"Taoist Master Jin'an, I have heard about my brother and the others!"
Shen Zhuxiao, who was looking for news from the townspeople, ran back anxiously.
A strange thing happened in Fenghuang Town. A few days ago, a family got married. No one expected that during the wedding ceremony, the bride ate the groom alive.
We usually use the word "eat alive" to describe the couple, and everyone smiles tacitly, but "eat alive" here is not a metaphor, it has a simple and straightforward meaning.
When it was discovered the next day that the groom had only his head left, the two elders could not accept the fact that their son had died tragically, and that a happy event turned into a funeral overnight. Massacre.
The bride was dragged to the ancestral hall and skinned by the groom's relatives and friends who came after hearing the news. Five coffin nails were driven into the body, and it was finally filled in a manure pit. It was said that it could ward off evil spirits, because some relatives and friends suspected that the bride was ugly and dressed in human skin. He was a painted-skinned ghost, so he skinned the bride in front of the ancestors of the ancestral hall.
Hiss!
Even the old Taoist priest took a solemn breath: "The cruel method of skinning people can still be seen in private lynchings. These townspeople are too indifferent. They can still go about business as usual, talking and laughing?"
Shen Zhuxiao sighed: "No, I think this private execution is too much."
"Those townspeople said that the bride died unjustly, and it was only natural that she should kill to pay off her debts, because the groom's relatives and friends cut open the bride's belly when skinning her, and indeed found the groom's eaten flesh and blood."
The family where the murder occurred was considered a wealthy family in Fenghuang Town, running a rice shop and a cloth shop. The bride's natal family also had considerable financial resources among the locals and owned a teahouse.
I don't know if these townspeople have a hatred of the rich and think that rich people deserve to die, so they behave so indifferently, as if it has nothing to do with them.
A group of people rushed to the bridegroom's house with great worries. The place was already hung with white silk ribbons and white lanterns with the word "Die" written on them. Many relatives and friends in mourning clothes were coming in and out to help the host's family organize the funeral.
Jin An and the old Taoist priest originally thought that the scene for the Shen brothers to recognize each other would be complicated and they would have to go through many hardships and twists and turns. As a result, Shen Zhuxiao's eldest brother and Mr. Liang were both found here.
It's just that the situation is a bit complicated. When Brother Shen Zhuxiao and Mr. Liang saw Shen Zhuxiao, their expressions changed slightly. The expressions on their faces were complicated. They were hesitant to speak, anxious and worried. In short, there was no joy on their faces. It seems that they don't want Shen Zhuxiao to come to Fenghuang Town to find them.
"Brother!"
"Mr. Liang!"
"That's great. I finally found you. I was worried to death along the way! It's great to see you guys safe and sound, brother!"
Shen Zhuxiao's shout of surprise alarmed the two people who were opening the three coffins in the mourning hall. When Shen Wenhai and Mr. Liang turned around and saw Shen Zhuxiao, there was no joy on their faces, but complex expressions on their faces.
When they see some frivolous person disturbing the ceremony in the mourning hall, the groom's relatives and friends all frown in anger, roll up their sleeves and are about to come up and beat the person.
If it hadn't been for the old Taoist priest who came forward to smooth things over, not to mention Shen Zhuxiao, their colleagues would have been beaten along with him.
They retreated to a corner and planned to wait for the end of the operation to find the boss of the Shen family and Mr. Liang. But at this moment, Shen Zhuxiao screamed in surprise and pointed his finger in one direction in horror. There was a picture of a person with blood stains on it. The leather was spread in front of the threshold of the mourning hall and was trampled by thousands of people.
This human skin is the bride who devoured her husband alive on their wedding night!
"Sorry, sorry, it's because we are ignorant. We will take him away now, causing trouble to everyone and the deceased." The old Taoist priest pretended not to see the direction Shen Zhuxiao was pointing, pulled him up and walked out the door.
The warriors who had been hired by Shen Zhuxiao with huge sums of money as guards and thugs, their legs were weak and their faces were pale, and they ran away as if they were running for their lives.
After arriving outside, the old Taoist priest let go of Shen Zhuxiao's hand and cursed angrily: "You are looking down on human life!"
Shen Zhuxiao grabbed his cuffs aggrievedly. His wrists were bruised by the old Taoist priest.
The old Taoist priest had been suppressing the anger in his heart just now, and he didn't even notice that he had caught Shen Zhuxiao's wrist.
