This sentence has been circulated in the disabled village for many years. It is impossible to verify when it was passed down. However, this sentence is the truth and there is no need to doubt it.
Granny Si from Canlao Village saw the setting sun gradually hiding behind the mountains, and became nervous again. As the setting sun set, the last ray of sunlight disappeared, and the world suddenly became extremely silent, without any sound. Only darkness was seen easing from the west.
It slowly flooded over, swallowing up mountains, rivers, roads and trees along the way, and then came to Canlao Village and submerged Canlao Village.
There are four ancient stone statues standing at the four corners of Canlao Village. The stone statues are mottled and very old. Even Granny Si does not know who carved these stone statues and when they were erected here.
Darkness fell, and the four stone statues emitted a faint light in the darkness. The stone statues were still lit, which made Granny Si and the elders in the village heave a sigh of relief.
The darkness outside the village is getting thicker, but with the light of the stone statues, Canlao Village is still relatively safe.
Suddenly, Granny Si's ears twitched, she was stunned, and lost her voice: "Listen, there is a child crying outside!"
Mr. Ma next to him shook his head and said: "No way, you heard it wrong... Hey, there is really a baby crying!"
The baby's cry came from the darkness outside the village. All the other elderly people in the village, except for the deaf ones, heard the cry. The elderly people looked at each other. The disabled village was remote and desolate. How could there be a baby nearby?
"I'll go take a look!"
Granny Si got excited and ran to a stone statue in the village on tiptoes. Mr. Ma quickly went over and said, "Old Granny Si, are you crazy? It's dark. If you leave the village, you will die!"
"Carry this stone statue on your back when you leave the village. Things in the dark are afraid of the stone statue. I won't be able to die for a while!"
Granny Si bent down and tried to lift the stone statue on her back, but she had a hunchback and couldn't lift it up. Mr. Ma shook his head: "It's better for me. I'll carry the stone statue and accompany you!"
Another old man limped over from the side and said, "Master Ma, you only have one arm and you won't be able to carry the stone statue for long. I have both hands, so I'll carry it."
Mr. Ma glared at him: "Damn lame, you have broken a leg, can you walk? Although I only have one arm, this arm is very strong!"
He picked up the stone statue with one arm and stabilized it. The stone statue was unimaginably heavy: "Old lady Si, let's go!"
"Don't call me a dead old woman! Lame, mute, you all should be careful. There is a stone statue missing in the village. Don't let anything in the dark touch it!"
…
As Mr. Ma and Granny Si walked out of Canlao Village, there was something weird wandering around them in the darkness, but when they were illuminated by the light of the stone statue, it squeaked and retreated into the darkness.
The two of them followed the cry, walked a hundred steps, and came to a large river. The baby's cry came from the river. The stone statue emitted a faint light, which did not shine very far. The two of them captured it carefully.
Looking for the direction of the sound, I walked upstream along the river. After walking a few dozen steps, I found the sound of crying nearby. It was difficult for Ma Lao to support her with one arm. Granny Si's eyes lit up and she saw a little fluorescent light. It was a basket stopped.
On the river bank, fluorescent light came from the basket, and crying also came from the basket.
"There really is a child!"
Granny Si stepped forward and lifted the basket, but she was slightly startled and could not lift it up. Under the basket was an arm that had been soaked white by the river water. It was this arm that held up the basket and the child in the basket until the
shore.
"Don't worry, the child is safe." Granny Si whispered to the woman underwater.
The female corpse seemed to have heard her words, and her palms were released, washed away by the river, and disappeared into the darkness.
Granny Si lifted the basket. Inside the basket was a swaddling baby. There was a jade pendant placed on top of the swaddling clothes. The jade pendant emitted fluorescence. The light of this jade pendant was very similar to the light of the stone statue, but it was much weaker. It was the jade pendant that protected the basket.
The children inside are protected from the things in the dark.
It's just that the light of the jade pendant is very weak, it can only protect the child, but not the woman.
"It's a boy."
