On the evening of the 29th day of the lunar month, the old passenger cars swayed slowly on the country road paved with a layer of light snow, and the smell of gasoline cigarettes and air conditioning mixed in the car, which made people sick to their stomachs.

An eighteen or nineteen-year-old boy with dark circles under his eyes and a heavy schoolbag on his back, with deep thoughts that he shouldn't have at his age, looked out the window at every inch of familiar land.

"Lotus Leaf Village has arrived! Do you get off the bus? If you want to get off the bus, get off the bus quickly!"

The ticket seller aunt who was in a hurry to go home for the New Year shouted impatiently.

The big boy was startled, hurriedly came back to his senses, hurriedly put on his schoolbag and put on a down jacket, and hurriedly responded:

"Yes!"

He hurriedly squeezed out of the gap between the seats, and a thin layer of fine sweat broke out on his forehead in the winter when the water was dripping into ice.

The enthusiastic passengers in the car followed suit and moved their luggage that was occupying the road and made way for him.

"This is a junior in high school, right?"

"Surely, I saw him fall asleep twice along the way. Oops, tired like this!"

Several aunts looked at the back of the slightly embarrassed squeezed out of the car door and sighed.

The bus suddenly puffed out of black smoke and swayed along the country road without hesitation.

Under the light of the setting sun, Bai Ze's lonely shadow fell on the big stone at the entrance of the village.

Maybe it's a hometown timidity!

Bai Ze stood at the entrance of the village for more than ten minutes, took a deep breath, stepped on the thin snow, accompanied by the sound of "crunching", and walked towards his grandfather's house, who had passed away for nearly a year.

Although the two big locust trees in the yard of his grandfather's house have lost their leaves, they are still the most conspicuous symbols in the village, guiding Bai Ze's direction like two guide poles.

The old courtyard, which had not been visited for a long time, made an overwhelming "creaking" sound when the wooden door was pushed open, and it tilted to the side.

Bai Ze was shocked, and he was afraid that it would fall down directly.

Thankfully, these old objects, although they look fragile, are actually very strong.

Whether it is the wooden doors and windows, or the grandfather's most precious wooden bookcase, they are all waiting for the arrival of their little master unscathed.

Bai Ze rushed back from the winter vacation of just over a week in his senior year of high school, one of the purposes was to clean up his grandfather's relics.

His grandfather was a very respected old man in the village who lived for a long time, and he loved to read all his life, and he loved to talk about it in books, and there were collections of various versions of Liao Zhai.

What Bai Ze is going to take this time is a lonely book, which is a letter he left for himself in his grandfather's relics a few days ago, and his grandfather asked him to keep it with him a few days ago.

He opened the secret compartment of the bookcase with familiarity, and all kinds of fragmentary ancient books gathered in it, and at the bottom was a collection of strange paintings from Liao Zhai.

This collection of paintings is about an inch thick, the wooden cover, and the two vigorous and powerful characters on the front, reflecting the strange light that catches people's hearts.

Bai Ze stared at it for a while, only to feel that his whole mind was sunk in, and it was not until there was a gust of wind blowing outside and the wooden door creaked that he suddenly woke up.

Bai Ze kicked in his heart and said secretly:

"This Liaozhai painting book is a bit evil!"

However, the young man's curiosity made him open the wooden cover and opened the book.

Influenced by his grandfather, Bai Ze has seen a lot of Liao Zhai, and when he was a child, he also read Liao Zhai's picture books, all of which are simple paintings with a small story. Some love stories are also accompanied by thought-provoking images, which attract people to go deep into them.

However, this picture book is different, it has only one story throughout the whole story, which is the story of the beginning of the chat "Kao Chenghuang".

There are countless illustrations in this story, and the description of words and actions is extremely detailed, as if there is really such a person who went to the underworld of the fasting world to take the city god.

However, the protagonist in the story is not Song Tao in the original book, but a student surnamed Bai.

