"Brother, thank you for your hard work." The guard was wrapped tightly in a sheepskin and gathered around the fire to ward off the cold when he heard a delicate female voice behind him.
"Madam..." The guard immediately became respectful when he saw that it was Qiu'er, one of the concubines guarding Qi. Qiu'er looked at him with a smile, and he couldn't help but feel a little fever on his cheeks.
"Brother, are you cold?" Qiu'er took another step closer.
"Oh...no...not cold..." The guard became even more nervous and couldn't help but take a step back.
"Brother, you are so pitiful. They have all gone to bed, why are you left to freeze outside." As he said this, Qiu'er actually took a step forward.
The guard bowed, stepped back, saluted, and said respectfully: "Madam, please go back to the tent to rest. Outside..."
Before he finished speaking, Qiu'er's jade hand gently pressed his mouth.
He was still surprised that Qiu'er acted so quickly when he heard the other party say: "Brother, the young master is sleeping deeply, you don't have to be afraid... Qiu'er feels sorry for my brother the most."
The guard was young and could not withstand such soft words. He said with a trembling voice: "Madam, I..."
"Stop talking, come with me..." Qiu'er gently held the guard's hand and dragged him behind a haystack, half luring him and half dragging him.
Arriving behind the haystack, he suddenly discovered that Wei Qi's other concubine, Xia'er, was already waiting there with a smile.
...
In the early morning, a loud scream woke up everyone who was sleeping soundly.
"Come here! Hurry!" This voice came from the Weiqi camp.
"What are you shouting for so early in the morning!?" Wei Qi poked his head out of the tent sleepily. In another tent, Tuo Ye heard the sound and hurried out. Following her were Wei Qi's concubines Qiu'er and Xia'er.
"Sir, one of the guards is dead!" Someone came over in a hurry to report the news. Everyone was surprised when they heard the news. However, the expressions of the two concubines did not change.
Song Ya heard the sound and immediately led someone over to check.
"How did he die? Where is the body?" Song Ya asked.
The guard led him to the back of the haystack. When Song Ya saw it, his body suddenly shook and he couldn't help but turn his head.
The guard on the ground was more like a frozen and hard skin than a corpse.
Song Ya knelt down and touched the guard's body, and found that all the bones in his body were missing. There was a bloody wound under the ribs, where the bones were pulled out.
Perhaps because of the cold weather, even though he had no bones, he was not too shriveled up.
Strangely, the dead guard's face was peaceful, and he even had a smile of enjoyment frozen on his face by the cold. All the clothes and armor on his body were gone. Seeing these features, Song Ya felt as if he had fallen into ten thousand years of ice, and felt a chill all over his body.
Song Ya composed himself, covered the body with a piece of tattered clothes, stood up and said:
"Don't be afraid, we're just freezing to death."
"Frozen to death?" Everyone was in disbelief. Some people also saw the miserable state of the body, but they didn't understand why Song Ya said he died of freezing.
Not far behind Song Ya, Song Xin saw the condition of the corpse. Although the body showed abnormal undressing before freezing to death, it should have been done while still alive. But all the bones in his body were gone, and he still had a vague feeling that something was wrong.
Maybe this has something to do with the strange premonition he had recently. Although the sky was bright and the sunlight was still dazzling on the snow, the chill around me was even worse.
"Collect his body so that he can be buried alive." Song Ya said softly. Although he had seen many dead people, this time he saw it and he felt uncomfortable. He didn't know whether it was cold or fear, which made him unable to help himself. I shivered.
"Follow the team's lead, take his body away and bury it." Wei Qi ordered. The two concubines behind him covered their mouths and noses, looked at each other as if they were disgusted, and followed Wei Qi away. .
Song Xin stepped forward and said, "Cousin, can you let me check the body?"
Song Ya said: "Don't look at this corpse."
"It's okay, I just want to take a look." Song Xin walked up directly without waiting for Song Ya's agreement. Lifting off the rags covering the body.
What caught his eye was a stiff face with a strange smile. For him, it was quite a visual impact. Song Xin suppressed her nausea, and after checking it carefully, her eyes narrowed, "Huh?"
He found a black oil stain the size of a fingernail at the corner of the corpse's lips. I dipped a little with my finger and found that it was like mucus and had an indescribable strange smell, like corpse odor or the bitter smell of moldy food. But he didn't have a clue, he had never seen anything like this.
"Little brother, have you finished reading?" a guard asked angrily.
"Oh, okay, you can carry it away."
The body was hastily buried and the team set out on the road again. But something strange happened again the next day. Early the next morning, another person died.
The death condition was exactly the same as that of the guard. Then on the third and fourth days, people died. On the fourth day and even two people died in one night, their bones were removed.
By this time, no one would believe that he had frozen to death. Song Ya also knew at this time that he couldn't hide it anymore, but he couldn't find the real cause of death of these people...
Song Xin would secretly check the frozen corpses every time, and sure enough, he found the black mucus in their mouths, noses, and ear holes.
It always gets dark very early in December. The thick black clouds overhead made the day look dim, and the wind and snow became more and more fierce. When walking against the wind, it felt like facing a thick wall pressing towards me.
