Chapter 52 Hanging
Xiao Liang released his grip on Lu Jiamu's sleeve and stared at him cautiously, worried that maybe he had shown any abnormality as well.
Lu Jiamu stopped talking nonsense and made way for him: "Come in quickly."
The security guy was awakened by the noise outside and asked, "Didn't you say you were leaving?"
Xiao Liang walked into the house, cut off the village chief's sight, poured himself a glass of water, and held the cup with shaking hands: "I can't get out at all..."
She described in detail how the road rolled up after they left the village, how they were thrown back, as well as the abnormality of the old man driving the cart and the lack of signal on the satellite phone.
The security guy looked unconvinced after hearing this: "Maybe it's a mirage or you inhaled poison gas."
Lu Jiamu did not emphasize the science this time, and agreed sincerely: "It is indeed strange. Let's stay one more night."
Xiao Liang and the other two were stunned and trembling for a while, and then they gradually felt better when they were surrounded by their companions.
Xiao Liang asked dryly: "How is that old lady?"
"It's nothing, we collected the body." Lu Jiamu shook his head. "We visited the village all day today, but didn't find any useful clues."
Wang Biao said: "So we'd better follow what the village chief said tonight and stay at home. This way, if something happens again today, we won't be suspected and it will be the safest for us."
Several people in the room nodded in agreement, greeted the village chief in advance in the evening, and closed and locked the door under the village chief's gaze.
After nightfall, several people lay down on their beds, either really asleep or just dozing off.
It was quiet outside the room. There was no strange fire burning outside all night like yesterday. The security guy continued to sleep soundly like he did during the day, and he also did not do anything strange.
That night, on the other side of the village, at the home of the dead old lady.
Her granddaughter lit a candle and kept vigil for her grandmother alone.
The old lady's death during the day gave the girl a great shock.
She had never been afraid of the dark before, nor of ghost stories.
But maybe it was because of her grandmother’s tragic death, but she felt the hall was eerie today, as if something was watching her from the darkness behind her.
The girl felt a dense layer of goose bumps on her skin. Her big watery eyes kept moving back and forth, and from time to time she suddenly turned back to look behind her.
No, nothing.
After looking back several times like this, the girl gradually calmed down: Huh... It must be an illusion because I was too scared today.
But what she didn't see was that the hemp rope on the beam that had just hanged the old lady had automatically unbuckled and was hanging down little by little, silently drooping behind her head like a snake.
It was only because it was very agile and kept avoiding the girl's sight, and every time the girl turned around it would flash into her blind spot, so the girl didn't see it.
But it is close at hand.
The hemp rope bent and shook as if ready to go, and like lightning it suddenly wrapped around the unconscious girl's neck from behind, tightened it, and quickly lifted it up.
Hmm!
The girl's screams were muffled by the hemp rope and her head hit the beam with a bang, forcing her neck to bend and stick to it.
The girl was hung up.
After a dizzying moment, she widened her eyes in horror, grabbed the hemp rope around her neck with both hands, and struggled with all her strength.
But the rope continued to tighten, and all her efforts were in vain.
I want to breathe... I want to breathe... I don’t want to die!
The girl made a choking sound in her throat. She cast her last glance into the coffin and reached out her hand to grab something.
In the coffin, the originally hideous and twisted severed head turned over, revealing a stiff and weird smile that caught the girl's eyes.
***
The next morning, several people did not go out early like they did yesterday. Instead, they waited until the village chief got up, opened the door and greeted him, and then retreated back into the house under the witness of the village chief.
The village chief nodded and sat in the rocking chair with his pipe.
He hadn't been at peace for long when a mighty howl spread throughout the village: "Someone's dead! Someone's dead!"
The village chief jumped up from his chair in surprise.
The people in the room looked at each other.
Xiao Liang muttered to himself with an unpleasant expression: "Why did something happen again..."
Lu Jiamu asked: "Want to go and have a look?"
Xiao Liang retched a little: "We are just here to do the show... Stop watching."
Not only do the members of their program crew not know how to perform an autopsy, they are even afraid of corpses, so there is no point in going there.
Lu Jiamu said, "Then I'll go and see."
After he finished speaking, he glanced at Yu Leng, who immediately said in tacit agreement, "I'll go too."
Among the five of them now, Lu Jiamu has the best memory and insight, while Yu Leng has acquired a mind-reading ability and is the best at investigation and exploration in the team.
The other three people had nothing to worry about, so they didn't continue the conversation.
Now that another accident has happened, the three of them have to stay in the room, beware of the security guys, and make sure nothing happens to the program crew.
Xiao Liang said with a worried "eh": "This is their village's business, we'd better not interfere."
Lu Jiamu and Yu Leng had already trotted out to chase the village chief and did not listen to her words carefully.
