The autumn breeze is bleak, the leaves are flying, the autumn in the north, the rich atmosphere of the harvest, there is more or less mixed with the desolation of all things withering, especially in this kind of remote mountain village in the poor countryside, this feeling is particularly obvious.

This village is called Wujia Village, there are more than 30 families in the village, all surnamed Wu, according to the Wu family tree records of the ancestral hall in the village, this village is built by the Wu brothers in the Qing Daoguang period, and it has a history of nearly 100 years. The whole village is semicircular and lives around the mountain, which is called Yongsan.

Longshan is about 300 meters high, the mountain is tall and steep, and the trees are scarce, especially in this autumn of falling leaves, it is even more desolate. People say "rely on the mountain to eat the mountain", but the people in this Wujia village never approach Longshan for half a step, let alone climb the mountain, quarry, cut wood, and hunt. Outsiders have no way of knowing the reason, but this is a rule handed down by the ancestors of Wujia Village for nearly a hundred years, and men, women and children all abide by it.

However, at this twilight, a figure appeared at the foot of Longshan, only to see him with a beautiful face, about sixteen or seventeen years old, with a thin body, like a young man, carrying a bucket in each hand, along the flattened sheep intestine path, towards a big stone at the foot of the mountain.

The young man's name is Wu Zhiyuan, the only son of Wu Chengxi's family in Wujia Village, and he is carrying a bucket to help his mother fetch water.

When you approach the boulder, you can hear the crisp sound of the water flowing like a ring hitting each other, and it turns out to be a spring. The boulder was as big as a house, irregular in shape, and the whole boulder was unified, intact, but in the middle of the lower position, there was a crack, and the spring water was bubbling out of this crevice. Although the spring is not large or vigorous, it provides water for the whole village. This spring continues all year round, regardless of the dry season and rainy season, the water flow is not big or small, and it is always the same. What's even more strange is a small pool under the stone crack, there is no stem and no branches, the water is just full, the spring water in the stone crack is constantly flowing down, and the water in the pool always maintains a height and never overflows.

Wu Zhiyuan put down the bucket, stretched out his hands, and drank a handful of water from the pool. In this early autumn season, the spring water is not cold at all, but refreshing but full of warmth. After Wu Zhiyuan drank the water, he used a scoop to fill two wooden barrels with the spring water in the pool, and was about to get up to carry the bucket, when he suddenly heard a rustling sound behind him.

There was silence, and the sound of rustling was particularly distinct. When the young man looked back, he saw a gray and white hare, fat and strong, jumping and looking around, so leisurely, he didn't pay attention to Wu Zhiyuan who was fetching water on the side.

Wu Zhiyuan was pleasantly surprised, and thought to himself: "If you catch it back, there will be meat to eat for dinner, and my parents don't know how happy Lu Dao will be." Remembering that he hadn't eaten rabbit meat for a long time, the freshest and most beautiful taste suddenly surged to his throat, and Wu Zhiyuan couldn't help but swallow his saliva. So he got up slowly, and crept closer to the hare.

The hare has lived in the mountains for a long time, and it is naturally agile and pretty, and when he saw Wu Zhiyuan standing up, he immediately jumped three steps in a row, three or five meters away from Wu Zhiyuan, and then pricked up his ears and stopped in place. Looking at the momentum, it seems to tease Wu Zhiyuan to play hide and seek.

Wu Zhiyuan suddenly rose, then gently rolled up his sleeves and slowly approached the hare. Unexpectedly, the hare seemed to be maliciously teasing, and when he saw the young man coming, he was not in a hurry, and his hind hooves jumped, and he jumped a few times in a row, and continued to stop in front.

Being teased like this, Wu Zhiyuan was a little impatient, and he didn't care about the weight of his steps, bit his lower lip tightly, and pounced on the hare.

I thought that this pounce was already nine out of ten, but I didn't want the hare to jump at the moment when it was about to be caught, and its body was already ten meters away, but it was still not afraid and ate hay.

How could Wu Zhiyuan have been teased like this? Seeing this, the ignorant karma suddenly became angry, stretched out his arms, shouted, and went straight to the hare.

