C44

"Oh, it's the two pieces of bandages that mother gave Miao and I."

"Turban? What kind of headscarf? " Qiao Mu was surprised.

"That scarf is called the Flower Serpent Scarf, it can be considered a tradition of the Flower Snake Village. All the girls in the village have it, and it must have been personally made by mother. The last time we went back to the village with Father, Grandma gave it to us." Su Qin replied truthfully.

"Only two scarves?" Yang Jie asked.

"That's right, but it has nothing to do with this."

"Is there any connection for me to judge? Where are the two turbans now?" Qiao Mu asked.

"It's on me." With that, Su Qin opened her backpack and took out two pieces of pitch black headscarves. Before this departure, she had intentionally brought out the two floral scarves that she and Su Miao had given her in order to pray for her mother to protect her.

Qiao Mu and Yang Jie looked and saw that these two flower serpents looked very normal. However, they were of a black background and had a symbol of a flower serpent on it.

Maybe the only thing that felt strange was that these two turbans were thicker. When Yang Jie tried it on her head, it felt very heavy and not comfortable enough.

"Did your mother make this herself?" Yang Jie was still fiddling with the Flower Serpent Scarf.

"Yes, as I said before." Su Qin replied.

Qiao Mu's expression suddenly became surprised and asked: "That time before your mother went back to the Flower Snake Village, she should have stayed with you all the time, right? Why didn't she just give it to you in the morning and wait until you returned to the village on New Year's Eve before asking your grandmother to give it to you? Are there any special rules? "

"There aren't any special rules, right? Even grandma and aunt didn't say anything!" Su Qin replied.

"When did your mother make the garland scarf?" Yang Jie interrupted and asked.

"I remember... Grandma mentioned it before, but it seems like it was the year my mother returned to the village … "In other words …"

"It's before your mother went to the Small Snake Island, right?" Qiao Mu's face was serious.

"Yes, it should be." Su Qin looked at Qiao Mu, she knew that Qiao Mu must have found something.

"That's strange …" "Since there is no symbolic meaning, why didn't your mother do it earlier or later, but instead left it for you at that critical time?"

When she asked Su Qin, Qiao Mu had another answer in her heart. He felt that these two scarves were unlike Zheng Huiling's gift to her daughter and were instead like specially made relics, because not long after, Zheng Huiling went to the Small Snake Island alone, signed a contract with a demon, and ended her life.

Being questioned by Qiao Mu, Su Qin was unable to answer. At the moment, outside the house, the wind was howling and the few large trees were swaying like ghosts. The atmosphere was getting heavier and heavier.

In this stalemate, Yang Jie held onto two pieces of floral scarves as she said, "Look, these two scarves are two-layered. No wonder it's so thick."

Arbor, who knew nothing about accessories, asked directly: "Double deck means it has two sides?"

"Yeah, it's just sewn together, but it's not sewn tight enough. It can be separated with scissors."

Yang Jie's meaning was obvious, she was extremely interested in the inner layer of the turban. If she wanted to open it and take a look, she would need Su Qin's consent.

Yang Jie glanced at Su Qin. Qiao Mu understood and understood what Yang Jie meant.

"Sister, I know this isn't good. The two turbans were left behind by your mother and should be respected. But the problem is that we feel that these two turbans are not normal. Maybe your mother has hidden some secrets inside. Do you mind if we open them?" he asked calmly.

Su Qin took the two floral scarves that Yang Jie had given her. She was hesitant in her heart, and she knew that Qiao Mu and her wife's request was reasonable, but she wasn't willing to destroy her mother's remnants.

"Alright, you guys can start with my first one." In the end, Su Qin's rationality still prevailed over his feelings. She first gave her big flower serpent towel to Yang Jie, so as to not be able to keep her secret from being discovered.

It felt like a crime. At this time, Su Qin took the initiative to slip a pair of small scissors into Yang Jie's hands, saying, "These are scissors I brought with me, Big sister, you cut them, right?"

Yang Jie nodded her head slightly, praising Su Qin for being so sensible, she then slowly used a pair of scissors to cut off the cloth on both sides.

These words were written in pencil, so the handwriting was very light, but they were clearly contrasted against the white cloth on the inside.

The contents of the words were: Northern Song Year, Tai Yuan Prefecture, border general, Zhao Zhiyou.

"There's really something!" Seeing these words, Yang Jie sighed.

"Is that your mother's handwriting?" Qiao Mu confirmed first.

Su Qin nodded.

"But what do these words mean?" Yang Jie asked doubtfully.

Qiao Mu thought for a moment and said: "From the literal meaning, it's not difficult to understand. It's simple information about some ancient person. Little sister, didn't you say that the Corrupt Corpse was wearing iron armor? "

"Yeah, I have a very deep impression of him!" Su Qin replied.

