The old alley in the afternoon is always favored by the sunshine in spring.

The light penetrated the narrow and cramped space at the top of the alley, and silently sprinkled on the blue bricks on the floor, revealing a kind of lazy and comfortable charm.

The blue-brick alleys with a strong historical atmosphere cannot withstand the wasting of time. They are slick and reflective by the people who come and go. In the sun, they even emit a strange halo, which looks hazy and illusory.

In the depths of the old alley, there is an antique green brick courtyard.

The yard is covered with green bricks, the eaves are still dripping with the spring rain left from last night, and a bamboo reclining chair, which is loved by the elderly, is placed in the corner.

Chen Xian was taking a nap on the bamboo chair, enjoying this rare comfort.

"Is Mr. Chen there?"

A sudden knock on the door broke the silence of the courtyard.

Chen Xian rubbed his eyes sleepily, yawned and sat up, got up and walked to open the door.

"You are?"

A strange fat man stood outside the door with a kind smile on his face: "My surname is Huo, I'm looking for Mr. Chen Xian."

"I am, do you have anything to do with me?" Chen Xian nodded.

Fatty Huo was obviously stunned for a moment, and his expression was a little unbelievable. He looked at Chen Xian carefully, and there was a little more suspicion in his eyes: "Are you Chen Xian?"

"This alley belongs to my family, Chen." Chen Xian said.

"Then what... I may have made a mistake..." Fatty Huo smiled a little embarrassedly and turned to leave.

Chen Xian was no stranger to Fatty Huo's reaction. After all, he just graduated from Ningchuan University this year. For those who came looking for him to do business, he did seem a little more tender.

"Uncle, do you have anything to do with me?"

Fatty Huo didn't say a word, his expression was very tangled.

Chen Xian leaned forward gently, sniffed carefully on Fatty Huo, and asked curiously, "You smell like a dead person, it's quite fresh, have you encountered dirty things? Someone introduced you to come here. Find me?"

Hearing this, Fatty Huo looked at Chen Xian in surprise and asked, "Can you smell it?"

"Come in first."

Chen Xian did not answer Fatty Huo's question, but politely invited Fatty Huo in.

The quaint yard is well organized by the owner, and the most conspicuous one is the century-old locust tree planted in the corner of the yard.

When the wind blows, the leaves will rattle, and the sun will pour in through the gaps in the canopy, making the whole yard smell of laziness.

Chen Xian led Fatty Huo into the living room, walked aside and poured water for him, talking.

"I don't have many friends in Ningchuan. If you can call me at your door, nine times out of ten, it's because you are looking for me to do business. Are you introduced by someone else for private work, or... official?"

Hearing this, Fatty Huo hesitated for a while before answering, "I'm the person who keeps the secret bureau."

The man in the Secret Service?

Chen Xian paused when he poured the tea, and couldn't help but look at the fat man a few more times before bringing the hot tea to him.

"Tell me about the case." Chen Xian sat on the chair opposite him, his face full of curiosity.

Fatty Huo nodded and took a sip from the shelf, but he wanted to vomit in the next second.

Damn overnight tea!

"The content of this case is relatively complex and the level of confidentiality is very high, so whether you accept this case or not, all information about this case must be kept confidential."

Fatty Huo put down the teacup and did not intend to drink any more, and his tone became serious.

Hearing what he said, Chen Xian didn't say much and nodded quietly.

"Hong Jinxi, the thief king of Ningchuan City, you must have heard of him as a local, right?"

"Yes, I have seen his reports on TV, but not in person." Chen Xian smiled.

Fatty Huo nodded dully and said slowly, "He stole a national treasure."

"National treasure?" Chen Xian was a little stunned, but he was not surprised.

Over the years, under the hype of the Ningchuan city media, Hong Jinxi is almost like a thief in the eyes of the public. He even moved the treasury of the tycoon Lin. really don't know what he can't steal.

"What kind of national treasure?" Chen Xian asked curiously.

Fatty Huo gave Chen Xian a deep look, and after a while he said, "A key made of bronze."

Seeing that he didn't want to say more, Chen Xian didn't ask any further questions, and continued to wait for his next words.

"The key was in our hands at first, but then it was lost due to an accident. It wasn't until 1998 that we got a tip that the key was in the hands of Hong Jinxi..." Fatty Huo sighed with a look on his face. Tired, "We've been looking for him for twenty-one years!"

When Fatty Huo said these words, he was in a cadence and rhythm. He was speaking from the bottom of his heart. When others heard it, they would definitely feel emotional, but Chen Xian just nodded.

"Then what?"

"..."

Fatty Huo was silent for a few seconds before he said, "He turned himself in at the police station. After the preliminary interrogation, we got a lot of useful information."

"Hong Jinxi confessed that he was threatened, and the group of people who threatened him have already taken the key. According to Hong Jinxi's explanation to us, those people are a bit strange... They eat people."

Hearing this, Chen Xian paused for a while while drinking tea, and the expression on his face rarely changed.

