Ming, the fourteenth year of Zhengde, autumn.

Changzhou Prefecture, Wujin County, Puxiang, Mochizukipu.

In this period of traitorous ministers and severe torture, a small village like Mochizukiura, far away from the town, is naturally a little less bloody and unsightly. Eat from the sky and make a living, the hearts of the people here are like this, and the folk customs are naturally much simpler.

In the night of the countryside, the insects chirp silently, the tranquility is still full of vitality, the tiny life on the ridge of the field is endless, I don't know what it is to rush into a puddle of mud, disturbing a wild duck, flying not long when it falls and flies far away, disappearing into a dense forest and disappearing.

In the forest, the moonlight is scattered, falling from the cracks between the branches and leaves, and the beach is on the forest road covered with dry moss, and there is a dirt mountain a little far away from the road, and it seems that there is a person on the mountain through the fog.

Under the moonlight, an old man with a deer antler staff was looking up at the sky. This antler staff is more than one person long, and there are two short branches on each side of the top section, and a red ribbon is tied on it, which flutters in the wind.

The dark sky, vast and boundless, although there are few stars and the moon against the background, but it still looks bleak, even if it is the battle of the seven stars in the north sky, only the opening sun is extremely vigorous, and the chaotic light rhyme refers to the sky above the village.

Watching this scene, the old man closed his eyes and pinched his fingers, and after a long time, he said happily: "This is it." ”

In the middle of the night, the moonlight was excited, and the eaves of the roofs were covered with soap. At the edge of the village, two thatched huts lie quietly by the river in the shade of trees, but at this time the houses are bustling, and the flickering lights and shadows seem to struggle out through the window paper.

At this time, a person came to the hut, it was the old man who was looking up at the sky on the dirt mountain, and at this moment he put the long staff in his hand on the ground, walked straight to the mottled door, straightened his clothes, and asked in a loud voice, "Is there anyone?"

After a while, a sweaty man flashed out of the door, looked at the old man, and asked in a panic, "Who?"

The old man saluted with one hand and said, "Amitayus Blessing! Donor, can you reward the poor with a bowl of water to drink?"

Before the man met, the Taoist crane had a childish face, which was a little more elegant than the Taoist priest who offered incense, and he didn't dare to slack off, so he immediately replied: "This immortal master, please wait for a while." After speaking, he was about to retreat and close the door, and seeing that the old Taoist was full of puzzlement, he explained, "The immortal master doesn't know, he is giving birth, and he is afraid of hurting the wind and cold, please wait, I will take water." As he spoke, he hurriedly closed the door.

"Donor!" Lao Dao Changdong sighed, pressed the door panel with one hand, and said, "The poor road is exhausted from running around so far, and let the house rest for a while, and I will leave after drinking water!"

Click-

Before the man could speak, there was a loud sound like a cloud cracking stone overhead, and when he looked up, the sky was as black as an ink fountain hanging upside down, which made people shudder.

The old Taoist looked up, his snort became shorter, and he hurriedly said, "Don't stop the big thing!" With that, he violently pushed the man away and hurriedly broke into the house.

The room was chaotic, and there was a woman lying on the bed in the middle, and Wen Po was holding her hand beside her, and said, "You have to hold on, your family has been passed down for generations, but you have to be worthy of your man!"

The old Taoist chief did not shy away from it, walked straight to the bed, and saw that the woman was already sweating, and her face was spasmodic and bloodless, so he stood in a footwork, and pulled out a whisk of dust out of thin air with his right hand to draw a ban in front of him, followed by his left hand to pinch the trick, his eyes were closed, and he chanted incantations.

The man followed into the house and saw that the old Taoist was doing something, I didn't know whether it was a blessing or a curse, and he was in a panic and had no idea. In an instant, a dazzling light shot from the four walls of the roof, and the eyes were as dizzy as the stars poured down. At the same time, the thunder outside the room also came and went, as if the memory exploded beside him, and the sound was deafening, like this apocalyptic scene, which frightened several people into a ball, and even the woman who was suffering from childbirth stopped wailing.

