When the old man saw that we were stunned, and knew that we had not come to find him some girl, he smiled and said:

"What's the matter with those two of you coming here?"

I was already lost with the head of the ball, and I took this opportunity to hear:

"Uncle, the two of us wanted to get out of the mountains, but we got lost, do you know the direction?"

The old man smiled lightly and stroked his goatee with his hand, and said:

"There is still a mountain behind this mountain, except for a village behind it, there are no people and no mountain roads within a hundred miles, where are you going?"

The old man asked us where we were going, but such a simple question stopped me, there was nowhere to go!!

I exchanged glances with Marukotou, who thought for a moment and asked:

"Uncle, since there is no one in this neighborhood for hundreds of miles, and you are not from the village behind, where do you live?"

The white-bearded old man coughed twice and smiled and said:

"I live in this big mountain, and I live alone, but it's not a home."

Although this old man appeared a little strange, it seemed that it was normal to have flesh and blood, and there was no way out at the moment, let alone a way out, the head of the pill had an idea, and said with a smile:

"Uncle, to tell you the truth, I am a person from the back village, I was caught by the bad guys and ran into the mountain overnight, and now the village can't go back, can you go to your place for a few days, and when the limelight passes, we will leave immediately!"

The white-bearded old man seemed to be very talkative, and replied with a smile:

"Okay, if you two don't like the place, then come home with me."

After saying that, the old man nodded to me, and then turned to lead the way.

Seeing that the old man did not refuse, Maruko happily unloaded the bamboo basket he was carrying on his back and carried it on his back, and followed me with a look.

In this barren mountain and wild place, it is hard to imagine how he lived as an old man, and while he bowed his head and hurried away, I suddenly thought about it and asked:

"Uncle, who is the snail girl you just said, there is no one in this mountain, where is the girl?"

Before the white-bearded old man could speak, Maruko glanced at me and hurriedly said:

"Oh, did you grow up in the countryside, haven't you heard the story of the snail girl so famous?"

Listening to the meaning of the head of the ball, even he knows the snail girl? I asked him curiously:

"I really haven't heard of it, tell me!"

The head of the pill is uneducated, and he rarely has the opportunity to explain things that others don't understand, so he pretended to cough deeply, cleared his throat and said:

"This is what I heard my mother say, saying that earlier, there was a young man who picked up a big snail on the way home from the field, good fellow, this snail is the size of two bowls!"

Maruko said as he gestured with his two hands.

"This guy thinks about it, hey, I'll go, such a big snail is enough to eat several meals, if you add some condiments and stew it, how fragrant it is!!"

When I heard this, I felt that the style of painting was wrong, so I stopped him and asked:

"Just ate it??"

The pill head turned white and I said:

"I'm a little hungry, there is actually no such thing in the story, continue to say, the guy is not as hungry as me, he is not an underworld person and kind, so he put this big field snail into her water tank and raised it! Strange to say, since he raised this big field snail, every day when he came back from working in the field, he would find that the table was full of sumptuous meals! ”

I smiled when I heard this, waved my hand and said:

"Dude, your story is like Liaozhai Yes, there are a lot of girls who come out of the painting in Liaozhai, don't think about it, the meal is made by the snails in the water tank!"

The head of the ball ignored me, and then said with emotion:

"As soon as the young man saw this table of food, he sat down and started eating, and only after eating did he react,, I live alone, where the hell did this table of food come from?"

I still laughed, what a story, a good young man told it from the mouth of the ball head, and it actually tasted like a second-rate child!

One day, he kept an eye on it, pretending to go out early to work, but hid in the yard, and when he heard the movement in the kitchen, he rushed in to see that the thief was cooking for him! And the snail in the water tank is only a shell! ”

After the ball head finished speaking, he looked triumphantly at the white-bearded old man who had been listening next to him and said:

"Uncle, isn't that right, it's this snail girl?"

The white-bearded old man smiled and nodded.

"Although I haven't heard it, it's good that you tell this story, it's a little similar, the snail girl you talked about is not a person anyway with me!"

I smiled and asked:

"Then isn't the snail girl you are talking about a snail changed?"

The white-bearded old man shook his head, broke off a branch that stood in the way with his hand, and said slowly:

"I'm talking about this snail girl, she's a ghost!"

The head of the ball was still immersed in the story he told, but the white-bearded old man suddenly replaced the little fairy of the snail with a ghost, which made him unacceptable for a while, and his eyes glared and said:

"Uncle, you did it on purpose! This is the story my mother told me, a classic legend in the countryside, how can you still tear down the stage in your mouth! ”

The white-bearded old man shook his head.

"It's not a demolition, what you said is a mythical story, and we're not talking about a person!"

Maruko tilted his head and choked, and the white-bearded old man waved his hand and said:

I won't explain it to you first, I can see that you are hungry, hurry up, and when you get to my house before dark, give you two a hot meal, and then we will talk slowly!

Seeing that the white-bearded old man said this, the head of the ball stopped asking, and the three of us just followed him and hurried away.

