In the hot afternoon, Pan Tian came to the big willow tree by the pit early in the morning, looked up at the third grandmother's house next door, the chimney was still smoking, presumably Guo Yang had not eaten yet. Guo Yang, a kid one year younger than Pan Tianyi, is shy by nature, his parents are working in other places, and he lives with his grandparents.

Pan Tianyi waited for everyone to gather here, and when he was bored, he circled around the big willow tree that the three of them hugged together. Looking up, the willow crown is dense and gloomy, covering the sky and the sun, and the thick willow branches spread out like umbrellas, which is estimated to be hundreds of years old. There are also a few unknown trees next to it, as well as a few poplar locust trees full of white flowers, standing on the west bank of the pit in turn, tall and dense branches and leaves, reflecting on the green rippling lake, exuding a cool fragrance. In his memory, the pit didn't seem to have dried up, and Pan Tianyi sat under the tree in a daze.

After a while, Pan Liang and his brother Xiao Liang came over with a spring breeze holding their stomachs. "You eat so early, I thought you were lazy at home!" Pan Liang said nonchalantly, "I'm sorry, I'm a little late, cough... Ahem..."

"Forget it, I don't know you yet!" Pan Tianyi stared at his bulging belly and disdained it.

When they were chatting, Guo Yang showed his head from the earthen wall of his house, saw that everyone had arrived, and said anxiously: "You wait for me, it will be fine immediately." ”

"Hurry up, the sun is setting."

"It's too late, we'll go!"

Guo Yang then took a corn steamed bun and sandwiched some small fish and vegetables, and hurriedly ran out of his door.

So, everyone walked along the edge of the pit together to the Guandi Temple in the north of the village.

Guandi Temple is located in Kengbei, on the roadside of the field in the north of the village, and an asphalt road runs through Wangzhuang Village and Panlong Village from north to south. Behind the temple were several trees, full of fluffy green spikes, hanging in bunches from the trees; If you take it off, sprinkle it with flour and steam it to eat, the taste is crispy and the aftertaste is endless!

Pan Tianyi and his playmates, as well as four children, came to the front of the blue brick temple and looked around, but there was no figure outside the temple. So, a few of them ran into the old Guan Ye temple like monkeys. The temple is an ordinary three-room room with blue bricks and red pillars, with a high threshold and wooden carved doors on both sides; On the gray roof, a pair of swimming dragons roared in the sky; At the four corners of the eaves, there are many mythical beasts, a scene of swallowing remnant clouds and tornadoes!

As soon as Pan Tian entered the temple, the surroundings were dim and hazy, and there was a square incense burner made of cement in front of him, which was covered with incense ash, and it seemed that he had not burned incense for a long time. Behind the incense burner, there is a clay statue, sitting on the front of the coffin, with a long beard in his hand, a red face in green clothes, squinting his eyes as if looking at the four children in the audience.

The four children knelt on the 2-meter-long wooden mat on the ground with surprise and trepidation, closed their eyes in a good manner, clasped their hands in front of their chests, and prayed silently in their hearts! Pan Tianyi knelt on it at first, only to feel a hard pain in his knees; Pan Liang and Guo Yang next to him also seemed to be in pain, and they were restless for a while and began to pray; Pan Tianyi gritted his teeth and bowed down reverently, and a picture of compassion and heartache appeared in his mind: a large wheat field with dead wheat fields, and beads of sweat the size of beans on his mother's face...... He kowtowed, and silently thought in his heart: "Please, old Guan Ye, hurry up and make it rain, the wheat in the field is about to die......", thinking about it, Pan Tian seemed to leave a trace of tears in the corner of his eyes.

In about a few minutes, a few children looked up at the statue of Guan Ye, glanced at the dense statues of gods next to it, and then looked at the red face of the old Guan Ye, and the temple was dim and gloomy, it seemed like frightened sparrows, all dispersed outside the temple.

In the evening, the smoke fills the village, and the sunset stains the village, dappling the land.

Pan Tianyi and his playmates played hide and seek on the tree next to the pit, which was not very tall, but it was stout and had many branches, and the small branches were particularly strong. A few children chased after me, clutching at the branches of the trees and scurrying around like monkeys.

"Yang, I'm back for dinner!" Grandma Guo's voice came from the low courtyard next to her.

"Well, I'll go back!" Guo Yang responded to his grandmother while carefully coming down from the tree.

"What a disappointment! No one is chasing me......" Pan Liang's face was covered with sweat, clutching the branch the thickness of his arm, and he kept whining.

