Chapter 136 Rhymes

"Full of rhymes, is this for a postgraduate exam?"

Hu Ma listened to Erguotou's words and secretly complained in his heart, quickly asking what was going on.

"This is a nursery rhyme from Ming Prefecture, talking about the three evils in Ming Prefecture in recent decades."

Seeing that these things were mentioned, Erguotou sighed lowly and explained carefully to Hu Ma: "This Tan'er Sect refers to the people you just mentioned. They used to be rampant, and the bad seeds from all over the place became their disciples."

"They don't teach proper skills. They all learn evil methods from various sources. Especially that Tan Gu, she specializes in choosing innocent girls, swallowing needles, peeling skin, and using the five punishments and three techniques to torture them until they are full of resentment. She raises them in the altar and can use their resentment to hurt people, making it impossible to defend against."

"The Chong'er Sect is also a group of evil people who are good at using insect蛊 (insect poison) to harm people, which can be said to be impossible to defend against."

"As for the beggars who come to your door, it is said that there was a blind beggar at that time who was very evil. If he took a fancy to someone's house, he would go over and ask for good food and drink, and even want a young girl. The owner would naturally not agree and would definitely beat him out."

"But he happened to know the bewitching art of calling souls. If he sang a section of Lian Hua Luo (a type of ballad) at the gate, the family would either lose money or die. It really scared the villagers."

"During the most fierce period, the city people came out spontaneously and beat many beggars to death. They were all buried outside the city."

"..."

"Weird and eerie..."

Hu Ma followed his description, thought carefully, and couldn't help but say: "What about the three evils now?"

"Gone."

Erguotou said: "As soon as our Red Lantern Society came together, these former three evils disappeared, leaving only our Red Lantern Goddess as one evil."

"?"

Hu Ma was stunned, thinking that the description was a bit strange.

As he spoke, he heard Erguotou say: "However, listening to you, brother, the strangeness lies here."

"The Tan'er Sect is powerful. There is no simple person who studies these sinister and poisonous evil methods every day, but its momentum has been defeated two years ago, and some people say that they have all dispersed and fled to various places."

"But when something happened in your village earlier, Shopkeeper Wu said that it was the Tan'er Sect who was causing trouble. We went to investigate, but we couldn't tell whether it was true or false. After all, your village is too close to Old Yin Mountain."

"No matter what kind of妖ren (evil people) or evil spirits commit crimes, they can just go into the eight-hundred-li Old Yin Mountain, where can you find them?"

"..."

"What has our Old Yin Mountain become?"

Hu Ma felt a headache when he heard this. Now that he had been here for a long time, he subconsciously regarded Old Yin Mountain as his hometown.

He didn't want these bad people to go there.

"Anyway, whether it's true or false, keep an eye on it first."

Erguotou didn't say much. After the two exchanged information, he said: "Shopkeeper Wu never mentioned the Tan'er Sect's return to the higher-ups. It's a bit confusing..."

"If it's really the remnants of the Tan'er Sect causing trouble, I'm afraid it won't be easy to deal with with your newly acquired skills..."

"..."

Hu Ma agreed and said that he would not be reckless and adventurous.

But after retreating from his natal spirit temple, he was silently pondering the reason why the Tan'er Sect had returned and Shopkeeper Wu had never mentioned it to the higher-ups.

In this way, the pressure suddenly came upon him.

He could have spoken just now and directly asked Erguotou for help, but he couldn't say it. If there were any real benefits, it wouldn't matter if he called Erguotou over, or even a few more.

But if it was just Shopkeeper Wu's personal grievance, then he owed Shopkeeper Wu a favor, and it would be difficult to avoid.

It would be a bit inappropriate to call Erguotou to intervene...

It wasn't that he was reluctant to owe Erguotou a favor for Shopkeeper Wu and Wu He's sake.

The main reason was that this kind of matter separated by a layer, Erguotou would probably feel uncomfortable even if he agreed.

He could only take it one step at a time.

Now he was stepping up his efforts to study the skills of the Shousui Ren (Year Keeper), but the people of the Tan'er Sect had never really appeared.

Now he not only asked the伙计 (shop assistants) to patrol at night, but also went to various villages around the town from time to time during the day. Once he encountered suspicious people, he would report back in time.

Now that it was almost deep winter, there were fewer merchants, and these 伙计 (shop assistants) had been here for a long time, and they were familiar with the villagers. If any new faces came in, it would be easy to spot.

But for more than a month, nothing was found.

But just when Hu Ma began to suspect that the old shopkeeper was suspicious and had a false alarm, Zhou Datong came back from outside this day and mysteriously found him, excitedly saying: "I found it, Brother Ma, I found a very suspicious family..."

"When did you start calling me Brother Ma?"

Hu Ma was stunned for a moment, but he didn't have time to ask more questions. He quickly said, "Where?"

"Shiyazi Village..."

Zhou Datong lowered his voice and said, "Zhao, the widow who sells tofu..."

"Why is it a widow again?"

Hu Ma felt it was bizarre. He knew that Datong liked widows, but now this was serious business...

"I'm telling the truth..."

Zhou Datong mysteriously said: "You told us to pay attention to new faces. I didn't see any, but the night before yesterday, there was a man whose face couldn't be seen at Zhao, the widow who sells tofu. He climbed over the wall and went in... Is this normal?"

