In late May, Jinyang City, the moon season blooms all over the city, walking in the city, you can see pink flowers growing on dark green branches everywhere, ridges, pieces.

Walking on the long street, the whole person seems to have entered a sea of flowers.

In front of the palace gate, Wang Ye, Zhou Xingyu, and Wang Wen stood in front of the steps outside the door, waving goodbye to everyone inside the door.

Parting sadly, in the reluctant eyes of everyone, the three of them rode slowly towards the outside of the city.

Walking in the long street with a horse, looking at Wang Wen who turned around in five steps, kept looking towards the palace, and his eyes were full of reluctance, Zhou Xingyu said: "Brother Wang, in fact, there is still a period of time before the examination date, Brother Ye and I can wait a little longer." ”

Originally, according to his and Wang Ye's ideas, he wanted to leave when the exam was approaching, but Wang Wen said that he needed to adapt to the environment in advance, so he chose to travel today.

The two naturally had no opinion on Wang Wen's request, after all, he was the one who entrusted the mission.

Everything Wang Ye does with him must revolve around Wang Wen.

Hearing Zhou Xingyu's words, Wang Wen shook his head and said, "Forget it, I can't calm down at home, as for the other courtyard......"

Speaking of the other courtyard, Wang Wen shivered, and now when it comes to the Chengdong Courtyard, he is afraid that if it weren't for the ancestral business of the Wang family, he would have the idea of selling it.

Wang Wen didn't want to say more about this matter, so he changed the topic and said: "Moreover, there are many differences between the water and soil customs of Xuanzhou City and Jinyang City. ”

Hearing Wang Wen's words, Wang Ye and Zhou Xingyu glanced at each other, shrugged their shoulders, and Wang Ye said, "It's okay, our brother is fine, listen to Brother Wang." ”

Out of the city gate, everyone walked all the way to the north, and soon left Jinyang City far behind.

……

As the sun sets, the orange sunlight shines on a remote village, reflecting a dim figure. The village is dilapidated, and even the mud walls in front of the village are showing gaps of various sizes.

On this day, three men leading horses came slowly from a distance, wearing hats, dry lips, and not very good faces.

"Brother Ye, there is a village in front of you, and it's not early now, why don't we rest here for a while?"

Because of his good eyesight, Zhou Xingyu was the first to discover the village not far away, and he even saw the smoke above the village.

If there is smoke, it means that there is a home.

On this road to the north, they passed through many deserted villages, which were previously inhabited by villagers, but due to the drought in Xuanzhou, they had no way to live, so they had to move the village to another place, and after a long time, the village gradually became deserted.

For those villagers, there may be a glimmer of life when they go out, and they can really only wait for death if they stay in the village.

Wang Ye looked up at the sky, and the fiery red sun was about to set, hanging on the top of the mountain, like a notched disk. Obviously, it won't be long before it gets dark.

Walking at night after dark is nothing to him and Zhou Xingyu, but Wang Wenke may not be able to support it.

He turned his head to look at Wang Wen, only to see that his face was pale, his lips were chapped, and he was in a trance.

Wang Ye just thought about it and said to Zhou Xingyu: "Okay, let's stay in the village tonight, let's go, let's go see the situation first!" ”

Hearing Wang Ye's words, Wang Wen was suddenly shocked, and hurriedly followed Zhou Xingyu and Wang Ye.

The three of them led the horses and soon came to the front of the village.

The dirt wall in front of the village was dry and cracked, and the wind had brought up puffs of dust.

From the outside of the walls, the houses in the village were mainly adobe houses made of earth, it should have been a long time since it rained, the last bit of moisture in the soil of the foundation had lost its cohesion, and some of the houses had collapsed, leaving only a few dry logs that were not too thick to support the collapsed walls.

A path paved with gravel slabs leads to the village, and it is clear that the village must have prospered for a while.

Looking inside from the entrance of the village, the path leads to the dim unknowable, and the surrounding area of the path is pitch black, and there is no light at all, not a little angry, but strange.

Now that he has arrived here, there is no other choice, Wang Ye took a deep breath and said, "Go, go in!" ”

In his opinion, even if there is an accident, there is nothing, with the strength of him and Zhou Xingyu, it is enough to deal with all kinds of situations, even if it is not difficult to take Wang Wen's oil bottle.

Zhou Xingyu nodded and followed Wang Ye forward.

Wang Wen was too tired to care about these at all, and at the moment he just wanted to find a place to sleep well.

As soon as the three of them entered the village, an old man dressed in shabby linen clothes walked over from a distance. He was followed by a dozen or so men in shabby clothes.

Looking at these people in front of him, Zhou Xingyu was slightly stunned, and then returned to normal and remained silent.

Wang Ye and Zhou Xingyu were secretly vigilant, Wang Ye stepped forward and protected Wang Wen behind his back, while Zhou Xingyu took a few steps back slightly, his eyes swept around, and the two of them cooperated tacitly in an instant.

Looking at these people in front of him, Wang Wen had a smile on his face, he even saw a ghost along the way, and now he finally met someone.

When the old man came to the three of them, his gaze first swept over the horses beside several people, and then he turned away casually, his eyes fell on Wang Ye and Wang Wen's, and finally stayed on Zhou Xingyu's body for a moment.

