In the middle of the night, the dilapidated windows of the used bookstore at the end of the alley were still dimly lit, and an old man who looked to be in his seventies sat by the window, mending a book under the lamp. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

The old man's surname is Baili, and he is the owner of this used bookstore.

The bookstore is simple, few people patronize it, and the people who live in the same alley don't know whether the old man is living well on this meager income, and they don't know whether the old man has a wife and children.

The wall clock, which had become an antique, rang three times, and the old man looked up and found that it was already a moment, he stood up and muttered: "This man sleeps little when he is old, and he should go out for a walk tomorrow." Then he circled around the little house, "Maybe it's time to go out for a walk!" Then he nodded to himself and walked towards the door. Just as his hand touched the doorknob, there was a knock. The boss raised his eyebrows, looking quite funny, but he was not afraid to open the door with a smile on his face.

The door opened only one crack, and a head came in. There is only one head.

"Boss, I have a story, can I change the book?" It was a young female voice, with a hand stretched out from under her head, pointing out the door in a twisted direction.

Through the miserable moonlight, you can see a crumbling sign hanging under the eaves of the bookstore, on which is a book: one story for one book. Decent words.

The boss blinked, a smile appeared on his face, and the wrinkles on his face were piled together, feeling like a creature with his head. However, the boss's voice was gentle: "Come in, kid, can you have a body?" ”

"Hehe~" With the sound of foolish laughter, a delicate little girl slowly revealed.

"Welcome back!" The boss said in a low voice, and then welcomed her to sit down.

"What did you say?" The girl's head was twisted straight over.

"Don't be naughty, I'll be scared too." The boss sat down across from her, dragged a small stove from under the table, and asked her, "I am used to cooking mulberry wine, and these days are the season when mulberries are ripe, do you want to drink them?" ”

The girl pouted and whispered, "I can't drink again." ”

"I take the water from the Sansheng River, and I pick the fruit from the side of the Huangquan Road, and the drunkard gods can also drink it!"

"Really?"

"Really!"

The boss got up and was busy for a while, the stove was booming, the wine was full of wine, the girl held the wine glass, took a small sip, and said to the boss with a smile: "Sweet!" ”

"Tell me, the story has always been mulberry wine!" The boss smiled.

"Where do you start?" The girl shook her head in annoyance, "There are so many things! Her smile is no different from that of a living person.

"Let's start with your death!" The boss took the empty glass in her hand, removed the wine from the stove, and sat down on the jug of water.

He found two more white porcelain bowls and sat down again.

"You...... What's your name? The boss stared at the girl who was struggling with how to speak.

"My surname is Mu, Mu Ze." Mu Ze hesitated to speak, "I feel like I've been away for a long time, and I almost forgot my name." ”

"Mu Ze girl, you have to remember, you can forget a lot of things, but you don't forget that you are a human being, you were named by your parents, look at the hometown, and go to see where you grew up!"

"Is it really expected to be a township? Is there really a Huangquan Prefecture? There was only the whites of Mu Ze's empty eyes, but it seemed to flash a burst of light.

"Yes, there is the underworld, there is the Yellow Spring, you will take a wooden boat, and the ghost fire will burn in front of you, which is the guiding lamp. Soon, your lamp has been lit, and it has been seven days since you passed away, and there will be a ghost lamp to pick you up. The boss nodded, followed by a long silence, the water in the kettle was bubbling, the boss scalded the teacup, put a pinch of tea, poured hot water into it, the tea fragrance overflowed, mixed with the aroma of wine that has not yet dissipated, around the old book fragrance, for a while people have a trance through time and space.

"That's right, it's been seven days since I left, and my mother can drink the porridge boiled by millet under the persuasion of my father." Mu Ze's eyes looked at the boss gloomily, "But I can only sleep in the dark, wandering in the bleak wilderness, I regret it a little now, if my birth is death, if I died earlier, I may not be so sad."

"I dreamed over and over again about a little girl in a white dress.

"Once I dreamed that she was rubbing mud on the ridge, humming the nursery rhyme 'lalala, lalala', I don't know what the tune was, but her voice was soft and glutinous, very good, one end of the ridge, is a small forest, full of wild cherry blossoms, the wind blows, the mountains are full of flying petals, I walked to the little girl step by step, she seems to have magic, and then I saw the clay figure she pinched, it was the scene of the funeral.

"She could see me, but I couldn't see her. As soon as I approached her, she looked at me faintly, and then fell on her back, the sky full of white sunlight and fluttering petals.

"Ever since this dream, I've been thinking, why didn't I leave sooner? In this way, parents will have a lot less burden. My dreams began to become beautiful, a sea of flowers, a desert, a grassland, all through the white sun, and beautiful despair.

"Half a month ago, I dreamed that the little girl was standing quietly on the grassland full of Gesang flowers, and there was a sea of fire in her eyes, and I really saw it. She blinked, and suddenly lifted the corners of her skirt, as if she was running around, like dancing, and the flames spread like flowers from under her feet. The orange flames quickly filled the sky, and I felt the heat, and it was at this time that I finally saw her face clearly, it was me when I was a child! ”

The blazing fire reflected in the whites of Kizawa's eyes, which was her memory of the dream.

"When I woke up, I was so sad, it was as if all the things I liked had turned into dirt, and the people and things I cherished had left me.

"I sat in the classroom, like I was stunned, recalling my time with my friends and parents over and over again, and I felt like I should go!

"Then in my dream, there were large manju sawahs, red like fire, white like snow! Then I found the abandoned bridge at the edge of the city on a sunny afternoon and jumped off. ”

"Kizawa, how old are you?"

"Huh? It should have been seven days ago, just turned 18. Mu Ze hadn't reacted yet.

"But look at you, you're only seven or eight years old now." The boss took the cold teacup in her hand again, warmed it, and replaced it with a new cup of tea.

"This tea is called Snow Essence, I picked it in a hole under the cliff of the Tianshan Mountains, and I only got two cups, I drank one cup during the Qingming Festival, and one cup is being held by you."

"But now I regret it, I want to come back to life, I still have a lot of things to do!" Mu Ze sniffed the tea, lowered his head, and muttered in his mouth.

"But no one is forcing you to do it, you are responsible for your choice! Look at it, what you do is what you do, that's what a seven or eight-year-old child does, you haven't grown up! The boss said softly, got up and walked to the innermost part of the bookshelf, took out a book from the left, and handed it to Mu Ze, who was following him.

"This book can probably provide you with a solution to your fatigue on the Huangquan Road!"

Mu Ze looked at it again and again for a while, and hesitated: "Why don't you have a name?" ”

"Hahaha, it's just a gust of wind, a rain thing, where do you need a name?"

"May I, just watch from you?"

"No, little girl Mu Ze, it's time for you to get up and follow the fire in front of you, it will take you where you need to go!" The boss's hand lightly tapped the air, and a blue and faint fire appeared in front of Mu Ze.

"But I still want to go home and see!"

"Follow the fire! It will take you where you need to go. ”