Back in T City, Mu Qingyang went home with a sense of apprehension. Sure enough, most of the people in the house had gathered, and it was just a buzz as if there was no judge's jury, but not a single one came out to greet him. He knew that he had done something that didn't make sense, so he sat obediently and listened to everyone. The topics all revolve around him, and they are all crusading against his mistakes, and there are many impassioned remarks, which makes Mu Qingyang have a feeling that he almost wants to find a crack in the ground to get into, although he really wants to defend himself in his heart, but no one pays attention to him at all, as if it was just air in front of everyone who just passed by.

Finally coming to his senses, he stood in front of everyone and coughed lightly twice to clear his throat, and then said solemnly: "I think you must want a reasonable explanation, but I'm sorry, there is some privacy involved in this issue, so I really don't have much to say except for my deep apologies for my previous wayward behavior...... I'm sorry! Then he bowed deeply and walked out of the door with a graceful step......

"Huh? He ......"

"Stop!"

"Stinky boy! Do you have itchy skin? ”

"You kid...... Wait......"

"Young Master!"

"Brother Lu......"

In fact, it was a farce at all, and everyone chased them out of the door, and dragged this bad boy back with all hands and feet - he made a mistake and was still so arrogant? Of course I won't spare this guy so easily.

"Hahaha! I...... Yes! I don't dare......"

That night, someone's laughter and screams continued all night......

……

……

There is a very dilapidated inn on the west long street of Huayuan Ancient City, the address of the store is in the depths of the market, it is not easy to find, and it has not been renovated for a long time, so that it is extremely inconspicuous in this mixed place, and it looks like a building to be demolished from a distance, and the mottled and moldy low door is always a mess and it is even more prohibitive.

Fortunately, the cost here is not high, and it is very suitable for some low-income guests to stay at the top, so its own business is not very bad, at least the room is basically not empty is an empirical proof. This is only a rented house and does not sell food, and the food needs to be called in the small shop outside the door, although there is no taste, but it is cheaper, which is a little comfort in misfortune.

The owner of the store is surnamed Long, and his familiar friends call him Uncle Long. However, there are also some who call him Kua Ye Bi Chen, it is said that this is his Miao name, usually people who call him so will be quietly called upstairs by him to entertain in private, and some knowledgeable old people have seen and recognized those visitors as the high-status Badai in the Miao Village, that is, the so-called sacrificial elders.

Uncle Long is very old, it is said that he is more than seventy, but his health is very good, but he is born with small eyes and always squinted, and he does not look at people properly, and occasionally opens his eyes, but the whites of his eyes are mostly open, so he does not leave a good impression on people, thinking that this is an impolite old man. In fact, he doesn't have such a temper, but this is his personal habit that can't be changed, and he doesn't bother to explain it after a long time, but acquaintances know the facts.

"Here...... We're going to live here today? There was a knock at the door, and a little girl's voice muttered in a disgruntled tone.

"It's coming, it's coming!" Uncle Long hurriedly packed up and walked towards the outer foyer. When it gets dark at night, the store is closed, and if you are not a regular customer, you will never come to disturb it, which is also the practice here. There are only three people up and down the hotel, one old and two young, in addition to Uncle Long, there is Fang Bian who does chores in the backyard and Sui Yi who is responsible for cleaning up the room, these two are orphans who were adopted by Uncle Long when they were about five years old, and they are strong and strong, but they are both slightly disabled. Fang Bian is a lame crutch, usually doesn't talk much but is very hard-working, and is relatively honest. Sui Yi has polio, his left hand is very thin, he can't work hard, he usually does things with his right hand, but his personality is much more cheerful, if Uncle Long is not there, he will take care of this old hotel.

"Staying in a hotel? Or looking for someone? ”

The place at the door was dark, and Uncle Long, who had always squinted, stared carefully only to find that there were two young people, a man and a woman, standing next to him. The man was probably no more than thirty years old, a tall slender white skin, wearing a black jacket and jeans, not outstanding, but his posture was steady, and he stood there without saying a word and looked at himself with a smile; The little girl next to her was smaller, looking like a junior high school student, pouting and looking unhappy.

"Uncle Long?" The man asked tentatively.

"Ah...... I am...... Which are you? ”

"My surname is Mu, Mu Qingyang, she is Kang Yue'er, and we were introduced by Hu Sanye."

