Delicious Delicacy of the Demon Spirit

The two squatted by the river, He Weiran put the river lantern into the water first, without splashing water to drive it away, the river lantern floated away with the waves to the east.Li Kuer watched the lights drifting farther and farther, one above the water and one under the water, reflecting each other and illuminating the endless night ahead.

"Sister He, did any water ghost catch it?"

"Not yet, but one has been discovered."

"Is it Axu?"

"No."

"Who is that?"

"Well, a thin young man wearing... a scholar's robe."

"A scholar? I don't know if it's someone I know."

"Maybe it's because he passed the exam and fell into the river."

"That's even more pitiful. No one knows about the death of a guest in a foreign land, and the family can't wait for him."

"Well, I'm so wronged. Oh, the river lamp was snatched by an old woman."

"Ah? Why is this..."

"It seems that the scholar gave it to her. He is really a righteous ghost."

"Sure enough, not all ghosts are evil."

Li Kuer looked at He Weiran, and thought, "Isn't there a kind-hearted person in front of me?"

"I hope that the scholar can catch one of the river lanterns that will be released later."

He Weiran shook his head: "It's his choice to fight or not to fight. Let's put the lamp in your hand first."

"That's right." Li Ku'er stuck out her tongue, almost forgetting about Ah Xu.If Ah Xu had been waiting for her in the water, he would have died of panic.She leaned down/body, and carefully placed the river lantern on the water.

Suddenly, there was a crisp jingle on her wrist. It turned out that the copper bell was trembling on the red rope that He Weiyan had given her before.

What a weird bell, it doesn't make a sound when you shake it, and it rings for no reason if you don't shake it.

Li Kuer was wondering, but was suddenly pulled up by He Weiran, and quickly retreated away from the river.She didn't stand still, and she barely hugged He Weiran's waist to stabilize her figure while staggering. Looking at the river again, something seemed to appear and disappear. It was a living thing, glowing with water, but it was innocent. It was too dark to see clearly what it was.

"Sister He, was that...?"

He Weiran didn't say anything, just frowned and stared at the river lamp with a gloomy expression.Li Ku'er also stared at it, and saw that the river suddenly became violent, turning up the waves, chasing the river lanterns and beating them.The river lantern looked scattered and helpless, dangling and trembling, the candle flame flickered and flickered, struggling to burn, but it was of no avail.Not long after, another wave of water rushed in, rolling and hitting the river lantern.

Li Kuer's eyes widened, she was surprised and frightened at the same time, the river lantern that she folded with her own hands, the river lantern that was going to send Ah Xu to the other shore, was submerged like this.

The waves gradually subsided, and the river returned to its original brisk flow, but there was no longer the river lantern with Axu's name written on it.What disappeared was not a river lantern, it was clearly the hope of Axuchao reincarnation.

It began to rain again, pattering, coldly penetrating into people's skin.

"Hey..." He Weiran sighed, his helplessness was obvious.

Li Kuer looked at He Weiran, saw that the other party shook his head with a straight face, as if he wanted to give up, and couldn't help feeling sad.Asu's cries for help that day echoed and echoed in her mind, pitiful and sad.

"Woooooo..." Li Kuer began to cry, inexplicably sad.

"Don't cry. Okay, don't cry." He Weiran comforted her softly, and took out a handkerchief to wipe her tears.Li Ku'er took the handkerchief and desperately wiped away the unstoppable tears. She didn't know what happened just now, but she had a vague feeling that Ah Xu had been here before and was taken away by that thing just now. She could almost imagine Axu's sadness, seeing hope but being forced to despair, struggling in fear but having to succumb.Li Kuer felt guilty, grabbed He Weiran's hand and sobbed, "Sister He, can't you save Ah Xu?"

He Weiran shook his head again, first pointed to the river in front of him, and said: "There are monsters in the river." Then he pointed to the mountain behind him, and said: "There are monsters in the mountain."

"Let's say it's July and a half today, the most cloudy day of the year... I can't handle this matter."

"Then Axu..." Li Kuer's eyes glistened with tears.

"Another day, there is always a chance." He Weiran patted her head, and said: "Ah Xu has already left, let's fold a river lantern first, and send the scholar away."

