On the eastern wasteland of Taotangqiu, a group of people walked in a circle, and the line of dozens of people was very long, and the formation was very messy. As soon as he stepped on the footsteps, a puff of fine dust was stirred, and a sinuous yellow dust dragon fell to the back of the team, following him like a shadow. A group of ordinary people have been on the road for two days and two nights, tired, scorching sun and smoke slowing their figures, but the pace of moving forward has never stopped.

A small tornado rose from the ground, whistling in dust and crashing right in front of the group. The leader took two sips, slapped a few times on his body, stopped, looked up at the sky, it was already in the middle of the sky, and he subconsciously put his hand on his forehead to block the scorching sun. The leader was a middle-aged man, dressed in a long shirt, with bare calves and a pair of straw sandals on his feet. The dust covered the true color of the clothes, and the long hair and beard condensed into strands, which were also yellow. His face seemed to be painted with a layer of gray-yellow oil paint, and when the beads of sweat slid down, he plowed into furrows, leaving only a pair of clear eyes.

He turned to look at the team, which stopped. Like the leader, these people were covered in dust, as if they had been dug out of an ash heap. People looked at the leader, tired but hopeful. In fact, everyone knows what the village chief is going to say next, and this place is not far from the destination. But they still want the village chief to speak out, the village chief is their spiritual pillar, and his words will bring courage and strength to move forward.

"Everyone worked hard to get to the mouth of the Mengfan River before dark. The village chief said. The mouth of the Mengfan River in the mouth of the village chief is located at the confluence of the Fengling River and its tributaries, and the huge waves of the two large rivers collide to form a strong updraft. When the seed cloud drifts by, some of the seeds are disturbed by the air current, deviate from the direction of travel, and scatter in the estuary, where the harvest is often dozens of times more than usual. In honor of the discoverer Meng Fan, this place was named Meng Fan Estuary.

The team slowly moved forward again. The village chief looked at the back of the procession, where there was an old man, dragging his heavy steps and trying to catch up with the procession. The old man wears a coarse cloth cardigan, with two strips of cloth tied around the ankles and a long handkerchief wrapped around his head, which is a very typical dress of an old peasant in western Sichuan. The old man was really old, and the years had carved his thin face into orange peel, and also cut away his originally muscular body, he was hunched, his steps were not large, but he tried to speed up the frequency of his steps, and his movements looked very mechanical, like a marionette. Next to him was a thirteen or fourteen-year-old child, who supported the old man and leaned his body hard against the old man. The village chief's eyes were a little sour, and he walked quickly to the end of the line and came to the old man's side.

"Daddy Mei, can you hold on?" the village chief asked with concern.

"I can do it, I've been on this road for thousands of years. The old man looked at the village chief, his cloudy eyes showing gratitude.

"The road wasn't so difficult before. ”

"Before, there was grass and flowers everywhere, and there was an endless stream of fruit. The old man's brown face burst into a smile, and the smile deepened his wrinkles.

"Uncle, ten years ago, why did the tree god take back the flowers and trees here, did we do something wrong?" the child asked the village chief, tilting his head.

The village chief rubbed the child's head vigorously and was silent. He can't answer the child's questions, and he wants to know the answers.

Looking at the old man's face, the village chief's voice was a little dry: "Dad, don't come here in the unknown year." ”

The old man shook his head stubbornly, "The child is still young, and I don't worry." Besides, one more person, one more harvest. ”

The village chief looked at the old and the young, and sighed secretly, if only Dmitry was still around. Med and he are the only two soul masters in the village, nine years ago, that is, the second year after this place became a desert, Med disappeared, and no one saw him again, but the old and the young suffered. When he looked at the old man again, he wanted to say that it was a big deal to let the people in the village come out a little evenly, but who has been rich all these years? He gently put his arm around the old man's thin shoulder, patted the child on the shoulder twice, and instructed: "Take care of your grandfather." ”

It was already nightfall when the procession marched to the mouth of the Mengfan River, and the team erupted in cheers. The estuary is no longer the desolate scenery it used to be, with grass, flowers, trees, ponds, and a lot of fruit. The village chief assigned the villagers to pick the fruits, and he began to build the camp himself, and he was now the only soul planter in the village, so he had to do it himself. He went to the pond to wash it before taking a seed out of the cuff of his robe. A white light emitted from the center of his eyebrows, as if he had opened the eyes of the sky, and when the light stabilized, a square mark appeared in the center of his eyebrows. He placed the seed on top of the seal, and the seed also glowed white, and after only a few moments, he planted the seed on the ground. Then he walked more than ten meters, took out another seed and put it in the center of his eyebrows, and so on, planting one at intervals. The seeds began to take root and sprout when they landed, and before long, more than a dozen tents of various sizes appeared on the meadow.

