??

  That child was only three or four years old, with an abscess on the back of his hand as big as a pigeon egg, and many places on his body had already scabbed over. His whole body was dirty and smelly. The old man invited Zhang Wenbin into the house, where there was only one kerosene lamp.

  "The old man said as soon as he opened his mouth: 'This village has been unmanaged for a long time. In the past, it was one of the first to have electricity, but now even electricity can't be connected. From time to time, vehicles will come to the village entrance to deliver some essential goods. However, it's been almost two months since anyone came, and if this continues, our family's salt supply will run out."

  "Doesn't anyone care about you guys?"

  The old man shook his head and sighed, "It's all a disaster. Since the explosion, you outsiders left, and our place has been plagued with epidemics everywhere. Who would want to take care of it? They say it's contagious and deadly." The old man stroked the child's hair and said, "I'm an old man, half my body is already in the ground... it's just this poor child..." As he spoke, the old man began to shed tears, and Cha Wenbin felt a pang of sadness in his heart.

  "Does it itch?" He gently asked the child while stroking the scab.

  "Itchy......" He looked up at his grandfather again and said: "But can't scratch, Grandpa said."

  "Elderly, I think this plague is likely caused by something you come into contact with every day. It's very possible that the local earth energy has a problem. When I came in just now, I saw that many jujube trees at the village entrance have already withered and died. May I ask how the crops have been harvested in the past two years?"

  "It's no good, whatever is planted will die, we can barely plant some corn, and even then, one stalk of corn can't produce many grains of rice. If they hadn't all left, my father and I would have starved to death long ago."

  This way, Cha Wenbin felt more confident in his heart. This saying "Central Huang Huang Ghost, Shi Wenyi, Tu Zhi Jing, leading the evil spirits to do evil" can be matched. The earth energy is also caused by the growth of malaria, where does the air come from? Cha Wenbin guessed that it was probably related to that incident, the sinking of the Bagua platform stirred up the buried malaria gas for many years, and suddenly broke out, and the people who lived here for a long time suffered.

  However, the solution to this poisonous gas is not known to Zhang Wenbin, but he understands a principle: all things are interdependent and mutually restrictive. As the saying goes, in the past, people who were bitten by venomous snakes in the mountains often understood that there must be an antidote nearby where the venomous snakes appeared. If you want to find the venomous snake, it's simple, just go to the place with the most seven-leafed flowers.

  The current Zhuangyuan Village has long since lost its former prosperity, with withered villages and dead vegetation everywhere. Cha Wenbin looked at the ancestral hall with a closed gate covered in weeds, and the moonlight on the mottled gate was particularly desolate. The bustling voices of the past had become the few dozen people living there today. Cha Wenbin couldn't help but sigh: "How long has it been since anyone last lit incense for your ancestors?"

  The hanging lock on the door is gone, and with a gentle push, it's full of dust and cobwebs. The incense burner in the center is also in disrepair. This great hall had once almost trapped him inside, but Cha Wenbin let out a soft sigh and pulled out three sticks of incense from his pocket to light up: "A passing stranger comes to pay respects to the regulars who live here, their descendants are suffering, giving them some protection can't let their own incense die out, right?"

  He turned around, and he only felt a faint sigh in his ear, which was from whom Chawen Bin no longer cared about. As he walked, he said: "Dust returns to dust, earth returns to earth, all the splendor is just a handful of fine sand; heaven above heaven, people above people, waiting for the fruit to ripen, already with a face full of scars." The deceased are ultimately the deceased, what's the point of worshiping them for thousands of years? Dynasties rise and fall, let alone a village. This Shuangyuan Village is already in decline, its vitality almost exhausted. All he can do is save those who are still alive.

  In the center of the village, there is a ginkgo tree that takes three people to encircle. In the early years, this tree was infested with insects and was hollowed out by half. Later, the villagers were afraid that the tree would fall, so they built a circle of knee-high walls around it. During the summer, everyone would gather here to enjoy the cool breeze, mostly familiar faces from the village. Now, the tree has also died, for unknown reasons. Today, when Zha Wenbin came, he saw many red and yellow cloth strips tied to the top of the tree, perhaps the villagers were hoping that heaven would bless them.

  Faintly lit by the moonlight, Cha Wenbin vaguely saw a figure under the tree about 20 meters away. He thought it was probably a woman. His heart skipped a beat as he thought that this village had lost many people in the past two years and wondered if he would encounter something strange tonight. After calming himself down, he continued to walk quietly towards the figure.

  As he approached, the woman was hunched over, her hair disheveled and her feet bare, but the shadow stretched out long on the ground. Cha Wenbin felt a sense of relief in his heart, indicating that it was a living person, but who would be here?

  "Miss..." Zha Wenbin called out from a short distance away.

