Three days later.
In the afternoon, in Huangjiazhuang near the iron mine, in a private school.
"I'm leaving, Juanjuan!"
A girl with double braids was carrying a cloth satchel and waved to her friends sitting in the school.
Song Yunjuan sat down and smiled at her.
"Go back quickly, your parents will scold you again later."
"knew!"
The girl trotted away in the setting sun with brisk steps, and gradually ran away until she could no longer be seen.
Song Yunjuan didn't look away until she couldn't see her friend at all, and looked at the empty school. Everyone left, and finally she was the only one left.
"It's time for me to go back." Song Yunjuan carefully put away the pen, ink and scrap paper on the table. Put it into the small satchel I brought, then stood up, patted my butt, and walked out of the classroom.
The Huangjiazhuang under the setting sun looks extraordinarily dim and silent.
Several women who were chatting by the wall hurried away as soon as they saw Song Yunjuan coming out, as if they didn't even want to take another look at her.
In the distance, there were a few little boys aged seven or eight who were playing with mud with runny noses. When they saw Song Yunjuan coming out, the little boys ran away in fright.
"Run! The little catastrophe is out!"
"This way!"
Song Yunjuan didn't take it seriously when she saw this, she lowered her head, straightened her small satchel, and walked towards her home.
Huangjiazhuang is not far from her home, only a few miles away. But for her, a little girl who is only ten years old, this journey is extremely long.
In fact, her family was fine a few years ago, her parents and grandparents were all still alive.
But since two years ago, the eldest brother has become obsessed with alchemy and immortality. The year-old test is no longer taken. All day long at home, I muttered about it, and practiced hard on the alchemy of immortality. He also wasted money at home and bought a lot of messy books on cultivating immortals and alchemy.
Since then, life has not been smooth.
First, grandparents went out for an outing one day and never came back. Then came the parents, who fell off the carriage in an accident and rolled off the cliff before it was time to keep their filial piety.
After that, no one else in the family could control the elder brother, so he began to make alchemy and cultivate immortality like crazy.
Most of the other brothers and sisters left disappointed. Up to now, only she and her eldest brother live in the village. In order to make alchemy, the eldest brother sold all the valuable things in the house, and now the whole village is empty, even thieves are unwilling to visit. The servants in the family were also dismissed, leaving only the two of them.
Song Yunjuan's fair face was a little disappointed, she missed her grandpa and her father.
"And the sweet-scented osmanthus cake made by my mother, it's delicious..." She lowered her head and gently wiped her moist eye sockets, and hurried home.
Unfortunately, there is nothing left now. Fortunately, Mr. Chen in the private school took pity on her family's changes, and didn't kick her out because she didn't pay the money, and still let her stay to attend classes.
With one foot deep and one foot shallow, Song Yunjuan tied her shoulder-length short hair with a straw rope. Walking quickly all the way, I finally arrived at the door of the house when it was just dark.
The gate of Songjiazhuang was left open and unlocked, and the surroundings were pitch-black, with no trace of popularity.
Song Yunjuan was used to it a long time ago. She pushed open the door hard, walked in, then locked the door with her backhand, and put down the thick latch.
boom.
After the door was locked, she patted the ashes on her hands and turned to look at the courtyard at home.
The ground was full of fallen leaves and dead branches, and the room was pitch black, with no lights on.
She took advantage of the moonlight and walked towards the side hall.
In the empty and silent courtyard, only her footsteps echoed constantly, and her worn moccasin boots stepped on the stone slabs, making a constant rattling sound.
Song Yunjuan has long been used to this kind of scene, she walked quickly to the side hall to have a look, it was dark inside, the moonlight was shining on the dining table in the middle, but there was nothing on it.
"well... ."
She sighed and had no choice but to walk towards her brother's bedroom.
After crossing the stone bridge, she walked to the largest wing on the left and gently opened the door.
creak.
The ear-piercing sound of wood rubbing against each other is extremely eye-catching in the whole Zhuangzi.
The room was dark, and Song Yunjuan could only barely see the furnishings inside by the moonlight.
On the left side of the room is a dark corner where nothing can be seen. By the moonlight, a huge object can be faintly seen placed there.
Song Yunjuan knew that it was her brother's alchemy furnace.
She looked to the right, under the moonlight, a few bowls were faintly placed on a square table.
"Brother, you are still refining alchemy."
After a while of silence.
"Well, I just practiced a little bit." A male voice replied from the darkness.
Song Yunjuan walked into the room, fumbled to sit at the dining table, and touched the chopsticks to prepare for dinner.
But after picking up a family's dishes, she realized that the dishes were actually cold. It's fine if you don't allow the lights to be turned on at night, but now you can't even heat the food? What kind of cold refining method, how can alchemy be done without fire
"Brother, don't you have any hot food?"
"Yeah, I made it in the morning, and it hasn't warmed up yet." There was an answer in the darkness.
Song Yunjuan sighed.
But what she couldn't see was that there was no one behind the alchemy furnace in the dark!
No one, where did the voice come from
no one knows.
