"There's one thing I regret very much now...... I didn't finish reading that "Black Town". At the beginning, my attention was focused on Qiao Yu's disappearance, and I ignored Qiao Zhenbang's warning to me, and I didn't delve into what Qiao Zhenbang said about the plot in "Black Town" becoming a reality. It's really a pity, there must be very important information in the version of "Black Town" written by Qiao Yu, but I only read half of that book, and I don't know anything about the plot development behind it, especially the most important ending. ”

"Yes, among those of us, you are a little bit more literary, except for Stinky Fish, we are all from the criminal investigation team of the Police Bureau, and we may still be interested in studying professional books, so we are not too interested in it - not to mention Stinky Fish, he is only interested in beautiful women's illustrated magazines such as "Playboy" and "Men's Clothing" - so we haven't read the best-selling "Black Town" at all...... I can't help it. ”

To be honest, I'm not a lover of books, which can be seen from my academic performance in school back then, otherwise, I wouldn't have been reduced to being a detective, poor and dangerous, and self-employed, and I had to pay for my own life insurance.

To be reasonable, if I love to study and have good grades, I can become a lawyer or something after graduating from college, and then I will explore the unknown as my hobby, and make a lot of money, but also be an amateur explorer, wouldn't it be beautiful?

Even Qiao Yu's "Black Town", if it weren't for the gimmick of "the debut of the son of the famous terrorist Qiao Zhenbang" and the gimmick of "The Prodigal Mutant Writer", it would not have swept the entire Jinguan City, let alone made me follow the trend and buy a copy.

- It's a pity that I didn't finish reading it.

This illustrates the fact that many times a decision you make unintentionally can have far-reaching consequences.

Like a butterfly flapping its wings on a small yellow flower in New York's Central Park, it disturbs the air, and the air flow gradually increases, eventually causing a storm and thunder in distant Tokyo......

Suspension bridges across deep ravines often start with a small stone tied to a thin line.

Maybe a person's life will be changed by a little inadvertent minutiae of the year, and from then on they will go to different forks in the road, and they will never look back.

In topology, this is called the butterfly effect, and it is also an important concept in chaos theory - and chaos theory, I think, is very suitable for "academic" exposition of the profession of spiritual detective.

Chaos theory, roughly speaking, means that small deviations are unavoidable, and very small changes in the initial conditions, after continuous amplification, will lead to large differences in future prospects, which are often difficult to predict or have a certain randomness.

The same goes for detectives.

Any mistake, or omission, can lead to a change in the final outcome.

In a sense, every detective is a researcher of "chaos" and a practitioner of chaos theory!

We observe the world with an eye that is always full of vigilance and suspicion, trying to discover order in disorder, trying to predict too much of the unpredictable, trying to understand too much of the unspeakable, and trying to peek into the horror behind the unknown.

And I firmly believe that as a spirit detective, I will not fail here.

It doesn't matter if it's called Blackwater Town or Taiping Town.

Regardless of the tattoo-like scars on my body, I will find out the truth.

……

When the scheduled time came, except for Li Yi and Zhou Ou, who stayed behind, the other four people, including me, gathered at the supermarket on the first floor.

In order to keep the movement as quiet as possible, we didn't turn on the lights, Cheng Cheng and Lao Dao each carried a wind lantern in their hands, and the style was similar to what we had seen before.

We have one of these lanterns in each of our rooms, which must have been prepared for us by Haruko, so maybe the town does have power outages from time to time.

"Everything is ready, right?" In the light of the wind lantern, Cheng Cheng looked at us and saw that we all nodded to indicate that we were ready, "Then let's go." He said.

The flashlight was pinned to my waist, and Liu Haijun was carrying an old liquor bottle with gasoline in his hand.

Although the shop door is an old-fashioned door with a detachable door panel, if you simply enter and exit, you can enter and exit through a small door on the side without removing the door panel.

The deadbolt of the small door is a very heavy piece of wood, and against the doorpost with the thickness of my arm, I took a lot of effort to remove the doorpost, and then removed the deadbolt, sighing in my heart, Haruko, this little girl is really insecure, this security work is really done.

"Squeak-"

The door opened a crack.

A gust of wind wrapped in mist suddenly blew in my face, and it was unusually cold!

