At noon, in a restaurant in Chishui Lane, the cat was lying on the bench beside Mo Xingran, squinting and licking her fur contentedly—there was an empty sea bowl in front of her, and there was not even a drop of soup left in the bowl.

I didn't expect that there was such a delicious food shop in this deserted alley, and this fresh and refreshing fish ball was not much better than the one on the main street.

"Lao Qin, bring me another bowl and put more spicy seeds for me. ”

"Come on, come on. The shopkeeper wiped the sweat from the corner of his forehead with the rag on his shoulder: "Lao Zhang, has business been good lately?"

"Hey, it's still the same, I haven't eaten the last meal, and I'm getting more and more confused these days. The guest officer named Lao Zhang took the sea bowl and took a sip of soup while it was hot: "In the past few days, the little child of Lao Sun's family has not known what evil has fallen into, and he has been crying non-stop at night, and I haven't been able to catch up with the morning meeting in the past two days. ”

The people at the next table echoed in unison: "No, it's like a soul screaming at night, it's weird and scary." ”

"Sensei, I'm still crying this morning, my hen is making him howl and stop laying eggs. ”

Mo Xingran wiped away the putty on the side of the cat's mouth: "Shop, check out." ”

"Come on. ”

The shopkeeper's name is Lao Qin, who is born with a good face, and has opened a food shop in Chishui Lane for decades, at this time he looked at the cat on Mo Xingran's side with some surprise: "Yo, you are not a cat very often." He stretched out his hand to the cat: "It's all jet black, this is called a black cat!"

"Meow!" The cat's flexible body slammed into Mo Xingran's sleeve robe, and Mo Xingran smiled quietly: "My cat is afraid of life." Then he took out a piece of silver and put it in Lao Qin's hand.

Lao Qin looked at the silver money in his hand and was stunned for a moment: "Guest officer, give too much." He gestured two fingers: "Two bowls of fish balls, two copper plates." ”

"I don't want to give much, I want to ask you something. Seeing that Lao Qin was a little puzzled, Mo Xingran added: "I am the owner of the new Xing family's old house, and I will inevitably have to deal with everyone in the alley in the future, so I want to inquire with you first." ”

When Lao Qin heard this, he happily received the silver in his arms: "No wonder I look at your face, you can find the right person for this matter, I am the door of the east and west family in this Chishui Lane, I am the door of the Qing, let me tell you..."

Lao Qin said that his spit was flying, and his eyebrows were dancing, for fear of missing something trivial - after all, who would have trouble with silver in these years?

"By the way, I want to ask the family next door to my house, but is it the old Sun family you just talked about?" Mo Xingran interrupted Lao Qin at the right time, and raised his hand to point to the courtyard next door to the old mansion of the torture family.

"Yes, hey, you can bear it for the rest of the day, this old grandson's child has recently contracted a strange disease, and he cries non-stop every night, until the next morning. Lao Qin raised his hand and pointed to the earthen wall not far from his side: "Well, you see, the red cloth was pasted by his family, and it was all pasted in my shop..."

Mo Xingran looked at his hand - a blood-red strip of cloth was pasted on the mottled earthen wall, on which two lines of words were written with an ink pen: "The Emperor of Heaven, the Emperor of the Earth, there is a night cryer in my family, and the gentleman who passes by reads it three times, and sleeps until the light of day." ”

In a hurry this morning, Mo Xingran didn't bother to observe the things in this alley, and now that he thinks about it carefully, it seems that there are no less than dozens of such red cloth strips in this alley.

He lowered his eyes and pondered for a moment: "Is there anything else strange about this old Sun family?"

"Strange thing?" Lao Qin touched his chin and pondered for a long time, and slapped his brain suddenly: "Hey, there really is! It's just that I don't know if this is a strange thing you said." ”

"But it doesn't hurt to say that. ”

"That's right, our Chishui Alley is not close to the Chishui River, and this alley is named after it. Hey, what kind of nonsense am I talking about..."Lao Qin scratched his head shyly: "I mean, this old grandson's ancestors have been the bearers by the river for generations, and although the family is poor, fortunately, the old people and children at home are in good health, until this summer......"

The two elders of the old Sun family have always been strong, but in the summer of this year, they suddenly passed away without warning, and there was no strange disease, that is, one morning, the old Sun woke up the old man as usual, but pushed open the door and found that the two old people's bodies were already cold...

"Everyone said that it was a happy funeral, after all, there was no crime when he left, and the old grandson only thought that his parents were old, and the simple funeral was over, but everyone said that the disaster is not a single line, this is true, not long after the first seven of the two old people, the old grandson's family had another disaster. ”

Lao Sun's family originally had a son and a daughter, the elder sister was handsome and had a pleasing temperament, and the younger brother was relatively rough and naughty. One day, the sister and brother went to play on the Chishui River, who expected that the two of them were walking by the river, and the sister suddenly slipped and fell into the river.

"Lao Sun is also a hard life, the white flags on the door beam of his house have not been removed this summer, and the three generations of the same family have both children and daughters, hey..."Lao Qin couldn't help wiping the tears from the corners of his eyes, they are all neighbors, who doesn't look sad?

As he spoke, there was a low noise from Mo Xing's sleeve robe, like the sound of a milk doll gasping for air, and even his sleeve robe couldn't stop shaking...

"What's the sound?" Old Qin was stunned.

