Chapter 5 Tengu. Well

If you want to be a traveler, you can swallow all kinds of tea and food, sleep in any shop, and you are not afraid of snakes or wolves. If you have the courage to take risks, you can go southeast along the Dan River for four days to see an irregular For those who are not in the fort, knowing some nondescript characters in the fort will never be more interesting than visiting any famous mountain resort. It is often written in the "Travel Guide" that a certain place is "beautiful and rich".In fact, this is a scam, although the motives are good and pleasant.The experience along the way is that the words cannot be linked together: a beautiful place is not very rich, and a rich place is not necessarily beautiful, and beauty and richness are both common, but the most common and true Believable.Such is the case in this castle.

The reason why it is called a castle and not a village is because there were many bandits in this area in the early years. In order to avoid disasters, they stood alone on the soil lump plateau by the river.The vicissitudes of life, the walls of the ancient castle have long been abandoned, and there is only a monument in the grass beside the gate of the castle, with mottled writing.In the twilight, the setting sun shines, and the words "Wan Fu Mo Kai" can be seen clearly.There are more than 200 households in the family, all of whom are from the ancestral homeland of the Qin Dynasty. Unfortunately, there is no temple and ancestral hall for all the Guang clans.Although there is still a street, the commercial operation is lack of tradition, so there is no market, and it is quiet in the morning and night. If there is a dog barking, it will be as loud as a leopard.Behind the fort is the official road that runs from east to west, and now it has been converted into a road from the provincial capital to the county seat. Vehicles sometimes stop here, and sometimes they don't. The power is completely determined by the driver's whim.

Half a mile to the north of the road is Tiger Mountain. There are no tigers, and the stones are squatting.Stones are not coals that can burn, and all the shoots that grow there are cut down for charcoal and firewood, and even the roots are dug out and split, and burned in the fire pit during the long winter night.What lives and dies withered and flourishes is a kind of yellow wheat stalk grass, which harbors hares and splashes grasshoppers. Children go to catch them at dusk in July, and wolves often sit propped up in a certain place, looking extremely gentle, thinking they are dogs. "Hey, yo, yo" as a dog's call, and it will come towards it; if it sees the long tail that is as big as a broom and drags the ground, it will shout "It's a wolf!" The beast will run away as soon as it sees it through .

The Danjiang River flows down the south wall of the fort, which seems absurd to say, but it is very difficult to drink water while guarding the river.Carrying water has to go down 372 steps from the gate of the fort, and then walk half a mile to the river beach.Therefore, when it comes to the rainy season, wooden barrels and porcelain basins are placed under the eaves of every family. Ding Ding Dang Dang Dang Dang Dang Dang Dang Dang Ding Ding Dang Dang Ding Dang Ding Dang Ding Dang Ding Dang Ding Dang Ding Dang Ding Dang Ding Dang Ding Dang Ding Dang Ding Dang Ding Dang Ding Dang Ding Dang Ding, people drink the clear sediment, feed cows muddy.So in the past two years, wells have been drilled, at least ten feet deep, and at most thirty feet.People with wells twisted and turned their potter's wheels, while people without wells felt empty and panicked when they heard it.

Those with wells are wealthy households.Those who are rich are craftsmen or carpenters.Or a mason.Originally, there is not much difference between people, so they cannot be said to be smart, nor can they be said to be stupid. All ordinary fortresses neither have the unique conditions to develop the economy, nor do they have a sideline business with rich financial resources and access to the world. Art is a way to make a fortune.Drilling wells has become a symbol of the emerging craftsman class, it is a profitable market, it is a show of wealth, and it is a great cause. Li Zheng, who was digging wells, came into his own destiny. Over the past few years, he has developed his own craftsmanship and brought his own wealth to the wealth of others.Once upon a time, pretending to be profound and mysterious, it was announced that three wells should not be drilled: those who do not ask the Mr. Yin and Yang to check the position will not be drilled;It was as if a real person who was ordered by the heavens and blessed the world was as sacred as a real person.