Gradually, the light in the room gathered in mid-air, condensed into a chaos, and in an instant, a blue light shot out from the chaos, like flash, like electricity, straight to the shadow of the bed. Before everyone could see it, there was no trace.

"Light, that blue light...... It's in her belly!" Wen Po exclaimed with trembling hands.

In a moment, the old Taoist chief's eyes widened, and the dust only flung forward, and a purple light immediately appeared, covering the woman's body, and then gradually contracted, slowly faded, and finally disappeared in the woman's abdomen.

The old Taoist put away the Dharma momentum, and the aura of Haoqing gradually came out, and he said as if relieved: "Amitayus longevity." That's fine, just stay honest. After speaking, a pure white aura enveloped the whole body, and after a while, the smoke and dust dissipated and there was no human figure, and the thunder outside the room also stopped abruptly.

For a long time, everyone in the room was still in shock. The man woke up first, but he didn't know what had happened. Then, the woman gave birth to a baby boy with a faint red scar on the center of her eyebrows, thinking that it was a blessing from the fairy, and the family has been happy for more than seven years until the summer of this year.

※ ※ ※

Seven years later

In the summer of that year, heavy rains fell in Changzhou Prefecture, and many counties and townships under its jurisdiction were flooded, and the large and small villages under Puxiang were not spared.

The Tianhe River poured down, which has not been seen for a hundred years, causing the rivers to overflow, the dam to collapse, the houses and grain hoards to be destroyed, and the sorrow and grief are approaching nine days.

When the news reached the capital, the government and the opposition were shocked, and the emperor urgently summoned the protector "Zhiyi Zhenren" to come and resolve it. To a real person pinched his fingers and said, it was the Changzhou Mansion that the Taoist temple was in disrepair and did not respect God, so he was punished by heaven.

The emperor then issued a holy decree, asked the protector of the country to worship the altar to cast a spell, a few days later, the rainstorm stopped, since then to a real person is more respectful and commendable, so that the world to cultivate Taoism, widely accept believers, Taoism here flourished to the extreme.

In this flood, countless families have been destroyed, and those homeless orphans are even more miserable than adults who have lost their spouses and children.

Early that morning, orphans from several villages in Puxiang gathered together and set out on the road for a few days to travel north to a nearby town. After walking for half a day, they came to a fork in the forest road, one of which was a large road, and at the end of which you could cross a bridge to reach the nearest town, and the other was a barren forest road, which stretched as if there was no end, and this road, which even their parents rarely walked.

After a short pause, the children walked towards the main road one after another, during which an old boy of eight or nine years old actually left the crowd and walked straight to the path.

"Brother Xiao, where are you going?" Behind the big boy, a handsome little boy of six or seven years old shouted and chased after him.

The little boy's name is Buhong, born in Puxiang, Mochizukipu, is a child who was blessed by the immortal. Soon after he was born, the family moved from Mochizukipu to Xiaojia Village, a fellow villager, which was slightly higher but miserable after the flood.

Like the rest of the children, Buhiro lost his family in the water, and his clothes were disheveled, with dirty bangs sticking to his red forehead and piercing his eyelashes. Behind him was a sleeping little girl, four or five years old, with tears clearly visible on her immature little face.

At this moment, the big boy stopped when he heard Buhong's shouting, but he didn't look back, only shouted fiercely: "Buhong, don't care about me, don't follow!" The eldest boy's name is Xiao Muhan, and he lives in Xiaojia Village with Buhong, the difference is that he has at least one sister after the flood.

Buhong hurried a few steps with the little girl on his back, crying, "Then what about your sister?"

Xiao Muhan still didn't look back, he choked up, and shouted: "We are good brothers!

Behind the mad runner, the mournful cries faded until they could no longer be heard.

Under the sun, the past is thrown away, but no one can pick it up, a child who has lost his parents, this time has made his own choice, perhaps, this road is not as unknown as other children, including his sister.

Probably because he was too hungry, he bowed his head and arched his back, and walked forward with difficulty, like a plough ox carrying a plough of ten thousand pounds, his hair hanging down and his tattered clothes swaying disorderly. It seems that he has no will, so he just keeps walking.

