The two police officers glanced at the shopkeeper and took out the search warrant and showed it in front of the shopkeeper, who took us to see the painting with a random look at it. When the painting was turned over, the shopkeeper was still a little reluctant, but when we saw the painting, everyone present let out an exclamation of 'ah', and the picture was impressively depicted with a young man lying in a pool of blood, and the background color was painted with a light shade of red to paint the creepy feeling of the death scene, and the young man in the picture frowned, even if his eyes were closed, one could feel his despair.

"What's going on?" The police officer, who reacted first, immediately asked.

"I, I don't know." The shopkeeper was a little stumbling when he answered.

"Impossible." Li Jing's eyes had obvious contempt, "If you really don't know, you won't let us show our search warrant before taking us to see this painting, tell me what you're hiding, right?" ”

The shopkeeper glanced at Li Jing angrily, squatting on the ground with his head down and not speaking a little self-defeatingly, the atmosphere was a little stiff for a while, I looked around and tried to speak: "Is this painting about the suicide of the teenager in the art village half a year ago?" ”

As soon as the words came out, everyone's eyes fell on me, and the shopkeeper who was squatting on the ground grinned bitterly and said, "I didn't expect that I couldn't hide from that thing even if I hid here." Actually, that's why you found me, right? ”

I didn't know how to answer, the shopkeeper didn't say much, but invited us back to the negotiation area, as soon as we sat down, the shopkeeper spoke: "I already felt strange when I received these paintings, the words are very popular, and the price of each one is very expensive, I sell paintings for a living, of course I know how much these words are worth, and their final transaction price is often much higher than their actual price, I have always been surprised, and no one has ever asked me for money to sell the paintings, I also know the creators of these works. They could have come to me if they wanted to get the money for their paintings, but after so many days, even if it had been half a year, no one had contacted me in any way. I tried to contact them, but I couldn't, I was weird, but in the end I didn't pursue it, and I thought maybe one day they would come to me and ask for money. But in recent months I've felt more and more that something is wrong. I feel more and more familiar with the scenes of these paintings, and if you think about it, isn't this the scene in the art village back then? Thinking of this, I felt terrible, I went to check the origin of these paintings, but I went to several courier companies and could not find the information of the sender. I knew something was wrong, but there was no way to avoid or fix it. At first, I was idle to see if someone was looking for revenge, but then I realized that nothing had happened except that the paintings had been sent to me on time every month, but the scenes in these paintings made me feel more and more weird. ”

The shopkeeper took one look at us and said, "Don't be surprised. You haven't experienced these things, so you don't feel how I feel when I see those words. ”

"I heard that Hazi committed suicide, did you see the scene at that time?" Hearing this, I asked curiously.

The shopkeeper shook his head: "It's not just that scene, the whole thing is extremely weird. After the child died, the people who went to our place to work part-time often disappeared, I don't know what happened, and the outside world seemed to go crazy overnight The outside world went crazy that we would often die there, and there were few customers who patronized us, and some tabloid reporters often bombarded us for hunting and reporting. Not only did the business go on anymore, but every day there were rumors of hauntings on the Internet, and in the end, we left there one after another without even asking for the previous rent and went to other places to make a living. I'm afraid of being affected by that incident. We didn't even tell each other about our future orientation when we left, in fact, those of us who do business generally don't commit this taboo, we all understand the principle of 'old customers follow the old way', how can we also stay there at high speed to our whereabouts so that when someone comes to us in the future, it will not be too troublesome. But in order to escape those things, we chose to disappear completely. I don't know what the others are like now, but even if I did, I didn't escape the cursed version of the Art Village. Actually, I've been in the past few months. I didn't sell anything other than the paintings I would receive every month. Although he brought me a lot of wealth, I feel that these paintings have a soul, and they remind me all the time of what happened half a year ago. ”

"Why do you feel this way?" One of the officers asked.

"They painted a lot of real things. Looking at these paintings every day is like reliving the scene when the teenager died. At this, the shopkeeper's face turned pale, as if he remembered something terrible.

Li Jing asked him, "Then you can take these paintings down." ”

The shopkeeper continued to smile wryly and shook his head: "You know, all my turnover is supported by these paintings, and the buyers of those paintings have repeatedly instructed me not to take them down until they take them away. But the buyer won't come and pick up the paintings until new ones are mailed. Every day when I look at these paintings in the store, I keep thinking about the picture of the boy lying in a pool of blood, and I hope that the buyer will take the painting away, but as soon as I take it, new paintings will be delivered, and the nightmare will repeat, as if the child's dead soul has been following me all along. I don't know what happened to the other shopkeepers, but I'm about to break down now. With that, the shopkeeper buried his head in the palm of his hand.

"Only when new paintings come, will the old ones be taken away?" Li Jing confirmed with him.

