flagship summer song

Chapter 21 The Past

"You smelly dogs! Go away!"

That year in Nanyuan City was very cold, winter came very early, and there was a lot of snow, and when one stepped on it, the snow covered his knees.

As soon as Chen Yao came out of Lin's house, snowflakes began to fall in the sky. He remembered that his mother said this morning that he would go to the temple in the west of the city to burn incense and pray for blessings.

He looked up and saw that the snow was falling heavily, so he went home and took an umbrella, and went to the west of the city to find his mother. The west of the city is a place where poor people gather. He rarely comes here, but today he came here somehow. The snow is very thick. , there were very few people on the street, and he was about to fall when he took two steps. Suddenly he heard a dog barking from the alley. The girl screamed, as if she was about to pounce on and bite the girl.

He picked up the stones and threw them at the dogs. The dogs got angry when they hit the stones, and chased him back. Anxious and angry, looking at those vicious dogs, I lost my mind for a while.

"Wow!" The leading dog barked fiercely, and the other dogs surrounded him, leaving him no place to run. He held an umbrella and threw them at the dogs in fear, and one of the dogs rushed up and bit him. Umbrella, he saw the sharp teeth, and retracted his hand.

"Wang Wang!"

He hugged his head, but no dog jumped at him.

"Smelly dog! Go away!"

He heard a child's voice, but when he raised his head, it was the dirty girl. He found a broom from nowhere and hit the dogs one after another. Some dogs were beaten away, but some rushed up to bite the girl. The girl was hurting, and the broom hit the dog's eyes directly. The dog was injured and ran away quickly.

"Are you OK?"

He shook his head, seeing that the girl's leg was bleeding from the dog bite, he said anxiously, "You're injured! You need to see a doctor immediately."

The girl looked at him with wide eyes, then burst out laughing, patted him on the shoulder and said, "You are dressed so clean, did you come out of the city? We don't have a doctor here, this little injury is fine, go home Sir will bandage me."

He looked at the girl, only to find that she was only wearing a worn and patched thin coat in such a cold day. He quickly pulled down the goose down scarf around his neck and put it on the girl's shoulders.

"It's so cold, why are you wearing so little? My mother said you'd get sick from the cold."

"It's so cold, why did you come here? Aren't you afraid of being abducted? A child like you can be sold for a lot of money."

"There are still children sold here? Why do you live here? Wouldn't it be better to live in the city?"

The girl giggled: "Mr. said that the city will cost a lot of money, but we don't have any, so we can only live here."

"What were you doing? Why are those dogs chasing you?"

"I snatched their lunch," the girl took out a crumpled lotus leaf bag from her bosom, opened it but didn't know which store leftover glutinous rice balls, the girl handed it to him, he shook his head, feeling unclean, but the girl didn't care , said while eating: "I'm not like you, I'm hungry, and I eat everything."

The girl ate the last grain of rice in the lotus leaf bag, wrapped the lotus leaf, stuffed it back into her bosom, licked her fingers, wiped her body again, picked up the umbrella on the ground, patted off the snow, and handed it to Chen Yao. .

"It's good to go straight to Chengxi Temple. I'll take you there, so that you won't be abducted."

The girl was sweeping away the snow with a broom in front of her. The injury on her leg had congealed at some point, but it still hurt a little.

"How do you know I'm going to Chengxi Temple?"

"Does a child like you have relatives living with us? It looks like he was lost with his parents in the Chengxi Temple."

"I didn't get lost, I went to give my mother an umbrella."

The girl didn't care at all, she swung the broom left and right, blowing the snow flying all over the sky, even she was covered in snow, and one fell directly into the snow without standing still.

Chen Yao quickly chased after him, but the girl mischievously grabbed a ball of snow and threw it on Chen Yao's face, giggling, got up from the ground, and ran away before Chen Yao could fight back.

Chen Yao's mother was afraid that he would get sick from the cold, so she never let him play in the snow. This was the first time he had a snowball fight with a girl he didn't know in the snow, and his body was covered in snow.

The two children were chasing and fighting in the snow until they stopped at the entrance of the village. The girl pointed to the spire of the temple not far away and said, "Here, that's the Chengxi Temple. Go back quickly, and don't make mistakes in the future." .”

Seeing two snowmen under the tree at the entrance of the village, Chen Yao suddenly said, "Let's make a snowman too, bigger than theirs."

