Chapter I

Mute teenager

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......

Summer solstice.

Before the dog days, the weather has begun to be hot and unbearable.

Under the great sun, the tenants who suffered the most were the tenants who cultivated under the mountain.

In order to have a good harvest this year, he went out of the field under such a scorching sun, looked at the old woman who had just brought rice to the field, and the sweaty old farmer grabbed a handful of hot sweat on his face and threw it to the ground, turned around and carried the hoe to the field.

The sweat that fell into the field also disappeared in the moment when it sank into the ground.

When she arrived at the field, the old woman found herself in the shade of a tree, and took out the coarse rice in the house and set it up.

The leader came back was the old farmer, followed by the two sons of the family, as well as five grandchildren and a daughter-in-law.

Though the heavens are still not beautiful, the heat of the sun is obscured...... But lying in the shade of this tree, taking a nap, is still the happiest time of the morning. When the meal was full, the old farmer and his two sons went to the field again.

The daughter-in-law helped the old woman tidy up the empty rice bowl, and the children played around in the shade of the tree twice. Then he pulled the corner of the old woman's clothes, pointed to a distant mountain peak, and asked:

"Grandma, it's so hot...... Why hasn't the snow melted yet?"

The mountain the children pointed to was only a dozen miles away...... It was three years ago that it suddenly appeared here. The sudden appearance of such a mountain is naturally curious, especially since there is ice and snow on the peak that does not melt all year round.

Many people felt that there should be a god on the top of the mountain peak, so they searched for it......

"It's a pity that most of those who were found never came back......"

Under the shade of the tree, the old woman who had put away the dishes and chopsticks took advantage of the rest to tell the five children about the most rumors that had been circulating in the past three years: "This snow-capped mountain...... There are immortals!"

......

"So the people who went there were all left behind by the gods!"

"But why did the gods leave them behind?"

"Most of them are going to be immortals with them!"

"That's... Won't anyone come back?"

......

This is the end of the conversation between grandparents and grandchildren!

The old woman carried the house with the dishes and chopsticks and went to the house not far away, the way back and forth was not long, but she was old, and the speed was naturally not able to catch up with the young man.

Not far from her field, the old woman came to a fork in the road.

The sun in the sky shines on my brain a little dizzy.

The old woman said in her heart: You have to go back quickly, otherwise you will have heat stroke!

Looking up ahead, there are three ways to get home, one far, one short, and one closer.

But on the nearer road, the old woman hesitated for at least a hundred steps.

Holding her hands over her increasingly stuffy chest, the old woman comforted herself and said, "Let's go here!

She looked up at the greenery on the left and right sides of the road, and finally made up her mind and took a step in that direction.

The cool breeze along the way, made her feel more and more that she had made the right choice.

I gradually forgot my initial hesitation and worry...... It's just that just when this feeling was about to be forgotten, a cold wind carried murderous intent.

In just a moment, the whole tree** was covered by black clouds, and there was no daylight, and naturally there was no sunlight.

Two sounds of "swish" came from the forest on the left and right.

The old woman screamed, dropped the frame in her hand, and ran forward, and the bowl fell to the ground and shattered. With a short, clattering sound. The old woman who fled forward stopped in place in an instant, and even the screams were blocked in her throat, and she couldn't spit it out no matter how much she vomited. The old face with folds was instantly suffocated red.

She kept scratching her throat with her hands, but she couldn't catch anything.

Just when this toss was not over, in the forest on the left, a figure darker than a black cloud instantly jumped in front of her.

The pair of eyes like ghost fire, the gloomy and greedy gaze shone on the body, as if the cold and fire fell on the body at the same time, and the scorching heat and cold made the old woman's body tremble.

The old woman's neck shrunk, her feet softened, and her buttocks slumped to the ground.

The ghostly eyes slowly approached......

The breath of death was so solemn that the suffocating killing machine hit the weak, old body.

When you close your eyes and accept the fact in front of you.

......

Suddenly, the cold air dissipated, and the black clouds dispersed in an instant.

The old woman heard a few broken footsteps. When she opened her eyes again, the eyes of the ghost fire were gone, replaced by a thin figure with her back to herself, standing seven paces away from her line of sight.

The thin figure looked like a teenager, but it was a little scary, and its whole body seemed to have no flesh and blood, only skin and bones.

The boy was clutching a lunch box he had discarded.

He didn't look back, just gently put the lunch box on the ground, and then spoke:

"Later...... Don't go here again. ”

His voice was hoarse, as strange as his skinny, thin body.

Before the old woman could get up, the young man had gone deeper into the green road.

When the old woman tried to get up and pick up the boy's lunch box on the floor, she noticed that the boy was also carrying a lunch box in his hand, but in the form of a simplest basket, covered with a patched broken rag.

Unconsciously, looking at the figure of the young man, he was a little distracted, and when he came back to his senses and picked up his lunch box on the ground, he found that the bowl that was originally broken on the ground turned out to be ...... Inside the box in perfect condition.

The moment she saw this, something suddenly popped into the old woman's mind.

When she looked again in the direction the boy had left, he was gone.

"Could it be... He's the only one who came back alive from that snowy roof three years ago?"

The old woman carried the lunch box again, and when she turned around, she suddenly shook her head:

"But the rumor doesn't mean that the boy was dumb...... How can a dumb man speak?"

Shaking his head again:

"It shouldn't be his ......"

