Ping'an Town.

Yuan Lang was the first to stop, and politely asked an old man who was sitting on the side of the street smoking a cigarette and looking at the market absentmindedly: "Uncle, may I ask, is this Ping'an Town?"

"yes. The old man nodded.

"Have you ever seen a boy about eight years old with a red mole on his eyebrows?" asked a girl from the South Island eagerly. If there is any easily recognizable feature of Mei Songbai, it is this red mole, which is in the middle of the eyebrows and has a round shape, making Mei Xiaoxiao look as cute as the good wealth boy next to the Bodhisattva.

"I haven't seen it. The old man said, "We have few children here, and if such children appear, everyone will see them." ”

A middle-aged uncle selling vegetables next to him also nodded: "You came from outside to find the child? ”

After speaking, the vegetable seller said to the old man while cleaning up the vegetable stall, "Uncle Wu, speaking of children, I heard that the Cheng family in the west of the town gave birth to twins, so isn't it the first time that the number of locals in our town has exceeded the number?" I have lived for more than 30 years, and I have never seen this situation...... Speaking of which, you're the oldest in town right now, right?"

When the old man heard this, his face immediately sank, and he said, "What do you mean?" and as he spoke, he turned around and walked into his yard and slammed the gate shut.

A group of young people also heard some clues, Ye Shang stepped forward, smiled and asked, "Uncle, more than the number, what do you mean?" He looked dignified, and asked modestly and politely, which was really difficult to refuse.

The vegetable seller just wanted to hear some news from the old man, but the old man gave him an iron plate, so when he saw that the young people in front of him seemed to be very interested in his words, he immediately opened the conversation: "You don't know, this town is remote, outsiders don't migrate here, and people in the town rarely leave, after all, they have lived here for a long time, they are used to it, and they can be regarded as safe and healthy, and there are almost no people who die of illness or accidents here." One of the characteristics of our Ping'an Town is that the number of locals has always been only 699. ”

"What?" the young men were surprised.

Xiang Nan couldn't help but speak: "How come? Isn't there always a child born?" In fact, he wanted to say that there are always births, old age, sickness and death here, right?

"That's the magic of our Ping'an Town. There are not many children born in our town, and every day a child is born, an old man dies, and the total number is still 699. ”

"Ah......h

"But......" The vegetable seller pretended to be mysterious and changed his tone: "Yesterday, a family in our town gave birth to twins, and at the same time, the oldest lady in our town, Aunt Li, passed away. ”

Ding Rong said: "I gave birth to two but only one left, and the total number has changed?"

The vegetable seller nodded and praised: "The little girl is really smart." Last night we had seven hundred people in town. ”

Xiang Nan then asked everyone's biggest doubt: "What will happen if there are more than 699 people?"

The vegetable seller mysteriously lowered his voice and said, "I heard that the old people have passed it on from generation to generation, and within a few days, the number will still return to six hundred and ninety-nine people......

No wonder when he asked the old man, the old man who was called "Uncle Wu" was unhappy, it was like cursing people to death!

Xiang Nan wanted to ask about this again, but Yuan Lang dragged him and signaled him not to ask about this content, Xiang Nan understood and quickly stopped.

Yuan Lang politely asked the vegetable seller: "Is there an inn in the town?" It's getting late today, and we are tired of looking for my younger brother, so we want to stay." ”

The uncle said, "There is an inn in our town, at the east end of the town, and there should be a place to live." ”

---

The group found a place called Yuelai Inn, which was very simple, and there were only three rooms that could be provided, which showed that there were indeed few pedestrians coming and going in this town. The' proprietress runs the inn alone, and there are no other guys in the inn, except for a son in his early teens with two snots who helps his mother take care of the inn. Yuan Lang booked all the rooms, because there were more girls in the team looking for people this time, so the girls slept in two rooms, and the men shared a large room.

The guest rooms are on the second floor, and it seems that no one has cleaned it for a long time, and the ash is covered with a full floor, and everyone is asking for water, so they simply cleaned it, put the beds together, and put them into a large bunk. After a while, everyone gathered in the big room of the senior brothers and ate some dry food.

Xiang Nan asked, "Senior Brother Yuan Lang, why didn't you let me ask today?"

Yuan Lang said: "I already know a rough idea, and if I ask again, I'm afraid that I will be wary." ”

Many young people are not as well-informed as him, so they all asked, "What does Senior Brother know?"

Yuan Lang explained: "Six hundred and ninety-nine!"

Everyone still has an expression of "what's so special about six hundred and ninety-nine".

Yuan Lang asked a little surprised: "Do you remember what was mentioned in the "Otherworldly Treasure Book"?" Seeing that the junior brothers and sisters except Li Miaoquan were all shaking their heads together, it turned out that the cultivation of other islands was far less demanding than that of Dongdao, and the disciples of Dongdao had to spend an hour every day reading the classics, and the "Otherworldly Treasure Book" was everyone's basic desk book.

Yuan Lang had no choice but to explain from the beginning: "It was mentioned in the treasure book that among the Sandman clan, the strongest control of the high-level Sandman is to control six hundred and ninety-nine people to sleep at the same time, so I said that I want to stay, I guess something will happen tonight." ”

Ye Zhi nodded and said, "Since it is called the Sleeping Forest, it is estimated that it is related to sleep, if we don't sleep tonight, let's see what will happen in this town." ”

There was a knock on the door.

As soon as everyone opened the door, it was the proprietress who opened the door.

The proprietress said to them, "Ladies and gentlemen, the rule in our town is that the sun rises and the sun sets. Once the sun sets, every family goes to sleep behind closed doors, and the inn is no exception. The sun is about to sink in the west, so please close the doors of the three rooms and do not move around at night. ”

The young people nodded, thinking to themselves that this town was really quirky, and it was impossible not to move.

---

As the sun set west, slowly moving towards the horizon on the other side of the desert, Heian Town was shrouded in a golden afterglow, and as the sky slowly darkened, Heian Town gradually darkened.

Ye Zhi opened the window and saw that the families began to lock the doors to welcome the arrival of night.

Ding Rong walked up to Ye Zhi and asked, "Senior Brother Ye, can you see anything strange?"

Ye Zhi shook his head and said, "Except for knowing that this is the territory of the sleeping demon, I don't know anything else." ”

Ding Rong nodded, thinking, fortunately, your prediction ability is not strong. In fact, this paragraph is in the original book, everyone went to the sleeping forest to find Mei Songbai's junior brother, Bai Yuelan and Ye Zhi were trapped in it, the two were each other's company, it should be in this paragraph, Ye Zhi really fell in love with Bai Yuelan. But how did he get into the sleeping forest? Could it be that the author also talked about it, so she also read it?