"That must be it, but a few words aren't enough. What exactly is your mother trying to reveal?" Yang Jie asked anxiously.

"I have seen enough. The meaning of these words is: In the Northern Song Dynasty, there was a general called Zhao Zhiyou who guarded the borders of the Tai Yuan Palace. "We just need to follow this lead and we should be able to find out the relevant information regarding the life of the Corrupt Corpse."

Yang Jie and Su Qin nodded their heads, then Yang Jie said to Su Qin: "Your mother is really amazing, how does she know all this, does she also rely on her superpowers?"

Before Su Qin replied, Qiao Mu said: "She must have used her super power, didn't her mother see through people's past? I think in a sense, that rotten corpse couldn't be considered dead, it just mutated like the villagers. I think that maybe there is some special substance in the lake, which caused the change after being merged with the corpse, and also the female corpse that I saw at the bottom of the lake before the Mr.Guo died on Chang Hen Island, it could also be like that."

"That's reasonable, precisely because that rotten corpse isn't completely dead yet, that's why Zheng Huiling found out about a portion of its past and found out about its ancestry. Zheng Huiling had left behind clues on the identity of the rotting corpse, so that others could investigate. Yang Jie said.

"Don't we still have another headscarf? Let's cut it off and take a look." Qiao Mu pointed.

Su Qin suddenly admired Qiao Mu and Yang Jie. She felt that this couple's thinking was both sensitive and meticulous. After their analysis, the matter seemed to become clearer and clearer. Thus, without thinking, she quickly passed Su Miao's small floral snake towel to him.

Yang Jie cut it open and saw that there were a few pencil words written on the inside of the Flower Serpent Wipe. The words were: Black House full of leaves, Green Fire, Sky Eye opened, everything is over.

"What does that mean?" Yang Jie was confused.

Qiao Mu read it over and over again with a confused face. He murmured: "It feels like a poem, but the reading is not smooth and the content is very abstract. Little sister, have you ever seen your mother write or recite this sentence?"

"Mom is indeed interested in classical poetry, but I don't think I've ever seen such words before. I really can't remember." Su Qin said.

Yang Jie pondered for a moment, then said: "It's not a hidden poem, nor is it a hidden tail poem.

"It's not clear yet, but there must be a reason for it." said.

"Brother, I found it very strange, since Zheng Huiling wanted to leave some clues for her daughter, why not use some direct method, such as a letter or last words, and instead secretly write them in two scarves? Alright, just write it. Why are you writing it so cryptically? " Yang Jie complained.

Qiao Mu thought for a moment and said: "I think, Zheng Huiling should have been able to predict that her two flower snake scarves would be opened by someone in the end and that the message she left behind would also be read by someone. The reason why she used such a concealed method is probably because she was afraid of being discovered."

"Who is that person, that rotting corpse?" Yang Jie asked.

Qiao Mu nodded.

It's about the identity of that rotten corpse. Oh yeah, I remember that Miao Yue's former university teacher, a History department teacher, seemed to have a good relationship with her, isn't she currently working as a librarian in a library, should I let Miao Yue ask him about it? Let him look up General Zhao's information, what do you think? Yang Jie suddenly thought of this.

"Good idea." Qiao Mu also felt that this method was not bad.

then took out his phone and called Miao Yue. After he roughly explained the situation, Miao Yue became extremely anxious, when the matter of looking up information was brought up, Miao Yue was naturally duty-bound. She agreed to look for her university teacher right now and give her a reply as soon as possible. During this time, Qiao Mu only warned once: "If you find that ancient person, pay attention to his life story. Don't let even a small thing slip by."

When Yang Jie hung up, she suddenly said: "I want to go to Small Snake Island."

Yang Jie was startled, and said: "Ah? How can that be, you don't want to live! "

"No, I keep having the feeling that my father isn't dead yet, especially when my aunt told me that the Corrupt Corpse wanted my father to inherit some kind of will."

Only now did Yang Jie remember what Su Qin had mentioned earlier, and she instantly fell silent.

"I agree, we'll go with you." Qiao Mu also said.

"Ah?" Are you crazy? " Yang Jie glanced at Qiao Mu.

"To be honest, I really want to see that weird island. There must be a lot of secrets hidden on that island. As we've analyzed before, my sister's situation is the most special one, and I feel like the whole thing is going around her, so I think she should go and see the island, and like she said, her father might not be dead yet. " said.

Yang Jie understood Qiao Mu's intention and finally said: "Then let's go with her."

"In that case, thank you so much!" Su Qin was indescribably grateful.

"Well, now we have to find a boat." With that, Yang Jie stood up and walked to the window.

The night wind was getting stronger and stronger, like a demon howling. Yang Jie even suspected that there would be a typhoon tonight. She stared at the nearby lake. While she was in a daze, a figure suddenly appeared outside the window. With an extremely strange posture, the figure pressed its face against the window and observed the interior of the house.

