"Nonsense!"
"Even a cow's belly can't hold three buckets of white rice."
The person who spoke was a strong and capable woman. She held a small stutter in one hand and a half-sized boy in the other, stopping in front of Bo Ziyu like an old hen guarding her young.
Bo Ziyu held the knife and held his head high, with an arrogant attitude.
"Yes or no, you will only know if you ask."
Speaking of Bo Ziyu, after getting to know him carefully, he found that his character is not bad.
He is quite sincere, brave to the point of recklessness, and has an excessive sense of responsibility, but Nai He always has a habit of showing a domineering attitude when doing things.
Maybe it's because of his youth and flamboyant nature, or maybe it's because in this market place, he can't scare the jackals and sheep unless he looks like a wolf.
Anyway.
Let him argue with the woman.
Li Changan slowly looked around himself.
…………
In the Di store.
After careful cross-examination by Bo Ziyu.
The three buckets of rice in the little stutter's words were indeed bragging and nonsense, but it was also true that his brother's appetite had suddenly increased significantly in the past few days, more than doubling it.
Anyway, nothing happened, so the two of them set off to investigate.
Little Stammer's home is a small wine shop.
It's not spacious but it's messy, and it's filled with the residual aroma of wine and the smell of fermented grain socks.
The Taoist priest walked around for a while, and found that it was just an ordinary small workshop like many wine shops in Xiaoshui City, and he didn't find anything unusual.
On Bo Ziyu's side, there were faint signs of losing control.
"Can you believe the nonsense that children say?"
The woman's voice suddenly became sharp.
"Besides, this half-grown baby is at the age where he needs to eat more food. What's wrong with eating more food? Can he grow into a monster if he eats more food?"
As soon as he finished speaking, Bo Ziyu's expression changed.
Fu Dao Li asked:
"How do you know?!"
The woman's aggressiveness was frightened.
"What's so fierce about?"
She clamped the two cubs tightly together and muttered.
"Who doesn't know this? If you eat too much, you will turn into a monster. The police officer who came to investigate the case yesterday said it himself."
Bo Ziyu almost twisted his nose with anger.
Originally, the investigation into the demonic transformation was carried out secretly through serial murder cases. The purpose was to avoid alerting the culprit behind the scenes and prevent him from actively shrinking or doing something crazy.
But now it's better, everyone knows.
Maybe it was because the front teeth of the government official who was doing the job had leaked, or more likely, he had deliberately revealed it to mobilize the people to be vigilant and report the matter on their own, thus saving them the trouble and danger of going door-to-door.
It has to be said that the person who came up with this method is really a clever turtle, but he probably doesn't care about the consequences after saving.
But Bo Ziyu cared so much that he was furious.
He gritted his teeth and made a crunching sound, which frightened the three women across from him and quietly backed away.
Li Changan hurried up.
He first looked up and down at the stuttering brother.
He is a thin and delicate young man. For such a person to be associated with the word "rice bucket" and at such a time, it really arouses suspicion.
But...
"aunt."
the Taoist asked.
"Do you have a dog in your house?"
When the woman heard this, she was at a loss for a moment, and then her eyes suddenly widened. She reached out and grabbed her eldest son's ear.
"You brat, you secretly fed the wild dogs outside again, didn't you?"
"No, no, no... ow~ ow... yes! yes! yes!"
The half-grown boy was grabbed so hard that he screamed.
"I just see it as pitiful..."
"Pity? I am pitiful because I have to work so hard to drag you two. You little bastard, how dare you get me another one?"
The boy didn't dare to argue anymore, so he had to cry out in pain and beg for mercy.
But his mother frowned again.
"wrong."
"You little brat, you haven't been out in the past two days... Okay! You hid the dog in the shelter? Tell me honestly, where is it?!"
The boy immediately stopped talking and just rolled his eyes around. But there is no better way to know a child than a mother. A woman rubs her teeth and spends her time with her.
"Okay, you little bastard."
"You treat the shrine as a doghouse?!"
After a while.
The door of a palm-sized shrine room was open.
There is a portrait of the god of wine enshrined inside, and a piece of green clothing?
This is a woman's dress, the style is very rare, it should not be fashionable at that time.
At the entrance of the shrine, the half-grown man hugged a big white dog, enduring the strong wind and rain from his mother.
There is nothing to see next.
The two of them were about to say goodbye and leave.
The woman also quickly stopped talking and sent the two of them to the door.
"Thanks to this Taoist priest."
She glanced at the policeman deliberately.
"Otherwise, my husband would not have been wronged by some people."
Bo Ziyu's face darkened, but he was still obsessed with the leak and was too lazy to argue with her.
Li Changan looked funny.
"I'm the one who's bothering you."
"But if there is anything unusual, please be careful."
"It should be..."
While the woman agreed, she showed some hesitation.
"If anything unusual happens, there is one."
The Taoist priest was stunned.
Really?
"Speaking."
"Just a few days ago, I often had the same dream. I dreamed that a ball of red light penetrated into my stomach. During those few days, I always felt that my stomach was really heavy."
"Are you feeling unwell?"
