This is an ordinary day.
When there are more people, everyone's sense of presence in the eyes of others is evenly distributed. No one noticed that Shi Wuqi became taciturn and seemed a little preoccupied. Because he is always busy, it seems that he is using his busyness to temporarily ignore something, or he is trying to find opportunities for personal thinking. He hasn't changed much, but relatively speaking, Miss Qi has become a lot more "clumsy". When washing dishes at noon, she broke the old man's plate and hit two of them. She didn't care if they paid compensation to the old man. Shi Wuqi said that he felt uncomfortable, so he went to a small shop selling bowls and basins in the village and brought back more things.
He went alone, leaving Miss Qi in the house doing nothing. After all, I don’t know what kind of trouble I’m going to cause by following him in a store full of pottery and porcelain.
The shop is at the other end of the village. There is a kiln there that specializes in firing these things. When he went there, there was only a little boy sitting at the door playing. He was the boss's son, only five years old. He said that his father had gone to buy rice and oil. If anyone came, he would tell the guests that he would be back before dark. But it was still quite a while before dark, and Shi Wuqi didn't want to go back.
He went further. There is a river outside the village, and groups of women are washing clothes and chatting by the river. Someone's child got into trouble again yesterday, someone's man went out to make money again; someone's harvest was not good this year, and someone's chickens lost two more. The originally ordinary scene made him feel noisy, and even the occasional sound of the wind blowing in the woods was annoying. He kept walking along the river, getting farther and farther away from the gossip in this area.
The river passed through the woods, and when he walked in, he saw a pool of tawny color in the distance. When I walked up to it, I saw it was a pile of chicken feathers. They were soaked by the river water that splashed onto the shore, but were not washed away. Shi Wuqi thought to himself, could the chicken thief be hiding in the woods?
Since the feathers were plucked, the two chickens were probably in danger and were roasted and eaten. There may be traces of charcoal fire around. He had nothing to do and wandered around a few times. He didn't see any burning fire, but he saw a few broken and scattered chicken bones. The bones have been severely deformed, making it impossible to tell which parts they once belonged to. But he also noticed that the chicken bones were not cooked, but raw, and there were still dark red blood streaks on them.
Was it taken away by a wild animal? But wild animals can pluck hair, and do it so cleanly? He was murmuring in his heart.
"Hey, don't dig through other people's leftovers."
It was a familiar young voice. Shi Wuqi still held the broken bone in his hand. He turned around and saw his old friend Lin You. He was still wearing a Taoist robe, but his posture was very elegant, sitting on a high stone, making people unable to associate it with these wrecks. He had the light behind him, which made people look dazzling. Shi Wuqi dropped the bones, frowned and asked:
"You steal other people's chickens to eat? And, you follow us?"
"No such thing, it's just that we met again by chance."
"What a coincidence."
"Okay, I admit I'm looking for you."
He suddenly jumped down from the height and patted the dust on his hands. Shi Wuqi took a step back - who knew what this fake weasel was going to do.
"What are you doing with us?" He rolled his eyes, "No one of us raises chickens. You should settle the money with others quickly, lest any Onmyoji masters deal with you."
"I'm just going to meet my family. Okay, just kidding. Here, I'll give you the money."
Lin You clenched his fist and stretched out his hand, while Shi Wuqi looked at him suspiciously. Sniffed the smell in the air. Well, it's probably not a dead insect.
He also stretched out his hand and got three copper coins.
"ah?"
"I don't have any money, so I'll give these back to you first."
"Is this the last time..."
"Yes, that's right." Linyou said while stretching, "I originally wanted to try to save some immortality for Lord Yingyue, but it seems that it was a drop in the bucket. How can a few copper plates prevent disaster? Give it back to you.”
Shi Wuqi raised his eyebrows slightly, showing a look of disapproval.
"You were very honest with him from the beginning."
"No matter what, he is a lifesaver." He smiled, and then asked, "By the way, what happened to the shikigami the woman was looking for?"
"You got it."
"I'm not stupid. I asked Utsuki-kun about this matter. I also asked Utsuki-kun where you are."
Shi Wuqi had some impression of Mao Yuejun. They were friends for a long time. And I heard that Shanhai and the others have also met her. But he didn't know that Lin You, the little bad guy, had some friendship with her.
"It must have been told to her by the other six impermanences." Shi Wuqi said, "Forget it...what's the matter, I didn't find it."
"Although they are independent clones, it is said that after the contract is broken, the main body will capture the momentary connection. But this is just what I heard. I didn't feel it. It doesn't mean that nothing happened to them." He still looked indifferent. "You know, right? Youkai who unilaterally break the contract will be punished by the contract; and if humans are cut off, the shikigami will fall into evil. It is not impossible to fall into other evil realms, so I really don't feel it at all. I can’t find it anymore. Why don’t you react and feel bad?”
"I know...those shikigami who have fallen into the evil realm will come back one day. By then, it will no longer be a question of whether they can communicate, but whether they can deal with it."
"Yes. He has lost all his memory, is full of evil thoughts, and is dominated by hatred... just like a person who turns into a ghost after death."
Another gust of summer wind blew through the woods, making the leaves rustle.
"Speaking of which, you also came back from hell, right?" Linyou asked him with raised eyebrows, "Did you come back with any specialties?"
"none of your business."
