Qimen Dunjia

Chapter 2 The Weird Fax Machine

At night, Lou Xiaolou had a strange dream.

He dreamed that he was fishing by the lake.That place is both familiar and strange, as if I have been there before, but I can't remember it.Surrounded by jagged rocks and towering ancient trees.One or two crows screamed "quack - quack - quack -" and only heard its dark voice, but could not see its dark figure.

In the world, there is only Lou Xiaolou.

After a long, long time, there is still no fish hooked.

Lou Xiaolou was a little impatient and was going to pack his fishing gear and go home.From the weird lake in his dream to his home in Beijing in reality, he didn't know how to go.

At this time, the sky suddenly darkened and the wind picked up.There was an animal in the grass for a moment, as if fleeing for its life in a hurry.The sky is constantly flashing lightning, but there is no sound, just like a light bulb that flickers on and off due to unstable voltage.

The calm water of the lake began to move, becoming more and more turbulent, and soon became a stormy sea.Lou Xiaolou was stunned, staring straight at the water, anticipating what was going to happen.

Suddenly, something rushed out of the water with a "boom", and its body was almost as big as the surface of the lake!Lou Xiaolou trembled with fright, wanted to run but couldn't stand up.

This is a huge tortoise.Its belly is yellow and its shell is black.It has no eyebrows, and its bald eyes stare gloomily at Lou Xiaolou.

Lou Xiaolou stared at the tortoise stupidly, at a loss.

It turned around slowly, and Lou Xiaolou saw its dripping back, with a faint circular pattern on it, accompanied by traditional characters.

Before Lou Xiaolou could see it clearly, the huge tortoise descended slowly. The lake water surged for a while, and finally calmed down.

Then, a child's voice chanted from the sky:
Yin and Yang are reversed and smooth, and the second solstice returns to the first and ninth palaces.

If you can understand the principle of yin and yang, the world will come to you in one palm.

……

Lou Xiaolou woke up from the dream.

The bedroom was dark and there was no sound.

He got up, reached for his phone and looked at it, it was twelve o'clock in the middle of the night.He lay down, thinking about the strange pattern and the song in his dream, and closed his eyes, trying to go back to sleep.He is a doctor at the Northern Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and he has been in touch with "Book of Changes" a little. He knows that the pattern is a diagram of the Eight Diagrams, and the ballad is the famous "Song of Fishing Old Men in Yanbo".

He turned over and lay on his back, feeling comfortable.

He has been divorced for three years and is used to living alone.

The ex-wife is a rare good woman, and the divorce is entirely because of Lou Xiaolou.Lou Xiaolou is a man who pleases women. He is 1.7 meters tall, with gentle eyes, a tall nose bridge, thick sexy lips, a refreshing smile like the wind, and a faint smell of Lysol on his body...

He is too fraternal, and more and more women around him have woven a net, and he swims around in this net almost all day long.Obviously, he could become a fish that slipped through the net just by turning around, but he didn't want to.

If another woman finds such a husband, there will be a lot of noise, either the fish will die or the net will be broken.But she didn't, she realized that she couldn't change this man, just like she couldn't turn a stalk of wheat into a grain, so she quietly left him and went to America.

Although Lou Xiaolou loves women, he is not a pervert type, he should be considered a pervert.He doesn't let loose.After the divorce, he lived alone most of the time.

one person.a house.a world.

If it is too quiet, there will be noise.

Lou Xiaolou pricked up his ears and listened. It seemed that it was coming from the study, and it was the voice of a fax machine: "Squeak..." It was like an animal spitting out something slowly.

He sat up, put on his clothes and went out, turned on the light in the study, and the fax machine spit out a document.There is no other party's phone number.He picked it up, and it was a picture of King Wen's gossip.

The text describes the spatial model of the Qimen Dunjia site: Kan, north, represents water and moon.Li, south, represents fire, the sun.Zhen, east, represents thunder, moving.Dui, the west, represents rain and luster.Sunda, southeast, represents wind and scattered.Gen, northeast, on behalf of the mountain, solid.Qian, northwest, represents heaven, father.Kun, southwest, represents land, mother.

Who sent this?

In such a late night, a fax from an unknown source made Lou Xiaolou feel a little uneasy.

He slowly walked back to the bedroom, and began to think about the dream just now and the fax, and there seemed to be some mystery.

It should be said that Lou Xiaolou was very interested in Qimen Dunjia.When he was a child, he often heard people say: If you learn Qimen Dunjia, you can "break through walls and escape from the ground".However, if you learn this thaumaturgy, you must drill through it, or you will go crazy.When he was in college, he learned a little Qimen Dunjia, but he gave up because it was too advanced and complicated.

