Flathead straightened up, nodded to me, Qi Mei, and Red Sleeves, respectively, and walked backwards out.

At this moment, his companion had picked up the unicorn, but his left hand was in his trouser pocket, as if he was pinching something.

My heart moved, and I pointed to the two men, "What's in your trouser pocket?" ”

"Nothing, nothing. The two hurriedly denied it.

Qi Mei's legs were fast, and after a few steps, he took out a photo from each of the pockets of the two people.

"Huh, it's actually your picture, brother?" Qi Mei was stunned.

I walked over and it was my picture. Judging from the background of the shooting, it was taken when I was sitting in the Shaxian snack bar, and the red sign of Shaxian snack was obliquely behind.

"What about you? Pull out the picture. "I yelled at the flat head.

Pingtou honestly took out the same photo from his trouser pocket and handed it to Qi Mei.

Red Sleeves walked over, looking a little nervous.

"Where did the photo come from?" Qi Mei asked.

He didn't know what happened to me and Bing'er in the coffee castle, and he didn't know about the Yue Qing Gang Hua Chitose, so he intuitively judged that the photo was related to the dragon boss.

"Yes, yes. Pingtou nodded again and again, wanting to be perfunctory.

I looked at the red sleeves, and between my eyes, I understood that this matter was related to the Yueqing Gang.

"Forget it. Red Sleeves just wanted to ask, but I stopped him in time, "Let's go, it's over." ”

There are some things that I don't want Qi Mei to know.

As the "first guest in the provincial capital", he was born good at gathering information, and classified it and used it on various occasions.

In the exchange of information, everyone and everything is a bargaining chip in his hand, and the more confidential the matter, the greater the benefits will be brought to him.

I don't want to be anyone's bargaining chip, and I don't want to continue to fuel Qi Mei's Jianghu advantage.

Pingtou and his companions withdrew, humbly closed the door, and then hurried away.

After the turmoil, the hostess quietly returned.

"The best wine, the best food, don't ask too much, what's on it. Qi Mei commanded loudly.

"Yes, Mr. Qi's patronage, it is the glory of the small shop, and it will definitely satisfy you. The waitress looked at her like silk, and kept squinting at her eyebrows.

Redsleeves fidgeted a little, fiddling with the teacups on the table, looking up at me several times.

Qi Mei got up with interest: "I'll go to the bathroom, and the two of you will sit first." ”

As soon as he left, the red sleeves couldn't wait to ask: "Mr. Xia, these people are also related to the Yueqing Gang, right? I look at the photo, it is clear that you said, it was secretly photographed when you met with the Yueqing Gang Hua Chitose in the snack bar in Shaxian County." Now, it's not the leader boss who is looking for you, but the people of the Yueqing Gang who are always following you and constantly forcing you to make a move. In other words, their purpose is to disrupt your movements, to draw your energy, to make you unable to let go of your actions. ”

I agree with her, but I can't understand the true intentions of the Viet Qing Gang.

"Why don't I mobilize troops, encircle and suppress the Yueqing Gang, and take advantage of Hua Chitose's unstable foothold to kill her by surprise first?"

I shook my head, "I'll talk about it after tonight." ”

In my opinion, the Viet Qing Gang is only constantly harassing and stalking, and has not yet entered the substantive stage of confrontation between the two armies. If the beggars take the lead, I am afraid that they will fall into the trap of the other party.

Besides, my main target is Elder Wen.

Meals should be eaten one bite at a time, and things should be done one by one.

"Mr. Xia, are you talking?" asked Red Sleeves.

I replied while pondering, "The Yueqing Gang has something to do with the 'Infantile Technique', which is the first thing that came to my mind. On the contrary, they were not particularly interested in the Divine Mirror mentioned in the booklet. In this way, Hua Chitose has no major conflict with any of the Jianghu forces currently involved in Jinan. Don't provoke conflict until you know what she is trying to do. When two tigers fight, one will be injured. The snipe and the clam compete, and the fisherman profits. You know, out of this gate, I don't know how many fishermen are waiting to open their nets to catch fish. Next, concentrate on your own business and don't think about it. ”

With Qi Mei here, we have an extra arm, but at the same time, we also have an extra pair of eyes that are watching.

I never dared to ignore Qi Mei, let alone believe in him too much, but I had to be false with him.

His appearance brought back my memories of the mirror room.

In the mirror room, Qi Mei once appeared, but after I left with Chu Chu and Blood Gut Gu Po, he was also nowhere to be found. Now, we meet again, and all the people in the Chamber of Mirrors have fallen into the ground forever, never to see the light of day again.

