The young man stayed at the stream for a few sticks of incense. He went up the stairs many times and the water was cut off. He was panting from exhaustion and covered in sweat. When the white robe had almost returned to its original color, he fished the clothes out of the stream, wrung out the excess water with his hands, and put them on the shoulders. He carried two full buckets of water, hung them on both sides of the pole, and hummed a minor tune on his way back home. Of course, the so-called minor tune had no rhythm whatsoever.
After walking a few steps, the young man spotted an old man walking out of a slightly lower bush ahead. The old man is over sixty years old, but his legs and feet are very nimble. He can walk on grass in the rugged and difficult forests as if he were walking on flat ground, and his steps are very steady. "Old man Ye, why are you here? The mountain road is difficult to walk, so please take your time and don't stumble." The young man hurriedly helped the old man, but the old man gently blocked his arms without leaving any trace, and said lightly: "You Come with me."
As spring deepens, the limbs of the living master in the stream slowly appear, and the whole body turns from dark to dark green. However, he still cannot make a sound near the shore, so he has to writhe in the water, drifting with the water, twisting and turning with nowhere to rest. Finally, I had no choice but to let the current carry it to branch out in all directions, take root and mature; the swallowtail butterfly that had traveled far away from nowhere flew past, fluttering its wings on the side of the wild flowers like colorful beans, coming and going suddenly, feeling very free and carefree. . Without saying a word, the old man led the young man to walk by the stream. The silver fish suddenly jumped and swung his tail in the clear stream.
Old Ye turned to look at the young man, only to see that the latter was busy swatting the stray butterflies with his white clothes. He was smiling like a pod that finally opened its mouth in late spring. He was very happy. The white clothes in his hands shook out a lot of clear water drops, and there were always two. The dripping never obeys, the dripping on the face looks like green and withered bamboo leaves, and it is as cold as ice. It suddenly makes me smart, and I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
"Yun Zhong, do you know where this is?"
The young man put away his white clothes and put it on his shoulders. He looked up and saw a towering cliff suddenly appearing in front of him.
"I don't know."
The old man turned his head with a smile, his pupils stood up in the depths of his eyes, and he stared at the young man. After a while, he took a deep breath and sat down on the slippery mossy stone ground, waving for the young man to sit down as well.
"Let me tell you a story."
The young man didn't speak. He lowered his head to find a flatter haystack, sat down with his hands on the ground, and aimed his eyes at the old man.
As if sighing, the green hands of bamboo leaves were placed between the stone walls and slid down silently with the movement of moss. They were obviously old and wrinkled palms, but they were as smooth as a snake flowing in a stream.
"Back then, I also walked out of a deep valley like this stone wall, with a majestic and turbulent waterfall on top. Since the Qingming Festival in Lingtai, I have no idea where my parents are or who they are. I eat and sleep in the open air, and drink when I'm thirsty. The water in the waterfall, hungry and eating buds among the rocks, living in the mountains and forests for a long time, close friends are nothing more than stubborn monkeys, old turtles, hares and young foxes, playing around every day, even if the food is rough, it is rare to be leisurely." After saying this, the old man folded his five fingers and lightly Twisting his snow-white beard lightly, he winked at the young man like a naughty boy, and then continued, "Perhaps when I am gradually entering the coffin age, I often think back to the ridiculous things of my youth and ignorance, which gives me a different feeling."
"The older I get, the more I can no longer stay in the mountains. I always want to go out and see the world. Once I take a step forward, I don't want to look back. I have been here for more than half a century. I have walked to Shangqi and been to Qi. I’ve seen a lot of mausoleums, visited Yizhang, the thundering troops of the Yuan Dynasty, and the Yanliu Painted Bridge in Nanli, but I can’t just wander around the world all day long without a fixed place, right? After thinking about it, I’m here Qiling Kingdom.”
Knowing that the young man's eyes were suspicious, the old man was noncommittal and continued, "Qiling tea suits my appetite, especially the rice and millet from Qiling is mellow. I believe you also know that the little old man likes to drink porridge very much. He has been traveling for many years and also eats it. There are some delicacies from the mountains and seas, including the hard-to-find wild medicine Ganoderma lucidum, but what I like most is always a bowl of soft, glutinous and sweet rice porridge.”
