Without providing an operation manual, usage rules, or taboos to avoid, he just laughed and rode away on his blue ox? Cao Yanhua fumed—why didn’t the blue ox throw him off its back and kill him?
Suddenly inspired, he shouted: “I’ve got it! It was the wolf that opened the feng, huang, and luan clasps!”
The more he thought about it, the more it made sense: “Laozi said no person could open the feng, huang, and luan clasps, but he didn’t say no wolf could open them!”
Could it be interpreted that way? Luo Ren didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Shen Gun was furious on the other end: “When Laozi said no person, he implied wolves too!”
“But…”
“No buts! Laozi spoke that way to sound cool. Cool people speak concisely, like ‘Those who follow me prosper, those who oppose me perish.’ Does he need to specifically emphasize that people, pigs, dogs, and wolves who follow him will all prosper? That would be long-winded. Would that still be cool?”
Were all experts so sophisticated? Cao Yanhua felt wronged.
Fortunately, Mu Dai stood on his side: “But it seems the feng, huang, and luan clasps have indeed been opened.”
Shen Gun didn’t deny this: “They’ve been opened, yes, but not by a person, nor by a wolf.”
So it was… neither human nor wolf? Cao Yanhua’s mind conjured the imposing figure of a werewolf.
But… never mind, he didn’t dare say it.
Luo Ren broke the silence: “Looking at this drawing again, I understand the mountains and the river. Hangu Pass is said to connect to the Qinling Mountains in the south and is bounded by the Yellow River in the north. The drawing might be indicating Hangu Pass through its terrain. The seven ominous strips and feng, huang, and luan clasps are now clear, but this wolf or dog…”
Shen Gun exhibited the same directness as Luo Ren and Mu Dai earlier: “I don’t know about this wolf, and I won’t guess. Conjectures should be based on evidence; we can’t make wild guesses.”
Mu Dai’s fingers tapped on the sofa armrest: Hmm, no wild guesses, he has principles.
Luo Ren nodded: “Fine, let’s set aside the wolf for now and use the existing information to review what has happened.”
This way, the source of the matter went far beyond the questionable “Hangu Pass.”
Luo Ren continued drawing lines with a marker, stopping only at the edge of the wall. At the starting point, he wrote “Earliest seven criminal cases, turtle shells and animal bones.”
After a gap, he wrote “Ominous, awaiting a person of great virtue to seal,” and after another gap, “Yin Xi, Hangu Pass, Laozi, feng, huang, and luan clasps, seven ominous strips.”
This connected with the previously theorized diagram, but Luo Ren’s pen stopped at a point in the middle, hesitated, and drew a large question mark.
“From later descriptions, Zhang Guanghua was an ordinary person, neither greatly evil nor greatly virtuous. So I believe he couldn’t open the feng, huang, and luan clasps. Someone else opened them before him.”
Mu Dai nodded: “Zhang Guanghua was just the first to come into contact with them.”
Shen Gun coughed on the other end: “He might not even be the first to come into contact with them. Don’t forget, there are seven ominous strips, and Zhang Guanghua only brought out one. He’s just the first one you encountered.”
Yi Wansan’s gaze fell on the basin of water: “So there are six more human skins?”
“Oh, this young man’s voice sounds unfamiliar. Who is this?”
Unfamiliar? Yi Wansan felt deeply humiliated by being ignored: “I spoke earlier! When you asked how many ominous strips there were, I answered, Seven!”
Was that so? Perhaps he was too excited at the time and didn’t notice. Shen Gun was quite cheerful: “What shall I call you?”
“Everyone calls me Yi Wansan.”
“Alright, Little Three-Three, let’s continue with the main topic.”
Little Three would have been fine, but he gave him another “three”! Yi Wansan was furious, but the conversation had already moved on.
“Before I understood the situation, I used ‘human skin’ as a substitute, but now I need to correct this—there is no human skin, only ominous strips. How to put it… It’s not the strip itself that’s ominous…”
It’s like a ghost possessing a lamp—frightened people would only describe “that terrifying ghost lamp.” The lamp is innocent, but no one separates the two; they just flee from the lamp.
