curse

Chapter 9

Today's weather finally started to cool down, the sun shrank, and the sky was gloomy. A gust of wind swept over the corners of Baibi's skirt and swayed gently.It didn't take long for her to turn into this small road. There were not many cars on the road, and there were few pedestrians. Occasionally, a few students who looked like students walked by.She couldn't tell how long she hadn't been here, 10 years, or 12 years?Since her father's death, she has never been here again, including in the process of interacting with Jiang He.When her father was alive, she often came here, countless times. Almost every time, her father put her on the bicycle bag rack and rode unsteadily for about 15 minutes to the Institute of Archeology.Sometimes my mother took her here by bus. At that time, my father often went out to participate in field archaeology, and my mother was always on duty on Sundays. They were not at ease leaving Bai Bi alone at home.It is this road, Bai Bi can still clearly remember all the details of this road, she has a very good memory, it may be that childhood memories are more unforgettable.

Soon, the Archaeological Institute arrived. Compared with what Bai Bi saw in his childhood, there was almost no change, the sign in front of the door, and the simple style of the door frame.Everything is like a cultural relic buried in the ground, and the time of more than 10 years is just like one night.After entering the door, there are bushes on both sides, and a small path in the middle. I can only hear a few birds singing vigorously on the treetops.But she gently opened the door, walked into the small building, walked through a short corridor according to her past memory, and entered the first large studio.All eyes in the room were on her immediately. They knew her. Some of them saw this "widow" for the first time at Jiang He's funeral. When Zhengqiu was still alive, he had met the little girl Bai Bi.The room was so silent that she could even hear her own breathing, Bai Bi felt that everyone looked at her with unusual eyes.She didn't know what was in those eyes aimed at her, maybe it was surprise or fear.

"Bai Bi, I knew you would come."

It was the voice of a thick middle-aged man. When Bai Bi turned his head, it turned out to be Wen Haogu, the director of the research institute.Wen Haogu's eyes were very calm, although he was expressionless, he nodded slightly to Bai Bi.

Bai Bi is a bit restrained in front of him, what should I call him?When she was a child, Wen Haogu often touched her head and praised her fair skin. Naturally, her father always asked her to call Wen Haogu Uncle Cheng Wen. Should he also be called Uncle Wen now?Before she could speak, she changed her mind: "Director Wen, hello, I'm glad to meet you." She thought, let's call him Director, there should be no private space here.

"I'm glad to see you too. How are you doing these days? After the day is over, why do you leave without saying hello? They have been looking for you for a long time. But I know what you are thinking, and I can understand. Go , go to my office and sit for a while, everyone here has their own work at hand." Wen Haogu took Bai Bi out of this room and entered his office.

The director's office is very spacious, but the lighting is a little lacking. The branches and leaves of the bushes gather in front of the window, making the room a bit dark and damp.Bai Bi seemed to have never been in this room before, the light here made her feel strange and uneasy, so she could only stand awkwardly in a corner.

"Sit down." Wen Haogu poured her a cup of tea.

Bai Bi sat down docilely.

Wen Haogu continued: "Bai Bi, you haven't been here for a long, long time. When you came here last time, you were only 10 years old, with a popsicle in your mouth, and it seemed that you would never grow up. I still clearly remember you at that time, now, you have grown up, really grown up." He looked at Bai Bi, and then sighed, "But we are already old."

Wen Haogu is 50 years old and still unmarried.In Bai Bi's impression, he seemed to be a non-human eater, and would spend his whole life dealing with ancient tombs.

Bai Bi was a little embarrassed, and after a pause, he suddenly said, "Director Wen, how did you know I would come?"

"On the day when Jiang He's accident happened, he said that if he died here, you would definitely come to see him." Wen Haogu said calmly.

"Jiang He said it?" Bai Bi's shoulders trembled, and her throat felt a little uncomfortable. "It turns out that Jiang He had a premonition that something would happen to him. Isn't this an accident?"

"Is it an accident?" Wen Haogu asked back, he looked at Bai Bi with a strange look, which made Bai Bi a little unpredictable.After a long time, he squeezed out the second half of the sentence, "Of course it was an accident, of course."

His tone is very strange, is it really an accident?The answer in Bai Bi's mind was no.She began to understand some things. There was a reason for Jiang He's strange events before the incident. Maybe the seeds of death had already been planted, and they were waiting for the night of the accident to bear fruit on Jiang He's body.Scary seed, Bai Bi looked at Wen Haogu's expressionless face again, as if he had noticed something.She was about to ask, but hesitated to speak, because she had already guessed that there might be some things that Wen Haogu would not tell her, or even tell anyone.She could see this clearly from Wen Haogu's eyes, and no one could see through what was hidden in those eyes.

