Noon.
There were rustling sounds coming from under the old wooden bed, and there were even harsh "creaking" sounds from time to time.
Ms. Wang lowered her body and rolled up the tattered cloth sleeves on her arms, making her stoop even more obvious.
"Go! Go!" She held a sparse broom in her hand and patted several mice under the bed.
"squeak!"
After finally driving the mouse out of the house, Wang breathed a sigh of relief and put down the broom, but suddenly smelled a burnt smell in her nose.
She frowned slightly, her already wrinkled face became more wrinkled, and said anxiously: "I just focused on them and forgot about the meal!"
Immediately, he walked into the house in three steps and lifted the lid of the iron pot, regardless of burning his hands.
In the small corner of the wooden house, only a few bottles of salt and pickles were placed neatly. There was a low stove next to it, and bursts of burning smell came from the iron pot on it.
Mrs. Wang hurriedly put a rag on her hand and took the iron pot off the stove. Only then did she have time to blow on her red fingers a few times.
She poured out a large bowl of rice, and when she saw that only a small part of the bottom of the pot was burnt, her brows relaxed slightly.
"Mom, I'm back," a boy about eight or nine years old walked into the wooden house with a happy face, holding a small piece of raw meat tied with a rope, "Today I went hunting with Uncle Zhang and helped them After a lot of fighting, I finally got a small piece of deer meat!"
Mrs. Wang looked at the boy lovingly, put a large bowl of rice in her hands on the wooden table, and said with a smile: "You are tired after we go hunting? Are you injured? Although you, Uncle Zhang, and the others are taking care of you, but You must also be careful and drink this bowl of rice. Now is the time for you to grow, so eat more."
The boy's sharp eyes saw Wang's red fingers at a glance. He became a little anxious and said, "Mom, what's wrong with your hands?"
Mrs. Wang shook her head and said: "It's just a bit of a burn, it's okay. You should eat quickly. Only by eating more can you grow stronger."
The big bowl was almost full of clear soup, with only six or seven vegetable leaves floating on top. The vegetable leaves were luxuriously mixed with two pieces of fat and thin meat. When the boy smelled the aroma of the meat, his mouth almost watered down.
When he picked up the big bowl and was about to eat, the boy seemed to have thought of something. He blinked and said, "Mom, please eat these two pieces of meat. I won't eat it."
Wang scraped off the paste in the pot and poured it into her own bowl. She shook her head and said with a smile, "Mother has eaten just now. She ate several pieces of meat. The rest is a bit mushy, so I'll make do with it." If you eat more, it would be a waste if you throw it away.”
The boy glanced at Mrs. Wang, lowered his head, picked up the bowl, and started eating silently.
Mrs. Wang was a miserable orphan. After giving birth to a boy named Xiaofu, her husband died in the mountains while hunting.
In this small village at the edge of the Qingluan Mountains, without men, there is no source of food. After all, this small area is barren and barren, and nothing can be grown. The only source of food for the whole village is a hill next to the village. Just an ordinary beast in there.
Strange to say, the Qingluan Mountains are surrounded by mountains. This small peak on the edge has been eaten by the village for so many years. The various beasts have never decreased, but on the contrary, there are more and more.
People think that it is protected by the mountain god, but this small mountain peak is also a nameless mountain. Therefore, every household in the village has a statue of the mountain god, calling it the nameless mountain god, which is extremely respected and pious.
Mrs. Wang managed to keep Xiaofu until she was nine years old by doing other people's laundry and working as a servant for a slightly wealthier family. Although she was not yet forty years old, she already looked like a child due to the ravages of these years. Like an old woman.
Xiaofu is also a sensible child. He has helped his hard-working mother with housework since he was a child. When he got a little older, he clamored to follow the village's team of hunters into the mountains to hunt.
Wang had no choice but to ask Brother Zhang next door to take him. Xiaofu was up to par, very discerning, and was the most diligent every time he went out. Everyone in the village was full of praise for him.
Therefore, although Xiaofu is only nine years old, he can bring home one or two pieces of animal meat from time to time to improve the food.
He finished the meal, but there was a slightly larger piece of meat left at the bottom of the bowl, and he shouted, "Mom, I'm full."
Wang looked at the piece of meat at the bottom of the bowl, shook her head slightly, and said with a smile, "Okay."
Silently cleaning up the dishes and placing the remaining piece of meat in the dilapidated cupboard.
"It's time to worship the mountain idol."
After finishing cleaning up, Mrs. Wang took Xiaofu, knelt down in front of the Wuming Mountain statue, and kowtowed several times respectfully.