The old man was about sixty or seventy years old, and although his hair and beard were gray, his legs and feet were surprisingly good!

The old man led the two of us through the deep mountains and old forests for a whole morning, and I didn't see him tired, and I and Maruko had been walking in the mountains for a day and a night without rest, so we took a rest.

I called the head of the ball to the side to pee, and taking advantage of this opportunity, I turned to him and said:

"Dude, I see you telling a story, I have to remind you, this barren mountains and mountains are uninhabited for hundreds of miles, come out such an old man, you have to keep some eyes!"

Hearing this, the head of the ball nodded and said:

"If you don't mention this stubble, I still want to find a chance to tell you, this old man is not talking about a good thing, although I have never been to this back mountain, but I am familiar with it, there are all kinds of animals in it, he can't live alone with an old bone!"

"Let's take one step at a time, be smart!"

After reminding each other with the pill head, he hurried back.

When the old man saw that we had come back from relieving our hands, he rested for a while, and then continued his journey towards his house!

On the way, whenever we asked how far we went, the old man with the white beard replied that it was almost there.

Although he was just an old man, I was a little panicked because he gave me a strong feeling that the mountain road was so far away, it didn't look like he had walked over, but like he had gone there to pick us both up!!

From dawn, I followed the old man to two o'clock in the afternoon, and I arrived at his home!

After turning over the last hillside, it suddenly became clear that this barren mountain was full of uneven mountains, but this piece of land appeared a large flat land!

The grass is overgrown with wild flowers, and a small wooden house happens to be built in the middle of the field.

The white-bearded old man pointed forward with a smile and said:

"This little house is my residence!"

Seeing that this place had a wide field of vision, Maruko was overjoyed and couldn't wait to follow the old man into the house.

Everything in the room was wooden, there was no quilt on the small wooden bed, only a thin linen blanket!

The old man with the white beard told us to lie down and rest, and lit the stove to cook for us.

After walking in the mountains for two days and one night, there were several blood blisters on my feet, and as soon as my head got into bed, I was immediately sleepy and couldn't open my eyes.

When I woke up, it was already dark, and the moment I opened my sleepy eyes and saw the old man, I was scared, and the bed was occupied by me and Maruko, and he was sitting on a wooden chair staring at me expressionlessly!

Seeing that I woke up, he immediately pointed to the sweet potatoes on the table with a smile and said:

"There's nothing to eat in the mountains, and my old man can't catch a pheasant alive, so let's deal with it when I wake up."

The two of us were so hungry that we didn't politely put on our shoes and sat down around the table to devour our food!

The head of the ball took a bite of the sweet potato, looked at the room and asked:

"Old man, you really live alone in the mountains, aren't you afraid?"

The white-bearded old man waved his hand and said:

"I was scared when I first lived, but then I got used to it!"

"Don't you have any family, why do you live in this place, watch the forest in this fire?"

The old man poured a bowl of hot water for the two of us, pushed it forward and said slowly:

"It used to be a village, but now I'm alone!"

Village!!

After hearing this, the chewing thing in the mouth of the ball head almost squirted out! Said vaguely:

"Where's the village except for a log cabin like yours?"

I was also quite surprised, looked at the old man and asked:

"You said it used to be a village, yes, do you mean this clearing?"

The white-bearded old man seemed to guess that we would be so surprised, nodded and said:

"Yes, the open space around my house used to be full of houses, all people, but then the whole village died, and the house tiles were burned clean!"

The head of the ball and his eyes were straight, he gestured at his throat, and drank a large sip of water to smooth the sweet potato that was choking in his throat.

The white-bearded old man stroked his goatee twice, and then said:

"Didn't you two ask about the snail girl during the day? I'll tell you about it. ”

I knew there was something going on here, so I put my chopsticks down and straightened my back to listen to him carefully.

"There used to be a village of 100 households under my hut, everyone lived in a simple place, few people knew that there was a family in the village, and their children were called snails!"

The head of the ball said "oh" and said jokingly:

"Could it be that the story I told came from this village?"

The white-bearded old man smiled and waved his hand and said:

"That's the opposite, the snail girl in this village picked up two things from the back mountain, some people of the older generation said that this thing is too evil to stay, but the snail can't put it down and pretend to throw it away and hide it, and since then, the village has begun to do strange things, one household after another died, and after a few days of hard work, Tian Luo was left alone, and Tian Luo was blamed for himself, and finally hanged himself in his own house!"

The white-bearded old man said, pointing to the ground and saying:

"By the way, the location of my house is the home of Tianluo back then!"

The head of the ball was stuffing the sweet potato into his mouth, and when he heard this, he was frightened and the sweet potato fell off his hand and fell on the table.

The wind is blowing, and I wonder if the story of the white-bearded old man evokes the ghost of this underground village.

I had a chill down my spine and wrapped my clothes tightly and asked:

"And what did she pick up that is so wicked?"

The white-bearded old man's face suddenly sank, and he stared at me and said:

"Two copper coins and an old book!"