These days, I often think about the two months I spent in Shanhe Village, and I have a hunch that I will return there many times in the future, so I prepared an emergency duffel bag for myself: bedding, pillows, cotton clothes, cotton shoes, various compressed biscuits, water, toiletries, and two silver bars exchanged for ten taels of silver from the gold store.

However, everything was ready, the east wind did not come, my ability continued to be unresponsive, and the black discus still did not have a red mist, so I had to continue to look for a record of Jin Tazhi in the notes of "Strange Tales of Mountains and Rivers", and this time I found an article that recorded the frequent occurrence of people without facial features in Shanhe Village.

First of all, a girl named Wang Shuping in Shanhe Village met a woman with no facial features when she went out in the early morning.

Later, the villagers discovered that Wang Shuping often appeared in two different places at the same time.

January 18, 1929, the day is Laba Day.

A family surnamed Wang in Shanhe Village, the daughter is nineteen years old, named Wang Shuping.

On the day of Laba Festival, there is a habit of boiling Laba porridge in the north, Wang Shuping got up at 3 o'clock in the morning, ready to boil a big pot of fragrant Laba porridge, and wait for the whole family to get up and eat together.

But when she prepared the ingredients for Laba porridge, she found that there were no red dates at home.

How can you do without red dates, in her concept, Laba porridge without red dates has no soul.

So what to do? Go buy it. Wang Shuping put on cotton clothes and a scarf and went out.

Fortunately, there was a heavy snowfall last night, and the moon in the sky was extremely round and full of stars, and the full moon and snow reflected each other, so even though it was three o'clock in the morning, you could still see the road and things up close.

Wang Shuping's family lives in the northeast corner of the village, and they have to go to Daxiang Street to buy things, but Daxiang Street is in the southwest of where the rich live, and the distance is still quite far, especially in such a snow that is almost knee-long, it is estimated that it will take half an hour to walk to Daxiang Street, and it is estimated that most of the shops will be open by then.

She was wading through the snow, and finally came to the corner of Daxiang Street, and when she looked over, she saw that the lights of many shops were already on, and the streets were much brighter.

Wang Shuping walked towards the shop with the lights on, and when she passed by a shop that had not yet been lit, she found that in front of the store, there was a woman about the same height as herself.

The woman, dressed in an earthy yellow cotton coat without a scarf and with two braids identical to herself, faced the closed door of the shop, not knowing what she was doing.

Wang Shuping was worried about buying red dates, although she glanced at the woman a few times, but she didn't pay much attention to it.

But after asking a few shops in a row, there were no red dates for sale, Wang Shuping was a little anxious, and after walking out of a store, she found that the shop where the woman was standing next to her was also lit up, so she returned to that store.

The woman was still facing the door of the shop, her back to her, but as if she could see her coming, she moved to the side, as if to make way for her.

Wang Shuping glanced at her and felt strange, if you want to buy something, the lights inside are already on, why don't you go in?

Wang Shuping entered the store while wondering, and asked if there were red dates sold in this store, so she picked and picked up half a catty, bought some brown sugar or something, and then opened the door and came out.

When she came out, Wang Shuping found that the woman was still in the same position she had used to enter the door—motionless facing the wall.

You can't be a fool, right? On this cold day, don't freeze if you keep standing here.

Thinking of this, Wang Shuping decided to step forward and ask who this woman was.

"Whose girl are you? What are you doing here? Isn't it cold? ”

Wang Shuping asked, and stepped forward and pulled the woman's sleeve.

Then, the woman slowly turned her head, and Wang Shuping only felt that her breath was stagnant.

What did she see? A face like a large dough with no facial features on it.

Wang Shuping was shocked by what she saw in front of her, although she was also a little scared, but she was more curious, so she stared intently at the face without facial features, trying to find out some reasons from it.

And this woman, who had no facial features, seemed to be shy under her intently scrutinizing, slowly took two steps back, and lowered her head.

"Where's your face?" Wang Shuping finally couldn't hold back and sent out that soul question.

The woman didn't say anything, her head lowered, as if she was very ashamed of the fact that she had no face.

"You have to be like me, with a face, look, eyebrows, eyes, nose, and mouth, even if it's not good-looking." Wang Shuping pointed to her face and said with a gesture.

The woman still kept her head down and didn't make a sound.

"Are you cold?" Wang Shuping asked again.

The woman still didn't answer.

"I've got to go home, so go back too." Wang Shuping muttered, turned around and left.

All the way, she wondered, why did she have no face? How can you see without eyes? How do you pant without a nose? How can you eat without a mouth?

I thought about it all the way, and when I was almost home, I suddenly remembered, who can have no face, unless she ......

"Ahhhh

She shouted and rushed into the house, her parents had just woken up, she turned over on the kang, lay on the quilt and began to cry "wow".

Her parents asked for a long time before she stopped crying and said what she had just encountered.

Father said that there is nothing to be afraid of, isn't it just that the things that become fine learn to become people, and they can't change their faces, they have been seen in the village when he was young, and there is nothing to be afraid of, and they will not harm people.

But since then, people in the village have always seen Wang Shuping appear in two places at the same time.

The aunt next door came to borrow farm tools, and when she saw Wang Shuping, she asked in surprise, I saw you on the road just now, didn't you say to go to the field to see the crops? I went to the field, why are I at home again?

Wang Shuping: No, I've been staying at home.

Walking on the road, someone suddenly shouted: Shuping, didn't you dig wild vegetables at the entrance of the village just now, why are you here?

Wang Shuping: No, I just came out of home.

