"Can't sleep?"

"Hmm...... Somewhat. ”

"It's not a good fit."

In the dark, Shi Wei's voice was particularly gentle, and she noticed Cao Xi's tossing and turning, so she talked to her.

"I heard Teacher Zhang say, are you an orphan?"

"Yes." Cao Xi didn't shy away from it, anyway, in such a dark tent, she couldn't see Shi Wei's face, as if she was through a screen, there was no pressure.

"Growing up alone, you must be lonely, right?"

"I'm used to it." Cao Xi turned over, it should be face to face with Shi Wei.

"Me too."

"You too?" Cao Xi asked in surprise, "You are also an orphan?" ”

"Hmm...... But I have a grandfather who raised me and passed away last year. Shi Wei took a deep breath.

"I'm sorry."

"Why are you apologizing to me?" Shi Wei laughed again, "What about you?" Is there no one to take care of you? ”

"Yes......" Cao Xi replied, "I have an uncle." ”

"Oh? Uncle himself? ”

"No, he's just my patron."

"Oh......" Shi Wei seemed to get closer to her, "Then do you see each other often?" ”

"No, he left GL Hospital and went to the hospital in Helong Town."

"Helong Town?" Shi Wei said, "So when we passed by, you asked me, did you want to go to the town to find him?" ”

"Hmm...... It's the idea. Cao Xi replied, "But it's okay, he knows I'm going out." ”

"Did you tell him about Shuixi Village?"

"No, I forgot ......"

"Hee-hee." Shi Wei laughed lightly, "Sleep, I'll be there tomorrow." ”

"Hmmm......"

The silence around and Shi Wei's gentle words made Cao Xi finally fall asleep this time.

In her sleep, she seemed to be woken up by a breeze, and it was no surprise that she came to the desolate meadow again, and the weeds that covered her waist had surrounded her, and in front of her huge trees, spreading their branches, like a big hand, ready to draw her closer.

She felt something at her feet begin to touch her gently, and she looked down and saw a green stem, wrapped around her feet, slowly climbing up, then spreading its leaves, until it reached her chest, and two flowers of different colors, one yellow and one purple.

They didn't seem to have any ill intentions, but only wanted to borrow a place to stretch out, so, another stem, climbing up from another, she reached out and let them spread to her arms, and on her hands bloomed the same two flowers, yellow and purple.

The flowers that wrapped around her had no fragrance, not even stamens, but they still crawled on her, and kept blooming...... What exactly are these flowers?

When she wanted to touch its soft petals, a voice suddenly woke her up—"Cao Xi, Cao Xi." ”

"Huh?" Cao Xi woke up from his sleeping bag, and it was already dawn outside the tent.

Shi Wei was already packing up her things and rolled up her sleeping bag: "It's almost, you can get up." ”

"Oh." Cao Xi sat up, rubbed his eyes, and suddenly found that Shi Wei had a black belt wrapped around one of the hands of the sleeping bag, and there seemed to be something engraved on it.

"Don't be in a daze." Shi Wei reminded her again, "If you don't get up again, you won't have breakfast." ”

"Okay." Cao Xi finally began to dress himself and prepared to clean up. But there is always a feeling in my heart that such a wristband should be worn by couples......

Walking out of the tent, Xiao Jing lit a fire in a small fire made of stones, and roasted some steamed buns and ham.

"Awake? Let's have a bite to eat. ”

Cao Xi simply rinsed her mouth with water, and then wiped her face to solve the problem, she can still be very casual about life.

Xiao Jing made breakfast for her and handed her the small pot: "Eat." ”

"Thank you." Cao Xi took the food and ate it, not to mention, the things burned by the earth fire in the wilderness tasted quite fragrant.

"Shi Wei, come and take a look." Mo Mo in front pointed to the side of the mountain, Shi Wei had just come out of the tent, and from the direction she pointed, sure enough, at the foot of the rolling mountain, there was a group of houses similar to villages, which were hidden among the tall trees around them, no wonder they didn't find anything when it was dark.

"It looks like a village." Shi Wei took out the binoculars in her bag and looked at them carefully.

Cao Xi took a bite of breakfast and watched them discuss something, completely like an outsider.

"Cao Xi, after eating, let's go." Shi Wei turned back to her and said, "Let's go to the village in front of us first." ”

"Oh...... Good ......"

