Chapter 28: Withered wood

Chu Huan asked both of the people present.
The elder thought for a moment, but maybe he could not think of one, two or three, he could not show his omnipotence, and he lost face a little, so he said disdainfully: "Who knows, maybe you are a freak. "
After he finished speaking, he walked out without taking the torch. Of these three people, only Chu Huan may need to illuminate in a dark place.
Chu Huan: "..."
His old man still knew what a "freak" was, and his vocabulary was not small.
But Chu Huan would also laugh at himself. When he looked at the goat face of the elder, his heart was balanced-in the eyes of a goat, probably all humans are freaks.
Nanshan coughed awkwardly: "He is old and has a bad temper."
"As you can see, it's generally bad for others, and it's especially bad for me," Chu Huan pondered for a moment, then asked puzzled, "Am I so annoying?"
Nanshan: "Probably because you look good and speak very well."
... Is it true that old things like scary-looking and mallet-like? That's done, it seems that only Xiaofang can become his heart.
In fact, in such a context, this sentence would be very slick for everyone else, but when it came to the mouth of Nanshan, it was a bit of a bit of a bite to publish an important editorial. I heard Chu Huan completely forgot to be run by the old goat Depressed, all the time comfortable.
Chu Huan rubbed his nose: "... I find that you are really boastful, subtle and nice."
Nanshan: "My dad is also from the other side of your river. After listening to the elders mentioned a few times, he may feel a bit like you. The elders may have turned their anger on you. Go inside. "
The amount of information in this sentence is slightly larger. Chu Huan found that he had received it on behalf of his generation, and he should not be upset, but another thought ... Since that is Nanshan's dad, then accept it.
"As for your question, I can't be sure," Nanshan said cautiously, "but I have a little guess, this thing happens to have something to do with my dad."
Chu Huan removed the torch hung on the wall by the elder: "Okay, let's go out and say."
The depressed caves and the people frozen in the past made Chu Huan feel very uncomfortable.
Chu Huan went all the way out pondering-according to Nanshan, is he now trapped in the Liyi tribe?
He still couldn't accept the saying that the two sides of the river were "two worlds." Although Chu Huan failed in geography from a young age, he still firmly believed that the earth was round.
However, his limited common sense could not explain the non-dead and non-living people in the cave.
Chu Huan is a self-conscious vulgar, without the habit of looking up at the stars and thinking about philosophical issues. His imagination is always beyond the one-third of an acre in front of him. He is a dull man.
Therefore, at this time, he couldn't figure out how the "solidified" people would feel.
If what the elders said is true, they do not realize that they are "slowing down", are they also not aware that they have solidified now?
For the veterans solidified in the cave, assuming that one day they can recover, will they feel that they have only a blink of an eye, the whole world is already in the sea?
The two walked out of the cave silently and returned to the clan.
When the mist dissipated, the sky above the Liyi tribe was Zhaozhao Nuanyang and Langlang Qingtian. The flowing clouds scattered at first glance, and they stood still on the top of the mountain in the distance.
But Taoyuan was full of restlessness, and the patrolling, stern-looking men didn't say anything. Even the horses running on the mountain all day long felt the rain coming. They spontaneously followed the horses and gathered near the village , Sometimes watch around cautiously.
Chu Huan Lao Yuan saw the big white horse that was nearly trapped in the river with him, so he blew a long whistle. The big white horse was human, and he remembered him as soon as he walked by. He heard the whistle, which was really true Ran towards him.
Its legs are still lame, and the wounds caught by the "mad dog" are not good, but the good horse is the good horse, and it still looks terribly angry.
The white horse hung his head down, rubbed Chu Huan's hand, and saucyly behaved.
Sister Spring, who was working in her yard, heard the movement and turned to see the two of them. She put a pair of hands on her body with some restraint, shyly greeted Chu Huan, and then picked up the axe to continue her work, Chu Huanyi At first I thought she was chopping wood, and when I looked closer, I found a row of "crazy dogs" lying on the ground in her yard, all of them were dead, and the shy spring elder sister was chopping off their heads one by one.
"Crazy Dog" is invulnerable, only a little part of the neck can be cut in. In the spring, a kind of skilled worker was used to step on their corpses, and the axe blade was cut to their weak points. Never go off course.
