bookrebus Chapter 388 Frightened Horse
Chapter 388 Frightened Horse
After such a long time, the blacksmith's house was no longer the garbage dump it used to be. It seemed as if it had been deliberately decorated. The layout inside was surprisingly similar to the house where Ji Zinyin lived, except that in some conspicuous places, the decorative ornaments were not as luxurious as those in Ji Zinyin's house.
Seeing that he was admiring the furnishings in the house, Ji Ziyin said, "Before I came, this lame blacksmith could not get along with any of his superiors. It was not until I invited him to have a drink that we got along well. I saw that his house was in a mess, so I asked someone to renovate it for him. Look at the decoration, it's exactly the same as my house. I don't treat him as a subordinate, but as an elder relative, so it's not a problem for you to exchange houses with him."
It was a dark night outside, and there were actually quite a few people crammed into the crippled old man's small room, including four or five servants, Shen Wen, and Ji Ziyin. Shen Wen looked at the big men in the room staring at each other, scratched his head, and wondered, "There are several rooms next door, do we have to squeeze into one room?"
Ji Ziyin's middle-aged deputy general hurriedly said, "No! Once it gets dark, everyone should find a place to hide nearby. Don't run around. My dear, you just arrived and you don't know that not only is the black fog harmful to people, but there are also birds and beasts in the black fog. Any living creature that passes by will be immediately captured by the birds. It's really scary!"
The little man next to him, the monkey's guard, also said, "Yes, yes. I saw that giant bird with my own eyes. It was as big as three or four rooms. When it flapped its wings, half of the house collapsed. If my two brothers and I hadn't hidden in the vegetable cellar, we would have been carried away by it or we would have been blown into the air and died."
Shen Wen listened to the chatter of several people, and suddenly felt that Ji Ziyin beside him was in a very low mood. Shen Wen asked him what was wrong, and he just shook his head and said, "Nothing, I heard that the black fog used to appear in the deep mountains of the Slit Mountain in previous years, but this year, for some reason, it ran out of the deep mountains and attacked this military camp."
When he said this, everyone nodded in affirmation. The middle-aged deputy general said, "Yes, yes! This year is different from previous years in many ways. This year, we always hear that there are strange people lurking in the deep mountains, which was not the case in previous years."
Everyone nodded.
The monkey said, "It must be that the spirits and ghosts in the deep mountains have united and are trying to find a way to break into our world. Speaking of which, there is one more thing. This place is called the General's Tomb. The generals who disappeared in previous years also disappeared at a certain time and in a regular pattern. This year..."
When he said this he was suddenly awakened, for there was a general sitting in a house with them.
Ji Ziyin looked at the monkey who was always talking nonsense, and when he turned around, he bumped into Shen Wen's gossipy eyes. He said, "There's nothing to hide. According to the rules this year, generals of our level should have suddenly disappeared three months ago."
Shen Wen was puzzled and asked, "Suddenly disappeared? How could he suddenly disappear? He just disappeared when he woke up one night?"
Ji Ziyin nodded and said, "There was a general who disappeared in this way before."
The deputy general said, "Not only that, but my former boss, do you know how he disappeared?"
A younger guy named Dunzi behind him said, "Brother, you've already said it. He was training his horse and took his beloved horse to the grass next to the training ground to let it graze. Suddenly, he disappeared."
Shen Wen asked: "Just disappeared right before your eyes? Without any signs?"
The deputy general said, "No, I saw it with my own eyes. Nothing strange happened in the few days before this happened."
Shen Wen did not dwell on this matter. He asked others, "Are there any other stories or rumors about the disappearance of generals?"
So everyone in the room started talking about the rumors they had heard.
Shen Wen listened to the bizarre cases of generals disappearing, trying to find a pattern from them.
Shen Wen said: "General's Tomb... General's Tomb... Does it mean that the general will die soon after disappearing? Have any of you seen the bodies of those generals? Has anyone found a body before?"
When everyone heard what he said, they looked at each other and shook their heads.
At this time, Shen Wen saw a dark-faced man with his arms raised. He said weakly, "I... my second uncle saw someone. He was the deputy general of General Li Feihu 20 years ago. My second uncle had a deep affection for General Li. He once bravely went to the Slit Mountain alone. He searched in the deep mountains for six months and later found General Li's body beside a mountain stream. My second uncle said that when General Li's body was found, it was still warm, as if he had just died. It was so bizarre."
Shen Wen asked: "Did he tell me any other details?"
Heizi said, "Other details... Oh... He said that General Li's armor was gone, and he was wearing strange clothes that couldn't cover his whole body. The clothes were stained with black gray mud, and there were traces of fire on his sleeves. Other details... That's all."
Everybody was talking and laughing.
At this time, more than an hour had passed since the black fog arrived. The monkey looked at the black fog at the window and said, "Ordinarily, the black fog should have dissipated by this time, but it seems to have taken a little longer today than usual."
