Chapter 37 Chapter 12 Erlang God

Although the portrait in the old woman's hand has turned slightly yellow, the person in the painting is still lifelike.Although it is only a portrait, it is very close to the real person. The reason why I was surprised when I saw the portrait was because the person in the painting was a peddler, the peddler who sold us ancient books of the Western Han Dynasty!Because he was worried that he would accidentally make a noise and disturb the old lady, so he hurried back to his room. I saw that Xinhong was already lying on the bed with his eyes slightly closed, as if he was about to fall asleep.I hurried over to push him awake, and said nervously, "Don't sleep, get up quickly! Guess what I saw just now?"

"What else can you see? Could it be that sprite has come here?" Xinhong asked with a confused face. "I'm not joking with you. Just now I saw that old woman sitting in the room, staring blankly at a painting. The portrait is so realistic that it looks like a real person in it!" I said seriously. "That can only show that it is a good painting. You don't need to be so surprised, how old are you?" Xinhong thought I was making a fuss out of a molehill, looking for trouble for nothing. "The problem is not how real the painting is, the problem is the person in that portrait! The person in the painting is the peddler, the peddler who sold us ancient books from the Western Han Dynasty!"

After hearing what I said, Xinhong was a little startled before he realized it. He asked as if he had discovered a new world: "You really see clearly, the person in the portrait is really the hawker we have seen before?" "Since I was a child, you should also know that my hearing and vision are very sensitive. Did I miss hearing or seeing?" When I said this, I was full of confidence. "So that peddler may also be from this village. During the day, did you really see him in the woods?" Xinhong asked. "What time is it, can I joke with you, of course I saw it!" I deliberately lowered my voice, and said, "Do you still remember the old woman said that she has a grandson?"

"Her grandson?" When Xinhong said this, he jumped up from the bed and guessed: "Could that peddler be her grandson?" "I can't be wrong! Otherwise, in the middle of the night, who would have the spare time to sit in the room and stare blankly at this painting?" I said with certainty. "Let me think about it," Xinhong said to himself, as if I was not here, he said: "I remember that the ancient books of the Western Han Dynasty sold to us by the peddler said that the author was from a neighboring village, not from Xishui Village .If that ancient book was really inherited by the peddler from his ancestors, and he is really the grandson of the old woman, then the Xishui Village we are in now may really be a fake Xishui Village!"

"I didn't expect it to be so deep, but there really is another Xishui Village. However, the design of this village seems to be similar to that of another Xishui Village. Maybe Xishui Village has been relocated once?" Speaking of this, I suddenly remembered one thing. When I was in another Xishui village, the courtyard there made me feel a little weird, but the design of this Xishui village is almost the same as there. Why did I not have that strange feeling when I came here? Is there something missing in this village? ? "The design of the village can be imitated! I'm a little curious about what the old lady said before," Xinhong patted my shoulder and said, "Do you remember? During the day, you proposed to live in another room, The old lady's reaction was very strange. She said that her grandson lived there, and then she seemed to be a different person, saying that she had no grandson, and that her grandson was dead."

"Hey, that peddler must have stolen the ancient books at home and sold them, so the old man was so angry that he didn't recognize this prodigal son." I yawned, and then said softly, "Go to bed first, didn't you say ?Spirits are the essence of mountains and rivers, a kind of animal that specially haunts the mountains. Rest well first, and go out tomorrow to see if there are any mountains here. Whether she has grandchildren or not, I don’t even have a son Woolen cloth!" Although the bed is a bit narrow, I still fell asleep quickly, which is barely an advantage. No matter how bad the environment is, I can always get used to it right away.In the next sleep, it was something that I have dreamed since I was a child. Mom and Dad walked up and down in front of me. I called them, but they couldn't hear them.After that, they ran into the darkness again, and I frantically chased after them, only to vaguely see a very beautiful bird flying in front of Mom and Dad.In the end, they all disappeared into the darkness, and I could only cry helplessly.In my dream, I don’t know why, but I will always stay in the year when I was ten years old, the year when my parents left me, maybe the memory of that year is too deep and the excitement is too great.

The next morning, just as the sky was turning gray, Xinhong woke me up, saying that he was going to visit the village.The sky was still gray and the air was cold, and everyone in the village was sleeping late.We turned east and west and saw people walking in the village alleys, but as soon as they saw outsiders, they avoided them immediately. When we wandered to the center of the village, we saw a very small temple. There was no plaque or anything like that in the temple, and we didn't know which road of immortal Buddha was enshrined in it.We walked into the temple curiously, and there were many offerings and things like incense candles on the altar.When we saw the statue in the temple, we were all slightly taken aback. This is a statue of Erlang God, which is no different from the statues of Erlang God everywhere, except that one eye is missing, and it really only has two eyes!The middle-aged woman who received us before said that the people in Xishui Village believed in a cult, and the Erlang God they worshiped had only two eyes.I thought she was talking nonsense at the time, but I didn't expect such a statue to exist in the village.

