Chapter 8 first quarter

The third day of June in the twenty-seventh year of Guangxu.Still sunny.Xia Zhuang meets Xue Zuyan again.Xue Yan was already on his way to purchase 78 Mausers from the Germans.Zhang Lianjia wanted to withdraw from the meeting on the pretext of his mother's funeral and filial piety.In fact, Lian Jia was just terrified because of major events.Zu Yan's persuasion was unsuccessful, he gradually became hesitant, and then he became furious, drew his sword, pointed at Zhang Lianjia and cursed: "Retire from the club, quit the club, you've been shouting to quit the club all day, quit your mother!"With the sword in hand, a pear tree in the garden was cut in two.Zhang Sui was silent.

At noon, Guy Xue planned to bring Xiumi and a little boy to the back garden.They came to deliver a letter to Ding Shuze.Xiumi saw me unexpectedly, she was terrified, her face was pale, and she couldn't speak.She stood on the porch, pinching the corner of her clothes, her teeth chattering.I put my hand on her shoulder, but she didn't dodge, but kept shaking all over her body.The eyes are like autumn water, the hands are like catkins, the delicate and pitiful appearance, the snow is pure and intelligent, which makes people ecstatic.I can't wait to hug her and rattle her bones.Ugh……

Three years later, when Xiumi reread Zhang Jiyuan's diary, it was already the eve of going to Changzhou to get married. This diary was found by Magpie when he was making Zhang Jiyuan's bed, and it was under the pillow mat.For the first time, this seemingly clumsy girl showed her extraordinary tact: she didn't say anything, and she didn't tell her mother. Instead, she made her own decision and quietly gave it to Xiumi.Of course, the series of events triggered by this diary far exceeded Magpie's expectation. It turns out that Xiumi feels that although the world outside her body hides countless mysteries, it has always kept silent to her.She seemed to be in a dark and closed room, and could only distinguish the outline of the room with the dim light.But reading Zhang Jiyuan's diary was like opening the skylight suddenly, and the sunlight poured into the house from all directions, which made her unable to open her eyes.

It took her almost three days to finish reading the diary.It all happened so fast, so suddenly.Her heart is like a leaf being carried away by the rapids in the river, rushing to the crest for a while, and sinking to the bottom of the river for a while.She felt like she was going crazy.She kept her eyes open all night and night, lying in bed unable to sleep.She was surprised to find that people can go without sleep for four consecutive days.Half a month later, she made a new discovery: people can sleep for six days without waking up. When she finally woke up, she saw her mother, Magpie, and Cuilian all standing in the room looking at her, and Sixth Master Tang, a doctor in the village, was writing prescriptions on the table.She looked at these people in the room as if she didn't know them, and said a lot of words to them that no one could understand.But in the following month or so, she hardly spoke a word to anyone.

My mother was worried that she would follow the old path of her father's madness, and invited monks and Taoist priests to give spiritual lessons as usual to dispel disasters and avoid evil spirits.Ever since she came down the stairs naked one day, the tiger had started calling her crazy.She talked more, and she would chatter endlessly when she saw people.The three words Zhang Jiyuan was the last thing my mother wanted to hear, and it finally made her lose patience.Of course, the mother had already prepared a reason for Xiumi's possible madness, and that was: the child was not quite normal since he was a child.She deliberately leaked out her mouth, which showed that she had accepted such a fact in her heart.

Only the magpie knows the whole story.For a diary to be maddening, its contents must be of great importance.It seems that the random smearing by scholars should not be underestimated.Knowing that regrets and hidden tears won't help, she decides to tell the truth.Just when Magpie was about to tell his wife about the diary, Xiumi suddenly regained consciousness overnight. This morning, Cuilian sent Xiumi a bowl of decoction, and as soon as she walked to the door, she was petrified by the scene in front of her.She saw Xiumi put her snow-white little finger in the door frame, and then slowly closed the door.Due to the squeeze between the door and the door frame, the little finger began to deform little by little, and blood flowed down the crack of the door.At this time, Xiumi smiled at Cuilian who came upstairs, and said, "Look, it doesn't hurt at all."

