Deserted Village Apartments

Chapter 17 No.14
Maybe it was because the story of the deserted village that I heard in the small cafe yesterday was too terrifying. Today, I feel uneasy all day long, and Su Tianping’s voice seems to always echo in my ears—that trembling voice is like a black hole, constantly sucking the soul of the listener.

In the evening, Ye Xiao came to see me, his sudden visit surprised me, and his complexion didn't seem to be very good.Ye Xiao didn't speak as soon as he entered the door. He looked into my eyes and paused for a long time before he said lightly: "The female college student named Chun Yu has been found today."

found it?Didn't you find a dead body?Immediately, Han Xiaofeng's face appeared in front of my eyes, and my heart was suspended: "Where is she? Is she still alive?"

"Don't worry, Chun Yu is not dead. This morning, she was found by the teacher at the school gate, but she seemed to be insane. The school sent her to the hospital for examination."

"You mean Chun Yu is crazy?"

"Yes, I personally asked her, but she was trembling all over, her eyes were blank, she was muttering to herself, and she was in extreme fear. I think she had a mental breakdown and couldn't provide any clues."

"So what about Su Tianping? Is there any news about him?"

Ye Xiao shook his head silently: "The school has been looking for him for two days, and there is no news about him until now, except——"

He stopped in the middle of his speech, which made me a little uneasy: "What else do you say?"

"Except yesterday afternoon, someone saw Su Tianping with a man in his 20s in the cafe opposite the school gate."

"With whom?" I froze for a moment and asked a very stupid question.

"The eyewitness is Su Tianping's classmate. He recognized Su Tianping immediately, but he didn't know who the other person was." Ye Xiao suddenly turned around, stared into my eyes and said, "However, I already guessed it." Who is that person?"

Facing Ye Xiao's eyes, I couldn't hide anymore, I could only surrender: "Well, I admit, I saw Su Tianping yesterday."

"What is he doing with you?"

"Su Tianping told me everything, everything the four college students found in the deserted village."

I gave myself a sip of water first, and then briefly recounted to Ye Xiao what Su Tianping said to me yesterday.

By the time I finished all these words, my back vest was already covered with sweat.Ye Xiao also gasped, tapped the table with his knuckles, and said coldly, "I don't know how Su Tianping is doing now."

"The four college students who went to the barren village, Huo Qiang and Han Xiaofeng are dead, and Chun Yu is already crazy, so what about Su Tianping? Is he dead or crazy?"

"Or—is he dead?"

No, I dare not face such a possibility. I talked with Su Tianping for a whole afternoon yesterday. Now he may have turned into a corpse. I shook my head vigorously: "Die from a nightmare?"

"Dying from a nightmare is just a guess." Ye Xiao's voice was extremely calm, "According to the autopsy on Huo Qiang and Han Xiaofeng, it can only be said that the direct cause of their death was acute myocardial infarction."

"Is this the so-called sudden death? I know that there are many famous athletes who died suddenly during training or competition. Just like the 2003 Confederations Cup football match, Cameroon player Vivian Fu died suddenly on the field. .”

"But these people all have a history of heart disease or other types of congenital diseases. As for Huo Qiang and Han Xiaofeng, I have already checked them. They are in good health and have no cardiovascular diseases."

"Then why do you say they died? Could it be the curse of ghosts?"

After saying this, I suddenly felt that I had made a slip of the tongue, so I quickly stopped talking.

"Like your novel "The Curse"? Or the curse of the ancient Egyptian pharaoh?"

"No, I don't know, don't ask any more."

But Ye Xiao patted me on the shoulder and said, "However, you missed a little bit."

"What?" I don't remember what I missed.

"What's in the box that Su Tianping gave you?"

"Oh, so it's his box." I breathed a sigh of relief, wiped my sweat and said, "I haven't had time to open it yet."

Ye Xiao said coldly: "Okay, let's open it now and have a look."

"now?"

I suddenly hesitated, maybe because its owner is still unknown.

"Yes, right now, take it out quickly."

His policeman's tone was indisputable, so I complied and took the box out of the storage room.

The box doesn't have a lock, just unzip it.But my actions are still cautious, because that is what Su Tianping gave me.Finally, under Ye Xiao's sharp gaze, I slowly opened the box.

