Satsuki Village is an ordinary small village, no different from an ordinary village. If anything, it's that it's close to the mountains, and there aren't too many foreign merchants. The life of the villagers is relatively poor, but the villagers are relatively kind.

Xiaoyue Village, located in Anhui Province, is a natural village that has existed for a long time. The original inhabitants have been relocated to other places during the last war. Now the oldest resident in the village is the old Wang family, and the old Wang family has of course become the village head. Legend has it that Lao Wang's grandfather was a hunter when he was still young, and once he accidentally discovered this village. I found that the houses in the village were still inhabitable, and the surroundings were relatively peaceful, so I brought my wife and children who had just separated to live here. Soon after, several families came one after another, and some relatives also came to walk around. Because there is a deserted field around this small village where food can be grown, and there are no government officials to collect taxes, so everyone has branched out here. In the past 100 years, hundreds of families have come one after another.

The residents who come here can be roughly divided into three kinds of people, one is the relatives and in-laws of the old Wang family, they are the first people to come here and occupy relatively good land and rooms; The second type is the people who came from the north to the south, they are all people who have no land and no land, and they have accidentally discovered this good place and put down roots here; The third type is the businessman, who comes here to do business. Satsuki Village is surrounded by mountains on three sides and a small river on one side, and the mountains are home to natural herbs and various animals. There are not many merchants who come here to collect herbs and furs, but they find that business is very good here. Some of the kind-hearted villagers have never been out of the village in their lives, and they can be said to be unaware of the market situation. Merchants could buy better fur herbs at relatively low prices, and they settled here to buy the villagers' things for a long time.

The villagers here still continue some of the ancient way of life, with women farming at home and taking care of the elderly. Men go up to the mountains to hunt and gather herbs, and the skins of wild beasts can be sold to fur dealers, and the herbs can be sold to herb dealers, and the meat of wild beasts can be eaten by themselves. Therefore, there is only one family in the village that has a few pigs from the north, and can sell pork during festivals, and there are basically no other merchants. It wasn't until "Cripple Li" came that he opened a liquor shop in the village and sold some of the wine he made himself to the villagers.

"Cripple Li" is a villager who moved in only ten years ago, and he is the only one. Because his left foot is a bit crutched, everyone calls him "Cripple Lee". He didn't immediately open a liquor shop in the village, and he also hunted in the mountains for a while. Eight years ago, "Cripple Li" picked up his mother and opened a liquor shop in the village. The wine he makes is not only delicious, but also rich in aroma. Because the price is not expensive, the villagers, especially the men, like to come to him for a bowl or two of their own wine. Even some buyers found the wine too good.

In the originally peaceful village, some strange things have happened in the past few years. First of all, a distant relative of the old Wang family, they were also the first residents to come here, and he was the only one in this generation. He died at the entrance of the village one night four years ago. It is said that he was scared to death, and the appearance of death is terrifying.

Three years ago, a couple who had fled from the north for decades said that they had seen a monster in the village and were no longer afraid to live in the village, so they moved out of the village the next day. When I left, I was in a hurry, so I could say that I didn't take anything with me, and I left the village with a roll, saying that I would never come back.

Two and a half years ago, a group of children in the village reported seeing a monster that looked like a donkey on the edge of the river at the entrance of the village. Since then, the children of the youkai have been seen sick one by one, and when the third child died, the adults of the children decided to move out of Satsuki Village together. The news of Satsuki's existence of youkai gradually spread.

One night two years ago, the only fur buyer in the village saw a dark figure walking past his house in the middle of his house, a guy who looked like a donkey and didn't look like a donkey. The buyer drank a little wine at the time, and was a little dazed, as if he heard footsteps that were not like donkey hooves, but a sound like the knocking of wood. He boldly opened the door to take a look, and when he was about to catch up with it, the monster suddenly turned back. The buyer swore to heaven afterwards that what he had seen was a human head, a human head with long hair and a shawl. It has eyes, a nose, and a small mouth. After being looked at by the monster, the buyer fled home in fright. The next day he told people about this strange thing, and swore to those who did not believe him. That night, the buyer heard the unique footsteps again, and he was so frightened that he couldn't sleep all night. As soon as the morning dawned, the buyer hurriedly packed his luggage and left Xiaoyue Village, and it is said that soon the buyer went crazy.

