After more than two months, Lin Xixue returned to Xinliang City again.
All the refugees who were originally near the base of the city wall have disappeared, leaving only some dilapidated and decaying sheds and a foul smell.
On the contrary, the city wall looked a little unusual.
She remembered that the last time she came to Xinliang City, there were only a few night watchmen holding torches on the top of the city, but now it was full of archers wearing vine armor. The backs of these archers were full of arrows, and each of them looked solemn, as if they were facing a formidable enemy.
Lin Xixue was a little confused. Logically speaking, Xinliang City was not on the border of Yunzhou. Even if there was a war, it shouldn't be this city's turn. What on earth were these archers guarding against?
Niu Zhuang was about to enter the city with his car, but the archer on top of the city had already fully drawn the bow string and pointed it at the carriage.
But I heard someone on the top of the city sternly asking: "Who is coming? Stop now!"
Niu Zhuang shouted, and the two horses slowly stopped and snorted dissatisfiedly, as if they hadn't had enough fun yet.
He looked at the tower, wiped his eyes, and asked with some uncertainty: "Is it Gaomenhou? I am Lao Niu, the groom of Yunzhou Prefecture!"
A group of archers heard that the man was strong and wanted to unload their arrows, but the Gaomenhou raised his palms to signal the archers not to relax in a hurry.
He took out two wooden bowl-shaped objects from his arms. The two wooden bowls were connected by a golden thread. He held one of the wooden bowls and threw the other down.
Niu Zhuang seemed to be familiar with this process. He got out of the car, picked up the wooden bowl, and put it on his ear. After a while, he said something to the wooden bowl and then put it down.
The Gaomenhou took back the wooden bowl and shouted: "Let it go!"
The archers sheathed their arrows, and the city gate opened a small crack, allowing Niu Zhuang to drive in.
However, as soon as Niu Zhuangcai entered the city, officers from both sides threw some kind of orange-yellow powder at him.
The orange-yellow powder was packed in a thin paper bag. When it hit the carriage, it immediately exploded into a cloud of smoke. It choked Niu Zhuang and coughed repeatedly: "Brothers, I am an old cow. You don't recognize me anymore? What is this? What?"
"Brother Niu, please bear with me, we will also take orders from above."
After a while, the orange-yellow smoke dissipated, and several police officers handed over their hands and said: "Brother Niu, it's okay. This is realgar. Just go home and wash it."
"Ahem, brothers, what happened? This time, you threw realgar at me and almost choked me to death."
As Niu Zhuang spoke, he shook the sweat towel around his neck and wiped his face haphazardly.
"Hey, Brother Niu, we don't know what happened, and we don't dare to ask. You and I have been working in the mansion for so many years, don't we still know the rules?"
"Yes, our brothers are just following orders. If we invite Brother Niu to a drink someday, we will treat it as an apology."
"That's true. It's not a waste of time for me to carry home letters and goods for you in my car on weekdays." Niu Zhuang coughed a few more times and replied in an angry voice.
"Hey, brother Niu, how can we forget how kind you are to our brothers? I won't see you off because I have to do errands today. I will definitely take care of you that day."
Niu Zhuang and the police officers handed over to each other and drove away.
Lin Xixue was sitting in the carriage. Although she could see the orange smoke filling the air outside, it was not able to invade the carriage at all, as if the carriage was separated by a formation barrier.
She lifted the curtain, twisted some realgar powder and smelled it. There was a pungent smell of rotten eggs.
She remembered that realgar was actually somewhat toxic. If she hit people with such a large amount of realgar powder, wouldn't she be afraid of poisoning Niu Zhuang?
However, folk custom believes that realgar can repel insects and ward off evil spirits. During the Dragon Boat Festival, there is a custom of drinking realgar wine. Could it be that some evil spirit is trying to enter Xinliang City?
But when it comes to believing in Liang Cheng's evil intentions, Lin Xixue suddenly remembered two things.
