Although Jingshi had met many Yi people before, after all, he had mostly seen them from a distance and had never had a close relationship with them. When I met the golden-haired bone bowl, I felt that not only did it look like a monkey, but it also had a restless temperament. It jumped up and down along the way, asking about the sceneries in the Jingshi inland, or humming and singing to itself, without stopping for a moment. Jing Shi heard his voice was high-pitched, like a child in the land, and asked him how old he was, but Gu'erwan only talked about other things and never answered.
After walking towards the west for a while, traces of human habitation gradually appeared in the surrounding forest. There are grassy and wild paths on the ground, and there are cut marks and dead piles on the trees, indicating that residents often come and go. Jing Shi noticed this and asked Gu'er Wan: "How many people are there on this island?"
Gu'erwan walked in front, beating grass with a stick and replied: "Thousands and eight hundred, countless."
Jing Shi couldn't help but frown slightly when he heard his perfunctory answer, and then said: "Who is in charge of the island?"
Guerwan looked back at him, suddenly laughed a few times, walked backwards, looked at Jingshi and said: "What the official said is funny, isn't it you who is in charge of the island?"
Although he was walking backwards and talking, he was able to avoid numerous tree obstacles, as if eyes were growing in the back of his head, showing that he was very familiar with this place. Seeing this situation, Jing Shi still said calmly: "Who was it before I came?"
Gu'erwan scratched his ears and nose, made a few faces, and refused to answer directly. Jing Shi couldn't answer the question, so he just walked with his head buried in his head. Seeing that he was a boring gourd, Gu'erwan was very bored. He jumped next to him and said, "Sir, do you know how many wild boars there are on this island?"
Jing Shi hummed and said, "How much?"
Gu'erwan said happily: "Guess."
Jing Shi shook his head and said, "I can't guess."
Gu'erwan said again: "There are several fresh springs on this island."
Jing Shi still shook his head. Gu'erwan tilted his head and said: "You don't know this or that, how can you care about it?"
His words were frank, and it didn't seem like he was deliberately mocking him, but because he was born with a thin face, his words and actions were like those of a flower horn on the stage. Jing Shi looked at him for a moment and said, "I know magic."
Gu'erwan immediately opened his mouth wide, looked him up and down, and said suspiciously: "Are you also a priest?"
Jing Shi smiled at him and said, "Guess." After saying that, he walked away. Guerwan refused to rest, so he immediately rushed forward and asked questions again and again. He was so anxious that he swung his stick and swept away a large area of flowers and plants around him. During the quarrel, a man walked out of the forest and shouted to the two of them: "Gu'erwan, what are you doing?"
The sound of thorns followed the sound, and the person who came was seen wearing a cloth towel and a grass ring on his head. He was half a head shorter than Gu'erwan, and his face had a solemn expression, quite like that of an elder. Gu'erwan noticed the person coming and shrank his head. He stood behind Jing Shi and said, "Why are you causing trouble? I went to pick up the new official. He behaved himself and never caused trouble."
The visitor snorted, walked up to Jingshi, bowed and saluted: "My lord is new here, I must be a stranger. Half a mile ahead is the official inn, and the old man also lives over there. You can go and rest yourself." , Don’t believe this nonsense.”
Gu'er Wan was originally hiding behind Jing Shi, but when he heard the words, he stuck his head out. Just as he was about to defend himself, he was glared at by that person, and he didn't dare to say anything more. Jing Shi saw his fear, so he didn't point it out at the moment and just asked: "Who is this?"
The man said: "My name is Shui Hua, and I am in charge of medicine on the island. If you want to find me, go east to the official inn three hundred steps and look for a house hanging on a tree."
Jing Shi looked at it for a moment, then cupped his hands and said, "I understand, thank you very much."
The man bowed again and turned around to go into the forest. Jing Shi watched his shadow and saw that his steps were steady when walking, not jumping around like the other people next to him. If not for his different body shape, his words and deeds were just like ordinary people on land.
While he was watching, the skull bowl became impatient and tapped his calf with a stick and said, "Sir, it's getting late. Let's go quickly."