"Are you sure they eat people?" Chen Xian asked.

"Not sure, that's why I came to you." Fatty Huo replied.

Strictly speaking, Chen Xian and Fatty Huo belong to the same department, and they are both under the Detective Department of the Secret Service Bureau. Although Chen Xian is only a temporary worker, when dealing with some special cases, internal employees have to come forward if they are not sure.

The same is true in this case.

"Can you smoke here?" Fatty Huo asked.

Chen Xian nodded, took out the ashtray from under the coffee table and gave it to him: "It's okay, let's smoke."

After lighting the cigarette, Fatty Huo took a few puffs, and his mental state improved slightly, and the tiredness in his eyes was also dispelled by nicotine.

"During the interrogation, Hong Jinxi died. According to my preliminary judgment, it should have been a myocardial infarction. He was scared to death."

Fatty Huo was smoking a cigarette while recalling the scene that appeared in the interrogation room before.

"He seemed to have seen something strange before he died."

"Unclean things?" Chen Xian thought for a while and asked tentatively, "Is it a spiritual body?"

"I don't know." Fatty Huo shook his head and said, "Besides him, I was the only one in the interrogation room, but I did see three other figures in the reflection of his eyes, maybe they were spirit bodies."

Death is not the real end for humans or other creatures.

After death, consciousness and spiritual energy will be separated from the body and continue to "survive" in another state. In scientific terms, this state should be a non-material special energy body, but it is actually the so-called soul, which is also called by the industry. for the spirit body.

If Hong Jinxi's death is related to these spirit bodies, or even caused directly by them, then it is certain that they are vastly different from ordinary spirit bodies.

Because ordinary spiritual bodies can't kill people, and they leave after the first seven, they won't stay in the Yang World.

Chen Xian pondered without saying a word, lowered his head slightly, and looked at the teacup in his hand in a trance.

"Do you need me to help you find out the cause of Hong Jinxi's death?" Chen Xian asked.

Fatty Huo shook his head and said that he didn't need it. This was done by special personnel inside. Moreover, in this case, Hong Jinxi was an insignificant existence. The most important thing was the key.

"The person who threatened him to surrender is the one who took the key... Who are they?" Chen Xian asked curiously.

"Do you know Wushan Mental Hospital?" Fatty Huo asked. "It's the one on the outskirts of your city next to Wushan."

Chen Xian recalled it for a while, and said that he didn't know, and had never heard of it.

"That mental hospital bought a batch of gold bricks some time ago, about a ton." Fatty Huo said, "It's because of this that they were targeted by Hong Jinxi."

A ton of gold bricks?

Chen Xian couldn't believe it, what kind of mental hospital can have such a big hand?

"That night, Hong Jinxi sneaked into this mental hospital with his gang, intending to sneak these gold bricks away quietly, but they were all planted."

As Fatty Huo said, he couldn't help shaking his head.

"Except Hong Jinxi, the others were killed by the doctors in the mental hospital, and they seem to have been eaten by..." Fatty Huo smoked with a sullen face, frowning, "Hong Jinxi is the only survivor, and they deliberately It was said that they would not kill him because of the key, but I don't understand, aren't they afraid of being exposed?"

Chen Xian took a sip of tea and said nothing.

"This mission may be a little dangerous, you..."

Fatty Huo glanced at Chen Xian and felt a bit of a drum in his heart. Although he knew that in this kind of special case, the contact person Lao Zhou would not randomly give him temporary workers, and people without the ability would not be able to get into Lao Zhou's eyes, but ...is this temp a little too young?

"How old are you?" Fatty Huo couldn't help asking.

"Twenty-three." Chen Xian replied.

Fatty Huo's hand holding the cigarette trembled, and he looked at Chen Xian with some doubts.

In their department, there are nearly a thousand certified temporary workers.

These temporary workers are of different ages, ranging from 80 to 90-year-old grandfathers to 17- or 18-year-old juniors. However, temporary workers also have professional titles, which are divided into senior, intermediate, and junior.

These three distinct job titles represent their personal abilities, and also mean that they have different salaries and benefits, and different cases that they can access.

If remember correctly, Lao Zhou called before and said that the registered Chen Xian is a senior temporary worker?

Are senior temporary workers so young?

I remember the senior temporary workers saw before, the youngest was over forty years old!

Although Fatty Huo thinks so, he is also very clear that the department never raises waste. Since Chen Xian can get the senior title of temporary worker, it naturally shows that he has this ability.

After thinking about it, there is only that possibility.

"Xiao Chen, are you an alien?"

Hearing this question, Chen Xian glanced at Fatty Huo and smiled: "If I wasn't a stranger, this case wouldn't be arranged for me, right?"

Fatty Huo laughed at himself, feeling that his question was a bit redundant.

The concept of aliens was first proposed by Fatty Huo and his department in the 1980s, and it refers to those who have special abilities and are different from ordinary people.

Simply put, they are people with special abilities.