"I hope it's an accident." Bai Bi said softly.

"Don't talk about it, I am also very sad about Jiang He. He is my best student. I have been training him. He may become a very good archaeologist like Pei Wenzhong and Jia Lanpo. He will create One miracle after another in archaeology, finally standing on the highest peak of honor. Oh, sorry, I will not say. How about you? You should forget all these terrible things and not get stuck in them. You are still young, You are still very beautiful, you have plenty of opportunities." Only then did Wen Haogu show a slight smile.

"Thank you."

"Oh, how is your mother now? Are you okay?" Wen Haogu's eyes flickered.

Bai Bi knew that Wen Haogu had always cared about her mother.As far as she knew, it seemed that her father, mother and Wen Haogu were very good classmates when they were in college. There may be some entangled triangular relationships among them, who knows?However, Wen Haogu's concern for their family is obvious, Bai Bi said lightly: "Mom is the same as before, still living in a mental hospital, and there is no sign of improvement."

"I haven't seen her for a long time, and I will go there once in a few days. But, I'm more worried about you now. I'm afraid you won't be able to bear the blow of this incident. "

"I'll be fine, don't worry. Director Wen, why didn't I see Xu Anduo today?"

"Xu Anduo? You must not know that something happened to him too. On the night after Jiang He's memorial service ended, he had a car accident on the edge of the Suzhou Creek. He crashed into the embankment with his motorcycle and died on the spot. It was a horrible sight. .”

Bai Bi's shoulders began to tremble again, she opened her eyes wide, as if she couldn't understand all this, she thought of the way Xu Anduo stopped her when the memorial service was over that day but hesitated to speak, and the way he wore In the scene of wearing a black sportswear on a motorcycle and leaving the funeral parlor, Bai Bi did not expect that after he sped out, he would embark on a road of death.Is it related to Jianghe?She lowered her head, vaguely feeling something.

"Bai Bi, what's wrong with you? I know you must be very surprised to hear this news, but it has already happened, and no one can undo it. These days, our institute is immersed in this atmosphere."

Bai Bi nodded: "Yes, it was too sudden. I didn't expect that someone like Xu Anduo would have an accident."

"Life is impermanent." Wen Haogu looked out the window.

"Director Wen, can I go and see where Jiang He's accident happened?" Bai Bi finally had the courage to ask him.

Wen Haogu nodded, "Of course." He led her to the door of another room.

He took out the key, opened the door, and said, "Since Jiang He's accident happened here, this room has been locked and closed because no one dares to work in it anymore."

The door was opened, and the air here was stuffy, making it difficult for Bai Bi to breathe. She noticed that the windows were all closed, and there was thick dust on the ground.There are several tables in the room, and there are some computers and archaeological instruments on the table.There is a row of cabinets next to one wall, which display some cultural relics such as pottery pots, the most conspicuous of which is the skull of the dead.Bai Bi looked at this ferocious skull, but she was not afraid at all. She could feel that it belonged to Jiang He, and there was nothing to be afraid of.

"Do you know? This is the skull of a prince of the Tang Dynasty, which was dug out by Jiang He himself." Wen Haogu said.

Bai Bi suddenly thought of a seemingly absurd idea: "Perhaps, it is the only witness."

"Yeah, it would be nice if the dead could talk."

If the dead could speak.Can?Bai Bi asked herself in her heart, and suddenly thought of the book "Bones Are Talking" written by a female forensic doctor.

"Everything here has not been touched, it was all placed on the night when Jiang He's accident happened. The Public Security Bureau came to check it carefully, but found nothing abnormal, except that the computer was shut down by him, and an imported The instrument was also unplugged directly, and it is certain that he was operating the computer and this instrument before his death. Maybe there was something special that caused him to interrupt his work and immediately unplug the power supply. Come, this is here."

Wen Haogu pointed to a computer and an instrument in front of a desk.

Bai Bi walked over, looked at these, and felt a special breath rushing towards her, and some beads of sweat broke out on her forehead.

Then, Wen Haogu pointed to the ground again, and said with a serious expression: "That morning, Jiang He's body was found here." On him, his head was facing the direction of the door, his lips were on the ground, and his hands were tightly clenched into fists. It is said that after death, his fingers could not be opened no matter what, and they were opened with pliers."

"What is he holding in his hand?"

Wen Haogu looked at Bai Bi's face and said slowly: "He has nothing in his hand."

Bai Bi was silent, she didn't need to speak now, she just stared blankly at the ground, she could imagine Jiang He lying prone on the ground that morning, maybe he was kissing the ground.He must want to go out, or, to answer the phone.She recalled that night when she called Jiang He and listened to the ringtone while holding the phone.She thinks he's still lying there now, he's just tired from working too late, he just wants to lie on the ground for a while, like lying on a bed, he's waiting for her to come and she can pull him off the ground Get up, wake him up, open his eyes, and come back to this world.Unfortunately, he never came back.