  The woman heard and turned around, the two of them locked eyes, good guy, it was an old acquaintance, who was it?

  Zha Wenbin immediately called out the woman's name: "Cheng Ziqin! It's you!"

  It was an unexpected surprise to meet this woman here, and yet it was a pleasant surprise. The woman had unknowingly been afflicted with a kind of evil spell called "Golden Silk Hook" back then, and Zhang Wenbin had risked his life to barely break the strange sorcery from the Western Regions. Unfortunately, when he rescued her that year, the girl was still unconscious when Zhang Wenbin left. Now looking at her, Zhang Wenbin's mind suddenly flashed back to a slender figure - Ye Qiu.

  The two of them sat down and started talking, and after Cheng Ziyu woke up, she found that Wen Bin was no longer there. The rascal who had bought her initially soon contracted a strange illness as well, and it took him three months to finally leave. At that time, the plague was rampant in the village, and Cheng Ziyu couldn't return to her mother's house, nor could this place accommodate an outsider like her.

  Anyone who has been labeled as a "zhuangyuan village" can no longer leave the village. In the past, they could still run away, but in recent years, they have been treated like a plague god. Cheng Ziyu also lives alone, but she is at peace, her skin is still so fair and tender, except for the marks left by working in the fields.

  "You're quite lucky, actually I had a lot of things I wanted to ask you back then, you were being controlled by someone."

  Cheng Zi Yun didn't understand what "lowering the head" meant, but she also said: "I don't know either. Now in our village, including me, there are twelve people left, and a few of them won't last much longer."

  "Is the disease contagious?"

  "It's contagious, it's serious, Wenbin, you have to be careful, this village is unbearable." She was worried about Cha Wenbin, but indeed Cha Wenbin had contact with the child in the afternoon and now felt some itching on his arm, and couldn't help but want to scratch.

  "Wow! Look over here, quick!"

  "What's wrong?" As he spoke, Zha Wenbin turned his head and took a glance. This one glance was quite something - on his left upper arm were several bright red scratch marks, the skin seemingly torn apart. How could he not have known about it himself?

  "They were like this at first too..."

  Zha Wenbin only felt dizzy, how did he also get caught today, and unknowingly became this situation in a short period of time. Then he heard Cheng Ziyin say: "Then it's scabbing, then festering, repeatedly not getting better, people will also have a fever, many people have scratched their chests raw, the survivors are all enduring."

  Just as they were talking, three firecrackers suddenly exploded with a loud "bang bang bang", and the flames shot up like small rockets. Setting off firecrackers in the middle of the night, no need to think about it, this must be someone reporting a death.

  Cheng Ziyin looked in that direction with a tinge of sadness and said, "Auntie Li is probably gone. Wenbin, I have to go take a look. In the past, they didn't consider me as one of the villagers, but now that there are fewer people, they've become more affectionate towards me. Auntie Li was a good person. Her husband passed away last year, and it's fortunate that she managed to hold on until now. She can finally put an end to her hardships."

  "Damn it, this damn plague!"

  There were few people, but it didn't hinder the old man's dignity as he walked. He was also an outsider. The Li aunt mentioned by Cheng Ziqin was named Li Gui Xiang. When Cha Wenbin arrived, the old man had already been lying on a wooden board with several layers of yellow paper covering his face. There were only a few people in the village, and after glancing around, they all gathered together. The old man saw Cha Wenbin arrive and greeted him, holding a bag of soybeans, sighing: "Originally I thought when I left, I would grind some tofu for her, but she went ahead of me."

  It is said that there are people, the remaining ones are mostly disheartened, each with boils and pus on their bodies, it's hard to find a piece of good skin all over. An older man holding a cane was slightly trembling while helping Li Guixiang with her clothes, and several others were busy arranging firewood in the courtyard, even at this point, they still adhered to their past traditions.

  Couplets, sacrificial altar, incense candles and offerings are all complete. Listening to them, those who died of the plague were all cremated, and after death, they could not enter the ancestral hall for fear of polluting their ancestors. Zha Wenbin quietly watched them do their jobs, knowing he shouldn't intervene, as long as they were still busy, he knew he was still alive...

  Cheng Ziying was also busy, she fetched water to wipe the wound on the old man's face. The old man's disheveled hair was combed by her as he muttered: "Auntie, leaving is just going to enjoy blessings..."

  That comb was also unknown for a long time, with many broken hairs and debris stuck inside. Cheng Ziyin thought of using her hand to tidy it up, she wanted the old man to leave more cleanly. However, that comb was worn out and had some reverse thorns on its surface, if she wasn't careful, she would get scratched by it. Suddenly, her finger got cut and this girl didn't care, just sucked on it for a moment before continuing...

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