Shengmiao village under the shroud of moonlight is a dead silence, although there are lights in the village, but you can't see half a figure, in front of the village is a bamboo archway, the height is more than ten meters, the pillars on both sides are carved with various insect patterns, there is a wooden sign hanging on the top of the archway, there are three words written on the tower Miao Village, ten meters away from the archway is the building of Shengmiao Village, the building structure here is very special, it is the unique stilted building of the Miao family.

The stilted building is also called the hanging building, for the traditional dwellings of the Miao, Buyi, Dong, Tujia and other ethnic groups, in the southeast of Chongqing and the north of Guangxi, western Hunan, western Hubei and southeast Guizhou, the stilted building is built on the situation of the mountain and the river, pay attention to the orientation, or sit west to east, or sit east to west, the stilted building belongs to the dry column building, but it is different from the general referring to the dry column, the dry column should all be suspended, so the stilted building is called a semi-dry column building.

Legend has it that the ancestors of the Tujia people moved to Xiangxi because their hometown was flooded, and at that time, Xiangxi was full of ancient trees, thorns, jackals, tigers and leopards could be seen everywhere. The dog's paw shed first erected by the Tujia people is often attacked by fierce beasts. For safety, people burn tree fires, and bamboo is buried in them, and the sound of firecrackers scares away the attacking beasts, but they are still often threatened by poisonous snakes and centipedes.

Later, an old man of the Tujia family thought of a way, he asked the young men to use the ready-made big trees as shelves, bundle wood, and then lay wild bamboo tree strips, build a shelf on the top and cover the canopy, build large and small air houses, eat and sleep on them, and no longer be afraid of the attack of poisonous snakes and beasts, this method of building air houses spread to the ears of more people, and later this air houses evolved into today's stilted buildings.

Although I have seen the stilted building of the Miao family in Xiangxi on TV before, but this time it is the first time to see it in reality, the stilted building is built by the mountain and lives by the water, the height is more than ten meters, and every household is connected in one place, which looks extremely spectacular, but the stilted building of the seedlings is somewhat different from the stilted building of the ordinary Miao family. These jars are not much different from the jars we saw on the eagle's beak stream wooden bridge before, and it seems that these jars should be Gu altars used to hold Gu worms.

According to Chen Xiaohu, the mountains among the seedlings are steep, so there are not so many fields to cultivate, so they rarely raise livestock, and Gu worms are awe-inspiring gods for them, so they will place Gu worms under their hanging towers, one is to use Gu worms to drive away the beasts in the mountains and forests, and the other is to express their respect for Gu worms.

Walking to the archway Chen Xiaohu glanced at the Tamiao Village in the dark night, and then shook the copper bell in his hand, at the moment when the copper bell rang, dozens of villagers in the original village suddenly turned off the lights, the whole Tamiao Village was shrouded in darkness, and there was no light, it seems that the people of the Shengmiao tribe are also very jealous of the corpse team, otherwise it is impossible to extinguish the lights in their homes in an instant.

Chen Xiaohu saw the villagers extinguish the fire in the house after shaking the copper bell and pacing forward, a few of us followed, not long before Chen Xiaohu took us to a stilted building, he whispered to us to wait downstairs, and he was walking towards the stilted building, soon Chen Xiaohu came to the stilted building, he stood in front of the door and knocked on the door gently, but there was no sound of opening the door in the house, nor did there be any footsteps, we saw it really before, there was a light in the stilted building, which means that there are people in the stilted building, Now the door is closed because the head of the family does not want to have anything to do with the corpse team.

Chen Xiaohu saw that there was no sound coming from inside after knocking on the door a few times, so he muttered something in the direction of the house, although I didn't understand the meaning, but as far as I guess it was to ask the head of the house to open the door for us, so that we could stay here for the night.

Chen Xiaohu stood outside the door and muttered for about half a minute, and then there was a slight sound of footsteps in the room, and then the door creaked open, and a dark and sturdy man opened the door under the moonlight and poked his head out, he glanced at Chen Xiaohu, and then responded in the language of Shengmiao, his hands were still waving, as if he was rejecting us.

Seeing this, Chen Xiaohu continued to talk to the man, and after a while, he took out something from his arms and handed it to the man in front of him, the man took it and looked down, and his original solemn expression suddenly relaxed, and then his man turned his head to look at a few of us, nodded and then opened the door, as if he had promised us to stay here.

Then Chen Xiaohu turned to look at a few of us, and with the copper bell in his hand shaking, we walked towards the stilted building, and the man was so frightened that he retreated into the house when he saw this scene.

After a while, a few of us came to the second floor of the stilted building, followed Chen Xiaohu into the house, at this time the lights in the house had been turned on, and when we looked around, the room was very simple, without any modern furniture, the only wooden tables and cabinets were made of bamboo, and even the dishes they used to eat were all made of bamboo.

