When I saw the vague houses not far from the lake, I wasn't sure if they were still inhabited. The overall area of Taal Lake is huge, and since many years ago, the reduction in water volume has turned much of the lake into barren land. Because Xiao Mao followed Lu Fangding to Ta'er Lake a few years ago, they must have also surveyed the terrain around Ta'er Lake, so I didn't go too far during the two Ta'er Lake operations.

I thought about it, but I didn't remember that Xiao Mao told me if there was anyone near Ta'er Lake. However, the rippling water of the lake is the source of life, and wherever there is water, there will be vegetation and there may be people.

I was so tired, hungry and thirsty, I wanted to fill my stomach. I quickened my pace and walked to the lake in one breath.

There is sediment in the lake water, and when you reach out and touch it lightly in the water, the sediment will float up and down, and you can't get off your mouth when you look at it. It's not that I'm afraid that the water is dirty, but I'm afraid that the water is not clean, and if I drink it, I will have stomach trouble, and if I have diarrhea in such a situation, it will be really fatal.

I was very thirsty, but not to the point of dying of thirst, so I couldn't help but look over there at a low hut, where I could drink some boiling water if there were still people in the place, and if there was no one living there, then I would come back.

Thinking of this, I held back my thirst for a moment, and walked towards the low hut.

The moon was bright and the stars were thin, and the moonlight sprinkled down, sprinkling the hut with a layer of silver frost. When I got a little closer, I saw that the huts looked cluttered from a distance, but they were in fact scattered, with aisles between the houses that were neither wide nor narrow, and they were obviously a small village.

I looked down at my watch, I had fallen asleep before, and I had been on the road for half a day, and the time displayed by the watch was already night. The village was quiet, and no sound could be heard.

The cottages are all dilapidated, and at a glance you can tell that they have been built for a long time, and there are traces of repairs everywhere. There were no people around me in the dark lights, and I didn't want to shout casually, so I ran to the front of a row of huts and looked at it lightly.

The structure of these houses is simple and ordinary, with a small courtyard in front and several living rooms in the back, and the structure of the two rows of houses is similar. I stretched my head out in front of a hut, and before I could see any movement, I heard a few dog barks from the row of houses behind me.

The quiet night of the village was broken by the barking of dogs, and I was startled by the sudden barking, but then I was very excited, since there were dogs in the village, there must be people living in them.

Squeak......

Before I could figure out how to call the door, the small gate in the courtyard opposite was opened from the inside. I saw a woman of about twenty-four or five years old, holding a child in her arms, looking at me through the open courtyard door.

It is estimated that the barking of the dog just now alarmed the owner of the small courtyard, so I quickly walked two steps and told the other party my intention.

"I need a little water, a little food, anything, just fill my stomach." I said as I rummaged through my body, when we came out to act, we didn't carry any messy and useless things with us, I remember that I had a little change left over from the toll in my trouser pocket, I reached out and took it out, and handed it to the other party: "That's all there is to it, buy some food......

The young woman didn't reply, the village was so remote, and there were certainly no outsiders who usually came, and it was normal for her to be wary of me. I coughed and wanted to explain to the other party, but when I looked at this woman again, I suddenly felt that this woman was a little familiar.

Something familiar to her?

As soon as this idea came to me, I immediately rejected it, Ta'er Lake is thousands of miles away from the mainland, how can I have someone I know here. However, I always felt that she was really a little familiar, and even I felt that she must be hidden in the depths of my memory.

My mind naturally began to recall, remembering when and where I had seen this woman. But I can't remember.

This woman is very young, and her skin should be quite fair, but the environment here is not good, and it must be difficult to survive, and every adult, regardless of gender, has to bear heavy physical labor, so her face is not very good, and her face is also sunburned.

Her appearance is actually very upright, with thin eyebrows and big eyes. However, no matter how I look at her, I feel that there is an unspeakable sadness between her eyebrows.

My head was dizzy, but I couldn't remember who this woman was.

"Give you food, not your money." The woman looked at me, then at the change I handed over, and shook her head slightly: "I don't want your money." ”

When I heard her words, my head buzzed. This woman's accent is an authentic Huayang's accent. Huayang City, along with several surrounding counties, said such things, I grew up in Huayang, and it was impossible to hear it wrong.

How happened to it? Ta'er Lake, thousands of miles away from Huayang, is there Huayang people?

