Strange Tale of Qingluan

The three of them walked to the deep mountain, and saw a simple and simple thatched hut standing in the wasteland. It was built with irregularly shaped small stones and thatch, leaning against a tall old locust tree.

"Second master, please." After the man finished speaking, he pushed open the dilapidated wooden door, and was the first to bend slightly and enter the room.Without saying a word, Su Zhongming followed into the house. Li Xuan tied his horse to the side of the old locust tree, and followed him into the hut with his pack on his back.

In the dim hut, another man's voice came, quite cautiously: "Who?"

Su Zhongming took a closer look, and saw another rather thin man curled up on the thatch pile.

Seeing three people coming in, the thin man became vigilant, grabbed a thick wooden stick beside him, and slowly stood up.

The man beside Su Zhongming rushed up immediately, and blurted out: "Don't be nervous! It's me! We have steamed buns to eat again!"

The emaciated man was already starving, and when he could smell something he coveted, he happily threw away the wooden stick in his hand, and said joyfully, "Is there any steamed buns to eat? Hurry up and give them to me!!"

Seeing his brother rushing towards him, the man hurriedly covered the hem of his clothes wrapped in steamed buns and fruits, and blurted out: "What's the hurry, what's the rush, I haven't eaten yet!" Then he sat down cross-legged, took out a steamed bun, divided it in half, stuffed it I gave half to my brother.

After seeing the steamed buns, the thin man swallowed his saliva, no matter whether it was dirty or not, he immediately snatched it up and ate it voraciously.After taking two bites, I remembered that there were other people in the room. I looked up at Su Zhongming and Li Xuan, and hurriedly asked my brothers: "Who are they? Why did you bring strangers here?!"

The man persuaded: "Speak politely, these two masters are our benefactors, without them, how could we have steamed buns!"

The thin man froze for a moment: "This steamed bun belongs to them?!!" After eating the steamed bun with a big gulp, he knelt down in front of Su Zhongming regardless of how many steamed bun crumbs were left in his mouth: "My benefactor, although I don't know each other, the villain just Thank you first with a kowtow." After finishing the sentence, he kowtowed three times in a row.

Su Zhongming asked: "You guys, why do you want to live like this? Don't even dare to go down the mountain?"

The thin man raised his head, stood up and confessed: "My two brothers are afraid of being caught back!"

Su Zhongming still didn't quite understand, so he just guessed: "Aren't you... escaped prisoners?"

The man who led the two of them into the hut was a little shorter than the skinny man, but also a little stronger than the skinny man. Hearing what Su Zhongming said, he couldn't help folding his hands and replied: "You can't say that. Our two brothers Firstly, he did not kill or set fire, and secondly, he did not rob or steal..." In order to show his innocence, he deliberately added, "The steamed buns given to the dead are borrowed, not stolen."

Su Zhongming became even more confused: "Then you...?"

The slightly shorter man sighed: "It's a long story, we were ordinary people living in Xingzitun, one day, the king suddenly came and wanted to build a palace in Yanling, it was none of our business, But we don’t know who we provoked, but we were reported to be openly against the imperial court. The king got tired of Shatou, so he drove all the men to Yanling to build his palace. The people in charge there are terrible! There are people who beat people to death all over the world! Our two brothers are also afraid of this day, and we took the opportunity to escape in the middle of the night, and we were afraid that they would be wanted, so we stayed on this mountain all the time."

The thin man answered, "I heard that this is Dingjun Mountain, and there is King Shaole's tomb. We two brothers want to hide here, maybe we can be blessed."

Li Xuan opened his lips and said: "This is indeed Dingjun Mountain. However, even if there are dead souls of the royal family, they will only bless the descendants of Shaole, but you..."

Those two people hurriedly blurted out: "We are from Shaole!"

Li Xuan was stunned when he heard this.

Su Zhongming became happy: "What?! You are from Shaole! That's great!"

The thin man asked: "You, are you too?"

Su Zhongming was about to open his lips happily, but was interrupted by Li Xuan: "You say you are from Shaole, what evidence do you have?"

The thin man said helplessly: "Grandpa, we two brothers are willing to tell each other for the sake of steamed buns, but you don't believe us. It's good if you don't believe us. After leaving this mountain, I'm not afraid of you reporting."

The shorter man obviously disagreed with what he said, and patted his head with one hand: "Why are you talking to Engong like this? Since Engong is willing to reward us with steamed buns, he will never do things like stealing chickens and dogs! Then he took a step forward and said calmly, "Engong! If you are also from Shaole, we two brothers are very pleased! Engong has been away from home for many years, and he doesn't know about his hometown, right? All these years, it was Shaole who was sent to do coolies People! That king was originally the leader of the Lechang tribe, so he never abused his tribe like this!"

In the Cangtian Peninsula, there were originally two ethnic groups, one was the Shaole ethnic group and the other was the Lechang ethnic group.

The Shaoyue people are good at inventing and making musical instruments with excellent sound quality, while the Lechang people have always cultivated many wonderful singers.The Shaole people believe in the twin immortals of Changle—Shao ​​Tianmu and Ling Twelve Stars, while the Lechang people believe in the Phoenix fairy. Although they were born for happiness, their beliefs and talents are different.

