Sailor and He Weilong and I left the house in the back of the mountain with a disappointed heart.

The disappointments of the three were different.

He Weilong was disappointed that he did not complete the task assigned to him by his family, and invited the fairy grandmother to see his second master. Although she promised to go to treatment after returning from errands, for He Weilong, he went back empty-handed today.

The sailor was disappointed that for the first time today he knew that there was some kind of unpleasantness between his grandmother and his grandmother, which shattered an established notion in his mind that he had never doubted. He has always felt that he lives in a happy, harmonious and perfect family, because his parents never quarrel and quarrel, and the two are always in harmony, which is rare in the village; Sensible, study well, never cause trouble; when his grandmother was there, he cared for his son, daughter-in-law and grandson, was kind and kind, and the relationship between his mother-in-law and daughter-in-law was also handled very well, and he could be regarded as a model in the village, and his parents' filial piety was also known to everyone in the village; although his grandmother had been living in Beishan and rarely seen her, he had always been thinking about her old man, and loved her from the bottom of his heart, and he felt that his parents and grandmother should also be like him, and he loved the old man who looked strange and bizarre in his heart, after all, she was also the closest relative of their family. But today he knows that in this perfect family that he thinks, even mothers and daughters like grandma and grandma have dislikes. It was a huge blow to his psyche.

My disappointment is not alone.

First, the fairy grandma I saw this time was not fierce at all, and even quite kind, which I knew of the person who wanted to kill my father.

Second, all my doubts about the house, and all the strange legends about it in the village, have been answered scientifically, and nothing related to the gods and monsters has been found. This made me, who was hoping to find clues to solve other mysteries in this house, feel a kind of frustration of punching a cotton bale.

Thirdly, the mystery of that mysterious conversation was never solved in the end, and although she gave a perfect explanation on the radio, and both friends believed it, I always felt that there was something strange about it.

In any case, I was lucky enough to see that fairyland cave hidden underground, which I never dreamed of. That was enough to offset the disappointment in my heart.

The disappointment and worry in the hearts of the three people all disappeared as soon as they arrived on the western slope, which is the nature of children of our age. But there is one thing that always comes out to disturb us in the happiest moments.

That's hunger.

When we played on the western slope until three or four o'clock, everyone's stomach was gurgling, and we no longer had the strength to spread wild on the hillside.

"Let's go, I'll take you somewhere. "I had an idea, and I thought about it.

The three of them came to Daddy's shack. I brought the brazier to a large grassy beach on the ridge and started to make a fire. Let the sailors and He Weilong go to my family's potato field to dig potatoes and pick green beans in Daddy's bean field.

As we sat happily on the edge of the ridge and ate boiled green beans and baked potatoes while looking for our houses at the foot of the mountain, the sun gradually set over the mountains to the west, and the white clouds on the top of the western mountains turned first golden, then orange, and then bright red like fire. The earth gradually lost its luster.

"Someone is going to be boarded tomorrow. ”

When we heard someone talking, we looked back and saw that it was my father who had just turned from the main road up the mountain to the ridge of this terraced field and walked towards where we were sitting.

The sailor didn't know that the hut and brazier belonged to his father, but when he saw his father coming, he got up and left.

The old man stopped him: "Sailor, just eating potatoes and beans will hurt your stomach, come and eat some steamed buns, and I will make you oil and noodle tea." ”

As he spoke, Daddy walked to the door of the shack, took out a kerosene lamp from the shack, lit it, and hung it on a herringbone bracket at the mouth of the shack.

Looking back, the sailor was still standing in place, and he smiled and said, "Sailor, you are a smart baby." What others say is someone else's business, you have to have a rod and scale in your heart, no matter what, Daddy, I don't have any grudges with you. People, like a kite floating in the air, are led by a thread. No one knows when two threads will become entangled. This is called fate. If there is fate, it will be cut, and if there is no fate, it will not stick together. You'll learn this slowly. Come here, there are only four of us on this mountain today, not in the village, there is nothing to avoid. ”

After looking at me after saying this, I immediately understood, and walked over and pulled the sailor to sit on the stone by the brazier. He Weilong sat next to Daddy across from us.

Daddy washed the tea pot we had boiled the beans and dried them over the fire. He took out a paper bag from the cloth bag he had just brought up the mountain, and inside the paper bag was a few pieces of pork fat. He put the fat meat in the jar and pushed the jar into the charcoal fire. After a while, there was a sizzling sound in the jar, and the old man picked up a chopstick and stirred it in it, took out a small bag of tea leaves from the cloth bag, poured it into the jar, and fried it a few times. - This time he didn't use brick tea. Then pour in the water with a thud.

