Strange Stories

Chapter 485 Are you a fairy child from a fairy family?
"He's a woodcutter!"

The fox looked down, his eyes penetrating the clouds and mist, then turned and spoke to Lin Jue.

It was indeed a woodcutter.

He was just a teenager, very young, about ten years old, thin and thin, wearing thin clothes. He only had two badly worn old hemp ropes, a machete and a carrying pole.

The young man had just come up the mountain and was still full of energy. Singing loudly seemed like his way to encourage himself and also like his way to dispel fear and loneliness.

He sang a line loudly, walked past the stream shrouded in morning mist, sang another line loudly, walked through the mountains with dense woods, sang another line, then stopped, put down the shoulder pole and hemp rope, looked around, picked up the hatchet and started chopping wood in the forest.

The crisp sound of chopping wood echoed in the morning mist in the mountains, and each sound was soothing to the ears.

When he got tired of chopping wood, he would stop and sing a few words aloud, letting his clear voice echo in the woods, making him feel like he had someone to keep him company.

"There is a cave in this mountain. Open the door and sleep for ten years...

"There is a cloud scroll on this mountain. If you draw it, you can ascend to the ninth heaven...

"..."

It doesn't take long to chop a load of firewood, but the firewood has to be sent to the city to be sold. Although it is not the capital, it is the nearest county town to here, but it is still dozens of miles away on foot. Then carrying the firewood back requires walking dozens of miles again. This is the most difficult part.

Why go so far?
Naturally, all the mountains near the city were cut down.

Nowadays, whether it is the capital city or any other county town, as long as there are mountains around it, as long as the government does not protect it, all of them will be cut down and become bare.

Occasionally there are uncultivated mountains, which are other people's land. They are either gardens left by dignitaries, or mountains where wood merchants produce wood, or firewood mountains contracted by firewood gangs. If ordinary people want to cut wood and sell it, they have to go to the mountains dozens of miles outside the city, go there with great effort, and come back with great effort, risking the dangers of birds of prey, ferocious beasts, goblins and ghosts, in order to earn a day's worth of money to survive.

It's like this one day, every day.

The weather is getting colder, which is both a good thing and a bad thing.

It was freezing cold and no one wanted to move, especially the rich people in the city, as firewood and charcoal were expensive.

But the weather was cold and the roads were difficult to walk on. Falling was a common occurrence. In addition, the clothes they wore were thin and there was not enough food. If it were any other season, children from poor families could often find food in the mountains. In spring, there were young buds and stems of trees and grasses to eat, in summer there were berries and fruits, in autumn there were even more wild fruits, and sometimes they could catch fish to fill their stomachs. But now there was none of that.

The boy still comes day by day.

Sometimes, in a trance, he would feel that someone was watching him from the depths of the jungle and above the clouds.

Suddenly one day, he met a few people who were looking for immortals.

They were three scholars, about 20 years old. Judging from their clothes, they did not look rich, but they were not poor either. They followed his clear voice and asked him:

"My dear! What are you singing?"

"I have no idea……"

He had met many people like this since he went up the mountain to chop wood, so the young man was not afraid. He just put down his hatchet and answered awkwardly.

"This sentence came from the mouth of the young master, how could the young master not know it?" A scholar in green clothes said with a smile, "We can barely be considered as people from the capital. We heard that there are immortals in this mountain, so we came to the mountain with sincerity to look for the immortals. I see that the young master has an extraordinary spirit and is full of spiritual energy. Could he be the fairy child of the immortal family in the mountain?"

"How can I be a fairy boy?"

"That young man is..."

"I am chopping wood in this mountain..."

"Hahahaha! Fengshan is remote and it's freezing cold right now. Who did you chop wood for, young man?"

"For the firewood cut in the city..."

The boy was only ten years old and couldn't handle it all at once.

But the three of them looked at each other and smiled even more happily.

"This place is nearly a hundred miles away from the capital. We set out early yesterday morning and arrived at Niu Village at the foot of the mountain in the evening. We climbed the mountain today and will not be back until tomorrow evening. The nearest city is more than 40 miles away. Fairy boy, please don't lie to us." The white-clothed scholar smiled and said, "We are all elegant people. Since we meet, it must be fate. Please introduce me to your fairy master so that we can have tea and chat..."

"Yes!" another hemp-clothed scholar laughed, "How is this possible?"

"Haha! You said you lived in the mountains to avoid the war, that's more believable!"

When the young man heard this, he felt a sense of sadness in his heart, followed by a strong sense of inferiority and embarrassment.

What these literati thought was impossible was what he had been doing for only a few months, and before him, his father had been doing it for decades.

But he was silent for a moment, and only said:
"I am from Qingliang City at the foot of the mountain and live in Huangni Village outside the city. My family has come to Fengshan to cut firewood for generations. Now my father was captured by the court to serve as a soldier and died on the battlefield. I took over his curved sword and shoulder pole and continued to cut firewood on Fengshan. I am not a boy from a fairy family."

"what?"

A few people looked at each other and asked a few more questions before they believed it.

"Young man, since you are cutting wood in the mountains, do you know where the immortals are in the mountains?"

"I have never seen an immortal."

"This……"

The three of them looked at each other and smiled again.

"Haha, never mind. Meeting this young master is fate. Chatting with him can relieve my tiredness from climbing the mountain. We'll see each other again in the future!"

