As soon as the futon was lifted, Xing Ruyi smiled, it turned out that there was another futon nested under the futon, and it was carefully piled up into a human shape. This kind of boring thing can probably only be done by her little Yin Yuan.

"Shopkeeper, is he okay, little boy?"

"It's fine!" Xing Ruyi smiled and turned around.

"Of course it's okay, what can my dignified little son of the Yin family do? Is it true that you really want to be scared to death by these bugs? Yin Yuan's voice came from outside the door, and when he looked up, he saw that under the light of the fireflies in the sky, the little boy of the Yin family looked like he hadn't woken up, standing there with a face full of displeasure. If I am really frightened by these insects, I will lose the face of my wishful mother and fox father, and as for the responsibility of taking care of this poor care, it will fall on you Li Mao. According to my fox father's temper, he probably won't kill you, but will only beat you back to your original form, and let you go back to the deep mountains and old forests to cultivate for another hundred and eighty years. ”

"Little coward, little boy, don't scare me." Li Mao glanced at it and saw that Yin Yuan was fine, and the breath hanging in his heart finally let go. "Little boy, you don't want to stay in the room, where did you go? Let the shopkeeper worry a lot. Also, the insects in this courtyard shouldn't have been provoked by you, little boy, right? What's wrong? This Lunar New Year has not yet arrived, and the little boy is busy decorating our yard? ”

"Go! You're the one who provokes the bugs. Yin Yuan glanced at Li Mao, looked at the dark place and said, "Come out!" If you don't come out again, the master will destroy all these insects in you, do you believe it or not? ”

"Faith! How can you not believe it! ”

With the echo, another person came out of the darkness, looking like an old man in ordinary clothes, but the aura emanating from his body told Xing Ruyi and Li Mao that this old man was the owner of the fireflies in the courtyard. As if to confirm the speculation of Xing Ruyi and Li Mao, the fireflies who were originally still stagnant in mid-air and watching, all hovered happily to the old man's side at this time. The old man smiled happily, as if he had seen his own child.

"Who is he? Why do you put these insects in our house, is it because you are jealous of our family's rouge and gouache is expensive? Although Li Mao was smiling, he was ready to fight with this old man at any time.

"When my mother came back from Hu's house, she probably had already dealt with the monster attached to Hu Da's body. Oh, this old man is the one who put that thing on Hu Da. As for his way of coming, the boy is incompetent, he has just been entangled with him for a long time, and he has used all kinds of tricks, and he just refuses to say whether he is alive or dead. I don't care to eat a guy like this who feeds bugs, so I can only bring him back to your mother and mother. ”

"What are you dealing with, I'm not a thing, little boy, you're talking too much."

"Oh, so you're not a thing!" Yin Yuan lengthened his voice, and took out another chicken leg wrapped in oiled paper from his cuff. This scene made the old man look at it, and Xing Ruyi and Li Mao were a little speechless.

The old man swallowed two mouthfuls of saliva silently, glared at Yin Yuan and said, "I'm not a thing, I am"

The old man froze, and probably didn't know how to describe himself as good.

"You're an old man!" Yin Yuan nodded at the old man with a chicken leg: "At least, that's what it looks like on the outside." ”

"That's right! I'm an old man, I'm an old man! The old man said a little angrily, very reluctantly glanced at the chicken leg in Yin Yuan's hand, turned his gaze to Xing Ruyi's body, and said lonely: "But now, I don't know what I am." I came, someone else asked me to come, as for these insects, he also asked me to bring them, as for what to do, he didn't say, I didn't bother to ask, after all, after all these years, I have become used to it. ”

"Who are you? Who is the man who called you? ”

"Who am I?" The old man looked up and looked at the fireflies flying all over the sky: "I have forgotten who I am." At first, I seemed to have a name, but for so long that no one called me, and I forgot about myself. ”

"Then how you got to be like this, you should always remember, right?"

"Remember! I remember that I was a farmer, and my family was so poor that I couldn't even afford to marry a mother-in-law. It was a summer evening, and I was done with my work, hoe on my shoulder, barefoot, and walking home along the road next to the rice fields. We grow upland rice over there, and the upland rice is very close to the river beach, and there are many lotus flowers planted on the river beach.

