The clear stream gurgling outside the door, and the sound of books inside the door.
Yu Wenzhou is studying.
His parents died early, and most of the family property was taken away by the clan. What was left in the hands of the boy was only a few acres of thin farmland, a hut, and a room of books. Fortunately, he passed the junior college entrance examination last year, and his life was finally a little more comfortable, so that he could study in
On such a night, you can light a candle instead of rolling up the window to borrow the light of the full moon.
After reading a volume, Yu Wenzhou felt a little thirsty, so he got up and poured water on the small stove on the side. Amidst the sound of gurgling water, there was a sudden sound on the window lattice. When he looked back, a white fox jumped in.
Yu Wenzhou's hut is located in a remote place. Open the door to the stream, and you can reach the mountain forest a hundred steps upstream. It is not unusual to see a fox coming and going in the hot summer. What is strange is that the fox neither looks for water nor food.
He jumped on the desk, lay down upright, and looked up at him.
The fur on his body was moist and shiny, and when he lay there, it was like a section of moonlight shining through the window.
Yu Wenzhou was slightly startled. But he was not surprised. He drank the water steadily, put the old white porcelain cup back to its original place, and returned to his desk to read. After reading for a while, he dropped a few drops of water on the inkstone, and his wrist
Swirl slowly to rub the ink.
While grinding the ink, he could not help but feel a little anxious. But the fox kept lying still until he finished writing an article, then he stood up from the desk, bowed slightly, jumped to the edge of the text and lowered his head to look. Look.
After a while, he lowered his head and sniffed the wet ink stains, then jumped back with a snap.
Yu Wenzhou couldn't help but reach out. The fox lowered his head, touched his wet nose to his fingertips, stuck out his tongue, and licked it very quickly.
Yu Wenzhou smiled softly. Only then did he feel some itching on his legs. He lowered his head to look and saw that there were a bunch of red and swollen patches on them. It turned out that he had been bitten by mosquitoes no matter how many times. Yu Wenzhou sighed and looked at the flower pot in the corner of the room.
I grabbed two slices of mint, crushed it, and applied it on my legs.
The fox tilted his head and looked at him curiously. After watching for a while, he suddenly jumped off the desk and came closer to his legs to smell him. Yu Wenzhou put down his trousers and hurriedly got out of the way, but the fox suddenly rushed up, grabbed his trouser legs, tilted his head and pulled back.
There was a "prick" sound. The old and white linen trousers had a small hole.
The fox was stunned. The next moment, Yu Wenzhou saw the white fox loosening his trousers, turning around, and burying his head deeply between his two paws.
******
The fox didn't come the next day. Yu Wenzhou didn't care, but on the third night, there was another soft noise on the window lattice. The white fox jumped in with a familiar routine, its body covered with dust and grass blades, and its mouth
There is also a long piece of green grass in its mouth.
Yu Wenzhou glanced curiously, his eyes still fell back on the scroll, and he kept chanting. The fox was still lying quietly on the desk. After he finished reading a piece, he jumped up and nuzzled his fingers with his nose.
He put green grass into his hand as if to take credit.
"Brother Fox...is this for me?"
The white fox nodded slightly. After thinking about it, he jumped to the ground again and nuzzled Yu Wenzhou's calf with his nose.
"Cure mosquito bites?... Prevent mosquitoes? I know, thank you Brother Fox."
Yu Wenzhou laughed softly and bowed his head. The fox looked at him with bright eyes, took a few steps back, suddenly jumped into his arms, then jumped up on the table, and fiddled with the book Yu Wenzhou had just finished reading with his nose, carefully
Turn the page.
Then, the fox sat down contentedly in front of the book, resting his chin on his folded paws and looking up at him.
"Brother Fox, this is..." Ignoring the dusty footprints on his gown, Yu Wenzhou thought for a moment and smiled: "Do you want to continue listening to me read?"
Nod without hesitation.
Then, the sound of reading began again.
As expected, no mosquitoes bothered me that night. For several days, until the green grass turned yellow and withered, not a single mosquito flew into the hut. And on the day when the last leaf fell from the grass stem, the fox came again.
new green grass.
"Thank you, Brother Fox."
