In the late autumn morning, the fog was thick, and the breeze was wrapped in a trace of coldness, brushing the cheeks of passers-by.

The high, high-pitched rooster crow pierced the foggy sky, waking up the quiet morning of the village, and the smoke curled and swirled into the fog.

In every household, the women were busy blanching rice and cooking porridge to prepare breakfast for the family, and the children hurriedly stuffed a few mouthfuls of food, holding the books used for school and trotting all the way to the private school.

A familiar figure appeared in his eyes, wearing a gray and blue kudzu dress, with a jade face and snow skin, eyebrows like lying on a distant mountain, eyes like water waves, tall and long, with a delicate female appearance, but his demeanor was handsome like a man.

Huo Miao's eyes lit up, waved his arms high, and shouted: "Sister Zhang Zheng, hurry up!" You're going to be late, too! ”

The immature child's voice summoned Zhang Zheng out of her stunned state, she tilted her head to look at the fire misty who couldn't stop waving at her, the corners of her lips rose, and she replied, "I won't go to school today." ”

She squinted her eyes and glanced at the children who had already run away, "If you don't catch up quickly, you will really be scolded by Mr." ”

"Huh?"

Huo Miao exclaimed enviously and suspiciously, and then saw the little friend who had left her behind and ran away on her own, her heart beat faster, and she didn't care about saying goodbye to Zhang Zheng, so she hurriedly chased after her.

The figures of several children slowly faded away, the curvature of the corners of Zhang Zheng's mouth gradually flattened, and the gentle eyes like water gradually covered by the thin cold of the early morning.

In the morning, after packing up the books and pens for school, the husband suddenly stopped her, saying that he wanted to give her a day off.

Zhang Zheng thought about Mr. Zhang's words at that time, which were inexplicably unpredictable.

"Last night I dreamed of a white bird, and the white bird cried to me, saying that it had become a circle bird in the prince's palace, and that it would rather die in the flight where there is no place to rest."

"What the white bird longs for is freedom on the hills and seas, and the prince who gave it a golden and jade cage is really too self-righteous."

Zhang Zheng was holding a bowl of porridge, pouring a stomach of warm porridge in a few mouthfuls, and when he heard the words, he nodded his head in response.

The gentleman smiled, "Okay, don't worry, I'll give you a day off today, pray for the blessing of the ancestral land, and you can go with the village chief to have a look." ”

"Huh?" Zhang Zheng's hand that was about to pick up the scroll paused in the air, and he looked at Mr. sharply, "I went to the ancestral land to pray for blessings?" ”

"What do you think!" The gentleman smiled and teased her softly, "Of course it's the village chief praying for blessings, aren't you sorry that you can't see the dark river two days ago, so let's go with the village chief to meet you today." ”

Zhang Zheng was stunned for a while and didn't answer, she still thought that the ancestral land was a very important forbidden place in the village, why did Mr. agree to let her in so easily?

The gentleman didn't care about her strange appearance, walked to the door, turned around and urged: "The village chief can leave at the end of the day, if you want to see with your own eyes the magic work that has created the dark river, go quickly, don't delay." ”

No matter what the gentleman wants, this is not a bad thing for her, and she has the freedom to go forward openly.

Zhang Zheng smiled: "Okay, thank you, sir, I'll go." ”

There was still a quarter of an hour to go, and Zhang Zheng came back to his senses from his memories and hurried to the village chief's residence.

"Yo, isn't this a strange village girl, where are you in a hurry?"

Zhang Zheng stopped and looked directly at a pair of hanging triangular eyes of the male cultivator in front of him, his ordinary face and facial features were compact, there was too much white space, and a pair of hanging horn eyes were small and weird.

Born from the heart, it is just right to describe him. If you are narrow-minded and self-righteous, your facial features will also be narrow-minded.

A mortal village girl would dare to look at him so directly!

Hu Ke glared at him and scolded: "Look at what you see, what kind of thing are you!" Am I the one you can watch? Despicable slut. ”

Being scolded like this, Zhang Zheng couldn't get angry, stayed in this peaceful and quiet village for a long time, and got along with Mr. Wen Liang every day, and his temperament gradually tended to be gentle.

