Spirits and demons

In the corner of the town market, more and more people gathered around the young girl. The old man puffed on his pipe, the woman gently coaxed the toddler in her arms, and the children gobbled up the snacks they had just boughtas if in a competition to see who could finish them before they went home.

--I thought there would be more of them.

The young girl sighed in her heart and thought.

It seems to be the only way to attract this many people, if we don't start, maybe people will get impatient and leave. So, the girl put down the gong, cleared her throat, and said loudly: "Thank you for your support, folks. Next, you will see, unprecedented praise!"

The calmness that the young girl showed between her hands and feet showed that this was certainly not a sudden and whimsical move on her part, and that she must have had experience in performing many times. Just this is the first time she came to this town, so we are holding "see what this girl can do" mentality, just to see a lively.

The young girl faked a hand dance, and then a fierce palm together, the mouth bellowed, only to see her with the front as if suddenly out of the ground like, out of thin air more than a clay man. The clay man is only as high as the girl's calf, but it is not for people to play with ornaments.

Under the operation of the girl's unknown trick, the clay man a moment to perform a masterful acrobatics, a moment like a small monkey jumping up and down, and a moment and the girl argued, angry to stop the show. During the whole performance, the old man's smoke burned alone, the woman's toddler forgot to cry, and even the snacks in the children's hands did not smell good.

The performance ended, the audience was not satisfied to disperse, harvest a lot of money for the young girl, while humming a cheerful ditty, while contentedly packing their bags. At that moment, someone approached.

"Excuse me--"

The young girl thought it was the audience who hadn't seen enough of the show and came to ask for another counter-performance, so she replied without looking up, "The show is over today. I will be performing in this town for the next few days, so come back tomorrow if you want to see it!"

"No, I want to ask, you manipulate the earth puppet technique, seems to come from a certain village."

The young girl's hand movements suddenly stopped, and then she haphazardly stuffed things into her backpack and pulled her legs out and ran. Unfortunately, she was good at controlling earth dolls, but not at running, not to mention that her opponent had more than two legs.

Ming Diao rode on the back of Xiaokong, looked at the panting young girl in front of her, and asked suspiciously, "Why are you running away?"

The young girl gave up on running away, but the resolute expression on her face seemed to indicate that she would never cooperate easily and meekly-

"My name is Xiaoying, I am a spirit puppet master, and I am currently traveling while performing a show. I learned my jutsu in the village, and everyone in the village knows it. Speaking of which, I haven't been back in a long time - hmm? You want to go? This well ...... if you can give me another bowl, I'll show you the way."

Looking at the young girl named Xiaoying, because of two bowls of ice powder, they have penetrated the bottom of their information, a small air can not help but gaze at the dumbfounded, lamented the pure quality of the girl, can be safe and sound to travel alone, it seems to be a really national peace and security of the world.

So Ying also mounted Xiaokong and guided Ming Cun towards his village.

"Wait a minute!" Ying finally realized that something was wrong and shouted, "If that's the case, I have to go back to the village too!"

However it was too late to understand.

On the way, the meddler asked curiously, "Xiaoying, why don't you want to go back to the village?"

Xiaoying sighed and replied as if giving up resistance, "Actually, I escaped from the village, and if I go back at this time, I don't feel like I know how to face my mom and dad."

Surprisingly, she was a young girl who had run away from home. Ming Cunwei secretly praised herself for doing a good deed unintentionally, and in addition, she admired Xiao Ying for having the courage to venture into the jungle alone at a young age.

"Why did you choose to run away from home?"

"Because the people of the village, are old stubborn people with no vision!"

It turns out that Xiaoying's village has such a rule that the clay doll art style taught by the village can only be used in the village and only on formal occasions, and it is forbidden to use it for violent or recreational acts.

"So it seems that you have violated all the village rules." Mei Mei sighed. "Is that why you were expelled from the village?"

Xiaoying shook her head and denied, "Before I left the village, I didn't violate any rules. I chose to leave because I felt that the village's rules were too rigid and I couldn't change them."

With Xiaokong's foot travel, the journey that would have taken three days and three nights was already half done in half a day. Before, they had left the town and crossed the farmland, now they entered the middle of nowhere, even the road was full of weeds, it was really hard to imagine what kind of village would be at the end of the road.

The road gradually extended into the mountains, and in a short while there appeared reclaimed farmland, which seemed to be not far from the village. Unlike the farmland we had seen before, those working here were not villagers, but a single earth puppet. These clay dolls, much larger than the clay dolls that Ying used to perform, but is only about the size of a 10-year-old boy, perhaps it is felt that for farming is perfectly adequate.

