Huangliang dreams of a long road, and the top of the clouds is good.

Today is a good day with bright sunshine, the sun is warm, the autumn breeze is blowing, not cool or dry.

At the end of the day, Liang Xiao carried his basket full of firewood and arrived in front of the vermilion gate of the Qin Palace.

For the Qin Palace, he couldn't help but wonder why a prince's mansion would be built in such a rural place, even if he was a declining prince rumored by his neighbors in the street, he shouldn't have built such a grand mansion in a small place surrounded by mountains like Waterwheel Town.

This question has been bothering Liang Xiao for several years, and if you think about it carefully, it seems that he has had this intriguing question that is difficult to leave behind since he can remember.

In a slight pause in front of the swaggering vermilion gate, he muttered silently as always: "One, two, three." Come out!"

As his words fell, a small wave of Taoist monks came out of the vermilion gate. They are also familiar faces that Liang Xiao must see every day.

Compared to the two hideous stone statues standing in front of the Qin Palace, which looked like lions and tigers, they were much more friendly, although Liang Xiao had never spoken a few words to the Taoist monks who walked out of the mansion with sad faces.

And because seeing these Taoist monks always makes Liang Xiao feel very unlucky, so he has to wait for the Taoist monks to leave every day for the past twelve years to send firewood before swaggering in.

When stepping into the high threshold of vermilion, Liang Xiao habitually pinched his nose as always, because every time he came here, he would always smell a fishy smell, and he heard Li Da, the son of Steward Li of the Qin Palace, talk about the reason for this, as if it was also because of the group of Taoist priests, saying that it was sprinkled with black dog blood every day to ward off evil spirits, and the cinnabar smeared gate was also used to ward off evil spirits.

Liang Xiao has been living here for almost 12 years, except for listening to Li Da Gu talk about some strange things about demons and monsters in his spare time in the Qin Palace, he has really never seen any female ghosts in red clothes but very beautiful, or zombies wearing official uniforms but not bending their knees, not to mention those monsters in the deep mountains and old forests who have beautiful faces and are understanding but like to eat human hearts and livers.

He didn't deny their existence, he just didn't want to encounter these things, because in Li Dagu's story, seeing these demons and monsters and other evil and filthy people didn't end well.

As he hurried through the compound and came to this courtyard, he suddenly slowed down at this moment.

Hearing the autumn breeze passing through the hall stirring up the ethereal and crisp sound of the ninety-nine eighty-one small golden bells connected by red silk threads and hanging under the dark eaves, Liang Xiao subconsciously glanced at the empty side room that closed the door every day.

If it weren't for Li Da so fanning the flames and telling stories in this room, Liang Xiao would not have been so frightened that his back was cold every time he passed by here, his hair stood on end, and although he was flustered, he had to tiptoe through quickly.

After he passed through the arch that led to the side courtyard engraved with two vermilion characters of "Town Gate", he wiped the cold sweat on his forehead, subconsciously breathed a long sigh of relief, and his upright body also bent down at this moment.

"Liang ~ Xiao ~"

This voice is very ethereal and powerless, and it is the same tone as the ghost in the ghost story told by Li Daguo.

Suddenly hearing something behind him shouting his name, Liang Xiao was frightened, and his face instantly turned pale. He had been reminded by Li Dagu before, and his mind unconsciously relived the words of that day.

"Liang Dali, if you don't rush one day, and you happen to hear someone calling your name after you pass the evil 'town gate', don't look back, and don't be stupid to say 'yes'. Because, that's a man-eating monster! When you don't hear it, and then learn to bark three times, be sure to be louder, I heard that 'thing' is terrible that the dog barks, and the more fierce the dog, the more it can scare it away!"

Thinking of Li Dasu's expression being extremely serious when he said this that day, Liang Xiao swallowed his saliva deeply, pretended to ignore it like a wooden man, and continued to walk forward in a restrained manner. He was so nervous in his heart that he was struggling: should I scare him away!?

After thinking about it carefully, let's forget it.

After all, he didn't hear it, and if he learned to bark again, wouldn't he admit that he heard it without telling himself?

He continued to walk.

Between the town gate and the next arch into the courtyard, there is an alley that has been sealed by some years of green bricks at both ends, this alley is also very strange, every time you pass by here, you will always feel that there is a pair of cold eyes staring at you, but you don't dare to subconsciously glance at him like that, so whether this is a psychological trick, Liang Xiao can't tell.

At least Liang Xiao didn't mention this matter to Li Dasu, after all, every time it comes to his mouth, it can become evil, how evil it is, just like someone calling your name, you can touch it in broad daylight, do you say evil or not?

I don't know how many steps I walked and how much time I wasted, Liang Xiao finally passed the arch and entered the side courtyard.

This side courtyard is where he often does chores, which is said to be miscellaneous work, that is, every morning he goes to the mountain called 'Broken Evil Mountain' in the east of the town to chop some firewood and come back, and then takes care of the three meals a day for the people in the Qin Wangfu, and the most special work, that is, after sunset until dawn, he is not allowed to step out of the Qin Wangfu for half a step.

