Now that we have discovered these clues, of course we have to investigate. Even if we still can't get out in the end, it is better than sitting still and waiting for death.
Continuing to walk along the mountain wall, this direction should be heading north now. The mountain wall gradually got lower. By the time she reached the back of the second row of yards, the mountain wall was only as high as one person.
There is no road further forward. We have passed two rows of yards here, so there should be no homes left.
The old lady said that there were only two rows of houses in the village, so what happened to this house? Not only was it built dozens of meters away from the second row, it also blocked the way up the mountain.
That's right, it blocks the way up the mountain, and the courtyard is built at the lowest point of the mountain wall.
This yard is larger and better than other yards in the village.
Other people's houses have stone walls and thin slate roofs that serve as tiles. This house's roof has real tiles.
The courtyard wall was also higher. She couldn't see what was going on inside the courtyard, she could only see a row of higher roofs inside.
Qingyan guessed that this family was probably the family of the clan leader and village chief. His family had the most prosperous population in the village and also had the best living conditions.
It's just that their yard was built here, which is a bit intriguing. It must not be for no reason. There must be some reason. Otherwise, it would be impossible to walk to the lowest part of the mountain wall and go up the mountain. Suddenly there is a blockage. His yard.
There is a gap of more than ten meters wide between the front two rows of yards adjacent to the mountain wall. His house is not only staggered by one row, but also directly blocked.
Qingyan stepped back because she heard the sound of someone moving in the yard, probably making breakfast.
I looked left and right. On the left was the side of a courtyard wall. Behind the wall was a road with a vegetable patch on the road.
There is also a road behind her, and further south across another vegetable field is the back gable of a house.
If she climbed up the mountain wall, as long as people in the village chief's yard couldn't see her, people elsewhere should not be able to see her.
Qingyan retreated several dozen meters to the south, further away from the village chief's house. The height of the mountain wall here was about a head higher than her height, so it shouldn't be too difficult to climb up.
She stepped back a little, then took a run, jumped up, stepped on a bulge on the mountain wall with her right foot, and climbed on top of the mountain wall with both hands at the same time.
Using both hands and the lower right foot at the same time, he lifted his body up as soon as he lifted his breath.
When she reached the top of the mountain wall, Qingyan quickly squatted down and looked in the direction of the village chief's house. Sure enough, there was a young woman washing rice in the yard.
She didn't know if she had heard in the county before that the only living granddaughter-in-law of the village chief's family looked to be in her twenties.
If so, Qingyan felt that she could guess the current time, maybe four or five years ago.
With this idea, she decided to go back and ask the old lady later, and now she would investigate it herself.
He lowered his body and reached out to touch the grass under his feet. Yes, it was grass. It was no different from the ordinary grass on the mountain. It was very lush and normal for this season.
The trees next to them are tall and low. If you touch them, they are real.
Qingyan went directly between the trees and headed further west.
She thought she would reach a place like a wall soon, but she didn't. She walked for several minutes and was still in the woods.
She stopped moving forward and returned along the same path.
He came back faster, and soon he was back on the previous mountain wall, which meant that he probably didn't encounter some illusion or a ghost hitting the wall. In other words, if he walked west, there was really a forest.
Without wasting any more time here, she entered the woods and continued walking south, separated by a few trees from the village below. As long as she looked to the right, she could see the situation in the village, so she was not afraid of going wrong.
The farther south you go, the higher the mountain wall becomes, and soon you are back on the southernmost row of yards, and stop at the fourth yard from Yin Keqin's house, where she threw the stone before.
She couldn't guarantee it in other places. She heard the sound in this place, and there must be a stone wall.
Sure enough, after walking a few steps, she found a stone wall, but... Qingyan blinked and looked at the "stone wall" in front of her, back and forth.
Did she really think wrong? This place does not belong to a closed space. The village is real and the mountains are real?
In front of her was a huge stone, about four or five meters in diameter. It was erected here. If you throw a stone from the bottom of the mountain, you can hit it here. This is really big.
She lowered her head to search, then bent down to pick up a fist-sized stone, the same one she threw before.
