Chapter 1

Don't go out when it's dark.

This sentence has been circulating in the disabled old village for many years. When did it come down? There is no way to verify it. But this sentence is true, no doubt.

Seeing the sunset hiding behind the mountain, Mrs. Si in the disabled village was nervous again. With the setting sun, the last ray of sunshine disappeared, and suddenly the world was silent, without any sound. I saw the darkness slowly submerging from the west, devouring mountains, rivers, roads and trees along the way, and then came to the old village, drowning the old village.

Four ancient stone statues stand at the four corners of the old village. The stone statues are mottled and old. Even Mrs. Si doesn't know who carved them and when they were erected here.

When darkness fell, the four stone statues emitted faint light in the dark, and the stone statues were still bright, which relieved mother-in-law Si and the elders in the village.

The darkness outside the village became more and more intense, but with the light of the stone statue, the disabled old village was still safe.

Suddenly, Mrs. Si's ears moved, stunned, and she said quietly, "listen, there is a child crying outside!"

The old horse beside shook his head and said, "it's impossible. You heard it wrong... Hey, there's really a baby crying!"

The cry of the baby came from the darkness outside the village. Other old people in the village except those who were deaf heard the cry. The old people looked at each other. The disabled old village was remote and desolate. How could there be a baby nearby?

"I'll go and have a look!"

Mrs. Si got excited and ran to a stone statue in the village on tiptoe. Mr. Ma hurried over: "Mrs. Si, are you crazy? It's dark, and you'll die out of the village!"

"Carrying this stone statue out of the village, things in the dark are afraid of the stone statue, and I won't die in a while and a half!"

Mother-in-law Si bent down and wanted to carry the stone statue, but she was a hunchback and couldn't carry it. Ma Lao shook his head, "I'd better come. I'll carry the stone statue with you!"

Another old man limped to the side and said, "master Ma, you only have one arm, and you can't carry the stone statue for long. I have both hands, so I'll carry it."

Ma Lao stared at him: "dead lame, can you walk with your broken leg? Although I have only one arm, this arm is very strong!"

He picked up the stone statue with one arm and stabilized it. The stone statue was unimaginably heavy: "Mrs. Si, let's go!"

"Don't call me a dead old woman! Lame, mute, you all need to be careful. There is a stone statue missing in the village. Don't be touched by things in the dark!"

……

Old ma and mother-in-law Si walked out of the disabled old village. I don't know what strange things were swimming around them in the dark, but they were illuminated by the light of the stone statue, and then squeaked back into the darkness.

The two men followed the cry forward, walked a hundred steps, and came to a big river. The baby's cry came from the river. The stone statue emits a faint light, which shines not too far. The two people carefully capture the sound direction, walk upstream along the river, take dozens of steps, and the cry is nearby. It is difficult for old Ma to support his one arm. Mother-in-law Si's eyes lit up and saw a little fluorescence. It was a basket parked on the Bank of the river. The fluorescence came from the basket and the cry came from the basket.

"What a child!"

Mrs. Si came forward and lifted the basket, but she was a little stunned and couldn't lift it. Under the basket was an arm that was white with the river water. It was this arm that lifted the basket and the children in it to the bank.

"Don't worry, the child is safe." Mrs. Si whispered to the woman under the water.

The female corpse seemed to hear her words, loosened her palm, was washed away by the river, and disappeared in the dark.

Mrs. Si lifted the basket. In the basket was a baby in swaddling clothes. There was a jade pendant on the swaddling clothes, which emitted fluorescence. The light of this jade pendant is very similar to that of the stone statue, but it is much weaker. It is the jade pendant that protects the children in the basket from things in the dark.

But the light of the jade pendant is very weak. It can only protect the child, but it can't protect the woman.

"It's a boy."

Back to the disabled village, the villagers in the village gathered around, all of them old, weak, sick and disabled. Mother-in-law Si lifted her swaddling clothes and took a look. She grinned, and her residual teeth were scattered: "finally, there is a healthy person in our disabled old village!"

