Brother Wen told me that he is a person who cannot be revealed. Every time he closes his eyes, after a few years, he will crawl out of the Wuxiang Gate one day.

During the Qingming Festival in 1921, when I was in Tianjin Wei, I remember it rained heavily. He came out of the Wuxiang Gate for the 11th time, covered in blood. I rushed to pick him up, but I couldn't help but ask a question.

I said why bother coming? It’s all gone, why do you have to come back alive? Is there anyone you can’t let go of?

As rumored, he was not easy to get along with. He ignored me and turned around to leave. After a while, he turned around and asked me if I had anything to eat.

Later, I read some old books and found out that the judges are of the same lineage, full of clarity, impartiality, and the cultivation of no attachment, no hindrance, and no attachment. The questions I asked that day were really daydreams, and I had read too many words.

This year during Guyu, I personally gave him to him. I burned two pots of paper and burned seven pillars of incense. He still looks the same as when I picked him up.

Three white plum blossoms bloomed in the back mountain. I wonder how many years he will be able to sleep well this time.

On April 25, 1995, it rained heavily

Sinking Bridge in Xi'an

***

"Twenty-five years."

"What?" The driver subconsciously raised his voice.

This year's Qingming Festival, Ningzhou also had heavy rains. When the taxi came out of Jiangjun Mountain, it was already dark. The traffic radio reminded for the nth time, "Rainy days are slippery, pay attention to the road ahead." However, the driver couldn't help but look at the people in the back seat. .

He received two strange guests, one old and one young.

The little boy was very thin, he was about six or seven years old, but he was wearing a T-shirt that was too wide. He seemed to have fallen down, and he was wet from head to toe, half from rain and half from mud. Before getting in the car, The driver pulled out a big towel and gave it to him, but he didn't say thank you.

To be precise, he hadn't spoken at all until he suddenly said something. The voice was low and cold, without any milkiness, and it really didn't look like a child.

The driver suspected that he had heard something wrong and couldn't help but ask again: "Kid, is it you who is talking?"

The child didn't say anything, just looked at him. His eyes were reflected in the rearview mirror, and his pupils were big and dark.

The driver added: "The radio was too loud just now. My uncle didn't hear it clearly, so he just heard something like twenty-five or five years."

The child still remained silent.

The driver laughed twice: "Children?"

The child's valve core may have been pulled out.

The old man next to him finally couldn't see it anymore and said with a smile: "He is answering my words."

After hearing this, the driver even muttered, "Did you talk just now? I found that after going into the mountains, there seems to be something wrong with my ears."

"No." The old man turned the old ring on his index finger, rubbed the word "Shen Qiao" on the ring with his dry fingertip, and said, "I didn't say it just now, I asked before."

The driver said "Oh".

He didn't know how long ago this "before" meant, otherwise he might not be able to go on with "Oh".

There are many rumors in the Jiangjun Mountain area, but no one wants to come on weekdays. That is to say, business has been deserted recently, so when Didi called, he took the order and regretted it after taking it.

There are no street lights in this area, only the reflective strips on the guardrails are faintly fluorescent. The rain is really heavy, and the shadows of the trees on both sides are dancing and twisted, like hair hanging crookedly.

Sometimes I glance in the rearview mirror and feel that the faces of the two people in the back seat are as pale as paper.

While the driver was silently reciting psychological effects, psychological effects, he couldn't help but feel a little confused. He could only rely on small talk to relieve it, but the more he explained, the more panic he became...

He asked the old man in the back seat: "Why did you come to the mountains in this bad weather? It's hard to get a taxi here."

The old man looked at the boy next to him with kind eyes and said, "It's difficult. There is no other way. I have to come and pick him up."

Driver: "...Oh."

He didn't dare to ask why a child was waiting for someone to pick him up in the mountains, so he could only say: "The rain is really heavy and the temperature has dropped recently. Is it cold for the child to wear such little clothes? How about I turn on the air conditioner?"

The old man still smiled, shook his head and said, "He won't be cold."

Driver: "...Oh."

The words "won't be cold" and "not cold" must mean the same thing. As he thought this, he was already sweating.

He rubbed his hands on his pants in embarrassment, glanced in the rearview mirror, and said cheerfully: "Your child is really good-looking. He looks like a handsome boy at first glance, and his skin is also fair -"

It was so white that it turned blue.

"——How old are you? Is it time to go to school?"

The little boy who had been sulking in the back seat finally couldn't stand listening any more. He raised his face and stared at the driver in the rearview mirror for a few seconds before his stomach growled.

Wet water dripped down the tips of his black hair. He licked the corners of his chapped lips and said, "Drive faster, I'm hungry."

His voice is exactly that of a young man, cold and low.

The driver didn't know what he thought of, so he started to urinate and never said a word again.

