Book 3: Chapter 12: Putizhang and Banquet Attendees


    My whole body went cold as I looked at the corpses, zipped my pants up, and walked over to Poker-Face.


    This time, the feeling was too strange. Throughout all my past experiences, I had never encountered such arge-scale strange situation aboveground. But this time, I could see the fins very clearly, so I immediately asked Poker-Face, "Do you see those fins? What are those things near their ears?"


    Poker-Face thought for a while and then turned to look at me, "I can''t see them."


    I nced at himhe wasnt the type to jokeand then turned to look at the corpses again. Sure enough, I could clearly see that there was something in their ears.


    I immediately broke out in a cold sweat, but this time, the cold sweat was very specialI could smell death in the sweat.


    This was the first time that I had seen more information than Poker-Face. I didnt know what was so special about me, but if Poker-Face couldnt see it and I could, it meant that Poker-Face''s vision was limited. If a problem arose and my judgment on the situation was unclear, it might cause him trouble.


    Poker-Face would hardly let anyone get hurt if he could control the whole situation but I couldnt do it. In fact, I had never done it. People around me kept having idents, and this time, there was also Jin Wantang, who was our core weak link. Although this guy was a bastard, I didnt want anyone around me to die.


    I turned around and called Fatty and Jin Wantang over to see the situation for themselves. When Fatty brought the binocrs over, the both of them looked pale. We really hadn''t encountered this kind of situation before. It was just like a confrontation. I asked Fatty if he could see those fins.


    Fatty also found it strange, "Fins? What fins?"


    I looked at the corpses and strange things in their ears and felt my hands start to go numb. <em>Fatty can''t see them either</em>, I thought to myself. <em>Its over this time.</em>


    "Little Master Three, have you recently opened your heavenly eye and can see people''s putizhang?" Jin Wantang asked.


    I gave him a look that seemed to say, I really don''t know what putizhang is.


    "Its just that some people can see strange things that other people are carrying on their bodies. These things are rted to a persons fate. Some are inscriptions, some are tes, and some are dead pieces of wood. This is called putizhang. People who can see putizhang are the ones whose head sutures don''t close (1). You know that a person has two heavenly eyes, one of which is on top of your head. Once this heavenly eye is opened, you can see spirits. People usually cultivate this eye to see things that are outside of the five elements. There is also a heavenly eye near the temple, but it can be on the left or right side. This eye lets you see putizhang."


    "Do you understand this?"


    "I understand a little," he said.


    I looked at the fins on those corpses and suddenly thought to myself, <em>my temple was kicked earlier. Was Poker-Face the one who kicked me, which caused my heavenly eye to open by ident?</em> It did hurt a little bit when I pressed it, but it wasn''t a fracture or anything.


    I made an action that was simr to jug ears and asked Jin Wantang, "You know those dinosaurs that have two crests on their necks that can be opened like an umbre? Thats what those fins look like. Whats that symbolize?"


    Jin Wantang was puzzled and obviously didn''t know what a Dilophosaurus was. "Little Master Three, no one understands putizhang."


    "Should we pitch camp a little further back?" Fatty asked me.


    I looked at Poker-Face and found that he was looking up at the moon. It was very bright tonightalthough you couldnt really tell in the woodsbut there were clouds in the sky.


    If these things moved in the dark, then by the time the moonlight reappeared after being obscured by the clouds, these corpses may already be beside our sleeping bags.


    Of course, it was also possible that they couldnt leave the small forest. But we couldnt take any risks, so the four of us finished eating dinner and withdrew the camp about a kilometer away. Now, we couldnt see the corpses at the edge of the woods.


    Jin Wantang asked us what we had found, so I hastily exined it to him. Since I was on first watch tonight, the others went to sleep quickly.


    Chinas rule ofw was very good now, so Fatty didnt get to bring a gun with him. I was able to bring a controlled knife with me, but our main weapon now was actually Ping Lian, the big dog. This dog was very arrogant and apathetic. It went to bed earlier than all of us, so all I could do was look at the grasnd and keep the bonfire going strong.


    Seeing that everyone was asleep, I took advantage of the silent night and went up to the two bodies to observe them carefully. I was extremely curious and my experience over the past ten years ensured that I was confident enough. I hesitated for a second and then sharpened my knife and cut the stomach of the first middle-aged corpse open.


    The smell was extremely strong. I lit a kind of smoked tobo but it was still difficult to cover the smell. I couldn''t help but miss the time when my nose didnt work very well. I put my hand into the incision I had made in the corpses stomach and then took the contents out.


    Strangely enough, all I could feel were round beads that were about the size of grapes and had an irregr surface to them. I took one of them out and held it under the shlight. I found that his stomach was full of these beads, which were made of a strange ck stone that I wasnt familiar with.


    I pulled a lot of these beads out, taking out more than half of them. I counted them and found that there were more than forty. This many beads already filled up the stomach a lot, but there were still more in there.


    This kind of thing was absolutely impossible to digest, and it was so heavy that it definitely would be hard to eat.


    I cut the other corpses stomach open and found the same thing. <em>Were all these stones eaten at the banquet?</em> I wondered. I took one and stepped aside to clean it.


    The moon was still high in the sky and the clouds seemed to be dense. I put the stone grapes next to that ceramic figurine piece, which happened to be a part of the face. The paint on it had been ckened by the fire earlier. Just as I was carefully thinking about it, Ping Lian suddenly stood up and began growling at something in the distance.


    I stood up and looked at the moon again but found that it was still there. <em>Thats odd</em>, I thought to myself. I took a few steps and suddenly saw several lights appear on the grasnd, passing by us slowly.


    <em>Herders?</em>


    I grabbed Fatty''s binocrs from off to the side and saw that it was a group of people. I knew at a nce that it was one of Jin Wantang''s teams. There were about five unkempt people sitting on horses and heading in the direction of the woods. I couldnt see their ages but their rucksacks were bulging.


    They all had lights on their shoulders, and one of them was probably a local guide.


    The bonfire in our camp was very big, but they didnt seem to have any interest in it. Instead, they just continued in the direction of the grove. When I adjusted the magnification on the binocrs and zoomed in, I saw that they were all holding the banquet porcin that the other corpses had been holding before.


    <em>Are these thest two tables for the banquet?</em>


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    TN Notes:


    (1) Per Tiffany: The spaces between a typical babys skull bones are filled with flexible material and called sutures. These sutures allow the skull to grow as the babys brain grows. Around two years of age, a childs skull bones begin to join together because the sutures be bone. In Chinese culture, some people say that babies can see paranormal beings because the bones of their skulls havent joined together. That is how one of the heavenly eyes is considered to be on the top of the head. Once the bones join, the babies will stop seeing paranormal beings. Heavenly eyes can also be called "inner eyes" in some cultures.


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    <strong><em>After driving 10+ hours and listening to my sister bitch about my driving the whole time (I swear, you''d think I drive blindfolded with my feet or something), all I have to offer you are 2 chapters. I might get something out tomorrow or I might sleep like the dead. We''ll see. Til next time darlings~</em></strong>