At the ticket window of Yijia Xiaocheng Station, he knew that he had to go with these people.

He knew from the conductor that the group was going to Sleepy Hollow, 300 kilometers away, and that there were very few trains in Sleepy Hollow, only twice a week. If he misses this shift, then he will have to stay in this small town for another three days. A lot can happen in three days, and he doesn't want the hard work of this journey to go unrewarded.

Time was pressing, and the conductor told him that the train would be leaving in a few minutes.

He didn't even have time to go to the waiting room, let alone think about the consequences of going with that group of people. He rushed straight into the rain and stopped the minibus at the gate of the courtyard.

The man was as strong as a lion, and when he was kicked, his whole body twitched with pain. But the pain actually made him extremely excited, because he knew that from this time on, he had another goal. And finding a goal has been almost the only joy in his life all these years.

He lay in the rain, fending off the pain on one side, and on the other hand, he was already grieving for the man. The man wasn't very big, but every muscle in his body was full of strength. Strength is just a barbarian's weapon, he is not afraid, and he also has a fatal weakness, that is, Tang Wan. His concern for Tang Wan will definitely make him fall into a situation from which he will never recover.

The minibus was moving slowly in the rain, and some low, dilapidated bungalows outside the windows showed that the car was driving out of the small town of Yijia. There was no sign of rain, and the clouds in the sky were so thick that they seemed to be within reach. The whole world was shrouded in a layer of gloom, and it seemed that only this minibus was driving on the road, and the front was in the rain, blurry.

Tan Dong fell asleep in the car.

He couldn't remember how many nights he hadn't slept, and at night, he always waited for Tang Wan with his eyes open, and at the same time, he needed to fight against some kind of fear lurking deep in his heart. No one knew, including Tang Wan, that his fear of the night was even deeper than that of any of the most timid women. He is not afraid of the evil and the unknown that may be hidden in the night, he is only afraid of himself.

He tortured himself to the point of hideous face, emaciated physically and mentally.

Standing in front of others, he could easily show off his strength, but he knew that he was becoming more and more vulnerable, that was his cover, and anyone could crush him with a single easy blow. Of course, he would not allow such a thing to happen, so at all times, he maintained absolute vigilance, wrapping himself under a hard shell.

In the car, he decided that the thin man in black sitting in the back seat was the enemy, and he should have been on higher alert when he was close to the enemy. In the first hour or so of the car driving out of the small town of Yijia, he was indeed tense all over, like a cheetah ready to go, maintaining a fighting state at any time. But the thin man in black sat in the back with a very leisurely expression, and his eyes always fell on the scenery of the mountains and rivers outside the window. Every time he turned his head and stared at the thin man, his intention was to have some provocation, but this provocation failed several times, and the thin man didn't accept the offer at all, and he didn't even look at him. The thin man was still wearing the soaked black clothes, and his lean body was prominent. Of course, Tan Dong would not underestimate him at this time, but he still subconsciously compared him with himself.

He believed that he could knock the skinny man down with just one punch.

Thinking like this, he felt a little more relaxed in his heart, plus he thought that his opponent was in the car, in front of so many people, he would definitely not dare to attack. Moreover, the thin man originally had a very powerful factor, that is, he was hiding in the shadows, but now that he has appeared, it is not so easy to play ghost again.

Tan Dong is not afraid of any opponent who appears face-to-face.

So, Tan Dong fell asleep later, and he slept happily.

If insomnia is a pain, then being unusually sleepy and not being able to sleep is a deeper pain. In RTHK films, there are often cases of police forcing confessions to prevent prisoners from sleeping, and prisoners are forced to keep their eyes open all night until they have a nervous breakdown under strong light. But Tan Dong's situation is different, at night, he forced himself not to sleep, and when sleepiness hit, he tortured himself in various ways. He had a multi-purpose Swiss Army knife, the sharp blade cutting at his arm every night. When the blood seeped out, it was as if some strength had been infused into his physical strength, and he used this power to fight the night.

Little did he know that he was going to pay a heavier price for those forces.

His arms were already scarred, and his body and mind were unusually haggard. He is like a fruit that looks full and shiny on the outside, but it has been riddled with worms on the inside.

And the Sandman is still with him, and any slightest slack can allow it to take advantage of the gap.

