"What do you mean?" Yan Yan was stunned for a moment and looked him up and down, "Aren't you in the village now?"
"Why do you think I didn't come to the bonfire?" Bai Zhu looked at her with a smile, with a hint of endearment in his eyes.
The white candle outside the clearing she saw by the campfire suddenly appeared in Yan Yan's mind.
At that time, after taking two or three steps, someone would change next to her, and she was on the other side of the bonfire. To be honest, all she saw in the crowd was a white figure, and that person may not be Bai Zhu.
"It's me you see, but only you and Qingyu can see me." Bai Zhu saw through Yan Yan's thoughts.
"How did you do it?!" Yan Yan looked at him with twinkling eyes.
"It's just an illusion." Bai Zhu smiled and raised his hand to stroke the ends of her hair.
With Yan Jie's ghost power, this simple illusion can't defeat her.
"You are quite foresighted. You have predicted that something would happen during the dance?" Yan Yan raised his eyebrows.
Bai Zhu stopped laughing and said lightly: "I just don't want to dance."
"puff--"
When Bai Zhu looked at Yan Yan with sharp eyes, she quickly pouted and suppressed her smile.
The wooden house in Qianhuzhai is different from the mansions Yan Yan saw. There is a patio after entering from the main entrance, and the patio is surrounded by rooms.
There is a corridor in front of the main house, which runs across the entire wooden house, and there are rooms on both sides of the corridor.
The guest rooms where Yan and the three of them live are on both sides of the corridor.
Yan Yan didn't notice it when she was in the guest room. When she left the room, she thought it was night outside.
There are windows in the passenger compartment, allowing light to shine in, but the corridor is completely dark.
Except for the side rooms with windows, this kind of wooden house surrounds the patio, but unfortunately there is no gap on the patio.
As long as the lights are not lit, the entire wooden house is dark.
After leaving Qingyu's guest compartment, Yan Yan stood in the dark corridor and looked around.
"What's wrong?" Bai Zhu closed Qingyu's door.
"I don't remember where my house is." Yan Yan frowned.
It's really no wonder she didn't remember it. It was pitch black around the corridor when she left the house, and the corridors and doors on both sides were exactly the same.
She was able to find Qingyu's guest room because of Qingyu's breath, but there was no breath left in her own room.
"Go and stay in my room for one night first." Bai Zhu took her back to his room.
Yan Yan sat on the bed and looked at him with raised eyebrows: "You only want me to stay for one night?"
"There are still things to do in the underworld, how long do you want to stay here?"
Bai Zhu was serious, but Yan Yan found it boring. He turned over and lay on the bed, spreading his hands and feet, occupying the entire bed.
Yan Yan lay on the bed for a while and suddenly realized something was wrong.
"It's so bright today...isn't it a pity to use it for sleeping?"
The sunlight outside the window is getting more and more dazzling. Even if the bed is blocked by a curtain, there is still light coming in.
By the way, it’s not the time to sleep in broad daylight, right?
She was really infected by this village.
"Then don't sleep and go see what the people in the village are doing." Bai Zhu said.
Yan Yan looked at him strangely: "Aren't you going?"
"I will go to Qingyu's room later to check how his legs are doing." Bai Zhu raised his eyebrows slightly, "Is it possible that you are afraid?"
In the empty corridor where he couldn't see his fingers, Yan Yan fell into deep thought.
She is obviously a woman, so why is she the only one of the three who acts alone?
While thinking, Yan Yan pushed open a door.
The room was opposite the guest room where Yan Yan and others were staying. When she opened the door, she realized that there were no windows in the room.
It was as dark as the corridor.
Yan Yan has encountered too many places without windows or doors recently. When he sees this kind of house, he feels like he is in a coffin.
As soon as he entered the house, Yan Yu felt that it was colder than the bottom of the Yuan River.
After she opened the door, the heat from the corridor drifted in. Yan Yan didn't know what she was thinking, so he closed the door to keep out the heat.
Now the room was even darker.
Some people believe that she was buried in the coffin at this time.
Yan Yan was groping around in the room and reached out and came across a large piece of ice.
I felt back along the ice cube and found that the ice cube was as big as the bed.
Yan Yan was stunned on the spot.
How could there be such a big ice cube in a wooden house on such a day?
Moreover, there is no water vapor on this ice cube, and there is not even a trace of melting.
This made her wonder whether these were ice cubes.
