spring flowers

Chapter 10
Outsiders only know that the burning site is a ghost land, and there are no traces of people, but they don't know that every year there are always a few people who are not afraid of death, rush into it, and then never come back.

It was the scorching June of that year, and three people came to the ghoul's house and asked him to go to Zhongshan for a walk.It was a big deal, and if twelve people were to be sent back to Yunling, the remuneration would naturally be quite a lot.He had also heard about the burning site. First, he thought it was dangerous, and second, it was strange, so he didn't want to take it.But the vicious woman at home made a lot of noise because of this, making the chickens and dogs restless, and even kicked him and his elderly parents out in the middle of the night, threatening that they would never return to the house if they couldn't do this business.He had no choice but to accept it.

He did not go alone, the three men also went up the mountain.Because they weren't sure if those twelve people were really gone.

Before entering the burning site, they brought food and water for five days, which was enough to go around a few times inside.With the lessons learned from the past, no one dares to be careless. Since entering the stone forest, they have started to make marks, but they are still lost in it.When they reached the place where Meilin and the others stopped, they finally found the person they were looking for, but they could no longer get out of there.And those twelve people had already turned into twelve mutilated corpses.Because the place is shady and cool, sunlight cannot penetrate, and the corpses have not yet begun to decompose, and the traces of killing and biting each other can be seen from above.That scene had a great impact on the four of them. The seeds of fear and despair were planted at that moment, and then gradually swelled and germinated in the following days.

On the third day, a person finally went mad and pulled out the knife he was carrying.The ghoul only knows how to punch and kick, which is not enough compared to martial arts practitioners who are both internal and external. Therefore, when the other two joined forces to suppress that person, they quietly hid.He knew that when he was with them, he might have died by their swords before starving to death, so even after the mad man calmed down, he didn't go out again.When those three people were looking for him, he went around the boulder to hide, who would have let him get out of there in a daze.What made him feel even more strange was that he found that he was not far from them standing outside that area, and could see their every move, but they couldn't feel his presence at all.

But no matter how he walked in the future, he would never be able to get out of the place he came to later.Before the food and water ran out, the three men were driven mad by the great fear and the gloomy environment.

After they died, he went to collect their remaining food and water, and it took a long time before he walked out of there with his not very clear memory.In the past eight years, he followed the previous method and used different routes to walk around the stone pillar countless times, but he still couldn't get out.During this period, countless groups of people came, and he was like watching a scene, watching them die in various ways before his eyes, watching their truest side exposed when facing death.Many times, for the sake of precious blood, he will also help them when they are dying.

Even with Mei Lin's indifference, he couldn't help swallowing after listening to his narration, a nausea rushed into his throat, and unconsciously hugged Murong Jinghe who was leaning against him tightly.

He didn't say how he got through these eight years, and they didn't want to ask.

"You are a mortician." She said, it was a statement, not a question.I'm afraid that only this special occupation can make him bear such great psychological pressure, and live in this dark place for eight years without going crazy.She asked herself that she couldn't do it!I just wondered why he said he knew some boxing skills, but he didn't know how to strike?

The ghoul bowed his head, acquiescing.

Murong Jinghe was actually better than the beginning, he had calmed down while the ghoul was telling his experiences, and his expression was calm at this moment, making it impossible to see what he was thinking.

"You didn't kill us last night because you wanted to bleed us after we were too hungry to move." He pointed out the ghoul's thoughts lightly. After all, with his current physical strength, he must not be sure to kill both of them at once. .Even if they could, their blood would be almost shed before that.That is undoubtedly a huge waste for this place without any water source.

The ghoul shivered and curled up again, the surprise and fear that were seen through the eyes hidden under the hair, but it didn't deny it.

Murong Jinghe nodded, and continued: "Go and eat something, and then take us around a few times."

The ghoul looked at him cautiously for a while, until he was sure that he had no signs of anger, then slowly straightened his body and stood up.

"I... have eaten today." I only eat one meal a day, and I only eat half a meal a day. Even so, I still feel hungry most of the time.

Of course Murong Jinghe didn't know how he was eating, but seeing his trembling body even when he stood up, he thought for a while and signaled Meilin to untie the rattan rope for him, and then let her carry him behind.

