This night was a long night for the Earth God and the ghosts of the charity tomb, and also for the entire Maotan village.
The early morning sun shone on the earth, and the people in Maotan Village woke up one after another. Liao Daqiu and his wife stood up from the bed, feeling sore in their backs.
"Hiss... Hey, my dear, I didn't sleep well last night. I had a dream in the middle of the night..."
Halfway through her words, the woman suddenly stopped talking, got out of bed, took a sip of water from the kettle, and then continued.
"I dreamed that I was sleeping on a battlefield. There were shouts and cries of killing everywhere, as if two armies were fighting fiercely. But I couldn't get up. I couldn't open my eyes even if I wanted to. My eyes were burning."
After hearing what his wife said, Liao Daqiu immediately became excited.
"I, I'm the same. I just can't open my eyes, but I can feel the bloodshed going on around me. It's really terrifying!"
"You dreamed about it too?"
The wife was surprised.
"yes!"
After a while of excitement, the two looked at each other, and then quickly put on their clothes.
After Liao Daqiu finished packing and opened the door, he saw his neighbor Lao Zhang running hurriedly to his house.
"Lao Liao, Lao Liao! I'm telling you, I had a dream last night. I dreamed that there was a war going on around our village. The sound of killing was deafening. I just couldn't open my eyes. I was terrified! Not only me, but my wife also had the same dream, and so did Lao Liu's family!"
Liao Daqiu swallowed his saliva, hurried out a few steps and said.
"Old Zhang, to be honest, the kid's mother and I had the same dream. We couldn't see anything but we could hear things. It was like there was a war going on around us. I felt like a dead body... Ugh, I mean I felt like I was sleeping soundly!"
Old Zhang subconsciously took a few steps closer, looked at Liao Daqiu, and asked in a low voice.
"Old Liao, do you think that the ghosts in the graves had already fought a battle with the plague last night?"
Liao Daqiu looked in the direction of the cemetery and nodded subconsciously.
"It's hard to say!"
Afterwards, the two of them vaguely heard the noises in the village becoming increasingly noisy. After getting up, the villagers were telling each other about their terrible dreams from last night. After hearing this, everyone realized that, except for a few people who slept very soundly, most people had a similar dream.
Some people can only hear the sound but not see the person, and cannot open their eyes but know they are on the battlefield. Some people can open their eyes a little bit. Of course, this little bit is not enough to see anything, but they can see the faint green light and a large number of chaotic human figures rushing together in dazzling footsteps.
We are not fools, and this situation does not need to be explained too clearly. Everyone can think of the battle flags and weapons burned for the ghost of the charity grave some time ago, as well as the dreams entrusted to Liao Daqiu and the old village chief by the ghost of the charity grave and the land god respectively.
Many people in Maotan Village didn't even have time to eat breakfast. They walked around the village for several times, but they didn't see any signs of the battlefield. However, they saw two strangers outside.
When Liao Daqiu and the old village chief, along with seven or eight men from the village, walked to the outside of the cemetery, they saw two men, one in a white robe and the other in a blue robe, standing outside looking at the cemetery. After hearing footsteps, they turned around to look at the villagers of Maotan Village, but there was no look of surprise on their faces.
"Hello everyone, I am Jiyuan!"
"I am always easy-going!"
Ji Yuan bowed slightly to the villagers, and Chang Yi of course did the same.
It was obvious that these two men were well-educated and their manners were very polite. The people of Maotan Village certainly did not dare to neglect them. Led by the old village chief, they quickly returned the greetings.
"I wonder where you two are from and why you came to my Maotan Village?"
Ji Yuan smiled.
"We came from quite far away. We heard that someone built a charity cemetery for roadside remains, so we came here to see the person who built the cemetery. I wonder who initiated it?"
Everyone in Maotan Village looked at Liao Daqiu, who hesitated for a moment before standing up and speaking.
"Well, I was the one who initiated the charity cemetery, but it was also something that our entire village did together. Without the help of the villagers over the years, how could I have built such a charity cemetery? Even corpses cannot be moved by one person alone."
Ji Yuan nodded.
"Indeed, you are all noble!"
"Uh, hehe, I dare not!"
"How can that be possible? We are also doing good deeds!" "Yes, yes!"
The villagers felt a little embarrassed by such simple compliments, but they were of course happy in their hearts. These two people were obviously well-educated. In their hearts, the words of educated people carried a different weight.
"By the way, since you two are from far away, it's not a good time for you to come to Dahe County. Don't you know..."
Liao Daqiu subconsciously looked at the cemetery again before speaking to Ji Yuan and Chang Yi.
"Recently, there seems to be an epidemic in our county and the neighboring counties. This is not a minor disease. It is very dangerous if you get infected. Why are you still running here at this time?"
Chang Yi let out a light breath, shook his head slightly, and then spoke.
"Yes, there is a plague, but it's not just Dahe County and the neighboring counties you mentioned. If you really count them carefully, the places where the plague is rampant, including counties and towns, are probably close to a hundred..."
"Ah!?" "Nearly a hundred?"
"Oh my God!" "It's all plague?"
"Is this... is this possible?"
The people of Maotan Village were obviously frightened by the numbers Chang Yi said. Many of them seldom left their own Dahe County, and the farthest place they had been to was probably the neighboring county. Although this number of nearly a hundred included both counties and towns, just thinking about it revealed that it was a very large area.
