I was shocked and said in a daze, "Is it the person who appeared in the Forensic Center of the Police Station who disappeared out of thin air after one night?"

The old man nodded silently, "Old Lin told me that it would be better for us to not have any interaction with her when we enter the village this time, as she is also someone we can't afford to offend."

I frowned and didn't say anything anymore. Although Mr. Lin did not enter the village with us, he still explained us. At least he still wanted to help us, but why didn't he want to come in?

Just as I was thinking, the old man and I had already reached the place where we were having funerals.

Because I grew up in the countryside and have seen funerals and customs, I went directly to the convenience store next to buy a bunch of firecrackers. Although it is different from the trend, it is still a more traditional way after all, and it is always not surprising that there are so many people.

The old man and I stood there without moving, but someone had already come up to him. He was an elderly man. He looked at me and the old man carefully and said in dialect, "What are you two?"

The old man smiled and said, "Old man, we came here to find someone. We happened to meet Mr. Qiao's death, so we came to take a look. If there is any trouble, please forgive me."

The old man looked kind, and after hearing what we said, "You are welcome, come in, please come in."

I looked at the old man hesitantly and asked with my eyes if it was inappropriate.

However, the old man was simple and rough. After nodding and thanking, he walked in neatly. I had to smile embarrassedly and delete it. Then I remembered that the old man's profession was a beggar. Isn't this kind of free food just a familiar way to go!

It happened to be lunchtime, and the old man and I found a seat and sat down to prepare for dinner. I sat a little restrainedly and looked at the old man. He started chatting with the people around him very casually.

I had no choice but to sit alone and look at the place by the way. What is similar to the customs of my hometown is that when the funeral is held, the people in the village will gather together to eat a meal, which is considered to be practiced by the deceased elderly.

It’s just a bit strange that I don’t seem to see any family members associated with Mr. Qiao here. According to custom, anyone with direct or indirect relationship with the deceased elderly will wear mourning clothes. Some families with fewer people will also include relatives from a long distance. However, here, I have not seen a filial son wearing mourning clothes.

But in addition, there are many Taoist people wearing Taoist robes and helping them. What is this? Just as I was thinking, there was already a burst of lively firecrackers outside, and I knew this was the meaning of the opening.

After leaving for most of the morning, I was also a little hungry. I saw that the dishes were served and I was no longer polite and started eating in big mouthfuls. At this time, the old man and the people around me had already started chatting.

"So, this Uncle Qiao is an old man alone?" the old man asked with some confusion.

"Yes, Mr. Qiao lived a hard life. When he was young, his wife passed away and did not leave any children. Later, he participated in the war to resist U.S. aggression and aid Korea, and his ears were deaf. At that time, the conditions were not good and he didn't pay much money, so he never cured it.

After returning to his hometown, he had been farming and maintaining his life by himself, and he never looked for a partner anymore. He passed by more than 20 years quietly. Who knew that just a while ago, after Mr. Qiao came back from planting the land on the mountain, he seemed crazy. He told everyone that there was a demon in the village, or that the demon was about to come out, and no one knew what he was saying.

Later, Uncle Li from the East Suburbs said that he might have been stimulated to become like this. As a result, he died at his home two days ago." A middle-aged uncle said with a sigh.

"Uncle Qiao has always been a kind-hearted person in our village. He smiles whenever he sees him. He will take the initiative to help anyone with difficulties. Who knows why he left like this at once."

The old man took a sip of water and nodded slightly, "Life is not easy. Maybe God has seen him as a lonely man, and he should go to that Pure Land as soon as possible."

The people at the table nodded unconsciously after hearing the old man's words. I also nodded slightly and said, "So this funeral was handled by the villagers, right? Uncle Qiao has no descendants, so there are no filial sons here."

A man with half of his teeth nodded, picked up the cup tremblingly and looked at me, "Yes, this is the only thing we can do for him."

I forced a smile and didn't say anything else. I just felt that this kind of simple feeling between the countryside was particularly heartwarming. Perhaps those who did good deeds would be rewarded in the end.

There were not many people eating, but there were also many people. After a big and small mess, the meals were all sorted out, and I also took advantage of the situation to help them. The old man had found the old man Li who had never met before.

