Intellectual curiosity, curiosity – this is an eternal, immutable characteristic of human beings. - Sukhomlinsky, The Art of Education

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Jiu Ying was puzzled in his heart, but there was no pause under his hands. She untied the rope completely, and one of them hid sideways by the door.

The two couples outside entered the house one after the other, and they didn't see Jiuying, so they couldn't help but say "huh" in surprise. Jiuying took advantage of their stunned efforts to shoot again and again, stunning the two of them.

The man and woman lying on the ground looked to be in their fifties, not very vicious, on the contrary, very gentle. It's just that his face is very bad, and he can barely see the blood. They are also dressed in fashionable fashion, and there is no rustic atmosphere. In addition, both men and women had an arm broken off at shoulder length.

Jiu Ying said sorry to them insincerely, dragged them to the side of the bed, tied them up one left and one right, and found two more cloths to gag their mouths. Jiuying is measured, and the two of them should not wake up until dark, and tying them up is just a precautionary measure.

Although the couple wanted to kill Jiuying, Jiuying had no intention of retaliating with a tooth for a tooth. Listen to them, someone will come in the evening. In this way, Jiuying is not afraid that they have been tied up for too long and make a mistake, otherwise it will be her sin to die. It's just that by that time, she should have been far away from the village, and they couldn't catch up if they wanted to.

Jiu Ying didn't see her backpack in the house, so she had to go from room to room to look for it. The west room of the main house is obviously a children's room, which is very childlike, and looks like a room for a boy of five or six years old, which should be where the couple's mountain baby lives.

Seeing this arrangement, coupled with the couple's words before, their son had obviously been dead for many years, but the well-furnished room was still spotless. Jiuying approached the bed and smelled the fragrance of the freshly dried quilt. Everything as if the child had never been lost.

Jiuying just walked in and looked around, and didn't rummage through the cabinet. Come to think of it, his parents wouldn't have left their bags in their children's rooms. It seemed to be a sacred place in his parents' hearts, and they would not allow anything else to destroy it. Jiu Ying exited the room and gently closed the door again.

Jiuying went out of the door of the big house, and she didn't see her backpack in the yard. It seems that if it has not been thrown away, it will only be in the wing room on the east side.

Pushing open the door of the east wing, a smell of corpses and sandalwood came out with the yin wind.

It was afternoon, but the strong sunlight seemed to be blocked outside the door, and the east wing was dark inside. Jiu Ying stood at the door and adjusted to the darkness in the room before stepping inside.

There was a kind of coldness in the east wing, as if it had directly penetrated the thin clothes and pierced into the bones of Jiuying. Jiuying shook his wrist, his spiritual power flowed, and a warmth emanated from the soul bell, driving away the cold.

In front of him was an offering table, on which was not an ordinary Buddha or Guanyin. Rather, it is a statue with a long head and two horns, and a human body with a horse's legs.

The upper body of the statue is an extremely beautiful woman, untouched. She held a spear in one hand, and a butterfly perched on top of the palm of the other. The lower half of her body was a very sturdy horse, and her hooves were raised. It looked like she had heard the call and was turning to look back.

The statue is portrayed very expressively, the eyes are flowing, the crisp ~ chest is erect, and even the butterflies in the hands and wings seem to be trembling, and they want to fly.

Jiu Ying took a closer look, and a plate of black-red semi-liquid on the table emitted a strong smell of blood, and there was a small arm-length wooden statue next to it. The wooden statue is crudely carved, and even has no facial features, but the head, limbs and torso can be roughly seen.

Jiuying guessed that this might be the place where the ceremony was held. She looked around, and in one corner, found her bag.

It's so uncomfortable here. Especially with the induction of the Nine Infants, the statue also emitted spiritual power fluctuations, which felt very evil, although its fluctuations were weak, but it was obvious that it really had an effect.

Jiuying picked up the bag and turned around and went out the door, and as soon as he walked to the gate, he bumped into the person who pushed the door in.

Jiuying's heart jumped, and she subconsciously stretched out her hand to treat the visitor, but found that it was Grandma Chen.

Grandma Chen didn't ask why Jiuying was here, and even her face, which had been calm, didn't change in the slightest. She turned her head and said, "Let's go." "Turn around and go.

The two words that are the same as yesterday, and the same actions as yesterday, made Jiuying's heart settle down all of a sudden.

The sun was bright and dazzling, and Jiuying followed the slightly hunched figure and walked slowly.

On the stone pavement, crisp and heavy footsteps overlapped. Even during the day, there were no other people in the village.

Grandma Chen suddenly opened her mouth and talked about things in the village. A slow, low voice, coming from the front, echoed in the empty alleys, bringing Jiu Ying into the history of the mountain village.

Hundreds of years ago, the first generation of ancestors of the village settled here. Since then, no matter how the outside world changes, it seems that it has no impact on the place. The villagers have been living a comfortable life for decades.

And at the very beginning, it starts with a pair of children.

The mountain village in the afternoon is leisurely and quiet. Adults gather in groups to chat and play cards, while children run and frolic in the alleys.

"Yesterday my family's portrait told me a secret." A little girl holding a foot-long wooden statue said to a little boy with great vigour, "It said, you wet the bed the night before, what a shame!" ”

"Chen Axiang, you! I'm never going to be right with you again. The little boy was ashamed and angry, snatched the wooden statue from the girl's hand and threw it on the ground.