However, he at least knew that according to the legend, the earliest Qimen Dunjia was given to humans by a giant tortoise.Xuanyuan Huangdi and Chiyou fought in Zhuolu, but they could not win. He dreamed of a god and wanted to teach him talismans, so he built an altar to sacrifice.A giant tortoise appeared in the water, with a book in its mouth, which looked like skin but not leather, silk but not silk, and the words were written in blood.According to it, the Yellow Emperor formed his troops and finally defeated Chi You.This is "Qi Men Dun Jia".

Lou Xiaolou believes that the method of revealing the mysteries of the universe like Qimen Dunjia was not created by any sage, but was given to human beings by some kind of mysterious thing in ancient times.

But, why did I have such a strange dream inexplicably?After waking up, why did I receive such a fax by such a coincidence?
If it is said that dreams are illogical, and any dream is possible after falling asleep, then why is there a facsimile that matches the dream in reality?This is no accident.

If it is said that the fax was sent by mistake—this is also a common thing, then why did the scene that appeared in the dream echo this fax?
Qimen Dunjia is known as the "King of Alchemy".

In recent years, it has become a focus of a wave of exploring China's mysterious culture.

Lou Xiaolou has long wanted to calm down and relearn this great forecasting technique, so as to grasp the future and make time and space choices for every decision he makes.In a sense, Qimen Dunjia is a science of decision-making.However, he has been busy with worldly affairs and has not realized this idea.

However, if the tortoise in the dream is really some kind of omen; if some kind of mysterious power teaches him the strange armor by fax every night-he must be afraid.He still hopes to buy a book about Qimen Dunjia, and read it quietly at home, and it would be even better if there is a girl with red sleeves beside him.

The next day, Lou Xiaolou went to several bookstores, wanting to buy a tutorial book on Qimen Dunjia, but found that there were very few such books.Modern people are busy all day long, and buying books is also a guide to lottery tickets, murder novels, 36 tricks of love and so on.Almost no one pays attention to mysterious books such as Qimen Dunjia, which make people feel unspecific and unrealistic.Occasionally, I see one or two books, and the writing is cloudy and foggy, making people unable to understand at all, or the author himself has only a half-knowledge.

That night, he was sitting alone on the sofa at home watching TV, holding the remote control in his hand, and kept changing channels.

His TV has 58 channels, 22 of which have programs, but none of them are good-looking.The next [-] channels are Snowflakes.

Today, Lou Xiaolou unexpectedly discovered that there was a video on Channel 60 of No.[-]!The logo in the upper left corner of the screen is a picture of Taiji, an old man in a Chinese-style double-breasted jacket, with a clear face, sitting on the stage giving a lecture, and behind him is the background of the deep universe.The image is blurry, as if it came from a distant time and space.The noise was very loud, and Lou Xiaolou vaguely heard him talking about the relationship between Jiugongge and the constellations in the sky.

Lou Xiaolou hurriedly picked up the phone and called a girl named Lin Yaoyao.This girl is a "medical representative" of a pharmaceutical factory. In layman's terms, she goes to various hospitals to sell medicines. She has been pursuing Lou Xiaolou.

Lou Xiaolou asked, "Where are you?"
Lin wants to say: "I'm at home. What's wrong with you, you're in a panic!"
"Turn on the TV quickly and see if there is a station with a Taiji diagram?"
He heard that Lin was about to turn on the TV, and after searching for a long time, he picked up the phone and said to him, "No. Did something happen?"
Lou Xiaolou was stunned, and said, "It's okay..."
Putting down the phone, he watched TV again, the screen was already covered with snowflakes, and it was creaking.The old man disappeared, and so did the station.

He turned off the TV and was in a daze.

After a while, he unwillingly turned on the TV again, looking for that weird station, but there was none. After 58 channels, it's all snowflakes.

In the middle of the night, Lou Xiaolou heard the sound of "squeaking" coming from the study again.He ran over and saw another document spit out from the fax machine:
4 9 2
3 5 7
8 1 6
Wear nine shoes, one on the left, three on the right, four on the right, four or two on the shoulders, eight or six on the feet, and five on the center.

Facing this set of numbers, Lou Xiaolou pondered for a long time.This is a three-level magic square, whether it is a positive orientation or a diagonal, the three numbers add up to fifteen.

Raising his head and looking up at the vast night sky, Lou Xiaolou was full of confusion.

