"The wild grass and flowers beside the Zhuque Bridge, and the sunset at the Wuyi Lane is slanted. In the old days, the swallows in front of the Wang Xie Hall flew into the homes of ordinary people."

It is said that the old events of the Six Dynasties follow the flow of water, and the heroes will never return. But the charm of the Wei and Jin Dynasties will not dissipate in the end. It still gives the ancient city of Jinling an incomparable charm, which makes people all over the world intoxicated.

To this day, this ancient city, which is surrounded by the Yangtze River, has once again become the capital of the country and is planned to be the capital of the current dynasty. Qinhuai is still there, and looking back at the romantic feelings of Wang Dao Xie An in the past, it is an old story a thousand years ago. From now on, the ancient city of Jinling will write a new page in history.

It is said that tonight is the Mid-Autumn Festival, the moon is flowing, and the night is as light as a brow. On the colorful Qinhuai River in Jinling, flower boats are coming and going, brightly lit, and they are reflected in the brothels and restaurants on both sides of the river that hold candles and sing at night, which is even more lively than during the day. Although it is approaching the hour of Hai, from Wuyi Lane to Confucius Temple, the road is still crowded with tourists watching the moon and watching the lanterns, and they are reluctant to return home.

Among the lively crowd, a servant in green clothes and green hats was extremely anxious. He was ordered by the family's servant to deliver a box of Lingxiangzhai's moon cakes to the mansion of an official in Wuyi Lane as quickly as possible, but was blocked by the crowded crowd. Where could he go fast? Looking up, there were tourists in front and back, which squeezed the streets out of nowhere. He had a humble position, so he naturally did not dare to make noise, let alone push. He could only follow the crowd and move slowly and wait and be anxious.

While walking, I suddenly heard an angry shout from behind me, and then a crowd of people spread out to the sides. An old man with white hair in ragged clothes came up. But when he saw the old man's sparse white hair, the coarse linen on his body had at least a dozen patches, and several large holes were still exposed, emitting a stench of rotten vegetable leaves. His legs were trembling and he didn't walk slowly. He ignored the crowding of the road. When someone blocked his way, he reached out to push the man, and his behavior was very rude.

When everyone saw that the old man was old, they didn't want to worry about him. The person he pushed to just curse him a few words, so they gave up and hurriedly avoided the side, fearing that a collision would happen, and instead were blackmailed by the old man.

The servant hurriedly protected the mooncake in his hand and said to himself, "This old man is shameless, so uneducated." As he was thinking, a young woman beside him muttered in a low voice: "Who is not upset about the road like this? Seeing this old man's age, he acts so ridiculously. Could it be that he would ask us juniors to teach him etiquette, righteousness, integrity and shame?" A young man dressed in a Confucian scholar beside the young woman laughed and said, "Respecting the elderly and loving the young is the eternal virtue of my great China. I said: 'The six relatives are not harmonious, and there is filial piety and kindness'. If the elderly are approachable and the young are obedient, then everyone in the world naturally loves them. Why should the four words "respecting the elderly and loving the young" be named "virtue"?"

Seeing the man dressed as a Confucian scholar, the servant couldn't help but nodded slightly and thought to himself: "This is right, scholars really understand more reason than we do." But the old man squeezed out of the crowd and walked towards the man. The man didn't pay attention while he was talking, and happened to block the old man's way. The old man was not polite to him, and reached out to push the man on the shoulder. The man caught off guard and staggered and sprained his feet, and his head hit the forehead of the young woman beside him.

The young woman groaned, stretched out her hand to touch her forehead, and didn't say anything. The man started cursing, and opened his mouth to show a series of vulgar slang. Although the servant hangs with the servants and grooms all day long, many of the man's swearing words were never heard of before. His words were very vicious, and he couldn't help but be surprised. Of course, he didn't know that scholars not only understand the truth, but also cursing people much more than ordinary people.

