flagship summer song

Chapter 13 The Water Ghost

According to legend, Zhuge Wuhou watched the stars at night when he was in Wuzhangyuan, and found that his main star was dim and crumbling. He knew that his fate would not be long, so he wanted to add 12 years to his life by praying for the Big Dipper. Marquis Wu's own natal lamp clearly kept burning for six days and six nights, and it was about to be completed, but it was trampled out at the last moment, and the red star fell, and the autumn wind was bleak on Wuzhangyuan.

Xu Xiaoxian opened the curtain of the carriage, looked up at the darkened sky, the seven shining stars were particularly dazzling.

The Taoist owner grabbed a handful of peanuts from his sleeve, peeled them and ate them, and asked, "You said that if the method of praying for blessings laid down by Marquis Wu had not been destroyed, would it be possible to borrow 12 years of life from ghosts and gods?" ?”

"How is that possible?" Xu Xiaoxian chuckled, picked up a peanut from the owner of Taozhuang, but didn't rush to peel it off, held it in his hand, and said, "I want to borrow 12 years of life by lighting a few broken lamps. Such a good deal."

"According to you, this method of praying for good fortune is to fool people?" Chen Yao was sitting in front of the cart and driving the horse. When he heard them chatting, he was amused for a while, so he turned around and asked, "It has been said that Marquis Wu's magic trick is useless if the method of praying for good fortune is useless." , how could he not know?"

"How do I know, sir just told me that," Xu Xiaoxian threw a peanut into his mouth, and said, "But using the power of ghosts and gods to do things usually doesn't lead to good results."

"What do you mean?"

"It's not profitable to start early. Those things are all elite profiteers. What you want to do is definitely not worth their price. In the end, it's your own unlucky luck." Xu Xiaoxian stretched himself, starting from Taohuazhuang to It had been several hours now, the carriage couldn't get up the mountain, so the group had to take a detour and walk on the main road. Although it was a long detour, the whole journey was smooth and smooth, but it took a long time, and both people and horses couldn't bear it.

Xu Xiaoxian squinted and saw the lights of the village not far ahead, and suggested to find an inn in the village to stay.

The horse pulling the cart had been running all day. It was supposed to rest when it reached the village, but it stopped before reaching the entrance of the village. No matter how much Chen Yao whipped it, it refused to go any further. Chen Yao got off the cart and went Pulling the horse's bit, trying to pull the horse away, the horse went crazy, neighing and jumping, and even the people in the carriage behind suffered.

The owner of Taozhuang flew out of the car, jumped on the horse's back, grabbed the rope, managed to stabilize the horse, and led it to a long way outside the village before stopping. At this time, Xu Xiaoxian crawled into the car unsteadily. When I got out of the car, I still felt dizzy and dizzy, my chest was so nauseous, I squatted on the edge of the field and retched.

Chen Yao walked to his side, grabbed his wrist and felt his pulse, but found nothing wrong.

Xu Xiaoxian supported Chen Yao's arm, regained his strength, wiped the sweat off his face with his sleeve, turned his head to look at the village behind them, frowned, and said, "It seems that this village is very unlucky. The beast is freaking out."

"Then what should we do now?" Taozhuang Master released the horse, walked to Xu Xiaoxian, and asked: "If you don't enter the village, you will sleep here tonight."

A gust of wind blew by, and the three of them shrank their necks. Xia Ye's insects chirped and chirped, but they could hear people's hearts empty, and they were extremely terrified.

"After all, this is not a place for people to live. Let's go to the village and find an inn." Chen Yao looked at the brightly lit village, which was much more reassuring than this wild place, so he dragged Xu Xiaoxian to the village.

Xu Xiaoxian didn't want to go at first, because he was jolted around in the carriage just now, and when he got out of the carriage, he smelled a stench, needless to say, it must have come from the village, but the other two didn't seem to smell it, so he couldn't explain it clearly , I just said it was bad luck, I retched for a while, and now I was unable to break free from Chen Yao, and wanted to ask the owner of Taozhuang, but the owner of Taozhuang didn't care much about where he lived, so he followed Chen Yao to the village.

