Murder Bureau within Bureau

  I and Panzi stared at the scarecrow's face together.

  Actually, if the scarecrow could laugh during this time, although it's a bit eerie, at least it proves that the ghostly laughter came from it. But my friend and I waited for a long time, and it just stood there quietly.

  I knew that we couldn't afford to waste time like this with one person, so I shifted my gaze and sized him up from head to toe.

  The scarecrow was fine everywhere else, but its hands were a bit strange. Its two straw-filled puffy palms both pointed in one direction, as if giving some kind of hint.

  There are bushes all around us, I looked in this direction and couldn't see anything far away. I thought to myself, could it be that the scarecrow is a signpost, telling us where there's something strange?

  I told Panzi about this guess, and after listening to it with a frown, he asked me, "Are we going to take a look or not?"

  His words were very hesitant, indicating that he was very entangled. The two of us came to this thicket, and by rights, we should have escaped danger and continued on our way back to the dirt road as soon as possible. However, the series of experiences before had shown that this place was not ordinary, and it was highly likely that there were clues we needed here.

  Since we've all come here with a mix of good and bad luck, let's take some time to check it out and get to the bottom of things.

  I stated my attitude and asked Panzi to follow me. The two of us continued on the road, following the direction indicated by the scarecrow.

  Walking in the thickets that are as deep as my knees is especially tiring for my legs, and when I walk in these thickets that are as tall as a person, I feel exhausted all over, just like there's an invisible hand constantly pinching me, making every muscle in my body tense.

  Panzi and I walked in for about the time it takes to smoke a cigarette, when suddenly, as I pushed aside a bush, another strange face popped out from inside.

  I just had a similar experience and was prepared this time. I didn't let it get close to my face, and in time, I opened my palm and slapped it on its face.

  I slowly regained my composure, shifted my body to the side, and let Panzi take a look at this strange face. Panzi's expression was also not very good-looking, but neither of us said anything, and instead we both started cleaning up around the strange face with our knives.

  It didn't take much effort for us to make this second scarecrow appear.

  It looks just like the previous scarecrow, except that its hands are pointing in a different direction, still towards a thicket of bushes we've never walked through.

  I thought to myself, it's all right, we've been arguing with a straw man for half the night.

  I was driving all along and got tired early, this time Panzi took over from me and became the vanguard.

  I was mentally counting, we encountered a total of four scarecrows in this thicket. After following the path pointed out by the last scarecrow and crawling through, we actually walked out of this thicket.

  In the bushes, I've always smelled a slightly musty smell of rotten grass. When I walked out for a moment and inhaled fresh air, it made me shudder all over. But when I looked ahead, this invigorating spirit suddenly vanished without a trace.

  In front of us was a large expanse of tombs, how to put it, these tombs were obviously not from the same era. Some had been abandoned and were on the verge of collapse, while others were spotless and clearly newly erected.

  This patch of graves was also scattered, sparsely distributed, and just in front of a new grave, a woman in white squatted, her back to us, she held a wooden basin in her hand, taking out paper money from the basin and burning it in front of the grave.

  It was midnight, and I was squatting in the graveyard with her. Even if I were very brave, I would still be scared to death at this moment, and immediately thought of a female ghost.

  I and Pan Zi involuntarily leaned towards each other, both staring coldly at the woman in white. We endured like this for a while, but the woman didn't turn her head to look at us, nor did she say anything, as if we were nonexistent.

  Pan Ziren couldn't help it, he looked around again, and the two of us didn't have any small stones under our feet, but there were fist-sized rocks. Pan Ziren picked up a rock, wanting to throw it out with force to test this woman.

  Just as Panzi was waving his sleeves, the woman sighed and turned her head to speak. She asked us, "What kind of people are you?"

  At this time, if Panzi really doesn't care and throws the stone away, it might just hit her on the head, and with a bit of bad luck, it could even be fatal.

  Pan Zi didn't make that ruthless move either. As soon as he saw the woman speak, he hastily flicked his wrist and made the stone fly off in a different direction with a whooshing sound.

  I didn't notice Panzi's expression at that time, I was staring at the woman, although she was not close, but I could see that the woman looked quite delicate, the most obvious thing was that there was a big black mole between her eyebrows.

  The girl saw that we didn't say a word, so she asked again and even smiled, as if she was mocking us for being timid.

  I won't say I'm a male chauvinist, but anyway, being teased by her like this, I got angry in my heart, thinking why bother with her whether she's human or ghost, after all, she's just a little woman, and the two of us were scared stiff, too embarrassing.

