only in this mountain

"Your recent paintings are very childlike. Are you planning to contribute to children's illustrations?"

At the end of August, it finally rained. Zhang Yunde carried a pannier on his back and led his sister, Jiang He, into the mountains to collect fungi.It's already autumn, and the mountain is still cool, but I still sweat a lot after walking all the way.

"No, it's all just for fun." Jiang He gasped for breath, just like the second idiot who insisted on following him, causing Zhang Yunmei to keep laughing secretly.Being laughed at by a little girl, he felt very embarrassed, and blushed while wiping sweat with his hands in front of his face.

What Zhang Yunde said was actually not wrong, he did have that plan.I would like to thank those two monsters. If it weren't for the fact that he had resentment towards them, Jiang He would not have imagined that they would be bullied by two idiots in the painting.Thinking of the disheveled appearance of the two of them, I couldn't help but feel amused.

"I see that you have already drawn a series. The protagonists are all fools. It's quite fun, but too few people have seen it. I will promote it to you later."

Jiang He is a bit timid. He has always known that he only dares to post pictures on Weibo, and his Weibo followers have only been in double digits for several years.Having said all this, Jiang He just smiled and didn't have much strength to respond to him.

Zhang Yunde sighed and said again: "Seeing that you don't exercise all the time, you feel like you've gained weight, and it's not good to stay at home. You should go out for a walk, look at the scenery, and find more inspiration."

The mountains here are higher than those in the plains, and each mountain is like a lonely island, surrounded by clouds and mist after it rains, it looks illusory from a distance, but it feels a bit like a fairyland in Penglai.There is a lush green area nearby, and the singing of birds and insects complement each other. Once you plunge into it, you can't remember the way you came.

The second idiot was having fun on the grass, his dog fur was wet, he scolded him a few words, and then he got into the bushes and picked up two fungi.

A group of people picked up all morning and returned with a full load.Jiang He doesn't like to eat fungi very much, but he also left a small pile of yellow filamentous fungus. Before Zhang Yunde left, he was hesitant to speak a few times. Finally, Zhang Yunmei went home first, so he said to Jiang He embarrassedly: "Jiang He, September I may not be able to accompany you often when school starts on the [-]st. The matter has been decided long ago. My girlfriend is in the city No. [-] middle school. She said that she will buy a house in the city when she gets married. You have also seen the situation in our village. I It’s not bad if you don’t pay for teaching here, but if you go to a private school in the city, at least the salary is high.”

The more Jiang He listened, the more his heart sank, and the expression on his face suddenly collapsed: "What do you mean, why didn't you tell me earlier? September is only a few days away, why are you telling me now?" And he When I made a girlfriend as a friend, I didn't know it at all, it was so sad.

"It's not far away, and I will come back often, and I won't get married in five years, I still live in the village."

Looking at the house he tidied up in front of him, every item came in accordance with the standard of long-term living, both to ensure comfort and beauty, and to pile up various corners in an orderly manner, which was inexplicably annoying at this time, he The retreat that had been suppressed with so much difficulty sounded in my heart again, but even more, I was still sad.Betrayed and abandoned by his best friend, the double whammy has made him temporarily lose interest in anything.

Zhang Yunde felt even more apologetic when he didn't speak, and said, "Don't be silent, speak up if you have any opinions."

Jiang He calmed down and felt that there was nothing wrong with him, after all, people have to go to high places.

"I have nothing to say, anyway, I don't plan to live here for a long time." But the resentment still filled the mouth.

Zhang Yunde sighed and said, "You stay here for the time being, and you can live with me when I stabilize in the city."

Hearing what he said, a deep sense of frustration welled up spontaneously, as if he had always been complaining and demanding from those around him.Feeling suddenly depressed, Zhang Yunde took him to the mountains every day for the next few days to make him more familiar with the surrounding environment.

As the sky gradually cleared up, the atmosphere of autumn began to diffuse in the air. The green and yellow intertwined between the undulating mountains, and the cottages in the distance were like building blocks on a blanket, patchwork.

