In the summer, even in the Kanto region, it is a noisy heat wave, and the scenery in the distance is distorted by the rising air waves. The wind came up from the foot of the mountain, through the cemetery, through the trees on the mountain, and when it hit Huzi in the face, the boy felt a scorching heat that was worse than the sun.

Huzi wore a short coat with exposed arms, and sat on the thickest branch of the old locust tree, his fingers flicked the bell on the locust tree, looking in the direction of Changtu Mansion.

The cicadas chirped fiercely, the lotus flowers in the lake bloomed, and the big girls and little daughters-in-law were still wearing long clothes when they went in and out, but they were also light and thin. It's summer.

The plaque at the Temple of the Sun fell, two days before the middle of the night. It was originally crooked, and Mr. Peng also mentioned it, saying that it looked dangerous, and he picked it one day. But after so many years, the plaque was fine in the rain and wind, but on a dull summer night, it fell on the stone steps at the entrance of the temple and fell to pieces—before it could be taken off. For as long as he can remember, he has been by Mr. Peng's side, and it can be said that he has never left a step. This time, the master took over the job of going out, but he wanted to throw Huzi alone in Changtu.

It was a young man, eighteen or nineteen years old, from Haijiatun in the city of Bamian. It is said that there was some evil stubble in the tunzi, and some things took away some large livestock, and cattle, sheep, horses, and mules were all harmed, and when they found it, their intestines were rotten, but there was a lot of meat on their bodies. The local people went to the wilderness to fight wolves a few times, but the wolves did not fight but lost two or three lives. Later, I found a local gentleman in Bamian, and the gentleman also took his life in. That's why I wanted to ask Mr. Peng to go over and see what was going on.

Huzi followed to pack up his things, but was stopped by Mr. Peng, saying that he would just go out with Li Lintang this time, and there was no need for anyone to take care of the house in the temple, so he opened a letter to Huzi to Chen Banzhu, left some money, and asked Huzi to go to the city to find Xiao Jiu to live. After listening to the fortune teller's words, Huzi's mood has been quite chaotic in the past few days, and he was so excited by Mr. Peng that he threw his belongings on a kang with a flick of his hand, and ran to the old locust tree in anger.

Huzi sat for half an hour, and Mr. Peng, Li Lintang, and the young man who came to beg to see things came out of the courtyard. Mr. Peng was dressed in a long robe and carrying a burden, while Li Lintang was still dressed as a monk, not only carrying his big iron rod, but also carrying the saber that housed Song Xiongfang's soul in his hand.

Walking outside the door, Mr. Peng turned around and instructed a few words: "I have placed the money, letter and talisman paper in your house, and you give half of the money to the Chen class master, which is the money I entrusted them to take care of you." You bring the knife, don't fall behind in the daily foreign kung fu practice, I will take the test for you when I come back. ”

"Hmm." Huzi snorted lukewarmly, even if it was a response. Mr. Peng was stunned for a moment, then shook his head and said to the people around him with a wry smile: "Let's go." ”

Seeing Mr. Peng and his entourage descending the mountain, Huzi was still sitting on the old locust tree. Now that it was early in the morning, he was not in a hurry to go to the city, but he was even more worried about it after noon to see if the good clips were playing with the house sparrows.

He was unhappy, he felt that everything was wrong since he beat Li Lintang. Never before did Mr. Peng leave Huzi alone. Huzi didn't like Mr. Peng's discipline very much, and he didn't like many of the rules set by Mr. Peng. But he felt that he couldn't do without Mr. Peng, and he always felt that Mr. Peng couldn't do without him, because Mr. Peng said that he was the only descendant of the ghost family.

But Mr. Peng understood this time that he couldn't do without Mr. Peng, but Mr. Peng could leave him. He had heard from Li Lintang how beautiful Mr. Peng was before, but there was no him at that time.

After Mr. Peng stopped Huzi's Taoist practice, he didn't even talk to Huzi, and even the one who instructed Huzi on his foreign kung fu every day became his uncle Li Lintang. Although it is more interesting to learn foreign kung fu, Huzi is very uncomfortable in his heart. If he said that he was wrong, he would rather be beaten solidly and let the master count himself than not be able to say a few words to the master for a day like now. Wandering and hunting birds is interesting, but after a long time, the bones of the tiger are itchy.

"Little Huzi, is your master here?" It was a middle-aged woman with a dark complexion who spoke in simple but neat clothes. She smiled as she spoke, revealing a mouthful of shiny white teeth, and I don't know if it was because of her skin color, or if it was like this.

Huzi saw someone jumping down from the tree, and replied with a smile: "Aunt Guan, why are you here?" Not long after my master left, he went to Bamian, not to mention eight or nine days, but more than a month. ”

"Isn't it, my family has a lot of work, and it took a month for your master to finish the things he wanted, so I hurriedly sent them to you." As she spoke, the woman handed over a wooden knife holder. At this time, Huzi remembered that this knife holder was prepared for the knife that sent the soul of Song Xiongfang. It's also a bad idea, this knife was taken away by Li Lintang, but this knife holder was also sent.

Huzi took the knife holder with both hands and smelled the fragrance of pine. After a closer look, the inside and outside corners of the knife holder were smoothed with sandpaper, and the wood was painted again. This handiwork looks simple, but fine.

