our supernatural life

The scenery on both sides of the car window moved back quickly, and Xiaomai stared blankly at the green mountains and green waters in a daze.This is his second trip to Lijiang.

"Let's eat something." Putting a box of lunch in front of him with one hand, this is Zhang Jingping, one of the grandsons of the Zhang family's outer branch. He is five years younger than Shao Jing and younger than Mai Mai, but he behaves very maturely and prudently. , this time he sent the wheat to Lijiang, and "connected with the Gu masters in Lijiang."

"Thank you." Mai Mai took the lunch box, but she didn't have much appetite.The box lunch on the train was unpalatable, not to mention that he was full of worries now.

Zhang Jingping sat down opposite him, looked at him for a while, then unwrapped a pair of chopsticks and handed them to him: "You can only do things when you are full, eat."

Mai Mai took the chopsticks and smiled gratefully at him.Although Zhang Jingping is in the same rank as Shao Jing, he is not in the same branch. Even in terms of appearance, there is not much similarity.Zhang Jingping didn't like to talk much, but he was the one who took care of Mai and took care of everything along the way - of course, the Zhang family might have already made arrangements, but Mai was still very grateful to him.

Zhang Jingping picked up a few green vegetables with chopsticks, and kept looking at the wheat, with a little curiosity in his eyes, and only then did he show a look suitable for his age.Mai Mai glanced at him: "What do you want to say?"

"Are you...really the one with the eldest brother?"

Mai Mai laughed: "Which one is that?"

"Boy friend?"

"Yes." Maimai replied bluntly, it was a soft sleeper anyway, there were only the two of them, and they were not afraid of being heard.

"Oh..." Zhang Jingping poked at the rice in the lunch box, "Grandpa is quite angry."

Wheat shrugged.Zhang Jingping asked curiously: "Aren't your parents angry?"

Wheat stirred the meal: "My mother passed away long ago. My father...don't know where it is."

"I'm sorry." Zhang Jingping quickly apologized.Although he is not from the Zhang family, the education he received is similarly strict.

Mai Mai smiled: "It's okay, it's been so many years."

Zhang Jingping said softly, "However, Grandpa won't agree."

Mai Mai still smiled: "I know. But it doesn't matter if he agrees or not. Although I also hope to be accepted by my family, in the end, it's a matter between two people."

Zhang Jingping didn't quite agree: "Grandpa disagrees, I'm afraid... Uncle Wutang made a lot of trouble at home because of Aunt Wutang, but didn't he marry the current Aunt Wutang in the end? Grandpa is the head of the family." , he has the final say."

Mai Mai's heart skipped a beat: "Uncle Zhang Wu?"

Zhang Jingping nodded: "Yes. I heard from my mother. At that time, Uncle Wu had just graduated from university and was going abroad to study violin. He had a female classmate who wanted to go abroad with him. In fact, he was his girlfriend. Grandpa Seeing the signs, don’t let him go, let him get married as soon as possible, of course with the current Aunt Wutang, it’s Grandpa’s choice.”

"Are you here to arrange a marriage?"

"At that time, it was more than 30 years ago. Aunt Wutang was actually pretty good. My mother said she was beautiful and well-educated. The best, he likes Uncle Wutang very much. But after all, Uncle Wutang didn’t choose it himself, so..."

"and after?"

"Uncle Wutang didn't leave the country, and he stopped learning the violin. He learned the flute instead. He said that the violin is unstable-you know that Uncle Wutang uses the power of music to tame charms. The violin is a string instrument, relatively speaking. It's a little too fragile. But my mother said that there must be some other reason why Uncle Wutang changed to learning the flute."

"I understand..." Mai Mai felt an unspeakable weight in her heart, "But, is there no one else to help him? Everyone thinks that he should marry someone he doesn't love?"

Zhang Jingping smiled: "Except for the first uncle in the lobby who married according to his own will, the following three uncles were all married during the Cultural Revolution. If they had chosen by themselves, the Zhang family might have been killed during the Cultural Revolution." gone."

"So everyone thinks your grandfather did the right thing? Uncle Wu's Cultural Revolution should have ended then? Should he still be sacrificed?"

