Chapter 26 Chapter Twenty Six

(...And at that moment, Uncle was standing at the door, covered in sunlight, squinting at us.) Our reunion with uncle was in these two ugly earthen huts.The bad guy and I hugged uncle in love; uncle looked at us, he wasn't that arrogant, with embarrassment and guilt on his face, but the corners of his eyes were moist.We didn't mention the scene where he left, but we asked about his body and how he had lived for a few days.Fugui and Cuihua rolled in a ball on the small soil field in front of the door, and the dust was blown up, and the chickens on the steps were also messed up and squawking.Uncle said: "It's all fate, it's all fate!"

Of course I handed the gun to my uncle, as well as the piece of Jin Xiangyu.The uncle was startled, wiped his hands on the front of his clothes, and finally caught the gun, but he didn't accept Jin Xiangyu. "Have uncle seen the old Taoist priest?" "He is very ill, and he has no more golden incense jade." The uncle said, "This old man has been volunteering to carry stones to the temple for more than ten years to repair the front of the temple. The old Taoist gave him the remaining golden incense jade. I am I came to ask the old man, and the old man said that Jin Xiangyu was taken away by the village head."

Lantou and I complained incessantly, only then did we understand what the village chief had said. Lantou was scolded by Mrs. X, and even wanted to go back to the village to find the village chief.Uncle waved his hand and said, "It seems that there must be fate to get Jinxiangyu, just like number fourteen." "Number Fourteen? Is it Wolf Fourteen?" Uncle didn't answer, but asked us to meet the old man in the house.Walking into the room, it was as dark as entering a cave, and after a pause, I saw a big earthen kang in the room. In front of the kang hole, there was a big heated kang with lumps of firewood, and on the fire was a large porcelain pot hung by a wire. , gurgling and cooking something, next to an old man and an old woman sitting in a nest.When we were talking outside the door, they didn't come out. When we walked in, they only looked up. The poverty and loneliness in the deep mountains often make the mountain people have extreme reactions to outsiders, either excessive enthusiasm or excessive enthusiasm. Indifferently, I said: "Hello, uncle and aunt!" The response was: "Sit down, sit down", they finally spoke, their white eyes rolled down again, they pulled a few wooden blocks from behind, and wiped them vigorously with their hands. Wipe the pier face.

"Uncle," I said, "I'm from the village below. Your village head sent a message to let you repair the terraced fields on the slope behind the house." "I won't fix it!" said the old man stubbornly. "The terraced fields should be repaired." "No fix!" "..." The old man stood up suddenly and stared at me viciously. I thought he was going to jump over and hit me, but he suddenly separated his legs and made a horse riding posture. The pants he was wearing had no crotch, and a piece of black meat was hanging down. He said : "I don't have pants!"

This scene took me by surprise. The rotten head didn't seem to take it seriously, he kicked down and grabbed a firewood with his hand to smoke, and said: "No pants?! The less you cultivate the field, the poorer you have no pants. Laziness and poverty are linked together, and the two take turns. You have to repair the field even if you wear pants!" "I won't give him pants!" The old woman cried out nervously, and got up and left the kang, and sat on the threshold. "I gave him a pair of my pants, and the crotch was worn out in three days and two hours."

"Uncle," I stopped the rotten head, "We just sent a message. The village chief said that he would come to check it five days later. The spring relief money is completely gone before the Tianyan is repaired." The old man yelled: "No more? The relief money given to me by the state is gone? The dog day Liu Tianshui, he said he gave him Jin Xiangyu, and he gave me the relief money, and now he says he won't give it to me? Isn't he just Do you think I didn't give him a wolf cub?" "Wolf cub, what wolf cub?" "I just won't give it to him! In the autumn of the year before last, the second son of the Zhang family in Xilinwa caught an old turtle. I asked for it to be released. He said he would, but he took it home and cooked it. I want to release the wolf cub. He found out and wanted wolf cubs again. I saw his darling clearly. Not only did he not let wolf cubs go, but he also used wolf cubs to attract wolves! Mile!"

