June 4th, summer, sunny.
Zhang Yuguan was disturbed by the noise outside the house. He was about to lose his temper, but then he thought about it and sat up again.
"It's so lively, could it be that Chang An is back?"
He quickly put on his Taoist robe and walked out of the house.
But he saw that the scorching sun was shining right in front of his door, making him unable to open his eyes.
But there were strangely familiar words faintly echoing in his ears.
"Where did you come from? How dare you molest my young lady in the middle of the night. Come on, kidnap me and take her to the official."
A high-pitched voice appeared, as if it was a man imitating the girl's voice.
Then, a young man's voice appeared.
"Oh my, could it be that I have admitted my mistake and these two women are not the wall-touching ghosts?"
Immediately, the man hurriedly said
"Madam, please don't be angry, please listen to Xiaosheng's explanation."
But before the young man finished speaking, Zhang Yuguan heard a knocking sound, accompanied by the man's onomatopoeia.
"Madam, please listen to Xiaosheng's explanation."
Zhang Yuguan reacted completely when he heard this moment. He was shocked and said
"Puppetry!"
With the scorching sun scorching his eyes, he ran to the shade of the trees next to the house and slowly opened his eyes.
But I saw a man operating three lifelike puppets, making sounds constantly from his mouth. The three puppets were wrestling together, causing the surrounding children to jump and cheer.
Zhang Yuguan frowned and stared carefully at the man who was performing the puppet show, but he saw that the man was tall, with a Chinese character face, and was dressed in commoner clothes.
Not far away, old man Lin, who was among the children, came over and patted him on the shoulder.
"This is the puppet show master in the city, Mr. Lu, who came here specially to perform puppet shows for the children."
Zhang Yuguan's face was gloomy. He just saw that weird thing yesterday. Why did a so-called puppet show master come here today?
"Why did this Mr. Lu come to the countryside?"
Old man Lin explained
"Yesterday, when I was talking about this puppet show with the children, I suddenly remembered this Mr. Lu from the city and asked him to come and perform a play for the children."
Zhang Yuguan was still very wary of Mr. Nalu, and said
"Then why would he want to come?"
Old man Lin said mysteriously
"You don't know this. Although Xiao Cui usually thinks about this puppet show by himself, when he was a child, he was inspired by Mr. Lu to get into the puppet show. He and Xiao Cui also have some friendship. Yesterday I asked someone to I sent a message to the city, and he readily agreed."
Zhang Yuguan nodded slowly, but suddenly, the bloody doll he dreamed about last night suddenly appeared in his mind!
He had a headache and squatted on the ground in pain. Old man Lin didn't know why he was like this, so he hurriedly said
"What's wrong with you!"
The abnormality here alarmed Mr. Lu and the children on the other side. Mr. Lu slowly walked over.
"What's wrong with this Taoist priest? Doesn't it matter?"
Zhang Yuguan slowly raised his head to look at him, but it didn't matter. His head felt violently dizzy again, and another picture appeared in his mind.
"Xiao Cui!"
He roared in pain, and in his mind, Xiao Cui was killed by a sword through the heart. Her desperate eyes seemed to be enveloped in endless gloom over Zhang Yuguan.
How could such a strange picture suddenly appear?
Zhang Yuguan had a splitting headache and his face was dripping with sweat. He tried his best to reach out his hand and signal them not to approach him.
After a long time, the headache gradually subsided. He took a few deep breaths and stood up slowly.
"Thank you for your concern. It's probably an old habit that happened again."
As he spoke, he raised his head. At this moment, his eyes happened to collide with Mr. Nalu's. He was slightly startled, but saw Mr. Lu's clear eyes. It is said that people's eyes are the windows to the soul. With such a pair of clear eyes, No matter what, they are not bad people.
But when Zhang Yuguan looked at him, he felt a little uneasy. Why did he have a splitting headache when he saw him, and why did such a picture appear in his mind? Why does his puppet show feel so familiar to him? This is the most puppet show Xiao Cui has performed before. Although this story is widely circulated, it is not surprising to Mr. Lu. But what is strange is why Mr. Lu He had a vague feeling that he was watching Xiao Cui's performance? And why did he clearly feel a trace of evil energy in Mr. Lu?
The sudden appearance of the man in front of him caused a series of question marks to appear in his mind.
"Mr. Lu, you are so meticulous in making this puppet."
Zhang Yuguan suddenly walked over and picked up a puppet. He saw that the puppet was carved with great detail, and it was much better than Xiaocui's. He thought that he was worthy of being a master of the generation.
