Xie Xiaolou stood on the edge of the Tuojiang River, staring at the crowd coming and going, and cursed in his heart: This dead ghost weather, the bad young master has no way to make money.

A few days ago, a rainstorm did not stop, the ancient city of Phoenix was in chaos, not only the famous cultural building "Wind and Rain Bridge" was washed away, but also some hotels and B&Bs near the river were also flooded into most of them, and every household was busy draining.

The local city government also dispatched firefighters overnight to carry out rescue and disaster relief, and the public security department is also fully cooperating with the rescue and evacuating tourists. It was originally the golden season of tourism, and the ancient city was dilapidated by this sudden flood, and when the water receded, it had to be repaired, rebuilt and cleaned up, and the business of the scenic spot naturally plummeted.

Xie Xiaolou is a local resident, living in the Nanhua Mountains around Phoenix, his parents are local farmers, on weekdays, he uses a vacant land in front of his house to grow some vegetables and sell them in the city, barely making ends meet. left Xie Xiaolou and Xie Xiaoyu as brothers and sisters, and a frail mother who was bedridden all year round. Xie Xiaolou dropped out of school after graduating from high school and stayed at home, idly doing some small business around, occasionally planting vegetables to sell, for Xie Xiaoyu to study in junior high school, and to buy some cheap soup and medicine for his mother, life was tight.

In fact, going back to Xie Xiaolou's grandfather's generation, the Xie family was a famous "corpse chaser" at that time!

The so-called driving of corpses is to transport the corpses of guests who have died in a foreign land back to their hometowns. In the initial transportation process, the body was transported by water, and there was no need to "rush". However, in this section of the Three Gorges, the water is turbulent, the whirlpools and reefs are dense, and ships often sink. The ancients were superstitious and never willing to carry the dead on the dangerous river, and Xiangxi was located in a remote mountainous area, with rugged mountain roads, and the corpses could not be transported normally.

In Father Xie's generation, it was the WG period, when the whole country was anti-feudal and anti-superstitious, completely denied the theory of ghosts and gods, and the corpse was also regarded as heretical witchcraft, and gradually declined. After the reform and opening up, no one believed in such unscientific and supernatural things as the so-called "refining corpses and stiffening", and the Xie family became farmers honestly. In the 21st century, the country's economy has developed rapidly, the train highway extends in all directions, and the mountainous areas of Xiangxi have been gradually developed, with trains and high-speeds, until the tourism industry in Phoenix is booming, and Xiangxi is no longer a remote and backward place in the past.

After the rise of tourism, Xie Xiaolou, who had no money and no capital, could not open a hotel or resell specialty silverware by the Tuojiang River, so he could only follow his friends to become a "wild tour guide". He didn't even go to university, so naturally he didn't have a tour guide card, and it was impossible for him to go to a regular travel agency, so he could only rely on the advantage of the locals who were familiar with the terrain to attract tourists.

Don't look at it so easy to enter the industry, in fact, it is very difficult to attract customers, aside from the management and rectification of black tour guides by regular travel agencies and the government, black tour guide groups often stand in line and divide the area, suppressing each other.

Xie Xiaolou, a "guerrilla", is rarely open once a month, "Hey, let's go home and grow vegetables." Xie Xiaolou thought of loss.

Nanhua Mountain is located in the south of the ancient city of Phoenix, 700 meters high, a total of nine peaks and seven streams, the most famous is Huwei Peak, Hibiscus Rock, is a natural barrier in the south of the city, is called Nanhua Stacked Cui.

"Mom, I'm back, are you better today, do you want to go to Dr. Zhang to prescribe some medicine." Xie Xiaolou climbed the mountain road for a long time, and finally returned home, saying that it was home, but it was just a dilapidated brick house.

After heavy rain, several places in the house began to leak, Xie Xiaolou put his face plate to receive water under before going out, and when he went home, the water in his face plate was about to overflow.

Xie Xiaolou's house is separated by two rooms, the outside is the hall, the inner room is the bedroom, there are some dilapidated furniture, usually Xie Xiaolou and his father sleep in the hall, mother and sister sleep in the bedroom, after the death of his father, Xie Xiaolou sleeps alone in the hall.

"You're finally back."

Xie Xiaolou was startled, and saw a figure flashing out of the abandoned chicken coop behind the house, but it was Xie Xiaolou's high school friend, Long Yan.

Long Yan's parents are local civil servants, his father is in the tax bureau, his mother is in the Finance Bureau, Long Yan was forced by his family to take the civil service exam after graduating from university, because his parents know the stability and benefits of civil servants, and they dragged him back from the coastal first-tier cities.

