Returning from Ya'an to Nan Jing, the time has passed from the end of summer to the mid-autumn festival. At the end of September, the weather began to cool down.

When Bao Le returned to his second bedroom, he had obviously been away for more than a month, and it felt as if a lifetime had passed.Lying on the bed again, she had never been so relaxed as she was at this moment. She sighed, "It's good to be alive", and took out her mobile phone to call old man Qi to report that she was safe.

The old man scolded her again, blaming her for not even making a phone call for more than a month, but after hearing her safe and sound voice, the old man asked her when she would go to eat again.

The little girl couldn't hold back, and burst into tears on the other end of the phone.

The old man Qi touched the back of his head, thinking that although he scolded, he didn't say anything serious, so he quickly comforted her: "Girl, don't cry, just come back."

After hanging up the phone and sniffing again, Bao Le felt warm in his heart, and suddenly felt that although he had no relatives, there were still people in the world who cared about her well-being, whether she was safe or not was a very happy thing.

After staring at the phone for a while, she opened WeChat and was wondering whether to send Jun Zhi a WeChat message... She has nothing to do with them anymore, wouldn't it be a bit abrupt to send a message?

However, when she was hesitating, WeChat suddenly reminded her that there was a new friend request.

Click to open it, there are two more.

A head portrait of Bianhua, with the words "Shen Wangyan" written on it, for fear that others would not know who he is.

The other one is also pure black like Jun Zhi, with a blank space for the name.

Bao Le pulled the corner of his mouth and passed their friend.Almost at the moment of adding friends, two swish messages were sent directly, one for each person.

Shen Wangyan: Are you free recently?I need you.

Blank: Little Baole, guess who I am~

Bao Le raised his forehead, and then replied on the mobile phone quite speechlessly: "Yes, can come over tomorrow; you and Jun Zhi bumped heads, Jiang Ning."

Shen Wangyan: Good.

Jiang Ning: It's really boring, you can guess this.

She knew that this excellent tilde was not suitable for anyone except Jiang Ning.Bao Le just wanted to tease her. After all, according to her age, Jiang Ning is considered a centenarian, not a centenarian. A centenarian can use WeChat. This is a strange thing!As a result, just as she finished typing and was about to press the send button, the phone vibrated again.

Jun Zhi: How do change avatar?

The little girl was immediately amused by them, rolling around on the bed, out of breath from laughing.In the end, she formed a WeChat group for them, pulled in Shen Wangyan, Jiang Ning, and Jun Zhi, and entered a few words on the group name.

You invited Shen Wangyan, Jiang Ning, and Jun to join the group "There is something wrong with this group of people."

Shen Wangyan: ...

Jun: ...

Jiang Ning: What is this thing, can it be chatted with multiple people?Little Bao Le, come out and give her sister a hug.

Hahaha, human technology is really great, don’t you think so?

...

Early the next morning, Bao Le drove to the Shen family's old house.She has been here three times in total, and now she can no longer use navigation. For a road idiot, this is a qualitative breakthrough.And it was completely different from the previous two times when she came here, she was more relaxed and even a little happy this time.As for why she was happy, she couldn't come up with a reason for it.

Bao Le got out of the car and was about to ring the doorbell, but unexpectedly the door opened by itself.

As the creaking door was opened, Jiang Ning appeared behind the door with a bright smile.She wore another cheongsam today, a white double-breasted short-sleeved style, a small shawl made of tassels, and a pair of high-heeled shoes, which can be described as graceful.

Bao Le was curious: "You know I'm here?"

Jiang Ning nodded with a smile: "You have a contract with me, I know where you go."

Speaking of this contract, it is not at all what Bao Le thought.Not to mention anything else, the word raising ghosts sounds scary. At first Bao Le thought that she was supplementing energy by sucking her "yang energy", but Jiang Ning gave her a Byakugan.Later she realized that Jiang Ning liked Shen Wangyan's blood so much, it must be because the blood can nourish her soul and body, so she planned to bleed it for her.Then Jiang Ning said that she was only interested in Shen Wangyan's blood, and it was the kind of interest in snacks.

She can't eat, even after she has a body, but in order to fix her soul in the puppet body and not come out, she needs to smoke a kind of cigarette all the time.This kind of smoke is her "food".

Well, it has nothing to do with her.

