Chapter 15 Eighty-fifth night wolf condensate

On the fourth day of October, avoid breaking ground for burial, and travel far. It's been a long time since I heard from that man. People like the wind are always elusive. Suddenly losing those exciting things and living an ordinary life makes people feel as bland as dishes lacking salt and ingredients.But recently I received a postal package, not big, only the size of two cigarette packs. There was also a letter in the postal package. I didn’t use e-mail this time. I was a little inexplicably excited holding the letter. I always felt that the paper with a smooth woody texture was the real letter. Those 1 and 0 codes Things have quietly swallowed up our traditional culture.

Ji Yan's handwriting is very beautiful, but his letters, like his people, always omit those irrelevant details and go straight to the point. (The text of the letter follows.) Forgive me for not contacting you for a long time, because I am more and more interested in the mysterious person who made Facebook. Although I only know his whereabouts in general, I believe that as long as you follow this direction, you will always meet some strange things . Walking along the north, I came to a mountain with dense forests. The mountain roads here are not as rugged as those in the south. The mountains in the north are much more atmospheric than those in the south, but they are very steep.However, when I passed a forest, I couldn't help but stop.

It's not the first time I've climbed a mountain, let alone saw the woods for the first time, but I found that this place is different from other places. There are many trees, but they are very sparse, and they are all birch trees. Pieces of birch forests are very beautiful, but I always feel a little strange, so Li Duo and I stopped to look at the trees, with thick fallen leaves under our feet. It was very quiet in the huge forest, not even the sound of the wind.I found that it seems that the bark of every birch tree has been peeled. As the saying goes, people are afraid of sad trees and are afraid of peeling. Now that the tree is planted, why bother to peel it.Moreover, most of these trees are more than ten meters high, at least they have been planted for many years. The gray-white trunks and almost bare branches make me feel a little dilapidated.

But when I looked carefully, I found that the branches were not bare. There are gray cloth bags hanging on the branches extending outward, some are new and some are old, but they are all about the same size, and almost every tree has them. The whole forest seems to be full of "fruits". Li Duo and I were of course very curious, wanting to know what was hanging in those bags.The bag seemed heavy, almost bending the branches, but the birch was hard and springy, as if it was meant for hanging heavy things. What exactly is this "fruit"?Curiosity made us stay in this area. Since we want to know the truth, we naturally have to ask the local people.

The people who live here are mainly hunters. There are many living creatures in the northern forests, and most skilled hunters cannot go hungry. But after all, the population was a little sparse. We walked for a long time before seeing a little smoke from the kitchen. Outside a somewhat crude ordinary wooden house, there stood a tall middle-aged man, who was half-clothed in a piebald jacket and covered with a gray thick cotton jacket, and was arranging the strips of dried meat and corn on the cob.He has a thick black beard, his big mouth spits out white mist from time to time, and his pair of thin, fan-shaped hands are very flexible to organize the sundries.I called Big Brother behind him, and he turned around in a jerk, looking at us with puzzled eyes.

The tall northern man was a little surprised when he saw me. He might rarely see people dressed like us. The unexpected guests made him very happy, but he was also a little flustered, which embarrassed Li Duo and me. "It's been a long time, I haven't chatted with outsiders for a long time. It seems that my tongue is a bit clumsy. It was so cold a few days ago, and my child's mother and I nested in the house. Anyway, the roe deer and dried deer were killed a few days ago. There’s still a lot of meat, it’s not a coincidence that you guys are here, I’m stewing mountain mushroom soup on the stove, drink it to warm your body.” He was very happy, maybe it’s true that he rarely interacts with people, and he seemed very enthusiastic. Li Duo couldn't refuse, so he had to drink some.The hunter in this mountain called himself Shunzi, and Shunzi's wife had just gone down the mountain to fetch those winter clothes.

