Chapter 190 I don’t know the twists and turns inside
Jiang Shan held on to the gift like an old lady and didn’t let go.
"Comrade Fan," he said with a smile, "can you sit down and listen to me for a few words?"
"You can say whatever you want," Fan Jinshi said anxiously, "but these things must be taken back."
"Okay," Jiang Shan nodded: "I know what you mean, you should listen to what I mean first, okay?"
"Then..." Fan Jinshi softened: "Okay then, let's sit down and talk."
The scene just now made the little boy in the room so frightened that he kept grabbing his mother's trouser legs.
Fan Jinshi picked up the little boy and placed him on his lap.
On the thin yellow face, there are a pair of clear and bright eyes.
"Xiaomin, please say hello to your two uncles."
"Hello, uncle." Xiaomin blinked and said hello clearly.
"Hello."
Jiang Shan and Zhang Lu quickly showed what they thought were kind smiles.
Comrade Zhang Lu even stupidly said: "How polite this kid is!"
Fan Jinshi received a polite smile.
"Comrade Fan," Jiang Shan started talking about business:
"We are journalists by profession. According to an unwritten rule of the unit, we must prepare a gift for the interviewee."
"No, no, no," Fan Jinshi shook her hand. She was not that easy to fool: "No matter what, I can't accept these."
After saying that, she glanced at the spectacular gifts placed on the table.
High-speed iron buckets, short iron cans... canned food, snacks, malted milk.
There was everything to eat and drink, but there was so much that I was worried I wouldn’t be able to hold on even if I took another look.
They are all things that I usually want to buy but can’t bear to buy.
Fan Jinshi could tell after just a quick glance that these snacks might not be available in full order even in Wuhan, let alone Dunhuang.
Thinking of this, she couldn't help but frown.
No matter how difficult the environment is, she can endure it.
But, what about the children?
This little one also comes to accompany its mother to protect the Dunhuang murals?
Five-year-old Xiaomin can't even protect himself!
Somehow, in Fan Jinshi's opinion, the items prepared by this reporter were all the children needed most!
The next second, she found a pile of books under the cookie jar.
The books don't look thick, and I don't know what they are.
"This is not a question of whether you can accept it," Jiang Shan continued, "but a matter of business rules, just like royalties."
Fan Jinshi was about to speak, but Jiang Shan's words covered her up: "You know Pan Hong, right?"
Fan Jinshi nodded: "I know!"
"When we interviewed her, we gave her a yellow dress."
Fan Jinshi: "..."
"And Liu Xiaoqing," Jiang Shan gestured: "She likes to drink soda, so we gave her a large box of Happy Coke."
Zhang Lu on the side nodded vigorously.
"Oh?" Fan Jinshi laughed: "Why does she look like a child?"
"In this expert group, there is a very famous painter named Huang Yongyu," Jiang Shan said with excitement:
"I really like his paintings. Do you know what I gave him when I interviewed him?"
At this moment, Fan Jinshi had already forgotten what she had said in the beginning.
Instead, he became interested in the question asked by the reporter in front of him: "What did you give him?"
"A pair of owls!"
"Alive?" Fan Jinshi asked in surprise.
At the same time, Zhang Lu and the little boy also stared blankly at Jiang Shan.
"Of course it's alive," Jiang Shan said with his hands in a ball, "It's only so big."
"Must be cute, right?"
"They are so cute, I regret not keeping one."
Outside the small window, Huang Yongyu and Shao Bolin, who were listening to the wall, looked at each other.
Then they curled their lips to each other and laughed.
"So," Jiang Shan returned to the topic: "I hope you can also accept the interview gift prepared by the newspaper."
"So that's what happened." Fan Jinshi has never been interviewed before, so she doesn't know the twists and turns:
"Then...well, what do you want to know?"
"Do you still remember how you copied and painted murals at Pujiang Meiying Factory?"
"Let me think about it..." Fan Jinshi recalled: "They seemed to have come twice in total, and the most recent one lasted more than 20 days."
"I'm currently in charge of the promotion of "Nine-Colored Deer" at American Film Studio. Here are some photos," Jiang Shan flipped through his bag:
"See if you can identify which cave mural it is painted on."
"Okay," Fan Jinshi nodded, and then looked at them one by one:
"This should be...yes, it should be the mural in Cave 257."
"Where's this one?"
"This is from Cave 285."
"You remember it so clearly?"
"Haha," Fan Jinshi smiled: "If you stay here for ten years, you will definitely remember it more clearly than me."
"Can you take us to see it in person?"
"No reward for no merit. If you don't leave in a hurry, I can take you to the grotto now."
"Immediately?" Of course Jiang Shan was happy: "But... it's just,"
"But it's just that," Huang Yongyu, who was outside the door, quickly walked into the house: "Let's go, take us with you."
"Yes," Shao Bolin also nodded: "No problem, we'll just stay here for a few nights."
"That's good," Jiang Shan asked for help. "Comrade Fan, please lead the way."
