Chen Tao, a thief, has no father and no mother, grew up in the City God Temple, I don't know where to learn the ability to steal money, at the beginning he just stole the money bags of some passers-by, and then stole some things of the nobles in the city, and the nobles later learned that under the statue of the land god in the City God Temple, the sleeping little beggar actually stole her things, so he ordered someone to take him to the official.

The messenger in charge caught Chen Tao, I don't know who he listened to, he actually took a pair of small copper bells, let the messenger hold his hands and feet, and forced the copper bell into Chen Tao's ears, that night, Chen Tao howled all night, the copper bells in his ears never stopped, the pinna of the ears was cracked, and it was full of blood.

Chen Tao's daily howl annoyed a group of beggars inside and outside the City God Temple after all, and caught him at night and told him not to howl at night, but where can Chen Tao still hear it, these days as soon as he moves, the copper bell in his ears will ring as soon as he moves, and the cracked ear is also full of blood, and many beggars see that he does not listen, so they tie him to the stone pier in the City God Temple, blindfolded, and the punishing beggar of seniority stepped forward and knocked out a few teeth of him, so that he bit the strip of cloth, and never made a sound again.

Finally able to sleep peacefully, the snoring of beggars woke up Chen Tao, who was tied to the stone pier, and he looked at the stars in the sky, and the fireflies were lit, as if he was sleepy listening to the copper bells.

Three days later, the beggars remembered that there was still such a little beggar trapped in the City God Temple, worried about making a mistake, everyone came to the City God Temple under the statue of the Lord of the Land, Chen Tao in front of the stone pier was pale, and lay on the ground weakly, but the two hands covered his ears, the beggars hurriedly took him to seek a doctor, the dilapidated medical hall, the old doctor wasted two days to sew up his ears, for his body to recuperate, and when he was treated, he said: "This copper bell, I'm afraid it will follow you for a lifetime." ”

Helplessly, Chen Tao smiled weakly: "Old Doctor Xie, save me." ”

He knew in his heart that the old doctor had saved him, three days of not eating, drinking, sleeping, his body had been so weak, until a year later he was able to get out of bed and walk, the old doctor had no children, but there was a daughter, an old and a young took care of him, the woman was three years older than him, he called her a sister, and finally healed, Chen Tao stayed in the infirmary, for the old doctor to grab medicine.

Women are going to marry after all, the old doctor's daughter is as beautiful as a flower, she is a famous beauty in the county town of the Quartet, many noble sons have come to marry, she has seen a cloth swordsman, Chen Tao has seen them walk on the stone bridge together, my sister snuggled in the arms of Mr., the delicate appearance is very moving, Chen Tao is also very happy in his heart, he will go to the stone bridge every day, two days and three days, watching the two people love.

"Why can't I marry him? Daddy, I love him, I admire him, and I don't agree to those marriages. ”

That day, my sister ran out of the house as soon as she came back, the old doctor chased her for three miles, Chen Tao also looked for her for a day, and my sister disappeared, and disappeared with the swordsman in a cloth clothes.

The old doctor had gray hair, and sat in front of the infirmary all day long, Chen Tao worked hard to learn to treat people, he learned these days, and the money he earned was used to take care of the old doctor.

My sister is gone, and the old doctor counted the days, and one day he suddenly bought wine and meat, and put on a brocade robe that he had been reluctant to wear, which was given to him by the old doctor when the old wife of the county magistrate's family was sick.

"Today is the 30th anniversary of the death of my wife, and your sister has been away from home for so many days, and it is time to come back. The old doctor wiped the spirit of his deceased wife and said that Chen Tao also bowed respectfully to the deceased wife of the old doctor.

When the sun got up in the morning, he waited at the entrance of the house, and all the passers-by who walked knew that there was such an old doctor in the county, with excellent medical skills, and they all bowed down curiously to greet him, and the old man only smiled slightly, saying that his daughter was coming back.

"Doctor Ge, is your daughter coming back?" The shopkeeper of embroidery and textile Shi on the other street came up to talk, smiled, and looked at the house, Chen Tao was busy stewing a pot of lake fish soup, ginger and garlic were thrown in, and the aroma floated out at once, Boss Shi smelled the taste, it was very good, much more fragrant than the fish soup stewed by the concubine at home.

"Shopkeeper Shi. The old doctor looked up at him.

Shopkeeper Shi was holding a braised duck in his hand, and said with a smile: "This braised duck is newly bought, I picked the largest one and sent it over." ”

"Thief, come, take it and cut it and heat it. ”

When Chen Tao is called, he often can't hear clearly, his ears are full of bells, and only when he doesn't move can he hear what others say. For many days, only the old doctor and the girl in the family could talk to him and tell him the stories he wanted to hear. After a long time, I saw that he couldn't hear the sound, and the people in an alley called him to steal the sound, and after a long time, the people in the whole county only called him the thief, and in the end, it seemed that only he knew his name, called Chen Tao.

This sound of thieves can be heard clearly, Chen Tao went to slice the braised duck with it, the knife skills were just right, and each piece of meat could be poured with some brine juice.

"The thief is really good, he is willing to learn everything, he is willing to do anything, you look at his knife skills, hey, go to the Changchun Building of the Hou family, you can also be a spoon." Shopkeeper Shi touched his short beard.

"Stealing him," Ge Hu turned around, the immature young man, smelling the fragrance of meat, a little childish, he slowed down before speaking: "In this life, those ears will not hear what we are talking about, he is just a deaf person who can hear sounds, and he has been in this life." ”

Shopkeeper Shi didn't want to listen anymore, and walked away with his hands shaking his head.

