Placid Chang'an

Su Cen and Qu Ling'er bid farewell to the Zhang family early the next morning, and found the path at the foot of the mountain according to what Zhang's sister-in-law said. Sure enough, it was overgrown with weeds, and it seemed that no one had walked by it for a long time.

Qu Ling'er was very reluctant, he told the villagers that he did not doubt him, he was afraid that he would be swept up in those coffins, and he would not be able to return to Chang'an City, nor would he be able to see his brother Qi.He spent the whole night with Su Cen, but his brother Su had acquired the ability when he was studying, he would ignore everything when he closed his ears and eyes, and fell asleep on his own, not long after the snoring It rang.

Qu Linger resigned to her fate, and what his brother Su decided, even nine cows could not be brought back.

Before leaving, I asked an old monk in the village to draw some talismans for him. The old monk said that drawing talismans was the job of Taoist priests, and he could at most read him a passage from the Sutra of Rebirth.

In the end, Qu Ling'er did not know how to get the talisman from the old monk, and hung it around her neck solemnly with a red string.Su Cen squinted a glance, "Om Mani Padme Hum", the six characters were written like ghostly symbols, swaying and elegant, and looked quite advanced - it is enough to fool Qu Linger.

It was quite difficult to walk all the way, the weeds were half the height of a person, and although it had entered autumn, the summer heat did not go down, and it was rainy here, the humidity was unbearable, and the mosquitoes were still noisy.After walking all morning, the clothes of both of them were soaked, and the mosquitoes on their legs were one after another, but they didn't even see anyone.

With the scorching sun at noon, Su Cen suggested that the two of them find a big tree to rest first, and satisfy their appetite by the way.

Qu Ling'er wrapped a straw hat with leaves and put it on her head. She leaned against the tree trunk and scratched the mosquito bag on her leg, complaining as she scratched: "Brother Su, don't you think it's good for us to inspect and return to Chang'an City as soon as possible? Why do we have to eat it?" Is this suffering? If you don’t want to show your identity and bring Mr. Ma with you, at least someone will clear the way for us.”

Su Cen was taking a nap with a straw hat covering his face, when he heard the sound, he opened a crack and said, "Back then, Master Chen and Master Zhang went there in the name of Dali Temple and didn't find anything. You don't even dare to call a cave What can Master Ma gain if he enters?"

"At least a lot of people can give you courage." Qu Ling'er muttered softly.

"You really believe what they said," Su Cen held a straw hat and fanned the cool, "The reason why people are afraid is not necessarily because of the horror of things themselves, but more of things they imagined to scare themselves. As long as they can Seeing the essence through the appearance, some things are self-defeating. Do you want to hear my opinion."

Qu Ling'er sat up straight, "Brother Su, tell me."

"It is impossible for people to disappear for no reason. Since they came from the coffin and disappeared from the coffin, I guess there should be secret passages, secret doors and the like hidden under the coffin. When that person arrived, the whole village should be in the secret passage What to do here, so he didn't see anyone."

"Who would build a secret passage in a coffin?" Qu Ling'er curled her lips, "Then how do you explain that person died when he came back, and the coffin at the door does not know where it came from?"

"People died when they came back. It may be because they had contracted a serious disease a long time ago, or they may have suffered from some emergency later. As for the coffin, it is even simpler. What's so strange about putting a coffin in the dark and windy night? Give me a hundred Some way to get him the coffin to the door."

"What you said is simple." Qu Ling'er secretly rolled her eyes, and said in a low voice, "One thing and two things are clear. Is it so simple that so many things are entangled?"

Su Cen put the straw hat back on, "It's because it's not easy, so we're going to investigate."

After the hottest day at noon, the two of them set out on the road again. Qu Ling'er tied up the cuffs of her trouser legs with a straw rope, covered herself with a thin shirt, and followed the mosquitoes without fear of boiling water. Knock to the end.

On the other hand, Su Cen continued to keep his sleeves fluttering and everything went on as usual, and he didn't care about these little flying insects at all.

Qu Ling'er expressed her admiration with her two exposed eyes: "Brother Su, aren't you afraid of being bitten?"

"I'm afraid," Su Cen said calmly, "Anyway, it will itch if you are bitten by a mosquito, and it will also itch if you cover it with prickly heat, so I don't bother to care about it because it is itchy."

Qu Linger: "..." It seems quite reasonable.

It wasn't until the sun was to the west that the two people saw the boundary marker of Lujiazhuang, and they walked for a while before they saw the house, but they hadn't entered the village yet, there was only one household, two miles away from the village, it was just an ordinary thatched hut. There was no coffin at the door either.

"Is...is there anyone here?" Qu Ling'er hid behind Su Cen, carefully looking at the hut, "It's not sunset yet, so is there no one?"

Su Cen took a few steps forward and was about to knock on the door when the breeze blew and the door creaked open.

Su Cen froze in place with her raised hands, looking at the empty courtyard, she really didn't know what to do for a moment.

"Brother Su, why did you open the door by yourself?" Qu Linger stuttered, "Yes, is there a ghost?"

