The moon and stars are scarce, and Wenhe Village, as usual, ushered in a calm night. Xiao Tianhe and Ye Linglong each wore a set of dark clothes, and quietly lay on the wall of the backyard of the Jixiangmen branch. It is strange that a remote village with more than 30 households should have a branch of Jixiangmen. Coupled with the strange words of Uncle Liu and his wife during the day, the curiosity in the hearts of the two doubled, so they decided to explore at night.

After observing for a long time, there was no light in the room, and no sound came out. "It seems that there is really no one. Ye Linglong whispered.

"If there is anyone, you will find out when you go in. Xiao Tianhe jumped on the wall, climbed onto the roof, gently uncovered a piece of roof tiles, and looked in. The room was pitch black, with a few tables and chairs faintly visible, and it was very silent. He turned back to Ye Linglong and said, "You wait here, I'll go down and take a look." ”

"Be careful. Ye Linglong advised.

Xiao Tianhe nodded, went down to the courtyard along the corner, and touched the gate along the wall. With a nudge, I found that the door had been plugged in from the inside. This is proof that there are people in the house! The first thought in Xiao Tianhe's heart was: The person in the house is dead! But after thinking about it again, things are still not quite right. If the people in the house are really dead, where did the murderer get out? Moreover, in this season's weather, the corpse that has been stuffy for several days must have already emitted a peculiar smell. He pushed the windows one by one, and without exception all the pins were inserted, and the window paper was not broken, which means that no one has come out since the house was "sealed".

Xiao Tianhe asked Ye Linglong, when she came before, there were three people in the branch, two men and one woman. The woman was quite enthusiastic, every time she talked to Ye Linglong, the other two men were a little indifferent, and they didn't say a few words from beginning to end, even if they occasionally spoke, they only talked to the woman, as if they didn't see Ye Linglong. According to Uncle Liu, a few strangers came to Wenhe Village a few days ago, and they never came out after entering the Jixiangmen branch, so there were at least six people in the house.

Six people in a room without making the slightest noise? Xiao Tianhe simply knocked on the door three times with the audacity. Ye Linglong was startled and hurriedly jumped into the courtyard. "What are you doing?" she quickly pulled Xiao Tianhe under the wall.

"Jixiangmen is also a business, so you didn't say that you won't receive guests at night, right?" Xiao Tianhe said loudly deliberately. It turned out that he was deliberately trying to see if there was anyone in the room.

The house was still quiet. "There's no one inside, find a way to go in and have a look!" Xiao Tianhe looked at the window. Piercing the window paper and opening the bolt is the easiest way to do it, but it will leave visible marks. If you open the roof tiles and enter the house, you have to be very careful, because in order to open a hole for people to enter, you have to remove at least 20 or 30 tiles, and it is very bad if a large piece of the roof tiles collapses during this period. In addition, it is easy to uncover the roof tiles, but it is difficult to restore them. Neither method was perfect, and just as Xiao Tianhe hesitated, a slight cool breeze suddenly blew out of the crack in the door.

"Ha, there is!" Xiao Tianhe took out a short dagger and inserted the thin blade into the crack of the door, he wanted to use this narrow gap to open the door bolt little by little. When it is time to leave, you can also use this method to restore the deadbolt.

Ye Linglong leaned in and smiled: "Yo, you can't see it, you still have the potential to be a thief." ”

"Don't say it, I really learned it from a thief. When I was a child, my family was at the foot of the mountain, and there was no shortage of bandits in the mountain. In order to prevent thieves, this simple and easy-to-break deadbolt is not used in the home. Uncle Deng once demonstrated to us that ordinary door bolts, whether they are broken or skillfully taken, are not easy to use...... Look, let's open it!" Xiao Tianhe said proudly.

By the bright moonlight, the situation inside the house can be seen at a glance. The furnishings in the room are not much different from when Ye Linglong usually came, except that the tables and chairs are a little messy. There is a counter on each side of the house, and a bed for meditation is on the back wall of the table. These two counters are responsible for accepting and issuing orders, respectively, and they are all together from the first to the second. In the end, it is a remote village, and it is not the same as the machine elephant gate in Dazhou City. This branch office is so quiet on weekdays that it can be described as "a lot of birds".

"Nobody, really. It seems that Aunt Liu is not wrong, and the words of that old Zhang Tou are not credible. The people here must have left one day, but no one saw them. Ye Linglong said.

Xiao Tianhe glanced at her: "How did the deadbolt in that room be inserted?"

"Well...... Ye Linglong looked back at the deadbolt, "That must be dialed with a sharp weapon outside the house in the same way as you!"

Xiao Tianhe shook his head: "Then it's better to lock it with a lock from the outside!" He looked around, the room was not big, only there was a window on the south wall. "No, a cool breeze blew from the room just now, and I noticed that the crack in the door was large enough to insert a dagger. But this room is not open from north to south, and the windows are closed, so where does that gust of wind come from?"

"yes, where did it come from?" Ye Linglong, who was checking the counter, repeated casually.

Xiao Tianhe speculated: "Look carefully! There should be some secret passage!"

