The days passed, and winter approached.

In the evening of that day, the Taoist temple had a rare visitor. A horse-drawn carriage came along the stone road.

Li Hong and Xiong Boy were bored washing their brooms in the mountain spring under the bridge, and they felt very strange, and before they opened their mouths to shout, the figure of the old Taoist appeared at the entrance of the view in a flash.

The thick brocade curtain was lifted, and a young man in brocade jumped out of the carriage.

The young man was about thirteen or fourteen years old, handsome, with piercing eyes, dressed in splendid clothes, and wearing a precious collar encrusted with precious stones around his neck. As soon as his eyes rolled, the young man swept Li Hong and Xiong Xiaozi over, but his gaze did not stop for half a minute, and was directly projected onto Lao Dao.

Ordinary people are afraid that they will despise such a ragged and unkempt Taoist, but this young man in gorgeous clothes did not hesitate to walk directly to the steps and bow to the ground, saying: "Zhao Xuan meets the Lingshi Daoist." ”

Lingshi Lao Dao's expression was rare and solemn, his hands were behind his back, and he nodded: "You are Zhao Xuan, and your qualifications are really good." Go back and tell your master that I have taken this child. ”

The carriage was followed by four men in strong gear on horses. The men don't know where they came from, and they seem to be familiar with the old way of Lingshi. They agreed in unison, and took down a delicate gold-painted lacquer box with a diameter of two feet from the carriage, and said: "The head of the family gives it to the immortal master, and a small gift is not a tribute." He didn't say much, handed over the box and immediately got on the horse and drove away.

Lao Dao turned around, beckoned to Li Hong and Xiong Xiaozi, and instructed, "You bring him in and live in a room." No quarrels. ”

The young man didn't look at the five family members who left, and kept looking at the old Taoist of Lingshi with reverence. As soon as Lao Dao's words fell, he crossed his hands and bent down respectfully in response: "Respect the order of the immortal master." ”

Li Hong opened his mouth wide when he watched from the side, why didn't this kid sign a deed of sale?

After a few days, Li Hong finally knew why Lao Dao wanted the three of them to live in the same room. The Taoist temple, which did not see half of the outsiders, suddenly became crowded, and many people came one after another, all of whom were children and teenagers. The youngest is 10 years old, and the oldest is not more than 15.

Lingshi Lao Dao stood at the gate every day, and the teenagers and children who threw in were looked at one by one, some were accepted on the spot, and some were ordered to be taken away by the escorts.

The escorts are very strange and complex, some are dressed as Taoist priests, some are dressed as monks, and there are Huijiazi who seem to be dressed as people from the rivers and lakes, and there are even sergeants who are dressed up in the Great Song Dynasty army at a glance, and some are escorted by family members like Zhao Xuan, in groups of three or five, and so on. There are also a dozen or so poor teenagers, who have secretly followed others all the way through mountains and rivers. Those who were escorted were taken in and sent away, but in general, the vast majority of them were taken in.

The small Qingyouguan suddenly became lively, but in ten days and half a month, there were hundreds of more people, both men and women, and all the rooms were full, and those who came later had to lay on the floor. Lingpan Daoist and Lingji Dao Chief, who have been meditating in the room, also show up every day, helping Lingshi Lao Dao to screen children and take care of affairs at the door every day.

The two miscellaneous Taoist boys who didn't like to eat no longer had time to meditate and practice in their rooms, and they were so busy that their feet didn't touch the ground all day long. Li Hong and Xiong Boy became their number one envoys, no matter what happened, they would always say: "Go to Li Hong and Li Xiong!"

Li Hong was surprised, he really didn't understand what such a small Qingyouguan was doing with so many children, and he was both male and female. He asked Zhao Xuan in private. Zhao Xuan looked at him like an idiot, snorted disdainfully and turned around and left.

It was impossible to get words out of Zhao Xuan's mouth, so Li Hong turned his brain to those teenagers. However, these teenagers have different accounts.

