During the Qingming Festival, it rains a lot, and pedestrians on the road want to break their souls.

After the vernal equinox, it is Qingming, in Liu Pingsan's memory, on this day every year, it will rain in God, of course, this year is no exception.

The small Taoping Town, drizzling rain and muddy roads, but there are still many villagers, holding umbrellas, holding children, carrying baskets on their backs, containing a few blessing words and a few incense candles, and going to the back mountain to worship their ancestors.

The blessing characters in the women's baskets were sealed by their men a few days ago, and the names of the ancestors they wanted to worship were written on the cover, as well as some words to bless the deceased.

Liu Pingsan got up early, climbed to his father's grave, pulled out the new weeds this year, burned paper, inserted incense, and talked to his father and mother in front of the grave for a while.

Then, with a calm face, he put on his back and walked down the mountain.

Although Liu Pingsan is only thirteen years old this year, he has lived alone for six years in this life, and now he is no longer the child who loves to cry at the beginning.

After returning home, he put down the basket, and Liu Pingsan sat on the threshold of his house, holding his chin with one hand, and staring at the low wall of his house stupidly.

There was a small bird parked on it, its feathers were fiery red, its expression was lazy, and it put its head into its wings from time to time, pecking left and right, occasionally raising its head, and glancing at Liu Pingsan extremely humanely.

Half a year ago, it was also such a rainy day, but it was an autumn rain.

A small bird with a fiery red tail with long feathers came from nowhere and fell in the courtyard of Liu Pingsan's house.

Liu Pingsan had just gone out in the rain to pick up ears of wheat when he found a bird lying on the ground, and out of sympathy, Liu Pingsan picked the bird back into the house.

After examination, Liu Pingsan found that the bird seemed to have only a wound under the left wing, and the others did not seem to have any injuries, and he guessed that this was probably the reason why the bird fell.

So he cleaned the bird's wound with clean water, cut off a strip of cloth, and bandaged the bird briefly. also built a small nest for it with clothes, put it on a small stool, and put half a bowl of millet porridge next to it, after doing all this, Liu Pingsan fell asleep with peace of mind.

And that night, Liu Pingsan had a strange and beautiful dream.

Liu Pingsan can't remember the specific dream clearly, his only memory is that he seemed to be standing on top of a mountain cliff at that time, it looked very high and very high, and looking down from the cliff was a white sea of clouds, and everything around him seemed to be still, and even the whole world seemed to be between reality and illusion.

I don't know how long it took, Liu Pingsan, who was sitting on the edge of the cliff and looking at the sea of clouds boringly, suddenly felt that someone behind him patted him.

When he turned around, he saw a woman, standing behind him, bending down slightly, putting her hand on her shoulder, this woman's hair hung down on Liu Pingsan's head, like a spring breeze, caressing Liu Pingsan's forehead.

At first, in Liu Pingsan's eyes, the woman's face looked blurry, but when the woman's hand moved away from Liu Pingsan's shoulder and retreated a few steps slightly, Liu Pingsan saw her face clearly.

The girl was dressed in red, with bright teeth and starry eyes, and a pair of barefoot feet like congealed cream.

Liu Pingsan only glanced at the woman, and felt that in the first thirteen years of his life, he had never seen anyone more good-looking than her.

So, he blurted out: "Sister, you are so good-looking!"

Hearing this, the woman in the pomegranate skirt smiled lightly, revealing two small tiger teeth.

Liu Pingsan also smirked, this was the first time he had laughed so happily since the death of his parents.

As for what happened later, Liu Pingsan remembered that he sat on the edge of the cliff with that beautiful sister, and seemed to have said a lot, Liu Pingsan still remembered that she seemed to be called Chique, and the rest, no matter how he recalled, he couldn't remember the slightest.

The next day, when Liu Pingsan woke up, he found that the red bird had woken up and was eating the half bowl of millet porridge he had left for him, and his heart was full of joy.

It's just that since that day, Liu Pingsan has never dreamed of that beautiful sister again, and it also makes him feel a trace of loss inexplicably in his heart.

A few days later, after Liu Pingsan went out, he came back and found that the red bird had disappeared, although Liu Pingsan felt a little uncomfortable, but when he thought that a little bird should fly freely in the sky, how could he be imprisoned in the house by himself, he gradually relieved.

It's just that it didn't take long for the little bird to appear on the wall of Liu Pingsan's house again, and when he ran out excitedly, the little bird stopped on Liu Pingsan's hand and rubbed Liu Pingsan's palm affectionately with his head.

Liu Pingsan found that the bird had a finger-sized fruit in its mouth, looking fiery red and crystal clear.

The little bird put the fruit on Liu Pingsan's hand, gently pecked Liu Pingsan's palm with his small beak, and then got up and flew away.

Liu Pingsan picked up the fruit and looked at it, but didn't find anything special, and when he smelled it on his nose, there was a faint fragrance.

Liu Pingsan remembered the story he had heard from Grandpa Wang before, saying that he had saved an owl before, and after Grandpa Wang let it go, the owl would still come back from time to time, with some dead mice and dead snakes in his mouth.

