Aoki went in and sat down at the bar and said unceremoniously, "Two beers, ice, on the books." ”

Bi Shenghua said: "Your bill is enough for you to wipe your ass for a year, when will you pay it back?" ”

Aoki drank beer and said, "Talking about money hurts feelings. ”

"It's more hurtful not to talk about money!" Bishenghua slammed the beer mug on the bar, splashing a pile of foam.

Hu Xing giggled, and Aoki laughed too.

Bi Shenghua shook his head and sighed, and said, "Hurry up and drink, there's a mallet upstairs and I've been waiting for a long time." ”

"What mallet?"

"Isn't it a mallet that came to you for a consultation?"

Aoki's eyes widened: "You let the stranger go upstairs if I didn't come back?" ”

"Do you have anything of value upstairs? Are you still afraid that someone will steal your coal boss, hey! Bi Shenghua said disdainfully, "People have spent 300 yuan on me." ”

Aoki shrugged at Hu Xing, expressing helplessness, and then led Hu Xing to the back door.

Bi Shenghua threw a bag of things over in the air and said, "Give it to the coal boss." ”

Aoki took it in his hand, didn't ask, and put it in his pocket.

Hu Xing wondered who the coal boss was, and was embarrassed to ask, and said in his heart, could it be that there is no movement upstairs, and even the coal boss is working here?

The hallway on the second floor was littered with miscellaneous things, and there was a row of old chairs by the window, like the one waiting in a hospital.

On the chair sat a middle-aged man in his thirties.

"It's Master Aoki who is back!" The middle-aged man stood up and bowed, "Yo, how can there be a police comrade?" ”

Hu Xing found that this man's eyes flickered when he looked at her, and with his intuition as a criminal policeman, there must be something wrong with this person.

"What? Can't the police come? Hu Xing asked rhetorically.

"I can come, I can come." The middle-aged man's back bowed even more, "It's not the right time for me to come." ”

"Are you looking for me?" Aoki asked.

"Ah, my name is Ma Fuqing, and I'm looking for Master Aoki." The middle-aged man probably noticed that Aoki was relatively young and didn't look like a master at all, so he couldn't make up his mind.

"Let's go in and sit." Aoki didn't show enthusiasm either, just said hello lazily, put his hands in his trouser pockets, and took a few steps forward with a tapping board, stopping in front of a door.

On the door is hung a sign of "Shenwu Studio", and couplets are pasted on both sides:

Only Aoki,

Can dwell on the god Wu.

Hu Xing silently read these eight words, feeling that there should be a deep meaning in them.

Aoki opened the door and turned to signal them to enter.

Hu Xing didn't see him take out the key, and judged that the door should have been unlocked.

The studio room is small, boxy, with shelves against the wall piled high with all kinds of books. A desk in the middle, a sofa and coffee table on the left. The mess of magazines, newspapers and cigarette butts on the floor is a bit like the scene when the criminal police team works overtime in the conference room to handle a big case.

Aoki pointed to the sofa and said, "Sit." ”

Hu Xing sat down generously. Ma Fuqing waited for Hu Xing to sit down before carefully sitting down at the very edge of the other sofa.

Aoki didn't greet them at this time, but shouted into the air: "Coal boss, coal boss!" ”

There was no response.

Hu Xing saw that there was a small door in the room, and guessed that the coal boss that Aoki shouted should sleep inside.

Aoki took out the bag of things given to him by the proprietress downstairs, made a gesture to throw it, and shouted: "Boss Coal, if you don't come out again, there will be no delicious food made for you by Ruhua!" ”

I heard a loud bang, and out of nowhere, a black shadow flew out, flashed twice in the room, and landed on the coffee table in front of Aoki.

Only then did Hu Xing see that the black shadow was a crow.

The crow croaked, craned its neck, and opened its mouth wide to Aoki, like a young swallow waiting to be fed, and made a cooing sound in its throat.

Aoki picked up a fingernail-sized piece from the food wrapped in the crisper bag and threw it into the crow's mouth.

