It's not that I, Zhou Bo, am greedy, but it's just that this wilderness is full of dangers and my life is hanging by a thread. If I were a nine-tailed white fox, I would have been strangled to death. The more I hold my head in my trouser pocket, the more I want to enjoy it, so that even if I die, I won't be an innocent ghost.
Since a perpetual lamp can be lit under this cellar, it means that there is sufficient oxygen here, and if there is sufficient oxygen, there must be other ventilation holes. The principle is quite similar to the tunnel under our post station. Therefore, making a fire and cooking here is not a big problem except that there is a lot of smoke. So I dug a hole in the ground, took some relatively useless paper as fuse, and found some dry wood to start the fire.
The iron pot was placed on top, and after the fire in the pit was lit, the water in the general's kettle was poured into it. I couldn't wait to open a bottle of wine, and immediately the room was filled with the strong aroma of wine. I was about to take a sip to taste it first, but Bai Lu smiled and snatched it away, and mixed some of it with the water in the pot.
When five hundred years old wine was poured into the pot, it immediately accumulated a fragrance. Under this smell, any other seasoning seemed pale and tasteless. Bai Lu is worthy of being our cooking master. The crab may have been dead for a long time and is no longer fresh. Her cooking method is to put a few small stones in the stainless steel, with the stones higher than the water in the pot.
Then put the dead crab on top and find something to cover the pot, it will form a stewing and steaming pattern. In this way, the wine can be used to flavor the crabs, and the staleness can be removed, adding more moisture and taste.
So when the situation outside was about to break out, we were planning to enjoy the wine and food here first. It was really disrespectful to our opponents.
It takes a long time for crabs braised in wine to be cooked through, so we can only wait and watch the fire during this period. I couldn't resist the strong smell of the fine wine, so I took a sip. My mouth was immediately filled with the aroma of wine, and the taste was excellent. Under the rich wine flavor was a light taste of mountain fruits. Due to its age, this sip was particularly intoxicating. I felt a shock all over my body, and then it was an endless aftertaste.
The only thing that affects the taste is that it has a bit of earthy smell, perhaps because it has been stored for too long.
"Brother Zhou Bo, drink less. We still have important things to discuss." Bai Lu said.
"Anyway, those wooden men outside can't find this place for a while, so it's no big deal. He has worked so hard for so long, taking care of our survival, often on the verge of life and death. It's rare that he is in a good mood today, so why not let him drink a little more." Yunwen said, smiling at me.
I felt a little embarrassed when I heard that, although it was the truth, but if I still wanted to drink a few cups after she praised me so much, it would be too unfair to Yunwen's compliments. So I put it down, thinking that the wine was already there and I could drink it later, so I focused on my business first.
"Hehe, it's okay. I just wanted to try it. After all, drinking is not allowed in the army. When I just became an adult, I started to drink like my dad. I like it very much. But I haven't had it for a long time. When I saw such fine wine, I couldn't help but be greedy." I said, scratching my neck.
The two girls smiled and didn't blame him anymore.
I may be a heavy drinker, but I can't fool around on this deserted island where life and death are at stake. So I started to sort out useful information. The question was simple. I wanted to know three things: who were those wooden men? What was their purpose? Where did they come from?
In response to what I asked, the documents in the basement basically had records, but all the documents on the shelves were useless. Only the two pages of last words on the table were particularly clear. Bai Lu translated these words to me one by one, looking at me as she spoke. Since it was related to our life and death, she urged me, fearing that I would not take it seriously. However, I had already been frightened by what I heard, so how could I not take it seriously.
It turned out that after the abyss incident at the post station in Milong Camp, the chief and deputy envoys disagreed and their relationship broke down. The deputy envoy Wang Gang suggested presenting the Yinshi Pot to the royal family as a reward, so that the brothers could return home and reunite with their families. However, the chief envoy Li Mufeng believed that if the Yinshi Pot fell into the hands of the royal family at that time, the Ming Dynasty would be devastated and countless men and women would suffer from cholera. He did not want the empire to fall into the chaos of witchcraft that harmed its compatriots, so he did not agree.
