"At the beginning of man's life, his nature is good..."
The sound of reading aloud can be heard in the thatched cottage. When the teacher reads a sentence, the children studying here will follow up.
After finishing reading the Three Character Sutra of Enlightenment, the teacher stopped and began to answer questions for these young children.
This teacher is not strict, so the students love him very much, but the playful children don't care about academic matters.
But every time I come to the school to study, I don't need their help with household chores, and I can have a good rest on this day.
"Are there no problems? If not, just study on your own."
The teacher looked at a group of primary school students discussing the topic of "I caught a big grasshopper a few days ago" or "I framed a pheasant in a bamboo basket", but he did not interfere much with the children's remarks and just sighed. , just looking at the useless scriptures in my hands.
"Sir, I have doubts."
I don’t know how long it took before I suddenly heard the childish voice next to me and said something like this.
"Eh?"
The teacher raised his head and looked at the always naughty student next to him with a slightly surprised look on his face.
"Er Huzi, what doubts do you have?"
He couldn't help but ask.
"Sir, people's hearts are inherently kind. Is this true?"
Erhuzi was a little timid and asked directly.
Hearing this, the teacher did not answer directly, but asked: "Why do you ask this?"
Erhuzi was a straight-tempered child and said it openly: "Some time ago, when the village was plowing the fields, everyone else was working hard. Only Uncle Gazi was hiding on the rocks and lazing by himself. It was obvious that everyone was plowing the land together. He But instead of plowing, he asked others to plow for him, is this right?"
"No, but people are lazy, even good-hearted people are inevitable. It has nothing to do with the saying that human nature is inherently good."
The teacher thought for a while and replied.
"But Uncle Gazi was discovered and was taken to the village chief by Huang Po from the east village. The village chief seemed to be very angry and brought Uncle Gazi to Master Heikai in the temple. I saw Master Heikai holding a The whip hit Uncle Gazi three times, very hard, and the skin and flesh were torn..."
Erhuzi looked timid, as if he could still recall the scene of the whip hitting the man's flesh.
"Others are working hard, but he is lazy on the side. If he fails to fulfill his responsibilities, it is a mistake, and if you make a mistake, you will be punished. Erhuzi, remember, there is nothing in this world that is more fair and just than Lord Heikai. , you shouldn’t be afraid, you should be in awe.”
The teacher taught in a very confidential manner.
"Yes, sir."
Erhuzi seemed to accept this statement.
"Well, what else do you want?"
Seeing that he had not left yet, the teacher asked again.
"Sir, one more thing. After Uncle Gazi was beaten, the people in the village did not carry him home. Instead, they carried him to the fertilized fields..."
Erhuzi said in a low voice.
Teacher: "..."
He could already think of the subsequent plot developments, and the facts were not unexpected.
"The village chief grandpa said that lazy men like Uncle Gazi would only harm our village, so he led the men who carried Uncle Gazi to pick up hoes, beat Uncle Gazi to death and buried him in the fertilized soil."
Erhuzi's voice had a hint of crying. He had never seen anything like that.
"Sir, I have been having nightmares recently. In my dreams, Uncle Gazi is begging for mercy, saying, "Don't kill me, don't kill me, I will work hard like a cow from now on, and I will never be lazy again." But still The scene of being beaten to death by people in the village.
I was very scared. I was afraid that my grandfather, the kind village chief, would one day lead people to kill me and bury me in the fertilized fields. I told my parents about this, but my parents only said that I would die when I grow up. I will understand, but I really don’t understand now. What should I do? "
Erhuzi asked, it could be seen that his spirit was really bad, and he had already regarded the teacher here as the last straw.
"What do you think, Erhuzi? Do you think the people in the village have done something wrong?"
The teacher was silent for a while before asking.
"I have no idea!"
The tiger-headed boy was a little confused.
"Then, let me put the question another way. If you and your friends need to work hard together to have enough to eat, but one of them is lazy and stops working, leaving others hungry, you, as the village chief, will lead them. ,what would you do?"
"I……"
Erhuzi hesitated, but still answered.
"I should teach him a lesson so that he won't do it again."
"This is what Lord Black Armor does."
The teacher nodded.
"But what if that kind of incorrigible?"
"me……"
Erhuzi already understood what the teacher wanted to express, but he was very anxious and didn't seem to agree.
"No matter what, you shouldn't beat people to death and bury them in the fertile ground. Sir, didn't you say that people are inherently kind?"
Erhuzi shouted out.
The noise in the school fell silent, but he looked towards Er Huzi and the teacher.
"Are people's hearts inherently good..."
