Solstice Secrets

"I said I remember your smell." The fat bird hopped over and explained patiently: "Everyone in your race has a very strange smell. Well, it's like a mountain lily. When I smell it You can smell it."

"It's not this sentence." Ling Dongzhi's mind was buzzing, "It's the first sentence. I'm a child who was thrown out... What does it mean?"

Fat Bird shook his head quickly, "It wasn't thrown out. It was thrown by the people of your clan at the gate of this yard. Let me think about it, it was midnight at that time, and the sky was still dark. It was snowing all over the sky, and my nest was..."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Ling Dongzhi felt that his thinking was completely confused, "I have never been thrown out, okay, I am the youngest child in the family, my parents don't know how much they love me. "Ling's father and Ling's mother are the type who especially spoil children, how could they throw him out?If it must be thrown, it must be Ling Lidong.

Fat Bird didn't seem to understand what he was arguing about. He tilted his head and thought for a while, then said, "I just threw it at the door. Later, someone came out of this yard and picked you up."

Midwinter Solstice, "..."

Seeing that he was silent, Fat Bird thought he was persuaded by himself, and jumped on the wooden frame twice, and his tone became lighter, "That man came out to hide the child. He almost stepped on you when he opened the courtyard door. You startled him by crying and he picked you up."

Ling Dongzhi felt his mouth was parched, and his whole body seemed unable to exert any strength, but the buzzing in his head prevented him from thinking about anything.There seemed to be something pressing on his body, big cold sweat oozes from his forehead, but there is a deep sense of fear in his heart like a catastrophe is imminent.

"What... hiding the child for what?" Ling Dongzhi heard his voice become hoarse, "Where to hide?"

The fat bird turned its neck to look around, flapped its wings uncertainly and pointed to the woods outside the yard, "It's over there. He hid a little child in that woods."

Ling Dongzhi felt a chill all over his body, and goosebumps rushed out from his skin.

Who would hide a little child in the woods on a snowy night in winter?Unless that child has been...

Ling Dongzhi clasped his hands tightly on the window edge, the cold sweat on his forehead slid down his cheeks, and dripped onto the back of his hands with a thud.He instinctively wanted to refute the silly bird's words, but his throat seemed to be swollen, oppressing his breathing, making him unable to even utter a word.

On this warm and beautiful night, when he began to look forward to his love, this fat, long-haired man was like an evil messenger who fell from the sky, using a terrible news that he had never expected to send the truth to him. Past hits are beyond recognition.

Ling Dongzhi never thought that there would be such a possibility, that he was not the biological child of Ling's father and Ling's mother.

How is this possible? !

Fat Bird said, "It just started to snow at that time, and it was not too cold in the mountains. Otherwise, you would have been frozen to death. The two people in your clan asked quietly as they walked, or should I tell them that someone in this family wants Having a baby..."

Ling Dongzhi felt a sudden pain in a nerve in the numbness, and his whole body shivered, "What did you say?!"

"Aren't all the people of your clan the same as you?" The fat bird jumped on the wooden frame twice, as if it suddenly remembered something, "Do you not believe my words? Just wait."

Ling Dongzhi watched it flap its wings and fly over the courtyard wall, its obese body cast a strange black shadow in the courtyard.

Silence returned to the yard.However, there was a taste of unreality in this quietness.

Ling Dongzhi felt as if he had just had a nightmare, and his body was hot and cold. He wanted to run out and drive away, but he also wanted to stop here to see what else the fat bird that was playing tricks could do. .

I don't know how long it has passed, there are soft rustling sounds from the corner of the yard, and a group of gray-black shadows quickly ran towards this side.Like a rabbit, but much rounder than a rabbit.The fat bird crossed the courtyard wall, slid across the sky in a leisurely manner, and stopped on the wooden frame just now.

"This is a rice ball," Fat Bird said, "It has lived here for a long time, you can testify to me."

The rice ball carefully stopped under the wooden frame.The light poured out of the window, illuminating its gray-black fur, which was glossy and smooth.It looked like a flying squirrel, but much larger.Ling Dongzhi didn't know which category to put it in.

Mi Tuanyuan's eyes reflected an amber-like luster under the light, so bright and piercing.Two short, fat paws hung down on the belly, and scratched each other as if embarrassed, "Well...cough, when the people of your clan put you at the door of this house, I was watching from the side. Two men, one younger and one older."

Ling Dongzhi looked at it numbly.

The little thing thought he didn't believe what he said, so he raised his voice slightly, "When the people in the room carried you in, those two people hadn't left yet, and they were hiding behind the earthen wall over there. It's almost dawn I just went back to the mountains."

Ling Dongzhi asked it dully, "Back...where?"

"In the mountains." Mi Tuan said in an old-fashioned tone: "They have lived in the mountains for generations. As for why they put you here, I don't know. But their clothes are all torn, and they still carry Hurt. The older one had a broken arm and was just dragging around like that."

Ling Dongzhi felt a shiver creep up his back.

Mi Tuan looked at him, as if to judge whether he believed his words.Then it took a step back, revealing a round, quail egg-sized thing pressed under its belly, "This is what the man with the broken arm left on you. But the man who came out of the yard put You fell out of your bag when you picked it up, and he didn't notice it. The two men didn't see it either. Now, you know, it was snowing heavily, and it was dark everywhere..." Said Then, it used two paws to pull the round thing towards the direction of the midwinter solstice, "That's it, it seems to be something from your clan."

Ling Dongzhi hesitated for a moment, opened the door and walked over.The fat bird flicked its wings and moved aside hesitantly.Mi Tuan also took two steps back very cautiously, leaving the round thing alone on the steps.

My aunt coughed from the next room, "Is it the winter solstice? Haven't you slept yet?"

