In fact, not all Yizhuang stores coffins and corpses.

At the beginning, Yizhuang was a charity, similar to a family ancestral hall, guarded by the head of the clan or village, which was responsible for managing the affairs of the village and clan, such as raising funds, distributing subsidies, and handling disputes.

However, in the land of Xiangxi, Yizhuang is the place where the corpses are stored.

In the early years, the people's life was not rich, and there were often people who left their hometowns and went out to do business to make a living, but the world was cold and cold, human nature was sinister, and there were often people who died in foreign lands.

All the people who died in a foreign land wanted their bones to be buried in their homeland, and cremation was not popular at that time. Therefore, everyone raised funds to build a righteous village to store the corpses of the dead in a foreign land, and then asked the Taoist priests to send those corpses back to their hometowns.

The Taoist priests who chase corpses are also known as corpse chasers, and they are said to have a set of strange techniques that not only keep the corpse from decomposing in a short period of time, but also drive the corpse to walk as if it were a living person.

Because it is too shocking to drive out corpses during the day, they usually travel at night and rest during the day, and the Yizhuang built in each place is for these people.

The Tujia people were not surprised by the coffins in the hall, and a few bold young people even went to open the coffins to see if there were any corpses inside.

Naturally, there is no corpse in the coffin, because this Yizhuang is dilapidated and has not been used normally for many years, and the so-called corpse chaser has also become a legend and rarely appears in front of the world.

On the way, they hunted some game, and at this time they each gathered around the fire and lit a bonfire.

The Tujia people, like the nomads of the grasslands, often like to gather around the fire in the evening to mingle with each other.

Because of the limited space in Yizhuang, Xiaoying and I, as well as a few young Tujia people, gathered around Yizhuang and started a fire.

It's fun to talk to each other.

With hounds guarded around, we didn't have to worry about danger, so we slept peacefully at night.

Nothing happened overnight, and the next morning set off again.

At noon, resting under a stone cliff next to a mountain stream, Yan Xiaoying came over with a map and told me: "We should have broken up with the Tujia people, and they are going in a different direction than the direction we went to the forest house." ”

She said that the Tujia family took us on a shortcut closest to the forest house, and if we set off now, the foot is faster, and we should be able to reach the forest house tonight.

No matter how well we get along, there are times when we are separated.

When saying goodbye to several young hunters of the Tujia family, Yan Xiaoying's expression was a little sad. I don't know if it's my delusion, but I feel that she seems to like the life of the Tujia people.

Xiaobai is still a cub, the road is staggering, plus the injury, after entering the mountain has been carried by me, only when the rest is released, anyway, it is not heavy, the right to keep a pet.

Leaving the hunting team, Yan Xiaoying and I went straight to the destination without stopping.

As Yan Xiaoying expected, after the sun set, we drove for more than an hour on the mountain road with flashlights, and finally came to the forest house.

It was a wooden house deep in the mountains, and the lonely lights were seen from afar, which made people feel refreshed.

Before we could get close to the house, a fierce patterned hound rushed at us, baring its teeth and barking at us.

At this time, Xiaobai, who was stuffed into my backpack, heard the cry of the same kind and responded to the scream, but its voice sounded like a baby's milk, and there was no domineering at all.

However, when the hound heard Xiaobai's bark, he opened his fierce mouth and pounced on me.

I screamed, wanting Yan Xiaoying to make a move and teach this vicious dog a lesson with a corpse rope.

When Yan Xiaoying saw the hound pounce on, she dodged directly to the side, distanced herself from me, and held her hands as if she was watching a play.

The action of leaning down and picking up stones did not work for the hound in front of me, so I had no choice but to roll to the side to avoid the hound's momentum.

Then take off your backpack and take out the mountain whip.

When he opened the backpack, Xiaobai rushed out of it, grinning at the hound, looking like he wanted to fight with the other party.

But it is too mini, and the little head is wrapped in a strap, and it looks simple, and it is incomparable to the majestic body of the other party.

However, the next scene made me doubt my eyes.

The hound didn't rush up again, his front paws lay on the ground, staring at Xiaobai, one big and one small actually began to confront each other.

"You're a good dog......"

At that moment, a hoarse and low voice suddenly sounded from behind me.

The voice was so close that it was almost close to my ear.

I was taken aback, and when I turned my head, I saw an old face full of wrinkles and the vicissitudes of time against me.

"Who are you?"

I took two steps back, and I was shocked to see the old man appear behind me silently, like a ghost, and really startled me.

"You are a remnant of the Gaoshan Clan?"

Yan Xiaoying stood beside me, the bow in her hand had already been mounted with an arrow, and a nervous look appeared on her face at the strange old man who suddenly appeared.

Obviously, she didn't find out how the old man appeared just now.

Under the beam of the flashlight, I saw that the old man's face was covered with wrinkles like waves, many black old age spots on his cheeks, sparse white hair, deep sunken eye sockets, and cloudy eyes.

This old man looked about the same age as my old man, but it was strange that his waist was straight, his arms were thick, he was very burly, and he was half a head taller than me.

He was wearing a gray ragged shirt in the style of the military and peasant period, and his whole person looked full of treacherous and impenetrable atmosphere.

