Of Mountains and Rivers

Chu Huan didn't move, he could neither leave Nanshan and leave by himself, nor would he rush to get involved when he didn't know the ins and outs, so he just watched the changes from the sidelines.

Nan Shan turned his head and switched to his own language, ignoring the giant python, and said familiarly to the "water ghost" on the snake's head: "Come down."

Shui Gui glanced at Chu Huan, and Chu Huan sat on the horse with a face of "I don't understand what you are talking about", and was extremely indifferent to bear the hatred of the other party who killed his father and took his wife.

The water ghost has a ravine expression on his face, and he refuses to move - if someone says "come down", he will have to come down, where will he put his face in the future?What's more, it was in front of Chu Huan, an outsider.

But compared to humans, animals are very honest. After hesitating for a moment, the big snake slowly lowered its head and half-submerged in the water.

The water ghost's face was depressed, his face became paler, his breath became heavier, and the top of his head was full of rage.

Chu Huan was the object of hatred that he wanted to burn to death.

The water ghost suddenly let out a low growl, jumped up from the snake's head, crossed Nanshan Mountain, and rushed towards Chu Huan.

Nan Shan raised his hand and turned the patriarch's scepter horizontally, the body of the staff got stuck on the water ghost's neck, and it was stuck hard and inches. The water ghost's face suddenly changed from white rice to mosquito blood, and Nan Shan's palm suddenly tightened , the water ghost fell backwards, and the giant python quickly supported him, but at least he didn't let him lie down and drink water.

The water ghost took a few steps back before barely standing still. He bent down and coughed violently.

The big snake wagged its tail uneasily, and the river water undulated again.

Nanshan glanced at him expressionlessly, then grabbed the poisonous snake with a bird on the horse's back, patted the horse, and said to Chu Huan and the others: "It's okay, let's go, these few days There just happened to be something in the clan, so the class will be suspended for a few days."

After making sure that he was leveling, Chu Huan turned his horse's head.

After they walked for a long time, Chu Huan could still hear the water ghost yelling at Nanshan with his unique voice: "You actually brought outsiders here! Did you forget the last one?"

Compared to his exasperation, Nanshan's voice was much more soothing: "You don't have to worry about it."

The water ghost jumped into a rage, and chattered a lot. His words were two hundred miles too fast. With Chu Huan's proficiency in the language of the Liyi tribe, he really couldn't understand it this time.

Going a little further, not only can't understand, but also can't hear. When you reach the place where the fog is thickest, you can't see people in front and behind, and the sound seems to be blocked.

When they were far away, Nan Shan bent down, touched the giant python's head, and sighed: "Let's go."

The "water ghost" stood stiff in the water, trembling with anger.

Nanshan glanced at him, and said with a more serious tone: "Luge."

The water ghost named "Luge" jumped on the python's body angrily: "I think you are crazy!"

After speaking, he drove the giant python and swam away quickly.

Nanshan stood alone in the middle of the thin river for a while. After a while, he turned around and looked in the direction where Chu Huan and the others had disappeared. His whole leg was soaked in the icy river water, but he didn't feel the cold. , It's just that the fog was too thick, and he was in a trance for a while.

At that moment, Nanshan suddenly remembered a sentence he had read in the old magazine that Chu Huan brought, "Reading the long life of heaven and earth", which seemed to be quoted by the writer of the article. According to Chu Huan, it was from one of their Extracted from ancient poems.

"Heaven and Earth" Nanshan knows each other, but what is "yoyo"?

Ask Chu Huan, the ancient poetry appreciation class that Chu Huan took when he was a child has long been returned to the teacher intact, and he can't explain clearly, he just told Nanshan according to his own understanding: "Maybe it means very big and very broad. It’s so big that people have nowhere to focus and can’t do anything.”

Although the river has not reached his waist, nor is it very big or wide, but at this time, Nanshan has already felt "long".

The little poisonous snake slowly climbed up his shoulders around his arms, still holding the wooden carved bird in its mouth.

"The door opened so early this time, I'm afraid 'over there' will not be able to hold on." Nan Shan stretched out his palm to wrap around the snake's head, and asked to himself, "What shall we do then?"