"Xinhong, look, this statue of Erlang really only has two eyes!" I said with a smile. "I don't know if they did this on purpose, or for some other reason?" Xinhong stared at the statue and replied. "This village is so conservative. The villagers must not know the characteristics of Erlang God, so they made a mistake. They made a mistake and worshiped until now. Why are the people here so uncivilized?" "I don't think so," Xinhong approached the statue and said, "This statue seems to be an antique, a bronze statue!" After hearing what Xinhong said, I couldn't believe it, so I ran over to observe the statue carefully.It is indeed an ancient bronze god statue, but I can't tell how old it is, and I have to use carbon fourteen dating technology to judge it.However, the surface of the statue of Erlang in front of you is mottled and layered with green rust. This is a chemical reaction that only occurs in metals after a long time, and it is a characteristic of ancient bronzes thousands of years ago.

I patted the bottom of the bronze statue casually, but it didn't make the crisp sound I expected, but a very dull sound, like thunder.The ancient bronze production was very cumbersome. Most of the ancients first cast the parts of the bronze statue separately, and then connected them together.The most important point is that all parts are hollow, so the sound of the bronze statue will be very crisp when it is slapped.However, the Erlang statue in front of us made a very dull sound. I said in amazement: "How could this bronze statue of Erlang God make such a sound?" At this time, Xinhong also slapped the bronze statue a few times, but the sound was still dull.We all stared blankly at the bronze statue, and finally Xinhong said: "Is this bronze statue solid?"

Although I wanted to refute him, I didn't know what to say, because judging from the sound made by the bronze statue, it was indeed a solid bronze statue.However, historical bronze statues have always been hollow, and in ancient times there was no such technology to make solid bronze statues. In the ancient books of the Western Han Dynasty that we bought, it is recorded that Xishui Village was in the Western Han Dynasty at that time, and in the Han Dynasty, the court cast bronze immortals, thinking that they were artifacts.Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty even cast a bronze man to bear the dew, hoping to live forever.However, since the appearance of bronzes, all cast bronzes have been hollow.

Xinhong and I were amazed in front of the bronze statue, but couldn't figure out why.When we got back to the house, the old lady was already up, and she had prepared breakfast for us to eat when we came back, which made us a little bit sorry.How can a junior make an elder tired, no matter what, we should cook breakfast for her. After thanking the old lady, we sat down to have breakfast together. The breakfast was a bit salty, I stuck out my tongue.Suddenly, I remembered what happened last night, so I wanted to try my luck and asked the old woman: "Old woman, where did you go last night? We couldn't find you, and no one in the village could be found. Then I ran away." Out of the village." "I told you not to run around, but you just didn't listen. There are unclean things in the forest! Last night, people in the village went to worship the village god, and it was in that temple." The old woman's words were very vague, if If you don't listen carefully, it will be difficult to understand what she is saying. After listening to the old lady's explanation, I finally feel more at ease. No wonder when we were in the temple just now, there were so many offerings and joss sticks there.While eating, I asked, "Why do you have to worship in the dark at night? How did the statue come about? Do you always know who the statue is?" The old lady seemed very unhappy for asking me so many questions in one breath, but she didn't show it too much.She let out a long breath, and replied, "You young people, don't ask about these things, go back quickly after eating." "Go back? We haven't stayed enough yet." I said with my mouth full, "Do you still have a grandson?" The old woman was stunned for a while, she stopped eating, and just sat there without saying a word.Seeing this, Xinhong immediately gave me a wink to signal me not to talk nonsense.I also felt very embarrassed. Just as I was about to say sorry, the old woman said first: "He bought me medicine, I don't want it! He is a sinner in the village, I don't want his stuff! I don't have a grandson, he's dead!" The old woman was in a trance when she mentioned her grandson, and walked back to the room on her own before the meal was finished, leaving the two of us sitting at the table in a daze.The old lady is probably getting old, she must have put salt in the food twice, which made me salty to death.The old woman was sitting here just now, I was embarrassed to show it, and when she walked away, I stuck out my tongue exaggeratedly. "What's wrong with you, the food is very salty, isn't it?" Xinhong said with a smile. "Do you still need to ask? I'm so salty, I'm so thirsty, I'm going to get some water to drink." I went back to the room to get the pure water I brought, but found that I had wiped it out last night.I was very thirsty, and I sat beside Xinhong and complained distraughtly. Xinhong said to me while eating: "I'm already salty, so it doesn't matter. You can go to the well to get some water to drink. The well here is very clean, don't worry! There seems to be one in the village!" When I heard Xinhong's answer, my heart tightened immediately, Shuijing?By the way, the well!I hurried to the yard, looked at everything in the yard, and finally understood why I had a strange feeling in the yard of another Xishui village, but I didn’t have that feeling in this Xishui village !