Hearing the meaning of He Weiran's words, Li Kuer seemed to promise that he would save Ah Xu one day, so he calmed down a little, wiped away his tears, nodded vigorously, and said, "Well, let's save the scholar."

After setting off the river lanterns, the two hurried back to the house.Li Kuer's tears were suppressed, her eyes were still red, she was so shy after being laughed at by He Weiran for a long time, she really didn't understand, what's there to cry about, Ah Xu, it's not a relative, it's just a son One of many playmates.

"Actually, Ku'er liked Axu since he was a child, right?"

"Where is it? No! I'm wronged!"

"Haha, that's because Ku'er has a good heart... Oh, it's really a good heart for me to just be Ku'er."

"Ah, what do you mean by just taking it for now? Sister He, you actually like to laugh at others."

He Weiran sent Li Ku'er home before leaving, and Li Ku'er stood at the door to see her off, and did not return to the house until the sound of hooves of the horse's hooves disappeared in the night.The clothes were already wet, and even though they had opened an umbrella to cover the two of them, they could hardly do so.She took a shower and changed her clothes, and lay comfortably on the bed, recalling everything that happened during this period.It turned out that at some point, He Weiran stopped hiding those supernatural things from her, and she herself, at some point, was no longer surprised by those supernatural things.

After July and a half, everything went back to the way it was.

On this day, the sky cleared up and the air became hot again. It seemed that the autumn tiger had returned.He Weiran asked Li Kuer to go out to buy vegetables together, and Li Kuer wondered whether he would be forced to take kickbacks again?

The two were walking on Dingtai Street with their baskets in hand, when they suddenly saw a long line ahead, surrounded by many people.This Dingtai Street has always been noisy, so I shouldn't be curious about this situation, but I just took a closer look, most of the people in the queue were women, and each of them held a bunch of rice dumplings more or less in their hands, which is really weird.

"Huh? It's been several months since the Dragon Boat Festival, why are these people still holding zongzi?"

"I'm surprised too, let's go and have a look."

The two avoided the snake-shaped long queue and got close to the wall of people inside.Li Kuer stood on tiptoe, barely able to see a white cloth sail erected inside, with two large characters on it - buy rice dumplings.

"It's really weird. I've seen a stall selling zongzi, but I've never seen a stall selling zongzi." Li Kuer continued to stretch her neck to look in, wanting to see what the person who bought zongzi looked like .

He Weiran blinked, thoughtfully, and said, "It's really strange. Kuer, let's ask those girls first."

Li Ku'er nodded, and glanced at the long line from beginning to end, suddenly his eyes lit up, and hurriedly took He Weiran forward, and ran to a little sister-in-law in the middle of the line.This little sister-in-law can also be regarded as Li Kuer's neighbor, the two families are only a hundred paces apart, and everyone calls her Xiao Jinsao on weekdays.

"Sister Jin, what are you doing here?"

"Huh? Bitter... how come you don't know, it's been two days, there is a girl who set up a stall here to buy zongzi from everyone. Ten cents a piece, you have to taste it first, the taste is much better It’s okay to give some, if the taste doesn’t satisfy her, she won’t take the rest after paying ten yuan. I heard that today, someone’s rice dumplings were taken for fifty yuan each.”

"Huh? Fifty coins is so much?" Li Kuer thought that buying zongzi in the past was only five coins a piece. If you calculate it this way, the lady who owns the stall is really generous.

"Isn't it? So everyone is trying their luck. What if my rice dumplings suit this girl's taste?"

Hearing this, Li Ku'er couldn't help thinking about whether he should cook a few zongzi and wait in line, but thinking about the difficulty of wrapping zongzi, let's save it.But if it's Sister He's rice dumplings, oh, maybe you can charge the stall owner a tael of silver for each!Just as he was fantasizing triumphantly, he heard He Weiran and Xiao Jin's sister-in-law say: "It's incredible, such a long line, even if each person only tried one bite of rice dumpling, the stomach couldn't bear it. What's more, it was a girl Home."

"Hey, I guess, the stall owner must be a fat girl." Auntie Jin covered her mouth and laughed: "Otherwise, the food wouldn't be so delicious."