The deceased must have been very old, but his mouth was full of strong teeth. What Cao Shi showed me was an incisor of the corpse.

Because I had been informed by Cao Shi in advance, I could see quite clearly that half of the left front tooth of the corpse was missing.

This may seem like an inconspicuous detail, but it has a completely different meaning to us. Cao Shi opened the rigor mortis' thigh again and pointed to me a triangular black birthmark on it. The chill in my body became even worse.

Although the sun is shining brightly, it feels like entering an ice cellar.

The reason why Cao Shi and I were so concerned about the corpse's front teeth and the black birthmark on the inner thigh was because Cao Shuang also had these characteristics.

When I was in the basement, the light was not very good, and I didn't want to stare at the corpse too carefully, so I ignored the facial features of the corpse. But now that I have looked at the front teeth and birthmarks, I can take a closer look at the corpse's face.

, is simply Cao Shuang decades later.

I don't know if this is a fact or my own psychological hallucination. Everyone else was stunned. A few people stood motionless by the pit as if they were hysterical. Cao Shi turned over and crawled out of the pit, patted the dust on his hands, and took out another

I lit a cigarette and smoked silently.

No, no, no, I slapped myself, feeling that my thoughts were ridiculous. From that night to now, dozens of hours have passed. Unless Cao Shuang entered the time tunnel, it would be impossible for him to become like this.

.

But how do you explain the front teeth and birthmarks on the corpse? I absolutely don’t believe there are such coincidences in the world.

"Call a car, bring ice, and take the body back." Cao Shi put out his cigarette butt, stood up and walked, saying, "We need to take a closer look at the basement."

I quickly followed Cao Shi, and he slowed down, turned to me and said, "Do you believe this?"

"This...I really don't believe it, but if these are not twins, isn't it a bit too coincidental?"

That's what I thought. We originally wandered back and forth in the mountains to find a person who was missing half of his front teeth and had a black triangular birthmark on his inner thigh, and a corpse matching the above characteristics happened to appear in the basement of the abandoned stone factory.

Apart from the huge age difference between the two, there is really no other evidence to prove that the body is not that of Cao Shuang.

I keep asking myself: Is this possible? Is this possible?

"This corpse can no longer be considered normal." Cao Shi's tone was a little sad: "Unless a person of that age is a god, it is impossible for him to have such a complete set of real teeth."

I nodded, and Cao Shi continued: "Take the body back for a blood test. If it is type AB, then... we can only assume that he is a Gemini."

"But Lao Cao, it still doesn't make sense to think of him as a twin. He is obviously an old man..."

"You can find the reason slowly." Cao Shi said word for word: "I'm not old yet, I have plenty of time."

This incident gave me an inexplicable and deep psychological shadow. Especially when I entered the basement again, I felt that the blood in my body had almost solidified.

All the flashlights were used for lighting, and soon we found two very blurry small dark red characters where the body had just been lying prone.

I feel like these two words were written with fingers dipped in blood. Although they are very blurry, if you look carefully you can tell that they are the two words "box".

box?

If these two words were really left by the deceased before his death, they would be of some research value. However, it is impossible to get any clues from these two simple words for a while, and we can only talk about it later when we go back.

The entire basement was relatively crudely built. The floor was paved with adobe bricks. There was no adhesive between the bricks. A piece of it could be pulled out with just a little force. These two small words happened to be written on a brick. Cao Shi put the bricks on

Pry it out and prepare to take it away together.

While waiting for the car and the ice, I pulled Cao Shi to a secluded place and asked, "Old Cao, can you tell me? About those bronze medals?"

Cao Shi was in a very depressed mood. He kept smoking and seemed to be considering whether he should answer my question. After a while, he raised his head and looked at me and said, "This matter is a bit deep."

I thought he was willing to tell the truth, so I quickly moved closer to him, waiting expectantly for the answer.

"But this is just my feeling." Cao Shi sighed slightly: "You know, Master Ba has always trusted me. In the past, he always told me the ins and outs of things he did. But this time, what happened?

We haven’t said anything yet. If Master Ba doesn’t want to say anything, we can’t guess it. Master Tian, ​​anyone in this field should understand that knowing too much is not a good thing.”

I heard that what Cao Shi said was to advise me not to ask too many questions about things I shouldn't know, but I always felt a little unwilling to do so. I picked up stones and threw them around in anger. Cao Shi stood up and patted me on the shoulder and said: "

It's not that I don't want to tell you, it's true that I don't know much. You should have asked about the Fatai Temple incident. As for the Xixia bronze medal, Master Ba only told him to bring it back. He didn't say what it was used for.

"

"Who are we dealing with?"

Cao Shi shook his head: "To be honest, Ba Ye's behavior this time was very abnormal. Those people seemed to know Ba Ye's background very well. Not only did they know that he had just sent people to Fatai Temple, they also knew that he had three Xixia bronze medals in his hand. The other party

The conditions put forward at that time were that they could not inquire about their origins, and they had to exchange one for three."

"It's about replacing the rubbings."

"Well, it's a rubbing. Master Ba has always been very stable in his work. If he had been normal, he would have scolded these people. But he was very interested in the Xixia bronze medal from Fatai Temple and agreed without much thought. The other party

Seeing that Master Ba agreed readily, he said that they would only take five people to Wonsan to trade with us. At that time, I thought that Wansan was our territory and there were few people on the other side, so there should be no mistakes. Master Ba was used to being careful, except

In addition to the people I brought, I also sent a dozen people to lurk behind. I just thought this arrangement was very safe, so I agreed to let you go and have a look."

"Old Cao, if the purpose of the transaction is to make rubbings, it means they only care about the rubbings. The bronze medal itself has no value, right?"

