Placid Chang'an

It would be shocking for someone to appear quietly behind him, let alone in such a weird atmosphere.

Su Cen frowned, and looked at the old woman in front of her. She leaned on a fire stick on her shriveled wrist, her temples were gray and messy, her cheeks and eye sockets were deeply sunken, and she was also holding a pair of chaotic and lifeless eyes to Su Cen. watching.

If it weren't for the broad daylight today, where the sun is scorching and everything has nowhere to hide, Su Cen would really have followed Qu Ling'er to believe that there are monsters and ghosts in this world.

"Mother-in-law." It happened that Lu Xiaojiu came out from the backyard and called out to the old woman.

Only then did Su Cen remember that Lu Xiaojiu once said that he lived with his mother-in-law, and this person in front of him should be the mother-in-law he was talking about.

"We got lost so far and want to stay overnight. Please excuse me." Su Cen dug out a few pieces of silver and sent them over. "Please accept a little reward."

The old woman was indifferent, with a pair of cloudy eyes that were empty but stubborn. If she didn't blink once in a while, one would doubt that she was alive.

"What is this?" Lu Xiaojiu stepped forward to pick up the broken silver in Su Cen's hand, looked at the sunlight, and asked Su Cen, "Is it a stone? Why does this stone glow?"

Qu Ling'er was surprised: "You don't know what this is?"

Lu Xiaojiu shook her head, the confusion on her face did not seem to be fake.

Qu Ling'er turned her head to look at Su Cen, only to see the man stood thoughtfully for a while, and patiently explained to Lu Xiaojiu: "This is silver, used for shopping, if you like it, I will give it to you."

Lu Xiaojiu smiled heartily, and happily accepted the two pieces of silver.

Then said: "My mother-in-law's ears are not good, she can't hear you when you talk like this, you have to look into her eyes and say."

Su Cen said it again according to the instructions, and the old man finally moved away from staring at him.

Knowing that it was a living person, Qu Ling'er let go, and complained to Lu Xiaojiu, "Why do you lock the door when there are people at home? You're going to scare us."

"I told you that my mother-in-law can't hear you," Lu Xiaojiu looked at the two pieces of silver carefully, "She can't open the door for me from the inside, so I can only lock the door from the outside."

Su Cen pointed out the key point: "Why do you have to close the door?"

According to common sense, the door will not be locked when there are people at home, and there is a way to get out in case of water leakage or the like.But this place is obviously different. He also noticed on the way here that every house here is locked. It stands to reason that Lujiazhuang is isolated from the outside world. Thieves and robbers should not be mixed in. They are not guarding against thieves, so what are they guarding against? ?

"That's because..." Just as Lu Xiaojiu was about to speak, there was a knock on the courtyard door suddenly.

Everyone in the yard looked towards the door together, even the mother-in-law who had bad ears followed them.

The knock on the door was not heavy, and the three long and one short were quite rhythmic, but it was particularly distinct in the silent environment.

The knock on the door continued for more than a dozen times, but no one came to open it. Su Cen looked back at Lu Xiaojiu, but saw the person's face was pale, he stood there blankly, his eyes shrunk, and it was clearly written - fear.

He suddenly understood why the people here locked the door.

It's not an option to keep ringing the door, Su Cen asked: "Do you want to open the door?"

Lu Xiaojiu nodded after returning to her senses, looked into Su Cen's eyes and was about to cry: "Yes... yes."

Su Cen tentatively asked, "Shall I drive?"

Lu Xiaojiu was taken aback for a moment, her eyes lit up, and she nodded fiercely at Su Cen.

Su Cen walked behind the door and paused for a while on the latch.

He wants to see what kind of beast is behind this door, which can scare people like this?

As the door creaked and opened in response, the people on both sides of the door were stunned.

Outside the door is neither a flood nor a beast. A white-clothed man in his thirties looks quite upright. After a daze, he walked into the courtyard with a familiar step, nodded and smiled at Su Cen, and said, "I think this is the It's been a long time since we've seen a stranger in Lujiazhuang, I'm so happy, I don't know what to say for a while."

Turning around, he said to Lu Xiaojiu: "Xiaojiu is too. How can you be negligent if you don't say anything when the distinguished guests come from the village?"

Su Cen frowned slightly, he followed Lu Xiaojiu into the village only a stick of incense, and he didn't enter the house, how did this person know he was here?

"It's because we lost our way and came in without saying hello. Please forgive me if there is any collision." Su Cen replied politely without hitting the smiling face. Stretched, leaning back, putting strength on the toes, this is an instinctive retreating movement, but forced by some kind of deterrence, he can only bite the bullet and stand where he is.

Lu Xiaojiu was afraid of this person.

The man in white asked, "Brother, what's your name?"

Su Cen still used his alias, Li Xu.

The man in white smiled: "Yo, it's still the country's surname."

"We are a small family, and we have the shade of our ancestors, so we dare not pretend to be big."

The man in white asked again: "I just heard Brother Li say that he came to us when he lost his way. May I ask where Brother Li is going?"

