Abyss of ignorance

"No, I heard a voice last night..." Dong Daochang said puzzled.

Lin Xiaodong glanced at the basket on the ground and asked, "Is this the fruit that was replaced?"

The little Taoist nodded: "That's right, it was just replaced this morning."

Lin Xiaodong bent down, rummaged through the fruit, and after a while, picked out a few apples and put them on the altar.

I saw that some of these apples had begun to rot to varying degrees, and brown rot lumps of different sizes protruded from the red and smooth skin.

"It's strange to say that these apples have been stored for only two days. I don't know why they rotted so quickly." The little Taoist muttered.

"I'm afraid it's not rot, it's broken." Lin Xiaodong said, "They were knocked over and then put back. I think cats don't put knocked-over apples back."

As he spoke, he looked around the altar, and after a while he looked up at the tall statue of the City God.

It is said that the prototype of the city god of Linzhou was a general named Jiang Ming in the pre-Qin period. According to historical records, the first person who led soldiers to build a city here was recorded in the history books.

It is impossible to know what his appearance is. At this time, Jiang Ming's statue is solemn, with his eyes slightly lowered, overlooking all living beings.

Lin Xiaodong seemed to be attracted by the statue, and walked towards it. The red cloak of the statue covered the shrine. He lowered his head to look carefully, and waved to Yue Jianfeng.

Yue Jianfeng stepped forward in two or three steps, followed what Lin Xiaodong pointed at, and saw that the shrine was close to the cloak, with a finger-wide surface. Compared with other places, the color was much brighter, probably because it had been covered by the cloak for a long time. .

"The cloak has been touched!" Yue Jianfeng said immediately.

At this time, a gust of wind blew from somewhere, and the candle flames in the hall shook, but the cloak remained motionless because of its heavy material.

Lin Xiaodong and Yue Jianfeng looked at each other, and put on the gloves in unison.

However, when they lifted their cloaks, there was nothing behind the idol.

Dong Daochang was completely panicked at this time, followed up and stammered and asked, "What are you looking for? The statue of the City God is not happy to move around like this!"

"Someone has already moved before us." Lin Xiaodong simply climbed onto the shrine, got behind the statue, and then shouted: "Jianfeng! People are here!"

As soon as Yue Jianfeng heard this, he immediately jumped onto the altar and saw a small hole behind the statue. It turned out that the statue was hollow. The hole was not big, but it was enough for one person to get in. More importantly, he could pass through the hole. Looking in, they vaguely saw a pair of bare feet.

The recent temperature has been above [-] degrees. Under such a temperature, the hollow statue of the City God is like a huge stewing pot. It didn't take long, but the smell of the corpse's putrid smell has already begun to waft from the hole.

Lin Xiaodong and Yue Jianfeng pulled up their masks at the same time, with heavy hearts. It seemed that the person they were looking for was dead.

The outside of the City God's Temple was full of people. If it weren't for the eye-catching warning line at the door, they would have thought that the birthday of the City God had been brought forward.

More than an hour has passed, but the body still has not been taken out from the statue of the City God.

In the afternoon, the sun shone on the stone bricks in the square in front of the main hall, and the heat was continuously transpiring, making the whole atmosphere even more anxious.

The stench of corpses became stronger and stronger, even the smell of incense in the Temple of the City God could not cover it.

"When the corpse was stuffed in, the rigor hadn't happened yet. Now the original opening of the statue is too small. I think it's a bit troublesome. The corpse has been finalized, and people from the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Bureau have come. If the corpse can't be taken out again, we will talk to you about it." After discussing it, they might consider tearing apart the statue." Yue Jianfeng stood beside Lin Xiaodong and said, "However, the City God has a different meaning to the people of Linzhou. If the statue is destroyed, there will be more public opinion. "

Lin Xiaodong looked up at the high hanging sun, and said, "No, the temperature inside the statue is so high, the body will change faster than normal, and the rigor won't last that long, and it should disappear in a while." As he said, his eyes fell on the busy colleagues in front of him, and he suddenly asked, "Huh? I didn't call Xiao Xu this time, why did he come here?"

Not far from them, Daoist Dong was holding Xiao Xu, talking with a sad face, he seemed to be an old acquaintance.

Yue Jianfeng smiled: "This guy heard that something happened to the old Ximen, so he took the initiative to ask Ying to come over, saying that he is familiar with this area, so he might be able to help."

Lin Xiaodong nodded: "I almost forgot about this." He said "Xiao Xu" and waved at him.

Xiao Xu was as active as ever, and when he heard Lin Xiaodong's call, he immediately ran up to him: "Team Lin!"

"It's just in time for you to come. You know the area of ​​Old Ximen the most. I think that Daoist Dong is very familiar with you?" Lin Xiaodong asked.

Xiao Xu Hanhan smiled: "I often encountered it when I was on patrol before. I guess today's incident has hit him a lot. Seeing an acquaintance like me, I will desperately complain."

"Have you come into contact with this deceased person before?" Lin Xiaodong continued to ask.

Xiao Xu wiped the sweat from his forehead and said, "Well, I know. They must have reported the full name of the deceased to you. It was called Ding Manguan. When I was in the area, he was already a Taoist priest in the temple. Before patrolling I met a few times when I was a child, and this person is not very talkative, and everything in the temple is told by Dong Daochang to the institute, so I don’t have a deep impression of him.”

Just as he was talking, there was a commotion behind Xiao Xu, and the three of them followed the sound at the same time, and it turned out that the corpse had finally been pulled out.

It seems that Lin Xiaodong's estimate was correct. The high temperature inside the statue softened the already stiff corpse in advance.

However, this time, in the entire temple, the unpleasant stench of the corpse became more intense and diffused, as if even the god statue frowned.

Lin Xiaodong didn't care about these things, and hurried forward to check.

Despite the psychological preparation, the state of the deceased can still be described as shocking.

Ding Manguan's cloudy eyes protruded, his face was bruised and purple, his tongue seemed to be stuffed into his mouth, and part of his tongue was exposed outside his blackened lips.Coupled with his messy long hair and Taoist robe, in this Town God's Temple, he looks like the legendary black and white impermanence.

The forensic doctor pointed to the strangle marks on the neck of the deceased, and said to Lin Xiaodong: "It seems that this is the cause of death."

Lin Xiaodong, wearing gloves, squatted down and lifted up the wide sleeve of the Taoist robe. Sure enough, on the right arm of the deceased, there was a ten-centimeter-long wound that had scabbed over.

At this time, Yue Jianfeng also arrived. Seeing this situation, he couldn't help but feel annoyed: "It seems that someone got there first and killed them!"

Lin Xiaodong didn't speak, but he could see his cheeks twitching faintly, as he was biting his molars...