Chapter 31 Chapter 31

What I said was thoughtless and incomprehensible. I was just about to complain that Grandpa was talking nonsense again, but he stretched out his hand to stop me from speaking. "Xiaopeng took back the photo, and I thought it looked familiar at the time, so I showed it to this kid. After all, this kid is young, and he hasn't been exposed to much homework since he was a child, but I know it, so I decided to come here to have a look." The old man Er raised the teapot again and said to Li Xin: "Is this what your two masters who renovated the house left for you?" Li Xin nodded, it seemed that he was immune to this strange old man, and he said nothing strange.

"This teapot is well-made, but it's obviously not high-grade. Our Lou family's things shouldn't be like this." The old man looked at the teapot in his hand with disdain. Wait, things from our Lou family, don't worry, the people who made this teapot and renovated this house are our Lou family, but we are a single pass, is it possible?I stared at the old man with evil eyes. When the old man looked at me, he knew that I was not in a good mood, so he gave me a slap in the face unceremoniously: "This child was not allowed to touch this thing by his father since he was a child. If I come, I can be sure for the first time that this house has been destroyed. You did something wrong, otherwise your whole family wouldn't be so sad, he is small after all, and he has seen very few things."

"This house faces south, and the foundation is very firm. When it was built, I probably invited a lot of star master Taoist monks to visit it. The whole house is located in a very positive direction. It is a masterpiece of geomantic omen, Mr. Li , Your ancestors also worked hard back then, right?" My grandfather changed his playful expression and asked Li Xin seriously. "Yes, teacher, my ancestor was also an official and was in charge of the Qin Tianjian at that time. It is said that when my ancestor built this house, many people were invited to come and see it." Li Xin didn't seem surprised at all.

"Well, that's right. This is an excellent mansion itself. Even if you don't do major repairs, building an ordinary house is a safe, peaceful and gentle home for the whole family. The bad thing is your decoration this time. Up." The old man raised the teapot in his hand again. "Renovation?" Li Xin was very puzzled, "Many masters said that there is no problem with the decoration, they have all seen it." "Yes, if other houses are decorated like this, then there must be no problem. The house is healthy and rich. But this time, people from our Lou family came to install the house for you. I don't know why they targeted you, but they did. It is true that tampering was done here, and the excellent Yang House was introduced into Yin Qi." The old man continued to explain.

Our Lou family?I'm crazy. At present, there are three men from Lou's family in "Yellow River Living Luban", the old man, my father, and me. It is impossible for anyone to come to decorate his house. "Does it have to be our family? Our apprentices are also considered members of our family. After learning our craft, they will be stamped with our family's imprint." The old man threw the teapot on the table, and I suddenly understood everything , the ball on the dragon's mouth. I lay down on the teapot carefully and watched. Sure enough, two layers of jade balls were carved in the double-layer nesting method on the facade. A polyhedral crystal stone was contained in the middle of the jade ball. No wonder there will be rainbows when the water vapor is sprayed out. When the light is reflected, it turns out to be like this.

I looked at the teapot in disbelief, then turned around and asked my grandfather, "Could it be a descendant of Uncle Zhang?" The old man nodded: "It's very possible, he knew more about these things than me back then, and my father taught him some tricks and tricks. I seem to have learned a lot, but I'm still superficial compared to him." what." Li Xin was a little confused at the moment, and didn't understand what was going on at all. I couldn't explain it to him, so I could only respond vaguely, but Song Xudong told him in detail what "Yellow River Living Luban" is, what is mechanism art, what is wood armor art, and what is the origin of our family with these things .

After the lecture, Li Xin had a contented expression listening to the storytelling, and seemed to be still unsatisfied. He followed Song Xudong and asked how the young master surnamed Zhang was doing. Song Xudong pointed at us: "We have to ask them, they are a family after all man." The old man shook his head and said that since Brother Zhang left, I haven't seen him again. It's been more than half a century, and I don't know where he is now. However, judging from the carving and woodwork techniques of these furniture, the old man can basically be sure that these two masters are either descendants of Grandpa Zhang, or their reincarnated disciples.

The old man sighed for a long time: "Perhaps it's because the family is too big to take care of so much. Look, aren't there two scumbags right now?" The old man has been sighing for a long time, and we still can't understand what the old man has seen through.But the old man is old, and his words are very long-winded. He has to explain the cause and effect to you. It will delay things, but he still has to listen patiently. The old man hung his appetite for a long time, and he seemed to be about the same, and said to Li Xin: "If this house is smashed, will you feel bad?"

