1.

"Bai Xiaosheng" is dead!

This thought only came out of nowhere, and it is not a conclusion that can be deduced from any clue. As soon as Lin Xiao said this, he felt that it was inappropriate, and after thinking about it carefully, he then denied this view.

The old cleaner looked to be about fifty or sixty years old, and was very familiar with this alley in the old town, probably because he had lived here for many years. He just said: People on both sides of this alley dare not put their doors facing this side, because they are afraid that the yin qi in this alley will affect the luck of the family. The houses on both sides of this alley don't look like newly built houses, judging by the obsolescence of the back wall, it has a history of one or two decades, and it is probably the product of the eighties and nineties of the last century.

However, Ye Wuxin has been in the four-story building for no more than ten years, and Lin Xiao only saw her in the library for the first time when she was a sophomore in high school. If she came to the capital before going to Thornton City, it shouldn't have been more than five years. In this case, if "Bai Xiaosheng" had died in this Dengcao Hutong in the last century, then Ye Wuxin would never have heard the whereabouts of this person five years ago.

Of course, Lin Xiao didn't think about it: what Ye Wuxin heard about at the beginning would be just an old thing, maybe it was those uncles and aunts who talked about the world and mentioned the existence of such a person. But he thought about it again, and felt that Ye Wuxin shouldn't be the kind of person who took the words out of context after only listening to half of the words, since she proposed that this was a clue and suggested coming to the capital to find someone, she naturally had a certain degree of certainty before she would make the current action.

If you think about it this way, this "Bai Xiaosheng" may still exist, but the address of this "Dengcao Hutong" is a mistake.

Thinking of these intertwined clues, Lin Xiao felt a little headache. Before, it was because Li Zhou had been playing around him, and Li Jing was stirring up the situation, and he was in the game, and he had to deal with a lot of normal or abnormal phenomena and clues. Now it's him who goes to find someone else, and it stands to reason that the initiative should be in his hands, but the clues are as chaotic as ever, and it seems that he is caught in some strange circle.

At this time, you should first ask Ye Wuxin to confirm the authenticity of the news from her side. But from the theft incident just now to the present, only Changfeng followed Lin Xiao to catch the thief, but Ye Wuxin and Ling Ying ran away somewhere, and they couldn't see their figures until now. Lin Xiao touched Changfeng's shoulder and asked him, "What about Teacher Xiao Ye and Ling Ying, why didn't you see them?"

Changfeng replied in a loud voice: "We are chasing separately, probably because we went to other alleys and haven't come back yet." ”

"Go find them first, don't worry about the thief, he can't make any climate, don't let him delay our business. Lin Xiao said, "Now that there is a difference between the two clues, we must quickly find Teacher Xiao Ye and discuss it, and confirm the authenticity of the information first, otherwise this trip to the capital will be in vain." With that, he turned around and walked out of the alley. Changfeng followed behind him, took less than two steps, and suddenly stopped.

Changfeng's footsteps were extremely thin and light, Lin Xiao didn't even hear that his footsteps had stopped, and he continued to walk forward, but Changfeng grabbed his wrist from behind him. Lin Xiao only felt a sudden tightness on his wrist, so he also stopped, looked back at Changfeng, and asked blankly, "What's wrong?"

Changfeng didn't reply, his face was full of vigilance and nervousness, his head tilted slightly to the side, towards the depths of the alley, Lin Xiao saw that one of his ears moved slightly, as if he was listening to something. But Lin Xiao himself listened with bated breath for a long time, but he still didn't hear anything boring, and couldn't help but be a little stunned.

He didn't hear why, but Changfeng seemed to have heard something, and he didn't hold his hand anymore, and slowly walked back to the depths of the alley, taking two steps and stopping one step, as if he was listening to the source of a strange sound. Eventually, he stopped in front of the stone wall at the cul-de-sac, and then he fell on his stomach and attached his ear to the wall.

Lin Xiao felt some palpitations inexplicably, and he didn't know if it was because the atmosphere in this dead end was too weird, which caused him some kind of psychological impact.

In fact, if Lin Xiao analyzes the haunted events on this alley in terms of cultivation knowledge, although this place has no gateway and lacks popularity, it is smooth inside and outside the alley, the open place in the east is facing the sun, and the stone wall in the west is not too high, basically under the exposure of the sun during the day, it is impossible to say that the yin qi is heavy. Even if someone really dies here, leaving behind any resentment and the like, they won't be able to raise any waves. It's even more impossible to talk about haunting.

That being said, but tonight there was no light of stars, and there were no other passers-by in the alley except the old cleaner, and the whole thing was dark and gloomy. In such an environment, although the haunted statement was not so true and reliable, it still gave Lin Xiao a negative psychological hint.

