Yin Shou Shu

Chapter 140 Bonfire
Ran Qing was curious why the girl had walked for so long without meeting anyone she knew.

Didn’t we agree to come here to find other evil people?
Ran Qing lived in the village since he was a child. When he was a little older, he went to study in the city, and his social circle was already very narrow.

But he still ran into a few acquaintances.

But Mo Li had been strolling around with him for such a long time, and no one had spoken to the girl yet… This made Ran Qing confused and curious.

At this time, the two of them were squatting on the grass by the roadside, eating jelly with big bowls.

The jelly is mixed with fried potatoes, coriander, watercress, chili oil, green onions, soy sauce, MSG and other seasonings. When mixed together, the color is distinct and it is appetizing.

Ran Qing asked curiously while eating the jelly.

The girl who was also eating jelly from a large bowl shook her head and said, "I left Yuezhao two years ago. I've been walking around all the time. My old acquaintances don't recognize me anymore."

After a pause, the girl added, "Besides, I've lived with the old woman since I was a child. You know her well. She's very mean and hateful. She has no relatives or friends at all."

The girl explained.

The little cotton ball lying beside her happily grabbed a marshmallow and licked it in small bites.

When the two finished eating the jelly and stood up to return the porcelain bowl to the owner of the jelly stall, a familiar voice suddenly sounded behind them.

"Eh? Boss Ran!"

Ran Qing was stunned when he heard the voice. He turned around and saw the one-eyed old sheepskin appear with a smile on his face.

"This is my wife, and this is my son," Lao Yangpi greeted Ran Qing with a smile on his face.

Then he pulled Ran Qing aside and whispered, "By the way, Boss Ran, I've found the grave you asked me to find."

"Come to my paper-folding shop tomorrow night. I'll take you there. It's on the hill behind the field."

Previously, Ran Qing asked Lao Yangpi to find the grave of Hu Laosan, the pickpocket who killed the female ghost in the well, but there was no news, and Ran Qing thought he had lost the grave.

"Okay, I'll come to see you tomorrow night," Ran Qing said happily.

After finding Hu Laosan's grave, we can go to the pickpocket's grave to summon his soul and ask the ghost.

Maybe we can find out who gave those mysterious copper coins to Hu Laosan...

After saying goodbye to Lao Yangpi's family, Mo Li and Ran Qing continued to wander among the crowd.

There are indeed huge crowds of people here, and the whole view is filled with bustling heads.

Ran Qing saw several classmates, and even saw a man with a plaster cast and a crutch sitting on a roadside embankment with his wife and daughter, eating boiled pig cakes.

Mo Li blinked and said, "Your father is here too... He's incredibly strong despite his disability. I doubt everyone in Yuezhao has come here, so why are there so many people you know here?"

Ran Qing was not surprised by this.

In an era of inconvenient transportation and no telephone communication, such gatherings with large crowds of people were a time for friends and relatives to visit and meet each other.

The young people were busy eating, drinking and having fun, while the adults gathered together.

Men gathered in groups of three or five, smoking and drinking.

Women also gathered in groups of three or five, chatting and talking about the ugly things happening in the surrounding villages.

There are also people who set up simple studios to take photos and videos of people.

There were also people setting up stalls to shave hair with razors and a stool, leaving piles of broken hair on the ground.

Ran Qing and Mo Li continued to stroll around. The nearby mountains were trampled bare, and many new paths were trampled out in the woods.

On the mountain road ahead, several Miao girls stood in a row, arm in arm, singing folk songs in clear voices.

There were many people watching the fun around, and the crowd formed a circle, surrounding the four Miao girls and a young man in the center.

After the girls finished singing, the young man standing opposite them also started singing.

Mo Li stood aside and watched in amazement: "What song are they singing?"

Ran Qing's answer was concise and to the point: "Folk song."

Mo Li glared at him. "I know it's a folk song. I mean the name of the folk song! Their lyrics are so interesting."

Ran Qing shook his head. "Folk songs don't have names, and the lyrics are all made up on the spot. Anyway, there are only a few types of tunes for folk songs... Haven't you seen folk songs sung, and haven't you seen "Liu Sanjie"? "

"The lyrics of the duet between Liu Sanjie and the scholar were all improvised."

