I am a snake, so it is reasonable for me to teach a group of demons.

After the young man in white left, Qi Qingji locked the gate and led the big yellow dog deep into the sacred woods.

One by one, the thick and straight sacred trees reached the sky, and on each large tree trunk with cracked bark, there was a lifelike face carved.

There were men and women.

There were old people, young people, and children.

Some were crying, some were smiling, some looked peaceful, and some had kind eyes.

Qi Qingji and the big yellow dog walked all the way to the deepest part before stopping.

The big tree that came into view was out of tune with the other sacred trees.

The face on the tree trunk was that of an old man, with hideous and twisted features, as if he was in great pain.

The people in the town called this special sacred tree the"Slicing Dead Ghost".

Qi Qingji sat cross-legged in front of the"Slicing Dead Ghost" sacred tree, stretched out his right palm, and gently patted the slightly raised small mound beside him.

Immediately, he looked up at the old man's face on the tree trunk, which looked like he was being cut into pieces.

"I miss that child~"

Qing Yi murmured to herself

……

Nine years ago.

One evening in the summer of that year, the weather was really hot and humid. Qingyi, who had finally waited until the class was over, hurried back to the small courtyard with a fence and threw herself on a rattan chair under the shade of a tree.

About a cup of tea later, there was a light knock on the gate of the courtyard.

It was so light that it was almost inaudible.

Qingyi opened her eyes with difficulty and looked.

There was a small person standing at the gate of the courtyard.

Except for the woman from the Chen family in Wuyi Lane, Qingyi had never seen such a thin person.

The skin was sallow and the frame was slender.

It seemed that if you tapped the bones lightly, you could hear the clanging sound of copper.

The boy wore loose linen clothes and didn't even have a pair of straw sandals. His two little feet seemed to have been washed in the loess.

But the pair of big eyes, which were clearly black and white, without a trace of impurities, revealed an indescribable warm and spiritual aura.

The boy held a green pear in his clean little hands and smiled foolishly at Qingyi.

""Whose family are you from?"

Qingyi asked

""Master, my name is A Fei, which means flying bird. I live in Wuyi Lane, and my father's name is Chen Yanshi."

The boy replied respectfully.

"What do you want to see me for?"

The boy handed the green pear to Qingyi from a distance and said shyly,"Teacher, I want to learn calligraphy."

"Learn three words.

Qingyi stretched, yawned, and uttered a word lightly,"Go away~"

The boy's red, sweaty face had only a shy smile, and after whispering"I'm sorry", he ran away.

That was the first time Qingyi and the little one met.

The boy was six years old that year.

……

The next day, at dusk, the little one came again, this time holding a green apple in one hand.

""Go~"

On the third day, at dusk, the little one held a bunch of bright red cherries in his hands.

""Go~"

On the fourth day, the fifth day, the sixth day... the boy picked almost all the wild fruits on the mountain.

Until the evening of the nineteenth day, the boy held a candied haws covered with syrup tightly in his hand.

"Sigh~"

Qing Yi sighed and said,"Celery, lotus seeds, red beans, dates, longan, and dried lean meat strips."

""Little boy, don't you know the etiquette of giving gifts?"

The boy shook his head, then suddenly nodded.

"Master, I know.

Qingyi rolled his eyes and said,"No, you don't know."

"Bring me the six rites I mentioned tomorrow, and I will teach you to read."

"Forget it, let's just give the five gifts, no need for the meat strips."

The boy smiled and said,"Thank you, Master."

……

On the twentieth day, the boy did not come.

On the twenty-first day, he did not come either.

This continued for the next few dozen days.

Qingyi had never thought that such common things as celery, lotus seeds, red beans, dates, and longans would weigh on the boy's back like a heavy mountain.

In the autumn when the leaves were falling, on a day off, Qingyi finally saw the boy after two months.

The boy stood on the corner of the street, looking at the pork stall from a long distance away.

