I didn't dare to approach the corpse a few days ago, but now I can kill someone and eat someone else's food. How could I have imagined that I would encounter something like this today?

I've never eaten compressed biscuits before, so I didn't expect them to be delicious. But in fact, when people are hungry, they think everything is delicious. There were a total of three compressed biscuits, one for each of the three of us, and Zou Xin drank a little water. But after eating a piece and drinking some water, I felt my stomach swell.

When I was full, I picked up the lamp and walked to the place where the grave robbers were digging to see what they were digging. Only to find that they had only just started digging, and they hadn't found anything.

So I started to look at the statue next to me again. Only to find out that it was not carved in stone, but bronze. I thought it had a long head on the back just now, but now when I look closely, I see that it has a hat on it. Under the hat is Zhang Guozi's face, and his eyes are the same as the human face carvings he saw in the cave before, and the eyeballs are protruding.

The statue wears a robe and stands barefoot on a quadrangular figure. Holding a very thick stick in both hands. I couldn't help but ask, "Who is this statue?" What is it holding? ”

Zou Xin said: "This is a statue of a silkworm cong, and he is holding a box, but the contents have been taken away. ”

He really knew a lot of things, Zou Zhou asked, "Dad, who is Silkworm Cong?" What the hell is all this going on, and what are you hiding from me? ”

"We didn't want to hide it from you, we just wanted to tell you when you grew up."

"I'm 18 years old!"

Zou Xin's expression was very embarrassed, maybe there were two of us outsiders here, he couldn't say it. So I said, "Zou Zhou, if you have anything to say, your father and son can go back and talk about it." “

Zou Xin said: "I don't care about this, reporter Lin, you are willing to risk your life to save my son, I am already very grateful, thank you." ”

I said, "It's nothing, in fact, Sister Zhang asked me to come." ”

Zou said in surprise: "Zhang Li? How could she please you? Did she come to you?"

"I called her....... she texted me about it."

"How could it be, her phone dropped on the day we returned to longevity, how could she send you a text message?"

I was shocked and said, "But, I really talked to her, it was her voice!" Could it be that she has reissued a new card? ”

Zou Xin thought for a while and said: "No, we found that her mobile phone was monitored by those people, so we lost the phone, she won't go to apply for a card again, and she won't contact you and ask you to come here." He paused and said, "What did she text about?" “

I scratched my head and said, "That's it...... We were on the phone, and she said that you had come to the ghost cave to find Zou Zhou, and then suddenly she said that it was inconvenient to talk and sent me a text message. After hanging up the phone, I received a text message from her saying that you had made an appointment and she would pick you up at the entrance of the cave, but now she can't go, so she asked me to help her and wait for you at the entrance of the cave. If you don't come out by 12 noon, plug the hole. And if you come out, let me tell you that she loves you. And told me not to call the police! “

"It seems that our every move is under their watch," Zou said. It stands to reason that those people took the phone, but why would they trick you into coming here? Reporter Lin, do you have any holiday with them? ”

I'm completely blindsided, he's right, why would those people set up a trick to deceive me, a stranger who has nothing to do with it?

I said, "I don't know!" And I don't know any of them, do I? “

Zou Xin said: "Perhaps, it's because they think you know too much, so they want to get rid of you." “

"But I don't really know anything! This is also too wrong. I looked at Meng Yingjiu, but he was looking at the dagger and didn't know what he was thinking.

Zou Zhou said: "Dad! Who the hell are those people? What are they afraid of being known by? ”

Zou Xin looked at me and said with a wry smile: "Reporter Lin, I couldn't tell you these things originally, but now that you have seen all this, I have nothing to hide." ”

Zou Xin said to Zou Zhou: "This place was actually built by our ancestors. Our ancestors set the rule that they were not allowed to intermarry with foreigners, because they didn't want outsiders to know our secrets. But now it's all in the hands of his own people. “

I asked, "So you guys... You and Sister Zhang? ”

"Well, we are all Ran people."

Zou Zhou said: "Ran clan? ”

"The Ran clan is the descendants of the ancient Shu Kingdom, and our ancestors were the wizards of the ancient Shu king Silkworm Cong. More than 4,000 years ago, the silkworm bush, which had been in power for hundreds of years, turned into a god in the sky, and then wars broke out. The new king, Yuyu, also wants to learn from the silkworm cong and become a god, so he orders the wizard who catches the silkworm cong. Our ancestors did not want to be submissive, so they fled to this place with the secret of the Silkworm Grove Immortal God. Then incognito, this sacrificial ground was built in this cave to worship the silkworms, and the huge bronze statue behind you is the statue of the silkworm cong. The sorcerer also domesticated the sprites that originally lived here to protect everyone. ”

I instantly felt a chill in my back, and at first I listened to it as a myth, but when it was in line with reality, it made people think about it very scary.

