The Complete Works of Lu Xun's Novels

Chapter 34

The first big wolf rushed towards the black man.With a wave of his green sword, the wolf's head fell to the moss on the ground.The other wolves tore off its skin in the first bite, and the whole body disappeared in the second bite, and the blood was wiped off in an instant, and only the sound of chewing bones could be heard slightly.

He had already pulled up the blue robe on the ground, covered Mei Jianchi's head, and carried the green sword on his back, turned around, and walked towards Wangcheng in the dark.

The wolves stood still, shrugging their shoulders, sticking out their tongues, panting, and watching him stride away with green eyes.

He walked towards Wangcheng in the dark, singing in a shrill voice:
Haha, love, love, love!

Love Qing Jianxi an enemy kills himself.

He Yi Lian Pian Xi how many husbands.

A husband who loves the green sword is not alone.

Heads changed, two enemies slaughtered themselves.

A husband has nothing to love! Woohoo!

Love woo hoo woo hoo ah hoo,
Ah woo woo woo woo woo!
three

The trip to the mountains did not amuse the king; adding the secret report that there would be assassins on the way made him even more disappointed and returned.That night he was very angry, saying that even the ninth concubine's hair was not as black and pretty as yesterday.Fortunately, she sat on his royal lap acting like a baby, and twisted it more than 70 times, which gradually stretched the wrinkles between the dragon's eyebrows.

In the afternoon, when the king got up, he was a little unhappy again, and after lunch, he almost showed an angry face.

"Alas! Boring!" he exclaimed after a big yawn.Everyone from the queen to the jester felt at a loss when they saw this situation.The king has long been tired of listening to the sermons of the white-bearded old minister and the jokes of the short and fat dwarf. Meaningless.He often wants to get angry; when he gets angry, he presses the green sword, always trying to find some small mistakes and kill a few people.

The two young eunuchs who wandered around outside the palace just came back, and when they saw the misery of everyone in the palace, they knew that disaster was coming as usual. Without haste, he ran up to the king, bowed down, and said:
"The servant just visited a strange person, who has extraordinary skills and can relieve the king's boredom, so I came here to hear about it."

"What?!" Wang said.His words are always very short.

"It was a black and thin man who looked like a beggar. He wore a green dress and carried a round blue package; he sang nonsense songs. People asked him. He said he was good at tricks, unprecedented, and unparalleled in the world. People I have never seen it before. Once I saw it, I immediately relieved my troubles and boredom, and the world was peaceful. But everyone asked him to play, but he refused. He said that first, there must be a golden dragon, and second, there must be a golden tripod. … "

"Golden dragon? I am. Golden tripod? I have it."

"That's exactly what the servant thinks..."

"Pass it in!"

Before the words were finished, the four warriors rushed out following the little eunuch.From the queen to the jester, everyone was beaming with joy.They all hope that this trick can be played to relieve their worries and boredom, and the world will be peaceful; even if they can't play it, this time there will be that beggar-like black and thin man to suffer, as long as they can wait until the word comes in.

It didn't take much time to see six people approaching the golden rank.In the first place is the eunuch, followed by four warriors, with a black man in the middle.When he got closer, the man's clothes were blue, his eyebrows and hair were black; he was so thin that his cheekbones, eye sockets, and brow ridges all protruded high.When he knelt and bowed down respectfully, he saw a small round bundle on his back, a blue cloth with some dark red patterns painted on it.

"Come on!" Wang said irritably.He saw that his guy was simple, and thought that he might not be able to play any good tricks.

"My minister's name is Yan Zhi Ao Zhe①; I grew up in Wenwen Township②. I have no occupation; I met a master late, and taught the tricks of a child. This trick can't be played by one person. You must put a golden tripod in front of the golden dragon. , filled with clean water, and boiled with animal charcoal. Then he put down the child's head, and when the water boiled, the head went up and down with the waves, dancing a hundred times, and making wonderful sounds, singing happily. This song and dance is seen by one person, and he relieves his worries. Release boredom and be seen by all people, and the world will be peaceful."

"Let's play!" Wang ordered loudly.

It didn't take much effort, a big golden cauldron for boiling cattle was placed outside the hall, filled with water, animal charcoal was piled under it, and a fire was lit.The black man stood beside him, seeing the coals turning red, he untied the bundle, opened it, took out the child's head with both hands, and held it up high.On the other end are beautiful eyebrows and long eyes, white teeth and red lips; the face is smiling; the hair is fluffy, like a burst of green smoke.The black man held it and turned around, then stretched out his hand to hold it on the tripod, moved his lips and said some unknown words, then let go of his hand, only to hear a splash, and fell into the water.The water splashed at the same time, more than five feet high, and everything was calm after that.

