Zhu Xiucai, pretending to be a caravan manager, knocked on the door of the village chief's house.
When the village chief saw him, he was a little surprised: "Why haven't you left yet? It will be dark soon."
Zhu Xiucai pretended to be helpless: "This is the first time for us to take this trade route, and we are not familiar with the surrounding conditions. We are afraid that it will get dark before we find the next overnight stop after leaving. So we considered
After thinking about it for a while, I still plan to stay in your village for a night."
"Aren't you afraid of monsters?" The village chief frowned, suspicion flashing in his eyes.
"How could I not be afraid?"
Qin Shaoyou found out that the village chief was suspicious, so he stepped forward and used his gift of "eloquent tongue" to help Zhu Xiucai explain.
"It is precisely because of the fear of ghosts that I have to stay overnight in your village. Otherwise, when it gets dark, you will not only face the tiger's ghosts, but also many other ghosts and dangers. As the saying goes, which of the two evils should be compared?
light.
And as you said just now, village chief, Tiger’s ghost messenger is here today to collect rent, so he shouldn’t attack others, right?”
"Not always."
Under Qin Shaoyou's [Skillful Tongue] attack, the village chief gave up his doubts and shook his head and said: "If any of you are spotted by the tiger's ghosts, it is possible that you will be taken away and dedicated to the tiger."
When everyone heard this, they were all surprised: There is such a good thing?!
However, they did not show their feelings, and instead pretended to be a little scared.
Zhu Xiucai swallowed his saliva, and pretended to wipe the cold sweat on his forehead that was not there, looking very scared: "Is the chance of this... high?"
"It's hard to say." The village chief shook his head.
Zhu Xiucai asked again: "Aside from being spotted and taken away by ghosts, will there be any other losses if you stay here?"
"Yang energy and essence must be taken away by demons and ghosts."
"It's just a loss of some yang energy and essence, but it doesn't matter.
As for being taken away by ghosts... How can there be no risk when you go out to do business? Even if you don't encounter monsters, wolves, tigers, leopards, bandits and refugees, they can kill people! If someone is really taken away by ghosts, it will be his life.
Thin."
Zhu Xiucai gritted his teeth and stamped his feet. He seemed to have made up his mind. He took out some copper coins from his arms and handed them to the village chief.
"We will stay overnight in your village today, and this money will be the cost of staying overnight."
The village chief accepted the copper coins and said: "As long as you are not afraid of ghosts taking away your yang energy, essence and even your life, you can stay here.
There is a Earth Temple to the west of the village. You can live there, but don't damage the things in the temple.
Also, go to bed early at night, and no matter what noise you hear or feel, don’t open your eyes, let alone go out to check, otherwise you will lose your life, so don’t blame me for not warning you in advance.”
Zhu Xiucai thanked him repeatedly: "Thank you very much, village chief. We will go to bed early tonight so that we can sleep like dead pigs. No matter what happens, we will not get out of bed without opening our eyes!"
Then he turned around and called everyone to go to the Earth Temple.
The way he was running back and forth and giving orders really looked a bit like a caravan steward.
The team left quickly, but Qin Shaoyou and Su Tingyu stayed at the door of the village chief's house.
The village chief was a little puzzled, looked at the two of them and asked, "What else do you want?"
Qin Shaoyou cupped his hands: "Village chief, we have a heartfelt request..."
The village chief interrupted him and asked: "What is an unkind invitation?"
"It's just an unreasonable request."
"Then don't talk about it."
The village chief waved his hand very simply.
"Since it is unreasonable, I will definitely not agree to it. Telling it will only hurt the relationship, so it is better not to say it."
This... makes sense.
Qin Shaoyou was stunned for a moment. Seeing that the village chief was about to issue an eviction order, he hurriedly said: "These are just polite words. Our request will not harm your village, but will be beneficial. Tonight, aren't the tiger's ghosts coming to collect the big rent?"
Why don't the two of us serve as the big renters instead of the pair of children from your village."
"What?"
The village chief was shocked and thought for a time that he had heard wrongly.
In this world, why are there still people rushing to die?
After confirming again and again that he heard correctly, the village chief frowned and became suspicious again: "Who are you? What do you want to do?"
Qin Shaoyou had already made plans in his mind. At this moment, he put on a melancholy look and sighed: "Let me tell you the truth, the two of us are not from the caravan. We paid them and followed them.
We walked together in order to be protected on the road. In fact, we are eloping lovers..."
Su Tingyu was stunned.
She never expected that Qin Shaoyou would actually say that they were lovers and that they had eloped...
Her pretty face turned red instantly.
The village chief's eyes lit up.
Sure enough, this kind of bloody emotional gossip is very attractive no matter what world it is in.
