The lights in the room were a little dim, and Grandma bent over and gave Zhang Tian a bowl of egg noodles. Zhang Tianyi sniffled, it's been a good year, nothing has changed in the village, but Grandma's waist is getting hunched and her hair is getting whiter.

Grandma looked at Zhang Tianyi and said kindly: "I know that the old woman knows that although the baby boy in our village has gone out, he still has to come back after all, there can be many families, but there is only one place to give birth to you and raise you." ”

Zhang Tian nodded and said yes, in the past few years since her father's disappearance, Grandma has been cleaning her ancestral house every day, because she always believes that she will come back sooner or later.

Grandma brought the noodles to Zhang Tianyi and asked, "Tianyi baby, how did you come back so late?" Didn't you walk back? ”

Zhang Tianyi took a bite and said vaguely: "No, I met the third master in the town, and the third master sent me back ......."

"Which third master?" Grandma poured Zhang Tianyi a glass of water. Zhang Tianyi took it and said: "It's the one who drives the tractor in the village." ”

After hearing this, Grandma smiled and said, "Tianyi Wazai is talking nonsense, your third master died the night before." Zhang Tianyi chuckled in his heart, put down his chopsticks and said, "How come?" Obviously, the third master sent me back, and he also said that his newly replaced tractor cost tens of thousands! ”

Speaking of this, the smile on Grandma's face suddenly froze, and Zhang Tian knew that the third master might really be dead when he saw Grandma's appearance. But if the third master really died the night before yesterday, who was the one who just sent him back?

Zhang Tianyi felt a chill down his spine, he wouldn't hit the evil spirit, right!?

Grandma sighed and said, "Your third master is good, I went to plow the land for others when it was dark the night before, but I accidentally drove the tractor into the reservoir next to it, and the good people were suffocated to death." It's good to be a good person before you were alive, this time I was probably afraid that you would encounter any danger, so I sent you back, Ming'er, your third master is out of the funeral, you also go to see him off. ”

Zhang Tian nodded, and then suddenly thought of something and asked, "By the way, Grandma, do you still have the key to my ancestral hall?" ”

"What are you doing with the key?" Grandma walked to the back room on crutches and said, "When Qiming disappeared, he came to look for his wife once, and after handing over the key to your ancestral hall, he left in a hurry. ”

Zhang Tian nodded a little, it turned out that his father had disappeared and came to find his grandmother. Thinking of this, Zhang Tianyi asked, "Did my father tell you anything when he left?" ”

Grandma said while rummaging for the key: "At that time, Qiming seemed to be in a hurry, and left the key and left, and I didn't ask much about the old woman." I knew that this would be the case, and the old woman was desperate to stop him, but it has been so many years, and I don't know what happened to Qiming......" Grandma slowly walked out of the back room, and it seemed that she had found the key.

When Grandma handed the key to Zhang Tianyi, she sighed and said, "I remember what Qiming said when he gave me the key...... Say anything, I'll come back to get the keys in the ......"

After hearing this, Zhang Tian lowered his head and thought about it. Before his father disappeared, he handed over the key to the ancestral hall to Grandma for safekeeping, but he didn't explain anything to Grandma, just said that he would come back to Grandma one day to get the key. But the strange thing is how did the father know that he would come back? And did you expect that you were coming for the ancestral hall? Zhang Tianyi felt that after the serial murder case was solved, it was necessary to investigate his father's whereabouts.

Zhang Tianyi took the key and washed his face with cold water, he was scorched by a series of things in the past few days, not only physical exertion, but also a mess in his head.

"Grandma, it's not early, your old man should rest first." The top priority is to find out the origin of the wooden plaque first, and Zhang Tianyi packed up and prepared to go to the ancestral hall to have a look.

Grandma said with some concern: "Tianyi baby, if you don't know it, you can't see anything clearly in this black light, don't go wrong......"

Zhang Tianyi originally planned to go over tomorrow, after all, it was already very late, and he had encountered the third master's incident before, so it would be false to say that he was not afraid in his heart. But when I think of Zhang Tianyi, who is thousands of miles away in Ping'an Town, I really can't sit still, the serial murder case has not been solved yet, and the murderer will definitely not give up, and he will take action in the next few days, and the sooner he finds out the truth of the matter, there may be one less death in the town.

As soon as he thought of this, Zhang Tianyi's heart became anxious, he told his grandmother not to worry, he was measured, and then picked up the flashlight and rushed to the direction of the ancestral hall.

The ancestral hall is on the hill of the village, and it takes about half an hour to walk. Zhang Tianyi deliberately took a long detour from the west end of the village, and when he passed by the door of the third master's house, he found that the third master's son was guarding the spirit, and a black coffin was parked in the hall.

