The strange story of Huai'an Inn

The shopkeeper's words, like the wind sneaking in from nowhere, got into Chong Liu's collar, making him shiver.

Itchy fingertips.The feeling of the red filaments clinging to his skin seemed to come back.

"Tell me exactly what happened on the mountain." The shopkeeper's voice seemed to be a pulling thread, hooking the memory of Xu Hanke after he saw Xu Hanke on the mountain road in the afternoon, and pulling it out.By the time he realized it, he had already begun to explain everything he saw and thought at that time, in such detail that even he himself was surprised at the details he remembered.

The shopkeeper listened quietly, as if nothing would surprise him.

"Xu Hanke thinks he saw a child?"

Chong Liu nodded, "He said he thought he was going to Yuxu Temple."

The shopkeeper lightly tapped his fingers on the table, and pondered, "According to your description, it should be Xu Hanke's filth that attracted blindness. It's beyond my expectation that there will be blindness on Zilu Mountain."

"……blind?"

"Some people call them blind gods. One theory is that their ancestors may be some kind of very intelligent apes in ancient times. After being contaminated by foul smell, they were deformed for generations, and finally became what you see. You should have heard of them in the mountains. If you hear a child crying, or see a child, and there are no villages or hunters nearby, don’t talk to them lightly, right?”

Chong Liu nodded, "I've heard of it... But if you really meet a crying child in the mountains, even if you know this kind of statement, you will still worry about what to do if it is really a lost child..."

"That's why they like to pretend to be children." The shopkeeper said with a smile, "They also change their strategies according to the aura emanating from the prey. Sometimes they imitate the voice of the prey's companion and call the name of the prey, so you should have heard I used to say that when you hear someone calling your name in the mountains, don’t look back. In short, this kind of thing likes people the most, and to be precise, it likes to eat people. But they don’t eat living people, they only eat people who have just died. But they They are most afraid of being seen for their true colors, so the moment you see it, it runs away."

"So... that's some kind of monkey that likes to eat corpses?"

"Actually, it doesn't necessarily have to be monkeys..." The shopkeeper picked up the tea bowl again and said lightly, "Some people think that some people who were hidden by the blind gods were not all eaten, and those survivors were gradually assimilated by them. It has become the same thing. There are even some rare classics that say that blind people are lost in the mountains and become contaminated by filth. They still vaguely retain fragmented human memories, so they are afraid of being seen. "

There was a hint of sadness in the shopkeeper's voice.His tone sounded plain, but as he spoke slowly, the voice resonated with his thoughts in his mind, Chong Liu was a little dazed, and a clear image appeared in front of his eyes.

He could see those young people who had disappeared forever in the forest walking in the silent and dark forest in a daze and bewilderment.They stumbled, their hair was disheveled, their clothes were torn by branches, and their faces, hands, and knees were covered with mud stained by trekking and falling in the forest. The mud was mixed together by sweat and tears, and the original appearance could hardly be distinguished. up.

Some of them are still young, and some are already octogenarians.Some accidentally lost their way while playing, some fled to the mountains due to wars and were separated from their relatives, and some children who were not expected or old people who became cumbersome due to old age were abandoned by their relatives in the mountains and forests. Some are just passing through the mountain roads that they have to walk every day, but they can't get out for no reason because they encounter ghosts hitting the wall.

There are too many misfortunes in the world, and the reason why they were swallowed by the forest is difficult to examine.

They experienced a series of emotional hells such as confusion, unbelief, anxiety, fear, panic, loss, etc., but found that they still could not leave this mountain forest.They began to feel hungry, so they tried to catch squirrels and hares that occasionally appeared in the forest.When they are lucky, they can catch them. When they are not lucky, they can only eat earthworms dug out of the soil and crickets dug out from under rocks.When they feel thirsty, they gather the dew that condenses on the leaves, barely moistening their parched throats.

The children who could not find food on their own were crying bitterly, and the bewildered old people shivered and hid under the trees around their withered bodies. They were the first to die.Some were eaten by wild animals, some died of illness after being exposed to wind and rain, some accidentally fell into cliffs or deep pits, and the remains rotted and returned to the soil in the forest.

Younger people are more survivable, but the unluckiest of them get filthy at the wrong time and in the wrong place.Maybe they met it in the first place, maybe they got lost, maybe they ate the wrong bug, maybe they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, but a significant number of them didn't even know they were infected.In short, their bodies began to deform silently and bit by bit.

First, the position of the eyes has moved.

Quite a few of them rarely have the opportunity to see their own reflections, so they can't quickly discover the abnormalities on their bodies.They just gradually began to feel that their vision became a little strange.It is difficult to maintain balance when walking, often falls, and it is more difficult to catch prey.

During this process, some of them were unable to catch prey due to unbalanced vision, or fell off the cliff, or died in other accidents.

Others gradually adapted.

