In the evening.
Binhai City.
A taxi slowly stopped.
"Grandpa, do you need me to help you carry it? Don't strain your back, "the taxi driver asked enthusiastically.
"Oh, it's okay. It's not heavy. I can still carry it. Thank you." A thin old man with a thin face smiled and waved his hand. He got out of the car with a small suitcase.
From his appearance, the old man seemed to be at least eighty years old. He had a white beard on his chin. Although the people around him had already changed into thin clothes, he still wore an old-fashioned cotton robe as if he was afraid of the cold. He looked like he had just walked out of a theatrical troupe. However, in stark contrast to his age and his old-fashioned attire, he still used his mobile phone to pay the taxi fare, which surprised the driver because many middle-aged people in their 40s and 50s would only pay with cash.
If the driver knew that there was an invisible cat sitting in the back seat all the way and got out of the car with the old man, he would be even more surprised.
The taxi drove away. The old man dusted off his cotton robe and looked around. Nothing seemed to have changed since he left.
Meow.
The cat meowed softly.
The old man lowered his head and asked with concern, "What's wrong?"
It was a Persian cat. It had a black top, black back, and black tail. Other than that, it was snow-white. However, if it was judged by the standards of modern Persian cats, this cat would undoubtedly be disqualified. After all, it was not a cat from modern times. During the Song Dynasty, the most popular cat in the upper class was a cat from Persia.
It ran to the feet of the old man with its short legs, as if it wanted to hide in the cotton robe. It stared at the street in the twilight with its eyes wide open. Its trembling body made the old man's cotton robe tremble slightly, as if it was extremely afraid.
The unusual behavior of his cat made the old man frown deeply. He also looked suspiciously into the depths of the half-dark street, but he did not find anything unusual.
The office workers who got off work dragged their tired bodies home. The children who had just finished school rode their bicycles like the wind. The peddlers who only set up their stalls at night to avoid the urban management gradually set up their own stalls and began to do business. Everything was no different from the past.
He raised his head and looked at the two-story antique building in front of him. In front of the shop was a red lacquer door inlaid with brass nails. On both sides were a pair of red lacquer pillars that were as fine as buckets. Right above the shop was a blue and gilded plaque with the words "Back to the Old Days" written on it.
The red lacquer door was closed and locked.
There was a layer of dust on the knocker.
Ever since he left last autumn, this was the first time he had returned to Binhai City after a few months.
What interesting things had happened in Binhai City in the past few months?
As he got older, his body could no longer withstand the cold. He would always choose to lock up the shop when winter came and go to a villa further south to spend the winter there. He would come back when the flowers bloomed the next spring. Anyway, he did not rely on this shop to make money.
Binhai City was the city he had chosen for his retirement. It was not as noisy as a big city, and it was not as inconvenient as a small city. Except for the cold winter, the climate was still pleasant. There was more than one city with similar conditions. He had drawn lots from a few of the cities he had chosen, and he happened to draw Binhai City. From then on, he would spend half of his time there every year.
This was not the first time his cat had behaved strangely. The last time it behaved strangely was when someone had given him a bronze imitation of the Holy Cat statue. At that time, it had been extremely afraid of the Holy Cat statue. It always hid far away and did not dare to approach it.
The old man liked cats very much, and he also liked things related to cats. After receiving the Holy Cat statue, he was very happy because he had come into contact with many antiques and could see that the Holy Cat statue was not as simple as an imitation.
However, his cat's fear of the Holy Cat statue made him vigilant.
He had come into contact with a lot of antiques and collected a lot of antiques. The antiques in this shop were just a drop in the ocean. No one would display the really valuable antiques outside for people to admire.
Maybe it was because the ancients had poured too much emotion into them, or maybe it was because they had experienced too much time, but some very few antiques would occasionally show abnormalities that were difficult to explain with common sense. In other words, they were "psychic."
Psychic wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes, a magical tacit understanding could be felt from the psychic antiques. It was as if the soul had crossed time and space to meet the original owner of the antique at that moment.
However, among these very few psychic antiques, there were a few whose original owners were not good. They seemed to be connected to evil spirits.
Every time this happened, his cat would always show abnormalities and warn him in time to stay away from the antiques that were haunted by evil spirits.
Other psychic antiques had some special phenomena, such as abnormal sounds, abnormal movements, and strange changes in light and shadow. But at first, he didn't notice any similar signs from the Holy Cat statue. It was just a very lifelike piece of art. He thought that his cat was a little sensitive, so he temporarily left the statue at the entrance of the shop and didn't let his cat go near it.
He used to feed the stray cats nearby, but ever since the Holy Cat statue came to the shop, the stray cats didn't dare to go near it. This made him reconsider the problem. Maybe the Holy Cat statue was completely different from all the psychic antiques he had encountered before, and he couldn't use his previous experience to judge it.
