While waiting, Wu Dongfang took the opportunity to examine the house in front of him. It was a large round wooden house, with plants that looked like herbs and some animal bones hanging from the eaves. The smell of herbs wafted out, indicating that the owner of the house might be knowledgeable in medicine.
The two did not have to wait long. A few minutes later, the door was pushed open, and a masked woman came out, followed by the middle-aged man without arms.
The woman was dressed in a gray-white robe, holding a thumb-thick copper rod in her right hand. The top of the copper rod was cast with a miniature bull's head, only one-tenth the size of a real bull's head, but exquisitely crafted. Her mask extended slightly beyond the contours of her face, and it was painted with exaggerated facial features in red dye.
Upon seeing her, Wu Dongfang almost burst out laughing. Her attire reminded him of Native Americans, lacking only a few feathers in her hair. Also, although she covered her face, her robe was open quite low, revealing half of her chest. There was also a tattoo between her breasts, not a small sword like his, but a very abstract tiger.
"She's showing what shouldn't be shown and not showing what should be shown," Wu Dongfang thought to himself.
The woman knelt down as soon as she saw the person coming out and bowed to the masked woman, showing respect.
After the masked woman came out, her gaze remained on Wu Dongfang until she looked him up and down. She then turned to the kneeling woman and said a few words. The latter stood up and began a long narrative, detailing her encounter with him without being asked, which was evident from the detailed account.
The narrative lasted for five or six minutes, during which the masked woman did not interrupt, nor did her eyes show much expression. She waited until the woman had finished speaking before asking a question.
The woman turned to look at Wu Dongfang, pointed to herself, and said, "Ming Wan," then pointed to Wu Dongfang.
"Wu Dongfang," Wu Dongfang pointed to himself. After knowing each other for more than half a month, he finally knew the name of this woman.
The masked woman then said something to Ming Wan, who looked embarrassed upon hearing it. After hesitating for a moment, she squatted down, picked up a branch, and drew a square on the ground with a small circle at each corner. After finishing the square, she pointed to herself and then pointed to the small circle on the west side of the square with the branch.
Wu Dongfang naturally understood what Ming Wan meant. The masked woman's first question was about his name, and this time she was asking where he came from. However, this question was very complicated. Even if there was no language barrier, he couldn't explain Einstein's theory of relativity to these ancient people.
Ming Wan, seeing Wu Dongfang frowning and silent, pointed to the small circle on the south side of the square. Wu Dongfang shook his head. She then pointed to the east side, and Wu Dongfang still shook his head.
Ming Wan then pointed to the north and the center. Wu Dongfang shook his head again.
Seeing the other party completely confused, Wu Dongfang raised his hand, pointed to himself, then pointed to the sky, and finally made a gesture of descending from the sky.
The other party was already confused, and now she was even more confused. They looked at each other, completely bewildered.
After a brief silence, Ming Wan seemed to remember something. She quickly said something to the masked woman, who listened with a look of doubt. After a few seconds of hesitation, she turned and walked to the east side of the house, where she pulled out an eyeglass snake from a clay pot.
At first, Wu Dongfang didn't know what the other party was trying to do. It wasn't until Ming Wan tugged at his sleeve that he realized. He had said he came from the sky, and since Ming Wan had seen him eat a snake without dying, she thought of him as a god. The masked woman bringing out the snake was to confirm whether he was a god or not.
"No, this is not a joke," Wu Dongfang pushed Ming Wan away.
The armless middle-aged man, seeing this, looked angry and shouted something at Wu Dongfang.
"What's the point of shouting when you don't even have arms?" Wu Dongfang sneered. Anyway, the other party couldn't understand Mandarin.
The other party didn't know what Wu Dongfang was talking about, but he could tell from his tone and pointing at his legs that he was threatening him. The Cheetah Battalion was the number one special forces unit in the country. What are special forces? They are a more ferocious killing machine than the conventional forces of this country. If there is no fierceness and aggressiveness deep in their hearts, they can't deal with those heinous criminals and thugs at all.
The armless man, not understanding what Wu Dongfang was saying, could tell from his tone and the fact that he was pointing at his legs what Wu Dongfang was saying. As soon as Wu Dongfang finished speaking, his right leg had already kicked towards Wu Dongfang's left neck.
