Chapter 257 Jinjiang
Yan Shixun didn't expect that Zheng Shumu would be such an enthusiastic and somewhat excessive person.
No matter what you ask Zheng Shumu, he will answer it as best as possible without hiding anything.
And when they walked in the village, Zheng Shuli would point to a house and introduce it to Yan Shixun, saying which shadow puppet master's home it used to be. He would also enthusiastically introduce to Yan Shixun the types of trees along the way, what year they were from, and what kind of furniture the wood was suitable for, or for carving ornaments.
Talking about things in the village, Zheng Shuli knew the village very well, just as he said when he first invited Yan Shixun. Even the most easily overlooked trees on the roadside, Zheng Shuli knew them like the back of his hand and described them to Yan Shixun one by one.
It was not the rigid official rhetoric in the books. When Zheng Shumu talked about these tree materials, his eyes were as gentle as if he was looking at his own children, and even his tone was full of passion.
Even if people who don’t know Zheng Shuli, seeing his current appearance, would think that he truly loves these trees and treats them as his favorite career.
This made Yan Shixun, who originally intended to check the situation in the village to get clues about shadow play, gradually attracted by Zheng Shumu's attention and listened to Zheng Shumu's introduction.
For example, persimmon trees are very suitable for making oars or shoulder poles, but poplar trees are best not used to make furniture...
Before this, Yan Shixun really didn't know many of the little common sense that Zheng Shumu mentioned.
"Have I said too much?"
Zheng Shumu saw Yan Shixun laugh, and said a little embarrassedly: "Sorry, I didn't pay attention when I mentioned it. My sister also told me about this problem, but I have never been able to change it. I am sorry to bother you now."
"It's all right."
Yan Shixun waved his hand and said with a smile: "I just think that you are a very interesting person."
"I'm ashamed to say that although I have traveled to many places over the years, I really don't know much of the common sense you mentioned. I want to thank you for letting me learn so much today."
"If I were to talk about the tree species I'm more familiar with, it's probably the locust tree."
Yan Shixun blinked at Zheng Shumu, then smiled and continued with the second half of the sentence: "Hide the ghost."
Zheng Shumu was stunned at first, but then he laughed: "No, I was arrogant for a moment. These are basic knowledge for carpenters, but for people who are not carpenters, there is really no need to know them."
"But Mr. Yan also opened my eyes to know that the locust tree has this use."
Zheng Shumu shook his head and laughed, "It seems that even if you are facing the same thing, different professions will still bring different perspectives. Mr. Yan, is your job related to ghosts?"
They are clearly characters in a shadow play, but why are they talking about ghosts?
A sense of wonder flashed through Yan Shixun's mind, and he nodded: "Yes, we always have to deal with ghosts."
Unlike the guests who always habitually think that this is reality, Yan Shixun always remembers that they have not left the shadow play. Whether it is the villagers or the village, they are probably props that project shadows on the screen.
What would happen if a shadow puppet with only a human form suddenly realized that it was a shadow puppet, not a human, but just a shadow, a ghost?
Yan Shixun had seen ghosts that were dead but unaware of it. For this kind of ghosts, the most dangerous moment is the moment when the exorcist makes them realize that they are dead.
The pain and anger that the ghost burst out at that moment was enough to go crazy and kill a mature ghost exorcist.
Many of his colleagues died because of this, and other exorcists also warned their disciples to be alert to the moment when ghosts regain consciousness.
Yan Shixun is no exception.
Although he followed Zheng Shumu's words and mentioned the locust tree, and also wanted to use the word "ghost" to stimulate Zheng Shumu, preferably to make Zheng Shumu lose his calm and reveal some clues, but he still did not expect that Zheng Shumu would take the initiative to say the word "ghost".
Although Yan Shixun was smiling the whole time, he was still on guard against Zheng Shumu.
But Zheng Shumu did not lose his composure as Yan Shixun had expected. It seemed that this was just a topic casually brought up among friends and there was no need to care about it.
He quickly returned to the history of the village.
Yan Shixun stared at Zheng Shumu quietly for a moment, but didn't notice anything unusual about him.
Am I overthinking it?
Yan Shixun was a little confused.