The ghoul was a little surprised at first, and then showed a grateful look, and tried to help Mei Lintuo Murong Jinghe from time to time during the walk, but he refused.

With someone leading the way, it is naturally much faster to walk.They returned to the place where the ghost had hit the wall before, walked out according to the route of the ghoul, and then circled around the place where the ghoul lived, until Meilin was almost unable to hold on before giving up.

"This is a natural chain formation." Sitting on the bamboo cart, meditating for a while, a smile appeared on the corners of Murong Jing and his lips, and a strange brilliance that had never been seen in his eyes burst out.

The two people who were originally silent because of his silence, couldn't help but cheer up when they heard the words, and looked at him expectantly.

Murong Jinghe signaled Meilin to bring a stick, Meilin looked around at the empty surroundings.Without thinking too much, she was about to pull out her dagger and cut off a bamboo branch on the bamboo board, when a white round stick was handed to her.The corners of her lips twitched slightly, but she quickly returned to normal. She thanked her with a smile, and then took that smooth jade forearm bone and followed Murong Jinghe's instructions to draw pictures on the black sand.

Seeing that the ghoul was not rejected, a look of joy immediately appeared on his face.

A strange figure composed of circles gradually appeared on the black sand. At first glance, it looks chaotic, but if you study it carefully, you can faintly feel that there seems to be some kind of pattern in it.

"This is the boulder layout where we were trapped before." Murong Jinghe simply explained, and then asked Meilin to count from the middle to the right to the third block and then fold up, marking birth in the middle of the fourth and fifth blocks Door.And outside the gate of life is the gate of death, "Death is the beginning of life, life is the entrustment of death, life and death go back and forth, and the cycle goes without a trace. This is a simple lost circle." , because things happened suddenly, and I didn't think about the situation at all.

"Can I go out?" Meilin was only concerned about this, as for life and death, at this time and place, there was really no leisure to discuss it.

Murong Jinghe nodded, but there was no trace of joy on his face.

When the three of them stood at the exit of the stone forest, looking at the sunshine and the lush bamboo forest, Mei Lin finally knew why Murong Jinghe couldn't be happy.They simply entered the stone forest from here, and now they are just going back the same way.It really is life and death, life and death...

Of the three, the ghoul is probably the happiest. He hasn't seen the sun for eight years. Although his eyes can't stand the sunlight, the joy emanating from his body is enough for the other two to feel.This kind of emotion is easily contagious, and after finally leaving that dark place, the two of them felt better.

Hai Dongqing on the top of the head is no longer there, probably because they lost their tracks, or Murong Xuanlie and others learned that they had entered the stone forest and decided not to follow them, so they summoned them back.

The three entered the bamboo forest and rested by the stream.Green bamboos are swaying all around, the scent of wild chrysanthemum and pine bamboo in the wind, as well as scattered grass seeds and plant seeds, the sun is like a CD through the branches and leaves falling on the body and the ground, everything is full of vigor and vitality.Compared with the rotten gloom in the stone forest, one is like heaven and the other is like hell.Not to mention ghouls, even Murong Jing and the two had such a beautiful feeling in the world.

The ghoul probably also knew that he had an extremely bad smell on his body, so he always stayed far away from the two of them, and then one of them ran away without paying attention.

The two of them didn't mind, knowing that it was useless to keep him.Meilin stacked several wide leaves together, bent them into a cone shape, filled Murong Jinghe with water a few times, took out a handkerchief to draw water for him to wipe his face and hands, and washed himself roughly before thinking about it. Go find something to fill your belly.

Murong Jing and Fei wanted to follow her, no matter how much Mei Lin promised that he wouldn't leave him, it was useless, Mei Lin had no choice but to drag a "big burden" around to look for food.

A wild rabbit was squatting in the grass not far away, watching the two people coming and not running away, while continuing to gnaw on the grass, while carefully watching their movements, it seemed to feel that the two people with limited mobility were not dangerous .

Mei Lin felt being bullied, she pulled out the dagger from her bosom, and smashed it with the sheath.Originally, she just wanted to scare the little beast, who wanted to survive, but she hit the rabbit's head all at once.I saw it tilted with a "snap", and it didn't even bounce its legs, and it just died out of nowhere.

