False evidence

Chapter 321 Anfeng Hotel (Part 1)

Seeing that we didn't believe him and were also feeling bored, Liu the Blind Man said that whatever strange things happened in the hotel was none of our business, and that we should just eat and drink our fill and leave first thing tomorrow morning.

After the four of them had finished eating and drinking, Yan Fengwei reminded me, "It's time to let the lambs out and feed them something."

I slapped my forehead: "I almost forgot about it. You take it out first, and I'll go to the kitchen to find some cabbage leaves or something."

I went down to the kitchen on the first floor, found some vegetable scraps and such, and was about to go upstairs when the lights suddenly went out.

Seeing that the back doorway was also pitch black, I clicked my tongue in frustration. Everything was going wrong; why did the power go out at this time?

It's supposed to be early spring, but it's still very cold at night. Without air conditioning, with only two thin blankets in each room, how are we supposed to sleep at night?

After a moment's hesitation, I gritted my teeth and went to the outer room.

I figured if it was a circuit problem, I could find out where the meter box was and take a look myself. But if the whole area was without power, I'd have to ask the shopkeeper for a few more blankets.

As I walked through the dining room, I saw the main room, which had been set up as a mourning hall, flickering with candlelight. I coughed softly and said, "Hello!"

No one responded.

I sighed inwardly, casually placed the vegetable leaves on the table, coughed again, and stepped out.

In the candlelight, the main house was still the same as when we arrived, but only women dressed in mourning clothes and a little boy knelt with their heads bowed to one side.

I'm really overwhelmed.

It was Anxin who allowed us to stay at the hotel. Even if the bearded man wasn't a relative, he had to be someone who helped us, or at least someone we could talk to.

Both of them are not here right now, leaving only the newly widowed woman and a child. There's nothing I can tell them.

Forget it, we're not on vacation. Let's close the windows tightly and just tough it out for the night.

I turned around quietly, and just as I was about to walk back, I caught a glimpse out of the corner of my eye that the little boy who was kneeling suddenly fell silently to the ground.

I was startled. This child looked to be about the same age as Shen San. Perhaps he had fainted from kneeling for too long while keeping vigil and from being too sad.

"What's wrong with the child?"

I rushed over to help the child up, but before my hand even touched him, I felt a sudden shiver run through my body at the sight of him.

To check on the child's condition, you have to squat down, and I'm squatting down to the side of the woman right now.

Before I could even help the child up, I saw what the woman looked like.

When she arrived, she was indeed a woman in her forties. However, what we see now is a paper figure with eyebrows, eyes, mouth and nose drawn with a pen under the white mourning hat and robe!

As I was shocked, a hand touched the child's shoulder, and out of fright, my fingers instinctively tightened.

With a soft "snap," five fingers sank into the child's shoulder through the mourning robe.

In the haste to pull his hand away, the 'child' was pulled over and rolled to one side.

Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a paper figure with a white face and drawn features!
Unlike the larger one, this small paper figure had two patches of crimson staining its cheeks, which looked particularly eerie under the candlelight.

The words of Blind Liu echoed in my ears—this hotel is a tomb!

This is a graveyard. Could all the people here be paper figures?
My temples throbbed, and after a few suppressed breaths, I gritted my teeth and helped the paper figure, which looked like a child, to its kneeling position.

I stood up and looked at the photo on the altar, only to find that it had become completely blank!
At the same time, I sensed something even more terrifying, to the point that my body trembled uncontrollably.

Right now I'm facing the altar, with two paper figures kneeling on my left and a coffin on my right!

The coffin used to hold the body must not be closed before burial or cremation.

At that moment, in the flickering candlelight, I saw out of the corner of my eye that someone sat up in the coffin!

Startled by the eerie paper figure, I stood up and instinctively took several steps back, at which point my right side was almost touching the coffin.

The coffin was supported by two long benches, and the opening of the coffin was about arm's length high. The person inside, when seated, was almost shoulder-to-shoulder with me!

I didn't have the courage to look directly at them for a moment, but the two were so close that I could see with just a slight tilt of my eye that the person in the coffin was also glancing at me with a sideways glance!
In a short period of time, my scalp felt like it had exploded in several layers.

After the initial shock, a surge of anger welled up inside me.

He took a deep breath, turned around abruptly, and reached out to grab the top of the person in the coffin.

However, before her fingertips could even touch the other person, her left arm was grabbed by someone.

"follow me!"

Without saying a word, the man dragged me out the back door.

The rain was still pouring down, and as soon as I breathed in the damp air, my restlessness subsided a bit.

The girl who pulled me out was named An Xin.

"What are you doing down here?"

Anxin was still holding onto one of my arms, so I could feel the strong rise and fall of her chest.

I pulled my arm away and turned my head to look behind her.

In the corner of the back eaves, two people were huddled together; they were the woman and the little boy I had seen that evening!
I asked in a low voice, "What are you doing? What's with the paper figures in the mourning hall?"

An Xin squeezed her eyes shut, then opened them and peeked through the back door. She pulled me closer to the corner and asked again in a voice only the two of us could hear:

"Why are you down here if you're not sleeping?"

"I...I'll find some cabbage stalks."

"Cabbage stalks? What do you need that for?"

"I feed the sheep..."

"Feed the sheep!"

An Xin's eyes widened suddenly. "What sheep? How many legs does it have?"

I sensed something amiss in her words and hesitated for a moment before replying, "A three-legged sheep."

An Xin stared at me blankly for a moment, then smoothed her slightly damp hair and murmured, "You actually came..."

I increasingly felt that this was not a simple matter. "Girl, can you explain yourself clearly?"

After a moment of confusion, An Xin nodded decisively, "Someone asked me to give this to you."

He then pulled an envelope from his pocket and handed it to me, saying, "He said you should read the contents before he lets me talk to you."

The sender and recipient information written on the envelope was obviously from a long time ago; I didn't recognize the address or the name.

This was clearly a used envelope, but the torn part was folded and even had a sealing wax stamp added.

Sealing wax was an old-fashioned 'encryption measure' used by official or private wealthy families to transmit important documents and letters of credit.

But the seal on it...

In the past, I would have definitely thought that what was stamped on the sealing wax was not a seal at all, but just something that was pressed on before the sealing wax solidified.

But now, I have too many details stored up in my brain.

Therefore, they immediately recognized that it was not a seal, but a sheep hoof mark!

(End of this chapter)