The ancient town hides alleys, winding and staggered branches, connected like human muscle blood vessels, giving life to this ancient town. The ancient town is brightly lit, but the alleys are filled with darkness.

Xia Yao and I chased after each other, ran out of the lively crowd, met pedestrians in twos and threes, and finally ran into an alley.

The liveliness of the ancient town was isolated at this moment, as if it fell into a strange space of emptiness for a moment, and when I went deep into the alley, I always suspected that Xia Yao and I were at the end of time.

Darkness shrouded the road, and only a dilapidated street lamp stood alone on the side of the road, revealing a dim and dappled light. The alleys were narrow and dark, and the cold wind poured in, making the moonlight shiver.

There are stars overhead, but they are sparse, like a leftover corn cob, or a few grains of corn that have slipped through the net.

Xia Yao turned into the corner of the alley like a dark elf in the forest. I shook my head and smiled wryly and stopped.

Due to smoking too much, my cardiopulmonary function is naturally sub-healthy. The heart and lungs were aching, the respiratory tract was becoming nausea, dry and coughing, I had always been an indulgent person, so I simply sat down against the wall of the alley, smoked a cigarette and lit it. Slowly exhaling the smoke rings, I was undoubtedly happy and full of satisfaction at this moment.

"Ah, Xiao Chenzi, Xiao Chenzi! Where are you? Xia Yao's cry came from the corner of the alley. The cry was accompanied by great fear.

My heart shook, and a huge sense of uneasiness swept through my body, making my cerebral cortex tremble for a while, and the reason was that I was afraid that Xia Yao would encounter an accident, so I threw away the cigarette butt, jumped up, and rushed to the corner of the alley.

The corners of the alley were darker, and the surrounding houses were in tatters, and the rotting wooden planks crisscrossed the air, giving off a damp smell of rot.

Xia Yao ran out of another corner of the alley, hurrying and panicking. Suddenly, Xia Yao stumbled and fell to the ground, the huge fear and pain made Xia Yao sit on the ground for a long time and couldn't get up, Xia Yao turned her head to look at the corner of the alley, her eyes were full of tears and horror.

I hurriedly ran to Xia Yao to help her up, but Xia Yao screamed and cried hysterically in fright when I suddenly stretched out my hand to try to hold her. Xia Yao closed her eyes and kicked me, as if she was making a last struggle to protect her life.

"Xia Yao, it's me, it's me, I'm Xiao Chenzi!" I dodged Xia Yao's attack and hugged Xia Yao.

Xia Yao, who had lost her mind because of fear, paused, opened her eyes, and saw my ugly face. Immediately, Xia Yao hugged me and cried loudly.

"Xiao Chenzi, I'm so scared, I saw something unclean just now!" "Xiao Chenzi, don't leave me, don't leave me!" Xia Yao stopped crying and sobbed indistinctly.

I gave Xia Yao a hug back. responded to Xia Yao in the gentlest tone, "It's okay, it's okay, I'm here, I'm here!" "I won't leave you!" I tried my best to hug Xia Yao tightly, wrapping Xia Yao with my huge chest, trying to continue Xia Yao's warmth and comfort.

Finally, Xia Yao's violently trembling body slowly calmed down. Xia Yao let go of my embrace, tears wandered around her cheeks, and after spending Xia Yao's delicate makeup, I took out toilet paper and wiped away her tears. Looking at Xia Yao's cat-like appearance, I couldn't help but sigh at Xia Yao's lovely face, and pinched Xia Yao's blown-out face when I wiped Xia Yao's tears.

"It's okay, I'm here, I'll protect you!" I watched Xia Yao swear and say, Xia Yao nodded, with a light in her eyes.

"Xiao Chenzi, there, there are ghosts!" Xia Yao hid behind me and said in a trembling tone.

"Little fool, how can there be ghosts in this world? You are also a college student with higher education, and you used to be a materialist in political science, you should be a resolute materialist. I quipped, trying to move out of materialism to dispel Xia Yao's fears.

