Murder Bureau within Bureau

  I didn't expect that after I casually asked a question, it suddenly became awkward.

  Liu Wei and the other two were originally smiling, but after I finished asking, they suddenly lowered their faces and looked at me coldly with the same movement.

  They made me feel particularly uncomfortable, and I thought that even if I asked something wrong, they didn't have to turn against me like this.

  After an awkward silence for a while, Pan Zi hurriedly mediated the situation. He held up his bowl of meat soup and deliberately pulled out a greedy expression, saying, "Not bad, tonight's soup is quite good to drink."

  Liu Wei and the other two people's faces slightly relaxed, and they all held up their bowls to drink the soup. Just as Pan Zisheng finished pouring the soup and was about to take a sip, the teacher wearing the green jacket suddenly lifted his head and coldly said to Pan Zi, "Delicious, isn't it? The meat is stewed in corpse oil."

  I couldn't describe Panzi's expression at that time, his whole face was like steamed buns, suddenly becoming extremely red. He originally had a mouthful of soup, but at this moment, he spat it all back into the bowl with a "pu" sound. Then, he stood up with a "swoosh" and didn't care about the occasion, retreating repeatedly.

  I was also scared by this dead oil talk, although I didn't react like Panzi did, but in my heart it was like a drumbeat.

  Liu Wei looked at us and suddenly covered her mouth and laughed, saying to Panzi, "I said you're so not funny, what's this 'corpse oil' thing? It's the oil extracted from a corpse, right? This dish uses lard, what are you worried about? But calling lard 'corpse oil', that's not entirely wrong either."

  My words didn't come out right, let me put it another way. If someone else heard "corpse oil", they'd definitely think of the oil on a human corpse. But if you define "corpse oil" as broadly as you do, then nothing can be judged or eaten anymore. Are flowers not the reproductive system of plants? Is rice not the "spawn" of plants?

  Neither of us had the heart to argue with Liu Wei about this matter, I glanced at Pan Zi. Pan Zi knew what I meant, he stabilized his attitude and sat back again with a stiff upper lip.

  This joke stirred up Liu Wei and they regained the initiative, diverting the topic I had asked about earlier to discuss something else.

  Next, neither Pan Zhen nor I had any appetite. Looking at the meat pot made me feel nauseous, let alone having the heart to chat.

  After dinner, Liu Hui said she wanted to go back to school to prepare lesson plans and asked if we were going or not.

  I listened again and went to that school in the evening, without thinking, I shook my head fiercely, so we two parted ways with them three.

  On the way back, Pan Zi and I were very depressed. We both put our hands in our pockets and walked listlessly. I really didn't expect that we two experienced informants would lose out on a meal tonight. We had planned to extract information, but instead got intimidated by the other side.

  I found that Pan Zi occasionally kicked the stones on the road with his feet, and at first glance, he looked like a naughty child. I understood that he had too much pressure in his heart and needed to release it. When we were about to return to our residence, Pan Zi kicked another small stone with great force, sending it flying out.

  I didn't pay much attention at first, just glanced over, but was drawn in by this stone and found a black, fluffy thing crouching in the grass.

  Pan Zi also noticed and asked me what this thing is.

  Before I could answer, this black thing was scared away by the stone and ran out. I took a look, it was a dirty little black dog.

  This dog's fur is not complete, and some places are exposed to the skin. It's obviously a stray dog. It's not afraid of people at all, looking at us two, shaking its tail without hesitation and coming over.

  I found it quite annoying, just wanted to scare it away, but Panzi unexpectedly laughed and called out "beep beep" to hurry up the little black dog.

  I don't understand why Panzi is like this, I asked him a question.

  Pan Zi didn't bother explaining anything to me either, he just patted the little black dog's forehead and picked it up again. Then, still holding the dog, he ran back to where we lived.

  I was curious and followed him back home.

  As I entered, Panzi was taking out a bag of dried Sichuan beef from his travel pack. This dried beef was our provisions that we had brought before departure and hadn't finished eating on the road.

  To be honest, in a place like Suifeng Village where birds don't even poop, dried meat has become a luxury. I'm reluctant to eat it myself, but he's generously feeding it to the dog.

  I really can't bear to look at him, and I scolded him severely.

  Pan Zi tore open the packaging while saying to me, "Du Rui, you don't understand this? My dad used to be the dog-raising king in our area, and I learned a trick or two from him on how to train dogs. This black dog may not look impressive, but once I've trained it for a bit, it'll listen obediently and keep watch for us at night."

  I finally understand Pan's intentions, but to think of it, I have seen Pan's file before, and as far as I can remember, his father didn't even raise a dog, but the son raised three.

  I think it's like this, but I dare not say it out loud, or else Panzi will get angry and scold me.

  Pan Zi teased the little black dog for a long time, and finally the little black dog really became very obedient, lying quietly at the door according to Pan Zi's "instructions".

  I had nothing to do with Panzi, and we chatted together again. Originally, I was just bored, but I found that chatting with Panzi was purely my own mistake.

