lantern.
At this moment, the whole city is hung with lanterns.
After they were lit on fire, they looked more like red and heavy persimmons.
After the old man died, the light and heat from the lanterns all over the city seemed to be taken away, and all the light seemed eerie and cold.
On the long bridge, the busking girl looked at him with a half-smile, as if she was extremely happy, and danced with her bare feet, while the singer also fell behind her, playing with her hands, as if she was playing tricks. Invisible strings.
No one could see them coming and going.
Ning Jiujiu's figure suddenly moved, ignoring their provocation, and ran towards the direction where the black shadow disappeared.
The girl stopped dancing gracefully, looked in the direction where he disappeared, and said uneasily: "This young man seems to be quite capable, could he become Lord Ming's variable?"
The singer was still playing the silent strings, but she looked like she was intoxicated. When the girl asked, she just said calmly: "You are already dead, why do you care so much?"
The little girl thought it made sense and continued to spin and dance.
…
It was getting late. Across the street from Ning Qinshui's old house, the old woman closed the door, packed away the bamboo strips used to weave lanterns, and gave the house a final sweep.
The room was extremely quiet, with only the occasional rustling sound.
The old woman dug out a slender candle from the pile of debris, lit it and placed it on the table. The candlelight illuminated a spiritual tablet, with only seven words written on it - the memorial tablet for the grandson's good fortune.
Dongyun was the name of his grandson. He was seriously ill that year and asked a famous doctor to treat him. She was almost cured, but she had an extra problem and went to ask Ning Qinshui for a bowl of talisman water.
She held the candle and looked at the memorial tablet. The guilt and hatred in her heart made her body sway with the candlelight. She picked up the cloth and wiped it, then folded the tablet on the table.
Then, she remembered some things that made her feel a little confused.
She thought that when she saw smoke rising from Ning Qinshui's house two days ago, she had a dagger hidden in her sleeve and went to knock on his door. At that time, she was heartbroken, but there seemed to be a voice in the dark telling her that you really deserved to die.
But that day, she did not see Ning Qinshui, but her two apprentices. She wanted to take out the dagger from her sleeve, but an inexplicable thought in her heart stopped her and made her reach into her waist. From the cloth bag on the bed, she took out a pendant whose origin she couldn't even remember and gave it to the other party.
It's all unreal. She even wondered if she was getting old and her eyes were dim.
But it didn't matter anymore. She sat on the chair for a while, then took out a pair of iron scissors from the basket. After being silent for a long time, she stabbed it into her neck.
At the moment when the scissors were about to cut the skin, the door opened, and a young man in white grabbed the scissors, and then used his spiritual power to form a field to hinder other people's sneak attacks.
The old woman felt the tremendous power coming from the scissors.
She opened her eyes, looked at Ning Changjiu, recognized him at a glance, and said angrily: "Why is it you? The old guy killed my grandson, how can his apprentice pretend to be a good person?"
Ning Jiujiu removed the scissors. Instead of looking at the old woman, he looked at the spiritual tablet. At this moment, he realized that things in this city were more complicated than he expected.
He originally thought that a certain big demon was causing trouble and wanted to cause trouble in the city, and some weird patterns and atmosphere in the city also supported this.
So he was prepared in advance and had already imagined that the old woman would be the monster.
And a series of things that happened tonight changed his mind. He vaguely glimpsed a grand conspiracy entangled with blood and bones, but he was temporarily unable to see all its outlines clearly.
Ning Jiujiu walked to the table, held up the memorial tablet, looked at the words on it, and made final confirmation.
The old woman stared at him and said sternly: "What do you want to do?"
Ning Jiujiu asked: "Your grandson is dead?"
The old woman's scar was revealed, with an angry look on her face: "Yes... he is dead, he was killed by Ning Qianshui!"
Ning Jiujiu asked again: "Then why did you come to the door twice to give these things?"
The old woman seemed to be a little slower. She stared at Ning for a long time with resentful eyes, but said nothing, because many of the things she did now were inherently contradictory. Part of them followed rational consciousness, and part of them were driven by instinct.
