Chapter 6 Plants

Vine.

The wriggling vines crawled over like snakes, wrapping around Xiao Xia's body, and there were eyes growing on the leaves of the vines.

I'm dreaming again, wake up quickly!

In her sleep, Natsu realized this, and this is what Wanli said, she was prone to psychological hints.

But this time, her brain obeyed the command of her consciousness, and the nightmare came to an end. Looking up at the half-hidden window, the sky told her that it was the middle of the night.

She remembered the case again. It's not that she loves her career and forgets to sleep and eat, it's really too weird.

Regarding Zhang's death, the police's final conclusion was the same as Wang Hua's death - drug overdose. The chaos around the deceased was all caused by the deceased under the influence of drugs, as were the eyeballs that were gouged out.

But they didn't mention the plant!

It can't be that you didn't notice. Because the appearance of a strange grass that is not in harmony with the indoor environment should attract attention to the deceased, and the police will never ignore it when they inspect the scene, so why is it not mentioned after the case is closed?

Unless- it crawls away on its own!

This thought gave Natsu goosebumps, even scarier than that nightmare. No, it should be disgusting, who would have thought that plants would wriggle like snakes? She had seen it with her own eyes, and although she had always suspected that she was dazzled, she couldn't help but think of that scene!

She was in charge of two cases, but both cases ended with the sudden death of the other party, and although the police report indicated that it was just a coincidence, she had experienced too many paranormal events to agree with this statement.

Doesn't that have anything to do with her? However, after coming to the Helping Hand Office, she was responsible for more than these two cases, four cases, an average of one per week, which was also the reason why she was psychologically unbearable. She never knew that there would be so much disharmony between the closest people in the world!

And in the other two, one is mediated, and the relationship between the two generations shows signs of thawing, which is considered by Xiao Xia to be the success of the law and herself; The other has been prosecuted and is awaiting the court's decision, and is currently in the state of pre-enforcement.

If there are strange things going on in the cases she has taken over, then why didn't the other two have accidents? Taking a step back, if it is a case that cannot be reconciled, then the party in the case that has been prosecuted is the worst, but he is safe so far, how can this be explained!

Gods and ghosts are afraid of the wicked?! No, it's definitely not like that!

The only explanation is that the two cases that happened were handled by Guan Zheng and her!

Legal proceedings are actually a competition for interests, and the entanglement in money in this kind of case is even more naked, and the parties are often people who regard the law as nothing, and the possibility of physical conflict is relatively large, so Guan Zheng does not want Xiao Xia to handle the case alone. But because he was busy, two of the cases were Xiao Xia's assistants made by the male intern of the Helping Hand Office.

Could it be that the strange ending of this case is related to Guan Zheng?

This thought lingered in her heart for a while, but she repeatedly denied it herself. Guan is a little paranoid, believing that mistakes must be punished, and unwilling to give people a chance to repent. Be just as strict with others as you are with yourself. It may have been a career problem with his years of working in legal aid matters, but he was not a bad person.

The deaths of Wang Hua and Zhang are hidden under the normal appearance, and Guan is a mortal who can't do such a mysterious thing.

It's just -- what is a plant? It's a pity that she was frightened at the time and didn't take it seriously, otherwise she could have looked it up.

Xiao Xia sat on the bed and thought about it for a while, and the more she thought about it, the more scared she became, so she simply changed her thoughts and forced herself to fall asleep again.

……

The next day was a rest day, and Wanli made an appointment with her to go on an outing in the forest park. Although she longed for Ruan Zhan's company but did not get her wish, she still decided to make a trip because her recent work had made her very depressed.

"Are you good at driving?" Xiao Xia lost a sentence.

Wanli's monthly income is quite good, and he has a clinic, a school, and occasional paper publications, but he likes to travel so much that almost all the money he earns is spent on it. In addition, he spent all his savings on the haunted house he bought last time, so he didn't have a car to travel, and this time he came out to play with a car borrowed from Ruan Zhan.

"Don't underestimate me, I just don't have spare money to buy a car, but I've driven Ah Zhan's car to self-guided tours several times, and I don't pay attention to the more dangerous road conditions, not to mention-" He said and suddenly braked, startling Xiao Xia.

"What's wrong?" Fortunately, it was already out of the city, otherwise there would have been a rear-end collision.

Wanli pouted out the window, started the car to the side of the road, then opened the door and jumped off.

Xiao Xia looked out the window and saw him running towards an old couple, who were Wang Hua's parents. They walked slowly carrying a large pile of things to go to the grave, and seemed tired enough.

Seeing this, Xiao Xia also got out of the car.

The Wang couple came to Wang Hua for five periods. However, the cemetery where Wang Hua is buried is newly built, and the traffic problem has not been solved, so people usually come by taxi or by car. In order to save money, the old couple took a bus to get off at the nearest cemetery and then transferred to a taxi. Today was unlucky, after waiting for an hour, all the taxis refused to take them when they saw that they were going to the cemetery, so they had to walk slowly forward.

Wanli and Xiao Xia didn't say a word, and decided to send the old man to the cemetery first, and then send them back to the bus station, and then they moved freely.

The scale of the cemetery is not small, but the left side has not been developed, only the right side is a row of white stone monuments, each tomb is planted on both sides of the small shrubs like holly, and the cement imprints on the stone slabs in front of the tomb are still new. At this time, it was still early, and a cleaning worker was driving an electric car to clean the tomb.

There are still three tombs from Wang Hua's tomb, and there is a large family worshipping the road, blocking the road, and Xiao Xia and his party have to slowly rub it behind them. Xiao Xia inadvertently raised her eyes, just in time to see the cleaner jump out of the car, as if he had found something, grabbed in the bushes next to the tombstone, and pulled out a few weeds of different tree species at once and threw them into the trash bin behind the electric car.

