Of Mountains and Rivers

Chu Huan's words stopped the two people present.

The elder thought carefully for a while, maybe because he couldn't figure out one, two, three, he couldn't show his omnipotence, he lost face somewhat, so he said disdainfully: "Then who knows, maybe you are a freak. "

After finishing speaking, he walked out without the torch - among the three people, Chu Huan may be the only one who needs to be illuminated in a dark place.

Chu Huan: "..."

The old man actually knows what a "freak" is, and his vocabulary is not small.

But Chu Huan would also laugh at himself. When he saw the elder's goat face, he felt balanced—in the eyes of a goat, all human beings are probably freaks.

Nanshan coughed in embarrassment: "He is old and has a bad temper."

"I see, it's generally bad for others, but especially bad for me," Chu Huan pondered for a while, then asked puzzledly, "Am I so annoying?"

Nanshan: "Probably because you look good and are good at talking."

...Could it be that the old man likes people who look scary and talk hard?That's over, it seems that only Xiaofang can become his heart.

In fact, in such a context, this sentence would seem very glib to anyone, but when it came to Nanshan's mouth, it was a bit of a bit of verbiage to publish an important editorial. Hearing it, Chu Huan completely forgot that he was run off by the old goat just now. The depression, the whole body is comfortable for a while.

Chu Huan rubbed his nose: "...I found that you are really good at complimenting others, and you are subtle and nice."

Nanshan: "My dad is also from the other side of your river. I heard the elder mention it a few times. He may feel a bit like you. The elder probably turned his anger towards you on you. Don't go too far. Go with your heart."

The amount of information in this sentence is a bit large, and Chu Huan should not be upset when he realized that he had suffered for others, but then he thought again... Since it is Nanshan's father, then let's accept it.

"As for your question, I'm not sure," Nanshan said cautiously, "but I have a little guess that this incident happens to have something to do with my father."

Chu Huan took down the torch hung on the wall by the elder: "Okay, let's go out and talk."

The depressing cave and the people frozen in the past made Chu Huan feel very uncomfortable.

Chu Huan walked all the way out and pondered all the way—according to Nanshan, he is now trapped in the Liyi clan?

He still can't accept the saying that the two sides of the river are "two worlds". Although Chu Huan failed in geography since he was a child, he still firmly believes that the earth is round.

However, his limited common sense couldn't explain the people in the cave who were either dead or alive.

Chu Huan is a very self-conscious layman. He has no habit of looking up at the starry sky or thinking about philosophical issues. His imagination can't get beyond the three acres of land in front of him. He is a very boring man.

So at this time, he couldn't imagine how the "frozen" person would feel.

If what the elders said is true, and they didn't realize that they were "slowing down", wouldn't they also not realize that they were frozen now?

For the veterans frozen in the cave, if they can wake up one day, will they feel that the whole world has changed in the blink of an eye?

The two walked out of the cave in silence and returned to the clan.

Once the fog dissipated, the sky above Liyizu was full of warm sun and bright blue sky again. The clouds suddenly rose and dispersed, and the mountain tops in the distance stopped moving forward. It was a paradise that made people suddenly enlightened.

But Taoyuan is full of uneasiness, not to mention the patrolling men with stern expressions, even the horses running all over the mountains and plains on weekdays feel that the rain is coming, and they spontaneously follow the leading horse and gather near the human village , looking around warily from time to time.

From a long distance, Chu Huan saw the big white horse that was almost trapped in the river with him, so he blew a long whistle. ran towards him.

He still had a limp in his leg, and he hadn't healed from the scratches from the "mad dog," but a good horse was a good horse, and he still looked terrific.

The big white horse lowered its head, rubbed against Chu Huan's hand, and acted like a baby.

Miss Chun, who was working in her yard, heard the movement, turned her head and saw the two of them, wiped her hands on her body with some restraint, greeted Chu Huan shyly, then picked up the ax and continued to work, Chu Huan At first I thought she was chopping firewood, but when I got closer, I found a row of "mad dogs" lying on the ground in the yard of her house, all of them were dead, and the shy elder sister Chun was chopping off their heads one by one with an axe.

"Mad Dogs" are invulnerable, only a small part of the neck can be cut in. Spring's subordinates, with the agility of a skilled worker, stepped on their corpses with their feet, and slashed at their weak spots with the blade of the ax. Never go astray.

