My name is Lu Bo, and I was born in the mid-80s to a poor rural family in the Luzhong region. Both parents were ordinary peasants and did not have much education.

It is said that when I was born, a lot of strange things happened.

At the beginning of the 10th lunar month of the 85th year, I was tossing in my mother's belly, and everything was ready at home, just waiting for me to be born. Wen Po is from the next village, and people call her Bai Po. Seeing that the delivery was approaching, Granny Bai ran to my house every day.

That's when strange things started to happen. From the seventh day of October, flocks of wild cats suddenly appeared in the village, starting with only a dozen of them, lying on their backs on the streets, squatting on the walls to bask in the sun, disdainful of passers-by.

It was just a few wild cats, and the people in the village didn't pay much attention to it at the time. But within two days, the number of wild cats suddenly increased to hundreds! They roar through the streets and alleys in droves, stealing dried fish from the yards where people are drying.

At night, the whole village was filled with the terrible barking of wild cats, which frightened the village dogs into cowering under their beds with their tails between their legs.

People's lives were disturbed, so they organized people to chase cats. But how can this be driven away? At night, the number of feral cats doubles again, and people are so scared that they don't dare to sleep at night.

At dusk on the ninth day of October, things became even more strange, the originally clear sky suddenly became overcast, and the north wind blew, freezing people to clear their noses. As soon as my dad came back from outside, he heard my mom cry out in pain.

It's going to be born! Before Dad sat down, he pulled his legs and ran to Wenpo's house. When Dad led Wen Po back, the scene in front of him made him dumbfounded.

I saw two or three hundred wild cats, large and small, surrounding my small courtyard. On the walls, on the roof, and on the treetops, there were wild cats, all of which were screaming at my mother in the house, and the terrible sound made people feel cold and hairy.

All the wild cats in the village have come to my house!

Seeing this, Wen Po was so frightened that she didn't dare to enter the house, so she wiped her head and wanted to run. Where did my dad let her run, grabbed Wen Po, picked up a piece of firewood, shouted loudly to drive a road, and broke into the house.

Things are weird, and people have to be on guard, so the two uncles and uncles also came, and they were discussing the scene outside in the hall at this time.

At half past eleven o'clock in the middle of the night, I tossed for most of the night, but I just didn't come out. Outside, the terrible cries of the wild cats became even louder, and some of them even jumped into the yard and circled around the door of the hall, as if looking for an opportunity to rush in.

Dad and Uncle and Uncle were so nervous that they pushed the door to death from the inside, and they picked up kitchen knives, rolling pins and other weapons, ready to kill at any time. My grandmother has been kneeling in front of the god of Baojiake and constantly kowtowing to ask for blessings.

At this moment, a gust of wind suddenly blew outside, this gust of wind was very violent, and the sand and rocks flew outside for a while, and the doors and windows all made a loud noise. I could only hear the meows of cats outside, like ghosts crying and howling wolves. As if they had been ordered, the cats pounced on them and began to scratch the door!

Snort, snort, snort-

The people in the house broke out in a cold sweat, and piled all the tables, chairs, benches, and other things in the house behind the doors and windows to prevent the wild cats from entering. Dad shouted at the back room while he was busy: "Why hasn't this kid come out yet, son, don't toss!" ”

"Wow-"

As soon as my dad finished speaking, there was a crisp cry of a baby in the back room. After a while, Granny Bai came out of it and said with a beaming face: "It's born!" It's a big fat boy! ”

The moment I landed, the wall clock on the wall struck twelve times. As soon as my cry sounded, the wild cats outside suddenly screamed as if they had been stepped on by their tails.

The world is pure. Uncle and the others couldn't believe it, and cautiously opened the door and looked out, hundreds of wild cats had indeed run away, the wind had stopped, the clouds had dispersed, and a blood-red moon in the sky was very strange.

Anyway, I was finally born, and the time was 10 o'clock in October! Every second counts!

It's just that my birth did not bring joy to my parents and family, but made me even more sad. From the moment I was born, I kept crying, I didn't feed, I cried for three days in a row, I couldn't breathe, and my little face was bruised. The family was at a loss, and my mother hugged me and cried secretly. The doctor from the village clinic came, said that he couldn't see it, and asked him to be sent to the county hospital, otherwise he might not even be able to save his life if it was too late.

At that time, there was no car, so Dad had to go out and borrow a carriage. As soon as he went out, he ran into a sloppy monk. The monk looked to be in his forties, tall and thin, with a large string of Buddhist beads hanging from his neck, each the size of a ping-pong ball. The monk's clothes were dirty and torn, as if he had never taken them off when he wore them. The bast shoes under his feet are also broken, and he looks very depressed.

