Living Paper

nostalgia/article

There is a cloth bag wrapped around the head of the skeleton, and the cloth bag is also filled with spells.

Huo Zhenye took a bamboo stick, stood far away and used the bamboo stick to shake the corpse. The cloth bag on the head was tied tightly, and he just wanted to squat down and wrap his hands with his clothes to untie the cloth bag.

Xuan Yun stretched out her sharp claws and cut through the bag, exposing the head of the corpse.

Ah Sheng gasped!There are even two heads!This... is this really a human?

Huo Zhenye was silent, both heads were fully developed, the two children were completely two people apart from sharing the spine.

Four hands and four feet are born in opposite directions. When alive, one person can only move forward, while the other can only move backward.

Huo Zhenye's eyes were fixed, and he saw a wooden nail pierced through the eyebrows of the two. After a long time, this wooden nail was still nailed to their bodies, with blood stains faintly.

This wooden nail was driven in hard when it was alive.

"Soul-locking nail." Bai Zhun frowned. It seemed that such a bone nail was driven in during his lifetime to make the soul never leave the body and never be reincarnated.

One nail nails the two souls, and besides being unable to reincarnate forever, it also locks them together.

Live together in life, and become a soul after death and stay with you forever.

Huo Zhenye looked at the size of the bones. When the child died, he was about five or six years old. Children like this would not live long, but they can grow to such a large size, and their vitality is very tenacious.

"Senior brother Huo, this...is he really a human? Is he really not a monster?" How can a person grow up like this?

"It's a human." Huo Zhenye breathed lightly, "It's an immature child in the mother's womb." But it's still a human, not a monster.

Ah Sheng didn't quite understand Huo Zhenye's words, but hearing that Huo Zhenye was so sure that this was a human being, he still couldn't believe it.

Bai Zhun raised his eyebrows, they were trapped here, so it turned out that this "monster" was also trapped here, and was used as a medium by those who practiced the law, and Yuanyuan kept sucking blood to gather wealth.

The peach wood coffin in the Earth Temple should have been prepared for them. It was originally intended to resolve their grievances, but it was secretly replaced by someone.

Bai Zhun picked up the bamboo strips and turned the coffin lid upside down, with the concave side up.

I saw that the inside of the coffin was full of claw marks, nailed into the bone. The child died struggling in the coffin before he died immediately.

Ah Sheng originally hated this monster deeply, but now seeing this miserable appearance, he felt that the child was also very pitiful, and he said in a daze, "Who on earth is so vicious that he is going to be buried alive?"

Bai Zhun sneered: "Of course they are blood relatives."

On the day of birth with two souls in one body, the mother will be sent to the underworld. When born with evil spirits, her fate is extremely fierce.

The person who performed the spell left one soul, and the other soul stayed here, and the two souls shared the fortune and wealth. If the soul here could not enjoy it, it would all be transferred to the outside soul.

As long as the twin souls are kept forever and sacrifices are made continuously, there will be inexhaustible glory and wealth.

They broke the coffin and took the corpse. They wanted to see the true nature of the monster. They accidentally released the resentment that the child had accumulated before and after his death, so that he would no longer suffer from this endless torment.

"Qi Ye, what shall we do next?" A Sheng asked.

"Take the corpse back and bury it in a super-dumb state." After revealing his true nature and eliminating the resentment accumulated over the years, the yin and yang world centered on him will naturally dissipate.

Even Xuan Yun has no objection, she wants revenge on the real perpetrators, this "monster" is just a puppet, a puppet even more pitiful than them.

Before Ah Sheng left, he wanted to set fire to this yin acupoint, but was stopped by Huo Zhenye: "Wait a minute, so as not to startle the snake."

Several people cut bamboo to make a coffin, put the child's body in the bamboo coffin, Bai Zhun stuck a charm on it, and carried it all the way down the mountain to the earth temple.

Open the peach wood coffin and put the corpse into the coffin.

Bai Zhun rolled up the cuffs of his gown, and took two bamboo sticks. The bamboo sticks were as flexible as long chopsticks in his hands. He used the bamboo sticks to hold the bone nail, and slowly pulled out the long wooden nail.

Miserable screams rang out in the earth temple, and every inch the wooden nail was removed, the screams became more violent.

