How long has it been? Are you still waiting for the moon? If the moon doesn't come out, wouldn't we stop going out?
Mr. Wang said, you are right this time. If the moon does not come out, we will not be able to get out.
After finishing speaking, I saw Mr. Wang pull out a chisel from the back cage behind him, then squat on the ground with his back to the end of the village, muttering to the hole he had dug with his axe. Something.
I don't know why we can't go out until the moon comes out, but I believe Mr. Wang won't make fun of me about it.
After Mr. Wang opened and closed his mouth for a few times, he suddenly stopped, then looked at me and said, "Didn't you hear me when I told you to squat down?"
I widened my eyes and asked, were you talking to me when you just muttered?
Mr. Wang said, you and I are the only ones here. If I’m not talking to you, could I be talking to a ghost?
I was speechless. If your voice were any lower, I would have thought you were acting in pantomime!
But I didn't dare to say these words, but squatted down obediently.
But after I squatted down, Mr. Wang pointed in the direction of the ancestral hall and said, squat here with your back to the ancestral hall.
I didn't know what this meant, so I had to do it.
After I squatted down, Mr. Wang took out a few yellow pieces of paper from nowhere. There were words written on them, but because the light was too dark, I couldn't see clearly what was written.
He spread these yellow paper strips in the potholes. It was a thin layer, but it fit tightly, and no loess in the potholes could be seen at all.
After doing this, Mr. Wang took out a bamboo tube from the cage on his back, pulled off the lid, and poured water into the hole.
Because the potholes were lined with paper strips, water could not seep in, so they filled up quickly. This is what Mr. Wang told me. After a while, I shout "jump", and you jump to the right. You can jump very far, and you can't jump too slowly, do you understand?
I nodded to show that I understood. But why I do this, I have no idea.
In order not to miss the word "jump" in Mr. Wang's mouth, I pricked up my ears. But Mr. Wang started mumbling again, and his voice was softer than before. I only listened intermittently.
He first recited something about the long road at night in the east, and then took the chisel in his hand and stabbed a medium-long bar right above the pothole, about as long as my palm.
After finishing the painting, he recited several sentences. I didn't hear it clearly, but I saw the chisel in his hand constantly carving pictures on the ground. Sometimes it was a continuous horizontal bar, sometimes it was broken in the middle.
But no matter what, only three lines are drawn in each direction, no more and no less. It was only then that I realized that Mr. Wang was drawing gossip on the ground.
Intermittently, I heard him mutter again that the world borrows the wind from the shadows, but this time he did not draw a line on the ground, but pointed upwards with a chisel. I don’t know if it’s an illusion, but I always feel like the light around me has become a little brighter.
Then he continued to chant, and every time he chanted a sentence, a line would be drawn on the ground, which would either be continuous or broken. It's just that I couldn't hear clearly what he was saying even if I craned my neck to listen.
I was worried. What if I missed the word "jump" in his mouth? If the jump slowed down, wouldn't I be able to get out?
Mr. Wang didn't seem to care about my worries and kept muttering in a low voice. When he finished drawing the last line and a complete gossip appeared on the ground, he suddenly raised the chisel high and shouted, "The iron chisel in the craftsman's hand is in the hand, and the mirror is empty." ! ----Jump!
Mr. Wang changed his previous muttering and shouted suddenly, which almost burst my eardrums. If I had known he would shout so loudly, I wouldn't have had to crane my neck to listen carefully.
But the pain in my ears came back from the pain, so my movements were not slow. I kicked off my feet, not caring whether my posture was elegant or not. After jumping away, I rolled and crawled to the side.
At the same time as I jumped away, a bright moonlight poured down. I clearly saw Mr. Wang jumping to the side like me, but I went to the right and he went to the left.
Moreover, when he jumped away, his whole body turned suddenly in the air, his upper body suddenly twisted around, and with the iron chisel in his right hand, he stabbed hard into the pothole filled with water. In an instant, water splashed everywhere.
I don’t know if it was an illusion, but after Mr. Wang poked the chisel into the hole filled with water, I seemed to hear a splintered sound, like the sound of breaking glass. And the moonlight shining down from the sky also disappeared at this time.
Mr. Wang, who was lying on the ground like a frog, suddenly stood up, reached for my back collar, and ran toward the end of the village. As he ran, he shouted, "Gout Barber, don't let me know who you are." Otherwise, a free coffin will be delivered to your door!
After I finished shouting, I heard a gust of wind passing by my ears, and then I heard the sound of gongs and drums not far away. It was the sound of Chen Guzi's dojo - did we run out? !
I looked at Mr. Wang with a look of disbelief.
Mr. Wang snorted coldly and said, "I'm going to use my 'Moon in the Water'. If I can't get it out, then where can I put this face on?"
Moon in the water? That pothole filled with water?
I was just about to ask when I found that we had already reached the door of my courtyard. Mr. Wang threw me into the courtyard without saying a word and asked me to change clothes. And he himself walked towards my backyard.
After I finished changing my clothes and came out, I realized that Mr. Wang had gone to my backyard to move wood - in our village, every household has a wooden house, and brick houses have not yet been built. Therefore, some wood that can be used as beams will be prepared so that it can be used at any time when building a new house.
After moving the wood, Mr. Wang went directly into the main room of my house and asked me to stand aside with my old clothes. I was only allowed to look but not speak.
Then I saw Mr. Wang pick up the ax on his waist and hit the thick wood hard. The wood chips suddenly flew everywhere and scattered all over the hall.
It was a dark early morning, the moon was dim, and the main room was even darker. I don't know how Mr. Wang could see clearly. I only knew that every blow he struck with his ax did not miss. And not long after, he switched to a chisel, and in the dark hall, he was chiseling one by one, not knowing what he was chiseling.
As time gradually passed, Mr. Wang's hand movements became faster and faster. At this time, I could vaguely distinguish it from the darkness. It was a humanoid sculpture, but who it was because the light was too dark. I couldn't distinguish it. Not coming out.
After a while, Mr. Wang stopped and asked me to give him the clothes I had changed, and then put them on the human sculpture.
After finishing this, Mr. Wang picked up the cage on his back, picked up the human sculpture wearing my clothes, and ran outside the main room.
As he was running and shaking, I accidentally saw the face of the human sculpture lying on his shoulder - exactly like me!
