Qingguan Nightmare Shadow

Those sitting in the seat were not the unabashed descendants of the Yuchi family at all.

That was Yuchi Ling himself.

After decades, the reason why An Tong can still recognize him is not that Yu Chiling has a unique temperament, but because his appearance has not changed at all.There is a mature feeling in his eyebrows and eyes, so even though his appearance is young, it is difficult for others to tell his age.The only difference is that his complexion is paler than it was more than seventy years ago, and it is covered with a layer of transparent sickness.

The meridians climbed from his neck to the tip of his eyebrows, and the blue and red colors intertwined, coiled, and branched, which were clearly set off by his skin color, like a coquettish poisonous weed.

The moment he saw him, An Tong suppressed all other words, leaving only one sentence: "Long time no see."

The two are out-and-out old acquaintances.

Yuchiling raised his eyebrows, expressionless: "Su Tong, long time no see. If it weren't for your little reputation now, I wouldn't have thought that brother Jue Gui's soul would condescend to live in the body of an ordinary scholar."

The people in Anfu were sent away by Yuchi Ling long ago, only An Tong, Yuchi Ling and Yuan Min remained in the front hall.

Up to now, no matter how much it is denied, it is futile; moreover, the moment Yuchiling appeared in front of him as the head of the Rongwei Mansion, An Tong was unwilling to deny anything.

An Tong: "Unexpectedly, you are still alive."

Yu Chiling twirled the beads: "Isn't it more applicable for me to say this to you?"

An Tong suddenly found Yuan Min from the corner of his eye. He didn't answer Yuchi's order, turned his head to look at Yuan Min, squinted his eyes, blurred everything around him, and only observed the other's eyes.These eyes... He had seen these eyes before.

Where have you seen it?

When is it again?

Immediately, An Tong remembered.There was a meaningless smile on the corner of his mouth, and he said to Yuan Min: "That day, you were the one who snatched the elixir in Baiyin Temple." The tone of the statement did not raise the tone of the interrogative sentence.That day, a masked man with extraordinary skills sneaked into Baiyin Temple and took away the semi-finished elixir refined by Su Tong, and then disappeared without a trace.

An Tong only saw that person's eyes clearly, and also remembered that person's eyes.

After more than 20 years, people will grow old, but something in the eyes that seems to exist will not change.That is the foundation of a person from the inside out. Although it has become more complex and deeper with the passage of time, there are still traces of the original heart of youth after stripping off foreign objects.

Yuan Min said: "I am deeply remembered by Mr. An, Yuan is honored."

An Tong stared at Yuchi Ling: "Have you taken the elixir?"

Yuan Min called Yuchiling "teacher", it is very likely that the pill was transferred to Yuchiling.Why, that immortality pill succeeded?

Yu Chiling shook his head, his movements were slight, like a subconscious reaction after being bitten by a mosquito: "It's not me... But, I came to you, it has something to do with it."

The first year of Jiahui.

Shuzhou Xiuzhu, in summer, the sun is scorching, the rice fields are dry, and the dead grain is withered in the cracked land.Misfortunes never come singly. The plague, which started in the late spring, intensified in Xiuzhu, which was devastated by the drought. Thousands of lives were lost invisibly, and people slept inside and outside the cemetery.

After several months, the bamboo cultivator was tired of crying and screaming, and when the wizard's rituals finally stopped because they were useless, all horses fell silent.

The gods are reluctant to let down even a drop of rain. The steaming heat distorts and deforms the lines that make up everything in the world.

As a result, the two figures and a series of voices stood out from the dead Xiuzhu.

"Begger! Beggar! Beggar..." A hunchbacked old woman was supported by her elderly husband, shouting along the road, struggling to turn her inflexible neck, and her protruding eyes were rounded like to jump out.Her husband was taciturn, and only mixed with her, without making a sound, but his anxious eyes were as anxious as his wife's.

The two spent the whole morning walking all over the field paths, but they still couldn't find the "beggar" they were talking about.

These days their shoes are worn out, and the embroidery on their clothes is ruined by dead branches and broken wooden hooks.

Looking up, there are only dead plants and dead people, and there is no living thing.The old woman moaned mournfully: "Oh, old man, the beggar is gone, the beggar is gone."

