sunk in yesterday

At dusk, the villagers returned to the mountain again.

Half of them were holding torches, and the other half were wearing strange god-welcoming masks. Judging from their posture, they should be ready to watch the night in front of the temple.

"Don't they have oil lamps?" Liu Qianyu thinks this kind of open fire is very dangerous, especially in this kind of place where the bushes are overgrown and bamboo forests are lush. You can’t put out the fire in time.”

Shen Wei hurriedly covered her mouth: "Don't be crowed, take a break, aren't you tired from talking all afternoon?"

"Maybe they don't have enough money to buy oil lamps. After all, torches are easy to make." Zhao Xiaomeng speculated: "Aren't they always worrying about having children? They should have spent a lot of money in the past few years, so save as much as you can. But There are no children in the village, so there should be no need to worry about children playing with torches indiscriminately."

She seemed to be tortured by children, and her voice became more serious when she mentioned bear children.

"Sister Zhao doesn't like children?" Liu Qianyu avoided Shen Wei, "But weren't you happy when you saw Wan'er outside the village?"

Zhao Xiaomeng said helplessly: "I am a primary school teacher. Although I am the deputy class teacher, I still have a lot of trivial things. If I don't like children, I wouldn't do this job. It's just that some children are really annoying. I have a headache, and getting into trouble every day does not bring people to breathe..."

"Ah, that's my cousin!" Liu Qianyu nodded and expressed the same opinion: "The bad habits are all spoiled by grandma and grandpa, and the more spoiled some children are, the worse they become."

A few villagers stood nearby, and the conversation stopped there.

As the sky gradually darkened, the fog thickened.This seemed to indicate something, after all, nothing good would happen when there was fog in the dream.The field of vision is gradually shrinking, and it is not difficult to infer that in another hour or two, they will return to the blind state of yesterday.

The villagers present were all men, more than the ones seen in the morning, and even Wan'er's father was in the queue.

"This is where all the men in the village have come..." Xia Zhuo murmured softly while counting. If he was beaten by a group, no one would be able to escape, unless he had wings on his back to fly out.

Well, it's better to hide here honestly.

"Walk."

Just after thinking about it, Guan Yuzhou suddenly said this.

Seeing that he was about to get up, Xia Zhuo asked in a daze, "What are you going to do?"

Guan Yuzhou casually spit out two words: "robbery."

Xia Zhuo: "???"

Rob who?

Two minutes later, Shen Wei pointed to the opposite side in horror, and squeezed Kong Man's wrist tightly, "Brother Kong, why did they stand up!"

The five people's gazes met at the same place. Xia Ming and Guan Qiang somehow went around to the rear. They stared at a villager who was alone. The two of them slashed their necks and covered their mouths. The surprise attack of the sound quickly knocked out the second person in the same way, and the few people who were watching were so skillful that they couldn't recover.

... So these two are the biggest beneficiaries of this fog and darkness?

Liu Qianyu looked dumbfounded, "Is this the legendary join if you can't beat it?"

Xia Zhuo quickly put on the clothes that had been stripped from the villagers, covered his face with a mask, and mixed into the crowd with Guan Yuzhou.At first, he was a little nervous, afraid that someone would come up to talk to him and reveal his identity, but fortunately, the atmosphere at the scene was oppressive, and each one was so preoccupied that no one noticed the corner where they were.

The thicker the fog, the weaker the lighting effect of the torches.Except for the subtle sound produced by the collision of oil and water, in the vague darkness, everything is so quiet that it makes people panic.

After getting everything ready, Centipede Face and Uncle Wang arrived late, and the crowd consciously dispersed to both sides, making way for them.

The centipede looked around, and said something to Uncle Wang with a smile.Uncle Wang stared at all directions, "Then don't waste time, let's start quickly."

He has been lifted up to the sky in the past few days, and everyone respects him, making him more and more defiant, so he didn't even notice the vicious eyes of the villagers who treated him kindly.

"Those with torches are waiting outside, and those with masks come in with me." The centipede waved his face and led a group of people to the temple gate.

Through the light, Xia Zhuo saw that the scene in front of him was completely different from that in the morning.The house that had been specially rebuilt became dilapidated in a short period of time. The white wall peeled off piece by piece, revealing cobweb-like cracks inside. A pair of bloody handprints fell on both sides of the door, as if someone tried to Pushed it away from the outside, but failed.

Centipede Face didn't notice any of these changes.He took the key and opened the lock, even though Xia Zhuo was standing a little back, he still smelled a strong and decaying smell.

As the door was pushed open to both sides, the blood on the ground came into view.The dense red footprints covered the yard, exactly the same as what he saw in the corridor of the inn, and the rotten smell was even more choking, which he was already familiar with—commonly known as corpse stink.

The villagers spontaneously formed an arc and spread out to both sides.There is a table in the center of the yard with an incense burner on it, unlit incense and two white candles next to it, and offerings are also included.