"Where did the wolf cub come from?" "Isn't it given by the old Taoist priest!" "Where is the wolf cub now?" "Let the wolf lead it away." "Are there wolves here?" I looked at my uncle, but he didn't turn his face away. I suddenly realized that my uncle left us out of guilt and embarrassment, but he took the wolf cubs to Hongyan Temple, and seeing the old man was not just for the sake of begging again. Jin Xiangyu, but for the wolf cubs.Suddenly a picture appeared in my mind: there is a secret place in Hongyan Temple, maybe it is a place surrounded by wood, maybe it is a cave, where various young beasts are fed, once these beasts have the ability to survive, the old Taoist He was released.The uncle took the wolf cub with him, but the old man fell ill, seriously ill, so he entrusted the wolf cub to this poor mountain man, who fed it for a few days, and then let other wolves take it away.I believe my feeling is correct, I tilted my head and looked out from the door opening. There was an old ewe tied to a wooden stake beside the thatched toilet outside the earthen house. The milk provided the drinking of the couple and also fed the wolf cubs.I left the heated kang and walked straight to my uncle, who was smoking there, using an old man's long pipe with a bamboo pipe. I took a puff of the pipe and said, "Uncle, you are great!"

"Great?" Uncle didn't seem to understand, his eyes were a little distracted. "I just said that you killed the wolf cub. It turns out that you brought it to Hongyan Temple. Hongyan Temple should really set up a base to feed young beasts that have lost their ability to survive." "What are you talking about? Ziming, I don't understand." "The old man is a wildlife protector?" "I don't know that." "It was you who gave the wolf cub to the old Taoist?" "This, how is this possible? Isn't this killing me?"

Uncle Maoyao walked out of the doorway. Seeing our uncle walking out of the room, he said loudly, "That's impossible. The captain is a hunter. How can he raise wolf cubs?! Fugui, don't you think so?" Fugui barked, Lantou said: "You cultural people are not as good as a dog. You are smart when you are smart, but you are dumber than anyone else when you are stupid!" Oh, I kind of woke up, and slapped my forehead.When I walked out of the house, the red sun was shining outside, I stretched my limbs and stretched my muscles and bones, and said to my uncle that the smell of sauerkraut in the house was so strong that I was almost out of breath.Uncle said this is the poorest place in Shangzhou, so it's a shame to let you come here.I said it was really embarrassing, how do you live these days?Uncle said it was in such a place that there were wolves.I told about the wolf I saw on the way, and my uncle fixed his eyes, asked about the size and color of the wolf in detail, and said that it was wolf No. 9, and there were four more in this area.

Just to take pictures of the other four wolves, we decided to stay in this area.But Lantou and I refused to live in the mountain people's house. First of all, the sanitary conditions were unacceptable. What's more, the old couple is so poor, what can we eat and drink?Uncle suggested that it would be better to go to the old Taoist of Hongyan Temple again.So, after we left the old man one hundred and twenty yuan, we left the earthen house, and the rotten head burst into a strange theory, saying that no one who burns incense and recites Buddha will be able to prosper, and those who are dedicated to doing good and freeing lives are also poor. That appearance, at first glance, is not a blessed appearance.Just as we were talking, a bird flew across the sky, and a piece of bird droppings fell on the bridge of his nose impartially. He no longer dared to speak. After another half day, we rushed to the foot of a cliff, which was covered with red sand. There is nothing special about the stone cliff. Along the zigzag path, there is a platform with layers of red stones. To the north of the platform is another cliff, densely populated with cypress trees. Going into the cypress forest, the road spirals upwards. Hongyan Temple is here.Hongyan Temple is really a pitifully small cave. The cave is not very deep. A small earthen temple is built around the entrance of the cave. An old cypress tree at the entrance of the temple is so old that it is almost empty, almost like a wooden plank standing on top of it. There, the cypress leaves on the top of the tree are green, and a stone tablet under the tree is engraved with a sentence: You cut down my tree and I don't speak, I want you to die.The old Taoist was very old and weak, sitting on a green ashlar, his skin was wrinkled, his face was earthy, a pair of long white eyebrows hung down on his face, and his tied hair was so sparse, dry and dirty , the hair bundle is tied on the top of the head, and a stick is pinned to it.The temple is deserted, with no statues or pilgrims. There is a stick of incense burning on the desk. You don’t know whether it is a respect for the gods or the old way. There is a pile of potatoes as big as abacus beads under the desk, and the color is dark. green.To be honest, I came here full of reverence and solemnity. The environment and the old-fashioned appearance made me feel that this old man didn't live here for preaching or cultivation, but more like the couple I saw on the road. Like old couples, they just spend their last years in hardship.Faced with such temples and Taoist priests, I don't understand that he has the fate to find Jin Xiangyu, and he can feed and release young wild animals.Rotten head didn't have a trace of awe at all. When my uncle and I greeted the old man, he sat down under the desk, took off his shoes and rubbed his feet, and asked about Jin Xiangyu while rubbing. The old man only said: "I don't Jin Xiangyu is gone, I don’t know where there is Jin Xiangyu,” snorted out of anger, leaned against the foot of the desk and let out a snoring, immediately soaking a large part of her bra with saliva.