The sun was setting, the clouds were scattering, I don't know how long he walked, he finally stopped, slowly raised his head, sweat on his forehead oozed like a spring, and a dark red flaw was on his forehead.

His eyes looked around in confusion, this place was no longer familiar, even the bleak trees beside the road seemed very strange, as if even the wind was very different from his hometown. He didn't reminisce about his tragic life experience, let alone think about how helpless he was, and he didn't even want to cry at all, he just walked like an iron man, letting the forest wind blow his body and mess his hair.

From the moment he stepped into the forest road, he had decided to end his life, so he entrusted his sister to his brotherly Ayuhiro. It's just that at this time, he still didn't think of how to die, and only heard a story from his family: a person kept walking and walking until he finally died of exhaustion.

Go on and on...... I'm going to die. Thinking of this, the corners of his chapped mouth flashed into a shallow smile, as if he saw his father's arms again.

At the end of his life, he looked into the distance, the road was already over in front of him, there was a big mountain, and there was a memorial arch at the foot of the mountain, and there were three big characters on it: 'Dingyun View'. A trail passes through the torii and spirals up the hill. Looking up, this wall of thousands of mountains is full of lush greenery, halfway up the mountainside, there seems to be incense in the cloud and mist cage......

Plop Tom –

Before he could reach the top of the mountain, he fell straight to the ground.

The sun is sinking in the west.

The remnant sun, stingy with the last rays of afterglow on the earth, covered a thin body, the evening breeze wantonly tore the tattered clothes, he did not move, perhaps, as he wished.

Suddenly, there seemed to be a movement in the air nearby, and a person fell from the ground in mid-air, and with the light, it looked like a Taoist in a robe. The man was very emaciated, and looked weak, and when he saw him go straight to the boy, he took him into his arms, and then saw no movement, but he went away, and swayed up the mountain road, and disappeared into the clouds and mist on the mountainside.

※ ※ ※

Every vision is beautiful, but the brutal scorching sun and the pervasive stench are realities that are unbearable for children, especially when they are carrying a person on their backs.

After Buhong and Brother Xiao separated, they carried Zhen'er on their backs and walked along the avenue with the group, and fell behind shortly after crossing the wooden bridge.

He also rested several times along the way, and when he saw a few children lying down and never getting up, he did not dare to stop again, because he did not know how long he could hold on, and perhaps once he sat down, he would not have the strength to stand up again.

With his head buried, he walked numbly step by step, staring blankly at his shadow, almost falling asleep.

"Mother......

Behind him, Zhen'er's voice woke him up from his stupor, he shook his head violently, cheered up, and looked back to see that Zhen'er was still sleeping quietly, but a few more tears were added to his sweet little face.

"She must be missing her mother...... Buhong muttered, and then looked into the distance: ahead, there was no one behind. He held his breath to hear even the faint cry of a faint cry, but to nothing, and now he was sure that he was lost.

"Mother, I'm afraid. ”

Just when Buhong was about to lose confidence, Zhen'er's cry came from behind him again, and at this moment he wanted to look back, but found that his neck was no longer obedient.

"Don't be afraid, I'm here. Buhong said with difficulty.

"I'm looking for my mother...... Zhen'er didn't seem to be able to listen to anything, just cried, and kept struggling with her hands and feet, this seemingly weak movement, but it became a straw that overwhelmed Ayuhiro.

Plop –

Buhiro's feet softened, and he fell crooked on the slope of the dirt road, and rolled into the woods below the road with Zhen'er, and both fainted......

The sky was still clear, and soon the dark clouds struck in the air, and by the wind, it became more and more heavy, and the forest suddenly darkened.

It's going to rain.

Suddenly, a bolt of lightning tore through the clouds, revealing the entire canopy and the forest.

Click-

There was an explosion, and it shook the heavens and the earth.

"Ahh

Zhen'er's scream woke Buhong up, he opened his eyes suddenly, felt a headache and dazzle, forcibly hugged Zhen'er, and patted lightly: "Zhen'er is not afraid, my brother is here." ”

The dark clouds tumbling overhead were like oil pans, stirring up a huge whirlpool, and the incandescent light flashed in and out of it, making it difficult to guess what would happen in the next moment.