Meilin let out a "tsk", happy.Even Murong Jinghe couldn't help raising his head slightly, looking at that unlucky little thing strangely.

Meilin carried the fat dead rabbit, and half-carried Murong Jinghe back to the stream. First, he gathered firewood and started a fire, then squatted down to the water's edge and started to clean it up.

When Murong Jinghe smelled the smell of blood, he couldn't help feeling nauseated again, and couldn't help but said: "I don't want to eat this." Maybe it will be a long time, and he won't be able to eat the smelly food anymore.

Mei Lin's hand was still inserted into the rabbit's belly, she stopped when she heard this, looked back at him suspiciously, then suddenly realized, and burst out laughing with a "puchi".

"I said, why do you have to follow him life and death? It turns out that you are afraid that the ghouls will come back and eat you."

Murong Jing and don't pay attention to her, but this is tantamount to acquiescing to her guess.On the contrary, Meilin was embarrassed to laugh again, tidied up the rabbits neatly, put them on the fire with thin bamboo skewers, then found a few bamboo shoots nearby, peeled off the shells of the bamboo shoots, and put them on the fire to roast like this.

Autumn bamboo shoots are not as good as spring and winter bamboo shoots, so if they are roasted tastelessly like this, they won't be much delicious, but they are better than nothing.

Meilin herself didn't have much appetite, but she was hungry, so she only ate two roasted bamboo shoots, but the deliciously roasted rabbit didn't move.So the ghouls came out of nowhere.

The ghoul was drenched from head to toe. Although it still had long beard and hair, it was much cleaner, its pale complexion could be seen, and the thick stench on its body had also faded a lot.It turned out that he ran downstream alone to take a bath, washed his clothes, and brought back a large handful of wild fruits.

Mei Lin was also polite, picked up those wild fruits and ate them, and did not forget to stuff them for Murong Jinghe, ignoring his awkward expression at all.

"Why didn't you go?" she asked.

The ghoul hadn't eaten hot cooked food for a long time, and he was not afraid of the heat, so he gnawed on the whole rabbit in his arms, until his beard, which had been cleaned with great difficulty, was shiny.Hearing Meilin's question, he muttered and gnawed two more mouthfuls, his eyes showed puzzlement, and he asked vaguely, "Where are you going?"

Mei Lin said strangely: "Of course you can go wherever you want." She remembered that he said that he had a family, parents and wife.Eight years away from home, wouldn't he be impatient to go back?

The ghoul was stunned, and the movement of eating slowly stopped, a little confused, "Didn't you catch me?"

This time, not only Mei Lin, but even Murong Jinghe were a little silly, they never imagined that there are such simple and straightforward people in this world.

"We still have to enter the stone forest, and you also want to go in with us?" Before Mei Lin could speak, Murong Jinghe asked with a smile.He didn't believe that this man still had the courage to enter that place again.

As expected, the ghoul's already pale face became even paler when he heard the words, and the hand holding the rabbit trembled uncontrollably.

"You...you still...you want to go back?" He stammered and asked in disbelief.

Meilin's heart skipped a beat, but she said nothing.

Murong Jinghe nodded with firm eyes.Of course he had to go back, not to mention that he still hoped to escape from Zhongshan from the stone forest, even the matter of the King of Tibet, he also wanted to find out.

The ghoul's complexion changes, sometimes frightened, sometimes dull, just like a blank sheet of paper, everything in his mind is written clearly.

Meilin suddenly felt that this person was not that scary, but rather straightforward and cute, and was about to open his mouth to help him, but was stared at by Murong Jinghe.She didn't know what kind of medicine he was selling in his gourd, so she could only hold back for the time being.

After a while, I saw the ghoul gritted his teeth, with a miserable face, as if he had made a decision to take his life, and looked at Murong Jinghe dumbly, "Of course... I want to... be with you... "After saying this, his eyes were red, and there was a faint glint of water.

Seeing him like that, Mei Lin's heart felt inexplicably sour, and suddenly remembered the dark factory.If it was her, she would never go back even if she was killed.

Murong Jinghe smiled lightly, seeming very satisfied with the answer.

In the end, Murong Jinghe didn't let the ghoul follow them into the stone forest, but asked him to take the jade pendant on his body and bring a message to Jingbei Palace in Zhaojing to hand over to Qingyan, and stay there to wait for him.

