The southern foothills of the Nanling Mountains, an unknown valley.

A bay creek winds its way between the valleys from north to south.

The valley is clear, the waterfall is interspersed, the reckless forest and the sea are endless.

In the valley, the ancient trees are towering, the pines and cypresses are verdant, the air is fresh, the birds are singing and the flowers are fragrant, just like a paradise.

On the south bank of the stream, a few simple houses are built against the mountain.

At this time, Jin Wuxi fell, and it was already dusk.

The house is backed by a mountain, and at the moment, probably because of the lack of light, the candles were lit early.

In the room, two men of about the same size were busy working, one in his early twenties and the other was close to confusion.

"Ling Zi, while it's still dark, hurry up and send your parents off, and go down the mountain early tomorrow morning!" The older ones are packing up.

"Got it, isn't this preparing!" The young man was squatting to the side, stuffing some offerings, paper money, incense and candles into the bamboo basket, without looking up. "I said second uncle, are you in menopause?!"

"Get out! As long as you are not afraid of those jackals and leopards, Lao Tzu will not bother to pay attention to you! The older man raised his head, and his slightly vicissitudes of life still had a youthful heroism on his face.

There are two uncles and nephews, the uncle is called Xiao Ruozhu, and the young man is called Xiao Ling.

"I don't know which tendon was wrong with your brothers back then, they didn't live in the house left by their grandparents in the city, so they had to live in this deep mountain and old forest!" Xiao Ling also raised his head, and his handsome face was full of cynicism.

"Oh——, you little rabbit cub, it's not fun to scold me? Watch out for you crawling out of the dirt to clean you up! Xiao Ruozhu glared at his nephew and said angrily: "These are not all for you!" ”

"You're such a little kid!" Xiao Ling straightened up and put the bamboo basket on the table, glanced at Xiao Ruozhu with slanted eyes, and said with a lewd smile: "Which old man was not serious last night, and called the soul in that energetic 'Yun'er, Yun'er' in the middle of the night?" ”

"You know, you're dreaming, and if you don't know, you think you're calling a bed!"

"Luckily, there are no neighbors around." Xiao Ling didn't forget to add a sentence in the end.

"Lao Tzu is really blind, he has raised you for more than ten years, and he is getting bigger and smaller." Xiao Ruozhu's old face turned red, stopped the movements in his hand, and glared at Xiao Ling very unnaturally: "Aren't you afraid that Lao Tzu will cut off your grain and grass?!" ”

"Please, can you change something new?" Xiao Ling smiled disdainfully.

"What, after a few more books, you look down on your second uncle?"

After speaking, Xiao Ruozhu put some daily necessities into his backpack.

"Second uncle, discuss something with you!"

"If there's a fart, let it go!"

"There is a woman who runs a grocery store next to our school, who is about the same age as you, who wants to have a face, a body that has a figure, that breasts, that ass, it's really front-convex-back-warped, tsk... Tut....... The most important thing is that the people are very good, you see......"

"Stop! Don't brainwash Lao Tzu as soon as you meet, annoying!! Besides, you little fart kid knows a yarn, and you can eat it as a meal? ”

"It's been more than ten years, and the five girls have all grown calluses!"

"Lao Tzu is willing, what?" Xiao Ruozhu blushed and glared at his nephew, then he sighed again and said, "Do you think Lao Tzu doesn't want to, let's talk about it when you finish your studies!" ”

"Excuses! Over the years, how many matchmakers have come, and those girls who are willing to post upside down, when did you not use me as a shield? Tell me honestly, have you already fallen in love with a girl? ”

"Phew! In the case of our family, we are blind to other girls! ”

"Still holding on?! I've seen that handkerchief you've hidden, what a fool! Is there a cloud embroidered on it?! ”

Hearing this, Xiao Ruozhu was stunned for a while, and then came back to his senses after a while, and then became angry: "Stinky boy, you don't study well, what are you thinking about all day long?" ”

"It's because you're not serious first, okay?" Xiao Ling clasped his hands to his chest and rolled his eyes.

Xiao Ruozhu had a black line, and he was speechless, and as soon as he came back to his senses, he pulled the broom on the side and waved it at Xiao Ling: "If you continue like this, you will soon become my uncle!" ”

Xiao Ling dodged, grabbed the bamboo basket on the table, and ran out of the door, leaving only a bad smile: "Second uncle, hurry up and get dinner, I haven't eaten enough at noon, you really want to starve me......"

Looking at Xiao Ling, who disappeared outside the door, Xiao Ruozhu showed a hint of relief on his face, and muttered, "It's finally an adult!" With that, he sighed and was thoughtful for a moment, then turned around and took the candle on the table and walked into the kitchen.