Mo Xingran shook his head, reached into his sleeve robe and gently touched the cat's little head: "Shi Ye, life also, you go on." ”

The doubts in Lao Qin's eyes flashed immediately, and he sighed: "Hey, pitiful, but recently Lao Sun's family seems to have made a windfall, not long ago, he renovated the yard of his family, and spent a lot of money to hire a scholar for his own children. Lao Qin said enviously: "I see that Lao Sun has been in a very good mood when he came out and went in recently, his face is a little more oily, and his old face is flushed..."

Mo Xingran groaned, "Windfall?"

"Yes, I heard that a precious object was caught in the river, no, it is closed in broad daylight, for fear that we will ......covet it."

———

It was already time to leave the food shop, and the sun was still a little warm on the autumn afternoon, and the cats were lying under the apricot tree in the Xing family's old mansion with their eyes closed, and now they could enter and leave the Xing family's old house openly, after all, they were now the 'new owners'.

"It's very likely that the score is in Sun's house. Mo Xingran leaned against the apricot tree and looked up at the clouds in the sky.

The cat shook its tail and squinted its eyes: "What are you talking nonsense about?" "This yard is usually locked, no one can enter, and the only entrance and exit is the dog hole connected to the courtyard of the Sun family.

"Have you ever heard of the term 'Night Cryer'?" Mo Xingran poked the cat beside him, hmm... In the past two days, I have gained a lot of weight.

"Nope. ”

Mo Xingran stared at her with staring eyes: "The so-called 'night cryer' doesn't actually mean that children are crying, but that they are saying... There is evil in the house. ”

The cat had slept well, but when he heard this, he shivered: "Can you do it, big noon..."

I listened to Mo Xing's deep voice: "The children's night cry is all because of the heart of a child, before the age of three, the eyes of heaven are not closed, and it is the easiest to feel the evil." And the red cloth strip just now is actually used to pray to God to exorcise evil spirits. ”

"Didn't the gentleman read it three times, and what did it matter to your gods?" the cat squinted at him.

"The so-called gentleman refers to good people, who firmly believe that the voice of the 'gentleman' is easier for the gods and Buddhas to hear, and you remember that I once told you that everything has a spirit, and words are actually spiritual. Mo Xing got up and dusted off the ashes on his body: "The Buddha said: You can't lie, and those who lie fall into hell are the spirit of words." ”

The cat jumped up from the ground with a 'swish', its watery eyes rolling around... She didn't seem to be lying.

Mo Xingran looked at her funny: "But you're ashamed?"

"Fart, I didn't. ”

Mo Xingran stretched out a finger and shook it: "Spitting filthy words is also a lie." ”

The cat was busy covering her mouth with her little paws, seeing Mo Xing smiling forward and backwards, she reacted that she had been fooled, gritted her teeth and said, "You wait, tonight I will let you survive and die." ”

"Oh, I can't ask for it..."Mo Xing's eyes were dyed with some teasing, and the cat twitched the tip of her nose, thinking that this person was afraid of itchy skin: "Hey, what are we waiting for here?"

Seeing that the sun was about to go down, Mo Xingran had no intention of returning home for a long time.

"What are you waiting for? Mo Xingran compared his hand to a claw, squinted his eyes and pounced towards the cat with a calm face, and the cat was so frightened that he hurriedly ran away with a 'meow', and exclaimed: "Mo Xingran, you are sick!"

———

One day alternates between morning and dusk, and now that night is approaching, the moon crept up to the roof.

Mo Xingzhi watched the sky at night, touched his chin and muttered: "Tonight, the moon is dark and the wind is high, it is a good day to climb the eaves of people and listen to people's corners." ”

The cat stood on his shoulder, staring at the dog hole under the wall: "Let's go." ”

"Walking. ”

A man and a cat flashed into the courtyard of the Sun family house very quickly, but - one walked on the wall, the other walked on the dog hole, for no other reason, the cat was afraid that the ink star would be damaged, lest he rise up and throw her down from mid-air.

climbed over the wall and entered the hospital, Mo Xingran picked up the gray-faced cat on the ground, pinched it, and hid all the voices of the two.

At this time, in the dead of night, no one pays attention to whether he is a human or a ghost, so naturally there is no need to care about this matter of making people angry.

After a while, there was an earth-shattering cry in the ear room on the side of the main house, intermittently, like the mournful cry of a lonely grave, and the child almost cried and swallowed his breath.

Mo Xingran walked quickly to the outside of the ear room with the cat, and before he could enter, he heard the eager conversation of men and women.

"What kind of sin has you created, what are you doing to eat, I think this house has become like this, it is all for you to give!" spoke in a man's voice, and there was even some anger in his words.

The cat muttered in a low voice: "Tiger poison does not eat children, how can he say that he is flesh and blood." ”

Mo Xingran shook his head: "He's not talking about him. ”

Sure enough, a female voice sounded one after another: "What are you yelling at me, what am I doing to eat? I haven't been looking for a way to find a way for Baba to go around these days, what are you doing? What are you doing? When you see the heavens and the earth, you run to the wine shop, and I don't know which fox hooked your soul away, and your own baby has become like this, you know that you don't let go of that baby except for yelling at me! You still have the face to say!"

Hearing this, the eyes of one person and one cat lit up, looked at each other, and said happily: "Baby!"