Looking for plums under the moon

In the evening, the sun will not set.

All the way at high speed, everyone rushed to a small town before dark.

The wind blows dead leaves under the wooden archway in the town, and the autumn trees on both sides are slack, giving off a sense of desolation and bleakness for no reason.

Qingzhu reined in his head, and the name of the town engraved on the wooden archway in front of him caught his eyes: Liujia Town.

He turned back and told his juniors, "I'll go to the front to find an inn, and you will follow with the master and your uncle."

Seeing everyone nodding, they rode into the town.

The rest of the people filed in behind him.

"Why is it so quiet outside?" Ling Guyue was sitting in the car, only the sound of horseshoes could be heard, and she hadn't heard a single human voice since entering Liujia Town.

Shen Luo opened the curtain and looked out, "It's a little strange, but it's not evening yet, but all the businesses on the street are closed."

"Go down and have a look."

The two looked at each other and nodded, opened the door and got out of the carriage.

"Sect Leader, Master Ling, Eldest Senior Brother went to the front to find a place to stay." Seeing them getting out of the carriage, everyone got off their horses one after another, and walked behind them holding the rope.

Shen Luo let out a "hmm".

"After driving for a day, is the head of the sect in serious health?" asked a disciple.

Shen Luo shook his head, "I'm fine." Looking back at Ling Guyue, he stretched out a hand to him.

Ling Guyue thought that he was still a little uncomfortable standing up, so she held him to make him relax.

The disciples behind him stared straight at the hands they were holding, and then moved their eyes away in a heartbeat, showing an expression that everyone understood. Only a few blushed with thin skin, and looked down at their toes.

Ling Guyue looked around, and found that all the shops along the street were closed, and the road was deserted, except for her own group, there was no one.

Looking at the sky again, the setting sun is still in the west at this time, but it is unitary time.

"Is this an empty town without people?" Ling Guyue asked doubtfully.

Shen Luo squeezed his fingers lightly, "There is still bacon hanging on the beam in front of the door, it must be that everyone is in the house and hasn't come out."

Ling Guyue looked at the door, and sure enough, there were things hanging on the door of every house, some were meat, some were cloth bags containing grain.He laughed and said, "Isn't it afraid of being stolen if you hang it outside like this?"

While talking, he continued to walk forward, and soon encountered Qingzhu who turned back head-on.

"Eldest brother, have you found the inn?" A disciple raised his head and asked.

Qingzhu dismounted from the horse with a look of embarrassment on his face, cupped his hands at the two of them and said: "Master, master, just now I walked all over the whole street and found that all the inns are closed, not just the inns, there is not even a teahouse or restaurant. It's open. I knock on the door and there's no answer..."

"Ah?" Everyone looked at me and you, and asked in puzzlement: "Elder brother, what's going on?"

Qingzhu said: "I don't know... Later I found another inn, and I clearly heard someone talking in the inn, but as soon as I asked, there was no sound from inside."

"That person didn't want to open the door for Senior Brother... or did Senior Brother hear wrongly and there was no one at all?"

Qingzhu frowned and said: "I'm sure I heard it right, the person inside said 'Are you ready?', it seems to be an old man's voice."

Ling Guyue asked: "Did you hear one person or two talking?"

Qingzhu replied: "I only heard the voice of one person, but the meaning of his words should be to ask another person..."

A disciple said: "It's so strange here...how about we find someone to ask?"

Qingzhu laughed: "Haven't you found out yet? Is there anyone on this street?"

It was only then that the crowd came to their senses and looked around the empty street. Apart from the sound of the wind and the fallen leaves all over the ground, they couldn't hear any other sounds and couldn't see anything.

Suddenly, a chill ran down everyone's backs.

Shen Luo led Ling Guyue and walked forward, "Brother, let's go ahead and have a look."

Seeing them leaving, everyone hurriedly pulled their horses to follow.

Led by Qingzhu, the group quickly came to an inn.

"It's here." Qingzhu stood at the intersection, pointing to a two-story building in front of her.

Ling Guyue and Shen Luo walked to the door of the inn. Bacon and food were also hung on the beams and pillars at the door. Several wooden doors were tightly closed, and there was silence inside.Looking in through the translucent window paper, two figures could be vaguely seen walking between the tables and chairs in the lobby.

"Is anyone there?" Ling Guyue gently knocked on the door.

Hearing his voice, the people inside seemed to be frozen, and suddenly became motionless.

Ling Guyue frowned, and wanted to knock on the door again, but was stopped by Shen Luo.

"Brother, look here." Shen Luo pointed to a corner under the wooden door.

Ling Guyue looked at the place he pointed, and there was an indistinct brown mark on the faded wooden door.

"This is……"

"Blood." Shen Luo said.

Ling Guyue took a look at him, and a burst of heat hit his ear, Shen Luo leaned into his ear and whispered: "People have died here..."

