Das Leben der Landbevölkerung in der Stadt während der Song-Dynastie

Kapitel 55

"Ah!" the old man cried out and withdrew his hand. In that instant, I saw the bracelet on my hand shine brightly.

"Fine, you're going to die soon!" The old man chuckled. "Look up at the sky."

I couldn't help but look up at the sky, and oh my god, sand was pouring down from the sky like rain!

I took one last look at the hole; it was gone, and the old man was gone too.

My final feeling was that I was buried by sand falling from the sky.

10. Escaping the Curse

Ahead was a row of burning trees, flames shooting skyward, swirling up and spitting fire everywhere.

A girl in a red dress was running, with wide sleeves, a long skirt, and flowing ribbons that fluttered in the gentle breeze.

My whole body felt burning hot.

As I watched the girl rush towards the flames, I wanted to call out to her.

No, wait, I think I'm watching a movie. This scene looks familiar; it's a scene from a movie. Which movie? "A Terracotta Warrior's Tale," that's it! The girl in the red dress will turn around and smile in a moment; she's played by Gong Li.

But why do I feel so hot when I'm watching a movie?

Sure enough, the girl in red turned around and gave me a bright smile.

"No!" But to my horror, I saw that the face wasn't Gong Li's, but my own! I watched myself wearing a long red dress, running towards the burning flames.

I felt a burning pain; my leg was on fire.

I woke up in pain, my whole body burning. I found myself lying on the sand, the sun shining directly on me. I wanted to drink water, but when I reached around, there was nothing there.

The burning sensation on my leg was even stronger, so it seems that the dream I had about my leg being burned wasn't just a dream; in reality, my leg is indeed injured.

I felt dizzy and lightheaded, but I knew I couldn't just lie here and wait to die.

I scrambled up from the sand, but my legs were as weak as tofu, and I fell again as soon as I stood up. I got up again, tried to figure out which way to go, and started to stagger eastward.

There was no one in the desert at this time, and judging from the position of the sun, it was around two or three o'clock in the afternoon.

From the moment I saw sand fall from the sky in the ancient city until now, I don't know how I escaped that cursed city, or what happened to the others. Rufuri and Delin are dead. What about Kurada? And the others? Where am I now? Where did that city go? Is it buried under the sand again?

I was incredibly thirsty; my mouth was so dry I could barely open it.

Suddenly, I heard the sound of horses' hooves behind me.

Someone's there! I was overjoyed; I was saved!

I turned around hastily, and because I used too much force, I fell onto the sand again. But this time I didn't feel any pain; I just happily opened my mouth and shouted, "Here! Here!" The sound coming from my mouth was like the chirping of a chick whose throat had been squeezed.

Several horses surrounded me.

I lay on the sand and looked up. What I saw chilled me to the bone, and it terrified me even more than when I was walking alone in the desert.

The riders were all dressed in long black robes, with round metal hats on their heads, each hat topped with two horn-like wings. They wore masks that resembled the mummies in the city, and the masks were grinning. These were the black-robed riders that Kurada and I had seen in the moonlight that night. Judging from their masks, they must be connected to the Cursed City!

Oh no, we just escaped one disaster, and now we're facing another.

I closed my eyes in despair.

I was grabbed by those people and put on the horse's back, lying in a bow-like position. The horse started to run, bouncing up and down, making me feel like I was going to vomit my insides, but in fact, I couldn't vomit anything.

Hot and thirsty, and being jostled around by the horse like that, I felt my consciousness starting to blur again.

"Bang!"

I heard a gunshot, and then I fell off my horse, the pain causing me to faint again. A ball of light appeared before my eyes, and in the dim light, there was a Buddha with his hands clasped together, smiling slightly, reciting the Medicine Buddha Mantra: "Tayatha Om, Bekandze Bekandze, Maha Bekandze, Laza Samud, Gade Soha."