Tan Dong, who was asleep, saw a fifteen or sixteen-year-old boy with long hair hanging down his shoulders and a hideous face, but he couldn't get rid of the childishness on his face. The boy stood naked and wearing only a pair of blue coarse cloth underwear, and stood in the middle of the house in a dejected state. In his hand, he held a bloodstained kitchen knife, and at this moment, some blood slowly slipped down the blade, and then dripped silently to the ground. The moonlight shone in obliquely through the open window and fell on the boy's body, making the blood stains on his body even more terrifying.

Tan Dong hated the young man.

All these years he had used all his strength to fight against it, trying to drive him out of his life, but the boy was even more tenacious than he was, always standing strong in the depths of his mind, jumping out at any inadvertent moment, giving him the greatest horror.

Tan Dong's body trembled and woke up suddenly.

The car drove between the mountains, which were distinctly different from the mountains of the north, they were so high and steep that they seemed to have been slashed by the legendary god Hercules with a great axe. At this moment, some mist wafted on the opposite hill in the rain curtain, and the mountain a little farther away was half-hidden and half-visible, as if it were endless.

Apart from this minibus, there are no other vehicles on the winding road. The minibus is like a small beetle in the mountains, crawling towards a goal that never ends.

The carriage was already very dark Tan Dong looked sideways and saw Tang Wan staring at him with a pair of lonely eyes.

Tan Dong tried his best to show a smile on his face and held Tang Wan's hand.

"When is it now, and why is it so dark?" Tang Wan's hands were cold, but they were as soft as bones. Tang Wan said, "You've been sleeping for about eight hours. Tan Dong was shocked, and secretly blamed himself for being so lax, and he slept for so long. Tang Wan's body leaned softly on his shoulder, and Tang Wan said, "You look very cute when you fall asleep, like a child who hasn't grown up." It's been a long time since I've seen you look like when you're asleep. "You're just looking at me?" Tan Dong felt a heartache.

Tang Wan nodded: "Only when I look at you will I feel very calm in my heart." Tan Dong hugged Tang Wan tightly, only to feel that his body was full of pain. He couldn't remember where he had seen such a sentence, the feeling of love is heartache, no matter when, where, under what circumstances, even if they hug each other for a long time, as long as they think of each other in their hearts, that heartache will immediately envelop their hearts.

At this moment, Tan Dong felt that for Tang Wan's sake, he had nothing to fear.

Tan Dong looked back at the thin man in black, and there was some power surging in his heart. No matter who wants to hurt Tang Wan, he will stop him from Tang Wan, even if it costs his own life.

There is nothing to fear in death, so what else can he be afraid of?

His heart shuddered. At this moment, he thought of the knife-wielding boy covered in blood in his dream.

The mountains fade into the darkness of the night, with only an indistinct outline, high up, showing the distance from the sky. But even those bleak outlines can still be layered, and you can still feel that the mountains are endless. The rain finally stopped after a day's work, or the car drove out of the rain zone. The headlights are the only light in the world, and they shine straight out, but they can only illuminate the short distance on the mountain road. After the light, the darkness seems even deeper. The light is an unchanging asphalt road, and many places have been potholed. The gaze becomes useless in the night train, but you can't close your eyes, because the breath of mountains and darkness permeates every part of the carriage, they are colorless and odorless, but they are unusually real and clear, and countless impressions of the wild and primitive will rush to you the moment you close your eyes. And those impressions all come from the indirect experience in our daily life, and the source of the feeling is from the absurd and unusually terrifying stories compiled in films, television and novels.

Such a journey is extremely uncomfortable, and almost everyone is very tired of the feeling of being in the car. You have to be idle, but you can't bear it. I know that Sleepy Hollow is ahead, but I don't know when I will be there. The dumb driver can't help you at this point, and you can only estimate the distance to the Sleeping Hollow according to your own imagination. At this time, there is a lot of helplessness and loneliness in everyone's heart, which cannot be expressed, but it cannot be entangled, and you can only hope for the end of this journey. In the car, everyone's simplest and most realistic hope is to find a light in the dark mountains.

A lamp indicates a certain existence, which will give birth to a warm imagination that can be relied on infinitely.