……

In Helong Hospital, every morning is busy. And Ma Hui, who has 34 beds, began to talk to himself in the past two days, and finally made the originally noisy ward quiet for a few days.

Luo Xin stood outside the door with the nurse, looking through the glass of the window, watching the skinny man hide under the wall he had smashed, and began a conversation there.

"What did he say?" Luo Xin looked at him through the glass window, and Ma Hui's expression remained in a calm state.

"I don't know." The nurse replied, "Just go into the house, and he will stop talking at once, and go back to bed and sit down." ”

"Have you asked him?"

"If you ask, he will ignore us." The nurse was also helpless.

"That's good." Luo Xin thought for a moment, "Let's install a monitor in his room." ”

"Is that okay?" The nurse was a little surprised, "Isn't it going to be good?" ”

"Wouldn't it be worse if there was a recurrence of the previous excesses?" Luo Xin replied, "The monitoring is also to understand his situation, after all, he has been admitted to the hospital for so many years, and he has not found the cause of his this, isn't it?" ”

"Hmm......" The nurse lowered her head, thinking about it.

"I'll apply to the dean, don't worry." Luo Xin smiled slightly after speaking, and left the door of the ward.

Luo Xin returned to the office, continued to turn on the computer, pulled up the folder, and recorded on it that Ma Hui had been talking to himself since two days ago, but no one knew what he was talking about.

Closing the document, he was in front of the screen, hesitated, and clicked on another document.

There are many pieces of content information recorded in the document, dates and performances are listed one by one, and the following column is marked with red changes.

"December...... On the 24th, she gave birth to a daughter, and all indicators were normal...... January...... On the 23rd, he had irregular heart rate, liver failure, purpura on his skin, and was in a coma...... February...... On the 5th, he developed lung failure and could not breathe on his own...... The death was confirmed on 6 February. ”

Luo Xin closed the document, took off his glasses, kneaded his eyebrows a few times with his left hand, and then moved his eyes to the desk calendar on the table, corresponding to the time on the watch, at this point Cao Xi didn't know where he had been, and the phone was quiet.

……

After everyone has packed up everything, it is time to move on. Cao Xi looked at his mobile phone, although he hadn't used it for a day and a night, the battery was less than 50%. Suddenly I was a little worried about what would happen if there was no electricity.

But in fact, such worries were unnecessary, and she soon found that the signal on her phone was getting weaker and weaker.

"Shi Wei." She rushed to Shi Wei's side, "There is no signal." ”

She handed the phone to Shi Wei, Shi Wei just glanced at it, didn't care, but smiled easily: "It's okay, we often encounter the problem of no signal." ”

"So how do you get in touch?" Cao Xi was a little nervous.

"Didn't you already say in the previous meeting that you would prepare walkie-talkies?" Shi Wei smiled and said, "Don't be too nervous, it's not the first time we've gone out, not to mention Xiao Jingzai." ”

Xiao Jing heard them talking about their names, and turned around and smiled with them.

However, for Cao Xi, who was going out for the first time, this feeling was not good, she stopped and prepared to send a message to Luo Xin, while there was still a weak signal.

"What's wrong?" Shi Wei saw her stop.

"I didn't even contact my uncle yesterday and I want to send him a message." Cao Xi located the place he was on his mobile phone and sent it to Luo Xin, noting that the destination they were going to was "Shuixi Village".

"How? Okay? Shi Wei waited for her for a while, and Cao Xi waited for the message to be sent successfully before putting the phone back in her pocket.

"Good...... All right. ”

"Let's go." Shi Wei pulled her, "Don't worry, since you come out, just be at ease." ”

"Hmm."

As we got closer to the village, the stranger it became. In front of this village, several large trees are flourishing, and they are growing very well, towering into the sky. The branches of the trees were intertwined, and the flourishing branches and leaves stretched out like green clouds covered the sky.

When he got close to these trees, the more he felt depressed, and the aerial roots hanging from the branches made Cao Xi lower his head. The dirt beneath your feet is full of rising tree roots. These trees have thick roots, and countless branches are intertwined in the intertwined roots, like a net wrapping around the tree, holding it tightly.

These trees act like giant guards, hiding the village here, holding a gate.