Liu Pingsan was very puzzled when he heard it, and Grandpa Wang explained to him that this was the owl that wanted to repay the favor, so he would bring what he thought was the most precious thing to his life-saving benefactor.

So, Liu Pingsan thought, this is probably the little bird who wants to thank me. So he washed the fruit and put it in his mouth, and it melted in his mouth with a little sweetness.

However, this fruit was not as simple as Liu Pingsan imagined, not long after eating, he felt hot all over, his internal organs seemed to be constantly burned by a fire, and his heart began to beat violently, and he rolled all over the ground in pain.

In the end, Liu Pingsan fainted directly on the ground in pain, but just after he fainted, a force emanated from his sea of consciousness and began to swim throughout his body, and those heart fires that were originally burning in Liu Pingsan's body were like encountering a natural enemy, and he no longer dared to move in the slightest, allowing that power to eat away at him.

In the end, after the power ate all the heart fire, a small fire dragon spit out from its mouth, the little fire dragon turned his head to look at the power behind him, and pouted angrily, but in the end he had to swim obediently to Liu Pingsan's dantian and obediently stayed.

But at this time, Liu Pingsan was huddled in his yard, but he didn't know what fate awaited him. Perhaps, it was such a humiliated death, and only a few days later, when the body stinked, would it be found by the villagers, and then buried with his father and mother.

If any villager has a good heart, he may prepare a few more sticks of incense on the Qingming Festival every year, and after his grave is finished, he will take a detour, climb to this fast hillside, and insert the incense in front of the grave of Liu Pingsan's family.

However, fortunately, Liu Pingsan survived in the end, and he was a blessing in disguise. Liu Pingsan could clearly feel that since he ate that fruit, his body began to be continuously enhanced, whether it was strength, speed, or memory.

All this, although Liu Pingsan felt incredible, his heart was still full of gratitude to that little bird.

It's just that since that time, the bird has not appeared for more than half a year, until today.

————

Liu Pingsan looked at the little bird stupidly, and said the words he had accumulated in the past six months in an incoherent manner: "Little bird, I thought about it carefully, you are the beautiful sister who appeared in my dream that night, right?"

"Then I'll call you Sister Chique in the future, no, no, if not, isn't it disrespectful to Sister Chique?"

"Phew, what am I talking about, forget it, don't talk about this. ”

"By the way, it's been more than half a year, where have you been, I often miss you......"

At this moment, there were suddenly several knocks on the door.

Liu Pingsan ran to open the door, and inadvertently turned around to find that the bird had disappeared.

Liu Pingsan opened the door a crack and saw two people, an old man and a young man, standing outside the door, to be precise, it should be two Taoist priests.

Both of them were dressed in neat cyan robes and wore high crowns. The old one, holding a whisk in his hand, has long eyebrows and long beards, and has a warm complexion, looking quite a bit fairy. And the little Taoist priest standing next to him looked about the same size as Liu Pingsan, with a long sword pinned to his waist.

The old Taoist priest standing outside the door looked at the black and thin child who opened the door for him, made a mockery, and said with a smile: "Little good man, poor Dao Yuanzhen, next to me is my apprentice Xuanyi, I and the apprentice have traveled here, and I want to come to the door to ask for a bowl of water to drink, I don't know if it's okay." ”

Liu Pingsan saw that they reported to their homes as soon as they met, and he couldn't help but have a little good feeling in his heart, so he also nodded with a smile and said, "Hello Master Daoist, my name is Liu Pingsan, please come in." ”

Then he turned around and left the door out.

After entering the door, the little Taoist priest has been silent, but the old Taoist priest chatted with Liu Pingsan from time to time.

Liu Pingsan rinsed the two bowls, added a little tea picked on his own mountain, soaked it in water, brought it to the two Taoist priests, and said slightly: "Two immortal elders, I'm sorry, there are only these rough tea leaves I picked myself at home, looking at what you are wearing, you must be used to drinking good tea." ”

The old Taoist priest listened quietly and listened to Liu Pingsan's words, and then said: "No, no, no, if you can have a bowl of tea to drink, the apprentice and I will be very satisfied." ”

Liu Pingsan smiled slightly.

After chatting for a while, the old Taoist priest suddenly said: "Little brother, Poor Dao is slightly proficient in the art of physiognomy, why don't you let Poor Dao show the little brother the face, it's all about these two bowls of tea, how about it?"

"Master Daoist doesn't need to be so polite, isn't it just two bowls of tea?

"Haha, it's not troublesome, it's not troublesome, I'm not very proficient in this, whether it's accurate or not, just listen to it as a light talk. ”

"That'...... Sorry for your help. ”

Then, the old Taoist priest first asked Liu Pingsan to stretch out his hand for him to see, and then looked at Liu Pingsan's face twice.

Suddenly, his hand that held Liu Pingsan shook violently, and then he withdrew his hand, held his beard with his other hand, and couldn't help but praise in his mouth: "It's weird, it's really wonderful, wonderful!"