Huangliang Inn

The inn is brightly lit, several square tables are placed in an orderly manner, surrounded by four wooden chairs.The corners of the chair and the table are carved with patterns, which are inconspicuous at first glance, but if you look carefully, you will find that the patterns complement each other, and when connected, it is actually a group of pictures of wild and ancient beasts.

The desktop is so clean that it can almost reflect the shadows of people.There is a teapot with chopsticks on it, and four teacups upside down.Hot water is poured into the pot, and the hot air wafts from the spout, even the air is stained with the fragrance of tea.

"Please sit down."

Yan Jue walked out from behind the counter and gave the old man to a table.He turned over the teacup, held the teapot himself, and poured a cup of tea for the old man.

"Please use."

The old man thanked Yan Jue, but he didn't touch the teacup.

Since he condensed into a ghost body, he can no longer touch anything in the world.He was very satisfied to be able to smell the tea, and he didn't expect to taste the tea.

"This is ghost tea."

"Ghost tea?"

"Specially for the dead." Yan Jue sat across from the old man and snapped his fingers lightly. An exquisite wooden box flew out from the shelf, and the lid was lifted. Inside were six pieces of crystal-clear color, shaped like petals. dim sum.

"Please use."

Bringing the snacks and tea cups to the old man, Yan Jue smiled gently and poured himself another cup of tea, waiting for the old man to use it slowly.

The old man hesitated for a moment, but finally couldn't resist the tempting aroma, and his throat began to roll up and down.

His belly began to roar, but it didn't look like the young Xiaowu was wolfing down, but he thanked Yan Jue again, took out a pair of bamboo chopsticks from the chopstick holder, carefully picked up a piece of peach petal-shaped dessert, and brought it to his mouth to savor.

The entrance of dim sum is sweet and sweet that I have never expected for a long time.Take another sip of clear tea, the bitterness dilutes the sweetness, and the sweetness soon returns.

The old man put down his chopsticks after eating three pieces of snacks, even though he was hungry, he still didn't move.Just pick up the teacup and drink slowly, savoring the bitterness and sweetness of the tea.

After drinking all the tea, the old man put down the teacup and said to Yan Jue, "I'm a lonely ghost with no possessions. I don't know how to pay the shopkeeper?"

"When you enter this inn, you are considered a distinguished guest. Tea and snacks are just hospitality, so don't take it seriously." Yan Jue said with a smile.

The old man was still a little bit sorry, regretting that he should not be able to resist the temptation and use the tea from the shopkeeper for nothing.

"Sir, you really care, you might as well tell me what happened during your lifetime."

Yan Yan put away the teapot and teacup, got up and took a wooden plate from the shelf. The plate was divided into four compartments, and dried fish and nuts were placed in the compartment.He also took a small altar of fine wine and two shallow wine glasses, and placed them in front of himself and the old man respectively.

"What happened before?"

"Yes." Yan Jue lifted the wine jar, and the clear wine rolled into the cup, and the aroma of tea in the room was quickly replaced by the aroma of wine.

"People who can enter my Huangliang Inn must have obsessions in their hearts. I think Mr. has been a ghost for a long time, and it is rare to have obsessions but less hostility. Can you tell me the story? Maybe I can help you end this karma."

The old man was silent for a while, then raised his wine glass and drank it up.

"You're right, I do have obsessions. I became a lonely ghost and wandered around the world for many years in order to find someone and fulfill a wish."

"Appreciate further details."

The old man lifted the wine jar, filled the glass for himself, and drank it down again.

The wine is slightly sweet, very soft at the first entrance, and when it slides from the throat into the abdomen, it burns like a fire in an instant.This burning sensation is almost a luxury for ghosts.

"My surname is Fu, and my double character is Mingsheng. I was born in [-]. My ancestors have been in business for generations. There are three silk and satin shops and a foreign goods store in my family. The family resources are considered sufficient." While drinking, the old man fell into memories and narrated to Yan Piao Come.

