Volume 20: The Sorrow of Death
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In the 6th century BC, people believed that the spirits of the dead could speak through the abdomen of the living to convey messages from the dead. In Latin, venter means abdomen, and loqui means speaking. This is the origin of ventriloquist (ventriloquist).
Ventriloquism is both mysterious and magical. It has not been known to outsiders for thousands of years. The secrets are extremely hidden, and ventriloquism actors have always been famous for their mystery. From ancient times to the present, no one can understand the secrets until they step into it. The uncertainty theory has only been gradually proposed in the modern scientific community. The reason why it is described as uncertain comes from the fact that in the past, experimenters did not really ventriloquism. Experimenters often just tried to get as close as possible to close the mouth and throat as much as possible to make sounds. In fact, it was not a true ventriloquism. Abdominal sound.
I need perfection, I yearn for perfection, my abilities are more than this, my skills are more than this.
I can still go a step further, further develop perfection to the extreme, and even give it unprecedented existence and reality.
Make the perfect puppet.
Make the perfect puppet.
Make the perfect puppet.
The evening sun slants in the sky. Under the setting sun, the world seems to have lost its vitality. The earth is desolate and the air is condensed. Through the dense vegetation, the field of vision extends to the end, and finally reaches a certain lake.
The lake is quiet, the water temperature is cold, and there is a faint mist under the excessive vegetation.
There is a small island in the fog, and there is a building on the island. The building is quite tall, but under the fog, it is impossible to see the true appearance of the building. There seems to be something hidden in the darkness, and there is something there, which is looming. , almost silent, only the cool breeze blows occasionally, blowing the mist, and then confirms to the world that it is not false, but a real existence.
In a dark and gloomy room, there is no light, no sound, silence, true silence, as if this place does not belong to the noisy world, no one can hear or see here, only your own breathing can make you Faintly aware that he is still alive.
squeak.
Ta-ta-ta, ta-ta-ta.
Suddenly, the silence was broken by the sound of a wooden door opening. At the same time, a series of footsteps echoed in the dark room, accompanied by waves of rummaging for objects. Not long after, there was only a click, and a match was struck across the box. The light behind the face burned, and the faint light of the match moved forward, lighting the red candle above the wooden table.
The room is not too big, but it is not too small either. The light from one candle cannot completely cover the entire room and can only illuminate the middle area. At first glance, the light seems to be weak, as if struggling in the dark. However, At least the back of the person sitting at the table is clearly reflected.
Through the candlelight, it can be seen that this is the back of a woman. She is wearing a pure black corset and a pair of black high-heeled boots. Her whole body is almost completely covered in black. Only her head and hands are exposed. There is no doubt that she is. This is a kind of conservative and fashionable clothing in the United States in the 1940s and 1950s. The woman's hair is gray, but it is well-groomed, and then tied into a hairstyle similar to a European classic. Although it is basically impossible to tell the woman's age from the back, the fact is What you wear and how you look is not really the point, the point is what you see on set.
After the candlelight was turned on, the wooden table revealed a black-covered book and white manuscript paper spread across the table. The book was placed quietly in the center, and many white manuscript papers around it were painted with various human-shaped things. Although the composition details are different, they are all the same. There is something in common, that is, each piece of paper has a humanoid doll drawn on it. No, strictly speaking, the above guess is slightly wrong. The correct answer comes from the black book, or the text engraved on the cover of the book reveals the answer:
Make the perfect puppet.
Dolls scattered on the table. The images drawn on numerous pieces of manuscript paper are all dolls of different shapes. They are all hand-drawn drawings, and each part of the doll is deliberately marked with key words in English. Looking around, you can see that there are many types of drawings. There are internal structure analysis diagrams, joint processing and connection diagrams, process manufacturing structure diagrams, etc., each one is extremely complicated. At this moment, as the candle is lit, the woman lowers her head and observes under the candlelight, standing in front of the table and staring. There were structural diagrams of the dolls one after another, and it was only at this moment that the woman's face was finally fully revealed under the candlelight.
It was a face with some age wrinkles. It looked like she was in her early fifties. Although she was older, the woman's face was very neat. She wore light makeup and lipstick on her lips. Only her complexion was not normal, and the overall appearance was unhealthy. Pale, and paired with a black skirt, it looks a little weird. After all, few people would match it like this, and this kind of clothing combination is indeed difficult to describe.
Putting aside her clothing and appearance, seeing this, someone may have guessed the purpose of the woman's visit, and even further guessed the purpose of the room. Yes, the field of vision was stretched, and the observation was started, starting from the wooden table where the woman was sitting, and surrounding the room. The room was surrounded by puppets, and there were rows of puppets on the shelves on both sides!
