The cook told me that there are two types of "flowers" in our Zhuang family, one is called safflower and the other is called phoenix flower. There is no gender when a woman is pregnant. The flower lady picks flowers from the mountains and gives them as gifts. If she gives sycamore flowers, she will give birth to a girl, and if she gives red flowers, she will give birth to a boy.
She particularly emphasized that the magic of building bridges and praying for flowers is the foundation of our Liu family's public law. In the entire Guangxi Province, no folk law cultivator dares to challenge our family. So I have to study very seriously and not embarrass my ancestors.
The third book, called "Bai Jie", is a story-like scripture that tells ancient myths and legends.
There is also a fourth book, "Putting Oil to Kill the Plague", which is mainly used to drive away evil spirits and is sung in conjunction with rituals.
I opened a book at random, and I knew most of the words in it. If I couldn't pronounce some words, I could look them up in the dictionary.
I have always had a good memory, and I was very good at memorizing texts when I was in primary school. These scriptures are not difficult as long as I spend a little more time.
Liu Ruxiang saw the confident expression on my face and smiled contemptuously: "You read a few sentences and I will listen."
Seeing her like this makes me angry. I have graduated from elementary school, why are you bullying me for not being able to read?
I immediately turned to the first page, opened my mouth and read it directly.
But before she finished reading the first line, Liu Ruxiang covered her mouth and couldn't help laughing.
"Why are you laughing? I pronounced it wrong. Isn't that how the word is pronounced?" I asked her, scratching my head.
Liu Ruxiang took the book away and read it again, but the sound was wrong at all! Completely different from what I read.
"Hey, that's not right, you..."
Just as I was about to speak, Liu Ruxiang interrupted me with a wave of her hand.
"Since ancient times, our Zhuang family has only spoken language without writing. Did you know? In the past, the master's scriptures were all written in square characters and folk characters. They were not systematic. Each master had his own way of reading, and many inheritances were ruined in this way. And when you go to school, the lessons taught in class are all about Chinese characters and new essays, so it’s normal to not understand this.”
"It's pretty good now. They all use Chinese characters to find substitutes with similar pronunciations. Only a small number of characters that don't have the corresponding pronunciation need special learning, so the difficulty is greatly reduced."
I was stunned and suddenly looked embarrassed. I didn't expect that there were so many ways in this.
"Little bastard, don't be tired. I'll teach you to read these Master's scriptures several times. If you can't remember, you can notate the pronunciation by yourself. Then you can go back and recite and copy them. Master, I also copied these scriptures by myself. "
Liu Ruxiang said, carrying a small bench and calling me to go to the yard to read. She first read it to me once, and then asked me to read it three times. She would correct any mistakes she made.
She had a good temper and taught me step by step. It took me three days at a stretch before I could memorize half of the book "Putting Oil to Kill the Plague", and I felt a little sorry for her working so hard.
I originally expected that these verses would be similar to those in the textbook, but I didn’t expect that they would be so difficult to pronounce. At the beginning, I memorized two sentences and half of them incorrectly.
But fortunately, I know how to recite it. Even if I can't memorize other scriptures, I can still recite them according to the phonetic notation. As long as you study hard and practice hard, you can master it.
Soon, I got an opportunity to practice magic with Liu Ruxiang.
That morning, an aunt in the village suddenly brought a middle-aged man to my door and told me by name that she was looking for a great master named Xiang Xiang.
At that time, the cook was teaching me how to chant sutras. When she heard that someone was looking for her, she immediately got up and welcomed the person in. She learned about the situation from the auntie.
This man is from the village next door, his name is Meng Laoer. He came here to ask my master to perform a ritual ceremony of building bridges and praying for flowers.
I carefully measured the middle-aged man in front of me. He was seven feet tall and had a strong build, but his face was pale. He ran over in a panic and stopped for a long time. He was still sweating on his forehead. .
"Ask me to do this, why?" Liu Ruxiang put down the master's songbook in her hand.
"I...I, Master, am my mother-in-law. She can't give birth to a human being." The middle-aged man looked at us and dodged his eyes several times.
Liu Ruxiang chuckled: "I guess it's not your mother-in-law's fault."
"You are pale, sweating, qi-deficient, and your kidneys are weak. This is a sign of excessive sexual indulgence."
As soon as Liu Ruxiang finished speaking, Meng Laoer had a look of embarrassment on his face: "Actually... it's not what you think, but literally. The thing my mother-in-law... gave birth to doesn't seem to be a human being."
Liu Ruxiang thought calmly, turned to glance at me, and asked me to go inside.
I verbally agreed, but I was still curious about what they were talking about, so I walked into the room and leaned against the wall, listening to their conversation with my ears raised.
"This starts with my wife's pregnancy. When she was just pregnant, she was different from others. She especially liked to eat fruit, almost as a meal."
"I didn't think there was any problem at first, but later on, my belly gradually became bigger, and the guy inside was not honest and moved around a lot. My wife couldn't sleep at night and was rolling in pain. She said that the guy inside The thing seemed to be grabbing her with its hands.”
"Also, we rural people say we have sour children and hot girls, but my family doesn't like that one. She will eat raw flesh and blood when she is four or five months pregnant!"
"Every time I go to the market, she asks me to bring pig blood back to her. It's not cooked yet. I just pick a piece out with my hands and stuff it into my mouth. One day I forgot to buy it and there was no meat at home. Then, you know, that night When I was sleeping, I woke up from the pain. I saw her bite me on my thigh, and the skin was torn and bleeding..."
I hid behind the door, and my head was suddenly stunned. What the hell is this? Why does this woman like to eat raw flesh and blood during pregnancy? What kind of monster is in her belly?
Meng Laoer had a strange look on his face, patted his left thigh, and said that the bite was right here, and it took half a month for the wound to grow.
Then he went on to tell: "Later, when I was about to give birth, there was no movement, no redness, and the amniotic fluid did not break. Until one night, the moon rose very high, bright and round, and when we just lay down that night, the mother-in-law suddenly complained that her stomach was empty. It hurts."
"Results...results..." Meng Laoer hesitated, his eyes evasive.
"Don't worry, tell me what happened." Liu Ruxiang urged him not to waste time.
"A few men in our village used a door panel as a stretcher to carry her to the town to deliver the baby. However, her water broke on the way. The grown men were helpless and could only deliver the baby on the spot."
At this point, Meng Laoer paused for a moment, his face full of horror: "I saw with my own eyes that a monster was born in my mother-in-law's belly!"
"First, a furry head popped up. The face of that thing was covered with dark brown loose skin, dry and ferocious, stained with red mucus. When the eyes opened, they actually emitted a faint green light, like... Like a cat’s eyes.”
