Placid Chang'an

At noon, the people in the mansion specially brought over chicken, duck and fish, as if they really treated Su Cen as a distinguished guest, but Su Cen lost his appetite, so he ate a little, and the rest was taken by Qu Linger and Lu Xiaojiu. Divided up.

After lunch, the whole village returned to silence. Lu Xiaojiu was picking up fruits under the tree with the broken silver that Su Cen had given her, while the old woman was carrying a stool and sitting by the door, staring at the mottled light and shadow on the ground in a daze.

The unchanging days, life at a glance, did not change in the slightest because of the sudden addition of two people in the family.He is obviously still a living person, but he looks like a dying corpse.

Perhaps it was because the room was too dark and cramped, Su Cen felt breathless, so he called Qu Ling'er to go around the village.

Lu Xiaoliu, who was picking up fruit under the tree, looked up at the two people, hesitated for a long time but still didn't dare to follow, just watched the two people go out, and then looked at them for a while unwillingly before lowering his head.

Lu Xiaojiu's house is located in the southeast of the village. Su Cen and the others looked to the west through this, and they saw that the gates of every house were closed, and there was a red coffin with paint stains parked in front of each house. The whole village was lifeless, as if asleep. past.

Going further to the west, two forked roads appeared, and the houses that were originally facing east and west suddenly disappeared. One forked road led to the south, while the other slanted to the northwest.

Qu Ling'er whispered "Huh", "Brother Su, these houses are so strange."

Su Cen nodded, standing in the middle of the fork in the road, looking at the two rows of strange houses, thoughtful.

Qu Ling'er asked, "Which way shall we go?"

Su Cen thought for a moment, then turned to the northwest road.

Qu Ling'er hurriedly followed, and said as she walked, "I've never seen such a strange house. Don't ordinary houses face south? What's so important about these houses facing northwest?"

Su Cen couldn't figure it out for a moment, so she could only shake her head.

This kind of slanted house extends for a full mile, and the more they walk in, they realize that there are houses facing south and north, and even east and west. They seem to be chaotic, but they seem to follow some rules.

There are only rows of red-painted coffins lined up, straight as if measured with a ruler.

The house facing northwest was stopped by a high wall at the end.

"There is no way?" Qu Ling'er stood under the high wall and looked up. The wall here is about ten feet high, almost level with the surrounding roofs, and it is made of millstone, so it is indestructible.

"I'll go up and have a look." Qu Ling'er tapped her toes on the wall and flew onto the top of the wall with a little leverage. After looking around, she exclaimed, "Brother Su, come up and take a look!"

Su Cen rolled her eyes back from below: "How do I get up?"

"I forgot, you don't know martial arts," Qu Ling'er smiled bitterly, "Then let me tell you, it's so big inside, it's probably half the size of Xingqing Palace. There are so many houses, so many trees, There are still a lot of people... Hey, that's not the one... I'll go!"

Qu Ling'er suddenly turned over and got off the wall, almost at the same time two hidden weapons passed by Qu Ling'er's scalp, wedged on the wall, shining coldly.

"What's wrong?" Su Cen hurried forward.

Qu Linger was still in shock, "He saw me!"

Su Cen frowned: "Who?"

"It's the man in white at Lu Xiaojiu's house this morning!" Qu Ling'er frowned, "He's so far away from me, how did he know I was there?"

Su Cen looked at Qu Ling'er from top to bottom, "Are you not injured?"

Qu Ling'er shook her head, suddenly remembered something and said: "By the way, when I went up just now, I took a look at the houses we just came over, they looked a little strange...like some kind of pattern."

"Pattern?" Su Cen thought for a while, and just about to continue asking, a corner door on the side of the high wall suddenly opened in response, and then a person came out from it, it was the man in white this morning.

The man in white smiled when he saw Su Cen, bowed his hands and said, "Brother Li, we meet again."

Su Cen replied: "When I first came to Guicun, I wanted to walk around, but when I got here, I didn't expect to have no way. My little brother just wanted to go up to explore the road. Please forgive me if I offend you."

"Brother Li is out of sight." The man in white smiled generously. "Our village is different from other places. It is easy to get lost if you walk around. Brother Li wants to see you again next time. I can find someone to show you around."

Su Cen's tone was cold: "Don't bother."

The man in white could also tell that Su Cen didn't want to talk to him, so he cupped his hands and smiled, "Brother Li, please go ahead."

Unexpectedly, Su Cen stopped him from behind, "May I ask, what are these coffins in the village for?"

The man in white turned around after being taken aback for a moment, and replied, "The coffin is naturally used to hold corpses."

"But these coffins are all empty."

"It's empty now," the man in white suddenly smiled meaningfully, "it won't be in the future."

Su Cen frowned slowly, his eyes were cold: "What does this mean?"

"It literally means that people will die sooner or later." The man in white smiled at Su Cen, "Excuse me."

Just after taking two steps, I heard Su Cen suddenly say from behind: "A few days ago, a villager found a cave on Blind Mountain, and dug out more than 200 corpses inside, but they never found the source of the corpses. Find it here."

The man in white paused for a while, then entered the corner door, slammed the door, and the two doors slammed into each other.Through the uncovered crack of the door, Su Cen glimpsed a vine flower path. The vine trellis was simple and atmospheric, and the vibrant Ling Xiaohua extended to the depths of the courtyard, which contrasted sharply with the lifeless village.

"Brother Su," Qu Ling'er whispered after watching the people leave, "Will he startle the snake? He won't trouble us, will he?"

"It's a knock on the mountain. We have to let them know that there is still kingly law in the territory of the Great Zhou." Su Cen withdrew his gaze, and the line of his lips was pursed into a thin line. After a long while, he turned around, "Let's go."