Everyone in the castle is envious of him, seeing him digging a well is like digging a gold cellar: Many parents have offered four-color gifts to lead their children to become apprentices, but they flatly refused. "This meal is not for everyone!" "Children are stupid, it's good to work hard." "Is this just a pain in the ass?" When Shi said this, the apprentice would choke, and if he asked to beg again, he would end with saying "There is a Wuxing in my family".Wu Xing is the only son of Ba Shi, and he is still in middle school, which means that the craftsmanship is not passed on to the outside world.

Bashi's women don't like Bashi's inhumanity.Men can go their own way outside, but women are insiders. They have to deal with neighbors in the neighborhood for three hundred and sixty-five days, so they have to think carefully. They are worried that the family relationship will fail, and they use soft words to persuade their husbands every day, and they don’t agree "The son inherits the father's job" after taking homework.After too much persuasion, I accepted the Tengu as an apprentice, but I have a word first: I am just a helper, four or six cents, and the skills are not taught.

Tengu is a man at the end of the road, thirty-six years old, unable to earn money to marry a wife and start a family, worships others as teachers, and naturally obeys what he says.This character has a white face, high hairline and full forehead. He has nothing to do on weekdays and no one is in control. He only has the hobbies of raising rabbits, catching rabbits, fishing, and playing with grasshoppers. He should not be born with the appearance and virtue of a farmer. people farmers. On the sixth day of June, which is a good day even if you don’t read the almanac, the master and the apprentice went to the Hu’s house in the east of Baozi to dig a well.The night before, the woman lit a candle in the central hall, and when the candle burned out, she suddenly embroidered a small candle flower handle. She was so excited that she sent the master and apprentice out early in the morning, but she was worried about exhorting them. Tears flowed down.

When Tiangou saw his wife weeping, his heart skipped a beat, and he meditated that this was a bodhisattva.Although he had been a virgin for thirty-six years, he knew everything in his heart. He understood that half of this woman's tears were shed for her husband, and half for him.My wife always treats him as a man without adult, just a puppy.He fulfilled his teacher's views, but he also put on a confused and innocent face. Sure enough, the teacher said: "Tengu, you are the 'threshold year'..." It's all right, Tengu said that he has a red belt around his waist and knows nothing. "The master is a blessed man, and if you follow him, gods and ghosts will never run into each other."

In Hu's house, the master and apprentice sat at the Eight Immortals table dyed with earth lacquer, and the host immediately brought tea, and the two tasted it casually, and the atmosphere in the yard became solemn.An onmyoji in a yellow robe, wearing a paper cap, holding a compass, jumping with feet side by side, looks very funny.Tengu wanted to laugh, but seeing the master had a serious face, the laughter turned into phlegm.The Onmyoji set his position, and with clear water in his mouth, he sprayed the willow-leaf blade with a puff, closed his eyes and began to recite the "Shui Shui Mantra".The mantra was very long, and the master sprinkled the land god in the vocal music of the mantra, and the master straightened his body and walked over. The onmyoji asked: "Is there any water?" The master replied: "There is water." Then asked: "What water?" Then answer "Yangtze River water."

