Xu Dao observed her movements and asked, "Do you think there's something wrong with the City God Temple?"
Bai Xing nodded. "I think those two children were still in the City God Temple at least that night. There must be some mechanism here, but we haven't discovered it."
The three of them then began to search, checking the floor tiles, walls, and various corners. They searched for a long time but couldn't find it. It was not until noon that the three of them gathered together again, looked at each other, and shook their heads breathlessly.
"There must be something I haven't noticed." Bai Xing frowned, feeling puzzled. Could it be that her inference was wrong?
Song Cheng looked at her frowning brows, was silent for a moment, got up and walked outside, picked up a stone from the bushes at random, put it in his hands, clasped his hands together, and muttered to himself: "Secret passage, secret passage, secret passage." Then he threw the stone casually. The ordinary stone fell to the ground, rolled a few times, and stopped at the feet of the Bodhisattva.
Song Cheng looked up at the solemn statue, clasped his hands together, and bowed, "Amitabha, no offense intended. Saving a life is better than building a seven-story pagoda. Bodhisattva, you will surely forgive me." Then he began to search everywhere. Suddenly, he paused, standing on the high platform, stretched out his hands, and stood on tiptoe, groping for the jade bottle held by the Bodhisattva. Suddenly, his expression brightened, and with a firm finger, he pressed down the dewdrops on the immortal grass in the jade bottle held by the Bodhisattva.
With a slight mechanical sound, a hidden hole appeared behind the Bodhisattva statue.
Before Bai Xing could complain about the power of metaphysics, the three of them hurried down the secret passage. The passage was narrow and spiraled downward. It was very dark inside. They grabbed each other's clothes and groped their way down. At the end, there was a spacious stone passage. The torches on the wall were not lit. Bai Xing touched it and found a thin layer of ash on it. Their vision was obstructed in the darkness, so they could only grope forward.
Suddenly, her toes kicked something down. Bai Xing screamed softly and asked them to stop. She squatted down and fumbled for a long time. It seemed to be a very small pearl earring. She put the earring away and everyone continued to move forward.
They walked all the way to the end, where there was another staircase leading upwards. There was a cover at the end of the stairs. Xu Dao walked in front and stroked the cover. It was made of wood. A faint light came from the gap in the wooden cover. Xu Dao signaled them to step back, and he carefully lifted the cover a little. He observed the outside cautiously, pricked up his ears and listened for a long time. When he found no movement, he boldly lifted the cover a little more. After confirming that it was safe, the three of them filed out.
This was a weed-covered courtyard that had been uninhabited for a long time. The weeds in the courtyard were waist-high. Standing in the courtyard and looking up at the sky, even the sky seemed to be covered with a layer of gray. The house was also deserted, and a thick layer of dust fell on the worn-out furniture in the house. They searched around but found no clues, so they quickly cleaned up the traces and left.
Before leaving the alley, Bai Xing looked back. The alley was very deep and completely deserted, like a forgotten corner of the city. The other houses on both sides also looked like no one had lived in it for a long time. The doors were closed, and the spring couplets on the wall next to the door were already tattered, the vermilion paint faded into a worn-out red color. The shabby house they came out of had a plaque hanging on the door. The plaque was covered with dust and cobwebs, and the words on it were vague and blurred.
Bai Xing lowered her eyes, and a vague idea came to her mind.
The three of them walked on the street. The combination of two beggars and a rich young man was too eye-catching. Passersby on the road looked at them with strange expressions. They decided to act separately. Song Cheng went back to see if there were any clues in the City Lord's Mansion, while she and Xu Dao went to check the earrings.
The three of them hit it off and went their separate ways.
Bai Xing came to the candy store again. When the owner of the candy store saw the earrings in their hands, he was very surprised and seemed a little frightened.
"Where did you find this?"
"Is there anything wrong with this earring?" Bai Xing did not answer this question, but asked her own question.
"These are the pearl earrings Butcher Zhang gave his daughter for her birthday. She loves them and often wears them," the fat boss said. "Butcher Zhang's daughter is a bodyguard. She's a capable girl. She felt sorry for her father's hard work, slaughtering pigs and selling meat every day, so she joined the agency and traveled all over the country. She's said to make a lot of money, and every time she comes home for the New Year, she brings a cart full of gifts. The children in the city also like her because she often brings back some new candies and toys she bought to share with the children."
The fat boss shook his head and sighed, "When our two families were in trouble, she even came to visit us. She went to comfort Boss Gu, saying that she would keep an eye on him while she was out escorting, and if there was any news, she would tell him immediately. But in the end, our two families were unlucky, and we still haven't found it."
"But just before the New Year, she returned from escorting an convoy and was suddenly found dead at home the next day. It was said that she had made a feud with someone while escorting an convoy and was killed by her enemy. Butcher Zhang's beloved daughter was murdered, and her blood and qi attacked her heart, and she vomited blood and died."
Bai Xing nodded, pulled Xu Dao and prepared to leave. Before leaving, she asked one last question.
"Has anyone else lost a child at home during this period?"
Xu Dao walked along the road, looking sideways at Bai Xing. His expression was conflicted for a moment, but he couldn't help but ask, "Why did you ask that question at the end? Do you already have the answer in your mind?"
Bai Xing nodded: "I'm not too sure, but I have a guess in my mind."
Xu Dao looked puzzled: "After those two children were lost, more children were lost. So what?"
Bai Xing twitched her lips and smiled somewhat coldly: "Uncle policeman, do you know that if there is a cake to be shared by three people, and you can only cut it twice, how can you get the most cake?"
"I'm not." Xu Dao seemed to say something in a low voice. Bai Xing didn't hear it clearly and looked at him in confusion, but he began to think about Bai Xing's question.
After a moment, he seemed to understand something and smiled coldly: "I see. The best way to distribute the benefits is to kill one person together first, then divide the cake equally. The remaining cake is taken by each of you half, right?"
The space was slightly distorted, and transparent ripples spread out in the air.
Bai Xing immediately realized that they had triggered the space-time mirror fragments again. She looked at Xu Dao, and their figures disappeared like water waves. The people on the road seemed not to see this scene.
The truth is about to surface.
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