Shen Yanchu touched his eyebrows with his fingertips, and a ray of colorful and dazzling light disappeared in an instant.
This opened Liu Ruyan's eyes. She came closer and looked again and again: "What is that light?"
Shen Yanchu put down his finger and looked at her with a curious face: "It's the seven emotions of human beings."
Seven emotions?
"Could it be that human emotions can still be seen with the naked eye?" She thought of the puppetry technique and poked her forehead with her finger.
In order to see clearly, her eyes were cross-eyed. Shen Yanchu put his hand on his lips and seemed to be smiling.
Liu Ruyan glanced at him, then suddenly came closer and poked his forehead.
Shen Yanchu couldn't help but stiffen and wanted to avoid her.
"Good boy, don't move around. Let me take a closer look." She straightened his face and coaxed him patiently.
He really stopped moving and was helpless to deal with her touch: "Not everyone can see the seven emotions and six desires."
"Is that so?" Liu Ruyan put down her hand angrily.
He changed his words: "Just now, when you claimed to be a doctor, the peasant woman's eyebrows were filled with hidden joy."
Liu Ruyan lay on the table, holding her forehead and muttering to herself: "This is strange. Could it be that they like the doctor?"
Shen Yanchu picked up his chopsticks and said, "I'll go to the back of the village to take a look tomorrow morning."
If those missing people leave the valley, they will eventually leave traces on the road.
After eating the noodle soup, Liu Ruyan asked the owner of the house for a basin of hot water, took off her deerskin and shoes, patted off all the snow foam on them, and set them aside to dry.
She soaked her feet in the water and squinted her eyes. Her white toes turned slightly red under the hot water.
Shen Yanchu happened to return to the house, opened the door and saw her sitting in front of the couch, soaking her feet in a copper basin.
His small and sparkling toes made splashes of water. He glanced sideways and felt that the ankles were too slender and looked like jade sculptures under the candlelight.
Seeing that she was looking over, Shen Yanchu turned away and whispered: "I'm afraid it won't be peaceful at night, so I'll go to the front room to keep watch."
After saying that, he immediately turned around and closed the door.
This night was spent peacefully.
The next morning, Liu Ruyan didn't see Shen Yanchu when she got up. Instead, she met the woman delivering porridge.
Mrs. Lin put the food on the table in the courtyard and carefully looked into the room.
She asked casually: "Little brother, where is Doctor Shen who came with you?"
Liu Ruyan almost spat out a mouthful of porridge.
What, Doctor Shen?
If this peasant woman knew that the Doctor Shen she spoke of was actually a terrifying demon, how dare she call him so affectionately?
"He went to the river and will be back later." Liu Ruyan responded casually.
"Go to the river?" Sister Lin looked surprised. "It's not peaceful outside the village. Bandits often appear, especially the river behind the village."
Liu Ruyan picked up the steamed bun and asked absently: "What's wrong with the river?"
Mrs. Lin immediately fell silent, glanced at the open space outside the yard, and finally whispered in her ear: "There is a female ghost on the other side of the river. It's scary."
Liu Ruyan was almost arrested again.
In this winter, the wind in the valley was whistling like a whimper. It did sound a bit scary. She immediately waved her hand and said, "Maybe you heard something wrong."
Mrs. Lin was still serious and argued with determination: "I not only heard it, but also saw it with my own eyes. That female ghost has no feet!"
"When people walk on the river beach, their feet will be immersed in the water. From a distance, it does look like they have no feet." Liu Ruyan denied it.
"But...but that woman clearly died by drowning in the river last year. Her body was swollen at that time. How could she come back alive?"
Liu Ruyan finally looked at her seriously: "Did you see the drowned person come back?"
"Yes, I saw with my own eyes that the woman is back."
Taiping Village is not big, less than 100 households, but Shen Yanchu only showed up at noon.
"What did you find?" Liu Ruyan stepped forward.
He walked straight into the west side house, closed the door, and then said: "There is indeed a mountain road in the poplar forest behind the village that leads to the outside of the valley."
"So, those people really left the village?"
