A golden full moon hangs in the deep blue sky, and the sandy ground by the sea below is planted with endless turquoise watermelons. In the middle of this was a boy of eleven or twelve, wearing a silver hoop and holding a steel fork in his hand, and stabbed at a horse as hard as he could. Naru twisted his body and fled from his crotch.
This young man is the leaping earth. When I knew him, I was only in my teens, thirty years away from now; at that time my father was still alive, and my family was good, and I was a young master. That year, my family was the year of the great sacrifice. This sacrifice is said to be more than thirty years before it can be turned, so it is very solemn; in the first month, there are many ancestor statues, many offerings, the sacrifice vessels are very exquisite, there are many worshippers, and the sacrificial vessels are also very important to prevent theft. My family only has one busy month (there are three kinds of people we work here: those who work for a certain number of people all year round are called long years; those who work for people on a daily basis are called short-term workers; they also cultivate land themselves, and only during the New Year's Festival and rent collection time, they come to work for certain people's homes in a busy month).
My father allowed it; and I was glad that I had heard the name Leap Earth earlier, and knew that he and I were as old as each other, born in leap months, and lacked earth in the Five Elements, so his father called him Leap Earth. He can pretend to catch birds and finches.
So I looked forward to the New Year every day, and when the New Year came, the leap soil also arrived. At the end of the year, one day, my mother told me that the leap soil was coming, and I flew to see it. He was in the kitchen, with a round purple face, a small felt hat on his head, and a dangling silver collar around his neck, which showed that his father loved him very much and was afraid of his death, so he made a wish in front of the gods and Buddhas, and used the circle to trap him. He was very shy when he saw people, but he was not afraid of me, and when there was no one else, he talked to me, so in less than half a day, we became acquainted.
The leap soil would catch birds, and the next day I asked him to catch birds. He said, "It can't. It must be snowing heavily. We were on the sand, it was snowing, I swept out a clearing, propped up a large bamboo plaque with a short stick, and sprinkled the grain, and when I saw the birds and finches coming to eat, I pulled the rope tied to the sticks from a distance, and the birds and finches covered the bamboo plaques. Everything: rice chickens, horned chickens, partridges, blue-backed..."
So I was looking forward to the snow.
Leap Earth said to me again, "It's too cold now, you come to us in the summer." We went to the beach to collect shells every day, there were red and green ones, there were ghosts and fears, and there were also Guanyin hands. In the evening I went with My Dad pipe watermelon, and you went too. ”
"Pipe thief?"
"No, it's not. The walking people are thirsty to pick a melon to eat, and we don't count stealing here. It's badgers, hedgehogs, and hedgehogs. Under the moon, you listen, the clack is ringing, and the gourd is biting the melon. Then you squeezed the fork and walked gently..."
I didn't know what this so-called thing was at the time—and I don't know it now—but I felt like a puppy and fierce for no reason.
"Doesn't it bite?"
"There's a fork in the coffin." When you go, you see that you are stabbed. This beast is very clever, and he runs towards you, and instead slips from his crotch. Its fur is oily and slippery...
I had never known that there were so many new things in the world: that there were colorful shells on the seashore; that watermelons had such dangerous experiences that I had known only that they were sold in fruit shops.
"In our sand, when the tide is coming, there are many jumping fish that just jump, and they all have two feet like frogs..."
yes! There are endless wonders in the heart of the earth, all of which my usual friends do not know. They don't know something when the leap soil is on the seashore. Like me, they all saw only the sky at the four corners of the high wall in the courtyard.
Unfortunately, the first month has passed, and the leap earth must go home. I was so anxious to cry that he hid in the kitchen, crying and refusing to go out, but was finally taken away by his father. He later asked his father to bring me a bag of shells and a few beautiful bird feathers, and I also gave him something once or twice, but never saw each other again.