Chapter 5 Chapter Four: The Little Girl Named Wheat

The photographer's view on this matter is different from that of the professor. He believes that the little girl named Maizi was just Ai Nan's dream from beginning to end. Professor Xu went to the mountain to find fossils, so that everyone had hallucinations, seeing the little girl hitchhiking on the road for a while, and then appeared in the courtyard deep in the mountain.This is an illusion. The photographer said that once he took a photo of an old man planting corn from a distance, but when he looked at the photo again, there were no people there. There were only a few trees and a bare hillside in the picture.Illusion can be deceiving, photographers say, but it cannot be deceiving the camera lens. What modern optical instruments see is real.He suggested that if Ai Nan sees the little girl again, call him immediately, and ask him to use the camera to "click" to make an identification.It's just that, like the professor, he couldn't explain this little red cloth shoe.He captured it on camera, and the photos showed that the shoe actually existed.However, this also shows that there is nothing supernatural about this shoe, it is just an ordinary thing in the world, so let's keep it first.

It was more than three o'clock in the afternoon, where did Liu Sheng and Ai Nan go?The photographer walked out of the labyrinthine sanatorium by winding through grassy courtyards.He stood by the collapsed wall and looked into the distance. The silent woods and the overgrown thatch exuded vitality in loneliness. A large slope was like the instep protruding from a mountain, and Fengdong Town rolled down from this instep. Human relics. The sunshine in July was a bit scorching. The photographer returned to the nursing home and twisted his ankle on a stone step. He rubbed it with his hands, but it still hurt a little.He continued to walk through a desolate courtyard, and suddenly, someone spoke from a side room.

It turned out that Liu Sheng and Ai Nan, whom the photographer was looking for, were in this house.This is a large house with abandoned boilers and rust on the ground. I think this is the former boiler room of the nursing home.Liu Sheng told the photographers who came here that they were looking for the little girl in various courtyards.Ai Nan said that she had a premonition that the little girl might be in a courtyard house.After hearing this, the photographer shook his beard and laughed, saying how is this possible, how can a little girl survive hiding here?Are you crazy, or go to the party of Fern Sister and them to relax and relax.

Of course, the facts quickly proved that the photographer had underestimated Ai Nan's premonition, because there was a child's handprint clearly on the door of the boiler room.The door was covered with dust, and a small handprint was left on it, as if it was left when the door was pushed in.The photographer stretched out his hand to compare, and the handprint was less than half the size of his own palm. Obviously, it was a very young child who pushed the door. The photographer's first reaction is to take a picture of it with a camera.He was about to go back to his room to pick up the camera. When he walked, he found that his sprained ankle was still hurting. He joked that the kid was tripping me, right?Ai Nan looked very nervous, so Liu Sheng offered to fetch the camera for the photographer.

Liu Sheng left, the photographer and Ai Nan stood at the door of the boiler room, staring at the small handprints on the door in a daze.There are seven or eight courtyard houses away from where they live. Did that little girl in the little red shoes come here? Ai Nan's expression was still tense, and she looked back from time to time, as if there was something going on in the other abandoned house at any time.She was wearing denim shorts, showing two beautiful long legs, and a tight white T-shirt on her upper body.The photographer wanted to compliment her figure and advised her that it would be meaningful to leave some photos here.However, in the current atmosphere, it would seem inappropriate to say these words, and the photographer swallowed the words that were already on his lips.

"Lan Mo, you can't think these are hallucinations anymore." Ai Nan looked at the photographer and said, "I hope this child will show up, I will love her, and I will tell her that she has not been abandoned..." Twilight poured out of the darkness in the mountains, misting the entire valley where Wind Motion was located.Liu Sheng and Ai Nan were walking towards the south of the nursing home, and the photographer and Professor Xu were not far in front of them.The photographer kept turning his head and said, "Follow up quickly, or you will get lost." The sanatorium is divided into two large areas, the north and the south, separated by a hillside with wild grass and woods.Ai Nan was wearing a white dress and a V-neck purple top, as if she was going to a party.But this is not Shanghai. When she followed Liu Sheng and the others through the same desolate courtyards in the south and walked into a big house, she regretted coming to such a party.

