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  Hongcun, the place where I grew up since childhood, I am familiar with every mountain, every land, every river and every inch of grass here. In adult words, even with my eyes closed, I can walk back now. Now I appear at the entrance of Hongcun Village, the ancient gate is slightly worn out by history, the stone plaque has thick and powerful characters carved on it, this is my hometown, where I was born and raised.

  I rubbed my face hard and said, "Illusion, damn it, wake up!"

  The blood on his face began to coagulate, the sticky feeling mixed with a strong smell of gore, and the coolness filled every pore. Behind the archway of Hong Village was a small road, and on both sides of the road were some old buildings that had been around for years. These buildings were mostly in black and white tones, with stone tiles covering the roofs, which were the most common type found in the Taihu Lake region. The wooden beams of the houses protruded outward, supporting several thick branches stripped of their bark. Below the tree trunks, where they met the road, was a round stone, on top of which was a shallow depression - a mark left by years of compression.

  When I was a child, this was the street of Hongcun Village. Those old houses had rice stores, cloth shops, and grocery stores. There were about four or five state-run shops that made up the only commercial center in Hongcun.

  Unfortunately, all of this was destroyed after the Cultural Revolution. A big fire burned down the old houses next door, leaving only charred bricks. Later, when I returned from Northeast China, new two-story buildings had been erected here. The original shops were still there, but now they belonged to the villagers themselves. However, they no longer had the flavor of my childhood.

  The old street of Hongcun Village appears before my eyes, everything is as usual, but the streets that should be bustling with people are empty, and every household's door is hung with white lanterns with the word "奠" written on them. A desolate and quiet atmosphere prevails, occasionally, paper money cut into copper coin shapes and sheets of yellow paper float by in front of my eyes.

  A group of people with white cotton flowers on their heads walked slowly towards the village, led by several children playing with white flower wreaths under the support of adults. The vast procession stretched from afar, when did Hongcun have so many people?

  A huge black coffin began to appear in the crowd, and these people passed by me with expressionless faces. Except for the sound of the wind blowing the paper money on the ground, everything was so quiet. I felt a sense of unease, and I really wanted to know who was lying inside the coffin?

  "What's going on?" I subconsciously moved closer to Ye Qiu, and just like a magic trick, the "Hongcun" that appeared before my eyes was not the Hongcun of now.

  "This is Hongcun many years ago, the Hongcun in my memory." Ye Qiu said softly: "Look, it seems that nothing has changed, only the people here have changed one round after another, and Hongcun is still the same Hongcun." He smiled at me gently: "Xiao Yi, isn't this view beautiful?"

  "Beautiful?" My voice trembled slightly, can this be called beautiful? Soon, I reacted from his words: "What did you say? What do you remember?" It seemed like this guy had amnesia for a long time, what was he talking about?

  Ye Qiu looked at me and said: "Xiao Yi, there's something I've been wanting to tell you." His expression was a bit strange, and I even saw a hint of sympathy in his eyes.

  I smiled awkwardly: "Don't be like that, it's a bit unacceptable. If you have something to say, just say it."

  "I'm not a taciturn person," Ye Qiu said: "Actually, there are many times when I can't see you at all, nor can I hear what you're saying to me." He paused and continued: "Wen Bin has always stopped me from speaking, but don't people have to stop deceiving themselves for their whole lives?"

  "Hmm!" Although I didn't understand what he meant, but I still felt that his words today seemed to make sense, so I smiled and said: "It's rare to hear you talk so much, anyway, he's not here, let's just say whatever we want."

  "Do you want to know who the person I buried just now is?" His expression was already somewhat painful.

  I asked in surprise: "Isn't he a fatty?"

  "No." He shook his head and said: "That person... is you!"

  Suddenly a feeling of dizziness and darkness began to creep in, what on earth are you talking about!

  I trembled my lips and replied with difficulty: "You, you're kidding? Don't do this, bro. If there's something, let's talk about it. I can take it, but don't scare me like this." Looking at his painful expression, I really had a bad premonition in my heart. What kind of person is Ye Qiu? How big is the probability that he's lying?