Xu Xiaoxian stared at Chen Yao and said, "Chen Yao, you don't listen to me, what's going to happen after that..."

"Don't worry about it," Chen Yao didn't care to listen to Xu Xiaoxian's words, and completely threw away what he had promised.

The three of them walked into the village. It was already past the meal time, and the streets were deserted. There were only a few shops with lights hanging in front of them, but no one was there.

Chen Yao stopped in front of an inn with a half-closed door. Seeing the two lights in front of the door, the owner of Taozhuang frowned and asked, "Master, do you plan to stay here?"

"what happened?"

Taozhuang advocated opening his mouth, looking at Xu Xiaoxian who was covering his mouth and giggling, he didn't know whether to say it or not.

Chen Yao's brows frowned even deeper. Xu Xiaoxian was afraid that he would get angry, so he stopped smiling, and led him a little further away, before explaining: "The gardenia lamp hanging in front of the door is covered with a bamboo cover. It means that it is a place of love and moon, the young master should not have any hobbies in that area, right?"

Chen Yao couldn't help blushing when he finished speaking, but when he heard the owner of Taozhuang laughing, his voice echoed in the silent street, Chen Yao felt ashamed, and asked Xu Xiaoxian: "So I was ignorant, I don't know how the half-immortal knew about this lamp. Is there any meaning to this?"

This question obviously meant something else, Xu Xiaoxian didn't want to damage his reputation, he quickly pointed to the nose of Taozhuang Master, and said: "I haven't been there, he said it all."

The owner of Taozhuang stretched out his hand to avoid Xu Xiaoxian's fingers, and gave him a blank look, but he didn't refute, only urging to find another family.

They walked for a long time before they found a small inn that was open for business. There was a rag flag floating in front of the store with a few words written on it. It was too dark and no one could see what the words were.

The store owner is a thin old man with deep sunken eyes. A candle is lit in front of the counter, which sways when the wind blows, making the old man's figure longer and shorter.

Xu Xiaoxian looked at the wrinkles on the old man's face, and unconsciously wrinkled a few fine lines on his forehead.

With a sound of "da", the old man put two copper-yellow keys on the counter with his dead branch-like hands, and said in a gloomy voice: "There are only two rooms, thirty yuan a night, if you want both, you can count as five." Ten Wen, can the three stay here?"

Chen Yao turned back to look at Xu Xiaoxian, but Xu Xiaoxian was still looking at the old man, as if he didn't hear the words, Chen Yao called him, but he didn't hear either.

"I want both," the owner of Taozhuang stretched out his hand to take the two keys, put one in his arms, and handed the other to Chen Yao, then turned around and asked the shopkeeper, "Excuse me, is there any food here? Haven't had dinner yet."

The old man looked at the owner of Taozhuang, then at Chen Yao, and finally at Xu Xiaoxian. Xu Xiaoxian had been staring at him since entering the inn, and he didn't know what he saw, so he suddenly looked away.

The old man turned his head and said to the owner of Taozhuang: "Look at some young masters who are from other places. This place is barren and there are no delicacies from mountains and seas. If you don't mind, the old man will cook some home-cooked dishes for you."

"Don't dislike it, don't dislike it, please send the food directly to the room after the store is ready. I'm tired all day, and I want to take a shower first. Is there hot water here?" Tao Zhuang asked, rubbing his neck.

"Yes," the old man came out from the counter, hunched over his back, and walked slowly, leading the three people upstairs. Only when they got upstairs did they realize that there were only two rooms on the second floor of the inn, and the doors were facing each other. There is a big room and a small room. The old man turned his head, pointed to the key in Chen Yao's hand, and said, "This is the key to the big room."

The one in the hand of the peach farm owner is naturally the key to the small house.

After the old man finished speaking, he went downstairs to light the fire and cook. Chen Yao was holding the key, thinking about how the three of them would live in these two rooms, but the owner of Taozhuang had opened the door of the small room with the key and walked in. , turned around to close the door, and said to Chen Yao through the crack of the door: "I don't like to share a bed with others, so please take good care of the half-immortal, my lord."

After speaking, he closed the door.

Chen Yao sighed, turned to look at Xu Xiaoxian, Xu Xiaoxian shrugged, and said with a smile: "This is going to wrong Mr. Chen."