No one knows how the car finally arrived at Minghua Mansion. Anyway, the usual 45-minute drive only took less than half an hour this time.

Minghua Mansion was the earliest villa area developed in Ningzhou. It was very popular at first because a theme park and a wetland park were to be built next to it. Unexpectedly, after three years of construction, the park suddenly came to an end and the wetland park was also missing. Minghua Mansion also suffered.

, it went from being looted by thousands of people to being ignored by no one.

Expensive is really expensive, and desolation is really desolate.

The most commonly used gate in the community is the north gate, but the old man asked the car to park at the west gate, and he got off first.

The driver in the driver's seat is no longer good. As long as he can move his head a little, he can see that the old man's movements are very strange. There is a sense of frustration in his movements. His elbows are always raised very high, as if he is being struck by something.

It's like something needs to be hung to move.

The old man put the umbrella on his shoulder stiffly, freed his hand, took out a piece of silver foil from his pocket, and lit it on fire.

The silver foil instantly shrank and turned into a thin layer of gray, sparks spread, and traces of two words could be vaguely seen - Wen Shi.

The old man waved to the people in the car and said, "This door is open."

When Wen Shi got out of the car, he was no longer the size of a child, but looked like a teenager, 15 or 6 years old. The clothes that were originally too roomy now fit much better, except for the pants, which are still too long.

He didn't care and reached out to take the umbrella from the old man's shoulder. The black umbrella was slanted to block the cold rain blowing over him. He raised his chin to the old man and said, "I don't know the road anymore. I'll follow you."

This is the 12th time he has come out of the Wuxiang Gate, and every time he has to be led by someone.

Shen Qiao picked him up twice. The last time, Shen Qiao was only 18 years old. He was wearing a silk mandarin jacket and a crisp melon skin hat. When he came up, he called him "Brother Wen" and then asked him a melon skin question.

This time, Shen Qiao looked like his grandfather. It was no longer easy to call him "Brother Wen" in front of outsiders. He could easily scare someone to death if he wasn't careful.

But even if he paid attention, the driver was still very frightened.

When passing through the gate, a burst of suona sounded from the northeast corner of the community.

As the saying goes, there is no one who cannot be blown away by the suona. The taxi driver was awakened by the two blows, and when he hit the accelerator, he turned into a shadow in the rain and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Wen Shi looked away from there and licked the corner of his mouth again. In just a few minutes, he had grown a lot taller, and the folds of his trousers at his ankles were completely straightened, and he was already a young man.

"Are you really hungry?" Shen Qiao asked.

"What do you think?"

"What a pity." The old man sighed quietly.

"how?"

"You have to find something to eat this time."

When I heard this, I followed him around a garden and walked east along the path. Before I could ask him why, I heard the sound of suonas, gongs and drums.

The rain has not subsided, and there is a lot of moisture in the air, but you can still smell the fine smell of incense ash, paper money. Ordinary people can't smell the difference, but they can. This smell is very familiar, and it belongs to the Shen family.

"I brought a child to take over." Shen Qiao glanced at the villa in front and said, "The child I raised is almost the same as me. He is 18 this year. Except for being timid, he is good in everything."

When hearing: "..."

He couldn't hold back: "You brought a timid person back to do this?"

Shen Qiao couldn't hold back: "How did I know he was so timid when I raised him?"

Wen Shi: "Then you are really awesome."

Shen Qiao: "Excuse me."

When hearing: "..."

That is to say, Shen Qiao is too old to fight now. He thought to himself with a stinky face.

Shen Qiao glanced at the villa again, and finally felt relieved when he saw a boy wearing sackcloth and mourning coming out of the gate.

He bowed to Wen Shi with the old bow and said, "Brother Wen, Shen Qiao is lucky enough to have known you for so many years. Now I have to leave. Please be well."

He thought for a moment and added: "Sooner relief."

After saying that, his rickety old body collapsed. The white-haired old man was gone. There was only the clothes and pants he had just worn on the ground. A few slender white plum blossom branches were exposed from the collar, and the branches were tied with soft white threads. It was soon getting wet from the rain.

The sound of the suona makes the wild trees unaware of spring.

He was stunned for a moment when he heard this, and suddenly realized that he had really slept for many, many years...

He held an umbrella to block the slanting rain on the ball of cotton plum branches, bent down to pick up the clothes, and stood silently for a while. It wasn't until he heard footsteps approaching that he raised his eyes -

The boy wearing sackcloth and mourning came over. Judging from his age, he must be the one Shen Qiao mentioned as his successor.

Wenshi didn't have a very good personality, and after all these years he still didn't like to talk to strangers. He held the clothes in his hands, looked down at the little boy in front of him who was nearly a head shorter than him, and just stood there, refusing to speak. I nicknamed him "Dwarf" in my heart.
To be continued...