The old man retracted his gaze and asked, "A few guests came to my mountain village and don't know what the so-called thing is?" ”

The old man spoke the official dialect of Jingguo, not an obscure dialect, and Wang Ye and the others could clearly understand what he was trying to express.

Since the other party didn't have the idea of making a move, Wang Ye and Zhou Xingyu naturally wouldn't provoke each other, he clasped his fists and said: "Uncle, a few of us are hurrying here, because it's dark, are there any other villages around, and they plan to stay in the village for one night, I don't know if it's convenient or not?" If the husband finds it inconvenient, the three of us can stay in the village for one night. ”

When you go out, it's always right to be careful, especially when facing strangers, and it's the same for the old man or Wang Ye at this point.

Hearing Wang Ye's words, the old man was stunned, thought for a moment and said to the three of them, "Can the three guests wait for me to discuss it with everyone in the village?" ”

For the old man's words, the three of them are indispensable.

Wang Ye nodded and said, "Yes, I hope that my husband will give us an answer as soon as possible." ”

After all, if they can't enter the village, they have to find things for the night as soon as possible, wood is indispensable for daily use, and water for cooking food must also be found, after all, the kettle on their bodies is empty.

Finally, there is a place to rest at night.

The old man nodded and said to the three of them, "Three guests wait a moment." ”

After speaking, the old man led a group of young adults towards the distance.

Zhou Xingyu looked at a few people from a distance, although he didn't want to eavesdrop on each other's conversations, but his five senses were too sharp, although those people stood far away, he still heard a few words.

"Jianghu~"

"Horses~"

"No food~"

"Can't~"

"It's too dangerous~"

The intermittent voice came, Zhou Xingyu's face was as usual, he walked towards Wang Ye, and when he passed by him, he whispered, "Brother Wang, be careful later." ”

After waiting for a while, the old man seemed to have discussed the result, and the group of them walked towards the three of them again.

Coming to Wang Ye and the three of them, the old man said: "Three guests, I have discussed with other people in the village, the three of them can enter the village to stay, but they need to leave a certain amount of property or food as the cost of staying overnight. A few people also know that Xuanzhou has suffered from a drought, and the village is now struggling to survive, so if a few people have opinions. You can sleep here at the entrance of the village, although these houses at the entrance of the village are dilapidated, but they can still live in a little tidying. ”

Hearing the old man's words, Wang Ye breathed a sigh of relief and said: "This is how it should be, it is impossible to accept the favor of the village in vain, then there will be Lao Lao." ”

After being reminded by Zhou Xingyu before, he thought that the talks were going to collapse, but he didn't expect that the other party just wanted food and money, which was not a big problem.

There is no shortage of money, food, this way basically depends on the two of them hunting for a living, the food is not consumed much, there is still a lot of food left on horseback, and it is nothing to give some to these villagers.

As for Wang Wen, when he heard that he didn't have to sleep outside and could live in the village, a smile suddenly appeared on his face.

Zhou Xingyu was a little puzzled, could it be that he was wrong.

Looking at these villagers in front of him with normal faces, Zhou Xingyu always felt that something was wrong, but he just couldn't say it.

The three men followed the old man into the village, and soon came to a rather intact wooden house.

The old man took out the key from his waist and opened the door, gave the key to Zhou Xingyu and the others, told them that there was water in the room and left.

It was a dilapidated wooden house with dilapidated windows in the walls, and all that remained was strands hanging from the hollows in the walls.

Aside from the wooden beds at either end of the wall, the only thing that could be considered furniture was the large black water tank in the corner of the room.

After entering the house, Wang Wen couldn't help it, went straight to the water tank, opened the water tank, looked at the thin layer of water at the bottom of the tank, he picked up the water scoop and poured it hard.

Zhou Xingyu glanced at it and didn't say anything, he turned to Wang Ye and said, "Brother Ye, I'll go out to find some firewood, and by the way, see if I can bring back some water, you can take care of Brother Wang here." ”

It's a dry season, but the temperature at night is very low, so you don't want to sleep without a fire.

Wang Ye nodded and said, "Don't worry, I'm here!" ”

There was a large plank bed in the house, but there was nothing on it, and he had to take the things off his horse's back and make the bed.

After assigning the task, Zhou Xingyu walked out of the house and walked into the night, although it was dark outside, his five senses were already amazing, even in the dark night, he could clearly see everything around him. Randomly found a place where no one was, carefully observed the surroundings, and after making sure that there were no living creatures, Wang Ye's figure disappeared in a flash.

When he came to the small world attached to the Chaos Spirit Platform, he took out the kettle on his waist, and after receiving two large pots of water in the stream in front of the house, he left the small world in a flash.

Reaching for a pillar that had fallen to the ground, he carried it towards the house.

When he came to the house, Wang Ye had already made the bed, and Wang Wen was cleaning the room.

Seeing Zhou Xingyu, Wang Wen's eyes lit up, and he said with a smile: "Brother Zhou, you are back." ”

Zhou Xingyu nodded, put the wood on the ground, and pulled out the big sword on his back in a few strokes, and a pillar turned into pieces of good-sized firewood.

Although it was not the first time he had seen Zhou Xingyu wield the giant sword, Wang Wen couldn't help but show a look of amazement.

Make a fire, cook, the meat obtained from the hunt before has been eaten, and the three of them can only cook the chestnut rice they carry with them in the pot, and they will have to deal with it tonight.