So even though they signed the contract, Jiang Ning didn't need her to raise her, or even stay by her side.While waiting for the new puppet body, she has been living in Shen's house.

So she signed this contract, I'm afraid she signed a lonely one.

Jiang Ning flicked on her head, calling her attention.

"Come on," she said, "I'll wait for you."

Hey, didn't Shen Wangyan have something to say to her? Why did it seem like a big fight, who was waiting for her?

The two walked along the winding pavilions and entered a small courtyard for receiving guests. From a long distance away, they could hear a hearty and resonant laughter from inside.Judging from the voice, it should be an old man who is already very old, but just looking at this laughter, he must be in good health.

In the living room of this kind of Chinese-style ancient house, two main seats facing the door are usually placed in the place that can be seen at the entrance, and then the left and right rows face each other with other seats.The tables and chairs in the entire living room are made of high-quality golden nanmu, on which there are blue and white porcelain tea sets from Jingdezhen.

Shen Wangyan was sitting on the main seat on the left, chatting and laughing with the old man on the right.

The old man was full of white hair and leaned on a cane. Although he was a little hunchback, he was full of energy and articulate.Later, when he saw Shen Yan sitting in the seat closest to him, Bao Le guessed that this person was most likely Professor Shen's grandfather, the legendary figure named Shen Yuesheng.This man was able to lead a team to Ya'an for archaeology a hundred years ago. How can he be said to be in his 120s at this age, but he gives people the feeling that he is only seventy or eighty at most, which is really strange.

If the short life of the Shen family is due to God's gift, then this grandfather also confirmed the fact that jumping out of the cycle of fate is longevity.

Jiang Ning entered the hall first, and took the seat opposite Shen Yan.

"Long time no see." She winked at Shen Yuesheng, "I never expected to see you again in this life."

Grandpa Shen pointed at Jiang Ning and said to Shen Wangyan: "This woman is still at your house, why is your grandma willing?"

Shen Wangyan replied with a shallow smile: "Family matters are not in my grandma's hands."

"That's right," Mr. Shen tapped the ground with his cane and stroked his beard, "Your grandma can't beat her right now."

Bao Le cast complicated gazes at Jiang Ning, as if to say——you fought with Mrs. Shen, really didn't see it!Jiang Ning showed her a cruel smile instead, and the little girl sat up straight before her smile became abnormal, pretending to be obedient.

Shen Wangyan coughed lightly: "Did you come here specially from Bei Jing this time because of the matter in Gu Yu Township? We are all here, so if you have anything to say, just say it."

Bao Le looked left and right, saw that Shen San was also there, presumably Shen Wangyan told them that everyone who had been to Guyu Township was waiting here.But didn't see Junzhi, the little girl thought about it for a while, and thought that maybe it wasn't that she didn't notify Junzhi, but that Jun Zhi wasn't interested, so she didn't come.

Mr. Shen gestured to a young girl in her twenties who was sitting on Shen Yan's left. The girl stood up and introduced herself to everyone.

"My name is Zhai Tongtong. This time, I was entrusted by my grandma to tell you what happened in Guyu Township. She is old and has trouble walking, so she can't come here in person. Grandma was ten years old.Together with my grandfather, the whole family left Guyu Township. She was still young at that time, so she only had a general impression of what happened in the village, but she should be the only one in this world who can explain what happened back thenpeople."

Shen Wangyan nodded: "You continue."

Zhai Tongtong took a deep breath: "Guyu Township is a village built on the mountain. Due to the terrain, it is relatively closed and never communicates with outsiders. The people in the village believe in the saying that there are mountain ghosts in the mountains.Young and middle-aged people in the village will be organized to worship mountain ghosts. I don’t know when a witch appeared, and the witch led the villagers to sacrifice and pray for blessings, so everyone listened to the witch.”

Bao Le had indeed heard from Abu that the sorceress said that she was made into zongzi by Abu together with the village chief and the village steward.

"There was no problem at first, until one day, during the process of worshiping the mountain ghost, someone was injured," Zhai Tongtong shook his head, quite helplessly, "The injured person only said that he saw a kind of light that would emit light."The moths, and not long after, they started to have a high fever, and finally died inexplicably. The witch said that this kind of moth is the messenger of the mountain ghost, telling the world that there is no way to obtain peace with the current sacrifices.It is the curse of the mountain ghost."

"The mountain ghost needs the villagers of Guyu Township to offer him living sacrifices."

