The strange story of Huai'an Inn

The half of the face exposed on the wall slowly opened its left eye.The eyeballs were still black and white, but there was a hollow silence.

"Master...how did this happen?" Chong Liu's voice trembled like his hands, his face was drained of blood, and tears welled up in his eyes.

One half of Master's face could not move his mouth, and the other half of his lips moved. The voice he spoke was distorted and weird, not even human-like.Probably the vocal cords have also been distorted.

"I'm back..." Master murmured.It seems that Chong Liu just went out to pick oysters.

Tears could no longer be restrained and flowed down Chong Liu's cheeks.Chong Liu groped the wall with his hands, as if trying to find a way to get Master out of the wall.

It was the first time Zhu Helan saw Chong Liu so sad.Chong Liu has always looked like he has no worries. Even after experiencing so many strange things that ordinary people can't understand, he can still maintain simplicity. It seems that no darkness or horror can stain him.

This is the first time he saw Chong Liu so sad.

Why is there such a sore and painful feeling in the heart?It's been too long since he's had such a vivid, human feeling just looking at other people's pain.

He thought about the past, trying to wipe away the tears on Chong Liu's face.But he knows now is not the time.Now he can only be a bystander.

"Don't be afraid..." Master said in a weak voice, looking at Chong Liu with vivid warmth in his dead eyes, "This will happen sooner or later."

"Someone turned you into this? What's going on?" Chong Liu anxiously turned to Zhu Helan for help, "Boss, please think of a way to save my master!"

At this time, Chong Liu's master extended his sight behind Chong Liu, and landed on Zhu Helan who was standing quietly.His tired eyes widened slightly, and the shock flickering inside was obvious.

"Acacia tree... Priest..."

Zhu Helan arched his hands and saluted respectfully, "Mr. Gou Chen."

Chong Liu wiped the tears from his cheeks, his red and swollen eyes wandered between the shopkeeper and the master, vaguely realizing that they might be acquaintances.After thinking about it, I don't think it's strange.If Mengku Daoist and Jiuluan Fairy were acquainted with the shopkeeper, the five people who went to Buhuanling at the beginning might have asked the shopkeeper for help.

Mr. Gou Chen moved his eyes from Zhu Helan to Chong Liu, but his eyes were inexplicably lost, "It seems that this is all destined..."

Chong Liu didn't understand the deep meaning in Master's words, but endured the choking in his voice and hurriedly said, "Master, tell us how we can help you? There must be a way!"

Mr. Gou Chen blinked his eyes slowly, looking more and more exhausted.He opened his mouth slowly, pausing and resting for a while every few words, as if every word would bring him endless pain and consume what little energy he had left.

"Xiao Liu, there is no other way. I was destined to become like this a long time ago, and I chose it myself. Each person has his own destination... Before I leave... I want to give you that thing..."

Mr. Gou Chen's voice became lower and lower, until it was almost inaudible in the end.Chong Liu approached him, but he still couldn't tell what the master was talking about in his increasingly chaotic muttering.

Finally, Mr. Gou Chen closed his eyes.

"Master?"

no respond.

Chongliu put his hand under the master's nose in fear, and could feel a faint breath.

"He probably lost consciousness." Zhu Helan walked behind Chong Liu at some point, and put his hand on his shoulder lightly, as if wanting to give him a little strength.

Chong Liu's body was also trembling slightly.

He knew that Master was different from ordinary people, but he didn't expect Master to become like this bit by bit in this dark place by himself.

Is it because he knew he would be like this, that he forced himself to leave here to wander outside, and specifically told him not to come back?

Did Master never leave this stone room in these eight years?

Why is it?

Confused and sad, Chongliu turned around and suddenly grabbed the front of the shopkeeper, and put his forehead on Zhu Helan's shoulder.

Zhu Helan froze for a moment, then tentatively put his hand on Chong Liu's back and patted it lightly.

After an unknown amount of time, the two of them maintained such movements in the dim light, as if they were going to dissolve in the solidified darkness like Mr. Gou Chen.

Finally, Chong Liu controlled his emotions.He straightened up and said in a low voice, "Master needs to rest, and we also need to rest. Go to my room?"

Zhu Helan nodded quietly.

Chong Liu's room was lit up by those South China Sea night pearls the moment he stepped in. The light that was dense like sea water illuminated a wooden bed, a box for storing clothes and bedding, a washbasin, a shelf, and a shelf of worn-out books. and copybooks.

Zhu Helan noticed that there were many conch shells, sea shells, oyster shells and stones with exquisite shapes or patterns placed on the bedside of the box.Although they are all covered with dust, they can still vaguely see their lovely appearance back then.

Apparently Liu'er liked to collect these little things when he was a child.

Zhu Helan reached out to pick up an orange-red sun-dried starfish, and looked at it with interest.He has only heard of starfish, but has never seen it with his own eyes...

This is where Liu'er grew up...

Chong Liu shook the quilt, the dust profusely choked him and coughed, "There's so much dust even though the door is closed..."

Zhu Helan also began to feel tired, turned her head and yawned, and then heard Chong Liu say, "Boss... you can just sleep on the bed for a while."

"how about you?"

"I sleep against the wall."

Zhu Helan clicked his tongue, "Why are you so out of touch, let's sleep together."

Chong Liu's face flushed red.

Zhu Helan walked up to Chong Liu with his eyes bent, reached out and tapped his nose, "What are you thinking? We're just lying together."

"I didn't think about anything!" Chong Liu said stiffly.

"I really didn't think about anything?" Zhu Helan teased, "That's a pity. I thought about it a lot..."

