The sky is bright and the sun is high.

It has already entered April, the spring breeze is warm, and the earth is heating up.

But Zhou Xiaohe and his wife, who were hiding in their thatched house, were filled with chills.

The thatched house is surrounded by an earthen wall, and the door is made of two collected door panels.

One door is made of wood, and the other door is also made of wood.

One panel has mottled black paint, the other has heavy red paint.

An old man in the village once told him that the red painted wooden board he picked up was a coffin lid, but he scoffed at this.

Is there a flat coffin lid? The old man must have wanted to scare him into throwing it away, and then pick it back up himself.

There are many tricks in the countryside!

But now he regrets it. He should have thrown it away. The red paint on the wooden board is a bit weird, which makes people tremble when they see it.

Especially now that strange things are happening in the village.

How bright the sun is outside, how cold it is inside.

The window edges that had just been papered over in spring were extremely white, and they made a rattling sound when the wind blew, which made people tremble even more.

Now he feels something strange wherever he looks.

A child with chapped skin and a face covered with dirt poked his head out from the patched quilt on the bed: "Dad, Mom, when can..."

"Shh, Liu'er, don't make a sound." Mrs. Zhou Wang quickly went to bed and held her son in her arms.

The child asked in panic: "Mom, what's wrong?"

Mrs. Zhou Wang didn't speak, she just hugged her son tightly and shed tears.

Zhou Xiaohe bravely pressed his face against the door panel and listened carefully.

There was a whooshing sound when the wind blew through the crack in the door, and there was a hunting sound when the wind blew the clothes drying in the yard, and -

Pa tap, tap tap, tap tap...

Very gentle footsteps.

It was as if a child was crouching quietly walking towards the door of his house.

Zhou Xiaohe felt that all the hairs on his body suddenly stood up.

He was very familiar with this kind of footsteps. When he and his friends were sneaking up on something when they were young, they would walk so cautiously and make such gentle footsteps!

But he knew that no children came to his yard now.

There are no children left in the village!

Seeing that her husband suddenly turned pale, Mrs. Zhou Wang hugged the child in her arms even more tightly: "She's here? She's here? Is it Xiao Ni'er?"

Zhou Xiaohe's lips trembled a few times, but he didn't know what to say.

He didn't dare to look outside!

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

The sound of footsteps gradually became clearer.

Zhou Xiaohe rushed to the north of the main hall and kowtowed desperately to the statue of Taoist Lord hanging on the wall.

'Bang! Bang! Bang!'

Some soil collapsed on the ground.

The footsteps became lighter and seemed to be receding away.

Mrs. Zhou Wang looked at her husband in surprise. She put down her son and ran to kowtow.

The footsteps disappeared.

The two kowtowed more vigorously and reverently.

The footsteps reappeared again.

Nothing outside has left.

It is quietly circling around the house...

Lord Dao did not protect them!

Or maybe Taojun can't drive away this evil!

The two of them felt despair for a moment, and then their son suddenly pointed to the window and said: "Mom, my sister is outside, she asked me to come out..."

Mrs. Zhou Wang pounced on her son like an eagle, hugged him and burst into tears: "Don't talk!"

Zhou Xiaohe turned around and looked at the window pointed by his son, knelt down and kowtowed again: "No matter who you are, whether you are Xiao Ni'er or not, let my son go, let my whole family go. I, Zhou Xiaohe, have never done anything bad. I have never done anything bad."

, you don’t have a bad conscience!”

The footsteps disappeared again.

The sunlight that was supposed to shine into the room through the window paper also disappeared, and a shadow appeared on the ground.

There was something leaning against the window, peeking in.

Zhou Xiaohe looked down at the shadow and felt chills all over his body.

'Bang, bang! Bang!!'

The sound of knocking on the door suddenly rang, and then came into the house from soft to loud.

Mrs. Zhou Wang covered her son with a quilt and cried: "If you want to take someone with you, take me away. Take me away. Don't take away my son! Take me with you!"

The dull voice of a child sounded under the quilt: "Mom and Dad, someone is knocking on our door, why don't you open the door?"

Zhou Xiaohe, who had already collapsed, reacted suddenly.

This was not someone tapping on the door of the house, but on the gate of the yard, but he was stunned and did not react.

Another rough voice, like a donkey's braying, reached his ears from afar: "Get out of the way, sir, come and open the door."

The shadows shining on the ground through the window paper disappeared at some point.

Zhou Xiaohe bravely looked at the window, but it was empty.

Along with the sound of a door being kicked open, it seemed that the spring sunshine had also been kicked in.

The room suddenly became a little warmer.

Someone outside shouted: "Zhou Xiaohe, Zhou Wang, is there anyone at home?"

Zhou Xiaohe hurriedly opened the door and rushed out. When he looked up, he saw that Zhou Jin, the elder brother in charge of the village, had brought two young men in black clothes into the yard. There was also a man like an ox holding the door panel: "Your house is like this."

The door is too weak."

An ordinary-looking young man in black clothes glared at the strong man, took out a few copper bahts and handed them to him: "Are you Zhou Xiaohe? I'll give you this money to compensate your family."

Zhou Xiaohe was dumbfounded. He took the copper baht blankly and blinked, his numb mind unable to react.

Zhou Jin glared at him and said: "Are you stupid, you idiot? You dare to ask for money from Lord Tianjian Wang Qilin? The adults are here to deal with the ghosts in our village, and so on, they are here to save your baby's life,

Are you still charging people?”

Zhou Xiaohe quickly handed the money to the young man in front of him, then knelt on the ground and kowtowed.

Bruise on forehead.

Wang Qilin stretched out his hand and pressed his shoulder and said: "No need to be polite, you get up first."

Zhou Jin asked again: "We were shouting outside for a while just now. Why didn't someone in your family say anything?"

Zhou Xiaohe was startled: I didn’t hear the cry.

Xu Dadao: "It turns out he is mute, how pitiful he is."

A woman jumped out of the door after hearing their conversation. She staggered over and knelt down and said: "No, no, no, my man is not a mute. Sir, forgive me, sir, help me, sir, save my baby, help me."

My baby!"

Wang Qilin said: "Get up. Mr. Dong told me the whole story on the road, but I want you to tell it again! Especially the details. Do you understand the details?"

Zhou Jin wanted to speak, but Wang Qilin shook his head: "Sister-in-law, you do the talking."

The woman's trembling lips said: "Okay, okay, our place is called Laozhou Village. There are fifty or sixty households in the village, all of whom are tenants of the Zhou family. They rent Mr. Zhou's land for him to farm..."

Dong Jihu couldn't bear to interrupt her.

Wang Qilin waved his hand to indicate his patience.

"The people in the village all live in ruins in the south and north, and they all survive because of the grace of the Zhou family, so they all changed their surname to Zhou. Then, from about ten days ago, yes, ten days ago, the children in the village began to disappear.

One is lost every day, one is lost every day, six are lost, and they cannot be found again.”

At this point, the woman suddenly raised her head, turned around and ran into the house.
To be continued...