Chapter 43: Returning Home (10)
Little dung beetle Lu Ren looked more serious than ever before, even more serious than any elementary school student who said to the teacher at the end of summer vacation, "I did my homework, but it was stolen."
This caused Shan Gui to be stunned for a moment. She hesitated for a moment and asked tentatively: "Really...really?"
Little Lu Ren looked into the mountain ghost's eyes and nodded solemnly.
Surprisingly, the mountain ghost believed it so easily. She breathed a sigh of relief, patted her chest and said, "Great! I thought there were humans here."
Little Lu Ren shook his head seriously again. He said to Ali seriously, "It's not a human."
The mountain ghost seemed very happy to receive the guarantee. A smile appeared on her face. She generously expressed her love for this little non-human visitor. Then she approached little Lu Ren and asked gently, "Little dung beetle, what's your name? Where are you from?"
Lu Ren thought seriously for a while, then said, "My name is Ah Ren, and I'm from home."
Although little Lu Ren's answer was irrelevant, Shan Gui was amused by it. She even cooperated and said, "Really? That's really hard for you, A'ren. Haha, you can just call me A'li." She covered the lower half of her face with her wide sleeves, and then laughed happily . Her movements were as graceful and beautiful as a maid who had just walked out of an ancient painting.
After hearing this, little Lu Ren nodded in agreement and proudly put his hands on his waist. That's right, it's really hard work.
At this time, Lu Ren caught a glimpse of the stone house and the statue in the house, and his attention was drawn back to the statue. Lu Ren was standing far away before and didn't notice it. Now that he got closer, he found that half of the face of the statue was smashed, and it looked shabby and extremely desolate. At this moment, a lot of mud was piled up on the damaged half of the face. The mud was obviously applied many times, and it can be clearly seen that it has been layered. Some of the mud at the bottom has been completely dried, and there are even signs of cracks; the mud on the upper layer is definitely freshly applied and is still wet. There is even a wet mud dripping down, which leaves a conspicuous mark on the statue, which looks like a tear mark from a distance.
Little Lu Ren didn't understand why the statue had changed into its current appearance, and what the mountain ghost was doing alone in front of this scary statue. He curiously asked the mountain ghost, "Sister Ali, what are you doing?"
Ali bent down, her eyes level with little Lu Ren's. She tapped little Lu Ren's nose and explained to him with a smile: "This, I'm repairing my statue."
Although Ali smiled gently at little Lu Ren, the young Lu Ren could still keenly detect a subtle bitterness in her smile. He tilted his head, not understanding why this sister was smiling even though she was obviously unhappy. He blinked and asked innocently, "Why is your statue broken?"
Ali looked at the statue with only half of its face left, and said with a sad look: "This was done by humans many, many years ago."
After hearing this, little Lu Ren covered his mouth in shock: "How can humans be so bad!" But just after he said this, he remembered that he is also a human being, does that mean that he is also very bad? Thinking of this, little Lu Ren suddenly became a little anxious and almost cried.
Ali saw the unhappy look on little Lu Ren's face, patted his head and said, "Don't feel sad for me, I have always had a good relationship with humans, and this place was built for me by humans.
I still remember that this place was just a wasteland at that time. It took a lot of effort for the villagers living at the foot of the mountain to transport so many big stones up. Each of them sweated a lot, and many of them had big blisters on their soles, but they never took the initiative to say that they were uncomfortable. Every day they only thought about how to build the square. They always said: "Why are you tired of such a short journey? Let's take a look at the stones we found first. They are the flattest, so that the mountain goddess will not hurt her feet when she steps on them, hahaha." They laughed so happily that I felt as warm as seeing the sun in winter. "
Little Lu Ren listened attentively: "What happened next?"
Ali's eyes were looking into the distance, her gaze filled with nostalgia: "Later, they began to carve my face. They specially spent money to find a master with the best craftsmanship in another village, and carved it stroke by stroke according to the appearance of the most beautiful girl in the village. When the craftsman was working, everyone in the village stood by to supervise. Every time the craftsman carved a knife, someone would interject: some said that the eyes were carved too small, and some said that the mouth was carved too big. The craftsman was so angry that he threw the carving knife and said that the people in this village were difficult to serve." She seemed to remember the situation at that time and could not help but smile lightly.
Little Lu Ren also laughed. He couldn't help but want to continue listening and urged Ali to continue.
"Later, the town developed and people gradually flocked there. Gradually, fewer and fewer people knew about this place, and only a few old people in the village were left. Later, they no longer believed in the mountain god, and in order to break the superstition, they smashed my statue, and this place became deserted." Ali's hand stroked the half of the statue's face that was still intact, and there were many things in his eyes that the young Lu Ren could not understand.