For a long time, there was no movement.The king became irritable first, followed by the queen and concubines, the ministers, and the eunuchs were also a little anxious, and the short and fat dwarves had already started to sneer.As soon as the king saw their sneer, he felt that he had been fooled. Looking back at the warriors, he wanted to order them to throw the scum who deceived the king into the ox cauldron to be boiled and killed.

But at the same time, the sound of boiling water can be heard; the charcoal fire is also flourishing, reflecting the black man turning red and black, and burning like iron until it is slightly reddish.Wang Gang turned his face again, he had already stretched out his hands to the sky, his eyes towards nothing, dancing, and suddenly sang with a shrill voice:

Haha, love, love, love!

No one is alone in love and blood.

Min Meng Ming Xing Xi a husband Hulu.

He uses a hundred heads, a thousand heads, ten thousand heads!

I have nothing to do with one head.

I love a head full of blood!
The blood is whirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Ah woo woo woo woo woo!
With the singing, the water surges from the mouth of the tripod, with a sharp top and a wide bottom, like a hill, but from the top of the water to the bottom of the tripod, it keeps circling.The other end seems to be going up and down in the water, turning in circles, and doing somersaults on his own. People can still vaguely see his happy smile.After a while, it suddenly changed to swimming against the current, spinning and shuttling back and forth, causing water to splash in all directions, and a gust of hot rain fell all over the courtyard.A dwarf suddenly called out and touched his nose with his hand.Unfortunately, he was scalded by hot water, and he couldn't bear the pain, so he couldn't help crying out.

As soon as the singing of the black people stopped, the other end also stopped in the middle of the water, facing the royal palace, and the color turned dignified.This lasted for more than ten seconds before slowly shaking up and down; from shaking to speeding up to undulating swimming, but not very fast, and the attitude was very graceful.Swimming around the water's edge three times, one high and one low, suddenly opened his eyes wide, the dark eyes looked extraordinarily brilliant, and at the same time began to sing:
Wang Ze is flowing and grand;
Overcome the enemy, overcome the enemy, be strong!
The universe is endless and life is boundless.

Fortunately, I am here, and I am so green!

Qing Qi Guang Xi will never forget each other.

Different places and different places are majestic!

Majestic, royal, oh, oh, oh,

Come and come back, come and accompany Lai Xi Qing Qiguang!
The head suddenly rose to the tip of the water and stopped; after a few somersaults, it rose up and down, its eyes glanced to the left and right, very charming, and the mouth was still singing:
Ah hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo
Love woohoo woohoo!
A head full of blood is so in love.

I'm worthless with one head!

He used a hundred heads, a thousand heads...

Singing here is when it sinks, but it no longer rises up; the lyrics are also indistinguishable.The surging water gradually receded with the faintness of the singing, like an ebbing tide, and finally reached below the mouth of the tripod, where nothing could be seen in the distance.

"What's wrong?" Wang asked impatiently after waiting for a while.

"Your Majesty," said the black man kneeling on his knees. "He is performing the most miraculous reunion dance at the bottom of the tripod. You can't see it unless you get close. I don't have magic to make him come up, because the reunion dance must be at the bottom of the tripod."

Wang stood up, stepped down the golden steps, stood beside the tripod in the heat, and looked with his head.I saw that the level was like a mirror, and the head was lying on his back in the middle of the water, his eyes were looking at his face.When the king's eyes fell on his face, he smiled sweetly.This smile made Wang feel familiar, but he couldn't remember who it was for a while.Just as he was wondering, the black man had already pulled out the blue sword he was carrying on his back, and with a single swing, it struck straight down from the back of his neck like lightning, and with a plop, the king's head fell into the cauldron.

When enemies meet each other, they are very discerning, let alone when they meet on a narrow road.As soon as Wang's head reached the surface of the water, Mei Jianchi's head came up to him and bit his helix fiercely.The water in the tripod immediately boiled, surging and sounding; the two ends fought to the death in the water.In about twenty bouts, Wang suffered five wounds on his head, but Mei Jianchi had seven wounds on his head.The king was also cunning, always trying to get behind his enemies.Mei Jianchi was negligent, and finally he bit the nape of his neck, unable to turn around.This time Wang's head was determined not to let it go, he just nibbled into it again and again; even outside the tripod, it seemed that he could hear the child's voice screaming in pain.

From the queen down to the jester, the expressions that had been condensed with horror also became active in response to the sound, as if they felt a dark sadness, and the skin was covered with millets; It's like waiting for something.

The black man also seemed a little panicked, but his expression remained unchanged.He calmly stretched out the arm holding the invisible green sword, like a dead branch; he stretched his neck, as if looking at the bottom of a cauldron.With a sudden bend of the arm, the green sword suddenly slashed from behind him, the sword fell head-to-head, and fell into the cauldron, with a thumping sound, snow-white sprays shot into the air at the same time.