A stream of cool spring water flowed into my mouth, and I slowly drank it. It felt so good. I closed my eyes, not wanting to open them, afraid that if I did, I would see a face or mask that looked like a dried-up corpse.

"Amitabha!" A Buddhist chant startled me awake. I opened my eyes involuntarily. The scenery before me was still blurry, but I still saw a familiar face: "Kurada! Shuiying!"

"You're finally awake, that's great!" I heard Kurada's voice.

“You’ve been unconscious for three days and three nights. If you don’t wake up soon, we’re planning to take you to the hospital.” Shui Ying’s voice was trembling with tears.

The scenery before me gradually became clearer; I realized I was already in a tent at the Kurada camp.

I looked up and saw a monk sitting cross-legged in the center of the tent. It was the same monk who had given me the talisman outside the inn that night. What was this monk doing here? I was a little puzzled.

Seeing me looking at the monk, Shuiying quickly said to me, "That's Master Shikong. It's all thanks to him that he's been reciting the Medicine Buddha Mantra for you."

It turns out that the Buddha in my dream was him.

"Thank you, Master!" I bowed slightly to express my gratitude to the monk.

“No need for such formalities, benefactor. We are old acquaintances.” The monk smiled. Indeed, looking at him, I felt a sense of familiarity, not at all like a stranger.

"The master said that he and Ziyue were old acquaintances, but when the master gave Ziyue the talisman that night, I saw that she was very surprised, as if she didn't know you!" Shuiying asked Monk Shikong curiously.

Actually, I also have a lot of questions I want to ask, but Shuiying beat me to it, so I'll just listen to the monk's answer.

"Amitabha!" Shikong chanted the Buddha's name. "The so-called old acquaintances are not the old acquaintances that people think they are. You should know that in this world, all things in the universe are ultimately nothing more than the word 'cycle'."

“Then I truly have no idea what the mystery is.” Shui Ying laughed.

“Actually, I don’t know everything. I’ve been practicing with my master in a mountain temple. That day, my master sent me down the mountain to this place, telling me that an old acquaintance was in trouble and had been unable to escape for countless lifetimes. He asked me to come and help, and gave me some magic tools and talismans. I asked my master, ‘Who is this old acquaintance? How can we know each other?’ My master said, ‘You’ll know when you get there. If things go well, you’ll understand. If things don’t go well, I’m afraid you’ll also have a hard time escaping.’ When I came here after I got down the mountain, sure enough, when I saw Miss Ziyue, I knew that the person my master was referring to was her.”

"Imagine the mystery lies within this; even masters cannot comprehend it, let alone ordinary mortals like us," I said with a slight smile.

"When it's time to understand, it will become clear." Shi Kong clasped his hands together and walked out of the tent with a smile.

I turned to Shuiying and asked, "How did you get back? How did Kurada escape from the city? And how did this monk find us?" I bombarded Shuiying with questions like beans spilling from a bamboo tube.

“Young Miss, don’t be in a hurry, let’s talk slowly, okay?” Shuiying patted me with a smile. “Well, I think you’re more concerned about Kurada, let’s have him tell us how he escaped first.”

Kurada, who had been standing to the side, blushed slightly when he heard Shuiying say that. Ha, even a bandit can blush. I couldn't help but laugh. My laughter made Kurada blush even more.

"That's amazing!" Kurada hurriedly recounted his experience to cover his true feelings. "I was in the house with you when we heard Delin's cry, do you remember?"

"Remember."

“I rushed out the door and saw a figure flash by on one side of the street, so I chased after it. The figure always turned into another street just as I was about to see it. Finally, when I reached a large intersection, the figure disappeared. I stood at the intersection looking around, and then I heard Delin scream even louder, and then there was silence. As I was trying to make out the sound, I heard you calling me.”

“Ah, yes, it’s about right by this time. I’ve been looking for you and calling you many times,” I said.