Little Lu Ren heard her say sadly: "So I decided not to like humans anymore."
Little Lu Ren was angry about what humans had done, and felt guilty for being a human, so he said, "Sister Ali, I'll help you fix this statue."
"OK."
So little Lu Ren helped Ah Li to paste the statue with mud for an entire afternoon, but the mud fell off when it dried, and there was no way to fill the gap in the statue permanently. The sun was about to set, but the statue was still the same as before. This made Lu Ren almost cry: "There is no way to repair the statue like this."
Ali smiled, as if she was laughing at him for being a fool. She said, "I know. But if I repair the statue, I will start to hate humans..."
When he was a child, Lu Ren didn’t understand what Ali had experienced or what she was carrying, but from her words, little Lu Ren could hear that Ali must love humans very much in her heart.
That night, the villagers did not find little Lu Ren who was lost in the mountains, and the sounds of several naughty children being beaten and crying rang out in the village all night long.
The night was as cool as water. Ali took little Lu Ren to sit at the entrance of a small, dilapidated mountain temple and told him various stories about the mountain: "See that small mound over there? There lived a weasel there hundreds of years ago. The weasel clan has a saying that when a weasel reaches a certain age in cultivation, it must ask for a title."
Lu Ren didn't understand what Ali meant by asking for a title, so he could only repeat Ali's words in a vague tone: "Dig... feces?"
This made the mountain ghost burst out laughing: "You are really a little dung beetle! To ask for a title, just find someone and ask him: 'Do you think I look like a human?' If the person says yes, then the weasel can become a human; if the person says no, then it is still a weasel. But the weasel on the opposite hill was a little stupid, and found a drunk person to ask. As soon as it asked 'Do you think I look like a human?' the drunk said, 'I think you look like a fool with missing arms and legs.' As a result, although it became a human, it became disabled, it might as well be a four-legged animal. There is also a pheasant living at the foot of the mountain..."
The night gradually deepened. The night in the mountains was always particularly dark, and there were often strange noises from birds and animals in the bushes, which made little Lu Ren a little scared and he couldn't help but move closer to Ali. Ali seemed to have sensed his fear, and she waved her hand in the air, and then little Lu Ren saw countless fireflies coming out of the bushes in all directions.
These fireflies gathered in the square , dancing quietly, illuminating the blue bricks in the cool night, the weeds growing on the blue bricks, the dense treetops, a nest of birds sleeping in the treetops, and a smiling man and a demon in the small mountain temple.
…
The next day Lu Ren was awakened by his mother's crying.
The rescue team found him sleeping in a mountain temple. When he opened his eyes, he saw his nervous father and his tearful mother. Without saying a word, Lu Ren's mother hugged him tightly and said some emotional words. But Lu Ren didn't listen at all at that time. His mother hugged him too tightly, and blood could no longer be transported to his brain. He was probably just a little bit away from dying on the spot.
Only when his mother finally let him go did he begin to look for Ali's whereabouts anxiously.
Ali is missing.
The adults thought he was so frightened at night and was so confused, so they urged him to go down the mountain quickly. Little Lu Ren stopped searching like a headless fly in disappointment, and was escorted away. Before going down the mountain, he secretly looked back and saw a few strands of white hair hanging from a branch of the camphor tree. So little Lu Ren knew that Ali had taken the initiative to hide.
Is it because Ali discovered that he was not a dung beetle but a human being that he hated him?
"No one will like a liar kid." Little Lu Ren thought disappointedly.
Until the day he returned to the city, Lu Ren never saw A Li again. Later, Lu Ren's parents had an accident, and he hadn't been to the village for so many years. He regarded this memory as a childhood dream and buried it deep in the dust.
At this moment, he looked at the mountain temple , and his memory finally came back.
He looked at Qi Yu, who had white hair and blue eyes, and called out the long-lost name: "A Li."
Ali smiled at Qi Yu's face, still the same as Lu Ren remembered, gentle and friendly. It was as if she had never discovered that her little dung beetle had deceived her.
But Lu Ren couldn't pretend that he hadn't remembered it, so he said the words he had owed for many years: "I'm sorry, I lied to you, I'm actually a human being."
Ali smiled and shook her head. Because Qi Yu was a head shorter than Lu Ren, she stood on tiptoe and finally touched Lu Ren's head. She touched Lu Ren's hair like Lu Ren did when he was a child and said gently, "You've grown taller."
The afternoon sun shines into her clear eyes, leaving behind a blue that is solidified by the passage of time.
