Human Flag (Fantasy 22)

(Part 1)

"Have you seen the newly raised Youqi flag diagonally across the Liu family yard?" The shop owner wiped the old table with a rag with one hand and held it in front of me with the other hand. teapot, he asked me without raising his head.

At the moment I am sitting on the Eight Immortals table in a small shop drinking tea, and the shop is getting ready to close. The heavy stool made a dull sound as it was dragged, and then was turned upside down and placed on the cleaned table by the shopkeeper. The reason why he doesn't avoid me is because I have been living here for a month.

This store is a two-story wooden building. There are only four bulky Eight Immortals tables in the lobby downstairs, and there are several rooms upstairs that are not very spacious. The house, even the decoration, has an antique feel. The wooden carved windows, the creaking narrow stairs, the tall and wide door panels, and the wide Eight Immortals table all look like an old-time inn.

I also walk around on weekdays, but in such a lonely town, few people come. There is only one inn and canteen, and the owner is struggling to make ends meet with a grimace all day long. When I met a long-term guest like me, a flower bloomed on his face. He answered all questions and was always attentive.

When I first came here, I saw a flag hanging on the street. It looked like a human, with a pair of shriveled and terrifying eyes, and a piece of skin swaying in the wind. I felt a shiver in my heart. Could it be that he was warning me not to let strangers in? When we entered the town, we discovered that almost every household was displaying such a human-shaped flag, and the surrounding villages were all the same. The human-shaped flags are high or low, some are exquisite and complete, some are rough and damaged, fluttering in the wind and making a hunting sound.

I was very scared at first, but I didn’t know where I could go if I walked back. I had been staggering in the wilderness for a long time, and finally braved the wind and snow and braved the town to break into the hotel. inside. I don’t know why I came here, and I keep looking back. The source of my memory is only the figure staggering in the wilderness.

The shop owner finished his work and made a cup of tea. He sat in front of me and talked to himself about what he had learned: The old Liu family has a well-to-do family, and only this one courtyard has three entrances and three exits. , one of the few that can get a good reputation here. There are four sons and three daughters from the same family, and they all have their own merits. Unfortunately, the old man has been seriously ill and has been bedridden for several years, and the children are away from home. At most, they occasionally ask one or two neighbors to send some loose money and a few herbs to express their feelings.

Hearing that Mr. Liu was dying day by day, he rushed back and forth to urge his children to return home, but in the end he died lonely. These children finally returned, and the deserted gate was rarely bustling for a few days. It's just that the luxurious courtyard in my impression is already dilapidated, and it's winter again. No living creatures can be seen. There are only gongs and drums from other places invited by the children, and filial sons and grandsons shuttle around.

After all, they are from a wealthy family. These children, who have fame and wealth outside, entertain their neighbors, rich or poor, on the seven-day running water feast, even if they eat with open stomachs, saying that they will be sent to the kingdom of heaven in a lively manner. Ah, you came a month late, and there was a lot of excitement at that time: the sound of gongs and drums from other places was loud, the best nanmu coffins were tall and majestic, and the team of chefs from other places were busy, and there were many delicious delicacies that were unheard of and unseen. You missed it.

"But why should the dead be made into human skin flags?" I couldn't help but wonder.

Didn’t I tell you before, but you’ve forgotten it again. A good young man, he is so stupid at painting.

Yes, I came here with tons of doubts in my mind, but I had no way to resolve them, so I just painted in vain. Fortunately, the scenery here is good. The small town is laid out along the river. There are old trees, stone bridges, blue bricks and black tiles, green fields and smoke, elegant beauties, and childish and naughty children. Some people are washing clothes, and some are selling plum blossoms... ...Picture after picture of beautiful scenery pours out from the pen, and I have never been more inspired than now. Focusing on drawing new paintings, the human skin flags that can be seen everywhere are no longer so scary. Wearing my myopia glasses, I simply imagined them as wine flags used by stores to attract customers, which added a different kind of beauty.

