After Yan Yueming listened, his head was buzzing.
He remembered the last time he came out of the quiet neighborhood, he called his aunt, and her aunt still let out a string of laughter like silver bells on the phone, telling him: "You know this time, right? What happened when you fell into the gap?" , It’s not that I didn’t tell you, I deliberately concealed it, but I also forgot about it a long time ago hahahahaha..."
Aunt! Which of your sentences is true and which is false?
Thinking of this, Yan Yueming's head became even more buzzing. He didn't know whether to be angry or laugh. His expression was as varied as Xiao Ming's, and he finally said: "Thank you."
Li Zheng raised his eyebrows slightly, "Thank you?"
Yan Yueming whispered: "Thank you for saving my aunt."
Feeling angry, Yan Yueming still had to thank him. He then asked about the situation at that time, and then he became worried, "Was the situation at that time very dangerous?"
His aunt was only 17 years old at the time, and the senior was much younger than her aunt. He is still so young, will he be scared if he enters the gap? Sure? No one is born with an indestructible heart.
Li Zheng looked at him and didn't answer immediately, but just stretched out his hand towards him.
Yan Yueming was stunned for a moment before realizing that he was asking for the brewed milk powder. Just now he sold Amway to his senior, and the senior clearly refused. Why is he trying to drink it again now? But it didn't matter. Yan Yueming quickly poured him a drink, and his mood improved.
Li Zheng took a sip, met Yan Yueming's expectant eyes, nodded, and said, "Not bad."
Yan Yueming became even happier. The next second, he heard Li Zheng continue: "There are guests on the Yihong ship. The gods and ghosts are unpredictable. What's more, your aunt has left her name on the ship."
"Guest?" Yan Yueming suddenly had an idea, "Is it the NPC I mentioned before?"
Li Zheng nodded, "Anyway, at the end of the matter, the Yihong boat capsized. Your aunt fell directly into the water. By the time the search and rescue team picked her up, she had already fainted. The search and rescue team took her out as soon as possible. She was sent to the hospital, and when she woke up again, she had forgotten many things... So, she may not have hidden it from you on purpose."
After Yan Yueming heard this, he was no longer entangled. The world is so dangerous, as long as we can come back safely, gender doesn't matter anymore, so what else do we care about? He immediately thought of the river in the mountain village and said, "Did that aunt sit on that red boat and pass here along the river?"
Li Zheng: "The premise is that those words were indeed left by her."
Yan Yueming: "What about the dog? What happened to the dog? Our previous inference..."
Li Zheng: "Since we talked about your aunt and Yihong Chuan, if it is a puppy, I would be somewhat impressed."
Yan Yueming: "There are also dogs on the boat?"
Li Zheng looked past the fence of the thatched house. In the distance, a big dog with yellow hair and a black back was chasing a nimble fat man, running and barking with great ferocity. And Li Zheng said in a light tone: "The teacher got on the boat and accidentally stepped on its rice bowl. It was very angry."
Yan Yueming was slightly startled, "Ah, that's it."
That's very angry.
After a pause, he continued: "If this dog is that dog, then it is equivalent to being on the boat like my aunt. Later, the boat capsized, and my aunt fell into the water and was rescued by you, and it... Living here?"
Li Zheng: "Maybe."
The teacher has not come back yet. Yan Yueming looked outside several times and couldn't help but feel a little worried, but saw Li Zheng carrying a broken incense burner back from nowhere. He was afraid of getting his hands dirty, so he used paper towels to pad them.
Yan Yueming was confused, "Senior?"
"Go into the house." Li Zheng watched him enter the house, then took out a small iron box the size of a matchbox with hollow patterns from his pocket, and then took out a small piece of incense stick as long as his thumb from the small iron box. superior.
The familiar fragrance dispersed, and Yan Yueming immediately thought that this was the kind of expensive incense that Li Zheng had ordered for him. It was used to soothe the mind and stabilize the soul, and it could also help with sleep.