Strange, there are a lot of crumpled old newspapers in the box, I picked out these paper balls, only to find that there are some things wrapped in the paper balls——

"It looks like jade!"

Ye Xiao couldn't help shouting out, he hurried up to help me sort it out, it turned out that these old newspapers were used for buffer protection.Soon, a disk-shaped jade object came out, with a diameter of more than 20 centimeters and a small round hole in the middle, showing a strange white color.I held this piece of jade carefully, the feeling in my hands was extremely cold, and a chill went straight into my skin.

"Look, there's something else in the box."

Ye Xiao reminded me.I immediately put the things in my hands away, then squatted down carefully, and turned out all the other jade wares in the box——

The second piece of jade looks like an axe. It is yellow with stripes and is about ten centimeters long. The third piece of jade is square and cylindrical. There is a big hole at the bottom, which is round inside and square outside. It is [-] centimeters high, [-] centimeters wide, and weighs at least [-] catties. The fourth piece of jade is very small, obviously carved into the shape of a turtle, only the size of a matchbox. ; while the fifth piece is in the shape of a small dagger, which looks more like an ornament hanging on the waist.

I picked out all those balls of paper, and I turned the box upside down, and there were only five pieces of jade in total.

Ye Xiao and I were a little at a loss, looking at these things in dismay. I don't know much about things like jade, so I can't tell their value.Especially the big thing like a wooden stake, which is so different from the ordinary small and exquisite jade, especially the surface of that thing is engraved with many strange patterns, a bit like a monster with its mouth open.

"How could Su Tianping have these things?" Ye Xiao finally spoke.

I let myself regain my composure first, and then carefully recalled what Su Tianping said to me yesterday: "By the way, Su Tianping said that when they were in the deserted village, didn't they break into an underground passage? It was the same in that underground palace." A lot of strange jade wares were found in this place, according to what he described yesterday, isn’t it these jade wares?”

"You mean—these jade wares all come from a deserted village, brought out by Su Tianping from the mysterious underground palace?"

"No wonder, yesterday I felt that he missed something and didn't say anything, so he was too embarrassed to say it." I figured it all out at once, "The four of them were in the mysterious underground palace, and suddenly the flashlight broke. There was a mess, so Su Tianping took this opportunity to stuff these jade objects into his travel bag, anyway, no one could see them in the dark, and then ran out with everyone, so that no one would notice."

Ye Xiao nodded and said: "Two days later, Su Tianping brought these jades back to Shanghai, but his companions didn't know about it, did they?"

"Otherwise, there is no other possibility. Otherwise, he would have no reason not to tell me. He must be afraid that this kind of theft will be exposed by me, so he is embarrassed to tell me in person."

"Then why did he give these jade articles to you?"

"Maybe it's desperation—" Suddenly, I also felt a kind of fear, "Yes, after Huo Qiang and Han Xiaofeng died, Su Tianping was in extreme fear. He might be worried that these jade articles would bring him Bad luck, because he stole it from the dungeon—”

Ye Xiao suddenly interrupted me: "So, if he handed over these jade articles to you, it is also equivalent to transferring bad luck to you."

This sentence made me stunned for a while, and I didn't react for a long time.Suddenly, I seemed to wake up from a dream: "Is it like cursing a video tape? You must show the video to others and transfer the curse to others, so that you will be fine?"

"No, I don't believe this kind of thing exists, but maybe Su Tianping does."

I was stunned immediately: "Could it be that he wants to transfer the curse to my head? No, he won't be this kind of person."

"Maybe he was too fascinated by watching "Midnight Ring" and wanted to try this method himself, like a dead horse as a living horse doctor."

"Enough is enough, please stop talking."

At this moment, I was exhausted physically and mentally. I looked down at those weird jade wares, and my doubts were getting bigger and bigger, so I paced around the room restlessly.Ye Xiao said calmly: "Okay, I won't interfere with you in the next matter, but you must be careful yourself."

"Then what about these jade objects?"

Ye Xiao looked at the jade wares and said, "I'll keep them with you for the time being. I don't know if these things are real antiques. Let's do a cultural relic identification first."

"Okay, I know experts on this."

Ye Xiao smiled slightly and said, "Brother, let's do it for ourselves."

Then, he left here in a hurry.

I was the only one left in the room, facing those jade articles alone, as if facing another distant time and space...

(End of this chapter)