Introduction –

In the center of Mushi, there is a private club hidden in the midst of high-rise buildings, and the façade of the clubhouse is an antique shop called "Death Pavilion", which is rarely visited, but its reputation is regarded as a leader among those who know it.

The couplet in front of the door reads:

——Yang people avoid themselves, how can they know how long they will live for a hundred years?

Allied:

- Yin guests, please come in, it is difficult to empty all the way.

I came to the Pavilion at noon, not because I had anything to say, but because it was so gloomy and scary at night, and the service staff in the Pavilion were still busy with their work when they saw me, and the dazzling array of antiques were placed in glass cabinets, which attracted the surprise of customers.

I entered the back door through the lobby of the Afterlife Pavilion, and inside the door was the elevator, and I swiped my membership card with the Death Pavilion logo and took the elevator to the fourth floor.

It was a dining room full of sofas, tables and chairs, and the smell wafted everywhere, and I saw only a few people sitting in different corners through my glasses. There are young girls wearing heavy sunglasses and touching their bones; There is a lewd monk wearing a robe and twisting Buddha beads, but his face is full of leprosy skin; There is a middle-aged uncle who is handsome and extraordinary in a suit and leather shoes, but speaks in a sissy tone and stretches out his orchid fingers......

Although they all have their own appearances, when I appeared in the "Yin Music Hall" on the fourth floor, they all cast strange glances at me, which is a kind of hunger and thirst when a hunter sees his prey rubbing his hands.

I ignored them and walked straight to a pretty woman in a red cheongsam eating hot pot in the corner, she was wiping the oil stains from the corners of her mouth reservedly, and did not look up at me.

I sat down across from her, unceremoniously opened a pair of chopsticks, grabbed a piece of meat from the hot pot and stuffed it into my mouth, and chewed it hard.

"What's the good business lately?" I muttered, cramming food into my mouth.

Lingzhi looked at me eating in embarrassment and said, "I don't have any money to eat again."

"No, I'm just hungry."

"Haven't eaten in a few days?"

I took the fat ox's hand and said, "Two days."

Lingzhi teased and chuckled, captivating the country and the city, her beauty is not enough to describe her at this moment, like an ancient jade with red purity, hot but solemn, enchanting but pure.

"There are still four businesses left recently, and all of them are difficult to do with little money, do you want to wait any longer?"

"I'm starting a company, I can't wait, let's bring the list."

Lingzhi hesitated for a second, snapped his fingers, and a waiter came to our table with a tablet and respectfully handed it to me.

I wiped the oil from the corner of my mouth, typed my membership number on the screen, and a list appeared.

"Yin marriage, one dead and two injured, the ancient house is fierce, price: five thousand, danger factor: three stars."

"Headless corpses, three to five dead, suburban cemetery, price: seven thousand, danger factor: three stars."

"The ghost asks for his life, one person dies, college dormitory, price: eight thousand, danger factor: four stars."

"The coffin is lost, the death is zero, the ancestral tomb of the Wang family, price: five thousand, the danger factor: four stars."

I glanced at it, didn't click on each item to look at it step by step, and directly handed the tablet to Ganoderma lucidum and said, "The most expensive." ”

Lingzhi said, "Don't look at the information?"

"Don't look at it."

"Okay, wait for my news, you can work in three days."

"How much commission are you taking this time?"

She smiled, took off my glasses, leaned closer to her face and spat out pandan and said, "Don't smoke you, as long as you give me your eyes when you die."

I frowned and dodged, and then regretted that there were too few opportunities to get up close and personal with such a beauty.

She said, "Go ahead, you won't really want to eat and drink with me."

"Sooner or later, I'll make you a pet!"

"Then you have to work hard, little brother."

“……”

I knew that I could only say a bad thing, but she really had a weird fetish for my eyes, and when I passed by the mirror, I looked at myself inside, and her eyes were full of gray, without whites and pupils, like white bones that had been eroded by the wind, and they were creepy......

Chapter 1, Outlaw.

My name is Xu Huo, according to my mother-in-law, when I was born, Liu Daxian'er, a fortune teller in the village, said that I lacked fire in the five elements and lack yang energy, and if I didn't want to balance it, I would die young, so my mother-in-law gave me this name.

