The Enigma of the Yishui Monster Chapter 8

The dead cat that ran out added a bit of eerie atmosphere to the journey.

Oliver Bai pulled Ethan Zhan forward, only to find that it was getting darker and darker, which was a bit confusing.

"Why is it so dark?" Bai Yuting couldn't help but frowning. It was not like he had never walked around at night before. Even without the moon, it wouldn't be this dark.

"The wind is light." Ethan Zhan suddenly asked, "It seems that the clouds in this area are very thick?"

"Yes." Oliver Bai nodded, "The ancestral hall is just in front."

"Oh...Brother Bai." Ethan Zhan suddenly called Oliver Bai.

Oliver Bai stopped and looked at him.

"Actually, I can walk on my own." Ethan Zhan moved his hand, Oliver Bai looked down, and saw that his wrist was still in his hand. He let go, and the atmosphere became a little awkward.

Ethan Zhan took a step forward, and when he felt his shoulders touching, he said, "Remember to tell me if there are any pits or rocks."

"Uh, okay." Oliver Bai nodded and walked forward side by side with Ethan Zhan, paying special attention to whether the road under Ethan Zhan's feet was flat... It seemed that Ethan Zhan didn't like the feeling of being taken care of.

Although the journey was strange, nothing else happened and the two of them climbed the mountain quite smoothly.

The Mafu Temple was indeed very dilapidated and there was no light. Bai Yuting listened and heard no human voice.

"No one here?" Ethan Zhan was a little disappointed. "I thought there would be a few hooligans here."

"Maybe they don't dare to live here anymore." Bai Yuting took out a tinder and looked around in the dim light.

The ancestral hall is quite eerie, especially the half-human, half-ghost statue of a horse's belly in the middle of the hall.

There were several extinguished bonfires on the ground, which showed that someone had lived here before, probably those stray wild children.

"It's been a while since anyone has been here." Ethan Zhan said, sniffing around, "Do you smell a musty smell?"

"I smell a lot of things," Oliver Bai said, frowning, "and the stench of a corpse."

"It must be coming from the mass grave behind." Ethan Zhan said, patting Oliver Bai, "Shall we go take a look?"

Oliver Bai couldn't help but frown, "See the mass grave?"

Ethan Zhan smiled and said, "I don't know if there's anyone nearby, let's walk around the temple first."

Oliver Bai found a relatively dry place in the hall and lit a bonfire... The surroundings immediately became bright. Looking around, there was nothing unusual. A lot of white walls had peeled off. I don't know if those children were naughty and painted a lot of black pictures on the walls...

Oliver Bai walked over slowly and looked at the paintings. At first he thought they were just casually drawn, but after a closer look, he realized, "They look just like the ones your elder brother drew on the bedside."

Ethan Zhan was surprised when he heard this, "Really?"

Taking out the portrait that Max Xiao and his friends had copied and comparing it, Oliver Bai nodded, "As for the one at the head of the bed, it's part of a whole wall of graffiti."

There were a lot of charcoal-burned willow branches thrown against the wall... There were also small black handprints on the wall, obviously, they were drawn by the children.

"Those kids can't possibly live in Room No. 1, so it must be my eldest brother who has been here?" Ethan Zhan got some clues and groped his way over.

Oliver Bai came over quickly and asked, "Where are you going?"

Ethan Zhan grabbed Oliver Bai's hair on his chest with one hand, "Looking for you."

Oliver Bai pulled his hair back and let him hold it on his shoulders. "Do you want to look around to see if there are any other clues left by your elder brother?"

Ethan Zhan nodded, "You are indeed a bosom friend."

Oliver Bai felt strange when he heard the word "confidant". He looked around and saw a candlestick on the altar with a half-burned candle.

He took the candle and prepared to light it on the bonfire, but Oliver Bai discovered something...

"Here are some bones."

"What bones?"

"Very small and thin." As he spoke, Oliver Bai poked the fire with a branch and found a few burnt mouse skins.

"It's a rat."

"Oh." Ethan Zhan nodded, "I guess the kids had nothing to eat, so they roasted the rat as a snack."

Oliver Bai frowned slightly, put down the firewood, and stood up, "But the cat ate the mouse and died."

"The child is dead too...isn't he?" Ethan Zhan asked back.

The two of them suddenly felt something was wrong.

After a long while, Ethan Zhan suddenly said, "Oh, I found something."

Oliver Bai turned around and looked at him, "What?"

Ethan Zhan tapped his chin lightly with his fingers and said, "I noticed that you never called me by my name when you talked to me."

Ethan Zhan suddenly said this, and Bai Yuting found it difficult to answer for a moment.

"When we first met, you didn't talk to me. Then when we got a little better, you started saying 'hey' and 'hello'. Now you just talk directly."