The surname Bai is not as common as those big surnames, and the more the protagonist Bai Ze looks at it, the more familiar he feels, he can't help but have some doubts in his heart.

But without these subsections, this book undoubtedly tells a fascinating story.

The more Bai Ze looked at it, the more fascinated he became, and some details that should have been worth scrutinizing were completely forgotten by him.

Different from the refinement and simplicity of the original, this story is very exciting with ups and downs, and Bai Ze can't help but follow the fate of the characters in the plot, followed by joy or sadness.

The night was getting darker, and the village dogs barked incessantly for some reason.

The story is nearing its end. Bai Ze's eyelids became more and more heavy, and he kept fighting up and down, but his interest in the ending of the story made him refuse to close his eyes, and he continued to look down with his spirit.

The story has already been told that the surname Bai Lisheng prayed to Emperor Guan and asked for a nine-year extension of his term.

The reason is that his only son died two years ago, leaving only an eight-year-old grandson helpless, and he can't rest assured. When the only grandson grows up, he will go to serve in Chenghuang again.

Emperor Guan felt the friendship of his ancestors and grandchildren, gave him a leave of absence for nine years, and resumed his recruitment on time.

Nine years later, the surname Bai died and became a city god.

After watching the ending, Bai Ze let out a long breath, no longer resisted sleepiness, and fell asleep on the table.

However, before closing his eyes, he glanced at the illustration on the last page, which depicted the golden body of the city god standing by the people, and there was a brief introduction to the life of the city god lord next to it, among which the two big characters "white text" at the beginning came into view.

Bai Ze was shocked, no wonder the protagonist in the painting was so familiar, but he was not six points similar to his grandfather's appearance, and his grandfather's name was also Bai Wen.

But drowsiness came like a flood, and although Bai Ze desperately resisted, he still fell into a deep dream with his Liaozhai painting book on his pillow.

The dream is full of bizarre light, including grandfather, dead biological father, and some strange demons and monsters.

In the end, what appeared was a volume of Liaozhai paintings comparable to heaven and earth, the pages of the book turned over, a blank piece of paper appeared in front of him, and a large pen appeared in the air at some point, stained with ink, and a few strokes outlined a new picture scroll......

......

When he woke up again, Bai Ze only felt a great headache, and couldn't help moaning, and a weak voice whispered in his ears:

"Master, are you feeling better?"

With his eyes closed, Bai Ze sat up, and his head, which was still aching, made him rub it with his hands.

The place where you start is smooth, and the breeze is coming slowly, and there is a faint coolness.

Bai Ze immediately woke up, nervously touched the top of his head with both hands, and rubbed it carefully to feel it, but the smooth feel told him:

"That's right, it's not a dream, don't lie to yourself, you're bald!"

Bai Ze jumped off the ground, ignoring the little maid next to him who was frightened by his astonishing behavior and screamed, ran to a bronze mirror, looked at the delicate and clean face in the mirror, and couldn't help asking:

"Yes, it's me, but what about my hair!"

The little maid replied with a crying voice:

"Master, you are a monk, aren't you originally bald?"

"You were drunk last night, and I accidentally hit your head on the doorframe when I helped you back. But the fall is not heavy, it is just a big bag, how can you be stupid. ”

Speaking of this, sorrow came from it, and the little maid finally cried:

"Woo~Woo, I've only been in the house for a few days to do chores, why did I cause such a big thing! The master values this big monk so much, he will definitely kill me!Woo~"

Bai Ze's eyes turned sharply, thinking about the cause and effect, and the ins and outs.

The little maid's louder and louder cries made him very irritable, and he couldn't help yelling:

"Shut up! Also, the monk is just bald, not bald!"

The little maid was so frightened that she immediately covered her mouth, her nose was still twitching, and her big eyes were full of mist.

The aggrieved little expression on his face clearly shows that although I don't cry now, if you dare to murder me again, I will take my hand down and cry to you.