He involuntarily let go. Before the oil lamp almost fell to the ground, Wei Wuxian rescued it, calmly rubbed it on the fire talisman that was still burning in his other hand, lit it, put it on the table, and said, " Are these all made by the old man? Good craftsmanship."
Only then did everyone realize that the people standing in the room were not real people, but a large group of paper figurines.
The heads, faces, and bodies of these paper figurines are the size of real people, and they are very delicately made. There are men, women, and boys. The men are all "Yin Li Shi", tall and strong, with a state of anger. The women are all good-looking beauties, either wearing double buns or combing cloud buns. Even if they are covered under a large paper coat, they can still see their graceful posture. The patterns on the paper clothes are even more beautiful than the real brocade fine. Some are painted, with thick ink and bright colors, big red and green; some have not been painted, and the whole body is white and white. Each paper figurine has two big blushes on its cheeks, to make it look like a living person, but their eyeballs don't seem to have time to set them. The more gloomy.
There was also a table in the main room with several candles of different lengths. Wei Wuxian lit up one of them, and the yellow light illuminated most of the room. In addition to these paper figures, two large wreaths were placed on the left and right of the main room, and the paper gold ingots, coins and pagodas in the corners were piled up into hills.
Jin Ling had already pulled the sword out of the scabbard for three points. Seeing that it was only a shop selling funeral items, he breathed a sigh of relief and put the sword back into the scabbard. Even if a cultivator of the Xianmen family dies, they never engage in these messy and gloomy ostentations. Also exciting.
No matter how thick the fog was, it could not enter the house. After entering Yicheng, they could easily see each other's face clearly at this moment, and they felt more at ease. Seeing that they were relaxed, Wei Wuxian asked the old lady again, "Can I borrow the kitchen?"
The old lady didn't seem to like the light of fire, she almost stared at the oil lamp fiercely, and said, "The kitchen is in the back, use it yourself." After that, she hid in another room like a plague. She closed the door so loudly that several people trembled. Jin Ling said, "This old witch must be weird! You..." Wei WuXian said, "Okay, don't talk about it. I want someone to help, who will come with me?"
Lan SiZhui hurriedly said, "I'll come."
Lan Jingyi still stood up straight and said, "Then what should I do?"
Wei WuXian said, "Continue to stand. If you don't move, don't move."
Lan Sizhui followed Wei Wuxian to the kitchen at the back, and as soon as he entered, a stench of musty swept his face. Lan SiZhui had never smelled such a terrible smell in his life. He felt dizzy for a while, but he held back and didn't rush out. Jin Ling also followed, jumped out the door as soon as he entered, and fanned desperately: "What the hell!!! You don't want a way to detoxify, what are you doing here!"
Wei WuXian said, "Hey? You came just in time, how did you know I was going to call you here? Let's help together."
Jin Ling said, "I'm not here to help! Shit! Has anyone here killed someone and forgot to bury them?!"
Wei WuXian said, "Miss Jin, are you coming? Come in and help us if you come. If you don't come, go back and sit and ask another person to come over."
Jin Ling was furious: "Who is Miss Jin, be careful what you say!" He pinched his nose for a while, and finally hummed, "I want to see, what the hell are you doing? ." Then he walked in angrily with his clothes on. Who knew Wei WuXian opened a box on the ground with a bang, and the stench came from inside. A pig leg and a chicken were stuffed in the box, the red meat was full of green, and the little white maggots curled up in the green.
Jin Ling was forced to retreat again. Wei Wuxian picked up the box and handed it to him, saying, "Just throw it away. Just throw it anywhere, don't let us smell it."
Disgusted and full of suspicion, Jin Ling threw it out according to the words, rubbed his fingers with the handkerchief, and then threw the handkerchief. When they returned to the kitchen, Wei Wuxian and Lan Sizhui had actually drawn two buckets of water from the backyard well and were cleaning the kitchen. Jin Ling asked, "What are you doing?"
Lan Sizhui diligently wiped and said, "As you can see, wash the stove."
Jin Ling said, "What do you do with the stove, it's not for eating."
Wei WuXian said, "Who said no? It's just something to eat. Come and sweep away the dust of the sun and get rid of those spider webs."
What he said was so righteous, so natural, that Jin Ling was inexplicably shoved a Yang Chen into his hand, and he began to do as he was confused. The more he swept, the more he felt that something was wrong, and he was about to throw the broom on Wei Wuxian's head, when Wei Wuxian opened another box, and he was so startled that he ran out, but fortunately there was no stench this time.