As we looked at him, he was looking at us. He was very presumptuous, scanning back and forth between me and Yan Xiaoying, and when he heard us ask him, he didn't answer.

"What do you ask, you ......"

I saw that he didn't answer, and I was stared at like this, I was quite angry in my heart, and I was about to have a seizure, but Yan Xiaoying pulled me back, shook my head and whispered: "People are under the eaves ......"

She didn't say the rest of the words, but I read the meaning from her eyes.

After all, we need to be here to ask people, we need to lower our posture a little bit, and we can't be aggressive.

When we looked at the old man again, we found that he had turned and gone towards the cottage with his hound, and had ignored us.

I was so angry in my heart that I really wanted to rush up and drink him.

"The Gaoshan people have very little contact with outsiders, and it's good that he didn't drive us away immediately when we appeared around his house at night, so let's go, let's go into the house with him."

Yan Xiaoying put away her bow and arrows and followed.

Seeing this, I had no choice but to stuff the mountain whip into my backpack, then picked up Xiaobai and chased after him.

Before coming to the house, the old man went straight up the wooden ladder and into the room, without beckoning us to go up.

We looked at the wooden house hidden deep in the mountains in front of us and found that its bottom was hollowed out and supported by many wooden stakes. Typical stilted buildings, there are many snakes, insects, rats and ants in the mountains, plus fierce beasts, this kind of building can be a good protection against wild beasts.

The house is surrounded by trees on the front and back of the house, and it is really difficult to find this deeply hidden house during the day unless the fire is conspicuous at night.

There was only one room, and there were no other buildings around, which made it seem particularly lonely.

At this moment, there was a wooden ladder in front of us, which led to the atrium in the attic, and when the old man entered, he did not close the door, and the light of the fire was projected from it.

Yan Xiaoying and I glanced at each other, then climbed the wooden ladder, and when we walked into the hall, we found that the old man was not there.

There is a wooden door on the left and right wooden wall partitions, but they are both firmly closed. It is estimated that the old man walked through one of these two doors.

The furnishings in the hall are so simple that we even wonder if this is a living room.

Because there is not even a table around except a few wooden piers.

In the center of the hall is a large clay basin with firewood burning. A wooden stand was propped up on the campfire, and a golden-roasted antelope hung from the shelf.

The smell of meat fills the room.

When I saw the golden antelope, I couldn't look at it, and the roast sheep looked delicious.

I swallowed a mouthful of saliva, and if I hadn't seen the fierce hound curled up beside me, staring at it with fierce eyes, I would have rushed over and tore off a leg of mutton to nibble.

After most of the day's hiking, we were already hungry at the moment.

At this moment, the wooden door on the left creaked open, and a young man dressed in black stepped out of it. He glanced at us, then walked straight to the grill, reached out and tore off a leg of mutton directly, and handed it to me and Yan Xiaoying, who was not afraid of being hot.

"Give us food?"

I looked at the tempting roast leg in front of me and asked in a daze.

The young man nodded, and handed the roasted leg forward again.

"Thank you."

I reached out and took the roast leg, who expected that the roast leg had just been off the shelf, it was very hot, I was so hot that I shouted, and the roast leg in my hand fell off if I couldn't grasp it steadily.

Yan Xiaoying's eyes were quick, and when she saw that the roast leg was about to land, her left leg quickly stretched out, and her toes were a little on the hoof of the roast leg, and the roast leg was picked up by her volley.

Then she pulled out a bamboo arrow from behind her, and skewered the flying roast leg in half.

"Be careful."

She handed me the roast leg skewered on the bamboo arrow and whispered.

I took it from her hand, looked at the meaty roast leg on it, and then looked at the mysterious young man in front of me with an expressionless face, and my heart was speechless for a while.

The young man who suddenly appeared in the relationship wanted to give me a dismount, if it weren't for Yan Xiaoying's flexible body, I am afraid that I would have made a fool of myself just now.

The young man smiled slightly, and then tore off one leg and handed it to Yan Xiaoying.

Yan Xiaoying was not as stupid as me, so she didn't take it immediately, but pulled out a bamboo arrow from behind her again, plunged it into the roast leg and took it, and nodded: "Thank you." ”

Then the young man tore off his own leg and sat down on the wooden pier, and ate it to himself, ignoring us no more.

I saw that he was eating with relish, and it was inconvenient for me to interject for a while. At this time, I happened to be hungry, so I also found a wooden pier, untied my backpack, put down Xiaobai, and sat down to eat barbecue.

Yan Xiaoying also sat silently on the wooden pier and ate in small bites, her expression was calm, she didn't know what she was thinking.

After Xiaobai landed, he yelled and provoked the hunting dogs on the side, looking like he was going to fight.

Perhaps because Xiaobai was too noisy, the young man tore off the last leg of mutton and threw it in front of Xiaobai, and the little guy whined twice, and his tail wagged.

Next to him, the hound was full of disdain, lying there unmoved, and did not run over to compete with Xiaobai, full of personality.

I muttered in my heart for a while, secretly weird, is even a dog so arrogant these days?