As soon as his head entered the water, he went straight to the king's head and bit the king's nose, almost biting it off.Wang couldn't help yelling "Ayo", and opened his mouth, Mei Jianchi's head took the opportunity to break free, and when he turned around, he bit Wang's chin hard.Not only did they not let it go, but they tore it up and down with all their strength, until the king's head could no longer close his mouth.So they were like hungry chickens pecking at rice, biting wildly, until the king's eyes were crooked, his nose collapsed, and his face was covered with bruises.In the past, he would roll around in the tripod, but later he could only lie down and moan. After all, he was silent, only breathing out, not breathing in.

The head of the black man and Mei Jianchi also slowly stopped, left Wang's head, and swam along the tripod wall to see if he was pretending to be dead or really dead.When he knew that Wangtou was indeed dead, he looked at each other, smiled slightly, then closed his eyes, turned his back to the sky, and sank to the bottom of the water.

four

The smoke disappears and the fire disappears; the water wave does not flourish.The special silence made the people of the Highnesses alert.One of them yelled first, and everyone immediately screamed again and again; one of them walked towards the golden tripod, and everyone rushed to embrace it.Those who are crowded in the back can only peep inside from the gap between the necks of the people.

The heat was still burning people's faces.The water in the cauldron was as flat as a mirror, with a layer of oil floating on it, showing the faces of many people: queens, concubines, warriors, veterans, dwarves, and eunuchs. ...

"Ah, my God! Our king's head is still inside, alas!" The sixth concubine suddenly cried like a frenzy.

Everyone from the queen to the fools suddenly realized what they were doing, and scattered in a hurry, so anxious and at a loss what to do, they each made four or five circles.One of the most cunning old ministers came forward again, stretched out his hand to touch the edge of the tripod, but his whole body trembled, he immediately retracted, stretched out two fingers, put them near his mouth, and couldn't stop blowing.

Everyone settled down and discussed the salvage method outside the gate of the palace.It took about three pots of millet cooking, and finally got a result: I went to the big kitchen to collect wire spoons, and ordered the warriors to work together to scoop them up.

The utensils were assembled soon, and the wire spoon, colander, gold plate, and tablecloth were all placed next to the tripod.The warriors rolled up their sleeves, and salvaged those with wire spoons and colanders.There is the sound of spoons touching, and the sound of spoons scraping the golden tripod; the water is swirling with the stirring of the spoons.After a while, a samurai's face suddenly became very dignified, and he slowly raised the spoon with both hands very carefully, water droplets leaked from the hole of the spoon like beads, and a snow-white skull appeared inside the spoon.There was a cry of astonishment; and he poured the skull into a golden dish.

"Ah! My great king!" The queen, concubines, veterans, and even eunuchs all burst into tears.But it stopped shortly after, because the samurai picked up the same skull again.

They looked around with tears in their eyes, only to see that the warriors were greasy and sweaty, still salvaging.What was fished out after that was a mess of white and black hair; and a few spoonfuls of what appeared to be a white and black beard, very short.After that came another skull.Then there are three hairpins.

He didn't stop until there was only clear soup left in the tripod; he divided the fished objects into three gold plates: one for skulls, one for beards and hair, and one for hairpins.

"Our king has only one head. Which one belongs to our king?" the ninth concubine asked anxiously.

"That's right..." The veterans all looked at each other in blank dismay.

"It's easy to tell if the flesh isn't boiled," said a dwarf on his knees.

Everyone had to calm down and look at the skull carefully, but the black and white were about the same size, and even the child's head couldn't be distinguished.The queen said that there was a scar on the king's right forehead, which was caused by a fall when he was the prince, and she was afraid that there would be marks on the bone as well.Sure enough, the dwarf found it on one skull: while everyone was rejoicing, another dwarf saw a similar scar on the right forehead of the yellower skull.

"I have a solution." The third princess said proudly, "Our king's dragon must be very tall."

The eunuchs immediately began to study the nasal bone, and one of them seemed to be higher, but the difference was almost the same; the most regrettable thing was that there was no scar on the right forehead from a bruise.

"Besides," the veterans said to the eunuch, "is the king's occiput so sharp?"

"The servants have never paid attention to the king's occiput..."

The queen and concubines also recalled their own memories, some said it was pointed, and some said it was flat.When the hair combing eunuch was called to ask, he didn't say a word.

That night, a meeting of princes and ministers was held to decide which one was the head of the king, but the result was the same as during the day.And even the beard and hair have problems.The white ones are naturally the king's, but because they are gray, the black ones are also difficult to deal with.Discussed in the middle of the night, only a few red beards were selected; then because the ninth princess protested, she said that she had indeed seen a few yellow beards in the king, how can she know that there is never a red beard.So it had to be re-merged as a suspect.

