"In the travelogue, the ranger mentions a Yin Opera Village that is different. At that time, there were four ethnic groups in Yinxi Village, each ethnic group had 32 households, and each household had four people, and the whole village had a total of 512 people. ”

"Although this number is a bit large for a mountain village, but that's all, right?" Zuo Xianghuan said.

Shi Suwen continued: "When the ranger lived in the village, he discovered a very special phenomenon, that is, a child was born in the village at that time, and after the child was born, there would be an elderly man in the family who chose to be euthanized. ”

"Euthanasia?"

Shi Suwen nodded: "Yes." Although the ranger himself didn't figure out what was going on, it seemed that Yin Xicun had always had such a custom. Moreover, they have an ancestral teaching, in any case, the number of people in the village cannot exceed 512, and likewise cannot be less than 512. ”

I frowned and said, "If you want to complete such an ancestral teaching, it is impossible to rely on one village alone, right?" ”

"Yes, if the grandparents were very young when the grandson was born, then one of the grandpa and grandma would have to leave the village and live in another village. This is true of every clan and every household in the village. Shi Su asked for a pause, and continued, "The ranger asked the people in the village why they had to be like this, and at first the ranger thought that he was just following the ancient precepts, but later he learned that if the extra people did not leave, the newborn child would die. ”

"Did the ranger find out why?" Zuo Xianghuan asked.

"I don't know, because it's just a fragment, and all other information is gone."

I frowned, and suddenly asked, "What is the name of the other village where the people are settled?" Is there any mention of it? ”

"Yes, it's called Yao Village."

"The guy in the gossip?"

"Hmm."

When I heard this, I couldn't help frowning: "There should be some relationship between the two, anyway, let's go first and see." ”

After driving for more than half an hour on the mountain road, two police cars suddenly appeared in front of them, and a checkpoint was set up in front of them.

"Master, there is a police checkpoint in front of you."

"Police?"

I frowned, turned my head to look at Shi Suwen, and then looked through the windshield.

Sure enough, there was already a policeman in front of us waving a stick in his hand and gesturing for us to pull over.

"Master, what should I do?"

"What else can I do? Anyway, we have the captain of the division behind us. ”

The car pulled over, and two criminal policemen walked over one left and one right.

Zuo Xianghuan probed out and asked a criminal policeman, "Dude, what's going on?" ”

When the criminal policeman saw that the front bar of the car had fallen off, he couldn't help asking, "What's the matter with your car?" ”

"Oh, it's okay, I saw that there were no cars or people on the road before, and the road was wide, so I gave my sister a practice, and then, she was a novice, and it hasn't been a few days since I got my driver's license, you know."

Zuo Xianghuan shrugged his shoulders with a helpless expression.

The two criminal policemen glanced at each other, and one of them said: "You have a car of four people, what are you doing running into the mountains when you have nothing to do?" ”

Zuo Xiang smiled and said, "Of course it's camping." ”

"Camping? Further down this road is deep in the mountains, and at this time of year, anything can happen in the mountains. In the past two days, several travelers have lost contact, and now you are going in again, isn't this a blockage for us? ”

"Isn't it common for a traveler to go missing? We just found a place with mountains and rivers to camp, spend a romantic evening, and go back early tomorrow morning. Zuo Xianghuan said again, "Besides, the law doesn't prohibit camping in the mountains, right?" ”

The criminal police had nothing to say, and was about to let go, Qin Niang, who was sitting in the passenger seat, said in a voice that made people can't help but soften when they hear it: "Officer, shouldn't the missing traveler be the business of the search and rescue team, why are you here?" ”

Although you can often see beautiful women on TV and mobile phones, after all, through the screen, the feeling can only be said to be average; Right now, seeing a beauty like Qin Niang at close range, and her voice is so tender as water, it makes the two policemen feel that their bones are crispy.

One of them preemptively said: "There was a homicide in the wood company in front, so we set up a checkpoint here." ”

"Homicide?"

Seeing Zuo Xianghuan's curious baby's expression, the criminal police didn't take the time to explain to them, and then moved the fence of the switch.