Ning Jiujiu continued to ask: "Besides you, who else sells lanterns in the city?"
The old woman still didn't answer. She looked at the spiritual tablet for a while, and then stared at Ning Changjiu, as if she was about to turn into a vicious ghost and bite people at any time.
Ning Jiujiu sighed, looked at her and said, "It seems you don't even know?"
The old woman said angrily: "What nonsense did you say again?"
Ning Jiujiu suddenly broke the spiritual tablet in half and threw it in front of the old woman's shoes. Looking at this sudden scene, the old man's expression quickly changed from shock at the beginning to a rage as if he wanted to eat someone. She stared at the two pieces of the spirit tablet on the ground, and kept shouting her grandson's name. Her old body was trembling, as if the skeleton was about to collapse at any time.
"You... you... you are worthy of being Ning Qinshui's apprentice. That old guy's apprentice turns out to be... nothing!"
She leaned on crutches and knelt in front of the half-spirited statue, crying.
Ning looked at her for a long time and said, "But from the beginning to the end, you have no grandchildren at all."
The crying suddenly stopped, and the old woman suddenly raised her head. On her wrinkled face, a pair of pupils shone pale in the night.
…
"I don't have any grandchildren? How come I don't have any grandchildren! My grandson's name is Dongyun. His mother gave birth to him in the winter. He is a baby. His father was so happy that he went to Dongsan Street to buy a fish and caught it. Three handfuls of green onions... How come I don't have any grandchildren? My grandson was killed by those evil people!" The old woman's voice was sour that it made people's ears hurt.
The old woman held her head. She wanted to recall the time when her grandson was still alive as usual, but for some reason, she couldn't remember anything, as if that period of time had been wiped out.
What's even more frightening is that she gradually finds that she can't even recall her past. She can't remember what she looked like when she was young, as if she has been an old woman with gray hair since she was born.
The only memory left in my mind was the boring and repetitive tasks of sitting on the bench in the room, making lanterns out of bamboo strips, and painting the lantern stands with paper.
She raised her head, her eyes blank and fierce, like an old wolf showing its claws before dying.
"You little demon, what kind of magic did you cast... Why can't I remember anything? You demon, please give me my grandson back!"
As she spoke, the old woman got up from the ground, threw the crutch suddenly, and rushed towards Ning Changjiu with her fingers like hooks.
…
In another old house, Shu Bai packed up the copperware in the house and swept the not-so-large yard. Then he stood in front of the half-blackened, iron-blue curtain, thinking I wonder if I should get a new one this year.
Finally, he secretly took out the bag of copper coins. The bag was still bulging, with only a few buns missing.
For some reason, he suddenly felt that some of the greed and evil thoughts in his heart had disappeared.
He looked at the bag of copper coins and frowned, thinking that he hated Ning Qianshui and knew that the bag of copper coins was probably ill-gotten gains, but no matter what, it was not his own. I, Shubai, have never It's all about revenge and grievance. How can you do such a sneaky thing
No, it’s not like me to be so kind...
He gradually thought about what happened two days ago, and suddenly came up with a ridiculous idea. The hatred that was deep in his heart and could hardly be resolved, when he met the young man in white, he knelt down on the ground while holding his head. , after saying those words, most of it seemed to have disappeared, and he even had the idea of being a good person.
And when the old woman knocked on the door and glanced at him accidentally, he suddenly felt that the veil in his heart had been lifted again, and his previous kind thoughts suddenly became ridiculous.
He didn't know whether this emotional ups and downs were an illusion or reality, but at that moment, the darkness in his heart seemed to have been wiped away again, and he felt again that he should return the bag of money to the young man.
Shubai sat on the cold ground, thinking about this in silence, his chaotic thoughts floating around like ghosts.
Suddenly, the light in his field of vision became darker.
He raised his head and saw the master standing like a withered tree at the junction of the courtyard and the lobby, his snow-white hair blowing in the night wind.
"Master..." Shubai shouted.
The old man was silent for a while, then slowly said: "Boy, come here."