Chu Huan didn't know how to evaluate this situation for a while, but he felt a sense of complacency, and could not help but have some kind of sincere admiration for Xiaofang, and compared his thumb to the spring.
In the spring, he reached out and wiped the sweat on his forehead, his face flushed red, and he felt that he didn't speak well, so he explained to Chu Huan a little embarrassedly: "If you're not allowed ... just roll it."
Chu Huan Lian put together the meaning of spring from a few scattered words: "If the neck is not right, the axe will cut the blade?"
Spring is an open-minded woman. After hearing the expression on her face, she immediately read it carefully several times.
She unintentionally began to speak Mandarin in the middle of the little monster separated by a corpse, and she suddenly had a natural and brutal kind.
"Mutay's brain marrow and blood can be used as medicine," Nan Shan explained next to him, "so it must be handled separately."
Chu Huan remembered the bowl of unidentified swill that the elder had given himself, and suddenly had a dish: "What kind of cure?"
"The brain marrow is made into ointment or powder to quickly stop bleeding and heal wounds, as you have seen, the medicine I applied to the wound before."
... Fortunately, it was applied externally.
"What about blood?"
"Blood is, blood ..." Nanshan's expression suddenly looked a little strange, and he vomited uncomfortably for a while, the ears were slightly reddish, and finally adopted the implicit saying, "Well, blood has other uses."
His eyes fluttered, and Chu Huan actually understood it immediately, but when he saw the patriarch's rare embarrassment, he suddenly felt itchy, and wanted to tease him, so he pretended to ask innocently, "What are other uses?"
Nanshan: "..."
The two men stared at each other for a moment, and Nanshan was blushed by the brazen old rogue. He used to speak unspeakable in Mandarin. In anxiety, he even forgot the fineness of his mouth. His tongue and teeth were difficult. She broke into each other's feet indifferently, and for a long while, she stumbled and stumbled out a sentence: "Ask so many things? You don't understand--what did I, I just said?"
Chu Huan held the word "don't understand" in his heart, and smiled brightly in the spring, but he answered decently on the face: "You said that my thing has something to do with your dad."
Nanshan caught the steps and quickly fled: "My family later found a way to let outsiders stay."
The two sat down under the big white stone that Chu Huan usually lectured on. Chu Huan listened quietly, not much to interject.
"After that time, we will send people to look around when the river channel is open and the two sides are connected. We also gradually started to contact people on your side, but it is said that there were not many contacts at that time. Secondly, there were not so many people on the other side of your river in the early years. You have to walk a long distance before you can meet a few sporadic mountain people, but we cannot go too far. "
"If the shock period happens and our people happen to be outside, I am afraid that it will be the same as a few guests of that year. And besides that, we have borders. In the county town where you came back last time, I tried many methods. , Ca n’t cross there. For my family, there is like a transparent wall-so you said last time that you would ask me to take a plane to your home ... I ’m afraid it wo n’t work. "
Chu Huan heard some kind of worries from his only words: "It doesn't matter, I asked my friends to send me pictures some other day. You read it and you've been there. What happened later?"
"Later, my dad came. He went to the river alone, and he was badly hurt. When Grandma saw it, he asked someone to bring him in."
Chu Huan's eyes narrowed, and he intuitively heard the key points.
This is a wild country ridge, and close to the border. In the early years, there was almost no people in the distance. If you would come here alone, the identity must not be much simpler.
"He was in the family, and he always liked him a lot, but the winter is coming, and the shock period is coming. He must be sent away and he will tell the truth to him. He was very interested in listening to it, although he left by words, But he didn't go far, and lived on the other side of the river. He caught many hares on the other side of the river, numbered them, and asked the tribes to feed them different things. As a result, when the shock period came that year, All the hares across the river are "freezing" without exception, except for one, which stole the ashes of the gatekeeper. "
Chu Huan thought he had misheard: "Wait, what did you just say? Who's something?"
Nanshan is very accustomed to saying: "The gatekeeper-the gatekeeper is the one who rode a snake and stopped you in the middle of the river that day. You have eaten their ashes."
When Chu Huan's scalp exploded, he suddenly felt that the whole person was a little bad: "When did I eat it?"