With a bang, the master's pick dug a hole on the cross line of ashes.Tiangou thought, Baozi is by the river, where can't water be dug out?! I just wanted to laugh. Draw a circle with a diameter of two feet with cross gray lines and dig out half a person’s depth. This is called a well. After the tea is smoked, the Tengu will go down and dig according to the size of the master.The tengu's hands and feet are long and shrunk, and it holds a small shovel with too little room for movement. It is very useless to use the shovel hundreds of times, and it is a useless labor.The deeper you go, the more you lose your freedom, like a silkworm that has finished spinning, slowly wrapping itself up to become a chrysalis.When I went down to 30.55 feet, the world was dark. I lit a kerosene lamp in the well wall, and the eyes of the tengu gradually turned into cat eyes, with dilated pupils and a green light. Afterwards, I lived by feeling. In the courtyard above the cave, many people from all around came to dig the well.People who know each other are very busy, busy drinking tea and eating cigarettes; busy talking about the harvest of grain in the field, thanking for the good weather, thanking the current government's current policies, busy talking about the benefits of wells, which one? The carpenter's well is fifteen feet long, while the mason's well is twenty feet long, with ball rollers and steel wire well ropes; he is busy talking funny stories to women, teasing a baby in a little woman's arms, boasting that the baby's face is bright, and winning The joy of little women.In short, with Tengu as a coolie apprentice, the master's work excludes the technical work of starting and closing the well, and he has a lot of extra time and enthusiasm to indulge and enjoy himself on the well platform. The tengu lives as a death row prisoner in the well, and its ears and mouth are useless; in order not to numb itself, it enjoys the hallucinations of various worms whining in its mind.Chongming sang to him the song of life, the song of joy, so that the tengu would not feel lonely and alone.Looking forward to the handsome master calling him at the mouth of the well, the people above don't understand the people below, just busy making a living at the well gate.Stop for a rest, and look at the bright disc above the head. When the sun is strong, the light is lasing, sometimes long and sometimes short, and a column hangs down straight down, as thin as a well rope.Tengu saw many tiny things flying lively in the "rope".He really wanted to grab this "rope" and fly up.Tengu suddenly caught a voice and called out from the crypt: "Wuxing, Wuxing!" Wuxing came back from the county middle school.There is a swimming competition in the school.This kid is good at swimming, but he doesn't have swimming pants. He rushed back to ask his father for it, but the well-driller scolded him, saying that he would wear pants when playing in the water, and he would think of ways to spend money!" Books come back to dig wells to earn money!" Wu Xing can show off in front of his mother, but he is only afraid of his father.He didn't make a sound at the moment, squatting on the side and crying. Tengu came out of the well with a heavy voice, and roared: "The urine is running?!" He went down to change his apprentice, and shouted that the well was not straight. The tengu came out of the well like a four-legged beast, an ugly monster, a nigger brought up from hell.Seeing his appearance, Wu Xing smiled with tears on his cheeks. "Wu Xing, why are you crying, you are a man!" "My father refused to buy me underpants, and asked me to suspend school and come back to dig a well." "Your father is talking angry." "What dad says is what he said. He has said it several times. Tell my dad, Brother Tiangou." "What do you call me? I'm your uncle!" Wu Xing yelled "Uncle Tiangou" awkwardly. The big boy smiled contentedly.When I looked up, I saw a green-winged grasshopper jumping up on the gourd stand on the low wall, agitating its tentacles and hissing.Suddenly, the old addiction relapsed, so I tiptoed over and caught it suddenly, and gave it to Wuxing to play.Bashi's son is also the leader of the naughty gang, who catches and teases grasshoppers, grasshoppers and the like, and then smiles through his tears, and goes home to tell his mother about Lao Tzu. The master climbed out of the well again, and the tengu was replaced again.Later, a potter's wheel was installed on the wellhead to hang soil.The soil is damp and smells sour and sweaty.When it was dark, a basket was pulled up. There was no soil in it, but a tengu sitting in the basket.As soon as he came out, he closed his eyes and sucked in the air, his red chest sank into a big hole, and his ribs were countless. After digging a well for three days, most of the masters