Seeing that Housheng was like this, he knew that he couldn't ask anything, so Li Shan stopped asking him.

It was already dark in the mountains, and it was cloudy and rainy, and the sky was about to get dark, and when the time came, I was afraid that it would be bearable to rush to the night with the black lights, so Li Shan and the younger life invariably accelerated their pace.

After the two of them turned another mountain col, it was already completely dark at this time, and they saw a small village in front of them, and dozens of families were scattered along the hillside. The village was quiet and peaceful, as the smoke of the houses was smoking, and it was evident that they were all having dinner at a time when the people who had worked hard all day should gather around their tables, relax their aching limbs and enjoy the warmth of home.

As soon as Li Shan entered the village, he smelled the smell of rice in the air, and his empty stomach was stirred by the aroma of rice, and he immediately cooed and screamed.

The latter pointed to a family and said, "The family in front is Xu Youjian's family." ”

Li Shan nodded, thanked him, and walked towards the house alone.

Li Shan found that the houses in this village were built in a ravine, and the layout was disorderly, some sat south and faced north, and some sat east and west, which was simply a mess, and a rugged stone road led to the front of each house, this stone road had fallen into disrepair, and the rain formed a small river flowing in the ravines between the stone slabs.

Smoke curls in the evening. Li Shan approached the courtyard in front of the stone house, which was surrounded by a fence wall, and he shouted into the house through the courtyard: "May I ask if this is Xu Youjian's house?"

Li Shan noticed that there was a half-straw house on the edge of the stone house, which was between the fire pit of the farmer's house, and it was from where the cooking smoke came out, and a woman with an old apron stepped out of the threshold and looked at the uninvited guest in front of her.

"Who are you?" the woman asked.

Li Shan stepped forward and said, "You are your sister-in-law, I am a friend of Xu Youjian, and I was entrusted by him to bring you some things." ”

"Oh, you're a friend of Youjian, so come in. As she spoke, she let Li Shan into the hall and lit an electric lamp, which was an incandescent lamp that had long been used in the city, and the light was a little dim.

The woman asked Li Shan to sit down first, and asked Li Shan if he hadn't eaten yet, but Li Shan was not polite, so he said that he hadn't eaten yet, so the woman went out to gather food.

Li Shan looked around, the house was very simple, except for a table, a few chairs and a few hoes and other farm tools, there was almost no decent furniture, it seemed that the mountainous area of Xiangxi was still much poorer.

After a while, the woman brought Li Shan a meal, the dinner of the peasant in the mountains was very simple, a plate of kimchi, a few corn flour tortillas, a bowl of white porridge, the only meat dish was spicy fried meat, Li Shan walked the mountain road all day, I don't know if he was hungry, he felt quite fragrant to eat.

During this period, an old man also showed up, and the woman said that it was Xu Youjian's father, who was about seventy years old. The old man shook hands with Li Shan, but Li Shan couldn't understand a word of the Xiangxi local dialect that came out of his mouth, and the woman was doing a translation on the side.

After eating, the woman came over to clean up the dishes and chopsticks, saying that it was not too early and asked Li Shan to rest early.

Li Shan looked at his mobile phone, it was not yet ten o'clock, and the people in the mountains were about to rest, so if there was anything, let's talk about it early tomorrow morning.

The night in Xujiayuan Village is not quiet, and it is always in a faintly noisy atmosphere. Like the sound of the tide surging down, it suddenly rushed through the sky, and suddenly quietly retreated, all scattered into the endless mountain peaks.

In the second half of the night, the drizzle had stopped, the Milky Way slowly rose, and above the dilapidated old house was a bright galaxy, and the bright moonlight was like a clear stream flowing everywhere, with a cool temperature, filling every space that could be reached.

The moonlight quietly permeated the foot of the mountain valley, into the courtyard at the head of the village, and into the cracks of the window lattice, unscrupulously reflecting the house, making the house as bright as day. The soft glow seemed to emit a slight "sizzling" sound, echoing the sound of the tide outside the house, singing and harmonizing.

After driving more than ten miles of mountain roads during the day, coupled with the tiring journey all the way, Li Shan was already exhausted, but he didn't even feel a trace of sleepiness. He lay upright on a makeshift bed made of sticks and adobe, listening to the sounds of the house coming and going.

The walls of the house looked gray in the moonlight. Perhaps the house has been built for many years, and the corners of the surrounding walls are cracked as thick as a little finger. The western partition wall is a little crooked, and the cracks in the corners seem to be wider. The old man's snoring could be faintly heard in the west room, and he coughed a few times from time to time during the night.

Lying in such an environment, especially the smell of dampness in his nose, he felt more and more unfamiliar, which made Li Shan even more unable to sleep.

