The woman who was serving wine looked up and glanced at the young woman's face, and became more and more certain that it was indeed a stranger face that Zhang Baishi Village had not seen in more than ten years.
"My wine is only sold to villagers."
Xiao Nanhui leaned half of his body against the wine counter, stretching his neck to see what was in the wine jar.
"What kind of wine is so precious? I want to see if it's better than Xiaofuju's Yunyexian..."
The woman who was fetching wine was very agile. She protected the wine jar by pulling and pushing it, and also kept herself out. It was obvious that she had driven away many drunkards who had no money but were greedy for wine.
"I'm not selling it. Don't block my business. There are people waiting behind me."
As she spoke, the group of people behind her, young and old, holding microphones, suddenly became dissatisfied. The noise of Huozhou dialect mixed with Minzhou dialect made her head hurt.
Xiao Nanhui had to step back temporarily, but she didn't intend to give up.
She set out before dawn and walked more than ten miles of mountain roads to get here. How could she return empty-handed?
Seeing that the short and fat middle-aged man who had been waiting in line behind her had already gotten the wine with satisfaction, Xiao Nanhui took a few quick steps forward and flipped her palm, revealing half a silver ingot.
The man was stunned and his eyes were fixed on the silver.
"These are for the wine you have. Selling it or not?"
The other party was a little bit unbelievable. He pinched the silver with his short and thick fingers and looked at it again and again to confirm that it was genuine.
"Sell it." The man was afraid that she would regret it, so he confirmed it again and again, "You made the price yourself, so don't go back on your word."
Given her personality, she would definitely regret spending half a silver ingot on a few coins worth of wine. But this wasn't her money; it was Ding Weixiang's. So what was there to regret?
Xiao Nanhui smiled and handed over the money with one hand while picking up the goods.
"Absolutely not."
Seeing that she was straightforward, the man also smiled innocently, revealing a row of yellow teeth with missing front teeth, and started talking more.
"Actually, it's not that I didn't want to sell it to you. We're a small town brewing wine, and we're not very particular about the water. A while ago, a foreigner got sick from eating something, and he insisted on causing trouble."
Xiao Nanhui looked at the contents of the wine barrel and found that it was indeed a bit turbid.
But she didn't care at all. She had drunk worse liquor than this before, and she was confident in her stomach.
"I'm a new arrival, so buying some wine is a way of paying homage to this place."
The man looked her up and down at the overly casual ramie blouse she was wearing.
"Where are you from, girl? We don't often have outsiders here."
She paused and spoke vaguely.
"From the north."
Unexpectedly, the man still noticed something and spoke in surprise.
"Did you pass by that mountain when you came here?"
Xiao Nanhui shook his head.
She didn't pass through that mountain. She just walked out of the mountain this morning.
"It's good that you didn't go. Even though the mountain doesn't look high or unusual, don't get close to it. The mountain gate is the boundary, and you must not take even a single step inside."
The middle-aged man explained nervously, looking earnest.
Her curiosity was aroused, and the leg that was about to move forward retracted.
"Why?"
The other party lowered his voice, and there was some leakage in his voice because of the force of his enunciation.
"Inside that mountain gate lives a cruel and ferocious earth immortal. Anyone who approaches will be captured and forced to do hard labor, with no hope of escape."
Cruel and evil? Doing hard labor? Thinking of the terrifying momentum of the old woman when she ordered Ding Weixiang to feed the chickens, Xiao Nanhui nodded sincerely.
"Indeed, indeed."
The man had obviously not been able to confide these "village secrets" to outsiders for many years, and he couldn't stop once he started.
"Speaking of that earthly immortal, we all think it's someone's wronged soul transformed into a demon. You know, people used to live in that area a long time ago, but none of them met a good end. Now everyone thinks that place is unlucky, and no one dares to mention the name Zhongli anymore."
Xiao Nanhui was stunned.
"What did you say? This place was previously called Zhongli?"
The man suddenly realized that he had said something unlucky, and he spat several times before muttering a few words in frustration.
"Even if I told you, you might not believe it. My grandfather told me when he was still alive that many years ago, there was a severe drought in the Zhongli area for many years, and almost everyone in the village had fled. Suddenly, a group of outsiders came and used some kind of magic to pray for a heavy rain..."
"Strangers?" Xiao Nanhui's heart began to pound. An inexplicable suspicion was forming rapidly in her mind. "How many people? Where are they from?"
"About a hundred or so people, they said they came from Huozhou. Well, there aren't many outsiders here, and a hundred or so coming like that is even rarer."
"Where did those outsiders you mentioned go?"
The middle-aged man looked at her strangely.
"Of course it was a disaster. Otherwise, why do you think people think it's unlucky and even changed its name?"
Xiao Nanhui was stunned and the wine barrel in his hand was almost knocked over by her.
"My grandfather also said that the drought was not without reason. Perhaps this place is destined to be ominous. Zhongli, the final departure, the place of separation..."
The man who bought the wine walked away muttering to himself as he hunched his back, but she remained standing there. After a long time, she carried the heavy wine barrel and headed towards the mountain in the northeast.
The roads in the countryside are not as good as official roads, but they are made of soil that has been compacted step by step by countless farmers carrying their loads. It is not tiring to walk on them, but you have to be careful of the toads and frogs that occasionally pop out in the fields.
After walking for a few miles on this road, we could no longer see the road as wide as the ridge of the field. We could only look at the gap in the outline of the distant mountains and wade through the weeds and rocks to make a path.
My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It will be even more exciting later!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
