Yellow River Craftsman

Chapter 19 Suspicious Clouds
The young woman introduced herself: "Hi, my name is Zhou Jie. I heard that you are very interested in this ancient corpse, right?"

I said, "Are you the boss of this ancient corpse?"

Zhou Jie smiled and said, "I'm not the boss. Our boss is surnamed Zhao and nicknamed Fat Toutuo. He has been in the cultural relics business for more than ten or twenty years and is very famous in the frontier area. I'm just his secretary!"

Gu Meidi shook hands with Zhou Jie: "Hello, Secretary Zhou! My husband and I have always wanted to collect strange and weird things, and we have a lot of ancient cultural relics at home. This time we came to the exhibition to find some rare things. When we saw that there was an auction of ancient corpses, we immediately became interested. Some people may think that ancient corpses are scary, but in our opinion, this is a beautiful work of art, and we want to take it back and put it in the living room As a display! Isn't it, my husband?"

Gu Meidi took my arm affectionately, calling "Husband" in one mouthful, which made my heart burst into joy and my blood pressure soared.

But her sentence "put the ancient corpse as a display in the living room" was really shocking. I saw that not only the staff member, but even Secretary Zhou's face turned green.

Zhou Jie laughed dryly: "Well, if the two of you really have the intention to buy this ancient corpse, I will take you to see Mr. Zhao right away!"

Gu Meidi said: "That would be the best!" She then tugged on my sleeve: "Let's go, what are you still doing?"

After walking a few steps, Gu Meidi whispered in my ear: "Tuoba Gu, if you keep staring at Zhou Jie's ass, I'll take your skin and use it to make Liangpi!"

I shivered all over, looked away reluctantly, then swallowed hard, and despised myself in the bottom of my heart.

Walking out of the convention and exhibition center, there is still a long queue of people outside.

Zhou Jie let us sit in her Audi TT, and drove all the way towards downtown XA.

Zhou Jie was very talkative. On the way, she told us that she was Fat Toutuo's lover and secretary.Fat Toutuo bought her a villa in Qujiang New District of XA City. Fat Toutuo often does business outside, and Zhou Jie stays in the company in Xi'an on weekdays to help with some affairs.Fat Toutuo would live in Xi'an for a few days almost every month, meet her in a tryst, and then throw her a sum of money.

Zhou Jie spoke eloquently, and we are not surprised by this. This is the current social situation.

Audi TT parked under an office building with more than [-] floors, Zhou Jie said to us: "Mr. Zhao is on it, come with me!"

We took the elevator with Zhou Jie to the 14th floor. Just as we walked to the door of the company, Zhou Jie raised his hand and was about to knock on the door. Unexpectedly, the door opened and a tall man in black suddenly rushed out.Zhou Jie was caught off guard and was knocked to the ground by the man in black.Regardless of the man in black, he rushed into the elevator like a whirlwind.

Due to the sudden incident, we didn't see the appearance of the man in black clearly. Zhou Jie got up from the ground and scolded angrily: "Who is this bastard? Why is he so unqualified? Are you rushing to reincarnate? Hitting someone I don’t even know how to apologize! The next time I see him again, I will slap him twice!”

We followed Zhou Jie into the office. Zhou Jie had just stepped into the office when she suddenly let out a terrified scream, jumped up like an electric shock, turned around and slammed into my arms.

The scene in front of us widened our eyes in horror. We saw a middle-aged fat man lying on his back on an office chair, his eyes turned white, his head drooping weakly on his shoulders, and a gleaming sharp knife stuck in his chest. Blood had stained his white shirt red.There is no doubt that this middle-aged fat man should be Fat Toutuo.

I immediately realized that the man in black just now was probably the murderer.I yelled inwardly that I was not good, turned around and wanted to chase out.Unexpectedly, Zhou Jie rolled her eyes and fainted from fright in my arms.

The police quickly sealed off the scene of the murder. Zhou Jie was crying and weeping beside him, and Gu Meidi and I were on the other side to record our statements.Because the incident happened so suddenly, none of us saw the features of the suspect's face, so we didn't have any valuable clues to provide to the police. We only knew that the suspect was wearing a black coat and was relatively tall.

When I walked out of the office building, I felt in a bad mood. It was a coincidence. We had just gone to find Fat Toutuo, and Fat Toutuo was killed. It seems that our clue to find the origin of the turtle coffin was interrupted again, which made me very sad. frustrated.

As we walked, Gu Meidi kept silent. I thought she was shocked after witnessing the murder.Just as I was about to say something to comfort her, she suddenly stopped and said to me solemnly: "Actually, I hid an important clue from the police just now!"

This time it was my turn to be stunned: "What clues are you hiding, do you know the identity of the murderer? Impossible, what happened just now was too fast, none of us saw clearly..."

