It's dark, don't go out.

This sentence has been passed down in Can Lao Village for many years. It is no longer possible to verify when it was passed down. However, this sentence is the truth and there is no need to doubt it.

Grandma Si from Can Lao Village felt nervous again when she saw the sunset hiding behind the mountain little by little. As the sunset fell, the last ray of sunlight disappeared, and the world suddenly became extremely quiet and there was no sound. The darkness slowly drowned from the west, swallowing mountains, rivers, roads and trees along the way, and then came to Can Lao Village and submerged Can Lao Village.

There are four ancient stone statues standing on the four corners of Can Lao Village. The stone statues are mottled and old. Even Grandma Si doesn’t know who carved the stone statue and when it will be erected here.

As darkness descended, four stone statues emitted a faint light in the darkness, and the stone statues were still lit, which made Grandma Si and the old people in the village breathe a sigh of relief.

The darkness outside the village became more and more intense, but with the light of the stone statues, the Can Lao Village was still safe.

Suddenly, Grandma Si's ears moved, she was stunned and said in a daze: "Listen, there is a child crying outside!"

Old Ma next to him shook his head and said, "Impossible, you heard it wrong... Hey, there is really a baby crying!"

The cry of a baby came from the darkness outside the village. Except for the deaf, the other elderly people in the village heard the cry. The elderly people looked at each other. The Can Lao Village was remote and desolate, so how could there be a baby appear nearby?

"I'll go and have a look!"

Grandma Si was excited and ran to a stone statue in the village on tiptoe. Old Ma hurried over: "Old lady Si, are you crazy? It's dark, you will die after leaving the village!"

"I'll leave the village with this stone statue on my back. I'll be afraid of the stone statues in the dark. I won't die in a while!"

Grandma Si bent down and wanted to carry the stone statue, but she was a hunchback and couldn't carry it. Old Ma shook his head: "I'd better do it. I'll go with you with the stone statue on my back!"

Another old man limped over and said, "Master Ma, you only have one arm, you can't hold the stone statue for long. I have both hands, so I'll carry it."

Old Ma glared at him: "Damn lame, you broke your leg, can you walk? Although I only have one arm, this arm is very strong!"

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

"Don't call me a dead old woman! Crip, mute, you all have to be careful. There is a stone statue missing in the village. Never be touched by things in the dark!"

...

Mr. Ma and Grandma Si walked out of the Can Lao Village. Something strange was wandering around the two in the dark, but when they were shining by the light of the stone statue, they squeaked and retreated back to the darkness.

The two followed the crying sound, walked a hundred steps, and came to a big river. The baby's crying sound came from the river. The stone statue emitted a faint light, which did not shine too far. The two carefully captured the direction of the sound, walked upstream along the river, and walked dozens of steps. The crying was nearby, and Ma Lao's one arm was difficult to support. Grandma Si's eyes lit up and saw a slight fluorescence. It was a basket that was parked on the bank of the river. The fluorescence came from the basket, and the crying sound was also heard from the basket.

"I really have a child!"

Grandma Si stepped forward and lifted the basket, but was slightly stunned and unable to lift it. Under the basket was an arm that was soaked by Jiangshui. It was this arm that lifted the basket and the child in the basket and held it all the way to the shore.

"Don't worry, the child is safe." Grandma Si whispered to the woman under the water.

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

Grandma Si lifted the basket. In the basket was a baby in a swaddling clothes. There was a jade pendant on it, which emitted fluorescent light. The light of this jade pendant was very similar to the light of the stone statue, but it was much weaker. It was the jade pendant that protected the children in the basket from the things in the dark.

However, the light of the jade pendant is very weak, and it can only protect the child, but it cannot protect the woman.

"It's a boy."

When they returned to Can Lao Village, the villagers all surrounded them, all of whom were old, weak, sick and disabled. Grandma Si opened the cradle and took a look, grinned, and her teeth fell: "We Can Lao Village, there is finally a healthy person!"

The cripple with only one leg was surprised and said, "Old Lady Si, are you planning to raise him? It's hard for us to support ourselves! I think it's better to send it out..."

Grandma Si was furious: "Why should I give it to someone if the child I picked up with my ability?"

The villagers were timid and did not dare to refute her. The village chief came over on a stretcher. He was more miserable than the others. The others had their hands and feet, but they were fewer than normal people, while he was free. However, everyone respected him very much, and even the vicious Grandma Si did not dare to be presumptuous.

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

The village chief said: "Old lady, do you see what else is in the basket?"

Grandma Si flipped over and shook her head and said, "There is only this jade pendant, no other note. The jade pendant has characters, it is the character Qin. This jade pendant has no impurities and has strange power inside it. It is not an ordinary product, it should be from a wealthy family, right?"

"Is his name Qin or his surname Qin?"

The village chief thought, and said, "Let him have his surname Qin, and his name is Mu, Qin Mu. When he grows up, he asks him to go to graze, and at least he can survive."

"Qin Mu." Grandma Si looked at the baby in the cradle. The baby was not afraid of her, and she actually smiled.

...

By the river, the sound of flute came. The shepherd boy sat on the back of a cow and played the flute. The sound of the flute 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 hung on his chest.

This young man was the baby picked up by Grandma Si from the riverside eleven years ago. Over the years, the elderly in the village raised the child with great difficulty. Grandma Si got a cow from somewhere and let Qin Mu drink milk every day when he was a baby, and survived the period when he was prone to premature death.

