monster study

The clouds are scattered, and the bright moon shines on people.

Lu Zhifei didn't expect that in the intricate alleys of Beijing, he could meet that Taoist priest just by throwing trash.

The Taoist priest was dressed in a Taoist robe, with a mahogany hairpin in a bun, and a pair of round-frame sunglasses on the bridge of his nose. He stopped Lu Zhifei with a flick of the dust whisk, and then stood under the moonlight. I have a good eye, today the old man will give you a [-]% discount for the last divination! It supports Alipay payment, which is very convenient."

Lu Zhifei looked at him quietly while holding the garbage bag.

A gleam of joy flashed in the Taoist priest's eyes hidden behind the sunglasses, which was playful.So he quickly pinched his fingers and cleared his throat, "Little brother, I see that you are full of heaven, with a beautiful face and peach blossoms looming between your brows. This is a sign of good luck...Huh?"

The fingers of the Taoist who were counting stopped suddenly. He seemed to have figured something out, and hurriedly pulled off his sunglasses, squinted his eyes and looked at Lu Zhifei carefully, "You are..."

Lu Zhifei took off his mask, and looked at him coldly, "Your Taoist priest forgets a lot, you don't recognize me?"

"Oh, I'm going!" The Taoist turned around and slipped away as if he had seen a ghost.

Lu Zhifei strode to catch up and grabbed him by the collar.But the Taoist refused. During the struggle, he tripped himself and dragged Lu Zhifei to the ground by the way.

Crash, the garbage bag is broken, and the garbage is scattered all over the floor.The Taoist priest held his head in pain, but just in time to see the floating clouds disperse, revealing a bright full moon.

"Full moon, great evil, great evil!"

Lu Zhifei frowned slightly, subconsciously looked up.The Taoist scheming succeeded, he got up and was about to run, but as soon as he stepped out, he was tripped by Lu Zhifei stretching out a foot, and fell like a dog eating shit with a ouch.

Lu Zhifei looked down at him, and said softly, "Falling twice in a row is really terrible."

The Taoist stopped running now, and lay on the ground with tears streaming down his face, "I said Brother Lu, why are you doing this? I told you last time, I can't help you with that favor. Really, you say you What is a good human being doing to get involved in the world of monsters? I'm just a fake Taoist priest, what supernatural powers can I have?"

"You can see." Lu Zhifei said calmly.

The Taoist sat up awkwardly, straightened his hair, and said, "Can that be the same? I am me and you are you. Just because I can see doesn't mean you can see, do you understand?"

"But you are human too."

The Taoist priest was surrounded, why was he surrounded by him again?

"Why can't I just say that you can't make sense? This kind of thing depends on chance." The Taoist said earnestly, "He raised you, this is your chance. But monsters are also divided into categories. Some, such as foxes Demon dog demon, that is the most common monster in your mouth. But your father, its body is a plant, and a plant is called a spirit. A spirit is a spirit, unlike a monster, he has no entity. You can see him when you were a child , that's because a child's mind is pure, there is no cloudy air in his eyes, and he can see some things that ordinary people can't see, but when you grow up and fully integrate into the human world, you can't see it, which means your fate is over. Yes. Come and go, you have to follow the laws of the world."

"That's my father, this is more important than the laws of heaven and earth." Lu Zhifei was unmoved.

The Taoist sighed in his heart, "I can't say no to you, it's God's will to be hit by you again today. But if you want to see your father again, you have to open your eyes again. Although there are many monsters in Beijing, there are not many. No one has this magic power. Don’t say whether you can find it, you are a human being asking for such a thing, do you think all monsters are as kind as your father?”

Lu Zhifei looked at him, and answered the wrong question: "I know you must have a way, you just need to tell me how to do it, and I won't hurt you."

The Taoist looked into Lu Zhifei's eyes, the black pupils were quiet and deep - it made him feel as if he had come to a mysterious and deep lake in an instant, and his long eyelashes were like straight black fir trees by the lake, reflected in the clear hair. In the calm waters of the lake.

Such a pair of clean eyes shouldn't see too much.

The Taoist looked at Lu Zhifei, and Lu Zhifei also looked at the Taoist. The two sat beside the garbage on the floor, facing each other.

A full moon shines in the sky, and the king and the devil howl together.

The Taoist glanced at the dark corners in the alley, trembled for no reason, and then quickly got up from the ground, "It's not that I haven't thought of a way for you in the past six months. You helped me last time. I should help you once. Don’t think about opening your eyes, but I can find a way for you to perceive your father’s existence.”

