"There are so many trees here." Bai Ruoqing, who hadn't gone out for many days, was very excited, standing at the door of the courtyard and looking around, looking at the canopy of trees through the roof tiles, stretching out a hand and dragging it to the corner of Chen Changsheng's clothes.

Hearing Bai Ruoqing's voice, Chen Changsheng shivered, saw those verdant and prosperous trees, goosebumps stood up all over his body, and he said with a full breath: "Let's go." ”

Looking at Chen Changsheng, who was gradually moving away, Bai Ruoqing withdrew his eyes and trotted all the way.

Bai Ruoqing was in close contact with this village for the first time, everything seemed so novel, his face was full of smiles, and he looked at everything around him curiously.

Looking at the smile and innocence on Bai Ruoqing's face who was running or stopping, Chen Changsheng couldn't help but feel emotional: "You should be enthusiastic and energetic in your twenties, and if you can get old, it's all because of this damn immortal dao." ”

"What are you talking about?" Bai Ruoqing suddenly ran past Chen Changsheng, who was in broken thoughts, with a puzzled face.

"There's a wealthy family up front, and we used to sell some food." Chen Changsheng didn't want Bai Ruoqing's face to be full of sorrow, and pointed to a courtyard in front of him whose wall was one step higher than the surrounding area.

The door was hidden, and when I knocked on it, the hinge that didn't fit made a strange noise, and the wooden door leaned in on its own.

The dark-skinned middle-aged woman behind the door was lying on a rocking chair, looking at Chen Changsheng standing behind the door, the laziness on her face was swept away.

"Do you have any extra food here? We're here to buy food. Looking at the vigilant eyes of the middle-aged woman, Chen Changsheng hurriedly explained his intentions.

"Yes, come buy food, shout." The middle-aged woman sat up, her eyes were full of simplicity, picked up the teapot on the stone table, and said, "Drink tea first, and talk while drinking." ”

As she spoke, the middle-aged woman raised the teapot and filled it with tea.

The orange tea is constantly swirling in the teacup with foam, and the worn-out tea crumbs are like a lonely boat churning up and down in the tea.

"Thank you." Chen Changsheng held the teacup in his hand and pretended to drink, "Auntie, what kind of food do you have here?" ”

"Fifty wen a pound of rice, fifteen wen a pound of dry food, three wen a pound of sweet potato, what do you want?"

"Four catties of rice, ten catties of dry food, and twenty sweet potatoes." Chen Changsheng took a sip of tea with both hands, thought for a while and said.

"Okay, wait a minute." Seeing Chen Changsheng's Adam's apple squirm for a moment, the aunt showed a nonchalant smile on her face, and turned around and walked towards the cellar.

"Don't drink this tea." When the aunt's figure completely disappeared at the entrance of the cellar, Chen Changsheng took out a piece of wet cloth from his arms, buckled a piece of accompanying "tea leaves" with his nails, and held it in front of Bai Ruoqing.

Looking at the unknown object in Chen Changsheng's hand, Bai Ruoqing's face was at a loss, and he hurriedly pushed the teacup forward, and said, "Fortunately, I didn't drink it, what is this?" ”

Chen Changsheng looked at the broken branch behind Bai Ruoqing, and knew in his heart that "tea" was the bark, but he said with a little regret: "It should be some impurities, anyway, this tea was drunk." ”

The stairs of the cellar creaked, and Chen Changsheng made a silent gesture to Bai Ruoqing, stuffing the fabric back into his clothes.

The middle-aged woman crawled out of the cellar, carrying a bulging half-sack in her hand, looking at Chen Changsheng who was adding tea to her teacup, and said in a voice that she couldn't suppress her excitement: "Your food is here." ”

"Thank you, this is four hundred and ten." Handing the copper coin into the hands of the middle-aged woman, Chen Changsheng pulled Bai Ruoqing out of this strange courtyard.

After buying food, it was dinner time, and the two walked towards the small building one after the other.

Chen Changsheng was very slow carrying the grain, thinking about the strangeness of the village as he walked.

First the ancestral prescriptions, then the villagers who are afraid of diseases, the weird safflower, and the strange tea leaves.

It can be said that throughout the whole strange thing, there are trees linked together, to be exact, it should be branches.

For example, in the ancestral recipe, there are branches, tea leaves are branches, and safflower also blooms on branches.

The source of all the strange things in the village can be said to be tree branches, and there are branches in the medicinal juice that Bai Ruoqing drank, so meeting with the old man is essential.

Chen Changsheng looked at the closed wooden door in front of him, his divergent thoughts gradually converged, he took out the key from his arms, and opened the door as if nothing had happened.

The medicine stove where the medicine was boiled was cleaned, washed, and steamed with rice, and placed on the bluestone table to emit heat.

Chen Changsheng sandwiched a chopsticks of lard stewed green vegetables, ate it in a big gulp, and said to Bai Ruoqing, who was chewing slowly: "Eat more, I may leave tomorrow." ”

As he spoke, Chen Changsheng took a bite of food and stopped talking.

The sky was dark, and Chen Changsheng and the others put their packed luggage in the corner of the small building.

"You don't even ask me why I didn't let you take your medicine today." Chen Changsheng's heart was extremely restless tonight, and he couldn't sit on the thatch.

"You won't harm me, life and death have helped each other over." Bai Ruoqing's voice came from the side of the bed, and his tone was firm.

The small building fell silent for a long time, and only after the moon was three poles before Chen Changsheng opened his mouth and shouted: "Bai Ruoqing." ”

One, two, several shouts, Bai Ruoqing never responded.

Listening to the quiet surroundings, Chen Changsheng got up from the thatch, tried his best to reduce his voice to the lightest, tiptoed open the door, opened the door that was not locked and hidden, and ran along the village road towards the field in the moonlight.

"Here we are." In the dark and wide field, a figure slowly walked up from the bottom of the slope and said to the panting Chen Changsheng.

"Say, what can't be said." Chen Changsheng looked at the old man who came out of the hillside with a smile on his face and asked.

"Don't worry, we haven't known each other for so long." Listening to Chen Changsheng's angry questioning, the old man still maintained a smile on his face, and took a few steps forward and said, "My name is Li Xuyang, you can call me Lao Li Tou." ”

After all, there is a request for others, even if Chen Changsheng is a little displeased, he still introduced: "Chen Changsheng, you can talk about it now." ”

"Of course, have you ever heard of the saying that a tree grows into a thousand years." Lao Li Tou said mysteriously, and at the same time lowered his voice, as if he was afraid of being heard by this vast grassland.