The strange story of Huai'an Inn

Seeing the last nightmare being shot to death, Zhu Helan finally breathed a sigh of relief.He hurriedly erased the symbols drawn on his palm, and saw the locust tree stretch out a branch, and gently pushed his shoulder, as if to confirm that he was not injured.

Zhu Helan smiled, reached out and patted the "hand" of the locust tree, but suddenly heard Chong Liu's terrified cry.

He turned his head immediately, and saw Chong Liu lying on the ground, his whole body falling into a frenzy of panic.He held on to his right hand tightly, but the way he held it was as if that arm was an object that had nothing to do with him.

"Hand! My hand!"

Zhu Helan immediately ran to Guan Chongliu, only to see the thing curled up on the ground... a distortion that should not appear on human beings.After a short pause in his footsteps, Chong Liu raised his eyes full of fear and asked in a trembling voice, "Master, what's wrong with me?"

Zhu Helan squatted down, hissing softly, as if to comfort a frightened child.He firmly grasped Chong Liu's shoulder and said softly, "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid, let go of your hand and let me see."

Chong Liu felt the power coming from the shopkeeper's palm, looked at the shopkeeper's eyes as calm as a deep pool in the ancient well, and found a little clue to the fear and confusion that shook the origin of self-cognition.He let the shopkeeper pull away his left hand, gently grasped the wrist of his right hand, and lifted the five connected...deformed octopus-like things from the ground.

It was a very strange feeling.When the tentacles dragged up on the ground, Chong Liu could feel the friction of the ground, and the entanglement and friction between the "fingers".It was as if his fingers suddenly became very, very long, with countless joints.He tried to move his finger, and a tentacle on the ground also squirmed.

Chong Liu felt like his scalp was going to explode.

The wet mucus soaked through the shopkeeper's sleeve and dripped from between his fingers.The shopkeeper carefully inspected the five tentacles, looking at their conglomerated, distorted palms with scales, and stretched out his hand to touch them lightly.

"Does it hurt?" the shopkeeper asked.

Chong Liu shook his head, "No...it doesn't hurt..."

"What does it feel like?"

"I can't tell..." Chong Liu shook his head in confusion, his body trembling, "My boss... what should I do? Is it caused by the foul smell? Will I always be like this in the future?"

"Don't be in a hurry." The shopkeeper approached him and looked into his eyes seriously. "It doesn't have to be a permanent deformation. It may be because when the locust tree woke up just now, it was eager to save me, which caused it to subconsciously make your body in a dream. There is a temporary deformation in the dream. After leaving the dream, maybe it will return to normal."

"Then... what if it can't be recovered?"

The shopkeeper thought for a moment and said, "I have other ways."

At this moment, Chongliu could only grasp the shopkeeper's words as if grasping at a life-saving straw.Because he couldn't imagine how to live if his hands were like this from now on.

Even... Will the distortion become more serious?

He will be treated as a monster, unable to find any work, and unable to stay in Baixiaomen.For the rest of his life, he may have to hide in the deep mountains and old forests, like those blind people, getting more and more deformed and ugly...

Fear of the possible future made him tremble violently again.He murmured and kept begging, "Boss, please think of a way to change me back, any way..."

The shopkeeper suddenly stretched out his arms, encircled Chong Liu's shoulders, and patted him on the back lightly, "Shh, don't think about it, I promise, it will be fine."

How could such a serious distortion suddenly occur?What happened when he didn't pay attention just now?

Obviously there was no sign before?

Zhu Helan hugged Chongliu to comfort him, but her brows were tightly knitted.If you press it down, I'm afraid it will cause a lot of load on your body... Can Liu'er hold on?

Zhu Helan thought about it, then turned her head and looked at the locust tree that had quietly arrived in front of them at some point.

Zhu Helan's eyes were fixed on the tree body, and he suddenly spoke, saying a few words that Chong Liu could not understand.The locust tree raised an arm quietly, there was no hand at the end of that arm, only a sharp needle like a scorpion's tail.It approached Chong Liu silently, and stung Chong Liu on the back of his neck with lightning speed.

Chong Liu only felt a pain in his neck, darkness fell quickly, and he lost consciousness in Zhu Helan's arms.

............................................................

Strange smell...

Fishy smell, seaweed smell, or the smell of water itself... Deep and wide, ancient, filled with fossils layer by layer.There are countless corpses buried in the dark waters, countless times, countless civilizations that have disappeared before they are discovered...

Where is he?

Chong Liu felt his body heaving up and down, like a feather flying wildly in the wind.

No...he wasn't in the wind.

He is in the water.

He opened his eyes suddenly, but all he saw was endless darkness.An impenetrable darkness through which no light can penetrate.

Dead silence, completely cut off from life.

Chong Liu tried to make a sound, but when he opened his mouth, only air bubbles came out.

At this time, the sea water began to stir and the flow speed began to increase.He still couldn't see anything, he couldn't hear anything.But he could feel something, something huge, approaching him.

