Chapter 5: The craving
Everyone was a little speechless after hearing Tan Xiao's words. You still want to scientifically defeat your peers... your family has some ideas.
"You're awesome." Mu Fei smiled and shook her head, "Okay, let's eat something first. We're all tired."
Mu Fei invited Tan Xiao to have breakfast together, and then she would send Tan Xiao back to rest for a while, and then study how to solve the problem for Professor Mo. There are so many people living here, and they only asked the hotel to deliver food in the first few days, but now they cook for themselves.
At this time, the porridge and buns were already out of the oven, and Tan Xiao sat obediently on the bench at the door waiting for her. Because the weather was cool in the morning, everyone put out the tables and chairs and ate breakfast outside.
Don't mention it, I didn't feel like a whole night had passed before, but now that I'm tired, I can really feel it. Tan Xiao could even hear the archaeological team members who went to the tomb with him last night discussing what happened last night.
"Oh my goodness, as soon as we got down there, we felt something was wrong. At first I thought there was a snake."
"Right, we didn't feel it. We stayed in the coffin room for a long time afterwards and didn't feel any danger. No wonder we had hallucinations at that time. You took a shovel and cut off Mr. Ji's safety rope in one go."
"I stepped on a large piece of snake skin. I was wondering where the golden jade suit is..."
"puff."
After hearing about their dangerous experience, Tan Xiao felt that he and Mu Fei were lucky. It was just that when they first went down, Mu Fei became a little impulsive and rushed inside, but later he came to his senses.
Later, because he happened to encounter an altar, he was able to neutralize the attacks of the male viper one by one.
"What would you like to drink?"
Tan Xiao turned around and saw a young lady with long curly hair holding a stack of steamed dumplings and a bowl of mung bean porridge asking her. Judging from her academic attire, she must be a member of the archaeological team. He said politely, "Thank you, someone has already got it for me."
The curly-haired lady yelled, "Who else? Why are you assigning two people to one job?"
Tan Xiao felt something was not right when he heard this, so he asked tentatively, "Sister Mu?"
Mu Fei had just taken off her bun, letting her hair down in slight curls, and changed her dusty clothes from rolling around in the tomb. But Tan Xiao turned around and ignored her, "It's me! Even though we've only known each other for a day, we've been through life and death together, right? You can't even remember my face?"
"I didn't recognize him at first..." Tan Xiaohan said. His face blindness was not a big problem, but it was not a small one either. It just made him a little embarrassed in interpersonal communication, and he relied more on their clothes to recognize people.
Everyone in school wore the same uniform, but fortunately the seating arrangements were relatively fixed, and he memorized the seating chart. With the help of various memory aids, he could at least call out the students in their seats. Fortunately, he was only face-blind, so his memory was not bad.
"You are really good. You must be face-blind." Mu Fei let him choose the food. "Professor Mo is in the Central Hospital now. I will take you back later. After you have rested, I will take Professor Mo out of the hospital. We have discussed it and it is better to do it here. What do you think?"
"I... have no objection." What else could Tan Xiao see?
"You are really confused." Mu Fei said, "I think it's better not to bother two masters with one thing. Can you help Professor Mo to solve the spell?"
This is the magic of the Chu witch, and it is most appropriate for the spiritual master, who inherited the Chu witch tradition, to interpret it.
"You can, but I can't guarantee it will work." Tan Xiao still looked as if he didn't guarantee after-sales service.
Mu Fei said with a smile: "Why are you always so cautious? Even in the tomb, they said they couldn't guarantee after-sales service. It's the Gengshen Day soon, so it's good to have some self-protection ability."
"What is Gengshen Day?" This involves Tan Xiao's blind spot of knowledge. He has a relatively good understanding of his family's business knowledge.
"The Gengshen Day happens once every sixty years, which is the eighteenth day of this month. On this night, the moon will produce the Emperor's Flowing Liquid, which contains countless times more spiritual energy from heaven and earth than usual. The plants and trees on earth will have a chance to become spirits after it." Mu Fei said leisurely, "After that night, we don't know how much more work we will have to do."
——An ancient book says that on the night of Gengshen, there is a stream of imperial fluid in the sky, shaped like countless olives and strung together with thousands of golden threads, hanging down to the human world. Plants and trees that absorb its essence will become monsters.
When Tan Xiao heard the date she mentioned, he thought, the 18th, isn't that the most recent "supermoon" observation day?
He nodded in confusion, "Come to think of it, what's going on in your unit?"
He had been very curious before, but had never heard of the 404 method, and he didn't believe it at that time.
"It's just like what your principal introduced. It's mainly responsible for coordinating and handling some religious affairs, including this one." Mu Fei explained.
"We don't have as many people as other religions, but we are linked with most religious organizations. So the full name of our 404 office is actually the 'Global Coordination and Linkage Office'. Although it's called an office, it has many departments, including an inspection team, a law enforcement team, a dispatch center, etc."
