Living Cauldron, Elixir of Immortality
How to use the complete "medicine"?
I originally thought that "medicine" means small pills, as the name suggests.
This is not surprising. As early as in ancient times, people in the Jin Dynasty took Wu Shi San randomly as a refined thing, and took it with hot wine. It was also common for people to run around naked when the drug took effect. Therefore, it was popular for scholars at that time to wear wide robes with big sleeves to facilitate heat dissipation when the drug took effect.
But with the accidental discovery made by Zhang Jia and I, once I realized that the blood leeches referred to as yellow buds were just a screening inducer, and that the children found by the yellow bud mark were essentially the real medicine, I had a bad feeling.
I didn't care about anything else at this time, so I quickly asked the other guys and called Huang over.
After listening to me apologizing to him and hoping that he would talk more carefully about the medicine, Huang Yazi was still angry and didn't want to pay attention to me at first.
After I finished explaining the matter of the sugar pills and our speculations in a few words, Huang stood there in a daze. After a long moment, his face turned red and white. Suddenly, he let out a strange cry and turned around to run away.
I stopped him and asked him what he was doing.
The kid wiped his red eyes and gritted his teeth and said, "I have a way to restore the records that were taken away."
I was a little surprised, and immediately said happily: "Are you kidding? Why didn't you say so earlier?"
Huang Yazi shook his head and said, "When I found these records in the hospital, I read them all out of curiosity. I have been interested in these things since I was a child, and I memorized about 70% of them after reading them."
Before he could finish his words, Zhang Jia beside him said angrily, "You are hiding such an important thing. You have ulterior motives." I held him down and he didn't continue talking, but his expression was still very ugly.
Huang Yazi stammered. He was young and could not bear the blame and interrogation. His eyes became redder and he did not dare to look us in the face.
"No... I, I have my reasons... I didn't expect that they would want to eat people in the end."
Seeing that he couldn't even lift his head, but seemed to be trying hard to hide something, I felt something was a little strange. After thinking about it, I decided to transfer Zhang Jia away and let him go to talk to other people first.
Zhang Jia was still not very happy. After I patted him on the shoulder, he could only say "OK, OK" reluctantly and backed away, looking back every few steps.
After seeing the man walk away, I pulled Huang aside, looked him in the eye, and asked in a low voice, "Are you having any problems? Can you tell me alone?"
Huang was stunned for a moment, then started to cry violently. I didn't rush him and waited patiently for him to finish crying.
He cried silently for a while, seeming to be in great pain and fear. He wiped his tears and saw that I was still looking at him. He finally made up his mind and whispered:
"...Advisor, you know that the goddess is not dead."
This sentence seemed to have exhausted all his strength. I didn't expect the topic to end here, so I asked in surprise, "What's wrong with you?"
"Back then, a group of miners killed almost all the people in our village." Huang Yazi smiled bitterly, "Only a few children were naughty and ran to play near the mine. They were not discovered when the incident happened."
"There is an elder in my family... an aunt in terms of seniority, and she is one of the surviving children."
I immediately calmed down, looked around and found an empty room, brought Huang into the room, called the waiter to guard, and told them not to let anyone get close, then I said carefully: "Child, please tell me in detail."
His emotions gradually stabilized, and in the next two hours, he seemed to have let go of all his burdens and told me the last piece of the puzzle of what happened that year.
During this process, I stopped and thought several times, and finally I roughly pieced together the whole picture.
It turned out that in those days, a group of miners named He settled in a small village outside the Stone Forest for a long time.
It is said that the mountain is rich in sulfur stone and red stone, so the village was named Hongyan Village.
The residents of Hongyan Village have lived in seclusion here for at least hundreds of years, and have little contact with the outside world. Only occasionally would large carts carrying roughly processed ore go out to exchange for supplies. As for why they were trapped here, most of the young people actually didn't know. Later, more and more people went out to work, and most of the village was empty, leaving only the most stubborn group of old people and children, and a small number of young and middle-aged people who were really afraid of the outside world.
