Chapter 19 Eighty years ago ()

Eighty years ago, the bearded man lived in Tushan north of Mount Emei, Sichuan. At that time, the warlords fought in a mess and the world was in chaos. Although he had extraordinary skills, he didn't know who to serve for. For a wild crane like him, politics was the most troublesome thing for him. He didn't like that era when wars were full of fire, and lived deep in the mountains and rarely went down the mountain.

One day, he heard the crowds of people in the village at the foot of the mountain crying loudly. He didn't know what happened, so he hurried down the mountain to see what was going on.

After going down the mountain, I saw that the village, which was peaceful and peaceful in the past, was in a mess and cried constantly. He found a villager to inquire about the situation, and the villagers told him that a warlord had just arrived to catch the strong men, and he immediately captured all the men in the village, leaving only the orphans, widows, elderly, weak, women and children in the village, and they would not be able to live in the future. The bearded man became very angry and wanted to save the villagers from water and fire, and chased them forward.

After catching up with the team of officers and soldiers, the bearded man was still waiting to be argued, but after a few words, he aroused the dissatisfaction of the officers and ordered the beard to be killed. Seeing that he was so disappointed, the bearded man became angry with the officers and soldiers. Although he injured more than a dozen officers and soldiers, the other party had many people and hundreds of people used swords and guns at him. No matter how capable he was, he could only ask for self-protection. Finally, he was shot in the arm. Seeing that he could not help but feel helpless, he had to return dejectedly.

Seeing the orphans and widows in a village, they were so pitiful that they couldn't bear it, so they often went down the mountain to help them plow the fields, rake the fields, carry water and chop firewood, repair houses and tiles, and even cure diseases and save people. They have been considered safe in a few years. Everyone in the village praised him for his supernatural powers and was not ordinary people, and regarded him as a living Bodhisattva to save the world. He also regarded every villager in the village as his relative.

One day he went up the mountain to collect herbs, and it took two more days to go down the mountain. After going down the mountain, he saw that all the young and old village were talking about something around the Li family's house, so he hurried over. He was shocked when he saw that the Li family's mother and son were all bitten to death by some wild beast. The Li family's son was only five years old, and he was eaten almost all the bones.

The bearded man was so angry that he asked the villagers if he had seen a wild beast that was so cruel? But the villagers said they had never seen it. They were fine the night before, but the next day it was like this, and they didn't even hear the sound of calling. The bearded man told the villagers to bury the body first, then took a single knife and a fire fork and went up the mountain.

He wandered around the mountain for a few days, killed two tigers and more than a dozen wolves, but he still felt uneasy. He walked around the mountain for a few days, and saw that there was really nothing to hurt, so he returned to the mountain. He thought that this time, it should be avenging the Li family and his son.

But he never expected that he was surrounded by villagers as soon as he got off the mountain. He cried and said that during the days when he left, the old lady of the Hu family was bitten to death, the old couple of the Sun family were bitten to death, and the wife of the Fan family and three children were all bitten to death.

The bearded man was furious when he heard this. He was so angry that he bit blood from his teeth. He turned around and went up the mountain again to kill all the beasts. But when he thought something was wrong, he asked the villagers, when did these seven people die? How did they die? But what was strange? The villagers said that the way to die was the same as the mother and son of the Li family, silently and without any movement. The three families die every other day.

The villagers argued endlessly, saying that this was a jackal, tiger and leopard, and they bit people to death, and when they were full, they ran back to the mountain. The one said that was wrong, it was a animal in the mountain that became a spirit and went down the mountain to seek his life. Some people sat on the ground and cried, saying that this was the world. The son was caught and the strong man was still alive. Now they caught the demons and harmed human life. God really won't let people live.

The bearded man was irritated and couldn't figure it out for a moment, so he asked the villagers if he had buried the body? The villagers said that the old lady of the Hu family and the old couple of Sun family had already buried it. The four of the Fan family died last night and had not had time to bury it. He heard this and hurried to the Fan family to look at the body and carefully looked at the body. He found that the place where the body was bitten was not like the traces of being bitten by a wild beast. The incision was flat, and it looked like a mark of a human tooth. Moreover, he could smell a faint fragrance emitted from the wound of the corpse. Although he was not sure what the fragrance of the flower was, based on his years of experience in collecting herbs, it was certain that it was the fragrance of the flower.