After taking two mouthfuls of the dish, she found it hard to swallow, and the minced meat inside seemed to be a bit rancid, it didn't look like it was made in the morning.
"I told Chen Meiqin in school today that she will come to my house to play in a few days, bro..."
"Well, I'm listening," the voice replied.
"Can you stay with me at home during the day?" Yunjuan whispered.
"I want to make alchemy." The voice answered briefly.
"Can't you stay with me for a day?" Yunjuan's eyes were full of disappointment.
"I want to make alchemy." The voice repeated.
Yunjuan was silent, she lowered her head and ate her food silently.
She didn't realize at all that a tall figure came out of the corner of the room silently and slowly stood behind her.
The figure has a pale face, that is a man's face, expressionless face.
He looked down at Yunjuan, and slowly stretched out his hand, holding a pair of scissors, all covered with blood... .
Bang bang bang!
Suddenly, the gate of the house was knocked violently.
Song Yunjuan stood up at once.
"Who is it?" She ran out quickly and came to the gate.
"Is anyone here?"
"We passed by here for an outing. At night, we were blocked by rocks and couldn't go back for the time being. We wanted to spend the night here." A clear male voice came in, with a trace of gentleness.
Song Yunjuan hesitated for a moment, now only she and her elder brother are in the village, in case any villain is encountered... .
"Little girl, is your adult there? We can pay the money in advance, just borrow for one night." The man said again. "We are not bad people, this is the cost of staying overnight."
Crash.
With a crisp sound, a string of big money was thrown in through the wall.
Song Yunjuan ran to have a look and picked it up.
Eight large coins that are a circle larger than ordinary copper coins are faintly copper-black in the moonlight, and they are tied together with black silk threads.
She counted carefully, and there were actually eight big coins, and ten big coins was one or two taels of silver. This person turned out to be eight big coins when he made a move. It seems that he is not short of money.
Song Yunjuan hesitated for a while, thinking that there was still a man like her eldest brother at home, so she lifted the latch. Forcefully opened the door.
Squeak.
The door was open, and there were three strong young men who looked like martial arts practitioners standing at the door.
The one in the lead was wearing a Confucian scholar's suit, gray and white, and seemed to be a scholar, but even the spacious scholar's robe could not hide his strong figure and muscles.
Song Yunjuan looked at the three of them, and her eyes fell on the scabbards they were wearing, and her heart beat suddenly.
"Little girl, are you alone at home? Xiaosheng Lu Sheng, passing by here, unexpectedly encountered a mountain road collapse, and can't go back for the time being. Zhuangzi is the only place nearby that is the safest. There are high walls to block wild animals, so I want to come Let me stay here for a night." The scholar tried his best to be gentle and kind, but he had a fierce temperament, strong muscle outline, and the long knife hanging horizontally on his waist, which clearly showed that , this person is not a kind person.
"My elder brother is also at home, but he is concocting alchemy, if nothing happens, don't bother him." Song Yunjuan seriously reminded. "Also, it's fine for you to stay here, please don't light the lamp, my elder brother doesn't like light."
"How can it be done without lighting the lamp?" Duan Meng'an behind Lu Sheng couldn't help but mutter.
Song Yunjuan bit her lip, feeling that the three people in front of her didn't look like kind people, she was a little scared, and shrank back.
"Light... If you light the lamp, you should light it where you live. Don't take it out, or my elder brother will be angry. When he gets angry, it's terrible...."
Lu Sheng squinted his eyes and looked inside Zhuangzi. It was indeed pitch black everywhere. There were many lanterns hanging, but there was no light at all.
"Okay, let's light the lamp in our own room, is that okay?" He smiled gently at Song Yunjuan.
Song Yunjuan was holding on to the string of big money, and the family really didn't have any money left. This money was really important to her. Save money, and the tuition fee for the next six months can also be settled.
"come in."
She stepped aside and let the three of Lu Sheng enter.
Boom.
The gate was closed and bolted again.
Song Yunjuan led Lu Sheng and the other three towards the guest room.
The fallen leaves and dead branches all over the ground made Song Yunjuan a little ashamed. Anyone who looked at this dilapidated family could see that the family was in decline.
After sending the three of them to three guest rooms, Song Yunjuan wanted to turn around and go back to rest.
Boom boom boom.
Suddenly someone knocked on the door again.
"I'll go and have a look." Song Yunjuan hurried to the gate. As for whether Lu Sheng and the other three were thieves, she wasn't worried. All the valuable things in the house had already been sold off by her elder brother. The rest are dilapidated and dilapidated, and even the recipients dislike things that are difficult to move.
Looking at the figure of the little girl running out, Lu Sheng looked at the dilapidated courtyard and the gloomy environment.
"It's hard for this little guy."
"I didn't expect people to live here." Duan Mengan felt a little nervous.
"Is it strange that there are people living in this village?" The other person was Ning San, who was chosen by Lu Sheng to make this trip.
They pretended to be passers-by, intending to investigate the internal situation of this Zhuangzi carefully.