In the darkness, Ke Xun and Yue Cen were momentarily confused as to why the "audience" had suddenly become so noisy: some seemed to want to leave, while others wanted to see the play through.
Ke Xun felt he was gradually able to understand some of the sounds. A little child sitting not far from him said in a shrill voice, "...I'm afraid of that sound." — He couldn't quite understand the beginning, but he heard these words clearly — I'm afraid of that sound.
The child's mother coaxed, "It's just a play, it's fake! The actors are crazy, the viewers are fools, and if you get too engrossed, you become a fool! Are you a fool?"
The child seemed to have gone through a fierce internal struggle, and finally, as if holding back tears, said, "I'm not a fool."
"Okay! Then let's keep watching. There'll be something delicious after the play! There'll be corn, beans, and peanuts! Your favorite peanuts!" The mother said, seemingly trying to bolster her own courage.
Hearing that there would be peanuts later, the child stopped fussing, and the surroundings gradually returned to silence, as if the entire scene had been comforted by the mother.
Ke Xun listened for a while, then suddenly understood something and couldn't help but worry: "Sister Cen, could you hear what those people were saying just now?"
"I couldn't quite understand, but it seemed like something terrible was about to happen." Yue Cen still held onto Ke Xun's sleeve in the darkness, afraid that if they stayed in the dark for too long, they would gradually lose sight of each other. "I think, instinctively, they're afraid of the cat that's about to appear."
"I think I could hear it clearly just now." Ke Xun didn't know whether this "being able to hear clearly" was a good thing or a bad thing. Ke Xun never believed that he could suddenly understand the language of other beings without doing anything.
Yue Cen also felt that things were starting to develop in a bad direction, but she couldn't think of a solution for the moment: "We have to think of a way to isolate ourselves from these things, but..."
As the music quickened, the two looked up and saw that the rats' wedding procession on the stage was in disarray. This disarray wasn't the kind of disarray caused by panic, but rather... the rats seemed to be attracted to something.
The first to be drawn to the object was the rat groom who had just appeared from the other end of the stage—just as Yue Cen had said, this groom was riding on a bright green toad, and was now urging the toad to rush towards the object, as if this matter was a thousand times more important than his wedding.
The other rats also rushed towards the object.
"What is that?" Ke Xun looked at the object that had appeared on the side of the stage—pointed and mound-shaped, was it a pile of yellow earth? It
looked just like a lonely grave.
The rats excitedly rushed towards the "lonely grave," burying their heads in the soil and not coming out, their pointed tails swaying contentedly.
Just as Ke Xun finally understood what this lonely grave was, Yue Cen's voice suddenly became tense: "The rats have started stealing the grain, and soon the cat will be attracted. We can't be sure of our identities right now, so it's best to hide."
Just as Yue Cen was at a loss with the boundless, suffocating darkness, she suddenly felt Ke Xun lean closer and whisper, "Sister Cen, can you squat down? If not, you can sit on the ground."
Yue Cen didn't understand Ke Xun's meaning for a moment: "You mean, let me get out of the wheelchair?"
"Yes, if we want to barely isolate ourselves from the outside world, the only thing we can rely on right now is this wheelchair."
Although Ke Xun couldn't see, by touching it, she could basically determine that the wheelchair had changed to something more in line with the era depicted in the painting. First of all, the wheels of the wheelchair had become wooden wheels, and the body and armrests of the wheelchair had also become wooden, and its size was also larger than before.
With Ke Xun's help, Yue Cen had gotten out of the wheelchair and was squatting on the ground. She immediately felt the cool breeze lessen, as if a wall in the air was blocking the wind. Reaching out, she touched the seat of her wheelchair, which felt like a small wooden house propped up on top of it, supported by Ke Xun beside her.
Yue Cen wasn't sure how heavy the wheelchair was, so she reached out to help support it, but Ke Xun said, "No need, this thing is very light."
"The main cover is here with me, so aren't you exposed?"