The old man ran his hands down his wife's hair one by one.

Suddenly the door of the small thatched hut behind the two of them opened, and an immature and weak child's voice said: "Father, it's Uncle Cheng and Grandma Cheng." The little girl's father also came out, meeting the old couple Looking at him, he sighed: "Uncle Cheng, Aunt Cheng, why are you doing this? The beggar is someone else's child. If you find him, can you still raise him?" Tsk tut twice.

The little girl's mother pulled her daughter and her husband back, and slammed the dilapidated wooden door shut, saying vehemently, "You two time-lost ghosts, what are you doing worrying about other people's affairs? They don't lack food and clothing like ours." , just lack a doll, let them look for it, and see if they can find it if they find it..."

Mrs. Cheng stared at the thatched cottage for a while, and Mr. Cheng grabbed his wife's clothes and dragged her away.

Unwilling to be reconciled, Mrs. Cheng continued to shout: "Beggar... Beggar..."

The sun is shining, and the heat is even more terrifying.

The couple walked to the foot of the mountain in Baiyin Temple. Because of their inconvenient legs and feet, they only supported each other at the small intersection up the mountain and buckled their heads three times.The mountain road was smoothed by the people who worshiped Buddha, and the rough dirt road actually showed a lustrous feeling, as if it was paved with yellow-brown jade.

The atmosphere of despair is pervasive. Recently, few people go up the mountain again, and the "jade road" stands alone, surrounded by sickly vegetation.

The golden light of the hot sun rolls down the mountain road, carrying heat waves.

"Uncle Cheng, Aunt Cheng."

The old couple had bad ears, and the person who called them came over and patted the two of them on the shoulders before they realized that someone was there.The visitor helped the kneeling old couple up one by one, and when they saw it, they found that it was the little girl's father.

Cheng said: "Yanshan?"

Mr. Cheng wiped the dust off his wife's knees, and raised his eyes to see who was watching.

"Uncle Cheng, Aunt Cheng, I'm not afraid of your jokes, I came out with Meizi on my back. There are some things I still want to tell you..." Yanshan said sincerely: "The beggar's father died of the plague, his mother He is also infected, even if the relief from the government is available, his mother will be dragged to death by the plague if he is not starved to death... Now he is also infected with the disease. It's not good."

Cheng was startled and said, "You said the beggar is sick?"

"That's right, so you two just..."

Cheng: "Yanshan, do you know where the beggar is?"

"It's not that I cursed that child. He is seriously ill. Even if all the gods and immortals come, they can't save him. Er Lao, listen to me, Yanshan, if you really like him, just prepare a coffin, let him be blessed with your blessings, and be beautiful." Go bare. There is a place to live after death, and the beggar will definitely be grateful for the kindness of the two elders when he arrives in the underworld, and take good care of you two."

Cheng said tremblingly, "Where is the beggar?"

"Now I can't say it. If I say it, I will harm you. Don't you know how fierce the plague is? You two don't have to worry about anything. Why do you take a patient back to find your sins?"

Cheng closed her mouth, didn't ask any more questions, pushed aside Yanshan and walked away with a trembling step.

Yanshan thought that the old woman had listened to his words, and added: "Aunt Cheng, don't worry, I don't care if Meizi scolds me or not, I will send the beggar here for you in a few days."

Only Mr. Cheng knew where his wife was going.

Go to the grave of the beggar's mother.

The beggar's mother was buried in a remote place, and there is nowhere to pile up the corpses, and few people set foot in it, so it is considered a small quiet place.The old couple found this place by twists and turns, but went to the wrong place halfway, and got lost for a while.In addition to the remoteness, the second reason for the quietness of this place is that it is regarded as "ominous" by the locals.

Qi'er's father was the first person in Xiuzhu to get sick, and his death was horrible.At that time, the plague was not yet prevalent. The wizard said that he was tortured to death by a ghost. In order to prevent the ghost trapped in his body from turning into a living dead and endangering the neighbors, the local people followed the wizard's instructions and smashed his body and threw it here.

Therefore, it has become a forbidden area for bamboo cultivation.

Then the plague broke out, and the sorcerer who spoke so clearly fled to a foreign land.Although the bamboo repairer felt guilty for the beggar's family, he only sent a few mouthfuls of food to his family. Later, the drought swept through, and no one cared about him except for the old couple of Cheng's family.