"Secret passage?" Ye Linglong's eyes widened.

"Hmm...... If that gust of wind didn't come out of the secret passage, it was someone who had just stuck behind the door and deliberately blew out......"

"Don't say it!" Ye Linglong had goosebumps all over her body, "There must be a secret passage!"

The two of them searched in the room for a long time, and it was more likely that the entrance to the secret passage was hidden, such as under the table and chair, inside the cabinet, under the bed, etc., and they searched carefully, but they found nothing.

Ye Linglong let out a long breath: "Look, there is no secret passage, but there are no Tibetans either, it seems that the 'origin' of that strange wind has to be thought about." ”

Xiao Tianhe touched his chin and thought for a long time, and took out something.

Ye Linglong took a look,

It's a fire break. "You want to light the lamp? No, the villagers will be suspicious when they see it!"

"Not really. Xiao Tianhe took out another incense, which was given to him by Hua Qingyu to repel poisonous insects, "At this time, smoke is more sensitive than people. As he spoke, he lit incense, and a faint white smoke rose. Sure enough, the smoke suddenly changed direction in mid-air, and Xiao Tianhe followed the direction of the extremely weak air flow to the west wall. He held the incense and tried it up and down, finally identifying the source of the air flow, a thin slit in the wall that was barely visible. Xiao Tianhe touched the crack and found that the slit was wide and long, like the shape of a door.

"The secret door is here!" Xiao Tianhe snuffed out the incense.

"There really is!" Ye Linglong was very surprised, "I remember that there is a big rock close to the outside of the wall, where does this secret door lead?"

"Go under the rocks. I just don't know how to open this secret door......"

"Maybe there's some mechanism, right?" Ye Linglong also came to the wall, and the two groped around the wall little by little.

"Hey, listen!" Xiao Tianhe said suddenly.

Ye Linglong followed his example and put his ear on the wall, and suddenly, there was a very slight muffled sound from inside the wall: "Bang!" Sure enough, someone is in the secret passage!"Let's go quickly! In case the people in the secret passage come out, we can't argue!" Ye Linglong retreated.

"On the pretext of setting up a branch, the machine elephant gate sneaks around and doesn't know what bad things to do...... Aren't you worried about these people in Wenhe Village?" Xiao Tianhe asked.

"But the Elephant Gate didn't make a big fuss, they acted quietly, unaware, they must not want the people of Wenhe Village to be involved, right?" Ye Linglong was thinking about the benefits.

Xiao Tianhe looked at her: "This is the case now, but what about after the fact? In order not to leak the news, the best way is to ......" He made a gesture to wipe his neck with a knife.

"Wouldn't it? If you really want to hide it, why didn't you kill all the villagers in the first place?"

"Just in case someone suddenly comes to Wenhe Village, like the two of us. If you see that the villagers are dead, you must spread the word. So, you have to act in a 'quiet' way. Wenhe Village is located in a remote area, and the villagers' scope of action is limited, so it is not easy to leak information. When the work is done, the grass is cut down and the roots are removed, and then the whole village is burned to the ground, and no one knows what happened here. Xiao Tianhe said it vividly, and Ye Linglong trembled when he heard it.

"I didn't expect that the famous Elephant Gate would do such an unsightly thing. Ye Linglong sighed.

Xiao Tianhe said: "It is not known whether it is the machine door or not. Maybe someone is doing evil under the banner of the Elephant Gate? Why don't you find out with me what these people are trying to do?"

"Hmm!" Ye Linglong nodded firmly.

At this moment, there was a strange noise in the wall, and the secret door was opened! The incident happened suddenly, and neither of them had time to hide, which could shock the two of them!

The people inside the secret door didn't expect that there were people outside the wall, and they were also frightened, and the three of them looked at each other, and no one said anything for a long time.

"Ahh

"Run!" Xiao Tianhe took Ye Linglong's hand and rushed out of the house.

The two of them got out of the house, climbed over the courtyard wall, and ran directly to the back of the mountain. As long as you go out of the range of Wenhe Village, it is not so easy to be caught in the deep mountains and old forests.

However, things did not go as expected. Several masters quickly chased after them, and soon intercepted the way of the two. There were three people who came, two men and one woman, and they were the three people from the Elephant Gate.

After seeing her appearance clearly by the moonlight, the woman asked in surprise, "Miss Ye, why are you?"

"Uh......" Ye Linglong scratched her ears and cheeks in a hurry, "This ......"

"Are you worried that no one will take your commission?" the woman winked at Ye Linglong.

Ye Linglong hurriedly followed her words and said, "Well, I'm a little worried. I brought my friends to Wenhe Village, but I heard that you have closed your doors in the past few days, so I am worried that my commission will not ......."

"You can rest assured of this. Once the commission of the machine elephant gate is followed, all branches can get the news. Even if we're closed, you can get results from other branches. The woman comforted.

Xiao Tianhe listened, and was very surprised in his heart, the woman in front of him seemed to have the intention of exculpating Ye Linglong?

"So what?" said a tall man, "what kind of intentions can you have when you break into the door at night?"