The teacher looked at Erhuzi with a complicated look in his eyes.
"Erhu, come with me."
He grabbed the little boy's hand and took him out without saying anything.
Before leaving, he also told the children here that they could only study by themselves in the school and were not allowed to play in the yard.
"Sir? Sir?"
It was the busy farming season and there were few people on the village roads. Erhuzi was grabbed by the hand and led towards the head of the village. The little boy shouted with some fear, fearing that his husband would also take him to a place like the village chief. Grandpa also killed him just like he killed Uncle Gazi.
"Er Huzi, go and pick that flower!"
When they arrived at the end of the village, the teacher let go of his thinness, pointed at a beautiful big red flower, and said to the boy with a tiger-like head and a tiger-like brain.
"But isn't that a blood flower? Mom said the blood flower will suck people's blood. You can't get close to it, let alone pick it."
Erhuzi took a few steps back and said with some horror.
"That's the other side flower, not the blood flower. The blood flower is just a lie to children, and only bad people will be afraid to get close to it."
The teacher said.
"Eh?"
Erhuzi was stunned.
"Erhuzi, if I'm not wrong, if you pick it, you won't be afraid anymore."
The teacher added that he was quite prestigious among the students, and Erhuzi believed him.
The boy walked over and, although he was a little scared, he still picked a bright red Bana flower.
As soon as he picked it off, his hand was pricked by the barbs on it, and the flower changed visibly to the naked eye.
"Ah, sir, the red flower turned into a shit-colored flower. Am I being sucked in blood?"
The little boy wanted to throw the flowers away, but they seemed to grow on his hands.
"Don't move, you'll get hurt."
The teacher scolded and then corrected what the boy had just said.
"This is golden yellow, not shit color. There is no shit color in the world, only earthy yellow."
"Ah, oh!"
The boy nodded confusedly.
"Come on, follow me to see the village chief."
The teacher took his hand back again.
"ah?"
As soon as Erhuzi heard about the village chief, he wanted to retract his hand.
"Don't be afraid. Your parents and other people in the village will come with you later. No one will hurt you. They will only be happy because you appear in the village."
Erhuzi was still taken to the village chief's house.
"village head."
The teacher said hello to the old village chief with white hair and a kind face.
"Mr. Jiang, what's wrong? It's not class time. Why did you bring Er Huzi here? Could it be that Er Huzi made a mistake?"
The old village chief looked at Er Huzi and his eyes became stern. The boy was so frightened that he hurriedly hid behind the teacher.
"No, Erhuzi made no mistake. In fact, it was..."
The teacher turned his head and pulled Er Huzi out from behind.
"Stretch out your hand and let the village chief see what you have in your hand."
Erhuzi was a little scared, but he still followed the instructions and showed the golden flowers.
"This is the flower of the other shore? The golden flower of the other shore!"
The old village chief opened his mouth wide, then looked surprised and shouted to his daughter-in-law in the woodshed.
"Go and sound the gong and ask everyone in the village to come back. A good boy has appeared in our village!"
Hearing this, the village chief's daughter-in-law was stunned for a moment, then she looked happy, put down the hatchet and went to beat the gong.
The clanging sound resounded in this small village, and soon spread to the fields outside the village.
"Is there another kind person in our village?"
The villagers who were working hard in the fields with their backs to the sky and their faces to the loess raised their heads, but they all looked surprised.
.
.
"Everyone can see clearly that this is the golden Bana flower, a sign of a kind-hearted person, and any place that cultivates a host of the golden Bana flower will be rewarded by Master Heikai. Now, except for Er Huzi, our village will be the next year and the year after , and even the year after tomorrow, our village will benefit from him, everyone, come here and give a toast to Erhuzi’s father and Erhuzi’s mother.”
The old village chief said with a smile, and started to do it to a middle-aged couple who were also beaming with joy. After finishing the glass of wine, he encouraged him again: "Look at you two, you two gave birth to a good baby. After sending the second tiger cubs out, let’s try to give birth to a few more cubs and see if we can give our village a few more good babies and good children!”
"Okay, okay, village chief, leave this matter to me, Dahu!"
Erhuzi's father patted his chest in assurance.
"Hey, it's like you can have two sons without me?!"
Erhuzi Niang was a little dissatisfied and raised her hand to hit her boss.
"This is all my fault. Without a bitch like you, I would have been able to find other girls to have babies!"
Erhuzi's father had endured the yellow-faced woman in his family for so many years and finally gave birth to a good son, but he didn't want to endure it anymore.