The speed of the cleaner was very fast, Xiao Xia didn't see it clearly, but a flash of inspiration suddenly flashed in her mind, and she felt that the weed-like plant was the same kind she saw next to Zhang that day.

"Wait!" She screamed unconsciously, and raised her foot to chase after her, but forgot that she was caught in the crowd, and she was carrying a large number of ingots tribute or something, and almost fell on the tombstone next to her.

After hurriedly apologizing to the family members of the bereaved who were glaring angrily, Xiao Xia found that the cleaner had gone away in an electric car. I thought to myself, maybe I was wrong, even if that strange plant had a problem, it wouldn't grow here anymore. People have been cremated to ashes, and cement is sealed on the side of the stone tomb, what plant has such a strong vitality?! It's simply impossible!

"What's wrong with you?" Wanli asked with concern.

Xiao Xia shook her head, trying to suppress all this inexplicable uneasiness in her heart, but it still came up in waves, starting from accompanying the Wang couple to sweep the tomb, until a week later, it still lingered in her mind.

Is the plant next to the tomb the one next to Zhang's corpse? If so, why did it grow after being burned and cemented? Is it an evil thing? What's the secret behind this?

With this strong question, she finally ran to Zhang's grave on her day off a week later. Unprepared, she crept around the sides of the tomb. Here are dwarf pine trees, freshly watered in the morning, with the scent of earth and trees. Xiao Xia almost plunged her head into the bushes, and the scene in front of her shocked her heart.

A strange 'weed' had grown from the edge of the crevice in the tomb, only a seedling due to its short time, but it had tenaciously spread its oval leaves.

Natsu-chan's heart was beating violently, as if she was close to some secret, uneasy and excited. She put on the gloves she had prepared in advance, reached out to the little plant, and pulled it out violently!

The moment she came into contact with the plant, she felt the strange grass move, as if it were biting her hand, and she let go of her hand and threw it to the ground, seeing it wither rapidly in an abnormal way!

She crouched down and made up her mind for a long time before picking up its wreckage. This time, it didn't move, and was quietly put into a clean paper bag by Natsu.

When she got home, she searched her computer for text and pictures, and one article caught her attention - poppy origin, Asia Minor, India and Iran. In some areas of China, there is a small amount of cultivation in drug plantations. The poppy is a biennial herbaceous plant of the Papaver family. The whole plant is pink-green, the leaves are oblong, and the stems are born; Blooms in summer, solitary branches, large and showy, with red, purple, and white, open upwards. The flowers fall early, bearing spherical capsules, with small and numerous seeds. Traditional Chinese medicine uses poppy husks as medicine, and the prescription is also known as "rice husk" or "poppy husk". It is harvested after "cutting tobacco" in summer, removing the stems and seeds, and stir-fried in dried vinegar or honey-roasted for later use. The seeds contain 50% oil and can be pressed for oil.

Poppy husk is sour and astringent, toxic, containing more than 30 kinds of alkaloids such as morphine, codeine, nacotin, papaverine, etc., which are analgesic, cough and antidiarrheal drugs, and are used for lung deficiency and cough for a long time, various pains in the chest, abdomen, muscles and bones, and diarrhea for a long time; It is also used for spermatozoa and slippery sperm caused by kidney deficiency. The poppy fruit contains milk, and when it is cut and dried, it is called "opium". It contains 10% alkaloids such as morphine, which can relieve the spasm of smooth muscle, especially vascular smooth muscle, and can inhibit myocardium, mainly used for angina, arterial embolism and other symptoms. However, long-term application is easy to become addictive, chronic poisoning, serious harm to the body, and become the "opium ghost" often referred to as the folk. In severe cases, it can also die due to difficulty breathing.

Therefore, China strictly controls the cultivation of opium poppy, and prohibits the cultivation of opium poppy except for medicinal scientific research. Privately planting opium poppy and other narcotic plants and buying, selling, transporting, carrying, and possessing seeds or seedlings of uninactivated narcotic plants are all illegal and criminal acts, and the police will investigate the criminal responsibility of the parties concerned in accordance with the law.

Turning off the computer, Xiao Xia's heart was not clear, but even more chaotic. If she hadn't mistaken the strange plant as a poppy, it would explain why two people with no history of drug abuse died of drug overdoses.

What puzzled her was, how did it get to this result? Drugs are also refined, and it is impossible to eat a single plant and kill it. And how did this poppy get to the deceased? Why does it move like a living creature? What's the secret?

Thinking of this, Xiao Xia hurriedly ran to the office.

Less than 10% of the real estate where the office is located is sold, and there are still people living from the first floor to the seventh floor, and the floors above are empty, and there is no popularity at all, which makes it even more eerie after the sun goes down. Xiao Xia pressed the button on the fifteenth floor and stayed in the elevator a little uneasily.

She had the experience of encountering ghosts in the elevator before, so when she stayed in the elevator for a long time, she always felt hairy in her heart, and Wanli said that she was claustrophobic. She didn't understand these psychological terms, and she just wanted to get to the top floor as soon as possible, afraid that she would see something through the bright metal walls of the elevator.

With a 'ding' sound, the elevator arrived. She hurriedly strode out with her head down, and the elevator door slowly closed behind her.

She habitually turned to the left, only to feel a black shadow flashing in front of her, which startled her. When I looked up, I suddenly realized that this was not the fifteenth floor, but the thirteenth floor!

The dark and uninhabited thirteenth floor!