00.

It was raining heavily, and the old houses stood on both sides of the stone alley. The last trace of skylight blurred on the window lattice on the second floor. The narrow alley began to sleep from the bottom, and the sound of dense raindrops falling on the stone road was like the vague sleep of the old house.

The woman walked into the old city and began to look back suspiciously at the darker corners of the alley. Several times she seemed to hear whispers, and there always seemed to be groups of living shadows surging in the darkness at the heels of the old house. She felt that someone was there.

Staring at her, maybe those old stone houses are indeed alive and staring at her with sleepy eyes.

She didn't hold an umbrella, and the raindrops wet her clothes. She walked faster and faster in the rainy alley in embarrassment, losing her mind, and gradually seemed to be running for her life.

The alley suddenly came to an end, and a dark river ran across the mouth of the alley. There was no bridge over the river, but there was a path along the river bank. She looked at the two roads to the left and right in shock, not sure where to go, and subconsciously hugged her

She tightened her cold arms. After hesitating for a while, she took a step to the right, then stood shivering, turning her neck stiffly in the direction of the river. There were no waves in the river, and she knew she shouldn't look inside.

The darkness was thicker than the starless and moonless sky, as if a deformed abyss cut across the edge of the ancient town. But the abyss was calling her, and she looked into it.

A wooden window on the second floor overhead creaked open, as if blown open by the wind, or pushed open by an invisible hand. On a locust tree by the river, a crow screamed

He kicked off the treetops, flew straight up to the roof, passed over the gray tiles from six hundred years ago, and flew over the river bank.

The woman was trembling, her back pressed tightly against the stone wall of the old house.

01.

A city two thousand kilometers away is covered with thick snow. A two-story red brick building from the middle of the last century lazily half-collapsed in the center of the modern city. It has little aesthetic value and little historical significance, just like the city.

The demolition team forgot about the work after demolishing half of it, and it was left carelessly in the city center.

People pass by it busily, and their attention is always attracted by the majestic modern office buildings around it. No one cares about this half-collapsed red brick building, and no one thinks to ask why it is still there.

, over time its existence has become a matter of course.

A black domestic car stopped at the door of the red brick building. A bald sixty-year-old man got out of the car. He was wearing a woolen jacket on his upper body and a slightly fat corduroy underneath.

pants, a briefcase, and a surly look on his face. He paused at the door and looked up impatiently at the broken window without glass on the second floor. A blue plastic bag hung ostentatiously on the window frame.

Up there, it was shaking proudly in the north wind.

He seemed to be even more annoyed and snorted loudly from his nose.

Downstairs is a half-dead car repair shop. The owner seems to have the courage to believe that this dangerous building will not continue to collapse. The car logos scrawled outside the repair shop show its repair scope, from BMW to Baojun, from smart to QQ, it is simply

To cover everything, a notice from the municipal government telling him to get out was posted on the wall together with a notice for renting hook-up machines.

The man glanced at the dazzling wall, frowned and pushed open the faded green wooden door. A young man with long hair was squatting on the ground to pick up a tire facing the door. He looked up at him in confusion, as if he didn't recognize him.

But in a blink of an eye, he grinned and said, "Boss, you look so handsome dressed like this today. You look like a leader at first glance."

The man glared at him and walked through the oil-stained repair room without saying a word, heading straight for the glass door at the end of the workshop. Behind the door was a simple bathroom on the left and a stairwell extending downward on the right.

The cement stairs have been in disrepair for a long time and have begun to peel off. The dirty walls on both sides have footprints on the lower half and mold spots that have grown after the return of moisture on the upper half. There are a few notices stuck crookedly in the middle, roughly saying

"No open defecation" and "Recruiting *** all year round, QQ number: 112358".

The man glared at the notices with disgust, stepped into the stairwell with clean leather shoes, and walked all the way down. The cement on the stairs began to peel off in large chunks from the second underground floor, revealing the red brick bottom inside, but the stairs turned towards

It spiraled and extended endlessly. He continued to walk down, and the stairs under his feet turned into smooth marble before he knew it. Finally, the light of the electric light gave way to the real and illusory firelight. A huge gatehouse was embedded in the underground fortress, with two doors at the door.

A stone figure looking at him innocently looked at him.

Before he could say the secret word, the door opened silently, and a middle-aged woman with a stern expression stood in the door, wearing a tightly wrapped long skirt. She said rudely, "Hurry up,

Pei Shu, you are already too late."

The man sighed, "Liu Li, how are you doing lately?"

"It's almost going to be bad." The woman said anxiously.

