Liu Jiao's family is not big, and her mother, daughter-in-law and children all sleep in the back room.
After tidying up the outer hall, the four of them rested in it.
With Zhuang Nan's snoring, they all felt particularly at ease.
Several people fell asleep.
Liu Jiao was sleeping next to Zhou Shisheng, and found that when Zhou Shisheng was sleeping, he had been covering the stone pendant around his neck with one hand, looking very precious.
Looking at his sleeping expression, there is a young and satisfied smile on his appearance, which is in his forties.
Although this person was originally only nineteen, his older appearance made his expression look a bit out of place.
Nothing unexpected happened after that night, it was very peaceful.
When she got up early the next morning, Liu Jiao couldn't wait to tell the villagers what happened last night.
When everyone heard that the monster was injured and escaped, most of them were very happy.
According to their past experience, dirty people who have suffered losses will usually run away and dare not come back again.
Of course, some people are worried that this monster may be smarter and know how to take revenge, which is also a bit uneasy.
When the village chief saw how strong and capable Zhou Shi was, he immediately thought of giving his daughter to him.
On the contrary, people like Ye Ming and Zhuang Nan who are popular in appearance are not very popular in this mountainous place.
Without him, just because he doesn't look strong enough, in the eyes of the villagers, he is considered a "thin" person.
Zhou Shisheng firmly refused the village chief's kindness.
Even though the village chief's daughter looks pretty good, she is not attracted to her at all.
Liu Jiao was a little confused and asked:
"Shi Sheng, you probably haven't married yet! Why don't you agree to this?"
Zhou Shisheng did not explain anything, but refused firmly.
The village chief had no choice but to give up the matter.
Zhou Shisheng originally planned to take the two of them out of here today.
But because the villagers were worried that the monster might turn back, they asked Zhou Shisheng to stay for one more night.
Zhou Shisheng did not decide, but asked Ye Ming for his opinion.
After all, the person who promised to escort this person home should listen to his opinion if he is delayed on the way.
Ye Ming just smiled and said he could stay one more day.
Zhuang Nan didn't have any objection, and wanted to have one more good meal.
In this way, everyone stayed in the village for one more day.
There were quite a few brave people in the village, especially after they knew that the monster was not invincible, many people patrolled the village with various weapons that night.
The night passed without incident.
If Zhou Shisheng and others wanted to leave again, the villagers would have no reason to stop them.
The three of them had been walking on the mountain path for half a day when it suddenly started raining in the mountains.
Rainfall is common in the mountains, so Zhou Shisheng took the two of them to find a place to take shelter under a big tree.
I didn't pay much attention to the mountain rain at first, but unexpectedly, it kept raining and continued to fall until the evening.
He originally planned to spend the night under this tree, but the alert Zhou Shisheng sensed something was wrong.
The water in the mountain streams seems to have risen a little too much.
After taking a closer look, Zhou Shisheng's expression changed, and he immediately called the two of them to go up the mountain in the rain.
Zhuang Nan was not stupid. Seeing this situation, he immediately understood that he might encounter a flash flood and followed Zhou Shisheng all the way up the mountain.
The three of them ran all the way to the top of the mountain. When they reached the top of the mountain, they heard a rumble from the direction of the mountain stream. The water carried earth, wood, mud and rocks down. The place where they were just now was also submerged by the flash flood.
Zhuang Nan looked at the scene down the mountain in the rain and breathed a sigh of relief.
"It was so dangerous, I almost had to confess here."
Seeing that several people were soaked to the skin, Zhou Shisheng wiped the rain off their faces and found a thatched shed not far away.
It seems that the cattle herders should have built it here.
There was no one in the thatched shed at this time, so Zhou Shisheng immediately called the two of them to the thatched shed to take shelter from the rain.
The three of them entered the thatched shed to take shelter from the rain. Zhuang Nan suddenly pointed to the direction of the mountain torrent:
"Someone, it looks like someone drowned."
Zhou Shisheng looked around after hearing this. Although it was dark at this time, he was not blind.