When the people in the village are fine, they like to gather in a pile to chat, and some people found that there is a Wang Shuping in the group here, and there is also one in the group over there.

When someone found out and shouted, one of them, Wang Shuping, disappeared.

The villagers of Shanhe Village are quite capable of accepting this kind of thing, and they soon accepted that there was a mountain spirit and a wild monster who had become Wang Shuping's appearance, so when they met Wang Shuping again, they would ask:

"Are you real Wang Shuping or fake?"

When you encounter this problem, you will really say "I'm real", and if you don't say a word, you will turn around and leave.

But Wang Shuping is not the only one who has encountered a faceless person.

In the two months since Wang Shuping, people in the village have seen faceless people appear near the village.

Several villagers drove the ox cart back late, and saw a person standing on the side of the road in front of them, looking at a tall and thin man, looking in their direction, several people in the car thought that they were going to take a ride, and the car arrived and was just about to inquire, but by the moonlight they found that it was a faceless person, so several people were too frightened to speak, but they all felt that their scalps were numb, and sweat was dripping down their backs like earthworms.

The two women went to dig wild vegetables in the field, and saw several women sitting together as if chatting from a distance, and the two women also wanted to come over to have a lively and chat, but when they came to the front, they saw that the women sitting together had no facial features, and everyone's face was like a big dough.

The sheep herder in the village was herding sheep in the field, and when he saw three men coming from afar, he didn't know him when he looked at the posture and figure of the walker, thinking that he was from another village and wanted to ask for directions, but when the three of them arrived in front of him, they didn't even have a face.

There are also children playing at the entrance of the village, and when they meet another group of children playing, they don't have faces......

And so on, there are countless of them, and even the well-informed villagers of Shanhe Village are beginning to be anxious, and they are looking for ways to find a way.

Li Zheng frowned all day long, walking around the village, and suddenly remembered that he dreamed last night that Jin Taezhi told him that those things need to be guided to change their faces, and she just drew their faces.

Li Zheng He Wencai was worried about this matter, and thought about this dream, and walked to the door of Jin Taizhi's house while thinking about it, and saw Jin Taizhi sitting at a small table in the courtyard writing something.

Li Zheng stepped forward to take a look, Jin Taezhi was painting, painting all kinds of faces, men, women, children, each of them was extremely handsome and beautiful, and there was already a thick pile of paintings on the table.

"Taizhi, what are you doing here?" Rizheng couldn't help but ask.

"Third uncle, didn't I tell you, those things just want people to guide them to make faces, why don't I just draw some beautiful faces for them?" Kim Tae-chee said.

Rizheng's sweat was already running down her back - when did she say that?

She, she meant to say it to herself in her dream, but how did Jin Taizhi know about the dream he had, could it be the dream that Jin Taizhi let herself have?

He also faintly heard that this Jin Taizhi was the descendant of the elusive Black Taiji Sect, and he thought it was someone else's nonsense, but now he believes it...... It's just that what kind of organization is that Black Tai Chi Gate? Cultivating spells like a Taoist?

Li Zheng was a little scared, he wanted to turn around and run, but thinking about how he had lived for more than fifty years, he lost his temper in front of a little girl, and it was too ugly to hear, so for the sake of face, he pretended to be calm, and held back a sentence for a long time: What do you mean, face...... How to give?

So Jin Taizhi told him the reason why those faceless people came out: those are foxes, yellow and white willow ashes that have been cultivated for many years, that is, foxes, weasels, hedgehogs, snakes and mice, and the first step for these things to attain enlightenment is to transform into human form, and the most difficult step in the process of transforming human form is to change face.

If the spirit changes its face by itself, it may take more than a hundred years to cultivate and realize it by itself, but if someone mentions a sentence or two, it can be understood immediately.

Just like Wang Shuping met that before, it was a fox fairy, it calculated in advance that Wang Shuping would go to buy red dates, and also knew that only that store sold red dates, so he waited there in advance.

In addition, it also needs to know in advance that Wang Shuping's character and personality: bold, careful, enthusiastic, but peculiar in thinking, so after seeing its faceless facial features, the first reaction is curiosity, not fear, and then gesture to its own face and say to it You also want to have a face or something, this is a point.

It can be said that the fox fairy, the human heart and the character of the person are thoroughly touched, every step is carefully calculated, it is not by chance that it found Wang Shuping, but after careful planning and layout, before looking for Wang Shuping, it may have observed and studied Wang Shuping for a long, long time, so it will succeed.

But as everyone knows, people like Wang Shuping are very difficult to meet, most people when they see a person with no facial features, their first reaction is to scream and run away, even if they barely run, they are too scared to make a sound.

So after the fox fairy who was mentioned by Wang Shuping changed into a face like her, the other spirits also began to follow suit, but they didn't have the ability of the fox fairy to figure out and calculate people's hearts, and suddenly appearing in front of others would only cause fear and escape.

As he spoke, Kim Tae-che had already drawn more than 200 human faces, wrapped them in cloth, put them in a basket, and went out into the wilderness.

Li Zheng He Wencai watched from behind, he thought that he should also go with him to have a look, but he didn't have the courage to follow.

Since then, no one in the village has encountered a faceless person, but occasionally someone will encounter one or two extremely handsome men or women in the wild.

Since then, Shanhe Village has begun to have some magical rumors about Jin Taizhi.

If the magic of Jin Tazhi began to be widely known by the people of Shanhe Village at this time, it means that at the time when I traveled to Shanhe Village, these abilities of Jin Taizhi were not known to the people of Shanhe Village.

She can't be the same as me, right? So the last time I went, I didn't hear gossip about her when I was sunbathing at the base of the wall?