Stone house on Taihang Mountain

A few days ago, I went to the Taihang Mountains again, a small village hidden deep in the mountains.

The place there has become a ruin. Most of the previous stone houses have collapsed, and as far as the eye can see, there are ruins and broken walls.

When I turned around a cliff and saw a house nestled behind the rocks, I couldn't help but shudder.

Under the cliff at the corner, the mountain temple is still there, but it is much shorter. There is a simple tablet inside, which says the position of the mountain god and the earth god, and there is a clay incense burner on it. Are there any burned out incense sticks?

Not far from the mountain temple, there is a stone house. The roof of the house has collapsed, and only part of the fence remains. The yard is covered with shrubs and grass. It seems that few people have set foot in this place.

I walked into the temple near the mountain, offered a stick of incense, and said silently in my heart, that girl in the blooming season, I hope you will be free from disasters, happy and safe in heaven.

How could she be happy and peaceful? This barren mountain was once her burial ground.

And in that house, two demons once lived, and they poisoned her life. And I was a witness to all this.

More than ten years ago, something happened at work. I was beaten up by my colleague’s wife as her husband’s cheating partner, although later the wife realized that she had beaten the wrong person and apologized to me. But some people in the work unit who didn’t know the truth still looked at me sideways, especially the aunts who were in menopause and had a sense of family crisis. They even added jealousy and pointed at me, saying: Why don’t you hit others, just hit her? , look at that goblin look, it looks like a vixen!

What’s even more outrageous is that my boyfriend who works in the city government building is also suspicious of me and suspects that I really have something to do with the elegant column editor like Chen Daoming. Because I often bluntly say that Chen Daoming is my idol, and a talented man like Editor-in-Chief Chen is the down-to-earth version of Chen Daoming, who is my cup of tea.

Those jokes, coupled with the fact that the editor-in-chief’s wife made a scene at the TV station and beat me up, he chose to believe the rumors.

I almost went crazy. What made me crazy was not that my boyfriend broke up with me, but that he believed that I was the kind of person those aunts said.

In anger, I handed in my resignation. The director looked at me through the thick glasses and asked: "Have you really thought about it? It was not easy to come to Taiwan back then, because you and I My cousin couldn’t squeeze in.”

“Think about it,” I replied expressionlessly.

"Does uncle know about this?" he asked again.

I was stunned. My uncle once put a lot of effort into finding a way for me to join the TV station through connections. With all these things happening recently, I didn't even think of telling him that I was resigning.

"Okay, young man, you have to think twice before making a decision. Let's do this. I'll give you three months' leave, or half a year. Go to the mountains and experience life. Write me a hundred thousand dollars." When the manuscript comes, I will let the newspaper publish a serial for you. You can also use this time to relax." After that, he said in an elder's tone: "Now is the time to struggle. What do you think? Big things will not matter when you look back in the future." After saying that, he took out the lighter and cigarettes, and put them down again, probably because he was worried about me.

I knew that the station manager’s craving for cigarettes had started again, so I stood up to say goodbye and promised him to take a vacation first and wait a few months before making a decision.

More than ten years ago, the road to the mountain was still very difficult. I first took a long-distance bus to a remote small county town, and then took a nearly shabby bus into the mountain. Most of the roads after entering the mountain They are all relatively narrow, with cliffs on one side and deep valleys on the other, and there are endless winding roads.

I sat in my seat warily, not daring to move for fear of affecting the balance of the bus. There was a girl next to me who couldn't help but giggle when she saw me like this.

Her smile made me a little unhappy. I frowned and muttered in disgust: "Why are you laughing? What's so funny?" She stopped laughing and said: "The road in the mountains is like this, but Drivers are used to driving on this kind of road, so it’s okay. You won’t be afraid if you look up at the scenery on the mountain.”

The sound is like a wind chime, crisp and sweet. I couldn't help but turn around and glance at her. She was dressed simply, but she had pretty features, a ponytail on the back of her head, and her eyes were dark and bright.

