Between mountains and seas

Shao Jingxing was still a little dazed. Hearing Zhou Qingshan's question, he answered casually: "Tongtian rhinoceros means that there is a white line in the middle of the rhinoceros's horn that goes straight to the end of the horn. It used to be said that rhinoceros is a spiritual beast, so it is believed that Tongtian rhinoceros has the ability to sense, so there is There is a saying of "the heart has a consonant rhinoceros". But in fact, many rhinoceros horns have this kind of texture, and they don't have the ability to sense. The real Tongtian rhinoceros means that there is a red vein-it is also a red vein that goes straight to the top. This kind of rhinoceros is also It’s called the horrifying chicken rhinoceros, and if you put rice in its horns and put it in the flock of chickens, the chickens will be frightened; if it is ignited, it can shine down hundreds of feet of water, shocking the spirits—ah, I know!”

"What?" Zhou Qingshan listened to the broker who urged him to buy this horn carving to talk about Tong Tianxi, but he didn't explain it in such detail. He was listening with great interest, when he suddenly heard Shao Jingxing's voice, he couldn't help asking.What do you know?

Shao Jingxing pointed to the flame at the end of the horned eagle: "This is burning the rhinoceros to shine on the water. It is based on the allusion of Wen Qiao burning the rhinoceros. This idea is a double meaning, one is to shine on the water, and the other is to burn the rhinoceros." The flame is not This wooden stick is burning, but this rhino horn is burning.

Thinking of what Ji Yan said, Shao Jingxing murmured: "Travel on the sea, burn the rhinoceros to illuminate it, and drive away the monsters in the sea. Naturally, the waves will be calm all the way, and the journey will be smooth..." As he spoke, he went to the bow of the Mucha boat—also It is the thickest trunk, that is, the root of the rhinoceros horn. I took a look, and suddenly there was no sound.

Zhou Qingshan was already fascinated by it.Shao Jingxing's words clearly described a gorgeous and romantic fantasy world.He also didn't pay attention to the change of Shao Jingxing's expression, and praised: "Xiaoxing is very knowledgeable. What did the person who sold it to me say that this rhino horn is not made into a wine glass because the material is rare, so the craftsman wants to preserve the raw material as much as possible , I didn’t hollow out the center or anything…” Doesn’t that sound very romantic?

Rhino horn was the most common type of cup making during the Ming and Qing dynasties.The broker said that this thing was from the Ming Dynasty, Zhou Qingshan knew a little bit about it, so he asked why it wasn't made into a wine glass, and the broker came up with such an answer.This answer was incomparable to what Shao Jingxing said just now.Not to mention anything else, the rhino was not an endangered animal in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, so how could it be necessary to preserve the raw materials as much as possible?

Based on these words, Zhou Qingshan already felt that this thing is not an antique of the Ming Dynasty.However, because the knife was well-crafted and conceived, he lowered the price and bought it.Now that Shao Jingxing said so, he felt that this item was definitely worth buying.

"Indeed..." Shao Jingxing stared at the crimson point on the section of the rhino horn—because it wanted to express the vigor of the old tree, the section was not polished smooth, so the red spot was not conspicuous on the maroon section, " It's really a good deal for you to buy this thing..."

If this is really the red pattern, if Ji Yan hadn't caught him, if Zhou Qingshan was really lucky, then this horned sculpture is indeed a rhinoceros horn that reaches the sky, the kind that can be used to frighten strange beasts!No wonder the craftsmen try to preserve the raw materials as much as possible. If this craft is hollowed out to make wine glasses, it would be wasteful.

But of course Shao Jingxing didn't dare to say this, he just said: "It is said that the chicken and rhinoceros are kept in the room, and the room in summer - no, there are no mosquitos in the yard, have you tried it?"

Zhou Qingshan laughed loudly: "I haven't tried this before. Try it next time." His collection room has constant temperature and humidity, and insects are removed on time, so of course there will be no mosquitoes.Even the other rooms have double-layer screens, and there are few mosquitoes and flies throughout the year. After all, it is not the same as before. Who still flies around?

