At this time, it was almost nighttime. "It's not people." The old man said. This made Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang unconsciously feel a cool breeze behind them.
Xu Bao swallowed his saliva and then said to his uncle, "What is it then if not human?"
"Well... It was a long time ago." The old man sighed and sat down in a rattan chair. Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang also moved a stool to sit down as they listened to the old man.
"How to explain... It was about 50 or 60 years ago." The old man sat in his chair and began to recall his memories.
"Has it been that long?" Zhan Zhao was surprised. "Wasn't it just liberated then?"
"Yep." The old man nodded. "The situation was not very good. At that time, we were also afraid, so everyone organized a military group."
Both Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao nodded. Although that time was so long ago, their parents and grandparents were from that era, so they had heard a lot of things.
"Although the military group was organized, we were not very good with our weapons. We all had guns though. At that time, I wanted to fight against the US aggression and aid Korea. When I drove to the bank of the Yalu River, the war was won. When I came back, I was regarded as a veteran who took part in several battles. There were not many people like me in the village, so I became captain of the military group." Probably because the memory of that period was too deep, his train of thought was very clear despite his old age.
"At that time, there was nothing to eat, and there were some wild animals on the mountains. We all went hunting, but there was nothing big on the southern side. They were all wild chickens and hares. I occasionally met one or two jackals, but they were scared away when they saw people... Everything was going okay. I remember... It happened in the early spring of one year."
Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were silent, as they quietly waited for the old man to continue.
"It was very cold that spring. In the early spring, many animals in the mountains froze to death, and people went up the mountains to shoot a lot of rabbits or other small animals, as they had nothing to eat. Suddenly, a large number of birds and wild dogs came down from somewhere." When the old man saw Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang's eyes wide open, he smiled helplessly and said, "you may not be able to imagine it at this moment. At that time, we were very happy."
"Happy?" Bai Yutang seemed to be a little confused.
"Haha." The old man was happy, as he looked at the pistol in Bai Yutang's holster, and said, "All men wanted to use a gun if they had one... You guys use pistols nowadays, but at that time, we used semi-automatic submachine guns. Shooting rabbits with shotguns all day was not something men should do. Think about it, every time we eat a rabbit, we will get over 100 bullets."
Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao looked at each other. They could not help but smile. They remembered that Bai Yunwen and the others also liked to hunt when they were young. Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao even followed along when they were younger, and the rabbits they ate also had shrapnel in them. It nearly made them lose their teeth.
"The military group seized the opportunities to sweep the wolves." The old man sighed and said, "we had a good time back then. After we had killed all the wolves, we went into the mountains to search... However, we didn't expect to find two people."
"People?" Both Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were surprised and asked, "you mean the people who lived in the mountains?"
"Ah." The old man nodded and said, "It was two men. We don't know how they got up there. They were pretty much dressed in bark. At first, we thought they were foreigners who stayed behind and didn't run away. However, their age didn't seem like it. Later, we found out that they were brothers and their parents both died, and somehow they ended up in the mountains."
Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang nodded, but still found something strange. Zhan Zhao asked the old man, "how long have they lived in the mountains for? There are so many jackals on the mountain, how can people live there?"
"Ah..." The old man shook his head and said, "if we had thought of this and asked more questions, what happened later would not have happened."
Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang frowned and realized that something terrible had happened afterwards.
"At that time, people were all a bit stupid." The old man sighed and said, "seeing that these two brothers had been wandering around for a while and had suffered so much, many people gave them food and water. At that time, many old mothers in the village had no sons, so they stayed and raised the two men like their own son."
"What happened next?" Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang wondered whether the brothers had done something to the villagers due to their unknown origin.
"Ah..." The old man laughed dryly twice and said, "those two were not people at all!"
Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other. They found this a bit creepy.
Xu Bao also asked, "Uncle, what were they then? Monsters?"
"The two of them were cannibals!" The old man said in a hoarse voice. "At that time, the village kept losing people... And most of them were children and elderlies. We thought there were wolves on the mountain, but later we realised something was wrong. The old man who took in the two brothers hadn't come out for days!"
Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other, then asked, "they were eaten by the two men?"
The old man sighed and said, "We suspected it at that time. During the few nights afterwards, we laid an ambush on the road with guns, right next to the haystack."
Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked back at the haystack and listened to the old man continue. "Those two brothers actually came out. They wandered on the road in the middle of the night. One of our brave men went out as bait and was bitten by them. Then we all rushed out and beat them to death."
Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang asked at the same time, "did you investigate later? Did the brothers kill everyone?"
"Yep." The old man nodded and said, "when we got to their house, there were all kinds of messy things, cross-shaped shelves carved into wood, and some strange things we didn't know. There were also several bodies."
Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked at each other and asked, "what happened to them?"
The old man shook his head and said, "we burned them."