"Let's go away, let's play again tomorrow." Pan Tianyi stumbled from it very cautiously, jumped to the ground, turned around and walked towards his home not far away.

As soon as Pan Tian passed by the gate of Grandma Guo's house, he heard Guo Yang tell his grandfather about going to Guandi Temple to ask for rain. "Good! Baby, if it really rains, grandpa, I will let the whole village set up a stage for Lao Guan Ye! Guo Sanye shouted loudly and couldn't help laughing, and his voice was about to reach the ears of the whole village.

In the brick-walled courtyard next door, Pan Tianyi's mother took a pile of hay pulled from the field, walked to the sheepfold, and sprinkled it on the ewe that had just given birth to four or five lambs...... Pan Tianyi walked into the courtyard and found that her mother was much haggard again, she originally wore two braids and loved to comb her hair, but now she cut off the braids and sold them for money, so she made up the tuition for her sister. My sister has just entered the second grade of elementary school, and I usually take time to teach my younger brother the words she learns. Pan Tianyi, as usual, walked straight to the table in the hall and watched his sister study.

The night breeze is blowing, the stars are shining in the sky, and the dark night is extraordinarily bright.

In the quiet courtyard, a family of three lay on a large mat. The weather was hot and dry, and I couldn't sleep after turning the sky over and over. Seeing that they had not been able to sleep, the mother kept fanning them with a fan.

As soon as I looked up at the sky, the stars were dense, like pearls and diamonds sprinkled on the night, shining brightly!

"Mother! Is there a god in this world? Pan Tianyi asked curiously.

"Yes, God lives in heaven!" The mother looked at the night sky affectionately, "God will bless our family with peace and auspiciousness!" Bless you 'big' safe and safe on the front line! “。

"Why are there so many stars in the sky?" My sister didn't seem to be asleep, attracted by the bright starry sky.

"Every star in the sky is the soul of everyone who exists in the world! You see, that bright ribbon of stars spans the sky like a great river, and it is the Milky Way! Maybe the gods live in the depths of the river. There is a bright and big star on the side of the Milky Way, and it is called Vega! On the other side of the Milky Way is the Cowherd Star! According to the legend of the older generation, the Cowherd and the Fairy Weaver Girl fell in love with each other, because the Weaver Girl had not been able to return to heaven for a long time, she was discovered by the Queen Mother, and used a golden hairpin to draw a Milky Way between them, punishing them for never being able to be together across the bank, but only on the seventh day of July every year they can meet each other through the Magpie Bridge. "Mother told the legend affectionately, and everyone didn't seem to feel hot.

"Mother, I went to the Guandi Temple to ask for rain this afternoon!" After hearing his mother say that there were immortals in the sky, Pan Tianyi said the words in his heart, "Will the old Guan Ye appear and rain heavily?" ”。

"Silly boy, the gods live in the sky, and there is a time difference between them and the earth! As soon as the immortals paused, several years had passed in the world. Old Guan Ye, maybe he is also napping, and he can't see the suffering of the world...... "Mother comforted him, and urged him to go to bed quickly, my sister will go to school tomorrow morning."

"Oh, I slept ......" Pan Tian didn't ask again, lying on the mat, observingly observing the stars in the sky, thinking to himself which star the gods are on?

The sky was just dawning, and the sky was rumbling with thunder! A long-awaited heavy rain is coming.

The mother woke up her sister, picked up Pan Tianyi, who had not woken up yet, and put it on the wooden bed in the hall, just after putting away the mat sheets. It began to rain heavily in the sky, and bursts of lightning and thunder spread through the sky and the countryside.

Early in the morning, in the courtyards of the village, the longing voices of the villagers sounded one by one, "It's raining!" It's finally raining—"

Pan Tianyi slept hazy, listening to the sound of the rain outside knocking on the windowsill, it seemed to enter a dream, and in the dream he met the long-awaited face, and his father held him under the big willow tree behind the house......

Outside the house, the wind and rain were slanting, and the thunderclouds were rolling, like a dragon king descending to earth, swaying sweet rain to the countryside and fields. The water in the well is full, and the water in the big river in the west of the village is also churning and roaring, regaining its former vitality and strength!

(PS: I remember when I was a child, it was about ninety years.) At that time, there had been no rain for about two or three years, and every spring and summer when the wheat seedlings in the fields were pumped, everyone would go to the wells and the big rivers to pump water to irrigate the crops, and then the water in the big rivers dried up...... Later, four children went to the old Guan Ye Temple to kowtow and beg for rain, I don't know what wishes they made, but I remember that it really rained heavily the next day, and I still remember it deeply. Perhaps, there really are "gods" in this world...... ）