Chapter 141: Twisted Hobbies

"What are you doing! What are you doing!"

The villagers stepped back sharply, adopting a wary stance, "I'm telling you, last year someone came here selling health supplements, and they got their legs broken!"

"..."

Others followed, stepping back two paces, showing no sign of breaking legs.

"These days, telling the truth gets no one to believe you?" Tang Luo fell into thought as well.

The officials over there were somewhat tragic, surrounded by villagers questioning why the higher-ups had sent a fraudulent salesperson down?

The officials were also desperate, they themselves didn't know exactly what was going on, why the project team's experts would say that... they could only explain it was a joke.

No matter how you say it, the matter was barely resolved, and everyone shifted from "wanting the truth" to "just watching the spectacle."

The Heavenly Hound began searching for the traces of the remaining few.

Within two minutes, she walked straight to the barber shop opposite the clinic, belonging to Master Wang, and let out a meow.

"What are you doing?" Master Wang asked strangely, "I don't have any fish here for you to eat."

"Master Wang." Tang Luo approached Master Wang, smiling, "Your shop has been requisitioned by us."

"Huh?" Master Wang widened his eyes, what's going on, a cat meowed at his shop, and then it got requisitioned?

"Just kidding, we're just going into your shop to look for something, it'll be quick, just a few minutes." Tang Luo said, walking past Master Wang.

"Wait a moment." Master Wang immediately followed inside.

Qin Menglan followed closely behind, casually closing the door.

"The door is closed, the door is closed!"

"Is something going to happen?"

"Could it be Master Wang who did it?"

Everyone chattered, craning their necks to look into the shop, but the shop door's glass was reflective, so they could only see reflections, not the interior unless something was stuck on the door.

"Doctor Tang, what exactly is going on?" Master Wang asked, his tone somewhat flustered.

Could it be that the killer is actually hiding in his shop? In an instant, Master Wang recalled all the suspense and horror films he had watched.

"Well, explaining this is quite troublesome." Tang Luo suddenly reached out, chopping at the back of Master Wang's neck, knocking him unconscious.

Explaining this is too troublesome, so let's not explain it.

"There?" Tang Luo placed the unconscious Master Wang on a chair, Qin Menglan followed the Heavenly Hound's gaze upward, her eyes narrowing slightly.

The Heavenly Hound's gaze was fixed on the spot above the barber shop's mirror.

In this small barber shop, the left and right walls each had two large mirrors joined together.

Above one of the wall mirrors, near the ceiling, there was a long wooden board with several heads placed on it.

Of course, not real human heads, but mannequin heads, each with an exaggerated hairstyle, quite dated.

In front, a row of small hairstyle picture cards hung, almost completely blocking the mannequin heads.

Not to mention customers, even Master Wang himself probably had long forgotten these "hairstyle models."

"Is this it?" Qin Menglan's gaze passed through the gap in the poster, settling on one of the mannequin heads.

This mannequin's hairstyle was extremely exaggerated, completely covering the face, only revealing half an ear.

And that ear, looked no different from a real person's ear!

"Meow." The Heavenly Hound leapt up, swiping with a paw.

That head was slapped down by her, in midair, the black long hair covering the entire face separated.

The head that fell to the ground rolled twice, landing face up, revealing its true appearance.

"It's Zhang Ze, son of Zhang Caiyi!" Qin Menglan said.

This face was quite normal, not altered by Tang Luo's "processing" into something unrecognizable.

Only Zhang Ze's head had fallen to the ground, motionless, like a dead object, making no sound of "it hurts so much."

Qin Menglan could see that the face bore a pained expression, eyes wide open, as if having just experienced something.

"This ghost, won't it move?" Qin Menglan asked.

"The earlier one would, this one..." Tang Luo crouched down, picking up Zhang Ze's head, "Interesting, this is basically just an empty shell, equivalent to a dying person, even if ignored, after some time, it will dissipate on its own."

Qin Menglan listened silently, in this regard, even if she had prior experience dealing with "ghost types," she was still completely in the dark.

Tang Luo is the expert.

Reaching out, Tang Luo pried open Zhang Ze's mouth, inside similarly had no teeth, a dark mass, like congealed blood.

"One more left." Having given this ghost a little help to let it dissipate sooner, Tang Luo looked toward the Heavenly Hound.

The Heavenly Hound shook its head, let out a meow.

"You can't find it anymore?" Tang Luo asked.

The Heavenly Hound stood up, extended its forepaws, continuously gesturing something.

Tang Luo watched for a while: "I don't understand."

Although in most cases he could communicate effectively with the Heavenly Hound, after all the Heavenly Hound cannot speak, encountering some situations, like now, communication becomes somewhat troublesome.

"I'll leave it to you to ask." Tang Luo grabbed the Heavenly Hound, threw it into Qin Menglan's arms.

"Alright." Qin Menglan held the Heavenly Hound, began patiently questioning it, just like a kindergarten teacher educating children.