The first thing was that the officials of the Jinling Department in the city sewed the heads of the five zombies and forcibly transported them out of the city.
The second thing is that she had killed her violent husband before and turned him into a walking corpse. Moreover, the family did not report the murder and just tied the walking corpse at home.
I don’t know if this letter about martial law in Liangcheng is related to these two incidents.
She was just guessing why Liang City was under martial law in this letter, when Niu Zhuang asked: "Sister Lin, should I send you back to the guest room in Yunzhou Mansion, or should I take you to the inn?"
Lin Xixue thought about it and felt that she had caused too many troubles in the city before. If she lived in the city again, it would definitely be a big trouble if she couldn't control herself and went crazy again. She might as well go find an innocent place outside the city. A place for people to live temporarily.
But it doesn't matter if he sleeps out in the open air. Xu Zhiyi cannot be in this state without anyone watching. After careful consideration, I still felt that it would be safer to place Xu Zhiyi in the guest room of Yunzhou Mansion first.
"Brother Laoniu, it's better to send the two of us to the guest room of Yunzhou Mansion."
"Okay!" Niu Zhuang hooted a few more times, and the two horses ran towards Yunzhou Mansion.
Niu Zhuang entered the house, took care of everything inside and outside, and then asked Lin Xixue in his ear: "Sister Lin, why don't you come to our house for a simple meal? You gave me such a big piece of gold, why don't I treat her well?"
"Brother Niu, that's all. It's just that you forgot that I don't need to eat." Lin Xixue declined politely.
"Hey, look at my memory, but Sister Lin, speaking of not having to eat, I actually have a problem." Niu Zhuang looked a little coy.
"Brother Niu, it doesn't matter."
"After I got caught in the rain that day, I always felt that I had no appetite for anything in the past two days. I forced myself to eat two pancakes today, but ended up vomiting them all out. Is there any recipe that can appetize and strengthen the spleen? ah?"
Lin Xixue frowned, Niu Zhuang's symptoms were exactly the same as his before, when he ate fish and retched like crazy.
Will everyone who is corrupted by evil spirits be unable to eat?
It seems that there is one more thing to investigate this time when we go to Sanyuan Temple.
"Brother Niu, you may not need to eat much in the future." Lin Xixue said seriously.
"If I don't eat, I won't starve to death!"
"No, don't you think Bai Qing and I don't have to eat, and we can live well?"
"But I feel so hungry. My stomach is growling."
"You have just started inedging, and your body is not used to it yet. It will be fine once you get used to being hungry."
Lin Xixue said this just to comfort Niu Zhuang, but in fact she knew that this hunger would not subside, but would become stronger and stronger as time went by.
She still doesn't know how to get rid of this hunger. The only time she felt better was when Ji Wanyun invited herself to eat in the snack street in the fantasy world.
However, although it was a lie, Niu Zhuang had no doubt about Lin Xixue's comfort and immediately became happy.
"Really? I really don't need to eat in the future. If there are fewer bowls and chopsticks at home, the mother-in-law at home can eat more meat!"
When Lin Xixue saw Niu Zhuang's reaction, she didn't know whether to cry or laugh.
It can be seen that Niu Zhuang really loves his wife. In this situation, what he thought of was to save a pair of dishes and chopsticks. He did not consider that this was some kind of weird change in his body.
I don’t know if it’s a blessing or a curse to have such a big heart.
She shook her head, smiled, made a gesture of admiration, and said goodbye to Niu Zhuang.
Afterwards, she placed Xu Zhiyi in the room, and after taking a short rest, she thought that because of the strange changes that occurred in Niu Zhuang, she arrived at Xinliang City more than ten days in advance.
Although there is no Strengthening Pill at the moment, it is not suitable to explore the Sanyuan Temple, but naturally this time cannot be wasted.
Why not take advantage of this time to deal with some unfinished business in the city...
