The sky is getting brighter and brighter, and the early morning by the lake is colder than the late night. The morning breeze brings high and melodious fishing songs on the Qingjiang River in the south.
Shen Lie stepped up the stone steps from the quagmire. His knees were scorched black, and there were two withered and yellow severed fingers lying on the instep of his boots.
He shook off his severed finger and prepared to leave.
A burst of sharp laughter sounded from the quagmire behind him: "I finally know why you look familiar. Is your father's name Shen Shuangcheng?"
Shen Lie paused slightly and looked sideways at him.
This quagmire was extremely large, about sixty feet long and twenty feet wide. There were depths and shallows at the bottom, and the shallowest part was just up to his knees.
Now, there are about a dozen corpses sinking slowly in the quagmire.
The man who spoke was about forty years old, and his skin was frighteningly pale, as if he had not seen the sun for a long time.
He covered his broken arm that was bleeding profusely, looked at Shen Lie, and continued to laugh: "Your mother is that slutty bitch Shi Yingying, right?"
Shen Lie said nothing and looked at him motionlessly with his black eyes.
"Hahahaha," the man laughed, "Aren't you curious about what happened here when they were young?"
Suddenly, a fishy smell surged up from the man's throat. He spit out a mouthful of thick blood, looked down at his seriously injured ribs, laughed a few more times, and said with blood in his mouth: "Your mother is just a broken shoe, she is following you." Before my father, I already had a daughter! Hahaha, the Shen family in Yunliang is a big family. Your status as the eldest son usually has a lot of respect. If the world knows that you have a sister who is a prostitute, what do you think the world will do? I'm laughing at you, hahaha...cough, cough, cough!"
He coughed out more and more blood, and he continued to laugh until he died.
Shen Lie watched his body sink slowly and looked away calmly, only to hear a crisp cough.
Shen Lie looked up and saw the girl standing at the stone door in the northwest, playing with the whip with her fingers and looking at him with clear and bright eyes.
After searching for her all night, Shen Lie was overjoyed and strode over: "Ah Li."
The girl raised her eyes to examine his features, then looked at his straight and slender legs.
"A lot of mud." Xia Zhaoyi said.
Seeing the deep black eyes looking at her dirty hands, she raised them, turned the palms of her hands over, and said, "I can't find a place to wash them."
"You didn't sleep all night?" Shen Lie asked.
Not only that, she also fought all night.
"Why are you here?" Xia Zhaoyi frowned, "Did Gao Zhou let you in?"
"...You also know how Gao Zhou could stop me? I tied him up."
Xia Zhaoyi was stunned: "You!"
Shen Lie looked into her eyes: "Ah Li, if you want to blame me, blame me after you get out. There is a cave here and it is dangerous and unpredictable. This is not the time to argue with me."
Under such a deep cave, his eyebrows were even more profound in the light and shadow, and the pair of black eyes looking at her were also more deep and serious.
Xia Zhaoyi took a deep breath and looked at other parts of the cave.
There is a large quagmire below, and every two steps there is a large irregular stone about the size of an ordinary bookcase. These large stones are pieced together into a road, which can barely cross the "river".
To the southwest of the cave, there is a row of dilapidated suspended houses with hilltop structures and external colonnades.
The age has been too long, leaving an old and dark color on the house, and also destroying the original architectural appearance. Those dark places seem to be full of eyes.
Further outside the mire, where it connects with the other two stone gates of the cave, another lake appears.
Xia Zhaoyi thought she had seen it wrong, and looked carefully again and again, only to see that the coffins floating on the lake were really held together by iron chains, one after another.
"Let's find a place to sit," Xia Zhaoyi looked at Shen Lie solemnly, "Tell me what you encountered, and I will tell you what happened to me."
Seeing that she was serious about "regardless of past grudges", Shen Lie smiled lightly and said, "Go find a place first. I want to go back to get my things. Give me a moment and I'll be back soon."
This place is so big that the peach grove is like a flower blooming in it. Apart from the peach grove, the rest is a lush green forest.
Xia Zhaoyi left a mark along the road for Shen Lie to find. After walking for a long time, she accidentally found a small pond.
The water in the pond is so clear that you don’t dare to drink it directly, but there is no problem in washing your hands.
After washing her hands, she felt sleepy and her eyelids began to fight.
She would not be like this before. Even if she is sleepy and in danger, she can still maintain a high degree of clarity and alertness.
Not to mention the past, just before, I was still not tired after fighting all night.
Is it... because of Shen Lie?
Subconsciously she knew he would come back, so her sleepiness spread freely?
Yesterday it was, and it is today too.
Xia Zhaoyi raised her eyebrows, steeled herself, looked around, took out the dagger from the inside of her boots, and went over to cut the wood.
When Shen Lie came to find him, Xia Zhaoyi's wooden frame was almost ready.
Her hands are very skillful. She built a large wooden frame and connected it with mortise and tenon joints.
Everything is fine, except for a pot or bowl.
Seeing the two small bundles in Shen Lie's hands, Xia Zhaoyi put down the dagger and wood in his hands.
Shen Lie knelt down and opened the two small bundles, and a light fragrance hit his face.
If the food hadn't been cold, the aroma would have been stronger.
Xia Zhaoyi was a little surprised: "Who sent it? They came down too?"
It's not easy to think about it. There are traps everywhere, and not everyone dares to cross the Thousand Blades Cliff.
"I brought it down last night," Shen Lie said, "but I seem to have gone the wrong way and I didn't find you."
"Then, where did you come from? Did you meet a strange man with his hands and feet bound by chains?"
"...Is there anyone else down there?"
Xia Zhaoyi paused and said: "You can pass by a cliff that is so straight that it can only accommodate three people walking side by side."
"Um."
"Then when you come here, you can see a secret passage?"
Shen Lie was silent for a moment and said, "I thought that was..."
Thinking of the stench, Xia Zhaoyi said: "I understand, you thought it was a cesspit."
"Cough." Shen Lie coughed lightly.
"...I'm a bit embarrassed. After all, there is food here." Xia Zhaoyi said sincerely.
"You went down?" Shen Lie looked at her, "The weirdo you mentioned is down there?"
Xia Zhaoyi nodded: "I don't know who he is. It seems that he has been locked up for a long time. Over time, he seems to have lost the cognition of ordinary people. What I saw is that he is irritable, irritable, crazy, unable to understand human words, and has no ability to understand people." Can express."
"If you are interested, we will take him away with us when we return."
Xia Zhaoyi suddenly smiled: "Mr. Shen Erlang, you don't mind the smell of others."
Shen Lie found helplessly that he actually liked being teased by her in such a harmless way.
"Ah Li, I don't dislike it at all," Shen Lie said seriously, "If I knew there were living people down there, I would probably go down there."
More importantly, he was holding food in his hand that he had specially asked his men to rush back to prepare.
This is food for her, how can he be soiled and soiled.
Looking at her slightly haggard face, Shen Lie lowered his head and took out a small paper ball from the bag, holding a piece of plum blossom cake in the paper ball.
Shen Lie opened the paper and handed it over: "You eat first, and I'll go out later."