"It's best not to ask about this matter anymore." Cao Shi probably didn't want to continue the discussion with me, so he changed the subject and said, "No one would have imagined that such a situation would happen in the stone quarry. Regardless of whether the corpses were twins or not, the bronzes and

I haven't found any rubbings, so I can't explain it to Master Ba."

At this point, I knew that I would never be able to ask any more questions, so I had no choice but to follow Cao Shi and wait for the bus. After the bus arrived, Cao Shi and I took the body back to Jiangbei first, while the others continued to search in Yuanshan.

I was very uneasy, not because I was afraid of being scolded when I went back, but because I was afraid that the old man would get angry. After all, he was also an elderly man. If something happened to him when he was angry, I would feel even worse. Cao Shi and

I discussed it and said that I would go for a blood test first and then tell the old man about it after confirming the results.

After the blood samples were sent away, Cao Shi and I ordered some food and drinks at a nearby restaurant. Neither of us was in the mood, and the wine was very boring.

The blood test report was delivered directly to Cao Shi. When he took it and took a look, he trembled and handed it to me without saying a word. Damn it, it turned out to be type AB!

"Now I can tell Master Ba."

...

The old man sat next to the body without saying anything for at least ten minutes. Cao Shi and I stood there and didn't dare to move. I thought the old man would be so angry that he would punch a hole in the house, but his behavior made me feel very uncomfortable. Cao Shi

He always lowered his head, so I had no choice but to lean over and say, "Dad, you..."

The old man slowly looked back at me, his eyes completely changed.

Ever since I was little, the old man's eyes in my mind have always been strong and confident, with a vague awe-inspiring aura, but at this moment, his eyes showed the desolation and sadness of sunset.

"I'm old." The old man gently tapped his crutch on the ground: "If he were ten or twenty years younger, how could someone named Wei be bullied like this!"

"Eighth Master." Cao Shi finally raised his head: "I did not handle this well..."

The old man didn't respond to Cao Shi's words. He almost collapsed in his wheelchair and muttered to himself: "Wei Ba! You are old!"

The ninth-level gate of the Wei family is home to the Eighth Master. But no matter how glorious a person is, they cannot withstand the hardships of time. When I looked at the old man, I almost felt like crying.

"Push me back."

I quickly calmed down and pushed the wheelchair back to the study. When I passed by Cao Shi, the old man motioned for me to stop. He patted Cao Shi's arm and said, "Take the money and send it to the twins' house. Then go to Phoenix Mountain."

Go buy the best cemetery and bury the person, whether he is a twin or not."

The old man refused to say a word or eat all night. It was the first time in more than 20 years that I personally served him a meal. My lips were almost dry, so he reluctantly drank a bowl of porridge. After I finished washing him,

It was already twelve o'clock when I got there, and I was so exhausted that I almost vomited blood.

It’s really hard to be a filial son.

After two days and two nights of tossing, my nervous system was forced into an abnormally excited state. Even though my body was exhausted, I just couldn't fall asleep. This strange thing was all over my mind.

Front teeth, birthmarks, blood type...

It can be said that several of Cao Shuang's most striking features appeared on the corpse in the basement. I can't tell whether I believe that this extremely old man is Cao Shuang.

If he is not, then where is the real Cao Shuang?

What's particularly important is that the tip of the index finger of the corpse's right hand is damaged, and the writing on the brick must be related to him. Is it a hint or a warning when a person leaves these two words when he is about to die?

These questions were too complicated. Not only me, but even the old man couldn't figure them out, so I suppressed my curiosity very rationally.

After the incident at Fatai Temple and the transaction, the old man obviously changed. His energy suddenly became much depressed. He stayed in the house every day and refused to go out. When he spoke, he completely lost the strong charlatanism of the past. He almost looked like a retired man.

Just like any ordinary old man who comes home. I don't know if he secretly traced the matter of Gloomy Face and the corpse, but he didn't care much about normal business, which kept Cao Shi and I very busy.

I always thought that everything would come to an end here, but on the contrary, Fatai Temple and Wonsan were just the prologue, and what happened next completely plunged me into a deep darkness.

The old man stayed at home quietly for several months. At the beginning of May of the next year, he suddenly had the idea of ​​going out for fun. I, a dutiful son, had to follow him, but the old man didn't let me go and told me in private.

He is old and lacks energy, so he has to gradually leave his business affairs to me, so I have to practice more with Cao Shi in the past two years.

The old man went out for about twenty days. According to the people accompanying him, he went to Qingdao first, then Beidaihe, and finally stayed in Beijing for a few days. Unexpectedly, the effect of this trip was quite good, and the old man was in high spirits after coming back.

I have improved a lot, and my diet, daily life, and speech and behavior have gradually returned to normal. I have been busy with Cao Shi from October last year until now, and I am exhausted both physically and mentally. Seeing the old man’s radiant face, I told Cao Shi with envy that even if I work hard for a few days

Even if he was beaten up by the old man, he still had to go to Guilin to play, so as not to die young and be tired from working every day.

However, my wish for the trip to Guilin still failed to come true. On the third day after I came back, the old man called me over and asked me casually about business matters and my experience during this period. Suddenly the conversation changed and a look on his face

His expression also became mysterious: "Little bastard, we have something big to do."

What the old man said really made me feel a little flattered, because I have been busy playing for so many years and rarely do serious work. He is not confident about me, and almost all the bigger business is sent to others.

The meaning of the old man's words now is obviously different from the past.

"Dad, what's the big deal?"

The old man did not answer my question directly. He gently stroked the thinning hair on his head, picked up the tea cup and said, "This bowl of rice is getting worse and worse. People in this industry are not clean, but no matter what,
To be continued...