Chapter 161: No Place to Stay
The stalemate lasted until the rooster crowed at dawn. A breeze seemed to blow by, and the heavy breathing sound disappeared.
Ning Caichen slowly raised his eyelids and opened them a tiny slit. When he looked again, the monster had disappeared.
Ning Caichen sat up suddenly, took the fragrant pill out of his pocket, held it in his hand, and gradually calmed down.
Looking at the place where the monster was peeping, he saw only a pool of smelly saliva on the ground, proving that Ning Caichen's fear that night was not an illusion.
Ning Caichen looked at Ma Junji, who was sleeping like a dead pig beside him, and suddenly felt angry and envious. "Brother Ma, Brother Ma, you were almost eaten by a monster, and you can still sleep?"
Ma Junji was sleeping soundly and didn't even hear what he said.
Ning Caichen felt sleepy too. He had just been frightened by the monster, and now he was completely sleepless. The sky was getting brighter, and it was time for him to get up and study every day.
Ning Caichen got up and packed up, and the noise was a little loud, which woke up the drowsy Ma Junji.
Ma Junji looked at Ning Caichen who was already packing up his things and couldn't help but smile: "Brother Ning, you woke up really early."
Ning Caichen said, "Brother Ma seems to be sleeping soundly."
Ma Junji said, "I've always been like this. I fall asleep as soon as I get on the bed and get up at dawn."
Ning Caichen was truly jealous now. "I really envy Brother Ma. I'm like this. I'll wake up at the slightest noise. I really can't understand your happiness."
Ma Junji said, "Brother Ning is obsessed with the imperial examinations, and he is worried from time to time. This is indeed the case."
Ning Caichen said, "A good sleep is hard to come by. Get up quickly and go into the city early."
Ning Caichen didn't want to stay in this guesthouse any longer. He didn't tell Ma Junji about the danger he had last night, as he didn't want to cause him more trouble.
The two packed their bags and walked out of the room, but both were stunned.
They looked around and suddenly found that the entire guesthouse looked like a long-abandoned house, with weeds growing everywhere, doors and windows damaged, and half of the wall collapsed.
The surrounding houses were in a dilapidated state, and the wealthy shopkeeper and the beautiful proprietress who had enthusiastically invited them in last night had disappeared.
They turned to look at the hut they lived in, which was the only building that was still barely intact.
Ma Junji was stunned and said, "How is this possible? It wasn't like this when we came here last night."
Ning Caichen finally understood that they had been blinded and deceived the night before. If it weren't for the fragrant pills protecting them, they would have become meat in the monster's mouth.
After staying in Fox Hill for so long, Ning Caichen and Ma Junji had some rough understanding of magic and knew that they had been bewitched by evil magic last night.
Ma Junji was terrified and said, "I was so scared! We were blinded last night. Luckily, nothing happened that night."
Ma Junji had already discovered it, so Ning Caichen didn't have to bear it all alone. He held up the incense pill and said, "A monster actually came in last night, and it was this thing that saved us."
Ning Caichen said, "That monster watched us by our bed all night, drooling all over the floor. I didn't dare move, for fear of disturbing it and getting hurt. Fortunately, it was afraid of the fragrant pills and disappeared at the cockcrow at dawn."
"Thank you, Brother Mingfu!" Ma Junji was overwhelmed with gratitude towards the fox fairy. He added, "I slept so soundly. If it weren't for Brother Ning, I'm afraid I would have died."
Ning Caichen was barely comforted, and the two of them hurriedly left the ruined guesthouse as if they were escaping.
As they left the inn, they saw an oxcart passing by on the side of the road. The driver was an old man. When he saw the two of them coming out of the inn, he was immediately terrified and said hurriedly, "Good ox, run, run!"
The old ox was still walking leisurely, but Ning Caichen and Ma Junji called out, "Old man, please stay, old man!"
The old man pretended not to hear and ignored it, urging the ox to run faster.
Ning Caichen and Ma Junji had no choice but to trot after him and said, "Old man, we are students coming to the city to take the imperial examination. We are not bad people. Please give us a ride. We can pay."
When the old man heard they were scholars, his frightened expression eased a little. He looked at them carefully, then at their shadows, and finally breathed a sigh of relief. He said, "So you are scholars! How dare you run into this...dirty place to spend the night?"
Ning Caichen and Ma Junji laughed bitterly and said, "We missed the time to enter the city last night, so we had to stay in a guesthouse. This place was still like this last night, but who would have thought that when we woke up one night, it would be... As expected, it's not clean."
The old man invited them to get on the car, and the old ox walked even slower.
"You scholars have the Wenquxing protecting you, no wonder you're fine."
Ning Caichen asked about the inn, and the old man said, "It's a pitiful place. I heard that last year, robbers broke into the house, stole things and killed people, and it has been ruined ever since. But I heard that the ghost of the wronged man is still there, and he still opens the inn to attract guests at night, but no one who went in has ever come out alive. You two are really blessed with good fortune. You should go and pray to the gods to get rid of the bad luck."
Ning Caichen and Ma Junji sighed, feeling both pity and fear.
After arriving in Jinhua City in the old man's car, they went to find a place to stay.
"Guest rooms? No more. The college entrance exams are coming up, and candidates from all over the country have already filled up all the inns in the city. I don't have any rooms here, so you should try your luck somewhere else."
Ning Caichen and Ma Junji went to other places to ask, but the answers were all full. After looking around several times and finding no vacant rooms, they realized the seriousness of the matter.
"No way? We've already arrived more than ten days in advance." Ma Junji muttered to himself.
"What should I do?" Ning Caichen was also at a loss.
At this time, a woman saw their worried looks and asked, "Are you two scholars preparing for the imperial examination? But you can't find a place to stay?"
Ning Caichen said, "That's right."
The woman smiled and said, "I happen to have a vacant yard that I can rent to you. I only need this amount."
She held up three fingers and gestured.
Ma Junji asked, "Three taels of silver?"
The woman said, "It's thirty taels! Why didn't you ask about the prices at the inn these days? How could you say three taels of silver?"
Ning Caichen and Ma Junji gasped, "Thirty taels? That's too expensive."
The woman immediately showed a look of disgust, "You think it's too expensive? If you think it's too expensive, go to a temple and stay overnight. There's a temple outside the north city where you can stay overnight, and it's free."
She turned around and spat as she walked away: "Poor, you want to go to high school without any money? What bad luck."
Ma Junji's face flushed with anger, and he was about to rush over to argue with her, but Ning Caichen held him back and said, "The exam is important, don't make things complicated."
Ma Junji gritted his teeth and said, "A dog's eyes look down on people."
Ning Caichen was also very angry, but besides that, he was also depressed and worried about his uncertain future.
Ning Caichen and Ma Junji searched the city for a few more times, but there were indeed no vacant guest rooms available. The few who were willing to rent asked for extremely high prices.
Although Gong Mengbi paid them a good salary, they were already poor and had families to support, so they didn't have that much spare money. Moreover, in addition to rent, the expenses in Jinhua had to be taken into account. The total cost was that they could not afford to live there.
I went to the temple to inquire, and found that they were all full.
They both remembered the woman's evil words, saying that there was a temple outside the north city.
With no other choice, the two had to go outside the north city to look for it.
There is only one beautiful mountain in the north of the city. The scenery on the mountain is very beautiful, which relieved the depression in the hearts of the two people.
Following the mountain path, I found a temple.
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