In the empty courtyard, there was only the sound of chopsticks and porcelain colliding. After a while, the group should have finished eating, and put down the bowl again. The chopsticks were passed back in turn like they were divided at the beginning, and finally all of them were received in the hands of the middle-aged man in the lead.

The middle-aged man in the lead bowed to the old lady beside Xia Beifeng, picked up the lantern, and walked in the direction they came. The others immediately stood in a row again and walked after the middle-aged man.

"It's a pity, it's rare that you still make such a table of good dishes, I can't eat it yet." Xia Beifeng watched the group disappear at a corner of the main house, retracted his gaze, and said to the old lady with a smile: "They're all gone, then I'll help you clean up the table...... Ah yes, I forgot to ask for advice, what should I call you? ”

The old lady seemed to be stunned for a moment when she heard this, but soon regained her smiling expression and told Xia Beifeng: "My surname is Lan, you can call me Granny Lan, and it's okay to call me Grandma Lan...... Someone will clean up the table later, so you can go back first. ”

"Don't you really need to help?" Xia Beifeng asked again without giving up.

The old lady pursed her lips and nodded.

"That's embarrassing." Xia Beifeng was no longer polite, stood up and prepared to go back, "I'll go first." It's too dark, so be careful when you go back. ”

The old lady waved at him as a farewell.

So Xia Beifeng went back to the house with peace of mind.

He went back to the house and rummaged through his bag, which was all there untouched. No one seems to have touched his things.

Xia Beifeng looked at it for a while, picked out a bag of biscuits and a bottle of mineral water, zipped up his backpack, and began to eat his dinner.

The plastic bag of the biscuit had half a fingerprint on it that was not very obvious. If Xia Beifeng's memory is not wrong, then this backpack should have been touched.

What's wrong with that old lady. She didn't want to give it to her in the afternoon, and now it's turning it over again...... What the hell is this?

Xia Beifeng took out the two letters from his clothes with a biscuit in his mouth. There was no light in the room, so he could only observe the envelope by the light of his phone's screen, hesitating to open it.

Just then, there was a soft knock at the door.

Xia Beifeng looked up at the door, and there was a person standing outside the door. The man seemed to be holding a candle or something in his hand, and the light of the fire even shone through the window not far from the door, and a hazy orange-red color peeked through the papier-mâché window, adding a bit of warmth to the room.

The man knocked on the door three times, and after a moment's wait, he knocked three more.

Xia Beifeng walked over and opened the door.

The old lady surnamed Lan was standing in the doorway, holding a delicate candlestick in her hand, looking out the window to see something. As soon as Xia Beifeng opened the door, she was startled.

"Are you alright?" Xia Beifeng stretched out his hand to help her, "I didn't scare you, you." ”

The old lady looked frightened and caressed her chest for a long time before she came back to her senses.

"I remembered that you don't have a light in this house, so I'll send you a candle." The old lady said and handed the candlestick in her hand to Xia Beifeng, and then said to him: "You take it, put it on the table and pour it carefully, and remember to blow it out before going to bed at night." ”

"Thank you so much, and I came here for a special trip." Xia Beifeng held the candlestick, and when he saw that the old lady seemed to be a little hesitant to say something, he asked her, "Do you have anything else to tell me?" ”

"It's a bit of a thing......" the old lady said in a hurry, the expression on her face was very tangled.

Xia Beifeng looked at her with a smile, his eyes full of curiosity.

"Forget it, it's actually fine." The old lady grinded for a long time, but finally didn't say anything. She took two steps back, turned her face away, and looked in the middle of the house in a certain direction.

After a long while, she turned her head and smiled at Xia Beifeng "charmingly".

"You go to bed early, this house may be noisy at night, don't take it too seriously.

Xia Beifeng nodded.

"Then I'll go, you can rest." The old lady said another word before turning and walking to the backyard.

"Go slowly, be careful." Xia Beifeng said a word of concern to the old lady's back, and closed the door with a candle.

He placed the candlestick on the table, took a chair and sat down, and opened a letter in the candlelight.

The letter looked like a woman's letter to the man she liked...... But this man doesn't seem to like her, and he rejects the girl's confession head-on?

"This man is really not a thing, he actually makes the little girl sad......" Xia Beifeng sighed at the letter, but after thinking about it carefully, he felt that something seemed to be wrong, and read the letter again word by word.

"When they are all married, they still go to flirt with other little girls, and they are still their own students...... It's just not a thing! ”

Xia Beifeng finished his comments on the letter, and after memorizing its contents almost correctly, he folded it back into the envelope.

Then he opened another letter.

A blank piece of paper was pulled out of it.

Xia Beifeng looked at the white paper carefully at the candlelight boy for a while, and didn't see anything, so he poured some water on the white paper.

Nothing appeared.

He roasted the paper on the candle flame for a while, and the paper remained unchanged.

No way.

Xia Beifeng unbelievably saw the blank paper.

Seems like it's really a blank slate?

When a little girl writes you a love letter, you'll have a blank slate, what do you mean, hey! It's better not to reply!

Xia Beifeng sighed and wanted to put the blank paper back in the envelope as it was. When I picked up the envelope, I suddenly thought of something, and glanced at the façade of the envelope.

The envelope was empty, and there was nothing left.

Xia Beifeng held up the envelope and looked carefully at the candlelight.

There seemed to be something inside the envelope, glowing. Xia Beifeng stretched out his finger and touched the thing that was glowing.

Looks like a piece of clear glue?

Xia Beifeng suddenly realized, and forcefully pulled out the transparent glue from the envelope. Glued to the transparent piece of glue was a small piece of paper with only four small words written on it: "Do it yourself."

