It was getting late, the night sky was dotted with stars, and the endless sky dome stretched into the distance, and in this mountain forest isolated from the smell of earthly fireworks, the starry sky was dazzling and moving.

The pair of young people on the cliff were still busy, Shi Zuo went to the river to scoop water and put it in the pot, Liu Yanshi hurriedly set up the pot rack, washed and cut the purchased ingredients, and threw messy seasonings into the pot while pondering the taste, Mr. Demon is never stingy with the part of enjoying life, so there are so many kinds of ingredients bought, mushrooms, mutton, fat beef rolls, instant noodles, fish balls, lettuce......

The two of them talked and laughed around the campfire, most of the time they were racking their brains and choking each other, but in fact they were having a very happy time, and Liu Yanshi even forgot that he was still concerned about the demons and monsters on the mountain half a day ago.

Later in the day, Ryu decides to take a shower by the river - by the way, he forces Mr. Demon to come with him and act as a bodyguard, the main content of which is to sit stupidly behind the roots of a tree, and appear in her sight within three seconds when Ryu shouts "help", and wait until the crisis is over before gouging out his own eyes.

After taking a shower, Liu Yanshi tiptoed behind the tree, only to find that Mr. Demon was concentrating on reading a novel on his mobile phone, looking intently like a scholar who didn't listen to anything outside the window. Liu Yanwei blinked, a little surprised in his heart, and a little inexplicably unwilling, and asked:

"What are you looking at?"

"Hmm."

"Shi Zuocai!"

"Huh?"

"What do I ask you?"

"Oh...... What's up? ”

"What are you looking at, I ask?"

“****。”

Liu Yanshi was silent for a few seconds, smiling and squatting down in front of him, reaching out and twisting his ears three hundred and sixty degrees.

"Do you know that there is a living beauty in front of you who can be seen in the bath?"

Back on the cliff, Shi Zuocai got into the tent again, took out a bag of coal from his hiking bag and added it to the campfire, and then took out a bag of inexplicable powder and sprinkled it evenly around the tent. Liu Yanshi looked curious and asked him what was the point of doing these things.

"This coal burns for a long time and will not be extinguished overnight, and that package is a mixture of realgar and lime, which the wild beasts in the mountains are not used to smelling, and can also overshadow our own taste, and it is also quite effective in driving away snakes, insects, rats and ants."

With that, he took the kerosene lamp and walked into the tent.

"Come on in, we've got to get down to business."

Liu Yanshi blinked and protected his chest with both hands: "The pervert finally can't suppress the ferocity in his heart and wants to attack the pure beautiful girl?" ”

Mr. Demon turned his head and deliberately glanced at Liu Yanshi's chest, revealing a gentle smile:

"There's nothing worth starting with in you."

Liu Yanshi also smiled, tilted his head slightly, and his expression was gentler than his:

"I'll kill you tonight."

The two of them entered the tent one after another and really got down to business.

Liu Yanshi took out his camera and notes for recording, starting from the first house he visited, and explained the family situation of this family to Mr. Demon, and the photos in the camera were photos of the room taken by Liu Yanshi in the name of checking for potential safety hazards during the visit.

"The male owner of this house is called He Dawei, 47 years old, his wife He Xiaoju is 33 years old, and has a seven-year-old son......

Liu Yanshi's explanations are all insignificant-sounding details of life, which are really confusing to the listener, but Mr. Demon listens quite seriously while flipping through the photos in the camera, and from time to time asks Liu Yanshi about some of the details, such as who bought this statue of Guan Ergong, whether it is a husband or a wife who believes in Buddhism, and so on.

After getting to know more than a dozen households in such a row, Liu Yanshi said dryly, drank a sip of water, and sighed:

"There's so much information and so much variety, can you really write it all down?"

Mr. Demon smiled lightly, but never took his eyes off the camera, and replied nonchalantly:

"Is it difficult to memorize at this level?"

"Bragging." Liu Yanshi grimaced at him again.

Mr. Demon didn't care, but after flipping to the next photo in the camera, his brows furrowed slightly, and he turned the camera screen to Liu Yanshi:

"What's going on with this picture?"

In the photograph is a book without a cover, but just looking at the contents of the first page, Shi Zuo has already recognized it as the "Critique of Practical Reason" written by Immanuel Kant, because there is a beautiful handwriting excerpt in the header:

There are two things in the world that can deeply shake people's hearts, one is the lofty moral code in our hearts, and the other is the brilliant starry sky above our heads.

When he saw the photo, Liu Yanshi exclaimed in a low voice and sat up straight:

"This is it! I'm just going to tell you this—this is what this family told me about mountain ghosts, and the hostess of this house is called Li Lijuan......"

Subsequently, Liu Yanshi carefully told Shi Zuocai about the ins and outs of visiting this family: she has a son who is one year older than Shi Zuocai, named He Siming, he loves stargazing extremely and hopes to become an astronomer one day, but his parents think that this interest is not beneficial to his future, and there are often conflicts between parents and children......

Mr. Demon listened and was silent for a long time, and finally just smiled lightly:

"He Siming's death is just another tragedy in the current social model - parents are waiting for their children to learn to be grateful, but children are waiting for their parents to learn to apologize, they stand on the opposite side of the gap of family affection and will never compromise."

"But ......" Liu Yanshi muttered softly, "Anyway, I still think that child is so pitiful." It's just that he pursues what he likes, and he didn't do anything wrong, and in the end, he ended up like this......"

