Picking up a greedy snake [Liao Zhai]

Chapter 9 Nie Xiaoqian

Such a bloody tragedy at the home of Wang Huan, the magistrate of Suzhou Prefecture, quickly spread in the streets and alleys.

"The haunting in Wang Zhifu's house is really tragic." In the teahouse, a gray-haired man stroked his beard and said, "Who would have thought that not only Wang Zhifu was gouged out by ghosts within one day, even His son also lost his life."

There was a burst of exclamation from people around.

"If you want to say that the magistrate, all the bad results he got are all his own fault. Back then, in pursuit of wealth and power, he abandoned his wife and son, and married the second lady of the Gao family. His wretched wife came from the countryside one day Suzhou City looked for him, but he went so far as to kill his wife and children in the Temple of the City God."

"This kind of wolf-hearted person, if you kill him, it will be regarded as eliminating harm for the people." The surrounding people talked one after another.

"But it's a pity that Queen Wang Qi died. This prince has always behaved well, how could he be involved in such a thing, and was murdered by a ray of resentment, alas."

"I heard," the gray-haired man suddenly lowered his voice and said mysteriously, "Didn't Queen Wang Qi be killed by a ghost..."

"Oh?"

"It is said that the prince was hacked to death by his cousin who lived in the chaos."

"How could such a thing happen? Why did his cousin kill him for no reason?"

"I think it's probably due to jealousy," the man stroked his beard triumphantly, and said, "Wang Qihou's cousin is named Gu Huai, named Zihong, and is the only son of Gu Yuanwai in Taiyuan, Shanxi. This Gu Zihong She was born with a skin as beautiful as a crown jade, but here... is not very bright."

The man poked his head with his index finger and smiled mockingly.

"When Gu Zihong was studying, he was often scolded by the master of the academy. The old gentleman of the academy was once so angry that he became seriously ill, and then drove him back home. He even said: teach him a day, and he will lose ten years of life!"

"Hahahaha, how can there be such stupid people?" A burst of laughter erupted in the teahouse.

"Mr. Gu was also very helpless. After that, Mr. Gu dropped out of school and stayed at home, doing nothing all day long. His father wanted him to help with business matters, so he let him go on a caravan. As a result, this prodigal son sold a Thousands of silk, only one hundred copper coins."

"His father was so angry that he almost lost his breath when he heard about this, but Gu Zihong said: 'I thought copper coins were more valuable than gold, and a hundred Wen copper coins were more expensive than 100 taels of gold. Reasonable.'"

The man imitated it exaggeratedly, which made everyone laugh again.

"This Gu Zihong is really interesting. Thinking about it, his father, Gu Yuanwai, is also a famous figure. How could he give birth to such a stupid son?"

"I don't know. Wang Qihou, the son of Wang Huan, the magistrate of Suzhou Prefecture, and Gu Zihong are cousins. Although Wang Qihou is not very smart in reading, he is also somewhat talented. A scholar, he passed the Juren examination in the year of weak crown. I heard that Gu Yuanwai often sighed: 'If Qihou is my son, how wonderful it would be!'”

"So, Gu Zihong killed his cousin when the Wang family was in disaster because he was jealous of Wang Qihou's talents?"

"Tsk tsk tsk, I really know people, know their faces, but don't know their hearts. I didn't expect such a stupid idiot to have such sinister intentions."

"Bah, good and evil will be rewarded in the end, then Gu Huai will surely die a terrible death!"

There was another sound of cursing in the teahouse.

In a corner of the teahouse, two men were sitting.One of them was wearing a glazed cross-collar rolled gold silk gown, handsome in appearance and elegant in temperament, the other had a sharp mouth and monkey cheeks, and was dressed as a servant.

These two people are Gu Huai and Fu An.

After listening to the conversation of the people in the teahouse, Fu An showed an angry expression on his face, and he wanted to stand up and argue with the group of people.

Gu Huai pressed Fu'an's hand, and winked at him, meaning to let him ignore these gossip.

Fu'an sat back angrily, squinting at the group of people who fabricated rumors.