Mr. Nalu smiled at Zhang Yuguan and said
"It's nothing. We who do puppet shows actually started to get involved in this industry because we liked these exquisitely carved little figures."
Zhang Yuguan nodded and asked again
"Mr. Lu, this puppet is so exquisite and I like it very much. I wonder if I can buy one as a souvenir."
There was a subtle change on Mr. Lu's face, but neither Zhang Yuguan nor Old Man Lin noticed it.
"If the Taoist Master likes it, I will give him one as a gift."
Mr. Lu said.
Zhang Yuguan was stunned and smiled.
"Then I would like to thank the Taoist priest. He randomly picked a puppet that looked like a young man and said, is this the Liu Guanren mentioned in the play?"
There was a trace of surprise in Mr. Lu's eyes and he said
"Lu originally thought that the Taoist priest just liked puppets. It seems that he often watches puppet shows on weekdays."
Zhang Yuguan smiled and said
"Xiao Cui is my good friend, so I have naturally heard all these dramas."
Mr. Lu sighed
"It's a pity that such a good child like Xiaocui has suffered such a disaster."
Zhang Yuguan was also silent, and then he said again
"Then I want this Liu Guanren."
Mr. Lu smiled and said
"Master Taoist, please excuse me."
Zhang Yuguan took the puppet into his arms and said to Mr. Nalu
"I don't want to take Mr. Lu's things for granted. How about I tell Mr. Lu's fortune in return?"
The old man Lin beside him agreed.
"Ah, yes. Although this fat man is usually lazy, he is very accurate in fortune telling. Even his fortune telling has few good words."
Zhang Yuguan rolled his eyes at him, smiled and cursed
"Smashing my sign."
Mr. Nalu was very happy and said:
"What a coincidence. I do have something I want to test. Could you please Taoist Master test it for me? What is the good or bad luck of what I want to do?"
Zhang Yuguan smiled and said
"May I ask, sir, what do you want to test?"
Mr. Lu narrowed his eyes slightly and said calmly
"The most important things in life are extremely important."
Zhang Yuguan was stunned for a moment. He looked at Mr. Lu's eyes and became more and more uneasy. With his hands behind his back, he saw that he was holding Taoist formulas in his right hand and secretly deducing them, but found nothing. There were slight beads of sweat on his forehead and he said
"Even if it is such a big event, it is necessary to use the big hexagram. So, when I burn incense and bathe, I will deduce it for you sir using the straw method."
Mr. Lu bowed respectfully to Zhang Yuguan
"Thank you so much, Master Taoist."
But Zhang Yuguan said to some children
"Go and find me fifty yarrows."
Then he said to Old Man Lin
"Get me a bucket of hot water. I want to burn incense and bathe."
The children ran away, and Zhang Yuguan slowly walked back to the house.
About half an hour later, Zhang Yuguan finished burning incense and taking a bath. At this moment, the children got fifty yarrow sticks and had been waiting at the door for a long time.
"Squeak"
Zhang Yuguan pushed open the door and took the yarrow from the hands of the children.
"come in."
Then, everyone walked into Zhang Yuguan's house.
But at this moment, Zhang Yuguan had a solemn expression and a holy face. He was holding the fifty yarrow stalks in his hand and speaking plausibly.
"The number fifty in Dayan has nine uses. The end point is the starting point. Fifty returns to zero. The number forty-nine has been used up!"
Then, he randomly took out one of the fifty yarrow roots and discarded it.
"The number of forty-nine has served its purpose, and you are the one who escaped."
"And one transformed into four camps, divided into two, hanging one, teasing four, and returning to Qi."
"The first battalion is divided into two to make two elephants."
Zhang Yuguan was seen holding forty-nine yarrow sticks in his hand, muttering something in his mouth, and then randomly divided the forty-nine yarrow sticks into two clusters on the table.
"Second battalion, hang one to resemble three."
Then he took a yarrow from the left cluster and held it between four or five fingers.
"The third camp, teach it with four images and four seasons"
He divided the two yarrow clusters into groups of four.
"The fourth battalion is curious because it marks a leap, and there is a leap again when it is five years old, so it is cut again and then hung."
At this time, there were several yarrow roots left in the left and right clusters that could not be grouped into groups of four. All the scattered yarrows were sandwiched between three or four fingers.
"This is the first change, and the three changes become one line."