are on the well, while most of the apprentices are down the well.The master is still busy, and there is an extra layer of scolding his wife and son.When the scolding got to the point where it was hard to hear, the daughter-in-law of the Hu family said: "Let the son study to get down to business. The two sons of Han Xuanzi's family can both write good calligraphy and do state affairs in the county." Wells are the same, good deeds are good deeds, but not everyone can do them. Even if you finish your studies and do state affairs, the three-month salary is not as much as a well.” Hu’s daughter-in-law said: “That’s It's a long-term thing!" Then he said: "With craftsmanship, don't you eat and drink for the rest of your life?!" After speaking, he laughed and taunted the daughter-in-law for not being able to see clearly the current social situation and the reality of Baozi. The daughter-in-law of the Hu family thought peace was the most important thing, and she didn't bother to discuss right and wrong. She tidied up the well platform, poured out a bucket of clear water and drank half of it, and handed over the salary of one hundred and twenty yuan to Li Zheng.Turning around to look at the Tengu, the Tengu left early.Tiangou heard that Wuxing hadn't gone to school yet, so he was thinking about the few cages of red-backed grasshoppers at home, and wanted to show Wuxing to show off. The door of Tengu's house faces west, and the sunset is shining on the eaves of the wall.Six delicately woven katydid cages—four of bamboo, two of straw—neighed together in the tumult of dusk.Tengu likes this kind of small life, and is good at raising it. Before he learned how to dig a well, he would have nothing to do at home after finishing his work in the field. Satisfactory celibacy concept.Now when I come back from digging the well, I stretch out on the kang and listen to the sound of life in nature, and I feel very happy.This really tastes like poetry, but it is a pity that Tengu's culture is too shallow, and he doesn't know what poetry is in the world. You don't need to look for it, Wuxing has come to you.This kid doesn't make progress in study, but he can toss about when he plays. He saw the grasshoppers in six cages singing the six-part trilogy. The joint performance with the world was indeed very lively, and the sound was several times louder than before. "Uncle Tiangou," said the apprentice's apprentice, "there are so many grasshoppers, can you tell which one is the female?" Tengu said: "It can." "Which one is it?"' "Go get a mirror and put it there. The one that jumps on the mirror is the female, and the rest are the males." Wuxing screamed happily.At this time, I heard someone shouting "Wuxing" from the south end of the fort, and Wuxing remembered the task to be performed, and said, "Uncle Tiangou, my mother asked me to ask you to eat." Tiangou said: "You are a monkey spirit, where is your mother calling me?" Wuxing became anxious, and cursed: "Whoever coaxes you to call you can't go to school!" Tengu changed his clothes and followed. When they arrived at the master's door, the woman scolded her son as soon as she saw her: "The cows eat grass and let the sheep chase them, and the sheep won't come back?!" Tengu said: "Wuxing will fascinate my grasshopper." The woman tapped the tengu's round forehead with her finger, and said, "When will you grow up, you're thirty-six, play with dolls!" In front of this woman, Tiangou has the deepest understanding of the three words "cursing is love". Since he was a teacher in this family, he became presumptuous as soon as he got acquainted with him, but this presumptuousness is all in his heart, but he is as docile as a cat Son, with a flick of his hand, he fell down on all fours.He also seems to be willing to be her child, a bit coquettish and shy, but in fact he is only three years younger than this bodhisattva.Now I said in my heart: "Why don't you find one for me, I will grow up with a woman." At the dinner table, the master ate hungrily.This style is a tough guy, proud of himself in front of his wife and disciples, while stripping off his shirt and chewing vegetables loudly, he pushed two wads of money on the table, one to the tengu and the other to the woman, saying: "Here, take this!" He said casually, but his eyebrows and eyes were full of greatness.The woman held the money in her hand.Wuxing said to his mother: "Mom, with so much money, buy me a pair of swimming trunks." The old man glared: "Forget it, I hope you can become a dragon and a phoenix. Look, the dog and the dog In three days, I can get forty-eight yuan." The woman sighed, set aside some vegetables for her son, and sent them to the courtyard to eat. Tengu felt bored, the food was not delicious, and his face was wet with sweat.The woman asked the tengu