Due to the sales of musical instruments to foreign countries, the Shaole nationality gradually became stronger and gained the ruling power in the peninsula. The Lechang nationality was not to be outdone, and disputes often occurred between the two ethnic groups.After the founding of the state by the leader of the Shaole tribe, in order to appease the rioting Lechang tribe, the imperial court hired the leader of the Lechang tribe and outstanding talents as important ministers, and named the country Shaole Kingdom.

Unexpectedly, after Kou Xin took over as the leader of the Lechang tribe, he had the ambition to rebel.

Li Xuan naturally understands the history of the Shaole Kingdom. He couldn't help feeling sorry for the people of Shaole. He sighed and asked, "What is the reason why you were arrested and repaired the palace? Did you leak the blood of Shaole?"

The shorter man simply said: "This is half right, but I also heard from others. I heard that there was a man in the village who went to drink in another village, and after getting drunk, he had sex with a Lechang man who lived there. He quarreled and scolded his ancestor for being a bandit gang who robbed Shaole's territory. That guy was so angry that he wanted to take revenge later, but he didn't remember his appearance. All the men were framed."

Su Zhongming couldn't help complaining about it: "It turned out to be so...!"

The thin man answered, "Nowadays in this land, those who live badly are always from Shaole, and those who live well and are rich are all from Lechang!" Sighing, he added, " I, I have to thank my mother for turning me into a man, and it is tiring to work hard, but girls, alas...all the pretty ones are picked up by Mai Jinqinglou. "

Hearing this, Li Xuan's anger condensed in his chest for a moment, and he couldn't help clenching his fists.

Su Zhongming noticed it, and was worried that he would do something impulsive, so he persuaded in a low voice: "Calm down, anger can't change the reality."

The slightly shorter man thought for a while, and opened his lips: "Grandfather, since he is also from Shaole, there is no other place to go in this mountain, why not stay here? The small broken hut, although the environment is not very good, but it is worse than Sleeping in the open is better, it can shelter you from the wind and rain!" Rolling his eyes roundly, he added, "However, my brother and I haven't eaten meat for a long time, and we don't know the wild game in the mountains..."

Su Zhongming understood what he heard, but when he saw that they were pitiful, he generously agreed: "It's not easy for the two brothers to take refuge, and their bodies are also very tight. If there are wild rabbits in the mountains, you can catch two as a gift!"

The two people were very happy when they heard the words, and quickly thanked: "You are so generous! Thank you!"

At night, the long wild grass outside the house dances with the wind, the whirring of the wind and the chill it brings make people imagine. If it is not for a flame burning in the dark hut, maybe it will tremble all night.

The four of them ate meat, warmed themselves by the fire, and chatted.Li Xuan took the opportunity to ask: "You have lived on this mountain for a few days, do you know where the entrance to the royal tomb is?"

The thin man froze for a moment, and asked concerned: "What do you ask about the entrance of the Royal Tomb?"

Su Zhongming glanced at the man, then at Li Xuan beside him, afraid of self-defeating, he didn't dare to say a word.

The thin man looked straight at them for a moment, and couldn't help guessing: "You guys, don't you want to visit the Taoist tomb?" After thinking about it carefully, he added, "However, judging by your well-dressed appearance, you should not be short of money, which makes no sense. Go and steal Baobei from the royal tomb."

Li Xuan replied: "My family left me a key, saying that it can open the door of a tomb in the royal tomb. I want to see what important things are hidden inside."

Hearing this, the men from Liangshaole couldn't help but turn pale with shock, and the slightly shorter man blurted out: "There is such a thing... You, you, are you... the heirs or relatives of those ministers who have been loyal to the royal family?" ?!"

Su Zhongming was worried about causing trouble, so he couldn't help opening his lips to interrupt: "Don't talk nonsense, we don't know the origin of the key, but since it was left by his family, it's okay to go and see the tomb." Then he hurriedly said with concern, "Then You guys, do you know where the entrance to the royal tomb is?"

The thin man said frankly: "Actually, we two brothers are not very familiar with this mountain. Although we have lived here for a few days, we have never seen the entrance of the royal tomb."

Su Zhongming couldn't help being disappointed: "I thought you guys knew something..."

The shorter man ate the barbecue, spat out the bones, and said with his lips open, "Speaking of which, it's the first time I've eaten such a rich game."

Su Zhongming was stunned when he heard this: "First time? Such an exaggeration...?!"

The slightly shorter man then said: "You must have never seen the old Shaole Kingdom, right? When I was born, Shaole Kingdom was still the Shaole Kingdom at that time, and the royal city was very prosperous! My grandfather was selling sesame seed cakes. Yes, when I was young, I went to Wangcheng with my grandfather to sell sesame seed cakes, earning five dollars more than other places! But, since the people of the Lechang tribe entered the Wangcheng, everything has changed."

After a pause, he hurriedly said: "I didn't brag to you, but I really saw them enter the king's city back then! Even the common people were not spared, and when they saw one, they would kill each other. Throw it into a basket and escape for your life! However, grandpa is getting old, and he fell down before running very far..."

Su Zhongming listened and asked quickly, "Did you get killed...?"

The slightly shorter man raised a smile and told: "Although my grandfather is old, but when he had a bright mind, after he fell down, he ducked on the dead man, so he took me to pretend to be dead, and fooled those Lechang fighters. "

Su Zhongming couldn't help saying: "You are really blessed!"

The shorter man was not proud of it, he just lowered his head slightly: "We don't ask for anything else, I just hope that we can live a safe life in the future."

Chatting and chatting, it was midnight before they knew it, and the four of them went to bed in this small hut.