The ancients said: Tianxingjian, a gentleman is constantly striving for self-improvement.

Twilight, in this village called Ota Village, there is a lonely and thin young man, who sits on the back of a spotted stone, holds a book in his hand, and reads the book again by the light in the twilight.

The boy liked this book very much, and every once in a while, he picked up the book and read it, and when he was a child, he heard his mother say that his name was still copied from the book.

The thin young man's surname is Ye, his name is innocent, and he is thirteen years old this year.

The book in his hand is called "Heaven and Earth Nature", I heard that a famous university professor said, there was a pair of young people who were still in love, felt that this book was suitable for self-cultivation and self-cultivation, so they bought it home from the bookstore, it was a coincidence, a year after the young man got married, a new life was born, and the couple borrowed the last sentence at the end of the book: "The ancient road is immeasurable, the blue sea is innocent" in the word innocence, as the baby's name, innocent, how good, a lifetime of peace, auspicious, old and good.

The young man put the book on the back of the stone, supported the back of the stone with one hand, jumped down with his strength, and patted it with both hands staggered, slightly satisfied.

Although this stone is big, it is not high, and if you really want to compare it, it is only half the height of a young man.

I looked up at the sky, and calculated in my heart whether I could return home after twilight, I shouldn't be able to, ha, how could it be.

So, the boy picked up the book on the back of the stone and began to run.

Along the way, he "trekked through mountains and rivers", in fact, he ran through a few streams, a few fields, and when he passed by a field full of wheat, he also heard the sound of "quack", which should be a frog in the wheat field, but he didn't know if it was harmful to wheat, and no one had taught him this knowledge.

As we walked, the farther away we got from the lights in the village, until it became dim.

The boy walked into a meadow, sparse and sparse, with sand and gravel exposed in some places. Behind the meadow was a mountain, quite high, and even the weeds were taller than a grown man, and the trees were even more sheltered from the "darkness" of the forest.

The thin boy looked at it for a while, walked into a sheep intestine path, the original road here in the early years, encountered a flash flood, submerged, there was a couple after returning from the market, was buried by the torrent, the road is gone, and the people are gone.

This sheep intestine path, after he walked in and out step by step, it became a road, and when he passed by, he saw a rope-like shadow flashing, and the young man was used to it.

At the end, there is a flat surface, where a small dry tree still stands, and a house made of wood, which is large enough for two people, if it is a child, it is still possible. There was a well in front of the house, and the boy would wipe it every day to prevent moss and the like from sticking to it.

The house had a door made of wood, and although it had a deadbolt, it was not locked.

The young man walked in, felt the darkness and turned on the light, saying that it was a lamp, but only a little light was lit from the bulb, which was what Ye Wuxian asked the village chief to replace after the death of his parents, the kind with the smallest tile, which could be seen at night, at that time, he told himself to be sensible and said with a smile: "Grandpa the village chief, the house is so big, I live alone, I don't need such a bright light bulb." ”

At first, there were no wires to connect here, and it was only after a young couple came that workers were hired in the village to connect the wires.

In the house, the kitchen occupies a fifth of the position on the east side, and the toilet on the west side also occupies a fifth of the position, both of which are covered by a colorful strip of cloth.

In the middle, there is a wooden bed, there is a thin cloth spread, a table on the left and right, the one on the left is used for eating, there are some eggs, noodles and other bits and pieces of daily necessities on it; the table on the right is very clean, there are some books on it, when the parents are still alive, I have learned pinyin to read words, but on these books, there are many words that I can't recognize, I can't recognize the words, these situations, he will use a pencil to mark, when the village chief comes, ask him for advice.

In addition, there is an old TV set, which uses a "cauldron" to receive the signal, just in the place where it is hidden at the door.

The boy picked up a half-burned white candle from the table on the left, lit it with a match, and went into the kitchen to set it up, so that he could see the whole kitchen.

There are two stoves in the kitchen, a large pot and a small pot, and there are some wood fires in the corner of the wall, all of which were picked up by the teenager on the way home.

"What are you going to eat tonight?" the boy muttered, and with eggs, noodles, pickles, and white rice at home, he thought of two ways to eat them.

The first is to boil the eggs and noodles together, and then some pickles, the taste is very good, but it is not to fight hunger, and the second is to cook the white rice and pair it with the pickles made by yourself, the taste is amazing.

