The strange story of Huai'an Inn

Chong Liu's repressed but strangely calm accusation, as well as those red eyes that will contain the frenzy that is about to erupt, like cold currents quietly penetrated into Zhu Helan's blood.

He opened his mouth to explain, but found that there was no room for explanation.

He has indeed made a contract with the Goddess of All Things, and when the locust tree grows up, he will leave, whether he wants to or not.

"Little Huai will take a long time to grow into a full body." Zhu Helan explained palely, "It doesn't want to grow up, maybe it will take many, many years..."

"Maybe just in the past few days." Chong Liu's voice became more condensed and alienated, "I saw your memories... a lot of memories. You originally planned to complete your mission. It's just that your eldest sister left you The next suicide note, let you live for another 100 years before making a decision, you have lived until now..." Chong Liu paused, his raised eyes glistened with unconcealable moisture, "I can't sleep these two nights, Calculate the time. According to the approximate time when you saw the suicide note in your memory, it was exactly 100 years ago last year."

Those memories... the memories that were disturbed and even leaked by the great witch, originally Zhu Helan planned to show Chong Liu bit by bit.He thought, he would explain all the past well, and Chong Liu should be able to accept those... the details he concealed.

But now the heavy six was even severely injured by the big witch, and his mind was extremely unstable, and those memories were dumped out of control...

Zhu Helan has been fidgeting for the past two days, just waiting for this moment.Wait for the heavy six to question him.

"You have not given up your responsibilities as the priest of the mother god...never have. For 100 years, you have died down, guarding the locust tree in the inn, secretly cultivating your believers, and developing them as your craftsmen. At the same time You are looking for, looking for the other two messengers of the main god. Because you know that only when the 'seeds' raised by the three messengers grow up at the same time, will it be possible to complete your true mission. Any single messenger, single seed, can only Temporarily disturbing the order, but it cannot disintegrate it." Chong Liu's tone was dry and emotionless, almost as if he was talking about something that had nothing to do with him, "50 years ago, you refused to help the innocent people because you knew that the time was not yet coming. I realize that exposing your ambition rashly will only bring disaster to yourself and Huaishu. Because you know that many of your former companions failed because they were too impatient."

Zhu Helan looked at Chongliu quietly, but the hand holding the spoon shards trembled slightly. The porcelain shard cut her fingers, and blood beads slid down her fingertips.

He looked at Chong Liu and said softly, "Liu'er, you have been with me for more than a year, do you really see me that way?"

"I don't know..." Chong Liu tugged at his hair, his absent-minded eyes couldn't find a fixed point in the void, "The you in your memory is different from the you I know... Tell me, which one is true?"

"You're right. When Zhu Lishuang just passed away, I wanted to take revenge...and it was indeed because of her suicide note that I temporarily hibernated. 100 years...is not a long time for me, but she let me It is the first time for me to forget my identity as the priest of the mother goddess and live for 100 years. I have this inn, and gradually I have people under my hands, craftsmen and guests who need my help..." As Zhu Helan spoke, she felt a bitter taste welling up in her throat, and her words became pale, "Time...maybe it is really a weapon to wear down any emotion, even hatred. I'm gradually... The rules have been reconciled, and a way to live in peace with alchemists and ordinary people has been found. Although 100 years have passed, I met you in the last year. I didn't know that you were the adopted son of Mr. Gou Chen... At most, I just doubted you Bai Xiaosheng's identity is nothing more than Bai Xiaosheng's identity. Liu'er, you are now mentally affected by the mulberry crow, and you may not believe what I say, but... I have never lied to you, nor have I plotted against you. I... really want to be with you life companion."

The last sentence seemed to be dug out from the deepest part of the chest, and the words were stained with blood.Chong Liu's consciousness, which was entangled and torn by countless suspicious thoughts, was also stung.

He buried his head in his knees, hiding like an ostrich.He hated himself for saying those words, he shouldn't doubt the shopkeeper...

But those thoughts that were out of his control filled his mind like a spring with the uneasy drumbeat, and the countless bloody and tragic pictures he saw in the shopkeeper's memory made him tremble all over.

How could anyone, having seen so much tragedy and experienced so much malicious hostility, not hate the world?If it was him...if he saw the master, the shopkeeper, Zhu Yi, Xiaoshun, Fuzi Jiulang, Master Liao and others being treated like that...what would he do?

But at this moment, Xiao Shun knocked on the door, "Shopkeeper! Song Mingzi is back!"

Zhu Helan took a deep breath, pressed all the emotions in his voice back into his chest, and replied calmly, "Understood, I'll be right there."

He worriedly looked at Chong Liu who shrank into a ball and swayed back and forth, took two steps, and carefully rubbed his hand on Chong Liu's arm a few times, "Liu'er, take a rest, I'll go back as soon as I go."

Chong Liu did not answer him.Zhu Helan sighed and left.

............................................................

