This is a forest, as old as those faded oil paintings, with dim yellow tones, dark green dotted with ocher, and it looks like a scene of vicissitudes of life.
You can't see the sky at all in this forest, or it could be said that the sky is just a tree, and the trunks of the trees have been covered with moss for some time, and there are also those cuckoos who don't know what troubles are doing.
Tiredly shouting "I don't care, I don't care".
Perhaps, among the animals in this forest, except for birds, no one can see the sky. It seems that they don't want to see it. All living beings are mediocre and tasteless, but just seeking food is enough.
However, a snake didn't think so. Next to the ancient tree, a huge gray snake emerged from the bushes. The gray snake swam slowly, and the wooden thorns in the bushes seemed to be...
Unable to hurt its skin, it came under the old moss-covered tree and slowly climbed up around the tree.
The cuckoo on the branch was still singing, as if it had no idea that the disaster was coming. The snake climbed up the treetop, but did not make any noise. It slowly sneaked behind the bird, but surprisingly,
However, it did not pounce on the bird and devour it. Instead, it stopped and coiled itself on the tree trunk, quietly listening to the cuckoo's repeated calls, regardless of it.
I am a snake. From the moment I was born, I can only walk on my hands and knees. I don’t have limbs like ordinary animals. What I have may only be a set of sharp teeth, which nothing can withstand.
Ever since I can remember, I have been in this forest. The animals in the forest are afraid of me, or in other words, they are afraid of everyone. When I try to approach them, they run away in panic.
I don’t know why, but I don’t feel sad in this forest because I have my eldest brother and the silly roe deer accompanying me. Of course, my eldest brother is also a snake. He came out of his shell some time before me, so he is longer than me.
I am much stronger and more beautiful. It is the most powerful in this forest, and no animal can hurt it.
The silly roe deer is the only animal that is not afraid of me. Although it is very tall, it is clumsy and always in a daze. That day I saw it from a distance and it was lying on the ground drooling. I felt very sad.
It's interesting, but I still dare not approach it because I know that if I approach it like this, it will definitely run away like those animals.
However, when I passed by again the next day, I found that it was still there, and it was still drooling. I was puzzled, so I deliberately paid attention to it in the next few days. It was still the same, except for eating.
Outside of the grass, he just lay there motionless.
Maybe it did the same to me. At that time, I didn’t know what this feeling was called, so I mustered up the courage to crawl towards it. When it saw me, it didn’t panic and ran away like other animals.
Instead, he looked at me curiously, and of course, he was still drooling.
I crawled in front of it and said to it in surprise: "Aren't you afraid of me?"
The silly roe deer said: "What is fear?"
I said: "I'm afraid... maybe I just ignore it, because other animals hide away when they see me."
The silly roe deer tilted his head and said to me: "So, are my brothers also afraid of me?"
I said, "Are they ignoring you?"
Silly Roe Deer nodded: "Yes, it's been like this since I was born. They think I'm stupid and say I'm dragging them down. What does dragging mean? Are they afraid?"
I said: "Are they drooling like you?"
Silly Roe Deer said: "Some can, but not as many as me."
I said: "Then it doesn't seem like you're afraid."
Silly Roe Deer said: "What does drag mean?"
I don't know either.
In this way, Silly Roe Deer and I became good friends. We were together every day. I found that except for our appearance, we had no difference. It was just that I ate meat and he ate grass.
In fact, when I saw him eating so happily, I also wanted to eat grass with him. However, after taking a bite of grass, the taste of the juice suddenly made me shiver.
Actually, I don’t want to eat meat because other animals don’t dare to approach me. When I try to approach them, they all run away. I asked my elder brother why. My elder brother told me that they are
Afraid of you.
However, after getting to know Silly Roe Deer, my thoughts changed again. I often wonder, are they afraid of me, or am I a drag on them?
What does drag mean? That night, I asked my eldest brother what drag meant. After a while, my eldest brother said to me: "Drag means that you are not qualified to survive, but other animals will also suffer."
I coiled my body in a circle and asked my elder brother: "Then, have I burdened you?"
The elder brother took a dead pheasant and threw it in front of me and said, "No."
I seemed to be a real drag on my eldest brother, because I had never hunted an animal by myself, because something happened shortly after I was born, and that was the first time I hunted.
I didn't know anything at that time. My eldest brother hadn't come back yet and I was very hungry. So I climbed up a tree. There was a nest of newly hatched birds on the tree. The eldest bird had caught it for me to eat.
Yes, it's delicious. It feels good to feel the feather in your stomach.
At that time, I thought this was completely natural, so I crawled over and prepared to eat them. However, when I opened my mouth and prepared to swallow one of them, the little bird suddenly shouted at me in fear:
"Don't eat me, don't eat me!"
"Why?" I wondered.
The little bird said: "If you eat me, my brother will be sad."
I said: "What is sadness?"
The little bird said: "I just can't bear the sadness."
I said: "Then if I eat your brother, he won't be sad anymore."
The little bird said: "But if you eat my brother, I will be sad."