Since the days have become shorter and the nights have become longer, time has passed quickly. Jin An and the others waited until sunset before the eldest son of the Shen family and Mr. Liang came out.
The first words the two brothers said when they met were not a caring greeting, but a low-pitched scolding from the eldest son of the Shen family: "Why did you come to us! You shouldn't have come here!"
"Brother, I..."
"Aren't I worried about your safety..."
Shen Zhuxiao felt wronged.
Why.
Mr. Liang sighed, then raised his hand to Jin An and the old Taoist priest: "I wonder what you call the two Taoist priests?"
After a brief introduction and a general explanation of the purpose of his visit, Jin An asked curiously: "Mr. Liang, what is going on here? Judging from your expressions, it seems that you don't want us to come to Fenghuang Town to find you?"
Mr. Liang was a tall and thin man about fifty years old, wearing a long coat. He sighed again: "Has Taoist Jin'an ever heard of 'the body cannot help itself'?"
"Since the day we entered Phoenix Town, we have been inseparable from Phoenix Town, including the townspeople and outsiders like us. In order not to attract too much attention from the townspeople, we can only try our best to pretend to have integrated into them. "
According to Mr. Liang, no matter how far you go during the day, you will automatically walk back to Fenghuang Town at night.
And being able to walk back to Phoenix Town intact is the best ending.
I was afraid that I would die inexplicably before I even got back to Fenghuang Town.
Mr. Liang and the others tried to leave Fenghuang Town several times, but failed every time. Even the people who accompanied them died mysteriously on the road. In the end, only the businessman who was smart and the boss of the Shen family who had been following Mr. Liang died. Survive hard.
When they heard that only two of the dozen or so people who had come to Fenghuang Town had died, the martial arts warriors who had been hired by Shen Zhuxiao with huge sums of money as personal bodyguards started a commotion and clamored to leave Fenghuang Town.
"Shut up!"
Seeing that the noise caused by these people had attracted the attention of the townspeople, Jin An glared coldly. These martial artists were so frightened that they trembled and subconsciously closed their mouths. They were like lambs that had no courage to resist when they saw their natural enemy, the tiger.
How could these ordinary warriors withstand the aura of Jin An?
At this time, several relatives and friends of the deceased walked out of the house and said that the dinner banquet was ready and could start. Seeing that Jin An and the others knew Mr. Liang, these people said politely: "It turns out it was all a misunderstanding. The collision was not intentional."
In the mourning hall, we are all friends of Mr. Liang and Brother Shen. I'm sorry for what happened just now. The deceased is the most important person. I hope the Taoist priests can understand the grief of us relatives."
"Since we are all friends of Mr. Liang, let us all come to dinner with Mr. Liang as our apology."
These relatives and friends of the deceased were very polite and insisted on staying with Jin An and the others to dine with them. Jin An and the others did not even have the chance to refuse.
Unless I fall out on the spot, I don't want to stay in Phoenix Town any longer.
Mr. Liang was afraid that the young and energetic Jin An would do something here, so he stretched out his hand to press the back of Jin An's hand. Jin An nodded slightly to Mr. Liang, saying that he would not act recklessly, so that he could rest assured.
"Don't eat anything."
Mr. Liang quietly left a word and was taken away by other relatives of the deceased to sit at the same table. Jin An and the others sat at a table in the corner with the eldest son of the Shen family. At this time, the yard was already filled with more than a dozen tables of funeral banquets.
Table for adults, table for seniors, and table for children.
A table can accommodate about eleven people. Counting the Shen brothers, there are eight people in Jin An's group. The other three are relatives and friends of the deceased who don't talk much and always keep a straight face.
The people sitting at the same table as Mr. Liang seemed to have obviously higher status.
When everyone is almost seated, the food starts to be served.
Everyone was traveling in a dusty way, and they were all a little hungry after being hit by the cold rain earlier. The martial arts men hired by Shen Zhuxiao couldn't wait to pick up their chopsticks and wait for the food to be served. As a result, they couldn't stop looking at the first dish.
Retching.
Southerners serve cold dishes first, then hot dishes, and finally clear soup to scratch the fat in their stomachs, but the first cold dish placed in front of them is a plate full of maggots.
The second cold dish served was toad with chopped head.
Then there are centipedes, spiders, moths...
These cold dishes were indeed cold enough, and the back teeth were so cold that I gasped. The warriors who held up their chopsticks with expectant faces all stopped in the air with their half-stretched chopsticks, with twitching expressions on their faces, and felt like their stomachs were churning.
