Through the light of the campfire, Bai Li saw a face slowly emerging in the forest. At first, it was a handsome girl who was smiling. Then the girl's chin vanished, revealing a white bone, and then her face, as if it had been stripped of something, falling down piece by piece. In the end, all that was left of that face was a pair of eyes and a long, exposed red tongue.

Bai Li woke up from the nightmare, she looked at the forest over there in a panic, but saw that the old man Tao was digging something over there with his belly.

"What are you digging for?"

"Flower bells." Old man Tao pointed to the freshly dug soil pit to show Bai Li. In the pit, there was only a broken burlap bag.

"Where are the flower bells here? Where's the flower bell? ”

"Hua Ling—" Old Man Tao suddenly raised his head, looked at Bai Li with a weird smile, and said, "Didn't we eat it just now?" ”

"Ahh With a bang, Bai Li sat up from the bonfire again, she looked at the old man Tao who was gnawing on rabbit bones in a cold sweat, and asked in a weak voice: "What are you eating?" ”

"Roast rabbit." Old man Tao shook the bones in his hand: "I forgot, this rabbit was roasted by yourself." ”

"I know." Bai Li looked away, "I wanted to ask you, where did you catch this rabbit from?" Isn't there no wild things in this mountain forest? ”

"There are no hares in this forest, but there is a place."

"Where?"

"Down there." Old man Tao pointed to the farmland behind Huaxi Village: "This rabbit is much more shrewd than a human. This man knows only how to look for food on the land, but the hare will look for food under the land. Have you ever heard of the term "three holes of cunning rabbits"? The farmland in Huaxi Village is full of holes made by this hare, and your master and I also wasted the old nose's kung fu to catch such a one. ”

"There's a rabbit in that field?" Bai Lihu looked at Old Man Tao suspiciously.

"Of course there are, and there are quite a few." Old man Tao smiled secretly: "Especially those places where the dead are buried. This man can be used as food when he is alive, but he can only be used as fertilizer when he dies. ”

It's not uncommon to treat people as fertilizer. That's what Mrs. Wang in "Dragon Babu" did. And since ancient times, the grass around this tomb has been more lush than in the fields next to it. It's just that I know that I know, and when I say this through Old Man Tao's mouth, I still feel a little weird and a little panicked.

"When did I fall asleep, I remember I was talking to you just now." Bai Li rubbed the corners of his forehead, and the fragments that he had just dreamed of echoed in his mind were still echoed.

It's just a dream, and I actually had a terrible dream within a dream.

"What did you dream about? Did you dream that you had found a wishful husband, and you were about to take a closer look, but you found that life was extremely ugly. Old man Tao leaned over, and his small eyes flashed with the light of extreme gossip.

"You're dreaming of marrying a bride." Bai Li was too lazy to argue with Old Man Tao: "I dreamed of Hualing, which was in the forest over there." At first, it was a handsome girl, but then it turned into a strange skeleton. Immediately after, I dreamed that you were squatting next to the forest and digging something, and I asked what you were digging, and you told me that you were digging flower bells. I leaned over to see that there was only a broken burlap bag in the huge dirt pit. Let me ask you again, where is the flower bell? You say, she just got roasted by me. ”

"Flutter!" Old man Tao let out a laugh from his throat: "You really have a strange dream. ”

"Alright, I know I'm having a nightmare." Bai Li sat down again, folded her legs, and rested her chin on her knees: "You haven't told me when I fell asleep." ”

"Just when I told you the story of the flower bell." Old man Tao said and threw the cleaned rabbit bones into the fire: "If I had known that you were cowardly and would have nightmares, I wouldn't tell you about it." ”

"I'm not cowardly, I'm just—" Bai Li's eyes looked at the cold grill on the ground with fear, "I just have too much imagination." ”

"Then do you want to continue listening to this story?" Old man Tao pinched his back: "If you don't listen, I'll go back to sleep." Before you know it, it's over. ”

"Listen, of course." Bai Li pinched the back of his neck, and didn't let go until he felt the pain: "You still have a lot of things that you haven't explained clearly, for example, how did Brother Zhang Xi's father die?" Also, what does his death have to do with Hua Ling? In this whole thing, what kind of role did Zhang Xige play. ”

This flower bell was saved by Zhang Xi's father by mistake, and because of the random speculation of those people in the village, Zhang Xiniang had a demon obstacle in her heart, secretly plotted, and killed Hua Ling. Although this man was killed, he could not stay in his cellar forever. Not to mention whether this water cellar will continue to be used after the beginning of spring, just the smell of stinky rats that permeates the courtyard of the Zhang family is unbearable. When Zhang Xiniang harmed people, there was no hesitation in her heart, but after harming people, she would still be weak-hearted, anxious, and always worried about whether Hualing's matter would be discovered. In the end, when Zhang Xi's father decided to go to the backyard water cellar to check the source of the smell, she saw that she couldn't hide it, so she told the truth. ”

So, he decided to help his wife hide the murder.

He was frightened, and out of fear, he slipped and slipped down the moment the cellar opened and saw the corpse of Hua Ling. The water cellar was not big, and this happy father happened to hit Hua Ling's body impartially, because he was too frightened, causing his heart and lungs to open and inhale a lot of corpse gas in the water cellar. ”

"This corpse gas is poisonous, isn't it?" Bai Li asked lightly, she remembered that she had seen an explanation of corpse qi when she was reading a book before. The so-called corpse gas is the gas emitted by the corpse after a period of fermentation after death. Most of these gases are produced by a large number of bacteria latent in the human body, mainly including the toxic gases hydrogen sulfide, methane, ammonia and carbon dioxide.

These chemical components must have been unknown to the ancient people, but they must have known that the corpse gas was poisonous, or the people would not have left so many funeral taboos.

"In addition to corpse gas, there should be corpse water in that water cellar. Although I don't know this, I have vaguely heard people mention that this corpse water is also poisonous. In the worst case, it can cause coma and in the worst case, it can cause death. ”

"Yes, this Xi Dad not only inhaled the corpse gas, but also contaminated the corpse water in the water cellar, but the poisoning was not deep, and it did not attack immediately. Afterwards, they took advantage of the darkness of the night to secretly transfer and bury Hua Ling's body, they thought they didn't know the ghosts, but they didn't know that this scene happened to be seen by Zhang Xi, so there was something later. ”