This is the story of many years ago.
A man named Wu Yi settled at the foot of the Wolf's Lair Mountain, and later Wu Yi married a mute woman and gave birth to three sons. These three sons married and had children, multiplied, and became a village. This village is called Dawang Village by outsiders. For thousands of years, the Dawang people have been living in this village, guarding the barren land left by Wu Yi and guarding the temple dedicated to sword spirits and Wu Yi.
It was a house made of stone and wood thatch, and it was leaking rain on a cloudy day. Eiko sat in front of the stove and lit the fire, and she was boiling medicine for her father. Although I know that my father may not be good after taking the medicine, the medicine still has to be boiled.
Hideko's sister Hongzi sat by and did needlework for a while, looking out the window from time to time.
"Sister, it's snowing heavily outside."
As Eiko put the dry wood into the hearth, she said, "You go to the back room to see how daddy is?" ”
Hongzi heard this and looked at it, and came back and said, "Sister, Daddy is still like that, he is asleep, and he has not woken up." ”
Hideko smiled bitterly and said, "I have taken a lot of medicine, but I don't always see it better." ”
Hongzi looked at Ying Zi and swallowed and said, "Sister, I heard Tie Zhu say that our father's illness may be saved with ginseng that has been around for hundreds of years." ”
Eiko listened, frowned, and said, "Ginseng is a good thing, but it may not be the right thing, and Tiezhu doesn't understand medical skills, so presumably he is just talking about it." ”
Tiezhu is Hongzi's fiancée, who grew up with Xiao'er, at this time heard Yingzi say this, lest Tiezhu be looked at by Yingzi, busy said: "Sister, although Tiezhu does not understand, but I heard him say that the ginseng of wolf's nest mountain can also be revived, he listened to his grandfather when he was a child, some people who stepped into the coffin, boiled ginseng and ate it, they were cured." ”
Ying Zi couldn't help but be a little moved when she heard it, she had been reincarnated here for more than ten years, and she had already discovered that there were indeed some strange things in this mountainous and desolate village.
She had long heard that in the depths of the Wolf's Lair Mountain there was a kind of fairy grass called Tooth Tooth Grass, which was a god creature, and whoever ate it could come back to life. It's just that it's hard to find, and it's all about chance, so I don't even dare to think about it. But now Hongzi said this, but provoked the thought in Hideko's heart, that what a hundred years of ginseng, it is easier than the legendary tooth and tooth grass that can be encountered but can not be sought.
Eiko was thinking about it while burning the fire, when she found that there was no firewood, she said, "Hongzi, go out to the courtyard and help me get some firewood." ”
Hongzi put her hand on the stove and roasted, and said reluctantly, "It's so cold outside, sister, our family seems to have run out of firewood." ”
Ying Zi thinks about it too, yesterday there was not much firewood, but it has been busy forgetting, and then this snowy day, the mountain road is difficult to walk, how to go up the mountain to cut firewood?
Hongzi saw this and proposed, "I'll go to the Iron Pillar's house and ask for some, right?" ”。
Eiko shook her head and said, "No, I haven't married yet, and from time to time I ask people for things to look down on." She stood up and said, "When I passed the temple a few days ago, I remembered that there were many dried leaves piled up next to the temple, and I will take some of them now and use them as firewood." ”
Hongzi thought that it was very cold now, and she had to go to Tiezhu's house by herself, and she didn't want to go out when it was so cold, so she said, "This is good, then you go." ”
Hideko entered the house and put on her father's heavy torn felt and deerskin boots, and then came out and said to Hongzi, "Hongzi, you are here watching the fire, and I will come back immediately when I go out." ”
Hongzi nodded and said, "Okay, then you go quickly." ”
Eiko picked up the bamboo basket, lifted the heavy curtain and went out of the house, as much as she dressed tightly, but still couldn't help but shiver.
This winter, it was really cold.
At this moment, the sky is completely dark, the wind and snow will rise, there is no trace of human habitation outside, and even the sound of birds cannot be heard. Shrouded in the huge and majestic Wolf's Den Mountain, the whole village looks dark and desolate.
Ying Zi did not know why the ancestor of Wu Yi chose such a remote and lonely land to settle down, so that future generations could live a difficult life of almost isolation. In fact, if it were not for the rare treasures in this mountain that attracted endless medicine pickers and treasure hunters, then the Great Hope People would probably live a life that did not know the years outside the mountain.
The road under her feet was bumpy, Hideko bowed her head, walking very slowly, the ice-like snowflakes lightly fluttered on her cheeks, she felt this strange coldness, but in her heart she was thinking about what Hongzi had just said.
When she came to the middle of the village, she saw the patriarch's yard in the distance, only to see that the lights were still on in the patriarch's house, and her heart moved, thinking about going to see what the patriarch said again.
When she walked to the door of the patriarch's house, Hideko gently knocked on the wooden door, and the elderly voice of the patriarch came from inside: "Come in." ”
The person who came to open the door was the wife of the patriarch, and the people in the village called her old mother. The old mother's wrinkled face was full of love, and she lovingly pulled Hideko into the room and took her cold hand to roast the fire by the stove.
"What's the hurry, come here on such a cold day and see if you're frozen."
Eiko smiled lightly and said, "Old Mother, I am looking for the patriarch." ”
At this time, the voice of the patriarch came out of the back room: "Let Hideko come in." ”
Eiko walked into the back room and saw the patriarch looking through the family tree under the kerosene lamp, coughing a few times from time to time. At that moment, she bent over and performed a ritual and said, "Patriarch." ”
The wise eyes of the patriarch left the file in his hand and slowly moved to Hideko. Looking at the young girl standing in front of him, he motioned for Hideko to sit on the futon on the kangtou.
