Entering Bailu Village, there was a grocery store about thirty meters away, Zhang Fan went over to buy a box of cigarettes, and then asked the vendor about where the hotel was.

The vendor was a middle-aged man in his forties: "Young man, you are looking for a job in the industrial park, right?" I advise you, don't be greedy for cheap to stay in our village, go elsewhere! ”

"Uncle, why?"

"The reason is that you are reluctant, anyway, you better not stay in the hotel in the village, if you still want to stay, remember not to leave anything in the hotel, remember, it's anything!"

"Thank you, uncle, I remember."

After asking where the hotel was, Zhang Fan walked on the cement road in the village and looked around, there were some old shops on both sides of the road, I don't know why the lights were dim, and the contrast with the lights of the city shops was too great.

After entering a small alleyway, Zhang Fan found the small hotel, which was at the end of the alleyway, and there was a white and black signboard hanging under the eaves.

When Zhang Fan walked in, he found that this alley was quite complicated, and there were several passages on both sides that did not lead there.

Entering the hotel, a middle-aged woman in her forties was watching TV, and stood up enthusiastically after seeing Zhang Fan, when filling in the identity information, Zhang Fan chatted with her and learned that she was the proprietress of the hotel, and others called her sister-in-law Xu.

After completing the accommodation procedures, she took Zhang Fan through a courtyard to a room in the middle of a two-story old-fashioned building.

When Sister-in-law Xu opened the door with a key at the door of the room, the door of the opposite room creaked open, and a young man in his twenties peered out from behind the door.

Zhang Fan glanced at the man, his hair on his head was messy and his eyes were red, and he looked very haggard. The man glanced at Zhang Fan and closed the door again.

When Zhang Fan entered the room, Sister-in-law Xu pointed to the opposite side and whispered to Zhang Fan that the man in the opposite room had a brain problem, if he came to knock on the door, you should ignore it, and told him not to go out at night, saying that there are many mentally ill people in this village, and they will be scary on the street at night.

After Sister-in-law Xu left, Zhang Fan took a look, the house was an old brick and wood house, and the doors and windows were still the kind of wood-framed glass with iron bolts, and there was a thick layer of dust on them.

The curtain is dark red, and it is full of dust when you touch it slightly, and it is estimated that it has not been changed for a long time.

The bed was a wooden plank that creaked when you lay on it, and the whole room resembled the style of an 80's hotel.

There is a small toilet on the left side of the door, Zhang Fan went in to take a look, although there is no water heater, it looks clean inside, the mirror above the sink is also very bright, there is no stain, and there is also a shelf for placing items under the mirror, on which are placed wooden combs, nail clippers, hand sanitizer, soap, etc.

The toiletries on the shelves are all clean, not like they have been used. Although this bathroom is small, it looks much cleaner and more comfortable than the outside room.

Zhang Fan looked at himself in the mirror, his hair was a little messy, and he saw that the wooden comb was very clean, and he picked it up and combed his hair, probably because he hadn't combed it for a long time, and when he combed it to the end of his hair, he brought down a few strands of hair.

put down the comb and went out of the bathroom, and suddenly heard footsteps coming from the corridor outside, and then heard Sister-in-law Xu knocking on the door outside.

Zhang Fan opened the door, and Sister-in-law Xu was carrying a boiling water bottle, followed by a middle-aged woman with a slightly hunched back holding a footbath.

"Young man, I've brought you boiling water, and I've got a basin of hot water for you to wash your feet."

"Thank you, Sister-in-law Xu."

Sister-in-law Xu put the hot water bottle on the bedside table, instructed the middle-aged woman to put the footwashing water in the bathroom, and then told Zhang Fan to remember to close the window at night, the village has not been safe recently, don't be stolen.

After Sister-in-law Xu left, Zhang Fan walked into the bathroom and sat on a small stool, took off his shoes and was about to soak his feet, when his eyes unintentionally swept to the wooden comb, he felt that something was wrong, and the position he had just put after combing his hair was different.

Zhang Fan stood up and took the wooden comb, but there was nothing on the comb.

He remembered very well that when he combed his hair, there were a few strands of hair embedded in the wooden comb, but now none of them were gone.

"The uncle who sells cigarettes said that he can't leave anything behind, it seems that he has a point!"

I put the comb back in, soaked my feet for a while, and then picked up a nail clipper from the table to trim my nails.

After finishing the repair, Zhang Fan returned to the room and reclined on the bed, and someone knocked on the door after a while. It was the middle-aged woman who had just sent footwashing water with Sister-in-law Xu, saying that there were other guests who wanted to use the footbath.

The middle-aged woman took the footbath out of the room, Zhang Fan went into the bathroom to take a look, and sure enough, the few nails cut were gone.

He followed him out with his bag.

The middle-aged woman went to a room in the backyard with a footbath, and Zhang Fan came to the door of the room and secretly looked in through the gap.

The middle-aged woman in the room was standing in front of a table with a puppet on the table, as well as pen, ink, needle and thread.

Although the lights in the room were not bright, Zhang Fan could still see clearly, the middle-aged woman was holding a few strands of hair tied around a piece of nails, tied and stuffed into the puppet, picked up the needle and thread, and prepared to sew the mouth of the puppet with thread.

"There is a puppet in every paper figure in the ruins of the northern suburbs, and there is a person's name, date of birth, hair and nails in it, and this woman must be an accomplice if not the murderer in the ruins of the northern suburbs."

After sewing the puppet, the middle-aged woman put the puppet into a cloth bag, carried the bag out of the room, opened another small door in the courtyard, and disappeared into the night.

After passing through a few lanes, the middle-aged woman came to the gate of a compound that looked a little old, looked around for a while, and entered the compound.

Zhang Fan, who was hiding in the shadows, hurriedly followed, and when he came to the gate of the courtyard, he looked up, and there were four words written on it: 'Li Clan Ancestral Hall'.

Leaning against the door of the courtyard and looking in, the middle-aged woman was gone, and only some benches, tables and chairs could be faintly seen inside.

Just when Zhang Fan was thinking about whether to go in and investigate, there was a sound of footsteps inside, Zhang Fan hurriedly hid in the dark, and the middle-aged woman came out of the ancestral hall again, but the bag in her hand was gone.

"Why did she come out after so much time?"

"Where's the cloth bag in her hand?"

"This ancestral hall is inhabited, who did she hand over her cloth bag to?"

When the woman walked away, Zhang Fan entered the ancestral hall with him. He knew that the woman must have gone back to the hotel, and the most important thing now was to know where the cloth was wrapped in her hand.

There was silence in the ancestral hall, and Zhang Fan was careful not to make a sound.

The sound of the woman's footsteps coming out was coming from the front of the door, so he decided to go to the antechamber to check it out.

Zhang Fan entered the first room on the left side of the front hall, where there were several wooden statues, and there was a small incense burner lit with incense on the table below. Behind the wooden statue is a three-tiered niche with many spiritual tablets.

Just as Zhang Fan was about to come out of the first room, he suddenly heard something in the main hall next door, as if something was moving.

He crept to the window and looked through the gap, where there was a huge statue in the middle of the hall, which was moving to the side, revealing a small door, through which came a tall, thin man with a strange face.

The man walked to the offering table in front of the statue, picked up a cloth bag, and returned to the door, where the statue moved back. If you don't see it with your own eyes, no one will believe that there is a door behind the statue.

"I think I've seen this guy there?"

"It's him! The driver of the midnight car! ”

Zhang Fan suddenly remembered.