Jing Shi lowered his head and said to him: "Are you afraid of splashes?"
Gu'erwan was stunned for a moment, and Qiqi Aai said: "Of course I'm not afraid."
Seeing his reaction, Jing Shi just wanted to cover up his reaction, so he just smiled. Gu'erwan knew what he meant and said angrily: "That's so funny." He crossed the stick as if to hit someone.
He had jumped up and down before, showing some flexibility in reaching out. Jing Shi knew that although the people in this country were small, they were by no means weak. He immediately took a few steps back and stopped arguing with him. Gu'erwan didn't dare to really hurt him. He put away the stick and said with a sigh: "I just see that the old woman is old and will be buried soon, so I don't bother to argue with her."
Jing Shi didn't mention what happened just now, but after hearing his words, he couldn't help but turn around and said: "Shui Hua is a woman."
Guerwan rolled his eyes and said, "Are you talking nonsense? If you don't have eyes, then the old woman is naturally a woman."
Jing Shi responded silently, and looked at his appearance carefully, only to find that his face was red, his mouth was pointed and his cheeks were thin. Except for being covered in golden hair, which is rare, they are actually no different from the water splash just now, because their bodies are covered with hair, and their voices are naturally high-pitched, like children. Thinking about the half of the strange cities we passed before, it turned out that there were only differences in clothing and clothing, regardless of the appearance of men and women.
Gu'erwan was very impatient, so he didn't wait for him to think too much. He poked him with the head of a stick and said, "How long will you wait until the devil is stunned? Go away. Go away."
After Jing Shi urged him again and again, he set off. After walking for half a mile in this way, as the water flower said, I found a village. There is a wooden shed and thatched house inside, with a small border of flowers and a small border outside. There are only a few people and no sound. The two of them walked out of the forest and came across two people sitting in the field, both wrapped in linen and chewing green branches. When they saw the bone bowl approaching, they all jumped up and shouted.
When Gu'erwan saw the two of them, he held his head high, poked the Jingshi with his stick and said, "Big Peach Blossom, Little Peach Blossom, this is the new official."
The two people laughed when they heard this, and looked up and down Jingshi with their four eyes, and then they said in unison: "I've seen the new official." The pronunciation was a bit more awkward than the bone bowl.
Jing Shi also said: "Hello everyone."
After hearing this, the two laughed again, whispered to each other, and ran towards the field. Jing Shi didn't know what these two people meant, so he only cast his eyes towards the Gu'er bowl. Gu'erwan raised his head and said, "Look what I did."
Jing Shi said: "Why are these two girls laughing?"
Gu'er Wan was stunned for a moment, scratched his belly and said happily: "Girl, they can tell a man apart, but the new official is blind."
Jing Shi didn't get angry with him and just said: "I heard you call them Peach Blossom just now. It was a misunderstanding."
Gu'er Wan grinned and said happily: "The two brothers were born under peach blossoms, so naturally they are both called peach blossoms. What does it have to do with men and women? If you are a woman, Xin Guan'er, weren't you born on a stone?"
Jingshi replied: "I was not born on a stone." After saying that, he lifted his feet and went on his way. Although there are many houses in the village, they all have low doors, and ordinary people have to bend down to get in. The only one at the front is a solitary house with wooden walls and grass tiles, and the door is as high as the top of a person's head, which is quite out of tune with the surroundings.
Seeing that the layout was like this, he naturally walked towards the lonely house. Gu'erwan followed him and said, "That place is the official residence. The new official can live here in the future. The furniture inside is all old."
While he was talking, Jingshi had arrived in front of the house and saw that the door was ajar. He stretched out his hand and lightly wiped the top edge, feeling a thick layer of dust. Pushing the door open and entering the room, it looks better than what it looks like from the outside. There is only one room in the house. There is a couch and table in the east end and a pot and stove in the west end. It has all the internal organs. The floor is covered with leather rugs and the walls are hung with rattan nets. There is little dust on them and they are still 60 to 70% new.
Gu Wan'er followed into the house and said, "A few days ago, because she knew that the new official was coming, the old lady Shui Hua packed up the official building. What does the new official think?"
