dkrc Chapter 107 The Cursed Object in the Rental Apartment
Chapter 107 The Cursed Object in the Rental Apartment
Chapter 107 The Cursed Object in the Rental Apartment
The patchwork garment, also known as the merit garment or the fearless garment, is a garment made by piecing together many pieces of old cloth.
After this custom spread among the people, it evolved into a tradition of praying for children's health and well-being.
Specifically, the parents would sew together scraps of fabric collected from hundreds of families to create a complete garment, hence the garment is also known as "Hundred-Family Garment" or "Hundred-Child Garment".
However, Li Jiuhe and the others had never heard of patchwork shrouds!
In other words, the fabric of this garment was all cut from the burial clothes of the dead and pieced together to form a complete burial garment.
Is this meant to bless the deceased wearing this shroud? Or is it to absorb the good fortune of the descendants of the original owners of those shrouds?
The discovery is becoming increasingly bizarre.
However, it's clear that Director Mu must have thought of something after seeing the clothes, which is why he immediately asked the mayor of Nanfeng Town to come over.
And the town mayor did indeed know some secrets; he recognized the patchwork shroud at a glance.
Soon, someone brought over stools, and they formed a circle in the small courtyard, inviting the town mayor to sit down and begin his story.
About twenty years ago, a wealthy mother and son moved to Nanfeng Town. The mother was divorced and raised her son by doing business on her own.
I came to Nanfeng Town with the intention of contracting a vineyard here to make wine, because Nanfeng Town's grapes have a great reputation in the area.
However, the investment environment at the time was very bad. The people in the town were extremely protective of their own, and in order to protect the development of people in their own town, they colluded with town officials to swindle the mother and son.
The mother invested all the money she had saved from her previous business, but the project was slow to get off the ground. One day the paperwork was difficult to get approved, and the next day there were holdouts who refused to move.
Later, after the vineyard was finally built, it was sued by residents of several towns due to land contract disputes before it could even start production.
An investigation revealed that the land ownership was indeed problematic. This back-and-forth dragged on for several years, resulting in a complete loss of money and the vineyard being sealed off, leaving nothing to be done.
The mother sought redress everywhere to no avail, eventually losing all her wealth and hanging herself in Nanfeng Town.
Her son, who is fifteen years old, keeps insisting that his mother was murdered and is almost insane.
He was later taken away by government officials, and two years later, a number of local officials and several wealthy businessmen were investigated and punished because of this incident.
Later, the son suddenly returned to town and dug up all the graves of the families who had offended his mother.
They cut off pieces of the deceased's burial clothes, sewed a garment for himself, then put on the patchwork burial clothes and hanged himself in the place where his mother had hanged herself, leaving behind his last words.
In his last words, he said that even if he became a ghost, he would make all the enemies who bullied him and his mother suffer a terrible death for generations to come!
"Later, those whose funeral clothes were stolen were worried that their family's good fortune would be stolen and their descendants would suffer bad luck, so they specially invited a master to perform a ritual for several days. One of the masters said that the patchwork clothes correspond to fortune, prosperity, happiness and longevity, but the patchwork funeral clothes correspond to death, illness, disaster and calamity respectively."
The people in the courtyard sat together, looking at the patchwork shroud spread out on the ground.
After listening to the current mayor of Nanfeng Town speak, everyone fell silent and did not say a word.
Only the town mayor knows these past events, because the officials, such as Director Mu, have been replaced several times over the years.
Even Director Mu had only heard of this matter, but did not know the details.
In fact, the town mayor himself gave a very vague account, such as how the town's residents plotted against the mother and son, how they swindled people's investment money, and how they colluded with the authorities.
Because he only heard about it from the previous mayor.
After a moment, Li Jiuhe slowly spoke, asking the town mayor, "What happened to the child's body after he died?"
"He was buried right then and there, on a nearby mountain," the town mayor said. "Later, that area was developed, and all the graves were moved. If they were unclaimed graves, they were disposed of in a unified manner; they were probably moved to some public cemetery, but I don't know exactly where."
Hearing this, Luo Shuo felt a pang of unease and whispered to Li Jiuhe, "Do you believe in ghosts?"
Li Jiuhe shook his head. He remembered Yu Minmin telling him that there were no ghosts in this world.