Looking around the altar, he saw the red silk above his head extending into the main room. The door was ajar, so he really couldn't see the specific appearance of the room.Now that the action was too eye-catching, he had no choice but to put aside the idea of ​​inquiring for the time being.

The centipede yelled, and soon someone from behind brought a basin of water.Uncle Wang rolled up his sleeves, swung his hands in the water, and flicked his fingertips in four directions, while turning around, he muttered: "When the day is auspicious and the time is good, the heaven and the earth will open. I intend to burn incense, and the smoke will be heavy. God will come—"

The ceremony officially began.

Xia Zhuo didn't stand with Guan Yuzhou, the two faced each other, with a distance of several meters between them, so that they could see what was behind each other.But out of the corner of his eye, he saw that the villagers on the left and right were trembling slightly, as if it was a terrible thing to come to the scene to ask the gods-this is quite interesting, serving the goddess is not out of respect, but out of fear.Could it really be a god who was invited with such a fearful heart?

When the water drops soaked the ground, Uncle Wang picked up one of the incense sticks, lit it on the fire, and bowed towards the main room: "burn the incense in one fell swoop and bow down, please, the boy who spreads the incense, and the boy who plays the role, please do it for me." Goddess comes—"

The top of the incense is glowing red, bright and dark for a while, and the smoke circles curvedly.

This is a bad omen.

Without changing his expression, he put the first stick of incense into the censer, and then lit the second one: "I held up the incense again and bowed down to pay respects, the ancestors, grandparents and concubines of the past generations in the hall... a group of clansmen whose blood has fallen—"

Two strands of black smoke mixed into the mist one after another. Uncle Wang paused when he saw this, and a little sweat broke out on his temples.He has done several rituals and invited gods for other small villages, but he has never encountered such a situation.He bit the bullet and lit the last one, racing against time and saying:

"Bow down and burn incense three times to worship: the gods of heaven and earth, the three lights of the sun and the moon, and the gods who monitor the past in the void... The palace must come, the palace comes, pull out the cloud head, hold a cigarette in your mouth, and descend to your seat."

As soon as the three incense sticks stand up, the wind suddenly rises.There was a commotion outside the courtyard, and the torches were all extinguished in an instant.The sudden darkness made everyone in the courtyard unable to adapt, and they dared not move around without authorization. They could only watch helplessly as the flames of the three incense sticks in the furnace fluctuated back and forth between light and darkness, and were finally soaked in the mist with a sizzling sound, almost extinguished. .

"Wang, Gao, Gao, this..." The centipede's face suddenly became distraught, he heard the sound of "squeak" and looked up in a daze. The wind knocked open the door of the main room, and he saw someone standing there. Under the red silk.No, no, he shouldn't be able to see it, since it's so far away, he shouldn't be able to see it!

Uncle Wang fumbled around the incense burner. In a panic, the plate fell to the ground and shattered. He yelled loudly, "Where are the candles? Where did the candles put here go?!"

"Here, here, here... quick, quick..." The centipede didn't care about being scratched by the debris, he was trembling like sifting chaff, bright red blood flowed out from the palm of his hand, dyeing the white candle red.

Uncle Wang blew on the fire pocket, which was very close to the wick, but it couldn't light it no matter what.Xia Zhuo turned his head slightly, and looked at the main room through the two holes in the mask. A thin figure stood behind the door, with long hair messily draped over his shoulders, covering his face like straw, not even showing his neck , can only be judged to be a woman by virtue of her figure.A few butterflies were embroidered on the hem of her skirt, and below that were those striking red embroidered shoes.Taking another look, Xia Zhuo keenly noticed something was wrong.The lower half of the pleated skirt was dyed red, and there was the sound of dripping blood falling to the ground. With her appearance, the smell of blood in the courtyard became stronger, and the flowing mist clung to people's nostrils.

Those embroidered shoes were soaked in blood, which made them red.

The candles couldn't be lit for a long time. Seeing that the people who led them to practice were afraid of this, some people in the courtyard couldn't stand up.I don't know who rushed out of the door first, followed by more people scrambling to escape, and in the blink of an eye, there were only a few people around.

[Wooooow...]

The mournful cries made one's heart tingle, Xia Zhuo silently moved to Guan Yuzhou's side, and secretly hooked her little finger with him.

Under the terrified eyes of the centipede, the door of the main room began to tremble slightly.This tremor became more and more intense, and the despair in his heart was also accelerating extremely, that woman was about to come out from inside, once she came out...they would all be finished!

He was so frightened that he knelt down and hugged Old Uncle Wang's leg tightly, "Master Wang, Mr. Wang! I'll give you twice...no, triple! Triple pay, you, you, think of a way!"

Finally, when he almost fainted from fright, the two candles were finally lit, and the tiny flames swayed from side to side, looking unstable.Uncle Wang didn't care to stop, and placed them on the left and right beside the incense burner as if he was holding a baby, and at least the crying stopped.

