Qiantang is an ancient city.
This means she holds countless secrets.
Among these secrets, a secret passage from inside the city to outside the city is just one of them.
It is no longer possible to determine when the secret passage was built and by whom. The only thing is that it is now in the hands of a group of smugglers. They are willing to share it. As long as they give enough money, they don't care about people or goods.
When He Wumei came out of the city, she immediately paid her the money for leaving the city.
"Sister, what are you doing?"
It was a young man who lured her out of the city.
He made an angry look, and instead of confiscating the money, he stuffed a heavy money bag back.
"Sister, don't worry too much. This money is for the brothers and sisters in the courtyard. Just accept it and help my brother make two new clothes for them and add some meat to the dishes."
"You have to be considerate and just go back and take a look. I can't accept this money."
He Wumei shook her head and declined:
"You have reached the age to start a family. I heard someone say that there is a girl in Zhongmiaofang who has fallen in love with you, but her parents are afraid that you won't even be able to come up with the betrothal gift, so they won't let go. You can punt the boat during the day and take care of others at night. Delivering goods, you only earn this amount of money after all your hard work, how can you give it to us?"
"Don't worry, the sister in the courtyard has her own solution."
The two of them kept tugging at each other until the young man's companion called out impatiently, and the young man reluctantly gave up, not forgetting to give careful instructions when leaving.
"Sister, you were late before, so I was worried for a long time, for fear that you would bump into the shadowless thief. Next time you go out at night, be sure to call me and I will protect you."
He Wumei smiled and nodded, waving goodbye.
It wasn't until the young man disappeared that He Wumei's bright smile slowly turned into a bitter face.
money.
Who doesn't want that?
But the young people she watched grew up. They left the orphanage and went out on their own. They finally had some hope in life. How could they drag people by their feet and drag them into the quagmire?
She patted her face to cheer herself up, then turned around and stepped into the messy city.
Yes.
Beyond the walls is also the city.
It's just that there aren't as many exquisite buildings inside the wall, so many blue bricks and white tiles, and so many stone bridges and winding alleys.
Most of them have thatched roofs and mud walls.
These houses, or shacks, are dense and messy, forming a world that is completely different from the city.
Its name is Fuguifang.
Although it has a name, it is not recorded in official government documents. It is actually a spontaneous settlement of refugees, dock workers and other poor and humble people.
Just the opposite of the name "rich".
It is poor, shabby, dilapidated, filthy and chaotic. It is the home of He Wumei - the location of the Salesian Hospital.
Home is just ahead, no matter where you are, your footsteps will be light.
Even more impatient than He Wumei was Tan Qiu'er.
The fat cat had been sleeping all the way, but now it became energetic, jumped out with a whoosh, jumped up to the roof and disappeared.
"Charcoal balls?!"
He Wumei called out urgently.
Not because of fear, but because of worry.
As we all know, when the child is young, it belongs to dogs, and when it is ugly, it belongs to cats.
Estimating the time, it's time for the cats to move around.
Qiantang is almost overrun with wild cats.
There is a rumor that there are three evils in Qiantang, also known as the three thieves. One is the invisible thief, which is a ghost; the other is the long-haired thief, which is a wild cat. As for the third, everyone knows it, but no one talks about it.
Tan Qiu'er is fat and lazy, and is afraid of being bullied by wild cats outside.
He Wumei called softly and walked out along the street with a lantern.
Never noticed.
The outside of the city is not filled with fog day and night like the city. When you look up, you can see the relatively clear night sky.
The moonlight is bright.
But in the corners, in the ditches, in the blind alleys on the streets, these narrow and remote
The corner is actually a bit darker than the city.
It was as if the cold moonlight in the sky only illuminated a small area in the middle of the market, only illuminated the lonely He Wumei, and only illuminated her long shadow.
"Charcoal balls?"
Behind the scenes, the darkness under the eaves was about to stir.
"Where are you?"
A group of ghosts, barely humanoid, struggled out of the darkness under the eaves silently, little by little, holding a handkerchief in its hand.
"Come back quickly."
