In the dark room, the flame on the candle wick kept dancing, casting a long, flickering shadow on the wall.
Boss Lu stood in front of the tall altar, holding his right hand over the knife wound on his left arm. The cut was small but deep. He had treated it simply and it didn't bleed much anymore.
He stared at the ugly clay statue of the mountain god on the table with an indescribable weird look on his face.
This is what the whole county believes, a monster that is neither human nor monkey.
At this moment, there were two villains arguing in Boss Lu's mind.
One said, "Why did I, like everyone else in the county, regard such a thing as a real god?"
Another said: "Because it really can fulfill the wishes of believers!"
"But it also devours many people's souls, just like a devil!"
"It eats those who do not believe in it. It has never harmed any believer."
"God will not harm people. He is a demon, evil!"
...
...
"All living things suffer. What difference does it make if you die early or late? You're all going to die anyway."
"Master Jing said that it will sooner or later become an evil god that brings disaster to the people. If what he said is true, I am the sinner of all mankind!"
"Master Jing lied to you! You just kept it a secret, but you didn't help the evil. It wasn't born because of you, so what does it have to do with you? Moreover, it can't even leave Dian County, so how could it harm people outside?"
"But I don't want to die! Master Jing knows my secret, he will definitely inform the program team, and then the whole network will know that I killed Song Yan! I will be arrested by the police, and I don't want to spend the rest of my life in prison..."
"No matter how powerful Master Jing is, he is still a human with flesh and blood. He is nothing more than its food. As long as Master Jing disappears, no one will know this secret anymore!"
"...You're right, he's just an ordinary person like me."
…
"Start making a wish." There was only one little man left in his mind, and the bewitching voice said slowly, "As long as you want it, it will definitely help you realize it."
"……good."
After an unknown amount of time, he heard a knock on the door.
Boss Lu looked in a trance at the small porcelain cup in front of the clay statue. The snow-white cup was filled with bright red blood. It was his blood.
He opened his mouth, his voice stagnant: "...Please come in."
Just as he finished speaking, a cold wind suddenly blew into the room, and the flame on the candle wick shook violently a few times and suddenly went out.
The only light disappeared, and the room suddenly fell into darkness, so dark that you couldn't see your hand in front of you.
Boss Lu felt a bone-chilling chill spreading throughout his body, making his hair stand on end. Countless horrible thoughts flashed through his mind in an instant, and he was terrified.
He knew that guy had come.
After a while, a cold breath approached him, but he couldn't see what the other person looked like. Was it a human, a ghost, or a monster that was neither human nor ghost?
In a dark and silent environment, people's senses will be infinitely magnified. Although the eyes cannot see, the hearing seems to be magnified countless times.
There were no footsteps, only the rustling sound of the wind.
He sensed a pair of cold "gaze" looking at him, as if evaluating something. Boss Lu suddenly felt a chill on his back. He felt like fish on the chopping board. He had just escaped from the previous pot with great difficulty, but this time he was dragged into another pot, with no escape possible.
He had previously heard from some old people in the county that the mountain god did not like greedy children, and that if there were too many wishes, they would not come true and the mountain god would be unhappy.
When he made his first wish, he only heard the knock on the door, but didn't feel it. After making his second wish, he felt that his body seemed to be more tired than before. He thought it was the sequelae of blood loss, but later he took a lot of tonics and it didn't work.
The third time he had no choice but to make a wish. When Song Yan was burned by the ghost fire, he vaguely saw the true face of the "mountain god" in the darkness. It was a ball of pitch-black fog with an unclear human face in the fog. He didn't dare to look at it a second time.
When he woke up the next day, he clearly felt that something important was slipping away from his body.
This is his fourth wish. Could it be that this time... he can see the true face of the "Mountain God"?
Or will it be that when he sees the other person's true face, that will be the day of his death?
At this moment, Boss Lu regretted from the bottom of his heart.
Perhaps he shouldn't have coveted Yilan's inn from the beginning, and so many things wouldn't have happened later.
Greed is like an invisible hand that drags people into hell step by step.
This ominous premonition became stronger and stronger. He clearly realized that he was making a deal with the devil. Behind every transaction, he had to pay a certain price. As he fell, the invisible evil hands were slowly taking away his life.
Sure enough, after he expressed his wish not to spend his whole life in prison, a sneer clearly rang out in his mind.
Boss Lu couldn't help but shudder, thinking anxiously: Is his request too much? Can't the "mountain god" do it? Or does it not want to help him realize his wish?
Not long after, the gloomy and hoarse voice sounded again: "As you wish."
After hearing this voice, the heavy stone hanging in Boss Lu's heart was put down. He closed his eyes and even thought in a relaxed way: After this matter is over, he will divorce Yilan, take the money he has saved over the years, leave Dian County, far away, and never come back. If he takes good care of his health, he may live to be seventy or eighty years old...
