Curse of the Eye of the Dead

Although Uno's novel "Traveler's 21 Years of Experience Notes" contains ghost story elements, the story does not emphasize this point, but focuses more on people.

It's a story about [people].

The [-] words submitted by the author just completed a story unit.

After reading it carefully, as the concise and exquisite writing deepens step by step, the development of the plot and the symbols of the details... make people feel creepy.

The text is as its name suggests.

It seems to be a real "knowledge note".

The author slowly tells a story about [people] from the perspective of a traveler.

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The novel begins when the protagonist is 14 years old.

The background is in the Taisho era.

The protagonist Karasawa Kiyoji is a traveler.Although young, he is already a man of his own.

The first story is what a traveler saw and heard when he passed by a small mountain village.

[The mountain village is very beautiful. ]

[Surrounded by winding mountains, the green trees are rustling in the breeze, the low chirping of birds and insects is like a beautiful song, the villagers in kimonos are busy in the field, looking up, the golden ears of rice are heavy in the field hanging his head. ]

It is against this background that the protagonist appears on the stage, stepping on the scene at dusk.

The long journey is tiring.The protagonist exchanged the herbs and wild vegetables picked from the mountains, and of course some money, with the villagers for a resting place.

The protagonist said: "I will only stay for one night. I don't need to eat. I will leave tomorrow morning."

The villagers looked at each other in blank dismay, and for the sake of money, they finally accepted him and introduced the protagonist into the village.

Standing in the distance, he didn't pay attention, but after formally walking into the village road under the guidance of the villagers, the protagonist discovered that there were paper lanterns hanging everywhere.

Very spectacular and beautiful lanterns, painted with various auspicious patterns, filled with prayers of blessings, neatly hung on the lamp stand.

It's like a lantern festival in a town.

If it is night, it must be very beautiful and spectacular when it lights up.

The protagonist asks: "Is there any activity here?"

"You're talking about this." The villagers said happily, "It's the daughter of the Morio family, Aqian, who is getting married! This is a great joy."

The daughter of the Morio family, Aqian, is a girl who grew up here. She is only 16 years old this year, but she is already talking about marriage.

The groom is the son of the village chief's family, six years older than Aqian, and the two are childhood sweethearts, and they agreed to marry early.

The villagers smiled, and casually told the young traveler: "Little Aqian was raised by us. There is no more beautiful girl than her in the whole village. Now she is finally getting married. Of course, our whole village has to help preside over the ceremony." ah."

The protagonist remembered the name Ah Qian in his heart, and looked around.

Blacksmiths are making ornaments, carpenters are making sedan chairs, women are embroidering kimonos or weaving bouquets, and men are connecting musical instruments.

Ask the villagers, and the villagers say that this is a gift prepared by every family for the bride.

The bride Aqian is indeed as beautiful as the villagers described.

Because she is going to get married soon, she still has cute shyness and anticipation on her face.

She loves her parents deeply, respects every villager who watched her grow up, and shows the most sincere love to her childhood sweetheart fiancé.

Ah Qian regards all the villagers as his family.

This is not a lie.

In just a few descriptions of scenes, Aqian's love and trust for everyone is vividly expressed.

And the villagers really cared for Ah Qian very much, and they have cared for him for 16 years.

Even Aqian's wedding dress and jewelry were prepared by the village.

"Our Aqian is really the most beloved girl in the village." Aqian's parents said so lovingly.

Ah Qian happily smirked.

But on the night the traveler stayed, he heard a woman crying.

It wasn't Ah Qian's cry, it wasn't any woman's cry, it was a mournful cry from the depths of the mountains that only travelers could hear.

The turning point of the story begins here.

The traveler was very concerned about this matter and stayed up all night.

If he hadn't heard the crying, he probably wouldn't have raised doubts about the village.

After all, everyone here is so kind, the bride trusts the people around her so much, and even at this moment she is still waiting for the big wedding day in her boudoir with great anticipation.

It's like Taoyuan Township.

But the traveler just heard an unusual sound.

That is the [hidden feeling] of the invisible people in Taoyuan Township.

In the early morning of the next day, the traveler pretended to say goodbye and went to the mountains to find the source of the crying.

Shanlin has the truth he wants.

It took two days, following the faint cries in the middle of the night, the experienced traveler finally found a cave.

The bottom of the cave is full of broken and incomplete bones.

Fragments of costumes and decayed jewelry were scattered around the bones.

