It's dark, don't go out.

This sentence has been circulated in the old village for many years, and there is no way to verify when it was handed down. But this statement is true, and there is no need to doubt it.

The grandmother-in-law of the old village saw that the sunset was hidden behind the mountain, and her heart became nervous again. As the sun set, the last rays of sunlight disappeared, and the heavens and the earth suddenly fell silent, without any sound. I saw the darkness slowly flooding from the west, swallowing mountains, rivers, roads, roads, and trees along the way, and then came to the remnant village, submerging the remnant village.

There are four ancient stone statues erected at the four corners of the old village, the stone statues are mottled and old, even Granny Si does not know who carved this stone statue and when it was erected here.

Darkness fell, and the four stone statues emitted a faint light in the darkness, and the stone statues were still bright, which made Granny Si and the old people in the village breathe a sigh of relief.

The darkness outside the village is getting thicker and thicker, but with the light of the stone statues, the old village is still safe.

Suddenly, Granny Si's ears moved, she was stunned, and she lost her voice: "Listen, there is a child's cry outside!" ”

Ma Lao next to him shook his head and said, "Impossible, you heard it wrong...... Hey, there's a baby's cry! ”

The cry of a baby came from the darkness outside the village, and the other old people in the village heard this cry except for the deaf, and the old people looked at each other.

"I'll take a look!"

Granny Si became excited, and ran to a stone statue in the village on tiptoe, and Ma Lao hurriedly went over: "Old Lady Si, are you crazy?" It's dark, and if you leave the village, you're dead! ”

"Carry this stone statue out of the village, the things in the dark are afraid of the stone statue, I won't be able to die for a while!"

Granny Si bent down and tried to carry the stone statue on her back, but she was hunchback and couldn't carry it. Ma Lao shook his head: "It's better for me to come." I'll go with you with the stone statue on my back! ”

An old man limped over on the side and said, "Master Ma, you only have one arm, and the stone statue on your back won't last long, I have both hands complete, or I will carry it." ”

Ma Lao glared at him: "Cripple, you have a broken leg, can you go?" I only have one arm, but this arm is very strong! ”

He picked up the stone statue with one arm, and steadied his son, the stone statue was unimaginably heavy: "Old lady Si, let's go!" ”

"Don't call me a dead old woman! Cripple, dumb, all of you should be careful, there is one less stone statue in the village, don't let anything in the darkness touch it! ”

……

Ma Lao and Granny Si walked out of the old village, and there was something strange in the darkness that swam around the two of them, but when they were illuminated by the light of the stone statue, they squeaked and retreated into the darkness.

The two men followed the cry, and walked a hundred and ten paces, and came to a great river, from which the baby's cry came. The stone statue emitted a faint light, not too far away, the two of them carefully captured the direction of the sound, walked upstream along the river, walked dozens of steps, the cry was nearby, and it was difficult for Ma Lao's one-arm to support. Granny Si's eyes lit up, and she saw a little fluorescence, it was a basket parked on the bank of the river, the fluorescence came from the basket, and the crying also came from the basket.

"What a child!"

Granny Si stepped forward and lifted the basket, but she was slightly stunned and couldn't lift it, and under the basket was an arm that was soaked white by the river, and it was this arm that lifted the basket and the children in the basket until the shore.

"Don't worry, the child is safe." Granny Si whispered to the woman underwater.

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

Granny Si lifted the basket, and in the basket was a baby in swaddling clothes, and on top of the swaddling clothes was a jade pendant, which emitted fluorescence. The light of this jade pendant is similar to that of a stone statue, but it is much weaker, and it is the jade pendant that protects the child in the basket from what is in the dark.

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

"It's a boy."

When I returned to the old village, the villagers in the village were all around, all of whom were old, weak, sick and disabled. Granny Si lifted the swaddling clothes and took a look, grinned, and her stump teeth were scattered: "Our old village, there is finally a sound person!" ”

The lame man with only one leg was surprised: "Old lady Si, are you going to raise him?" It's hard for us to feed ourselves! I think it's better to send it out......"

Granny Si was furious: "Why did the old lady give away the child she picked up with her ability?" ”

A group of villagers only promised and did not dare to refute her, the village chief came over on a stretcher, he was more miserable than others, and other people had hands and feet, but less than normal people, and he was handsless and without feet. However, everyone respects him very much, even the fierce and vicious Granny Si does not dare to be presumptuous.

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

The village chief said, "Old woman, do you see anything else in the basket?" ”

Granny Si flipped through it, shook her head and said, "There is only this jade pendant, and there are no other notes or anything." There is a word on the jade pendant, which is a Qin character. This jade pendant has no impurities, and there is a strange power in it, it is not an ordinary product, it should be from a large family, right? ”

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

The village chief pondered and said, "Just let him have the surname Qin, and his name will be Mu, daxia." When he grew up, he told him to go to herding cattle so that he could live. ”

"daxia." Granny Si looked at the baby in swaddling clothes, and the baby was not afraid of her, but babbled and laughed.

……

By the river, the sound of the flute came, and the shepherd boy sat on the back of a cow and played the flute, and the flute sound was crisp and melodious. The shepherd boy was eleven or twelve years old, with clear eyebrows, red lips and white teeth, half-open clothes, and a jade pendant hanging on his chest.

This boy is the baby that Granny Si picked up from the river eleven years ago, and the old people in the village have worked hard to raise this child over the years, and Granny Si has somehow to get a cow, so that daxia when he was a baby drinks milk every day, and has survived the period of easy early death.

Although the villagers of the old village are fierce, they are very good to him, Granny Si is a tailor, on weekdays, daxia learns tailoring with Granny Si, learns to collect medicine and refine medicine with the pharmacist, learns leg skills with the lame grandfather, learns to listen to sound and distinguish position with the blind grandfather, and learns to breathe and breathe with the village chief who has no hands and feet, and the days pass quickly.