The old man ignored the man's scolding and walked forward on his own. Wherever he went, there was anger. When the old man walked away, the scolding gradually subsided, and the crowd returned to his previous appearance and slowly moved forward.

The servant was in the crowd and spent a meal to walk a dozen steps away. When he looked up, he had reached the head of Zhuque Bridge. When he crossed the bridge, he was at the entrance of Wuyi Lane. But he saw hundreds of people crowding on the bridge, most of whom were stopping and playing on the bridge and watching the flower boats coming and going on the Qinhuai River. After waiting for a long time, the servant finally got up the bridge. I don’t know if he was walking up with the crowd or being squeezed up by the crowd. For a moment, the mouth, ears, eyes, noses and other people were spraying various smells of heat on his head and face.

Just as he was anxious, he suddenly felt a person beside him twisting his body, pushing and rushing around, so that others could avoid him. The servant turned his head and looked at him. He was indeed the old man who was pushing people just now. He was close at this time, but he saw that the old man was mixed with dark spots and mud, which was dirty and smelly. Even if he was not a beggar, he was still an old widow who was unattended. The servant was afraid that the old man would push people again, so he frowned and avoided him. However, there were people in front of him and behind him, where could he hide?

The old man twisted like an epileptic for a while, suddenly stretched out his hands and grabbed the servant's shoulders. The old man was not tall and was hunched. As a result, the sparse white-haired face on the above his head was pressed against the servant's face. The servant was shocked and hurriedly protected the mooncake in his arms with both hands and shouted loudly: "Don't push it randomly, my father-in-law!" The old man ignored it, closed his arms, and hugged the servant's head and neck, pressed the weight on his body toward him, and pushed him back.

He suddenly scolded and was squeezed over by many people. The servant took several steps and knocked away several people. Suddenly he felt a pain in his waist, but the old man pushed him to the edge of the bridge, and his waist hit a carved stone railing. The upper half of his body then leaned out and reached the surface of the river. With a "thump", something slipped into the water, but the box of mooncakes in his hand could not hold it and fell into the Qinhuai River.

It should be noted that this box of Lingxiangzhai's mooncakes are very valuable, and they also brought a private message from their owner to the official of the Ministry of Personnel. How could this be lost? The servant was frightened and quickly came out with both hands to push the old man away. Unexpectedly, the old man was very strong and told him to break free. For a moment, the two of them were stalemate and were about to fall into the river. Others had already avoided one after another, afraid of causing trouble, so no one dared to come forward to persuade him, but they just talked coldly. The servant kept shouting: "Everyone, please help me, I don't know this old man!" Others were still indifferent.

Suddenly, someone in the crowd exclaimed: "Look at them, that's... that's not blood?" The crowd was immediately in an uproar. The servant was blocked by the old man's white head and could not see the situation under him. However, he felt that the clothes below his lower abdomen were wet and hot. He wiped them with his hands and were covered with sticky liquid. He took them in front of him and saw that it was not blood, what was it?

The servant screamed, and somehow developed a force. He pushed the old man aside with both hands. The old man sat down on the ground and raised his head. His face was a surprisingly large mouth, and the corners of his mouth were almost touching the earlobe, and he was smiling at him. At the same time, bright red plasma was gushing out along his big mouth, and his chest and legs were covered with wet blood stains. On this Mid-Autumn Festival night, the Zhuque Bridge on the Qinhuai River was extremely terrifying.

What kind of monster is this? The servant was stunned and couldn't help but think of the man-eating monster he heard when he was a child. Could it be that the blood gushed out of the old man's mouth was bitten from his body? Thinking of this, he didn't care whether he had any injuries on his body for a moment. He subconsciously felt a severe pain all over his body and fainted on the spot.

Looking at the old man, he struggled to stand up, opened his big mouth in the bloody forest and looked around, and his arms were waving, as if he was about to pounce on him. Everyone around had already been in a mess, and seeing this appearance, he turned around and ran away. In the crowd, several people were squeezed into the river in an instant.

