The moon rises and sets, and in the blink of an eye, it is another evening, and when the stars appear above the traveler's head, darkness also falls as scheduled.

In the mountains and forests, foxes and rabbits are infested, and occasionally one or two crows chirp, which is even more eerie. But even in this environment, there are still pedestrians hurrying through the mountains and forests. As he walked, the shorter of the two suddenly stopped, and looked around with a wary expression, his eyes full of wariness. A woman's voice sounded softly, and even if she was very careful, she still startled a few birds.

"Yangsheng, what's the ...... Why don't you go? ”

Lu Yangsheng didn't speak, he quickly stretched out a finger and put it on his lips and shhh Feng Qing understood and quickly closed his mouth.

After a while, Lu Yangsheng's body gradually relaxed, but there was still a sense of vigilance in his expression. He said softly, "Cousin, it's okay, you can speak." ”

Feng Qing still didn't dare to speak loudly.

"Yangsheng, what's wrong? Don't scare me. ”

She said as she looked around, her eyes full of fear and horror.

Lu Yangsheng shook his head and said, "Maybe I'm thinking too much, after coming here, I suddenly felt that something was wrong, but I didn't find anything." ”

After finishing speaking, he hurriedly added: "It's okay, it should be my delusion, let's continue on our way." By the way, cousin, how far is that small mountain village you are talking about? ”

Feng Qing swallowed her saliva, until now was not the time to say this, she responded a little nervously: "It's not far away, if I'm not mistaken, I can see the outline of the village after another mountain pass." ”

Feng Qing pointed to the col not far away, indicating that it was in that direction.

Lu Yangsheng looked at it and nodded, but instead of moving forward, he took a few steps back, and then took a few steps forward, repeating this several times.

Feng Qing couldn't understand what he was doing, so he naturally didn't dare to disturb at will.

After a while, Lu Yangsheng slowly exhaled a breath of turbidity, and patted his cuffs lightly before saying to Feng Qing: "Okay, cousin, let's continue on our way." ”

Feng Qing asked with some uncertainty, "Is it really okay?" ”

Lu Yangsheng nodded.

"It's all right, let's keep going."

Although Feng Qing's heart was full of doubts, he could only suppress them in his heart, and consciously walked in front to lead the way for Lu Yangsheng.

The two of them walked for tea again, and after walking around a corner, Lu Yangsheng's eyes suddenly saw that the lights suddenly lit up in the dark night not far away, and he called Feng Qing and asked, "Cousin, is the village you are talking about?" ”

Feng Qing stopped and looked, vaguely seeing the light not far away, and then she said without hesitation: "That's right, it's there." ”

Lu Yangsheng asked with some uncertainty, "Cousin, are you sure?" ”

Feng Qing replied with a firm look in his eyes: "You can't be wrong, because there is only that small mountain village inhabited within a radius of dozens of miles." Besides, in the past ten years, I have also come here countless times to secretly see my daughter, so I am still somewhat familiar with this place, and I will never admit it wrong. ”

After hearing this, Lu Yangsheng's eyes became even more puzzled, and he said to himself: "It's a little strange! ”

He didn't deliberately lower his voice when he said this, so Feng Qing naturally heard it.

Confused, she asked, "Is there anything wrong?" ”

Lu Yangsheng nodded.

Feng Qing was stunned for a moment, and she couldn't help but ask, "What's so strange?" ”

Lu Yangsheng hesitated for a moment, and said slowly: "Cousin, I want to ask you first, are there many rich people in that small mountain village?" ”

After hearing this, Feng Qing said without hesitation: "It's not much." Most of the small mountain villages depend on farming for a living, and there are few water sources in the village, so most people eat from the sky, and if the harvest is not good, they may have to starve the whole family for a whole year, and if they are worse, they may not survive the winter. In addition, this is not like our town, as long as you are willing to endure hardships, you can collect medicine from the mountains to supplement your family. There are many mountains and rocks in the surrounding area, and there are few herbs that grow, and there are no special people to buy them, so even if they are picked, they will not be able to sell them. Therefore, it is almost difficult for people here to have surplus food, let alone money. And...... And because of that one, the village still needs to pay tribute year after year, so it is naturally even poorer. ”

Lu Yangsheng nodded and said, "I know, but ...... This makes it even stranger. Cousin, do you think that a poor family would light such a light at night? ”

Feng Qing almost subconsciously replied: "How can it be...... Can ......"

Feng Qing didn't finish a few words, and suddenly looked in the direction of the mountain village.

Lu Yangsheng is a person who has suffered a lot, so naturally there is no need to say much, and although Feng Qing's surname is Feng, he will be sent out by his family to change relatives, how good can his family situation be? So without explanation, Feng Qing found the problem himself.