The three of them bowed and continued walking up the mountain.

The boy continued to chop wood, and when he got tired he continued to sing:

"There are magical cranes in this mountain..."

Not long after, another person came down from the mountain.

The young man thought that the three men couldn't find the immortal and couldn't walk up the mountain road, so they came back, but when he looked up, he saw that they were other people.

There were two people, one big and one small.

A man in gray, about 20 or 30 years old, with a teenage girl, stood under the snowy branches of pine trees in the mist. She bowed and smiled at him and said:
"The song sung by the young man is quite charming."

"Sir, are you here to look for immortals as well? I just came to the mountain to chop wood, and I haven't seen any immortals..." The young man put down his axe, panting, speaking timidly but fluently, "Just now, three people who were looking for immortals went up from here. If you want to look for immortals, you can go with them." "I met them, too, and they talked to me for a while." The man smiled, "I'm not here to look for immortals, I just live in the mountains, but these days, I often hear you chopping wood in the mountains, and I'm curious when I hear your voice. I happened to meet you on the road today, so I said hello while taking a break."

"You live in the mountains?"

"yes……"

The boy scratched his head and didn't find it strange.

Recently, many people have sought refuge and moved into the mountains.

"What did they tell you?"

"He didn't say anything, he just asked me how long it would take me to reach the top of the mountain." Lin Jue said with a smile.

"Oh……"

"Where did you learn the song you sing?"

"I don't know, my father sang like that, and I learned it from him." The young man was tired, and felt that this man was more approachable than the scholars who looked elegant and refined, so he stopped his hatchet and chatted with him while catching his breath. "My father said that if you are alone in the mountains, it is easy to run into leopards and tigers without making any noise, and it is also easy to get afraid of loneliness, so you have to sing and shout loudly."

"That makes sense."

"I have no idea……"

"From the way you talk, it seems like you have read books?"

"I read a few days before."

"Why don't you go to the school instead of chopping wood here?"

"Without my parents, I can't do anything else except go up the mountain to chop some firewood every day, carry it down the mountain, and sell it for some money to buy food..."

"This world..."

The man in gray stood still, but the girl behind him was quite smart, turning her head to look left and right.

The man seemed to be just passing by. After a few words, he said goodbye and walked down the mountain.

However, for a period of time afterwards, the boy often met him.

Sometimes he was alone, sometimes he was with a young girl.

Sometimes he would take a little girl around ten years old, who was quiet and gentle; sometimes he would take a girl around twelve or thirteen years old, who was always looking around, at the trees and at the sky.

Sometimes he would bring a middle-aged man and an old man or woman in their fifties or sixties, and they would look like a whole family.

Every time the two of them would talk for a few words.

Sometimes beside a stream:

"how old are you?"

"Just ten years old."

Sometimes in the mountains:

"It's getting colder."

"It's better if it's colder! The colder it is, the more expensive the firewood will be!"

"Your clothes are too thin."

"I won't feel cold while I'm working!"

Sometimes on the way up a mountain:
"Is there anyone else at home?"

"Nothing."

Sometimes in the mountains and forests where there are no roads:

“Try the scallion meat pie I made.”

"No, no, no..."

Sometimes when the snow and fog are heavy:
"Why do you keep cutting wood on this hill? I see that you have almost cut down all the small trees and side branches under the big trees on this hill."

"I can't help it. The world is in chaos now, and there are demons and ghosts everywhere. The forest in this mountain is very deep, and I'm afraid of demons and ghosts. I heard from my father that there is a dividing line between morning and evening, and there is also a dividing line in the deep mountains where the sun doesn't shine. One is the human world, and the other is the territory of demons and ghosts. I don't dare to go into the deep mountains alone. But I heard that there is a Taoist temple on this mountain, and there lives a very powerful female Taoist priest in the temple. With her here, there are no demons here."

"Then you are not afraid of wild animals?"

"I'm not afraid!" The boy was obviously afraid. "I heard from my father that tigers can see the aura of people. Anyone eaten by a tiger is a person who has done bad things. I have never done anything bad, so a tiger will not eat me just because it sees me!"

"Hahaha……"

Sometimes it's under the pine trees covered with ice crystals on a sunny day:
"You're chopping slowly today, are you being lazy?"

"You're here just in time! I caught a big fish in the creek today. I'll give it to you and return the cake you gave me last time!"

"Don't let the cold stream get too cold..."

Sometimes you will meet other people who are looking for immortals.

These immortal seekers also crave comfort and scenery. They like to come to the mountains in spring when the flowers are blooming, when it is neither too cold nor too hot. They also come in midsummer when it is scorching hot, to escape the heat. In autumn, they come when the maple trees on the mountain turn red and the forests are dyed with all kinds of colors. In winter, when it is freezing cold and the weather is bad, they come less often.

Only when the weather clears up after snow will many people come here, probably to see the snow scenery of Fengshan Mountain. Maybe they think that even gods would like to come out at this time to make tea and enjoy the scenery.

The young boy was often sought out by them for conversation because of his singing.

Sometimes, when he was talking with the man, a fairy would come and mistake him for a boy from an immortal's family.

But as time went on, the boy gradually realized something was wrong.

How come I meet him everywhere?
(End of this chapter)