Chapter 92 Chapter 5 Little Chicken

Zhuo Hai couldn't do anything about Xu Shaode's fuss, so he speeded up and told the story thoroughly.He said that the reason why he, Qin Hu and the villagers would have such a reaction to me was because another strange thing happened in Daheishan in the year after his mother disappeared. At that time, in the winter of 1964, the Spring Festival had already arrived.Zhuo Hai had just turned eight years old, but his mother suddenly disappeared.At that time, Zhuo Hai didn't know his life experience, and his mother didn't mention it to him.Zhuo Hai's mother has always been taken care of by the village chief Qin Hu. That day was the third day of the Lunar New Year, and Qin Hu said hello, saying that he would come to Zhuo Hai's house to pay New Year's greetings.Before leaving home, Zhuo's mother said that she would go into the mountains to find a unique hazel mushroom in the mountains, and use it to make stewed chicken with hazel mushrooms to entertain the old village chief Qin Hu, but she didn't come back at three o'clock in the afternoon.

Wild hazel mushroom is one of the unique mountain delicacies in Northeast China, and it is one of the very few edible fungi that cannot be cultivated artificially.Hazel mushrooms are delicious, and the stewed chicken with hazel mushrooms is an indispensable traditional delicacy for Northeast people to entertain distinguished guests.There is a saying in Northeast China: "My son-in-law leads the door in, and the chick is scared away."That is to say, when the new son-in-law came to the mother-in-law's house for the first time, the mother-in-law must serve it with chicken stewed hazel mushrooms, which shows the grandeur of this dish.

Zhuo Hai's home is outside the village, there are no neighbors around, and only he and his mother depend on each other in the family.The winter in Daheishan gets dark early, seeing the sky getting darker and darker, Xiao Zhuohai is very anxious.He was worried that something would happen to his mother, so he wrote a note, and after pretending to close the door, he ran into Daheishan alone.Zhuo's mother often went to the mountains to pick hazel mushrooms, but she never took Xiao Zhuohai with her. She only said that she was in the eastern section of Daheishan.At this time, Dahei Mountain was already barren with trees and grass. Although Xiao Zhuohai was young, he knew that it was difficult to find hazel mushrooms at this time.The strange thing is that every time Zhuo's mother went to the mountain, she could always find it, and Xiao Zhuohai was very upset.Looking at Daheishan, I didn't know where to go for a while.

Now every family is nestled at home, eating hot dishes and drinking hot soup, and there is no one in Daheishan.There are few historical sites in the eastern section of Dahei Mountain, and tourists hardly come to this section. Only some villagers at the foot of the mountain go up the mountain to cut firewood, pick up pigweed, etc., so the mountain road is not very obvious.Xiao Zhuohai looked around, almost all the trees had no leaves, the grass was also yellow, where can I find hazel mushrooms.He walked all the way into the mountains, turned over several hillsides, and crossed several dry forests, but he didn't see anything.

In a blink of an eye, the mountain was covered with black, Xiao Zhuohai stumbled all the way, his voice became hoarse, there was not even an animal's cry, only his echo.Just when he wanted to go back to see if Zhuo's mother had returned home, he saw a light in a mountain depression.He thought it was Zhuo's mother, so he ran over excitedly, but he didn't know that there was a temple there.The soil around the temple is faintly glowing, and the side is full of black pines. If it is not for the light, this temple may be difficult to find.These black pines are old and hang down from the trunks, and they can be seen to have lived for a long time. They look like an old man with open hands trying to pinch someone's neck.

Although Xiao Zhuohai was young, he already knew how to read and write. With some light, he saw an old plaque on the temple, which read: Jin Wanzang.The temple is even more dilapidated, as if it would be reduced to ashes if touched.Xiao Zhuohai was tired and hungry at this time, seeing the candlelight in the temple, he thought about going into the temple to ask for a bowl of water, and asked the people in the temple if they had seen Zhuo's mother.Xiao Zhuohai walked in on tiptoe, but he couldn't see anyone, not even the Buddha statues that should be enshrined in the temple.He touched the table, and there was already a thick layer of dust on it, unless the monk was too lazy, or no one lived there, otherwise there would be no such situation.

Xiao Zhuohai felt cold all over, and suddenly he realized something was wrong.Since no one lives in the temple, how can there be lit candles in the temple? Could it be that there are ghosts here?As soon as he thought of this, Xiao Zhuohai heard rumbling noises in the temple, which sounded like a person knocking hard on the doors and windows. Children in the mountains are very courageous, Xiao Zhuohai suddenly heard a knock on the door, startled, but ran away without turning around.He was worried that something happened to his mother, so he followed the sound.Whether the temple is big or small, the sound came from a wing room in the backyard.The wing rooms here are all dark, without light, as if there is a ghostly atmosphere, Xiao Zhuohai heard the knocking on the door which has not subsided, so he wanted to push the door.But at this moment, there were heavy footsteps and someone talking in the temple.Xiao Zhuohai thought it was the owner of the temple who came back, but when he turned his head, a large group of people rushed in, which shocked Xiao Zhuohai again.