The three of them moved quickly, and the kitchen soon looked brand new. It was finally a bit popular, and it didn't look like a haunted house that had been abandoned for many years. There is chopped wood in the corner, pile them into the bottom of the stove, light it with a fire talisman, set up a cleaned large pot on it, and let it boil a pot of boiling water. Wei Wuxian poured out a pile of glutinous rice from the second box, cleaned it, and put it into the pot.
Jin Ling said, "Cooking porridge?"
Wei Wuxian: "Yeah."
Jin Ling threw the rag. Wei WuXian said, "Look at you, you get angry after working for a while. Look at SiZhui, who works the hardest and doesn't say anything. What's wrong with porridge."
Jin Ling said, "What's so good about porridge, the clear soup lacks water! No... I'm angry because the porridge is not good?!"
Wei WuXian said, "It's not for you anyway."
Jin Ling was even more angry: "What did you say? I've been doing it for so long and I still don't have my share?!"
Lan Sizhui said, "Young Master Mo, is it true that porridge can detoxify corpses?"
Wei WuXian smiled and said, "Yes, but it's not porridge that can detoxify the corpse, it's glutinous rice. It's a local method. Usually, glutinous rice is applied to the wound that was bitten by the scratch. If you encounter this kind of situation in the future, You can try it, although it will hurt a lot, but it will definitely work, and you will see immediate results. But instead of being bitten, they inhaled corpse poison powder, so they can only boil a bowl of glutinous rice porridge and drink it.”
Lan SiZhui said suddenly, "No wonder you have to enter the house, and even a house with someone else. Only in a place where people live can there be a kitchen, and there may be glutinous rice in the kitchen."
Jin Ling said, "Who knows how long this rice can be eaten? Besides, this kitchen has not been used for at least a year. It's all ashes and the meat is smelly. Does that old woman not have to eat this year? It's impossible for her. How do you survive bigu?"
Wei WuXian said, "Either this room has been unoccupied, and she's not the owner of the shop at all. Or, she doesn't need to eat."
Lan SiZhui said in a low voice, "If you don't need to eat, then you are dead. But this old man is clearly breathing."
Wei WuXian stirred the porridge with a spatula and various bottles and jars, and said, "That's right. You haven't finished talking yet, why did you come to Yicheng together? It's impossible. Coincidentally, did you just meet us again?"
The faces of the two teenagers immediately became solemn. Jin Ling said: "I, their Lan family, and a few other families are all chasing after something. I came from Qinghe." Lan SiZhui said, "We came from Langxie. chased."
Wei WuXian said, "What?"
Lan SiZhui shook his head and said, "I don't know. It hasn't shown up, and we don't know what it is, who it is...or what organization it is."
It turned out that a few days ago, Jin Ling tricked his uncle into letting Wei Wuxian run away. He was always worried that Jiang Cheng would really break his leg this time, so he decided to sneak away and disappeared for ten days and a half, waiting for Jiang Cheng to get angry. Appeared in front of him again, handed Zidian to Jiang Cheng's confidant, and ran away. He went all the way to a small town near the Qinghe River, looking for the next night hunting location, and took a break in a big inn. That night, he was reciting the magic formula in the room, and suddenly, the fairy lying at his feet rushed out the door called. It was late at night, Jin Ling drank the spirit dog, but immediately heard a knock on the door.
Although the fairy stopped screaming, she was very anxious, her sharp claws were digging wildly on the ground, and her throat snorted. Jin Ling was vigilant, and when he asked who it was, he didn't answer, so he ignored it. However, after half an hour, the knock on the door rang again.
Jin Ling took Fairy out of the window, made a circle, turned upstairs, and wanted to attack from behind to make a surprise to see who was making trouble in the middle of the night. Unexpectedly, he fluttered and quietly guarded for a while, but still didn't see anyone in front of his room.
He kept his mind and let the fairy guard the door, ready to attack anyone at any time. He didn't rest all night, but nothing happened that night. Just kept hearing a strange sound like water dripping.
The next morning, screams came from outside the door. Jin Ling kicked out the door, stepped into a pool of blood, something fell from the top of the door, Jin Ling ducked back, and was not hit.
A black cat!
At some point someone nailed the body of a dead cat above his door. The strange sound of water dripping he heard in the middle of the night was the blood dripping from the cat.
Jin Ling said: "It's the same in several inns. I took the initiative to pursue it. When I heard that there was a dead cat's body somewhere inexplicably, I went to see it, and I must find out who was causing the trouble."
Wei Wuxian turned to Lan Sizhui, "You too?"
