I was stunned after hearing what Uncle Lai said. Where is this?
The so-called substitute death is a technique spread among the people in some areas. It is said to be very mysterious, but there is no fixed explanation. There are customs in different places. No one can say how much solid basis this thing has. Because
In this way, I felt that Uncle Lai was being childish and taking Zhang Qiao's life instead of taking it.
But then I thought about the inhuman man in the iron cage. The fact that Taoist Qiu could save the life of this man who was cursed by the ghost shadow showed that he had some abilities.
While talking to Uncle Lai, we all pulled hard on the copper incense burner fished out from the bottom of the water. It was only then that I saw its full picture clearly. I suddenly realized that this thing was not an incense burner. The pattern on its outside was
It's very strange, the carvings are very fine, it is probably a specially cast container. After the incense burner was pulled out of the water more than half, the inside was empty, and the collision sound was clearer and buzzing, as if someone was not coming from inside.
Stopped and slapped.
Uncle Lai and Zhang Qiao and I pulled the rope hard to stop the copper stove in place. Taoist Qiu came over with blood dripping from his body. He was carrying a bamboo basket. The lid of the copper stove was stuck on the stove body.
, already rusty, Taoist Qiu used a hammer to knock off the clips, and slowly took off the furnace cover.
call!
The moment the furnace lid was removed, a black shadow about a foot long jumped out of the copper furnace. Taoist Qiu was as skinny as a stick, but his reaction was very fast. I could tell that this shadow should be a fish.
The body was very slippery, but Taoist Qiu stretched out his hand, grabbed the fish accurately, and stuffed it into the bamboo basket.
Taoist Qiu just caught a few fish one after another, and then closed the stove lid again. I was a little confused, where did this kind of fish come from? Are they kept in a copper stove?
"That's enough, you guys let go." Taoist Qiu handed the bamboo basket to Uncle Lai. As soon as we let go, the copper stove immediately began to sink into the water. Taoist Qiu's water properties were unusual, so he used the force of the water to move the stove, probably
Want to get it back to its original position.
The three of us were temporarily liberated. Uncle Lai took a few steps back with the bamboo basket. I couldn’t figure out what kind of relationship there would be between a few fish and Zhang Qiao’s eyes. What kind of relationship would there be between the fish and Zhang Qiao’s eyes? I was very interested in Uncle Lai.
He said he wanted to see what the fish looked like.
"This is not a fish." Uncle Lai seemed very generous this time and opened the bamboo basket to show me.
I looked inside intently, and what Uncle Lai said was true. If I looked closely, I could see that the thing in the bamboo basket was not a fish, but something like a loach. And as I continued to observe,
I suddenly realized that this thing was a little strange.
It's strange because there is a vertical eye like an Erlang Shen slightly above the two fish eyes. I immediately became interested, a loach with three eyes?
I stretched out a hand toward the bamboo basket, wanting to catch a big loach and take a closer look. But Uncle Lai opened my hand immediately.
"Don't touch it." Uncle Lai didn't look like he was joking or trying to scare me: "This thing is extremely evil."
"It's just a loach, is it so evil..."
"He's not talking nonsense." Taoist Qiu's head popped up from the water again, and then Uncle Lai told me: "This thing is not produced here, and it is about to become extinct."
I really wanted to get to the bottom of it, but Taoist Qiu and Uncle Lai didn't have time to talk nonsense with me. They brought a bamboo basket with three-eyed loach back to the small house they had packed before. According to Uncle Lai's plan, he wanted to
I waited outside and took a look. I refused. I said I wanted to take care of Zhang Qiao, but actually I wanted to see the specific process with my own eyes.
"There's really nothing to see, it's very boring." Uncle Lai advised: "Your butt will hurt from sitting there."
"It's okay, I'm happy with it."
"Then you go in and take a look, I'll guard you."
Uncle Lai and I changed places. After Uncle Lai went out, Taoist Qiu closed the door of the hut. There was no light bulb in the room and only a candle was lit. I suspected that Taoist Qiu was going to do something crazy, so he took out a yellow watch
Then I asked Zhang Qiao for my name, age, date of birth, and asked very carefully. Zhang Qiao looked at me, and I gave him a positive look, and he began to answer, also very carefully.
"Please confirm again." Taoist Qiu asked twice, still looking a little worried: "You only have one chance."