As mentioned above, this is a world of dolls, a sea of dolls. There are several cabinets filled with various puppets. These puppets include finished products, semi-finished products, and even many that have been completed but have not yet been made. Assembled and painted body parts, none of them are large in size, most are only half a person tall. There are male and female dolls with different appearances and different clothes. Some are cute and cute wearing shirts and vests, and some are expressionless. There are dolls in striped coats, there are dolls dressed up in women's skirts, and there are also clown dolls with exaggerated smiles and various paints on their faces.
There is no doubt that this is a puppet making room. As for the woman...
After scanning the puppets with her obsessed eyes, she picked up the book on the table and read it carefully. After reading for a while, she put down the book and sat down in front of the stool to get busy. She took out a black pencil and started writing on a new piece of paper. Start painting.
Swish, swish, swish.
Silence, still silence, the light brought by the burning candle seemed to barely dispel part of the darkness, but it could not cover the room and break the silence. The woman said nothing from beginning to end, only the scratching sound of the pencil dancing along the manuscript paper, Listening to the friction sound, the image in the pen gradually enriched from the simple lines at the beginning. The eyes, nose, ears, mouth, head, torso, limbs and other facial features and limbs of the doll gradually took shape. The woman was very serious and concentrated on painting. She seemed to have reached a certain state of selflessness. She didn't care about time and had no reason for anything else. She just concentrated on her work seriously. In that state of selflessness, her pen tip flew, and finally...
An exquisite puppet drawing is completely displayed on paper. Looking closely, a strange-looking humanoid doll appears on the drawing paper. The doll has a black hair with a slicked back hairstyle, thick eyebrows, large eyes, eye shadow around them, a slightly red face, and an upturned mouth. Her lips gave the first impression of being happy. She was wearing a black suit underneath and a bright red bow tied around her neck.
It's obvious that this is a gentleman's doll.
After looking at it carefully for a moment, the woman moved, stood up from her seat, walked to the wooden cabinet in the corner and took out some tools, then turned to the right and came to a certain machine tool to start a new round of work.
Click, click, click.
She selected the head, torso, and limbs that met the standards from many semi-finished doll parts. She kept the parts she was satisfied with and modified the parts she was dissatisfied with. She began to use machine tools, carving knives, wooden hammers and other tools to carefully rectify and polish them. , the sound suddenly started, and various sounds filled the room. Finally, the silent environment was completely broken. The woman was making and assembling it alone, creating the most perfect work in her heart. Time passed quietly, and the sun gradually turned to the west. No matter what, Nothing could change the scene or stop the work. The woman was extremely serious and remained silent, completely intoxicated.
The result can be expected. As the work continues, the gentleman figure that originally existed only in the composition begins to gradually unfold in the woman's hands and gradually takes shape...
She took out two wooden eyeballs from the glass bottle and installed them in the empty eye sockets of the puppet's head. She began to paint them with colorful paints. She found a gentleman's clothing worn by children. She found black children's shoes of the same model. She, Still working with concentration. .
Until the sun sets and the sunlight disappears, until the dark night gradually fades, until the white candle burns out.
There was a slight haze outside the window, and the first ray of sunlight broke through the darkness and came to the world.
And similarly, the woman who had been busy all night also finished her work and completely stopped using the tools in her hands.
As dawn falls, the woman is currently standing in front of a puppet, next to a puppet that has just been completed and placed above the chair. She silently stares at the puppet opposite. At this moment, the woman's expression changes, and the long face A smile instinctively appeared on her expressionless pale face, and she smiled. The look she looked at the doll contained not only satisfaction and joy, but also a kind of concern and love that was close to that of a mother looking at her child. As she smiled, The vision then shifted, from the woman's gaze to the wooden bench opposite. At this moment, there was a beautifully made puppet sitting on top of the wooden bench! An extremely exquisite puppet doll. No matter the appearance, face or clothes of this doll, it is exactly the same as the composition of the woman's painting. Yes, exactly the same, there is no difference at all. At this moment, although the puppet's eyes are made of wood, they are like real human eyes. The very similar eyes are also looking at the woman opposite, their eyes are facing each other, and they are filled with joy. The woman thinks that it is the most perfect piece of work she has made in so many years.
Facing perfection, she must say something and give something to the other party no matter what.
"You are alive, you are alive. From now on, you are my son and I am your mother."
