A plum tree was planted in the corner of Yin's backyard. Its calyx was first filled with snow and its branches were shining brightly.
Lu Anran passed by when he came back. His original intention was to take a look at Bai Mei, but he saw two figures standing behind the tree. Their faces could not be seen clearly. Their clothes were intertwined in the wind, and they were very close.
As if sensing someone, the figure on the left moved, leaving behind a dark green robe corner, and chased the wind.
Immediately afterwards, another person walked out from behind the tree, twisting his waist and swaying, holding his hand on his temples, showing a charming smile: "Miss Lu is back, how is the road repair?"
Lu Anran nodded and said hello, "It will take a few days."
"It doesn't matter. Miss Lu will just stay for a few more days with peace of mind. However, there is nothing to entertain in the countryside, just Miss Wong." Ms. Wei was wearing a pink jacket, with a ring of white hair at the collar that arched her face. She was both charming and coquettish. , mature style at heart.
Seeing Wei, Lu Anran suddenly thought of what happened just now. The fingers that Lu Anran clasped together suddenly went numb, as if there was still a slight cool touch in the corners of his eyes, and his eyelids dropped slightly, covering the expression in his eyes.
"Since Miss Lu knows my eldest son very well, she should know that my eldest son doesn't like young women, and loves pure and beautiful people like you who don't understand the world the most."
Before the shame and anger could set in, the man had already let go of her and stepped back, leaving only a wild laugh in the cold wind, extremely public.
The light in Lu Anran's eyes flickered slightly, Yun Qi was a person who, as rumored, was extravagant, arrogant and unruly, which was really annoying.
After separation from the Wei family, Lu Anran had just returned to the door. Chunmiao hurriedly came back from the other side. When she saw Lu Anran, she said hurriedly: "I have been looking around, where did the lady go?"
After getting a bucket of water and working hard, Chunmiao came back only to find that Lu Anran was not behind her, so she hurriedly went out to look for him.
Just as Lu Anran opened her mouth to speak, she heard several strange noises, and then the cry of a little girl penetrated the snow.
"Let's go take a look."
—
'Pa—' The whip hit the ground, blowing out a bit of cold air in the air.
In the cold winter months, the little girl knelt on the ground and sobbed, but she did not hide or hide. Her young body was shaking like a spasm. She held her head in her hands, her fingers were red, and there was a bloody scar on the back of her hand.
The man held a vine whip in his hand, and his dark green back slowly turned around. His eyes were red and his expression was fierce, which startled the master and servant Lu Anran who came to the window and stood there.
Chunmiao glanced at Lu Anran, cleared her throat and said loudly: "Hey, if you beat a child so hard, he is still not a human being."
Distracted by the sound outside, the father and daughter looked up at the same time.
"You're disturbing Miss." Yin Tianming recovered his emotions immediately and said with a smile: "If a child is disobedient, he will have to be beaten twice to remember."
Chun Miao muttered: "You can't beat him to death if you don't obey me. How pitiful a child like this is."
Yin Tianming put down the cane whip, nodded and said: "The girl is right, it is just to scare her, how can we really beat her." Seeing Chunmiao staring at the wound on the back of the child's hand, he said awkwardly: "That was accidental..."
Before leaving, Lu Anran turned around and took a look, and the dark green clothes suddenly flashed in his mind.
"Miss, what's wrong?" Chunmiao asked suspiciously when she saw Lu Anran stopped.
Lu Anran shook his head: "It's okay."
—
After lunch, Mrs. Tian brought over some soft swallow cakes as she said.
I heard that this is a local specialty. Put young mugwort, young wormwood, etc. into a pot and boil, then add swallow mud, float away the gray layer on top, and knead in glutinous rice flour to become a green swallow mud cake. .
Yan mud is chalky ash, unique to Northern Yan.
It's sweet, glutinous, soft and fragrant, which suits Lu Anran's appetite, but Chunmiao couldn't stand the sweetness and said with a smile: "Miss has been addicted to sweets since she was a child. She likes to eat tea and cakes. In private, the slave and Aunt Yu often laugh. Say, the young lady does have a southern mouth."
Lu Anran wiped his fingers with a brocade handkerchief, picked up the tea bowl and pushed away the tea foam with the tea lid, and said quietly: "You have the skills, why not go outside to pick some plum blossoms to make plum blossom cakes, and it will not be in vain to open the beautiful scenery of that tree. of white plums.”
Chun Miao went to find a basket and said, "I know that the young lady is eyeing the white plum blossoms."
"Wait." Lu Anran called to Chunmiao who had stepped out of the threshold with one foot, stood up and straightened his clothes, "I'm with you."
Light snow falls in the sky, and the spots are like stars falling down, staining the ink hair, dancing lightly.
Chun Miao was walking forward with a basket in her hands. Just as she was about to pick flowers, she saw someone squatting in the corner and said in surprise: "Miss, don't you think that is the granddaughter of the Yin family?"
The little girl squatted with her back to the master and servant, holding a small wooden stick as thick as a finger in her hand and poking the ground, not knowing what she was doing.
Lu Anran saw that she was still dressed as she was in the morning. Compared with herself wrapped in a thick cloak, she could be called thin.
"Being without a mother is the same as being without a father. It's so pitiful." Chunmiao pursed her lips and motioned for Lu Anran to look over, "The back of the hand is not bandaged."
Then he felt compassion and said, "Miss, I still have some medicine in my hand."
Lu Anran hesitated and nodded in agreement.
Chunmiao took out the small porcelain vase and shouted as she approached, "Little girl."