Even seemingly illogical scenarios may be caused by abnormal sequences.
This viewpoint is probably not Yu Minmin's own, but rather the result of her conversation with Si Mingyu in her dream.
Furthermore, Si Mingyu must have obtained some information through the real mastermind.
However, the current situation points entirely to the deceased child, because only he has the motive to avenge his mother.
They had just learned that the families whose doors were knocked on in the middle of the night were all descendants of the people who had previously plotted to harm the mother and son.
Some of the elderly are still alive, but some are injured, some have died, and some have gone mad and lost their minds.
But as long as they weren't dead, they were all rescued at that moment.
"I believe in ghosts," Luo Shuo said emphatically. "If this wasn't done by a ghost, I'll defecate upside down. This ghost is now filled with deep resentment and has cast a curse on his enemy!"
There was a reason for his statement, because after the patchwork shroud was found, Luo Shuo realized that there were no other traces to be found by continuing the search.
If it weren't for the ghost, he wouldn't have been able to figure out why the clues ended there.
Li Jiuhe asked, "If there's a ghost, why would it knock on our rented room door?"
Luo Shuo was taken aback and didn't know how to answer.
Li Jiuhe continued, "We don't even know that mother and son, and we've only just arrived in Nanfeng Town. If they wanted revenge, why did they come looking for us, and even knock on our door twice in one night?"
—
Luo Shuo took a breath and fell into deep thought.
After thinking for a while, he suddenly rubbed his chin and muttered to himself, "It's not easy to poop upside down."
He then changed the subject, turning to Huang Guozhong on the other side and whispering, "If you had known it would be like this, you shouldn't have saved these people in the first place!"
Huang Guozhong looked troubled: "The mistakes of their elders should not be borne by the younger generation. Many of these people have no idea what happened in the past."
Luo Shuo seemed not to hear him, and just looked at Huang Guozhong: "Look at the state you are in now. Even if you are treating the descendants of those guys, you will only suffer yourself! It's not worth it, not worth it at all."
Huang Guozhong stopped arguing with him and just gave a bitter smile.
It was already dark, and lights were on in every house.
The courtyard where Li Jiuhe and the others were located was also lit up. Two large charcoal fires were lit in the middle of the courtyard, and there was a sloping canopy above it, which could shelter from the wind but not from the rain.
As requested by Li Jiuhe, the police station quickly retrieved their preliminary investigation records.
If we trace the origins of these families whose doors were knocked on, we can see that they were all connected to the investment made by that mother and son.
At the same time, Li Jiuhe also asked them to check whether the landlord of that rental house was involved in the matter, because he suspected that they were mistakenly injured when they moved into that rental house.
Perhaps the curse was originally intended to target the landlord of the rental property.
But the results came quickly: the owner of the rental house had nothing to do with what happened back then.
The outcome seemed somewhat illogical.
Most importantly, the trail to Luo Shuo's side had gone cold. After the patchwork shroud was pieced together, he could no longer track down any other information.
It's as if the origin of the Tear Curse has come to an end.
"This shouldn't have happened," Li Jiuhe muttered to himself.
There must be a source to this whole thing, and that source couldn't possibly be the patchwork shroud.
Could this burial garment be a serial item?
At that moment, his mind was racing, and Ziguang stared intently at the clothes laid out on the ground.
He then asked Luo Shuo, "Is it possible that this garment is a sequence item?"
Luo Shuo looked astonished: "It's not impossible. If it's disguised as an ordinary shroud, I wouldn't be able to detect it. Some people with special sequence abilities, like Boss Tong, could, though."
Li Jiuhe nodded. He remembered that Xu Wei's bone flute could also detect fluctuations in sequence energy, and that was how she found him in the first place.
He pondered for a moment, then muttered to himself, "I wonder if my abilities are sufficient?"
"Can you do it too? Then you should give it a try," Luo Shuo hurriedly said.
Li Jiuhe's ability to define tasks cannot actually help him judge the truth or falsehood of a matter; he cannot even determine whether the direction of the tasks he sets is correct.
Therefore, if you set up the wrong task, the conclusion you get will most likely be wrong as well.
