Chapter 254 Resurrection from the Dead?
After the boatman traveled on the water for a while, several people arrived at the door of Tongten Pavilion. What appeared in front of them was a deep and narrow path that led straight into the depths of darkness.
"The two guests are here. For the rest, you can walk along the path and Tongtenkaku Tower will be right in front of you."
"Thanks."
Haruyo took out two pieces of candy from the brown paper bag and threw them to the boatman.
The boatman was not polite, took it with one hand and stuffed it into his mouth, making a dull chewing sound and a clicking sound.
After swallowing with satisfaction, the boatman said vaguely: "Well, good candy, thanks."
This sound was both a thank you and an urging. Chun Dai and Yin Xiu came ashore.
As soon as he reached the shore, Haruyo took out a piece of fluorite from his pocket, which emitted blue light and illuminated the surrounding ground.
Yin Xiu gave him a strange look, "You just put this thing on your body?"
Haruyo wondered: "If I don't put it on my body, where should I put it? Is there any problem?"
"No, it's just that I heard that touching these glowing things too much is bad for your health."
"It's okay. Didn't you see that I'm wearing gloves? As long as you don't lick it, nothing will happen."
"It's better that way."
Yin Xiu nodded and followed Chun Dai towards the gloomy path.
The passage was very narrow, so the two of them could only walk one behind the other, with Chun Dai in front and Yin Xiu in the back, following his footsteps as they walked deeper step by step, still as silent as before.
After a while, they reached the end of the passage.
It was a huge spherical cave, and the rock walls were covered with traces of limestone, which looked a bit white up close.
In the darkness, there are some bright lights, dotted with stars, like a starry sky.
Surrounding these bright lights are spherical rooms, which are so dark that people can't see clearly. The entire cave looks like a huge honeycomb.
Haruyo put his fingers on his lips, signaling Yin Xiu to stop talking, and then the two of them stood there, motionless.
After a while, a head finally poked out of the hole on their right.
He was a skinny old man with red ribbons around his eyes, looking like he was suffering from some disease.
The old man twitched his nose and muttered: "Oh, the unique fishy smell on the ground, trouble is coming."
After muttering, he turned to the two of them and took off the silk ribbon. The old man's eyes couldn't be said to be bright, but they didn't look dull or numb either.
He seemed a little uncomfortable with the "brightness" that he had just taken off his blindfold. After blinking hard, he said, "What are you doing, two distinguished guests?"
Haruyo laughed, "I don't dare to say "noble" when I come here. We can only be regarded as passers-by. We are here to inquire about the news."
The old man nodded and said, neither salty nor coolly: "There is an etiquette for asking for directions, and there are also rules for inquiring."
Haruyo replied: "I know, don't worry, I don't ask about the people underground, and I don't ask about the immortals on the earth either."
The old man folded his hands together with satisfaction and said, "As long as you understand the rules, tell me, what do you want to find out?"
"Smith, the Lonely Hearts Club. I want all the news about them."
The old man scratched his head, pulled a metal pipe from the side, covered the pipe with his hand, and repeated the two words mentioned by Haruyo as if whispering.
Immediately afterwards, the two names were repeated in a low voice like echoes in the countless honeycomb-like holes throughout the dark and deep cave.
After a while, the metal pipe next to the old man seemed to have crawled into the metal pipe, as if a beetle had crawled into it. Tiny crackling sounds continued to come from inside, as if a bug was about to crawl out from the inside and along the wall of the pipe.
While the old man was listening, Haruyo leaned over and whispered to Yin Xiu.
“People from other caves are reporting here and gathering information.
These people are called listening in the world of eternity. They do nothing else all day long but sit here, blindfolded, with their ears pressed to their ears, listening to all the secrets in the world. "
Yin Xiu asked doubtfully: "Just use such a pipe?"
Haruyo glanced at him, "That's not just a pipe. Do you know where this pipe is connected? The sewer network of Hong Kong Island, the drainage pipes of every toilet and bathroom. In these places, all kinds of secrets and activities are carried out. No obstacles!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the old man let go of the tube and looked towards them.
"There's news, Smith and the Lonely Hearts Club, right? This is obviously more popular among foreigners.
