I have a weird dynasty

Chapter 81: Taking Shelter from the Rain at a Deserted House

The heavy rain had formed puddles on the ground, through which pale, swollen arms flashed.

Liu Tianyou tied the donkey cart aside and hurriedly ran up the moss-covered stone steps with the others to the eaves of Ming Mansion to shelter from the rain.

Kou Yushan stretched his head to look at the sky, "It's not just the clouds and rain, I'm afraid it will rain for a long time."

After saying that, he looked at the closed door behind him along with everyone else.

"Tonight, I'm afraid I'll have to spend the night here."

"Mom, I'm scared!" He Shouan shrank into Qin Fangru's arms. He Shouhui grabbed the strap of his bag and looked around in panic.

Sang Que embraced Xia Chan, and Xuan Yu also rubbed Xia Chan in her arms, telling her not to be afraid.

The people in Shihe Village were quite brave. The leader Shi Yong said, "That's better than spending the night in the wild. Let's make do here tonight and continue our journey tomorrow. We'll have plenty of time. Let's go in first."

After saying that, Shi Yong reached out to push the door, but was stopped by the two brothers from the Song family next to him.

Everyone in Heishan Village looked at Kou Yushan. He Baosheng said, "Don't be hasty. If you want to stay overnight in a deserted house, you must first ask the host for permission. You must be polite."

Kou Yushan skillfully took out three incense sticks, lit them, and held them high to his forehead.

"We were caught in a sudden downpour on the way and had nowhere to go. We kindly ask the host to take us in for the night. I apologize in advance if this has offended us."

Afterwards, Kou Yushan bowed three times towards the gate.

Everyone stared at the three incense sticks in Kou Yushan's hand. Sang Que turned to look at Liu Tianyou. Before Liu Tianyou could speak, Shouhou whispered an explanation to Sang Que.

"If the host disagrees, the incense will break. If the incense doesn't break, it means he agrees."

Sang Que was speechless. Under normal circumstances, how could the incense break by itself? If it really broke in his hand for no reason, who would dare to go in?
This method is um... very logical!

After Kou Yushan finished his worship, the three incense sticks were still burning quietly without going out. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and watched Kou Yushan holding the incense and reaching out to push open the half-closed door.

squeak - ah -

The friction sound of the old door hinges echoed in the silent abandoned house, and a ghostly draft blew out from inside, and a strong and intoxicating aroma of wine wrapped in dust blew in the face.

"Ahem, ahem, ahem, they are indeed a wine-making family. They still smell so good after so many years."

The blood crows flew away in fright, circling and crying.

As the door opened wider, everyone saw the courtyard inside. Most of the screen wall that welcomed guests had collapsed and was covered with thick moss. Wild grass sprouted out from the cracks in the bluestone bricks, looking messy and dilapidated.

The surroundings were filled with a large number of red flowers that looked like lily of the valley, but much larger than lily of the valley. The blood-red flowers, the size of clusters of cherries, swayed in the wind and rain, and the strong aroma of wine filled the air.

Looking closely, Sangque discovered that each small flower looked like a hideous and roaring human face. The slender petals swayed in the wind, revealing some rotting corpses of mice and small animals underneath, which made people's scalps tingle.

"Xuanyu, be careful with those flowers and plants."

Meow!
Sang Que gave a reminder, took out two square towels from her bag, and covered Xia Chan and her own mouths and noses to avoid inhaling too much strange smell.

Kou Yushan inserted three incense sticks into the gap of the rotten threshold, covered his mouth and nose, and took the lead to step over the incense.

Everyone followed his example and filed in, walking around the screen wall in the front yard and entering the reception room at the back.

The ground was covered with dead grass, the tables and chairs were broken and overturned, covered with dust and cobwebs, and the walls were covered with layers of damp water marks.

There were still tattered red lanterns swaying in the wind and rain under the eaves, and it looked like a wedding was taking place when the accident happened here.

There was an old plaque that had been chopped and burned on the ground, leaving an unfinished fire, indicating that someone had spent the night here before.

The reception room is very large, with four pillars. Although there are no decorative paintings on the walls, one can still tell of the Ming family's wealth fifty years ago from the scale of the house, the exquisite carvings on the pillars, and the porcelain fragments on the floor.

There are two small doors on both sides of the front yard, leading to different places in the Ming Mansion. There are also two small doors on the left and right in the reception room, leading to the main courtyard of the Ming Mansion.

At this moment, all four doors were closed and no one had the idea of ​​exploring.

Sangque remembered that Shouhou had told Ming Mansion that it was destroyed by a forest fire, but there were no signs of fire here.

Kou Yushan said to everyone, "Let's make a fire here and rest for the night. If anything happens at night, we must act in groups of two. Don't leave alone. It's safer for everyone to stay together. And try not to go anywhere else."

Everyone unloaded their bags and looked around for something burnable to make a fire.

