After school the next day, Ning Meng ran into the thin boy from the shadow puppet theater at the school gate.
The thin boy saw her eyes light up, "Hello... Thank you."
Ning Meng turned her head when she heard what he said, only to realize that Shi Qi was standing behind her, silent.
Shi Qi lowered his head and lowered his voice: "Don't you want to know the specific reason? Follow him."
Ning Meng asked in a low voice, "There is nothing dangerous, right?"
She really wanted to know the relationship between that shadow puppet troupe and those people, and why those paper people could survive? Why can the soul of a person be taken away
But the prerequisite for knowing all this is safety.
She’s not a fool, she doesn’t know how to send herself to the pit,
Shi Qi raised his eyebrows and shook his head slightly.
The boy hurriedly shook his head, like a rattle, "I... I won't hurt you, I won't! You saved me and grandpa!"
Afterwards, the three people went to the cafe opposite the school. There were few people in it and there were private boxes. It was more private.
The first time I came to this kind of place, the teenager was a bit cautious.
After waiting for a while, he spoke with a very small voice: "Hello... My name is Wen Sheng, and the one before is my grandfather."
Ning Meng thought that the old man was not an ordinary person, and she could see her difference, but it was normal for a country such a big country and special abilities.
She thought for a while, and asked, "Why do you help those people make shadow puppets? Are you helping them to harm others?"
She wanted to ask this question that day.
Judging from the conversations of those few people, it was obvious that they were controlled by them, young and old, and then made paper figures according to their orders, and also took away the souls of others to control and obey orders.
It seemed that they didn't know each other, and they got involved in any event, and such special abilities must be hidden, and they were also known to outsiders.
When Vincent heard this, his face suddenly turned pale, "It's all my fault... I'm all to blame. It's all my fault, which hurt Grandpa."
It took a long time before he settled down and whispered about things not long ago.
Both he and grandpa come from a small village. The village is not big, there are only a dozen households that survived natural disasters.
This village is rich in shadow puppets, and almost every family can sing one or two shows on the show. It can be regarded as a scenic town. Sometimes tourists pass by, but there are few people and it is still very poor.
Paper people are not used to make shadow puppets, but the village is poor and can only use the cheapest paper to make things to pass the time.
His grandfather has a relatively special ability. Once he draws eyes to the paper man, the paper man can live. This kind of thing has been concealed by them, even the people in the village don't know.
With this ability, when their lives are really unsustainable, they draw eyes to the paper people at night, and then the paper people can follow their orders.
Not far from the village is a mountain with many animals inside. These paper people can catch some small animals, such as rabbits, and bring them back.
In this way, they can occasionally have a meal of meat, and they can also take the fur to a market far away to sell, and they have to pay for shadow puppets, including paper.
Because every time you catch a rabbit, you will use up several paper people. It is very lucky to have two come back at night.
In order not to arouse suspicion, the time interval between them catching rabbits is very long.
People in their village generally don't come out in the middle of the night, so no one has ever encountered such a thing. As for the source of the hare, he thinks his grandson caught it.
This kind of life lasted until a month ago.
A month ago, a group of five big and three rough men appeared in the village, saying that they had come to travel, but they all went to live with the villagers.
Those men also came together, and in the end they stayed at their house, eating and drinking all the best, and they made almost all the remaining money in their house.
He couldn't drive away, he was only fifteen years old, and his grandfather was so old that he was not their opponent at all and could only endure it.
The food at home is gone, and the meat is gone. At this time, only the paper people can catch it, and it has to be hidden.
Vincent’s voice was crying: "... That night, my grandfather and I drew a paper man in a small room in the backyard. When a paper man drew his eyes, he would go to the mountains to catch game after he was alive... Who knew that one of them would be caught? People see."
Ning Meng could imagine that when ordinary people saw such things, they either ran away in fear, or they wanted to take advantage of these things. Obviously, the group of people chose the latter kind.
Vincent continued: "One person found out and called everyone else up... Soon after the paper man went out, they forced my grandfather to draw another paper man and came back to life again."
His grandfather can only paint one or two at a time, otherwise he will be in a bad spirit and will have to sleep all day, so every time he paints, he cherishes his paintings. They forced him to paint three at a time, and he fell into a coma the next day. All day long.
After Grandpa woke up, they were controlled by this group of people. At first, they both were very tough to say no to painting. Grandpa also knew that they must use this to do bad things.
Unexpectedly, they used him to threaten his grandfather.
Vincent and his grandfather depended on each other since childhood. Grandpa loved him very much. Those people beat him and scolded him. Grandpa couldn't make it through. After two days of stalemate, he finally agreed to draw paper figures for them.
But because there were too few paper figures drawn every day, and they were easy to die, and could not achieve their goals, the group began to torture them and asked about other methods.
Wen Sheng glanced at the two people across from him and sniffed his nose. "Our village actually has a legend, an old saying that has been passed down. It is said that once the soul of a person is placed in the paper man, he will be able to fear life and death. Paper people are working hard... Grandpa and I don’t believe this, but those people think it’s true..."