We went to the mountain spring behind the cliff to scoop up the water for dinner, picked up the firewood in front of the temple gate, and cooked the rice by ourselves; boiled yams with corn batter, no chili vinegar, just a sprinkling of salt.The rotten head grumbled dissatisfied. After the meal, the rare wind was clear and the moon was white. The old man was burning incense in the incense burner on the desk again, and the rotten head leaned against the leg of the desk to smoke. He smoked one after another. Before smoking, he asked me to take a picture of him and said: burn incense to worship gods, and smoke to respect yourself!Fortunately, he can still say such words, but the old man obviously turned cold, and sat there with his eyelids down.Uncle then looked for something else to say, but after all, he often only answered one sentence when he asked ten questions to the old man, and the bad guy always said that he was sleepy, so everyone said to sleep, and went to sleep on the kang. There is only one side of the kang in the temple. Originally, people slept from east to west, but now they sleep in a row from north to south, with their heads resting on the edge of the kang.I fell asleep very quickly, but woke up again soon, because my whole body was itchy, and something was crawling in my waist. I stretched out my hand gently, feeling like I was pressing something, kneading it and then pinching it, and opened my eyes slightly. When I opened my eyes, the temple was dark and the window was white. I put the little thing on the window sill and pressed it with my nails, making a small crack. "Is it a lice?" said a voice. "A lice bit you? Just rub it and throw it away." I was startled, and raised my head. In the dim light, I found the old Taoist priest sitting against the corner of the kang wall. "Master, are you awake?!" "Asleep." "We took the kang, I sit up, you should always sleep." "I dozed off sitting up." The old Taoist also dozed off while sitting?I looked at my uncle on the other side of the kang. His body was covered with wolf fur, and he had just woken up with his legs crossed and his hands crossed. "Go to sleep, go to sleep, you look good when you sleep." "Master has been sleeping like this all my life. I only learned from Master when I came back to see Master." The uncle said in a low voice, "Why am I panicking? The wolf's fur is also tied up. There are wolves." "I hope it won't come when it comes to pick up the wolf cubs, what is it doing here?" I immediately went over to pat Fugui who was lying under the kang, I believed in my uncle's feeling, but the old man said again, "Come here, except for ghosts, there are wolves, tigers and leopards here, don't let the dog disturb it." He patted Fugui and fell asleep for a while, but Fugui didn't sleep, his ears were raised straight.Uncle carried Fugui onto the kang, pinched its chin, and Fugui fell asleep, snoring softly.Everything was quiet again, and everyone fell asleep again. For about an hour, I secretly kept awake, but when I was about to get confused again, I vaguely heard the sound of the door being scratched, stood up hurriedly, and saw the old man The Taoist was lying on the window looking out, and the uncle was also lying on Jun, and it was the old Taoist who whispered: Here we come. "Who is it?" the old Taoist raised his voice. "Brush." ​​A handful of sand hit the temple door. "Is it a wolf?" "Brush, brush." ​​Two handfuls of sand hit the temple gate. The old Taoist got up and got off the kang to open the door. There was a squeak, and the door was half-opened. A triangular white light fell in. Two wolves, one big and one small, appeared in the white triangle light.I immediately recognized the little wolf as the wolf cub I held in my arms. It was obviously much stronger, but a little shy, first in front of the big wolf, and then hid behind the big wolf, wagging its tail vigorously.The old Taoist said, "Why is it not the wolf I cured?" The big wolf whined twice, his voice sounded like a stutter.The old Taoist said: "No. Oh, you son of a bitch brought it here. What's the use of looking for me?" The big wolf turned around, and the broom-like tail was first clamped on the buttocks, and slowly stretched up, half There is no hairy spear on the buttocks and it is swollen into a big bag. "Yo, you also need to see a doctor. How can I treat such a big sore?" Big Wolf bent his head to look at the old man, and whined again, as if crying.The