"You kid, scared Grandpa. Why don't you give me a call first and learn from Liu Bei's three visits to the thatched house? Xie Xiaolou looked at his dead friend with a strange face, waiting for him at the door of his house in such a heavy rain, and he didn't know what was important.

"You're right, I'm really here to take care of 'Kong Ming'." Long Yan laughed and said, "Let's go, enter the house and say, this chicken shed is leaking rain." ”

Xie Xiaolou saw that although Long Yan was holding an umbrella, he was also wet with half of his clothes, so he opened the door angrily: "Let you pretend to be mysterious." ”

Entering the door, Long Yan shook the rain on his body, and said, "It's really a bit mysterious." Seeing that the basin in the house was already full of water, Long Yan consciously picked up the basin and poured the water out of the door.

"Is Xiaolou back?" Mother Xie heard movement in the room and asked in a weak voice.

"Hello Auntie, haven't you been getting better lately." Long Yan put the basin in the leak and walked into the bedroom to greet Xie's mother.

"Yo, Xiaolong is here, it's much better, sit down, Xiaolou will pour him a cup of tea." Although Xie Mu looked tired, she still felt very happy, and hurriedly instructed Xie Xiaolou to entertain guests.

"What kind of tea does he drink, just pour him a glass of boiled water." Xie Xiaolou said angrily, and began to prepare utensils to boil medicine for his mother.

"Yes, yes, Auntie, you're welcome, I'll leave in a while." Long Yan laughed wryly.

"You kid, why do you talk to a guest like that?" Xie Mu smiled and blamed.

Xie Xiaolou and Long Yan have been friends for many years, and they have long been accustomed to choking each other, and their friendship is too polite, but it will not last long.

"Tell me, what's going on." Xie Xiaolou closed the bedroom door to let his mother have a good rest, sat on the edge of the bed in the hall with Long Yan, and asked curiously.

At this time, Long Yan's face swept away the look of the hippie smile just now, and gradually became serious: "Yesterday, three police officers died in the Public Security Bureau, and Captain Li of the Criminal Police Brigade was also seriously injured and hospitalized, and he is still lying down. ”

Xie Xiaolou smiled and said: "This belongs to your internal secrets, how can you tell me, besides, your colleague is dead, what's the use of you looking for me, is it possible to drive out the corpse?" ”

Long Yan and Xie Xiaolou have been friends for decades, so he naturally knows some things about Xie Xiaolou's family, and when he was in school before, he often asked Xie Xiaolou to teach him to draw talismans and play around, sticking them on other people's heads and pretending to be zombies.

"Of course it's top secret, top secret of top secrets, because it's so weird that they're dead." Long Yan said slowly, his tone making people shudder.

"Then how do you know, at your level, and you are also a clerk in the information department, you will not be asked to handle a big case." Xie Xiaolou looked at Long Yan with some doubts.

"My uncle, Zhou Wen, the forensic doctor in the bureau, has personal experience, and when he was having dinner at my house yesterday, he accidentally said that he has not eaten well and slept well in the past few days, and this is why he has no choice but to talk to my father, and he doesn't want to drink a few glasses of wine, so he can say everything." Long Yan, as a member of the Information Department, knew something about this matter, but after all, he didn't know the details, he only knew that three police officers were killed in the investigation, and the others didn't know.

"Then what's the use of you looking for me." Xie Xiaolou's grandfather left a book of "The Book of Corpses", which recorded some of the essentials of chasing corpses, refining corpses and controlling corpses, Xie Xiaolou's father also worked as a corpse chaser for a few months, and when it came to Xie Xiaolou's generation, although he had read this book completely, he had no chance to practice it.

"Don't you know what, Taoism, this case is too bizarre, I'm afraid that ordinary methods can't find anything at all, and if you don't get it right, you will die, and people will be panicked all day long."

"My three-legged cat kung fu, I'm afraid that I will be killed before I see the murderer." Of course, Xie Xiaolou knew that he had a few pounds and a few taels, there was a bedridden old mother at home, and a little sister who was studying waiting for him to provide for him, so he didn't want to take such a big risk.

Long Yan was silent for a while, and said slowly: "If you help the police solve the case, there is still a bonus." ”

Xie Xiaolou was about to get up to see how the medicine was doing, but when he heard this, he chuckled in his heart, turned his head to look at Long Yan, and asked in disbelief: "Is there still this rule?" What price? ”

Seeing that things had taken a turn for the better, Long Yan opened his palm slightly and said happily: "This price." ”

"Five thousand? So much? Xie Xiaolou suddenly forgot what he was going to do.

"No, fifty thousand." With Long Yan's knowledge of the internal information of the public security, he knew that if he could secretly solve the case, the price might be higher.

Xie Xiaolou's eyes lit up, and some incredible thoughts surged slightly in his heart.