My name is Lao Tianyan, I am 24 years old, I was born in a small mountain village called Lizhu Village on the border, and I have an older brother who is three years older than me, and he has married and started a family.

At that time, my family was poor, and nine years ago, my dad asked my brother to do a multiple-choice question about whether to start a family or go to school.

I was arrogant at the time, firmly believing that knowledge can change fate, and secretly laughed at my brother for not being promising, what is good about rural girls, it is a man who wants to go to the peak of life to win Bai Fumei.

Later, my fate was changed by knowledge.

When I was sixteen years old, the fortune teller said that my eyes were like stars and my nose was like a lying silkworm, and I was destined to commit peach blossoms, and I was constantly married to women, and I could be a father at the age of twenty-one.

But now I'm twenty-four years old and still single, and I've been wandering in a different place for several years, and I've almost lost contact. Every day, I sing on the street that the wind is sluggish and the water is cold, looking for the root of survival.

Proper knowledge changes destiny!

At the end of this year, my grandfather asked someone to call me and told me that I must go back to see him this year, and specially asked the caller to say that his time was running out and that I should go back to see him for the last time.

Calculate that grandpa is eighty years old, to the point that the oil lamp has run out, no matter whether what he said on the phone is true or not, even if he has no face, he should go back to visit his old man's home. But looking at the thousands of dollars that had been saved in the card, I couldn't help but sigh a long time.

I went back on New Year's Day, alone, and didn't dare to go back to my parents' house directly, so I went up the mountain to find my grandfather in a circle.

The mountain guarded by my grandfather was called Heavenly Mountain, and during the reform and opening up, he was a village cadre with a low position, and later he was assigned to the forest farm to guard the mountain, and he began to receive food stamp subsidies, and he did it for decades, and he still receives a salary of several hundred yuan.

In fact, with his age, he should have retired a long time ago, but the management of remote mountainous areas is already lax, and no one wants to take up this job.

If it weren't for the fact that his grandfather had participated in activities such as denouncing landlords, opening mountains and cultivating land, and opening roads in rafts, he would have made a great contribution to the old society, and it is estimated that he would not even want to give him a few hundred yuan in wages.

My father persuaded my grandfather and daughter more than once to give up the job of guarding the forest farm and go to live with him in the mountains. But grandpa didn't eat oil and salt, so the relationship between the two was very stiff for a while.

The road up the mountain was rugged and difficult, and I walked for three hours until about 2 p.m. when I saw the dilapidated houses built next to the mountain reservoir in the distance.

From a distance, he saw a figure standing outside the tattered wooden door, and when he looked closer, he saw that it was a young woman dressed in red.

I don't know how long she'd been standing outside the door, with a few yellow leaves resting on her shoulders.

This woman has a delicate appearance, her eyebrows are like a mountain, and her nose is picturesque, I have never seen such a beautiful woman without makeup, and I can't help but look crazy for a while.

When I was looking at her, she was looking at me too, very bold and not shy away at all.

The eyes met, and in the end I was defeated.

"You're here to find the old ghost?" I asked.

Grandpa has an eccentric personality, he is seventy or eighty years old, and sometimes he has a temper like a young man, and people call him by his name and do not agree, but he is happy to call him an old ghost.

I don't get along with him like a grandson at all, but like a brother for many years, so I don't have to be too taboo to call him an old ghost in front of people.

The woman shook her head, her eyes still staring at me.

I couldn't resist being looked at by him, so I turned around and knocked on the door: "Old man, I'm back, open the door!" ”

"Good boy, you're finally back, let's go, go inside and have a drink." Before the door opened, the familiar voice of the old man sounded from within.

I muttered in my heart, the person on the phone said that the old man was seriously ill and was about to burp, but listening to this loud voice, how could he have the consciousness of burping, and it was estimated that the middle-aged man with strong blood and strength was not as thick as his loud voice.

The wooden door opened, and the old man's familiar and lewd smile appeared in front of me, and he greeted me warmly, like a long-lost old brother.

I wondered why he didn't greet the woman when I wasn't the only one out there.

But unexpectedly, when I turned to look, there was nothing behind me, and there was not even a shadow.

"Old man, do you see a woman? Just now there was standing behind me. I was taken aback and hastened to ask the old man.

"Woman? Where are the women here? Xiao Yan, you stinky boy shouldn't be crazy about women, right? ”

I don't think the old man looks like a fake, could it be that I was dazzled just now?

I looked down for the woman's footprints, the soil was wet next to the reservoir, she had just been standing here for a long time, the people were gone, but the footprints could not walk.

To my surprise, however, there was nothing left outside the door except the new marks from my worn-out shoes.

"What are you kid wondering about?" The old man urged when he saw that I was slow to enter the door.

"No, old man, don't you really see a woman standing at your door?"

"Boy, don't scare the old man, noon is not completely over, and the yang energy is the strongest." The old man said with a glare.