Cuilian was really taken aback by her crazy behavior.In a panic, he didn't step forward to stop him, and actually picked up the soup and drank it all in one gulp.The bitter taste of the concoction brought Cuilian back to her senses, and she said to herself: "Fuck, am I crazy too? Huh?" She quickly pulled out a handkerchief from her waist and went to bandage Xiumi's wound. The tip of her little finger It was completely crushed, and the peeled off fingernails were bloody.She heard Xiu Mi keep saying in her ear: Now I feel a little pain.I know it hurts.Really, I feel sore right now.In this way, she relied on the sharp pain of her body to save her mind, which was on the verge of collapse, and miraculously recovered.

However, as one of the consequences of her mental recovery, she could no longer remember what Zhang Jiyuan looked like.His image is gradually moving away from her.Even the frozen body by the river became blurred in memory. Forgetting is irreversible. It is a person's face that melts more easily than an ice cube. It is the most fragile thing in the world. Back then, when she saw Zhang Jiyuan for the first time, she felt that that face did not belong to this world, but a part of a wild idea.Gradually, this face turned into a square of green cloth on the back of the chair, into the twinkling stars in the empty courtyard, into the thick scales of the floating clouds in the sky; Covered with petals and stalk leaves, when the wind blows, the flower branches sway, the stamens tremble slightly, and endless sadness accumulates in her heart.

Soon after Xiumi recovered from her illness, her mother began to ask people to arrange her marriage.Xiumi has no interest in getting married, but she doesn't shirk it either.Mother asked Cuilian to ask her about her thoughts, and Xiumi said to her nonchalantly, "Anyone can do it, anyway, I don't care." After a few days, when the in-laws were found, Cuilian went to tell her the date of the blind date.Xiumi said: "It will happen any day, anyway, I don't care." On the day of the blind date, Xiumi locked herself in the upstairs room.Cuilian and Magpie slapped their hands swollen, but she just didn't open the door.Finally, my mother came upstairs. Through the crack of the door, she begged her with tears: "Man, the matchmaker has brought it, and she is standing in the courtyard. You should take a look at it or say something. Don't wait until you get to Changzhou." The Hou family, come to repent again."

Only then did Xiumi realize that the place she was going to was Changzhou, and her future man was named Hou.Xiumi said in the room: "You don't need to look at it, as long as you find it pleasing to the eye. When the time comes, his family will come to pick up the sedan chair, and I will go with him." "Son, how can you talk like that? How can marriage be considered a trifling matter?" the mother said. "Hey," Xiumi sighed, "this body is not mine in the first place, whoever wants it, let him spoil it." When she said this, her mother burst into tears.Soo-mi is also crying inside the door.A secret in their hearts is tacit to each other.When the mother had cried enough, she persuaded Xiumi again: "It's fine if you don't look at others, but you have to let them look at you, right?"