Zhang Jingping's smile showed some vicissitudes of the world: "The branch of the Zhang family has always focused on the Zhang family."

"What about you? Do you have a girlfriend?" Mai Mai couldn't help worrying about the young man in front of her.

"I am not from the same branch. As long as it is not outrageous, grandpa will not interfere. In fact, after the incident with Uncle Wutang, grandpa has changed a lot. My mother said that Uncle Wutang had a lively personality before, and he can tell jokes easily." Laughing to the core. She just married my dad, and she was very nervous during the first Chinese New Year. Uncle Wutang told jokes to ease the atmosphere. But since he got married, he has become quiet. So grandpa didn't interfere much with the marriages of the following little uncles. But the eldest brother—his situation is different, he will be the head of the family in the future, and you are a man..."

Mai Mai rubbed her face and understood the young man's sympathy: "Well, thank you for telling me this, I understand. But, I won't let go."

"It's very difficult... If Grandpa just refuses to agree, are you going to spend it like this?"

Mai Mai smiled: "Yes. Look, I'm not a girl, and I'm afraid that I won't be able to get married after a long time. In fact, even if our parents agree, we can't get married, right? Then the old man agrees. It doesn't matter if you agree."

"But Grandpa won't let you meet."

"He can't lock up your brother forever."

Zhang Jingping thought about it, and said cautiously: "But you have to be careful. Grandpa asked me to send you to Lijiang. I don't know what it is, but..."

"Thank you." Mai Mai smiled and patted him on the shoulder, "I thought you would hate me too."

"No. Although the big hall brother seldom comes home, we had a good relationship when he was in school. You dare to come to Zhang's house, and you dare to take a table with grandpa. Several of our brothers admire you."

Wheat smiled wryly.Dare he yell at Zhang Shengyi, in the eyes of this group of young people, it turned out to be an act of a warrior.

Once the two of them started talking, there was no barrier between them. After all, they were both of the same age, so they hit it off quite well.It turned out that Zhang Jingping was going to Sichuan. After sending the wheat to Lijiang to be picked up, he was going to Sichuan.

"Sichuan Tangmen?" Mai Mai was so surprised that he could hardly speak, "There really is a Tangmen in Sichuan?"

"Really." Zhang Jingping laughed, "But they are not playing with hidden weapons. I went to learn herbal medicine."

"Study herbal medicine?"

"Yes. Doctors and poisoners belong to the same family. The Tang family's medical skills are very good. I'm going to learn this."

The train roared and pulled into the station.Both Xiaomai and Zhang Jingping had very little luggage, so when they left the station with light packs, Zhang Jingping looked around: "The person who picks us up will hold a red sign—" Before he could finish speaking, Xiaomai saw it, "Over there!" A red sign with Mr. Zhang written on it, and a pattern drawn next to it, resembling a coiled snake.Zhang Jingping pulled Mai Mai and walked over there: "That's the one. That pattern is the logo."

There were two men in their thirties who came to pick them up. For some reason, when Xiaomai saw these two people, he couldn't tell the awkwardness in his heart, and always felt a little disgusted.The older of the two men had a kind face: "Is that Mr. Zhang Jingping?"

"Yes." Zhang Jingping reached out and shook his hand, showing a mature and sophisticated expression that did not match his age, "Mr. Qi?"

"Yes, I'm Qi Ren." The man smiled and stretched out his hand to Mai Mai, "This is..."

"My surname is Mai." Mai Mai reluctantly reached out and shook his hand.When the two hands touched, the man's eyebrows twitched imperceptibly, but Xiaomai felt as if his fingertips were scalded by something, and instinctively withdrew his hand back, feeling suspicious.The man stretched out his hand to look at him calmly, and said with a smile, "What's wrong with Mr. Mai?"

This seemed unnatural to Maimai: "It's nothing, it seems to have been pricked by something..."

Qi Ren raised his hand to his eyes and looked at it, then smiled apologetically: "I'm sorry, when the weather is dry, my hands are prone to cracks and burrs, did they hurt you?"