A group of villagers gathered in front of the farmhouse where the old lady died yesterday. When they saw the village chief coming, they made way for him.
The door was wide open, and one could see a dead body hanging from the beam. Its eyes were bulging outwards, and its neck was tied tightly to the beam.
The village chief walked in and asked: "What's going on?"
Because Lu Jiamu and Yu Leng followed the village chief, they had a smooth journey and saw the body inside smoothly.
A young villager replied: "I wanted to see her today, and I saw her..."
As he spoke, he actually started crying.
Although there was still some distance between them, Lu Jiamu had already noticed that there were obvious scratches on the neck of the corpse, which meant that it must have struggled hard in the last second before death.
This kind of death must be the result of something happening at night, leading to an unnatural death.
Seeing that the village chief had arrived at the scene, two tall and strong villagers came in and tried to rescue it from the beam.
But because the body was already cold and hard, and the hemp rope was so tightly tied, it took quite a bit of effort to finally succeed.
The girl fell to the ground, but because of rigor mortis, her neck was still twisted to one side and could not be turned back.
"She died of suffocation. She's been dead for at least six hours." Lu Jiamu looked over and pointed at the girl's neck. "Look here. There's only one mark of strangulation. She must have been hanged directly, not moved up after death."
The village chief looked at the girl's body and was speechless for a moment.
Anyone with eyes can see that this is definitely not a simple hanging. Otherwise, the rope would not be so short that it could not reach it even if it stood on tiptoe.
And that was an adult girl, not a chick. How much strength would it take to lift someone so high and keep them there for so long? Only a pervert with crazy ideas could do that.
The village chief asked, "Who saw her last night?"
The crying young man said in confusion: "I just talked to her last night, and I comforted her not to be sad... She was fine at that time. She also told me that after grandma is gone, she will work hard to live on her own..."
"Has anyone seen her since last night?"
No other villagers spoke. The young man said, "I was probably the last one to see her. I stayed with her until almost nightfall. Nothing really happened at that time."
An old woman covered her mouth and said, "I didn't hear any unusual noises at night. How could this happen? Who did it?"
The villagers have lived in this village for a long time, getting along with each other day and night, and have a certain understanding of each other.
They turned their gaze to the two outsiders, Lu Jiamu and Yu Leng.
Yu Leng seemed to sense something and shrank back with a bit of fear.
The village chief reached out his hand and tried to nip the bud of conflict in the bud: "Our guests have been in the room all night. I have confirmed it."
But even if the village chief said so, it couldn't dispel the villagers' doubts. What if they sneaked out in the middle of the night?
Lu Jiamu did not comment again. Instead, he took a look into the coffin and saw the body with its head and body separated and simply put together. Then he began to think.
Why was it this old lady and her granddaughter? Why was the security guard suspected of being burned to death at night, but he could come back the next day as if nothing had happened, but the old lady did not come back like him?
Is there any difference here? If you cut off your head, you can't come back? Or did you come back before, but you killed someone and left again?
Lu Jiamu quickly sorted out his thoughts and was about to say something to fool the villagers when a woman with an anxious look on her face came up the village road.
As he walked, he asked anxiously: "Has anyone seen my son? My son suddenly disappeared..."
One villager said, "Auntie, someone has died here. Don't worry about your son for now. The child may have gone off to play on his own."
"My son never runs out to play!" The woman was so anxious that she was about to cry. "He disappeared when I got up early in the morning, and my yard door was not even open. I have already called around the places he often goes, but I couldn't find him. No one has seen him no matter who I asked."
After hearing this, the villagers felt something was unusual: "Maybe they encountered a wild beast."
Hanging a girl here is a thing that has already happened, and no matter how much effort is spent, the girl will not be resurrected. But over there, there may still be a living child.
The village chief immediately arranged for the villagers to go into the mountains to look for it.
Lu Jiamu originally volunteered to join them, but the village chief said that they were not familiar with the mountain roads and would only cause trouble if they went, so he refused.
The two men had already looked at the situation here and there was nothing they could do to help, so they had to quietly return to the village chief's house.
Xiao Liang saw the two of them coming back and asked anxiously, "What happened again?"
Lu Jiamu replied casually: "A person was strangled to death and a child was missing. But the village chief knew that we did not go out last night, so he told us to wait in peace."
After he finished speaking, he glanced at the security guy casually: "Are you okay?"
Coleman stood in the corner with his arms folded: "It's okay."
After briefly explaining, Lu Jiamu approached the three people from the program crew and spoke to calm them down.
Yu Lengze went out with Wang Biao on the pretext of going to the toilet.
As soon as he was out of sight, he whispered to Wang Biao, "It was the old lady's granddaughter who died yesterday. She died in a very strange way. The child who led us yesterday is probably dead too. We may be in trouble. Most of the villagers think it has something to do with us."
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