"The first one is Nie's family, and their family is the first to encounter the Fire Beast." Ah Ni took the high pillow and the three of them walked along the village path to a low house.

"Their family is quite miserable, Nie Lao is almost sixty years old, and he and his wife depend on each other, and his daughter in her twenties is alone outside to make a living. Seven days ago, their daughter had just returned from the village of Prayer for Rain, when her room caught fire at night and was severely injured by the Fire Beast. Alas! Poor, a girl who was still very beautiful. Ah Ni sighed and said.

"Suddenly on fire at night?" Yi Shuihan muttered to himself. He looked at the low house, and saw that the right half of the house was completely charred and blackened, and had completely lost its original color. The mud on the surface peeled off, revealing the wooden pillars inside, burned into black charcoal by the flames, so fragile that it seemed to shatter at the slightest touch. A few new pieces of wood were used as supports, simply supporting the wall to prevent it from collapsing suddenly.

"If you have any questions, please ask Nie Lao and his wife Wu. Because I don't know exactly what this is. Ah Ni said, knocking on the small door of the low house.

Before he could knock twice, the door was opened from the inside, as if waiting for him to knock. An old man stepped out of the crack in the door. According to Ah Ni, this person should be Nie Lao. He was not yet sixty years old, but he looked as old as he was too old. His beard was white, he was dressed in rags, and the wrinkles on his face were like cracked bark, rough and shriveled.

"You ...... Be? His voice was as fragile as his old body, like a candle in the wind.

"Elder Nie, these are the three immortal masters from Yancheng, they are here to catch strange beasts in the village. The village chief asked me to take them here to find out what was going on. ”

"Come on...... Coming to catch strange beasts? Nie Lao hesitated for a moment, opened the door completely, and said, "Come in, but don't disturb my daughter's rest." ”

The three of them followed Ah Ni and Nie Lao and walked into the low earthen house. It was a dwelling, and when they squeezed in, it was a little cramped. The few people tried to move as carefully as possible without making too much noise.

Looking around, it's very compactly arranged. A small table, barely half a meter high, sits on the floor, flanked by two tiny stools. Behind the table there is a space that protrudes into the wall with a stove and pot. Some fur products hung on the wall, revealing a narrow square gap in the middle, and the sunlight silently shone in this impoverished home.

There is a fork in the aisle in front of you, and there is a room on the left and right sides. A woman walked out of the room on the left, saw a few people coming in, bent down and whispered a few words to Nie Lao, and then turned to everyone.

"My daughter has rested, she is a little emotionally unstable, it's better not to wake her up." The woman is also old, and her gray hair is a little messy, as if she hasn't taken care of it for a long time. Her eyes were gray and gloomy, and her eyes were full of worry and pain.

Gao Zhen nodded slightly and looked into the room to the left. There was a wooden bed on the wall of the room, and a person was lying on it. To tell the truth, Gao Zhen couldn't tell whether it was a woman or a man, but she was charred all over, her head had been burned to a few hairs, and her body was covered with a white cloth.

Lai Ruoxue is usually very aggressive, but after looking at the girl who was severely burned, her heart was full of pain, and she turned her head and didn't dare to look at it again. She thumped her flat chest like a stone was stuck there.

Yi Shuihan shook his head gently, patted Lai Ruoxue's shoulder, and motioned for her to follow them into the room on the right, that is, the room that was destroyed by the flames.

As soon as I entered the room, I was greeted by a burnt smell. Although the water has been splashed many times, the strong smell has not dissipated. Gao Pillow felt irritated in his nasal passages, a little itchy, and almost sneezed.

It can be seen that there was originally a wooden bed in the corner of the wall. But now, the bed had burned down, leaving behind a square, black wreckage. The bedding and mattress were burned into black shards that piled up in the center of the wreckage. The room, like the outside, was simply furnished, except for the bed, there was only one chair, which had been burned to the ground.

"My daughter works in Yancheng, and she usually lives over there, and rarely comes back to live here, so she doesn't put anything in this house." Nie Lao's wife, Wu Shi, explained.

