"When the forest runs out of water, there will be a mountain, and the mountain has a small mouth, as if there is light. Drop off the boat and enter from the mouth. At the beginning, it is extremely narrow, and only then can it be passed. After dozens of steps, it suddenly became clear. The land is flat, the houses are like that, and there are good fields and beautiful ponds and mulberry bamboos. Qianmo traffic, chickens and dogs smell each other. Among them, the men and women are dressed like outsiders. Yellow hair hangs down and is happy. ”

Yes, the huge valley that appeared in front of me after passing through a long cave and suddenly opening up in front of me was very similar to the paradise described in Tao Yuanming's "The Story of the Peach Blossom Spring", that is, how I felt when I stood in this place called Sheila Commune.

From near and far, you can see neat small green tile houses, all of which are two to three floors, and a small number of four or five storey buildings are dotted among them. Illuminated by the street lamps, the square and fountain in the distance can be seen as far as the eye can see, as well as a tall monument, with looming figures swaying around the streets and squares.

Xiao Zeng and I looked at each other, and the shock in his eyes couldn't be concealed at all.

I said leisurely, "Savage tribe?" Xiao Zeng laughed.

Qiao Zhijun turned his head and said, "What?" I hurriedly said, "It's nothing, this place is really good." ”

Qiao Zhijun smiled and said, "Yes, this is our home, and it is also the most beautiful place in the world." I saw the corners of his eyebrows turned up as he spoke, and it was a look of genuine joy.

"Let's go, they've been waiting for a long time. Qiao Zhijun said, turning around and walking along the stone path next to the cave entrance towards the valley below.

Following Qiao Zhijun along a straight avenue for about an hour, through circular streets and squares, and around the majestic monument about ten stories high, we came to a small two-story building made of red bricks.

"It's here, Mr. Xu is so strong, I thought it would be late at night. Qiao Zhijun said with a smile on his face, I smiled and didn't speak.

"Secretary Chen and Professor Liu are waiting for you to eat, and when you go in, please pay attention to your personal words and deeds. He continued.

Xiao Zeng just wanted to say something, but I grabbed him and said, "Okay, we know." ”

When you enter the small building, the first thing you see is the bright red five big characters "Serve the people" on the wooden screen facing the gate. The wall on the left side of the small building is a blackboard newspaper, I glanced at it, and saw a table showing the progress of industrial and agricultural production, and on the right wall hung a few photos, smiling black guys wearing white shirts and big red flowers looking at us energetically.

Xiao Zeng whispered to me: "Looking at the façade, I thought I had arrived at a certain township government office building!" I didn't speak, but I was a little confused in my heart.

Xiao Zeng is right, it is a bit like, but the layout of such a small building and the tube building in the small building is more like the government office building during the agricultural Dazhai period a few decades ago, but there are fewer slogans and portraits of the elderly.

Walking along the left side of the first floor of the tube building to the last room, Qiao Zhijun pushed open the door and walked in, and I saw Tina, who was wearing a small suit and sitting straight at the round table of eight immortals.

Tina wasn't excited when she saw me, she just nodded blankly. In the main seat, a beautiful Asian woman in her twenties, dressed in the same costume as her and with short hair that reminded me of the homeroom teacher in my childhood elementary school class, was also staring at me with a blank face.

The white-haired western man in a suit next to him stood up, stretched out his hand with a smile and said, "Hello Mr. Xu, I'm Liu Mingdong." ”

I shook his hand, and he turned to the side, stretched out his hand and introduced me, "This is the secretary of the Sheila commune. ”

I pulled out a chair and sat down, Xiao Zeng stood behind me with a gun, and I could hear a slight "click" from him, which was the natural sound of the bones of a person who had been trained for a long time when his body was tense.

I laughed twice, took out a cigarette case, took out a cigarette to light it, took a puff and said, "Let's talk about the conditions, how much?"

The woman opposite frowned in disgust and said to Tina, "Didn't you say that he was full of positive energy?"

Tina smiled slightly and said, "Mr. Xu is different from the leaders sent from China before, but he is indeed a little informal. ”

I stared at Tina and laughed, but she ignored me.

Liu Mingdong said to me with a smile: "It seems that Mr. Xu has misunderstood, let's eat first." ”

Chen Cuihua also raised her eyebrows and said, "Eat." ”

The dishes came up, a typical Chinese Sichuan banquet, chicken, duck and fish, and even a plate of cold salad with three shreds, I counted them, eight dishes and one soup. I pulled Xiao Zeng to sit down, walked for a few hours on the mountain road, I was really hungry, we killed a few bowls of rice like a storm, put down the bowl, just raised my head, but found that Chen Cuihua was wiping his mouth with a handkerchief, which should have just been eaten.

"You come with me. She pointed at me.