Li Xin said that as long as the problem can be solved and the house is healthy, even if the house is demolished and rebuilt, it will be fine, but it is the ancestral house after all, so please be merciful to the old man. The old man laughed and said, don't worry, if I don't demolish your house, I will correct their hands and feet.Then he ordered him to find an awl and a hammer. Li Xin quickly brought these things as promised, the old man told us to take the same one by one and follow behind him, Song Xudong and the two of us did as we said, Lao Zhong and Li Xin watched from afar, at this time Li Xin's wife also listened I wanted to come down to take a look at the movement below, but my grandfather stopped her loudly and asked her to go back to the bedroom to rest.And muttered in a low voice: "Women don't come near me." Fortunately, I was the only one who heard these words, and gave him a blank look.

The old man took the two of us to measure the size from the entrance, from the gate to the middle of the living room, and set a point, then from the backyard to the front yard, and set another point, and confirmed it in the living room with two points. An approximate location, and then drew a square box the size of a basketball board, and told me to connect: "Cut along the edge carefully, don't use too much force." The two of us had to start chiseling carefully. Sure enough, when we chiseled to about 20 centimeters, the sound had changed, from a solid gurgling sound to an empty sound. Li Xin watched our movements with concern.

When the chiseling was almost done, the old man measured the position again, re-determined a smaller position, and drew a square frame. This time we chiseled down about five centimeters and heard a click, as if something was chiseled through. Then, a small black hole leaked out. At this time, Grandpa didn’t let us do it. He did it himself. After a short time, there was a square magazine-sized letter box on the ground, and the old man carefully used a towel to support the wooden box to the ground. Li Xin did not expect such a thing to be dug up on the ground of his home, and his face was full of confusion and confusion. "Go, get two pairs of deerskin gloves." The old man ordered me without raising his head. I had a black hair at that time. How can there be deerskin gloves in this day and age? You think this is at our house. Old Zhong asked, "Teacher, are rubber gloves okay?" "Okay, as long as it's anti-virus, get it quickly." The old man carefully placed the letter box on a pile of soil with a towel. Song Xudong quickly took out several pairs of rubber gloves from the trunk of the car, and handed a pair to the old man. After putting on the gloves, the old man gently grasped the lower edge of the letter box, and tapped it gently left and right. The lid of the box slid open as the hand swayed from side to side. The thing in the letter box surprised me. Isn’t this the thing I’ve seen in Zhang Laowa’s house? It’s a statue made of black iron. In addition, there were two people bound by iron chains on their backs. The old man turned around and saw that there was also a face on the back of the statue, but it was the face of a woman. Old Zhong said softly: "Could it be Madam Yan Sheng?" The old man nodded slightly, and asked Li Xin, "Is there a magnifying glass?" Li Xin hurried to find one, and the old man took it and began to watch the statue carefully. Shaking his head while watching, the old man watched for a while, observed the surrounding things, took a look and observed the surrounding environment. After a while, the old man put down the thing.Looking up at the beams on the roof, he ordered someone to bring a ladder over, and Li Xin quickly arranged a ladder. The old man pulled out a small knife with a copper handle and a silver sheath from his waist and climbed up the ladder. I was a little worried and said that I might as well go up for you.The old man dismissed me and insisted on going up in person. We looked up at the old man from below and saw the old man moving his knife like flying. He first scraped away the red paint on the outside, hesitated for a while, sniffed the surface of the knife, quickly pinched his nose, and then let Li Xin Sending a bottle of high-quality liquor up, Li Xin quickly handed over a bottle of Wuliangye. The old man took a sip first, smacked his lips, then took a mouthful and sprayed it on the knife, and continued to use the knife to pry the beam.Seeing sawdust flying, the old man dug open the secret door on the beam with a knife after a short time. It was also a small hidden box similar to a secret door drawer. The old man carefully squeezed out something with two fingers and held it down gently. We hurriedly gathered around and saw that it was a wooden carved villain, wearing armor, with a ferocious face, holding a spear in his hand, in a half-kneeling shape. Li Xin immediately became excited when he saw this little man: "I've seen this thing, I've seen it." We were all surprised and asked where he had seen this thing? "In my dream, I often dream that he is in my dream, rushing towards me with a long gun." Li Xin was obviously a little excited, dancing with his hands and feet. Once we dry it out, in the words of the old man, it would be strange if you didn’t dream about it. The old man put this statue on the table, then picked up the statue of Yan Sheng and looked at it for a while, then walked to the southwest corner of the house, where it was still the beam, and dug out a little man with a knife this time . In this way, the old man looked at the statue, and dug out a little man, and after looking at the god, he dug out a little