaging through the drawers with an expressionless face, and complained in her heart: You damn four-eyed guy, you were acting like a mysophobia in my house, why are you so active now?
Meng Zhao suddenly turned around and stared at Bai Heng.
Bai Heng thought he had accidentally revealed his inner thoughts and felt guilty: "What are you looking at?"
Meng Zhao frowned: "Get out of the way."
Bai Heng turned around carefully and saw a thick black notebook lying among the pile of miscellaneous items.
Two paper figures came out eagerly, acting like they were in a martial arts movie. With a flurry of punches and kicks, they cleared the cobwebs around the thick book and lifted it onto the table.
Meng Caiyun still flew out a dust-purifying talisman.
After a while, the three of them came forward and opened it, only to find that it was an old photo album.
There are old black-and-white photos as well as color films from the 1980s and 1990s, which vaguely restore the former glory of this musical instrument workshop.
Bai Heng suddenly called out "Stop!" and selected one with a portrait from among the multiple photos. "Is this person Liu Wu?"
There is a date in the lower right corner of the photo, September 2005. A middle-aged man is sitting on the doorstep, smiling at the camera, a cigarette in his hand, and behind him is a busy workshop.
Meng Zhao was suddenly stunned and picked up the photo: "Is it him?"
Meng Caiyun asked in surprise, "A Zhao, do you know him?"
"I don't know him," Meng Zhao gestured for Bai Heng to open his laptop, "but he's very similar to the portrait those two people described earlier."
Bai Heng, disdaining the mess, insisted on opening the laptop herself, flipping through the archive folder with one hand. "Are you talking about the portrait of the person who reported the crime that those two community police officers mentioned?"
She quickly found the picture and compared it with the photo: "Wow, they really look alike, are they the same person?"
Meng Zhao: "Have you forgotten? The reason this person who reported the case came to Hongfu Village was to 'look for relatives'."
In a split second, Meng Caiyun grasped a possibility: "So, the reporter and Liu Wu, perhaps they are brothers?"
Otherwise, how come they look so similar?!
Meng Zhao pondered for a moment. "The age of the person reporting the crime is similar to the photo. If the family search is true, then it couldn't have happened recently. So the memories of the two community police officers must have been tampered with. Who did it?"
Meng Caiyun fell into deep thought: "Is this incident related to Liuxian Temple?"
Bai Heng saw them deep in thought, and an idea suddenly stirred in his mind: "Hey, have you ever tried turtle soup?"
The two looked over with confusion.
Bai Heng winked with a wicked smile: "I made a half-finished program before, and it was rejected by the boss, but I think it's quite useful!"
Meng Zhao's mouth twitched. "Isn't that your little program that tells lies two out of three times?"
Bai Heng glared at him. "How can the accuracy rate be that low? It's just that I make the occasional misjudgment."
As she spoke, she took out something that looked like a smoke alarm, walked to the middle of the house, gestured twice, and placed it on the ground: "First, scan and collect information about the surrounding area."
A quarter of an hour later, the alarm beeped and lit up green. Bai Heng then opened a program on his laptop and imported various files related to the case. The screen suddenly went black, and then different white numbers flashed by.
Meng Caiyun came over curiously: "What does this mean?"
Bai Heng nervously closed his eyes and prayed, pressing the space bar at the same time, and the number on the screen stopped at 13.
She was disappointed: "I only got 13 questions."
In short, this mini-program is very similar to Turtle Soup, but ultimately, it is a form of divination.
The program will judge every question they ask and answer it with "yes or no", thereby helping users to infer the truth. It can only be used once within a period of time.
Unfortunately, the number of questions is not infinite and needs to be drawn by the luck of heaven. Moreover, based on the spiritual level of the program developer Bai Heng, divination cannot reach 100% accuracy. According to her, there is a chance of one or two misjudgments, and the program cannot answer questions about the rules of heaven, otherwise it will display a 404 error.
"Let me demonstrate first," Bai Heng cleared his throat and turned on the computer microphone. "Are Liu Wu and the person reporting the case related?"