As he said that, he took out something from his cloth bag and put it in Lu Zhifei's hand, "Take this and go to Sanlitun at eight o'clock tomorrow night to find a woman riding a Harley. Her name is Wu Qiangqiang."

Lu Zhifei looked down, it was a black bookmark-like thing.It is made of wood, with intricate patterns carved on the four corners, and four traditional Chinese characters engraved in the center - Monster Study.When you get closer, you can still smell a faint fragrance.

"What is this?" Lu Zhifei asked.

"Bookmark, but in modern terms, you can also use it as a membership card." The Taoist looked solemn, "Remember, talk less, listen less, and watch less. The water here is far deeper than you think."

After the words fell, the Taoist glanced at those dark corners again, and a trace of solemnity flashed in his eyes.Then he threw something on the ground with his hands, there was a bang and the smoke filled, Lu Zhifei quickly covered his mouth and nose, and saw the figure of the Taoist priest running wildly in the smoke was still as usual - cowardly.

"There will be a period later!"

Lu Zhifei remembered the same thing when they met last time, the Taoist priest seemed to be hiding from something.Thinking of this, he glanced around thoughtfully, but still saw nothing.The surrounding area was quiet, except for the rubbish all over the floor, which looked extraordinarily bleak under the dim light of the street lamps.

"Lu Zhifei, have you finished throwing out the trash? Come help!" Suddenly, a voice came from behind.

Lu Zhifei came back to his senses, quickly cleaned up the garbage, and then returned to the cafe where he worked through the back door.

The back door leads to a back alley, but the cafe is actually facing the street.As soon as he entered the door, Lu Zhifei saw his college roommate Ma Yanyan sitting in the cafe and was about to order. Lu Zhifei brought him a cup and asked, "Aren't you going on a date?"

Ma Yanyan took a sip of coffee, her face wrinkled from bitterness, "Criticize me, do you think I look like a gay?"

Lu Zhifei saw that his lips were red and his teeth were white, he was wearing a sports forehead, and he was also wearing a white coat. He looked like a manga boy all day long, and his height was also very Japanese. He couldn't be more than 1.7 meters, so he said: "Whether you are gay is not the key, the key is It's—you shouldn't be dating the flight attendant department. She has no other choice but to treat you as a gay."

Lu Zhifei felt that he was tactful enough, but Ma Yanyan suddenly felt sad, like a strong man, drank the bitter coffee in one gulp.Then, it became even more bitter, as if all the suffering in the world was concentrated in his mouth, he silently lay down on the table and thought—why, he didn’t put on a breast augmentation when he went out.

Until Lu Zhifei came to call him after work, he was still lying on the table with his mouth puckered, with the expression of 'the baby is crying but the baby doesn't say it'.

When the two returned to school, Ma Yanyan was still looking at the building where she usually attended classes, and pointed her middle finger at the sky angrily, "It is said that nine out of ten men in the Department of Fashion Design are gay, this must be a curse!"

Lu Zhifei didn't think so at first, but 10 minutes later, when he was standing on the balcony drying his clothes, he saw a bunch of colorful balloons floating in front of his eyes, with the words "Lu Zhifei I like you, you are my sunny day" written on it. When he read a few characters, he felt for the first time that Ma Yanyan was right—this must be a curse.

"Hahahahahahahaha who is so creative!" Ma Yanyan leaned against the door frame laughing until her stomach hurts, "I am convinced of this literary talent, convinced..."

Lu Zhifei had a black face, and then picked up the fishing rod that another roommate had placed on the balcony. With a flick of the hook, he hooked back the balloon that was about to rise into the sky.

Sunny day?

Lu Zhifei looked at the words on the balloon, with a handsome expressionless face, thinking: let's thunder, for fear of the sun.

So the people in the whole building listened to Cao Lu Zhifei, a student from the Department of Fashion Design, ordering his roommate Ma Yanyan, who was gloating, to pop dozens of poor balloons.

And Ma Yanyan suddenly realized that this was a good way to relieve stress, so she went to Taobao to place an order and bought hundreds of balloons that night.So when the last roommate, Tong Jiashu, came back from the library with a book in his arms, he looked at the room full of broken balloons, "..."

Just be happy.

The next day happened to be Saturday, and Ma Yanyan wanted to find someone to go shopping and buy clothes with.But Tong Jiashu, a top student in the department next door, returned him a pair of couplets, the right couplet: It’s better to do the questions when shopping on the street, the left couplet: It’s better to do the questions than to buy clothes, and the horizontal comment: It’s better to do the questions instead.

Ma Yanyan admitted that she was wrong, poked her own ears, and ran out alone.At night, he wanted to find Lu Zhifei again, but when he arrived at the cafe, he was not there.

