It is always difficult to have a normal day in Osan Town, one moment the sky is clear, and the next moment it is cloudy. For those who have traveled in the past, it should be a great trouble, not to mention the obstacles between the journeys, and they are disturbed by this oppressive weather, and everything is not going well. But these are all for outsiders, and for the people of the town, it is only a yawn and a sneeze when God is tired.

The people of the town may have lived there for a long time and have long been accustomed to this, but as the days go by, they have found some valuable survival experiences that only mountain people can understand.

The old man in the town knows very well that when the clouds are thick, it is often an excellent time to collect medicine. According to the older generation, this is because the goblins and ghosts on the mountain are most afraid when the thunder strikes, and it is God's practice to send thunder to drive away evil spirits. Even the ferocious beasts of the mountains would cower in their nests at that time. So, at this time, the herb pickers in the town groped their way into the mountains in groups, cheering up their spirits, with a pair of old and spicy eyes, looking for and picking valuable and valuable herbs.

The reason why Osan Town is called Osan Town is because it is named after Osan Mountain on the back. Osan may not be majestic, but it is rich in herbs, which has made it famous among the surrounding villages and small towns.

If you put Wushan outside the town, people may not know its name, but most people must know that the Nanyu Mountains, as the largest mountain range in Qingzhou, have countless herbs, beasts, etc., and even elixirs, monsters and beasts can be seen in them. And ordinary people are very secretive about this, and they dare not go into the mountains to collect medicine. The rain country also has a strict ban on this, cutting off the way for ordinary people to go up the mountain. Osan is a small hill bordering it, the world does not know its name, but it is more than famous in the area of Osan Town, feeding generations of people in Osan Town.

Lu Chen can be regarded as half of the old man in the town who collects medicine. Speaking of Lu Chen, he is not an ordinary person, the little boy was only eleven years old and began to go up the mountain to collect medicine, which is really rare. But when it comes to him, people will shake their heads regretfully, their eyes full of sympathy and helplessness. Lu Chen, a blind man, is an orphan picked up by the old man in the town, Ah Jiuye, by the river in front of the town.

In front of the town of Wushan, there is the Wushui River, which flows endlessly through several small towns in a radius, stretching to an unknown distance. Its upstream is said to be the longest river in the rain country, the Xiaohua River, which stretches for tens of thousands of miles and passes through countless giant cities and towns. But few people in Osan Town can say clearly, after all, few people in the town really go out and make a world outside. The people in the town are old, sick and die, and the range of activities is a few miles within a radius of the town.

Back then, Ah Jiu Ye was the land dust he picked up by the Wushui River. The little baby was wrapped in swaddling clothes, stretching out two white and tender little hands and crying, and few families could afford to adopt the child in the town that was experiencing a drought at the time. When Ah Jiu Ye carried the child to the town, the people in the town looked at the nose, nose, mouth, and heart, surrounding the baby lying in the basket, but no one spoke. Ah Jiu Ye had a calm face, his face was a little ugly, and he smoked a dry cigarette without saying a word, but he couldn't bear it anymore and took the child home alone. Since then, there has been an extra child in the town, named Lu Chen.

Speaking of why he was named Lu Chen, there was another reason, when Ah Jiu Ye picked up Lu Chen, a bamboo raft on the Wushui River drifted by, and a broken Taoist sat on it, dressed in rags, holding a wine jug and drinking on the bamboo raft, seeing the baby in Ah Jiu Ye's arms, pinching his fingers, frowning as if he was a little surprised, and it was difficult to hide the uncertainty in his eyes, looking back and Ah Jiu Ye smiled, "This child should have a name Lu." Then he raised the pot and drank bitterly, and floated down the river on a bamboo raft.

Lu Chen has been very obedient since he was a child, and he lives at the end of the town with Ah Jiuye. When he was seven years old, it seemed that the heavens had fallen on him, Lu Chen suffered from an eye disease, and the world in his eyes gradually blurred day after day. Later, Lu Chen couldn't see it. There is a well-known medical clinic in the town, during which the oldest and most experienced Langzhong Song Lao sighed again and again for Lu Chen's diagnosis, and shook his head and said, "Child, your eye disease is caused by congenitality, and it must have been brought when you were born, I see that the muscles of your eyes are atrophied, and it seems that the acquired flesh and blood activity is difficult to withstand the innate eye activity needs, and the initial few years are good, but then it will gradually become unbalanced, and you will be blind until you will be blind, and you can't see anything." ”

Ah Jiuye, who brought Lu Chen, stood aside, still smoking a dry cigarette without saying a word, Lu Chen lowered his head, his eyes were full of wood, and asked, "Grandpa Song, is there no way to cure my eyes?"

Song Lao said with pity, "Hey, child, I can't cure this disease, ordinary herbs can't solve the fundamental problem, and ordinary doctors like me can only cure ordinary diseases." But it's not that there is no way at all, child, I'm afraid that you have to use the legendary elixir to treat your eye disease. After speaking, Song Lao was also full of helplessness and sighed deeply.

