Kyushu · Endless Nagato

Chapter 2
[-]. Bloodwing bird
On July 11th of the [-]th year of Shengde, the Bloodwing Bird reappeared in Tianqi City.

On that originally sunny afternoon, the haze of the blood-winged bird spread from the house of Ouyang Duan, a famous doctor of a generation, and quickly enveloped the whole city.People originally thought that this terrifying murderous demon had died down for three years and would never come out to disturb the peace of the world again, but they were all wrong, the devil will always choose the most unexpected moment to send out the trembling evil.

On July [-]th, it was already the fourth day in a row that Dr. Ouyang did not go to the medical clinic for his rotation.Song Chengguang, the owner and partner of the museum, was very dissatisfied with this.Ouyang Duan has excellent medical skills and is deeply loved by the people, but he is lazy and lazy, and absenteeism for a day or two is commonplace.Out of friendship and respect for Ouyang Duan's medical skills, Song Chengguang just shook his head every time and let it go, but four days was too much.Medical clinics need to make money, and if the head doctor is always absent, patients will slowly be lost.

He came to Ouyang Duan's house angrily during the lunch break, and was going to tear his face and give him a hard lesson.But after knocking on the door for half a stick of incense, no one answered.Song Chengguang put his eyes on the crack of the door, trying to see what was going on, but at this moment, his body froze suddenly.

He smelled a rotten smell that was constantly emanating.Based on his experience as a military doctor in the army when he was young, he could easily tell that this was the persistent and strong stench of corpses.

Half a hour later, the people from the yamen arrived.A strong and strong policeman kicked open the door, and people came to the main room quickly following the smell of corpses.The door of the main room was ajar, and the breath of death came from the door.

The policeman pushed the door open carefully, and the afternoon sun instantly illuminated everything in the house.On the wall facing the gate, the calligraphy and paintings hanging in the past have long been taken down, but there is something more on the white wall.

A picture painted with blood as paint.It was a bird, a huge blood-red strange bird, with sharp claws and a ferociously curved beak, with a human head conspicuously in its beak.The wings of the strange bird are long and stretched, as if it is flying in the sky with the human head in its mouth.

And under this picture, there are five chairs against the wall, and there are five people sitting on them. Judging from their clothes, they should be two men and three women. Their hands are neatly placed on their knees, as if they are taking a nap. But for these uninvited guests who broke into their homes, they have been unable to respond in any way.

Because their heads are gone.

"Did this... the Bloodwing Bird do it?" Song Chengguang tried hard to keep calm, but he could still hear trembling in his voice.

Three years ago, in just three months, four well-known doctors in Tianqi City were massacred in the same way, and the method was clean and neat.The strange bird graffiti on the wall and the headless corpse became the common symbols of these four cases.In addition, the criminal did not leave any information that could indicate the motive of the crime, so no one knows who and why these famous doctors were attacked.

As for the strange bird, it was not found in any bird atlas in Donglu. Later, a storyteller who had nothing to do with raising birds provided an explanation.

"This is a blood-winged bird, a monster that only lives in Yunzhou," said the storyteller. "It is said that this bird survives by eating a kind of exotic flower and fruit called 'Galanhua'. In return, it will hunt The heads of men and beasts are used to adorn the jalan flowers. This killer probably took a fancy to the characteristics of the bloodwing bird and used it as a symbol."

Those legends about the mysterious land of Yunzhou have never been confirmed, but people still accept the name "Bloodwing Bird" and use it as a synonym for the serial killer.Strangely, after four consecutive tragedies, the Bloodwing Bird disappeared, and did not commit another crime for as long as three years.

However, three years later, the blood wing bird appeared again, and Ouyang Duan's family became victims.After the inspection of the bodies, the five deceased were Ouyang Duan and his wife, Ouyang Duan's son and daughter, and the eldest daughter-in-law.According to Wu Zuo's judgment, the time of death was about three or four days.

It was also the last recorded case of Bloodwing.It was not until the second year of Hongjing, sixteen or seventeen years later, that people finally found this famous and terrifying killer.It is a pity that he had already died on a musty-smelling bed in a small cheap hotel in Lanzhou, in the middle of a cold and rainy night. When he died, there were only a few broken clothes, a few pieces of copper coins, and one or two books. An anthology of popular poetry that is common in the market.If someone hadn't happened to discover the blank space of the book page, densely filled with detailed records of previous murders, no one would have thought that this poor, thin, middle-aged man would be the blood-winged bird that once shocked Kyushu.

All relics were immediately sealed up and rushed to Tianqi.When the book of poems with criminal notes was transferred to the officials of the Criminal Ministry, they discovered that there were only four cases recorded in it, and the pages after that were torn off.That is to say, people cannot know the truth about the fifth case, which is the case of Ouyang Duan's extermination in the 11th year of Shengde.

Fortunately, no one cares about those details.The Bloodwing Bird is dead, and the motive for the murder that has been speculated by people has also been explained in that notebook, which is enough.The enthusiasm of the people always comes and goes quickly. After two months, people gradually forgot about it.