Mr. Demon glanced at her and sneered, "People may be two years older than you, but you still rely on the old man to call other people's 'children'." ”

Unexpectedly, Liu Yanshi shook his head and looked at him fixedly:

"I'm seventeen this year, he's nineteen, and I'll be eighteen, nineteen, twenty, thirty, but he'll always be nineteen."

Mr. Demon was stunned, looked at Liu Yanshi, turned his head and smiled, but did not speak.

After a while, there was a strange sound outside the tent, regular, echoing in the deep valley for a long time. Liu Yan palpitated when he heard the news, and leaned closer to Mr. Demon.

"What's that sound?"

"Owl." Mr. Demon said lazily.

As soon as the words fell, there was a rustling sound in the woods not far away, as if something was approaching, there were quite a few of them, accompanied by a rapid cry, Liu Yanshi blew up goosebumps, pinched the corner of Shi Zuocai's clothes, and couldn't speak:

"Times...... Time...... Mountain ghosts! It's a mountain ghost! ”

"Nonsense." Mr. Demon ignored the startled Liu Yan's eyes, and leaned himself on the tent to listen carefully, with a smile on his face:

"Do you remember when I said I wanted to prove it to you this afternoon?"

"Proof what?" Liu Yanshi blinked.

"Come out with me."

The tent was unzipped, and a head poked out from it, which was only left at the time. Not long after, a trembling head also poked out from under Shi Zuocai, which was seen by Liu Yan.

Shi Zuocai took out a flashlight and shone it into the woods in front of him, and several sturdy figures flashed in the flashlight, and Mr. Demon knocked Liu Yanshi's head with a flashlight:

"Do you remember how the townspeople describe the appearance of mountain ghosts?"

Liu Yan said: "The green-faced fangs, the size of a child, the eyes will glow." ”

He smiled: "Then you understand what's going on now, right?" ”

Liu Yanshi looked bitter and nodded:

"Monkeys."

The two of them got back into the tent, and Mr. Demon said lazily:

"Monkeys are actually nocturnal animals, and they are usually not seen in the mountains during the day, and I was chased by monkeys all the way in the afternoon when I happened to pass by a cave. The more wild the monkeys, the more aggressive they are to humans, and there are mountain ghosts and the like at night, in fact, adults are afraid that children will be scratched by monkeys when they go up the mountain to fight, and the nonsense is slowly spreading. ”

"But just listening to it still feels weird and scary." Liu Yanshi stuck out his tongue and said again:

"In this way, He Siming's death actually has nothing to do with the mountain ghosts...... Is he really unable to think about it? ”

"If you don't know the inside story, no amount of speculation will be in vain, because there is no way to confirm it." Mr. Demon yawned, rolled over and tucked into his sleeping bag, and said nonchalantly:

"Didn't he drown? It is easy to determine whether it is a suicide or not, and you can find out if there is water in the lungs and traces of struggle on the body, which can be seen through medical means...... It is not ruled out that it was attacked by monkeys, hid in the river, and had an accident. However, whether it is the people in the town or He Siming's family, they should not go out of their way to find a forensic doctor, he has already been buried. ”

"Why?" Liu Yan's eyes widened.

Mr. Demon slipped into his sleeping bag by himself:

"When everyone thinks that he committed suicide, it doesn't matter if he died accidentally or not."

Liu Yanshi was stunned, and dragged Shi Zuocai out of the sleeping bag unreasonably:

"Make it clear! What does this mean? Why did you conclude that he must have committed suicide? ”

"Finally, I have three days of free time, but you let me experience what it feels like to sleep......" Mr. Demon rubbed his face helplessly, and looked at Liu Yanshi with his chin and smiled:

"Do you remember the dream that He Siming said he had been having?"

"Well, I dreamed that He Siming crawled out of the river drenched in blood...... Something. ”

Mr. Demon said:

That shows that she subconsciously feels that He Siming hates herself.

Liu Yanshi nodded. Mr. Demon continued:

"He Siming is dead. All are trying to find a plausible explanation for his death. The hatred of his mother is the most reasonable explanation. That's all. Although it is difficult to understand: Li Lijuan would rather believe that her son committed suicide with hatred than believe that he died accidentally, which is the last repentance of a mother. ”

Liu Yanshi was silent, and he smiled:

"In this matter, He Siming did nothing wrong, his parents did nothing wrong, no one did anything wrong, and there is no way to blame anything......"

“…… If you want to blame it, you can only blame the starry sky of Mount Davis, which is too beautiful. ”

After saying that, Mr. Demon seemed to think of something, his brows furrowed slightly, and he suddenly got out of the tent, and looked up at the stars for a while.

Liu Yanshi came out of the tent:

"What's wrong?"

"What time is it?"

"I want to think about it...... It's the 29th. ”

"No. 29 ......" Mr. Demon narrowed his eyes slightly, and a pair of peach blossom eyes revealed an intriguing smile:

"Let's ask He Siming the tomorrow, things may not be as simple as we think."

"Hey." Liu Yanzhi sighed: "How long are you going to sell this pass, how are we going to enter the town tomorrow, what are we going to do, you tell me that you will die." ”

Mr. Demon grinned, turned and slipped into the tent, rummaging through his backpack for a while, and pulling out a blue-gray robe.

"I'm a Taoist priest."

He took out another one and handed it to Liu Yanshi:

"You're Aunt Dao."

Mr. Demon smiled and looked at the dazed Liu Yanshi:

"Fellow Daoist, double cultivation?"