Su Ting didn't panic because of Wang Qiang's words, she approached some beds, wanting to see the village chief's situation clearly.

The villagers who had been taking care of the village chief raised their hands to block Su Ting.

Su Ting stopped, glanced up at him, and looked back at Wang Qiang.

"If you don't let me see clearly, how can I help you solve the problem?"

Wang Qiang's eyes fell dangerously on Su Ting's body, and the two faced each other silently for a moment.

Wang Qiang's eyes flickered, and he waved his hand at the person who was blocking Su Ting.

"You'd better really have a way, or you'll ......"

"Otherwise, you'll kill me, you know, you know, how many times have you said it." Su listened impatiently to interrupt Wang Qiang's words.

Turning his head closer to the bed, he bent down to take a closer look at the village chief's condition.

The village chief's eyes were closed, and if it weren't for the slight heaving of his chest, which he could still see, it really looked like he was out of breath.

However, Su listened to his situation, and he was almost no different from a dead man.

Almost all of the body is hardened.

From the neck down, the skin is keratinized into lumps. It looks like pieces of bark.

Su Ting stretched out his hand and touched the village chief's keratinized skin, and cut his hands roughly, it was really the same touch as when he touched the bark.

She put her hand on the village chief's heart and felt the village chief's faint heartbeat.

Wang Qiang's eyes behind her were firmly fixed on Su Ting throughout the whole process, not missing any of her movements.

Until Su Ting straightened up, he hurriedly asked, "How is it?" ”

Su Ting turned around and frowned, "The situation is very serious. ”

"What?" Wang Qiang's face turned pale.

Su listened: "You yourself should be very aware of the consequences of becoming like this, this is not the first case in your village, right?" ”

Wang Qiang and the people around him did not answer Su Ting's question.

But the silence says it all.

Su Ting continued: "If you don't say it, I also know that the reason why you don't leave the village is because you have no way to leave. Once you have been away for a long time, your body will become like that of the village chief. That's why you have to stay in the village.

Including your children, even if they go out to study and work, and start a family in another city, they still have to come back in the end, otherwise they will be established in advance. ”

Sue's words silenced everyone in the room.

Su Ting looked at Wang Qiang, "Do you know why?" ”

"Why?"

"It's telling you that it's time to get back to your roots."

"What?" Wang Qiang's eyes widened, and there was a look of panic in his eyes.

"Ahem...... cough" At this time, the village chief on the bed suddenly coughed.

The attention of the crowd was drawn to the past.

Wang Qiang hurriedly came to the bedside, "Dad! How are you? ”

Hearing Wang Qiang shouting the village chief's father, Su Ting just raised his eyes and glanced at the two of them, and was not surprised.

When she saw the face of the village chief just now, she saw that there was a father-son relationship between the village chief and Wang Qiang.

"I ...... I'm fine. "The village chief now has a hard time speaking, so he can only lie in bed and wait for death.

"Who is it...... Here it comes? The village chief asked.

Wang Qiang replied: "Dad, it's someone from the program team who came to inspect before, and this woman said that she could help us solve the troubles in the village." ”

When the village chief heard this, he turned his head with difficulty and looked at Su Ting beside the bed.

The look in his cloudy eyes was dark.

Su heard that the old man's lifespan was coming, and if nothing else, it would be these days.

"Hello, I'm slacking, my current physical condition can't entertain you." The old man gasped.

Su was a little surprised, the village chief looked very polite and talkative.

But his son Wang Qiang has the temperament of a bandit, and he looks like he has a few lives in his hands.

But just looking at it, Su Ting knew that he hadn't done anything illegal, otherwise he would have taken care of this scourge a long time ago.

"The old man is welcome, I can entertain myself." As he spoke, he really found a place for himself to sit on the side.

It's that I don't think of myself as an outsider at all.

Wang Qiang glanced at Su Ting, his eyes looked a little cold, but he didn't say anything.

The old village chief laughed, and was not unhappy because of Su Ting's behavior.

"Okay, don't see the little girl, tell Qiangzi if you need anything, you're welcome."

"Okay, you're welcome."

Everyone else was a little dazed by Su Ting's behavior that he didn't see at all, how could this woman really not be afraid at all?

Even the young people in the village were frightened when they first saw the tree-shaped villagers.

This woman is so bold.

The village chief breathed a sigh of relief and asked Wang Qiang: "What do you mean by what you just said that this little girl can solve the problems of the village?" ”

Wang Qiang explained: "She knows the situation in our village, and she is all right. ”

The village chief's face changed slightly, and he asked, "Are you all right?" ”

"Well, she knows we can't live without the village, and she knows that we're all going to end up like you. She also said that there is a solution to our problems. ”

The village chief looked a little excited.

"You say...... Are you telling the truth? ”

Wang Jianmin's biggest knot in his life is the curse of the village.

It should be said that this is a knot in the hearts of all the people in the whole village. Generation, each generation, longed to be able to lift the curse.

But today, he's almost gone, and the curse remains.