Because at this time Lu Zhifei was already standing alone on the street in Sanlitun, holding the bookmark, and started looking for someone aimlessly.When Ma Yanyan's phone rang, he was stopping to rest, looking at the vast crowd, not knowing how to find a woman riding a Harley.

Could it be that he was deceived by that Taoist priest again?

"Hey, hello? Xiao Feifei, where are you?" Ma Yanyan was bluffing on the phone.

"I have some things to do, and I may not be back for a while."

Lu Zhifei stroked the quaint bookmark, the monster thing was too mysterious and dangerous, he didn't want Ma Yanyan and Tong Jiashu to be involved.

"What urgent things do you have to do? You even asked for leave, do you want me to help? Let me tell you that I'm in a hurry now, and I'm bored with my wife..." Ma Yanyan was still rambling on that side, but Lu Zhifei was keenly Hear the sound of locomotives.He looked up quickly, and saw a black Harley passing by him like lightning, and the strong wind blew his clothes down.

"Wait!" Lu Zhifei chased after subconsciously, but Ma Yanyan was stunned, "Wait?"

The roar of the locomotive came and went, went and came again.

The black Harley turned around, flew back again, and stopped in front of Lu Zhifei with a sudden brake.The female driver with fiery red hair took off her goggles, and raised her chin at Lu Zhifei heroically, "Lu Zhifei?"

One mouth, full of unruly popping candy.

Lu Zhifei looked at the time on his phone - eight o'clock in the evening, Sanlitun, a woman riding a Harley, that's right.

He immediately said to Ma Yanyan on the phone: "Listen, if you feel bored, go to the doorman now to see if the courier has arrived. Blow up those more than 100 balloons, and Tong Jiashu will be back."

Then he hung up the phone neatly, looked up at Wu Qiangqiang, "Hello, I'm Lu Zhifei."

"The Taoist has already told me," Wu Qiangqiang said briskly, "Get in the car, I can help you with this."

Lu Zhifei never thought that one day he would race with a monster on the second ring road at night.

Yes, Wu Qiang Qiang is a monster, a monster that has transformed into human society, there is no doubt about it.

Half an hour later, Wu Qiangqiang stopped in front of a small mahogany door, and took out the key to open the door.

Lu Zhifei looked around, looking past the tall sycamore trees beside the road, and saw the tall iconic building of a certain university not far away, and suddenly realized that they had returned to the university town.

Ma Yanyan, a tourist expert, once mentioned to him that this area was originally an old town, and after several repairs, some dilapidated houses were demolished, and many small two-story houses were built according to the original architectural style, Western-style and Chinese-style. The architectural style is perfectly blended together, it doesn't look dilapidated, and it has a sense of age. There are even signs of cultural relic protection units on the outside of several houses. In short, those who can afford this house are either rich or expensive.

At this time, with a "squeak", Wu Qiangqiang pushed open the small red wooden door and walked in.

There are no lights in the dark house, mysterious and full of unknowns.Lu Zhifei looked up at the glazed tiles on the roof and the carved wooden windows covered with ivy, and hesitated for a while.But soon, Wu Qiangqiang's figure disappeared into the darkness, and Lu Zhifei didn't dare to hesitate any longer, and immediately followed.

Entering the door is a living room, let's call it the front hall. Because there is no light, Lu Zhifei can't see clearly in the dark.Pass through the front hall, push open the carved lattice wooden door, and a small courtyard appears in front of you.

The house looks somewhat like a courtyard house, but not entirely.There is a unique small pool in the courtyard. The side next to the pool is surrounded by a wall, and there are houses on the other three sides. The main entrance is on the north side and the back door is on the south side.And what they just walked through was the back door.

"Hush, take it easy." Wu Qiangqiang bowed his waist slightly, as if he was a thief, and the heroic demeanor just now seemed to be gone with the wind.Under the moonlit night, Lu Zhifei could still see a strange light shining in her eyes.

Lu Zhifei kept the Taoist priest's advice in mind and dared not speak too much.From the corner of the eye, he looked around. There was a tree of unknown species planted by the pool, which was almost higher than the wall. On the flower stand beside the wall were various flower pots, which were supposed to be flowers of different flowering periods. But they are all in full bloom, competing for beauty.Weird, but beautiful.

In this courtyard, there is no wind at all.

No matter how calm Lu Zhifei was, he couldn't help being a little nervous at this moment.Wu Qiangqiang walked through the courtyard first, came to the wooden door facing the front hall just now, and stretched out his hand, "Give me the bookmark."

