I won't regret it, if I hadn't eaten it, I would have died on the side of the road. But I have a lot of mysteries that I want to find answers to.

What will become of this Tai Sui after eating it?

The person who raised me is destitute, why is there such a weird baby?

I have a lot of questions, but no one can tell me the answers. Every now and then, I think of my adoptive father's old face like orange peel, full of wind and frost and bitter cold.

This man with a story, he chose to bear everything himself. But after he was in the earth, these secrets became my shackles.

Maybe only God can give me the answer, I smiled self-deprecatingly. This life was originally picked up, so why should I ask for so much.

I stayed in a small room, but it had sunlight, and some pinched clay figurines on the windowsill were probably the only special features in this room. The most pinched is still the green, weird medicine. Its gesture, its mystery.

I secretly copied a lot of records about Tai Sui and wrote a scroll of medicine on paper.

The red ones are like coral, the white ones are like fat, the black ones are like lacquer, the green ones are like green feathers, the yellow ones are like purple gold, and they are all bright and penetrating like solid ice. This is what the Compendium of Materia Medica says.

Zhuzhi pounds the powder, or turns into water clothes, which makes people light and immortal. This is what Ge Xian Weng said in hugging Puzi.

Some are doctors' sayings, and some are Taoist sayings. But all in all, it's all ethereal and foggy. I've become numb and no longer believe in the explanations in the book.

Perhaps, time will tell me the truth. I'll live forever, with tentacles all over my face, or I'll be a monster, wandering in loneliness and madness.

It's also a strange time, where the old and the new merge into one. The remnants who crawled out of the pile of old paper often educate the new-school young people in their families, but they can't change the chaos of this era. The soldiers who are in the scorching sun, the literati who are looking for all kinds of comfort, and the era when people's hearts change.

The essence of this harbor city is the embassy district, safe and prosperous. And, if you're lucky, you'll be able to meet a generous gentleman. I like to set up stalls there, but patrolling the streets is really annoying.

Coffee shops, pastry houses and dance halls don't belong to poor people like me, but it's nice to see the excitement too. I work in Mr. Zhang's pharmacy, and it is not too much of a problem to barely support one person. Occasionally, I come to the embassy area to pinch clay figures, which is also the nature of playing tickets.

''Clay figurines, clay figurines, ancestral craft. ''I sat down at a corner of the street, borrowed a chair, and put a couple of clay figurines on it.

In the past, when my adoptive father was still alive, he always scolded me, he didn't have any interest, and the clay figure he pinched was not sincere. Relying on this craft alone, it is difficult to get a daughter-in-law.

I'm very sincere and perfect every time I knead the mud now. But no one will come and scold me anymore.

The sunset was like blood, and the sun shone on my clay face. The clay figurine in my hand began to take on the appearance of my adoptive father, and he was still smiling at me.

The wind was a little strong, and there were tears in my eyes.

''Little brother, do you buy it with this clay figure?'' A very gentle voice rang in my ears.

I rubbed my eyes, and a middle-aged man in a blue coat stood straight in front of me, looking quite elegant and tall.

''Is this it?''

''That's right!'' He was pointing to the clay figurine I had just made, the appearance of my adoptive father.

''I'm sorry, I'm playing with this casually.'' I said, scratching my brow.

''Whatever you want to pinch, characters, birds and beasts, I'll reshape one more for you.'' I don't need money, it's time for me to collect the stall. ’’

''Oh, no need, this one you pinched is a lot like an old friend of mine.'' It's just that he's been gone for years. He also pinched a little gadgets, and his favorite thing in his life was Cangzhou wine, singing songs to pinch things. The middle-aged man had a melancholy look on his face, and the memories were sad.

I made this out at random, and I didn't have any templates. Doing what we do, there are occasionally a little problems. When you see what you want, you always want to pinch it out. I said as if nothing had happened, and my heart was like a boat in the stormy seas. My adoptive father was forty or fifty years old when he died, and there were many hidden memories in those days that I didn't know. It seems that this man knows a lot about him, but I'm not going to tell him. I can only keep my secrets in my heart, and I can't tell them, which is very uncomfortable.