The boy was a little distressed, thought about it for a while, and then felt the hunger from his stomach, forget it, and cook noodles.

Say do it, young people familiar with the road began to wash the pot, burn the fire, start the stove, wait for the water to boil, put in a small pinch of noodles, beat an egg, add the appropriate amount of oil and salt, sit on the edge of the stove, staring intently, as soon as you see that the fire is a little small, add a handful of firewood.

After about five minutes, the boy opened the lid of the pot, a white mist carrying the fragrance came to his face, he skillfully leaned the lid forward, and when the fog disappeared, he picked up a large bowl and chopsticks that had been prepared long ago, and scooped up the noodles that were not left, and the last egg, along with the soup, came to the bowl together.

The boy came to the "living room" with the bowl, put it on the table, and closed the door by the way, and the TV was completely gone.

Turning on the TV, something resembling a black and white mosaic flashed at first, and the boy just patted the top of the fuselage, and after a while, the sound appeared along with the picture.

It is a cartoon in which the picture shows a bald lumberjack being chased by a large brown bear, with the occasional other animal, such as a monkey and a squirrel.

The boy remembered this cartoon and often smiled from ear to ear, but when he thought of the bald lumberjack, when he hadn't seen his parents for a long time, he fell silent, separated forever, and there was a sentence written in a book: The son wants to raise but does not wait. Maybe that's him, but it won't.

In this way, when the cartoon entered the advertising stage, the boy had already eaten most of the noodles, and there were still some intermittent noodles left, as well as a white egg.

The boy walked over and turned off the TV, can't waste electricity, right? After eating the remaining noodles and drinking the soup, there was only one egg left, and he carefully took the first, second, and third bites......

He came to the well and began to wash the dishes and chopsticks, there was still some soup in the pot, he didn't pour it out, and he didn't drink it now, and after a while, he was thirsty, or a little tired, and he drank such a mouthful of noodles again, and he would definitely be gone.

Back to the kitchen with the dishes and chopsticks, visit them one by one, he extinguished the fire candle with a little thumb left, and it can still be used, isn't it?

Ye Wuxian sat on the edge of the right bed, flipping through the books that had been read countless times on the table, reciting carefully word by word, sometimes when he read some words and truths, he would stop reciting and silently remember them in his heart.

At night, a full moon rose, like a bright lamp, hanging high in the sky.

In the surrounding tall trees, the leaves of the trees "rustle" in the moonlight, as if playing a beautiful tune.

This is a big mountain, there is an abandoned ancient temple on this mountain, everyone knows it, but few people know that there is a small house at the foot of the mountain, a sheep intestine path, and a teenager.

After about three hours, the young man reluctantly closed the book, although he already knew it in his heart, but the aftertaste was endless, he couldn't help but sigh, the book is really a good book, there are many truths, a big basket of dustpans can not hold a book of truth knowledge, not to mention those private schools? No wonder so many people like to read.

The boy walked into the kitchen, drank the rest of the noodle soup in one go, hiccuped slightly, and then came back from brushing the bowl, and turned on the TV by the way, it just so happened that the bald lumberjack was holding the newly purchased props, cutting down one big tree after another, the boy waited quietly, as he expected, a big yellow bear roared and appeared, it was a little silly, not smarter than the other bear, so he fell into the trap that the lumberjack had laid earlier......

Before turning off the television, the boy paid attention to the time, 11:03 p.m.

Late at night, you should sleep.

Before that, the thin boy picked up a locust branch placed in the corner of the wall, and knocked it around the house, and the village chief told him that this was a home remedy, and if the insect and snake were hit, they would feel the residual breath and avoid it.

Eight years ago, Ye Wuxian found a long brown snake coiled around the foot of the bed, which scared him a lot at that time, and ran down the mountain to find the village chief, the village chief didn't say a word, found a black stick, and came to the house, and went down with a stick, the brown long snake whined, and the snake's tail went around the snake's head, forming a circle, and rolled down the deep mountain and old forest.

The young man muttered: "Those snakes, big insects, and small insects, don't come, don't come, I don't know you, you don't know me, you don't treat me, don't offend each other, and be safe." ”

In fact, since the boy used a locust branch to knock around the house, he had not seen a worm or snake.

