"ah!"
Screams came in the dark night, and red blood spattered on his face. In front of him were two bulging eyeballs, staring at him.
On the left, several people were picked up by swords strung in a row. Blood flowed down the sword body to the hilt, and then flowed to the hand. On the back of the hand, the veins popped out, which was extremely oozing.
Behind him, arrow feathers pierced the window paper and nailed a doll to the wall.
Countless masked men in black slaughtered unarmed people in front of their eyes.
"What about me? Why can I only watch? Why?"
he shouted.
Then, he woke up with a start, touched his neck, his hands were sweaty, and he was panting rapidly, as if he hadn't recovered from the scene just now.
After a long while, he breathed a long sigh of relief, slowly calmed down, and looked out the window. There was already some light in the sky.
"It's a dream again..."
He sighed.
He slowly climbed out of bed. In the quiet summer night, only the sound of cicadas was particularly noisy.
Beside the bed was an old Taoist robe. He looked at the Taoist robe and fell into deep thought.
This was his master's robe. Later, when the master died, this robe was passed down to him.
They were very poor, and the poor only had this robe, so no matter where they went, they would never throw it away.
He stood quietly by the window, feeling a little uncomfortable for some reason. He was not a pessimistic person. On the contrary, he was very optimistic, even too optimistic.
"Could it be that the strange dream just now affected your mood?"
He shook his head, stretched, and said to himself
"Oh, no matter, let's sleep a little longer."
With that said, he jumped onto the bed again and fell asleep.
He is such an optimistic person, no matter how great the negative emotions are, he always seems to turn around and forget them.
Outside the window, several masked black figures passed by silently, but they did not wake him up.
"Sleep again?"
"Yes, when will we do it?"
"Why are you in such a hurry? The superiors have told us to wait for the landlord's orders, do more and talk less!"
"yes!"
June 3rd
The sun filtered in through the window and directly hit his big butt.
He felt a burning sensation in his butt, and then moved his fat body into the bed.
But the sunshine seemed unwilling to let him go, and was still eating away at his bed bit by bit, until he was completely forced into the corner.
He looked very impatient and started doing it all at once. His little eyes looked angrily at the sunlight that occupied all the places on his bed. Then he sighed helplessly, climbed to the bedside, and took off the old The old Taoist robe was put on.
"Stab"
All dressed up, a line opened on the back of the Taoist robe. He looked at his fat body distressedly and said helplessly.
"Damn, I've gained some weight again."
He felt a little regretful that he shouldn't have eaten Aunt Li's chicken yesterday.
In the room, there was a fortune-telling flag in the corner, and there were many fortune-telling tools on the table. He smiled slightly, packed up all the people who were eating, held the fortune-telling flag, opened the door, and walked out of the house.
"Fortune telling! Fortune telling! Don't ask for money..."
He walked slowly in the village, wandering around the village carelessly as usual.
"Bah, Fatty Zhang, he's out to cheat and kidnap me again."
He passed by a house and saw the woman yelling at him.
he retorted
"Mrs. Liu family, please don't mess with my reputation. I am a direct disciple of the Taoist sect. I seek marriage and a future, eliminate evil spirits, massage and set bones. I am proficient in everything. Let's talk about your third uncle. I said he will not live to be thirty years old. How about it, he fell to death last month."
While he was talking, the Liu family's wife hit his fat face with a spoon.
"If you dare to mention this, I'll beat you to death!"
"Ai Ai, Madam of the Liu family, a gentleman should talk but not take action!"
He ran away as if he was wrong.
"Hey, Fatty Zhang, you were beaten again? I'm telling you, you're just being rude. People in the village asked you to tell fortunes, but they didn't have a good word to say. It's either a bloody disaster or a disaster. Tell me, which fortune teller dares to tell you like this? Thanks to the simple folk customs in our village, otherwise, you would have been skinned and hung in the village."
A lame middle-aged man saw him running over in embarrassment and teased with a smile.
Fatty Zhang pointed at the lame middle-aged man and said
"Chen Laizi, you can't say that. I only tell the truth. How can those charlatans compare to me? Look, I said you will break your leg within three years. I must have been right."
Chen Laizi was so angry that he raised his crutch and tried to hit him on the head.
"I'll beat you to death. If it weren't for your crow's mouth, how could I really have broken my leg!"
Fatty Zhang dodged flexibly and said with a smile.
"I gave you such accurate calculations, and you still call me a liar. It's really heartless."