The first thing that hits the nostrils is the smell of man's tobacco and sweat.Under the dim light, seven or eight men were playing cards around a table—some were playing cards, and some were standing by and shouting.They were all bare-chested, with loose green cloth trousers underneath.Seeing the visitor, a dark-skinned man in his thirties greeted him, clasped his fists and said, welcome!After speaking, he patted the shoulders of the photographer and Professor Xu respectively, showing a familiar look.Then he shook hands with Liu Sheng and said, "My name is Heiwa. I met you and Mrs. Zun in the small restaurant, but I haven't greeted you yet. I rely on my parents at home and my friends when I go out. I met you today, and I will just order you if you have anything to do in the future. "After speaking, he nodded to Ai Nan.His face was thin, but his arms and chest were lumpy like a bull's.

At this moment, sister fern walked in from the outside, and Liu Sheng almost didn't recognize her when he looked up.She was wearing a suspender-style red dress, revealing half of her breasts, her hair was coiled on top of her head, and she was wearing a pair of exaggerated big earrings.Is this the wild mountain girl?Her attire is obviously a spoil from the train.As for her daring to wear it like this, it must have come from her traveling experience in the circus and her romantic nature, which made her far from the concept of mountain people. Fern girl greeted them with both hands, and then shouted into the room: "Hurry up and put away the cards, or I'll throw them out of the wall for you. It's a party, Brother Yao, your erhu hasn't been tuned yet." Are you good? Hurry up, the roast lamb will be served later, and no one will listen to you if you want to show off.”

Fern girl then introduced the men in the room to Liu Sheng and Ai Nan one by one.Hei Wa, Brother Yao, Green Onion, Long Legs, Brother Xiong, Third Brother, Stone.Ai Nan's eyes were blurred, except for the boy named Shi Shi who could remember at a glance, the rest of them were so mixed up that it was difficult for people to remember clearly at once. The piano sounded, it was "Jiang He Shui" played by the erhu solo. Fen Meizi stood beside Ai Nan and said that Brother Yao was the luthier of the circus, and he ran out with her and Hei Wa.She said that she was only 16 years old when she was cheated out of Fengdong Town by human traffickers. She said she could earn a lot of money going out, but she didn't expect to become a slave in the circus.When she was found trying to escape, they put chains on her feet at night.She succumbed, she didn't know how to tame animals, so they let her go on stage to dance. There was a woman in the group who danced like the wind. She said that Sister Fern was very spiritual, and she could learn all kinds of dances.At the same time, she also acts as a human target for throwing knives.It was Hei Wa who threw the knife.She leaned on the door with both hands outstretched, and the sharp knives in Heiwa's hand flew towards her, piercing the door around her body.Sister Fern said that she was scared to death at first, but she got used to it, and didn't blink her eyelids when she saw streaks of white light flying towards her.More than six hundred days of this kind of life have passed in a blink of an eye, and she escaped with Hei Wa, who had fallen in love with her, and Hei Wa's luthier friend.

"River Water" flows sadly on the strings of the erhu.Brother Yao, the luthier, lowered his eyelids, as if he himself had become a friend of the blind A Bing, the master of this piece of music.Some shirtless men squatted in the corner smoking, and some were busy setting cups, plates and bowls by the table.This large house was probably a former conference room for a nursing home, with pine siding on all four sides and landscape paintings on the walls that were crooked, as if they might fall off at any moment.The ground is a red-painted floor, but the red paint has been mottled.When people walk on it, there is a hollow sound of "dongdong".