to take off the shirt, but the tengu refused, so the woman said: "It's such a hot day, is it Wuzui?" She insisted that he take it off. The husband got angry and said: "You are a strange person! If you don't take it off, you won't be hot. There is no one like you!" After that, he didn't look at the tengu. The woman was embarrassed, and the tengu was even more embarrassed. The three ate in silence for a while.The woman was always worried that the tengu would put down the bowl, so she poured the food into the tengu's bowl. The tengu hurriedly got up and said that it was finished, and talked to the master. "Master, when will you dig the well at Laishun's house at the south end of the fort?" "People have no word of mouth." ¨I'll ask at night. " "Forget it, let's talk when he comes to the door. You go back, and I will call you then." The tengu got up and left, the woman sent it to the gate of the courtyard, and said: "Have a rest early." The tengu said, "Yes."After walking a long distance and looking back, the woman was still standing at the door. Tengu returned home and didn't sleep well at night.In any case, he is very grateful to this family.The master gave him a way out of money, and the master's woman gave him consideration.For a healthy man, Tengu will often think about the benefits of women in the world, but everything is illusory, how good it is, and how good it is, he lacks real feelings.By now, Tengu desperately needs a woman by his side; although he has already passed the most impulsive hunger age. Once a person is driven by the spirit, he forgets hunger, cold and heat, fatigue and drowsiness.At this time, the Tengu reached this state.His heart, brain, blood, and limbs refused to be quiet, so he walked out of the house, picked up his grasshopper cage, and went to the street to take a leisurely and boring night excursion. There were many people standing on the street, all of them women.Women are the most hardworking people in this castle. Often after serving men and children to sleep, they have to wash textiles, pack firewood, or go to the river to fetch water.But it seems that many people have wells and don't need to carry water anymore.The woman didn't have any work in her hands, but she took a rolling pin and went to the river below the fort.Tiangou suddenly realized what was going on, grabbed a woman and asked, "Is there going to be a lunar eclipse?" The answer is yes: "No, the Tengu is going to swallow the moon!" "Tengu swallowing the moon", in the eyes of people in today's cities and towns, it is just an ordinary astronomical phenomenon, and the people in this bunker are somewhat aware of it.However, traditional folk activities have gone beyond the scope of the event itself and become a symbolic ceremony.This phenomenon has not lost its mysterious color. Since ancient times, people in the bunker believed that the tengu swallowed it.When the moon is out, people who go out will be in bad luck.So when the moon is about to be swallowed up, the women will use rolling pins to stir the water in the river, and sing a song until the moon comes back.Now the men in Baozi no longer leave their homes to avoid debts, and they no longer run away from the bandits, but the craftsmen are all going out to make money, and the women in the family pay attention to the activities of this night as usual. Tengu saw almost all the craftsmen's women. "Is Mistress among this group of people?" Tengu thought, watching the women walk down the gate of the castle, there were many figures on the three hundred and seventy-two steps, and Tengu couldn't tell them apart. The wall above the doorway was ruined, and there was a long strip of bluestone in the grass, on which the Tengu sat.Thirty-six years ago, a man in the fort ran away. On the night of September 12th, the same lunar eclipse happened tonight. All the widowed women in the fort went to the river to pray, and the wife who had fled went to the river. On the other side, my stomach hurts sharply, and a baby is born on the beach. This baby is the current Tengu.After the death of his parents, there have been many lunar eclipses. Every time the Tengu looks at the woman's actions, he just finds it funny.Tonight, the craftsmen's women went to the riverside to pray again, to bless their husbands with good luck, and the tengu who had become a well-digging apprentice suddenly felt a sense of sadness in their hearts. He stared dead-eyed at the moon. The moon is still full and round.The moon is the jade plate in the sky, the eye of the night, and the face of a rich and passionate woman.Tengu suddenly remembered the Bodhisattva in his heart. A song suddenly sang by the river.The singing voice is deep and difficult to hear every word clearly, but the rhythm is beautiful.Tengu felt that the song was coming down from