Third watch

The village in front of me is not considered dilapidated, but it is also a little old. It is obviously daytime, but it is surprisingly quiet, as if there is no living thing.

The four of them were a little nervous, and the paper horse turned back to yellow paper after they got off the car. Except for Di Ting, no one knew where they were at the moment.

And Di Ting was placed in Wang Xiaoming's hoodie pocket, motionless, as if asleep.

Is this place the world or the underworld?

Could there be something hidden in the dark of these silent houses? Could there be unknown traps waiting for these outsiders besides the harmless silence?

Are Wang Dazhuang and the others in this village?

The last bit of heat left in Wang Xiaoming's body due to liquor gradually cooled down due to the gloomy scene in front of him.

Lu Xiaolu had put on his glasses a long time ago, the four of them exchanged glances, and were about to walk towards the village, when a small voice suddenly came from not far away, everyone's expressions changed, Zhong Yi took a quick step back, and put his hand into his pocket , secretly on guard.

The voice quickly moved from far to near, and Wang Xiaoming also squeezed the canopy ruler tightly, his heart was about to jump out of his throat——

Then a dusty electric car appeared in front of their eyes.

Wang Xiaoming: "..."

The driver, a young man with disheveled hair, was also surprised to see them and stopped the car.

"Who are you looking for?" The man asked with the electric car supported on his feet.

...Okay, with a slightly illegible accent, but it's Mandarin.

And although it looked a little gray, it was indeed a living person.

Wang Xiaoming felt relieved, Ye Xun had already walked forward with a smile, the two of you came and exchanged a few words, and Ye Xun backed away.

"This is Red Lantern Village." Ye Xun said, "Go in."

The young man looked at them curiously, then drove away in the electric car again.

I didn’t know it from the outside, but when I actually entered the village, I realized that there were still people in the village—whether it was the women drying corn behind the fence, or the old man sitting behind the door basking in the sun. When they saw the four of them, they were all curious. They kept looking around, and among the four, only Zhong Yi and Ye Xun had rich experience in going to the countryside, so they directly picked a black-faced middle-aged man who was repairing farm tools, and asked the village head where his home was.

The middle-aged man looked at them with some vigilance: "Where did you come from?"

Ye Xun smiled and said, "We are from Yunnan. Your place has beautiful scenery and nature, and it is the most suitable for collecting folk songs."

Middle-aged man: "What is the wind? There is no wind here."

Ye Xun: "No, art, do you understand art? We sketch here, show it to the leader when we go back, and reward us with big red flowers."

Wang Xiaoming and Lu Xiaolu: "..."

They didn't realize before that Ye Xun still had the ability to talk nonsense.

The middle-aged man hesitated for a moment. He didn't know what sketching was, but the leader understood: "Are you leaders?"

Ye Xun: "We are looking for your leader. Where is the village chief?"

The middle-aged man thought for a while, and yelled into the room in an unintelligible dialect. A woman with a child poked her head out. Seeing that she was a stranger, she immediately shrank back.

After a while, she came out again, and the baby in her arms just now was gone.

The middle-aged man said a few words to her, and the woman went out, saying to take them to the village head.

Zhong Yi and his party followed the woman for seven or eight minutes, and they saw a place surrounded by a low wall. There was a tall bamboo on the open space, and a red flag was tied on top of it. I thought it was a small village or something.

The village chief's house is near the village school. It is one of the neatest houses they have seen along the way, and it is also spacious. There is a concrete drying field in front of the door, and two small vegetable fields beside it.

The village chief was a thin and yellow old man with glasses, but he was very polite and let them into the house.

Ye Xun still took on the role of spokesperson, but everyone could see that this little old man was not as easy to fool as the middle-aged man just now, and Ye Xun stopped talking nonsense about the leaders, and only said that they went to the mountains to gather folk songs, and as a result The bus was broken down and they couldn't walk, so they were asked to walk down the road to find a ride. As a result, a few people playfully deviated from the road, and they couldn't find it again. They only bumped into Hongdeng Village.

The old man spoke Mandarin quite well, and after a round, he smoked a cigarette by himself: "The road is not far away, just leave the village and climb over a mountain. It's just that the road has not been repaired here for a long time, and you don't know the place, and you may have to go astray again. "

"We were also lost and scared, so we wanted to ask someone." Ye Xun said with a smile: "Walking is no better than taking a car, and several people can't do it."

The little old man turned his shrewd eyes around Master Bai in Lu Xiaolu's arms, but did not answer.

Lu Xiaolu coughed quickly, and was about to pretend to be pitiful and sympathetic, when a man came into the room again, and yelled as soon as he saw them.

"Hey, is that you?" Lu Xiaolu also called out—it was the young man he saw at the entrance of the village just now.

The young man with messy hair also smiled at him and sat down: "Where are you from?"

Ye Xun said it again.

"The road is far away." The young man said, "Seeing you like this, can you walk?"

Lu Xiaolu quickly hit the snake with the stick: "Yeah, I haven't walked so long before, and my leg is broken. I want to rest here before I go."

The young man didn't have the sense of alienation that the old man had, but was rather curious about them, asking this and that.

It turned out that he was the youngest son of the village chief, named Zhou Jin, who wanted to go out to do some errands just now, but the car ran out of battery, so he had to come back.

Lu Xiaolu was also an acquaintance, so he decided to start a relationship with him first. The two chattered for a long time, and Lu Xiaolu asked him: "What were you doing just now? Is there a town near here?"

