Sycamore Town.

This town is less than 50 miles away from Shuiyun Town, there are two big mountains between them, the mountains are steep and rugged, and there are fierce beasts and thieves among them, so there are few contacts between the two towns, and so on in June this year, even a few merchants and traders are gone, for no other reason, there is an epidemic in Wutong Town.

Different from Shuiyun Town, which relies on water conservancy, Wutong Town is built on the mountain, the people often go up the mountain to hunt, at first there are hunters who picked up a sick deer, and they are skinned and deboned under great joy, a small part of them are eaten at home, and the rest are taken to the market to sell, and then the people who come into contact with and eat wild venison fall ill and even die one after another, and because of the improper disposal of the corpse, the midsummer weather is capricious, and then it is out of control, the whole Wutong Town is shrouded in epidemics, especially the old and weak women and children are infected with the most, it can be described as a mournful and miserable.

Fortunately, although the county is a wine bag and rice bag, but not a wolf dog with a rotten heart, after the outbreak of the epidemic in Wutong Town, he promptly sent officials to block the city, and reported to the prefect for help, the latter can not do the great achievements of suppressing bandits and quelling chaos, but has had this kind of experience, and immediately recruited doctors to carry out rescue, and finally controlled the epidemic in Wutong Town, now more than two months have passed, hundreds of people have died, more have been saved, and the bodies of the dead have all been burned, and the remaining patients are still struggling on the line of life and death, a total of 137 people.

When things get to this point, they can only be resigned to fate. The magistrate found a small deserted village located outside the city, locked all the patients in it for treatment, separated them with brick walls built overnight, sent officers and soldiers to guard them day and night, and every three days someone sent water, food, clothing, medicine and other materials in, and brought out the newly dead bodies, but few people who recovered came out.

The people in the town changed this place to Longevity Village, praying that the people inside could live a long life without dying, but their hearts were clear, those people were afraid that they would not survive, they were not sad and sad, but they were powerless, it was difficult enough to take care of their own family in this world, how could there be so many living Bodhisattvas who cut meat and fed eagles?

When Xue Hongbi entered Changshou Village, it was the middle of the night, and the patients on the left and right did not have the strength to flee in a disorderly manner, and the guards either gathered together to eat and drink to pass the time, or leaned in front of the door and dozed off, and no one noticed this little uninvited guest.

It has been five days since Xue Hongbi fled the Liyu River.

Xue Hongbi didn't know what happened after he left, and he didn't know if Fu Yuanyu escaped, he could only take care of himself and run away all the way, those killers who came one step later were left behind by him, but he never gave up the pursuit, if he continued to hide in the mountains and forests, there would be only a dead end, so he gritted his teeth and was ruthless, and finally fled here according to Du Sanniang's last advice.

Along the way, Xue Hongbi racked his brains in order to survive, and used all kinds of tricks, and now he is wearing a patched ragged clothes, two thin legs are exposed under the ragged skirt, and his dirty and messy hair is tied into two small braids hanging down the side of his neck.

Yesterday evening was the most thrilling moment on the road, six killers in disguise walked in front of him, and the leader was Lu Wugui, who had seen him before, he was wearing this dress at that time, holding the old and blind old beggar with one hand, and handing the broken bowl to Lu Wugui, who was dressed in wealth, and the "babbling" in his throat was all angry sounds, pretending to be a little mute begging for a living, with a smile on his face, his heart trembled, and he almost used all his strength to restrain his resentment and fear.

Fortunately, Lu Wugui didn't recognize him, and he was in a hurry to continue the pursuit, so he casually threw a few copper plates in the bowl and took people away, Xue Hongbi almost didn't hold these light copper plates, and it took a while to relieve his breath, only to feel that he would live for the rest of his life.

Determined that Lu Wugui and the direction they left was exactly the opposite of Wutong Town, Xue Hongbi left all the money he had begged for all the way to the old beggar he met in Pingshui, and then hurried overnight and finally arrived here.

He has little money and food left, and he really has no strength to continue moving forward, so he can only find a safe place to wait for Fu Yuanyu, Xue Hongbi has been thinking about it for a while, and decided to recuperate in Wutong Town for seven days, if Fu Yuanyu has not arrived in seven days, he will no longer wait.

Just in case, Xue Hongbi gave up settling in the town, but used the remaining money to buy water and food, and took advantage of the night to sneak into Changshou Village, which was avoided by outsiders.

This village is not big, and it can be said that it is crowded with hundreds of people, but Xue Hongbi rarely sees people in his travels now, and many houses simply open their doors, and at a glance, he knows that the patients who originally lived in them are gone, he sighed in his heart, and did not go to these houses that have not yet been cleaned, and searched in the dead village for a while before he found the abandoned barn that was originally used to store autumn vegetables and rice, and prepared to rest here.

