magician in town

Chapter 1 Introduction

00

The rain is falling, the old house stands on both sides of the stone alley, and the last ray of skylight is blurred on the window lattice on the second floor.The cramped alley starts to fall asleep from the bottom, and the sound of the dense rain falling on the stone road is like the vague dream of an old house.

The woman walked into the old city, and began to look back at the darker corners of the alley suspiciously. Several times she seemed to hear whispers, and the darkness at the heels of the old house always seemed to be filled with living shadows.She felt someone was staring at her, maybe those old stone houses were really alive, looking at her with sleepy eyes.

She didn't have an umbrella, and the rain wetted her clothes. She walked faster and faster in the rain alley in embarrassment, lost her mind, and gradually seemed to be running for her life.

The alley suddenly came to an end, and a dark river lay across the entrance of the alley.There are no bridges over the river, but there are paths along the banks.She looked at the left and right roads in shock, not sure where to go, and subconsciously hugged her cold arms tightly.After hesitating for a while, she took a step to the right, then stopped shivering again, her neck turned to the direction of the river stiffly.There was no light in the river, and she knew she shouldn't look into it. The darkness in the river was thicker than the starless and moonless sky, as if a deformed abyss crossed the sideline of the ancient town.But the abyss called her, and she looked into it.

A wooden window on the second floor overhead creaked open, as if blown open by the wind, or pushed from it by an invisible hand.On a locust tree by the river, a crow screamed and kicked the treetops, flew straight to the roof, swept over the 600-year-old gray tiles, and flew across the river bank.

The woman trembled, her back pressed against the stone wall of the old house.

01

A city two thousand kilometers away is covered with thick snow. A two-story red brick building in the middle of the last century lazily and half-collapsed in the center of the modern city. It has little aesthetic value or historical significance, just like the city The demolition team forgot about the job when it was half demolished, and it just remained in the city center carelessly.

People pass by it in a hurry, and their attention is always attracted by the magnificent modern office buildings around it. No one cares about this half-collapsed red brick building, and no one thinks to ask why it is still there. , over time its existence has become a matter of course.

A black domestic car stopped at the door of the red brick building.A balding 60-year-old man got out of the car. He was wearing a woolen jacket on his upper body and slightly baggy corduroy pants underneath, with a briefcase in his back and a grumpy face.He paused at the door, and looked up impatiently at the broken window on the second floor without glass. A blue plastic bag was hanging ostentatiously on the window frame, shaking triumphantly in the north wind.

He seemed even more annoyed, and snorted heavily.

Downstairs is a half-dead car repair shop, and the owner seems to have the courage to believe that this dilapidated building will not continue to collapse.The scribbled car logos outside the repair shop show the scope of its repairs, from BMW to Baojun, from smart to QQ, it covers everything. The notice from the municipal government telling it to get out is posted on the wall together with the notice of the rental hook.

The man glimpsed the dazzling wall, frowned and pushed open the faded green wooden door.A long-haired young man was squatting on the ground facing the door to pick a tire. He looked up at him in confusion, as if he didn't know him, but he grinned and said, "Boss, you look so handsome today. Seeing is leadership."

The man glared at him, walked through the oil-stained workshop without saying a word, and went straight to the glass door at the end of the workshop.On the left behind the door is a simple toilet, and on the right is a stairwell extending downwards.The cement-painted stairs have been in disrepair for a long time and have begun to shed slag. The dirty walls on both sides have footprints on the lower half and mildew spots on the upper half. There are a few notices posted crookedly in the middle, which roughly read "It is forbidden to urinate and defecate anywhere" and "Recruitment all year round, QQ number: 112358".

The man stared at the notices in disgust, stepped into the stairwell with clean leather shoes, and walked all the way down.The cement of the stairs began to peel off in large pieces from the second basement floor, exposing the bottom of the red bricks inside, but the stairs spiraled endlessly downward.He continued walking, and before he knew it, the stairs under his feet turned into smooth marble. Finally, the light from the electric lamp gave way to a blazing fire. He looked at him stupidly.

Before he could speak the secret word, the door opened silently, and a middle-aged woman with a stern expression stood inside the door, wearing a tightly wrapped long skirt.She said bluntly, "Hurry up, Pei Shu, you are already late."

The man sighed, "Liu Li, how are you?"

"It's about to get worse." The woman said anxiously.