"Brother Huzi, I will leave the door open for you from now on!"
In the crowd, Widow Zhang from the East Village shouted boldly.
She is prettier than Huzi's mother, and Huzi's father keeps responding well.
This scene also made Erhuzi's mother furious, but just before the conflict escalated, a man shouted: "Erhuzi mother, do you think I, Lao Wang, can lend you a hand?" Giving birth to a baby?”
Seeing the old man from the village who was more handsome than her husband but a little lame, Erhuzi Niang laughed and said, "When that bastard goes to break out of the door, I will also hold the door open for you."
The teacher's brows couldn't help twitching. Looking at this group of villagers with low morals, he shook his head helplessly.
Are people essentially good?
No, people’s hearts are inherently evil!
It's just because the world has changed that evil people put on human skin and have to be kind.
But in the subtleties, we can still see the evil beneath their surface goodness...
"Sir, am I going to be given to someone else?"
Erhuzi was at a loss. His parents were busy greeting people and didn't pay attention to him at all.
"Leaving here will be good for you and this village."
The teacher said.
"The poor mountains and rivers here are a place to raise bad people. It is not suitable for a kind-hearted child like you. The ideal city is your destination. There, you will never see anyone being buried in the fertilized fields. The residents there and you All the same, they are all good people.”
The teacher stroked Er Huzi's head and babbled a little.
"Will sir come with me to that ideal city?"
Erhuzi asked.
"Me? I can't go. The ideal city only accepts good people in the world to live there."
The teacher replied.
"Isn't sir the best man in the village?"
Erhuzi didn't understand.
"Don't praise me. I'm just an ordinary person who can neither do evil nor do good, just an ordinary teacher."
The teacher said.
"Er Huzi, remember, human nature is inherently good, which refers to people living in the ideal city, and outside the ideal city, the truth is that human nature is inherently evil.
It's just that when Lord Black Armor came here, the evil people disguised themselves and turned into villagers who yearned for kindness, but their inner essence has not changed. It's just that kind-hearted children like you are born occasionally.
They will offer you up whether you want it or not.
I am your husband. Although I have only taught you for a few years, I want to tell you that if you are crowned in the ideal city in the future and the management officials there ask you whether you choose to stay or come out to teach, it is best for you to stay An ideal city.
Because that is the human world! "
Erhuzi failed to understand what the teacher said.
On the third day after he was found to be a good boy, he was picked up by the extraditers who came to the village.
"Mr. Xiao, long time no see."
"I remember you. Seven years ago, I sent you here from Ideal City."
The extraditer who came this time was an acquaintance of the teacher, but he was also a strange guy.
Wearing a bamboo hat, a wooden mask, and a raincoat, his real name is unknown and he calls himself the Laughing Man.
Therefore, he is called Mr. Laughter.
"Do you want to go back?"
"It's not me who's leaving, it's this child."
The teacher took Er Huzi out.
"No luggage package?"
Looking at the empty hands of the child, the smiling man asked.
"Here it is."
The teacher handed over the package he was carrying.
"Did you prepare it?"
"Um."
"It seems that people's hearts are still selfish, and they are not even willing to prepare things for the children who are leaving."
The laughing man said something and asked Erhuzi to pick up his luggage and get into the donkey cart behind.
"Aren't you going to leave with me?"
"I have already taken root here. Besides, with the two tigers this year, there may not be others next year."
"As you wish."
The extraditer got on the donkey cart and just said, "Let's go."
The donkey pulling the cart moved on its own.
Erhuzi was a little scared, but there were some children in the donkey cart who also held golden Higan flowers in their hands, which made him feel somewhat at ease.
"Where are you all from?"
a little girl asked.
"Black Rock Village..."
"Tanjia Town..."
Various answers came out.
"I'm from Taoyuan Village. Our village chief's surname is Xiao, and he is a powerful village official!"
said the little girl.
"Do you know where we are being sent?"
She asked everyone again.
"Ideal City."
Some people knew and answered, but some didn't know and looked confused.
"That's right, it's Ideal City. Does anyone know what we're going there for?"
This time, the others were a little confused. After all, they were all young children.
"My village chief said that we went there to study. After we learn well, we can be like him and become high-ranking and good officials from the ideal city!"
The girl said somewhat proudly.
"But my husband told me to stay in Ideal City."
It was Erhuzi who spoke.
"Nonsense, people like us should be officials and benefit the world!"
the girl retorted.
“Human beings are truly wonderful creatures, with good and bad looks in different forms.”
The children's quarrel made the laughing man driving in front sigh.
This is the world of [Mr. Miao].