Where do the poor, especially those who are so poor that they don't even have enough to eat, get the money to buy lamp oil and candles? Not to mention the fact that you can still see the lights from such a distance.

Lu Yangsheng thought for a while and then asked tentatively, "Cousin, do you think it's possible that someone in the village is holding a happy event?" ”

Feng Qing shook his head and said with great certainty: "Impossible, I think that when I got married, I was just pulled into the house by someone in a donkey cart and it was over, at most, I cooked a big pot of rice and let some acquaintances come to eat it, and it was over." That's it, the village has always said that the family has a lot of money. Lights up all night like this, unless it's ......"

Speaking of this, Feng Qing's expression changed slightly and he stopped talking.

Lu Yangsheng also suddenly thought of something, he frowned and said, "You mean that?" ”

Even if she didn't call her by her name to reveal her identity, Feng Qing still shivered, she nodded with an ugly face and said, "It should be." There was a similar scene when I was sent to it, but it was much smaller than this time. ”

After hearing this, Lu Yangsheng thought for a while and said, "Let's go, I can't think of anything if I think about it, it's better to sneak over and take a look." ”

However, he still advised: "But cousin, remember what I told you, and try not to enter the village." First, we don't know if it will have something to do with that person, and secondly, if it is, your appearance may startle us and cause us unnecessary trouble. ”

In addition, there is a third point, that is, Lu Yangsheng is worried that he will not be able to protect Feng Qing if he encounters an emergency, but such words are not suitable for speaking.

In fact, Lu Yangsheng had already said similar things many times, but when it came to the end, he couldn't help but remind him more.

Feng Qing didn't feel that Lu Yang was instigated, she replied solemnly: "Don't worry, I will never cause you trouble, and I promise you, if the situation is not good, I will turn around and run." ”

Lu Yangsheng nodded, and then took the lead in walking in the direction of the light.

Compared with ordinary people like Feng Qing, Lu Yangsheng naturally saw more clearly in the dark, and now that he knew the location of the village, he naturally didn't need Feng Qing to lead the way.

……

Maoxian Village was actually not called this name at the beginning, just because a white pure white cat suddenly came out of the small mountain temple a few decades ago, it spoke people, called itself the mountain god to the villagers, and then performed some fairy magic in front of the villagers, which naturally did not attract the worship of the villagers.

Since then, the village has changed from the rustic name of Pimple Village to the name of Maoxian Village, which is not much better.

There is a mountain god in Maoxian Village, so naturally the villagers need to make offerings. So since the appearance of the mountain god, the villagers spontaneously repaired a mountain temple for the mountain god, although it is still not big, but it must be a lot bigger than before, at least it can enter people, right? Then the mountain god passed down the divine voice, in addition to the tribute at four o'clock and eight festivals, if a woman from any family gave birth, she needed to receive a bowl of fresh lotion as an additional tribute. Of course, the mountain god lord is a god, so naturally he will not let his followers suffer, so the mountain god lord issued a decree, and all those who pay extra tribute will be blessed by the gods. In this way, even those who were a little resistant at the beginning were naturally willing. Especially after seeing that those who paid tribute had received tangible benefits, everyone acquiesced in this matter, and even said that some families deliberately let their daughters-in-law get pregnant many times in a row in order to get the protection of the mountain god, so as to meet the tribute of the mountain god.

At the beginning, the mountain god was trustworthy, but all the people who were willing to pay tribute were given real protection from it, and at least they could get a bumper harvest to ensure that the family would not starve to death. But slowly, this situation changed a little, and the appetite of the mountain god became bigger and bigger, and it became a bowl at the beginning to a bowl a day later, and finally even let the mother live directly in the mountain temple for him to drink at any time. And some of these women came out safely, while others ...... Although the Mountain God explained that they had been brought to the mansion by the Mountain God Lord to be the gods, this did not dispel everyone's panic.

But mortals are mortals after all, how dare they go toe-to-toe with a god? One can only pretend to turn a blind eye to this.

Especially a few years ago, there was a sudden rat plague in the village, and the villagers were so miserable that they could only ask the mountain god to come here. The mountain god lord is also easy to speak, and under the manifestation of Shenwei, he directly subdued all the rats in the village, but the mountain god lord also said that it should not kill too much, and there are many spiritual beings among these rats, so it can only suppress the rat infestation and cannot kill them all.

However, it also promised the villagers that as long as they were willing to make an extra offering to these rats in the mountain temple, and they could not kill the rats at will on weekdays, then it could ensure that the rat plague would not happen again, but if they did not agree, then it would be difficult for it to have any other way.

The villagers had no choice but to agree.

Since then, a village with cats as mountain gods has seen rats running all over the ground.