Along the way, Gu Huai has heard no less than ten versions of this incident alone.Some said that Gao Ying committed adultery with outsiders and jointly killed her husband and son, and some said that it was because of the property of the Wang family that Gu Huai and Gao Ying planned to kill Wang Huan and Wang Qihou.

At the beginning, Gu Huai would be furious when he heard these untrue words, but after hearing more, he got used to it, and knew that even if he was suffocated to death, he was just wronging himself, so he stopped worrying about these rumors. The gossip was rampant.

The two of them ordered some melon and fruit tea in this teahouse, ate some food, and continued on their way.

It's been a while since Gu Huai left home, and he can't help but miss his old father at home.Although he has not known his "father" for a long time, perhaps because of the similar blood flowing in this body, Gu Huai also developed an inseparable affection for the original owner's father.

For some reason, Gu Huai lost his memory of before the age of seven, and the starting point of his memory was life in the orphanage.Therefore, it can be said that he has never tasted the taste of family affection.Now, once he has tasted this taste, he is reluctant to throw it away.

At night, they traveled to a deserted mountain wilderness.After walking for a day, Gu Huai and Fu'an were exhausted. They just wanted to find a place to lie down comfortably and have a good night's sleep.

However, in this wilderness, let alone inns, there is not even a shadow of a family.

Just when they were exhausted and were about to lay down and sleep on the barren grass with the sky as their cover and the earth as their bed, an abandoned ancient temple appeared in front of them.

The red paint on the walls of the ancient temple has become mottled, covered with cobwebs and covered with thick dust.The plaque was smashed by something, and the writing on it was blurred and completely illegible.

Fu An excitedly said to Gu Huai: "Master, there is a temple here, let's sleep here tonight!"

Gu Huai looked at the plaque solemnly. This is the world of "Liao Zhai". As we all know, abandoned ancient temples are the places where the incidents in "Liao Zhai" happen frequently, so we should not take it lightly.He always felt that this ancient temple looked gloomy.

"Fu'an, let's walk a little longer. After tonight, we will be able to walk to the city. We will go to the city and stay in an inn tomorrow morning. What do you think?"

Fu An drooped his head as if discouraged, and he couldn't disobey his young master's words, so he had to reluctantly say: "Success, it's all up to you."

Seeing the reluctance on Fu'an's face, Gu Huai felt uncomfortable.At this time, a beam of moonlight hit the ground coldly, illuminating a field of withered grass.Through the moonlight, Gu Huai saw that the pair of coarse Ruyi toe shoes on Fu'an's feet were already stained with blood.

Gu Huai's heart trembled, he grabbed Fu An who was about to walk forward, and asked, "Are your feet worn out? Does it hurt?"

Fu An pursed his lips, and looked extremely aggrieved: "Fu An is just a servant, don't bother the young master to worry about it, and the young master doesn't have to care about the little ones."

Gu Huai sighed softly, he never saw others suffer, especially those around him.He turned his head to look at the crimson temple with a tangled expression, thinking that he might be too suspicious.

"Then listen to you and stay overnight in this temple."

"Oh, come on." Hearing this, Fu'an's shriveled face became a flower with joy.

There are monk's houses neatly arranged on the east and west sides of the temple. What puzzles Gu Huai is that the door of each monk's house is ajar, and the inside is pitch black, and there is no one there.

They walked to the north courtyard, opened a door casually, walked in, and found a firewood burning in the middle of the room, illuminating the whole room with a warm yellow light.

A person came out from behind the Buddha statue.

The man was wearing a dark blue Taoist robe, holding a dust whisk in his hand, his hair stood up high, his figure was strong and straight, his eyebrows were sword-like, his eyes were starry, and he was upright.

When the man saw Gu Huai, his slender eyes widened slightly, flashing a flash of surprise and excitement.

"Your Excellency..." The man looked at Gu Huai and asked.

"My name is Gu Huai, and my name is Zihong. I pass by here and want to spend the night here..."