Only then did Xiumi open the door, walked to the porch, lazily leaned on the railing and looked into the courtyard.An old woman leading a man in a brand new fedora was also looking up at her.The man didn't look young, but he didn't look old either, and his appearance was still upright.Xiumi wished that he was older, or a little bald, with a pockmarked face, so that her marriage would be a little tragic.In those days, she was addicted to self-doing, and felt that it was the only way to relieve her anger.The old woman looked at Xiumi with a smile, and kept asking the man: How is it, is it white or not?The man said in one voice: Bai, Bai.Pretty good, pretty good.Since the man saw her for the first time, he giggled like a hiccup, and kept sticking out his tongue to lick his upper lip, as if he was eating something. wearing something. Xiumi really doesn't care about marriage.In Zhang Jiyuan's diary, she vaguely knows what a covenant in a mulberry is and what a love in bed is, of course she knows much more than this.On the day before her wedding, she lay alone on the bed, picked up the diary, read it over and over under the lamp, and talked to him while reading.She had never been so close to a person's naked heart.In a trance, she felt that Zhang Jiyuan was sitting in front of her bed, chatting and laughing like a real couple.Even after reading those embarrassing passages, Xiumi was neither flustered nor hot-faced, but giggled like a child. "Zhang Jiyuan, Zhang Jiyuan, you open your mouth about revolution, but keep your mouth shut about unity. You are full of worries about the world and hurting life, and your ambition is fierce. It turns out that you are also a big pervert in your bones. Hehe." She laughed to herself for a while, but suddenly felt sad again.Biting the corner of the quilt, he was dazed in a daze, and then wept silently, wetting both sides of the pillow.In the end, she took a long breath, and said viciously to herself in her heart: marry, marry, no matter who it is, as long as he wants it, I will marry him, and let him spoil it. Since Xiumi got on the sedan chair, she has fallen asleep in a daze.The sedan chair moved slowly in the thick fog.During the jolt of the ferry and the wheezing of the bearers, she woke up several times.She didn't know how long she had been walking, and she occasionally opened the car curtain to peep out. The groom was riding on a thin donkey, and he was smiling silly at her, but his face couldn't be seen clearly.The matchmaker, with thick rouge and powder cream on her face, followed behind him with a smile.The sun is also dim.It was so foggy that day, Xiumi sat in the sedan chair, her hair felt wet, and she couldn't recognize anyone a few steps away.Only the monotonous brass bell of the donkey accompanied her all the way. She remembered what her mother had said to her last night.She said: "Tomorrow morning, as soon as the sedan chair arrives, you just go with them, don't come to say goodbye to me." Then she said, "Don't drink water in the morning, so as not to cause inconvenience on the road." Finally, she said, "According to the rules, After three days, the new daughter-in-law will return home, and Changzhou is a long way away, plus the army is in chaos, so you don’t want to come back.” After speaking, her lips trembled again, trying not to cry out.Before getting into the sedan chair this morning, Xiumi saw Cuilian and Magpie squatting at the base of the wall crying, while Baochen was leading the tiger and didn't look at her.It's just that Hua Erniang and Granny Meng stood on tiptoe, busily helping and shouting hello.Ding Shu sent someone to deliver a pair of couplets a few days ago, which were 16 Chinese characters for "Xi" written in different fonts.He stood far away at the entrance of the village, holding a wishful stick in his hand and tickling his back.However, in the diffuse morning mist, their figures are all indistinct. She suddenly had a worry.She felt that she would never see her mother again.As soon as the sedan chair moved, her heart floated up.Soon, the fog separated her from Puji.Her tears still couldn't stop streaming out.That's not the only thing that worries her.She thought of the golden cicada in the brocade box.It was also locked in the wardrobe upstairs.Three years have passed, and the six-fingered man Zhang Jiyuan mentioned has never shown up. Not long after crossing the river, in her drowsy drowsiness, she vaguely heard noises coming from outside the sedan chair.Probably the villagers along the way spotted the wedding party and gathered around to watch the fun and beg for wedding candies.Xiumi is not at all interested in this, and she goes on sleeping with her.Strangely, amidst the din, there were one or two shrill screams from the female family members, and she even heard the sound of sword clashes, but Xiumi didn't care at all.Soon, she felt that the sedan chair suddenly picked up speed, and in the end, it was literally running.The whistling wind and the panting of the bearers filled my ears.Xiumi was thrown upside down in the sedan chair, and couldn't help but want to vomit. She opened the sedan chair curtain and looked outside, the matchmaker with thick rouge on her face was gone, the dowry carrier was gone, her nominal husband and the little donkey with the bell were gone.The four bearers were the only ones left in the whole welcoming team. They carried her and ran fiercely on the rough road. Panting heavily, a bearer tilted his head and shouted to her in horror: Bandits, bandits!Damn it, bandits! It was only then that Xiumi realized that something had happened. At the same time, she also heard the sound of horseshoes behind her. Finally, the bearers