In fact, the large room in this inn is not much larger than the small room, but the bed is wider, so it is not too crowded to sleep two people.

Chen Yao looked around the room, although it was far worse than his own home in the Chen Mansion, but it was a place to stay, so there was no need to pay so much attention.

"Banxian, you just now..." Chen Yao turned around, but found that Xu Xiaoxian was gone. He walked out of the room and knocked on the opposite door. The owner of Taozhuang was taking a bath, humming a song while playing with the sound of water, Hearing the knock on the door, he replied displeasedly: "My father is naked, and I don't have time to open the door. If you want to come in, do it yourself."

Chen Yao's temples twitched, he turned and went downstairs, smelled the firewood, followed the scent to the back of the yard, and saw Xu Xiaoxian standing by the well, looking down into the well.

"Half Immortal, what are you doing?"

"Hush," Xu Xiaoxian pressed his index finger to his mouth, beckoned him to come over, then pointed to the well, and said, "Come on, come and see the water."

Chen Yao looked down into the well, the well was not deep, it was pitch black and he couldn't see clearly, but he heard a faint sound of bubbling and bubbling. He wanted to listen carefully, but as soon as he bent down, he felt a chill on his face , like the feeling of water droplets hitting the face.

"careful!"

Xu Xiaoxian pushed Chen Yao away violently, only to hear the sound of clattering coming out of the well, a gust of wind swept past behind him, Chen Yao subconsciously turned his head, and the old man in the shop who had been hunched over straightened up, with both hands He lifted up this big smoking iron pot and was about to throw it at them.

"Damn it," Xu Xiaoxian spat, saw a broom placed by the mouth of the well from left to right, quickly got it in his hand, leaned down, and directly poked the bristled end of the broom towards the old man's face, the old man yelled in pain , the pot of boiling water in his hand was poured forward, Chen Yao thought badly, so he quickly pulled Xu Xiaoxian's arm and ran away.

The water fell to the ground without spreading, and the movement in the well became louder. Chen Yao looked back, and saw a huge thing crawling out of the water, which looked like a human being, but had no face or body, like a person squeezed out of water. .

Chen Yao opened his mouth and was stunned for a moment.

Xu Xiaoxian didn't seem very surprised, but said to Chen Yao: "I told you that this village is not clean, if you don't believe me, it's over now!"

"...there are ghosts in this world," Chen Yao swallowed, then turned his head stiffly and asked Xu Xiaoxian, "What should we do now?"

"36 Strategies," Xu Xiaoxian pulled up his sleeves, and without waiting for Chen Yao, he raised his legs and ran out of the yard, but the water ghost seemed to have eyes, raised his hand, and pointed in the direction Xu Xiaoxian was running to shoot out a stream of water. Yao hurriedly grabbed Xu Xiaoxian's clothes and pulled him back. The jet of water brushed against the hair on Xu Xiaoxian's forehead and smashed the wall behind him before stopping.

Xu Xiaoxian looked at the broken stones on the ground, swallowed his saliva, a drop of cold sweat fell from the corner of his forehead, and he didn't dare to move his feet anymore.

Chen Yao saw that Xu Xiaoxian was fine, so he turned his head to look at the water ghost. The old man holding the iron pan beside him was gone. The iron pan fell to the ground, and the old man's clothes were pressed under it. Presumably, the old man was also dressed as the water ghost. of.

While looking at the water ghost, Xu Xiaoxian quietly moved closer to behind Chen Yao, and asked in a low voice, "Mr. Chen, where did you put that umbrella? Why didn't you take it with you?"

"Upstairs, who knows that staying in a shop can bump into ghosts." Chen Yao frowned, and asked in a low voice, "Why don't you ask your fairy grandfather, what are these water ghosts afraid of?"

"The fairy grandpa doesn't come to such an unlucky place, why don't you chat with it for a while, and I will go out quietly to find the fairy grandpa?"

"Xu Xuan! Do you want to use me as bait to escape by yourself?"

"Escape is counted as one, and I will be grateful to you," Xu Xiaoxian lowered Chen Yao's shoulders, and suddenly raised his voice and shouted at the water ghost: "I will burn more paper money for you during the New Year and holidays."

