Chapter 33: A town without sunlight (3)

I knew because I had been in contact with such a unit since I was a child. A person with warm memories appeared in my mind uncontrollably—Hu Xueman, Uncle Hu…

These memories make me a little dazed, but I know very well that he is a member of the secret forces. I once saw him wear the uniform of the secret forces once. The special light blue shoulder patches left a deep impression on me, unlike now, when, in order to be more secretive, there is no such distinctive mark that stands out.

Just like the uniforms of Xiao Bei and the others, the uniforms worn by the Jiangyi Department are all very ordinary, with only minor differences in the numbering details that are not noticeable to the average person.

I was so shocked, for the simple reason that it showed that the state had discovered this long ago. Why had it allowed this town to get to this point? What was hidden behind it?

Uncle Wei Jun was still waiting for my answer, but my mouth was bitter. What should I say? That the country actually discovered that something was wrong with your town and sent someone to take care of it? The blue-shouldered troops are! They are the troops that specialize in dealing with these supernatural events… If I said that, would he be particularly disappointed? Feel that his persistence is particularly lonely?

So, I was silent for a long time before I said, “I’m just wondering why there would be a military unit here, with blue shoulder patches and all. I’m just curious.” While saying this, I was also thinking to myself, how do I get some information about the town government? This really seems to be the key now.

“This shouldn’t be strange, right? Because my father once said that the person in charge of the timber transportation office at the time, the one in charge, reported the timber transportation office to the higher-ups… The army should have been sent by the higher-ups, right? I’m not sure, anyway, since the timber transportation office was disbanded, no one has been in charge of this town… even…” At this point, Uncle Wei Jun smiled wryly, as if he didn’t know what to say.

I silently calculated in my heart that, according to the style of the secret department, if a matter cannot be completely resolved, it will not be easily withdrawn. If they encounter a matter that they cannot solve, or if they judge that it will not cause too much of an impact and is not something that needs to be solved urgently, then they will seal up the root of that matter for a long time and then cover it up… Just like the Hungry Ghost Tomb back then, my master personally sealed it up, and later it was dug up, so he had to personally go and solve it.

Of course, for understandable reasons, the secret department will “monitor” places with secrets for a long time. For example, Uncle Hu was always “monitoring” the Hungry Ghost Tomb in our village, so he was able to respond in a timely manner the first time something happened… For higher-level incidents, the local government agencies should have people from the secret department, and sometimes they even come to be the boss.

The secret department should have detailed information about the town, so such a strange and unique thing should be a very high-level event, right? It definitely wasn’t just about solving the zombie problem… So why?

At this time, Uncle Wei Jun wanted to say something but stopped. I sensed that there was something wrong with the town government. I had a strange thought in my mind. When something happened in this town, would the head of the secret department be Jiang Yi?

I suppressed my doubts and did not respond to Uncle Wei Jun. I always felt that Uncle Wei Jun was sensitive and would be disappointed by what I said. I had to hear the whole story before I could make a judgment.

So, I took out a cigarette as I usually do, adjusted my emotions, smiled at Uncle Wei Jun reluctantly, and said, “Can I smoke? Just one, I’m craving for a cigarette.”

“Oh, go ahead, one cigarette is fine! I really miss the smell of cigarettes, but unfortunately I’m sick now and can’t touch them at all… it’s good to be able to smell them again.” Uncle Weijun was very open-minded.

So, I lit a cigarette and successfully changed the subject. In the dark room, the smoke began to rise, and the story continued.

Although what Liu Erniang said to Liu Weijun was low-key, his tone was very exaggerated, as if he was encouraging Liu Weijun’s emotions and making him interested in everything about Taoism. Liu Erniang’s emotions as an outsider were completely understandable, because suddenly discovering that his son had been caught up in such a horrible incident, as a father, he must want his son to start learning and acquiring some knowledge that can deal with such incidents, even if it is only a last-minute attempt, even if it is not too obvious, but he still has to do it.

However, Liu Er’s intentions were not understood by Liu Weijun, who was more interested in the blue markings of the army than in formations or runes, and was more interested in the lazy-looking soldiers.

If Liu Weijun had looked into it at that time, he would have discovered something different, and he would not have told the story of his interest in the shoulder patches of that unit today.