Its own task lacks independent thinking ability. It cannot help Li Jiuhe actively correct the errors in the task. It may only provide some predictive information when he sets the correct task.
However, Li Jiuhe is now preparing to use his task definition ability to determine whether this shroud is a sequence item.
The mission information quickly appeared.
[Task definition successful. The task is temporarily named "Confirm the burial shroud is a sequence item."]
【Name: Confirmation that the burial shroud is a serial item】
[Level: No Level]
[Requirement: Use specific methods to determine and identify the patchwork shroud as a sequence item.]
[Rewards: None at this time.]
[Note: The task level and rewards will be dynamically adjusted based on your discoveries.]
After setting the task, Li Jiuhe got up, picked up a pair of tongs for burning charcoal, took a piece of burning charcoal from the brazier, and then went to the Hundred-Blank Burial Clothes.
Luo Shuo was initially curious and wanted to see how Li Jiuhe was going to test whether the hundred burial shrouds were serial items, but when he suddenly saw Li Jiuhe's actions, he was immediately startled.
He jumped up with a bang, and Luo Shuo rushed forward to stop him.
"No, Brother Li, is this how you test it?"
"What else can we do?" Li Jiuhe retorted.
Luo Shuo said anxiously, "But if you burn it like this, if the shroud is a serial item, it might have a special reaction, or even extinguish the fire directly. But what if it's not a serial item? Won't it just be destroyed by burning?"
"I naturally have a way to prevent it from burning," Li Jiuhe said with a smile.
Luo Shuo looked at him suspiciously.
"Believe me."
Li Jiuhe shoved him aside, walked to the hundred shrouds, and stuffed the burning embers into them.
The shroud was quickly set ablaze. First, a large hole was burned in the part that was in contact with the hot coals, and then flames rose and spread in all directions.
"You—you—you still burned the funeral clothes?" Luo Shuo exclaimed in horror.
Li Jiuhe ignored him and squatted down to observe carefully.
The others didn't understand what they were up to, but they all believed that the investigators must have their reasons for doing this, so they followed along and observed without saying a word.
Before long, the complete patchwork shroud was burned to nothing but a clump of black ashes.
Nothing unusual happened during this period.
Li Jiuhe glanced at the task information he had set and found no changes, but it also showed that the task was not yet completed.
Because when he initially set up the task, he specifically set it to "determine if the shroud is a serial item" instead of "determine if the shroud is a serial item".
Because if the latter mission information is adopted, if he burns the shroud now and there is no change, it means that the shroud is not a sequence item.
At this point, the task will show as completed, and there's no going back.
Therefore, he set it to "determine that the burial shroud is a serial item", so even if the burial shroud is burned, the task of determining that it is a serial item is not completed.
Judging from the progress of the mission, it may be possible to continue the verification from other places, so the mission will not end immediately, meaning that Li Jiuhe still has room to salvage the situation.
The mission was still ongoing, but he was now almost certain that the burned burial shroud was not a sequence item.
Those curses were not inflicted by the shroud on its own, but by someone else.
Li Jiuhe quickly reset the current task and canceled its continuation.
The scene shifts, and he is now sitting back down in a chair in the courtyard.
"Could this really have been caused by a ghost? Like Luo Shuo said, a curse from an evil spirit?"
Li Jiuhe lowered his head and pondered to himself.
Then Luo Shuo asked from the side, "Didn't you say you were going to take the test? Why aren't you going?"
Li Jiuhe casually said, "It's already been tested; the burial shroud isn't a serial item."
"Huh?" Luo Shuo looked puzzled. "When was the test done?"
"Just while you were spacing out."
"Me? Daydreaming?"
Li Jiuhe had already stood up and walked to the complete set of burial clothes. He turned to Director Mu and asked, "Director Mu, twenty years ago, that mother and child hanged themselves in the town. According to the regulations at the time, was an autopsy performed?"
Director Mu nodded: "There should be, after all, there should be a complete record of this kind of murder case. However, the original record may not be available anymore, because the entire station has conducted several historical data clean-ups since then, and data that has been out of dispute for a certain period of time may have been disposed of in a unified manner."
As he spoke, Director Mu took out his phone and dialed the head of the case files department, asking them to try and find it.
"So what should we do now?" Luo Shuo asked.
