I looked at the old pear tree in front of the door for a while, and when I turned around, I realized that the second brother had gone away.

"Second brother! Wait for me! "I hurried to catch up.

From the gate of the courtyard to the side of the road is a slope of about 30 meters, I chased in a hurry, when approaching the intersection, suddenly couldn't stop, the second brother stretched out his arm in advance to stop, I didn't rush out of the road.

"Running around for what? Look at the road! ”

I held my second brother's arm, stabilized the soles of my feet, stared at the road, and said with a pompous face: "Oops! Build a highway! Before the words fell, a fiery red low-chassis sports car whizzed by, and a beautiful carp swinging tail was displayed at the corner, and the second brother whistled loudly.

"Porsche 9-1-1, envy?" I don't have much research on cars, but I recognize this one, and on the day I left the company, my former colleague Chen Han drove this car back to my apartment.

The second brother sighed, and while looking in the direction of the long-lost Porsche, he said, "What do you envy?" I saw someone driving a Bentley a few days ago! ”

I stretched out my palm and shook it up and down in front of his eyes, "Don't look, run away!" ”

He patted my hand and said, "I'm not looking at the car, I'm looking at the people in the car." ”

"People? Who? Cognitive? "My face was full of question marks.

"Not sure, it seems to be a fat man."

"Fatty? The fat guy who joined the army with you? Is he developed? "The fat brother and the second brother are classmates, they have been at the same table for many years, and the two have also gone to the same army together to serve as soldiers, and they are very close brothers.

"His dad opened a big hotel, see? The tallest building over there is his house. The second brother pointed to a tall green glass building in the city and said.

"Magnificent! In this way, that car is trivial to the fat brother. "In my memory, the fat brother has always been bold in spending money." How? Do you want to change cars too? ”

"Why do you change cars? My car is the god of wind, does the god of wind know? The second brother looked serious.

"Yes, nameplate!" I fully cooperate.

"It's good to know!"

We chatted all the way, and before we knew it, we had arrived at the Nine Rivers.

The meandering Nine Rivers separated Lao Tao Town on the other side from the Nine Mountains behind me, however, the name of the Nine Rivers is not all because of the Nine Mountains. The source of the nine rivers comes from the nine different sizes of Qingtan from the Tao town thirty miles away, the water of the clear pond is greener than the leek juice, the bottom is not known, the legend is that there is a dark river under the pool, there are nine dragons living in the river, so it is called the Nine Dragon Pond, no matter how dry the weather is, the water of the clear pond is endless, raising the Taozhen people for generations. There are often floods when the dark river surges, Taozhen people build a high dam in front of the pool, the river water originates from Jiulong Lake, and flows through Jiushan, it is named after Jiuhe, and the dam is called Jiuhe Dam.

There used to be two beds of colorful pebbles on both sides of the Nine Rivers, but now they don't know where to go, replaced by a sidewalk that is deliberately bent awkwardly for the sake of bending, and a street sign is erected at the crossing, and three very pretentious words are written on the card: Lover's Road. I flattened my mouth, can't I come without a lover in my heart? Just thinking about it, a couple walked up to him, holding hands, wearing blue and white couple coats, and the words "in love" were clearly written on their faces.

"Wow! Our Tao Town is really changing with each passing day, and now it is not what it used to be! "My second brother and I walked slowly along Jiuhe Lover's Road towards the city, at this time, during the dry season of Jiuhe, the road was a lot higher than the river.

"Didn't I tell you a long time ago? This place has been upgraded to a county two years ago and renamed Tao County. The second brother said slowly.

"It's not like you're not used to it!" Although it sounds good that the town is promoted to a county, but I am inexplicably a little lost, compared to Tao County, I still prefer the word Tao Town, maybe I am just not used to it, after all, Tao Town has been called for more than 20 years.

The second brother pointed to the old Tao Town on the other side of the river and said: "Only the opposite piece is still called Tao Town, and one more word is added after it: District, Tao Town District; The piece we are standing on now is called Rongxin District.

I glanced at Lao Tao Town, and then turned to look at Jiushan.

Taozhen is surrounded by mountains, nine mountains are just one of them, and the nine mountains are connected to eight continuous peaks, from the other side of the river to look over, the whole mountain range is like a majestic entrenched dragon, Taozhen ancestors therefore gave it an extremely loud name: dragon vein. The dragon vein is named in order of the height of the peak, the highest dragon tail, nearly 2,000 meters above sea level, is called a mountain; The second highest dragon's back is called Ershan; The dragon's head near the river is the shortest, with an altitude of only five or six hundred meters, which is nine mountains. In the past, there were nine mountain streams and streams on the nine mountains, all the way flying beads and splashing jade, flying down from the top of the mountain, like nine fluttering snow-white curtains, all the way into the endless nine rivers at the foot of the mountain, and now all of them are gone, not even one is left.