Some people say that they followed the orders of their fathers to go into the mountains to learn the Tao to avoid the war; some people mysteriously say that the famous "Luliang Sword Sect" in the rivers and lakes wants to accept apprentices, and their fathers have spent a lot of effort to find the way to send them up the mountain; and some people do not know the reason at all, but only say that suddenly one day the family ordered them to pack up their belongings, and they were taken out of the house by an unknown person and sent here all the way...... All in all, there are all kinds of strange and strange statements, and the more you listen to them, the more inexplicable they become.

A dozen or so teenagers who came quietly behind others said much the same thing. Some of them were beggars, some of them were wandering on the side of the mountains after losing their relatives in the war, and they saw many people walking deep into the mountains one after another. Anyway, he was so hungry that he closed his eyes and waited for death, thinking that there might be a way to live with them, so he followed all the way regardless of 3721. Crookedly, he was really taken in by the Taoist temple, he was full of food and clothing every day, and he was as happy as Li Hong thought at the beginning - the mouse fell into the rice tank. As for the rest, I still don't know anything.

There are more and more people, and the small Taoist temple is almost crowded, and the number of people is rising, until it has the tendency to break through two hundred. The two miscellaneous Taoist boys sent a lot of errands to Li Hong, and they were so busy that they didn't have time to dwell on these questions.

The weather was getting colder and colder, and the carriages and horses at the door were getting thinner, and just when Li Hong thought that no one would throw in again, the last carriage came to the door.

This carriage is very different from other carriages, but Li Hong can't say what the difference is. Anyway, when he saw the carriage, he thought so, especially when he saw the people in the carriage, it felt very unusual.

She is a very beautiful little girl.

She was eleven or twelve years old at most, and her eyebrows were picturesque. Wearing a plain white Luo shirt skirt, she was covered with a very strange cardigan that could not be said. At first glance, the robe is extremely light and light, but if you look closely, you will see that there is a faint multicolored light on it.

When the little girl stepped off the carriage, a gust of mountain wind blew, and the four corners of the beautiful robe floated up, fluttering behind her, lining the little girl's ice and snow face and incomparably light figure.

Lingshi Lao Dao was standing on the bluestone steps at the entrance of the Taoist temple, and when he saw the little girl, he only said three words: "You are here." ”

The little girl obviously knew him too, and said with a smile: "I've seen the Spirit Stone Dao Master." ”

Her sweet smile was like the first ray of dawn on the snowy mountain, and all the unattainable was far away in an instant, and the little girl looked like a person in the world at this moment.

She blink her eyes and saw Li Hong standing next to her, smiled at him and walked into the Taoist temple with the old Lingshi Road. When passing by, Li Hong smelled a faint floral fragrance, which was indescribably good, some like a wooden tree, but slightly lighter than the fragrance of a wooden tree, elegant and refreshing.

The Taoist temple is full of people. As the little girl made her way through the crowd, everyone was silent and staring at her. The little girl looked calm, still with a faint sweet smile, and her light footsteps followed the old Lingshi Road into the third courtyard. Lao Dao ordered everyone to stop.

Li Hong stood outside the porch and listened. He heard Lao Dao take out the key and open the only room that was empty, and the two of them went in and closed the door.

He was astonished—it was the haunted room! It was the only room that was uninhabited, and what was the old man doing with the little girl!

Soon Lao Dao walked out of the door alone, turned around and took out the key to lock the door. Seeing Li Hong in a daze at the porch, Lao Dao shouted: "Zhao Xuan and Li Xiong are still chopping firewood behind, you take someone to bring in their chopped firewood and cook it quickly! Otherwise, when will so many people have dinner, go quickly!"

His feet were pushed by the old road, but Li Hong's heart was in a mess.

These days, he doesn't feel like Lao Dao is a bad person, at most sometimes he is quite unreasonable, if Lao Dao murders that little girl, he thinks it is unlikely. But if it wasn't for murder, what did he do by locking the little girl in that haunted room? Could it be that the empty room was not haunted, but reserved for the little girl? If so, why was she locked up alone?

The question burned bigger and bigger in his heart, Li Hong found an excuse to walk out of the kitchen, and seeing that Lao Dao was not there, he quietly slipped to the locked room and listened carefully to the movement inside.

It was quiet inside, and there was no sign that anyone was inside. The little girl disappeared when she entered the house.