This was intentional to test him. Fortunately, before Su Cen came, he had already checked the local county annals. He frowned slightly and made a sad expression, "I heard that Liupu Village is rich in medicinal materials. Originally, we were going to buy medicinal materials there. Passers-by told me to walk straight along the foot of the mountain, but I went the wrong way without thinking about it.”

"Brother Li is probably going in the wrong direction." The man in white laughed, "Liupu is in the southeast of Blind Mountain, and we are in the northwest of Blind Mountain. If Brother Li wants to go there, he may have to climb half of Blind Mountain."

Su Cen suddenly realized: "So that's the case, then let's take a rest and leave."

"Since you're here, it's fate. Brother Li, don't rush to leave. You might as well stay with us for a few days and let us do our best as landlords."

The two exchanged a few more pleasantries, and finally ended with Su Cen's kindness.Before leaving, the man in white asked again: "Can I get used to living here? Xiaojiu is still a child, so he is reckless. I am afraid that there will be some places that are not well taken care of. Why don't you just live in my house?"

The man in white glanced at Lu Xiaojiu a few times while speaking, and the frightened man was about to tremble.

"You're welcome, it's nice here." Su Cen said with a smile, but his eyes were cold. The man in white didn't hold back, and said a few more polite words before getting up to leave.

Su Cen sent the person outside the door, locked the door again before coming back, and asked Lu Xiaojiu, "Who is this person?"

Lu Xiaojiu seemed to be in shock, and said after a while: "Go into the room and tell."

Most of the light in the room was blocked by a sycamore tree outside that covered the sky and the sun. When it came in, a gust of cold air hit the face, making people shiver uncontrollably.It took Su Cen a while to get used to it before he could see the whole picture clearly. The furnishings in the room were simple and could be cleaned at a glance.

Lu Xiaojiu picked up the copper pot on the table and poured himself a glass of water, drank it in one gulp to suppress the shock, and then said to Su Cen and Qu Ling'er, "He is from the mansion."

Su Cen and Qu Ling'er picked up a long bench and sat down. Su Cen asked, "Didn't you say that the man in the mansion is a good person? Why are you so afraid of this?"

"I'm not afraid!" Lu Xiaojiu stiffened her neck, "I just... just have calf cramps and can't walk!"

Qu Ling'er said "Oh" meaningfully, "Then you are amazing, you can still stand still with calf cramps."

Lu Xiaojiu was exposed face to face, his face flushed, Su Cen smiled slightly, stopped poking his sore spot, and asked another way: "How did he know we're here?"

"They know everything." Lu Xiaojiu lowered her head, half of her face was hidden in the shadows, "Who lost a chicken, who killed a dog, who beat a child, they all know, even Xiaohua's family in the village used to lose They all know a kitchen knife."

Su Cen asked: "So you are afraid of living under their surveillance?"

"It's not just surveillance." Lu Xiaojiu looked around, as if he was worried about something, and finally pursed his lips and lowered his head in a low voice: "They want everyone here to live in the same way, not to speak loudly, not to go out of the village, to have a unified Cooking time, uniform sleeping time, people here have nothing that belongs to them.”

Qu Ling'er frowned. He wasn't supervised so strictly when he was still at the secret door. She was puzzled, "What if you don't do what they say? Will they beat you?"

"No." Lu Xiaojiu smiled miserably, "If you don't obey, they won't care."

Qu Linger: "Then you still..."

"Let's leave it alone means that they won't give us food, clothing and clothes, and let us starve to death and freeze to death." Lu Xiaojiu bit her lower lip hard, "Do you still remember the Xiaohua family I just mentioned? The kitchen knife in her family was not lost, but hidden. After they were discovered, they stopped delivering food to Xiaohua’s family. When the three of them were discovered, they all died at home, each of them was skinny and skinny, and their stomachs were full. It was bulging high, and when I opened it... it was full of straw."

The room suddenly became quiet when the voice fell, and the cold atmosphere slowly spread, and the cold people shivered all over.Su Cen pursed his lips tightly, he didn't want to ask any more, he was afraid that if he continued to ask, he would do something reckless.

This Lujiazhuang is not a village at all, but a huge cage, where people are raised like animals, rules are made, behavior is restrained, and food is not given to those who do not obey.

"Lawless!" Su Cen frowned, her voice was frighteningly cold.

"So if you can leave, hurry up," Lu Xiaojiu lowered her head and whispered, "You are not from our village, so they probably won't stop you if you want to leave."

"I'm afraid it's not that easy," Su Cen said, "That person just wanted to keep us. It shouldn't be as simple as being hospitable, right?"

Lu Xiaojiu's face turned pale: "Then what should I do?"

"They haven't found out our details yet, so they shouldn't act rashly," Su Cen slowly got up, "You are from the village, they can hide you here silently, but we are different, two The sudden disappearance of a large living person must arouse suspicion."

"He doesn't want us to go." Su Cen looked at the phoenix tree in the yard, thinking thoughtfully, "It just so happened that I also wanted to test the water to see how deep this pool is?"