He said that he suddenly missed those two beauties from Jingbei, and asked Qingyan to take them to Zhaojing.

Seeing that he didn't mention his own situation, and didn't say where he might get out of the mountain, Mei Lin didn't stop him, but he couldn't figure out whether this person was really lustful or addicted to acting, and he couldn't forget his women even after he was like this.

Murong Jinghe ordered two things, one is that officers and soldiers are not allowed to take out the jade pendant when they go out of the mountain, and the other is that they are not allowed to say what they have seen him before seeing Qingyan.

Then the full ghoul walked away wearing his rag-like clothes, messy beard and hair, full of shock and awe of Murong Jing and his identity.

"Aren't you afraid that he will run away with your jade pendant?" Mei Lin asked while preparing what he needed to enter the forest again.As soon as the ghoul left, Murong Jinghe no longer insisted on following her at all times like before.

"Where can he go?" No matter where he escapes, as long as he takes out his jade pendant, will he still be alive?The only way out is to obediently go to Zhaojing to find Qingyan, and then stay under Qingyan's nose until he returns safe and sound.

Murong Jinghe replied casually, he was lying on the ground, a few feet away from him was a small blue wild flower the size of a fingernail, the slender flower stem supported the fragile flower cup, shaking rustlingly in the wind.The petals are like thin porcelain, fragile and transparent, as if they will shatter if touched lightly.As if some memory had been touched, his gaze suddenly became remote and misty.

Meilin glanced at him, and suddenly felt that after staying in the mountains for so many days, the alcoholic and vain air on this man's face seemed to have been purified, leaving only a pale and sickly face, which looked much more pleasing to the eye.Of course, she would not think that this pleasing to the eye might be due to a change in her mood.

After a little thought, she understood what was going on in his mind.From the previous temptations, it can be seen that the ghoul is actually a straightforward and somewhat stupid guy, even if he is willing to bite the bullet and follow them back to the place that is like a nightmare to him, he will definitely not run away halfway.Murong Jinghe must have taken a fancy to this and let him send the letter. This not only let Murong Xuanlie and others know that he is still alive, so he has to be scruples, but also sent away an existence that he cared about very much. It is like killing two birds with one stone. .

"You really know how to calculate." She mumbled without saying anything more.Since meeting, this person is good at making good use of all available resources around her, she should have gotten used to it by now.

Because of the previous experience, the preparations for entering the stone forest again were relatively complete. Not only did they spend some time weaving a rough bamboo mat, but they also made a few torches soaked in turpentine.In terms of food, in addition to wild fruits, they also brought a lot of cooked yams and wild potatoes, but they didn't get any meat.In fact, it wasn't just Murong Jinghe, but Meilin actually cared a little bit deep down in his heart.

According to Murong Jing and himself, he "knows a little" about Qimen Dunjia and various formations, so although the two people's subsequent trip through the stone forest could not be said to be smooth sailing, they were not trapped like the previous time.He said that the stone formation is natural, unlike the man-made ones that can be changed at will and have many mechanisms, otherwise he can't do anything about it.This kind of place is obviously not strong enough to trap the King of Tibet.

As soon as he finished speaking, he suddenly heard the sound of rotten wood cracking, and the foot of Meilin was suddenly empty, and fell straight down. Murong Jing and nature, who were half carried by her, were not spared.When it fell halfway, it was caught by a stuck bamboo cart and stopped for a while.However, the rotten wood could not bear the weight of two people and one cart, and it was broken into pieces, and eventually even the cart fell down.

The big pit that popped up suddenly was not too deep, and it was cushioned during the fall. The two of them were not injured when they fell to the bottom of the pit, but they were smashed by the falling cart and the things on it. , finally slowed down.

Meilin cursed in a low voice, pushed away the things on her body in embarrassment and got up, took out the torch she carried with her and blew it on, after a rough look, she found that the soil in the pit was not black, so she found a torch and lit it with confidence. Get up and stick it on the ground a little farther away.

After untying the rope around her waist and moving the cart away, Murong Jing and her bloodless face appeared in her eyes.

Closed eyes, unmoving chest...