He had good eyesight and saw a person in the water.
He originally thought he was someone who was unfortunately drowned by a flash flood, but then he changed his mind.
The figure in the water is actually alive, and is swimming in the mountain torrent, coming this way.
Seeing this, Zhou Shisheng immediately realized that this thing was unusual.
Even if you fall into such a huge flash flood, you will be swept away directly. How can anything be able to swim in it? This seems very wrong.
The figure in the mountain torrent quickly swam to the water's edge and climbed ashore from the water.
In the darkness, it was difficult to see the specific appearance of this thing, but it was clearly a short humanoid monster.
After the thing landed ashore, it came straight here.
Seeing this, Zhou Shisheng took off the bow from his body, opened the bow and nocked an arrow, and fired an arrow at the black shadow.
I dare not say anything else, but his archery skills are super accurate and he can easily hit even flying birds.
But the figure on the opposite side just turned sideways and easily dodged the arrow.
Seeing this, Zhou Shisheng's eyes narrowed slightly, and he shot another arrow, but the figure still easily dodged it.
This made Zhou Shisheng look serious. He stopped shooting arrows, took out the knife from his waist, stood in front of Ye Ming and Zhuang Nan, and said in a deep voice:
“This thing is difficult to deal with, you hide behind me.
If there is a problem, you run away first and don't worry about me. "
Upon hearing this, Zhuang Nan nodded repeatedly:
"No problem, don't worry, if you die, I will remember you deeply in my travel notes."
Ye Ming also said: "I will also put good wine and food in front of your grave."
The words of the two made Zhou Shisheng's face twitch. He said nothing more, just waiting for the figure to approach.
When he got closer, Zhou Shisheng finally saw his whole face clearly.
This is a squat, monk-like monster whose entire body is pitch-black.
"Mountain Monk~~~"
Zhou Shisheng immediately remembered the description of this monster in the legends of the mountain people.
It is said that this thing likes to bully the weak and eats human brains.
But the strange thing is that it is said that this thing will only attack those who are alone.
Why do they dare to show up when there are three of them here?
There was no time to think about what was there and what was not. Zhou Shisheng held the knife tightly in his hand and planned to fight the arriving monk Shan.
The mountain monk walked to the outside of the hut, looked at Zhou Shisheng, and showed a mouth with sharp teeth that were not like humans, and a smile on his face.
Zhou Shisheng originally thought that this thing would attack at the next moment.
Unexpectedly, facing the wooden fence outside the hut that could be crossed with one step, the mountain monk did not step directly over it. Instead, he rushed forward and chewed on the wooden fence.
Zhou Shisheng was stunned when he saw this. If he hadn't known the villagers' legend about this thing, he might have thought it was a vegetarian food.
Seeing this, Zhuang Nan clapped his hands and said:
"This thing doesn't seem to know how to take detours and overcome obstacles!"
After hearing this, Zhou Shisheng took a closer look and found that it seemed like this.
That short fence seemed to be a real hindrance to Monk Shan.
But from the looks of it, the wooden fence is obviously unable to stop the gnawing of this thing and will soon break.
As a high-end hunter, Zhou Shisheng knows how to exploit the weaknesses of his prey.
When the monk saw the mountain, he immediately removed the wooden fence next to it and put up another layer of obstacles.
Sure enough, after the mountain monk chewed through the first layer of fence, he continued to move forward.
When I saw the second layer of fence, I started chewing again.
Seeing this, Zhou Shisheng drew his bow again and fired another arrow.
Although Monk Shan's behavior seemed a bit silly, his instinctive reaction was very quick. When he bit the fence, he still had time to dodge.
Seeing that the arrow missed, Zhou Shisheng stepped forward with a knife and slashed at the mountain monk through the fence.
Although Monk Shan looks fat, his movements are extremely flexible.
Facing Zhou Shisheng's attacks, he dodged them all.
And Zhou Shisheng's attack seemed to anger the monster a little.
He immediately attacked the fence frantically. It seemed that once the fence was broken, it would be Zhou Shisheng's turn to be unlucky.
