The last years of the Ming Dynasty.

The fireworks of internal and external troubles have not yet affected the Gu'anzhai village in a remote corner.

The villagers are peaceful and have a strong local flavor.

Today is the first day of June, and Gu'anzhai Village still follows the custom of "half a year". On that day, the people would worship the god of grains to pray for good weather and good harvests, and they would also sacrifice to the god of the door to protect their homes and keep them safe. In the evening, the smoke rises, and the corners of the village are filled with earthy delicacies, such as raw garlic seeds mixed with wild vegetables on the cold table, wrapped noodles in the oil pot and fried fish, green salt tofu in the water pot and mountain sunflower chowder, which are indispensable. After tea and dinner, he still adheres to the habit of walking around.

The moist bark of the sycamore trees and the mud and grass foam burned on the slopes, and the thick gray smoke and the fragrance of grass diffused were the most simple way to get rid of mosquitoes in the countryside. The mosquitoes have all escaped, and some have even been blinded, their wings broken, their heads dizzy, and they have lost their instinct to suck blood. When the smoke gradually exhausted, the sun also attached to the mountainside, the sky was cool, the people walked out of the courtyard courtyard, piled up a group, gathered in the corner of the house, shook the pu fan, chatted and laughed...... The children here are holding sticks and strings of incense and fighting, and the children over there are running and shouting like cats, playing with rats and peek-a-boo, goshawks catching chickens, blind people touching lame people, and toads topping jiri...... It had been dark for a long time, and everyone had dispersed, and from time to time there was a rooster crow that pinched his nose and learned......

This is the life of a rural neighborhood. As the saying goes, there are many stories in the countryside......

There is a story that circulates from the corner of the village, and the story begins with Wang Muxiu......

Wang Muxiu's ancestral exquisite carpentry work, but unfortunately, when he was young, he was idle and gambling, and he didn't do his job, and his daughter-in-law ran away just three days after passing the door. He repented and spent ten years building a round arch wooden bridge over the Luozi River, and when the mortise and tenon were finally buckled, the villagers set off firecrackers at the head of the bridge, giving him the highest respect, and because of this, he was promoted to the petty official of the chief (equivalent to the village head).

Later, Wang Lichang found a mute daughter-in-law to cobble together to live, but unfortunately, the mute daughter-in-law had no fields and did not have seedlings, so she could not pass on the lineage to the Wang family. One day, when Wang Lichang returned home from his busy fields, he picked up a child, and soon after the child was picked up, the mute daughter-in-law died. On the night when the mute daughter-in-law was buried, Wang Lichang was very sad, and walked alone on the wooden bridge built by himself, and saw an old man wearing a straw canopy squatting at the head of the bridge.

The old man in the straw hood beckoned Wang Lichang to sit down, and told him that the child he picked up was born on a poisonous day and a poisonous hour, and he could not be kissed, and there would be poisonous sores on his face.

Wang Lichang pondered carefully, and believed it, according to the guidance of the old man Caopeng, he did not let the child live with himself, did not let the child get close to himself, did not let the child call his father big, and always called him by his first name.

Gu'an Village has always followed the custom of "touching the year". "Touching the year" is also known as "grasping the week". According to local customs, when the child has just reached the first birthday, a wine banquet should be prepared, and the child's mother-in-law will prepare eggs, steamed buns, porridge rice, swaddling clothes, shoes, and longevity locks...... In addition, it is necessary to put pens, books, abacus, swords, bows, pastries and other things on the table, so that children can touch them, and they can touch the pen and write talents...... Throughout the ages, there have been colorful babies in Gu'anzhai Village, and there are down-and-out dogs and horses who have touched bad heads......