Although it was a little confused, the bearded man could already determine that something was wrong. These villagers were definitely not injured by wild animals, and I'm afraid they could be some demon.

He pretended to be confused and told the villagers that he could be sure that this was done by the wild beasts in the mountains, so that everyone could rest assured that he would set off to fight the wild beasts tomorrow and would never come back unless he killed all the wild beasts.

In that era, most of the villagers in the mountains lived in simplicity and were extremely simple. Moreover, in recent years, villagers have regarded the bearded man as the backbone of the village. No matter how the bearded man said, the widowed man in a village, he never had any objection to what the widowed man did, and he was the widowed man in a village.

The next morning, the bearded man went out to the mountain early in the morning. Seeing that it was almost dusk, he quietly sneaked back outside the village.

When it was dark, he silently entered the village and jumped onto a tall ancient tree in the middle of the village. Through the thick leaves, he could see every corner of the village.

When the moon reached the middle of the sky, a black shadow flashed out and quietly entered a family. With the moonlight, the bearded man looked closely and saw that the black shadow turned out to be a person. He guessed that this person was the culprit, so he jumped off the tree and quietly walked towards the family.

When he reached the door, he listened to the room and there was a slight noise. He knew that the black shadow was inside just now, so he suddenly raised his foot and kicked open the door.

The moment he kicked open the door, a black shadow rushed out of the back window. The bearded man hurriedly wanted to chase him, but saw a person lying on the ground. It turned out that it was the villager Liu Old Man lying in a pool of blood. He reached out and touched Liu Old Man's neck, and he was dead.

The bearded man dared not delay, and it was important to catch the murderer, so he leaped outward and jumped out of the back window. But looking around, the shadow disappeared.

He stepped up his pace and ran around the village. After about a cup of tea, he still couldn't see the murderer. He stopped and thought that the murderer had not left the village and should have been hiding somewhere in the village.

So he shouted a few times, shouted out all the old and young people in the village, and told everyone that the murderers were in the village, and they all lit torches to light up the village, and everyone looked for them together. As long as anyone found someone he didn't know, they would shout immediately.

The villagers lit dozens of torches of all sizes, making the small village bright as daylight. The bearded man also searched around the village to prevent the murderer from escaping. However, after searching for the middle of the night, he did not find any outsiders. The bearded man had no choice but to let everyone go back to sleep first and then find another way.

When he returned home, the bearded man felt anxious and lay on the bed toss and pondered.

At that time, he only delayed in Old Man Liu's house for a short time, and the figure disappeared from then on. In other words, this person was agile and his feet were never below him. But he was already very fast around the village, and he did not find anyone fleeing. Logically, this person should have been hiding in the village. However, dozens of people in the village, young and old, and even searched for such a small village for a long time, but they could not find this person. Could it be that... the figure was not a person outside the village, but a resident in the village?

Thinking of this, the bearded man couldn't help but feel a little confused. Apart from the old man Liu who just died, the whole village stood in front of him. He also secretly counted that except for the old man Liu, there were no more or less. If the murderer was a villager in the village, who would it be? Everyone lived with him for several years, and never found anyone who could do something that was harmful to the world. Besides, the rest of the whole village was all the elderly, weak, women and children, and no one could have such good skills and hide under his nose for so long. The more he thought about it, the more he became confused, and he had to give up for the time being.

The next day, the bearded man buried Old Man Liu's body. Before burying, he inspected the body again and found that like before, there was a floral fragrance on the wound on the corpse's throat, and the teeth marks were neatly made by human teeth.

Since then, the bearded man quietly entered the village every night, then hid in the big tree and watched secretly, waiting for the murderer to appear again. But after waiting for a few days, the murderer never came out again. After waiting for a few more days, the murderer still disappeared. I wondered if he was not as skilled as others? Perhaps the murderer had already escaped outside the village that night, but he just didn't notice it?

After observing for a few days, no abnormality appeared again, and the village gradually returned to peace. I think maybe it was because the murderer had escaped from the village and didn't dare to come again that night. After calculating, it had been more than a month since the night of Old Man Liu's murder, and there should be no more trouble. Finally, I breathed a sigh of relief.