The two returned to Lu Xiaojiu's house along the original road. More than half an hour passed. The light spots cast by the gaps between the branches stretched from the root of the wall to the wall, but the two people in the yard did not change at all. Lu Xiaojiu was still picking up fruits, and her mother-in-law was still watching. The light spots on the ground, the line of sight did not deviate a bit.

After Su Cen came back, she went into the room, spread paper and ink on the dilapidated small dining table, not knowing what else to do.Qu Ling'er didn't dare to disturb her, she had nothing to do, so she went out to find Lu Xiaojiu to pick up fruit.

Su Cen didn't come out again until the sun was setting. Seeing that it was dinner time, Lu Xiaojiu was busy going to Zhang Luo to cook. Qu Linger felt bored after playing for a while, and just wanted to see what Su Cen was doing. , Passing the door, heard the old woman muttering something, so she listened carefully.

When Su Cen finished her work and came out of the room, she saw Qu Ling'er lying beside her mother-in-law's lap, like a filial son of Cheng Huan.

Seeing Su Cen coming out, Qu Ling'er's eyes lit up, and she hurriedly called Su Cen to come and have fun with him.

Su Cen wanted to ignore this person and go out directly, but Qu Ling'er grabbed Su Cen's clothes and said, "Brother Su, listen, this mother-in-law seems to be talking about 'bad person'?"

Su Cen paused, and squatted down together with Qu Linger.

Su Cen shook his head after listening for a while, "It's not 'bad person', it seems to be...'Sir'?"

Qu Ling'er suddenly became nervous, she lowered her voice and whispered, "Our identities have been revealed? Did she recognize you?"

Su Cen pursed her lips and thought about it, then shook her head lightly, "I have hidden everything that can prove our identity, she can't know, the 'adult' she said should refer to someone else."

"Others?" Qu Ling'er whispered, "Is there any other officials here?"

When Lu Xiaojiu came out of the firewood room, she saw the two people lying beside her mother-in-law, whispering with their heads buried.Followed the probe, "What are you doing?"

Qu Linger was startled, almost sat down on the ground, and glared at Lu Xiaojiu: "Why are you sneaking around? You don't make any noise when you walk!"

Lu Xiaojiu curled her lips aggrievedly, "It's obvious that you guys are sneaking around."

Su Cen stood up and said, "We heard my mother-in-law talking, and worried that she had something to tell me, so we got closer to listen."

Lu Xiaojiu waved her hand, "Well, it's okay, she usually talks to herself, sometimes calling 'Master', and sometimes saying 'Let's go, little meat', you don't need to pay attention to her."

Su Cen narrowed his eyes slightly where Lu Xiaojiu didn't notice, and a ray of cold light flashed past.

After dinner, Lu Xiaojiu specially packed the main room for Su Cen and Qu Ling'er to live in, while she moved to her mother-in-law's hut to make do with a night's sleep.Su Cen was very sorry, but Lu Xiaojiu took the bed here as an excuse, hugged the quilt without any explanation and left.

Because Lujiazhuang has a strict schedule, the lights in Lu Xiaojiu and her mother-in-law's room were turned off early.

Su Cen sat by the bed and handed a piece of paper to Qu Linger, "Let's see if it's the pattern you saw this afternoon."

Qu Ling'er unfolded the paper and couldn't help but be taken aback after seeing it clearly: "Brother Su, how did you do it?"

I saw that the painting is a square frame, and there are small frames inside the frame, and several winding paths are drawn from each corner, and finally the big and small frames are connected together.

Su Cen's handsome eyebrows unfolded under the faint candlelight, "I just wanted to try at first, to draw all the places we walked, and then it looked familiar, and it was symmetrical and complete on the original basis, and that's it. "

"That's how it looks," Qu Ling'er nodded earnestly, then frowned and looked at the drawing on the paper, "But what is this? A box?"

"It's a chessboard." Su Cen took the paper from Qu Ling'er, "This is a chessboard for Liubo."

Qu Ling'er tilted her head: "What is Liubo chess?"

Su Cen said: "Liubo chess is an ancient chess game, and it is also the embryonic form of many kinds of chess. The so-called 'game' and 'Bo' refer to Liubo chess. It originated in Shang Dynasty, flourished in Spring and Autumn and Warring States, and spread to Qin and Han Dynasties. , After several improvements, it was almost lost in the Eastern Han Dynasty. I only learned about it in a wild history later, and it looked familiar. It's just an impression."

"The entire Lujiazhuang looks like a huge chessboard from above? The high wall we saw this afternoon is the small frame in the middle, right?" Qu Ling'er looked at the drawing paper in disbelief, "How can you play such a big chessboard?" ?”

Su Cen shook his head, "It is said that Liubo Chess was designed based on the Taiji and Eight Diagrams, and Taiji produces Liangyi." Su Cen pointed to the small frame in the middle of the drawing paper, "It means that this place is water, and there are two colors of black and white in it." Tiaoyu, Liangyi produces four images, which are four circles on the chessboard, and the four images also produce eight trigrams, corresponding to the eight directions around the chessboard. This chess game looks ancient, but there are many complicated ways inside. This deduction."

Qu Ling'er shook her head blankly: "I don't understand."

Su Cen smiled lightly, and tapped the knuckles of his index finger on the table while thinking, "The villagers who can't escape, the coffin at the door, and now with the huge chessboard, this village is getting more and more interesting."

Before the words were finished, there was a hollow knock on the door in the yard.

Tee, Tee, Tee...

One sound, one sound, gradually speeding up, gradually turning into a torrential rain.