The strange story of Huai'an Inn

"After finishing the work at the blacksmith's house, Chongliu and the shopkeeper stopped in the nearest small town and went to a morning market shop for breakfast.

Chong Liu snorted and drank the hot bean porridge, stuffed the fried pig intestines with a large chopstick into his mouth, and chewed happily.

Zhu Helan looked at it dumbfounded, "You look like a starving ghost, is it because I haven't fed you enough or something?"

Chong Liu's mouth was full of food, and he said inarticulately, "You can't eat enough of delicious food! Besides, after working all night, I'm so hungry that my chest is on my back."

The shopkeeper poured a cup of hot tea and pushed it to him, "Eat slowly, don't choke."

Chong Liu did feel his mouth was a bit dry, and while he was drinking from his teacup, he caught a glimpse of a few people dressed as Nanyang merchants pulling a donkey cart with wooden boxes, and tied the donkey to the nearest horse-holding post. I went to the shop for breakfast.

The moment he caught sight of the faces of those merchants, the tea in Chong Liu's mouth spouted out.

The shopkeeper stepped aside quickly so as not to hurt the clothes he had just put on in the carriage.Just wondering what Chong Liu saw, when he turned his head to look, he was also a little dazed.

The few people who came in looked really weird.

The hair on their heads is very thin, and in a few people you can even see the bluish scalp.The skin is not like that of people from the Central Plains, Western Regions or Nanyang. Regardless of the depth, there is always a kind of inconspicuous sense of transparency, a kind of blush with blood flowing.But the skin of these people was pale and gray, a bit like the wrinkled texture of people soaked in water for too long.Everyone's eyeballs are very prominent and cloudy, as if covered with a milky white film.

Their faces are very long, their lips are wide and thick, but their noses are very short.The neck and chin are almost the same thickness, as if there is no neck.

This has gone beyond the scope of beauty and ugliness, it is completely weird.

Zhu Helan only glanced at it, then turned back, several thoughts flashed in her mind.But he saw that Chong Liu's face was pale, and his eyes were fixed on the square inch in front of him, but there was a look of fear in his eyes.

"Liu'er, are you okay?" Zhu Helan looked at him worriedly.

Chong Liu seemed to have been shaken out of a certain state of emptiness. He shook for a while, and then hurriedly said, "Huh? I'm fine."

Zhu Helan raised his eyebrows, obviously not believing it.

Chong Liu lowered his head, glanced at the Nanyang merchants sitting across the table, and said in a low voice, "Why do I think...they look like the water ghosts I saw in the inn before?" ...there is a slight similarity?"

Zhu Helan picked up the teacup and said in a voice that only the two of them could hear, "Your feeling is probably right. According to Nanyang legends, this kind of appearance is very common in a seaport town in a far west country. People are closely related to water ghosts and worship some evil god of the sea. But I have never seen them appear in the Central Plains."

Most of the people in the shop were curious about the strange looks of these Nanyang merchants, and they would look at them carefully from time to time.Those few people ignored them, and loudly called the guy to serve them food with a weird accent.

Chong Liu heard the three people at the next table discussing, "Recently, there seems to be a lot of Nanyang people in our town?"

"That's right, I saw it the day before yesterday. There was a fishy smell on my body, it made me..."

"I've seen Nanyang people before, don't they look like this?"

"Do you think these people have any diseases? Leprosy or something?"

"Hey, don't scare me, let's eat and leave quickly..."

"Tsk, don't talk nonsense. Have you ever seen what a leper looks like? It's not leprosy. I think it looks like a fish."

"You really say that..."

"Recently, our town is not peaceful, and I don't know if it has something to do with these people. Doctor Zheng of Baiyun Pavilion is still unconscious, and it is said that the medicine boy who took care of him has started to develop strange sores..."

As Chong Liu listened, he felt more and more that something was not quite right.

It was as if there was a hidden web that he could feel but not see.This net extends from the sea and covers the entire Bian River Basin against the current, including Tianliang City.

Chongliu and the shopkeeper hurriedly finished their meal, checked out and left, and hurried back to Tianliang City.But on the way, Zhu Helan suddenly felt a sharp pain in his chest. An inexplicable sense of panic overwhelmed him, making him tremble all over, and cold sweat oozes from his forehead.

He struggled to open the car curtain, and said to Chong Liu, "Liu Er, stop the car."

"Ah? Why did you stop the car? What's wrong with you, boss? Why are you sweating profusely?"

Zhu Helan tried to calm down and said, "Something happened to the locust tree."

As soon as the words came out, Chong Liu immediately drove the car to the side of the official road and stopped.Zhu Helan jumped out of the car and said to Chong Liu, "There are too many people, so I can't take a shortcut with the carriage. I'll take the shortcut back first, don't worry."

"It's only been out for one night, why did something happen?"

Zhu Helan shook his head, sighed, turned around and hurried to the forest beside the road.

Does it have something to do with those people from Mingyuandao?

Ever since they came, the inn has not been peaceful...

Originally, it took three and a half hours to run, but Chong Liuleng arrived in two hours.When unloading the horse, Chong Liu looked around and saw nothing unusual.But as soon as he entered the inn, he felt... the atmosphere was not right.

It was as if the smell of the air had subtly changed.

After taking the horse back to the stable, before he had time to catch his breath, he went to the shopkeeper's room to ask about the situation, but there was no one in the room.He immediately turned to the courtyard again.

I saw the locust tree at a glance.

Now that it's the middle of winter, the leaves are all falling, so there's nothing wrong with it.But today... it was obviously different from usual.

The branches that were originally knotted and stretched in all directions were a little drooping today. There were many broken dead branches scattered on the ground, and even the bark peeled off in several places.

