Hunting High School

"If only Fatty hadn't been called away by that paper crane."

The black cat squatted behind Ding Dong's ears, watching the clothed mouse in front of him lightly and skillfully made a hole in the catalpa wood, and couldn't help sighing.

Xiao Xiao stood aside and nodded in agreement.

Just when Zheng Qing and others were called by Lin Guo to Xiaoshulin to mediate the "cat-fox dispute", a paper crane from the school newspaper editorial office found Xin Fatty and asked him to go to the office for a meeting. And because of this, Fatty missed the things on his mind.

Xin Fatty has been talking about finding a certain mouse in clothes these days and doing an exclusive interview--according to him, this interview is related to whether he can participate in this year's selection of "Golden Quill"--if Fatty knew that Zheng Qing and Xiao Xiao met the second mouse in clothes during today's mediation work, and he didn't know how he would beat his chest and feel regretful.

Just when the black cat and the doctor were sighing, Ding Dong's ears had carved circles of strange patterns with his paws on the left and right sides of the tree hole he had just 'punched'; The branches leaned against the trunk, barely covering the tree hole.

In this way, if someone passes by this catalpa tree without paying special attention, they will not notice that there is a black hole in this big tree at all.

"These are runes, right? They look a little different from the runes used by wizards." The black cat approached the tree hole, touched the nicks on the rough bark with its claws, and couldn't help muttering a few words.

As a young wizard who has a lot of research on talismans, Zheng Qing is familiar with more than a thousand runes used by wizards. However, when he saw the symbols carved by Ding Dang's ears around the tree hole, he still had a feeling that his eyes were smeared and he couldn't figure out his mind at all--from the order of writing, to the way of word formation, to the basic sentences None of the formulas completely matched Zheng Qing's known rules for using runes in the contemporary wizarding world.

"Of course!" Ding Dong Er explained in a proud tone: "This is the 'rat text' invented by the ancestors; only we rat clan can use it. Don't you wizards also have their own rune? It's like I can't understand Your rune, it's normal that you can't understand rat language, there's a reason for that."

"No, no, that's not what I mean." The black cat shook its ears, stared obsessively at the marks carved by Mr. Mouse, and murmured: "I just said that your way of using runes is very novel, and there is no It is completely incomprehensible——because the connection between 'signifier'; and 'signified'; is common among different corresponding systems."

"Huh?!" Ding Dong's ears looked at the black cat in a daze, and then looked back at the short wizard holding a notebook beside him, subconsciously stretched out his paws, and licked his own ears.

It felt that it could understand every word the black cat said just now, but after connecting a sentence, it couldn't understand it at all.

Is this the legendary 'knowledge barrier';?

Unlike Mr. Mouse who was stunned, Dr. Xiao was thoughtful about what the black cat said: "If I remember correctly, a master of magic text once expressed a similar meaning in my impression--about language symbols , has two first-class and important features: first, the sign is arbitrary; second, the 'signifier' has a line type--according to this inference, you mean that the ancestors of the rat clan only adjusted The symbolic form has been changed, but the deeper connotation has not changed?"

The black cat didn't speak, but nodded silently.

"Excuse me! Can any gentleman explain to me what is 'signifier'; Like a bible, I couldn't help becoming a little manic.

Xiao Xiao glanced at Mr. Mouse, hesitated for a few seconds, and finally explained patiently:

"When talking about these concepts, one must mention Ferdinand de Saussure, a famous late-stage Swiss rune master in the mid-nineteenth century. He is a 'structuralist' recognized by the modern wizarding world. ;Founder, one of the founders of modern rune theory. His "General Rune Course" is still listed as a textbook for senior rune elective courses by the First University."

"Master Saussure believes that any language symbol is composed of "signifier" and "signified". "Signifier" refers to the sound and image of language; "signified" refers to the language The concept of something reflected."

"Arbitrariness of the sign, that is to say, the connection between the signifier and the signified is arbitrary, without any intrinsic, natural connection between the two"

Speaking of this, Xiao Xiao paused for a moment, pointing to Ding Dong's ear and gave an example: "For example, wizards use 'mouse'; this word refers to creatures similar to your image, but if from now on, we stipulate that 'human' ;The word refers to a creature similar to your image, so the 'signifier'; has changed, but the 'signified'; has not changed."

"I have absolutely no objection to your idea." Ding Dong interjected at the right time, expressing his own point of view.

Xiao Xiao ignored him, but continued to explain: "Of course, Master Saussure's statement is completely contrary to the traditional 'runes have natural attributes'; rune's research has opened up a new path"

"Don't keep talking about these nonsensical things," Ding Dang's ears finally got a little impatient, and screamed: "You said you can understand, then what do I mean by the things I wrote around the tree hole? "

"Those words are not empty-headed things, but the essence of real magic." The black cat looked back at Mr. Mouse and said calmly: "The subtlety of a rune lies in its arbitrariness, which requires wizards to Have a strong abstract thinking ability, just like the symbols you carved around the tree hole. Although I can't read them, and I can't taste the subtle changes in them, I can judge that they are some expulsion attributes based on the basic structure of the upper and lower parts. rune."

Ding Dang heard the words, and suddenly opened his eyes wide, showing an incredible expression.

At this moment, Lingo's yelling suddenly came from a distance.

"Oh, yes, yes, yes!" The little wizard held Poseidon's crest with his left hand, and his right hand wrapped around the body of the puppet cat, and ran back from the edge of the forest.

The black cat man stood up and looked at the little wizard with displeasure: "Don't yell and panic, what's wrong with your appearance? What happened?"

Lin Guo stopped immediately, dropped the little things on the left and right, patted the dust on his body, cleared his throat, and explained unhurriedly: "I just remembered that when Elder met me this afternoon, he said Let me tell you when I see you, he has already got what you are looking for, if you are not in a hurry, he will bring it to you in class tomorrow."

Before the words were finished, the black cat had already turned into a black bolt of lightning, and ran out of the forest with a "swoosh".

In the cold wind, he heard his intermittent meowing:

"That's it for today! I have something urgent, let's go first!"

"The group of cats and foxes quietly disbanded, don't make trouble!"

"And those mice, remember to tidy up according to the old rules and be careful not to let one or two of those ears go by!"

"I'm still here! I can hear what you said!" Ding Dang's ears were displeased, and he jumped up and down at the back of the black cat, shouting loudly.

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"He actually wanted you to hear it." Lin Guo comforted and persuaded from the side, and then went to pack up the group of spoils by himself. (to be continued)