I suspect in my heart, at this time, it is impossible for the sneaky people in the mountains to come out? Could it be that the old guy encountered a big one, and he specially recruited me to come back to take the blame?

Otherwise, why do you even want me to come back?

I thought to myself, people have been unconsciously pulled into the house by the old man.

The dilapidated house is not large, with a total of three rooms, one large room that doubles as a kitchen, one bedroom, and the other room for storing miscellaneous items.

At this time, a tin stove was burning in the hall, a pot of local rice wine was burning, and a roast chicken, a stack of peanuts, and a fried fish were placed on the table.

I didn't eat much for breakfast, and I almost ran out of energy when I went up the mountain, so I would be hungry early, so I tore off a roast chicken leg and gnawed on it.

The old man poured me wine with a smile and said, "Stinky boy, drink more, it's cold outside, some places on the mountain have frozen, yellow soup can warm up your stomach and strengthen your courage!" ”

I heard the taste, and suddenly felt that the roast chicken leg in my mouth was not so fragrant, and looked at the old man and waited for the next step.

"Hehe, your kid is not too late or too late to come back, just right!"

"What do you mean, old man?" I swallowed the meat in my mouth, and I felt like I was being calculated.

"Not long ago, I was sitting fishing by the reservoir when I saw a group of people hurrying up the hill carrying a burlap bag. I'm an old man with old arms and legs, they all treat me as air, I can't shout, I can't catch up, you can go up the mountain to drive people when you are full of food and drink! ”

Hearing this, I just took a sip of wine and almost squirted out, and said with a calm face: "Old man, you are also stuffy, boy, I rushed back day and night, and now my ass is not hot, so I can't wait to torture me." ”

The old man glanced at me, did not persuade me, nor did he put up a stand for the elderly, but I had to agree. Because while weeping, he told how he had spent all these years of loneliness......

Those who sneak into the mountains are usually either poaching or illegal logging, and are doing things that are not allowed in nature reserves.

Before going up the hill, the old man handed me an old shotgun, which had been with him for decades. Because of the need to guard the mountain, the people above also turned a blind eye and did not take it back.

Paradise Mountain has not yet been developed, and although it is a nature reserve, it is actually a barren mountain, and its jurisdiction is very extensive, with nine peaks connected to each other. Although the scenery is good, because of the remote location, the road is not passable, and there are few people sightseeing.

If you want to find a few people in such a vast area, you will undoubtedly look for a needle in a haystack.

But the mountain keepers naturally have the ability to be mountain guards, otherwise for so many years, the rare game in the mountains would have been stolen by others.

The old man's reliance is an old yellow dog that has been raised for nine years, he usually patrols the mountains, follows the old yellow dog, and can always accurately find the location of the person who sneaks into the mountain.

In fact, the legend says that the mountain keeper also has another skill, which is to fold the grass to ask for directions, and worship trees to inquire about ghosts.

As the saying goes, a chicken has no six years, and a dog does not have eight years.

Dogs and humans have been together for more than eight years, which is already an irrational existence. Domestic animals cannot be fed for too long, because once they survive in human society for too long and come into contact with humans too much every day, they will psychic and become demonic beings.

Of course, this is all superstitious saying in the old society, but grandpa, the old yellow dog, has been raised for so many years, and it is indeed different from ordinary animals, and it is quite human.

However, I have never been very interested in this old dog, because the old man gave this dog a name that made me angry when I heard it - Xiao Yan!

That's what my mother called me, I don't know if the old man was disgusted with me or what, all in all, every time I saw this old yellow dog, I wanted to slaughter it and stew a pot of dog meat.

But the old man didn't allow it, he was very good to it, and he was closer than his grandson.

Under the leadership of the old yellow dog, I didn't waste much effort, and I found the gang of people who carried burlap bags and sneaked into the mountains.

In the distance, I heard the sound of shovels digging in the earth, and I saw that two of the men were dressed as if they were running for funeral, and the other was holding a compass to locate the place, so I knew what was going on.

"What are you doing? Don't you know that private burials are prohibited in the Heavenly Mountain Nature Reserve? ”

In this deserted and silent mountain forest, I suddenly heard a high-pitched shout, and those people were suddenly startled, turned around and looked at me in a panic, a little overwhelmed.

I didn't expect to encounter this kind of thing just for the old man's patrol, and I was one hundred and eighty unhappy in my heart, but since I encountered it at this time, I can only deal with it calmly.

Seeing that those people didn't speak, I led the yellow dog to approach and said again: "It is illegal to bury the corpse here without permission, you should leave with the corpse quickly, I will not pursue this matter again, and I will not say it." ”

I looked at five people, one gentleman, who was mourning a middle-aged couple, and the other two men with shovels were like coolies invited by middle-aged couples.

There was a big red coffin next to several people, the coffin was not closed, and the coffin lid was on the ground against the coffin wall.

There was a burlap bag next to the big red coffin, and the bag was bulging, and it could be seen that it should contain a corpse.