Chapter 24: Black and White Portrait X Gerontophobia

  Chen Qiuyang said: "I understand your feelings. But we must also cheer up, how did Little Golden Hair really die? And what about his other companions? Were they also killed?"

  "You graduated from police academy, look at his belly button, what caused that?"

  "I was only learning about grappling and photography back then, my skills were not refined. But looking at the shape of this blood hole, don't you think it's a bit strange?" Chen Qiuyang said "Normally, a person's belly should be very soft, even if you use a knife to cut open a slit, due to the fat and skin, it shouldn't create a round hole like the one on Xiaojinmao's belly. To me, this hole looks weird, it doesn't seem like something that would normally happen when cutting open someone's belly. Do you remember Yang Hong digging out his own intestines? That only created a slit, not a whole hole like this. The hole on Xiaojinmao's belly is a bit like... well, it's as if his entire belly became hard and then was dug out with a hole. I know that sounds abstract, let me put it another way: have you ever tried inserting a straw into a snow pear? When the straw goes in and comes back out, the inside of the straw gets filled with snow pear flesh, creating a hole - this hole on Xiaojinmao's body is kind of like that. His belly became hard, someone used a giant straw to insert into his belly and then pulled it out, leaving behind this hole."

  Chen Qiuyang's example is very vivid, because I once did something similar with a straw, so after listening to his analysis, my stomach started feeling uncomfortable again.

  "Why haven't the police arrived yet?" Kui Ruo Lan was getting a bit anxious.

  "I don't know if I can come or not" - said Du Huangniu, he was like a snail with a shell on his back, sticking his head out of the house and saying: "In such a big rainstorm, the roads leading to the village must have all been flooded, and were submerged in water long ago."

  Du Huang's expression on his face didn't change in the slightest - even if someone died right next to his house.

  Chen Qiuyang said: "Old Man Niu, didn't you see? There's a dead young man outside your house."

  "It's just death, what's the big deal? People die every day, and I'll be dying soon too. To be able to die in Liu Long Village is his good fortune."

  Chen Qiuyang said angrily: "Niu Ye, you can't say that. He didn't die following the natural law, he was murdered."

  Du Huang Niu lit a dry cigarette, ignited the tobacco and said: "If you are not afraid of the danger of mountain floods now, I advise you to leave quickly. Otherwise, the next one to die may be you."

  His words were plain and unremarkable, but their content was extremely frightening.

  "Uncle Niu, do you know something inside? I know you're advising us to leave Liulong Village for the sake of appearances. You must know what's threatening our lives in Liulong Village. Can you tell us? What is it that's threatening our lives? Is it a curse? A ghost? Or are they people from your village?"

  Du Huang Niu put away the dried tobacco and ignored us, then slowly retreated back into his house.

  Chen Qiuyang said: "He must know something, but unfortunately we can't use torture to get it out of him."

  "I'm angry not because he refused to tell me, but because of his disrespect for life and indifference to life."

  I said calmly, "We can't blame him either. Maybe when we reach his age now, we might also have the same attitude as him. At this age, maybe life isn't that important to us anymore."

  The rain got heavier and heavier, the police finally arrived, they observed the body on the scene and took photos, then carried away Huang Dudu's body, asked us about the relevant content separately, and left.

  We temporarily returned to the house. An hour later, the police called me and told me that the bodies of Huang Dudu's other companions were found in the fields at the end of the village, soaked in water, almost washed away by the river. The specific situation will be known after the forensic examination. At the same time, he told me that all roads leading out of Liulong Village have been flooded and we cannot leave for the time being.

  We were trapped indoors by this heavy rainstorm and could not go out or investigate, just like the situation we were investigating was also trapped.

  What's even more annoying is that the water leak in the room is getting bigger and bigger, so I had to move to Chen Qiuyang's room. Originally, I suggested that Kui Rulan also move here, so that we three can live together conveniently and take care of each other, but she said she wasn't afraid, so she didn't move over. In this way, we idled away until 3 pm.

  At around 3 pm, the rain had subsided a lot. I decided to go to Du Jie's house again. When we arrived at Du Jie's house drenched from head to toe, we found that Du Jie's father was not at home.

  With such a heavy rain, where did the old man with mobility issues go? We stood at Du Jie's door, filled with doubts.

  Du Jie's home was also shabby and dilapidated, without a single decent piece of furniture, the walls were bare, even worse than an ordinary poor household.

  Chen Qiuyang said, "It's understandable that the villagers don't agree to rebuild the village, but Du Jie's father lives in a place that is almost a dangerous house, and he doesn't even allow Du Jie to renovate? I think the thinking of the old people in this village has become stubbornly abnormal."

  "Now that Du Jie's father is not at home, we'll take this opportunity to have a look. Kui Ruo Lan, you stand guard at the door."

  I walked around the hall and didn't find anything. Because it was empty, standing there for a moment basically made everything clear at a glance. I suddenly found a picture frame hanging on the wall, but the frame was blank with no image, which gave me, someone who has a bit of OCD, a strange feeling. I took down the frame from the wall and suddenly saw that the back of the white paper inside seemed to have something printed on it. I took out the white paper from the frame, flipped it over, and found it was an old lady's black-and-white photo.

  It's not a photograph, but a portrait drawn with a black pen. Although it's not a photo, this kind of portrait is very lifelike. In parks or some photography studios, there are still old artists who draw portraits for people by hand. However, with the popularity of cameras and mobile phones, this traditional craftsmanship has gradually disappeared.

  I have always had an inexplicable sense of fear towards old people's black and white photos or portraits. I always feel that these black and white photos or portraits are very much like mourning portraits, emitting a strange aura of death. This is related to a terrifying experience I had when I was young in the orphanage, when I was small and teased by older kids, locked in the mourning hall. That night, under the flickering candlelight, I almost went mad with fear as I stared at the huge black and white photo of the deceased on the mourning hall, and the more I looked, the more I felt that the old man in the photo was smiling at me, slowly opening his mouth to reveal white teeth, his eyes shining brightly...

  I saw this old lady's portrait and wondered, "This old lady's portrait looks a bit strange. But I couldn't quite put my finger on where the strangeness lies."

  Chen Qiuyang said, "That's right, actually Du Jie saw an old lady's face in his stomach, but isn't it because he had seen this old lady's photo since childhood? When I was young, I had a psychological shadow of black and white photos of the elderly. Every time I saw them, I felt that the old people in the photos would move."

  "Did you have this fear when you were little?"

  "Really, President? Are you too?"

  I nodded and said, "If it's explained this way, it can indeed explain why Du Jie saw an old lady's face in his stomach when he was having a gastroscopy. However, a new question arises - why does Du Jie's father get furious every time we mention the old lady's face in the stomach?"

  "Usually, such behavior has only one explanation, that is, he is evading, can evade what others don't want to touch. Either he did something bad to this old lady, or he feels guilty towards this old lady, just like the Yang Hong case."

  Things started to become clear because of the portrait of an old lady that I accidentally discovered, but later events far exceeded my imagination. Things didn't go in the direction we expected, but instead branched out like the withered vines outside, extending countless branches, whose complexity and danger almost took the lives of all of us.