Tongzhou City is a second-tier city next to Jiangning City.
Although they are only second-tier cities, in a super-large province like Jiangbei Province, the scale of second-tier cities has far exceeded that of some so-called "new first-tier" cities. Even in the fringes of Jiangbei, Tongzhou's urbanization process has been viewed throughout the country. They are all developing very fast.
Although Hu Shouyu's Hu family can be regarded as a large family in Tongzhou, due to the characteristics of the family industry, the Hu family did not choose to live in a prosperous area of the city, but found a mountainous area on the edge of southern Tongzhou. After decades or hundreds of years of continuous construction and improvement, the land seems to have been built as a separate small city outside the urban area, specifically for the activities of the Hu family.
It's not far to drive from Jiangning to Tongzhou. Su Jianxia had no idea about speed when driving and was always speeding on the highway, so it only took 40 to 50 minutes to reach the area where the Hu family was located.
After opening the car door and getting out of the car, a huge stone about three meters high was inserted vertically into the ground and placed in front of the two of them. Two large characters were written on it in extremely smooth cursive.
Hu Zhai.
"The name seems to come from some kind of scholarly family. Who would have thought that a group of tomb robbers lived there." Su Jianxia raised his head and looked at Hu Zhai behind the boulder through the large sunglasses that covered half of his face. I found that there was a huge mist that seemed to envelop the entire Hu Zhai. If I opened my eyes wide and looked hard, I could vaguely see the eaves of several houses not far away. The clouds and mist were shrouded in it, which made it look like a mountain wonderland.
"It seems that the Hu family has some experts who can set up such a formation to hide the traces of the family." Wei Ziqi walked to Su Jianxia and looked into the depths of the clouds together, "Such a thick fog gathers here all the year round. , if there is no family member to lead the way, you may lose your way after entering, and it is impossible to tell what is hidden in the fog.
It can not only block the line of sight, prevent outsiders from peeking inside, but also cover up traces. Most people don't have such skill. "
"Who dares to let people know about this business?" Su Jianxia curled his lips, "Hu Shouyu was very anxious when he called, and he didn't know to send someone to the door to pick him up. If it were an ordinary person, his son would die if he got in. It’s clear.”
"To say the least, it's really not his fault. It's good to have a few people in their family who can still stand up."
Wei Ziqi snapped his fingers, and the lingering mist in front of the two people began to divide regularly to both sides, revealing a wide cement road in the middle, and even the houses at the end of the road could be clearly seen.
Walking along the main road, it took about twenty minutes to reach the houses in the outer circle.
It seems that because the family has a long history, the architecture of the house has always retained the ancient style. There are no modern high-rise buildings, but low-rise bungalows.
Maybe it was because of the daytime, but no one seemed to be home in the surrounding houses, and the doors were all closed.
The houses are connected end to end, forming a circle with no gaps in between. But Wei Ziqi walked around a few houses ahead, and soon saw a stone road between two of the rooms that could only pass one person.
"The outside circle should be for outsiders, right? For example, business partners, or police inspections. The inside that this road leads to is the real core area of the Hu family." Su Jianxia took two steps back and looked He looked left and right and said, "If you don't follow a specific pattern, you can't find this road even after dozens of circles around these houses."
"This reminds me of an old friend." Wei Ziqi smiled and took the lead to walk forward.
The two walked for about ten minutes, and the stone road came to an end.
Different from the circular layout outside, the layout in front of them is like that of some temples. In front of them is a two-story stilted building with simple decoration and a road in the middle, making this stilted building look a bit like a house. style door.
Behind this stilted building, there are three tall houses, one taller than the other.
The stilted building at the end is about thirty meters high and is more luxuriously decorated. There are red lanterns hanging from top to bottom, and the flames inside are beating excitedly even during the day. There are also some seemingly expensive gold ornaments hung on the walls, making the whole building look golden.
In addition to the original decoration, the building is now covered with unknown spells written on huge yellow banners. The areas not covered by the banners are simply written directly on the walls of the building.
Even in the daytime, you can see that the blood-red fonts on the banner are flashing with a coquettish light.
Looking through the gate formed by the three buildings in front, you can also see a three-meter-high incense burner in front of the fourth building. In the incense burner are three huge sandalwood sticks as tall as one person. There are about a dozen The Taoist priests formed a circle around the incense burner, lowering their heads and muttering something. Judging from the incense ash that is about to overflow from the furnace, sandalwood of this size must have been burned for several days.
"Aren't you out of money? How can you still find someone to cast spells here?" Su Jianxia looked at the Taoist priests on the ground. "They look no different from those charlatans who defraud people. Just sit here for a day." You can get money for a day.”
"It's good to get some psychological comfort." Wei Ziqi didn't pay attention to the Taoist priests, but looked at the tall building and sighed, "Let's go, I have to fight for people from the underworld."
"Already dead?" Su Jianxia was a little surprised, but he didn't feel pity in his tone. "That's right. I have been thinking about it for so long and want to solve the problem without paying any price. No wonder it is like this."