The man saw a few of us enter the house and walked to a door to open the door, raised his hand and pointed inside, said a few words to Chen Xiaohu and then turned around and entered the room next to him, Chen Xiaohu then took a few of us into the room, lit the oil lamp and looked around, this room is even more shabby, there are some messy things piled up inside, there is only a wooden bed on the ground, and it is covered with a thick layer of dust.

"The people of this seedling are very jealous of the corpse team, and they don't want to associate with it, and it's good to find such a place to rest." Chen Xiaohu said in a low voice.

"Brother Chen, what did you take out of your arms just now, is it money, otherwise how could that person agree to let us in so easily?" Li Hai looked at Chen Xiaohu and asked puzzled.

Chen Xiaohu smiled bitterly after hearing this, and said that money, a thing that people love, has no use at all in Shengmiao, because Shengmiao does not interact with the outside world, so he lives a self-sufficient life, even if he needs what he doesn't have, it is bartered, so money does not circulate at all in the Shengmiao tribe, and he can't spend it even if he gives money to the person in the village.

"And what did you just give?" Ning Nanxi asked.

Hearing this, Chen Xiaohu put his hand into his arms, took out two candies from them and handed them to Ning Nanxi, Ning Nanxi took it and took a look at it by the firelight, and suddenly showed surprise: "Sugar? Just a few pieces of candy to get the man to promise to let us stay? ”

"Nanxi, you grew up in a honey pot since you were a child, in addition to your father, your senior brothers and brothers also love you, of course these candies are nothing to you, even if they fall on the ground, I'm afraid you won't pick them up, but the seedlings are different, the level of science and technology here is backward, the society is developing slowly, there are no other desserts at all except the usual sucrose, the reason why I chose this one is because when I observed outside the village before, I found that there was a five or six-year-old boy in this family, and children like to eat sugar, Parents want to make their children happy, so I chose this home as a place to stay, you don't see only a few pieces of candy, this is also a luxury in their house, the man in order to make his children happy so he agreed to let us live. ”

After listening to Chen Xiaohu's words, a few of us suddenly realized that although this seedling is not in contact with the Han people, the essence of parents in the world who love their children is the same, and they know that they can't give their children a better life, so they will choose to take risks and leave us in exchange for these hard-won candies.

"It's not early now, everyone hurry up and rest, although the seedlings are less arable land, but they are not too late, let's leave here at half past four tomorrow morning, otherwise I'm afraid there will be trouble." Chen Xiaohu looked at a few of us and said in a deep voice.

"Half-past four? At that time, it was still dark, what were we doing so early, and since these young people were afraid of the corpse team, then what were we afraid of, just sleep until dawn, anyway, when we appeared, they all went back to their homes and hid. Li Hai looked at Chen Xiaohu and asked puzzled.

"You haven't been to Shengmiao and don't know the rules here, every household in the Shengmiao tribe raises Gu, these Gu worms must be fed with insects every day, the feeding time is at five o'clock in the morning, every day at this time, all the Gu worms will become very irritable, if you can't feed food at five o'clock, these Gu worms will start to collide with the Gu altar, once the Gu altar is broken, these Gu worms will pour out of the nest, and then we will be in trouble, now we have dragon vines on our bodies It's nothing, but once the people of Shengmiao find out that we are fake, When the time comes, they will definitely rush up, these seedlings live in the deep mountains and old forests, and the people are fierce, if we really make a move, I'm afraid we will suffer, so for the sake of safety, we still leave here before they feed the Gu worms, so as not to get into unnecessary trouble. Chen Xiaohu said in a low voice.

After listening to Chen Xiaohu's words, a few of us nodded in agreement, and then we each lay down to rest, Ning Nanxi, as the only woman in our team, let her sleep on the wooden bed, while those of us slept on the floor, although the floor was under the floor, there was nothing uncomfortable, because the floor was two meters high from the ground, and there was no need to fear moisture, so it was more comfortable to sleep.

Due to the whole day we were already a little tired, not long after lying down to fall asleep, at this time the mountain breeze outside the window is cool, and the sound of birds and insects is constantly coming to our ears, but it is also very comfortable.

I don't know how long I slept, I heard a slight conversation from my ears in a daze, I woke up suddenly after hearing the sound, and listened carefully, the sound came from the direction of the living room, I just wanted to get up to see what was going on, then my arm was suddenly pulled by someone, I just wanted to speak, my mouth was also sealed, and I subconsciously glanced in the left and right directions, but I didn't expect it to be Su Dingqin and Shen Nanxiao.

Su Dingqin put his index finger to his mouth and whispered, signaling me not to speak, and then he said in a low voice: "This family doesn't seem to be quite right, I listen to the sound of carrying things outside, be careful for a while, Nan Xiao, you wake up Brother Chen, he is the only one among us who is familiar with Miao language, let him listen to what is being said outside." ”

When Shen Nanxiao heard this, he immediately pushed Chen Xiaohu, who was sleeping next to him, and when Chen Xiaohu woke up, he saw that the three of us were just about to speak, but Shen Nanxiao covered his mouth, and then said in a low voice: "Don't talk, there is movement outside, you listen to what's going on." ”