??

  Time has passed, and that patch of reeds is still there, but the one who comes is no longer the old friend from those years. Zhou Yuanhua said that it was at that small dock where he found Cheng Ziyin. This dock was exactly the place we passed by when we crossed the river back then. That small wooden boat is still there, and I reckon it hasn't been used for a very long time.

  "Can't see what's so special about it?" I asked.

  "Uh-huh, I just wanted to come out and get some fresh air. If I didn't give myself a reason, I wouldn't have had the courage to come here."

  "What do you plan to do? Let those students flatten the entire mountain?" I took a drag on my cigarette and continued, "Wenbin, don't think too much about things that are beyond your capabilities. At the time, they didn't care about anyone's lives when they blew up this place. If you really want an explanation, it's best to go ask them for one."

  "We'll go anyway, sooner or later we'll go, let's go."

  "Alas..." I sighed, gazing at the inky black river surface and said: "Fatty, brother, I don't even know where to bury you now, couldn't you have left some clue?"

  I turned around and walked towards the village, when suddenly a "cough, cough" sound came from behind me. It wasn't just me who heard it, they both did too. At the same time, all three of us turned our heads back and shouted: "Who!"

  Suddenly, Ye Qiu pointed to a patch of reeds on the other side and shouted: "Over there!" He took off in a flash, and I was originally in front of him. In an instant, he had left me several paces behind. Watching Ye Qiu dash into the reeds like a cheetah, Cha Wen and I followed closely behind, but his speed was simply too fast. The reeds here were over a person tall, and the wider areas were no less than ten meters wide. Along both banks of the river, one couldn't see the end in sight. Normally, people would easily get lost walking in, and before long, I had completely lost Ye Qiu's trail.

  "Halt, halt!" I panted to Cha Wenbin: "Let's not chase anymore, we can't keep up. We might as well go up to the riverbank and wait. If even Old Two can't catch up, then we're just adding to the chaos."

  Waiting for Lao Er to return, I waited until the middle of the night. I and Cha Wenbin were guarding at the riverbank ridge, not knowing where he had gone. It wasn't until I was about to fall asleep that I heard a faint sound.

  I rubbed my eyes and saw that Ye Qiu had returned, with something still in his hand.

  "Found it?"

  "No, I've been chasing for a long time." He threw the thing in his hand towards me and said: "I only picked up this piece of cloth, that person ran very fast." It wasn't until then that I discovered he was covered in cuts all over his body, all of which were scratched by the reeds. As for this person's self-healing ability, I didn't worry at all. What pained me was that the new set of clothes I had just bought him a few days ago was ruined again.

  "Take a closer look at who it is!"

  "I can't see clearly, but my intuition tells me that we all know this person."

  I casually said: "Don't tell me you're a fatty."

  Unexpectedly, he said very naturally: "Yes, my intuition tells me it's him."

  "Really?" I was overjoyed and quickly grabbed his shoulders, shaking them as I asked: "Where? Where?"

  Ye Qiu pointed to the endless reeds behind him and said, "If he deliberately hid from you, you wouldn't be able to find him. He only said it was like that. If he's really still alive, I think he'll definitely come to us."

  "It can't be him." I muttered: "How could he hide from us? No way, definitely not."

  A sense of disappointment accompanied the three people on their way back, and no clues were obtained tonight. When they returned to the dormitory, the woman was sleeping very quietly, with a clean face that had several good looks. Xiaobai said, "Tonight she's accompanying us, we're just sleeping next door, if anything happens, just call out and she'll respond."

  The big bed, the floor was covered with quilts, three men slept side by side, tired all day, sleeping exceptionally well, in a while, the two men's snores began to rise and fall. That night, I was woken up by a strong urge to urinate, dazed and got out of bed to go to the toilet, at that time, the toilets were all built outside, just like the outhouses in rural areas.

  I had just put on my clothes and was about to leave the room when I found that the front door was open. Had someone forgotten to lock it at night? I thought it strange, but then I saw the light on in the toilet, a 40-watt incandescent bulb with a yellow glow.

  It was probably some student who got up at night, I thought to myself, so I lit a cigarette at the door and thought about going in after he came out. After I finished smoking one cigarette, there was no movement inside, so I cleared my throat and shouted at the door: "Who's in there using the toilet?"

  No one responded to me, so I shouted again: "Is anyone in the toilet?" Still no one responded. "If there's really no one, then I'll come in."

  This outhouse didn't have a door, just a bed sheet hung on the door frame as a curtain. I gently lifted it and stuck my head inside, and was immediately scared out of my wits.

  "Ah!" A loud scream, this time it really scared the hell out of me. A green-faced, fang-toothed thing was right in front of my face. I was still dazed at that moment, and suddenly there was such a thing staring at me, as you can imagine what happened next. After my loud roar, all the lights in the entire courtyard lit up instantly, and a group of old men wearing vests and shorts, holding flashlights, rushed into the courtyard.