"Really, I saw a man with a disheveled head crawling on the ground and squirming when I ran over just now!" Xia Yao said categorically.

"Then I'll have to go and see it!" I looked calm, as if I was going out to the battlefield, and walked towards the corner of the alley. Xia Yao didn't move at first, and then she took my hand and said, "I'll accompany you!"

"Boom Boom Boom ............!" An eerie laugh came from the corner of the alley. Like the last wheels of a stopped tractor, the sound of wheels echoed through the quiet alleys. The laughter made my scalp tingle and my heart tremble.

"Ah, really, really! Xiao Chenzi, you protect me! Xia Yao suddenly spoke, she held my hand harder, sweat oozing out of her palm. Naturally, I don't believe in ghosts, I only believe in funny people. I squeezed Xia Yao's hand and slowly walked around the corner.

I got goosebumps all over my body, but I couldn't help but slowly come to the corner, and the darkness was thick, like dark and cold blood flowing from a rotting corpse, winding over the area. The surrounding silence was terrifying, and the strange hook moon had already unconsciously hidden itself in the clouds, as if she was afraid of something. The light that had been a little white immediately turned into a bottomless darkness. It was getting darker, and the rolling clouds obscured the little light with nightmares.

I saw a corpse's bone-rotting withered hands, hands reaching up to the sky, as if in a speechless plea. His head landed on the wall in a strange posture, his facial muscles contracted downward, and the base of his tongue in his throat was desperately sticking out of his mouth, his eye sockets were wide open, his round and bulging eyeballs stared blankly at the ground, and his soaked corpse shook slightly.

Since Xia Yao was behind me, it made my adrenaline rush dominate my body. I walked over to the corpse, staring at it for fear of a blink of an eye that the corpse was crawling in front of me.

.........The corpse laughed again, which made my back tingle and I didn't dare to breathe.

As we got closer, a foul smell came over my face along with alcohol.

When I came to the corpse, it turned out that it was not a corpse, but just a drunkard who was drunk and incapacitated and vomited filth.

Xia Yao poked her head out from behind me.

"Xiao Chenzi, I know him!" Xia Yao said.

"Acquaintance? What kind of person is he! I asked, surprised.

"He's a psychopath here, and his children abandoned him, and then his wife died, and he drank every day, and when he was drunk, he went crazy and said foul language, so we all hated him." Xia Yao answered truthfully.

"There's no way he's drunk here! I want to send him home. ”

"No, no, his home is at the end of the alley in front! Every time he gets drunk, he goes back by himself! Xia Yao hurriedly shook her head, obviously full of disgust for the drunk man in front of her.

The drunk man in front of him suddenly laughed and struggled with his body, only to find that his body was weak into a puddle ............of mud, uncontrollable like a zombie.

The drunk man looked up and saw me and Xia Yao, with a fierce glint in his eyes, and then he squirmed quickly on the ground like a poisonous snake, pounced on me and Xia Yao.

Xia Yao shouted, I grabbed Xia Yao's hand and turned around and ran, running wildly in the dark alley.

After a while, I pulled Xia Yao out of the alley to greet the light, and the pedestrians on the street were in a hurry and the tourists were scattered. The sound of promotions in the shopping mall in the distance, the soothing music in the loudspeakers of the town, the fragrance of the beef noodle restaurant opposite, and the children running chasing at our feet, made Xia Yao and I feel back in the world.

Xia Yao and I laughed, but we didn't know that both of us had cold sweat on our bodies.

Xia Yao's laughter stopped abruptly, I looked at Xia Yao, Xia Yao was staring at our hands with ten fingers interlocked, I hurriedly let go of my hand and laughed, in order to avoid embarrassment, I took out a cigarette from my bag and lit it.

The two of them strolled in the dim light. Guizhou has a humid subtropical monsoon climate. Therefore, his late autumn is not like the withering leaves in the north, but the evergreen leaves of the four seasons, and there are always new fallen leaves to replace them.

The silhouette of the leaf fell to the ground, reflecting the ink and blue paintings, and fell on me and Xia Yao.