The little poisonous snake made a "hissing" sound, and then probably realized that he couldn't make any constructive suggestions, so he spit the bird on Nanshan's palm and gave him a gift to comfort him.

Nan Shan lowered his eyes, pinched the bird with a big head and a small body, looked at it for a while, then patted the head of the little poisonous snake worriedly: "You don't understand anything, and you will make trouble, alas."

He didn't have the way of exiting the scene like riding a snake back, but just lowered his head and walked back step by step in silence.

If Chu Huan came back to take a look at this time, he would definitely be shocked.

The usually sparsely populated settlements of the Liyi tribe were unusually crowded this day, the branches and roofs were covered with frighteningly large birds of prey, and there were also several giant pythons wrapped around the tree trunks, slowly swallowing letters. But it was unusually gloomy, like a big pot lid pressing on the top of the head, brewing a storm with lightning and thunder.

A lot of people as pale as Luge appeared from the ground overnight. They stood quietly behind Luge, clearly separated from the Liyi tribe.

There are men, women and children in the Liyi tribe, but there are only young and middle-aged men and women on Luge's side.

Ruge sat sideways on the tall snake's head, staring at Nanshan not far away with a bewitching look.

Under the gaze of everyone, Nanshan bent down calmly and carefully wrung out his soaked trouser legs and hair one by one.

The little bald man came running over with no eyesight at all, he tilted his head regardless of the situation and asked Nanshan: "Patriarch, where is the great king?"

Nanshan said: "Go out, I entrust him to do something."

The little bald man asked worriedly, "Are you coming back?"

Hearing this, Nan Shan paused to straighten out his movements, and after a while, he waved to the little bald man, "Come here."

As the former idol of the little bald head, the patriarch still has a bit of appeal. The little bald head was immediately called over happily, stood on tiptoe, hugged Nanshan's thigh, and looked up at Nanshan with a smirk. A natural nympho.

"He'll be back in a few days." Nanshan patted his head, then he glanced around, and in full view of everyone, he asked the little bald head pointedly, "If one day he wants to leave us, what do you want?" Go with him?"

The little bald head is too young, and has not yet developed a heavy concept of hometown, hometown, relatives, etc. In his opinion, it is a natural logic to follow whoever he likes. Hearing Nanshan asked, he immediately said it without hesitation. Nodding, he answered loudly: "Yes."

Ever since Nanshan asked that sentence, Luge's expression on the snake's head was no longer so ugly.

Nan Shan didn't look at him, he lifted the little bald man's chin, and asked, "Why do you want to go with him? Don't you want us?"

The little bald man counted for him with his fingers: "Because Dawang Dawang gives you candy, and I like him if you give him candy. Whoever I like the most is the prettiest, and Dawang Dawang is the prettiest. My grandma said, When I grow up, I want to marry the most beautiful person as my daughter-in-law!"

Nanshan smiled slightly, and did not make an "adult-like" evaluation of this naive "impeccable" reasoning.

But as he spoke, the little bald man frowned, he put his hand into his mouth involuntarily, and subconsciously bit his hand: "But if I go away with the king, I won't be able to see my father and my mother." I can't see the patriarch anymore."

Nanshan: "Yes, what should you do?"

The little bald head frowned and struggled for a long time. Finally, his young mind realized that it was difficult to get the best of both worlds. After thinking about it, the little boy forgot that this was just a hypothesis, and took it seriously. Pants.

But even if he bit a hole in Nanshan's pants, it still didn't help. The little bald man couldn't help feeling sad, and cried with a "wow".

The little bald-headed mother stepped forward quickly, and performed a solemn and ancient courtesy to Nanshan, and brought him back before the dead child sloppyly wiped his snot and tears on the patriarch's pants.

Ruge asked coldly: "Nanshan, what do you mean?"

Nan Shan turned around and faced him: "This year's 'door' seems to have opened early."

Ruger gritted his teeth and said, "Don't change the subject - just bring an outsider into the clan, do you have anything to explain?"

Nanshan calmly put the patriarch's scepter aside, and the fist-sized emerald inlaid on the top was washed with water, revealing a radiant luster.