I said: "Then I'll eat you both."
The little bird said: "In that case, my parents will be very sad."
I was stunned, and for the first time I didn’t know what to do, so I said, “What are mom and dad?”
The little bird said: "Two birds are the same as us. They brought us into this world. If you eat us, they will not be able to bear it."
If I can't bear it, I feel sad. I'm confused again. I'm so hungry now that I can't bear it. Am I feeling sad? This feeling is really uncomfortable.
So, I didn't eat them.
From that moment on, I never had this kind of hunting action again. When my elder brother saw me like this, he didn’t say anything. He was the most powerful in the forest, and he didn’t like to talk. However, from that day on,
Every night he brought back a dead pheasant for me to eat.
I asked my eldest brother: "Do we have parents?"
The eldest brother said to me: "Yes."
I said: "Where are they?"
The eldest brother said: "He was killed."
I said: "What is a human being?"
The eldest brother looked at me, and then said to me: "It is something that can kill all the animals in this deep forest."
I said: "Is it better than big brother?"
The eldest brother didn't speak, curled up in a ball, and went to sleep.
When I saw that my elder brother ignored me, I didn't ask any more questions. I just curled up in a ball, and then I thought to myself, people can kill all the animals in the forest, aren't they sad?
I don't know, because I don't know since when, I found that my own thoughts were different from those of my brother and all the animals in the forest, and I began to feel scared.
It was not until later that fate told me that this kind of thinking I had was called wisdom root.
We met our destiny when spring just arrived. At that time, winter had just passed, the leaves all over the mountains and fields had not yet awakened, the weather was still very cold, and the tree trunks were still bare. As soon as I woke up from a long sleep, my elder brother felt a headache.
, because the ground is full of dry leaves, which rustle when we climb on them, but my eldest brother will still bring me a pheasant to eat every night.
I found the Silly Roe Deer, and it seemed that it didn’t take a big nap like me, so the two of us banged together all day long. My eldest brother really hated the Silly Roe Deer, but seeing that I liked it, he didn’t stop me. In the past few months, I and I
Silly Roe Deer has also seen "people" a few times. We both hid far away. I looked at those people. They were cutting branches and didn't know what they were doing. They seemed to be able to talk, but I couldn't understand them.
It was an evening, the sun was setting, and the clouds seemed to be burned by fire. I hung on the silly roe deer and wandered around with it. It ran very fast, and its limbs made a crisp sound when stepping on the leaves.
, in fact, sometimes, I envy it, after all, its body is very warm, not as cold as mine, and it has limbs, unlike me, it can only crawl forward.
How great would it be if I also had body temperature in my limbs?
We were in a good mood that day, so we ran to a valley outside the deep forest. In that valley, we found a 'person', but this person was different from what I had seen before. He had no hair and a
He was holding a yellow object and sitting on the grass. The surrounding vegetation had withered long ago. Only the grass where it sat was still green. Moreover, it seemed that the birds around him were not afraid of it. Instead, some of them still fell on it.
On its body, it stretched out its paws to tease the little birds, and the little birds flew around its body in circles.
Silly Roe Deer and I were surprised and found it very interesting. We both felt that there was nothing in this person that scared us. Just when we were feeling interesting, the eldest brother suddenly came out of nowhere, and I saw
The elder brother said to it: "Why is this person different from others?"
The eldest brother is obviously well-informed, but he said to me: "He is not a human, he should be a god."
Immortal? What is an immortal? I was wondering again. Although I didn’t know what an immortal was, he certainly didn’t look like a human being, because I didn’t feel fear in my heart.
My eldest brother told me: "Follow me."
So it crawled towards the man. The silly roe deer naturally found it interesting and followed him. We came to the side of the man. When the birds on the side saw the big brother, they all ran away in panic.
There were only three of us left, and that person.
The man opened his eyes, looked at us in front of him, squinted his eyes and smiled, and then said to us: "Two snakes and a roe deer together are quite interesting."
It was strange that I could actually understand what this person said, so I curiously said to him: "Brother said you are a god, but what exactly is a god?"
The man smiled and then said to me: "I am not a god, I am fate."
"Destiny? What is fate?" I was stunned.
The man smiled and then said to me: "Fate is irresistible."
"Irresistible?" I was stunned for a moment, and then said to it: "How can there be something irresistible? How come I don't know about it?"
The man smiled and said: "You little snake talks a lot. Let me tell you, there are many things that you cannot resist, including your birth, old age, illness and death, and your overwhelming love and desire."
I said, "I don't know what those are."
The man said: "For example, since you were born, you have been unable to resist killing other animals. This is me, and this is your destiny."
I said: "But I haven't killed other animals?"
The man looked at me and then at my elder brother, as if he already knew everything, and then smiled: "Have you ever thought that eating the food your brother brought is considered a kind of killing?"
I said: "Why?"
The man said: "What's the difference between your brother killing for you and you hunting for yourself?"
