Thirteen years later.

On a summer night, on the embankment of the Hudu River.

The moonlight is bright and the river breeze is cool. Wisps of mist rise from the surface of the river, and from time to time fish jump out of the water. The reeds are swaying, and the night sky is quiet.

A thin black and thin middle-aged man about 1.65 meters tall walked along the embankment with a teenager, and a yellow dog the size of a calf followed behind him to sniff and stop.

They had just passed through the vegetable patch, and the dew on their legs had been dried by the river breeze, and it was cold. The boy bent down and scratched his calf, and simply squatted down and didn't leave. When he was awakened and brought out when he was sleeping soundly, the branches and leaves in the cotton field cut people's arms hotly and painfully, he had already woken up, and thought of some kind of not wonderful possibility.

"Uncle, I really can't walk. ”

The man helplessly squatted down with him, and a heavy voiced Xiangbei accent emerged.

"Rest, rest, three times along the way. Grandma Mei doesn't let you do the heavy work, she is afraid of melting in her mouth, she is afraid of falling in her hand, she looks at your delicate work, and she is panting for breath when she walks a few steps. But don't go, Brother Jiang. To tell you the truth, Nandongting went to a group of Taoist priests to look for a thirteen-year-old fine man, and injured someone. This North Dongting is also not peaceful, there are a few Taoist priests who arrived in Shawan this afternoon, I am afraid that they will make trouble for you, so I must run away tonight. ”

The young man, thin and thin, with bright eyes, lowered his head and spat out a stick of grass in his mouth, and replied absentmindedly:

"The cannon fist told everyone to run away, and when it was almost dark, the water monkey slipped over and told me. Meat Floss's grandfather, Grandpa Tiezhu, even had his arm broken by a Taoist priest, and his parents had to take care of him, so he could only hide nearby, and he couldn't leave. The water monkey will have to wait for his uncle to raise money for the journey, and he will start running again tomorrow morning, and I want to go with them. ”

"Oh, my little brother, we're running away, not traveling, and the third-class and fourth-class daylilies will be cold. Cannon Boxing is nominally a sect, but in fact it is equivalent to a community, and the concept of the countryside is extremely heavy, and if a foreigner invades the locality, it is to defend it to the death. Xiao Monkey is a disciple of the Cannon Fist Gate, and Xiao Song is still the grandson of Wang Tiezhu, so they will be forced to run away secretly, and it seems that the Cannon Fist Gate will not be able to protect itself, and it may not even be able to survive tomorrow! If we don't run away tonight, we will definitely be arrested tomorrow. ”

"Actually, it's okay to wait, I'm fine anyway. The water monkey and meat floss are two months younger than me, and they were both born on the third day after Christmas, so they are very dangerous. I know that this group of Taoist priests is looking for the Son of God. ”

"Oh, how did you guess?" the man turned his head to look at the boy in astonishment.

"Cut, nothing new. Last year I was looking for a twelve-year-old, this year I'm looking for a thirteen-year-old, and next year I'm definitely looking for a fourteen-year-old. Not only Taoist priests, but also monks, Muslims and Christians are looking for them! There are even more other people who are in a mess, and if the Little Radish Head Sect does not have a 'Son of God' to support the scene, they will be embarrassed to come out and mingle. ”

"Haha, that's still the case. ”

"Last month, I searched on the Internet and found that there are more than 100 'Divine Sons' in the world, all of whom are living in poor areas that have not joined the Earth Federation. Still, I know they're all knockoffs!"

"Aha, you know even this, could it be that Your Excellency is ......" The man blinked, pretending to be surprised.

"Uncle, what do you think, if the Son of God really comes, either to save the world or not to destroy the world, then it will be easy to provoke? As long as one of the more than one hundred is true, thirteen years is enough time for him to dominate the rivers and lakes, no, to dominate the whole world. ”

"Thirteen years old is still a little child, how can he dominate the rivers and lakes?"

"Cut, Tu Baozi! I haven't heard that Gan Luo was named a secretary at the age of twelve, well, it is equivalent to paying homage to the prime minister, the level of prime minister!"

"Heh, Ganluo was beheaded at the age of twelve!"