Mei Lin was startled, hurriedly pushed away some sundries that were pressing on his body, carefully raised his upper body, put his fingers under his nose for a try, and only then breathed a sigh of relief.Then he pinched the person again, and gave water again, finally waking him up.

It turned out that Meilin was obstructed by the rattan rope of the cart tied around his waist, and Murong Jing and he fell to the ground before her. She, the cart and other objects fell on him one after another, so that he could not hit his back. It's strange to be too angry.

The bottom of the pit was about two people high from the ground, with a big belly and a small mouth, and a wooden board with a big hole could be seen on it, which was obviously used to frame people.It is simply impossible for the two of them to climb up in their current state.

Meilin turned around the bottom of the pit with a torch, and could see some weapons scattered on the ground. Three skeletons were found in the corner, one curled up into a ball, the other clutched the pit wall, Twisted into a strange posture, only one sits cross-legged against the wall, with a straight body and a golden-backed goose feather knife across its knee.Judging from the skeleton, this person must have been extremely tall and tall during his life.The only thing the three have in common is that their bones are as black as ink, and they are extremely weird.

"Ahem... help me over there." Murong Jinghe obviously saw it too, and endured the pain from being squeezed in his chest.

Mei Lin stuck the torch next to the skeleton before turning around to help him.

When they got close, Murong Jing and He just quietly looked around with their eyes, preventing Mei Lin from searching the bones.After a while, he pointed at the sitting skeleton with his chin, and said, "There are words on the ground, take a look."

Meilin looked intently, but found nothing unusual, but he insisted, she had no choice but to put him on the unfolded bamboo mat, and then lay down on the ground to scrape the surface soil.

The surface of the bottom of the pit is a layer of dust, obviously deposited over hundreds of years, just like those on the skeletons.Meilin only pawed twice, and when she really saw the scratches on the bottom, she couldn't help but lift her spirits, and her movements became much more agile.After a while, four characters painted on iron and silver hooks appeared in front of her eyes.The word is no more than the size of a palm, but it is vigorous and powerful, and penetrates several inches into the ground, as if it wants to engrave all the anger and unwillingness in the heart into it.

The thief hurt me!

Meilin couldn't understand the meaning of these words, but she could feel the resentment conveyed by them.She straightened up, turned her head to look at Murong Jinghe who had been staring at the ground.Not far away, he could naturally see these words.

Murong Jing fell silent.After a long time, he said to her, "Kowtow to him a few times."

Mei Lin was dumbfounded, "Why?"

Murong Jinghe smiled, but quickly regained his indifference, "He is the God of War, if you kowtow to him, maybe he will bless us to get out alive."

What he said made Meilin angry and funny, especially when he said it in such a serious tone, he couldn't help ironing: "Your status is noble, kowtow must be more useful than me..." Before I finished speaking, look at it immediately Seeing him looking at her like an idiot, he couldn't help but pause.

"You think I can...cough cough..." He obviously looked sickly, but his demeanor was enough to piss people off.

Mei Lin stared back at him, stood up, and while patting the dust off her body, said: "If he can protect us from going out, why are you stuck here?" Out of the pit.

"Then you kowtow to him for me, I owe you a favor." Murong Jinghe suddenly compromised.

This was the first time he had compromised since we met, and Mei Lin was so frightened that she almost wanted to touch his head to see if his brain was broken by the fall.

"Are you serious?" She resisted the impulse and asked doubtfully.

"Nonsense!" Murong Jinghe frowned, looking a little impatient.

Meilin thought about it, and felt that this was a good exchange of conditions. Although it seemed that he would not cause any harm at the moment, who would have expected what would happen in the future?

Thinking of this, she simply said hello, then knelt down in front of the corpse and knocked her head three times.He didn't ask him to guarantee it, and he didn't set up any written evidence, just because if he wanted to go back on his word, those things he held in his hand were just reminders.She bet on luck!

When she got up, she glanced at the man lying on his side, seeing the extremely complicated expression in his eyes, she didn't know where her mind had wandered.

"One day you won't regret kowtowing." Sensing her gaze, he came back to his senses and said calmly.

"That would be the best." Meilin muttered, ready to start finding the way out, but suddenly remembered something, so she paused, "Do you want to help him bury him?" She believed that the person had a deep relationship with him, Otherwise, with his identity and arrogance, how could he ask someone to kowtow on his behalf?It's better to do good deeds to the end and let him remember that love more deeply.