The old man didn't go to pick the fruit, and it was almost beyond his limit to be able to get here. He sat on the grass and stared at the sky in a daze. The village chief finished his work and came to the old man's side, he leaned down and put his arm around the old man's shoulders before he sat down, he didn't speak, he was waiting for the old man to speak.

"When I was in my hometown, every time the moon was full, I always liked to move a small stool to sit in the dam and watch the moon. "Bao Gu is that child, the grandson of the old man. "The sky in my hometown is blue, there is only one moon, it's so beautiful, there are Chang'e, rabbits, and osmanthus trees in the moon. There is also a person named Wu Gang, who cuts the osmanthus tree with an axe every day. That Wu Gang is just a melon skin baby, who has been cutting for 10,000 years, and has not cut a single bark. ”

The village chief also looked at the sky, smiling, and listening to the old man's chatter. When people get old, they like to reminisce. Since the year of Dmide's disappearance, the old man has been here every year to tell him about his hometown, the month of his hometown, the chirping of insects and frogs in the fields, and the bears stealing food in the valley behind the house. The village chief also misses his hometown a little, and although he has listened to it nine times, it does not prevent him from continuing to listen carefully. He even had a bad feeling that maybe he wouldn't hear it again next year. The only strange thing about him was that in the past nine years, the old man had never talked about his son Mmade, and the old man did not say it, and the village chief had to tacitly not mention it.

By this time the sun had set, and even the blush it had left behind had shrirked itself away. There are two moons hanging in the night sky, one in the east and one in the middle. The crescent moon in the east, shining with porcelain white light, hangs in the purple sky, and the name of this moon is the White Tiger. Overhead is the green dragon moon in the form of a string moon, such as missing half of the disk, the pale cyan disk faintly has half of the green dragon shadow roaming, showing the dragon's head, and the dragon's tail is hidden with the half of the disk.

The green and hazy moonlight sprinkled on the earth, a little quiet and mysterious. In the distance, there was a sometimes dull, sometimes violent roar, which was the sound of the Waleng River, a tributary of the Fengling River, when it rushed into the main stream and set off raging waves. However, this did not affect the villagers in any way, and their laughter from time to time diluted the atmosphere.

"It's still a beautiful month in my hometown. The old man let out a sigh of emotion.

The village chief knew that the old man's story was coming to an end, and he withdrew his gaze from the sky and sat up straight, having formed a conditioned reflex that he had been doing for several years.

"There's no going back!" the old man sighed, ending his story.

The village chief did not leave, he seemed to be waiting for something.

The old man looked at the sky again, and after a long time, he muttered: "The green dragon and the white tiger are all out, left and right, tomorrow is a good harvest." ”

The village chief's face showed joy, he stood up, leaned over again and hugged the old man's shoulder, and said softly: "Daddy will go to pay tribute to Master Meng Fan in a while, so eat some fruit and rest early." ”

The old man put his hand on his chest and said, "Thank you to the tree god, thank you to Master Meng Fan." ”

The village chief stood solemnly and straightened, and also put his hand in his heart: "Thank you to the tree god, thank you to Master Meng Fan." ”

He turned away and walked towards the crowd of fruit pickers. After a few moments, the crowd erupted in cheers again, and it was clear that the village chief had told them the old man's prophecy. They don't know what the basis of Daddy's prediction is, the moon phase of "green dragons and white tigers come out together, left new and right Xuan", and Daddy also made a prediction of "tomorrow's lack of harvest". But they believe in Daddy, and for hundreds of years, Daddy has never missed out.

Actually, Daddy's prophecy didn't really help them, and they had already come here for a good or bad harvest. But just like couples who are about to become parents, there is always an urgent desire to know the sex of the child who will be born, although it is impossible for them to change anything.

After a group of people were busy, they cleaned up their clothes and went to a hill in the northeast to pay tribute to Meng Fan. Then some food was hastily eaten, and the noisy camp soon fell silent, and the villagers fell asleep with joy. Tomorrow is the annual "Harvest Day", they will get up early to bathe and change clothes, burn incense and worship, sing and dance, and welcome the gifts of the tree gods flying from the sky.