  He went on and on, bringing up the weirdness of Suiyuan Village again, and even deliberately made nonsense with me, "I'm even more certain now that this village is not clean. Don't you believe it? Think about the teachers at that school, Liu Hui must be a ghost girl, that long face of hers is just like a horse's face, he's definitely a horse spirit. And that green jacket he wears, isn't it just a turtle shell? He must be a turtle spirit."

  I don't even know how to respond, I thought about saying that this village has some weird things going on, I believe it, but saying these teachers are actually monsters seems to lack evidence.

  Panzi didn't notice that I didn't like discussing this with him, and he became more and more enthusiastic. Seeing the situation, I quickly changed the subject, saying I was sleepy and inviting him to go to bed together.

  Last night I didn't sleep at all, and I had a faint feeling that tonight the two of us would definitely have to deal with something again. So I closed my eyes with this mental preparation.

  This time I slept for a long time, until the second half of the night, and I was scared awake again.

  I suddenly heard a strange noise coming from inside the house, "hmm hmm", which was quite muffled and accompanied by a slight tremble.

  I sat up abruptly, I also sweated a lot tonight, but not as severe as yesterday. I wiped my forehead and looked around.

  Pan Zi and I woke up almost at the same time, and we both found that the little black dog was half squatting and half lying down at the door, wagging its small butt, lowering its head and barking, and it turned out that this strange sound was made by it.

  I suddenly lost my temper and said to Panzi, "You guys are just great, you had to bring back a wild dog, now look what's happened, it's been howling all night."

  Panzi had a weird look on his face. After hearing what I said, he shook his head in a somewhat conflicted manner and told me, "Du Rui, you don't understand, this is blowing dog conch."

  I was even more confused when I heard the term "blowing dog conch", and I thought it was a special noun for dogs.

  Pan Zi explained a few more sentences to me. He said that roosters and black dogs have special spiritual powers, which enable them to see the spirits of the dead. Ordinary people often say...

  The rooster crows and the dog howls, the rooster's "cuckoo, cuckoo" chaotic cry, the dog's "wah wah" strange call, this is to say that a ghost is about to float over, thanks to this little black dog for warning us in advance, it's telling us two that there are ghosts wandering around here.

  I didn't believe Panzi's words at first, but this black dog is indeed a bit abnormal and makes me feel uneasy. I see that the black dog occasionally raises its head to look outside, and the direction it looks towards is exactly the tile house opposite us.

  I too was determined, and said to Panzi, "If this black dog is really spiritual, then the tile house across the street must be strange now. Let's take the spring knife over and have a look."

  Panzi's eyebrows were almost furrowed together, his face was gloomy, and he looked like he was about to lose his temper. It was clear that he didn't want to go, but I dragged him along forcefully.

  Finally, we two brought flashlights and quietly went out of the door again like last night.

  The tile house was still locked up, I asked Panzi to take a flashlight and shine it inside to see if there's anything strange.

  Pan Zibei originally listened to me and crouched in front of the window, but he turned on and off the flashlight repeatedly, without taking any further action.

  I asked him what was wrong, and he told me that he was afraid that if he opened the flashlight and shone it inside, a female ghost's head would suddenly stick to the window.

  As soon as I heard this, I knew it would be difficult to get Panzi to do this. I didn't think much of it, thinking that if a female ghost really stuck her head out, I'd just stab her with my knife and see whose was harder, her head or my blade.

  I went over and said to Panzi, "You get up, I'll come!"

  I was just forcing myself with this energy, and in fact I was a little scared in my heart, but when I lit the flashlight and looked inside, there wasn't even a ghostly shadow in this room.

  Pan Zi was right next to me, he didn't dare look at first, but finally took a few glances. Since nothing was found, I thought we were done and could go back to sleep.

  At this time, a gust of wind came, and I smelled a sticky smell in the wind, as if someone was making barbecue.

  I and Panzi tasted again, this wind is blowing from behind the tile house, that is to say, there is something strange behind.

  I led Panzi to the back of the tile house. At first, we were quite careful, afraid of running into that fat old lady, in case she was sitting by the well again, talking nonsense.

  But this time there was no one beside the well, only a wisp of white smoke floated out from it.

  I and Panzi were both stunned. I thought to myself, "Isn't this a large water well? It's all water inside, how can it still catch fire?"

  Panzi thought a lot and muttered to me, "Du Rui, this well is not ordinary, there must be something hidden inside."

  I thought for a moment, gritted my teeth and made up my mind. I told myself that tonight, while no one was around, I would first figure out the strange thing in the well.

  I pulled Panzi along with me to the edge of the well, and at this time the smoke was even thicker, pouring out uncontrollably, the smell of paste was almost suffocating me.

  I want to hold my breath and dive into the smoke, take a look in the well, but I can only try it for a moment, this smoke makes my eyes tear up.

  I thought of another trick and said to Panzi, "Let's get some soil and pour it in, then we can put out the fire first."