The strange story of Huai'an Inn

What is Layman Luzhou's name, what does he look like, where does he live... These three pieces of news should be easy to find out, but Chong Liu just couldn't get a clue.

Long before the shopkeeper personally ordered him to inquire, Chong Liu had intentionally or unintentionally inquired with all the theaters that had staged plays written by the mysterious literati, and asked all the tea doctors, Liyuan children, theater oddballs, and even The class master, but no one has personally met the author of the play.

Later, when Chong Liu was buying opera books, he also talked to several bookstore owners. Some people said they had seen it, but the caliber was different. Some said it was tall, some said it was short, some said it was fat, and some said it was thin.

Obviously not believable.

Chong Liu came out of the fourth bookstore, clutching a new work recently written by Luzhou Layman, and went back to the inn somewhat dejectedly.

The shopkeeper borrowed all the playbooks of Luzhou Layman that he had to read, and he finished reading almost all of them in just two days, and even gave him money to buy plays that were not available in Chongliu on the market. I bought all the books.

Chongliu almost thought that the shopkeeper was obsessed with Luzhou Layman's works...

For some reason, Chong Liu, who used to like Layman Luzhou very much, doesn't like it that much now...

Back at the inn, I worked with Zhu Yi for a while.Just as he was sweeping the leftover chicken bones that had been gnawed on a table into the wooden barrel, he suddenly heard the shopkeeper call him, "Liuer~~~" Chong Liu hurriedly dropped the rag in his hand and ran to the counter, "Master!"

"How's the inquiry going?" The shopkeeper flipped through the ledger absently.

Chong Liu took out the playbook that was still in his bosom, "I still...haven't found out...what I said is not right, obviously the one who submitted the manuscript was not himself."

"It turns out that there are people you can't find. It seems that the water in Luzhou is very deep." The shopkeeper teased.

Chong Liu took off the linen hat on his head, and held it in his hands a little embarrassedly, "I'm a waiter, of course I have to scan frequently and listen carefully..."

"Okay, if you can't find him for a while, you don't have to force it. You can run an errand for me tonight and go to the coppersmith to get the things back."

Ah, the ten-day period has come!

"Aren't you going with me?" Chong Liu said, "But if I go by myself... it might take a little longer, and I won't be able to come back until tomorrow..."

The shopkeeper smiled mysteriously, "Come to my room first after closing tonight, and I will teach you how to take a shortcut."

Chong Liu blinked twice, "Teach me?"

"Yeah, it's very simple. You're also clever, and you can learn it with just half a stick of incense." The shopkeeper moved closer to Chongliu, looking seriously into his eyes, "It's up to you... if you dare to learn it."

Chong Liu nodded like rice, "Learn! I want to learn!"

The shopkeeper smiled with satisfaction, suddenly stretched out his hand, and lightly brushed Chong Liu's cheek.

Chong Liu's face coaxed down, it was as hot as a boiled crab.

The shopkeeper's fingertips were cool, but it seemed as if a fire had been lit under the skin of his cheek.

However, the shopkeeper's fingertips remained with a bit of dust wiped off, and he didn't seem to realize how ambiguous his actions were. He casually said, "The face is as dirty as a cat", and left with the playbook.

Chong Liu felt that the shopkeeper was deliberately teasing him as that raccoon cat...

I was a little excited to work on the sixth day all day, and I was eager to try.If the ability to take shortcuts can be learned, wouldn't it be possible to reach anywhere in the world overnight?

Finally, when it was closing time, Chong Liu quickly closed the stall, settled the night shift, locked the cash drawer, and ran to the backyard without even eating dinner with everyone.

The shopkeeper's courtyard door was open, as if it was reserved for him.Chong Liu couldn't help but walk in lightly, then turned around and closed the door.Those strange flowers in the yard seemed to be turning slightly, and those sticky petals that seemed to be made of meat faced him and observed him.When he passed by, it seemed to stick out of the flowerbed and stick to his trouser legs.