Due to the shopkeeper's malicious molestation, Chong Liu was lying on his bed, stretched upright as if he was lifting a corpse.He closed his eyes, but all his attention was focused on the hand that was in contact with the shopkeeper...

"Liu'er, are you asleep?"

Chong Liu opened his eyes, "I can't sleep..."

"Worried about your master?"

"...I don't understand... what kind of disease is this? How can people turn into stone before they die? Doesn't it take a long, long time?"

"I have never seen such a distortion." Zhu Helan turned over and faced Chong Liu, "Mr. Gou Chen, it is very likely that he has been to Qiongji Island. Maybe something happened on the island. Maybe Mengku's nightmare It's not just a nightmare."

Chong Liu also turned around, and the two faces were facing each other, their noses almost touching, "But in the dream of the national teacher, he said that my master was dead? And he was still taken apart alive. But my master He obviously lived well, and later raised me."

"And the strong filth on your body, and the way you see yourself after our spiritual connection... these should not be a coincidence." Zhu Helan stretched out his hand, gently brushed the hair in front of Chong Liu's forehead, and wiped it off The dust on his nose, "Regardless of the truth, I hope you remember that you are Zhongliu, the waiter manager of Huai'an Inn, that's all. Nothing else is important."

Chong Liu stared at him blankly, and said in a low voice, "If Master leaves, I will have no relatives."

Zhu Helan couldn't remember the pain of losing a loved one.After thousands of years, no matter how deep the feelings are, they have been forgotten.But he vaguely remembered that it was a very painful and lonely feeling.

He then stretched out his hand, hugged Chong Liu into his arms, and whispered in his ear, "You still have me, I won't die, remember."

Chong Liu buried his head deeper in his arms.

The two hugged each other quietly, and finally gradually found peace.The two of them who had fallen into a light sleep in this posture were suddenly awakened by a bang.

It seemed as if there was thunder rolling under the ground, from far and near, like a monster roaring, the bed was also trembling.

Chong Liu asked in amazement, "An earthquake?"

"An earthquake is not this kind of sound..." Zhu Helan sat up and listened carefully to the roar that seemed to be passing through a huge mountain.

"It came from the depths of the crypt." Zhu Helan asked, "Liu'er, have you heard such a sound before?"

Chong Liu shook his head.

At this moment, the huge roar finally stopped.Zhu Helan stood up and whispered to Chongliu, "Is your master's door locked?"

"Yes, no one should be able to open it except me and my master."

Zhu Helan nodded with a dignified expression, "There seems to be something in this mountain."

Chong Liu was stunned.He grew up here, and never thought that the cave would be unsafe.

Even though his master had warned him not to go deep into the cave...

Deep in the cave, what's there?

Curiosity arose, as if suddenly discovering a treasure that hadn't been excavated at the place closest to him.

Zhu Helan turned to him and said with a smile, "Do you want to take a look at your own home? Maybe...it can solve some mysteries about your life experience and your master's condition."

Chongliu nodded eagerly.

Coming out of the cave on the side of the residence, at the previous fork, they got into the narrow passage on the right that Chong Liu hadn't been through much.

Different from the residential area, this road is narrow and rugged, without any night pearls.There was no light at all, and they were wrapped in layers of darkness as thick as ink, groping in the belly of the mountain, getting farther and farther away from the sun.

Fortunately, the two each took a luminous pearl to illuminate the road.

The shopkeeper thought that the coat would be in the way, so he stayed in Chongliu's room, pinned the hem of his long gown to his belt, and crawled along the lower and lower passages.Chong Liu followed him closely, feeling that the stones around him were pressing on him, trying to keep him in this darkness forever.

After a short period of openness, there is a narrower stone path, which is difficult to lift your head, and it is getting more and more humid and hot.Chong Liu felt his sweat running down his neck, and his breathing became more and more difficult, as if a boulder was pressing on his chest.

They've climbed too deep...

"Boss...are we..."

"There is light!" Zhu Helan said in front, speeding up.

As soon as he heard that hope was ahead, Chong Liu also got excited, and rushed towards the blue light spot with all his hands and feet in embarrassment.

When Zhu Helan pulled him to stand up straight, he froze.

The huge cave was even bigger than the outermost cave he was familiar with.Some stalagmites are connected from the top to the ground, like huge columns in the shape of an hourglass, and the whole cave looks like an abandoned ancient palace.

Or... this is really a palace... because there are faint traces of carvings on those pillars.

Chong Liu's gaze was like Zhu Helan's, and he was naturally attracted to a large pool of water in the middle of the cave that exuded a strange blue fluorescent light.It was almost a small lake, and the light emitted illuminated the entire magnificent cave.

They approached the pool, not quite understanding what they saw.

It wasn't water...it was a viscous, almost swampy slurry.But instead of mud, the slime is encased in strange algae that fluoresce.

It's not just algae, through the slightly filthy sticky liquid, you can vaguely see... some human-shaped things...

But neither is a complete human form...

Some are just a hand, some have only a few randomly connected fingers, some that seem to be heads are clustered with tumors from the nose up, and some that seem to be internal organs have grown into random piles of flesh for unknown reasons.

These stumps and broken arms, eyeballs dragging nerves and blood vessels, and some kind of fleshy things wriggling deeper, all dissolved and gathered together in this "water pond".Intestines wrapped around knees, brains covered ankles, a hodgepodge of deformities beyond imagination.

That's not counting, there are some musculoskeletal fats that are not human-shaped at all, almost like being kneaded together at will...

Chong Liu's mind went blank...

What are these things?