The car continued to drive in the dark, but at this time, the vaguely recognizable car no longer climbed up and gradually became a downward trend. Looking up at the car window, you can see the clouds piled up in the gray sky, the edges of the clouds are wispling, and the sky as the background is gradually becoming brighter.

The distance between the mountains has become distant, which seems to give hope to travelers.

But in fact, the car went forward for nearly an hour, and when it reached the bottom of a hill, it finally stopped circling and the road ahead became straight. Because of the expectation in his heart, Shabo Xiaofei even stood at the front of the car and stared ahead. Several other people also stared at the front glass like torches, hoping that something would change in their vision.

Suddenly the road ahead changed to an uphill slope, but the slope was extremely low, and, at the end of the view, there was a strange change, the color of the darkness became much lighter, but you can't say that it was light, no light could be so faint.

But such a change has already made everyone happy.

The ramp has finally come to an end. The car was changed to downhill driving.

At this moment, Sha Bo and Xiao Fei in front of the car let out a low cheer, and Yang Xing behind him had already rushed behind Xiao Fei, letting out some screams full of pleasure. Even Tan Dong and Tang Wan couldn't help but stand up at this time so that they could see more clearly. Only the thin man in black in the back seat of the car still maintained a sitting posture, as if he was asleep, and he didn't seem to care about the end of the journey at all.

- His goal was not Sleepy Hollow in the first place.

In front of the car, although there was still a long way to go, there were already a few lights. Those lights gathered in the palm-sized place in the line of sight, like fireflies in the dark, unusually faint.

But the light itself is enough to make the traveler who has been in the dark for a long time ecstatic, and the place where the light is must be the end of the journey.

- Sleepy Hollow. A canyon that sleeps in the dark.

Shabo opened his eyes, and the sun that the curtains could not hide was falling on his face. He was confused for a moment, and then he remembered that he was in the valley of sleep. Looking at his watch, it was already eleven o'clock in the afternoon, and he got out of bed and opened the curtains, and the sunlight poured in immediately. The thought of being close to the girl named Forget-me-Grass immediately became happy.

Qin Ge, who lived in the same room with him, was no longer there, he hurriedly dressed and washed, and went outside to find others.

It's a small hotel, but it's clean and tidy, and the rooms are still standard rooms with all the facilities. Last night, the mute driver parked his car on this side street, pointed at the hotel, and gave another thumbs up. Everyone will know and can't wait to get off the bus. The street is no more than 10 meters wide, and the bluestone pavement is very elegant, with a long stone strip several feet long in the middle, supplemented by square stone slabs on both sides, and although the joints are uneven, they look quite layered. The walls of the shops on both sides of the street are more than a foot high, the lower part is made of stones, and the upper part is made of strips of wooden planks with square wooden lattice window lattices. The eaves protrude three steps, under which a cloister is formed. The signs of the shops are carved from wooden boards of various shapes, and some red and yellow flags float under the eaves. Most of these shops are closed by this time, and only a few hotels are still lit. The hotel in front of them has a nice name - Nightsleep Inn.

The owner of the Nightsleep Inn was a man of thirty-five or sixteen, wearing a pair of gold-rimmed glasses, a white shirt, black trousers, slightly curly hair, and a bit of bookishness. When Sabo and his party walked in the door, he was literally reading a book. Seeing that there was a guest arriving, he calmly greeted everyone and greeted everyone with a smile.

"Welcome to the Valley of Sleep, to the Nightsleep Inn." The boss later introduced himself as Jiangnan.

Shabo walked out of the room and turned to the front store, where Jiang Nan was still sitting in his place last night, holding a book in his hand. Sunlight streams in obliquely from the outside, neatly dividing the gloomy storefront into two sections.

Shabo walked over and sat down on the edge of Jiangnan.

Jiang Nan smiled, put down the book in his hand, and asked Sha Bo if he slept well last night. Shabo nodded and praised: "I really didn't expect that there was a standard room in this town, I may have been too tired last night, I fell asleep with my head on the pillow, and before I knew it, it was already noon." Jiang Nan smiled and said, "You got up early, except for that Qin Ge, your friends are still in the room and haven't come out." Shabo also smiled: "Coming to this place, everyone has been sitting in the car for several days, and they are all tired." Sha Bo looked at Jiang Nan's white face and asked, "Boss Jiang is not a native of Sleepy Valley, right?" "I've been in Sleepy Valley for almost a decade, and I can't imagine that I can still tell at a distance that I'm not a local." Jiangnan smiled self-deprecatingly.

