The earthquake stopped for a while, and Ji Yan had already rushed to the window at this time, and he looked in the direction of the house.

However, he was disappointed.

In the middle of the courtyard, there were indeed people standing in the middle of the house to take shelter from the earthquake, and it seemed that they lived on the island and were already familiar with how to deal with this natural disaster.

But there were only five people standing at sunrise and sunset every day.

I saw the five of them standing next to each other, standing in the middle of the courtyard, and the three adults were protecting the two children, looking in the direction of the three rooms, presumably because they were afraid that the house would collapse and hit them.

However, the earthquake also brought about some changes.

That is, the tree in their yard that I don't know what it was, fell, but the tree was not very tall, so it was just lying in the middle of the yard, and it didn't hit any room, but this small yard, plus the five people standing, seemed even more cramped.

At this time, Mei Yuning also realized that the earthquake had stopped, and had already gotten up from under the table, retied her hair, and came to the window.

Mei Yuning looked at the family, frowned and said:

"Or the family? Nothing has changed? ”

He couldn't believe what he saw, he didn't stand firm and took a step back, almost tripping himself, then buried his head deep in his chest, touched his forehead with his right hand, and muttered as he shook his head gently:

"Are we wrong? Guessed wrong from the start? It's been too much energy spent on this family, and we've been lying to ourselves? ”

There is a well-known story in China about a woodcutter who lost his axe, and he suspected that his neighbor stole it, so he secretly observed the neighbor, and he found that the neighbor was suspicious, whether it was eating, talking, laughing, or going out to chop wood, it was like stealing his own axe. Just as the man was about to go to the door to get his axe back, his wife came back with the axe, saying that he had left the axe at a relative's house a few days ago. Then the woodcutter looked at the neighbor again, and no matter how he looked at it, he looked like an innocent person, and he became a good neighbor again.

But in fact, this neighbor doesn't know anything, and has been living his life all along.

Now Mei Yuning fell into deep self-doubt, and he wondered if he and Ji Yan were the woodcutters who had lost their minds.

Because they thought that the family had doubts from the beginning, they were all self-hypnotizing and forcibly explaining.

Is that really the case?

Ji Yan interrupted Mei Yuning's self-talk, and said in an affirmative tone:

"No, we're not wrong. You see this family, almost everyone on the street is running in the direction of the palace now, because there is a big open space in front of the palace, which is the safest place at the moment, and this family, not leaving, you can say that they are protecting themselves, but at the same time they are protecting the people hiding in the house. ”

Ji Yan's words made Mei Yuning regain his composure, he regained his composure, and said:

"If it's really as you said, then the concentration of the people in these houses is too strong, not like ordinary thieves."

Ji Yan didn't answer, and secretly said in his heart: What is this, when these Japanese arrived in World War II, they committed suicide in pieces after losing the war, and there was also a "long live charge", which is really small compared to those who hide in the house.

Ji Yan thought of themselves at this time, and carefully looked at the guest room they lived in and the inn where they were located.

Fortunately, when this inn was built, it was estimated that the possibility of earthquakes was taken into account, so it looks very strong, not a tofu slag project.

In their guest room, although the stool had collapsed and the pen and paper on the table had fallen to the floor, nothing else had happened.

The owner and proprietress of the inn also ran into the house at this time, because Lin Anhe was wealthy, so he directly wrapped up the entire inn that was not too big at that time, so Mei Yuning and Ji Yan were their only two customers.

When they saw that the two of them were all right in the house, they were relieved, and before going out, they told Ji Yan and Mei Yuning that they were also going to take refuge in the open space in front of the palace, and they would spend the night there tonight.

Ji Yan and Mei Yuning decided to start tonight and continue to keep an eye on the family at night, so they would not leave the inn.

The proprietress and the hostess knew that they were going to stay at the inn, and told them where to put all the food and drink here, and then left.

There were a few small intermittent aftershocks that day, but there were no other incidents.

The family hugged the group at night and slept on the ground in the middle of the yard, but fortunately, it was almost April in the lunar calendar at this time, and this was the island climate, and the temperature at night was not too low, otherwise it would be hard enough.

On the second day, Ruan Zhong and Lin Anhe came back together, and now the two of them often go in and out together, and it seems that they get along well.

After the greetings, Lin Anhe said: "This trip between me and Brother Ruan has been completed, and yesterday's earthquake made my guys want to leave." ”

Ruan Zhong took over the conversation and said, "Yes, my brothers also want to leave, I didn't come in vain this trip, and I got one of these." ”

With that, he took out a pearl the size of a bull's eye from his bosom.

It is said that the king of Shanbei Kingdom specially gave it to him, which is a return gift from him to the king at that time.

This pearl is rare in inland places, but in this island country, there is no ingenious artificial glaze is rare.

After everyone saw this pearl, they all praised Ruan Zhong for making a good deal.

Just listen to Ruan Zhong continue:

"So I discussed with Brother Lin, let's come over and meet you first, and then let our guys drive the boat from Zhongshan Country to this Shanbei Country Wharf. If it's fast, tonight, if it's slow, they'll be there early tomorrow morning, and then we'll be able to leave the island at any time. ”

But Ji Yan didn't have the heart to think about this at the moment, he and Mei Yuning had found nothing so far, and even whether the would-be Kou was hiding here has always been only speculation and no clear evidence.

Ji Yan walked to the window, wanted to take another look at the family, and complained to everyone, meaning that he just went back empty-handed, he had no shame to see Zheng He.

And now he was stunned, standing by the window, staring intently outside, without saying a word.

Mei Yuning, Ruan Zhong, and Lin Anhe saw Ji Yan's stunned appearance, and they hurriedly ran over.

