The rain knocks on the window at night, and the stone steps drip with water, but no one wakes up. /p
The pale moon and stars pushed away the clouds and mist, slipped into the cold water droplets, and drifted down with the wind an unquiet arc of sorrow. But it happened to fall between the gray tiles, not wanting to cause any ripples for fear of waking up the sleeping people behind the oil paper curtain. /p
Amidst the mountains and rivers, there are wine jars full of warm and fragrant wine in the "Baliang Mountain Pass", which turned out to be a mountainside wine shop. During the day, when villagers go to the mountains to work, they have to buy at least half a kilogram of "sifted millet". The clear and scorching heat can warm people's hearts and minds by just taking a sip and holding it in your mouth. If it's a scorching sun, you only need to pour out half of it. Bowl, dip your hands in it and pat it on your face, it feels so refreshing like the early autumn wind. /p
Behind the wine shop is the host's house. The light raindrops hitting the tiles and rocks are the best sleeping music, but the men and women in the hot mud mattresses cannot sleep peacefully. /p
There was a child sleeping next to the woman. He was only five years old and had a childish look on his face. He was only covered by a bright red bellyband, and the corners of the quilt were just under his feet. Even though it was July, the night was rainy and wet, but the child was probably too sleepy to feel the cold. /p
The man lowered his voice, leaned close to the woman's ear and complained: "In the evening, the black sparrows were still biting the clouds and flying. Why did it rain at night? There will be no business tomorrow."/p
When the woman didn't hear a reply, the man pushed her twice with his elbow. /p
The woman lay down on her back and whispered back: "Daddy, my heart feels uncomfortable, and my body feels sleepy, but I panic as soon as I close my eyes. Could it be that I forgot to do something today?"/p
"You were beaten by the little beast." The man's chin was pointed in the direction of the child. /p
"Bah" the woman turned sideways and carefully held the child with one hand, "Isn't it your seed?"/p
When the man saw the child, he looked dejected. He leaned his head on the woman's shoulder and complained in a low voice: "This little ancestor has brought us both down. When you came over, our family was in good shape, okay?" Well, ever since we got this little beast, our family has been in constant trouble. The house was set on fire three times by him. All the good wine we had hidden was burnt. We didn’t get any money, but it was left behind. There’s a lot of famine”/p
The woman sighed, stretched the child's bellyband, and said lovingly: "This child was born with a good body, like a little fireball. Why does he have nightmares every day? He likes to dig in the soil as soon as he wakes up. The child's father, he Don’t you have some strange disease?”/p
"How can you have nightmares every day?" The man crawled over the woman's body and reached out to touch the child's forehead. "It's true that this body is always hot, but no matter how many doctors I looked for, they couldn't tell me that there was no way out, and I didn't see it. He is possessed by an evil spirit. Although the child's legs and feet are not strong, he has not been sick since he was born. His body bones should be in good condition. If it doesn't work, when he is a few years older, I will carry him up to Qingshan Peak to find an expert to look at him. Look."/p
The child slept peacefully, with a smile on his face. After seeing the child, the woman happily took a sip on the child's face and whispered: "Dad, look, how long has it been since the child slept like this?"/p
"Eh? It's a bit strange. Why are you sleeping so hard today?" The man rolled his eyes, hissed in his mouth, patted the woman's waist in annoyance, and said eagerly: "Uh, I forgot. , won’t it be July 11th in a few hours?”/p
"Ah!" The woman sat up quickly and considered the days. Tomorrow is really the child's birthday, which is the birthday. In order to celebrate the birth of a boy, the people here often hang a bow at the door, so the man His/her birthday is also called Hanging Arc Day. /p
The child's hanging arc hour is the middle of the eleventh day of July, which happens to be midnight. In fact, men rarely celebrate birthdays before they turn fifteen, and most men don't celebrate birthdays until they turn twenty. But this child is an exception, and he has to celebrate it. /p
The child's parents hurriedly got off the kang, and the man went to dig soil in the yard, carried it back to the room with a wooden bucket, and then carefully picked out the gravel from the soil. The woman carried firewood, boiled a pot of water, and poured a ladle into the mud bucket. The man put his hands in and started stirring slowly. /p
The woman cooked another pot of porridge with corn wine and closed the lid to prevent the heat from escaping. The man gradually stirred the mud in the bucket until it was soft enough. After everything was done, the two of them took the bench and sat together, waiting for that moment to arrive. /p
On the land covered by the rain at night, no one was sleeping soundly except the child. They all opened their eyes and looked forward anxiously. /p
"It's almost time." The woman leaned against the man, keeping her eyes on the child. /p
"It's almost there. Listen to the rain outside. It's already falling hard." The man raised his hand and blocked his ears regardless of the wet mud on his hand. The woman also held her ears and got into the man's clothes. /p
"Here we come." Just as the man was halfway through his words, a white light like a frightening snake suddenly exploded outside the oil paper window, followed by thunder, whose roar was so powerful that it never faded. The scenery in the night changed drastically with the appearance of that thunder light. Storms of wind and rain roared in, purple and gold snakes danced in the dark clouds, and in the muffled sound of lightning, the second thunder light suddenly appeared. /p
Even if they covered their ears in advance and were prepared, some creatures were still shocked, trembling and crying. /p
The man just bit his tongue. After the second lightning appeared, he counted in his mouth: "Two!"/p
However, the eyes of the woman in his arms were always fixed on the child. When the lightning appeared, she saw the child sitting up instantly on the kang, his bellyband slipped, and his head turned toward the window, his belly There was a slight shaking, and the child was still sleeping soundly. /p
