Chapter 133
Chapter 133 The Eaten Corpses
Old Guo paused for a while before he continued, “But the drawing is too abstract, and there’s no labeling . I don’t know where it’s a drawing of . ”
Xie Yuqing said, “That's easy . I can take a photo of this map and send it to our technology department . They'll try to match and analyze this map through the satellite map of Stone City . They can usually get results within ten minutes . ”
She then contacted a technician and told him what she needed . Sure enough, Xie Yuqing received a map from the technician within ten minutes . She studied it for a while, then she looked up at Ye Shaoyang and said, “It’s a map of this region . ”
Ye Shaoyang matched the map on her cell phone with the notebook’s; they indeed were the same map . But the map in the cell phone looked clearer and was labeled with the names of places . The cell phone map also revealed the areas that the red dots marked in the notebook .
“Where’s the location of Madam Chee’s Temple?” asked Ye Shaoyang, as he didn't know how to use a smartphone .
Xie Yuqing helped Ye Shaoyang find the location . After he checked the location of Madam Chee’s Temple, he zoomed in to look at the other four locations . He looked over the five locations, and he took a deep breath and said in shock, “Don't tell me it’s a five spirit moving mountain formation… . ”
“What’s that?” Xie Yuqing and the others hurriedly asked .
“Let's not discuss this . I need to go to one of these places to confirm my guess . ” Ye Shaoyang pointed at one of the red dots, “This place looks close to us . ”
Xie Yuqing said, “That’s Liang Village, more than ten kilometers away from here . ”
More than ten kilometers… . Ye Shaoyang nodded . Right at this moment, a waitress came in and cleared their plates away . He asked her, “Miss, do you know where Liang Village is?”
The plates fell out of the waitress’s hands and smashed into pieces . She shook her head in panic and said, “I don’t know . ” She didn’t clean up the mess and turned to leave .
Her strange behavior stunned everyone .
Xie Yuqing stood up and placed her hand on the waitress’s shoulder and stopped her . She advised, “Don’t be afraid; we’re the police . We hope to learn more about Liang Village . You’ll just need to answer us honestly . ”
Then Xie Yuqing stuffed two hundred Yuan into the waitress’s palm, but the woman instantly shoved it back and grabbed both of Xie Yuqing’s hands . “Big sister, you must listen to me . Don’t ever go to Liang Village . It is… haunted . I just ran away from there . The villagers are in a panic . Most of them have already moved out . You must not go to the village!”
Once the waitress finished speaking, she pushed Xie Yuqing away and quickly exited the room without listening to anyone .
Xie Yuqing stared blankly at Ye Shaoyang and asked, “Do you want me to bring the waitress back here?”
“It’s fine; she doesn’t want to talk, it’s useless for us to force her . Since the village is not far from us, we can go tomorrow morning,” replied Ye Shaoyang . In his mind, he wondered what strange incident could frighten the waitress to this extent .
That night, they slept at the police station . The next morning, they divided tasks among themselves . Old Guo went back to his shop to make more potions and ritual tools for future use while Xie Yuqing drove Ye Shaoyang and Xiao Ma to Liang Village . They went according to the route drawn on the map . After driving for seven or eight kilometers, they reached a narrow path the car couldn’t pass .
Xie Yuqing stated she could only take them to here . She needed to hurry back to report the details of the case to her superior so she could further increase the search effort for the Gu master . As a result, Ye Shaoyang and Xiao Ma walked the last few kilometers of the mountain road .
After an hour of walking in the mountains, they finally saw a few houses . According to the map, it was where Liang Village was located . When they were about to enter the village, Ye Shaoyang stopped dead in his tracks . He frowned and muttered, “Such a strong hateful Qi!”
“Haunted?” Xiao Ma nervously asked .
Ye Shaoyang nodded as he walked to the village entrance . “Let’s check it out . ”
Once they walked past the entrance, the sky instantly dulled . A grey mist dispersed throughout the village . Xiao Ma was stunned . He looked up but couldn’t even see where the sun was . He wondered, “Holy moly, the weather turns cloudy and the sun has just gone missing in the blink of an eye . ”
Ye Shaoyang whispered, “The hateful Qi has covered the sun . Be careful now, the hateful Qi has reached an extreme level in this place . ”
In the village, the door to every house was shut tight . Ye Shaoyang and Xiao Ma saw no one when they walked across the village . As they wondered, a sob suddenly sounded from a yard not far away from them .
They glanced at each other . They tracked down the voice and came to a yard with the gate wide open . When they entered, they saw a reed mat placed at the center of the yard . The mat wrapped around a corpse whose two legs were the only part exposed .
A lady with two children laid on the mat, crying feebly . Beside the three of them were dozens of villagers who were attending the funeral . All of them looked depressed and didn’t seem to have had enough sleep .
The villagers were puzzled when they saw Ye Shaoyang and Xiao Ma . A sixty-year-old man walked toward them . He sized up both of them with eyes that looked tired with bags beneath them . Ye Shaoyang spoke first, “We’re the police . We’re here to investigate a case . Are you holding a funeral?”
Once the villagers heard they were police, the villagers let their guard down . None of the villagers thought of verifying that they were police . The old man nodded and slowly said, “I’m the village head . How can I help you?”
Ye Shaoyang clarified his first doubt, “Why is nobody in any of the houses?”
The village head replied, “We don’t have many villagers in our village . The teenagers have left to work, leaving us, the senior villagers to keep watch over our small land, doing nothing . ”
Ye Shaoyang swept his eyes over the crowd . Just as the village head said, all of them were over their forties and fifties . All of them had lifeless looks in their eyes . Ye Shaoyang instantly had an answer in mind . He approached and squatted beside the reed mat covering the corpse . It was a man in his forties . Then Ye Shaoyang asked, “How did he die?”
“While he was working, he drowned when he fell into a hole made by cows tramping that was filled with water,” answered the village head .
The village head’s words stunned Ye Shaoyang and Xiao Ma . They looked at each other . A person drowning in a hole filled with water made by cows tramping?
“Instead of covering him with a reed mat, why don’t you buy him a coffin?” Ye Shaoyang asked .
He thought the old man would say that they lacked money, as he saw the house was old and dilapidated . There was a possibility that they could not afford to buy a coffin . However, the lady lying on the mat wiped away her tears and replied, “It’s a waste of money to buy him a coffin . The corpse will be eaten in the end anyway!”
Her answer shocked Ye Shaoyang . He hurriedly asked, “Why do you say that?”
The village head rebuked the lady with a grunt and said to Ye Shaoyang, “She grieves for the death of her husband . That’s why she is talking nonsense . I hope you won’t take her words seriously . ”
Ye Shaoyang grabbed the opportunity . He instantly acted like the police . He gave a dry cough and said to the village head, “Honestly speaking, uncle, we came here to investigate this issue . I hope you can cooperate and tell me the whole truth . Don’t try to interfere with our investigation . ”
Rural people were usually innocent and timid . Ye Shaoyang’s words stunned the village head . After a while, the village head stammered, “I-It is useless . You police can’t handle this problem . Nobody can help us . Th-This is a haunting . ”