One day, for unknown reasons, a group of strangers came to the village, saying that they brought a big boss who was interested in the mines in the mountains. However, the group of people behaved very strangely. It was not only unfriendly, but they also kept asking about the affairs of the village intentionally or unintentionally, which made people feel uncomfortable.
Seeing that the villagers ignored them, those people were not angry. Instead, they hypocritically set up a table at the entrance of the village and gave snacks to the children when they saw them.
There was also a kind of sweet sugar pill inside, which was very beautiful and snow-white. The children in the village were all left behind since childhood and had never seen any snacks, so they took them all while swallowing their saliva.
But the children were ignorant, and the adults knew that there was no such thing as a free lunch. The aunt in charge of Hongyan Village became alert, and at night she lit a lamp and called the remaining young men, saying that they would not continue the business and that they should find a way to drive away the strangers.
"Especially the kids at home," the aunt said tremblingly, "in the past, the kids were ignorant and liked to join in the New Year's performances in the village, pretending to be goddesses. We told them clearly when we got home that they were not allowed to cause trouble like this."
As he was speaking, the voltage in the room became unstable and the light flickered. Then there was another creepy crackling sound and the room went dark.
Someone groped in the dark for a flashlight to check the voltage box. He turned his head and the flashlight beam flashed past. He saw a dozen faces pressed tightly against the window, looking into the room sinisterly with hideous grins of triumph on their faces.
That night, the village was dead silent. Only the lights in the villagers' homes were quietly extinguished one by one, followed by the faint smell of blood and the subtle sound of splashing water to wash the ground.
When the incident happened, Huang's aunt, who was only a runny-nosed kid of seven or eight years old, had a quarrel with her family, so she found a few good friends and ran into the mountains to play.
Because mining is carried out all year round, there are people patrolling the mountains regularly to clear wild animals, so it is relatively safe.
The girl knew that she would not run into any blind bears, so she went into the mountains and took her friends to one of the rangers’ cabins.
The hut was built the earliest and was usually empty. Only once every ten days or half a month would someone come in to patrol the forest, clean it, and replenish some dry goods and firewood.
A few children stayed in the house to keep warm. They didn't light a fire or turn on the lights, fearing that the adults would find them too quickly. They just giggled in the dark and lay on the floor together, sharing the snacks they had saved up for the past few days but were reluctant to eat.
Halfway through peeling the candy wrapper, a voice suddenly came from far away in the forest: "Nizi, Nizi, are you there? Come home..."
The little girl turned over and recognized the voice of an elder sister whom she liked very much in the village.
Just as she was about to respond, Nizi suddenly shuddered for no apparent reason and shrank back, hugging her arms.
Not only that, she also held down several other friends who wanted to get up.
The other children in the room also felt the strange atmosphere. They all covered their mouths, and were too nervous to breathe.
Children are like this sometimes, they are playing and making noise, then suddenly they will be quiet for a moment, which will scare themselves. When they find that there are no adults around, they will be relieved and continue to make noise.
But Nizi felt that this time seemed a little different.
She couldn't explain why, but she vaguely felt that her elder sister's voice calling her was a little faint in the empty forest, and it didn't seem to be her elder sister's usual tone.
Moreover, the elder sister knew that Nizi liked to hide here and sulk.
In the past, when Nizi was beaten too harshly by her parents and cried alone in the little room, her elder sister would come over and touch her forehead, stuff her with a piece of candy that had melted a little from being left out for so long, coax her to sleep, and then slowly carry Nizi back home.
"...Sister Xiaoque knows." The little girl muttered uneasily in her heart, "I'm waiting for her to come pick me up... Then, is it okay not to talk?"
But while she was waiting, the voice of Sister Xiaoque calling her kept circling nearby, and she didn't know how many times it went around, but the person didn't get close to the cabin.