The ears were long out of sight, and there was a thick layer of cocoons on the outside, and a layer of back, perhaps the patina on the brass bells, or the bloody scabs on the inside.

But Chen Tao didn't know it himself, but the copper bell was ringing, and he guessed it by looking at the appearance of people when they spoke, and the buzzing of the bell.

Only the old physician would be close to his sister, and talk to him so that he could hear clearly, and not teach him that he was really deaf.

It was late at night, and his daughter had not yet returned, and the old doctor sat on the bluestone slab outside the house with his head down, and even the people who were in a hurry to walk at night had walked clean, only the old man who had told the hour looked at him slowly when he held a lantern, and the thunder was rolling in the sky, and the golden electric light flashed in the smoke clouds.

"Doctor Ge, it's late at night, it's going to rain, let's go in early. "The old man has a good heart, but the old doctor just tilts his head motionlessly, closes his eyes, and sleeps really deeply.

On the day the old doctor left, it rained heavily in the county that had not been encountered in a hundred years, the young man pushed the cart, the coffin was on the top, the coffin was made of a good coffin board given by the shopkeeper of the coffin shop, but the paper man did not use it when he left, people only knew that the thief did not say a word that day, and could not hear a word, because the shopkeeper of the coffin shop still received the silver, and the shopkeeper found that there were five taels of silver on the mat of his white tea, not much, just right, his coffin was worth the five taels of silver.

The mountain is a lonely mountain, and the road is a detour.

It is not an easy task to push the coffin up to and fro. The young man was very stubborn, the heavy rain poured on him, from a distance, as if to drown him and the lonely mountain that could be seen, only when he got close did he know that the rain dripping from his stubborn face was mixed with tears in his red eyes.

The old doctor saved him, taught him how to catch medicine to save people and cure diseases, taught him to use it well, and taught him to write and cook. So that Chen Tao can no longer sleep in the City God Temple, let him wear clean clothes, so that ordinary people's money bags, no need to steal or rob, this is the day Chen Tao has always wanted, and there is a beautiful, kind and open-minded sister to take care of him, always leaning on the side of his ear to speak, the soft voice rings with the copper bell, not noisy at all, but makes him scab wrapped in blood pinna, by the wind blowing from his sister's mouth to itch.

They are all good people, and the old doctor is even more benefactor, he is a thief boy who deserved to starve to death in the City God's Temple, and he should have been saved in time, and he should have frozen to death in the cold of winter.

Maybe when he dies, there won't even be a coffin, not even a lonely grave, and not even a bone after death.

Chen Tao now doesn't need to use his hands to grab the soil washed by the rain, on the way to find a hoe from the firewood house of the savage in the mountains, someone passing by in the heavy rain, watching him dig the soil from a distance, and the coffin is placed on the cart next to him.

The man was very smart, unlike Chen Tao, who held up an oil-paper umbrella and walked to his side, a Taoist priest with a long sword on his back, and his robe was covered in front of Chen Tao's eyes.

"Thief, thief," the man called him, the Taoist priest lowered his eyebrows and looked at Chen Tao, but Chen Tao didn't hear anyone call him, but he just saw the wide robe hanging in front of him, turned around, saw a Taoist priest, looked down at him, the Taoist priest had a faint smile on his face, and when he turned around, the Taoist priest said the words he could hear: "Thief, it's really a thief, can't you really hear me?"

"Daoist, do you want to ask for directions?" Chen Tao asked, looking curious, his face was still dripping with water, his eyes were red, and his eyes were bloodshot, but this appearance seemed to be safe, nothing had happened, he didn't know anything, the louder the rain, the more he forgot, and he could even hear the song his sister singing when she was in the house.

"What are you doing? The rain is getting heavier and heavier, and you're going to get seriously ill tomorrow. When the Taoist priest spoke, Chen Tao heard it and nodded.

"This is the coffin of my old doctor, who died last night, and I will bury him today, so that he can sleep soundly at night underground, and the insects and crows can sleep soundly, and he does not need to call his sister to worry at night. ”

After saying that, Chen Tao continued to dig the soil, he used his hoe very hard, panting, as if he was trying his best, and the next moment he would fall to the ground and pass out.

"The old doctor is a good person, he saved me, taught me to catch medicine to save people, taught me not to steal, not to rob, not to steal and to be a pure and good person, I can't hear them, but my sister also treats me well, like my own sister, my sister didn't come back last night, the old doctor died, they are all good people, I want to bury him. As if talking to himself, inexplicably, Chen Tao said and said, the pit dug was big enough and deep enough.

"You are also a good person, a good-hearted person. The Taoist priest was stunned, thought about it, and only said this.

I didn't hear this sentence, but I got up and crawled out, in the muddy water, carrying the rain, walked to the coffin, and pressed my hands on the coffin.

He pushed the coffin hard and pushed him down from the cart, and it was a great deal of strength to hold the coffin and push it into the mud puddle.

He pushed the surrounding soil into the pit harder, one pile after another, and finally piled it high to form a sealing mound.

"What are you looking for?"

The Taoist priest asked him, Chen Tao looked left and right, and finally found an old tree, which had died, and used a hoe to dig out the long wood, and inserted it vigorously in front of the sealing mound.

He wanted to engrave the name of the old doctor, and the heavier the rain fell, the more lethargic he became.

In the end, there was a lonely grave left on the lonely mountain, only a mound of sealed earth and a tablet made of rotten wood, with no words on it.