"You are a very magical old guy." Linyou said, "Don't you think so? Are you a human or a ghost now?"
Shi Wuqi's eyes rolled to the sky. He felt that this monster was really noisy. If it weren't for his face worth three cents, he would have given Linyou a slap in the face. He always wanted to be beaten, jumping back and forth between actually hitting him and just having the idea. He asked this kind of question with a smile, which was tantamount to provocation in Wu Qi's eyes.
"ill."
"I'm serious." He was still joking, "If you give up those humans, wouldn't you be able to live a better life? The monsters who smell your breath will be frightened and scared. You can live happily anywhere. The water rises.”
"Okay, that's enough. I'll get tired of talking anymore." Shi Wuqi raised a finger.
The two of them talked about useless topics. Wu Qi warned him not to do any more messy things, but Lin You just said "try your best." But as expected, this should be the last time he sees them. He said that he decided to travel further afield. The rivers and lakes were so big that he might never see them again in this life.
"Get out of here." Shi Wuqi waved his hand, "I'll fight you one at a time next time."
"You have no love!"
Linyou pretended to curse, turned back into a weasel and disappeared. It wasn't until the strange smell of "weasel" in the air completely disappeared that he was sure that this guy was gone. He looked at the three copper plates in his hand and weighed them twice to make sure that he had not deceived him with counterfeit coins. After thinking for a long time, it would be better to return this little money to Mu Wan.
It was getting dark, so he walked back. When he went back to buy the plates, the boss asked him where he came from.
"Oh, I've heard of Xuanzhu Town! Is it the one where there was a big monster before? Then he was killed by the Great Onmyoji Seventh Night."
"That's right. But it's quite far from here."
"It's quite far away. Before the shrine was built, there weren't many people there." The boss happily chatted with him.
"Have you been there? Or know someone there?"
"Hey, the child's mother lives nearby, but she's not from Xuanchuang Town. It's in another city next to it." As he said that, he held the child in his arms, and the little boy hung on his strong arms. Swinging, "When I was young, she often told me about the interesting and strange things that happened there."
"Hey, my wife is far away from marriage. Where is your wife?"
"Well...well, we also have a little son who gets a rash in the summer. The village doctor couldn't cure him, so this year he asked his mother to take him to the county for treatment."
"I hope your son will recover soon."
"Hey, you should have a wife at your age."
"Uh... the fate has not come yet."
"It shouldn't be. I think you are so talented, but you are not liked by girls?" The boss was very surprised, "Aren't there any beautiful girls in your hometown? Ah, I heard that the granddaughter of the Great Onmyoji is still stationed at the shrine. My wife said she heard when she was a child, That's a big beauty. Hey, have you seen her?"
The boss came up mysteriously, which made Shi Wuqi feel a little funny. Sure enough, men of all ages like beautiful girls.
"Yes, her name is Qi Xiangling. I, I probably haven't seen her before." Even if I have, I have forgotten her. "After all, she has already died."
"I heard it was because Xuan Sui broke through the seal... Oh, how pitiful, I heard you are still young. By the way, since you bought it for Mrs. Chen, you don't need any money."
"Why is this so embarrassing?"
"Oh, if you round off my mother's family, please don't be polite."
Unknowingly, we chatted for too long, and by the time we returned to Mrs. Chen’s house, it was already past dinner time. But he wasn't hungry at all, and the previous chat only lightened his mood a little. Mu Wan had already finished washing the dishes, and he stacked the new plates together.
"Where have you been? Come back so late."
"I'm going to collect the debt from you." After saying that, Wu Qi buckled the three copper coins on the stone table, turned around and left.
"No, where have you been? Who did you see? This seems to be..."
Mu Wan remembered clearly that there was a deep scratch on the back of one of the copper plates. As soon as she saw it, she suddenly knew. But her hands were still wet, and when she was anxiously looking for a hand towel, Shi Wuqi had already gone to the backyard to collect Roselle sand.
As soon as he arrived in the backyard, he found that the fruits on the ground had been put back into the bags, buckled and put aside. Shan Hai was sitting on the bench next to him enjoying the cool air. Seeing Wu Qi coming, he said:
"I put them away for you. Aluan and the others are listening to the old lady telling stories in the front yard. Ye Yuejun said that there will be a thunderstorm tomorrow, so they can lay them out to dry in the sun after it is over."
The sky is a bit dull and heavy, making people breathless. There is no sunset today, it might really rain.
"What else are you asking during the day?" Wu Qi said suddenly.
"What……?"
"You didn't finish your sentence at that time. Before asking about your father, you changed your story. You had something else to ask me."
Shanhai stood there stunned. He seemed to recall the incident instantly, and the hesitation at the moment was just wondering whether he should say it or not. The clouds were very heavy tonight, blocking the moon. The light in the backyard was only a little bit leaked from the house. This time, Shi Wuqi leaned on the door frame, holding his shoulders with his hands, his eyes quiet and slightly bright, like a windless candle.
Shanhai stood up, not flinching, but not moving forward.
"that's not important."
"You remember. So that's important. What's the problem? Tell me."
"..."
"Let me tell you. I figured it out. Did you originally want to ask during the day..."
The breeze blew by, and the candle flame trembled slightly.
——Are you human?
Recommended: The Witch Doctor Awakens to read on your mobile phone.
