On the mountain path, an ox cart pulling grain and hay was slowly swinging back and forth on the slightly bumpy mountain road. An older man sat in front of the cart, waving the whip in the air from time to time, mouthing. There was also humming an unknown folk song.
"The mountains are covered with red flowers, and the spring water of the Shu River beats the mountain stream. The red flowers fade easily like a man's will, and the infinite water flow is a worry."
"Grandpa, what's the name of this folk song? It's so nice."
A young girl with a high ponytail came out from behind the old man, leaning on the soft corn grass with one hand and smiling broadly. Next to the girl lay a slender young man with a piece of dogtail grass in his mouth, closing his eyes and lazily basking in the sun.
"This is "Bamboo Branch Poems" by Liu Yuxi, a great poet of the Tang Dynasty. It is said to be adapted from folk songs in Shu." The old man said with a smile: "Some young people in our village always like to change Liu Yuxi's poems into folk songs when they have nothing to do. , they said that the poems of this great poet...how to put it, tend to be poetic and easy to change. Old man, I am tone-deaf, so I only learned this simple one."
"What are you talking about? Grandpa's singing is already very good. I have never heard such a good folk song in our house," the girl praised.
"By the way, I forgot to ask just now. Your accent doesn't sound like you are from Huizhou. Almost all the villagers in our small mountain village have never left the village. How come the little girl has acquaintances here?" the old man asked curiously.
"It's like this. A few days ago, my husband and I went to the capital to do some errands. We happened to meet Brother Li You there, and we became close friends by chance. We passed by Huizhou in the past two days and thought of Li You. The eldest brother said that his hometown is here, so he wanted to stop by and see him." The girl was talking nonsense, her face was not red, her heart was not beating.
When she mentioned "husband", the girl deliberately emphasized the word "husband" and looked at the man beside her. The man rolled his eyes and ignored her, then closed his eyes to rest.
"Oh, it's really unlucky that you guys came here." The old man touched his head, "I guess Shitou's kid is still on the road and hasn't reached the village yet."
"Stone? Is it Brother Li's nickname?"
"Yes, the child Shitou had a hard life. As soon as his mother was pregnant with him, his father was forcibly conscripted by the court to go to the north to fight against the Jin people. Later, on the day he was born, at night, a helper at home also No. Brother Liu and his wife, who live next door, found out and hurriedly sent Shitou's mother to the doctor in the neighboring village overnight. Unexpectedly, his mother gave birth to him on the way." The old man recalled: "His mother happened to be there at that time. He was born on a big rock in the village, so people in the village like to call him Stone, and over time, it became his nickname."
At this point, the old man sighed again, "Not long after giving birth to Shi Shi, his mother started working in the fields before her body recovered in order to make money to support the family. As a result, her body became ill and she unfortunately passed away when Shi Shi was five years old. . As for Shitou's father, he never came back.
Over the years, Shitou has grown up eating food from hundreds of families. The Zhang family has a mouthful of food, and the Li family has a mouthful of water. Even after stumbling, he has made it through. Fortunately, this child lives up to his expectations and is good at reading. If he can get a good name when he goes to Beijing to take the exam, then all these years of hardship will be considered in vain. "
"I didn't expect Brother Li's life experience to be so rough." The girl sighed.
"Well, somehow our village seems to have violated the rules of heaven. Over the years, there have been fewer and fewer young people in the village. They either died when they were born, or they died unfortunately due to some accidents when they grew up. . There are very few children like Shitou who can grow up to such a healthy age in our village. If this continues, there will be no one in the village at all in a few decades." The old man's voice was a little lonely.
The girl frowned, "Did someone in the village do something extremely evil and angered God?"
"I'm not sure about this. I guess it doesn't happen. If there is such a thing, the old man must know about it." The old man affirmed: "Besides, the people in our village are simple and honest, and everyone works in the fields. You can’t do anything extremely evil.”
The girl looked at the man next to her. The man just curled his lips contemptuously to show his attitude.
"You and your wife have come all the way here, why don't you stay at my house for a few days and wait, maybe the stone will come back in two days, otherwise it won't be worth traveling all the way. "The old man suggested.
"It's okay, grandpa. Although Brother Li is not at home, it's the same as Sister Cen being here." The girl replied.
The old man's eyes lit up and he turned around and asked, "Do you know that fairy?"
