Can God let you do this?

It gets dark early in winter, and the Gu family's mother and son arrived at Zuinian Street wearing the stars.

Zuinian Street has been around for some time, its name is Street, but it actually covers quite a large area, the two of them are only at the intersection of one of the streets, and they have to go to the market center.

The center is a crossroads, and there is a memorial archway in the center of the intersection with the name of the street written on it.

There are four intersections where you can see the central archway.

Gu Nian used to slander why he put the name-marked archway in the middle of the street instead of the street, his grandfather said seriously: "That archway is the treasure of the town!"

It doesn't matter now.

When he saw the archway, he could still recognize it under the lights of the store at night. Looking at the dilapidated plaque, how could it look like a street treasure?

From the entrance of the street, the storefront buildings are all antique, with lanterns hung on the beams, and there are shops on both sides of the street. As soon as we arrived at the street entrance, we could smell the smell of old wine. festive atmosphere.

After noon, the market in the mountain of the ancient city gradually got a little humid. The snow crushed and collapsed the fragile branches and fell to the ground. During the day, it was covered by the forest and could not be exposed to the sun, and the snow could not be melted.

Fortunately, there were few people on the street, and the sanitation staff swept the snow into piles. Gu Nian stepped on it, leaving the marks of his sneakers.

Who doesn't want to be immersed in the sweet and honey-like taste of the New Year?But the actual scene made Gu Nian feel a little uncomfortable.Compared with previous years, there are fewer and fewer people.

Today, besides buying some wine, the more important thing is to buy new year's goods.

The fireworks in the night, the fog in the day, the hustle and bustle of the world.

The end of the year is approaching, and it is still somewhat deserted.If you hadn’t smelled the sweet rice cakes in the store, hadn’t had the hawkers pushing the dining carts in the store, hadn’t seen food and sesame oil being baked and fermented in the pot, and hadn’t met Uncle Gao in the neighboring courtyard selling candied haws and candied apples kind of stuff.

Just looking at the artificial lanterns hanging on the beams of the house, Gu Nian didn't feel the year.

In fact, there is only coldness here, which is the same as snow.

Immediately, he lost the interest in shopping for New Year's goods, and looked here and there.

I went to a store with my mother, and there was also a red lantern hanging on the beam of the door. The difference was that it was made of paper, and the other one was electric. He always thought that the electric lantern was ugly.

The dark red light of the lanterns in this house made Gu Nian a little uncomfortable - the paper lanterns in the Gu family were also red, but they looked much better.

Thinking of the two red dumplings he saw again, he thought: I really should let those two come over and shine some nice light on the lantern.

This shop sells pork, and the meat on the chopping board is bleeding and looks fresh.Gu's mother was picking meat, after all, she wanted to store some meat, Gu Nian stood aside and said nothing.

Just kidding, he can't pick meat.

The snowy season is colder, and Gu Nian's hands are the kind that tend to get cold, so this unruly boy had to put his hands in the outer pocket of his robe to keep warm.

He touched something that he stuffed in his pocket at some point, and took it out to see that it was a kit.A small one, with a few gold borders on the outer layer of gauze, which is embroidered, like a totem or some kind of monster.

This was given to him by his grandfather when he left the Gu family's yard two years ago.

At that time, Gu Nian felt that it was too delicate for a little boy to bring a bag. If he wanted to go to the city, it would be fine if his grandfather didn't keep him, and he would give him a bag.

He made a fuss about it for a long time, Grandpa Gu used the most ferocious and serious expression for so many years, and he asked Gu Nian to take it with him.He was obedient and took it with him wherever he went.

The kit was in his hand and waited obediently, Gu Nian thought: I am such a good boy.

I'm just bored right now,

He opened the kit, and in addition to his lucky money, there was actually a sewn interlayer inside, containing some round and soft lumps.

The kit had a scent, Gu Nian sniffed it closely, as if it contained not money, but candied fruit soaked in wine.

The scent was somewhat familiar, as if I had smelled it somewhere before.

"A Nian." Gu's mother shook him lightly, Gu Nian came back to her senses and looked up at her mother.

His mother motioned him to look into the store: "I was asked about you."

Standing in the shop was a girl in pink.

There are two ball heads tied in a white velvet loop, and she doesn't look much older than herself, with a little bangs.

Gu Nian had never seen the type of eyebrows before. It was like a brush dipped in brown ink had two strokes between her eyebrows.

The woman looked similar to her relatives in high school, she looked a bit like a cute raccoon dog, and she also had something hanging around her neck, a string of golden bells with patterns.

"Hello, how old are you?" The girl smiled, with small canine teeth on one side, she raised her hand and shook her palm stiffly from side to side.

Gu Nian looked weird.

Although the girl's big moves are no different from waving and greeting each other at school, but when it comes to her, why is she so inflexible.

Gu Nian didn't respond, and it wasn't that she hated the other party. She even felt that the girl's aura was not irresistible, but rather pleasing.

She reminded Gu Nian of the evil monster in her grandfather's story who used her good image to sneak into the world, so she almost shivered and hugged her mother's waist to hide.

The scene was a bit awkward, but Gu Nian was instinctive.

The girl was also taken aback for a moment, then pretended to inadvertently withdrew her hand and smiled.

It was she who showed half of her arm, and Gu Nian noticed that there was also a string of golden bells on her wrist.

None of them jingle jingle.

