It's a rainy season.
At first it was a continuous drizzle, the raindrops were very light, like fine fluff on the face. But the rain soon became heavier, and rolling thunder came from the hazy clouds from time to time, which seemed to herald the arrival of a majestic rainstorm.
Only one night has passed since I said goodbye to the Qi family compound. It stands to reason that the villages on the edge of Huansha City can be seen the next night. It's just that it's not yet evening, and the sky is extremely cloudy. Before it started raining harder, I never imagined that an old yellow horse sprained its feet on the muddy road and could no longer walk on.
The good news is that the shadow of the inn can already be seen as far as the eye can see. The bad news was that when they got there, there were no more guest rooms. There is only one inn here, standing between two large cities, and it is often full of guests.
The coachman often comes here and has a good relationship with the shopkeeper. He can tie horses and there is a woodshed that can be used. But the two masters and disciples are not easy to deal with. The coachman who collected the money but did not deliver it to the destination was indeed not competent enough. So he lent them a red horse with a white mane and said to them:
"Less than three miles further, there are several houses. There are two pomegranate trees planted in front of one of them. When the flowers are blooming, you can see them at a glance. Just knock on the door and say that it was entrusted by Liu Chefu. My wife will know and will prepare a room for you. The horse hitch is there, and I will go and get it. I really can't help you two."
So the master and the apprentice braved the increasing rain and rode all the way there. Within a quarter of an hour, I saw a small house with two red pomegranate trees at the door. They knocked on the door for a long time, and finally an elderly woman came. It took Shanhai a lot of words to make her understand their purpose. She laughed as if she had a sudden realization, and went to prepare the room for them.
The yard is neither big nor small, but it seems a bit empty compared to a lonely old lady. The chickens in the chicken coop were tightly packed in the wooden house. The big rooster standing guard had a striking red comb like a pomegranate flower and stared at the two visitors warily.
Not long after entering the house, there was another burst of thunder, and heavy rain poured down, as if the Milky Way had burst its banks. It was clearly not night yet, but it was already so dark that I couldn't see clearly to the northwest.
Fortunately, most of the sound of rain was blocked out in the house, so it was not too difficult for Shanhai to communicate with the old woman. After a few simple words, they figured out that the old lady's son died of illness. He and Liu Chefu were as close as brothers, so he supported the old man for him.
"Then when will he... come back...?"
After clearing away the dishes, the old lady asked him. Shan Hai didn't know it clearly, but from her slightly anxious look, she could tell that she had something unspeakable and needed help from someone at home.
So he really asked, and the old woman just said:
"It rained so hard today, it won't come tomorrow."
At that time, neither he nor Aluan understood what it meant. Unexpectedly, they would understand it the next day.
Shanhai didn't sleep well that night. The rain was heavy, beating violently against the fragile windows. Half asleep and half awake, he vaguely heard the neighing of horses and the commotion of chickens, but he didn't know if it was reality.
It rained all night and stopped. When the sky first broke, the air was still very cold. Shanhai got up and saw the old woman standing at the door in a daze. He walked up and found the body of a sparrow lying at the old woman's feet.
"This is……?"
The old woman sighed and finally explained everything in detail.
I don’t know when, but the carcasses of small animals would appear in front of the old woman’s house every day. Most of them are mice and birds, and the bigger ones include hedgehogs and even snakes. They are all dead without exception. Every morning, these corpses would appear in front of the old woman's house on time, which was extremely horrifying.
Aluan also woke up at this time and heard Ersan.
"Are the neighborhood kids playing tricks?"
The old woman shook her head and said that there were not many children nearby. She remembered clearly that they were all good children. Besides, some animals are not so easy to find or catch. If there is a threat from a thief, who can a seventy-year-old woman threaten, and who should be threatened? This fact is strange.
"It's nothing else. I haven't lost any chickens in the yard."
Shan Hai carefully observed the bird's body and found that there were deep marks on its body, as if they were made by wild beasts.
"Are the previous corpses still there?" Shan Hai asked.
"Whoever can survive it will be buried in the forest."
The sun has risen. It had rained all night, the air was clean, and the sunshine had not yet heated up the land. It was a pleasant time. Just looking at this dead bird on the table is really a disgrace to the scenery.
It's also pathetic.
The old woman was throwing food to the chickens. Occasionally, other birds flew over, and she also threw more food to them.