"Fairy? Why do you say that?"
"I remember that the day after Shitou came to Beijing to take the exam, Miss Cen suddenly came to the village. Oh, even though I am old, I can still tell at a glance that Miss Cen is as beautiful as a fairy in the sky. The old man recalled: "I guess God saw that Shitou's child was living too hard, so he sent this fairy from the sky to take care of Shitou."
"The day Shitou came to Beijing coincided with the rice-planting season. Liu Hai, who was next door to him, originally wanted to help him plant the rice seedlings first. He never thought that as soon as he arrived in the field, he saw Miss Cen already busy in the field, looking at She is like a wealthy young lady, but she is very smart and capable in her work."
"After the seedlings were planted, some time later, the village encountered a severe drought. The sun was blazing every day, and the land was dry and cracked. We used up all the water saved by every household in the village, but it didn't make much difference. .
Seeing that those seedlings were almost drying up, one day I thought about going to the fields again and watering them, maybe there would be some improvement. Suddenly, I saw Miss Cen in the field, as if she was casting some kind of magic, and her mouth was She was still mumbling something, and then pointed her hands towards the sky. Soon it started to rain heavily, saving all the seedlings that were about to die. Tell me, what is this if not a fairy? "
"Does anyone else in the village know?" the girl asked.
The old man shook his head, "I told some people in the village, but they didn't believe in these theories about gods and ghosts. They just thought that it had been dry for too long and it was time for rain. I didn't mention it again after that. This is about it.”
"But little girl, since you know Miss Cen, do you two know whether she is a fairy or not?"
"There are no fairies in this world. Sister Cen is indeed very beautiful, but she can make it rain with just her hands. What kind of fairy must she be who knows such advanced magic? Will she still come to the village to help Brother Li with farm work? ." The girl narrowed her eyes and smiled.
"You can't say that, Shitou is a good boy, and in that mythical story, didn't the seventh princess of the Jade Emperor also fall in love with Dong Yong?"
"Grandpa, you also said that those are all fairy tales. Maybe it was just a coincidence."
The old man shook his head, "You young people have no respect for the gods. As the saying goes, there are gods when you raise your head three feet high. There are many fantasy things in this world."
The girl tilted her head and smiled, nodded and said, "What grandpa said is true. Maybe one day I meet one, and I will definitely believe in these things."
The old man smiled heartily and said, "But when you come to the village, you can come to the old man's house to try the dishes cooked by my wife when you have time. My wife is from Hunan and her cooking is extremely authentic."
"Since grandpa said so, we have to make time to go there in the past few days." The girl agreed.
The two of them just chatted casually. Although they were not on the same channel most of the time, they were still able to catch up on the conversation and pass the time. After a while, a person surrounded by mountains appeared in front of them. small mountain village.
"Grandpa, this village is built in the mountains." The girl blinked and looked around the village.
The old man stretched out his whip and pointed at a large mountain opposite, "When I was young, I heard from the elders in my family that there was a monster suppressed on the other side of the mountain, and the surrounding mountains were the formation where the monster was imprisoned. Law, and our village is the center of this formation."
"It is said that the mage who imprisoned the monster failed to get rid of the monster after exhausting all methods. He could only set up a formation around here and moved his family here as an array to suppress the monster. Later, after Over the course of about a hundred years, a small mountain village slowly formed here, but now the young people in the village regard this as a story. I am afraid that if our generation is gone, no one will take it seriously anymore. .”
"I don't know what to do if the monster escapes by then." The old man shook his head, feeling helpless.
"Maybe by then there will be another mage with powerful magic to suppress the monsters." The girl comforted her with a smile.
"That monster is very powerful, and it is not something that ordinary mages can deal with." The old man sighed, and then pointed to a low house to the east, "The house to the east is Shitou's house. Beyond the house About a mile further east is his family's field. It is early afternoon, and Miss Cen is probably still working in the field. Old man, I will send you here, and the old lady at home is still waiting for me. Go back to feed the cows.”
"Thank you very much for dragging us from the city to the village." The girl took out a piece of gold from her arms, "Grandpa, this is a little thought from the two of us."
The old man waved his hands repeatedly and said: "You can't do this, girl. I was going back to the village and took you and your wife with me on the way. How can I collect your money?"