"We are passers-by and want to find a place to rest." I explained to Sunja.Shunzi looked at Li Duo and me, and suddenly smiled meaningfully. "Do you know why there are bags hanging on the trees in this area?" I put down the soup and asked with a smile. Shunzi's face changed - although his skin was blown by the mountain wind like a frozen persimmon, I still noticed a trace of displeasure floating on his face. "This is the rule of our clan. Although I don't know you well, you look like an open-minded person. Since you have come to this land and met me, it is our fate. If you have a fate, you are a buddy. Since you Now that you’ve asked about this, I won’t play charades with you. Let me tell you that those bags are full of babies, and they all left before they were three years old.” Shunzi’s words surprised me.

"Then why not bury them, but hang them on a tree?" Li Duo asked strangely.Shunzi shook her head, shook her body, sucked a mouthful of the thick mushroom soup, and let out a long mouthful of hot air. "You don't understand this. Our ancestors were all Manchus, Hezhen people. Children who had not grown up died early and could not be buried in the soil. They usually wrapped the children's corpses with birch bark, and then Put it in a bag and hold it on a high branch of a birch tree. Because the child's soul is tender, it can't get out of the soil, and if it is buried, it will not be born in the future. Hanging it high is so that the child's soul can disperse early and go to another house Reincarnate." While talking, Shunzi murmured with a dark face and lowered her head, the voice became weaker as she went to the back, like a candle that was about to go out.

Only then did I understand why I looked at the birch forest and thought it was not a tree, and the desolation did not feel like a forest, but rather like a pile of graves, and the hard birch trees seemed to be the tombstones of those children who died young . "You're the only one in the mountains? It's winter, isn't it cold? And there don't seem to be any animal activities." I asked Shunzi. "I'm not hunting, I'm waiting for someone." Shunzi suddenly said coldly, and stood up with a straight face.Seeing that he stopped talking, I had to shut up.

The sun sinks quickly in the mountains, especially in winter, as if there is only a moment in the daytime.Soon, the cold air overflowed even more after nightfall.Shunzi went out to have a look, and suggested that we stay here. Although we don’t have enough clothes, at least we can light a fire to keep out the cold. Otherwise, we will definitely freeze when we go down the mountain in this kind of weather.Although Shunzi's expression was reluctance, but he was really worried that Li Duo and I would go down the mountain like this, so he let us stay overnight. Li Duo and I agreed. When the last smear of light wiped away from the sky, I looked at the birch forests in the distance, and the bags on the branches were still eye-catching.