"You wouldn't say this to my face."
"What are you afraid of? I didn't listen when I gave him advice. Now that something happened and we are found, if he doesn't want to listen, then let's leave and let him fend for himself."
The four buildings were not very far apart, and the two of them had already passed through the first three doors before even saying a few words.
"Donor, a spell is being cast here to drive away evil spirits. Please return the same way, otherwise you are very likely to be entangled by the evil spirits and get into trouble."
Su Jianxia was stunned and glanced around, only to realize that it was a Taoist priest sitting on the ground looking at the two of them with a serious face.
"What's the matter, you can drive away that evil spirit if I don't come?" Su Jianxia sneered, "You have been sitting here for a few days and reciting spells for a few days, and that evil spirit has done nothing but kill your own people. Now? If you want to make money, just make good use of your money, other things have nothing to do with you."
"Donor Hu is a good friend of my Taoist sect. I came down the mountain to help when Donor Hu was in trouble. Donor thinks of us as making money or not," the Taoist priest said in a deep voice.
Su Jianxia didn't even look at him and walked straight forward, "I didn't realize you were so willing to help others. So does your method work? If not, just step aside."
"The little girl is very sharp-tongued, and she really doesn't have any tutoring in her speech. If the poor Taoist said you can't enter, you can't enter!" The Taoist priest was a little angry. He stood up from the ground and wanted to stop them in front of them.
"You just said she doesn't have a tutor?"
The Taoist priest was stunned and looked at Wei Ziqi who had been silent just now. He frowned and was about to speak. Suddenly he found that the scene around him was no longer in front of the tall stilted building, but an endless expanse of sky. among the ice fields. The surrounding classmates and the man and woman who just broke in suddenly disappeared for unknown reasons.
Before the Taoist priest had time to think about what was going on, the sub-zero cold in the ice field quickly invaded his body. The originally thin Taoist robes in summer were useless in this temperature, and the skin on his body even began to freeze quickly. When it was dry and cracked, small wounds burst open on the surface of his body, and his blood quickly flowed all over his body in just a few seconds.
Just when the Taoist priest felt desperate and thought he was about to die, he suddenly found a fire not far away from him. Under the ice and snow, the high temperature generated by the fire was also transmitted to the Taoist priest.
The power of hope generated in a desperate situation is huge. The Taoist priest did not care about the pain in his body at this time. His body that had just felt weak suddenly produced an inexplicable force, supporting the Taoist priest to climb toward the fire.
There is no situation like people seeing water in the desert but never being able to reach it. After crawling hard, the Taoist priest quickly approached the fire. He was just one step away from the edge of the fire and felt that it was enough to save his life. temperature.
"Daozhang Li, wake up! Daozhang Li! We can't go any further!"
Suddenly, an anxious voice reached the Taoist priest's ears, and his originally fuzzy brain suddenly regained consciousness.
There was no boundless ice field around. He returned to Hu Zhai's stilted building. The fellow disciples and brothers around him were pulling his legs and waist behind him, with frightened expressions on their faces. What was yelling in his ears was this. Hu Shouyu, who had become even thinner in the past two days, took a lot of effort to shout just now. He was relieved to see that he was awake, but he was breathing heavily involuntarily and his face turned red.
The Taoist priest was about to ask something, but bursts of hot temperature came from above his head and he immediately shut his mouth.
With some difficulty, I twisted my neck to look, only to find that my head had touched the edge of the fire under the stove. If I climbed one step forward...
Thinking of this, the Taoist priest couldn't help but shudder, "Why don't you hold me back?"
"All of us came over to hug you, but we don't know how you had so much strength just now. Even if we put together all of us, we couldn't pull you." A female Taoist nun next to her replied, "And your body He’s bleeding while crawling, and we can’t hold him back.”
The Taoist priest lowered his head and saw that although he was sure that the scene just now was an illusion, at this moment his body was the same as in the ice field. His whole body was covered with small wounds, and blood was pouring out. Even the person holding him was All the fellow disciples also had their hands covered in blood. This scene was inevitably a bit scary.
"Daozhang Li, this is all my fault. I didn't tell you in advance that I invited two experts. I will bear all the injuries, medical expenses and mental loss you suffered today. I'm really sorry." Hu Shouyu looked at it. Seeing the injuries on the Taoist priest's body, he said sincerely.
The Taoist priest was silent for a while, then waved his hand to signal everyone to put him down.
"I can't blame you for this. It's just a poor person who is ignorant and offended an expert. He deserves to end up like this. Donor Hu doesn't have to blame himself."
The Taoist priest hesitated for a moment and looked past the crowd to Wei Ziqi and Su Jianxia behind them.
Su Jianxia was sitting lazily on a Taotie statue. He didn't seem to have any respect for the legendary dragon son. Instead, he leaned on its body and stretched out his legs to step on its head.
