"Recruitment: A freelance journalist, go to the deserted village on the 15th of next month to investigate the strange local rumors, please add QQ: XXXXXXXX for a detailed discussion"

It was already 1 a.m. when Zou Lianwen saw this post on the forum, and he has had a really bad time in recent years: he used to be a journalist, although he never won the "Pulitzer", but he can be regarded as a successful career - he has written many excellent reports, which have attracted social attention many times. It wasn't until he got involved in gambling that his life was no longer as smooth as it used to be, which became almost the only huge stain in his life. At first, he was just a fluke, thinking that he had outstanding self-control, thinking that he would invest a little money and stop as soon as he made a little, but things soon became uncontrollable.

When they played a simple poker game with a number of points, the rules of the game they called "Niu Niu" were also very simple, that is, among the fifty-two cards in a deck of playing cards, except for the big and small kings, K, Q, and J were up to ten points, and then the points were arranged in descending order at a time, and the smallest A was one point. At the beginning of the game, everyone draws five cards first, and the player needs to make up the three cards in his hand to multiples of ten, which is called the "bull". The remaining two cards add up in value, remove the ten digits and only keep the single digit and then compare the points, if the points of these two cards are exactly ten points, then this deck of cards is "Niu Niu". In addition to Niu Niu, there are also "Mavericks", the sum of the five cards is less than ten points, and the "Leopard" four cards with the same number and the "Golden Bull" five cards with the same number of "K, Q, J" composed of "Niu Niu" If you can get these card types, the amount of the game will be doubled.

At the beginning of the period, he only won a few games, and occasionally lost, but the money he lost was less than one-tenth of the money he won, so he put all the thousands of dollars he won under the pressure of winning a game and actually earned tens of thousands of dollars at once, which was much higher than his monthly salary, not to mention that he didn't need to run around in the wind and sun outside, as long as he sat at the table and turned a few pokers, he could easily get his hands. In this way, Zou Lianwen's psychology has gradually changed, and he has changed from the excellent reporter with "strong self-control" in his heart to a red-eyed gambler attracted by cards and money in front of the table. After a few times, I entered a completely out of control state of losing red eyes in gambling. Before he came to his senses, the 50,000 yuan was lost. Unwilling, he wants to win back what he lost, according to his idea at this time, it is to "fight a bicycle into a motorcycle". In the end, he lost his job, his wife divorced him with their children, and his house and car were sold to pay off his debts. He finally realized his mistake and decided to quit his gambling addiction.

"Knowing mistakes can be corrected, and doing good is great" is easy to say, but it is much more difficult to do. Without a job, he used his experience as a journalist to become a freelance writer and photographer, and although he could not make a fortune, his income was enough for his daily life. At this time, he was already frightened by gambling, as long as he was involved with gambling, he would stay away like a plague, for fear of having something to do with it, even if he heard the shouts of others like "grabbing the landlord", he would exaggerate his frowns and avoid it. Despite this, God still seems to want to test this middle-aged man who has lost his way - Zou Lianwen is sick, he is sick very suddenly, and he is not lightly ill. The gastrointestinal ulcer caused by staying up late for a long time and drinking alcohol directly hit Zou Lianwen on his heels. The cost of hospitalization and surgery cost him almost all of his savings, and at the same time, he lost his financial resources because he did not work during the hospitalization, which made his life difficult. Still, he didn't get rid of his bad habit of staying up late and drinking.

On this day, he saw this recruitment post while browsing the forum, so he added WeChat to see how generous the treatment was that the "landlord" said. One is that he has been too short on money lately, and he really needs money to spend; The second is that he himself is more interested in the affairs of the deserted village, and he does not believe in such statements as demons and monsters at all; The most important point is that as a "former excellent reporter", he vaguely feels that there must be some big secret in it, as long as he can dig out this secret, and then rely on his own writing to write a big news that shocks the society, it will not be a problem, and then he will be able to find a formal job as a reporter. Thinking of this, he rubbed his hands excitedly, picked up his mobile phone and added the landlord's QQ. After thinking about it for a while, he wrote in the column of filling in the verification information, the former professional reporter of XX Daily, freelance writer, and freelance photojournalist.

After pressing send, the other party instantly passed the friend certification, and before he could send a message, the "landlord" spoke.

"Is it okay to go to the deserted village on the fifteenth of next month?"

