When I returned to Ah Luo's house, it was exactly noon, and Mr. Tu brought the pig's feet that were stewed soft, waxy and salty, accompanied by a few side dishes made of five dollars, and a pot of old flower carvings. Several people Use it in the yard. The pig's feet were dipped in a dark sauce color, the skin melted in the mouth, and it was not greasy at all. The chewy tendons pulled the lean meat attached to the bones, tempting people to lick the gravy from the bones.
The more fragrant they ate, the more torment Song Nineteen was, covering her nose and finding it difficult to open her mouth. In the end, Mr. Tu came up with the idea, twisted a few pieces of paper to block her nose, and then went to the table and moved the chopsticks.
Satisfied with food and wine, the youngest Tu touched his stomach and burped on the rattan chair. Wu Qian picked up the tableware and chopsticks. Ah Yin took the remaining half cup of wine, and Ah Luo took another pot, and went to Mulan with the rest. go to the room.
Compared to the lively outside, Mulan's wing was deserted. She sat on the wooden table by the window with her knees in her arms. She changed out of the shirt in front of her and wrapped herself in the old scarlet men's robe. The black belt was tied very casually. , with a pair of blue cloth boots on his feet, and a black hair tied high with a dark red hairband. Sitting quietly on the mahogany platform in the style of the Republic of China, it seems to have stolen a whole period of old age.
I don't know if it was because of the wine or the loneliness on Mulan's shoulders. A Yin's nose was slightly sour. She lowered her eyes indifferently and leaned to the door with her wine glass in her hand.
Li Shiyi and Song Shijiu looked at each other and motioned her to go forward. Song Jiujiu nodded, stood behind Mulan, walked up her back, and sniffed it close. Nineteen raised his hand to hold it down, tilted his head and flashed the deer's eyes, and sniffed the skin from behind her ears to her neck.
Mulan was pressed by Song Nineteen's expert hand, and she was so nervous that her hair stood on end when she remembered the way she pushed herself in the car.
Song Nineteen slowly closed his eyes, and a strange and charming female voice said in the altar, the fort in Taishan Mansion, the Yingluo of Soul Ceremony, the uneaten bowl of Mengpo soup by the Huangquan, the carved beams of the palace, and the precious ones. Zhucui, a pair of parents in Yuzhou City who are looking forward to their return.
anything else? there is none left.
There is no hard iron armor, blood-stained yellow sand, thousands of miles away from the Rongguan, no hidden chest, no smeared face, An Neng can tell me that I am male and female.
Song Nineteen's heart was full of turmoil, and the trembling was dissipated, and he opened his eyes after the tea and cold wine had run out. His eyes were as warm as water: "You are not Mulan."
Although he had a premonition, Song Nineteen's conclusion still knocked down the remaining flowers on the branches, and Jin Zhong rebuilt it, finally ending the crumbling years.
Mulan looked up at the sky outside. For more than a thousand years, the Golden Crow was still the Golden Crow, and the clouds were still the clouds, but Mulan was not Mulan, and she was no longer herself.
She smiled with relief: "I know today that I have left since I left the Soul Cejun."
Song Nineteen asked her, "Where's Mulan?"
She sighed: "You have seen it."
Song Nineteen frowned, listening to Li Eleven's voice: "In the coffin? Then you are—"
"Mulian." The female voice from the Northern Wei Dynasty overlapped with the looming smoke when she asked about the coffin.
Everyone was surprised when they saw Mulian jumping off the table and brushing off her robe, with a lonely and meaningless expression on her face: "Go to Mulan and talk."
She paused, bowed her head and walked out.
The two cars were parked outside, and Aro Yi appeared at the door with an umbrella. When she left the house, her face was almost transparent with the light printed, and even though it was covered by the umbrella cloth, her eyelashes were still unbearably restrained.
A Yin glanced at her sideways, she smiled very tenderly, lowered her chin and got into the car with five coins.
All the way to Gubeikou, the village is still the same as it was a few days ago. Even the old man who is sunbathing at the gate of the courtyard is the same. It is not very strange to see them.
It rained in the morning, and the entrance of the cave was cool and humid. Several people descended to the tomb one after another, stepping on the creaking water before returning to the familiar coffin.
The coffin room was dry, and the descendants knocked out by Li Shiyi were nailed to the ground, like the iron tips removed from the head of a spear.
Mr. Tu glanced left and right, took out a few newspapers from his pocket, spread them on the ground, and greeted everyone, "Sit, sit."
He listened to the story of Taiping a few months ago, and his ankles were sore from standing all night. Since then, he has quietly prepared the newspaper, which really came in handy this time.
Next time I'll bring fried melon seeds, he cross-legged thinking.
