Tomb Raider: The comprehension is against the sky, and the achievement is indestructible

Chapter 57: Drought Bone Pile, an Embroidered Shoe
When the man called himself Li Chunlai, Su Mo knew that he had come to the capital from Gulan County to sell the embroidered shoes.

Seeing that it was already noon, and Li Chunlai was too shy to speak, Su Mo said:

"Since it's time for dinner, I'll treat you to some mutton dumplings in sour soup, and then we can chat over the table!"

Li Chunlai actually hadn't eaten since he got off the train, and he was already starving. When he heard Su Mo invite him to eat mutton soup, he immediately swallowed his saliva:
"Dumplings stuffed with mutton in sour soup, that's really nice, let's go eat first!"

Fatty Wang said happily:

"Master is treating us, that's a great relationship!"

Hubayi and Fatty Wang packed up their stalls, turned around, took Li Chunlai, and followed Su Mo into a mutton dumpling restaurant near Panjiayuan.

After entering the dumpling restaurant, Hubayi immediately found the proprietress. He and Fatty Wang often ate here and were very familiar with the boss and his wife. The proprietress then took the four of them to the warehouse behind the kitchen and set up a table there.

Su Mo asked the proprietress for a few bowls of dumplings stuffed with mutton in sour soup and a few stir-fried dishes, and then the four of them sat down.

Li Chunlai hadn't eaten since morning. At this moment, his soul was attracted by the fragrance outside, and his eyes were only fixed on the stove outside.

Huba couldn't help laughing:
"Hey, old man, what are you going to sell? Can you take it out now?"

Fatty Wang also said:
"That's right, what kind of embroidered shoes are you selling? You're not trying to fool us, are you? If it's not something good, we'll split the bill for this meal!"

Li Chunlai didn't understand what AA meant, but he understood that the fat man meant that if he didn't have good food, he wouldn't treat him to a meal, so he curled his lips and said:

"How can it not be a good thing? I'm waiting to sell it and take the money back to find a wife!"

Huba smiled and said:

"You haven't married yet. It just so happens that the three of us, master and apprentice, are all bachelors! Judging from your accent, you are from Shaanxi, right? I often hear that women from Mizhi marry men from Suide. If it's really a good match, maybe you can get a Mizhi wife when you go back!"

When Li Chunlai heard about marrying a woman from Mizhi, he immediately became excited:
"The women from Mizhi are like red-grid window decorations, not to mention how beautiful they are! If I could really marry a woman from Mizhi, my life would be so wasted!"

As they were talking excitedly, the proprietress had already brought over four bowls of sour soup dumplings. Li Chunlai was already extremely hungry, and regardless of the fact that the freshly cooked dumplings were still hot, he picked up the bowl and started gobbling them up in big mouthfuls. Soon, he had finished the bowl of sour soup dumplings, leaving only the juice.

Seeing that he looked like a starving ghost, Su Mo smiled and pushed his bowl of dumplings in front of him:
"I'm not hungry yet, you can eat my bowl first!"

"That's so embarrassing..."

Li Chunlai was polite in words but honest in actions. He took Su Mo's bowl and started working again. Soon he finished another bowl.

Perhaps it was because of the two bowls of dumplings that made him feel more at ease. Also, Su Mo and Huba looked very approachable, so Li Chunlai had more trust in them. After finishing Su Mo's bowl of dumplings, he opened his torn leather bag and took out the embroidered shoes.

Huba took the shoes and took a closer look, only to find that they were the shoes that could only be worn by women in ancient times after they had bound their feet. The front of the shoe was as thin as a bamboo shoot and could be held in one hand. The green brocade upper was embroidered with peony flowers in red, blue and gold thread. Even the soles were made of sandalwood, and there was a layer in the middle, which was used by the ancients to store spices.

When these shoes were worn on the feet of ancient beauties, every step would be filled with fragrance and beauty!

But when Su Mo saw it, he could tell that the shoes had an evil aura, so he said:

"Brother Chunlai, I think your shoes look a bit sneaky. I'm afraid the original owner of this thing must have died a bad death, or he is a bit sneaky?" Li Chunlai was shocked:
"Brother, you are not that old, how come you are so amazing? How come you can tell at a glance that the person who passed through this thing is a bit sneaky!"

