zero o'clock

【Soul Condensation Tea】

Three days later, at midnight on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year.

The last round of firecrackers in Powu had just been let off, and there were occasional solitary explosions in the distance. The cold air was filled with the long-lasting sulfur smell, which reflected the silence of the night, and the alley was invisible.

There was a slight creaking sound under the long night, and the closed door of the Bi'an Tea House quietly opened aside.The wild cat, which was rummaging for food by the trash can, was startled with vigilance, and the vertical pupils in its clear yellow eyes narrowed for a moment. It seemed to have noticed something, and the hairs all over its body sprang up, and it stared at the slightly opened door very warily. seam.

At this moment, a hairy white thing whized out of the door, with a clear goal and rushed straight to the wild cat.

Sensing the danger, the cat meowed miserably, kicked its four claws wildly, jumped up the trash can as if fleeing for its life, and then flew up the courtyard wall with all its strength.

The little wild cat was quite frightened, its whole body was shaking non-stop, it licked the pads of its paws with lingering fear, thinking that the fox dog should not have the ability to climb the wall.

In the end, before he could catch his breath, there was a howl of a beast behind him, and a giant fox as high as the cornice squatted in the middle of the alley, staring at the kitten provocatively with his head down, while wagging his nine tails meanly .

The wild cat was so frightened that its claws slipped, and it fell into the snowdrift on the other side of the courtyard wall and disappeared.

As soon as the person following behind went out, he saw Ah Li, a snake spirit who was sick and idle, exuding a little fox power to bully stray animals, and even ostentatiously getting bigger by several sizes, Li Huan hurriedly walked around to make sure there was no noise He woke up the neighbor, then cleared his throat with a stern face, and said to Ah Li: "Don't be shy, you can't even beat a hamster, so you can only tease the cats in the alley who are not weaned."

Ari froze immediately when he heard this, his self-confidence was hit a ton, he shrunk back to the size of a fox dog, and slumped over with his head drooping.

Li Huan untied the dog's leash and put it on for him, and handed the leash to Lagrange, beckoning him to lead it.Lagrange nodded obediently, and when Li Huan turned to look for Xing Yi, he quietly smoothed Shun Hu Ling's snow-white and fluffy back hair.

"I drove the cat away for you~" Ari's eyes lit up, and he licked his nose proudly, "The price has been agreed, remember to pay!"

While taking care not to be discovered by Li Huan, Lagrange lowered his voice and said, "Don't worry, you can directly ask me to pay for it in the future, that cat is so annoying, it will grind its paws at me as soon as I show my head, do you mind directly paying me?" eat it?"

Ari looked at him inexplicably, and wanted to stare at him, but because he had to hug this thigh tightly, he didn't dare to go too far.

"I don't eat such low-end food, and now the owner doesn't allow random killing, even animals." Ari took out the phone from the fox fur, opened Alipay, and said, "Come on friend, let's kill cats first." Pay me?"

Lagrange also opened Alipay very readily, and the two wretched monsters huddled aside to transfer and pay.

Li Huan glanced at the two of them suspiciously, feeling that the relationship between the two of them had grown by leaps and bounds in the past three days, and they hadn't closed their eyes for the same three days, while Lagrange still looked energetic and didn't even feel sleepy... Thinking about it He felt that his brain couldn't move anymore, so he simply hugged Xing Yi's waist from behind, hanging on his back like a boneless mollusk.

Xing Yi locked the gate, then patted the hands wrapped around his waist, and said, "Sleepy?"

Li Huan gave a vague "hmm", knowing that the other party had already locked him, but his body was so heavy that he didn't want to move at all.

The voice slid softly into the eardrums with deep drowsiness, and Xing Yi felt a sudden hotness in his lower abdomen, his breathing became chaotic, and his whole body was a little uneasy because of the "hmm".

He took a deep breath, suppressed the urge to move, and said calmly, "I'll carry you?"

Li Huan was waiting for this sentence, and immediately put his arms around Xing Yi's neck.

Xing Yi smiled and said nothing, bowed and lowered his body, holding Li Huan on the inside of his knees with both hands, and carried him firmly on his back.

Li Huan's chin rested on his shoulder. From this angle, the man's chiseled profile was very handsome.Xing Yi turned his head slightly if he felt something, and was meeting a pair of eyes that were bent with a smile, "Has anyone ever carried you back before?" He asked.

"Teacher." Li Huan said.

Xing Yi walked out along the alley with him on his back, and when he passed by a couple of people playing with their mobile phones, he raised his chin at them, signaling to follow, and then said: "Nine-tailed back, there are probably few people in this world who can go up. He may not be able to live to this day, he really loves you."

"Mr. Xing, how many people can get on your back?" Li Huan asked with a smile.

Xing Yi smiled without saying a word, moved his palm to the inside of someone's thigh, and pinched it forcefully, seemingly unintentionally.