, it’s like a few hands are churning in the stomach, trying to rush to the throat, and the face turns blue and white for a while.
Mr. Liang's worries are unnecessary.
No one in their right mind would touch these tough dishes.
As a result, the three relatives and friends of the deceased who were sitting at the same table with them picked up the maggots and spiders with their chopsticks without any scruples. They could clearly hear the sound of pulp exploding in their mouths, and yellow, green, and white liquids flowed out from between their teeth.
vomit
Those martial artists could no longer suppress the turmoil in their stomachs, so they turned around and vomited. As a result, because they had been traveling all day and there was no food in their stomachs, they just vomited out yellow-green bile.
"What happened to them?" The relatives and friends of the deceased at the same table frowned.
As he spoke, he could even clearly see maggot flesh and insect entrails stuck in the gaps between his teeth.
Jin An explained with a normal expression: "Maybe it's because I'm not used to the climate. I ate something unclean while on the road, which made me feel a little uncomfortable. Young people nowadays are in poor physical condition. They often get headaches and hot brains, which are weak here and there.
"
The three relatives and friends of the deceased glanced at Jin An, who spoke strangely, and they all felt that although Jin An's body was normal, his brain seemed a little abnormal.
"If you want to vomit, just throw it aside. It's really disgusting and unappetizing." The three people frowned and continued to stretch out their chopsticks to pick up the "cold dishes" and ate them with relish.
A similar situation is happening at other tables.
Even though Jin An was used to the world and had never seen any strange corpses, the violent scene in front of him still made him a little overwhelmed.
Those martial arts warriors vomited until they couldn't even spit out bile. They were exhausted and weak. When they looked up, they saw the relatives and friends of the deceased were still eating, their faces were shiny and excited, and their faces were pale and bloodless with fear: "Taoist Jin'an, they...
"
His voice was trembling when he spoke, and he was frightened and uneasy.
But before he finished speaking, Jin An kicked the man under the table, and with a look, the man's words were turned back into his stomach.
This is a signal to these people not to talk too much, and to talk about anything else after the meal is over and after they leave here.
If you vomit too much, your mouth will feel dry. This is a symptom of body dehydration. Those martial artists who have nowhere to complain reach out and grab a jar of wine, hoping to quench their thirst, but as soon as the yellow and turbid wine is poured out, they say no.
The complex smell of urine that was clearly mixed with something went straight to the head.
vomit
This time I couldn't even vomit out bile, all I could do was retching and my stomach was cramping.
Fortunately, the old Taoist priest had quick eyesight and quick hands. He sealed the wine jar again while holding his breath, stretched out his hand to fan the air, and then drove away the complex smell that rushed straight to his forehead.
"Sorry, sorry, we brothers can't drink." The old Taoist priest decisively put the wine jar silently at his feet.
The three relatives and friends of the deceased immediately became dissatisfied: "Really, why don't you sit at the children's table if you can't drink?"
The three people cursed and walked away in dissatisfaction, and forced their way to another adult table to continue eating. They also drove several children who were eating with their elders to sit at the same table with Jin An and the others.
Those little boys were less than the height of the table. They squatted on the table and stared at Jin An and the others. They were a little afraid of strangers and did not dare to open the table first.
After the cold dishes were almost served, the hot dishes started to be served, and plates of steaming sea bowls were delivered to the tables one after another on wooden trays.
The old Taoist priest suddenly sniffed hard, then picked up the chopsticks with excitement: "What a delicious snake soup smell! Finally a normal hot dish!"
When the celadon sea bowl was put down, the old Taoist priest was dumbfounded. This hot dish was indeed snake soup, but the flower snake was neither slaughtered or bled, nor skinned and deboned. It was boiled whole in the soup until the skin and flesh burst.
, he died with his eyes open, his head was not even chopped off, and his appearance was horrible.
The whole snake soup is dark.
The hot dishes that followed were even more shocking to the eyes. Dead rats and cockroaches appeared. The old Taoist priest who had not vomited when faced with a table of cold dishes also began to retching at this time.
Jin An admired very few people in his life. Mr. Liang, who was sitting at a table with the relatives and friends of the deceased, pretending to blend in with Phoenix Town, talking and laughing as usual, was one of them!
"Uncle, can we eat?"
Jin An pretended not to hear.
In the end, the children didn't care whether Jin An agreed or not. They just grabbed it with their hands and ate it when they were hungry.