At the same time, in the forest a hundred meters away from the house, a pair of eyes were staring at Xiao Ling's uncle and nephew's every move.

In the gloomy forest, the pair of eyes were still glowing green, green and faint, looking deep and bewitching!

Looking at Xiao Ling, who was carrying the bamboo basket far away, a low sneer came from the forest: "Hehe, eighteen years, finally let me wait for the opportunity!" ”

Immediately after, a ghostly figure quietly circled in front of Xiao Ling at an extremely fast speed.

After the shadow, only the sound of the mountain wind remained in the forest.

……

Today is the fifteenth day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, which is the traditional festival for people to worship their ancestors - the Zhongyuan Festival.

In order to worship Xiao Ling's parents, the uncle and nephew rushed home three days ago, and the first thing Xiao Ling did when he returned home was to repair his parents' graves and raise them a lot.

According to local custom, people will 'welcome' their deceased relatives on July 13 and 'send them back' on July 15.

Therefore, today is also the day when Xiao Ling 'sends' his parents 'back'.

By this time, it was getting dark.

But Xiao Ling was not in a hurry, he walked unhurriedly on the mountain road, and he didn't want to 'send' his parents so quickly.

Xiao Ling is an orphan, when he was five years old, his parents were both killed in a car accident, and for 18 years, it was his second uncle Xiao Ruozhu who raised him with hard work.

For Xiao Ling, he basically didn't have much impression before he was five years old, but vaguely remembered that his mother was very beautiful, just like a fairy on TV, and his father and second uncle, like him, were also very handsome, and besides, he couldn't remember anything more.

Xiao Ling's parents were buried on the hillside across the stream, and from there, the entire valley could be seen, including Xiao Ling's home.

It was the only clearing on the entire hillside, circular in shape, about 20 meters in diameter, surrounded by a primeval forest, which was unusually unsightly.

Xiao Ling didn't know where this clearing came from, he just felt strange, why the surrounding trees grew so luxuriantly, but this clearing only grew grass, and besides, no animals had ever entered this area, not even insects!

For this reason, Xiao Ling also asked Xiao Ruozhu specifically, but he didn't ask anything except for a scolding.

Just when Xiao Ling walked to the foot of the mountain, next to the tomb of his parents, which had been very neatly repaired, a ghostly figure suddenly appeared.

However, he only stayed in front of the tombstone for a moment, and soon flashed into the nearby woods.

……

When he arrived at the grave, Xiao Ling cleaned up the surroundings again, firstly for fear that paper money would cause a mountain fire, and secondly, he also wanted to repair his parents' 'home' to be more tidy.

Putting on the offerings and lighting the incense, Xiao Ling silently bowed in front of the tomb, pulled the bamboo basket and took out the paper money, squatted on the ground and began to burn.

In front of the tomb stands a half-human-high stone stele, which can be seen engraved with several columns of words under the light of the fire:

Therefore, the old man of Xiaomen Jinsong, Jin Feng, is as old as a person's tomb.

There are two more columns of small print in the lower left corner:

Unfilial boy Xiao Ling wept, August 23, 1998.

Presumably, the paper money had been dried beforehand, and it was easy to burn, and in a moment, a raging fire was ignited in front of the tombstone.

The firelight reflected Xiao Ling's handsome face, and also illuminated the tears in his eyes.

No one can understand Xiao Ling's mood at the moment.

A child who has lost his parents since he was a child is estimated to be able to enjoy the kind of family happiness that ordinary people have only in his dreams.

Although his uncle regarded him as his own, it could never replace the love of his parents!

"Dad, Mom, I'm going back to school tomorrow, you two can rest in peace, and I'll come back to see you during the Spring Festival!" Xiao Ling threw the paper money into the fire one by one, muttering in his mouth.

"I will graduate next year, don't worry, my son will work hard to earn money, and after earning money, the first thing I will do is to find a companion for my second uncle to repay him for his old man's nurturing grace over the years, and serve him to the old ......" As he spoke, Xiao Ling was already choked.

Almost everyone knows that 'men don't flick when they have tears', but many people forget the next sentence: just haven't reached the sad place!

With the release of emotions, Xiao Ling's eyes began to blur.

At this moment, with a beeping sound, in the light of the raging fire, a green and faint thing suddenly appeared, as if it came out of thin air from the fire.

Xiao Ling was not prepared, and was immediately taken aback by this sudden change, his footing was unstable, and he squatted on the ground: Hold the grass, ghost fire!!