Chapter 1: The Mountain Village, the Maiden and the Elf

It's a remote mountain village, it's a peaceful mountain village, and like a lot of villages, it's an ordinary mountain village.

Now, the mountain village is bathed in the golden light of the setting sun.

In the soft sunset, a girl with a single ponytail and long pigtails and a yellow dog sat quietly in the attic.

The girl sat quietly on an old square stool, with her knees together, her arms folded and her hands clasped in front of her knees, her body swaying slightly back and forth, looking up at the golden-plated mountain village quietly, her fingers unconsciously turning.

The girl was accompanied by an ordinary yellow earth dog about one or two years old. At this time, the yellow dog looks very quiet, but it can be seen from the yellow dog's constantly swinging eyes with the girl that it is not quiet in its heart now, or it is a little unaccustomed to the dull atmosphere at this time, or maybe it is already very skinny, and the temporary silence is just a appearance.

After a long time, the girl came back to her senses, and the sky was already a little dark, and the village that had lost its gold plating, was obviously much more ordinary.

Sighing softly, she looked at the yellow elf who had been accompanying her at her feet, the girl's empty eyes were finally a little lively, with a little smile, with a little love, the girl reached out and touched the dog's head, and said softly:

"Ah Le, are you hungry, Apu forgot the time when he thought about things, so I'm going to go and eat immediately, you have to eat more, it's been almost two years, and you're still thin and small, how can you protect me like this......"

Being gently caressed by the familiar little hands, Ah Le felt the joy from the girl, and habitually wanted to turn over and lie down and ask to rub her belly, but the girl grabbed her ears, shook them lightly, and reproached with a smile:

"It's going to be dark, rub your belly tomorrow, aren't you hungry, we should eat." After saying that, the girl rubbed the fluffy yellow dog's head a few times, refused Ah Le's request to be rubbed to the ground, and walked down the attic with it.

Dinner is very simple, there are a lot of leftovers at noon, you can heat it up, and then mix a few cucumbers picked in the field in the morning, and a simple and comfortable dinner is good.

Ah Le's dinner is simpler, Ah Pu only needs to remove the spicy condiments in the dish, give Ah Le a little bit of each, and then pour some vegetable soup mixed with rice, Ah Pu has always felt that Ah Le is a very good puppy.

At night, with the puppies, eating the vegetables he had worked so hard to grow, Apu felt very happy, because Apu had found the long-awaited peace here.

It has been almost two years since she came to this small mountain village, and Apu still clearly remembers that she was wandering aimlessly on the land of her motherland, confused and unaware of the way forward.

Once, I heard a friend introduce me to a remote county town, and I wanted to see if there was anything I was looking for, so I went with a small bag.

After arriving at the place, this old but somewhat dilapidated county town gave Apu a good first feeling.

Although it is a bit dilapidated and backward, it is very clean, and there is a feeling that when I was a child, my mother held her hand and walked on the road of her hometown.

Apu was immersed in the memories of the past, always trying to find something here, remembering something, and not even noticing the change in the weather. Before I knew it, it was getting dark, and it was raining after a while.

The cool rain brought Apu back to reality.

The rain gradually became heavier, and in order to avoid the rain, Apu, who had no special goal, followed a few villagers to a car parked on the side of the road waiting for guests.

There were not many people in the car, and it was very quiet, six or seven villagers were sparsely scattered, each with goods and luggage, probably coming to the city to buy something to take home, and the words between each other were also very light. Apu found a place where no one was by the window, and then sat quietly watching the rain, watching the people, and looking at this small city with a smell.

After a while, the car started up, and no one came to ask for a ticket. There were still a few people in front of the car, everyone was sitting quietly, no one paid for tickets, and there was no conductor on the bus, only a middle-aged uncle who was not in good spirits was driving.

Although some strange thoughts on the car flashed through Apu's mind, he still didn't ask anything, because the scenery moving outside the window in the heavy rain attracted most of Apu's attention, and everything seemed to be clean under the rain.

The car never stopped, until it was in front of an archway, at the end of the cement pavement, the car slowed down, and finally stopped in the dojo in front of the archway after slowly sliding.

From afar, this is a small mountain village, and the whole village is located in a mountain col, and a stream flows around the village from the edge of the mountain village. In the rain that gradually became thinner, smoke rose from the roofs of several houses, bringing a few artistic conceptions and winding to this small mountain village, and there was a feeling of entering the painting.

The people in the car began to move, packed up their things and prepared to get out of the car, the driver's uncle also slowly stood up from the driver's seat, walked to the door, the position at the door has been empty, and the uncle sat down here.

Then he took out a half-pack of cheap cigarettes from the pocket of his frayed overalls jacket and lit one. They seem to be very familiar with each other, and there are no superfluous words, everyone pays the money and gets off the bus in an orderly manner, and the most communication is the smile between each other and the handover of the five-yuan bill.

Apu was the last to get out of the car, the arrival of a stranger made him sober up a little, the driver's uncle looked a little strange, looked at Apu, and seemed to want to say something, but in the end, the mouth was still a faint sentence:

"Girl, when you arrive at the station, the car can only go here, and the fare is five yuan. ”

"Thank you, uncle, for giving you the money. ”

Apu handed over the five yuan change that had been prepared.

After getting out of the car, Apu walked around the yard and began to look around.