The three of us sat around the hot stove, drank mushroom soup, and chatted.Sunja told us that maybe his wife won't come back so soon and will have to wait until tomorrow morning. Shunzi's wooden house is very neatly furnished, not very big, no more than a dozen square meters at most, and there are very few things, except for a thick layer of mattresses made of animal skins and quilts made of concrete on the floor, and hanging on the walls. Holding a shotgun, there are some iron traps in the corner, like iron clips, hoof spikes, and a square charcoal stove with a hollow in the middle.Although simple, but also readily available. Sunja told us that this mountain is more like his home, or his father.Shunzi's father was also a hunter, and so was Shunzi's grandfather, for generations. They demanded from the mountain, but they were more in awe of the mountain, and they always respected the mountain god and the god of hunting.They firmly believe that all large animals such as bears and tigers are spiritual, so they cannot be called by their names directly, but replaced by other words, such as "uncle" and "father" for bears, and "big worm" in consideration. The son said that it had been a long time since he had hit a big guy, and he only hit a wild boar last month. "There's less and less life in the mountains. Mushroom pickers, ginseng hunters, snake catchers, and barks all come here once spring begins. The mountains are completely ruined." Shunzi said angrily. complain.Perhaps for him, the city people and he belonged to two different races. Of course, he couldn't understand why those people would travel thousands of miles to the mountains to destroy his peaceful life. We talked late into the night, Sunja seemed more and more anxious, and finally, when he heard a special bell coming from outside the door, he showed a look of relief. Sunja straightened up, shrank her neck, and opened the wooden door. A figure flashed outside the door, and a man half a head shorter than Shunzi walked into the room. He was wearing a big leather hat, a down jacket similar to ours, and a pocket the size of a schoolbag. "Why, is there anyone else here?" The man looked at Li Duo and me with a rather dissatisfied tone, and Shunzi immediately explained to him with an apologetic smile that we were travelers passing by. "Passing by? Is he also here to worry about the things in this mountain?" The man sneered.I couldn't see his face clearly, I could only vaguely see the bushy mustache around his mouth. Seeing his bad tone, Shunzi hurriedly pushed the man out. The two seemed to be muttering something in the cold wind. Not long after, Shunzi walked in. "Go to bed early, that person is a relative of mine, he was with an "old man" yesterday, I will go with him right now, if we are lucky, you can eat bear meat tomorrow." Shunzi said from the wall He took off his gun, dug out a box of ammunition from nowhere, put on a fur coat, and went out with the man against the wind. It's funny to think about it. He actually let me, a stranger who has just known him for a long time, guard his home alone. This is unbelievable for people in cities like you and me. But what can I steal? Perhaps the more you have, the more you are afraid of losing. I honestly took care of the fire, and Li Duo fell asleep soundly, which made me feel at ease. Thinking of Shunzi's words, I always feel that it is incomprehensible for two people to hunt and kill bears with one gun at such a time.The howling wind outside the door was occasionally mixed with a few long and sharp howls of wolves, which made people's skin crawl. Perhaps, Shunzi was just playing tricks on me.But I can't leave, not to mention that there are many wild animals in the mountains, even the fire has to be watched carefully, if it goes out, I will freeze to death; and I can't take Li Duo with me, let alone follow a local hunter in the dark , no doubt joking. However, Shunzi didn't come back all night. At dawn, Li Duo and I woke up together and decided to find Shunzi. The mountain wind in the morning was a little softer. I don't know why, but after searching, we came to the birch forest again. The bags on the branches were still hanging heavily, and it was hard for me to imagine that there were actually children inside. From the outside of those cloth bags, the shape of the contents inside could not be seen clearly at all. I suddenly thought, do so many children really die young? The white birch grows up to one meter per year, and it will enter the aging period in fifty years. There was no dense population in this area, and no major disasters and wars occurred. How could so many children die at the same time?But what was in that bag?Looking at the cloth bag hanging above my head, I couldn't help but climbed up the shortest birch. Li Duo was a little worried under the tree, and kept persuading me to come down, and I also knew that if it was really the child's body, if I did this, I would cause public outrage if I was found out. But I undid one of the bags anyway. The bag is very strange, it is the kind of shrinking bag, one side is firmly fixed on the tree branch, and as long as the bag is lifted, the opening will automatically open, and when it is put down, it will be tightened again.There are several rows of grooves of different shades on the mouth of the bag, which looks a bit like it has been stapled by a binding machine, but I think it looks more like tooth