When a few of us walked in, we didn't attract much attention from the people in the yard. Zhang Weidu was also a businessman after all. Apart from relatives and friends, there was nothing surprising about a few strangers coming to express their condolences.
After passing through the yard, we came to the door of the Zhang family's main room.
There is a mourning shed set up in the hall, and a curtain made of bamboo slices and colored paper is blocked in the middle. Behind the curtain, the corner of a wooden bed is exposed, which is the place where Zhang Weidu's spirit rests.
There were two rows of seats on both sides of the main room. Several people sat there with their children, looking a little tiredly at the Taoist priests at the central altar table who were singing, reciting and beating.
Nowadays, it is no longer fashionable to invite monks or Taoist priests to your home for funerals in cities. People usually go directly to the funeral parlor, where there are now special rooms for paying respects to the remains.
Some of them performed rituals directly there, while some of those who did not believe in religion did not even perform rituals. They held a farewell ceremony for the body, and after the family members saw the body for the last time, it was burned directly in the furnace.
This is not entirely a change in concept. Most of the time, there is really no room at home. They are commercial houses in the community. The door is directly to the corridor and stairs, and there is no room to set up a shed for burying the body.
If you put it at home, it's okay to have a large space, but the house is a little smaller. Once the memorial shed is built, the living room will be full, and there will be no place for people to sit, which is always a trouble.
It's different in rural areas. Every home doesn't have a yard. Even if there's no yard, you can just put up a shed at the door. There's plenty of room.
Upon noticing the movement of several of us entering the main room, except for the Taoist priest who was concentrating on rituals, several members of the Zhang family turned their eyes. Seeing the unfamiliar faces, the Zhang family looked at each other, as if they were exploring our origins.
, but several people shook their heads slightly, indicating that they had never seen us.
Of course, Zhang Weidu has never seen us, let alone his relatives.
"Who are they?" A man who looked about thirty-five or six years old came up to them. He looked like Zhang Weidu's son and asked in a tone of voice.
"Oh, we are in the business. We have dealt with Mr. Zhang several times before. Occasionally, I heard the sad news of Mr. Zhang's passing, so I came here to express my condolences and give him a ride." I told random lies while observing.
The man's expression was as he took out a white paper envelope from his pocket and handed him the condolence gift.
The white paper seal was bought freshly from the village grocery store, and five hundred yuan was temporarily stuffed in it. The good thing about rural grocery stores is that they can always buy such off-the-beaten-path items.
There was no special reaction on the man's face. He nodded, took the gift, and invited us to sit on the chairs next to the main room.
"Thank you for your kindness. When I learned that my father passed away, I came here to express my condolences." Zhang Weidu's son sounded a little sad. After all, his old father was still in his prime, and his hair was not even gray yet, so he passed away.
"I met Mr. Zhang a while ago. At that time, I saw that his body was still very strong. I didn't expect that he passed away so suddenly. It is really heartbreaking." I accompanied him to express my condolences, and then tried, "
I don’t know what kind of emergency Mr. Zhang had, but he left so suddenly.”
Hearing my question, an unnatural look flashed across his son's face. He raised his head and glanced at the place where Zhang Weidu's body was buried to cover it up, then turned around and said, "My dad suddenly
He developed a serious illness and passed away before he could even be sent to the hospital."
"Oh?" I had a skeptical look on my face.
Zhang Weidu's son looked a little embarrassed on his face, but he didn't say anything. After all, his old father's death was too strange. As a son, he didn't want to cause any more trouble, and would rather handle the matter quietly.
Of course his son knew what kind of business his old father was in. If the family was attacked by zombies again, how many more people would die?
Seeing that Zhang Weidu's son bowed his head and remained silent, I could roughly guess what he was thinking. I understand. But if you don't speak, our clues will be cut off.
At that moment, I no longer pretended to express my condolences. I took out the people's police officer I borrowed from Ren Yonghai, waved it in front of him, and said in a deep voice: "We are from the city bureau. Someone reported that there was a murder case in your family. We are here."
investigating."
"Police...Police?" The man's expression changed immediately when he saw the police officer in my hand. He never expected that the police would find out about what he kept secret.