When she picked up the stone, she looked at its shape carefully, hoping that it would be easy to retrieve it later. Besides, there were marks on the boulder that she had made when she threw the stone, which should be unmistakable. She was still very confident in her own strength.
But if this happens, the clue will be broken again.
Qingyan walked around the boulder without giving up and walked towards the back. After walking for about fifteen minutes, there were woods all the way and there were many weeds on the ground, but she didn't encounter any animals, not even smaller flying insects. Not to mention snakes, insects, rats and ants.
After walking for a few more minutes, she felt that the distance was a little far away, so she didn't go any further.
She had observed carefully along the way, and there were changes in the trees, grass, and rocks, so she was not just wandering around in the same place.
Qingyan felt that time was almost up, sighed, and walked back.
The old lady should have cooked by this time, and the other party might be worried if she doesn't go back for a long time.
And she was already hungry. It was really inconvenient not to have Chou Chou by her side. She had nothing but two spiritual stones on her body now, and there were no prey on this mountain. Even if she wanted to continue exploring, she had to be full.
When walking back, there is no need to go down from the previous position. I pull out a few canes and hold them in my hands, and connect the canes together while walking back.
When I reached the mountain wall, I gestured with a cane and found that it was out of reach. Then I walked west for a while. This place was much shorter than the mountain wall directly south. It looked more than three meters. It was not impossible to just jump off. It’s just that there are a lot of gravel on the ground below, so it’s inevitable that you’ll get hurt.
Tie the cane to a thigh-thick tree trunk, and then slide down the rock wall along the cane.
After landing, Qingyan didn't put away the cane, so she just put it there, thinking that she could go up from here after eating.
As for people seeing her, she's not afraid. It's just a stick. If you see it, you'll see it. If someone takes her away, the best she can do is go back to where she was before.
When walking back, there were faint voices coming from the yard on the roadside. It should be that several families were eating breakfast together.
Until I walked to the yard next door, there were cries coming from inside. There were women and men. They should be the selected boy and his mother.
In addition to the two of them, there were also a few men's comforting voices beside them. They should be the boy's father and brothers. After all, as mentioned before, he was the youngest son of the family.
Qingyan sighed sympathetically and returned to the yard next door.
The old lady was standing at the door of the main room, seemingly waiting for her. When she came back, she didn't know whether the expression on her face was happy or sad, but it was just complicated anyway.
Qingyan miraculously understood that the other party was happy that nothing happened to her, but sad that she couldn't find a way to leave.
Qingyan smiled and said, "Are you waiting for me? I turned around in a big circle and spent some time, making you wait for a long time."
He glanced at the pole and bucket on the edge of the water tank. He didn't see Yin Keqin, so he asked again: "Where is brother Keqin? Isn't he back yet?"
The old lady shook her head and said: "He went to the yard next door. Keqin has a good relationship with Kemian, the second son of the family next door. I heard that his younger brother was selected. Let's go and have a look."
Qingyan nodded, that's it.
The old lady frowned and glanced at the next door, shook her head and walked into the house with a sigh.
Sitting at the table, he picked up the chopsticks and handed them to Qingyan who came in with him, "Let's eat first. You don't have to wait for him. He should be back soon."
Qingyan took the chopsticks and sat next to the old lady. On the table were three bowls of millet porridge, as well as the pancakes and a bowl of pickles posted yesterday.
The millet porridge had just been served and was still a little hot, so the two of them were not in a hurry to eat it.
The old lady said in a low voice: "Did you go to the mountain?"
Qingyan looked at her and nodded, "I went up from the lowest part of the mountain wall at the back. There is a big courtyard there. Is it the village chief's house?"
Seeing the old lady nodding, she asked the doubts in her heart, "Both rows of houses are some distance away from the mountain wall. Why did the village chief build a separate row? They are still close to the mountain wall. Why does he need him? The housekeeper?"
The old lady glanced at her and walked to the door. She looked outside and then whispered, "What did you find?"
