“Don't blame me.”

“It's not that I don't want to save people, it's just that it's beyond my ability.”

Hu Ma sat silently in the main room of the inner courtyard, his eyes lowered, his expression somewhat gloomy. Little Hong Tang sat on the threshold, looking outside from time to time, then back at Hu Ma in the main room.

Zhou Datong and the others, as Hu Ma had instructed, had tightly closed the gate of the outer courtyard, and they had hidden themselves in the side rooms on both sides of the inner courtyard, leaving only the Red Lantern Granny's lantern in the outer courtyard.

Logically speaking, the Red Lantern Granny's lantern was the most important thing, and should have been brought inside to protect it first.

But now, letting it be blown by the yin wind and drizzle, no one could care about it, after all, Red Lantern Granny herself couldn't even take care of this manor anymore.

Because they had all entered the inner courtyard, farther away from the gate, they were also farther away from the cries for help from the people outside the gate.

The people from the surrounding villages were all familiar with the manor's workers.

Usually, when they met outside, they would either call them "Manager" respectfully, or "Little Brother". When the manor needed to purchase or exchange something from them, they would always bring their best goods to the manor first to be chosen.

Even the tofu seller would leave the first piece for the manor.

Even now, in the surrounding villages and towns, it was considered an honor for any family to have invited a minor manager from the manor to a wedding or funeral.

But now, it was them who were begging for help outside the gate.

They didn't dare to bang on the gate forcefully, but kowtowed outside, their occasional cries piercing through the two courtyards and scraping against people's hearts.

The manor's workers knew that they were now worried about their families, and they also knew that Ganzi Village was becoming increasingly dangerous, and that the evil spirits would harm many people, but they couldn't do anything, so they just shrank in the inner courtyard, some of them painfully covering their ears.

What could they do?

To be glanced at by the Red Lantern Granny and then immediately flee, Hu Ma could be 100% sure that this matter was a setup by a big shot.

He might not be the one doing the work, but there must be his shadow behind it.

The schemes of big shots were unimaginably dangerous.

So he knew that hiding was the right thing to do, but he felt very uncomfortable.

“Little Hong Tang, do you think hiding is not good?”

He had been sitting in the main room, not covering his ears, because he knew it was useless.

But the cries from outside the manor kept coming, and he felt that the spacious main room was becoming increasingly oppressive. He always wanted to say something, so he looked at Little Hong Tang on the threshold.

He felt that Little Hong Tang was also strange today. In the past, when she encountered such a dangerous thing, she would have run away long ago.

Or, if there was any excitement outside, she would have gone to ride on the wall to watch.

But this time she was different. She had been sitting on the threshold, looking scared, not daring to go out, and unwilling to come in and hide with him.

So Hu Ma was very curious about what she was thinking.

"Don't know."

Little Hong Tang shook her head and said, "Never had this before."

Her words were always crisp and simple.

Yes, Granny would definitely not do what I'm doing.

Just like in the Da Yang village, not everyone was so simple and kind, but when someone needed help, Granny wouldn't look at who it was, nor would she look at whether they could afford to pay. Granny would just naturally go to help.

Hu Ma didn't know if Granny would be disappointed in him if she knew he was hiding in the manor at this time.

He couldn't say the answer, and he didn't want to think about it too much. He could only feel that as time went by, the calls for help around him seemed to be getting louder and louder.

He had hidden in the manor, keeping the disaster outside the door.

But the disaster could be kept outside the door, but the cries could not, and still drilled into the courtyard, into his ears.

The cries made his heart a mess, but what could he do?

Ask the Old Yin Mountain senior for help?

That senior's attitude was already very clear. He would naturally take care of his affairs, but now it was not his affair…

So, was he just going to hide like this?

Hu Ma looked outside, his gaze passing through the inner courtyard, as if directly looking at the tightly closed gate, as if a prison, locking himself inside.

He thought of a key point: Why did they come looking for me?

Theoretically, if this was the big shot's doing, it could only be directed at those who were suspected. But on the surface, he was just an ordinary small shopkeeper. Even Datong and the others were not very suspicious. Why did this disaster still come?

Head Zheng?

His mind flashed with Head Zheng's gloomy and silent face…

…Only he would still drag himself into this disaster even after the Old Tree Stump had helped him cover it up.

But…

Thinking of Head Zheng, a strong hatred arose in his heart, but also at the moment of thinking of him, Hu Ma suddenly felt a shock in his heart, and realized a problem.

Since Head Zheng was the culprit, then how could he allow himself to hide?

Now he was hiding to avoid disaster, but evil spirits could be avoided, how could one avoid the mischief of petty people?

