Plague Doctor

In Mobei City, the rural areas are very sparsely populated. Most young people have gone to the city or south to work, while the elderly still stick to the land of their ancestors.

Beidian Village, Yunlin Town, Ma'erwan District, is one such village. The villagers have settled along the river and cultivated a few farmlands. The rest of the land is almost all wasteland. Some can still grow some weeds, but most of them have become deserts. For a long, long time, I have been unable to plant fields or graze.

But it is also here that in the past few decades, due to policy support, there have been some new changes in the landscape.

If you look from the sky, you will see that some of the wasteland outside the village has become green, which is a forest farm formed by tree planting.

For others, Arbor Day is once a year, but for 79-year-old Wang Fuhou, there are two tree planting seasons a year, and he has to take care of trees every day.

Early in the morning, before dawn, Wang Fuhou woke up to the chirping of birds. The couple lived in a small brick house in the forest farm. Since he first contracted 50 acres of wasteland more than 30 years ago, he has now contracted and managed more than 200 acres of land that has been planted with trees. He and his wife have long been used to this kind of life.

"My wife, my wife." Wang Fuhou woke up his 77-year-old wife Zhang Maidong, "Wake up, we are still busy today."

"Look at you, a stubborn old man, you are still tired at your age..." Zhang Maidong seemed to complain, "You can't take any time off..."

"Haha." Wang Fuhou was happy and got up first. "We haven't read the book, but we know the story of Foolish Old Man who moved the mountains. Someone must plant this tree, otherwise the land will become desert and what will future generations do? We just hope that we can Live a few more years and plant more trees.”

"Well, the country praises you, you know." Zhang Maidong said amusedly.

Wang Fuhou's rough and dark old face suddenly burst into laughter. The couple were commended by the city on the Arbor Day that just passed this year and were interviewed by the news. It is said that tree planting is a hot topic across the country right now. One is Tianji Bureau, and the other is planting trees to green the environment.

There is no money to be made from planting trees. Land preparation requires a lot of manpower and sometimes large machinery. The tree planting period is too short to do it yourself, so you have to hire people. There are also costs for watering, repairs, etc., and you rely on seedlings. , dead branches and leaves, and 30 acres of fast-growing poplars to earn some money, tens of thousands of yuan a year, and the state will subsidize some, so that I can maintain my life. Their three children all have families, and their children and grandchildren sometimes come to help and come and go. After all, the young people don't want to face a wasteland all day long.

It’s impossible to say that he didn’t think about it for the sake of livelihood. Wang Fuhou was thinking about making some money when he started this contracting business.

But one kind has been planted for so many years, and feelings have really grown out of it.

Wang Fuhou knew that his wife was also the victim of a knife wound. The hardships of turning wasteland into forestland and planting trees for so many years were not his alone.

More than thirty years ago, there was no electricity, no water, no roads, nothing but a wasteland. They personally prepared the land little by little and planted saplings, such as pine trees, locust trees, weeping willow trees, and fast-growing poplars... They watched the trees grow up little by little, and watched the barren hills and mountains become green and lush.

"Shall we contract dozens more acres to plant trees? The country will have to praise me next year."

"Okay! Then you will live a few more years, and I will live a few less years."

After some more banter with his old wife, Wang Fuhou put on his coat and hat and walked out of the small brick house.

The sky was bright and the birds in the forest were chirping louder. Wang Fuhou walked slowly through the forest he planted, stepping on the land covered with fallen leaves. During this Spring Festival, the trees were growing new branches and leaves, and those tender greens made him feel really relaxed and happy.

"Relaxing and happy." Wang Fuhou has never been to school, and it can be said that he can't even read a few Chinese characters. However, the reporters who came to interview him that day kept telling him this word, which is really a good word. The old man smiled even more when he thought that at his age, he could be in the news and be praised by the country after working hard all his life.

My whole life has passed by without being confused.

"No, we really have to contract dozens of acres more." Wang Fuhou pondered, but as soon as the idea came to his mind, he almost staggered when he stepped on a dead branch and felt a pain in his hips. "These legs and feet are not up to par." The old man was distressed. He sighed to himself, his legs and feet were either sick or old.

"Alas!" He recalled that in those days, he could do all kinds of work by himself, and he had no problem climbing trees and pruning branches. Now, walking is becoming more and more difficult for him.

People are getting older, but the tree is getting taller and taller.

Wang Fuhou walked and almost reached the "Fuhou Tree". It was the first tree they planted, a locust tree. The tall and thick trunk made them unable to hold it in their arms. Every time Wang Fuhou takes a walk in the morning, he always goes there to take a look and hug the tree, which is like one of their children.

"...Where's the tree?"

But now, Wang Fuhou's old face was stunned, looking at the slightly sparse woods around him. This place that he had walked through thousands of times was a bit unfamiliar.

He is too familiar with this road. This is the road he has made. He can go wherever he wants to go by closing his eyes. But now he should have reached the Fuhou tree, but he seemed to have lost his way. He didn't see the towering pine tree, and some other trees were also gone.

"W-where is this?" Wang Fuhou couldn't figure it out for a moment. There was no place like this in his more than 200 acres of forest land.

The distance between the trees is wrong. The distance between the trees is wrong! Why are there so many trees missing?

Was it stolen? This thought flashed across Wang Fuhou's mind, and he suddenly felt flustered and angry, but then he felt that it was impossible. It was impossible to cut down trees without making any noise. It was impossible to cut down so many trees in one night without disturbing them, and there were no traces or traces on the ground. There are tree stumps…

…

It's weird, it's weird.

Wang Fuhou was puzzled and walked forward for a while, but the reason was that the woods in front had not changed. He walked back for a while and was sure that the area of ​​more than 30 meters of his Fuhou tree had changed. He returned to the area and took a look, and found that not only were there fewer trees, but there were no young leaves on the trees that were still there.

All of these trees were lifeless, and some even had cracked bark, as if they would collapse at any time.

The land beneath our feet seemed to be becoming scorched black, and was even more barren than it had been a few decades ago.

"What's going on..." Wang Fuhou muttered as he came to another locust tree and stretched out his calloused right hand to press the trunk with cracked bark.

The old man's eyes suddenly widened, and panic filled his wrinkled old face. He saw his hand directly inserted into the tree trunk, as if into water. The twisted water, but the old man immediately felt a huge surge. Pain, as if the whole body is burning and about to explode, "Honey, Wife...!"

Love the Plague Doctor.