Until late at night, the number of tourists gradually decreased, and Xia Yao climbed the Zhusheng Bridge again.

The town quieted down, we looked at the sparkling Wuyang River, blowing the lovely wind in the mountains, and the two of us tacitly didn't mention a word for a long time.

Suddenly, the phone in the bag vibrate, I took out the phone, it was a video call from my mother, I clicked to connect.

"Chen Yang, you bastard, are you ready to be a savage outside? The Chinese New Year is still a few days away, and you still don't want to go home? Are you going to stay out and start a family on your own? There was an unhappy reprimand from my mother on the phone.

"My dear mother, I'm back, I'm back, and you know you're worried about your son! This touched me so much, and sure enough, the mother of the line was worried! I cheekily smiled at my mother. After all, there is a Chinese proverb: don't hit a smiling person when you reach out.

"You, you, you're about to become an adult, and you haven't done it right day by day. What the? You're back? Where are you? ”

"I'm in Zhenyuan, and I was going to take the bus back today, but the bus station is closed, so I can only take the bus back tomorrow." I turned my phone to the Wuyang River and asked my mother to look at the night scene around me for an unobstructed view.

"Oh, that's okay, remember to come back tomorrow, it's almost the New Year, come back to help, get ready to prepare New Year's goods! I'm so lazy to eat every day, eat a lot, and don't put in the effort to do things, why did I give birth to such a lazy thing like you! Mother spoke to me in a commanding tone.

"Hehe, don't worry! I will come back tomorrow, I will do whatever you tell me to do, you tell me to chop green onions, I will never cut garlic, you tell me to serve vegetables, I will never serve rice, you tell me to go to bed quickly, I will never get up early! I patted my chest and promised, like a scoundrel.

"You're in Zhenyuan, so are you with Xia Yao?" When I heard my mother's words, I couldn't help but sigh at the greatness of the unity of mother and child.

I handed the phone to Xia Yao.

Xia Yao looked at Wuyanghe intently, not noticing my call with my mother. She suspiciously got married, and then smiled, looking naturally cute, simple, kind, harmless to people and animals.

"Oh, Yaoyao, you are really with Chen Yang, this little bastard, did he bully you, if he bullies you, tell Auntie, Auntie will help you get angry." The mother on the other end of the phone changed her cold appearance when talking to me, and was considerate to Xia Yao, which made me speechless for a while, as if Xia Yao was her precious daughter.

"Hahahaha, Auntie, I'm fine, don't worry, Xiao Chenzi is very good to me." Xia Yao followed the mother in the video to say hello, then turned her head to kick my nose at me, stuck out her tongue at my eyes.

"Yaoyao, have your parents come back this year?"

"Auntie, my mother said that they were busy with work this year, so they won't come back, so I'll be alone in the town for the New Year."

"How can this work, the New Year, other people's homes are lively, family reunion, if other people's Chinese New Year's Eve eat reunion dinner, set off firecrackers, can Yaoyao eat takeout by yourself?" No, no, my Yaoyao is alone in the deserted home, and my aunt is distressed! Tomorrow you will come to our house with Chen Yang, and we will celebrate the New Year together. Auntie cooks you your favorite meal, do you hear? My mother said bitterly, changed her hateful tone when she talked to me, and said to Xia Yao.

"Ah...... That's not good! Xia Yao lowered her head and hesitated, not daring to look at her mother in the video, and did not immediately refuse in her politeness to adults.

"What's not good, it's decided like this, no objections, tomorrow the two of you will come back together. You are my aunt's daughter, what happened when I saw my daughter come to celebrate the New Year together! Tomorrow Auntie will talk to your parents! The mother said angrily on the other side of the video.

"Uh-huh, good!"

"Still Yaoyao is obedient, as soon as you come, our family will be even more lively this year! Tomorrow, Auntie will go to the market to buy you more of your favorite dishes! The mother laughed on the other end of the phone, revealing the nature of the aunt at the entrance of the village.

