I was busy calling the people from the photocopying company when suddenly my colleague Lao Zheng came over and patted me hard on the shoulder.

"Stub, someone is looking for you downstairs, it seems that he has a rare book."

I covered the microphone and said, "Please wait for me in the small conference room."

"He never goes there, it's so weird - go and have a look."

I hurriedly checked the matter with the photocopying company, took a sip of water from Gudong and hurried downstairs.

Let me introduce myself first. My name is Yan Zong, who is twenty-seven years old and works in a cultural company in Weiyang City.

The work I did in the company can be summarized in two words - that is, "making up the blame" and "taking the blame".

"Putting the blame" means that I seem to have a job but no job. Anyway, as long as there is a shortage of people and there are jobs that others don't want to do, the editor-in-chief will strip me over and take over the job; as for "take the blame", of course, if something goes wrong, I will strip me over and take over the blame.

For example, what I am responsible for now is a project that has no profit and no share of the money - a collection of rare books by folk books.

The editor-in-chief said that this project is a task assigned by the Cultural Bureau and is particularly meaningful, so interesting people must do it - who else can give up the words?

I thought silently in my heart that when the department had dinner together earlier, you fucked me and said that I was the most boring person in the entire company.

However, it is indeed an interesting thing to collect rare books. With the support of the government, we publish advertisements through various media, collect rare books collected from the public, and select valuable content to copy, retain, and publish.

Since I was published on the advertisement, rare book collectors often come to visit. Of course, I have met people who are hiding before, and those who collect them know that some people’s things are not so brilliant in their hands. Most of them come here just to explore the reality and feel the value of things in their hands.

But the person I met today seemed to be too cautious.

He was wearing a black coat, a dirty baseball cap, a thick mask on his face, and a pair of sunglasses that were darker than a black hole.

He stood in the corner of the company's door, facing the wall, lowered his head deeply, and his right arm stiffly into his coat pocket.

I looked at the sky and found that the weather was indeed bad today, it was the weather with spring and smog. However, his outfit was too exaggerated.

"I'm the editor of my rare books, you just asked me?"

"Oh..." He turned around in a daze, his movements were like a robot. He looked at me, but his sunglasses covered his eyes and I couldn't tell his expression.

"Let's go upstairs and talk!" I said to him.

"No," he simply refused, then stretched out his left hand, pointed to the street park opposite, and said in a hoarse and dull voice, "Go there-I...is not convenient to meet people."

"Understand." I nodded.

He walked in front, and we crossed the road one by one. He walked and turned, his left trouser was empty.

My heart skipped a beat - his left calf might have a prosthetic limb.

We came to the street park, and he walked through the flowers and corridors with ease and found a small pavilion surrounded by bamboo forests.

It seems that he has explored this road and this place many times.

He walked into the pavilion and sat directly on the stone bench. It was a little cold, but he didn't care at all about the temperature of the stone bench.

I had to sit opposite him. The stone was extremely cold and I couldn't help but tremble.

He rubbed the knee of his left leg, then slowly pulled out a plastic pocket from his coat pocket, he spread it out, then took out a booklet from it and handed it to me.

I had already formed a professional habit, and quickly took out my white gloves from my pocket, put them on carefully, and picked up this mysterious booklet.

But as soon as I opened the book, I was disappointed. Because strictly speaking, this is not a rare book.

Generally speaking, rare books mostly refer to ancient books published or copied before Qianlong, or books printed in small quantities before the Xinhai Revolution, with academic value, or famous inscriptions, proofreading or even hand-written books.

But these things are not enough for this booklet.

In terms of quality, the booklet is lined and is engraved with oil paper. The booklet has neither a title page nor a catalog nor a name for the printing agency. Its printing work and materials are extremely rough. Moreover, the cover paper has turned yellow, damaged, and is as fragile as borneol on a river in early winter.

In terms of age, there are actually a few short prefaces at the beginning of the booklet. The general meaning is that in the 29th year of the Republic of China, someone found some ancient books at Zhaohuli Temple in Kuqa County. The Dihua Archaeological Team went to investigate and found that they were fragments of the documents of the Anxi Protectorate of the Tang Dynasty. This booklet is a copy of the contents of the fragments.

The 29th year of the Republic of China was 1941, so in terms of time, it was not qualified to be a rare book.

I closed the booklet and looked at the vertical ink line on the cover - "The Ancient Document of the Protectorate of Anxi, Tang Dynasty".

At this moment, I found a page of paper in the middle of the booklet, with an orange-red partition on it.

Logically speaking, the material of the booklet is so fragile that if you stick something rashly, it will easily destroy the paper. Therefore, the place where the spacer is pasted must be an important part of the collector's thoughts and repeated readings.

I glanced at the mysterious man, who sat there like a wooden carving, and did not object to me looking through it.

So I gently opened the page of paper from the middle.

Due to the age and printing methods, the ink words have been soaked in the paper and look a bit scattered. The words are arranged vertically. I lowered my head to read them, and I saw a passage with emphasis added to the bottom. It was intermittent, as if it was pulled from ancient books with missing words and pages-

"Yonghui... in the year, the capital protected the firewood... and attacked the West Ye... the evil demon country also... surrounded Hujiangu City, with tens of thousands of people in the city without a trace all night..."