"Burned them?" Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang both thought it was a pity. Otherwise, they could have investigated the origins of those two brothers. It seemed that they were not as simple as ordinary lunatics. After all, the behaviour of a madman would not be so organized. Also, the crosses mentioned by the old man had some similarities with the vampire killer, so it was likely to be an important clue.
"Yeah." Xu Bao also said, "Uncle, why didn't you keep everything at that time? Or call the police to deal with it?"
"Call the police?" The old man smiled and said, "I am the military. Why call the police?"
Everyone looked at each other and thought what the old man said made sense.
"At that time, we just did our best to defeat anything that was evil. We didn't dare to talk about it with anyone else."
Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang nodded, feeling that the old man had a point. Then, they asked, "so later you guys buried the brothers?"
"Mmhmm." The old man nodded and said, "they were buried in the haystack. After that, the village was calm again, and nothing else happened."
"Except for Zhang Miaomiao?" Zhan Zhao asked.
When the old man heard Zhang Miaomiao, he frowned deeply and said, "that girl... Ah, I told Ah Tian many times that the woman was evil, but he didn't listen. Now look, he lost his life in vain."
"Why do you not like Zhang Miaomiao?" Bai Yutang asked curiously.
The old man was silent for a moment and then said, "I saw that woman wearing a cross necklace!"
Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were stunned. They opened their eyes wide and asked, "is it the same thing left behind by the two brothers you burned?"
"Yes." The old man nodded. Zhan Zhao took out the notebook and pen he had with him and asked the old man, "Would you be able to roughly draw it for us?"
"Draw?" The old man trembled as he took the pen and said, "I can't draw..."
"It's okay, we just need some sort of shape." Zhan Zhao said.
"Oh." The old man squinted his eyes, gently took the pen and drew on the notebook. Then, he handed it back to Zhan Zhao and said, "it's something like this, a cross, and a snake wrapped around it."
"Huh?" Xu Bao looked at it in surprise and said, "Why does it look familiar?"
"Have you seen it somewhere before?" Zhan Zhao looked up at Xu Bao.
Xu Bao touched his head, but he didn't seem to remember. The old man shook his head and said, "impossible... At that time, only a few of us saw it, and in order not to let the others know, it was all set on fire. All the people who had joined the military group with me died. I am the only one left. "
"Hmm... Maybe I'm wrong." Xu Bao said as he touched his head.
Zhan Zhao looked at the notebook, frowned and asked the old man, "do you think Zhang Miaomiao has the same thing? Maybe she is somehow connected to the two brothers?"
The old man sighed. "When we recall what happened at that time, we were really scared. When we knew that Zhang Miaomiao had been bitten, we were even more afraid. No matter what, we had to drive her away. Otherwise, if more monsters appear now, we won't have any weapon to take care of them!"
Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang nodded. The old man only remembered parts of the necklace. Zhan Zhao stared at the two graves for a long time and said, "Xiao Bai, should we dig up the bodies?"
Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao. "You mean, take them back to Gong Sun for an autopsy?"
"Yep." Zhan Zhao nodded. "Although there are only bones left, there may still be clues."
"I'll call some people to come and dig." Bai Yutang called the forensics department and got them to bring someone to dig up the two graves. "Gong Sun is going to be ecstatic," Bai Yutang said with a smile.
Zhan Zhao laughed. At this time, he heard someone running over from a distance and shouting, "Captain, Dr. Zhan!"
Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang looked back and saw Ma Han and Luo Tian running back. Luo Tian was holding a box wrapped in newspaper. It was unknown what was in the box.
"How did it go?" Zhan Zhao glanced curiously at the box.
Luo Tian saw an old man behind them and said, "We're done, Captain. Jiang Ping just said that there was something remarkable in the chip sent to us by Zhao Jue, so let's hurry back."
"Really?" Zhan Zhao was surprised.
Bai Yutang naturally knew that there was nothing in the world that could arouse Zhan Zhao's interest more than the words Zhao Jue, so he said, "Let's go back and see." With that, everyone said goodbye to Xu Zhong and Xu Bao, then got into the car.
When they arrived at the car, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang found out that Luo Tian and Ma Han had dug open Xu Tian's grave and took out the urn.
When the two of them took out the necklace, they were stunned and immediately thought of the pattern drew by the old man. They also understood why Xu Bao thought the necklace looked familiar when he saw the drawing. It was just that he couldn't remember where he had seen it before.
"Has Jiang Ping found anything yet?" Zhan Zhao asked. "Where does this picture come from?"
"Yep." Ma Han nodded and handed the message sent by Jiang Ping to Zhan Zhao.
"What do you think?" Seeing the doubt on Zhan Zhao's face, Bai Yutang leaned up to ask.
"This pattern is the emblem of a mysterious family in Europe." Zhan Zhao said. "This family declined 100 years ago, and then was wiped out by the churches... Later, their story was written into a novel... This family emblem was the cover of the novel at that time."
"What's the name of the novel?" Bai Yutang asked curiously.
Zhan Zhao looked at the title of the book on the picture and said after along pause, "Monster."