Act 3 "Seeing the Fox King in the Palm of the Lamp, the Parrot Warbler and the Eagle" -- Kyushu, Northern Song Dynasty, Liu Juling's "Discussion on the Lamp Oil Pen"

"So it's all a story you wrote?" Mu Ziyun sat in a simple room on all sides, unable to see the window, but knew that it was dark at this time, and there was an oil lamp burning on the table, in addition, there was a set of simple four treasures of the study, as well as a book made of thick thread sewn paper, the first page of paper was written as a book, and there were four thin big characters on the book "Lamp Oil Pen Talk", and there was a line of small characters below, which read "Liu Juling".

Next to Mu Ziyun, in front of the table sat a middle-aged man with a short beard, this man was Liu Juling, the author of "Talking about Lamp Oil Brush", and he told Mu Ziyun the previous stories one by one. When the story is told, it is wonderful and moving, but people do not have eyebrows flying, Mu Ziyun always feels weird, and at this moment, he can't sense where his partner is, he has always been alone.

Liu Juling maintained the posture of reading a book, his eyes were also staring at the book cover, and replied calmly: "I didn't write it, Pu Zongyi wrote the story of the fox king, Bai Songyuan's "Hate is not crazy" recorded Du Baoyu, Han Yuzhen collected the ballad of the golden silk cage, I just explained the sentence on the title page of my book cover - the palm lamp sees the fox king, the parrot warbler and the eagle, it is from these stories. ”

"You don't have a story of your own?" Mu Ziyun asked, and also asked, "Can't you look at me?" Hey, hey.... You at least open this book, what is it to always read the book cover? Haven't you started writing yet? ”

"Speaking of stories, I also have one," Liu Juling replied, "a story about an eagle." ”

"Don't say it yet, let me guess," Mu Ziyun suddenly quipped, "This is also.."

Liu Juling interrupted Mu Ziyun's words and continued: "When I was in Fushan County, I saw such a thing with my own eyes, at that time, there was a drought, and the people couldn't eat enough, and the government was also kind of pity, and the taxes were reduced and lowered, but they couldn't be reduced to nothing, so they had to pay a little." There was not even bark left of the trees on the mountain, and I once saw an old man, with hungry hands, picking up the soil layer after layer, and biting it on his fleshless arm, leaving his teeth marks engraved on his bones.

At that time there was a hunter, he had kept an eagle and a dog since he was a child, and during the drought there was almost no living creature in the mountains, and the hunting dogs and eagles were useless, and there was no food, and they were hungry and full of skin and bones. The hunter's wife told him to choose between the eagle and the dog and kill them quickly, and their two children were about to starve to death. They are all pets raised since childhood, and they are reluctant to kill any of them, but the embarrassment of the family has forced him to have no way out, and in desperation, he must make a choice.

I heard that the eagle and the dog seemed to understand what their master was going to do, and they all rushed to the hunter that day, not to survive, but to die. On the same day, the smell of meat came from Orion's house, and the eagle received a bowl of dog meat, but the eagle did not eat a single bite. The hunter vomited after taking a bite of the meat, sat down at the door in sorrow, and untied the rope from the eagle's feet, to let it go back to the mountain.

The eagle hovered over the roof of the hunter's house for two days, and then the smell of the meat in the hunter's house was gone, and the child began to cry again, and the eagle flew away, and the hunter's wife scolded the hunter.

Perhaps in gratitude for the grace of not killing, the eagle can always bring back something every once in a while, dead mice, wild vegetable roots, in short, they can be eaten, and the Orion family also relies on these to barely survive, and they can still live a lot when others have reached the point where they can eat their children. Later, when there was no more in the mountains, and the eagle had to fly long distances to find food, the hunter's wife complained more and more, and the hunter complained to the eagle when it brought in food again, 'Why is it so little?' Can't it be more? At first they complained, but then they were ordered and cursed, and hunger would make people lose their rationality and expose their nature, and the Orion family became more and more hungry in their bellies, and their opinions about the eagle were greater, and then it took almost ten days to bring back a little food, and the hunter's wife began to persuade the hunter to kill the eagle and eat another meal of meat.

It was difficult for the eagle to bring back any food, so the hunter decided to do as his wife did, and when the eagle happily brought back a dead mouse that he had worked so hard to find, it was the hunter's ruthlessness. The hunter first let the eagle fall on his arm, and then unexpectedly pulled out the knife, the eagle's agility was still high enough, although it could not dodge, but only injured its wings.

