Nineteenth Day (3) Quarrel

  This remark was quite abrupt, and everyone's gaze turned to Feng Yue. Feng Yue said, "This morning, I saw that dagger. If it were a ghost, why would it need to use a dagger to kill someone? Right? Only humans need weapons, what would a ghost need with a weapon?"

  The immortal old woman inserted a sentence, yes, and ghosts are afraid of ironware, it's impossible for them to touch the dagger.

  Now that it's been said, the students seem to have gained courage and all spoke up, but their eyes were fixed on Ma Tiancheng.

  I fully understand the mood of the students, they lost their friends and were interrogated by strangers in a very strange hotel, after all, they are a small group, at this moment, if they don't unite, it's much friendlier than being hostile to strangers.

  The boy next to Xiao Bin spoke up, saying that this matter wasn't just suspicious for them alone. You say we're the murderers, but I'd say this place of yours is a shady store - how come you people aren't suspects?

  Ma Tiancheng slammed his fist on the table and said, "What the f**k is your name? Come out and fight one-on-one!"

  The man stood up and said, "My name is Hou Mingyu. If you want to talk reason, there's no problem. But if you want to fight, look at how many of us are here now? When it really comes down to life or death, I'm not afraid of you, an old thug."

  Ma Tiancheng said, "Little rabbit, what are you saying? Do you believe I'll throw you out? This is my store, and I decide who stays or goes. Get out of here!"

  Hou Mingyu said, "Don't keep calling me 'old man', nobody is afraid of you. If you really want to drive us out, I'll tie you up for real, believe it or not?"

  Ma Tiancheng said, "Get out of here, what's wrong with you? Come on over and try it, believe me I'll take care of you."

  Those boys all stood up, and Ma Tiancheng's kitchen knife was also in his hand. I took a look at the situation and thought it wasn't good. If things got out of hand, it would be easy for others to take advantage of the situation. So I hurriedly mediated, saying: "Everyone, don't be impulsive, let's calm down. No one can do anything about this kind of thing happening. We're not suspecting anyone, we just need to ask questions. If we don't resolve this, everyone will be in danger, right? Especially you guys, the two people who died were your own. Asking clearly is also for your own good." Ma Ge, Ma Ge, calm down too. If things really get out of hand, everyone will suffer losses, won't they?

  I smoothed things over, and neither of us really had the energy to fight at this time. We glared at each other for a few moments, then those who should sit down sat down, and those who should throw the kitchen knife threw it.

  That dwarf had just seen things start to get out of hand, he was too short and didn't have the presence, already standing on the table, seeing things calm down too quickly, he stood still on the table.

  I said, Master, Master, you come down first, I still have a few questions for you.

  The dwarf grunted and sat down cross-legged on the table, saying "Speak".

  I said, do you think this is a ghost killing people?

  The dwarf said, "Where is the ghost?"

  I'm saying, you're not that one, are you?

  The dwarf said, I don't know what you're talking about.

  His attitude stunned me. Xia Ai spoke up beside me, "It's about the ancient temple saving me that time, I've heard about it. I'm very grateful to you. Can you explain?"

  The dwarf thought for a moment and then said, "These things are beyond your understanding, you little kids. But ghosts won't use knives to kill people, that's for sure."

  So it's done by humans then?

  The dwarf said, yes, it was done by humans.

  I said, aren't ghosts supposed to be able to possess people? Maybe it's possessing someone.

  It's possible that someone said so, but it was too dark that day and I don't know who didn't go out. Besides, there is another person saying that there is an extra person among us.

  I said, right, who is that extra person? If there really is such a person, would it be him who did it?

  The dwarf said, how would I know?

  I asked if there were any other rooms available in this inn? We don't know.

  The dwarf waved his hand and said, "It's just this broken hut, inside and out, it's just that small. If you don't believe me, you can go find out for yourselves."

  I thought for a moment and then said, The question below may make you uncomfortable, but I hope you can answer me.

  The dwarf rolled his eyes and said, "Alright, today you're being straightforward."

  I said, this place is so remote, you have a hotel here, it's already very suspicious. Would anyone stay here?

  The dwarf let out a grinding laugh and said, "Aren't you humans? If you can fill the rooms today, it means this inn has a reason to exist. And I'll tell you, our inn isn't open every day either, only when someone wants to stay do we open up. The two of us have businesses in Qinghe Town, this is just extra work."

  Ma Tiancheng nodded and said, "Right, we'll open when someone comes."

  I said, how did you know someone was coming?

  Ma Tiancheng said, "The train station has our informants. At a glance, we can see who are tourists and what projects does Qinghe Town have? There is only this ghost village. Moreover, the inn was not built by us, it's an old broken building that has been here for a long time. We just cleaned it up and when they said there would be tourist groups coming over, we opened the door for a few days. If someone stays, then someone stays. If no one stays, we don't have any losses."

  I nodded and said, "Isn't this delaying your business?"

