After Zhang Shaofei and Wang Shaoxiang stayed at Liang Futian's house for more than ten days, Wang Shaoxiang came to the small room where Zhang Shaofei lived and said, "Fei'er, there are so many people in Uncle Futian's family. If we stay here for too long, it will be too troublesome for them."
Zhang Shaofei nodded: "I have this idea too. I heard from Uncle Futian that he had a small thatched shed at Shimen Tea House in the mountain col. Why don't we move there?"
Wang Shaoxiang: "Okay."
After lunch, Zhang Shaofei expressed his thoughts to Liang Futian.
"You want to move outside?" Liang Futian raised his long bamboo pipe, smoked hard, and thought for a while, "A Fei, since you brought it up, I will take you there to see it now."
Zhang Shaofei and Wang Shaoxiang, led by Liang Futian, walked from Liangtianzhai to the mountain col. The rugged path was winding and densely packed with trees, covered with vines. In the creek on the roadside, fish are chasing freely on pebbles of different sizes.
After walking for about a cup of tea, Zhang Shaofei and Wang Shaoxiang suddenly felt their eyes light up: there was a natural stone wall standing symmetrically on both sides of the path.
Zhang Shaofei shouted: "It's so majestic!"
This stone wall looks like it was carved out by God with a giant axe. The stone wall is more than ten feet high and three feet wide. Several small trees and yellow wild flowers grow out of the gaps in the stone wall.
There is a wide stone strip spanning the ground between the stone walls on both sides. This is really a creation of nature.
Zhang Shaofei looked at it for a while and said, "The stone walls on both sides look like a door!"
Wang Shaoxiang pointed to the stone strip on the ground and said: "The stone walls on both sides really look like a door. Also, look at the stone strip on the ground, it looks like a threshold."
Liang Futian pointed at the upright stone walls on both sides: "Afei, Auntie, you are right. We mountain people call this place Shimen."
Wang Shaoxiang: "This is so realistic."
After crossing the stone gate and walking inside, the shrubs on both sides became more dense, but there was another scene: the hillside became slightly flatter, and rows of green tea trees were planted on it.
There is also a thatched shed next to the tea garden. The walls are made of bamboo as a frame, thatched with thatch, and then covered with mud. The roof is pieced together with cedar bark. Due to the wind and rain, the mud on the walls and the cedar bark on the roof have turned dark brown.
A stream more than ten feet wide flows beside the thatched shed. The water is gurgling and clear.
Liang Futian pointed: "These tea trees are grown in my home, and the tea you drink at my home is the tea produced here."
Zhang Shaofei felt inspired and said: "The mountains are covered with fog and clouds, as if they have been moistened by the nectar from the sky. No one has set foot here, and it is not touched by the world. No wonder the tea leaves are so pure and fragrant."
Wang Shaoxiang chimed in: "With such good soil and water, of course tea like this will be delicious."
Liang Futian brought Zhang Shaofei and his son to the hay shed, and gently opened the door of the hay shed. The place inside was relatively spacious, and there was a small kitchen next to it, with pots, bowls, chopsticks and other things readily available: "This hay shed belongs to me. It was built a few years ago and we take a rest here when we are tired from working at the tea farm.”
The hut was built deep in the mountain col, and occasionally a few partridge calls were heard, making the already silent mountain col seem even more peaceful and melancholy.
Liang Futian: "No outsiders come in this place on weekdays. Ah Fei, it is most suitable for you to use it as a refuge and seclusion now."
Zhang Shaofei high-fived and shouted, "This place is great! Great!"
Liang Futian took Zhang Shaofei and Wang Shaoxiang to the back of the thatched shed. The vegetable plots were not large, covering an area of about one cent.
Wang Shaoxiang: "There is clear running water next to the house and a vegetable patch behind the house. This is indeed a good place."
"The stream here is very sweet and can be used for drinking directly," Liang Futian pointed to the stream and said, "Also, there are firewood everywhere in this mountain col. You can make a fire to cook. I will also bring you some rice in the afternoon. Come with oil and salt.”
Zhang Shaofei: "Uncle Futian, you are so thoughtful."
Wang Shaoxiang: "Fei'er, we met a noble person this time when we entered Yunwu Mountain."
"Nobles?" Liang Futian was clicked by Wang Shaoxiang's words and said, "If I hadn't met you two nobles that day, I would have died in the weeds at the foot of the mountain."
"This is your destiny." After Zhang Shaofei said this, he looked up at the mountain, squinted his eyes and thought for a while, then said, "Hey, I think the shape of the mountain above looks like a tiger."
"Haha! Ah Fei, you have such a sharp vision. This mountain is called Lao Luoding, also known as Baihu Mountain." Liang Futian laughed and pointed, "Look, the shape of the mountain looks like a tiger's head on one side and a tiger's head on the other. The tiger’s body and tail look like a tiger descending from the mountain.”
After Zhang Shaofei looked at it, he said: "The shape of this mountain really looks like a tiger descending."
Liang Futian continued: "In addition, the rocks on this mountain are gray-white, so we call this mountain Baihu Mountain."
"White Tiger Mountain?" Wang Shaoxiang pointed to the depths of the mountain col and said to Liang Futian, "Listen to what you said, the more I look at this mountain, the more it looks like a white tiger."
"The place where the creek on the right leads to is called Chaxi Valley, and the place where the creek on the left leads to the depths of the col is called Laohukeng." Liang Futian pointed to the two paths in the mountain stream and said.
Wang Shaoxiang: "Tiger pit? Is there a tiger hidden in that mountain col?"
Liang Futian: "There are indeed tigers hidden in the tiger pit, so we rarely go in it."
Wang Shaoxiang's expression suddenly changed: "Ah, is there really a tiger hidden inside?"
Liang Futian raised his hand and pressed it down: "But you can rest assured. Over the years, tigers have been looking for what they should eat in the mountains, but they have never bitten or eaten anyone."
Wang Shaoxiang's fear remained: "No way, the tigers in this mountain have never eaten humans?"
Zhang Shaofei struck up a conversation: "As the saying goes, people are three points afraid of tigers, and tigers are seven points afraid of people."
Liang Futian expressed his opinion: "If you don't provoke the tiger, it won't attack you. We have never provoked it, so I have no scruples about drinking tea and resting here."
Wang Shaoxiang was puzzled: "The tiger is not a compassionate Bodhisattva. It has to eat if it wants to survive."
Liang Futian's face showed an expression of disgust: "A lot of cattle, sheep and livestock on the mountain and down the mountain were killed by it and dragged away."
Wang Shaoxiang: "The tiger killed the cattle, sheep and livestock. The villagers must hate it."
Liang Futian let out the sullen feeling in his heart: "Yes, we mountain people saw that tiger from a distance when we were hunting, and we didn't dare to go and shoot it rashly, so we had to install iron traps in the grass. That tiger is very smart, we think I have tried many methods, but I always pretend that it doesn’t work, and I really can’t do anything about it.”
Zhang Shaofei's eyes were fixed, thinking about something: "It seems that tiger is very spiritual."
Liang Futian nodded: "Recently, several hunters in the village and I are studying how to modify these animal traps so that they can effectively trap tigers to eliminate the scourge in our mountains."
Wang Shaoxiang: "That's good."
Liang Futian: "Afei, you will stay here temporarily. Zhenhui and I will come in to visit you often. You are welcome and come to my house when you have time."
Zhang Shaofei: "Okay, Uncle Futian, we will make arrangements."
From that day on, Zhang Shaofei and Wang Shaoxiang lived in a small thatched shed behind the stone gate of Wentian Village and lived in seclusion.