I watched them talking there, and when an old man suddenly grabbed the corner of my clothes and said with a smile, "Young man, lend you a lighter, I'm not good at it."

Although he spoke in dialect, I still understood. I quickly took out the lighter from my pocket and simply helped the old man light it up. The old man still smiled and looked at my casual question and answer, "Did the young man come from other places?"

I smiled and nodded, "Yeah, yes."

The old man nodded slightly, then sat on the chair and looked in front of him with a little sadness, "Is there something important to come here?"

I felt a little panicked when I thought about it. Did the old man already see something? But then I thought, I wasn't here to do something bad, why should I feel guilty? I calmed down and nodded slightly, "Yes."

"Have you found the person you are looking for?" Suddenly the old man turned his head and looked at me and said, with an indescribable mystery and coldness in his smile. I shook my head blankly, and my scalp became numb inexplicably.

The old man looked at me and smiled, and did not say anything else, but turned his head and stopped talking.

It took a long time before I slowly came to my senses. The old man's words and expression just now suddenly shocked me, but his expression undoubtedly explained something. His intuition told me that this old man would better not have too much contact.

Just as he was about to find an excuse, the old man turned around and looked at me, "Do you know what Old Man Qiao said during his lifetime?"

I nodded blankly, "He said the devil is coming."

The old man suddenly said in a deep voice, "Then you appeared," a subtle amplitude rose slightly on the corner of his mouth, "Should I doubt something?"

I stood up with a rubbing finger, my whole body trembling slightly, and looked at the old man with some argument and said, "No! No, I'm not!"

"What's wrong with you?" Suddenly I felt someone patting me behind me. I turned around and pressed the future down. The old man pinched my wrist with his backhand. I felt a little painful before I let go of my hand.

The old man frowned and said, "What's wrong with you?"

Me, what's wrong with me? I also asked myself in a daze, what happened just now? I concentrated slightly, and suddenly I looked at the old man sitting on the chair smoking as if I remembered something, and shouted, "Who are you?"

What's strange is that the old man who was smiling mysteriously at me just now was looking at me with a surprised look, as if he didn't know what I was talking about.

The old man looked at me with deep eyes, took out something from his bag and lit it on the middle of my eyebrows, and suddenly a cool feeling came, and I woke up from my unusual trance state like a sudden enlightenment.

I stared at the old man in a daze, without saying a word for a while, and everyone next to me looked at me with strange eyes. It took a long time to put on a word, "What's wrong with me?"

The old man looked at me with a serious expression and didn't say anything. He just looked at the old man who just asked me to borrow a lighter and said softly, "Sorry, I'm a little nervous recently. Sometimes he has some hallucinations, so please forgive me."

The old man was stunned and waved his hand, "It's okay."

I stared at him blankly, and the expression on his face was completely different from what I had seen before. Could it be that I was really hallucinating?

After the old man apologized, he dragged me away from here and walked a long way before looking at me and said in a deep voice, "What's wrong with you just now?"

I was stunned for a moment, only to feel that my spirit was very divided. While firmly believing in everything I saw ahead, I deny that everything in front of me was hallucination. For a moment, I didn't know what I saw.

"Don't worry, calm down and think slowly!" The old man looked at me with an extremely deep look, "Just tell me what you see, don't think about whether it is true or false."

After leaning against the big tree next to me for a long time, I whispered, "I saw the old man laughing at me and saying that I was the devil that Old Man Qiao mentioned, and then I... Old man, is what I saw true?"

The old man looked at me for a while and didn't move, then he shook his head silently, "The old man just borrowed your lighter and asked if you were from another place. Then you were like a different person, with a nervous look on his face and said something strange. The old man couldn't wake you up, and you didn't come back to your senses until I came over and grabbed you."

I hugged my head and swallowed with difficulty, "Did I have hallucinations again?"

The old man looked at me without saying anything, just nodded.

I squatted on the ground, smiling with tears in my eyes, "Why did I become like this? Why are everything I see hallucinations? Old man, am I dead long ago? Is it also an hallucination for me to be alive?"

The old man looked at me with a deep face and said with a serious expression, "You are not dead, you are still alive! This is a trap set by others, first breaking your spirit, and then leaving you without any ability to resist. So you must not doubt whether you are dead!"

I stood there in a daze and stood up slowly after a long time.
Chapter completed!