Nanshan: "The first time you drink the wine, remember? It ’s soaked in there."
Chu Huan: "..."
Compared with ashes, Chu Huan originally thought that the five poisonous wine is simply a small, fresh and weak.
Nanshan saw his expression of being struck by lightning and remembered the cultural differences, so he explained patiently: "I know that on your side, people die or burn to the ground. We are different here. The gatekeepers are students. And they will die before they are old. Their bodies are very precious. After death, they will be split into various medicines. It is not surprising that people are not going to return to the world when they die? "
Chu Huan glanced at him disgustingly, and was not comfortable with this naturalistic explanation.
Although it is said that whether the burial is eaten by microorganisms or the heaven is buried by vultures, it is back to the food chain to return to the world, but that does not mean that he is willing to play the role of "microorganism" and "vulture" in it!
Nanshan did not explain the gap between the three views. He continued: "But it was later discovered that only rabbits can do this, and they can be replaced with larger animals, such as deer, wild boars, etc. I lived for many years, after countless trial and error, and finally figured out a way to allow people on the other side to enter our side, which we call 'ritual'. "
Chu Huan: "What does the ceremony mean?"
Nanshan: "It's a blood exchange."
In Chu Huan ’s mind, various common senses such as
the possibility of hemolysis due to blood transfusion between different blood types
and
poor medical disinfection and infection of blood diseases
emerged, and then realized that Nanshan ’s
exchange of blood
might be understood by him. Not the same.
Chu Huan asked: "Whose blood?"
Nanshan said, "The gatekeeper."
Although I still have doubts about the concept of "gatekeeper", at this time, Chu Huan has had a deep admiration for it-this race is simply a great old mountain ginseng, and it is a treasure.
Chu Huan: "But what does this have to do with me?"
Nanshan: "The blood of the gatekeeper is the only antidote for Mutai's wind and poison. You have drunk it."
So by the river, the one Nanshan poured into his throat was ...
In less than a year, he had already eaten ashes and drank human blood. Chu Huan now began to wonder whether his dietary ingredients in the Liyi tribe were normal. "Flower", "roasted human liver", "fried chest muscles" and the like?
After so many years of conscientiousness and obedience to the law, he has inexplicably become a Hannibal. Can the circumstances of life be more ups and downs?
Chu Huan's throat moved awkwardly, and there was a lot of acid in his stomach.
"But the dose of detoxification at that point is very different from the amount of blood used in the actual ritual. Looking at what you are now, it is completely different from the state you should have after the blood exchange ceremony, so I guess it is likely to be related to blood. The "wind poison" effect of mutualism and mutual restraint. But what is the use, and how long can it be useful, I can't say. "
This time, Chu Huan heard what he meant.
"You are persuading me to accept the ceremony."
Nanshan: "You watch."
He took the little bottle from his waist, aimed at a grass that was about to die on the ground, and poured a few drops on the grass carefully and stingyly.
Then under Chu Huan's shocked gaze, the hay turned green and tender from the roots at a speed that was visible to the naked eye, and the shriveled branches gradually spread out, and a small lilac wildflower emerged from the top, standing dead in the surroundings, standing tall Exuded the vitality coming from the face.
It was the kind ... At first it attracted Chu Huan to the Liyi tribe, and let him hold on to the dream and the vitality that he couldn't find.
There are only four words in Chu Huan's mind-withered wood and spring.
"This is the ceremony." Nanshan said.
Chu Huan's eyes turned away from the wild grass with difficulty, he heard his voice actually tightened: "What is the price?"
"The outsiders who received the ritual are different from us. They can no longer be constrained. They can go back to the river at any time in the family or when the passage is connected. This ritual will use a lot of blood. This blood is wind poison. The only antidote, you should be able to understand how precious it is to us. My clan guardians and gatekeepers have had a blood contract since ancient times and can use each other's bodies, but they are never allowed to rush into each other while they are alive. "Nanshan said , "People who accept the ceremony must swear two oaths."
"First, accept the blood contract between the guardians and the gatekeepers, and don't hurt any gatekeeper because of greed."
"Second, stay in the clan forever and never leave us half a step."
Nanshan stared at Chu Huan's eyes: "Do you want to?"