"Okay." Reiko agreed readily, "We will pass by the blessing tree, and we can also write a prayer tape by the way."
Qisi and Reiko walked side by side along the street to the southeast. There were many stalls on both sides, and there were many pedestrians. It was not as quiet as when they walked to the northwest first, but instead it was full of fireworks.
When the adults saw the two figures, they greeted them one after another. Their manners were no different from those of living people, and they did not show any displeasure.
Keep walking, as if you can really leave Usagiami Town along this road.
After walking for a while, a young man in a black long-sleeved kimono trotted towards Qisi, with a reproachful tone: "Shichiro, why are you still hanging around here? Father asked you to pass."
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Zisi learned his name through the system prompts - Kanna Rokuro, and from this he deduced that the full name of the "Xiao Qi" he played should be "Kanna Shichiro".
"You are always like this, distracted, and you don't know what you are thinking about all day long." Kanna Rokuro scolded Qisi with a sullen face, pretending to be a young adult, "Father wanted to find you, but he couldn't find you for a long time. ”
Qisi lowered his head and said nothing, and Lingzi quickly smiled and smoothed things over: "Since Xiaoqi has something to do, let's say goodbye here first. Unfortunately, I will have to hang up the prayer tape by myself later."
Qisi made a look of regret in a good-natured manner, but in the next second he was pulled away by Kanna Rokuro as if he was facing an enemy and dragged into a narrow alley next to the street.
"The Rabbit God Festival is coming soon, why are you still acting like a child and not sensible at all." Kanna Rokuro turned to look at Qisi and said solemnly, "My father told you not to get too close to Reiko. , you still hang out with her.”
"But my father never told me why." Qisi was affectionate and sincere, as if he was really confused by this. "Brother, do you know the reason why my father didn't let me play with Reiko?"
"Her mother is a crazy woman. She is always afraid of what we will do to her. She will beat her if we see her." Kanna Rokuro said, "Besides, after the Rabbit God Festival, I'm afraid you will be separated forever. There is no point in getting too close." It’s sad.”
"Separate? What does it mean?"
The two of them had arrived in front of a wooden mansion. Kanna Shichiro led Qisi inside and stopped in front of a house.
"Father will tell you everything you should know." He backed away and left without saying another word.
The aroma of temple incense and cooking medicine floated out from the house, mixing into a ball and wrapping Qisi, quiet, solemn and pious. The owner living there is most likely seriously ill, relying on medicine and stones to survive, and praying for God's blessing.
Ziss knew that this was reaching the stage of supplementary background information common in wordplay.
As he stepped into the house, blue-black gauze curtains covered his eyes layer by layer, and flickering candles lit up both sides of the road before disappearing behind the curtains.
Zeiss opened the curtains and moved on. The carved wooden bed covered with black curtains lurks in the shadows like a monster, and the smell of corruption floats under the scent of medicine, like a thread, lingering for a long time.
He felt that there were countless eyes on him from all directions, and he couldn't help but stop and look around. There seemed to be something piled up in a dark corner, like the bones of some small animal.
Qisi pressed his footsteps and silently walked around the wall. He finally saw clearly. There were a row of dead rabbits neatly placed beside the wall. Some had just begun to rot, and some were already bones.
Those dead rabbits were piled up close together in the corner, as if they were just decorations on the wall, or a strange ceremony, full of gloom and terror.
"Shichiro, are you here already?" An old voice came from behind the curtain, hoarse and weak, as if he might die at any moment, "You are the smartest child in the family, and you like to get to the bottom of everything you encounter. Sit down. Come here, I should let you know something.”
Qisi walked to the bed and sat down calmly, said "Father" through the curtain, and then asked pretending to be worried: "How is your illness? We are all very worried about you."
Lying on the sickbed was undoubtedly the head of the Kanna family, who was seriously ill and wanted to pray to the Rabbit God at the fireworks festival. There is no fault in what I just said.
Unexpectedly, the person behind the curtain laughed miserably: "Oh, this is not a disease of mine, it is a price that the descendants of Usagiami Town should pay, and it is also a fate that all the chosen people cannot escape."
Qisi raised his eyebrows slightly and waited quietly for the master of the Kanna family to continue.
