The crowd that had gathered earlier spread out from each other, lighting more candles, revealing the entire hall sporadically.

In the four directions of the corners and under the throne of the chieftain are placed strange statues resembling mythical beasts, many pillars stand on both sides of the center, and several arched false windows are built on the walls, which are closed like a lampshade to protect the burning candlesticks inside.

Many long tables were laid out one by one, and there was a large amount of unrecognizable food piled on them, no fragrance, and the pungent body odor between people was the only freshness that emanated from the plates, mixed with the damp smell of grass juice.

The people standing around them looked darker and weaker in the candlelight, their eyes full of dark tones.

The shadow fell to the ground, jumped up the windowsill with the candlelight, climbed the four walls, leaped and tried to jump to the roof, fell on the person, stepped on the back of the person behind him and twisted his body.

After the heavy wooden door opened, Mu Jinshu walked into the hall, bringing a different kind of language, dissecting the devastated and emaciated skeleton*, and draping a gorgeous robe from the inside out, allowing you to fall into the eyes of a thousand holes and picturesque scenery.

Intense oil paint is painted on the pupils, and we blindly look at those who look stupid and eccentric, at this magnificent wreckage created by the hands of their ancestors, and all sores and warts are obscured.

The shortcomings are not there, the simplicity and kitsch have become the greatest beauty, and the scarred ravines are filled with countless pale stories and unspoken history books.

When they came from and where they existed, we in another era have no answer.

"Come and sit." Mu Jinshu led us past the eyes of those who looked like another moving sculpture, sat down at an empty long table, and glanced at the empty place in the hall, where someone was erecting a strangely shaped shelf.

"There's a big dish in a moment." Mu Jinshu smiled, "You have to give enough face today, we haven't had outsiders here for a long time." ”

Tang Jiao laughed and asked Mu Jinji: "How long has it been since there were outsiders here last time?" ”

"Decades." After Mu Jinshu finished speaking, he refuted: "No, maybe it's closer, but I forgot." ”

"It's been a long time, your mother told you, I can understand when people are old and can't speak clearly, and my mother is like this."

Mu Jinshu laughed out loud, "Fool." ”

Tang Jiao's face tightened, and Mu Jinshu said: "Actually, to be precise, people here don't have parents. ”

She raised her hand and pointed in a slight circle, "See?" That's all of us here, we've lived together all the time, and we've been here longer than all three of you combined. ”

"According to what you mean, Miss Mu, you are dozens of years old?"

Mu Jinshu nodded, "Yes, but who knows, no one will always count their age." Anyway, it's not going to change. ”

"No kidding." Tang Jiao's face changed, ugly and embarrassing.

Jiang Xun chuckled and glanced at them, all with a look of contempt.

"If you don't believe it, at least I know I'm telling the truth." Mu Jinshu said, standing up and helping to light the fire under the shelf.

Tang Jiao hurriedly pounced, leaned his head and asked, "Do you believe it?" ”

Jiang Xun still smiled, "When I was born, there was just her ancestor in this world. ”

“…… Can you still manage what you owe this mouth? ”

I thought about it and nodded, "Maybe...... It's not impossible. ”

"Huh?" Tang Ka was surprised.

I said, "Don't forget that this is an enchantment, and in a way, the real world we live in, it's just a virtual, non-existent space-time. ”

Falsehood has no imaginary boundaries, so why can't what we think is ridiculous happen?

Ziwei said softly: "If Mu Jinshu hadn't lied to us, and their people were all here, if you look carefully, there is not a single teenager or child here, except for the leader, there is no old man, all of them are generally old, staying in the prime of life." ”

Tang Jiao swept around with his gaze, carefully trying to catch someone who could refute him, but no, everyone seemed to be carved out of the same mold, about the same age, about the same size, and about the same face.

It's like a machine shop, putting a stamp on everyone who produces it, making them seamless and featureless.

"Don't you think there's something missing here?" Jiang Xun took a pair of chopsticks from the small wooden barrel on the table, picked up a leaf of an unknown plant and threw it into his mouth, and said, "Now I know." ”

"What?" Tang Jia didn't understand.

I said, "It's the life force." ”

Jiang Xun snorted, "It's not just people, their plants here are the same, they look luxuriant, but in fact, they won't grow at all, and they will look like this in another thousand years." ”

He looked at me and said, "Remember what the local chronicle says?" Trees grew wildly, covering half of the village in just a few days. You can recall that what we saw outside was different from what the local chronicles described decades ago. ”

"What can you say, planting a tree is not growing vegetables, it grows slowly, maybe you don't see it when it grows. And the tree will only grow denser and denser, and who knows how far they describe the crazy growth. Tang Jiao also tasted the dishes on the plate, just stuffed them into his mouth, bent down and spit out a few times, "What kind of smell is this, it's too unpalatable!" ”

Jiang Xun said with a smile: "The smell of dead things, with a smell of rotten earth, chew it well, and taste it carefully." ”

Tang Jiao drooped the corners of his mouth, found a cup and poured a cup of tea from the teapot, and just poured it down, and squirted it all to the ground in a blink of an eye.