In the middle of the night, there was still no result.Everyone actually yawned and continued to discuss until the second cock crowed, at which point they decided on the most prudent and appropriate solution: they could only bury the three skulls together with the king's body in a golden coffin.

Seven days later is the date of the burial, and the city is very lively.The people in the city and the people in the distance all came to pay their respects to the king's "big funeral".At daybreak, the road was already crowded with men and women; there were many sacrificial tables in between.In the morning, the knights who cleared the road came slowly.It took a lot of work before I saw the guard of honor, such as banners, wooden sticks, spear halberds, bows and crossbows, and yellow axe; after that, there were four advocacy carts.Behind it is the yellow cover that undulates with the unevenness of the road, and gradually approaches, and then a hearse appears, and a golden coffin is loaded on it, and three heads and a body are hidden in the coffin.

All the people knelt down, and the sacrificial tables appeared one by one among the crowd.The righteous people were very angry and swallowed tears, fearing that the souls of the two rebellious traitors would also enjoy the sacrifice with the king at this time, but there was nothing they could do.

After that came the cars of the queen and many princesses.The people looked at them, and they also looked at the people, but wept.After that came ministers, eunuchs, dwarfs and other generations, all pretending to be mournful.It's just that the common people don't look at them anymore, and even the ranks are crowded in a mess, which is out of shape.

Made in October [-].

This article was originally published on April 25 and May [-], [-], in the eighth and ninth issues of the second volume of the semi-monthly "Wangyuan" magazine, with the original title "Meijianchi".It was changed to its present name when it was compiled into "Selected Works" in [-].

Exit
Lao Tzu sat motionless, like a piece of dumb wood. ①
"Sir, Confucius is here again!" Geng Sangchu, his student, walked in impatiently and said softly.

"Please……"

"Sir, how are you?" Confucius said while saluting very respectfully.

"I've always been like this," Lao Tzu replied. "How are you? Have you read all the books here?"

"I've seen it all. But..." Confucius looked a little anxious, which he had never seen before. "I studied the six classics of "Poetry", "Book", "Li", "Yue", "Yi", and "Spring and Autumn", and thought that I had been familiar with it for a long time. I went to visit 72 masters, and none of them Adoption. It is really rare for people to explain it clearly. Or is it difficult to explain the Tao?"

"You're pretty lucky," Lao Tzu said, "you haven't met a capable master. The six classics are just relics of the previous kings. Where are the things that made the traces? Your words are the same as the traces." Yes. The traces are made of shoes, but are the traces shoes?" After a pause, he continued: "White cats just look at it without moving their eyeballs, but they are naturally pregnant; worms, males The one screams in the upper wind, the female responds in the lower wind, and naturally conceives; the human being has both male and female body, so it naturally conceives. Sex cannot be changed; fate cannot be changed; time cannot be kept; Dao cannot be blocked. As long as you have Dao, you can do anything, but if you lose it, you can do nothing.”

Confucius seemed to have been slapped in the face, and he sat down like a piece of dumb wood.

About 8 minutes later, he took a deep breath, got up to say goodbye, and politely thanked Lao Tzu for his lesson as usual.

Lao Tzu didn't hold him back either, he stood up and supported his stick, and escorted him to the gate of the library.Confucius was about to get into the car, and he said like a phonograph:

"You're leaving? Don't you want some tea? . . . "

Confucius agreed "Yes", got into the car, and leaned on the horizontal board with arched hands respectfully; Ran You ② waved his whip in the air, shouted "Du", and the car moved away.I didn't go back into my room until the car was more than ten steps away from the gate.

"Sir, you seem very happy today," Geng Sangchu saw that Lao Tzu had settled down, then stood beside him, with his hands down, and said. "There's a lot to talk about..."

"You're right." Lao Tzu sighed slightly, and replied somewhat dejectedly. "I really talk too much." He seemed to remember something suddenly, "Oh, the goose ③ that Confucius gave me, isn't it dried in the sun? You can steam it and eat it." .I don’t have any teeth anyway, so I can’t bite.”

Geng Sangchu went out.Lao Tzu calmed down again and closed his eyes.It was very quiet in the library.There was only the sound of bamboo poles touching the eaves. This was Geng Sangchu picking up the wax goose hanging under the eaves.

One pass is three months.Lao Tzu still sat motionless, like a piece of dumb wood.

"Sir, Confucius is here!" His student Geng Sangchu walked in as if surprised, and said softly. "Hasn't he been here for a long time? Here, I don't know why?..."

"Please..." I only said this one word as usual.

"Sir, how are you?" Confucius said while saluting very respectfully.

(End of this chapter)