Shubai stood up in confusion, walked up to the two of them, looked at the increasingly older face, and asked, "Master, what's wrong?"
The old man took out a bronze key from his waist. He handed the key to Shu Bai's hand and said, "There are still a few white bronze paintings in the warehouse. You can take them out later and move them to the side of Sha Shui." , there are many stone pillars beside the sandy water, you place these bronze paintings in the order of stacking them, from west to east, one by one."
Shubai was a little surprised and asked: "Master's bronze painting is worth a lot of money. It is placed casually in a place where people often pass by. What if it is taken away casually?"
The old man just said: "Just do as I say."
Shubai looked at the simple key in his palm and wanted to ask more questions, but he still closed his mouth, held the key tightly and nodded.
After the old man finished explaining the matter, he turned around and walked towards the room.
Shubai suddenly remembered something and asked, "What happened to the story about the Bone Corpse Demon that Master told last time?"
The old man paused slightly. He did not answer, and his tone was a little dry: "What White Bone Corpse Demon? I have told such a story before. It must be nonsense. I can't remember..."
With that said, he walked into the dark night.
Shubai picked up the key and opened the door to the warehouse. The warehouse was full of dust and cobwebs. As soon as the door was opened, the mice and insects on the ground squeaked away. He covered his mouth and nose, holding back the nausea in his heart, and left. Go in.
He looked around and saw that there was only a wooden box in the center of the warehouse. That should be what the master had given him.
He opened the wooden box, took a look, put it on his back after confirming it was correct, and walked towards the sand and water.
To his surprise, the box was not as heavy as he imagined.
He came to the upper reaches of Shashui and saw the first stone pier.
These stone piers are very old, as if they have existed here since the city was founded. Under the wind, frost and rain, the edges of the stone piers are stained with gaps, and there is nothing ordinary about them.
He dug out a piece of bronze painting and placed it on the stone pier. Through the light, he could vaguely see that the painting on it seemed to be a picture of a battle between gods. Behind the clouds, there was a great god standing with his sword stuck in the mud. Inside, half a body of bones.
He walked along the river and took out the second painting from the second stone pier. The entire bronze painting depicts a huge and deep abyss. On the edge of the abyss, there are two hands with only white bones left. , the owner of the Bone Claw, seemed to be trying his best to pull his body out of the abyss.
The third bronze painting depicts huge skeletons that are comparable to mountains. The skeletons are hung with new flesh and blood, and the jade belt-like things wrapped around the arms are actually made of countless skulls. It is pieced together, and around its waist, what looks like tassels hanging down, are tied up, the dead white body of a woman, and at the lower end of the body, there are countless ant-like people, all with sharp-mouthed monkey-cheeked faces. , they slashed its thighs with swords, causing flesh and blood to fly everywhere and bones to break.
The bronze painting was extremely depressing and made Shu Bai's hair stand on end. After hastily putting it down, he quickly ran towards the next stone pier.
The next painting is much calmer. The skeletal body cannot be seen because it is standing in a big river. The river smoke ripples most of its body, only the head, shoulders and arms are exposed. The river waves violently While rolling, like half an ordinary person, he picked up a handful of water, opened his mouth, and drank.
The last bronze painting has a simpler picture. The bronze painting shows an empty throne. Under the throne, there are many ghosts floating. They all kneel down in the direction of the throne, pious and silent.
Shubai looked carefully for a while and realized that it was not really an empty throne, but because the throne was carried away. On the armrests on both sides, the palms on the back were vaguely exposed, without a trace of flesh and blood attached to them.
Shubai followed the old man's instructions and placed the last piece of bronze painting. He vaguely felt that this sign meant something, as if it was the sequence of a certain story, which was very similar to what the old man said.
If these bronze paintings really tell the story of the Bone Corpse Demon, what do the last two bronze paintings mean
Shubai thought seriously, and suddenly, a chill ran down his back.
Because he discovered that without realizing it, the whole world had darkened.
He slowly raised his head and was surprised to find that the red lanterns along both sides of the river had turned white at this moment, and the candles behind the white paper also shone with a weak, pale light.
…
…
(One more chapter)