Heavy rain fell all day and all night, extinguishing the heat and drought in the valley and allowing life in Taoyuan Village to return to normal.
Everyone in Taoyuan Village spent the night in Qixia Temple and went down the mountain the next day. The rain yesterday was too heavy and it was too dangerous to go down the mountain in the rain.
After coming down the mountain, Wang Erniu led other villagers back to the village first, but Shu Guan and the old lame man sat down by the stream because the old lame man said he wanted to take a breather.
The stream rushed out from the gaps in the mountain peaks, not only regaining the joy it had not had for a long time, but also becoming a little more wild and intense in the splashing water.
Shu Guan helped the old lame man sit down on a large smooth pebble beside the stream.
The stream was a little turbid because a lot of sediment had been washed down by the heavy rain. There were many leaves and dead branches floating on the water, and there were even rotten animal carcasses washed out from the mountains, floating in the waves.
But it won’t take long for the stream to return to its former clarity.
Shu watched the rushing stream, feeling a little dazed.
Ever since the thunder sounded yesterday, he has been feeling uneasy.
The old lame man was grinning happily.
Shu Guan knew why the old man was so happy.
Because no one will die in Taoyuan Village, at least not because of this drought.
When the old cripple was a boy, he was not welcomed by others in the village and suffered a lot of bullying and humiliation, but he never resented anyone in the village.
This lame and blind old man has an innocent heart that has never changed.
In Shu Guan's two lifetimes, only the old cripple was the only purest good person Shu Guan had ever seen.
Of course, there is still a hint of pride in the old cripple's smile.
He felt that he had saved the lives of the entire village.
But Shu Guan is still skeptical about this.
The scene at that time was indeed full of an inexplicable mysterious meaning. After the old lame man kowtowed to the immortal statue, God started to rain after a long drought for half a year. As long as there was no one who saw this scene with his own eyes, no one could Don't be shocked.
Shu Guan was also frightened at that time.
However, after the shocking emotion passed, Shu Guan regained his rationality. He sat in front of the immortal statue last night and thought for a long time. He felt that this should still be a coincidence, just like the time forty-nine years ago.
As for the reason why Shuguan made this judgment, it was because if the immortal could really hear the prayers of the villagers of Taoyuan Village, then how could he leave the villagers of Taoyuan Village in this valley and ignore them for more than two hundred years? .
It can only be said that the old lame man's life is full of cheating. His only regret is that he cannot leave Taoyuan Village.
After sitting by the stream for a while, the old cripple regained some energy.
In the past two years, Shu Guan could clearly feel that the old cripple's physical strength and energy were declining rapidly.
Time goes back more than ten years. At that time, the old cripple went up the mountain to collect herbs, carried himself behind his back with a bamboo basket, and walked through the mountains and forests with a lame leg, but his speed was no slower than that of a normal person.
When Shu Guan grew older, he no longer sat in the old cripple's basket, but followed the old cripple. But at that time, he had to trot all the way to keep up with the old cripple's footsteps.
So the old lame man would stop and rest every few miles, not because he was tired, but to sit down and wait for Shu Guan to catch up.
But in the past two years when going up the mountain, the situation has been reversed. It was Shuguan's turn to stop every time he walked up the mountain, in order to let the old lame man rest.
Maybe it won't be long before the old lame man can't go up the mountain anymore... I'd better take on the responsibility of collecting herbs by myself.
It's time to take care of him in his old age.
At this time, these thoughts flashed through Shu Guan's mind, making his originally joyful mood become a little depressed.
And any change in his mood seemed to be unable to escape the old cripple's eyes.
The old cripple stood up, touched Shuguan's head with his thin old palm and said:
"Mazi, go touch two stream fish and go back. Grandpa will make you your favorite bracken fish soup tonight."
"There are no fish left now, they are all dead a long time ago."
Shu Guan swallowed.
He hadn't had fish soup for a long time because there were no fish in the creek two months ago.
And now it has just rained, so that the stream is full, but I am afraid it will have to wait for a while before fish appear in the stream again.
The old cripple laughed and said something.
"Mazi, if there is water, there will be fish."
His tone was the same as before, with a sense of inexplicable naturalness, just like in the Immortal Temple, he was the only one who believed that the Immortal could hear his prayers at the beginning.
As soon as the old lame man finished speaking, there was a splash in the stream behind him, as if something jumped out of the water and then fell in again.
The old cripple turned his head and smiled even more proudly.
"Look, there's one there. Grandpa has lived for so long and has never seen anything like God destroying everything."
As he spoke, the old cripple rolled up his trouser legs and walked toward the stream.
It seems that the old man is in a really good mood today!
Shu Guan quickly stood up and followed.
The stream is so fast today, and the old cripple's body is no longer as strong as before, so don't accidentally fall. As the saying goes, the old man is afraid of falling, but the young is afraid of being crooked. It is not a trivial matter for an older person to fall.
Just when Shu Guan was so worried, he saw the old cripple seemed to have stepped on something and slipped. His center of gravity suddenly became unstable, and his body fell backwards into the stream.
Fortunately, Shu Guan behind him had quick eyesight and quick hands, and stepped forward to help the old lame man.
"Grandpa, you'd better go to the shore to rest and let me do it."
"I'm old."
The old lame man sighed sadly, but instead of returning directly to the shore, he bent down and reached out to reach the bottom of the water at his feet.
He has been wading in this creek all his life.
Usually when crossing a stream, you don't have to look down at all. As soon as you step on a stone under the stream, you can almost immediately know the shape and size of the stone.
So even though he is old now, the old cripple feels that he should never fall in this creek.
This is the self-confidence that the old cripple has been stubbornly holding on to all his life.
Throughout his life, he has always been able to do anything he thought he could do.
So at this time, he wanted to see what made him feel that he had never made a mistake, but made a small mistake.
And the thing he stepped on just now felt tactile from the soles of his feet, and it didn't look like rocks at the bottom of the stream.
The old lame man quickly found the culprit that almost caused him to fall down just now.
But as soon as he got the thing, a look of doubt appeared on his old face.
Then he took the object out of the water.
The expression of confusion and astonishment on the old cripple's face became even more intense because he couldn't recognize what he was holding in his hand at this time.
It was a brick-shaped thing about the size of a palm, but much thinner than a brick, about as thick as three pancakes stacked together.
The thing was completely black, but the strange thing was that one side of it was obviously very dark, but it also had an extremely transparent feeling. It could actually reflect a human face very clearly. This was the first time in his life that the old cripple could see his own face so clearly. Face.
In addition, this foreign object felt extremely smooth when held in the palm of his hand, like a jade of excellent quality, but the old cripple knew that it was not jade, iron, or wood. He had never seen such a strange thing before.
The old lame man looked up blankly towards the upper reaches of the stream.
This thing must have been washed down from the mountains by heavy rain!
Then he turned around and asked Shu Guan.
"Mazi, do you know what this is?"
In fact, when the old cripple asked this question, he did not expect to get the answer from Shu Guan.
Because no one is more familiar with everything in the mountains and forests around Taoyuan Village than him. For one thing, not even the little pockmarked child he brought out with his own hands can do it, at least not now.
Since he didn't even know, how could Mazi know.
Shu Guan stood beside the old lame man dumbfounded.
Of course Shu Guan knew what it was.
That's his cell phone.