Zhang Zheng didn't have any arguments, and looked away from him.

Hu Ke only thought that she was afraid, and his expression was quite arrogant, and he ordered arrogantly: "Take me to the ancestral hall of your village." ”

"The ancestral hall is not something you can go to."

"What do you say? Where can I go! Your village chief said that you should do your best to be a landlord, what's the matter, you can't even go to a broken ancestral hall? ”

Seeing his appearance of being messy and vowing not to give up, Zhang Zheng had already guessed, presumably Yi Yan Shan had revealed the matter of the ancestral hall to them, but they should also be suspicious, so they sent someone to deliberately test it.

Zhang Zheng patiently refused, but his gentle gaze was already cold, "I'm sorry, the ancestral hall is really inconvenient for outsiders to enter and exit." ”

After that, Zhang Zheng didn't bother to pay attention to him anymore, and left the place quickly, leaving Hu Ke behind and scolding.

"Who rarely breaks the ancestral hall, and begs me to go, and he is not willing to go."

Zhang Zheng couldn't hear the next words, she hurried to the village chief's residence, and happened to meet the village chief coming out of the house.

The village chief greeted happily: "Yo, Zhang Yatou is here!" Let's go, Sir told me, I'll take you to the ancestral land today to see the dark river. ”

Zhang Zheng followed the village chief, and as he circled around his residence, he saw a low black brick house, with white cloths hanging on both sides of the door, hanging in the air.

The ancestral hall was built at the diagonal back of the village chief's residence, Zhang Zheng rarely saw people pass here, at first I thought it was the low house of the village chief's piles of sundries, and later I learned that this was the ancestral hall of the village.

As the wooden door was pushed open, the newborn sunlight shone into the darkened ancestral hall, revealing the inside at a glance.

There is a large mahogany table on the innermost side, on which only a tablet of the god is provided, and the red silk cloth is covered in front of the god, only the main shrine, and there is no shadow of the niche.

In addition to the main shrine, the normal ancestral hall should also be placed on the left and right niches to worship the ancestors other than the ancestors.

How could a village that attaches great importance to etiquette even ignore such important etiquette common sense, Zhang Zheng's doubts deepened in his heart.

But this was not the time to explore these, Zhang Zheng turned his gaze to the village chief, and all his movements were carefully engraved into his mind.

In between, the village chief folded his hands, closed his eyes and bowed to the tablet of the god three times, and respectfully groped around the main shrine a few times.

"Rumble ......"

Under the wide mahogany table, a secret passage appeared that could accommodate two adult men at the same time.

The stone staircase descends all the way down, the steep slope extends to the dark and dim underground, making people feel panicked when they look at it, as if they will roll down into the abyss that cannot be seen in the end.

The village chief turned around and beckoned to her, "Miss Zhang, come and worship the god." ”

Zhang Zheng retracted his gaze from the dark road, took two steps forward respectfully, folded his hands in the actions of the village chief, and bowed three times, but his mind was extremely focused on the movements of the village chief.

Until she opened her eyes, the village chief didn't make any move, only nodded with satisfaction, and said with a smile: "Let's go, with the blessing of the gods, we can go to the ancestral land safe and sound." ”

With that, the village chief half-crouched down and got under the table, and with a single step, he stepped onto the stone steps that circled in the dark passage.

"Girl Zhang, be careful, come with me."

The village chief's head had disappeared into the secret passage, and Zhang Zheng also squatted down, tentatively and carefully stretched out one foot, and stepped firmly on the ground, and Zhang Zheng stepped on the other foot.

The figure of the village chief was two or three stone steps below her, smiling and talking to Zhang Zheng as he walked down.

"What's the matter, is Zhang Yatou afraid? When I followed the previous village chief to pray for blessings, the first time I stepped on this ladder, my feet were weak, and I almost rolled down with the village chief. ”

Speaking of this, the village chief laughed again and again.