Li Jiuhe pondered for a moment and said, "Let's split into two groups. I'll try to lure the culprit out. You go back to the rented room—"
"Why go back to the rented room?" Luo Shuo was taken aback.
Given how exhausted Tong Cheng was, he should be sleeping soundly right now, and it looks like he'll need to sleep until at least tomorrow morning to fully recover.
Luo Shuo thought Li Jiuhe was asking him to seek help from Tong Cheng.
He himself felt that if the two of them had spent a whole day trying to resolve the case, it would be beneath them to ask Tong Cheng for help.
Li Jiuhe replied, "That person knocked on our door twice. Although we can't find any reason for it now, one thing is certain: we probably have a cursed object on our side as well."
"You mean you want me to go back and find the cursed object?" Luo Shuo understood.
Li Jiuhe nodded: "Didn't you say you couldn't sense any more patchwork shroud fabric? So the cursed object at the rented house isn't shroud fabric at all, but something else. After all, we have nothing to do with this old case."
"But why would someone be cursed even if it doesn't matter?" Luo Shuo found this unbelievable.
However, he immediately agreed, "I'll go back now and find the cursed object in the rented house as soon as possible."
It was late at night.
The lights in most homes in town were off, and the residents were fast asleep. A gentle night breeze blew through the town, carrying with it the scent of snow.
A bone-chilling cold.
In the central square of Nanfeng Town, a long bamboo pole is stuck in the soil in the middle of the square, and a piece of clothing that has just been mended hangs on the top of the pole.
This is the patchwork burial garment.
The shroud swayed in the night breeze, making it look as if a corpse was hanging on it, swaying in the wind, creating an eerie scene.
Li Jiuhe, Director Mu, and others hid in houses near the square.
Huang Guozhong and Li Jiuhe stood in a dark room, looking out the window toward the square.
"Investigator Li, if we do this—will the one who cast the curse take the bait?"
"Not necessarily." Li Jiuhe shook his head. "But if he wants to continue his revenge, he will definitely try every means to get this burial shroud back."
According to his speculation, if this guy wants to curse someone, he must first have the relevant cursed object in order to carry it out.
Without the cursed item, the process may not be possible, or the curse effect may be greatly reduced.
At the same time, outside the rented house.
Luo Shuo had been searching around this small rented house for a long time but had not found any trace of the cursed object.
He thought he should go inside and search again, even though doing so might wake Tong Cheng.
As soon as I pushed open the door, a white, naked body blocked my view.
Looking up, I saw it was Ant Queen Ma Li, who had been guarding Tongcheng all along.
Ma Li thought it was someone else; she was wearing a hiking hat, which must have been found in Tong Cheng's luggage.
He pulled his hat brim down, covering most of his chubby head, and looked at Luo Shuo with some surprise.
Luo Shuo glanced into the room and whispered, "Is he still resting?"
Ma Li nodded: "What are you doing? I've been hearing noises near the house, it turns out it's you."
"Am I looking for something?" Luo Shuo replied, then went inside.
"What are you looking for?" Ma Li asked curiously.
Luo Shuo looked at her, and suddenly an idea popped into his head: "By the way, can you command your ant soldiers to help find something?"
'
Ma Li nodded and asked, "What are you looking for? If it's in this house, I can find it for you quickly."
"I don't know what it is either. Could you please have your soldiers search around and see if there are any items that clearly don't belong in this rental house and have a completely different aura?"
Ma Li said nothing more, and a moment later a large number of black ants were released from her tail, spreading out in all directions in dense swarms.
It quickly squeezed into every crevice it could get into, whether it was a crack in the wall or a crack in the floor.
Just four or five minutes later, Ma Li looked surprised, as if she had received feedback from the soldiers.
A short while later, she waved towards the kitchen and said to Luo Shuo, "Take a look and see if this is what you're looking for."
My kids tell me this thing doesn't smell like this room.
Luo Shuo turned his head and saw a dense swarm of black ants carrying something on their heads moving out of the kitchen.
If you don't look closely, you might think that thing is moving on its own.
Upon closer inspection, Luo Shuo trembled, his face filled with terror: "This is—"
He discovered that it was actually a small cloth bag, a small pink cloth bag.