Boss Wan and Er Lengzi walked in carrying a roasted lamb, and put the roasted lamb on the big table in the middle of the room with great difficulty, and the room was filled with a tempting smell of meat.The men let out a "woo hoo" cheer, and the fern girl greeted everyone to take their seats.Hei Wa threw a few gleaming sharp knives beside the roasted sheep with a bang, and said to Liu Sheng and the others, "Drink in big bowls and eat meat in big pieces. You haven't tasted this kind of life yet, have you?" It was a dark dinner.Fern girl and the men drank sorghum wine. It was brewed by a family on Tianji Mountain. When it was poured from the crock into the bowl, the aroma of the wine splashed. Even Professor Xu, the oldest in the room, couldn't help himself. Before finishing a bowl of wine, he shook his head and recited Li Bai's "Will Enter the Wine".Liu Sheng even encountered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. During the toasts of Heiwa and Feimeizi, he would not refuse anyone who came, as if he wanted to satisfy his alcohol addiction in the past five years of marriage.As for photographers, they have long been messed with those shirtless men playing games.But later he told Ai Nan that in fact he didn't drink much, he just liked the atmosphere, all things in the world, Dionysus is above, this is a state of art. Ai Nan insisted that she could only drink a little beer, so Sister Fern asked Shi Shi to carry a few bottles from the cardboard box by the wall.When Shi Shi poured wine for Ai Nan, his hands kept shaking, and Ai Nan took the bottle and said that I should pour it myself.Standing next to Ai Nan, Shito blushed. Fortunately, all the people at the table were red-faced Guan Gong, and no one noticed the young man's shyness. Boss Wan came over from across the table to toast Liu Sheng. The skinny medicine merchant was already flushed from drinking.He said that Liu Sheng was an official from the city, Liu Sheng hurriedly defended, and Boss Wan said that no matter how you look at it, you look like an official.After finishing speaking, he took Liu Sheng outside the door to talk.Ai Nan followed her out curiously, and the photographer who was watching all directions followed her out. Boss Wan said that the old lady Ding who had been dead for three years without corruption had appeared.When it was just dark, he and his second fool were roasting sheep in a small restaurant in the town, when Mrs. Zeng from the east of the village ran over in a panic and asked him for some medicine to ward off evil spirits.Mrs. Zeng is in her thirties, and her husband has gone to work in Xinjiang. She is alone at home with three children, and the youngest girl is still a nursing baby.She said the baby had been crying since dark.She thought she was hungry, so she untied her clothes and nursed her, but she still cried with her nipple in her mouth.Mrs. Zeng took her for a walk outside the house.As soon as I looked up, I saw something strange about Old Lady Ding's house on the opposite slope. In the night that had just set, the wooden lattice windows of that house were full of red light, as if the house was on fire.However, it was definitely not fire, because there were no tongues of flame and no smoke coming out.Mrs. Zeng stared blankly at the house for a long time, and the baby in her arms stopped crying.Mrs. Zeng went on to breastfeed her, but unexpectedly, she was bitten by the child.How could this child bite with just a few deciduous teeth?Mrs. Zeng thought it was because of the evil spirit coming from the opposite house.So she ran to the medicinal material dealer to discuss some medicine to cure the evil. Ai Nan's face changed when she heard this, as if it had something to do with her.But Liu Sheng didn't feel anything at all. He looked at Boss Wan with a slightly drunken look, not understanding why he told him this matter. Boss Wan saw his confusion and said, I mean, since the old woman appeared , you have to be careful about hiding a few of her hairs.Although Hu Er Er did this, he will have his retribution, and you may also be implicated. Liu Sheng laughed out of his drunkenness, and said, Boss Wan, you are so funny, and you still believe in ghosts.Let's go back to the house and drink. After drinking, there will be no ghosts in this world. Liu Sheng pushed Boss Wan into the house.Ai Nan stood outside the door trembling a little, the photographer said you are cold?You can't blow your hair after drinking.Ai Nan mentioned Fengdong Town, can you escape the wind?What does the red light in an old woman's window mean?The photographer glanced at the dark yard, and there was not even a single star in the sky.At night like this, the red light