"That's right, regarding your father's death, if you have any inside information, you must tell the truth." I put away the police officer and continued to scare him, "Your father died in a strange way. If we find out anything is wrong, it will be a criminal offense."
We are going to file a case for investigation. When the time comes, you
It’s too late to explain.”
When Zhang Weidu's son heard these words, his face suddenly turned pale. He knew the circumstances of his old father's death best.
I don’t know what happened that night, but the whole family slept soundly. It was only when I woke up early the next morning that I discovered that my old father had been chewed up until only half of his body was left.
The tragic scene at the scene makes me feel horrified when I think about it now.
I don't believe it at all if the evil is caused by some ferocious beast. This land is not a deep mountain forest. Not to mention ferocious beasts in the nearby mountains, not even a wild boar can be found. How could such a ferocious man-eater appear?
Beast?
Combined with the strange situation of the whole family sleeping to death that night, Zhang Weidu's son came to the conclusion: nine times out of ten, it was the fault of his old father's business.
After all, it was just a piece of cake. Who knows what weird things might be involved, and it wouldn't be good if it affected the whole family, so I was anxious to bury my old father so that he could be buried in peace as soon as possible.
Who would have thought that the police would come to my door.
What should he do now? Cold sweat suddenly broke out on his forehead.
Half of the old father's body was lying behind the funeral shed. The police casually lifted the quilt covering the body. Seeing the condition of the body, they definitely wanted to investigate.
What should I say when the time comes? If I tell the police that I was bitten to death by a zombie, will they believe it?
What's more, I can only guess whether they are zombies or not. Aren't the zombies on TV all sucking blood? There are no zombies that eat people to pieces.
Thinking of this, Zhang Weidu's son turned pale.
"Ahem," I noticed the changing expression on his face. I guessed that he had almost finished his psychological struggle, so I coughed and said, "As for your father, we already have it in our hands."
Some clues, I’m here this time, just to investigate the clues, don’t put any psychological burden on me.”
A slap in the face followed by sweet dates often works.
Sure enough, Zhang Weidu's son raised his head after hearing this, with a trace of blood on his face, looked at me and said: "Police...comrade police, you...do you know the cause of my father's death?
"
"It's not entirely clear," I said seriously, "but as far as we know, it may be related to a tomb robbery group that smuggles unearthed cultural relics, and your father is a key figure. Of course, the old man has passed away, and we will not pursue him.
responsibility, but as his son, you have an obligation to cooperate with the police investigation and tell us everything you know."
"No problem, I will definitely cooperate." Zhang Weidu's son nodded repeatedly.
I continued to keep a straight face and put on a majestic look, and said: "According to the information we have, your father had close contacts with some criminals during his lifetime. Do you know who your father usually had close contacts with?"
"Well..." Zhang Weidu's son hesitated for a moment and said, "Comrade police, it's not that I'm uncooperative, but I really don't know about my dad's business partners."
He paused and then said: "You also know that my father is a middleman, that is, he acts as a bridge between people on both sides. He usually protects his family's information very carefully, and even his family members never disclose it.
Pass."
"You are his son and you don't know anything about it?" I was a little skeptical.
"My dad said that doing this would damage one's moral character and lead to a bad outcome, so he never let us get involved. Unexpectedly, I didn't expect that he was right..." At this point, he probably remembered
The scene of the tragic death of my old father made me choked up and speechless.
Seeing this scene, some of us were a little sad.
In Xi'an's antique circles, Zhang Weidu's reputation is not good. The dealers who smuggle cultural relics don't care where the buyers are from, and countless cultural relics have flowed out through their hands.
Zhang Weidu's arrangement is the best protection for his family. Firstly, he will bear the blame alone and his family will not be implicated because of his criminal behavior; secondly, if something happens on the other end, such as
Although he himself was killed this time, because his family was not involved, the lives of his whole family were saved.
He is a sinner, but he is also a qualified father.
It's just that he made arrangements for his family, but our clues were cut off again. His son didn't know anything, so this trip was in vain.