From the thatched huts full of creepers with a romantic appearance and shabby inside, to the simple and practical fresh wooden houses surrounded by wooden stake fences, to the red brick and green tile houses with square patios in the middle and different scenery at all times, and then to today's sturdy reinforced concrete country cottages, in the past 20 years, the houses where our four siblings live have undergone an extraordinary transition from primitive tribes to modern civilization, but the price of civilization is also obvious: the land is still the same land, but the terrain is far from what it used to be. The small thatched hut was once located in the middle of the nine mountains, spring flowers and autumn leaves, summer rain and winter snow, no matter what season, there is always a landscape, or full, or bleak, or ethereal, or desolate, standing outside the house for a moment, even if it is a depression in the chest, it can also soothe some relief. Now the house has fallen to the foot of the mountain, leaving the half-shoveled nine mountains, looking like a camel with legs, looking inexplicably miserable. The vanishing half was razed to the ground by a technological tool called an excavator, and new buildings were erected on the flat ground like mushrooms after rain: shopping malls, residences, banks, government offices, schools, hospitals, theaters and even hotels. The government planned this area as the Taozhen New District, and the ancient Taozhen on the other side of the river, which had been transformed into a cold and lonely old town after hundreds of years of vicissitudes and vicissitudes, has now been reduced to a cold and lonely old town, which can not help but make the old people sigh.

"What about the original Yuzhu County? Is it still there? ”

"Merged into Wulin City." The second brother yawned and replied lazily.

Yawning is contagious, and I yawned too. "I'm a little sleepy too, let's go back!"

"Haven't you gone anywhere else?" The second brother asked.

I shook my head: "Almost, I should be able to find my way home when I go out alone in the future." ”

The second brother is not reluctant, if I want to shop, I can do it myself, the question is only whether I want to or not, whether I want to or not. Until now, no one in my family has asked me why I came or how long I have been back, and I probably think that this is my home, and I can come back if I want to come back, and I can stay as long as I want. Of course, as before, if I want to go, I don't have to stay.

Crossing the road and returning to the bottom of the mountain, I suddenly remembered something important, "By the way, what about the man-eating tree?" The ground has been bulldozed, is the man-eating tree still there? ”

"Guess!" The second brother glanced at me without a trace, as if he had expected me to ask.

I don't know why, but I used to think that I was the same kind as the tree: it eats people, and I hurt people. In the past, whenever I was unhappy, I would sit under the man-eating tree and talk to it for a while, and I thought it understood. Later, I found that every time I went, my second brother would guard me from afar, and he was probably afraid that I would follow the old path of the girl in red at the Chinese New Year's Eve and sacrifice myself. And every time I went, he would secretly cut off a branch, and he threatened to eat the man-eating tree, and if something happened to me, it would not be as simple as a few branches, he would definitely uproot it for firewood.

I pursed my lips and thought for a moment and said, "Shoveled? ”

The second brother shook his head slowly.

"Still there?" My eyes widened.

The second brother still shook his head.

"Didn't you get blown down by the wind?" It was a joke, but I didn't expect the second brother to reply, "Almost!" ”

"What's that?" I'm getting more and more confused.

"At that time, the government was going to eradicate it, but later the people of Mengjiazhuang surrounded the tree, threatening that 'the tree is in the people, and the tree is dead and the people are dead', and if they want to shovel their sacred tree, the bulldozer must first shovel all the people in their village. But it didn't take long for the tree to begin to dry up, and a gust of wind uprooted it. ”

I raised my eyebrows and said jokingly, "Isn't it a sacred tree?" Why is it so careless? ”

"The people of Mengjiazhuang believe that the surrounding buildings have affected the divine root and spirit, so that the sacred tree has dried up, and they demand compensation." The second brother's language is unwavering.

"Did you lose it?" I asked.

The second brother shrugged, "I don't know, anyway, it's been a long time, and the old village chief of Mengjiazhuang also threatened to bring a curse." ”

"And what's built in that place now?"

"A temple and a pagoda were built." When I arrived at the side of the road, there was no traffic light at the intersection, and the second brother stretched out his long arm to block me, signaling me to wait for the car to pass before leaving.

"What?" I looked confused.

At that time, there were two accidents on the nearby construction site, and three people died, just in response to the old village chief's nonsense, and for a while rumors spread, and people became more convinced of the cursed rumors, and later some construction workers did not dare to go to work. In the end, I don't know which guy with a good head proposed to build a temple and a pagoda in the original place, first, to quell rumors and conflicts, and secondly, to generate income. ”

I smacked my tongue: "Three dead? ”

The second brother nodded and said, "A scaffolding worker accidentally fell from the thirteenth floor, and it happened to hit a passerby. There was also an electrician who made a mistake and died of electrocution. ”

I stared at him in surprise, "How do you know so well?" ”

He glanced at me and said lightly, "Your second brother is one of the developers. ”

"Huh? Oh...... That...... The worker's family ...... "The surprise escalated into fright, and I remembered that my second brother's business was mainly real estate development, construction, and decoration.

"It's all settled." Obviously, he did not want to go further on this topic.

I hummed and said, "But, isn't there a temple on the Eight Mountains?" ”

"The eight mountains are demolished." A camouflage SUV drove by, and the second brother took my hand and walked quickly across the road, "Bashan has now become a concentrated factory area, and the ceramic factories have moved there. ”

"Why did you tear it down?" I'm still confused.

"The newly built one is more than three times larger than the previous one in Bashan, and it is rumored that the new temple is more effective, and the old one has no incense to pay tribute, so naturally there is no need to stay."

"Is Mengjiazhuang still there? Doesn't it mean that if the sacred tree is gone, the village will perish? ”

"It's gone." We talked as we walked, and in a short time we had climbed the gentle slope and returned to the pear tree.

I looked at my second brother suspiciously and said, "Are you kidding?" Is it really that godly? ”

The second brother read as if reading an article: "The Mengjiazhuang area belongs to the southern suburbs of Tao County, and is located south of Jiushan, so it is renamed Jiunan." ”

I couldn't help but laugh, "It's okay to cheat the gods like this?" ”