The flame in the lantern gradually shrinks,
The charm all around was burned away by that tiny light,
The human skin paper absorbed all the breath burned by the flames, but no writing emerged.
Su Wu took it back,
I have other questions on my mind.
The opera sung by the female ghost before was the last scene in Liang Zhuli where she cried at the grave and turned into a butterfly.
It is said that
The story of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai originated in the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
It was passed down orally by the people to later generations,
There's nothing wrong with a female ghost singing a few verses of Butterfly Lovers.
but,
The play that Human Skin Paper parodied before was the Peking Opera's "Farewell My Concubine".
The history of the birth of Peking Opera is not that long ago.
How could this scholar whose wife died in 1705 parody Farewell My Concubine?
There is something quite strange in this.
but,
1705 was already the reign of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty.
How far is it from the current period?
Su Wu shook his head,
Get rid of the confusing thoughts from your mind.
His eyes looked towards the dark woods,
I have seen the trembling little boy Gou Sheng huddled behind a tree.
Lifting the lantern, he stood still and called to Gou Sheng: "Gou Sheng, what are you still doing hiding in the woods?
The monster was scared away by something unknown.
We are safe,
Come quickly,
We still have to rush to Tanjiacun!"
Su Wu's tone was calm,
Contains the power to soothe fear in people’s hearts,
Gou Sheng was moved by his few words and slowly moved out of the woods.
More than ten steps apart,
The little boy looked at Su Wu: "Brother, are you a real person?"
Previously, Gou Sheng was entangled in a strange rhyme and was almost dragged to the grave. His courage was frightened, so he did not see any movement on Su Wu's side.
——Even if he saw Su Wu parodying him as ‘Overlord’,
Su Wu could also deduce that he was too frightened and was blinded.
The matter is harmless.
But after Gou Sheng was rescued,
I felt like I was scared to death, but this brother could still be so calm, which was a bit surprising.
That's why there was this question looking at each other across the road.
"Of course I am a real person,
I told you before, don’t panic when encountering something strange.
If you panic, the devil will bully you.
If you can calm your mind,
Of course we can control the evil ones." Su Wu said with a smile.
The little boy heard him repeat what he had told him before.
I immediately believed in my heart that this brother was a real person.
Rather than the legendary state of being possessed by a fox ghost,
He breathed a sigh of relief, walked up to Su Wu, and said repeatedly: "Brother is so brave. The scene just now made me so scared that I wet my pants, but brother seems to be fine at all."
"Do what we do,
How could you not have the guts?
You also need to train yourself more,
There will always be times when you go to deliver rice alone in the future. If you don’t have enough courage, won’t you be swallowed up by the devil in an instant?”
"I understand, brother."
…
In the open space outside the bamboo forest,
The mute girl moved bundles of firewood to each stove.
She is young,
It is very difficult to carry such heavy firewood.
But she has been carrying it silently,
There is no stopping from beginning to end.
Li Yueshan, the 'stove master', watched the mute woman carry firewood, but did not help her - he also had a lot of things to do, and he had no time to spare at the moment.
There are still too few people gathered under my stove...
but,
anyway,
If there are too many people, I won’t be able to feed myself…
As thoughts swirled in his mind, Li Yueshan thought that as long as he successfully started the stove this time and established a reputation, the situation would always get better and better in the future - especially when he set up the stove for the first time, he got a good seedling - Li Wu,
I suddenly felt at ease.
He turned around and took out the clay pot from under a table.
on the clay pot,
Painted with people dancing around the flames.
"Let's take a rest first,
This firewood is almost enough."
Li Yueshan said hello to the mute girl, and the mute girl stopped moving firewood.
Then he squatted down behind the firewood stove where Li Yueshan was standing, and kept filling the stove holes with firewood.
The iron pot gradually heats up,
Although this girl cannot speak, she looks like a piece of wood.
But a child who works diligently is not a child without winks.
Li Yueshan nodded secretly in his heart,
Then he shook the clay pot in his hand,
Weigh how much 'fried oil' is left inside.
The clay pot shook slightly,
It makes the sound of liquid churning.
Just by listening to the sound, the fat old man knew that less than half of the fat in the pot was left.
'Everything goes bad when a person is poor...'
He sighed secretly,
The property that I now have was passed down to me by my master and my wife before they died.
Only relying on this little possession to stand on one's feet,
Then everything must be calculated carefully,
There can't be any mistakes.
The oil pan turns red,
Li Yueshan opened the stopper of the pottery pot,
Holding the clay pot, pouring it down,
A stream of black, shiny grease exuding a strange charm was poured into the oil pan.
The moment it comes into contact with the hot pot, streams of green smoke come out.
The smoke was blown by the wind and dispersed to an unknown place.
A strange smell filled the air.
"No matter what you see later, you don't have to pay attention to it.
Just keep your head down and burn this pot." Li Yueshan told the mute girl.
The mute girl nodded slightly.
"Tomorrow you will learn how to cook with me.
From now on, as our kitchen team, you will be responsible for cooking for everyone."
The fat old man decided the direction of the mute woman's future work with just a few words.
While he was talking to the mute girl, the grease in the firewood pot gradually became hot.
Put your hand within an inch of the grease in the pot.
Tried the temperature.