Xiao Zeng stood up and picked up the gun next to him. I grabbed him and said, "What's the excitement? I'm not a three-year-old." ”

When Chen Cuihua heard this, she smiled and said, "Let's go talk about things, there is no danger." ”

I smiled and said, "Whatever you want!"

Following her to an office on the second floor, she sat down on a wicker chair behind her desk, pointed to the rattan chair next to me and said, "Sit down." ”

I sat down, stared into her deep eyes and asked, "What did you call me for?"

She ran her hand through the hair behind her ears and said, "You're a *D*member?"

I was silent for a moment and said, "My situation should be investigated very clearly. ”

She leaned back, leaned back on the rattan chair, crossed her hands and held it, and said, "Okay, Mr. Xu, it is my personal act to invite you to come, in fact, I hope you can help me." ”

I leaned back in my chair and nodded for her to continue.

"I decided after much deliberation to report something to the country, but there is no proper communication channel, you know that we are in Africa, and if the government here knows some secrets, it will be very difficult for our country to benefit, and it is very difficult for anyone here to get in touch with the top of the country. She said.

I thought about it for a moment and said, "You mean you have discovered some secret that is beneficial to the country and want to tell the country, but there is no communication channel?" I tried to ask.

"That's probably what it means. She said.

"In the past few decades, there have been 50,000 people sent to Africa in China, not 30,000, but also 50,000, and besides, there is still a consulate, how can there be no communication channels?" I scoffed.

She didn't smile, but said with a serious face, "I can't go out on my own for some reason, and the people here won't let me take risks." What happened here is so unbelievable, I have contacted the country, and I have sent videos, but they did not believe what I said at all, but asked the local government to send someone to contact me, I do not trust the government of this country, we have learned a painful lesson. ”

I was silent, and it was true that a person with the status of a civilian rashly contacted the official agency to report the situation to the state, and could not go in person, I would also think that it was a prank. "What about the project department in Chawei Town, there are dozens of project departments that have stayed here over the years, and there are no suitable people?" I continued.

"The project leaders you mentioned are all self-righteous people, and none of them are in danger for a foreign employee. She said contemptuously.

"Most of the leaders of the project department sent to Africa in China are one-eyed people, so this time I asked Tina to carefully investigate your past and observe you for a while before contacting you. ”

She probably realized that she was a little emotional, so she was silent for a while, and then said, "Xiao Qiao, it's Qiao Zhijun, he thought of some procedures to choose the right person. I thought about it for a moment and said, "Investigate the background?

She said: "Yes, I added the *D* member, after all, in my impression, the *D* members are people with advanced ideas, and I dare not easily trust a person with bad conduct." ”

I smiled and said, "Let's not talk about whether I can contact the top management in China, let's talk about what I need to do." ”

"Well, it all started when I came here. She sighed and began to tell. The first sentence surprised me.

"I'm seventy-nine years old. She said. "Don't get excited. She was a little embarrassed when she saw me staring at her face.

I said, "It's a bit weird. ”

"I still look like I was when I first got here. Tina and Qiao Zhijun are both my students. I got here fifty-seven years ago. ”

I said, "Let's start your story." ”

She was silent for a moment, as if reminiscing about the dusty past, and then began her story.

"I was 22 years old at the time, and I had just graduated from medical school and was assigned to a rural hospital in a remote mountainous area because my family was not good. At this time, the turmoil began, I thought, this is an opportunity to change my own fate, so in order to show myself, I did a big thing, now I think about it, I regret it. In fact, this may also be one of the reasons why I have been afraid to contact China for many years. ”

She got up and poured me two glasses of water, one handed to me and one in front of her.

I looked at the cup, and there were a few green tea leaves floating in it. "What's the big deal?" I asked, after all, it must be no small thing to make a person hide in Africa for decades and not dare to return home.

"I burned down the retirement cadre building late one night. She pursed her lips, picked up her teacup and took a sip of water. "I found out later that people were burned. She said with a blank face.

I was stunned, looking at her beautiful face, I couldn't imagine that such a beautiful woman would do such a vicious thing.

"It's hard for you people to understand why I did that, but at the time in my mind they were all bad people against the great movement and the great leader. She said with a blank face.

"And then?" I asked, calming down.

"It was a bit of a big fuss, and I hid in the medical team to help Africa, and I came to Africa after a month's boat ride. She continued, and I nodded, motioning for her to continue.

"After I arrived in Africa, I followed the medical team to treat people everywhere, and I enjoyed god-like treatment in poor and backward African tribes, and I never bothered about what happened before, and I even fell in love with this place, because I have never received so much respect and gratitude in my life. Because of my hard work in college, I was soon sent to some remote areas to treat the tribesmen, and this life continued until I was sent to this tribe called the outcast of God. She paused, as if reminiscing about the past, but quickly resumed her story.