"My father-in-law is very particular about people, and you can tell it when he cooks porridge. Hey, the taste of that porridge is so delicious." Yun Zhong has a long body. He is half a year old, and he is exhausted from running in the mountains. Eat more. The meal was ordinary, and I had just climbed up the stairs. I had eaten a clean meal in the morning. When I thought about the taste of the porridge, I couldn't bear the feeling of being empty in my stomach, and saliva flowed from my mouth. The old man remembered what Wu Shuang said at that time, and it was really reasonable.
If this guy is half as greedy and lazy as he practices swordsmanship, there will be many top swordsmen in the world in at least twenty or thirty years.
"Let's talk about eating porridge when we get home." The old man said seriously. "I traveled all over the country for many years, and although I encountered many accidents, I managed to make a decent fortune. I used this money to buy a porridge shop in Ruan Tang, Qiling. Although the shop is small and well-equipped, the location is quite good, and the business is top-notch. Business travelers and tired travelers all want to come here to sit and sit. The old shopkeeper has been working hard for many years and has accumulated countless regular customers. He is busy every day and is very popular. Unfortunately, he is old and his son has a promising future and has become a county magistrate. After pleading hard, I had to go home to live in peace and make fun of my grandchildren. After all, I was young and how could I cook? After struggling with the old shopkeeper for a long time, I finally figured out how to make tea with all my efforts. The way to cook side dishes is to cook porridge, but it doesn’t taste right no matter how you cook it.”
"Until that time, I was holding my head on the window sill in the shop and was in a daze. I had no choice but to do it. Business was not good. The customers who came and went said the porridge didn't taste right, but I couldn't understand the difference. Every time I came and went, the customers became deserted, so I had to I stood by the window sill in a daze, looking at the hazy rain outside the window. There was no gap in my heart, just like the sky was not bright. But then she came, carrying an oil umbrella, hey, she looked very handsome."
In the young man's eyes, the old man's gaze seemed to suddenly become gentle.
"I have never seen such an arrogant and unreasonable girl. The porridge was cooking on the pot table, and he didn't even say hello to me, the shopkeeper. He ran to the stove in a hurry, wrinkled his nose and said that the porridge didn't taste right, and he fell over like a familiar boy. I took out one or two wolfberries and half a scoop of sorghum rice, and while I was still dazed, I poured them all into the pot. I was dazed, and just about to get angry, tsk, the fragrance lingered in the room, even with the bad-tempered lame boy next door. All the old dogs came over and waggled their tails at me." The old man smashed his mouth and smiled softly.
"Later on, the two of us somehow ended up running the porridge shop together. The more we lived, the more stable we became, and the business got better and better day by day. Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned. The local magistrate's yamen fell in love with her and was shocked. God, he suddenly found a group of local gangsters and dragged her away from my store. I was beaten so severely that my legs were broken, and I was thrown out of the city like a dead dog. It took me a long time to recover before I could recover. Listen to people She said that she did not want to be ruined by the Yamen, so she ran out of the magistrate's house on a winter night and froze to death in the ice and snow."
"In the spring of the next year, I found Ya Nei, sneaked into the brothel while he was playing among the flowers, and killed me with a knife. I hid in Tibetan books for years, and was finally caught by the government. I was sent to this mountain by the army and kept under strict guard until now. The jurisdiction has not been relaxed yet.”
When the old man said these words, his expression was surprisingly calm, but something seemed to be struggling violently in his eyes.
"It's just that I can't figure it out. Time has passed and I have developed skills. If I wanted to, I could kill him countless times at will. But I still dream, and I can dream every time. I am in the Qiling State Car In the store in Madian, countless people came here to rest and eat. The window lattice let in the wind, and the steam from the porridge and noodles steamed up. She was smiling."
"Nowadays, I'm used to being a vegetarian, and what I'm good at is still cooking porridge. I still put one or two wolfberries in the porridge, but only when I look at the scrolls, I can vaguely recall the taste back then."
"As I get older, it is natural to miss the past easily. I have never had an Iron Horse Glacier, only memories that are not surprising to outsiders. In the few years left, I just want to quietly guard my thatched cottage, thinking about whether One day, that girl will knock on my door again and throw one or two wolfberries into the pot."
After speaking, the old man stood up and pointed to a mountain to the south.
"I wanted to see her, but the mountain was in the way."
"Your master is not an ordinary person, but he doesn't want to take action, so I have no choice but to come and persuade him."
"I miss her."
The old man muttered to himself, like a child pointing to his hometown.