Now a child nearby also felt something was wrong, so he came over carefully and whispered in Nizi's ear in a mosquito-like voice: "Is our dad here to beat us? Why is Sister Xiaoque avoiding us as if on purpose?"
Before he finished speaking, there was another faint cry from a very close distance, but it was still circling outside the cabin, just across a low hill.
The hairs of the two children stood up and they were sweating with fear. Nizi was a naughty girl and she was quick-witted. She immediately backed away, half-crouching on the floor, trembling, and moved to the remaining child, and covered her companion's mouth with her hand.
I didn't know how long I was trembling in fear. I could see a faint light outside. I held my breath and heard Sister Xiaoque's voice outside, saying calmly:
"See? No one. I've already told you that there are several children who go to school on foot. The primary school is in the next town. It takes a whole day to go over the mountains. It's impossible for them to come back so quickly after going out."
Nizi felt dizzy and immediately realized that Sister Xiaoque seemed to be talking to some bad guy and was lying to protect them.
But in the dead silence, the bad guys didn't speak. It was pitch black everywhere, and Nizi tried to open her eyes wide, until tears kept flowing, but she still couldn't see clearly where the bad guys were outside the obstruction of the hill.
Her legs were already weak, and the voice of Sister Xiaoque was still speaking quietly outside, as if speaking to her:
"What are you afraid of? Dad, Mom, and Grandma have all been harmed by you. We are the only children who eat your candy every day, so we are bound to be unable to escape. Now that you are wearing the clothes of the villagers, you are going to stay here for a long time and become the new residents of Hongyan Village. I am a half-grown child, and I am being stared at by so many eyes. Can I run over the mountain to ask for help?"
The miner sneered: "Smart."
At this point in the story, my bones went cold: "That little bird... is the goddess who later became the goddess? She deliberately took the risk and led those crazy people around in circles."
"Pretend to cooperate first and lead them to search all the places that seem to be searchable. Those people won't notice the small house that is so close. It's dark under the lamp."
Huang Yazi nodded hastily, as if the faint call was also echoing in his ears.
He paused and continued, and at that moment, Nizi understood Sister Xiaoque's hint. She wanted to run, climb over the mountain and call for help.
In the darkness, she only had time to shed one more tear, before she wiped it away and gritted her teeth, trying to pull the other children up and run together.
But at that moment, Nizi smelled a sweet fragrance.
The room was extremely quiet. She reached out to pull but couldn't move it. She found that the children who had been frightened with her just now seemed to be dazed. She touched her mouth and nose again and felt something soft and fluffy, like hair and spider silk.
She was shaking so hard that she could hardly control herself, and something occurred to her in horror.
Sister Xiaoque just brought some sugar.
What she meant was that once you eat the sugar, you can't escape.
Nizi was totally unable to accept this conclusion and her head felt dizzy, but another voice in her heart told her that she could escape.
Because Nizi didn't eat candy.
She didn't touch any of them. Firstly, she was often beaten at home and had a natural distrust of adults. Secondly, the sugar pills were so beautifully white. She had eaten many of the low-quality candies that were treasured by her sister Xiaoque. Now that she finally had such a good snack, she saved them and wanted to save them all and give a bag full of them to her sister.
Xiao Que's voice was still speaking outside, and she even smiled: "You said you were looking for the goddess? I am her."
At a very close distance, Nizi heard the suddenly excited breathing of the bad guys outside who were originally indifferent.
This was the opportunity her sister had fought for her. Nizi slapped herself silently, took off her shoes, and retreated to the back door of the hut in her socks. She climbed out of the window skillfully and lightly, just like she had done countless times when she stubbornly fought guerrilla warfare with the adults at home.
Her movements were so small, even smaller than those of a wild rabbit, that she ran away from her sister Xiaoque, tears streaming down her face.
