The Taste of Ghosts in the World

"Don't move... don't move..."

The long dark lens protruded quietly from between the leaves, and slowly approached a little squirrel on the branch. Qi Zongmao squatted under the tree, with the corners of his mouth tightly pursed, and a thin layer of sweat had already appeared on his forehead. I kept praying in my heart that this little ancestor could stay quietly for at least ten seconds, while carefully moving the heavy camera forward inch by inch.

It's a pity that when the camera was only ten centimeters away from it, the squirrel tilted its head as if suddenly aware of something, and fled quickly after looking at the camera with its two small eyes.

Qi Zong patted his thigh annoyedly, stood up wiping his face, touched the cigarette, and then exhaled a thin smoke ring.

The situation just now is a common occurrence in his many years of photography career. It is not easy to get something, and he has long been used to it.

Outdoor photographers are not as popular as photojournalism. No one would have thought that they would spend ten days and a half months squatting in the deep mountains and old forests just to take pictures of boring scenery and wild animals that did not obey orders. Since that day, he has accepted this thankless job without hesitation, just because nature can make him feel at peace, and he can't say anything about other reasons.

After sweeping the surrounding woods, he planned to finish his cigarette before going to the east, maybe he could still find a bear, but he just hoped that it would have had enough to eat by then.

Thinking of this, he grinned amusedly, held the remaining cigarette butt between his fingers, and walked deep into the woods with that precious camera in his hand.

As I was walking, the branches above my head suddenly rattled and rattled.

Qi Zong instinctively raised his head to look, his eyes went dark, and he felt pain in his brow bone.

Relieved, he rubbed his face to look at the stray bullet that hit him just now, only to find that it was a bird that fell from a high altitude. At this time, the little gray thing was lying on the ground with its buttocks in the sky, its wings resting on a An awkward posture lay on its side, and a few broken feathers fell beside it.

Qi Zong knelt down and touched its soft back hair. The fluff under the wings was still warm when his fingertips touched it. He raised his little head, his bird eyes were half-closed, he should not be dead.He quickly put the cigarette butt into his mouth, freed his hands to check its injuries—the right wing seemed to be broken, and the feathers on the wings were sparse, as if it had just been in a fight.

Taking out a few tissue papers to carefully support its soft little body, Qi Zong put the bird in his breast pocket, turned around and walked down the mountain, muttering softly, "It's a good thing you met me."

After returning home from the veterinary hospital, the little bird's wings were wrapped in bandages, and it was lying on the big bed that Qi Zong specially built for it with a pair of black and round eyes open—in fact, it was a shoebox covered with rags.

The injuries on his body made him unable to stand up, and he could only raise his head to look at the strange human being in front of him. Qi Zong seemed not to see the vigilance and vigilance in its eyes, and rubbed his fingers on its stomach affectionately, He smiled and said, "Look at your dark appearance, are you the crow's baby bird?"

It seemed to stare at Qi Zong, then turned his head away, obviously unhappy.

But this self-righteous human being still nodded with a smile and said: "In this case, I will call you 'Crow' from now on."

"Chirp!" The bird in the shoebox let out a dissatisfied cry.

"So happy~" Qi Zong poked its stomach, very happy for the name he chose.

So the bird lived in Qi Zong's house.

Every morning, after breakfast, Qi Zong always left a small plate of specially bought bird food and a bowl of water next to the shoe box before going out.When he came back the crow would chirp and hoot in the box to welcome him, and he could play with it happily for a while, throwing another handful of corn on the little plate it had eaten clean.

Of course Qi Zong really hoped this, but in fact there was no such thing——

Every day he added food and water and went out confidently. When he came back, he would only see a plate of untouched bird food and a dead bird lying in a box.

Qi Zong went to poke the crow's belly, and the dead bird rolled its eyes to look at him, then turned its head and continued to sleep on it, as if it would never be hungry.

On the contrary, the food left in the kitchen for dinner always feels wrong, as if... a little less?

Is there a snail girl at home?No, the snail girl is helping people with housework, how can there be a snail girl who can steal food?And he has never picked up snails to go home. When it comes to picking up things, Qi Zong's eyes fell on the shoebox——

I picked up a bird...

Thinking of this, Qi Zong gave a meaningful smile, the crow pretending to be asleep secretly opened his eyes a little, just in time to meet this smile, the three hairs on the top of his head couldn't help shaking.

On this day, Qi Zong went out again.

The room was silent for a long time, when there was a slight noise suddenly, a furry head popped out from the edge of the shoe box, turned left and right, as if observing the situation, and after confirming that there was no one in the room, it made two tweets Crying, jumped out of the box, and jumped crookedly to the edge of the table.

In the next second, the little black bird on the table was gone, and there was a slender silver-haired man on the ground, blinking his beautiful phoenix eyes, and said to himself: "Damn human! How dare you use the worst Treat me with brown rice, just a handful, you want to starve me to death!" He said, limping towards the kitchen regardless of his bandaged right hand.

While eating happily, he didn't notice the "click" sound from the door. Qi Zong was originally coming back to get his cell phone, but when he pushed the door, he suddenly thought of something, so he slowed down and walked in lightly.He passed the empty shoebox on the table, and walked towards the kitchen where suspicious movements came from. He hid outside the door and witnessed the process of the strange-looking person inside picking up a cucumber slice with his left hand and throwing it into his mouth.