"No, there's a simple tarpaulin-like canopy on this wheelchair. I'll pull it down to cover myself."
Ke Xun held the wheelchair upside down, curling up inside this makeshift "canopy. "
In the darkness, the world seemed to tremble. Terrified screams and the rustling of paper in the wind seemed to become a chaotic, weak background music. A low roar like a tiger descending a mountain pierced the entire world, making the landscape seem to change color in an instant.
Ke Xun's hands, supporting the wheelchair, trembled slightly. In the darkness, he felt Yue Cen's hand grope towards his arm, gradually moving upwards until her hands covered his ears. His
ears were tightly covered; Ke Xun felt as if his eardrums were being sucked in. He had to open his mouth to avoid having his entire face covered. He felt
a pang of worry for Yue Cen. He himself found the deafening roar unbearable; how could Yue Cen be in any better condition?
But Yue Cen's hands were incredibly steady, as if she were unaffected by the surrounding noise.
And so, Yue Cen covered Ke Xun's ears, and Ke Xun held the wheelchair aloft, the two of them silently enduring in the darkness.
He didn't know how much time had passed when he felt Yue Cen release his grip.
The sudden return of his hearing felt strange, but thankfully, everything was quiet except for the faint sound of the wind.
"You can put the wheelchair down now," Yue Cen's voice was comforting.
Ke Xun looked around; he sensed a faint light approaching.
The wheelchair was restored to its original position, and Yue Cen was helped back into his seat by Ke Xun. Looking at the gray and empty surroundings, both of them breathed a sigh of relief.
"Are you alright? I was so busy plugging my ears." Ke Xun went to the back of the wheelchair and found the wooden armrests; it was indeed a very primitive wooden cart.
"I wasn't affected. The cat's voice was still just a theatrical effect for me, but it seems to have been more than that for you," Yue Cen said calmly, sitting in the wheelchair.
"When I could understand those shadow puppet mice, I felt something was wrong." For Ke Xun, the most terrifying thing last night wasn't the horrifying cat, but that he had almost been assimilated by the shadow puppet mice.
With the faint light of dawn, Ke Xun carefully examined the ground beneath his feet. It was the cold, hard earth of winter, feeling no different from when he had stepped on it last night.
But the "audience" from last night was gone. Ke Xun tried to find some "remains" of the shadow puppets, but to no avail.
It was as if an unnamed, gigantic wind had swept through, leaving the world completely clean. Gone were the rustling shadow puppets, gone was the cat that could only utter terrifying screams, even the brightly lit stage.
Last night felt like a dream shattered, the warmth of which lingered even with closed eyes.
"Sister Cen, why weren't you affected at all last night?" Ke Xun recalled the hands that had covered his ears last night; though he could feel the tension of their owner, it was also a rare warmth and unwavering resolve.
"Perhaps everyone's traits are different, just like electromagnetic waves of different wavelengths produce different magnetic fields." Yue Cen sat in her wheelchair, one hand on the wooden armrest and the other on her knee. "Actually, I was also panicked at the time, not because of the cat, nor because of the rats, but because of the grain."
"Grain?" Ke Xun's mind flashed back to the solitary grave-like pile of grain on the stage.
"Yes, ever since that grain appeared, my heart has been in turmoil. I don't know if it was heartache or something else, I just felt that the grain was very important. But I knew in my heart that I was helpless about it. It was the world of the play, and as an outsider, I couldn't interfere." Yue Cen looked at her homespun clothes, which she had changed after entering the painting. "The sound of those rats eating last night felt like they were gnawing at my heart. It's hard to describe that feeling."
Ke Xun pushed Yue Cen forward slowly, initially aimlessly, but as the light grew brighter, they gradually saw the surroundings clearly—it was a very open space, with the green trees and fields on the far edge, like an unreachable other shore.
Several low, round, conical-roofed houses stood not far away, gray and lifeless.