Returning to Canlao Village, all the villagers in the village gathered around them. They were all old, weak, sick and disabled. Granny Si opened up her swaddling clothes and took a look. She grinned, her remaining teeth falling out: "We in Canlao Village finally have a healthy person."
of people!"
The lame man with only one leg said in surprise: "Old lady Si, do you plan to raise him? It's hard for us to support ourselves! I think it's better to send him out..."
Granny Si was furious: "Why should I give away the child that I picked up on my own merit?"
All the villagers were obedient and did not dare to refute her. The village chief came over on a stretcher. He was more miserable than the others. The others had arms and legs after all, but fewer than normal people. But he had no arms or legs. But everyone said
He respected him very much, even the fierce Granny Si didn't dare to be presumptuous.
"Since we want to raise him, we should give him a name, right?"
The village chief said: "Old woman, do you see anything else in the basket?"
Granny Si flipped through it, shook her head and said: "There is only this jade pendant, no other notes or anything. There is a word on the jade pendant, it is the word Qin. There is no impurity in this jade pendant, and there is a strange power in it. It is not ordinary, it should be
Come from a wealthy family, right?"
"Is his name Qin, or is his surname Qin?"
The village chief thought for a while and said, "Let his surname be Qin, and his name be Mu, Qin Mu. When he grows up, let him go herding, so that he can make a living at least."
"Qin Mu." Granny Si looked at the swaddled baby. The baby was not afraid of her, and actually smiled and cooed.
…
From the riverside, the sound of the flute came. A shepherd boy sat on the back of a cow and played the flute. The sound of the flute was clear and melodious. This shepherd boy was eleven or twelve years old. He had beautiful features, red lips and white teeth. His clothes were half open, and there was a jade pendant hanging on his chest.
This boy is the baby that Granny Si picked up from the river eleven years ago. The old people in the village have worked hard to raise this boy over the years. Granny Si got a cow from nowhere and made Qin Mu drink milk every day when he was a baby.
, survived a period when it was easy to die young.
Although the villagers in Canlao Village are fierce, they are all very kind to him. Granny Si is a tailor. Qin Mu usually learns tailoring from Granny Si, picks and refines medicine from the pharmacist, learns leg skills from the lame grandfather, and learns leg skills from the blind man.
Grandpa learned to listen to sounds and recognize positions, and learned to breathe from the village chief who had no limbs. The days went by very quickly.
This cow was his childhood wet nurse. Granny Si originally planned to sell it, but Qin Mu refused to part with it, so the task of herding the cow was also given to him.
He often grazes cattle by the river, where the green mountains are as green as black and the blue waves are white with clouds, which is very pleasant.
"Qin Mu, Qin Mu, help me!"
Suddenly, the cow under him spoke. Qin Mu was startled and jumped off the cow's back. The cow had tears in its eyes and uttered human words, saying to him: "Qin Mu, you
You grew up on my milk, I am half your mother, you have to save me!"
Qin Mu blinked and asked tentatively: "How can I save you?"
The cow said: "You have a sickle on your waist. You can peel off my skin and save me from the trouble."
Qin Mu hesitated, and the cow said: "Have you forgotten the kindness of nurturing me?"
Qin Mu raised the sickle and carefully cut open the cowhide. Strangely enough, no blood flowed out after the cowhide was peeled off. Moreover, the cowhide was empty inside, without flesh, blood, or skeleton.
When the cowhide was peeled halfway, a woman in her twenties or thirties rolled out from inside. Her two legs were still wrapped in the cowhide, and the skin was connected to the cowhide, but her upper limbs had been separated from the cowhide.
The woman with disheveled hair snatched the sickle from Qin Mu's hand who was already stunned. She cut the cowhide on her legs and feet with two or three cuts. She looked at Qin Mu with fear and fear. She put the sickle on Qin Mu's neck and sneered.
: "You little villain, I was turned into a cow because of you. For eleven years, I could only eat grass and feed you milk! Poor, I just gave birth to a child before I turned into a cow, so I was plotted by that witch.
Turn me into a cow and feed you milk! I finally get out of trouble today, I will kill you first and then come to cleanse the evil people in this village with blood!"