If he could see the curse broken before he died, then he could also die blindly.

"Really, I never lie." Unless it's not a person.

"You...... Do you really have what it takes to break the curse for the village? Wang Jianmin excitedly wanted to sit up from the bed.

But his body was so badly degraded that it was impossible to sit up.

In the end, I had to give up.

"Cursed?" Su Ting tilted his head, "You think this is a curse?" ”

Wang Jianmin's father and son and the villagers who were responsible for taking care of Wang Jianmin next to them were all stunned.

"Isn't it a curse?" The villager next to him asked a little impatiently.

"Not strictly a curse." Su listened for a moment and explained, "It should be said that this is a deal between your ancestors and it. ”

"Deal?"

"Hmm. Counting the time, it has been more than 1,000 years since your ancestors first came to this place. ”

"So long?" Wang Qiang was a little surprised.

Although the older generation always says that they have lived here for generations, Wang Qiang feels that this "generation" may not have many generations.

After all, the entire Chinese civilization is only a few thousand years old.

Much of that time has been spent in various wars and displaced people.

Many of them may not have been indigenous to the area at all, but had migrated here to escape the war.

Therefore, Wang Qiang thinks that they may have migrated here hundreds of years ago to escape the war.

But now Su Ting told them that their clan had been living here for more than a thousand years!

Wang Jianmin, the village head, was also a little surprised.

"Has our village been living here for so long?"

Su Ting nodded, looked at the village chief's father and son, and the two villagers next to him, wanting to speak and stopping, with some unbearable eyes in his eyes.

Wang Jianmin saw that Su was about to speak, and said in an unsteady voice: "The little girl might as well say it directly." ”

When Su heard this, he sighed and said, "Then I'll just say it." ”

The truth is cruel, but not knowing the truth is even more cruel to the people of this village.

"In fact, your village should have ceased to exist about a thousand years ago."

"What?" Several people's eyes widened in disbelief.

Su listened to their surprise and continued: "It should be more than a thousand years ago, there was a war here, a fierce war. The war has affected this village, and the villagers have suffered countless casualties, and the blood has spread to the old locust tree at the entrance of the village.

The old locust tree had lived for more than 2,000 years at that time, and it had already opened its mind. ”

"You mean, we're all here because of the old locust tree at the door?" Wang Qiang asked.

Su Ting nodded, "It's indeed because of it." ”

"Village Chief! I'll just say that the old locust tree is evil! It's long overdue! A villager next to him said angrily.

Su Ting sneered and said, "If you cut it, you really won't be able to live." ”

The villagers' bodies stiffened, "Why?" Isn't it because we're all here? ”

"But it's because you've survived and thrived to this day."

Su's words made several people look incredulous.

"That old locust tree has been standing there, originally cultivating quietly, maybe it won't be long before it can achieve positive results.

But the war spread, and it watched the village where it once lived be affected by the war, and watched the children who had grown up with it die tragically.

A tree felt sad and compassionate. ”

Several people listened in amazement as Su heard about the old locust tree, and at the same time they were shocked in their hearts, they couldn't believe it.

"When a tree has a heart, it has actually realized its own way. It's just that the price is a bit big. ”

The price of the old locust tree's enlightenment is to watch the children he once grew up die tragically one by one.

"The blood of your ancestors soaked the land where the old locust tree took root, and the old locust tree used the blood as a guide and signed a contract with your ancestors with its thousand-year-old cultivation.

He resurrected your ancestors, but at the cost of not being able to leave the village, or he would be like this. ”

Su heard and pointed at Wang Jianmin.

"How so?" Wang Qiang looked like he had been hit hard.

The villager next to him retorted: "But many young people in the village have gone out, isn't it okay?" ”

"It's not okay." The villager next to him retorted, "Have you forgotten? Although they went out, they eventually had to return to the village to die. ”

Others were dumbfounded.

Su Ting looked at them and asked, "Recall carefully, has this not happened before?" A long time ago, almost all the people in your village lived a long life without illness or disaster, isn't that true? ”

Everyone subconsciously looked at the village chief Wang Jianmin, who had almost never been out of the village in their generation.

In the end, it was because of a physical condition that I had to come back to the village.

In their memories, the people of the village have been plagued by this strange disease for a long time.

Wang Jianmin's eyes were in a trance, he began to look through his memories, and then found the answer he wanted from the memory bank that was far away.

"I remember."

Wang Jianmin's muddy and hoarse voice sounded, with remembrance.

"That's true, I remember...... My grandmother's generation was very healthy, seventy or eighty years old, and they often sat around under the old locust tree at the entrance of the village to enjoy the cool and chat.

Later, when my parents' generation came to the reform and opening up, the country's economy began to develop, and they also wanted to go out and find a new way out. You can't always be in such a backward mountain village.

Later, some of the first batch of people who went out to develop succeeded, and some failed. Whether it is a success or a failure, it has basically become a home outside.

It seems that it was at that time that the people in the village began to have strange diseases. ”

Wang Jianmin said, a little excited.