The girl stopped and turned around slowly.
Chun Miao was stunned and forgot what she was going to say next.
They saw that the girl was not crying silently in grievance or pitiful as they thought. Instead, she was smiling and had a very cheerful expression.
"What are you doing here?" Lu Anran walked over.
"Hehe, Su Su is digging sweet potatoes. Su Su loves her father the most. She wants to bake sweet potatoes for him." The girl tilted her head, smiling sweetly, her voice was childish and clear, her eyes were dark, and the cold wind blew, inexplicably. With a bit of coldness and evil spirit.
Although the girl's expression was delicate and cute when she spoke, it gave Lu Anran and Chunmiao a scary feeling.
"Miss, everything in Yinjia Village is weird, and everyone is not normal." Chunmiao recalled the little girl's appearance just now and her hair stood on end.
Lu Anran looked back, and the little girl continued to poke the ground with the tree trunk. Her small and thin body seemed to have grown there in the cold wind.
"Don't talk nonsense. We will leave here in a few days. The people and things in the village have nothing to do with us."
Chunmiao thought about it and sighed: "I hope everything goes well and no more accidents happen on that mountain top."
However, everything did not go as expected. The mountain stopped collapsing at night, but something bigger happened.
A murder occurred in Yinjia Village. The person who died was Yin Tianxiang, the second son of the village chief.
Lu Anran hurried over after hearing the news. Before she could cross the threshold, a folding fan opened in front of her, and Yun Qi's scornful voice sounded in her ears: "There are people dead inside, how dare you go?"
Lu Anran glanced at him and said in a calm voice: "The dead are not as difficult to deal with as the living."
"Ha--" Yun Qi chuckled and glanced sideways at Chun Miao, who was following Lu Anran and preparing to go in together.
Chunmiao bowed her head and gave way, thought for a while, and finally stood guard at the door of the room.
The houses in the village are simply furnished, with carved windows, pine beds, a wardrobe, a table and chairs, and a few boxes. You can see them at a glance after entering.
In addition to Lu Anran and Yun Qi, there were also Village Chief Yin and Yin Tianming in the room as well as the Wei family who discovered the body.
They were probably too shocked to react, so Lu Anran saw a bathtub in the center of the room. Half of the naked man was lying in it, and the other half was kneeling on the ground.
The green square tile floor was wet, and a lot of water dripped down the edge of the barrel.
Lu Anran stepped forward to take a look at the body. Village Chief Yin finally came to his senses. His face was ashen, his face was shaking unbelievably, and his voice was trembling, "Tian Ming, help your brother up quickly."
Yin Tianming's feet seemed to have taken root, and he swallowed, "...Yes, father."
I don't know if Yin Tianming was weak or the body was too heavy. He fished out two handfuls but didn't get them out. Instead, he splashed himself with water. He finally succeeded. When he raised his head, he saw Yin Tianxiang's eyes wide open and let go of his hand in fright. .
'Bang——' The sound shook, and he watched the body hit the ground.
Lu Anran stepped forward past Yin Tianming and looked down at the belly band tightly wrapped around Yin Tianxiang's forehead. The embroidered word happened to be in the middle of the front forehead, a chrysanthemum character.
"Ahhh! It's a ghost. The ghost kills people. The ghost kills people——"
Mrs. Tian appeared out of nowhere, emerging from behind Lu Anran and screaming at the top of her lungs. Lu Anran was startled and her soles slipped when she stepped into the water.
Yun Qi grabbed Lu Anran's back collar, put half of his face close to her face and joked, "You still say you're not afraid."
At this time, many people heard the wind and came, and the room was filled with people in an instant. They all heard Mrs. Tian yelling and hissing in the wind outside, and everyone was instantly frightened.
"Ju! Jin's maiden name is Xiangju. It's Jin who turned into a ghost and came to kill people!" Mrs. Tian tripped over something, fell to the ground and crawled back, terrified.
Everyone looked at each other and rushed back.
"Shut up!" Village Chief Yin had a thin face with slightly protruding cheekbones and sunken cheeks, making him look particularly serious. He clenched his fists, holding back the pain of losing his son, and said with a livid face: "Sister-in-law Tian, you are so alarmist again. , don’t blame me for being rude.”
Mrs. Tian had already crawled to the door and stood up holding on to the door frame. Her legs were still weak and trembling. She looked like she was overly frightened while stroking her chest, but she said unforgivingly, "Village chief, take a look for yourself. A bathtub can still kill people." When it comes to drowning, even a ten-year-old child can stand up straight and hold the water up to his neck. Could it be that Tianxiang himself wrapped his head in the bucket and drowned himself? Isn't that what the hell is going on? "
Sister-in-law Tian emboldened herself a few times, and she spoke more smoothly, "Also, everyone is right. Don't say that my Sister-in-law Tian is talking nonsense. No woman or girl in Jin's embroidery village can keep up with her, except Who of her could embroider chrysanthemums as if they were alive, let alone the real word chrysanthemum on them.
Who in the village wears chrysanthemums? Apart from the Jin family, there is only Sanniang and her six-year-old child. Do you think it is possible, village chief? "
Being teased by Mrs. Tian like this, the people in the village gradually looked frightened.
"Jin helped my married daughter embroider the mandarin duck hijab. She is the only one in our Yinjia Village. No embroiderer is as good as hers."
"Yeah, look at the chrysanthemums on the bellyband, we can't embroider them."
"Then...you are saying that the Jin family has really changed into a ghost..."
"It's hard to say that I owed her something when I was still alive, so I'm here to collect the debt!"
…