The girl jumped out of the car and stuffed the gold into the pile of grain and hay, "Grandpa, just keep it. It's so hot that you can't let us go in vain."
After finishing speaking, before waiting for the old man to answer, he pulled the man beside him who had just got off the car slowly and ran towards the east. He jogged for a few minutes and stopped only when he looked back and saw that the old man was not chasing him.
"Uncle, what the old man just said about the declining population in this village, is he hiding something?" Su Jianxia asked curiously.
"When this village was first established, members of the Master's family settled here. The Song Dynasty was actually a dynasty that rejected incest marriages. The Master was indeed a just man, but his clansmen, over time, for In order to reproduce offspring, many people would guard the road at the entrance of the village, robbing the girls who passed by and take them home to carry on the family line." Wei Ziqi sneered, "Later on, people in this village seemed to fall in love with this kind of robbing people. Women feel that they have been doing this shameful thing for decades. God is reincarnated, and this is the retribution they should receive. Thirty years later, as Li You was killed in the court, This village has completely ceased to exist in the world."
"What about the monster suppressed behind the mountain? Without the formation eye, the monster will break out of the formation soon."
"The monster is plowing the fields in the village now."
"Ah?" Su Jianxia was shocked, "You're not talking about Sister Cen, are you?"
"To be precise, it was her and Bai Suzhen. At that time, they had not yet cultivated into human form, and they happened to bump into the mage who was barely able to break into the house. The mage could not kill them, and they could not do anything to him.
Later, the mage spent his whole life and set up this formation, using his entire family as formation eyes to seal the sisters. However, it didn't take long for the two of them to become adults, and the formation could no longer suppress them. "
Su Jianxia said with a smile: "So the people in the village thought they were controlling the monster, but they didn't expect that the monster was actually right under their noses. I guess the mage would be angry if he knew about it."
The village is not big, and while the two were talking slowly, they soon passed the house of Li You's family. Su Jianxia raised his eyes and saw that in the field not far away, a figure in a white dress could be vaguely seen. There was something bent over and busy in the field.
"It would be great if she wasn't a monster." Su Jianxia sighed.
Wei Ziqi walked to the root of a big tree nearby and sat down, leaning on the tree and lazily saying: "The children born by Bai Suzhen and Xu Xian are all human beings. It doesn't matter if they are monsters. It's just that since ancient times, humans have always treated monsters." Have Stereotype."
"It was fine in ancient times, but in modern times, few women would be willing to do farm work when their husbands are not at home."
"Uncle, I don't agree with your idea of knocking over a whole boat of people with one stick." Su Jianxia glared, "No wonder it's a man who only wants women to be housewives at home."
"I won't answer this kind of topic that provokes antagonism between men and women." Wei Ziqi said defensively, "Your senior brother Li will be back soon, don't forget about business."
Su Jianxia snorted coldly, walked to Wei Ziqi and sat down, "Some people are just wrong!"
Wei Ziqi was a little helpless and didn't dare to answer. He stretched out his hand and waved down. The upper body of the huge tree behind him seemed to have reversed its direction. The large and dense leaves moved just above the two of them, blocking the sun completely. .
The sky without industrial waste pollution and the naturally formed forest paths, this primitive ecological rural environment made Su Jianxia feel very comfortable. She took out her mobile phone and started taking pictures of the surroundings.
"If these photos were posted to WeChat Moments, everyone would definitely think that a very dark filter had been added." Su Jianxia sighed, "The environment in ancient times was really nice."
"In Yunnan and Guangxi now, the environment in some remote areas is still very good." Wei Ziqi thought for a while and said: "It suddenly occurred to me that I didn't take you out to play much before you became an adult. When I go back this time Later, when you have a holiday, you can go out for a walk."
"Where are we going?" Su Jianxia turned around, unable to hide the excitement in her tone.
"Maybe Yunnan or Hunan."
"You can't go back on your word if you make a promise." Su Jianxia raised his fist and threatened.
Wei Ziqi nodded and looked in the direction of the village entrance, "Your senior brother Li is back. It will be time to show the love between husband and wife."
Su Jianxia put away her phone and looked over curiously. Within five minutes, Li You appeared in their sight. He walked to the field ridge and looked at Cen Biqing who was watering the seedlings. He casually rolled up his trousers and got out of the field. Inside, after the two stood face to face for a while, Li Youcai mustered up the courage to hug the woman into his arms. Cen Biqing seemed a little surprised, but did not break away. After a moment of hesitation, he reached out and hugged Li You back.