This cow was his childhood nurse, and Granny Si originally planned to sell it, but daxia was reluctant, so the task of herding the cow was also handed over to him.

He often grazes cattle by the river, the green mountains are like daisies, the blue waves and white clouds, it is very pleasant.

"daxia, daxia, help me!"

Suddenly, the cow under him spoke, daxia was startled, and hurriedly jumped down from the cow's back, only to see the cow with tears in her eyes, spitting out words, and said to him: "daxia, you grew up eating my milk, I am half your mother, you have to save me!" ”

daxia blinked his eyes and said tentatively, "How can I save you?" ”

The cow said, "You have a sickle at your waist, and you will save me from my trouble." ”

daxia hesitated, and the cow said, "Have you forgotten the grace of nursing?" ”

daxia raised his sickle and carefully cut the cowhide, it was strange that the cowhide was peeled off, and there was not a trace of blood flowing out, and the inside of the cowhide was empty, without flesh and bones.

When the hides were halfway peeled, a woman in her twenties and thirties rolled out of it, her legs still wrapped in the legs, the flesh of which were connected to the hide, but the upper limbs had been detached from the hide.

The woman wore a cloak of hair, snatched the sickle in the hand of daxia, who was already stunned, cut the cowhide on her legs and feet two or three times, looked at daxia, and the sickle was on daxia's neck, and sneered: "Little villain, because of you and I have been turned into a cow, I can only eat grass for eleven years, and I have to feed you milk and drink!" Poor thing, I just gave birth to a baby before I became a cow, and the witch plotted to turn me into a cow to feed you! Today I finally got out of trouble, I will kill you first and then come to bloodbath the wicked people in this village! ”

daxia's mind exploded, and he didn't know what this woman who came out of the cowhide was talking about.

The woman was about to slash him to death, when suddenly her heart went cold, and when she looked down, a knife came out of her chest.

"Mu'er, your pharmacist grandfather asked you to go back and take medicine." The woman's corpse fell, and standing behind her was the lame grandfather of the village, with kind eyebrows and kind eyes, a simple face, carrying a bloody knife in his hand, and smiling at daxia.

"Lame grandpa......" daxia's body was weak, and he looked at the cowhide and the woman's corpse on the ground, but he still didn't come back to his senses.

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

daxia walked towards the village with one foot high and one foot low, and when he looked back, he saw that the lame man had thrown the woman's body into the river.

The shock to him was so great that he didn't even know when he was back in the village.

"daxia! Dead boy, how did you tell you? Don't go out when it's dark! ”

As night fell, the stone statues in the four corners of the old village automatically lit up again, and Granny Si called daxia, who was about to sneak out of the village to the riverside to check the cowhide, and dragged him back.

"Mother-in-law, why can't you go out after dark?" daxia raised his head and asked.

"When it's dark, there will be some terrible things moving in the dark, and going out is death."

Granny Si said solemnly: "The stone statues in the village will protect us, and things in the dark will not dare to enter the village." ”

"Do other villages have such stone statues?" daxia said curiously.

Granny Si nodded, but her face was a little worried, she couldn't help but look outside the village, and said in a low voice, "The cripple should be back...... I really shouldn't have let the cripple out, this guy only has one leg......"

"Mother-in-law, something strange happened today......

daxia hesitated for a moment, and said the matter of a woman coming out of the cow's belly, and Granny Si said casually: "You mean that woman?" The cripple told me and he handled it well. As early as when you were weaned at the age of four, I said that I would sell the cow, but you were reluctant to let you feed it. Look, something is wrong now, right? I said that when you are four years old, you will have feelings for cows. ”

daxia blushed, weaning at the age of four is indeed a bit too long, but it seems that the key is not to wean at the age of four, right?

"Mother-in-law, that woman was killed by a lame grandpa......"

"Well done."

Granny Si smiled: "That's cheapening her." She should have died eleven years ago, and if it weren't for you, would she have survived until now? ”

daxia didn't know why.

Granny Si glanced at him and said, "This woman is the wife of the city lord of the dragon city thousands of miles away from here, the dragon city lord is lustful, and she is jealous, the dragon city lord likes to mess with flowers and grass outside, and rob the women of the good family." And every time the city lord of the dragon destroys a woman's innocence, the lady of the city lord will send someone to beat the woman to death. I infiltrated the dragon city, originally planning to kill her, but seeing that she had just given birth to a child, the child was only three months old, and I thought that you didn't have milk to drink, and she did, so I turned her into a cow and came back to milk you. It's just that I didn't expect this woman to break free from the seal and be able to speak, almost killing you. ”

daxia was dumbfounded, and said in a lost voice: "Mother-in-law, how can a person become a cow?" ”

Granny Si smiled, revealing half of her teeth: "Do you want to learn?" I'll teach you...... The cripple is back! ”

daxia looked and saw the lame man limping with a cane in one hand and the prey on his back in the other. The darkness rushed towards the village like a tide, and Granny Si hurriedly shouted: "Dead lame, hurry, hurry!" ”

"What's the hurry?"

The cripple walked unhurriedly towards the village, and the moment he entered the village, the thick darkness flooded the village. The prey on his back was a colorful tiger, not dead, the tail was swept by the darkness, and suddenly the tiger let out a wail, daxia hurriedly looked, only to see that the tiger's tail was only a section of bones, and the fur and flesh on the tail were all gone, as if it had been gnawed off by something.

He looked curiously at the darkness outside the village, where it was pitch black and he couldn't see anything.

"What's in the dark?" He wondered in his heart.