Except for Xuan Yun who is not afraid, even Ah Sheng covered his ears. He was afraid that the monster would appear again, so he muttered in confusion: "You are also a poor child. Qiye is here to save you. Don't you know it?" Good people."

The peach wood coffin vibrated with a "crack", and the shelf underneath almost shook to pieces.

Huo Zhenye held the coffin firmly, and he was chanting something silently. Bai Zhun moved his ears, and heard him recite the "Ksitigarbha Sutra" in a low voice.

As soon as the bone nail was pulled out, the abnormal noise disappeared, and the child's skeleton lay curled up in the coffin.

"Light the fire with firewood." Bai Zhun told Ah Sheng holding the bone nail.

Ah Sheng quickly lit a fire, and Bai Zhun threw the bone nail that locked the two souls into the fire, and scattered a handful of cinnabar.

The flames jumped up suddenly, and the bone nail soaked in resentment was burning in the flames.

"Watch the fire, don't let this fire go out."

Ah Sheng obeyed his orders, and squatted on the ground to guard the fire. The cinnabar fire was too hot, and Xuan Yun couldn't bear the anger. She hugged Chen Shou and hid out.

Bai Zhun closed the coffin lid, dipped his pen in cinnabar, and filled in the peeling mantras. Every time he added a pen, there would be an additional red light on the coffin, and the coffin was full of red flames.

Huo Zhenye took out the paper and wrote a scroll of scriptures in lower case.

"I only know the Ksitigarbha Sutra." After writing a few pages, he handed the scriptures to Bai Zhun.

Bai Zhun nodded, glanced at it, he wrote this handwriting very neatly, with a heart of transcendence and sincerity, burn it to them, and reduce the resentment.

The flames burned the yellow paper, and every time a line was burned, the scriptures turned into dots of floating light, wrapping word by word around the peach wood coffin.

Huo Zhenye used the remaining bamboo plaques to make two plaques and stood them in front of the peach wood coffin. There were no names on the plaques, and there was no tombstone in front of the grave. Naturally, the two children had no names.

Ah Sheng swallowed his saliva: "This, is this all right?"

"Not yet." Bai Zhun shook his head.

His blood relatives refined him into ghosts or ghosts, strange or strange things, in addition to donating flesh and blood, they had to give him his favorite things.

A Sheng was at a loss: "What... what does he like the most?" Could it be cannibalism?

Huo Zhenye shook his head helplessly, and pointed to the eight children's paper bundles: "He should like listening to operas the most, watching little monkeys do somersaults."

A Shengmao suddenly realized that he still wanted to perform, and he had to make the kid happy, so he was willing to leave.

There are more than 20 people in the troupe, one by one, they will make paper figurines, put on costumes, and they will be able to perform today.

As soon as Ah Sheng was about to move the paper figurine to the town, Bai Zhun said, "Don't move."

"How do you move it if you don't move?" Can it fly?

They can't fly, but these paper figurines can walk by themselves. Bai Zhun clasped his middle and index fingers together, pointing at people, and the paper figurines walked out of the temple one by one.

Just as Ah Sheng wanted to follow, Bai Zhun stopped him: "Stay here and watch the fire, don't let the fire go out."

Ah Sheng immediately agreed, the bone nail did not know what it was made of, even if it was thrown into the fire, it wouldn't burn, and it didn't even change its color.

Huo Zhenye and Bai Zhun walked side by side at the end of the line. Huo Zhenye stretched out his hand and grabbed Bai Zhun: "Are you tired? Don't move. I have something to talk about. I won't talk if you move."

Bai Zhun glanced at him, this man can be such a rascal when he is doing business.

Huo Zhenye already knew it, so he had to be tougher with him, this person was really duplicity, he was willing in his heart, and he refused to admit it, as long as he didn't let go.

Without waiting for Bai Zhun to speak, he said first, "I think we should go to Qin's house to have a look."

The innkeeper said that the Qin family rented the inn to live in for the theater troupe, so it was naturally a play presented by the Qin family.But Ah Sheng and Chen Shou escaped the capture of the monster by hiding in the ancestral hall. Why the monster didn't attack the ancestral hall was because the ancestral hall also belonged to the Qin family.