Whenever they encounter such a thing, they will analyze and register it, and then send it to the law enforcement team or the mages in the temples of various sects to handle it.
"Don't think that I can fight. Strictly speaking, I am just a civilian in the company. You see, I am also responsible for taking photos and keeping records, and I have to write reports when I go back. It only takes you five minutes to punch a viper, but it takes me three days to prepare the materials."
Tan Xiao: "..."
After breakfast, Mu Fei drove Tan Xiao home. Tan Xiao's home was a two-story antique building with a courtyard, which was self-built in the old city. At this moment, water droplets were still hanging on the eaves, reflecting the afterglow of the morning sun.
As you enter, you can see red anti-fraud and anti-superstition slogans on the wall. There are also many signs on both sides of the first-floor door, ranging from "Civilized Family" to "Folk Culture Tourism Demonstration Site", which are quite complete.
Mu Fei remembered what Tan Xiao said about the income from receiving tourists and laughed: "Do you often have tourists visiting your home?"
No wonder Tan Xiao was not at all nervous when performing rituals and was not inferior to some great magicians. This was all the result of his experience.
"Well, we're not receiving any guests recently since the peak season is over. My mother is concentrating on preparing for the new dance drama, and she's out collecting folk songs." As Tan Xiao was speaking, an old lady passed by and greeted him.
"Xiaoxiao, who is this?"
"Grandma." Tan Xiao knew that this was most likely Grandma Mi, his neighbor, so he greeted her and said directly, "You are here to ask my mother for help."
"Oh," the mother-in-law said naturally after hearing what she was doing, "your mother hasn't come back yet, has she? Why did she go out for so long this time? When the time comes, you can tell her that our square dance team is still waiting for her guidance for the performance, the snake dance. We will also perform at the opening ceremony of our Nanchu Tourism Festival."
My mother-in-law was very proud of it. They can participate in performances everywhere, and they are considered elite soldiers in square dancing.
"It's the snake dance." Tan Xiao said, "Mother-in-law is still out of town. Let's see if she can come back in time."
Mu Fei was annoyed by what she heard. She thought to herself, you really don't shy away from it at all. Anyway, others think that what you do is pure art, right? You even teach people to do the snake dance everywhere. The King of Chu will cry if he hears it...
…
Tan Xiao and Mu Fei said goodbye temporarily. In the evening, Mu Fei called again and said that she had already taken Professor Mo out of the hospital and came to pick up Tan Xiao.
Tan Xiao had already packed a large bag of things and put it in his schoolbag. When Mu Fei arrived, he got in the car and drove to the excavation site.
This time when Tan Xiao went in, although he still didn't have his ID, he didn't need to make a special call to Mr. Ji, as he probably had already given the instructions.
It was still the same mobile home where he had stayed before, but this time there was an old man lying stiffly on a camp bed. He looked haggard and his eyes were dull. Two of his students were guarding the bed.
Professor Mo's family didn't know about the accident yet. His two students took turns taking care of him in the hospital. Therefore, these two people had never seen Tan Xiao, and they didn't know what happened last night. They only knew that it seemed that a local spiritual master was hired.
Neither of them was from Chu Province, nor did they care about this aspect. They had basically never heard of spiritualists, and all they understood was that they were local folk wizards.
The fellow apprentices looked at each other and said to Mr. Xu, "This... little brother looks too young. Didn't you say before that you wanted to find a Heavenly Master?"
In fact, what they questioned was not the age, but they felt that compared with this spiritual master, the larger mainstream religions seemed more secure and more like the regular army.
Tan Xiao even wanted to nod after hearing this.
Mu Fei scratched her bun and said irritably, "I am the Heavenly Master, but this is the territory of Southern Chu, and the Spiritual Master is the Chu Witch. There is a saying in Southern Chu, 'Spiritual Masters save the living, Heavenly Masters save the dead.'"
In the past customs of Nanchu, there is indeed this saying. Of course, it may actually just be a kind of market segmentation.
Professor Mo's disciple muttered, "I mean, is there anything else? You didn't solve it before..."
Mu Fei froze.
They had gone through so much trouble in the 404 office before, but it was all in vain. Furthermore, Tan Xiao was introduced by them, which made Professor Mo's disciples unable to help but question him.
"Ahem." Old Ji coughed. He held a few pictures in his hand. He did not use his identity to stop the quarrel. Instead, he said, "Xiao Tan accompanied us to the tomb last night. These are some cultural relics we cleaned out during the day. They are very interesting and have been unearthed in other Chu tombs."
Tan Xiao took a look and said , "The Phoenix Drum, um, this is a unique musical instrument of the Chu State."
He even knocked on the bottom of the tomb. It's exciting to think about it. This is a cultural relic.
Professor Mo's disciples shut up immediately.
Mr. Ji's words revealed two points. First, they didn't dare to go down to the tomb before, but after Tan Xiao accompanied them to the tomb last night, they resumed the excavation today. The meaning is self-evident.