"How do these trees grow so well?" Guan Yang asked, stretching out his hand to touch the sturdy trunk.

"Don't touch it." Guo Enming reminded him, "Be careful of being entangled!" ”

Guan Yang was so frightened that he retracted his hand, and found that Guo Enming was snickering, only to know that this guy was scaring himself.

"Stinky boy!"

"And what are these?" Cao Xi pointed to something hanging from the tree and asked.

Guo Enming stopped and replied to her seriously: "Strangled banyan, a kind of banyan tree." ”

"Strangulation...... Banyan tree? ”

"Hmm. The fruit of the banyan tree is food for the birds, and the birds will fly to the banyan tree in flocks to eat the fruit. Some of the undigested fruits, excreted with the feces on the branches of other trees, will sprout and grow parasitic roots when exposed to the right climate. Guo Enming walked up to a large tree, looked up at it, and pointed to the hanging branches, "As it grows, it stretches out many aerial roots to the ground, and some of them wrap the original trunk tightly, tighten it tighter, and rob the tree of nutrients." ”

"The parasitic roots will stretch along the trunk of the tree to the ground, insert themselves into the soil, and take the nutrients from the soil, and it will also reach into the air and take the sunlight away. They wrapped themselves tightly around the trunk of the tree, and over time, the tree was hanged alive. ”

"Hanging?" Guan Yang interjected, and by the way, asked Guo Enming to continue to answer, "Aren't these trees alive and well here?" Leafy. ”

Guo Enming raised his head, looked at the dense canopy, and sighed, estimating that it was difficult for him to explain. There are so many trees in front of the village entrance, each of them is entangled, but each one has grown incomparably huge, and it seems that it has become interdependent with the strangled banyan.

"Alright, let's go to the village." Shi Wei reminded them to keep walking.

After entering the village, everything became cheerful without the shelter of the big trees, and the ruins of the houses were quietly covered with plants, and they were already in danger.

They walked along the path next to the house, carefully searching for any intact houses. Feet on the broken bricks and tiles made an unpleasant sound, accompanied by some sound of flowing water......

Cao Xi stopped, listened carefully, and confirmed that it was indeed the sound of water.

Xiao Jing squatted down in a place where there were fewer bricks and tiles, and said that the stones and broken tiles were cleaned up, Guan Yang and Guo Enming went up to help, and soon there was a stream of water coming out of the cracks in the stones.

"Is it a creek?" Momo leaned over and asked, "This water is so clear." ”

"Hmm." Xiao Jing stood up and glanced at the mountain behind the village, "It should be the water on the mountain." ”

"That's why it's called Shuixi Village." Shi Wei added, "These houses have ditches in front of them, which are supposed to be used to divert water. ”

"Hmm." Xiao Jing nodded.

Mo Mo took out an empty kettle and took a pot of water from the water outlet: "This water should be ready to use when it is boiled." ”

Guo Enming also took out the drink bottle that had run out of water in the morning, filled it with water, and prepared it for later use.

"Don't be in a hurry." Xiao Jing said, "There should be a ditch in front of every house. ”

"Let's pretend first!" Guo Enming said, "You dug it out anyway." ”

Cao Xi just glanced at what they were doing, then turned to another place and glanced at the village, which was full of collapsed and broken houses, with only a few bare walls crawling with green plants.

"Ahh What is that? Mo Mo suddenly screamed, grabbed Guo Enming's arm, and hid behind him.

Shi Wei walked forward, and there seemed to be a white skeleton under the stone in the corner, and the white part protruding under the stone seemed to be a jawbone, with sharp teeth.

"It's not human." Shi Wei squatted down, "This is a dog's." ”

"Huh?" Everyone watched together, and when they looked closely, it was indeed a dog's, and all the hair, skin, and even internal organs had been cleaned, and only a white skeleton remained, just like a bone specimen in the laboratory.

"Was it crushed by a wall?" Xiao Jing guessed.

"It's possible, they're all so clean." Guan Yang replied.

Shi Wei stood up and reminded everyone: "Let's go." ”

Everyone continued to move forward, Cao Xi followed behind them, this small village, maybe it could be completed in one day, what are they doing here?

The wind blew through the creepers entrenched on the wall, and the green leaves were stirred by the wind, and it seemed that a pair of eyes were quietly watching them.