The screen flashed and displayed "Yes".
Meng Caiyun thought for a moment and asked, "Is this case related to the Three Death Gates?"
——“Yes and no.”
Meng Caiyun was shocked: "It really is turtle soup..."
Bai Heng thought of the nightmare in the post and asked, "Was the person who reported the case killed by Liu Wu?"
--"no".
Meng Caiyun immediately reacted: "Was Liu Wu killed by the person who reported the case?"
--"yes".
Meng Zhao's glasses flashed: "Dreams are the opposite."
It was not Liu Wu who killed the reporter, but he who killed Liu Wu.
He immediately asked, "Is Liu Wu's death related to the Taiyin Immortal Law?"
--"yes".
Bai Heng was stunned for a moment. "So the person who reported the case killed his own brother in order to seize the Taiyin Immortal Law... So the person who reported the case is from the Xuanmen?"
She was talking to herself, but forgot that the microphone was on, and soon she saw two words appear on the screen.
--"no".
The person who reported the case is not from the Xuanmen sect, so why would he be interested in the Taiyin Immortal Law?
Meng Caiyun asked again, "Is the case related to Madam Liu?"
——“Yes and no.”
This is the second question that does not give a clear answer.
The Three Death Gates and Lady Liu are closely connected with this case, but they do not seem to play the main role.
Bai Heng thought for a moment and asked, "Is the death of Wen Caishen Yingsi related to the mastermind behind the Liuwu case?"
--"no".
"Huh? Not really?" Bai Heng was shocked. "He didn't die in an accident, did he?"
--"yes".
Bai Heng covered his mouth and said, "Was it really Bai Caishen who killed him?!"
--"yes".
Meng Zhao reached out and temporarily turned off the computer microphone, rubbing his forehead. "Alright, you're firing like a machine gun. Think carefully before you ask. We only have three questions left."
Bai Heng was unconvinced: "Then I also got two 'yes' answers."
Meng Zhao reminded her: "Misjudgment."
Bai Heng was timid and muttered, "There aren't necessarily so many misjudgments."
Meng Caiyun crossed his arms. "Assuming there's no miscarriage of justice, then these are two separate cases: the feud between Liu Wu and the informant, and the internal conflict between Bai Caishen and Wen Caishen. Perhaps for some reason, Bai Caishen placed Ying Si's body beneath the scarecrow after killing someone to conceal his identity. This was to confuse the investigation and create the illusion that Ying Si's death was related to Liu Wu's case."
Bai Heng: "But everyone says Zhao Fu is arrogant and domineering, and never covers up what he does."
Meng Zhao: "She's been dead for a long time. Can we openly reveal the secret of her 'coming back from the dead'?"
"There are only three questions left," Meng Caiyun pondered. "Let's ignore the internal strife within the Three Death Sects for now. Let's eliminate Ying Si and ask about Liu Wu now."
Bai Heng nodded and turned on the microphone.
Meng Zhao suddenly asked, "Are there any high-ranking officials of the Zhu League involved in this case?"
Bai Heng's expression cracked upon hearing this. "Hey, hey, hey, are you human? You're asking such a sensitive question! We're all recording this for archiving. Are you trying to get my app blocked?"
--"no".
Bai Heng's heart finally settled down.
Meng Zhao pushed his glasses and explained, "The person who reported the case wasn't from the Xuanmen sect, yet he killed someone to steal the book. There must have been someone from the Xuanmen sect who was behind this. This person left no trace. He must be either a master of magic or he's familiar with our procedures. As you said, there aren't many people in the Xuanmen sect who are more professional than you, so it can only be one of them."
He gestured with his index finger pointing upwards: "I hope it's not a misjudgment."
Meng Caiyun heaved a sigh of relief for some reason, then posed the question he had been preparing in his mind: "Is this case... related to the Nightmare Ghost?"
--"yes".
"...Is the Nightmare Ghost in the Willow Immortal Temple?"
--"yes".
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