If you want to try this, you can only take it to the yard outside the villa.But rhino horn carvings are the same as ivory carvings. Because they are biological products, they all need to be moisturized. Once they are too dry, they will lose their luster at least, or they will age and crack at worst, and their value as a collection will be greatly reduced.

Zhou Qingshan is a collector, and this horned sculpture is even more rare after being mentioned by Shao Jingxing. Of course, it should be well preserved, why would he take it to the yard to try any mosquito repellent, it's just a casual remark.

But in this way, Zhou Qingshan felt that Shao Jingxing had more connotations.Rich people play a lot of collections, but many of them are just arty, and some are going straight to appreciate in value.If you really want to ask them the value of this thing, they can only say something like "this thing is from a certain dynasty, it must be worth a lot of money", which is really vulgar.

Zhou Qingshan felt that he was not in the same group as those people, so Shao Jingxing said that no matter which dynasty the rhinoceros sculpture was from, or the work of a famous craftsman, he saw through the ingenious ideas of the craftsman by quoting from sources, and was immediately cited by Zhou Qingshan as A bosom friend—is there value, is it just measured by money?Collecting this thing is what you want to play. If you like it, it is worth ten thousand gold. If you don't like it, it's not surprising how much it can sell for!

Unexpectedly, Shao Boyan's son is a wonderful person.Zhou Qingshan liked it even more in his heart.Just as he was about to drag Shao Jingxing to look at his collection again, someone came looking for him from outside—the birthday song was about to be sung and served on the cake. Zhou Qingshan's daughter asked her father to blow out the candles with her.

Zhou Qingshan's daughter was born when she was almost 40 years old, and she was considered a superborn at that time, so she was fined a lot of money.So Zhou Qingshan joked that his daughter was "worth ten thousand gold" when he was born, and he loved him like a jewel in the palm of his hand.Now Mingzhu wants to blow out the candles with her father, so what else is there to say, go!

"Let's go together, Xiaoxing." As the son of an old friend, the nephew of Director Shao, and a confidant in his collection, Zhou Qingshan dragged Shao Jingxing and went there together.

In the hall over there, a huge birthday cake has been rolled up with a trolley, and everyone forms a circle, with today's little birthday star Zhou Shu in the middle.

Zhou Shu is 19 years old this year, and she was admitted to university last year, so the guests invited today include family friends, business friends of Zhou Qingshan, and her college classmates. It was very lively.

"Father!" Although Zhou Shu is considered an adult, she still likes to act like a baby in front of Zhou Qingshan, and she beckoned when Zhou Qingshan came in, "Come and blow the candles with me, Dad may wish."

Zhou Qingshan was happy when he saw his daughter: "It's your birthday, you should make a wish."

"I will share a wish with my father, and make it together." Zhou Shu said sweetly.

The precious daughter even gave him half of the wish. Zhou Qingshan was almost drunk, and he didn't care about Shao Zhongyan's uncle and nephew. He was dragged by his daughter to the front of the cake.

This cake is also carefully made by a senior pastry chef. Because Zhou Shu is a rabbit, the cake is multi-layered and made into a hill. There are flowers and plants on it, and there are nineteen little rabbits scattered around. Some are grazing with their heads down. Some people stood and watched, and some played and played, which was also lifelike, just like a picture scroll.

Nineteen candles are made into the shape of flowers and bushes, dotted scatteredly, and ignite nineteen small flames.After everyone sang the birthday song, Zhou Qingshan and his daughter blew hard together, blowing out all nineteen candles, and cheers erupted in the hall.

The next step is to divide the cake.Zhou Shu took the silver table knife and prepared to cut it symbolically—this cake is too big, and it will be taken down and cut into small pieces by the chef, and then distributed to the guests.

As soon as the knife went down, Zhou Shu was stabbed, and the silver table knife obviously cut something hard.

How can there be hard things in the cake?Zhou Shu couldn't help but glanced at Zhou Qingshan next to her. Could it be her father's birthday present for her?

