After returning to the hut, we gathered around the stove to warm up, and Fu Taiping sat cross-legged on the kang head, and said: "After a person dies, the soul stays in the world for a short time, and it will be taken away by the so-called yincha, but there are always some fish that slip through the net, and the ghosts in the world can probably be divided into two kinds, one is the ghost without a physical body, ordinary people who have not practiced, naturally they can't see them." They are only occasionally monitored or captured by cameras. ”

"The second type is a lot more troublesome, some yin spirits have been wandering in the world for a long time, and gradually learned to practice, and can occupy the body of a living person, and you can't tell from the surface whether he is a human or a ghost. Sometimes even the yin is inevitably blind. ”

"For example, some people go crazy for some reason, it's not that he's really crazy, but because he is ghosted, two souls fight in the body, devour each other, and slowly people go crazy."

I couldn't close my mouth in shock, "You mean, those villagers are all powerful ghosts with physical bodies?" ”

Fu Taiping said with a gloomy face: "It's possible, Mei Lianzhou is entrenched here for some ulterior purpose, could he also raise ghosts?" But the problem is that he can't get so many flesh bodies, so I guess Mei Lianzhou may have used skin painting. ”

"Skin-painting?"

When I heard these three words, I immediately thought of the old man Zhang next door to my house, isn't that old man a leather painter?

Really good leather painters are often also proficient in the way of raising ghosts.

Painted skin is a technique from ancient times, the painter uses colored pens to depict the facial features on the human skin, and hands it over to the ghost, after wearing the human skin, the ghost has a physical body.

Legend has it that as early as the Shang Dynasty, there was a man named Mu Gu, who knew that his time had come, but he did not want to die, so he called his children to the bedside and commanded: "When I die, you go to find a human skin, draw my face on it, and then put the human skin on my grave, and within seven days, I will return from the netherworld." ”

His son was a dutiful son, and human skin was hard to find, so he cut a piece on his thigh, depicted his eyes, nose, and mouth, and placed it on the grave as his father had done when he was alive.

Sure enough, seven days later, Makigu was resurrected and returned to reunite with his family, but his son died of an infection from a leg injury, and it is said that this Makigu was the pioneer of the painting technique.

Later, with the development of leather painting techniques, animal fur began to be used instead of human skin, which could also achieve the same effect.

According to Fu Taiping's speculation, Mei Lianzhou may have mastered the art of painting skin, and the villagers we saw were all ghosts dressed in clothes.

And Mei Lianzhou hid in the shadows, manipulating them and doing some shady things.

However, there are also disadvantages to painting skin, because the use of animal fur, even after change, the texture of the skin is inevitably rough and hairy, and the facial features, eyebrows and eyes are very unnatural, and it is easy to see the clues if you look closely.

Unless the painting technique reaches the realm of perfection, these flaws can be covered.

Obviously, Mei Lianzhou is far from reaching that state.

We were warming up in the house, while listening to the rumors of the mourning Taiping talking about the leather painter, and at the end, he said with a cold face: "Now everything is just speculation, in short, you two don't get close to those villagers, it will be too dark, I am afraid that I will meet Mei Lianzhou again when I walk at night, the safety point, wait until dawn tomorrow, let's leave again." ”

"You guys also rest early, with me, they won't dare to come in."

I played with the silver hairpin in my hand and asked curiously: "Su Yao also wants to stick it in her hair like a mountain spirit?" ”

Fu Taiping shook his head: "In my early years, I resold ghost goods, like this hairpin, the inside is hollow, and you can unscrew and hide things." ”

As he spoke, he grabbed the skull and twisted it slightly, then poured it out, and poured out a silver centipede from the hairpin.

This silver centipede has the thickness of a finger, and the workmanship is extremely exquisite, and if you don't look closely, you think it's real.

The centipede is connected head to tail, just enough to be worn as a bracelet.

"This centipede bracelet is the treasure that continues life, the hairpin is useless, lose it."

Fu Taiping threw the empty hairpin to the ground, and I tried to put on the bracelet, which emitted a trace of heat, which made people's whole body warm.

I didn't eat for a day and a night, didn't drink water, and there was nothing to do with the funeral, but Zhu Feiyue and I were suffocated, and at the end of this day, we didn't have anything in our stomachs except for eating snow, plus continuous running, and intense physical consumption, which would make me dizzy with hunger.

"I can't bear it, I want to smoke a cigarette."

Zhu Feiyue went to the courtyard to smoke, and I put the centipede bracelet in my pocket and followed.

The two of us had just taken two puffs, and with a creak, the courtyard door was pushed open, and the eldest sister was standing outside the door, beckoning to us:

"Boys, let's go, let's eat."

Zhu Feiyue shuddered, pointed at the eldest sister and said, "Evil animal! You think I don't know how to draw skin? You're wearing a dog's skin, and I don't recognize you? ”

The eldest sister was unhappy all of a sudden: "Kindly asked you to eat a banquet, why are you scolding?" Neurotic, right? ”

After saying that, she left without looking back.

I looked at Zhu Feiyue, and saw that the corners of his hungry mouth were flushed: "Let's not eat, let's go and see, okay?" ”

"Bear with me, I'll go back tomorrow." I turned around to enter the house, but Zhu Feiyue pulled me outside the yard, pointed to the back of the eldest sister and said:

"Look at her shadow, and look at her footprints on the snow, can she be a ghost?"