This time, Yu Wenzhou took the green grass from the fox's mouth and bowed to express his thanks:
"I'm Yu Wenzhou. May I ask what you call Brother Fox?"
The fox squatted on the desk and looked up at him. His little head twisted to the left and then to the right, and his tail patted the desk. Yu Wenzhou paused, feeling that the question was a little difficult to answer, and smiled.
I corrected it a bit:
"May I ask, Brother Fox, if you have a name?"
nod.
"Brother Fox, can you please write it for me?"
Nod vigorously.
Yu Wenzhou rubbed the ink and flicked the paper. The fox jumped up confidently, clapped his little paw, stretched it into the inkstone, and then started scratching on the paper. Unexpectedly, the little paw was fleshy and the forelimbs were short.
No matter how he scratched it, what fell on the paper was an inky black mass - the fox scratched it back and forth again and again, but couldn't write anything and was so anxious that he jumped around on the paper.
Yu Wenzhou laughed so hard that his whole body trembled. After laughing for a while, he stood up and twisted a wet wipe. He carefully put his hands together and picked up the fox and held him in his arms:
"Brother Fox, please be patient. There are other ways to write your name. How about wiping it clean first?"
The fox's triangular ears twitched, and it suddenly became quiet. The small, warm creature nestled in Yu Wenzhou's arms, obediently holding a paw by him, with one paw tip and one paw tip, and a wisp of white hair.
White hair, wiped it carefully.
It was difficult to wash off the ink stains, and the fox was covered in white fur. Yu Wenzhou twisted three towels in a row before wiping the little paws clean. He put away the pens, inks, papers and inkstones on the table and hugged them.
Following the fox, he walked to the bookshelf and took down a half-old "The Thousand Character Classic":
"Brother Fox, come here, what are the characters of your name? Could you please give me some advice?"
I opened the home page, and with my little wet paw, I took a photo of the last word of the first sentence without hesitation.
"It turns out to be Brother Huang." Yu Wenzhou saw the fox leaning down and turning the page with the tip of his nose, so he stretched out his hand to open it for him. After turning several pages in a row, the fox indicated that it was not the case, until he said "relatives are old, old and young have different food", and his paw
Then I took the photo again.
"Huang...Young...Tian." After finishing the three words, Yu Wenzhou read them carefully and felt light and bright. Just thinking about it, it was as if the sun was dancing on the tip of his tongue. He laughed:
"Huang Shaotian. Can I call you Shaotian?"
The fox barked happily, as if laughing.
******
From then on, Huang Shaotian came every night. When Yu Wenzhou was reading, he would listen; when Yu Wenzhou was writing, he would lie down and read. Occasionally he would jump off the ground and run around the three huts, leaving behind
There were a few small paw prints in the shape of plum blossoms. Since his arrival, no mice or insects have been seen near this small thatched house.
The mountain home is clean, but also miserable. Yu Wenzhou's parents died young, and he didn't keep much land. He rented a few acres of thin farmland to the tribesmen. The rent collected was enough to make a living. If he had to sell it to buy oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, clothes, paper and pen, then
It's absolutely not enough. I have spent a lot of money just to support my studies these years.
——It’s just a room full of books. Yu Wenzhou eats vegetables like radish and radish every day, and he is absolutely reluctant to sell such things as books.
Fortunately, after becoming a junior student, I have six more buckets of rice a month, which is a bit more comfortable. However, the expenses also increase accordingly. I have to pay a visit to a teacher once, learn literature once, and I have to work hard for two months no matter what I do. In addition, it is winter.
Firewood, cotton clothes and quilts are all expensive. Rice was late this month. When Huang Shaotian came, he saw Yu Wenzhou worrying about the empty rice vat.
"There are only two days of food storage left." He looked up and looked outside the door. Snowflakes were flying in large numbers and falling down like flakes. "With such heavy snow, the official delivery of rice will be late..."
Huang Shaotian turned around and ran away silently. Yu Wenzhou yelled "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa" from behind, but saw his snow-white tail sweeping across the snow, and after a while, he disappeared into the flying snow.
Never see you again.