man. Without much effort, the original good room was dug out full of holes. The most outrageous thing is that in Li Xin's bedroom, two dolls of a man and a woman strangled each other with ropes. Li Xin's face turned pale when she saw these things, but when her wife dug out a doll of a white-haired old woman holding a tailor's scissors and a small sewing basket hanging in her arm, she still didn't faint. After working for nearly half an hour, I finally finished digging. Li Xin's face was almost blue, and in the end, he almost waved a hammer as if he was going to smash the house, it was so scary. Looking at all kinds of puppet figures, we are all speechless. It seems that the feud is not so deep if we put so much effort into harming one person. I asked Li Xin a little worriedly: "Have you really never bullied men and women to death?" Li Xin was going crazy. He looked like he wanted to kill someone when he looked at these things. I sympathized with him. For a superstitious person, doing this is like blowing up his house with a bomb. The old man took a breath and asked Li Xin: "Do you really have no enemies you can't get along with?" Li Xin shook his head. The old man looked at these things and smiled again: "In fact, these things are not very vicious. If they are placed in a good position, they will be very beneficial to your family." When Li Xin heard that there seemed to be something in his words, he hurriedly asked the old man to clarify. "Look at the little man holding the gun and the knife. They are placed on the beam of the entrance. If the position is right, the point of the knife is facing outward, it is a guard, and if the point of the knife is facing inward, it is killing. But , This position is placed in different ways, which is very puzzling. There is also the statue of the nun in your bedroom. In some witchcraft of the Han Dynasty, this nun actually meant to protect the pregnant mother and child. "The old man's explanation confuses us too, so is it harming people or praying for blessings?Everyone was confused. Nightmare victory is a kind of witchcraft that has existed in China since ancient times. Most of them use some dolls or humanoid substitutes to complete some special purposes through certain rituals and spells. People who perform this kind of witchcraft (mages) will Write and hide a person's birth date, hair, nail skin, etc...the symbolic carrier of a person's soul on a portrait or doll, and cast a curse...Using needles and smearing with dirty things (such as feces, urine, blood, etc.) Etc., intending to make the cursed person sick or dead. Of course, there are other "good" uses, such as seeking wealth and luck, but the ancients believed that this practice was evil.Even if it is used for "good" purposes such as seeking wealth and luck, it is in exchange for one's own (other people's) life. The old man pointed to these puppets and said: "This situation set up by these two people is very strange. Some are harming others, and the other are here to protect you. They contradict each other and check and balance each other. It seems that they are deliberately opposing each other. It is really strange. what." At this time, Li Xin's wife also went downstairs slowly. After sitting down, she began to look at these things carefully: "Hey, husband, look at how cute this little figure is, can we keep one?" everyone... Our old man seems to think that this is a bit too much for Li Xin. If he sees so many bad things all at once, he will feel bad for the craftsman. He thinks that he should get something to make up for it. Xin whispered a few words in his ear.When Li Xin heard it, his eyes widened immediately: "Really?" The old man smiled slightly: "Our Lou family never cheats." "Haha, that's good, old man, if you say that, I will give you a can of high-quality tea every year." Li Xin's mood became obviously elevated, and he said to everyone with great interest: "Let everyone After working for such a long time, I didn’t even let everyone drink a sip of tea, please sit down, and I will brew a pot of good tea that is hard to find in the world for you.” After such an interruption, the mood was already high, and Song Xudong quietly put those annoying villains into a sealed bag at the right time. Li Xin didn't seem to mind the unrecognizable living room and room at all, but was excited to make tea for everyone. My thoughts went back to what the old man told me when I first came in. Those patterns were carved by our family's unique knife technique. Then what is our unique carving knife technique? How can the old man tell it at a glance, but I just Seeing it as plausible, I refocused on those decorations. The old man saw that I took the initiative to come up to look at these decorations, so he explained to me how he found out that there was a statue of Yan Sheng hidden in the room. In fact, the art of carpentry can be traced back to the Han Dynasty more than a thousand years ago. Often, it is the carpenter who can’t be offended. Either when building a house or repairing a house, you will put a portrait of a man on your house beams or in some walls to curse. people. However, the portrait of Nightmare Victory needs to be matched with some exclusive decorations, such as the remnant chrysanthemum, hanging mourning orchid, yin-yang peony, and the plum blossom that attracts butterflies. Each decoration corresponds to a special Nightmare victory game.The objects represented by each ornamentation are all reflected on the statue of Yansheng in the middle of the building, so the position of the statue can be judged by the ornamentation, and the corresponding doll can be found by the shape of the statue.