Before entering, out of politeness, I knocked the door of Xiao's house a few times and called inside. But my knocks and calls soon disappeared into the Xiao family's compound. Except for the black cats lying on the ground who were awakened by me, no one answered me.

The black cats stood up, raised their proud heads, glanced at us, and ran away quickly. We crossed the threshold and entered the Xiao family's compound, Jiang Jun continued to call inside, but as before, the Xiao family's compound was as silent as death, and no sound could be heard except us.

Even the black cats didn't know where to go, and as soon as they entered, there was an open space, like all old house yards: there was a large open space between the official house and the courtyard gate. The clearing was overgrown with weeds. Even the gravel-paved path was blocked by thick weeds.

When we walked on the road, from time to time we would tripped over weeds under our feet, Shen Nuo was wearing my clothes, and I almost fell down several times, but at the critical moment, I held him. In addition to weeds, there are also a large pile of discarded sacks in the corner, and when you look closer, all the sacks are filled with cement powder.

Roughly counted, there are more than 30 bags of cement powder, large and small. Jiang Jun patted it with his hand, suddenly. A burst of ash was raised, and Jiang Jun took a step back, and the ash had already stained Jiang Jun's body. On the wall with cement powder, there are several places that have obviously been smeared with cement.

I looked around, and sure enough, I found a place with relatively few weeds, which should be the place used to mix cement. The wall should be broken, so someone used cement to repair the wall, but the strange thing is that the person who repaired the wall seems to have not completed all the work, because the traces of cement smearing suddenly disappeared.

"Looking at the traces of this wall, it should not be long after it was patched, at most a few months." Jiang Jun immediately made a judgment.

I nodded. Ying He said: "With so much cement powder, it is obvious that it has only been carried here for a short time. I paused: "Check when it rained heavily last time in Xiaopan Village." ”

These sacks are not waterproof, and the cement powder will float out of the cracks in the sacks, so if the cement powder rains to heavy rain, it should condense, and it will not be loose enough to be slapped by the Jiang army, and the powder will fly everywhere.

The camel said. Except for Da Zhuang, no one dared to come to this courtyard, so there were only two people in the courtyard, Xiao Lao and Da Zhuang. Xiao Lao is getting older, and it is almost impossible to move so much cement powder here and make up the wall. So it's more likely that the one who did this is the big strong we just saw.

While thinking like this, Shen Nuo called me, and she found a well in the clearing. The purpose of our visit was to investigate Xiao Yingfeng's whereabouts, but when we entered the Xiao family's compound, we didn't have a clear purpose, so naturally we observed whatever we thought was strange.

In this open space, in addition to the cement powder piled up, the strangest thing is the well. The reason why it is strange is because of its location and shape. The wall of this well is very low, only about twenty centimeters above the ground, almost touching the ground, that is, it is not so much a well as a pit.

It was the manual mechanism that lifted the water above and the hemp rope that probed underneath that let us know that this was a well. The well was located, just a few steps before the steps of the house, and all three of us noticed that something was wrong. It stands to reason that the well wall should be built higher, so that it is safer, and the Xiao family has a big business, so naturally there is no shortage of these bricks. Crazy Fortune.

However, the wall of the well is so low that it is level with the ground, and the location of the well is not in the corner, but in the place where everyone often passes, if one is not careful, it is easy to fall into the well, especially at night. Jiang Jun glanced at me and reached out to lift the hemp rope.

Jiang Jun used a lot of strength, he thought that the hemp rope had hung a large bucket of water, but the bucket was easily hoisted. The wooden barrel tied to hemp rope not only does not have any water in the barrel, but even the bottom of the barrel is dry, which means that there may be no water at the bottom.

Jiang Jun picked up a stone from the ground and threw it down vigorously, and after a while, a crisp sound came from the bottom of the well, it was the sound of a stone falling on the ground, and sure enough, it was an empty well.

"This Xiao family has been dead for more than ten years, and even the well has been dry." Jiang Jun stood up straight and shook his head: "An empty well, let's make it so hard." ”

The well was very deep, and it was cloudy, and we had no way to see the bottom of the well, I frowned, and Jiang Jun asked me if I wanted to continue to look inside, I nodded, and walked in with them. Calculating the time, it has been seven or eight minutes since we entered the Xiao family's compound, but Da Zhuang still hasn't come out.

Walking through the clearing, it is the Xiao family's mansion, the house is ancient, the wooden doors and windows are full of dust, Jiang Jun called again, but no one answered. I was about to step up the stairs when Jiang Jun suddenly stopped me, I thought there was danger and looked around vigilantly.

Jiang Jun: "Professor Li, do you think this house is very familiar? ”

I was slightly stunned, I glanced at the house in front of me a few more times, and when Jiang Jun said this, I suddenly felt that this place was very familiar. One person feels familiar, maybe it's an illusion, but two people think so, which means that we have seen similar houses somewhere, but Jiang Jun and I have thought about it for a long time, and we have not thought of where we have seen similar houses.

Unable to figure it out, let's put this thought aside for the time being.

Gently push the door open, and a hall comes into view. This should be the place where the Xiao family used to meet guests, the door of the hall was facing two large chairs, and two rows of tables and chairs were neatly placed on both sides of the hall.

More than ten years ago, it was definitely very rich to have such a hall in the home of a family, which made us even more puzzled why the Xiao family settled in a remote and backward Xiaopan village. Even if the ancestral roots of the Xiao family are here, but the family is developed, it is normal to move the land, you only need to build an ancestral house in the village and come back every year to worship, it is not normal not to move.

All the tables and chairs were covered with dust, there was no light in the house, it was much darker than outside, and through the inner hall, there was a corridor, and through the corridor, we came to a dark place again. It was full of rooms, each unlocked and ajar.

Jiang Jun glanced at me and was about to push the door open, but I stopped him.

After all, the house has an owner, so I raised my voice and called out loudly: "Old Xiao." ”

This time, my call was finally answered, but it was not a human who responded to me, but the cry of a cat like a baby. The cat's voice was faintly heard throughout the old house, and before we could find the direction from which the cat's meow came from, the cat's meow suddenly became terrible.

Subsequently, the meow of the cat disappeared. The ancient mansion returned to an eerie quiet, and the three of us looked at each other, and were about to say something, when footsteps came.

Listening to the footsteps, it seemed like someone was wearing cloth shoes, and his feet were slowly dragging on the ground. This time, we quickly found the source of the sound. Jiang Jun shouted twice, but the man didn't answer us at all, but the footsteps were still ringing, but the sound was getting quieter and quieter.

That person is moving away from us!

Sensing that something was wrong, we immediately followed in the direction from which the sound came, and through the halls and halls, we were led into a small room. The door of the room was wide open, and when I looked around, the person was already gone, Shen Nuo wanted to enter the house, but Jiang Jun pulled her behind her.

"We're being lured in." Jiang Jun said: "Be careful. ”

Jiang Jun walked in the front, he cautiously entered the house, the danger we expected did not come, on the contrary, the room was very quiet, by the faint light, I saw that the cabinet in the room was full of large and small tablets, and behind each tablet, there was an urn.

When the wind blew, the door behind us shut, and the room suddenly became dark.

There was a strong scent of sandalwood in the room, which made people feel drowsy. Jiang Jun and Shen Nuo each took out their mobile phones, but the light of the mobile phones was too weak to illuminate the entire room. Shen Nuo found a worn-out book on the counter, and that book turned out to be the genealogy of the Xiao family.

As soon as I am happy, looking at the family tree, I can know if Xiao Yingfeng is the Xiao family.

However, before I could open the book, a hand was placed on my shoulder......

...