[-]. Shen Zhuang's nightmare
September of the 11th year of Shengde.At the southwestern foot of the Suohe Mountains, Hexi Ridge.

Shen Zhuang, a farmer in Shenjia Village, Hexiling, is in a very good mood recently. People make fun of him, saying that he has opened his mouth for two months but has not closed it.Two months ago, his wife finally gave birth to a fat boy.Although Hexiling is only two days away from Tianqi City by horseback, it has never been touched by the nobility of the imperial capital, and has always been in poverty.Adding a male to the family is a great help to the future livelihood, not to mention Shen Zhuang's five generations of single heirs, who are counting on this single seedling to continue the incense.

The joy of having a precious son made Shen Zhuang work harder.The land in Hexiling is relatively poor, and it is not easy for all kinds of crops to grow well. This day, he got up early before dawn and went to the thin field in the west of the village.

Near noon, there was a sudden sound of horseshoes in the distance.Shen Zhuang straightened up from the field and saw two strangers in casual clothes running towards the village on horseback.This is a little strange, Shen Zhuang thought, there were only dozens of poor families in Shenjia Village, and there were no special products worth mentioning. Except for officials who collected taxes and soldiers and the occasional peddler, almost no outsiders ever set foot in.What are these two people doing?
Anyway, they won't be looking for me, Shen Zhuang thought, putting aside that little bit of curiosity, and continued to swing the hoe.In the afternoon, those two people passed by him again and left the same way.

When they returned home at night, the villagers were all beaming, and after asking, they found out that the two people who came during the day were employees of a medicinal material dealer in Tianqi City.They found valuable medicinal materials nearby, and also found that the land in the village was suitable for growing medicines. They wanted to spend money to buy the entire village's land as a base for planting, collection and transfer. Of course, the asking price must be high.They showed great sincerity, visited one by one, and asked about the population of each family. It is said that they were paid by the head.

This is a windfall!Each farmer can get more money than they dig the soil for a lifetime. No wonder everyone is happy. No one thinks whether such a good thing like a pie in the sky is true or whether there are evil intentions.

After dark.

After a tiring day, Shen Zhuang went to bed early. In a daze, the sound of his son's crying and his wife humming nursery rhymes kept coming to his ears, like a soothing lullaby.He dreamed of a bright future for his family: the medicine merchant gave much more money than he had imagined, so they opened a small shop in Tianqi City, became city residents, and watched their son grow up day by day...

It's a pity that before seeing his son marrying a wife in his dream, he was awakened by a strange noise, as if someone knocked on the window.Could it be the naughty boy next door throwing stones again?He snorted angrily, got up from the bed, and was about to go over to check, when suddenly a black shadow flashed in front of him, and before he could react, something slashed his neck severely, and there was a sharp pain, and he fainted past.Before losing consciousness, he heard his wife let out a shrill exclamation.

After waking up, he found that his cousin was sitting beside him, but his wife and children were nowhere to be seen.He tried to sit up, but felt a piercing pain in his neck.

"Don't move!" Uncle Tang held him down, "It's your fate, your neck was almost cut off."

"Where's my wife and children? What happened?" Shen Zhuang asked repeatedly.

"Don't worry, let's talk slowly after recovering from the injury first." Uncle Tang replied hesitantly.

"Fart!" Shen Zhuang yelled again, causing the injury on his neck, and the pain made him sweat profusely. "Where's my wife? Where's my son?"

Tang Shu let out a long sigh: "They are all... gone. We only found you lying on the ground with a knife cut on your neck."

"Who did it? Why were they arrested? Where were they caught?" Shen Zhuang asked hoarsely.

"How could we know..." Uncle Tang shook his head.

Two months later, Shen Zhuang's wounds gradually healed, but his neck has been crooked since then, always leaning to the right.He became a man with a crooked neck and no wife or children, and the wound never stopped aching for the rest of his life.

Shen Zhuang, with a crooked neck, exchanged all the things that could be sold at home, and left Shenjia Village.He visited almost all the villages in the Lock River Mountain Range, he went to Tianqi City, and he went to other cities in Zhongzhou.For three years, he has been relying on begging and day labor to make up for travel expenses. The strong farmer in the past has become gray at the temples, thin and rickety.

But he still failed to find his wife and children.After that nightmarish night, his wife and son disappeared as if they had never existed.

Perhaps God took pity on his futile efforts, and finally gave him an answer at the end of the third year.At that time, he had already gotten into the position of a handyman in a caravan, and was going to follow them across the Anlan Mountain to Wanzhou.His idea was simple, since Zhongzhou couldn't find it, he went to Wanzhou to look for it.

The caravan walked slowly in the dark mountain, and after five days, they encountered two lost merchants.The two merchants narrowly escaped death and took out the high-grade fine wine Qingyang Soul they carried with them to share with the men of the caravan.People are grilling meat around the fire, drinking Qingyang soul, all of them are enjoying themselves.Only Shen Zhuang with a crooked neck sat alone, neither drinking nor talking.