"I have three brothers and one sister. The second brother and the third brother all died young. The elder brother studied abroad in his early years and was not close to me. The only sister who was close to me was born prematurely and was weak since childhood. She searched for good doctors at home and saved her life. , it is still difficult to get rid of the root cause of the disease, one year, half a year to take medicine."

"When I was in school, it was not peaceful. There were wars in many places, and bandits were rampant. The family's business was not good, not to mention the high taxes, and I had to beware of bandits. It was almost deteriorating. I couldn't make ends meet, and I could barely support it."

"later……"

Having said that, the old man's voice stopped, and he looked down at the wine glass. A red light flashed quickly in his gray eyes.

"Later, Japanese soldiers entered the county town and burned, killed and looted everywhere. The silk and satin shop and foreign goods store at home were burned to the ground. My mother and father were killed by guns. I took my sister and fled. I met a Japanese soldier on the way. The long worker and the cook risked their lives to get us..."

The old man's voice was low and gradually choked with sobs.

"There was blood everywhere, fire all around, gunshots and screams in our ears. We couldn't escape, we could only hide in the alley. My sister said, I can't run away with her... She took advantage of me not paying attention, Run out of the alley alone, and get caught by those beasts... beasts!"

The old man grabbed his hair hard and cried bitterly.

This memory has been pressed in his heart for decades, and every time he thinks about it, it feels like being cut open in his chest by a knife, piercing in again and again, the blood is always bleeding, and never healed.

"I rushed out of the alley, was shot in the chest, and soon disappeared."

"I thought I was dead, but I didn't die, I survived."

The old man covered his chest with one hand, and under his worn coat, he covered several scars, including gunshot wounds and long scars left by bayonets.

"In a county, less than ten people survived in the end."

"After the group of beasts left, I couldn't even find the dead bodies of my family members. I couldn't restrain them. I could only hold a few handfuls of scorched earth and set up three graves outside the city."

The old man lowered his head and looked at his trembling hands. He could vaguely see that his ten fingers were broken and bloody when he pushed aside the scorched earth with his bare hands.

"Later, I found the army. I started carrying guns when I was a teenager, and followed the team to fight north and south. Because I knew how to read, I made several military exploits and was brought by the company commander."

"When the group of beasts are driven away, I will disarm and return to the fields. After returning to my hometown, I will guard the half-burned old house alone. I have no wife and no children."

In the era when wars were everywhere and invaders were raging, the experience of the elderly can be seen everywhere.He lost his family and everything, and his hatred for the invaders made him pick up a gun and go to the battlefield resolutely.

Fighting fiercely again and again, fighting again and again, his comrades fell one by one, under the hail of bullets, he never expected to survive.

"In the days when there is no war, what I think of most is the comrades in the same class, the squad leader who can curse, the platoon leader who has a bad temper, and the company commander who was a scholar."

The old man's tone was full of nostalgia, and the expression on his face began to relax.

"20 years ago, old comrades gathered, and three old guys and I went to the battlefield that year, sat in the place where the company commander gave us a lecture, and drank wine all night. Then we cried, laughed while crying, and laughed until In the middle of the night, when the police came, it turned out that someone called the police and thought we were some old lunatics."

Recalling that time, the old man laughed out loud.

Yan Jue didn't interrupt him, but just drank with him and listened to him.

In the end, it was the old man who took the initiative to change the topic and mentioned his only obsession.

"I want to find someone, my elder brother, who was also a staff officer in the team back then." The old man's expression became serious, and red light flashed in his eyes again.

Yan Jue put down his wine glass and said: "If brother Ling is alive, I will be able to help you find him. If you have passed away, you can only go to the underworld to find him. If it is a long time, you may have already been reincarnated and reincarnated as a human being, so you will not be able to find him. "

"He's not dead." The old man said firmly, "I know he's not dead. But I can't leave here. If I leave, I'll be arrested by the ghost guards, and I can't find him."

"Is it to find relatives?"

"Looking for relatives?" The old man's voice was rough, his smile was cold, and black energy suddenly gushed out of his body. Although it was thin, it was a sign of becoming a ghost. "I want to find that beast who betrayed his comrades, surrendered to the enemy and escaped sanctions! As a result, his life was wiped out with him!"