Paintings of Terror

"Mr. Shao, we have obviously found the New Year pictures." Li Xiaochun followed behind Shao Ling, his face full of resignation.

Shao Ling felt that the new boy was not clever enough, so he said patiently, "Yes, we even found the original woodblock of that New Year painting, but that woodblock is also missing a piece."

"I know that, isn't what we're looking for the missing piece?" Li Xiaochun said hastily.

"En." Shao Ling felt that there was no need to explain, so he continued to walk forward.

"Mr. Shao, Mr. Shao," Li Xiaochun followed closely, "Does the word 'Zhu' that you said is missing have something to do with this place?"

Shao Ling stopped in his tracks: "The place where we are now should be Zhuxian Town."

"I know that Zhuxian Town New Year paintings are the originator of our Chinese woodblock New Year paintings. Maybe we can meet some master craftsmen who make woodblocks here." Li Xiaochun always looked optimistic.

Zhuxian Town New Year paintings are the originator of our Chinese wood-block New Year paintings—didn’t I tell you this sentence just now?Shao Ling looked at Li Xiaochun, and heard a "beep" in his ears.

"Mr. Shao, it's four o'clock!" Li Xiaochun hurriedly looked at the phone, "We've only found half of the clues now!"

"Xiaochun," Shao Lingyu said earnestly, "We don't even have a single clue right now."

"We, don't we know that this is Zhuxian Town? And we know that the piece we're looking for has the character 'Zhu' on it." Li Xiaochun's voice was a little soft at first, but then gradually grew louder, as if to encourage Shao Ling.

"Okay." Shao Ling looked at the endless road in front of him. On the left side of the road was a new year painting workshop filled with dusty New Year pictures, but there was no one in sight; It is a large cemetery, and the only things that stay here are crows on the branches and foxes wandering among the trees.

Shao Ling suddenly missed Mu Yiran, Qin Ci, Ke Xun, Zhu Haowen, and even Weidong and Luobo. Even though these old friends could not give him clear guidance, they could always offer some suggestions and ideas. It can make one's own thinking find another way, so as to make more discoveries.

The entire woodblock of New Year pictures discovered just now is the most common theme of door gods in Zhuxian Town New Year pictures. The door gods engraved on the wood block are Qin Qiong and Yu Chigong. Zhuxian Town has a very long history of making New Year pictures, starting from the Tang Dynasty.

Shao Ling was thinking about whether he could start with the door god or the Tang Dynasty, and he could even speculate that this ancient New Year painting woodblock might be from the Tang Dynasty, and it might even be the oldest New Year painting in Zhuxian Town .

Li Xiaochun was not affected by Shao Ling's slightly depressed mood. At this moment, he kept chanting words: "Two clues, one is Zhuxian Town, and the other is Zhu; two clues, Zhuxian Town, Zhu; Zhuxian Town And Zhu; they have one word in common, Zhu..."

Shao Ling: "..."

Li Xiaochun walked side by side with Shao Ling quickly. Because of his broad shoulders, long legs, strong body, and the confidence and optimism between his brows, he seemed to overwhelm Shao Ling in terms of momentum: "Mr. Shao, why is Zhu Xian?" The town is called Zhuxian Town? Is it because the surname 'Zhu' is the common surname in this town?"

Shao Ling couldn't explain a word: "The reason why Zhuxian Town got its name is because it used to be Tang Mu Township of General Zhu Hai during the Warring States Period."

"What is Tang Muyi?"

"It almost means fiefdom."

Li Xiaochun frowned and fell into deep thought, and added a new clue of "Tang Muyi" to the only two clues he had just now.

Shao Ling didn't expect to be opened up by Li Xiaochun's question. He looked at the cemetery on the right side of the road: "Xiaochun, who do you think are buried in this cemetery?"

Li Xiaochun's train of thought was interrupted, and he was taken aback: "They are people from the village."

"Which village are they from?"

"Didn't we just look at it for a long time? Anyway, it's people from all the villages in Zhuxian Town." Li Xiaochun moved his mind when he said this, "It's really strange, why are their cemeteries all gathered together? Our village They are all scattered, and no family is next to any family."

"At first I thought that these people might have something to do with the New Year painting shop across the road. Maybe all the dead New Year painting masters are buried here, but..." Shao Ling stopped here.

Li Xiaochun was stunned by Shao Ling's words: "Mr. Shao, you think so far. Why didn't I think of it before? They are all masters of New Year paintings, so they are buried here!"

"No, no, now I take back this idea." Shao Ling denied this guess, and walked towards the cemetery at this time, followed by Li Xiaochun in big strides.

Li Xiaochun is not without advantages, at least he is courageous. As a newcomer to the painting for the first time, it is not easy for him to maintain such a calmness. Even if he walks into a cemetery full of crows and wild foxes, he does not change his expression.

"Aren't you afraid? The people here may be lonely ghosts." Shao Ling said.

But Li Xiaochun said: "There is nothing to be afraid of, I have never done anything wrong. By the way, Mr. Shao, why did you say that these people are lonely ghosts? If these people are widows and lonely without relatives, or They are beggars who have wandered into the village, how can someone erect a monument for them? These days, our close relatives have died and no monuments have been erected. Since the implementation of cremation, there are very few monuments in the cemetery in our village.”

Shao Ling's eyes lingered between several tombstones. Unexpectedly, Li Xiaochun, who claimed to have never graduated from junior high school, could say the words "widow, widow and loneliness" in full. Shao Ling pointed to these tombstones: "These monuments are not It was established in 'this year', don't you think the world we live in is a bit old?"