Wheat nodded vaguely.Qi Ren smiled: "Then get in the car, we will drive there now, we can stay in the ancient city before dark, and go into the mountains tomorrow. Put your luggage in the trunk."

The young man next to him reached out to pick up the box, but Mai Mai politely said, "We'll do it ourselves." Pulling Zhang Jingping to the rear of the car, he opened the trunk and whispered, "I think something's wrong."

Zhang Jingping was slightly taken aback: "Why—"

Mai Mai frowned: "I can't tell, anyway, I don't think these two people seem like good people, especially this Qi Ren."

Zhang Jingping laughed: "It was sent by someone my grandpa knew, and the name matches, so nothing will happen. Besides, even if grandpa wants to harm you, I will always be from the Zhang family. I won't even want me." right?"

Mai Mai thinks this is reasonable, and he feels that although Zhang Shengyi definitely doesn't like him being with Shao Jing, he won't commit murder, but that strange resentment just doesn't go away, and there is also the burning sensation when shaking hands.

"Is there anything wrong with your shaking hands with him?"

"No..." Zhang Jingping was puzzled, "What's wrong?"

"...Nothing, maybe I made a mistake..."

"You two?" Qi Ren stood at the car door and greeted, "Are you ready? We have to hurry today."

"Okay." Zhang Jingping closed the trunk, walked over with Mai, and got into the car.The young man who had been silent all the time was driving, and Qi Ren sat in the passenger seat, turning around from time to time to explain the surrounding scenery to them.He speaks very funny and eloquently, with all kinds of allusions and anecdotes at his fingertips, which is better than professional tour guides.But Mai Mai felt more and more uncomfortable the more she sat, and always felt that the smell in the car was a bit strange.

The car is an SUV, and there is a perfume. The light and elegant mint smell should be refreshing, but after smelling the wheat, I always feel that the mint smell is not right. It seems to have a fishy smell. When I smell it carefully, I can’t smell it. Come out, but once in a while, I feel a fishy smell coming out.While fidgeting, the body of the car suddenly jerked, causing Mai almost to jump up, and then stopped suddenly.

Qi Ren also seemed to be shocked: "Xiao Xin, what's going on?"

The young man named Xiaoxin remained silent, opened the car door and got out.Qi Ren also got out of the car, and Mai Mai took the opportunity to ask Zhang Jingping in a low voice: "Do you feel a fishy smell in this car?"

Zhang Jingping was startled: "You smelled it too? Your sense of smell is very sensitive!"

"Why is there a fishy smell in this car?"

"Maybe you pretended to be something..." Zhang Jingping's expression became a little serious now, "Could it be that grandpa asked you to find someone who made Gu?"

"That's right." Mai Mai was surprised, "Could it be the smell of Gu?"

"Really?" It was Zhang Jingping's turn to be surprised this time, "No wonder the surname is Qi...why did Grandpa let you go to the Gu Master's family?"

"What's wrong with Gu Master?" Mai Mai was a little confused, "I'm here to renew my life. Is this smell the smell of Gu?"

"Gu is made of various poisonous insects, and poisonous insects have a poisonous smell. I have studied herbal medicine and have been in contact with many poisonous insects, so I can smell it. But using Gu to extend life is a very clever Gu master... so to speak , did Grandpa promise to you and the eldest brother?"

Mai Mai's intuition would not be such a good thing, but now he is more disturbed by this Qi Ren: "I always feel uneasy..."

Zhang Jingping felt relieved: "I was a little worried just now, so grandpa just sent you to find a Gu master, that's okay. Now the most prosperous family of Gu masters is the Qi family, this Qi Ren must also belong to the family."

Hearing this, Mai Mai felt a little more at ease.Suddenly I heard Qi Ren raise his voice a little outside the car: "It's broken? When will it be fixed?"

He didn't hear Xiaoxin's answer, and after a few minutes, Qi Ren got into the car with a sullen face, and smiled apologetically at Maimai and Zhang Jingping: "The car is broken. Xiaoxin didn't check it before going out. I'm afraid it will take an hour or two to fix it. Today I won’t be able to reach the ancient city at night. But I’m familiar with the hotels along the way here, so I don’t have to worry about having no place to stay. I can go directly into the mountains tomorrow, so it won’t waste much time.”