However, the head of the Kanna family changed his words and sighed slowly in a very sad and worried tone: "Shichiro, they say you are the child who is most like the Rabbit God... Don't tell people about the legend of the Rabbit God anymore. Don't be looked at by Him, don't be so like Him...
"I have lived enough. I should have died fifty-four years ago. I don't need any more treatment... I just hope you can live well..."
"Looking like a rabbit god" is a blessing in the eyes of children who don't understand anything, but obviously, this is not the case in the eyes of adults who know some secrets.
The child who most resembles the Rabbit God will be selected in the festival, and will most likely die tragically as the body of the Rabbit God.
Zeiss participated in a small Rabbit God Festival held by girls on a night at Hope Middle School, and had many speculations about the conspiracy behind it. However, in front of the head of the Kanna family, he tried his best to act like an ignorant child, and asked doubtfully: "Father,... Why? ”
The head of the Kanna family choked and coughed for a while, then slowly spoke in a hoarse voice: "Two hundred years ago, the three of us worked together to imprison the Rabbit God and force him to make a deal..."
A secret was narrated from the mouth of the old family leader.
Two hundred years ago, Usagi-machi was not called Usagi-machi. This is just an inconspicuous little place. Different people give it different names as a proxy in the communication process. As the years go by, these names are gradually worn away by time and turned into dust of history.
At that time, three small families, Kanna, Edo, and Kurokawa, were entrenched here, far away from the war, forming a delicate balance, and often cooperated to do some things.
During an autumn hunt, they accidentally entered a cave. At the bottom of the cave was the skeleton of a rabbit half as tall as a man, surrounded by shadows of golden vines, which was mysterious and strange.
"The ancestors had never encountered such a miracle. They tried to take away the rabbit bones, but no one could move them. In desperation, they agreed to keep this secret and sealed the cave together. But one day At night, a world-famous witch found them..."
Wu Jin said: "You have witnessed the dying god. This is a destined opportunity. Although his life is dying and his strength is weak, for weak humans, he can help you get everything you want."
Only then did the heads of the three families realize that the rabbit corpse that no one could move was a god, a rabbit god who could fulfill their wishes.
They quickly asked the shaman how they could please the gods.
Wu Jin smiled jokingly: "If you pray to Him, He will not respond. You should imprison Him so that He cannot leave; worship Him so that He cannot die; trade with Him so that He has to be bound by the rules. For your use ”
Wu Jin's words were calm and gentle, without any reverence for the gods. It was as if gods, like all living beings, were just weights on the scales, playthings in the hands of higher beings.
This attitude frightened the family heads, but turned into encouragement, planting a secretly growing seed in their hearts called ambition.
After Wu Jin left, the heads of the three families discussed the plan again and again at night, including the plan to imprison the gods and the distribution of profits after success. The terms of the contract must be scrutinized to the smallest detail, but they have never been able to make up their minds.
After all, gods are untouchable and blasphemous existences in the eyes of mortals. The idea of imprisoning a god is simply too crazy.
But in the face of huge interests, determination and courage only need a spark to ignite.
I don’t know how old I am in the mountains, and the melee from the outside world quickly came to an end. The Fujiwara family, a large family, came to Usagiami Town and asked the three families to surrender and rely on them.
The other party was menacing and aggressive, and the heads of the three families finally gathered in the secret room again on a moonless night to plot.
Before the fireworks festival that month, in the name of worshiping the gods, they asked the tribesmen to kill rabbits according to the method left by the witch.
They used rabbit corpses to form a formation to suppress the power of the Rabbit God in the cave, and moved the Rabbit God's bones to the already built temple in one fell swoop.
The Rabbit God opened his red eyes and asked in a cold voice: "People, what do you want?"
The family heads remembered the teachings of Wu Jin and said: "We want to worship you and trade with you."
When the word "deal" was spoken, the rules of heaven and earth were triggered. Countless golden vines surrounded the three people and one god, and the Rabbit God had to agree to the request.
"After that, we worshiped the Rabbit God every year, and he protected us from war and disaster. And every eighteen years, he would choose a child who was most like him from the heirs of the three families, possess him, and come to the world. , fulfill several wishes
"The possessed person will turn into a monster and must be buried after the fireworks festival in the cave where the ancestors found the Rabbit God. For the next eighteen years, it will appear in the dreams of people with blood and bring threats. Cause people to die of fear
"And this year, the Rabbit God is coming again..."