"Ahem..." An erratic cough came from behind, as if responding to Qu Ling'er's words "There are ghosts".

"Ahh! Brother Su, save me!" Qu Ling'er hopped her feet immediately, jumping three feet high as if she had exploded, and screamed in Su Cen's ear.

Su Cen rubbed his ears and turned around, only to see an old man with half-blown hair coming behind him at some point, holding a half-bundle of dry firewood in his arms. The expression on his face was a bit gloomy, but his eyes were shining brightly, and he was looking at the two people suspiciously.

"Stop shouting, it's a human." Su Cen covered Qu Ling'er's mouth with his hands, and was about to turn around to explain to the old man, but saw that the old man had already walked around the two of them with firewood and entered the courtyard gate, and he was still light before leaving. With a laugh: "Rare items, both of you will be out of breath when you come in."

Qu Ling'er's legs gave way and she almost knelt down, "Su, Su, brother Su, he said we'd be panting, will he eat us?"

Su Cen looked at the back of the old man, "Is it enough to say that you can't breathe?"

The old man didn't close the courtyard door after entering, and went into the woodshed to light a fire for cooking.This at least showed that the old man didn't care much about them. Su Cen dragged Qu Ling'er into the yard.

This small courtyard is no different from ordinary people's. There are a few thin fields beside the fence, and the cabbage and eggplants are growing well.There are hoes and rakes and other ordinary farm tools behind the courtyard gate, and there are no lethal weapons.

Su Cen put Qu Ling'er in the yard, and went into the woodshed to chat with the old man.

"Old man," Su Cen cupped his hands, "We are Fang Fang's doctor, passing through expensive land, and want to come here to ask for a drink."

"Ask for water?" The old man stopped what he was doing and snorted coldly, the sarcasm in his eyes was undisguised, "You have traveled twenty miles in the mountains just to come here to ask for water?"

It was just twenty miles from the foot of the mountain in Jinghe village, it seemed that this old man was quite familiar with this area.Su Cen was not embarrassed when she saw through, and smiled back calmly: "To tell you the truth, I'm actually here to find someone."

"Oh?" The old man continued to fill the stove with firewood, and the flames danced in the stove, making the gully on his face more obvious, "Who are you looking for?"

"Lu Xiaoliu." Su Cen said calmly, "Do you know the old man?"

The old man paused, "Who are you?"

"You know him?" Su Cen said happily, "Xiao Liu worked with me in the Hou's mansion, he took good care of me at the time, and later I heard that he committed a crime and was deported to his original place. Find it."

"You are looking for the wrong one. There is no one named Lu Xiaoliu in the village."

"Isn't this Lujiazhuang?"

"Lujiazhuang? Oh," the old man smiled sarcastically, "This is not Lujiazhuang for a long time."

The water in the iron pot boiled, and the old man got up to get the strainer. Su Cen took it first and handed it to the old man with a wink. The old man took the strainer and took the rice out of the pot and transferred it to the steamer. , without even looking up.

Seeing that the old man didn't intend to talk anymore, Su Cen bowed and said "Excuse me", got up and left the firewood room.

As soon as he walked to the door, he only heard a sigh amidst the smoke and fire inside, "Young student, I advise you, go back where you came from, don't go into this muddy water."

In the yard, Qu Ling'er was teasing a few free-range chickens, when she saw Su Cen come out with a chicken in her arms, she approached her: "Ask if you found anything?"

Su Cen shook his head, "Let's go."

"Oh." Qu Ling'er put down the chicken, and followed Su Cen out.

"What shall we do next?" Qu Ling'er asked.

Su Cen stood at the door for a while, looked at the unevenly rising and falling houses not far away, and said, "Enter the village."

It's not that he didn't take the old man's words seriously, but the more so, the more it shows that this village is unusual.Judging by the old man's attitude, he must know about Lu Xiaoliu, and he probably knows about what happened back then. The more he refuses to talk about it, the more he implies that what happened back then has a lot to do with him, and he didn't look for the wrong place.

After walking a few steps, they suddenly heard a rustling sound behind them, and the two of them turned their heads together to look, only to see that the little chick from before had followed, just a few steps away, holding up a mung bean-sized mung bean. His eyes looked at the two of them.

"Hey, this chicken likes me." Qu Ling'er smiled, "Brother Su, what should I do?"

Su Cen said to him, "What do you think?"

Qu Ling'er thought about it seriously: "Baked it?"

Su Cen: "..."

In the end, Qu Ling'er could only send the chicken back to others under Su Cen's eyes. Just as he opened the courtyard door, he saw the old man setting up a table in the yard. Chicken thrown out.

"The chicken ran away, I'll catch it for you..." Qu Ling'er put the chicken down resentfully, obviously she had done a good deed, but she acted like a chicken thief.

Turning around and just about to leave, the old man behind him asked: "Are you going to enter the village?"

Qu Ling'er turned her head and nodded, "Yes."

The old man sneered with his nose.

"What's wrong?" Qu Linger asked.

The old man raised his head to look at Qu Ling'er, and paused every word, as if he said it on purpose: "It's night in that village, there are ghosts."