If not for Xiaoying's presence, Mingguo would have thought that there were only clay dolls in this village.

Until they reached the entrance of the village, they hadn't met any living people, which Mingentian found weird, but Xiao Kong smelled the scent of humans, so she didn't have to think wildly.

Compared to the frenetic labor outside the village, the atmosphere inside the village was much more relaxed. The children were gathered together, learning the art of manipulating the clay dolls, but the technique was not mature enough, only able to make the clay balls roll around on the ground. But with time, they will be able to grow up to be as good a spirit puppet master as Xiao Ying.

In addition to the teacher who was instructing the children in the art, other adults were playing chess, fishing, drinking tea, so a relaxed look, so that just returned to the village of Xiao Ying, can not help but feel that "in the daytime, a lazy look, really not a grown-up look.

When they noticed that Xiao Ying had returned to the village, the men laughed and talked about "whether they were desperate to come back", "Nonsense, the child must have made a good living", and "that must be a good deal of support". The women were more concerned about the impact on their children, "Don't look, don't talk to her, don't learn from her.

Xiao Ying endured the words while silently thinking, "I knew this would happen." Fortunately, she was surrounded by Mingguang and Xiaokong, otherwise she would have chosen to turn and run.

Suddenly, a figure stopped in front of them and shouted, "What are you doing back here, you girl!"

Mingdian, who had been harassed by sidelong glances and trivial words since a while ago, could not hold back now. She blocked in front of Xiaoying and asked, "Why are the people here so mean to people from the same village! This guy is even more outrageous, he actually started talking about it in front of others. Who the hell is he, the uncle next door who has been treating you badly since you were little?"

"This is my father." Xiaoying responded blandly, and finished by adding, "Pro-life."

It seems that the relationship between Xiaoying and her father is not good, as can be glimpsed from the fact that they start arguing instead of greeting each other as soon as they meet. Dad wants Xiaoying to change her ways, stay in the village, stop using the clay doll style and go do some theatrical moves. And Xiaoying, who by nature craves freedom, naturally does not agree with her father's words.

The conflict between father and daughter, seemingly irreconcilable, so it had to adopt the traditional rules of the village, when the two argued over something, they will use the clay dolls to win or lose, and the loser must unconditionally obey the winner.

In other words, Xiaoying and her father engaged in a battle to prove their point of view is correct.

Seeing Xiaoying's resolute expression, she seemed to accept the village rules, and Ming Cun asked worriedly, "May I ask your father how his clay puppet skills are?"

"He is the most powerful earth puppet master in the village."

Ming Duan patted Xiaoying's shoulder and said sorrowfully, "It's all my fault for causing you to return to the village. As compensation, I will visit you from time to time and tell you some stories from outside."

"Why do you look like I've lost!" But then the conversation turned and Xiaoying herself got worried, "But I really can't compete with dad is all."

"Why don't we just get on Little Air and run away, anyway, I've seen the legendary Village of the Earth Puppets, and there's nothing to stay."

On the side of the small empty, look at is calmly drinking tea Xiaoying father, and then look at the two young girls talking about is intense, can not help but think, you at least in the others can not hear the place to say these things ah!

"No!" Xiaoying categorically rejected the proposal, "Thank you for thinking of me so much. Since I've come back to the village today, I don't intend to continue to run away, otherwise I'll feel like I'm doing something wrong even if I continue to do what I want to do."

"Hmph, still you girl has some backbone." Xiaoying's father said with a stern face, "Don't worry, I won't make things difficult for you, lest others gossip. This time I will send your senior brother on the field."

Although it was a great advantage to avoid a father-daughter duel, the senior brother was not an opponent to be taken lightly. Xiaoying had not won even once against her senior brother since she was a child, plus later she spent all her energy on performing, and the gap was even bigger compared to her senior brother who specialized in fighting.

The competition was scheduled for the next day, so Ying was able to take a good rest and reply to the fatigue accumulated during the journey. But the invisible pressure in her heart made her feel hard to breathe. What would happen if she lost?

As she sat beside her, she watched her in deep distress, but did not know what words to say to comfort her.

At that moment, Khung suddenly spoke up and said, "Perhaps, things are not as complicated as you think."

"How does that sound?"

"According to my understanding of the inner workings of a character like 'old father', we should do this ......"

The next day before the game began, the village men, women and children came to watch, it seems to be not at all the so-called "village rules" in mind, all look like to come to the lively attitude. This is a good thing for Xiaoying, after all, she has long been accustomed to, in full view of the public, to perform the clay dolls.

