Long night dreams

Chapter 8 Blizzard-style murder (1)
Sitting withered in the lotus room all night, Guo Haoran didn't close his eyes. At dawn, his eyes were red and swollen like peach blossoms.

Guo Haoran came back to his senses when Mrs. Jin's numb and dry voice came from the corridor outside the Lianzi Gate, telling everyone to go downstairs for breakfast.He went downstairs with Ye Mei and Lian Zi.

The old lady Jin had a good night's rest, and she looked much better this morning.Although his eyes were still full of sadness, he spoke with a lot more energy, and the table was full of food.The habits of the country are different from those of the city. In the city, due to work reasons, breakfast is always done in a hurry. A cup of soy milk and a few steamed buns can meet the needs.In the countryside, because farm work is done during the day, breakfast is also full. Although Mrs. Jin no longer needs to do farm work, the traditional habits are still preserved.

On the table was a pot of cured meat soup with green vegetables, fried shredded pork with double peppers, braised pork in brown sauce, spicy fish, and several dishes of generous vegetarian snacks.

But there were only a few people sitting at the dinner table.Student couple Wang Yang and Xia Qingqing, bearded painter Li Shoulian.Neither the policeman Luo Jie who was on vacation nor Zhang Dongsheng who made a surprise visit last night appeared in the dining room.

Guo Haoran asked curiously: "Where are Lao Luo and Zhang Dongsheng?"
The old lady Jin said nonuo: "I knocked on their door, but no one opened the door."
Before she finished speaking, she heard a loud voice coming from the stairwell: "I'm really sorry for keeping you waiting." It was Zhang Dongsheng who spoke, and he walked down slowly while stretching his arms .

"Do you want to wait for Lao Luo?" Wang Yang asked.Roger's calmness and determination last night left a deep impression on everyone.

"Wait, I guess he's still getting dressed, hehe." Guo Haoran walked to the window and opened the curtains.The rain outside the house has stopped, and there is a refreshing feeling after washing with water.A rainbow of seven colors loomed in the distance. He took a deep breath and said, "Today's weather is really nice. We will cross the river and call the police after breakfast. We will leave the mysterious events here to the police." Let the police handle it."
After waiting for a long time, Roger still didn't come down, and the food on the table was a little cold.Xia Qingqing tugged at Wang Yang's arm, pouted and said, "I'm hungry."
Wang Yang glared and said, "What's the hurry, wait a little longer."
Guo Haoran and Li Shoulian stood up at the same time, and said, "Let's go up and call him." Guo Haoran also added by the way, "It's the most comfortable to sleep on a rainy day. Maybe Mrs. Jin just woke up Lao Luo, so he should After a sound, he fell down and fell asleep." Everyone in the dining room laughed secretly.

Guo Haoran and Li Shoulian went up to the door of Luo Jie's room on the second floor and knocked on the door first. Guo Haoran also jokingly called: "Lao Luo, wake up, the sun is shining on your buttocks. But there was silence inside the door, and there was no people answer.

Guo Haoran suddenly felt a little uneasy in his heart, he sniffed, and at this moment, he smelled a very faint smell of blood.He looked at Li Shoulian and saw a puzzled expression on Li Shoulian's face.

Li Shoulian is a person who is extremely sensitive to death, and he has a special preference for corpses.Whenever there is a death event around him, he will be very excited.At this moment, his face became flushed, and a little bit of sweat oozed from his forehead.

Guo Haoran slammed on Roger's door and called out Roger's name loudly, but only silence responded to him.

Guo Haoran glanced at Li Shoulian again, and said, "There seems to be something wrong." Li Shoulian nodded, his face turning even redder.Guo Haoran and Li Shoulian bumped into Luo Jie's door with their shoulders at the same time. With a "bang", the door opened in response.

There was a strong smell of blood in the room, but it was empty—Roger was not in the room, and there was no one in the room.

The smell of blood came from the bathroom, Guo Haoran and Li Shoulian boldly pushed open the wooden door of the bathroom.They saw that the bathtub in the corner of the bathroom was filled with a crimson and viscous bloody water, emitting a bloody stench.Floating in the bloody water was a white, naked man's carcass. As the blood rippling, this robust man's carcass also moved up and down from time to time, and the dirty blood floated around his body.