But what Zheng Shumu said quickly drew his attention back.
This is a village with a long history.
Although it looks like any other remote village, in fact, this village has existed for thousands of years.
Shadow puppetry has been passed down for twenty-eight generations, singing the village's past.
"Although the village was famous for its shadow puppetry in the past, in fact, all the shadow puppets originated from the original family surnamed Bai."
At this point, Zheng Shumu suddenly remembered something and asked Yan Shixun, "Did Mr. Yan go to see Master Bai?"
"Since we are here to see the shadow puppets, how can we not visit Master Bai? Only his shadow puppet shows are the most authentic."
Zheng Shumu looked like he was concerned about Yan Shixun, but when Yan Shixun thought of the shadow puppet masters who had died in the village, he just felt confused.
What Uncle Bai had just said about the reasons for the decline of the village and shadow puppetry was still echoing in Yan Shixun's ears.
How can there be a kind of death that follows you everywhere once you learn shadow puppetry? There were once dozens of shadow puppet craftsmen, but in the end only the original inheritors remained, just like 28 generations ago, when only the lineage that first mastered the shadow puppetry technique remained.
This made Yan Shixun wonder, could it be that Master Bai had a conflict with other people in the village, so he wanted to take back the shadow puppetry that his ancestors taught to others in this way?
The poster in the museum also shows that in just a few years, Master Bai was gradually squeezed out of the circle of shadow puppet craftsmen and became increasingly marginalized.
In contrast to the high-spirited faces of other shadow puppet masters, Master Bai’s face became increasingly silent and wooden.
It was as if I had experienced a major change and had lost all expectations for life. I just lived in a daze, waiting for something to happen.
When Yan Shixun asked about the poster in the museum and mentioned that Zheng Shumu was also on it, Zheng Shumu stroked his chin and recalled for a long time before he seemed to remember this incident from a distant memory.
He suddenly realized, "Oh, that time! I didn't expect Mr. Yan to have seen that poster. That was so many years ago."
"Master Bai is old, and his ideas are different from others. It's normal for a gap to arise."
Zheng Shumu's reaction to this incident was normal. He said that the discord between other shadow puppet masters in the village and Master Bai had a long history, and it was normal for them to go their separate ways.
However, Yan Shixun noticed that when Zheng Shumu talked about other shadow puppet masters, his tone became noticeably lower and his attitude was very cold.
He began to have doubts.
Just now, when Zheng Shumu talked about the death of the shadow puppet masters in the village, he looked excited. But now, when talking about the former glory of the shadow puppet masters, Zheng Shumu was indifferent and contemptuous, and just passed it over.
Yan Shixun could sense that Zheng Shumu was disdainful of those people.
On the contrary, Master Bai, who was not sociable and was ostracized by others, reacted much calmer to Zheng Shumu's words.
So, Yan Shixun asked casually, and said in a natural manner: "But I see that everyone else on the poster seems to be a shadow puppeteer, and only Master Zheng is a carpenter. Master Zheng, did you not learn shadow puppetry, but carpentry instead, because you heard the rumor about shadow puppetry?"
"Carpentry..."
Zheng Shumu slowly stopped, looked up with emotion, and looked at the village houses and farmhouses in the distance.
Before they knew it, the two of them had walked through most of the village while chatting and returned to their starting point.
Yan Shixun followed Zheng Shumu's line of sight and, with the help of the light coming from the house next door, he could vaguely see the house at the end of his sight.
It was an old house. Compared with the surrounding houses, it looked like a relic of the last century, and its bricks and tiles had turned black.
It was right opposite Uncle Bai's house. Yan Shixun remembered that Zheng Shumu said that was his home.
"In fact, when I was a kid, I also liked shadow puppetry."
Zheng Shumu turned around with a smile and asked, "Mr. Yan, have you ever seen a shadow play in the city? It's so beautiful, red, white... It's just a little puppet, but it can move, sing, and do somersaults."
Zheng Shumu's eyes were filled with nostalgia, and even his voice was lowered when he mentioned this memory.