"Little boy, sit on the door, open the window, dry the mattress, and draw a little rabbit at night." The wooden statue that had been thrown on the ground suddenly began to sing, and the voice was grotesque.

"Wow!" The boy Li Jin ran away crying.

"Chen Axiang, who told you to take the portrait of the family outside? Come back with me! The little girl's mother chased after her, carefully picked up the wooden statue, wiped the dust off it, and then slapped the little girl's ass a few times before stopping.

This is the childhood of Chen Ah Xiang and Li Jin. In this way, they grew up together, like many children in the village.

Unlike other children, Li Jin has an incomparable curiosity about the outside world. He was always reading the books he had brought back from outside, secretly. Because there are some books that are forbidden to be read by the clan elders. He also followed the adults out of the village to the outside town, of course, secretly. Because they are not allowed to leave the village until they are fifteen years old.

"This is your protection: there are a lot of bad people out there, who will take you away so that you will never see Abba and Mommy again." So said the gentleman in the ethnography.

The village has its own school, and the gentleman who teaches is a respected elder of the clan.

This village is rich in food and clothing, and even the comfort of life makes many families in the town outside unbeatable. But spiritually, it's secluded and has its own traditions.

Mr.'s words always made Li Jin very confused, and he felt that some things were not like this. Just relying on the depiction in the book, and the brief glimpse of the outside world, he could not fully understand the difference.

Because of Li Jin's maverick, no one in the village spoke to him except Chen Axiang. Parents all warned their children that Li Jin was a bad boy and should never make friends with him.

Only Chen Axiang looked at him ignorantly every time and listened to him talk about some doubts in his heart. Actually, Li Jin didn't know that Chen Axiang was just looking at his side face in a daze every time.

"Ah Jin is really good! Although he didn't understand, he felt like he knew a lot. This is the voice of the young Chen Axiang.

This is also the reason why Chen Axiang's parents did not interfere, his daughter didn't know what Li Jin said at all! Of course, they can't stop it, this daughter is the treasure in the palm of their hands. was reluctant to scold, so he had to let her go.

Although after coming back on the day of the first sneak out, Li Jin was almost beaten half to death by his father. But this can't stop Li Jin's strong curiosity, since he knows the way out of the village, he always sneaks out while everyone is not paying attention. Every time he came back, Li Jin was beaten well, but he didn't change his teachings.

When Li Jin was twelve years old, the patriarch finally spoke: If Li Jin's family can't control him anymore, the clan will take care of it.

Li Jin's aunt cried bitterly, and even knelt down and begged her son to stop running around.

"Grandma is just you, if you are gone, how will Grandma live."

Li Jin was taken aback by his grandmother's reaction. He felt that Grandma was really making a fuss, he had slipped out so many times and was fine, why was it so serious? That being said, he also stopped crying for a long time because of his grandmother's crying.

The so-called nature of the country is easy to change, and it didn't take long for Li Jin to regain his old ways, planning to leave the village next time. But then something happened that changed everything.

Recently, Li Jin's Abba and Aunt have been very busy, because the annual big sacrifice is coming. Li Jin made the idea on the day of the big sacrifice, because the village was busy all day and night.

Children are not allowed to participate in the sacrifice, and the villagers are afraid that the children will run around and interfere with the sacrifice, so they will even tie up the children and lock them in the house in advance.

Li Jin hit this idea, he secretly hid a knife, and cut the rope when Abba and Mommy went out. He had already surveyed a road where the houses were mostly empty and rarely passed by during the day.

Everything was well planned. Unexpectedly, in view of Li Jin's bad criminal record, Li Jin's father took a big lock and locked the door of the house and the courtyard door tightly.

When Li Jin thought of a way and ran out to the entrance of the village, the sacrifice had just begun.

The moonlight that night was very good, and the cold moonlight illuminated everything on the stone platform at the entrance of the village very clearly

Li Jin's father and aunt came back from the sacrifice and saw Li Jin curled up on the bed with a high fever.

At first, they just thought that Li Jin had a cold. But Li Jin's frequent nightmares and whispers finally made them understand that Li Jin must have seen the scene of the sacrifice.

"Thousands of defenses have not been prevented." After a day and a night, Li Jin's Abba was much haggard. The husband and wife hid the news to the death. Because, when Li Jin saw that the sacrifice was discovered by the clan, there was only one word in the end: death!

In order to hide from the clan elders, Li Jin's father even ruthlessly knocked off Li Jin's right leg. He told the suspicious clan elders that on the day of the sacrifice, Li Jin fell off the wall and broke his leg in order to slip out. Li Jin was not found in the courtyard until the end of the sacrifice, and by that time he was already unconscious.

Li Jin lay in bed for a full month.

Maybe the days in bed allowed Li Jin to finally be able to think quietly, maybe Abba and Aunt's pale and haggard faces made him feel guilty, and he settled down from then on.

Li Jin earnestly studied the clan every day, and never asked some questions that made the teacher jump to his feet. This relieved the clan elders who had been secretly observing him.

This continued until he was fifteen years old, and he was able to leave the village.

Li Jin didn't say goodbye to Abba and Grandma, he just left a note in the house.

But he met Chen Axiang before leaving.

In recent years, Chen Axiang has become more beautiful, which has attracted the chase of many young men, but she just likes Li Jin wholeheartedly.

"Ah Xiang, I want to take a look outside the mountain, wait for me for three years, and then I will come back and marry you." Fifteen-year-old Li Jin resolutely left here.