"This is normal, right?"

Hu Ma looked at Zhou Datong with a strange look: "If you can't use it, are you not allowed others to use it?"

"No..."

Zhou Datong quickly said: "The key is that he went in and didn't come out all night..."

"Moreover, Widow Zhao didn't open the door the next day, saying that she was sick. That person is probably still hiding in her house!"

"..."

"Hmm?"

This was indeed strange. Entering the widow's house and not coming out at dawn was too unprofessional and didn't seem like the behavior of a villager.

Moreover, there were many rumors in front of the widow's door, which was not just casually said. A woman living alone was easily targeted by妖ren (evil people) and evil spirits.

Thinking quickly in his mind, he suddenly reacted and said to Zhou Da: "How do you know so much in detail?"

"The old lady at the entrance of the village told me..."

Zhou Datong said: "I chat with them every day. What don't I know about the surrounding villages?"

"...Amazing!"

Hu Ma didn't know what to say to him for a while. This Zhou Datong was not honest and always did some unexpected and tricky things. However, this skill was indeed very useful.

He went into the inner courtyard and told the old shopkeeper. The lazy old shopkeeper also became serious, put on his clothes and went out with Hu Ma.

The shopkeeper was anxious and wanted to lead the horse to ride, but Hu Ma thought that if they went over with such fanfare, the other party might have already been on guard. If they noticed something was wrong, they would run away and go into the Old Yin Mountain, and no one could do anything about it.

So he asked the 伙计 (shop assistant) to pull a large cart with a few bags of grain and two bolts of cloth on it. He hid sticks and Zhao Zhu's dung fork on the cart and drove over to Shiyai Village under the guise of exchanging a few sheep.

Their village did send grain every once in a while, and also came with some bloody food, which was their offering.

But other things were mostly exchanged from the surrounding villages, which was very common.

Because Hu Ma "broke his leg", he sat on the cart, Zhou Datong pulled it, Zhou Liang and Zhao Zhu pushed it on the side, and the old shopkeeper followed and walked beside him.

The treatment was still good.

They left the house at Shen Shi (3-5 pm) and walked for about half an hour. When it was almost dark, they had already arrived at Shiyai Village. Hu Ma first asked Zhou Datong to clarify the place, and then asked him to take the grain to exchange for sheep in the village, while he and the old shopkeeper hid in the shadows.

Before long, they came one after another to the front of a tiled house at the entrance of the village.

It was just night now, and many families in the village had lit oil lamps and were doing needlework for the winter, but the Zhao family who made tofu was quiet. Standing outside the courtyard and looking inside, it was dark and there was no light at all.

He glanced at the shopkeeper, only to see him pondering with his head down, and then waving his sleeves to let Hu Ma retreat.

He himself went straight forward, knocked on the door a few times, and said: "Is anyone home? A passerby is asking for a bowl of water to drink."

Hu Ma was speechless when he heard this.

In this cold winter, how many people go out? Moreover, you are coming to ask for water at night. Normal people would not dare to open the door, right?

But after the old shopkeeper called, he stood at the door with his hands behind his back, waiting silently.

After a while, a weak female voice suddenly sounded in the courtyard: "There is no man in my house, and I am sick again. It is not convenient to open the door."

"Guests, please ask at another house!"

"..."

Hu Ma had been to Shiyai Village before and had seen the Zhao family woman who sold tofu. It seemed to be her voice.

But after hearing this, the old shopkeeper suddenly sneered and said, "Sick?"

"That's good, I can see a doctor. Let me go in and take a look!"

"..."

There was no answer in the courtyard for a long time. Hu Ma realized something was wrong, supported himself with his crutches, and prepared to go forward and kick the door.

Unexpectedly, just as he was about to raise his foot, the door suddenly opened.

In the dark courtyard, a woman whose body seemed a little weak stood in the door, holding a bowl of water in her hand. When she saw two men standing at the door, she seemed a little scared. She slowly put the water by the door and was about to close the door again:

"It's not convenient to invite people into the house at night. Guest, please drink the water and leave..."

"..."

This time, Hu Ma was surprised.

Unexpectedly, seeing Widow Zhao about to close the door, the shopkeeper suddenly reached out and held the door panel, staring at the widow.

The widow was startled, staggered back a few steps, and panicked: "You... how do you..."

Hu Ma was a little suspicious in his heart, thinking that if this widow shouted, the villagers would come, and this matter might be very embarrassing.

Breaking into a widow's door at night was a big taboo in the village. Decent people would climb over the wall...

But the shopkeeper blocked the door and didn't say much at all. He suddenly blew forward in one breath.

What was even more unimaginable was that Widow Zhao, who was four or five steps away, was blown up by this breath like a big living person. She seemed weightless, swaying, and floated two or three Zhang (丈, a unit of length) away before gently falling to the ground.

The next moment, the old shopkeeper strode into the courtyard and went straight to the main room.

Hu Ma followed closely behind and entered the courtyard. When he looked at the widow in front of him, he saw that there was no living person at all, but a thin human skin, supported inside by bamboo poles and vines.

Thinking of talking to her just now, he couldn't help but feel terrified.

(End of this chapter)