"It wasn't like that back then. The valley is densely wooded, full of miasma, and the people of the tribe are closed, barbaric, and backward. The name of the tribe comes from the ballad sung by the old sorcerer, which tells the story of the war of the gods, and the story of the tribe being abandoned by the gods as the side of the vanquished. The Old Wizard is an old brown African, the spiritual leader of the tribe and the most powerful person outside of the chief. At that time, I had the impression that he was a representative of barbaric backwardness and feudal superstition, and the old wizard was also a person who was strongly opposed to the arrival of the medical team. ”

But when the old wizard saw me, he shouted, "Eternal flower, eternal flower", and knelt down to kowtow to me, and the chieftain and the tribesmen were also frightened and hurriedly kowtowed to me, and the soldiers who escorted me joked that I was a lucky star, and the last two doctors were finally driven away by the old wizard. It was only later that I learned the meaning of these three words, so much so that when I realized it, I had doubts about my faith for the first time. ”

After taking a sip of water, she continued: "Because of the old wizard's approval, a week later, I successfully completed the physical examination of all the members of the tribe and delivered two pregnant women. Just as we were about to leave, the old wizard sent someone to inform me to meet him, accompanied by Qiao Zhijun, who was still called Mopti as an interpreter, and the two warriors who escorted me were not at ease, and accompanied me. The first time I entered the old wizard's dwelling, it was a cave at the end of the valley bottom. The temperature in the cave was very high, and there were a lot of things in a mess, but the air was unusually fresh. "The old wizard sat on a large bed carved out of wood, and when he saw me, he said, 'Immortal flower, you can't leave here.' The two fighters who accompanied me immediately raised their guns and pointed them at him. But he laughed and said to me, "Can I talk to you alone?" I didn't understand anything at the time, except that his eyes staring at me were deep and hollow, like starry skies in the middle of the night. I involuntarily said to the soldiers who escorted me: It's okay, you guys go out first. When they were out, the old wizard got up and pushed open the plank behind the bed, which turned out to be the door to a secret room. We went into the secret room, and found a little girl sitting in it, and I didn't know why, when the old wizard said to the little girl, "Tina, come, with Mopti, meet your teacher, and this sentence is actually in Chinese." I looked at him in amazement. He smiled at me and said, "Don't be surprised, I can speak Chinese, which is equivalent to my native language." Then he pointed to the two children and said to me, one of them is the future chieftain, the other is the future wizard, and you, the immortal flower, are their teacher. When I first saw you, I knew that the person mentioned in the epic had arrived, and I didn't know why, as a sorcerer, I had lost the power of God's gifts, but the feeling was still there. ”

At this point, she paused slightly, her eyes looking into the air, as if she had lost her mind for a moment, but quickly recovered. He looked at me and smiled, and said, "I'm sorry, I'm a little emotional." ”

I smiled and said, "It's okay, I'm not a very curious person. ”

"Okay. She nodded, and continued, "The old wizard told me that entering this secret room is equivalent to receiving the gift of God and being immortal. I thought it was ridiculous at the time, knowing that I was an atheist. But then he performed a miracle for me. ”

Even though I just said that I am not a very curious person, I still can't help but ask, "What miracle?"

She looked at me with satisfaction and said, "I conjured up a starry sky out of thin air." ”

I laughed. At this time, she raised her hand and wiped it in the air, only to see a black hole appear out of thin air, as if a hole had been rubbed out of the canvas, and there were some subtle light flashes in it, as if it were a starry sky.

I stood up in shock, and there seemed to be a thunderbolt in my head. A scene from that bar called Lancoco a few months ago flashed through my mind like lightning (see "The Murders on River Street"). At this time, she waved her hand, and the black hole disappeared in an instant.

Pointing to the rattan chair, she said, "Sit down, it's not a miracle." ”

I put my hands on the table and said, "You're a traverser?"

But she was surprised and said to me, "Do you know how this works?"

I sat down, took a sip from my glass, and said, "I don't know, guess." ”

She said suspiciously, "You didn't act like you were speculating, like you'd seen the same thing happen." ”

I said, "There are a lot of these plots in movies and novels. ”

"Let's not talk about that for now, what's going on is the point," she said. ”

I held out my hand and made a gesture of please. She continued her story.