This man is Roger - but at this time he has turned into a cold corpse!

Guo Haoran groaned, and quickly turned around and fled. Li Shoulian had a special interest in corpses, and he wanted to step up to take a closer look at them, but Guo Haoran's exclamation made him feel a little bit more. Feeling scared, he followed Guo Haoran out of the room. They were breathing heavily in the corridor, and Li Shoulian asked, "What should we do now? "Guo Haoran lit a cigarette with trembling fingers, and then said tremblingly: "Let's go, get out of here, and go to the police as soon as possible.

They helped each other down to the ground floor and told the others that Roger was dead.

Hearing this, everyone's face showed a look of fear.Wang Yang asked, "Are you sure Roger is dead?"
Guo Haoran said: "Yes, I saw him lying motionless in the bathtub full of blood, what is it if he is not dead?"
"Maybe he's just injured, maybe he's not dead yet." Wang Yang yelled. As soon as he finished speaking, he ran upstairs "bang bang bang". Zhang Dongsheng and Lian Zi followed Wang Yang upstairs, Ye Mei looked at Guo Haoran contemptuously, and said, "You coward, why didn't you see clearly just now before coming down to talk about it? "
In desperation, Guo Haoran had no choice but to hang his head, and went up to the second floor with Li Shoulian again.

As soon as Guo Haoran went up to the second floor, he saw Wang Yang standing in front of Roger's room, spreading his hands, frowning and asking, "Where is there a corpse? Where is Roger's corpse?" He looked at Guo Haoran and Li Shoulian with puzzled and suspicious eyes.

Guo Haoran rushed into the bathroom, the bathtub was very clean, the walls were even dazzlingly white.There was no smell of blood either, just the faint scent of shampoo remaining in the air in the bathroom.

"Really, I really saw Luo Jie lying in a vat of blood just now, naked and motionless! Li Shoulian and I saw it together. Guo Haoran defended loudly, he didn't know what was going on But there is no doubt that - no matter what, Roger is indeed missing now!
"Even if what you both saw is true, Su Xin's body disappeared at first, and now Roger's body is missing, how did they all die? Where did their bodies go? The hidden body What is the murderer in the dark trying to do?" Wang Yang asked a series of questions.

Guo Haoran shook his head, he didn't know how to explain all this.

At this time, a callous voice came from outside Roger's room: "They were all taken away by the ghosts of the village, and they have become new ghosts—they will come to take you away soon, the next The one who died was one of you!"
It was Mrs. Jin, the proprietress of the Hongmen Hotel, who was speaking. She stared straight at the people in the room. Her face, as old as bark, looked even more weird and gloomy in the dark corridor.

Xia Qingqing and Ye Mei couldn't help crying "Wow" in the great shock.

But Lianzi raised her head, rolled her eyelids, and stared at Mrs. Jin.After a while, Lianzi said loudly: "Let's go! Let's get out of here immediately and cross the river to call the police.

Guo Haoran, Ye Mei, Wang Yang, Xia Qingqing, Zhang Dongsheng, Li Shoulian, Lian Zi.The seven people walked out of the Hongmen Hotel, while the old lady Jin was hiding behind the gate of the hotel, looking at them gloomily, with a weird smile that was not easy to detect.She watched the pedestrians drifting away, she murmured to herself: "Go, go, anyway, you won't be able to escape this place in the end..."
A group of seven people walked down the bluestone steps outside the hotel along the way when they came. Because of the heavy rain overnight, the bluestone was slightly loose.They walked carefully to the foot of the mountainside, where they saw the stone tablet again, on which was written "Privately important place, please do not enter unless you are private", and the word "corpse" written in red paint next to the word "private" appeared to be It's extraordinarily creepy and eye-catching.

"The most important place for corpses, please do not enter if you are not"! ! !

Guo Haoran waved his hand, motioning everyone to leave here quickly.

They passed through the deserted village, and then crossed a hill that was not too high.When they came to the top of the hill and looked down, they couldn't help but gasp at the same time--the heavy rain last night, the original creek rose very high, and it was originally built on the creek. At this moment, the cable bridge has disappeared, only half of the iron cable is exposed above the water, and a few black crows are standing on the iron cable, looking left and right, making a few noises from time to time.