I couldn't help but shrink my neck, but in an instant, I inadvertently glanced at the door frame, and all of a sudden, I froze in place!

I saw a human face, standing in the darkness above the door frame, looking into my eyes!

The human face is similar to Haruko's appearance, except that there is an obvious black mole at the corner of the left mouth, and the whole face plate is also larger, like Haruko when she grows up.

This adult version of Haruko, with her hair slightly disheveled in a bun on the top of her head, and a pair of eyes emitting a cold light, was staring at me coldly.

Like a venomous snake.

It suddenly occurred to me that I had seen these eyes somewhere...... In a split second, I remembered that I had indeed seen these eyes!

——In the living room of the Qiao family's old house, the man in the military uniform in the strange painting, he also showed such a pair of eyes!

The eyes of a living person whose pupils are dilated but still open in anger do not belong to the living.

It's actually nothing, the real reason why I stiffened all over was that under the man's face, I could only see the long neck, but not the body!

Her neck bowed in an arc like the body of a serpent, and then extended upwards into the thick black mist above my head......

It's a ...... A monster with a snake body!

"Aggie, why are you blocking the door?"

Cheng Cheng's voice came from behind him, and the chrome yellow light of the wind lamp became stronger.

The human-headed monster rolled its eyes behind me, its long head and neck retracted, and in the blink of an eye it scurried upwards and disappeared into the dark night mist.

"What do you see when you look up?"

I swallowed and withdrew my gaze: "I seemed to see just now - forget it, it may be my hallucination, nothing ......"

Outside, there was no light at night, and there was a thick layer of night fog floating in the air, so you couldn't see your fingers.

Cheng Cheng used the wind lamp in his hand to shine, the light only showed a few meters, and then it was reflected back by the fog, only to see the fog shadows in the distance, it seemed to hide countless monsters, only occasionally revealing the flickering corners of some buildings, which could not be reassuring, but made people feel more uneasy in their hearts.

Cheng Cheng looked at it for a while: "Okay, let's go." ”

The rest of the mermaids rushed out.

Cheng Cheng was in front, Lao Dao was behind, Liu Haijun and I were in the middle, and the group was soon swallowed by the night fog.

We march in silence in the night.

After only a few minutes, I had the illusion that I was sailing at night in the boundless ocean as if I was on a ship, and the sound of a storm and wind was raging in the distance, and the tsunami was approaching, but in the darkness, the ship had no direction and could only follow the flow and resign itself to fate.

The four of us are the sea ship, and Blackwater is the sea of night where the storm is approaching.

"Is the fog in the mountains so heavy? It's an exaggeration. The old knife grumbled softly behind me.

Indeed, if the fog were thicker, we might not even be able to make out the road—even so, Cheng Cheng would have stopped and identified his direction more and more often.

I vaguely answered the old knife, still thinking about the monster I had just bumped into when I was out of the house.

Of course, I was sure that what I saw was not an illusion, and that the monster that looked like Haruko's human-headed snake body was real.

As a spirit detective, distinguishing between reality and fantasy is a necessary skill - it doesn't even require special training, and after a lot of experience, you must have a certain amount of experience.

It's like the main characters in the movie "Inception", they always carry a spinning top with them to distinguish between dreams and reality: if the spinning top can't stop, it's in a dream.

It's the same with detectives, but we don't need a spinning top, what we need is to observe and think.

My master told me that there is no such thing as a perfect falsehood.

Dreams or illusions are false and imperfect, but we are real – whether it is the soul or the body, so there must be disharmony, find out, and you will have the secret.

We've seen headless ghosts in Big Locust Tree Village before, but what I've seen today is a little different - why is there an extra snake-like neck?

Moreover, Why is it so much like Haruko?

Could it be......

I thought of a possibility in an instant, but this possibility conflicted with my previous judgment.

Was it a mistake in my judgment, or was there something else going on?

I won't tell Cheng Cheng what I saw for the time being, because I don't want to cause unnecessary panic among everyone.

This commission is indeed the most sinister and treacherous of the events I have experienced, and until now, there are still countless mysteries in front of me, which not only obscure the truth, but also obscure the way out.