Even if the goods were inspected, Huzi asked, "Aunt Guan, do we still have any money for you?" Aunt Guan waved her hand again and again: "It's not bad, you are the first to settle the money." It's no wonder that you forgot, it's my family who has been doing a lot of other work recently, so I'm dragging you here. ”

Huzi asked casually: "This solar term, what kind of carpentry work is so busy?" Aunt Guan smiled and said coyly: "Coffin, several mouthfuls are urgent." ”

Huzi was stunned, didn't ask anything, and said that he would invite Aunt Guan into the house to drink saliva. Aunt Guan didn't enter the courtyard, and after a few polite words with him, Huzi took the knife to the back hall of the main hall.

After putting the knife holder and glancing at the wood carving, Huzi thought to himself that after going out for a few days, this female ghost would cut off the incense to worship. Although today is not the day, Huzi still placed a bowl of rice in front of the wood carving, and put three sticks of incense in the rice. After putting on the incense, he thought for a while, and offered another bowl of water in front of the wood carving.

"No one in the temple will have a good day, you are clean again."

Sighing these words, Huzi turned around and was about to go out, but the voice of the female ghost came from behind him: "Hey, boy, don't go yet!" ”

Huzi had already crossed the threshold with one foot, didn't move, turned around and asked, "Are you still in trouble?" The female ghost said, "Can you really teach us to cultivate ghosts and immortals?" ”

When Hu Zi heard this, he was happy, turned around and moved a small stool to sit down in front of the offering table, and asked, "Why did you change your mind?" Didn't you say that our master and apprentice were going to harm you? Didn't you say that we were going to use you to practice evil deeds? ”

The wood carving took a while before he spoke: "It's because of the monk surnamed Li." ”

"A monk surnamed Li?" Huzi didn't understand at first, but then understood, "You mean my uncle Li Lintang!" ”

"It's him, who talks to that knife every day, and sometimes stays here for half a day." The wood carving said, "This person and a ghost say everything, if it weren't for the yin and yang separation, they would all have to worship the handle!" One talked about how majestic he was in Shandong, and the other said how much scenery he had in Tianjin, and the two stinky old men bragged about it, and I was tired of listening to it. ”

Huzi didn't know about this. He knew that his uncle looked down on him a little, so he always avoided Li Lintang. Except for pointing out Huzi during the morning class recently, Li Lintang didn't have anything to say to Huzi, and Huzi naturally didn't know that Li Lintang often came to the back hall.

"No......" Huzi was a little puzzled, "What does that have to do with what you want to practice?" ”

The wood carving said, "Then the monk advised that knife to practice!" He talked to the knife, and I listened to what Li Lintang said. What's more, I'm tired of it, whether you have a kind heart or say what you want me to do, I feel impatient listening to the stories of the two men, and I want to see the scenery outside. I thought it would be a hundred years to die, but I wanted to be a ghost and was still imprisoned in such a lump of wood. Now that it's in your hands, what do you say, I don't want to stay in this place anymore. ”

"I'm sorry, you'll have to wait a little longer." Huzi felt bored, stood up and kicked the stool back to its original place, "If you want to practice, I can't teach you." It will take a few days for someone who can teach you to come back. Just wait! ”

Huzi lifted the curtain and walked out of the house, regardless of the female ghost shouting behind him. Out of the main hall, his ears were filled with the noise of summer insects. He felt annoyed and didn't want to wait, so he went up to the hill behind the temple to see his clip.

There are two kinds of small clips for catching birds, one is called "clipping" and the other is called "buckle clip". In fact, the structure is the same, a tightly clamped bow wire with two arc-shaped clamps, cut a piece of wooden pin to open the clamp, stick the insects to the wooden pin, a peck of the finch, the wooden pin loosened and the clamp fell, it was arrested. It's just that the buckle is larger, and there is a net pocket on it, and the house finch will be trapped in it. The clamp is smaller, it is directly knocked down, and the finch will generally be clamped to death.

Huzi always uses clips, he is afraid of trouble. The house finches are temperamental, and they can't raise them even if they catch them alive. When this kind of thing reaches the hands of people, it is like a lifeless cry, feeding nothing and not eating or drinking, and in the end it will either be released, or it will die of exhaustion.

The tiger laid twenty-five clamps and stopped nineteen, which was much better than the usual harvest! Huzi braided the mowing rope and passed it on a long way!

Back in the temple, Huzi casually messed around for lunch, took his own knife and went back to the house to pack his things. The things left by Mr. Peng were packed in a rattan box, but Huzi saw two paper figures on the table.

It was a two-person figure cut and pressed from a dozen layers of paper, with patterns of clothes and eyebrows on it. This is the magic weapon of the ghost house, called the "paper puppet". This is what Huzi used when he scared Che Scar in the graveyard in the middle of the night. On the back of these two paper figures is a person's name, one is "Peng Xiuzhen" and the other is "Li Lintang".

This thing is to find a strong anger, and the soul has lost its original heart to refine, using this thing to make a tool, when it is used, it will cross the yin qi to the caster himself, and this soul is free. Writing the name at the end is another way to use it, either to put the fingernails of the name owner or to put the hair, and if the owner of the name suffers a disaster, the paper puppet will burn and inform the bearer.

Huzi had heard Mr. Peng say before that when the people from the ghost family went out, they would leave a paper puppet with their names written on them, so that they knew the time of death. Huzi had been following Mr. Peng before, but this was the first time he had seen such a paper puppet.

Without thinking too much, Huzi put the paper puppet close to him, left the courtyard door locked, and ran to Changtu Mansion.