Ke Xun finally found the pocket of his coat and pulled out his long-lost phone. Strangely, he had searched for it for ages last night but couldn't find it; it was as if the phone had hidden itself.
Now, the phone only displayed the time. Ke Xun looked at it: "It must have started counting down since entering this world. It shows 40 minutes have passed."
Yue Cen didn't reply, remaining silent for a moment before saying, "Let's go check those low houses. It seems like that's the only option for now."
Having only known each other for a short time, Ke Xun didn't know much about Yue Cen, only that the other's tone had been a bit strange, though he couldn't quite put his finger on it.
According to the setting of this world, it seemed that only those strange low houses were worth "investigating"; perhaps the wooden fragments they were looking for were inside.
Ke Xun pushed Yue Cen towards them. These low houses were very dilapidated, especially with many dark holes at the base of the walls, like places where rats would burrow.
The low houses had no windows, only a small door. Ke Xun walked over and gently kicked it open.
The houses were dark and empty.
The other low houses were the same.
The two of them still found some clues in these houses—some grain chaff on the ground, scattered along the base of the walls.
"If I'm not mistaken, these should all be granaries," Ke Xun concluded, "but the grain inside has been stolen by rats."
Yue Cen nodded, agreeing with Ke Xun's assessment.
"I think if there's a granary, there must be people. Why do these people let the rats dig holes and steal the grain?" Ke Xun asked, puzzled. "I think it has something to do with the shadow puppet show 'The Rat's Wedding' last night. Sister Cen, you said last night that the most classic way to depict 'The Rat's Wedding' is through New Year's paintings. Logically speaking, New Year's paintings usually have some blessing connotations. Besides being a bit humorous, does 'The Rat's Wedding' have any other meaning?"
Yue Cen looked at the grain husks that Ke Xun had just put in her hand, and said thoughtfully, "'The Rat's Wedding' is actually an ancient folk belief in China. Speaking of folk beliefs, they actually evolved from ancient witchcraft. After hundreds or thousands of years of inheritance, they gradually became the customs and habits of the people. You could even say that 'folk beliefs' are the faith of farmers. People pray for good weather and abundant harvests, and these are all folk beliefs. As for 'The Rat's Wedding,' it is actually the 'rat worship' activity in folk beliefs."
"Rat worship?" Ke Xun, who grew up in the city, had never heard of such a strange sacrifice before.
"Yes, it's the rat worship ceremony. These activities are all held in the first month of the lunar calendar, but the specific dates and methods of worship vary across the country. Some places hold it on the seventh day of the first month, some on the tenth, and others on the sixteenth or twenty-fifth. On the day of the rat worship ceremony, some areas in Shanxi place foods like flatbreads at the base of walls, saying it's to 'celebrate the rat's wedding'; in the suburbs of Shanghai, people fry sesame candy on the night of the sixteenth, saying it's 'a wedding gift for the rat's daughter'; in the Xiaogan area, they light a sesame oil lamp under the bed and pray, saying 'Please invite the matchmaker to watch the lamp'..."
"I never imagined there were so many customs surrounding 'The Rat's Wedding'," Ke Xun was about to ask something more when he sensed something was off with Yue Cen. "Sister Cen, are you feeling unwell?"
Yue Cen touched her knees and calves: "My left calf down to my ankle feels numb. It's been like this since dawn, and it's getting worse." Yue Cen bent down and touched her calf. "It feels cold and hard, like a stone." She then reached into her trouser leg to touch her ankle with a puzzled expression, quickly pulling her hand back, her face turning pale.
Author's Note:
Reader: I'm really curious how the other groups were divided.
Xingyue: Little fairies, please be patient, I'll write about every group~
Reader: Um, who's left out? Xingyue
: That has to be a secret~ Reader: Will the New Year's painting section be written all the way through to the New Year? Xingyue: Do you think this is like stepping into "Along
the River During the Qingming Festival"? Reader: "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" is nice, when will we all get to play in it? Thank you to all the little angels who voted for me or watered my plants with nutrient solution!