"Then look at this again, it's smaller, it's more powerful. The Buddha was born, seven steps on his own, one pointing to the sky, the other pointing to the ground, making a lion's roar, saying: Heaven and earth, I am the only one. ”

"Hahaha, this is really amazing, I don't dare to say it, I'm afraid of being beaten to death by the monks! But I wonder a little that the real Son of God was born in a manger in Bethlehem two thousand years ago, and that date was set for Christmas. Now that this god son was also born on Christmas, the person who made up the story is so unimaginative, but so many people believe it. ”

"Information asymmetry will lead to false rumors, and the vast majority of people are blindly following. Thirteen years ago, on the morning of November 23, a nuclear explosion occurred in New York, and the image of a baby appeared in the moment when the nuclear fireball was formed, and everyone said that it was the son of God. But I can't find more specific information online, and the federal government has a strict blockade on this. It stands to reason that November 23 should be set as Advent, and there is no reason to postpone it for a month. ”

"Hehe, Brother Jiang, you are too smart and think too much. There's nothing strange about this, it's just an attempt to touch the light of Jesus. If there is a big man in my hometown, all of them will say that they are his relatives and neighbors. ”

"That's right. ”

"Then do you believe that there really is a Son of God?"

"I don't know. There must be an incomprehensible cause behind all the incomprehensible signs, and all incomprehensible causes must produce incomprehensible signs. I think that the Buddha is one of the two and a half most profound people in thousands of years, and the Buddhist scriptures are actually explanations of the universe, which have not been surpassed to this day. ”

"Hehe, no wonder the people in the village are reluctant to talk to you, it's really tiring and hurts your self-esteem. There are half of them, tell me who they are, and my uncle will have a lot of knowledge. ”

"Needless to say, Shakyamuni has gone the furthest in touching the root of the universe; another is Einstein, without whom the special theory of relativity can appear in a few years, but the general theory of relativity is completely out of the scope of human experience, and the first quantitative touch on the essence of time and space, without which he would not know that the Year of the Monkey can only be published; half of the person refers to Mr. Li Er, that is, the Taoist ancestor Lao Tzu, in terms of depth, he is not lost to the Buddha Shakyamuni, but unfortunately only the "Tao Te Ching" is left Five thousand words, it seems that a rough outline is not systematic, so it can only be counted as half a person. ”

The man rolled his eyes, scratched his scalp, stood up and pulled the boy's arm. The boy sighed and reluctantly continued along.

"Hehe, these words of yours sound so powerful, Uncle doesn't understand! Uncle Douda can't recognize a few words, and he doesn't go online, compared with you, I feel like a talking monkey, which hurts my self-esteem. ”

"Cut, you can pretend. Tell me honestly, what kind of work?"

The young man was melancholy and old, and at this moment he compared his hand to a pistol and pointed it at the man, only to show a little naughty appearance.

When the man heard this, he nodded as he walked, his cheeks and lower lip drooped, a trace of crystal saliva hung out of the corners of his mouth, and he turned his head and said with a smile:

"Hehe, the little Zhu Fugui, a poplar tree person in Dongting Lake, makes a living by selling bulk goods. Passing through the precious land today, do you want a bunch of lollipops from the little strong man?"

The boy stared at him curiously and asked:

"Cao Cao left a legend of Wangmei quenching his thirst, Paplov rattled the bell to feed the dog, and later the dog drooled whenever he heard the bell, these are all conditioned reflexes. But now there is no rattle, and there are no sour plums, why do you say that this saliva comes?"

"Do you dare to scold your uncle for being a dog?" The man raised his arm and didn't hit the boy, wiped his mouth and straightened his body, and his accent switched to ordinary official dialect, and said seriously:

"Without it, only the mouth is familiar. What can I do without any technical content?"

"Go and go, you can deceive the people in the village, and you can't even hide it from your grandmother. The handheld computer that was given to me can connect to satellites, and I checked that it costs tens of thousands, and the cost of Internet access is thousands of dollars per month. ”

"It's not a secret, the little strong man was shocked by the tiger's body back then, and Wang Ba's anger soared into the sky. I thought I had picked up a god son by luck, this is the son of God, more bullish than the Bull Demon King, and I don't have to worry about eating and drinking with him in the future. Who knows to pick up a dog's tail grass...... Alas, it's a miserable loss anyway!"

"You're a liar!"

