Since there is no one in the Taoist temple, what is the matter with this cooking smoke?

Zuo Dengfeng looked at the smoke suspiciously, and at the same time made all kinds of guesses in his mind, maybe it was a nearby villager, maybe it was a hunter who went into the mountains to hunt, in short, it couldn't be a bandit, because there were no bandits nearby.

Thinking of this, Zuo Dengfeng felt a lot more relieved, put down his luggage, and took out the piece of ocean left over from his salary a few days ago from his jacket pocket and stuffed it into the soles of his shoes, and then picked up his luggage and walked towards the Taoist Temple. The purpose of his doing this is to prevent bad people in the Taoist temple, most of his monthly salary is given to his mother and two sisters, and he also needs to spend money in the county, so this piece of ocean is his only money.

After descending the second mountain beam, the road diverges, and the one on the left leads to the dense forest on the west side, and the road is relatively wide, presumably the path taken by the villagers who cut wood and hunt. On the right is the path up the hill that leads to Shimizukan, which is quite narrow, and the shrubs and weeds on the left and right sides almost completely cover the road, but you can still vaguely see that this road is being walked.

At this time, the sky is nearly completely dark, the left peak quickly turned on the right mountain road to start climbing, the elevation of the mountain where the Qingshui view is located will not exceed 500 meters, the Qingshui view is located in the halfway of the Yanglu mountainside, although the altitude of this mountain is not high, but the slope is very large, it takes more than 20 minutes to climb the peak on the left before coming to the Qingshui view gate.

When he got closer, Zuo Dengfeng was dumbfounded, and the view of Qingshui was still relatively complete from a distance, but when he got closer, he found that it was in tatters. Qingshui Temple occupies an area of only a few hundred square meters, the courtyard wall on the left side of the front has collapsed in half, gray masonry scattered everywhere, although the gatehouse is still there, it has been crumbling, it is covered with thatch, and the gate of the Taoist temple is only one left, and the other has long been missing.

Through the collapsed courtyard wall, the scene in the Taoist temple is unobstructed, the three wings on the left and right are still complete, the main hall in the middle has no door, the black hole can not see the things inside, the courtyard is in the middle of the fire at this time is not vigorous bonfire, next to the bonfire sits a thin beggar.

This scene in front of him made Zuo Dengfeng stunned, he didn't expect that this Qingshui Temple would be broken into this virtue, it was all broken like this, and he still used to send someone to protect it?

At this time, Zuo Dengfeng scolded Sun Aiguo and Hu Qian in his heart, he knew that it was today's situation, and he should have set fire to it and let those two shameless things run to the street with their bare butts.

After standing stupidly for a while, Zuo Dengfeng moved his gaze to the east and west wings, these two wings are still relatively intact, the doors and windows are there, but the window paper on the doors and windows has been damaged, only the wooden window ridges remain, there is no window paper on the windows, and they must not freeze to death at night?

Just as Zuo Dengfeng was looking outside, the beggar by the fire suddenly spotted him, stood up in a hurry, and retreated again and again, looking frightened.

"Don't be afraid, I'm a good person." Zuo Dengfeng hurriedly waved his hand at him, and with a wave of his hand, he found that he was still holding a kitchen knife in his hand.

When he waved his hand, he was still holding a kitchen knife in his hand, and no one would think that this was an expression of goodwill, and the beggar immediately turned around and wanted to run away when he saw this, but the door was blocked by Zuo Dengfeng, and he turned around and ran into the north hall in a hurry.

"I'm a good person, I won't hurt you." Zuo Dengfeng put away the kitchen knife and walked in from the collapse of the courtyard wall. The gatehouse was afraid to walk, and the wind swayed.

After entering the Taoist temple, Zuo Dengfeng did not rush to enter the main hall in the north, but approached the fire and put down the cover on his shoulders, and walked eighty miles of dirt roads and more than ten miles of mountain roads in one day, which made Zuo Dengfeng extremely tired.