A Yin glanced at him, blocked the disgusting words back, bent his legs and sat down, Song Nineteen sat next to her, A Luo and Wu Qian were in the corner, opposite Li Shiyi.
Mulian looked at the inconspicuous coffin, and said calmly: "I and Mulan are twin sisters of the same mother. They are the same in appearance, stature, waist and feet."
People usually call words that have been hidden for a long time a secret. It is soaked in the bone marrow, and you share joy and sorrow. I talk to you every day. As time goes by, the voice of the words gradually becomes smaller, and you will think that it is not very important. Until one day I have to pull it all out, I can really hear the reverberation of the whole body in the process of dismantling the bones and peeling the skin.
After just one sentence, Li Shiyi and Aro looked at each other and understood why her birthday was exactly the same as Mulan's, and why she was able to lie to the sky and take the fate of Mulan.
Mulian didn't move, not even thinking about getting close to Mulan's coffin, she just remembered, and the sound wave didn't tremble at all: "Mulan served in the army for her father for 12 years. Picking her up, the safflower boy, went back to the city on a horse, and the saint was grateful for his filial piety and rewarded him instead of sin, his parents wept with joy, only thinking that the separation of flesh and blood had come to an end."
"In the first two months, an decree was passed in the palace, and the Holy Master praised Mulan for her bravery and wanted to accept her as a noble person." She remembered the eunuch who was beaming with laughter that day, the old grandma who knelt down with shaking shoulders to receive the decree, and A silent and pale sister who is not afraid of even going into battle to kill the enemy.
Where does the sage really like her, it is clearly because of her high achievements and strength, and because she is a daughter, she is not willing to use or abandon her, and she is raised in the palace to show her benevolence, virtue, and grace.
Mulan's radiant eyes have never been so gloomy, the blood-washed eyes should have been falcons, but at this moment they seem to be young birds whose wings are about to be clipped.
Mulian whispered: "Mulan is different from me. I was good at being a girl and cooking since I was a child, but she likes freedom by nature.
"Then..." She froze in her throat and paused calmly.
"Later," Li Shiyi raised his eyes, "you entered the palace for her."
In the dark and dry space, everyone's skin got goosebumps because of this sentence, and the hair stood up like a thought, and the youngest Tu made a heavy swallowing motion, blocking the ears and eyes.
"Mulan can join the army for her father, why can't I enter the palace for her?" Mulian smiled bitterly, "I took her token and ran into the imperial city, leaving a letter to tell her that she was injured and sick. She has a reckless temper and can't serve the sage. It doesn't hurt her parents. I know my daughter is good at embroidery, and she can earn wealth and glory if she doesn't get it right. I also confessed to her, in order to avoid her identity being revealed and her family being affected, she moved with her parents and kept her name incognito. ."
Her words were as pretentious as her dress, but Mulan understood that stepping into the palace was like setting a charcoal fire, and she would trade herself for her twelve-year-overdue freedom.
The word "sacrifice", Mr. Tu still doesn't quite understand, he has never sacrificed for others, but hearing Mulian's words today, he just felt a weight in his heart, and he couldn't relax.
"Since then, fate has been exchanged, life and death have been reversed." Aro murmured in the dark.
Mulian nodded, and quickly explained her own path: "I was born ordinary, and the Sage really didn't have much interest, so he left me in the cold within a few months, I came from the people, and I didn't know much about the royal family, so I offended the favor. Feng Zhaoyi was given poisoned wine and died in the palace shortly after."
When the news of Mulian's death came, Mulan was living in a farmhouse at the foot of Yanshan Mountain. Her fingers were pricked by an embroidery needle. She raised her hand and sipped, her eyes narrowed.
"After that, my soul returned to Mount Tai, and I wanted to be reincarnated, but I was appreciated by the lord and asked me to enter the soul to lead the army." Mulian sighed deeply, "I used Mulan's fate, and even reported it when I entered Huangquan. Given her birthday and death order, I am afraid that the ruler of the government will find out that the criminals of the Hua family have deceived you and want to make her soul return to the right track and break her life.
The second year after entering the government, she secretly returned to Yanshan. Mulan married a good family, and it was very beautiful to play.
In the third year, Mulan gave birth to a big fat boy. Mulian sat by the wooden stool of the banquet with a shiny iron gun, and reached out to hold the red eggs that Mulan distributed.
In the tenth year, Mulan brought her young daughter back from the selfish school, and took her little hand to pick a lotus flower on the road. Mulian, who had won the first battle, had her hand behind her back, and followed step by step.
In the nineteenth year, Mulan's second daughter got married, and Mulian finally learned the art of dreaming. In the sleeping village, she saw Mulan in commoner clothes returning to the courtyard of her childhood and talking to the old elm tree.
She said that her life was bought by Mulian. She wanted to be filial to her parents, raise her children, and live in peace and security.