Li Zheng: "It's time for you to sleep now."
Yan Yueming: "Okay."
The incense has been burned, it’s a shameful waste. Yan Yueming left the bed to his teachers and seniors, and slept on the bamboo raft next to him. Although the bamboo bed was small, it had a thin quilt, which was enough for him to sleep alone.
Li Zheng watched without stopping.
Yan Yueming fell asleep in the gradually spreading fragrance. The fragrance did not make people drowsy, but made the brain calm. He was so calm that he didn't have any distracting thoughts. He relaxed wholeheartedly and just thought about sleeping, and fell asleep quickly.
Another dreamless journey.
In the dream, there was only the light fragrance and the sweetness of fruit and vegetable oat milk powder.
I don't know how long it took, but when Yan Yueming woke up again, he opened his eyes. The room was dark, with only a little light coming from the papered windows. He was startled and quickly reached out to touch the flashlight he had placed beside his pillow before going to bed. When the light returned to his sight, he breathed a sigh of relief.
Neither the senior nor the teacher was in the room. He looked around and saw that the incense in the incense burner had burned out, but when he reached out to touch it, the incense burner was still warm.
Suddenly, Yan Yueming felt a little cold and quickly got up.
"Senior? Teacher?" He called softly, but received no response. A little uneasiness rose from the bottom of his heart, and he took a deep breath and reassured himself that it was okay. They might not have heard him, or they might have just gone out.
After calming down, he walked from the bedroom to the main room and saw that there was a big crack in the old door panel.
The faint blood-colored moonlight flowed in from the crack in the door, like liquid. Yan Yueming's heart was beating loudly. He cautiously came to the door and found a piece of paper taped to the door.
On the paper were the familiar pen calligraphy of Li Zheng, which read: Go back as soon as you go, don't go out.
Yan Yueming calmed down for a moment, but at this moment, a dog barked outside. He looked out from the crack in the door and found the big dog with yellow hair and black back in the yard, raising its head and barking majestically into the night sky.
Moving his eyes upward, the blood moon was still high in the sky.
Dogs also know that the moon is strange, so why do they bark at it?
Thinking like this, Yan Yueming couldn't help but look more carefully, and even became fascinated. He knew he shouldn't do this in case anything went wrong, but just when he was about to look away, he suddenly caught something strange. That strangeness drove him to look at the moon again.
The more he looked at it, the more he felt something was wrong. How could there be ripples on the surface of the moon?
It's like being covered with a veil, or like the surface of a lake rippled by the wind, ripples in the evening breeze. Red, rippled, what could it be?
Or have you hallucinated?
No, he fell asleep with the incense burning, and he was in good spirits at the moment. The cold wind blew and his mind was completely clear, so he shouldn't be mistaken.
That is……
In the flash of lightning, an incredible guess appeared in Yan Yueming's mind, making him suddenly widen his eyes. That's not a gauze, it's a hijab, a red hijab!
Isn’t the bride’s hijab also red? Maybe this is not a blood moon at all, but a layer of red gauze covering the moon!
What to do? What to do? What to do? He wanted to tell his seniors and teachers about this guess quickly. Although he felt that his seniors and teachers would not ignore things that he could discover with his IQ and observation skills, but what if it happened?
Yan Yueming turned his attention to the dog outside, opened the door boldly, waved, and shouted softly: "Dahuang! Dahuang!"
The dog turned around with a puzzled look in his eyes.
Yan Yueming: "I don't know your name. Do you mind calling you that? Dahuang, do you know where my teacher and senior have gone?"
Rhubarb came over, but not very close. Yan Yueming gritted her teeth and wanted to raise her foot to step out of the threshold. Unexpectedly, Da Huang screamed as soon as her foot stepped out and before it landed.
"Woof!" Dahuang rushed forward, as if he would bite Yan Yueming if he dared to come out.
Yan Yueming retracted his feet in a sullen manner, but this also confirmed one thing: this dog was really helping them. The dog lives here and should be very familiar with everything here. How dare he look at the moon?