There is no clutter in the spacious cement dojo, it is smooth and clean, only a corner near the archway where there are a few simple fitness facilities and a foreign public toilet, and there are two panda-style green trash cans next to the bus that just got off. These all look new, and they should not have been built for long.

The rain is still falling, although it is not big, but ironing on the body always makes people feel that they can be cold to the bones, there is no platform here, there is no place to shelter from the rain, the driver's uncle has been paying attention to this side, and after seeing Apu looking around, he looked back here, and the uncle beckoned from afar, it should be to let Apu pass.

"Uncle Driver, you called me?"

Apu who walked over felt that this was an uncle with a story, and he also felt his kindness to himself, just like the kind of elders, and his heart was full of kindness, and his words unconsciously brought honorifics.

The driver's uncle sitting at the door of the car did not answer immediately, looked at the cigarette in his hand, and then looked at the Apu in front of him, stood up and gave way to his position:

"Girl, come up and say, we are not used to the rain here. ”

"Thank you, uncle. ”

After getting in the car, Apu obviously felt a trace of warmth, I don't know if it was because of the lack of rain, or because he listened to the words of care, and hurriedly thanked him.

Seeing that Apu found a place to sit down, the driver's uncle took a few puffs of the cigarette that was about to burn out, then leaned over to find a puddle to extinguish the cigarette butt, turned his head and threw it into the trash can next to the car.

"I ...... I, my daughter should be about the same age as you, she didn't like me to smoke before. ”

There was a hint of darkness in his eyes, and the driver's uncle saw Apu staring at him strangely and explained with his words.

"It's okay uncle, I don't hate the smell of smoke. ”

Apu had told a lie, but she felt in her heart that she should have said it.

The driver's uncle's eyes flickered a little, and he stared at Apu more deeply, and the sparse stubble on his chin trembled a few times before finally calming down.

"The girl is a foreigner, is there anything to do in our ravine?" The driver's uncle asked

"Uncle, I also came here by chance, but I was tired and wanted to look around. The past seemed to touch the bottom of his heart, and Apu replied somewhat indifferently

"Does the girl have any acquaintances here?"

"No, it's the first time I've been here, uncle, is there a hotel in the village, I want to find a place to live first. ”

Although the rain had gradually decreased, the clouds were still thick, and it was only two or three o'clock in the afternoon, which made people feel that it was already evening, and Apu wanted to find a place to settle down first.

After closing the car door, the driver's uncle walked towards the village chief with Apu.

Sometimes the relationship between people is so wonderful, after a simple conversation in the car, the two seem to have some tacit understanding, as if they broke the barrier, and they have added a lot of trust to each other.

On the road, the driver's uncle was not as dull as before, chattering in detail, asking about Apu's affairs, Apu was not disgusted with this kind of care that belonged to the middle-aged uncle, squinting his eyebrows and responding to the uncle one by one, from a distance, it looked like an "old" father in the drizzle to welcome his daughter home.

Seeing that the village is not far from the main road, but the driver's uncle and Apu have been walking for a long time.

In the words along the way, Apu answered a lot of questions, also solved a lot, and especially asked some questions about the driver's uncle.

Apu learned that the uncle's surname is Jiang, and now he is a young surname in the village, and there used to be a lot of them, but most of them have moved away since the generation of the uncle and grandfather, leaving only a dozen or so families to continue to stay here.

Uncle Jiang is a demobilized soldier in the army, and after returning to the village, he was arranged to do grassroots work in the village, and is now the village secretary.

Because the village is located in a remote area, the road has only recently been built, and after the conditions in the town have been improved a few years ago, many people have moved out of the town one after another, and at the least time there were only six families in the whole village, and it was not until the beginning of last year that more than 30 families who were relocated outdoors were resettled. By the way, the infrastructure in the village has also improved a lot, and the facilities have also been improved.

The newly resettled people are divided into two big surnames, more than half of them are surnamed Zhang, and the few are surnamed Liu, and they are all familiar with the two neighboring villages before they moved here, and many of them are "smart" people, so they are separated here.

Since then, things in the village have become much heavier and noisy, and Uncle Jiang, who was originally idle, had to pick up the burden and carefully face these parents.

In the past, there were only two village cadres in the village, Uncle Jiang, the village party secretary, and Jiang Jiefang, the accountant (Uncle Jiang's third uncle), but now there is obviously a shortage of personnel, and at first the above also planned to increase the number of cadre candidates, but then there was no movement, and I heard that it was decided to wait for next year's re-election.

In this case, Uncle Jiang, a young faction among the cadres, has to take on many positions, such as the current position of a long-distance bus driver.

After getting to know each other a lot, Apu settled down with the help of Uncle Jiang, and then settled down in this small mountain village with peace with the help of Uncle Jiang.

Uncle Jiang helped contact the rental house, and the enthusiastic landlord helped sort out the idle old house: it is a multi-storey old wooden house in the countryside with a yard.

The enthusiastic neighbor saw that Apu was a girl who lived alone, and in order to show his welcome to Apu, he specially sent a freshly weaned puppy to Apu as a companion, and Apu named the puppy Lele.

After Apu settled down, the enthusiastic Uncle Jiang divided a small vegetable field for Apu, who has some farming experience, likes this small vegetable field very much, in Apu's eyes: the fertile and flat land has not been wasted, and a little cultivation can be harvested.

In the end, Apu settled down satisfied, and had a home in this small village in the mountains, as well as the elves who accompanied her.