“Bang, bang, bang!——”

This time the knock on the door was obviously much more urgent than the last time.

If the door hadn't been bolted, the person knocking would have pushed the door open in a hurry.

“Bang, bang, bang!——”

The knocking on the door continued.

“Who, who?!”

Hua Xiao ran out of the house and asked loudly at the banging door.

The knock on the door was too urgent. Hua Xiaoyuan was already feeling uneasy. When he heard the chaotic and rapid sound, his chest began to beat wildly.

"Ouch! Open the door! I've been knocking for so long, I thought there was no one in the room!"

It was an unfamiliar male voice. Hua Xiao had never heard this voice before and felt it was strange.

“Bang, bang!”

The man knocked twice more anxiously.

The hurried sound and the unfamiliar male voice made Hua Xiao feel very uneasy. She was frightened and took a step back. Her face turned pale and she asked calmly, "Who are you?!"

When the person outside heard that the voice was a girl's, he did not respond directly, but shouted into the crack of the door:

"Little sister? Where are the rest of your family? Where are your grandpa and the others? Call them out quickly. Your dad can't be found. Your grandma just called the village chief and asked the whole village to go look for your dad. You guys should come out and help us. Oh...it's almost dark, and I don't know if it will snow again..."

The man's voice was high-pitched in the first half, but towards the end, perhaps feeling puzzled, he began to mutter.

Hua Shi put all the pots and pans back into her room, hurried out, and heard the loud voice of the man outside the door.

I also heard his words and meaning clearly.

Hua Xiao's expression relaxed a lot, especially when he saw Hua coming out, as if he had suddenly seen his backbone.

Hua Shi paused, trotted over and opened the gate.

Standing outside the door was a young man of about fifteen or sixteen. He was wearing thin clothes and his face was red from the cold.

Hearing the door that had been closed for a long time finally being opened, she curled her lips, but her expression still showed that she was a little anxious.

"Why are you so slow to open the door after calling for so long?"

The young man complained, then looked at Hua Shi again before saying:

"In short, if there's anyone else at home, hurry up and shout it out. Your father, who passed the imperial examination, is gone, so how can you still have time to complain about being at home? It's really..."

Hua Shi felt strange and asked hurriedly, "Why did it disappear?"

The young man shrugged. "How would I know? Everyone's looking for you now. I saw that your grandmother was the only one left in your Hua family, so I ran over to call you. Where's your grandfather? Why can't I see him?"

As he spoke, he suddenly thought of the other head of the Hua family. When he asked, he tiptoed and looked around the yard.

The young man's behavior showed that he was very familiar with the Hua family. He even knew Old Man Hua, who had not left the house for several years.

Hua Shi calmed down, frowned and looked at him, and said: "My grandfather has been lying in bed with hemiplegia for a long time. He can't come out now. I'll go with you to look for him."

Speaking of Mr. Hua, Hua Shi thought of the last time he saw him, which was nearly two months ago.

At that time, Li and Hua Ciyuan went to the town to take the imperial examination. On the first day, Hua Shi didn't think of this person.

After Li left home, she didn't tell her anything, so naturally she didn't remember it.

It was also the second day when a light suddenly flashed in his mind and he suddenly remembered that after the first shock, Hua Shi was actually reluctant to step into Li's rotten, foul-smelling house.

She pushed the door open with a trepidation in her heart. The room was still dark, and she could only vaguely see a tiny shadow. She was only halfway into the room, before she even got close to the kang bed, when she saw a scene she had always wanted to forget...

Thinking of this, Hua Shi couldn't help but get goosebumps again, and her stomach was churning.

The half-paralyzed Mr. Hua was so hungry that he grabbed a black lump with both hands and stuffed it into his mouth non-stop...

Smelling the foul odor in the air, Hua Shi immediately guessed what it was.

She was startled. Before she could leave, Mr. Hua seemed to have noticed Hua who had broken into the house. He suddenly grabbed a handful of black, sticky stuff and threw it in her direction...

She turned and ran out.

If she ran slower, that thing would really fall on her...

The young man scratched his head in a daze. After confirming that he didn't see anyone else in the yard, he said, "Okay, okay, then you come with me."

Before Hua Shi left, he reminded Hua Xiao and Hua Li to stay at home and not run around.

Hua Xiao frowned and just nodded.

Hua Li standing aside had a bitter look on his face, his eyes filled with worry.

The young man carried the flowers and quickly shuttled through the village roads. On the way, he kept meeting villagers who came in groups of three or four to help look for him.

The further Hua Shi walked, the deeper his frown became.

Shoushan Village has hundreds of households and is so large that you can't see the end at a glance, with winding village roads and small woods everywhere.

To find a missing person in such a large village, if it weren't for the help of the villagers, I really don't know how long it would take to find them...

Hua Shi vaguely felt that something was wrong, but couldn't tell what was wrong.

The two of them walked one in front and the other behind, heading towards the village entrance. The young man told her that Li was over there and asked her to go over and help support her, so that Li, who was old, would not be able to stand in the cold for too long.

However, before the two of them had walked for long, two boys who were about the same age as the young man suddenly ran up to them, panting and shouting at them:

"No need to go, no need to go! We've found the person, at the ancestral hall. Let's go and take a look!"

The young man noticed at a glance that something was wrong with the expressions of his two companions. He asked curiously, "Why do you look like that? Isn't it good to find the person?"

One of the fatter ones shook his head and said with a tut-tut sound:

"Alas... how does that saying go... excessive joy breeds sorrow? Extreme joy breeds grief? Well, anyway, that scholar fell into the well. He was just fished out, and it seems he's dead..."

The young man was shocked: "What?! He fell into the well and drowned?!"

Hua Shi's expression also changed suddenly.

…