  I was afraid she couldn't hear me clearly, so I cleared my throat and said that the two of us were from Wuzhou City and had been assigned by our superiors to do an internship as teachers in Suifeng Village.

  The woman became even more interested after hearing this and asked me, "Do you have a letter of introduction?"

  If she didn't look so suspicious, I would have suspected that she was working for the residents' committee or something, why is she asking questions like she's investigating a household registration? My first time coming to such a remote place with Pan Zi, if we could find someone to ask, we might be able to avoid taking some unnecessary detours. Although I didn't want her to see my introduction letter, in order to get along with her, I had to endure it.

  I touched my backpack, took out the letter of introduction, pulled Panzi along with me and walked over to hand it to her.

  As I got closer, I saw the woman's face was reddened by the glow of the fire, which made me feel a little less apprehensive. She took the letter and opened it in front of us, examining it carefully.

  I didn't say anything to Panzi and quietly waited for her to finish reading.

  I found that when the woman read the letter of introduction, her expression was a bit strange, and there seemed to be a hesitant look between her eyebrows, but I didn't know what she was thinking in her mind.

  I also guessed, could it be that the ghostly laughter just now was called out by this girl? But I immediately denied this idea. The place where the ghostly laughter appeared earlier was very far away from here. Even if she had a big voice and practiced the legendary Lion's Roar Skill, she couldn't have transmitted the laughter sound over such a distance.

  After the girl finished reading the letter, she folded it up and handed it back to me, saying, "I'm also a teacher in Weihai Village. From now on, we're colleagues. Wait for me to finish burning the paper money, and I'll take you to Weihai Village."

  As soon as I heard this, I thought the feeling was great. Originally, Panzi and I had decided to stand aside and watch her burn paper, but she suddenly made a request for us to burn together with her.

  This is a difficult request, I don't even know the deceased, what's the point of burning incense? However, looking at the woman's serious face, it doesn't seem like she's joking. My friend Pan and I exchanged a glance, so we had to follow her again.

  In order to burn them faster, I grabbed handfuls of paper money and threw them into the fire. During this time, the woman stopped several times, turned her head and stared at us, making me feel that she was not just letting us burn paper money, but also taking the opportunity to observe us up close.

  After the paper money was burned, the worship ended, she picked up the wooden basin again and beckoned us to follow her. I took a look at the direction she was walking in, and my heart skipped a beat, because she led us further in, to put it bluntly, if we continued on this path, wouldn't we be getting farther and farther away from that dirt road?

  Pan Zi also sensed that something was off, so he shouted to stop the woman and pointed behind him. The woman was quite clever and knew what we meant, so she explained that taking the dirt road would actually take a detour, but there was a shortcut here, and if we followed her, we could arrive in less than half an hour.

  I was half-believing and half-doubting, wanting to ask a few more questions. However, she finished speaking and walked forward with her head down, seemingly not willing to bother with us anymore. Panzi and I had no choice but to follow her.

  We both remain vigilant, and once we encounter anything unusual, I guarantee that we will turn around and run at the first time.

  This woman walks in a strange way, with very small steps, walking in that kind of small, fragmented step that was only popular in ancient times. This is good, and Panzi and I can only slowly follow behind her. Especially when I found out that we couldn't even stare at her footsteps, or else we would have the urge to learn how to walk like her.

  After walking for over 20 minutes, we came to a downhill slope. I looked down the slope and found that the woman hadn't cheated us - there really was a village in front of us.

  The village looked like it didn't have electricity, and the whole place was dark and gloomy, with scattered tombstones everywhere. The woman seemed to be tired from walking, so she stopped for a while and told us that she would first take us to eat something, then find a place to stay, and after resting overnight, she would take us to school in the morning to register. However, when entering the village, we had to be careful not to make any noise, otherwise the dogs in the village would wake up and bark loudly, which would disturb the villagers.

  Both Panzi and I nodded, I found that Panzi was a bit distracted. When we continued on our journey, I took the opportunity to ask Panzi what he was thinking about just now.

  Panzi leaned in close and whispered, "Du Rui, I've been feeling that something's off. You think the layout of Xiyuan Village and that graveyard are too similar, don't you? Could it be that this village is actually that graveyard?"

  I was stimulated by Pan Zi's words, and my brain nerves were jumping wildly. I remembered the old man's words about Hurrying Donkey Village being haunted, but even if it was a ghost village, we couldn't retreat for the sake of our mission.

  "You're overthinking it!"