As for my colleagues, most of their foreign language is written with two knives, so I can’t understand clearly what the birdsong is course, if their foreign language skills were good enough, they might go to work in Central instead of hiding underground.
Anyway, I just asked around, and a colleague said that in the past month, the place where he heard these two names appearing most often was from a water pipe in Central. To be more specific, it should be a commercial building in Central. inside. "
As he spoke, the old man stretched out his finger, wrote something on the ground, and then gave an address.
Yin Xiu took a closer look and said, "Fifth floor of Yuntian Commercial Building."
Yin Xiu recited the name silently in her heart without saying it aloud.
Infinite rules, unspoken among the three of them.
After knowing that Yin Xiu had finished reading, Chun Dai stepped on the place name and wiped it hard. The dust quickly covered the place and everything returned to normal.
After a pause, Haruyo suddenly said: "Second question, is there anyone who has been chanting the name of the little brother next to me recently?"
Yin Xiu couldn't help but sigh in her heart, this private detective is really not a bad guy, he even thought of this level.
The old man was very calm, stretched out his hand, and made a gesture of invitation to Yin Xiu.
So Yin Xiu squatted down like him and wrote her name on the ground with her fingers.
"understood."
After seeing it clearly, the old man wiped it casually, and the ground was "smooth and clean as new" without leaving any traces.
Immediately, Yin Xiu's name was passed from person to person in Tongtian Pavilion, and was recited repeatedly, finely, like insects chewing on leaves.
Looking at this strange and mysterious scene, Yin Xiu finally understood why sometimes just one sentence can be the most expensive thing in the world.
After a while, the metal pipe next to the old man rang again. This time it seemed like a catfish was squeezing inside, and the sticky mucus covered the pipe wall and penetrated.
The old man put his ear to the pipe, listened for a while, and then wrote several place names on the ground.
"West Kowloon Police Station, Luigi Machinery Factory, Guangmingli Public Toilet, Hao Kung Fu Restaurant, and the fifth floor of Yuntian Commercial Building." After he read these place names, Yin Xiu and Chun Dai suddenly realized that everything seemed to be connected together. , that makes sense.
Needless to say, the Luigi Machinery Factory and the Guangmingli public toilets. Yin Xiu was a famous figure in both places.
It is normal for people to discuss or make up some anecdotes about his romance while going to the bathroom. They will shudder and then forget about it.
If someone really planned to target him, they wouldn't have started discussing it until they were near his hometown. Wasn't this just waiting for the news to leak?
"Good Kung Fu Restaurant, West Kowloon Police Station, Skylight Commercial Building, one in Jordan, one in Kowloon, and one in Central...
These three locations are far apart and have completely different purposes. If I guess correctly, this may be a drama in which upper-class people collude with the top brass of the police force and recruit a group of dwarf mules to deal with you. "
After telling his inference, Haruyo scratched his head, looking very confused.
"With so many people working together to deal with you, how much are you hated by them?"
Yin Xiu grinned, "Is it possible that that bastard is too fierce and can crush me to death with just a move of his fingers?"
Haruyo shrank his neck, "Then I have to stay away from you. Don't accept your little money and end up losing my life."
Yin Xiu patted him on the shoulder, "Hey, die early and die later. Why is death not death? The important thing is that death is meaningful."
Haruyo rolled his eyes at him, "Meaning, what is the meaning?"
Yin Xiu did not intend to discuss these mysterious matters with Chun Dai, but continued: "Then according to your reasoning, detective, if we go to Yuntian Building now, everything will be clear?"
Haruyo pursed his lips, "Why, are you afraid that if you say one more thing I'll charge you for it? And I told you the conclusion I wanted to say first."
"Hey, how dare I? I only know how to fight and know nothing else. I'm just waiting for Brother Chun to save my life."
No matter what the two of them said, the old man just stretched out his hand to Haruyo and said, "You should have finished asking the questions, right? If you can, please pay next."
"of course can."
Haruyo rummaged through the brown paper bag, took out a brick-sized piece of butter, and handed it over.
The old man took the butter, weighed it in his hand a few times, put it under his nose and smelled it, then nodded with satisfaction.