on the window must be visible from a distance.He suddenly wanted to go there and go with Ai Nan, maybe after witnessing the magic, he could tell Ai Nan about the photography works he conceived.He wanted Ai Nan to understand that this was a stunning work and would have immortal artistic value.In this way, it was worthwhile for Ai Nan to be his model.He glanced at Ai Nan in the white dress and purple shirt, the deep cleavage was exposed at the V-shaped neckline.How shocking it is to lie with such a youthful body with that skeleton, the photographer seems to have seen his works. At this moment, the sound of the erhu sounded again in the room, this time playing "Dance of the Golden Snake".Liu Sheng rushed out reeking of alcohol, and said in a cheerful voice what are you doing standing here? Girl Fern is dancing, so hurry up and come in to see. Sister Fern was still wearing the red suspender dress, with a pair of bare feet under the skirt.When Ai Nan and the photographer walked in, she happened to see her turn around and then writhe like a snake.Her arms are raised in the air like a snake exploring the jungle.Then, her eyes slowly fell together with her dancing hands, and when she crossed her arms across her chest, the quietness and the delicate music made the viewers hold their breath.Suddenly, the piano sounded loudly, and the fern girl opened her arms like lightning and danced wildly.A pair of bare feet stomped on the floor with a "dong dong" sound.She danced towards the men at the wine table, floating around like a ball of fire.When Wu walked behind Liu Sheng, she stretched her hand over his shoulder, picked up the wine bowl and took a sip, then turned to the other side of the table.Ai Nan saw her flickering eyes full of ecstasy, these are a pair of beautiful eyes, Ai Nan had a feeling of déjà vu when she first saw it. Suddenly, the music stopped, and the fern girl danced to the wall and stopped. She raised her arms and leaned against the wall board, motionless like a sculpture.At the same time, several flashes of white light flew towards her like lightning, and after the sound of "bang bang bang", several throwing knives had already been nailed to the wall panels around her body.Immediately, thunderous cheers resounded in the house, and Hei Wa, who was shirtless, stepped forward to hold Sister Fern's hand, and the two bowed down to everyone for a curtain call.All the people applauded desperately, and someone threw the wine bowl into the air. Fern girl waved and said, let's continue drinking.She came over and took Ai Nan's hand and said, you are evasive tonight, what's on your mind?Listen to me, if you have a drink on your mind, it's fine.You don't know, we get together all night long, and I guarantee that you will never forget this night after you leave Fengdong Town. Ai Nan sat down at the table helplessly, taking advantage of the noise of people at the table, she whispered to the photographer sitting next to her, wait a minute, let's slip out to get some air. There are more than a dozen families in the east of the town scattered on the high and low hillsides, and the only cornfield here maintains their survival and reproduction.Old lady Ding's house stood alone on a hillside. It was very dark, and the house looked like a crouching rock from a distance. There were no windows, and there was no red light to draw the windows. "We can't go any further." Ai Nan stopped in her tracks, pulled the photographer in the dark and said, "See, there is no red light manifesting, let's go back to the nursing home." Ai Nan slipped away from Sister Fern just because she was panicking.She noticed that in the room full of drinkers, except for the photographer who was a little absent-minded, the rest of the people had entered a state of ecstasy.Liu Sheng blushed and talked about the possible ancient fossils in the mountain, as if he and Professor Xu had already become experts after walking in the mountain for two days.Professor Xu became even more energetic and talked about the asteroid crashing into the earth 65 million years ago. The landslides and ground cracked, and the smoke and dust lingered in the sky for a long time. The earth began to experience two thousand years of darkness and severe cold.Extinct, all living things are extinct.Tianji Mountain and Fengdong Town may have been places where blind fish spawned in the deep sea at that time.This kind of fish has no eyes, and all creatures have no eyes. In the thousand-year black night, what do you need eyes for?Professor Xu's tongue was already stiff, and his gaze was cast outside the door from the gap between the crowd, as if what was in the courtyard was that dark night 65 million years