thirty years ago The rain kept falling, and the road at the head of the village was washed away by the heavy rain for days, the big trees toppled over, and some tombs on the slope were also turned over—they were said to be tombs, except for the old tomb at the top, they were all new and shallow. It's just a pile of dirt bags. ——The plague, coupled with the bandits a few days ago, left no one alive in the village.The young man leaned out from the old grave at the top of the slope. In an instant, the tattered thin clothes covered with plaster were soaked by the rain. Looking down the slope with squinted eyes, he saw that the houses in the whole village were as quiet as death. , Thinking about it, there was no one there.The young man stayed for a while, feeling worried: I don't know how to live in the future?For a while, I felt hungry and uncomfortable in my stomach, and my mind was muddled. I still crawled back into the cave slowly, and muttered in my mouth: "My ancestors, my ancestors, I strayed here to avoid thieves, and now it's raining outside." It’s too big, so I have to come in and hide, since it’s not the grave of your old man, it’s not an offense.”

The cave is not big, and the walls are half-reliefs and half-pictures depicting figures, which the young man couldn't understand. Fortunately, there are no coffins in the cave, so there is no sense of gloom. No standing water.There is a painted lacquer box on the middle platform. The box has been opened by the young man long ago. There is no imaginary jewelry, silver, etc., only a mask of unknown texture. It is very simple, and the whole piece is round and arched outward: the surface is as smooth as a mirror, only holes are opened at the eyes and nose, but there are some fine lines cast on the inside, and it feels slightly rough in the hand.There was also a small bottle and a thin booklet in the lacquer box. The young man flipped through it casually, and saw that the inside was densely written with words, so he had no patience to read it carefully, so he put it back.

After thinking about it, he only put the mask in his arms, but he was thin and his clothes were in tatters. The mask made people feel uncomfortable, so he had to hold it in his hand again. At this time, the sound of rain seemed to stop outside, and the young man went to the entrance of the cave to have a look. The clouds opened, and the sun was already shining. I was about to climb out of the cave when I saw several shadows shaking in the damp mist on the opposite side. I wondered in my heart. The slope on this side was bare and there was not a single tree. Could it be that I was hungry? dazzled?He lowered his head to rub his eyes, but saw a ray of sunlight just shining on the mask in his hand, which was a bit dazzling. The young man hurriedly removed the mask from the sunlight, held it up with both hands and took a closer look, and saw himself reflected in the curved mask. With a distorted and weird face, I couldn't help sticking out my tongue at it, looked up and looked at the opposite side, how could there be any strange images?I thought it was funny, but I thought it was because the villagers had been dying and fleeing for the past few days, and they hid in this hole for an unknown amount of time.

The village couldn't stay any longer, the young man stroked his hungry stomach, and secretly said to a dirtbag in the distance: Dad, the child is leaving. Since he was sensible, his father wanted him to remember: the villagers belonged to the same clan, and they were originally a branch of Gaoqi's royal family. After Qi was destroyed, they lived in seclusion here, taking the responsibility of guarding the ancestral tomb on this slope, and said that the Gao family was buried in the tomb. The secret that can be used to defeat the enemy, he asked his father more than once, what kind of secret should the villagers keep for generations, but his father said he didn't know, and now that his father is dead, no one will be able to tell him this secret.Thinking of this, the young man smiled wryly. There is no ancestral grave, but an empty tomb. After thinking about it for a while, he felt that it was extremely inappropriate to hold the mask in his hand. He was going to leave the village anyway, so he simply returned to the cave. , still put the mask in the lacquer box, and take it with you along with the bottle and the book in the box, and wander around the world from now on, and it is only as a duty of protection.