“Those seven ominous forces have no shape, and no one has seen them. It’s just that Laozi initially drew them into wooden strips, so later generations called them ominous strips. I suspect that after being confined to wooden strips for so long, even when they escaped, they habitually retained the form of wooden strips. When they manifest while possessing someone, they naturally protrude from under the skin in the shape of wooden strips. When they urgently leave the body, their method is rather… brutal.”
Mu Dai continued: “So that’s why those people have wounds on their backs?”
“Yes, a piece of skin is torn away.”
Cao Yanhua persisted: “But why on the back? Why not on the face or arm?”
Shen Gun grew impatient: “The strips are 15 cm long and 5 cm wide, not exactly small. They need a relatively flat space to display themselves.”
“But the leg would work too…”
Cao Yanhua stretched out his plump leg, examining it from side to side, even measuring with his hand. The space was large enough—it could accommodate two ominous strips without a problem.
Luo Ren signaled him to stop digging deeper: “If you think of the ominous strip as a person, it probably has its preferences, just like serial killers have characteristic behaviors.”
Shen Gun laughed heartily: “Little Radish, you truly understand me. That’s the terrifying aspect of this matter! Remember when I said the ominous strips are alive?”
Mu Dai couldn’t help but think: Why discuss “terrifying aspects” with such a cheerful laugh? This Shen Gun…
“No one knows what they look like. They’re just invisible forces, possibly just auras. During the Southern Song Dynasty, Wen Tianxiang wrote a poem called ‘Song of Righteous Energy,’ which begins, ‘Heaven and earth have righteous energy, diversely bestowed in all forms, below forming rivers and mountains, above forming the sun and stars,’ meaning righteous energy is omnipresent, filling the universe in various forms.”
Luo Ren’s expression suddenly changed. Mu Dai glanced at him curiously, but Luo Ren just smiled, gesturing for her to continue listening.
“By this reasoning, the ominous strips might be like this—alive. They don’t necessarily possess people, nor do they necessarily take the form of wooden strips. You don’t know if they have thinking capabilities or if they communicate with each other. But I can almost be certain that the others are different from this one, and might even have become smarter due to this one’s captivity. Continue attaching to human bodies? Missing a piece of skin from the back? No, no, no—they would be better at hiding.”
Cao Yanhua suddenly shivered: “A-alive?”
Alive, and possibly communicating with each other—did they hold grudges?
Cao Yanhua looked at Yi Wansan: “Brother Three-Three, you… You burned it with fire!”
Yi Wansan had already been anxious about this. Hearing Cao Yanhua’s remark, he jumped as if his foot had been stepped on, not even caring about the “Brother Three-Three” address: “I burned it, but what about you? Didn’t you throw a cup at it?”
Mu Dai tried to calm herself, silently repeating: “I’m fine, I didn’t do anything…”
Luo Ren gently reminded her: “Mu Dai, you trapped it with a basin of water.”
Mu Dai’s reaction was even more intense than Yi Wansan’s: “What about you? You stabbed it with a knife.”
Luo Ren deliberately provoked her: “Mu Dai, that’s not called stabbing, that’s called piercing.”
…
Shen Gun was delighted to listen, enjoying the drama without getting involved. What scene was unfolding there? Fatty Cao must be fighting with Little Three-Three by now, and as for Little Pocket, she surely had grabbed Little Radish’s hair…
Look at them—just a hint of danger and they’re quick to blame each other. These people probably weren’t that close yet. True friendship through life-and-death situations wasn’t like this. True friendship was when, despite verbally abusing someone like a grandson, you’d still be the first to help when they were in danger.
Shen Gun suddenly missed his friends.
He heard Luo Ren say, “Enough. What’s done is done. This situation is because of me. If I could shield you all, I would bear it all, but I don’t know if it would agree.”
It? Which one?
Luo Ren was pointing at the basin of water, and the ominous strip submerged within.
Yi Wansan was dejected: “Forget it, we can’t escape. None of us can be spared.”
Noticing that no one was paying attention, he suddenly leaned close to the water basin and gritted his teeth: “Don’t forget the guy on the phone, called Shen Gun. Don’t leave him out.”