ago. Ai Nan pulled the photographer's sleeve and walked out.It is a dark day, and standing in the field is like being in a deep well.The photographer suggested going to the east end of the town to see how the old woman appeared.Ai Nan said no, in the middle of the night, it was frightening to death.Ai Nan came out just to get some air, she felt dizzy and chest tight, and she saw her own paleness in the lively crowd.What's the matter? In a big and vibrant city like Shanghai, she never felt lost or marginalized.Her car is squeezed in traffic, and she has done three important things on her mobile phone from the company gate to the elevator; she and her team have been able to forage for the company like sharks; the arrows of her plan She saw her determination and confidence as she shot in all directions.However, at the dinner party in this remote mountainous place, she suddenly felt that small insects were chewing on her heart, and her heart was empty, and she couldn't figure out the feeling. Liu Sheng is different from her, or maybe he feels the same but expresses it in a different way. Seeing him drunk and resting, Ai Nan feels uncomfortable, with a little bit of disgust mixed with sympathy.Liu Sheng is a good wine drinker, and Ai Nan soon realized this after getting married. He said that it was heredity and there was no way around it.His father, his grandfather were the ones whose blood would slow down without alcohol.However, Liu Sheng soon paid the price for this.It was probably one late night, less than half a year after marriage, when he came home drunk and finished talking, he lost a confidential company material while drinking with a client.This is the first blow to Liu Sheng's genetics by the rigorous, covetous and scrambling business society.He was punished, and his inability to be promoted in the position of director of the planning department for so many years was also related to this mistake.This time, in this valley far away from civilized society, his instinct counterattacked against the restraint and walking on thin ice for the past five years, which made Ai Nan feel the heavy burden on his shoulders in vague disappointment. "Actually, a woman like Mrs. Zeng is really not easy." Ai Nan said to the photographer in the dark.At this time, they had already walked down the hillside outside the nursing home in silence.Ai Nan felt that the long skirt was a bit stumbling, so she picked up the skirt and tied it around her waist.In short, at night, no one would see her strange attire. "Oh." The photographer was baffled by Ai Nan's words, "You mean, she can see the old woman appear?" Ai Nan said that the photographer was wrong. She meant that Mrs. Zeng had the rare courage to give birth to three children with a little cornfield.And her husband, who went to Xinjiang to work and earn money to support the family, is also a bit of a strong man who went west of Yangguan.They all live a calm and high-spirited life, unlike people in big cities who live in trepidation. "You are thinking wrong, they are ignorant to do this." The photographer said, "Adults are not living well, so why have so many children? This is suffering." Liu Sheng has said this before, especially after Ai Nan accidentally got pregnant, Liu Sheng said that the conditions were not yet mature, and he felt that he couldn't bear it in his panic.Ai Nan insisted on keeping the child, and she was pregnant for more than four months. It was not until the news that the company would give her a major promotion that Liu Sheng's persuasion took effect. It's obsessive to feel like I've gone with the decision. "However, is a person who dare not have children too cowardly or too selfish?" Ai Nan said looking at the black face of the photographer.In the dark night, Ai Nan felt subconsciously speaking boldly.She then said to the photographer: "Lan Mo, you are 40 years old, have you never thought about getting married and having children?" "Oh, I don't want to have a family." The photographer said without hesitation: "Having a family means that you have accepted the rules of this society. You have to fight for wealth and status. After you have children, you have to hold the umbrella Then the rules of the world become your god, and you fight for the survival and the honor of the family, until you grow old and realize that you have gained nothing." "So, what exactly do we want?" Ai Nan asked in the darkness.At this time, they had unknowingly walked into the intersection of Fengdong Town, and further forward, the black eaves were sandwiched between the two sides.Ai Nan woke up suddenly, how could she come here after taking a casual walk? To go in this direction, the photographer