Fang Jie waved his hand to signal the team to move on, and he left the brigade with his entourage and headed towards the dilapidated village. Fang Jie stopped when he was still a hundred meters away, telling everyone to stop and he walked towards the old man alone. Shen Qingfan and Zhuo Buyi planned to follow, but Fang Jie shook his head to indicate no.
When he got closer, Fang Jie took a closer look at the old man who was fishing on the platform of the well. He couldn't tell the exact age of this man. There was not a single gray hair or beard, but the beard was already hanging down to his chest. Looking at his face, he seemed to be in his fifties, but Fang Jie always felt that this person should be very old.
The old man was wearing a coarse cloth gown, very simple without any accessories, the clothes were also plain, although very old but very clean. He sat there holding his fishing rod with his eyes closed, as if he had fallen asleep. Because the mouth of the well was not very big, the fishing rod was raised very high, and the fishing rod remained motionless as if embedded in a stone statue.
Fang Jie glanced at the fluttering blowing willow branches, his eyes were even more surprised.
Even if the fishing line is baited, it will still shake when the wind blows, but not only does the old man remain motionless, even the light fishing line remains motionless.
Fang Jie didn't get close to the old man, and sat down on a broken wall about three meters away. He didn't speak, but just quietly watched the old man sleep.
After sitting like this for more than half an hour, the old man slowly opened his eyes, glanced at the bottom of the well and sighed: "It seems that I will get nothing again today..."
When he opened his eyes, he seemed to realize that Fang Jie was not far away: "Hey, it's not that I caught nothing, I didn't catch what I wanted to catch, but I caught a young man with a sign."
Only then did Fang Jie get up, walked over and bowed to salute: "I have seen you, senior."
The old man turned to look at him: "What are you doing?"
Fang Jie replied, "Curiosity."
"What are you curious about?"
Fang Jie said: "The junior is curious about what you are fishing for, senior, so I dare not spare senior Qingjing and just sit and watch."
The old man asked, "If I don't talk to you, don't you talk to me?"
Fang Jie nodded: "I just want to see what you can catch in the end, so it doesn't matter whether you say anything or not. If I haven't seen what you caught when I have to leave..."
"Will you stay and continue watching?"
The old man interrupted him to ask.
Fang Jie shook his head: "It's just a momentary curiosity. Even if you don't catch anything, the junior still has to go. I see a beautiful place and I will stop and linger, but there is no one who just stays here and never leaves. Idea. Less than three miles away is the big camp, you can sit here and fish in a dry well, I would be surprised if I am not interested.”
"How do you know it's a dry well?"
the old man asked.
Fang Jie smiled and replied: "No one from the camp came here to fetch water, but to transport it to a farther place. If the soldiers are not afraid of disturbing you, it can only mean that the well is dry. Two days I didn't see you here when I entered the camp before, and the soldiers didn't come here to fetch water. And the reason why you are here today, maybe you are fishing for me... Now that you hang the pole and release the line, the younger generation knows it well It is possible that my mouth has been hooked and I want to come up and take a look."
"Ha ha."
The old man laughed loudly: "You are a young man with confidence... Do you think I am catching you?"
Fang Jie shook his head: "I'm not sure, so let's take a look. If you don't say anything until I plan to leave, it means you're not catching me."
"It seems to make sense."
The old man glanced at Fang Jie: "I come here to fish every day. You can't see me not because I'm not here, but because you haven't seen me. Or maybe you looked over but couldn't see me."
This is nonsense, but Fang Jie seems to have sensed some deep meaning.
"As for whether I fished you or not, it doesn't matter, because you have already come."
When the old man was talking, he was still holding the fishing rod in his hand, his hand was still as steady as a rock, and the fishing line was still stretched very straight.
"It seems that you are not fishing for me, I am just passing by."
Fang Jie shook his head: "The younger generation bids farewell."
The old man said: "Someone told me that you are a different kind. Your mood is too old and it doesn't seem to be precipitated by the years. The wiser you are, the less you pay attention to the stability of your mind when you are young. It is mostly due to the exposure of the front rather than the Tibetan front. You young man When it should be exposed, when it should be exposed, when it should be hidden, it looks like a monster who has practiced the Tao."
Fang Jie's heart skipped a beat, and he clasped his fists together: "Senior, do you have any advice?"
The old man was silent for a while and asked: "Do you understand what I just said, you haven't seen me these days, is it because you didn't mean to look this way?"
…
…
The old man pointed to a stone on the opposite side: "Since you are not in a hurry, sit down and talk with me for a while. I have been fishing here for seven days, but I still haven't caught anything. Sitting every day is quite boring. After sleeping and waking up, I finally met an interesting young man, and I couldn't let him go easily."
Fang Jie smiled and sat down opposite: "Please teach me, senior."
The old man glanced at him, and pointed to some broken stones on the ground in front of Fang Jie: "Can you do one thing for me first?"
"What?"
"Those gravels are too messy. I have endured looking at them for a long time, but I can't move, so I can only look at them. The more I look at them, the more uncomfortable I have to force myself not to look at them. But the more I stop looking at them, the more I feel blocked. You can arrange the broken stones in whatever pattern you want, just stop making such a mess."
Fang Jiexin said that this is a typical obsessive-compulsive disorder, why can't this old man move
Although the old man's request was strange, Fang Jie still bent down to pick up the gravel. He was silent for a while, and then arranged the gravel neatly in a square formation on the ground, very regular, very careful, and square. , horizontally and vertically. After finishing the display, he asked the old man: "How is it now?"
