Two hours later, Zhou Yu was woken up by the alarm clock.
The headache had gone away, and he felt like he was covered in cold sweat, so he immediately went to take a shower. The hotel is expensive, but the quality of the water heater is terrible, and all the water it emits is lukewarm.
Zhou Yu had no intention of complaining. He was still thinking about the phone call from an unknown source.
The content provided by the other party can basically be determined to be true based on the translation comparison he has. The content of the anonymous fax sent also matches the illustration in the note.
If the contents of the fax were seen by Luo Binhan, he would definitely be denounced as a cult. The ritual mentioned in it takes six days in total. Most of them were common sacrificial behaviors such as burning incense, fasting, and drinking wine, while others were unheard of by Zhou Yu.
For example, the place required for the ceremony must be so closed in space that no human being can pass through, and only one corner of the entire space remains. For the remaining positions, either they do not form a corner, or the inside of the connected wall is open to the outside world.
In other words, there can only be one “dead spot” within the ritual space.
Under this premise, if you perform the designated ritual for five consecutive days, and come to the "dead end" on the sixth day, you can use your soul and blood to open the "Dream Road".
Those who enter the dream can "see the interpretation of all phenomena."
Zhou Yu did not fully accept such absurd content at the time. As an experiment, he prepared live rats and chicken blood, and planned to complete the living sacrifice.
But he couldn't explain what happened next. As the sixth day of the ceremony approached, his thinking seemed to change.
My isolated home has turned into a completely strange place without even realizing it. A dark and sneaky atmosphere echoed in the dust, and some kind of rough beast-like murmur could be heard in a trance.
When he came to his senses, he was already standing in front of the "dead end" with a scalpel in his hand. The hoarse murmurings turned out to be the prayers he himself recited.
Rat and chicken blood are in the utility room. But without thinking, he stretched out his left wrist.
This is an unreasonable certainty - one must use one's own blood.
So, as mentioned in the phone recording, he fell into a long strange dream. If he hadn't been killed by the female rider in his dream, he might never have woken up.
When Zhou Yu woke up in a pool of blood, he thought about the contents of the fax all the time.
The so-called "dead zone game" is by no means a harmless thing, but a death ritual that costs one's life. If the dream hadn't been interrupted, he would have died.
But will everything be fine as long as you wake up?
There was still lingering fear in his heart, as if he was still in a nightmare.
After resting in the hotel for half a day, Zhou Yu set off for Jiwei County. Qianzhou Province is sparsely populated in the mountains, and the five villages under the jurisdiction of Jiwei County are scattered among the mountains. Fortunately, Silver Line Township is close to tourist attractions, and you can take a bus across the mountain for the first half of the journey.
Zhou Yu got on the bus with tourists heading to the scenic spot. Next to him seemed to be a tour guide with a tour group, explaining the folk customs of Jiwei County along the way.
The tour guide spoke clearly and had a crisp voice. Although Zhou Yu who was sitting next to her was not interested, he could not ignore her voice.
"...Everyone knows the story of the battle between the Yellow Emperor and Chi You in ancient times, right? It is said that after Chi You died, his body was abandoned on Song Mountain and turned into a maple tree. On this maple tree, our ancestor's sister was born Bangmeiliu' means 'Butterfly Mother' in Chinese. There is a song that goes like this: 'There are maple tree trunks, and maple tree hearts, the tree trunks give birth to meibang, the tree heart gives birth to meiliu, the old mother in ancient times'. The song is about Mother Butterfly. To this day, girls here still embroider butterflies on their clothes to pray for Mother Butterfly’s blessings.”
Zhou Yu glanced at the tour guide. The girl was fair-skinned, with long eyelashes and bright eyes. She was wearing ethnic-style clothing with fine butterfly embroidery on the skirt and cuffs.
"...Mother Butterfly will eat fish as soon as she is born. Where does she eat the fish? It is in a pond called Jiwei. Not only does she eat fish in the Jiwei pond, she also gets married to the foam in the pond and gives birth to ten children. Two children.”