I was stunned. Obviously I had never had this idea in my mind. This feeling was wonderful, but also very frustrating. I remembered what the bird said to me, so I said to the man: "Could it be,
Am I making other animals sad every night?"
The man nodded.
I said, "This is not good. I don't want to do this."
The man smiled and said to me, "Oh? Why?"
I said: "Because I have been sad too and know what it feels like."
The man smiled and said: "It is indeed a snake with wisdom roots. Well, based on your words, I ask you, what do you want to get?"
My eldest brother said: "I want to get stronger power, and I don't want to be like this for the rest of my life."
The man said to my eldest brother: "You already have fairy bones in your body. If you want to become stronger, help me guard something."
After that, it said to us: "Do you have a name?"
My eldest brother shook his head, the man nodded, and then said to my eldest brother: "I'll give you your names."
After that, he said to my eldest brother: "The snake's own surname is Chang. If you become enlightened in the future, someone will surely enshrine the memorial tablet. Let's call you Chang Tianqing."
"What about me?" Silly Roe Deer and I were a little anxious. The man smiled and then said to me: "Of course you take your eldest brother's surname, so your name will be Chang Tianhong. As for you..."
The man looked at the silly roe deer and said to it: "No name, no worries, no worries, no worries. Instead of giving you a name, it would be better for you to be as free and easy as you are now. Without a name, it suits you better. You should just call it roe deer."
Silly Roe Deer was stupid himself, so he didn't care too much.
The man continued: "Chang Tianqing, if you want to become enlightened, go to the north. You will see a mountain. That mountain is called Nianzi Mountain. There is a cave on the mountain, and there is a thing I put in it in my early years.
thing, but I have asked a big python to guard it. You must kill the big python and put on its silver python skin to guard the thing for me until a hundred years later. Can you do it?"
My eldest brother snorted coldly and said nothing.
The man smiled and then said to me: "It's your turn now, what do you want?"
After thinking about it, I said: "What can live according to one's own choices?"
The man smiled and then said to me: "Maybe he is just a human being."
I said: "Then I want to be a human being."
When the silly roe deer saw what I said, he also said, "I also want to be a human being like my good friend."
The man smiled and then said to me: "Did you know that people are actually not that easy to deal with?"
"Why?" I was stunned again.
I saw that person saying to us: "Actually, everything has troubles, and these troubles arise precisely because of me. How many people will see through the way of heaven? How many people will escape when the world of mortals is rolling?
"
I didn't understand what it meant, so he continued to say to me: "Little snake, you are very interesting. Let me tell you, life is suffering, aging is suffering, illness is suffering, death is suffering, and what you hate is bitter."
Meeting with someone you love is suffering, being separated from what you love is suffering, not getting what you want is suffering, so as long as it is life, there is no escape.”
I said: "I don't believe it. Since we have a choice, why can't we escape?"
Obviously, what I said was beyond his expectation. In fact, I didn’t know what he said, but I understood the last sentence, so I asked. After thinking about it, he said to me:
"You really don't regret it?"
I nodded, and the man said to me: "Well, since you are like this, I will make a bet with you. If you win, I will let you become humans, but you must participate in my game.
"
"What game?" I said.
The man said: "I have lived for too long. Over the long years, all emotions have been numb. Although I know everything, I still cannot guess people's hearts. Therefore, I have to choose some people every once in a while.
Come to participate in my game and watch them follow the story I designed step by step. Only then do I feel that I am still alive, and those people will more or less learn some truths from it."
I didn't understand what it was saying, but I couldn't care less at this time, so I said to it: "What exactly do you want me to do?"
After it smiled, it said to me: "If you want to become a human, resist me first."
"Resist fate?" I said.
It nodded, and then said to me: "It seems impossible, doesn't it? Snakes themselves are meat eaters, this is their destiny."
I thought deeply and then said to it: "That's not the case. I think I can do it. It should be okay."
After that, I left.
After that day, my eldest brother did not leave, but stayed by my side. However, from that day on, I never ate the pheasant he picked up. Most of the time, I was thinking about all this, including
destiny.
It was another evening, and the setting sun once again burned the clouds red. Those clouds seemed to change into various different shapes. Clouds are inherently impermanent, they are inherently impermanent, just like the changes of fate, they never stop or change.
On the towering tree in the forest, a gray snake coiled quietly on the treetop, looking at the sky and the cuckoo. The cuckoo spotted it, but did not run away.
The gray snake asked it: "Why don't you run?"
The cuckoo said: "I am old and can no longer fly. I know that this is my last singing. Because of my singing, it will rain. With rain, this forest will have hope. This is us.
destiny until death."
The gray snake said to the cuckoo: "I have never killed anyone in my life, but many lives have died because of me. Am I stupid?"
The cuckoo said to the gray snake: "You are not stupid, you also have your own choice."
It turns out that no matter what it is, it will have its own choice. It used its own life to prove this, so it subconsciously looked at the sky. The last fragment of its life was the cry of the cuckoo.
The sound seems to never stop, that sound is regardless of, regardless of.
The gray snake was relieved, so it closed its eyes and fell into a deep sleep.