"You ......" Xi Que looked at the stranger sitting next to him again, and swallowed back the words later. Xi Que originally wanted to ask why he didn't look tall that night and why he looked different today. But before the question was asked, Xi Que got the answer.

The stranger was sitting on a bench, so he appeared to be as tall as a normal person. But if you look at him below the waist, you will see that his feet are not yet on the ground. If he stepped on the ground, he would be as tall as the last time he saw it.

The stranger nodded and said, "Yes, that's me." ”

"You knocked on Zhao Xianyun's coffin last time." Xi Que whispered.

"I just wanted to see if the coffin was empty. I can hear it by tapping on it. He said.

"And what do you hear?" Xi Que asked.

"The coffin is empty. Zhao Xianyun was not inside. ”

Xi Que was taken aback.

"Ma Xiucai did all this in order to smoothly transfer flowers and trees. He didn't want Zhao Xianyun to die, so he transferred her, falsely reported that she was dead, and then married this flower sister to come in to achieve the purpose of transferring flowers and trees. In this way, Zhao Xianyun would not have died. The stranger said.

"Grafting?" Xi Que didn't quite understand.

The stranger also told Zhao Xianyun is Mu life, Shang Ruoran is Sister Hua's life and other reasons.

Only then did Xi Que understand Ma Xiucai's good intentions, and asked the stranger: "Did I go too far just now?" I thought he was greedy for women, and deliberately sang lamentations at his wedding feast. ”

The stranger waved his hand and said, "Not too much, not too much." ”

Xi Que asked, "It's not too much?" ”

"It's all fate. Since you feel sorry for him, you can return the favor to him. ”

"How?"

"You only know that one of his family millet died, but you don't know how millet died, right?"

Xi Que said: "I know, didn't she fall into the water and drown to deal with a weak man from Tibet?" ”

The stranger nodded and said, "You don't know one thing." ”

"What's the mystery here?"

"When Millet drowned, the soul left the body, but because the seven orifices were blocked by the mud at the bottom of the pool, the soul remained here. When her body was in the mourning hall, she was tricked by a cat ghost named Mr. Bai that she once raised. Her body sat up from the coffin at once. Because this action was too violent, the qi that was blocked in the body leaked out. That bad breath was sucked away by Mr. Bai, and he never came back. The stranger said.

At this time, everyone at the banquet had already eaten, and no one paid attention to the two of them.

The noise of eating and drinking drowned out their voices. They had to get closer to hear each other.

"Cat ghost? I'm quite familiar with cats. I learned to sing lamentations, many times, from the call of night cats. Xi Que said.

The stranger said, "I can hear it." Every time you sing a lamentation, I will come and listen to it. Indeed, there is a cat in your voice. ”

Xi Que was surprised: "You often come to listen to me sing lamentations? ”

He nodded, "yes." I can recite what you can sing. But I don't have your catly voice. ”

"But I've only seen you once." Xi Que didn't know whether to believe his words or not.

He laughed: "I rarely show up, I listen secretly. So you don't know me. But I'm familiar with you. I'm familiar with everyone here, but none of them are familiar with me. It's not a big deal. With that, he looked at all the people at the banquet like a farmer looking at the rice in his paddy field.

The stranger's expression when he looked at others surprised Xi Que. He had never seen a man look at someone like that.

"You don't have to feel guilty for singing lamentations at Ma Xiucai's wedding banquet today, you can use your cat's voice to help call Ma Xiucai's millet back." The stranger said.

"What do you call it?" Although Xi Que is familiar with cat sounds, he has never tried to call a cat back in this way.

"What else can you call it? Sing it emotionally with your cat voice. You can sing about people and ghosts, let alone a little cat? The stranger said.

"People and ghosts can understand my words, and of course they are easily moved by my lamentations. But the cat can't understand me, and although I know the cat well, I can't speak in cat language, so how can I impress it? "Xi Que has little confidence.

Stranger: "You don't have to know cat language. When I feel the tears, I hate the birds. As long as your emotions are brewing, no matter what words you sing, you can move other beings. ”

"Really?" Xi Que seems to have a little more confidence.

The stranger raised his chopsticks, took a bite of food and put it in the bowl, and then said, "In this way, tonight, you go to the Laohe Bridge, and I will take you to Mr. Bai." If you get Mr. Bai back, you will bring back Xiaomi's soul. If you can return Xiaomi's soul to Ma Xiucai, you don't have to feel guilty about singing lamentations today. ”

"You're going to take me to find it? Then why don't you find it yourself? ”

Stranger: "If you owe favors, you can repay favors." First, I don't owe Ma Xiucai, it doesn't matter if I do it or not. Second, I don't know cat language, let alone cat sound, and even if I know where Mr. Bai is hiding, there is no way to lure it out. ”

"So, I'm going to owe you a favor."