Oliver Bai opened his mouth and thought for a while - it seemed that it was indeed...

"Look, if you're called Zhao Pu, just call him Zhao Pu. If you're called Gongsun, just call him Gongsun. You called him Max Xiao, Leozi, Yingwei, Wang Chao and Ma Han, but you didn't call me." Ethan Zhan asked seriously, "Is my name ugly?"

Oliver Bai didn't understand why Ethan Zhan suddenly cared about this... But then again, Ethan Zhan's name was not easy to call. He had many friends in the martial arts world, and Ethan Zhan was the most special one. Calling him Ethan Zhan directly seemed very strange, and calling him Brother Zhan? It seemed a bit hypocritical, as if he didn't like him calling him Brother Bai. If it was three characters, it would be a name, but with two characters, you can't just say "Zhao" casually...

When Bai Yuting thought of that "Zhao"zi, he shuddered subconsciously.

"Hmm?" Ethan Zhan moved closer. Although he couldn't see clearly, he could imagine Oliver Bai's current expression.

Oliver Bai turned around and saw Ethan Zhan's half-smile, and knew that he was teasing him. That expression...

Oliver Bai suddenly opened his mouth and said, "Cat..."

"There's another cat?" Ethan Zhan was puzzled. He listened carefully and thought that there was no reason for it. A cat should be able to hear the noise itself.

Oliver Bai raised the corner of his mouth slightly, "Zhan Xiaomao."

...

There was a moment of silence in the hall.

"Ah..."

Ethan Zhan was probably so stunned that he forgot to breathe. Just as he was about to speak, he heard a whoosh from outside the hall...

In the eerie hall, there was a sudden sound similar to the breathing of a wild beast, which made people shudder.

Bai Yuting also gave up the idea of   joking and turned to leave, but then he thought again and turned back to pull Ethan Zhan to go with him.

After leaving the hall...I saw the nearby scene by the light of the candlesticks.

On the dark barren hill, not far away, there were two green lights. This time it was not a cat, but something bigger than a cat, a wild dog.

When the wild dog saw someone coming out, it turned around and ran away.

"Is it a dog?" Ethan Zhan asked.

"Not sure, let's go and take a look." As he said this, Bai Yuting held the candlestick in one hand and pulled Ethan Zhan with the other hand as they walked towards the back of the ancestral hall.

To their surprise, there was a wall at the back, most of which had collapsed. Outside the wall was a steep slope, and from a distance they could see graves and many wild dogs looking for food. It was probably the mass grave.

"I heard the sound of water." Ethan Zhan said.

"Yeah." Oliver Bai looked into the yard, "There's a pool in there, it's quite big..."

As he spoke, Oliver Bai suddenly stopped talking.

Ethan Zhan also heard a "splash" sound in the water, as if something went into the water.

"what sound?"

"I didn't see it clearly." Oliver Bai whispered, "There seems to be something in the water, it's quite big."

"Big fish?"

"Fish tail...but I seem to be looking at the hair." Bai Yuting stood there blankly. The moment just now was a bit too fast. The thing in the pond seemed to be a human head with a fish body.

"Hair?" Ethan Zhan felt incredible.

Bai Yuting took him into the yard and came to the edge of the pond to look inside.

A few bubbles appeared in the pool... The water surface had been shaken and there were waves. Soon, the water calmed down, the sound of the water disappeared, and a full moon was reflected on the dark water surface.

Oliver Bai looked at it for a long time and asked, "Cat...what day is today?"

Ethan Zhan's eyelids twitched when he heard the word "cat" and he said unhappily, "The beginning of the month."

"Did I just tell you there was a new moon in the sky?"

"Well, Yueyaer, what's wrong?" Ethan Zhan felt something strange listening to Oliver Bai's words.

"Why is the reflection in the water a full moon?" Oliver Bai couldn't believe himself when he said this.

...

Ethan Zhan was silent for a while, then said, "You can see that the moon is bullying you."

"Ahem..."

Oliver Bai was choking on his own saliva, looking helplessly at Ethan Zhan, and then looking back, the moon in the water had disappeared. He couldn't help but shake his head - was he hallucinating?!

The two stood by the water for at least half an hour, but the water surface was still dark and calm... At this time, the sky was at its darkest. In the silence, a slight "crunching" sound came from the mass grave in the distance. It was unclear whether it was the wild dogs gnawing on bones or the corpses grinding their teeth.

"I can't see it at this time..."

After a long while, Ethan Zhan suddenly broke the silence, "It's very exciting!"

Oliver Bai was amused by his words, and the atmosphere was not as tense as before. "Let's go into the hall and draw all the pictures on the wall to see if we can find any clues. As for the surroundings, we can wait until daybreak.

