Tianzhu: The Record of Foreign Stories in the Republic of China

Chapter 39
The next performance was a program called "Sawing People in the Middle".Daoist Pine beckoned, and Xiao Deaf immediately brought up a few planks.These wooden boards are all props brought by the pine master on the back of the donkey.The wooden planks have already been made with tenons and wedges, and the pine logs were long and pieced together, and soon a wooden box was assembled, about four feet long, about a foot wide and about a foot high.

Daoist Song Mu waved at the little dumb girl, and the little girl immediately obediently lay down in the box, stuck her head and feet out of the holes at both ends, kept sticking out her tongue and making faces at the onlookers, causing everyone to burst into laughter.Daoist Pine picked up a long plank and covered the wooden box tightly.Then he took a big saw and sawed it down from the middle of the wooden box. After a few clicks, even the box and the person were cut into two.Then insert two pieces of wood into the sawing gap, a long box suddenly turned into two small boxes, the head and feet of the little dummy were separated, and was sawed in half, but still dancing in the box, winking and laughing.Everyone was dumbfounded.Daoist Pine removed the middle plank, put the two pieces of the box together, opened the lid, and the little dumb was intact, and jumped out of the box.Everyone woke up like a dream, applauding one after another.

Daoist Pinewood bowed in all directions to thank the applause, he laughed and said, "Everyone, don't patronize the applause, it's important to eat wine, it's important to eat wine."

Everyone burst into laughter, and then remembered that they were sitting at a banquet, so they hurriedly raised their chopsticks and raised their wine glasses: "Come, come, eat, eat, drink!"

Taking advantage of this moment, the bride and groom came to toast the guests.Two servant girls followed behind with wine jugs and glasses, and handed a new glass of wine to every guest in front of them.In Hunan and Hubei, there is a custom of collecting toast money at weddings.After each guest finishes toasting the new couple and returns the wine glass, they must put a money gift in the glass, and the glass cannot be returned empty.Everyone drank the toast of the newlyweds, and put one or two silver coins in the cup as the toast money.Some rich and powerful people spend a lot of money, deliberately throwing a handful of silver coins into the cup, jingling, to show off.

When the bride and groom walked up to a male guest in a suit and leather shoes, the man suddenly stood up and laughed loudly: "Brother Yuting, you come to toast, and the guests all drank it in one gulp, but you, the official groom, only drink a glass of wine." Xiaokou, it seems unfair, doesn't it?"

The bridegroom blushed and said: "Then according to Brother Jiacheng's opinion, what should we do?"

Daoist Songmu heard him call him "Brother Jiacheng", so he knew that this greasy-faced guy was actually Shi Jiacheng, the son of the county magistrate.

I just heard Shi Jiacheng say: "Today is brother Yu Ting's big day, I won't make things difficult for you, let's have three drinks with each other, how about?"

Qiao Yuting ate and said: "This, this... Yuting is not good at drinking, it's really..."

Before he finished speaking, Shi Jiacheng had already placed three full cups of Xiulin Yuye in front of him. He took the cups one by one, cleaned them one by one, and with a "crash", he put ten oceans in each cup as the toast money.All the guests saw that he was drinking freely, spending generously, without any airs of the county magistrate, so they couldn't help cheering.

Qiao Yuting showed embarrassment, so he had no choice but to bite the bullet and drink three cups with him.He was not a good drinker, but he drank these three glasses of wine a little more hastily, and he became a little confused immediately.

Shi Jiacheng handed back the empty wine glass, and the bride stretched out her hand to take it, but Shi Jiacheng secretly stretched out his fingers and squeezed her palm lightly.The bride's complexion changed, she shrieked and withdrew her hands, the wine glass fell to the ground with a bang and shattered.The groom was so drunk that he didn't know where he was going, but he thought it was the bride who accidentally broke the wine glass. While ordering someone to clean it, he continued to toast the guests while holding the bride's arm.

Daoist Songmu's eyes are so sharp, he saw everything in his eyes, and thought: What Zheng Shaotang said is true, this county magistrate is really well-dressed and daring.

After a short rest, after the bride and groom finished toasting, Daoist Pinewood said loudly: "The old Taoist below will perform a show for everyone, called 'Head Changing of a Living Person'." All the guests present know that this is the most famous unique skill of Taoist Pinewood They all turned their heads, opened their eyes wide, and watched intently, for fear of accidentally missing the most exciting scene.