"I just feel like my appetite is whetted."
What kind of anomaly is this? !
"Congratulations."
The Taoist priest still smiled.
"The presence of a red Luan in the belly is a good sign of happiness."
"Xu~"
The woman waved her hands quickly.
"I'm quite old now."
"You always have a son."
"Hey, how can that old ghost in our family have such a skill?"
…………
The woman sent the two Taoists away with her front foot, and then caught her eldest son who was about to run away when he saw that the situation was not good.
He stuffed the Qingyi enshrined in the shrine into his arms.
The half-grown boy looked sad.
"Why is it me again this year?"
"Stop talking nonsense." The woman said with a fierce face, "Everyone in the house is a master, what else can I do?"
"Little brother?"
"He stuttered and couldn't even read the words of sacrifice smoothly."
"On your own..."
"Pooh."
The woman crossed her arms.
"How can I feel sorry for your father?"
"is not……"
Before the kid could finish yelling, he received a solid slap on the head.
After being bullied and frightened, he was driven into the temple and "transformed".
…………
After an own goal.
The two of them left the wine shop.
Li Changan was still curious when he recalled the piece of green clothing enshrined in the shrine.
Although the matter of worshiping gods is inherently strange. There are offerings to living people, to the dead, to mountains, rivers, stones, trees, animals, and even to a pile of excrement with unique shapes, but it is very unusual to enshrine a piece of clothing alone.
"What is this statement?"
By now, Bo Ziyu's anger was almost gone, so he smiled and explained, "That's the wine concubine."
"Wine concubine?"
"This starts with the legend of Xiaoshui."
The policeman told me in detail.
"According to legend, the god of wine, whose real name was Du Mingchun, was also from Xiaoshui and was engaged in wine making. One day, he went into the mountains to collect wine from mountain springs and found a woman with a graceful appearance. The two hit it off and agreed to get married."
"This woman is very smart and virtuous. Not only did she give birth to a son and a daughter for Du Chun, but she also took care of the family business in an orderly manner. In just a few years, she became a wealthy family, and her virtuous name was praised by Sakon. But this woman has a quirk. That means never going out when it rains.”
"However, one day, Xiaoshui encountered a once-in-a-century rainstorm, and Du Chun was going to collect springs in the mountains but did not return. The woman was worried about her husband, so she went there in the rain. Fortunately, the couple met safely at the foot of the mountain."
"But it's also at this time."
"The rainstorm suddenly stopped, and a rainbow appeared in the sky. There were six colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple, except for the cyan color. But immediately, the woman turned into a ray of cyan light and flew up to the sky to fill the gap. Out of the seven-color rainbow, only one piece of green clothing remains in Du Chun's arms."
"It turns out that this woman came to the world from a blue rainbow in the sky. The reason why she avoided the rainy day was to stay with her husband forever in the mortal world. But in the end, she was found and taken away by the rain god because she was worried about her husband's safety."
"After losing his wife, Du Jiang was heartbroken, so he squandered his family wealth, drank all day long with the clothes left by his wife, and died of drunkenness for three years."
"After his death, the people of Xiaoshui were grateful for his kindness during his lifetime, and because of his superb wine-making skills, they worshiped him as the god of wine and offered sacrifices to him year after year, which gradually became a custom."
"As for his wife, she naturally became the wine concubine. Because she turned into a blue rainbow and left, there was no statue of the god, and she only used a green shirt to worship her. But in fact, we don't often worship the wine concubine, so we have different wine concubines. At the beginning of each year's brewing process, the young women in the family will put on the green robes offered to them and pretend to be wine concubines to appease the Bacchus God from his lovesickness, so as to obtain the aroma and mellowness of the wine."
Finished hearing this story.
The front part is old-fashioned but normal, but the back part...
Li Changan smacked his lips a few times.
What kind of broken custom is this?
This god of wine is not a serious god!
"What if there is no young woman at home?"
Bo Ziyu chuckled and was about to answer...
"Is that Fellow Daoist Li in front of you?"
…………
"I heard that my Taoist friend first beheaded the tiger aunt and then killed the two ghosts. I felt refreshed even in the hospital bed."
The person who stopped Li Changan on the street was Feng Chong, a round-faced Taoist priest whom he had not seen for many days.
"Nowhere, it just suits the purpose."
Li Changan said a few words of humility. Seeing that his face was still a little haggard, he asked about his recent situation.
"Since that night, I was fortunate to be saved by fellow Taoists."
"Since then, I have been staying at Shuiyue Temple outside the city to heal my injuries. Thanks to the careful care sent by the real person, and in addition, I still have the elixirs brought from my master's sect. As a result, my injuries gradually improved, and I can still go out and move around today."
"It happened that a family in the city came to ask for help. Firstly, I was grateful for the kindness of the real person, and secondly, I was running out of money, so I went through this for the real person."
The three of them walked and talked until they came to a house.
"This is it."
Feng Chong invited.
"It's better to go."
"It's a good time to have a drink afterwards. I just want to hear the details of the 'demon transformation' in the city."
Li Changan smiled.