He sighed again, followed the woman into the gate, ignored the young clerk in the lobby who got up to greet him, and walked into a conference room worriedly.People were already sitting on the seven chairs by the round table, and the remaining two chairs near the door were reserved for them.The light in the room was very dim, but he didn't mind it, the darkness was good for thinking, besides, he was familiar with this place and didn't need too much light.He is also very familiar with them, knowing that what he sees may not be true.

Liu Li started to speak, she seemed to be the host of today's meeting, "I don't need to introduce the previous situation again, because Pei Shu was the one who proposed it first."

"There are murders every year," said a man across the round table abruptly.

"Deviant individuals are born in every generation, that's how people are," echoed another, slowly. "What's so strange? What evidence is there that something is wrong now?"

"The data already shows the existence of anomalies." Liu Li interrupted him impatiently, "Chu Jin is the best calculator, her observation report is between pages 113 and 149 of Pei Shu's report, I believe You have read it."

The last mutter was suppressed, and someone was busy turning the pages.

After a while, a hesitant voice said in a low voice, "If the problem is among our people, we don't know who is involved, and we don't know who to trust."

Pei Shu said in a low voice, "So I suggest using students who have not yet graduated, their resumes are clearer."

No one answered at the round table, he looked around and realized that even Liu Li was pretending to be deaf and dumb.

The silence created pressure, and finally someone coughed and said, moaning against the pressure, "We haven't produced a decent archmage in 60 years, and the students are simply unreliable."

These words lit the fuse.

"Nowadays children at the age of 15 can't rub a fireball without burning their hands!"

"The magic is fading."

"The master apprentice with the best grades in the previous class, determined to cook, and now he is a successful Michelin three-star chef!"

"My God, he didn't use banned ingredients, did he?"

"No one was able to complete a reasonable space complexity analysis experiment last semester."

"Atmospheric control ability is the lowest in history. It takes 400 people to disperse 11 square kilometers of smog. They also argue that this is a new atmospheric situation, which is completely indescribable, and the old textbooks are not practical. Can't make out any kind of storm."

"Actually, they can manipulate the climate. They just can't calculate the butterfly effect after a local storm, so they can't cast spells."

Pei Shu listened for a while, with a hint of sneer on his gloomy face, and made the best summary in a deep voice that overwhelmed everyone - "Weasel laying cubs, a litter is not as good as a litter."

The complaints stopped abruptly, and the low pressure in the conference room was filled with dark clouds.

Liu Li looked at him in surprise, and said accusingly, "Pei Shu!"

But she was at a loss for words immediately, and even though she stared at him sternly for a long time, she couldn't utter any substantive reproaches.

"If you think there is a suitable candidate, you can propose it now." Pei Shu raised his head and glanced at the seven people sitting in the shadow, "I'm all ears."

Silence weighed heavily under the dark ceiling.

10

A middle-aged criminal policeman squatted on the edge of the small river in the ancient town, smoking a cigarette.The rain that had been falling for a month stopped suddenly, the clouds opened a gap above his head, the white sun shone on the damp earth, and a layer of moisture rose from the ground, and his shirt stuck to him uncomfortably.

He raised his head and looked at the gloomy and dilapidated ancient town across the river again. This is not a tourist attraction, and almost all the people in the town have moved away. There are no more than ten families left in the whole town, and there are still some old people left behind.But a young woman from the city came to such a place after dark and died here.

He patted his head, feeling very annoyed.

"Captain Li, Captain Li." The most excited kid in the busy crowd across the river called him.

It was Xiao Zhang who had just graduated from the police academy. He had just joined the work and saw everything new. Although he vomited when he first appeared on the scene, it didn't affect his enthusiasm too much.

He pretended to be deaf and dumb.

The child didn't care, and waved the things in his hand, "Captain Li, I found the wallet and mobile phone! There is still money in the wallet, one, two, three, four, five, 530 yuan!"

Unlucky, he scratched his hair, it wasn't robbery and murder.

He watched from afar the woman the forensic doctor was packing into the body bag. The bottom half of her hair was pink. She must be very young.

The river is neither wide nor deep, so Xiao Zhang walked over while dripping.

"The cause of death?" he asked.

"Oh, the medical examiner said it was probably drowned."

He froze for a moment, "The fatal injury was drowning, what about other injuries?"

Xiao Zhang was stopped by the question, "There are no obvious injuries visible to the naked eye."

He "suddenly" stood up, staring at the shallow water in the small river ditch, "Don't you say that the dead drowned in this washbasin!"

Xiao Zhang swallowed nervously, and said in his mind, "After further autopsy, the forensic doctor will have something to say..."

(End of this chapter)