Centipede Face hurriedly looked at the main room again—it was dark again, and the woman who appeared just now seemed to be his own hallucination.

"Okay, okay, it's done." Uncle Wang was also very frightened, he had never seen such a mysterious thing.But before he could breathe a sigh of relief, a black object rolled over from the threshold and happened to bump into the legs of the altar.

The two looked down - it was a human head wrapped in black hair.

[Is it my fault? ]

[Is it my fault? ]

The mouth on the head opened and closed, and every time he asked, the surrounding temperature dropped by one degree.

The torch that was thrown on the ground behind her ignited again, and several flames were reflected in her pupilless eyes, as if endless anger was burning.

Centipede's face finally couldn't take it anymore, he rolled his eyes and lost consciousness.Xia Zhuo looked at the head and his tone became more and more gloomy. If he didn't move, he and Guan Yuzhou might be involved in the fire outside the door, so he took two steps forward, raised his foot and kicked it out violently. .

The head gurgled and rolled towards the door, and was picked up by the person who rushed in suddenly.

"I'm stupid, what is it?" Shen Wei was carrying half a bucket of water, didn't see what it was flying at all, he raised his leg in inertia and made another kick, and kicked his head directly into the fire.

Kong Man followed closely: "..."

Shen Wei stared at the blood on his chest and turned pale in shock, "Where did the blood come from???"

"Who are you!" Old Uncle Wang asked loudly, pointing at the two intruders.

After all, Shen Wei was still afraid of the aborigines, trembling when he heard the words, he stammered and lied: "Aren't we here to put out the fire?" He told Liu Qianyu to stop the crow's mouth before, but now it's better, it's really burning.

The scorching fire behind him continued to make strange noises, but soon calmed down again.The originally weak incense suddenly softened. Although there was no auspicious sign of sparks flying, everything returned to normal.

Old Uncle Wang waited for a while, and saw nothing unusual, so he got up and shook his robe, and said coldly: "I just settled with Mr. Li, and I should pay three times the reward for this matter. There is still some time before tomorrow, let your village People hurry up and raise money during this period."

Shen Wei: "Huh?"

Uncle Wang snatched the bucket in his hand and threw it towards the door, "Why don't you go fetch water soon?"

How does Shen Wei know where there is a well?This bucket was placed aside ready-made and he just picked it up.

At this time, there were mixed footsteps at the door, Xia Zhuo quickly picked up two masks from the ground, and put one on each of Shen Wei and Kong Man.If the fire really burns up and the whole mountain is destroyed, no one in the village will be able to get out alive. Some people who escaped earlier came back with water, bucket by bucket, basin by basin to put out the fire.

More and more people gathered around. Seeing the fire spreading towards the bamboo forest, the old people and women squatting at home also rushed to help.Taking advantage of the chaos, Xia Zhuo walked around the altar with them, and stretched out his hand to push open the door of the main room.Fearing that there was something in it that shouldn't be disturbed, they didn't cross that threshold.But with a quick flash of the flashlight, the scene inside was shocking enough.

A statue of a two-person goddess stands in the middle, and countless red silks hanging from the height are tied to its body, binding its hands, feet and limbs, for fear that it will really be able to move and escape from here one day.The red silk eventually fused into a single golden thread that was attached to the belly of the statue, the most ridiculous deity they had ever seen.

"This is so strange, they are obviously blaspheming!" Shen Wei looked at the golden thread and wanted to go up and tear it off, but was stopped by Kong Man.

Xia Zhuo glanced around, but there was nothing besides this statue.

"Build a ruined temple and get a statue just to get rid of the filthy things you've done?" He stroked a strand of silk and satin with his hand, and said sarcastically, "If there is a god, how could he be willing to come down?"

"What time is it?" Guan Yuzhou asked.

Kong Man said: "I just heard from the villagers outside that I just arrived at Haishi."

Shen Wei thought for a while: "Is it nine to twelve o'clock in Haishi?"

"Well, that's just nine o'clock." Guan Yuzhou looked at the altar in the courtyard. One of the candles burned very quickly and the flame was bigger. It may be that the wick of the candle was too thick, which affected its speed.

At this speed, it can't burn twelve o'clock at all.

Suddenly, there was another movement in front of the temple.

When they left the main room, they heard someone shouting loudly: "Fire!"

Shen Wei muttered: "Didn't you get angry early? Why are you screaming now?"

"Forget about the temple! Go put out the fire, it's too late!"

At that moment, someone threw the pot in his hand, and several women rushed back screaming.Uncle Wang was guarding the incense sticks, when the wind brought by the people next to him almost blew out the candles again, and he immediately cursed: "You bastard, why are you running around like this! Didn't you see that the fire in front of the temple has not gone out yet? If the temple is burned down, none of you will run away!"

The man's voice was trembling: "Under the mountain, under the mountain, the village is on fire!"

One of the men was stunned for a moment, then ran out after throwing his basin, "Wan'er is still asleep at home!"

"Run away! The fire below the mountain is burning up!"