The stars are far and near, large and small, bright and dark.

There are nine groups of the brightest stars in the sky, to identify the direction for the ancients:
The north is a Polaris star, the south is a group of nine Tianji stars, the east is a group of three Hebei stars, the west is a group of seven Qigong stars, and the northeast is eight stars. A group of Huagai stars, four auxiliary stars in a group in the southeast, a group of two Huben stars in the southwest, a group of six Tianchu stars in the northwest, and five satellites in the center. It is a group of five emperors.The magical arrangement of numbers in Qimen Dunjia is exactly the same as the numbers and patterns of the nine groups of stars in the sky!
Lou Xiaolou had a premonition—he seemed to be close to some kind of mysterious thing other than human beings.

He reached out and unplugged the phone cord from the fax machine.

In the middle of the night of the third day, Lou Xiaolou was woken up again by a strange sound.He opened his eyes suddenly, and recognized that the voice was still coming from the study: "Squeak..."
He put on his clothes and got off the ground, walked into the study, turned on the light, and his eyes widened—the fax machine spat out another document!The sender still didn't leave a phone number.

This time, the fax is talking about the time model of the Qimen Dunjia site:

Hiding the ten-day-dried carapace is so wonderful.The remaining nine stems occupy the nine palaces.

There are a total of eighteen rounds of talking about yin and yang escape...

Lou Xiaolou looked behind the fax machine, followed the telephone line, and found under the table the plug that was unplugged yesterday, lying quietly on the floor.

Lou Xiaolou stared wide-eyed and scanned the room, but there was nothing unusual.

He froze.

He seemed to have seen this scene: on the concrete floor, lay a dead man who had been dying for a long time. He suddenly opened his mouth and said with a local accent, "I'll tell you something..."
On the morning of the third day, Lou Xiaolou packed the fax machine into a box, carried it downstairs, and put it on the silver-gray Bora sedan.

Then, he called Lin Yaoyao.She is in a pharmaceutical factory, and the pharmaceutical factory is in the outer suburbs.

"Wait for me, I'll be there right away."
"Dr. Lou, why did you suddenly think of visiting our small factory?"
"I'll give you a present."
"Don't be kidding, it's us drug salesmen who give gifts to doctors, how can doctors give us gifts!"
"If you accept this gift, you will help me."
After speaking, he drove straight to the pharmaceutical factory.He wished he could send this fax machine as far as possible.

When he arrived at the pharmaceutical factory, Lin Yaoyao was already waiting for him at the gate.It can be seen that she has just been carefully dressed, and there is a strong smell of perfume on her body.

Lou Xiaolou got out of the car, took down the fax machine, and said, "This is for you."
"Where did this come from? Why don't you want it?"
"My family bought a new one and have nowhere to put it."
Lin Yaoyao looked puzzled: "Why do I feel weird..."
"You won't help, will you?"
"Where is this word! Come on, go in and have a glass of water."
"No, I have to go back to work."
"Your complexion is not very good, what have you been doing recently?"
"Insomnia."
"I'll take you to eat tonight, Bubu?"
"I don't need it, thanks, I have to go."
"Don't go, I still want to ask you, what happened to the Taijitu TV station last night?"
Lou Xiaolou had already gotten into the car. He looked back at Lin Yaoyao and said, "You have to take good care of this fax machine, and tell me in time if there is any situation."
Lin wants to say loudly: "When can I treat you to dinner?"
Lou Xiaolou left behind a puff of exhaust gas.

Back at the North Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Lou Xiaolou walked into the acupuncture department where he worked, and there were already patients waiting.It was an old man, wearing a Chinese-style double-breasted jacket, with a pale face.

Lou Xiaolou looked at him carefully and asked, "What's wrong with you?"
The old man pointed to his mouth, and wrote on the paper: It seems to be blocked by something here.

Three nights later, Lin Yaoyao finally invited Lou Xiaolou out to have dinner together.

The place to eat is on Sanlitun South Street, called "Our Home".Wooden boxes, old books, vintage radios - lots of character.

Lin Yaoruo is a woman who loves a man as passionately as a man loves a woman.

She sat down and said, "I am treating guests today. It has nothing to do with business. I am not inviting a doctor, but a man."
Lou Xiaolou said: "I came to the banquet not because you are a medical representative, nor because you are a woman, but because—I am gluttonous."
The waiter brings the food.This place does not require customers to order food, the store will match it for you.

