The story of the old man Liu Baohua is finished.

Lu Ming felt that this story could not be made up by the old man himself. Of course, there may be elements of fiction and personal processing, but the overall framework should be credible, or have reference value.

So if you interpret the situation at the moment based on this story, the truth is obvious.

Tear down the archway, the ghost is out of the cage, making waves, killing people.

Lu Ming didn't believe in this statement. But he also knows that behind some seemingly ridiculous stories, there is often a hidden truth. Because the story may be fake, but the logic is true. Worst of all, it's also very likely that the story contains some inspiration and can point some way to the truth.

"Uncle, thank you, it turns out that this custom here on Nanlin Street came from like this."

Lu Ming thanked the old man Liu Baohua again and again. Finally, someone listened to himself completely and with great interest, and the old man Liu Baohua was also very happy.

"It's okay, it's okay, what else do you want to know, just ask me. I know everything, I can't say anything. ”

Lu Ming asked a few more details before leaving.

Returning to the internal office specially assigned to the three of them by the Public Security Bureau, Zhang Dingshan looked at He Wei: "What is the specific situation of the Wu family boy's eucalyptus?" ”

"The record of the Public Security Bureau is the same as what Uncle Liu said, suicide. The cause of suicide is both emotional and financial. ”

The so-called relationship is naturally that the daughter-in-law divorced someone else's child and changed her surname, and the economic factor is that she owes gambling debts.

At that time, the Public Security Bureau also arrested those who lent usury to Wu Biao and punished each of them. Those people also confessed to the process of forcing debts from Wu Biao. ”

"Are there any doubts?"

"Judging by the dossier, no. The dossier is very solid and of high quality. ”

The local security bureau obviously had nothing wrong with handling the matter. The second team of operations could not have asked for more.

Even if the detective comes to the gods, for Wu Biao's eucalyptus, he can only give the conclusion of suicide in the end. After all, there was really no trace of his murder at the scene. The reasons for the deceased to commit suicide were too sufficient.

But combined with Mr. Liu's statement, this conclusion seems a little unsolid.

"Let's visit the old neighborhoods and old residents of Nanlin Street at that time. The first is to verify Wu Biao's suicide, and the second is to verify the matter of the gossip mirror. Lu Ming, you go and check the matter of that archway again. ”

"Yes."

The second team of action will not rely on the words of only one family. Multi-party verification, multi-party confirmation, mutual comparison, and mutual confirmation are the most basic criteria.

After that, the three of them began to go their separate ways.

Zhang Dingshan and He Wei are mainly responsible for verification in reality, that is, interviewing witnesses and questioning insiders. Lu Ming was mainly responsible for searching for evidence from historical records, documents, etc.

Generally speaking, for buildings like the old archway, as long as the history is long enough, there are decades or hundreds of years, and they will be recorded in the history or files. The same is true for the archway of Nanlin Street.

According to the old man Liu Baohua, this archway has a history of at least 100 years, and there must be a lot of places to record it in historical materials or files.

Lu Ming came to the Archives Pavilion and started to query with the word "archway" as a keyword in the internal database.

Within the area of Blue Lake City, the relevant information of hundreds of arches that still exist or have been demolished immediately appeared.

Over the past hundred years, the vicissitudes of life, historical changes, place names and administrative divisions have also undergone tremendous changes. For example, the current Blue Lake City did not have any before, there was only a small fishing village. The area of Nanlin Street used to be called Wushui Town, which was under the jurisdiction of Wu County.

Lu Ming limited the search area to Wushui Town, and after checking for a while, he found a record about the "Zhoujia Archway".

Wuxian County Chronicles record that Wushui Town has a large Zhou family, thousands of acres of fertile land at home, 100 fishing boats, both farming and fishing, there are hundreds of people, domestic servants, thugs at home, employing thousands of long-term and short-term workers and tenants, the wealth is strong, and it can be called a tyrant in Wushui Town. His eldest son is an official outside the country, and he has achieved the level of a county order.

But later, the Zhou family suffered some accidents, and the family's fortune began to decline.

The county chronicles are vague about what happened to the Zhou family, and they did not say it clearly, but only mentioned one point, saying that their eldest son was convicted and imprisoned, and the family "had frequent visions", in order to pray for blessings, the Zhou family set up a memorial arch.