"This time, is it a 'chance encounter'? How could it be so coincidental?" I suddenly had doubts in my heart.

Jinan City is not big, and it is common for acquaintances to meet. However, Qi Mei is a busy person with a tight schedule, how can he enter the café alone?

I remembered the ambiguous look in the waitress when she looked at Qi Mei, and my heart lit up suddenly.

"Hey, miss. I turned back to greet the hostess.

She walked over with her waist twisted, stood at the table, deliberately stretched out her right hand and pressed it against the corner of the table, showing me her fingers with bright red nail polish.

"What do you command, sir?" she asked coquettishly.

I looked up at her: "By asking, you are very familiar with Mr. Qi?"

The hostess immediately nodded: "Of course, Qi Ye is a celebrity and a celebrity, and there is no little sister who does our business who doesn't know him." ”

I calmly asked, "What is your business, and which line do you belong to?"

The hostess laughed: "Sir, is he good at joking? ”

I took out my wallet, pulled out a hundred-dollar bill, and placed it on the back of her hand.

"What do you mean, sir?" the hostess was not surprised, squinting at my face.

"Ask a few questions, answer one correctly, give a hundred. I replied.

The hostess nodded, her left hand swept over the tabletop, and the paper money disappeared between her fingers.

"Who is Mr. Qi looking for here?" I asked straight to the point.

The waitress hesitated for a moment, and laughed twice: "He is looking for our boss, but there is not necessarily that kind of relationship between them, I have seen it several times, he brought the sisters outside in, and I don't see the boss's wife jealous." ”

"Who's your hostess?" I pulled out another bill and placed it on the back of the hostess's hand.

The hostess hesitated, but under the temptation of money, she still gave the answer: "The proprietress is surnamed Bai and her name is fragrant." ”

"Is the proprietress from the rivers and lakes?" was my third question, and accordingly, I also gave the third bill to the hostess.

She doesn't fight, gamble, drink, or smoke, and her only hobby is reading. There are 45 large and small bars in this area, and only our family has never been here to collect protection money. I guess there must be someone above her, and there are people covering the white and black roads, so they are not harassed. The hostess said.

I didn't get the information I wanted, and I thought that Qi Mei was about to return, so I directly asked: "If you want to make extra money, just keep an eye on it for me, every important message is a thousand yuan, and there is no cap on valuable clues." ”

This is an era where money is paramount, and it will no longer work to teach others what to do with only big truths.

"Okay, no problem. The hostess readily agreed.

I waved my hand, and she bowed her head and stepped back.

"I can't believe that you can get such important news in just a few words and a few hundred yuan, it's incredible. Red Sleeves said.

"Important news? I got some of it, but it didn't directly help us with what we were going to do. Wait a moment to look at Qi Mei to see if there is any flaw in his speech, and especially to see if he is afraid of something. I commanded her.

"Mr. Xia, I don't understand, with Qi Mei's status in the rivers and lakes today, what else is he afraid of?" Red Sleeves asked.

"It's my gut feeling. I replied.

Just now, Qi Mei lowered his head and came into the café, like a defeated rooster, looking preoccupied.

With his identity, if there is no catastrophe, he will not be worried. So I guess there must have been a big trouble that he couldn't solve, which made him look lost.

The waitress had already entered the back kitchen, and the red sleeves suddenly leaned forward and stared at my eyes tightly: "Mr. Xia, why did you follow those three people just now......?" Obviously, the two of us can turn the situation around in an instant and counter them. What are you deliberately putting a low profile for?"

"That's right. I smiled and nodded slightly.

Although those three people hold home-made weapons, judging by their skills and style, they are just small people in the rivers and lakes, otherwise they would not be willing to be informants on the white road and earn a small amount of money to lick the blood. It's not difficult to injure them or even kill them, but what's the point of that? Is it just to kill the three thugs that Red Sleeves and I have pursued all the way here?

The answer is obvious, no.

If you can't bear it, you can make a big plan, I can go with them, as long as I don't alarm Elder Wen, lest he become wary and run away immediately, and even the hysteria technique of the red sleeve trick will not come in handy.

Between big things and small things, I made the right choice, and that was to go with them.

In order to do big things, it is trivial to suffer small losses. When a smart person does things, he will definitely weigh the big and the small repeatedly, and see the pros and cons clearly.

"I just want to remove Elder Wen's mask, before that, anything can be tolerated, can be tolerated, and can be retreated. I continued.

"What if Elder Wen isn't the person you're looking for?" asked Redsleeve again.

"Keep looking until you find it. I replied lightly.

Revenge is a big thing that I can't give up in my life, and my eldest brother is watching me from the sky, and I can't afford to relax a little.