Zhou Shisheng also realized that this monster was stronger than him, and if he had to fight head-on, he would definitely not be his opponent.
He immediately retreated and placed a pile of grass and trees in front of the mountain monk as an obstacle.
After temporarily delaying Monk Shan, Zhou Shisheng took out the special arrow in the cloth bag at his waist and feet, intending to try to see if it worked.
But before he could try the effect, he saw that the mountain rain began to lighten up.
The mountain monk who was gnawing at the obstacle in front of him also noticed that the rain seemed to stop, so he stopped reluctantly, bared his fangs at Zhou Shisheng, screamed viciously, and turned around to leave.
He jumped from a high ridge and fell into a mountain flood, sinking and disappearing.
Zhou Shisheng frowned slightly when he saw this.
Naturally, he didn't think this thing would drown in a flash flood.
It was obvious that the other party had retreated for some reason.
Zhuang Nan walked out of the hut, glanced at the night sky and said:
"When the rain stops, this thing will leave. I just don't know if it will come back again~~"
Ye Ming smiled and said, "Don't be afraid even if we come again. With Zhou Zhuangshi here, we are safe."
Zhuang Nan nodded in agreement, and then his eyes brightened, and he found that watching the mountain torrent from this angle seemed interesting. He immediately began to appreciate the scenery, and was still talking about what he would describe later.
Zhou Shisheng didn't quite understand this person's interest.
He has lived in such a place since he was a child.
To him, everything in the mountains was nothing new and boring.
Due to the mountain rain, the clothes of the three of them were soaked.
Even the fire seal can no longer be used.
But this was not a problem for Zhou Shisheng. After some troubles, he still lit a fire.
The three of them sat around the fire, not deserted.
Zhuang Nan wrote down what he saw today on waterproof oil paper and showed it to Ye Ming to read.
Zhou Shisheng was illiterate and unable to discuss, and seemed a bit out of place.
Looking at Zhou Shisheng sitting alone, Zhuang Nan touched his chin, suddenly clapped his hands and said:
"Yeah, why didn't I think of this!
Wouldn’t it be impossible for illiterate people to understand what I wrote? "
As he spoke, he took out the pen and ink from the box and began to draw on a piece of white paper.
In a short time, a painting was completed.
"Come on, Zhuangshi Zhou, what do you think of this?"
Zhou Shisheng took it and saw that what was drawn on the paper was the previous scene of the mountain torrent, including the expression and posture of the mountain monk swimming in it.
At a glance, you can basically understand the content of the painting, and even people who are illiterate can understand the meaning.
"That's good, I can get to know him too."
Seeing that Zhou Shisheng approved his painting, Zhuang Nan's face showed joy and excitement. He took the paper of the new painting and said with a smile:
"Why didn't I think of this before! When writing travel notes, you need to not only have words, but preferably also pictures!"
Ye Ming on the side held both pieces of paper in his hands and said with a smile:
"I suggest that the calligraphy and painting should not be separated, but should be together. In this way, the effect will be better."
When Zhuang Nan heard this, his eyes lit up, he patted his thigh and said:
"That's right! Why didn't I think of that before?"
After having the new idea, Zhuang Nan immediately started working.
This time, he wrote on half the page and painted on the other half.
Soon, a piece of paper with both words and paintings was completed.
First, take a look for yourself, and then let Ye Ming and Zhou Shisheng taste it.
There is no doubt that this method is very interesting, much more interesting than the current books.
After getting the two people's approval, Zhuang Nan was very happy and didn't rest for the rest of the night. He said he wanted to write down the places he had visited before in this way and bind them into a book in the future.
Zhou Shisheng actually didn't quite understand Zhuang Nan's approach. In his opinion, these landscape tour records were of little value if they could not be eaten or used.
He can understand those who study and become great masters.
But he couldn't understand Zhuang Nan, a man who clearly knew how to read but was not considered a master.
Zhuang Nan doesn't care what others think or think, he just immerses himself in his own world and completes the task at hand wholeheartedly.
...