is intentional.Whether it's the wine I just drank or the creative impulse for photography.Both things made him hot now.He wanted to bring Ai Nan to the scene to express his thoughts. He wanted Ai Nan to understand this miraculous picture, and then agreed to cooperate with him after getting rid of his fear at the scene. To get to the east end of the town, you must cross the streets of Wind Motion, and this town that has been uninhabited for many years is crouching in the dark like a beast with an empty belly.Ai Nan said that it was time to go back to the nursing home, and Liu Sheng and Fei Meizi would be anxious when they found out that they were not there. "Don't worry, they have been soaked in wine and can't find anything." The photographer said to Ai Nan: "The old woman at the east end of the town has a ghost, don't you want to go and have a look?" Ai Nan still said no, she was afraid.The photographer said that it might have something to do with the little girl you met in your dream.You think, when the old woman appeared, the window was full of red light, and the peasant woman named Mrs. Zeng only looked at it from a distance, and the baby in her arms bit her chest.This incident is somewhat similar to your experience, except that one is in a dream and the other is outside.We have to take a look and confirm whether what Boss Wan said is true.The photographer noticed at the time that when Boss Wan called Liu Sheng out of the wine table to talk about this matter, Ai Nan was listening in fear. Sure enough, the urge to confirm or dismantle this panic gave Ai Nan courage.They entered the dark streets of Windmill like ghosts.To embolden himself, the photographer speaks out loud. He said that when mailbox 903 still existed, tens of thousands of workers poured down from Tianji Mountain on holidays, and the town must have been bustling.Ai Nan said "Oh" without saying a word, she thought of Liu Sheng's father, and she thought that how people live their lives is not up to themselves. Suddenly, a meow of "Mi Aw" made Ai Nan's hair stand on end.Looking up, a pair of faint green eyes were sliding down from the eaves.It turned out that they had already walked outside Boss Wan's small restaurant.The master drank at the fern girl, and the three cats became the only living things in the town. This dead city-like atmosphere finally made Ai Nan and the photographer's pretentious calm disappear, they ran forward chaotically holding hands, and only breathed a sigh of relief when they got out of the east end of the town.Without the oppression of the two rows of black eaves, the hillside and night sky outside the town became a safe place. They quickly found the independent house on the hillside. From a distance, the house was as silent as a dead old woman, and there was no sign of red light on the windows. "Let's go into the house and have a look." The photographer suggested. Ai Nan was shocked, not only frightened by this proposal, but also frightened by the photographer himself who proposed this idea.The night was very dark, and the man next to him suddenly looked like a ghost. "It's the middle of the night, what are you going to do in the house?" Ai Nan tried her best to make her voice sound upright, but her teeth chattered a little after she finished speaking. The photographer was about to explain, when suddenly he saw a black shadow moving towards the old woman's house.Ai Nan also saw this black shadow at the same time, like a person, floating over from the hillside, and went straight into the old woman's house. Who would dare to live in the old woman's house and be with this mummy?Ai Nan thinks that ordinary people don't have the need and courage.At this time, a red light glowed on the old woman's window.The red light was a little turbulent, as if someone was moving around in the room. Although he made a lot of mental preparations, the photographer still didn't expect the red light to appear. He always thought it was just a rumor heard by Boss Wan.Moreover, before the red light, a black shadow entered the house. Is that the soul of the old woman returning home? The photographer and Ai Nan stumbled and ran back.Ai Nan said don't look at the window, maybe you will be blind.The photographer said it's not that scary, maybe it's time to go into the house and have a look.He wanted to hide his fear as much as possible, otherwise his future photography creation would be over.He insisted on speaking words of encouragement to Ai Nan, but his voice was trembling, and he felt cold sweat on his back. A pair of faint green eyes lit up in the center of the dark street of the town, the photographer hissed fiercely, and the cat ran up to the roof like an elf.