The old man was a little annoyed and said: "Why do you have to arrange it so neatly again? I feel even more uncomfortable."
Fang Jie was slightly taken aback, then nodded and scrambled the stones, and placed them again, this time he placed a word. His last name is Fang.
The old man seemed a little puzzled: "Why did you put a word?"
Fang Jie replied: "Just now I made a square, but seniors said it was too regular. So I put a square character. It doesn't look so regular, but it's still a square."
The old man couldn't help but glared at him: "On purpose?"
"on purpose."
Fang Jie nodded.
The old man was silent for a while and said: "You can do whatever you want, anyway, it's better to arrange everything than to mess it up. Look at this square character, what do you think?"
Fang Jie looked down and was about to shake his head when he suddenly found that the small stones that made up the square characters suddenly moved by themselves. As if there was life, Fang Xie even had the illusion that five sense organs appeared on those small rocks and smirked at him. But he knew it was an illusion, but he couldn't look away. Gradually, the stones he saw were moving faster and faster, but it still felt like the square character.
The scene in front of his eyes was gradually changing, one picture after another kept changing in front of his eyes.
On the vast land lay a child who was still in his infancy, staring at the sky in fear with his black and white eyes open. His eyes were clean and bright, so the fear in his eyes was so clearly visible. There seemed to be howling wolves in the distance, and it seemed to be the sound of killing. He couldn't speak yet, and he didn't dare to speak. He just clenched his fists and looked at the sky, not even daring to look around.
A thick and wide hand appeared out of nowhere, grabbed the baby's swaddle and lifted it up. The baby was carried by him, and the man began to walk forward. As he moved his arms back and forth as he walked, the baby rocked back and forth. It was like an uncomfortable cradle, and the baby was slowly falling asleep.
Just then, the picture changed.
A little boy sat on the wall of a dilapidated yard swinging his legs back and forth, still looking up at the sky. I don't know what he was thinking, it seemed that those clear eyes were full of doubts. Someone was yelling at him from under the wall. He couldn't see the face or even tell the difference between male and female. They stood below with their hands open, as if they were afraid that the little boy would fall and fall.
Then that huge hand appeared again, grabbing the little boy's front and picking it up to walk forward. The little boy obviously lost a lot of fear this time, holding on to that hand tightly, trying hard to see what the owner of this hand looks like. But he was disappointed, the man was too tall, his face was behind the clouds, so he couldn't see clearly.
In the third scene, a boy who seems to be in his teens is being run around with a belt, the wind blowing past his ears hurts his eardrums. He seemed a little disgusted at being carried away like this, struggling for his life from time to time, but he couldn't get away no matter what. He looked back again and again to see what was chasing him, and the doubts on his face became more and more serious. Sometimes look behind, sometimes look at the sky.
In the fourth picture, a boy who already looks like a lot is walking on the snow in military uniforms, squatting down from time to time to look for something. After a long time, he finally found some traces, and a look of joy suddenly appeared on his face. He took off the hard bow from behind, and carefully aimed at a fat hare hiding behind the withered grass. After the feather arrow was shot, it flew very sideways, and the frightened hare ran away. The boy stood there staring blankly, and then said to himself, forget it, they all have the same fate. A wild wolf appeared behind him showing sharp fangs, and the boy turned his head and hit the wolf's eye socket with an arrow.
In the fifth scene, a young man riding a war horse walks on the official road, joking with people around him from time to time. They were walking and suddenly a huge shadow enveloped them, the young man raised his head and looked, and a huge city appeared in front of him. The young man was very excited and nervous, looking at the towering city wall with complicated meanings in his eyes. Not long after entering the city, the boy came out again. When he came out, he changed into a brand new brocade suit, looking very handsome. When he entered the city, there was a young eagle flying in the sky with difficulty. When he left the city, the grown eagle fluttered its wings and flew to the top of the clouds.
In the sixth scene, the already vigorous young man leads a cavalry to gallop across the field. The hares in the grass are frightened and run away, and the birds are frightened and soon disappear. He reined in his horse and saw an endless mountain range. There is a canyon in this mountain, and there seem to be many people in the canyon waving bright red flags, as if they are welcoming him or celebrating something.
In the sixth picture, the endless black-armored army is slowly moving forward along the flat official road, and the wind blows the battle flag up and down. There are too many people, the team in front has disappeared, and the team behind has not yet come into sight. There is a huge platform on the side of the official road. A general in golden armor stands on the platform and looks at his team in high spirits. He stepped down from the platform and boarded a huge chariot. The golden armor reflected dazzling brilliance in the sun.
"ah."
Fang Jie spat out a mouthful of bloody spittle, and raised his hand to wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth.
He bit his tongue himself, struggling out of the unreal that terrified him.
When he opened his eyes, nothing changed around him. The sky is still clear, his guards have been standing in the distance, the old man fishing is still sitting cross-legged on the well platform, the fishing rod is still raised high, and the fishing line is still stretched straight.
"Huh?"
The old man seemed surprised and looked at him like a monster.
"It's so strange..."
The old man couldn't help but sighed with emotion: "There is actually someone who can come out of the floating dream, and I haven't seen anyone who can resist this temptation in so many years. Everyone wants to know what the future will look like, and the more they want to see, the deeper they sink. Don't you want to see it? Don't you dare to see it? Can't you see it?"
He asked three questions in a row, but before Fang Jie could answer, he said to himself: "It's just a pity... I didn't see anything."
He looked up at the sky, his eyes full of doubts. Just like the boy in the fantasy looked up at the sky exactly the same, I don't know what he was doubting, guessing, or looking forward to.