According to the custom of the countryside, the child should have a nickname when he was born, and other people's children are "dogs", "stupid ni" and the like, but I am unique, my mother-in-law may be afraid that my five elements lack fire too much, and gave me a nickname "Huohuo", since then I began to have a new name: Xu Sanhuo.

I grew up with my mother-in-law, and I never saw my parents in my memory, and I asked my mother-in-law many times, and my mother-in-law kept silent every time, and only said the same thing to me: "When you grow up, you will know." ”

Mother-in-law is a very mysterious woman, I don't know what her name is, but the deepest memory is that she walked like a drunk, staggering, and always stationed a crutch carved with a strange beast, which looks a little weird, and I don't know what the origin is.

Since I was a child, the people in the village have been a little jealous of my mother-in-law, not deliberately estranged, but no one dared to contradict her when my mother-in-law lost her temper, and of course I didn't dare. Fortunately, my mother-in-law was very kind and kind most of the time, and she was keen to take me to the mountains every evening to teach me something, when I was young, I didn't understand anything, I was curious about everything, so I was willing to learn from my mother-in-law.

At that time, I didn't understand what my mother-in-law taught me, but every time I learned something, I would have nightmares at night, and in my dreams there were a bunch of terrible things around me. When I grew up, I was a little resistant to this, but my mother-in-law still insisted that I learn these things, and sometimes when I resisted, she would not beat me, but would lock me in the barn of the house, which was pitch black, and only let me go when I was afraid and begged for mercy and screamed to learn from her.

When I was 18 years old, I remember my mother-in-law saying to me on my birthday, "Sanhuo has grown up, and I want to leave my mother-in-law." ”

I stupidly nibbled on the roasted bud and replied, "No, I want to stay with my mother-in-law forever." ”

After listening to my words, my mother-in-law squinted her eyes and smiled as she stroked her crutch, and the faint light of the candle flame illuminated the uneven and criss-crossed wrinkles on her face.

Somehow, my mother-in-law's health has gotten worse and worse since that birthday, and I have been lying in bed almost every day, but she has never asked me to ask for a doctor, and she often stares at the cane in a daze, which makes me a little anxious, after all, my mother-in-law is my only relative in the world.

After a while, I finally couldn't take it anymore and asked my mother-in-law why she didn't let me go to the doctor.

My mother-in-law smiled gently, grabbed my hand tightly, and said, "Child, this is my mother-in-law's life, sooner or later, there will be such a day, and you will soon leave your mother-in-law." ”

Of course, I knew what my mother-in-law meant by leaving, and I couldn't help but shake my head desperately, holding her hand tightly, and the moment I touched her skin, I subconsciously let go, her hand was cold and piercing, like a door bolt in the cold winter moon.

My mother-in-law didn't get angry at my actions, but looked at the crutches and said, "That person is coming soon......

My heart was full of doubts, and I asked my mother-in-law directly: "Who is that person?" ”

The mother-in-law shook her head slightly and never spoke again.

A few days later, I wanted to help my mother-in-law to the yard to bask in the sun, just about to help her up, I heard someone knocking on the door, I hurried to open the door, only to see a tall and powerful strange man standing outside the door, looking more than forty years old, wearing camouflage uniform, dirty, he was a head taller than me, a pair of eyes were bright, but the stubble on his face looked a little vicissitudes, to use one word to describe it: unkempt.

"My name is Zhao Shouquan, it was Aunt Meng who asked me to come here, this is her home!" When the man saw me come out, he opened his mouth with confidence before I could speak.

Aunt Meng?

I never knew my mother-in-law's surname, and the people in the village only called her Granny Xu.

Could it be that this person is the person my mother-in-law said not long ago?

I was a little confused, and took him into the yard in a daze, and my mother-in-law who was leaning on the recliner saw Zhao Shouquan, her eyes seemed to light up a little, and she was dying and trying to support her body, and I quickly put the bedding under my mother-in-law's elbow.

"Sanhuo, go and practice the breathing method you learned yesterday by yourself, I have something to say to your Uncle Zhao."

I have always been absolutely obedient to my mother-in-law's words, but looking at the vulture eyes of the man named Zhao Shouquan, I always felt a little uncomfortable in my heart.

Out of the house I climbed to an old tree in the yard, the old tree was so thick that it took four strong men to open their arms to surround it, and I spent most of my childhood playing in the tree, and I also had an inexplicable affection for it. Unfortunately, this ancient tree is about 10 meters high, but it does not produce young shoots and leaves in all seasons, and its dry trunk is brownish-purple, and the bark has fallen a lot, and it will collapse at some point.