It took a long time for Bai Bi to raise her head. She might have lost her composure just now, but now that she has regained her strength, she calmly said to Wen Haogu, "Director Wen, what's in this computer?"

"This is for Jianghe's exclusive use. I don't know too well. After the accident, the Public Security Bureau copied the contents and took them away. It seems that they are all research data."

"Then what about this instrument?" Bai Bi stretched out her hand and gently touched the surface of the instrument, a layer of dust stained her fingers.

"I'm not very good at using this imported machine. In fact, only Jiang He in our research institute can operate this machine. He is really talented and proficient in everything. This instrument has a scanning window, which can Perform perspective and scanning of various cultural relics, and automatically carry out digital processing and calculation according to the instructions of the archaeologists to obtain various indicators and data. As for what data Jiang He tested with this instrument that night, I am afraid Only he knows."

Bai Bi nodded, pointing to the table in front of her and asked, "Is this a special table for Jiang He?"

"Yes."

"Can I see his drawer?" she tried.

"Of course you can. The Public Security Bureau came to check and said that it was full of Jiang He's personal belongings and left it for the family of the deceased. Later, Jiang He's parents never came to take it. You are his fiancée, so of course you can take it away."

Bai Bi stretched out his hand, hesitated for a moment, and finally pulled out the drawer.After a short pause, she raised her head and said to Wen Haogu, "I'm sorry, Director Wen, can I stay here alone for a while?"

"Oh, no problem, I can understand your mood, okay, I'm going out to do things in the office, don't forget to lock the door when you come out in a while." After finishing speaking, Wen Haogu walked out of the room gently, closing the door behind him. up.

She was the only one left in the room. It was empty, the door was closed, and there was no sound. Maybe it was like that the night Jiang He had an accident.She raised her head and looked around again, feeling more and more moist in her heart, as if she had fallen into a swamp, struggling, but unable to escape the fate of being swallowed.She lowered her head again, there were not many things in the drawer, and there were a few newspapers from last month neatly stacked.There are also several professional books on history and archaeology, the thickest one is "Historical Research".There are also a pair of gloves, a magnifying glass, a few small tweezers, and small bamboo sticks, all of which are portable tools used by Jiang He during archaeology.At the bottom of the drawer, there was a bunch of keys. She had never seen such keys in Jiang He, and they might be his spare ones.There is nothing else, it's all here, Bai Bi let out a sigh of relief, she has expectations, expecting to find something, but if there is really something important, it may have been taken to the police for investigation and evidence collection.She shook her head, took out the thick "Historical Research", flipped through it casually, and suddenly, a small booklet fell out of the pages.

Bai Bi looked at this little book carefully, with a thin, white cover, she gently opened the little book, and saw the words written in black ink pen at the beginning of the book——

"wilderness"

"Yes, I myself saw Sybyl of Gumi hanging in a cage. When the children asked her, What do you want, Sybyl, she replied, I am going to die."

For Ezra Pound

The most outstanding craftsman

[-]. Funeral of the deceased

April is the cruelest month, on the heath
With lilacs, memories and desires

Blended together, let the spring rain
Urge those sluggish roots.

……

It turned out to be Eliot's "The Wasteland". Bai Bi had read it in the past. Although she dare not say that she liked it very much, there were a few lines in it that left a deep impression on her.But she could tell that these handwritings were definitely not Jiang He's. Jiang He's handwriting was very rough, while the handwriting in this book looked delicate and silky, so it should have been written by a girl.She turned down a few more pages, and that's right, it was this long poem. She copied several pages, until the last two lines of "Peace. Peace/Peace."

The last poet's name is of course "Eliot".

But there was another line of words below that made Bai Bi feel uneasy. Under the three words "Eliott", it was written - "Nie Xiaoqing presented Jianghe".

"Nie Xiaoqing"?Bai Bi has never heard this name before, who is she?At first sight of this name, it immediately reminded her of the story "Nie Xiaoqian" in Pu Songling's "Strange Tales from a Liaozhai Studio" and a movie based on it called "A Chinese Ghost Story". A well-known story.Of course, this Nie Xiaoqing is not a character in Pu Songling's works. Maybe Nie Xiaoqing's father likes to read Liaozhai stories, so he gave his daughter such a provocative name.

There is no doubt that this woman named Nie Xiaoqing should have copied Eliot's "The Waste Land", and she gave this notebook to Jiang He.This book lay quietly in Jiang He's drawer until Bai Bi saw it.