When camping at night, Song Ya was worried that someone would die again, so he kept everyone within five steps of each other and set up many torches and night watchmen. After the firelight was reflected by the snow, the entire camp became much brighter.
But from a distance, the camp is nothing more than fireflies in the dark night.
Song Xin was arranged to keep vigil. He sat on a cart with his back against a haystack. Release your spiritual consciousness within one foot of your body, and at the same time listen carefully to the movements around you.
In the second half of the night, even young people couldn't hold back their sleepiness and fell into a deep sleep. Only Song Xin still closed his eyes and practiced Qi, while watching his surroundings carefully.
Suddenly, amidst the howling of the wind and snow, he made out the slightest sound of feet stepping on the snow a few feet away.
Turning around, he asked in surprise: "Why is it you?"
The person who came turned out to be Wei Qi's concubine Xia'er, who was only wrapped in a thin quilt in this freezing cold weather. At the same time, he also noticed that Xia'er was barefoot, but only left shallow footprints, as if they were as light as feathers.
The snow was almost knee-deep now, but why did she only leave such shallow footprints?
Xia'er was obviously a little surprised to be found approaching, "I...I see that little brother is working hard, so I brought you some wine to warm you up."
Song Xin narrowed her eyes and thought to herself, "This woman usually feels like she's dirtying her mouth when she talks to us. Why is she so kind today?"
"Haha, where's the wine?" How could Song Xin believe her.
Xia'er didn't say anything, she just took a step forward with a smile and climbed onto the cart. She put her face close to Song Xin and said, "Brother, why are you so cold? It's very warm here in Xia'er." She pointed to her chest as she spoke.
"If you don't go and serve Wei Qi, what are you doing here?"
"The young master has fallen asleep. Don't worry, little brother, he won't find out."
Song Xin snorted coldly, and suddenly his consciousness was locked on Xia'er, because he smelled a faint and hard-to-distinguish odor on this woman, which was the same as the black mucus on the dead people.
Xia'er immediately sensed the spiritual consciousness, her face changed, she rolled back, and retreated beyond the range of Song Xin's spiritual consciousness. But how could Song Xin let him go? His spiritual consciousness followed him like a shadow.
This Xia'er can sense her own consciousness, so there must be a ghost!
"It turned out to be an alchemist. Humph, I didn't expect that!" Xia'er snorted coldly. Song Xin also stood up at this time, pulled out the dagger from his waist, and stared at her.
"Who are you!? Did you harm those people?" Song Xin did not speak, but directly used his spiritual consciousness to transmit his voice.
"Xia'er" was indeed able to sense it, "Boy, your spiritual sense is pretty good, but if you fight me, you're still far from it."
Song Xin was about to answer when suddenly "Xia'er" screamed, "Here comes someone, someone comes here! He...he wants to kill someone!"
The woman's scream was like a red-hot needle, cutting through the darkness and silence. Everyone around woke up.
At this time, "Xia'er" threw away the thin quilt on her body, exposing half of her body. Then he lay down on the haystack beside him, and his tears fell like broken beads.
"What's wrong!" Wei Qi's angry voice came, and then he came here surrounded by guards. Seeing Song Xin holding a dagger, and his concubine lying disheveled in the grass, how could she not know what was going on.
Seeing Wei Qi, Xia'er immediately got into a mood of drama. She threw herself into Wei Qi's arms and cried. Lihua Daiyu said: "Young Master, Young Master, this kid is plotting against... Xia'er... Young Master wants to make the decision for Xia'er." ah..."
Seeing her look, Song Xin couldn't help complaining in her heart, "Bah, I'm going to vomit. Such terrible acting skills. Diba and Dami can beat you ten blocks away."
At this time, Song Ya also gathered around with people, "What's going on?"
Wei Qi was obviously convinced of Xia'er's acting skills. He shouted angrily: "Your people are trying to taint my concubine, Song Ya, what else do you have to say?"
Song Ya didn't believe Wei Qi's words at all, but asked Song Xin directly: "What happened just now."
"Cousin, there is something wrong with this woman."
"Xia'er" who was in Wei Qi's arms immediately started sobbing again when she heard this, "You took advantage of the night when the slave family was up, kidnapped me outside the tent... and brought me here... you wanted... ugh Woohoo..."
This cry made Wei Qi's heart suddenly freeze.
But Song Xin almost made her sick.
"I'm sorry, I insulted Diba Dami..."
Song Ya looked at the snow on the ground that had been trampled into a mess and asked, "Did he bring you here from outside Mr. Wei's tent?"
Xia'er wiped away her tears and nodded, "Yes."
"This place is seventy steps away from the young master's tent. Why didn't you shout along the way? Why did you shout when you got here?"
"This..." Xia'er was obviously unprepared. Everything tonight was not in his plan. But she still wiped away her tears and said, "Yes...it was him who used the sword...to prevent me from shouting."
Wei Qi roared angrily, "Song Ya! You don't care about your people, but you doubt my concubine. Could she seduce this dirty boy!?"
"That's not what I meant," Song Ya was about to continue, when Wei Qi pointed at Song Xin and ordered: "Take this person down!"