  "He never let me tell you, but eventually you will know." Ye Qiu continued: "Xiao Yi, you've been gone for a long time, it's just that you didn't know yourself."

  I'm about to go crazy! He turned his head away and shouted: "You're sick, which day wasn't I living a carefree life, eating and drinking well!"

  "I won't lie to you, take a look yourself." He handed me a yellowed photo, which I recognized as the group photo we took after escaping from the northeast countryside that year. Everyone had signed their name on the back of their own photo, and mine was always kept in my pocket because it held all the memories of my youth.

  I carefully took it over, looking at the familiar faces in the photo, my heart beating even faster. There are four people in this photo: me, Fatso, Wenbin and Xiaobai, each with one face, where did Ye Qiu come from?

  This photo is still in good condition, I remember that each photo had a signature on the back, as long as I flipped it over I would know who this photo belonged to. The answer was right under my nose, but at this critical moment, I felt a little scared, and the voice in my heart told me that it seemed to belong to me.

  Faded black and white photos leave memories of youth, the back of the photo is our time. Slightly scribbled handwriting clearly engraved with two words "Summer Memories", at that moment, my world only had gray and white.

  Is this mine? Is this my photo? It shouldn't be wrong, but "why?" I shouted. A liquid started swirling from the corners of my eyes and slid down my cheeks without any temperature. I licked it with my tongue, very astringent.

  "We can't escape our fate after all." Ye Qiu sighed and said, "You're the only one who doesn't know what's going on. Wen Bin and I have known for a long time. Let's go, Xiao Yi, don't stay here any longer. Go find Zhang San and tell him we'll all be back."

  "Can you tell me? What is it that you know that I don't?" I was begging him, everyone has to die, but I didn't want to die without knowing the truth.

  "Reincarnation, from the moment you were born, we are different from others. Little memory, let's go." Before I knew it, Cha Wenbin also appeared, his eyes were bloodshot, I turned around and silently looked at him, I really wanted to tell him to save me, I didn't want to die like this, holding the photo in my hand, my vision began to blur slowly, multiple silhouettes started appearing in my eyes.

  Some people say that the scenery you see before you die is what you miss most in this life, like a slide show flashing through my mind quickly. But am I really going to leave like this? I haven't even had time to meet the one I love...

  With a "bang", this was the last sound I heard as I left this world, everything has come to an end...

  Why am I going to die? Because I have to die. Someone wants me dead. Who is this person? I didn't know until the moment of my death.

  It is said that within a few minutes after death, the brain is still awake and can hear and see. I vaguely heard some sounds, and finally, I believed that I was indeed killed in that way.

  There are many ways to live, and there are also many ways to die. No one ever thought that I would die like this, because in my heart, I had already accepted my own death. No matter who it is, no one can calm the wide-open eyes with their palms, because I am not resigned, because I refuse to close my eyes.

  This is a conspiracy, a conspiracy that was designed from the very beginning, and I am just a small pawn in this grand conspiracy, and now it's time for me to be sacrificed.

  No, I was scared to death because under extreme hypoxia, I believed that the corpse was mine. Who stole that photo from my arms? Why was it Ye Qiu? Was it really him? Until death, I will never know the answer.

  After death, it was like that. This is the first time I felt the feeling of death in my life, cold and dark. Slowly, a golden light appeared in my world, and at one end of the light, there seemed to be someone familiar waving at me. My body began to feel warm, I got up and walked on this road very lightly. I turned back, but found that there was nothing behind me, it was pitch black, while in front of me there was endless brightness, so I walked towards that end.

  In the years I've lived, I never knew how many things I experienced that I didn't understand, and muddled through twenty-some years. This should be what they call the Naihe Bridge, right? Up ahead should be that bridge, and on the other end of the bridge will be Meng Po, won't there? Yes, I think I'll ask her too - what exactly is the truth?

  Here comes the end of part one of the Daoist's prequel. I left many holes unfilled because we are about to start part two.

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  High-speed premiere of the last Taoist 2 latest chapter, this chapter is the address if you think that this chapter is not bad please don't forget to recommend it to your QQ group and Weibo friends!