side by side

"Ha, this is really ridiculous..." Liang Jixuan couldn't help muttering, "I don't know whether I should trust my eyes now," he smiled wryly, "I'm Go back at once," he sighed, "whatever the facts are, I should find out for myself."

"I'll go back with you." Gu Huatian was a little worried, "This is a weird thing, I don't feel at ease if you're alone."

"It's okay." Liang Jixuan shook his head, "If it's possible, I hope you can get tired tonight, and then go to Du's mansion to see the situation."

Gu Huatian nodded silently, they broke up in the western suburbs and divided into two groups.

Liang Jixuan's mind was in chaos, the stand-in osmanthus tree withered for no reason, the strange birthday ceremony, the long-dead Mr. Chen seen by the People's Voice newspaper, the strong earthy smell in the osmanthus wine alley on a rainy night, the strange and unpredictable white cat... and so on. There was Du Ruobai who was supposed to be unconscious but appeared in front of him inexplicably.Liang Jixuan had a splitting headache. He deeply felt that he had fallen into many strange circles, and all kinds of strange phenomena were intertwined. He vaguely felt that he had grasped some signs, but he was missing something—he lacked a key to get through the whole thing. key.

"My lord, you are talking about this place..." Liang Jixuan boarded a rickshaw, and just as he spit out the place name Guijiu Hutong, the rickshaw driver's enthusiasm for greeting dissipated instantly, and he hesitated to put down the car He made a sign to see off the guests, "Master, why don't you change the car."

"What do you mean by this?!" Liang Jixuan was a little annoyed, everything was not going his way today, "If you think it's too far away, just raise the price, don't fix all these things for nothing."

"Oh, it's because of this, sir..." The coachman was very embarrassed, "Why are you going there so late when you have nothing to do, you."

"What can you do there at night?" Liang Jixuan was irritated, and his tone couldn't help but stiffen, "Of course I live there!"

"Hey, don't scare me," the coachman shuddered, "I'm so timid."

"I'm also in a hurry to see you." Seeing Liang Jixuan's gloomy face and refusing to get out of the car, the coachman sighed helplessly. He gritted his teeth and nodded, "Okay, I'll make an exception to see you off today, but let me say first Alright, I will only take you to the gate, not the return trip.”

Liang Jixuan frowned even deeper. The rickshaw drivers he met these days were really strange.No, it should be said that the people and colleagues he met these days are all very strange...Liang Jixuan got out of the car, and he stood at the entrance of the alley, taking advantage of the dim light, watching the driver walk away without saying a word He turned his head and ran away, feeling a little strange in his heart, and he couldn't help but also breathed out.

The alley is secluded, deep and extremely narrow, and the tall sundries on both sides are still flamboyant, making the already cramped space even narrower.But at this moment, Liang Jixuan didn't care about bumping into these objects. He ran wildly in the alley, throwing off the hem of his clothes and throwing a bunch of belts back, making ding-dong jingling and bang-bang noises.At this moment, he could only hear the mournful and shrill cat's crowing from the depths of the alley to the entrance of the alley.

Those two cats, one white and one black, are probably insane.

With tall spines and sharp fingers and claws popping out, they lingered at the door.The long tail is tall and straight, and the hairs are all exploded, clustered on the tail, fluffed on the body, and the whole body is round and twice as big.They jumped, scratched the door with their sharp claws, and struggled desperately with the hanging lanterns.They screamed in pain, their voices were shrill and sharp, as if there were lonely ghosts hiding in their throats for miles around.

Liang Jixuan couldn't help shivering.

The door 'creaked' opened, and Du Ruobai rushed out from the door, his face was ruthless, and his men swung the long stick with all their strength.

But it did not have any deterrent effect.

The two cats became even more excited when they saw Du Ruobai rushing out of the door. They were like hungry ghosts seeing raw meat, and approached Du Ruobai step by step. Greeting fiercely, two fists were no match for four hands, soon, Du Ruobai was bleeding.

Liang Jixuan opened his mouth wide in surprise, but he couldn't utter a single word.He saw that Du Ruobai was bitten severely by the black cat, and two bloody mouths appeared on his forearm instantly, thick and bright red rushing out.

Before he came back to his senses and stepped forward to help, there was another burst of dog barking.From nowhere, a big black dog suddenly ran to the door.He was half as tall as a man, and his pure black fur was shiny. He jumped straight to the door, raised his head and let out a long cry, his teeth opened fiercely, he jumped suddenly, and bit the back of the black cat's neck. On the ground, Sheng dragged the black cat and tore him off Du Ruobai's arm.

The black cat whined, and he was thrown far away, hitting the white cat hard.The two big cats were frightened, and they rolled back a few times. They suffered pain and suffered losses, but they were still unwilling to circle around, staring at this place, and refused to leave.

Liang Jixuan felt that the black dog looked familiar, so he walked quickly to the door, wanting to take a closer look.The dog tilted his head and stared at him, his big hairy eyes kept blinking, and he was sticking out his tongue honestly and breathing.Liang Jixuan subconsciously felt that this dog was like the one that he and his elder brother brought back from the corner of the street when they were children. He unconsciously reached out and touched the obedient big head, but couldn't help laughing at his absurd thoughts.Black dogs always look similar in this world, let alone how far Yonghe Town is from here, just based on the attitude of that black dog to him a few days ago, it is impossible for them to be the same...

The big black dog rubbed against his trouser legs, its big black ears twitched excitedly, and he stuck out his long tongue to lick the palm of his hand.Liang Jixuan rubbed his hairy ears with a smile, but fell silent the next moment.He faintly saw an old man standing at the entrance of the alley in the distance. The old man was tall and broad-shouldered.Under the dim yellow light, with a solemn face, he stood there quietly, the big black dog wagged its tail excitedly, barked, and ran towards the light Sahuaner.

"... Fu... Uncle Fu?" Liang Jixuan couldn't believe it, and he yelled at the other end.

The old man nodded respectfully, and with the light of the idea, his solemn face twitched and tried to put on a smile, but he withdrew halfway, half-crying and not smiling, his face froze, and it melted away in a moment, and he recovered. He looked expressionless.The big black dog squatted beside him, with its big tail flicking excitedly behind it, splashing ash.The old man didn't say a word, he faced Liang Jixuan, and suddenly bent down, he bowed deeply to Liang Jixuan.

The street lights went out suddenly, the old man and the big black dog disappeared, everything just now was like an illusion.

Liang Jixuan rubbed his eyes subconsciously, he looked incredulously at the direction of the streetlight, and then looked back at Du Ruobai, he couldn't help taking a deep breath.

From the two blood holes on Du Ruobai's forearm, the thick blood gushing out formed a film, turning dark red.The red spot, under his gaze, shattered and melted, turned into powder, rose into a blood mist, floated into the air, and disappeared without a trace.

tbc.