This concise answer made my skin stand on end.

Her voice was extremely hard, cold, and slow.

In this pitch-black night, only the fire in front of the woman glowed slightly. The color of the firelight illuminated the woman's face, making her face look paler.

I thought I heard it wrong, so I swallowed my saliva and asked uncertainly: "Who... are you burning paper for?"

Maybe it was because I looked really funny, but the woman actually smiled slightly, and then said in a low voice: "Burn the paper for me..."

This time I promised that I heard it correctly. I stared at the woman with wide eyes. Her face was full of disbelief.

Before I had any other thoughts, the woman spoke again: "There is a custom in our hometown. If a person is outside and does not have any relatives around him, he will burn some for himself on his birthday.

Paper. If you do this, you won’t have to worry about having no money when you get to the underworld after you die."

I could feel my squirming Adam's apple calming down a little, and I couldn't help complaining in my heart. It's scary, it will scare people to death. If you want to have a fever, you can't have it during the day. It was so late at night, it almost scared me to death.

Where is there such a nonsense custom?

If the paper is burned, can the bank in the underworld still exist like it does in the human world?

I couldn't help but think of the place Jiang Bing took me to. In the old man's shop, I also saw a paper iPhone and a pistol.

Before I could speak, the woman explained softly again: "Today is my twenty-third birthday, and my mother is the only one in my hometown. So I walked around according to the customs of my hometown."

After hearing this, I nodded, but I always felt that this woman was hiding her age a bit. Looking at her appearance, I felt that she must be more than twenty-three years old.

But I didn’t care. After all, everyone wants to be young. Maybe they lied deliberately?

After answering my question, the woman continued to burn the remaining paper in her hand, muttering a person's name while burning.

"Yao Yulu, Yao Yulu..."

I have heard this saying, and it seems to say that when burning paper for others, you should read that person's name, otherwise, that person will not receive the paper you burned.

But then I thought about it, the woman just said it was burned for herself. So, does the name also belong to her?

I didn’t plan to leave either, so I stood aside and couldn’t help but ask: “Is your name Yao Yulu?”

The woman didn't say anything, but nodded, apparently acknowledging it.

In the blink of an eye, all the paper in Yao Yulu's hand was thrown into the fire in front of her and turned into ashes.

After everything was burned, Yao Yulu stood up, smiled at me, and said, "It's done, I'm leaving."

I nodded and said: There are no street lights in front of here, so be careful when walking alone at night.

I say this completely out of my own duties. Although I am not a criminal police officer, I can still be regarded as a policeman serving the people.

A smile appeared on Yao Yulu's pale face, then she nodded to me and turned around and walked away.

I didn't know where she was going, and I didn't plan to follow her there and see.

What makes me a little puzzled is that the way she walks is a bit weird. Her feet are a bit sloping, as if one leg is longer and the other is shorter.

Not only that, I also found that her legs were a little uncoordinated. It seemed that one was a little thick and the other was a little thin.

I was just curious, so I didn't put any effort into it. Looking at the fire in front of me that had completely turned into ashes, I didn't hesitate and just turned around and left.

After walking two steps, there was a slight breeze. I was a little worried and looked back, fearing that there were some sparks in the pile of ashes that might cause a fire or something.

Mars didn't notice it, so when I turned around, I found that the woman just now had disappeared!

It only took less than half a minute. How could this woman walk so fast?

I felt a little strange in my heart, but I figured it out after I thought about it for a while.

I guess the woman just now lived nearby, and she might have arrived home just around the corner.

I shook my head and felt that I had become a little nervous recently.

I think the reason why I am like this is probably because of this recent case.

In my opinion, this case is becoming more and more complicated now, and I always feel that there is even a bigger conspiracy behind it.

First it was the host, then it was the singer, and finally it was the body of the unknown man. Later, the body parts were stolen. All of this seemed to have been arranged.

The host and the singer knew each other and had similar professions. The murderer must have a normal reason for killing them. In other words, the motive for the murder must exist, but it has not been discovered yet.

But what happened to this unknown male corpse?

Could it be that the unknown male corpse had the same identity as the host and the singer before his death, and that the two of them knew each other?

It’s easy to think wildly when walking alone, and that’s what I am now. Unfortunately, after thinking about it all the way, I didn’t think of anything useful. In the end, I bought two packs of cigarettes from the store at the back door of my neighborhood and headed towards home.