"The children in my village have watched so many shadow puppet shows that they don't like them that much anymore. I'm the only one who loves shadow puppet shows so much. I don't know how such a magical thing can exist in the world. My father always laughs at me, saying that other children play wildly in the fields on the hills every day, but I'm as quiet as a girl. I can sit next to the shadow puppet master for a whole day and be fascinated by it."
"But when I went to the market in town with the villagers, the shadow puppet master was performing and the stage was crowded with people. I was still very young at that time and I couldn't see the shadow puppet show in front of me at all. I was so anxious that I scratched my head. My father lifted me up and I rode on his shoulders. I watched the shadow puppet show and cheered. I was very excited."
Zheng Shumu measured his waist, then lowered his head and looked at the air around him, as if he was looking at himself in the past.
Yan Shixun, who had been watching him silently, saw that his eyes were gentle, no longer young and even a little turbid, and sparkling tears fell from his eyes and fell into the darkness of the village.
"Mr. Yan, which play do you like?"
After a long time, Zheng Shumu raised his head and looked at Yan Shixun with tears in his smile, but he asked and answered himself without waiting for his answer.
"When I was little, I liked the Monkey King. I would scream with excitement when I saw him wielding a long stick behind the curtain. I thought it was so refreshing to see him punish evildoers and eliminate evil. It was great that he could do anything he wanted."
Zheng Shumu closed his eyes and pushed back all the tears: "At the fair that year, my father held me up, and I was looking at the Monkey King."
After that, Zheng Shumu didn't say another word.
The two stood on the village road, and no one spoke.
After a long while, Yan Shixun slowly spoke: "What happened later? Didn't you like it anymore?"
Zheng Shumu shook his head slightly.
The middle-aged man's voice was hoarse from crying.
"My Monkey King is dead."
“So I don’t like shadow puppets anymore.”
Yan Shixun could see that no matter whether this was reality or shadow puppetry, what Zheng Shumu revealed at this moment were his true emotions without any embellishment.
He frowned slightly because of Zheng Shumu's words "The Monkey King is dead", and vaguely felt that something was wrong.
No matter the Monkey King in the story or the shadow puppet behind the curtain, they should not die, but this became a turning point that changed Zheng Shumu, making him hate the things he used to like...
"I'm sorry, Mr. Yan, I made you laugh."
Zheng Shumu suddenly spoke, interrupting Yan Shixun's thoughts.
He smiled apologetically at Yan Shixun and said, "This is what happens when you reach middle age. You like to feel sad about the passing of time and reminisce about the past. Mr. Yan is so young, you must be impatient to listen to me say this, right?"
"Every time I talk about the past, my sister gets angry with me. After a while, I stopped talking about it. I didn't expect that I would hit it off with Mr. Yan today and talk so much with him."
As Zheng Shumu was speaking, he suddenly paused, as if he remembered something.
The look he gave Yan Shixun grew slightly deeper in the darkness, but it only flashed for a moment, and then he shook his head as if mocking himself, denying his previous guess.
How is that possible...that gentleman is dead, it can't be him.
"Mr. Yan's father must have been very good to Mr. Yan."
Zheng Shumu seemed to want to change the subject to cover up his previous gaffe: "I can see that Mr. Yan must have a good family background. Mr. Yan's parents taught him very well, which is why he became such a person."
Although he knew that Zheng Shumu's words were just a polite compliment and he actually didn't understand his own situation.
But Yan Shixun was still stunned for a moment.
When someone mentioned the word "parents", his first reaction was not to his biological parents who abandoned him at the market many years ago.
But it was Li Chengyun.
Zheng Shumu was only half right. He did not have a good background, but at the turning point of his fate, he met the person who supported him.
The gray-white robe was worn on Li Chengyun's elegant and thin body. Even though his shoulders were thin, when Yan Shixun, who was still a young boy, looked up from behind, he felt that the not-so-strong back was as vast and majestic as the heaven and earth.
It protected him from the wind and rain, and held up the collapsing world for him. It gave him a place to return to, and also provided him with the road he wanted to reach.
If it's my father...
Yan Shixun slowly softened his eyes, and a smile appeared unconsciously on his lips: "He is indeed a man who has assumed the responsibilities of a father. I respect and love him."