Fatty Wang laughed and said:
"Brother, this is my master. Don't underestimate him because he is young. He has unique skills and his eyes can see through things! Also, don't call him brother, or he will take advantage of us!"

Li Chunlai couldn't help but be stunned for a moment, and felt even more surprised.

Su Mo shook his hand and said with a smile:
"Let's not talk about that. Just tell me where these shoes came from!"

Li Chunlai smiled a little embarrassedly:
"It's a long story! This matter has to start from the fact that it didn't rain in our place for a year..."

It turned out that it hadn't rained in Li Chunlai's village for a long time, and a blind fortune teller came to the village and said that they had to hammer in the drought-resistant bone piles to pray for rain.

This custom of hitting the drought bone pile is also called hitting the drought demon, which is a custom only found in the Shaanxi area of ​​the Central Plains.

Legend has it that Huangdi had a daughter named Nüba. When Huangdi was on an expedition to fight Chiyou, he ordered Yinglong to attack him in the wilderness of Jizhou. Chiyou asked the wind god and rain god to send down a heavy rain, making it difficult for Huangdi's army to move forward.

Huangdi ordered Nüba to appear. After Nüba went out to fight, there was indeed a severe drought. The magic powers of Fengbo and Yushi were all ineffective, and Huangdi defeated Chiyou.

For this reason, Nüba was called the god in charge of drought, and people believed that the drought demon was the spiritual power left by Nüba in the human world. If a person's body did not decay within 100 days after death, no grass grew on the tomb, and water seeped out of the grave, it meant that the deceased in the tomb had turned into the drought demon and would cause a severe drought.

The method of hitting the bone pile for drought is to drag the dead who has turned into a drought demon out of the grave, whip them with a whip, and then burn them with fire. This will release the spirit of the drought demon and bring rain.

The people in Li Chunlai's village immediately followed the blind man to look for the drought demon, and they indeed found an abandoned grave at the east end of the village. After opening the coffin, a strange stench was smelled, like entering a salted fish shop. In the coffin was a female corpse that was well preserved, with her clothes and jewelry intact.

There was a small monster covered with green hair squatting on the head of the female corpse. It looked like a small monkey a few inches long.

Several brave villagers then smashed the little monster to death with hammers and whipped it. As soon as the thing was whipped, a thick black gas emerged from its body. Finally, the body was beaten to pieces and the black gas stopped coming out.

The blind man asked the villagers to burn the coffin together with the little monster. Just as he finished speaking, dark clouds appeared in the sky and it was about to rain heavily.

At this time, the villagers believed the blind man's words very much, so they left Li Chunlai here to burn the coffin and the body of the little monster.

Li Chunlai immediately brought a pile of firewood and lit the coffin. When the coffin was half burned, rain suddenly fell and put out the fire.

Li Chunlai had originally become greedy when he saw the gold jewelry on the female corpse. Now that the fire had been put out by the rain and there was no one around, he thought of taking some of the gold jewelry and other things from the female corpse back home.

As a result, a ruffian named Ma Dadan from the village came over and snatched all the jewelry from the female corpse. Before leaving, he only left the embroidered shoe to Li Chunlai, which had not been burned in time.

Li Chunlai was no match for Ma Dadan, so he could only watch him take away all his things. He only took back a pair of embroidered shoes.

Unexpectedly, the next morning, Ma Dabing's entire family of four died unexpectedly. He, his wife, and two children were all disemboweled, and all four of their hearts were gone.

A shocking case occurred in the village and the county police came, but they did not come to any conclusion. Li Chunlai did not dare to tell anyone about the embroidered shoes, so he quietly ran to the capital, both to avoid the limelight of the incident and to sell the embroidered shoes for some money.

He heard that there was someone collecting antiques in Panjiayuan in Beijing, so he rushed all the way to Panjiayuan, and happened to meet Su Mo, Huba, and Fatty Wang.

(End of this chapter)