.

I was a little wary when I went home, for fear that something strange would happen at home again.

When there was a thief in my house, other people would think that what the thief said was nonsense, but I didn't think so.

Because I also clearly saw a hand in the toilet and the reclining chair that was constantly shaking.

What I don't understand is that the thief said that there was an old man sleeping on the recliner at my house, still chewing on his arm. I didn't see this, and I don't know if it really exists.

Unknowingly, I arrived at the entrance of the corridor of my house. I walked in and stood at the door of my house. I paused for a moment to hear if there was any movement inside.

There were no accidents this time, and the lights in the room were not turned on. I lay in front of the door for nearly three or four minutes and did not hear any sound from inside.

I thought again of what Jiang Bing said to me: "Your family is fine."

I took out the key from my pocket, gritted my teeth and inserted the key into the keyhole. Then I twisted it lightly and the door opened easily.

This process is very simple, but when I thought that I might see something else inside the room, I couldn't help but break into a cold sweat. In just a few seconds, I found that a thin layer of sweat had appeared on my forehead.

Fortunately, when I opened the door and turned on the lights, I didn't find anything strange inside the house, and all the furniture was still in its original arrangement.

I paid special attention to the yard and was surprised to find that the deck chairs were not swinging around.

Just to be sure, I ran to the bathroom again.

There was nothing different in the bathroom, but what was a little strange was that I saw a little ashes in the toilet.

The ashes looked a bit like a piece of paper that had been burned and then thrown inside.

I don't understand why this thing appears in my toilet.

Fortunately, nothing unexpected happened, and I was relieved from the bottom of my heart.

Walking back to the living room, I took out a cigarette, lit it and took a deep breath, wondering about the ashes in the toilet.

After thinking about it, I remembered something.

That's what happened when Jiang Bei and I came to my house. We went home because there was a thief and we wanted to see if anything was missing. At that time, there was nothing in the toilet.

At that time, Jiang Bing suddenly asked to go to the bathroom. I remember that I was afraid that something would happen and Jiang Bing stood guard at the bathroom door.

After she came out, I smelled something burning!

At first, I thought it was Jiang Bing, a woman who was a bit weird, and the odor she exhaled was a bit like the smell of burning things.

But now that I think about it, there is a complete explanation!

Could it be that Jiang Bing burned something in my toilet at that time?

What I don’t understand is, what did Jiang Bing burn in my toilet?

Why burn things?

I frowned and took a deep drag on my cigarette, then glanced in the direction of the yard. I was startled for a moment, then got up and walked towards the yard. As I walked, I took out my phone and turned on the flashlight.

The deck chair was placed quietly in the yard, and I used the flashlight of my mobile phone to shine on the entire deck chair.

My lounge chair is a bit old and its color has faded. Now it is completely withered yellow.

When I was illuminated by the light of my mobile phone, I clearly saw some red mark on the recliner!

There were red marks in more than one place, on both armrests of the recliner and on the headrest. I put the cigarette in the corner of my mouth, then held my phone in one hand and placed it on the red marks with the other to see what was going on.

The red mark was somewhat regular, just a circle, and there was something like a rune inside the circle. I couldn't quite understand it, but I found that the mark was the same in three positions.

Moreover, it has been a long time and the red mark has long dried. I don’t know what was used to paint it on.

I put my nose close to it, hoping to find some clues based on the smell.

I think this is probably a blood stain. If it is true, it will definitely smell like blood.

But I dismissed this idea after I smelled it. There was no smell of blood on it, but there was a faint fragrance.

I frowned, carefully examined the red mark on it, and sniffed it repeatedly with my nose. Finally, I came to a conclusion.

HgS!

I had an impression of this thing when I was still in college. HgS is the chemical name.

And the name of this thing, or the name it is commonly known by, is: cinnabar!

I don’t know much about the functions of cinnabar. The knowledge I learned is not close to this. The reason why I knew about it was because the instructor accidentally mentioned it during class.

I don’t know the role of this thing in chemistry, but I do know its role among the people.

Cinnabar can be mixed into cinnabar ink. It can be used to draw symbols!

That is, the ghost-catching charms and peace charms that appear in some movies.
To be continued...