The style of the costumes and jewelry... looked exactly the same as Ah Qian's wedding dress and accessories.

Later, the article officially cut into the topic.

The traveler went to warn the bride, but the bride didn't believe his words and even drove him away.

The helpless traveler can only return to the cave again, intending to get rid of the mountain god.

Yes.

The "mountain god" does exist, and the traveler is a demon exorcist.

However, it is not because of the existence of "mountain gods" that there is a saying of "mountain god's bride".

[In fact, there is no such thing as a mountain god, but an existence made up by someone who didn't know a hundred years ago.

However, after the initial sacrifice of a few brides... the mountain god was really born. ]

[That is the evil fruit born from the evil thoughts of the villagers under the watering of the blood and lives of countless brides. It is a "false god" born from the fear and belief of the villagers for hundreds of years.

Therefore, the villagers felt that the "mountain god" wanted the perfect bride, and the "mountain god" became the perfect bride.

The so-called "mountain god" is actually the embodiment of human ignorance and evil thoughts. ]

The traveler chased away the mountain god, and happened to meet the bride Aqian who was forcibly dragged here.

A traveler saves a desperate bride.

Seeing the only life-saving straw, the bride who hadn't seen her in a mess for several days was holding on to the traveler, crying and laughing loudly.

And the psychological process of her collapse and the true face of the villagers are also slowly revealed in the form of the bride's self-report.

The following is Aqian's autobiography.

Ah Qian didn't believe Traveler's words at first, and even drove him away.

However, the seeds of doubt had already been planted, and she involuntarily began to search for the truth when her wedding day was approaching.

Because this is a traveler's notes, readers have already been spoiled by the traveler in advance.

So after the story unfolds with Aqian’s self-report, readers see the bride struggling to explore the village, and seeing her being tricked by the villagers’ kind and friendly smiles, the tension in her heart increases step by step, and she can’t help but worry about the bride .

The bride's trust in the native village became a knife stabbing her heart.

Everyone is cheating on her.

Like a precious animal waiting to be slaughtered, in order to ensure her "perfection", sweet lies drowned her.

Even if Ah Qian finally realized something was wrong, and hurriedly asked her most trusted "parents" and "fiance" for help—

"Parents" and "fiance" pretended to comfort her.

Ah Qian believed it, and believed in the three people she loved the most.

But she didn't realize that there was no one standing by her side in this village from the beginning to the end.

Her asking for help, instead, became a rope for the villagers to control her.

The bride is alone.

Aqian is actually an orphan who was bought back, the "Mountain God Bride" chosen by the villagers

They felt that the mountain god needed a perfect bride, so they raised Aqian like a pig or dog.

The villagers even spent more than ten years deceiving and disguising, whether it is parents, elders, lovers, friends...all are disguised existences in order to train Ah Qian to be a qualified bride.

Happiness is fake, love is fake, her life is all fake.

When the truth was finally revealed, Aqian panicked and was coaxed away by her last trusted "parents" and "fiance" in the name of running away.

She was taken to a house.

Inside are the villagers who have been guarding for a long time, and they are holding the wedding dress and dowry of Aqian's marriage.

Ah Qian really thought that he could escape with his family and fiance.

The kind of despair that fell from hope to abyss in an instant, for Aqian... the collapse of the world is not an exaggeration.

At the end, Ah Qian cried, begged, and struggled desperately, but was still dragged back to the wedding sedan chair.

The description of the scene and the hoarse screams are so emotional that even the readers feel dark in front of their eyes and cold in their hearts.

Even if she was rescued by a traveler who had just eliminated the mountain god in front of the sacrificial cave, she still couldn't stand the excitement and collapsed.

[The above is Aqian's autobiography.After listening to it, I had mixed feelings. ]

[The villagers plausibly said that this is for the future of the village, saying that they have taken good care of her for 16 years, and she should have repaid the village. ]

[I was speechless, and planned to send Aqian to the town, and asked an acquaintance to give her a place to work, and by the way, informed the police station of the situation in the village.

However, Ah Qian sneaked away in the middle of the journey.

I immediately went back to look for her, but couldn't find her anywhere. ]

[Not long after, I heard the follow-up in that village from my friend who was a policeman. ]

[He said that the bones of the cave were gone, and that the village...was burnt to the ground not long ago. ]

[I never saw Aqian again. ]

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The manuscript of "Traveler's 21 Years of Experience Notes" was circulated in the editorial department of Qiuyue Club.