Before I could speak, the woman turned and walked into the courtyard. There was no light in the courtyard, and by the light of the moon, I saw that she might have gone to the house to get food. When she returned, she was holding the child in one hand and a few black objects in the other.

"Eat." The woman handed me what she was holding, and I looked at it, and she was holding what looked like blackened potatoes burned in the stove, and what looked like baked mixed bread.

"Thank you." I took the food she handed me, and although it looked dark and had no appetite at all, it was a blessing as long as I could fill my stomach.

"You're here alone?" The woman gently patted the child in her arms and asked, "Have a place to stay at night?" ”

"Nope." I shook my head: "How can you find a place to live in such a place?" ”

"You can spend the night here, but ......" the woman looked down at the child in her arms and said, "You need help, help me take care of the child." ”

"This ......" I didn't expect the other party to say that, and I didn't know how to answer for a while.

"The child fell carelessly, and it hurt a lot, and I had to hold her all the time, and I couldn't lose my hand......"

"Listen to your accent, you are ...... From Huayang? I frowned secretly, diverted the topic, and asked, "The voice is very similar to that of Huayang people." ”

"Well, I'm from Huayang." This woman must be able to tell that my accent is also Huayang's, but she doesn't seem to feel anything strange: "My name is Shanxiu." ”

"Mountain Show ......"

"Are you going to spend the night here? Do you want to take care of the baby for me, I'm so tired and want to take a break......"

This woman's expression and eyes are full of indescribable weakness and pity, and her request is impossible to refuse. However, as I muttered her name, memories that had been sealed in the dust in my mind for a long time suddenly came to mind.

At this moment, my scalp went numb.

I vaguely recall that a person named Yamahide.

That was a long time ago, when I was very young. In our hometown, there was a woman who gave birth to her first child who died young, and her second child had just been conceived. Her in-laws didn't want her to remarry, so they persuaded her to keep the child in her womb.

Later, this woman gave birth to a child, and there was no man in the family, and she had to work inside and out. When her child grew up to be more than a year old, once she harvested the grain, every family was in the yard, and the roof was drying the grain, when she was working, she was a little dizzy and did not take good care of the child, and the child who was more than one year old fell from the bed headfirst.

The child was directly out of breath, and this woman cried so badly. Her parents-in-law were very annoyed, complaining that she didn't take good care of the child, and blocked the door and scolded loudly and stingy.

This woman may end up being insane, and every day she walks back and forth in the village with a swaddling cloth wrapped in rags. Her in-laws didn't care about her, and relied on the well-wishers in the village to feed her. I was too young, four or five years old, and I could always see this crazy woman in the village, but I didn't take it to heart.

Later, the mad woman disappeared, and no one knew where she had gone. Some people say that she let the people outside take her away, and others say that the madwoman died in a ravine in the back mountain. There are different opinions, but they are all blind anyway, and no one has witnessed her whereabouts with their own eyes.

In my impression, the crazy woman in the village is called Shanxiu.

"The child didn't move, for several days, and didn't move......" The woman saw that I hadn't spoken, so she took two steps gently to this side, and said: "She didn't move, there was a smell on her body, I wanted to bathe her, but she didn't open her eyes, and then there was an old Taoist priest who could cure the smell of the child's body, and he poured mercury on the child, and sure enough, it was ...... Sure enough, it doesn't stink...... It's just that the wound on her head always doesn't grow well, can you help me take a look and see if it can still grow......"

As she spoke, she turned to her side and showed me the child in her arms. I was already muttering in my heart, and when I saw the child in her arms, my head was going to explode.

This woman was holding a dead child, estimated to be more than a year old, and there were mercury spots on the child's face and neck.

I was really frightened and took two steps back. At the same time, I suddenly realized a terrible problem.

If this woman is Shanxiu, then her incident happened more than twenty years ago, and she can't still be in her twenties. Such a simple question, you can understand it when you think about it with your heels, but I don't know which tendon is wrong now, and my brain seems to be very slow to react, and I am still here to judge whether this woman is a mountain show.

At this time, a thought came to my mind: run. Anyway, run away first.

I made up my mind, threw away the few black buns in my hand, turned around and ran.

"Come and go in a hurry, don't sit down longer?"

Just as I turned and ran, a voice came from the small courtyard behind the woman. As soon as I heard this sound, I couldn't help but pause and slowly turn my head to look.

At this glance, I couldn't seem to even take a step.