"Very good, pure Blue Mountain butter. If you use this piece to spread on bread, you can eat it for a month."
Haruyo smiled and said: "Don't eat so much when you are older. Too high cholesterol is not good for your health. It is easy to get rheumatism."
"Rheumatism? You're telling us about rheumatism in a cave? Pick! He won't live to that age."
The old man wasn't angry either, he just smiled happily.
"I think I got along quite well with you, so I might as well send you some information."
As he spoke, he called the two of them to come closer and planned to tell it orally. Obviously, this information was not very valuable, so he was not afraid of others knowing it.
"The former Deputy Commissioner of Police, also named Smith, was mauled to death by a short mule on the road ten years ago.
At that time, it was the headline of major newspapers, causing a huge storm in the world. The entire Hong Kong and Kowloon were in a sensation. The policemen were looking for the short mule like crazy, but they couldn't find him and told him to run away.
But I heard that someone recently bumped into the Deputy Commissioner of Police, still named Smith. His appearance has not changed, he is exactly the same as the one ten years ago.
So some people suspected that they had seen a ghost and ran to see a psychiatrist. As a result, the clinic caught fire that night, and the doctor and the person died together. "
[The short mule the old man talks about is probably Tai Zi Sheng, and the Smith he talks about is the senior patrol officer who was beaten to death by Hong Sheng ten years ago? 】
Being killed and then reincarnated as a vampire, or faking death, all seemed very reasonable.
"Thanks, this information is very useful to us."
Yin Xiu took out another bottle of liquor from the brown paper bag and handed it to the old man.
The old man was flattered this time and raised his hand to refuse for a few times before accepting.
"You can't accept money for this kind of information that has been spread all over the place. If I accept this bottle of wine, it seems like I have broken the rules."
Yin Xiu shook his head, "It doesn't matter. It's better to drink together than to drink alone."
In this way, the old man put the wine down with peace of mind, with a smile on his face.
After leaving Tongten Pavilion, Haruyo was not in a hurry to return to the ground. Instead, he took Yin Xiu and found a way out from the right side of Tongten Pavilion.
After walking for about two hours, they came to another cave. There was a rusty iron door there, blocking the cave tightly.
"This is the [Library]." Haruyo introduced.
Seeing some confusion on Yin Xiu's face, Chun Dai continued: "People on the ground often throw things into the sewers, including clothes, shoes, raincoats, lottery tickets, newspapers and letters. Some things are waste, while others are of great use.
Like newspapers and magazines, people in Wujian rely on them to understand the situation on earth.
After reading one thing and looking at that thing, some people even looked through them until they rotted. They could be regarded as family heirlooms. Therefore, some hermits were reluctant to throw them away, so they classified them into categories and stored them here. Over time, this place became an endless library. .
Let’s not rush to the ground now. Aren’t you also very interested in that Smith thing?Maybe we can find something here. "
Saying that, Haruyo walked to the iron door and gently knocked on the door a few times.
Soon, a small hole opened in the iron door, and some light emitted.
Haruyo took out a packet of salt from the brown paper bag and handed it in through the mouth.
After a small sound was heard inside, the iron door came loose, revealing a gap big enough for one person to pass through.
After Yin Xiu followed Chunshi into it, he discovered that it was a larger cave than Tongten Pavilion, and it was actually very dry. Not even a trace of moss grew, and the ground was covered with fine sand.
The newspapers and magazines mentioned in the Spring Dynasty were placed on wooden shelves with different specifications, and were arranged in categories according to year and degree of attention.
"A hermit said that as long as it is dried first and the newspaper is placed here, it will not be a problem to preserve it for 100 years. If it is that kind of scroll, it can last longer."
"Does such a thing exist here? Those things have been preserved for hundreds of years." Yin Xiu asked.
"Are you kidding me? Wujian doesn't have such a long history, and it certainly won't exist for that long. Maybe one day a hermit digs in the wrong place and the whole ground collapses."
When talking about this matter, Haruyo didn't feel unfounded and nervous, but seemed very leisurely.
After walking through the shelves for a while, he had brought several newspapers and laid them out in front of Yin Xiu.
"Well, after reading this, we will go to Yuntian Building."
(End of this chapter)
