Twilight Boundary

"What did the old shopkeeper do?"

"Hey, why did the eldest lady cover her face? She didn't go out for a long time, and she didn't even see her when she went out..."

"It smells so good, hehe, you just walked past me..."

Seeing the old shopkeeper and Sister Wu He going out, the guys also felt a little strange, especially they felt sorry for not being able to see the beautiful appearance of Junior Sister Wu He. Of course, there were also some who were sensitive and felt strange in their hearts.

The shopkeeper used to live in the inner courtyard. Although he didn't show up much, they felt at ease with the presence of such a capable person. Suddenly he went out at night, which made them feel a little strange.

"Don't be stunned."

Seeing this, Hu Ma said: "There will be no night patrol tonight, but the lanterns must still be lit."

As soon as the shopkeeper left, Hu Ma was the one who had the final say in the village. The guys didn't dare to be careless and hurriedly took off the lanterns.

There are three of these lanterns in Zhuangzi, one big and two small, the two-hour one is usually carried when patrolling the night, and the big one is usually hung at the door of Zhuangzi.

It seemed to be made of some kind of leather, extremely tough, yet as thin as a cicada's wing, and as red as blood. There was an oil cup inside, and inside the cup was a secret ointment. Once added, it would burn for a long time.

Now there was not much oil in the lamp, so Hu Ma immediately ordered someone to add more lamp oil.

Soon the lantern was lit, but Hu Ma did not let them hang the lantern back. Instead, he took it into the inner courtyard, picked up a high pole, and hung it as a lantern in the outer courtyard, illuminating the surrounding area with red light.

Looking up at the red lantern hanging above their heads, the guys all looked at each other, feeling slightly frightened.

Although they didn't know anything, when they saw the old shopkeeper leaving and Hu Ma having someone hang a lantern in the yard, they felt that the atmosphere was a little weird.

"Hu... Hu Guanshi..."

Someone braved it and asked in a low voice: "Is there anything going on today?"

As soon as he opened his mouth, the people around him turned their heads and looked over, with a frightening twinkle in their eyes.

"No……"

Hu Ma turned to them with a smile and said, "It's almost the New Year, and the shopkeeper has some arrangements, so the rules are naturally different from before."

"Yes, I have also asked you about the things you were concerned about before."

He seemed to be very happy as he said, "Although we are all new here, we can go home during the Chinese New Year this year. Not only that, we will also have money and food, so everyone can go back in glory." .”

"ah?"

The guys had been worried about this matter, but when they stared at it suddenly, they were overjoyed.

Just being able to go home for a New Year's Eve dinner is great, but actually you can actually go back with money and food?

For a moment, I thought I was in a dream, but when I saw on each other's faces that the surprise was real, the excitement almost reached the sky.

Hu Ma was very satisfied with their reaction.

There is nothing I can do. If I had told them in advance what would happen if I stayed for a while, these guys would not have to think about it and scare themselves. Their courage would have weakened in advance, and the fire would not be burning as well. There was no way. Take advantage of evil spirits.

Even the brave ones are scared by others. After all, fear can be contagious.

But if you tell them something happy, their popularity will also rise, the fire will be brighter, and the evil spirits will be suppressed.

This is the reason why people feel refreshed during happy events.

For a moment, everyone forgot about the lanterns above their heads. They just gathered around Hu Ma and asked about when they could return and how much food they could bring.

Hu Ma told them one by one, making the guys excited.

But just when this excitement was infecting everyone, suddenly and suddenly, a bang was heard outside the courtyard wall.

At this moment when night had fallen and everything was quiet, the sound of the bang sounded particularly clear. At the same time, the place where the sound came from also suddenly lit up with a faint light, which was extremely strange.

The guys hurriedly stepped on the bench and looked outside Zhuangzi, and were suddenly surprised.

But they saw that in the small town where they were, everyone would have gone to bed long ago.

But now, a few lanterns were lit on the dirt roads in this town. From a distance, you could see that under the lanterns, there seemed to be an old man playing tricks. He was playing shadow puppets there by borrowing the light of the lanterns.

Not only this one, but further away, there is also a vat player, a monkey player, and a candied haws seller.

This small town has a small population. There are only a hundred or so households in total. Most of them are engaged in the business of traveling merchants and horses in and out of Mingzhou Prefecture. Now there are fewer merchants coming and going, and it is not in the city. What's going on? There are so many people playing tricks here?

There is a lively performance, but no one is watching it, so who is it for?

In particular, they were performing lively there, but there was no one around to watch, and every house had its doors and windows closed.

This strong contrast made people feel a little nervous subconsciously. The guy who climbed up the wall to look out looked a little pale when he came down. He wanted to say something, but couldn't.

Hu Ma didn't even need to look. He just heard the bang and understood what happened.