  Ma Tiancheng scratched the back of his head, then smiled and said, "You know, we usually make at most 30 yuan a day driving taxis. But you know how much this hotel costs per night? With so many people and rooms, if you stay for just one day, it's enough for us to earn a month's worth of money. If we can open for half a month, our annual income will be covered. By the way, you won't be able to leave in the next few days, so you'll have to keep paying for your accommodation."

  Think about it carefully, a small place like Qinghe Town can earn 1,000 yuan per month, which is a good business. This hotel is expensive to death, and my accommodation for the past few days, including Xia Ai's, has already cost nearly 2,000 yuan. It seems that this statement is not wrong after all. They were originally taxi drivers and probably also operated at the train station. When they saw tourist groups, especially these students, they knew exactly where to go - Gui Village.

  Rushing over to make a foolish deal, thinking about it is also clever enough.

  I said, so Zhang Tian Shi's... where did he learn it from?

  The dwarf rolled his eyes again, and Ma Tiancheng answered for him, "This is an ancestral tradition, it's just that nobody believes in this anymore."

  After asking all these questions, I felt like there was nothing left to ask. The students were vague in their responses, and the hotel was tight-lipped, leaving me with a feeling that something wasn't quite right, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

  At this time, the dwarf spoke up and said, "You're always asking us questions, I want to ask you a question too. What brought you here?"

  Everyone's eyes suddenly focused on me, I knew that the inquiry just now was like interrogating a prisoner, even if I was pushed out as an intermediary, it would be hard to avoid people having suspicions.

  I said, I am a writer on the internet, and I came here to find inspiration. This place was originally my hometown, but I left when I was a few years old and had no impression of it anymore. However, suddenly someone called it a ghost village, which made me very curious. As someone who needs inspiration, I returned to search for it, and it's also considered a revisit to my hometown.

  The dwarf said, "It's not just these, but also your friends."

  Xiao Ai spoke up and said, "What's wrong? Do you suspect me or something? If you suspect me of anything, just say it out loud."

  The dwarf didn't answer, rolled his eyes and suddenly turned the topic to me, saying "Where were you yesterday?"

  I said I followed and ran out, where else can I go?

  The dwarf said, "Who can be my witness?"

  I didn't even have a chance to speak, when Siyao said, "I can testify." Yesterday I ran back from outside, my heart was very afraid, feeling that there was one more person, grabbing onto someone wanting to say something, it was just Dage. Is that right?

  I nodded and said, judging from the situation yesterday, the murder must have made a sound. If it was after an explosion, although it was late at night, everyone's nerves were actually very tense, right? There would be no way not to hear any sounds. If it was in the first half of the night, some people were sleeping and some weren't, and this hotel's walls are thin, if someone really fought and shouted, it's impossible that no one heard anything.

  Others nodded, I said, so the most likely thing is that an accident occurred when we all went out, or in the chaotic time when everyone was rushing out, at that time many people were shouting and it was really impossible to distinguish.

  You're trying to prove to yourself that since you've run away, you don't have time to commit the crime, right?

  I said yes. But this reasoning also applies to others, can the people who went out yesterday testify against each other? Who saw who go out and who didn't? I'll say it first, I was with Da Ai.

  Ma Tiancheng said, I am with Zhang Ge together.

  Si Yao said, I was very scared at that time, and kept looking for people, didn't know who saw me. But I can prove, I saw Mr. Zhang, he is relatively... easy to recognize. At that time there was a man beside him, should be Ma Ge.

  I nodded and looked at Ai Ya, asking, "Who are you with?"

  Ai Ya said that when I ran out, I was also panicked and didn't know who to be with. At that time, it was still raining heavily, pitch black, and you couldn't even hear what people were saying. The time spent outside was still short...

  I looked at several boys, those boys were also running out alone, occasionally two people together is a proof, but most of the people were just scared awake and didn't know what happened, they were all in a panic. When people are panicked, they don't know who's with whom, and the clues get messed up.

  Fengyue spoke up, saying that she had also run out by herself at the time. However, when they came back, weren't the four of them talking together? At the time, everyone went upstairs to the second floor, and I entered a room alone, feeling scared, so I called out to Siyao, and we gathered together to chat. This can also be considered as some kind of proof.

  I nodded, outside the wind and rain were raging with continuous thunder, inside the house there was still a dead body lying upstairs, among the living there was also a murderer hiding, this really looked like a game of "close your eyes at night".

  No one knows who will be the next to die.

  I took a look around, then said, "This matter has been discussed by everyone, and it's hard to say what we're up against. However, I think the culprit is targeting you students, after all, two people in a row are from your school, and you seem to have some hidden agenda as well. I know that Mei Xue's case isn't that simple, but if you don't want to talk about it, I don't have the authority to force you to speak. I hope you think carefully about whether there are any clues you can provide.

  No one spoke for half a day, then Fengyue raised her hand and said, I heard their argument.