Jing Shi was not a person who liked luxury, and was more used to traveling around and living in the wild. Although he didn't expect that the official inn would be so simple, he didn't feel embarrassed. He nodded and said, "It's her fault for taking the trouble." Then he put his luggage on the bottom of the couch and pushed it away. Doors and windows are breathable.
Gu'er Wan saw that he was content, but refused to go away. He jumped up and squatted on the table, tilting his head to look at the Jingshi coming and going. After half a cup of tea, Jing Shi still ignored him, and then he said: "Xin Guan'er, you are here for the first time today, why don't you go see the old lady Shui Hua?"
Jing Shi was spreading out the ragged quilt on the couch and shaking it, and then went to check the condition of the stove at the west end. Hearing his words, he casually asked: "Who was in charge of this place before?"
Gu'erwan said: "When you say before, you are asking how many times ago."
Jing Shi heard what he meant and said in passing: "Who was it yesterday?"
Gu'erwan said: "Yesterday the new official arrived, the old official has left, and there is no one to take care of things. Old Shuihua is in charge of the medicine, Old Huizhou is in charge of the new people, Wuma is in charge of the dead, and you can take care of the others."
These words added more doubts to Jing Shi's mind. But he knew that this place was weird, so he was not in a hurry, and still asked in a sequential manner: "The old official who was in charge before was what he did on weekdays."
Gu'erwan nodded first, then shook his head, jumped off the table and said, "I was just born when the old official came. I don't have much memory. I don't know what he does on a daily basis. I only know that he taught the old lady Shui Hua, and she learned it." He looked so strange and strange that it made me tremble."
Jing Shi said: "How old are you this year?"
When he asked about this before on the way, Gu'erwan repeatedly avoided answering, but now when he asked again, Guerwan still heard Guerwan say: "Why are you asking about this? After all, I am an upright adult man, so I can't remember the details."
Jing Shi glanced at him and said slowly: "When I came here, I heard that people from the mainland were sent here every hundred years. You were born not long ago when people left last time, and you are now nearly a hundred years old."
Gu'erwan asked about the situation on Jingshi Island before, but he didn't know anything about it, so he didn't take precautions in his heart. Who would have thought that Young Master Yu had mentioned that he was a hundred years old before, but his age was revealed. Since he was pierced by the thorn stone, his face was even redder. He put the stick on his shoulder and said, "It doesn't matter if I was born slower."
Jing Shi said: "People here have a long lifespan."
Gu'erwan raised his head and said, "Where does the accuracy of lifespan come from? It may be long or short."
Jing Shi said: "Just give a rough idea."
Gu'erwan still didn't seem to understand what he meant, and puffed up his cheeks and said: "Old Shuihua lived to be one hundred and fifty, but she has not yet passed the halfway mark. Nawu Ma is only seventy this year, and she is already dying. No matter how short it is, twenty or thirty years, It has happened before, how can there be any possibility?”
Jing Shi heard that he was confused, so he stopped asking any more questions and said, "You just mentioned three people. Apart from Shui Hua, where do the other two people live?"
Gu'erwan scratched his head and pulled him to the bed in front of the couch. He pointed the stick outside and said, "You can see that the white-grass-roofed house on the far side is where Huizhou lives. Wuma lives in the mountains, and he doesn't usually live there. Come out, and you don’t have to go see him.”
Jing Shi said, "Okay, I'll go see Mr. Huizhou first."
He stood up and left the house. As soon as he opened the door, he saw a dozen or so people gathered outside the house, all standing around a few feet away and looking around. When Jing Shi appeared, he opened his eyes wide and looked at the strange things, whispering to each other, and kept chattering. Seeing this, Gu'er Wan jumped in front of Jingshi, knocked the ground with his stick, and said loudly: "You all have noticed that this person is a new official. Just make sure you recognize him clearly. Big and small peach blossoms, don't hide. The two of you on the left and right will call the others over."