Under the influence of science in recent years, supernatural powers have been dismissed as metaphysics, and some have even become the subject of science fiction, causing ordinary people to lose the ability to distinguish between true and false.

But what the truth is like, only very few people know the truth.

The qigong craze in the 1980s in history was just a feast of falsehoods and lies for modern people. That era was full of liars and fake masters, but it is undeniable that the era full of farce was also prolific.

The 507 institutes established by the state were used to study these aliens in the 1980s. The official statement is to study human science and supernatural phenomena, and to carry out a scientific revolution, but over time, this institute has also silently faded out of everyone's vision. , Qigong fever has also become a grand farce.

Many people are still curious, do supernatural abilities really exist?

In particular, some people often have this question after watching American comics, but soon they will get the answer from their hearts. It cannot exist. Movies and comics are fictional, and reality is not so sci-fi.

But what about the facts?

Inhumans are indeed not as exaggerated as in the movie, but they do exist, and they are inseparable from the real world, and many people have even heard of such people.

For example, Taoist priests, monks, feng shui masters, fortune-tellers, disciples, etc.

As long as they have real abilities, those who can use some supernatural powers or cause supernatural phenomena can be called aliens.

There are currently two types of aliens in the country.

One is an acquired alien, who is born with no strangeness and is born as the most ordinary ordinary person, but through the systematic practice of religion, he has obtained some supernatural powers, which is the case for most Taoist priests and monks.

The second type is congenital aliens, which are extremely rare and can be treated specially by Fatty Huo and his department.

Their supernatural powers are innate, and most of them will be awakened before they reach adulthood. Each alien has different abilities. The most common ability is Yin-Yang Eye. In scientific terms, Yin-qi particles can be observed with the naked eye. , which is the so-called Yin Qi, so that you can directly see the spiritual body in the air.

In addition to their unique abilities, the innate aliens have a higher ability to sense yin and yang particles. If they practice religious systems, their practice progress will be hundreds of times faster than ordinary people.

Because of this, innate aliens can be said to be a sweet treat in the department. In Fatty Huo's department, there are only nearly a hundred people in full.

And those temporary workers who got high-level titles are almost all congenital.

"You can be a senior temporary worker at such a young age... Are you a congenital alien?"

Fatty Huo glanced back and forth in the living room, but he didn't see any clues. There was no tablet enshrined here for the ancestors or gods, and it was as clean as an ordinary person's house.

"Which line are you practicing in?" Fatty Huo asked. Whether it is innate or acquired, aliens need to cultivate to increase their strength. After all, supernatural abilities are not a panacea, and they are not necessarily useful in many cases.

"None of the veins." Chen Xian smiled and touched his nose, "I'll say it first, I don't know fortune-telling, phase-testing, feng shui, I will only clean up those unclean things, and only take care of this one. live."

"Only clean up those dirty things?" Fatty Huo was stunned and asked in confusion, "Which school are you from?"

"No way."

Fatty Huo thought for a while, then asked tentatively, "Heirs from the ancestors?"

"Self-taught." Chen Xian smiled.

"Fuck."

Fatty Huo was blocked back and held back, as if someone was strangling his neck, his face was flushed red, and it took a long time to speak.

"You're awesome."

Chen Xian just smiled shyly, and his youthful appearance made Fatty Huo amused.

"Can you still be self-taught when you clean up those things?" Fatty Huo asked jokingly, like a kid, with a rare smile on his face, "How do you clean them up?"

Hearing this question, Chen Xian answered without hesitation.

"Swear when you meet, beat when you catch it, eat it if you don't ask."

"..."

Fatty Huo was silent for two seconds, then asked cautiously, "Are you sure we're talking about the same thing?"

Chen Xian didn't say anything, but nodded affirmatively.

"Have you eaten them?" Fatty Huo was more careful when he asked.

Chen Xian smiled, revealing two rows of bright white teeth. His smile was very nice, but what he said next made Fatty Huo a little nervous.

"I have eaten a lot, but most of them have no taste. It is better to eat white rice."

Seeing that Chen Xian was not joking, Fatty Huo was also silent.

After smoking the cigarette in his hand, Fatty Huo cut off the cigarette butt, got up and said.

"The mental hospital has been stared to death by our people, and there is no phenomenon of people fleeing. You go to see me now, if what you said before was not a joke with me... When you were working on this case I can only rely on you to protect me."

"Understood, bodyguard." Chen Xian was happy.

"Almost, anyway, you..."

Before Fatty Huo could finish speaking, there was an old-fashioned ringing of his cell phone in his pocket. Fatty Huo took out the phone and glanced at it, and then connected.

"What's wrong?" Fatty Huo asked.

On the other side of the phone was Fatty Huo's subordinate Zhang Dahai. He was solely responsible for the stalking operation in the mental hospital this time, and he was regarded as a small leader.

"Boss! Something happened here!"

Zhang Dahai's broken gong voice came out through the phone, almost like a broken loudspeaker specializing in heavy bass, even Chen Xian who was standing beside him could hear it.

"The mental hospital is on fire!!"