The person who came was not a monk or a nun, but a villager from Daheishan Village. It turned out that the village chief Qin Hu found the note written by Xiao Zhuohai, so he took the villagers into the mountain to find their mother and son.Strangely, when the villagers rushed in, the voice in the wing room suddenly disappeared.Xiao Zhuohai wanted to open the wing room, but the village chief Qin Hu was too excited, picked up Xiao Zhuohai, and then walked back to the dim lobby. Before Xiao Zhuohai could say a word, when Village Chief Qin Hu put him down, he turned around and was stunned by the scene in the lobby.

There are several nuns in the lobby. Although there are no injuries on their bodies, they are pale and hideous.In the night with flickering candles, even adults would be horrified by this sight.When Xiao Zhuohai first came in, he didn't find these nuns, so he couldn't react for a while.The villagers comforted Xiao Zhuohai and took him out of the ancient temple.Because he is a child, it is impossible for everyone to take him, so it is not convenient to find Zhuo's mother.Village head Qin Hu ordered several young and strong villagers to escort Xiao Zhuohai home, and the rest looked for Zhuo's mother.

On the way back, several boys told Xiao Zhuohai that they found the nun's body in a mountain depression.At that time, there were several silent thunders in the sky, and then the corpses appeared.Because there is only one ancient temple nearby, and it is a nunnery, everyone sent the corpse there to see what happened there.Unexpectedly, when he got there, he found Xiao Zhuohai.These young men joked all the way, they had just turned over a mountain pass, but a chick appeared in front of them.At that time, there were very few pheasants, and it was already deep winter, so pheasants were even more precious.The young men suddenly forgot their responsibilities and took Xiao Zhuohai to catch the little pheasant together.How could Xiao Zhuohai persuade these big brothers, so he had no choice but to run around with them.

The feathers of the little pheasant are bright, and they have an incomparably beautiful luster at night. Watching them cry makes my heart itch.It's a pity that the little pheasant is so quick that these people can't catch it no matter what. Xiao Zhuohai is anxious to find his mother, so he doesn't have the heart to play with these young people. Seeing that everyone has no intention of taking care of him, he runs away by himself up. However, the mountain was pitch black, and he didn't go into the mountain often, so he didn't know where to go.After going back and forth several times, Xiao Zhuohai returned to the vicinity of the nunnery.He had noticed that the ancient temple was different before, so he always felt that his mother was trapped in it, so he stepped into the ancient temple again without hesitation.This time, the candles in the ancient temple were gone, the villagers were gone, and even the nun's body in the lobby was gone.Xiao Zhuohai held his breath, his heart fluttered, he yelled, but no one responded.He went to the backyard and wanted to see if there was anyone in the wing, but this time there was no sound in the wing. Just as he was about to push the wing room away, the sound of cock crowing suddenly sounded in the backyard. When he looked back, a little chicken unexpectedly emerged from a dark corner. Xiao Zhuohai was so full of heart to look for his mother that he didn't care about looking for a chick, so he ignored it.But the little chicken yelled loudly at the side room, as if there was a demon inside, Xiao Zhuohai was still young, but he had a strong premonition, so he suddenly held his outstretched hand.Seeing that he stopped, the little chick ran to Xiao Zhuohai's feet, and then hugged him intimately.The cold wind was blowing in the backyard, and the little chicken was shivering from the cold, so the kind-hearted little Zhuo Hai thought about putting the little chicken back in the nest first, and then looked around for its mother.He walked towards the place where the little chicken appeared, who knew that within two steps, he vaguely saw two glowing eyes staring at him in the dark corner. Xiao Zhuohai was startled, his legs gave way, but he forgot to run away immediately, it seemed that those two eyes had the power to frighten the soul.Gradually, those two eyes came out of the darkness, and a tall man appeared in front of his eyes.This man had a heroic face and no vicious look, so Xiao Zhuohai immediately felt relieved.The clothes this man was wearing were a bit special, not modern clothes, but with Xiao Zhuohai's knowledge back then, he couldn't tell the difference at all.The man picked up Xiao Zhuohai and Xiao Jizai, and walked out of the ancient temple.The man didn't say a word, just smiled. After walking out of the ancient temple, he put Xiao Zhuohai on the ground, then walked back to the ancient temple with the little chicken in his arms, and turned around to close the door. When closing the rotten wooden door, the man finally said: "Your mother is great, but... please go back, she is not here." Xiao Zhuo seemed to have his mind controlled. Hearing what the man said, he lost control of his feet and walked straight out of the mountain.This time, he seemed to know the way again, and instead of going back and forth, he went straight back home.At that time, it was already past five o'clock in the morning, and there were no lights at home. Xiao Zhuohai suddenly realized that his mother had left him, so he cried in his back.On the second day, Xiao Zhuohai ran back to the village and wanted to ask the village chief Qin Hu if he had found his mother. He wanted to find the last trace of comfort. The sky was still gray, and the village smelled of firecrackers, but Xiao Zhuohai felt sour in his heart, feeling that the smell was particularly pungent.But what he didn't expect was that the villagers who went into the mountain to look for Zhuo's mother that night, including village head Qin Hu, all said that they didn't go into the mountain, but stayed in the village for the new year!