He raised his stick and pointed it at the two previous people. When the two brothers looked at each other, they looked at Guerwan with crooked eyes, stuck out their tongues, and made faces. Seeing that Guerwan was about to hit him with his stick, they turned around and ran away. The rest of the people laughed non-stop when they saw it, and fled in all directions, each going into the house. Gu'erwan let out an angry sigh, put away his stick and said, "A bunch of bastards will run as fast as possible if something happens. Let's go, new official. Let's go see that old man in a useless boat."
The isolated village on this island was originally not big. It was roughly estimated that there were fifty or sixty households, all of which were small households with low roofs. The abandoned boat lived in a wooden house in the northeast. The roof was covered with straw carpets. Its color was gray and frosty, and I didn't know what kind it was. There is no door in front of the house, only a thick straw curtain is hung to cover the scene inside the house.
Jing Shi walked to the front of the house and saw that there was no door to knock on, so he stood outside the curtain. Before he could make a sound, Gu'er Bowl took the lead in picking up the curtain. When he entered, he called out: "Old man Xizhou, the new official has arrived, please return." Not coming out to meet guests”
As soon as he finished speaking, someone in the room whispered: "Sir, please come in."
Jing Shi accepted the invitation and opened the curtain. As soon as he entered the house, he felt that his eyes were dim, except for a small fire in the depths. Next to the fire stood a white-robed man, with his waist hunched over, as if he was very old. Because he had his back to the door at this time, his appearance could not be seen, and he could only hear him say again: "My lord, you have come a long way, so please take a seat. This old man is the troublemaker here."
Although this person's body shape is the same as that of the other people, his voice has an aged air. While talking to Jing Shi, he walked with his staff stationary and lit the white candles around him one by one. After a while, dozens of orchid fires lit up like stars. But inside the house, there are leather rugs on the floor, straw curtains on the walls, and paintings of mountains and forests, animals, the sun, the moon, and the sea. The colors are extremely bright and bright, and when reflected by the candlelight, it is so vivid that it feels like you are immersed in the scene.
After Jing Shi received Hui Zhou's instruction, he sat down on a small stool in the room and looked around at the paintings on the wall. But Gu'er's bowl jumped to the head of the table, and he lay down on it, scratching his face and pulling his hair. After all the white candles in the house were burned out, the abandoned boat stopped in front of the staff and met the Jingshi.
Jing Shi took a closer look at his appearance by the fire, and saw that his face was full of wrinkles and his body was covered with white hair. There is a long beard under the chin, which has reached the ground and is tied with black jade beads. It looks like the high priest who jumped into the sea and died earlier. What is rare is that he has a pair of blue eyes, which are clear and clear, without any trace of old age and ignorance.
The abandoned boat also looked at Jing Shi, stretched out his stick to knock on the table, and pushed the bone bowl down. Then he slowly sat down on the small stool opposite the low table and said to Jing Shi: "My lord, I am here for the first time. I’m unfamiliar. I’ve been living here for a long time. If you have any questions, I can give you some answers.”
Although he spoke in a low and slow tone, the politeness of his voice was all that of a mainlander, and was very different from that of Guerwan and other squatters. Jing Shi couldn't joke anymore and said with a serious face: "Thank you, Mr. Huizhou. I just heard that the old man calls himself the troublemaker, but I don't know what the specific affairs are."
When Huizhou heard this, the wrinkles on his lips swelled, as if he meant a smile. He gently paused the wooden staff in his hand and said, "What you are doing is unique to our country. It's no wonder that you don't know. Sir, do you know about our country?" What do Chinese people give their names to?”
Jing Shi replied: "When the Henggu'er Bowl was mentioned earlier, it was named after the birthplace."
Hui Zhou nodded and said: "Yes, sir, I think this matter is strange."
Jing Shi had already had doubts before, but because his companion Gu'er Wan was eccentric and unreliable, he never asked. At this moment, when I heard that Huizhou mentioned this matter, I became more and more aware. After thinking about it for a moment, he said: "When I entered the city earlier, I saw that the people of your country had similar shapes, and there were no adults or children accompanying them, or mothers and babies living together. Is this related to this matter?"