But how should he get rid of this Holy Cat statue?
His heart was very conflicted.
On one hand, Confucius said, "If you can't help people, how can you help ghosts?" If you don't know life, how can you know death? When it came to ghosts and gods, the teachings of the saints were to ignore them because there were many more important things to explore in the world. Where would they have the time to pursue the illusory theory of ghosts and gods?
On the other hand, Master Zhu also said, "Scholars must know how the sky can be high, how the earth can be thick, how ghosts and gods appear, and how mountains can be melted. This is the study of things." Master Zhu advocated the study of things to know, but it also required scholars to be curious about everything in the world and give scientific and reasonable explanations to ghosts and gods in the form of philosophical speculation.
The two sages had a subtle disagreement on this part. Not only him, but even Master Zhu himself, who had carried the past and opened up the future in the history of Confucianism, had been troubled by this problem his whole life.
He had looked up a lot of information, but there was too little credible information about ancient Egypt. The information that had been passed down to this day was very rare. He still didn't understand why the Holy Cat statue, which represented the good god in ancient Egypt, would be infected with evil energy.
Master Zhu said that if it was a demon, most of them would not die, and their energy would not dissipate, so they would become a demon. According to this saying, the Holy Cat statue did not have the prerequisite to become a demon — it had died a violent death.
Those who extended their energy were called gods; those who bent their energy were called ghosts. The so-called ghosts and gods were originally the ups and downs of yin and yang. It was the same for the human body. When a person's heart moved, they could sense ghosts and gods.
It could only be attributed to the fact that the Holy Cat statue had been buried underground for a long time and had been soaked in too much Yin energy.
The Holy Cat statue itself was very precious. If it was destroyed, it would be a waste. There was nothing abnormal about the statue at the moment, so it was better to leave it for someone who could control it.
What's more, Master Zhu had also said, "The energy of gods is always bent and extended, but the energy of humans and ghosts dissipates." Its dissipation was also different in how long it took. There were people who did not bow to the dead, so if the energy did not dissipate after death, it would become a demon.
When the Holy Cat statue was buried underground, it had been contaminated with a lot of Yin energy, but it would eventually dissipate. It was just a matter of time. So he often pushed the Holy Cat statue under the sun at noon to bask in the sun, hoping that the Yin energy would dissipate quickly.
Everything in the world was formed by yin and yang energy. Humans and ghosts came from the same source. Other than using the sun's Yang energy to disperse the Yin energy, humans' Yang energy could also have the same effect. He felt that if the Holy Cat statue was placed in a shop with a lot of people, it might further speed up the dissipation of its Yin energy. But his shop would definitely not do. This second-hand antique shop was too high profile, and there would not be many customers.
When he met the lively and cheerful female streamer, he heard from her that she wanted to give the Holy Cat statue to someone as a congratulatory gift for the opening of her shop, and that the other party's business was booming. It seemed to be a good place to use yang energy to disperse Yin energy. So he sold the Holy Cat statue to her at a very low price, and especially reminded her of some taboos.
Whether it was the female streamer or the person she gave it to, they did not seem to care much about ghosts and gods, especially the person she gave it to. He actually claimed that even if the Yin energy attacked, he would just blow it away.
However, this was also good. 'Not believing' was the best way to avoid evil. It was just that the old man himself could no longer 'not believe'. After all, even the ancient sages' believed ', so how could he dare to go against the ancient sages?
The sky was getting darker and darker, but his cat was still staring at the darkness in the distance, meowing non-stop. It kept using its claws to pull at his cotton robe, warning him to leave the city as soon as possible. Its panic was a hundred times worse than the last time the Holy Cat statue had appeared.
"The Holy Cat statue has already been given away. What are you afraid of?" he asked gently.
But his cat could not explain it clearly. It could only tell him that a huge evil had arrived in the city, and for safety's sake, it was best to leave as soon as possible.
He pondered for a while. If evil was around, such as some antiques that were connected to evil spirits, he would definitely listen to advice and find a way to send it away, bury it deep, or destroy it. But since the scope of evil was so wide, there did not seem to be any immediate danger. No matter how serious the situation was, with his cat around, he could always stay away from evil one step ahead of others.
"The journey has been tiring. Let's go in and rest for a while. At least after tonight, we'll decide what to do next." He comforted it, then took out the key, unlocked the door, and pushed it open with a bang.
The stale air in the shop, which had not circulated for months, was quickly blown away by the night wind.
Everything was exactly the same as when he left, including the half-opened copy of Zhu Zi's Anthology of Occasional Readings on the table. The cover was densely marked with his comments and reading experiences.
The night wind made the pages of the book rustle, and finally stopped on one of the pages.
Don't you see the cat catching the mouse? Four feet on the ground, head and tail straight, eyes unblinking, heart without any other thoughts. But if it does not move, the mouse will not be able to escape.
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