That night, both of them fell asleep due to chaotic thoughts.
Lan was okay, after all, he had rested for a while. When Jasmine sat up with a dejected look on her face with two deep dark circles under her eyes, Lan was actually startled.
"How about you take some rest?" Lan looked at the listless Jasmine.
"No need," Jasmine waved her hand slowly and yawned, "Aren't you going to do some exercises tonight? There are too many things to know."
When the two of them simply washed themselves with water from the well in the courtyard, Lao Liu kept his promise and looked outside the courtyard gate with a hot breakfast in his arms.
Jasmine was embarrassed to let Lao Liu see the dirty look in the room, so she shook off the water drops on her face and ran out.
"Let's go, Lao Liu?"
"Have you two masters eaten?" Lao Liu opened the large wooden lunch box in his hand, "Why don't you eat some steamed buns before setting off."
Lan wiped his face and walked over.
"Let's eat while we're walking, Liu. Time is tight. Let's go to Huo Simao's house and ask."
The buns were very fragrant. The three of them ate the buns without slowing down. Soon they arrived in front of Huo Simao's house on the edge of the village.
"Not here yet?!"
After listening to his wife's words, Lao Liu turned to look at Lan and Jasmine.
"Did he stay away all night, or..." Lan asked the kind-faced woman.
"He went out early in the morning," the 40-year-old daughter-in-law waved her hand with a look of disgust, "He didn't get home until it was dark last night, didn't say anything, and ran out again early in the morning."
"Does he have somewhere to go on his own?"
"I don't know about him..." Si Mao's wife was obviously a little angry with Si Mao, "Why don't you go to Huo Xu's house and have a look? It's best to teach them a lesson and fool around all day long!"
Lan rolled his eyes. The name Huo Xu was very familiar, as if he was someone on the list.
"Then let's go find him first," Lan promised with a polite smile, "Thank you."
The moment Lan lowered his head to the woman, he saw from the corner of his eye that the woman seemed to be panicking for half a second, and her uneasy eyes quickly turned away from him. Before they could figure out the reason behind it, the three of them were already preparing for the next stage of their rampage.
"You two may not be familiar with Huo Xu."
"Oh?" Lan looked surprised, but she was thinking in her heart that she finally met someone she didn't have to bother pretending to know.
"Actually, there are quite a lot of people in the village. If I haven't visited you two before, you probably aren't very familiar with them."
Lan nodded quickly, "Then I'll have to ask you, Lao Liu, to introduce me."
Lao Liu lowered his head and smiled, and the three of them continued walking forward. They met several unfamiliar faces on the road. When they saw Lan and Jasmine, they were all respectful.
It seems that for Huo Huo Village, the "masters" played by the two really have a high status.
After turning a corner, the courtyard surrounded by a short fence on the right was Huo Xu's home. Lao Liu rang the metal bell hanging on the top of the fence door. The clever bell made a clear and loud sound. In line with Lao Liu's call, there was no sound. After a while, the bamboo door of the yard next door opened.
"Hey, the sixth one... there are two masters," the man stood in his yard, leaning his upper body over the short fence and said to the three of them, "Huo Xu is not here, and he hasn't come back all night, what do you want to do with him?" "
"Huo Xu isn't here either?" Lao Liu grabbed the door frame and asked, "Where has he gone? Brother, do you know?"
"I don't know where he went," the man curled his lips, "Since his wife died, his character... no one dares to interfere with his affairs."
"Brother, has anyone come to see Huo Xu?" Lan asked, imitating Lao Liu's tone.
"Master, you are too polite," the man quickly waved his hand after hearing Lan's words, "I don't think anyone has looked for him. He...did he do anything?"
Lao Liu looked back at Lan and Jasmine. They nodded and decided to go to the next house.
"He's not in now……"
"Yes, I went out early in the morning..."
"He didn't come back last night, and he asked me not to prepare his meal..."
I walked back and forth around the village, but no one I was looking for was there.
It wasn't until the last house that the hostess of that house revealed a little clue.
"I heard there was a Buddhist ceremony tonight," the woman crossed her arms and looked at Lan and Jasmine curiously, "I didn't quite hear what he said to me before he left...it seems to have something to do with the Buddhist ceremony."
Legal affairs.
Lan frowned and thought.
It seems that everything will have to wait until the ceremony starts in the evening to see the outcome.
"Sister, will everyone attend tonight's ceremony?" Lan asked with a smile as she raised her eyes.
"Renunciation ceremonies usually only go to the relatives and friends of the deceased," the woman blinked, "but if it's the village chief's ceremony, I guess a lot of people in the village will go to see it."
The three of them thanked the woman and walked back dejectedly.
"Why don't you two masters go back and have a rest?" Lao Liu wiped the sweat from his forehead. "The ritual is quite laborious. You two are tired. I will take you back."
Yes, Lan looked at Jasmine, their eyes filled with guilt, thinking to themselves, they still don’t know how to perform this ritual at night.
The village still has a quiet and peaceful living atmosphere, full of vitality and fireworks.
There was no hint that anyone had died yesterday, nor was there any hint that any weird ritual would be started tonight.
When the two of them sat back down on the bed in the old house after a busy morning, they felt a strong sense of uneasiness as expected.
"I always feel that something will happen at night." Jasmine sighed softly with blank eyes.
Lan glanced at Jasmine and didn't answer. He stood up and walked towards the wooden boxes stacked in the corner.
"What do you want to do?"
"We have to find something to do something with," Lan said, forcefully opening the heavy wooden cover, "and see if there are any props or anything else, otherwise the night will be awkward."
Jasmine swung her legs on the bed a few times and felt that it made sense.
The two of them rummaged around in the smelly wooden box, which was full of weird things with no apparent purpose. Lan combined his lack of knowledge and imagination to pick out a few things and put them on the table.
Jasmine also ran over with a lot of dark objects in her arms, and spread them out on the table.
"I can still figure out what these things are."
Jasmine picked up a wooden stick with a white cloth strip tied at the end, and continued, "This is a bit like the flags of the fifth watch, but it is a little bit more like a flag. It is also like this. Twelve flags can be arranged in an array. Immortal soldiers.”
"Fifth watch?"
"Oh, yes, you weren't here at that time," Jasmine lowered her head and pulled other objects. "Wu Geng and I, Jiu Tan, are both from a relatively prestigious foreign clan, as are Uncle Luo and Jiu's Ba Liang Shui."
Lan nodded and moved his eyes to the other magic weapon raised by Jasmine.
