Sludge to the Mountain Ghost

on flat ground.

"What happened?" Xu Rui put the bag behind his back and helped Lin Pai.

"I didn't know that he was drunk and asked me to buy cigarettes. I gave him cigarettes, and he asked me to give him money. When I said I had no money, he cried and wanted to hug me. Look at him, he vomited all over his body. , and poured himself half a bottle of wine, isn't that sick!"

"Okay, okay, don't worry..." Xu Rui pressed Lin Pai's hand that was waving wildly because of excitement, held it in the palm of his hand, and helped him wipe off the dust on his back.

"Lin Pai, what happened!" Grandma Lin Pai trotted over from behind the street with a vegetable basket in her hand.

Lin Pai looked at grandma helplessly, and pointed to the balcony on the second floor.

The old man looked in the direction and saw Lin Kangrong sitting on the balcony, crying bitterly, hugging a railing. He didn't know what was on his body, and a lot of it was wet.

"Lin Kangrong! You are not ashamed!" The old man yelled at him angrily, realized that there were many neighbors joining in the fun, turned around and waved at them, "Don't look, don't look... ..."

"Grandma, I came back to get some things, so I'm leaving first?" Lin Pai asked tentatively.

"You go first, go first, don't make trouble here, I'll go upstairs and clean him up!"

Lin Pai was not very relieved, and stood at the door with Xu Rui for a while, and saw the old man twisting his ears and dragging Lin Kangrong back. After a while, the crying and howling of ghosts and wolves in the house gradually turned into sobs, and his heart was slightly suspended. lay down.

41. Chapter 41

There is a large field on the edge of Heshan Town, and a river runs through it, providing sufficient water for the irrigation of the farmland.

But now, a long cordon has been erected on a certain part of the lower reaches of the river, and several police cars are parked beside them, their horns have stopped, but the roofs of the cars are still flashing red.

The criminal investigation detachment arrived late, and police officer Chen from the police station gave a detailed introduction to the situation at the scene and formally handed over the floating corpse case.

"Have you checked all the missing cases reported recently?" one of the criminal investigation team members asked.

Police officer Chen led them to the scene of the crime, "The time of death is too long. According to the general scope given by the forensic doctor, there have been four cases of disappearances that meet the characteristics recently. The family members have visited them all, and none of them are true."

The detachment leader on the side nodded, and then he put his arms around Police Officer Chen's shoulders to avoid the crowd, and pointed to the reporters outside the cordon, "Old Chen, help me, get rid of those reporters with guys."

Officer Chen sighed silently, "I'm required to do this kind of unlucky job again, okay, then our police station will be withdrawn, and the scene will be handed over to you."

After the conversation, Officer Chen took the little policeman who had just arrived not long ago and walked to the place with the most flashing lights. He greeted several staff responsible for the order of the scene and drove the reporters out together.

"Don't take any pictures, don't take any pictures at all. It is not allowed to disclose too much information during the investigation stage. Please cooperate with our work!"

As they withdrew, they were unwilling to return empty-handed. Several reporters with live broadcast equipment completed the final report during the retreat:

"In the early hours of this morning, someone found a floating corpse by the river on the outskirts of Heshan Town. According to eyewitnesses, the floating corpse was so decomposed that it could not be identified. As of the time of reporting, the family has not yet claimed the floating corpse. The police have not yet provided more details. The reporter of this station will continue to follow up and report the information.”

Lin Pai was lying on the sofa, pressing the remote control in his hand with a fixed frequency, and did not find any interesting TV programs after two rounds.

He pressed a few more times, avoiding nonsensical soap operas, and found a random news program to play, and it happened to stop at the news broadcast by the local station.

Holding a badminton racket in his arms, Xu Rui walked downstairs while removing the cut strings. He spotted Lin Pai who was lying on the sofa, raised his eyes and asked, "Do you still watch TV? I thought you guys Xueba is racing against time to solve the problems."

"Combine work with rest." Lin Pai said lazily.

"Hey, make room for me." Xu Rui walked to the sofa, bent down and patted Lin Pai's knee.

Lin Pai turned over, lay flat instead, and sat up like a sit-up.

Xu Rui focused on the badminton racket. After waiting for a while before Lin Pai put his legs down, he noticed that the place he had vacated was the place where his head was lying on just now, so he hugged the racket to the other end of the sofa and sat down.

As soon as he sat down, Lin Pai lay back and lay on his lap. After Xu Rui took off the thread, he put the empty racket aside, pointed to the news on TV and said, "I'm going to tell you about this. ..."

Lin Pai turned his head and read the news carefully, then stopped smiling and looked at Xu Rui worriedly.

"They called me over in the morning, just to make me recognize this one on TV..."

"What?" Lin Pai sat up in surprise, and then lay back down on Xu Rui's shoulders.

"Listen to me, it's not He Hui, I just want to tell you about this."