Bao Le gasped. It was hard for a girl living in the sunshine of the 21st century to believe that there were such ignorant people in that era.

Zhai Tongtong continued: "At that time, in the closed countryside, the words of the witch were like an imperial decree. Therefore, the villagers of Guyu Township began to send a virgin to the mountain every 20 years, symbolizing purity and innocence.Sixteen-year-old girls, they are called gifts for mountain ghosts. This bad habit has lasted for nearly a hundred years, until my grandma left, I don’t know if it will continue in the future.”

"How unreasonable!" Bao Le, who had a sense of justice, jumped up, "Do you have any culture? I haven't read Qu Yuan's "Mountain Ghost" at first glance. In ancient China, mountain ghosts existed in the image of women. Xiang ShanguiDedicated to the 'Virgin'?! It's so ridiculous!"

Zhai Tongtong said: "However, it doesn't stop there. My great-grandfather told my grandma later that in fact, all of this was a conspiracy by the township head and the village steward. Without their help, it would be impossible to rely on the sorceress to say it and no one to carry it out."Yes. And the village head and the others...they..."

Zhai Tongtong couldn't continue talking, and looked away with red eyes.

But what she said was very clear, and Shen Wangyan guessed what she hadn't said.

He said: "They took the girls who were sent to the mountains as their own. The head of the township and the village stewards enjoyed the young girls' bodies, and the witches enjoyed the beliefs of the villagers. The three of them conspired to kill countless girls who were in their prime.This is a century-long nightmare. There is no such thing as the curse of the mountain ghost, but in the final analysis, it is just the filth of human nature."

"Yes, after my great-grandfather found out about this, he left Gu Yu Township with his grandma overnight. He was afraid that grandma would also..." Di Tongtong said, "It's a good thing we left."

In that era, there were wars, famines, and plagues, and the people were in dire straits. In the end, only ignorance and chaos were left.

Mr. Shen said with emotion: "I remember, there was a little girl, what's her name, Wang Xiaoqi is still..."

"Wang Xiaojin?" Bao Le asked tentatively.

Mrs. Shen nodded: "Yes, it seems to be called Wang Xiaojin, an orphan, just fifteen or sixteen years old, often called by the township head to work in our place, and every time he comes, he will ask us, if we want to go with the archaeological team,What needs to be done. Alas... there are many things that cannot be thought about carefully."

"I heard what Ah Yan said about Gu Yu Township, so I sent people to visit the descendants of Gu Yu Township. Fortunately, I was able to have news from that year, so that this past will not be buried alive. Social development is still getting better and better.It's getting better and better, at least this kind of thing will never happen again."

After hearing these words, Shen Wangyan bowed deeply to Mr. Shen.

"Okay, I've finished what I have to say, come on girl," Mr. Shen stretched out his hand towards Zhai Tongtong, "I went to the yard with Grandpa, I haven't been here for a long time, and I don't know if there are big changes."

Seeing the backs of an old man and a young man walking out of the living room and drifting away, Shen Wangyan withdrew his gaze and glanced at Shen Yan.

He asked, "Why don't you go?"

Shen Yan pushed his glasses and said: "It seems that you still have questions to ask, so naturally I will stay here to answer your questions."

Shen Wangyan said with a half-smile, "There was indeed a problem just now, but it's gone now."

"Oh?" Professor Shen raised his eyebrows.

"The matter in Gu Yu Township is already very clear. It is nothing more than that the descendants of Ai Sang had feelings for Wang Xiaojin. In the end, they were unable to save her and avenged all the villagers for her. He was originally a lunatic. ThisThat kind of thing is really like his style."

After hearing Young Master Shen's analysis, Bao Le couldn't help but nodded in agreement.

Shen Wangyan said again: "As for the matter of the archaeological team..."

There was a mocking smile on the corner of his mouth: "Your grandpa did something wrong, how could he tell us."

Professor Shen did not refute, but just smiled faintly.

Shen Wangyan said: "I have been dead for a hundred years, no matter what the truth is, how much relationship I have with your grandfather is not what I care about. What I care about is where the next place of enlightenment is and how much I can liveyear."

"You are different from the previous patriarchs of your Shen family." Professor Shen took out his wallet, took out a business card from it, and handed it over, "If you want to know where the next place of enlightenment is, you might as well askhe."