Ayuhiro was too frightened to look any further, and closed his eyes and prayed for the weather to improve.

Whoop –

The rain poured down.

Ayuhiro tried to cover the rain with his body, but to no avail, the water curtain slapped his thin body endlessly, and Zhen'er in his arms was also shivering.

Buhong squinted his eyes and looked around, vainly trying to find a place to shelter, but there was nothing around him except the endless forest.

The rain is getting heavier.

"Zhen'er is not afraid, my brother has always been with you. Buhong spat the rain in his mouth and said with a smile, "Let's play together when the rain stops, okay?"

Zhen'er had already been wet, and the rain was flowing down her long eyelashes, and when she heard Buhong's promise, she still said with satisfaction: "Okay, my brother won't go...... My brother has been with me all the time......"

"Really good, I won't go down for a while, I won't go down for a while......" Bu Hong muttered comfortingly, in fact, this was also comforting himself, because he felt that he couldn't support it anymore. On the verge of collapse, he couldn't help but hug Zhen'er tighter. After being invaded by the rain for a long time, Buhong, who was gradually numb, fell asleep unconsciously.

The rain stopped, the clouds dispersed, and the moonlight lit up the forest again. In the dream, Buhong actually felt a lot warmer, and he seemed to be holding a fireball in his arms.

"Ahh

"Why are you sick!??Why are you sick!?" Ayuhiro cried helplessly, and he took off his clothes again and wrung them out, wrapped Ma'er, and carried them under a relatively dry tree.

"What to do, what to do?" said Ayuhiro to himself like an ant in a hot pot.

In the end, he decided to find something to eat for Zhen'er, even if it didn't solve the symptoms, he would feel better, he knew all too well what hunger was like, especially now.

In the forest, after leaving Zhen'er, Buhong walked for a long time, except for a few wild birds that flew on the branches, he found nothing, and the wounds on his hands and legs that were cut by thorns were also numb, and he had only one thought in his heart - to find something to eat.

Plop –

He tripped and fell to the ground, his head "buzzing" and almost fainted, and after a moment's pause, he looked behind him by the moonlight, and what tripped him was a half-cut of stone buried in the earth.

The stone is the size of a palm, the whole body is jet black, and there are some wild grasses growing on the top, and there seems to be light in the faint sense.

He endured the pain and crawled towards the stone behind him, discovering that it was not a natural formation, but more like a hand-carved pocket stone tablet with strange characters on the surface. At the top of the stone, there grows a peculiar weed, its branches and leaves are as thin as silk, fluffy and hanging from top to bottom, like a small umbrella, and under the grass canopy, two green fruits hang impressively.

Under the moonlight, the green fruits are crystal clear, and the night pearl is as attractive as a pearl. For Bu Hong, at this moment, even two priceless gems could not impress him like wheat cakes, although the two wild fruits in front of him were small, but they were better than nothing, and at the same time he struggled to free out one hand, pulled one down, and couldn't wait to stuff it into his mouth.

"Ahh

"What is this?" he muttered. Without thinking much more, he hurriedly picked another green fruit, held it in his hand like a treasure, got up and ran back.

In the forest, the moon is in the sky.

"It's here, it's almost there. He secretly shouted to himself.

Qingguo was firmly held in his hand, letting his body be scratched by thorns, following the direction of his memory, running all the way through the bushes and muddy water.

He felt that Zhen'er was about to be unable to support it, and he hoped that the green fruit in his hand could make Zhen'er better, and he became more and more sure, because gradually, he felt that his body had strength, his neck and face were hot, and he was full of energy.

Happiness, for a lonely child, is nothing more than to wake up his companions, because no one wants to go alone, whether it is in the town or in the future.

Finally, in the distance, he vaguely saw the tree. He could even imagine that Zhen'er under the tree was quietly waiting for his return, and he shouted in ecstasy: "Zhen'er, Zhen'......" Suddenly, his eyes went dark, and he didn't obey the call anymore.

Plop –

His legs went limp, and he passed out to the ground. His half-submerged body remained motionless, and his clenched fists gradually loosened. In his hand, the green fruit, along with his full happiness, fell into the water and disappeared without a trace.