Then, the position of the mouth also moved, and the position of the arms began to be a bit unsymmetrical. Suddenly, things could be seen from an angle that should not be possible.They didn't quite understand what was happening to them, and only when they saw their own shadows by the river, they screamed horribly like demons, but there was nothing they could do.Their chests, abdominal cavities, and backs began to bulge hard, and random new limbs, new eyes, and new mouths began to grow... It was as if their bodies began to forget the shape they should have, and turned into another plant something.Their memories of being human gradually faded and blurred, and no matter how hard they tried to remember, they couldn't grasp the fragments.

Finally, they become what they are and don't remember being human anymore.But they still have a vague yearning, a yearning to become human and find a home.

Therefore, they like to imitate people and like to eat people. They subconsciously think that as long as they eat more people, they can change back to their original appearance.Although even they themselves don't know why they have this yearning.

Generation after generation, this yearning became instinctive.It has become a strange and cruel law in a dirty world that ordinary people cannot understand.

Chong Liu suddenly broke free from the too vivid hallucination, and found that his body was trembling with fear, his eyes even began to swell and hurt, and he had to blink hard to condense the sudden surge of pain and despair into Tears pressed down.He seemed to be able to feel that his eyes were also moving, and his body began to twist and deform. He could even feel the unbearable helplessness and fear of those who were taken away by the forest.

what happened?

The shopkeeper suddenly coughed, and looked at him apologetically, "You are a kind person, and you will suffer because of the pain of others."

"The shopkeeper... are you an alchemist?" Chong Liu wiped his eyes with his sleeve, feeling extremely embarrassed by his gaffe.He didn't want to think about the heartbreaking pictures he saw just now.

Shopkeeper Zhu shook his head and said with a smile, "Do you think I look like a alchemist?"

"But you know spells, right? What I saw just now..."

"I know some... small skills. But I'm not an alchemist, and I don't care about subjugating demons or saving sentient beings. I'm just a businessman." The shopkeeper Zhu said in a flat tone, stood up, and put the silkworm chrysalis back Wrap it up and walk to the other side of the room.The entire wall was filled with densely packed small drawers, like a medicine cabinet for storing medicinal materials in a pharmacy.He opened a drawer and put the silkworm chrysalis in, "The formation of blindness is indeed pitiful, but you can't save them, and you can't influence or transcend them. The cause of formation has already appeared, and what you see now The result cannot be changed.”

"But I saved Xu Hanke, didn't I prevent the result from the cause? Why do you say that I will be affected by the evil?"

"If you hadn't heard Zhu Yi talking in his sleep, you wouldn't have known the date of his death. Zhu Yi himself was filthy. If you listened to his sleep talking, if you didn't discover the mystery, or didn't take it seriously, or what Don’t do it, nothing will happen. But you went to warn Xu Hanke and the others, trying to change the results revealed in the sleep talk. This behavior is destroying the balance between Tao and filth. But fortunately, the impact of this behavior is not too much Big, if there is no follow-up behavior, there will be no problem. But what you happened to stop was another blind dog trying to kill its prey. Without your intervention, Xu Hanke was destined to die today. The combination of the two foul smells is enough to make You are tainted."

"Contaminated by filth?" Chong Liu recalled the process of the terrifying blindness he saw in his hallucination, thick panic spread in his chest like black water, and the blood on his face faded, "Then... Then will I become blind as well?"

"No... Everyone's reaction to filth is different. Everyone in this inn has filth on them to some extent. You see, they haven't become blind, have they? It takes very special conditions to become blind Yes, as for your reaction, you won’t know until later. I’m just reminding you today.” The shopkeeper turned around, saw Chong Liu’s face turned pale, and comforted him, “Don’t be afraid. Contamination with filth is not necessarily a bad thing. Especially when you are here with me. Although it is not humble enough to say this, I think I know more about filth than [-]% or [-]% of alchemists. By helping you guide filth, you still have the opportunity to be like ordinary people. Live like a human being, just like everyone else in this inn. Of course, if you really want to live like ordinary people."

Others in the inn...

Is everyone here filthy?

So... did they stay in this inn because they were filthy, or did they become filthy after coming to this inn?

What about the waiters of his predecessor?

Chong Liu felt a chill like ice water pouring him through.

The shopkeeper paused, sighed, and said, "It's my fault too. I thought that Zilu Mountain, where Dao Qi is so strong, happened to be in time for the Duan Duan Ceremony today, and it should be impossible for something like blindness to shelter. It should be the safest place. Even if something happened to Xu Hanke, he wouldn’t be there. And Yuzhenguan is empty today, so it’s not likely to be a problem, so I sent you to help me deliver the letter, and I want you to avoid it. If you get dirty, I will Also responsible."

Chongliu felt that the shopkeeper's words could not comfort him at all, his mind was like a sticky ball that had been frantically stirred by Master Liao with a rice spoon.

Isn't there a saying that good people are rewarded with good things?He obviously saved someone's life, why did he cause so much trouble?