to blame

Mingxia came to Anhui for the first time, and all the itineraries were arranged according to the map.

His map is not the kind of city tourist map sold in ordinary bookstores, but an internal map specially given to him by Mr. Hu.The map is full of shades of green, many place names are inconsistent with ordinary maps, and there are various data marked on the side of the map that outsiders can't understand at all.

Before Ming Xia set off, Mr. Hu took him to the office for a lesson, and he could barely understand these place names and data.Just follow these data, the more he goes, the more irritable he becomes.Because there is often no way to walk.

After entering the urban area, this problem becomes more and more troublesome.

The road is clearly marked on the map, but when I touch it, I find that it has been blocked by factories, or the place clearly marked as a lake has turned into a spacious road and a new style of residence.

Compared with the normal city tourist map, more than half of the place names and coordinates do not match.

Ming Xia felt that he had already been mastered by this stack of maps - with such a bible-like map, could he really touch Qingqiu Mountain?

Ming Xia sat down on the wooden chair by the roadside, exhausted physically and mentally.

Beside him is an ordinary pet box, Qingqiu is wrapped in a small quilt and sleeping in it with a warm baby.Looking in from the small window of the pet box, only a ball of slightly raised quilt can be seen.

Well, if only someone carried him too.

Ming Xia was depressed for a while, then started looking at the map again.

He once again thought of Nanjiang's metaphor about "layers".He thought that what he was looking for might not be a certain place in the real world, but another layer-like world superimposed on the real world.

He starts by identifying the areas where the two worlds overlap.Only in this way can Ming Xia enter another mysterious world and find Qingqiu Mountain, which never appears on the tourist map of this city.

Ming Xia wandered around Chaohu Lake with the pet box for three days, then rented a car and continued south.His route is through Chaohu Wetland Park, to Yefu Mountain, and then to Anqing.

These are the areas where the two maps overlap.

Ming Xia parked the car on the side of the mountain road, took out the map to look at it, but found that no matter how he looked at it, he couldn't compare it.

On the city tourism map, this place should be a theme park with a large area and relatively high-end game facilities.On Mr. Hu's map, this place should be a lake filled with all kinds of birds that come from the north to spend the winter.

Neither side is right now.

His car was parked on a desolate mountain road at the moment, with no village in front or a shop behind.There are wastelands on both sides of the mountain road, and there are no traces of cultivation.

Ming Xia scolded a foul word in his heart, did this kind of weird situation really happen? !

Ming Xia got out of the car and found that the mountains had already become foggy, and the mountain road and the distant city could not be seen clearly.If the map does not match, the lodging places marked on the map will naturally lose their reference value.For a moment, Ming Xia didn't know whether to continue walking forward, or to retreat along the way he came.

Just as he was hesitating, he heard movement in the car behind him. He turned around and saw Qingqiu getting out of the pet box at some point, stepping on the top of the pet box, trying to climb up the steering wheel.

Ming Xia hurriedly opened the car door and picked it up into his arms. His furry and warm body made his restless mood much better. "Are you awake? Are you hungry?"

Qingqiu widened his eyes and looked left and right, then left and right, and then screamed, "Ahhh, how did you get here... This is Qingqiu Mountain!"

Ming Xia, "..."

Ming Xia was dumbfounded.

"Qingqiu Mountain! It's Qingqiu Mountain!" Qingqiu was about to go crazy, his tail flicked like a wild dog finding a bone, and he couldn't even breathe, "Oh my god, my home, I'm really coming home, woo woo woo..."

Ming Xia hugged Qingqiu and patted it, feeling at a loss.

He actually touched Qingqiu Mountain in a daze? !

"Go this way." Qingqiu lay on his chest, like a child who just learned to walk but is too lazy to walk, clinging to adults and acting coquettishly, rushing to the side, "This way, this way, then Going forward, there is a rabbit hole, and you can go up the mountain from there... Ahhh, Ming Xia, I really can't imagine that this place really hasn't changed at all!"

Qingqiu said, tears were about to flow down.

Ming Xia was infected by its emotions, and her heart was beating non-stop.He looked around, and saw a rather desolate mountain winter scene, with dry vegetation, and the mountains were not so majestic. How could this become a monster mountain where the monster clan lived?

Ming Xia had a sense of unreality like a dream, and even wondered whether Qingqiu might be too excited to recognize the wrong place.

According to Qingqiu, if you go any further, you will go up the mountain, and the car will definitely not be able to drive up the mountain.

Ming Xia put the useful things into his backpack, locked the car, and walked up the mountain with Qingqiu in his arms.

The vegetation is dense, and there is silence all around.

Ming Xia soon saw the rabbit hole that Qingqiu mentioned, and from here he was about to go up the mountain.

Ming Xia looked at the hole that was half covered by weeds, and felt a little uncomfortable in his heart.The rabbits on Qingqiu Mountain live in such simple earthen holes, so it's not possible that his family's Xiaoqingqiu also lives in primitive...fox holes, right?

"Be careful." Qingqiu reminded him that his voice was a few degrees higher than usual, and there was a kind of excitement that was eager to try.

Ming Xia didn't realize what he had to be careful of, and in the next second, he felt something stuck to his whole body, like a thin and soft membrane.

Ming Xia stretched out his hand to touch it, and there was indeed an invisible membrane in the air.

"Keep going!" Qingqiu waved his little fat paw, commanding Ming Xia imposingly, "Go ahead, it's okay."

Ming Xia continued to move forward.

The thin and soft membrane stuck to his face, slowly tightened, and then there was a soft "boo", he hugged Qingqiu as if he had passed through the membrane of air bubbles.