Second, Tan Xiao can tell the origin of any cultural relic that Mr. Ji randomly cited as an example. Just based on this point alone, the two of them cannot do it without looking up information. This is really impressive!
Mu Fei pushed Tan Xiao and told him to stop worrying about it and just deal with his own business.
Tan Xiao was originally standing there, waiting for them to continue questioning him. After all, he himself was not very sure. Only after being pushed did he open his schoolbag and take out incense, candles, paper money and other items from it.
Tan Xiao had managed to pull off a trick by borrowing the King of Chu's burial objects at the bottom of the tomb, but now he had to perform a full set of spells seriously to remove the curse for Professor Mo.
As soon as Mr. Xu smelled the fragrance, he praised, "What a sweetgum!"
He was an incense-burning fanatic, so he naturally recognized that this was the best choice of underworld incense. It was made from the powder of the Liquidambar tree, was very resistant to burning, and the flame was blue, short and not bright. People who knew about it called this "Yin Fire".
He looked at Tan Xiao with great admiration and asked, "Such exquisite work, did you rub it yourself?"
Tan Xiao: "Give me the formula and let the factory do the work."
Mr. Xu: “…”
"There is one more," Tan Xiao muttered to himself, and took out a plastic bag from the bottom of his schoolbag. There was actually a carp in it. He continued to dig and even found dried bamboo shoots, mushrooms and the like. He looked up and explained , "This is a sacrifice. We spiritualists are used to using freshly made ones, hot."
This is really rare, nowadays everyone eats ready-made cold food.
Mr. Ji pondered and said, "This offering has evolved gradually, from the earliest raw meat sacrifices to later cooking. The aroma floats upward. I believe that the gods also like hot food, or in other words, people want to offer their best to the gods. It seems that the customs of the spiritual master are very traditional."
Tan Xiao heard this and said weakly: "Well, I haven't thought about it that much. We used to use cold food, mainly because we had to give the sacrifices to tourists after the performance, and the tourists complained about it."
Everyone: “…”
Wow, this is Chuwu local restaurant, right?
Tan Xiao wanted to prepare the sacrifice, so he dragged the stove from the camp directly here.
An important part of the ancient people's sacrifice was to offer food to the gods. The "cooking" in Chinese means to boil, and cooking animals was used as a sacrifice. Food and sacrifice were inseparable.
Carp are also common on altars.
Tan Xiao was seen handling the carp skillfully. He found the fishy line and cut it without using tweezers. His slender fingers reached directly into the fish and pinched it. Then he pulled with skillful force, and the big white tendon was pulled out completely without breaking. His movements were clean and smooth.
The fish is cut in half, the spine is removed, and marinated with rice wine and fine salt. At the same time, the side dishes are prepared, and the mushrooms, ham and dried bamboo shoots are chopped.
The fish was marinated in a few minutes, spread with egg batter and put into the pan. With a sizzling sound, it was fried until its tail was raised and slowly turned into an attractive light yellow color. Obviously, the fish skin was becoming crispy under the high temperature, and even the fish bones were fried crispy, emitting a rich aroma. Just looking at the color is enough to make people imagine its crispy taste on the outside and tender on the inside.
The fish fillets, which are cooked like two pieces, are served on a plate and poured with red and white sauces on the left and right sides respectively. One side is cooked with ham, mushrooms, ginger, etc., and the other side is cooked with winter bamboo shoots and green onion segments.
When the hot sauce was poured over the crispy fish body, it made a sizzling sound.
Everyone swallowed at the same time.
Professor Mo's disciples couldn't help but murmur, "We were a little ignorant just now!"
The things Tan Xiao prepared included Yuan wine - the wine used for sacrifice, fruits, cakes, and only three real dishes. After all, it was not a big sacrifice, and Tan Xiao alone could not carry out a big sacrifice that lasted from dusk to dawn.
In addition to carp, he also made chicken soup and tofu, and stewed a whole chicken with ham, dried fish and other ingredients. The chicken soup was thick and white, and the tofu was cooked to perfection, with an attractive golden color and extremely tender.
After the program was finished, as if he had strayed from a food show, Tan Xiao put all the offerings into a bamboo container.
The Book of Songs describes sacrifices as "The gods love food and drink, and they wish you a long and healthy life." The ancients believed that gods also like delicious food.
After eating the food to their satisfaction, they bless the person who offered the sacrifice.
Tan Xiao pinched the bamboo ring with his hands and hit it on the edge of the bamboo plate, which actually made a crisp sound like porcelain colliding.
This is called "striking the craving".
In the quiet room, as the steam rises from the plate, it spreads in all directions, calling on the gods to come and enjoy the bamboo and food.
The incense was bright but smokeless, but the heat rose like mist, just like the incense smoke during a sacrifice. Through the mist, Tan Xiao slowly unfolded a colorful sacrificial mask and wore it diagonally on his head.
With a ding, the sound of hitting the food is still echoing.
Suddenly, the atmosphere was solemn...
And delicious.
