"Is this the old lady who came to cancel her wife's account this morning?" Gu Chen obviously recognized her.
As a person with expert-level memory, Gu Chen can now clearly recognize a person who has been observed for more than five seconds and strengthen the recognition within a week.
got windy.
The garbage on the roadside started to look like it was flying in the wind...
The vegetable sellers loaded unsold vegetables onto small three-wheelers and left helplessly.
If it doesn't rain, the vegetable vendors might be able to sell for an extra hour.
But now, it's going to rain heavily, and if I don't leave, I'll be soaked in the water.
Many people do not bring rain protection tools, and this is the case for the old woman in front of me.
"How do you sell these vegetables?" Gu Chen walked up to her and asked her.
In the darkness, the old lady looked particularly haggard. There was only a flashlight beside her, and the light was very weak.
It can be seen that I usually use the light of the vegetable vendor next to me, but now that the vegetable vendor next to me has left, the place has become extremely dark.
The thin old lady hugged her knees with both hands, slowly raised her head and said: "Two yuan a pound, if you can get it cheaper, just buy the last bit."
"I want them all." Gu Chen reached into his pocket and found only a fifty yuan bill.
He knew that the old lady did not have mobile payment and could not use it.
The old lady moved very slowly. Gu Chen simply squatted down to find the bag, packed it himself, and then said: "No need to weigh it, the money should be enough."
"There should be about ten kilograms here. I'll give you the change." The old lady was very persistent.
"No, you've got the money." Gu Chen looked at the sky and said, "It's going to rain. You'd better go home quickly."
"Thank you for smashing it." The old lady spoke weakly and packed her things slowly.
After Gu Chen got up and left, he discovered that there was no one on the road, and the dry roads around him began to get wet with raindrops.
Soon, huge raindrops began to fall drop by drop.
Gu Chen looked back at the old lady worriedly. She was still collecting things there.
The movement... is still very slow.
Gu Chen no longer hesitated, turned around and ran back again, holding all the old lady's things in his hands, and said, "Let's take shelter under the eaves first."
five minutes later……
The rain was pouring down, and Gu Chen and the old lady hid at the door of the closed store, waiting for the rain to recede.
"Where are you from, old lady?" Gu Chen tried hard to find a topic to avoid this awkward atmosphere.
He found that if he didn't speak, the old lady wouldn't speak at all.
"Young man, have you ever heard of Liucun?"
"Liucun?" Gu Chen tried hard to recall this place. He seemed to have heard of it, but he didn't have a deep impression on it.
Judging from the old lady's accent, she must be a native of Jiangnan City, so Liucun should also belong to Jiangnan City.
After clearing his thoughts, Gu Chen asked: "Which town does Liucun belong to?"
"It seems that you don't know about the haunting in Willow Village." The old lady smiled and shook her head, as if there was something in her words.
Gu Chen chuckled twice: "Old lady, do you still believe this these days?"
When it comes to things like superstition, the elderly, especially the elderly, are still very superstitious.
But what she said about Liucun seemed to have happened in the past, but Gu Chen definitely didn't know.
"Liu Village belongs to Meishan Town and is still dozens of miles away from the center of the town. Our entire village is surrounded by a small river, blocking the road to the outside world."
"Then how do you usually come out? Don't you repair the bridge?" Gu Chen asked.
The old lady shook her head and continued: "Our place has preserved its original simplicity for generations. A hundred years ago, a large willow tree by the river was struck down by lightning and fell across the river. But since then,
The big willow tree miraculously came back to life, and its branches became a natural bridge for us villagers in Liu Village to cross the river."
Gu Chen became more and more excited as he listened, thinking that Liu Village actually had this meaning.
There are indeed many villages with stories like this in Jiangnan City.
Even some nameless villages, although they have little cultural heritage, will make up some traditional stories in order to get a piece of the rural tourism cake.
Interest is always the driving force for people to pursue trends.
But the old lady doesn't look like that kind of person, which shows that Yanagi Village is still a bit sophisticated.
"Then the tourism resources in your hometown... should be quite rich." Gu Chen began to imagine this wonderful picture.
You know, there are quite a lot of unique ancient villages in Jiangnan City, and Gu Chen also wants to find an opportunity to travel with his family.
"Well, it's quite good. Our village is a natural blessed land." The old lady said with great interest, but suddenly sighed: "But in the past six months, I don't know what's going on. It's been haunted a lot."
After saying this, the old lady sighed softly and said: "In the past, there were often sketching artists who organized groups to go on outings, but now the hauntings are getting more and more intense. Some people even say that Willow Village is a ghost village and that the willow tree is unlucky.
, we need our villages to move out collectively, otherwise everyone living there will die."
"Who is so boring?" Gu Chen said angrily when he heard this.
Who would dare to go to an originally good village if it is mentioned in this way? It is obvious that someone is spreading rumors.
"Young man, you are wrong again."
"Am I wrong again?"
"Yes." The old lady's haggard face looked very calm: "Willow Village is no longer suitable for human habitation."
"Why?" Gu Chen frowned and decided to continue asking.
"There is no reason. If you ask me why, I don't know." The old lady seemed unwilling to mention it.
The rain gradually became lighter, and some stray dogs passed by from time to time, looking for food in the garbage dump.
Gu Chen's curiosity about Liu Cun has become increasingly intense.
The natural curiosity for knowledge, coupled with the old lady speaking half of the words, is like a good variety show halfway through, and suddenly commercial breaks begin.