Yang Jie was shocked, she immediately left the window, but when she looked carefully, she felt that the person outside was familiar.

"Sun Miao?" Yang Jie blurted out.

"Who did you say?" Qiao Mu quickly stood up, but this time, the person outside the window was nowhere to be seen.

"Brother, I just saw Sun Miao standing outside the window!" Yang Jie was extremely excited.

"Is that so?" Qiao Mu was elated. He thought that if it was Sun Miao, then most likely Zhou Yang and the rest were nearby as well. Perhaps they were the only ones who could make a fire on the ground.

Yang Jie hurriedly opened the door, and Qiao Mu followed. After the door was opened, a person stood upright in front of them. There was a strange expression on his face. His eyes were unfocused and lifeless. His eyeballs were rolling in his eye sockets. His entire body was swollen, and there were wrinkles and lumps on his skin. Besides, there was a wound in his throat, and green blood near the wound.

This person was without a doubt Sun Miao, even Qiao Mu and Yang Jie were too familiar with him.

But when Sun Miao just stepped into the house, Qiao Mu kicked him in the stomach, causing Sun Miao to retreat several steps.

Qiao Mu closed the door again and asked Yang Jie: "Do you know what I want to say?"

"I know, I can see it too." Yang Jie felt cold sweat dripping down her back.

"They're in trouble!" Qiao Mu said angrily.

"Sun Miao was attacked and then poisoned as well." Yang Jie agreed.

"What does it mean?"

"It means that the corruption will spread, and those who should have died could be revived."

Qiao Mu and Yang Jie understood each other, and Su Qin also became more afraid the more she listened.

While he was hesitating, there were a few more sounds coming from outside the door, followed by a series of strange sounds.

"More than one." Qiao Mu said softly.

Yang Jie trembled as she looked outside the window. She immediately realized that there were several Toad Man on the ground, along with Sun Miao who was slowly turning into a Toad Man, wandering around the entrance of the thatched cottage.

Just as Yang Jie wanted to ask what she was going to do, she heard a burst of noise, as if someone was knocking on a house.

Su Qin looked out of the other window and suddenly saw a few short figures holding tree branches, rocks, shovels, wooden sticks and all sorts of tools, constantly knocking on the door, one of them even had a torch.

Su Qin realized that these people had strange expressions on their faces and their bodies were bloated, they were about the same size as Sun Miao. Moreover, there were two people wearing tattered longevity gowns.

While Su Qin was in a daze, the strange people who were knocking on the door noticed that there was someone at the window, and gathered over. When she saw them clearly, Su Qin's heart sank, their faces had already started to rot and become pimples, they were actually children!

One of the children burst out laughing and hurled a spade at the window, but the glass was hard enough and the other was not strong enough to break it.

Qiao Mu and Yang Jie came to Su Qin's side. When they saw the children, they knew that there was a problem. Qiao Mu had the same thoughts as Su Qin.

"Actually, I've never seen them before, but I guess so." Su Qin said.

Looking closely at the children, he saw that their chins and bellies were slightly puffed, a clear precursor to mutation.

Yang Jie also noticed the difference and asked Qiao Mu: "Brother, why do you think they are different from those Toad Man s?"

"I guess it's not too deep." Qiao Mu speculated, "These village children do not consume as much time as the other adults, so they are considered to have just begun to mutate. Look, their black nails have only just grown out."

Su Qin agreed with Qiao Mu's analysis and thought that back then when Sun Erke was taking care of these children, they should have been fine.

"However... Their behavior and habits seem quite normal, but they have lost all sense of reason … " Qiao Mu muttered again.

"What are you trying to say?" Yang Jie asked.

"I want to say that... They may be even more troublesome than the Toad Man. "

As soon as Qiao Mu's voice faded away, one of the children came to the window with a smile. His mouth was still dripping with saliva as he stopped and threw the torch onto the roof. The roof was filled with straw.

This caught Qiao Mu and the others off guard. Soon, the top of the roof was covered in flames and sparks flew all around the house. The children looked at the fire, grinning from ear to ear and dancing with joy.

Seeing the wooden beams from the roof falling and the fire growing stronger, they knew that they could not hold on for long and had to rush out. However, the door was blocked by Toad Man and the children, and they were stuck in a dilemma.

In the blink of an eye, the gates were also on fire. Now, it was even more difficult to escape.

At this moment, they heard the sound of a key in the lock, and the door was kicked open. A man with a disheveled appearance and wearing a shroud appeared in front of them.

The man was holding a bucket and a bamboo pole in one hand. He used the water in the bucket to quickly extinguish the fire in front of the door.

"Goose egg!" Su Qin shouted excitedly. She immediately recognized this person, it was the goose egg Sun Erke who had saved her before.