Lin Pai secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He took Xu Rui's hand and squeezed it repeatedly, "Actually... no news is good news."

"It's okay, you don't need to comfort me, when she was not missing, it was about the same as now."

Xu Rui took Lin Pai's hand in turn, and put it next to his cheek, feeling his bony fingers, "Where are you? How is Lin Kangrong in the morning?"

"It's nothing, he's just out of his mind, just ignore him." Lin Pai curled his lips as he said.

Xu Rui found the remote control from the crack of the sofa and changed to a sports station that replayed the football game.

But he didn't watch TV himself, but picked up the badminton racket that had just had its string removed, thinking about how to replace it with a new string.

Lin Pai raised his head, asked Xu Rui to take out a new ball of thread from his pocket, and asked, "What are you studying? You don't even look at me."

"Brother Dong asked me to repair the badminton racket for him before the holiday, and I'm only free until today."

"Brother Dong?"

"Just a long-distance runner in the training team." Xu Rui patted Lin Pai's head with one hand, "You get up first, this thing needs to be threaded, I'm afraid it will poke your eyes."

"I do not want."

"Then close your eyes, and I'll call you when I'm done."

"how long?"

"About 10 minutes."

"It's been too long." Lin Pai reached out to grab the racket, but Xu Rui raised it above his head to prevent him from reaching it.

Xu Rui explained, "Just wait for me, I plan to return it to him during training in the afternoon."

"Oh..." Lin Pai withdrew his hand with a desolate expression, just when he saw Xu Rui becoming overwhelmed, he suddenly put his arms around his neck, raised his head and kissed his Adam's apple.

Xu Rui was stunned for a moment, seeing his triumphant smile, felt defeated, and handed the racket and the ball of string to Lin Pai, "Let's play for you, I will tell Brother Dong this afternoon that there is a cat at home. Take a fancy to this broken racket and let him forget about it."

"Don't worry about rackets or people?"

"All!"

"It's almost..."

-

In the twinkling of an eye, the eighteenth day of the twelfth lunar month came, and the flavor of the New Year in Heshan Town gradually became stronger.

The children are on winter vacation, and they can always hear the sound of fighting during the day;

Young people who went out to work and study returned home, and the old people posted the red couplets early. Some families valued traditions, and two red lanterns were hung at the door;

Even the number of people squatting in the streets playing cards suddenly increased.

Lin Kangrong lived at home all the time, and the old man didn't have much energy to take care of the two children, so he turned a blind eye to the fact that Lin Pai couldn't stay at home, and only occasionally asked him to go back to eat.

"Xu Rui—Brother Rui—"

Early in the morning, Zhou Ning's penetrating voice shattered Xu Rui's dream.

Lin Pai had finished washing and changing his clothes, and was about to go for a morning run. As soon as he opened the door, two large boxes of red-packed New Year's goods suddenly burst into view, scaring him back two steps.

"Brother Rui! Happy New Year! The Neighborhood Committee of Heshan Town sends New Year blessings to all residents, wishing everyone good luck and good health in the new year!"

"How about it, isn't it a surprise, Rui..." Zhou Ning finished reading a series of New Year's greetings, and got out from behind the two New Year's goods, only to realize that he had identified the wrong person, "Lin Pai? Why are you here?"

"It's early in the morning, what a loud voice! Looking for a beating!"

Xu Rui ran down from the second floor with his upper body bare and yawned big. He was not surprised by Zhou Ning's appearance, after all, his voice was so distinctive.

"Did I disturb you when I got up? Cough, cough..." Lin Pai turned his head and saw that he was not wearing a shirt, and his eyes unconsciously drifted.

"It's not you..." Xu Rui held Lin Pai's waist and walked in, closed the door behind his back and pointed at Zhou Ning and said sharply, "It's him!"

Zhou Ning's eyes quickly moved between the two of them, and finally fell on Xu Rui's arms around his waist. He sat on the sofa in a daze, looking helpless and confused holding two New Year's goods, "You guys ? Living together? What's the situation?"

"Let's talk about why you are here first!" Xu Rui bent his index finger and knocked on the box containing the New Year's goods.

Lin Pai bumped Xu Rui twice with his elbow, and said in a low voice, "Put on your clothes first..."

Xu Rui nodded obediently, turned around and ran upstairs, and did not forget to hook Lin Pai's waist before leaving.

In a few minutes, he put on a short sleeve and said to Zhou Ning, "Now we can talk."

"Isn't my mother working in the neighborhood committee? These two days, the neighborhood committee has to send blessings door-to-door, and asked me to help deliver a few, so I came here. The car was still parked outside, and it was full of these things."

Xu Rui nodded, stroked his chin thoughtfully, and then said earnestly, "Since you are already sitting here, Brother Rui does have something to tell you..."

"What's the matter? Tell me, Brother Rui, I'm mentally prepared!"

"That's..." Xu Rui deliberately dragged out the sound