The lame man with only one leg was surprised and said, "Mrs. Si, are you going to raise him? We can't even feed ourselves! I think we'd better send it out..."

Mother-in-law Si was furious: "why should I give away the child I picked up with my skill?"

The villagers were submissive and dared not refute her. The village head came over on a stretcher. He was more miserable than others. At least others had hands and feet, but less than normal people, and he had no hands and feet. However, everyone respected him very much, and even the evil mother-in-law Si did not dare to be presumptuous.

"Since you want to raise him, you should give him a name?"

The village head said, "old woman, do you see anything else in the basket?"

Mother-in-law Si turned over and shook her head and said, "there is only this jade pendant, no other note or anything. There are words on the jade pendant, which is a Qin character. This jade pendant has no impurities, and there is strange power in it. It is not ordinary. It should come from a big family?"

"Is his name Qin, or is his surname Qin?"

The village head thought and said, "let his surname be Qin. His name is mu, Qin Mu. When he grows up, he will be asked to herd. At least he can live."

"Qin Mu." Mrs. Si looked at the baby in her swaddling clothes. The baby was not afraid of her and even giggled.

……

By the river, the sound of the flute came. The shepherd boy sat on the back of a cow and played the flute. The sound of the flute was clear and melodious. The shepherd boy is eleven or twelve years old. He is handsome, with red lips and white teeth. His clothes are half open, and a jade pendant is hung on his chest.

This boy is the baby that mother-in-law Si picked up from the river eleven years ago. Over the years, the old people in the village have brought up the child with hardships. Mother-in-law Si somehow got a cow from where to let Qin Mu drink milk every day when he was a baby, and survived the period of easy premature death.

Although the villagers in the canlao village are vicious, they are all very good to him. Mother-in-law Si is a tailor. On weekdays, Qin Mu learns how to dress with mother-in-law Si, how to collect and refine medicine with a herbalist, how to learn leg skills with a lame grandfather, how to listen to sounds and identify positions with a blind grandfather, and how to breathe and breathe with a village head who has no hands and feet. Life passes quickly.

This cow was his childhood nurse. Mrs. Si originally planned to sell it, but Qin Mu didn't give it up, so the task of herding the cow was also handed to him.

He often herds cattle by the river, with green mountains like Dai, blue waves and white clouds, which is very pleasant.

"Qin Mu, Qin Mu, help me!"

Suddenly, the cow under him began to speak. Qin Mu was startled and jumped down from the cow's back. He saw the cow with tears in her eyes, spitting words, and said to him, "Qin Mu, you grew up with my milk, I'm half your mother, you want to save me!"

Qin Mu blinked and said tentatively, "how can I save you?"

The cow said, "you have a sickle around your waist. If you peel off my skin, you can save me from trouble."

Qin Mu hesitated, and the cow said, "have you forgotten the grace of feeding?"

Qin Mu raised his sickle and carefully cut the cowhide. It's strange that the cowhide was peeled off, and there was no blood flowing out, and the inside of the cowhide was empty, without flesh and bones.

When the cowhide was half stripped, a woman in her twenties and thirties rolled out of it. Her legs were still wrapped in the cowhide, and the skin was connected with the cowhide, but her upper limbs had been detached from the cowhide.

The woman with disheveled hair grabbed the sickle in Qin Mu's hand, cut the cow leather on his legs and feet twoorthree times, looked at Qin Mu, evil to the side of the gall, and the sickle was placed on Qin Mu's neck, Sneered: "little villain, because of you, I was turned into a cow. For 11 years, I can only eat grass and feed you milk! Poor thing, I had just given birth to a child before I became a cow, and then I was secretly tricked by the witch to turn me into a cow to feed you! Today, I finally got out of trouble. Kill you first and then bloody wash the villains in this village!"