Zheng Shumu just said it casually, but he didn't expect Yan Shixun to actually respond, which made him stunned.
The two of them had already walked to the side of Zheng Shumu's house, and turning to the other side was Uncle Bai's house.
But as if by some strange coincidence, Zheng Shumu thought of the gentleman from many years ago, and then looked at Yan Shixun in front of him, and felt that the figures of the two people overlapped in his eyes. In this dim village, it was like a golden crow falling in the middle of the night, and the blazing flames burned away all evil spirits.
Zheng Shumu hesitated for a moment, but still couldn't tell Yan Shixun to go back to Uncle Bai's house. Instead, he pointed to the door behind him and said, "Mr. Yan, do you want to come to my house and have a visit?"
Upon hearing this, Yan Shixun raised his eyebrows in surprise.
He didn't expect Zheng Shumu to take the initiative to give him the opportunity to investigate.
Although Zheng Shumu's explanations along the way seemed very considerate and detailed, in fact, they restricted his movements and prevented him from seeing the situation in each courtyard.
With outsiders around, he was too wary to do many things.
Therefore, Yan Shixun believed that Zheng Shumu might have been sent by someone behind the scenes to monitor and restrict him.
Yan Shixun originally planned to wait until he had explored the homes of those dead shadow puppet masters, and then sneak into Zheng Shumu's home after nightfall when everyone was asleep to see what was going on.
However, since he had the opportunity, although he didn't know why Zheng Shumu did this, Yan Shixun still readily agreed.
After approaching Zheng Shumu's house, Yan Shixun could see clearly that the black bricks and stones were not just because of their age, but because they were burned by fire.
Judging from the traces left on the wall, there had been a fire here.
Zheng Shumu opened the door and invited Yan Shixun. When he turned around, he saw where Yan Shixun was looking. He smiled and said, "There was a fire in my house before, but my sister and I are nostalgic, so we didn't tear down the house and rebuild it. We have been living like this ever since."
"Tiantian, brother is back!"
Zheng Shumu raised his voice and walked inside. In the darkness of the house and courtyard, he skillfully lit the candle next to him.
"This girl must have put out the stove again."
Zheng Shumu smiled and shook his head, muttering softly, but he did not seem angry. Instead, his tone was indulgent, like a brother who truly loved his sister.
"Please forgive me, Mr. Yan. Ever since the fire, my sister has been particularly afraid of fire. Whenever I'm not at home, she puts out all the fires in the house."
Zheng Shumu said helplessly and with a headache: "This girl is really worrying. I don't know how she can take care of herself if I'm gone."
Yan Shixun only devoted part of his attention to dealing with Zheng Shuli. He responded to Zheng Shuli with some set phrases, but his eyes were already on other places.
When he first walked into the yard, the smell of pine oil hit his nose, but he suddenly went from the light into darkness and Yan Shixun couldn't see the things around him clearly.
It was not until Zheng Shumu lit the candle that Yan Shixun realized that the entire yard, including behind the windows of the house...
They are all various kinds of wooden puppets!
These puppets are of different sizes and shapes. Regardless of gender, age or status, each one is carved to be lifelike, with vivid facial features expressing their likes and dislikes. Even a wrinkle in a piece of clothing is portrayed in great detail, giving off a sense of reality.
At first glance, these puppets are not just wooden carvings, but real people.
They were piled up everywhere in the yard, whether in the corners of the walls, under the houses, or even in the corners of the corridors, where there was a corner of the doll hidden.
Yan Shixun also saw that just behind the window, there was a puppet's head half exposed above the balcony, as if it was clinging to the balcony and secretly looking out.
The puppets that filled the yard and looked just like real people shocked Yan Shixun.
Many statues do not intentionally open their eyes for fear that if they do, spirits will take human form and possess them.
However, the eyes of each of these puppets are carefully carved. If you look closely, you can even see the lines of the pupils in the eyeballs.
Yan Shixun could even distinguish the different facial features of each puppet, as well as the various kinds of anger and sadness revealed in their eyes, based on the craftsman's showy knife skills.
The old people’s eyes were cloudy, the children’s eyes were confused, and many middle-aged people were in so much pain that they wished they were dying.