"What are you listening to?" Lin Xiao saw that Changfeng's expression was becoming more and more solemn, so he stepped forward and asked.

Changfeng didn't move on the wall, just glanced at Lin Xiao beside him, and said, "There is a voice in this wall." ”

Lin Xiao was stunned for a moment, and then said: "This partition wall is someone else's house, maybe it's a human voice?"

"It's not a human voice. Changfeng said very firmly, "This voice is extremely thin and light, and it has been repeated in an orderly manner according to a certain law, if it wasn't too quiet just now, I wouldn't have heard it." Merely...... I couldn't make out what it was. ”

Lin Xiao thought to himself: "It can't be the rumored 'marble'." It is said that in the dead of night, there is often a "knock knock" sound on the floor, which is like marbles falling to the ground, like a child playing a game of marbles in the middle of the night. According to normal scientific explanations, this sound is caused by mold activity, not by the sound of real marbles or the heat/expansion and contraction of the reinforced concrete structure.

It is an incomplete mold that corrodes industrial materials and cement, and feeds on the minerals in the cement. Generally, the ceiling is supported by the fine steel bars of the upper and lower layers, and when grouting, the steel bars are not straight and stuck in the cement, so when the flow and weight of the cement slurry are subjected, there may be upward or left and right stress accumulation, generally in the lower layer of the ceiling, there are pipeline outlets of electric light lines, temperature and air, etc. Therefore, the mold will gradually invade the cement along the hole, and the mycelium will begin to erode into a hollow pipe around, and when the surrounding cement of a stressed steel bar is eroded to a certain extent, it will bounce back and forth in the hollow pipe, which is the source of the marble sound.

But not everyone understands science, and most people think that it should be a child playing upstairs when they first hear it, but the more often this phenomenon occurs, all kinds of strange discussions and unexplained explanations spread. Some people say that it is a dead man's eye falling to the ground, others say that it is a death call from the underworld, and some people say that it is black and white impermanence in the "day parade" and "night parade", which can only be heard by children or some people with relatively pure "qi".

Lin Xiao, as a good student who grew up under the education of dialectical and historical materialism, has never believed in these non-existent things, although the incident of the seven-story building has shaken his belief in materialism in his heart, but since this matter has been properly explained, he will naturally no longer be suspicious.

However, since Changfeng was so nervous, it seemed that this voice might be really unusual, and he shouldn't have heard the sound of marbles, so that he couldn't describe it. Thinking of this, Lin Xiao also learned to lie on the stone wall and listen to the sound inside the wall.

As soon as he attached his ears, he heard a clear ticking sound coming from inside, not marbles at all. Lin Xiao also frowned gradually, his body tensed involuntarily, and he listened carefully to the ticking sound in the wall.

The "tick" and "click" sounds in this burst of sound are not regularly distributed, but because they are constantly repeated, a certain segment seems to be a complete signal when connected. Lin Xiao listened to it several times, and finally barely heard the complete sound: dadidi, di, di, dadi.

When Lin Xiao heard this, he suddenly realized: "you/what kind of marbles, this is clearly "Morse code"!"

The Morse Code is an early form of digital communication invented in 1837 by Americans Alfeld Weir and Morse. It is a time-on-break signal code that expresses different English letters, numbers, and punctuation marks through different sequences. Unlike modern digital communications, "Morse code" is a binary code that uses only zeros and one or two states, and its code consists of five types: a short dot signal "·" , pronounce "Di" (Di), hold a long signal "-" for a certain period of time, and pronounce "da" (Da), which indicate a short pause between strokes (dots and strokes), a medium pause between each word, and a long pause between sentences, respectively.

For "Morse code", Lin Xiao only knows "tick tick, tick tick, tick tick", which translates to the international distress signal "SOS". Like the "dadi, di, di, dadi" in this wall right now, it seems to be so complicated that he doesn't know. But the next moment, he pulled out the phone he had just snatched back and thought, "I don't know...... Don't 'Du Niang' know about it?!"

Lin Xiao opened Baidu Encyclopedia, and soon found a complete "Morse Code Meter", compared the information on it, listened to the bursts of ticking sounds, and translated the content: "Da Di Di - D; Di - E; Di Di - A; Da Di Di - D!"

Lin Xiao suddenly froze in place, and he didn't even pay attention to when the phone fell off, but fortunately, Changfeng quickly caught him in time, so that his mobile phone screen didn't fall apart because of falling to the ground.

Lin Xiao looked at Changfeng, and the look on his face began to be frightened: "DEAD?!This is the 'death' signal sent by the revenant!"

2.