"Old Hu? That's not an outsider, come...... Let's talk about it first. Uncle Long's eyes immediately widened, and he took a closer look and smiled and let them in.

"Guest, please go upstairs first, and I'll come later." Pointing to a narrow staircase in the building, he made a gesture of please. Watching the men and women go upstairs, he immediately locked the door, there are actually no customers in the store today, the reason why he is in the foyer is also because he is waiting for these two people, now that the main owner is here, there is naturally no need to watch.

This staircase leads straight to an extended compartment, unlike the main staircase, its function is only to connect the compartment and downstairs, so Mu Qingyang and Xiaoyue can only wait obediently in this place for people to come, without worrying that they will go to the wrong room.

Uncle Long quickly followed, turned on a few more lights, and the whole room suddenly lit up a lot, and Mu Qingyang also took this opportunity to take a closer look at the strange person in Hu San's mouth. The old man is tall and has broad shoulders, a Chinese face, a hooked nose, short hair, and the most special thing is that the two thick eyebrows are extremely conspicuous as if he had been brushed twice on his forehead, and it is also because of this reason that his eyes are even smaller, and they are squinted into two lines under the light. His dress is also a little special, with a green cloth shirt on his body, which grows long and hangs down to his knees, and wide legs of green cloth pants and black cloth shoes on his lower body; There is a dry tobacco pouch pot on his waist, the size is much longer than the usual one, about the length of an adult's arm, and the brass smoke pot is polished brightly, it seems that this guy's style is not just for smoking.

Seeing the young man staring at his outfit there, Uncle Long couldn't help but smile: "Don't doubt it, that's what I did." He gestured to the gong in his hand.

Oh, Mu Qingyang nodded.

Sure enough, this old man is not a simple person, according to this, we can know that he should be the kind of identity of Apu Laosi, and the profession he is engaged in is not just as simple as a hotel, it is very likely that he is the kind he compares - corpse chaser.

Chasing corpses is a legendary spell that can drive corpses to walk, one is said to be a kind of Taoism, which belongs to a kind of Maoshan technique. It is also sometimes used to refer to the driving out of corpses, and some people believe that it is related to Miao witchcraft and is part of Chu witch culture. Chasing corpses is to let a series of corpses that have died in other places, follow behind the corpses, and return to their hometowns through the state and provinces. However, the corpse is not driven back to the hometown, but only leads the corpse through the desolate and rugged mountains, back to the plains, and hands it over to the relatives in the countryside who come to pick it up, so that they can put the corpse into the coffin, and use other means of transportation to transport the coffin back to the countryside for burial.

The time to drive the corpse is both day and night, but in order to avoid frightening passers-by, the corpse is mostly carried out at night, which also casts a veil of mystery on the corpse. Imagining a group of dead people wandering under the white moonlight in the middle of a dense forest mountain road is really terrifying. The corpse chaser is usually two mages in Taoist robes, and no matter how many corpses there are, they are chased by the master and the apprentice. The master and the apprentice, without lighting the lantern, shook a dementor bell in their hands, and struck the gong as they walked, so that night walkers could avoid it, and those who had dogs locked up the dogs. When there is more than one corpse, they are connected with straw ropes, one every six or seven feet. When walking at night, the corpses wore tall felt hats, and several pieces of yellow paper with talismans were pressed on their foreheads, which hung down on their faces.

There is a "dead corpse inn" on the road, this mysterious "dead corpse inn", only the dead corpse and the corpse chaser, ordinary people do not live. Its doors are open all year round. Because behind the two large doors is the place where the corpse rests. The corpse chaser drove the corpse, arrived at the "corpse shop" before dawn, and quietly left at night. The corpses were all standing neatly against the wall behind the door panels. When it was difficult to walk in heavy rain, I stopped in the store for a few days and nights.

In order to avoid shocking the world, the mage struck the gong to open the way, and when the residents along the road heard the exciting sound of the gong, they immediately closed their doors and avoided it.

……

After giving Mu Qingyang and Xiaoyue two glasses of water, Uncle Long sat down and asked in a harmonious voice: "The distinguished guest is also a character with a background, I'm afraid we still have some origins......

Taking the water, Mu Qingyang nodded respectfully to express his gratitude, and then asked, "Uncle Long, what do you mean......"