Just then, the masked woman quickly stopped the armless man.
The armless man's right foot was only three or four centimeters away from Wu Dongfang's left neck. After being stopped, he retracted his right leg with a look of satisfaction on his face, obviously pleased with his control. But halfway through retracting his right leg, the smug look on his face disappeared because he saw a strange-looking dagger had reached his crotch.
Wu Dongfang withdrew his dagger and walked around the armless man, limping towards the village entrance. Since childhood, Wu Dongfang had much more self-esteem than his peers. When he went to someone else's house to play, if the other party showed any hint of unwelcome, he would leave immediately and never come back.
Ming Wan tried to persuade the masked woman, but she remained silent.
Leaving the village, Wu Dongfang retraced his steps back along the path he had come. He regretted his actions, but it was not like he couldn't survive. Why did he come here to humiliate himself?
However, his regret was quickly replaced by speculation and contemplation. Earlier, Ming Wan had drawn a square on the ground with four circles around it, representing the distribution of the five races. They were the western race, and in traditional Chinese culture, the west represents metal, with the mythical creature being the white tiger. The tattoo on the chest of the armless man was a small sword, indicating that he was from the metal race. The tattoo of the masked woman was of a tiger, which probably indicated that she was a priestess of the metal race.
The three men he had killed earlier could provide evidence for this deduction. They all had tattoos in the shape of flames, indicating that they were from the fire race. In the five elements, the south is associated with fire, which is consistent with their location.
If the deduction was correct, the five races were as follows: the metal race in the west, with adult males having metal tattoos and priests having white tiger tattoos; the wood race should live in the east, with adult males having
wood tattoos and priests having azure dragon tattoos; the water race in the north, with adult males having water tattoos and priests having black tortoise tattoos; the fire race in the south, with adult males having fire tattoos and priests probably having vermilion bird tattoos.
The earth race should be in the central area. It was still unclear whether they had tattoos because they occupied the central region, were the most civilized, had the largest territory, and the largest population, making them the rulers of the world at that time. The metal, wood, water, and fire races were like modern ethnic minorities, remote and with small populations.
With this determination, it was very simple to infer the current era. The chaotic era must have passed because in the chaotic era, humans lived very dispersed and there was no such clear distribution of races. The Shang and Zhou dynasties must not have arrived yet because during the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the national system was already very complete, with a large number of vassal states, not the current five-element pattern.
With that, only the Xia Dynasty was left. When Great Yu established the Nine Provinces, he only fixed the area in the central plains, and no one knew what the situation was like outside the central plains. The current distribution of races was most likely to occur during this period.
Having determined the approximate era he was in, Wu Dongfang did not feel enlightened but rather depressed. The Xia Dynasty was more than four thousand years ago from modern times. Even a turtle couldn't live for four thousand years, let alone a person.
Walking for two or three miles, Ming Wan caught up with him from behind, looking very disappointed, indicating that the other party did not agree to her request.
Walking in front, he in the back, they continued until they reached the mountaintop.
"Let's go back. Your child is still waiting for you," Wu Dongfang turned around and waved to Ming Wan.
Ming Wan looked embarrassed and did not speak, keeping her head down.
"I chose to leave on my own, not because you didn't keep me," Wu Dongfang reassured her.
Ming Wan couldn't understand his words, and her mood remained low.
Seeing this, Wu Dongfang sighed and thought that the lack of communication was really inconvenient.
Ming Wan seemed to suddenly remember something, grabbed Wu Dongfang's hand, and walked north.
Wu Dongfang was not very mobile, and there were no roads in the woods, so the two walked very slowly.
Half an hour later, Ming Wan led him to a cave. The cave was located on the ridge, facing south. Although it was not large, it was enough to hide in. The weeds at the entrance of the cave indicated that few people came here.
"Thank you," Wu Dongfang thanked Ming Wan.
Finding him a place to stay, Ming Wan felt much better and cleaned the cave with branches, settling him down before hurriedly leaving the mountain.
Having gone through so much, Wu Dongfang felt very tired. He reached into his pocket, where he had treasured the remaining half box of cigarettes. He had only smoked a few puffs each time and put them out, but now there were only three left.
After hesitating for a few seconds, he put the cigarettes back in his pocket, lay down, and rested. At this point, lamenting and feeling sad were useless. He had to live on...