She reached out and touched the ice cube and found nothing, but she could feel that there was something placed no more than a finger away.
Yan Yan raised one leg and knelt on the ice, feeling the cold air spreading from his knees along his bones to his whole body.
She shivered and continued to touch the ice cubes
This time I did touch something.
The ice is cold and elastic, and you can feel the bones inside when you pinch it.
——I don’t know if it’s a leg or an arm.
Yan Yan touched down and felt his fingers, and then touched up to see if it was a stump or a person.
Head, torso, legs, feet, everything is fine.
Judging from her body size, she is still a girl, probably a few years younger than Xing Zibai.
Yan Yan took back his hand and touched the girl's head again.
Ears, mouth, and nose are all missing.
Eye……
Yan Yan pulled back his hand suddenly.
The thumb twisted the remaining tactile sensation on the index and middle fingers.
She just touched something more elastic.
Yan Yan paused, then stretched out his hand again and touched the girl's eyes.
Or directly touch something elastic and spherical.
It's eyeballs.
Yan Yan pursed his lips.
The lying girl's eyes were not closed, and there was no movement at all when she touched her eyeballs.
Is this dead?
Yan Yan was puzzled because she didn't think this was a dead person just now.
I put my hand under my nose and looked around, but there was no breath.
But when she put the back of her hand on her heart, she could feel her heart still beating inside.
It was beating harder than the heart of her lawless incarnation.
She touched it for a long time, but saw no reaction from the girl, so Yan Yan opened the fire fold easily.
The weak firelight shone on the girl's face, showing her pale and stiff face, her eyes widened, and she looked at Yan Yan.
The girl's eyes seemed to be covered with a layer of fog, white and cloudy, like the eyes of a dead person.
Yan Yan looked at the "ice cube" under the girl. It was just a stone bed.
No wonder it feels cold to the touch, but it feels different from ice cubes.
Yan Yan raised his head and looked at the whole room, then narrowed his eyes and looked around carefully.
This house is actually a stone house.
Looking up, even the beams are made of stone. Her feet are on the ground, which is also paved with stones.
This made Yan Yan wonder if she lived in a wooden house.
Seeing that there was nothing unusual in the house, Yan Yan raised his head and planned to go to other rooms to take a look.
When she closed the door, she didn't notice that the girl on the stone bed sat up.
As soon as he went out, although the corridor was dark, Yan Yan could tell that it was still a wooden house.
"It's really strange." Yan Yan murmured to himself.
When walking through the patio, Yan Yan raised his head and looked up.
The patio is made of wood to form a nine-square grid, and wooden boards are placed on top to cover all the places where light can shine through in the wooden house.
The only thing she could see clearly was the circular pool under the patio, which was about the same size as the wellhead.
In the middle stands a lampstand, with a delicate candle burning on it.
I don’t know what kind of lamp oil was burned, but I could smell a strange fragrance while standing under the patio.
Yan Yan was in a hurry to check other rooms. He only glanced at the patio and continued walking along the corridor.
She stood in front of the house and did not open the door immediately.
If she remembered correctly, go right from the corridor at the entrance to the patio, and the first room belongs to the aunt.
Yan Yan was careful this time and slowly opened the door. The cold air still hit her face, so she closed the door again.
Just like the previous stone house, you couldn't see anything in the house. You only took two steps and you came across a stone bed.
This time the person lying on the stone bed was an adult, and Yan Yan reached out and touched it.
The limbs, torso, and head are all still there.
There are no shortage of facial features, and you can still reach out and touch the eyeballs at the position of the eyes.
After the first time, this time Yan Yan already had some confidence in his heart. After making sure that the person lying on the stone bed was not moving, he took out the fire folder and opened it.
"Ka-ka!"
The moment he caught his eye, Yan Yan closed the fire folder again.
Yan Yan blinked and opened the fire folder again.
The stone bed was awash in red, the color so bright it was eye-catching.
The aunt was still wearing the festive clothes she wore when dancing around the bonfire, but her face was scarier than the girl's.
The wrinkles on the aunt's face were illuminated by the fire, leaving distorted shadows.
His eyes were cloudy, and there were dots of firelight imprinted on them, as if there were many holes poked in the eyeballs.
There was no breath, no pulse, only the heart was still beating.
The house is just like the girl's house, it turns into a stone house as soon as you enter.
After that, Yan Yan checked all the rooms in the wooden house.