Chong Liu took a closer look at the peeling "wounds", but vaguely noticed that there seemed to be something moving under the bark that hadn't fallen off.

He reached out and grabbed a piece of loose bark, tentatively peeling it off.But I saw countless white, slender, hair-like coiled things quickly getting under the bark of the nearby trees.

Chong Liu's scalp was numb, he looked at the wooden block in his hand, but found that there was a red liquid oozing from the broken part...

Blood?

Those nematode things... what are they?

"Brother Six! You're back!" Xiao Shun, who was called to help in the lobby, ran over with a thankful expression on his face, "The store is very busy today! You can barely keep an eye on me!"

Chong Liu asked, "Where's my boss?"

"I don't know, it will disappear after I come back."

Could it be that he entered the secret room that can only be seen through the fingers?

But now it's dinner time in the afternoon, isn't the room only accessible in the dead of night when no one is watching?Is there another entrance?

It's useless to worry now, Chong Liu had to put on an apron and go to the waiter.What Xiao Shun said was right, there were extraordinarily many guests today.Not only are there people eating, even the guest rooms are almost full.

Probably because the Qingming sect is going to hold an anti-filth puja in a few days?

A Liang and a few people from Mingyuandao were also in the lobby, talking and laughing loudly while drinking and eating meat.The surrounding tables moved subtly, probably because the guests were a little afraid of the things they were carrying, so they quietly moved the tables and chairs to sit farther away.

Chong Liu bowed his head and served the food, but A Liang still saw it.The latter waved vigorously at him, "Hey! Xiao Paitang! Why haven't I seen you today?"

Chong Liu scolded his mother secretly, but still put on a professional smile, grabbed the towel to wipe the table and replied, "It's not that there is something wrong with my relatives, I asked for leave. What else do you need?"

"Why are you being polite again today?" A Liang sat sprawled, as if he was in the second place.The "rank" of the brothers around him is obviously not as high as his.

Chong Liu thought, he should talk to the shopkeeper later, and find a way to let them live in another inn...or urge the carpenter to quickly make that broken fish...

"Why didn't you see Yuanwai Li today?" Chong Liu took the opportunity to inquire.

"Ah, the boss went out to discuss business with people. I'm afraid he won't come back today."

Talk about business?Who do you do business with?

Ming Yuandao didn't have any connections in Tianliang City before this?

Chongliu was full of suspicion, and heard that A Liang and the people at that table wanted to order wine and appetizers, so he hurried to the back kitchen to explain.When he came out, he saw his familiar beggar Laitou poking his head at the door.

Chong Liu was a little surprised, and hurried out of the shop when no one was paying attention, and pulled the beggar behind a nearby tree.

"Why did you come here looking for me?"

This beggar is one of the sources of Chongliu's inquiring news, and Chongliu usually goes to see him, he has never been close to Bianliang Street.

Laitou looked strange, and found a crumpled letter from his tattered clothes.Chong Liu's name was written on the letter.

The handwriting is unfamiliar.

"Is this your name?" Lai Tou pointed to the three characters and asked, "It looks like it to me."

Lai Tou doesn't know many characters, reading characters is like looking at paintings, you can only see the general idea.

Chong Liu frowned, "Who asked you to deliver the letter?"

"No one asked me to deliver it. I returned to the base of the city wall after work yesterday and found it under my bedroll. I brought it to you today."

The anxiety in Chong Liu's heart grew bigger and bigger, because he could vaguely guess that this letter was sent to him by someone from Baixiaomen.

Ever since he used his connections to save Zhu Helan, finding his secular identity couldn't be easier.It's just that no one paid attention to him for so long, why suddenly...

Chong Liu took out a few copper coins from his pocket and handed them to Lai Tou, "I'm sorry to trouble you."

The beggar left happily.Chong Liu put the letter in his pocket and took the opportunity to read it when he went to the toilet.

It is still a long Yuefu poem, but it conveys only one message.

Looks like he's going out tonight...

Chong Liuyi was restless all night, and what was even more disturbing was that Zhu Helan never showed up.What happened to the locust tree?He doesn't know either.

Finally, when the inn closed, Fuzi was on duty again tonight, so he went back to the room early.With Zhu Yi not around, he was able to get ready earlier, changed his clothes and put on a mask, and quietly left the inn from the backyard.

This time he didn't even need to leave Tianliang City.Wearing a mask, he walked all the way along the river bank, passing by workshops with the sound of silk and bamboo and soft music, until he reached the dimly lit place, beside a magnificent but not much lighted big boat.

There was a man in black standing by the wooden ramp to board the boat, and when he saw him, he made a gesture of invitation.

Chong Liu only knew that someone from Baixiaomen had asked him to meet here, but he didn't know who was going to meet him.He swallowed, getting more and more nervous.

The light in the cabin was dim, and the sandalwood burner was emitting green smoke from the low table in the middle.A tall figure in a black robe sat with his back facing him, concentrating on playing the Yaoqin in front of him.The sound of the piano was far away, exuding an indescribably oppressive and heavy feeling.

Chong Liudao, "Excuse me..."

The figure stood up and turned around slowly, but the burly figure taller than Ming Yuandao's master Xiao Yi was not the one that made Chong Liu most nervous.

He was wearing a basalt tortoise mask, and only one person in the entire Baixiaomen was qualified to wear this mask.

Chong Liu's heartbeat suddenly rose, and he hurriedly bent his body until it was level with the ground and made a deep bow.

"I don't know it's Mr. Xuanwu! The late student is rude!"

Mr. Xuanwu's vision is like the sea before the storm, dark and unpredictable.He looked around six weeks, and finally asked in a thick and loud voice, "Where is your master, Mr. Gou Chen?"