The hare's speed is neither fast nor slow, and the distance between it and Wu Zhiyuan is always kept at two or three meters away, which can be described as just right. Seeing that the fat was current, but he couldn't touch it, Wu Zhiyuan chased more and more urgently, and unconsciously chased a few hundred meters away, so tired that he was out of breath, and stopped panting. And the hare stopped at the beat, and ate the hay to himself.

At this time, it was already waning, and the cold sunset sprinkled a piece of blood-red afterglow, without the slightest temperature, and the foot of Longshan was even more gloomy.

Wu Zhiyuan looked up and saw a stone lion squatting on the west side in the sunset. This stone lion is about 20 meters high, it is said that it is a stone lion, in fact, it is two square boulders up and down together, the boulder is extremely ordinary, you can see it everywhere, but it is strange that no matter from which angle you look at, the outline of these two stones is just like a squatting lion, especially at this sunset, under the reflection of the sunset afterglow, it is more lifelike, vivid, breathtaking.

"It's time for the Mountain Lion!" Wu Zhiyuan said to himself in surprise, "Do you want to continue chasing?" ”

It is important to know that the rule in this village is that the villagers are not allowed to enter the mountain, and the mountain lion is the boundary, and no one has violated this village rule for 100 years. According to the oral tradition of the older generation, most of the people who entered the mountain disappeared for no reason and never came out of the mountain. Occasionally, those who came out of the mountain also died of a violent illness a few days later.

Looking up at the mountain guarding lion that symbolized the Han realm of the Chu River, Wu Zhiyuan hesitated. At this moment, I saw the hare kick on its hind legs and jump inward. Without hesitation, Wu Zhiyuan turned his heart sideways and rushed in with his feet.

Seeing the hare jumping from a distance, Wu Zhiyuan quickened his pace, and just as he was about to catch up with the hare, the hare swooped down and got into a pile of rocks. Wu Zhiyuan was annoyed for a while, regretting in his heart, blaming himself for hesitating at the beginning, if he had made a decision immediately, he must have gone back with the ears of the hare by now.

The so-called "three holes of cunning rabbits", there may be another exit in the cracks of the rocks. Wu Zhiyuan was overjoyed, so he walked to the back of the pile of rocks while observing.

A voice came from the back of the pile of rubble, and it gradually became clear as Wu Zhiyuan approached. "It's like the sound of eating." At this time, Wu Zhiyuan began to be afraid, in case it was a wolf, an insect, a tiger and a leopard, he was afraid that his life would be over! However, at this point, driven by the temptation and curiosity of rabbit meat, he only had the belief to find out.

So he lowered his pace and approached quietly, and the sound of swallowing and biting became clearer and clearer, judging by the sound alone, it was neither a human nor a beast, because the sound of a man eating and biting would not be so violent, and the beast would definitely make a "whine" beast language when eating food, and it would never be so quiet.

Wu Zhiyuan held on to the dwarf tree that grew in the cracks of the rocks, and when he looked at it, it turned out to be a person, and his hanging heart suddenly calmed down.

I saw that the man had his back to Wu Zhiyuan, dressed in black, ragged, with messy hair, holding something in his hands and biting it at his mouth.

Wu Zhiyuan strengthened his courage, stood up from behind the dwarf tree, and greeted: "Hello! The man in black didn't seem to hear it, he was still bowing his head and devouring the things in his hand, indifferent to Wu Zhiyuan's shouting.

"Whoa! Have you ever seen a rabbit? Wu Zhiyuan cleared his throat and shouted loudly.

As soon as the words fell, the sound of the man in black chewing stopped abruptly, he suddenly stopped swallowing, and turned his head suddenly, only to see that he was holding the hare in his hand, his mouth was full of blood, his fangs were exposed, his pale face was bloodless, and his eyes were bloodshot, dull and godless, but he radiated a vicious gaze, approaching Wu Zhiyuan.

"Mom!" Wu Zhiyuan screamed in horror, involuntarily took a few steps back, turned around and ran away.