Lin wants to say: "I feel that your demeanor is a little different recently."
Lou Xiaolou said lightly, "Why is it different?"
Lin wants to say: "It seems... It seems that I just came back from a long trip, looking very tired, which makes people feel distressed."
Lou Xiaolou said, "I'm fine."
Lin wants to say: "Who are you with now?"
Lou Xiaolou said, "Alone."
Lin Yaoyao gave a wicked smile: "Is it impossible to be alone all the time?"
Lou Xiaolou also laughed: "90.00% of the time, I am alone."
Lin Yao wants to ask immediately: "Who is with you for the [-]% of the time?"
Lou Xiaolou said: "It's not a person, I can't answer."
Lin wants to say: "My guess is just the opposite. Two percent of the time, you are alone. 90.00 percent of the time, you are surrounded by people."
Lou Xiaolou said, "Wrong."
Lin Yao said with a smile: "It can't be wrong."
Lou Xiaolou said: "Recently, I have been thinking about the issues between me and women. This is an era of masculinity, and I have found more and more that I have become the object of being picked up by women, so I secretly made up my mind-I will not do it." La!"
Lin Yao wants to laugh loudly: "Smelly!"
Lou Xiaolou said, "It's fine if you don't believe me."
After laughing for a while, Lin Yao said seriously: "You always live alone, you are so lonely, you need someone to take care of you."
Lou Xiaolou said, "I'm planning to find a nanny these days."
Lin wants to say: "I mean girlfriend!"
Lou Xiaolou said: "In everyone's life, there will be two opposite sexes, one is the spouse in reality, and the other is the lover in dreams. Although my wife has left me, she has always been my wife in my heart. Only now, I have the power to find the man of my dreams."
Lin wants to say: "Tell me, what does your dream lover look like?"
Lou Xiaolou said: "It is not difficult to introduce my wife, but it is difficult to describe the lover of my dreams. She will never be in touch with reality, or in other words, it is impossible for me and her to be together forever. Distant, vague, hopeless... this is the real thing. The feeling of a dream lover."
Lin wants to say: "That's a castle in the air."
Lou Xiaolou said: "I just want to be an aerial architect."
While eating and chatting, Lin Yaoyao became interested in the old radio next to him, and reached out to turn the switch.

Lou Xiaolou said: "It's probably from the 50s. It's just a nostalgic decoration. It must have been scrapped."
Unexpectedly, as soon as he finished speaking, the old radio actually squeaked and squeaked.Lin wants to say excitedly: "I can still listen!"
Lou Xiaolou said: "Look for a station, maybe what we hear is the news from 50 years ago, or the weather forecast on a certain day 50 years ago."
Lin Yao looked at Lou Xiaolou firmly, and said softly, "This sentence is too scary..."
She twisted and twisted, and an old man's voice came from inside: "Hello, everyone. We are now going to the fourth lecture of Qimen Dunjia: 24 Solar Terms and Yin and Yang Two Dun..."
Lou Xiaolou suddenly reached out and turned it off.

Lin Yaoyao shouted: "What are you doing! You scared me to death."
Lou Xiaolou said, "I don't like listening to the radio. Come on, call the waiter, let's order a bottle of red wine."
Lin Yaoyao pressed his heart, and shouted: "Waiter!"
A girl in purple overalls ran over: "Miss, what do you need?"
Lin was about to say, "Bring me the wine list."
The waiter said, "Okay, just a moment."
When Lin wanted to order wine, the waiter stood by.

Lou Xiaolou asked, "Where did you get this radio?"
The waiter said, "An old thing market."
Lou Xiaolou said: "It's amazing, it can still receive programs!"
The waiter said: "No way, it was broken when I bought it. Besides, we don't have a battery installed."
Lin Yao raised his head and said, "We just listened."
The waiter smiled and said, "Impossible."
Lin wants to say: "If you don't believe me, listen."
She reached over and turned the switch, but there was no sound.She patted it and muttered, "Strange!"
Lou Xiaolou said, "Order a bar."
Very late, Lou Xiaolou took Lin Yaoyao home and drove back to the Jingshan Community of the Asian Games Village by himself.

Entering the door, he looked around.After removing the strange fax machine, he felt that the house had returned to its original state.

He undressed and lay down, still couldn't help paying attention to the movement in the study.

The study is quiet.

In the middle of the night, he was awakened again.There was a strong wind blowing outside, amidst the overwhelming wind, he vaguely heard the creaking sound coming from the study again.