“I kept calling your name as I searched for you, following the sound. I don’t know how long I searched, but I found myself at the city gate. I thought something was wrong; you should still be inside the city. So I turned back to look for you. Just as I turned around, I saw Delin covered in blood! He said to me, ‘There’s no time left, run!’ Then he pushed me out of the city. I fell outside the city and saw the gate slam shut. Then, a sandstorm poured down into the city. At that moment, I thought I could still hear you calling me.” Kurada blushed again. “I don’t remember anything after that.”

“Let me tell you the rest,” Shuiying continued. “Our team searched from inside the city all the way to the city gates. Almost every house we found contained mummies. It was quite disgusting, but we were still very happy with these discoveries. Later, we went out of the city gates, climbed up the desert, and got the horses and camels ready, waiting for you to come out and meet us to see what we could find. Not long after, we saw Kurada run to the city gate. He stood there for a moment, then something pushed him, and he fell outside the city and passed out. Several of his men went down and carried him back up. I shouted anxiously, ‘Where’s Ziyue? Why didn’t Ziyue come out?’ As I was saying that, I felt the sand sinking. I looked over and saw that the sand around the city was pouring down into it like water. In a panic, we spurred our horses and ran away. As we ran, when I looked back, I found that the entire city had disappeared, buried under the sand!”

As Shuiying spoke, there was still a look of terror in her eyes. I couldn't imagine what the scene she saw was like, but seeing Shuiying's expression, I knew it must have been terrifying.

“Later we remembered that you and Delin hadn’t come out, so we ran back to search the sand, but we couldn’t find you at all. Not long after, Kurada woke up and told us what you had gone through. I thought you were also in the city… that something had happened to you.” Shuiying’s voice was a little choked up. “Luckily you were alright. What would I have done if something had happened to you?”

"Okay, okay, everything's fine now. Besides, if something happened to me, you'd still have handsome guys to keep you company," I coaxed her.

"Alright, we came out together. If I go back alone, how am I supposed to live? Just thinking about it makes me so sad." Shuiying sobbed for a moment, then continued, "Later, we split up to search for you in the desert. I was with Duusa (one of Kurada's bandits) when we heard gunshots from behind a sand dune not far away. We rode over to see what was happening and found Kurada and his men fighting with several men in black. You were tied to a horse, and the man in black on that horse had already been killed. Duusa and I led the horse away. When the men in black saw so many of us coming this way, they fled. I saw them riding westward. Everyone raised their guns, aiming at them, ready to kill them all. Just then, a layer of fog suddenly rose under the bright sun, enveloping them. Then the fog dissipated, and the men in black disappeared. You didn't see it, but the scene was so eerie." Shuiying shuddered as she spoke.

"Who exactly are those men in black?" I then told Shuiying and Kurada about the strange things I had encountered in the city, and about that old man with a hunched face who looked like a dried corpse.

"Judging from their clothing, these people in black and that old man should be fire people," Kurada said.

“Yes, I think so too.” I nodded. “But I still don’t understand. I remember being buried under the sand, so how did I end up back on top of it?”

"Oh, right, Master Shikong said he sensed a lot of resentment in the West, and there must be some kind of curse. That's why that city is called the Cursed City. People who have seen the Cursed City before have all disappeared, and they may have been buried in the city. That's why there are so many mummies in the city. We were supposed to die when we entered the Cursed City, but because of the bracelet you were wearing and the talisman Master Shikong gave you, the curse was broken, so you didn't disappear."

"What you said makes some sense, but I think it's far from that simple." I said, turning over, and suddenly felt a burning pain in my leg. "Ouch."

"What's wrong?" Kurada asked me hurriedly.

"My leg hurts so much, it feels like I've been burned," I said, frowning.

“Oh, right, your leg is burned,” Shuiying said to me, gesturing. “It’s a big burn. I also see that your pants are burned through; something in your pocket must have caught fire.”