Wei Ziqi was leaning against the tail of the Taotie statue with his back to everyone. He was in a position where he could catch Su Jianxia who fell if he couldn't sit still.
"Just now, Xiaodao has a blind eye and cannot see Taishan. He has offended two masters and deserves this punishment. I also ask these two masters to ignore their past grudges and spare Xiaodao a way out." The Taoist hesitated again and again and walked up to the two of them. Lower your head and admit your mistake.
Just one glance at him put him in an illusion. If his brothers and Hu Shouyu hadn't tried their best to stop him, he might have died on the spot. When encountering such an expert, you must not think of running away directly, unless The other party is willing to let him go, otherwise he will be dead no matter where he escapes.
"It's true that Taoist priests are willing to help others, but you don't know how many pounds you have? If you can't solve the problem, don't stay here and give people false hope." Su Jianxia looked at the horizon in the distance, his head Without even looking down at the Taoist priest, he said, "Also, don't look down on others casually. Just because you can't solve the problem doesn't mean that others can't solve it either."
"What the girl taught you, Xiaodao should take it to heart." The Taoist priest nodded, and looked at Wei Ziqi with his back to him with some fear, thinking about how to speak.
As if sensing the Taoist priest's thoughts, Su Jianxia waved his hand, "You don't need to worry about him. If you hadn't said 'no tutor', he might not even bother to look at you, because I am him." Taught.”
"Okay, take your people and leave. Things here have nothing to do with you."
Without waiting for the Taoist priest to answer, Su Jianxia waved again, "Mr. Hu, come here."
Hearing Su Jianxia calling him, Hu Shouyu hurriedly ran up to the two of them, but he didn't know how to speak.
"How long has your son been dead?" Su Jianxia asked directly.
Hu Shouyu was stunned, as if he didn't expect the question to be so direct.
"Not long after I called you two, he..." Halfway through Hu Shouyu's words, he couldn't speak anymore when he thought of his son dying.
"Why don't you see other members of your family?" Su Jianxia glanced at the backs of the group of Taoist priests leaving, "Although it is daytime, there is not a single person in such a big place, right? Are they all going out to work? "
Hu Shouyu shook his head, "The rest of the family are at home. It's just because they all contracted the same disease as my son, so they closed the door tightly, saying they didn't want this disease to spread within the family. Come on, but in fact everyone knows that they are just waiting to die at home."
Su Jianxia frowned, reached out and held Wei Ziqi's shoulders and jumped down, "Go in and have a look, maybe your son can be saved."
"Is what Miss Su said true?" Hu Shouyu's eyes widened, unable to believe what he just heard.
Su Jianxia didn't answer, but made a gesture to let Hu Shouyu lead the way.
Hu Shouyu suppressed his excitement and led the two of them into the house with some staggering steps.
Similar to the situation outside the house, the walls inside the house were covered with yellow talismans or strange spells written directly on the walls, so many that it was almost impossible to tell the original decoration style of the house.
Hu Shouyu led the two of them to the fourth floor, and walked behind a light blue screen with paintings of Jiangnan landscapes. There was a large wooden bed. A middle-aged woman with a sad expression was kneeling beside the bed, pulling her hand. The little boy's hands on the bed wept silently.
Seeing his grieving wife and his son who had lost all vitality on the bed, Hu Shouyu felt a sharp pain in his heart, forced himself to calm down, stepped forward and pressed his wife's shoulders to comfort him, "Lian Zhi, our child may be saved. "
The woman shook her head, "Stop comforting me. Xian'er's situation is already like this. No matter how painful I am, I will never fail to recognize the reality."
"Instead of comforting you, I invited two experts. They said they could find a way to save Xian'er."
The woman trembled, turned around and looked at Wei Ziqi and Su Jianxia who were standing behind Hu Shouyu, and said with some doubt, "How can such a young person be an expert?"
Hu Shouyu quickly waved to the woman to keep her voice down, turned around and smiled apologetically at the two of them, and then whispered to the woman what happened at the door just now.
"Is this true?" The woman's eyes widened.
"I saw it with my own eyes." Hu Shouyu affirmed.
The woman looked at her son on the bed, quickly wiped away her tears, and stood up, "Hello, my name is Cheng Lianzhi, and I am Shouyu's wife. I heard from Shouyu that you can find a way to save our son?"
Su Jianxia looked at the woman's pale face and sighed.
It can be seen that the woman has a good foundation. In terms of appearance, she is not even worse than the Xu Chenxi she saw in the morning. It is only because of family changes that a woman looks so haggard.
"We can keep him temporarily for a few days, but if this matter is to be completely resolved, it still lies with Mr. Hu."
"My husband? But this matter has nothing to do with him. He doesn't know why it happened suddenly. Our family is all victims." Cheng Lianzhi was a little confused.
Su Jianxia glanced at Hu Shouyu. Hu Shouyu immediately understood and came forward to comfort him, "Don't worry about those things first. The most important thing is to save Xian'er first."
Cheng Lianzhi hesitated for a moment and nodded.