But after the archway was erected, it is not known whether the situation of the Zhou family has been improved.

But that's okay too. At least these materials have shown that the Zhou family really exists, and indeed set up this archway.

Some of the materials in the back also involve the existence of this torii. In those records, this Zhoujia archway has even become a landmark in a sense. When it comes to some agreed locations, it is "meeting Zhoujia archway", or "a certain month, a certain day, a certain time, Zhoujia archway is not seen or dispersed" and so on.

This is also a testament to when it was built and who built it.

Other travelogues, notes, records and the like that do not involve the archway are occasionally mentioned that the Zhou family in Wushui Town is "rich and unkind", "oppressive township" and the like.

From these records, Lu Ming can be sure that at least this Zhou family used to be a tyrant in Wushui Town, but the family style was bad, bullying the township, and later the family was in a bad situation, and the construction of the Zhou family archway These things are real.

As for whether there is the so-called throwing of corpses, revenge of unjust souls, ancestral blessings, and changing lives against the sky, I don't know.

After turning over the records from the earlier years, the subsequent records are much clearer and more formal. It began to appear frequently in official documents, not only as a landmark, but also as some documents such as survey and protection, cultural relics assessment, etc.

It was not eventually recognized as an antiquity, and it was officially considered to have little conservation value.

In the end, with the official document of Blue Lake City "Approval of the Demolition of the Zhoujia Memorial Arch on Nanlin Street", it ushered in the fate of being finally demolished.

According to the document, after investigation, the existence of the Zhoujia archway on Nanlin Street has been a certain obstacle to traffic, and there is an adverse impact on the decision to plan Nanlin Street as a food and leisure street. And after investigation, the archway of the Zhou family is in disrepair for a long time, and there is a risk of collapse. Based on the above considerations, it was decided to dismantle it.

It was eventually dismantled, turned into a pile of garbage, and transported to landfills.

So far, Lu Ming has figured out its past and present life to a certain extent.

Back in the internal conference room, Zhang Dingshan and He Wei also ended the investigation.

"We visited some old residents of Nanlin Street and asked about the Zhoujia archway. What several insiders told is roughly similar to that of the old man Liu Baohua, with only some differences in details, but they can be ignored. ”

Lu Ming also said: "I checked the records of the Zhou family's archway, and also partially confirmed the statement of the old man Liu Baohua. ”

The three of them exchanged details and exchanged information with each other.

"It can be inferred from common sense that the Zhou family was rich and unkind at that time, and they oppressed the township, so that the possibility of grass management of human life is real, and even very large. Combined with the changes in the circumstances of the Zhou family at that time, their motivation for building this archway is indeed very likely to change the fate of the family. From this point of view, the old man Liu Baohua said that this archway is to suppress the soul, and there is a considerable possibility. ”

It doesn't matter whether this has any effect, whether it can really suppress the soul, and whether it can really change the fate of the family, but the motive of the Zhou family to build this archway at that time is indeed very likely.

This logically provides support for the old man Liu Baohua's follow-up "The archway is demolished, and the soul of the wronged will come out to make waves".

"I noticed that before the construction of the memorial arch, a variety of township chronicles, county chronicles, notes, legends and other materials recorded the deeds of the Zhou family for the rich and unkind, after the construction of the archway, the record of negative news about the Zhou family is indeed gradually decreasing. Moreover, the final ending of the Zhou family, as of the establishment of the world government, did end with an ordinary wealthy family.

From this point of view, the construction of the archway seems to be indeed the node of the change of the Zhou family's family style. This seems to in turn prove the impact of the construction of the memorial arch on the fate of the Zhou family. ”

If a memorial arch can indeed affect the fate of the family, then the memorial arch can suppress the ghosts and ghosts, and it naturally makes sense.

Zhang Dingshan shook his head: "Looking at historical materials, we should not only look at the small environment, but also look at the big environment. In the era of the Zhou family, the general environment had changed. ”

Lu Ming was stunned for a moment, and then thought thoughtfully.

At that time, the situation was changing turbulently, and it was on the eve of changes in the entire social environment. It is also possible that the Zhou family was aware of this change, and in order to protect themselves, they took the initiative to change themselves, and it has nothing to do with whether to build the archway?

