Chapter 15 Section VII

Yan Guxing desperately grabbed the sheep's tail and drifted on the river for many days.Finally, he couldn't catch it anymore, and watched the eight-hoofed sheep disappear from his Mongolian eyes.When he woke up, he found himself lying on a rock, and the water had receded. He went to the village, and a kind-hearted man thought he was a beggar and gave him food and old clothes.He asked around, only to realize that he was far away from the village with red tile roofs.He walked back, across the wilderness, across the plain, never resting for a moment, begging for a living, thinking that Lan Yueer was still there waiting for him.

His feet were covered with blisters, and blood was squeezed from his shoes, so he had to drag his feet, but the road seemed to be getting farther and farther away, as if he would never be able to reach it.He thought he had fallen into the quicksand of despair, and finally one day, when he returned to the village, he saw a red tiled roof unfolding before his eyes. This small village that once turned into a river has now returned to its original appearance. There is no water on the ground, as if the flash flood was just a rumor.He walked up to the high place and found the roof where he and Lan Yueer took refuge. Its chimney was different from other houses, it was green.But Lan Yueer was not there.He asked the family if they had ever seen a beautiful girl sitting on it.The family remembered and said the girl was as hard as a rock when she was taken down, but was soon able to stretch her limbs and walk away.

Yan Guxing felt that his whole body was empty, and his nose felt sad, and he didn't know whether it was snot or tears that flowed down. The village was very small, so he searched from house to house, but couldn't find it.He decided to keep looking west. They agreed to go to Huakai Magic Land, maybe she was looking for him there too.He kept thinking about her in his mind, hoping that she would feel his missing, but it didn't work, he still couldn't find her.The blisters on his feet had healed, and he quickened his pace, but he still couldn't find her.The summer disappeared in a blink of an eye, and the migratory birds flew south. In the severe winter, he still couldn't find her.

One day, trembling, he came to a market in a small town and smelled the tangy aroma of noodles.At this time, he had not begged for any food for three days.He saw a clown eating noodles there, wearing a bright red clown suit, with a big exaggerated bow tie around his neck, a long cap on his head, a large wooden box beside him, and painted on his face. White oil paint, the round nose clipped on the tip of the nose is as red as duck egg yolk, and the exaggerated mouth is like a sausage, which seems to be edible.He swallowed hard, and saw the clown holding up a bowl of hot noodles, eating happily.

The clown noticed him, put down the bowl in his hand, and asked him, "Little beggar, do you want some noodles?" He nodded sharply, his feet trembling slightly. "How long has it been since you ate?" asked the clown. "Three days," he answered in a weak voice. The clown held up three fingers and said, "Then you should eat three bowls! Come! Sit down." The clown ordered three bowls of noodles for him.He devoured it so hard that there was not even soup left, his feet didn't tremble any more, and he wiped his mouth with his hands. "Okay, tell me now, why did you become a beggar?" The clown asked him with his benevolent eyes blinking.

Yan Guxing told his own story in detail, how he was washed away by the flood, and how he was separated from Lan Yueer. "She has a birthmark on her left ankle that looks like a rose, and when she sings, blue butterflies fly over her head," he told the clown. "Little beggar, do you believe in magic?" The clown asked him suddenly. Yan Guxing nodded, he likes magic and that world. At this moment, the clown reached out his hand to touch Yan Guxing's ear, and a white bird appeared. He let go of his hand, and the bird flew away from his hand. "Then, one day, you will meet that girl again. She will be waiting for you somewhere." said the Clown Magician.After speaking, he paid the bill, stood up, and dragged his big wooden box with two wheels away.After walking a few steps, he turned around and asked Yan Guxing, "Little beggar, do you want to be my assistant?"

Yan Guxing nodded vigorously, almost dropping his head to the ground. The clown laughed loudly and said, "Why don't you hurry up and follow me?" The next day, the clown magician made a blue clown suit for Yan Guxing, painted his face with oil paint, and put on a fake nose.Yan Guxing glanced in the mirror and realized that he was like a little clown. "People will be more willing to patronize us when they see us like this," said the clown magician. Every day, they hang a small stall on their belly and sell it in the small towns and villages they pass by.With the dexterous hands of the magician, a red flower will emerge from the back of the customer's ear, or a bird will emerge from his empty sleeve, making people laugh.

"We want to bring joy to others." The clown magician said to Yan Guxing. The goods sold by the clown magician are very strange. He once sold a kind of pink toilet water. When the women who put on the toilet water go to the street, swarms of bees will chase them on their heads.They later had to hide in their homes, but the bees built hives around their houses. The clown magician once again sold a kaleidoscope, and the people who bought it back felt that the world they saw in the kaleidoscope was much more beautiful than the real world. As a result, they watched the kaleidoscope while walking and eating, and finally, they simply put it on when they slept. The kaleidoscope is firmly glued to the eye.

The clown magician once sold a colorful candlestick, and the people who bought it back were reluctant to let the candles on the candlestick go out. They lit the candles one by one, feeling warm in their hearts.At night, candle shadows flickered in every window of that small town, illuminating the night sky. However, no matter how popular that item is, the Clown Magician won't sell it when it's sold out. "Everything has a time." He told Yan Guxing. Yan Guxing never knew where he got those strange goods.But the clown magician said to him, "Everything has its origin."

The clown magician taught him how to do magic tricks. He learned to make a flower behind someone's ear, a bird in a sleeve, and shake a knotted silk scarf in mid-air to become a string of colorful silk. towel.He started making kites again, flying his kites in the sky of every small town or village he passed, hoping that Lan Yueer would see him and find him in the direction the kite came from.However, the kite he sent out did not bring back the person he longed for. "Maybe she forgot to look at the sky," the clown magician reassured him. The clown magician never took off his red clown suit, never took off the paint on his face and the fake nose, he always wore that long hat, wore those big clown shoes, even sleeping and bathing All the time.

Yan Guxing has never seen the true face of the clown magician.He came to believe that the clown magician was born like this already. When he was fifteen years old, the clown magician fell seriously ill. "When that girl sang, did blue butterflies really fly over her head?" He asked Yan Guxing vaguely in his illness. Yan Guxing nodded. "Then, she must be a good singer and a beautiful person. Blue butterflies are the most discerning connoisseurs of music in nature, and their snobby noses are only willing to chase after the most warm and sweet songs. They do not belong to this world. One day, when you see the blue butterfly, you will see that girl again." The clown magician blinked.Yan Guxing suppressed the tears in his eyes, and thought of the blue butterfly spontaneously. The clown magician exhaled his last breath and said: "I have found the joy in the world." Yan Guxing buried the clown magician on a beautiful hillside. When he was buried, he was still wearing the red clown suit, so he looked very happy.Yan Guxing erected a tombstone on the grave, engraved on it: "Here lies a great clown magician." That's all he knows.