In front of the front gatehouse, the plaque of the Yichao Inn hangs above, and there are flags and banners on both sides fluttering with the hot wind, and there are often merchants and pedestrians outside the door, and the high and wide gatehouse from the carriage and livestock come and go.

After entering the door, I found the running hall and got the house key, and everyone settled down, so that they had the opportunity to observe the details of the guest house.

The Hui-shaped courtyard is built very thick, even the wind-blocking decorative wall in the corridor is at least half a meter thick, and the huge windows are mostly square, coated with some kind of insect-proof white ash from top to bottom, forming a simple outline of the window, and the window panels outside are firmly supported by poles.

Through these huge windows, you can see the long drying racks, drinking water channels, millstones, and a few old poplars in the courtyard, which finally adds a touch of red and green to the yellow courtyard.

Most of the rooms are similar in pattern, it is the style of three rooms, the overall space is shaped like the word "dish", it is divided into three parts by three giant arched windows, the arched window in the middle is particularly large, almost extending from the top to the bottom, the door opening is equivalent to opening in the window, which can be used by pedestrians to enter and exit, a bit like the door and window structure of the kang cave in Shaanxi Province.

Walk in to see, the outward window is very small, the light thrown into the room, that is, the basin-wide pillar of light, hit the ground to form a silver-white spot, it does not play a role, the three flower windows in the corridor are the main lighting force, the daylight shines into the room through the flower window, it is not dim at all.

The stained glass on the top is very exotic, and the neon light through the ground adds a lot of color to the room.

Roughly calculated, the bed in the room is placed on the left side, separated by a screen, in the middle is a complete set of chairs and tea stools against the wall, and on the other side is a desk, wardrobe, shelf, basin, and a heavy curtain in front of the huge window, which can be closed to block the light and visibility.

It does not look as decent as the hotel, but it is better to clean enough, and the loess wall on the wall is fanned with poplar wood wainscoting, polished and oil-soaked treatment, and it looks smooth and slightly reflective.

Although it is not as good as a professional hotel, in Dunhuang City, it can be regarded as a decent place.

"How? I'm looking for a good place! Xu Xiake pulled Yue Guanchao and came to Song Siyuan's room.

"Yes, yes, it's just that I see that there is a hostel in South Market, why should we live here?" When Song Siyuan walked over just now, she could already see the sign of the hostel, which showed that there was a hotel open in the modern building near the city wall.

Xu Xiake blinked: "You don't understand this, if you want to say that the safest is this kind of building." ”

"Let's go, I'll take you to the top floor and see you."

After that, Xu Xiake took Song Siyuan and Yue Guanchao through the third or fourth floors and came to the top floor of the building.

This is probably the drying ground of the inn, drying a lot of dried goods such as dates, grapes, and preserved fruits, and the location of the corridor opens windows from the ceiling to ventilate and ventilate.

Standing in this position, in addition to these modern buildings, you can see most of the streets and alleys of Dunhuang City, the aroma of food wafts into the nostrils everywhere, and the atmosphere of the market comes to your face.

Yue Guanchao asked, "Daochang Xu, what are you trying to do when you brought us here?" ”

"Look closely, what are those windows upstairs on?"

Yue Guanchao followed Xu Xiake's instructions and looked at the inn near the city wall, their windows seemed to be fine, at first glance they were indeed very clean, but in fact they felt very abrupt.

In other words, a little too clean.

In towns near the desert Gobi, even if they are in an oasis, the buildings will still be eroded by wind and sand, and a layer of sand is often attached to the windows.

As the three of them looked closely, more details also made their eyes widen.

The nearest window to them, there is obviously blood stains between the walls of the window cracks, if it is a blood stain over the years, it must be dark red, this slightly bright blood stain is most likely recently, if you can't even clean the window, this means that the window is stained with blood very frequently.

This alone made the two of them curious, Yue Guanchao narrowed his eyes and asked, "What the hell is going on?" You're not trying to tell us that these hotels are shady shops. ”

As the saying goes, the car and boat shop should be killed if you are not guilty, and the "shop" in this old saying refers to the ancient rest shop, big car shop, and road inn.

People who are traveling, when they encounter an ordinary inn, it is good to say, the price is clearly marked, the money is clear, and the most afraid is to run into a black shop, especially the kind of black conscience of the husband and wife black shop.

These black shops tend to watch people put on dishes, and if they meet poor pedestrians, they will be unlucky.

In the dead of night, these black shops will use the secret passage to put incense into the house, directly stun people, and then take people to loot their belongings in the guest room, so as not to leak their handwritings, and when the belongings are cleaned, they will kill people and bury them in the backyard or cellar.