Back at the house, Ye Wuxian closed the door and lay on the hard wooden bed, the young man closed his eyes and muttered to himself: "Innocent, innocent, you fall asleep quickly, you are a little child, don't think too much, don't think nonsense, fall asleep, nothing happens." ”

The morning sun is shining, and everything is at the beginning.

A mountain, there is a wooden house at the foot of the mountain, in which the young man who is lying on the bed whispers, stretches his waist, after a while, slowly gets up, comes to the kitchen, starts the stove to boil water, and goes to the well, fetches a bucket of water, and begins to wash at the same time, thinking that he will help the village chief grandfather's vegetable garden, the field weeding and adding water or something later.

Back home, the boy picked up a handful of fine noodles, put them in the boiling pot, and added a fire, this time there were no eggs, it was really the teenager who was reluctant, there were still three left, keep watching, eye-catching, isn't it?

When the pot boiled again, the boy quickly added salt oil and soy sauce, sat on the side and waited for a while, and when he felt that it was about the same, he poured the noodles into the big bowl one by one, and when he saw that there was no spillage of soup, he smiled, ha, no more, no less.

The young man took a rag, wrapped the bowl, carefully brought it out to the table, and returned to the kitchen to take out a glass bottle, as soon as he opened it, a sour and spicy smell filled the whole room, this is his own pickled vegetables, usually stir-fry rarely put peppers, in this pickles, everywhere.

Mei Zizi poured out a little bit and stirred with the noodles, and after putting back the glass bottle containing the pickles, I ate a small half in one go, drank most of the noodle soup, and then slowly tasted the taste.

"Suck and slip~" At this time, this big bowl of noodles has bottomed out. The boy wiped the water stains left on the corner of his mouth, and without any extra movements, at the moment of breakfast, he took out the pots and pans and began to wash them by the well.

When Ye Wuxian was about to clean it, he heard some movement, and when he looked up, it was an old man of some age, his eyebrows and beard were gray, but his face was still purple red, and he looked energetic, smoking a dry cigarette happily.

The young man stopped cleaning in his hand and said with a smile: "Grandpa Wu, why are you still smoking, and you are not afraid of being seen by Grandma Wu." ”

The old man reluctantly smoked two puffs of dry tobacco, and after spitting out a white circle, he put the cigarette stick into the pocket on his chest, "tsk" twice, walked over and patted the young man's shoulder, and scolded with a smile: "Good boy, you have learned to ridicule! Yes, yes, the book is not in vain." ”

The young man smiled shyly and said, "What's the matter, the book doesn't teach me this, I'm not afraid that Grandma Wu will be behind to see if you are smoking here again." Grandpa Wu, let's go into the room and sit down for a while, I'm still washing the dishes. ”

The old man nodded, walked into the house slowly, picked up a small bench and sat on the edge of the table with books, wanted to smoke for a while, but held back, and rummaged through the books on the table to pass the time.

The old man is the head of this village, more than sixty years old, surnamed Wu, people in the village like to call him Lao Wu, for Ye Wuxie, Lao Wu is like his grandfather who has never met, no, but like.

Lao Wu took special care of the pair of young people when they came to this village with an infant baby, and the wire above the house was also connected by the workers he called for help, after the accident, it was not that he didn't want to take Ye Wuxian to the house, but he was often politely rejected by the latter, which made him very helpless, and when he wanted to take out some eggs, vegetables and other items to give to the young man, he was politely refused.

When Ye Wuxian was seven years old, Lao Wu came to the house, took a crumpled passbook, and told the young man that it was left by his parents, and there was some money in it, and when the young man looked at the account holder, it was infected with ink, and Ye Wuxian took the passbook ignorantly.

True or false, Lao Wu knows, God knows.

Every time Lao Wu will take out a brand new 100 yuan bill in advance, take the tricycle at the entrance of the village to go to the street, the young man is very frugal, just buy noodles, rice, oil and salt, occasionally buy vegetables and eggs, the green vegetables in two attempts to make a good taste of pickles, jokes, the boy in the first time to make pickles, can eat bad stomach.

Lao Wu noticed that every time he passed by the street bookstore, he would find that the young man was slower, and he guessed a little bit of the boy's mind in his heart, and from time to time he brought the young man a few brand-new famous books or articles by great scribes, saying that he was borrowing, but never mentioned the matter.

Ye Wuxian took a spoonful of water, poured it under the dead tree, and said silently in his heart: "Little tree, little tree, you have to be strong and give birth to green shoots......"