Zou Xin continued: "It's just the method of domesticating the dragon, and what the secret is, only the patriarch knows. “

Zou Zhou asked, "Patriarch?" I remember, my grandmother said that her father was the patriarch!"

"Well, he is the last true patriarch, and after he dies, this place will be completely chaotic."

Zou Zhou asked, "How did it become like this?" ”

Zou Xin took a break and continued: "The people brought by the wizard have slowly developed into 4 families, the Zou family, your mother Zhang family, your grandmother Li family, and the Chen family. Everyone lives in this neighborhood and guards this place and this secret together. At first, everyone knew not to contact outsiders or reveal their identity. For thousands of years, it has been spent peacefully. Later, however, the feudal dynasty collapsed and society was in turmoil, making it increasingly difficult for everyone to continue their previous lives. ”

I asked, "Why is it so hard to maintain?" ”

"In fact, after so long, everyone has almost forgotten the original intention of guarding this place, and at that time, the war made everyone's life very difficult. Suddenly, one day, when a person found out that the things in this cave could be exchanged for a lot of money, everyone was confused. Some people feel that they should obey the teachings of the ancestors, while some people feel that they will not be able to live anymore, and they should live first, regardless of what they do. ”

Zou Xin sighed and said, "The ancestors stipulated that we should also be buried here after we die. Just outside this wall, is our ancestral spiritual land, buried underground are all Ran people, there were originally a lot of funeral goods here, everyone was fascinated by **, began to grab those funeral goods out for money. The patriarch at that time was your grandmother's father, my grandfather. He wanted to stop it, but he couldn't. The four families that were originally united split into two factions. One faction is the Li family and the Zou family, who believe that the ancestral teachings should be followed. The other faction is the Zhang family and the Chen family, who believe that they should follow the times and seek survival. ”

Zou Zhou asked in surprise: "Zhang family? Isn't that mom? ”

Zou Xin said: "When they were fighting, there was no me and your mother, although the Zhang family used to be a different faction, but now they have also faded out, your mother is also on our side, and now only the Chen family has completely abandoned the ancestral teachings, all relying on their own interests to guide the way." ”

Zou Xin continued: "Later, the Chen family and the Zhang family made a lot of money with the things in the cave and became rich, so they began to have more ideas. Why do they think that only the patriarch can know what the secret is? The patriarch should tell everyone the secret. Of course, my grandfather didn't want to say it, because the purpose of those people was no longer pure. So they began to compete for the position of patriarch, forcing him to hand over the bamboo slips that only the patriarch could see. ”

"At that time, although my grandfather could domesticate the dragon, but those people had guns, and in the end, the dragon could not resist, so my grandfather would rather die than give in, so he committed suicide by jumping off the cliff with a bamboo slip. After that, everyone dispersed justifiably. “

I couldn't help but sigh: "Then there is no one in this world who knows what that secret is."

Zou Xin said, "Yes." But in fact, everyone can roughly guess that the secret should be related to immortality. Therefore, the Chen family is still looking for bamboo slips, wanting to know the secret of immortality. And they've always thought we know what the secret is, so they've been watching us secretly. “

Zou Xin looked at Zou Zhou and said, "This is also the reason why we have kept moving and you have kept transferring schools over the years." “

Zou Zhou was silent for a while and said, "What's the matter with the huge bat under the stone tower?" Sister Lin and I were caught under the bats by a perverted stun and almost eaten by it. “

Zou Xin said with a questioning face: "Huge bats? I don't know, there were a lot of bats in this cave, but now there are fewer people, there are more bats, and it's not surprising that there are bigger bats. And the stone tower is a place we can't go in, because it's a wizard's tomb. Only the patriarch can enter the stone pagoda, and the successive patriarchs have handed over the bamboo slips to the next patriarch in the stone pagoda. There is no patriarch anymore, and no one can get in there. “

"But..." I also wanted to ask that there was a mark on the five-pointed star carved by Grandma Zou Zhou, but Meng Yingjiu came to me at some point, patted me on the back from behind, and signaled me not to ask again.

Although I shut up, Zou Zhou continued to ask, "But someone caught us down there, and that person should be familiar with the terrain here." “

Zou Xin frowned and thought for a while and said, "That person... Maybe it's the Chen family, could it be that they have already found the bamboo slips? Maybe the secret is inside the stone tower? ”