Qingyan shook her head, "I was just a little suspicious, but I didn't find anything. By the way, I saw a woman in her twenties in his yard. Is she his daughter-in-law?"
The old lady nodded and continued in a low voice: "This is his little granddaughter-in-law. The eldest granddaughter-in-law and the second granddaughter-in-law were gone the year before last, and now this is the only woman left in their family.
Everyone guessed that the reason why the patriarch's house was built there was because the entrance to the altar was in the backyard of the patriarch's house. Everyone knew that every sacrifice was made from the backyard of the patriarch's house into the mountain.
It’s just that except for the clan leader and elders, no one else is qualified to participate in the sacrifice, so we don’t know if it is true.
Keqin often went hunting in the mountains, and he had looked in that direction before. Because his father had brothers and sisters, he would look there every time he went up the mountains. I want to see what the so-called altar looks like and whether the people being sacrificed are still alive, but I have never found anything..."
Qingyan couldn't help but interrupt the old lady when she heard this: "Madam, you said that Brother Keqin often hunts in the mountains. Does that mean he has to walk a long distance to catch prey?"
The old lady shook her head, "That's not true. Although it's not on the side of the mountain, the forest is dense, and there are pheasants and rabbits just a short walk in. You can catch some in the morning, and you still have time to sell them in the town in the afternoon. If it falls, it shouldn’t have gone too far.”
"That's weird."
Qingyan told the old lady what she had discovered on the mountain, "I walked up the mountain for nearly a quarter of an hour. Not to mention pheasants and rabbits, I didn't even see any birds, not even snakes, insects, rats, or ants. "
The old lady frowned and fell into deep thought. After a while, she said: "Listening to what you said, it seems that no birds have flown over in the past three days.
Because every time there is a sacrifice, I can't help but think of the three people from my family who went there, so I don't have the energy to think about things outside. People in the village basically don't go out, and I really don't know what's going on in the mountains.
Now that I think about it, something is wrong. In the past three days, it has been extremely quiet at night, and even the crickets have disappeared.
If winter is okay now, summer has just passed, and there are the most bugs and other things on the mountain at this time. I could hear a few night owls or cries the night before, but now there is nothing. "
Qingyan was stunned again. She didn't pay attention before. She only thought that it was late autumn when she came, and now it has become early autumn. Now she suddenly remembered that when she was in Yunling County, she heard those people say that every time Qi When the mountain villages disappear, it should be when the summer is hot.
There seems to be something inconsistent here again.
Qingyan didn't think about it on her own and asked directly: "Auntie, is the time for each sacrifice fixed? Is it always in early autumn?"
The old lady shook her head, "Not necessarily. Sometimes it's just after the summer harvest, and sometimes it's just after the autumn harvest. It's more common during the summer harvest. At that time, the food has just come down, and you can use the food to go to the town in exchange for some tributes. "
Qingyan understood. This made sense. Since it was more common in summer, it was the hot season. It was normal for those people to think so.
After all, the sacrifice is held only once every three years. Who would have nothing to do to keep an eye on it every day? It would be good to pay attention to it once or twice.
After solving this problem, the two began to talk about the problems on the mountain again. At this time, Yin Keqin also came back.
Because the two of them were chatting, they hadn't used their chopsticks yet, so it was time to drink the millet porridge.
Yin Keqin washed his hands outside before coming in and sitting at the dining table. The old lady handed him the chopsticks and told him again what they had just said.
Yin Keqin didn't care about eating anymore and fell into deep thought. After more than a minute, he said: "We actually had doubts before. Ke Mian and I also went to the mountain on the sacrificial day three years ago and found that in these three days At that time, there was no way up the mountain to the east of the village, and I couldn't find it no matter how hard I looked.
The two of us also climbed up the mountain from the west to have a look. After walking a long distance, all the wild animals and prey were gone, including the cave where we had previously hunted and rested.
If it weren’t for the fact that the village at the foot of the mountain was still there, and the people and courtyards inside had not changed, we would have thought we had gone to another mountain.
Because of this, we are even more wary of our ancestor’s abilities and feel that he might really have supernatural powers..."
(End of chapter)