Chu Huan didn't know how to evaluate this situation for a while, and felt sorry for him, he couldn't help feeling some kind of sincere admiration for Xiaofang, and gave her thumbs up to Chunchun.

Chunchun reached out to wipe the sweat on his forehead, his face was flushed, and he felt that he had said something badly, so he explained to Chu Huan a little embarrassedly: "No... just, just rolled up."

Chu Huan froze and pieced together the meaning of spring from a few scattered words: "Can't you point the neck, and the ax will cut the curly blade?"

Chunchun is an open-minded and studious woman. Hearing the words, there was an expression of enlightenment on her face, and she immediately followed the words several times seriously.

She began to correct her spoken Mandarin as if there was no one else among the little monsters whose corpses were separated all over the place, and a natural ferocity suddenly appeared on her body.

"Both Mutai's brain and blood can be used as medicine," Nanshan explained next to him, "so we have to treat them separately."

Chu Huan thought of the bowl of swill of unknown composition that the elder gave him, and suddenly his face turned pale: "What is it for?"

"The ointment or powder made from the brain can quickly stop bleeding and heal wounds. You have seen it before. It is the medicine I applied to your wounds before."

...Fortunately it was applied externally.

"What about the blood?"

"Blood is, blood..." Nanshan's expression suddenly turned a little strange, he hesitated for a while, the base of his ears turned a little red, and finally said in a subtle way, "Well, blood has other uses."

As soon as his eyes wandered, Chu Huan actually understood immediately, but when he saw the patriarch's rare embarrassment, he suddenly felt itchy in his heart, and wanted to tease him, so he pretended to be innocent and asked, "What is the other purpose?"

Nanshan: "..."

The two of them stared at each other for a while, Nanshan was blushed by the shameless old hooligan, he was not good at speaking Mandarin, but when he was in a hurry, he forgot all the words that came to his mouth, his tongue and teeth were hard to speak. They staggered each other inexorably, and after a long while, they stumbled out a sentence: "Why do you ask so much? You don't understand—I, what did I say just now?"

Chu Huan smiled brightly with the word "don't understand" in his heart, but answered decently on his face: "You said that my matter has something to do with your father."

Nan Shan grabbed the steps and hurried down: "My family later found a way to let outsiders stay."

The two sat down under the big white stone where Chu Huan usually gave lectures. Chu Huan listened intently and didn't interrupt much.

"After that time, every year when the passage on the river is opened and the two banks are connected, we will send people to look around. We also gradually started to contact people from your side, but it is said that there were not many contacts at that time, and everyone did not understand the language. Second, in the early years, there were not so many people on the other side of your river, and you had to travel a long way to meet a few mountain people here and there, but we can't go too far."

"If the shock period happens and our people happen to be outside, I'm afraid it will be the same as the few guests back then. Besides, we still have borders. In the county where I picked you up last time, I tried many methods , you can’t go over there, it’s like a transparent wall to my family—so last time you said that you would invite me to fly to your home... I’m afraid it won’t work.”

From his few words, Chu Huan heard some kind of melancholy: "It's okay, I will ask a friend to send a photo some other day, and if you look at it, it will be equivalent to going there. What happened next?"

"Later my father came, and he went to the other side of the river alone. He was badly injured. When my mother saw it, she asked someone to bring him in."

Chu Huan's eyes were fixed, and he intuitively heard the point.

This is a desolate country, and it is close to the border. In the early years, there were almost no people living far and near, and I would come here alone if I had nothing to do. The identity must not be so pure.

"He was recuperating in the clan. Grandma has always liked him very much, but winter is coming, and the shock period is coming, and he must be sent away, so she told him the truth. He was very interested, although he left as promised, But he didn't go far, so he settled down on the other side of the river. He caught many hares on the other side of the river, numbered them, and asked the people to feed them different things. As a result, when the shock period came that year, Without exception, all the hares on the other side of the river were 'frozen', except for one, which ate the ashes of the gatekeeper."

Chu Huan thought he heard it wrong: "Wait, what did you say just now? Who's what?"

Nanshan said very habitually: "The gatekeeper—the gatekeeper is the person who rode a snake in the middle of the river to block your way that day, and you have eaten their ashes."

As soon as Chu Huan's scalp exploded, he immediately felt that the whole person was a little bad: "When did I eat it?"

Nanshan: "The first time I invited you to drink wine, remember? It was soaked in it."

Chu Huan: "..."