Hearing the sound, the water ghost shot another jet of water at them. Xu Xiaoxian squatted down next to Chen Yao's shoulder. The jet of water hit a pillar behind them, and the pillar broke from it. Falling down, Xu Xiaoxian dragged Chen Yao back to dodge a little, the wooden board happened to fall in front of them, Xu Xiaoxian took the opportunity to climb to the wooden board, stood up the board to block the front, reached out and took out a few talisman papers from his cuff, He bit his index finger and drew a few lines on the paper, and quickly folded it into a butterfly shape.

Chen Yao had seen these butterfly talisman papers before to scare away bats, but he didn't know if the water ghost in front of him would eat this set.

The last talisman paper Xu Xiaoxian folded a safe talisman, handed it to Chen Yao, and said, "Keep this in your pocket, there will be something in case later, it can save your life."

Chen Yao was stunned for a moment, then nodded slightly, and put the peace talisman into his arms.

Chen Yao: "What are you going to do with these 'butterflies'?"

"Ghost hunting," Xu Xiaoxian dipped the butterfly talismans one by one in the water drops from the water ghost, and the wings of the wet butterfly talismans fit together, like little bugs lying on the ground, but methodically moving toward the water. Climb in the direction of the ghost.

Seeing that there was no movement for a long time, the water ghost shot another jet of water at them. Xu Xiaoxian and Chen Yao hid behind the wooden plank. The plank was not high, and the two of them were almost lying on the ground. The half of the wood fell towards the two of them. Xu Xiaoxian was so focused on his butterfly amulet that he didn't notice it for a moment. Chen Yao looked up and saw the wood falling, and subconsciously threw himself on Xu Xiaoxian. The wood hit his waist, which hurt so much He almost fainted.

"Chen Yao!" Xu Xiaoxian was so frightened by the sudden pressure that he looked away. Hearing Chen Yao's heavy breathing, he knew that something was wrong. He immediately turned around and supported Chen Yao's shoulder, and stretched out his hand to touch Chen Yao's abdomen. A few large acupuncture points were opened, and the pain was temporarily stopped.

Chen Yao managed to regain his energy, and said, "You are really hiding something..."

"Shut up, if you have the strength to speak, it's better to move this damn wood away." Xu Xiaoxian tried his best to push the wood, but he couldn't move it. He swears, and suddenly shouted: "Master Taozhuang!"

No one responded.

"Damn it, I can't find anyone when I need help. Mr. Chen, are you okay?"

"Not yet dead."

"You are dead or not, your life was brought back by me, hold on for me," Xu Xiaoxian pushed the wood hard again, only moved a little, but still couldn't get the whole wood out of Chen Yao's body move away.

The water ghost attacked them again, Xu Xiaoxian suddenly thought of an idea, picked up a stone from the ground, and slammed it hard on the piece of wood that was pressing on them, making a bang bang sound.

As expected, the water ghost was fooled, and the next jet of water shot directly at the log. Xu Xiaoxian was afraid that the water ghost would hurt Chen Yao, so when the water ghost smashed the whole log, he turned over quickly to protect Chen Yao under his body, and poured water all over his head. Covered in sawdust and water, he was in a mess.

Xu Xiaoxian pissed twice and spit out the wood dust in his mouth, quickly helped Chen Yao up a bit, reached out and touched the spine on Chen Yao's back, but luckily it was not injured, he couldn't help but heaved a sigh of relief.

Chen Yao looked at Xu Xiaoxian's disheveled look, and smiled back: "Seeing that Banxian's skill has regressed, this peace talisman doesn't work."

"I said I was going to save your life, but I didn't say I was going to keep you safe from injuries. Besides, this minor injury will heal in a few days."

"That won't work, I want to return it."

"The goods are sold and will not be returned or exchanged." Xu Xiaoxian rolled his eyes at him, and quietly raised his eyes to look at the butterfly charms, which were already in their positions. In the five-pointed star position seen in the bamboo forest, the wings of the butterfly talisman gradually spread, and suddenly a mass of purple-red fire burst out.