Seeing that the guys were hesitant, he smiled deliberately and said: "You have to have a good head to perform tricks. People in this town are so stingy that no one will reward them. Didn't they show it to the ghosts?"

The guys wanted to smile with him, but they couldn't.

Hu Ma seemed to ignore this issue at all, waved his hand and said: "We should have given them some reward, but the shopkeeper said that we won't be allowed out, so we have to listen to their free news today. "

"Wazi, Huzi, how is the rice cooking?"

As he spoke, he looked in the direction of the kitchen and said loudly: "The shopkeeper is not here today, so I will make the decision."

"You two, don't make the pickled vegetables, tofu and cornstarch mushy. Slaughter the sheep and cut the meat. There are still a few jars of wine in the shopkeeper's room. I'll bring them back too. Let's celebrate the New Year today."

"..."

"What?"

When the guys heard this, they were all dumbfounded and thought they were dreaming.

Most of the people who can come to this village are from poor families, even those with some wealth at home, but how many times can they eat meat throughout the year?

Even when they came to Zhuangzi, they said they would be provided with blood food, but in fact it was just a little bit every day, and they couldn't eat more than a few mouthfuls. Besides, the taste of blood food was a little different from the pig, beef and mutton they were greedy for.

To put it simply, they are all vegetarians all year round. There is not much meat smell in a month. The last time Hu Ma brought some sheep from the village, they were for viewing, not for eating.

But now Hu Ma suddenly made this decision, which was such a surprise that they all suspected it was not true.

When he saw Hu Ma's smiling face and confirmed that he was not joking, he suddenly became overjoyed and started working on his own initiative with a whimper.

Take the basin, sharpen the knife, boil water, and coax the sheep to the basin.

Even Li Wazi and a few people working in the kitchen were stunned. They had been here for so long, and they didn't expect that they could prepare such a tough dish today.

Everyone wanted to eat everything in their stomachs, and they were busy cheering up. They usually couldn't bear to eat or use anything, so they packed it all and filled it into the pot. Hu Ma also really brought out a few jars of wine from the inner courtyard, and also Let them boil a pot of brown sugar water to relieve the hangover later.

Not only that, Hu Ma also went into the kitchen to take a look, and saw almost two or three kilograms of frozen meat stored in an earthen jar. These were all provided to the young men in the village.

It looked like a lot, in fact, almost everyone, a month's rations, so he waved his hand and asked Li Wazi to cook them all, and promised the guys that they would eat and drink freely today. I'll tell the shopkeeper tomorrow to bring over another piece.

With sheep to eat and such a big piece of Tai Sui, the guys were even more excited than during the Chinese New Year, and they were busy working together in a lively manner.

In the midst of the excitement, only Zhou Datong had a strange look in his eyes. It was inconvenient to ask, but he glanced at Hu Ma secretly and meant something.

Hu Ma didn't explain, but just nodded to him. Zhou Datong reacted immediately, stepped forward and kicked a waiter, and cursed: "You see, you haven't eaten anything good."

"What does it mean to cut it into small pieces and stew it?"

"Today our Mazi brother is bringing us a blessing. We have to roast the whole sheep and cut it with a knife to eat. It's delicious!"

"..."

"Who is so rich that they can eat sheep like this?"

When the guys heard about this way of eating, their mouths watered just thinking about it.

However, Hu Ma listened and was sure of one thing. Zhou Datong and his grandfather must have been quite greedy in the village, and he could actually afford to eat whole sheep.

But Zhou Datong's proposal was immediately approved by everyone, and they immediately set up a stone stove in the yard, chopped enough firewood, lit the fire, and put the sheep on the rack.

Those who had knives in their hands took the knives over and eagerly waited to cut the mutton. Those without knives also grabbed kitchen knives. Zhao Zhu even took the dung fork, but was forced to throw it aside.

"Okay, let's drink and have a feast!"

Two tables were placed in the yard. On the tables were delicious food that was rarely found in Zhuangzi. There was a fire next to it, with sheep burning on it.

Hu Ma silently calculated the time in her heart, and when she saw that it was almost time, she laughed, picked up the wine bowl, led the guys to take a big sip, and then started to eat meat happily.

Now that the night is getting darker, everything is quiet, and there is such a bright red lantern hanging above the head, the atmosphere is weird.

But the guys were really happy, shouting and vying for it, which diluted the gloomy atmosphere.

When the atmosphere was at its strongest, and people were forgetful about eating, and no one thought about the people playing tricks outside, suddenly there was a creak at the door, and the tightly fastened door was suddenly blown open by the wind.

Outside the dark door, a pale face suddenly poked out, opened its face, and then retracted.

The guys were startled, and their hands holding the wine froze.

Hu Ma felt the change in everyone's mood and suddenly smiled and said: "Hey, whose little lady is that? She misses a man and wants to go back with us to celebrate the New Year?"

The guys were stunned for a moment, then burst into laughter again.