Ah Jiu Ye on the side didn't speak, pulled Lu Chen and bowed deeply to Song Lao, and then left the small medical hall. In the first days, Ah Jiu Ye led Lu Chen to transfer between various towns and went to the medical hall in the meantime to see a doctor, but the Lang Zhong and the doctors among them were all as Song Lao said, shaking their heads and sighing, and also tried a few so-called home remedies for treating stubborn diseases, but in the end, they all failed and had no effect.

Back in the town, Lu Chen walked back to the hut at the end of the town with Ah Jiuye, shook his head, took a deep breath, gritted his teeth and said, "Grandpa Ah Jiu, forget it, I'm gone, it's okay, even if you can't see it, it's not a big deal, I won't get in the way." ”

Ah Jiu Ye didn't speak, touched Lu Chen's head, he was just a child under ten years old, wiped his moist eyes, and turned around and entered the house.

Lu Chen experienced the initial despair and unwillingness, and seemed to quickly adapt to life without eyes, unlike before, he had an extra bamboo cane in his hand, and his eyes were covered with strips of white cloth from beginning to end, wrapped in unknown mashed herbs. "Even if there is little hope of regaining sight, we must not give up. If you give up, then you are really hopeless. Whenever he was on the verge of despair, Lu Chen would think about it.

The days passed like this, and the years passed inadvertently......

Ah Jiu Ye is old, when Lu Chen turned ten years old, Ah Jiu Ye left, just on such an ordinary night, which was not the slightest bit different from the past. Ah Jiu Ye's body curled up on the small bed in the innermost room, the light in the room was a little dim, the air was slightly humid, the window was open, and the moonlight sprinkled on the window sill brought a little light, Ah Jiu Ye seemed to have a premonition of something, the wrinkles on his face trembled and trembled, and then called Lu Chen to the house, he had nothing to explain, only this child could not rest assured, he raised his hand and touched Lu Chen's head with difficulty, he understood very well what kind of suffering the child in front of him had experienced, which was unimaginable to his peers of the average age. It was because the old man knew that he was afraid that this child would take a detour, but fortunately, it was very good, Lu Chen persevered all the way, even if it was inevitable to stumble.

The old man looked at Lu Chen kindly, and said with a smile, "Ah Chen, don't complain, the most gratifying thing Grandpa has done in his life is to bring you back by the river." After Ah Jiuye finished speaking, he looked at Lu Chen quietly, as if the bits and pieces of the past ten years had been counted in front of him, and then he closed his eyes.

At the beginning, I would cry out angrily, be unwilling, and complain about God's injustice. After all this, Lu Chen became very silent, he was the only one left in the house at the end of the town, and the only companion around him was the kind old man who didn't like to talk, was silent, and always liked to smoke dry tobacco in front of the hall, but gave him countless care.

He still gets up every day, goes to the streets to help the people in the town, does short-term work, and lives day after day, with blank eyes, like a walking corpse, and the torture and pain he experiences in his heart. I don't know what day it was, Lu Chen stopped the movements in his hand, just stared into the distance quietly, remembering Grandpa A Jiu's words before he passed away, he should cheer up, don't complain, and face this damn God. Maybe it was the bottoming out, or maybe it was the child's heart, after the pain, Lu Chen tried to stand up again.

Lu Chen became Song Lao's apprentice, Song Lao was also old, he said that he would no longer accept apprentices, but after watching Lu Chen kneel in front of his house for a day and a night, he finally relented and accepted this stubborn boy. He taught Lu Chen various pharmacology, and memorized the taste and shape of various herbs, as well as various dosages and symptoms. Occasionally, Song Lao would take Lu Chen to help people check their pulse in the town. Lu Chen's eyes can't see, in order to remember these things taught by Song Lao, he has put in a hundred times the effort, or maybe because he can't see, Lu Chen has practiced for him in other touch, hearing, smell and other aspects beyond the level of ordinary people.

On the last day of Lu Chen's eleventh birthday, he joined the team that went up the mountain to collect medicine. The team that went up the mountain to collect medicine was composed of old people in the town who were collecting medicine and a few young and strong young men, a total of more than a dozen people, and among them, someone as old as Lu Chen, I am afraid it was the first time. At the beginning, when Lu Chen said that he wanted to go up the mountain, the old man in the team strongly disagreed, although everyone sympathized with the child, but when going up the mountain, the danger is often unpredictable, and the people in the team themselves can't take care of it, let alone take care of Lu Chen's child, this is not a joke.

Lu Chen argued with reason, saying that he was Song Lao's apprentice, and he had a good way of identifying herbs, and he would definitely not drag everyone down if he went, and he could take care of himself. Everyone looked at Lu Chen's still young and immature face flashing with a seriousness that others did not have, and they were stunned, and then they agreed by default. But it was also agreed that Lu Chen must listen to the old people, and if he encounters any danger or something wrong, Lu Chen must go down the mountain immediately. As a result, the team of medicine pickers in the town became a strange scenery, and the little boy carried the medicine basket on his back and became a member of the medicine pickers.

Lu Chen firmly believes that there is never any so-called resignation, Ah Jiu Ye has taught since he was a child that there is never a road in the world, and people come out one foot at a time. Since Song Lao said that his eyes are not completely unsaved, then he will not give up hope, and the desperate situation has not yet arrived, so he should try to find a way to survive.

It's just that how to go forward in the future...