After being honest with each other, Yu Peng felt a lot more relaxed.
As the first person he had real contact with in the past thirteen years, Li Xiaoyu brought many different feelings to Yu Peng
Not family, not two childhood friends. These should be considered friends, right?
But I don’t know if it counts. Yu Peng has no idea about this.
After that, the two of them chatted briefly for a while, but they were all talking about how to play tomorrow, and did not continue to ask more questions about Xi.
Li Xiaoyu did not continue to play the mobile game, but moved the chair in his room over, sat next to Yu Peng, and watched Yu Peng carving the lightning strike wood there.
The knife used by Yu Peng is relatively sharp. In addition, the lightning strike wood is made of pine and has a soft texture.
Yu Peng's knife carves on wood as easily as an ordinary person can draw a knife on plasticine.
Within a few minutes, Yu Peng carved out a lifelike little frog.
After it was confirmed that Yu Cheng had finished carving, Li Xiaoyu grabbed it immediately.
This piece of lightning-struck wood was originally irregular. The surface of the wood was burnt black by the lightning. There was a dark yellow transition zone on the inside, and the inside was still yellow like ordinary wood.
What Yu Peng carved is a small frog in a sitting position. He cleverly matched these colors. According to the appearance of a normal frog, most of the skin is dark yellow, with dots of black spots on the back. The belly is light yellow
Even the frog's eyes have a black dot in the middle that looks like an eyeball.
The movements of the mouth are carved as if they were real.
If it were just placed by the window, people who didn't know it would think it was a real frog.
When Li Xiaoyu caught it in his hand, he liked it very much. Now the more he looks at it, the more he likes it.
For a while, he held his hands in his palms and raised them up to look at the light. For a while, he took a deep breath and rubbed them, making them more moist and real. He played with them in various ways.
Yu Peng wrapped the scraps of wood scattered on the window sill and on the ground in paper, cleaned them up, and threw them into the toilet trash can.
When he came back, he saw that Li Xiaoyu liked it so much, so he said casually
"Since you like it so much, I'll give it to you."
Li Xiaoyu was originally thinking about how to ask Yu Peng for this ornament. When he heard Yu Peng say it, he was naturally rude.
"Okay, that's fine. I'll just compensate you for the food, drinks and accommodation I've given you these days."
"By the way, what kind of wood is this little frog made of?"
“Pine”
Li Xiaoyu originally thought it was made of other materials, because it felt very good to the touch and had a hard texture, so she was a little confused.
"Isn't pine wood supposed to be soft? Why does it feel different?"
Yu Peng can only explain
"The texture of normal pine trees is indeed very soft, but this one was burned after being struck by lightning, so it is different and a bit harder."
"Wow, lightning struck the tree! Is it real or fake?"
"Well, I watched the tree being chopped down and burned for a long time."
"Oh, you are so lucky. I heard that lightning strikes the wood to ward off evil spirits, but I don't know if it's true."
Yu Peng thought for a while and felt that it would be okay to talk to Li Xiaoyu about this, so he continued to explain.
"The lightning strike wood does ward off evil spirits, but it generally does not last long. Once the remaining electromagnetic energy inside dissipates, it will be of no use."
Li Xiaoyu didn't intend to listen at first, he just asked casually, but when he heard what Yu Peng said, he quickly asked
"Since you are a martial arts student, you should have some understanding of this aspect. Please explain to me, what is the principle behind this?"
Yu Peng may have some difficulty communicating with normal people, especially girls. He has been used to being bored at home these years, and is unfamiliar and resistant to social interaction. He is a typical socially fearful boy.
But since Li Xiaoyu mentioned the professional issue, and this major coincides with Yu Cheng, Yu Cheng's mouth has a different feeling.
"Before we talk about lightning striking trees, we must first talk about the so-called evil."
"Human beings have always viewed all living things other than themselves, whether animals or plants, living or dead, from an alien perspective, even if the dead ones are the creatures of their ancestors."
"In the development of human civilization and society, at the beginning, the most fearful thing was death, and then slowly began to develop awe."
"About death, no one has a particularly clear concept at the beginning. That is, the person was originally good, but then he began to lose energy and strength, until he finally lay motionless, and then began to smell and rot. If he did not avoid it, he would rot. The people around you will do the same in the future. Once they disappear, they will become a group."
"This is how fear comes. After fear, awe naturally arises."
“Maybe it’s the event of death that I’m in awe of, maybe it’s the process, maybe it’s this person.”
"Especially when the most powerful warrior in the group dies, the group has no power to resist in the face of the intrusion of wild animals and the plunder and killing of other groups. Gradually, the death that everyone revered becomes death. "people"
"I feel that because this person is gone, I started to punish other people who are still alive, so everyone has to suffer."
"When the word "death" first appeared, and soon spread to all civilized groups, its nature began to change."