The young man didn't kick Zhu Fugui, and pounced on him reluctantly. The two of them were frolicking, and the thin man suddenly stopped, and he made a "smack" like a toothache, and the wrinkles on his face were squeezed together, and he was miserable.

"Brother Jiang, I'm afraid I'm really in big trouble this time!" Zhu Fugui shrank his shoulders and squatted down slowly, taking out a cigarette and lighting it.

Man Jianghong turned his head and saw two black shadows three hundred meters away just stuck on the top of the slope of the ferry extending to the embankment, motionless, like a little ghost in the temple, very scary. Under the embankment, two boats, one large and one small, quietly docked, the big one was a ferry boat and the small one was a fishing boat. Not far away, the captain's shed was quiet, and no one seemed to be there.

"Uncle, I've long wanted to say that running is not like this. There is just a ferry here, and there will definitely be people squatting. The moon is so big that you can see it clearly from miles away like a big light bulb on the embankment. Cut, no smoking!"

Zhu Fugui took a deep breath, flicked off the cigarette butt with lightning speed, and coughed violently. The young man obediently walked behind him and slapped his back, complaining: "It's better, smoke again!"

"It's old and sick, it's out of the way. The man let out a long stream of turbid air in his chest and abdomen, turned his head to look at the childish young man, and said solemnly:

"The two people in front of them have a strong murderous aura, they must be a group of Taoist priests. Wait until I count to three and run down the slope, don't look back, and row a boat across the river right away. ”

When Man Jianghong heard this unusual serious tone, his eyes suddenly cast a shadow, and he asked in a muffled voice:

"Where are I waiting for you?"

"Leave me alone, run as far as possible, and don't fall into the hands of these people. Listening to the accent, they are northerners, and they shouldn't be able to swim, so you can cross the river safely! In the past, at most, one or two people who were looking for the son of God would secretly inquire like a thief. Uncle was careless this time, I didn't expect them to make such a big battle, and they set up cards to arrest and beat people, and the comers are not good!"

"Uncle, if we don't go back, don't go. The young man looked up at the moon, his eyes full of sorrow, and said:

"I smelled so much blood, and I panicked. The year before last, when my grandmother and I came back from visiting relatives in the big poplar tree, we also smelled a heavy smell of blood when we passed a house on the side of the highway at noon. Later, I heard that in the evening, a driver got drunk and went downhill without stopping and crashed the truck into someone's house. A family of five was eating, and none of them escaped. ”

Zhu Fugui shrank his neck, looked around with a thief's head, and said, "Hehe, Brother Jiang, although you are not a god son, you still have the potential to be a god stick, and you make me creepy." So what if we go back?"

The young man quickly fell silent when he heard this, and after a minute, he shook his head and said:

"I don't know what I'll do when I go back, but the more I go, the more panicked I become. ”

"Hahaha, you really want to predict the future!"

The young man was not as light-hearted as he was, and was almost about to cry, trembling and his teeth rattling, and he tugged at the corners of his clothes and pleaded:

"Uncle, let's go back, really don't go. It's like there's a voice shouting in my head that you're going to regret it, you're going to regret it!"

"Don't be afraid, the sky is falling, and there is an uncle on top of it!"

Zhu Fugui stood up with a smile and reached out to rub the young man's hair, and found that he was a little taller than himself. He was a little taller three years ago? Doesn't seem to be up to his shoulders.

At the end of autumn three years ago, Zhu Fugui passed by the North Dongting and saw hundreds of crows circling the sky. When the northern geese fly south, they all have to rest or spend the winter in the Dongting Lake area. If you go to the wetland of South Dongting, you can see thousands of birds covering the sky and the sun, which is spectacular.

But the crows were not migratory birds, but strangely gathered in heaps, and were circling in a radius of two miles with great regularity. He knew a little about birds, but he only heard the crows chirping over and over again, and the meaning expressed was nothing more than that: This is not the Son of Man!

Strangely, he looked for the center of the crow flock, and saw a young man sitting alone on the river embankment, his clothes shabby but clean, his thin body supported by a big head, and a majestic big yellow dog squatting beside him, and a few firewood sticks were exposed in the bamboo basket, looking up at the sky in a daze.

The long river, the sunset, the crows, and the withered grass make people feel boundless loneliness and endless desolation. As if nothing in heaven and earth existed, the boy sat in the void and let the years pass meaninglessly, year after year, he could only communicate with himself.