"Huzi, I'll go over there and take a look, you rescue the watermelon seedlings first. ”

Zheng Qilin said.

"Oh, okay. ”

Huzi nodded.

......

The morning air has a smell of morning mist, very fresh, take a deep breath, there is a feeling of refreshment, the sun is also very good, very clear kind, Zheng Qilin stared at the footsteps on the ground, walking in the track and field path, just like walking in a landscape painting.

When I walked all the way to the main road, the footprints on the ground were gone.

It should be that the pavement of the main road is relatively hard, and there is no left.

Just as he was looking around, he happened to see a big footprint on a gentle slope in the southwest direction of the road towards the ravine, Zheng Qilin walked over in a few steps, squatted down, and looked at this mysterious footprint seriously.

This footprint is the size of a millstone, three shames, and a centimeter deep on the gentle slope overgrown with weeds, which shows how heavy this guy is.

“...... Why are there only two or three footprints? Not a string? It was on this side of the road just now, and now it has appeared on this side more than ten meters apart, and if there is no accident, it is along this road and up the mountain. I'm going to see what the hell it is!"

Zheng Qilin followed the hillside into the ravine.

During this time, the big footprints were intermittent, but the small footprints were everywhere along the road. Zheng Qilin followed the footprints up the mountain.

It went around until it reached the beam at the top of the mountain.

At this time, I saw Liang Zi's side, and an old man with a white towel on his head walked into a lush wood.

It was an apricot forest, and the old man wrapped in a white turban, he also knew, it was from Lijia Village next door, and he was a bit of a relative, he called him the third grandfather.

That apricot grove was contracted by him, and he didn't know when it would expire.

"Third grandfather!"

Zheng Qilin shouted over there and walked towards that side.

"Qi Lin?"

The old man saw Zheng Qilin here.

"Hmm. ”

Zheng Qilin took three steps and walked over in two steps.

......

"Qi Linwa, when did you come back?"

The third grandfather asked.

"It's been a while since I've been back, third grandfather, and I'll ask you something. ”

Zheng Qilin walked over there.

"What's the matter?"

The third grandfather looked at Zheng Qilin suspiciously.

"Third grandfather, is there anything new in your village lately?"

Zheng Qilin asked.

"What can we do in this mountain? It is nothing more than trivial things such as the east family losing the cow, the west family losing the donkey, the south family losing the sheep, and the north family losing the chicken...... The world is going down......"

The third grandfather shook his head, a little helpless.

"I remember when I was poor like that, there would be no such thing as chickens and dogs stealing, how can it be like this now? Are there any objects of suspicion? Chickens and ducks are not valuable, but a cow or a donkey is not a small number. Did you call the police? Did you keep losing it?"

Zheng Qilin frowned, he grew up in the countryside, and naturally knew how important a cow and a donkey were in a family, which was no less than a person.

"At the beginning, it was just a chicken and a duck or something, and everyone suspected Sun Weizi from the next village, and heard that this kid had unclean hands and feet. But considering that everyone is adjacent to each other, they did not report the case. Last year, the kid fell off the balcony and died when he was burglarizing in the city, and everyone thought it was okay, but even the sheep began to be lost, and then several cows and donkeys were lost, and everyone hurried to report the crime. But the people from the police station have been here a few times, and they haven't found out why......"

The third grandfather sighed.

"Did you find any strange clues?"

Zheng Qilin asked.

"Yes Wherever the animals were lost, there were dense footprints found near the house. There was also a large string of monsters, and some people wondered what kind of monster it was. The people at the police station also checked the footprints and tried to look for them in the direction of the footprints, but strangely, there were only a few scattered footprints, and none of them had a complete direction. Actually...... It's just that someone deliberately secretly makes trouble and confuses the public...... After a while, it may be your village's turn!"

The third grandfather said.

"Mysterious footprints? are just scattered distributions, and there is no complete direction?"

Zheng Qilin thought about the footprints he found all the way here, it seems that it is not the ghost of Xu Hongru, because if it were him, there would be no need to spoil the next village, thinking that his father said a few days ago that the corn of their family in the village was spoiled by wild boars, so it seems that these are really beasts that ran out of the deep mountains and old forests not far away.

These lifeless brutes are getting more and more arrogant, and when he finishes attending the wedding in the city, he will come back and set traps to clean them up!

Zheng Qilin made up his mind.

The third grandfather's fruit tree field is not large, only a dozen apple trees, one peach tree and two apricot trees.

Two apricot trees, one is a Dragon Boat Festival apricot, and the other is an ordinary autumn apricot. The first to ripen is the Dragon Boat Festival apricot, the grafted apricot with sweet kernels, which is very large, the meat is very thick, very sweet, and the juice is enough, unlike the kind that is ripened in the city supermarket.

"Qi Linwa, eat apricots! The tree of the third grandfather's house bears a sweet kernel. ”

The third grandfather picked a few apricots and threw them to Zheng Qilin.

"Okay. ”

Zheng Qilin took the apricots and ate seven or eight in a row, but he didn't hesitate and couldn't stop.

"Third grandfather, where did you get these apricot grafted seedlings from?"

Zheng Qilin asked.

He plans to plant a few trees on the hill in the palm of his hand, and if there are better apricot saplings, he might as well transplant them in

"Look over there. ”

The third grandfather pointed to the southwest of the orchard.

Over there is another family's orchard, densely packed with dozens or hundreds of apricot trees, golden and full of ripe apricots.

Through the gap, you can faintly see that a thick layer has also fallen on the ground.

"Whose orchard is that, how did you grow so many apricots? So much on the ground, no one cares about it?"

Zheng Qilin was curious.

Normally, a family only grows a few trees, enough for their own food. Like planting so many apricot trees, very few.

"Baogang's family, the apricot strips in our village belong to his family. Alas, it's a pity ......"

A gloom flashed in the eyes of the third grandfather.

"What's a pity? By the way, isn't Bao Gang Bobo's father? What about Bobo? What kind of work do you have now, I haven't seen him for many years. ”

Zheng Qilin hurriedly asked.

Although Bobo is not from their Zhengjia Village, he has grown up with him since he was a child, and he is a good friend who has a very strong relationship in elementary school, junior high school and high school, and he will always protect him in his memory and is willing to carry the black pot for him. Unfortunately, he lost contact when he went to college. Later, I asked someone to hear about Bobo, but I didn't hear it, as if he had suddenly disappeared.

"Bobo dropped out of college the year you went to college to work, but you can't get in touch with him again. Bao Gang went out to look for it several times, and also reported the case, only to find out that he bought a pound of apricots at a roadside stall in the county seat, and there was no clue. After tossing for more than half a year, Baogang was depressed, and when he had nothing to do, he planted apricot trees in the garden, saying that Bobo loved to eat apricots. A few years have passed, and a garden full of apricot trees has been planted, but Bobo still has no news. In the spring of the year before last, Bao Gang fell ill, and the hospital checked what was the terminal cancer, and two months later...... Gone ......."

The third grandfather said slowly.