The door of the shopkeeper's room was not closed, he opened it as soon as he knocked.

The shopkeeper was sitting in the hall full of all kinds of sundries, wearing a thin and loose white silk singlet, which was not as neat as usual in front of people, and his black hair was not tied up at all, hanging down and lazily around his broad chest. shoulders.

Chong Liu swallowed his saliva, suddenly his whole body became tense, and his palms were sweating.

"You are here." The shopkeeper focused on the playbook in his hand, without even raising his eyelids, and pointed to the collapsed seat opposite the low table he was leaning on, "Sit."

Chong Liu sat down according to his words, but saw a piece of paper on the table, and on the paper was a group of ghost symbols twisted like messy hair.

Chong Liu picked up the piece of paper, looked left and right, but couldn't see the way.

"Liu'er, do you know that the foul smell on your body is getting stronger and stronger." The shopkeeper put down the book and raised his eyes to look at him, "It's far stronger than what Xu Hanke can infect you."

Chong Liu looked at him blankly, "How... how?"

"I think you should know. If you don't know, maybe you forgot. But this is not necessarily a bad thing. As long as you keep wearing the sachet I gave you, there will be no problem for the time being." The shopkeeper saw Chong Liu began to sit up straight uneasy, and said in a soft voice, "Besides, if your filth is not strong enough to attract filth in an environment dominated by Tao, it is impossible to take a shortcut."

The shopkeeper began to explain to him the most basic principles of taking shortcuts.

All the roads did not exist originally, but they are just a line that is more suitable for human beings to pass through with fewer obstacles in the middle from one point to another in the rules of this existing world.

According to Tao, to go from one point to another, one must follow the direction of the meandering line in the middle.But if, they could attract the filth and let the filth create a temporary field around them, they could twist the Tao and pass through the shortest distance between two points without being affected by the obstacles in between.

Of course, taking shortcuts has its limits. If the Tao is too strong, and the filth cannot be attracted, it is impossible to take the shortcut.If the filth is too weak, the path that can be twisted is limited, and the shortcut is not so close.

And Chong Liu, as a carrier of filth, has more advantages and is more likely to succeed than ordinary people who don't have much filth.

"This talisman is your 'shortcut' map. From the point of view of Tao, it may be very chaotic and fragmented, but from the point of view of evil, it is the shortest straight line." The shopkeeper said, stretching out his hand, It flashed in front of my eyes, "So what we have to do is to let you learn to see the world through filth."

Chong Liu was completely fascinated, as if being led into a mysterious world full of infinite possibilities by the shopkeeper.

"However, the world seen through the dirty may not be acceptable to everyone." The shopkeeper warned, "That's why I won't pass this method on to others easily. But if you focus on the road, maybe you won't be able to bear it." What will you see...something too crazy."

Chong Liu thought for a while and asked, "The other day I saw the City God...is it..."

"That's right, that's because you saw something that you shouldn't have seen through the filth by mistake. Now I want to teach you how to enter that state again." The shopkeeper paused, and suddenly said a series of heavy six A strange language that is completely incomprehensible.

Some blunt, some old-fashioned, with a certain profound, emotional power.

"I say a word, you learn a word from me. This passage must be firmly remembered."

Chong Liu followed the shopkeeper and repeated those "mantras" over and over again. At first, he thought it was a bit funny, but later he said it more and more smoothly, and gradually began to feel that when he uttered the sound, the sound produced some strange resonance in the skull.

He began to see that the shopkeeper began to steam some...red flocculent things...

"Okay. Don't read any more." The shopkeeper suddenly said in a slightly stern voice.Chong Liu was startled, the voice in his head stopped, and the red flocs on the shopkeeper disappeared.

"Don't read these few words when there are people around. When you take a shortcut, don't be seen by irrelevant people. Also, don't stop on the road." The shopkeeper warned seriously.

"Then... what should I do after I finish reading?"