marks.It looked like it had been hung for several years, and it was a little heavy. I lifted it up vigorously, and pulled it out to reveal a section. It doesn't contain children. It was something I couldn't distinguish, it was dark, and it looked a bit like sauced beef, but it also had a special rotten smell.I took off all the cloth bags, and only then did I feel that it seemed to be a certain part of the human body. It should be a severed arm with the wrist removed, but it has been left for too long, and it has been completely dried. The skin stretched tightly on the bone is covered with seams, and it is dehydrated and curled up.I put the severed hand back into the bag, and put it back in the same way as before. Li Duo asked me in a low voice if there was a child in the bag, I shook my head but didn't want to say it clearly.Looking back at the whole forest, could it be said that there are not only children hanging on it, but also dismembered human bodies?Maybe Shunzi didn't make it clear? I have heard of sky burials and water burials, but not tree burials. When Li Duo and I returned to the cabin full of suspicion, we found Shunzi standing outside the door, his eyes were bloodshot, staring at us like a beast. "Where have you been?" Sunja asked straight away, and I replied with a smile that I was just strolling around. "It's okay to take a stroll, just be careful, there are many wolves around here, especially lone wolves." Shunzi sighed and muttered. "Lone wolf?" I asked. "The male wolves that were driven out by the wolf pack are mostly young wolves that threatened the status of the wolf leader, or wolves that have no ability to hunt. They are said to be lone wolves, but they are actually two or two. Usually it is paired with an old wolf with no experience, just like a master and apprentice. This kind of wolf is very fierce, you better be careful." Shunzi turned and entered the house, and we followed him. As soon as I entered the house, I suddenly saw something familiar. It turned out to be a bag on the trap in the corner of the house. It looked like I had seen that bag before. Finally, I remembered that the mustache who came to look for Shunzi last night was carry this bag. Sunja saw me staring at the bag and smiled. "I didn't follow. It's probably because the guy's eyesight is dull. He insisted on chasing him, so he put the bag here for the time being. It was our rule to let you eat the roasted bear meat in Dunshan, but it was very cold, and people like me The old Orion also caught the blind. Next time, next time you come, I will prepare it for you." I smiled and agreed, and thanked him for his enthusiasm.Sunja's explanation was reasonable, but I found blood stains on the bag, blood stains from wiping. Shunzi insisted on staying with us for a few more days, saying that we would be company on the mountain so that he could wait for his wife to come, but we still refused. Shunzi gave us a ride, and he didn't start to walk back until the wooden house was no longer visible.But I didn't continue walking, but I asked Li Duo to wait for me in the small town at the foot of the mountain. Because I have to go back to the birch forest again. Even at noon, as soon as I stepped into the woodland, I felt that the light was dim, perhaps because of the shadow of the tall birch branches and leaves. The full and low-hanging cloth bags were hanging high above my head. Limb, I couldn't help feeling sick. In ancient times, King Zhou built wine pools and meat forests, but they were all hung with roasted meat. Sure enough, I found a few imperceptible drops of blood on the almost rotten leaves piled up on the ground. The color of the blood was very fresh. I followed the blood to the base of a white birch tree nearly six meters high. There are a few cloth bags hanging halfway up the tree.Although my tree-climbing skills are not superb, I still managed to get up. I opened the bag closest to me and almost fell off. Inside is a human head, a human head with coagulated blood, and that mustache. But what surprised me was not the head, but the thing that was eating the head in the bag at the same time. The left cheek of that head was almost eaten up, revealing the gray and white bones. A half-palm-sized wolf cub wrapped in gray and white hard short fur was quite dissatisfied with my taking away its food, so it started howling. I put the bag back and was about to come down, but found an extra wolf under the tree. A very large wolf, with tall and sharp ears shaking excitedly. In my opinion, it is impossible to have such a strong wolf in the cruel winter. Lack of food is the characteristic of winter. But is it really short of food?I looked back at the bag of meat covered in the woods. The wolf squatted under the tree, raised its head and looked at me, sticking out its tongue to lick its mouth from time to time.When I stared at the wolf's eyes, I suddenly felt my body stiffen. Its eyes are as charming as dark green gemstones, with a strange light shining in the middle. "Don't look into its eyes!" I heard Shunzi's voice not far away, but my body had already slipped down involuntarily. Even if I don't get bitten to death by wolves, the height of three meters will knock me down. Fortunately, the thick fallen leaves on the ground saved me, and the landing posture was good, so I was fine. Big Wolf looked at Shunzi, growled to the sky, turned and left. Still in shock, I watched Shunzi approach, but