Shortly said: After several months, the village was already as calm as before, and the murder of the five families gradually faded out of people's hearts.

On that day, the bearded man picked some mountain mushrooms and bamboo shoots from the mountains and went down the mountain to share them with the villagers. Unexpectedly, as soon as he got off the mountain, Aunt Tian cried and told him that something was wrong. Yesterday, her Fenglan went out to herd sheep and did not come back all night. The villagers went out to look for it, but it has not been found yet. Is something wrong? The bearded man asked Aunt Tian to be calm and he went out to look for it again.

After searching for half a day, I finally found Feng Lan's body in Laohekou, more than 20 miles away from the village. Just like before, I was bitten to the eye. The place where the body was bitten, there was a faint fragrance of flowers, which was indeed done by the same person.

The bearded man was furious at this time. He even wanted to catch the real murderer and bit him to death. Only by causing him to suffer the same pain as the deceased was to give these innocent lives an explanation.

But he was angry enough, but he was helpless. The monster knew his actions very well, and always attacked when he was not in the village or when he relaxed his guard. This made the bearded man feel headache and didn't know what to do for a moment.

The bearded man was afraid that Aunt Tian would not be able to stand seeing Feng Lan's appearance, so he took the body back outside the village and buried it. Then he went back and told Aunt Tian that he would let Aunt Tian be mournful. The child looked so miserable, so he just burned some paper in front of the grave and put in incense sticks.

Seeing Aunt Tian crying loudly, the bearded man felt as painful as a knife. He made up his mind to catch the real murderer no matter what, and avenge the unjustly dead. If he doesn't eliminate this disaster, he will not relax his vigilance for a day.

After this day, the bearded man hid in the trees every day and stared at them, but after more than a month, the murderer completely disappeared again.

At this time, he could almost conclude that the murderer must be one of the many villagers, but this person was too hidden to notice. But he could not interrogate one by one, so he should think of something to do.

As the saying goes, "Good and evil will be rewarded in the end, and we can only fight for the early or late." On this day, the bearded man was walking down the mountain in the evening, and suddenly he saw a hare jumping out of the mountain road and jumping over him. The hare was covered in water, shaking the water droplets on his body. It must have been raining in recent days, so the rabbit must have fallen into a puddle to make it wet.

The bearded man didn't care and was about to continue moving forward when he suddenly saw a row of footprints left by the hare on the mountain road. It was because there was water on the hare's feet, and it formed a mark on the road of loess. He had a flash of inspiration and had a scheming.

So after he went down the mountain, he summoned all the villagers and told people that he had discovered the whereabouts of the murderer, which should be near the forest thirty miles west of Laohekou. He would go to capture the real murderer tonight and would give everyone an explanation tomorrow morning. After that, he took a single sword and set off towards Laohekou.

After leaving the village, he took a big circle and returned to the foot of the mountain, then hurried up the mountain and returned home, carrying two bags of white flour. When the night was late, he quietly walked to the not far away in front of each house and sprinkled white flour.

He spread a pool every step, a pool every two steps, a pool every three steps, and a pool every three steps. In this way, no matter whether the person's steps are big or small, he will always step on the surface. Then he sprinkled white flour outside the back window of each house according to law. After sprinkling, he rushed to the old tree in the village.

There was nothing to say all night. The next day, the hour of Yin was over and the sky was just dawn. The bearded man jumped down from the tree and carefully checked the white face in front of each house.

But every beach was intact and had not been moved. Didn't the murderer come out last night? He was a little confused, so he went to the back window to look at it again.

Finally, two white footprints appeared in front of him. He held his breath, took his steps lightly, and walked along one of the footprints.

The white footprints were very short, maybe because they were afraid of making noises, so the person's footsteps were very small and broken. The end of the footprints was facing the back window of Uncle Wu's house, which was hidden in a false sense, as the situation had been opened.

He gently lifted the back window and looked inside. Uncle Wu's body was scattered in a mess and his internal organs were taken out. Seeing this, the bearded man suddenly burst out with blue veins on his head, and his teeth were chewing.

He quickly turned around and chased after another footprint. Following the footprint, he came to the rear window of the Ma family. The bearded man gently lifted the rear window and looked in, but saw Ma's wife, Ma Dashao, lying on the kang, staring at him with blood-red eyes.
Chapter completed!