"You guys wait a minute," Fan Jinshi put her arm around her son's shoulders and said, "I'm going to give you a few instructions."
"I'm sorry, kid," Jiang Shan pulled out a stack of comics from the net pocket on the table:
"These are some books that uncle has chosen for you. See if you like them?"
They are all new animated movie comic strips released by American Film Studio.
"And this," Zhang Lu picked up the hawthorn slices: "Eat while reading, time flies by the fastest."
"Hmm~"
Several people in the room nodded at the same time, all deeply touched.
"Did you hear that?" Fan Jinshi thought it was a good idea: "Mom will be back in a minute."
"good!"
Xiaomin, the kid, agreed crisply and smiled very happily.
On the way to the grotto, Zhang Lu couldn't help but ask: "Who takes care of the children when you usually go to work?"
"I was tied to the bed when I was a kid. Now that my kids are older, they won't run around anymore."
Otherwise, my mother will send her to stay with relatives again.
"Can't you keep him with you?"
"Many of the places we went to were too dangerous," Fan Jinshi pointed upward from a distance: "Do you know what it is?"
Everyone raised their heads.
Zhang Lu shook his head, he didn't know where to go.
Jiang Shan replied: "Centipede Ladder."
"Have you seen it?" Huang Yongyu has never seen it.
“I’ve seen it, but I’ve never climbed it.”
Centipede Ladder, as the name suggests, is a wooden ladder with several short logs protruding from both sides of a thick log.
"Many caves rely on it to go up," Fan Jinshi explained: "I am most afraid of climbing the centipede ladder, so how can I bring my children up there."
"It doesn't look very stable." Huang Yongyu imagined it for a moment, then shook his head.
"Many years ago, Lao Chang led people to climb into a high cave. When he was about to retreat, he discovered that the centipede ladder at the entrance of the cave had fallen.
The cave is too high from the ground, so those who can’t reach the sky and can’t get down to the ground are trapped in the cave.”
"What should we do?" Zhang Lu asked anxiously: "There is no one outside?"
"Look at how many grottoes there are in Mingsha Mountain. We are so far away when we go out for work. Who knows which grotto we will stay in."
"Then call someone quickly."
"Except for us, few people pass by here."
"How was it resolved later?"
"There was nothing I could do. The longer I waited, the more panicked I became. Then I became really desperate, so one of my colleagues took the risk and climbed up the 80-degree cliff to the top..."
"Fortunately, there was no danger." Shao Bolin sighed.
I took a class in Dunhuang and developed eighteen kinds of martial arts!
"Later, when we gained experience, we tied the ladder to the entrance of the cave."
"So, the people's wisdom is forced out."
"That's right." Fan Jinshi smiled and nodded:
"However, the several grottoes you want to see have steps, so please be careful."
Just as a group of people walked up the steps, several veteran cadres in the distance walked out of the lounge.
At this moment, the scorching sun gradually moved to the west.
Going up the stone steps, the slope is dotted with grottoes of different sizes.
There is a strange temptation in the dark grotto.
After climbing a few more steps, Fan Jinshi suddenly turned on the flashlight in his hand:
"Here we are, inside is Cave 85 "The Story of Lady Deer Mother"."
Following the guidance of the flashlight, Jiang Shan and his party looked over.
Then he lowered his head and looked at the photo in his hand: "So that's it!"
When the picture in his hand turned into a real object and was displayed in front of his eyes, Jiang Shan suddenly felt an inexplicable excitement: "Murals from the Tang Dynasty?"
"This cave is close to the painting style of the late Tang Dynasty, and further ahead is this one," Fan Jinshi pointed to the photo in her other hand:
"The "Female Donor Figure" in Cave 61 is better preserved."
In just a few steps, Cave 61 arrived.
Jiang Shan raised the photo in his hand: "This is really it!"
A row of female believers wearing hats and red clothes stood with their hands folded.
Due to the erosion of wind and sand over time, the pigment around the eye frames has oxidized to black.
In the dark and quiet atmosphere of the grotto, it is quite the scene of a ghostly wedding.
Jiang Shan curled his lips when he saw this: "Do you usually dare to enter the cave alone?"
"Huh?" Fan Jinshi didn't react, and then smiled: "Oh, this cave is actually not bad."
"Well," Huang Yongyu believed, "there must be something uglier than this."
"I was scared when I first came here, but I'll be fine once I get used to it."
Zhang Lu couldn't help but sigh: "Can you remember the contents of each cave mural? You have such a good memory!"
"Actually, it's nothing," Fan Jinshi's flashlight beam slowly moved on the mural: "If you stay there for a long time, you can even touch it with your eyes closed."
Keep walking forward, this time the road is longer.
"Here we are," the flashlight beam entered first: "The Deer King Bunsen in Cave 257 of the Mogao Grottoes is what you call the Nine-Colored Deer."
Dun means great; Huang means prosperous.
The murals in Cave 257 give Jiangshan a "secret" feeling.
