don't go near that tree

Chapter 63

It is said that there is an old man living on Shili Mountain. The old man grows vegetables on the mountain when he has nothing to do. When he is in a good mood, he will come down with a cane and distribute some vegetables to the residents at the foot of the mountain.

But the people at the foot of the mountain never seemed to accept them, not only did they not accept them, but they would send some things up regularly.

People in this village seem to respect the old man very much.

Liu Peng is ten years old this year, and he is very puzzled by this. He sometimes complains to his mother, saying why every time he buys food for himself, he has to share half with the old man, but what he gets in exchange is a share of his mother's money. Dun scold.

Out of breath, Liu Peng gathered a group of his cronies and friends, and took advantage of noon to climb up Shili Mountain.

It's winter, and Shili Mountain is full of withered grass.

As the New Year approached, the village canteen had already brought in wholesale firecrackers for children to play with. With two boxes of firecrackers in his pocket, Liu Peng climbed up Shili Mountain aggressively with a few boys his age.

When I got to the pine tree, I saw an old man sitting under the tree. He was wearing an old-fashioned heavy overcoat, and only his eyes were left when he wrapped himself up.

At this moment, his eyes are closed, he should be sleeping.

"come here."

Liu Peng waved to a thinner boy beside him.

"What's the matter, brother Peng?"

Liu Peng leaned close to the little boy's ear and said in a low voice, "I'll pass by in a while, and you just set off a whip. You have to throw it elsewhere, but you can't throw it beside the old man."

"Why?" the child asked in bewilderment.

Liu Peng slapped the child, and said bitterly, "What if the old man gets hurt?"

"Then why are you still whipping?"

Liu Peng said solemnly, "He will open his eyes when he hears movement, and then he will be startled when he sees me standing in front of him with a fierce face, do you understand?"

However, before the child could speak, a vicissitudes of voice came from in front of him, "Is this the effect?"

I don't know what effect he was talking about. Anyway, the children present were frightened and yelled loudly.

Liu Peng calmed down, looked intently, and found that it was the old man.

"I said old man, do you walk silently?"

"Where are you going to sit with Grandpa?"

……

After a while, several people sat in a circle around the old man.

They liked the old man very much at the moment, because the old man was talking about things that their parents wouldn't talk about.

For example, the old man told them that ghosts are also good.

"But my mother said that ghosts are very bad." Liu Peng said.

Unexpectedly, the old man smiled and said, "Let me tell you a story."

"Okay." The children immediately became interested when they heard the story.

"The story happened in this village..."

After hearing this, Liu Peng probably understood what the story was about. It said that the village was very poor in the past. It couldn't burn coal at all in winter, so it could only steal firewood, and then met the ghost on this mountain.

"Huh? My family doesn't even use firewood, so why would someone steal it!" a child asked in confusion.

But before the old man could speak, Liu Peng took the first step and said, "Didn't your mother tell you that it was very hard before? My mother said that my grandfather couldn't eat at that time and could only eat grass. I don't have to eat."

"Is the grass edible?" Another child asked immediately, "Won't it cause stomach upset or get sick?"

"No." Liu Peng said proudly, "I have eaten it, but it was a bit unpalatable."

Immediately afterwards, all the children cast admiring glances at Liu Peng because of the fact that he had eaten grass.

"And what about after encountering a ghost?" Liu Peng asked.

The old man smiled and continued, "The ghosts will scare them away and stop them from chopping wood."

"This ghost is so bad!" A child suddenly said, "If you don't chop firewood, you can't make a fire. Wouldn't it be freezing to death?"

The other children also condemned the ghost, but Liu Peng kept his head down and said nothing.

"Kid, what do you think?"

Hearing the old man ask himself, Liu Peng thought for a while and asked, "Did they cut down the trees on the mountain?"

After seeing the old man smiling and nodding, Liu Peng immediately said, "That really shouldn't be cut."

"Why, Brother Peng."

Liu Peng glanced at him helplessly, and said, "Hasn't your teacher taught you that the trees on the mountain are stable, otherwise it is easy to cause landslides when it rains, and people will die!"

Unexpectedly, just after Liu Peng finished speaking, the old man suddenly laughed out loud.

"That's right." The old man laughed and said, "Have you ever heard of the landslide that happened in this village many years ago?"

"My teacher told me that a brother died in that landslide." Liu Peng said softly.

"Yes, it's that elder brother. After he died, he became a ghost and guarded the mountain."

"He didn't let people cut down trees because he was afraid that such a thing would happen again." Liu Peng asked.

The old man nodded.

"It's so great!" Liu Peng murmured in a low voice, "When I was alive, I died to save others, and after death, I have to protect others. It's really great."

The other children also fell silent.

Suddenly, Liu Peng felt that someone was touching his shoulder. He looked up and found that the old man was looking at him with a smile.

"Grandpa, why do you live here? Now everyone doesn't cut down trees." Liu Peng asked puzzled.

"Grandpa likes living here, living here will make grandpa feel at ease."

"Grandpa just said it was just a story, right? The teacher said that there are no ghosts in the world." Liu Peng asked again.

"It's a story and it's not a story. This ghost may not exist, but what this ghost does is done by tens of thousands of people in the world. You must know, my child, that the good days now are the result of the dedication of countless predecessors." ,Do you get me?"

Liu Peng nodded with a half-knowledge.

"It's okay, you will understand later, I just want to tell you today, don't do things that hurt others, understand?"

Hearing what he said, Liu Peng lowered his head in shame and whispered, "Grandpa, I'm sorry."

"Good boy, it's cold, go back quickly, if you can't find your family, you should worry again."

