chewing dragon

Chapter 49
Songling County is very mountainous. If you want to go to Huaide County City, you still have to go south after crossing Nangang, where man-eating tigers used to be entrenched.

Qi Jingzhi walked briskly on the mountain road with a long knife and luggage on his back. He was looking forward to this trip to the county town, especially the legendary Zhenmo Duwei's office.

Speaking of which, this was the boy's first time traveling far away from home. Fortunately, Jiao Yulang was the guide, talking and laughing along the way without feeling bored at all.

The two of them were not in a hurry, and it was late when they went out. Seeing that the sun had already set to the west, they couldn't go to the village or shop, so they simply found a dilapidated courtyard next to the mountain road for shelter.

The yard was not big, and one and a half of the three tile-roofed houses had collapsed, and only the east house looked intact.

There is air leakage from the west and south sides of the main room, and there are two door panels on the base of the north wall. The door panels are covered with a layer of hay, as if someone had slept there not long ago.

The door leading to the east room was ajar, and there was nothing inside except the earth kang covered with broken straw mats, and there was a faint musty smell wafting out.

Jiao Yulang used to live here on the way when he came here, knowing that the brother of the Qi family had never left the county, he introduced him, "I heard that there are ancestral graves of a rich family in the forest on the hillside behind the house, and this house was specially built. I sent servants here to take care of it, and my family also lived here when they came back to worship their ancestors, but then it was abandoned for some reason. Passers-by can’t catch up with Sutou, so they will deal with it here for a night.”

Qi Jingzhi nodded, seeing that the hay on the door panel was clean, he didn't bother to sleep on the cool kang in the east room.

He randomly chose a door panel and sat down, took out steamed buns and dried meat from his bag, and started to eat and drink with the water in the bag.

Jiao Yulang also followed suit, both of them had some self-cultivation, their teeth and appetite were quite good, and they ate deliciously.

While eating and drinking, there were footsteps outside, and someone entered the courtyard again.

Qi Jingzhi looked up and saw that the people who came were a man and a woman, about twenty years old, both dressed as village men and women.

The woman's plain face is facing the sky, and the cloth is very clean, and she is half a step behind the man when she walks. She even holds the corner of the man's clothes with one hand, looking very intimate.

The two obviously didn't expect that there would be someone in this dilapidated yard where there was no cooking smoke, so they immediately stopped.

The young man looked honest and honest. When he saw the long knife on Qi Jingzhi's back, he quickly took another step sideways to protect the woman behind him.

On the contrary, the woman was more courageous, showing her head from behind the man, her face was fair, and her eyebrows and eyes were somewhat delicate.

She gave the man a slight push, and said with a smile: "It's all my fault for my slow pace, which caused my man to be left on this mountain road together. It was dark and difficult to walk, so we had to rest first. Fortunately, we are not far from home, my in-laws I've been waiting impatiently, and most likely I'll send my uncles to meet you. The two brothers are so young, do you dare to go far and take the mountain road without an adult to take you?"

"Our two brothers are suffering. Parents leave early, so why don't we take care of ourselves!"

Qi Jingzhi swallowed the jerky in his mouth, and returned the other party's harmless smile: "Before, the tiger riot in Nangang in the county cut off the business route, and we were stuck at home, and all the money we saved was eaten away. Now Hearing that the tiger problem subsided, I took the courage to come out and go to my uncle's house in the county town to beg for a meal."

When he said this, the boy deliberately did not use the Mandarin he learned from Master Meng, and replaced it with the local accent of Songling County.

Jiao Yulang at the side barely listened to the general idea, then turned to look at Qi's elder brother with complicated eyes, hesitating to speak.

The two sides asked and answered, and it was considered a preliminary settlement. Believe it or not, the atmosphere in the courtyard was much more relaxed after all.

The woman pulled her man into the main room openly, with a bit of sympathy on her face: "It's hard for you two brothers. You are from Songling County. I heard that the tiger is very evil. It's still a county. Did you send someone here to get rid of it?"

"That's right, I ate more than a dozen people just for cannibalism! The hunters would rather be punished than go to Nangang to fight. The big households were so anxious that they asked Xiong Xianzun to offer a reward of 100 taels! In the end, it wasn’t someone sent by the county, but an adult who came from the capital on business, surnamed Dong, some kind of Jinyun envoy from Wuyun Division.”