When he looked up, he saw Mu Dai’s contemptuous gaze.
Yi Wansan shrugged indifferently. So what? Swoop down at the scent and get into bed in the dark—better a dead friend than oneself. That was his nature.
Shen Gun said, “Don’t be too tense. There’s something that can counterbalance the seven ominous strips.”
Luo Ren thought for a moment: “The feng, huang, and luan clasps?”
Even knowing Luo Ren and the others couldn’t see him, Shen Gun nodded: “Besides combining the powers of metal and fire, the feng, huang, and luan clasps were auspicious heavenly birds of that time, representing forces that opposed evil energy. I have a bold theory.”
“We mentioned earlier that the force punishing criminals came from another power, which could be the five elements represented by the feng, huang, and luan clasps. After containing the ominous strips for thousands of years, the residual power of this force must still exist; it can’t be eliminated.”
“Both Liu Shuhai and Luo Wenmo had their left feet cut off, and foot amputation was an ancient punishment. Note that in ancient times, tools were crude—stone knives, stone axes—nothing like modern sharp cutting tools. This explains why the amputation wounds were bloody and very irregular.”
So, was it the power of the feng, huang, and luan clasps providing restraint?
Luo Ren smiled at Mu Dai: “See, it’s not that scary. Everything in nature balances each other—there’s black and white, yin and yang.”
Cao Yanhua added: “Yes, where there are seven ominous strips, there are feng, huang, and luan clasps.”
Yi Wansan suddenly thought of something: “Then the water shadow I drew…”
Shen Gun nodded again: “That water shadow likely comes from the power of the feng, huang, and luan clasps. The ominous strips would only hide themselves, not hint at what they are. I believe the feng, huang, and luan clasps want to reseal the seven ominous strips.”
Mu Dai couldn’t help but ask: “Then where are the feng, huang, and luan clasps now?”
Shen Gun laughed: “Who knows? Like the other six ominous strips, they’re somewhere in this world, just existing.”
He suddenly lowered his voice: “But maybe, just like the seven ominous strips, they’ve also got their eye on you all. Meeting is fate. The water shadow was so subtle, yet you discovered it and even drew it, didn’t you?”
Everyone’s eyes suddenly fell on Yi Wansan.
Yi Wansan gave a couple of dry laughs, then a couple more, looking worse than if he were crying.
After the call ended, Mu Dai realized how quickly time had passed. The sunset light previously cast on the wall had diminished to just a thin line.
She turned to look at Luo Ren, who felt her gaze and turned with a smile.
“What are you thinking about?”
“I’m wondering what this criminal case is.”
Cao Yanhua muttered, “Whatever it is, I don’t think it could be stringing people up like puppets. Ancient people were simple…”
Sensing everyone’s disdainful looks, he changed his approach: “Primitive people, you know, expressed emotions directly. If they wanted to kill you, they’d just grab a stone and smash your head. Who had the time to thread needles and create performance art? With that energy, they’d be better off hunting a wild boar to roast and eat.”
Hunting a wild boar? Hunting?
Something clicked in Luo Ren’s mind: “Mu Dai, that song Pin Ting sang.”
Break bamboo, connect bamboo, fly earth, chase meat.
It was a hunting song.
Could it be describing scenes before or as events were about to unfold?
Cutting wild bamboo, connecting it to make bows, shooting clay pellets, and everyone hunting for food together.
And then what happened? A dispute? In that resource-scarce era, food was more precious than anything. Perhaps some people were no longer satisfied with sharing everything with their clan or tribe, leading to conflicts over the distribution of prey. Or perhaps two people shot the same beast, an argument ensued, and knives were drawn.
The crime scene with the fishing line puppets—one raising a knife, another dodging, others with arms spread, trying to mediate—how much it resembled the scene that must have unfolded then.
Always, there was someone ferociously raising a knife, and on the discovered ominous strip, the oracle bone character for “knife” had appeared.
Whether this crime stemmed from anger, greed, or possession, the result was the same: that tool initially created to carve out space in a harsh environment, to obtain food and protect oneself, was turned against one’s own kind.