were so exhausted that they rested their sedan chairs on a threshing floor and fled for their lives.Xiumi saw the four of them jumping side by side in the open wheat field for a while, and soon disappeared into the thick fog. Xiumi got out of the sedan chair and found that the surroundings were empty.There is a dilapidated hut next to the threshing floor, no one lives in it.The walls were crooked and on the verge of collapse, and the straw on the roof had already turned gray-black.There are groups of white cranes perched on the roof, and a buffalo lying in front of the house is also covered with white cranes on its back.Not far away, there is a cluster of woods, faintly covered by thick fog, only occasionally there are one or two cuckoos singing. She saw several people, riding lazily, gathering towards her from different directions.However, Xiumi didn't feel scared at all.These legendary bandits with green faces and fangs looked no different from ordinary peasants. A middle-aged man with balding hair came up to her on a white horse, reined in the horse's head, looked at Xiumi with a smile on his face, and said to her: "Xiuxiu, do you still recognize me?" ?” Xiumi couldn't help being taken aback.I wondered in my heart, how could this person call me by my nickname?She raised her head and glanced at him quickly. At first glance, she seemed familiar, especially the scar on her face, but she couldn't remember where she had seen him. "I don't know you," Xiumi said. "What about me?" The person who spoke was a young man in his early twenties, riding a bay red horse, with big arms and round waist, he seemed to have seen it somewhere.He spoke in a low voice. "Do you recognize me?" Xiumi shook her head. The two men looked at each other and suddenly laughed. "It's no wonder, it's been about six or seven years, right?" the middle-aged man said. "Six years," said the young man. "How do I remember it was seven years?" "Six years. Yes, six years." The two were arguing there, when a man who looked like a horse came over, "Fourth Master, the fog is about to clear." The middle-aged man looked up at the sky, nodded, and then said to Xiumi: "Then I will wrong you first." Before Xiumi could say anything, a black cloth covered her eyes.Then something was stuffed into her mouth, and she felt the taste of salty cloth.The gang tied her tightly and still stuffed her into the sedan chair.After a while, the group of people carried the sedan chair and set off on the road. After the black cloth was removed from her eyes, Xiumi found herself sitting on a wooden boat.Everything in front of my eyes is black: the canopy of the cabin, the table, the reeds in the channel, and the flowing water are all black.She closed her eyes, leaned on the side of the boat, tried to move her arms and legs, and then realized that her pants were wet, and she didn't know when she peed.She no longer feels shamed about it, though.She opened her eyes again, re-looked at everything around her, and faint uneasiness hit her heart.Why do my eyes see everything black?She soon had an answer, for it was already dark. She saw the crescent moon and the stars in the sky, and at the same time she saw the boat driving in an open lake.Each ship was connected by iron chains, and she counted seven of them.Her ship was last.After a while, lights were lit in the cabin, and she saw that the lights on the seven boats reflected an arc of light in the lake, like a team of people hurrying with lanterns. What is this place?Where are they taking me? No one answered her except for the sound of the wind, the sound of the oars swaying, and the calls of water birds flapping their wings and skimming the water.There were two people sitting opposite her.She had seen both of them at the threshing floor this morning.The bald middle-aged man seemed to be sleeping soundly leaning against the side of the boat. The scar on his face was long and deep, extending from his cheek to his neck.One of his feet rested on the wooden table, just pressing down on the package she had brought with her.This person can actually call out my baby name, where on earth have I seen him? Sitting next to him is a horse-ben.This is a young man of seventeen or eighteen years old, with delicate features and a thin body.He stared at her motionless, with a timid look in his eyes.As long as Xiumi glanced at him occasionally, he immediately blushed, lowered his head, and stroked the red tassel on the handle of the knife. For some reason, his gaze reminded her of Zhang Jiyuan.One of his feet was also resting on the wooden table, but the cloth shoe on his foot had two holes, exposing the toes inside.A horse lamp was lit on the wooden table, and there was a long tobacco rod beside it.The lake gurgles over the side of the boat, and the night is as cool as water.There was a faint smell of water in the air.Xiumi pressed her face against the side of the boat, it was wet, and she felt a burst of coolness. How should I do?she asked herself. She thought of jumping into the lake.The problem was, she didn't want to jump into the lake, not at all.If they didn't want her to die, even if she jumped, they would fish her up.She tried her best not to think about the future, but Miss Sun was an obstacle.When she thought of Miss Sun's naked appearance in the legend, her heart pounded wildly.She didn't know where the boat would eventually take her, but it was clear that her fate would not be much better than Miss Sun's. She heard a rustling.The boat has entered a narrow waterway, the reeds on both sides are tall and dense, and the stalks sweep across the side of the boat from time to time.The sound of running water became louder.The horse bean was