After getting an affirmative answer, Taoist Qiu wrote all these things on the yellow form paper. The dense handwriting was arranged in a very orderly manner. Then, he folded the yellow form paper, tore it off a few times, and waited to unfold the yellow form again.
When he picked up the paper, the whole piece of paper had been torn into a little man with all four limbs.
Zhang Qiao's expression kept changing and he was trembling. It felt like watching an old wizard lower his head.
The three-eyed loaches in the bamboo basket were all poured into a water tank, nine in total. The water tank was not big, and nine loaches that were almost a foot long were put in at once, and it suddenly seemed crowded. The fat three-eyed loaches kept splashing with water,
There were crackling sounds back and forth. Taoist Qiu moved quickly. After all the three-eyed loaches entered the water tank, he picked up the torn-out little yellow paper figure and lit it on the candle.
The little man was burning, and little bits of paper ashes fell into the water tank. The paper ashes were like fragrant bait, and several three-eyed loaches were vying for food. When the little man was completely burned, Taoist Qiu patted him.
With his own hand, he asked us to sit down. He said that the whole process was probably like this, and the next thing to do was to wait.
I looked back and saw that the doors and windows of the hut were closed. Uncle Lai was probably keeping watch outside. I wanted to take this opportunity to get something out of Taoist Qiu's mouth, but the old guy was as smart as a monkey and asked him what the real meaning was.
When he asked a question, he gave me an expression of Alzheimer's disease. I simply ignored him and smoked with Zhang Qiao.
The waiting process was beyond my expectation. Seven or eight hours passed by in a flash. Taoist Qiu seemed to have fallen asleep leaning against the corner. My whole body ached from sitting, and I wanted to stand up and ask him how long he would wait.
Wow…
Before I could stand up completely, the calm water tank suddenly felt like a nest exploded. Several loaches that had been dormant for several hours began to move around, struggling to jump out. Taoist Qiu, who had already "sleeped", jumped over.
, directly took Zhang Qiao’s hand.
"what……"
Zhang Qiao was stronger than me, but in the hands of Taoist Paigu, there seemed to be no room for resistance. Taoist Qiu grabbed his hand, pulled out a knife, and slashed Zhang Qiao's finger with the blade.
A few drops of blood fell into the water tank.
After doing this, Taoist Qiu threw Zhang Qiao aside and stared at the water tank with a candle. At this moment, I suddenly felt that Taoist Qiu's expression became solemn and serious. Because of this, I realized
, what he showed after meeting us were all superficial, maybe he at this moment is the real him.
"Death, death, death..." Taoist Qiu became a little excited as he watched, and kept saying, "The old god is here."
I couldn’t understand what he was talking about or what he was expressing. Zhang Qiao might have been nervous because of what happened one after another. Listening to Taoist Qiu’s mumbling, he felt a little unbearable. But the two of us didn’t bother to say anything more.
, a three-eyed loach in the water tank turned over after struggling for a few times. Taoist Qiu stretched out his hand to fish it out, but the loach was completely dead.
At this moment, I had an illusion that I couldn't figure out. I felt that the water tank under the flickering candlelight was full of Zhang Qiao's swimming shadow, and he was struggling in the water tank.
Before my illusion disappeared, three-eyed loaches turned their stomachs one after another. Taoist Qiu picked them up and threw them aside. The loaches died very quickly. All nine loaches may have died within two or three minutes. I
I don’t know what to think, but I vaguely realized that maybe my father saved his life from the ghost curse a few years ago?
"Come out and let me take a look."
Taoist Qiu pulled Zhang Qiao and pushed open the door of the hut. It was already dark. Uncle Lai was sitting motionless outside the door. When he saw us coming out, he turned around and walked in and stood next to Taoist Qiu. Taoist Qiu used the top of his head to
The light opened Zhang Qiao's eyelids. I also stared at Zhang Qiao's eyes. I have to say that this was an unexplainable phenomenon, because I saw that the scrawny ghost shadow in Zhang Qiao's eyes seemed to have disappeared.
"It's almost there. There's only so much we can do." Uncle Lai shook off his clothes and said to me, "The rest depends on his own luck."
"Uncle Lai, let's talk outside." I pulled Uncle Lai away and pulled him to the fish pond before letting go: "Can you tell me about my dad now?"