The picture "The Deer King Bunsheng" is known as the earliest Chinese comic strip.
Perhaps because this story is too long, the walls of the cave are densely covered with rows of red murals from top to bottom.
Each line is a chapter.
"This is the earliest comic strip." Jiang Shanmao leaned over and looked at it carefully.
Huang Yongyu: "Oh?"
Shao Bolin quickly held up his glasses and moved closer.
Compared with the murals, the nine-color deer shape designed by Meiying Factory is more friendly to the people.
Huang Yongyu and Shao Bolin were fascinated by it: "It's really telling a story."
"The four auspicious beasts of Dunhuang murals," Fan Jinshi's voice sounded in real time:
"The nine-colored deer in Cave 257 of Mogao Grottoes, the blue bird and winged horse in Cave 249, and the treasure-keeping dragon in Cave 25..."
"Can you take us over to have a look?" Huang Yongyu was itching: "I didn't expect that the murals in Dunhuang are so exquisite."
Fan Jinshi smiled and said: "You can see the other murals in a while, but it is a little difficult to guard the dragon."
"Is Cave 25 far away?"
"It is not a mural from Mogao Grottoes, but from Yulin Grottoes."
"oh,"
The group of people nodded, as Lao Chang had said before entering the cave.
Dunhuang is huge, but the Mogao Grottoes are the best preserved and have the most user-friendly steps.
As expected, the old saying goes: if you want to get rich, build roads first.
"Shou Baolong," Jiang Shan had seen before: "The name sounds interesting."
"Indeed, the treasure-keeping dragon is very cute. It is a little dragon holding a treasure box."
"If I have a chance," Huang Yongyu suddenly became interested: "I still want to take a look."
"It should be fine tomorrow," Fan Jinshi pointed to the side:
"But Cave 285 next to it is even more exciting. Do you want to go over and take a look?"
"Please," Jiang Shan stepped aside and said, "Thank you for your hard work, Comrade Fan."
"Haha, believe me, you will definitely like it."
When Jiang Shan walked into Cave 285 of Mogao Grottoes.
For a few breaths, he felt that time around him had stopped spinning.
The flying sky covered with square domes floats in the sky as if it comes alive.
Running around and flopping around at will.
For a moment, sight, smell, and feeling... were completely immersed in the small world wrapped in murals.
The feeling of dialogue between the past and the present is simply wonderful.
The crowd looked up like a pilgrim.
Shao Bolin sincerely sighed: "This is really a treasure house of art!"
"Ah," Huang Yongyu was hit by the oncoming murals: "I feel like they are all spinning around me."
"I feel the same way."
"Me too," Jiang Shan, as a traveler, suddenly felt frightened: "Standing here, I feel like a grain of sand."
"It's still the kind that can't be found when the wind blows," Huang Yongyu added.
"Did these people have their eyes gouged out?"
Comrade Zhang Lu, who only cared about taking pictures, didn’t have as much to do as them!
After regaining consciousness for a second, Jiang Shan quickly picked up his camera.
Compared with the Mogao Grottoes scenic area where photography was strictly prohibited in later generations, Fan Jinshi was still shining a flashlight on him at this moment.
"Yes," he explained while lighting the cave: "This cave is very big, and the most exciting thing is the story "The Fate of the Five Hundred Robbers" in the middle."
"Are they robbers?"
Shao Bolin pointed to a group of little people with painful faces and twisted postures on the mural.
"It's not a good thing at first glance," Jiang Shan concluded: "The painting is too obvious."
"The stories on the murals are recorded in the Mahaparinirvana Sutra and the Repaying Enlightenment Sutra.
Legend has it that there were five hundred bandits in ancient India who burned, killed, and plundered, committing all kinds of evil.
So the king sent an army to capture them, goug out their eyes and banish them to the mountains and forests.
Later, the painful sounds of the bandits in the mountains and forests reached the ears of the Buddha.
So, the Buddha felt pity and sprinkled snow mountain fragrant medicine to heal their eyes.
And he preached scriptures to the robbers every day.
After being inspired, the five hundred bandits converted to Buddhism, lived in seclusion in the mountains and forests, and meditated into meditation...
Until you achieve the true fruition and become the Five Hundred Arhats."
Fan Jinshi's explanation had ended. Seeing that no one was speaking, he looked around.
I saw a few people behind me, all immersed in the world of murals as if they were in trance.
"So this is how the Five Hundred Arhats came to be,"
When Shen Congwen's voice came, Jiang Shan and his party came back to their senses.
"Why are you here?"
Looking at the group of veteran cadres behind his cousin, Huang Yongyu didn't notice it at all.
"You are only allowed to run a small stove," Wu Xiaobang, a dance theorist, walked in with his hands behind his back: "We are not allowed to listen in."
"Thanks to my sharp eyes, I spotted the enemy from a long distance."
"Xiao Huang," Cao Yu nodded at Huang Yongyu: "You are still the thief."