This old saying has been circulated in their village for a long time. He grew up listening to this, but he has never seen it before.
There are a few children here who sometimes play this kind of game, so no one considers it to be true, and they don't know when it was passed down.
When those few people took it seriously, they felt that there must be a way.
From the beginning, I was wondering how to do that method all day long. I asked my grandfather to keep drawing paper figures, dripping blood after drawing, feeding blood, and painting with blood. All the methods came out.
Grandpa's craftsmanship is so superb, they kept letting him experiment.
Later, I didn’t know where they found a piece of music, let Grandpa learn it, let him play the drums, and both cooperated with each other. In the end, it really succeeded in a third watch, and took away a man from their group. .
The man was unconscious from then on, and was finally thrown into the mountain to feed the tiger.
The paper man with the human soul is indeed much better than the paper man who was brought to life by drawing his eyes alone, just like a real man, he can do everything without being wet by water or being burned by fire.
It's just that the paper man looks like that, but with the moment he gets the soul, he becomes the appearance of the man who takes the soul.
The village has few people and most of the elderly people. They think it is of little use, so they take the two of them to the big city to get more people.
But people in big cities don't look at shadow puppets very much, no one looks at them, and they are not allowed to approach. Of course, they have not succeeded. Those people still beat and scold them.
At this time, a school came to the door.
Perhaps because of the shadow puppets that the group of people promoted everywhere during this period, the school came to the door and watched a performance. The men felt that there were too many people in the school, so they didn't get the leaders out.
Grandpa's performance was naturally very good. After the performance, the people in the school didn't have much doubts. Instead, they brought them in and arranged accommodation.
Vincent quietly glanced at the boy who had been silent over there.
He thinks this boy is very good. Last time he just cleaned up a few people, but it seemed to be nothing.
At this moment, Wen Sheng met his eyes.
He quickly retracted his eyes, not daring to look at it again, and secretly glanced at the girl across from him, thinking that she was much easier to get along with.
"They always wanted to take away the soul of the students during the performance, so that they could get a lot of paper people at once, and no one could be sure that they did it... But that day, a girl came over and insisted on watching the performance and was annoyed. Those few people, they decided to show her a performance so that she would never wake up again..."
Ning Meng knew that this was the girl from Class 6, but she didn't expect this to be the specific reason.
Vincent thought for a while, and said, "This method... can only be used on people watching shadow puppets, and you have to sing a specific play... In order not to make people doubt, they only let the paper man with the eyes follow her. , Hidden in her clothes, and later went to her dormitory at night..."
Ning Meng suddenly remembered the paper man she saw that night in her self-study.
The person who might have been following the girl from Class 6 was accidentally spotted by the window and scared her.
"The second... I said when I heard them discuss that it was the grandfather who was experimenting that day, and the girl secretly saw it by herself. Later, she was not allowed to waste, and let the paper man follow. It was unlucky for her..."
Vincent's voice became smaller and smaller when he talked about it later.
Now those few people were arrested by the police because they had committed a crime before. He didn’t dare to tell the police about the paper man’s survival. His grandfather was already lying on the hospital bed and he couldn’t draw the paper man. So he decided No more shadow puppets.
Of course they were at fault in this matter. Fortunately, those souls could go back. Of course, he didn't know how the boy in front of him did it, and finally those people woke up.
He surreptitiously took out two palm-sized paper men from his pockets, his face turned reddish and said, "Grandpa asked me to give this to you..."
There are two paper figures, one male and one female. The male paper figures wear red clothes and the female paper figures wear green clothes. They are all ordinary and ordinary paper figures.
As soon as they were placed on the table, the two paper men opened their eyes and moved.
Ning Meng noticed that their eyes were not like the ones she saw that time, with white eyes and black frames, this time they looked like real people.
Supporting a little big, thin arms and legs, spinning around on the table, eyes dribbling around, the table is too slippery, it keeps falling, and when you fall, you get up and walk again.
Vincent said: "You can choose a male or female. They are usually amused, they will not do things, they will be squashed, they cannot be flooded, and they cannot be burned. If they touch the water occasionally, just put them in the sun. Up."
This paper man was different from the others. They were made separately. Grandpa secretly made two of them after he came out of the police station. He has since decided not to be a paper man again.
The two little paper men had reached Ning Meng's side.
She put her index finger on the table, and the two paper men held the giant index finger with their little hands, trying to bite, but couldn't bite.
Ning Meng's eyes lit up: "So cute."
Shi Qi suddenly stretched out his hand from behind to pinch them both.
The two little paper men were pinched by his two fingers and hung in the air. They swayed and swayed, their limbs moved randomly. If there is a sound, they must be twittering.
Seeing this, Ning Meng couldn't help laughing, the little paper man was a little cute.
She kind of wanted to see the two paper figures lying outside basking in the sun.
What's so cute about paper people
You are much cuter than them
-"The Diary Book Secretly Hidden by Shi Qi"