Because the boy came every day and looked at him for a short while each time, the stall owner remembered the cute little face. The burly stall owner waved to the boy.

When the boy came closer, the stall owner smiled and poured a bowl of raw pig blood.

""Little boy, finish this bowl of blood, and I'll give you a piece of pork for free."

The boy was silent for a long time.

Suddenly, he picked up the big white bowl and drank the bowl of extremely bright and pungent pig blood without leaving a drop.

The stall owner laughed and fulfilled his promise.

The boy held the small piece of pork and ran home like crazy.

Qingyi, who witnessed the whole scene, shook his head expressionlessly.

……

The next morning, the little boy came with all the six sets of gifts.

Qingyi accepted the six gifts.

Pulling a donkey face, he asked,"Which character do you want to learn first?"

The little boy replied,"Nan, the Nan in the south."

Because he had to go into the mountains to collect herbs, the little boy only learned for half an hour.

After the boy left, Qingyi threw the small piece of pork into the Taiping River. The next day, the little boy learned the Jin character of Jinyi.

On the third day, he learned the Ping character of Pingfeng.

"Nan Jinping~"

Qingyi suddenly realized that the God Offering Festival was coming soon.

The God Forest is the temporary residence of the gods in the human world. Each sacred tree is stained with the breath of the gods. This is passed down from generation to generation in the town.

The so-called God Offering Festival is to buy or fabricate a doll. The more like the doll, the better, and the bigger the better.

The doll's belly is empty, and a jade plaque engraved with the person's name or a piece of paper with the person's name is stuffed into it.

On the day of the God Offering Festival, a sacred tree is selected and the doll is buried deep underground.

After that, kowtow to the gods for nine hours a day, for a total of nine days.

In order to ask the gods to bless the nine generations of wealth and health.

Of course, if ninety-nine copper coins are stuffed into the doll's empty belly, the kowtow process can be omitted.

""Nan Jinping~Nan Jinping~"

After mumbling for a while, Qingyi suddenly rushed out of the fence and jumped into the Taiping River.

He wanted to pick up the small piece of pork.

Unfortunately, it had already been eaten by the fish.

……

On the day of the God Offering Festival, the town was bustling.

The barefoot and linen-clad little kid, holding his mother's clay doll, looked out of place in the noisy crowd, like a lonely ghost.

The crowds of people swam out of the town and headed straight for the sacred woods.

"Haha, come and see, Chen Mengfei's clay doll is really ugly"

"Chen Mengfei, who is this clay doll of yours? It can't be your mother!"

"Ah Fei, everyone in our town says that it was your mother who killed your father, and that the gods punished your mother by making her whole body rot and being bitten by maggots day and night. Is that true?"

"Ah Fei, it's not enough to just have a doll. You also need to stuff a jade plaque, wooden plaque, or paper slip with a person's name engraved on it into the doll's empty stomach. Otherwise, the gods won't know who you are, so how can they bestow blessings upon you? Can you write?"

"Chen Mengfei, the doll my father bought for me is a colorful doll, tall and big. Not to mention your palm-sized shabby clay doll, even a dwarf like you can't compare to it."

"……"

Facing the innocent ridicule and comparisons of the children of the same age in the town, the little one remained calm from beginning to end.

Chen Yanshi, a man from the Chen family in Wuyi Lane, died in unclear circumstances, and even his body has not been found. Naturally, the woman called Nan Jinping has become a jinx that everyone wants to avoid.

No one is willing to bury their parents, themselves, and their children's dolls under the same sacred tree with the woman of the Chen family.

There are a total of 179 sacred trees in the sacred forest, and the people in the town fought over and occupied 178 of them.

Only the lonely"sliced dead ghost" was left.

The little one placed the clay doll with his mother's note under the"sliced dead ghost" sacred tree.

He knelt on the ground and slammed his forehead into the loess.

He knelt for a long time and could not get up.

"May the gods bless my mother with a sweet life"

"As sweet as Grandpa Liu’s candied haws."