Lu Zhifei handed it to her, and she took it and looked carefully, her face was solemn for the first time, "The bookmark has been received, now I will open the study for you. After entering, follow my instructions, don't flip or move randomly, Did you hear that?"

Lu Zhifei nodded.

Wu Qiangqiang didn't ask any more questions, he put his hand on the door and pushed hard.The two wooden doors were opened simultaneously, and a thick ink and scholarly fragrance, wrapped in the desolation of time, rushed towards the face.

At that moment, Lu Zhifei felt as if he had traveled through time, which was amazing.

The room is very large, completely in the structure of an ancient store, with a counter on the left, and the ledger and abacus are still there, but a thick layer of dust has already accumulated.On the right hand side are bookshelves, not the ones in ordinary bookstores, but rather like the study rooms of ancient academies shown in TV dramas. Simple and simple thread-bound books are placed on the neatly arranged bookshelves. Lu Zhifei even saw some bamboo slips.

"Cough, cough..." Wu Qiangqiang turned on the light, covered his mouth and nose with one hand to prevent dust, and rummaged through the bookshelf with the other, "You don't need to think about things like opening your eyes unless that person does it himself, then It’s too dangerous. The only way to help you now is to let you know how to read.”

"Literacy?" Lu Zhifei was puzzled.

"Know the characters of our monsters. Characters are spiritual. If you learn them, it means you know them and establish a certain connection with them. In this way, even if you and your dad can't touch or touch each other, You can also talk through text."

"But...my dad can read human characters." If Wu Qiangqiang said according to what he said, then they can communicate now.

"That's different." Wu Qiangqiang turned his head and blinked at him, "This is the monster's study, and only here can you walk on the bridge that communicates between the two generations."

Just as she was talking, Wu Qiangqiang finally found the book she was looking for, and happily took it out to read, "Sure enough, this is the book. Your father's body is a tree, and the tree has a tree language. Nong, take it and read it." Well, how much you can learn depends on your own good fortune."

At this moment, Wu Qiangqiang felt a sense of accomplishment in his heart, ah, she is indeed a good old-fashioned and warm-hearted monster.

"Thank you." Lu Zhifei opened the book, looked at the ghostly symbols on the entire page, "..."

"The master leads the door, the practice is up to the individual, young man!" Wu Qiangqiang patted Lu Zhifei's shoulder vigorously, clenched his fist, his eyes were full of encouragement, "As the first guest to visit here since the founding of New China, I believe You can do it."

Lu Zhifei was silent for a moment, and asked, "Is there a dictionary?"

Wu Qiangqiang was also silent for a moment, and asked back: "Most of the books in the entire demon world are here, and there are only so many in total. Do you think there will be any demon who has nothing to do to compile a dictionary?"

"Okay." Although helpless, Lu Zhifei could only accept the reality.

Seeing this, Wu Qiangqiang slapped Lu Zhifei on the back with great pride, "Cheer up, this word means... just look at it!"

Lu Zhifei almost vomited blood when he was photographed by her, he managed to breathe a sigh of relief, and asked, "Then can you please show me what this word is..."

Eh?What about people?

Lu Zhifei only felt a gust of wind blowing around him, and the Wu Qiang and Qiang people had disappeared.Turning around to look for it quickly, she saw her poking her head in from the door, "Look slowly, I'll pick you up tomorrow morning!"

After all, once the door is closed, this windy banshee comes and goes quickly.

Lu Zhifei had to wonder if she didn't know these words herself, that's why she ran so fast.And Lu Zhifei was very concerned about her careful movement across the courtyard just now.Is she watching out for something?

Suddenly, the door opened again.

Lu Zhifei was just wondering if there was any ulterior secret in this room, when he saw the door slowly opened a crack, and a hand with bright red nail polish stretched in. How infiltrating.

Then, that hand put down a takeaway bag, "I leave this bowl of mala tang for your supper."

Lu Zhifei held back for a long time, and said, "Thank you."

Hearing this thank you, Wu Qiangqiang, who was full of enthusiasm, left the study happily and continued her racing career in the big demon chicken in Central.The small mahogany door was closed, and the last gust of drafts blew across the courtyard. The colorful glass reflected the shimmering light, and the unknown tree swayed its branches.

The withered and yellow leaves fell leisurely into the pond, originally calm, but when the water gradually faded, there seemed to be more whispers in the wind and the rustling of leaves.

"It smells so good, what kind of smell is this..."

"I really want to eat..."

"But the master hasn't woken up yet..."

"Ah, it's been a long time since the founding of New China, why is the master still awake? Hey, hey."