Xiaofu, as usual, after kowtowing, when he raised his head, he subconsciously glanced at the dark mountain god statue.
The mountain god statue was made by everyone in the village a long time ago. It is carved from ebony and simply painted.
Xiaofu's heart suddenly trembled, his scalp was numb, and he had an extremely scary feeling coming over him, but this feeling came and went away just as quickly.
After taking a closer look at the mountain god statue that he worshiped every day, he didn't find anything strange. Xiao Fu couldn't help but feel a little dazed.
"Xiaofu? What's wrong?" Wang's wrinkled face was full of concern.
Xiaofu felt a pain in his heart, his mother was not yet forty years old!
I only eat two meals a day, which include vegetables and wild vegetables, and I have to do so much tiring work, which makes me age too fast.
When he thought of this, he couldn't help blurting out what was in his mind: "Mom, I want to grow up quickly so that I can hunt by myself, use animal skins to make you good clothes, and let you eat meat every day! I also want to go out of the village and spread the word Build a house in the ancient city of Taichu, and take your mother to enjoy the blessings!"
The mountain roads here are extremely difficult and dangerous. For this small and closed village, the magnificent ancient city of Taichu, which is only a few hundred miles away, is as out of reach as a legend.
Touching Xiaofu's head tenderly, Wang just smiled on her face, but murmured in her heart, Xiaofu, when you grow up, your mother will be old.
Late at night, this village is especially quiet.
Occasionally, a few dogs bark, disturbing people's dreams.
Xiaofu's eyes were wet when he was half asleep and half awake, and he felt heartache unknowingly.
He shook his head and sat up, wiped the corners of his eyes, looked around in the moonlight, and said to himself doubtfully: "Where is mother?"
The wooden house is not big, with only a dilapidated wooden bed, which can barely accommodate two people.
The late autumn night was bone-chilling, so Wang always let Xiaofu sleep inside while she slept outside, so that Xiaofu could stay slightly warmer.
Xiaofu looked at the almost soaked pillow and couldn't help but wonder more: "Why did I shed so many tears in my dream? Mom, where are you?"
Putting on a shabby cotton coat, opening the wooden door, a cold night wind poured down on my head like ice water.
Xiaofu shivered hard, but did not close the door. Instead, he stuck his head out of the door and shouted in a low voice: "Mom?"
Where can my mother go in the middle of the night? Even if you go to the toilet for so long, it’s time to come back, right?
Standing blankly at the door, the biting cold wind hit him in waves. Xiaofu shivered, but his heart became even more worried.
The nine-year-old child, because his family was poor, understood many things early.
Suddenly aware of a sense of peeping behind him, Xiaofu turned around suddenly, and what he saw was still the shabby wooden bed with bare walls and the iron pot and cupboard in the corner.
Next to the broken wooden bed was a pair of more than half-sewn cloth shoes, which were densely packed with stitches and threads and extremely tight. They were the winter cloth shoes that Wang used to sew for Xiaofu herself using two pieces of thick cloth and shoe soles that she had saved for a long time.
The sense of voyeurism is getting stronger!
Xiaofu's scalp was exploding and numb, but he couldn't find the source of the voyeuristic feeling at all!
Scanning the wooden house again, the simple furnishings are still the same as before, except for the mountain god statue...
etc! Mountain statue!
On that pitch-black face, two red and green painted eyes seemed to come to life, staring at him fiercely with a malicious look in them!
"ah!"
Little Fu Tianling was trembling, and he was so frightened that he felt the urge to urinate. He rushed out of the door regardless of the bone-chilling cold in the middle of the night!
There was a trance in front of my eyes, and it was still a vaguely familiar scene.
Didn't he already run out of the door and onto the village street? Why did you come back to the house again?
After all, Xiaofu was only nine years old. No matter how sensible he was, after this scare, his mind showed signs of collapse.
He stayed in place in a daze, just looking at the ferocious mountain statue with a look of resentment on his face.
Suddenly, the big mouth of the mountain god statue opened in a twist.
Clatter. Clatter.
Spit out a pile of snow-white bones.
Xiaofu looked at the pile of bones, his eyes still blank, until he saw the gap on one of the hand bones.
My mother's little finger on her left hand was missing a small piece of bone.
It was an old wound left by a small section of a finger that was accidentally broken off when my mother was doing laundry at the village chief's house the year before last.
His eyes gradually became focused, and his heart-wrenching cries echoed through the silent night sky.
"mother!"
After a while, the sound in the wooden house suddenly stopped.
After a while, the sound of chewing gradually came from the wooden house, which was extremely scary.
The strange thing is that the whole village is like a dead village, without any sound.