The shopkeeper just slightly raised the corner of his mouth, "Bring this map to the coppersmith's house. After you finish reading, if the strokes on this map form a straight line, you will naturally be able to see the road."

............................................................

In the middle of the night, the back alley was empty.Chong Liu stood alone at the back door of the darkened inn with a piece of paper, while reciting the spells taught to him by the shopkeeper over and over again.

I don't know if I was nervous, but no matter how I read it at first, there was no response.Gradually, Chong Liu began to feel impatient, a little worried that he might not be as talented as the shopkeeper thought...

As he read it, his thoughts began to wander.He began to recall the cool touch of the shopkeeper's fingertips.

During these days, he and the shopkeeper got closer and closer without knowing it... This made him start to see many different aspects of the shopkeeper.

But he still couldn't see through the shopkeeper.He didn't know where the shopkeeper was from, who else was in the family, what he was doing before opening the inn, and how he knew so many things about Fei.

Even... How old is the shopkeeper?

And the shopkeeper, how much does he know about him?

Chong Liu looked down absent-mindedly and was stunned.

At some point, the original white paper has now turned into a... an indescribable color.

A color that Chong Liu has never seen and is difficult to understand.

The originally tangled lines on the paper have now become a straight line.

He opened his mouth wide and rubbed his eyes vigorously.

Although the shopkeeper said that such a thing would happen, he was still taken aback when it really happened.

He raised his head, only to find that the road stretched straight ahead.It's just that there are many... dense holes on the road.

It's not the kind of mud pit that usually appears on the ground, but... a void, nothing at all.

The buildings on both sides are all twisted strangely, some seem to be broken from the middle, but they are horizontal in the air in that intermittent right-angle posture.There are also some that have been cut off in half, and the cut off half sticks out from another small building.All are misplaced, just like the scene reflected after the original continuous mirror was smashed into tens of millions of petals. After a long time, there will be a strong sense of vertigo.

Chong Liu was a little nauseous.

He remembered what the shopkeeper had told him before he left, to only look at the ground and not look elsewhere.Even if you hear a strange sound or smell a strange smell, don't look up.

So I did it again six times.He kept his eyes on the ground, carefully avoided those dark holes, and began to move forward on the road that was too smooth.He was very nervous, for fear of encountering monsters like City God who lived in the filth...

But maybe this time he was lucky, he didn't see anything special.But he did hear a muffled thunderous howl from far away.

After half a stick of incense, the road suddenly stopped.

There is a weird and wonderful fault in the world in front of Chongliu, as if looking at the scenery on land through the water.

The world behind an invisible boundary has returned to its original appearance, and there are no more weird dislocations and distorted scenery.The spreading dirt road, separated by a stone bridge, shows that the coppersmith's village has been hidden in the night.

The moment he stepped across the invisible fault, Chongliu felt a sense of relaxation and pleasure as he held his breath underwater for a long time and finally rushed out of the water.He turned his head, but he couldn't see the previous fragmented and strange angles.

He succeeded.

He can take a shortcut like a shopkeeper!

With an unconcealable smile on Chong Liu's face, he knocked on the door of the coppersmith's shop.

When the coppersmith saw him, he didn't speak. He looked behind him first, as if he was looking for someone.

"The boss has something to do, so I'll help him pick up the goods." Chong Liuda bowed and said, "Thank you, master!"

The coppersmith looked at him in astonishment, "You came from Tianliang City alone?"

"Yes, Master, I have to go back." Chong Liu smiled brightly, as if he thought the whole process was fun.

The coppersmith didn't say much, and handed him a copper basin wrapped in cloth and a pair of brass chopsticks in a small wooden box, "Be careful on the road."

"Be careful of what?"

"If you are walking the same way as your shopkeeper...you must not stop in the middle of the road. There seem to be dogs on the road recently." The coppersmith told him in an almost threatening tone.

The author has something to say: the concept of shortcut is derived from the concept of "wormhole"~