Yue State, Yuanzhou, ten miles of wilderness, hundreds of miles of corpses, thousands of miles of mountains and rivers filled with sorrow and sadness.
On the spacious and dilapidated official road, three or two wild dogs with red eyes and salivation gathered together, lowering their heads to gnaw at the flesh and blood in the grass, staining their teeth and mouths red.
Bai Jun led the horse on the ancient official road, which had been built for hundreds or even thousands of years. The bluestone road and the like have long since disappeared, and have been worn away by the years. However, in people's minds, this place is still an official road, an official road made with feet.
The wild dogs on the roadside heard the sound of horse hooves, raised their heads warily to search for the sound, and saw Bai Jun.
Bai Yan also happened to see them. His bloodshot eyes, the flesh and blood still remaining between his teeth, and his ferocious expression all hinted that they were not to be messed with.
"Woo~"
A low warning sound came.
Bai Jun caught a glimpse of the flesh and blood in the grass. There was no anger, but the man and the dog looked at each other. When they looked at each other, the three wild dogs screamed in fright and ran away.
Going further, you can sometimes see a grayish white patch in the grass on both sides of the road, but if you look closely, it turns out to be bones, with signs of being boiled, with not a trace of flesh and blood left on them.
One or two black crows flew over Bai Jun's head in the sky, making the sound of birds singing in the barren mountains and harsh waters.
Bai Jun knew everything, but there was no need to say it because there was no one around him.
In the afternoon, there was a road shop at a fork in the official road, with a small flag with the word "tea" hanging on it.
But it was a tea shop, with an old man busy inside and a boy greeting him in front of the door.
Seeing Bai Jun's appearance, the young man greeted him with a smile on his face: "Sir, you have been tired all the way, why don't you stop and have a rest and have a cup of tea? There is no place to rest for another twenty miles. place.”
When Bai Jun heard this, he said calmly: "How did you know that there was no store on the road I was walking on? Do you know all the dozens of roads on this road?"
"Oh, sir, you are really right. There is really no road that I don't know about in this area of dozens of miles." The boy said with a smile: "Looking at your journey, sir, you must be along the Zhaoli official road. Leading to Zhaocheng, right?"
Bai Jun nodded and said, "What you said is right, little guy."
He really wanted to pass by Zhaocheng, so he was going there.
Bai Jin led the horse to the side and sat on the wooden bench, "Let's have a bowl of tea."
The boy hurriedly said: "Okay, sir, are you a foreigner?"
Bai Jun raised his eyes and looked at the other person. The boy smiled quickly and said, "You can tell it by the accent."
"So be it."
"Oh, sir, do you want to try our specialty snack? White-rolled sesame cakes! Roll the best pork three times in boiling water, then mince it, mix it with secret sauce, and put it into the sesame cakes. Keep it for you to eat. I still want to eat it." The waiter said with a smile.
"Let me take a look first."
"Okay, sir, please wait a moment."
The boy said to the old man with a smile on his face: "Are the white sesame cakes ready? Send them to the guest quickly."
The old man responded, rubbed his oily hands on his apron, then took out the baked sesame cakes from the stove, brought a bowl of tea and said, "Your Majesty, please."
Bai Yan glanced at the tea, and there was a smell of cooked meat in his nose, which was sandwiched in sesame cakes. He couldn't help but said coldly: "There is no good tea, and cakes are not edible cakes."
"Sir, what do you mean by this?"
The boy's face turned cold and he looked unkind.
"This tea costs three taels of silver for a bowl, and this cake costs seven taels of silver. Sir, you haven't paid me yet?"
Bai Jun couldn't help but laugh out loud, "I'm afraid even black shops don't have this kind of attitude, right?"
The waiter said coldly: "It doesn't matter what kind of store it is, the gods will leave tolls when they come. No matter who they are, even the King of Heaven will shrink his head in front of my store, the King of Hell!"
At this moment, the little boy seemed to have become a very vicious person, exuding murderous intent, which would scare ordinary little guys away.
He waved his hand, and the old man took out a copper bell, which jingled when he shook it.
As soon as Bai Jun came to his senses, he realized that two big bad wolves had sprung out of the mountains and looked at him with a faint light.
The red horse beside him was frightened and started to stir, trying to pull the reins and run away.
Two wolves and one villain surrounded Bai Jun. The old man picked up the knife with a smile on his face. The white sesame seed cakes will soon have new meat.
But at this moment, Bai Jun reached out and pointed behind the young man and said, "What do you see behind you?"
"You want to play tricks on me? No way! You are about to die, but you still want to run away?"
The boy sneered disapprovingly and said, "You can't see many people in this wilderness in a day. If you open a shop, you will only lose a lot of money, but you can use the stolen goods to sell rich people."
"Hiss~"
A sudden sound sounded, and the two gray wolves no longer surrounded Bai Jun, but looked behind the young man warily.