Seeing that Qi Jingzhi spoke clearly and that the accent was indeed from Songling County, the woman's expression became more relaxed.

She tiptoed and whispered a few words in her man's ear, and then said loudly: "You talk to the two little brothers here, and I'll be back when I go."

Qi Jingzhi and Jiao Yulang are both ears and eyesight, knowing that a woman needs to go to the toilet, they only think that they are deaf.

The young man obviously hesitated, but he also knew that his wife wanted him to keep an eye on the two boys in the main room, so he nodded.

The woman then handed over the small bundle she was carrying to the man, looked around, and went around the north wall to the back of the house.

As soon as she left, the hall fell into silence.

The man put his luggage on the kang in the east room, checked the door carefully, and then stood upright at the door, seeing Qi Jingzhi and Jiao Yulang looking over, he smiled silly at them.

Seeing this, Jiao Yulang curled his lips, looked away, lowered his head and continued to wrestle with the jerky in his hand.

Qi Jingzhi, however, was very chatty: "Brother, did you come back from your mother's house with your sister-in-law?"

The man was taken aback for a moment, then nodded immediately, and the smile on his face grew a bit, but he still didn't speak.

In just this moment, the woman came back with a bundle of hay from nowhere in her hand, and a wooden stick along the way.

She nodded slightly to Qi Jingzhi and Jiao Yulang, turned around and walked into the east room.

Seeing the young man blocking the door, the woman didn't speak, but raised her head and silently glanced at her man.

The man was obviously a little dazed, and hastily got out of the way.

The woman entered the house on her own, and carried the hay onto the kang.

The young man turned his head to see his wife was busy working on the kang, but her feet were nailed in place, and he didn't intend to go in to help.

Qi Jingzhi watched the whole process, and frowned unconsciously.

Just now, he clearly saw a flash of panic and fear on the young man's face.

When the thought flashed, the young man suddenly smiled, and his accent was full of sincerity: "Brother, I have homemade jerky here, do you want to try it?"

Jiao Yulang raised his head abruptly, looked at Qi Jingyi with some surprise, and then turned to the young man, with doubts and scrutiny in his eyes.

When you are away from home and meet by chance, you always eat your own food. Whether you invite someone to eat or eat someone else's food, it is a big taboo.

Unexpectedly, the young man just hesitated a little, then walked up to Qi Jingzhi, squatted down with his back to the door of the east room, and took a piece of jerky with both hands.

He didn't eat it, but rubbed the jerky in his hands, and after a long while, he whispered, "I don't know why, but I suddenly feel a little scared."

Qi Jingzhi was about to speak, and suddenly raised his head and smiled, "Sister-in-law, do you want to eat something too?"

At some point, the woman was already leaning against the door, she shook her head when she heard the words, but silently stared at her man's back.

Now even Jiao Yulang saw that something was wrong, and calmly nudged Qi's elder brother with his elbow.

Qi Jingzhi nodded imperceptibly, smiled at the man and said, "Brother, sister-in-law is calling you!"

The young man's face showed palpitations, but he had no choice but to stand up, and almost entered the room close to the door frame on the other side of the woman.

The woman silently nodded to Qi Jingzhi again, then stretched out her hand to close the door, and hit the door with a wooden stick when she heard the sound.

The next moment, Qi Jingzhi got up abruptly, raised his hand and grasped the handle of the saber frying life behind his back.

But before he could move any further, he heard a bang, and the door of the east room exploded!

A black shadow landed on all fours, rushed out of the house like a whirlwind, jumped over Jiao Yulang's head without stopping, and smashed a big hole in the north wall.

Immediately afterwards, an old man in brown clothes with a tall stature and white beard and hair chased out from the east room. With light steps, he also jumped out of the hole in the wall.

The ashen-faced Jiao Yulang got up from the door panel and looked towards the east room, but there was no one there.

Just as he was in a daze, Xiaowazi felt someone slap his shoulder heavily, and Qi Jingzhi's quiet voice came from beside his ear: "Let's go out and have a look!"

(End of this chapter)