After Zhang Yunde went to the city, Jiang He's work and rest began to be irregular like when he was in S City. He went to bed late and woke up late, and his three meals were reduced to two or one meal.A classmate helped him find something to do on the Internet. After the job was completed, he got the first draft fee after he resigned. This gave him great encouragement. The two fools went to the mountains to sketch.He posted the sketched pictures on the illustration website and personal Weibo, and received sporadic likes and a message asking him where this place is.

When I was complacent, there was a sudden situation again.

Because that hypocritical weasel really gave all those chickens to Jiang He, and Jiang He turned upside down day and night every day and couldn't even take care of himself, so of course there would be times when he was negligent in taking care of the chickens.One day when I was feeding the chickens at noon, I suddenly found a chicken that was sick. The next day, I saw the little chicken lying in the middle of the yard.

The second idiot kept chasing it with his mouth, and kept saying, "Get up, don't pretend to be dead, I didn't touch you at all."

Jiang He thought about 3000 yuan for a chicken, so he ran to Zhang Huai again without hesitation.Unexpectedly, Zhang Huai couldn't find anyone for several days because something happened in the final stage of road construction in the village. When he finished his work, he went to Jianghe's yard to see that there were not many chickens left in Jianghe.

"They're all dead. I don't know what happened. At first, there was only one chicken, and then three or four chickens died every day. One chicken costs 3000 yuan. I can't afford to pay all my family's money..." These days he I was really scared, and I prayed over and over again that the chickens would not die again, but two of them died before Zhang Huai came. He was not afraid that the weasel would really come to him to lose money, but he just watched the fresh life die. Died in front of my eyes, I couldn't help feeling sad in my heart.

In fact, Zhang Huai is not having a good time these days.Jiang He lived alone on the edge of the village as an outsider, and he didn't know many things that happened in the village.

Most of the villagers in Nanxing Village do not like to travel far. The traditions and experience accumulated by their ancestors in the village are enough for the villagers to be self-sufficient. However, since the planning of the new countryside began, many villages are actively looking for ways to get rid of poverty and become rich. Zhang Huai suggested that The road going out of the village will be rebuilt to intersect with the new township road, where the traffic flow will be denser in the future and travel will be more convenient.A series of procedures went down, and the road construction project also started step by step with the support of the whole village. It was almost finished, but there was an accident that no one expected.

A man from a neighboring village rode a motorcycle back from a relative’s house in the middle of the night. Because he drank a lot of alcohol, when he passed the intersection of Nanxing Village, he thought it was his village’s road and turned, but he bumped into a cement mixer. He was found dead on the side of the road early the next morning.As the saying goes, the King of Hades told you to die in the third watch, everyone can’t avoid their own doom, the man was still alive when he hit the mixer, but there was no one on the road at night, and his family just thought he was spending the night at a relative’s house, He just fell on the side of the road and bled all night, and finally died of excessive blood loss.

Road construction is a merit, but after the death of a person, it is greatly discounted. Zhang Huai was first burned by the family's demand for compensation, and then he was questioned by the village committee of the village. This morning, the villagers who built the road ran away Come and tell him that some agitated villagers stopped them from continuing to build the road, saying that the road with dead people is unlucky.In the end, Zhang Yunyuan went to call those villagers back in person. Those villagers were aggrieved and kept saying that there would be accidents sooner or later.

Jiang He spoke a bit fast, but his voice was clear and clear, and he still looked like a child. Although he was complaining to him, the faint panic tone made his heart soften for no reason.Zhang Huai looked at the chickens tightly huddled together in the bamboo basket, and had a bad feeling. After he grabbed a chicken and looked at it carefully, he couldn't help sighing. He couldn't bear to tell Jiang He any more bad news.

"What's the matter, what's the matter? What's wrong with the little chicken?" Jiang He squatted beside him and put his hands on the bamboo basket, nervously.

"What do you mean 3000 yuan for a chicken?" Without answering him directly, Zhang Huai grabbed another chicken that looked a little healthier.