At this moment, he took the remaining yarrow on the table into his hands again, repeated the previous process, completed the second change, and after the second change, the remaining yarrow on the table once again underwent the third change.
At this time, he breathed a sigh of relief
"Eighteen becomes one hexagram."
He put the forty-nine yarrow roots in his hands again and started the same steps as before. After every three changes, he wrote down a number. By the end of the eighteen changes, he had written down a total of six numbers.
At this time, the deduction of the Dayan numbers was completed. Zhang Yuguan slowly wiped the sweat on his head. Looking at the six numbers, he secretly calculated in his heart. After a long time, his expression changed.
"Gu Gua."
He looked at Mr. Lu with an ugly expression.
"Mr. Lu, for what you want to do, this is a hexagram. The future is uncertain and full of difficulties."
Mr. Lu's face tightened, then relaxed again, and he saluted Zhang Yuguan again.
"Anyway, thank you, Master."
Old man Lin laughed loudly and slapped Zhang Yuguan on the head. Zhang Yuguan was already exhausted mentally and physically from calculating the number of Dayan. After this slap from him, Zhang Yuguan suddenly became weak.
"What are you doing."
Old man Lin looked at Mr. Lu and said
"I'm just saying that this kid doesn't have many good things to say. Don't worry about it, Mr. Lu. Not everything he says may be credible."
Zhang Yuguan rolled his eyes at him and said to himself: Didn't you just say that my calculation was accurate?
Old man Lin then patted him on the back again and said to Mr. Lu
"Mr. Lu, are you tired from today's performance? The village has prepared wine and food, as well as a house. Why don't you go back and rest first?"
When Zhang Yuguan heard this, he was stunned. This guy actually wanted to live in the village.
When Old Man Lin saw Zhang Yuguan acting like this, he guessed what he was thinking and said
"It took a lot of effort to invite Mr. Lu here, but we can't let him stay for a few more days."
Mr. Lu smiled and nodded.
"Taoist Master, Na Lu resigned first."
Zhang Yuguan forced a smile
"Mr. Lu, please."
Not long after, Zhang Yuguan was the only one left in the room. At this moment, he was lying on the table, thinking about what had just happened, and felt that something was wrong the more he thought about it. He took out the puppet in his arms and frowned.
No matter how he looked at it, he felt that Mr. Nalu was really suspicious.
"I'm not wrong, but there is a faint trace of evil aura on him. This usually happens to people who are more violent. That person's eyes are so clear, but that person's smile is so unnatural, like It’s like a fake smile.”
He thought for a long time, but still had no answer. He simply stood up and rearranged the table.
He took out another brazier, picked up the puppet he got from Mr. Lu, looked solemn, and silently recited the Tianmu spell.
"I am the third eye, chasing the sky. My eyes are like thunder and lightning, shining brightly. I can see everything inside and outside. I am as urgent as laws and orders!"
I saw him throwing the puppet into the brazier, and suddenly the flames in the brazier bloomed. A wisp of green smoke slowly rose, and then slowly turned into a winding green thin line in the air, continuing to the distance. Extending, with Zhang Yuguan's sight, he kept extending into the distance.
At this time, Zhang Yuguan was already sweating profusely, and big beads of sweat kept sliding down his cheeks, soaking the worn Taoist robes, but Zhang Yuguan looked ferocious, gritted his teeth, and muttered to himself.
"Hold it!"
He had deduced the number of Dayan for only an hour, and he had already exhausted all his energy. Now, he was using Tianmu Technique non-stop to pry into the secrets of the heavens. He was already at the end of his strength. He was holding the Dao Jue in his hands, but his hands were constantly shaking. There was even a trace of blood oozing from his ears!
But he still gritted his teeth and persisted, and the green smoke continued to extend into the distance. Finally, after a long while, a blurry picture appeared in his eyes.
But just when he saw that scene, he was so shocked that a mouthful of old blood spurted out, and his Third Eye Technique suddenly failed. He took a few steps back and fell to the ground.
He seemed to be in shock and horrified. Thinking back to the scene just now, he said:
"Impossible! Impossible!"
The scene just now appeared in his mind again. The scene was extremely brief, but it was also very clear, because there was only one thing in the scene.
A bloody puppet lay quietly on the ground, and that puppet was exactly the same as the one he dreamed of last night. It was the puppet that looked exactly like Xiao Cui!
But I saw that the puppet's mouth was wide open and it kept letting out shrill screams.
"Help me! Help me!"
He turned pale.
Could it be that that dream was actually true?