"Although I was shocked, I still did not agree to stay, but said that we would leave as planned. But the next day we found out that we couldn't go. ”

"The next day, when we left the valley, we couldn't find the medical team, the embassy didn't even have a record of our medical team's entry, and there was no record of the three of us when we called China, and we couldn't even find the three of us in China. We escaped from the embassy and had no choice but to return here to ask the old wizard what the hell he was doing. But the people here say that they have never had a wizard, and there are no Tina and Mopti, only chiefs. There is no cave at the end of the valley, only a cliff. At this time, the local government came to recruit the tribe, but they were refused, and then a three-year war ensued. Both of the soldiers who escorted me died in the war. Soon after the end of the war, the old wizard reappeared. ”

At this point, she suddenly giggled, stood up and walked to the window, looked out at the dark night sky, and said, "Tina is right, you are not surprised, because your novels are full of strange plots." ”

I said, "It's a really good storyline, much more interesting than my novels." ”

But she sighed and said, "You should just listen to the story, and since the story has begun, I'll finish it." ”

"This time there was no warning, I was in the shack to take care of the wounded warriors, and two more people came to me, saying that the wizard wanted to see me, and I immediately called the chieftain and asked him about the wizard, but he said that the wizard has always been there, and I was going to go crazy, but there was no way, I was alone under the fence, and I had no choice. I had to go to see the old wizard again. This time, we met in the chief's residence, and it was just the two of us. The old wizard told me that the cave was gone, because the Immortal Flower was sure to stay here, and the gods had fixed the valley and there would never be anything more about the past three years. And he has fulfilled his mission, it is time to return to the arms of God, and he also warned me that until the chosen one arrives, I must not go out of the valley, and if I go out, it will cause irreparable consequences. With that, he disappeared without warning. And when I walked out of the chief's house, I actually became the chief, and at the same time the immortal flower blessed by the gods, so it took me decades to transform this place into this, and sure enough, as the old wizard said, my face stopped getting old, and even my body functions showed no signs of aging at all. Later, Qiao Zhijun and Tina were born. ”

At this, she turned to look at me, held the window with her hands behind her back, and laughed without warning, and tears of laughter came out. She wiped her tears from her hands and continued, "The two of them had no idea that I had seen them decades ago. ”

"What about Liu Mingdong?" I asked.

"He's a professor at a university in Europe and an expert in quantum physics, and I asked him to see what's different about this valley, but it's clear that his mind isn't on it, he's been here many times, he's not researched anything, and I don't know where he got his title. Chen Cuihua said contemptuously.

"You also thought of quantum physics?" I said.

"I said I'm an atheist, and after decades, I can still learn something. She said leisurely.

I said, "What exactly did you choose me for?" I asked.

"You're smart, it's not that I don't have a better way to get in touch with the country, it's that I don't want to bother anymore. Of course, you can also tell the state about this, and I have no objection, provided that they will believe it. You know that when a person is older, he always likes to doubt the past, especially what I have experienced, there is always a sense of unreality, and this feeling is terrible, so whether it is emotionally or intellectually, I also want to understand what happened to me. Again, I have never believed in the chosen one, and I am not an immortal, so I have tried to explain it in a scientific way, but unfortunately no matter how many scholars and experts I have had, and I have even asked writers who have written fairy tales, to tell them this story, they have not been able to give me a convincing explanation. And Tina suggests that you explain, in her words, that your brain circuitry is rather peculiar. ”

She looked at me and giggled again, and it didn't look like an old man in his eighties. "Of course, I'll give you a payment that you can't refuse. She stopped laughing and said. "Alright then, let's try it. I said.

When I went downstairs, Qiao Zhijun and Xiao Zeng were still waiting for me. I smiled at Xiao Zeng and said, "Did you call the project department?" Xiao Zeng said: "Yes, you can call again tomorrow morning, in case they have something to report." I nodded.

Qiao Zhijun said to me, "Mr. Xu, your accommodation has been arranged, please come with me." ”

Our accommodation was in a separate courtyard behind the small building, and there were two black guys wearing camouflage uniforms and armed with ammunition standing at the door. Seeing Qiao Zhijun, the two raised their hands together and saluted.

"The military salute is also ours, and it is nondescript. Xiao Zeng muttered quietly.

I ignored him, he had a strong sense of honor for his military career, and I was no longer surprised.

Following Qiao Zhijun into the courtyard gate, I saw several independent two-story villas standing in the courtyard, all of which were modern in style, in stark contrast to the small green tile houses outside.

Walking to a small villa, Qiao Zhijun turned to me and said, "This is the commune hotel, specially for entertaining distinguished guests, Mr. Xu, you live in this building, I will pick you up tomorrow morning, please take care of yourself." He smiled at me and turned to leave.

We walked into the room and found that it was no different from a holiday villa in China, with all the furniture and appliances. Xiao Zeng put down his things and said to me, "I'll keep vigil at night." I said, "What kind of night? You didn't see that the guards were all equipped with M16s, and we had to clean up our affairs in minutes, sleep, and tomorrow you go around, and I will meet that secretary again." After saying that, I laughed, "Give yourself a secretary, how much does this woman want to be an official?" I said to myself.

"What?" asked Xiao Zeng, who was standing at the bathroom door and undressing. "Nothing, take your shower, wash up and go to bed. I said.