Chapter 2 second quarter

I heard that it was exactly one month ago when the monster first appeared. that night... Two of Sugawara's entourage were walking that path. That night, Sugawara Buntoki originally planned to go to the woman's house, but unexpectedly fell ill and was unable to go out.Two entourages hurried on the path with Mr. Sugawara's Waka letter. Passing through the luxuriant cedar forest with a thousand-year-old tree, there is a path in the sparse miscellaneous forest.There is a small hill in the middle of the miscellaneous forest, and near the top of the hill, there is a huge cypress tree stump.

"Just when the two of them were about to pass the tree stump, they appeared." Boya shrank her neck after finishing speaking. It was a moonlit night. However, the entourage followed the trails in the forest.One of them holds a torch in his right hand.Although neither of them was a samurai, they both had long swords on their waists. The two walked to the place where the tree stump on the right side of the path could be vaguely seen, and the man walking in front suddenly stopped.This stop caused the man behind him to almost bump into his back. "What's wrong?" "There's someone up ahead," said the man holding the torch, "it's a boy."

"Boy." The man behind took a step forward and focused on looking forward.Sure enough, in the dark ahead, there was a faintly whitish object. It happened that the trees nearby were sparse, and the bright moonlight was falling from the sky.There stood a man whose whole body was covered in moonlight. Take a closer look, it does look like a boy.and…… "Hey, he's naked..." the man standing in front whispered. The two tremblingly approached and saw that it was indeed a naked boy. However, instead of being completely naked, the boy had a cloth scarf wrapped around his waist.However, apart from the cloth scarf around his waist, he has no other clothes on his body, and his fair feet are bare.

He is about nine or ten years old, with a boyish head, and his red lips can still be clearly seen in the night, with a faint smile. "Qingming, isn't it scary enough? If it were me, I might yell 'Wow' and run away." Overhead, the wind rustled the weeds. "What do you want? Do you want to pass here?" the boy asked. "Yes, I want to pass." The man replied. "No, not allowed to pass." The boy said. "What did you say!" The two were angry. At this time, the two of them already knew that the boy in front of them was definitely not an ordinary child.

The two pressed the handle of the knife with their hands, and approached cautiously step by step.Just as he was about to walk past Tongzi, Tongzi's body suddenly began to swell.Before the two of them had time to be surprised, the boy had turned into a giant over ten feet tall. The two wanted to run away, but unexpectedly the boy raised his right foot and trampled them both under his feet. "oops!" The foot strength and weight of that huge body made the two of them breathless. "It's so painful!" "help!" The two moaned all night, and when they regained consciousness, it was already the next morning.

Looking back, there was no sign of the boy, but there was a dead branch on each of the two. "After that, every night... That is to say, as long as someone passes by there at night, the monster will appear." "Interesting." "Don't gloat, Seimei. So far, quite a few people have encountered that monster around there." In short, no matter which direction you come from, as long as you walk near the tree stump on the top of the mountain, you will meet the boy. Boys will also ask passers-by if they want to pass.If the answer is that he wants to pass, he will say no to pass; if he insists on passing, he will forcefully trample passers-by under his feet.

If the passer-by replies: "I don't want to pass." The boy will reply: "Okay, let you pass." After the passers-by passed the tree stump in fear, they breathed a sigh of relief, but found the tree stump appeared in front of them.After passing the stump with doubts in my heart, after walking for a while, I will see the stump again. As a result, passers-by did not realize until the next morning that they had actually been circling the stump all night. "Four days ago, Mr. Sugawara finally met that boy, and he was trampled under his feet." It is said that the boy stepped on Mr. Sugawara and said to him, "What? It hurts to be stepped on, right? If you are trampled on like this for the rest of your life, it will hurt even more, and it will be more terrifying..."

The child's tone is very mature. This is really interesting... Although Seimei didn't say it, his expression completely expressed his feelings. The dancer wondered why Mr. Sugawara did not come, so she went out the next morning to find out, only to find that Mr. Sugawara and his entourage were lying on the top of the mountain with dead branches on their backs, moaning. "Qingming, how are you?" "What about?" "Can you help? Before this matter spreads, Mr. Sugawara wants to solve it privately..." "Is that a juniper tree?" "what you mean?"

"That stump." "right." "Was it cut down a few years ago?" "I heard it was four years ago. The tree seems to be thousands of years old and very tall." "Why cut it off?" "It is said that the top of the tree was burned by lightning five years ago, and then it gradually rotted from the burned part. If the rotten trunk broke, it would be dangerous, so it was cut down four years ago." "I see." "Please, Mr. Sugawara once enthusiastically taught me calligraphy and Chinese poetry. If this continues, Mr. Sugawara will not be able to go to the woman he loves at night..."

"Couldn't you please ask the esoteric monks of Mount Rui or others?" "Most of the monks there are not tight-lipped. If you ask them to deal with it, the news that Mr. Sugawara let the dead branches lie down all night and groaned until the morning will definitely spread immediately." "I don't necessarily have to keep my mouth shut." "No, Seimei, I know you very well. You will never say anything that I ask you to keep secret." Seimei showed a wry smile, filled his empty cup, and drank it all in one gulp. "Then, let's go, Boya." Qingming put down his glass.

"Where are you going?" "Go to Kamo." "when?" "Tonight." "tonight?" "If you want to go, you can only go tonight. Tomorrow I have to go to Jiaowang Huguo Temple. However, maybe tonight we can also solve the entrusted matter over there." "Thank you so much." "Walk." "Walk." And so it was decided.