The Yinxie Pot is also known as the Corpse Refining Bottle, which refines living human corpses by swallowing the crystals after refining corpses through some special sacrifice in order to prolong life. This is an act against the will of heaven and like a demon, but the deputy envoy is anxious to return home and does not want to be trapped on this island. The person behind the scenes has issued an order that no one can return to the capital unless the object is found. This must be what the imperial edict without seal said, so Wang Gang intended to trigger a rebellion. Li Mufeng was notified by his subordinates in advance, so he took away the Yinxie Bottle, hid in Clawlong Mountain, and disappeared since then.
Deputy Envoy Wang Gang was extremely angry, knowing that there was no hope of returning, so he could only look for Li's whereabouts while thinking about finding another way to achieve immortality before returning to Beijing to report. Until he heard that there was an ancient city with a secret method, which said that as long as a human being was sacrificed to the sacred river in the city and offered to the Antelope Witch, he could gain longevity. The deputy envoy said that this method could be tried, so he sacrificed his subordinates in the river, and it really came true. The body had all kinds of strength to use, and the wounds healed immediately after being cut.
After that, Wang Gang became obsessed with it and didn't want to stop. He often sacrificed living things to Linghe River, which led to his addiction. But the good times didn't last long. After that, many people suffered from conjunctivitis and could not see the light in the daytime, otherwise their skin would be burned. As time went by, everyone noticed something strange and looked for a way to get rid of it. Finally, they found a record in a cave on the top of the mountain. The pattern said that only the Yinxi Pot could cure the symptoms.
The people were in despair, with no living creatures to offer as sacrifices, and their bodies began to rot and maggots grew on them, but they did not die. One of their subordinates suggested a solution, which was to use wood to construct their bodies. Then they would not be afraid of the sun and could move freely. They could go out during the day to find living creatures and bring them back for sacrifices, thus slowing down the pain of decay.
He called Sun Yong, the craftsman in the camp, and ordered him to make hundreds of human bodies. He went to the post station and set a trap of wooden men, hoping to lure future generations to the Xiying City and let them be sacrificed for nothing. However, man proposes, God disposes. Just when the deputy envoy and his subordinates had arranged everything, one of his subordinates named He Kui deceived everyone by saying that there were other remedies in the cave. After tricking them into the cave, he touched the switch and immediately closed the door of the Diamond Broken Wall Stone, trapping everyone inside.
After that, He Kui disappeared, and after writing these in this dark place, the author went out and committed suicide.
After hearing all this, I was overwhelmed with emotions and sighed for a long time. I said, "So, Senior He Kui originally planned to commit suicide in the Spirit River, but he never expected that the river water would save his life and allow him to survive for so long. And those wooden men were really locked in the cave five hundred years ago, so they came from the cave on the top of the mountain, with the purpose of throwing us into the river as sacrifices? Haven't you played this trick enough?"
At this time, the steamed crabs were also cooked. Yunwen and Bailu took them out together. There were exactly three crabs, and each of them held one. It might be because they had been eating too much and the nutrition was uneven recently, so they decided to supplement some protein.
"The volume says that the pain from the gnats eating at your heart is constant day and night. With such torture, of course you would want to get some relief," Yunwen said.
"Then why did He Kui, who was also a wooden man, die, but these wooden men did not? Is there any explanation in the volume?" I asked.
"Nothing. It's true that good people don't live long, but bad people live a thousand years." Yunwen said regretfully.
"Brother Zhou Bo, don't worry about these for now. After listening to what we have told you, do you have a way to help us get rid of these wooden men and get out safely? And...is there any way to find Yingchun under these conditions?" Bai Lu asked.
I almost choked on the crab meat, and Yunwen couldn't help but frown.
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