"Three!" The man's voice sounded together with the thunder. /p
The vast long river with misty waves, the sound of gurgling water gradually faded away, and the five-year-old child returned to the edge of the river waves. /p
The child has also reached the age when he starts to understand, so he knows that this is another dream, a dream that he can only have the opportunity to peacefully dream at a certain time of a certain day of the month. /p
The river has no end, and no matter how he looks back or turns around, he can always only see the direction in which the river flows. /p
Some more figures appeared in front of him. They were children about the same size as him. Each time they appeared, they were different, but without exception they were all running forward happily. Occasionally, some children turned back and headed towards him. He raised his hands and shouted: "Let's go!" "What are you waiting for?"/p
He said shyly and started running with bumpy steps, shouting as he ran: "Wait for me!"/p
Suddenly, a voice came from behind him. The voice was old and weak, as if he was tired of the world and longing for relief. The voice asked: "Who are you?"/p
He froze, shuddered, and slowly turned around. This time, as if he had left the world, he actually saw a foggy village. /p
There are only three or two adobe houses in the village. The roofs are clean and the doors are open. An old man in ragged clothes is sitting on a stone mill that has been abandoned for many years. The old man's head is bald, and there are mountains and valleys. The grass inside is lush. There is a wooden plow in the cultivated land, and behind the wooden plow is a couple of cow dung being thrown. The sound of the cows shouting can be heard on the hillside, sometimes humorous, sometimes tired. If you stand next to it and look at it at first glance, you will definitely forget what year it is today, just like what the old man is counting in his hands is not hours, but years. /p
The child walked up to the old man timidly, not daring to speak, but looked at the old man carefully. /p
I don't know how long it took before the old man noticed the child beside him. A smile appeared on his wrinkled face. He patted the child's forehead and asked, "Oh, it's you this time. Who are you?"/p
"My name is Mu Ziyun," the child replied cautiously, lowering his head. /p
The old man shook his head, gently touched the tip of the child's nose with his finger, and said, "Who are you?"/p
The child replied aggrievedly: "I am Mu Ziyun from Taier Village, and my father is Muzhuang."/p
"Hey" the old man still shook his head and sighed softly: "I'm asking, who are you."/p
In the silence, neither the old man nor the child spoke anymore. Soon after, the old man finally realized it. He said: "Oh, I remember, you have come back once, just now, eh? Why are you back again? Look. , they all ran away."/p
"Have I seen you?" the child summoned up the courage to ask. /p
"I've seen it before" the old man laughed twice, "just now, I told you a story, you stayed, you said you called"/p
Before the old man could finish speaking, the ground began to collapse, the house turned into powder, and cold water spurted out from the cracks, scattering the old man's figure. The child opened his mouth wide and watched the world in front of him collapse. He was submerged in the water, and no matter how he moved his limbs, he couldn't stop sinking. /p
With a pop, his head suddenly popped out of the water. It was strange, wasn't it sinking just now? /p
He returned to the long river, swam to the river, climbed onto the bank, but then stumbled and rolled forward. And just when he lay down, the nightmare began again. He didn't know what he encountered next, because every time he changed the scene, his memory would disappear. Everything he saw in the previous breath no longer existed. He only remembered that he was in pain and scared. /p
Finally, he came to the end of every nightmare again, a strange forest, a strange land, where there was a mud pit. He instinctively knelt down by the pit and dug up the dirt. There was no reason. That was the only thing that could stop him. No way to be afraid again. /p
As he was digging, a young hand grabbed his arm and pulled him upwards. /p
He suddenly stood in the starry sky, with the scimitar-like crescent moon beside him, and the person holding his arm was also a boy. The boy did not speak or look back, and ran straight forward. /p
"Wait for me!" He chased after me anxiously. /p
Gradually, other children appeared next to him, and everyone was running without stopping for a moment. /p
When the meteor fell and the children "parted ways", he wanted to follow the child in front, but behind the child he heard countless terrifying sounds like howling ghosts and wolves. He ran behind a girl in fear, but the girl ran away even more. The further away he is, the harder he can catch up. /p
All the children disappeared, and there was only one road left in the starry sky. It turned out that that was his way back. /p
He was timid and timid, turning back every step and stepping forward slowly. /p
"Fourteen or fifteen", the man covered his ears. As he counted, lightning exploded in response. /p
"Eighteen!" The man removed his hands. Suddenly, the wind outside the window was calm, the night rain was falling, the water on the stone steps formed a pool, and the lonely night was set off by gray-black clouds and mist. The dim starlight lazily hid the body. This night was too ordinary, as if everything just now was just a dream shared by all living creatures. /p
"Mom, wow!" The child woke up and started crying. /p
The man and woman skillfully rolled up the quilts on the kang. The man carried the wooden bucket of mud onto the kang and placed it in front of the child. As soon as the child inserted his hands into the soil, he began to dig downwards, and his mood gradually eased. , but still sobbing. The woman brought a bowl of millet wine porridge and put it to the child's mouth. The child swallowed the wine porridge and stopped crying. /p
"Ziyun? Have you had another nightmare?" The woman put the child in her arms and asked in a warm voice. /p
"Yeah," the child nodded, sniffed, and said aggrievedly: "I saw a big river again! I also saw many friends, but this time, I also saw an old man."/p
The man touched the child's face, made eye contact with the woman, and said to the child: "Hurry up and dig, let's go to sleep when we have dug enough."/p
"Oh" the child lowered his head and carefully dug up the mud in the barrel. /p
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