Huo Zhenye has always been bold and careful, and he can guess a general idea as soon as he thinks about it.

"That's it?" Bai Zhun's patience reached the limit, he withdrew his hand and rubbed it on his clothes. He was planning to go to Qin's house.

The paper pierced people were still stiff when they first walked out, but they became more "vigorous" as they walked, and when they walked halfway, they huddled together in twos and threes.

Xuan Yun floated behind, seeing that the paper figurine looked more and more like a troupe, and hugged Chen Shou's body tightly.

Soon they arrived at the Qin family's mansion, where ghosts naturally lived, Huo Zhenye knocked on the door, and said to the butler: "The mansion has ordered a play, we will send it."

As he spoke, he pointed to a group of paper troupe behind him.

The butler couldn't remember if he had ever set up a play, but it was very common for the Qin family to sing opera, so he led them in with a smile. In the backyard of the Qin family, there was a small stage specially built for it.

Huo Zhenye looked around and aimed at a small building in the back house. The building was three stories high, and the window on the top floor happened to be able to see a corner of the small stage.

This building was built like a tower, small and narrow, with steep and continuous stairs, as if deliberately making it difficult for people to climb up, or to put it another way... difficult to walk down.

That child has more difficulty walking than ordinary people. When going downstairs, the front half of the body must be able to fully support the weight of the back half of the body.

When they were alive, they might have been imprisoned here.

Huo Zhenye climbed upstairs and heard noises inside the building. It was one voice talking to another, and the two small shadows were close together through the window.

"We're going to sing again tomorrow!" one told the other.

"Great, I want to watch the little monkey do somersaults."

It is obvious that two people are talking to each other, but it can be seen that the two heads are talking to themselves.

Huo Zhenye was a little surprised, he asked Bai Zhun in a low voice: "Aren't their souls suppressed?"

Bai Zhun looked at the small room: "This is a memory." Because of a strong desire, they have been kept here. Watching the theater may be the happiest memory in their short lives.

It was getting dark soon, the small stage was decorated with lights and festoons, and as soon as the gongs and drums sounded, two children in the building stood by the window, one watched first, and then the other watched after a while.

The paper figurine kept somersaulting on the stage, but from this window, only a corner of the stage could be seen, and the little monkey had to turn over to see it.

They took turns pawing at the window, hoping to have another look.

"It would be great if I could go downstairs to watch it." They could only look at a corner of the stage, how beautiful the whole stage would be, it must be full of little monkeys doing somersaults

As soon as the voice fell, the door was opened.

There was a man standing at the door. The man was tall and tall, with the light on his back. They couldn't help taking a step back, looking at the man in front of them with fear in their eyes, trembling, thinking that they were going to be beaten again: "We... I don't dare, I don't dare .”

Those who care for them don't want to hear the word "we".

Everyone said they were monsters, monsters with two heads, they were not allowed to talk to themselves, and they were not allowed to show the other half of their bodies.

Huo Zhenye smiled, and asked them as gently as possible: "Do you want to go downstairs to watch a play?"

The two children were stunned. They couldn't believe that their dreams had come true, but they shook their heads and said in disappointment, "I can't get down."

The maid who delivered food once forgot to lock the door. They thought they could finally go out, but within a few steps they almost rolled down, and they couldn't get out.

Huo Zhenye stretched out his hand: "I'll carry you down."

He bent down and hugged them, walked down the stairs, until he walked to the stage, there was no one in the audience, this show was just for them.

The little monkeys kept doing somersaults on it, and there were also those who played with silver guns and those who danced with big knives. They were colorful and brilliant, all of which they had never seen since they were born.

Bai Zhun walked up to Huo Zhenye: "You are a troublemaker."

Huo Zhenye crossed his arms and looked at him with a smile: "I'll kiss you again." After speaking, he stared at him, as if expecting him to say something more.

Before Bai Zhun had time to get angry, the monster jumped in, it shrank a lot, it was as tall as a normal person, with a red cloth on its head.

As soon as it came in, it wanted to attack Huo Bai, but before it stretched out its sharp claws, the two children listening to the opera rushed over.

They stretched out their four arms to protect Huo Zhenye.

The monster stood still, stared blankly at the two children, whimpered in its throat, and began to cry.

The author has something to say: Huo · found the trick · seven