Lookout Men and Widows

Aunt Zheng’s son broke his head and was admitted to the hospital. It was the first time that Aunt Zheng asked for leave after more than 20 years. She had to take care of her son for three days. After You Ming approved her leave, she left with all the good words.

She needs this job, and if she loses it, the whole family will fall apart.

A husband who only knows how to ask his wife for money, a son who has no job or income, parents and brothers from his natal family, and parents-in-law who need support, weigh heavily on this middle-aged woman, without giving her any time to breathe and opportunity.

And she can only live with these burdens on her back. As for whether it's worth it, only she knows.

You Ming is the only one left in the You family now, and if ghosts are counted, there are two.

This was the first time You Ming was at home alone. He opened all the curtains in the house to let the sunlight in. He poured himself another cup of warm water and took a book from the shelf.

Papa You prides himself on being an educated man, not an upstart, and always buys a lot of books, but he just buys them and doesn't read them.

Later, buying books became his habit. He bought two kinds of books. One was old-fashioned and antique. He waited for these books to appreciate in value. The binding is very beautiful, and it looks tall at first glance, and the books are piled up with various craftsmanship.

Anyway, no matter what kind it is, he is only responsible for buying, not looking at it.

Mother You told me countless times that there was almost no place to store books at home, and Father You remained stubborn.

According to his words: "I am eager to learn, you don't encourage me, and you still criticize me, Comrade Zhou, you have a problem with your ideological consciousness."

Later, Mother You simply stopped talking, but she didn’t help Father You tidy up, nor asked her aunt to help. Father You found that there was really no place to pile up at home, and he didn’t have time to clean up the dust, so he had no choice but to give up this elegant hobby.

But the books at home were neither sold nor thrown away, only You Ming could read them.

What You Ming is holding in his hand now is an antique book that looks "old". It is bound with hemp rope and looks simple and old. The cover is indigo blue. Well, it may be a few years before the paper shreds.

The words on it are all in traditional Chinese characters, and on the cover it says "Fangshu". There are only these two characters, and nothing else. There is no author, and there is no publishing house. It is very similar to street stall literature.

But street stall literature is also interesting to You Ming. He sits by the floor-to-ceiling windows, and the sun shines on him.

It is not easy for You Ming to read traditional characters vertically. He is used to reading simplified characters horizontally. At first, he read very slowly, and he had to read every word carefully.

There are many things written in the book, but there is no introduction.

I don't introduce what the "alchemy" is, but it writes in detail the oracle bone divination, divination, and win-win, etc., and there are pictures. The text is all written with a brush, the font is correct, the pen is strong, and the drawing is clear.

Because it is in classical Chinese, the way of expression is very concise. While converting the traditional Chinese into simplified in his mind, You Ming has to translate the classical Chinese, and then write it down in his notebook in the simplified and vernacular characters he is familiar with.

After You Ming finished reading the previous articles about oracle bone divination and divination, he closed the book, only to find that it was already dark.

He was so absorbed in the book that he didn't even feel the passage of time. This was the only experience he had when he was writing a thesis in college.

Aunt Zheng was away, and Mother You called and said they would be back tomorrow.

You Ming heated up the meals that Aunt Zheng had cooked, washed the dishes after eating, cleaned up the kitchen, changed into sweatshirts, and prepared to go for a run in the community.

In the past, when he saw people jogging in the morning or at night, he was always a little envious.

Things that are ordinary or troublesome in the eyes of ordinary people are precious to him.

Just when he was about to go out, the mobile phone placed on the cabinet was suspended, and a mechanical male voice rang in the room.

"After learning alchemy, you are no longer a worldly person."

You Ming is inexplicable: "I just read books, I'm not ready to learn, and this shouldn't be learned by reading books, right?"

Alchemy evolved from witchcraft, but it is also different from witchcraft. Alchemy also has its scientific side, including medicine, plant medicine identification, and gossip divination. It is a hodgepodge of ancient culture and technology. It has existed since the Shang and Zhou dynasties. , but it belongs to "marginal culture" in modern times.

Only scholars can study alchemy.

As for the real practitioners, You Ming even suspected that there were no more.

More popular feng shui masters and magic sticks.

Fengshui is just a small branch of alchemy. People who are really proficient in alchemy are all-rounders in various senses.

And this is not something that can be learned by hard work. People without talent may not be able to step into its threshold in their entire lives.

"You already know it."

You Ming was taken aback, then smiled and said, "I don't."

"It doesn't matter if you admit it or not."

You Ming: "I still prefer to be a secular person, eat and drink every day, earn money to support my family, life will be simpler."

In fact, he doesn't know if he knows it. He can understand it after learning theoretical knowledge, but implementation and theory are obviously two different things.

"If you learn it, you can see me."