The more he thought about it, the more horrified he felt. His mind could not help but run quickly, desperately trying to use the advantages brought by the information explosion era to substitute himself into the perspective of the high-ranking Meng family, into the perspective of Head Zheng, guessing what they wanted to do…

If such figures wanted to eliminate his manor, they could just do it directly. Why did they have to put their efforts into the surrounding villages?

"Force me, or the descendants of the Hu family, to take action?"

This answer flashed in Hu Ma's mind, and his pupils also shrank slightly.

Town-Guardian Book! (镇岁书)

In addition to the Yin protection power, then the biggest characteristic of the Hu family's descendants was the Town-Guardian Book.

Perhaps, compared to the Yin protection power, the methods in this Town-Guardian Book were what the Meng family really wanted to find.

Then, if his ultimate goal was to force people to use the Town-Guardian Book, then he must have exerted his strength in the other places in Mingzhou City that made him suspicious.

His manor should not be the most important, and may even be attached, added by that Zheng.

This disaster was originally directed at himself, and the people in the village were implicated by him…

The cries from outside the manor kept coming, filled with deep despair.

The evil spirits in the village were raging fiercely, and the people would become more and more afraid. If people's courage was strong, they could suppress evil spirits. If their courage was weak, the evil spirits would become more and more powerful and fierce.

Sooner or later, it would brew to a point where he couldn't hold on even if he hid in the manor…

What was he going to do?

Take Datong and them and escape into the Old Yin Mountain?

Escaping was necessary, but he also had to consider the possibility of not being able to escape. Since Zheng had his eyes on him, how could he be merciful?

And now…

Hu Ma suddenly stood up and looked at the sky outside the courtyard.

The weather was gloomy, and it was hard to tell day from night. The clouds in the sky were vaguely shaped like evil spirits, staring at the manor.

The cries outside the manor, the cold weather, the heavy clouds, seemed to form boundless pressure. The fear and cries of the people outside the manor fueled the momentum of the evil spirits, and the evil aura was even more powerful than before, but also at this moment, Hu Ma's heart suddenly became clear.

"This is freaking boiling oil…"

"Someone is turning this place into an oil pot!"

"Hiding here, I am like a toad in an oil pot, not only can't I escape anything, but I'm about to be fried to death…"

"If this continues, not to mention whether I will have a chance to escape, even Little Hong Tang and the manor's workers will probably look down on me. So now…"

He pondered, his mind could only quickly think that he couldn't keep watching them boil this pot of oil. Even if he eventually saw that things were not good and had to hide in the Old Yin Mountain, he had to go out first, so he would be closer to the Old Yin Mountain, and have a chance to escape at a critical moment.

"Hoo…"

After understanding these things, he let out a long breath of frustration, his expression slightly cold: "If I can't hide, then I won't hide, and I have to do it beautifully!"

He analyzed countless reasons in his mind, and had his own understanding of the whole situation, and also understood how to do it was the most stable.

Of course, perhaps there was also a little bit of it just because he didn't want to hide anymore.

There were too many absurd and tragic things in this world. If they didn't happen in front of his eyes, he would just pretend not to see them.

But if they happened in front of his eyes, it was difficult to pretend not to see them.

……

……

And at the same time, Little Hong Tang on the threshold, and the workers hiding in the side rooms on both sides of the inner courtyard, were all peeking at Hu Ma.

Hu Ma had been sitting in the main room, with the door open, and they could vaguely see him if they stretched their heads.

Now, the cries for help from the people outside the manor made their hearts itch, but they didn't dare to make a decision, they could only look at Hu Ma. And in their eyes, Hu Ma also seemed to be suffering from inner torment, constantly thinking, thinking.

Until, Hu Ma suddenly slammed the table and stood up, and walked to the doorway.

"He's out, Brother Ma is out…"

Zhou Datong immediately called out happily, and patted the other workers repeatedly, and also walked out of the side rooms on both sides.

They were all poor teenagers from the village. They were afraid of evil spirits, so they had been relying on Hu Ma in the main room to be their backbone.

But they were also seventeen or eighteen years old, young men who had a belly full of fire that they couldn't vent, and had their own loyalty.

So when they saw Hu Ma getting up, they couldn't help but tremble in their hearts, and their simple faces showed smiles that they couldn't explain the meaning of.

"Brother Hu Ma…"

Even Little Hong Tang, when she saw Hu Ma finally getting up, her eyes lit up, and she smiled into a crescent shape, calling out happily.

Hu Ma nodded to Little Hong Tang, and then took his red wooden sword and serrated knife from the table, and said to Zhou Datong and the others who were poking their heads out: "Datong, are your weapons still there?"

Zhou Datong and the others were stunned for a moment, then suddenly nodded vigorously.

Hu Ma smiled and said: "Then bring them, let's go out and exorcise evil spirits for the folks!"

(End of this chapter)