The old ghost is awake! My heart was filled with hope, and I looked at Saihuatuo expectantly, hoping that he would tell me better news, that he would tell me that the old ghost would soon recover after waking up for the first time.

"It's not waking up, I didn't even open my eyes, but one arm moved slightly." Saihuatuo looked at me with regret and said, "I really tried my best. ”

The hope that had just risen in my heart was suddenly dashed, and Pang Gouzi and Maitreya ran to the bedside to wait, helping the old ghost to fold the quilt. Sehuatuo thought for a moment, and then said: "I don't know this person, when he is a little conscious, I feel like he is about to say something. ”

Sai Hua Tuo is very dedicated, we left these days, he and Lao Fuba and Lei Zhenren took turns to guard the old ghost without interruption, two days ago, when Sai Hua Tuo was guarding the old ghost, he suddenly found that the right arm of the old ghost who had not moved for so many days suddenly moved, that kind of movement I don't know if the old ghost deliberately, or unintentionally, but the old ghost can only do so much, neither open his eyes, nor open his mouth.

My father and I glanced at each other, the old ghost must have gone to the west, and then rushed back with a serious injury, what did he want to say? He desperately escaped just to bring us back some news? But since the old ghost's arm moved two days ago, there has been no movement until now.

"His arm just moved, but I could see it." Saihuatuo said: "He is referring to his own chest. ”

"Chest?" I was stunned, the old ghost was seriously injured and was rescued by us, all the injuries on his body were examined, and there was nothing on his chest. But the old ghost has become like this, half-dead, but he will still give such instructions, which can only show that the news he wants to pass back has entered his subconscious: "What will be in his chest?" ”

"I don't know for the time being, and I can't eat for sure, if you don't come back, I won't dare to move." Sai Huatuo said: "You tell me about this person's previous experience, and I will ponder it to see if there are any clues." ”

The old ghost has lived for so long, the experience is actually very simple, I think about it, and tell Saihuatuo that the old ghost has gone to a far place before, probably in the extreme west.

"Let me think about it and give it a try" Sai Huatuo took out a bunch of bottles and cans, and lifted the clothes on the old ghost's chest, as if he was doing some experiment, and asked some things while doing it, but I didn't know what the Far West was like, I only knew that it was very cold over there and frozen all year round.

We waited nervously, and at this time, several people knew very well in their hearts that the old ghost might not have run in vain, he went on the road with a mortal heart, but suddenly returned to the river beach halfway, there must be a very important situation or turn. Now that I think about it, the information that the old ghost wants to pass back is even more important.

Sai Huatuo was very careful, lowered his head and whispered something to himself, and after a long time, he suddenly seemed to understand something, raised his head and said to us: "That's it! So that's what happened! ”

"What!?"

"Look!" Sai Huatuo pointed to the old ghost's chest, he didn't know what he had smeared on it, and a blue vein faintly appeared on the old ghost's chest: "He went to the extreme west, he must have left a mark on his body with something!" The thing left behind is acidic, and when the alkaline water is wiped, a few streaks are revealed. ”

It dawned on us that the old ghost had brought back some information, that he was seriously wounded, and that he did not know if he would be able to return to the river beach safely, and that he would not be able to dictate the information to us, and that it would certainly not be safe to record such an important situation on paper.

"He must have stabbed a picture in the chest!" Saihuatuo dropped the small bottle and jar in his hand and said, "As long as you wipe it all over with alkaline water, the picture will come out." You will discuss the rest of the matter, and I will not stir it up. ”

With that, Sai Huatuo withdrew from the house, this person is very smart and does things in a measured manner, and when he found out about the situation, he immediately withdrew and left, in order to avoid suspicion. As soon as he left, there were only a few of us Qimen left in the house, and I took the bottle left by Saihuatuo, dipped it in the alkaline water, and slowly wiped it on the old ghost's chest.

In a short period of time, a large area of blue veins appeared on the old ghost's chest, and those veins had been pierced by the old ghost before he returned. Sure enough, as Sai Huatuo said, on the old ghost's chest, there is a picture.

"What's Turi?"

We looked closely, and the picture suddenly looked confused, the old ghost was not a painter after all, and the pattern was very scribbled. But if you look closely, you can see that it looks like a map. There are mountains and ravines in the picture, and these scenes are depicted a bit virtually, and the reason why they are virtual is because they want to set off something like a pillar.

There is no strict scale in this kind of picture, and I can't tell how thick and tall the pillar-like thing is, at first, I really thought it was a pillar that had been standing in the snow for an unknown amount of time, but when I looked at it again, I suddenly felt that it was like a tree.

"It's a tree." I turned to them and said, "It's a tree." ”

The few people present did not have much contact with the old ghost, and his intentions were suddenly vague. The old ghost returned halfway and worked tirelessly, just to tell us that there is a tree in a corner of the far west?