The boy sometimes thinks that if there is a big tree in his house, and there are guests sitting under the tree, and there are guests playing chess, at that time, he will take out peanuts and melon seeds, sit on a small bench, knock on the melon seeds and eat peanuts, and stare at the chessboard that he doesn't know anything about......

Dead wood, as always, a dry trunk, and two branches in the top and bottom, before the young man sensible, has been paying attention, have been almost ten years, until now have not seen any green branches sprout, sometimes wonder if the stem is by ants or other moths, just take a locust branch, one by one, but no abnormality was found.

One day the boy read a word in a book, immortal and immortal, and he immediately thought of this dead tree, or rather, it.

Ye Wuxian took the pots and pans back to the kitchen, and came to the "living room", the old man noticed a lot of traces of reading while flipping through the books, he was a little surprised, and couldn't help but laugh and said: "Little evil, how many times have you read these books, and the books are about to be rotted by you." I don't know how many books to change from me, no, blame me for not paying attention, I should bring a few copies to you, it seems that I'm old, I can't remember anything at all, and I'm confused. ”

The more the old man spoke, the more distressed he became, and he wanted to smoke dry cigarettes.

If this is seen by those chess friends at the entrance of the village, they will be surprised again and again, is this still the old Wu who killed chess and killed two generations without leaving a piece of armor?

Ye Wuxian hurriedly said: "No, Grandpa Wu, your body is strong and your memory is good, just every time, I will hide the book when you come, just to read it for a few more days." ”

The young man's face did not change, his face was not red, his heart was not beating, and while saying this, he silently said in his heart: "Heaven and earth can be learned, my words are purely ...... Nonsense, no wonder. ”

"Really?" the old man wondered.

The young man's eyes were wide open, and his face was sincere, without any flaws.

The old man scolded with a smile: "Good boy, I just said that every time I come, I can't see a book, it turns out that it was hidden by you, this kid, is it floating." ”

Good guys, one big and one small, two foxes.

The boy grinned, did not speak, but walked down by the bedside.

The old man finished a book, turned a few pages, saw a brand new white paper sandwiched here, picked it up, looked at it for a while, looked at the young man, and said with a smile: "Little evil, such a new piece of white paper, yo, there are still words, look at the handwriting is still written by a girl, I am curious which girl is so stupid." ”

The young man stood up in an instant and said hesitantly, "This... This is me... I... Picked up in the mountains. ”

The conscience of heaven and earth, this sentence is not nonsense.

The old man said "oh", put the blank paper back into the book he had originally sandwiched, helped the boy sort out the books by the way, stood up, pulled the boy out of the house, looked at the sun hanging high in the sky, and said with a smile: "Today's weather is good, let's go, Grandpa Wu will take you to the market!"

The boy closed the door casually and followed behind the old man.

When he walked down the mountain, the old man said casually: "Little evil, if you want me to say, you should install a lock and lock the house." ”

The young man in the rear shook his head slightly, and said: "No, no, at home, except for Grandpa Wu, you take care of me so much, you will come to the mountain, how can anyone else have time, how can they be idle and have nothing to do, climb the mountain, there are only a few things at home, and they can't be sold for any money." ”

The old man said suddenly: "I suspect that you are saying that I, an old man, am idle, so much pain, so I came to climb the mountain so much, and the evidence is conclusive." ”

The old man stopped, turned his head, and looked serious.

"It seems that I dug a pit for myself, but if you can let Grandpa Wu enter the pit, then I should have a little thumb as powerful, right?" the young man said without hesitation.

The two laughed, the grandfather and grandson, no less jokes.

An old man and a young man walked out of the sheep intestine path, the old man took the cigarette stick in his mouth, put in a little dry tobacco, smoked it with a "tsk", spit out a long mouthful of thick fog, and said: "Little evil, do you want to hear a truth? What I saw in the book, after all, the truth is not something that a bad old man can understand." ”

The boy nodded.

The old man said slowly: "It should be yours, you can't escape, it shouldn't be yours, you can't catch it." ”

And "seriously" said: "Don't care about the gains and losses, so the three eggs on the table, after this rush back, they will be boiled and eaten, and then buy after eating, don't save noodles, eat more, why haven't you finished eating the last time, you can't eat more at the age of your long body." ”

The young man was stunned when he heard it, and while remembering the previous sentence, he also subconsciously said yes.