And much, much later, hundreds or thousands of years later, when human society gradually conquered adverse natural environments and no longer needed to eat raw meat, drink blood, or nest in trees…
In quiet afternoons or deserted nights, dense fishing lines, one by one, strand by strand, recreated the ancient scene.
The past never dies; it hasn’t even passed yet.
Could a basin of water contain the ominous strip? Temporarily, perhaps, but it would always find a way out, just as when it was set on fire—it lay flat and motionless during the burning, but the moment the fire died, it revived.
It had once lain dormant at the bottom of a river outside Datong for fifteen years, but that was a great mountain river. Who knew if something at the river bottom was restraining it? That restraining power couldn’t be compared to this small basin of water.
Following Shen Gun’s final “brilliant” advice, Cao Yanhua dug up half a basin of soil from the yard and poured it all into the water basin. Luo Ren found a wooden box, carefully placed the basin inside, closed the box, and secured it with iron chains typically used in car repairs. Finally, Yi Wansan said, “Let me draw phoenixes on the box, to represent fire.”
Iron chains, wooden box, water, drawn phoenixes, soil—a makeshift version of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth.
At least, before the second ominous strip stirred, they could barely hold out for a while.
Luo Ren could finally go to the hospital to see Pin Ting without worry. Just as he started the car, he stopped again.
Mu Dai was puzzled as Luo Ren rolled down the window and beckoned to her.
Mu Dai walked over, confused.
“Mu Dai, want to come along?”
Together? That’s not necessary, right? Mu Dai smiled awkwardly: “I’m… not close to her. You’re family… give her my regards and wish her a speedy recovery.”
Luo Ren smiled: “Pin Ting isn’t lucid, so the visit won’t take long. After leaving the hospital, we could go for a drive.”
Another drive? A night drive? Mu Dai shuddered: “No thanks, I appreciate the offer, but I never want to ride in your car again in this lifetime.”
This response seemed to be within Luo Ren’s expectations. He suddenly leaned over and whispered something in her ear.
The warm breath tickled her ear, and Mu Dai’s eyes gradually brightened. She asked Luo Ren uncertainly: “Really? Even at night?”
Luo Ren nodded: “Even at night.”
The car drove away again, but this time, it took Mu Dai with it.
Cao Yanhua watched sourly, muttering to Yi Wansan, who was sitting nearby drawing on the box: “Brother Three-Three, let me tell you, the first time I met my little sister and master Mu Dai was at the cable car crossing the river at Liberation Monument in Chongqing. At that time, I hadn’t reformed yet…”
Speaking as if he had reformed now—who was it that still carried a complete set of lock-picking tools? Yi Wansan ignored him, focusing on his drawing.
Cao Yanhua continued his rambling: “I tried to steal from her, but Mu Dai was so alert, hearing in all directions, seeing in all directions, as if she had eyes on her back. With lightning speed, she…”
He even demonstrated the action, his two fingers pinching forcefully: “She caught me. I pretended to be calm, thinking, ‘Damn, that’s so cool…'”
“But the result…” he sighed, “someone who seems so capable and intelligent, why is it that every time she’s in front of Luo Ren, I feel like she could be lured away with just a piece of candy…”
Yi Wansan nudged Cao Yanhua: “Brother Cao.”
“Hmm?”
Cao Yanhua turned to see Yi Wansan holding a marker with its tip worn down: “Luo Ren’s pen isn’t good. Could you run an errand and buy some colored pens, preferably gold ones…”
He pointed at the box with grand enthusiasm: “I’ll draw a golden phoenix, a fire phoenix, blazing hot! Quickly.”
Well, there was no one else to order around, so Cao Yanhua got up, patting his bottom: “Wait for me.”
He clomped toward the main door.
The moment Cao Yanhua’s shadow disappeared at the doorway, Yi Wansan’s expression suddenly collapsed. After sitting dazed for a while, he pulled out a folded drawing paper from his pocket and slowly smoothed it open.
Back then, in the middle of the night, he had finished a drawing, tore it off with a ripping sound, and Luo Ren was alerted, asking him: “What happened?”
In the darkness, his hand holding the pen trembled, but his voice remained steady as he answered: “The drawing is ruined.”