We have been speculating and discussing for a long time, but we still do not understand the true meaning of the picture of the old ghost's chest, unless we go to the extreme west in person, find the place depicted in the picture, and see the tree with our own eyes. I don't know what this picture means, but I know that it must be important, so I silently wrote it down and kept it in mind.

After that, I asked Saihuatuo about the old ghost in private, and Saihuatuo couldn't say, the old ghost was in a coma all the time, and no one could guarantee when he would wake up, or leave directly from his sleep.

"What can be done now is to rely on the old medicine to hang his life, and then slowly find a way." Saihuatuo sighed and said, "Healing is like a thread. ”

"There is no old forest on the river beach, and it is difficult to find old medicine." Lao Fuba squatted in the corner of the wall and said, "I'll look for it again." ”

I turned my head to look at the old man, who was still in a daze with his little eyes open, and there was a purity of nature in that gaze. I felt my heart was blocked, and half of the old sleeve was empty, but as if nothing had happened, I took the initiative to go out to find medicine for the old ghost.

I slowly squatted in front of him, and grabbed the half of the sleeve that was already empty, feeling that we owe him too much, and the more I looked at it, the more I felt that it was not a taste, and my eyes were astringent.

"! I want to cry again, I don't have anything, my body is good, everything I eat is fragrant, I am happier than the big fat pigs raised in the village, it's okay. Lao Fuba stretched out his other hand and shook it in front of me, and said, "Isn't there still one hand, don't delay me twisting the big Yangge"

Things can only be like this temporarily, the old ghost needs to be taken care of by Sai Huatuo all the time, and we all have our own things to do. Dad and Pang Gouzi are both fathers, they love their sons, but they don't blindly care about their calves, Maitreya and I are still young, and we want to go out alone. In the days that followed, we had to be separated from my father again, and we, the survivors of the Seven Gates, must patrol both sides of the river and do our best to protect the remaining few Dings, so that the river can be stable for a day.

"Dad, if one day, the sky collapse really comes, but we can't hold it, what should we do?" I've always been worried about this problem, things in this world are not what we say we want to do.

"When that day really comes, the people of the Seven Gates will be burned in blood." Dad thought for a while and said, "Fight for your life, even if you try your best, you can rest assured when you see your ancestors and ancestors underground in the future." ”

Dad, Pang Gouzi and Tang Baichuan are gone, and Maitreya and I are also re-embarking on the road that I don't know when it will come to an end. We have to protect the ding, and we also have to help the old ghost find medicine.

That winter was the busiest winter of my life, and it never stopped. We found the old man Hua, and asked him for a He Shou Wu that was about to take shape, and exchanged two old ginseng with a few mountain goers from the northeast, and took them back to hang the old ghost. The old ghost is always like that, he didn't wake up, and he lay on the kang peacefully all winter. I thought, he is really tired, he has been running around all his life, and now this is not a good thing, at least he can rest, no longer pay attention to the disputes of the outside world, and no longer have to think about his own responsibilities.

I've always comforted myself that as long as he's alive, he'll wake up one day. Alive, there will be hope.

Winter passed, I don't know how to get through, at the beginning of spring, the river beach began to turn green, in two or three months, the holy area, Jiuli, and the side gate seemed to have stopped a little, and no one salvaged Dading on the river beach anymore. As soon as spring begins, everything that has been dormant for a winter begins to emerge, and there are more people on the river beach, all looking for a kind of frog, which we call the golden doll, which is a great supplement. Especially the kind of frog that has grown for thirty or forty years, it is very rare, and it is a treasure, and the people of the river beach will catch that kind of golden doll every spring, and take it to the old medicine shop in a big city like Zhengzhou and Kaifeng, and sell it at a good price. Maitreya and I are also looking for it, looking for the old frog, and then sending it to Saihuatuo for the old ghost to use.

The two of us were very careful, deliberately pasted our faces with mud, so that people we knew would not notice, and carried bamboo baskets on our backs to wander around here in Wolong Beach for a few days, the days of the golden doll coming out of the hole are getting longer and longer, and they will all disappear in a few days, and there are fewer frogs, which makes us a little easier. I wandered here for about three or four days, and one day at noon, Maitreya and I had just put down the bamboo basket and were about to eat something, when we saw a small figure, carrying an almost identical frame like his, slowly walking along the river beach.

It must have been a five or six-year-old child, and I didn't pay much attention to it, but the other party came straight to us with a big frame on his back. Even though I was a child, my behavior was so obvious that I couldn't help but raise my vigilance.

The boy walked straight to a distance of seven or eight meters from us and stopped. He should be an ordinary child on the river beach, like many children, who come out to dig wild vegetable sprouts, pick up bird eggs, and catch golden dolls at the beginning of spring. The boy had big eyes and patches of mud on his face, and he looked at us for three minutes.

Just as Maitreya and I were about to ask him, the child suddenly said crisply, "He's dead." ”

"What? What did he die? ”

"He's dead." After the child said this, he didn't say a word, turned around and ran away with the big frame on his back.