Three-way intersection.
Xiaodie, wearing a green dress, stood anxiously under a big tree, looking forward to the foot of the mountain.
Not long.
Her eyes lit up and a happy smile finally appeared on her face.
"Young Master..."
She ran up with tears in her eyes.
Luo Qingzhou gently hugged her still trembling body and comforted her softly: "It's okay, don't be afraid."
It was the first time the little girl saw such a bloody scene, and the first time she saw him kill someone, so she was naturally scared.
Xiaodie cried and said, "Master, there is so much blood on your body, let's go home quickly..."
Luo Qingzhou held her little hand and looked back at the road they came from.
After a pause, he bent down and whispered into the little girl's ear: "Xiao Die, we won't go home today. The young master will take you to a fun place."
"ah?"
When the little girl heard this, she was stunned: "Where... where?"
Luo Qingzhou looked towards another path with a complicated look in his eyes: "The place where I was born."
Xiaodie's eyes widened.
"Let's go."
Luo Qingzhou didn't dare to stay here too long. He pulled her and walked towards another unfamiliar path covered with weeds.
You can't go home directly now.
If there is an ambush on the road, given his current condition, both he and the little girl would probably be in great danger.
I can only stay in that small mountain village for one night.
Wait until tomorrow morning and then take a carriage back to the city unexpectedly.
"oh."
Xiaodie didn't say anything more. She was very obedient and let him lead her down another path, her eyes full of dependence.
No matter where the young master goes, she will follow him.
Even if the young master sold her, she would be willing.
If the young master really sold her, the worst that could happen was that after he took the money and left, she would secretly escape and find him again.
Anyway, she will belong to the young master forever in this life and the next.
Never separate from the young master!
The master and servant walked along the deserted path without speaking another word.
Luo Qingzhou pricked up his ears and remained alert, looking back from time to time to confirm whether anyone was following him.
The small mountain village in my memory is only four or five kilometers away from here.
However, this path has been neglected for many years and has been overgrown with weeds, with the road no longer visible in many places.
At noon.
The two finally saw the small mountain village ahead.
Today, the small mountain village is desolate and dilapidated.
After several attacks by monsters, most of the young people in the village died. Except for some elderly widows who had lost their loved ones and stubbornly stayed there, there were no young people left in the village, and there were no children at all.
The bustle of the village seems like yesterday.
But even in the past, what remained in Luo Qingzhou's memory were almost all shadows.
His mother got pregnant before marriage, and after giving birth to him she didn't even know who the father was. The villagers were gossiping about him and nailed both mother and son to the pillar of shame.
Almost every day there are sarcastic, mocking and abusive remarks.
Even children wouldn't play with him.
In order to raise him and let him go to school, his mother suffered contempt and humiliation in the village, but she still persevered.
After his grandparents passed away and his eldest and second uncles left the village and never returned, his mother was left alone and without protection. Fearing that he would get hurt and wanting him to live a better life, she shamelessly took him into the city and into Chengguo Mansion.
From then on, the mother and son never returned to this sad village.
Luo Qingzhou was thinking about these things in his mind. He took Xiaodie to wash herself briefly in the river in front of the village before entering the village.
The village, which was once filled with the sounds of children playing, dogs barking, and adults scolding, has now become silent.
Wild grass grew all over the house.
The iron locks on the gates are rusty and the walls of some houses have collapsed.
Luo Qingzhou took Xiaodie along, walking and looking all the way. Through the gate, they only saw two old men sitting alone in the yard, with their eyes closed, basking in the sun, as if they were waiting for that day to come.
Luo Qingzhou did not stop and came to the courtyard where he once lived with his mother.
The gate had rotted and fallen down, and half of the courtyard wall had collapsed. It was not known whether it was caused by wind and rain over a long period of time, or whether it was pushed down by the villagers after the mother and son left.
The yard was filled with lush weeds, broken bricks, and some tattered cloth buried in the dirt.
There was nothing left in the room.
Even the tables, stools and beds were all moved away.
Fortunately, the four walls and the roof are still there, and they can still shelter us from the wind and rain.
"Sir, is this where you and your wife used to live?"
Xiaodie looked at the scene here with a sad expression on her face.
"Clean up the room. We'll stay here tonight."
Luo Qingzhou didn't say much, walked out of the house and said: "I'll go see if there's anything to eat. You must be hungry too, right? Don't run around, just stay in the house."
"oh oh."
Xiaodie agreed and went to find a broom.
There was a broom in the yard, but it was rotten to pieces.
But it doesn’t matter, you can wrap it with a clean cloth and continue to use it to sweep the floor.
There should still be water in the well.
Luo Qingzhou left the courtyard and walked to the end of the village, looking at each house one by one.
When he was almost at the end of the village, he saw an old woman.
The old woman in a worn cotton-padded jacket sat on a chair in front of the door, looking at the distant mountains with cloudy and confused eyes, not knowing what she was thinking.
The old woman has a head full of white hair, her face is full of wrinkles and frost, her back is hunched, and she is already in her twilight years.
But Luo Qingzhou recognized her the first time he saw her.
The person in front of him was the most vicious and worst person in the village who had treated his mother the most.
He still clearly remembers that one summer, his mother picked up a wild watermelon from the mountains.