Lan SiZhui nodded and said, "That's right. A few days ago, a few of us were hunting in Langxie Night. One night, during dinner, a cat's head that had not been skinned was pulled out of the soup... I didn't know it was aimed at us, but On the same day, when we were resting in another inn, we found a cat corpse in the bedding of the room. This was the case for several days. We chased after Liyang, met Young Master Jin, and found that we were investigating the same thing, so we acted together. I only chased this area today, and I asked a hunter in the village in front of a stone monument, and I was directed to the road of Yicheng."
Wei WuXian thought, "A hunter?"
The juniors should have passed by the village at Shibeikou later than he and Lan Wangji, and they didn't see any hunters at that time, only a few shy chicken-feeding farm girls were watching the house, saying that the men in the family were out to deliver the goods. , it will take a long time to come back.
The more Wei Wuxian thought about it, the more serious his expression became.
Listening to the narration, the other party did not do anything other than killing cats and throwing corpses. Although it sounded and looked terrifying, they were not actually hurt. Instead, these things aroused their curiosity and desire to get to the bottom of things.
Also, this group of juniors met at Liyang. Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji also happened to be heading south from Liyang to Shudong. It looked like someone was deliberately guiding these ignorant children and the people here. The two headed together.
Leading a bunch of ignorant juniors to a dangerous and unknown location, facing a murderous corpse - isn't this exactly the same routine as the Mojiazhuang incident
And that's not the most complicated. What Wei Wuxian is more afraid of now is... the Yin Tiger Talisman, maybe it's in Yicheng right now.
Although Wei Wuxian himself does not want to accept this possibility, it is the most reasonable explanation. After all, there are even people who can restore half of the Yin Tiger Talisman. Although it is said that it has been cleaned up, who knows who the Yin Tiger Talisman he restored will fall into
At this moment, Lan SiZhui squatted on the ground fanning the firewood and raised his face, "Senior Mo, the glutinous rice porridge seems to be ready?"
Wei WuXian regained his senses, stopped mixing the spatula, took a spoonful of the bowl Lan SiZhui had washed just now, and said, "Okay. Bring it out, one bowl for each person who is poisoned, and feed them. eat."
However, after taking it out, Lan JingYi only took one bite and sprayed: "What is this, is it poison?!"
Wei WuXian said, "What poison, this is the antidote! Glutinous rice porridge."
Lan Jingyi said, "Let's put aside why glutinous rice is the antidote, I have never eaten such spicy glutinous rice porridge!"
The others who had entered the mouth nodded one after another, all with tears in their eyes, Wei Wuxian stroked his chin. He grew up in Yunmeng, Yunmeng people are very good at spicy food, and Wei Wuxian's taste is the most important thing, if he makes a shot, it must be so spicy that Jiang Cheng can't stand the bowl and scolded it. But he would never be able to resist adding spoonfuls after spoonfuls of ingredients to the pot. Intrigued, Lan SiZhui took a sip from the bowl, his face turned red, he pursed his mouth to hold back the spray, his eyes turned red, and said to his heart, "This taste... is so terrifying that it seems familiar..."
Wei WuXian said, "It's a medicine that is three-part poisonous, and the hot one sweats all over. It gets better faster."
The teenagers expressed their disbelief, but they still drank the porridge with a bitter face. All of a sudden, everyone was blushing and sweating profusely. Wei WuXian couldn't help but say, "As for what? Hanguang-Jun is also from Gusu, and he can eat spicy food very well. Why are you like this?"
Lan SiZhui covered his mouth and said, "No, senior, HanGuang-Jun has a very mild taste. He never eats spicy food..."
Wei Wuxian was stunned, and said, "Really?"
But he remembered that in his previous life, after he betrayed the Yunmeng Jiang Sect, he once met Lan Wangji in Yiling. Although Wei Wuxian was widely criticized at that time, he was not to the point where everyone was yelling at him, so he had the cheek to have dinner with Lan Wangji to catch up with the old days. Lan Wangji ordered spicy dishes full of peppercorns, so he always thought that Lan Wangji tasted similar to him.
Thinking about it now, he didn't even remember whether those Cai Lan Wangji had used chopsticks. However, even before the meal, he said that he could forget after the meal, but Lan Wangji paid the bill, so naturally he would not remember such details.
"...Senior, Senior Mo!"
"Huh?" Wei Wuxian came back to his senses. Lan SiZhui said in a low voice, "The old lady's door... is open."
A gust of overcast wind blew from out of nowhere, and blew the door of the small room open a crack, sometimes opening and sometimes closing. The room was dark, and I could vaguely see a hunched figure sitting at the table. Wei Wuxian motioned them not to move, and walked into the room by himself.