The car continued to move forward, and not long after passing the checkpoint, Shi Suwen suddenly said: "I hope the murder case of the wood company has nothing to do with what we want to investigate." ”

"Anyway, let's talk about it when we get there."

After a short drive ahead, I saw a sign, and there was a fork in the road, and the message on the sign was as follows: "Lin Mu Sen Wood, five hundred meters ahead." ”

About ten minutes later, Zuo Xianghuan pointed to the left front and said, "Master, I see the village." ”

Lowering the window, I poked my head out of the car.

From the outside, it is a peaceful mountain village.

As in most mountain villages, there is not a single young man in sight.

The village looked desolate, with weeds growing on the roofs, yards, and walls of many wooden houses, and some of them even collapsed without anyone caring about them.

After a quick glance, I turned to Zuo Xianghuan: "Huanzi, park the car at the entrance of the village." ”

"Okay."

When the car stopped, I opened the door first, and Qinniang followed me down.

As soon as I got out of the car, I couldn't help but take a deep breath and praised, "The air in the mountains is really fresh." ”

"Master, this place is even more desolate than I imagined."

Zuo Xianghuan walked over, still holding a camera in his hand, ready to shoot.

"Hey, don't shoot."

I saw it and hurriedly stopped it.

"What's wrong?"

"You don't even know the most basic common sense. In our living environment, there are three places where you must not take pictures. ”

I glanced around and continued, "These three places are the tomb, the ancestral hall and the deep mountain."

"Master, I can understand the grave and the ancestral hall, it's because the camera will shoot something unclean, but why can't the mountains?"

"The deeper the mountain, the fewer people there are; Where there are few people, the aura will naturally be sufficient, and such an environment is easy to breed mountain goblins. These guys are much more difficult to deal with than the lonely souls wandering around the cemetery. ”

Zuo Xianghuan listened, immediately put away the camera, and immediately said, "Why is there no one in this place?" Didn't you say that there were still 37 old people in the village? ”

Reaching out to take Qinniang's tender hand, I said to the two people beside me, "Let's go in and have a look." ”

The buildings in the village are all built everywhere, and there does not seem to be any special arrangement.

As soon as I entered the village, I saw a silver-haired grandmother sitting under a ginkgo tree in front of her house, and a yellow earth dog lurking beside her.

When he saw the living man, the earth dog immediately stood up and barked at us.

The old lady grabbed the cane at hand and tapped it lightly on the head of the earth dog, and the earth dog immediately lowered its ears and obediently lay on the ground again, but its eyes kept staring at the four of us.

Then, the grandmother sitting on the bamboo chair waved to the four of us.

I nodded and walked over first.

"Hello grandma."

Out of habit, I squatted right next to my grandmother.

"Hello grandma."

Qinniang also learned my movements, squatting obediently beside her, blinking her big bright eyes, and looking at the old grandmother in a daze.

The old lady seemed to be particularly fond of Qinniang, and slapped the yellow head on the ass with her cane, and the yellow dog stood up, and entered the house with a fart, and came out with a small wooden stool in her mouth.

The old grandmother put the stool beside her, and said to Qinniang in the local dialect of Hucheng: "Nannan, come, sit next to grandma." ”

Qin Niang didn't go against her, she sat on the small stool obediently, and there was no mood swing in Qiu Hong's eyes.

"How old is you?"

The old woman asked a question that Qin Niang couldn't answer, and Qin Niang looked at me in a daze.

"Grandma, she's twenty years old and she's in college."

"Oh, it's good that you're a college student." The old woman smiled, and she looked at the three of us again, her wrinkled face showing a kind smile.

"Grandma, why are there so few people in your village?"

I asked.

The old grandmother was very indifferent to this: "Let's go, let's go." ”

"Let's go? Where have they all gone? ”

The old woman did not answer, but smiled and reached out to gently stroke the head of the yellow dog, who lay on the ground and squinted his eyes comfortably.

Zuo Xianghuan and I glanced at each other, and the former opened his mouth and asked, "Grandma, are you old this year?" ”

(Battlefield Literature)