still staring at her.This person didn't look like a bandit at all, his face was pale and a little bit shy, but his eyes were shining.Xiumi tentatively asked him where the boat was and where it was going, but he bit his lip and said nothing.At this moment, the middle-aged man suddenly woke up. He rubbed his eyes, looked at Xiumi, gave Ma Bian another look, and said: "cigarette." Ma Bian seemed to be taken aback, he quickly took the tobacco rod from the table, filled it with shredded tobacco, and handed it over with both hands. "Fire." The middle-aged man took the pipe and said again. The young man picked up the lantern again and leaned over to ask him to light a cigarette.The lights illuminated their faces.Xiumi saw that Ma Bian's hands were shaking violently, and there was a circle of thin fluff on his mouth.The middle-aged man took a few puffs of cigarettes, and then said to Xiumi: "You really don't remember me?" Xiumi didn't speak. "Look at me carefully and think again." Xiumi lowered her head and stopped looking at him.After a while, the man said again: "So, you really don't remember us. You have been thinking about you all the time during the birthday celebration." "Who is Qingsheng?" Xiumi asked.Why did she feel that the name Qingsheng sounded familiar. "He has a nickname called 'Uncontrollable'," the middle-aged man sneered, "How about it, do you remember? Six or seven years ago, your attic caught fire..." Xiumi was taken aback.She finally remembered that after her father's attic was burned six years ago, her mother asked Baochen to invite a group of craftsmen from other places.One of them was Qingsheng, whose nickname was "Disobedience".She still remembers that on the day before the group of craftsmen left, Qingsheng looked at her while walking backwards out of the village, and finally bumped into a neem tree. "Are you celebrating a birthday?" "I'm not Qingsheng." The middle-aged man said, "My name is Qingde. Qingsheng is on the boat ahead. You saw him in the threshing ground this morning. He rode a bay red horse." "Aren't you craftsmen, why..." "Why did you become a bandit all of a sudden, didn't you?" The man who called himself Qingde laughed so hard that tears flowed from his eyes. "Actually, to tell you the truth, that's what we did." After a while, he said again: "That's right. I'm a mason and I'm a carpenter. We work for others and we get paid. But that's just to cover up people's eyes and ears. The key is to find out the background of the employer. We are not interested in poor people. If we meet Poor guys with no oil or water, just feel unlucky, finish the work, and collect some wages. At this time, we are real craftsmen. Generally speaking, our craftsmanship is passable. But your family is different. Your father After staying in Yangzhou Mansion for so many years, my family has more than 100 mu of land alone..." When Qingde said these words, that Ma Bian kept looking at Xiumi.That look seemed to say to her: Now, you are miserable!Seeing that Qingde had finished smoking, he quickly filled another pot for him. Qingde seemed to be having a chat.He spoke in an unhurried, sickly tone.He took a deep breath on his cigarette, laughed twice, and continued: "Whether you're a bandit or a mason, you have to do your job beautifully. The wall in your attic was made by me alone, and it's as flat as a mirror. I've never painted such a beautiful wall in my life. To deal with a woman like you, I'm You will know in two days. Look, your face is red. Before I say anything, your face is red. Hehe, I like girls who can blush best, not like Sister Yao. Their coquettishness is all pretending. When I saw you today, I knew you were a real slut. You fell into our hands, and you didn't cry or make a fuss. It was the first time I saw you. It was stuffed in your mouth Something, with a rope tied to his body, is actually sleeping soundly in the sedan chair, what is it if he is not a slut?" Having said that, he suddenly turned around, glanced at Ma Bian, and said: "hand." The Mabian hesitated for a moment, then stretched out his left hand tremblingly.Na Qingde knocked the smoke pot in his palm, and a small fireball came out. The fireball was prickly and smoking in his palm, and the horse was so hot that he jumped on the stool.Xiumi smelled a smell of burnt flesh. Qingde put his hand on Ma Bian's shoulder and said: "What are you dancing for?! Don't jump. I didn't knock it in your eyes. What are you dancing for? You should keep your eyes open. Where you are not allowed to see, you should not look at it." Then he looked again Xiumi, "Why don't you sleep for a while, the boat won't arrive until dawn tomorrow. Don't you want to sleep for a while? I'm going to sleep again." Xiumi watched the sky lighten up little by little. In the gray morning light, she saw a cold mountain looming on the shore of the lake.The slope of the mountain is not big, and there are sparse birch trees growing on the hillside, and there are large pine trees and exposed rocks further up.She could hear the lapping of the water on the embankment and the crowing of roosters in the nearby villages, and she knew the boat was coming in.Going forward, there is a dense mulberry field.The fleet walked around the mulberry garden for more than half an hour, and she finally saw the village huddled in the mountain depression, which was reddened by the rising sun. The sixth day of June in the twenty-seventh year of Guangxu.Light rain, sunny in the afternoon.Zu Yan went to Meicheng last night, but Li Daodeng, commander of the Infantry Army, was behind closed doors.For a whole morning, Zu Yan kept cursing.The Mausers had arrived in Xipu.Temporarily stored in Zu Yan's third