Placid Chang'an

Qu Ling'er refused to leave without saying anything.

Hugging the fence in the yard, Ren Su Cen dragged and refused to move a step, which meant that I would stand still if the fence didn't fall down.

Su Cen was also not good at forcibly demolishing other people's fences, so he looked at the old man with some embarrassment, and saw that he was peeling salted duck eggs by himself, and the fresh yellow egg oil was poured on the rice, which was delicious.

Night was approaching, and the village didn't know what was going on. It would be better to stay here for a night if you ventured into the village. Even if the old man did something, the two of them wouldn't be at a disadvantage.

Su Cen cupped his hands at the old man: "It's getting late, my little brother doesn't dare to walk at night, is it convenient to stay overnight at the house?"

The old head had already guessed how they would react, and sneered: "Come here."

Qu Ling'er didn't hesitate at all, she immediately let go of the fence and went to the dining table, she reached out and grabbed a duck egg and began to peel it.

The old man brought out two bowls from the firewood room. The clear soup lacked water, and the grains of rice in the bowls could be counted clearly. It was the leftover soup from the rice just now.Looked at the salted duck egg in Qu Linger's hand, took it after peeling it, and divided the duck egg into three in twos and twos. Su Cen and Qu Linger each got half of the egg white, and the whole oily egg was rolled with butter. In the old man's bowl.

"Eat." The old man nodded his chopsticks at Su Cen and Qu Ling'er, and picked up the bowl to eat.

Su Cen and Qu Ling'er looked at each other, for a while Su Cen lowered his head and smiled, picked up the bowl and said to Qu Ling'er, "Eat."

Some eating is better than starvation. Two people eat porridge and eat eggs. The egg yolk is well salted, but the egg white is salty. It is just right to drink porridge.

Su Cen finished eating first, put down the bowl and chopsticks, looked at the old man and asked, "What do you call the old man?"

The old man had already finished his meal, and was tearing vegetable leaves to feed the chicks. He said without raising his head, "There's only one old man, there's nothing to call him."

"Then let's call you senior," Su Cen said, "Is your surname Lu?"

The old man lowered his head and didn't make a sound, so he agreed.

"Senior Lu," Su Cen asked respectfully, "Is everyone in the Lu family village surnamed Lu?"

The old man looked up at Su Cen, "Lujiazhuang, what's the surname Lu?"

"But don't you say it, this is not Lujiazhuang long ago."

The old man replied calmly: "The older generation is gone, and the younger generation doesn't know each other. For me, this is really not Lujiazhuang."

"Then what does it mean that there are ghosts in Lujiazhuang?" Su Cen asked emphatically biting the word "ghosts".

The old man stopped what he was doing, and the lines at the corners of his eyes slowly gathered together, staring at Su Cen with a pair of shining eyes, making people break out in a cold sweat for no reason.

"Ghosts aren't scary, what's scary is people's hearts," the old man took a long time to speak out, and slowly got up. He didn't know whether he was speaking to Qu Ling'er or Su Cen, "Go to bed early, it's not too late here. safe."

Seeing the people leave, Qu Ling'er tilted her head and asked, "What's the meaning of this old man? I think he looks like a ghost." Turning to look at Su Cen, "Brother Su, what should we do?"

"Since it's here, it's safe." Su Cen stacked several bowls together, "Go and wash the dishes."

Eight hundred miles away, Yingchuan County.

Yangdi Official Post is considered to be the largest post in Yingchuan County. When Prince Ning wants to return to Chang'an from Xuzhou, Yingchuan is a must pass, and Yangdi Official Post is a must.Therefore, the postmaster of the official post has started to prepare tremblingly since he received the news, cleared the post, no one else can come near, the tables, chairs and beds have been replaced with new ones, and even the stables have been cleaned to a new look, for fear of touching Chitose in the slightest. Master's bad luck, it's a pity that his own life will be ruined.