The people in the caravan had long been used to Shen Zhuang's strange silence, no one came to greet him, but the two merchants were rather curious, so the guide who led the way briefly told them about Shen Zhuang's experience.One of the merchants frowned after hearing this: "September [-]th three years ago? Was it near a mountain called Hexiling?"

Shen Zhuang was shocked and stood up: "That's right! It's Hexi Ridge! My lord, don't you..."

"I'm not sure it's your wife and son, but on the night of September [-]th, I did see a group of people snatch a woman and a baby. It's really hard to forget that kind of thing," The merchant said, "At that time, I was still a shopkeeper traveling from village to village. I missed the next village before dark, so I had to sleep in the mountains. It was cold and wet at night, and I hardly fell asleep. In the middle of the night, I heard There was a sound of hooves."

Shen Zhuang trembled all over, almost knelt down to thank the gods.Finally someone knows what happened that night, but where are they now?Is it alive or dead?He didn't dare to ask, his heart seemed to be hanging in the air.

"Because I was worried that it was a robber, I hurriedly hid in the grass, only to hear the sound of horseshoes and stopped in a clearing, and the group of people who came lit a fire in the clearing," everyone fell silent, listening According to the merchant, "there were more than ten of them in black casual clothes. I saw them push down a young woman in her twenties from her horse, holding a baby in her arms..."

"It's them!" Shen Zhuang shouted, "How are they?"

Hang Shang was silent for a while, then patted Shen Zhuang's shoulder lightly: "You have to mourn, brother, your wife and children, they were...killed on the spot."

Shen Zhuangru was struck by five thunders, he felt that his whole body could not move, but his consciousness was still very clear, and the words of Hang Shang continued to penetrate into his ears: "I have no ability to stop, I watched those people go down twice and took two lives. What is even more heinous is that their bodies were immediately thrown into the fire and burned..."

"This is too cruel, even the corpse will be mutilated!" Even the guide was filled with righteous indignation.

The merchant smiled wryly: "Yeah, I couldn't stand it at that time, and I was worried about being discovered by them, so I crawled away quietly, but it was already far away from them, and there was still a pungent anxiety floating in the air." The smell reminds me it's not a nightmare."

That was a dream, a dream that covered my whole life, Shen Zhuang thought, I will never be able to get rid of this dream.He sat softly on the ground, lowered his body, and lay down on the cold and dirty ground.The night wind travels through the rugged and continuous mountains, as if everything in the mountains is whimpering.Let me die like this, he thought, and there would be no pain, no concern.

At this moment, Hong Shang uttered the next sentence, a sentence that allowed him to regain the meaning of life in an instant.These words made him immediately throw away the idea of ​​committing suicide before, and quickly ignited his desire to continue living.

"I overheard some of their conversations, most of which I didn't understand, but there was a sentence that might have something to do with their identities," said Hong Shang, "I heard a man sigh heavily and say, 'I didn't expect Xing Wanteng's knife will one day be used against innocent women and babies. However, we have already sacrificed the lives of so many brothers, and we cannot wipe out the whole army.' So, at least one of these people is called Xing Wanteng, maybe You'll have a chance to find him later."

In the following years, this sentence was like a knife carving, firmly imprinted in Shen Zhuang's mind.He believed that one day he would find this person named "Xing Wanteng" to avenge his wife and children.This is the only meaning of his life.

Three, rainy night terror

November 20 of Shengde.At the northern foot of Beimang Mountain, Kuyun Peak.

Yu Zetai had fled in Beiman Mountain for nearly ten days.He ate up all the dry food, and even if he occasionally caught one or two prey, he didn't dare to start a fire to roast—the smoke from the fire might expose him to the target.And once he is captured, it means death, because it is a group of rivers from Beiman Mountain who are chasing and killing him.

Now he only felt extremely regretful, and every day he spent fleeing, this regret deepened a bit.As a bandit, he should never have robbed the two rivers, let alone killed them.Now he understands that killing Heluo is equivalent to stabbing a hornet's nest. They seem to chase him to the ends of the earth and they must arrest him for Fa-rectification.

In the evening, it started to rain, and it was getting heavier and heavier.Yu Zetai felt a burst of despair, not only because the mountain road became more slippery and difficult to walk in the rain, not only because the November rain was so cold on his body, but also because the rain would leave muddy footprints on him and make the river They are easier to track.

Instead of doing this, it's better to turn around and fight them, Yu Zetai thought viciously.But suddenly, he noticed a cliff ahead, and a brilliant idea came up.

Not long after, Yu Zetai had already hid under the cliff, and after hearing the Heluo people chattering in Heluo language that he could not understand for a while, he turned and walked back.He was very happy that his plan had succeeded, and with a few footprints he had fooled those stupid rivers into thinking that he had stumbled and fallen off the cliff.

(End of this chapter)