Song Mingzi sat in the private room on the second floor of the lobby, pouring wine into her mouth one glass after another.The alchemist was supposed to abstain from alcohol and meat, but at this moment he couldn't care less.

He needed wine to dilute the crazy images that were swirling in his head.

As soon as Zhu Helan opened the door, he saw the Tsing Yi alchemist holding the wine pot and drinking directly to his mouth. The Taoist asceticism was thrown out of the sky.

"Are you alone? Where's your brother?" Zhu Helan asked while carefully closing the door.

Song Mingzi said, "I'll go ahead, he still has to deal with some things before he can get away. Didn't you hear that the emperor is going to appoint him as a national teacher. The Daluo faction is not small in the court, and at this juncture there is still a stir. A bunch of turmoil... these short-sighted bastards."

Song Mingzi obviously came back full of resentment, but there was something else besides that.

fear.

Zhu Helan sat down opposite Song Mingzi, and asked, "Why did Master Mengku die? Can you find out?" He was dead, lying on the bed soaked, with seaweed wrapped around his hands and feet. But even the teapot was empty in the whole room, and there was not a drop of water anywhere except him. The night watchman outside the door also said that he I didn’t leave the house all night, and the doors and windows were locked.”

"So...he drowned in a dream." Zhu Helan frowned, recalling the dream that the national teacher had told him.

In every dream, those strange and terrifying tentacles would get closer to him... The national teacher stopped using the copper basin made by the coppersmith for a few days, and was caught...

Song Mingzi lowered his eyes, and recalled seeing the corpse of the national teacher locked in the room for several days... The once elegant and handsome face was swollen, maggots crawled in the eyes, the body was swollen twice as much as before, and the smell Smell the smell, as if it can smoke your own internal organs.

Everyone was terrified and did not dare to go forward, only Master Jiuluan staggered a few steps and knelt down in front of the bed.

She didn't cry all the time, but the light in her eyes was completely extinguished.

"He is holding something in his hand, Master Jiuluan asked me to bring it back to you." Song Mingzi took out a round conch covered with barnacles from his arms and handed it to Zhu Helan.

Zhu Helan took the conch and examined it carefully.The thing looks like it's just been fished out of the sea, but it's clearly been around for a long time, giving it a limey touch.Between the spiral threads, there are some weird criss-cross patterns, which have never been seen on other conch shells.

"We don't even know how this thing appeared in his hands. His second disciple said that after Mengku Guoshi asked him to send the letter to Master Jiuluan, he didn't sleep for several days, day and night. Looking through the ancient books kept in Zhaqin Tianjian. On the last night, he carefully put on the best vestment, left a suicide note to all his disciples, locked the door, and never went out again. He slept At that time, there was definitely no such conch in the house. The second disciple is responsible for taking care of all his food and daily life, and he knows everything the national teacher has, so there will be no mistakes."

Zhu Helan looked down at the conch.

Did it come from a dream?

Things in dreams become reality...is it possible?

"There are more strange things." Song Mingzi took a sip of wine and continued, "The cause of the death of the national teacher was unknown, so I did an autopsy...At that time, I, senior brother, uncle Jiuluan, and several major disciples of the national teacher Mengku were all dead. On the scene, after the abdominal cavity was opened... his internal organs were still alive."

Zhu Helan asked in astonishment, "What do you mean?"

"They're all alive, but they're not viscera anymore. They're all... very strangely deformed, with intestines crawling out of their own way like worms, eyes growing out of their livers, and... three very small His lungs exploded, and thousands of fish eggs spewed out from them. And his heart... His heart was more than three times larger than before, and many beards grew out of it. We strangled Wu Zuo's neck, and if we hadn't reacted quickly, we would have almost died." Song Mingzi seemed to recall an extremely disturbing scene, and his body shook, "many of his muscles twitched from time to time, sometimes He would open his eyes and look at us... as if although he was dead, his body was still alive, even more alive than before, broken into pieces."

Zhu Helan was silent for a moment, imagining the scene Song Mingzi described, "Are you sure he's dead?"

"Very sure..." Song Mingzi hesitated, and said, "Because when we went, his brain probably crawled out of his nose. We found his brain on the beam of the house. It looks like It is as soft as jelly and easily deformed. It splits into several pieces, and each piece grows four tentacles, and four eyes hang from the end of the whiskers. There are also flat feet growing under the brain, just like a snail... row Climb the beams in a row."

The shattered brains, with their thin tentacles raised, slowly crawled in a row in the darkness... That kind of weird scene made Zhu Helan feel his head go numb.

"Did he mention the sound of drums in his letters or with his disciples?" Zhu Helan asked.

When the word "drum" was mentioned, Song Mingzi's expression became slightly stiff.He shook his head and said, "The national teacher didn't mention it," if there is no drum sound, then it probably wasn't done by the great witch.Perhaps Mengku and Mr. Gou Chen have been cursed since they set foot on the island that mortals cannot find and should not exist.

"But...you also heard about the madness in Gyeonggi?" Song Mingzi asked anxiously, "Has the news reached here?"