"We went in to investigate because we were worried about your safety!" Ye Linglong said.

The shorter sturdy man said, "Whatever the reason, the secret passage has been discovered after all, and these two people can't keep it." ”

"That's right. The tall man agreed, and the two of them showed their weapons together.

"Wait!" The woman stretched out her arms to stop the two, "Killing people so rashly, aren't you afraid that the eldest sister will blame you?"

The tall man spread his hands: "In order to keep the secret, this is also a last resort." ”

The sturdy man sneered: "Who would know about the barren mountains and mountains? Even if someone finds two corpses coming out of here, how can they know who did it?"

"Miss Ye is not a wicked person, I don't want to kill her. Seeing that the persuasion was fruitless, the woman simply stood in front of Ye Linglong.

"Thank you. Ye Linglong said.

The woman's actions annoyed the sturdy man, and he waved his fist and rebuked, "Are you crazy?

"No!" the woman refused.

"Hey

Ah, why are you two arguing? Why don't you take it back first, and report to the eldest sister tomorrow, and she will take it!" the tall man advised.

"I think so. The woman agreed.

The sturdy man snorted, and it was considered an agreement.

So, the two men escorted Xiao Tianhe and Ye Linglong respectively, returned to the Jixiangmen branch, and entered the secret passage.

This secret passage extends diagonally down below the ground, and Xiao Tianhe needs to lower his head a little to walk in it. Not long after walking, a three-way road appeared in front of me. Several people stopped at the fork.

"You two, go over there!" the tall man pointed to a fork in the road and said to Xiao and Ye.

The woman comforted the two: "Let's stay in this tunnel for one night, and you can go out tomorrow." ”

The sturdy man laughed, "Not necessarily. Listen, you two, I've closed the door of the tunnel, you can't open it, stay in this fork in the road honestly, don't run around. If it delays our business, don't blame my men for being ruthless!"

Xiao Tianhe and Ye Linglong glanced at each other and obediently turned into the fork in the road. The three men also went up another fork in the road.

There are oil lamps on the walls of this secret passage at intervals, and although they are not very bright, they can see the surroundings clearly. The fork in the road that the two walked into was roughly straight, stretching in a southwesterly direction. After walking for about a mile, the oil lamp on the wall was gone. It was pitch black in front of the passage.

Ye Linglong pulled Xiao Tianhe's sleeve: "There won't be any danger ahead, right?"

Xiao Tianhe looked at the two walls, although there was no light, he could clearly see the pits dug for the placement of oil lamps. "It's okay, since they let us into this fork in the road, there must be a dead end ahead. The pits in the wall were used for lighting. After the road was abandoned, it was no longer lit. Xiao Tianhe said, took out the fire fold and torch and lit it.

The two of them continued to walk forward for about four or five miles, and finally saw the end.

Ye Linglong sighed: "I can't imagine that this secret passage is so long......"

"When did that Jixiangmen branch open?" Xiao Tianhe suddenly asked.

"It's been more than half a year, right? I don't know exactly. Why, do you suspect that the secret passage was dug by those people?" The clever Ye Linglong quickly guessed what Xiao Tianhe was thinking.

"Hmm. It's a long time, and it's worth it. ”

"What about the excavated soil? I have never seen anyone transport it out! If it was transported from Wenhe Village, the villagers would definitely see it!"

"That's what I thought, too. Since it was not from Wenhe Village, it must have been transported out from another fork in the road. In other words, the tunnel has been excavated, and there is another exit somewhere. It was through that mouth that the little wind in the secret passage blew in. ”

Ye Linglong raised her eyebrows and thought for a while, and then said, "You mean that this secret passage was not dug from Wenhe Village, but dug all the way to Wenhe Village from the outside?"

"Exactly. ”

"I wonder what their purpose is?"

Xiao Tianhe pondered for a moment: "Secret Dao, anyway, it's either a Tibetan or a hidden thing." They set up a branch office in Wenhe Village, pretending to receive and send orders during the day, and at night they escaped into the secret passage to secretly transport some things. Do you know what precious specialties Wenhe Village has?"

Ye Linglong was happy: "What do you think? What kind of specialties can a small village have? If there is, I'm afraid it will already be very lively!"

Xiao Tianhe scratched his head: "That's what I said." It would be nice to have a look at the other fork in the road......"

"Don't go, it's bad if they find out. Miss Song is not bad-hearted, I think she even has the intention of letting the two of us go, but the shorter strong man is too ruthless. Miss Song also said: 'You can go out tomorrow', so it is inferred that the 'eldest sister' should not be a murderer. We'll wait here for the night, and we'll see that 'big sister' tomorrow before we make plans." Ye Linglong persuaded.

"That's all there is to it. Xiao Tianhe sat on the ground against the wall.

Ye Linglong sat down beside him and looked at him blankly.

Xiao Tianhe closed his eyes for a moment, and realized that Ye Linglong was looking at him, so he smiled, stretched out his hand and shook it in front of her eyes: "What do you want?"

"I don't have anything on my mind. I want to see through your heart. Ye Linglong said with a smile.

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