While the villagers were astonished, Ji Yuan looked at Liao Daqiu and saw that his aura was rising in various colors and his blood and qi were not weak. Although the image of blessings and virtues was not obvious, it was still much better than those of the people around him.
"It's so early in the morning, and you two gentlemen probably haven't had breakfast yet. Although our village is poor, we are still hospitable. Why don't you two come into the village and have breakfast together?"
"Yes, yes, come to our village and sit down!" "Yes, yes, tell us what's going on outside. How is the plague going outside?"
"Yes, yes, tell me what's happening outside!"
The old village chief's proposal was immediately agreed by everyone. Ji Yuan and Chang Yi looked at each other, and the former nodded in thanks.
"Thank you for your kindness, we will bother you now!"
"Don't bother me, gentlemen, please!"
The group walked around the village and didn't see any signs of the battlefield, and it was impossible to keep looking, so they welcomed Ji Yuan and Chang Yi into the village.
On the way, naturally, someone couldn't help but tell Ji Yuan and the others about the dream sent by the ghost at the charity grave, and also about the dreams of almost everyone in the village last night, wanting to ask the two scholars to interpret their dreams.
Ji Yuan and Chang Yi pretended to think about it and told the villagers directly that this story was probably true. It was considered that good people would be rewarded. Their good deeds in the past had warded off disaster today, which also made the villagers of Maotan Village very happy.
About a quarter of an hour later, in the Liao family courtyard, Ji Yuan and Chang Yi each held a large flower bowl and sat close to each other on small stools.
The bowl was full of rice porridge with a lot of pickles on it, which was the breakfast that the Liao family treated the two of them to. Liao Daqiu also sat opposite to eat, while his wife and children sat on the threshold of the kitchen.
Ji Yuan picked up the pickles with chopsticks and scraped the porridge skillfully, eating with relish. It reminded him of the first time he left Ning'an County and the feeling of eating porridge on a small boat on the waterway.
Chang Yi held the bowl with a curious look on his face, looked at Ji Yuan and then at himself, trying the porridge with pickles very curiously. He had lived in Xianxia Island since he could remember, and although he was not completely without worldly knowledge, it was the first time for him to eat porridge with pickles in an ordinary Baixin family, especially since most of the porridge was made from yesterday's cold rice.
"Hiss...hiss..."
Seeing Ji Yuan drinking porridge made Lao Liao feel much more relaxed. He had wanted to cook two eggs for fear that he had not entertained him well enough, but the last time he made porridge, he killed the old hen at home and the eggs were gone. Most of his neighbors were in the same situation.
After drinking more than half a bowl of hot rice porridge, Ji Yuan slowed down and started chatting with Liao Daqiu, with whom he had become much more familiar.
"By the way, I heard that Brother Liao has a son serving in the army, and you and your wife are always worried about him. If it is convenient, could you talk to me about this?"
Liao Daqiu was quite surprised when Ji Yuan suddenly mentioned this matter.
"Uh, who does Mr. Ji listen to?"
Liao Daqiu remembered that when the two gentlemen came, they didn't know the villagers, and on the way here they mostly talked about the charity graves and the villagers' dreams last night. How come they suddenly heard about their eldest son joining the army
"Haha, this is what our local land god told me in my dream!"
Ji Yuan said this with a smile.
'Ouch!'
Hearing Ji Yuan's words, a short, crutched figure in a corner outside Liao Daqiu's house couldn't help but smile knowingly, but didn't dare to get too close.
The people of Maotan Village have experienced dreams several times recently. When Ji Yuan said this, Liao Daqiu immediately believed it a little. But in fact, there was nothing wrong with talking about it. It just evoked some sadness.
"Alas... My eldest son Liao Zhengbao has been away for nine years. There has been no news in the past nine years. A few soldiers from the same batch have returned, but they all said they don't know what happened. Alas... I hope Abao is still alive..."
When saying this, Liao Daqiu himself didn't have much confidence, and the woman over there was also sighing silently.
"Well, I know a little bit about divination. If you don't mind, Brother Liao, why don't you tell me your son's date of birth and the date of his departure so that I can tell your son's fortune?"
The Liao family had no idea how many times they had their eldest son's fortune told, and basically every time the fortune was either unpredictable or would become extremely wealthy if he survived a disaster. However, thinking that fortune telling was also a good thing, they nodded in agreement.
"There is nothing impossible. My son was born..."
As Liao Daqiu was talking, Ji Yuan put down his chopsticks and put his hands into his sleeves to calculate carefully. Chang Yi beside him narrowed his eyes slightly and looked restrained, obviously also doing divination.
Seeing this scene from afar, even though the God of Land was so powerful that he couldn't tell whether the two immortals were casting spells, or even see a trace of immortal spirit, but asking about Liao Zhengbao's birth date and horoscope was definitely helping to calculate his fortune.
"I never thought that the Liao family would be so blessed that two immortals would predict their fortunes together. Just based on this fact, after they die, the Liao family will be able to be higher-ranked ghosts in the underworld!"
On the other side, as soon as Liao Daqiu finished speaking, Ji Yuan and Chang Yi stopped divination, looked at each other and nodded slightly.
"Mr. Ji, he is indeed still alive!"
"Yes, still alive!"
Liao Daqiu and the woman were slightly stunned when they heard the words, and their hands holding the bowls of porridge trembled slightly. The two masters used affirmative sentences instead of being vague like the fortune tellers in the past.