Qin Shaoyou narrated: "The two of us met in school. She came to school disguised as a man. We got along day and night, and gradually developed a relationship. I was very disappointed to find out that she was the daughter of the deceased..."
"Disappointed?" The village chief's eyes became brighter and brighter.
Su Tingyu was even more confused: Why would he be disappointed when he found out that his daughter was dead?
Qin Shaoyou realized that he was talking nonsense and hurriedly corrected: "I am happy, I am very happy."
The village chief was immediately disappointed.
Qin Shaoyou continued to tell the story of his magic transformation:
"I originally wanted to come to the house to beg for mercy, but when I asked the matchmaker to ask for the name, I found out that our two families were feuding and there was no way our family would agree to our marriage.
But we were in love with each other and loved each other deeply. So one night when it was pouring with rain, we chose to elope.
But even though we eloped, our family never let us go and sent people to chase us. We were tired and no longer wanted to live this kind of life of hiding, so we planned to find a place to die in love.
Since we have all decided to die, we want to use our own lives to save those two children, which can be regarded as accumulating the last bit of moral virtue for ourselves..."
Qin Shaoyou's story is both bloody and touching. Coupled with the effect of his clever tongue, people can't help but believe it to be true.
Not to mention the village chief, even Su Tingyu was fascinated by it and stepped into the role. Looking at Qin Shaoyou, his eyes were filled with tenderness like water.
This scene in the eyes of the village chief and villagers confirmed the authenticity of Qin Shaoyou's story.
That's right, when Qin Shaoyou told the story of the elopement, several families next to the village chief's house came over to listen.
After all, in a mountain village, there aren't many entertainment options, and such bloody love stories are simply not very attractive.
The village chief sighed softly: "It's not easy for you two little lovers, but..."
He looked at Qin Shaoyou and then at Su Tingyu.
"The tiger wants a boy and a girl. If you two elope, are you still a boy?"
Su Tingyu's pretty face turned even redder.
Qin Shaoyou said seriously: "Village chief, look at what you said, although we are in love, we have always been in love but not polite. Of course, we are still boys."
The village chief couldn't understand.
A villager behind him whispered: "This little brother...doesn't he have something to hide?"
When the village chief heard this, he also had such suspicions, and looked at Qin Shaoyou with a bit of sympathy and empathy.
Feeling sorry for each other, he did not ask any further questions and instead said, "In that case, I won't stop you. It's just that although you saved the two children this time, you can only save them for a while, but not for the rest of their lives."
"We know." Qin Shaoyou nodded, "We never thought we could save them, but we just have a clear conscience."
"Then I will thank you on behalf of the two children."
The village chief bowed his hands to Qin Shaoyou and Su Tingyu, and then sent the villagers to call the two families who were going to sacrifice their children this time. He took off the grass rings on the children's wrists and handed them to Qin Shaoyou and Su Tingyu.
in hand.
"When it gets dark, you put on this grass ring, and then go to the village temple and stay there. Don't run around. The tiger's ghost will come to lend it to you...
After you die, we will place memorial tablets for you two in the Earth Temple, so that you can enjoy a piece of incense in the underworld."
The two families thanked Qin Shaoyou and Su Tingyu profusely, saying that they would go and offer incense to them frequently in the future.
After Qin Shaoyou and Su Tingyu left, a villager who had just arrived approached the village chief's ear with suspicion and whispered:
"Are these two people really going to die for their love? Don't try to deal with the tiger, right? If the tiger is offended and they run away, we will be the ones who suffer. How about sending someone into the mountain and shouting this along the way?
Once the tiger knows what happened, we can also avoid responsibility."
"No need." The village chief shook his head after thinking about it for a moment.
"When I look at their reactions and listen to their words, it doesn't look like they are faking it."
Several other villagers who had listened to the story nearby also expressed their opinions:
"I think what that guy said is true."
"I also don't think they are lying. Their reactions and words are very sincere."
"They really want to die for their love and do some good deeds to gain some virtue before they die. There is no need for us to inform the tiger, lest the tiger will ask us to sacrifice another pair of boys and girls in addition to the two of them.
Besides, it’s going to be dark soon, who will be sent into the mountains? Who is willing to go into the mountains?”
The villager who made the suggestion fell silent, and he did not dare to enter the mountain at night.
Since everyone believed in the pair of desperate mandarin ducks, he could only choose to believe it.
That's how things were settled.
The villagers here never imagined that they would believe the words of Qin Shaoyou, a stranger, simply because Qin Shaoyou has a flexible tongue.
They were persuaded by this tongue.
[Qiao Tongue] The talent has been used more and more skillfully by Qin Shaoyou.