"What?" Hearing this, everyone, including the village chief, was stunned.

"Are you saying that the lake spirit that you have been worshipping for so many years is actually not transformed after the death of the little poor girl?" Wu Yun suspected that he had misheard, and repeated it emphatically.

"Sacrificing to the lake spirit is just a ritual that has been passed down from generation to generation, because it has been passed down from generation to generation by our ancestors, so we will continue to do so. Just because it's for peace of mind doesn't mean we're really worshipping anything. But a few years ago, when a young woman fell into a lake and died, and the resentment she had at the moment of death turned her into a fierce spirit lodged in the lake, and our sacrifice took on a meaningful meaning. ”

Wu Yun seemed to think of something, and asked, "A few years ago?" How many years ago? ”

Shen Lao smacked his lips and said, "Oh, I can't remember anything at this age." It must have been five or six years ago, maybe seven or eight years ago, but it was about the same time as those years. But I remember that the season was autumn, and on that day I suddenly felt a thick resentment spreading from the lake, and there was still the breath of the fierce spirit in it, and it was a young girl. And this breath ......" As he spoke, Shen Lao paced in front of the old couple Chen Wendong and Yue Lin, raised his head and said firmly, "It seems to have something to do with you, and I feel a similar aura in you." ”

The expression on Yue Lin's face suddenly turned pale, and the face of Chen Wendong, who was as steady as Chen Wendong, suddenly turned ugly.

"Nonsense!" Chen Wendong snorted angrily and brushed his sleeves away.

"Xiao Dong! Xiao Dong ......" Yue Lin saw her husband turn around and leave resolutely, and she didn't care about explaining a few words to Wu Yun and Wei Xiaofeng, so she hurriedly followed in a panic.

Wu Yun and Wei Xiaofeng, who witnessed the departure of the old couple, were already convinced that there must be a secret behind their daughter's death in the lake six years ago, because Shen Lao's words were indeed true, otherwise it would be impossible for Chen Wendong's character to leave without justification. However, the two did not leave with the old couple, firstly, the old couple was poked in the sore spot in their hearts and now they need to buffer and calm down, and secondly, it is impossible for the two of them to know the truth behind their daughter's suicide six years ago from the old couple at this time, and most importantly, they still have a stomach of doubts that they want to ask Shen Lao for answers.

"Two young men, do you still have a lot to ask me?"

The heart was broken by Shen Lao, and Wu Yun and Wei Xiaofeng nodded hurriedly.

"Well, if you don't dislike it, go and sit in my humble home. As it happens, I have something to ask you, and you have two things about you that make me feel very curious. Shen Lao's "you" refers to Wei Xiaofeng.

The two agreed to Shen Lao's invitation and followed the villagers to a small hill not too far from the lake.

The group walked along the stone road for a while, then turned on the flashlight and turned onto a gentle mountain road. The mountain road was hidden in the dense forest and long grass, and if it weren't for the villagers, Wu Yun and Xiao Feng probably wouldn't have found it at all.

After about a quarter of an hour's walk along the winding mountain road, a small village came into view, turning a small col, dark and silent, with only a few faint lights. From this almost isolated village, Wu Yun and Wei Xiaofeng could not feel the leisure and comfort of the paradise in "The Story of the Peach Blossom Spring", and there was a lifeless atmosphere everywhere that was about to be extinguished in the world.

"This is our village." Village Chief Lin introduced.

There were no street lights in the village, it was dark and gloomy, and only the light from the windows of the houses on the side of the road could faintly see the feet clearly. The houses are all made of bricks and tiles, with a layer of yellow mud painted on the walls, and the doors and windows are all wooden, and the polish has been crumbling by the perennial sun and wind. Wu Yun and Wei Xiaofeng couldn't believe that there were still such backward villages in the 21st century, making them feel as if they had walked into a remote village in the fifties and sixties of the last century that could only be seen on TV.

As soon as the villagers who participated in the sacrifice returned to the village, the dead and silent village suddenly had little vitality left. The dark rooms were all lit up with dim lights, the wooden doors creaked open, and the old ladies came out to greet their wives.

"Why are there all the old people in this village?" Wu Yun asked strangely.

Village Chief Lin said: "How can the young people of such a dilapidated and almost forgotten village be willing to live? They all ran outside. We were left with a group of old men, old ladies and some little dolls, living on the government's meager handouts and a few barren farmlands. ”

Most of the villagers returned to their homes, and the villagers carrying the tables and ritual utensils, together with the village chief and the priest, walked with two outsiders to the small house on a small high slope in the middle of the village.

The wall is broken and the top is slanted and the eaves are up, like a small temple. Take a closer look at the plaque hanging on the door, with three big characters written on it - Lake Temple. The temple looks hundreds of years old and is in ruin, but you can still vaguely see that the walls are red and yellow, and it seems that it was repaired decades ago, and it has not been renovated for a while.