He was terrified and tried to flee.He waved his hands and feet, but couldn't even find the direction, and didn't know whether he was closer or further away from the unknown danger.

Suddenly, everything stopped.

Chongliu hangs helplessly in the darkness, feeling nothing but even more frightened.

He always felt that in the darkness in front of him, there was something, something older, greater and darker than this sea...

Clothed in the darkness of death and nothingness, it gazed at him from the abyss.

Chong Liu tried to reach out his hand, wanting to perceive and confirm.

He seems to have touched something...

But... why is the touch so strange?

Why... I feel that the number of my hands is not right?

Wait a minute... he seems to have touched his own other hand but there are still a few hands touching something hard and wrinkled...

How many hands does he have?

Where are his legs?Why...there seems to be more than two legs?

What's up with him?

What is he?

Chong Liu's heartbeat began to increase rapidly, his hands began to reach out to his body, and he began to feel his body...

One, two, three, four, five, six... more and more, more and more... He gradually began to collapse, and his mind was filled with crazy thoughts.He began to hear voices, voices coming from all directions.

Not a human voice, nor an animal voice, but a strange vibration and buzzing.

But he could understand it.

The voice said: Come back.

............................................................

Chong Liuyi woke up and found himself lying on a bed that definitely didn't belong to him.The light red bed netting was like smoke, the silk quilt was soft and cool, but the several mattresses under him were wet with sweat from his body.

Although the bedding is comfortable, Chong Liu is very uncomfortable.That feeling, as if the body was spread on the ground as a blanket, and was run over several times by the carriage.My whole body hurts, and I can't tell where it hurts.His head was swollen and painful, and there was a faint nausea in his stomach.

Chong Liu suddenly remembered something, and pulled out his right hand from the quilt.

Five fingers, nails cut very short, with a few calluses, nothing special.

Chong Liu's chest was still heaving violently due to tension, staring at his hands over and over again.

fine?

Before that...was it a dream?

No, no, no...it was Huaishu who was dreaming, but he obviously wasn't dreaming...

No...he dreamed...but later...

Did the shopkeeper recover himself after bringing him back from the dream, or did the shopkeeper do something to change him back?

Chong Liu's mind was completely messed up, and he wasn't even sure who he was...

Suddenly, footsteps approached.The bed curtain was pulled back.

The shopkeeper was slightly taken aback when he saw his eyes open, and then raised the corners of his mouth in relief, "Are you awake? Just right."

Chong Liu stared blankly at the shopkeeper, watching him bring a white porcelain bowl full of light yellow juice.He said in a very gentle tone, "Come on, drink the medicine."

Chong Liu took the bowl hesitantly, and sniffed it.A sour smell washed into the nostrils, as if it was a bit familiar.His whole face was wrinkled, "What is this?"

"The medicine to help you consolidate your capital." The shopkeeper smiled, "Do you still remember what happened before?"

Chong Liu immediately understood what Guben meant.He took a deep breath and gulped down the liquid in the bowl.

When there was only half a bowl left, Chongliu realized where he had drunk this taste...

Master Liao's tea? !

It was probably out of shock that the shopkeeper said with a smile, "It's not as strong as his dose, and you don't have to drink it so frequently. But you must drink a bowl every day without interruption. This will at least prevent the taint from continuing to affect you in the short term. your body."

Looks like the distortion is real...

After Chong Liu drank the last bit, he wiped his mouth with a heavy heart, feeling that his mind was still a little numb, and everything seemed to be separated by a layer of veil.

The shopkeeper took back the bowl, and suddenly stretched out his hand again, touching Tan Zhongliu's forehead.

Chong Liu looked at him stupidly, but didn't react for a while.

"Well, the fever has subsided a bit. Rest for another day, and it will be almost over."

Chong Liu's heart skipped a beat, "Master...how long have I been asleep?"

"Not long, just one day."

"One day?!" Chong Liu sat up as he spoke, throwing off the quilt to get out of bed.The shopkeeper hurriedly held him down, "Hey, what are you doing?"

"We have to find that Luzhou layman quickly."

"What are you looking for, Layman Luzhou, you can't even stand upright now, are you looking for someone to die?"

"Those ten days... no, now it's nine days later..."

"There are still nine days left, what are you doing in such a hurry?" The shopkeeper clicked his tongue, forced him back on the bed, and pulled the quilt back to wrap him tightly, "Don't worry, I have asked Song Huang to investigate those four people Now, you don’t have to worry about these things, take another day off and talk about it tomorrow.”

"Oh..." Chong Liu replied dumbly and obediently, feeling that what the shopkeeper said was very reasonable.

The shopkeeper looked at him carefully, suddenly laughed a few times, shook his head and said, "Why do you look like you've been burned?"

After speaking, he took the medicine bowl and left.

Only then did Chong Liu realize in a daze, isn't this bed the owner's?

Why is he in the host house?

If he sleeps here, where will the master sleep?