The oil lamp and candlelight in the main room came in, and the old lady lowered her head, as if unaware that someone was coming in. There was a piece of cloth on her knees, stretched with a stretcher, as if she was making a girl. Her hands were rigidly pressed together, trying to thread a thread into a needle.
Wei WuXian also sat down at the table and said, "Why didn't the old man put on a needle and didn't light the lamp? I'll come."
He took the needle and thread, passed through it at once, and gave it to the old lady, then walked out of the house as if nothing had happened, closed the door, and said, "Don't go in."
Jin Ling said, "You went in just now, did you see whether that old witch is dead or alive?"
Wei WuXian said, "Don't call me an old witch, it's rude. This old lady is a living corpse."
The teenagers looked at each other, Lan SiZhui said, "What is a living corpse?"
Wei WuXian said, "From head to toe, the features of a corpse are all the features of a corpse, but a human being is alive. This is called a living corpse."
Jin Ling was shocked: "You said she was still alive?!"
Wei WuXian asked, "Did you look inside just now?"
"Look."
"See what? What is she doing?"
"Thread the needle."
"Did you wear it in?"
"… No."
"Yes, I can't wear it. The muscles of a dead person are stiff, and there is no way to do complicated movements such as threading a needle. The spots on her face are not age spots, but corpse spots. And she doesn't need to eat, but she can breathe and is alive."
Lan SiZhui said, "But, but this old man is very old, and many old ladies have bad eyesight, so they can't get needles by themselves."
Wei WuXian said, "So I helped her put it on. But did you pay attention to another thing? She hasn't blinked once since she opened the door and walked in."
The teenagers blinked, Wei WuXian said, "The living people blink to prevent their eyes from getting numb, and the dead people don't need it. And when I took the needle and thread, how did she look at me, did anyone notice? "
Jin Ling said, "She didn't turn her eyes... she turned her head!"
Wei WuXian said, "That's it. Ordinary people look in another direction, and their eyeballs move somewhat, but dead people don't, because they can't do such a delicate movement of turning their eyes, they can only turn their heads and necks."
Lan Jingyi said blankly, "Should we take notes?"
Wei WuXian said, "Good habit. But when you're on a night hunt, there's no time for you to look over your notes and keep it in your heart."
Jin Ling gritted his teeth and said, "Walking corpses are evil enough, why are there such things as living corpses!"
Wei WuXian said, "It's very difficult for a living corpse to form naturally. It's usually made by humans, and this one is."
"Done?! Why do it?!"
Wei WuXian said, "Dead people have many shortcomings: stiff muscles, slow movement, etc. But dead people also have many advantages: they are not afraid of pain, cannot think, and are easily manipulated. Some people think that their shortcomings can be improved by making The perfect corpse puppet. That's how living corpses come."
Although the youths did not blurt out their words, their faces were already written in large characters: "This person must be Wei! Wu! Xian!"
Wei Wuxian couldn't help laughing and laughing as he thought, "I've never done anything like this before!"
Although it does sound like his style!
He said, "Cough. Well, Wei Wuxian started it first, but he succeeded in refining Wen Ning, the Ghost General. Actually, I've always wanted to ask who came up with this nickname? It's so stupid. Besides, There are some people who want to imitate but can’t get home, and go the wrong way, so they take ideas from living people and create something like a living corpse.” He concluded: “A kind of failed imitation.”
Hearing Wei Wuxian's name, Jin Ling's expression turned cold and he hummed, "Wei Ying himself is a crooked person."
Wei WuXian said, "Well, those who are living corpses are the wicked sects among the wicked sects."
Lan SiZhui said, "Senior Mo, what should we do now?"
Wei WuXian said, "Some living corpses may not know that they are dead. I think this old lady is more confused about the situation, so we can just leave her alone for now."
At this moment, a crisp bamboo pole knocking on the ground suddenly sounded.
The sound came from close to a window. And this window was sealed up by strips of black wooden boards. The faces of all the aristocratic children in the main room turned pale. After they entered the city, they were constantly entangled and harassed by this voice, and they changed their color when they heard it. Wei Wuxian gestured to keep silent, and they held their breaths, watching Wei Wuxian stand by the window and look out through a very thin wooden crack in the door panel.
As soon as Wei Wuxian got close to the wooden crevice, he saw a patch of white, he thought it was because the white fog outside the house was too thick to see clearly. Unexpectedly, this piece of white quickly retreated back.
He saw a pair of ferocious white pupils staring viciously at the crack of the door. The white he saw just now was not fog, but these eyes without pupils.