the sky, coming from Shuipizi, and the burning thoughts in his heart disappeared, and he was filled with the sacred and solemn atmosphere of the temple.The moon began to eclipse slowly, and then the light between the sky and the earth dimmed, so that it fell into a dark abyss completely. Only Zhan Lao's song of begging for the moon, and the river flowed slowly.Tengu sat silently on the stone bar and held his breath, and the grasshopper in the cage also stopped making voiceless sounds. A person stood on the stone steps under the doorway. Because of the disappearance of the moon, she couldn't see the way to the river; the dog couldn't recognize the face of the person who lost her way.The man is singing softly: The moon in the sky is on one side In the gong sits a girl named Chang'e, You can see the world clearly Without you fell into the old crow's nest, Tengu blind guy yo. The tone of the voice is so soft, it feels like electricity passing through the Tengu's heart.When she sang "I fell into the old crow's nest without you" for the second time, the night sky was no longer so dark, and the bright moon showed a corner again, that person smiled slightly. "Master!" Tengu saw the woman clearly and called out tremblingly.The woman also seemed to be taken aback, looked up and saw Tengu, and said, "Tengu, why are you here?" "I came to see you begging for the moon." Tengu also learned to speak smart words, and he panicked after saying that, so he added, "Master, you sing very well!" The woman scolded: "Tengu, don't say stupid things !" Seeing that the woman was sullen and wanted to go to the river again, Tiangou said, "Master, the moon has already risen, do you still want to go?" The woman stopped dully. The singing by the river gradually became louder, and the woman on the steps sang along with the singing repeatedly, Tiangou immediately felt that the woman was very beautiful.Tonight, my heart was so tormented, I couldn't control myself even more when I saw my teacher's wife, and even got a little clever, thinking that these women should never go to the riverside water to beg for the moon to watch the moonrise. Wouldn't it be more interesting to watch Yue come back? Then he sang: The moon in the sky is gonging, In the gong sits a girl named Chang'e, Tengu is not a blind guy, In the well he hid the moon, Ask me how deep the well is. The one on the steps stopped singing and said: "Tengu, Tengu, you want to rot your tongue!" The one on the stone strip said: "Master, I also need a moon." Tiao Bian: "Tengu, you don't dare to sing nonsense, when is this? You don't have a moon, I know, I came to ask for your master, and I also asked for you." Tengu said: "Master, is what the teacher is telling the truth? The woman said: "Tell a lie, let the dog swallow me too!" Saying that the dog in the sky has the same name as the dog on the ground, the woman felt that she lost her tongue and said uncomfortably, "I'm so confused!"' Tengu was so impulsive that he completely forgot how shy he was in front of this woman, and sang again: The moon in the sky is gonging, In the gong sits a girl named Chang'e, A dog swallows the moon only when he is in a daze, The heart is illuminated and it is easy to live, Tengu is not guilty. "Tengu, are you crazy?" "Master said that the Tengu is crazy, and the Tengu is crazy!" The woman immediately became serious and ignored the tengu, and the tengu softened and returned to a docile and shy look.Seeing that Tengu was honest, the woman entrusted him with some important matters. "Tengu, your master has been acting strange recently." "What's the difference? What's the matter?" "He has a heavy heart. Before he had no money, money ruled him. Now that he has money, money still dominates him. He often nags at home at night, earning ninety-nine, and trying to borrow one to round up the whole number. He yelled that Wuxing would not be allowed to study... You are his apprentice, so you should also persuade your master well." "Have you bought Wuxing's swimming trunks yet? He hasn't been to school for a few days?" "No. Wuxing was still crying when he was sleeping just now, and your master scolded him again." "I'll tell the master." "Go back and rest quickly. After digging the well for a few days, there is no shortage? The moon is already full, and I have to go." After the woman finished speaking, she left quietly, and she joined the group of women returning from begging for the moon by the river, unrecognizable.After a burst of noise on the street, the castle was quiet again.Tengu didn't listen to his wife's words, he didn't go back, watched the moon that day, and slowly fell asleep on the long stone. The moon like the face of a Bodhisattva is shining.Grasshoppers in the cage got wet from the night and whined inaudibly, but the tengu didn't hear it.