uncle's house.After dinner, Mei Yun went to a neighbor's house to play cards, chatted with Xiumi and Cuilian for a while, and then went upstairs to bed.The clinker had just fallen asleep when suddenly the village was full of voices and footsteps, as if something big had happened.Quickly get dressed and go downstairs.It turned out that the Sun family, the queen of the village, was gang-raped to death by bandits. Those of the Sun family are also prostitutes, and it is not a pity to die.On the day of the success of the revolution, according to the law, it should also be included in the list of ten killings.Little donkey, little donkey, don't you keep saying that there are no bandits in Puji area? It's just nonsense.Now the world will be chaotic, and people's minds will change. Although Jiangzuo's banditry is not as good as Shandong and Henan, it is not unique.When I passed by Danyang three years ago, I almost fell into the hands of robbers.For the current plan, it is of great importance whether they can contact more powerful local armed forces.In this critical autumn, Qing gangs and bandits can all be used by me.The day you're done, it's not too late to get rid of it. There is still no news from the little donkey. This night, the moonlight is blurred, and the night is as cool as water.Standing in the atrium, I feel lost in my thoughts.Seeing Xiumi washing her hair in the kitchen, I went in to talk to her.Her shoulders were wet with water, and the thin mosaic on the skirt could still be seen under the moonlight.Her neck is so long and so white.He struck up a conversation with her, but he was thinking in his heart: What if he just hugged her behind him, what would happen?Maybe she will follow and I don't know.Zu Yan has a good sense of people, when he first met Xiumi in Xia Zhuang a few days ago, he told me that although this girl is cold and arrogant by nature, she is very easy to handle, and advised me to give it a try.Could this really work?What can I do?What can I do?No, no.Restraint, restraint. It was a night without falling asleep for a long time, and I sat alone in my mid-night cloak, and wrote a poem: The peach blossoms are so close, and the wind is full of sorrow. Xinyue didn't know what was going on in her heart, so she sent You Rong to the bedside. The place Xiumi came to was called Huajiashe.That night she was taken to a small island in the middle of the lake opposite the village.This island is only sixteen or seven acres at most, and it is only a stone's throw away from Hua's house.Originally, there was a wooden bridge connecting the island and the village, but it was demolished for unknown reasons. A section of black wooden piles appeared on the water surface, and there were water birds perched on several wooden piles. The only house on the island has been around for a long time, and the walls are covered with weeds and ivy.There is a small yard in front of the house, surrounded by a fence, with a vegetable field inside.There are several peach and pear trees in front of the gate, and the flowers have already bloomed.The island is low-lying and surrounded by miscellaneous trees and low shrubs.When encountering strong winds, the lake water will overflow the embankment and flow to the base of the wall. In this lonely house lived a man with a shaved head.However, from the dangling breasts on her chest, it can still be seen that she is a woman, in her thirties and forties.Her name is Han Liu.She was kidnapped here from a nunnery for nearly seven years, during which she gave birth to a child who died before leaving the moon.The loneliness of living in a deserted island for many years made her develop the problem of asking and answering by herself.Xiumi's arrival made her somewhat excited.However, she carefully concealed her joy, Xiumi also pretended not to notice, and each other was wary of each other. Strangely, after Xiumi was dumped on this small island, the group seemed to have completely forgotten about her.For half a month, no one asked.One day at noon, she saw a small boat heading towards the island, and she was a little excited.Unexpectedly, the boat circled to the south side of the island and stopped suddenly.She saw a man in the boat casting a net for fish.Xiumi wandered around the lake every day, and sat under the tree when she was tired, staring at the floating clouds in the sky in a daze. She has read Zhang Jiyuan's diary many times, and although she knows that every re-reading is the beginning of a new round of self-torture, she still gets some new content from it from time to time.For example, she didn't know until today that her mother had another name, Mei Yun.She wanted to piece the name together with an image of her mother, which made her think of Puji again.It had been less than a month since she had been there, yet it seemed to her that decades had passed.It's hard to tell, it wasn't a dream. Across the sparkling lake, she could see the entire Huajiashe.She could even hear the children playing in the village.The village was actually built on a gentle hillside. She was surprised to find that the houses of every household in the village were the same, with the same white walls and black tiles, and the same wooden doors and flower windows.There is a courtyard surrounded by fences in front of every house, and even the size and format of the courtyard are the same.A narrow street made of broken bricks runs up the hillside and extends to the mountainside, dividing the whole village into east and west parts.There are large and small boats moored in the bay facing the lake in front of the village. From a distance, the towering masts look like trees that have lost their leaves in the deep winter.