The crow swallowed the food, twisted its neck happily, and cried, "Sauce elbow, delicious, sauce elbow, delicious." ”

Hu Xing almost dropped his jaw in shock: "It can speak!" ”

She had never seen a talking parrot and a wren, and she had never seen a talking crow, and her pronunciation was so clear and her accent that if she hadn't seen it with her own eyes, she would never have thought that it was a bird learning to speak.

Ma Fuqing opened his mouth in surprise, and even said: "Divine Bird, Divine Bird!" ”

Aoki smiled and said, "Crows are the smartest animals besides humans. ”

Hu Xing didn't believe it and said, "Is it smarter than an orangutan?" ”

I saw that the crow suddenly turned its head and croaked at her, and made a strange sound in her throat, and then said in human language: "Stupid orangutan, stupid orangutan." ”

"Ha, that's so smart!" Hu Xing said.

Aoki threw another bite of food to the crow and said, "Aren't you going to thank the boss lady?" ”

The crow swallowed its food, flapped its wings, sprang to its feet, flew out of the room, stopped about the aisle, and shouted at the stairs:

"Thank you - hostess. Thank you - the hostess. ”

After a few calls, but no response was received, the bird began to cry like a song in a peculiar long, fluttering tone:

"Such as - flowers——, such as - flowers ——......"

I heard the sound of the basin falling to the ground downstairs, and then the scolding of the proprietress came:

"I'm going to die! If you scream again, be careful that I pluck out your bird feathers, stew tomatoes and potatoes, and add three spoonfuls of sugar to stew your black crow into a white crane! ”

There was a sudden silence in the corridor for ten seconds, and then there was a strange cry from the crow monster:

"Afraid—afraid—oh—"

Then there was another metal knock downstairs, and there was the sound of clattering footsteps on the stairs.

Hu Xing saw the crow flapping its wings and flew back, stopped on the table, and shouted at Aoki:

"Close the door! It's like a flower! Close the door! The proprietress went berserk! ”

Hu Xing couldn't hold back any longer, and laughed, laughing so much that the slender body wrapped in the police uniform kept shaking. Even the restrained Ma Fuqing grinned wildly and smiled so hard that he couldn't hold it.

"Uh-oh-" When the crow saw that the people ignored him, he turned his head to look at the door, and after looking for a long time, he didn't see the life flower appear, and then he shook his feathers relaxedly, and opened his mouth wide again, and begged for food from Aoki.

Aoki threw the whole bag of sauce elbow meat on the table and said, "Take it yourself and eat it, don't eat it." ”

The crow grabbed the bag of meat with its claws and flew to the shadow wall behind the table. Only then did Hu Xing see that there was a bird stand there, and there was a food box on the shelf. The crow threw the meat bag into the food box, and pulled it with its beak and claws a few times, and then pulled the plastic bag out.

"This is what you call 'Coal Boss'?" Hu Xing was curious, and he was drunk to give such a strange name to his pet.

"yes." Aoki said, "Look at it, it's pitch black, how domineering it is to call the coal boss!" ”

"You're weird here." Hu Xing chuckled, and then picked up a magazine casually, "Okay, I'll read the book for a while, you can talk about things if you have something, leave me alone." ”

Aoki looked at Ma Fuqing: "Let's talk about something." ”

"That, I'm ......" Ma Fuqing glanced at Hu Xing's piercing police uniform, and became a twisted look again, "I just ...... I want to ask the master to explain the dream. ”

Aoki asked, "What dream?" ”

Ma Fuqing said: "I have been dreaming of a woman recently. ”

Aoki didn't speak.

This kind of dream is so common that no one will go to the trouble of finding someone to interpret it because of a normal dream. Aoki is not a famous person, Ma Fuqing must have gone around a long time when he found him.

Sure enough, Ma Fuqing continued: "She chased me and said she wanted my life." I couldn't run away, and I would wake up every time I was caught by her. I would have this dream every once in a while, and I couldn't sleep when I did, and I was flustered when I woke up. My mom and my brother have both been sick again recently, and we're confused. I just wanted to ask the master to see if we were haunted by ghosts. ”

Aoki asked, "Who is that woman?" ”

Ma Fuqing said hesitantly: "No, I don't know, she ...... that woman She...... No head. ”