Xia Beifeng suddenly threw the envelope and the blank paper on the table in anger.

Good for yourself, uncle!

Xia Beifeng was alone here for a long time, and finally reluctantly put the blank piece of paper back in the envelope. I took out my phone and opened Baidu.

Happily, there is also netting.

Xia Beifeng searched for the names of places around here, and clicked in one by one to see.

Half an hour later, Xia Beifeng raised his head, pressed his somewhat stiff neck, and moved left and right.

You should do your homework before you come. He thought to himself.

Although he had vaguely seemed to have been cheated when he saw the strange old lady in the afternoon, he really didn't expect this time to be so troublesome.

More than a dozen people have been missing in this place in the last five years, and although it is not too strange to say that a dozen people go missing every year in such a deep mountain, these missing people ......

Xia Beifeng glanced at a web page where the mobile phone screen was now staying.

It was a headline story about an art teacher who took a few students to the mountains to sketch, only to be gone.

There is also a photo on the page of the teacher and the student.

Coincidentally, this art teacher happens to look exactly like the middle-aged man who took the lead at dinner tonight.

Xia Beifeng carefully recalled the faces of the people he saw tonight, and matched them with the news he had just searched one by one.

The art teacher and his seven students.

The family of three who drove back to their hometown had a child who was only five years old.

I want to build a tourist resort in the mountains, and I came to investigate the real estate dealer who disappeared.

The geological survey team that came to find the stones, three people.

A lost old scavenger.

The police investigating the accident, three people.

In fact, if you just rely on Xia Beifeng's feelings, the things in this house are not very powerful compared to the princess who commanded the scorpions in the desert before.

However, the nearest village is only fifteen minutes away. After so many years, this group of things is so close to the place where people live, and no one has found it?

Xia Beifeng recalled the frightened expressions on the faces of the people in the small village when they heard that he was coming to this place when he asked for directions in the afternoon.

It seems that they all know it, but they just don't say it.

Moreover, the people I saw at dinner were indeed alive, but they were like puppets.

What the hell is trying to do, get so many living dead to serve her?

Dead are dead, where is there so much exquisiteness!

Xia Beifeng was sitting alone in the room thinking about it, when he suddenly heard a rapid knock on the door.

The knocker kept knocking, and it seemed that he would not stop until he reached his goal.

Xia Beifeng glanced at the door, but didn't see anyone, and suddenly felt a little troubled.

He ignored the knock at the door, took out a few pieces of yellow paper from the mezzanine of his backpack, and a little cinnabar, picked up a random pen, and began to draw talismans.

After a while, the knocker seemed to be tired, and gradually stopped knocking.

I should go. Xia Beifeng glanced up at the direction of the door and breathed a sigh of relief.

There was a louder knock on the door than before.

Xia Beifeng had no choice but to bury his head in drawing talismans.

When he had finished drawing five talismans, pasted one on each of the four windows, and put the remaining one in his pocket, he got up and went to open the door.

He thought that the door would be empty, or something would suddenly appear, but he saw five children standing in his doorway.

The five children looked like they were all five or six years old, three boys and two women, all wearing clothes in the style of the Republic of China era. Maybe it's the night, and the faces of several children are a little pale and bloodless.

The tallest little boy raised his head and looked at Xia Beifeng who came to open the door. An innocent smile was revealed.

"Uncle, let's play." The kid said to Xia Beifeng crisply.

Uncle?

I'm only thirty years old, can I become an uncle?

You've been dead for decades, and you're too embarrassed to call me uncle?

Xia Beifeng looked at the group of children in surprise, and replied to them neatly: "Don't play." ”

Then "snap" the door and continue to draw the talisman.

The group of children immediately began to knock on the door, and the knocking became louder and louder, and finally the sound of one person knocking on the door became a group of children knocking on the door together......

"What the hell are you trying to do!" Xia Beifeng reluctantly opened the door once and asked the children.

"We want to play with our uncle." The little boy explained to Xia Beifeng.

"Can't you play by yourself, you have to find me." Xia Beifeng hugged his arms, leaned against the door, and looked down at the children.

"Several of us are tired of playing, and we want to find people who have never played together......" The child looked at the summer north wind with a very pitiful expression.

"Uncle, don't you really play with us?" A little girl wearing a blue cheongsam on the side also looked up at Xia Beifeng with tears in her eyes.

"Yes, yes!" The remaining three children also began to coax, "Uncle, you can play with us." ”

"Okay." Xia Beifeng seemed to have compromised, squatted down helplessly, and the little boy usually "What do you want to play?" ”

"Playing with balls." The little boy stared at Xia Beifeng and replied.

"Okay, play with the ball." Xia Beifeng stood up again and asked the little boy, "Where is the ball?" ”

"The ball is here." The little boy tilted his neck as he spoke, and his head fell straight down. After a pause over his shoulder, he rolled to the ground. The head rolled on the ground for some distance, and when it finally stopped, its face was dirty.

Xia Beifeng watched the child's performance without saying a word.

The little boy only had Bai Sensen's neck bone left on his neck, but he still insisted on squatting on the ground and touched a few handfuls. Picked up his head.

"This is the ball." The head that was held in the little boy's hand began to speak, although the mouth has been opening and closing, but the head still raised its eyes to look at the summer north wind, and smiled after speaking.

"Yes, yes, uncle, let's play." The little girl also took over the conversation and said to Xia Beifeng: "This is fun, we play every day." ”

The head in the little boy's hand immediately began to bleed from his nostrils and eye sockets. While bleeding, he muttered something like "Uncle, come and play".