At night, the goose-feather snow suddenly fell from the sky, covering the streets and alleys and buildings of Lin'an City, and the snow was much earlier than many people expected.

"It's snowing!" a cheerful cry came from outside the school, and the closed doors suddenly opened, and children in thick cotton clothes ran out of the house, and circled the street, reaching out to catch the snowflakes falling from the sky.

"Bang!" The closed window suddenly opened, Lin Junxuan lay on the windowsill, poking his head out of the school, and the large and soft snowflakes outside the window formed a line, falling from the air one after another, turning this world into a world of ice and snow. Lin Junxuan looked out the window blankly, remembering what the strange white-clothed boy and fortune teller said during the day, his mood suddenly became disordered.

"It's another winter!" Gan Ruye pushed open the door and stood outside the academy, looking up at the snow falling from the sky, muttering. He looked up at the sky, silent, with a look of compassion between his brows.

The master and apprentice had their own thoughts, and the hall suddenly fell silent, except for the occasional 'crackling' sound of the charcoal fire.

"Have you thought about it?" A familiar voice suddenly sounded in his ears, Lin Junxuan was startled, looked up, and saw that outside the windowsill, in the depths of the laneway, the white-clothed man he saw during the day was standing in the depths of the darkness, looking at himself with a smile. In such a cold weather, he was still wearing a thin white single coat, and he didn't seem to feel cold at all. He held a five-stringed instrument in his hand and four long swords behind his back, which was quite handsome.

Lin Junxuan glanced back at Gan Ruye, who was standing silently outside the door, and found that Gan Ruye was unconscious, and didn't seem to hear the voice.

"Why did you choose me?" Lin Junxuan asked as he looked at the white-clothed man with the four swords on his back.

"Jun Xuan, who are you talking to?" Gan Ruye heard Lin Junxuan's voice, and Huo Ran woke up.

"You're still hesitating," the voice of the man in white sounded in Lin Junxuan's mind again, Lin Junxuan shook his head with a smile when he saw him, slowly retreated backwards, and quickly disappeared into the darkness.

"I'll come back to you......" When the last voice came, the man in white had disappeared without a trace.

Gan Ruye found that Lin Junxuan hadn't answered for a long time, and his brows were furrowed, as if he was stumped by some question, so he walked to the window from the door, touched Lin Junxuan's head and said, "Junxuan, what's wrong? If you have any questions, I might be able to help you answer them." ”

Lin Junxuan raised his head, thought for a while, and said, "Teacher, do you think there are 'ghosts and gods' in this world?"

Gan Ruye's brows furrowed: "Jun Xuan, you are the descendant of my 'Mengxue School', and you are also a Confucian lineage. The so-called 'Zi is silent and strange and confused', this kind of problem should never be mentioned again in the future. The 'Dragon Court' of this dynasty is very taboo about these things, and if you set foot on the official career in the future, you need to remember this. ”

Lin Junxuan realized something, and said in a low voice: "The student knows. ”

"Forget it, you're still young, don't talk about it - Jun Xuan, this snow fell a little suddenly, much earlier than in previous years. Every year on snowy nights, many people freeze to death. Anyway, we have a lot of charcoal here, you go and get the old man. I'll go out and call in the beggars in the city, or I'll freeze to death tonight." Gan Ruye suddenly straightened up.

"Well, I'll go now!" Lin Junxuan responded, the two looked at each other, and then they both rushed into the wind and snow.

The wind and snow are very strong, just for such a while, the ground has been covered with a thick layer of snow, and the entire Lin'an City, looking from a distance, is white and connected.

Coming out of the academy, Lin Junxuan walked very slowly. He kept thinking about the day. The hounds suddenly stopped, and the horses pulling the carts suddenly went crazy, these were not simple things, and the animals seemed to be frightened by something terrible. If he had so much skill, why was he hit by the carriage the night he was rescued?

Lin Junxuan thought of the strange boy in white again, his voice seemed to be whispered in his ear, such a loud voice, but the teacher Gan Ruye didn't seem to hear anything.

"If something is abnormal, there must be a demon!" Lin Junxuan knew that the fortune teller was probably not an ordinary old man as he thought, and an ordinary old man could not scare away five hounds and four horses. Despite knowing this, Lin Junxuan still didn't have the slightest fear in his heart, just a little doubtful.

The City God Temple is at the end of the west of the city, Lin Junxuan walked for more than an hour before walking to the entrance of the City God Temple, and a little fire came out from the temple gate in the distance, which was the candle flame on the pilgrims.

Lin Junxuan walked into the temple, and saw more than a dozen beggars hugging each other, gathered in the corner of the wall, where there was no wind, and it was relatively warm. By the temple gate, fortune tellers were unkempt and curled up together, lying in the corner.

"Old man, I'm here!" Lin Junxuan walked over, stood beside the old man, and said softly. The old man remained motionless, still lying on the ground.

"Old man......" Lin Junxuan squatted down, and as soon as he got closer, he smelled an unpleasant smell at the end of his nose, which was like a piece of meat that had rotted for more than ten days, completely different from the smell of ordinary beggars rubbing on dirty corners. Not only that, when Lin Junxuan lowered his head, he saw a black and foul liquid slowly oozing out from under the old man's liquid.

