Golden Stage

After the patient was sent to the ancestral hall, peace returned to Xishan Village.Yan Xiaohan and Fu Shen risked being chased and bitten by the dogs of the whole village, sneaked into a family's yard, listened to the wall for a long time, and roughly pieced together the cause and effect. It is said that the patient contracted an incurable disease. Everyone in the village thinks this is an ominous omen, and will hold a ceremony next to the river tomorrow night to exorcise evil spirits.

Fu Shen's waist was sore and his back ached, he was tired and sleepy, he almost didn't squat down, and staggered forward, Yan Xiaohan took him into his arms with open arms, and he walked on his own without even bothering him, and carried him out of the village.The two rode back to the city, and asked Xiaoer at the inn for hot water and food. After washing and eating, General Fu lay on his back on the bed to support his waist, while Mr. Yan sat down on the side of the bed very obediently and consciously. His legs moved into his lap, and he was massaged to relax.

"Do you think that 'disease' is a plague?" Fu Shen said, "If there is a plague, the villagers will be too calm. Once the plague spreads in a large area, the death of a village will be light."

"It's human nature to conceal and not report." Yan Xiaohan rolled up his trousers and pressed a few acupuncture points on his calf, "Think about it, the magistrates here are not even willing to report to The imperial court, what will he do if he discovers that strange diseases that are suspected to be plague appear one after another in Xishan Village?"

Fu Shen frowned.Yan Xiaohan said: "It's better to kill by mistake than to let it go. It doesn't matter if it's a plague or not. Only by eradicating them all will prevent future troubles forever. The villagers all know that if this matter is spread, their entire village will be doomed. That's why they died." Keep it secret, dare not report to the official."

Fu Shen patted the bed: "What kind of dog official, how can you be so reasonable!"

Yan Xiaohan smiled without saying a word.

Fu Shen glanced at him sideways: "Yo, that's really strange, why don't you act coquettishly today?"

Yan Xiaohan was able to guess the thinking of the local officials right away, so he probably couldn't be more upright.In the past, when Fu Shen said this, he would inevitably be slightly stabbed, but this time it seemed that he had really let go of his grievances for many years, and became upright and frank, which was a bit flattering and humiliating.

He smiled and said, "I'll be coquettish again, can you bear it?"

Fu Shen seemed to have built an incomparably strong city in his heart. He knew that he had all the love and tolerance of this person, which was enough to make him look down on all living beings in this world.Once a person has confidence and confidence, he will naturally hold his head up, and he will no longer be confined between gains and losses.

"Virtue..." Fu Shen's thigh muscles tightened suddenly, "Hey, where should I touch my hand?"

"Relax," Yan Xiaohan said in a good-tempered manner, "What are you doing so tightly, keep your legs apart... I'm not doing anything else, aren't your legs sore? Give you a massage."

Fu Shen left him so frivolous that he had nothing to say, so he simply closed his eyes and let him go.He slowly sorted out the events of the past few days in his mind, first the serial murders in Beijing, then the grain tax reduction in Jingchu, Yan Xiaohan's traditional Chinese medicine in Xishan Village, and the flood of autumn nights in Kuangfeng County... this series key points of the event.It all falls on this unprecedented "autumn night white".

The questions that need to be clarified now are: first, what secrets are hidden in Xishan Village; second, whether the reduction in Jingchu’s income is related to the flooding of Qiuyebai; third, how did Qiuyebai spread to Jingchu? Man-made or natural growth?Is this kind of autumn night white blooming everywhere limited to Jingchu, or has it spread to other places?

At first, Fu Shen just wanted to accompany Yan Xiaohan on this errand in a low-key way on a whim, but he didn't expect to go out and run into a ghost. When he encountered such a bad thing, it would be difficult for him to stay out of the matter, and he didn't know that he was innocent. Children carry their backs, or they are born to work hard.

As he thought about it, he became sleepy, and Fu Shen fell into a deep sleep unknowingly. Yan Xiaohan heard his breathing gradually become even and long, and lightly supported his legs and put him back on the bed, pulled the quilt to cover him, Just as he was about to get up and leave to wash his hands, Fu Shen suddenly woke up before he straightened up.

He wasn't fully awake, his eyes were still closed, and he was still in a haze, but he knew clearly that he was going to leave, so he stretched out his hand from under the quilt: "Where are you going?"

Yan Xiaohan held his hand and shoved it back under the quilt, a little wanting to laugh, but at the same time soft-hearted, leaned over and kissed him between the brows, and said softly, "Go to sleep, I'll wash my hands."

After hearing this, Fu Shen closed his eyes again, but this time he did not fall asleep.After a while, the lights and candles in the room were extinguished, the curtains fell, and there was the rustling sound of cloth rubbing in the darkness, and then the bed beside him sank slightly, and Yan Xiaohan rolled onto the bed, gently pulling him into his arms .Fu Shen closed his eyes and hooked the back of his hand with his fingertips, and then he heard Yan Xiaohan sigh in a low voice next to his ear: "You wake up when there is a disturbance, it's easy to hurt your mind."

Body temperature and breath are the best hypnosis, Fu Shen's drowsiness returned, and now Yan Xiaohan can't disturb him even if he whispers in his ear.He turned over, put his hand on Yan Xiaohan's waist, patted it twice without distraction, and said vaguely: "Sleeping."

