Qiao Wei and I had a casual bite outside for lunch, and then went to the edge of the West Lake for a walk. Then he spent time in the tea bar until six o'clock in the evening, and then took a taxi to Mao Xiankang's house.

Mao Xiankang was already waiting for us at home, and as soon as Qiao Wei and I arrived, he and his wife let us into the house.

Mao Xiankang and his younger brother are almost the same, they both belong to the kind of people who are mediocre and featureless, but his wife is surprisingly beautiful. Not only is it beautiful, but the figure is also bumpy and very sexy, and the elegance that exudes from the inside out and the charming smile are enough to make any man's heart beat faster.

It is definitely a very rude performance to come to someone's house as a guest but stare at someone's wife, so I tried my best to control myself not to look at Mao Xiankang's wife after entering the door, but to look around in the house.

Mao Xiankang's home is the kind of villa with two floors, and the area is also very large, and you can see a lot of porcelain vases in the living room, which are estimated to be very valuable things.

After Qiao Wei and I sat on the sofa in the living room, Mao Xiankang's wife quickly brought tea. However, she did not sit in the living room with us, but went to the kitchen to cook vegetables, saying that she wanted to cook a few good hometown dishes for Qiao Wei and me to taste.

When I entered the door, I also noticed that Mao Xiankang had a nanny at home, I thought it was the nanny who cooked at night, but I didn't expect it to be the hostess who cooked the food, it seems that Mao Xiankang has given me and Qiao Wei enough face.

Since Mao Xiankang has expressed his sincerity, of course I will not hesitate to praise him, and the first thing I praise is naturally his wife: "You are really blessed!" Now women are beautiful and don't know how to run a house, and those who know how to run a house may not be beautiful, and women like sister-in-law are rare. ”

Mao Xiankang was not modest, he smiled hehe, and then looked at the kitchen and said, "I also think I'm lucky to find such a haode wife." She is a ballet dancer, and after marrying me, she said that she would give up dancing and focus on her husband and children at home, but I think women should also have their own careers, and dance is her favorite thing, and I don't want her to give it up. Originally, she was supposed to go to my brother's funeral today, but there was a performance the day after tomorrow, and she had to rehearse with the troupe today, so she didn't go to the funeral. ”

"Oh, no wonder."

I gave a pun answer - no wonder Mao Xiankang's wife is so good and temperamental; No wonder she didn't attend this morning's funeral.

Mao Xiankang smiled again, then turned the subject to his brother and asked me if I had found out my connection to his brother.

"Actually, I guess I found it. A friend of mine did an interview with your brother about the mythical puppets that were circulating in the winter last year. Your brother mentioned in that interview about an evil puppet passed down from your ancestors, and then my friend recommended me to your brother, and I think that's why he asked me to come over and take over his puppet workshop. I said.

Mao Xiankang's brows suddenly furrowed, "Evil couple? Did my brother say anything like that? ”

"Maybe my words are not quite accurate, probably meaning that your brother said that your ancestors handed down a puppet, and that puppet has evil spirits." I corrected.

Mao Xiankang squinted his eyes as if he had heard a joke, shook his head with a smile and said: "No, this is absolutely not, my family has indeed been doing puppet-related work all the time, but the puppets handed down from the ancestors have no ones at all, let alone anything evil." No no. ”

"Are you sure?"

"Of course it's certain! Although I don't touch puppets anymore, I still know if there are any family heirlooms in the family. ”

"Do you remember when you ever had a marionette? The mouth moves and the eyes turn, just like a living puppet. I asked.

"Marionette?" Mao Xiankang frowned and scratched his head, as if he was seriously recalling, but Zuihou still didn't answer - he had no memory of marionettes at all.

"Then do you remember Chen Jiawen?" I hesitated for a moment, but Zuihou still asked.

"Chen Jiawen? You...... Do you know her? Mao Xiankang looked surprised.

"Yes, not only know, but I also saw her today, in your brother's puppet workshop." I'll be honest.

"Hey." Mao Xiankang sighed and shook his head, "My brother, hey, I didn't expect him to be so romantic, I have a girlfriend here and I'm about to get married, but there is another woman outside, I really don't know whether to admire him or scold him." But after all, he is my younger brother, even if I know about it, I can't tell his girlfriend about it, and he is dead, I don't want anything to happen at his funeral, so I didn't inform Chen Jiawen. ”

"Then do you remember that Chen Jiawen went to your house when he was a child?" I continued to ask.

"Remember! Of course I remember that. Mao Xiankang said with a smile: "At that time, my brother asked me a lot of questions, such as how to look like a girl, how to please a girl, I knew at a glance that he had a favorite person, so I gave him an idea...... Yes! I remember, marionette!! ”

"Uh-huh! Go on! I also got excited with Mao Xiankang's words.

Mao Xiankang swallowed his saliva, and then said: "I remember that it seems to be just after the winter vacation, my brother said that he had a female classmate who was angry with him, and he wanted to make amends to him, so I said to give the female classmate a gift, and then perform an interesting puppet show for him." Later, he brought the girl home, and I played the puppet show for him, using marionettes! ”

"Isn't that marionette from your ancestors?" I asked.

"No, it's the one I took from my dad's puppet box, because the puppet is finer."

"Take it casually? Chen Jiawen was frightened by the puppet you took out casually, she said that the puppet looked like it was alive, and it could talk to itself, and its eyes kept staring at her, and she kept laughing. I said.

"Wouldn't it? My brother didn't tell me, I thought she would like it, and then many of the puppets my brother made were very similar to the ones I took out that time, the kind of puppets that were very realistic, the ones that sold expensive. ”

"But they don't look like they're alive."

"I don't think we need to take this too seriously, except for children, who would think that puppets are alive? My father made a puppet with a lot of tricks, such as increasing the angle of movement of the puppet's mouth, especially the corners of the mouth, so that the puppet will move the corners of the mouth with its movements, and it looks like it is laughing. Then there are the eyeballs, and the average puppet eyeball is bulging outward, but my dad likes to make some inward concave eyeballs so that you can feel like it's looking at you from any angle. Mao Xiankang explained.

I didn't quite understand the words about the corners of the puppet's mouth, but I understood the eyeball part right away.

I remember seeing a spoof painting before, the eyes of the person in the painting are that you will always look at you no matter which direction you go, and the actual principle is that because the eyes are concave inward, you will always feel that the eyeballs are looking at you.

Chen Jiawen was only in the fifth grade when he watched the puppet show performed by Mao Xiankang, and I remember that when I watched the six-year-old children's version of Journey to the West in the fifth grade of primary school, I felt that the special effects were very real, and I felt that people can really change, and they can also ride the clouds, but now when I look back, I will find that the special effects are simply fake and can't be fake.

It seems that the same should be true of Chen Jiawen's situation.

And when I think about it again, it seems that the evil family puppet theory is just some misunderstanding.

Then I asked about Mao Xiansheng's sudden start to daxiao the week before he committed suicide.

Mao replied that at that family dinner, he said that his biggest ideal is not to do anything every day, that is, lie still, and have someone do everything for him. Then Mao Xiansheng complained and said, "Isn't that a puppet", and since then Mao Xiansheng has been hahadaxiao.

I don't have much sense of humor, and I really don't see anything funny in it.

But I don't think Mao Xiankang is lying, if he has anything weird, I believe Qiao Wei would have told me a long time ago, and now it seems that our visit only seems to rule out the possibility of "heirloom puppet", and it seems that to solve all the mysteries, we will have to wait until the evening to go back to the workshop to summon the soul.