Urban Tales of Demons and Spirits

Chapter 85: Grandpa's classics

Views:

Shi Yitong dragged me to the north room, and sure enough, as Grandma Shi Yitong said, this room was full of strange things, filling the room to the brim. I looked around in amazement, and everything I saw was full of things I didn't understand, such as copper bells, talisman papers, compasses, and some large and small boxes. They all looked very old, and I didn't know what was inside. put something.

Shi Yitong carefully slipped in through the gaps of these things, muttering, "Jinhua cat, Jinhua cat..."

However, it is not easy to find information about Jinhua cats from so many things. Just the old books and papers I saw were stacked as high as mountains.

I shook my head, and squatted down to help Shi Yitong search together. However, I am very interested in each of these relics of Grandpa Shi Yitong. I said that I was looking for information about Jinhua cats, but I always looked through unrelated books without knowing it.

Shi Yitong's grandfather is indeed a very mysterious person. In addition to recording traditional funeral culture, his books also contain many magic spells and folk prescriptions, everything that one expects to find.

I picked up a book with monster paintings on the cover and flipped through it. This booklet is written as "Hundred Ghosts Picture Scroll". There are very few words in it, and most of them are pictures depicting various monsters. I flipped through the pictures inside with a glimmer of hope, but I didn't see a big black-haired monster similar to the one we met in Yanjin Mountain.

"My grandfather was a soldier when he was young." Shi Yitong probably saw that I was interested, so he started the chatterbox, "During World War II, he and the Kuomintang killed many devils. It is said that soldiers in the same class as him were either killed or injured. , but my grandfather returned home intact. It is said that he once got many books and spells about monsters from the Japanese, but whenever my grandma and I asked about it, he kept silent. It is said that the secret must not be leaked. But if you ask me, maybe grandpa saved his life by relying on those strange spells he took from the Japanese."

"Really?" I answered Shi Yitong casually, and at this moment, a piece of paper fell out of the booklet in my hand.

I bent down to pick up the piece of paper, unfolded it, and it was a painting of a monster.

The painting is drawn with a brush, without coloring, but it is quite vivid. The drawing shows a huge fox that takes up almost the entire sheet of paper. This fox has a ferocious expression, its huge eyes are full of hatred, its teeth are bared fiercely, and it looks fierce. What's more, there are actually nine tails behind this ferocious fox, and their fangs and claws occupy most of the picture. There is a name next to the painting, written in three big characters "Nine-Tailed Fox".

Nine-tailed fox... Is this the nine-tailed fox? I looked at this painting, and I don't know why my eyes were deeply attracted by it.

Obviously, I have never seen it before, but there is an inexplicable sense of familiarity in my heart.

"Gu Yu! I found it, I found it!"

At this moment, Shi Yitong suddenly shouted excitedly. I was startled, and subconsciously folded up the painting and put it in my pocket.

"Look, what did you find?" I pretended to be calm.

"What else can it be? Of course it's the Jinhua cat you're looking for." Shi Yitong raised a thick book in his hand, and as a result, all the dust in the room was blown up.

"Cough cough cough... I got it! Can you move slowly!"

Shi Yitong hopped over on one foot, and I helped him close the big box he had opened.

"I said that grandpa must have records about Jinhua cats. He likes to collect some strange books and records the most." Shi Yitong put the book in front of me with a "bang", and my nasal cavity immediately There was a smell of dust.

"Here, here. Jinhua cat, yes." Shi Yitong flipped open the heavy book with a clatter, and turned to a certain page.

I don't know what year this book is from, or it's a thread-bound book. The characters are in traditional Chinese characters, and the reading order is from right to left. I leaned over and struggled to identify the typeface on it.

"Look, here is the habit of introducing Jinhua cats." Shi Yitong read, "'Cats are also Jinhua. They can take the essence of the sun and the moon, turn them into people, and bewilder them when they meet. Men turn into women, and women turn into men. 'This means that the Jinhua cat absorbs the essence of the sun and the moon, and then transforms into a human form to confuse others... "

"I don't need to explain this, I know it all." I urged, "Look at the back, look at the back!"

"Oh." Shi Yitong nodded, and turned back again, "'I like to eat nectar, and I like the beauty of the moonlight. Wherever there are both, you can find monsters.' This means... Jinhua cats like to have nectar and moon You can find Jinhua cats wherever there are these two things.”

"Manna and moonlight?" I was a little puzzled, "Moonlight is easy to talk about, but what is manna?"

"Manna is dew, right?" Shi Yitong said bluntly.

"But if it's just dew, it's too much." I said dejectedly, "How do we find it?"

"Wait, that's not right." Shi Yitong rolled his eyes, and said as if he suddenly remembered something, "If you want to say, 'dew' is dew, and 'nectar' should be sweet dew, right?"

I laughed and said, "How is that possible? How can there be sweet dew in this world?"

"No, no, Gu Yu, I really think of such a place!" Shi Yitong interrupted me, thinking hard, "I heard from the older generation in the village that there is a small area in Yancheng. I don’t know why there are a lot of wild sugarcane in the woods. It may be that some farmers planted sugarcane there before, and they left it there. And the trees there are very sparse, and you can definitely see the moon. Do you think it’s there ah?"

I was still skeptical and asked, "If there is sugar cane, is the dew that falls is sweet?"

Shi Yitong looked at me dumbfounded, "Oh, are you stupid? With sugarcane here, who would drink dew?"

I slapped my head and thought I was right, why am I so stupid.

"Where is that sugarcane grove you speak of?" I asked.

"It's not very far from here, it's only a 20-minute journey." Shi Yitong said, as if he was complacent because he finally got the answer right once, "Well, I'm still very smart, right?"

"Yes." I said helplessly.

"Then what are you waiting for, let's go quickly." Shi Yitong seemed more excited than me.

"What are you going to do? Did you forget that I still have class this afternoon?" I interrupted Shi Yitong amusedly.

"Ah? Really?" Shi Yitong scratched his head, "It's a pity. But it's okay, we can go tomorrow morning!"