I only met the aunt and the girl.
When Yan Yan came to Qingyu's guest room, Qingyu had already woken up.
After she entered the room and took a look at Qingyu, she walked straight to the window.
"Is this evening?" Yan Yan asked.
Bai Zhu nodded: "You have been wandering around this room all day."
Yan Yan remained silent.
She just walked around the wooden house, and it didn't even take a day.
But the sky outside the window has indeed begun to get dark.
Yan Yan frowned and came to Qingyu: "I always feel like I drank fake wine here."
Everything seems like an illusion, but it feels very real.
After a hundred days of straining her muscles and bones, Qingyu broke both legs and will not be able to walk for at least a month.
"He has limited mobility, so he might be in danger here alone." Bai Zhu said calmly, "I'll leave it to you to investigate the affairs in the village by yourself."
Yan Yan: "..." Listen, is this human language?
Qingyu also felt that it was troublesome for the two of them, so she smiled bitterly and said: "It's okay, I just can't leave. Exorcising ghosts and catching evil spirits is not a problem."
Yan Yan raised his chin, "Hey, Qingyu said so."
Bai Zhu raised his eyes and stared at Yan Yan: "Are you really relieved that he is here alone?"
Yan Yan: "..." She is worried!
She and Bai Zhu are both black and white, and no one except Tiandao can do anything to them.
Qingyu is different. As a living person, if you accidentally become cold before you become an immortal, you will suffer a big loss.
"Then you go and check. I'm guarding Qingyu here." Yan Yan was unconvinced.
Bai Zhu nodded, "Okay."
Yan Yan was a little surprised when he heard this. He didn't expect him to agree so readily.
I thought he was just trying to be lazy again.
This made Yan Yan feel a little uncertain.
It was getting dark, the lanterns outside were hung up, and there were more and more people.
When Yan Yan was lying by the window, there were villagers outside who greeted her.
Seeing these living people reminded her of the aunt she saw in the stone house.
It looks human but not human.
Bai Zhu didn't say anything after listening to Yan Yan's talk about what happened in the stone house. When the aunt said that she had prepared a meal, she got up and left the wooden house.
"Hey, what's wrong with this little guy's leg?" The aunt came with the food.
It's Yan Yan's favorite spicy food.
As soon as the meal entered the room, the only smell of chili was left in the room.
Qingyu wanted to reply, but she choked on her food and kept coughing.
"I fell off the bed." Yan Yan helped put the food away.
"This won't work. I'll invite the doctor from the village to show me to you later." The worry on the aunt's face didn't seem fake.
Qingyu subconsciously didn't want to trouble her aunt, but she was choked to the point of difficulty breathing, so Yan Yan took the lead and agreed.
"Thank you very much, ma'am."
"It's okay, it's okay. Eat it quickly. It won't taste good after it gets cold." The aunt smiled and waved her hands, with a naive look on her face.
Yan Yan would never associate the aunt in front of him with the aunt in the stone house.
"Are you the only one who lives in such a big house?" Yan Yan asked.
Seeing that the aunt was about to leave, he quickly stopped her.
"No, I have a granddaughter. She got sick a few days ago and has been lying in bed." The aunt said.
"What's wrong with you? Can the doctor in the village look down on it?" Yan Yan took a rabbit leg and gnawed on it, "To be honest, my best friend is a charlatan, why don't you show it to your granddaughter?"
"It's okay." The aunt waved her hands, and the expression on her face changed for a moment, "Speaking of which, it's time for my granddaughter to wake up."
The last sentence was spoken very softly, as if he just opened his mouth.
However, Yan Yan and Qing Yu still heard it.
"Okay, when my sister wakes up, we can go out and play together."
The aunt responded with a smile.
After the aunt left, Yan Yan and Qing Yu ate their food in silence. The only sound left in the room was Qing Yu's coughing from time to time.
"This is too spicy." Qingyu frowned and said.
He drank all the pot of water on the table.
"Indeed." Yan Yan picked up a chopstick of rice.
The food was so spicy that even she couldn't stand it, so she could only use rice to suppress the spiciness.
"I'll go fill up the pot of water."
Yan Ji carried the teapot and went to the kitchen, where the aunt was eating.
The meal was the same as theirs, except that the aunt didn’t eat rice or drink water, she just ate vegetables.
The two spiciest dishes had already been eaten by the aunt.