The reason why Zhang Tianyi took a long detour was to see if the third master was dead or not, but it turned out that he had indeed hit the evil spirit. When passing by the door of the third master's house, Zhang Tianyi couldn't help but speed up his pace, but he always felt that something behind him was blowing cold air on his neck. Zhang Tianyi looked back and found it empty, thinking that maybe he was too nervous, and then wrapped himself in clothes and disappeared into the darkness.

The village is in the plain area, the plain area is less mountainous, except for only a few famous mountains, the rest are some small hills with an altitude of no more than 300 meters, and the ancestral hall of Zhang Tian's family is built on one of the hills. Because of the low altitude, there are no aggressive animals on the mountain, so Zhang Tianyi has gone very smoothly.

After more than half an hour, Zhang Tianyi stopped, and could faintly see the shadow of the building in front of him by the moonlight. Zhang Tianyi knew that it was his family's ancestral hall. Zhang Tianyi has not been to this ancestral hall a few times, but his father often comes when he is not missing, and he doesn't know what to do in it, so he often stays overnight.

The flashlight didn't seem to have much power, and the light emitted was not only faint but also flickering. Zhang Tianyi walked to the door of the ancestral hall in a few steps, and was just about to take the key to open the door, but the flashlight suddenly went out with a "pop" at this time.

Zhang Tianyi's heart suddenly became nervous, he kept looking back, and something seemed to be watching him in the dark. I don't know if it's dazzling or what, when I was holding the key and fumbling for the keyhole, there seemed to be a white shadow flashing.

"Who!?" Zhang Tianyi immediately became vigilant, but after a few minutes, he didn't find anything around. Zhang Tian let out a sigh, and it seemed that he was still too nervous.

After calming down, Zhang Tianyi quickly opened the lock, and when he pushed the door open, a smell of rot in the ancestral hall rushed to his face. Because the ancestral hall was built on a mountain, there was no electricity inside, and the flashlight used for lighting had just done its last part. Zhang Tianyi looked left and right, and then found a half-lit candle on the offering table in the ancestral hall, which seemed to be used by Zhang Qiming before.

Zhang Tian lit a cigarette by the way when he lit a candle, thinking that it was good that he brought a lighter, otherwise he was really blind.

It wasn't until the candlelight stabilized that the scene in front of Zhang Tianyi slowly became clear.

Probably for professional reasons, Zhang Tianyi will observe the surrounding environment in advance whenever he goes to a place. The area of the ancestral hall is not very large, and there is an offering table and two futons in it, and there is nothing else, nothing more than some sacrificial supplies such as incense burners and fruit plates.

There are some spiritual positions enshrined on the offering table, and some of the spiritual positions may have been eaten and oxidized by insects because they have been eaten by insects, and the smell of decay when the door was opened before was emitted by the oxidized spiritual seats.

Zhang Tianyi looked at the columns of spiritual positions in front of him, and realized that he had so many ancestors.

Zhang Tianyi found his mother's spiritual position at first sight, and when he took it down, he found that a lot of dust had fallen on it, so he wiped it casually and prepared to take it back to Ping'an Town later. Zhang Tianyi didn't forget what the purpose of his trip was, so he kowtowed a few times to the many spiritual positions and then stood on the offering table and rummaged through.

When he was a child, Zhang Tianyi and his father came to the ancestral hall, and saw a strange spiritual throne at that time, the reason why it is strange is because the name of the deceased was not written on the spiritual seat, let alone the year of birth and death, but the head of an animal was depicted, and it was tightly covered by a foot of red cloth.

Zhang Tianyi didn't know what kind of animal it was, it looked a bit like a fox, but it was a bit like a wolf, until many years later he found a wooden plaque engraved with the same animal in Ping'an Town, thousands of miles away. However, I heard Lin Fan say that it was a bit like a totem, but Zhang Tianyi studied it carefully and did not find any tribe or nation related to this totem in ancient times.

"Strange, I clearly remember the ...... on this" Zhang Tianyi rummaged through the spiritual position on the offering table and didn't find what he was looking for.

"So it's ...... here" Zhang Tianyi carefully checked again, and when he looked up, he found a spiritual seat covered with a red cloth on the beam of the ancestral hall.

Although Zhang Tianyi wondered how this spiritual position could be on the beam, it was important to take it down first. Zhang Tianyi stepped on his toes and found that the beam head was too high for him to reach, so he stacked the two futons below and stepped on them.

Zhang Tianyi leaned over and stretched out his hand, but the center of his foot suddenly lost weight, and when he was about to fall, his fingertips touched the red cloth on the spiritual seat.

When Zhang Tianyi fell, the spiritual position also fell, and the red cloth on the spiritual position was also ripped off by him. The spiritual position under the red cloth is no different from other spiritual positions, except that at the moment when the red cloth is torn open, the totem depicted on it suddenly opens its eyes, and it seems to come alive at that moment.