"It's just that this is not an ordinary chick, but a golden pheasant."

Zhang Huai sighed heavily again, and asked, "Do you know what the flame-winged pheasant is?"

Seeing his solemn expression, Jiang He asked nervously, "Isn't it the golden pheasant? Wild ones are second-class protected animals in the country. There is no rule that they cannot be domesticated." He fed them traditional Chinese medicine, so the chicks fell ill and died one after another, but he didn't know what Chinese medicine to feed them.

"Do you know what a golden pheasant looks like?"

"I know, it's colorful and beautiful."

"Then what color is your chick?"

"Yellow, what's wrong?"

"This is an ordinary native chicken. It will only turn a khaki color when it grows up, and it won't be colorful. You can buy a small chicken for one or two yuan."

"Ah?" The hanging heart suddenly fell, and he still couldn't accept it, "You mean I was cheated?" Seeing Zhang Huai nodding, he couldn't help but said again: "Then why were you so rude just now?" Serious, I thought..." The rest of the words were spoken in a low voice, but Zhang Huai still heard them.

Zhang Huai said: "Although it is not a rare breed, it is still life. After the white dew, the weather turns cold and the temperature difference between morning and evening is large. Your chickens have been free-range and spend the night in the yard at night, right?"

Jiang He had already thought of a possibility, and blurted out, "Could it be bird flu?"

Zhang Huai shook his head: "No, it's just common wind and cold, but these chickens are too weak, and the delay is too long, so it is unlikely to be rescued."

The two idiots on one side seemed to have sensed something from the master's sudden silence. They put their front paws on the basket and looked at the little chicken inside pitifully.

After a while, Jiang He said, "Let's take care of it first."

Sometimes it was like this, obviously seeing no hope, but wishful thinking that as long as he worked hard, he could move the heavens. Jiang He took good care of him for a week, but the miracle did not happen, and the chickens died one after another, not even one survived.

There was Jiang He's sketchbook on the chair, and the open side happened to be the second idiot sticking out his tongue stupidly surrounded by a group of chicks. Before he finished drawing, Jiang He went to the room and didn't come out for a long time.Jiang He is actually a bit narcissistic. All the paintings on the walls of his house are painted by himself. Among them, he likes animals and plants more, so the whole house is decorated very elegantly.Zhang Huai looked around the room, then turned his gaze back to Jiang He's sketchbook, and picked it up out of curiosity.

Most of the paintings in the notebook are trivial daily life, but after turning a few pages, a young man holding a small animal appeared, and there were more than one picture, most of them were imagined by Jiang He himself. The man's eyebrows and eyes are graceful, and the corner of his mouth is smiling. In one picture, the man's sleeves are rolled up to the elbow, and his slender fingers are slightly opened to caress the top of the second fool's head.

Zhang Huai put the sketchbook back in place calmly, just in time to hear Jiang He's footsteps coming back.

"I can't find the cash, can I transfer it to you?"

After all the chickens died, Zhang Huai asked Jiang He if he would still raise chickens, and Jiang He said so without thinking.Although the monster in the yellow shirt didn't tell the truth, it is an indisputable fact that the chicken was raised to death by him, so let him pay him the same chicken.Zhang Huai asked the villagers to help him bring back [-] little chickens. He paid for the money first, and Jiang He went to the room just now to give him some change.There was no cash machine in the village, and the cash Jiang He had withdrawn was almost used up. Before going out in S City, he only needed to bring a mobile phone, but now it is difficult to move without cash.

Regarding the matter of tens of dollars, Zhang Huai waved his hand and said, "No need." Without waiting for Jiang He to say anything, he turned and left.

When returning home to wash vegetables and cook, Zhang Huai stared at his hands for a while.At first glance, his hands are hands that often do rough work. They are rough, slender, and have obvious blue veins. Although they look clean now, he often finds dirt in his nails after returning home from the outside.With a long sigh, he raised the corners of his mouth in a self-deprecating manner, and smiled bitterly.