He quietly got up, walked over, and suddenly pushed open the door of the study. It was pitch black, and the voice did not exist.He stretched out his hand carefully, touched the light switch, turned it on, and everything in the study was as usual—the books on the shelf were leaning on each other's shoulders, as if they were asleep.A single bed, lying quietly by the window.The desk was empty, except for a computer, there was only a black pen holder...

He breathed a sigh of relief, turned off the light, and exited.

Waking up from a dream is habitual.

Hearing that fax machine is an illusion.

Thinking of this, he fell asleep in peace.

The wind gradually stopped, and without the cover of the wind, the voice in the study became very clear: "Squeak..."
Lou Xiaolou got up angrily, walked into the study again, pressed the light switch a few times, but the light turned off.He squinted his eyes, looked around, and saw that the fax machine was next to the computer again, and it spit out another piece of paper slowly.Lou Xiaolou stepped forward, picked it up carefully and looked at it. It said: I know the way back.I crawled back along the telephone wire.

Lou Xiaolou was startled and woke up.

This time it was a dream.

On this day, Lou Xiaolou came to the unit very late.

He walked into the North Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and saw Lin Yaoyao head-on in the corridor. She had just walked out of the oncology department, and she was definitely going to make an up-sleeve deal with some doctor again.

Lin Yao wanted to see him, so he ran out immediately: "Lou Xiaolou!"
He asked, "What's wrong?"
Lin Yao took out a piece of paper from his satchel and said, "I'm going to find you. Your fax."
He didn't answer, frowned and asked, "Who sent it?"
Lin wanted to say, "I don't know. It was a fax that was automatically received at night."
Lou Xiaolou said, "Are you connected?"
Lin wants to say: "A boy in our office picked it up. In the past, we could only go to the next door to receive faxes."
Lou Xiaolou said: "The fax machine is mine, but that is your telephone line!"
Lin wants to say: "What do you mean?"
Lou Xiaolou said, "I mean, how do you know it's my fax?"
Lin wanted to laugh loudly: "Am I that stupid! Look, it says "Jiaolou Xiaolou". You have such a unique name, and there is only one in Beijing." After she finished speaking, she muttered again: " Think about it, this incident is really strange, how did the fax for you get to us?"
Lou Xiaolou hesitated for a moment, then took over the fax, which was still about Qimen Dunjia.

Before, I finished talking about the territory, and now the fax machine starts talking about the sky, drawing nine celestial bodies that do not actually exist, they correspond to the nine directions of the earth, and have a mysterious influence in the dark: the greedy wolf star opposite to the north; Youbi star is opposite to the south; Lucun star is opposite to the east; Pojun star is opposite to the west; Wenqu star is opposite to the southeast; Zuofu star is opposite to the northeast; Jumen star is opposite to the southwest; Wuqu star is opposite to the northwest ...

Lin Yao asked curiously: "What is this?"
Lou Xiaolou folded the piece of paper, put it in his pocket, and said, "Password."
Lin Yaoyao asked again: "What password?"
Lou Xiaolou said: "Why does a station with the symbol of Tai Chi appear on my TV, but not on your TV? Why did the radio that has been scrapped suddenly make a sound? No one knows that I sent this fax machine to I’m sorry for you, but why did you receive the fax that was forwarded to me?——The code I mentioned is the code to unlock these secrets.”
Lin wants to say: "You have become supernatural."
Lou Xiaolou said, "Give me back this fax machine."
Lin Yaoyao shouted: "Why are you a rubber band, stretching and shrinking for a while?"
Lou Xiaolou said, "I'm giving you my newly bought fax machine."
In the afternoon, Lou Xiaolou went to Zhongguancun to buy a new fax machine, and went to the pharmaceutical factory to exchange for the old fax machine.

While he was putting it in the trunk, an old man came up on a tricycle and said, "Sir, are you selling it?"
Lou Xiaolou smiled apologetically and said, "Not for sale."
The old man stopped, sat on the tricycle, and kept watching.

Lou Xiaolou got into the car and drove away.He left the pharmaceutical factory and came to a suburban garbage dump.There is a row of rough houses like sheds nearby, where a group of scavenger lives.

He carried the fax machine out of the car and threw it away.When I turned to leave, a woman picking up trash came over.He went to the car and took out an iron wrench, returned, aimed at the fax machine, and smashed it on the ground.A card popped out of his pocket to watch the excitement, and he didn't notice it at all.

Soon, the fax machine was deflated.

After he walked away, he looked back, and it was lying in the garbage, like a deformed head.

The woman picking up trash stopped in the distance, watching quietly.

She has a square face, big eyes, and a big buck tooth.

She is wearing a pair of white shoes.

(End of this chapter)