While Edward was digging his grave, his young rookie partner was on his way to the Lost Lake.

As for why they can't act together today, Qi Zihuan's explanation is that as a Chinese, there are some traditional taboos that must be observed, such as in Eastern customs, there is a saying that Chongliu is true, that is, if there are relatives and friends who are six years different from the person buried, they need to be avoided, otherwise it will bring bad luck.

Of course, in fact, you only need to turn around and avoid it at the moment when the coffin is buried, Qi Zihuan exaggerated this taboo, saying that it should not appear near the funeral at all.

One of the advantages of modern society is that as long as it is not a cult recognized by various governments, the idea of religious freedom is still basically popularized, and there are really unavoidable customs in the faith, and they can generally be respected.

So, Qi Zihuan skipped away from work very happily and took the former little Billy and the current little seventeen to the lake outside the town for an outing.

The Lost Lake is a long gourd shape with a long circumference, but in the narrow middle of the lake, the distance between the two sides of the lake is only a few tens of meters, and you can see the opposite side clearly through the water. Perhaps because of the declining Livingsfield, locals have moved away and there are almost no out-of-town tourists, leaving the once peaceful and beautiful Lost Lake overgrown with weeds and garbage, and the lake is dead silent.

Qi Zihuan stood by the lake with Xiao Seventeen in his hand, squatted down and tested the water temperature, and then walked lazily along the shore of the lake.

Jokes aside, he's not a winter swimmer and has no interest in swimming across the lake in this kind of weather.

The Grand Theatre, built decades ago, is just across the lake, and the original grandeur is now a ruined ruin.

After walking a few hundred meters, Qi Zihuan found a small ferry in a crazy long grass and trees, and there were two wooden boats with lost paint tied to them, which were gently swaying on the lake, and it seemed that they could still be used.

Qi Zihuan swung his oars, the boat pushed away the waves, and one man and one puppet soon came to the opposite shore of the Lost Lake.

After entering the eerie entrance to the hellish theater gate, in front of you is a large performance hall. Xiao and many other artists received applause and amazement here. It's just that now the gorgeous crystal lamps have fallen and broken, many vines and dead trees have grown between the neat rows of seats, and all kinds of tattered furniture and costumes are piled up on the stage, and the former glory and excitement have long been lost in the wind.

Qi Zihuan carefully avoided the debris all over the floor, and followed the passage behind the stage to find a staircase leading to the second floor.

On the second floor are small rooms, although they are dilapidated and messy, but you can still see that some are dressing rooms and some are actors' lounges.

Qi Zihuan slowly searched for each room, and finally found Mary near the end of the corridor. The room where Xiao once lived. Thanks to Marie. Xiao is a resident artist, and the show is wonderful and popular, so the treatment he received during his lifetime is actually quite good.

The room has a large classical bed with a full-length mirror, a closet and a rocking chair, and on the other side of the room is a solid wood desk, and next to a half-walled bookcase with some worn-out books and manuscripts, covered in cobwebs. The windows of the room were almost completely peeled off, and a few rays of light slipped in with the cold wind blowing from the lake.

Qi Zihuan noticed a crow puppet placed on the bookcase, and after brushing off the cobwebs and dust, it was almost exactly the same as the madwoman Marianne held in her arms all day long, and the crow's belly was even engraved with the same name - Marianne.

There is also a girl doll on the rocking chair, wearing a white lace baby dress, sitting upright like a real person. Qi Zihuan picked it up and studied it, and found that it was different from Billy's structure, except for the eyes and jaw, all the joints in the body were immobile, and a rope that was not long was exposed behind him.

Qi Zihuan pulled hard.

"Mom."

The sound of the puppet's machine rang out abruptly, wafting through the empty room, its big eyes blinking along with the sound.

I don't know if I lost my balance when I picked up the puppet, or because of the vibration of the sound, the wooden rocking chair was also squeaking back and forth.

"It should be called Daddy." Qi Zihuan complained with a little smile and put the doll down.

continued to rummage, and finally dragged out a large dead leather case under the bed.

When I opened it, it was full of all kinds of drafts, and the name was written in the lower right corner of each one, which should be Marie. The design drawings of Xiao's one hundred and one puppets.

There was a notebook at the bottom of the box, and Qi Zihuan looked through it carefully, and his mouth kept sighing in surprise.

It is not a drawing of a specific doll, but all hand-drawn puppet structure drawings, according to different categories, divided into adults, children and animals, and at the same time there are hand-held puppets, string puppets, furnishing puppets and other kinds of distinctions, each structural decomposition contains cross-section, longitudinal section of the perspective.

There are even illustrations of the proportions of muscles and bones of real people, and the details are very rich.

I can't help but be amazed by Qi Zihuan, this notebook can be said to be a textbook for making traditional puppets, as long as you take it back and follow it, you can definitely become a puppet master who is qualified to open the door and accept apprentices.

On the last page of the notebook, handwritten Marie. Xiao set himself a small goal - to make a perfect puppet.

After Qi Zihuan read it carefully, he shamelessly put the notebook into his pocket.

Although he is still a paper-binding man, he can't ask for a Luban statue to be a carpenter on a whim in the future, and this notebook will be the first skill book at that time.

Just as he was concentrating on studying, Xiao Seventeen, who was on the table, suddenly let out a tremble, his eyes were rolling in circles, and his limbs and joints were twisted and shaken, knocking dust on the table.

"In modern society, it is not right for a craftsman to stick to the door thinking, and it is the right way to recruit talents to spread the essence of tradition." Qi Zihuan smiled wickedly and said in a low voice, "I just took your book, can't you hold it back?" ”

After speaking, the palm of his hand pressed on Xiao Seventeen's body, and the puppet immediately stopped moving and returned to a quiet beautiful man.

Qi Zihuan frowned and stood for a while, as if searching for a memory in his mind. Then he picked up the puppet and went downstairs.

After searching for a long time behind the stage on the first floor, I finally found a narrow passage that could only be passed by one person.

After passing through, there was a large dark secret room, without any light, and the fingers could not be seen.

Qi Zihuan took out the police flashlight hanging from his waist and saw that the ground was full of all kinds of broken or half-finished puppets.

One of the walls of the chamber was covered by a red curtain.

The curtain lifted, and in the dust, there was a whole wall of puppets.

Don't count, a whole hundred.