There is no need to repeat the process of going down the mountain, anyway, the bustard and I are so tired that we can't afford to fall to the ground.

There is a small village at the foot of the mountain, that is the village of Liu Da Crooked Mouth and what we said. In fact, just listening to the name is very cold, but in fact, the appearance inside is even more cold. The place was full of broken bricks and stone houses, more in the style of southern buildings, and there was not even a plaque outside, in the words of the old bustard, there was no light on the face, and there was no card at all. Truth be told, the village is so depressed that you can't count the good places on your fingers. It's not so much a village built on a village, but a village built on a cold wall.

The old bustard walked all the way and disliked it, saying that the white house (a brothel in the countryside) I went to find a white house (a brothel in the countryside) is a hundred times better than this, and the old bustard is just chattering, and he can't see his so-called mental haggard appearance. I'm not in the mood to listen to him, I'm hungry to the spine, and I just want a hot meal.

The village is only two kilometers away from the Yellow River, and it is perennially downwind, so the whole air here is unusually humid, even a little heavier than what we encountered in the mountains. As soon as I entered the village, I saw that every house was lit up, and it seemed that it was the light from a candle. I wondered, although the sky is beginning to whiten now, but it has not diminished too much night, why is it that the village is still lit with lights, and looking at the faint light, this candle seems to have been burning for most of the night, and it seems that it is going to be extinguished at any time. I wondered: Could it be that the people in this village know that I and Lao Bustard, two strange strangers, are coming, and they have been watching out for the two of us?

When I told me what I thought, the bustard laughed at me, saying that it was the villagers who knew that the two of us were coming all night and were ready to welcome us. I glanced at him with a roll of the eyes, this fat man is really good at, and what he said is even more outrageous than me. At this time, Tang Haitang, who led the way in front, said, this seems to be a strange habit of the people in the village, at night, they will light a candlestick, even when they sleep, it will not be extinguished, even if one candle burns out in the middle of the night, someone will get up and replace another one. As for the reason, she didn't know.

When I heard this, the bustard and I didn't understand how the people in this village could have such a habit, and how they could not let their parents turn off the lights when they were afraid of the dark. It's really a big forest, and there are all kinds of birds.

Tang Haitang also said that the people in the village are a little afraid, and most of them don't like to entertain outsiders, but fortunately, Tang Haitang has already found a family here to arrange to live here. There is only one person in this family, and his name is Uncle Bai. Uncle Bai used to work as a corpse salvage in the Yellow River, and as the name suggests, he salvaged the bodies of people who fell into the Yellow River and drowned, and asked their families to pay for them to take them back for burial. Uncle Bai has been doing this for ten years and has been making a living from this. Later, when New China was established, the renovation work in this area of the Yellow River was too late, and there were fewer and fewer people falling into the river. At that time, it was the time when the "coffin skin" wonder on the tomb robbery line was boiling, the so-called "salty land does not grow artemisia, there must be sediment digging", many tomb robbers feel that there is a vision on the surface of the Yellow River, and it must be unusual underneath, so they will come to this place one after another to hunt for treasure all the year round, Uncle Bai saw this opportunity, and vacated his house for these tomb robbers to settle down, and he can also help them cover the wind.

When I heard this, I thought that this Uncle Bai was a shrewd businessman, and I was about to meet this person, when I heard a faint "Arrived?" When I looked up, I saw a man in his early thirties, with a sad face with drooping eyebrows, and his complexion was the same as that of the yellow earth, with a touch of swarth in the brown and yellow, and he looked honest. He stood in front of a dilapidated stone house, shrugging his shoulders and whispering hello to us. This should be the Uncle Bai that Tang Haitang said in his mouth.

"Uncle Bai, you go and prepare a few bites of food, these two friends of mine are hungry, just leave the luggage for us to pack." Tang Haitang stepped forward and said. The stinky and shameless bustard added a sentence of garlic at the back, and the simple man nodded and immediately entered the kitchen.

We followed us to the back room. Tut! Although it is shabby, it is well organized, the nose is the nose and the eye is the eye, and it is clean and refreshing. This stone house is two stories high, with an attic above and a kitchen hall below. As I had seen when I entered the village before, there was a candlestick in the center of the hall, and the sides of the candlestick were stacked with thick solidified candle oil, which looked like the skin of a callus. It looks like a lot of candles have been burned.

Tang Haitang and we helped the luggage to the upper room together. There are not many rooms upstairs, but they are quite spacious, Tang Haitang is alone, and I live in the same room with the old bustard. After tidying up the luggage, my stomach was already hungry and boiling the pot, and my nose sniffed the aroma from downstairs, with the smell of oil smoke and green onions, and the smell of hot shallot came to my nose, and I was secretly happy, knowing that Uncle Bai had already prepared a meal, and hurriedly went downstairs.

Uncle Bai is cooking noodles, the kind of wide noodles in the north, which is now stretched out, sprinkled with peppercorns, green onions, ginger oil and other seasonings, and then covered with a spoonful of chili oil, sucking and snorting, the stomach is hot, the head sweats, snot and tears are first-class, the whole person is a lot warmer, and the cold on the body has dissipated a lot in a while. I won't describe the bustard's eating appearance, gobbling it up, like a starving ghost in his previous life.

At this time, I suddenly remembered the strange habit of the people in the village to light the lights at night, so I looked up and asked Uncle Bai: "Uncle Bai, why do you people in the village have to light fires at night?" What a candle! ”

I didn't mean to ask this casually, but I didn't expect Uncle Bai's face to change suddenly when he heard this, and his whole face elongated, as if I had touched some taboo in this question, and his face was a little flustered. He quickly glanced left and right, and after making sure that the doors and windows were tightly closed, he leaned down on the table and said to me in a low voice: "Little brother, you don't know something, the reason why we cut the village and keep the lights on all night is to prevent monsters." ”

"Youkai?" I was stunned. The old bustard didn't care about eating noodles, so he didn't make a noise and listened to Uncle Bai continue to talk.

Uncle Bai swallowed his saliva and continued: "You are also people on the road, compared to hearing the legend of the Yellow River tailor Yu Meipo. Our village is an old village, which has existed since ancient times. I listened to the older generation of people say, after this charming woman became a demon, she was very angry, and from time to time she haunted our village to kill people and peel her skin, at that time people were panicked, and then I didn't know who it was, and I found that this demon seemed to be afraid of light, and I didn't dare to approach the village when I lit a candle and had a light, so our ancestors in the village have continued this habit, and it has not changed so far. ”

When the old bustard heard this, he looked incredulous, sneered a little, and muttered, "Heh." Where are there any monsters now, this ghost woman has long been dead and the placenta is gone, and I am still looking for her old man's grave everywhere! ”

Immediately afterwards, Tang Haitang also asked Uncle Bai: "Uncle Bai, have you noticed that outsiders have come here these days?" ”

Uncle Bai thought about it and shook his head.

Tang Haitang muttered: "According to what he said, it seems that the person who came to the Buddha's Hand Society this time is probably the only one who is the spy." Even so, we can't let our guard down. After all, the people of the Buddha's Hand Society are not ordinary people, there are many more of them than the eyes of the heart. ”

The bustard and I nodded.

After our stomachs were full, the bustard and I went back to the house, and we were already very tired from the tiring journey and a series of events before, and we dozed off as soon as we touched the pillow.

Before going to bed, I saw a thick candle on the bedside table, and a bean-sized flame was burning on the wick, and a long black smoke was rising from the tip of the flame.