What happened afterwards was actually pretty much the same as what my deputy told me when he pretended to be a survivor.
Xiao Que is one of the few successors who knows the secrets of the mine keepers from the aunt who manages the mine. She has also seen the wandering mandrills and has been warned that the mines are alive and will eat people.
But everything changed overnight, the whole village was killed, and the bodies were thrown one by one into the open space in the center of the village. Only some children were left behind.
Xiao Que was the oldest among the children. In order to protect those ignorant and crying children, he stood up calmly and took the initiative to bring up the topic related to the goddess.
The children cooperated with her and used the characteristics of the mine and the stone forest to do some weird things. Including the marks on the stone pillars about height, in fact, Xiao Que was calculating the time, waiting for Nizi to come back from outside after asking for help.
My deputies investigated Hongyan Village and were able to guess the trafficking version of the story to me.
The only deviation here is probably because even the fake people who were hiding did not expect that the perpetrators of that year would take their places, erase all traces of the original inhabitants, and suddenly become villagers of Hongyan Village and live there.
Therefore, the deputy made a mistake in his judgment, thinking that the children who were fighting against the "villagers" and had no signs of life in the village ruins were abducted outsiders. Unexpectedly, it was completely the opposite.
However, I discovered that this story might have a very scary sequel.
Since Nizi had escaped alive and lived to the age where she could tell Huang Yazi about the past, and had also learned that the goddess was alive, how could the situation have developed to this point? Where were the rescuers?
Huang lowered his head, unable to speak.
I vaguely guessed: "She...had an accident on the road?"
"It was too dark, and the kid ran barefoot so as not to alert the miners. When it was almost dawn, his feet were rubbed and bleeding. One of them lost his balance and fell down from the height."
My heart trembled. Huang Yazi smiled bitterly: "When aunt woke up, it was still dawn and we thought she was only unconscious for a while. But when she crawled to the town half covered in blood and found that people in the town were celebrating a small local festival, we knew it was too late. She must have been unconscious for at least two or three days."
Nizi felt like she was struck by lightning. She could no longer hold on and fell down with fever.
I don’t know whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, but after the high fever, Nizi was adopted and forgot all the painful and helpless memories.
It was not until five or six years later, when the blood clot in her brain had gradually dissipated, that she remembered that night.
I don’t know how long it took Nizi to accept everything, but since she told Huang Yazi, a junior, all these things, she must have been unable to let go of the past.
"When I was very young, there was a very strange child wandering around outside our house one year." Huang Yazi said, "She was dressed very old and seemed to be living in the past. She asked me some questions that I couldn't understand and seemed to care about my aunt very much."
"But I was very scared at that time. I felt that she looked young but very old, like a monster. She told me that she couldn't stay for too long because she had to find medicine and a group of bad guys."
Young Huang Yazi thought the child was even stranger, but for some reason, he found her both scary and pitiful. He mustered up his courage and asked the child where she was going and whether she couldn't find her parents. If she had any problems, he could help call someone to take her home.
The girl glanced at him and smiled. When Huang saw her smile, he suddenly didn't think she was scary anymore. Instead, she looked very kind, like a sister who made him feel at ease.
But he didn't keep anyone.
The girl asked, and when she found out her aunt was doing well, she seemed to sigh, and then said with relief that that was good.
She also asked Huang Yazi to promise not to tell anyone that she had been here, otherwise it might bring disaster to the family.
"Later, I vaguely realized that the story my aunt told me while she was confused and holding my hand was true. The girl was Sister Xiao Que, and she escaped alive. But she looked like she couldn't grow up for some reason, which is why she became like that."
Because of this, the remaining secrets of Hongyan Village also became Huang Yazi's obsession. He began to wonder every day what the so-called medicine was, what the goddess was, and whether this was the ending of his aunt and Xiao Que. Over the years, he was obsessed with possible strange things. By chance, he accidentally left home and was finally picked up by Zhang's servants.