I didn’t say anything, and I didn’t look up at the scenery as she asked. I just thought to myself that I could reach my destination smoothly.

She didn't mind, and turned to talk to an older woman next to her. Through their conversation, I roughly heard that they were going to the mountains to buy medicinal materials and the like. The older woman was probably her aunt, and there was another woman who was about the same age as her aunt. He is the youngest among the three, probably only fifteen or sixteen years old. He spoke angrily with a childish tone, and burst out laughing from time to time.

In this way, the car panted in an old-fashioned way, climbed to a place on a large mountain where houses were relatively concentrated, left me and two other colleagues from the column team on the mountain road and left.

I thought we had arrived at our destination, but they said it was still early. We stopped a farm tricycle on the road and bumped for a long time before we arrived at the next village. As the girl said, the late autumn in the Taihang Mountains is amazing. The towering cliffs are dotted with touches of deep yellow and light red. As the car winds up the mountain road, the layers of the mountains are also revealed, until they get closer. At noon, we climbed to a relatively high mountain peak.

After getting off the bus, I stood on the cliff and looked around. The Taihang Mountains were full of mountains and forests, and there were rolling mountains as far as the eye could see.

Remembering the article I had read about the abduction and trafficking of women into the mountains, I finally understood why those who were abducted into the mountains could not escape at all, and had to walk for a long time in the car, not to mention their feet. Well, I can't climb a few hills and I will be exhausted even if I don't get caught.

The other two colleagues were also in the mountains for the first time, and they stood there a little confused. Later, the male colleague took out a map and found a residence that he had contacted before. The sky has darkened. In the vast twilight, I looked around at the mountains shrouded in light twilight, and suddenly felt desolate.

That residence is the big house in front of you, next to the mountain temple.

It is said that this big house belonged to a wealthy family back then. One of the sons was a member of the Kuomintang. Later, the family went to Taiwan, and the house became empty.

The village first regarded this place as the village committee. The houses are of good quality and are often repaired, so the houses are quite sturdy.

The village arranged for people to clean the house, and the house was tidy. It must have been unoccupied for a long time, and it felt cold inside.

The two colleagues who came here were a couple. During the night break, although I didn’t say it explicitly, I saw the male colleagues always smiling at me, so I took the initiative to say to them: "I live alone." In the west wing, you two can sleep wherever you like, just don't disturb me."

He Sheng clasped his hands and said, "I won't thank you enough for your kindness. I'll definitely be happy when you get back." He said. Manlou is considered a relatively high-end restaurant in the urban area, with high consumption and mostly unusual specialties.

"Okay, I'll remember what you said." I said.

In the evening, although female colleague Wei Qian was a little embarrassed, she still coyly followed He Sheng and stayed in the easternmost room of the main room.

This is my first time living in the mountains. There are sounds of wind, falling leaves, and some unknown birds chirping in the mountains at night. Occasionally, there are a few barking dogs, but there is no other sound. This is Real silence.

Perhaps I was too tired from traveling during the day, so I slept very soundly while lying on the old, almost starched solid wood bed. I have to talk about the bed. Although it is old, you can still see its former grandeur. It is wide, thick, and has carved brackets on it. The original color of the paint can no longer be seen, but the wood should be high-quality rosewood.

Probably because it is too old, this bed can be preserved to this day without its owner. It seems that the people in the mountains are really simple. Before going to bed, I carefully leaned on the bed and studied it carefully.

There is a table by the window, but it is relatively simple. It is painted with light yellow varnish and is thin and weak. At first glance, it does not belong to the same era as the bed. There should be a few pieces of furniture in this room that match the bed, but there are none. The tables and chairs were all added later.

I walked around the room and guessed that the bed was probably too bulky, otherwise it would have been replaced like other furniture.

Okay, I lay on the quilt. Because I was afraid of the dark and I was alone, I didn't turn off the light, turned over and fell asleep.