The ghost shadow quietly hung down from the top of He Wumei's head. Her arms were like shadows reflected in the air, stretching, stretching again, and pulling into a long and weird jointed limb.
He Wumei's shadow was about to be touched before his eyes.
Suddenly.
Two meteors shot from the roof and hit the ghost's long claws.
The ghost claw retracted in pain, and the flying star fell to the ground silently, revealing its shape.
The round head and the shiny black fur are charcoal balls!
As soon as he landed, he leaned down again, jumped up, bit the back of the ghost's neck in one bite, and tore it off from the eaves.
In a hurry, the ghost stretched its neck like a noodle, turned around and bit the black cat.
The cat had already jumped away nimbly, swung its tail like a whip, and slapped the ghost on the face, making his head spin like a conch.
Pounce, bite, cut.
The charcoal ball was like a pitch-black little tiger, biting together with the sneaky tiger in the moonlight.
Ghosts are formless and substanceless, and cats fall to the ground silently.
This battle between cats and ghosts was going on so quietly and fiercely that the protagonist they were fighting for, He Wumei, was not aware from the beginning to the end.
Until her figure disappeared at the corner of the street, the winner of the contest was decided.
The cat sat in the middle of the street, its paws pressed against the handkerchief, its green eyes shining dimly in the night.
The ghost shrank on the street corner, with claw marks all over its body. It was obvious that it had been punched by a cat.
The two fought for a while.
The ghost finally lost its energy and could no longer maintain its shape. It melted into a puddle of "mud" and sank into the dark ditch on the street.
And leaving with him are other sneaky things hidden in every dark corner.
In an instant.
The whole street became a little brighter, and a figure standing in a sheltered place at the end of the street was highlighted. …
The charcoal ball arches its body, which means it is unhappy.
But the figure on the opposite side ignored its warning and continued to approach step by step.
The visitor did not make any threatening move. Instead, he raised his hands to show no harm, walked closer, and pulled off his hat, revealing short hair.
"Kitten."
Li Changan tried his best to make his eyebrows gentle.
"Do you still remember me?"
"Meow~"
Cat replied.
No.
This is not the answer to the stupidly smiling ghost in front of me.
Meow~meow~meow~
Cats meow from the rooftops on both sides of the street.
White, yellow, black, gray, five-colored, striped...cats appeared one after another, or lazily left alone, or chased and disappeared.
Okay.
Li Changan clicked his tongue.
Cat war. …
A woman putting on makeup is like changing her hair.
Li Changan worked hard for a long time before he recognized that Master He Qin was actually He Wumei.
Follow me every step of the way.
On the one hand, it was to give her the money I collected, and on the other hand, it was to protect her secretly.
When ghosts were causing trouble in the alleys, I was afraid of attracting ghosts, so I didn't take action. When I got outside the city, I could take action, but the cat beat me to it.
Thinking about the previous scene, one can't help but wonder, could it be that all Qian Tang's cats became spirits?
Li Changan rubbed his beard and looked at the cat. The cat tilted its head and looked at the ghost.
a long time.
The Taoist priest took out his money bag and placed it in front of the black cat.
He decided to let Tan Qiu'er bring the money to He Wumei. He believed that with the black cat's intelligence, he would be able to understand and convey his intentions and save him from showing up again to scare people.
Talked a lot.
"Do you understand? If you understand, wag your tail."
The cat curled up its tail and yawned loudly.
"Well……"
Li Changan was about to continue his efforts.
"Charcoal balls?"
Perhaps after hearing a cat meowing here, He Wumei left and came back.
The Taoist priest hurriedly wanted to leave, but his steps faltered, but the cat grabbed his trouser leg.
"Huh? Brother Gui. Why were you born here?"...
The Salesian Hospital and the Pharmacy Bureau share a three-entry courtyard.
It sounds like the place is quite spacious.
However, due to the passage of time and the inability to repair, most of the houses have been dilapidated and abandoned, and even the courtyards have been turned into vegetable gardens.
The newly moved Fa Yan and the baby girl occupied the only public space - the main hall. When Li Changan came in, the old medical officer Lu was dozing off on the chair with the girl baby in his arms.