Hearing what he said, Mai Mai felt uneasy again.Qi Ren leaned on the back seat and slowly chatted with them, Zhang Jingping talked to him more, but Mai Mai didn't talk much.It took more than two hours for Xiaoxin to climb into the car and restart the car. Sure enough, after driving for a long time, the sky darkened and Xiaoxin automatically turned off the road. Qi Ren explained: "Go to the front and stay overnight. .”

There is a small village under the road, and it doesn't look like there are many families, so it is very quiet.Xiaoxin drove the car directly to a private house, and a woman in national costume came out. Qi Ren smiled and introduced: "This is Shuihua girl, you can call it Shuihua, lady boss. Her room is clean, although it is a small place, It also often receives tourists, and everything is complete.”

Mai Mai and Qi Jingping greeted each other. Shuihuamei was only in her early thirties, with a pungent beauty, she took people to the guest room in a gust of wind, and announced a series of local specialties for them to order.

Mai Mai looked at the room, it was indeed very clean, the sheets on the bed were all white, the floor was also clean, it would not be an exaggeration to say that it was spotless.He subconsciously looked at his shoes.Because he rushed from Mount Wutai to Jiangxi, and then flew directly to Dali. These days, he didn't change his clothes or wipe his shoes. He also felt that he must be disheartened. Now that he entered such a clean room, he was a little worried that he would step on a series of dirty footprints. Come out, that is too disrespectful to the master's labor.

"Ma'am, do you have any slippers?"

"Yes, yes, under the bed." Shui Huamei casually answered Mai while taking a notebook to write down the dishes Qi Jingping ordered.

"Oh——" Mai Mai walked to the side of the bed, bent down to get the slippers, and suddenly froze for a moment.There were two very faint footprints on the ground, and it looked like he had stepped on them just now.This is not surprising, it is strange that there are only these two footprints in the whole room.Ordinarily, when he walked in from the door, he should have left footprints near the door first, and it should be more clear.But now there are no footprints at the door, but there are where he just stood. Isn't this too strange?

Zhang Jingping had already finished ordering.After the bumpy journey, I was also hungry, so I turned around and greeted Maimai: "Go eat? After eating, come back and take a shower. I'm really hungry."

Xiaomai took advantage of the opportunity to put down his slippers and stood up. When he was about to leave the door, he was the last one. After taking two steps and turning his head, he found that the two footprints were no longer visible. I don't know if it was because the lights were too dim because of the distance.

The meal was very unreliable.In fact, the food is very rich, most of which are local specialties, especially the milk fan, which Shuihuamei said is made of milk, broken into small pieces and deep-fried, and fried into small bubbles, which looks crunchy It smelled lightly, sprinkled with sugar, and tasted sweet and fragrant. Zhang Jingping ate a lot and was full of praise.I also ate a piece of wheat. It was sweet and fragrant at first, but after tasting it, it smelled fishy.

Seeing Mai Mai's appearance, Shuihuamei laughed: "Sir, don't you like to eat this? There are also bait, bean curd, mountain fungus, and local bowfish later. Try them all."

I took a sip of wheat, which is really strange. The milk fan has a milky smell; the bait probably contains some fermented bean curd or something, and it also smells fishy; the bean curd is full of bean smell; Son, not to mention bowfish, especially fishy badly.The more wheat I ate, the more I felt something was wrong.Among other things, he also eats fermented bean curd very often, and the method should be similar, but he has never tasted any fishy smell. Why is the fermented bean curd here so fishy?

"Boss, is there fermented bean curd in this bait?"

"This is specially made, and it's not the same as ordinary fermented bean curd. Why, Mr. Mai is not used to it?"

"Oh, no, I just think the taste is quite special." Mai Mai's hand was a little stronger, and the fermented bean curd sandwiched in the bait was squeezed out a little, dripping on the edge of the table, and then dripping along the table to the floor.Mai Mai took out a napkin, wiped the edge of the table, and was considering whether to bend over to wipe the floor, but found that the fermented bean curd dripped on the ground was gone again...