The broken door of the Westinghouse creaked a few times, and there was the sound of walking one foot deep and one foot shallow. This sound is very harsh in the quiet night of the mountain village. It's the old man in Westinghouse who has gotten up for a little night. Then, there was a "creaking" sound of the door, and soon he heard his faint snoring.

At dawn the next day, Li Shan, who had been tossing and turning all night, got up early, rubbed his eyes and came to the outside of the courtyard, and found that the morning air in the mountain village was exceptionally fresh. A rain at night gives the old countryside a sonorous appearance in the early morning.

Mountains loom in the distance, and the countryside is bathed in a peaceful morning light.

There are only a few dozen families in this village, and there are only about 20 people at home on weekdays, so it is a quiet and lonely place. The village is full of traditional stone houses, nestled in a bamboo forest.

Each house has a separate courtyard, which is scattered at the bottom of the col. The courtyard of each household is single-doored, and there is no neatness and flatness of the mountain with gables and walls in the villages outside the mountain. The houses on the higher ones may be built on the roofs of the houses on the lower ones, and the people in the courtyards on the lower sides have to raise their heads and bow up to talk to the people above. And any action in the courtyard of the people in the lower places will be in the field of vision of the people in the high places who have no intention of peeping. Thankfully, there are dense bamboos growing inside and outside the walls, which can cover some places that need to be kept private, such as latrines.

What is left in the village is mainly the elderly and children, like cauliflower flowers blooming on the fence, a little lonely.

Li Shan wanted to explain the matter to the woman as soon as possible, so that she could leave early, but early in the morning, she carried her burden to a nearby town to sell mountain goods, and had no choice but to wait for her to return.

Anyway, there was nothing to do, and he didn't have a good rest last night, so Li Shan climbed into bed again and continued to sleep in his back room.

This time Li Shan really slept soundly, and it was not until noon that the woman's daughter came to call him for lunch, and then Li Shan, who was still asleep, woke up.

The little girl in front of him, about five or six years old, has a pair of big eyes that can talk smartly, Li Shan immediately remembered the photo Xu Youjian gave him, isn't the little girl in the photo exactly her, at this time I saw her, I felt that she was thinner than in the photo.

Xu Youjian's father had a sick face and rarely showed his head. As for who other members of her family were, Li Shan didn't ask.

When I entered the house, although the furnishings looked very simple, they were neatly tied, the furniture was very pleasing to the eye, and the things were placed in place.

Xu Youjian's daughter-in-law is called Sun Yujie, she calls Li Shan Brother Li, and when she sees him coming, she asks him to sit first, and she goes to the back kitchen to work.

At this time, Sun Yujie's daughter staggered over with a bowl of tea in her hand, and Li Shan hurriedly took a few steps forward to take the tea bowl in her hand.

Looking at her two pigtails combed together, it was so cute, I couldn't help touching the top of her head and said, "What's your name and how old are you?"

The little girl smiled shyly and did not speak.

As if remembering something, Li Shan hurriedly took out a few ham sausages from his bag and handed them to the little girl, which he specially prepared to eat when he took the train.

The little girl's eyes were fixed on the ham sausage, but she didn't take it.

"Uncle gives it to you, you can take it. At this time, Sun Yujie walked out with a bowl in each hand, and the little girl took the ham sausage in Li Shan's hand.

"Her name is Xiao Doudou and she is six years old this year. Sun Yujie spoke, putting the bowl in her hand on the table. A scent of aroma wafted through the nose. "Brother Li, you eat first. We have a small place here, and there is nothing good to eat, you are from a big place, and some countrymen are afraid that Brother Li will not be used to eating it. ”

She herself opened the cabinet and was looking for something. After a while, she pulled out a wine bottle from the locked cupboard, and there was no label on it. There was some opaque liquid in the bottle, and there were only a little more than two taels left.

Sun Yujie said: "Here are some rice wines we brew ourselves, Brother Li, you can try them." ”

Li Shantui said that he would not drink. Sun Yujie thought he was humble, so she said: "You are too little, don't you? When you come to my house, you have to give the guests a few drinks, otherwise you will be disrespectful to the guests." ”

Hearing this, Li Shan had no choice but to rely on her.

She poured all the wine into a small enamel cup and respectfully served it to Li Shan. Li Shan is not good at drinking, but he also thinks that the taste of the wine is good, with a special mellow aroma.

Sun Yujie invited Li Shan to sit on the seat, and Li Shan saw that there were a total of four dishes, one was roasted tofu, one was dried fried green beans, one was bacon stewed bamboo shoots, and the other was scrambled eggs with leeks.

"I don't know if you can eat spicy seeds, so I'll put less of them, Brother Li, you can eat them first." ”

Li Shan's index finger moved for a while, and he picked up a big bowl of rice and started eating, regardless of whether his stomach could stand these spicy people.