This is indeed counterintuitive.

I hesitated: "Fu Taiping said, that's a skin painting ......"

"You don't really think that there is a skin painting in the world, do you? He said it was just good? Can he tell the truth with that mouth? If these villagers were ghosts, we would have gone to the underworld to report a long time ago, do you think that a mere mourning can scare them? ”

I'm right, although Fu Taiping portrays himself as upright, he has too many things in his heart, and he likes to talk around the bush, which is the only impression he left on me.

"Let's go, let's go see the excitement." Zhu Feiyue was so hungry that he was going crazy, and he was shouting to go. My eyes were black, and my heart refused, but my legs followed me unobediedly.

The key is to think about it carefully, Fu Taiping's rhetoric is indeed full of loopholes, and the evil art of painting skin really exists, so won't the world be chaotic?

The two of us were startled, followed the eldest sister like thieves, and came to the west of the village, where there was a large family in front, and the courtyard was brightly lit, and it was a lively scene.

The smell of food came, Zhu Feiyue's eyes were straight, and he was about to rush in, so I hurriedly grabbed him, found a remote wall, and pointed upward.

After climbing the fence, we craned our necks to look in, the snow had stopped, the yard was cleaned, and a dozen tables were set up in the open space, and the seats were full.

In front of the main house, an old man stood and shouted to the audience: "Today is a big day, there is not enough space in the house, and everyone is wronged to sit outside to blow the cold wind, I really don't want to go." ”

"The food is hard enough, what's the point of blowing some cold air?" In the seat below, a bastard boy coaxed.

Everyone laughed, and the old man coughed: "The dish must be hard, I just killed two big pigs in the morning, and the cook I invited from the county is open to eat!" ”

The audience applauded and whistled, and after a while, they began to serve, and each table served eight cold dishes, including sweet and sour duck, braised beef, cold salad, mixed elbow and so on.

I was gluttonous with Zhu Feiyue, glared at Zhu Feiyue, this kid's eyes were glowing green, and his saliva was frozen at the corners of his mouth.

The men drank and punched, the women laughed and laughed in each other's ears, and people were eating noisily, when I noticed that on the floor of the main house, there were two people kneeling, a man and a woman, the man was wearing a black coat, a few thin hemp poles, and a melon skin hat, and he looked like the son of a landlord in the old society.

The woman wore a red wedding dress with a red veil on her head, and she looked quite young.

They should be the bride and groom, where I am, I can only see their backs, not the front.

The strange thing is that the little couple is always motionless, kneeling there like dummies, and the kneeling posture is quite stiff, and it is very penetrating to look at.

In front of the little couple, there was a Taishi chair, and a man in a white shirt was sitting.

I squinted and looked at it, and I was so frightened that I almost fell down, and that person was none other than the stranger on the mountain-Mei Lianzhou!

And the weird little couple actually knelt down in front of Mei Lianzhou, could it be that Mei Lianzhou was still their elder?

Almost at the moment when I recognized him, Mei Lianzhou suddenly raised his head, looked in the direction of the wall, and sneered: "It's all here, don't be sneaky, come in and have a drink." ”

Zhu Feiyue and I looked at each other, jumped off the wall and ran, and Mei Lianzhou's miserable laughter came from behind: "Fu Taiping is hiding in the village, do you think I don't know?" Don't give Mei someone face, right? Okay, I'm going to kill Fu Taiping, you two will stay in the village in the future, and don't think about leaving. ”

We had to stop, keep our heads down, and obediently go into the yard.

Under the strange gaze of the villagers, the two of us trembled and walked to the main house, and it was only at this time that I could see Mei Lianzhou's appearance clearly.

This person is in his thirties, with a Chinese face, a goatee, and ordinary facial features, far from being as beautiful as mourning, but there is no joy or anger between his eyebrows, and his whole face is flat, and his eyes are full of life, and he looks particularly stunned.

"Master Mei, where are these two children? Look at the strange face. The old man asked, pointing at us.

Mei Lianzhou said in a strange manner: "They are the apprentices of my enemy's family, treat me well, and when the banquet is over, bring them to see me." ”

My heart was in my throat, and black and white alternated in front of me, and I hurriedly said loudly: "No...... We are not familiar with Fu Taiping, let alone his apprentice, you misunderstood. ”

Mei Lianzhou ignored me, got up and walked into the back room, and when he heard that I was sent by the enemy, the old man's face became ominous, and he beckoned downward, and immediately jumped out four or five peasant men, rudely dragged us to a table of wine, and forced us to sit down.

Looking at a table of good food, my tongue is about to melt, and a person who is so hungry that he can forget the fear of being in danger.

If I remember correctly, it was Zhu Feiyue's chopsticks that moved first, he hadn't eaten for more than a day, this kid was hungry, he grabbed a plate of green pepper preserved eggs with one hand, and grabbed a plate of braised beef with the other hand, and he didn't use chopsticks, so he grabbed it and stuffed it into his mouth.

This kind of eating looks stupid to the people around him.

I kept an eye on it, and quickly glanced around, there were at least ten people at our table, I looked at them one by one, and I didn't see anything wrong, they were all standard Northeast rural faces.

The second time, I slowed down and everyone spent two minutes watching, and still didn't see any flaws.