This is a kind of torture for ordinary people, but for Gu Chen, it is a kind of suffering.
"Old lady, can you tell me more about the situation of your Willow Village in the past six months? Maybe I can still help!"
The old lady thought for a long time, then gradually relaxed and said: "I also think your young man is quite good, okay, then grandma will tell you."
Gu Chen folded a sack and placed it on the steps: "Sit down!"
"It's strange to say." After the old lady sat down, she also pondered for a moment: "We have an ancient temple in Liu Village. Although it is a bit dilapidated, it has experienced hundreds of years of wind and frost. The dilapidated stone statue of the mountain god in the temple has always been blessed.
Keeping our peace."
"But I don't know what happened recently. In the past six months, small animals near the ancient temple have begun to die strangely. Usually when villagers go to the mountains to collect medicine and fruits, they will rest near the ancient temple. Children often also
Go to the ancient temple to hide and seek.”
"It's no longer possible. Anyone who stays near the ancient temple for a long time will definitely die. My wife has been cultivating wasteland around the ancient temple for a long time. Not long after those little animals died, he also passed away. Even the doctor checked For no apparent reason, everyone said it was the wandering spirits in the mountains that were causing trouble."
"So, since then, people in the village have not dared to approach the ancient temple at will. Some even say that after the willow tree fell, the ghosts that were originally suppressed began to act strangely."
"Moreover, many people in the village have become ill for no apparent reason. We often hear some strange noises at night, coming from the ancient temple. They are so scary that many people are scared away."
The old lady spoke very slowly and for a long time. After she finished speaking, she was still frightened, and even showed a look of shock on her face.
Gu Chen coughed twice and smiled to break the scary atmosphere.
It was originally a good chat, but why did the old lady start telling ghost stories?
Of course, is there another hidden story here? Gu Chen doesn't know yet.
All I can say is that the results will not come out until after the investigation.
If Willow Village is really what the old lady said, and a series of strange events occurred after the willow tree fell, it seems a bit nonsense.
Looking up at the sky, Gu Chen asked: "Old lady, where do you live now? I can help you carry your things."
"No, young man, I rented a house nearby. I usually order vegetables at the vegetable wholesale market and sell as much as I can. Anyway, I can't go back to Liucun, so you'd better go home quickly."
"Okay." Gu Chen looked down at his watch and saw that it was already very late, so he said a few words and turned to leave.
After returning home, Comrade Gu Baichuan and Ms. Xiao Xiaofang looked confused as their son walked into the house carrying a large bag of vegetables.
"Son, what kind of food did you buy? So much?" Ms. Xiao Xiaofang said she was shocked.
Even if my son likes to eat vegetables, there is no need to buy so many at once!
"I saw an old man selling vegetables on the roadside. I was running out of vegetables, so I just bought them all." Gu Chen also explained simply.
To him, it was a matter of effort, but to the old lady, it might be a matter of how long it would take to get home.
"Okay, let's put it next to the refrigerator. We won't buy meat this week and will only eat vegetables."
Comrade Gu Baichuan quit and said: "Gu Chen, looking at the good things you have done, don't you know how to buy some meat to take home?!"
"Okay, I will remember it next time." Gu Chen said and went to find clothes and prepare to go to the bathroom to take a shower.
Ms. Xiao Xiaofang quickly stopped her and said: "Don't let our son go shopping for groceries. This kid never asks about the price when buying groceries. One old lady is fine, but if there are a bunch of old ladies, he can turn retail into wholesale."
After all, the son is his biological son. Ms. Xiao Xiaofang knows best who Gu Chen is.
People bargain hard when buying groceries, but when Gu Chen buys groceries, it’s more like doing charity and he can’t afford to be hurt.
After taking a shower, Gu Chen's fatigue from the day disappeared. He sat in the room, opened the map on his mobile phone, and began to search for the location of Liucun, Jiangnan City.
That's right, there is indeed a place called Liucun twenty kilometers further north in Meishan Town, where we went to promote the law last time.
Liucun is surrounded by mountains and rivers, with primeval forests that block out the sky and sun, and towering mountains.
Judging from the pictures, the river here is spotless, like a fairyland fairyland, and the structural divisions of the ancient villages are also very particular.
Logically speaking, living in this kind of fairyland on earth, the local villagers should live a long life. Where would there be strange deaths?
"I must report this matter to Senior Brother Wang when I go to work tomorrow." Gu Chen frowned, opened the notebook, and recorded in writing what he heard from the old lady tonight.
If possible, Gu Chen is willing to go to Liucun to investigate the situation and see if it is really what the old lady said.
After finishing all the work, Gu Chen packed up his things and came to the living room to spend time with his family.
He knew that his parents were getting older day by day, and he could only say that he could stay with them one day at a time.
On the sofa, Comrade Gu Baichuan and Ms. Xiao Xiaofang were able to laugh like pigs while watching the idol drama about a domineering president from ten years ago. Gu Chen shook his head helplessly.
"Mom."
"Um?"
"Borrow the nail scissors in your hand so I can use them," Gu Chen said.
Ms. Xiao Xiaofang was absent-minded: "Why do you want nail clippers?"
Gu Chen narrowed his eyes and said helplessly: "I want to...slay the dragon."
"Slay the dragon?" Ms. Xiao Xiaofang's eyes finally returned to Gu Chen: "Can that gadget slay the dragon?"