"Good, admire, admire. Redsleeves nodded repeatedly.

There was a sound of water in the bathroom, and the red sleeves shrank back, continuing to keep their distance from me, so as not to raise their eyebrows and become suspicious.

"I'm sorry, I've been waiting, I've been waiting. Qi Mei walked back with a smile on his face, but the smile was not natural, as if he had been squeezed out.

I looked at him and remembered in my mind the things that happened in the funeral home and the mirror room.

"Mr. Xia, it's better to meet by chance, and meeting here is really a great thing for me. I have one thing in my heart, I don't vomit or feel unhappy, but I can't find someone to ask for advice and confide in. It's great to see you now. Qi Mei said.

"Don't go around in circles, let's get straight to the point, everyone's time is so precious. I responded with a smile.

Going around in circles will only waste time, and it is easy to give Qi Mei a chance to hide his thoughts.

"Okay, then I'll be straightforward, don't play fake and polite routines. Qi Mei nodded, "I had a nightmare that I had become a merman, alone in a bottomless, unattainable environment. Upward, sit in the well and watch the sky, and downward, the abyss. I was in the middle of the sky and hell, not up or down, and there was no other way to escape. For three months, I had the same dream at night, dreaming as soon as I fell asleep and never falling back asleep as soon as I woke up. In my dreams, I was trapped in a desperate situation in the physical sense, and in reality, I was in a desperate situation of my mind, from which I could not escape. ”

Everyone has psychological dilemmas, and I have read books on psychology in the past, and this case like Qi Mei is a typical "prisoner's dilemma". It's just that it's not the cage and the iron rope that traps him, but the natural and sinister environment. In this nightmare, there are more details of his transformation into a shark, which proves that in addition to his psychology, his physical functions are also problematic.

The café suddenly became unusually quiet, and the sound of the air conditioning vent became louder and louder, making your eardrums tingle.

I didn't urge Qi Mei to continue, because his face was already as pale as paper, and his right hand involuntarily raised and stroked his left chest.

Nightmares are terrifying, but the details of his transformation into a merman can make a person who is immersed in a nightmare feel even more disgusting.

The so-called shark people are all half-human and half-fish monsters, and their images are surprisingly consistent in both Chinese and foreign folklore.

The ancient Chinese also had the saying that "people are swordsmen, I am fish and meat", swords are the natural enemies of fish, if a normal person transforms into a merman, then what awaits him is only swords, and he can only wait for the fate of being slaughtered in the following years.

No one wants to be a merman, even if they have another beautiful name called "mermaid".

"Huh...... I've had enough, this nightmare is driving me crazy. Now, during the day, I have to touch my legs every minute, for fear that before I know it, my legs will become fishtails. Think about it, Mr. Xia, how terrible, how crazy, how ...... How frustrating is it?" Qi Mei muttered.

If you want to open his heart knot, you have to start with the cause.

I nodded: "It's understandable, but you should know that dreams are all illusory, the aftermath of entanglement of thoughts." If you can find the source of the dream, you can solve the psychological problem. ”

In fact, at the funeral home, Qi Mei and I had already discussed the issue of "turning people into sharks", but because everyone was not familiar enough, we were limited to discussions and did not enter the substantive steps.

Now, he is willing to tell me such a big secret, which is enough to prove that he has reached the end of his rope, and can only choose a more suitable person to consult among all the people he knows.

"It all came from a big change – you can't imagine the sheer shock of a huge building sinking into the abyss, like an epic science fiction movie, that completely scares people out of the blue, wondering if it's a dream or a reality. But, but, but, but......" Qi Mei's words stumbled.

He was so nervous that he couldn't find the right words to describe what happened at that time.

I knew he was going to talk about the sinking of the mirror room.

If he had witnessed the sinking of the mirror room, then this was the most important first-hand information, of great value, incomparable.

Out of the corner of my eye, I glanced at the red sleeve, and she was curled up in the sand, listening intently.

"But later, I used all my connections, the Geology and Mining Bureau, the Geological Exploration Brigade, the Seismic Station, the Drilling Team of the Water Resources Department, and the Exploration Brigade of the 18th Bureau of China Railway...... All the underground exploration experts told me that there were no buildings in the place, only undisturbed undisturbed soil, and that everything was a fantasy of mine, and advised me to go to a psychiatric department. Then, something even stranger happened, I went to check the information of the underground buildings in Jinan City, and there was no record of it, not a single one, that is, it had never existed in Jinan. Mr. Xia, listen, it never existed, do you believe it?"

His eyebrows pointed at me, and his face was full of tears.