The four of them saw that the situation had changed.

Because of the earthquake, the tree in the yard fell, so now there is not enough space for two children to play.

At this moment, two children were not far from the inn, playing with small ball-shaped toys that they didn't know what they were.

Mei Yuning was the first to find out, and he almost shouted: "Those two children are playing with glass beads!" ”

When Ruan Zhong heard this, he immediately stretched his neck and looked at the "toy" carefully.

He affirmed, "That's right! That is our Qingzhou glass beads, this treasure has a turquoise light under the sun, that requires our craftsmen to come to the water, go to the fire, dozens of times to make it. ”

At that moment, Ruan Zhong wanted to go downstairs and snatch the glass beads back.

Ji Yan and the others stopped him.

At this time, there were only four of them, including two Ji Yan and Lin Anhe, who had no martial arts, Mei Yuning, who had not fully recovered, and Ruan Zhong, who was strong but bare-handed.

Seeing these two children holding priceless glass beads in their hands as if they were toys, Ji Yan had a plan.

After he had a plan in his heart, he instructed Ruan Zhong and Lin An to make peace, and the two of them listened to it and left.

Ji Yan whispered to Mei Yuning for a while, and then the two slowly went downstairs and walked towards the two children.

Mei Yuning sentry for him, the two children were playing with three or five glass beads of the same size on the ground at the moment, Ji Yan took out the pearls that he had just asked Ruan Zhong for, and said with a smile:

"Hello kids, can you play a game with you? If you can win against your uncle, the night pearl in your uncle's hand will be yours. ”

These two children have been locked up at home all day recently, and now they finally took advantage of the earthquake to run out to play, and when they saw this uncle holding a huge "night pearl" in his hand, they naturally wanted to, and said in unison: "Okay, okay, what game?"

Ji Yan first drew a straight line on the ground, then picked up the glass beads in their hands, and found a piece of soft soil two or three zhang away from the straight line, and pressed the glass beads on the soil to form a ball nest.

Then he said: "After the three of us stand on the line, we clench our fists with our hands and pimple hard with our thumbs, whoever bounces their pinball into the hole first, whoever takes away the pinball of the other two people, and finally whoever wins all the pinballs first, will take away the night pearl, how about it?" I'll show you first. ”

said and demonstrated, but it seemed that Ji Yan was not good at playing this game of pinballs, and it took him a lot of effort to get a ball into the hole.

The two children had never played this kind of competitive game, and when they saw that although Ji Yan was an adult, he was clumsy, and they all thought in their hearts that they would win this game by themselves!

Ji Yan said again: "But if I win, then all the pinballs in your hands now will be mine."

The two children said yes one after another.

The race is on.

Ji Yan first borrowed a "pinball" from them to start the game.

However, it didn't take long for them to take care of the ball.

Ji Yan is like a different person, every time he divides five by two, he bounces the ball into the hole, and a few times he deliberately releases water, so that the children can see the hope of winning, seeing that the ball is a few inches away from the hole, but Ji Yan hits the hole directly from a far away.

The two children deeply felt that this uncle's routine was as deep as the sea at this moment, and they began to be unhappy.

They are entangled in scheming and trying to cheat.

Ji Yan originally planned to triumph with all the loot, but he was really embarrassed to be rubbed by them.

Ji Yan squatted down, pretending to be very reluctant and said: "That's it, I can't give you the pinball I won, this is what I won, but if I say yes, I'll put it in the pain and keep it here for the time being, and I'll take it away later." How?"

The two children smiled happily and hurriedly said, "Okay, okay, let's wait for you to come back and get it."

After that, he ran away with the "Night Pearl" in Ji Yan's hand, and didn't ask who the son's surname was, and when he would come back to get it.

The two children got the "Night Pearl", and Ji Yan got back the stolen glass beads, and they were all happy, which can be said to be a typical "win-win" situation.

However, this "win-win" will become Ji Yan to win twice, which is a later story, and I will not show it at this time.

Seeing the two children running away, Ji Yan held five glass beads in his hand and walked towards Mei Yuning proudly.

Mei Yuning saw him approaching, smiled strangely, and said:

"I can't imagine that you are still a good hand at fooling children, what game you teach them, why haven't I heard of it."

Ji Yan became even more proud, gently touched Mei Yuning's head, and said:

"This game can be played by all our children, don't worry, when you grow up, your uncle will teach you."

Mei Yuning pursed her lips in disgust and said angrily:

"I can't talk to you properly."

If you get the glass beads back, you can be regarded as a gain, at least with physical evidence. After discussing some matters with Mei Yuning, Ji Yan packed up and planned to go to the Shanbei Wharf to meet the two merchants after dawn tomorrow, and then board the ship and set off to meet Zheng He in Japan.

In the evening, Ji Yan and Mei Yuning had a casual meal.

After that, I felt a little tired.

It is estimated that after working for more than ten days, I finally had some gains, or maybe I knew that I was about to leave here, so I was more relaxed, and the two people lay down early, although I still slept on a bed and a bench alone, but I fell asleep after a while, and I slept very deeply.

However, Ji Yan didn't sleep until dawn, and he woke up in the middle of the night and sat up straight.

Now the room is pitch black, because it is cloudy, so I can't see my fingers, and I don't know what time it is at this moment, and how long it will be before dawn.

Suddenly, in a trance, he felt something strange, and he couldn't tell what it was, as if the sound of the sea breeze at night was mixed with some other sound.

Is it Mei Yuning's breathing?

Not quite like that.

What is it exactly?

It didn't take long for him to realize something.

Ji Yan is completely sober at this time!

He was in a cold sweat, and every pore on his body stood up.

There's someone in this house!