This year's snow is unusually heavy, even deep in the mountains of Shinshu, Japan.

Shinshu is in the middle of the Japanese island of Honshu, where the mountains are coiled, mostly sloping and few plains.

There is a small village deep in the mountains, called Narayama Village, and this name comes from the mountain where they are located.

Like other villages within hundreds of miles in the surrounding area, they are all managed by the Sugida family in their territory.

Narayama Village has some dry fields, but most of them are sloping fields, and they mainly grow millet and buckwheat.

Both of these grains are not highly yielded and are laborious to grow.

At the end of the year, after they handed over the land rent to the Sugida family, there was not much food left.

There are two traditions here, both of which are scary to say.

First, as soon as a man reaches the age of 70 and a woman reaches the age of 60, the eldest son of the family will carry it to the mountain behind the village in winter and abandon it and let it destroy itself.

There can only be one explanation for this, it is so poor that even a mouthful of food has to be calculated.

This tradition has been inherited, and if the eldest son of any family is reluctant to abandon it, he will be ridiculed by other old people, and he will have no face in the village.

The second is that only the eldest son is allowed to marry and have children, and other brothers are not allowed to marry and divide the family, and they have to work for the eldest son to eat a bowl of rice, such a person is called a slave.

Last year, Ah Lingpo, who was 59 years old in the village, knew that she was not far from the day of going to Narayama, but her body was quite strong, and she was still too good to eat.

She was really distressed about this, and she cried secretly many times.

In the fall, she deliberately knocked out two front teeth on the stone mill where she was grinding buckwheat!

However, she can still bite wild fruits and wild vegetables, which is really annoying------ she can't kill herself, people who commit suicide will not be reincarnated as a human again, I heard that they will become pigs and dogs or something.

Moreover, she still has two more things on her mind.

Her husband couldn't bear to go up the mountain to abandon his mother, and he was afraid of being ridiculed by the villagers, so he fled on his own, and no one knew where he had gone.

Will her eldest son, Rihei, let himself go to meet the god of Narayama at that time? She was faintly worried, afraid that he would follow her husband's old path and abandon her daughter-in-law Ayu------ who was a good wife.

Her second son, Lisuke, is in his thirties, unkempt all day long, languishing and working in the fields, and he is still a virgin!

If a man dies as a virgin, he will not be able to reincarnate as an adult either------ what can he do?

The family could not afford to let him go out of the mountains to the town to find money for prostitutes.

Food is everything here!

There is also a law in the village that anyone who steals food must be buried alive with their entire family.

When the autumn arrived, the harvest was not good in the whole village, except for the soybeans in the village's public fields.

The man of the Westinghouse family in the village felt sorry for the hunger of his twelve-year-old daughter, Ah Jin, so he went to steal some soybean cakes that had been squeezed with oil.

But he was caught, and the soybean cake that has been squeezed for oil is also considered food, and it can be sold for money, which is very valued by the whole village.

As a result, his family was to be buried alive------ Ah Lingpo took out her last savings, and a pair of carved copper bracelets that her husband gave her when she got married finally ransomed Ah Jin.

The second son, Risuke, was very angry and said, "Mother! You spent all your savings before you went to Narayama, and you also added a mouth for the family to eat, is this the god of Narayama punishing this family! ”

Ah Lingpo smiled and said, "My son, please don't be angry, Ah Jin is not a mouth to eat, she will become the wife of my eldest grandson Jiwu in the future." ”

Yoshiya is the eldest son of Liping, the eldest grandson of the family, who is fifteen years old this year, and he is about to marry a wife.

The second son, Lisuke, touched the back of his head and smiled innocently, saying this, the family still earned it.

Ah Jin stayed at home.

Ah Lingpo taught her to catch fish in the stream and pick wild vegetables in the mountains, and the two got along very well.

Ah Lingpo thought that she had given Ah Jin the ability to survive in the mountains, so she began to worry about the affairs of her second son.

She thought about the women in the village in her heart, and finally, she chose Ah Hua, who was in her forties, maybe she could accept the temptation of a small bag of grain.

Every time she cooks, she takes out a little bit of the food she wants to make and puts it in a small bag hanging on the beams of the house, she lets her family eat it first, and she tries to eat wild vegetables and fruits herself.

In this way, she saved up a small bag of food.

She found an opportunity to block Ah Hua, offered the bag of food, and begged her on her knees.

Ah Hua was frightened, but she was reluctant to give up the bag of food, so she agreed after thinking about it for a long time.

Ah Lingpo went to Ah Hua's house in person, pretending to invite her to come to her house to help sewing------ the family's daughter-in-law Ah Yu's hand was broken.

Ah Lingpo personally boiled boiling water for her second son Lisuke and washed him all over------ second son who had taken a bath was a handsome man.

When Ah Hua entered the house, Ah Lingpo came to the courtyard alone and looked at the top of Narayama with a smile.

I heard that there is snow in all seasons, and the god of Narayama lives there.

I don't know how long later, Ah Hua ran out in a hurry, she didn't even say hello, and ran home in embarrassment.

Ah Lingpo bowed deeply to her back, May the god of Narayama make you happy.

The second son, Risuke, has changed since then, and he has the strength to walk.

Her mind seemed to be gone.

In late autumn, the autumn leaves on Narayama have fallen, and Ah Lingpo thinks that the day has come for her to be sent to Narayama.

She and her eldest son had a long talk with her daughter-in-law Ayu in the evening of this day, and Liping really hid his face and cried, he didn't dare to carry his mother to Narayama!

Ayu also cried and said, please, don't go up so early.

A Lingpo smiled and said: "At this age, I finally understand life and death, I have been dreaming of the god of Narayama for the past few days, I can't see his appearance clearly, but I can feel his warmth."

Carry me up the mountain, that's where I can be happy, and the old man's tradition is always good. ”

"No, no, mother, there is still food at home, I will go hunting in the mountains tomorrow!"

"My son, my grandmother also came yesterday, and when she went up Narayama, she went with a smile------ my father carried her on his back, and walked and walked like that, and everyone was gone.

In the evening, I asked my father where my grandmother was.

Her father said that she was going to enjoy the blessings, and she was no longer afraid of not having enough food to eat, no longer worried about whether the children were doing well------ and would not be affected by the cold.

My father wouldn't lie to me. ”

Outside the house, Yoshiya and Ah Jin were eavesdropping, because it was strange that the family had lit an oil lamp for the first time.

Yoshiya asked in a whisper, "Is that really the case on the top of Narayama?" ”

With tears on his face, Ah Jin said, "I miss my parents------

This night, Ah Lingpo did not convince her eldest son, but she was not in a hurry, and it was not really snowing yet.

A few days later, something strange happened!

The housekeeper of the Sugida family in the territory actually brought some grain, saying that the Sugida family had obeyed the new general of Zhengdong, and they asked for less land rent!

Moreover, Sister Shan, the eldest daughter of the Sugida family, celebrated her eighteenth birthday, and she just returned some food to the villagers so that everyone could have a good winter!

We want everyone to always remember the kindness of the Sugita family.

Ah, I've only seen more and more land rents, and I've never seen grain returned------

PS: Three chapters, ask for a reward!