However, as soon as he climbed through the window and did not stand still, he alarmed the people who had been hiding there, but he heard a crisp sound and something smashed to the ground.

Xue Hongbi was startled, and rolled short without thinking, hiding herself in a dark corner under the cover of the big clay pot, and at the same time learned two cat meows.

"Ah, where did you get the cat......"

An old and hoarse female voice sounded, and then a bean-like lamp lit up in the dim room, Xue Hongbi carefully poked out half of her head, only to see a rickety and thin old woman holding a lamp and walking to the window to check carefully, she was at least ancient, her left foot was lame, her eyes were not very good, almost put her face on the window, and finally saw nothing, so she was relieved, and took the black shadow she had just glimpsed as a passing wild cat.

Xue Hongbi had the heart to leave, but the fright just now had used up his last strength, and now he only felt dizzy and tight, his hands and feet were weak, if he reluctantly escaped through the window, he was likely to alarm the other party again, if he made a big noise, I am afraid that he would not even have this safe place.

He stared at the sick old woman for a while, and after weighing it again, he decided to stay here for half the night and leave before dawn.

However, Xue Hongbi overestimated his current state, and when he woke up, it was not only dawn, but also noon.

As soon as he opened his eyes, Xue Hongbi found that he was still cowering in the dark and cramped corner, even if the blue sky and the sun did not shine on him, his hands and feet were stiff after curling up all night, the dizziness was not worse than before going to bed, and the symptoms of fatigue and weakness were also aggravated, he reached out and touched his forehead, and licked his chapped lips, his heart was not good - he was afraid that he had a fever.

Xue Hongbi lived a life of displacement when he was still in infancy, his health was not good, he suffered great changes in just a few days, and he was injured and escaped all the way, and he lived a life of hard sleep, and he slept in this corner last night, and the humid atmosphere in late autumn poured into his body, which became the last straw that crushed him.

To make matters worse, it was a rainy day.

The cold wind swept in through the window, Xue Hongbi swallowed some of the water and dry food he had brought, the sudden illness and heavy rain disrupted his plans, and now if he left here to find another place to stay, it would only aggravate his condition, and for him it would be tantamount to killing himself.

Du Sanniang has never treated him poorly over the years, but she is not a gentle and careful woman, Xue Hongbi has learned to take care of herself since she was a child, even in such a predicament, she is not flustered, he sneaked into the city pharmacy before entering Changshou Village, stole some standing pills prepared by Langzhong, and now quickly took two pills, it took a long time to relieve some strength, and stood up tremblingly with the big clay jar, and patrolled around the house.

The old woman is obviously not a permanent resident here, there are very few things that belong to her in the house, Xue Hongbi does not touch them, and finally finds the entrance to the cellar next to the broken wooden bed, and when she opens it, she smells a musty smell, dust and cobwebs are all over the stairs, and she knows that it has not been opened for a long time.

Xue Hongbi took out the fire fold and blew it, went down to check it carefully, this should be the place where the autumn vegetables are stored, now there is nothing to eat, all kinds of sundries are piled up high, there is a thick amount of dust on it, he took a cloth soaked in rainwater to cover his mouth and nose, reluctantly cleaned it, picked up a shelter for himself, spread the hay on the spliced box, took off the beggar's clothes on his body and covered it, changed the only set of clothes left in the baggage, and finally breathed a sigh of relief.

For most of the next day, Xue Hongbi did not leave the cellar again.

He dismantled a hidden roof to make a pora, and it was convenient for him to spy on the movement above, the old woman came back near the evening, he listened to the vain and procrastinate footsteps, and guessed that the other party was not terminally ill, but also old and weak, and it was pitiful that he had ended up in this step of the field when he died of old age all his life.

After a while, there was a slight movement of boiling water, but there was no smell of food.

When Xue Hongbi searched in the house during the day, she noticed that there was no food here, and then thought about what she saw and heard last night, more than half of the patients in this longevity village had died, and the doctors in the city had nothing to do, and the rest of these people could only wait for death, and the food sent was naturally less, and a lame and lonely old woman was an out-and-out weak even in this place full of patients, no wonder she couldn't live in the house and moved to this barn away from others.

The light leaking from above went out after a while, and Xue Hongbi closed her eyes and had no dreams all night.

The next day he got up early, the fever had subsided, and his body had regained some strength, and he carefully opened the cellar door, and found the old woman still asleep in bed, so he quietly rolled out of the window.

At this time, the sky was not yet bright, and there were no houses around the valley field, Xue Hongbi didn't see anyone else, so he breathed a few breaths of fresh air with peace of mind and found a hidden place to practice martial arts.