The sky was dark and King Ning's chariot arrived late, and the originally empty official post was instantly filled with horses and chariots.The postmaster had never seen such a big ostentation, so he made arrangements after running back and forth, Prince Ning was not difficult to serve, he got off the horse and went directly to the guest room, where all the drinks and food were brought to the room.The most difficult thing was that the Turkic guards under King Ning were all tall and big, could not understand the language, and had a very loud voice.

Not far away, there were lights and shadows, and the crowd in the hall pushed glasses to change glasses, drank heavily and ate meat, and the aroma of wine and meat diffused with the wind, revealing a sense of extravagance.

After inspecting the horses in the stables and feeding them the high-quality fodder, the postmaster really didn't feel like going back to greet those barbarians, so he simply sat in the horse trough and took a break while he was busy.

In the middle of the yard stood a big black box, square and square, so dark that it blended into the night without any seams.

The postmaster was wondering what kind of treasure was in the box, and was so tightly covered, he was lost in thought, when the box suddenly thumped.

The postmaster was taken aback immediately, and almost fell into the trough. The box seemed to know that someone was here, and it rang again before the postmaster recovered.

The postmaster stood up tremblingly, he didn't know what to do for a while, he hesitated before deciding to take a look, only moved two steps and was slapped on the back shoulder, startled again.

Looking back, he saw that it was the Turkic leader, who was a full head taller than him, with light eyes, and said coldly: "Stay away."

The postmaster immediately nodded in agreement, his gaze still following Qi Lin.A man opened a small door on the side wall of the box, handed a steamed bun in, and then, a hand stretched out from the cage.

It is a person who is locked in there!

Not to mention that the weather is still very hot, what's it like to be locked in this iron box, this box alone is three feet square, if there is a real person inside, he must not be able to stand up or lie down, just bend down and wait The last hour and a half was uncomfortable enough.

And it seemed that this group of people had no intention of releasing them even after nightfall.

What crime did this man commit to deserve such punishment?

When Qi Lin came back from delivering the steamed buns, the postmaster followed him a few steps out of curiosity, and asked tentatively as he walked, "My lord, is this person a criminal of the imperial court?"

Qi Lin walked forward on his own, without looking sideways: "Don't ask if you shouldn't ask."

The postmaster stopped in resentment, and looked back at the big box again. The person inside seemed to have choked on a steamed bun, and coughed violently, driving the car carrying the box to shake violently.

While lingering on his last breath, the man seemed to know that he hadn't left yet, so he laughed out of nowhere, through the resonance of the iron box, it rattled, and the irony in his smile was undisguised.Interspersed with uncontrollable coughing, wheezing like a dilapidated bellows.

"Madman." The postmaster spat, turned his head and left.

Su Cen sat at the table and accompanied Qu Ling'er to wash the dishes, the night had completely shrouded, a few stars came out first, Su Cen was bored, tapped the table with his fingertips, looked up to count the stars.

The thick night is like a huge black curtain, as the blackness intensifies, the stars are revealed one by one, more and more, gradually forming a galaxy.

After a while, Su Cen bowed his head and gave up. There were more and more stars, some were bright, some were dark and indeterminate. Su Cen's eyes were dazzled, he closed his eyes for a while, and asked Qu Ling'er, why is he so afraid of ghosts?

Qu Ling'er paused, she probably didn't expect Su Cen to take the initiative to talk to him, and said after a while: "When I was young, I couldn't see the stars in the place where I lived, and when I opened and closed my eyes, it was the same during the day and night. Maybe it's because The darkness is too long, so I always feel that there is something hidden in it. As you said, if you scare yourself, you will get sick."

"Can't see the stars?" Su Cen repeated, "You lived in a cave when you were young?"

"As far as I can remember, I lived there with the master. Sometimes the master would take me with me when he came out, and we had to walk a long, long way, but the master would blindfold me, and I didn't know where the exit was. Later, the master took over the wounding door and the shocking door, and the dark threads spread all over Dazhou, and we came out from there."

Su Cen nodded and asked again, "What else?"