There was only a clamor from far to near, but several nearby street guards heard the riots and rushed over. However, there were too many people in the Qinhuai River area, and when they were in chaos, how could they move? In a hurry, these street guards simply waved the iron chains in their hands, swept them around, and immediately injured many people, and opened up a road from the crowd. When they arrived at the Zhuque Bridge, the old man seemed to be unable to hold on. He fell to the sky and fell in a pool of blood, his body trembling endlessly, and his surprisingly large mouth was still open.

Although these street-seeking officials were used to being domineering on weekdays, they were so scared that they didn't dare to move when they saw the old man's appearance. After a long time, a token came up with the courage to come forward and asked, "You old man... old man, what are you?" I saw that the old man had already breathed a lot and had less breath, so he seemed to be unable to survive. As for the big bloody mouth on his face, the flesh on his face was torn apart along the corner of his mouth, extending to his left and right temples, and connected to his mouth to form a big gap; the flesh in it was blurred, and white cheekbones were faintly exposed.

After the consignee looked carefully, he was silent for a moment, suddenly roared in desolation, turned around and ran away, but there were chaotic crowds everywhere blocking the way. He immediately flew up without hesitation and jumped straight into the Qinhuai River.

Seeing his companions jumping into the river to escape, the other street-seeking officers had not yet come to their senses, a black figure crossed the night sky, cold and silent like a crow, and fell quietly on the bridge. Although there were hundreds of people present, no one in the chaos saw where he came from. But when the man's feet stuck to the ground, he squatted down and went to investigate the old man on the ground. He was a middle-aged man with a fat face, but his face was clear and boneless, which seemed to be left with only skin and bones, which was very inconsistent with his slightly obese figure.

Seeing the visitor's actions, the public couldn't help but feel courageous. Someone asked, "Who are you? You're so brave, please step back!" The middle-aged man snorted, and did not answer. He suddenly lowered his head and sniffed the wound on the old man's face with his nose.

A street-seeking man was angry when he saw him rude and suddenly became angry. How could he remember any fear? He directly whipped the iron chain in his hand and shouted, "The official is asking you!" Unexpectedly, before the iron chain was swept to the other party, he felt a pain in his hand. Somehow, the iron chain had already escaped and reached the middle-aged man's hand. The man threw the iron chain at his feet, suddenly stood up straight, and looked around with his eyes.

Only then did everyone see clearly that the man was only thirty or forty years old, his hair was already gray and piled up on his head in a mess; his eyes were red and swollen, as if he hadn't slept for many days, but his eyes turned, a sensational light was revealed. He only heard him say to himself: "Very good! Very good! This is already the thirty-one... This case is getting more and more interesting."

The tolerance who lost the iron chain shouted boldly: "What are you saying? What case?" The middle-aged man showed a mysterious smile on his face and said slowly: "What other case can there be? Apart from this 'face-torn demon', what other case can I have worth sleeping in the open and rushing from Peking to Jinling?"

As soon as these words were said, there was an uproar everywhere, and the people around him muttered in unison: "Face-killing Demon...Face-killing Demon..." In just a moment, these three words had already spread to ten, and ten hundred. The entire Qinhuai River was in an uproar, as if they were possessed by demons, and everyone's faces were full of horror. In less than a moment, one of them took the lead and shouted "Ouch!" and then ran away with his head in his arms. Others also reacted and ran around screaming. For a moment, the entire Qinhuai River was in chaos, some were pushed down and trampled, and they cried and shouted, and howled up to the sky.

Two of the street-seeking officers on the bridge ran away, and one of them was a little braver, looking at the old man on the ground. Sure enough, looking at the appearance of the old man’s face, wasn’t it the “face-killing demon” method that has been terrifying recently? The middle-aged man didn’t care about the chaos around him, lowered his head, stared at the wound on the old man’s face intently, and laughed in his mouth: “Thirty-one, you still have no flaws, it’s great, very good…but you don’t know that the more you are, the happier I am…”
Chapter completed!