Hearing this, Li Xiaoyu asked a question very cooperatively.
"What changes?"
Yu Peng interrupted his words and went to get a bottle of water from the bedside. As soon as he opened the lid, Li Xiaoyu grabbed it and took a big sip.
Li Xiaoyu handed the water bottle back and motioned for Yu Peng to drink. Yu Peng didn't dare to drink. He put the water bottle aside helplessly and continued.
"After all, in human society at that time, there was no word civilization yet. People only had one thought and purpose every day. According to the strength of their physical fitness, the group began to have a division of labor. Strong people were responsible for hunting, obtaining food, and protecting the group. Not being disturbed allows everyone to live longer, while frail men and women, as well as the elderly and children, are responsible for daily living and auxiliary work."
"Strong people who protect the group will naturally be admired and respected by everyone. As mentioned just now, if the strongest person in a group dies, then the group will basically be useless. Or it can't resist the ferocious animals. Prey, or be cannibalized by other groups."
"Especially when other ethnic groups come over, they will only snatch young women for reproduction. Others, whether they are old people or children, will be killed directly."
“I don’t know when the word death began to appear, and then some people began to preach that death is just a form. They just changed their way of life and their bodies. As long as we worship them, they will still be alive. Give us protection”
"So from this time on, a position, or identity, was slowly derived, which is the shaman, that is, a person who can talk to the dead ancestors. This person is the spiritual symbol of this ethnic group."
"At that time, everyone worshiped their ancestors."
"In the following years, human civilization has become more and more aware of tools and crops. People's source of food has evolved from hunting to planting and raising. People have more room for development, and ethnic groups have begun to grow. , there are more and more people”
"The turning point again is the creation of words"
Li Xiaoyu was obviously listening attentively, and her mind kept following what Yu Peng said. When it came to creating text, Li Xiaoyu blurted out
"Cangjie coined characters. I have mentioned this in my book."
Yu Peng was stunned for a moment and quickly responded with an explanation.
"This is wrong. It's not that Cangjie invented the characters. He just integrated and popularized the characters of various ethnic groups. But it is inappropriate to say that he invented the characters."
"Ah? Doesn't it say in the book that he made the characters?"
"Of course not. Before Cangjie, writing had already begun. The first was to record life through painting. Later, people used murals to teach hunting skills to future generations, and used murals to describe us, animals, food, and use. these things"
"Later, when I communicated with people from other ethnic groups, you said yours and I said mine. No one knew what the other said. Painting became a good way of communication. After many years of changes, we became familiar with each other. Between ethnic groups, there is a relatively unified picture structure, which is the earliest form of writing."
"At the time of Cangjie, this form had been going on for many generations. Cangjie only made an integration and standardized use among that relatively large ethnic group. In fact, there are many people who do such things. However, writing There will always be interruptions in the inheritance of ancient times. A fire or a war may cause a gap. In the end, the only written record that everyone can find is Cangjie."
Li Xiaoyu thought it made sense and suddenly realized
"Oh, I see"
"But we seem to have gone too far. Let's go back to the lightning strike wood. The reason why lightning strike wood is said to ward off evil spirits is because according to some inherited sayings, people become ghosts after death, and the soul is actually a kind of magnetic field. "It is formed by the concentration of energy."
"Since it is a kind of magnetic field energy, it can be easily disturbed, affected, and destroyed. Just like if you put a mobile phone during a call into an ant colony, the ant colony will run in circles around the magnetic field formed by the mobile phone. I won’t stop until I die.”
"Lightning-struck wood has been struck by lightning and then burned at high temperatures. A strong magnetic field reaction will remain in the middle of the wood, which can interfere with the ghosts around you and keep them away. This is the so-called warding off evil spirits."
"Some say that jujube is the best lightning strike wood, followed by peach wood and pine wood. But in fact, they are all similar. After all, lightning remains in the wood and must be used up. Once the properties of lightning disappear, No, it’s just wood.”
"However, jujube wood is relatively hard in texture, so it is the best for everyone to use. After all, the people who used lightning strike wood the most in the past were Taoist priests who walked in the mountains and forests every day. Jujube wood with a hard texture has a wider range of applications. Peach wood is This is because the texture is straight, making it easier to carve talismans, and it is more efficient in transporting spiritual energy, so it is used a lot. But if we say that the wood with the most lightning strikes is still pine, because there are many pine trees in the mountains, but it is true that pine is too If it is soft, it will crack or break easily if carved into a sword. Carve it into a small object. If the carving is not good, it will be stabbed."
"That's why everyone says that pine wood is the least popular. It's because of its texture. It's easy to crack under dry heat, and the splinters on the cracked edges can easily prick your hands. Everyone is not used to it."
"Well... although what you said makes sense, I still want to hear the story you just told. I'm fascinated by it. How about you continue talking about it?"