As he thought about it, some "future" scenes even flashed before his eyes: his future self would live in a sea view villa, lying leisurely in a rocking chair, rocking back and forth...
Gradually, he felt his body becoming lighter and lighter, almost as light as a feather, floating in the air, higher and higher. He looked down curiously, only to see a person who looked exactly like him standing there, looking up and giving him a strange smile.
He realized something and immediately struggled to sink, trying to get back into his body!
However, just as he was about to touch the body, it was as if an invisible huge force smashed down on him fiercely. The intense pain struck his soul directly, and there was no part of his body that did not hurt, as if it was torn apart, until it became numb.
He wanted to scream in pain, but when he opened his mouth to shout, no sound came out, as if the whole world was blocked out from him.
...It turns out that having your soul eaten is so painful.
——This was Boss Lu’s last thought before his consciousness was shattered.
*
The terrified scream of the woman downstairs resounded throughout the inn, and everyone in the room changed their expressions.
Sang Qing's face turned even paler because she could tell that it was Shu Ran's voice.
The travelers in the inn who were resting early after a tiring day were woken up by the scream. When they heard the scream, which seemed to be endless, they immediately became dissatisfied and opened the window to yell back outside.
"Who is it, late at night?!"
"Why are you shouting? We've been tired all day, can't we take a rest?"
"Fuck! Are you sick? Why are you yelling? I'm scared to death!"
"Where is room service? Where did this female ghost come from? Get rid of her immediately!"
There were also some kind-hearted people who directly shouted: "Is that a girl? What happened?"
"From the sound, something must have happened. Waiter, please find your boss immediately. Don't waste time!"
"What? What happened? Should we call the police?"
It is human nature to watch the fun. Along with the women's extremely high lung capacity screams, many guest room doors were opened and the sound of thundering footsteps could be heard in the stilt houses. The mess was disturbing.
"Hurry, hurry, hurry! Get out of the way!"
“Don’t forget your phone!”
"Oi! You stepped on my foot!"
"Good fellow! Are you all in a hurry to be reincarnated?"
…
The inn was suddenly surrounded by noisy sounds, and the originally quiet night suddenly became lively.
Until someone screamed again: "Ahhhhhh! Someone's dead!"
The moment the scream sounded, Jing Cheng predicted the location, turned around decisively, walked quickly to the window sill, opened the window, and jumped like a bird with its wings spread, jumping lightly from the window sill!
Others in the room: “!!!”
Before everyone could react, they saw a tall figure flash by, and it was Qin Yan who followed closely with a frown, supported himself on the windowsill with one hand, and jumped down with the same quick movement.
Everyone in the program crew was shocked, this is the third floor!
When Fu Le saw that his two friends had jumped down, he lay on the windowsill and looked out the window. He estimated the height and hesitated for three seconds. He wanted to climb onto the windowsill, but was stopped by Director Zhao.
"Mr. Fu! This is the third floor!" Zhao Yi stared at him with wide eyes, and said incredulously, "Do you think this is a high jump in physical education class?"
Fu Le: "...but they both landed safely."
Zhao Yi was still immersed in nervousness. Hearing this, he immediately gave him a soul-strike: "They can do it, but can you?"
Fu Le: “…” He really can’t do this height.
Zhao Yi looked at the two daring young men downstairs and saw that they were indeed standing on the ground unscathed. The height of more than ten meters was like a horizontal movement for them. He couldn't help but smack his mouth and thought: What do these kids eat to grow up? How can they know martial arts?
No one knew what Jing Cheng and Qin Yan said downstairs, but the two of them actually ran away holding hands.
A strange feeling arose in his heart, and for some reason, Fu Le's words just now flashed through his mind, "We Oranges have owners." He immediately shook his head and put aside the thought. What was he thinking about?
Men and men... How can there be so many gays in this world?
Not to mention the Qin family, the men in the Jing family are famous for their romanticism. From the old man of the Jing family to the current national dad Jing Zhensong, they almost staged a modern version of the Three Palaces and Six Courtyards. Young Taoist Jing's brother, the Second Young Master Jing, was also full of gossip in the past. Even the always serious Young Master Jing has several scandalous actresses around him... Thinking about it this way, young Taoist Jing seems to have had a genetic mutation. Not only is he rude to women, he has even become a Taoist priest. Living in such a high-profile family, he has been terribly low-key in the past eighteen years. Did he grow up in a Taoist temple for the past eighteen years?
...It's not impossible. This can explain why he is so calm towards girls.
Zhao Yi's mind was full of thoughts and he didn't notice other people. At this time, Xiao Qu suddenly interrupted him: "Director Zhao, shall we go down and take a look too?"
Zhao Yi came back to his senses and found that the door of the room was wide open. Almost everyone in the production team had gone out. Even the assistant was not by his side. He was stunned: "Where are they?"
