For so reason, at this mont she was a little worried that the door of Li Le Wen’s house might suddenly open, and then Li Le Wen would co out with a smile, politely bowing and asking her, "Sister-in-law, where are you rushing off to?"
There’s always this feeling of being constantly watched, and every question is clearly layered with deeper aning.
And though there’s nothing, she always has to go through a lot of trouble to explain, fearing that a word or a misplaced emotion would make them overly suspicious.
But contrary to Shi Nian’s expectations, Li Le Wen’s door was tightly locked, with a shiny brass lock hanging.
Shi Nian paused slightly, bowing her head in thought: Indeed, it seed like a few days since she last saw Li Le Wen.
Maybe because it’s autumn, and the ti has co for the flowers and trees to wither, the life in the mountain village started becoming monotonous and mystifying, leading the outsiders to leave one by one quietly.
The villagers said they couldn’t withstand the solitude and returned to the bustling city life. Yet Shi Nian always felt the timing of these departures seed too coincidental.
It wasn’t like they left without prior agreent, but more as if they had coordinated and chosen specific days to leave together.
As if they were going to do sothing together.
But fortunately, she didn’t have deep interactions with these people; she was content to enjoy the peaceful life of this small mountain village with Jieyou. Hence, whether these people left spontaneously or planned it, it didn’t have much impact on her.
Only, the mountain village was quiet, and it had been quite a few days since Mr. left. She understood that he was likely busy with work and couldn’t find the ti. Moreover, during this ti, the village was becoming humid, and Mr.’s leg might feel uncomfortable.
Last night, Mr. even called, saying he would send soone to pick her up in a few days, that he missed her.
A gust of wind blew, covering her face with white mist, dampening her hair.
She smiled and shook her head, knowing she was overthinking again.
She clenched her cara tightly and continued walking forward.
.
The ancient village had the most beautiful Hui-style architecture, but ironically, it had the fewest people. Thus, nine out of ten houses were empty, with those beautiful old houses standing unoccupied.
In these days, taking her cara to explore these uninhabited ancient houses beca Shi Nian’s greatest pleasure. In these deserted old houses, waiting for a sliver of sunlight, then capturing undisturbed pictures, her heart would feel imnsely satisfied.
It was precisely because her understanding of these ancient house details deepened that the photos posted by that blogger on Weibo seed a bit strange to her — because in those scattered detailed images, she clearly saw so unique details from the village’s ancient houses!
To outsiders, Hui-style buildings might all seem the sa, with horse head walls, white walls, black tiles, blue stones, and moss, undistinguishable from each other. But Shi Nian knew that each ancient building was unique.
Additionally, ancient craftsn worked manually, so the knife work on each component was different. She had observed these ancient architectural details closely for so long that she could notice the slightest differences.
So if those photos showed fragnts of the village’s ancient houses, it could only an that the blogger might also be in the village. And judging from the seasonal background of the photos, it’s likely he himself is in the village right now!
But with so few people in the village, she couldn’t think of anyone who might be this blogger.
Curious, she followed the mory of the photos, trying to find the ancient building components in the village that he had recorded in the photos. And at those places, could she also find evidence to confirm her intuition?
She searched along the way, passing several ancient houses. She once again recorded those components with her lens, confirming her intuition was correct. But she didn’t find any valuable clues in those places, proving that person had stood, seen, or photographed there.
Unwilling to give up, she walked along the stone path of the village, further and further.
Finally, she walked into an ancient house by the ancient riverway.
This was a Ming Dynasty ancient house. The villagers said it once belonged to the richest family in the village, with descendants extending their business to Southeast Asia, and so using earned money to buy official positions.
Yet this ancient house was the most dilapidated, and villagers usually stayed far away from it, unwilling to go near.
All because of the legend that it was haunted.
It’s said that due to the family’s fa, robbers ca, and on that night of pillage, over thirty family mbers were all killed by dawn. The simple villagers believed that those who died a violent death wouldn’t leave, and their souls eternally haunted the ancient house, making the ghost stories beco prevalent.
Shi Nian naturally didn’t believe such stories, so she had co once before.
Only that ti, she wasn’t alone; Huangfu Huazhang accompanied her. Not that she sought his help, but after he heard of her intention, he insisted on coming with her to have peace of mind.