Children are always playful, and the girl thought it was fun, so she threw a broom and followed Chen Yao to push a big snowman in the snow. Thanks to the heavy snow this year, the girl rolled a huge snowball to make a snowman Chen Yao rolled a smaller snowman's head, and piled the small snowball next to the big snowball. When it was glued together, the two children "helped" the snowman up together. Then the girl remembered the broom and picked it up. Come back and put your hand on the snowman.

The girl looked at the snowman, and suddenly bent down to write on the snowman. Chen Yao stepped forward and asked her what to write.

"Signature, please write your name too."

When Chen Yao saw the girl wrote the word "渄", he wrote "远" next to it.

He looked up and saw the sun come out, thinking that it would not snow, he opened the umbrella and stuck it behind the snowman to cover the sun.

He left the village and looked back to see the girl standing next to the giant snowman waving to him, and he waved back, saying goodbye softly.

It turns out that we will really see you again.

……

"Xu Xuan!" Chen Yao woke up from the dream, and was slapped on the forehead by Taozhuang Master.

"What's the name, Ah Jing is sleeping, don't yell."

"Master Taozhuang," Chen Yao rubbed his eyes, only to see candles were lit in the room, Master Taozhuang handed him a bowl of medicine with a strange taste, and Ah Jing was curled up on the recliner, sleeping on the couch. With the coat covering it, Zhinu floated over with a look of shame on her face.

"Master Chen, I'm sorry..."

"He went to Hades Hall alone?"

"Ah."

"Girl Zhi, why did Banxian go to the Palace of the Underworld ten years ago?" Chen Yao picked up the bowl of medicine soup, and didn't care what medicine was in the soup. Surrounded by the faint brown medicine dregs, he murmured: "Ten years ago, I was ill. At that time, my mother and uncle were helpless. My mother sat beside my bed and cried every night. Suddenly one day I heard her whispering to me. The uncle said that he was going to ask someone to see, but the uncle disagreed, and the mother cried and said, "Even if he doesn't look at me, he still wants to miss Yao'er, Yao'er is still so young!" I can't remember what happened afterwards , my mother said that I slept for a long time, but God blessed me and kept me by her side."

Not long after that, my mother died.

Others said that he was brought back by his mother's life. Since then, his uncle has disliked him even more, and the servants who followed his mother have also begun to despise and alienate him.

"Miss Zhi, if you know what happened back then, can you please tell me?" Chen Yao got up and knelt down in front of Nu Nu.

Zhinu looked at the owner of Taozhuang, who put on a face of "it's none of my business", turned around and picked up a stool, walked to Ah Jing and sat down, watching Ah Jing sleep seriously.

Zhinu sighed. Banxian had already guessed that Chen Yao would think of what happened ten years ago when he woke up this time, and he had made up his mind not to let Chen Yao get involved again.

At that time Xu Xiaoxian wrote a spell on Zhinu's palm and said to her: "If he asks, you can take him to see it."

Zhi Nu wanted to help Chen Yao get up, but she was a ghost and couldn't touch Chen Yao, so she had to say, "Mr. Chen get up first."

Seeing that Zhinu was willing to tell the truth, Chen Yao got up quickly, but saw Zhinu turned into a wisp of golden smoke and flew straight into his eyes. He closed his eyes, opened them again, and returned to the west of the city.

It was spring at this time, and the snow on the streets had not yet melted.

A fast horse ran past him, he didn't have time to dodge it, he stretched out his hand to block it, heard the sound of the horse's hoof stepping across the bluestone street, but didn't touch him, he turned his head, only to find that he, like Zhinu, couldn't touch anything , and no one saw them.

Zhi Nu led him to follow the fast horse, and they could chase the horse like the wind. The person on the horse wore a bamboo hat to cover his face, but judging from his figure, he should be a woman.

Chen Yao recognized that person as his mother.

The place where my mother dismounted was a thatched house in Chengxi Village. The person who opened the door was a middle-aged man, whom Chen Yao recognized.

"Sir? My mother has seen Mr.?" He asked Zhi Nu, Zhi Nu shook her head and said nothing, just asked him to watch.

"Yao'er, Yao'er is sick, he is about to die, I beg you, please save him, I know you can ask the gods for medicine, no matter what I did to you back then, but Yao'er is innocent, I should be the one to take the blame..." The woman knelt in front of her husband and wept.

