Chapter Twenty-Five: The Mattress

  The two-stage mountain doesn't look high, but the road is difficult to walk on, and it's even steeper after passing halfway up the mountain. Yanfeng spent too much time in the village, so he didn't climb to the top of the mountain that day, and had to return to the hotel before dark.

  At the small stall in front of the inn, eating dinner at night, Yan Feng specially looked for the old lady he met last night, but after looking for half a day, he didn't see her figure. He casually asked the owner of the small stall, who was a thin and tall man, taciturn and rarely spoke, with acne and scars all over his face, as if he had been burned by fire when he was young.

  "There isn't a single Old Lady Li among these street vendors." The boss looked at Yanfeng with confusion.

  "Really? I clearly spoke with her yesterday, she was selling pearl necklaces."

  The boss thought for a moment and shook his head, "Really not, I've been running this stall for 20 years, never seen the person you're talking about." "I bought a bowl of sour soup tofu from you yesterday and took it to the opposite street to give it to her to eat, didn't you see?" A shadow flashed in Yanfeng's heart, but he couldn't grasp what it was.

  "You bought a bowl of sour soup and tofu, but I saw you take it to the other side of the street and put it on the ground. Then you squatted there for a while before leaving. What about Aunt Li? Sir, didn't you remember wrongly?"

  Yan Feng didn't respond, continuing to eat with his head down, but his mind was racing. He wasn't senile yet, so why couldn't he remember what happened yesterday? There really was an old man selling pearl necklaces, and he had even spent ten yuan on two strands. Why did the stall owner say he hadn't seen him? Was it possible that he had seen a ghost? But he didn't believe in supernatural things. Could it be that the old man had hidden himself? What secrets lay within these two mountains, where some people could change their heads and others could hide themselves? And why did Lao Lai's grandmother come out to see him? Was she going to reveal a secret or harm him?

  Just as I was thinking, a wine glass appeared in front of me, filled with a full cup of wine. As soon as the tip of my nose caught a whiff, a sweet aroma wafted over, and at a glance, I knew it was a low-alcohol fruit wine.

  He looked up in doubt. The stall owner smiled thickly: "You've been here for two days in a row, I'll give you a cup of wine, brewed myself, try it."

  Yan Feng smiled and took a sip first. Feeling that the entrance was not bad, he drank it all under the gaze of the stall owner, then thanked him, paid the bill and returned to the store. He was eager to go back and see if the chain he bought from Lao Lao yesterday was still there, and also wanted to sort out what had happened recently in his mind.

  One by one! What does this mean? Is it saying that the woman he loves in his heart is one by one, or is it referring to a case?

  Retrieve the items left on the counter, and Yan Feng immediately returned to her room. Opening her backpack for a look, the chain she bought yesterday was still there, proving that what she experienced yesterday wasn't an illusion. So what's the purpose of Lao Lai's actions?

  He lay on his back in bed, thinking through the case from start to finish, and was deeply pondering the doubts in it. Suddenly, a hissing sound came from the ceiling, as if something was cutting through the floor upstairs.

  Instinctively, Yanfeng sat up. Listening carefully to the source and nature of the sound, he heard that the cutting action upstairs was getting louder and louder. Finally, even the ash on the ceiling fell down, almost landing on Yanfeng's head, followed by a drop-by-drop fall of unclear liquid.

  What's going on upstairs? Even if the walls of this small inn are thin, possibly just separated by wooden boards, but the floor can't be that thin, right? Yanfeng thought suspiciously, got out of bed, and touched the wet spot on the ground. The tips of his fingers showed a purplish-red color, with a thick texture, and when he brought it to his nose for a sniff, it was actually blood!

  "Sorry about that, I used too much force." A voice suddenly came from the ceiling.

  Yan Feng subconsciously raised his head and saw a palm-wide crack on the ceiling, and the sound was coming from that place. At the same time, two fingertips squeezed out of the crack, they grasped the edges of the crack and exerted force outward, gradually widening the crack, then a face leaned out.

  This is against the common sense of physics, let alone that there was no limb connection behind that face, and it hung down like that, with long black hair floating in mid-air like soft and flexible aquatic plants.

  "If I change my position, you won't recognize me?" The head suddenly spoke up, surprisingly it was Wula. "I told you that if you don't love me anymore, I'll be dismembered, and isn't that what's happening? However, I'm not blaming you, as long as you put my head on Cheng Linglong's body, then I can be with you forever. Look, I've already brought her here, would you mind helping me out, and then I'll come to keep you company right away." Wula's eyeballs rolled around, and she smiled.

  "Here!" A voice came from the bed, and it really scared Yan Feng. Turning back to look, he saw Ling Long sitting steadily on the edge of the bed, with half of her head already cut off. Behind her, a person was kneeling, one hand grasping her hair, the other holding a knife, still cutting, making a hissing sound.

  "Let her go!" he shouted loudly and rushed forward. The executioner, however, raised his head at this moment, and it was none other than himself.

  He would never hurt Linglong, this is a dream, wake up! He ordered himself to open his eyes.

  A cold sweat broke out on his forehead, and the sound of something not suitable for children came from next door, which made him a bit annoyed. He jumped off the bed to change rooms, but as soon as his hand touched the doorknob, the door opened. Yanfeng took a step back, almost pulling out his gun.

  "Want to ask, add a mattress for you?" The newcomer was the store owner.

  "It's really scary, it's frightening. " Yanzhong let out a sigh of relief, "I don't want any mattress, I want to change rooms, the next room is too noisy."

  The boss didn't say a word, but walked directly to the wall and pounded it several times. "Keep your voice down, others are still sleeping!" Then he turned around with a smile: "There's no room left, if you're affected, just do what I did."

  "Didn't we have a lot of empty rooms at dinner time?" Yanfeng was slightly surprised.

  "Yes, but just now a group of people came and divided up all the rooms."

  "Tour group?"

  "Not at all, they're all freaks." The shop owner suddenly leaned in close to Yan Feng and whispered in his ear, "A group of people who are neither male nor female, all hermaphrodites, yin-yang people."

  The last three words, he said in a very low and slow voice, made the listener's hair stand on end. Unexpectedly, Yan Feng glanced at him sideways, but saw that the shop owner's plump body was already leaning against his, still winking at him, "Want a mattress? Otherwise, it would be so lonely and cold at night."

  The shop owner was a man approaching fifty, with burn scars on his face, looking disheveled, with yellow teeth, and now forcing out a coquettish expression, which was truly disgusting. Moreover, Yanzhi had just understood the meaning of "bed mat".

  Sometimes during the anti-vice campaign, when police force is insufficient, criminal police are also dispatched to participate. So Yanfeng knew that "bed mat" was a euphemism for prostitutes staying overnight. He had just woken up from a nightmare and hadn't noticed the implied meaning of the shop owner's words. He thought to himself that he must report this to the police after dawn.

  "I don't want a mattress, get out of here." He rudely pushed the store owner away. Unexpectedly, the owner not only didn't get angry but also burst out laughing.

  "You'll definitely like this." He suddenly started taking off his clothes.