Aftermath

Chapter 17 Aftermath

It was still late at night and everything was quiet. Li Wuxiang carried the hunting gear on his back and carried the package with Xue Baoping to prevent it from leaving drag marks on the ground. Now his eyesight and hearing have become better, so he can see that the girl around him always seems to want to take advantage of the darkness to take a closer look at him, but always turns her face away again as if she feels guilty.

When the back door of Xue's house could be seen, thin clouds chased the moon in the sky, and a drizzle fell. Now there was no need to worry about traces of footsteps. After entering the door again and about to close the door, Xue Baoping suddenly froze, stood there, and suddenly covered his mouth with his hand.

"Um... um... I just..." She stared at Li Wuxiang with wide eyes, but she didn't dare to let go and speak, as if she was afraid that her voice would escape.

"What you just said was very good." Li Wuxiang took the package, pushed the door open, and said softly, "Don't be afraid now. Let me guess, you always thought you were sick, so you broke your throat and couldn't do anything. Did you speak?"

Xue Baoping nodded.

Li Wuxiang carried the package and walked slowly into the house: "But in fact, you may not have any illness. If you have to say that you have it, it may be a mental illness. You suddenly experienced a very uncomfortable thing before, and something happened in your heart. A little question. Listen carefully to what I say. Generally speaking, there is no need to take medicine or get an injection in this situation. What you need is an opportunity or - why did your town leader ask the Wang family to go hunting? "

"Fresh tiger bones." Xue Baoping said from between his fingers.

Li Wuxiang looked at her with a smile. Xue Baoping was stunned for a moment before he reacted. He put down his hands with wide eyes and took a short breath: "Fresh tiger bones, fresh tiger bones, fresh tiger... bones, fresh... fresh …”

"Don't be anxious, take your time. As long as you remember that you can speak, and you can speak well, everything can be done slowly."

Xue Baoping bit her lip and nodded, watching him drag the baggage into the door as he spoke, and suddenly realized something - he had just helped him kill three people, and at the same time he knew almost nothing about him. I don’t even know if he is evil or human, but when I was talking to him just now, I felt that everything was taken for granted, as if I had been together for a long time.

She can no longer remember clearly what it was like to stay with her parents, but she knows how she feels now - the bleak melancholy clouds and sad emotions that have been accumulated in her heart for a long time now seem to be blown away by the breeze from the sky. He blew it and opened a small opening.

So she moved slowly and followed him through the door. She leaned against the door with her hands behind her back and looked at him for a while: "You...what are you...?"

Li Wuxiang was unpacking his bags and placing the things he had collected on the ground. After hearing the question, he stopped, thought about it seriously, and looked at Xue Baoping: "The Taoist priest who passed by your house before was called Zhao Puppet. He was not a good person. He arrested me and more than a hundred others. Children, use magic to seal us in your house In the burned brick of the stove, I used other reasons to trick your family into keeping the fire burning. Later, the other children died, but I defeated him and stole some skills from him, so I used them in your stove. Come out - you saved me."

He smiled, and Xue Baoping was stunned, and immediately turned his face, forgetting to continue asking him "what on earth".

"Then... how long do you want to stay here?"

Li Wuxiang looked at her: "If you are afraid of me, I will leave in a while."

"No, I'm not afraid of you!" Xue Baoping grabbed the door frame with the hand behind his back, "You also saved me!"

She thought for a while: "Then...otherwise...we can...let's...let's go together..."

Li Wuxiang tilted his head slightly and continued to sort the things in the bag: "It's a good idea, but it won't work now. You see, their whole family is dead, but you disappeared, others will immediately suspect you—— The road outside Jinshui Town is not very easy, nor is it very peaceful? "

Xue Baoping nodded.

"Then the tiger you have here is a beast that looks like a cat, right?"

Xue Baoping was stunned: "Yes...don't the tigers there look like cats?"

"That's good. That's what happened -" Li Wuxiang stood up and looked at the things he sorted out on the ground: two double-stranded hunting forks, two pairs of bows, and two pots of arrows, a total of twenty-three arrows. Arrows, three daggers, two waist knives, a pair of cast-iron animal traps, five sets of clothes, a silver bowl, four silver wine cups, about four or five kilograms of silver, more than twenty kilograms of dried meat, three bags of wine, three A piece of land deed and a knife of oil paper.

"Your town leader asked the Wang family and his son to get fresh tiger bones, and said they would need them tonight. But the three of them knew that this was a life-threatening matter. After thinking about it, they thought it was better to escape as soon as possible to save their lives. Anyway, they had hunting gear. , and they were three men in their prime. They could make a living on any mountain, so why bother?"

"But if the town leader is smarter and has a little sense of responsibility, he will definitely come to ask you. So you have to go to bed soon so that you can be full of energy tomorrow and let people know that this matter has nothing to do with you." Li Wuxiang thought After thinking for a while, "This is our last hurdle. When someone asks you tomorrow -"

"I won't be afraid-"

"No, you have to be afraid. Whatever you think in your heart, you should act accordingly - you will be afraid of being questioned, you will be happy to hear that their family is gone, you can do whatever you want, as long as you don't talk. "

Xue Baoping thought for a while and nodded.

Li Wuxiang tore the bundle into strips, used them to tie the hunting tools tightly together, and then threw them all into the Jinshui River. The river used to be deep and wide, with a lot of silt on both sides. The iron tools sank into the silt and soon disappeared. When he returned to the house, Xue Baoping also wrapped the dried meat in oil paper and buried it in the corner of the house. He huddled in the quilt, only showing his head in the dark to look at him.

He stood at the door and didn't go in. After thinking for a while, he began to ask serious questions: "Besides Zhao Kui, have you seen other Taoist priests? Or Qigong practitioners?"

"The previous town master also worshipped several Qigong practitioners..." Xue Baoping thought for a while, "I also heard from my parents... that they had seen other Taoist priests before, but it seems that they didn't call themselves Taoist priests... They were all called Qigong practitioners."

"Then have you seen or heard of their... abilities? For example, making a ball of fire, turning into gold and silver, or flying around?"

"Ah... can you, can you?"

"No."

"Then... I haven't seen it either, and it seems that no one has seen it, but they all know... what... swordplay. My father said he saw it, and it was very beautiful. One person ...can...knock down several people..."

Li Wuxiang nodded, and thought for a while: "You said that there was a riot here before, how did those people fight, at that time?"

"I...well...I heard from my father, that is...they fought back and forth, and they also dug and dug everywhere, and dug and dug...digging so much that the Jinshui River...changed its course, and rushed into the town to kill...kill...kill people."

"Then, have you heard of anyone's child missing in the neighborhood? I mean more than ten years ago."

Xue Baoping reached out from the quilt and scratched his face: "Well...I don't know."

"Okay, go to bed quickly. After tomorrow, you will have nothing to worry about." Li Wuxiang walked into the house, closed the door, jumped up lightly, and his hand reached the beam. He pulled himself up, "I'll sleep here, you don't need to be afraid."

After a while, he heard Xue Baoping say: "I'm not afraid... at worst, um... you can eat them all."

Li Wuxiang raised his eyebrows in the dark: "I don't like that, and I won't do it again in the future."

But Xue Baoping didn't say anything else, his breathing became steady and long.

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