When the mother and son were about to share the watermelon happily, the person called Auntie Nine by his mother suddenly broke into the house with some people, accusing his mother of stealing her watermelon, and then cursed at her, saying all kinds of vicious and dirty words, and even grabbed his mother's hair with his hands and scratched her face with his nails...
Finally, the watermelon was taken away.
His mother held him and cried silently in the corner.
At that time, he secretly swore that when he grew up and had the ability, he would make this vicious woman suffer.
But at this moment, looking at the old woman in front of him, her white hair, wrinkled face, and quietly aging appearance, he could no longer hate her.
"You... you are Qing Zhou? Qing Zhou from Yu'er's family?"
The old man looked at him with a surprised expression on his face.
Luo Qingzhou came back to his senses, walked forward, and a smile appeared on his face: "Grandma Jiu, it's me, Qingzhou."
The old man opened his eyes wide, stood up, and looked him up and down. Seeing that his robe was tattered, he couldn't help asking, "Didn't you go to the city with your mother? Why are you back? Were you... kicked out?"
Luo Qingzhou didn't explain, but nodded: "Yeah, I was kicked out."
Being used as a tool by Cheng Guofu to break off an engagement, he was kicked out.
The old man sighed and said, "Poor thing, your mother was also pitiful. She didn't enjoy a few days of happiness after entering the city, and died so young. I heard from them that she was buried in the Zixia Mountain in front of our village, right? Oh..."
Luo Qingzhou was silent for a moment, then said, "Grandma Jiu, your family..."
The old man was indifferent: "They are all dead, except for an old woman like me, no one is left."
Luo Qingzhou didn't dare to ask any more questions. He glanced at her yard, hesitated for a moment, and asked, "Grandma Jiu, do you have any food at home?"
The old man looked at him, turned around and walked into the house with a staggering gait, sighing, "There are two more cakes, but they are too hard for me to chew. If you are hungry, take them and eat them."
"Oh, how pitiful! Look at you. Your mother is dead and you can't even afford a meal. I told you before, what's the point of studying? You might as well learn to farm..."
The old man muttered to himself as he went into the kitchen and took out two dry and hard biscuits.
After thinking for a while, she went back into the house, took out two eggs, and handed them to him.
"Alas, the last hen was taken away by a weasel. In this village, there are no living things except us old people. In the past few years, even those man-eating beasts have stopped coming..."
The old man sighed.
Luo Qingzhou took the pancake and egg, took out a piece of silver from his pocket and handed it to her: "Grandma Jiu, take the silver. If there are vendors coming to the village, you can buy some food with it."
The old man looked at the silver in his hand, but didn't take it. He shook his head and said, "You keep it. I have no use for it. There are no vendors coming here now. I'm still in good health and can still grow some food. You're young and have a long way to go. Keep it for yourself."
Luo Qingzhou glanced at her, said nothing more, and prepared to leave.
When they reached the door, the old woman suddenly said, "Qingzhou, it turns out that Granny Jiu treated you and your son like that. Now that I think about it, Granny Jiu is actually very regretful and feels guilty. When people get old, they realize that those rules and customs are actually not important. Living happily is the most important thing. It wasn't your mother's fault that she got pregnant before marriage. We shouldn't have treated her like that..."
Luo Qingzhou suddenly turned around and asked, "Grandma Jiu, do you know how my mother got pregnant with me? Do you know that person?"
The old man shook his head and said, "No one in the village knew who that person was, so they treated your mother like that. But in the end, I heard that your mother was forced... Well, at that time, even if she was forced, the woman's reputation was ruined and no one would look down on her. Besides, your mother was too stubborn and refused to tell who that person was..."
Luo Qingzhou didn't say anything else, nodded, and walked out the door.
The old man also followed him out, mumbling to himself, but no one knew what he was saying.
Just as he was about to sit down on the stool at the door, he suddenly found a piece of silver on the stool.
When she looked up, the boy had already walked away.
"Why… "
The old man sighed, picked up the silver, sat down, and recalled what happened to the mother and son.
Luo Qingzhou returned to the dilapidated courtyard. After sharing some pancakes and eggs with Xiaodie, he sat down in the house and practiced his internal energy.
Xiaodie didn't dare to disturb them, so she went out of the house and looked around in other rooms, the courtyard, and the door.
After a while.
She couldn't bear it any longer, so she went out the door and wandered around the village curiously.
The sun sets quickly.
Luo Qingzhou felt that the pain in his body had eased a lot.
When Xiaodie came back, she even brought needles and thread with her. She said happily, "Sir, I met an old woman in the village. I spent the whole afternoon chatting with her. I borrowed these needles and thread from her. Take off your clothes quickly and I will help you mend them."
Luo Qingzhou's heart moved, he took off his clothes and asked: "What did she talk to you about?"
Xiaodie took the clothes and said, "We didn't talk about anything. The old lady kept talking about the past. I didn't dare to ask about the young master and the lady, and the old lady didn't mention it either. By the way, the old lady also told us not to go out at night because this place is haunted."
When she said this, the little girl's face was full of fear.
"Haunted?"
Luo Qingzhou's eyes flashed.
Xiaodie nodded and said, "Yes, the old woman said that at night, the village was filled with sobbing sounds. She also said that she saw many black shadows floating around. It was so scary."
Luo Qingzhou looked outside.
Is it scary
Why does he still have some expectations
Outside, night fell.
A crescent moon rose into the sky.
The whole village was shrouded in darkness and dead silence.