"After ten years, you must be familiar with the people in this town." "The Sleeping Valley is only a few miles away, and the population is only a few thousand, and it takes ten years to get along day and night, even if I don't want to be familiar with it, it is estimated that it will be difficult." Jiang Nan paused for a moment, and then said, "Are you looking for someone when you come to us?" Sha Bo was silent for a moment, but still took out a photo from his pocket and handed it over: "I want to ask Boss Jiang to help me see if this person in the photo is from your town." Jiang Nan took the photo and stared at it for a while, with some doubts on his face: "I have been here for ten years, and I have never seen this girl, but the background of the photo is like a vineyard on the mountain, which is really strange." Sha Bo was already very nervous at this time, and after listening to Jiang Nan's words, his disappointment was overflowing. Jiang Nan looked at Sha Bo and seemed to understand something in his heart. At this time, a woman in a light green dress came in from outside, and Jiang Nan beckoned her: "Xuemei, come and see if this girl is from Sleeping Valley." The woman in the green dress was of medium stature, obviously a young woman, with a full and round body, and quite handsome, but there was some indifference between her eyebrows. The young woman who called Xuemei came over, held the photo in her hand, and there was a moment of silence, her eyebrows locked, as if she was trying to recall. Shabo and Jiangnan stared at her intently.

Xuemei put the photo back on the table, still shaking her head expressionlessly: "There is no such person in the town. After speaking, she didn't say hello, and walked straight through the store to the backyard.

Jiang Nan smiled bitterly and said to Sha Bo a little apologetically: "Xuemei is my wife, she is very kind-hearted, but she is a little withdrawn and unwilling to socialize with outsiders. Sha Bo was disappointed in his heart, and he didn't care about Xuemei's indifference at all. He thought that if Forget-Worry Grass was not from the Sleeping Valley, his trip would be in vain. Running such a long way is nothing, the point is that he thought that when he came to Sleepy Valley, he would see the Forgetfulness Grass, but now that a basin of cold water has been poured down, he is depressed and has lost interest in everything.

Xuemei is a native of Sleepy Valley, and she said that the girl in the photo is not a local, so it certainly isn't. Jiang Nan showed a sympathetic look and asked carefully, "Are you mistaken?" Shabo was silent, he had already begun to wonder if he had come to Sleepy Hollow correctly. There is no way to see the real face of a person through the virtual network, and the network itself is a virtual platform in which all kinds of people can play the role they want to play. While the Internet provides people with a new way of communication, it also spreads deception to people's lives to the greatest extent. But Shabo didn't believe that the words that such a fresh and refined girl would whisper to him at night could be all lies.

The truth was like a giant hammer falling on his head, and he was at a loss.

Jiang Nan stared at him cautiously, and said, "Maybe this girl is a person I don't know and Xuemei, if I don't have time, I'll take you to ask the old man in the town again." Shabo agreed noncommittally, his mind full of doubts about whether Forgetfulness Grass would lie to him.

At this moment, two more people came out of the guest room, it was Tan Dong and Tang Wan.

Tang Wan slept for a while, her complexion was much better, her fair skin was flushed, and she was obviously carefully groomed, revealing a graceful beauty in her whole person. Tan Dong didn't sleep all night, but because he slept in the car yesterday, he was in good spirits. They came out of the room with all their luggage.

Jiang Nan greeted him, looked at the big bag in Tan Dong's hand, and was slightly puzzled.

Tang Wan smiled and said, "Boss, let's check out." "Aren't you going to spend a few more days in Sleepy Hollow, why don't you check out now?" Jiang Nan paused for a moment, then continued, "I guarantee that my inn is the best in this Sleepy Valley. "We didn't check out because there was anything bad about the room." Tang Wan looked a little apologetic, "We just want to find a hotel with some local folk customs." When Tang Wan said this, Jiang Nan was relieved, and he nodded: "I didn't expect this." When I opened this hotel, I only thought about creating a comfortable environment for tourists to the greatest extent, but I didn't expect that many people from the city come to our small places just to find a primitive taste. Jiang Nan shook his head, as if he was frustrated that he hadn't thought of this.