After looking at each other for a long time, the woman finally spoke, expressing her emotions and identity to a lifeless puppet. It seemed that her words were clear and her pronunciation was regular. However, if you look closely, you will find that although the woman is speaking, her mouth has never been the same. In the end, it was not touched, not even a little bit.
If the above scene can be called weird, then an even weirder or even miraculous scene happened next:
The woman came closer and picked up the puppet doll. After picking it up, she stretched her right hand behind the doll. After a while, the neck of the puppet doll, which was both strange and slightly joyful, moved, and the head of the doll in her arms turned towards the woman. His eyes swayed in his sockets and stared at the woman. Finally, he opened his mouth and answered with a male voice:
"Okay mom!"
The woman's mouth is closed from beginning to end. In this case, what's going on? What happened to the male voice? And how do women release their voices and express sentences without opening their mouths?
I don’t know the answer, it’s not clear, everything becomes a mystery, but...
After the doll answered the woman with a voice that was no different from that of a living person, the woman turned her eyes, glanced to the right, and then inadvertently looked at the black book placed above the wooden table. The cover of the book was dark, except for a string of English fonts. :
Make the perfect puppet.
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For ordinary Americans, the town of Ravenel is just an ordinary town. However, for those who like to watch puppet shows, it has the most exciting puppet show in the entire United States. The origin comes from the location. It is just a short distance from Ravenel. In the Lost Lake not far from the town of El, there is a theater with a puppet show as the theme. Because it is close to the town, the theater also directly uses the four characters "Riven El".
Ravenel Puppet Theater.
It is located in a remote place, close to a lake, but it cannot prevent its fame from being known to many Americans. The remote location also cannot prevent the audience from coming here to watch performances. After all, the famous puppet show master Mary Shaw is the ace pillar of the theater here, and Today, Mary Shaw will give you a wonderful puppet show here.
Figures surged, footsteps shuttled, people crossed the lake along the wooden bridge, and finally arrived in the middle and entered the theater located on the island in the lake.
At this moment, inside the theater, in the vast hall, the rows of seats under the stage are almost full and filled with audiences. Everyone is dressed in American fashion styles of the 1940s and 1950s. There are luxurious and fashionable women, and gentlemen in suits and leather shoes. Sir, there are beautiful girls in dresses, there are neatly dressed children, all kinds of people are gathered here, and in general the auditorium contains audiences of all ages. The show has not started yet, the audience is quite noisy, and the crowd is chatting. , it was not until a bald man in a red dress came to the stage holding a microphone that people stopped making noise and returned to silence.
"Dear ladies and gentlemen, the amazing moment is coming, the wonderful moment is coming, below, please watch Mary Shaw give life to the wooden child!"
The host's words were very brief and he went straight to the topic decisively. After finishing his words, he politely bent down, extended his hand towards the right side of the stage, and then walked back and walked away from the front stage.
Crash.
At the same time, when the host announced the start of the program, the audience began to applaud, and the atmosphere was very lively. Then, with a series of applause, a white-haired woman walked to the front desk and looked intently. She is nearly 50 years old, has gray hair, and is wearing a tight black dress. The overall look is a little different. The person who came was none other than the woman in the black dress who had stayed up all night making the dolls.
Listening to the applause and looking up, the woman arrived in front of the stage. In addition to herself, she was also holding a rope in her hand. The other end of the rope was connected to a black wooden box about half a person high on the stage. There is no doubt that she is both a puppet performer and a puppeteer. Another puppet maker...Mary Shaw.
The applause subsided and the performance was about to begin as usual. Many people in the audience also knew that the wooden box dragged behind the woman definitely contained a puppet. After all, without the important prop of the puppet, the so-called puppet show would not be possible. , thought like this, but what surprised the audience was that after the woman on the stage opened the wooden box, it was empty inside.
"Billy, Billy where are you?"
"Billy?"
For a moment, under the slightly surprised gazes of the audience, the woman began to call. She stood on the stage and looked around while shouting endlessly, calling out the word "Billy" that seemed to be the name of the doll, but... At this moment, when his several calls seemed to be fruitless, a male voice suddenly sounded, coming straight from the quiet audience: "Hey, Mom, you can't find me!"
The audience looked around in surprise and curiosity. At this time, the woman on the stage reached out and pointed directly downward, pointing at a little boy in the second row of the auditorium: "Billy, I know where you are hiding, you are right there, you, my dear." My little kid, could you please bring me the Billy under your seat?"
Everyone looked around and saw that the boy pointed by Mary Xiao looked about 10 years old. When he was pointed at, the little boy was startled at first. His immature face was a little frightened. Admittedly, he was slightly scared, but he was still watching the crowd. Instinctively, he lowered his head out of curiosity and looked under the seat. Sure enough, just as the woman in the black dress had said earlier, there was actually a puppet lying under the seat.