The shopkeeper didn't look up, and his voice came out muffled from between his palms: "Yes." ”

Li Jing didn't say anything more, but walked to the front of the painting again and looked at it carefully, he touched the terrifying oil painting, and frowned.

Li Jing paced back, pointed to the painting we had seen at the beginning and asked, "Didn't you say that when a new painting comes, the old painting will be taken away?" Why is this painting still here? ”

The shopkeeper looked up at us with a puzzled look: "This painting should have been taken away today, but the buyer has not come so far." ’

Li Jing's eyes widened suddenly: "Is it the same person who paid the money and took the painting?" ”

The shopkeeper shook his head: "I don't know, buyers usually take pictures of the paintings on the Internet, and then take the confirmation slip to the store to pick it up." I don't know if they're alone or not. ”

Li Jing's expression was a little disappointed, but it was only for a moment that his eyes lit up again: "What time do the people who take the paintings usually arrive here?" ”

The shopkeeper glanced at the wall clock on the wall and replied uncertainly: "It's usually almost noon, and there is no specific time." ”

"Do you have surveillance in your store?" One of the officers asked.

"Yes, yes." The shopkeeper took his notebook and called up the monitor to show us: "The price of my paintings here is not cheap, plus these works that have been booked. If I lose it, I'll be in big trouble. So not only does the mall have public surveillance, but my store also has a surveillance. ”

"How long is the time limit?" The officer asked him.

"A month."

"Is the time it the same every time I send a painting?"

The shopkeeper nodded, then looked up as if he suddenly remembered something and said, "They call me every time they buy a painting, and another way for me to confirm whether I am a buyer is to call in person." If the person does answer the phone in front of me, I can confirm that this person is indeed the buyer who came to pick up the painting. ”

The eyes of the two police officers and Li Jing lit up, and they asked in unison, "Give me the contact information of the person who took the painting today." ”

Although the shopkeeper hadn't figured out the situation yet, he still called up the contact information and handed the phone to the police: "That's the number." Another police officer also used a USB flash drive to copy the video data on the surveillance.

Everything is taken care of, and there is no danger in seeing us. The two officers returned to the police station, but before leaving, they still instructed us to get in touch with Team Xiao. Now there are three people left in the small studio: the owner, Li Jing and me. Li Jing was about to have a showdown with the shopkeeper, and although the shopkeeper already knew the purpose of our visit, we felt the need to explain it to him.

"We were commissioned by a venue operator in Tongguò and the Art Village to investigate this matter." Li Jing explained to the shopkeeper.

Maybe he said what was in his heart, but the shopkeeper no longer had the excitement he had before, he just looked at us curiously and asked, "Who is it?" ”

"Guo Dong. Do you know? Li Jing looked at him.

The shopkeeper thought for a long time before shaking his head: "I haven't even heard of this name." ”

After habitually frowning: "But even your contact information was given to us by him, and the contact information of other people besides you was given to us by him." ”

The landlord looked at us with his mouth slightly open, as if we had said some shocking news, and he waved his hands in horror and said, "Don't be joking. We don't have a venue business there. Also, I'm one of the few shops that left last, and I've really never heard of this person. And the contact information you dialed is exactly the number I changed after I moved here again, in order to sever the relationship with the one there. If you don't believe me, you can go to the telephone office to check the authenticity. This number is hung on the online store, so at first I thought you were also coming to see these paintings. He pointed to the new arrivals, which looked like scenes from the old art village.

"This number is unknown to regular customers except for new customers." Li Jing's tightly knit brows never opened.

The shopkeeper nodded again and again: "It's true, my phone call is specially applied for online business." Also, I've long since scrapped my old number. If he really knew me before, he must have given you a different number, and if you dialed that number, you would not find me. ”

Li Jing glanced at me. I took out the A4 paper in my handbag and handed it to the owner: "Can you help me confirm that these numbers belong to your friends who are the operators of the Art Village?" ”

The shopkeeper glanced at the contact information in my hand, and his expression became panicked for a moment. I kept saying "this", "this." Seeing that he was uncomfortable, Li Jing asked, "Is there a problem with the contact information?" ”

The shopkeeper looked away from the paper in my hand: "This is not my friend's. ”

"Whose is that?" Li Jing stared into his eyes and asked.

"The artists who have gone missing." The shopkeeper closed his eyes with a pale face after speaking.

Li Jing and I didn't expect such a situation, we looked at the paper in our hands and didn't speak for a while. In the end, it was Li Jing who broke the silence: "After they disappeared, have you contacted them, even if they didn't answer your calls." ”

The other party had a crying expression on his face: "Where do I dare?" They can even draw me the scene from that time. I don't dare provoke them. I always thought they were crazy, and I'll tell you the truth, I used to think that one day they would get crazy and come here and finish me off. So I am ready to pay them back the rest of the money they paid from the sale of the paintings, except for a small part of the rent and property fees that I have to pay here. ”

"They've seen that kid die?" Li Jing asked again.