The boy was stunned for a moment and said angrily: "You two beasts, what are you watching me do? I raised you so big in vain, how dare you have thoughts about me?"
The old man looked back when he heard the sound, and suddenly said "Ouch", and fell to the ground in fright, peeing and trying to crawl away.
Seeing this situation, the boy hurriedly looked back, only to see an extremely thick python standing upright and spitting messages at the back of his head.
"Damn it!"
He cursed, but was not frightened. Instead, he yelled at the two wolves: "Why don't you two give me a fuck? It's just a big worm, what's there to be afraid of? Kill it!" I must chop it up and give you two extra meals!"
Let's talk, it turned out to be really fierce. He picked up the big knife and chopped it.
"Bang~!"
Sparks appeared from the tip of the knife, and a gap was made in the knife. The boy's mouth was numb from the shock, with a look of shock on his face.
The two mountain wolves howled fiercely and rushed forward, but were pulled out by the giant python's tail, breaking their waists. They were knocked backwards and knocked out, taking in too much air but not letting out too much. They lay on the ground whining.
The boy hurriedly rushed into the straw awning, took a jar of wine and threw it at the white giant python. When he threw the fire stick, it immediately ignited a fire.
In the light of the sky, the giant python's whole body was burning with fire and swinging its body.
He laughed loudly and said: "Hahaha! How dare a beast dare to be so rampant?"
"Boom~"
But as soon as he finished speaking, a bolt of thunder fell, and a heavy downpour fell, extinguishing the fire.
The boy said angrily: "God, what are you trying to do?"
In the distance, a group of more than ten people were walking on the official road in the rain. When they saw the shop with the "tea" hanging on it, they all started to tremble. This was the local King of Hell's shop. Everyone in the local area knew it and no one dared to offend it. , when passing this store, you have to walk in groups of eight or nine people. If an unsuspecting stranger encounters it, it will be tragic.
Among this group of people, a young man whispered: "Should we... go in and take shelter from the rain?"
"Are you crazy and don't want your life? Do you dare to go to the Palace of Hell?" an old man yelled angrily.
"But after all, there are twelve of us, why are we afraid of him doing it alone?" the young man said boldly.
"Are you having a brain cramp? I would rather die from the cold than to step in." Another older man said, "If you want to go to the King of Hell's store, you must first save money to buy your life. I don't have money for a brat. , then pay for it with your life. This old saying is all about paying for it with your life.
I really don’t know when this scourge will end? "
"Hey, Uncle Wang, look, what is that?"
With an exclamation, everyone looked towards the Palace of Hell in the heavy rain in the distance.
A huge white python was entangled in front of the tea shop. In the heavy rain, it entangled the notorious Tea Cake King of Hell. Its thick body was wrapped around the boy's body. He struggled to use his hands to peel away the entanglement around his neck. However, he felt that his neck was getting tighter and tighter, and it became more and more difficult to breathe. He gradually gasped and struggled unwillingly.
He began to feel severe pain in his chest, his head became dizzy, his eyes became red, and his hands gradually became weak.
"Boom~"
A bolt of thunder flashed through the sky, illuminating the sinister face of the shop boy. He closed his eyes at this moment and dropped his hands weakly.
The python's vertical snake eyes reflected the sky, thunder and lightning, and a drop of rain.
Everyone who dared not approach in the distance saw the white shadow. There seemed to be a white shadow standing next to the giant white python, which looked like a human being.
But when I looked again, it seemed like there was no one there.
The giant python crawled into the mountain forest. A burst of wind and rain turned into fog, blocking the view. The wind calmed down and the rain stopped, and everything became silent.
"You... look, have you seen it?" the youngest man stuttered.
"I see it, I see it!" An old man said excitedly: "Liu Xian can't reach Tongming Mountain! This is Liu Xian's transit, and our good days are coming!"
"Liu Xian? Liu Xian! It's really Liu Xian!" Everyone was extremely surprised. They lived on the border of the three countries of Yue, Shanxi and Tianzhu. They envied the life on the other side of Tongming Mountain all the time. The Emperor of Yue once said that Liu Xian was no better than Liu Xian. Tongming Mountain, if you enter it, you will be offering obscene sacrifices and evil sacrifices, and you will be ordered not to worship the Liuxian.
However, how can the people who have been tortured by countless sufferings in Yue country forget that there was an old man Liu Xian who rescued the suffering people and rescued all living beings in trouble?
…
Bai Jun got on his horse and continued to move forward, crossing Zhaocheng without entering and heading northwest.
It was night, Bai Jun walked to Yutou on the first day of the month and finally saw a place to rest.
He walked to the door without thinking much, only to realize that the yin energy was heavy, but he still knocked on the door.
"Is the master here? Would you like to stay with me the next night?"
"Ahem~" A decayed and old voice sounded, "It's coming, it's coming!"
