There hung a thin slanting moon in the sky, and the cold moonlight sprinkled from the sky. A glimmer of white rays of fishing line appeared on the horizon in the distance, and three or two barking dogs came from the courtyard of someone's house, accompanied by the footsteps of early pedestrians who swooped and stomped on the long streets of Wild Dog Town.

Wei Zhen carried a small burden, waved his hand to Du Suo and Zhao Houde's family, turned around and climbed into a carriage covered with a thick layer of curtain, and did not say too much.

The sound of horses' hooves began to resound through the long street, and the carriage quickly moved away in the cold morning breeze with three or two farewell words of "remember to come back" and "take care".

Jiaozi City is hundreds of miles away from Wild Dog Town, and it needs to pass through another city, Heshan City, so even if you take a horse-drawn carriage, it will take ten days and a half months to get there.

Along the way, Wei Zhen stayed in the carriage most of the time, only occasionally lifting the corner of the thick curtain to smell the fresh air outside and take a look at the scenery outside.

It was already the middle of winter, everything was sleeping, there was depression everywhere, there was heavy snow in the sky, the roads were covered with snow and mud, and the driver had to slow down his hurry.

The owner of the carriage was surnamed Jiang, a medicinal herb merchant who traveled from south to north, about forty years old, because he had a lot of business dealings with Zhao Langzhong, so he agreed to take Wei Zhen to Jiaozi City by the way.

Since the death of Old Man Wei, Wei Zhen's personality has changed inadvertently, and it seems that the whole person is silent a lot, in him, there is a little less innocence and liveliness that a child of his age should have, but a little more rare calm and loneliness.

Fortunately, this businessman surnamed Jiang is also a quiet person, so the two of them stay in the same carriage, but they don't feel boring, but the groom who is driving the car is so bored that he panics, and hums a little tune or two from time to time to break the silence of the whole day.

After this winter, Wei Zhen will be ten years old. At this time in the past, Old Man Wei would prepare a small gift, such as a clay figure, a mud dog, or a mask for shadow puppetry, or a string of sugar gourds or something, to give Wei Zhen a simple birthday and make him happy. Because he didn't know Wei Zhen's specific birthday, Old Man Wei set his birthday on the day he was picked up - the 29th of December every year.

These worthless gifts are now carefully wrapped in the burden behind Wei Zhen's back, and sometimes he takes out one or two to look at and touch them. At this time, he will miss Old Man Wei very much, feel the warmth contained in these gifts, and nourish his heart.

The bizarre dream that happened in front of Old Man Wei's grave would also appear in his mind or sleep from time to time these days, and what made him regret and sad was that he still didn't see the vague figure under the tree in the end.

Except for sitting in the car in a daze, or looking through his previous birthday presents, he spent most of his time staring at the jade bead hanging on his chest, but he couldn't enter the place in his dream again.

"One day I will go there again, Old Man Wei, you wait for me. A trace of stubborn light flashed in the depths of Wei Zhen's eyes, and an incomparably resolute belief arose in his small heart, he must see clearly whether the figure under the tree was Old Man Wei, it seemed that until this moment, he could not fully accept the reality of Old Man Wei's passing.

After a bumpy ride for half a month, the carriage finally entered the gates of Jiaozi City on the evening of the seventeenth day.

The merchant surnamed Jiang sent Wei Zhen to the door of a hotel called "Pingyang Inn" as promised, and Wei Zhen bowed deeply to the merchant surnamed Jiang and thanked him.

This is a small inn located in a secluded part of the west of the city of Jiaoz.

Wei Zhen stood at the door of the inn in a daze, and did not walk in immediately. He didn't know who the old man Wei was talking about, he didn't know how the people here would treat him, everything was strange and a new beginning for him. Old Man Wei was gone, and the pillar in his heart had collapsed, leaving only a silent ruin.

I don't know how long it took, Xiao Er yawned, clasped his hands, walked out of the store, and saw him at a glance.

"Kid, do you live in a hotel?" asked the shopkeeper.

Wei Zhen came back to his senses and replied calmly: "I'm looking for someone." ”

"Looking for someone?" the shopkeeper blinked, "Let's bake the fire first, don't freeze!"

In front of the stove, there were several people sitting around, dressed thickly, and it seemed that they were all customers of the store.

"Who are you looking for?"

Wei Zhen took it, took a few sips, and said, "I'm looking for your shopkeeper!"

"The shopkeeper is not here, and he will be back tomorrow morning. Who are you?" asked the shopkeeper as he continued.

"I don't know him. ”

Now the shopkeeper is a little confused.

"You give me a room, and I'll stay and wait for him. Wei Zhen looked like an adult, and didn't care about the strange gazes of several adults beside him. Old man Wei had instructed him that the rune accessories could only be taken out after seeing the shopkeeper of the "Pingyang Inn".