Qi Zong's eyes fell on the bandage wrapped around the man's arm, as if he understood something, he frowned and hesitated outside the kitchen for a while, and finally returned back the same way quietly as if he hadn't seen anything, and then calmly Close the door and leave.

When Qi Zong went out the next day, he didn't cook, nor did he feed or water the crow. When he came home at night, he opened the door and greeted a series of angry birdsong. Jumping up and down on the table with difficulty, chirping and chirping to express dissatisfaction.

Qi Zong couldn't help laughing, stroked its bird's head and said, "Don't worry, I'll get you something to eat right now." After speaking, he went into the kitchen.

After a while, he brought out the food and placed it in front of the crow, "Eat."

The crow excitedly jumped to the edge of the plate, staring at the dishes that looked delicious, but couldn't start eating, raised his head to look at Qi Zong, and the other party smiled: "Why don't you eat?"

After a pause, he said again, "Don't you like these dishes the most?"

The crow finally realized that something was wrong, let out a short bird cry, and jumped back several steps, staring at this elusive human being vigilantly.

Qi Zong didn't seem to notice its vigilance at all, and he handed over the chopsticks naturally, "Here, quickly transform yourself and eat, don't grab it with your hands."

The crow was startled, tilted his head to look at him for a long time, and suddenly a human voice came out of the bird's beak: "Since you have seen through, then I will not be polite!"

Before Qi Zong could react, the little black bird in front of him had disappeared, but there was a long-haired man beside the table, and he threw himself on the table to eat.

Qi Zong couldn't help laughing, seeing the disheveled and gray silver hair swaying in front of his eyes, he couldn't help reaching out to touch it, and the crow that was sinking its head into hard work immediately jumped up as if its tail had been stepped on, turned around and glared.

"Human! Who allows your dirty paws to touch my noble feathers!"

"Careless, not careful." Qi Zong explained cheekily, seeing that he still had a look of disbelief, and said, "Your feathers are so dirty, who would want to touch them?"

"You still slander my feathers! How dirty are such beautiful feathers!" The crow raised his eyebrows and reprimanded, but he glanced at the ends of his forked hair from the corner of his eyes. The little black snake is ignorant, and I am not in such a mess..."

Qi Zong saw it in his eyes, smiled in his heart, and still comforted him: "Your feathers are not dirty at all, they are very beautiful!" Then he put the chopsticks into his hands, "Hurry up, the food is getting cold .”

"Who wants to use this thing!" Crow threw out the chopsticks in disgust, and picked up a piece of bamboo shoots, "You humans are just boring, and you still want to use two sticks to eat. The creatures of the Three Realms are the most troublesome for you."

Qi Zong didn't quite understand what Ya said, but he didn't ask anything, just smiled and watched him finish eating, then swept all the leftovers into his stomach before getting up to wash the dishes.

When he came out of the kitchen, the goblin on the sofa was gone, Qi Zong subconsciously looked at the crow's shoebox, there was none.

Probably after being exposed, he can no longer stay here...

This thought came up suddenly, Qi Zong was a little disappointed, he was about to clear the box on the table, when he heard the sound of flapping wings with difficulty, and a little black bird landed on his shoulder.

"Hey, human! Get me some water!" said the bird.

He froze for a moment, then couldn't help teasing it: "You are so beautiful and not dirty at all, why do you need to take a bath?"

Ya ruthlessly pecked Qi Zong's ear, then raised his haughty little head, "You can fetch water as soon as you are told, why are there so many words!"

"Good good."

Qi Zong laughed, helped it find a small basin filled with clean water, and put it in front of it.

"Is this all right, my lord?"

The crow nodded gracefully, "You can go, and you are not allowed to come over while I am bathing."

"But my house is small and there is no other place to go, why don't I sit on the sofa with my back turned and not look at you?" The crow snorted, which was a tacit consent.

Qi Zong sat down on the sofa in a good mood, and deliberately turned up the volume of the TV to show that he was watching it seriously, but his ears were erected straight up, and he could hear the slight sound of water coming from behind him.

He couldn't help turning his head to the side, quietly watching the goblin's movements.

It stood on the eaves of the basin, and was lowering its head to comb the feathers on its wings. The water droplets slid down the feather tips, forming a pool of small puddles on the table.After removing the dirt and dust, its true fur color is revealed little by little. When it moves, its feather tips shake slightly, with beautiful reflections, soft and smooth.

After a while, it tilted its head and looked at its wings, as if to see where it was not cleaned. At this moment, Qi Zong saw its eyes - the white eye lines extended back from the corners of the eyes, forming a charming curve , as delicate as a beautiful sparrow feather.

It turned out to be a thrush.

Qi Zong thought to himself, its body shape is much larger than that of ordinary thrushes, could it be because it has become fine?Those giant pythons that have lived for a hundred years are amazingly big. I don’t know how long this one has lived...

"Human! You peek!"

A crisp reprimand interrupted Qi Zong's trance. He was taken aback, only to find that the mature thrush was glaring at him. The fierce and arrogant expression is really a bit funny.

So Qi Zong laughed, and was immediately retaliated by the thrush goblin.The thrush the size of a crow flapped its only wing and hopped awkwardly on Qi Zong's shoulder, pecking his ears red with its sharp beak.

"Human! Hurry up and apologize to me!"