In the summer, people get up early. It was almost dark, and the rooster began to crow, and he got up in a daze, and Azu was sleepy-eyed.

There was an iron pot on the table, and inside it was the gruel boiled by Xu's mother. After getting water and washing it up, Azu drank two large bowls of pickles.

Xu Si'an and Xu's mother both went to the field at Yinshi. The weather is too hot, early morning is the most suitable time to weed and dig ditches, if you go at noon, get the heat, but the gain outweighs the loss.

Azu finished breakfast and washed the dishes as usual. Look at the sky, but it's still not very bright. I went and fetched the candlestick. The family is poor, and the oil lamp cannot be lit. In the entire pastoral village, there are only a few families who light oil lamps.

Azu lit the candle with a fire fold, and the flame of the candle ignited. It's just that the wax oil has been a little long, and the flame is shaking. Azu looked at the candlelight, and shook his head and memorized the Tao Te Ching.

The Tao Te Ching in his hand was tattered, and the handwriting was very clear. According to his father, this book was handed down from his ancestors and has a history of thousands of years. Azu is actually a little unbelieving, the ancestor has been passed down for more than a thousand years, how can it not be decayed. It was only when Xu Si'an solemnly passed the book to him as a family heirloom that Azu fell in love.

"Taishang, I don't know what it is, and secondly, I am known as a ......" Azu held this tattered Tao Te Ching and struggled to memorize it.

As soon as he memorized this first time, Azu couldn't memorize it. The words of this article are quite simple, remember that. But the concepts are not easy to understand. What is that Taishang? Azu's curiosity is not strong, but his curiosity is heavy. Dozens of words are reversed, but it is impossible not to think about them in my head.

Every time I read it, a voice in my head recited the sentence Xu Si'an said yesterday.

Why does Dad call fame a corrupt human heart? Does Dad hate fame?

The more I thought about it, the more Azu didn't understand.

"Fame, people's hearts are rotten!"

Azu muttered in his mouth, and read these words out in a trance.

As soon as he came back to his senses, Azu shuddered. Look around, it's good that my father didn't come back, otherwise I would have to be scolded a few times.

It was already a little light, and Azu blew out the candles and put the candlesticks back in the cooking room.

"Don't think about it, don't think about it. Azu scratched his brain, and finally took his mind back. My thoughts turned again, and I thought of the old way at noon yesterday.

The old man was rickety, but only the height of a woman. The face is also average, I don't know why I remember it so clearly. In particular, what he said to Amin seemed to be engraved in his head.

How good it is to have money, to repair the house, to buy good clothes, and to eat good food.

Azu thought that if he was a rich man, he was a little fluttering.

Shaking his head, Azu only felt that his distraction was too serious, and he was always unable to focus. When the time comes, if the father wants to check his Tao Te Ching, I am afraid that it will inevitably be criticized.

I was about to go back to endorse the book, but there was a big sound outside the window.

Suddenly realized, but I didn't know where someone shouted: "It's on fire!"

Then the sound spread like a fire.

Again and again, there were things to divert Azu's attention, and Azu couldn't memorize the book anymore, so he ran out of the house to join in the fun.

The village is close to the mountain, and there is a stream that is more than a foot wide and flows down from the other side of the mountain, giving birth to this small village. Villagers mostly rely on streams to dig ditches for farming, and herders also build circles along streams to get water for livestock.

Azu's eyes were sharp, and he saw a large black smoke rising from the side of the stream, with a lot of firelight. At this time, the sun had only risen over the mountain, but the fire was half red in the sky.

If it's really on fire, the child won't be able to help, and he'll probably be watching from the sidelines.

Spreading the girl, Azu ran over there.

When he arrived at the stream, Azu saw it clearly. Along the banks of the stream, there were fences that were about miles long, and they were all blazing with fire. But inside the fence, the green grass that was eaten by livestock should be fresh and tender grass, but it was also full of fire. A few shepherd dogs barked in the fence, and the cattle and sheep inside were all mooing hoarsely, running around from the flames.

Dozens of villagers came to put out the fire. Most of them brought their own wooden buckets and basins, and took water from the stream and poured it into the ring. It's a pity that the population of the whole village is not more than 100, but this fire has become a climate, burning for several miles, how can this water be saved?

Azu also faintly saw his parents helping out, sweating profusely, but the fire was not small.

You can't stop fighting fires, but you can't stop fires.

Azu could only watch, and there were several children around him. Azu searched, but he didn't find Amin.

After about an hour, the fire was finally extinguished. But it was not extinguished, but the whole herd was burned dry. Hundreds of acres of green space have turned to ash. The cattle and sheep were probably roasted to death, and none of them were spared, all of them turned into soot, but there was no aroma of roasted meat, only the smell of burnt.

The firefighting failed.

Most of them were sweating, and some were burned and scabbed. Some of them had red marks on their hands from buckets, and blood was oozing slightly.

Everyone was silent.

The audience was silent, and no one spoke. The children just stood far away, not daring to make a sound.

Someone in the crowd couldn't hold back their tears when they landed. Azu looked at it from a distance, it was two middle-aged people with shaved heads, each holding their wives and children crying, howling heartbreakingly.

In my impression, there are only two people in the village who have shaved their heads, one is called Ji Dahai, who has been doing mutton business in the village for generations, and the other is Li Dan, who has also been herding cattle since his ancestors.

Li Dan is Ah Ming's father.

