Professor Yang Shimo and Master Hong Dao trekked through the wilderness in search of a new site for the laboratory. Professor Yang's retired colleagues love to play chess, fish, and climb mountains all day long, and some of them have been rehired by the school to continue to exert their spare energy. Professor Yang regards the fieldwork as mountaineering tourism, but the scenery of the countryside is not as charming as the scenic spots, but it is also at ease.

As they walked down the country road, they saw a large tree with dry loofah vines entwined around it. As soon as they reached the bottom of the tree, a bird in the tree was frightened and flew away with a thud. There was a small stream in front of the tree, which trickled slowly over the jagged stones. There is a stone arch bridge over the stream, and the stone balustrade is covered with green moss.

After crossing the stone arch bridge and turning the hill, they saw a village with only seven or eight families. When night falls, they want to find a family to spend the night. The two gates at the head of the village are locked and uninhabited for a long time. They came to the third house, where an old man was picking up firewood in the yard with a chopstick. This chop is made of bamboo, nailed in the shape of a rake, and has several teeth, which can gather the firewood and grass in the ground.

"Hello, sir! Why don't you want us to stay at your house for one night? Hong Daoshi asked.

"Yes, where are you from?" The old man stood in the courtyard with a hunched back.

"We're doing field surveys." Hong Daoshi said.

"It turns out that you are scientists, and it is an honor and honor!" The old man said.

Master Hong helped the old man carry the firewood into the stove room. The old man's house was a slate house, and in some places it had been broken, and the wild wind could pour directly into the house. The earthen stove in the stove room has collapsed, and the iron pot cannot be placed. The old man rebuilt a stove with a few bricks, and the stove had a large cauldron. The old man added two scoops of water and a bowl of rice to it, and after boiling, he added green vegetable leaves to it to make green vegetable porridge. Professor Yang took out some braised pork from his bag, and the old man and Master Hong didn't dare to eat it, they wanted to be vegetarian.

"Uncle, how many people are there in the village?" Professor Yang asked curiously when he saw that the village was deserted.

"There are only three or four old people left! The rest of the family moved to the city. The old man said.

"This village is so lonely and lonely, why don't you move out?" Professor Yang asked.

"My kids don't mix well outside and can't afford to buy a house, where do I go to live? Besides, I will guard my land. My ancestors were tenant farmers, and after the agrarian revolution, my family was given land, and now the people in the village have land and do not plant, and they have all run out. What a pity these lands! The old man said.

The old man's house did not have a TV, and after they finished eating, they had nothing to do, so they had to go to bed early. Professor Yang and Master Hong's beds had not been slept in for a long time, and there was a musty smell. Mosquitoes buzz and suck human blood everywhere. They dusted off their beds, lit a mosquito coil, and lay down in their clothes. The incandescent light in the room was very dim, not much brighter than an oil lamp.

In the middle of the night, they heard a knock on the door, and they didn't know who came to disturb the rest of the house in the middle of the night. The old man got up sleepily, came to the door, and asked softly, "Who are you?" ”

"We're passing through, and we're here to spend the night." The man outside the door replied.

How could anyone come to someone else's house in the middle of the night, the old man was worried that they were not human, so he didn't dare to open the door, and asked, "What can you do to prove that you are human?" ”

"We can't prove that we're not human in the first place." Voices outside said.

Although he didn't do anything wrong, and he wasn't afraid that the ghost would knock on the door in the middle of the night, the old man was still startled, and the things outside didn't even want to lie, and wanted to trick him into opening the door. The old man asked, "Then you are ghosts?" ”

"We're not ghosts either. You let us in first. ”

"You'd better go elsewhere, I can't live in this hut where you are a god." The old man said.

The old man was about to go back to his room to sleep, when he saw two white lights rushing into the hall, and two people were sitting on stools in colorful clothes, and with the help of the light that came through the room, he could vaguely see that these two people were kind and kind, not like bad people. The old man turned on the electric light in the hall, and the two men disappeared in an instant. The old man turned out the lights, and the two men reappeared.

"Don't turn on the lights, we can't stand the strong light, you can light two candles." The two people in the room said.

The old man took out two candles, lit them, and saw clearly the appearance of these two people, a man and a woman, wearing robes, very old, wearing hats, and crutches, looking like they were ancient, and had traveled to modern times.

"Why are you here at the Humble House?" The old man asked in horror.

"We're hungry, let's get something to eat. To tell you the truth, we are the gods of the land nearby. The robed old man said.

According to the robed old man, two black-clothed emissaries recently approached them and said that the Yin Devourer King had returned to the world, and that he wanted the land in-laws to submit to them, and that all orders must be under the command of the Yin Devouring King. The in-laws of the land were unwilling to submit, so the two black-clothed messengers coerced them and cut off their offerings to them, and from then on, the sacrificial supplies given to the in-laws of the land by the good men and women were snatched away by the black-clothed messengers, and they could no longer enjoy the sacrifices. In desperation, the land in-laws had to come out to find food. They didn't want to show their true colors, but they were afraid that mortals would not see them and not understand their situation, so they had to show their true colors.

"What is that Eater King?" The old man asked.

"It's a new force, our mana is limited, we can't afford to provoke him!" The land lord said.

There was still some vegetable porridge left in the antimony pot, and the old man heated it up and scooped two bowls out. Professor Yang took out some peanuts, twist flowers, melon seeds, walnuts, braised pork and other things from his bag and handed them to the old man, asking him to entertain the land in-laws.

"Are your old teeth good? Can't chew peanuts? The old man asked.

"Our teeth are fine, no problem." The land lord said.

"Are you always a vegetarian or a meat eater? Do you eat braised pork here? The old man asked.

"I don't have taboos, as long as it's pure meat, I can eat it." The land lord was very happy when he saw the old man bring braised pork.

"What is pure meat?" The old man asked.

"The flesh that does not see the killing, does not smell the killing, and does not kill for me is pure meat. That is, I did not see the miserable scene of the animal dying with my own eyes, I did not hear its screams, and it was not that the meat I killed for the sake of eating it was pure meat. The land lord said.

"There are marinades, chemicals, and additives in this braised meat, is it considered clean meat?" The old man asked again.

"This ...... The scriptures don't say that it should be considered pure meat. The land lord said.

"Those who don't know are not guilty, no matter how much, let's eat first." The old man said.

In the light of the candles, the old man warmly served the in-laws of the land, and did not see them eat. The land lord said embarrassedly: "We can't eat it, do you see that those sacrificial items have been eaten by the gods?" Please light three sticks of incense before we can enjoy it. ”

The old man lit three sticks of incense, worshiped three times religiously, and then put the incense in the middle of the candle, and the land in-laws really ate happily, but these foods did not decrease, and the old man could still eat them in the future. After enjoying the sacrifices, the land in-laws supported each other and returned to the land temple. The two black-clothed emissaries of the Yin Devouring King only confiscated all the sacrifices of the in-laws of the land, trying to force them to submit, but did not restrict their freedom.

After a hard day's work, Professor Yang was very tired and fell asleep. Hong Daoshi not only opened the eye of the sky, his vision is sensitive, but also his hearing is also very sensitive. As he lay on his bed, he heard the sound of the wind outside, mixed with the faint sound of footsteps, very soft, more than one person, and not like the sound of people walking. Hong Daoshi quietly got up, opened the door, and saw four people dressed in black on the road, carrying shovels, he intuitively thought that this was the black-clothed messenger of the Yin Devouring King that the land in-laws said.