This is also a possibility.

He Wei interjected: "We can't know the truth about what happened so long ago, and I don't feel the need to explore the truth." As long as it is determined that the Zhou family built this archway, there is indeed a certain possibility that it was based on the purpose of 'suppressing the ghosts and ghosts'. ”

Lu Ming nodded and agreed with He Wei's statement.

"Good. Next is Wu Biao's suicide.

After visiting and investigating, it cannot be said that there are doubts about Wu Biao's suicide, but there are indeed some rumors.

First of all, this Wu Biao, as the old man Liu Baohua said, is a typical second-rate son. His father died of a cerebral hemorrhage and his mother died of cancer.

It is rumored that Wu Biao is angry with his parents, but it is not without wind and waves.

Wu Biao does like to drink, like to gamble, has no stable financial resources, and often abuses his wife. In the end, he ended up with a wife and a single person, and it was inevitable that he would owe a large amount of gambling debts.

Based on his "second-rate" personality, his suicide aroused the suspicion of the neighborhood and caused rumors, and it does have a certain basis in reality.

It's just this kind of thing, how to say it. Although from a psychological point of view, such people generally do not commit suicide, it is difficult to ensure that this kind of person also has any psychological softness?

In short, it is impossible to know for sure. Speaking of anomalies, it is true that there may be anomalies, but it is only possible. It's normal to say it's normal.

As for those dog suicides, goose suicides, rat suicides, etc., a few people said they had heard of them, but only Liu Baohua was the only one they had seen with their own eyes. This kind of thing, there is no way to be sure. ”

The memory of more than ten years, even if there is a deviation, it is normal. Sometimes this deviation is not even noticed by the parties themselves.

Besides, in more than ten years, the rumors have long been distorted into not knowing what it looks like, and it is impossible to restore the truth at all.

Lu Ming breathed a sigh of relief.

"So on the whole, the possibility of 'the Zhou family made an archway to suppress the souls of grievances, but in recent years it has been demolished, and the ghosts have come out of the cage and possessed Wu Biao to kill them', which can neither be determined nor denied. We can be open for the time being.

Subsequently, influenced by this story, almost every store on Nanlin Street placed gossip mirrors, but this is a reality.

Then, under the premise that there are a large number of abnormal suicides in Blue Lake City, we can start from 'verifying whether the Bagua Mirror is effective' to investigate. ”

"I agree."

It is very simple to verify whether the Bagua Mirror has any effect. It is enough to mobilize the suicide data of Nanlin Street in the past ten years.

This data was quickly placed in front of the three members of the second team of operations.

The number of permanent residents and working population in Nanlin Street is actually not large, only less than 40,000. And this number is increasing year by year, that is, in previous years, the permanent population and working population of Nanlin Street were smaller.

Based on the calculation of 12.6 suicides per 100,000 people per year last year, it is normal for 5 of these 40,000 people to commit suicide every year.

Statistics show that three people committed suicide on Nanlin Street ten years ago, four nine years ago, three eight years ago, and then four, five, four, six, seven, six, five, and seven people after that.

This figure is roughly in line with the statistics.

Overall, the numbers are growing slowly. But this is also in line with the year-on-year population growth of Nanlin Street.

Judging by the numbers, you can't see anything.

However, the three members of the second team of the operation did not pay attention to the normal suicide eucalyptus. What they are concerned about is the unjustified suicide of eucalyptus.

"There are a total of 54 suicide eucalyptus, and we will screen them to see if there are any abnormal suicide eucalyptus."

"Okay."

The files of the 54 suicide eucalyptus were quickly transferred. The three of them flipped through it and saw that at least from the top of the file, there was nothing unreasonable about it.

This is also normal. After all, except for the one that is too obviously unreasonable, for the rest, a person who commits suicide can always find some reason to explain this behavior.

Human life cannot be smooth sailing, and there will always be setbacks. Once the person commits suicide, the frustration becomes the reason.

If you want to know whether a person's suicide is reasonable, you must also make a comprehensive judgment based on his living environment, personality, psychological quality and other reasons.

This necessitates further field investigations.

The three members of Operation 2 each led a team of vigilantes and devoted themselves to the screening of a total of 54 suicide eucalyptus.