It turned out that things were not as simple as Bai Bi imagined, and her heart became wet again. She picked up the book and continued to flip through it. The next dozen or so pages were all blank, with nothing.She gently placed the book back on the table. At this moment, she finally saw the two words written on the back cover of the book——

"curse".

Bai Bi can be sure that these two words come from Jiang He's handwriting.curse?Curse what?Bai Bi read out softly: "Curse—curse—"

What do these two words mean?Her shoulders seemed to be shaken vigorously, and she lowered her head, feeling cold all over.She doesn't want to stay in this room anymore, she wants to leave here, leave those things that haunt her.She casually put the notebook and the bunch of keys in the drawer into her bag, then walked out of the room quickly and locked the door.

She didn't want to see Wen Haogu again, she just wanted to get out of the gate of the Institute of Archaeology as soon as possible, she couldn't bear the atmosphere here, even though it was once familiar to her.Walking through the dark corridor, just as I walked to the gate, a tall man came to meet me. He smiled at Bai Bi and said, "You are Bai Bi. You really have grown up. Do you remember me?"

Bai Bi looked at the man in front of him, about 35 or [-] years old, with a look of seriousness on his face.She tried hard to find the face in front of her in her memory, and finally got some faint impressions. She said intermittently: "At that time, my father seemed to want me to call you Uncle Lin, didn't he?"

"You have a really good memory. I still remember that you used to draw pictures in your father's studio when you were a child. Once, you drew apples and raw pears on a survey map of an archaeological site. It's really interesting. My name is Lin Zisu, and I'm here Responsible for the management of unearthed cultural relics."

Bai Bi nodded, and finally remembered the person in front of her. At that time, Lin Zisu was still a young man in his 20s. He had just entered the research institute, and she only remembered that he always looked very fashionable in his clothes.She said lightly, "Hello, today I just came to see where Jiang He's accident happened."

"Oh, forget about all this, don't come again, this matter has nothing to do with you." Lin Zisu's tone suddenly became more serious.

Why is it the same as what Xu Anduo said that day?Bai Bi was a little puzzled, and she asked back, "I'm sorry, what's the matter? You must tell me, please."

"Bai Bi, you are still young, and you still have a long way to go, so don't take any risks because of this, it's not worth it."

"What risk? Tell me."

"Look, Jiang He has died for no apparent reason. You should also know that Xu Anduo is also dead. You know these two people, and there may be more people." Lin Zisu said coldly.

"More people? Are you saying this is not an isolated incident? Is there something else hidden? Is it really that scary?" Bai Bi didn't want to let go of this opportunity.

Lin Zisu shook his head: "I'm sorry, I've talked too much, I can't go on, goodbye." He turned around and was about to leave.

Bai Bi suddenly thought of something, and stopped him rudely: "There is one last question, may I ask - who is Nie Xiaoqing?"

Lin Zisu turned his head slowly, looked at her with a strange look, and then said slowly, "Why do you ask this?"

"I'm sorry, I just want to know." There was a persistent feeling in her heart.

"It's just a master's student doing an internship here. It was recommended by Professor Li of the Institute of Paleontology. He left after only three weeks of internship with us. Is there anything wrong?"

"Thank you, nothing, just asking casually."

Lin Zisu frowned, and said softly: "Don't worry about it anymore, the nightmare has just begun, trust me." After speaking, he turned back and walked, and his figure quickly disappeared into the dark corridor. place.

There was no one around, and it was silent again. Bai Bi hugged her shoulders, feeling a little cold, she quickly walked out of the building, followed the path through the bushes, and walked out of the gate of the Institute of Archeology.

After stepping out of the gate, there was a little bit of sunlight, and her pale skin turned a little bloody.The road in front of her was still cold, and just as she was about to leave, she found a pair of eyes looking at her from the opposite side.Bai Bi cast her gaze across the road, and saw a young man standing there looking at her.

"Jiang He." She whispered the name softly.

In an instant, her shoulders trembled violently, and there was a surge of excitement mixed with deep fear. She almost rushed across the road, but a speeding car passed by the road, blocking her pace. Continue to stay at the gate of the institute.No, that person is not Jiang He. Although they do look alike, they are by no means the same person. Bai Bi sighed lightly, and then taunted himself a few words in his heart.But she had to raise her head again and looked at the young man across the road. He was tall and straight, with a clean and powerful face like Jiang He's. His expression seemed a little melancholy, but his eyes were particularly sharp, as if he could see right through her. .This kind of gaze made Bai Bi feel a little uncomfortable, she didn't want to look at him anymore, so she quickened her pace and left.

The man across the road watched Bai Bi leave quietly, and then continued to stand there observing the gate of the Archaeological Institute.

He is Ye Xiao.

(End of this chapter)