"Xiao Yuan, go in and get three teacups out. He said as he added fried noodles to a freshly boiled jar.

When three cups of thick oil noodle tea were placed in front of us, we felt how hard it was to swallow the potatoes and green beans that had been eaten for an afternoon.

Eating the soft white bread and drinking the fragrant oil noodle tea, the three bellies filled with potatoes and broad beans were finally greatly satisfied.

"Wei Long, your lord is going out tomorrow [Note 1], and there are many things to prepare for in the evening, so you should go down the mountain early with the sailors. Xiao Yuan slept on the mountain, and his grandfather would come up in a while. Seeing that we were full, Daddy turned his head and said to He Weilong.

He Weilong and the sailors got up to leave, and he said to the sailors again: "Don't tell your father about going to the mountain today, that is, I asked you to go to the mountain to help me pick beans." He won't blame you for skipping school. Remember to ask your classmates about today's homework, and when you see the teacher tomorrow, they will say that they are sick today and did not go to school. - By the way, hold the flashlight, it's hard to walk when it's dark. ”

The sailor didn't look back, only hummed, and He Weilong came back and got a flashlight. The two of them went down the mountain one after the other.

"I know you have a lot of questions to ask today, but you should know that it's useless to ask. Daddy said while taking chopsticks out of the jar of tea leaves and putting them in his mouth to chew.

"You guessed wrong, I don't have a problem today!" I said deliberately.

"Hahaha——!" Daddy smiled knowingly.

And then he began today's story.

"Your sixth master and I are walking along the avenue to the northeast. By the evening we had walked to a town place.

"We first found a place to stay, then went to a restaurant and ordered a bowl of noodles for each person. After eating the noodles, I found the boss and asked how to get to Yan'an.

"The boss said: 'We often have salt merchants here who go to Yan'an, and I heard that if you sell the salt from our wells here, you can make several times the profit, but if the government finds out, you will not survive, and you will have to be shot on the spot. What are you doing there at such a young age? If you ask me where Yan'an is, I can't say, they all say that it is farther than the provincial capital. ’

"We didn't get useful information and we had to come out of the restaurant. The town is small, with only a dozen shops along both sides of the main road, and farmland beyond.

"We walked around the town and everyone we asked had heard of Yan'an, but none of them could say where Yan'an was.

"We had to go back to the store and sleep.

"At about eight or nine o'clock in the evening, I heard someone beating a gong on the road outside, and then I heard a commotion in the street.

"Your sixth master likes to join in the fun, so he hurriedly got dressed and ran out. I stopped him: 'We are now people who are on the run, and we can't hide from trouble, so don't run out to join the peace, sleep in peace, and we will have to go tomorrow.' ’

"Your sixth master can't listen to it at all, and said that he will come back after taking a look at the situation.

"I had no choice, I was afraid that he would go out and get into trouble again, so I went out with him.

"When I came to the street, I saw that the road was full of people, all with torches. There seemed to be someone howling and crying at the west end of the town.

"We followed the flow of people to the west end of town, and the crying came from the yard behind a pork shop.

"The yard gate was open and there were people around.

"Your sixth master pulled me through the cracks to the gate of the courtyard. I saw three people lying in the courtyard, their faces covered with white cloths, but the white cloth was all stained red with blood, and only the edges could be seen that it was white.

"The three men were covered in scars and blood, one of them had a broken arm and only a little flesh attached to it, one had a large opening in his stomach and his intestines were scattered, and one had a hole in his neck where the white vertebrae could be seen. The earth was full of blood.

"There was a woman of about 14 years old who walked on the ground and cried and cried, throwing her hands on the ground as she wept. There was also a teenage girl standing behind her, motionless, like a fool.

At this time, the crowd was talking.

"Some people say, 'How did you become a sperm after so many years!'

"Someone said, 'Father and son kill pigs every day, and it seems that the sin is too deep, and God has punished them. ’

"Someone else said, 'It ran up the mountain, will it come down again tonight and hurt people?' ’

Seeing this situation and listening to people's discussions, I was shocked into a cold sweat. Although I am stupid and courageous, I am not afraid of anything, but when I don't fully know the truth of a thing, it is the most terrifying.

But your sixth master didn't care, and walked directly to the crying woman. ”

Note 1: Going out is the local custom name for funeral.