"Qingqing, marry me. I will definitely pass the exam next year and I won't let you plant rice seedlings for me in the fields anymore."
"okay."
After the long separation between the two, there should have been a lot to say, but in the end, thousands of words only came together into two sentences.
"How wonderful it is now, how painful it will be in the future." Wei Ziqi said lightly, reaching out and snapping his fingers.
The surrounding scene changed. The sun hanging high above the head seemed to have been pressed on the accelerator button, and it quickly fell into the west. The bright full moon rose from the east, and the cold light shone on the earth. The two people's positions also moved from the tree to Li's. By the roof of the house.
In the era when there were no street lights, the bright moonlight and sporadic fireworks in the houses illuminated the world.
"Young man, you can mix this spell into wine or food, and let the snake demon take it. In less than half a stick of incense, she will show her true form, and her magic power will be lost. The poor man will hide in the house. Later, when the charm takes effect, Pindao will kill the snake demon and help you escape."
In the empty yard, the tall Taoist priest with a sword handed Li You the talisman in his hand and carefully instructed how to use it.
Li You stretched out his hand tremblingly, but as soon as it touched the charm, he retracted it like lightning.
"Taoist Priest, madam... no, that snake demon has been with me for a year and has never hurt me in the slightest."
The Taoist priest frowned and said: "A demon is a demon, there is no good or bad. I am not attacking you now. Maybe I am just secretly sucking your essence. When you are no longer useful, you will be just food for the snake demon." , by then it will be too late to regret.”
Li You looked struggling, his hand hanging in mid-air, and he hesitated for a while before taking the spell from the Taoist priest.
"Taoist Master, do we have to kill her? Can she be sealed or suppressed? It is said that there is a monster suppressed behind the mountain in our village..."
The Taoist priest waved his hand to interrupt him, "As humans, you and I can only live for a few decades in this life, but the snake demon can live for hundreds of thousands of years. What if she breaks free of the seal and continues to harm the world a hundred years later? Then wouldn't you and me? All have become sinners.”
After hearing this, Li You silently put away the talisman in his hand and stopped refuting.
"It's getting late, and the snake demon will probably come back soon. You go ahead and get ready, I'll hide behind."
The Taoist priest looked around, jumped up to the roof, jumped under the haystack behind the house and meditated.
"He can't see us." Su Jianxia watched the Taoist priest pass by her.
"If he could see it, he wouldn't be eaten by a green snake all of a sudden."
"I remember Senior Brother Li said that in his dream, he was the one who was eaten."
"It's just that his fear of the green snake in these two lives has changed the original direction of the dream." Wei Ziqi shook his head, "After all, humans and monsters are still different."
Su Jianxia nodded and looked up at the moon in the sky, "Uncle, when we get back, how are you going to mention this to your senior brother?"
"I didn't think about it before, but I don't have to think about it now." Wei Ziqi squinted his eyes, "At this moment, Lu Ji must have received Li You's one hundred thousand yuan and is slowly walking into the store. .”
"Senior brother is still looking for him." Su Jianxia sighed, "If the man named Lu takes action, there will be no room for negotiation on this matter."
"As an ordinary person, living a good life and suddenly being entangled by monsters, it is understandable to grab a life-saving straw as soon as there is a life-saving straw around you, but it is not a good straw."
Su Jianxia nodded in approval, then sat up straight and looked forward. A woman in a white dress was holding a lunch box in her hand and walking through the door with a smile.
Then, just like the dream narrated by Li You, Cen Biqing drank the bowl of white porridge mixed with talismans, revealing a huge body one hundred feet long. With a flick of his tail, almost half of the village was razed to the ground.
The Taoist priest quickly jumped into the courtyard, pulled out the long sword behind him and inserted it into the ground. He wiped the sword body with his palm. Blood flowed through the sword body. The long sword trembled on the ground and seemed to be ejected at any time.
The huge snake head of the green snake stared at the young scholar who was slumped in the chair and could not move, and assumed an attack posture. Under the influence of the Taoist spell, although huge pain swept through his body, the green snake still maintained this posture, as if he wanted to get an answer from the scholar.