"Have you ever raised any other living creatures in the courtyard?"
"I have had an old yellow-haired cat for seven or eight years... I don't know how. Maybe he ran away because he blamed me for not taking good care of him."
Shanhai stared at the tooth marks again, it didn't look like they were left by a cat.
At this moment, the old woman got some hay and prepared to feed the horses. A Luan followed him over to take a look. When he came back, he said that the horse seemed tired, as if it had been frightened last night.
He doesn't steal chickens, doesn't hurt people, and specializes in picking up dead objects to tease people. He can't think of anything else but monsters.
Because of the kindness of sharing the meal, Shanhai decided to take care of this noisy matter.
It was approaching the Dragon Boat Festival, and Lin Shanhai asked the old woman for some realgar wine. At dusk, he sprinkled the wine in a semicircle in front of the main entrance. In order to prevent the monster from smelling the alcohol, he specially put a charm on it to cover up the smell. People and ordinary animals can still smell it, but this charm is very effective against monsters.
When it got dark, after dinner, Aluan stood guard in the stable with his sword. She saw with her own eyes that the mountains and seas jumped up to the eaves in just one step. She had known that the disciples of Linxiaoguan were all very good at Qinggong. He heard from his fellow apprentices that the mountains and seas were not only "no trace of walking on the snow", but even if he passed over the water or passed through the road covered with light dust, he would not stir up a ripple or make a mess. Dust sequence.
But because of her, he always walked indifferently.
I don’t know if it’s true or false. If he really had such miraculous skills, why had he never shown his skills in front of him, let alone taught him a lesson?
The night became darker after a few sticks of incense. The night breeze was so cold that Aluan bundled up tightly and felt sleepy. But at this moment, the red horse suddenly made a harsh neighing sound, and the chicken coop suddenly became noisy.
Ah Luan held the sword in his hand and poked his head out of the stable, staring at the door. She was still dizzy, and as soon as she stuck her head out, she heard a strange scream. She couldn't tell what kind of animal it was. A black shadow the size of a cat "swiftly" crossed the door, as if it had been burned by something. It was also emitting wisps of white smoke and dropped something. Then, Shanhai's figure caught up with her, crossing directly from the old woman's roof to another house farther away, heading deeper into the forest.
Aluan felt that he might have been confused by his sleep. When did Shanhai become so agile?
Surprised, she still clutched the sword, carried the medicine box in the haystack, and chased in the direction of the shadow and Lin Shanhai. Before leaving the yard, she squatted down to check what the little monster had thrown down. It turned out to be a scarred chipmunk with its legs still moving.
Linshanhai moved as fast as flying, as light as a swallow, and quickly passed over the scattered eaves like pebbles in the water, followed closely by the tree trunks. His steps were fast and light. When he stepped on the roof, there was no sound of tiles, and when he stepped on the branches, not a single leaf trembled.
He chased the little shadow deep into the forest.
At some point, a light white mist gradually filled the forest in the dead of night. He realized that this was not a miasma, but he could not explain its cause. It was as if the fog was deliberately fooling him so that he could not find the whereabouts of the little monster.
He stepped on the ground, and the dead leaves were blown away by the silent wind beside his feet.
The moment he landed, a distant and empty sound of a piano came from the forest. The sound of the piano is like the mist. I don’t know where it comes from, but it just ripples melodiously in my ears. There is no chilling desolation, no sad appeal at all, just an indescribable silence that soothes people's hearts quietly.
Shan Hai held his breath and listened intently, slightly grasping the direction of the source of the sound.
In other words, it was more like the owner of the sound of the piano deliberately taught him to detect it.
The cold wind blew across my face, and the dense tree crowns made a rustling sound. The nameless thin light shines through between the thin trees, just like the fog and the sound of the piano, which makes people confused. The shadows of the dancing trees were reflected on the ground, and he knew that he was moving towards this light source.
He came to an open field.
In the dim light, there were shadows of countless animals. Facing the shallow night light, he vaguely saw sika deer grazing with their heads down, a pair of squirrels leaping nimbly from one tree to another, and rabbits hopping around in the open space. Even a gray wolf with its tail hanging down quietly wandered among the music.
Among those living creatures, there was clearly the shadow of a person sitting upright.
"It's you?"
"Yes, it's me."
It's a cool and warm voice.
