At the east end of Xinliu Village, a tiled house.

A middle-aged woman stood anxiously in front of the wooden door of her house, her eyes looking into the distance.

Suddenly, the woman's eyes lit up, and in the night, a thin figure appeared in the woman's eyes.

"Xiao An, why did you come back so late?"

When Xiao An heard his mother's voice, he was originally panicked and calmed down, he walked to the woman with a limp and grabbed his mother's arm.

"Mom, ghost, there's a ghost. ”

"You stupid boy, where the hell is there?"

Seeing that her son's expression was wrong, the woman hurriedly raised her arm and grabbed Xiao An, and comforted: "Xiao An, you are all high school students, and you have learned so much knowledge, don't you know that there are no ghosts in this world?"

"Mom, what the hell did I. Xiao An's face was still white, he saw that his mother didn't believe it, so he hurriedly pointed to Xishan in the night behind him, and said, "Mom, just now when I went to the mountainside of Xishan to hunt pigweed, I saw a black shadow in the grass, and I tripped up. ”

As he spoke, Xiao An seemed to be afraid that his mother would not believe it, so he hurriedly rolled up his sleeves to reveal his bruised arms, pointed to the bruises, and said, "Mom, this is what I fell when I tripped and fell." ”

"Xiao An, let Mom take a look. When the woman heard that her son had fallen, her face changed, and she hurriedly grabbed Xiao An's arm and put it in front of her eyes, looking at the wound on Xiao An's arm with concern.

On his arm, as Xiao An said, there was a bruise.

"Xiao An, are you okay. The woman looked at the wound on her son's arm, and tears began to fall.

"Mom, I'm fine. Seeing that her mother was crying, Xiao An hurriedly raised her arm and put it in the corner of the woman's eye, wiped away her tears, and whispered, "I just fell and it's okay." ”

"It's okay. ”

The woman turned her body and looked her son up and down again, and was relieved to see that he was only a little bruised on his arm and not injured elsewhere.

"Xiao An, where is your back basket?" Suddenly, the woman glanced at Xiao An's back, but she didn't see the existence of the back basket, so she hurriedly asked.

"Carrying a basket?!"

Xiao An was stunned for a moment, and was busy touching his back with his backhand, which was empty.

"Mom, when I just ran down from the West Mountain, I fell, and I guess the back basket was lost at that time. Xiao An looked flustered, he raised his eyes to look at his mother's face, and saw that she heard that the back basket was lost, and her face became gloomy.

The back basket is the food of the pigs, and the two pigs in the family are one of the important economic sources of the family.

"Where did you lose it, take me back to find it!" The woman turned around, walked home, took out an old-fashioned flashlight from behind the dilapidated wooden door, hurried out of the house, grabbed Xiao An's arm, and said, "Xiao An, those two pigs in our family haven't eaten tonight, they are all screaming hungry in the pigsty, and we must find the basket tonight." ”

"Mom" Xiao An was tightly grabbed by the woman's arm and walked out, his thin little face showed a pleading look, "It's so late today, and the West Mountain is deserted, I'm so scared, can we go tomorrow at dawn?"

"No way!"

The woman glanced at the path illuminated by the flashlight, then turned her head to look at her son, and when she saw that he was frightened, she suddenly sighed lightly in her heart, her tone became softer, and she said slowly: "Xiao An, you are also a big child, you are a man, a man, how can you be afraid?" "But, Mom" Xiao An looked at Xishan who was wrapped in the night, and just wanted to say something, but when he saw his mother's serious look to the lips and pleaded, he swallowed it back raw, although he was a year ago, but he Xiao An was very sensible, he knew that the family was financially constrained, and the pigweed in the back basket was the life of the pig, and the pig was the life of their family.

Biting his lip, Xiao An raised his head and looked at his mother, not evading, nodding and saying, "Mom, I'll go with you." ”

"This is my good son. The woman lovingly raised her arm, gently touched her son's head, sighed, and said softly: "Xiao An, you must know that you are a man in our family, and one day you will jump on the beam of our family, man, you can't say that you are afraid." ”

Xiao An nodded heavily, looked at her mother calmly with a small face, and said: "Mom, you're right, I'm a man, I can't be afraid, I want to go to school hard, find a job in the future, earn money to support you and my father, so that my sister will no longer be tired!"

Seeing the firmness on her son's immature face, the woman's tears flowed down again, and she raised her arm and hugged her son tightly in her arms, saying, "Xiao An, you are really a good son of my mother." ”

"Ahem"

A soft cough came from the old wooden door, and in the dim light, a man with a full beard came out of the room.

The man's old face was full of wrinkles, and his cloudy eyes were full of the vicissitudes of the countryman, the man walked out of the wooden door slowly, glanced at the wife and children outside the door, coughed again, and said, "the child, what's wrong, what's wrong?"