Early the next morning, there was a scratching sound at the door. When Yu Wenzhou opened the door and went out, he saw Huang Shaotian squatting upright on the threshold. In front of him was a pheasant lying in the snow, already frozen stiff. At a glance
You can't tell how many snowflakes have fallen on the white fox, but the long and brilliant tail feathers of the pheasant have been covered up completely in white.
Yu Wenzhou's smile suddenly faded. He didn't have time to clean up the pheasant, so he quickly brought Huang Shaotian in, held him to the stove, pulled a towel and wiped him. After the fox's body hair was dry, he curled up warmly by the stove.
, he just went out to pick up the pheasant and came back, casually putting it under the kitchen.
"Shaotian."
Huang Shaotian raised his head. Yu Wenzhou bent down and held him on the desk. He pulled the chair farther away and sat on it, looking at him seriously:
"Although I don't know how Shaotian practices, I have read some stories about stories and strange stories. Shaotian usually doesn't catch wild animals. When I invite you to dinner, at most he is willing to drink a few sips of water, and he also likes to listen to me read...
I’m afraid that you are following the path of heaven, enlightenment and truth-seeking, right?”
Huang Shaotian nodded lightly. Yu Wenzhou put his hands on his knees and leaned forward slightly: "Shaotian saw that I had no food and gave me pheasants. I was very happy. However, I don't want Shaotian... to kill for me and hinder my practice."
Under the snowy light, the young scholar's smile was solemn and warm.
******
They spent this winter together. In the cold snowy night, the warm fur ball curled up in the scholar's arms, tilting his head and listening to him reading. When he was tired, his head dozed off little by little. The scholar's slender fingers peeled off the fox.
Take the pine nuts in your mouth, eat one yourself, and feed one to the fox. Or peel the Polygonatum chinensis dug by the fox, steam it, cut it into pieces and put them on the plate. You eat one piece, and I eat one piece.
The ice melts and the snow melts, spring warms and flowers bloom. Soon, it will be the height of summer again.
The sky was clear and clear in the morning, but in the afternoon, there was a sudden heavy rain. Yu Wenzhou was closing the window, and Huang Shaotian rushed in and ducked under his robe after entering. Yu Wenzhou was a little surprised, but he kept moving his hands to open the door and window.
After closing the door tightly, he lit a candle in front of the window, held a book in his hand, and read as usual.
"The Master said: A gentleman who has nothing to eat does not seek to be full, and a home that does not seek peace of mind. If he is sensitive to things and careful in his words, he will be righteous and righteous..."
The Jiao Lei exploded one after another, and finally they were rumbling, as if they were rolling on the thatched roof. The fox was not curled up on the desk as usual, but was hiding tightly under Yu Wenzhou's robe, refusing to show the tip of his nose. As if he was unaware, Yu Wenzhou sat upright and upright in front of the writing desk, reciting in a calm and clear voice:
"The Master said: When you approach someone with dignity, you are respectful; if you are filial and kind, you are loyal; if you do good but cannot be taught, then encourage..."
The skirt of his robe hangs down to his feet. The fox is lying under the skirt, looking up, with pure brilliance flowing in his eyes - in the eyes of the fox demon who is about to survive the thunder tribulation, the young scholar is sitting upright and graceful. The whole body is covered by a crystal clear light, keeping away ghosts and gods, and keeping away all evil spirits.
He was a Confucian who was truly upright and read well, with a unique literary spirit and brilliance.
Last summer, wasn't it the light shining through the window that attracted him here?
He slowly lay down and closed his eyes with peace of mind.
Although he has no great merits or virtues in the world, such brilliance is more than enough to protect him.
Thunder rumbled for a full hour and three quarters. Finally, the rain stopped and the clouds settled, and the sky was clear and peaceful. Yu Wenzhou put down the book, leaned over and took out the curled up fox from under his robe, placed it on his lap, lowered his head and smiled.
"It's okay, Shaotian."
He gently stroked the fox's head. The next moment, the brilliance in his arms skyrocketed - the snow-like silver hair stretched, intertwined, and changed. When he opened his eyes again, the person holding the table with his backhand and smiling at him was a sixteen or seventeen-year-old boy. A cheerful and bright young man.
"Let's get to know each other again, I am Huang Shaotian."