I climbed to the top of the tree, hung upside down on the tree, breathed at a uniform pace with my eyes closed, and after a while my face was flushed, and the blood poured into my head and I was dizzy......

In the evening, I climbed down from the ancient tree and returned to the house, and when I entered the door, I saw my mother-in-law cooking in the kitchen, and I was overjoyed, thinking that Zhao Shouquan was cured of her illness by the doctor found by my mother-in-law, so I hurriedly sent my mother-in-law back to the house, not letting her continue to work, and I would cook dinner. After the three of us had eaten, Zhao Shouquan had to live in a room with me, he didn't seem to like to talk to me very much, and I didn't rush to talk to him, and after a while he snored.

In the middle of the night, I heard a rustling sound in my ears, sat up from the kang in a daze, rubbed my eyes and saw a heavy rain outside the window, which was the sound of raindrops hitting the window.

Just as I was about to go back to sleep, a flash of lightning suddenly pierced the sky outside the window, and I saw the lightning go straight into the yard, and instantly a fire ignited from the window.

"Mother-in-law!" I was startled and shouted.

At this time, a rough face suddenly appeared beside me, and in the middle of the night, the firelight outside the window reflected a terrifying face, and I moved my butt to the side of the kang in panic, and the owner of that face jumped up from the kang suddenly, and rushed to my mother-in-law's house without saying a word.

After a few breaths, I relieved myself and remembered that the person was Zhao Shouquan, so I casually pulled up my coat and draped it on my body and ran over with him.

The moment I entered my mother-in-law's room, I sat down on the ground, and my mother-in-law was lying on her bed, her face was pale, her eyes were closed, and her withered and thin body looked like an old man in her last years. Zhao Shouquan stepped forward to probe his mother-in-law's snort, looked back at me, and said in a deep voice: "She's dead." ”

The firelight flickered outside the window, my brain went blank, my chest ached, and my eyes went black.

When I woke up, the house was covered with mourning cloth, the beams and surrounding walls were covered with the word "lay", the mirror was pasted with red paper, and the crowd in the room was chaotic, giving me a headache.

Someone saw me open my eyes and shouted, "Xu Sanhuo is awake."

Then a familiar face came to the side of the kang, it was the village chief, he touched my forehead and said, "Sanhuo, are you okay?" ”

I looked at his old face and nodded, "How is my mother-in-law?" ”

The corners of the village chief's mouth twitched, and he said softly: "...... The people in the village are here, you can rest assured, the funeral will be handled by the village committee, and you will be guaranteed to let your mother-in-law leave with dignity. ”

I shed tears, suddenly remembered Zhao Shouquan, and hurriedly sat up and asked, "What about that person at home?" ”

"You mean the man surnamed Zhao, he left, said that he would come back at the funeral in three days, he left quickly, as if there was something urgent."

I closed my eyes, and my mind was full of my mother-in-law's appearance, and said, "He informed me about my mother-in-law's affairs?" ”

"Well, he also gave me some money, but I didn't ask for it."

“......”

I don't know who Zhao Shouquan is, his arrival is very mysterious, not only made the seriously ill mother-in-law in bed suddenly get better and can cook, but also made the mother-in-law suddenly die...... However, judging from his mother-in-law's enthusiasm for him, he doesn't look like a bad person, but I always feel that he must be inseparable from his mother-in-law's death.

While I was talking to the village chief, the fourth elder of the Wang family in the village hurriedly ran in from outside, his face was like sifting chaff, his legs trembling and he fell to the edge of the kang, pointed out the window and said, "Village... Village Chief, no! A coffin popped out of the tree! ”

"What?" The village chief's face became serious: "What nonsense are you talking about!" ”

"Really, if you don't believe it, go out and have a look, the coffin is inside the tree!"

The village chief saw that Wang Laosi's tone didn't look like a lie, turned around and ran out with people, and I didn't care about anything at the moment, so I jumped off the kang and followed them out of the house.

As soon as I went out, I saw that the ancient tree in the yard had fallen, smashed half of the wall, and the broken place of the root of the tree was tightly surrounded by everyone, then I remembered last night's fire, it should be the thunder that struck this ancient tree, I struggled to squeeze into the crowd to the village chief, and took a look, and the scene in front of me shocked me and fell to the ground!