Rubbing his sore shoulders, Zuo Dengfeng found two sweet potatoes baked in the bonfire, presumably the beggar's dinner.

"I am the person sent by the county to guard this Taoist temple, and this is my luggage and food." Zuo Dengfeng said to the beggar hiding in the main hall. Zuo Dengfeng had already discovered that the beggar was very thin, and his height was only one meter six. Such a person is no threat to Zuo Dengfeng.

When the beggar heard Zuo Dengfeng's words, he timidly walked out of the main hall, moved to the door of the west chamber against the corner of the wall, and looked at Zuo Dengfeng from there.

The beggar looked at Zuo Dengfeng, Zuo Dengfeng also looked at the beggar, Zuo Dengfeng saw that the beggar was a woman for the first time, which was not based on her appearance, because her face was dirtier than the bottom of the pot, and the clothes on her body were also shabby and extremely ragged, but a pair of small feet exposed her surname, the shoes she wore were very tattered and small, the size would not exceed twenty-three centimeters, if it was a man, even if it was a teenager, her feet should not be so small.

"I'm from the county seat, and I'm here to guard this Taoist temple, I'm not a bad person." Zuo Dengfeng opened his mouth at the female beggar, and at the same time squeezed out a smile that he thought was sincere.

The female beggar didn't react when she heard this, and still stared at Zuo Dengfeng suspiciously and alertly.

"Do you live here?" Zuo Dengfeng looked around and found that there were no weeds in the courtyard of the Taoist temple, and there were traces of artificial cleaning.

The female beggar finally reacted this time, and nodded lightly at Zuo Dengfeng.

Zuo Dengfeng was relieved when he saw the female beggar nodding, which meant that the female beggar was not a madman, but a woman who had fallen here.

"I won't hurt you, you still live here, I won't pick you up." Zuo Dengfeng said. Zuo Dengfeng is extremely sympathetic, and he never bullies the weak.

The beggar nodded again, and turned her gaze to the dying bonfire.

"Which room do you usually live in?" Zuo Dengfeng squatted down and used a branch to pull the two sweet potatoes that were about to roast out of the fire.

When the female beggar heard this, she turned to look at the west chamber, which meant that she usually lived there.

"I'll stay in the east room from now on." Zuo Dengfeng waited for the sweet potato to be slightly cool, and then picked it up and handed it to the female beggar. The latter hesitated again and again, and finally timidly stepped forward and snatched the sweet potato, and then ran to the west chamber to close the door.

During the period when the female beggar stepped forward to take away the sweet potato, Zuo Dengfeng made another judgment, that is, the age of the female beggar should be between twenty and thirty years old, and there are three bases for making such a judgment Zuo Dengfeng has three grounds, first, although the female beggar's face is dark and dirty, her facial skin is tight. Second, the female beggar's eyes are very clear, black and white, and there is no trace of turbidity. The last point is that the female beggar's hand grabbing the sweet potato is very white, through which Zuo Dengfeng can not only judge that she is not old, but also judge that this woman is deliberately soiling her face, and the purpose is naturally to protect herself.

Although Zuo Dengfeng, a young woman, appeared in the Taoist temple in the wilderness, he was surprised, but he did not feel strange, because now he had begun to invade China, and there were wars in many places in the north, and a large number of displaced people had fled to Shandong, which had not yet spread to the war. But then again, disaster victims are usually in groups, how could this young woman not have a companion?

With full of doubts, Zuo Dengfeng lifted the cover and pushed open the door of the east wing, by the light of the fire, Zuo Dengfeng roughly saw the furnishings of the room, what Zuo Dengfeng did not expect was that although the east chamber was relatively empty, it was very tidy, and there was a dark red table of eight immortals in the middle of the main room, and four carved Taishi chairs on the front and back, left and right, and there was nothing else.

There was a copper candlestick on the table of the Eight Immortals, on which there was half a red candle that had not been burned out, and the candle was lit, and Zuo Dengfeng took the lead in pushing the door into the north house. As soon as I entered the house, I was shocked into a cold sweat, and there was a dark coffin in the middle of the north room, and the coffin lid was full of dust.