"The boy's family belongs to the Dragons Clan, right?"

"You ......"

Mu Qingyang and Xiao Yue glanced at each other and immediately became vigilant.

The visit was only due to recent rumors about the appearance of marls in the mountains. Hu San introduced that there is such a person in this place who is his acquaintance, and he can be asked for help in this matter; But if an ordinary person can see Mu Qingyang's identity, then this matter is not so simple......

"Don't be so anxious about the young man, you can understand after listening to me first." Uncle Long looked at the two people who were puzzled, but he stroked the sparse beard on his chin and began to talk about the origin of his business......

Chinese people are particularly attached to their homeland. Either way, the leaves must return to the roots. The wanderer who dies in a different place, his own will must be buried in the ancestor, the filial son and grandson must move back to their hometown, and relatives and friends know each other and have the obligation to fund this matter. However, the places around Xiangxi are barren, and the poor mostly go to the eastern Sichuan or Qiandong areas to make a living as hawkers, collecting medicines, or hunting, and those places are mostly lofty mountains and mountains, and the miasma in the mountains is very heavy, falciparum malaria is often prevalent, and the living environment is extremely bad, except for the local Miao people, outsiders rarely go. None of the Han people who died in those places were rich, and the Han people traditionally had a deep concept of transporting corpses back to their hometowns for burial, but even if they had money on the rugged mountain roads of thousands or hundreds of miles, it was difficult to carry them by vehicles or stretchers, so some people created this strange economic method to transport corpses back to their hometowns.

Uncle Long's branch learned the secret method passed down by word of mouth from a Badaixiong (Miao priest) of the Miao family, and similar to the exorcism spells used by some warlocks of Badaizha (Han priest) and the so-called Taoist priests of Maoshan Zhuyouke. Therefore, in order to distinguish himself from those people, Uncle Long's group often calls himself a corpse chaser or a corpse chaser craftsman, while those warlocks and Taoist priests are respectfully called Mr.

According to Master Long, according to Master Long, thousands of years ago, the ancestor of the Miao people, Apu (Miao language: father-in-law) Chiyou, led his troops to fight against the enemy by the Yellow River, until the corpses were all over the field and the blood flowed like a river. After the battle was about to retreat to the rear, and the soldiers carried the wounded soldiers away, Apu Chiyou said to the Apu military advisor beside him: "We can't leave the brothers who died here alone, how about you use some magic to let these good brothers return to their hometowns?" The Apu military division said, "Okay. You and I change our costumes, you use the 'runes' to lead the way in front, and I supervise in the back. ”

So the Apu military commander disguised himself as Apuchiyu, stood among the corpses of the brothers who had died in battle, and after a while of silent recitation of incantations and prayers to the gods, he cried out to the corpses: "Brothers who have died, this is not a place for you to settle down, and it is a sad mourning to die in vain." The parents in their hometown are looking forward to it, and their wives and young sons are looking forward to returning to their hometowns. Don't hesitate. Haste as a law, up! The corpses that were lying on the ground all stood up at once, and walked south in a regular manner behind the "runes" of Apu Chi You Gaoqing. When the enemy's pursuers came, Apu Chiyou and Apu Junshi joined forces to attract the "Five Greater Fogs" and trap the enemy in the Ecstasy Array. Because it was the spell of the "Division" (implementation and operation intention) of the Apu Military Division that allowed everyone to get out of danger, everyone has since called him "Lao Si"; And because the last thing that Apu Laosi used to defend against the enemy was actually "fog technique", and there were too many "fog" strokes that were difficult to write, so he rewrote it into a "witch" character instead. In fact, this witch character is also a hieroglyph: the upper horizontal represents the sky or fog, the lower horizontal represents the earth, and the middle vertical represents the "symbolic section"; There is a character on each side of the vertical, the one on the right represents Apuchiyu, and the one on the left represents Apulaosi, which means that two people must unite to do witchcraft.

After telling about his origins, Uncle Long said again: "Young family, so you don't have to worry about me being unfavorable to you, in fact, who is the descendant of our Miao lineage will be against your four major families?" In any case, you are also the messengers of the ancient gods, the rulers of the mountains and wilderness; In other words, you are the true masters of the Jiuli clan......"