Wang Lichang did not plan to give the child a week to touch the year, and the child is more than three years old, past the age of the local Zhou, but he is bent on solving the child's life, confirming that the old man of the straw tent said the truth, just after the first day of June this year, Wang Lichang was busy with the child's grasp of the week. He thought that on the sixth day of the first month of June, there were no taboos, and it was an auspicious day, and he hoped that the child could catch a "happy head" by catching the week, and he would also give the child a name with the word "happy".

Although Wang Lichang is the head of a village, he has no official rank and rank, he has a false reputation, and he is not pleasing to do a lot of bad things, and he is not greedy or scrape, so poor that he can't open the pot, so he can barely mix two meals a day to fill his belly. He can't read a single word, where does he get his pen and abacus, where does he get his sword and bow if he doesn't learn martial arts, and because he is a selected baby, how can he have relatives and uncles...... Therefore, these rituals and customs are saved, and he can only handle the affairs of "catching the week" for the children according to the local methods of the poor.

Poor families who did not have a pen, an abacus, or a sword or bow would place green onions, eggs, rice bran, and a pinch of soil at the four corners of the square table, and place the baby in the center of the table to invite the child to touch it with his hands. If you touch the green onion, it means that the child will grow up to be smart and smart; touch the egg, it means that the child grows auspiciously, smoothly, and can be an official; if you touch the rice bran, it means healthy growth, strong body, and more than rich; if you grab that handful of soil, it means that there is no reputation, no wealth, and the material for soil work is cultivated and worked hard for a lifetime.

On the sixth day of the sixth month of June, Wang Lichang touched the child's age in the courtyard, which caused the neighbors to watch.

Wang Lichang found a square wooden board as a table, lit a stick of incense, and put a green onion, an egg, a handful of rice bran and a handful of soil on the four sides of the plank, afraid that the baby would touch the handful of soil, deliberately put it farther away, and then put the child alone in the middle of the plank, ran to the side to watch, whistled from time to time, gestured, and led the child to touch the egg or grab the rice bran and the green onion.

The child was ignorant, and he was a little conscious in his confusion, and he crawled around on the plank, looking at the egg for a while, and looking at the green onion for a while, but he didn't move his hands, and turned around a little, and crawled towards the handful of soil.

Wang Lichang's heart tugged, like a river wave floating in a light boat, up and down, it was extremely unpleasant, but he was afraid that the child would grab the soil, and this life would be over.

The neighbors are also making noise, talking, and discussing, to see if the selected baby is fighting or not, and if he is not satisfied, he will not be able to become a climate in the future.

I saw that the child did not move for a while.

The monkey in Wang Li was anxious, pointed at the child and pouted: "You little earth master, at first glance you are a adobe, it is actually a useless mud wall and soil material, and you can't find the back door for begging! Eggs, rice bran and shallots can be caught, if you grab the soil, I will dig up the soil pit and bury it for you!" He gestured and urged: "Quick, quick, turn around! Here, here! You little earth master, you reincarnated to smear the pot ash on me? You also think about me, how can I let me come to drink the northwest wind with you and feed you for nothing......

His chatter made the neighbors laugh.

However, the child seemed to be scolded, and went around the handful of soil, and did not move for a long time, which caused Wang Lichang to sweat profusely.

The boy turned his buttocks, and circled and circled, and seemed to have no interest in the ornaments on the board, and stared at a large green stone beyond the plank, despite the round eggs, the shallots with thin waists, and the coarse chaff.

Wang Lichang was so anxious that he scratched his ears and cheeks, kept stacking his cuffs to wipe the sweat on his face, and when he was depressed, the child climbed to the root of the wall and hugged the big blue stone.

"What, what is this? I didn't catch the shallots, I didn't catch the rice bran, I didn't touch the eggs, I didn't touch the soil, why, how did I pick up a green stone?"

The king was confused, and could not touch the north, like a lamb waiting to be fed sucking a blind tit. He whistled the child to the center of the plank, hoping that he would twist the green onion in his left hand, touch the egg with his right hand, and grasp the joy with both hands, but the child would not let go when he recognized the green stone.