Walking a few steps forward, sure enough, the young man was leaning against his mother's grave.

The boy's hair hadn't been combed and washed for many days, it was messy like grass, and some hairs that couldn't find any structure were hanging on his face randomly.Among the clumps of messy hair, the boy's face had a tendency to develop from immature to handsome, but this trend was cut off by fatigue, and gray shadows were applied layer after layer around his eye sockets.

"Begger? Beggar!" Cheng whispered.

Hearing the human voice, the boy's first reaction was to turn sideways and hug the barren mound tightly.

Cheng: "Beggar, come, go home with grandma."

The young man wanted to push away Cheng who stretched out his hands, but he withdrew his hands because he was sick. He was afraid that the old couple would get too close to him due to excitement, so he obediently stood up and stood still. The request to "go home" was non-committal.He stayed here alone with his mother. He hadn't spoken for a long time, and his mouth was dry. It was like a rusty gate was stuck in his throat, which couldn't be unscrewed, and he couldn't make any sound for a while.

Cheng seemed worried about disturbing the little animals: "Be good, beggar, go home with grandma and uncle, okay?"

Cheng Lao was clumsy with words, he just nodded in agreement with his wife and said, "Go home."

The young man didn't say anything like "I don't have a home anymore", and swallowed all his emotions with the little saliva left, leaving only a sad indifference on his face.

Of course the young man wanted to go back with the old couple. Old Cheng's home had enough food and comfortable beds for three people to survive the drought, and the couple could still give him the care and warmth of their relatives.It's just that he is carrying a contagious disease and is about to die, so he can't implicate the two of them because of his selfish desires.

Finally, the boy unscrewed the gate and said hoarsely, "I won't return."

Cheng took two steps forward, and as soon as he moved, the boy turned around and ran in the opposite direction.Hunger, thirst, dizziness, these physical pains, are no different from the stones and grass branches under the feet, each exerting their divine power, dragging the young man, making him stagger a few steps, and running to the ground.

After not running very far, the boy was exhausted and fell to the ground.

"Everyone has his own destiny. Su Qiuguang wanted to raise a phoenix in a poor family. It was wishful thinking. No, he was punished by heaven!"

"The child of the Su family is really pitiful. He lost his father and mother, and he got into trouble with the plague god again. He was carried back by Cheng Shu and Aunt Cheng and hanged him for a few days. It's still... hey."

"Heaven is jealous of Yingcai! God is jealous of Yingcai!"

"It's a good thing God didn't take the blame, otherwise Uncle Cheng and Aunt Cheng have helped the Su family so much, and they would have gotten into trouble long ago."

"Ouch, my little ancestor, what are you going through that door? It's bad luck! Go to your father's side for me...Yanshan, where are you going? You don't want it, girl!"

"Bring it out, carry it out, folks, let's spread out, spread out."

"Daddy!"

"Yanshan, are you going to turn the world upside down, and actually ran to carry the coffin! I have a few mouthfuls of rice left for you to eat, and I don't want you to spoil yourself... Well, if you dare to stare at me, I think your brain is broken, no Lingguang! Mumu, let's go, today your father doesn't even have to lick the bottom of the pot..."

"..."

Su Tong opened his eyes.

The chattering voices and the woman's yelling were amazingly penetrating, and through the coffin board, he, the "dead man", forcibly pried open his eyelids.Leaving aside the stuffy air, the soft mattress in the coffin, combined with the regular slight bumps, is a good place to sleep.

Su Tong listened carefully, and most of the people outside were talking about themselves, and there were lamentations and self-righteous "objective evaluations" in every detail.The noise that shook the head suddenly and painfully, how can it be summed up by "extraordinarily lively".

It's hard to believe that those people have empty stomachs in their stomachs and tongues scorched by drought in their mouths.

dong dong dong.

Someone said: "Is there thunder?"

dong dong dong.

At first, few people noticed the three muffled sounds, but more people heard the last three sounds. After a while of "shh--", all the speakers stopped talking, and pricked up their ears to catch the "thunder".

dong dong dong.

"Is it thunder? Is it thunder?"