"Well. I know Grandpa. I will come to you often to play in the future. By the way, Grandpa, what's your last name?"

"Ugh." The old man closed his eyes again, leaning against the tree and said.

"Wu..." Liu Peng remembered that his mother seemed to have said that the old man on the mountain was named Wu Chun, and he never got married because of the village.

The teacher also said that the elder brother before Grandpa Wu Chun came was Xu Shiyao.

……

After seeing off the children, it seemed that not too long had passed, and the sky was getting dark.

A figure appeared on the pine tree.

"Why did you talk about it today?" Xu Shiyao asked Wu Chun with a smile, making him feel clearly that Wu Chun was getting older, because he was getting better at sleeping, and every time he hugged him, he slept for a long time.

"I didn't dare to say it a few years ago, but now it is so easy to tell it as a story. After so many years, I am not afraid anymore."

"Well, how is today." Xu Shiyao gently kneaded Wu Chun's shoulder.

"I feel that I can find you soon." Wu Chun said with a smile.

"What nonsense."

"Don't be nervous, this is a good thing for me, but..." Wu Chun paused, and then said in a more serious tone, "You must stop me, don't let me go."

Suddenly a gust of wind blew up, and Wu Chun only heard Xu Shiyao hum lightly, and the sound quickly disappeared with the wind.

……

I don't know how many days later in the afternoon, Liu Peng took the food bought by his mother and was going to see his grandfather.

When he came, the old man was still the same, leaning against the tree, quietly closing his eyes.

Liu Peng smiled and called softly, "Grandpa Wu Chun."

Only this time, the old man didn't respond to him.

Liu Peng squatted down and gently pushed him, but he felt the other person's stiff body. Liu Peng was startled, and his little hand trembled so much that it touched the grandfather's nose.

Not breathing anymore.

The ten-year-old child suddenly burst into tears, and his cry and the sentence, "Grandpa Wu Chun is gone!" echoed on the Ten Mile Mountain.

……

In that year, Wu Chun met Xu Shiyao in Shili Mountain. When he was 80 years old, he also completed the journey of his life in Shili Mountain.

Death is indifferent to Wu Chun. He seems to have just slept for a short time. After waking up, the world is a bit blurred. He saw Xu Shiyao nervously grabbing his wrist. When he opened his eyes, The first thing you ask is, "Do you remember me?"

"Xu Shiyao!" Wu Chun said happily, the moment he heard his voice again, he was startled.

"I'm back?" Wu Chun asked.

However, Xu Shiyao's answer was, "I remember."

"Ah?" Wu Chun was confused, what did he remember?Yinghua Zhengli

Before he could react, he was suddenly embraced by Xu Shiyao, and he said, "Just now, a memory flooded into my brain, and the things I recorded on the bark flooded in at that moment." Into my mind, you still remember me."

Wu Chun patted him and said with a smile, "I never forget."

Only then did Wu Chun deeply realize that he had already experienced death, and it turned out to be such an inconspicuous thing.

At this moment, he has broken the barrier with Xu Shiyao, his memory has not been lost, and Xu Shiyao's memory has all returned to its place.

Everything was a little sudden, making people feel inexplicable, as if there were hands outside this world, manipulating the world.

Wu Chun didn't bother to think about it, it didn't matter anymore.

He hugged Xu Shiyao tightly, "Now we are exactly the same!"

Xu Shiyao also hugged him back hard, and said with a smile, "Yes."

Suddenly, several beams of lights shot over not far away, and it was too late to dodge, so Xu Shiyao could only quickly protect Wu Chun in his arms.

"Xu Shiyao."

Wu Chun exclaimed, but found after a while that the light didn't seem to hurt them anymore.

"How is this going?"

Wu Chun asked in surprise, those people who came after hearing the letter were kneeling in front of Wu Chun's body, crying bitterly.

Wu Chun didn't know what to do, as if the most important thing to do was to let them cry.After all, he has already left that world, and it seems that there is no need for him to intervene in the affairs of that world.

"Are we allowed to live in the light?" Wu Chun asked happily.

Countless lights passed through them, but they didn't hurt them at all.

"It should be." Xu Shiyao said uncertainly.

"Then we can also leave this mountain?" Wu Chun asked again.

"Try tonight." Xu Shiyao replied with a smile.

Unexpectedly, Wu Chun jumped onto Xu Shiyao's body excitedly at this moment, and put his arms around Xu Shiyao's neck, "Yeah! We can go out and have a look."

He was obviously dead, but Wu Chun felt that he seemed to be back.

"Keep down." Xu Shiyao smiled and said softly.

"Don't be afraid, they can't hear me anyway, they can't hear me no matter how loudly I speak! Xu Shiyao, after staying on this mountain for so long, would you like to go out with me and see the outside world!"

Wu Chun's voice became more and more presumptuous, Xu Shiyao no longer hesitated, and responded loudly, "Okay!"

……

After Wu Chun's death, the whole village was enveloped in a sad atmosphere. On the second day after his death, someone found that the pine tree on Shili Mountain had blossomed.

The first time I saw a pine tree blooming, the whole village was startled, and immediately ran over to see it. Unexpectedly, the flower bloomed for a day, and suddenly withered, and the whole tree withered overnight.

It's as if the soul that resided in it has left.

After discussion by the villagers, it was decided to give the mountain a new name. The cross was replaced by the word for time, and the word for li was replaced by the word black. Shili Mountain was renamed Shiwu Mountain from then on.

There are two more stories behind Shibei at the entrance of the village, one is Wu Chun and the other is Xu Shiyao. (full text)