Li Yueshan went to the pile of debris at the back and pulled out a rag bag, and from the bag he pulled out a long cloth bag made of python skin.
Subsequently,
Five large porcelain bowls are lined up on the ground.
The mouth of the snake faces the big bowl,
Pour half a bowl of ‘hunsuohu rice’ into each bowl.
Tie your pockets,
The fat old man placed several bowls of soul-receiving rice on the firewood pot where the "fried oil" was heating.
Wait patiently.
Time passed slowly.
The mute girl was just like Li Yueshan arranged, just burying her head in the pot and making sure that the flame in the stove was always red.
Pay no attention to foreign objects.
I didn't realize that the temperature around me had dropped a lot.
She buried herself in the stove,
Always warmed by the hot stove fire,
I didn't feel any change in the surrounding temperature, which is normal.
Fortunately, Li Yueshan has noticed the change in temperature.
He narrowed his eyes,
Staring at the five bowls of uncooked rice on the stove,
Waiting to see how they change.
Swish la la——
The bamboo forest not far away was shaken by a gust of cold wind.
From the bamboo forest,
There is a series of wet footprints extending alternately,
Out of the bamboo forest,
We walked into an open space with three wood stoves.
The moment those footprints entered the open space,
The fire in the eyes of the three wood stoves suddenly lit up,
Then, where the footprints settled, a vague figure appeared.
This figure's hair and clothes are entangled with water plants,
Drenched with water,
gathered at their feet,
It left patches of wet marks under my feet.
‘It’ has a vague appearance,
And as it approached the stove,
The flames emanating from the stove's eyes counteracted the strange charm diffused on it,
It just makes the surrounding temperature drop,
Will not cause harm to living creatures.
The stove fire burns fiercely,
The more firewood needs to be consumed,
At that moment, just the little devil walked from the bamboo forest to the firewood stove where the soul-collecting rice was placed, and the flames in the firewood stove were dimmed a lot, and it was no longer as red and vigorous as before.
Li Yueshan glanced at the mute woman and said,
At this moment,
Those who need a stove the most need to be smarter.
Fortunately, the mute girl looks dull, but she is meticulous in her work.
Seeing the firelight dimming in the stove's eyes,
She turned back and grabbed a few sticks of firewood,
Fill it into the stove hole.
In this way, I saw Wei standing next to him, with water still dripping from his body.
The mute girl was stunned,
Then he lowered his head,
Keep burning your own fire.
Seeing this scene, Li Yueshan looked surprised. He smiled and felt relieved as he watched the black oil in the pot begin to stir.
Approaching the water of the firewood stove,
One hand grabbed the soul-removing rice on the stove,
Its hand reaches into a bowl of rice,
The whole hand was swallowed up,
So he stretched out his arms harder to scoop up the rice in the bowl,
——Not even an arm got into the rice grains.
follow closely,
Its entire body was slowly accommodated by the seemingly ordinary bowl of soul-collecting rice.
"Shui Wei, Shui Xing!"
The fat old man saw that the entire water monster was contained in a bowl of soul-collecting rice.
The rice grains in the bowl began to bounce around,
He grinned and said to the mute woman: "Fire the pot!
The fire in the stove's eyes cannot be dimmed for a moment,
The fire is not strong,
The oil is not hot,
But I can’t seal this trick!”
The mute woman nodded vigorously, and her hands and feet became more agile.
Li Yueshan took out a pair of gloves made of unknown leather from his pocket and put them on, then reached out to catch the rice grains that kept jumping in the air!
The half bowl of rice that Shui Gui entered was a bit too much for it.
So it started to move around with the help of the extra rice grains,
Trying to shake off the soul-collecting rice that trapped him,
Run away!
What the fat old man did now,
Just keep fishing out the excess rice grains,
On-site, a container was ‘tailor-made’ for this monster to hold it!
Wow!
The rice grains that jumped out of the bowl fell on Li Yueshan's gloves. Each grain of rice was like a pebble falling from a high altitude, carrying with it a huge force.
leaving white marks on his leather gloves,
He seemed unaware,
Continuously salvage the collapsed rice grains,
Throw it into the bowl next to it.
Li Yueshan is very fast,
As a result, fewer and fewer rice grains are falling out,
Ninety percent of the rice in the coarse porcelain bowl was soaked in a layer of black water and gradually expanded.
Another 10% were squeezed into the corner,
Porcelain bowls keep popping up!
Li Yueshan is good at sweeping away,
Grab the rice grains that collapsed,
Sprinkle it into another bowl.
Subsequently,
Before the soul-collecting rice in the bowl collapsed, he reached into the bowl with one hand, accurately scooped out the part of the uncooked rice that had not been soaked by the black water, held it in his palm, and threw it into the bowl next to him!
The leftover soul-collecting rice in the porcelain bowl,
Soaked in black water,
expanding,
It's like a bowl of rice about to be cooked under the action of steam!
——The water is completely filled into the rice grains,
There is no possibility of escape anymore,
It is closely related to Soul Receiving Rice,
This resulted in this bowl of soul-collecting rice being cooked!
"good!"
The fat old man breathed a sigh of relief,
Picking up the bowl of cooked ‘black rice’,
Pour it into the oil pan!
This chapter has been completed!