Yonghui was the first reign of Emperor Gaozong of Tang, only six years later. These twenty-six remaining characters read like a dragonfly, but after reading it, I feel that it involves a mysterious history more than 1,300 years ago.

What is the evil country? What is the ten thousand people in the city without a trace overnight?

I frowned and turned a few more pages. Who knew that the mysterious man coughed, and he stretched out his hand and put the booklet over.

"It's quite an interesting book," I said, "but this is not enough for rare books, I'm really sorry."

He didn't speak, but just looked up at me. My deformed face was reflected in his sunglasses, which made people feel uncomfortable.

"Young people, when it comes to value, they are not inferior to any ancient book." He spoke again, his voice still hoarse, but his words were very particular, and he sounded like a cultured person.

He put the booklet in a plastic pocket and handed it to me again.

"Let me leave it here first, they want to harm me. When I am safe, we will contact you to get it."

"Ah? You're so bad?" I was stunned - Could it be that I had encountered a paranoia caused by the murder?

He turned to me again, as if seeing through my thoughts. He suddenly raised his hands at the same time, took off his glasses with one hand and took off his mask with the other.

The chill suddenly ran through my toes to the ends of my hair like an electric current, and I almost stood up in surprise.

Because it was a face without skin! His whole face was red, and in some places he could see the texture of his muscles. He had no eyelids, no eyelashes, only a red ball of ears, and even his upper and lower eyelids tightly together!

His eyes were red, like a crazy animal, and his eyes were still shining with water.

He raised his hand, wiped his tears, then lowered his head and put on his sunglasses and mask again.

"See it? My face was passed through the fire of hell - I am the one who crawled out of hell for a lifetime." He then sucked his nose a few times, and then said to me, "That's right, there is that smell on you."

"Smell?" I asked in surprise.

He giggled, then suddenly he approached me mysteriously, lowered his voice and said, "You kid, you probably have encountered a black ship, too..."

"Ah?!" I was shocked. I only told one woman about this, how did he know about it?!

I was still stunned, but he pushed the booklet to me again, then stood up suddenly, limping and walked quickly outside the street park.

"Hey!" I was stunned for a while before I came to my senses, "Wait! Wait!"

This man is terrifying, his origin is unknown, and his words are not detailed. How could I be upset and take over what he entrusted?

There were many forks in the street park, and there were many trees and green plants. When I picked up the booklet, rushed out of the pavilion, and bypassed the bamboo forest, I found that the person was no longer visible.

I sighed, looked at the mimeographed book in my hand, and thought to myself, it seemed that I could only keep this book for the time being.

I walked out of the street park and wanted to go back to the company to go to work. When I was crossing the crosswalk, I suddenly saw a white pickup truck rushing towards me with a honking like crazy.

I was so scared that I quickly jumped back, and the car passed by me in a flash. The wheels rolled, and a dust raised, causing me to cough.

As soon as I was shocked, I quickly walked across the road. From a distance, I saw a few people surrounding the car, as if they were talking about something.

No matter what, it seems like I haven't read the almanac when I go out today, and it seems like I'm in danger everywhere. It's better to go back to the office early.

Thinking of this, I held the booklet tightly and quickly walked towards the company building.

I went upstairs and walked into the work station with Lao Zheng. The phone on the table rang again in a hurry. I answered the phone and put the booklet in the drawer.

The phone was called by the boss of the photocopy company, and he talked in a long and long way. But maybe what happened just now was too strange and I was a little upset. He said it for a long time, but I couldn't listen to a single word.

After the phone call, I was about to drink water, but I saw my colleagues gathered in a group, chattering and discussing something. The two female colleagues also screamed in surprise from time to time.

I saw Lao Zheng standing there too, so I stood up and walked over, patted him on the back and asked, "What's wrong?"

"You don't know, they are all on the hot searches, just on the road not far from our company."

"What?"

"The car accident and escape have just happened not long ago." Lao Zheng shook his head and said, "But this is not the weirdest - Xiao Ruo, let's play it again for Yanzi."

Xin Xiaoruo just graduated and is a newcomer and beautiful girl in the company. For some reason, I have never messed with her before, and I have very few opportunities to talk. However, every time she sees me, she looks unhappy.

She did snort coldly, but still clicked on a video on the web page.

The angle of watching the video should be the convenience store at the intersection of the north side of the company. I still remember that there was a camera installed in front of the convenience store.

At the beginning, the video only showed a quiet road. Two guests had just walked out of the convenience store, holding things in their hands. On the zebra crossing on the road, a pedestrian was walking strangely, crossing the road.

When I saw the pedestrian's outfit clearly, I couldn't help but take a breath and immediately held my breath.

Because he is the mysterious man who claimed to have crawled out of hell just now!

When I took a look at the video, it was 10:13, which should be the time when I returned to the company from the street park.

I was searching for the mysterious man but failed, so I decided to return to the company for no more than two or three minutes at most, right? But in this short time, how could a person with a prosthetic limb pass through the street park and appear at a further intersection?

Just between the light of calcium carbide flames, a familiar white pickup truck suddenly rushed over from the left of the video screen. It was extremely fast, but it did not slow down at all!

It rushed towards the mysterious man in a daze. The video was not sounded, but it could still feel the impact of the car hitting the man. The mysterious man was knocked and flew up with somersaults, and finally fell heavily on the curb.
To be continued...