"Do you have any money for a house?" said the shopkeeper uneasily.

Wei Zhen immediately took out a string of copper coins.

"Okay. The shopkeeper accepted the money and happily agreed.

All night, Wei Zhen didn't sleep well, he woke up from a dream, his mind was in a trance, and the appearance of Old Man Wei and the figure under the tree kept flashing in his mind. How he wished that someone would suddenly slap his little ass at this time, and then yell the familiar phrase "Get up, little bunny, the sun is on the ass".

When the day was about to dawn, when Wei Zhen was in a daze, there was a sudden shout of "catch the thief" and "catch the thief" from the small inn, which woke up all the guests in the room. In the small courtyard outside the room, there was a lot of noise, and several torches burned fiercely in midair.

Wei Zhen woke up from his sleep, and his first reaction was to reach out and touch the burden on the bedside - it was still - his heart suddenly felt a lot more steady.

Gently exhaling a breath of turbidity, Wei Zhen rubbed his eyes, put on his coat, and opened the window to see what was going on outside.

At this moment, a tiny black shadow in the darkness rushed straight towards him, and before he could see clearly, it slipped into his clothes.

Everyone in the courtyard rushed towards his room at this time, and the torches were bright, illuminating the corridor around the courtyard as if it were day.

Wei Zhen hurriedly drove away the black shadow on his body, but the thing was very slippery, and it was crawling through his clothes, and he scratched and scratched, but it couldn't touch the edge at all.

With a "bang", the door was pushed open by everyone, and Wei Zhen's embarrassing appearance of scratching left and right happened to fall into the eyes of everyone.

One of the middle-aged men stepped forward, his eyes swept wide, and he roared angrily, "That thief is on him." ”

Another lean man immediately asked in a dark voice, "Child, is this thief raised by you?"

Wei Zhen was so busy that he didn't know what was on his body, his hands were dancing, and cold sweat was about to break out, and he hurriedly defended: "No, no." It just got into the house......"

Everyone was skeptical, but looking at him as a child, he didn't look like he was lying.

The lean man asked, "Why did this little beast get into your room?"

"I ......" Wei Zhen was speechless, and he was accused of being a thief in front of everyone's eyes, and he almost wanted to cry. In Wild Dog Town, he has done a lot of things like stealing melons and touching dogs, but at this time and that time, the environment in his shoes is completely different.

"Where's your adult?" said the middle-aged man in a deep voice.

"He came to the hotel alone. At this time, the shopkeeper stepped forward and said.

"If it's not a very valuable thing, it's better to forget it, why embarrass a child!" Seeing Wei Zhen's pitiful expression, a guest opened his mouth to relieve him.

The middle-aged man glared at the man who spoke.

"No, I can't. Let's search first!" The lean man took a few steps forward, lifted the bedding on the bed, and saw that there was a burden placed at the head of the bed, he grabbed it, untied it in public, and with a bang, all the things in the burden fell to the ground, but a few clothes, some children's toys, and a few pieces of blackened bark, and the mud dogs and mud horses in it fell to the ground and fell to pieces.

Wei Zhen didn't care about the weirdness on his body, and suddenly pounced, pulling his hands again and again, gathering those broken mud pieces together, and the tears finally couldn't help but flow down.

The lean man's eyes were sharp, and he saw an accessory the size of half a palm in the pile of clothes, and took it to his hand during the inspection.

"Huh, what is this?"

Everyone was momentarily attracted by the object in his hand, and they were curious.

"What's going on?" a calm, old voice suddenly sounded behind everyone.

A thin old man stood behind everyone at some point, and the shopkeeper looked at the person, and his heart suddenly breathed a sigh of relief.

"Shopkeeper Yue, it's good that you're back!" he rushed over, and immediately attached himself to the ear of the thin old man to quickly tell the story of the incident, and then told Wei Zhen's intention to come to find him.

Shopkeeper Yue walked in front of everyone, and was about to speak, when he saw the rune accessory in the lean man's hand, the corners of his eyes jumped slightly, and his expression instantly changed slightly, but he quickly pretended not to see it.

"The little old man already knows what happened. He turned his head to look at the middle-aged man and said politely: "This guest officer, what did you lose?"

The middle-aged man was about to answer, when the lean man jumped over and screamed, "It's a treasure, it's very valuable." ”

"Baby?-" Shopkeeper Yue frowned slightly, and his words were a little hesitant.

"Devotional use of the baby. The lean man added.

As soon as the word "devotional" came out of his mouth, the whole room fell silent in an instant.

For these ordinary people in the room, the word "spirituality" represents a strong force that is out of ordinary people's thinking, and almost none of them have ever seen the so-called "spirituality", and it is said that there are extremely powerful people in this category, who can fly into the sky and the earth, and have the ability to turn over rivers and seas.