Qin Mu's brain roared, and he didn't know what the woman who came out of the cow leather was talking about.

The woman was about to cut him to death with a knife. Suddenly, her heart cooled, she looked down, and a knife came out of her chest.

"Mu'er, your pharmacist grandpa asked you to go back to take medicine." The woman's body fell down. Standing behind him was the lame grandfather of the village. He was kind-hearted and honest with a bloody knife in his hand and smiled at Qin Mu.

"Lame grandpa..." Qin Mu's body softened. He looked at the cow leather and the woman's body on the ground, but he still didn't come back.

"Go back, go back." The lame man patted him on the shoulder and laughed.

Qin Mu walked to the village with one foot high and one foot low. Looking back, he saw the lame man throw the woman's body into the river.

The impact of this scene was so great that he didn't know when he returned to the village.

"Qin Mu! Dead boy, how did you tell you? Don't go out after dark!"

As night fell, the stone statues at the four corners of the disabled old village automatically lit up again. Mrs. Si called Qin Mu, who was going to sneak out of the village to check the cowhide by the river, and dragged him back.

"Grandma, why can't you go out after dark?" Qin Mu looked up and asked.

"When it is dark, there will be some terrible things moving in the dark. If you go out, you will die."

Mrs. Si solemnly said, "the stone statues in the village will protect us, and things in the dark dare not enter the village."

"Are there such stone statues in other villages?" Qin Mu has a wonderful way.

Mrs. Si nodded, but her face was a little worried. She couldn't help looking out of the village and whispered, "the lame should come back... Really shouldn't let the lame go out, this guy has only one leg..."

"Grandma, something strange happened today..."

Qin Mu hesitated and told the story of a woman in the cow's stomach. Mrs. Si casually said, "you mean that woman? The lame told me that he handled it very well. As early as when you were weaned at the age of four, I said that you sold the cow, but you were reluctant to give up, so you were allowed to feed it. You see, something happened now? I said that you will have feelings for the cow until you are four."

Qin Mu blushed. Weaning at the age of four is indeed too long, but it seems that the key is not weaning at the age of four, right?

"Grandma, that woman was killed by the lame grandpa..."

"Well done."

Mrs. Si laughed and said, "that's cheap for her. She should have died eleven years ago. If she didn't want to milk you, she could live to this day?"

Qin Mu didn't know why.

Mrs. Si glanced at him, Avenue: "This woman is the wife of Xianglong City Lord thousands of miles away from here. Xianglong City Lord is lecherous, and she is jealous. Xianglong City Lord likes to flirt outside and forcibly plunder good women. And every time Xianglong City Lord breaks a woman's innocence, the wife of the city Lord will send someone to kill the woman alive. I sneaked into Xianglong City, originally intended to kill her, saw that she had just given birth to a child, the child is only three months old, and thought that you have no milk, and She has milk, so turn her into a cow to milk you. I just didn't expect this woman to break away from the seal and be able to speak, which almost hurt you. "

Qin Mu was stunned and said, "grandma, how can people become cows?"

Mrs. Si hehe smiled, revealing half her scattered teeth: "do you want to learn? I'll teach you... The lame is back!"

Qin Mu saw that the lame man was walking with a cane in one hand and a prey on his back in the other. Darkness rushed to the village like a tide. Mrs. Si quickly shouted, "dead lame, hurry up, hurry up!"

"What's the hurry?"

The lame man walked slowly to the village. The moment he walked into the village, the thick darkness just flooded the village. The prey on his back was a beautiful tiger. It was not dead yet. Its tail was swept by the darkness. Suddenly, the tiger gave a wail. Qin Mu hurriedly looked at it and saw that only bones were left on the tiger's tail. The fur and blood on the tail were all gone, as if it had been bitten off by something.

He looked curiously at the darkness outside the village, where it was dark and nothing could be seen.

"What is there in the dark?" He wondered.