After questioning for five or six minutes, they finally understood what the Heavenly Hound had meant earlier.

Zhang Caiyi's "scent" was present in many places, and moreover faint and fleeting, seemingly hidden, not as obvious as the previous two "ghosts," she needed to spend time tracking it down bit by bit.

One hour later.

In a room similar to a conference room, Tang Luo and the others were watching the interview video on the screen.

The task of continuing the search was entrusted to the Heavenly Hound, and they had also gone in advance to Huang Gaoyi's residence, planning to search together.

Their location was the former township office building, after a new building was constructed a few years ago, this office building had become a dormitory.

Except during duty shifts and the missing Huang Gaoyi, there was hardly anyone living there.

Some rooms were tidied up as temporary lodging and office space for the "project team".

"If, this 'ouch' sound, was made by them after they became flying head barbarians," Qin Menglan asked, "then what was it like at the beginning? It couldn't really be the sound of that cloth doll, could it? Could the sound be that loud?"

"If only a head remains, where did their bodies go? Even if they died, there should still be corpses, right?" Atuo also asked.

"Ate it." Tang Luo said.

"Ate it?"

"Yes." Tang Luo said, "I ate it myself."

"Uh——" Atuo's face showed an expression of disbelief, he turned into a ghost, and then ate his own body.

This kind of thing... just thinking about it makes one feel nauseous.

"Four people, disappeared one after another on four consecutive nights..." Qin Menglan fell into deep thought.

Confirming and finding the "missing persons" actually does not mean the matter becomes clear; on the contrary, the mystery has not diminished at all.

"Naturally, confirming the truth is good, but if there's really no way to determine it, there's no need to insist." Tang Luo said.

"Dong dong."

A knocking sound came, members of Near Science walked in, their faces not looking good, and handed over a USB drive.

"The audio data is inside." The member said, "It's strange." After saying that, they closed the door and left.

At this time, in the interview video, an old woman suddenly clapped her hands and said: "Right, the sound I heard didn't sound like it came from the same person."

Qin Menglan pressed the pause button, minimized the video, and connected the USB drive to the notebook: "Want to listen?"

The audio data comes from the cloth doll found by the Tiangou.

This cloth doll is not simply one that makes a sound when pressed.

If it were such a cloth doll, making an "ouch" sound would be too strange.

In fact, the "ouch" sound of this cloth doll is recorded; the device inside is not just a simple sound emitter, but also a "recorder".

Near Science retrieved the cloth doll for research, disassembled it, and obtained the current audio data.

Generally speaking, for such a cloth doll, whatever you record is what plays; if you want to play something else, you must re-record to overwrite the previously recorded sound.

From the unpleasant expression of the member who just came in with the USB drive, it's obvious the audio data is not that simple.

"Just listen." Tang Luo said.

Pressing the play button, the "ouch" sound came out, seemingly processed, making it hard to distinguish male or female.

After one "ouch", another "ouch", then a third, a fourth.

Between each "ouch", there is the same short interval, exactly matching what the villagers heard at first.

"Is this how the sound everyone heard came about?" Qin Menglan said.

The cloth doll cannot produce loud sounds, but since it can be done through other tools.

In the dental clinic, there are several computers, including Zhang Caiyi and his wife's bedroom, study, and another bedroom also has a set of audio equipment that looks quite expensive.

Everyone continued listening and found that the sound indeed has differences, not coming from the same person.

This matches exactly what the old woman interviewed in the afternoon said.

"Someone recorded everyone's voices." Everyone thought to themselves.

How was it recorded? Very simple: before dental treatment, let the person say "ouch" into the cloth doll, and it's done.

"Did Zhang Caiyi do this? Is he that perverted?" Atuo rubbed his own arm, "He likes hearing people say 'ouch'."

This hobby is also too twisted.

Barber Wang Shifu said before, this cloth doll was given by Doctor Zhang for everyone to use, but later because his son Zhang Ze didn't like it, it was no longer used.

So the person doing this can basically be confirmed as Zhang Caiyi himself.

"Zhang Ze also found it creepy, hid the cloth doll, and then it was found by the dog." Qin Menglan judged.

"Then what does this have to do with their deaths, becoming ghosts?" The cameraman uncle said, very puzzled.

The source of the sound has been found, but why did people suddenly die and become ghost-like?

"Who knows, maybe it's related to that college student village official, Huang Gaoyi." Atuo said.

Huang Gaoyi's disappearance is considered the starting point.

"Master, you said it wouldn't be some resentful ghost, right?" Atuo suddenly asked, "That cloth doll, is it actually a ghost? Because dental treatment was too painful, it generated resentment, which gathered inside the cloth doll."

"It's all been taken apart." Tang Luo said, shattering Atuo's fantasy.

"So it just changed its carrier?" Atuo's imagination ran wild, "Wait, could it be using audio as a carrier? Everyone who hears the 'ouch' sound will become a head ghost without teeth."