DEAD, which means "dead" in English. In this haunted cul-de-sac, a "Morse code" suddenly appeared in this haunted dead end, which is an unusual thing, and the content of this code means "death", which is really chilling.

Changfeng didn't know what "DEAD" meant, but he understood the "death signal" in Lin Xiao's later sentence, and his face sank suddenly. He no longer listened to the sound of the signal, but reached out and groped for the wall, and the true qi lingered in his palm, following the gaps in the bricks and tiles of the wall, as if he was feeling something. Suddenly, Changfeng's fingers pressed on a stone brick diagonally above the right, and he stopped.

Lin Xiao asked, "What's wrong?"

Changfeng didn't answer, but the true qi in his palm suddenly burst out, and he directly pressed the brick hard. The stone wall suddenly became illusory, and a black vortex appeared in the center, stretching out a black silk thread to wrap around Changfeng's waist, directly rolling him in.

Lin Xiao was shocked, and hurriedly grabbed Changfeng's clothes behind him, and transported his true qi to his arm, wanting to pull him out. Unexpectedly, the power of the black vortex was really amazing, and Lin Xiao not only failed to pull Changfeng out this time, but even he was sucked into it himself.

It was suddenly pitch black in front of him, but this situation did not last long, but in a few seconds, Lin Xiao and Changfeng were sent out by the black vortex again. At this time, the stone wall was already behind them, and what appeared in front of them was still an alley, but it was not the alley just now. The houses on both sides of this alley have the portal facing the road, and there is obviously no "haunted" avoidance.

Lin Xiao said in disbelief: "What happened just now...... Where is this?"

Changfeng didn't make a sound, raised his hand and pointed to the door of a mansion beside them. Lin Xiao followed the direction of his finger and saw a wooden plaque covered with dust and cobwebs nailed to the wall next to the gate of the house, with some words vaguely engraved on it. Changfeng waved his hand and shook an open flame talisman and handed it forward, and with the leaping faint blue firelight, the two saw that the wooden sign was engraved: Dengcao Hutong No. 1 Courtyard.

"Dengcao Hutong?!" Lin Xiao's heart "chuckled", "Why is there another 'Dengcao Hutong'?!"

"I think this place is the real Dengcao Alley. Changfeng's voice sounded in his ears, "The dead end we were in just now was just a trick built with that stone wall, and the purpose should be to cover this place. The stone wall was not as simple as it seemed, but a portal with the 'Eight Gates of Golden Locks' on it. ”

"Eight Golden Locks?" the corners of Lin Xiao's eyes twitched slightly, "Isn't that an ancient formation, which can only be arranged by relying on terrain?"

Changfeng said unhurriedly: "Of course, the complete 'Eight Gates Golden Lock Array' is like that, but the formation on this wall is not a real formation, but there are a few bricks in the arrangement that implicitly combine the positions of the eight gates in the formation, such as opening, resting, life, injury, Du, Jing, shock, and death, and there is no real sense of the operation of the 'Living Eight Gates' and 'Turning Eight Gates', and the people who want to come to the formation have only learned a little bit of skin." All I have to do is find the door and I'll be able to pass through this stone wall. ”

Lin Xiao knew a little in his heart, but he still didn't understand some things: "Then how did that code come out of the array?" as he was saying to himself, the ticking sound just now sounded in his ears again.

Changfeng turned around and looked behind him: "I think...... That thing must have come from. ”

Lin Xiao also turned around, only to see a life-size wooden figurine standing next to the stone wall behind him. The wooden man was holding something in his hand that he didn't know what it was, and when he pressed it, it made that "tick-tick" sound. There was a thin silk thread attached to the wooden arm, which could not be seen unless it was reflected in the light of the open flame charm. The silk thread stretched close to the wall of the alley, and finally disappeared into a pile of creepers, and I don't know what mechanism was connected, pulling the arms of the wooden figurines and making movements.

Changfeng continued: "Between this real alley and the fake alley, there is only a stone wall separating it, but the person who set up the formation casts a formation on the wall, and the person who forcibly climbs over the wall and touches the 'Eight Gates Golden Lock' by mistake will fall into another illusion and leave from somewhere else, unless you find a way to unlock this formation, you can't see the true scene of the Dengcao Hutong at all." ”

"But what does that have to do with code?"

"Because there are always some bold people......"

Lin Xiao was stunned, and immediately understood what Changfeng meant. News of hauntings of the dead is circulating in this alley, and ordinary people are afraid to come here except for the cleaners who come to clean every day. But there was also a bit of a bold stunned young man who wanted to come here to find out, so the people in the array set up a wooden armor mechanism here, so that the mechanism constantly pressed the meaning of "death" in the "Morse code", trying to scare those people away. There is only a wall between the real and false alleys, and as long as it is quiet enough, the sound of the code can still be transmitted.

