Twelve o'clock in the night.

In the courtyard of the Tang family, a familiar black shadow quietly broke in on time, stood in the same position as a few days ago, slowly raised his head, and looked at the room with the curtains closed directly above.

Chen Rende stood under Tang Ling's bedroom on time. Tang Ling stood in the dark, listening to the clock ticking on the wall, and the room was so quiet that only the sound of its machinery could be heard. Tang Ling leaned against the window, opened a little gap with her fingers, and stared at the dark shadow in the yard tightly. After waiting for a while, Chen Rende ended peeping and left.

Twenty minutes later, Chen Rende's figure began to move, he turned around stiffly, barely making a sound under his feet, and slowly moved his steps to leave the courtyard of the Tang family. Tang Ling, who had been standing on the first floor for a long time and observing, saw this, quickly opened the door of the Tang family and cautiously followed out.

The village is always quiet at night, and there will never be a pedestrian on the road, after all, for a group of villagers who believe in the mountain god, walking at night is undoubtedly disturbing the rest of the mountain god, and there is also the possibility of encountering something bad. The Tang family was left alone tonight with Tang Ling alone to keep vigil, Zhao Fang and Tang Jianguo left the Tang family again because their youngest son called to help take care of their grandson who had a cold, so Tang Ling could leave the house at night without any scruples, after all, if Zhao Fang was at home, the sound of opening the door of the Tang family was enough to wake up Zhao Fang, who was shallow, so Tang Ling secretly rejoiced, fortunately, those people had a cold recently, so she was given this opportunity.

At first, Tang Ling was still a little apprehensive when he followed Chen Rende, after all, Chen Rende was a thoughtful person, plus he had harmed him at the beginning, now he would definitely be more wary of the surrounding situation, but after following him for a long time, Tang Ling found a strange place.

That is, no matter how she made a movement, Chen Rende in front of her was deaf, and still walked forward, because Tang Ling didn't pay attention to stepping on the branch on the road just now, and the crisp sound of "clicking" made even her so frightened that she immediately held her breath and didn't dare to move, but Chen Rende, who was walking in front, was stunned as if she couldn't hear it, and blindly walked forward. Tang Ling felt that something was wrong, she observed through the flickering white light of the street lamps on the country road, and she found that Chen Rende's body was a little weird, such as his bare complexion, not his own wheat complexion, but much whiter, but it was not the same as Qiao Lingxiang's pink and spirited white, but a fiasco grayish white, just like the color of Chen Rende's hands soaked in water that Tang Ling saw when she stood on the hillside that day, but now it is more serious than then.

And Chen Rende's walking posture is also very strange. When she looked at the past by a little light in the bedroom, Tang Ling felt that Chen Rende's way of walking had changed, and now she could see more clearly through the light of the country road. Chen Rende's legs seemed to be his own, as well as his two hands, all of which hung weakly to his side, and his two legs looked as if they were being dragged forward by something, not relying on his own legs at all.

Chen Rende is like a marionette. Tang Ling suddenly knew what to use to describe the current Chen Rende. Yes, it is a marionette, which is very similar to the kind of artificially performed puppet show she watched when she was a child, and the movement of the limbs is controlled by the thread in the performer's hand, which is the case with Chen Rende at this moment.

Tang Ling, who had been observing Chen Rende's changes, suddenly looked around in surprise at this time, she and Chen Rende had already left the village she was familiar with and walked in the direction of a mountain. And that mountain is a mountain that is specially used to worship the mountain god. Tang Ling saw that Chen Rende in front of her had swaggered into the mountain road paved with cement and stone specially built by the villagers, and she was a little daunted.

For her and most of the people in the village, except for a specific period of time, it is taboo to trespass on the mountain without permission, once it is discovered, it will be punished very severely, there have been playful children who ran to the mountain because of curiosity and adventure, although they did not completely go up the mountain, only at the foot of the mountain was found by the villagers, but the child who was caught back was said to have been taken away by the village chief, let the child's parents kneel and plead, the village chief was stunned that it took three days to send the half-dead child back, and since thenMany children are afraid to go near the mountain anymore.

In fact, the road up the mountain is built very magnificently, the gate into the mountain is made of mahogany to build a simple and atmospheric red frame, on both sides there are also hanging red lanterns that Tang Ling has never seen, and after entering this door frame, there is a series of cement stone blocks layer by layer to pave up the mountain ladder, the step ladder is spacious enough to accommodate two or three people, and there are Chinese fences made of wood on both sides of the mountain ladder, and a layer of paint is painted, compared to other roads up the mountain in the village that Tang Ling has seen, the road up the mountain of Yushen Mountain is obviously much more magnificent and advanced.