That's called Youqi, which means protecting future generations. Only the most virtuous and respected elders in the family are qualified to become flags, the shopkeeper continued solemnly. Everyone knows that the tombs of the dead must be carefully guarded by Feng Shui, for the sake of blessing future generations. You see, some people have good luck, but others say it’s because their ancestors’ graves were well buried. The meaning of this blessing flag is almost the same as entering the grave. It's just that the tombs here can only protect three generations, but the blessing flag flying in the sky is much higher.

For nine generations, the shop owner opened his mouth and showed an exaggerated expression.

Isn’t there a word for a world of difference between one sky and one earth? That's pretty much what it means. This is the main direction floating in the sky, watching all directions and listening to all directions, choosing the best path for you; walking on this tube buried in the ground, moving steadily towards the goal step by step. If this is the wrong direction, the harder you go, the more outrageous the mistake will be. Therefore, this Youqi must select the most virtuous, respected and wise people in the clan to become Youqi, which is the highest honor for a human being.

Of course, this cannot be easily told to outsiders, lest they follow suit and take away the spiritual power. Our ancestors obtained this heavenly secret through great achievements, so we have lived in this deep mountain for generations. When young people reach old age and go out to work hard, they all say that they come from remote countryside and never mention anything about our flag town. When they reach old age, they return to their hometown in glory. Don't tell me, our town can produce talents. If nothing else, the old Liu family's yard would have to be built by an important person in the city. My family, if it weren't for my son who was doing business in the city, would have been exposed to the northwest wind by running this shabby shop. It’s also because there are no canteens or hotels in the town. Occasional guests like you won’t be begging. I’m just kind-hearted.

The shopkeeper was still chattering, but I was already in a daze. On the cold stone street outside the door, there is the occasional sound of wheels passing by, the sound of hurried footsteps of one or two people returning home at night, and even the sound of "The sky is dry and things are dry, be careful of candles". Also, the Spring Festival is approaching day by day, and there is a lively scene of buying new year's goods everywhere. It can be imagined that rows of newly hung red lanterns are shivering in the cold air, looking at the couplets, exhaling the heat and emitting light and heat. I silently lamented in my heart that this is what an ancient town should be like, filled with a rich flavor of life, instead of being filled with cheap ethnic jewelry in the Yiwu wholesale market and the commercial noise of crowds of people selling snacks.

...I mentioned the filial son and grandson of the old Liu family, but there are a lot of rumors behind him. Brother Zhu San, who was hired to carry food, said that in fact, the boss and the second brother came back secretly and forced the old man to sign a will and leave two storefronts in the city to them, just before his death. Aunt Yang, who helped wash the dishes, said that her daughters also came back secretly and took away a lot of antique jewelry. Doctor Jia, the best doctor in the town, said that one day the old man suddenly became extremely weak, as if he had traveled a long distance due to a serious illness. Some people said that it was because his son forced him to change the owner of the house. Ping An, who was knocking on the clock, said that he once saw his youngest son sneaking out of the house...

I started to have a headache, a splitting headache, and the nerves in my brain were jumping up and down as if they had been poisoned by a little beast. Running around. My vision began to blur, and the store owner's voice became indistinct. As if following the store owner's narration, I saw the flags of Lao Liu's family rising and falling, splitting into several branches and finally no longer rising. I saw the hair of a young girl with hair growing white and aging like a beautiful bamboo, quickly growing taller and thicker like a beautiful bamboo. I took off my baggage and went out to explore, and soon returned home with a cane; I saw the rest of the people's flags rising and falling with the tide of the old Liu family. In the end, more fell than they rose. Some fell down with their eyes piercing into the vast earth, and some Lying flat and staring silently at the endless sky. I saw people coming and going in colorful clothes, I saw the flagpole being uneven and bent, I saw this town going from prosperity to decay, decline, and finally annihilation. Memory fragments poured in like a tide, as if the quick play button was clicked. Many characters, sounds, and scenes appeared in a revolving lantern, and then hurriedly came to an end.

