Liang Zhijie had no evidence and could not bring Liu Zhihong back to the Municipal Criminal Police Team.

She was lying on the bed in the B&B with her eyes closed, thinking about what had happened during this time. Suddenly, her heart beat faster, and her eyes opened as she looked at her phone resting on the bedside table.

The ringing at midnight made people restless, Liang Zhijie got up, held the phone, and an unfamiliar phone number was displayed on the screen. For some reason, when she saw that phone number, the uneasiness in her heart widened a lot.

She looked at the number and hesitated for a moment, then the phone returned to calm. The wind was blowing outside the window, and the wind was very strong, blowing the trees in the mountains and forests like unknown beasts roaring. I thought that the number would not call again, but it only stayed for less than a minute, and the bell rang again. This time, Liang Zhijie pressed the call button.

There was a strange sound on the phone, slightly harsh, like a rat gnawing on something. Liang Zhijie fed, and the phone immediately calmed down, followed by a burst of rapid breathing.

Just when Liang Zhijie couldn't help but want to hang up the phone, the voice of the proprietress came from the phone: "It's that Captain Liang, right?" I'm the hapless proprietress next door. ”

"I know." Liang Zhijie stood up, walked to the window, and looked out through the windowpane. I don't know if it's because of the strong wind, the mobile phone signal is not very good, and there are a lot of noises that she hasn't heard in her mobile phone before.

The proprietress was in a hurry, and the wheezing sound was very loud, and the wheezing sound was mixed with an indescribable "sizzling" sound.

"Is something wrong with you?" Liang Zhijie asked: "Is it Liu Zhihong?" ”

"Liu Zhihong? That guest, you say? She's fine, okay. The proprietress said: "Doctor Ma has an accident, he died, he died a terrible death, you are a policeman, you can come and take a look." ”’

"Doctor Ma is dead?" Liang Zhijie was a little surprised.

"It's dead, it's a terrible death, you come here quickly." The proprietress gasped: "The village chief is also here, and we are all scared to death." ”

Liang Zhijie lives in a homestay next door to Liu Zhihong's house, not far from Ma Dafu's house.

Ma's family is a special existence in Shenlong Village, because only their family does not do homestay business. After Ma Dafu returned to Shenlong Village, he only carried out simple maintenance and decoration of the old house. Their house is similar to that kind of courtyard, but the courtyard is not square but rectangular, and the entrance is a corridor, and next to the corridor is a hall, which he usually uses for medical treatment.

The door of the hall faced the road in the middle of the courtyard, and on both sides of the road were symmetrical houses, except for a kitchen, and the remaining three were bedrooms. Dr. Ma died in the back room directly opposite the hall. Judging from the furnishings, this room is vacant, and there are many miscellaneous items piled up inside, but they are neatly placed.

There were traces of blood in front of the door, and the blood was dripping, and judging from the traces of those dripping ground, it should have been left when the deceased entered the room with his arm raised after he was injured. On the body of the deceased Dr. Ma, Liang Zhijie did find three wounds. The wounds were cut with a scalpel and were all on his right forearm, in an even arrangement. The depth of the wounds was the same, the bleeding was consistent, and they were all drawn from the outside to the inside, which was consistent with the characteristics of the deceased's self-injury before death.

The deceased was leaning against the window on the first floor, which was a little dark and could not be illuminated by the light.

The closer you get to the deceased, the more you can smell the choking smell of blood.

It was only when they got closer that they could see the situation of the deceased clearly.

It was only at this time that Liang Zhijie understood what the proprietress meant by saying "a terrible death" on the phone.

Both of the deceased's eyes were gouged out and eyeballs fell to the ground. The ears were also cut off and neatly laid aside. The deceased's face was covered with blood, and he couldn't see his appearance clearly at all, if it weren't for the clothes he was still wearing during the day, Rao is a person like Liang Zhijie who has a good memory, there is no way to connect him with the Ma Dafu during the day.

"His ears were cut off by himself, using his own right hand, so there was more blood on his right hand than on his left. Also, the ears on the ground were also placed by himself, with his own finger prints on them. If you are unsure, you can compare your fingerprints later. His eyes were also gouged out by himself, he was afraid of pain, and he was even more afraid that he would hesitate when he gouged out his eyes, so he injected himself with a large number of painkillers and anesthetics before doing these things. He didn't want to bother others, so he put the needles and bottles for injection nearby. ”

Liang Zhijie looked at Dr. Ma's appearance: "I don't understand why he did this!" Even if you don't want to live, even if it's martyrdom, there's no need for this. ”

"It's a ritual." The village chief glanced at Liang Zhijie, "It's a cruel, ritual to pray for the dead." ”

"A ritual to pray for the dead?" Liang Zhijie turned his head and looked at the village chief standing in the shadow of the lamp: "What kind of ceremony needs to be like this?" ”

"Feudal superstition has been banned for a long time in our Shenlong Village." The village chief rubbed his hands uneasily: "I didn't expect anyone to believe this, let alone Doctor Ma, who would believe this." He's a doctor, he's been to school and gone to college. He also worked as a big doctor in the provincial town, how could he do such a thing. ”

"This kind of ritual has ever been performed in Shenlong Village?" Liang Zhijie stepped back and found that there was indeed something similar to a formation painted on the ground. The thing was painted with blood, but not Madaifu's own blood, and the blood had dried up. Judging by the extent to which the blood dried up, it took at least two or three days.

"The one on the ground is not human blood, it's black dog blood." The village chief seemed to know what Liang Zhijie was thinking: "The black dog was raised by Dr. Ma himself, and it has been raised for several years. Three days ago, when I came to Dr. Ma's house to buy medicine, I didn't see it, maybe I was dead by then. This kind of harmful ritual has existed in our Shenlong Village for two or three hundred years, and no one can say exactly how it came about. It's just that for almost a hundred years, no one has done such a thing. You say, who is willing to sacrifice their lives in exchange for someone else's future, and it is an unreliable future in the next life. ”

"To trade this cruel ritual for someone else's next life?" Liang Zhijie seemed to understand something: "Doctor Ma did it for Aunt Chen, but what did he want in exchange?" Is it to be a husband and wife in the next life? ”

"No, it's not about being a husband and wife in the next life, it's about a happy reunion in the next life." The village chief looked at Dr. Ma's already cold corpse: "He is exchanging himself for his beloved to be reunited in the next life, and he is beautiful, and he is beautiful in exchange for her happy marriage and filial piety in the next life." In short, he is not for himself. ”

"Does everyone in the village know about this ritual?" Liang Zhijie asked suddenly.