There was a drizzle in the sky.

In the muddy ridge of the ground lay a cold corpse very abruptly.

I saw that this corpse was shriveled and blackened, and the death was extremely grotesque and terrifying.

Dong Dachun squatted next to the corpse with a sad face, shaking his head and sighing while looking at the corpse.

He didn't understand why Xini Village, who had lived for half his life, had a series of accidents recently.

Is it a natural disaster?

Is it a man-made disaster?

Or is it something evil?

Dong Dachun clenched his fists and gurgled, he really couldn't bear this fear of the unknown.

Counting the corpse in front of him, this is the third person in the village to die recently.

Although Dong Dachun did not know the cause of their deaths, he found that their deaths were surprisingly consistent.

Because these dead people were all staring at each other, their mouths were wide open, and there was not a single wound on their bodies, not to mention, they strangely turned into shriveled and blackened dried corpses.

From the outside, the flesh and blood in the deceased's body seemed to evaporate in an instant, leaving only a thin skin tightly wrapped around the bones, which made people feel a kind of nausea.

There were many onlookers beside Dong Dachun.

I saw that these people had different expressions, some of them were frightened, some were happy or sad, some were whispering, and some were expressionless.

Everyone's eyes were focused on the corpse in the ridge, and no one noticed that Dong Dachun's hands were trembling slightly.

At this moment, his heart was turbulent and he could not calm down, and his memory seemed to return to nine years ago.

In that era of war and chaos, food was extremely scarce, and no matter how hard the villagers sowed, it was still difficult to eat.

Who knew that at noon one day, someone suddenly dug up a gold ingot in the mass grave in the north of the village.

The news spread, and all the villagers flocked to it.

Soon the mass graves were dug with potholes, and everywhere was a mess.

At the same time, the villagers have reaped a lot of money, and almost every household has received some degree of wealth.

Having money means that they can exchange for more food, so the villagers will no longer have to worry about food for the next few years.

In the midst of jubilation in the village, an old woman in ragged clothes came out of nowhere, and she said that the things in this mass grave could not be dug up, otherwise it would definitely harm the whole village in the future.

This is definitely a provocation for all the villagers, and none of the villagers want to deal with this crazy old woman.

The old woman refused to give up, and finally caused public anger, and it was Dong Dachun who led people to drive her out of the village.

Nine years have passed in peace, but who knows that such a strange thing has happened to this day.

Dong Dachun knew that this was just the beginning, and I was afraid that there would be even more unbelievable things in the future.

But in order to stabilize people's hearts, Dong Dachun decided not to share this idea.

I found a few young and strong men and asked them to help bury the dead.

And he personally led some people to the mountain temple to pray for blessings.

Dong Dachun didn't know if it was useful to do this, maybe he had luck in his heart, his idea was so simple.

That is to hope that the mountain god will bless the villagers and let Xini Village return to its former peace.

When he returned home in the evening, Dong Dachun sat cross-legged on the clay kang, holding a cigarette stick and taking a puff from time to time.

His eyes were fixed on the iron box on the small wooden table in front of him, and he never moved his position, as if he was thinking about something.

The flames in the kerosene lamp flickered on and off, illuminating his cheeks strangely in the smoke.

The iron box on the table was something he had dug up from a mass grave nine years ago.

The reason why it has not been sold today is because it looks so ordinary that no one wants to spend money on it.

In the past, Dong Dachun also thought that this box was a piece of scrap metal, but several strange things that had happened in the village recently made him vaguely feel that this box might be more mysterious than he imagined.

Dong Dachun put down the cigarette stick in his hand, reached out and gently stroked the iron box a few times, and then gently opened it.

The box was opened, and two thin pamphlets lay quietly inside.

The pamphlets were worn out and yellowed, and each one was covered with dense text.

One of them is slightly different because of the four sketches drawn on it.

Rao is an illiterate person like Dong Dachun, and he can probably see that these are four maps.

But he couldn't understand what was written in the two pamphlets, and he didn't dare to show them to outsiders, for fear that they would cause any more trouble.

Just as he was staring at the iron box intently, there was a sudden knock on the door outside: "Oh no, village chief!" Something is wrong! ”

What the? Retribution came so quickly!

Dong Dachun panicked, completely forgot to hide the iron box, put on his shoes in a panic with a torn clothes, and ran to open the door.

As soon as the gate opened, I saw a number of villagers standing outside.

They held torches in their hands and stared at Dong Dachun with panicked expressions.

Although there was a faint feeling of uneasiness in his heart, Dong Dachun still tried his best to calm his tone: "What's the matter? ”

Villager Niu Er came closer, wiped the cold sweat on his forehead, and stammered back: "My son is gone!" ”

Dong Dachun frowned and motioned for him to be more detailed.

Niu Er didn't dare to hide it, and told him the truth of the matter.

According to Niu Er, at night, when he was half-asleep and half-awake, he heard the sound of rustling in his ears, and when he squinted his eyes, it turned out to be his thirteen-year-old son Goudan was getting dressed.

Niu Er thought that his son was getting up at night to go to the toilet outside, so he didn't care, but continued to sleep on the kang.

But who knows, I haven't seen my son come back from outside for a long time.

This made Niu Er a little nervous, making him sleepy, so he simply got up and went to the yard to see what his son was doing.

Niu Er came to the courtyard, and before he could check the thatched house, he unexpectedly found that his door was hidden.

This made him a little stunned, for he clearly remembered that he had put the gate inside himself at night with a thick stick.

Could it be that the son is out?

But where can he go in the middle of the night?

With a lot of questions in his heart, Niu Er searched in his small courtyard, but he didn't find any trace of his son at all.

It was only then that he realized that things might not be so simple, so he lit a torch and hurried to the village to call for the villagers to help find his son.

The villagers searched in the village but still didn't find the shadow of the dog, so in desperation, Niu Er took the lead in finding the village chief's house, wanting the village chief to give an idea.

Dong Dachun listened to him and touched his head: "This is strange, where can this kid go at night?" Besides, you've all been looking for ...... in the village."

Before he finished speaking, a flash of inspiration suddenly flashed in his mind: Could it be a mass grave?!

Thinking of this, Dong Dachun only felt that his scalp was numb, and even his body froze.

The villagers saw that the village chief's eyes suddenly widened, and their hearts became even more nervous, but Niu Er couldn't hold his breath and asked, "What's wrong with the village chief, what did you think of?" ”

Dong Dachun shuddered for a moment, and then came back to his senses, and said three words with a solemn expression: "Mass grave!" ”

The simple three words were like a small pebble thrown into the calm lake, causing a wave on the water, which never dissipated for a long time, causing the villagers to feel uneasy.

Along the way, no one said a word, and everyone's face sank like water, and their hearts were heavier than ever.

When people came to the mass grave, they found that it was surprisingly quiet, not even the sound of birds, only the irregular beating of people's hearts.