Chen Laizi's expression changed, he put away his crutches and said in a deep voice
"Your calculations are so accurate, how come you didn't calculate the massacre of the Gu family a year ago!"
Fatty Zhang also fell silent, and Cripple Chen said again
"You always say that you have great powers. It's been a year, but have you ever figured out who killed the Gu family?"
Chen Zizi saw that he still didn't speak.
"Don't talk about this. You came to this northern territory two years ago. You don't need to tell me how you are treated. A year ago, General Gu's family was brutally wiped out, the boy disappeared, and the entire Zhoujia Village was wiped out one by one. Have you ever calculated one of the big things? My broken leg is a trivial matter. So what if you can figure it out? So what if you can’t figure it out? You know it very well. People in the village scold you not because of what you said. Such nonsense."
Fatty Zhang changed his playful expression and said seriously
"I will definitely get to the bottom of these things."
"No!"
In the distance, a tall and tall middle-aged man walked over.
"village head."
Fatty Zhang said.
The man called the village chief said slowly
"In recent days, Chang An, who solved the Gu family's murder case, came to the city. He is expected to come to our village in the next two days. The city lord asked him to investigate the case in Zhoujia Village. I think the truth will be revealed soon."
"Chang'an!"
Fatty Zhang exclaimed
"That top master in the world, Chang An? He actually wants to come here?"
The village chief nodded and said
"Since Chang An is here, everything will be easier to handle."
Fatty Zhang said angrily
"Village Chief, I am an authentic Taoist sect..."
But little did he know that the village chief interrupted him with a wave of his hand.
"You've been checking for so long, but you can't find anything, and you can't even calculate it, so let's forget it."
Fatty Zhang wanted to speak again, but was stopped by Chen Cripple. After the village chief left, Chen Cripple whispered:
"You also know that the village chief's daughter married into Zhoujia Village and died in that tragedy. It has been so long, and it is understandable that the village chief is anxious to find out the truth."
Fatty Zhang felt as if he had been slapped in the heart, and his whole body froze. The appearance of a gentle woman suddenly came to his mind.
He vaguely remembered that girl with a simple smile, who always sat in front of the village chief's house, playing with puppets. She was a girl with skillful hands, and the puppets were all lifelike. Whenever he passed by the door, she would always Will ask him
"Brother Yuguan, would you like to tell my puppet's fortune to see its fate in this life?"
His name was Zhang Yuguan. Because he was born fair and fat, everyone called him Fatty Zhang. As time passed, he would only remember that his name was Zhang Yuguan when she called him Brother Yuguan.
At this time, he would always stop, stand in front of her, and carefully calculate the fortune for her new puppet. In this northern land, she was the only one who could be regarded as his best friend.
Unknowingly, I walked to the door of the village chief's house, only to see that the door that was open in the past was now closed. Since she left, there was no reason for the door to stay open.
"The beauty has passed away, and life and death are uncertain from now on."
He sighed.
Suddenly, there was a scream of children from the village in the distance. His expression suddenly became urgent, and he hurried towards the village.
When he reached the end of the village, he saw an old man surrounded by many children, looking at the old man expectantly.
"What happened later, what happened later!"
The children eagerly grabbed the old man's patched sleeves and asked.
The old man looked gloomy and said mysteriously
"Later, when Liu Guanren was walking in the alley at night, he saw two graceful women standing in front of the door. He didn't know what he was doing. He suddenly remembered the ghosts that his friends told him about. He thought about this. Wouldn’t it be weird for two such beautiful women not to come home in the middle of the night..."
Zhang Yuguan hurriedly ran to the pile of children and grabbed a child's bench, causing the child to burst into tears.
"Wow……!"
"Fat Zhang, you are bullying me again!"
The older child on the side looked angry and pointed at him and cursed.
Zhang Yuguan didn't care about these children, he looked at the old man in excitement and said
"Old man Lin, go on."
Old man Lin stopped talking, looked at Zhang Yuguan, and said impatiently
"Fat Zhang, you are lazy and lazy all day, and you still bully the children. Besides, you have heard these stories to death, so why don't you let the children listen to them?"
"That's right, you've heard it all, it's our turn."
The children around looked at Zhang Yuguan angrily.
Old man Lin sighed and looked at Zhang Yuguan with a half-smile.
"Back then, these stories were used by the girl from the village chief's family to perform puppet shows. It's a pity that now we can't see her puppet shows."