Following a burst of slow footsteps, the door was opened, revealing an old but energetic face, an old man in clothes holding a paper lantern, "Young man, this is a place of justice." Zhuang, aren’t you afraid that you want to stay here for the night?”
Bai Jun chuckled lightly, "It turns out to be Yizhuang. I asked why the threshold is so high. You can't even step in without lifting your legs.
But since you can open the door in the middle of the night, old man, I naturally have nothing to fear. "
Yizhuang is mostly a place for corpses. The place is extremely dark and the doors are closed once the sun sets. The people who keep the village cannot open the door no matter what noise they hear at night.
But the old man opened the door easily and didn't look afraid at all.
The old man took Bai Jun into the courtyard. After tying up the horse, he followed him into the courtyard.
"You young man, why did you come to Yizhuang to stay overnight in the middle of the night?" the village guard asked with great interest.
"I made the old man laugh. I was in a hurry and missed the inn. Although Yizhuang is a bit colder, it is still much better than the wilderness." Bai Jun replied with a smile.
"This is indeed the case in this world. Living people are the most terrifying." He took a puff of dry cigarette, pointed at the coffins placed on the floor in the lobby and said: "Look at how these dead people can still be safe." It would be great to lie here alive without fighting or grabbing.
If it were a group of living people, they would have to eat, drink, and fight over it all day long. At this age, they would do anything wrong just for a bite to eat. "
Bai Jun nodded and said with a smile, "That's right."
In the lobby, there were rows of coffins lying on the floor, as well as many rolled-up straw mats. Both coffins and straw mats were placed under wooden tables or wooden sticks, none of them touching the ground.
"Here, be careful where you step." The old man led the way and reminded them.
Bai Yan lowered his head and saw that it felt like hard sand when his feet stepped on it.
"This is?"
"Nuomi, to prevent corpse transformation." The old man replied calmly.
"Zombie transformation?" Bai Jun asked, "Is it possible that there are still zombies?"
Hearing the sound, the old man stopped and pointed the lamp in one direction, "Look, the wind on the straw mat in the north has torn the window paper a few days ago. When the moon shines in, the old man's body will It's moving, and it's always making a clanging sound in front of my door in the middle of the night, disturbing people's lives."
Bai Jun said in surprise: "Then you don't care about the old man?"
"What do you care about? I'm just a corpse keeper, not a Taoist monk. Why do I care about it? I can't jump out of the gate of this village anyway, so I can just be a night mouse." The old man said calmly, as if he was really just a mouse. A mouse will bark twice in the night.
"Old man, you are so brave. You are not afraid of a zombie surrounding the door in your sleep." Bai Jun joked.
"Haha, scared? What do I have to be afraid of?" The old man laughed self-deprecatingly, "There is no one at home, so if you die, you will die."
Bai Jun paused and said, "Old man, where is your wife?"
"Dead, more than twenty years ago."
"Where are the brothers and sisters at home?"
"I also have a second brother who joined the army when he was young and died on the battlefield. The eldest brother did not survive when he was born." The old man shook his head and took another puff of the choking dry cigarette.
Bai Jun also sighed, "Then the children at home don't care about you?"
"My eldest son also died on the battlefield when he was twenty years old. Only a piece of tattered clothes was sent back. My second daughter was married as a concubine. Within three months of entering the house, she was given a roll of straw mat. It was thrown outside the door, and I, the father, buried it with my own hands.
The third son was taken away by a wild dog and was never found again. The fourth daughter died together with the old woman. The midwife said that the fourth daughter had grown upside down in her mother's womb, with her feet coming out first and her head unable to come out and getting stuck. "
Bai Jun fell into silence and did not dare to speak for a while.
The old man seemed to be lost in memories and was still murmuring: "My eldest grandson died of cold, and he was only eight years old at that time. My younger grandson was trampled to death on horseback by the son of the king of the city.
My Sun family, three generations above and below, have no chance of living a good life.
But I lived to be more than eighty years old, and was said to have lost my family star, and my whole family was killed by force. You said, who else would worry about me? If you die, just die. What's there to be afraid of? "
The old man clicked and took a puff of his cigarette. The weak light at night illuminated the faint white mist of the smoke, making his face blurry and unclear.
Bai Jun sighed softly: "The old man is indeed lonely."
"Lonely?" The old man smiled, "I also read when I was young, and even though I didn't win the scholarship, I could still read.
Taken apart, the word "loneliness" contains children, fruits, puppies, mosquitoes and flies. It is enough to support an alleyway in the midsummer evening. It is full of human touch, but it has nothing to do with me.
Young children are holding melons and willows under the shed, thin dogs are chasing butterflies in the narrow alleys, the world is prosperous and full of laughter, but I have the wind on my temples.
This is Lin's poem. Old man, I really can't write even a single sentence. "
(End of chapter)