"That afternoon, my daughter came back from Yancheng and said that she was going to rest in Qiyu Village for a few days recently. It's been a long time since we've been together, and our family is very happy, and after eating, we sit together and chat. We talked until the end of the night before we went to bed. My wife and I slept in the room on the left, and my daughter slept here. ”

"My wife and I slept soundly that night. But then, when I suddenly felt very hot in my dream, I sat up from my bed and noticed a red glow on the other side of the aisle. At that time, I was so frightened that I quickly called my wife up and said that my daughter's room was on fire! When my wife and I ran to the door of my daughter's room, the fire had already burned the walls red, and we had been screaming for a long time without hearing her respond. ”

Then the two of us went outside to fetch a few buckets of water from the well and woke up the neighbors. By the time we got back to the room, the fire had cracked all the windows in the wall, revealing a large hole. My wife and I desperately poured water into the room to save our daughter, trying to put out the fire. ”

"It was then that I suddenly saw a dark figure leap out of the most burning flames and escape from the great hole in the wall. I asked my wife, and he said he saw the shadow too. Later, the villagers came to help us fight the fire, and the fire was extinguished. But...... But my poor daughter...... She ......"

Wu said this, his voice became choked, and bean-sized tears burst out of his eyes and rolled down to the charred ground. Her thin shoulders kept swaying, and Nie Lao stepped forward to hold her up, afraid that she would fall to the ground.

After listening to Wu's explanation, he looked at the earthen wall that had been burned to a disfigured shape. In the middle of the wall, as she had said, there was a huge hole, and the broken mud had been burned to the ground, broken into little pieces.

"A dark shadow that escaped from the hole?" Sit back and muttered to herself.

"It's definitely not going to be a burning bear, it's so flexible with a burning bear. As for the burning wolf, it's possible, but it's still a little wrong......" Lai Ruoxue analyzed.

"From the burn marks inside and outside the house, it can be seen that the fire was started from inside the house. This corner of the wall where the bed is placed is the most burning, and this is probably the point of fire. Gao Zhen touched his chin and pointed to the remains of the wooden bed.

"You say that you saw a dark shadow escaping from the hole, and if that is the culprit who lit the fire, the Fire Beast, then how did it get in?" Gao Zhen stomped a few steps around the room and asked. He looks like a detective.

"Uh......" The couple hesitated, looked at each other, and said, "Maybe they jumped in from the original window, and ran to the bed, and then lit the flame." ”

"And how big were the original windows?" Gao Zhen asked.

"Probably, it's about the size of an iron pot." Nie Lao said while gesturing.

"The burning wolf can be ruled out, with such a small window, the burning wolf can't jump in." Lai Ruoxue crossed her waist and said.

"Brother Yi has any insights?" Gao Zhen saw that Yi Shuihan had not spoken, so he asked.

"Didn't you say that the places where the Fire Beast attacked would leave charred footprints? Why didn't you see it here? Yi Shuihan pointed around the room, indicating that he didn't see anything special.

"Outside the room, there were footprints under the hole in the wall. But then the villagers came to put out the fire, poured a lot of water, and washed away the footprints. Elder Nie replied.

"How do you know that it's washed away? You must have been busy putting out fires and didn't have time to care about these things, right? Gao Zhen raised his eyes and glanced at Nie Lao and asked.

"This ...... I'll ......" Nie Lao suddenly stammered, not knowing how to answer.

"Ahh Wu, who was bent over and crying in Nie Lao's arms, suddenly screamed, she raised her head and yelled at the high pillow: "You are not finished!" We are the victims! Why are you questioning us! My daughter is already like that, and I'm dying of pain! Get out of here! Get the hell out of here! ”

Wu suddenly seemed to go crazy, waving his hands desperately and shouting to step forward and push everyone out of the room. Nie Lao hurriedly grabbed her.

"Let's leave." Ah Ni frowned and said to a few people, and everyone nodded.

"Really, she didn't let us quarrel until her daughter rested, but she still screamed so loudly, is she sick?" Coming out of Nie's home, Lai Ruoxue said very dissatisfied.