*
As Jing Cheng's front foot landed on the ground, he heard a sound of wind breaking through the air above his head. He leaned sideways and looked up to see Qin Yan also jumping off the building with nimble hands and feet following him.
The place where they landed happened to be the grass in the garden. Qin Yan did not have Jing Cheng's kung fu. He rolled several times when he landed like a miserable puppy. It took him a long time to steady himself.
Jing Cheng: “…” What a fool!
Qin Yan had a good physique, and because he had been practicing according to the "secret book" given to him by Jing Cheng recently, he didn't encounter any major problems. After a few seconds, he slowly stood up.
Jing Cheng walked up to him helplessly, reached out to pick off the weeds stuck on his head, leaned down slightly to pull him up: "Why don't you come down the stairs? What happened just now was too dangerous."
Qin Yan was brushing off the dirt on his body. He paused when he heard this and said, "I saw you coming down, so I didn't think too much about it."
Jing Cheng stared at the thin bloodstain on his cheekbone caused by the branch, and he couldn't describe the feeling in his heart.
A scene inexplicably flashed through his mind.
Those were the first few years after he came down the mountain. Because he was young and frivolous, he deliberately used magic to tease a local tycoon who exploited the local people. After the local tycoon learned the truth about his misfortune, he hired a Taoist priest from the Zhang family with a large sum of money to get him back, so he repeatedly sent his evil slaves to capture him.
He accidentally fell into an ambush and escaped with Lian Xuefeng despite being injured. While avoiding the pursuit of the evil slaves, he ran into a dead end. Lian Xuefeng hid him who was almost unconscious at the time, picked up a stick from the ground and rushed out, leading the group of evil slaves away.
For a long time afterwards, Jing Cheng didn't see the spoiled young master of the Lian family. When he saw him again, the bruises on Lian Xuefeng's face had not completely faded, and his legs and feet were not very agile. Jing Cheng knew that he had suffered a lot in order to lead away that group of evil slaves.
He remembers asking himself, “That situation is dangerous, why would you do that?”
Lian Xuefeng said: "I saw that you were in danger, so I didn't think too much about it."
Jing Cheng blurted out: "Good brother!"
Lian Xuefeng had a strange expression on his face, and he smiled: "Don't be ridiculous, it's your bad luck to be caught. After all, I am a descendant of nobles born in the imperial city, they dare not do anything to me."
…
Coming out of his memories, Jing Cheng stared at the stern young man in front of him, and felt that the man in front of him seemed to be the same cynical eldest young master of the Lian family back then.
Although the two people's personalities are very different in appearance, they are the same soul at heart.
However, his state of mind back then was completely different from his current state of mind.
At that time, Jing Cheng was driven down the mountain. He was determined to do something big to blind the old stubborn people of the Jing family in order to save the people in the troubled times. The so-called family, friendship and love were not in his life plan.
But now, God has given him a second life, and he just wants to live out his true self and find back what he once lost.
Jing Cheng silently watched Qin Yan sorting his clothes, and suddenly asked without thinking: "If it was Fu Le who jumped from the third floor, would you still follow him?"
Qin Yan was silent and looked at him, seeming to be hesitating.
Although Jing Cheng knew that the two had been friends for more than ten years and that Fu Le had said more than once that he liked girls, he could not resist the slightest doubt in his heart.
Perhaps it was because he always teased Qin Yan with "little apprentice", Qin Yan always behaved very reserved in front of him, and only acted like himself in front of his good buddies. So even though he knew that the person the other person really liked was him, Jing Cheng would occasionally childishly care about these small details.
He knew that the question was unreasonable and did not fit his usual personality, but pretending to be an "adult" for too long was not in line with his willful nature, so he had to be impulsive at least once.
Seeing that he didn't answer for a long time, Jing Cheng remained calm on the surface, but he was indescribably disappointed in his heart. He said insincerely: "Ah, I mean the purpose of building stairs is to facilitate going downstairs. Next time you encounter this kind of situation, you must pay attention to safety..."
...He was talking about nonsense.
Jing Cheng coughed awkwardly, turned around and said, "Let's go, little disciple, there are a group of people gathered over there."
Qin Yan suddenly grabbed his hand and said seriously: "If he dares to jump from the third floor, I will probably call 120 immediately."
Jing Cheng: “…” So his previous assumption was not true at all.
A smile flashed across Qin Yan's eyes. It was rare for him to see Jing Cheng show this side of him, so he would naturally seize the opportunity.
"In exchange, I would like to ask you a question."
"What?"
Qin Yan raised his eyebrows, stared into his eyes, and said slowly: "I want to know why you asked this question just now?"
-----
The author has something to say:
The evil god pointed and said: It’s a dark and windy night, and you two actually did this in front of me... You really don’t respect me at all!
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