"The sun is about to set." The old woman looked up at the sunset in the west, and did not answer Wu Zhiyuan directly.

"Out of the way, I can find it at night, as long as you tell me the location." Wu Zhiyuan did not carefully figure out the meaning of the old woman's words.

"You're going now?" The old woman suddenly turned her head to look at Wu Zhiyuan, her eyes were extremely sharp.

Wu Zhiyuan was stared at by her sudden sharp eyes, and he couldn't help but be shocked, and he hurriedly replied: "Yes...... Yes, go now. ”

The old woman nodded slowly, her eyes turned three times in her sockets, she stretched out her hand to the west, and sighed: "The Dong family's mansion is in the west, you can see it when you go west along this street." ”

Wu Zhiyuan followed the old woman's finger and turned his head to look west, the prosperity of this street almost came to an abrupt end where he was standing, there were no pedestrians to the west of here, the doors and windows of the houses on both sides were closed, and occasionally a gust of cold wind blew, and pieces of fallen leaves swirled on the ground, which looked very desolate.

It is very puzzling that there can be such a strong contrast in the prosperity of the same street in a county town.

Wu Zhiyuan didn't have time to think about it, and after nodding his head to the old woman and thanking her, he walked west down the street.

The old woman looked at Wu Zhiyuan's back as he gradually moved away, and a strange and complicated expression appeared on her face.

Wu Zhiyuan has been coming from the east of the street, so he can be said to have witnessed the prosperity and loneliness of this main street that runs through Qixia County. The east side of the street is noisy and bustling, but the west side of the street is inaccessible and lonely. He didn't know what caused this situation, but he had a vague premonition in his heart.

Further west, from time to time, I found collapsed houses on both sides of the street, which means that no one has lived here for many years, and the stone slabs that pave the street have almost all broken under the perennial sunshine, and the feet on it make a "click" sound, Wu Zhiyuan recalled the strange expression and movements of the old woman, and began to wonder if the old woman was maliciously shaking herself.

Just when Wu Zhiyuan was retreating in his heart, a mansion not far in front of him caught his attention.

Wu Zhiyuan stepped forward in a few steps and walked to the door of the mansion, only to see the ink-lacquered door closed, two stone lions next to the door, and then looked up, the door was hung with a plaque, on which were written "Dong House" two big characters. Looking at the momentum, it looks like a big family. Thinking of Dong Qian's life experience, Wu Zhiyuan was sure that this was Dong Qingqiu's mansion, so he walked to the door and knocked on the copper knocker.

Wu Zhiyuan knocked for a long time and never saw anyone answering the door, he wondered in his heart, could it be that the owner of the house went out for something? But looking at this magnificent momentum, there must be maids and maids in this kind of rich and noble family, how can there be no one to answer the door?

Wu Zhiyuan stood at the door and hesitated for a moment, thinking that it was better to find an inn to stay in first and come back early tomorrow morning. After making up his mind, he turned around and walked down the steps, just then the door opened with a "creak" behind him.

Wu Zhiyuan suddenly turned around, only to see a pair of eyes peeking out of the crack in the door of the ink-lacquered door, looking out coldly, seeing Wu Zhiyuan standing at the foot of the steps, he opened his mouth coldly and asked, "You knocked on the door?" ”

"Oh, yes, my name is Wu Zhiyuan, may I ask if this is Dong Qingqiu's mansion?" Wu Zhiyuan hurriedly stepped a few steps on the steps, and only then did he see that it was a middle-aged woman who opened the door, although only a crack in the door was opened, Wu Zhiyuan could still see her frighteningly white face.

"What's the matter with you?" The middle-aged woman didn't answer the rhetorical question, although she didn't answer directly, but her rhetorical question had already given the answer, and Wu Zhiyuan was sure that she didn't find the wrong door.

Wu Zhiyuan didn't know how to answer this question, he thought for a moment and replied cautiously: "It was Miss Dong Qian who asked me to come." ”

As soon as Wu Zhiyuan spoke, he felt a little stupid, Dong Qian died a hundred years ago, and he was only twenty-eight years old when he died, how could the people of the Dong family know who Dong Qian was.

I thought that the other party would ask questions, but when the middle-aged woman heard the name of "Dong Qian", her face suddenly changed, she suddenly opened the door, and said to Wu Zhiyuan with a serious expression: "You come in." ”

The middle-aged woman finished speaking, turned around and walked towards the courtyard. Before Wu Zhiyuan stepped into the door, he suddenly had a strange feeling, it felt like there was a pair of eyes staring at him behind his back, he subconsciously looked back, and did not find anything abnormal, but at this time the sun had set in the west, and the sky was already dark.

The courtyard of Dong Mansion is very large, there is a huge rockery in the center of the patio, the rockery is more than two people high, the pine trees on the mountain are numerous, and the strange rocks are craggy. The gazebo is gray tile and red column, the form is very realistic, but it is much smaller than the real pavilion, obviously this is just a decorative work of the rockery. There is a real pavilion on the east side of the house, there are several stone benches under the pavilion, the pavilion is built according to the water, next to the pavilion is an artificial lake with a small area, but at this time the bottom of the lake is dry, and there is no lake water.

From the layout of this mansion alone, Wu Zhiyuan concluded that what Dong Qian said when he recounted the past at the foot of Longshan Mountain that day was true, this Dong family was indeed an official family a hundred years ago, that is, it was only in Dong Qian's father's generation that the family fell into the middle of the road. However, after a hundred years, when it was passed into the hands of Dong Qingqiu's generation, it was not easy for the family property and ancestral industry to still be well preserved.

The middle-aged woman walked very quickly, and her steps were extremely fast, Wu Zhiyuan followed her all the way through the corridor and alley, and finally came to a clearing, where the grass was overgrown, as if no one had taken care of it for a long time.

"Just talking here?" Wu Zhiyuan looked around, although the light was dim, he could see clearly that the north side of the open space was a horse shed, but the horse shed was empty, and the south side of the hut was like a firewood house, and the west side was a row of side by side thatched sheds.

The middle-aged woman ignored it, silently walked to the firewood room on the south side, gently opened the wooden door, and then walked in.

"Say, how did you know Dong Qian? Where is she now? The middle-aged woman stared at Wu Zhiyuan, who had just entered the door, and asked.

"This ...... It's a long story. Wu Zhiyuan pondered for a moment, not knowing where to start.

"Then pick the important ones and say them quickly." The middle-aged woman seemed to be very anxious, and her words contained a sense of urging.

Wu Zhiyuan thought about it, and straightforwardly started from Dong Qian who went to Beijing with her father to take the exam a hundred years ago, and told the details of how she was killed in Wujia Village without concealment, but he did not indicate that he was a descendant of Wujia Village. The reason for this is that it is selfish, so as not to bring trouble to itself, if the Dong family knows that Wu Zhiyuan is the descendant of the murderer who killed Dong Qian, they will definitely not be able to escape the responsibility; The second is that there is no need for this at all, all he has to do is to bring Dong Qian's bones back for burial, there is no need to make extraneous branches.

The middle-aged woman had been listening to Wu Zhiyuan's narration silently, and her eyes were faintly filled with tears, which was obviously caused by her heart.

"Your name is Wu Zhiyuan? Your surname is also Wu? After Wu Zhiyuan finished speaking, the middle-aged woman was silent for a moment and suddenly asked sharply, she is not an easy person, and she has obviously guessed Wu Zhiyuan's identity.

Wu Zhiyuan secretly screamed in his heart that it was not good.