These are what Yan Shixun read from the puppet's eyes.
Yan Shixun took a step into the yard and found that the eyes of the puppets around him were moving as he walked.
Their eyes looked towards Yan Shixun from all directions, even in the shadows where no one was paying attention. Countless gazes were silently watching Yan Shixun, and they did not let him go even if he moved, but moved with him, staring at him closely.
The puppets' eyes are delicate but lack the brightness that a living person should have. They have lifelike human shapes but are empty of souls and life inside, which makes all their reality even more creepy.
Their gazes piled up layer by layer, bringing with them a silent but huge and cold oppressive force. However, because they had no life and movement, they were just decorations, so there was no way to trace or vent one's fear of them.
If an ordinary person stood here, he would probably be frightened to the point of collapse.
Even Yan Shixun could feel the goose bumps gradually spreading along his arms, as if his body's instinct was telling him that those puppets were in danger.
"Sweet, sweet?"
While Yan Shixun was observing the wooden puppets in the courtyard, Zheng Shumu also pushed the door and entered the house. He looked around inside and called out several times but no one answered.
He muttered in confusion: "Where did this child go?"
When Zheng Shumu looked up, he saw Yan Shixun standing in the yard looking at the puppet. He walked over with a smile and said proudly, "How is it, Mr. Yan? My work as a carpenter is not bad, right?"
Yan Shixun suddenly came back to his senses. He pointed at the puppet with his slender fingers, slid around the courtyard, and asked, "Master Zheng, did you make all this by yourself?"
Zheng Shumu nodded: "I have nothing to do anyway, so I made these at home. Unconsciously, I have made so many over the years."
"Speaking of which, I'm not afraid of being laughed at by Mr. Yan. My sister complained to me today. Why don't we just burn these puppets? They are piled up in the yard and there is almost no place to step."
Zheng Shumu said with a smile: "When people reach middle age, besides feeling sad about the passing of time, isn't this the only hobby they have left?"
“This is beyond the scope of a little hobby.”
Yan Shixun pointed at the puppets and said, "This can already be called a miraculous skill. Is Master Zheng self-taught, or does he have a master?"
“It’s actually a family tradition.”
Zheng Shumu said straightforwardly: "Mr. Yan just asked me why I became a carpenter. When I was young, I wanted to be a shadow puppet maker, but later I hated shadow puppets, so I changed my goal and simply inherited my father's skills."
"My father was a truly great carpenter. I think he could be called a master of that era. It's a pity that he passed away early, and I didn't learn many of his skills. I became an unfilial son, and the skills that my father had practiced for his entire life were lost."
When mentioning his father, Zheng Shumu was slightly distracted, but then he quickly returned to normal and invited Yan Shixun to come into the house and sit down.
The winters in the southwest are very cold. The cold wind can penetrate clothes and blow at bones. No matter how many layers of clothes you put on, you will still feel the wind is blowing from all sides.
Yan Shixun responded to Zheng Shumu, but his eyes were still on the puppets.
Therefore, the moment Yan Shixun stepped over the threshold, he suddenly discovered that the puppets in the yard actually blinked!
Yan Shixun was immediately startled, turned around and strode towards the blinking puppet.
Zheng Shumu heard the voice and looked over in confusion: "What's wrong, Mr. Yan?"
But when Yan Shixun walked in front of the puppet, it became still again, as if what Yan Shixun had just seen was just an illusion.
Yan Shixun looked at the blinking puppet and the more he looked at it, the more familiar its face seemed to him.
He suddenly remembered that he had seen something similar before when he escaped from the theater in the lake and was chased by the villagers by the lake.
The female puppet sitting on the stage is carved with the same exquisite knife skills as the puppets in the yard, but hers is more exquisite than those in the yard. In comparison, one can seem to get a glimpse of the soft feelings in the craftsman's heart when he was carving the woman.
And this blinking puppet...
Yan Shixun retrieved the scene from his memory.
At that time, he turned around and looked behind him while running, and among the villagers who had chased out of the village, there was someone who looked similar to the puppet.
Thanks to the accurate carving of the puppet, the facial features were fully expressed, so Yan Shixun did not have to spend too much effort to match the images on both sides.