At this point, the head of the Kanna family stopped talking and breathed out of breath.
Zis asked: "Father, you said you should have died fifty-four years ago. What happened then?"
"I was supposed to be chosen. It was my father, your grandfather, who asked the witch for a way to save me. He smeared my body with the blood of rabbits, and I would no longer be harmed by gods. The ghost saw it.
"All of us in the Kurokawa family were given an ornament soaked in rabbit blood and carried it with us, so that those who don't look like the Rabbit God will not be seen."
The recording pen left by Lu Ming flashed through Qisi's mind. When he was holding the recording pen, he could not be seen by the female dormitory manager and the girls. It seemed to be the same principle.
[Lu Ming's Diary] conveyed a picture of Lu Ming wiping a rabbit skeleton. He might have treated the recording pen with rabbit blood.
But how did he know this?
In the thick fragrance of the medicine, the head of the Kannawu family smiled miserably, and his words were like broken cicada wings: "Qilang, our Kannawu family no longer needs the power of the Rabbit God, and the transaction has become a constraint... You have to be careful, don't be caught by the other two. Family harm...
"I heard that the Rabbit God will definitely fulfill the wish of the child he chooses..."
In the early days, the three families checked and balanced each other. For the sake of fairness, there must be some kind of agreement that required the leaders of each family not to interfere in the selection of the Rabbit God Festival.
But the situation will change. Two hundred years have passed, and some families have become more powerful, while others have declined. The transactions that benefited everyone for a period of time have turned into a curse as time goes by.
When food and clothing are scarce and you are struggling to survive, being haunted by ghosts is just a small price to pay; but which wealthy and wealthy family is willing to sit under the sword of Damocles and be harassed by ghosts all the time?
The original agreement is in jeopardy, and twists and turns arise.
Qisi walked out of the inner room and unknowingly arrived at the noisy downtown. The sky is full of red silk swaying in the wind, with people's wishes written on it in gold pen.
The ignorant people were kept in the dark and thought that the protection of the Rabbit God came from their earth-shattering piety. They are addicted to beautiful legends, but they don't know that behind it all are cold transactions and dark calculations.
Fireworks everywhere, abscesses and blood stasis under the lanterns ten miles away, it’s unclear when the lies that have been going on for two hundred years will be exposed. Combined with the consistent routine of word games, the fireworks display on August 7 should be the climax of everything.
Behind a stall filled with red silk for making wishes, a gray-haired woman smiled and waved to Qisi: "It's Shichiro from Kanna-sama's family. He is indeed a cute child!"
Zeiss put a purely harmless smile on his face and walked over.
The old woman smiled and said: "You haven't made a wish this year, so I'll keep the longest prayer tape for you."
"Thank you, mother-in-law." Qisi frowned and took the red silk handed over by the old woman. "Actually, I haven't decided what wish I want to make. I'm afraid that the wish is too excessive and the Lord Rabbit God will not realize it."
"Oh, Lord Rabbit God will come this year, and the wishes he made will come true better than in previous years." The old woman said with a hint of urging.
Qisi nodded indifferently, and the faded prayer tape he saw at the bottom of the Hope Middle School flashed before his eyes.
He already knew what to write.
【Weird games, rules, transactions】
Zeiss picked up the gold pen and wrote the three words he saw at the bottom of the lake on the red silk. His destiny was on the right track and closed like a Möbius strip.
Since he already knew that in one of the world lines, he successfully achieved the ending of seizing the power of the Rabbit God.
The script has been written and the questions have been answered, so he will accept it calmly and face the destined ending.
Qisi shuttled between the fine silk ribbons, looking for the place to hang the red silk. At the same time, he glanced at the red silk and read the words on it one by one.
Juanxiu's handwriting was clearly written on a one-foot-long piece of red silk: [I want to be with Xiaoqi. Reiko】
It is known that the wishes of children chosen by the Rabbit God will definitely come true, and with the secret collusion of the adults, Reiko will be chosen by the Rabbit God without any accident.
She will die, but she wants to be with Kanna Shichiro, so she has no choice but to let Kanna Shichiro die together.
Unless——Escape from Usagiami Town. (End of chapter)