shepherd

Eight

There are two stones in the basin, one has a brush-like thing drawn on it, which should be the tail of an ox, and the other has a whole body of a cow drawn on it, but it lacks the head, limbs and tail. As for why it can be seen It is the body of a cow, and there are three stones with different body parts. This rectangular outline should represent the body of a cow no matter how you look at it.

Needless to say, the two clumps of hair are the same as those in the previous two bags, and they are still stuck together.In the anatomy class during school, my junior and I recognized that there was a spine in the basin and a mass of unidentifiable things.In addition, there are two other items. It is these two things that not only make me more sure that the location of the voodoo bag is related to the orientation, but also let me understand the functions of the bags placed in different orientations.

Of these two objects, one had the shape of a heart, with two holes, and folds of skin around it, apparently a pig's snout, and the other was a curved, horn-like thing, judging by its color and As for the texture, my junior brother and I guessed that it should be part of the horn, and what kind of sheep it is, which has fallen into our blind spot of knowledge, but it seems that the horn has not escaped.

When I was in high school, under the influence of Fu Yingxue, I was indoctrinated with a lot of classical knowledge of our country, some of which are really fresh in my memory. Sometimes when I see the image of a dragon, I can still see Fu Yingxue in my mind. Xue turned her head and put one arm on my table, and told me about the dragon giving birth to nine sons.So under her influence, I am more familiar with gossip and the nine sons of Longsheng, and I can report the nine sons of Longsheng one by one when I open my mouth. The same Zi Chou and Yin Mao are engraved into my brain.

Speaking of this, when the real-life escape room was just emerging, I played with some classmates in the class once, and one of the decryptions corresponded to the gossip hexagram. It seemed to be wrong, which caused me to read the gossip diagram for several minutes in a daze. When I gradually began to doubt myself, another classmate came over and solved the puzzle, which made me very embarrassed.

The basic meanings of the hexagrams are recorded in "Zhouyi·Shuo Gua Zhuan". Set the corresponding statement.

Every time I think of the escape room, my face will feel a little hot, but this time I am very confident and start to explain the doorway to my junior:

"Now we have found four bags containing the limbs of four animals. The first two we thought were chicken beaks, but they were wrong. The first bag, in the southeast direction, was indeed chicken beaks, because The southeast is the hexagram of Dui, and Dui is the sheep, so it is naturally the beak of the chicken."

"Huh? Wait," the younger brother interrupted me, "It's a sheep, so it's a chicken beak?"

I was at a loss for words for a while, and that awkward feeling came up again. Are we going to repeat the same mistakes again?The southeast is indeed the direction of the Dui hexagram, and Dui also indeed corresponds to the sheep, so the whole system does not make sense at all. Xunli Kundui, gossip in secret: ... Gossip in secret!"

I immediately recalled the dark gossip, which is the hexagram arrangement of the Houtian gossip deduced by Zhou Wenxiang, "The southeast is the Xun hexagram, Xun is the chicken, the south is the Li hexagram, and Li Weizhi is all right!" So I coughed to cover up After a while of my embarrassment, damn it, my face became a little hot unconsciously, and I continued to explain to my junior brother:

"The person who arranged this bag used the direction of the dark gossip. The bright gossip is the innate gossip, which is the 'yang' in Taiji, representing the laws of the universe, and the dark gossip is the acquired gossip, which is the 'yin'. It is the principle that King Wen of Zhou deduced the principle that nature transforms all things.

The southeast, in the dark gossip, is the Xun hexagram, Xun is a chicken, so it is a chicken beak, this time it is correct, the south is Li Gua, Li Weizhi, that is to say, the beak in the second bag is not a chicken The mouth, but the juvenile mouth, the mouth of the pheasant, if I remember correctly, this seems to be a second-class protected animal in the country, and hunting is prohibited. If the juvenile mouth was brought by Manager Wang, it would be an extra crime.