"I just remember that place was as big as a maze. When I was young, I played hide-and-seek with Han Shu and Xiaohong. I hid myself in a crevice of stones. Unexpectedly, Han Shu's grandson left without finding it for a while. , I hid in the crevice of the stone for a long time, and fell asleep. I don’t know how long it took. I was hungry before I thought about coming out. As a result, my foot got stuck when I was leaving, and I couldn’t get it out anyway. I thought there was a ghost coming down to pull me, and I was rescued by the master after crying and howling for a long time." Qu Ling'er chuckled, "Later, Han Shu was scolded by the master and punished to stand upside down for a month before I was relieved. A big hatred in my heart."

Su Cen followed with a smile, the place Qu Linger mentioned should be the main altar of the secret door, but judging by Qu Linger's appearance, she probably couldn't remember any useful information.

After Qu Ling'er finished washing the dishes, the two of them sat in the yard for a while before returning to the room. The old man was already about to go to sleep, so he pointed to a room. There is a bed, but it is full of debris, and it takes a lot of work to live in it.

Naturally, there is no reason to pick and choose. Su Cen and Qu Ling'er tidied up, managed to sort out a general idea, and worked together to spread the quilt. Just as they were about to lie down, the old man pushed the door open again and came in with a bag. Pot of tea.

Qu Ling'er was thirsty after all the work, she moved to the table and poured herself a cup of tea, she clicked her tongue, "This old man has a bit of a conscience."

The tea was stopped before it was brought to her lips. Su Cen looked up out of the window and whispered, "Be careful."

Qu Ling'er immediately understood: "Is there something wrong with this tea?"

"It's hard to say whether there is a problem, but when you go out, you must be on guard." After a pause, he continued: "Especially in this kind of place."

Qu Ling'er thought for a while and put down the teacup, "Brother Su, you are right, I won't drink it anymore."

Su Cen turned off the light, and said again: "Be careful at night, don't sleep too hard, I always think this old man is not simple."

Qu Linger nodded, and the two of them folded their clothes and lay down. Even though they had been traveling all day, Qu Linger followed Su Cen's instructions and did not dare to sleep well.

Waking up again from a dream, I thought nothing happened, just about to close my eyes, I glanced out of the corner of my eye, and was shocked!

There was a man standing on the bedside, his back was facing them, the old man whose back was pulled by the moonlight, and he didn't hear how this man came in at all!

Qu Ling'er quietly reached out to touch the hidden weapon in her lower back, and was held down as soon as she moved.

Su Cen still had her eyes closed, but one hand was warm and strong on top of his hand, and she shook her head slightly at him.

Only then did Qu Ling'er realize that Su Cen had also woken up.

The old man lightly flipped through Su Cen's luggage, then turned his head to look at the two of them.Qu Ling'er hastily closed her eyes, and through the eyelids, she felt that a gaze stayed on her face for a long time, and he almost couldn't hold back that gaze before slowly moving away.

Before the old man left, he weighed the teapot on the table again. The tea had already been poured in the yard by Su Cen, so it was light to lift it now.

The old man smiled meaningfully, no longer restrained in his movements, let go of his hands and feet, opened the door and left.

"Brother Su," Qu Ling'er called softly after hearing the person walk away, "You are right, this old man really has a problem."

Su Cen slowly opened a pair of clear eyes, nodded to indicate that he understood.

"He just went through our luggage," Qu Ling'er asked in a breathy voice, "Did he steal our things?"

"I put all the official documents and silver on me, and there are some clothes in the luggage. There is nothing to steal."

"Then what do we do now?"

Su Cen pursed her lips and thought for a while, "Wait and see."

It didn't take long for the stillness to be broken, and there was a sound of huh huh in the yard, with a rhythmic pause and pause, as if something was rubbing back and forth on the rough stone surface.

Su Cen frowned, pulled Qu Ling'er up, "Let's go."

The two came out of the room lightly, and quickly locked on the source of the sound under the cold moonlight.

A grinning face was reflected in the pale moonlight, and what was held in those withered hands was a kitchen knife gleaming with cold light.