Zhang Yuguan lowered his head
"Old man Lin, you know I don't want to hear stories..."
Old man Lin looked at him and shook his head.
"That's it, kids, finish it quickly and let's continue telling the story."
"good!"
The children around him sat down again excitedly.
"Excuse me, is this Huangye Village?"
At this moment, a young man in brocade clothes holding a sword stood outside the village, smiling and asking Old Man Lin and others.
Old man Lin turned around and saw the young man's appearance, he said in shock
"Yes, you are?"
The young man smiled
"I am Chang An. At the invitation of the city lord, I came to investigate the affairs of Zhoujia Village."
Old Lin jumped up all of a sudden, his face flushed. He rubbed his wrinkled hands back and forth on the old clothes several times before he cautiously stretched out his hands and held Chang An's hand tightly.
"I've been waiting for you!"
Then he excitedly shouted to the children behind him
"Go and tell the village chief that Chang An is here!"
Several children ran out as fast as they could.
Zhang Yuguan behind him looked disdainful and muttered
"Isn't he just Chang An? Apart from being prettier than me, that's all."
In the distance, Chang An's expression froze. With his current internal strength, he could naturally clearly hear the muttering of the fat Taoist priest. Then he walked up and said with a smile.
"Hello, my name is Chang An. Please tell me my surname."
"The descendant of the Dao Sect is Zhang Yuguan."
Chang An's expression changed, but it became a little strange. Zhang Yuguan saw that his expression was uneasy, and he immediately became happy.
"What, have you heard of my name?"
Chang An's expression changed again, he cupped his hands and said with a smile
"The Zhang family of the Taoist sect is naturally known to everyone in the world. How could I not have heard of it?"
Zhang Yuguan crossed his legs proudly. Hearing the other party's compliments, he naturally couldn't afford to neglect him anymore.
"There is a rumor in the world that Chang'an is the one who can't make up his mind in times of trouble. The name of the head of the Chang family, Zhang, is also well known."
Not long after, the village chief hurried to the entrance of the village with all the old people in the village.
When the village chief saw Chang An, he knelt down with a "pop!" and shouted:
"Chang Daxia, you must make the decision for us!"
Immediately, a group of old people behind him also knelt down, making Chang An dumbfounded. He hurriedly helped the village chief and said
"Village Chief, it's not that serious. Since I'm here, I want to investigate this case."
Immediately, after a while of greetings, Chang An was led into the village surrounded by everyone.
Zhang Yuguan was the only one standing alone at the end of the village. Zhang Yuguan glanced at the crowd and said dissatisfiedly.
"Hmph, what's so great? I want to see if my Zhang family's methods are more powerful, or if you, Chang An, are smarter."
After saying that, he hurried back.
When he returned to the house, he rummaged around for a long time. Finally, he found an old puppet from the corner of the cabinet. He held the puppet with trembling hands.
It was a puppet she gave him as a reward for telling fortunes on the puppet. Since her death, he has never been willing to take it out again.
After a long time, he seemed to have finally made up his mind.
"Xiao Cui, I have tried many methods, but I can't figure out who harmed Zhoujiacun. I can't do anything about it. It's just that this is the only thing you left me. I can't bear to destroy it, but now..."
His expression changed, he stopped laughing, took out a brazier, and arranged the table into an altar.
He made up his mind to throw the puppet into the brazier.
But he heard a "squeak" and someone pushed in the door. Zhang Yuguan turned around and saw Chang An looking at him with a smile.
"Brother Zhang, what are you doing?"
Zhang Yuguan's face froze and he was silent. Chang An saw the puppet in his hand and asked curiously.
"What is this?"
Zhang Yuguan, who had originally made up his mind, became excited again when he saw Chang An's arrival. His expression changed several times, and finally he sighed softly and said
"This is a puppet made by Xiao Cui."
"Xiao Cui?"
Chang An asked.
Zhang Yuguan said
"Xiaocui is the village chief's daughter. She married into Zhoujia Village more than a year ago."
Chang An stagnated
"So, Miss Xiaocui has..."
Chang An saw Zhang Yuguan looking lonely, and immediately guessed that Xiaocui and Zhang Yuguan had a close relationship, so he comforted him and said
"Brother Zhang, he has passed away, please forgive him."
Immediately, he saw the altar and brazier in front of him, and immediately figured out what Zhang Yuguan wanted to do, and said
"Brother Zhang, this is the Taoist Celestial Eye Technique!"