The force wasn't too great, but Li Huan couldn't stand the sensitivity of the position. Li Huan trembled all over. He felt pain and itching. Tears came from the corners of his eyes. He struggled to get down.Xing Yi let go of that piece of tender meat, then slapped his butt punitively, and carried someone who was about to toss up on his back.

"Honest?"

"Hehe, you demon subduing masters are really slippery when you play hooligans!"

"Oh, do you want to come again?"

"do not……"

……

Lagrange, who was following the two of them, stared straight at the eyes, with a capital letter on his face, thinking that torturing a dog in the middle of the night was brutal, and he was directly shown the critical damage.Ari gave up resistance long ago, simply slowed down his pace, closed his eyes and let Lagrange lead him away.

A group of people walked through the criss-crossing alleys of Shichahai and turned into Nanluoguxiang.

The strange streets are towering old trees, extending infinitely from one end to the other. The lanterns lit by the fire at the entrance of Wanqing pawn shop are still red, and the gate is open inward. The three-flowered civet cat is squatting on the stone pier at the main entrance, while leisure He licked his paws, squinting his cat's eyes and secretly watching the person coming.

Xing Yi put Li Huan down, and the two stood side by side at the door of the pawn shop. The colorful peach blossoms in the front yard were in full bloom. There seemed to be a wind blowing in the yard, making the branches sway non-stop, and the light pink petals rustled down, covering the stone table. The black and white chess pieces that have been halfway through the previous sentence.

His gaze fell on the chessboard, and Li Huan frowned slightly, feeling that the situation seemed familiar, wondering if the teacher hadn't seen anyone in the past two days, could it be that he came to Mo Luo?He was about to knock on the door. At this moment, the mobile phone in his pocket vibrated. He took out the mobile phone and saw an unread message pushed by WeChat on the lit screen——

Shopkeeper Yan: [Come in, the door is specially reserved for you. 】

Li Huan replied "immediately", then put away his phone and stepped into the main entrance.

"Where is this place?" Sensing the change in the air, Lagrange obviously felt something was wrong, so he approached Li Huan and asked in a low voice.

Li Huan glanced at him with a half-smile, playful: "Didn't you fall in love with my teacher? This is where his old friend is good."

"Yan Moluo?" Lagrange's face turned pale, and he turned around and was about to go out while leading Ari.

Xing Yi frowned, and threw out two lead wires without turning his head. Lagrange squeaked and changed back to his original shape, and was tied up by the lead wires and brought back intact.Li Huan watched too much and found the XL version of the mouse to be pleasing to the eye. He pinched his chubby belly and said with a smile, "What are you talking about? Under the teacher's nose, even if he is Yan Moluo, he wouldn't dare Move the monster here."

"I have Morophobia," Lagrange said weakly, "do you mind if I don't change back to human?"

Li Huan waved his hands to indicate that it didn't matter, walked through the front yard, and entered the pawn shop first.

The sparrow that had been locked in the cage before was standing on one of the rows of multi-treasure racks. When it saw someone coming, it chirped a few times and flapped its wings to fly back.

At the same time, the layers of heavy curtains at the end of the Duobao shelf were raised. The man was wearing a snow-white shirt and trousers. He looked like a polite and elegant gentleman, but the smile on his face was completely malicious. , he lazily raised his right hand, and whistled long and frivolously.The little sparrow immediately made a dexterous maneuver in the air, and obediently landed on the man's slender index finger.

"Pretty punctual." Eyelashes raised, the pair of red demon pupils that belonged to demons radiated a blood-colored strange luster, Yan Mo turned around calmly, his body sank into the darkness, his voice came from behind the curtain, with a sly smile, "Come here."

Li Huan frowned slightly, and said in a low voice: "This guy is really unlikable, but he just sent us to sleep, and he insisted on making it so mysterious."

"It's the nature of the devil, this kind of thing is born to be cunning." Xing Yi patted his shoulder and shook his hand reassuringly, "Let's go."

Li Huan gave a soft "hmm" and stepped forward. Xing Yi lifted the curtain and let him go first——

Behind the curtain is indeed a hidden world, it is actually an independent room of more than ten square meters square, hundreds of curtains hang down from the roof, swaying gently without wind.Li Huan moved his nostrils, and found a faint scent of medicine floating in it. He hadn't slept for three days.

Yan Mo sat beside the table of the Eight Immortals in the center of the room, using a mortar to grind the herbs into fine powder, and then sprinkled them into a boiling casserole one by one.

"Once the nightmare finds out that someone is looking for her, it will definitely use the nightmare to attack your souls, and the self-preservation instinct of the three souls of the living soul will wake up the body at the moment of realizing the danger, so as to avoid accidental death in the dream. And this taste The soul-condensing tea will help your souls not return easily after leaving the body and entering the dreamland." He looked up at Li Huan and Xing Yi one by one, signaling them to sit down.