he didn't have a shotgun in his hand. "As soon as you left, I thought maybe I could find you here. Fortunately, it doesn't have much appetite for you." Shunzi also seemed quite frightened. "Can you tell me what's going on?" I panted, leaning on the tree trunk to get up. "Go back to my house first." Shunzi sighed. In the room, I took a sip of hot tea and felt much more comfortable. The sweat I had just sweated turned into icicles almost instantly, and my back hurt. "They deserve to die!" Before I could ask, Shunzi suddenly slammed the poker hard. "I used to have a daughter, not to mention very juicy, she looked very much like a child's mother, but she was bitten to death by a wolf when she was one year old." Shunzi said, biting her lip.I said nothing, and it was a long time before he continued. "We and the wolves here have had invisible rules for generations. We never hunted wolves in the pack, only hunted old wolves or lone wolves. The wolves are not afraid of even blind bears. Although we are hunters, in fact Less than half of their hunting skills." "However, in recent years, groups of people who don't know where they came from actually went up the mountain to dig ginseng and kill wolves, and they only killed young wolves. They peeled off the skin and eyes of young wolves to sell for money, but left the corpses in the wolf's den. After losing their cubs, they were crazy, so they took revenge on my daughter. When the mother carried the baby up the mountain, the wolves surrounded them, and the baby was killed in front of her, so she also went crazy, and she is still alive today. Stay down the mountain." "I also tried my best to kill wolves, but what I got in return was that more children and adults around here were killed, so I suddenly thought that the root of the trouble is not the wolves, but the people who came up the mountain." Shunzi Suddenly he raised his head and looked at me. "So yesterday's mustache..." I tentatively asked him. "Hmph, he's here to catch wolf cubs. I just took him to the wolf den. The wolves here like to bite off unfinished corpses, and put them in the bag with their cubs in winter." It turns out that the woods are also the wolf's storage room, I thought to myself. "Wolves here can climb trees?" I asked Shunja in surprise. "If I tell you that they can still understand us, don't you think it's even more unreliable?" Shunzi sneered. "You have to know that we have only stayed in this mountain for more than a hundred years, and they have been here since the beginning of this mountain. Moreover, you can't look into their eyes just now. Before hunting their prey, the mountain wolves here will Looking into the eyes of the prey, at that time the blood of the prey will coagulate and cause them to be unable to move. Hunters hunt wolves, even after killing wolves, they will first wrap the wolf eyes with cloth, this is called wolf coagulation." Shunzi said. "And those special eyes are the main goal of those guys. The eyes of pups are more expensive than red stones." I nodded silently after listening. "Actually, those cloth bags you saw in the birch forest were hanged by someone very early. I didn't finish talking that day. Everyone thinks that if the children who die young are eaten by wolves, the wolf's family can prosper. At the same time, we are also .So the wolf just came because it was full, and secondly, it won’t eat me.” Shunzi grinned, revealing a mouthful of snow-white teeth. This time, I really left. I really hope that no one will disturb Shunzi's peaceful life, including that wolf pack. Shunzi gave me a gift before I left, which he took from the relics of poachers. He never greedy those people's things, because the local people think that the dead people's things are very unlucky, But this one, he stayed. So I forward it to you, I hope you will like it. I read the letter and looked at the box. Inside the box was a round object, the size of a glass bead, translucent. I picked it up and looked at the rising sun in the morning. I seemed to see something, whether it was a mountain or a forest birch trees. Shunzi insisted on staying with us for a few more days, saying that we would be company on the mountain so that he could wait for his wife to come, but we still refused. Shunzi gave us a ride, and he didn't start to walk back until the wooden house was no longer visible.But I didn't continue walking, but I asked Li Duo to wait for me in the small town at the foot of the mountain. Because I have to go back to the birch forest again. Even at noon, as soon as I stepped into the woodland, I felt that the light was dim, perhaps because of the shadow of the tall birch branches and leaves. The full and low-hanging cloth bags were hanging high above my head. Limb, I couldn't help feeling sick. In ancient times, King Zhou built wine pools and meat forests, but they were all hung with roasted meat. Sure enough, I found a few imperceptible drops of blood on the almost rotten leaves piled up on the ground. The color of the blood was very fresh. I followed the blood to the base of a white birch tree nearly six meters high. There are a few cloth bags hanging halfway up the tree.Although my tree-climbing skills are not superb, I still managed to get up. I opened the bag closest to me and almost fell off. Inside is a human head, a human head with coagulated blood, and that mustache. But what surprised me was not the head, but the thing that was