Who is talking to me? If he wasn’t the shopkeeper, how could the shopkeeper live so long and know so many things? Not the shop owner, the shop owner’s family flag has fallen and the flagpole has been folded, leaving only half of it sticking diagonally into the sky from the second floor; not the shop owner, the table and bench have been covered with dust and have not been swept for a long time, and in the corner a spider is leisurely spinning its web.

I saw that this place was dying. Only the wind was left to visit with the seeds of weeds. Only the voles were left to bring their families to settle down. Only the birds were left to bring their families to build nests. The fallen leaves of the ancient trees are left layer by layer, gently covering the town's tombs with soil.

In the final haze, I seemed to see a group of people carrying thick mountaineering bags, rushing into the town as recklessly as I did. Then, the thick eyelids forced me to close my eyes.

(Part 2)

"He's awake, he's awake." I heard a young man's voice, rushing into my eardrums. I finally raised my heavy eyelids, but I saw a flash of bright light that made me close my eyes tightly.

After a few more seconds, I opened my eyes again and looked carefully. It should be a blue two-person tent. I was lying on one side of the tent, and there were several hiking bags piled close to each other on the other side. Chaotic footsteps sounded, and a young man in his twenties opened the tent door and poked his head in. There was that familiar chirping voice behind him.

"I know you". My first words startled me, and they came out before he could ask about my health. "About thirty years ago, I met you, and you were just like now, passing by carrying a heavy bag, and there was a woman walking with you." Before I finished speaking, I felt very strange at first, and the two pairs of eyes in front of me were staring at me in surprise. It took me a long time to see the man in front of me. He twitched his lips and said: Not to mention that you look young, anyway. I am only twenty-five years old, let alone thirty years ago, and I was passing by with a big bag on my back. You should have a good rest."

I was also suspicious. In fact, I am only 21 years old. But why did I say those words just now as naturally as asking a friend what he ate last night? Could it be that Did you really fall asleep for a while?

I rested for a while, got up and walked around. I learned through casual chat that they were graduate students from the School of Geology, and they were taken out by their tutor to explore on a sunny spring day. Look at the beautiful spring scenery of the motherland. The boy who first noticed that I woke up was named Shen.

Isn’t it a cold and snowy day in spring? There is still a branch of wintersweet on the counter of the store? The lively atmosphere of welcoming the New Year on the street is not fake, right?

"Have you ever passed by a small town? It's so strange there. They make flags made of human skin and fly them in the wind to pray for blessings, right? Only the most virtuous and respected people can make the flag. There was only one hotel there, and I stayed there. Hey, where did you find me? Where is this? ”

The two young men stared at me as if they were madmen or fools, as if they were looking at a monster. They forgot to chew and swallow the food they put into their mouths. Shen tried to reach out a hand and touched my forehead, "I don't have a fever." The look in his eyes made me tremble. Did I say it wrong? Although I also felt that the town was strange. But am I not so shocking? Today's young people really read too much and are stupid.

Eh? I am obviously younger than them, why do I have such a vicissitude in my tone? I saw the two of them finally stopped staring at me, looked at each other, and murmured again: "When we found him, wasn't he passed out on the roadside carrying an easel? Where did the human flag come from? What hotel? "Yes, yes. Looking at the elegant and fair young painter, I didn't expect that his mind was abnormal. No wonder a person came to this wilderness..."

Painting? Yes. , I am a painter. I hurriedly got up and went back to the tent to look for my package. I have a painting to prove that I am indeed telling a lie. Fortunately, the painting is still there in front of me. It didn't get weird yet, so I hugged a thick stack of drawings like I was holding on to life-saving straws, and hurried to them to grab the white paper: I have drawings, I am a student of drawing, my drawings can prove it, everything I say is true.