"One day our place will fall completely. I hope that the clansmen will not be desperate. After crossing the river, they can speak the language of the people on the other side of the river, and they can make a living by selling things or doing things for others." Nanshan said, "So I asked someone to come Teach us to speak, what's wrong with that?"

"Fart," Luge interrupted him viciously, "I have never seen a patriarch as weak as you, a mountain guard of dozens of generations!"

"Liyi Clan" means "mountain guards", living with them are the "gatekeepers" like Ruge, who have followed the same way of life for generations, guarding the same piece of land and secrets.

Nanshan is not in a hurry or angry: "The guardians of the early decades did not face the problem of 'falling'."

Luge growled in a low voice: "Then you mountain guards should die with this place! Are you afraid of death? Cowards!"

Nanshan fell silent.

He looked around at his clansman—the little bald head was still eating his hands, Hua Guduo had the same pair of beautiful big eyes as her mother...they had children who didn't understand anything, there were girls who didn't have time to marry, and they were still there when they were patrolling. There are young men who can recite Chinese words, and old people who just want to spend their old age in peace.

They are different from the so-called "gatekeepers" in front of them.

Gatekeepers, although closely related to Mountain Keepers, are vastly different from each other.

The gatekeepers are created by the "door". They are born without father and mother, and they have never experienced an ignorant childhood. When they open their eyes in the world, they will look like this when they grow up. If he dies, his fellow clansmen will send him to die according to the rules.

The lives of the "gatekeepers" are not real at all. At the end, they are like a pair of moth-eaten trousers or a rotten corn stalk.

What can I say to them?

No need, it doesn't make sense.

Nan Shan's face paled, and he said not very politely: "It's up to our mountain guards to live and die, so it's not your turn to talk."

Luge's fingers dug into the scales of the giant python. The giant python shuddered suddenly in pain. It lifted its upper body halfway, and then barely suppressed it, carrying Luge, daring not to move.

The atmosphere between the two of them suddenly became tense, and the people on both sides stood in the dark, not even the raptors and giant pythons dared to make a sound.

After an unknown amount of time, a howl suddenly came from behind Nanshan, breaking the suffocating confrontation—it was a little guy who was born last year and was frightened.

Nanshan's gaze finally moved, he narrowed his gaze, and sighed lowly: "Come down, we only get together three days a year, let's not waste it in quarreling."

Ruge paused, loosened his fingers pinching the snake, and after a while, he nodded hastily, and he came down the steps, saying: "This year's 'gate' opened half a month earlier than in previous years, You'd better be mentally prepared, we observed recently, 'there' may change, it's just a year or two."

Nanshan nodded lightly: "Thank you."

After he finished speaking, he turned around and waved. Chunchun held a wine jar with both hands, and her little daughter Huaguduo put a plate of handmade pastries on her head, and walked in front of Luge.

Luge looked slightly relaxed, and patted the big snake's head, and the giant python fell down very docilely.

Luge first broke off half of the pastry from Huaguduo's plate, and took a sip of it like a courtesy, then stretched out his cold hand and pressed on the little girl's forehead, another "gatekeeper" came up behind him , took the plate in Huaguduo's hand.

Ruge took the wine jar from Chunchun's hand again, took a sip from the jar, and passed it to the person behind him as well. He lowered his eyebrows softly, and greeted politely: "Sister Chun."

Chunchun smiled at him, and like every adult, there seemed to be hidden worries in her smile.

Every year at the end of autumn and winter, the two clans of gatekeepers and mountainkeepers would meet for a few days. It stands to reason that Liyi—the mountainkeepers would take care of them.

The singing and dancing started in a depressing atmosphere, and then gradually eased, and people quickly found the familiar intimacy.

Nanshan walked up to Lu Ge with two jars of wine and handed him one.He looked at the sun that had already set in the west, and said in a low voice: "Don't worry, even if I wanted him to stay, he refused me. I will send him away before winter comes."

Ruge glanced at him, silently held up the wine jar, and touched the wine jar in Nanshan. The two took a sip of wine each. Although neither of them spoke, it was considered a reconciliation.

It was already dark, and a few youngsters who had drunk secretly were sleeping in disorder in the open space, and the voices of the people still did not stop.