eating the head in the bag at the same time. The left cheek of that head was almost eaten up, revealing the gray and white bones. A half-palm-sized wolf cub wrapped in gray and white hard short fur was quite dissatisfied with my taking away its food, so it started howling. I put the bag back and was about to come down, but found an extra wolf under the tree. A very large wolf, with tall and sharp ears shaking excitedly. In my opinion, it is impossible to have such a strong wolf in the cruel winter. Lack of food is the characteristic of winter. But is it really short of food?I looked back at the bag of meat covered in the woods. The wolf squatted under the tree, raised its head and looked at me, sticking out its tongue to lick its mouth from time to time.When I stared at the wolf's eyes, I suddenly felt my body stiffen. Its eyes are as charming as dark green gemstones, with a strange light shining in the middle. "Don't look into its eyes!" I heard Shunzi's voice not far away, but my body had already slipped down involuntarily. Even if I don't get bitten to death by wolves, the height of three meters will knock me down. Fortunately, the thick fallen leaves on the ground saved me, and the landing posture was good, so I was fine. Big Wolf looked at Shunzi, growled to the sky, turned and left. Still in shock, I watched Shunzi approach, but he didn't have a shotgun in his hand. "As soon as you left, I thought maybe I could find you here. Fortunately, it doesn't have much appetite for you." Shunzi also seemed quite frightened. "Can you tell me what's going on?" I panted, leaning on the tree trunk to get up. "Go back to my house first." Shunzi sighed. In the room, I took a sip of hot tea and felt much more comfortable. The sweat I had just sweated turned into icicles almost instantly, and my back hurt. "They deserve to die!" Before I could ask, Shunzi suddenly slammed the poker hard. "I used to have a daughter, not to mention very juicy, she looked very much like a child's mother, but she was bitten to death by a wolf when she was one year old." Shunzi said, biting her lip.I said nothing, and it was a long time before he continued. "We and the wolves here have had invisible rules for generations. We never hunted wolves in the pack, only hunted old wolves or lone wolves. The wolves are not afraid of even blind bears. Although we are hunters, in fact Less than half of their hunting skills." "However, in recent years, groups of people who don't know where they came from actually went up the mountain to dig ginseng and kill wolves, and they only killed young wolves. They peeled off the skin and eyes of young wolves to sell for money, but left the corpses in the wolf's den. After losing their cubs, they were crazy, so they took revenge on my daughter. When the mother carried the baby up the mountain, the wolves surrounded them, and the baby was killed in front of her, so she also went crazy, and she is still alive today. Stay down the mountain." "I also tried my best to kill wolves, but what I got in return was that more children and adults around here were killed, so I suddenly thought that the root of the trouble is not the wolves, but the people who came up the mountain." Shunzi Suddenly he raised his head and looked at me. "So yesterday's mustache..." I tentatively asked him. "Hmph, he's here to catch wolf cubs. I just took him to the wolf den. The wolves here like to bite off unfinished corpses, and put them in the bag with their cubs in winter." It turns out that the woods are also the wolf's storage room, I thought to myself. "Wolves here can climb trees?" I asked Shunja in surprise. "If I tell you that they can still understand us, don't you think it's even more unreliable?" Shunzi sneered. "You have to know that we have only stayed in this mountain for more than a hundred years, and they have been here since the beginning of this mountain. Moreover, you can't look into their eyes just now. Before hunting their prey, the mountain wolves here will Looking into the eyes of the prey, at that time the blood of the prey will coagulate and cause them to be unable to move. Hunters hunt wolves, even after killing wolves, they will first wrap the wolf eyes with cloth, this is called wolf coagulation." Shunzi said. "And those special eyes are the main goal of those guys. The eyes of pups are more expensive than red stones." I nodded silently after listening. "Actually, those cloth bags you saw in the birch forest were hanged by someone very early. I didn't finish talking that day. Everyone thinks that if the children who die young are eaten by wolves, the wolf's family can prosper. At the same time, we are also .So the wolf just came because it was full, and secondly, it won’t eat me.” Shunzi grinned, revealing a mouthful of snow-white teeth. This time, I really left. I really hope that no one will disturb Shunzi's peaceful life, including that wolf pack. Shunzi gave me a gift before I left, which he took from the relics of poachers. He never greedy those people's things, because the local people think that the dead people's things are very unlucky, But this one, he stayed. So I forward it to you, I hope you will like it. I read the letter and looked at the box. Inside the box was a round object, the size of a glass bead, translucent. I picked it up and looked at the rising sun in the morning. I seemed to see something, whether it was a mountain or a forest birch trees.