The bag we found in the No. 11 barn, which is on the west side, contained sheep horns, because the west is Dui Gua, and Dui is sheep, and the pig nose found in the last dung pile is Kan Gua in the north, and Kan Gua in the north. For pigs, these four animals represent four directions. According to this, the bag on the east side at the end represents the hexagram Zhen, which is a dragon, huh?dragon? "

Speaking of which, I can't help being stunned, Dragon?After listening to my big talk, the younger brother was about to applaud me, but when he heard that the last one was the dragon, he put out his hands that were going to applaud, and rubbed each other:

"Long, brother, are you serious?"

"The front ones corresponded well, and finally there is a dragon, here, how can I keep round!" I began to bite my fingernails.

"Long or not, I think what you did just now is quite similar. I can't tell that senior brother still has this skill. But what I care about now is the pile of things in this basin, the ridge Let’s not talk about bones, there’s also something like jerky, I don’t know what it is.”

I picked up the basin and looked carefully at the piece of dried meat that was half the size of a fist inside. There were two light-colored empty tubes protruding from one end of the pattern, and my junior also noticed the clue:

"I might know."

"Tell me."

"Heart." "Well, it should be."

The feeling of scalp tightening came again. In the basin in front of him was a heart that had been shrunk. A human heart is about the size of a clenched fist. Judging by its size, the heart in front of me is likely to be a human heart. In connection with the red nail polish on the toes, it is entirely possible that a woman's heart has been shrunk, so the fingers, toes, spine, and this heart contained in the bag may all belong to the same woman.

"Is it burning?" Junior Brother asked me.

"Burn!" After saying the word "burn", my head was empty, and I felt a sense of loss of strength. What are we doing? The heart in front of me is the heart of an unknown person, and we want to burn it, but every time it burns If part of it is lost, the power of the God of Mu will be weakened. Now that the Hungry Ghost Festival is just around the corner, what else can I do? But I am just a student who came to the cattle farm to do experiments. Why did this happen to me? I spread my fingers, combed my hair backwards, made up my mind, and said through gritted teeth:

"Burn, burn, I'll get the salt, and I'll get some oil!"

Looking at the light of the fire in the basin, the dancing flames reflected flickering spots of light in the eyes of my junior brother and me. The red and yellow light on my junior brother’s face was flickering. There was no expression on his face anymore, he just looked at it blankly.

This time, because of the existence of the spine, we added some cooking oil to the pot to make the flame burn longer. We watched the bones turn from white to black, and then from black to gray until finally the flame went out, and the bones were dotted with stars. There were sparks, the younger brother poured cold water, and bursts of green smoke rose up with a sound of "Zi", and the strange fragrance was still mixed in the green smoke.I found a hammer from the tool room and broke the bone into pieces. After taking out the two stones that had no pattern, the remaining residue in the basin was still flushed away by us pouring it into the urinal.

After cleaning up, my junior brother and I went back to the room. We sat on the stool in silence. I felt tired, but I pulled myself together. I took out a bag and said to my junior brother:

"I have to make sure again. I'll use the water from the factory to cook the noodles later, and see what part of this damn thing is missing this time."

"I'll put this tiger whisker on for you," said Junior Brother, taking off the tiger whisker bracelet from his hand and giving it to me:

"It kind of feels like "Silent Hill". No, it's more like "A Nightmare on Elm Street."

I smiled: "It's a bit like "A Nightmare on Elm Street."

As night fell, I ate the instant noodles boiled with water from the factory, drank all the soup, lay on the bed, and watched the short videos absent-mindedly for a while to calm down. I felt a little uneasy in my heart. I didn't expect that my junior brother seemed to be more nervous than me at this time:

"It's better if it can really lose two more parts, don't be a coincidence."

"Nothing wrong, don't worry." I put down my phone, closed my eyes and waited to fall asleep. The Ghost Festival is still more than a week away. We must do all the preparations we can. I don't know if I ate it So much water in the factory will affect my body. After this is over, I must go to the hospital for a comprehensive physical examination. As I thought about it, I gradually fell asleep.