Azu's brain exploded. Amin's cattle are gone!

Li Dan hugged his wife and children, and Ah Ming seemed to have lost his soul in his father's arms. The family cried a lot, and it was uncomfortable to listen to Azu's ears.

The boy doesn't flick when he has tears, but when the family business falls, he can't bear to cry.

Alas, natural disasters.

Everyone's eyes were a little sympathetic, and the two wealthy families were destroyed by natural disasters.

In everyone's surprised eyes, Xu Si'an stood up with a somewhat solemn expression. Picking up a handful of grass ash, Xu Si'an pinched his fingers slightly, and all the grass ash turned into dust and dispersed into the air.

"The ashes are burned through, not a natural disaster. ”

Xu Si'an's brows furrowed into a Sichuan character, and his tone was serious.

Xu Si'an's calmness surprised people, but it also made people suddenly realize.

Yes, the ground is full of grass instead of dead grass, how can such a big fire be lit in vain?

Xu Si'an's rhetoric is reasonable. Could it be that someone really deliberately set fire?

So why arson?

Who is it that has such a big grudge with the Ji and Li families?

Or who is jealous of the two family businesses?

The people of the pastoral village are all simple and simple, and they live in harmony with each other. Occasionally, there is a little friction between neighbors, and they are all laughing and hating. In this case, it is difficult to find a murderer.

Or, someone from outside the village?

Then the target is wider and harder to find.

The clue is broken here. Everyone present turned to each other and began to discuss. Even the two men who were crying stopped crying and began to think.

Azu's little head also dripped, and of course, he couldn't think of who it was. However, a figure popped up in his mind, but it was the old Taoist who was lying under the tree yesterday and muttered: "Beef is gluttonous, but poor Dao is not greedy for things outside the body." ”。

Thinking carefully about what Lao Dao said, it seems that he had predicted this situation early on. Could it be that this old way has nothing to do with today's events?

Azu was a little confused, but he didn't dare to say it.

The villagers chattered for a few hours, roughly nominating, frowning, and then rejecting. After a long discussion, there was still no result. It's just that some people are talking about everything, and the topic is messy.

The sun burns people's faces and smokes. I don't know whose stomach screamed uncontrollably, and then it was like a slingshot hitting a bird, and the sound of the belly crowing behind it was like a sparrow rising into the air. Everyone seconded the proposal, went back to eat first, and then went to the village hall in the evening to negotiate unanimously.

So they went back to their respective homes in a group, and most of them hurriedly went back to cook, only the Li family was probably sad, walking the slowest and falling behind.

Azu wanted to comfort Ah Ming, but when he saw that most of their family had a bad face, his heart seeped and he didn't dare. Suddenly, a pair of big hands touched his head, and he was much more relieved, it was his father's hand.

Xu Si'an's sweaty face was full of exhaustion: "Go back." ”

Azu raised his head and looked at Xu Si'an's face, then looked at Ah Ming's family, and nodded.

There was some silence at the table. Today's food was the same as usual, but none of the three of them had much appetite.

Azu was stuffy and picked up the food, and his head was a mess. Xu Si'an's words came from his ears.

"How do you memorize the Tao Te Ching?"

"Ah......" Azu was just thinking about arson, Xu Si'an's words interrupted his train of thought, making his voice a little choppy and "reciting some ......"

Xu Si'an stared at Azu's eyes, and his eyes flickered a little: "Come back and listen." ”

Azu's mouth was a little trembling and he couldn't recite it. When she stammered, it was Xu's mother who interrupted and said, "If such a disaster happens, how can Zu'er carry it." You too, don't scare Zu'er. ”

Mother Xu's words worked, and Xu Si'an sighed.

"That's it. Xu Si'an's tone was vicissitudes, "It's the same as me, it's the same as me." ”

Azu shrunk his neck, feeling that at the dinner table, his father often said strange things that he didn't understand. However, after Xu Si'an said these words, most of them would drink a cup of stuffy wine, but the amount of alcohol was not good, probably drunk, and then it was not just strange words, as if he was talking nonsense.

Sure enough, Xu Si'an's neck was dyed with a faint red, the smell of wine was not small, and he stared at Azu's small eyes as if he was educated, and said, "I don't hear anything outside the window, and I only read the books of sages and sages, understand?"

Before Azu could understand, Xu Si'an sang his own anti-tune and shouted: "The sage book of fart!"

Xu Mu and Azu looked at each other and remained silent. Xu Si'an was playing drunk crazy at home. Outside, the scorching midday sun was in the air, scorching people's hearts.

......

There weren't many farming schedules for the afternoon, and when disaster happened, the whole village was quiet in the afternoon. Most of the villagers rested and waited for the village assembly in the evening. It's a little interesting to know, and the screaming is not as loud as it was at the beginning.

Azu lay on the bed, trying to close his eyes. Obviously a little sleepy, but I couldn't fall asleep over and over. The sun clearly didn't shine in, but Azu felt like his face was being sunburned. I took the pu fan and fanned it a few times, but in the end it was not antipyretic. The old-fashioned smiling face left a deep impression on him. Azu was not afraid, but he was a little irritated by the lingering feeling.

Wealth is not exposed.

Azu's heart was pounding, and he always felt that the old way was not as simple as a magic stick. Azuna's curiosity felt that this old way was as worthy of exploration as the Taishang in the Tao Te Ching.

One jumped up from the bed, and Azu ran straight towards the mulberry tree at the entrance of the village.