The smile on Huizhou's face showed a little, and he nodded again: "Your Excellency, you have observed the subtle things. In our country, there is indeed no mother and child living together, or husband and wife raising children, because our Juhui tribe is different from those in the mainland. Although we have the nature of yin and yang, there is no inheritance. Yes. The new generation of children is not born from the mother's womb, but is born from sea foam."
Jing Shi was slightly startled and said: "Hai Mo"
Huaizhou said: "Yes. Your Excellency is a land person, so naturally you don't know about sea foam. It will be the full moon the day after tomorrow, and I will go to the coast to look for foam. I will go with you to see it with your own eyes, and you will know what's going on." .”
After Jing Shi heard what he said, he stopped asking questions and instead mentioned the situation on the island. As the person in charge of the matter, Hui Zhou is indeed not comparable to Gu Er Bowl. Whenever Jing Shi asks about it, he answers clearly. After talking for less than half an hour, Jing Shi already knew the general situation.
It turns out that the country of Juhui is composed of dozens of scattered islands. The islanders all have monkey appearances, but their intelligence is just like ordinary people. There is only one city built on land in the country, which is called "Half Underworld City". Those who live in the city are the nobles of the country and are able to travel by land, while those who live on the island account for about half of the country. Each island is isolated from the world and isolated from outsiders. Even though they can see each other across the sea and hear each other's songs, they never interact with each other until death.
The place where Jingshi currently lives is called "Hamosuoluo" by the Yihui people, which means "little clam garden". There are about 500 people living on the island. In addition to the village where Huizhou lives, there are three gathering points around it. , and there are fifty or sixty people living wildly in the mountains and forests, rarely coming into contact with the village. Although the islanders also cultivate fields and grow fruits, they mostly rely on fishing and hunting for food, and rarely encounter shortages. It's just that the fish in the sea are occasionally infected with the demonic aura of the open sea and have ferocious temperaments. Every few years, a disaster will inevitably occur, and people must gather together to go to the sea to suppress it. There are also ferocious beasts lurking deep in the island mountain, which cannot easily escape. On rainy nights, they roar like thunder, and the sound shakes the outside of the island, and everyone who hears it is terrified.
Although all these things are very strange to say, Jing Shi has already witnessed the strange state of the country, and no matter how strange things happened after that, they are not enough to move his face. He only asked Hui Zhou about the beast in the mountain. But I heard that the beast rarely came out of the mountain, and it was active at night, so it had never hurt anyone. Although Huaizhou has hundreds of years of experience, he can only hear the sound of this mountain beast but not see its appearance. When I asked who had seen it with my own eyes, there was only one person who had ever seen it, and that was Wu Ma, the official responsible for the death of the island. He has lived alone in the mountains for many years and rarely interacts with strangers. Because of his duties, others avoid him and dare not offend him.
The two of them talked for a long time, each focusing on the conversation and forgetting about other things. Only Gu'erwan had nothing to do, and he couldn't bear to listen to the gossip of the two of them, so he wandered around the house, catching the white candles that were about to burn out, squatting in front of the fire, waiting for them to go out, and replacing them with new ones. , then picked out the remaining wax and threw them one by one into the small tin lamp in front of the door. After repeating this process, when Jing Shi and Hui Zhou rested, most of the white candles in the room were replaced by him. When Jing Shi stood up and wanted to leave, he was even more overjoyed and ran to the door curtain in two or three steps to wait for him.
Huizhou stood up to see him off. Seeing his behavior, he said, "Gu'erwan, for the next one year, you will follow my orders, and you can no longer do your own thing."
Gu'er shook the bowl and said with a stick: "I don't have to worry about you old guy nagging me. New official, where are you going next?"
Jing Shi ignored him and said goodbye to Huizhou first, then opened the door curtain and walked out of the house. He looked up at the sky and saw that the sun was already rising, almost noon.
Gu'er Wan followed him out of the door, then poked his heel and said, "Xin Guan'er, it's noon, should you eat first, or go see that splashy old woman first?"
Jing Shi thought for a moment, lowered his head and said to him: "Where does Wu Ma live?"