When he said this, several girls among the tourists chuckled.
"Anyway, if you want to say where Mother Butterfly likes the most, it must be Jiwei Pond. Legend has it that Jiwei Pond is deep in these mountains. So our place is called Jiwei County."
The tour guide's mysterious tone added a lot of color to the story. After talking about the origin of Jiwei County, she continued to talk about folk customs. Zhou Yu didn't listen these days, it was time for him to get off the car.
The mountain road was rugged and difficult to walk, and Zhou Yu was in poor physical condition, so it was very difficult to walk. It was not until evening that he finally arrived at his target village. The villagers were all Han nationality, so they were surprised to see him arrive. It seemed that they rarely saw strangers on weekdays.
Although the cottage is simple, he has plenty of funds and it is not difficult to find accommodation. As soon as he found a place to stay, he immediately pulled up Zhou Yu's photos from his phone and asked if he had seen a similar older woman.
According to Zhou Yu, she had looked through the photos and portraits of her father's family, and none of them looked like her. Although the father and daughter are both artists, they are very similar in appearance. Therefore, Zhou Yu firmly believes that she looks more like her mother.
In fact, there is no basis for this. Even if they are biological children, it is normal and not surprising at all for them to look different from their parents. What's more, Zhou Yu and her mother are more than twenty years apart in age. Even if they look similar, they may not be recognized.
However, Zhou Yu does not have a picture of her mother, nor does she have a name. Zhou Yu had no choice but to hope for a coincidence.
He showed the photo to the homeowner without hope. Unexpectedly, the owner of the house suddenly made a sound, nodded and said: "Look for Die Gu!"
Zhou Yu was stunned. He didn't expect to find the target so easily. He was stunned for a few seconds before asking: "Is she from this village?"
The owner of the house shook his head and said, "Diegu lives alone. Find her at night. She doesn't see anyone during the day." Then he led Zhou Yu out of the room and said, "She lives there."
He stretched out his hand and pointed to the desolate mountains under the full moon.
If you want to see the "Butterfly Girl" in the house owner's mouth, you have to go to the mountains at night.
After Zhou Yu confirmed this, he had to give up the idea of setting off tonight. There were built mountain roads where he came, which were not difficult to walk, but it was different in the real wild mountain areas. Regardless of the beast, his existing physical strength is not enough to support it. He could only entrust the owner of the house to find a guide tomorrow, and the remuneration was negotiable.
The owner of the house was a cheerful person. After hearing this, he directly said that he could lead the way and asked, "Did you ask Die Gu for treatment?"
Zhou Yu had never thought that Zhou Yu's mother was also a doctor, and he couldn't help but be slightly startled. The homeowner didn't pay attention and seemed to take his reaction as acquiescence.
Before the owner left, he couldn't help but ask: "Is Diegu's real name?"
The owner of the house laughed loudly after hearing this and explained that Die Gu is not a name, but an honorific. Her name has never been known. Why "Diegu" is an honorific title? Zhou Yu probably has something to do with local legends.
Wait until tomorrow night to ask in person. Whether it was the meaning of the honorific or the reason why she abandoned Zhou Yu and his daughter.
According to the owner of the house, the woman lived alone in the mountains with no relatives around her.
Why did you leave without saying goodbye? Why is there not even a photo of Zhou Yu’s mother in her home, and why did her father never remarry until his death?
Questions lingered in Zhou Yu's heart. Although his body was tired, he couldn't fall asleep. Finally, he simply stood up, sat in front of the window and looked at the distant mountains.
The full moon has not yet risen high, and is stationed slightly above the tops of the mountains. Underneath the silver blossoms are the two highest peaks in that area. The two peaks are close together in front and back. Viewed from this direction, there is only a long gap in the middle, and the edge emits a faint silver light, as if it is filled with moonlight.
The scene was like the moon hanging a long spider's thread from the sky, leading to the world. If you climb up along the thin thread, you can get into the moon in the sky. This wonderful scene of "moon setting silver thread" is the origin of the name of Silver Thread Township.