He sighed again, followed the woman into the door, ignored the young clerk who stood up to greet him in the hall, and walked into a conference room worriedly. The seven chairs around the round table were already occupied, and the remaining two were occupied.

The chairs placed near the door were reserved for them. The light in the room was very dim, but he didn't mind. The darkness helped him think. Besides, he was familiar with this place and didn't need too much light. He was also very fond of them.

Familiarity, knowing that what you see may not be what you believe.

Liu Li started to speak. She seemed to be the host of today's meeting. "There is no need to introduce the previous situation again, because Pei Shu was the first person to propose the proposal."

"There are murders every year." A person across the round table said abruptly.

"Deviated individuals are born in every generation, that's just the way it is with people," another echoed, adding slowly, "What's weird? What evidence is there that something is wrong now?"

"The data has already shown the existence of the anomaly." Liu Li interrupted him impatiently, "Chu Jin is the best calculator. Her observation report is between pages 113 and 149 of Pei Shu's report. I believe

You've already read it."

The last murmur was suppressed, and someone was busy turning the pages.

After a while, a hesitant voice whispered, "If the problem is among our people, we don't know who is involved, and we don't know who to trust."

Pei Shu whispered, "So I suggest using students who have not yet graduated. Their resumes are cleaner."

No one at the round table answered. He looked around and realized that even Liu Li was pretending to be deaf and dumb.

The silence created pressure, and finally one person coughed and groaned under the pressure, "We haven't had a decent archmage in sixty years, and the students are simply unreliable."

Those words lit the fuse.

"Nowadays, children at the age of fifteen can't even rub a fireball without burning their hands!"

"The magic is fading."

"The mage apprentice with the best grades in the last class, determined to cook, and now he is a successful three-star Michelin chef!"

"Oh my God, he didn't use banned ingredients, did he?"

"No one could complete a reasonable space complexity analysis experiment last semester."

"The ability to control the atmosphere is the lowest in history. It takes 11 people to dispel 400 square kilometers of smog. They also argue that this is a new atmospheric condition that is completely indescribable and that the old textbooks are not practical. It's all bullshit. In fact, they can't even

No storm of any kind can be brought out."

"Actually, they can manipulate the climate. They just can't calculate the butterfly effect after local storms, so they can't cast any spells."

Pei Shu listened for a while, with a trace of ridicule on his gloomy face, and made the best summary in a deep voice that overpowered everyone - "A weasel lays cubs, and one litter is worse than the next."

The complaints stopped abruptly, and dark clouds billowed in the low pressure in the conference room.

Liu Li looked at him in surprise and said accusingly, "Pei Shu!"

But she was speechless immediately, and even though she glared at him sternly for a long time, she could not say any substantive blame.

"If you think you have a suitable candidate, you can propose it now." Pei Shu raised his head and glanced at the seven people sitting in the shadows. "I am all ears."

Silence hung heavy under the dark ceiling.

10.

A middle-aged criminal policeman squatted on the edge of a small river in the ancient town, smoking a cigarette. The rain that had been falling for a month suddenly stopped, the clouds opened a gap above his head, and the white sun shone on the humid earth, causing the ground to rise.

There was a layer of moisture, and his shirt stuck to his body uncomfortably.

He raised his head and once again looked at the gloomy and dilapidated ancient town across the river. This was not a tourist attraction. Almost all the people in the town had moved away. There were no more than ten families left in the whole town, and there were still some elderly people left behind.

But a young woman from the city came to such a place after dark and died here.

He patted his head, feeling very annoyed.

"Captain Li, Captain Li." The most excited kid among the busy crowd across the river called him.

It was Xiao Zhang who had just graduated from the police academy. He had just started working and everything he saw was new. Although he vomited when he first appeared on the scene, it did not affect his enthusiasm too much.

He pretended to be deaf and dumb.

The kid didn't care and waved the things in his hand, "Captain Li, I found my wallet and mobile phone! There is still money in the wallet, one, two, three, four, five, five hundred and thirty-nine yuan!"

Unfortunately, he scratched his hair, it was not robbery or murder.

He looked at the woman who the forensic doctor was putting into the body bag from a distance. The lower half of her hair was pink. She must be very young.

The river was neither wide nor deep, so Xiao Zhang walked over with the water flowing.

"What's the cause of death?" he asked.

"Oh, the medical examiner said he probably drowned."

He was startled for a moment, "The fatal injury was drowning, what about the other injuries?"

Xiao Zhang was asked, "There are no obvious injuries visible to the naked eye."

He suddenly stood up and stared at the shallow water in the small ditch, "Don't say that the deceased drowned in this washbasin!"
Chapter completed!