The eagle flew into the sky in astonishment, and met the hunter's cold arrow, dodged three arrows, but was shot by the fourth arrow in the left wing, and the hunter watched the black eagle fall into the sky, and happily took the two children to pick up the former companion, the current prey. However, when they arrived at the approximate location, they found only traces of blood, but no bodies. After searching for a whole day and finding nothing, the hunter suspected that someone else in the village had picked up the eagle, and walked around the village angrily to see which one would waft the scent.

After five or six days, the mountains were searched, and there was no fragrance coming out of the village, so the hunter resigned himself to his fate and stopped looking.

But one day the eagle appeared again, and circled again on the roof of the Orion's house, and the hungry family jumped up with joy, and they saw the dead mouse in the eagle's mouth, and the hunter whistled the familiar whistle and ordered the eagle to fall, but after circling for a while, the eagle suddenly flew to a nearby house, and threw the mouse into it, and flew away.

Orion angrily knocked on the door of the house, but received no response, and found through the crack in the door that two men, one big and one small, were skewered with wooden strips of the dead mouse, roasted, and were eating it separately, and Orion was so anxious that he scolded. When the two men had finished eating, they opened, and the hunters scolded them for stealing their own rations, but they said that it fell from the sky, and who said that it was the hunters? The three of them scuffled together, and at dusk, the hunter returned home with a blue nose and a swollen face.

The eagle often appeared later, but the food always fell to other people's homes, so the hunter often fought with people, and the relationship with the people in the village was very stiff, and once he saw the eagle and directly fired an arrow to kill it.

At first, they were grateful, saying that it was a blessing from God, but the food sent by the eagle was too little, and it would cause people to rush it, and people began to curse the stinginess of God, and cursed the incompetence of the eagle, and the people of a village only waited for the eagle's food, and later, the whole village began to shoot the eagle, and they all wanted to eat a decent meal.

The eagle disappeared for a while, and when it reappeared, it had a dead mouse in its mouth and claws, and the villagers shouted with joy and took out their dicks to pick it up, and the eagle circled over the village for a while, and then flew into the mountains with food in its mouth, and a large number of hungry villagers chased after them, unaware that they had reached a swamp. By the time the villagers realized that it was too late, and everyone fell into the swamp, the eagle threw down the dead mouse, and then stood on the top of the hill, indifferently watching everyone sink into the mud and slowly die, and the sound of cursing, crying, and pleading spread throughout the valley, but God did not send down the gospel again.

Later, the eagle disappeared, and I heard that during the great disaster, many children were lost, and I heard that they were taken and eaten by a black eagle. ”

After Liu Juling finished speaking, he paused for a while, did not sigh, and said: "This is the origin of 'eagle'. ”

"Uh-huh" Mu Ziyun held his head with one hand and said with a sideways face: "So what is the riddle?" What the hell am I trying to crack? Find the eagle, or analyze whether the previous stories are true or false? ”

Liu Juling didn't reply, as if he was a wooden man, and maintained the posture of reading a book.

Mu Ziyun suddenly took the book on the table, opened the book cover, and did remember that sentence on the title page, but then turned it down, and there was not a word in the thick book. ”

Mu Ziyun asked, "You haven't started writing yet, do you want to record those strange stories in this book?" ”

Even asked a few questions, Liu Juling didn't answer, and when he was about to be annoyed, Liu Juling suddenly turned his head, smiled very weirdly, and said: "There is only one story that is true, who is that person?" There's only one chance, let's talk. ”

Mu Ziyun was stunned for an instant, this was a riddle, it came so abruptly that he almost forgot the details of the previous stories. looked Liu Juling up and down, and after a while, he said with a smile: "Anyway, it's not you, I think you have a problem, hiss... You just said that only one story is true, but what you asked was who 'that person' was, that is, Han Yuzhen, Bai Songyuan, Liu Juling, Pu Zongyi, only one of these people is true, it's definitely not you, right. ”

Liu Juling didn't reply, his expression maintained the weird smile when he spoke just now, but it was like a freeze, there was no change, Mu Ziyun concluded in his heart that this person was not real.