They looked up at me in astonishment, took the drawings in my hand with distrust, and began to look through them roughly, before they saw Xiao Shen brushing them off. Throwing the drawing away, he said angrily: I have never seen such a shameless and nonsense person! It is true that your paintings are good, the scenery is beautiful, the brushwork is skillful and smooth, and there is a sense of beauty in the paradise. If you want to lie, please choose a better reason, 1524, 1679! Did you travel through time? Or can you wear it casually? Otherwise, why are the dates so different? I didn’t expect it to be a Mary Sue novel. Too many ignorant people. Not to mention that although this painting is from an ancient town, it still contains some Western techniques! Is this an antique? Or are you trying to make things up? As an artist, this trick can't fool me!

I looked at the painting in amazement. The scenery was still a familiar one, the small bridge was still the same small stone bridge, and the flowing water was still the same starched stream, but the date was different. There were some strange numbers on it. It was obviously a meticulous drawing, but it looked like it was a hasty sketch. My hands were shaking with anger, but I was speechless.

What the hell is going on?

"Xiao Shen, look at these paintings of his, regardless of the buildings and dates. Is the undulating terrain somewhat similar to the place where we found him?" Xiao Shi was still flipping through the thick drawings. , making a clattering sound.

Xiao Shen glanced at me deeply with suspicious eyes. He tried his best to suppress his inner anger with his own restraint, and reluctantly looked at the drawing again. After flipping through most of the thick manuscript, Xiao Shen's eyes became more and more surprised.

As expected of someone who studied exploration, he can easily separate topographic maps from drawings. In the thick stack of drawings, although the scenery and figures have been changing, the basic terrain remains the same.

Just as he was talking, an elegant and loud "I'm back" came to his ears leisurely. A middle-aged man wearing gold-rimmed glasses and carrying a small sampling bag appeared in his field of vision, getting closer and closer.

I looked at him carefully and then at Xiao Shen. The two faces almost overlapped. "Professor Shen", "Dad". It turns out that this is Lao Shen, the ace professor of the School of Geology. This time he took his most proud disciple and son out for exploration.

I looked at Professor Shen, then at Xiao Shen, and said to Professor Shen: It’s you I see. Thirty years ago, seventeen of you also went out for exploration, and there was only one girl. At first I mistakenly thought I was seeing Xiao Shen, but there is a mole under your eye, so I won’t remember it wrong.

Xiao Shen and Xiao Shi have become accustomed to my crazy words and no longer pay attention to me. Professor Shen looked at my young face and frowned slightly. His gentle and wise eyes were like a calm deep lake, and I sank. I was still thinking that Professor Shen should meet the conditions of Renqi. Unfortunately, the town of Banner has disappeared in the long river of history due to illness, early death, crime, failure to return from abroad, natural and man-made disasters, etc.

Professor Shen adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses and said puzzledly: Thirty years ago, I did follow my mentor to inspect here, and it was indeed seventeen people. The only girl became my wife a few years later and gave birth to Xiao Shen. This time I came to review some details. However, you look so young, how do you know what happened thirty years ago? This place is so desolate, why are you here?

"Ah~" Xiao Shi and Xiao Shen exclaimed. "Is what he said true?" Xiao Shen had a look of distrust on his face. He and Xiao Shi looked at Professor Shen's side face at the same time, and there was clearly a light brown mole there.

Professor Shen lit a cigarette and listened quietly to the two young men explaining the whole story in horror. They finally no longer just regarded me as a madman talking nonsense, but they were still puzzled and their eyes were full of question marks.

The cigarette burned his butt. Professor Shen threw it to the ground as if it was hot to his hands. He rubbed it with his shoe a few times and stamped it out. He thought for a while and then slowly said: When I was young, because I chose In this major, I have read a lot of books about wild animals and plants. I am afraid of being scratched or poisoned by accidental ingestion. Occasionally, it can quench my thirst and wrap my stomach. One time I accidentally opened a book of Zhiyi, and there was an article in it that said: There are beautiful trees in the east, named Fanyin. It has a lifespan of eight hundred and a hundred miles of shade. On the verge of death, it blooms red flowers and bears strange fruits. If birds and animals accidentally eat it, they can remember it. It seems to me that you have a lot of memories that are not your own, which is somewhat similar to this situation. I wonder if you have ever eaten any wild fruits?