"My son is a bit self-conscious." Mother Gu embraced her son and smiled embarrassedly.Then, as if trying to ease the atmosphere, Mother Gu asked her, "My son should be younger than you, how old are you, little girl?"

The girl suddenly laughed,

"Me?" She approached the counter. "This lady, my age, is-big-yo."

Gu's mother suddenly pulled Gu Nian behind her. Although the girl in front of her was lovable, her tone was always a bit strange.Could it be that you want to kidnap someone by taking photos of Hanako?

"Hey, don't, auntie." The girl suddenly realized, she hurriedly grabbed Gu's mother's hand and looked at her, and said, "Don't get me wrong, I got confused after watching TV dramas recently, I'm not a bad person, I'm 16 this year That's all, sorry."

Mother Gu was also dumbfounded, and responded dryly: "Ah? Oh...oh..."

Gu Nian let go of her arms around her mother, and directly slandered: "It's too fake."

Standing aside and listening to a few words, it was nothing more than gossip, but the girl was excited, holding her mother's hand and talking non-stop,

Gu's mother's response was only a few modal particles, and her face was dull and empty.

Gu Nian felt that her mother was really not suitable for chatting, so she shook her head helplessly and turned her attention to this store.

Standing close to the sales counter, you can see some store furnishings, and an old-fashioned oil lamp is lit on the wall, which is quite bright.

There was some blood and flesh on the cutting board closest to his view.

In particular, there are some fat and oily beheaded roast chickens hanging on the wall.

Farther away, you can see more, probably the back kitchen. The back kitchen has a barrier covering the entrance, and a window is opened into the wall inside.During the day, the back kitchen cannot be seen, the windows are covered with a layer of cloth, and at night the back kitchen is lit, and the shadow is cast on the cloth.

A creature with long horns was chopping something. I don't know if the knife was not sharp or the bone was too hard, making a loud and heavy impact sound.

The sound was very regular, like the rhythm of beating watches in TV dramas, and in more detail, it was similar to the frequency of monks knocking on wooden fish.

Gu Nian stared at it for a long time, and felt a little weird. Ordinary people face the cutting board when chopping meat and vegetables. In this store, the wall is on the right side, the chopping board is on the right side, and the body of the meat cutter is also facing the right side. But a line of sight hit him straight?

There was no wind for no reason, and there was an oil lamp on the cloth, the wick was lit, and the flame flickered.

The sound of chopping meat stopped.

The blade got stuck on the bone, and the meat cutter turned around, head and body facing forward together.

It is indeed a creature with long horns, with horns growing symmetrically on the top of the head, but the lengths of the two are different. The horn on the left is relatively short, and the top is sharp as if cut in half by a sharp weapon.

The shape of the horns is reflected on the cloth with a shadow, Gu Nian has read it in the book, it is antlers.

A carnivorous deer.

A deer demon.

"What are you doing?" The barrier at the entrance of the back kitchen was pulled open, and a gentle elderly voice caught Gu Nian's attention, and he looked over instinctively following the sound.

An old woman came out from there, and the space of the back kitchen was exposed through the gap---it was pitch black, and Gu Nian couldn't see anything.

"I'm watching venison chop," he said abruptly.

The old woman walked under the light of the lantern, and it could be seen that she was not tall, but rather short and fat.

He was dressed thickly, but he didn't look like a modern person. A white robe with smooth fur was dragged to the ground, and a green hairpin was inserted in the bun.

There are not many wrinkles on the face, but the hair is completely white.

There is bright red rouge on each cheek, the shape of the lips is like that of an animal, the corners of the lips are raised on both sides, the distance between the upper lip and the human center is a little short, and the eyes are round and round.

It was the first time for Gu Nian to see this kind of eye shape.

Gu Nian felt a little strange about her but not very curious, he turned his head and looked at the window in the back kitchen again.

But the lights went out, and there was only a brown sackcloth covering it.

The girl and the old woman followed his gaze to look at the dark window. Gu Nian couldn't see their expressions, but heard them say like a repeater: "There is no such thing as a deer that chops meat."

It sounded like it was expected.

She wasn't looking at the girl, but Mother Gu seemed to have come to her senses. She murmured slowly, "Ah Nian, how can a deer chop meat? With so many people, you might be blind. The sound of meat, no one chops meat at this time, this kid."

Mother Gu took her son's hand by herself.

The girl turned her head and smiled at Gu Nian: "Yeah, this hour is not a good time to chop meat."

Mother Gu's frown deepened, she took her son into her arms, greeted the shopkeeper a few words, and then turned to leave.

The decisiveness of the behavior is completely gone from the blankness and emptiness just now.

Although she didn't quite believe her son's words, she also felt the strangeness of the shopkeeper.

Gu Nian silently followed his mother to go elsewhere, feeling even more strange in his heart.

He looked back, and under the light of the electric lanterns in the shop next door, he saw a fluffy tail growing out of the girl's shadow.

The old woman stared at him quietly with round eyes.

After waiting for people to go far away, a deer came out of the back kitchen.

"Aqiu." The deer demon untied a roast chicken hanging on the wall, and took a new knife to cut it carefully.

The woman in pink turned her head and saw that the other party had started to eat her roast chicken, and responded, "If you want to do it, cut it better, don't waste my meat."

The deer demon smiled: "Forget it, no matter when, the blade will be stuck on the bone."

Ah Qiu didn't intend to speak to him again, so he said to the old woman, "Thank you."

☆, past ③