"Let's go, get off the boat." Yue Guanchao and the others took up the pretense with their shoulders, and after saying goodbye to the boatmen and their wives, they got off the boat and came to the riverbank.

On the bank of the Qingshui River, there are several village women with headbands washing clothes by the river, hammering the soaphorn herbs into pieces, putting them in a wooden basin and constantly rubbing the foam, they take the clothes and wash them clean in the clear water, wring out the water and putting them into the clean wooden basin.

Some old ladies saw someone coming down from the drift boat, and looked at it curiously, and one of the slightly chubby women wiped her hands with a sweat towel, and then glanced at Ren Peacock a few times, sure that it was an acquaintance in Tudong Town, and screamed in a sharp voice

"Jin Qinghua, this is your sister-in-law, peacock, peacock!" In the distance, a middle-aged woman set up several round dustpans in the sunshine by the river, all of which were full of various flowers, fruits, and herbs, some of which were freshly harvested and hung with dewdrops, and some of which had been sun-dried and shrunk.

The woman obviously didn't expect her daughter to come back, so she covered the sun with her hand and looked at it several times, making sure that it was her own child, so she threw something and approached them: "Peacock, why are you back at this time, in the house, I will ask Ah Liang to call you the old man back." After speaking, Jin Qinghua took the peacock's hand, and several people walked into the village together, and walked into the stilted building along the river.

The stilted building is located on the southeast bank of the Qingshui River, the river bank is convex at a right angle, and the bank is stacked with gray and white gravel, which can be seen that the stilted building is half probed into the river, supported by rough wood and stone pillars, and several rows of square windows and door openings are opened under the eaves of the gray tile roof, which can not only go ashore through the river, but also take the path at the foot of the mountain behind the stilted building.

Yue Guanchao walked along the path to the Ren family's house, looked up, the back of the stilted building is connected to the horse-head gable house, one side of the door hole is inlaid with a white door, the lintel has a dovetail false eaves, the threshold is half a meter higher than the ground, and there are steps extending to the stone road.

Walking into the courtyard, you can see that the square houses are surrounded by a square courtyard, only the stilted building facing the river is a three-storey pavilion, and the other three sides have only two floors, and the second-story house protrudes from the corridor, surrounded by sloping eaves, and the four sides are gathered to form a skylight that sags downward.

There are faucet outlets at all corners of the courtyard, and the huge pool is connected to the river downward, and the rainwater can be used for life during the wind and rain, and when the rain is too large, it can overflow the culvert into the river, and the southwest is rainy and wet, so that the house can be built to ensure that the rainy precipitation is concentrated, so as not to make it wet everywhere!

"Go to the house, go to the house, you must be tired all the way, I'll make you some fruit tea." In order to keep them dry, the houses here will open windows behind the walls, thus forming a passing breeze to completely blow away the moisture, so although the house is wooden, there is no damp humidity after entering.

In front of the huge rear window, the wooden seats and the table are facing each other, and you can smell the aged aroma of the wooden furniture when you get closer, and the left and right walls are hung with colorful Tu embroidery paintings, and there are bamboo curtains separating the left and right halls, and there are round tables and round stools for eating on one side, and there are giant sedan shrines and offering tables on the other side, and futons are placed on the ground.

When Yue Guanchao and the others looked at the house carefully, there was a muffled moo at the courtyard door, and behind the young man named Ah Liang, there was a middle-aged man driving back with an ox cart.

"Oh, my sister is back." The middle-aged man took a half-gourd by the canal and scooped a scoop of water, rinsed the mud on his body, and then stepped into the hall wearing a bamboo board.

Song Siyuan looked fixedly, this middle-aged man had an inch of hair, his temples were already gray, his face was a little thin, his eyes were bright, he was wearing a black coat, black pants on his legs, a blue cloth on his head covered his forehead, and a long-rod pipe hanging from his waist.

Jin Qinghua on the side is also dressed in this way, but the cuffs and skirts of the cardigan are mostly embroidered with flowers and plants, and the headscarf is also a colorful green veil, and the apron is wrapped around the waist, which shows that the pleated skirt reaches the top of the feet.

"Daddy, while you are all at home, I will introduce you to a ha, these three are my friends, Song Siyuan, Yue Guanchao, Yue Guanhai, this is my brother, Ren Qingliang!" After saying hello, a few people sat in the chair, Ren Wude obviously didn't expect his daughter to come back, there were joys and worries on his face, he was happy that he was so old, and he finally saw his daughter again, and he was worried that his daughter was back, presumably the cave god would come to invite her to come over.

"Sister, if you miss your father, just give us a letter, and don't discuss this matter with us when you come back." Ren Peacock said before that she was chosen as a bride by the cave god, because her father didn't want to ask the cave god to marry, so she found an old Taoist priest to help her redeem herself, as long as she didn't step into Sichuan, Xiangqian and Guizhou in this life, then there was no danger to her life at all, and now, Ren Peacock came back without the consent of the old couple, which was a bit of a surprise.