Roaring shows extraordinary strength. He had an idea, took out a pen from his backpack, tore off the paper on the door, wrote down his guess, then folded it into small squares and put it in a plastic bag and tied it up.
"Dahuang, can you give this to my teacher and senior for me?" Yan Yueming asked, shaking the plastic bag.
Dahuang seemed to really understand, and his eyes as he looked at Yan Yueming were full of wisdom.
In order to show respect for it, Yan Yueming squatted down to talk to it, so both sides looked at each other. I don’t know if it was his attitude that finally moved Dahuang. Dahuang slowly stepped forward and took away the plastic bag.
"Thank you -" Yan Yueming hadn't finished saying thank you. With a "bang", Dahuang quickly closed the door with the dog's head and disappeared into the yard after a few ups and downs.
In an instant, Yan Yueming was the only one left in the small courtyard. He didn't dare to go out, so he thought about it and went back to the bedroom to stay with the incense burner.
The waiting process was tedious. In order to prevent himself from thinking wildly, he forced himself to do other things, such as boiling water and washing. After he wiped his face, brushed his teeth, drank some hot water and ate some biscuits, he took out a paper from the compartment of his backpack and started to do the questions under the light of the flashlight.
At the same time, Li Zheng stood by the river and received the dog express.
When he opened the paper and saw the words on it, there was no surprise in his eyes, but he looked slightly relaxed when he saw the last line of words.
[I will stay in the house and wait for you to come back, don’t worry - Xiao Ming]
If it had been Que Ge and Wen Renjing, they would have been running wild all over the village by now. Thinking of this, he folded the paper again and put it in his pocket, glancing at Da Huang from the corner of his eye.
"Go back and keep an eye on him."
Dahuang barked at him, fiercely, but as if he couldn't be more ruthless than others. He just said harsh words, turned around and ran away.
After a while, Li Heping walked out of the forest on the other side of the river. He pushed aside the branches above his head and walked out, spitting out something "bah, bah, bah". His hair was stained with leaves and his trouser legs were stained with mud, looking a little embarrassed.
The two faced each other across the river.
"How is it?" Li Zheng asked.
"You can't get out, there's no way." Li Heping spoke concisely, looking around the mountains around the small mountain village, and said solemnly: "The mountains around here should be like this. Now this is the only waterway left. If the Red Boat is really Passing here, the waterway will definitely lead to other gaps."
After finishing speaking, both of them turned their eyes to the river.
Li Heping continued: "There is a moon in the water. It is not convenient for me to cross the river in my current state. I will just find a place here to wait for dawn. You go back and watch Xiao Ming, don't let anything happen to him."
Speaking of Yan Yueming, Li Zheng also told his guess about the moon.
Li Heping casually picked off the leaves on his head, narrowed his eyes, and said, "Since even he guessed that, then this idea may be right. Is that right? How is the harvest?"
"The dog hole still hasn't appeared." Li Zheng said, glanced at his shadow, and said calmly, "The shadow has become lighter. The approximate time limit should be 4 hours. If exposed to the moonlight for more than 4 hours, the shadow will disappear completely. Without the shadow, the next person who should disappear is yourself."
Li Heping nodded, and then glared at him again, "Then you are still standing here, do you think you have a long life? Why don't you go back quickly?"
Li Zheng shrugged, turned and left.
Li Heping and Qi are not in the same place. This stinky apprentice is good at everything. He is handsome, good at making money, and smart. Although he is used to irritating people, he is actually cold on the outside and hot on the inside. He just doesn't care about his life.
After losing his temper, Li Heping still cherished his life and immediately turned around to find a hiding place.
At this time, Li Zheng returned to the thatched house and saw Yan Yueming, who was diligently doing the questions with a flashlight hanging high as a chandelier. He wanted to call Li Heping back and let him see how his apprentice was working.
"Tuk, duh." He knocked on the window.