  Cha Wenbin and Ye Qiuhuo rushed over hastily and asked: "What's going on?!"

  I pointed inside the toilet and said: "You go see for yourself."

  Ye Qiu pushed open the door curtain, and he was also startled to take a step back. In an instant, he rushed in again, and soon saw him hugging someone rushing out hastily.

  At that time, when I saw the thing, I was so scared that I almost fainted. Maybe it was out of self-defense, there were piles of dry firewood stacked on the wall outside the toilet, about the length and thickness of an arm. After being startled, I picked up a piece of dry firewood and hit the green-faced, fang-toothed head with one stick, and the other party fell to the ground without even humming. After falling to the ground, I only then discovered that this person was wearing women's clothes, and it looked very familiar. By the time I reacted, it was too late, they had all come over.

  In the thatched cottage, the person I knocked unconscious was Cheng Ziyin. No one knew where she got that green-faced, fang-toothed mask from, and now it's in He Lao's hands.

  "This, Professor Gu, what do you think?" He Lao took off his glasses and handed the mask to Gu Qinghe.

  Gu Qing held the mask in his hand, turning it over and examining it carefully before saying: "I dare to say that at first glance, I think this thing is a relic from before the Qin Dynasty, but the exact date is hard to say."

  "The bronze smelting technology of the Shang and Zhou dynasties was already very mature, but to create such a thin mask with such exquisite workmanship is truly remarkable." He Lao pointed at the front of the mask and said: "Look here, it uses gold foil inlay technique, and the cheek area has a natural bronze color. From an overall perspective, it doesn't damage the outline of the whole shape at all. Whether from a technical or artistic point of view, this is a rare national treasure."

  Gu Qing and Ai turned their heads to look at me and said: "Wasn't that girl just rescued this afternoon, where did she get this thing?"

  I spread my hands and said: "You ask me, who am I supposed to ask? My soul almost flew away from being scared by that woman."

  At this time, Ye Qiu walked out of the house, and Zha Wenbin hurriedly asked: "How is Miss Cheng?"

  "It's okay, Xiaoyi just fainted after being hit on the forehead and getting a cut."

  At this time, Cha Wenbin gave me a reproachful look and said: "You're really something, didn't even take a good look before striking, almost beat the guy to death, see how you'll deal with it."

  "You're still blaming me, who can I reason with? That guy was already on someone's head at that time and could still take a closer look. After complaining for a while, I suddenly remembered: "Hey, didn't that man say this afternoon that this Miss Cheng was driven mad by a green-faced, fang-toothed thing on the riverbank? Could it be this thing?"

  Zha Wenbin nodded and said: "It's probably true. Now we need to figure out where this thing came from first. Xiao Bai, what time did she go out tonight?"

  "I don't know either," said Yuan Xiaobai shaking his head. "I didn't sleep for long before I was startled awake by Xiao Yi's cries."

  I said, "Obviously, this thing didn't just appear out of thin air in our courtyard. This girl came alone with empty hands this afternoon, the only possibility is that someone sent it in and put it on her face. If you want to know the answer, just wait until tomorrow morning when she wakes up and ask her herself."

  "It's just this method." Cha Wenbin picked up the mask and said, "This thing has an unknown origin, let's put it with us for now."

  That night, Zhang Wenbin put the mask in the room, and I couldn't sleep no matter how hard I tried. As soon as I closed my eyes, I felt like there were a pair of eyes staring at me in the room, and I was uncomfortable no matter how I turned over. I didn't know about those two guys, but I didn't hear their snores either, so I asked: "Wenbin, Lao Er, are you guys asleep?"

  "No." they both replied in unison.

  I looked out the window and saw that the sky was already lightening, so I said: "The sky is going to be bright soon, we might as well not sleep. I always feel that this mask is eerie, it keeps staring at me, do you two have any feeling about it?"

  "Is that what you said?" Zhang Wenbin said: "I was thinking about the meaning of this mask being put on her face, I always feel that it is intentionally releasing some kind of signal to us. All night, I couldn't figure it out. First, we found movement by the river, and then this thing appeared. There should be a connection between these two things."

  I saw Ye Qiu being silent for half a day and asked: "Old Two, what about you?"

  "There are mosquitoes." His response was still so nonchalant, I didn't bother to chat with him anymore. Thinking that dawn was approaching and there were many things to do, I yawned and urged: "Let's sleep for a while, being able to rest for an hour is also happiness, my Zhong Kui is coming to find me."

  It's really strange, this drowsiness came out of nowhere. I, who couldn't sleep earlier, was like someone who hadn't slept in eight lifetimes. I almost entered dreamland without any process...

  ...