You Ming was standing at the gate, he was still wearing slippers, he couldn't see Jiang Yu'an at this time, after all, there was only a small bottle of dew, so he needed to save some, he asked, "You want me to learn?"

"Your body, leave me, will go back to the past."

You Ming lowered his eyes: "Only by your side can I live like a normal person all the time?"

Mechanical male voice: "Yes."

"Will you leave me?" You Ming asked suddenly.

The mechanical male voice has no emotion: "If I need to cultivate for a long time."

What did You Ming understand: "You put the book on the shelf too?"

Jiang Yu'an didn't deny it, he acquiesced.

You Ming didn't want to go back to the way he was before. He lay on the bed all day long like a dead bone waiting to rot. When he was studying, he could only live in the community near the school and the closest to the hospital. Most of the time he was studying by himself, and then he went to take the exam.

Every breath he exhaled was filled with the breath of death.

If he hadn't become a normal person, maybe he thought it was okay to live like that.

But he is a normal person now, he can walk in the sun, he can run, he can do what he wants to do.

You Ming: "I will buy tortoise shells and yarrow."

"If I learn, is there anything I can do for you?"

Jiang Yu'an didn't answer.

You Ming smiled and said, "When I learn it, I probably know what I can do for you."

He walked out of the house and ran under the gentle evening wind. There is a pond garden in the community, which occupies a large area. Although there are upstarts similar to You's living in such a high-end villa community, no matter whether it is construction or greening , are of a very high standard, and Chinese and foreign architects and landscape designers were invited to cooperate with each other during the design.

After moving here for so many years, it is also the first time that You Ming has the leisure to observe and appreciate.

There are many people who run at night in the community. They can’t get out of bed in the morning, and they have other things during the day. Most of them choose to run at night. However, the runners are generally elderly people. After all, middle-aged people and young people prefer to go to the gym.

As soon as You Ming appeared, the old men and women were attracted by him.

He was sitting there resting, and some grandparents came over to ask him.

"Young man, how old are you? Where do you live? Why haven't I seen you before?"

"Do you have a girlfriend?"

"If not, I'll introduce you to one. My granddaughter is beautiful. Now she is the director of my company. In the future..."

You Ming couldn't laugh or cry, and declined their kindness.

The elders are always worried about the lifelong affairs of their children, although the children don't necessarily want to have a partner at this time.

Just when You Ming refused one by one, from the corner of his eyes, he saw an old lady muttering to herself towards the pond. The pond is not shallow. Adults or children, as long as they don't deliberately climb, they will never fall.

He saw You Ming's eyes.

The old lady next to her whispered, "She has a neurological problem."

The old lady pointed to her head: "His son and daughter-in-law are very good to her. She lives next door to my house. I can hear her arguing with her daughter-in-law every night in the yard, saying that her things were stolen by her. He also said that his son didn't want her anymore, and sometimes he had to read the name of the dead old man."

"Everyone who talks is confused, and keeps talking." The old lady rolled her eyes, "I don't like this kind of old woman at all. Although I am old, I will definitely not become this kind of woman."

But You Ming felt that the situation of the old lady was not right.

Her head kept shaking up and down like a chicken pecking rice, her mouth opened and closed very quickly, her eyes were dull, and her eyes were more white than ordinary people, which looked like cataracts.

Her hands were on the guardrail, and when You Ming was looking at her, she suddenly turned her head, and her eyes turned completely white.

There are no pupils.

You Ming subconsciously stood up, startling the old lady next to him.

He didn't know why, but his intuition told him that there was something wrong with the old lady by the guardrail.

Sure enough, after glancing at him, the old lady beside the guardrail began to climb the guardrail. She was obviously 80 or [-] years old, but she climbed out of the healthy posture that only young people can have. Her legs were only a little short of being able to cross Passed the guardrail.

You Ming hardly thought about it, he rushed over, grabbed the old lady's arm, and pulled her towards him forcefully.

It was also at this time that the old men and women realized that the old lady was almost sitting on the guardrail.

"What is she doing?"

"Is she going to kill herself?"

"Call the police!"

The old lady was pulled down by You Ming and threw herself on You Ming. You Ming looked at her, and her white eyes also looked at You Ming.

You Ming thought of what was written in the book——

"A person has three souls and six souls. If the soul leaves the body, he will surely die. If the soul leaves the body a little bit, the disease will be rampant, the spirit will be weak, and the appearance will be like madness."

She's not dementia, she's demented.

The author has something to say: 筮 (shi) Bu, yarrow (shi) grass.Xiao Ming himself will gradually become a big boss, okay? About alchemy, the reference material is "Chinese alchemy history" and in order to avoid disputes, the alchemy written by Qiqi has nothing to do with sects. There is no Taoism and Buddhism. have their own systems.