Tang Ling watched Chen Rende's figure disappear in the dense and chaotic mountain forest little by little, stood in place and hesitated for a long time, before finally she seemed to have made up her mind, she looked around, and saw that no one was passing by, so she hurriedly went up the mountain road and hurriedly followed Chen Rende.

Although Tang Ling guessed that there was only one direct road to the highest mountain temple on the way up Yushen Mountain, Tang Ling still climbed the stairs for a long time before she barely saw Chen Rende's shadow not far in front of her, she was so tired that she began to sweat, and she snorted and continued to go up, even if her legs had begun to feel that her legs were trembling slightly, Tang Ling didn't dare to stop and rest for a while, so that when she got to the back, Tang Ling almost didn't care how far Chen Rende in front of her was, she just wanted to finish climbing this damn mountain road quickly, Run to the flat ground and lie down and rest.

Fortunately, when Tang Ling was really about to climb and couldn't climb, she came to the end of the stairs, Tang Ling was almost holding on to the fence around her, her legs trembling and supporting herself to stand on the flat ground, she was out of breath, holding the fence and bending over to calm her breathing, I don't know if it was because of lack of oxygen or because of excessive exercise, Tang Ling felt that her head was a little dizzy, her stomach was churning, and she wanted to be nauseous. Tang Ling endured this discomfort, and hurriedly raised her head to pay attention to Chen Rende's next movements, and as soon as she raised her head, she was attracted by the scene in front of her.

Although I have been listening to Zhao Fang and other people in the village talking about the mountain temple and the mountain temple is short, but this is the first time Tang Ling has really seen the real mountain temple, the spacious flat ground in front of him, staggered with rectangular floor tiles, and the end of the finely tended grass at both ends, except for the two simple and elegant street lamps placed at both ends of the fence where Tang Ling is standing, there are no other street lamps on this large flat land, but he can clearly see the color and pattern of the bricks and tiles, because at the end of the front is a large luxurious temple, Red pillars and blue bricks, the walls are painted with bright red paint, in front of the entrance to the temple are exquisitely carved stone pillars and stone stairs, the candles are lit in the quaint Chinese windows, the orange light shines through the windows on the flat ground outside, at both ends of the temple gate, two huge yellow cypress trees are planted, the branches on which are hung with red strips of cloth, gently swaying with the breeze and the strips of cloth hanging in the air.

The door of the temple was closed at the moment, so Tang Ling couldn't see the true face of the so-called "mountain god" enshrined inside, and she didn't have the heart to care about the statue of the mountain god himself, she was looking for Chen Rende's traces, Tang Ling was fascinated by the spectacular scenery of the mountain temple for a while, and almost missed Chen Rende who bypassed the temple from the trees on the side, Tang Ling couldn't take a break, and hurriedly stepped up her steps to chase after her.

If the architecture of the temple just now made Tang Ling feel magnificent, then after bypassing this temple, the scenery behind it became a little sloppy and simple. A muddy path that is almost impossible to notice, extending to the depths of the dense woods, if it weren't for Chen Rende leading the way in front of Tang Ling, Tang Ling would really be difficult to notice that there is a hidden path in this leafy woods, Tang Ling followed Chen Rende into the path, and the deeper and deeper it became, it was difficult to see the lights shining from the temple anymore when she turned around, only dense weeds and branches and leaves, blocking the way Tang Ling came, Tang Ling trembled a little uneasily, she swallowed her saliva, Looking at the faintly moving figure in front of him, he clasped his hands on his chest and continued to walk forward.

Odd?

As Tang Ling walked, she suddenly noticed something wrong, and the weirdness that she had been ignoring since just now came back to her. The temple was brightly lit just now, but how could there be no one? When she just bypassed the temple, Tang Ling deliberately glanced inside the temple through the window, she saw a small part of the statue of the mountain god, and the rest of the place was empty, although there were many red candles lit, but there seemed to be no one here. With such a noble existence as the mountain god, would the people in the village allow no one to stay here and serve?

Tang Ling, who was feeling strange, suddenly heard the faint sound of someone talking in front of her, which seemed to be getting closer and closer to herself, Tang Ling panicked, she looked around anxiously, and hurriedly hid behind a big tree, squatting in the grass and secretly peeping.

"I'll just say how I feel that something is wrong, it turns out that it's because of you."

A male voice came into Tang Ling's ears, even if the male voice heard in her ears gave Tang Ling an extremely familiar feeling, she didn't have the energy to think about it at this moment.

Her whole spine was cold because of these words, and she squatted there stiffly, not daring to move, Tang Ling felt that her breathing seemed to stop, her two hands were still on the tree, the rough lines of the trunk pierced her hands a little painfully, Tang Ling's eyes stared at the weeds in front of her, and only her ears could hear the sound of Xi Xi Suo coming from the grass behind the big tree.

She clearly heard the footsteps of someone, little by little, approaching her······