The child kept crying, but the old man was low on energy. Only when he cried hard did he suddenly wake up. He checked the child again and found that there was no serious problem. He sang a lullaby to coax the child from crying to sobbing, and rocked it gently in his arms. He shook himself to sleep first.
The child began to cry loudly again, and the old man woke up again. He repeated this process until his head became dizzy.
He Wumei asked Li Changan to wait a moment and went back to the room. After a while, when she came out again, she became the simple woman in Jingchai cloth by the river again.
"Thank you for your hard work, Mr. Lu. Leave the child to me. You can go and rest first."
The old man didn't say anything, and left with a huff, but in the blink of an eye he came back with a yellow talisman in his hand, standing aside and watching eagerly.
Li Changan didn't care.
It is natural to be wary of strangers, not to mention that I am still a stranger.
Just look at that talisman, I'm afraid it doesn't match the professionalism.
The Taoist priest didn't say much. He first looked at Fa Yan.
The monk is still the same as before, in rags and rags, free from disasters and diseases.
As for the female doll——
"I picked up some medicine and gave it to her yesterday. The fever has gone away, but I still cry from time to time." He Wumei hugged the child and asked pitifully, "Isn't it frightening?"
It is possible for a child to have a light soul.
Fortunately, Li Changan can write the alarm talisman.
There is cinnabar in the pharmacy, but the talisman paper is missing.
Li Changan looked at the old medical officer's widened eyes and took the yellow talisman in his hand.
Sure enough, when a general came to this talisman, he didn't know how the seller of this talisman deceived him. He was trying to scare ghosts with something that could cure zombies.
The Taoist priest casually wiped off the spiritual power on the talisman, and with the old medical officer's widened nostrils, he neatly wrote "Children's Frightened Talisman" on the back of the yellow talisman, and asked He Wumei to take it and give the girl some water to drink.
At this moment, the old medical officer retracted his eyes and nostrils and walked silently to the door. The night wind blew his back with a resigned look, and then he shook his head and went to sleep.
The effect of the yellow talisman is immediate.
But although the child stopped crying, he still kept sobbing.
Li Changan scratched his head and thought of a way.
He wanted a female doll.
As soon as this little heartless creature came into his hands, it screamed like it was pricking with needles. Li Changan quickly took out his trump card - a small bag of candied plums from the banquet.
She picked one and stuffed it into her mouth. She said "ba" twice, and her wrinkled little face immediately stretched out. She laughed "baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa"" in the arms of the Taoist priest. After a while, she finally fell asleep.
Li Changan breathed a sigh of relief and handed the remaining plums to He Wumei.
"Excuse me, Madam He, please divide these plums with the children."
He Wumei immediately wanted to put it off, but following the Taoist priest's smiling gaze, she was surprised to find a circle of little carrot heads growing outside the window.
Now she was angry and touched.
When I got home, I saw that the wing was safe
Jing thought that the children had already rested, but unexpectedly, they were also worried about returning home at night and refused to fall asleep.
She pretended to scold them a few times, scattered the plums, and drove the children back to the wing as if chasing ducks. …
The children lived in the largest and best east wing room, sleeping in a large bunk bed, with a curtain separating the men and women.
They happily got on the bed, and the room quickly became quiet, and they seemed to have fallen asleep obediently.
But when the toads and insects outside the house sing a few rounds.
"Did you see it?"
"What?!"
"That person without a shadow is probably not a ghost!"
"Nonsense, how could I bring a ghost home?"
"That's right. That man can draw charms to save my little sister and give us plums back. He is a good person, how could he be a ghost?"
"Things without shadows are not ghosts, but what are they?"
There was silence for a while.
A voice sounded timidly.
"I heard from the ladies that the ones outside who harm people are ghosts, and the ones who come in to help are not ghosts. They are called household gods."
"House God? Will he help us repair the roof?"
"Maybe."
"Will he mend our pants?"
"able."
"Will he give us something delicious to eat?"
"must be able to."
So the children reached a consensus.
"The bad ones are ghosts, the good ones are gods."
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