It was because, in the face of such a troop, Lin Jianguo stood up. He walked over and said a few words to the head of the troop who had been guarding here with the troop: “These people are useless here.”

These few words provoked the emotions of several leaders of the army. They walked towards Lin Jianguo, as if they were unwilling to accept the fact and wanted to argue, but the sensitive leader of the army pulled these people aside.

Liu Weijun looked at them curiously, but in his position, he definitely couldn’t go over. Standing on the edge of the flat ground, he could only hear the sound of a few disputes coming in and out of the night wind. He couldn’t hear what they were saying clearly, but he could hear that the tone was somewhat intense. In the middle, Lin Jianguo’s tone was always calm.

The conversation lasted nearly 20 minutes. After that, the leaders of the several units returned here with pale and heavy faces. After that, without saying a word, they actually disbanded the team that was guarding here, and they stayed behind.

“You, go down with the troops.” Lin Jianguo said to Liu Weijun.

“Why?” Once a young person’s curiosity is aroused, they are extremely persistent.

“No reason. You shouldn’t be here for the next part of the story. I won’t hurt you.” Lin Jianguo’s eyes seemed to see through everything, and his words were always plain and simple. Even when facing a teenager, he didn’t have any extra explanations. There was only an unchangeable conclusion.

Liu Weijun was amazed by the courage of this persistent man who was willing to live in a shack! He turned out to be such a manly man! Liu Weijun felt that in the face of such a tough adult man, he didn’t even dare to say anything else, and could only nod silently and then agree.

That time, he was very sorry that he was unable to see the corpse of the legendary groom… Curiosity is greater than fear, and this is what young people are like.

In addition, Liu Weijun felt that his father was luckier than he was because he was allowed to stay behind by Lin Jianguo. Lin Jianguo said this to Liu Er, and Liu Weijun heard it clearly and can still recite it word for word to this day.

“Old Liu, you should stay too. You’ve already been marked before. It doesn’t really matter whether you stay or not. The important thing is that you’re the first friend I’ve ever had in my life. I don’t want to abandon you, as long as I can do it.”

These were Lin Jianguo’s exact words, and Liu Weijun couldn’t understand them at all. He just thought that after hearing these words, his father’s face first turned very ugly, and then he became very moved. Then he looked at Lin Jianguo and didn’t even ask for a reason, just kept saying three good words!

Then, Liu Weijun followed the soldiers down the mountain. They stopped at the bottom of the hill, where they guarded the area and would not allow anyone to approach.

Whether intentionally or unintentionally, they began to discuss what they had not expected to find here was a secret base for spies. What? Did the spies even target the timber transportation office? Were they trying to steal the resources of the motherland? In any case, Liu Weijun thought the voices were very loud, loud enough to be heard by the people around him.

This made Liu Weijun very confused. Was this the rhythm of discussing secrets? It was clearly propaganda. On several occasions, he wanted to cover the soldiers’ mouths. As a teenager, he could not understand their actions.

The only reason why Liu Weijun didn’t do that was because he was proud of himself for hearing the whole story.

“It was very naive, wasn’t it? At that time, I actually thought that only I knew the whole story, and that the mysterious army didn’t know anything.” When talking about this past, Uncle Weijun’s face actually broke into a smile, and then he added, “However, this is something that the army can’t solve. Only Uncle Lin can solve it, so they left the next day and never came back.”

Was it really impossible to solve? Or was there another reason? At this point, my cigarette had burned to the end… I smiled and didn’t respond. People who don’t understand the style of the secret department would generally think that because there were ghosts chasing ghosts and corpses killing corpses, it would be done after that.

While I was thinking, Uncle Wei Jun said, “I remember that time, I was full of disdain and resentment, and a soldier saw me. He patted my head and said, ‘Young man, you don’t know what’s going on, but you should know what you should and shouldn’t say, otherwise… you won’t live long. At the time, he smiled and gave me a gesture of slashing my neck. I think he was hinting and reminding me.” At this point, he laughed again and said, “It really scared me, because my father said it was a secret.”

I didn’t respond to Uncle Wei Jun’s words, but changed the subject and asked, “Then what? How did it come to Wei Donglai? Did they have a smooth night?”