Hearing Li Erhu's question, Lin Zhongtian nodded slightly, then pointed at the pig leg and pointed in the direction of going down the mountain.

Li Erhu immediately understood that this pig leg was a reward given to him by the mountain god.

He doesn't have to hunt today and can go down the mountain directly.

Li Erhu knelt on the ground excitedly and kowtowed to Lin Zhongtian again. Then he untied the animal skin wrapped around his shoulder, wrapped up the still bleeding pig leg, and carried the pig leg down the mountain happily.

After Li Erhu left, Lin Zhongtian turned around and walked towards the direction of the cave.

Behind him, three tigers, one big and two small, pounced over and began to share the huge wild boar king.

"Interesting, there is actually a village at the foot of this mountain..."

While thinking this, Lin Zhongtian focused his attention on his other body.

At the same time, the excited Li Erhu finally discovered, or rather remembered, the existence of the little squirrel above his head.

He carried the huge pig leg on his shoulder in one hand and the broken hunting bow in the other. He tried to roll his eyes up, as if trying to see the little squirrel above his head.

"Little guy, why are you still here? Does the mountain god no longer want you?"

As soon as he said this, Li Erhu regretted it a little, feeling that he seemed to have offended the mountain god, so he quickly spat a few times and muttered something like he didn't mean it and asked the mountain god not to blame him.

After confessing his crime, Li Erhu said, "Grandpa Mountain God must have forgotten you. How about I send you back first?"

The little squirrel glanced at him and fanned his neck with its big fluffy tail like a palm-leaf fan.

“Ugh… it hurts!”

Li Erhu couldn't help but tilt his head and rubbed it on the other shoulder.

"Well, it seems you don't want to go back."

Li Erhu muttered a few words, then quickened his pace and rushed home with a smile on his face.

The village at the foot of Yingzui Mountain is called Qiugang Village. Perhaps because it is located on the mountain, almost all the buildings in this village are made of stone.

Along the way, Lin Zhongtian saw the stone walls, stone houses, stone roads, stone bridges built by the villagers of Qiugang Village, as well as the stone well dug at the head of the village, the stone mills and stone benches placed in the yard, etc.

To be honest, if Lin Zhongtian had not seen the stone tablet with the three words "Qiugang Village" engraved on it at the entrance of the village, he would have almost thought that this village was called Shitou Village.

Lin Zhongtian looked at the stone houses on both sides in amazement, admiring the wisdom of the ancient working people.

Soon, Li Erhu returned home.

He first called his mother excitedly a few times, and when he found that his mother was not at home, he put away the pork leg given by the mountain god with some disappointment. Then he rushed to the mountain god temple at the entrance of the village as soon as possible and burned a few incense sticks to the mountain god.

"Thank you for the blessing of Grandpa Mountain God. Erhu will burn incense and paper money for you every day in the future!"

Li Erhu muttered to himself while kneeling devoutly on the cushion and kowtowed to the statue of the mountain god.

Lin Zhongtian stood beside the altar, looking around with a look of disdain.

It is called a mountain god temple, but in fact it is just a larger shrine.

The entire mountain temple covers an area of ​​only ten square meters, and the space inside the temple is extremely limited. Apart from the altar with the statue of the god and the offering table with the incense burner and candlesticks, there are only three cushions in front of the offering table.

As for the statue of the Eagle Mountain God on the altar...

Lin Zhongtian turned his eyes, looked around, and nodded.

The statue looks quite majestic. If the yellow mud on the outside is regarded as golden armor, it should be the image of a golden-armored god. But I don't know who the prototype of this statue is, or if it is just the result of the villagers' imagination...

Just then, a sound of footsteps suddenly came from outside the temple.

Lin Zhongtian looked back and saw a middle-aged man in a green robe stepping over the threshold and entering the temple. He looked at Li Erhu, who was still kowtowing on the cushion with a smile on his face and said, "I was wondering why the temple door opened inexplicably. I thought I forgot to close it, but when I came over to take a look, I realized that you had secretly come to burn incense to the mountain god!"

"Tell me, what good stuff did you get today that made you rush over here to kowtow to the mountain god?"

As the middle-aged man spoke, he walked to the altar and glanced at the donation box where the incense money was kept.

"It's Fu the temple keeper!"

As soon as Li Erhu saw the person coming, he stood up excitedly, pulled the sleeve of Fu Miaozhu and chattered non-stop: "Fu Miaozhu, you don't know what I saw today - I met the Mountain God! Just like my father and the old temple keeper said, the tiger is indeed the Mountain God's patrol animal. Today, the tiger followed the Mountain God's order and killed the wild boar king that was plaguing Yingzui Mountain. I was watching from the side and saw..."

Before Temple Master Fu could react, Li Erhu had already started talking.

Temple Master Fu pulled his sleeves a little unnaturally and listened to Li Erhu's chatter with a frown.

He didn't notice at all that on the altar behind Li Erhu, there was a little squirrel with lively eyes looking at him.

Lin Zhongtian observed the priest of the mountain temple with great interest and found that the sleeve of his right hand was much longer than that of his left hand.

Noticing this detail, Lin Zhongtian opened his white-eye perspective without hesitation and took a closer look. It turned out that the temple keeper had no fingers on his right hand, only half a palm.

Judging from the appearance of the broken finger, it was probably not natural, but was chopped off by someone.

No wonder he covered his right hand with his sleeve.

“Interesting…”

A smile appeared on Lin Zhongtian's face.

You know, having your fingers cut off was not a good experience in ancient times.

In a situation like his where all five fingers were broken off at the roots, the possibility of a fight or an accident was ruled out. The only possibility was that he had committed a crime and was punished by the government, or that he had become addicted to gambling and cheated and offended the dealer.

Of course, it is also possible that he was framed by someone else.

But if that was the case, he wouldn't have smiled like that.

Covering his right hand with his sleeve shows that he is ashamed of it and feels a little inferior because of it. At the same time, he has a grudge against this matter and holds some hatred. But the fact that he can smile shows that the hatred in his heart is not that deep. He may even subconsciously feel that having his hand cut off is the right thing to do.

With all these circumstances added together, the image of a villain or a prodigal son who was once smart but was lazy and only wanted to eat and take things for free and was cunning and treacherous instantly emerged in Lin Zhongtian's mind.

"I just don't know whether this prodigal son has turned back..."

As Lin Zhongtian thought about this, he observed the temple keeper's expression with great interest.

On the surface he had a frown on his face and seemed to be listening very seriously, but in fact his eyes were moving around all the time. The look he gave Li Erhu did not seem like he was looking at a friend but rather like he was looking at a fat sheep, thinking about how to scrape a layer of fat off the sheep.

"It seems there is no turning back."

Lin Zhongtian shook his head upon seeing this.

Sure enough, before Li Erhu could finish speaking, Fu Miaozhu interrupted him.

"Wait, Li Erhu, is everything you said true?"

"Of course, would I lie to you about such an important matter?"

Fu Miaozhu frowned, and his serious expression made Li Erhu a little nervous. He couldn't help but ask, "What's wrong? Is there something wrong with what I said?"

"Of course!" said Fu Miaozhu, "You said that the Mountain God not only did not blame you, but also rewarded you with a pig leg?"

"yes."

"Are you sure that was given to you by the Mountain God?"

"Difficult... isn't it?"

Li Erhu had a confused look on his face, and subconsciously began to recall the previous scene in his mind.

But Temple Master Fu did not give him time to think. He coughed twice and said seriously, "Erhu, I'll tell you the truth. This pig leg is not a reward from the mountain god. It's a betrothal gift from the mountain god to your family!"

Lin Zhongtian: “…”