I asked other Zhang family members one by one without giving up, and the answers I got were the same. They had no idea who Zhang Weidu’s online person was, and they had never met him.
Judging from their anxious expressions, they seemed to be more eager to provide useful clues than I was. However, Zhang Weidu kept these matters secret quite well during his lifetime. Several people talked at once, but it was all useless.
of.
Just when a few of us were very disappointed and were about to leave, a three or four-year-old baby next to us rubbed his sleepy eyes and said in a sweet voice: "I...I have seen and...
Grandpa is a businessman."
The hall suddenly became quiet, and everyone looked at the little doll.
"This... this is my son. The child is ignorant and talks nonsense." Zhang Weidu's son was a little embarrassed. He held the little baby in his arms and whispered to him, "Ping Wazi, don't
You can't just talk nonsense, uncles are asking about things you don't want to talk about casually."
The little baby was held in his arms by his father, but he was a little unhappy and muttered: "I've really seen it before."
I stretched out my hand to signal Zhang Weidu's son to stop talking. I leaned in front of the little baby and tried to make my smile warmer. I looked at him and said, "Kid, can you tell me what the person who does business with grandpa looks like?"
What does it look like?”
"I can't remember." The little doll shook his head.
His words made some of us look stunned, and then we smiled bitterly. After all, we were just three or four-year-old kids. How could we remember the appearance of a stranger we had only met once?
Just when we had such thoughts in our hearts, the little doll's next words rekindled our hope.
"The man handed Grandpa a large bundle of paper. Well, I saw a very nice pattern on it." The little baby sucked his fingers and said in a sweet voice.
The Zhang family immediately mobilized, quickly found paper and brushes, and asked the little doll to draw the pattern he saw. Ten minutes later, we took this pattern that we didn’t know if it could be used,
Walking on the way back to the city.
In the car, Xu Duobao looked at the pattern in his hand carefully. After a long while, he said uncertainly: "This pattern looks a bit like a trademark."
"I think so. If we start with this pattern, we might be able to find the person who gave the information to Zhang Weidu." I nodded.
If the corpse trainer wanted Zhang Weidu to spread the news, he would definitely not be able to give him just a photo. Anyone in the antique business, especially a cultural relic dealer like Zhang Weidu, who is not a human being? A photo is like letting these people
When people work hard for themselves, there is no such thing as cheap.
The bundle of paper that the little baby saw was probably the relevant information that was handed over to Zhang Weidu online. Since it was information, it was unlikely that there would be any sudden patterns on it. The only possibility was that there was a trademark printed on the paper.
Although children's memories are unreliable, they will remember things very clearly that adults tend to overlook, such as a pattern that impresses them.
We all believe that the patterns drawn by Zhang Weidu's grandson do exist.
So now there is only one question: Is this pattern printed on the paper the brand trademark of the paper itself, or does it come from somewhere else, such as a trademark of a certain company?
Many companies will print their company's trademark on their official business papers. This is a very common move and is not a rare event.
We first sent Gao Shan home and asked him to take his family to live with his relatives temporarily. After the whole thing was over, he would return home after receiving our notice. Everyone related to the Soul-Calming Mirror was dead, and Gao Shan was also the first to
Those who know about it and the corpse trainers may not let him go.
Although I don't like these rats, I can't watch him die. As for Xu Duobao, he only came into contact with this group of people later, and there was Zhang Weidu in the middle, so the problem is probably not
Yes, but for safety reasons, I asked him to call Lu Ping and ask her to stay at her parents' house for a while.
As for Xu Duobao, he has been following me anyway, so there is no need for special arrangements. Back in Xi'an, Ren Yonghai left first with the pattern. The police have many technical means, so naturally it was left to him to find someone to deal with the pattern, leaving Xu Duobao and me to
Bao Xian is waiting for news at home.
However, Xu Duobao, an old boy, muttered a little and tugged on my sleeves: "Lin Kun, your friend has some great powers. The police are borrowing them. Now we can find someone to help us compare patterns.
Regarding the trademark, we have to ask someone from the Industrial and Commercial Bureau for help, right? Does he have any background?"
Chapter completed!