Qingzhu on the road saw that the two seemed to have discovered something at the door, and was about to go to have a look, but was stopped by the juniors.

"Brother, what are you doing?"

"I'll go see if the master and uncle want to help." Qingzhu said and stepped forward again.

Everyone shook their heads in unison, and said in a low voice: "The master and the uncle don't need your help..."

Qing Zhu looked blank, "How do you know?"

This group of teenagers in white blushed but smiled silently, leaving Qing Zhu in a daze.

Ling Guyue said: "Someone died at the entrance of the inn... Could it be that this is a black shop?"

Shen Luo chuckled lightly, "You'll know if it's a black shop, just go in." After saying that, he went to push the door, but after pushing hard for half a day, the seemingly thin door panel still remained motionless.

If it was normal, this door would have been torn apart by him!

Seeing him looking at his hands depressedly, Ling Guyue couldn't help laughing and said: "Junior Brother, let me come."

Holding Shen Luo behind her, Ling Guyue concentrated her right hand and broke the wooden bolt behind the door with a light palm, then pushed the door open and entered.

The two looked at each other and smiled, walking side by side.Just as they stepped into the inn, they heard a 'plop' from the lobby, and the two knelt down in front of them, crying, "Hero, spare your life! There are only the old man and the old woman in the house, two half-destroyed wretches, beg the hero to look after them The priest at the gate spared our lives!" He kowtowed to the two of them.

Ling Guyue hurriedly helped him up, "We are just passers-by. We want to spend the night in the store. We don't want your things, and we won't hurt your lives."

The two old men raised their heads when they heard the words, and their wrinkled faces showed puzzled expressions. When they saw Ling Guyue, they blinked their tearful eyes and rubbed them repeatedly as if they couldn't believe it.

The young man in front of him had red lips, white teeth, and affectionate eyes. He was dressed in a gorgeous red dress. He looked like a banished fairy, as if his whole body was shining.

The old man murmured: "Old woman, I can't be mistaken, right? This... is this a fairy?"

The old woman beside him also stared wide-eyed, and looked at Ling Guyue carefully, "Old man, you read that right, he is really a fairy... How can a mortal look like this..."

As he said this, he was about to kneel down again, and shouted: "The grass people pay respects to the Great Immortal..."

Ling Guyue had no choice but to help the two old people get up, "Old man, I am not a god, you are mistaken."

The old man was skeptical, so he lit the oil lamp on the table and led it to shine in front of him.Ling Guyue under the lamp was full of flair again, and she couldn't help sighing: "You really look like a fairy..."

Shen Luo glanced at the two of them, showing displeasure, and stepped forward to stop Ling Guyue behind him, "Are you the store owner?"

Only then did the old man notice that there was another person. Judging by his appearance, he was also handsome, not like a villainous person.Then he felt relieved a little, and said: "This inn originally belonged to my son, but his life was miserable. Two years ago, he was killed by... alas, by gangsters. Now only the old woman and I look after the inn, and they are used to come and go on weekdays. If the guests are top-notch, apart from the money they earn, they can barely make ends meet."

"Worship? Are you saying that the food hanging on the door of every house is an offering?" Ling Guyue asked.

"Not bad..." The old man sighed.

Ling Guyue smiled and said, "I don't know which god is enshrined?"

"It would be great if it was really a god, it's clearly a demon!" the old man said with a headache.

Hearing this, the old woman poked his arm, "Keep your voice down, it would be terrible if those people heard it!" She stretched her head and looked out.

Ling Guyue said: "There are all our people at the door, can we let us stay and rest for a night?"

The old man looked at the old woman, saw her nodding, and said: "Let them in quickly, by the way, I saw you riding horses, and brought the horses to the backyard, and later fed them some sweat medicine, and slept overnight, silently If there is no interest, nothing will go wrong."

"Why do you have sweat medicine?" Shen Luo suddenly said.

The old man looked at him, but felt that the man's eyes were cold, which was very different from the man next to him. He felt a chill in his heart, and explained: "The old man also has some livestock at home, so I'm afraid that making noise at night will attract the attention of those people." , had to faint them so they wouldn’t be snatched away.”

Ling Guyue patted Shen Luo's hand, "Junior Brother, the shopkeeper has no choice but to be so cautious, let Qingzhu and the others come in first."

The old man nodded hurriedly, and said in agreement: "Yes, come in."

Shen Luo glanced at Ling Guyue, then frowned, "Brother is right."

The old man looked at him puzzledly, and thought: This young man can change his face really fast...

After all the people entered the inn, the old man hurriedly closed the door and reinserted the broken bolt, and told the old woman, "Old lady, go back and cook something for the guests."

The old woman responded, and went to the backyard with a lamp.