Ling Dongzhi hurriedly said: "Auntie, you go to sleep first, I will go to the toilet and I will fall asleep immediately."

My aunt ordered a few words, and went to sleep by myself.

Ling Dongzhi walked over to pick up the round thing, and when he took it in his hand, he found that it was a black and protruding stone. It was impossible to tell what kind of material it was, like a kind of ore he had never seen before.It's black and chubby, and the light shines on it, revealing a few traces of dark green luster.There are holes in the stone, and the traces of polishing are very rough, like something made by hand.

"What is this?" Ling Dongzhi lowered his voice and asked the big mouse.

Mi Tuan shook his head.

"Anyway, it's something from your clan." Fat Bird said: "Didn't you smell it? It also smells from your clan. It's faint, like a mountain lily."

Ling Dongzhi didn't smell the stone, just like he never noticed the smell on his body.But holding this thing in his palm had a strange feeling, smooth and warm, which calmed his chaotic thoughts little by little.

"The clan you mentioned," Ling Dongzhi looked at them hesitantly, "are there many of them?"

The birds and beasts shook their heads together.

"Don't know or not much?"

Still the same answer, "I don't know."

Ling Dongzhi's heart sank slightly.The feelings in his heart were so complicated that he couldn't distinguish them, but in this mess, there was clearly a desire to explore those who abandoned him.They deliberately put him at the door of a pregnant woman's house. They hid in the dark and watched him being carried into the house before leaving. They didn't want to abandon him, but they had to entrust him to hand him out.What happened where they lived?

"They live in the mountains? Don't leave often?"

Mi Tuan rushed to answer, "Seldom come out. Even here, they rarely come. If they are encountered in the mountains, they will hide to prevent others from discovering them."

"why?"

The birds and beasts shook their heads again.

Ling Dongzhi was a little discouraged, he didn't know anything, how could he believe what they said?

Ling Dongzhi's thoughts went back to the night when he was born... oh, he was discarded.He seemed to see his father walking out of the delivery room with a child who died prematurely, trying to bury him secretly before his sleeping wife woke up.Then he saw another baby lying at the gate of the courtyard...

Ling Dongzhi couldn't imagine how Papa Ling would feel at that time.

As for Mama Ling, he can be sure that she didn't know about this little episode, otherwise she would never happily encourage herself to go up the mountain to visit her relatives.

Ling Dongzhi was a little sad.

Parents are very good to him, always good.

He remembered what Ling's father said the day he came out, he said that he would take care of Ling Lidong, but not him... Ling Dongzhi always thought it was because he was the youngest son in the family, and he didn't have to bear the responsibility of being the leader of the family.Now that I think about it, there is actually another meaning in his words: he feels that he is not qualified to restrict his life-long affairs.

Because they are not related by blood at all.

Ling Dongzhi shed tears.He frantically raised his sleeve and wiped it, but more tears poured out continuously, slid across his cheeks, dripped down his chin and fell on the skirt of his clothes.He didn't know how long he cried until his aunt coughed again in the next room, and then he returned to his room like a wandering ghost.

The oval-shaped stone looks much brighter after being washed, with deep and light green, the thick part is close to black, and the light part is bright emerald green, and the fuzzy lines are like a group of slowly rolling clouds.

This is what his clan left him.

There is only one stone.Other than that, no clues.

The window was still open, but there was nothing outside, and the quicksilver moonlight filled the courtyard.

It was as if he had had an absurd dream in this dreamlike moonlight.

Ling Dongzhi fell ill.

At dawn, his little cousin came over to wake him up, only to find him huddled under the quilt, his face flushed with fever.The windows were closed in the middle of the night, but the room was not warm.The cousin blamed all this on the fact that this room has not been lived in for a long time, the humidity is too high, and there seems to be a problem with the flue.

This made him feel very guilty.

My aunt said it was because the place was just changed, so the climate was not acclimatized.She said that she couldn't sleep in the middle of the night when she heard the winter solstice, and ran out to the bathroom, probably because she didn't dress properly and was freezing.It's windy and cold in the mountains, how can it compare with their cities.

The village doctor came to see him and left a packet of herbs.My aunt set up a small medicine stove under the window of Lingdong Solstice, and the bitter smell of medicine wafted all over the yard.

People who don't get sick easily are always particularly tragic when they fall.Ling Dongzhi burned intermittently for three or four days before finally recovering, but his aunt wouldn't let him get out of bed.She said that sick people should lie down and recuperate.He also directed the little cousin to kill two hens in the yard to make soup for him.

Ling Dongzhi nestled softly in the quilt and asked his aunt to help him wipe his hands. They hadn't met for a long time, but he didn't feel the slightest bit awkward being taken care of by the old man.

This is his relative.Ling Dongzhi thought bitterly, although there was no blood relationship between them.

"Auntie, I had a dream." Ling Dongzhi murmured, "I dreamed that there was a fat bird on the big tree outside, and there was a fat mouse in the yard, and they talked to me."

The aunt and the cousin who just entered the door laughed.

The cousin put down the fruit in his hand and said with a smile: "Winter Solstice probably saw the two outside. I haven't seen them before, are you scared? These two have lived in our village for many years, and the villagers say These are fine things, and no one will provoke them. Anyway, there are many things to eat in the mountains, and they will not harm the food at home."

Ling Dongzhi forced a smile, "Have you really lived for a long time?"

Aunt smiled and tucked the quilt for him, "Don't believe it. It's true. This yard has been repaired for many years, and I don't even remember when it started to make a nest here. The same is true for the old mouse. There are many in the village. Everyone has seen it. I am not afraid of people. Maybe I really became a spirit."

Ling Dongzhi said in his heart: It would be great if what they said was just a legend.