Standing in the cornfield this time, my mentality is not as tense and fearful as the previous few times. First, I wear tiger whiskers on my hands. Second, I can see the Queen Faun not far away. There was even a hint of a smile, like a hanging stone falling to the ground, a little relaxed, because in front of the Mu Shen, there was only a huge bull head left, and all the parts below the neck were hidden in a cloud of black mist. From the size of the head, one can vaguely see how huge its body is when it is complete.This shows that everything we did was worthwhile. After we burned the contents of the four bags, most of the Faun's limbs turned back to fog and lost their substance.

The Mu Shen didn't move, the huge bull head just stared at me without moving. When I looked at it, I suddenly remembered that I was still wearing a tiger whisker bracelet. I raised my arm, and the silver tiger whisker bracelet, at this moment It seemed to be faintly glowing, I shook my arms as if showing off to the Faun, and the Faun was still staring at me motionless, although it lost all its body below the neck, its eyes, like lanterns, still seemed to have energy. Congeal the eyes of reality.

One person, one cow, just kept looking at each other like this, I couldn't move, and it didn't move, gradually I even started to feel a little bored.After a long time, God Mu opened his mouth, and the black dead air in his mouth seemed to have faded a lot, just like the liquid nitrogen tank where we placed the samples was opened, only a small amount of black gas continued to flow out of God Mu.

"Moo!" With a loud roar, after a long silence, Mu Shen suddenly raised an issue, "No way, come again, why did it only leave this skill behind?" I was thinking desperately, the sense of ease just now was gone now , Huxu save me!

The sound was overwhelmed, and there was a rustling sound from the cornfields on both sides. I was about to meet the voice, plugged my ears with my fingers and opened my mouth, and closed my eyes. Unexpectedly, when the sound wave dissipated, I slowly narrowed my eyes. My eyes seemed to be unharmed, and I was wondering if there was any discomfort. The scenery on both sides rushed towards me frantically, and the distance between me and the God of Faun began to widen in an instant.Before the first encounter with the Mu Shen in the dream, the scenery on both sides retreated rapidly, bringing me in front of it. This time, the Mu Shen seemed to be seeing off a guest.

After an unknown amount of time, I looked up at the unchanging dark sky, only those two eyes were still emitting a bright yellow light, the rapid movement of the scenery on both sides stopped, the gray fog began to gather towards me, and the visibility of the cornfields on both sides was getting lower and lower , were all engulfed by the rapidly expanding gray fog, until I could only see things within a very limited distance on both sides of the road, and everything really stopped.

It was getting darker and darker in front of my eyes, I seemed to close my eyes in a dream, and my consciousness gradually became blurred, as if the curtain of the dream was drawn, and I fell into real sleep.

The next morning, I was woken up by my junior brother:

"Brother, get up and feed the cow, you won't die, brother, you can't die, still breathing? Brother, brother! Feed the cow!"

"Who said I was dead just now?" I slowly opened my eyes, the filth accumulated in my eyes all night made my vision blurry, "Why didn't the morning reading broadcast today? The elementary school next door closed down?"

"It's all over. I don't think you're awake yet. I thought you died after drinking that water yesterday."

After I woke up and took a shower, I was very energetic. I felt that the sleep last night was particularly fragrant. The fatigue on my body was swept away, and even my mood improved a lot. Looking back on the dream last night, I couldn't restrain my excitement. :

"Guess what's left of Mu Shen?"

"I guess there's an ox tail left." The younger brother took the towel for washing his face and shook it, "Is the tail hanging like this to whip you." As he spoke, a few drops of water splashed on my face, and I wiped it:

"I want to slap you now, but there is only one head left, and it's all gone!" I announced with a wave of my hands.

"The bottom is gone, so isn't the shepherd..." The younger brother suddenly joked vulgarly, gesticulating with the scissors with his index and middle fingers, "I helped Zhang Yi castrate the bulls in the factory last time, and it is said that steer beef has a special taste Tender."

"There's only one head left! But you're right to say that." Then we broke out into a sinister smile, feeling very happy. Since the first voodoo bag was discovered, we have been very depressed during this period. Of course, I may be more Depressed, the junior and junior students also found time to spend a sweet first online anniversary.