In fact, the birthday present was given a few days ago, and it was a new car.But hiding another gift in the cake on his birthday seems like something Zhou Qingshan would do.This hard thing is not big, it should be a small box containing jewelry, right?Maybe it's earrings, or maybe a necklace...

Zhou Shu thought, the knife poked inside the cake a few times, and then pulled out the hard thing.Because of the sticky cream, she didn't recognize the black thing for a while, but it didn't look like a jewelry box.

People standing nearby also saw Zhou Shu cutting something out of the cake.Everyone had the same idea, they all wanted to see what gifts Zhou Qingshan had prepared, so they all opened their eyes wide.But before everyone could see clearly, Zhou Shu screamed and threw all the table knives in her hand. She backed up a few steps, bumped into someone, twisted her feet and almost fell.

It was Shao Jingxing who was bumped into by her.The high-heeled shoes fell on the insteps, and he almost screamed as he stepped on them.Since the awakening of the power, he feels that his ability to resist blows has improved. Otherwise, Zhou Shu's pointed eight-centimeter-high heel could break bones!

"Baby, what's the matter?" Zhou Qingshan was also taken aback by his daughter, and even called out her nickname in desperation.

"That, that—" Zhou Shu's face turned pale, pointing at the things cut out of the cake, she was speechless.

While freeing his feet from under her high-heeled shoes, Shao Jingxing raised his eyes to look, and saw the black thing lying on the tray, it turned out to be a small wooden figure.

This little figure is not as finely carved as ordinary puppets.Shao Jingxing took a closer look, and found that this thing should be a naturally occurring wooden gall, and the maker just slightly polished it according to its shape to make it more humanoid.But in this way, it seems that the little man's limbs are twisted and stuck to his side, and his head is not very regular. At first glance, he looks like he is enduring some pain, very similar to the deformed face in Edvard Munch's masterpiece "The Scream". The demeanor of the protagonist is really a bit scary.

This thing is definitely not a gift, it is something that someone maliciously put in the cake to scare people.Zhou Qingshan glanced at the assistant with a sullen face, and the assistant immediately took him to the back kitchen.

Shao Jingxing felt something was wrong.Even if someone made a prank, such a little wooden man wouldn't scare Zhou Shu like this, right?Seeing her face pale with fright, as if a ghost jumped out of the cake.

At this time, suddenly there was an exclamation from the side, and a girl also turned pale, stared at the little wooden figure and blurted out: "Isn't this the Zhangliu God?"

This time, all the guests pricked up their ears.Although not everyone could hear clearly, it was enough to just hear the word "God", and immediately some people began to discuss in a low voice.

Zhou Qingshan's face became more gloomy, he coughed hard, and motioned his wife to take Zhou Shu to the study, and said to the guests: "Xiao Shu is not feeling well, let's stop here for today's banquet. I'm sorry, I will make up for it next time I have a chance. I won't stay with you today."

The people who can come today are all related to the Zhou family. No matter what they think in their hearts, no one will be so ignorant that they insist on staying, and they will leave one after another after saying a few words of comfort. The frightened girl was left behind by Zhou Qingshan.

Shao Jingxing originally wanted to leave, but Zhou Shu subconsciously grabbed his hand when he bumped into him, and she was still so frightened that she didn't know how to let go.Shao Jingxing couldn't force it, so he had to be dragged by her and went to Zhou's study.

Zhou Qingshan's wife helped her daughter to the study, only to find that she was still holding on to Shao Jingxing, she couldn't help apologizing: "This—"

Shao Jingxing tried to pull his hand, but Zhou Shu screamed as if some switch had been touched; "It's back, it's back! It won't go away!"

While screaming, she used even more force, her nails dug into Shao Jingxing's flesh, the pain was so painful that Shao Jingxing didn't dare to move anymore.It was Zhou Qingshan who came in from the outside, and said in a deep voice: "Baby, calm down, you are just a wooden man!"

He has obviously found out something outside, and he still has the girl by his side: "Tell Dad, what's going on?"