Thinking of this, Lin Xiao couldn't help but laugh and said: "This scheming is inevitably too heavy! Besides, not everyone understands such a thing as 'Morse code', even if you put a hundred wooden people here for a hundred years, it won't play much role." This isn't even a 'trick', it's obviously 'showing off skills'!"

Speaking of this, he suddenly thought: "Do you think that 'Bai Xiaosheng' that Teacher Xiao Ye said should be living in this place, right? If you say that, it is somewhat reasonable for such a person who claims to be 'heaven and earth, omniscient' to lay out this kind of formation to hide this real lamp grass alley." ”

Changfeng said: "Whether this is the case, I don't know. But then again, this place is indeed very yin, if it is not sealed by this stone wall formation, it will indeed affect the luck of the surrounding people's portals. ”

"It's really eerie. Lin Xiao also felt that this place was so cold that it made people unhappy, "It's just that it is cut off in this formation enchantment, and I can't think of much sun, so it is reasonable for yin to flourish and yang to decline." ”

Changfeng suddenly said gloomily: "Something is wrong, this place is unusual, and the smell of dead people is everywhere!"

Since Lin Xiao recovered his memory, all he remembered was the tragedy of destroying the soul of the door, and he had just experienced the Pisces Jade Pendant stand-in incident some time ago, and he and Ye Wuxin had also been to the Peach Blossom Land Fantasy Land on the mass grave during the National Day, and now he hated the word "dead man". At that moment, when he heard Changfeng say that there was a "dead man's" aura that permeated here, he had already screamed several times in his heart, but he could only stubbornly ask: "What dead man's breath?" Before the words fell, Changfeng had already come to the door of the No. 1 courtyard of the Dengcao Hutong, and stretched out his hand to push open the unlocked wooden door.

The door covered with cobwebs made a series of "squeak" sounds, and with Changfeng's action, it slowly opened, falling a piece of dust, and the sound of opening the door sounded extremely crazy in the dark night, Lin Xiao and Changfeng reached out and held the open fire talisman and walked in together.

I saw that this courtyard was a standard courtyard house: a courtyard with houses built on four sides, and the courtyard was enclosed in the middle from all sides. This courtyard is a kind of traditional courtyard architecture in China, which has a history of at least 1,000 years, and is most famous for the courtyards in the area of Beijing. This kind of courtyard is usually inhabited by large families, providing a relatively private courtyard space from the outside world, and its architecture and layout reflect the traditional Chinese idea of hierarchy and the theory of yin and yang and the five elements.

The layout of the houses in this quadrangle courtyard is also exquisite, the one in the shape of the "mouth" is called the first courtyard, the one in the shape of the "day" is called the second courtyard, and the one in the shape of the "eye" is called the three courtyards. Generally speaking, in the courtyard of the mansion, the first entrance is the gatehouse, the second entrance is the hall, and the third entrance is the private room or boudoir, which is the activity space of women or dependents, and outsiders are not allowed to enter at will. The ancients had a poem: "The courtyard is a little deeper", which means: the deeper the courtyard, the more you can't peek into its mysteries.

The two of them stepped into the patio, and the first thing they saw was several moldy and scattered coffins on the ground, as well as a pile of dry bones and a few dried corpses lying on the remains of the coffin.

Lin Xiao looked around the patio, and saw that the doors of the houses on both sides were all open, and he could see that there were seven or eight ebony coffins in the room, and he couldn't help but stare at him and said, "I'll go!" No wonder you say that there is a dead man's breath everywhere here, dare to love this courtyard...... It's a righteous village!"

Yizhuang is a product of agricultural society, and in historical documents, the earliest recorded "Yizhuang" was caused by Fan Zhongyan in Suzhou in the Northern Song Dynasty. The original Yizhuang included schools, public fields, ancestral halls and other facilities, but with the change of social structure, the content of Yizhuang gradually narrowed, and in modern times, almost only ancestral halls were the main ones, and now the place called "Yizhuang" is only used for one purpose: to store coffins.

Lin Xiao was still watching here, and Changfeng had already run to the opposite side of the courtyard. When I opened the door, I saw that this courtyard was the same as the No. 1 courtyard, and the layout of the houses and halls was similar. The most bizarre thing is that there are also several coffins in this courtyard, and the placement is surprisingly consistent with that of the No. 1 courtyard: there are a few pairs scattered in the center of the patio, and there are several pairs in the wings on both sides.

The two courtyards face each other, like two mirrors, and the bodies in the coffins lie silently, as if they had just fallen into a deep sleep.

Lin Xiao let out a breath of air, and for a while he only felt that the dead air in the Dengcao Hutong was a little heavier.

【To be continued】