The sir just shook his head.

"Bai Yang! That's your son too, you're so cruel!"

Chen Yao stared blankly at the middle-aged man, but only heard him say coldly: "I don't know you, and I don't have any sons. You can go."

"I pay for my life. I trade my life for my son's life. Are you willing to cast a spell? I can pay for my life. It doesn't matter. I should have died long ago. I killed that couple. Damn it. I will trade my life for my son..."

"Mother..." Chen Yao watched the woman pull the sleeve of the husband like crazy, and kowtowed at the husband's feet. Tears fell suddenly. He stepped forward to help the woman up, but his hand fell from the woman's body passed through.

Unwilling, the husband pushed the woman out of the room. The woman sat on the ground crying in despair. Suddenly, a boy ran out from behind the house and walked up to the woman lightly with bare feet.

"Ma'am, are you really willing to exchange your own life for your son's life?" the boy asked.

"Of course I would."

"Ma'am, please get up, I can help you."

The woman blinked, looked at the boy who was about the same age as her son, and asked suspiciously, "How can you help me?"

"Give me your life, and I will save your son."

"You are not much older than my son, why do you say such things?"

But the boy ignored it and said: "Madam, please go back. Your son will recover within three days. Within ten days, someone will take your life. If Madam is not willing, it is too late to regret it now."

The woman didn't really believe it, but if she could, she wouldn't mind exchanging her life for her son. She wiped her tears and regained her senses, but the child was gone.

Seeing his mother riding back to the city, Chen Yao turned his head to look for the boy, and saw the boy climbed over the wall into the yard from the back of the house, looked around for no one, sneaked into the kitchen, and took out a small bag of white powder from his sleeve. , sprinkled it into a tea bowl with a gap, took the teapot, found pepper, cinnamon, star anise on the shelf, ground it into powder with a stone pestle, poured it into the teapot, brewed it, and then poured it into the teacup.

Chen Yao couldn't smell it, and subconsciously felt that the tea must be bad, but it would definitely cover up the smell of the powder.

The boy carefully walked through the corridor with the tea bowl, walked into the husband's room, put the tea bowl on the table, and called softly: "Sir, drink tea."

The gentleman frowned thinking about something, and when he smelled the tea, he frowned even tighter. He patted the boy on the head and said, "What are you doing, how do you drink this tea with so much pepper?"

"Try it sir, it's delicious."

The gentleman was annoyed, so he drank it without thinking about it. The taste was really bad. The gentleman stuck out his tongue, handed the empty bowl back to the boy, and waved him to go out. Don't bother him if there is nothing to do.

The boy ran out of the room with the empty bowl in his hands, the corners of his mouth curled up slightly, and he bounced back to the kitchen.

Lord Stove had already noticed the boy's every move, and when he saw him coming back, he poked his head out and shouted, "Boy, sir, you have treated you so well, yet you still want to hurt him, it's too vicious."

"Hello Stove Lord, I'm going on a long trip these few days, and the medicine can help Mr. sleep for two or three days. I'm afraid Mr. Stove will be hungry. Please, Stove Lord, fill Mr. stomach with some food from time to time?"

"where are you going?"

"Hall of Hades."

"Are you crazy? Only the dead go there, what are you going to do?"

"You don't care about me. Anyway, take care of Mr. Hao. I will feed you chicken legs every day when I come back." The boy waved his hand and drove the Stove King back. As soon as he fell asleep, he dragged his husband by the hand and carried him on his shoulders. After a lot of effort, the boy put him on the bed, covered him with the quilt, and closed the door lightly.

The boy checked the doors and windows of the house, locked the door, jumped out of the yard over the wall, and ran to the lower reaches of the Chengxi River.

The boy squeezed out two talisman papers from the left and right sleeves and held them between his hands. He said something that Chen Yao could not understand. The four talisman papers flew to the river in the west of the city, and the flames connected the four talisman papers up, down, left, and right, in the shape of a mouth, with a black passage in the center, and a blue will-o'-the-wisp leading the way in front of it. In the black passage, Chen Yao and Zhi Nu also hurried in.

Looking back, Chen Yao saw that the four talisman papers were burned out, the surrounding flames were extinguished immediately, and the passageway was closed.

"Xu Xuan, what are you going to do?" Chen Yao looked at the boy, feeling more and more uneasy.