At nine o'clock in the morning on January 1, 2013, after the legendary apocalyptic year, I felt like I was reborn, but I still had to sit in front of the computer and bury my head in my latest mystery novel. Suddenly, a mobile phone ringing pulled my thoughts out of the structure of the case, and I glanced at my phone, and the caller was Liu Jingyang.

Liu Jingyang and I met in Huanan County in 08. At that time, I was working in a grain and oil company, and was sent to Huanan County to do the purchase of raw grain abroad, and he and his wife opened a cool skin shop next to the hotel where I lived.

Liu Jingyang's hometown is in the countryside, and during the years when I was stationed abroad, he introduced me to many sincere grain households, which helped me a lot in my work. However, after I quit my job in 2010 and returned to the city, I rarely contacted him, except for courtesy text messages during the New Year's holidays, or the occasional online encounter to ask each other about the current situation, and the relationship was nothing more.

So, I'm very surprised that Liu Jingyang Weishenme would suddenly call me at this time at the beginning of the year, but even stranger things are yet to come.

Before I could answer the phone, Liu Jingyang's hurried voice came from the phone: "It's thunder, right?" I have something I want to ask you for! Can you come to our village? Please! Please! He sounded nervous.

"It's me, what's wrong? Calm down! ”

"It's my brother Jingxiang! I want to ask you for help to pick him up and live there for two months, and then let him come back after the New Year, okay? ”

"Jing Xiang got into trouble?"

"It's not! This one...... This ...... "Liu Jingyang is hesitant, and there is obviously something unspeakable.

I don't know if it's because I've written too many mystery novels lately, but I always feel that things are not simple, so I didn't say yes, but continued to ask what happened.

But Liu Jingyang said: "This thing is ...... Can you just come and pick up Jing Xiang without asking? I beg you, you are the person I can ask for~~" His voice was almost crying.

It's hard for me to imagine what could make an old man cry and beg for help, apparently he is desperate.

"Good! I promise you! You'll have to tell me what's going on, though! "I said it firmly.

"This ......," Liu Jingyang only said one word and fell silent.

After a full minute, Liu Jingyang sighed heavily on the phone, and seemed to have finally calmed down, and then he told me in detail about the strange things that had happened in their village in the past ten years.

The strange thing began on the Chinese New Year's Eve of the Year of the Snake in 01.

When Liu Jingyang was 14 years old, he and six children from the same village played with the snow plow on the camel mountain behind the village. The six children who were with him were all twelve or thirteen years old that year, not as old as Liu Jingyang, so they all listened to him, so the seven children climbed the mountain together.

When he was halfway up the mountain, a very low roar suddenly sounded in the pine forest on the mountain, which Liu Jingyang had never heard before. Some children said it was a tiger, others a wolf, but these guesses were obviously not correct, so several children dared to continue up the mountain to find out.

When all seven children reached the top of the mountain, the roar was directly suppressed from the air, so that the children all clenched their noses and covered their ears and squatted on the ground, unable to get up!

The roar lasted for three or four seconds before it finally stopped, and several of the children looked up at the sky together.

It was a very cloudy day, especially on the top of Camel Mountain, where a big black cloud gathered! The black cloud was very low, so low that Liu Jingyang felt that he could touch it with his hand, and there was obviously a huge, thick and long gray-green shadow moving in the black cloud, which looked like a dragon.

Liu Jingyang was so frightened that he took a few steps back and almost sat on his ass, he quickly dragged the snow plow and turned his head to the side of the mountain, and then sat on the plow and slid down the mountain. As he skied, he could clearly hear a low roar coming from the sky. Finally slid to the foot of the mountain, Liu Jingyang hurriedly turned back to look at the mountain, but did not see the other six children coming down with him.

Liu Jingyang stood at the bottom of the mountain and was stunned for a while before he came back to his senses and shouted at the mountain, but after shouting for a long time, there was no response from other children.

Liu Jingyang thought about whether to go up the mountain again to have a look, but as soon as he took a step on his legs, the dragon's roar sounded again, and the sound was much louder than before! Liu Jingyang's head was numb from the shock, and when he looked in the direction of the sound, he found that the dragon shadow that was still in the clouds had fallen in the pine forest on the mountain, and was climbing down the mountain.

Liu Jingyang was so frightened that he snorted, turned his head and rushed back to the house, and bumped into his father as soon as he entered the door. As soon as he saw that it was his own father, Liu Jingyang cried at that time, and while crying, he told his father that there was a dragon on the camel mountain, and the dragon ate the two fat and the iron pillar.

His father didn't believe Liu Jingyang's words at all, and gave Liu Jingyang a fat beating for "lying". Liu Jingyang didn't dare to say more, so he had to run to the kang in the cottage at home and wrap his body in a big quilt. In winter, the fire kang in the northeast burned warmly, but Liu Jingyang on the kang kept shivering.

On Chinese New Year's Eve, no one in the entire village was in the mood for the New Year, because all six children who had gone up the mountain with Liu Jingyang had disappeared. People found Fifteen on the first day of the new year, and even the police came, but they never found the six children.

This is just the beginning of strange things!

For the next eleven years, one or two children disappeared for no reason on Chinese New Year's Eve in the village, all twelve or thirteen years old. The police in the prefecture have been investigating, but they have never been able to find the reason, and Zuihou has become an unsolved case.

This year's Chinese New Year's Eve is February, Jingxiang has a birthday in January, and by February he will be twelve years old, which is exactly within the age range of the missing child, so Liu Jingyang called for help.

Maybe it's an occupational disease, I always like to look for suspicions, so after listening to Liu Jingyang's words, I immediately asked: "Since we know that children will go missing every year, why don't you just transfer the 12- and 13-year-old children in the village to the county seat?" ”

"No...... No, there are rules in the village, no one is allowed to send children away. Liu Jingyang's voice trembled a little, as if he was very scared.

“weishenme？” I'm still curious: "I'm afraid that all the children of this age are gone, and the children of other ages will suffer?" Then it's just a kid and go! Or the whole village goes to the county seat to take refuge, anyway, it is Chinese New Year's Eve. ”

"No, this is a rule set by the village, I can't tell you more. I also secretly called you, and the people in the county can't believe it, so I can only ask you for help. Please, I please! ”

"Alright! All right! I couldn't stand the pleading tone, so I agreed, "I'll drive there now, and I'll be there in four hours." ”

"Great! Too xiexie you! By the way, call me when you are about to arrive in the village, and I will take Jingxiang to the road at the entrance of the village, and you can take him and go directly. If the people in the village see it, Jing Xiang won't be able to leave! Don't forget to call me ahead! ”

Liu Jingyang told him several times, and I promised several times, so he was willing to hang up the phone.

At the end of the call, many question marks immediately appeared in my mind.

The gray-green dragon shadow can be understood as a weather phenomenon similar to a mirage, but it is difficult to explain it by weather phenomena when children have been innocently missing for twelve consecutive years, and they are all twelve or thirteen years old. In addition, Liu Jingyang's failure to disappear that day is obviously related to his age of 14.

What exactly is a gray-green dragon shadow? Where have the children gone? Will there be a link between Weishenme's age and disappearance?

I don't know what to do.

In addition, the attitude of the village towards the disappearance of children is also very suspicious! It seems that the people in Murakami know something, and they have set a certain rule that no one can break.

What are the people in the village hiding? I still can't figure it out.

With these questions in mind, I put on my coat, took my car keys and left the house.