At the end of the herbal garden, there is a hill covered with green grass, full of small pale yellow and pink flowers. It is like a colorful tapestry. A tall oak tree stands in the aura of magical elements.
In the middle, under the dense shade of trees, stood an old and thin figure.
"Mrs. Tree!"
Xie Mi waved from afar, and his energetic voice echoed in the green rapids of the wilderness.
"Haha."
Wearing a simple white robe and holding a cane with a white feather on the end, Mrs. Tree greeted the two young visitors with a loving and gentle smile. Her eyes were as if she was still young and watching the newly hatched chicks in her own garden.
The branches are crow-like and peaceful, and the old face is full of ravines left by the years.
She looks no different from the old woman in the city and the countryside. The only thing that can tell people about her alien identity is that the feet exposed at the hem of the white robe are not ordinary feet, but thick and entwined, tightly connected with the ground under her feet.
The closely connected branched tree roots, looking at the direction of extension, seem to be connected to the oak tree behind her.
In other words, this oak tree is her true body.
The two little girls trotted all the way to the foot of the oak tree. They gasped for breath as soon as they stopped. The anxious look made Mrs. Tree couldn't help but smile: "Don't be so anxious, Xie Mi, I won't run away."
”
As she spoke, she tapped the ground lightly with the crutch in her hand, and the thick soil layer suddenly broke open. Several dark brown tree roots were lifted up from the ground and twisted into the shape of a chair. The workmanship was so exquisite that it looked like it was made by a superb craftsman.
The wood carving is done by the hand of a craftsman, and there are a few light-colored small mushrooms growing on the surface.
"Sit down and talk."
She smiled, and there was a convincing sense of intimacy in her words that made the two little girls involuntarily follow her words and sit on the chairs obediently.
Mrs. Tree also sat down. She raised her hand to summon a few white birds, which held the acorns in their mouths. Then she gave the fruits to the little girls. They looked at them holding the acorns and biting them like squirrels, feeling grateful.
She was so cute. She gently stroked Xie Mi's long blue hair, but her eyes fell on Metien's face.
"Won't you introduce it to me, Semi?" She chuckled: "Who is this cute little guest?"
"Ah!"
Xie Mi woke up from her dream and quickly introduced Metien to Mrs. Tree. The little pink-haired girl put down the acorn in her hand and said hello politely.
"Coming from Linville, it must be very far away, right?"
After hearing this, the old man glanced at Metien's cheek with his calm and gentle eyes, as if he was pitying her for the cold wind and rain, the difficult trek and the arduous pursuit that she had experienced during this journey.
"No way!" Metien shook his little head vigorously and described his truest feeling: "The journey is very interesting. You can take the train and see all kinds of beautiful scenery. Then, we came to the Fairy Sleep.
I saw so many incredible things in the hotel, I love this feeling!"
Mrs. Tree nodded slightly.
"Having a longing for the unknown world is a common feeling in all life. Son of a young man, I see longing and hope in your eyes. This is what many people are missing. A long time ago, I had a similar experience
The desire to leave the earth where I am rooted, to follow those figures of hope, and to find the paradise of my dreams. Even though at that time, I was just a young tree that had just grown up, unable to grow independently from its own roots."
There was no lack of nostalgia and aftertaste in her words. When Metien heard this, he suddenly remembered what Xie Mi had said, and couldn't help but curiously asked: "Mrs. Tree, how long ago did you say long ago?"
"This is it."
Mrs. Tree thought quietly for a while: "About, more than a thousand years ago?"
"Wow!"
Metien opened her mouth in surprise, and Xiemi next to her was also so frightened that she forgot to continue eating the fruit: she knew that Mrs. Tree was very old, but she never thought that she would be so old.
"Haha, don't be so surprised. You live in this world. As long as you sleep often, don't forget to get more sunshine, don't pay attention to things that have nothing to do with you, and walk a few laps along this grass every time you wake up...
Maybe they can all live as long as me."
Mrs. Tree shared her experience with the two little girls. Unfortunately, they looked at each other and shook their heads in unison, saying that they probably couldn't do it.
"That kind of life is really boring." When Xie Mi thought about having to sleep in the same place for hundreds or even thousands of years, he felt very painful: "Don't you feel bored, Mrs. Tree?" p>
"Specifically, I don't know what kind of feeling you are talking about being bored." The old man said softly: "Although I have this human body, I am still essentially an oak tree. What I have is
The emotions are only those that the tree can experience."
"Boredom, boredom, hardship, sadness... trees cannot understand these, we just miss them deeply."
Mrs. Tree withdrew her hand from Xie Mi's head, supported the crutches with both hands, and stood up slowly: "Speaking of which, with my moth-eaten wooden head, I almost forgot the purpose of calling you here." She turned around and walked to the main oak tree under the curious eyes of the two little girls. The trunk as thick as a rock suddenly opened up a huge tree hole. The tree lady stretched out her withered hands like thin branches, and inside the tree hole
After groping for a while, I finally found what I wanted, took it in my hand, and returned to the little girls.
Metien and Semi saw that it was a wooden box about two palms wide. It was very crudely made, without any decoration on the surface, and the signs of wear and tear were very serious. It had probably gone through a long period of time.
She handed the box to Metien, her smile full of expectation and relief: "Young son, I want to entrust it to you."
"Eh? Me?"
Metien blinked and did not react.
Xie Mi's focus is more peculiar: "Mrs. Tree, what is this?"
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"It's a relic of a friend of mine, no, it's my teacher."
This sentence startled Metien, and he almost dropped the wooden box in his hand to the ground. Fortunately, he caught it in time, and then held it tightly in his arms, never daring to relax again.
"Haha, don't be so nervous." Mrs. Tree joked: "It's not filled with glass. It won't break even if it falls to the ground."
Even if she said so.
Metien's tone stammered: "Mrs. Tree, this, such an important thing, I can't accept-"
"But I hope you can accept it." The old man's gaze is as timeless and timeless as the oak tree behind him: "Young man's son, as the old saying goes, never let down the expectations of your elders. I think, given our age gap,
, you can barely call yourself an elder, right?"
Don't say one word, a thousand words are enough.
Medien did not dare to bear the bad reputation of "disrespecting the elders", so he could only agree quietly, and then carefully put away the wooden box, for fear that he would crush it if he used too much force.
"You must be curious, Metien, why I entrust it to you."
Mrs. Tree raised her head, looked up at the brilliant skylight falling between the lush canopy, and said with a hint of sadness: "Would you like to hear me tell a story about the past?"
The story that once floated in the mountains and rivers of Saussen has been gradually forgotten by people of today's era.
Only an old oak tree still remembers its appearance, just like it still remembers her warm touch.
"One day in a thousand years, I was still growing up carefree in the mountains, without budding emotions or any knowledge except instinct."