Although the villagers in Can Lao Village are all fierce and evil, they are all very nice to him. Grandma Si is a tailor. On weekdays, Qin Mu learns to tail clothes with Grandma Si, learns to collect and refine medicine with the pharmacist, learns to leg skills with the lame grandpa, learns to listen to sound and distinguish positions with the blind grandpa, and learns to breathe and breathe with the village chief who has no hands and feet. Life passes very quickly.

This cow was his childhood wet nurse. Grandma Si originally planned to sell it, but Qin Mu was reluctant to leave it, so the task of herding cattle was also handed over to him.

He often herded cattle by the river, with green mountains as dark as dark as blue waves and white clouds, which was very comfortable.

"Qin Mu, Qin Mu, save me!"

Suddenly, the cow under him spoke. Qin Mu was startled and jumped off the cow's back. The cow's eyes were filled with tears, and he said to him: "Qin Mu, you have grown up with my breasts. I am half your mother. You want to save me!"

Qin Mu blinked his eyes and tentatively said, "How can I save you?"

The cow said, "You have a sickle around your waist. If you peel off my skin, you can save me from the trap."

Qin Mu hesitated, and the cow said, "Have you forgotten the kindness of nurturing?"

Qin Mu raised his sickle and carefully cut the cowhide. To be honest, it was strange that the cowhide was peeled off, and there was no trace of blood flowing out. Moreover, the cowhide was empty, without flesh and blood or skeletons.

When the cowhide was halfway through, a woman in her twenties and thirties rolled out from it. Her legs were still wrapped in the cowhide. Her skin and flesh were connected to the cowhide, but her upper limbs had already taken off from the cowhide.

The woman disheveled her hair and snatched the sickle from Qin Mu's hand that was already scared, cut the cowhide on her legs and feet two or three times, looked at Qin Mu, and evilly gave birth to her courage. The sickle was placed on Qin Mu's neck and sneered: "Little evil man, I have been turned into a cow because of you and I have to eat grass for eleven years, and I have to feed you milk! Poor, I just gave birth to a baby before I became a cow, and I was plotted against by the demon woman to turn me into a cow to feed you! I finally got out of trouble today. Kill you first and then wash the evil people in this village!"

Qin Mu's mind was thunderous, and he didn't know what the woman who came out of the cowhide was saying.

The woman was about to kill him with a knife, but suddenly her heart felt cold. She looked down and saw a knife penetrated her chest.

"Mu'er, your pharmacist grandfather asked you to go back and take medicine." The woman's body fell down, and behind her was the cripple grandfather of the village, with kind eyes and a simple face. He held a bloody knife in his hand and said to Qin Mu.

"Grandpa Crip..." Qin Mu's body became weak. He looked at the cowhide and the woman's body on the ground, but still couldn't come back to his senses.

"Go back, go back." The cripple patted his shoulder and laughed.

Qin Mu walked towards the village with one foot high and one foot high. When he looked back, he saw the lame man throwing the woman's body into the river.

This scene had a huge impact on him, so he didn't know when he returned to the village.

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

As night fell, the stone statues at the four corners of Can Lao Village automatically lit up again. Grandma Si called Qin Mu, who was about to sneak out of the village to check the cowhide by the river, and dragged him back.

"Mother-in-law, why can't you go out when it's dark?" Qin Mu asked with his head raised.

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

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

"Does there be such stone statues in other villages?" Qin Mu said curiously.

Grandma Si nodded, but her face was a little worried. She kept looking outside the village and whispered: "The cripple should be back... I really shouldn't let the cripple go out. This guy only has one leg..."

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

Qin Mu hesitated for a moment and said something about a woman's stomach. Grandma Si casually said, "Are you talking about that woman? The cripple told me that he handled it very well. As early as when you were weaned at the age of four, I said I sold the cows, but you couldn't bear it, so I asked you to feed them. Look, something happened now, right? I said that eating milk until you were four years old will have feelings for the cows."

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

"Mother-in-law, that woman was killed by the lame grandfather..."

"Well killed."

Grandma Si smiled and said, "That's a bargain. She should have died eleven years ago. If she hadn't breastfeeded you, could she live until now?"

Qin Mu didn't understand why.

Grandma Si glanced at him and said, "This woman is the wife of the Lord of the Canglong City, thousands of miles away from here. The Lord of the Canglong City is lustful, and she is jealous. The Lord of the Canglong City likes to flirt with flowers outside and forcefully rob the women of the good family. Whenever the Lord of the Canglong City ruins a woman's innocence, the wife of the city lord will send someone to beat the woman to death. I sneaked into the Canglong City and originally planned to kill her. I saw that she had just given birth to a child and was only three months old. I thought that you had no milk to drink, and she had milk, so I turned her into a cow to come back to milk you. But I didn't expect that the woman would break free from the seal and be able to speak, almost harm you."

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

Grandma Si smiled and showed her mouth and teeth: "Do you want to learn? I will teach you... The cripple is back!"

Qin Mu looked at it and saw the cripple man leaning on a crutch in one hand and holding the prey on his back with the other, and limping. The darkness rushed towards the village like a tide. Grandma Si hurriedly shouted: "Damn lame, hurry up, hurry up!"

"What's the hurry?"

The lame man still walked towards the village slowly. The moment he walked into the village, the strong darkness just submerged the village. The prey on his back was a colorful tiger, and it was not dead yet. His tail was swept by the darkness. Suddenly, the tiger let out a roar. Qin Mu hurriedly looked and saw that the tiger's tail was only bones left, and the fur and flesh on its tail were gone, as if it had been gnawed by something.

He looked curiously at the darkness outside the village, which was pitch black and could not see anything.

"What exactly is in the darkness?" he wondered.
Chapter completed!