Wild fruit? When I think about it carefully, I seem to have eaten a few. At that time, I made an appointment with my friend to go out to sketch together. Carrying an easel and a hiking bag, I planned to take advantage of this spring day to stay a few more days and paint some special landscapes. Unexpectedly, after I finished painting the sunset, I got separated from him. I stumbled for a long time in the wilderness under the moonlight, feeling frightened, scared, tired and hungry. The shadows of the surrounding mountains, trees, and grass moved indistinctly with the wind, like a black devil with its mouth wide open and fangs exposed, which was particularly scary. I saw a few small red fruits among the thorns on the roadside. They were as red as cherries. I was thirsty and hungry, so I picked them up and ate them. It's really as fresh and juicy as a cherry, and then you wake up in your tent.

"Oh? Let's go to the place where we found you early tomorrow morning. It's not far away. Maybe we can find something." Professor Shen said calmly, and the two young men also agreed. After all, there was no better way. Xiaoshi also joked, "You art students have rich imaginations. We often camp out and survey, and we just see the mountains as mountains and the water as water, and we don't feel scared at all."

Although the two young men understood my situation to some extent, they were still full of mysteries and were unwilling to sleep with me.

After dinner, Professor Shen and I slept next to each other in a tent. We didn't talk all night, but I stayed up all night. Could it be that I had such a clear impression of Flag Town and the paintings that I had inadvertently stolen other people’s memories? Are there really such strange trees and fruits? I grew up studying Marxism-Leninism, so what does this mean?

Early the next morning, we hurried to the trail where I was found. There are a few bushes of thorns, but there is no shadow of a prosperous town. What is left is just luxuriant grass and a paradise for wild foxes and voles to play. If you look carefully, you can see that there are small mounds of dirt everywhere, and there are actually layers of tombs everywhere. Without anyone to take care of it, it turned into fertile soil for weeds, hidden in the gaps of the years.

The wind was blowing and the birds were singing. Our hurried arrival early in the morning disturbed the leisure of many wild foxes, pheasants, weasels. They screamed and plunged into the weeds, hid in the caves, and fluttered again and again. The dewdrops fell on the grass, frightening a few foraging sparrows.

"Eh? You said the flag you saw at the entrance to the town couldn't be this, right?" Xiaoshi pointed to a strip-shaped object not far away with a strange expression. When I got closer, I saw that it was a newly buried Qingming lantern, with its long colorful tail swaying gently in the wind. I don’t know who it was, but it was half a month before Qingming Festival. I hurriedly plugged in the lamp for my ancestors. I don’t know who it was because I was filial, or because I was anxious to go out and there was no one at home. A sentence comes to mind inexplicably: The vast underworld is full of miserable people. A clear lamp guides the way forward.

It turns out that this tomb has been visited by many people. If you look closely, you can see the traces left by burning incense candles and paper money, as well as many small poles with Qingming lanterns and flags. But at this moment, It was already staggered here and there, broken and damaged, and the remains of the lantern flag that fell on the ground could still be glimpsed, which was very similar to the final decline of the flag town.

"Ah! There is a big, big tree stump here!" Xiao Shen shouted. We immediately gathered there after hearing this, and sure enough, it was a huge tree stump. At this time, the tree was completely dead, without a single new bud or a single green leaf, only the huge chopped growth rings, like a single eye, silently staring at the sky. The wild grass surrounding it looked a bit like fluttering eyelashes.

"Yes, I remember there was a big tree here last time I passed by, and I rested under that tree," Lao Shen said to himself. "What a pity, such a big tree, such a special tree!"

I stood on the tree stump, looking down at the circles of growth rings, yes, the ancient trees seen in Biqi Town Much bigger. At this moment, I finally remembered that the shop owner’s last name was Shijima. The name of the store is Never Coming Back.

End.