Life Hunter

The east turned white, the morning light first appeared, and the villagers got up one by one with blood and tears.

They folded the quilts, cleaned the outside of the house, pasted the words "Fu" on them, closed the doors and windows, dragged the whole family to the outside of the Wu Niang Niang Temple, and knelt down.

The morning light cannot reach them.

Fangyuan Village is quiet.

Wang Laoshi knocked on the door of the public house, and the night guards filed out.

The seven night guards looked at the villagers kneeling in front of the Wuniangniang Temple, and became more and more frightened as they walked further.

The blood and tears of these people flowed on the ground and were intertwined.

The ground in front of the Wuniangniang Temple was filled with blood.

Wang Laoshi said as he walked: "This morning, I will take my little master to plant a tree first. This is the old rule in the village. Plant a big tree, give it a name, and finally catch Zhou. This tree is like the root of everyone. When the seed is planted, the roots are established and the person stands. This name is like the shadow of a tree. If there is no tree, where would the shadow come from? Are you right?"

Wang Laoshi smiled as usual, seemingly unaware that his eyes were slowly shedding dark red tears.

The night guards looked at each other without saying a word.

Lucky Man guiltily touched the surrogate wooden boy in his arms, and followed the captain obediently, his waist much shorter than usual.

The group of people walked outside the door of the black room in the west courtyard and saw the sunny boy with a helpless face.

He was about eleven or twelve years old at the moment, but he was still held in mid-air by two big white hands and rocked gently.

A gentle humming sound came from behind the black curtain, like an unknown children's song.

"Mother, someone is here." The sunshine boy said.

"Hey, my son has grown up and is now shy. Okay, mother, I won't embarrass you." She said happily, putting down the sunshine boy carefully, just like putting down a goose feather, for fear of being blown away by the wind.

He saluted Mammy and said, "Mistress, now is the time to plant trees."

"Take out the seeds and let my son choose."

"As commanded."

Wang Laoshi took out a long white cloth bag, which was sewn into multiple small bags, arranged in a row.

Each small bag has the name of the tree species written on it.

There are thirty-six kinds of trees, including locust trees, poplar trees, willow trees, pine trees, fir trees, bamboo trees, and ginkgo trees.

The sunshine boy looked at the reader, who shook his head.

Look at the lucky students again.

The lucky man hesitated and shook his head.

The sunshine boy opened his spiritual eyes and saw that the thirty-six bags were exactly the same, and they all contained the same mysterious aura.

After thinking for a while, the sunshine boy said: "I choose the ginkgo tree."

The happy voice of the mother-in-law came from behind the black curtain, saying: "Ginkgo is responsible for longevity. My son will be rich and live a thousand years."

Wang Laoshi reached into the cloth bag with Ginkgo written on it and took out a shriveled seed, the size of a peanut.

The sunshine boy took a closer look and saw what kind of seeds were there. They looked more like shrunken and shriveled hearts.

"Little master, follow me and plant a tree wherever you like." Grandma Xiang took the sunshine boy's hand and walked out.

Wang Laoshi followed closely, holding ginkgo tree seeds, and the other seven people were at the back.

Walking out of the west courtyard, the sunshine boy suddenly asked: "Mom Xiang, Lao Shi Wang, where is the best place to plant this kind of seed?"

Wang Laoshi smiled and didn't answer.

Xiang Mammy said: "I think it would be better to plant it behind the Wuniangniang Temple than to live in a messy place in the barren mountains."

The sunshine boy didn't answer, but followed slowly. After a long time, he said, "Then just listen to Auntie Xiang. Let's go to the back of the White Building."

The two of them and the eight night guards walked around the white building and came to the backyard.

A gravel road separates the east and west parts of the yard. To the west is a rockery with black and white patterns, to the east is a pond full of duckweeds, and the rest is covered with green grass.

The sunshine boy looked at it, pointed to the back of the pond and said: "The east belongs to wood, the north belongs to water, and wood grows in the northeast. We planted it behind the pond."

"My little master has bright eyes, that must be a geomantic treasure."

After everyone walked to the pool, Wang Laoshi handed the ginkgo tree seeds to Sunshine Boy.

"Do you need to dig the soil?" Sunshine Boy asked.

Wang honestly smiled and said: "Little master, just throw it to the ground."

Sunshine Boy holds the ginkgo tree seeds, slightly away from the pool, and drops the seeds.

The seed fell to the ground and disappeared, and then a green shoot broke out of the ground, overturned the grass and grew vigorously.

After a while, it grew as tall as a person, with spreading branches and leaves, a white tree body, green leaves, and fan-shaped leaves that were exactly the same as ginkgo leaves, with some differences in other places.

Slowly, the roots of the tree swelled, and the red root bark penetrated into the earth. Within the translucent tubular roots, a faint gray-yellow airflow could be seen flowing from the bottom to the trunk, reaching the ends of the leaves, dyeing the leaves yellow.

The crown of the tree slowly changes, like two hands slightly bent together, like a pagoda, with bulging sides and a pointed top, like the Great Golden Light Jue of Taoism.

In the center surrounded by branches, a five-petal bloody lotus sprouted, looking up to the sky and opening flat.

On top of the lotus, a green egg-shaped fruit grew.

On the surface of the cyan fruit as big as a fist is a wrinkled baby face, shaped like a walnut.

Wang Laoshi and Aunt Xiang laughed together.

"Congratulations to the little master for planting a big tree. You will have a bright future from now on."

The sunshine boy raised his legs to leave, and said to his mother: "There is still a need for a tree guard here to guard the tree until the little master grows up. Then choose a strong one."

Before anyone could say anything, Xiang Mama glanced at the school captain, and the school captain's word "福" was burning.

Looking at the tall foodie again, the word "Fu" on the foodie's face burned brightly.

Finally, Mammy Xiang looked at the blacksmith and said, "You have a strong body and are most suitable for guarding trees here."

The blacksmith sighed and said, "It's a blessing to live to the last day. Please give me a message to my family, saying that I behaved honorably and passed away peacefully, without losing the face of Night Guard or the shame of my family." The face of our family.”

After the blacksmith finished speaking, he took off his mugwort and gave it to the sunshine boy.

"Take care, stay alive. At least live longer than someone else!" After the blacksmith finished speaking, he walked to the root of the tree and sat down, leaning his back against the trunk, closing his eyes and waiting to die.

"Little master, go back to your room."

The two of them and the seven night guards turned and left the yard.

Under the ginkgo tree, four tree roots suddenly emerged from the ground, piercing into the blacksmith's back and into his limbs, sucking blood.

Sunshine Boy and others faintly heard screams from behind, and silently returned to the black room in the west courtyard.

Before entering the threshold, everyone saw that the carpet in the room was covered with rectangular yellow-brown wooden signs, which seemed to have words engraved on them.

The listener counted fourteen wooden signs in total.

When I got closer and saw the words on the wooden sign clearly, everyone felt a chill in their backs.

Cattle herders, water herders, climbers, blacksmiths...

Fourteen people's names are engraved on the fourteen wooden signs.

The rest of the people stood outside the door, holding the sunshine boy's hand towards the nanny, and walked into the house.

"My son is back? Let me hug you."

Two big white hands stretched out from the water-black curtains. Without any explanation, they hugged the sunny boy and caressed his face and hair affectionately.

The sunshine boy had a sullen face and said nothing.

After a while, Mother Wei said: "When you plant a tree and it has roots, you have to decide on a name. Mom has never read any books and doesn't know a few Chinese characters. You choose a name from the brands below as your name." "