Seeing the doll, the little boy pointed his finger on the ground and said in surprise: "Here it is, it's here!"
Mary Xiao stretched out her hands and continued: "Can you hand my lovely Billy back to me?"
As mentioned above, although the little boy was afraid of the woman in the black dress, in full view of the public, he still reached out and took out the doll as requested, and then delivered the gentleman doll named 'Billy' to the Woman's hands.
In a daze, whether it was an illusion or something else, the doll was delivered. Just as the little boy turned around and was about to go back to his seat, the doll, which was now in the hands of the woman in black skirt, suddenly started to speak and said a standard thank you. : "Thanks, Henry!"
Ding!
When the voice reached his ears, the little boy's heart was high and his expression was horrified.
It wasn't that he was frightened by the fact that the puppet doll could talk. After all, it was well known that puppet actors spoke on behalf of the puppet. What really caused his consternation and confusion was...
Puppet doll, no, it should be the woman in the black dress. How did she know her name?
Henry, his name is indeed Henry.
After the little boy returned to his seat suspiciously and uneasily, the performance officially began. Then, under the unbelievable gazes of many audience members, Mary Xiao, who was sitting on a high stool on the stage, started a series of interactions between her mother and the puppet Billy. It was an interesting conversation, with both parties greeting and teasing each other. It is worth mentioning that unlike other puppet masters who mostly flutter their mouths and change their voices during performances, whenever the puppet in her hand opens its mouth to speak, Mary Shaw, as a puppet master, never opens her mouth. .
No one knows the secret, only the wonderful performance comes into view.
Puppet Master: "Hey, Billy, why did you run away just now? Didn't I treat you badly?"
Billy vividly shook his head and rolled his eyes, pondered for a moment, and then responded with a man's voice: "on, you treat me very well, you are the best mother I can think of, but there are ashes everywhere in that box, I think I want, want..."
Puppet Master: "What do you want?"
"Ah sneeze!"
At the end of the story, Billy suddenly tilted his head back and sneezed, and the puppeteer took a handkerchief with his other hand to wipe the puppet's nose. The scene was both real and interesting for a time, and the interesting conversations continued for a while. It made the audience laugh from time to time.
This is amazing! This is also the biggest reason why Mary Shaw is so famous. First of all, you must understand that the puppet is just an inanimate doll, and it is absolutely impossible to speak. In other words, under normal circumstances, if you want the doll to speak, you must rely on the puppet master to control it. In addition to your own In addition to speaking, she also has to change her voice and then talk to herself on behalf of the doll. Strictly speaking, it is amazing to be able to speak with multiple different accents. Unexpectedly, Mary Shaw actually achieved a further miracle. Not only did she make the half-human tall puppet in her hand The doll speaks in other voices, and she herself remains silent while the doll speaks.
Don't think that's it. What's more shocking is yet to come. As the conversation continues, the two sides gradually become more intense, and the conversation gradually develops into a quarrel. As the quarrel escalates, the subsequent dialogue is no longer about you saying one sentence and me saying another. Instead, it suddenly developed into two speaking at the same time! ! !
It is conceivable that when the two people are actually one person, they can not only speak for the puppet but also speak with two different voices at the same time without opening their mouths. This is a miracle, a complete miracle!
If the above descriptions are all true, then this performance is enough to break the rules of nature and subvert human cognition.
The dialogue and quarrel continued, and various magical performances were performed by Mary Xiao and the gentleman puppet. The audience burst into applause from time to time until...
Until a questioning voice inadvertently came from the audience:
"But, even so, that 'Billy' is still a lifeless doll, right?"
The performance ended suddenly and the scene suddenly became quiet.
In addition to the surrounding audience being attracted by this statement, the puppets Billy and Mary Xiao also shifted their vision, looking towards the audience and then towards the owner of the voice.
Looking for the voice, I saw that the speaker was still a little boy, but it was not the boy who delivered the doll in the first place. It was not Henry earlier, but someone else, a little boy in a gray suit sitting in the third row. , at this moment, looking at each other, for some reason, Mary Xiao looked at the boy with a flash of coldness in her eyes, and inadvertently revealed a hint of coldness.
No one can question me, this is my child, he is perfect, he is real, he is undoubtedly alive!
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ps: A new volume has begun, the story continues to develop, and the plot is still exciting. As an encouragement, brothers who have monthly votes, please vote, thank you!