Ying Zi did not sit down, stood, looking at the patriarch with pleading eyes. The patriarch should know why he came for. If Hideko's father had a glimmer of hope for life, it was in the patriarch.
The patriarch picked up the smooth beast bone next to the case and rubbed it in his hand and said, "Ying Zi, what did the elders say?" ”
Hideko bowed her head and was silent for a while, then said, "The elders said that Daddy's time is running out, and it's time to prepare for the aftermath."
The patriarch saw Ying Zi's sad face, sighed and comforted, and said, "Ying Zi, everyone has life, old age, illness and death, but the Great Hope People will not." Every great man will eventually be buried in the Wolf's Den Mountain, blending into the grass and trees in the mountain, turning into the spirits of the mountain and guarding our children and grandchildren. ”
But Ying Zi couldn't listen to this, and said, "Patriarch, but I looked at my father's weak appearance on the kang, and my heart was so uncomfortable." If there is any way to save my father, I am willing to do whatever it is. ”
She looked earnestly at the patriarch and prayed softly: "Patriarch, I heard that the ginseng in our clan for a hundred years can save people's lives, can you give me one and let me go back and try it?" ”
The patriarch looked at the young girl in front of him, whose eyes were full of sorrow, sighed and said, "Ying Zi, I have seen someone save a dying person with the ancient ginseng of the Wolf's Den Mountain." ”
When Ying Zi heard this, her eyes lit up, and she looked at the patriarch's eyes with a prayerful color.
However, the patriarch shook his head and said, "But I can't give it to you, because although I am in charge of everything big and small in the clan, only this medicinal herb, we have to listen to the elders." ”
When Hideko listened, her eyes suddenly dimmed, why didn't the elders take out ginseng to save her father's life?
The patriarch looked at Ying Zi with pity, stepped forward, patted her shoulder lovingly, coughed and said, "Ying Zi, don't be sad, the elders have their own considerations, after all, ginseng is extremely rare, he may be of no use." ”
Hearing this, Hideko was completely desperate, she did not understand why the elders refused to take out ginseng, and she also understood that the patriarch would not help herself.
She stopped answering, bowed her head to say goodbye to the patriarch, and slowly turned away.
The temple is a dilapidated stone house dedicated to the sword spirit and the tablets of Wu Yi's ancestors, and it is said that this temple has been built for more than a thousand years. She first came to the temple, pulled through the thick snow, and sure enough, she found the leaf pile, fortunately the snow was thick but did not melt, and although the leaves below were already wet, they could always find dry when they pulled down.
Eiko pulled the dried leaves into her bamboo basket with her hand, and it wasn't long before the basket was full, but Eiko's hands were also stained with dirt and snow, and they were dirty.
Eiko picked up the bamboo basket again and wiped her hands with the clean snow on the side. On such a cold day, the snow wiped her hands, and Hideko's already cold hands were almost stiff, freezing straight. She quickly stomped her feet and put her hand to her mouth to breathe, to make her hand warmer.
With some sense regained, Hideko took her warmer hand into the felt and turned to go home.
Just as Hideko turned her head, she suddenly looked back at the temple. The dilapidated temple had a bit of a sacred meaning in this snow white. She hadn't believed in God before, but thinking of the predicament in front of her, she couldn't help but fall to her knees.
The elders said that Daddy was not saved, so he would not take out precious medicinal materials to treat Daddy's illness, but would keep it for other people who needed it more.
Ying Zi knows that if she wants her father to live now, she can only rely on herself, and others cannot rely on it.
When Ying Zi was young, she was ignorant and ignorant, but from the beginning of her understanding, she gradually recalled some past events. I was secretly glad that I had at least one father who loved me. But unexpectedly, now Daddy has only one breath left, lying on the kang dying.
Eiko prayed deeply for a few prayers, and finally thought that her sister was still waiting at home for firewood, so she got up. Who knew that just when he got up, he suddenly saw a shadow next to the temple.
Eiko was frightened and trembled in her heart, but still strongly calm, straightened her back, and asked faintly, "Who is it?" ”
As she spoke, she found her voice trembling. The vibrato looked so cowardly in front of this empty and dark mysterious temple.
After a long time, a tall figure slowly walked out of the darkness and entered Hideko's sight. Hideko looked over and saw a man, a man dressed in a rough sheepskin jacket, a tiger skin robe, and deerskin boots, still holding a stone axe in his hand, with a hemp rope tied around his waist, and a bamboo basket tied to his back. This is the usual outfit of the Dawang man, but he dresses more roughly.
He was born much taller than the average Great Lookout, and the thin Ying Zi stood in front of him, only to feel that the man opposite him was carrying a majestic momentum, and he had not yet opened his mouth, and he was already a little weaker.
His hair was long and dark, with the mess characteristic of the mountain people, and he tied it haphazardly with a straw rope. The wind blew, and the black hair, snow, and grass rope flew together. The things in front of her reminded Hideko of various legends about this man.
According to the family rules of the great hope, women are not allowed to marry outside, and men cannot marry outside. But for hundreds of years, there have always been a few exceptions.
The man's mother was one of them.
Listening to the old man in the village, his mother was originally a flower in the village, who knew that he would not die but liked a man who came to the village to collect medicine, and he also had an adultery with the other party. But the man was not responsible for the end, and threw her here and ran away on her own.
(To be continued)