The day after the Hundred Butterflies incident, because everyone was not in the mood to play anymore, we set off and left the Black Sea and returned to City A.

The old man was surprised that we had ended the holiday so early, and after Guan Qing briefly explained the situation, he tried to ask me something several times, but until the end he didn't say anything.

Zong An and Lu Ke returned to City A earlier than we did, and heard that he had made a name for himself among the demon slayer for his work on destroying the Black Sea Greedy Youkai.

After Guan Qing returned from the Black Sea, he corresponded frequently with You Zhen, and quickly adapted to the life of being able to see monsters, although he could see far fewer monsters than me.

Tsubaki has been extremely disgusted with him since he learned that Zong An cut my finger in order to get rid of the demon, and every time I see him, I have an expression of wanting to bite him to death, of course, Tsubaki is not Zong An's opponent at all, so this idea can only be thought about.

Fu Bai traveled abroad with his family, and I never saw him again before the start of school.

Yu usually appears mysteriously in Tianbei groceries from time to time, but at most, it is nothing new to talk about the gossip in the demon circle.

After I came back from the Black Sea, I continued to work part-time during the day and as a ghostwriter at night, except for the fact that I was always feeling uneasy and sad about the tide, everything seemed to be the same as an ordinary day, and I thought that this kind of peaceful life could last forever.

But the other night, as soon as I closed the door of the store, I saw a large white feather inexplicably appear on the container with the bell.

The bell didn't ring, there were no guests in the house, not even the breath of a monster, I picked up the feathers, this is certainly not an ordinary bird falling, it is thirty centimeters long, more than ten centimeters wide, pick it up like a big fan, feel like touching gold velvet, the owner of the feather must be a big guy, but after waiting for a night, I didn't wait for the guy who put the feathers here, I carefully put it in the warehouse, thinking that it is not strange that this kind of thing appears in Tianbei groceries, anyway, there will always be someone to pick it up, so I left this matter behind。

The next day, at the same time, another feather of the same size appeared silently on the cash register, but this time the feather was orange.

I felt that something wasn't quite right, but Tsubaki hadn't seen such feathers either, could it be that a youkai was playing a prank? Or something else?

On the third day, the feathers reappeared, this time green.

My intuition told me that things would not be so simple, I took a photo and sent it to Zong An, after returning from the Black Sea, our relationship eased a lot, and he also felt that things were strange, but even he couldn't say why.

For the fourth, fifth and sixth days, a feather would appear in different corners of the store every night, and the color of the feather would change every time.

On the evening of the seventh day, I had just closed the door of the store, Zong An suddenly knocked on my door, he was wearing a casual suit for the first time, and he walked into the store to check around without explaining his intention, no matter what I asked, he didn't speak, and only after turning around the store and inside did he speak, "Fortunately, there are no feathers today." ”

I didn't understand why he said that, but seeing that he didn't mean to explain, I didn't ask much.

"Ye Ke, you don't think there's anything wrong with these feathers these days?" Zong An sat down on his chair and said.

"Nothing special... I just think it's not an ordinary youkai feather, it seems to be more..."

"Stronger, kinder, more mysterious. "If I'm not mistaken, this should be the feathers of the Chongming Bird." ”

"Isn't the Chongming bird the bird in the legend?" the book says that this is a sacred bird that is very friendly to humans, and will come to the place where humans live every spring to drive away evil, so that people can be safe and smooth for the next year, "Does it really exist?"

"Well, but we have only heard the older generation talk about the demon people, and the Chongming bird is not a monster to be precise, and is more inclined to the divine beast, according to legend, it has two pairs of eyes, one pair is used to distinguish between good and evil, and one pair is used to see the future. Zong An looked very impatient today, "The older generation said that golden clouds appear in the sky every year when the Chongming bird arrives, I used to think that this is just a natural phenomenon or the habits of some monsters, but this year it didn't appear. ”

"But that doesn't mean that the feathers in my store are them?" I took out the feathers from the storeroom, and the feathers of six colors, white, orange, green, blue, purple, and red, were lined up on the table, and they were so beautiful that they were not human at first glance.

"yes, so I didn't think much of it when you told me that day," he pressed his temple, "but in the past few days, there have been frequent incidents of youkai attacking demons around me, and I accidentally saw something about Chongmei Bird when I went to check the information in the library at home, and then I felt that something was wrong." ”

"...... "Now I panic when I hear about the big things related to youkai, and the youkai I encountered in the Black Sea last time left a serious psychological shadow on me.

"Seven Day Feathers. "Zong An picked up a feather," which means that the Chongming Bird has seven colors of feathers, which indicate different danger levels, because it has the ability to predict the future, so the person who sees the feathers of the Chongming Bird is like getting a signal that they can prepare for the crisis in advance, if they only receive white feathers, then at most they will be stolen and the like, if they receive the blue one, then it is very likely that someone in the family is in danger, and if they receive the black one, it indicates that a catastrophe will occur. ”

“... But I've already received six colors. ”

"It's good that you didn't receive the black, the red one means that this disaster is related to the monster, since it is related to the monster, as long as there is a demon removal, don't worry," Zong An said, "Since you received the feather, what information should the Chongming Bird want to tell you, are there any strange dreams or strange phenomena these days?"

"No... It's been normal lately...", I said, but something didn't seem right.

"Nothing?" asked Zong'an, "think about it." ”

I think back to the events of the past few days, I have been sleeping soundly lately, I haven't dreamed much, and there doesn't seem to be anything unusual in the store except for the appearance of feathers...

No, here's the problem! How could it be that Tianbei groceries didn't have a strange thing happen for so long?

"It's not normal," I said, "it's not normal, it's so normal in the store these days." ”

“... Are you talking about tongue twisters?"

"It's not... How to say it, it feels like something is deliberately making Tianbei groceries normal... Oops, I can't tell. ”

Zong An thought for a moment, "Anyway, tell me something right away." He stood up, "Hopefully nothing too bad." ”

I nodded and watched him go out the door.

As soon as I turned around, a black feather lay on the ground in front of me.