In an unfamiliar environment, he suddenly found that the coffin would be changed to anyone who would be afraid, although Zuo Dengfeng was an intellectual and did not believe in the theory of gods and ghosts, but the coffin placed in the center of the room still made him break out in a cold sweat, and he hurriedly retreated in a panic, and closed the door with his backhand.

"What the hell?" Zuo Dengfeng raised his sleeves and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, secretly frightened. In all fairness, Zuo Dengfeng didn't know much about this Taoist temple before he came to Qingshui Temple, he didn't know what year and month this Taoist temple was built, and he didn't know who lived in this Taoist temple before, and there were only two possibilities for the appearance of a coffin in the Taoist temple, one is the dead relative of the woman who lived in the West Chamber, but this possibility is not big, because it is impossible for the fleeing person to carry the coffin, and the other coffin looks like it has been some years, not like something in recent years. There is also a possibility that the Taoist priest in the Taoist temple prepared for himself after his death, this possibility is a little bigger, as for whether the person is not dead at all, or put in the coffin after death and did not have time to be buried, he has no way of knowing, and he will naturally not open it to check when the black light is blind.

After a long time, Zuo Dengfeng came back to his senses and walked to the south house with the candlestick, before entering the south house, Zuo Dengfeng was ready to see the coffin again, but the south house did not have a coffin, but a clay kang made of clay, and an old straw mat was spread on the kang.

After putting down the bedding luggage, Zuo Dengfeng turned around and walked out of the house, there was a fire mouth for burning the kang under the earthen kang, and Zuo Dengfeng wanted to find firewood to burn the kang to ward off the cold.

After going out, Zuo Dengfeng found that there were still a small number of branches piled up next to the fire in the yard, but these were picked up by the woman, and he didn't want to use them casually, so he walked out of the Taoist temple to look for them from the wild.

The perennial fire of the soil kang always smoked when it first burned, but fortunately at this time the mountain wind was not small, and it didn't take long for the stove fire under the kang to ignite, Zuo Dengfeng then went out to break a large number of branches, and the leaves were dried by the stove fire, and the fire was more vigorous.

With the light of the fire coming from under the kang, Zuo Dengfeng put down the cover, and instead took the rope that tied the back cover before to the north house, and tied up the two wooden doors of the north house.

After the temperature of the earthen kang was raised, Zuo Dengfeng put down the cover and lay down, in fact, the Taoist temple in front of him was already very dilapidated, and there was nothing worth guarding at all, Zuo Dengfeng knew this very well. But he also knew that he couldn't go back, Sun Aiguo and Hu Qian wouldn't let him go back to the county, but they didn't dare to deduct their salary, otherwise they would force themselves to shake out their ugly things.

Then again, in fact, it's good to live here, the cultural institute is full of relatives of some official families, where is there a real job, I am busy every day from the institute, I do the most, the salary is the least, and the psychology is unbalanced.

Thinking about it like this, Zuo Dengfeng felt much more comfortable, and secretly made up his mind to wait until dawn tomorrow to simply clean up the Taoist temple, rebuild the collapsed courtyard wall, strengthen the gatehouse, and the coffin in the north house also have to be taken out, and it will be weird there.

Walking nearly a hundred miles with the food on his back, Zuo Dengfeng was already exhausted, and the warmth from the kang aggravated his sleepiness, and it didn't take long for Zuo Dengfeng to fall asleep.

I don't know how long it took, Zuo Dengfeng was awakened by a dull sound.

Zuo Dengfeng immediately turned over and sat up after waking up, and if he heard correctly, the muffled sound of the wooden plank falling to the ground came from the north room. At the same time as he sat up, there was a sound in the north room again, although there was a main room in the middle, Zuo Dengfeng still heard the sound of footsteps.

Because he had just woken up, Zuo Dengfeng didn't understand it for a while, but soon he reacted and began to be afraid.

The north house is where the coffin is parked, how can there be footsteps there......