Xia Qingqing took Wang Yang's arm and cried out in tears: "The bridge is gone, we can't go back.

Zhang Dongsheng said with a wry smile: "We have to wait a few more days until the water recedes before we can swim across."
It seemed that there was no other way, and the seven of them had no choice but to follow the same path dejectedly, and went back to the Hongmen Hotel where Mrs. Jin lived.When they came to the door of the hotel, they were unexpectedly shut down—the door of the hotel was tightly closed, and a big brass lock was buckled on the doorknob.The old lady Jin didn’t know where she had gone.

"Huh? Where's the person?" Ye Mei asked.But no one answered, because no one knew what was going on.

Guo Haoran called the old lady Jin's name loudly, and walked around the Hongmen Hotel several times, but the only answer to him was deathly silence.However, after walking around the hotel, he still had something to gain, that is, he found another door on the side of the hotel, and it was still open.

Seven people re-entered the hotel through the back door.

Li Shoulian twitched his nostrils, and his face turned rosy again -- he smelled death again.He sucked in his breath hard, and he felt the arrogance of death coming from the old lady Jin's management room.He tiptoed towards the management room, and the smell of blood became more and more intense.

The appearance of him walking softly with his back arched attracted Guo Haoran's attention, and he asked, "Old Li, what's the matter?" Li Shoulian put his index finger on his lips in a silent gesture, and then pointed to the management room.

The door of the management room was ajar, the lights inside were on, and there was still a vague smell of burning incense paper candles.

Li Shoulian pushed open the door. Inside the door, several huge sheets of white paper were spread out on the table. The paper was covered with scattered red dots, like blood, and a strong smell of blood rushed over.

These are nothing, at the other end of the table, there are a few black plaques, which are spirit tablets!Counting carefully, there are exactly nine of them.

"The spiritual position of plain heart".

"Roger's Spirit Table".

"Guo Haoran's spiritual position".

"The spiritual position of Ye Mei".

"Wang Yang's spiritual position".

"Xia Qingqing's spiritual position".

"The Spiritual Bit of Zhang Dongsheng".

"Li Shoulian's spiritual position".

"The spiritual bit of lotus purple".

The nine spirit seats were arranged in a straight line, coldly placed on the table, like nine silent souls, looking upright at the stranger who walked into the management room.

"Crazy!" Li Shoulian yelled, then lifted his own spirit tablet, and threw it on the ground fiercely. The spirit tablet was smashed to pieces immediately, and the pieces rolled and jumped on the ground like chess pieces.

"Hey, what is this--" Guo Haoran lay down on the white paper on the table as if he had discovered a new continent.At the position where Li Shoulian took his spirit card just now, there is a very strange symbol, like a very unique character.Guo Haoran recognized it at a glance, it was cuneiform.

Guo Haoran blocked the door and prevented other people from entering the management room, because he didn't want these unreasonable panics to continue to frighten the other people present.He only let Lianzi enter the old lady Jin's hotel management room alone.

After Lianzi saw the table full of spirit cards, deep fear appeared in her eyes. When Guo Haoran moved the nine spirit cards aside, nine cuneiform symbols appeared on the white paper, and the nine symbols joined together straight line.

The fear in Lianzi's eyes became more intense, and she said with a trembling voice: "This is the diagram of Jiuxing Lianzhu."
As soon as her words fell, Guo Haoran noticed a strange look on Li Shoulian's face.He hurriedly asked: "Have you ever heard of the saying of Jiuxing Lianzhu?" Li Shoulian nodded and said: "Yes, when I was investigating in Egypt the year before last, I visited an unknown great pyramid. On the murals inside the pyramid I have seen such a graph. The tour guide told me that this is the astronomical map drawn by the ancient Egyptians. Nine stars are arranged in a straight line. It is said that such a moment will bring terrible doom to mankind. I also wrote in a newspaper about it I wrote an essay on the Internet, which talked about the visit to the pyramid, and also mentioned the topic of the Nine Stars Lianzhu."
Guo Haoran collected himself, he felt that something was wrong.He once learned about Jiuxinglianzhu from the book "Nostradamus Prophecy and Jiuxinglianzhu" written by Jeffers. Lianzi learned about Jiuxinglianzhu from the "Cuneiform" website, and Li Shoulian learned about Jiuxinglianzhu from the "Cuneiform" website. I have seen murals of Jiuxinglianzhu in Egypt-does everyone here have a certain understanding of Jiuxinglianzhu?
Thinking of this, he felt uneasy.