Seeing this scene, Zhou Yu thought of Chang'e. There are many versions of the legend of flying to the moon, but no matter what, the result is eternal farewell.
In the collection of books in Zhou Yu's basement, there is also the story of Chang'e, but it is a weird foreign version: Chang'e was originally a goddess who married the Emperor of Heaven and gave birth to twelve daughters, and was the mother of the twelve months. She fell in love with a mortal and secretly descended to earth to marry Hou Yi. However, she could not bear the life of losing her divine power and missed her daughters in heaven. Finally, she stole medicine and flew to the moon. At the end of the story, Chang'e is turned into a toad and spends eternity crying in the moon palace as revenge for the Emperor's disloyalty to her.
The story is told in English, and Zhou Yu speculates that it was a mixture of foreigners mistaking the moon goddess Chang Xi and Chang'e for the same person. I don’t know why Zhou Yu’s father would collect such a far-fetched legend.
There are a large number of similar stories in the basement, whether Chinese or foreign, the protagonists of all the stories are goddesses, witches, witches, this kind of mysterious women, and all of them have love as the theme, without exception.
Could this be an allusion to Zhou Yu's mother? What happened between the two of them?
He sat in front of the window until the moon went down and then lay back on the bed.
During the next day, he hardly left the door. Such a remote and dilapidated village life made him feel strange in his heart.
But, this is still a human community. As for what the owner of the house said, Zhou Yu's mother lived in a more secluded way, living alone like an ancient hermit. He really couldn't imagine it.
After dinner, the owner of the house proposed to take Zhou Yu to the mountains.
He was a strong old man. Although his head was full of white hair, he still moved vigorously. Just in case, Zhou Yu told Luo Binhan his address and the characteristics of the owner.
He originally thought that he would need self-defense weapons, climbing tools and other preparations to enter the mountain, but he didn't expect that the owner of the house was empty-handed.
When Zhou Yu asked, he just kept saying it didn't matter.
Zhou Yu couldn't object to this, but it was better than nothing, so he put a folding knife for peeling fruits in his pocket.
Not long after walking into the mountains, the sky turned completely dark. The wilderness in spring is extremely wet and cold, and the dense chirping of insects never stops for a moment, interspersed with shrill howls in the distance. Zhou Yu asked the owner of the house and got a reply that it was a wild boar in heat.
"...Doesn't it matter?"
"Pull it away, don't be a fool. If you do it, you will get out of here."
Zhou Yu couldn't understand the dialect at all. But judging from the owner's expression and gestures, I basically guessed that he wanted to ignore the beast and concentrate on walking.
Along the valley between the mountains, they slowly moved closer to the twin peaks leaning against each other. The tiny and distant Xiaoyue also seemed to begin to enlarge.
Silver threads emitting hazy light slowly hung down from the Lunar Star and landed between the two peaks. Under the silver line is a sparse maple forest. Each tree is so tall that the tops of the trees cannot be seen at night. The two walked through the woods and saw a wooden house on the plains in the distance.
The house has thatched roof and cloth windows and is very simple. It's not until you get closer that you can see many strange wooden carvings hanging under the eaves. There is a small piece of reclaimed land behind the house, planted with sprouts of flowers and plants that Zhou Yu doesn't recognize.
There are indeed people living here.
Thinking of seeing Zhou Yu's biological mother soon, Zhou Yu's heartbeat began to accelerate. There were too many things he hadn't figured out yet, such as how to introduce himself and how to mention Zhou Yu's disappearance to the other party.
When Zhou Yu in the dream mentioned her mother in her diary, she seemed very attached to her. But what about the mother? What is your attitude towards this daughter who was abandoned along with her husband early?
However, as soon as the two of them arrived at the door, the owner who led the way immediately made a sound of disappointment.
He told Zhou Yu nonstop that the two of them were unlucky today and Die Gu was not here at the moment.