Turning his head sideways, Mu Ziyun looked at the yellow lights on the table, and fell into deep thought, and after a long time, Liu Juling suddenly said again: "There is still thirty counts, twenty-nine, twenty-eight, twenty-seven ......"

"Who decides? Why is it so fast this time? ”

"XVII, XVI、... Ten, nine, eight..."Liu Juling Mu Ne read the count, Mu Ziyun was about to pick one of these four people, and at the last two breaths, Mu Ziyun suddenly shouted: "I know!" The person who really exists is Du Baoyu! ”

Liu Juling instantly froze his body like a lightning strike, and at this moment, he finally had a human expression and breath, no longer like a piece of wood, he was "alive", he turned his head, his eyes were already bloody, and he almost trembled and asked in a voice: "Why?" ”

"Hehe" Mu Ziyun smiled and replied, "Since only one person is true, then all the characters who have appeared can be counted, if it is the author, I have to carefully review the stories they recorded, but what, what do these stories have to do with the author?" I guess, if it wasn't Liu Juling sitting next to me now, but Bai Songyuan, there might be nothing else in his book except that story, because he, you, Pu Zongyi, and Han Yuzhen were all fake and created.

In fact, except for Du Baoyu, those stories seem to have no head and no tail, seem to be real and illusory, but they can also find a shadow here in Du Baoyu, the Liu Yushi who won glory and wealth because of the fox demon, was finally locked in a small room by the fox demon, reading books day and night, just to gain fame, I think, this is inextricably linked with Du Baoyu's backwardness, being entrusted with the expectation of the revival of the entire family, and being forced to study day and night to test for fame.

As for the golden wire cage? Hehe, I guess it's also Du Baoyu himself, he was locked in the cellar by a scholar, and he had to make good poems in order to live, but the scholar got his name because of those poems, which is very similar to Huang Ying, who was locked in a golden wire cage and had to perform a show every day, otherwise he would face insults, the story of the eagle also shows that he saw through the warmth of the world and the ugliness and ruthlessness of people, alas... That's all I can explain, and you can just say I guessed right. ”

After a while, Liu Juling's eyes dimmed, a little more sad, his appearance gradually changed, turned into a down-and-out white-faced boy, he smiled bitterly, sighed, and said: "Those two scholars, one is called Lu Wenhou, the other is called Chen Shung, they think I am crazy, shut me up in the ground, only by writing good poems, can I exchange for a bowl of stinky rice, I want to live, although I have been one, but I still don't want to die hastily, later, I used Chen Shung, with a few good poems to lead the two of them to fight, took the opportunity to escape, but they were already quite famous because of my poems, I couldn't take revenge, I couldn't do anything, I could only swallow my anger, and I had to avoid them, hehe. ”

Mu Ziyun said: "So you can only get angry in the story and kill them, why do you bother so much to make up authors of different dynasties and treat yourself as the characters of one of the authors?" ”

Du Baoyu didn't answer, Mu Ziyun suddenly realized, and sighed: "I see, you just don't want the world to know that you are real." ”

Du Baoyu said with a desperate face: "The sky is unfair, my fate is unfair, the whole world is playing tricks on me, I am covered in bruises, but no one accompanies me, hahaha.... I'm a weak person, how can I not play with others, I make up a character, stories, poets, lyricists, etc., these stories are all well-known, recited for thousands of years, and then the truth emerges in the world, at that time, everyone was tricked by me, they thought that the masters, talents, are just my stinky shrimp pen characters, hehehe..."

"Later... Have you found your jade? Mu Ziyun asked.

Du Baoyu lost his voice, completely silent, and his face was lifeless, at this time, in the dim room, there was a dazzling light behind Mu Ziyun, he turned around, there was a "light path" in front of him, there was no end in sight, white light filled every place, he took a step, walked in confusion for a while, as if he didn't go out, Mu Ziyun stopped, the corners of his mouth hooked, and said: "You have already found it, Han Yuzhen, the Han Zhangyi who turned around to meet you is your real jade." ”

Du Baoyu closed his eyes, hooked the corners of his mouth slightly, and smiled comfortably, and an eagle flew out from behind Mu Ziyun, neighing softly, circling and flying, Mu Ziyun followed behind it, the eagle later turned into a yellow warbler, and then turned into a parrot, Mu Ziyun walked in the dazzling white light, he knew that he was not going to the trap, but to the end of the mystery.