Just when the old woman hesitated for a while, in the depths of the green shade, suddenly there was a cold drink:

"Don't get out of !! yet"

The old woman was so frightened that her whole body trembled, and the lunch box in her hand fell off again, and this time, when she picked up the lunch box again, the bowl in the box was really broken.

With a broken box of chopsticks, the old woman staggered back the way she came.

When the sunlight returned to this green ** again, and when it returned to the young man, the original skinny body seemed to slowly grow back into flesh and blood.

It's just this strange sight, the old woman probably didn't have a chance to see it......

......

Until she fled back to her original path, to her home, to a place where there were people.

A few days later, she said,

"I went to the woods and saw a mute who could talk!"

But no one believes the first half of this sentence, and no one will believe the second half of it!

Because they knew that road was the only way to the snowy top of the green peak!

Because they knew that the road could only be walked by one man - that man was said to be a mute!

......

[It is said that this mute was able to talk before......]

......

As for that road, if you go any further, you will pass a clear river.

The river is beautiful, and from time to time there are pink flowers flowing down the river from the top of the snow of Aomine.

It's just that although this flower is beautiful, no one dares to pick it, and no one dares to pick it.

Because it's called ominous!

Another flower flowed down the river and stopped at the door of a dilapidated farmhouse by the river.

Behind that farmhouse is a village.

It is not known whether the farmhouse was deliberately separated from the village, or whether the village deliberately avoided the farmhouse, but the two places, which were originally connected by the same root, were indeed separated by the river that flowed through the farmhouse, and the river went around the farmhouse in a circle, and then came to the end - a bottomless well.

It's been three years..... The water of the Qing River is constantly poured into the well, which is as if it has no bottom and will never be full.

By the well was a towering tree, which covered the whole farmhouse in its shade, no more, no less, as much shade as the hedge encircled.

At this time, a girl of twelve or thirteen years old stood by the well, in the shade of a tree.

The girl, pale, haggard, struggled to pull out the half-filled bucket from the well.

Not far from the fence and the farmhouse, several teenagers of her age were standing under a tree, shouting at the girl:

"Broom Star, your dumb brother is back!"

"Broom Star!"

"Broom Star!"

......

I don't know how many times the sound was repeated.

As if she hadn't heard, the girl pulled up half a bucket of water and immediately looked in the direction of the upper reaches of the Qing River.

In the distance, a young man of about fifteen years old carrying a basket was walking back here.

The young man also saw the girl, and the gloom on his face instantly dissipated, and his smile disappeared.

The girl was surprised and instinctively took a few steps forward, but when she reached the door of the farmhouse fence and the end of the shade, her footsteps stopped there instantly, she took half a step back, and continued to smile at the young man.

......

Seeing this young man and a young girl, a pair of brothers and sisters, they are as familiar as no one!

Under the shade of the tree, a fat boy with a twinkle in his eyes and a hint of jealousy, snorted, and said in an extremely mocking tone:

"Look, this dumb man has probably gone up the mountain again!"

After saying this, the jealousy in his arms was still not gone, so he added:

"Dumb! Do you really believe that there are gods on that mountain? That's all the old woman in the house coaxing the children to play!"

The mute boy carried a worn-out basket covered with a piece of cloth sewn with pudding, and a faint corner of flowers and leaves appeared under the cloth, and continued to walk towards him, ignoring the boy's taunt.

Seeing this, the fat boy sneered at himself:

"Jianghe! If there were really immortals, you would still be like this now!"

The companions on the side just laughed and laughed, but no one dared to answer, because the adults in the family had explained - don't provoke the two brothers and sisters at the entrance of the village, especially the mute named Jiang He!

The children heard from the elders of the village: Three years ago, it was this child who led a group of people into the mountains. After that, everyone but him disappeared..... It was reported from outsiders that those people had been taken away by the immortals.

But the villagers watched as the child became mute, and his sister, who was already dying, got out of bed again, and then stayed in the yard all year round without seeing a ray of sunlight.

Therefore, they can only hide in the shade of trees in their houses and gardens......

Everything so weird naturally makes people think about the evil side!

......

Under the sneering gaze of several teenagers who did not dare to approach, the dumb river entered the courtyard.

In the distance among the teenagers, a handsome boy with a strand of white hair in each ear pointed to the running rope on Jiang He's waist that was covered by clothes but faintly leaked out and asked:

"Why does he have a broken rope tied around his waist?"

The little fat man who laughed at the river at the beginning replied, "It is said that the rope was given to him by the gods!"

The white-haired boy asked again, "Immortals, didn't you just say that there are no immortals?"

The fat boy hesitated twice: "This ...... I listened to him, too!"

The white-haired boy continued, "But didn't you just say that he was dumb?"

"That...... I listened to her sister, right?"

The fat boy was obviously a little annoyed by the question, but the white-haired boy completely ignored the fat boy's expression, and asked, "But if he is mute?

The fat boy finally couldn't help but go crazy and pointed at the white-haired boy: "You...... You...... You're a man! Oh! yes, where are you, why haven't I seen you?"

A mysterious smile appeared at the corner of the white-haired boy's mouth: "Me, from the village next door!"

The fat boy scratched his head, lowered his head, blinked, and thought, "Is there a village next door?"

When he looked up again, the white-haired boy was gone:

"Huh, people, have you seen where that kid with the two handfuls of white hair has gone?"

"Child, where are the children?"

The companions looked at the fat boy with puzzled eyes......