Ren Peacock saw the worry between the old couple's eyebrows, and stepped forward to comfort: "Daddy, I know what you mean, you are afraid that the cave god will confuse me again, you can rest assured, I and these friends came back this time to solve this problem, and in the next few days, we pretended to be a merchant to sell everything, and we have thoroughly understood the situation in Tudong Town, I will meet this cave god to see what he is." Jin Qinghua hurriedly looked at the eye niche, took her daughter's hand and didn't tell her to continue talking nonsense: "Shhhh ”

"Sister, if you want me to say, you, go back in a few days, I will take care of my father and mother at home, what if something happens to you after you stay for a long time." The young man on the side also spoke.

"A-Niang, I know you're afraid that something will happen to me, but after I'm gone, are the other women in the village all right? Could it be that the cave god only arrested me as a pot? The three of them lowered their heads, Sichuan, Hunan and Guizhou, Xiangxi and Guizhou are the most prone to flower cave girls, and the cave god wants to marry more than a peacock, before her and after her, there are countless bright and beautiful women who are in a daze, and they are sent to the cold and terrifying stone cave to serve the cave god, and they never come out again.

Ren Wude and Jin Qinghua thought of other female babies like Ren Peacock, and it was difficult not to be moved, after all, their children were taken back from the hands of the cave god.

"Then you guys, but you have made up your mind, if the cave god is to blame, it will be a catastrophe?" Ren Peacock nodded firmly: "If these gods are really good gods, they will not harm people's lives, even if such evil gods are true, then they should not be worshipped, what I want to do is to let them no longer be coerced by the cave gods." Old man Ren listened to his daughter's words, his face was gloomy and he sighed with a pipe: "You kid is old and his ideas are too big, you don't listen to what we say, since you have made up your mind, then try it, if it really doesn't work, you have to listen to your father and mother and fly away, don't come back." ”

"Oh, yes!" Jin Qinghua's eyes lit up and looked at Ren Peacock: "Back then, you were so sick that you couldn't get out of bed, I found the old Taoist priest who chased corpses on Fengtou Mountain, this matter is too mysterious, you have to discuss it with the master." ”

"I know, A-Niang, you go and pack out three rooms for us, and my friends will stay here for a few days." After speaking, he lowered his voice and pulled her aside: "Auntie, these friends have helped me a lot, take advantage of this time to come back, you are eating and drinking and entertaining, if you don't have enough money, you will find me to pick it up." ”

"That's how it should be, if you have a guest, you must be entertained well, don't worry, keep this money for yourself, and you will have to worry a little more when you go out." Jin Qinghua immediately stuffed the silver dollars back and glanced at Song Siyuan a few times: "You follow the peacock to go outside, and when you come back at noon, your aunt will pick up the wind and wash the dust for you." It takes a little time to clean the house, anyway, Ren Peacock has to take them to see the village, Yue Guanchao and the three of them simply followed behind her, and walked along the Shibanshui Bridge to Jiangxin Island.

The area of Jiangxin Island is not too small, the irregular island shore similar to the diamond shape is set up with three ancient arch bridges, the boat can walk under the feasible boat, the flowers and trees on the island are lush and verdant, there is a large stone tower base of the house in the middle, the blue brick tower can be surrounded by several people, and more than a dozen stone houses are guarded around.

Open the tower door and climb the stairs, there is nothing in the tower, only the staircase leads to the stone brick arch, they walked to the height of four or five floors and walked out of the arch, the surrounding vision was open, and there was no obstruction.

Standing on the top of the tower, you can overlook the ancient town, and there are crotch fox mountain, crested mountain, Funiu mountain, and Laolongkou nearby.

Among them, the crotch fox mountain in the southeast is the most luxuriant, there is a fox fairy temple with white walls and eaves on the top of the mountain, the surrounding wild forests are verdant, the mountain road is secluded, and the mountains are full of wild fairy shrines and stone gods.

The top of the crested mountain in the north is covered with Yizhuang, there are several houses of the corpse chasers, and so over the crested mountain is the phoenix village, on the Funiu Mountain in the northwest, there is the largest fortress, and the rest of the mountain villages have also made watchtowers and trestle bridges, when the villagers pass, they can also see the surrounding situation clearly from the heights.

The most special place is the old dragon's mouth! Walking more than ten miles from the ancient town, as the river gradually narrows, there is also a steeper and straight valley in the distance, the river beats both sides to form a scouring rock, winding out of the long snake river, they call the old dragon mouth, that is, the bare mine that you see soon after entering the valley.

This mountain used to be a copper mine, and then the mountain was empty after the copper mine was abandoned, when it rained in the southwest, a flash flood broke out in the rainy season, most of the mountain collapsed, and most of the mountain sank into the river, after the mountain was broken, the mine hole dug out before was exposed outside the mountain, and countless large and small ore holes appeared on the mountain wall like stars.

These caves collapsed all the way to the top, leaving behind at the top

The "self" shaped cliff, there is a rock layer that continuously flows out of the groundwater, as if the dragon head on the top of the mountain spits out the waterfall and falls into the Qingshui River, and the cave god they say also comes from here.