Shen Wangyan took the business card and looked at it carefully. Bao Le couldn't see the front of it, but the words "Bei Jing Jing Huatang" could be vaguely recognized on the back, and the back part was blocked by Shen Wangyan's hand.

"By the way," Shen Yan asked him, "Where's your shadow?"

Shen Wangyan frowned, he didn't like Shen Yan's name: "His name is Jun Zhi, what do you want him for?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Jun Zhi walked into the living room from outside, he didn't know whether he heard them talking about him, or he came in simply because he saw Shen Yuesheng leave.

There was a box on the table beside Shen Yan, about half a meter in length, he took something out of it, and a trace of excitement was visible to the naked eye on Jun Zhi's expressionless face.

Bao Le is also familiar with the things in this box, isn't it the knife he saw in the princess' tomb!Inserted in a black deerskin scabbard, it was inlaid with a golden chain pendant. At the place where the knife grid and the scabbard were connected, there was a groove inlaid with a simple totem of the Bana flower.

Jun Zhi took the knife, caressed the scabbard lightly, then pulled out the knife with his right hand, and swung it around.He observed the handle himself, and pressed the groove. Something bounced up because of his movement, and Jun Zhi then pulled out another small knife from the groove.This small knife is only as long as the palm of your hand, but it is much sharper than the big knife. The two knives are made of the same material and the handle has the same pattern. They are the same type of knife.

Generally speaking, a knife of this design is called a mother-in-law knife.

"Ziwu Yinyangrui," Shen Yan said, "the most famous one among Zimu knives, although it is a cultural relic, but considering that it was originally yours, it is now considered to be returned to its original owner. It is not easy to find, don'tLose it again."

Jun Zhi nodded, and then left the living room.This person probably went to test the knife, and the place here is too small for him to use it.

What is a blessing in disguise, all those lost knives, combined, probably didn't make him happy.

Shen Yan withdrew his gaze from Jun Zhi and looked at Bao Le, just when the little girl was puzzled, he took something out of his pocket.

Bao Le froze for a moment.

What he handed her was the bracelet she had lost.The bracelet has been cleaned, and there is no dust or dirt on it. The three bright colors of light pink, light yellow and water green are intertwined, and even the fake crystal is perfect.

"I feel this should be yours." Professor Shen said thoughtfully.

Holding the bracelet in his hand, Bao Le suddenly remembered what Xiao Jin said to her last - believe it or not, we are indeed alike in many places, if we met when I was still alive, maybe we could really become friends.

friend?

In fact, Bao Le still felt a little emotional about Xiao Jin's fate, but a poor person must have something to hate, she sympathized with her, but she couldn't forgive her for killing Shen Qi and the others for her own sake.Now that the deceased is dead, she didn't forgive her before, and there is no point in sympathizing with her.

It's just that if they met when she was still alive, everything should be a different scene.

The little girl pursed her lips, reached out and brought the bracelet back to her right wrist.

...

"Aren't you going to leave after dinner?" Shen Wangyan stood at the door with his chest crossed and asked Bao Le.

"Absolutely not," the little girl crossed her hands in front of her chest, "Your family's dinner has left a deep psychological shadow on me, don't you want to fool me!"

Young Master Shen didn't force her either: "Then go down the mountain and be careful."

Bao Le sat back in the car and was starting the car when suddenly a pair of hands touched her neck from behind, which shocked her greatly.But after seeing the ten red nails on those hands clearly, the little girl said angrily, "Jiang Ning, you are so childish!"

Jiang Ning rolled over from the back seat to the passenger seat, crossed her legs, rested her chin, looked at her with a smile and didn't speak.

Bao Le frowned: "You don't want to go with me, do you?"

Jiang Meiren didn't bother to speak, she just kept staring at her, blinking her peach eyes.

Resigned to her fate, she flipped over the Byakugan, our heroine lowered her head and continued to fasten her seat belt. Jiang Ning imitated her movements and put on her seat belt obediently.After the car started, Bao Le suddenly heard Shen Wangyan calling out to her, the accelerator pedal that had already been stepped on was not stopped in time, and the car swerved and drove forward.

In the end, Bao Le saw Shen Wangyan walk out of the gate, the afterglow of the setting sun shone on him, Young Master Shen bowed ninety degrees to her just like in the hospital before, his mouth shape seemed to say...

"Thank you, Bao Le."

[The bell left behind in the boat coffin - end of text.】