Little Blackie touched his head and said, "Brother Monkey, you have miscalculated. It has only been one hour. I lit incense and calculated that the black fog will last for two hours. We have to wait a little longer."
The monkey touched his head and asked, "Really? Maybe I was too impatient today."
Everyone chatted and laughed for another hour, and the black fog outside gradually dissipated. Everyone left the house and went about their own business.
Shen Wen's room was cleaned up quickly, and he slept in the old ghost's house that night.
Shen Wen was not idle in the house. He searched everywhere and finally found the entrance to the secret passage, but it was blocked. He could not open it with his strength. Shen Wen gave up this way. Recalling what he saw in this house last time, Shen Wen guessed that this lame old ghost should also be Zhong Jie's man, probably a secret agent planted in the military camp.
Shen Wen had a very light sleep that night, and just before dawn, he had a strange dream.
He dreamed that he returned to the modern era from the time tunnel of the Slit Mountain. As soon as he stepped into the land of modern time and space, he was caught in a modern war. Several forces were fighting each other in the ruined city. Shen Wen fled with the fleeing crowd. Just when he escaped under the gun of a certain force and was almost shot to death, he was pulled by a big hand that suddenly stretched out. Shen Wen was out of danger. When he looked up at the person, it was Ji Ziyan?
At this point the dream ended.
Shen Wen didn't sleep well that night and was awakened by a nightmare, so he got up early. He put on his clothes and opened the door. Who knew that when he looked up, he happened to meet the eyes of the man in the yard outside the house...
Shen Wen's heart was pounding. He just wondered why this man was so stupid. It was just dawn, why was Ji Ziyin standing in front of his house?
Shen Wen looked him up and down, walked up to him and pointed at him, saying, "You...when did you stand here? You...didn't you stand here all night? Look, you're still wearing the same clothes as yesterday. You didn't even change into pajamas."
Having his thoughts exposed, Ji Ziyin smiled perfunctorily and said, "I went home last night and slept until midnight. I couldn't sleep, so I kept wandering outside. I came to your door before dawn. I... I didn't mean to disturb you."
Shen Wen believed him when he said that. Shen Wen touched his chin and said, "Insomnia? Could it be that you are the legend of the general's tomb, and you can't sleep because of the pressure in your heart?"
Ji Ziyin looked at him for a moment before agreeing with his guess and saying, "Yes."
The two of them had breakfast at the same table. After breakfast, Ji Ziyan was in a good mood, so he took Shen Wen to Machang.
Ji Ziyan raised several good horses in the army. Good horses are like family members to military generals. Ji Ziyan asked people to lead out all the horses and explained to Shen Wen their advantages and disadvantages one by one. Shen Wen knew how to ride horses in his previous life, and the good horses raised in modern horse farms are also very good. A good horse can even make a person rich overnight or go bankrupt overnight.
Just as they were chatting about the horses, a black cloud was rising rapidly from the sky and the mountain tops and rushing towards their military camp.
Shen Wen fell in love with a red horse that Ji Ziyin raised. He touched the horse's neck and said to Ji Ziyin, "This horse has a good temper. Can I ride it for a ride?"
Ji Ziyin looked at him with surprise, and asked, "You... can ride a horse?"
Shen Wen nodded and said, "I can ride a horse, but I'm not very skilled. I don't have many opportunities to ride a horse."
Ji Ziyin nodded and said, "That's right. Then you can ride it and try it out. Don't rush to run. Walk around the horse farm twice. I will ride one too. I will follow you and protect you."
So they each rode a horse and walked slowly around the horse farm.
Shen Wen followed Ji Ziyan's instructions and walked around the horse farm twice. He was not satisfied with walking slowly, so he whipped the horse and the horse galloped away with him.
The horse seemed to have a good temper with Shen Wen. It took Shen Wen for a few laps on the horse field, then suddenly leaped up with its front hooves, made a high leap, crossed the horse fence on the east side, and ran away happily.
Ji Ziyan, who was following behind, became anxious when faced with this sudden incident, and he hurriedly rode his horse as fast as he could to catch up.
The two horses ran one after the other from the horse fence on the east side all the way to the guard post on the east side. The guard at the post saw Shen Wen's horse from afar and had already drawn the bow and arrow in his hand.
When the horse got closer and closer, they shot their arrows, but none of them hit the person on the horse. The red horse was carrying Shen Wen on its back. No one knew why he moved, or maybe it was because the people who pulled the bows and shot the arrows were too inexperienced, but he and his horse managed to get past the guards so gorgeously and ran away in a cloud of dust, leaving the guards stunned.
The guards got up from the ground, yelling to gather the troops to chase after them. At this moment, another galloping horse rushed in front of them. They were unable to dodge and fell to the ground in a mess. When they looked up, they saw that it was their General Ji and were stunned again.
After watching General Ji and his horse gallop past, they got up from the ground and muttered, "What should we do? It seems that he is not an assassin or a deserter. Should we still chase him?"