"After reading it, I didn't even get goosebumps."

An editor murmured, "Although it is said to be a ghost story...but it doesn't describe any supernatural beings at all. Instead, it focuses the plot on people."

Another editor answered: "That's right, there are obviously no scary scenes, but there is a lot of mental oppression. If you ask me, the most exciting part of this article... has to be Aqian's self-narration."

Ah Qian's firmness and trust, to the final confusion, doubt, and fear after trance.

The collapse process of a pure and kind girl after her hopes have been shattered countless times... is so real that it makes people's scalp tingle.

——This world actually eats people.

"If you only read the first half... I thought it was a rural tourism record, and I couldn't see what kind of people the villagers would be. The shaping of Taoyuan Township was too successful."

"But if you go back and read the first half after reading the second half, you will find that all kinds of foreshadowing and metaphors are everywhere, so there is no sense of division at all, but it is more permeating."

The editors were silent for a long time.

In the end, someone sighed: "It's terrible. It's impossible to imagine that this and those two overly warm fairy tales were written by the same author."

The editor in charge of the children's literature publication "Huitan" was teary and nodded in unison.

The editors of "Huidan" sobbed together: ...we shouldn't be curious about Mr. Kakuo's works and come over to read them!

Compared with novels, Mr. Kakuo's fairy tales are much gentler.

Whether it's "Shibataro's Homecoming" or "Treasures Given by God", they are as warm as the golden sunshine and refreshing.

And this novel is simply two extremes!

"Speaking of which, doesn't the editor-in-chief not want to sign Kakuo-sensei? He's still a rookie writer at this level... Wait until he becomes famous before signing, the competition will be big, right?"

"It's already been arranged."

The old editor took a sip of hot tea in a vicissitudes of life: "Didn't you see that Pingsong and Hong had been in and out of the editor-in-chief's office for several rounds yesterday? They probably went to contact yesterday."

"Hiromatsu and Hiro? The newcomer?"

A middle-aged editor's expression twisted with envy: "Damn it, why is this newcomer so lucky...! If he signs it, wouldn't it be regarded as taking off in place! Why don't you let me go! My experience is obviously more Let's go!?"

"Are you sharing your experience with me?" The old editor snorted arrogantly, glanced at him, and said angrily, "Even I'm not qualified!"

Have you ever robbed it? ?

The middle-aged editor choked. He turned his head to look at the others, and found that many of his colleagues turned their heads tacitly, with strange expressions.

... It seems that the old editor is not the only one who volunteered.

Damn, these sneakers!

It turns out that you guys were already competing secretly yesterday!

You didn't tell me!

Wait, am I the last one to see the manuscript? ?

Middle-aged editors are slow-witted, pupil earthquakes.

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This group of editors would be so excited... It's not incomprehensible.

After all, most of them are old people who have worked in the literary industry for more than five years, and some have even worked for most of their lives.

Among other things, at least his eyesight is still there.

They know what kind of works can become popular and what kind of works can maximize their benefits.

Articles of this level, even they may not have seen for a long time.

Especially in contrast to the booming comics industry, orthodox literature is so barren.Such a long-lost wonderful story is enough to make the eyes of these editors shine.

This author named Jiaowei... is undoubtedly the type that will be frantically competed by countless publishers and editors.

And the new editor Hiramatsu Kazuhiro, who was called "shit luck" by his colleagues in his heart, was chatting with Kakuo-sensei by email at this time.

Kakuo-sensei's main body, Cursing Uo, after tangling, seriously replied via email: He first thanked the other party for their compliment, and then expressed his willingness to discuss cooperation matters with them, but...

[Sorry, due to physical reasons, I can't speak to you, and it's not convenient to have an interview with you. Can I communicate through the Internet?If possible, please use the Internet or letters to complete future cooperation. ]

Hiramatsu and Hong:! ! !

Because of physical reasons! ?Can't speak?Not convenient for an interview?

Could it be that……

The rookie editor immediately imagined the image of a disabled person.

He immediately held his heart together, and was moved to tears by his brain.

Can!There is nothing wrong with it!

Interview or something... Since Kakuo-sensei doesn't want to, let's think about it after we get to know each other well, at least for now—

Hiramatsu and Hiro clenched their fists and pushed the glasses on the bridge of their noses.

This is a teacher who writes works of that level!

Thinking about becoming the teacher's editor in the future... Hiramatsu and Hiro felt excited.