This carpentry skill... Could it be that those villagers by the lake who were chasing them, and the women in the theater, were all related to Zheng Shumu?
Before Yan Shixun's doubts grew, Zheng Shumu had already walked over.
"Oh, did Mr. Yan see the puppet blink?"
Zheng Shumu understood and smiled easily.
Yan Shixun's brows darkened instantly. He glanced sideways at Zheng Shumu, and his muscles hidden under his coat tensed quietly, ready to deal with Zheng Shumu's attack.
But Zheng Shumu didn't know whether he didn't notice Yan Shixun's vigilance or just didn't care. He was still smiling and took another step forward, approaching Yan Shixun and the puppet in front of him.
Zheng Shumu slowly extended his hand towards the puppet.
The next moment, Yan Shixun saw the puppet blink at him again. The inorganic and stiff wooden eyeballs combined with such flexible movements were indescribably weird and creepy.
Just as Yan Shixun's eyes widened slightly in astonishment and his hands hanging by his side subconsciously wanted to make a gesture, he heard Zheng Shumu's loud laughter coming from the side.
"How about it, Mr. Yan, isn't it interesting?"
Zheng Shumu smiled and explained: "This is also one of the techniques inherited from my father. It is a little gadget passed down from my ancestors. It is called a puppet with a living mouth and eyes."
"Because when making it, we first made a small mechanism inside, which is connected to the eyes and mouth on the face, so as long as we pull the mechanism, we can make the eyes and mouth of the puppet move."
As he spoke, Zheng Shumu moved his hands behind the puppet again, and the puppet's eyes and mouth opened and closed accordingly.
It seems that just as Zheng Shumu said, this is all the effect brought about by the mechanism.
Yan Shixun looked sideways at the back of the puppet with doubt in his eyes. Sure enough, there was a small, barely noticeable mechanism in the folds of clothes carved behind the puppet. By shaking it up, down, left, and right, the puppet's mouth and eyes would make corresponding movements.
"If it were my father, he could do better and make the wooden figurine walk and move like a real person. Unfortunately, when I learned carpentry, my father was gone, and I could only learn from the remaining notes."
Zheng Shumu said with emotion and a smile: "I really want the world to see the exquisiteness of carpentry. A carpenter like my father should have left his name like the ancestor Lu Ban, but unfortunately..."
"Are you bragging again, brother?"
A childish and sweet voice came from behind the two of them, interrupting Zheng Shumu's words.
Yan Shixun turned around and saw a young girl who had appeared behind them at some point and was standing at the gate of the yard.
The girl was wearing a pretty little dress and holding in her arms a small puppet whose limbs and torso were all connected with silk threads. The puppet was hanging on her arm and had a cute expression painted on its face, which made the little girl look cute and innocent.
She looked at the two of them with her round eyes, pouting her lips in dissatisfaction. Her rosy face looked so cute that it could melt one's heart.
But even in such cold temperatures in the southwest winter, the girl was still wearing a skirt that exposed her arms and legs, but she did not show that she felt cold, and Zheng Shumu did not say anything.
Like a brother who dotes on his sister but is careless and doesn't even notice that his sister is cold.
Yan Shixun frowned. Although the girl was cute and harmless, he always felt that there was something strange about her.
Not only was she wearing so thin, but because of the breath...
"I started chatting with others without noticing, and told Tiantian about this, but Tiantian ignored me again."
Zheng Shumu walked over with a smile, bent down and took the girl's hand: "Tiantian, have you gone out? I called you just now but you didn't answer, I was worried about you."
"So, this is a guest?"
The girl pursed her lips at Yan Shixun.
After getting a positive answer from Zheng Shumu, the girl looked at Yan Shixun seriously and introduced herself to him politely: "Hello, big brother. My name is Zheng Tiantian, and I am the biological sister of this silly brother."
Zheng Shumu pretended to be sad: "Does Tiantian dislike me?"
"Well! It's fine if you brag to me, but you even told outsiders so much..."
The scene of the brother and sister bickering should have been warm and relaxing, but Yan Shixun could not feel the warmth at all.