But all those who stayed outside in hotels were passers-by, far from their hometowns and unfamiliar with their lives, so they really disappeared, and they did not come to the door of the bitter master, so they died in another country.

If you encounter such a black shop, people are thieves in the open and in the dark, and it is easy to get away, and experienced passers-by, even if they have a lot of money, they have to make up as a rustic person, so that they don't be so dazzling, so as not to become some people's mouths fat.

Although Yue Guanchao has never encountered a black shop, he has heard a lot of things in the countryside, and the most spicy black shop, not counting the property of pedestrians, not even their bones, directly chopped into meat stuffing to make buns, and sold to coolies who come and go.

Right now, he saw blood stains on the window, and immediately went to the black shop of the husband and wife who killed people and made meat buns.

Xu Xiake waved his hand: "What do you think, if there was a black shop in this place, it would have been smashed by the people nearby, and these red traces were left by some flying eagles, desert eagles, and desert pigeons." ”

Yue Guanchao saw that the bloodstains were not human, and immediately became curious: "I thought that you were going to say that these bloodstains were all murders in the black shop, but for no reason, how could these birds die on the windows, leaving a layer of bloodstains." ”

Xu Xiake gave them a thumbs up: "This is what I want to say, these buildings don't look modern and fashionable, they are actually not durable, it has something to do with the climate of the desert." ”

The desert is desolate and dry, the temperature difference between day and night is also very large, the sand and soil accumulate heat quickly and dissipate heat quickly, it can heat people to death in the daytime, and at night, it is also possible to freeze people to cover the quilt.

In this poor temperature difference reality, all houses in the northwest have at least small windows and thick walls, and if there are windows, they must be completely sealed, so as not to enter the interior.

In this case, the houses of the people in the vicinity are also built with thick walls!

In this way, during the day, it can absorb heat through the thick walls, even if it is hot outside, it can be cool and comfortable inside, and at night, after the temperature is reduced, the heat accumulated by these thick walls during the day slowly disperses, which is equivalent to insulating the house, so that the cold outside is not easy to soak into the house.

Xu Xiake pointed to those modern buildings: "The thickness of these floors is completely inferior to the courtyard, it is so hot that you have to turn on the fan during the day, and it is so cold that you can cover the quilt at night, because the wall is very thin, the wind and sand at night blow directly on the wall, disturbing people to rest completely." ”

"Another one, it's these birds that will ram around."

Xu Xiake mentioned these birds, and his tone was obviously mysterious: "Dunhuang is walking dozens of miles out, basically to the desert desert, here is also because of the proximity to the desert, there are a lot of strange things, at night, flying eagles, desert eagles, desert pigeons and other such birds, will hit the wall in Dunhuang City, have to hit the head to break the blood before leaving." ”

"Especially like to hit the window, like the big glass window of the hotel, it is even more accurate, and the next day, there will always be a lot of blood stains on the window, these hotels can only let the guys scrub frequently, but once these things are left in the cracks, it is extremely difficult to clean, and they are retained."

The little Taoist priest paused and pointed to the building under their feet: "The courtyard where we live closes the windows at night, just to prevent these animals from hitting the walls and windows, these earthen walls are very heavy, and the wooden planks are all old wood, no matter how they hit, they may not be able to hit, plus the corridor between the room and the bed board, the impact is even less." ”

"It seems that the courtyard is really undecent, but it is definitely better than these hotels, and I also suffered a loss in advance before I understood."

Song Siyuan nodded: "Don't mention anything else for the time being, why do these birds hit the wall, are they going to attack the living?" ”

Thinking back to the black cloth bag that Xu Xiake mentioned, they had to suspect that these birds were also some bloodthirsty birds.

Xu Xiake waved his hand: "That's not it, these birds are very ordinary desert birds, they are normal during the day, and they will start to hit the wall at night, this is not only Dunhuang City, but also the villages near Dunhuang, if some birds accidentally kill themselves, the corpses of these birds will appear on the ground the next day." ”

"It's not that they say that they will attack people and animals, and they will avoid people when they encounter them, so it can be seen that they really don't attack people and animals, but they just hit the wall as if they were in the middle of an evil spirit, and I don't know why."

Yue Guanchao pinched his chin and asked, "What do the local people say?" If it's common, then they have to have an explanation. ”

Xu Xiake looked left and right, and lowered his voice: "When I came to Dunhuang, I also asked the people nearby, and they all said that this is the devil who has been sealed in the desert, and he wants to use animal blood to break the seal." ”

"Do you know why Dunhuang City was built at the western end of the Hexi Corridor?"