"I remember that it was at that time, when the people who went out came back, there was already a part of the change in their bodies. Their skin became like tree bark. I went to the doctor outside, and I only said that it was a skin disease, but it couldn't be cured.

These people have no choice but to come back and ask the elderly at home if they have a similar history of disease.

But something strange happened, and within two days of the men returning to the village, their stiff skin slowly began to improve. ”

"Yes, those of us who have been outside will go back to the village as soon as we have skin lesions. When you recover, leave again. Every once in a while, we have to go back to the village. ”

"In the past, some people didn't believe in evil, and their bodies were already diseased and they didn't come back, and finally they were completely transformed outside within two months."

The villagers talked in a few words about what had happened in the village before, and Su listened to it, and what these people said was similar to what he had calculated before.

After listening to what they said, Su spoke: "You think that the old locust tree has harmed you, but you don't know that if there is no old locust tree, you don't exist at all." ”

Everyone looked at Su Ting, with a complicated expression.

Resisting this result in their hearts, they had to believe many facts when they put them together.

"Actually, strictly speaking, you don't really exist. If it weren't for the old locust tree, your ancestors would have died in a war more than a thousand years ago. Naturally, there would be no such thing as you are now.

Not being able to leave the village is not that the old locust tree deliberately restricts you, but that once you leave the shelter of the old locust tree, it will not be able to continue to provide you with vitality.

Without its life force, you are like a small tree that loses its nutrients and eventually dies. ”

That's why they end up dying in the tree.

"If that's what you say, then we're back now, why is this happening in the end?" Wang Qiang asked.

Su got up and came to the window.

Looking out of the window, you can see the towering old locust tree.

It has stood there for thousands of years, quiet and reliable.

It promised its ancestors that it would always protect their descendants, and it has kept its promise ever since.

It's just that......

"People are born, old, sick and die, and when their spirit is exhausted, they will die. Trees, too. ”

Wang Qiang's eyes widened.

"You mean, the old locust tree wants to ...... To ......"

"Well, it's going to die." Su's voice was so light that it was ethereal.

Wang Qiang even thought it was just his auditory hallucination.

"How is that possible? Didn't you say it lived for thousands of years? How could it die if it was so powerful? Some of the villagers next to me could not accept this result.

If the old locust tree died, what about them?

What will happen to them?

Panic spread through the hearts of several people.

Su Ting turned to look at them with a cold look in his eyes.

"Over the years, he has almost exhausted his energy to protect those of you who have gone out. Otherwise, why do you think you can live outside for so long after you leave the village? ”

After listening to Su's words, several people had a shocking guess in their hearts.

Wang Jianmin, the village head, closed his eyes.

In fact, his ancestors had always told them not to leave the village, he remembered.

But as time passed, the rules of the ancestors were gradually forgotten, and young people became less and less serious about them.

The times are developing, and the world is getting better and better, why do they have to keep guarding such a backward small mountain village?

They thought they were guarding the village, the old locust tree.

It turned out that everything went wrong.

It's not that they're guarding it, it's that it's always guarding them.

It's wrong, it's all wrong.

Su Ting's words were like a hammer, slamming into their hearts.

"If it weren't for the fact that all these years of protecting those young people who are going out, it wouldn't have to spend on you.

Originally, with its cultivation, you can stay in this village in peace, and it will be no problem for it to protect you for hundreds of years.

If there is an adventure, it may be able to protect you for a longer time.

But there are too many young people who have gone out over the years, and its cultivation is so depleting that it naturally can't continue to protect you.

He couldn't even hold on to himself. ”

Su Ting really wanted to ask the old locust tree at the entrance of the village, for the sake of these people who should not exist in the world, he did not hesitate to even put himself into it, is it worth it?

For the sake of humanity, is it worth it?

"Is there any way to save it?" After a while, Wang Jianmin's voice sounded tiredly.

He looked at Su Ting with hope in his eyes, expecting an answer that might save everything.

Wang Qiang was still a little reluctant to believe this, "Dad, how do you know that she is telling the truth?" What if she made it up to trick you? ”

Wang Jianmin looked at his son, tears flashing in his eyes.

"But what if what she says is true?"

In fact, Wang Jianmin believed that Su listened, because many of the things that Su heard were things that people could not know at all.

Moreover, why did Su Ting lie to them?

The village is already like this, and if there is no miracle, it will end up being just the same as he is now.

Life is better than death.

Wang Qiang looked at Wang Jianmin and couldn't refute it.

Su Ting looked at Wang Jianmin and said, "You should understand that there is no such thing as the best of both worlds in this world, let alone perfection." The so-called perfection is nothing but relative to the greater defect. ”

Su's words made the hearts of several people in the room sink a little.

So, is there no help?

But when he heard Su listen, he said, "If you want to live, it must die; If it wants to live, you have to return to your destiny. ”

What is Destiny?

The destiny of the people of Huaicun was written more than a thousand years ago, but it was changed by a locust tree spirit who could not see the tragedy in the world.