All five pieces of butterfly talisman paper burned, and the wires of fire connected themselves to form a five-pointed star, trapping the water ghost in the formation. Chen Yao thought that since ancient times, only water can defeat fire. Can this fire butterfly trap the well water ghost?

"The coat of a water ghost is not water." Xu Xiaoxian had already got up from the ground, and while helping Chen Yao up, he looked at the water ghost. A string of flames fell to the feet of the water ghost, and a large fire sprang up from the ground. Now, the water ghost screamed in shock, but the fire burned more and more intensely, and the water ghost's figure became smaller and smaller, with white steam coming out of its head.

Water is invisible, and it needs to be covered with oil as a coat before it can be condensed into a human form.

Chen Yao stared blankly at the fire. Although he was saved, he couldn't help being frightened when he heard the water ghost's shrill cry.

The water ghost was quickly burned away, and the task of the five fire butterflies was also completed.

Chen Yao heaved a sigh of relief, but Xu Xiaoxian still frowned, looked upstairs at the window of the owner of Taozhuang, and asked, "What is the owner of Taozhuang doing?"

"Take a bath...then there won't be any in the water..."

Chen Yao and Xu Xiaoxian looked at each other, screaming inwardly, they hurried back to the inn and went upstairs, Xu Xiaoxian kicked open the door, only to see the owner of Taozhuang sitting on the bed shirtless, with a shirt wrapped around his waist. A towel, and a soft whip in his hand was wrapped around the neck of a long-haired woman, whose body was pinned down on the bed by the owner of Tao Zhuang, unable to move.

Looking at this scene, Xu Xiaoxian and Chen Yao felt that they had seen something they shouldn't have seen. Chen Yao coughed lightly, turned his head to look elsewhere, and Xu Xiaoxian even covered his eyes with his hands, muttering "Don't be rude." See.

The owner of Taozhuang raised his eyes and looked at them calmly. When he saw Xu Xiaoxian, he smiled back and asked: "Banxian, do you think this is my destined person? I was taking a bath when she came out of the water." Touch my face and kiss me..."

Chen Yao couldn't bear to listen, so he interjected: "Master Taozhuang! That's a water ghost!"

"I know, but this ghost is pretty, but it's too fierce, so I got into a fight with him naked, and that's how it ended. I was asking her something, but I didn't speak for a long time, half fairy It’s just in time, let’s take a look.”

"Who wants to see it!" Xu Xiaoxian shielded his eyes from looking at the ghost with one hand, dug in his sleeve with the other hand, threw a talisman to the owner of Taozhuang, and said: "The person who is destined must be human first! Hurry up and put the talisman on On the ghost's forehead, it will return to the place it should go."

The owner of Taozhuang sticks the talisman on the forehead of the water ghost according to his words, and suddenly a gust of wind blows, the owner of Taozhuang feels empty, and sits directly on the bed. The water ghost disappeared without knowing when, leaving only the head of the bed A piece of wet talisman paper.

Master Tao went behind the screen and changed his clothes, while Xu Xiaoxian went to take back the talisman paper. Seeing the soft whip by the bed, he remembered the dust that was covered with the whip when Master Tao took it out from the house that day. It has been hidden for a long time.

"Master Taozhuang, your whip was originally placed in a peachwood box?"

"That's right, my place is full of peach groves, so I used local materials, why?"

Xu Xiaoxian smiled lightly, looked down at the talisman paper that contained the water ghost, and sighed: "If it were an ordinary whip, I'm afraid the scene I saw just now would be reversed, Master Tao, if you go back this time, you may Thank you Taolin very much.”

Taomuyuan is a thing to ward off evil spirits. The soft whip of the owner of Taozhuang has been stored in a peachwood box for many years. Over time, it probably also has the effect of warding off evil spirits.

It's just that in this peaceful and prosperous age, how could water ghosts suddenly appear?

The ghost festival is over, and it stands to reason that the gates of ghosts are also closed. The King of Hades will also count the number of ghosts. Usually, ghosts are not allowed to stay in the world. Could it be that some blind boy missed it?

Xu Xiaoxian counted the days, there are still a few days before the end of the ghost month, but the haze over the northern sky seems to be getting thicker.