The stranger laughed, "I've heard you sing lamentations so many times before, but I haven't done anything for you." This favor is not something you owe me, but I pay you back. ”

Xi Que said: "You think it's too important to repay favors, right?" ”

Stranger: "Life in the world, isn't it just to owe favors and repay favors?" Have you ever heard of that kind of saying, people who become partners in this life are because he owed you or you owe him in the previous life, and being together in this life is to repay the debt, if the debt is not paid off, the fight and the tangle are still inseparable; If the debt is paid off, you can't be together if you want to. Isn't that how many people are? Obviously, the two of them still have feelings for each other, they can tolerate each other, and they can do it all over again, but they just ended up without a problem. That's it! ”

Xi Que nodded and said, "I've heard of this kind of saying. It's not that enemies don't get together. ”

The stranger slapped his face and laughed, "That's it! This is true for lovers, and in fact, the same is true for ordinary people's interactions. You owe me favors, and I owe you favors, so you come and go. ”

Xi Que thought for a while and said, "That's right. But maybe you're trying to keep me from feeling indebted to you. Alright then, I'll come to Laohe tonight to look for you. ”

The stranger said happily, "See you and leave." ”

Later, Xi Que told his father the conversation between him and this stranger as it was.

Grandpa didn't know that person had come to his wedding banquet, and he was not impressed at all. Grandpa asked Yu Youyang, Yu Youyang was a little flustered, she said that she hadn't seen the person Xi Que said that day. Grandpa asked the people in the village who came to the Ma family's old house that day, but no one had seen the person Xi Que said.

The people who sat at the table with Xi Que that day said that the seat next to Xi Que was empty that day, and no one was sitting.

At that time, the banquet was usually seated by eight people at a table with four benches. Some people recalled that there were only seven seats at Xi Que's table that day.

Xi Que disagreed, he said: "Then you must have forgotten about others!" I'm sitting at one end of the bench, and if there's no one there, I'm sure I'm going to warp up! ”

Xi Que said it rightly ▲ When the people who eat the banquet on the bench get up to serve food or pick up vegetables, they will say to the people next to them: "You sit down, I'm going to get up." "Let the people next to you pay attention to the bench and don't warp. If you warp it, you will fall.

Everyone heard Xi Que say this, and then recalled the situation that day, and remembered that Xi Que did sit on the side of the bench, but the bench did not fall off, and he did not fall.

Now everyone doesn't know what to say.

Someone asked him, "You can't have met a ghost, right?" Ma Xiucai has a lot of dealings with ghosts and gods, and it is reasonable to think that there are ghosts to eat something. ”

Yu Youyang hurriedly said, "How can it be a ghost?" ”

Grandpa glanced at Yu Youyang and asked, "What is not a ghost?" ”

Yu Youyang stopped talking.

Seeing that she didn't want to say, although he didn't understand the reason, he didn't ask her anymore.

There is indeed a reason why she doesn't speak.

On the night of Ma Xiucai's wedding banquet, Xi Que stayed in Thrush Village. When it was time to get near, he secretly put on his clothes and walked to the old river. He listened to the sound of the old river, gurgling, very loud, much louder than the sound he heard during the day, almost a little like the surging of the river. He thought to himself, it turned out that Lao He also had such a majestic side, but it was disturbed by various sounds during the day and could not be heard.

He waited a little while, and the stranger came along the embankment of the old river. He was surprised in his heart, was this person from the village or from outside the village? If you are in the village, you should have walked along the avenue, and if you are outside the village, you should have walked from the opposite side of the old river bridge, so why did you come from the embankment?

A little closer, Xi Que could see that the person's walking posture was wrong, it was not like jumping up and down during the day, his steps were much bigger and stiffer.

Closer, Xi Que almost thought he was wrong. This stranger was a lot taller than during the day, although it was still less than the height of ordinary people, but it was not much worse.

When he walked to the Laohe Bridge, Xi Que didn't hear footsteps, but heard the sound of something hitting the bridge.

The stranger smiled and said, "Don't be surprised, I stepped on stilts." ”

Xi Que asked, "In the middle of the night, what are you doing on stilts?" ”

He said: "It's because it's the middle of the night, I'm afraid of scaring people who wake up at night." ”

Xi Que was very moved when he heard it. Indeed, if he hadn't made an appointment a long time ago, he himself would have been frightened when he saw a half-human-tall person suddenly appear.

"I can't see it, you're quite considerate of others." Xi Que said.

He looked back at the thrush village immersed in the night, and said, "They are all the people I want to protect." ”

"You step on stilts at night, aren't you afraid that you won't step on a good foot and fall?" Xi Que asked.

He craned his neck and smiled, "Every inch of land here is like the palm print of my palm." ”

"Oh." Xi Que didn't quite understand why a person who was not a Thrush Village knew every inch of Thrush Village so well.

He was a little smug.

"What are we going to do next?" Xi Que asked.

"Go find the soul of Xiaomi, find the cat named Mr. Bai." After speaking, he turned around and went down the bridge, but just when he turned around and took the first step, his feet suddenly shook, and a pig gnawed on the mud with a "bang".