It is one of his great pleasures to go to the evil mountain to chop wood, after all, he can breathe fresh air, and he can practice a body of tendon meat, and men should be self-reliant.

This is also the reason why he has great strength, and it is also the reason why Li Dasu often calls him 'two powers'.

The second item is to take care of the three meals of the people under the Qin Wang's mansion, there is no need to think about it at all, after all, the King of Qin, the Lady of the King of Qin and their two precious daughters are all rich and noble people with golden branches and jade leaves, and they can easily eat the dishes made by him as a grass man and a famous chef in Waterwheel Town?

Compared with these two things, the third item is the most important but the strangest thing, and the monsters everywhere in the Qin Wangfu are all interdependent, and the same disease is connected, making the brain a mess.

Liang Xiao didn't ask about this matter, he was ignorant when he was a child, every time he asked, he would anger Qin Wangye, and he couldn't get any good fruit to eat, and even once he wanted to escape from Qin Wangfu at night, but before he could climb to the wall, he was forcibly stopped by a group of people, and then he was locked up in the firewood room by the scary Qin Wangye, who was black-faced and scary, and he was not given food and drink, and he was locked up for three days and three nights.

Since then, Liang Xiao has also increased his memory, after all, since then, the monthly money that can reach him at the end of each month is several times as much as in the past, enough for two taels of silver.

Putting down the basket and taking out a bundle of firewood placed inside, Liang Xiao sat down in front of the stove and took a bundle of dry firewood towards the pile of firewood as high as a small hill.

Since he was doing chores in the Qin Palace, he has always been a fire breaker and never leaves his body, and has no other use, that is, to make a fire to cook, which has gradually become a habit for him.

Just as he was still thinking about the voice that called his name just now, someone suddenly tapped him on the shoulder, which made him tremble all over. He quickly glanced at the hand on his right shoulder, and saw that it was a short, thick little white hand, and he let out a long sigh of relief.

"What's the matter? I can scare you out of such a ridiculous way in broad daylight?"

Liang Xiao glanced at the Humpty Dumpty man standing behind him angrily, and said indignantly: "Yes! It's ridiculous! You don't want to think about who this is for? Every day, I have to instill some demons and monsters in my brain to eat people, this person is very hateful! What do you think? Li Da story!"

At this time, this Humpty Dumpty who was scratching the back of his head and smirking was Li Da, because he always called Liang Xiao 'Liang Dali', and because he always liked to tell some rare stories, so Liang Xiao took local materials and directly called him 'Li Da Story'.

"Isn't this also very idle right now, and I won't come to you to hang around if I'm not idle, right?" Li Da shrugged his nose, seeing that Liang Xiao's back was damp, he asked with a smile: "You usually drag hundreds of catties of firewood back and don't see your back wet like this, why are you tired like this when you carry such a bundle today?"

Liang Xiao glanced at him and said, "If I told you, I don't know what weird thriller story you made up for me." I won't tell you, and I won't scare myself~"

"Yo, what do you mean...... What did you bump into?" asked Li Da with a wink.

Liang Xiao ignored him, lit the stove, and added a few broken branches without hurrying.

Seeing that he didn't say anything, Li Da said angrily, his arms were crossed to his chest, and he seemed to sulk: "Dude, you're not interesting enough~ Originally, I wanted to tell you a new story I heard from that group of old Taoist priests last night." That guy~ I was terrified and surging with blood!

Speaking of this, he squinted at Liang Xiao, and seeing that he was unmoved, he coughed lightly and added, "Listen to them, there was a ghost that came out of nowhere sixteen years ago." It was so cruel that it didn't see the sun for seven or eight days in a row. For a while, the world was in misery, and the people were not happy. ”

At this, he suddenly stopped.

After a moment, Liang Xiao glanced back at him helplessly, "And then?"

"Didn't you listen to it?" Li Dagu smiled slyly, and said in his previous tone: "Just now someone was still complaining that I told him a story, but now it's okay, I won't talk about it, but he is asking the bottom of it~ Do you say this person is cheap? What do you say? Liang Dali!"

"......" Liang Xiao exhaled helplessly: "It's hard to look forward to a ghost who is so powerful as soon as he comes up, I'd better let you finish it, otherwise I'm afraid that if you don't tell it, you will become a ghost at night, so you have to come over and pester me and let me listen to you tell stories, and it won't be me who will suffer at that time?"

Li Dagu smiled and said: "Isn't this very interesting~ I'm a person, I like to say 'ghost'~"

Liang Xiao hurriedly said: "But nothing really happened just now, you let me tell you, I can't say that I am ugly." ”

"Oh~ is it?" Li Dagu's eyes suddenly widened, his face suddenly changed from a joking look to a cold and solemn color, his voice trembled, as if ethereal, "Did you just pass through the 'town gate'...... Didn't you hear someone calling your name?Liang~Xiao~"