old Taoist began to feel on the ground, but found nothing, so he pulled out the wooden stick from the hair on the top of his head, and jabbed at the big bag. I fell to the ground, and a spurt of pus and blood spurted out, and the unpleasant smell made me gasp.Almost a minute later, the big wolf got up from the ground, turned around, and this time knelt down on his front paws and whimpered three times, and then the two wolves disappeared from the triangle of white light.The old Taoist closed the door again, sat back in the corner of the kang wall, closed his eyes and fell asleep again. This scene is like a fantasy, and no one would believe it if I told it to anyone, but it was indeed what I saw with my own eyes, and I was so dumbfounded that I forgot to take the camera. After the wolf disappeared from the moonlight in the soil field in front of the temple gate, I regretted so much that I slapped myself in the face. "Is the master still a doctor?" said the uncle. "Doctor fart." The old Taoist still had his eyes closed, "The wolf has found me, just have a sore and pus. What's the matter, a wolf came sick not long ago, and this wolf also has a sore, now If you don’t hunt wolves, the wolves can’t do it by themselves?!” "Master," I said, "will the wolf come again?" "Ask the wolf." "The wolves are coming again, can I take a picture of them?" "That's more to ask the wolf." "If you can understand wolves, can wolves understand you?" "Do wolves understand human nature?" I am in awe of the old man.Buddhism advocates nothingness, but there are also living Buddhas. Taoism emphasizes cultivation to become immortals. This old Taoist must be an immortal!This time when they entered Shangzhou, the mountain people often talked about fox spirits, snake spirits, and old tree spirits. If anything can really become a spirit, the old man should be a human spirit.The next day, I told the story of the night to the rotten head, but the rotten head didn't believe it. "Is he still a doctor?" , the three wives were crying around, the first wife hugged the man's head, and cried: "Lang's head, Lang's head!" The second wife hugged the man's feet, crying: "Lang's feet, Lang's feet!" Ah! The little wife is the man's favorite. Seeing the two elder sisters hugging the man's head and feet respectively, she hugged the man's dust root, crying and saying: Lang's middle, Lang's middle! This old way is like this Doctor!" I was annoyed and ignored him, and he also felt that he had said something he shouldn't have said, and even more instigated uncle to leave here, saying that he couldn't eat well, didn't sleep well, and his body was covered in red bumps from lice bites.But I insisted on not leaving. I believe that if I stay here, there will definitely be wolves.During this day, I diligently went to the mountain spring to fetch water for the old Taoist priest, and helped him cut the pumpkins into slices, string them up one by one and hang them on the temple wall. the weir.At dusk, suddenly there was a fierce shout in the distance, and even the neighing of the horns of the carriages and horses could be heard. After a few seconds, the sound disappeared.I thought it was an auditory hallucination, so I asked my uncle, "Did you hear anything?" "It's the sound of the mountain." The uncle replied calmly. "Mountain noise? Why are there shouts in the mountains, as well as the neighing of horses and horns?!" "Do you know that Li Zicheng stationed troops in Shangzhou?" "Know." "There was a war here back then, and the mountain sucked in the sound, but now it lets it out from time to time. I encountered it a few times when I was hunting." "Is there such a thing?" "If you don't believe me, ask the bad guy." Lantou nodded, seeing that I was still puzzled, he said, "Would you listen to me telling you something even stranger?" I'll listen, but don't swear.He said that in Shahezi, there is a village called Gangou five miles east of their hometown. There used to be a school at the foot of the mountain behind the village. A landslide ten years ago buried 30 students from the school.Later, in the middle of the night, he could often hear screams. He heard the shouts once, "Minmin, run!" He personally found out that one of the buried students was named Minmin I was only fifteen years old that year.After the bad guy finished speaking, he raised his head and spat in the air a few times, and made me spit too, "Don't let the ghosts find words to attach to us!"