Seeing her father, Zhou Shu let go of Shao Jingxing's hand and plunged into Zhou Qingshan's arms: "Father, I'm so scared!"

Although his hand was let go, before Shao Jingxing had time to say goodbye, Zhou Shu had already started talking.The door of the study room was closed, so Shao Jingxing had no choice but to sit down with Shao Zhongyan, listening to Zhou Shu's intermittent speech, plus the girl's supplement, he understood the matter.

That girl, Zuo Qingqing, is Zhou Shu's college classmate and lives in the same dormitory.There are four people in a dormitory, Zhou Shu is from the best family, and the other three are much worse off.However, after a year in college, the four of them got along well, so she invited Zuo Qingqing, who lives in this city, over for her birthday today.

Speaking of this little wooden figure, Zuo Qingqing also knew, because this wooden gall was found and removed when they went hiking together, and Zhou Shu slightly processed it into a small wooden figure.

Zhou Qingshan's wife, Mrs. Zhou, was taken aback: "Baby, what are you doing?"

Zhou Shu was crying, and Zuo Qingqing whispered, "At that time we were watching the story of Zhangliu God, and Zhou Shu just wanted to have fun." She also thought it was very interesting when she saw the little wooden gall that grew into a human shape that day.But Zhou Shu first said that she would do it. Her family is rich, and she often buys things for the people in the dormitory.

Fortunately, she didn't rob at that time, otherwise she would be the one who got entangled today!

"How could you think of doing this!" Zhou Qingshan's face was livid.Those who play collectors have heard more things about god eyebrows and ghosts. He knows what Zhangliu God is. When the soul of a child enters, it can be foretold.

Listen, I want the soul of a child who died young!As soon as you hear it, you know that this thing is not clean!Why does Zhou Shu want to do this!

Zhou Shu choked and whispered, "It's all just for fun..."

Dad is a good collector. Of course, she has heard similar stories, but she didn't pay attention to them - aren't these all legends and stories, many of which are still feudal superstitions, how could they be true.

But people are so weird sometimes.You clearly know it’s not true, yet you still want to follow suit.It's like those who play with the pen fairy, who obviously believe that there are no ghosts and immortals, but they still want to invite and ask in a serious manner.

With this feeling in mind, Zhou Shu and the others took a lot of effort to dig out the wooden gall with a knife, polished it into shape, and then performed the ceremony of "inviting the soul" and "consecration".Of course, the process of the ceremony was all viewed from the Internet. Because there are several different versions, they mixed them up and did them all.

After finishing, this little thing was hung in the dormitory window. Every morning when a few girls got up, they would jokingly ask, "God Zhangliu, God Zhangliu, what's the forecast for today?"

The result, of course, was no response.

This result was expected by everyone, so after a few days of fun, the interest disappeared, and no one cared about the little wooden man anymore.Afterwards, the little wooden figure was covered with ashes, Zhou Shu picked it up one day and threw it into the trash can.

It's just a small piece of wood, so if you don't play with it, you will naturally throw it away.Everyone in the dormitory thought it was logical, except for a girl named Yuan Yan who said casually: "It's easier to please God than to send God away, so don't refuse to leave."

At that time, everyone thought it was just a joke, but who knew it would become a prophecy.When Zuo Qingqing opened her eyes the next morning, she saw the little wooden figure lying on the window sill, near Zhou Shu's bed.However, the day before, they obviously took out all the garbage.

At that time, the dormitory was in chaos. Everyone was shocked and asked each other who picked it up again, but no one admitted.

At that time, Zhou Shu was still calm, took this thing out of the school gate, and threw it into the trash can two streets away, and refuted Yuan Yan's argument that "it is easier to ask God to send God away", which is considered to be the case. Things calmed down.But on the third night, when Zhou Shu and Zuo Qingqing came back from the library and were about to rest, they suddenly found the little wooden figure leaning against the pillow, and it came back again!

Zhou Shu was startled.At that time, she threw it away by herself. If someone wanted to pick it up, would they have to go through the trash cans one by one?But if it is not artificial, then does this thing really have a god, can't it be sent away?