In a row of muddy footprints connecting the avenue at the entrance of the village, a young man with mud stars on his trouser leg sat on a chair by the stove, pulled his trouser cuff to his knees, and looked at a piece of white tape attached to his left leg in a daze.

Suddenly, he got up and walked to the window, raised his hand and pulled down a dry towel with a red velvet face on the drying rope to wipe his face. The water on his face was wiped away, he moved his nostrils, and smelled a faint smell of rice, this was lunchtime, where did his mother cook the rice? Just as he was wondering, he heard the sound of footsteps, looked back, and his mother who entered the door asked him, Lin Feng, where have you been? I searched for you in the house, but I didn't find you. As he spoke, he hung the hat in his hand on the wall.

Lin Feng dragged his left leg and came to her, Mom, I was walking in the field, my leg was accidentally bitten by a leech, I felt pain when I found that the leech had gotten into the meat, I pinched the tail of the leech and couldn't pull it out, so I went to the village clinic, the doctor used alcohol to soak my legs, the leeches were stimulated to drill in, the doctor had to make a cut on my legs, with a spoon, to pull out the leeches.

As he spoke, he rolled up his trouser leg to reveal a piece of white tape on his calf. Gong Shi looked surprised, and listened to his son continue, Do you know that the leech is fat and big, and I don't know how much blood it sucked me. When the doctor used the spoon, there was no anesthetic, and I was in pain.

It doesn't matter, right? Gong asked anxiously.

It doesn't matter, the doctor gave me an anti-inflammatory injection, but I didn't pay, only 22 yuan, and promised to send it this afternoon, Mom, is there any? Lin Feng couldn't wait to ask.

Gong Shi did not answer directly, she often went to the kiln on the mountain opposite the village entrance to pick up lime, and earned some foot fees, and there were still some tips to pay.

So she unhurriedly asked her son to eat first, saying that she would send money in the afternoon. She originally planned to take a stick of incense to the land house to worship the land god to pray for the safety of her "missing" son, and since the son has returned, she can save trouble.

After about a decade, the temperature rises, and the sun shines on your body like fire, which means that summer has really arrived. As far as the eye can see, the fields of Linjiazhuang are green, and after a while, the early rice will end the growth period of the seedlings and pull the ears and flowers. Lin Feng's early rice field is also a big plant, green leaves, and the growth is gratifying.

At this time, the rice fields of every household are sprinkled with lime, and the frogs, yellow eels, loaches, earthworms, leeches and other small animals living in the paddy fields in the field mud are all dead, and the most floating in the water in the field are the corpses of frogs, they turn their white bellies, some of their toes, claws or limbs have been mutilated due to decay, and most of the corpses of other small animals are sunk in the field mud.

That day, Lin Feng came to the field to see the water with a hoe as usual, and walked listlessly on the road, looking bored, in the words of the Tujia family, people were very wilted. Mother thought that he had lost his soul, in addition to going to the land house in the south of the village to burn incense and kowtow more diligently, he still stood at the door late every night facing the dark and empty field, shouting his name loudly - Lin Feng, come back?

At least a dozen times, the voice went from high to low. She shouted as she walked into the house and walked straight to the bunk in Lin Feng's bedroom. At this time, Lin Feng was lying on the bed, he hadn't fallen asleep yet, and he couldn't fall asleep, so he had to cooperate with his mother's shouts to answer and come back...... It's back......

This is also the custom of the Tujia people to call the soul, also known as "shouting and scare", that is, the person being shouted is scared out of the soul outside, so he must "shout and scare".

If the child is scared outside, and he is not sensible and does not know how to cooperate with the answer, then the adult who calls the soul of the child has to answer while shouting: Come back. Lin Feng was already a young man, he knew how to cooperate with the answer, his mother came to his sleeping bunk, patted the quilt covering him with heartache, and echoed and said, Come back...... It's back......

It is said that the most obvious symptom of a person who has lost his soul is a fever and inability to refresh himself, and it is difficult to cure it by seeing a doctor. Sometimes, patients go to the hospital during the day to get an injection, and the fever fades, but at night the fever is still the same, or even worse.