"You...you and I are different, please let me go." Li You covered his face with both hands, not daring to look at Green Snake. He couldn't tell whether the liquid on his face was tears or runny nose. I don’t know if it’s because of fear or reluctance.
Looking down at Li You who was curled up on the stool, the green snake retracted its huge head and had no response no matter how much the Taoist priest chanted the incantation.
The Taoist priest gritted his teeth, reached out and pulled out his long sword, carefully watching the green snake in front of him, ready to go up and give her a fatal blow at any time when she wasn't paying attention.
But the green snake didn't give him a chance. It just stayed in a daze for a while, then turned the snake's head and opened its mouth towards the Taoist priest.
The Taoist priest silently recited "Blessings to the Infinite Heavenly Lord" in his heart. The sword with blood flowing through it was instantly covered with golden light, and the Taoist priest's whole aura suddenly became solemn and majestic.
Seeing the green snake approaching, the Taoist priest held his long sword across his chest, blocking the attack of the two fangs, and then made a secret with his left hand and pressed it on the green snake's forehead.
Huge pain was felt, and the green snake threw away the Taoist priest and looked up to the sky with a roar.
The Taoist priest stabilized his body after landing and rushed towards the green snake again to pursue the victory.
Due to being previously suppressed by the Taoist priest's spell, the green snake could not return to its human form for a while, nor could it cast any spells. It gave the Taoist priest a sharp look, then turned around and ran away.
The Taoist priest didn't give the green snake any chance to escape. He muttered something and suddenly stood up on the spot. He rushed in front of the green snake and slashed down with his sword again.
The green snake opened its mouth and bit the sword. The Taoist did not panic. The golden light on the long sword surged. The green snake let out another scream and threw the Taoist away. However, he collapsed to the ground. His huge body shook the surrounding earth. There was a violent tremor.
"Sister Cen has been cultivating monsters for thousands of years. Even if she has no magic power, she shouldn't be bullied by this Taoist priest." Su Jianxia frowned.
"The sword in the hand of this Taoist priest is the Zhenwu Demon Sword passed down from the ancestors of Taoist Longhu Mountain." Wei Ziqi explained: "This Taoist priest should have an unusual status in Taoism. He can bring the Zhenwu Sword down the mountain to slay demons and eliminate demons. . He used the blood of the Taoist bloodline to briefly obtain the power of the ancestor. Although it did not last long, it was not a big problem to suppress a green snake who was extremely weak at this time."
"Isn't that Sister Cen..." Su Jianxia looked at the green snake lying on the ground, her eyes a little unbearable.
After watching the two of them meet and fall in love, Su Jianxia now felt that although this woman was a demon, her feelings were more sincere than those of humans. This really shouldn't be the result.
The entire battle lasted only twenty minutes from start to finish. The green snake had collapsed on the ground, and the Taoist priest's originally full head of green hair had turned into white hair.
While there was still strength left, the Taoist priest gritted his teeth, roared, and penetrated seven inches of the green snake with his sword. The green snake twitched violently on the ground a few times and then stopped moving.
At this time, the blessing of the Patriarch's power had also dissipated. The Taoist breathed a sigh of relief and then lay down on the ground. His eyes looked at the sky blankly. He probably felt that he had just done something great and couldn't help it. He laughed, but soon started coughing violently, sighed, and his breath gradually weakened until he completely lost his vital signs.
"I didn't expect it to be a lose-lose outcome." Su Jianxia was a little surprised. "Then Sister Cen whom I see now, did she use some secret method to resurrect her?"
Wei Ziqi pointed at a bright light flying across the sky like a meteor, "The plot that follows is that Bai Suzhen sacrificed her thousands of years of Taoism, forcibly resurrected the green snake, and transformed herself back into a snake shape. But fortunately He was spotted by the Nine Heavens Xuannv on Kunlun and was brought back to Kunlun to practice. Since then, he has been far away from the world.
Although the green snake was resurrected, the side effect of this method was that she had to continue to suck fresh blood from people like a vampire to survive. "
"Why are you living like a monster like this?" Su Jianxia sighed.
"Just to see Li You again." Wei Ziqi stood up, "Let's go, it's time to go back, this is all going to end."
Su Jianxia nodded, looked at the woman in white squatting next to Green Snake, and shook her head.