Yan Xiaohan laughed, thinking that this person is like a child who wants to find his mother when he opens his eyes, and still makes trouble when he is away from him.He pulled the quilt up to cover their shoulders, and replied in a low voice, "Well, go to sleep."

In the early morning of the next day, the two went up to the back mountain of Xishan Village again. They noticed a woman by the river who couldn't help wiping her tears. Shen Tian recovered his energy, turned his fire stick in his hand, and said: "Keep an eye on her, I can help her if necessary, maybe I can tell some truths."

Yan Xiaohan said, "Obey."

General Fu's fire stick almost flew out of his hand.

As the sun sets, the tired birds return to the forest, and the villagers working in the fields return home one after another.Yan Xiaohan and Fu Shen stood halfway up the mountain, just overlooking the entire village.

Just like a replay of the scene that night, first a few lights were lit in the direction of the ancestral hall, and then every household went out with lanterns, gradually converging into a strip of light, winding along the small road in the village, heading towards the river come.

By the light of the lanterns, one could vaguely see a float in the crowd, on which lay a man in white clothes who didn't know whether to live or die, this scene made Yan Xiaohan's back shudder, thinking of what he saw in the ancestral hall that day, it was quite strange Weird, like a funeral procession.

There was a sudden warmth from the back of his hand. Fu Shen held his hand and said casually, "Don't be afraid."

That night, someone single-handedly broke into the depths of the village, bringing him out of the nightmare and into a tender dream.

Yan Xiaohan quietly backhanded, interlocking his fingers: "Yes, I'm not afraid."

Fu Shen took a breath like a toothache. The two of them had done so many intimate things, but he was so sour by the way this little child held hands.However, for some unknown reason, he didn't get rid of it, and just let Yan Xiaohan pull him until the villagers reached the river, put the float on the open space by the river, and laid out a field of melon and fruit offerings.

A gray-bearded clan elder came out more and more. First, he solemnly kowtowed three times towards the rushing river, then he tremblingly took out a yellow talisman from his sleeve, recited the incantation, and then put the yellow talisman on the incense candle ignite.After the talisman turned into a handful of fly ash, he rang the bell in his hand and began to pray loudly.Fu Shen listened to it vaguely. The congratulatory speech seemed to be asking a certain party to raise his hand, save the sinners, and bless the village with good weather and no plague.

Fu Shen said in astonishment: "This dynasty has long ago eliminated He Bo's sacrifice, and replaced it with water officials and Dragon Kings. Why do these foolish people dare to fill the river with people?"

What he was talking about was the old customs of the previous dynasty. In the past, when there was rain and flood, the people thought it was Hebo who was angry, and sacrifices were needed to appease him.The better ones used pigs, sheep and livestock, and even worse, virgins or beautiful girls were sacrificed, and countless innocent women and children were killed for this.At the beginning of the Kingdom of China, Tai'zu strictly ordered the abolition of old customs, Hebo temples in various places were torn down, living sacrifices were banned, and the atmosphere was completely new.

Who would have thought that today, a hundred years later, the nightmare will reappear and the old things will repeat themselves.

Yan Xiaohan held him down: "Wait, don't worry. Hebo only cares about the weather, and I've never heard that he also cares about the plague. Besides, it's said that virgins were sacrificed in ancient sacrificial offerings, so the person on the float looks like a man." .It may not be offering sacrifices to He Bo, let’s wait and see what happens next, and see what he will do next.”

After the old man finished reciting his speech, two tightly wrapped men lifted the man in white from the float and tied a big stone to his chest and abdomen.In an instant, the woman standing in the crowd uttered a heart-piercing cry. Regardless of the crowd's obstruction, she rushed forward to fight the two men: "...let me die! Let me die for him!"

The village head motioned for several women to come forward and drag her away. The woman was limp and cried and cursed on the ground, but all the villagers seemed to be deaf. They lifted the man in white and threw them into the surging river. "Send off the true immortal", everyone knelt on the ground in unison, and kowtowed three times towards the river water.

Fu Shen's face was as sinking as water, and with his eyesight, he could even see that the man's hands and feet were still struggling when he was thrown into the river.He whispered: "This river flows into the small lake behind the Fox Immortal Temple, look there, maybe there is rescue, let's go."

Yan Xiaohan said, "The husband is dead, and his wife probably won't survive tonight. I'll go to the lake to find someone. You follow her. If it's too late to save her husband, we need a living witness."

Fu Shen pondered for a moment, and it seemed that he was not at ease. Yan Xiaohan knew what he was worried about, and comforted him, "Don't worry, I'm pretty good at swimming, and I must protect myself first in case of trouble. There's no need to take risks for a stranger."

"Be careful. I can't resist the thunderbolt from the blue sky last time." Fu Shen took out the knife that Yan Xiaohan had tried to kill himself with from his sleeve, threw it into his arms, and said, "I Take that woman to the Fox Immortal Temple in a while."

Yan Xiaohan took the knife, twirled it around like playing with flowers between his fingers, got on the horse, smiled in the wind, his face seemed to be shining in the dark night: "Okay, see you at the Fox Immortal Temple."

The author has something to say: Mr. Yan may be a firefly that glows in the dark or something (manually eating melon.jpg