Unexpectedly, Murong Jinghe didn't appreciate it, and said indifferently: "Don't worry about it."

Meilin felt bored, picked up the torch, and went silently to find the way.

"The color in the opposite corner is a bit lighter." She stopped talking, and Murong Jinghe spoke instead.

Mei Lin hadn't gone far, Wen Yan turned his head to follow his gaze, in the dim shadow of the torch, there really was something different from the surrounding walls.Because of the relatively low position, she didn't notice it at all before.

Her heartbeat quickened slightly, and she couldn't help taking a deep breath before walking there quickly.

It was a stone, half a person's height, surrounded by dirt, no wonder the color was different.After getting close, Mei Lin touched it with his hand, feeling somewhat disappointed, but still unwillingly tapped it with the handle of the dagger, unexpectedly there was an empty echo, showing that the other side was empty.The disappointment that had just surfaced disappeared immediately, and she began to try to push it with her hands, but with all her strength, the stone wall remained motionless.

Meilin couldn't help but punched the stone wall to vent her anger, but in the end, she was the one who hurt.Just when she was crossing her hands in frustration, Murong Jinghe spoke again.

"You're so stupid, you don't know how to use a dagger?" His dagger cut like mud, and he didn't believe that she didn't know.Otherwise, when fighting against ghouls, the action of slashing the wrist will not be changed to hitting the mutton with an elbow.She must have known that if the dagger was slashed, the ghoul would sever its wrists.Soft heart is the weakness of this woman.

It's not that you're afraid of using up your dagger.Meilin murmured to himself, but because she was eager to find out what was behind the stone wall, she didn't have the heart to argue with him, she just pulled out the dagger sullenly, and first tried to insert it from the junction between the stone wall and the soil.

The blade of the dagger was about a foot long, and it felt like it was going to fail before it was fully inserted, and she regained her spirits.

Slowly cut along the edge of the stone wall, stone powder fell down, but the dagger blade was not stopped at all, and quickly cut a circle, pushed the stone with his hand, and heard a "bang", dust splashed everywhere , threw her head and face.

She didn't care to avoid it, and while waving her sleeves to drive away the dust, she coughed and looked inside.

A dark passage appeared in front of my eyes, and because the light was hard to reach, I couldn't tell how deep it was.She turned sideways and took the torch sticking next to it, and shone inside. It only covered a distance of ten feet in front of her eyes, but it was enough to see that there were neatly laid green bricks under the fallen stone slab, and some of them were smashed out by the stone slab. cracked.

Mei Linfa stared at this completely man-made thing for a while, and it was not until Murong Jinghe behind her couldn't bear to ask, that she came back to her senses.Looking back at him strangely, she said, "You said that the stone formation was formed naturally, so how could there be such a passage below?"

Murong Jinghe naturally couldn't see it, but she also heard something strange from her words, thought for a while and said: "You light another torch and throw it in."

Mei Lin came to her senses and followed her words.The torch thrown into the depths only dimmed for a moment when it hit the ground, and then returned to normal, and it did not appear to be going out in a short time.Obviously, the air in the channel is circulating.

No one knew how deep it was, Mei Lin didn't want to waste it, so she climbed in and took out the torch and put it out, and burned a few intertwined spider webs, leaving only one burning, and then returned to Murong Jing and her side Sit down and briefly talk about the situation inside.

Seeing her disheveled appearance, Murong Jinghe couldn't help laughing, and when she looked over in doubt, he hurriedly said: "It was probably built by someone later, and maybe it has nothing to do with the boulder above." Even though he said so, This time he wasn't so sure.

Stone Forest is man-made!This thought came to the minds of both of them at the same time, but was immediately thrown away.Murong Jinghe did not remember such a huge project recorded in the history books, while Meilin was worried about the passage that only one person could crawl through.She couldn't figure out who would build such a tidy path without letting people stand and walk.What worries her even more is that the width of the aisle is completely impractical for a bamboo cart.In other words, for the next journey, she not only had to drag Murong Jinghe, but also brought food and water, as well as a torch.

Obviously, no matter who it is, this is an extremely difficult task.

(End of this chapter)