Now there are seven people, plus Su Xin and Roger who have died and disappeared mysteriously, there are exactly nine people.The spiritual cards of the nine people were arranged as a schematic diagram of the Nine Stars Lianzhu. What does this mean?And the old lady Jin is also missing at this moment. Could it be that she is the mastermind behind all the weird events?What is she trying to do?Could it be that for a mysterious and evil purpose, she did not hesitate to do terrible things?Even her biological daughter, Su Xin, would not let her go.

As a writer of suspense novels, Guo Haoran has read many suspense novels.An abandoned hotel in a small isolated village, everyone has come for a date, but there is no way to leave, this is the best scene setting for a gothic suspense novel.The heavy rain washed away the bridge, just like the most classic mystery novel, a blizzard trapped all the passengers in one place, which is the so-called "blizzard-style serial murder".In such a speculative novel mode, all the passengers will be killed one by one.And the reasons why they were killed are nothing more than two points, either the "revenge of the old friend" model, or the "perverted serial killer" model.

But what kind of mode is it now?The nine spirit cards foretell that everyone here will be killed in the end. Is Jia Ren seeking revenge or a perverted killer?And now, with the dead Su Xin, there are at least four people who have been in contact with the relevant knowledge of Jiuxing Lianzhu. Could it be that the murder at the Hongmen Hotel is a typical "revenge of the old friend" murder pattern?And the key word is "Nine Stars Lianzhu"?

Guo Haoran decided to talk to everyone to see if everyone had their own understanding of Jiuxing Lianzhu.

Seven people sat around a table in the dining room on the first floor of the hotel. Guo Haoran coughed, cleared his throat, and then began to speak.

"Now the old lady Jin is missing, and the seven of us have been staying together since we left the hotel to go to the rope bridge by the village, so the disappearance of the old lady Jin has nothing to do with the seven of us. And our present The situation is the same, not optimistic, but not pessimistic. Now there is reason to believe that there is a mysterious and murderous murderer hidden in the dark of this hotel. He killed Su Xin and Roger, and whether Mrs. Jin was killed by him? Or the old lady Jin is the murderer, we don’t know yet. But I can be sure that the gathering of the seven of us here is not accidental, and it can even be said that it was a long-planned plan by the dark murderer.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Wang Yang retorted: "How can you be sure that we were all arranged here by the murderer? Don't forget, we all came here because we misread the street signs."
Guo Haoran paused, and said: "I have my reasons for saying this. There must be something in common between us, which led to the deliberate arrangement of the murderer. I will ask you now--have you heard Have you ever heard the phrase "Nine Stars Lianzhu"?"
As soon as he finished speaking, the room suddenly fell into silence, the air was stagnant, and in a deathly silence, even a fly could be heard clearly.

Guo Haoran felt that his hunch was correct, as expected, everyone here had heard of the words "Nine Stars Lianzhu".He stared fixedly at Wang Yang and Xia Qingqing, and said, "Tell me first, where did you hear about Jiuxinglianzhu?"
Wang Yang shrugged his shoulders and said: "Qingqing and I are both members of the astronomy interest group on the university campus. A few months ago, our interest group held a special discussion on the debate on "Nine Stars". Qingqing and I The point of view is the same, that is - Jiuxing Lianju is just a mathematical coincidence in a certain sense, it is only based on the mathematical straight line observed on the observation point of the earth, not the real straight line on the physical position. We all think that such a phenomenon is not It will cause the gravitational effect between the stars. The so-called "Nine Stars will bring bad luck to mankind" is just a typical rumor. Qingqing and I even wrote related papers in the school newspaper."
"Well, how did you think of coming here for tourism?" Now that Wang Yang and Xia Qingqing both have their own opinions on Jiuxing Lianzhu, Guo Haoran wants to find out why this student couple would think of coming here at this time Cursed Village Tourism.

(End of this chapter)