Yan Yueming suddenly turned around and saw Li Zheng standing outside through the hole in the paper window. He quickly ran over to open the window and said, "Senior, you are back."
Li Zheng looked at his test paper and hurriedly explained, "I didn't stay up late. I had already slept enough. I was just doing the questions to kill time."
Otherwise I would be too scared to be alone.
Someone came back at this moment, and the joy on Yan Yueming's face almost appeared through his hair. He looked behind Li Zheng again, "Senior, didn't the teacher come back with you?"
Li Zheng: "Back off."
Yan Yueming took a step back in confusion, and saw Li Zheng holding one hand on the edge of the window, using his strength to climb directly in through the window. That figure is so handsome, and his legs look particularly long.
For a moment, Yan Yueming forgot about the teacher. He picked up the thermos cup on the table and handed it over, "Senior, do you want to drink some water? It's still hot."
After finishing the coffee, Yan Yueming washed the cup and filled it with hot water again.
Li Zheng closed the window, took the thermos cup, walked down slowly and took a sip, and then said about Li Heping, "Teacher went to the mountain to take a look. He will stay on the other side of the river overnight and come back tomorrow morning."
Yan Yueming: "That's right. Is there anything on the mountain?"
Li Zheng: "Nothing."
Yan Yueming: "What about the moon? Have you found any new clues about the moon?"
Under the light of the flashlight, the lenses of Yan Yueming's glasses reflected light. He didn't ask Li Zheng if his guess was correct. He was beating around the bush, but the look in his eyes asking for praise was very sincere.
Li Zheng did not answer immediately.
Yan Yueming began to feel uneasy, thinking that he had guessed wrong. Fortunately, the senior finally said: "Both the teacher and I think your guess is reasonable."
"Really!" Yan Yueming was both happy and surprised, "If that's the case, then the story in this small mountain village is about a delusional fool who wants to marry the moon in the sky?"
Li Zheng: "Go on."
Yan Yueming: "The fool fell into the water several times, but he was actually chasing the moon, right? Because there was a reflection of the moon in the water, he wanted the moon, so he fell into the water countless times. And his father, Wang Fuhu, was very rich. , married many concubines, but only had one son, so even if this son is already stupid, he still wants stars but not the moon? Oh no, he wants the moon but not the stars!"
Li Zheng picked up his paper and looked at it. Hearing him stop, he raised his eyes and said, "Continue."
"So, there is no bride in this wedding banquet. The bride is hanging in the sky. If a mortal dares to think of the moon, the moon will punish him. Pei Lang learned the truth from his concubine and saw that his ducks all died mysteriously. , so he was preparing to escape in order to save his life; the one who lit the incense burner to worship must also know the inside story, and then hope to appease the moon's anger? "
"There is something wrong with what you said." Li Zheng said.
"Where?" Yan Yueming asked hurriedly.
"If that is really a red hijab and not a blood moon, it proves that the moon is still the moon, bright and pure white. If someone hadn't covered it with a red hijab, its light would not have turned into blood due to passing through the red gauze. .”
"It's your own fault?"
"Let me ask you, what are the conditions for a man and a woman to discuss marriage?" Li Zheng asked again.
"The relationship is harmonious, then the parents meet, and then... a house, a car? Betrothal gift, dowry?" Yan Yueming counted them one by one, and slowly understood what Li Zheng meant, "If a person wants to marry the moon, he must have a betrothal gift. .”
What is the bride price?
Is it a fading shadow? Those chickens and ducks that died mysteriously?
"The stories in the gaps, no matter how absurd or bizarre, are reasonable as long as they exist." Li Zheng said, picking up the pen next to him, correcting the paper with a few flicks of his fingers, and then handed it back, "Just like this weird world, the existence of In this world, you and me.”
Yan Yueming took it blankly, feeling that what the senior said was really reasonable, and his casual words were very philosophical. He was suddenly moved by the word "you and me", and then he saw the exam paper from the corner of his eye -
What a big red ×.
heartbroken.