Ran Qing was recounting the plot of an old movie, but Mo Li shook his head innocently, saying he had never seen it. Then, after the young man finished singing, the Miao girls all laughed, and then one of them started singing loudly: "The sun comes out and shines on half the slope, and poisonous snakes and toads roll down the slope."

"A frog in a well loves to croak, but when it encounters a poisonous snake, it pokes it silly~~"

After the girl finished singing, the crowd burst into laughter.

Ran Qing shook his head: "What a poisonous mouth."

Mo Li glared at him immediately: "Do you understand? What are they singing?"

Ran Qing spread his hands and said, "That guy said he could have two wives at the same time without any problem, and this girl is scolding him."

"It's just a folk song, that's what it is."

When the two people singing look into each other's eyes, they can sing with great passion.

If they don't like each other, they will just curse at each other. Except that they don't use swear words, it's no different from an argument.

Ran Qing was not interested in this kind of folk song, but Mo Li listened to it with great interest, although she obviously didn't understand it very well.

The young man sang twice more, but he was obviously at a loss for words and could not scold the four girls more. Finally, he ran away in shame amid the laughter of the crowd.

Then a new challenger came and sang with four girls at the same time.

Ran Qing found it boring, but Mo Li watched it with great interest.

She watched the folk song duet for a long time before leaving with Ran Qing. After they left, she hummed a few notes to herself, as if imitating them.

Before she knew it, the girl's clean white pants were stained with yellow mud as she walked through the forest.

Wherever the two of them go, they always attract a lot of attention.

Although Mo Li no longer rides her flashy motorcycle, the girl dressed in youthful and beautiful clothes is on a different level from the others in the forest.

People like Ran Qing who wear dull gray, dark-colored, and simple-style clothes are the mainstream in the mountains.

Even the girls of the Miao, Yi and Buyi ethnic groups wore batik skirts, but most of them were worn for years, and the linen batik fabric had long been washed to become rough and dull, and the batik colors were not that bright.

This is a young girl who loves cleanliness.

Older women often don't wash their batik skirts, and dust and dirt have long been mixed with the linen. The once white linen has now turned brown and yellow.

Walking with Mo Li, Ran Qing was stared at wherever he went. Those stares made him feel uncomfortable.

"By the way, aren't you going to help me find someone from the underworld?"

Ran Qing accompanied the girl for a whole afternoon. As the sun began to set, Mo Li didn't meet any acquaintances except running around and watching the fun.

Girls do change a lot when they grow up. Even though Ran Qing had seen the girl's photo from two years ago, the girl in the photo, who still looked a little childish and wore an old school uniform, was completely different from the young and beautiful girl in front of him.

He could understand why Mo Li couldn't meet his old classmates and friends, but what about the other people in the underworld?
Ran Jianfei, a patient with a plaster cast, came to join in the fun on crutches.

The girl did not encounter any other evil practitioners in the crowd.

As the sky gradually darkened, the girl who had just eaten a bowl of mutton soup was anxious to go to the bonfire square to reserve a seat. Ran Qing finally couldn't help asking, wanting to urge her to do something serious and stop playing.

After Ran Qing finished speaking, the girl tilted her head and thought for a moment. Then she leaned close to Ran Qing's ear and whispered.

"Except for your father, I really didn't see any other familiar faces."

"But logically speaking, with such a grand occasion and all your classmates here, at least a few of those unorthodox people should be here as well."

"But I haven't seen any. It always feels a bit weird."

“So I actually have a guess…”

The young girl looked at the crowd of people around her and murmured softly, "Do you think that group of evil cultivators that this old woman met ten years ago are all dead like Meng Laoqi?"

The girl's whisper made Ran Qing's expression change slightly.

But at this moment, a girl's voice sounded behind him, with a hint of curiosity and surprise.

"Hey? Ran Qing, you're here too?"

Ran Qing suddenly turned around and saw his classmate Ouyang Xue looking at him curiously with a smile on her face.

(End of this chapter)