It was getting dark, so I packed my things and got ready to go.

''Little brother, did your master give you anything before he died?'' The man was still standing in front of me, haunted. His casual words were like a hammer, and my body trembled slightly.

''Nope. I thought about it for a moment, and finally denied it.

''Don't lie to me!''' The man came over and grabbed my arm hard.

''You ate that, didn't you?' or why would you avoid me.'' He lowered his voice, and his face was ugly.

''So what?'' I looked at the strange man in front of me, and the bleak autumn wind and yellow leaves were the foil to this scene. Just like my mood now, it's terrible, there is an inexplicable evil fire and anger rising, and I can see the face of this person a little blurred.

Tai Sui haunts you, haunts you all the time, infects you, and makes people not like people. Do you think you ate it, or did it end up eating you?'' The man looked at me with a wry smile on his face, rather complicated.

The night breeze was cold, and on the bleak streets, I was still confronting this strange man.

''Well, you'll always wait for the day when the mystery is revealed.'' This is my address, you can come to me if you figure it out, my name is Huo Bai. The man left an address for me and left alone in the wind.

I looked at his back in disbelief. I remembered the madness of the first time I killed someone, those uncontrollable green whiskers. Just now, I even wanted to strangle that man alive.

Blood, pain, anger, what was it that irritated me?

I returned to my cabin and couldn't wait to pull out a knife. A small wound appeared on my third finger, and the red flesh had just been cut open, and there was already a green juice with it.

The wound didn't heal, but the greenery cheered, and my flesh was slowly devoured and reborn, some small green thorns shaking.

The hunger was getting stronger, but I felt that my flesh and blood seemed to have a special temptation.

I want to eat that finger, eat this palm, this desire is hard to contain, hard to stop.

Green blood flowed down his face, and the flesh of his fingertips shimmered with vague textures. When you bite it, it's not bloody, but a faint smell of grass and trees.

Is this what they fear, the so-called price?

My face was pale, drenched in sweat, and I couldn't sleep for a long time at night. I stared at my palms blankly, speechless for a while. Big mistake, from the moment I chose.

The next morning, the sky was bright, and the city was still soaked in a thin mist. I had already set off, crossing half the city to find the middle-aged man of yesterday.

At the end of the field of vision was a quaint bookstore, where Huo Bai was waiting for me.

I pushed the door in, and there was just him and a girl with pigtails next to the desk. The girl's appearance is beautiful, and her eyes are as clear as water.

''You're here. Huo Bai looked at me, with no look of surprise at all, as if he had expected this. The girl next to him turned around and opened a book from the tall shelf and placed it in front of me, with a few black-and-white photographs in it. It is a group photo of a group of people, men and women, old and young. There was one man who was my adoptive father, who was young at the time, and his eyebrows were lively and proud. Who would have known that in a few decades, this man would die of hunger and loneliness in that bed.

''What the hell is going on?'' I asked, pale. Those who took photos with their adoptive father were dressed in different clothes, some were Taoists, some were scholars, and they did not look like ordinary people.

''If only your adoptive father really was just a clay figure master, it would be a lot easier.'' Huo Bai sighed.

yes, if only he were a simple person. Huo Bai didn't sigh much and set out to complete the events of decades ago. Why is Tai Sui in the hands of my adoptive father, and why is he incognito.

My adoptive father, who was probably the most familiar with the Earth, and the Mason was just a cover for him.

More than 20 years ago, he made clay figures in Jinmen, but his conversation and opinions surprised Huo Bai when he was young, and the two hit it off at first sight and became friends. Unfortunately, this situation did not last long, and one day, the adoptive father received a notice from a so-called old family member and left Jinmen in a hurry. That side is also the goodbye between him and Huo Bai.

It wasn't until a few years later that Huo Bai received an anonymous letter that he learned a little bit of the truth.