Zou Lianwen thought about it and found that there was no special arrangement for that day, so he sent a message: "There is no problem with the time, do you have any specific requirements?" ”

"Ever been a journalist? Do you know how to take pictures? The other party seemed to be waiting impatiently for Zou Lianwen's reply, and immediately sent a message.

"Of course, I also won the Journalist of the Year award from a certain newspaper, so it was not a problem for me to visit and investigate, write press releases, or anything."

"Well, that's enough" The other party seemed to be satisfied, but he didn't seem to have lost the enthusiasm he had just had.

"Can we talk about the pay, then?"

"You give me your address, I will mail you a contract, you sign it and send it to the original address, I will write it in writing in the contract if you want you to do it, if you have no problem after reading it, sign it and send it back to me, and when you come back and write the report, I will give you another 35,000 no problem, right?!"

"Okay, just decided that my address is ......" Zou Lianwen was full of joy, now he felt that 35,000 was already a lot of money, not to mention that this time he went to the deserted village to visit and investigate, maybe he could dig up some big news, and he could also use this to return to his original job and become that excellent reporter again; You can make money again, and you can also relax by the way. Isn't this a great thing that kills three birds with one stone!

Two days later, the two contracts arrived, along with the description of the job. He read the contents carefully, and the employer asked Zou Lianwen to prepare for the trip in advance, and arrive at the city bus station at 8 o'clock in the morning of the 15th on time to go to the deserted village with the other five team members, as long as he arrived at the bus station on time, someone would look for him. There was also a thick brown paper envelope in the courier, which could not be opened until the day after the arrival in the deserted village, and read to the public, and his identity and purpose of the trip could not be revealed to anyone else until it was read. In the column of Party A at the end of the contract, the name has been signed: Liu Gang. Zou Lianwen couldn't help but snort coldly when he saw this, in his opinion, this was obviously a fake name, and he said in his heart, "This gold owner is still a person who likes to play mysterious" But it doesn't matter to him about all this, after all, he has his own purpose, as long as it doesn't involve his own interests, everyone can get along well.

The weather is getting colder, and it's already autumn. The leaves of the trees in front of the passenger terminal have turned yellow, and the withered leaves have fulfilled their mission, allowing the trees to say goodbye and leap down from their trunks. The cold wind blew, and the fallen leaves on the ground also made a rustling sound, and several transposition workers in the distance were already standing at their posts and starting the day's cleaning. The time was eight o'clock in the morning, Zou Lianwen arrived as promised, he was fully prepared for this trip, and even bought a pair of trekking poles to make up for the lack of his slightly chubby figure, holding a water bottle in one hand, wearing a hiking hat, stepping on hiking boots, and carrying a big backpack, everything was ready, and this trip that could make him change back to his former self was about to begin.

At this moment, someone gently patted Zou Lianwen on the back, and when he looked back, he saw that it was a young man with dyed blond hair, fair skin and a high nose bridge, big eyes and thick eyebrows, which can be said to be a handsome guy, but his dress is really difficult to compliment: crumpled cargo pants with a pair of Martin boots, and an orange-red bread suit with a black polka dot pattern - from a distance, it looks like a seven-star ladybug has become a sperm. Before Zou Lianwen could speak, the blonde boy spoke first:

"Excuse me, big brother, are you going to a deserted village?"

"That's right, you're ......?" Zou Lianwen looked puzzled, could this person be one of the other five people mentioned in the contract?

Sure enough, the blonde boy grinned and said, "Big brother, are you looking for someone?" I made an appointment on the Internet to go on an adventure in a deserted village together, a total of six people! Is your name Zou Lianwen? ”

"Ahh Yes, yes, I am Zou Lianwen, and I want to go to the deserted village together. ”

"My name is Chen Erxi, and the others arrived early, isn't this disgusted with the cold outside! Let's all go inside, let's go in together!" With that, he turned and left, as if he could not stand the cold of this early autumn morning, and wanted to hurry back to the house to warm up. Zou Lianwen hurriedly lifted the trekking poles and kettle, and followed Chen Erxi closely into the passenger station. The four people waiting at the station are Zhang Ying and her best friend Wang Leilei, her boyfriend Zhai Yong, and hiking enthusiast Li Jing. After a brief introduction to each other, the group bought tickets and arrived at the Laochuan Mountains first according to the plan, and then hiked into the mountains to the deserted village.

In the car, Zou Lianwen, who was leaning against the window, wanted to take the opportunity to catch up on sleep, but he didn't expect that Chen Erxi, who was sitting on the side of the aisle beside him, didn't understand his refusal at all, and talked about strange things in the village.