When I walked out of the room in the bamboo house, I was greeted by a gust of breeze.
Xiao Yu smoothed her messed up bangs, tilted her head and stared at me with a faint smile.
"Have you thought about it?"
"I've thought about it."
We held hands tacitly.
"No regrets?"
"No regrets."
We held hands and walked along the cobblestone path towards the lake. At the end of the lake was the road into the mountain.
On the calm lake surface, there was occasionally the sound of small fish swimming at night jumping out of the water, and occasionally one or two cicadas were heard from the trees. The entire village fell into a quiet night.
"I hope everything is OK with them."
I took out one of the bamboo tubes in my pocket and handed it to Xiaoyu, who had slight dimples on her face. She wouldn't need this thing on this journey, and besides, she, a voodoo girl, was not a vegetarian.
After walking along the lake for more than ten miles, when we were about to turn onto the path into the mountain, a white lightning appeared in the lake. We stopped and knew clearly that it was the black dragon.
This time the black dragon did not jump out of the water, it transformed into a small black snake, floating on the water by the lake, staring at us quietly.
"Senior, please take good care of this place."
Xiaoyu saluted the black dragon. If there was any news, he would definitely bring it back no matter what.
The black dragon's body was suspended in the air. Xiao Yu smiled and said thank you, and then the black dragon's figure disappeared.
"What news? Is it so important to that god?"
Xiaoyu looked back at the village. Senior Black Dragon guessed that the ancient Miao village had information about its hometown.
In the clear night sky, the moonlight shines unreservedly on the ground, and the mountain road is not difficult to walk.
Xiaoyu and I were like a couple on an outing, holding hands and following the seemingly invisible path step by step.
"Can you find the way?"
A serious problem suddenly occurred to me. It seemed that none of us had ever been to the ancient Miao Village. Even Grandma Jian Shu had mentioned it and only knew its approximate location.
Xiao Yu shook her head and didn't know, but her natal Gu King Insect would guide her.
After waking up from his first deep sleep, Xiao Yu vaguely felt that the Gu King Insect in his body had an inexplicable connection with a place deep in the mountains.
During the journey before dawn, we slowed down and the moonlight completely disappeared. Xiao Yu held my hand and walked along the mountain road completely based on intuition.
I can't see my fingers in the darkness, and I truly understand the phrase, the darkness before dawn.
"Three steps away, take one step to the left. There is a small pit there. Two steps away, be careful of the rocks under your feet..."
In Xiaoyu's words, there is no difference between us and walking with our eyes completely closed. If it weren't for the King Gu bug in our body transmitting messages to ourselves from time to time, without any lighting tools, we could only stay where we are and wait for dawn.
There was a hint of gold at the end of the sky, and I looked at the mountains behind me. I had walked such a long way that night.
Passing by a stone cliff, we could faintly hear the sound of dripping water. Xiaoyu and I smiled knowingly, it was time to take a short rest.
"There are a few wild fruit trees not far away. The half-ripe fruits are not too hard to eat."
As for Xiaoyu's ability to know the surrounding environment very well, after seeing it all night, I wasn't too surprised.
The surrounding information is transmitted to Xiao Yu by nearby insects, or more precisely, it is transmitted to the Gu King Insect in Xiao Yu's body.
I picked some unknown wild fruits. The green wild fruits are only slightly larger than the glass balls and look like green apples that have been shrunk many times.
There is no sourness in the mouth as I imagined. It is slightly sweet and not much watery. When chewing, it feels like chewing bread, not like eating fruit at all.
Xiao Yu smiled slightly. In ancient times, hunters who stayed in the mountains all year round relied on wild fruits to satisfy their hunger almost all year round.
The wild fruits are different in each season. This kind of wild fruit is called a stick fruit by them, and it tastes like a corn tortilla when biting into it.
"Not to mention, this thing is really filling."
Eating a few wild fruits is as good as eating two big steamed buns at school.
The mountain spring water was cold and sweet. We directly held our hands and drank some of the mountain spring water dripping from the rock cliff. No wonder Chujiu always said that spending money to buy mineral water is a waste.
"After passing the mountain in front, we will reach that ghost place."
Xiao Yu pointed to a high mountain in the east where the sky was the brightest. Although she had never been there, she knew it clearly in her heart.
"Qin Feng, if they really force me to marry that person, what will you do?"
I was just about to blurt out that I would fight them desperately to stop it, but then I thought, it seems that I don't even have the capital to fight them desperately. Maybe in the eyes of those immortals, killing me is no different from killing an ant.
I shook my head, I don't know, this feeling is really extremely powerless.
Xiaoyu holds my hand. She will die with that person. Even if she can't kill him now, she will kill him one day.
"Anyway, I've died once."
Xiaoyu's words also revealed helplessness, and then she turned her head and stared into my eyes, saying word by word: You must live well.
"I've died once too."
Looking at the sun that is about to rise in the distance, as long as we survive the darkness before dawn, we will be greeted by the dawn of hope.
Some people say that if two people who only care about each other die together, they will definitely be together in the next life.
At this point, I just hope this rumor is true.
"fool!"
Xiaoyu stared at the increasingly brighter glow in the distant sky. He was really an idiot. We are all idiots.
At noon, the road on the mountainside where we were suddenly began to widen, enough for carriages to pass.
Looking at a few big trees in the open space not far away and a nearly vertical black stone staircase, I knew clearly in my heart that the top of the mountain was the ancient Miao village.
On New Year's Eve in Tuhai Village that year, my uncle told us the story of how he followed his master to the ancient Miao Village when he was a child.
The black stone staircase in the distance is exactly the stone staircase in the uncle's story where he failed to reach the ninth section after a great deal of effort.
I looked at the giant trees in the sky, imagining the scene when my uncle was young and leaning against the tree roots helplessly on the stone stairs, and I couldn't help but smile.
It is truly a coincidence that many years after my ancestor and uncle visited the ancient Miao village, I had to set foot on this stone staircase where life and death were unknown.
I cleaned up the overgrown tree roots and sat down against the tree trunk. My uncle must have had a headache just staring at the stone stairs for a while.
"Qin Feng, do you feel uncomfortable staring at the stone stairs?"
Xiaoyu closed her eyes tightly and shook her head violently, then sat next to me and leaned on my shoulder.
I stared at the black stone stairs again, and I didn't feel the dizzy feeling in my uncle's story.
I looked at Xiao Yu in confusion, and suddenly found that the weeds at the bottom of the black stone stairs had no trace of damage at all.