"Guest officer, sit down for a while, I'll go get the medicine, and I'll mix it with the hay for the horses to eat later." Said tremblingly, he was about to go upstairs.

Ling Guyue hurriedly stopped him, "No need, we still have to ride on horseback tomorrow, I'm afraid it will delay the journey after feeding the medicine."

"This..." The old man stared at the horses in horror, "This is not acceptable, it will lead to death!"

"Don't panic," Ling Guyue comforted, "If there is any danger, I will definitely protect you. The old man may as well make it clear, who are you enshrining?"

Seeing that the old man was still scared, Qing Zhu couldn't help but said: "Don't worry, old man, we can handle ordinary bandits."

Only then did the old man notice that everyone was holding a sword, so he asked, "Are you all from the Jianghu?"

Ling Guyue nodded, "If you need help, we will definitely help you."

The old man breathed a sigh of relief, and said slowly: "A few years ago, a group of robbers came from the nearby mountains. Those people did all kinds of evil. Every third day, they led their troops to Liujia Town to rob things. When they saw someone's girl was pretty. , whoever’s livestock is fat and strong, they will take them all away, as well as countless grains and money... Later their boss said that as long as every family is ready to worship at the door on the third day of the junior high school, they will no longer embarrass us. We follow his advice They did it, but they were still not satisfied, so they snatched our daughter and daughter-in-law up the mountain to become the wife of the village! The young people in the town were full of blood, so they discussed and joined forces to resist, on the night two years ago... Hey, they and The gang of robbers fought fiercely. However, the robbers had knives, guns, axes and sticks, and all of them were murderous monsters. Soon, the young people in the town could not resist. Except for a few who survived, everyone else died That's it...my son was killed by them at that time...he fell at the door, poor thing, he hasn't even married a wife, and told us white-haired people to send black-haired people..."

Seeing the old man wipe away tears, Ling Guyue said, "Today is the third day of junior high school, will they come too?"

The old man nodded, "I come here every month today, the guest officer must have seen it, no one dared to come out on the street today, just because they were afraid of being bumped by those people, they closed the door after noon and hid at home .”

Qingzhu frowned and said: "Evil thieves, let them come and go today!"

Ling Guyue nodded.

The old man looked at him intently, "If the young hero can really punish the villain for our Liu Jiazhen, the old man will definitely thank you all with all his heart!"

Qingzhu said: "These salted fish and dried shrimps are not worthy of letting the uncle do it, we can do it."

The old man wiped away his tears again, and said excitedly: "I'll go and tell the old woman that our Liujia town is saved! I'll ask her to prepare more food, heroes, wait a moment." He walked quickly towards the courtyard.

After a while, the old man came back with the food, he was probably happy, and said with a smile: "The people in the mountains don't have anything good to entertain the heroes, only some poultry and wild vegetables, I hope you don't dislike them."

Everyone said: "Don't dislike it, don't dislike it, I'm hungry when I smell it."

"Then eat more, my old lady's cooking skills are pretty good." The old man beckoned Ling Guyue and Shen Luo to sit down, "Eat while it's hot."

Ling Guyue thanked her and sat down with Shen Luo.

Sitting at the same table with them was Qingzhu and another disciple, the disciple coughed and said: "Brother, let's go to the side."

Qingzhu said: "Why?" The old man was biased, seeing that his uncle was good-looking, he put the best food on this table, the food next to him was obviously not as rich as this one, he wanted to be honored by his uncle today.

"Eldest brother..." The disciple wanted to say something, but suddenly met Shen Luo's impatient eyes.

Shen Luo said: "Quiet."

He didn't dare to speak for a moment, so he had to hang his head and pick his fingers.

When the food was ready, Ling Guyue said: "It's been a hard day, let's eat."

Just as he was about to move his chopsticks, Shen Luo picked up a piece of tender meat and put it near his mouth, "Senior brother."

Ling Guyue blushed slightly: "I'll do it myself..."

Shen Luo remained unmoved, still raising his arms.

Ling Guyue had no choice but to bite off the piece of meat.

Qingzhu suddenly felt that the atmosphere was a bit strange, looked at the junior brother opposite, his face was flushed, he only focused on eating, and imitated the look of sinking, picked up a chopstick full of food and handed it over, "Junior brother, don't just swallow the rice , eat a la carte."

The person on the opposite side was stunned, and all three people on the table looked at him for a while, so they had no choice but to bite the bullet and moved the bowl over to pick up the food, and said inarticulately: "Thank you, thank you, big brother..."

Qingzhu smiled slightly, and the awkward feeling disappeared.

Brothers should love each other, not only to establish a reliable image of brothers, but also to be reflected in every bit of life.After all, he is the head of the sect, and he seems to have been taught again.

Shen Luo glanced at Qingzhu expressionlessly, wondering why he was looking at him with adoring eyes again.

The author has something to say: Thank you for your New Year's Day wishes~