"Mom, is it going to rain? It hasn't rained for a long time."

dong dong dong.

One calmly said, "It's not a voice from the sky."

The people whose hopes had been extinguished fell silent, and after a moment of immersion in the feeling of being lost in their thoughts, some people began to whisper to each other, asking if what they heard just now came from inside the coffin.

"In the coffin? Don't be scary."

"Hey, it seems to be really..."

"Don't shout, listen to yourself."

Successfully attracting everyone's attention, Su Tong stopped knocking, and then squeezed out the last bit of strength in his body, quite in line with the identity of a corpse fraudster, and asked in a faint voice: "Can someone open the 'door'? "The coffin shook violently, probably because the person who carried the coffin was distracted.

Cheng Lao and Yan Shan met eyes, and put the coffin firmly on the ground.

"What's the matter?" the woman exclaimed.

"Mother, Brother Qi'er seems to be alive."

"Nonsense! Slap!"

"Meizi, Mumu is not talking nonsense, we have all heard it."

Su Tong felt that she had slept for a very long time, the bones all over her body melted, and her whole body became a bag of liquid. When she made a sound, it was like stirring soup, and she couldn't control the flow of the liquid. Direction: "Grandma Cheng, Uncle Cheng..." He tried his best to suppress the vibrato, paused, and said, "It's me."

Cheng: "A beggar?"

"……Um."

"Old man, Yanshan, open it quickly, open it." Cheng circled around the coffin, and the others retreated one after another to make room for it.Cheng Xuxu recited Buddhist scriptures, and finally said: "Old man, I just said that yesterday a fairy gave me a dream, saying that our beggar is still alive, and told us not to nail the coffin lid."

As soon as the coffin lid was opened, the turbulent sunlight poured into Su Tong's eyes, causing him to subconsciously raise his long numb arm.After adapting for a while, the blazing white in the field of vision receded, and the blurred color blocks finally combined into a familiar pattern.Then Cheng's face blocked the scorching sun and the dark dead vegetation, and his slightly protruding eyes were unprecedentedly clear.

The terrified crowd looked at each other, and then carefully surrounded them.

Su Tong's back was supported by a strong palm, but before he could react, the palm was suddenly withdrawn, and he couldn't help leaning against the edge of the coffin.

I saw the woman holding the owner of the palm by the ear: "I tell you to touch it! I tell you to touch it! If you don't live, you will die, but Mumu and I don't want to follow you to Huangquan Road. That guy is very dirty, you touch it!" The coffin even touched him, let me take a dip in the Xiuzhu River, and you are not allowed to go back to the house until it gets dark."

The people around Yanshan and Meizi were used to the way they got along, and they smiled, and said a few words to the women who often went to work with Meizi, but they finally stopped her chattering.

Meizi hugged her daughter in her arms, and crossed her waist as if "an adult doesn't remember a villain's fault".

Yanshan was nagged by his wife in public, in order to save the last face, he looked at Su Tong and then at the old couple, hesitantly dragged his wife back.Meizi slapped Yanshan's hand off: "You go to Baiyin Temple to wash, and Mumu and I can walk by ourselves."

Meizi, who was in charge of the noise, left the scene, and the air was quiet, and the disaster atmosphere brought about by the plague and drought suddenly permeated every corner.

Su Tong's eyes were full of the shriveled-faced neighbor with a sallow face, and his eyes were focused on him in a daze.

Just now these people were still talking about it, but now they are staring at Su Tong who is sitting in the coffin and cleaned up by Mrs. Cheng, not knowing whether it is a person or a ghost, a fairy or a god, and they dare not speak at all. .

The stagnant blood started to run with the recovery of consciousness, and Su Tong felt the heart beating more steadily in his chest, so he forced his body, which had not been fed for many days, to stand up.

"Hey, who is this person??"

The speaker stretches out his hand to draw everyone's attention to a "person" standing on the periphery.

It was an elegant woman, dressed plainly but with a fairy air of her own.

Everyone listened to Cheng and said: "Oh, old man, this is the fairy who entrusted me with a dream yesterday!"

People looked respectful for a while, and their hearts were in an uproar.

Without squinting, the woman walked leisurely to Su Tong, and tapped the boy's forehead with her slender index finger.

Then disappeared out of thin air.