Zhou Jin nodded: "There is a computer seller in the town. My computer is broken and I want to repair it."

The little old man dusted off the cigarette ash: "It's expensive to do that."

Lu Xiaolu said, "Why is it broken? Let me show you?"

Zhou Jin patted his thigh: "Can you repair?"

Lu Xiaoru compared to Wang Xiaoming: "Show him."

Wang Xiaoming used to be an otaku, and he lived with a computer all day except in class. Boys work hard on this aspect. After a long time, they figured out some tricks by themselves. When the computer crashed by the classmates, they usually go to Wang Xiaoming first. Take it out and fix it.

Zhou Jin's computer is a second-hand laptop. There is no major problem, except that there is too much dust and it does not dissipate heat, and it dies as soon as it is turned on.

There was Zhong Yi next to him, and there was always a shortage of tools. Wang Xiaoming quickly cleaned them up, and Zhou Jin was so excited that he wanted to keep them here no matter what.

The little old man was afraid that he loved his youngest son very much. Seeing that his son was happy, he had no choice but to find his wife to spread the quilt.

I just mentioned it to them, saying that people in the village recognize their lives and told them not to cause trouble.

"Eh? No network cable?" Wang Xiaoming returned the computer to him.

"Where is that in the countryside?" Zhou Jin was also a little depressed: "I downloaded the movie before I came back, do you want to watch it?"

Lu Xiaolu took a look and found that there were some old movies in it, so he said he wanted to go out for a walk, Zhong Yi didn't like to talk, so he left Ye Xun and Wang Xiaoming to talk to Zhou Jin.

"Come back?" Wang Xiaoming said, "Where were you before?"

Zhou Jin fiddled with his precious computer without looking up: "I work in a Dongguan TV factory, and my dad insists on me coming back."

"Are there a lot of people in your village going out to work?" Ye Xun said with a smile, "It seems that there are not many young people."

Zhou Jin nodded: "Many have gone out, but they are all coming back."

"Why come back? Isn't it good to be outside?" Wang Xiaoming was puzzled.

He didn't think the Red Lantern Village looked like it was rich in land resources.

"Who knows about them." Zhou Jin rolled his eyes: "The old man in the clan is out of his mind. If he insists on calling him back, he won't even have a girlfriend..."

"Do you have a girlfriend?" Wang Xiaoming acted enviously: "That's great."

Zhou Jin laughed at him: "You don't? I don't believe it."

"Girls are very demanding now." Wang Xiaoming said.

"That's true. But my girlfriend is very sensible." Zhou Jin said with a sad face: "My mother quarreled with me, saying that she would jump into the river when she came back, and asked us to break up."

"So serious?" Ye Xun was surprised.

"That's why they asked me to come back and said they wouldn't let me get married outside." Zhou Jin was indignant: "If I want to find one in the village... there are only a few families with surnames outside the village, and there are few girls among relatives, and they are not good-looking."

Ye Xun and Wang Xiaoming looked at each other: "Is this Zhou Family Village?"

Zhou Jin nodded: "They are all relatives. My dad is confused and insists on me going with my cousin, who is six years older than me..."

"Abduction!" a stern voice interrupted him.

The three of them turned their heads, and the village head stood at the door, half of his body was blocked by the wall, with a very ugly expression on his face.

"Liu Sheng asked you to borrow a car." The village head glanced at Wang Xiaoming and Ye Xun, then glared at Zhou Jin.

Zhou Jin got up muttering, told Wang Xiaoming and Ye Xun to continue watching the movie, and then left.

Wang Xiaoming smiled and was about to get the mouse when he saw Ye Xun's eyes move.

He froze for a moment, then looked back, the village head was still standing at the door, looking at them with straight eyes.

Wang Xiaoming's heart froze, Ye Xun had already said with a smile: "Cun Zhang, what's the matter?"

The old man remained silent with a sullen face, looked at them for a while, then turned around suddenly and left.

Lu Xiaolu was the most curious of the four. He followed Zhong Yi to the east and west. Although the Red Lantern Village was remote, it was special. He even regretted why he didn't bring his camera.

"This village is very interesting." Lu Xiaolu and Zhong Yi said, "The houses are all quite big, but people didn't see many of them."

Zhong Yi glanced at him: "What else?"

Lu Xiaolu was taken aback: "Huh?"

Zhong Yi put his hands in his trouser pockets, as if he was walking: "There are ghosts in this village."

Lu Xiaolu looked around nervously, and then whispered: "Of course there are ghosts, this is where the paper horse came."

Although he hasn't seen many ghosts in the village for so long, but it's daytime, and he can definitely see them at night.

Zhong Yi said: "...not this."

Lu Xiaolu said, "What is that?"

"What is different from ordinary things is weird." Zhong Yi also said in a low voice: "The house is big and many, but there are few people, it is a weird place."

Luban technique is the most demanding technique for the environment, so it has almost become Zhong Yi's instinct to observe the surroundings all the time.

Almost from the moment he entered the village, Zhong Yi had been observing—observing the geomantic omen of the terrain, the expressions and reactions of the villagers, and the unusual places.

Although he didn't know whether Wang Dazhuang and the others were in Hongdeng Village, Zhong Yi knew at least one thing, that is, this village must have secrets that are not known to outsiders.

"Don't you always want to call me Master?" Zhong Yi said to Lu Xiaolu lightly: "Tell me first, how many flaws have you seen?"