But as soon as Sha Bo over there heard Tang Wan's words, he immediately knew that what she was saying was not the truth. They moved out from here just to hide from the skinny man in black.

- What kind of magic is there that thin man who can't help but be so frightened?

At first, on the way to Sleeping Valley, Yang Xing guessed that Tan Dong and Tang Wan were hiding from someone on this trip, and as soon as the thin man in black appeared, Tan Dong was like a great enemy, and he was vicious. And the thin man was not afraid of the burly and strong Tan Dong, he was kicked to the ground twice, stood up tenaciously twice, and was able to walk in front of Tan Dong again. If it wasn't for Sha Bo hugging Tan Dong that time, I really don't know what kind of situation would have happened.

Maybe Tan Dong will really kick the thin man to death. But why did he hide from the thin man, apparently he was afraid of him and not of the thin man.

It's none of their business, Shabo thought, and they can go wherever they want.

Tan Dong and Tang Wan walked out of the store, and when they passed by Sha Bo, Tan Dong was expressionless, as if he hadn't seen Sha Bo, but Tang Wan had a smile on his face. The smile shallow rippled on the handsome face, dignified and moving. Shabo stared at her smile intently until she brushed shoulders with him and walked out the door.

Shabo discovered Tang Wan's beauty for the first time, and thought to himself that this was such a moving girl. At this moment, he actually felt a little lost in his heart, because there was such a girl missing from his traveling companions.

"Are we really going to move out?" Tan Dong asked Tang Wan.

"Yes, we'd better move out so you can sleep peacefully at night." So, Tan Dong and Tang Wan packed up their things and walked to the street. The bluestone streets were unusually clean after last night's rain, and most of the shops on both sides were unadorned, and some shops selling local souvenirs and souvenirs placed their goods under the eaves in front of the shops. The side street is very long, and there will be a high slope after a short walk, and I thought this was the end of the side street, but when I turned over the high slope, the side street still continued in front of you. Most of the buildings in the town are made of local materials, using large sections of stone, so the houses appear to be strong and abnormal, and because of the age, these bluestones have been polished by the years to be as bright as a mirror, but the joints have become dark, and there is a kind of green moss.

"Where are we going?" Tan Dong asked Tang Wan.

"Go ahead, get out of that skinny man." "What is there to fear about that thin man, I can knock him down with just one punch." Tang Wan shook her head and was silent. Tan Dong was also silent, and at this time, he also realized that the thin man was not as simple as he imagined. At the station in the small town of Yijia, he kicked him with all his might, although he kicked him to the ground, but he was unscathed afterwards. He knew he was trying to stop him from getting into the car, but he didn't flinch, obviously coming prepared. Isn't such a person terrifying?

But Tan Dong knew that he was not afraid of the thin man, he was actually afraid of himself.

What made him even more helpless was that he couldn't let Tang Wan know the secret in his heart.

Tang Wan only thought that he stayed awake late at night to protect her, but she didn't know that he was struggling at night. He hated his body and wanted to tear himself apart in the night. He looked at Tang Wan who was sleeping, and his whole heart was twitching with pain. He didn't allow anyone to hurt her, anyone, he had to spend his life guarding her.

At last they reached the end of the side street, and first they heard the sound of water crashing against the riverbank, and then a wide river appeared in their eyes.

The river is turbulent, and the waves of water generally roll towards the riverbank. Tang Wan exclaimed first, and then trotted all the way to the water's edge. At the junction of the street and the river, there is a bluestone staircase, and two women in blue cloth clothes are washing clothes by the river. Standing on the steps, you can enjoy a panoramic view of the river and its banks. On the edge of the riverbank, there are densely packed houses with uneven houses, and at a glance, there are all sloped ridges, and the curved black tiles on the ridges are arranged in layers, like honeycomb holes. The tall walls have become embankments, and some of the wooden houses have protruded above the river, supported by thick wooden stakes underneath.

- Stilted building.

Tang Wan didn't expect to see the stilted building here, and the memories of the stilted building in her impression all came from Shen Congwen's works, and Xiangxi was famous all over the world because of Shen Congwen.

