The first rays of the morning silently pierced the darkness of dawn.

A piece of fish belly white on the horizon is slowly spreading around.

A few stars, accompanied by the bleak shadow of the moon, are stubbornly and unyieldingly hanging in the eastern sky, making a final struggle against the rising sun that is about to erupt under the clouds.

The wide streets are deserted, and the houses on both sides are closed, guarding the last of the silence in the morning light.

In the dark alleys at the back of the streets, in remote and inconspicuous corners, from between the closed doors, one or two dog barks could be heard from time to time.

After dodging the last barking of dogs, Li Yu finally stopped.

He pressed the crook of the little girl's leg on his back tightly with one hand, pinched the paws of a little starling with the other, and bent one knee against the mottled earthen wall to reduce the weight on his body.

He breathed in the cold air, and his whole body seemed to have come back from boiling hot water, and his whole body was bubbling with hot air.

Even with Abu's secret assistance, avoiding all kinds of sights all the way, smuggling a five-year-old girl out of the Dingyuan Marquis Mansion, and carrying it on his back, it was a very difficult task for him.

He was like a frightened little mouse along the way, and when he encountered any wind and grass, he hurriedly hid his figure, so that the distance that could have been easily walked in only half an hour was walked by him for nearly two hours.

Through this narrow alleyway, there is the abandoned house where they live.

Only then did Li Yu dare to stop and take a breath.

When his breathing was steady, he lifted the little girl on his back up, and walked into the dilapidated yard with all his might, through the overgrown weeds, to the main house.

"Abu?" There were no lights in the main room, and it was pitch black in the side room.

The entire abandoned house was left uninhabited.

However, the piece of land in the yard that he pulled out the weeds with his bare hands and stepped on with his feet, Li Yu would not admit his mistake.

He bent down and put the little girl on the straw pile where he usually slept, and put the little starling beside the little girl, and then he walked lightly to the door of the side room, put his hand on the door frame, and poked into it with only half his head.

"Abu?" He whispered.

The light in the side room was dim, and only a rickety figure could be seen.

"I'm back!" An old, hoarse voice came from within1.

When Li Yu heard this, he was shocked.

These days, they have been in contact with Abu by letter, but they haven't seen each other for half a month, so why does Abu's voice sound so much older than before?

Li Yu felt a trace of suspicion in his heart, and when he saw Abu's whole person, he clenched his right hand into a fist and stuffed it into his gaping mouth to prevent himself from letting out a scream similar to fright.

"Did it scare you? I must look like an old monster crawling out of the hell of Ahsa now, right? Abu was unusually kind, and a smile appeared on his wrinkled face, which only made his whole face look more eerie.

Abu in front of him is more than a hundred years older than half a month ago.

Now his hair is all white, and his whole person is skinny, as if a layer of dry and wrinkled skin hangs on a skeleton.

Li Yu bit the flesh on the back of his hand with his teeth, raised his left hand and touched his face hard, and asked in a thick nasal voice, "Abu, what happened to you?" ”

"Don't cry! Tears are something that only cowards do! You are a man who stands up to the sky, you have the most noble blood in the world, you want to grow into an eagle soaring in the sky, you can only bleed, never cry! ”

Li Yu nodded vigorously, took his right hand out of his mouth, and rubbed his eyes instead.

In the past, every time he cried, Grandma would say it to him.

And whenever Grandma can't do anything about his cries, Abu will show his fist.

Therefore, after being sensible, Li Yu was smart and only chose to cry when Abu was away.

He hasn't cried since his grandmother couldn't wake up from a long sleep.

And now Abu will also depart from him?

Li Yu only felt an unprecedented panic, he was not afraid of Abu, who looked like a ghost, but he was afraid that in the blink of an eye, he would be like a grandma, and he would never wake up in front of him.

Abu didn't care about his sorrow, he took out the fire from his bosom and lit it, lit the only oil lamp in the main room, and walked to the straw pile.

On the straw pile, five-year-old Tong Shuang looked peaceful and asleep, next to a little starling who was gagged and also fell into a deep sleep.

"Kid, you're doing a great job." Abu turned around and smiled at Li Yu, "Next, you go to the door and stand guard, and when I call you, you come in again." ”

Li Yu nodded.

He obediently turned, leaned against the doorframe, and sat on the threshold.

Behind him, Abu shook a bell-like thing in his hand, and quickly chanted the unique mantra of the Reyi tribe in his mouth, and his body was filled with a strange smell of spicy and light fragrance, which was the smell of various medicinal herbs that grew in the land of Beiqiang when they were dried and ground into powder and burned.

And this smell is said to have the effect of conjuring spirits.

Li Yu hadn't slept all night, and he was so tired that he fell asleep against the door frame in a daze in this unique spell and smell.

"I don't want to go back! Let me stay in this little girl! You see, that woman is going to die soon, and then I can take her place! I can't go back to my body right now, don't let me go back! ”

"Grandma!" Li Yu was awakened by the woman's screams, and hurriedly turned his head and looked at the main room with surprise.

With just one glance, his smile froze on his face.

Grandma's eyes were closed, lying straight on the ground, because she had not been exposed to the sun for a long time, her limbs were stiff, her face was pale, and her body seemed to be covered with a layer of frost, as if she had been dead for a long time.

"Grandma?" Li Yu approached with a sneer.

"Yu'er, help Grandma, help Grandma!" Five-year-old Tong Shuang stared at a pair of round apricot eyes, screaming with a hideous expression, she curled up, but stubbornly tilted her head, the expression on her face was painful, as if her body was experiencing great pain.

Only then did Li Yu understand what had happened.

He set his eyes on Tong Shuang, who was a head shorter than him.

There is no way to connect this little girl with her mother.

However, Abu said that the soul of Grandma had somehow lodged with this little girl.

What Abu has to do is to pull Grandma's soul out of the little girl's body and turn it back into Grandma's body, but obviously, Grandma doesn't want to go back.

"Grandma, why don't you want to go back to your body? Don't you want Yu'er anymore? Li Yu squatted down, raised his hand, and held Tong Shuang's clenched hands.

"Yu'er, you shouldn't be like this." Tong Shuangqiang gritted his teeth, stretched out a hand, and stroked Li Yu's face, "As long as Grandma takes possession of that woman's body, she will give you the most glorious everything in the world!" Stop Abu! Fast! ”