His best friend is not a clay figure at all, but the most special kind of being in the world, a warlock. My adoptive father knew how to do geotherapy, observing the soil and the earth's atmosphere, and reducing the evil that the world did not know. Most of his peers are like this, some people can raise Gu, and some people will move coffins. When he left, it was a scam.

Someone deceived them that a big tomb in Xiangxi was full of evil spirits, there were zombies and ghosts, no one knew, there were no ghouls there at all, but there were many terrifying Tai Sui. This legendary thing makes people immortal, and it is also the sweetest poison. The beasts and plants in the tombs are crazy and difficult to kill. The group of warlocks was almost completely dead and wounded. In the blood and fire, the tomb collapsed, but my adoptive father escaped, physically and mentally exhausted, and disheartened.

What made him even more painful was that the arranger was one of their companions.

In a few words, the desolation and cruelty of the past have come to the face, and the heaviness makes people unable to breathe.

What kind of trauma can make a person languid, depressed and escaped? What kind of burden can make the adoptive father age so quickly?

I think there is only extreme fear and pain. Those bloody pasts were locks that his adoptive father didn't want to open all his life, and they hurt him the most.

''Are all those people dead?'' I trembled my fingers, and I chattered at these well-preserved black and white photographs, those smiling and triumphant faces, which had long since turned to dust.

''Not bad. The Gu Master, the person who opened the coffin, and the Earth Master are all dead. Your adoptive father was proficient in the art of leylines, so he escaped, but he was also covered in wounds. His lovers, his peers, all died in a battle. He lived in a daze until he adopted you,'' Huo Bai said with a sigh.

Then why didn't he destroy the Tai Sui at that time, or give it to someone else for safekeeping. In front of my eyes, the face of vicissitudes of life appeared again, matching him with the heroic young man in the photo.

''Betrayal, greed, he may never trust the people in this circle again. Unexpectedly, this Tai Sui is still involved with you. Huo Bai raised his eyebrows and said.

I didn't know that, but I was dying of hunger, so I ate it by God. ''My voice was low. I have no face, and I dare not think of my adoptive father's expression anymore. Will he scold me, Tang Jiu, don't care at all. I asked you to look at this Tai Sui, why don't you listen to persuasion. I'd love him to give me a kick or a scolding, but it's never possible.

The pigtailed girl's gaze was cold, staring at me, perhaps she no longer regarded me as a kind, and I did not dare to look at her face.

The dead are gone, and the survivors are still walking in the great shadows. The person who set up the game, Tai Sui's terrible demagogic effect, I fell from one cliff to another. If I could, I wouldn't go out of Weixian for the rest of my life, and I wouldn't know how good these things would be for the rest of my life.

''Don't move... The girl with the pigtails suddenly bit her thin lips, and her expression was very solemn.

There was a faint sound of wind in the air, and I smelled blood.

''It was him, he found out.'' The pigtailed girl's face turned pale, and she walked up to me and stretched out her fingers in front of me.

There was an ethereal voice in the air, like a complaint, as if it was in the ear. The voice was irritating, and there was a wildfire in the heart.

"Danger!" The pigtailed girl was already in front of me and Uncle Huo Bai, and two small yellow paper talismans flew up from her fingertips, and suddenly burned in mid-air, as if she had encountered something strange.

The voices in my ears became more and more strange, and the scenery in front of me became virtual and real, upside down and chaotic.

''What is it?'' Green flames rose from my eyes, and I couldn't control my angry soul anymore, and fine green ripples appeared on my hands and even my cheeks. My will spread through the air like a blade along my body.

It was a small wooden puppet that slowly appeared in the air, still whirling. The wooden puppet's blood-red eyes and body were covered with messy black whiskers, and it looked extremely hateful.

''Meng Shennong, you're here after all!'' The pigtailed girl gritted her teeth, her obsidian-bright eyes staring at the little wooden puppet.

Say loudly, "It's gone!"