I opened the lid and saw that the teapot was soaked in a few sun-dried insect corpses with a few withered petals floating on it.

"Oh my god!" Tang Jiao couldn't control the volume, and kept spitting on the ground.

"If you come, you will be safe, and if you follow the customs, you can bear with it." Jiang Xun smiled and said, "Either eat this or starve to death, you choose." ”

Tang Jiao turned his face, his eyes were full of tears, like a puppy.

"Shen Qing." Jiang Xun called out my name and said with a smile: "That day, you should have tasted it." ”

The leaf on Zhang Qingshan......

"Natural speech is different from ours, but we can still read their messages in different ways." Jiang Xun said: "The leaves nourished by yin qi are sweet, I didn't lie to you. ”

I gritted my back molars, didn't say a word, and took a bite of the leaves in the bowl.

There is no trace of oiliness, nor does it have any flavor of spices, but the smell like aquatic plants is very strong, and it lingers on the tip of the tongue for a long time.

Mu Jinshu lit the fire and returned to us, holding a plate with a lid in his hand, and asked with a smile: "What do you think, are you still used to eating?" ”

"Eat habitually, eat habitually." Tang Jiao twitched the corners of his mouth to make way for her, "Come, Miss Mu, sit here." ”

Mu Jinshu put down the plate, sat down beside him, and said, "The leader will come in a moment." ”

"We're in no hurry." Tang Jiao said with a stupid smile.

Mu Jinshu asked us, "What did Wang Min tell you before you came?" Isn't he afraid that it will be dangerous for you to come here to cause misunderstandings? ”

"Don't we have a communicator?"

"What if we don't give you a chance to do it?"

"This ......" Tang Jiao looked at Jiang Xun and was quite confident, "We can probably protect ourselves, there are so many people anyway." ”

Mu Jinshu smiled, "He just gave you things and asked you to come here to find Aunt Meng, and he didn't say anything about what happened between him and Aunt Meng?" Like, how they met. ”

"Miss Mu, you don't know, the situation was really urgent at that time, and we didn't have time to say a few more words before others fainted, where did we have time to explain the ins and outs. He's that person, there's something in his heart that he can't hide to death, we've been friends for many years, if he hadn't been able to save his life now, he wouldn't have told us about it. Tang Jiao sighed decently and talked nonsense seriously.

Mu Jinshu asked, "Is he sick?" ”

Tang Ka nodded, thought about it and shook his head, "It's not a disease, I shouted every day for a few months that I had a headache, we went to the hospital several times to check, and we didn't see anything wrong, and then there was really no way, we went to find him a powerful warlock, and guess what?" ”

"Ghosts?" Mu Jinshu laughed and his shoulders trembled slightly.

Tang Jiao said: "It's more terrifying than a ghost, that warlock went down with a bowl of rune water, and he just spit out a big fat worm!" ”

I chuckled in my heart, and saw that Mu Jinji's expression also changed, and I barely maintained a smile.

Tang Jiao said: "Later, it was terrible, the situation was immediately uncontrollable, people were like pumping every day, and then checked, the brain was empty, full of insects, the doctor said that there were worms in his brain to make nest eggs, and now there is no help." ”

"How did he come up with the idea to let you come here?"

Tang Kari said: "We don't know what's going on, he said that he knows about the worm, that thing is called a cockroach, and said let's find Menggu, she must have a way to save him." ”

"Cockroaches." Mu Jinshu smiled, "Yes, we have that thing here, but haven't you heard of it?" As long as the poison of the cockroach, I mean the toxin triggered by the stress response, the person will only have a dead end, and he will not be able to save him. ”

Thinking of me and Jiang Xun, the fingers clenched together tightened.

He's right, I owe him my life.

Tang Jiao listened to Mu Jinji's words, pretended to be surprised, and said: "How can it be, if that's the case, how can it be that the worm has been in the brain for so many years, and people are still alive, Miss Mu, don't joke with us, this is a big matter related to human life." ”

"Of course I'm not going to joke with you with human lives." Mu Jinshu said: "There is no solution to the poison of cockroaches, who you ask, it is the same answer." He didn't die before, isn't he going to die now? You don't have to worry, this kind of thing is just sooner or later, and when the nutrients in his body are sucked up by the insects, the person has no value, and he will naturally die. ”

"Don't talk about that." Seeing that we didn't speak, Mu Jinshu smiled and relieved the atmosphere: "I'll introduce you to this dish, this is something we only took out when we entertained distinguished guests, you should get closer and see it clearly, and taste it for a while." ”

Tang Jiao nodded, Mu Jinshu put his hand on the lid on the plate, and the moment his hand slowly opened the lid, Jiang Xun grabbed me and shouted Tang Jiao.

I subconsciously grabbed Ziwei and pulled back, and at the moment when we hit the stool and retreated, a group of huge centipedes scattered on the plate, and a little white insect body broke on the back, which was the cockroach we were talking about.

"Arrest them!" Mu Jinshu suddenly turned his face and shouted, "You bastards! I hurt my sister for my own selfishness back then, and now I am in distress and I shamelessly come to Muzhang County for help, I will let you all pay for your sister's lives today! ”