"No!" Gu Meidi said in a deep voice: "Although I didn't see the face of the murderer clearly, I discovered an extremely strange thing!"

Looking at Gu Meidi's serious face, chills ran down my spine.

Gu Meidi pointed at the back of his neck: "Just now I caught a glimpse of an eyeball tattoo on the neck of the black-clothed killer!"

Rumble!
As if a thunderbolt exploded in my mind, I opened my mouth in disbelief: "What?!"

Things are becoming more and more weird and unfathomable. What does the tattoo of the eyeball symbolize?Why do eyeball tattoos thousands of years ago appear on the necks of modern people?Could it be that the ancients crossed over?Impossible, that's something only in brain-dead dramas!This... What is going on here?Is there any mysterious connection between this black-clothed killer and the Xixia warrior thousands of years ago?What motive did he come to assassinate Fat Toutuo?It's a pity that Fat Toutuo is dead, otherwise, we will definitely get a lot of valuable clues from Fat Toutuo's mouth.

When I was in a daze, Gu Meidi continued: "And the eyeball tattoo on the nape of this killer's neck is also bright red, exactly the same as the eyeball tattoo on the ancient corpse in the exhibition hall!"

We went back to the hotel full of questions, and we told Professor Ye about it in the hotel.Unexpectedly, even the well-informed Professor Ye was stunned when he heard it.

Professor Ye pondered for a while and said: "This matter is really weird and evil. You two have also come into contact with ancient corpses, and your lives may be in danger. Instead of sitting here and waiting to die, why don't we take the initiative to find out the ins and outs of the matter!"

I threw away the cigarette butt: "Professor Ye said that we will leave for Hezi Village tomorrow!"

Professor Ye said: "This journey is extremely dangerous. Although you two are smart, you are still too immature after all, lacking professional experience and social experience, so I decided to accompany you to go together!"

I was lying on the bed tiredly, one question after another was flying in my mind.

Why are the corpses of Xixia warriors contained in the strange Yinmu tortoise coffin?
Why are the Western Xia warriors implanted with the death bug of the Western Regions in their heads?

Are they immortal warriors, or sad funeral objects?

What do the eyeball tattoos on the back of Xixia warriors symbolize?
Why does the modern killer after a thousand years also have this mysterious eyeball tattoo?
What is the connection between this killer and the Xixia warrior thousands of years ago?

……

There were too many questions, which made me dizzy. I simply closed my eyes and stopped thinking about it. Let's go back to Hezi Village with enough energy to talk.

Two days later, we returned to Hezi Village.

Seeing us come back, Grandpa looked very surprised: "You... why are you back again?"

I told my grandfather what happened in Xi'an, and then straight to the point explained the purpose of coming back this time. I want my grandfather to go out on the boat and take us along the river to find the origin of the turtle coffin.According to our speculation, the tortoise coffin was probably washed down from the upper reaches of the river when it rained heavily. If the origin of the tortoise coffin can be found, it is hoped that all the mysteries will be solved.

I originally thought that grandpa would readily agree to our request, but I didn't expect grandpa to refuse to leave the boat after listening to it.

Seeing Grandpa's resolute attitude, I wondered, "Grandpa, why didn't you take us out of the boat?"

Grandpa smoked the dry cigarette silently, and said coldly: "There is no reason!"

I casually said, "Then I'll get out of the boat myself!"

"You dare!" Grandpa slammed the bong, exposing the blue veins on his forehead: "If you dare to make up your own mind, don't recognize me as a grandpa!"

It's rare for me to see Grandpa get angry like this, and he didn't dare to say anything more at the moment, and quietly exited the room.

Gu Meidi said in surprise: "Why do I feel like Grandpa has changed, it looks scary!"

I said: "I don't know. Grandpa has always disliked me touching the boat. Last time, he didn't scold me because you suggested going out on a boat for fun!"

Gu Meidi said: "Since Grandpa insists so much, don't tell him to go out on the boat, why don't we go out by ourselves?"

I shook my head: "No! Absolutely no! Boating on the Yellow River is a very dangerous thing. In addition to the turbulent torrent, there are many hidden dangers lurking below the Yellow River. If something strange happens, there is no danger. Accompanied by the old helmsman, it is difficult for us to deal with these problems!"

Gu Meidi said: "It's true, if you encounter weird things like ghost ships again, you still need an experienced old helmsman like Grandpa to solve them! After all, he has walked on the Yellow River for so many years and has accumulated so much experience. , I have seen a lot of evil things, and we won't be in a mess with him!"

Professor Ye comforted me and said, "Tuobagu, don't be discouraged. Your grandfather may have his own considerations. I'll talk to him. Maybe he will change his mind!"

(End of this chapter)