The shopkeeper nodded. He shook his head again: "Sort of, but to be exact, none of us have ever seen the child's death for sure." ”

"What do you mean?"

"We only saw the boy's body, but we didn't see how the kid committed suicide." After the shopkeeper finished speaking, his face was difficult to look at.

"Didn't you say that you sued the police that the teenager committed suicide?" Shi Hao wore the transcript of the case to us at that time, and it was clearly written that there were eyewitnesses who said that the boy fell from the old factory after the renovation.

The other party bit his lip and did not speak. We confronted him like this, and then she finally gave up, sighed and said, "We lied. ”

"Why lie?" I asked aloud.

Li Jing pressed my hand to signal me to calm down, and when I yelled, the shopkeeper's affection rose: "Why? Do you know how bad things can affect us? If you don't find a reason to prevaricate the past. Every day the police come to investigate, and we don't want to get in trouble. Besides, at that time, he was lying on the ground alone, and there was no other possibility than suicide, right? ”

Li Jing was not as excited as I imagined, he just looked at the man opposite coldly and asked, "But later, even if you all hid it from the police and said that the boy committed suicide, you still didn't continue your business, did you?" ”

The shopkeeper pursed his lips in disbelief and did not speak.

Li Jing didn't dwell on the topic of why they lied at the time, but looked at the shopkeeper and continued to ask: "You said that those paintings reminded you of that young man, can you tell me about those scenes?" I've seen some of the other shopkeepers here, are you familiar with these scenes? ”

The shopkeeper hesitated for a moment before taking the copy handed over by Li Jing, but his hand shook when he just took it to identify it. A stack of papers fell to the ground and scattered. "Impossible." He looked around blindly.

Li Jing and I picked up the painting that had fallen on the ground and looked at him strangely. Li Jing asked me to pour a glass of water for the shopkeeper, and after a while, he recovered from the panic just now, looked at us apologetically, and explained, "I'm sorry to scare you, this matter is really terrible." These paintings, these paintings are all paintings that I have sold. ”

"You sold it?" This answer was so informative that Li Jingjing and I didn't immediately pick up the conversation. Li Jing was silent for a while, then handed him the copy in his hand and asked, "Then can you tell me where these scenes are?" ”

The shopkeeper's hands trembled, and as a result, these words said, "Here are two scenes from Jiang Li's shop." He pointed to the picture with koi fish and said, "She is doing courtyard and interior landscaping for villas or some old houses." So she set up a lot of miniature ponds and flower stands in her studio. Because a lot of it was indoors, like a small indoor greenhouse botanical garden, I thought of her studio when I saw the painting. The man-made lake-like pond is in the foyer of her studio, and it's a miniature version of a truly circular ecological pond. In particular, she also set up lighting around her to simulate the temperature of the four seasons. ”

"Then how did you suddenly confirm that it was her landscaping and not the pond in the wild?" Li Jing asked him.

"This." The shopkeeper pointed to the koi and said, "There are only orange koi." There is no other suit, which means that Jiang Li is there. "I still don't think I'm convinced," he added. Jiang Li is very superstitious, her lucky color is red, and the koi is also known as the feng shui fish, saying that in order to help herself accumulate wealth, she only raises red koi. So as soon as I saw the pond without any changes in color and variety, I subconsciously thought of Jiang Li. ”

"That young man went to Jiang Li before he died?" Li Jing asked him.

The shopkeeper nodded: "That's right. At that time, the location of my store was diagonally opposite Jiang Li, and our cash register was at the door, so you could see the situation at the door of Zhang Li's store with just one eye. The teenager who committed suicide had helped Jiang Li for a few days, and the day before his death happened to be the last day of Jiang Li's store activities, so it is estimated that the boy went to Jiang Li to get his salary, right? ”

"Did he leave the store?" Li Jing asked.

The shopkeeper nodded: "Out, because Jiang Li's store celebration is relatively large, so it was very lively during that time, and I have been used to seeing the situation in her store." ”

Li Jing nodded after hearing this, and didn't ask anything more, he asked about other scenes, and the shopkeeper answered them one by one. It turned out that the last places where the boy appeared were not too far from Jiang Li's shop. The shopkeeper and Jiang Li were both at the exit of the third phase of the Art Village, so Li Jingcha's map prompted us teenagers to walk towards the place where they left the Art Village.

Li Jing said goodbye to the shopkeeper, the painting had been taken back to the police station by the police, and in order to confirm our doubts, we once again embarked on the road of finding the truth in the District Art Village. (To be continued.) )