"I don't think so." Shen Yanchu continued, "Some villagers asked me if I was a pharmacist or a doctor. When I answered the pharmacist, they told me that the news about Huang Zhi was wrong and asked me to leave the village quickly. They also said that bandits were rampant outside. , only that mountain road can lead to a safe exit from the valley."
"I also looked at that road. Several miles along the mountain road, there were signs of fighting."
Liu Ruyan fell into deep thought: "So the villagers are lying, and the road behind the village is not safe."
"That's true." Shen Yanchu responded, "That road is hidden among rocks and forests, which is conducive to committing crimes. In addition, the drug dealer has brought a lot of property, so I'm afraid he has met with misfortune."
Liu Ruyan looked back and thought carefully: "Last night I claimed to be a doctor, but the villagers didn't let me leave the village..."
"They need a doctor!" the two said in unison.
"By the way, there is a river behind the village. Did you see it just now?" Liu Ruyan repeated what she heard from the village woman.
"This matter is indeed strange, but there are many wonders in the world, so you might as well go and have a look."
"No, no." She shook her head quickly, "If you want to go, don't take me with you. I have to go find Bai Zhi..."
After half a stick of incense had passed, Liu Ruyan stared at a certain demon with a sad face by the river.
Shen Yanchu stood on the ice, chipped a small piece of thin ice, threw the silver wire in the ring into the water, and injected a trace of true energy to control the wire.
Liu Ruyan withdrew her gaze, that's all, it's time to eat like an emperor.
She went into the forest to pick up some firewood and came back. After setting it up, she spread it with a layer of hay, used the match to ignite the spark, and waited for his fish to take the bait.
After a while, Shen Yanchu took back the silver thread and walked to the shore to warm herself by the fire: "There are no fish in the river."
"How come there are no fish?" She was surprised. Taiping Village was built near the water. It relies on mountains and rivers to feed on water.
"I don't know. I moved to several places, but there are no fish."
"This is strange." Liu Ruyan wandered along the river.
She walked out of the village along the river, and finally found the end of the river outside the poplar forest. It seemed that the lower reaches were blocked by frozen mud.
"What did you find?" Shen Yanchu asked not far away.
Liu Ruyan squatted in the snow and watched, waving to him from afar: "The traces of snow here are wrong."
Hearing this, Shen Yanchu also looked in the direction she was pointing. On the same flat ground, there were two types of snow traces.
She inserted wooden branches into various places in the snow and measured them respectively: "The snow in this area is indeed thinner than in other places. In other words, this area has been turned over by someone, and then it snowed again. This happens."
With that said, Liu Ruyan turned around and found a shovel from nowhere.
Shen Yanchu looked at the shovel in her hand, and his eyes changed.
Yes, it was the same one that buried him in the first place.
Liu Ruyan glanced at him and stepped the shovel into the snow with her foot: "Now I know that I regret it. Didn't you say you wanted to follow me?"
Shen Yanchu's expression did not change: "Since I have made my choice, I have no regrets. Although I don't know what the relationship was in the past, when I woke up that day, I have forgotten all the past events, except for you, I have some impressions."
"How can you not be impressed?" Liu Ruyan murmured in a low voice. The old enemies of the two generations were still entangled to death.
As she spoke, she inserted the shovel into the snow again, and the snow foam she scooped up was piled aside.
Looking at her slender arms, Shen Yanchu was silent and finally said, "Let me do it."
He stretched out his hand, holding the shovel with his long and strong hand, but he accidentally touched her. Shen Yanchu was slightly startled, and subconsciously let go of his fingers.
Liu Ruyan thought he wanted to regret it, so she immediately grabbed his hand and thrust the shovel into his hand.
Her residual warmth was still on the shovel. Shen Yanchu thought for a moment, clasped his hands and shoveled off all the layer of snow on the ground, and piled it aside in the open space.
"The texture of this mud is soft, and it doesn't look like surface frozen soil. It has been turned over before." Liu Ruyan leaned down, pinched the soil between her fingertips, and "keep digging."
He followed the instructions and inserted the shovel deeply into the soil. As the soil was turned over, things buried deep in the ground were gradually revealed.