Qin Mu's mind was pounding, and he didn't know what this woman who had emerged from cowhide was talking about.
The woman was about to chop him to death when suddenly she felt a chill in her heart. She looked down and saw a knife piercing through her chest.
"Mu'er, your pharmacist grandfather asked you to go back and take medicine." The woman's body fell, and standing behind her was the crippled grandfather from the village. He had a kind face and a kind-hearted look on his face. He was holding a bloody knife in his hand and smiled at Qin Mu.
road.
"Lame Grandpa..." Qin Mu's body went limp. He looked at the cowhide and the woman's body on the ground, but still didn't come back to his senses.
"Go back, go back." The cripple patted his shoulder and said with a smile.
Qin Mu walked toward the village with one foot high and one foot low. When he looked back, he saw the lame man throwing the woman's body into the river.
This scene shocked him so much that he didn't even know when he returned to the village.
"Qin Mu! Damn boy, what did I tell you? Don't go out after dark!"
As night fell, the stone statues at the four corners of Canlao Village automatically lit up again. Grandma Si called Qin Mu, who was about to sneak out of the village to check the cowhide by the river, and dragged him back.
"Mother-in-law, why can't you go out after dark?" Qin Mu raised his head and asked.
"When it gets dark, there will be some scary things moving in the dark. If you go out, you will die."
Granny Si solemnly said: "The stone statues in the village will protect us, and things in the dark will not dare to enter the village."
"Do other villages have stone statues like this?" Qin Mu asked curiously.
Granny Si nodded, but her face was a little worried. She kept looking outside the village and whispered: "The cripple should be back... We really shouldn't let the cripple go out. This guy only has one leg..."
Qin Mu hesitated and then told the story about a woman emerging from the cow's belly. Granny Si said casually: "You mean that woman? The lame man told me and he handled it very well. You were weaned as early as four years old.
I told you to sell the cow when we were young, but you couldn't bear to part with it, so I let you feed it. Look, something happened now, right? I said that if you feed it until you are four years old, you will have feelings for the cow."
Qin Mu blushed. Weaning at the age of four is indeed a bit too long, but it seems that the key is not weaning at the age of four, right?
"Mother-in-law, that woman was killed by Lame Grandpa..."
"Good kill."
Granny Si smiled and said: "That's an advantage for her. She should have died eleven years ago. If she didn't have to breastfeed you, would she be alive now?"
Qin Mu didn't know why.
Granny Si glanced at him and said: "This woman is the wife of the lord of Xianglong City, who is thousands of miles away from here. The lord of Xianglong City is lustful, and she is jealous. The lord of Xianglong City likes to flirt with women outside and rob women from good families.
.And every time the lord of Xianglong City ruined a woman's innocence, the lord's wife would send someone to beat the woman to death. I sneaked into Xianglong City, originally planning to kill her, but when I saw that she had just given birth to a child, the child was
After three months, I thought that you still had no milk to drink, but she had milk, so I turned her into a cow and came back to milk you. But I didn't expect that this woman broke free from the seal and was able to speak, and she almost hurt you."
Qin Mu was stunned and lost his voice: "Mother-in-law, how can a human become a cow?"
Granny Si smiled, revealing half of her missing teeth: "You want to learn? I'll teach you... the cripple is back!"
Qin Mu looked around and saw the cripple holding a cane in one hand and grabbing the prey on his back with the other, limping towards the village. Darkness rushed towards the village like a tide, and Granny Si hurriedly shouted: "Damn lame!
Come on, come on!"
"What's the rush?"
The lame man still walked slowly towards the village. The moment he entered the village, the thick darkness just flooded the village. The prey on his back was a colorful tiger, which was not dead yet. The tail was swept by the darkness, and suddenly the tiger let out a roar.
With a wail, Qin Mu quickly looked around and saw that only the bones of the tiger's tail were left, and all the fur and flesh on the tail were gone, as if it had been chewed off by something.
He curiously looked at the darkness outside the village. It was pitch black and he couldn't see anything.