When Xiao An saw his father come out, he ran over and supported his father, who had just recovered from a serious illness, lowered his head and said softly: "Dad, it's all my fault, when I went uphill to the west mountain to beat pigweed for the family after school this afternoon, I fell and dropped the family's back basket." ”

"Daddy, go back to bed, it's cold at night, don't freeze. When the woman saw her husband coming down from the hospital bed, she looked panicked, and hurriedly comforted: "Xiao An left the backpack on the road, we can find it when we go back and look for it, you go back and rest." ”

"Ahem" A subtle smile appeared on the man's broad face, he shook his head gently, and said weakly: "I've been lying in bed for a day, and even if I don't get sick, I'll get rid of this disease." ”

The man said, stepped forward and took the flashlight from his wife's hand, turned around and closed the wooden door, and said, "Besides, I don't worry about you two going out in the middle of the night, let's go, let's find the back basket together." ”

The woman still didn't want to, but seeing the determined look in her husband's eyes, she still sighed and glanced at him, and said, "Okay, you are the head of the family to listen to you, to be honest, Xiao An and I are really a little scared this big night." ”

"With me, it's fine. ”

The man showed a smile again, turned on the flashlight, illuminated the road under his feet, the man turned his head to look at his son who was holding him, and said, "Xiao An, you lead the way, let's get the back basket." ”

"Uh-huh. ”

Xiao An nodded heavily, pointed in the direction of Xishan, and said, "On the way back, I was knocked down by a black shadow in the grass, and the back basket should have been lost there." ”

"Then let's go over. ”

A family of three, in the night, walked to the West Mountain.

Halfway up the west mountain, Xiao An looked at his parents beside him, and the sense of fear and insecurity in his heart slowly let go, and when he walked to the hillside, he pointed to a piece of grass on the hillside and whispered: "Dad, I fell down there." ”

In the dark night, the vast grass was very silent except for the crickets, Xiao An's father heard his son's words and walked a few steps forward, sure enough, as his son said, in the grass, there was a black shadow that could not be seen clearly.

The man raised his arm, and the flashlight in his hand shone faintly to the dark shadow in the grass, and the night was very deep, and the family of three could barely see a long object lying horizontally in the grass.

"It's okay, it should be a stake. The male ** gently patted his son, comforted him, and then walked into the grass.

A basket full of hogweed lay quietly among the grass.

When Xiao An saw the back basket, it was like seeing a lost treasure, and he hurriedly ran over and picked it up.

"you, boy, let's take the stakes in the grass and go home, and when they're dried, they can be used as firewood. ”

"Uh-huh. The woman nodded when she heard her husband's help, and there was a gleam in her brow.

The family is poor, and when most of the people in the village are using gas stoves, their family of three is still using this ancient firewood stove, a piece of wood, which is enough for their family for three days.

The woman thought about what she was going to cook for the two of them tomorrow morning, and walked out into the grass.

Suddenly, a shout came out of the woman's mouth.

"Dad, Xiao An, come here!"

The man and Xiao An heard the panicked shouts and hurriedly walked over.

In the dark night, I saw a person lying quietly in the grass.

"Is it a person?!" Xiao An was stunned, and his tone was not calm, it was not a ghost or a stake that tripped him just now, it was actually a person.

"Well, this can't be a dead man, is it?"

The woman's voice trembled slightly, and in the dark night in the barren mountains, in the dark grass, there was actually a person lying down, and whoever met this matter would be terrified when he saw it.

"Don't talk nonsense. The man took a deep breath, put down the fear in his heart, he approached the grass step by step, bent down and stretched out his big thick hand on the ground on the door of the man's head, after a while, he raised his head with a touch of joy in his eyes, and said: "His head is very hot, it is estimated that a young man from a nearby village ran to this mountain during the day, caught up with a fever, and passed out here." ”

"Then, Xiao An, quick, help your dad and help him up. ”

The woman was kind-hearted, the country life was simple and simple, without the intrigues of the gang in the city, and in the middle of the night, when she saw a stranger lying in the grass, her first reaction was not to ignore it, but to ask her son to help the man up from the grass.

"Uh-huh. Xiao An nodded hurriedly, and stepped forward to help his father pick up the man on the grass.

"it, you put the bamboo basket on your back, hurry home and boil a pot of hot water, this young man has been lying here for I don't know how long, and if he burns it again, I'm afraid he will burn out." ”

When the woman heard her husband's words, she picked up the basket on the ground and walked back.

Behind him, a father and son, one big and one young, supported a figure and slowly walked back towards the village.

The bright moonlight fell on the earth, and the young man's white hair shone silver under the reflection of the moonlight.