"Pants pocket?" I thought for a moment. "That's it. I put the talisman Master Shikong gave me in there. He told me to keep it close to my body. After thinking about it, the only place I could put it was in my pants pocket."

"Could it be that the talisman burned?" Shui Ying was stunned for a moment.

"By the way, how did Master Shikong find his way here?" I asked Shuiying in confusion.

"Here's what happened. When you were unconscious, I went back to the town to buy some medicine for you. I happened to run into Master Shikong at the inn. He saw me and asked where I was. I told him you were injured and still unconscious, so he came here with me."

As they were talking, the tent flap was lifted, and a local woman poked her head in and called out, "Dinner's ready!"

"Oh, dinner's ready." Shuiying jumped off the bed. "I have some new discoveries, I'll tell you after we eat. Are you going to stay in bed and wait for me to bring you food, or are you going out to eat with us?"

I moved my body a little, and apart from the pain from the burns on my legs, I was fine. So I got out of bed and, with Shuiying's help, limped out.

11. The Man in Black

During dinner, I asked Shikong, "Why did the talisman burn my leg so badly?"

“Amitabha! I suspect the resentment in the cursed city is too strong, making it difficult for the talisman to dispel. The talisman's power was used to its limit, which is why it caught fire. That's Samadhi True Fire. You're lucky you only got a small burn.” As he spoke, Shi Kong handed me another talisman. “Burn this one and dissolve it in water. Apply it to the wound; it will heal faster. Burns from Samadhi True Fire will definitely leave deep marks.”

"Oh my God, my beautiful thighs!" I exclaimed, thinking about the scar that would remain on my legs.

After the meal, Shuiying used talisman water to wash my wound, and it felt really cool.

"You said you made a new discovery, tell me quickly what it is." I pulled Shuiying to sit down beside me and asked her repeatedly.

"First, do you know how much the desert has been pushed forward this time?" Shuiying sat down and asked me first. How would I know? I was really confused.

"I don't know, you tell me," I answered her immediately.

“I don’t know either.” I was about to slap my forehead in protest when Shuiying raised her right hand. I knew she was indicating that she hadn’t finished speaking. “But when I returned to the town, I saw that the sand from the desert had already surged into the town, and the houses in the town closest to the desert were half-buried in the sand.”

"Ah!" I gasped.

"Don't rush, listen to me. My second discovery is that this cursed city appears roughly every twenty-five years. Last time, we overlooked something in the data we checked; we didn't pay close attention to the timing. This time, I looked at the timing carefully, and every record of the cursed city's appearance is twenty-five years apart. Also, do you remember Kurada saying that twenty-five years ago, the town where these bandits lived was swallowed by sand?"

"Yes, you mean that every time the Cursed City appears, the desert expands outward?"

"That's right, I checked other information later and found that the time when the towns around the desert were swallowed up was exactly the same year that Cursed City appeared, and the time was shortly after Cursed City appeared. Although it's not every twenty-five years that a town is swallowed up, maybe it's fifty years, maybe it's seventy-five years, maybe it's one hundred years, in short, the time when any town in the records was swallowed up by the sand coincides with the time when Cursed City appeared."

"So that's how it is. It seems this ancient city truly is under an unbreakable curse?" I murmured.

"What are you all discussing here? Did you just escape from that cursed city and now you want to go back?" Kurada appeared behind us without us noticing.

"That's right, I have to go back. I must unravel the mystery of this cursed city," I muttered to myself.

"You're crazy!" Kula shouted almost in unison with Shuiying.

"No, she's not crazy, she has to go back." I wonder when Shi Kong came out again. Why do these people always sneak up behind people?

"Master, why do you say that?" Kula asked, puzzled. "Hasn't she already escaped the curse of the Cursed City? Are you going to send her back to her death?"

“Yes, she escaped the curse, but you haven’t escaped it yet,” Shi Kong said, sitting down as well.

"What does this mean?" Shui Ying exclaimed.