Xing Yi looked at the steaming casserole and said calmly, "It sounds like a double-edged sword."

"That's right." Yan Mo said, "The side effect of this tea is to forcibly sever the connection between the soul and the body, and you will achieve a deep sleep that you have never had before. Awaken, or kill yourself the Mara who weaves the nightmare."

At this time, the karmic fire that heated the casserole extinguished by itself, and Yan Mo scooped out the condensed soul tea and divided them into four pre-prepared teacups, and pushed them to everyone one by one.

Li Huan stared down at the tea as thick as ink, and asked uncertainly, "How do you control the time?"

Yan Mo knew that the little apprentice Jiuwei had a grudge against him, so he immediately smiled knowingly, resting his chin with one hand, and snapped his fingers with the other hand in front of Li Huan—instantly, the casserole and mortar on the table were cleaned up , It was replaced by a quartz hourglass. He tapped the curved glass cover of the hourglass with his fingers, and said with a chuckle: "I only give you three hours. The dream is separated from the outside, and I can't know what happened in the dream. Time, you must save your own lives, find the crazy woman who plays with dreams, and kill her. If you fail to wake up within three hours, I will wake you up personally. Of course, it is not easy to wake up a sleeping person, so the method It might be a little violent."

Li Huan: "..."

"Mo Luo, if it doesn't arrive within three hours, some of us will be seriously injured by the Nightmare and unfortunately die—" Xing Yi raised his head to meet Yan Mo's red eyes full of smiles, and wrote lightly, "Then you will wake up again and you will die." what happened?"

Yan Mo seemed to have heard something ridiculous, and couldn't help chuckling: "Mr. Demon Subduing Master, you should be a smart person, wouldn't you think of such a result?" He asked back with a smile.

Xing Yi heard the words and did not answer.

The laughter stopped, and the curve on Yan Mo's lips deepened, but the smile failed to reach the bottom of his eyes, and the frivolous and flirtatious eyes that came from both sides were rare cold and serious at this time, he said: "You can't ask me Wake up a dead man, don't you?"

After Yan Mo finished speaking, Li Huan and Xing Yi couldn't help but look at each other, Li Huan frowned slightly, and said: "Mr. Yan, we do things for the teacher, and this matter is naturally duty-bound. Ah Li is the soul of Nine Tails, go in It doesn't matter. It's just that Lager is a little innocent, so do you have to take this risk?"

Lagrange, who had turned into a mouse, had been frightened for a long time, and when he heard Li Huan speak for himself, he immediately nodded in agreement.

Yan Mo said: "For three hours, looking for a target in a dream is tantamount to finding a needle in a haystack. In the final analysis, it was this mouse that knocked on the door of the tea house for help." Speaking of this, Yan Mo snorted coldly, squinted and trembled. Lagrange of the regiment said, "He is innocent, I don't think it may be obvious, right? It's not because of him that you ventured in. Thinking about it this way, this guy is the last one to shirk."

Li Huan pondered for a moment, then said to Lagrange: "When the time comes, follow me well and just lead the way. It's not difficult to save your life for three hours, don't worry."

"It's getting late, everyone has no other questions, just drink the tea while it's hot, the effect will get worse when it cools." Yan Mo paused, as if he suddenly remembered something, and said, "By the way, there is one more thing I have to remind you that you will experience your own dreams when you just fall asleep, don't linger, you must find each other as soon as possible."

Li Huan was taken aback, and suddenly remembered the reason why the living beings fell into dreams. He thought about it every day, so he had dreams at night.He didn't know what he was thinking about at all, and he was suddenly full of curiosity about the first dream he was waiting for.

Li Huan picked up the teacup and drank the Soul Condensing Tea in one gulp.

The steaming liquid is thick and creamy, with a strange medicinal aroma. Although it has not been boiled for a long time, it has a cool touch after sliding down the esophagus.

Li Huan's head was dizzy, his eyes turned black, and his whole consciousness began to slacken, as if a cold hand had penetrated into the depths of his soul, separating his soul from his body bit by bit.

At the last moment of disillusionment, he saw Yan Mo turn the hourglass on the table upside down, then leaned to one side and fell off the chair.

At that moment, the coercion belonging to the high-ranking monster pierced through the curtain, and gently laid it under Li Huan, and lifted him back to the table.

"Why don't you get more sleep?" Mo Luo's narrow eyes slightly raised, and he looked at the man who lifted the curtain and walked towards this side with malicious intentions, "I thought you were exhausted."

Qi Jingyu looked as usual, glared at him coldly, put the cloak on the sleeping little apprentice, and sarcastically said: "It's up to you?"

Yan Mo: "..."

Being challenged by his own man's ability in that aspect, Master Mo Luo felt overwhelmed. After two seconds of silence, Yan Mo got up decisively, picked up a certain tsundere fox who was wrong, and re-entered the bedroom.

- To Be Continued