"Are you talking to Yaoyao on the phone!" A thick bass voice came from the other end of the phone, and the presence of this voice made my scalp tingle and my face tingle, like the suppression of blood in the animal world, and this feeling came from my father, who was unsmiling and had a straight face all day.

"Mom, don't worry, I didn't bully Xia Yao, we'll come back tomorrow, and we'll hang up if there's nothing else!" I snatched the phone from Xia Yao's hand and hung up the phone in a hurry, breathing a sigh of relief.

"Hahahaha, Xiao Chenzi, I found out that you and your uncle are boiled tofu in brine - one thing drops one thing!" Xia Yao laughed secretly on the side.

"You don't understand, this is called blood suppression, I'm afraid when I see my dad's face!"

"Uncle is very nice!" Xia Yao sneered.

"No, no, no, that's for you and for others, my dad has been strict and harsh to me since I was a child, a stinky face with no expression!" I shrugged my shoulders and replied helplessly.

I took out a cigarette from my bag and lit the cruise ship watching the water pass by, Xia Yao leaned her back against the bridge railing, the city was full of colorful lanterns, and the red light reflected in her eyes, like a sea of stars.

The phone vibrated again, and it was a message from my mother: I don't know what your situation is, but cherish Yaoyao.

My parents knew that Xia Yao and I had fallen in love and broke up. Even during that time, my mother once recognized Xia Yao as her future daughter-in-law, and she was very good to Xia Yao, and even went to the temple to calculate the birth date for me and Xia Yao, which was unexpected, after all, the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law in China has been criticized since ancient times. It is also possible that my mother thought that I was ugly, and I was lucky to meet the blind Xia Yao, for fear that without Xia Yao, our old Chen family would have one more bachelor.

I shook my head and smiled bitterly, as if Yaoyao was her own daughter and I was the cheap son who picked it up in the trash.

There was a singing sound from the bar on the shore, and it was the singer who played and sang in Miss Dong's bar.

"Xiao Chenzi, sing me a song."

"What song do you want to listen to?"

"Just sing the ballad in the bar, I don't know what it's called."

"Oh~ This is Zhao Lei's "Young Jinshi".

"Yes, it's "Young Jinshi", can Xiao Chenzi sing me a song?"

"Yes."

I took the last puff of cigarettes, the cigarette butts had burned out, only a few sparks remained, Xia Yao handed over a piece of paper, I wrapped the cigarette butt in the paper and extinguished it, and then sang along with the guitar sound of the bar:

It's back in late spring in May

There are not many people in the early morning market

Children are singing in front of the door

………………

I'm just in love

Never dare to tell you

There was only one bus into town

…………

When I was singing, the pitch of the song itself was not too high, and I deliberately lowered the tone, and my voice was gentle and magnetic, like a slowly flowing Wuyang River, flowing into the boundless night sky.

Late in the evening, I smoked a cigarette again. Anna and Lili-Van giggled from the right side of the bridge.

"Hey, I'm going back to the inn, I'll pick you up tomorrow."

"Uh-huh...... Well, remember to come early tomorrow and I'll buy some gifts for my uncle and aunt! ”

"Okay."

I turned around and looked at her, and she also looked at me, with some complicated feelings in her eyes, mixed with reluctance, mixed with unfinished, mixed with loneliness and helplessness.

At that moment, time stood still, and I seemed to have some kind of throbbing spurting out of my chest, and my blood boiled all over my body, and the capillaries in my body began to form small beads of sweat, which were instantly evaporated by the wind.

The two men parted in their own ways, saying good night to each other incoherently, a small bridge, an ancient town, the lanterns were still on, the river was still flowing eastward, and the moon was once again hidden behind the mountains.

I walked to the left of the bridge and walked out of the ancient town to the hotel in Zhenyuan County, after all, the hotel in the ancient town is not cheap.

"Xia Yao, everyone has gone far away, and they are still reluctant to see it! Hurry up, hurry up, we have to go back too. ”

"Where, where, Anna, you make fun of me again!"

As they walked away, the laughter of three girls came from behind them, slowly blowing into the wind.