The river meanders from the upper peaks, sparkling in the sunlight, like a moving mirror, reflecting the sunlight. A few hundred meters upstream, there is a timber bridge that runs between the two banks. The iron rope is thick, naturally drooping into an arc, and the top is densely paved with wooden planks. At this time, the sunlight poured down from the other end of the bridge, and the chain bridge was not really visible, as if some fog was filling the bridge.

- Beautiful town. Beautiful Sleepy Valley.

"It would be a blessing to live here." Tang Wan said wistfully.

Tan Dong stood beside her and grabbed her shoulders: "Your decision is my decision." "So, let's live here, shall we?" Tan Dong groaned slightly, then nodded: "As long as I can be by your side, I will be very satisfied, and I don't care about anything at all." So Tang Wan smiled, leaning on Tan Dong, with a long-lost smile on her face.

On the stone steps, two women put their washed clothes in a bamboo basket and carried them on their backs. They looked sluggish, as if they hadn't seen Tan Dong and Tang Wan. Tang Wan greeted them with a smile, they glanced at each other, looked at Tang Wan expressionlessly, and still didn't say a word.

Tang Wan asked them if they knew where to rent a house.

The two women thought for a moment, and one of them raised his hand and pointed in a direction, then hurried up the stairs with his head down, and quickly disappeared from sight. Tang Wan was a little disappointed, and Tan Dong came over to comfort her: "People in small places lack experience in communicating with the living, most of them are so wooden and introverted, you don't need to care." Tang Wan nodded, grabbed Tan Dong, and went down in the direction of the woman's finger.

Half an hour later, they appeared in the patio of a house. The house is built on the hill, and the entrance leads through a hallway into the patio. The patio is a little narrow, and the ground is also paved with large pieces of bluestone, and there are some farm tools and bits and pieces on both sides. There are houses on three sides of the patio, and there is a cloister in front of the house. The eaves of the cloister hang very low, so that the patio is very dimly lit and has some old and decaying smell.

Tan Dong and Tang Wan followed the guidance all the way here, and knew that the owner of this house was an old man over seventy years old. The old man's two sons went out to work, and the family's house was idle for a long time.

"Anyone?" Tang Wan in the patio said loudly.

The door of the west wing room squeaked open, and Tan Dong Tang Wan's eyes immediately fell to the door. It was dark in the door, and only some simple furniture was faintly visible, but no one was in sight. They looked at each other and walked towards the door. The smell of decay in the house came to my face, and two people suddenly appeared at the door like ghosts.

This is for an elderly man, whose face is full of vicissitudes written in the vertical and horizontal furrows. They wore the same blue coarse cloth placket coats, the old lady wore a black cloth turban wrapped around her head, and the old man held a cigarette pouch with a bamboo pole and copper mouth. Both of them were stiff and expressionless, staring blankly at the stranger who appeared in their home.

The sunlight slanted down from the top of the patio, and the darkness and light formed a sharp drop, and some fine dust flew in the sunlight, filling the door, and the old couple stood in the dark, looking extremely unreal.

Tang Wan's heart skipped a beat involuntarily, but a smile soon appeared on her face.

"I heard that your family has a house to rent, and we want to rent your house." The pair of old men were still expressionless, as if they didn't understand Tang Wan's words at all.

"We want to rent your house, can you rent it to us?" Tang Wan repeated.

The old man still maintained a stiff posture, noncommittal to Tang Wan's words. Their eyes were fixed on Tang Wan and Tan Dong, as if an old monk had settled down, and as if they were carefully guessing the origin of these two people in their hearts.

Tang Wan had a disappointed expression on her face, she turned around and shook her head at Tan Dong, Tan Dong also sighed, stepped forward and said softly, "Let's take a look elsewhere." Tang Wan nodded, glanced at the pair of old men who were still standing still, and turned around abruptly.

Before the two of them could get out of the patio, they suddenly heard a voice behind them. They turned around and saw the old lady hurrying out. The old lady is not young, but her legs and feet are still very neat, she ran to Tan Dong Tang Wan, her wrinkled face was still empty and dull, but she spread her palm towards the two of them, and there was a brass key on it.

Tang Wan was puzzled for a moment, and then understood what the old lady meant. The old lady's stiff face also smiled for the first time at this time.

The old lady's smile was simple and clear, innocent as a child.

So Tang Wan also smiled, a brass key, opened her first door to the life of the town.