The lotus flowers on our side are almost not seen, and they are not from the city, nor are they as leisurely as those people. We all ate the lotus roots underneath, and occasionally peeled a few lotus seeds and went home to cook soup and drink. I also blamed myself for being greedy at that time, and when I passed by the lotus pond, I looked inside, and saw the old head of the same village sitting in it. I wanted to go over and say hello to him, but he turned around and smiled at me, then picked up the scythe that cut the lotus pod beside me and wiped it on his neck. The blood splashed all at once on my face, and I was instantly stupefied, and I stood dumbfounded, not knowing what to do.

The old man cut his neck again and again with a sickle. Like me, he was poor, and his family couldn't even afford a whetstone, so the sickle was very blunt, and he had to draw it down when he cut the lotus pod. Strangely, his blood was splattered so much that he didn't seem to feel the slightest pain. In a daze, I seemed to hear someone calling Lao Rentou, and someone else calling me, so I turned around, and then it was dark in front of me, and I didn't know anything.

By the time I woke up again, I was already lying in the lotus pond. At that time, it was dark, and there were beautiful fireflies flying everywhere, just like now, flashing and flashing, very beautiful. I followed the glow of the fireflies, got up from the lotus pond, and then staggered home.

When I passed by the neighbor's house, I heard them talking, saying that I had died strangely, and that I had been harmed by ghosts, and that it was best to leave the house and hide in the next few days, so as not to be contaminated with my bad luck and follow my bad luck. I wondered at the time, how could these two people curse me to death, I was so good. But when I saw my own reflection in the light and shadow, I was frightened, where is still the reflection of a person, obviously it is a skeleton. ”

"Skull shelves?" Xing Ruyi suddenly thought of Jinhe, the younger brother of the mountain ghost Jinse, the kind child who had also been tortured by the skeleton frame for many years.

"Yes, it's a skeleton. I'm from the country, and I've heard a lot of strange things, and I know that this person is dead, and if he dies unexplained, he will become a ghost. But is that what the ghost looks like? It's not the same as the stories I heard. If I am a ghost, why didn't Lord Yama send those ghosts to catch me? Could it be that this prefecture is also the same as the yamen of the imperial court, all of them look at people's faces and money power? I don't understand, I can't figure it out, but when it becomes like that, I don't dare to go out and ask someone, so I can only hide in the broken house at home, waiting quietly.

The strange thing is that I had already returned home when it was dark, but when I woke up the next day, I was from the lotus pond again. The difference is that as time went by, I found that many fireflies grew out of my bones. ”

"Rotting grass is fireflies, carrion corpses are insects, and these strange fireflies are said to be a combination of human souls and phosphorus in bones, so it's no wonder you think these fireflies grow from your own bones."

"Probably that's what you said, I don't understand it anyway, I just know that these little worms are my own children. They are also accompanying me and protecting me. The old man stretched out a hand as he spoke, and the fireflies immediately seemed to have been summoned, and they all flew and landed on his fingers, and in a few moments, the old man's entire arm became golden and flashed.

"What about that person? Who is that person you just mentioned? Is he a Taoist priest with a pair of very special Danfeng eyes, and when he talks to people, he always unconsciously shows a smile? ”

"That man," the old man thought for a moment, "I don't know if he's a Taoist priest or not, but his eyes are pretty much the same as what you said." If I think about it, I remember that I seemed to have been lying in that lotus pond for almost a year, repeating the same thing day after day. When it gets dark, I crawl out of the lotus pond and come home, and when it is dawn, I will find myself lying back in the lotus pond, and then stay quietly in the black sludge, watching these cute little insects come out one by one.

Occasionally, I could hear people talking overhead, and I knew the people who spoke at first. Talking about the east family, the west family is short, although it is very trivial, but it sounds quite interesting. If I meet someone who doesn't have long eyes, I can still feel the feeling of being stepped on with my feet. Sometimes, the foot landed on top of my head, and the smell of the foot was more smoky than the mud in the lotus pond, but I knew that I was not alone at that time.

When that man appeared, it was also evening, it was not yet dark, the sun hung in the west very beautifully, and the outline of the mountain could be seen in the distance. As I got up from the water, I saw two waterfowl flying past me, and the man was squatting on the edge of the ridge, smiling at me with eyes as if the girl had just said.

He seemed to be very capable and powerful, and he only hooked his hand at me, and I couldn't help but follow him. He taught me a few things and how to domesticate my worms. It was only then that I realized that these worms of mine were so capable. However, I have never used these insects to harm people, I say before coming to Yunjiaji. ”

The old man said, and glanced at Xing Ruyi again, the meaning is very clear, I came for you.

(Education 123 Literature Network)