"She said, she must not fail me." Mulian smiled.
She is still a slender girl, watching Mulan's death, having lived a fulfilling and peaceful life that belonged to her.
"I'm really not good at fighting." Mulian pursed her lips and finally muttered.
There were soft footsteps in the tomb, and Aro took a few steps forward, but before he could speak, he heard Ayin sitting behind him ask, "So, what about Mulan?"
A Luo shook his head: "After the reincarnation of the soul, only the Fujun's Shentu decree can consult the ancient books and know the way to go. Mulian should not know the whereabouts of Mulan."
"Yes," Mulian looked at the old coffin in dismay, "I don't know where she went, and the only thing I could find was this light coffin."
A Luo pondered for a while, and said, "If there is a mistake, you should return to the right place. She has messed up her fate, and she will not be able to live in peace in the next few lives. She still finds her whereabouts, and when she goes to Huangquan again, I will take you two. It is the right thing to exchange human life."
"How to find it?" A Yin asked her.
"Shen Tu Ling is in my hands," Aro glanced at her, smiled softly, and thought, "If you want to chase the soul, you must take a ray of undissipated essence from her front bones."
Mulian turned her head to look at the coffin, and pressed her brows before speaking.
The youngest Tu stood up with his thighs, and picked up a shovel familiarly: "Then I will open the coffin?"
With Li Shiyi's approval, he jumped down with the soles of his feet against the wooden plank, and in three or two strokes, except for the spikes, he slowly pushed the coffin away.
Thousand-year-old dust was splashed from the wood, and the rotten gas that had faded from the dead body was so thick that it seemed to have been overwhelmed after being sealed, and it went straight to the forehead, making the eyes sore. Covering his nose with his cuffs, one layer of fabric was not enough, so he used Li Shiyi's sleeves to cover up another layer.
Everyone was waiting for the smell to dissipate, but when they saw Mr. Tu wrinkling his face and pinching his nose, he suddenly said "Yeah" in surprise.
Li Shiyi looked at him and saw that he pointed to the coffin and asked Mulian, "Are you sure that this coffin is your sister, the dying Hua Mulan?"
Everyone was worried, and they stepped forward to look around, and they couldn't help but put their doubts in their eyes.
The old man Tu has made up for some culture, and he generally knows some common sense of broken bones and age. The white bones are surrounded by a piece of uncorrupted blue silk. Although it is scattered with dust and air-dried eggs, it is still as black as ink, and the teeth are still intact. The ground is attached to the mouth, like neatly arranged shells.
No matter how you look at it, it shouldn't be an old woman who is dying.
"This bone... I'm afraid it's a girl, right?" Mr. Tu squinted.
Mulian opened her mouth a few times, and stumbled to her knees, unable to restrain the fear in her chest, she shook her head in a trance and said, "This is Mulan, this is."
She raised her head, her eyes were full of unbelievable madness, but she stubbornly stretched out her hand: "Mulan, Mulan's right leg was once broken, you see, there is a crack where the broken bone is reborn, isn't it? You see, is not it?!"
Her fingertips were trembling slightly, about to poke into the bone.
Mulan's life was guarded by her own eyes. Since it was buried in the ground at an old age, why did the bones preserve the style of their youth
This scene is really weird, Aro lowered his head thoughtfully, Li Shiyi released his pursed lips, raised his eyelids and gave Ayin a look.
"Ayin, take a look."
Ayin nodded, pulled her feet out of her high heels, tugged her cheongsam across her thighs and tied a knot, probing her delicate legs and walking into the bones step by step.
The bones of the dead, the detection of the living, the body of ghosts, the year of birth and death, and the death of the lamp, are there any unfinished words
The exquisite embroidered pattern of the cheongsam was stuck in the loess, and the white legs were also stained with sand. A Yin moved his red lips, raised his body from the Mulan bone, turned his eyes slightly, looked at the Mulian with a hoarse voice, and said softly. : "Before dying, she said—"
"Flying dragon, where are you?"
"Flying dragon?" The youngest Tu was suspicious.
Mulian fell to the ground, like a puppet that had all her consciousness taken away, her throat slid up and down slowly, her eyelids pressed down lifelessly, and after a while she said in a daze, "Flying dragon, it's her war horse."
The air was suddenly silent, like a cannonball in the water, squeezing the unwillingness to die without being released.
Li Shi kept getting up, his lips raised, revealing a clear wry smile. It is Mulan who is dying, and it is not Mulan.
"Mulan died long ago, just like you."
Died on the day when the ideal was destroyed.
The author says:
This story is inspired by Franklin's famous saying "Dead at 25, be buried at 75." It is also a lyric "The boy who died at twenty-five is finally buried at seventy-five." About ideals.