The game began, brother summoned his earth dolls, not only the size of a teenager, and also holding a sharp blade, clad in battle armor, the tiger is powerful on the earth.

On the contrary, Xiaoying's earth dolls are small and thin and unbearable, but this is on the battlefield, showing weakness does not allow the opponent to hand over victory.

"Senior sister, this is Master's order, don't blame me."

"There is no need to be merciful, senior brother."

As soon as the match began, the Samurai Earth Puppet, just like his manipulator, rushed towards the Dancer Earth Puppet without mercy. The dancer clay doll was unprepared and fell awkwardly to the ground, just in time to avoid the fatal blow. Samurai earth puppet without a hint of hesitation, the opponent launched a pursuit, the dancer earth puppet even too late to get up from the ground, had to have four feet on the ground on hands and knees to escape, and in the end it evolved to roll around on the ground, like a leather ball.

This is really considered a duel on dignity, is simply full of comedy and hilarious farce. The villagers had no expectations for the excitement of the match, which must have ended in Xiaoying's disastrous defeat. And now to the surprise of the crowd, the competition seems to be unexpectedly attractive in another way.

But as a participant of the division, can not have that leisure to watch the game. Perhaps in the eyes of others, he was firmly in control of the rhythm of the whole game, enjoying the process with ease, and victory was just a handy inevitable result. There are, only in the capacity of an opponent, will have a personal experience, such as Xiaoying is definitely an opponent not to be underestimated. Her precision for earth puppet manipulation, reached a height that is difficult to reach at the same age, several seemingly close calls crisis, but is only her calculated performance, like acrobats in the performance of tightrope walking, will deliberately pretend to step slip, so as to attract the attention of the audience.

If you therefore treat your brother as a stage performance accompaniment, it is undoubtedly a self-destructive march. Xiao Ying is not used to concentrate on manipulating the earth puppet for a long time, inevitably revealing a breach, it was caught by the other side. Only to see the samurai earth puppet quickly rushed to the dancer earth puppet, hand up the sword, the opponent will be cut into two pieces of not even close.

This is the end? The villagers didn't know whether to praise "the most outstanding junior brother" or to console "the sister who could last so long under the attack of the brother" for the sudden ending.

But what was not expected was that the two halves of the dancer's clay dolls, which had been split in two, moved separately, and although only half of their bodies were left, they fled for their lives without hesitation. They converged away from the samurai clay dolls and then put them back together.

"Yikes, it's spelled crooked, you idiot!" The left half of the body, hit the right half with his left hand.

"It's not because you're moving around!" The right half of the body was not convinced and pushed the left half with the right hand.

Watching the two halves fight with each other, everyone in the room laughed out loud, and even Xiaoying's father, who was always serious, couldn't help but turn the corners of his mouth upward.

Of course, Xiaoying is not yet so powerful that she can make the clay dolls talk, the so-called "fighting mouth" is just her ventriloquism dubbing, this trick is quite popular in the performance, it seems that here is no exception.

With the samurai dolls approaching, the comedy theater show had to end. The left half of the body tried to run towards the left, the right half of the body tried to run towards the right, and they forgot that the two halves had been glued together, re-synthesizing the complete clay doll, and ended up falling on their asses.

An unprecedented burst of laughter erupted from the scene.

"That's enough!" Xiaoying's father's voice overshadowed all other voices, "The competition ends here!"

The teacher was a little unconvinced, "Isn't the match still not decided?"

"This is not a competition, it's just a designed comedy show, we've fallen into that girl's trap."

In the end, the village decided that in order to prevent Xiaoying from bringing the "bad culture" into the village, they would allow her to go out and perform the puppet show without being restricted by the village rules.

Mei Mei congratulated Ying, but she regretted that she had not been able to get the village to abandon its old-fashioned dogma.

"Don't get ahead of yourself!" Xiaoying's father said while stuffing food into his daughter's luggage, "This is still an exception because you have a little bit of skill in earth puppet manipulation."

"Then let me in the village, also can perform ah."

"Don't talk nonsense, you make such a mess, how many children have to be brought up by you, it is better to drive you out of the village is more worry-free." But when he said goodbye, Xiaoying's father still said reluctantly, "Don't blame the village for being cruel, at least it didn't forbid you to return to the village. So, come back once in a while."

On the way out of the village, Mingdian and the girls heard from time to time that some children were asking their parents to manipulate the dolls to perform, and although they were still reprimanded, they seemed to be much gentler than before.

Xiaokong concluded that in fact, Xiaoying's father had given a lot of thought, and perhaps this ending, as he had expected.

"After all, which father would not like to see his children happy and happy."