"Auntie, don't you think it's spicy?" Yan Yan wrinkled his face, the same expression as Qingyu's before when he was spicy.
She found that the aunt also kept a jar of chili sauce on hand for dipping spicy vegetables.
Now Yan Yan finally understood Qing Yu's shocked expression when she was eating before.
"It's not spicy." The aunt looked at the food on the table, "Maybe the food here is spicy. If you think it's spicy, I'll put less chili pepper next time."
"Okay, thank you very much, ma'am."
Yan Yan left with the kettle and looked back before leaving.
A few dishes that were not spicy enough were thrown away by the aunt, who was lighting the jar of chili sauce with her chopsticks.
After the meal, Yan Yan and Qing Yu added two or three bowls of rice and finished the entire table with tea.
When Bai Zhu came back, he saw that the two of them looked like they had had a fight, with their faces red and sweating.
Hearing that they just had a meal, Bai Zhu looked at Qingyu's legs tied with bamboo poles and asked, "Can you eat spicy food?"
Qingyu choked.
Yes, what should I do if I get angry and inflamed?
"When a person dies, it's like they lose their sense of taste." Bai Zhu sat on a chair, "Maybe they can't taste spicy food."
"People... are dead?" Qingyu pursed her lips, "I can't see that they are dead."
The three of them couldn't tell the difference between the dead and the living.
"There is a heartbeat, but other than that, there is no difference between him and a dead person." Yan Yan said in a deep voice.
When they came here, they saw that the villagers in the village did not harm them, and even welcomed them more than the living people.
If he were a living person, he would have no breathing and pulse, and he would sleep with his eyes open at night.
But if you are a dead person, you don't need to eat what a living person eats, let alone those dishes that are not filling and spicy enough to be uncomfortable.
"When you went out, did you find anything?"
Bai Zhu nodded, "The people here are all corpses. The souls in the corpses are not corpse exorcists. They don't know how to raise corpses."
"Are their souls from their lifetimes?" Yan Yan wondered, "The souls of the dead bodies were submerged into the underworld?"
"Well, the corpse breeder will refine the soul of the corpse and integrate it into the body to nourish the corpse." Bai Zhu said.
"Then now the soul of the dead body has escaped from the corpse keeper and returned to the corpse." Yan Yan was confused, "They don't want to be a dead corpse anymore. If they want to be a living person, they will kill the corpse keeper?"
Qingyu frowned: "Dead corpses are people who died early, and their survival depends on the people who raise the corpses, but now..."
It makes me shudder to think about it. The things I have raised can in turn occupy the magpie's nest and kill the people who raise them.
"Then what should we do now? There are neither too many nor too few souls. We can't take away everyone in the village yet."
There are too many extra souls in the Yin and Yang Book, and Judge Wen might even ask them to send them back.
"Wait a moment." Bai Zhu only said one sentence, with an unknown meaning flashing across his eyes.
When it gets dark, the lights are brightly lit outside again, and there are singing and dancing.
Yan Yan also met the aunt's granddaughter.
The girl who was not lying on the stone bed looked very cute, with red hairbands tied around her two little braids.
Wearing a red coat and a red dot between her eyebrows, she looks like a New Year painting doll.
"Sister, this is big bone soup. Grandma asked me to bring it to this brother to replenish his body and shape." The girl's voice was crisp, "Sister, please try it too."
Yan Yan waved his hand and said with a smile: "I'll forget it, there's nothing wrong with my bones."
She really didn't want to drink bone soup made to taste like a corpse.
Qingyu smiled bitterly and took the soup bowl, not wanting to disappoint the girl, she gritted her teeth and took a sip.
"Ah Yao, are you sure you don't want to try it?" Qingyu took another sip.
Yan Yan narrowed his eyes and stared at him: "It's best that you remain the honest and well-behaved Qingyu you were before."
Are you now pretending to trick her into drinking soup?
"Yes, yes, you are still good. Try it, this bone soup is very good."
While talking, Qingyu added another bowl.
Yan Yan picked up the spoon and took a spoonful to taste.
"Yeah! It tastes delicious!" Yan Yan raised his eyebrows, and she gave Bai Zhu a taste.
Bai Zhu nodded.
Not bad indeed.
Fresh but not greasy, with a mellow aroma.
"Does this bone soup take a long time to cook?" Yan Yan licked the corner of his mouth and asked accidentally.
"Yeah." The girl nodded, "Grandma stayed up all day and all night."