One night more than a year ago, the village elder Wang's family went to a relative's house outside the village to drink wedding wine, but because they missed the time, they had to rush home at night. The whole family of seven people saw the monster mentioned by the fur buyer by the small river at the entrance of the village. Together, they saw a horrible scene of a guy with the body of a donkey eating something by the river. Although they were immediately frightened and crawled back to their house, they clearly saw that the monster had no hands and had forelimbs like donkey hooves. But what it's biting is a pheasant, a live pheasant. He ate pheasants alive, swallowing even the feathers of pheasants, and his face was covered with blood. After the incident, Lao Wang's family no longer dared to live in Xiaoyue Village, and the family left Xiaoyue Village.

The whole village knows that there are monsters in Satsuki Village, and most of them believe it to be true. Gradually, the people in the village said that they had heard strange footsteps, and they had vaguely seen the donkey demon. Because no family in Satsuki Village has ever raised a donkey, there will be no donkeys in Satsuki Village. The more the rumors are spoken, the more terrifying they become, and the more people believe them. The ignorant villagers even built a small temple for the donkey demon, in which the appearance of a donkey was enshrined. Strange things still happened in the village, and more and more people saw the donkey demon.

No matter how strong a person is, he can't stand this chronic torture, and the villagers gradually move out of Satsuki Village. It has made the once peaceful village even more desolate. There are few families in Xiaoyue Village who dare to live there.

One day, the first batch of foreign visitors in several years came to Satsuki Village. They are tea buyers passing by. There were five of them, four young people, one of whom was older. At that time, the state was very strict in regulating some businesses, such as buying and selling salt, which required the official salt quotation, and those who sold tea may need a trading permit issued by the government. Like some small households, they can only take small roads and do not enter official roads, that is, they are engaged in smuggling business. Therefore, there is a good chance that these five people are newcomers who smuggle tea for the first time, otherwise they would not have crashed into Xiaoyue Village.

There was no inn in the village, and now there will be none. The liquor shop of "Cripple Plum" became the only place where you could stay and rest. Five merchants who smuggled tea came to the liquor shop, and there was only one person in the liquor shop, "Cripple Li". His mother was cleaning up the vegetable patch in the back and preparing to make lunch.

One of the five merchants, who seemed to be their leader, was no more than twenty years old. He sat down on the bench of the liquor store and said to "Cripple Lee": "What is this brother called? We missed the trip and got lost to get here. Can you borrow it for one night, and we'll leave tomorrow. ”

"Cripple Li" has a bad reputation in the village, and everyone knows that he is a stingy ghost, so they call him "Cripple Die, Die for money." He said reluctantly; Don't misidentify relatives. I don't have a brother like you. It's okay to live, but it's not okay to live in vain. If you have money, you have a room to live in, and if you don't have money, roll aside and find a place to raise the corpse yourself. "It's not only rude, it's hurtful.

The two businessmen on one side had changed their faces and were ready to get angry. A young man who opened first stretched out his right hand and handed it to "Cripple Lee", saying, "I can't be your brother, it's always okay, right?" The room we were prepared to stay in and something to eat. It's all yours. ”

"Cripple Li" didn't hear what the other party said, his eyes stared at a big ingot in the other party's hand. "Ingots" were also silver ingots, which were one of the main currencies officially issued at that time. At that time, there were several official currencies, the first of which was the most common copper coin; the second is silver ingots, which are commonly known as "ingots", as well as silver cakes; The third type is a silver ticket, which has the unique mark and secret words of the money bank to prevent it from being altered. If the provisions of the silver ticket are ambiguous, they cannot be used, they must not be altered, and they must not be graffitied, otherwise they will bear the consequences; The fourth type is gold, what gold ingots, gold ingots, gold bars, gold beans, etc., but ordinary people have never seen this kind of thing at all. The ingots that "Cripple Li" saw were relatively small ingots in silver ingots, commonly known as small ingots of five taels of ingots. But it is this kind of small ingot, which can also make "Cripple Li" excited. Because at that time, a seven-grade main hall was only sixty or seventy taels of silver for a year. Five taels of silver is a month's salary for a county, how can it not be scary. In other words, five taels of silver can buy all the wine here in "Lame Li", which is a big deal.

Although "Cripple Li" loves money, he is not a person who only thinks about making money and does not care about his own family's life. He immediately grabbed the ingot, carefully held it in his hand and looked at it clearly, and said, "It turned out to be a distinguished guest." Then you may be seated. The little ones will serve wine to the uncles immediately. It just so happened that there was an old hen at home, and she killed it immediately. You can eat chicken soup in the evening. But what kind of business do you have? How did you end up in this desolate place? ”