As for whether to eat those three eye-catching eggs, the boy knows, God knows.

The two walked from the dirt road to the concrete road, and then to the entrance of the village, standing aside and waiting for the tricycle to pick it up.

There is a big banyan tree at the entrance of the village, and there are old people who bring stools and the like from home, and call friends to play on the chessboard.

A man who was looking at the chessboard said loudly: "Old Wu, when you come back, take out the chessboard at your house, let me touch it, and lose a few games." ”

An old man who was playing a game sneered: "Brother Gao, you still want to touch the chessboard of the old Wu family, I haven't seen it in such a long life, don't talk about touching it." ”

The man glared at the old man, without a trace of respect for the old and love for the young, and scolded directly: "As long as you talk a lot, play your chess, just the chess you play, the dog is better than you with its paws." ”

The two old men in the game smiled, ignoring the somewhat crazy man.

The man still didn't give up, and said to the young man nonchalantly: "Innocent brother, you help me persuade Lao Wu, isn't it just a chessboard, hidden like a baby pimple, who is rare." He added unhurriedly: "I'm rare." ”

Ye Wuxian waved his hand a little apologetically to the man, and the village elder Wu also glared at the man, and scolded with a smile: "A dog can't spit out ivory in his mouth. ”

The man pursed his mouth, muttered "boring", grabbed the melon seeds on the side of the chessboard, shrugged his shoulders, knocked the melon seeds, stared at the chessboard intently, and showed some distressed looks from time to time.

After waiting for a while, a green tricycle drove unhurriedly to the entrance of the village, and after the old and the young got into the car, they drove away slowly.

The young man sat at the back of the car, grabbed the railing, turned his head, and looked at the scenery along the way.

————

One day a year ago, at dusk, after the thin boy was helping the village elder Wu to remove some grass from the vegetable garden and fill the water in the garden, it was already very late, and when the young man did not have flashlights or lighting tools such as fire candles, he came to a sheep intestine road in the dark.

On the road, the boy heard noises from time to time, and often vaguely perceived a black shadow passing overhead, and sometimes stepped on a tree branch under his feet, which would scare him at first glance.

At that time, the boy had already confirmed that this was not his own sheep intestine, not that he didn't want to turn back, but when he looked back, it was dark, and when he saw that there were fireflies illuminating some light in front of him, his fawn heart would be a little quieter.

After walking for a long time, the boy was already a little gasping, and at this time, the full moon was high in the sky, and the boy found himself in front of a temple.

Ye Wuxie's "ahhhhh......h

The young man secretly cheered for a while, and then walked into the temple, found a few candles and a box of half-left matches, and when he lit the candles, he found that in the temple, the statue of the god had already been torn in two, and the upper body was broken and fell on the pedestal.

Ye Wuxian had a headache again, why did he let himself encounter such a thing, muttered a few more times in his mouth, plucked up his courage, put the dilapidated idol on his body, slowly piled it up, a little heavy, and his fingers were cut by the broken part of the statue, and after he put it on the remaining half of the pedestal statue, the young man began to scream, shouting words like "pain, pain, pain".

At that time, the boy did not know how to fall asleep, and the next morning, he hurried down the mountain while the light was shining.

After a few more days, something strange happened, a white piece of paper was pasted on the door, and two questions were written on it, which were "Who are you and what is your name?" ”

The young man was noncommittal, and when he was preparing to go to bed that night, he remembered such an incident and wrote casually, "My surname is Ye, my name is innocent, and the innocent one is innocent." ”

When I woke up in the early morning and found that the blank piece of paper was missing, I was a little sorry and a little scared when I searched all over the house but couldn't find it.

A few days later, when the blank paper was pasted on the door of the room, the boy was frightened, and carefully took the white paper, and when he put it under the bed, he glanced at it by chance, and it was written, "Can you tell me about your affairs?"

The boy had not written for several days, and one night he couldn't help but write down some things he had heard, and at the end, he asked: Who are you?

Not surprisingly, there was no trace of white paper in the early morning, and a few days later, a blank piece of paper was pasted on the door, on which only the surname Li was written......

The boy didn't tell anyone about this, and only occasionally muttered on Halloween: "Dad, mother, have you seen, I have a friend, she said that she came from a far, far away place......"