Lin Junxuan's heart was cold, and he hurriedly stretched out his hand to probe the tip of the old man's nose.

"And the breath. Although the breath exhaled from the end of the old man's nose was faint, it did not stop, and it was obvious that there were still signs of life.

"Don't worry, he's like this every day. When the night comes, he will wake up by himself," a voice suddenly came into his ears, Lin Junxuan turned his head, followed the voice, and saw a seven or eight-year-old child with a fairly handsome face sitting in the middle of a group of beggars, looking up at himself.

"Are you his relative?" asked the beggar.

Lin Junxuan shook his head. The beggar glanced at Lin Junxuan in surprise, and his lips opened: "You wait for a while, he will return to normal after a while." ”

"Hmm," Lin Junxuan responded.

The beggar nodded and ignored Lin Junxuan again. It was about the cold, he shrunk his neck, and buried himself in the pile of beggars, hugging everyone together, warming each other, and after a while he fell into a deep sleep.

While the two were talking, the old man had been lying on the ground with his eyes closed, which was almost exactly the same as the night a month ago, when Lin Junxuan met the old man.

"Old man!" Lin Junxuan patted the old man lightly and called out. The old man's body moved, but he still didn't wake up. Turning over, the old man was still asleep.

Inside the temple is an old statue of a Bodhisattva, with some dusty cobwebs wrapped around it. Beneath the statue of the Bodhisattva is a dilapidated table with a broken leg, on which is a shrine with a cracked surface, and several large candles more than two feet long and burning silently are inserted. There were candles, there were incense, but there were no offerings.

The ancient temple was quiet, only the sound of the cold wind whistling in. The glow of the candle flame emitted a yellowish glow. Although the candlelight dispelled the darkness in the ruined temple, it did not make the ruined temple much warmer.

Sitting in the candlelight, Lin Junxuan looked down at the old man. The old man's face was covered with a layer of ash, and his face under the dust was dead blue, without any blood. If it weren't for the breath of nothingness, it would really be like a dead man. Naturally, the old man could not be a dead man, and it was impossible for a dying man to scare away five fierce hounds and four well-trained horses!

Time passed slowly, and his stomach was not very hungry, so Lin Junxuan sat next to the old man and waited slowly. The stench on the old man's body became stronger and stronger, and the black filthy liquid under his body also increased, forming a clear trace on the ground. Lin Junxuan didn't move, and he didn't seem to care about the unpleasant smell.

The cold wind swept the snowflakes into the City God Temple, and through the open gate, you could see the white expanse outside. The night was lighter because of the snowflakes that covered the earth. In a corner not far away, beggars craned their necks, their teeth chattering. The first cheers of the children in the city when they noticed the snow had long since disappeared, and worried parents carried their children into the house. Lin'an City finally fell completely silent.

Feeling the chill surging outside the door, Lin Junxuan also hugged his body and shrank inside. Before the old man woke up, Lin Junxuan put his head on his lap and took a nap.

"Hmm!" A low moan came into his ears, Lin Junxuan opened his eyes, woke up from the haze, raised his head and looked out of the door, Lin Junxuan found that it was almost time to sleep, and he slept for several hours.

Retracting his gaze from outside the door, Lin Junxuan looked to his side: the old man had woken up, and streams of heat emanated from his body, making his face a little bloody. Lin Junxuan looked at him quietly, only to see that the dirt on the old man's clothes decomposed at a speed visible to the naked eye, and quickly dissipated into the air, and the originally dirty clothes were about to become clean again under Lin Junxuan's gaze. And the smelly liquid flowing out of the old man's armpit also slowly decomposed and disappeared. In the blink of an eye, the old man was transformed from a dirty and smelly 'old beggar' to a clean and tidy 'fortune teller'!

"You're here!" the old man opened his eyes and slowly straightened up. After thinking about it, the old man suddenly put his hand into his arms, and when he stretched it out again, there was already a star-shaped pendant chain in his hand: "This is your pendant chain, return it to you!"

Lin Junxuan didn't take the falling chain immediately, he subconsciously looked up at the group of beggars in the corner, the beggars were asleep, and they didn't seem to notice anything strange here.

"Don't worry, I've put them to sleep. The old man said indifferently, and then handed over the star-shaped pendant chain, Lin Junxuan took the star-shaped pendant chain, but he didn't know what to say.

There was silence in the temple, and both of them remained silent.

"Are you afraid of me?" the old man said, Lin Junxuan shook his head, raised his head, and looked directly at the old man: "No, I just don't know what to say." ”

There was a look of surprise in the old man's eyes: "Why?"

Lin Junxuan thought for a moment: "You are—"

He didn't seem to know what to describe, but the old man understood, and the old man smiled and said in a plain tone: "I am a demon." ”

Lin Junxuan's palm hanging on the ground trembled a little when the old man said this, but quickly regained his composure. The old man's words seemed to be true or false, and the smile in his eyes made it impossible to judge whether what he said was true or not.

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