However, Huang kept that past deep in his heart and was always wary of the Zhang family. He even once suspected that the Zhang family's mysterious "gang" was related to that group of people. He had the consciousness of being an undercover agent, so he kept it to himself and never mentioned it to anyone.
It was not until the broker found someone to investigate the hospital in Foghorn Town that Huang suddenly realized some familiar key words. He then approached the broker, the instructor, and insisted that he go with them, begging him not to go with anyone else.
The broker had brought out countless picked-up children from Zhang's home, and he immediately saw through his secret. But he didn't ask any more questions, instead he simply nodded:
"I'll ask you a few questions, and then I'll take you with me if I can."
Huang's heart was filled with joy. Later, when he arrived at the hospital, he worked so hard that he forgot to eat and sleep. He wished he could turn the entire hospital upside down by himself.
At this point, I sighed and understood his original concerns. When he saw the records about the medicine in the hospital and connected it with the matter of Hongyan Village, it was normal for him to subconsciously want to conceal it without knowing how the Zhang family tracked down these things and what their purpose was.
If the news leaked, and there was a one in ten thousand chance that the Zhang family was involved in the evil, his family, including his aunt and many innocent people would suffer the same fate.
But Zhang Jia and I came to the horrifying conclusion of "medicine" after just a few words. No matter how doubtful he was, it was a matter of life and death and it would be unjustifiable to hide it.
After Huang finished explaining, he lowered his head and said regretfully, "I'm sorry."
I thought to myself that I had no right to blame him, so I thought for a moment and asked, "How is your aunt now? If we want to ask her more about Hongyan Village and the Goddess, is she available?"
Huang Yazi's expression darkened: "My aunt has passed away. She was not sick. The doctor said she was just exhausted."
"Sorry, my condolences."
Huang Yazi tried to force out a bitter smile, thought for a moment, and said slowly, "There is one more thing, but I don't know if it can be considered a clue or if it can help."
"That mine... My aunt said that there is a New Year's play in the village, which has been watched by generations since childhood. The play says that Sangbudu is a hollow living stone that will keep falling deep into the earth. Until one day, Sangbudu will fall to the fiery center of the earth, and the goddess will be completely resurrected and hatched from the hollow stone and the flames."
"At that time, the sacred and clear water of the lake will be filled with Sambudo, and the goddess will plant immortal branches, turning them into immortals, so that all those who believe in the goddess can obtain eternal happiness."
I frowned as I listened to this, because the description was very strange. It sounded as if the mine itself was a huge alchemy furnace, which kept falling into the darkness and finally reached the underground to get the furnace fire, thus completing the final distortion and transformation of the goddess.
What immortals, what eternal happiness, is this the ultimate “medicine” for training people to be successful?
Could it be that the prophet's underlying rules of survival at all costs ultimately point to the furnace that exists only for the purpose of refining the elixir of immortality?
The alchemy furnace is alive, immortal, and always in dynamic existence. Is this the only way it can transform the equally living elixir of immortality?
But whether it was the mandrill or the gutless miner, the failures were so terrible that I couldn’t imagine what a successful elixir of immortality would look like.
My thoughts were still lingering on the mine. Huang Yazi reached out and drew on my palm as faithfully as possible:
"My aunt said that the children in the village would paint this kind of pattern on their faces when they watched the New Year opera, so that their faces could not be seen clearly. Girls would also tie silk flowers on their braids and act as goddesses and do a kind of prayer dance."
"She said... the tradition is that it can prevent bad things from recognizing the children, so that they can be healthy. Children can also take the opportunity to make a wish, and all wishes will come true on that day, and they can avoid the price of making a wish."
I tried to identify the pattern, and as it became clearer, my hands and feet became cold.
After going around in circles, thinking I was looking for a clue to the "medicine", an answer I had never expected appeared before me.
That was clearly a very standard banyan leaf.
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