"This house has no owner, and I'm staying here too. If you don't dislike it," the man looked Gu Huai up and down, "The few of us can spend the night together. A jackal, tiger, leopard, lonely soul, and wild ghost should have someone to take care of him."

Gu Huai saw that this person was dressed in a Taoist priest's attire, he looked powerful, and he spoke with a lot of air. He thought to himself that this person might be an expert at catching ghosts, so he put back the heart that had been raised in his throat.

"I can't ask for it, I don't know your honor and name?"

"Oh, my name is Yan Chixia."

Hearing these three words, the blood on Gu Huai's face faded immediately.Yan Chixia, the character in "Nie Xiaoqian", although Gu Huai is not very familiar with Liaozhai, he knows that there are some female ghosts in this article who are extremely terrifying.

"There is another person who lives here, and he went to the latrine." Yan Chixia seemed not to notice Gu Huai's pale face, and said to herself, "His name is Ning Caichen, and he is going to Beijing for the exam. Scholar."

As soon as the words were finished, the door was pushed open with a "squeak", and a handsome white-faced boy walked in. He tremblingly rushed to the firewood, stomping his feet and rubbing his hands on the fire.

"It's really cold today. When I went out to the hut, I was almost frozen into icicles!"

"Nonsense," Yan Chixia said sarcastically, "It's not even frost, and there isn't even a single piece of ice in the lake. How could you be frozen into ice?"

"Don't talk to me about this, I'm not healthy when I hit my son," Ning Caichen raised his chin towards Gu Huai and Fu'an while warming himself up by the fire, and asked, "Are these two..."

"Oh, I forgot to introduce you, they also came here to spend the night," Yan Chixia said with a smile, "His name is Ning Caichen, as I told you just now, he is a scholar who dare not even crush an ant to death."

"This handsome little brother is called Gu Huai, and this little brother is called..."

"My name is Fu An."

Fuan hurriedly said.

"Where are you two from, and where are you going?"

"We are from Taiyuan, Shanxi, and we are going to return to our hometown from Suzhou."

"I'm from Jinhua, Zhejiang." Ning Caichen warmed up after finishing the fire, picked up a pile of thatch, spread it in the corner of the wall, grinned, and a pair of symmetrical dimples appeared on his fair face, " The few of us meeting here can be regarded as fate."

After chatting with the two of them for a while, Gu Huai followed their example and threw a thick layer of straw on the ground in the corner.

The conversation in the room gradually quieted down, and the snoring sounded from small to large.

Sitting on the thatched pile, Gu Huai took off his black short boots, only to find that the white footwear on his feet had been stained red and yellow by blood and pus, sticking sticky to the wound, and he couldn't even take it off. .

He thought, it must be because of the long journey, there was a layer of blisters on his feet, and he didn't rest, the blisters were worn out, turning into the current miserable state.Thinking of this, I can't help but feel ashamed of my body that is not strong enough.

Little by little, he tore off the footwear from the wound, and broke out in a cold sweat from the pain. As expected, his feet were covered in blood and flesh.

Just as he was sitting there blankly letting himself go, he suddenly felt his ankle being pulled up by a big rough hand.Gu Huai was startled, and stepped back suddenly, his head hit the wall behind him with a "boom".

"Hey, be careful." Yan Chixia stretched out her hand towards Gu Huai's head, Gu Huai rubbed the back of her head to avoid his hand, then pulled her ankle out of his hand in horror, and backed up on the ground. She distanced herself from him and looked at him warily.

"I see that your wound is a bit serious, so I want to give you some herbal medicine..."

Gu Huai was slightly taken aback, and said apologetically, "Thank you Brother Yan, I have herbs in my salute, just come by yourself."

Yan Chixia lowered her head, her eyes fixed on Gu Huai's smooth, white, tender and slender feet.

At this time, a green lightning bolt flew out of Gu Huai's luggage.Erqing rushed towards Yan Chixia with his bloody mouth open, and was about to gnaw on the tip of his nose.

The author has something to say:

Erqing is jealous and provokes QAQ, but Yan Chixia is a straight man, a steel-like straight man.