"Dare to disobey orders."
…………
This family's surname is Hou, and it seems they have been waiting for a long time.
As soon as I knocked on the door outside, the owner immediately came out with someone to welcome me.
The male host looked haggard, and was particularly troubled by the events at home.
After seeing the strange combination of two Taoist priests and a policeman coming instead of Qingping Zhenren.
Although he was disappointed and confused, he bowed his hands in a graceful manner.
"Taoist Master Xinxin came to visit."
"If you are entrusted by a true person, I dare not fail to do my best."
Feng Chong returned the gift.
I wanted to find out the details of the "demon transformation" that had been rumored recently from Li Chang'an, but I went straight to the point without any more polite greetings.
"I heard on the mountain that your lady is itchy..."
He turned to look at the friendly woman next to the male host.
"Who is this?"
Hou Yuanwai didn't say anything, but looked a little unnatural for a moment.
It was the woman who took the initiative to bow down.
"The Taoist Master has misunderstood. It is my sister who wants to trouble the Taoist Master."
The waiter nodded quickly and called the servants.
"Go and call Madam out quickly."
Embarrassingly, half the time for burning incense has passed.
The lady he was talking about didn't come out, but there was some faint noise coming from the backyard.
Not long after.
The servant came back and whispered something in his ear.
The three of them saw that his face suddenly became clouded, and they reluctantly apologized, then angrily walked to the backyard.
The three Taoist priests saw each other and winked at each other, and Shi Shiran followed.
Arrived in the backyard.
I saw a woman with a big belly pushing two maids. When she saw the Hou Yuanwai, she shouted loudly.
"Alang, come and save me, they are trying to harm my child!"
"Nonsense!"
Just as Hou Yuanwai was about to show off, he remembered that there were three other people behind him, so he had to suppress his anger.
"They brought you out to see a doctor. Why are they trying to harm you?"
"see a doctor?"
The woman shook her head blankly.
"I'm not sick."
As he said that, his eyes turned to the three Taoist priests, but they suddenly shrank towards the corner.
Point to Feng Chong first.
"This man has a sinister look on his face."
Then he pointed at Bo Ziyu.
"That man has a vicious look."
"ah!"
Finally, he exclaimed and looked at Li Changan.
"This Taoist priest looks strange."
"They don't look like good people, Alang. Don't be fooled by them."
"They want to kill our children!"
Uh... The Taoist priest unconsciously touched his face.
In more than 20 years of life, this is the first time I have received such an evaluation.
…
The three of them didn't care much about this crazy talk, but Hou Yuanwai could no longer suppress his anger.
He rushed forward in two or three steps and dug into the woman's belly.
"Stab it."
In the sound of tearing.
The waiter tore out a large handful of cotton wool from under the woman's bulging clothes.
"Child! Child!"
he roared.
"Look where there are children?!"
The woman did not grab the cotton wool in the officer's hand, but just caressed her flat belly.
Suddenly.
"Creak" laughed.
"My baby is out."
She pointed to the woman who had previously called her "sister", who was the concubine outside the Hou Yuan.
"Come to her."
…………
After the chicken jumps, the dog jumps.
"My wife has been unable to accept the fact since she had an accidental miscarriage. She thought the child was still in her belly. I can only ask my servant to take good care of her and hope that she will recover slowly one day. But in the past two days, I heard the news in the city , I actually thought in my heart, is my wife's hysteria caused by monsters? In this way, wouldn't it be possible to exorcise the monsters and make her recover..."
The Hou Yuanwai looked gloomy and explained the ins and outs to the two of them.
Not long after.
The door opens.
Feng Chong came out apologetically.
"...Mrs. Ling's symptoms are only caused by grief."
"Forgive me for speaking frankly."
The officer managed a smile.
"Taoist Master, please speak."
"There is a way to cure evil spirits, but there is no cure for heart disease."
Although Yuan Waiyan invited Feng Chong out of luck, he still couldn't hide his disappointment when he heard the answer.
With a bleak face, he waved his hand.
No more words.
After that, he presented the ceremonial gold and sent people to send the three people out.
But when she arrived at the door, her concubine was quietly waiting outside.
"What do you think, ma'am?"
lady.
These two simple words made this woman smile.
But she quickly restrained her joy.
"Don't dare."
He said in a reserved and expectant tone:
"But I asked the Taoist priest to interpret the dream."
"In the past few days, I have been dreaming of red light falling into my belly. I am often weak and my appetite has increased. Please tell me, Master, what is the sign of this?"
"Congratulations ma'am."
Feng Chong smiled.
"If a red Luan enters the belly, it is a good sign that a woman will be happy."
After a few words to dismiss the overjoyed woman, Feng Chong turned his head and found that Li Changan and Bo Ziyu looked strange.
An hour later.
Bo Ziyu looked solemn.
"I've asked all of them. In this neighborhood, every woman of the right age has had a dream of 'red Luan entering the belly', and will be somewhat weak for a while after waking up from the dream."
Listen.
Li Changan pondered.
"Something went wrong..."
Feng Chong nodded.
"There must be evil spirits."