Vigorous green rushes towards his face, Ming Xia suddenly feels his eyes brighten up.

This is the real Qingqiu Mountain.

The mountain peaks are beautiful, undulating in the thin mist, and layers of green extend from their feet to the strength of sight.

Opposite them is the tallest mountain.The tall and straight mountaintops are covered with white snow, while the halfway up the mountain is filled with light pink and deep red like smoke and clouds, like a fairyland.

Qingqiu jumped down from Ming Xia's embrace, and ran forward with his big tail flicking, shouting happily while running.

Ming Xia followed behind it, trotting along the way.He heard a sense of happiness from Qingqiu's clear and tender voice.He was infected by it, and his heart felt a little sour.

In front of them, is there really someone waiting for Qingqiu's return?

The air in the mountains is fresh, the vegetation is verdant, and mountain flowers in full bloom can be seen everywhere, just like the spring of March.

One person and one fox were tired from running, so they sat by the rocks to rest, and listened to Qingqiu talk about those interesting childhood memories in his memory.It was not until the sun was westward that they climbed up the "Fox Peak" in the mouth of Qingqiu sweating.

The Fox Cave is about one-third of the distance from the peak, surrounded by a large peach blossom forest, with the mountain breeze blowing, and the falling flowers are colorful.

In the depths of the peach forest, a row of crooked thatched huts is exposed.Outside the short fence, a group of fat chickens and chicks are leisurely looking for grass seeds to eat on the grass.Seeing a little fox scurrying in from outside the yard, he didn't even make a fuss.

Qingqiu's saliva was about to flow out, "It's so fat."

Ming Xia found out that there really was a vegetable garden outside the thatched shed, inside which grew crookedly a few rows of green vegetables and a bunch of beans.A few apple trees in the corner of the vegetable garden are covered with loofah vines.

The vegetable field is not neatly tidied up, it looks very perfunctory.Ming Xia is not sure whether the fox brothers grow vegetables for food, or whether Qing Tan simply wants to make a teaching model for Qing Qiu to popularize the common sense of human life.

Not far behind the thatched shed was a rock, and Ming Xia saw the entrance of a cave on the rock wall with sharp eyes.Dense shrubs grew at the entrance of the cave, blocking most of the round entrance.Ming Xia felt that the straw shed was more like a game scene, just like the vegetable field, it was for Qingqiu to understand human life.And this cave is their real home.

Qingqiu didn't know where he got into, Ming Xia walked around the yard twice, and approached the thatched shed curiously.

There are two thatched huts, the one on the left looks like a stove, with two iron pots and several bottles and cans on the stove.Next to it was a water tank and a pile of chopped firewood.

In the hut on the right are two simple wooden beds covered with straw mats.There are a few low cabinets beside the bed, and there is a desk by the window. On the desk are brushes, ink, paper and inkstones, and a small blue-glazed vase with a blooming peach blossom in it.

In Ming Xia's mind, a scholar's room looks like this.

He stood at the door, as if he was looking at a dream he had in a long time ago. It was obviously the first time he saw it, but he felt a sense of déjà vu.

Sure enough, as Qingqiu introduced, there are vegetable fields, rabbit holes, and endless peach blossom forests.

Ming Xia's line of sight goes down the hillside, where there are large expanses of lush green pastures and forests, the river is glowing with white light, breaking through this dreamlike green like a crooked ribbon, beside the river there are All kinds of animals come and go, some come to drink water, some come to hunt.

Ming Xia sat down on the steps outside the thatched shed, staring at the distant river absently.For some reason, even the distant scenery seems to have a somewhat familiar flavor.

"Ming Xia!"

Qingqiu called him from a distance, Ming Xia got up, took a few steps outside, only to see Qingqiu lying on the rock wall looking out of the round cave entrance, saw him and raised his paw and waved it twice. Down.

Ming Xia felt that he had been bewitched, because even the scene just now seemed familiar to him.

Ming Xia didn't dare to think deeply, he took a few steps towards the back of the thatched shed, and saw Qingqiu rushing down the mountain like a white ball.

"I found the letter left by my senior brother." Qingqiu jumped into his arms eagerly, and climbed onto his shoulders twice. "He said he wanted to walk around. If I came back, I would Qin Ling is looking for Wu Luo."

"Who is Wuluo?"

Qingqiu patiently explained to him, "Have you heard of the Ten Witches of Lingshan? In ancient times, there were ten very powerful wizards. It is said that they once saved Jiao Jiao... This is not a legend, it is true."

Qingqiu sighed as he said that, it didn't expect that Jiao Jiao was actually a cliff.

Qiao Qiao was murdered by his subordinates and the son of the Zhongshan God, and was rescued by the ten witches of Lingshan with the elixir, but he was full of resentment and his temperament changed drastically.Others said that because of the excessive killing, he had become possessed, and finally lost his sanity, and was beheaded by the most powerful demon hunter at that time.

Ming Xia thought for a while and said: "Don't say, he looks like that, his face is dark all day long, and everyone he sees is like 'You owe me 200 taels of silver', which really fits the Jiao Jiao I imagined. "

"My brother said, Wu Luo knows everything I don't understand, let me ask Wu Luo." Qingqiu asked him eagerly, "Can we go?"

Ming Xia calculated their route in his mind, nodded and said: "Go, if there is a chance, I also want to find out the whereabouts of my adoptive father's family."

Qingqiu was immediately happy, "I'm full of doubts. Tell me, will I see my brother soon?"

Ming Xia nodded, "I think so."

These were not just words of consolation, but that he really had such a premonition.

As for whether their journey was a little too smooth...

There are too many issues to consider, Ming Xia temporarily put this little doubt to the back of her mind.