At this time, the sound of hurried horse hooves came from outside.

Then, three burly men in black, wearing cloaks and straw raincoats, with flesh on their faces and swords on their bodies, rushed in.

They kicked the incense on the threshold, rushed across the yard, stepped into the reception room, bringing with them a cold and damp air.

Everyone was on high alert, retreating to the corners, protecting the women and children behind them, and watching the three men warily. The sturdy man in the lead took off his bamboo hat, revealing a full beard, and a knife handle wrapped in red thread was exposed at his waist. There was a ghost face carved on the top of the knife handle, and his murderous aura gave people a great sense of oppression.

He quickly glanced at everyone, then forced a polite smile, "We are all here to take shelter from the rain for the night, please do as you please, don't worry about the three of us."

After saying that, he took the other two to the other corner, picked up a tattered armchair, drew the sword at his waist, and chopped the armchair into firewood in no time to make a fire.

As soon as the leader pulled out the pitch-black straight knife, Sang Que saw a misty dark red aura on the knife. Xuan Yu whimpered softly, and Xia Chan also trembled all over, grabbing Sang Que's arm and shrinking his head.

Kou Yushan quietly reminded everyone not to let their guard down. Those three men looked like outlaws. They must have killed many people on their hands. They were born with a murderous aura, and the evil spirits didn't dare to approach them easily.

Sang Que thought that this might be what the negative heart lamp manifested. Killing people was stained with blood, and it caused fear in many people. The blood then turned into evil spirits, which could be manifested through the weapons they used to kill people.

Yan Daozi mentioned this kind of thing in his notes. There was a man who slaughtered an entire family just to make a weapon.

Sangque and his family still had the men gathered outside, while the women were in the corner, making two fires.

Everyone took out a dry biscuit they had with them and gave it to Zhao, the wife of Shi Yong from Shihe Village, asking her to heat it up for everyone to eat.

The men gathered around the fire, drying their rain-soaked robes and chatting casually.

"Liu Sanlang, why are you sitting so far away? Come over here and warm yourself up!" The skinny monkey saw Liu Tianyou huddled against the wall with his bag and waved at him.

Liu Tianyou was wet and his face turned pale from the cold, but he smiled and shook his head, indicating that he didn't want to go over to warm himself by the fire.

Shouhou and others thought that they were all rough people, and Liu Tianyou was a scholar who paid attention to etiquette, and they would not be able to communicate with each other, so they did not force him.

Sang Que was also leaning against the wall on the other side, using his "Resurrection" ability to mark the current time point, alerting himself to any unknown changes that might occur here.

Afterwards, she briefly calculated how much she had left to deal with unexpected situations.

The red candle for exorcising ghosts has only been used once, there are four ghost soldier talismans left, there are twelve exorcism talismans, a hunting bow, an iron sword, an ink fountain, a soul lamp, corpse mud, a drama face seal, a pig-killing knife and a corpse worm that can be used once, and two keys.

The Dao bell was no longer effective, so she had a chain mail and a copper coin inner armor that she temporarily wore on Xia Chan. She also bought an axe for Xia Chan at the inn.

Then there are Yin Tong and Yan Sheng Qian. There are now five hexagrams on the Yan Sheng Qian.

After this calculation, Sang Que felt that he was quite rich, and he also had Xia Chan and Xuan Yu, who were equally powerful as him.

Thinking of this, Sang Que felt a lot more at ease.

"Miss Mulan, here's the cake for you, be careful with the heat."

Zhao, who was in her early twenties and looked smart and capable, baked the biscuits and put them in her clothes pocket to distribute to everyone one by one. Sang Que nodded, thanked him, and took the biscuits.

The summer cicada was eating beside it, blowing air and looking very anxious as if it had been hungry for a long time. The mulberry sparrows fed it a lot on the way.

Seeing this, Sang Que stuffed her cake directly into Xia Chan's hand.

"Eat slowly and don't choke."

"Yeah, yeah, sister is so nice!" Xia Chan took a pancake in each hand and ate left and right, her cheeks bulging with food.

Sang Que was basically certain that Xia Chan's black hair was consuming food. Her actual appetite was even greater than that of an adult man. She would become stronger as long as she was full. When she was hungry, her hair would become soft and weak.

In the past few years, she had never had enough to eat.

"what!"

Zhao suddenly screamed, attracting everyone's attention. Even the three strong men in the far corner turned their heads to look over.

"What's wrong?" Shi Yong stood up and asked with concern.

Zhao was trembling all over and turned to look at everyone.

"One cake is missing!"

Everyone was confused and looked at the half-eaten piece of cake in their hands.

"Yes, we are all eating."

"Yes, there are only sixteen adults and one child. I just counted out seventeen cakes for you."

Zhao's face turned pale, "But I don't have it!"

As soon as the words fell, everyone present suddenly realized that it was not that one cake was missing, but that one of them...

One more person!

see you tomorrow~