Li Xiaochun looked at the New Year picture shop over there: "I thought it was deliberately decorated like that, and the antique ones are more attractive to tourists."

Shao Ling is no longer a joke: "Judging from the year when those tombstones were erected, the era we live in may be the end of the Ming Dynasty."

"The last years of the Ming Dynasty?" Li Xiaochun's eyes widened, as if the "traveling" between himself and Shao Ling was even more bizarre than "entering the painting", "I don't understand. In your words, we are not entering the painting." Is it a branch world inside? This world is fake, but the Ming Dynasty is real, so is this world real or fake? Is the Ming Dynasty in this world real or fake?"

Shao Ling smiled lightly: "You have no standard answer to this question, you are simply 'Schrödinger's cat'."

Li Xiaochun: "I don't understand what you're talking about, but I know Schrödinger, which means unsolvable problems. I read in books: the ultimate problem plaguing the middle class is Schrödinger's wealth."

Shao Ling didn't expect the other party to quote the words in the book: "What book said that?"

""Story Club"."

"..." Shao Ling nodded, "There must be Readers and Youth Digest."

"Yes, Mr. Shao, how did you know?" Li Xiaochun was very happy talking about his reading materials, "There is also "Selected Folk Stories"!"

"Ok."

"Mr. Shao, what books do you read? Do you read foreign works like "Yi Lin"?"

"Now is not the time to talk about books." Shao Ling had to be serious.

"Oh..." Li Xiaochun nodded vigorously, "Then we can talk about it after we get out alive."

Shao Ling's train of thought was almost disrupted: "From now on, don't say a single thing that has nothing to do with clues, we don't have much time."

"Ok!"

The other party's sincere attitude made Shao Ling lose his temper for a moment. Well, what did he want to say just now?

"Graveyard?" Li Xiaochun reminded cautiously, "Tang Muyi? General Zhu? Zhuxian Town?"

"Yes," Shao Ling nodded, "I suspect that the people in this cemetery are all 'guarding' General Zhu."

"That is to say, General Zhu is also buried here? Is there a large tomb in which General Zhu is buried?" Li Xiaochun asked.

Shao Ling nodded: "It's very possible, but unfortunately I haven't been to Zhuxian Town in the real world, let alone visited General Zhu's tomb, so I don't know if my judgment is right or not - but this world itself is a combination of fiction and reality. A world that is likely to dramatize and distort what really exists."

Li Xiaochun said with some shame: "What did you say about General Zhu's name just now, I forgot."

"Zhu Hai, according to some theories, Zhu Hai has already been granted immortality, so this place is named Zhuxian Town," Shao Ling looked at the graves in front of him, thinking, if Zhu Hai was granted immortality, then his cemetery would be very difficult. I looked for it, "It is recorded in "Bianjing Relics": Zhu Hai's tomb is in Zhu Xianbao, commonly known as Tu'er's tomb."

"What is Tuer's Tomb?" Li Xiaochun would ask when he encountered something he didn't understand.

"It is said that Zhu Hai was a butcher before he became a disciple of Lord Xinling."

"Mr. Xinling?" Li Xiaochun tried his best to search for this familiar word in his cognition.

Shao Ling continued: "Many ancient people have written poems about Zhu Hai's tomb, such as Huang Shu, Wang Wei, and Su Shi. I still remember Su Shi's "Zhu Hai's Tomb: Commonly Known as Tueryuan", That poem was written very objectively, in which there was a mention of "Master Zhu in the past, the hero cannot be pursued." Such a praising Zhu Hai, but also such an ambiguous comment as "Be careful and not complain about the world, and you will not be caught by Zhongni."

"Why is it ambiguous?" Li Xiaochun asked.

"I can't explain a sentence or two of these words. After all, it is a matter of the Warring States Period, but back then, 'Zhu Hai sleeved forty catties of iron vertebra, and the vertebra killed Jin Bi'. This should be a relatively true record."

"Why did you hunt down that man?"

"It's hard to say. It can be understood that it is for the righteousness of the country. At that time, Lord Xinling took the stolen tiger talisman to lead the army. The guard general Jin Bi was a little suspicious and refused to send troops. Forty catties of iron vertebrae were used to kill him on the spot. Only then did Lord Xinling seize the military power and sent troops to rescue the State of Zhao, thereby consolidating the position of the State of Wei."

"But I think that the man named Jin Bi who guards the city is right to express doubts about them. That is his loyalty to his duty." Li Xiaochun expressed his point of view.

"According to what you said, it seems to be right." Shao Ling never thought about this issue carefully. When he was a child, he read "Seizing Talismans and Rescuing Zhao" and only felt that Lord Xinling's decision was correct, and everyone should work hard for this decision. That's right.But it never occurred to him that Zhu Hai's move was to be loyal to his master Lord Xinling, and Jin Bi expressed doubts about him. Isn't it also loyal to his master King Wei?

Thinking of this, Shao Ling said: "I always feel that if we can find General Zhu Hai's tomb, maybe we can find some answers."

"Then let's look for it! Anyway, I didn't see it this way, maybe it's ahead!"

Who knows, there is night ahead.

Neither of the two of them dared to think that the world would fall into the night so early.

It was as if someone had suddenly thrown a bucket of black paint from above the sky, and within seconds it was dark.

The cemetery at night is naturally somewhat different from that during the day.