That ti she ca, whether the old house had murderous intent, she didn’t feel deeply. However, the heavy sll of decay was indeed true. In this old house spanning so many years, every piece of wood must have gathered a large amount of fungi. The scent released after fungi corrode wood lingers for years.
This ti Shi Nian alone pushed open the slightly ajar door, standing in the old house wrapped in white mist, that kind of decay sll was even stronger.
She couldn’t help but stop and closed her eyes.
This scent reminded her of so images. A corridor, a very long and narrow corridor, she stood at the entrance, and breathed in such a sll.
She also knew that through such a scent, one could actually deduce the approximate relationship between two old buildings.
Again, these fragnted images without beginning or end made her frown involuntarily.
.
A gust of wind ca, swirling the white fog, with a click, blowing the yard door shut. The empty and eerie movent startled Shi Nian.
When she saw clearly that it was just the wind blowing the door shut, she smiled, patting her chest.
Ah, people always let suspicion breed evil intentions.
From that photo, she vaguely felt that two components among them ca from this house. But since she had only been here once before, and the level of decay in this house was unusually high, her mory of certain details wasn’t very deep. Thus, she carefully and slowly moved her footsteps, bit by bit, to find the mories in her mind and conduct a detailed comparison with what she saw in front of her.
Focusing too much on looking up at the wooden components, she didn’t pay attention to her feet and accidentally kicked the decayed bamboo basket on the ground, causing a clatter, which startled Shi Nian almost to the point of sitting on the ground.
At this mont, she vaguely heard footsteps upstairs.
Not a single abrupt sound, but sounds that conford to the regular frequency of human steps, creak, creak, creak.
The upstairs of old Hui-style buildings are all horse-running corridors, able to extend from the front hall all the way to the rear house, connecting front and back. But from the outside, through these small grid windows, it’s fundantally impossible to see any clues inside.
Shi Nian was startled, hugged her cara tightly, and hesitated for a mont whether she should turn around and flee outside the door, or — go inside, climb upstairs, to see whether there’s really soone there.
After hesitating for a mont, Shi Nian still took a deep breath, grasped her cara tightly and went into the house.
She ca to explore the truth, if she left just like this, she wouldn’t have uncovered anything, and it would be a wasted trip.
In the worst-case scenario, if there really is danger, she would just smash the cara in her hand towards it. Then shout out loudly, this small mountain village is quiet and sound-sensitive, surely villagers would hear her.
With hands and feet, she climbed the ancient and narrow stairs, ascending to the second floor. On the second floor, several places of the floorboard had already decayed, exposing large holes, through which the blue brick floor of the first floor could be seen. She carefully moved her steps along the wall root, supporting herself with the walls and columns.
For so reason, the footsteps she heard earlier, although they had scared her for a mont, upon recollecting them, instead made her feel calm.
The stride of a person, the emphasis of the sole and heel when walking, is different for everyone. Similar to fingerprints and voiceprints, regardless of what kind of disguise is used, so instinctive habits cannot be changed.
These footsteps... She gently closed her eyes, only feeling, as if they were once very familiar.
.
Outside the window, the fog grew thicker, and the previously dimly illuminating sun finally conceded, completely shrouded by the white fog, unable to use light and heat to disperse the white fog for this small mountain village.
The inner house of the old building was originally dim, and with this, it further tested one’s eyesight. Under such light and shadow conditions, although her eyes could still see things, they were blurry, and judgnt errors could even occur, making her eyes seem sowhat redundant at this ti.
She instinctively closed her eyes.
For so reason, she seed very confident in her hearing. She wasn’t worried about the dark environnt her eyes can’t see, confidently believing that she could rely on her hearing instead, and the two senses could be freely converted, with no great difference in accuracy.
Just like the feeling when she heard those footsteps earlier.
Such minute movents, her mind would automatically analyze so many details, showing her ears were indeed very sharp.
Shi Nian didn’t even need to reach out to help find her way, still calmly and naturally walking forward. Following those familiar-like footsteps, walking towards the depths of the ancient house shrouded in mist.
As the darkness deepened layer by layer, her heart instead oddly thumped lively.
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