Compared with ashes wine, Chu Huan originally thought that the five poisonous wine was simply weak and delicate.

Seeing his expression as if struck by lightning, Nanshan remembered the cultural differences, so he patiently explained: "I know that in your side, people are burned or buried in the ground when they die. It is different here, the gatekeepers are disciples. , will die before old age, their corpses are very precious, after death they will be dismantled into various medicines, nothing unusual, don’t people return to heaven and earth after death?”

Chu Huan gave him a sad look, but he didn't feel any better because of this naturalistic explanation.

Although it is said that whether the burial is eaten by microorganisms or the sky burial is eaten by vultures, it is returning to the food chain and returning to heaven and earth, but that does not mean that he himself is willing to play the role of "microbes" and "vultures" in it!

Regarding this gap in three views, Nanshan did not explain any more, and continued: "But later I found out that only rabbits can do this. If it is replaced by larger animals, such as deer, wild boar, etc., it will not work. He is on the other side. We have lived here for many years, and after countless trial and error, we finally figured out a way to allow people from the other side to enter our side, which we call a 'ritual'."

Chu Huan: "What exactly is the ceremony?"

Nanshan: "It's a blood exchange."

In Chu Huan's mind, "the possibility of hemolysis caused by mutual blood transfusion between different blood types", "poor sterilization of medical equipment and infection of blood diseases" and other common sense of popular science appeared in Chu Huan's mind, and then realized that the "exchange of blood" mentioned by Nanshan might be different from what he understood Not quite the same.

Chu Huan asked, "Whose blood?"

Nanshan said, "The gatekeeper."

Although he still has doubts about the concept of "gatekeeper", at this time, Chu Huan has developed a deep admiration for it-this race is simply a great old mountain ginseng, full of treasures.

Chu Huan: "But what do you say has anything to do with me?"

Nanshan: "The gatekeeper's blood is the only antidote to Mutai's wind poison, you have drunk it."

So at the riverside, the one that Nanshan poured into his throat was...

In less than a year, he had already eaten ashes and drank human blood. Now Chu Huan began to doubt whether the raw materials of his usual diet in the Liyi tribe were normal, and whether there might be some "brain steamed food" mixed in it. flowers", "roasted human liver", "stir-fried pectoralis major" and the like?

After so many years of conscientiousness and law-abiding, he somehow became a Hannibal. Can the fate of life be more ups and downs?

Chu Huan's throat moved with difficulty, and there was an overwhelming acid regurgitation in his stomach.

"But the dose of detoxification is very different from the blood volume used in the real ceremony. Judging by your current appearance, it is also completely different from the state you should be in after the blood exchange ceremony, so I guess, it is very likely that it is related to blood. The effect of the 'wind poison' that generates and inhibits each other. But what is the effect and how long it will be effective, I can't say."

This time, Chu Huan heard his implication.

"You are persuading me to accept the ceremony."

Nanshan: "Look."

He took the small bottle from his waist, aimed at a dying grass on the ground, and poured a few drops on the grass carefully and sparingly.

Then, under Chu Huan's shocked gaze, the withered grass turned green and tender from the roots at a speed visible to the naked eye, and the shriveled branches gradually stretched out, and a small lavender wild flower bloomed on the top, standing out from the crowd amidst the lifeless surroundings. Exuding the vitality that rushes to the face.

It's that kind of life force... that initially attracted Chu Huan to the Liyi Clan, and made him linger in his dreams and never dream of it.

There are only four words in Chu Huan's mind - spring comes from a dead tree.

"This is the ceremony." Nanshan said.

Chu Huan turned his eyes away from the weeds with difficulty, and he heard his voice tense: "What is the price?"

"Outsiders who have accepted the ceremony are different from us. They can no longer be restrained. They can go back to the river at any time in the clan or when the passage is connected. This ceremony will consume a lot of blood. This blood is wind poison. The only antidote, you should be able to understand how precious it is to us, my family of mountain guards and the gate guards have had a blood contract since ancient times, they can use each other's corpses, but they are never allowed to attack each other while they are alive." Nanshan said , "Those who accept the ceremony must swear two oaths."

"First, accept the blood contract between the mountain guard and the gatekeeper, and not hurt any of the gatekeepers because of covetousness."

"Second, stay in the clan forever, and never leave us half a step."

Nanshan stared into Chu Huan's eyes: "Are you willing?"