"Yes." Ethan Zhan nodded in agreement. The two turned and entered the hall.

After the two of them left the yard...the water in the pool suddenly began to ripple gently, and a dark head slowly emerged from the center of the pool.

...

Bai Yuting and Ethan Zhan returned to the front hall. The bonfire was still burning, and with the light it wasn't so eerie anymore.

Oliver Bai asked Ethan Zhan to sit on a cushion, took out the paper and pen he had brought with him, and began to trace the picture on the wall.

The surroundings became quiet again, with only the rustling sound of paper.

Ethan Zhan sat on the futon with his chin in one hand, his mind full of random thoughts... Oliver Bai was good at kung fu, and what was rare was that he was also very talented in literature, good at playing the piano, chess, calligraphy and painting. According to Gongsun, even if he didn't know kung fu, Oliver Bai would still be a standout among the group of Wensheng Gongzi.

Thinking of this, Ethan Zhan couldn't help but click his tongue twice.

Oliver Bai heard him making some noise and asked, "What's going on?"

"Hmm..." Ethan Zhan thought for a moment, "From now on, you should just call me 'Hey' or 'Ah'."

Oliver Bai said nothing, but raised the corner of his mouth slightly.

After a long time, the sky finally turned pale, and Oliver Bai finally copied the paintings on the entire wall. He put away the paper and sat down next to Ethan Zhan, breathing a sigh of relief.

Ethan Zhan closed his eyes, with his elbows resting on his knees, as if he was resting.

Oliver Bai asked, "Are you worried about your brother?"

"Um."

Ethan Zhan nodded and asked, "Are you good at communicating with children?"

Oliver Bai thought for a moment and asked, "What do you think?"

"Girls may be better..." Ethan Zhan replied with a smile.

Oliver Bai shook his head, "Why are you asking these questions?"

"That little monkey...may ignore us in a while." Ethan Zhan said, "This kind of child has been bullied since childhood and doesn't trust outsiders."

Oliver Bai turned to look at Ethan Zhan, "He and your brother had similar childhood situations?"

"He should be a little more miserable than my brother." Ethan Zhan changed his hand, "At least my brother doesn't have a tail."

Oliver Bai grew up in the care of his brother, and he had never experienced this feeling before, but he probably couldn't get better. He looked up, and his eyes fell on the beams on the roof. After looking for a while, he couldn't tell why... Oliver Bai suddenly felt that the beam seemed to be a little wrong, it was bent downwards, not straight.

"This is for you." Ethan Zhan took out the Kaifeng Prefecture badge from his waist and handed it to Oliver Bai, "I want to go to the county government office. Let's examine Master Liu's body. You will pretend to be me."

Ethan Zhan finished speaking, but didn't hear Oliver Bai's answer. He was a little puzzled, "Brother Bai?"

"Hmm?" Bai Yuting came back to his senses.

"What's wrong?"

"It seems..." Oliver Bai said as he stood up and leaped onto the beam.

Ethan Zhan also stood up after hearing the noise. Soon, Oliver Bai jumped down and said, "It seems that we should go to the county government office."

Ethan Zhan was puzzled.

Oliver Bai glanced at the beam and said, "I know where the bodies of the three little beggars are!"

...

An hour later, the sky brightened.

Early in the morning, when the constable Adrian Liang got up, he found a letter on the bedside. It only had one sentence - the body was on the beam of the Mafu Temple.

Adrian Liang felt something was odd, so he brought his men down to the ancestral hall, and actually found the bodies of the three young men on the beams, and was puzzled.

At this time, Ethan Zhan and Oliver Bai also returned to the inn, and they decided to discuss the matter carefully.

When he returned to Room 1, he saw that Max Xiao and Leo had already gotten up and were sitting at the table eating snacks. Seeing the two of them coming back, Leo hurriedly went to order two more snacks.

Ethan Zhan sat down at the table and finally had a break.

Max Xiao picked up a crab roe bun and handed it over to Ethan Zhan and stuffed it into his mouth.

Ethan Zhan ate the buns and said with a smile, "Little Fourth, help me find some clothes after you finish eating. I need to take a bath later."

Little Sizi was still half asleep, but when he heard the word "bath", he immediately perked up and asked, "Bath?"

"Well, rub my back again, just like you did before." Ethan Zhan said casually.

Leo had already brought in some snacks. Bai Yuting sat down and everyone had breakfast together.

"Well..." Max Xiao hesitated for a moment and said, "I won't wash it for you."

Ethan Zhan was stunned, "Why?"

"Ask Baibai to wash it for you." Max Xiao muttered, "Or get a big bucket and you two can wash it together."

"Ahem..."

After Max Xiao finished speaking, Oliver Bai choked on his porridge...