In this way, calling the soul as soon as possible will make the condition better. If it is too late to call the soul, and the human soul grows hair in the wild, and it cannot be called back, then the patient is very likely to have few days to come, and eventually die of illness.

Lin Feng couldn't keep his spirits up, he didn't have any energy, but he didn't have a fever, he didn't think it was because he was depressed, he suspected that it was the reason why the leech bit his left leg and stomach, and now that the wound had healed, the white tape attached to it had long been torn away.

At this moment, a middle-aged man with a black satchel on his back walked towards Lin Feng like a warlock, covering his nose with one hand, probably smelling the rancid smell of small animal carcasses emanating from the field, and suddenly said to Lin Feng, look, how miserable!

How miserable is what? Lin Feng felt incomprehensible. The middle-aged man pointed to the dead frog in the field that was turning its belly, and then looked back at Lin Feng. Lin Feng glared at him and said, why all the fuss? It was the lime water that died. The middle-aged man moved the black satchel he was carrying from the armpit to the front of the placket, took out a bamboo tube full of colorful stripes from it, rubbed it and said, can you not sprinkle lime in the field? lest you lose your life!

Aren't you a redneck? You don't understand. Lin Feng explained to him that sprinkling lime is not bad, not only I will do this, everyone who belongs to the field of farming sprinkles lime in the field, there are at least two major benefits, one is to kill pests, which is conducive to the growth of rice; The second is that the pests are killed, of course, some are not pests, such as frogs, loaches, yellow eels or something, killed in the field, they will become a kind of meat fertilizer, which is more conducive to the absorption of nutrients during the growth period of rice......

Stop it. The middle-aged man was obviously not interested in Lin Feng talking about this, so he shook the bamboo tube with colorful stripes to attract Lin Feng's attention, and then said, can you draw a lot to see if your luck is good?

Lin Feng put down the hoe on his shoulder, and wanted to draw a lot but was a little hesitant, that was because he had not been very lucky recently, and he hesitated that if he drew lots, he had to pay, but he had no money on him, so he excused himself, I don't believe in lottery, good luck is good, bad luck is not good, not lottery can be good.

The middle-aged man saw that Lin Feng was about to leave with a hoe, so he walked around to him and said, this is not true. After drawing lots, you can ask for good fortune and misfortune, guide you to the maze, and remind the long-sleepy heroes.

Don't be verbose, I don't believe it. Lin Feng wanted to get rid of the middle-aged man. The middle-aged man realized it, so he put the bamboo tube with the color strip back into his shoulder bag, looked at Lin Feng unwillingly and said, I will look at the face, will I show you a look?

Do you want money? Lin Feng asked him rhetorically. He snorted, looking uninterested, and then turned around and left. Lin Feng chased after him and shouted, show me a photo, it's free.

Who showed it to you? None of them will come out. The middle-aged man covered the satchel and glanced at him and continued walking.

Lin Feng turned a deaf ear, he didn't have any money with him, he didn't want to pay, and he wanted the middle-aged man to say something to him. The middle-aged man saw that he was a little unwilling to give up when he walked around in front of him, so he pointed to his lips and said, You are short, "cut your lips", and you will not live long.

Lin Feng didn't expect to ask for such a sentence that made him unhappy, so he shot back unceremoniously, let your fuck fart, Lao Tzu will live for 10,000,000 years!

The middle-aged man ignored him and just walked, going farther and farther. Maybe it was too angry, while Lin Feng scolded the middle-aged man, his heart was on fire, and he obviously felt a golden flower burst out of his eyes, and after that, he felt nauseous, as if he wanted to vomit, but he could only spit out a little sour water. He still felt sluggish, and it was a strong fight with the middle-aged man just now.

He even passively thought that the middle-aged man's words were right, and he wouldn't live long. Lin Feng also touched the middle of the person with his hand, it was indeed a bit short, but he still didn't believe this statement, he felt that if he really didn't live long, the reason was poor health.