I don't want to jump to conclusions too early and too quickly, because then most of the conclusions that people give are wrong.

After a mysterious event is born, either side will give a different conventional explanation. However, you must know that the reason why it is a "mysterious" event must be "unconventional" behind its birth. Otherwise, how can the word "mysterious" appear?

At this time, only by standing on the opposite side of all experts can we firmly grasp the truth and present the truth of the incident.

In Marx's materialist theoretical ideological system, there is the same clear thesis, that is, "truth is often in the hands of a few".

"I don't believe it, but for the experts to believe it, there has to be evidence. I replied tentatively.

"There's no evidence, the evidence is here and here—" Qi Mei pointed to his eyes and then to his temples, "I see, I hear, I have an impression in my head...... That's the evidence, the only evidence. I also know that if you want to find out the truth, you have to become a merman, swim into the deepest dark abyss, find it, and find the truth. But is that truth still useful? Even if it is present, how can it be conveyed to the world?"

His words are actually a copy of another sentence that old Jinan people often say.

The original text of that sentence is very simple - "If you don't become a ghost, you can't go to Huangquan, and if you become a ghost, you can't go back to the world." ”

Many people want to see their deceased relatives, but they can't do it, so they can only seek help from "impermanence" such as the official lady. Those filial sons and grandsons who wish to go deep into the Nine Springs to visit their relatives are persuaded by the "impermanence", because then the living will also become dead, which will only plunge more living people into the grief of losing their loved ones.

If you want to see ghosts, you have to become ghosts and go to the underworld, and even if you see real ghosts in the underworld, there is no way to tell the living, because the two worlds of yin and yang cannot be connected and reversed, and only those "impermanence" who are "ordered by the king of Yama" have this ability.

As a result, this distress became Qi Mei's distress, he wanted to pursue the truth of the sinking of the mirror room, but also did not want to become a merman, this is his "dilemma" situation. And the reason for this dilemma must be that the things he cares about have disappeared with the sinking of the mirror room.

My heart was suddenly blocked, because there was also someone I cared about in the mirror room, that is, Tang Wan. If Tang Wan sank into the abyss with the mirror room, would I transform into a merman in order to find her?

I don't know, I really don't know.

I want to get back the people I lost, but I don't want to give up this sunny world, this idea of "having both fish and bear's paws" is a shackle in everyone's thinking, and it is not only me and Qi Mei who will face such a dilemma.

"I don't want to become a merman...... Qi Mei covered his face and was silent for a while, and finally cried like a girl.

As the "first guest in the provincial capital", he was so beautiful in front of people, but at this time, he couldn't help crying. This change also proves that his heart has collapsed.

"Perhaps, at this moment, everyone needs to drink a big glass of spirits. Red Sleeves said.

She stood up, walked to the back of the bar, took half a bottle of whiskey and three spirits from the wine cabinet, and slowly walked back.

"Foreigners' spirits are more comfortable in the stomach, especially those who face fear. She bent down, set her glass, and filled it with three glasses.

"I don't drink, when I get drunk, I'll go into that nightmare, I don't drink......" Qi Mei shook his head, tears digging through his fingers and sliding down the back of his hand.

"Let's have a drink, the night is still long, and we have to wait. Red Sleeves said.

I picked up my glass and touched it lightly on the rim of her hand, making a clanging sound.

"The abyss is connected to the abyss, and everyone has a struggling heart. She whispered.

"Everyone's heart is an abyss, falling into a catastrophe and not recovering, crawling out and being reborn from the fire. I said.

We had a drink, and the whiskey slid like a fire, spicy through our throats, into our stomachs, and then burned upwards from our stomachs, burning our throats and spewing hot air out of our mouths.

"Good wine, another drink. "My body warmed up, too.

The red sleeves poured the wine again, smiling like a flower: "Mr. Xia, you are always so calm, and the landslide does not change color." Mr. Qi is also a big man who stomps and trembles in Jinan City, and he cries like this, which shows that the situation is very serious. But you're still fine. If the beggar gang has ten or eight young talents like you, then the name of 'the world's largest gang' will not fall to the bottom. ”

I smiled bitterly: "Sometimes, calmness is a state after being forced to be helpless. The matter that Mr. Qi said is very complicated, and only when he expresses everything in detail can we give him advice, or some help. I think if you give him a little more time, he'll calm down. ”

Qi Mei is vague, so I can't make an accurate judgment.

At the moment, he can only wait for his emotions to calm down, and then redescribe what happened at that time.

"Hello everyone. The kitchen door opened, and a woman in a plain white dress came out pushing a small food delivery cart, and it was the waitress who helped her open the door.

(Tianjin)