Although the monk was sloppy, he was treasured, and his eyes were full of essence. In his left hand he held a black bowl, and in his right hand was a polished cane. When he came to my house, he saw my father and said, "Amitabha, donor, please give me some fast." ”

At that time, the countryside was isolated and backward, and there were very few outsiders who came, let alone a wandering monk. Dad glanced at the monk, and although he had the heart to give alms, he remembered me in his heart, so he said, "You wait first, my son is dying, I have to borrow a carriage to take him to the hospital." ”

When the sloppy monk heard this, he said, "The poor monk is a little skilled in medicine, can you allow me to take a look?" ”

My father saw that this monk had a good temperament, and after a little thought, he agreed to come down and led the sloppy monk into the house. Dad held me to the monk, who reached out to take it, took a look, leaned over and whispered a few words in my ear. Strange to say, I immediately stopped crying and started breastfeeding.

This made our whole family very happy, and they all called the sloppy monk benefactor, and insisted on asking him to stay for dinner. The sloppy monk waved his hand and refused, pointed to a few tortillas inserted in the crack of the wall and said, "It's just a gesture, no need to be polite." If you will, pour me a bowl of water and give me those tortillas. ”

At that time, our rural areas were still very poor, and white noodles could only be eaten during the Chinese New Year, and we usually ate cornmeal. Blanching the cornmeal with hot water, kneading it into a cake, and cooking it in cornmeal batter is the staple food. If you can't finish eating, you can use a chopstick to string it together, stick it in the crack of the wall to dry, and keep it for the next meal.

In my childhood memories, tortillas and dried sweet potatoes have always left an indelible mark on my heart. Even now, when the standard of living has improved dramatically and I am tired of eating fish and meat, I will beg my mother to make me another tortilla to eat, and have a good aftertaste.

The sloppy monk didn't ask for much, and his father felt that he couldn't go, so he took out some money to give him. The monk didn't accept it, and said to his father: "This kid's life is peculiar, and there are nine deaths and nine lives waiting for him in front of him." If you can resist it, the future is immeasurable, but if you can't resist it, you will end up with a soulless ending. But this child has a relationship with my Buddha, and if he wants to survive the calamity, he needs to enter my Buddha's door. ”

When Dad heard this, he immediately became troubled. finally gave birth to a son, and still counted on the inheritance, how could he enter Buddhism like this?

The monk said, I will accept him as a registered lay disciple, and he will not have to shave his degree, and he will not delay marrying a wife and having children in the future. When Dad heard this, he was naturally very happy.

After eating and drinking, the sloppy monk told my family that he still had something to do, and after five years, he would come back and officially give his apprenticeship. As he spoke, he put his right hand on the top of my head, recited the six-character mantra of Buddhism several times, got up and brushed his clothes away.

It is said that I was born thin and small, and I almost lost my life after such a long time. Rural people believe that it is easy to support me, so my aunt gave me a nickname, called Dog Er! Fortunately, when Dad was filling in the household registration, he didn't fill in the word "dog two", thank God!

It all seemed to pass like that, and I grew up like a normal child, and I didn't show anything out of the ordinary. The only thing worrying is that I am a bit withdrawn, I never play with other children, and I like to look up at the sky at a 45-degree angle alone when I was a child.

When I was about three years old, I fell in love with drawing and used to scribble on waste paper with a pencil tip. One day, my mother bought a group of chicks and came back to raise them, and the plush ones were squeezed into a cardboard box, which was very cute.

When my mother saw me holding a pencil in my hand, she said to me, don't you know how to draw, come and draw these little chicks. I said okay, flipped through my cousin's notebook and drew it.

After the painting, my mother took it and looked at it, pointed to one of the little chicks lying on his stomach and asked me, what is just wrong? I glanced at it and said, dead!

Mom said that this is not all alive and well, why did he die?

I said, "I'll die tomorrow."

Mom didn't believe it at first, but the next day, when she was feeding the chicks, she really saw a dead one in the carton! When my mother saw this, she began to panic again. Dad didn't care and comforted me, but he also started to pay attention to what I was drawing.

Although I don't remember any of these things, I still find it incredible when I hear my parents talk about them later. For example, one day I drew a snake with a little chick in its mouth. Within two days, a big golden snake really came out of the crack in the wall in the yard and took away a small chick.

Rural people are more superstitious and pay attention to it, such as the house snake can not fight, it can town, but also can catch mice, although it ate a little chicken, but Dad still let it go.

Another time, I drew a forest, and the strange thing was that the trees in the forest were all falling to the ground, and some were uprooted. The family did not know why, but a few days later, a storm and the swelling of the river washed down all the trees along the river.

There are traces of these things, and if it is said that it is accidental, it is reasonable, and there is nothing mysterious. It's not that every painting I draw has a deep meaning, in fact, most of them are random graffiti, or messy lines, I don't know why.

But once, it was different.