Wu Yun and Wei Xiaofeng walked into the temple, the small space was illuminated by the faint candlelight, and the villagers had put the offering table, candlestick, and tribute back to their original places. In the middle of the temple stands a clay statue, which is a woman dressed in red, with a delicate appearance and a faint grievance in her eyes, which should be the statue of the little poor girl passed down by the villagers. Shen Lao said that the statue was erected in the temple after it was built. Wu Yun and Wei Xiaofeng carefully looked at it by the candlelight, and the painted paint on the surface of the statue was complete, there were no cracks and traces of falling off, and the smooth glaze was not dusty, and it reflected a brilliant light. The interior is not large, except for the statue and the offering table in front of the statue, but the floor and corners are spotlessly clean, and it seems that villagers come here every day to clean it.

Wu Yun and Wei Xiaofeng stood in front of the statue with their hands folded, bowed three times without distractions, and then left the Lake Temple with Shen Lao and walked towards his home.

Shen Lao's house is next to the Lake Temple, which is the same as the other houses in the village, but it occupies a slightly larger area, perhaps this is the preferential treatment of the Shen family as a sacrifice for generations.

Pushing the door in, Shen Lao pressed the light switch next to the door, and the room lit up with a bright white light that was different from other villagers' homes.

"This kind of lamp was bought by my son from the city, and it is said to be much brighter than ordinary light bulbs, and it also saves a lot of electricity." Shen Lao said.

The furniture in the room is rudimentary, with a square wooden table and a few small bamboo chairs, and a black wooden cabinet against the wall, with almost no ornaments on the wall. There are also several rooms connected to the living room, separated by a cloth curtain.

Elder Shen motioned for Wu Yun and Wei Xiaofeng to sit down and asked, "Do you want to drink some water?" ”

It just so happened that they were also thirsty and nodded.

"I went to fetch a thermos and boiled a pot just before I went to the sacrifice." Shen Lao turned around and walked towards the kitchen. After a while, he took three enamelled teacups and a kettle and placed them on the wooden table in the living room, and filled the cups with hot water.

Wu Yun and Wei Xiaofeng couldn't help but feel a sense of nostalgia when they looked at the steaming white enamel cup with flower patterns on it. They carefully took a sip of the glass, the water was slightly hot, and the drink was warm in their stomachs. This old house has a wind in nowhere, the cold outside the mountain style at night, and the sweat on the body of the mountain road that has just been walked for a long time, and the wind blows even more cold. A cup of hot water just drove away the chill, and the two showed a slight satisfaction on their faces.

The two put down the empty cups, and Shen Lao picked up the hot water bottle and poured it for them again.

Wu Yun asked, "Elder Shen, has your village been here for a long time?" ”

Shen Lao nodded. "Yes, for as long as I can remember, my grandfather told me, his grandfather is my grandfather told him, and my grandfather's grandfather told my grandfather...... Ahem, I can't count it either. Anyway, our ancestors have lived in this village for generations. ”

"In other words, the village where she lives in the legend of Little Poor Miss is your village?"

"Yes." Elder Shen nodded affirmatively.

"Is the story of the little poor girl real?"

Shen Lao shook his head this time. "I'm not sure about that, because there's nothing written down yet. However, the tragic story of the lake temple and the little poor girl who jumped into the lake and died has been engraved in the memories of our ancestors and passed down to this day. Those people who are fascinated by money actually use those false and ridiculous stories to deceive the world, what a damn thing! ”

Wu Yun heard that the villagers in this small mountain village were very resistant to the actions of the developers back then, so he asked curiously: "Since you didn't cooperate with the developers to make up the legend of the lake, why did they come over to invest money to build the scenic spot later?" ”

"Our village is in the middle of nowhere, and it's full of old things like us, so they don't have any interest in reaching out to us. At the beginning, our village also agreed with those people that in addition to sacrificing to the lake spirit and buying some necessities, the people of our village would not set foot in the scope of the scenic spot, and they deliberately avoided the nearby area when we did not exist during the development and construction. ”

"Didn't the people who opened homestays and night stalls in the scenic area come out of your village?"

"Those people? Most of them are locals who have moved here from other places in recent years, and some of them have moved out of our village a long time ago. Before the scenic spot was developed, the relationship between that village and our village was very harmonious, and they also participated in the festival of worshipping the lake spirits every year. But after the development of the scenic spot, this connection was broken, and only the old bones of our village were left to continue this tradition. Hey, all the young people in the village are gone, and I'm afraid this tradition will be buried in the grave with our old bones, right? Elder Shen sighed wistfully.

Wu Yun and Wei Xiaofeng were silent. They understood Shen Lao's helplessness, but they could only stare at the heat rising from the enamel cup.

At this time, a childish voice suddenly sounded: "Grandpa, are you back?" ”

The three of them woke up from the silence, and followed the sound to see that it was a little girl who looked only four or five years old, with shoulder-length hair, a round face, and big eyes, which was very cute.

A doting smile appeared on Shen Lao's face: "Sisi, haven't you slept so late?" ”

"I'm worried about grandpa, I can't sleep." The little girl said with her eyes wide open. Then, the little girl stared at Wei Xiaofeng for a long time, then stretched out a finger to point at her, and asked expressionlessly, "Sister, who are you?" Why do you have the breath of the other two spirits in you? ”