Just as I was still thinking, a gust of wind suddenly blew beside me, and a cloud of mist hit my face, and it was like a substance, instantly fascinating my eyes!

I could only hear the old knife behind me shouting: "Liu Haijun, be careful!" ”

Then came Liu Haijun's cry of pain!

"Smack!"

With the sound of glass breaking on the stone floor, a strong smell of gasoline filled my nostrils!

I waved my hand and fanned away the black mist in front of me - the black mist touched my skin, it was cold, I had the illusion of reaching into the cold water, and as the black mist dissipated, my hands were actually soaking wet.

I opened my eyes suddenly, but I saw Liu Haijun fall to the ground, and two "people" covered in darkness were each grabbing one of Liu Haijun's legs, trying to drag him into a dark alley!

The two "people" were shrouded in a layer of black smoke, and there was only one human figure, whose faces and clothes could not be seen clearly at all, only in the "head" part, a pair of red eyes were exposed, and the eyes were full of fierce light.

"Ahhh Help me! ”

Liu Haijun screamed miserably, his hands tightly covering his eyes, blood flowing from his fingers, it was already black.

Seeing this scene, I immediately touched the bright flashlight on my waist and shouted at the same time: "Wind lantern! Throw the wind lantern over! ”

As soon as he finished speaking, the wind lantern in the old knife's hand crossed a yellow arc of light and threw it directly at the two "black fog people".

As the light of the wind lantern approached, the black fog on the black fog man was illuminated by the light, and immediately there were obvious signs of dissipation, like a piece of cold ice evaporating under the scorching sun, and made a "zizi" sound!

Before the wind lamp hit his body, the two black fog people let go of Liu Haijun's legs and retreated to the dim light, two pairs of red eyes, still glaring at us fiercely.

His gaze was like a cold piece of iron, like a wolf, like an eagle, like a snake...... Like all cruel and terrible animals!

And at this time, I finally held the flashlight in my hand.

"Smack!"

A dazzling white light suddenly shot out from my hand, enveloping the two black mist people who still refused to leave Liu Haijun's side!

"Shhhh

The black mist man hissed in pain, and the black mist in his whole body quickly subsided, and for a while, the sound of "zizi" was loud!

In just a few seconds, those two black mist people fell apart under the strong light, turned into black qi, and finally disappeared without a trace!

Lao Dao and Cheng Cheng lifted Liu Haijun from the ground, and the latter was still covering his eyes and screaming in pain!

"Navy, what's wrong with you?"

"Eyes, it hurts!"

Cheng Cheng held Liu Haijun's wrists hard: "Navy, you put down your hands first, I'll look at your eyes!" ”

Liu Haijun trembled and put down his hands stained with black blood, but immediately shouted in horror: "Team Cheng, it hurts, my eyes can't see!" I can't see! ”

Cheng Cheng and I, who were facing Liu Haijun, gasped in an instant!

I saw that on Liu Haijun's face, the part that was originally the eye turned into two holes with blurred flesh and blood, and deep bones!

The rotten flesh and the blood that turned black slid down Liu Haijun's face and flowed a big puddle on his trouser leg!

Cheng Cheng and Liu Haijun were only a dozen centimeters apart, almost facing each other and squatting in front of Liu Haijun, this time he bore the brunt, Cheng Cheng stumbled, sat down on the ground, and let go of Liu Haijun's wrists with both hands.

"Team Cheng, I can't see it, I've shed a lot of blood!"

As soon as his hands were let go, Liu Haijun immediately subconsciously touched his eyes - his fingers actually poked directly into the two blood holes where he was originally his eyes!

And dug up a puddle of slimy rotten flesh and bruises!

At this moment, a sour and bitter taste welled up in my throat, and I felt a chill all over my body, and I almost couldn't help but vomit it on the spot!

"What about my eyes! My eyes are gone! Ahhhhh

Liu Haijun stretched his hands forward abruptly, touching them forward, and the voice in his throat had turned into a heart-rending howl: "What do I have in my hands?" Team Cheng, how can there be two holes in my face! Where do my eyes go? Uhhh

Cheng Cheng grabbed Liu Haijun's hands tightly again: "Navy, calm down!" ”

Almost at the same time, the old knife also yelled at me—

"Aji, watch your back!"