The power of the God of Mu has already been reduced by us secretly. This time, instead of yelling at me like last time, I almost died, and sent me back directly, allowing me to sleep extraordinarily peacefully. In my opinion, this feeling is very good, a bit like "Dragon Slaying Warrior", "Bull Slaying Warrior", it is more appropriate.

"What should I do next? That stagnant river, I think it won't go down anyway." The junior brother asked me while feeding the cows. His side was crowded with feeding cows. None at all.

"Going down is obviously not going to work. If we are like this, you go fishing every day, fishing at the bottom, do you understand me?" I thought about it and came up with an idea.

"Take a chance to catch it. When does it happen, and even if you do, you may not be able to catch it right away."

"Try it, aren't you known as a master-level fishing expert?"

"The hooks I bought don't work well."

"Then I'll order a single pair of swimming trunks and goggles. You can go straight down and get them. The Ghost Festival is still a week away. Now the order will arrive within three days, so there's still time."

"I think my hooks are okay, I'll hang a few more and try."

In connection with what Xiao Wu and Accountant Chen said about "Four Deaths for Life" and the change in the state of the Mu Shen in the dream caused by the burning of the items in the bag, I have more speculations about the sacrificial ceremony of the Mu Shen, especially the "Four Deaths". "Life", I think we have found all four dead things, and the rest should be the "Life", which represents "life", is just east of the No. 2 warehouse as the origin, that is, this In a stagnant river.As for what it is, we don't know yet, but according to the arrangement of the Houtian gossip before, the east is the Zhen hexagram, and the earthquake is the dragon. If we can find something related to the dragon in the river, it means that we have roughly found the right one.

Even after fishing for a few days, my junior didn’t find anything. I catch a lot of fish every day, and the cats in the factory are getting smoother and smoother after being fed by me. But the things about “dragon” and “birth” are Not even a hair in sight.Seeing that the Ghost Festival is getting closer and closer, I can't sit still. In the past, I was too hot and just wanted to stay in the air-conditioned room and play with my mobile phone and computer. I tied it with a relatively long bamboo stick and started to try to fish in the river. At the beginning of every day, I always went with the idea of ​​what to catch, but after I fished and occasionally caught a fish, it changed. I became a junior fisherman, and I lived a happy fisherman's life fishing.Then I suddenly recalled the purpose, gave myself a slap to refresh my mind, and started aimlessly trying to fish, changing positions until the next fish was caught by me, and I resumed a happy fisherman's life again, going round and round, falling into a cycle.

"It's not a problem to fish like this," I said to my junior after finishing my life as a fisherman for a day:

"The day after tomorrow is the Hungry Ghost Festival on the 15th. Do you remember what I said before that the 14th may also count, so the time is already very tight. Although we have already disposed of four bags, no one knows what is left. How big is its aftermath."

"It's really impossible, let's go into the water."

"It's really impossible to fish another day tomorrow, and we can only go into the water. It's not a last resort, so don't do such a dangerous thing. After all, we have already left the whole Mushen alone."

"That's right, I don't even want to drink that water." The younger brother said with a frown.

Early the next morning, my junior brother and I ran to the river after feeding the cows with food and drink. Today we must find something, but we found nothing all morning. My junior brother and I stood by the river eating biscuits, watching He sighed. "What should I do, brother, go into the water?"

"Let's fish for a while." I was fiddling with my brother's fishing rod, and suddenly I found that the fishing line couldn't be pulled. After trying a little harder, I found that it still couldn't be pulled. For a moment, I felt that I might have done something terrible. matter, quickly called the younger brother:

"The fishhook seems to have caught something and cannot be pulled."

"I'll come, I'll come. It might be aquatic plants. If you pull hard, the line will break." The younger brother hastily put down the things in his hand and took the fishing rod. , Hey, it seems to be a little loose, pick it up for me!"

After the junior brother said "Get up", the hook came out of the water, and he caught something. When he looked closely, it was a skull!