Du Sanniang doesn't like him to set foot in the rivers and lakes, and naturally he won't teach any advanced martial arts, Xue Hongbi is so big that he only knows the thirteen styles of finger wrapping by heart, and the superficial kung fu next to him is not worth mentioning, and the internal strength and mental method are not at all, he didn't think so in the past, but now he has an uncontrollable anxiety, and he can't wait for God to open his eyes and rain thunder, and split him to have an epiphany.

After practicing his fists and kicks for an hour, Xue Hongbi sweated profusely, and the breath blocked in his chest was loosened, he cleaned up a little, turned his head and looked for a new place to settle nearby, but the open air around the threshing floor, the only thing that could shelter from the wind and rain was the barn, and the house a little farther away was inhabited by patients, and Xue Hongbi would never move over.

He sighed, he could only accept the cruel fact that he had to stay in the cellar for another six days, and he was not in a hurry to go back, so he first found something nearby that he could use and prepared to take it back.

“…… The Zhang family's aunt was gone yesterday. ”

"Hey, what's going on? Didn't she say that her illness was improving? ”

"Who knows, it looked fine yesterday morning, but it won't be out of breath later......"

"Is it really sick to death?"

"It must be, the daughter of the Xu family who lives with her didn't hear any movement, and the servants took the body away and burned it."

"What time is this day...... Can we still go home? ”

“……”

This question ended a conversation, Xue Hongbi watched them hobbling away with a bucket of water, Rao was only a recent time ago when he really saw what life and death were, and now he couldn't help but sigh sadly.

Eventually, he hesitated for a moment, put a large piece of naan and some wild fruits he had found, placed them in plantain leaves, and placed them at the door of the barn, and then went back to the cellar the way he came.

He lay in the cellar for a while, and heard finally a movement above, and after a rustling sound, accompanied by the "squeak" of the wooden door opening, the old woman exclaimed in a low voice: "This...... Who is it? ”

Naturally, no one answered her.

On rainy days, the road is wet and easy to leave footprints, Xue Hongbi deliberately left two strings of front and back in front of the door, winding all the way to the grass, anyone who sees it will only think that it is a compassionate outsider to stay at the door, and will not think that this thing comes from the person in the house.

Xue Hongbi estimated that these things were enough for her to eat for two days, but she didn't expect the old woman to still go out, he climbed up from the cellar in confusion, and saw that the banana leaves full of food were resting on the table, he counted them, and didn't move.

He laughed self-deprecatingly, thinking that how could someone who came to live in such a ghost place not be a little wary, he was really nosy.

So, in the next five days, Xue Hongbi no longer cared about the old woman who was under the same roof with her, and the other party didn't know that there was a big living person hidden under the floor.

The traces of the killers did not appear again, even if they searched Wutong Town, I am afraid they would not come to Changshou Village, Xue Hongbi's tense nerves gradually relaxed, the only two things that made him feel uneasy, one is that there is no news from Fu Yuanyu so far, and the other is that people are dying here every day, and there are more and more people, from one or two on the first day to five or six a day later, and it is not those seriously ill old people who die, but the young people who are relatively well.

Xue Hongbi intuitively felt that something was wrong, but unfortunately he couldn't go to a densely populated place, nor could he risk being found by the servants to check the corpse, so he could only force himself to pretend that he didn't know anything, until the sixth day, the old woman who had to go out every day was unusually left in the house, and he couldn't even go out in the morning to breathe, so he could only stay in the cellar restlessly.

I don't know if the old woman is sick or what, Xue Hongbi can hear her painful ** and increasingly heavy and disordered wheezing when she hides in the cellar, she rolls and struggles on the broken bed, and rolls directly to the ground at noon, her nails scratch the ground with a tooth-sore grinding sound, which is harsh and sharp.

Xue Hongbi said in a bad heart, he had seen many people die of illness in the six days of Changshou Village, but he didn't expect that the person who could be regarded as getting along with him day and night would have a seizure at this time, listening to the more and more disturbing movements above, he put his hand on the cellar door handle several times, and slowly retracted it.

If he comes forward, he may not be able to save her, but he will definitely expose himself and thus incur the disaster of killing.

At this moment, Xue Hongbi even hoped in her heart that she would die immediately, so that she didn't have to suffer, and he didn't have to suffer. However, human life is as humble and tenacious as mustard, and the old woman who looks thin and out of shape seems to be about to die in the next moment, but she struggles from the sun to dusk, and the painful voice is getting weaker and weaker, but it has never been broken, as if as long as she hands her a hand, she can desperately climb back from Huangquan Road.

Finally, in another struggle, the old woman rolled to the corner, her head hit the ground, and her eyes happened to meet the hole dug by Xue Hongbi, and met his eyes.

Xue Hongbi saw those eyes clearly for the first time, they were cloudy, dull and bloodshot, because it was difficult to see because of pain, and the dark eyes were like two dry wells.

However, his shadow was reflected in the well, like a floating corpse that would finally see the light of day.