I didn't become a human today

They walked in the market for a while, and suddenly heard a commotion ahead.

"What happened in front?" Lu Zhihe approached with great interest.

A passer-by from the front said casually, "It's nothing, it's just an old beggar who has gone crazy."

I saw the old beggar running from the street to the end of the street, shouting at everyone when he saw people, "Run, a big sandstorm is coming..."

Passers-by avoided the old beggar one after another, and some even punched and kicked him. Even so, the old wife and beggar still reminded everyone with a frightened face, "Everyone will die, no one can escape! No one can escape! "

"This old beggar is really crazy." Passers-by kept laughing at him, "Look at the sky today, there is no cloud in the sky, the wind is light and cloudless, where is the big sandstorm coming from?"

While the man was talking, the old beggar grabbed the skirt of his shirt, "You don't believe me? This sandstorm is extraordinary. I saw it with my own eyes 30 years ago. When the sandstorm came, it completely buried a city. All the people are dead! Mirage City is the last city in the middle of the desert, there is no escape, and the big sandstorm has come back again..."

The old beggar fell to the ground and looked up at the sky. When he was sad, he suddenly laughed again, "No one believes me, no one... just like 30 years ago..."

For some reason, Ji Ran suddenly felt horrified by what the old beggar said.

Lu Zhihe on the side saw that the old man was covered in injuries and his clothes were ragged, so he couldn't bear to help him up after all.

"Old man, if what you said is true, how do you know that a big sandstorm is coming? To tell you the truth, I have lived here for a while. No matter how big this sandstorm is, how big can it be? ? Everyone closes the doors and windows, and we can always get through."

Seeing Lu Zhihe's sincere expression, the old beggar couldn't help sighing.

"Young man, have you heard of Yongning City?"

Lu Zhihe shook his head, "I've never heard of it."

"The city that was buried 30 years ago is Yongning City." The old beggar asked Liang Xingye for the sheepskin map, spread it on the ground, drew a big circle on it with carbon ash, and then put it on A small circle was drawn on the big circle, "A long time ago, when I was very young, the desert was not a desert. It was once as beautiful as Lingnan, with green mountains and green waters, and cattle and sheep everywhere."

Tears flashed in the old beggar's cloudy eyes, "There are many cities here, one next to the other, and each city looks prosperous." The old beggar said, drawing many pictures on the edge of the big circle. Each circle represents a city, "These cities are built around the water source in the center, and that water source is the lifeblood of these cities, but suddenly one day, the water source in the center disappeared."

"Disappeared?" Liang Xingye also became curious now.

"Yes, overnight, the water source disappeared completely, and all the cities were cut off from the water source. Many people left, but many people still persisted and were unwilling to leave, because they had their life's foundation here."

The old beggar wiped his eyes and continued: "Later, a rumor suddenly appeared in the city. For a while, people in the streets and alleys were talking about it. A perfumer came here and said that he needed a perfume for people in the city. I used my own life as a sacrifice, and after the sacrifice, the water would return. At that time, many people didn’t believe it, but many people did.”

"And then?" Lu Zhihe became more and more curious.

The old beggar sat on the ground, "Then, for the sake of livelihood, everyone proposed to attack the smallest city first. After the perfumer confirmed with everyone, a big sandstorm broke out the next day. Everyone closed the doors and windows, They didn’t come out until after the sandstorm, and strange things happened at that time, they found that the smallest city became a dead city, and all the people in the city disappeared overnight.”

In the story of the old beggar, the perfumer was mentioned. Lu Zhihe was very interested in it, so he asked, "What about the water? Has the water returned?"

The old beggar nodded, "While those people disappeared, the water returned. The perfumer told everyone when he left that a sacrifice can only last for 30 years. After 30 years, the water will disappear again. Sacrifice, and the water will come back."

"There is such a strange thing."

"In the future, every 30 years, things will be exactly as the perfumer said. The water will disappear as scheduled. If there is no sacrifice for a day, it will never come back. The contradiction between the cities is getting deeper and deeper. People are ganging up to kick other cities out as sacrifices." The old beggar crossed out the small circles one by one with charcoal, "One of these cities disappears every 30 years, and in the end only the two largest cities remain. , Yongning City and Mirage City."

The old beggar licked his dry lips, "Every sacrifice will be decided by the votes of the people in the city. The population of Mirage City was a little more than that of Yongning City, so Yongning City was destroyed by the big sandstorm 30 years ago. Everyone in Mirage City knows that there is no final winner in this battle, and this city will still perish in another 30 years."

Having said this, the old beggar suddenly stopped talking.

"Old man, what's the matter with you, keep talking..." Lu Zhihe became excited when he heard it.

At this moment, the old beggar laughed maniacally, pointing at those passers-by and vendors, "Look, among the people in Mirage City, is there even one local left?"

When the old beggar said this, Liang Xingye also quickly noticed that most of the people walking in Mirage City were foreign traders, or gold diggers, and those who were attracted by the rumors of Huangsha Temple came to look for Huangsha Temple The people, actually can't see a local person.

"Don't you understand?" The old beggar grabbed Lu Zhihe's collar firmly, "The so-called rumors of the Yellow Sand Palace were all fabricated by the people in the city! They came here just to deceive you, you see Look at those merchants, there are countless gold diggers coming here one after another, and when there are enough people, once the city gate is closed, all people will become scapegoats, hahahaha, this is the way they came up with, using others instead of my own life, in exchange for 30 years of water!"

Ji Ran was shocked, and he pecked Liang Xingye on the back of his hand in a panic, which made him unable to speak again, and he was really suffocated.

"I witnessed the tragedy of Yongning City back then, and I discovered by accident that most of the locals in the city had actually evacuated two days ago. Those who sold sheepskin maps in front of the gate of Mirage City, In fact, they are secretly counting the number of people entering the city, and now everything is too late, I can't leave... I can't leave anymore..."