Daoist Songmu knew that everyone was anxiously waiting, but he became even more sluggish.Everyone was anxious, and they were not good at urging them with words, they just laughed and scolded this old man with a low nose in his heart, he was not kind, and he deliberately teased people's appetites.

Shi Shiran, the pine master, walked to the field, picked up a few more boards, and calmly put together an average-sized box next to the wooden box that Xiaoya had just been lying on.He put the two wooden boxes together, held the magic sword in his hand, turned around and pointed, and said to the two apprentices: "If you don't go in, when will you wait?"

Although Xiao Deaf couldn't hear the sound, he could understand Master's hand gestures. He set up a stool, climbed onto the table, and obediently lay down in the wooden box that Master had just set up.Xiaoya is a girl, but she is much more naughty than her senior brother, sitting on a chair with her mouth pouted and refusing to go in.Daoist Songmu yelled twice, the little girl just ignored it, and took out the silver coin that the bride just rewarded her, tossing it over and over again.

The groom's officer saw the clue and rewarded her with a piece of ocean.The little mute got the reward, so he giggled and happily lay down in the wooden box where he had been lying down before.

Taoist Songmu couldn't help scolding with a smile: "Young girl, in order to ask for money, you don't even listen to what your master says." He took two wooden boards and covered the two wooden boxes respectively.The little deaf and dumb brothers and sisters were lying in the wooden box, with half of their heads exposed. The little dumb smiled and squeezed his eyes, but the little deaf was pale and seemed a little scared.

Daoist Pine made a gesture and asked the two of them, "Are you ready?"

The two pursed their lips and nodded.

The pine tree Taoist stepped on the ground, cast spells with his sword, and muttered in his mouth: "The heavens are spirited, the earth is spirited, Taishang Laojun, please listen clearly, change the heads of my two villains, so that they can come back again." Be a man." Sing it three times in a row, and suddenly there was a sound of "duh", and a sword struck down.It was originally a precious sword that cut iron like mud, but with a flash of cold light, the blade cut off the necks of the two young deaf and dumb people. With a sound of "click", the heads and necks of the two people were cut off together with the box, but not a single drop of blood splashed out.

The onlookers were startled, and exclaimed with an "ah", worried whether the old Daoist's sword would hurt the lives of the two apprentices.It would be a disastrous sight if there were two murders in this joyous wedding.

Look at the two young deaf and dumb children, although their heads have been cut off, their eyes are still rolling.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and said, "They are still alive."

Daoist Songmu took out wooden boards and inserted them through the gaps cut by the sword on the wooden box, so that the head of the little deaf and dumb child was completely separated from the body, and was packed in a small wooden box one foot square.

Daoist Pine quickly turned the two small wooden boxes containing the heads to one side, put the head of the little deaf on the side of the little mute, and put the head of the little mute on the side of the little deaf, and then put the cut wooden box Put it together, and pull out the small wooden board inserted in the neck.With the water in the mouth, it sprayed down on the head with a "poof", and at the same time drank in the mouth: "Get up!"

In the mist filled the air, only two "bangs" were heard, and the two wooden covers covering the wooden box were kicked off, and the little deaf and dumb child jumped out of the box in response.The little mute's head with two braids of horns was resting on the little deaf's body; but the little deaf's head was growing on the little mute's thin body in a calico skirt.The heads of the two were changed, but they were still able to jump around alive and well on the ground.

The crowd of spectators had never seen such a thrilling and bizarre scene. The food picker stretched his chopsticks into the bowl and forgot to take it back, and the drinker poured the wine into his mouth and forgot to swallow it. Without the slightest sound, the wine flowed down from the corner of his mouth, wet his clothes, and he didn't realize it.

In the huge living room, there was a sudden silence.

I don't know how long it took, and suddenly someone "chucked" and laughed out loud, and then the others seemed to understand something, and they all laughed along with him.In the end, it turned into a joking roar of laughter.

Daoist Pinewood was baffled by everyone's laughter, looked back at the two apprentices, and suddenly realized that he had moved too quickly just now, and when he put the little deaf's head on the little mute's body, it turned in the opposite direction and turned into a face. Facing back, the back of the head is facing forward.A boy with a girl's body and dress is weird and funny enough, but it's even more ridiculous if he looks like a Shen Gongbao with his head turned upside down.

(End of this chapter)