He looked at Zheng Shumu, who was already middle-aged, and Zheng Tiantian, who was still a little girl of seven or eight years old, and felt it was weird.
Doubts arose in Yan Shixun's mind.
Zheng Shumu clearly stated that his dream of shadow puppetry was shattered when he was a child, and he started learning carpentry after his father's death.
If calculated based on Zheng Tiantian's age, Zheng Shuli's father should have died less than ten years ago, which was the time when Zheng Shuli was learning carpentry.
But as a result, the period from Zheng Shumu's childhood to around the age of thirty became blank.
Did Zheng Shumu do something else during that time, or is there some other hidden story regarding their ages?
Yan Shixun said nothing, but silently watched the brother and sister in front of him laughing and joking.
“Click…click.”
A subtle sound came from beside me.
Yan Shixun looked in the direction of the sound without saying a word.
The puppet standing next to him seemed to have changed its gaze, moving from him to the brother and sister. All kinds of complex emotions melted into the pair of inorganic wooden eyes, and fear and anger mixed into a ball.
The puppet's mouth opened and closed, and the mechanism in its body made slight sounds.
All the puppets in the yard turned their heads and looked at the brother and sister.
Their mouths opened and closed, as if they wanted to say something.
But the mouth without a mouthpiece was empty, and the human-shaped body was empty.
They cannot speak, cannot express their thoughts, and have no souls living within them.
——No one wants to listen to them.
No one will hear them.
…
Uncle Bai, who was making noodles in the kitchen, suddenly raised his head and looked in a certain direction outside the kitchen with horror in his eyes.
His somewhat portly body was swaying slightly. Even though he was standing next to the pot, with hot steam blowing in his face, he still felt cold all over, with fear spreading all the way down.
Out, out...Run, run quickly! Otherwise you will really die!
"Uncle Bai, do we have to put these in too?"
Zhang Wubing looked at several similar seasoning jars and was filled with questions.
Having never cooked before, he had to ask Uncle Bai for help, who came over holding a jar of seasoning.
But just as Zhang Wubing finished his words, he saw Uncle Bai stuffed the thing in his hand into his arms. In the misty fog, his eyes were filled with fear and urgency.
"It's all right, come as you please. I'm not feeling well all of a sudden, so I want to lie down in the back. I'll leave this place to you."
Uncle Bai quickly finished a long string of words, then turned around and ran out without waiting for Zhang Wubing's response.
Judging from his speed, it doesn't seem like he's feeling uncomfortable anywhere.
Zhang Wubing was a little worried about Uncle Bai when he was talking, and wanted to ask about his situation. But before he could finish his words of concern, Uncle Bai ran away and disappeared in the blink of an eye.
Zhang Wubing stood in the kitchen dumbfounded.
He looked at the jar in his left hand, then at the one in his right hand, with an expression that said, "It's over, the sky is falling!"
"What should I do? I don't know how to do this..."
Zhang Wubing was so anxious that he broke out in a sweat. He was at a loss and wanted to ask someone, but everyone was upstairs. The only person he could ask ran faster than a rabbit and left him here.
He hesitated for a long time, and seeing the heat from the noodle soup dissipate, he had no choice but to grit his teeth, close his eyes, unscrew the can and pour it in.
"This white thing, the white thing should be salt, right? Is it okay to put so much?"
While Zhang Wubing was muttering to himself, he unscrewed all the seasoning jars on the stove and looked through them. If he thought he had seen some before, he would pour a little into the noodles.
He thought that even if one seasoning was not right, with so many seasonings put together, there would always be one that would make the noodles taste good, right?
Zhang Wubing looked at the final product, and proudly said, "I am such an amazing little smart guy, hehehe~"
He hummed a tuneless tune happily and ran out of the kitchen, ready to call everyone upstairs down for dinner.
Just as Zhang Wubing walked out of the kitchen, his shadow was projected on the ground.
Zhang Wubing suddenly stopped, all expressions on his face disappeared in an instant, and he became as cold and majestic as ice.
He turned slightly sideways, his eyes seeming to be able to penetrate the wall and look at the building opposite.
Yan Shixun...Can you do what everyone has failed at?
Zhang Wubing's brows darkened.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com