Sun Erke looked at Su Qin stupidly, as if he recognized him, but at the same time, he didn't. When a few children rushed towards Sun Erke, Sun Erke ferociously swung his bamboo pole, chasing away all the children.

The thatched cottage was about to collapse, Sun Erke shouted loudly: "Quick! Fast! Come out! "Come out!"

Su Qin took the initiative to hold Qiao Mu and Yang Jie's hands and said: "Don't worry, he's a good person!" The three of them immediately rushed out of the thatched hut, and during this time, a few more Toad Man crawled over, which were dealt with by Qiao Mu and Sun Erke.

After escaping from the danger, the four of them stood in front of the thatched cottage that was slowly being engulfed in raging flames, unable to say a word for a while.

After a long while, Su Qin introduced Sun Erke to Qiao Mu Yang Jie, and Qiao Mu Yang Jie also heard Su Qin mention a few things about Sun Erke, so she knew that although he was silly, he had a kind heart. However, Sun Erke just stared at the burning grass hut and ignored them.

At this point, Qiao Mu and the other two could naturally tell that the owner of the thatched hut was Sun Erke.

"Goose, I'm sorry!" Su Qin said softly.

Sun Erke looked at Su Qin and muttered: "The village... It's over! Room... It's over! Everyone... It's over! Consecutive... Consecutive... "Children …"

Sun Erke felt as if he had died, and could not continue on.

Qiao Mu and the others now understood that Sun Erke must have been taking care of those children all along. It was just that in the end, there were still mutations, so Sun Erke had no choice but to abandon them. Although those children were lawless and were wreaking havoc everywhere, at least their relationship was still the same. Therefore, Sun Erke did not kill them earlier and only chased them away.

"Toad Man... Toad Man usually does not come, you guys … You've attracted them! " After a long while, Sun Erke said again.

Qiao Mu thought to himself: Indeed, the Toad Man here doesn't seem to be very frequent, our sin is really quite heinous.

"I'm sorry …" Yang Jie also said that she wanted to ask Sun Erke if he wanted to pay for the loss of the house, but she felt that this question was a little inappropriate.

Sun Erke suddenly turned around and said, "I'll take you guys to the Small Snake Island!"

Sun Erke did not wait for them to reply, he directly walked towards the lakeside and waved them over.

Qiao Mu asked in surprise: "How did he know we are going to the Small Snake Island?"

Yang Jie and Su Qin were also at a loss.

After following Sun Erke to the lake, they saw a boat docked near the shore. Su Qin remembered this boat, because it was this boat that saved her from the Small Snake Island.

As they walked onto the boat, Qiao Mu couldn't help but ask Sun Erke: "Brother, can you tell me, how did you know we were going to Small Snake Island?"

Sun Erke looked at Qiao Mu in a daze and replied: "Sister told me!"

"Elder sister?" Qiao Mu was stunned. "Who is big sister?"

"Big sister is big sister!"

"What's elder sister's name?"

"Big sister is big sister!"

After that, no matter how Qiao Mu asked, Sun Erke would always answer like this.

Sun Erke swiftly withdrew his anchor and started paddling. Qiao Mu turned around and asked Yang Jie and Yang Jie: "It seems that someone told him to wait for us here in advance. Who do you think it is?"

"I don't know." Su Qin shook her head.

"I feel like …" Yang Jie looked at Su Qin, and hesitated: "Could it be Zheng Huiling?"

Hearing Yang Jie's guess, Qiao Mu's expression was very calm, which showed that he also had the same idea. On the contrary, it was Su Qin who asked in shock, "How could it be my mother?"

"My instincts tell me." Yang Jie replied.

"Because only your mother has this kind of foresight, and your mother is a very important part of the whole thing." Qiao Mu helped Yang Jie explain.

"But my mother... "Didn't she already …"

"Yeah, who can explain that clearly? But I still think that your mother is no longer alive and must have used some special method. " said.

"If only he could communicate normally." Yang Jie indicated with her mouth towards Sun Erke.

Only after the boat had left the shore did they truly feel the fierce night wind on the lake and the strong stench of dead fish. Sun Erke did not communicate with them at all, only saying the word "finished" while rowing the boat. Seeing the boat's bumpy body and the strong wind, Qiao Mu made Yang Jie and Su Qin hide in the awning. Just as Yang Jie was about to move his body, the three of them suddenly saw something floating on the surface of the lake.

Sun Erke also noticed those things, and immediately cried out, and quickly rowed away.

When they got closer, they saw that there were several corpses floating on the lake. Because it wasn't far from the shore, the corpses were stuck in a pile of rocks, allowing them to float.

Sun Erke anchored the boat next to a big boulder, then with a flash of his torch, he saw a total of five corpses, each of them with scars on their faces. It seemed like they had just died, the other corpses were all wearing uniform.