How did hiring someone to press a pig image during Chinese New Year become a top trend?

As soon as the SUV door was cracked open, the sub-zero temperatures of minus thirty degrees Celsius rushed into the warm driver's cabin like a herd of startled horses.

Xu An shivered; his faded military green cotton coat instantly froze as hard as an iron plate.

He hugged the green ivy tightly, took a deep breath, and felt as if his lungs were filled with shards of glass, the pain bringing him to his senses.

Xiaoyue wanted to get off the bus, but Xu An waved her hand to stop her.

"Um... I'll go myself. Uncle Ya told me to. If there are too many people, the music won't be pure."

Xu An's voice was very soft, but it carried far in the deathly silent forest.

He stepped into the knee-deep snow, each step accompanied by a painful crunching sound from his feet.

Under the huge larch tree in front, the dark figure moved.

That wasn't someone playing the violin; it was Old Linzi using a peeled bamboo pole to mimic the movements of a huqin (a two-stringed bowed instrument).

He had no zither in his hand, only a bamboo pole and a horsehair.

But under his pull in the void, Xu An seemed to really hear that hoarse, desolate tune, like an old wolf howling in the wilderness.

That was the song "Jiang He Shui" that Uncle Ya had practiced for thirty years at the scrap yard in Xujia Village.

Xu An stopped ten steps away from the old forest. He dared not go any further, for fear of disturbing the only soul in this world.

The live stream footage was incredibly stable, with all the cameras focused on the old man wearing a dog-skin hat and covered in frost.

[ID Forest Farm Descendant]: That's a silent violin! My grandfather once said that the older generation played the violin to the point of obsession; even without the violin in their hands, they had the tune in their hearts.

[ID Harbin Conservatory of Music]: The rhythm of this section is amazing. Every movement is perfectly timed to the key points of "River Water". He is waiting for his ensemble members.

【ID Tears-Eyed Maniac】: Anzi, quickly give him the letter, I can't stand this loneliness anymore.

Old Linzi finally stopped what he was doing. He slowly raised his head, his face as rough as red pine bark, his eyebrows and beard covered with glistening icicles.

He squinted, staring at Xu An through the wind and snow, his voice hoarse as if it had been smoked for decades.

"The mute...is he dead?"

That question carried a chill that could freeze the very air.

Xu An was stunned. He swallowed hard, wanting to say that Uncle Ya was not dead and was doing well in the village.

But he suddenly realized that the "death" that Lao Linzi was talking about might not be the demise of the body, but rather the breaking of that string.

Xu An didn't speak. With trembling hands, he pulled out the letter with the erhu painted on it from the innermost pocket of his military overcoat.

To protect the letter, he even used his own body heat to warm it.

As soon as the envelope was revealed, Lao Linzi's pupils contracted sharply.

He dropped the bamboo pole in his hand, staggered to his feet, his legs and feet already numb from sitting for so long.

Xu An quickly stepped forward to help him up. In that instant, he felt as if he was supporting not a person, but a cold, hard stone.

Old Linzi didn't stand on ceremony. He rudely snatched the letter, and because his hands were so cold they wouldn't obey him, he struggled to tear open the envelope.

Xu An stood aside; his social anxiety was no longer important at this moment. He was looking at Lao Linzi's hand.

Those hands were covered in calluses, especially the area between the thumb and forefinger, just like Uncle Ya's.

The envelope was torn open, but there was no letter inside, only the silhouette of a neatly folded newspaper.

There was also a horse's tail that had been worn smooth and shiny.

That's the main string from Uncle Ya's Eight Treasure Porridge Erhu, which he's used for over ten years.

Old Linzi stared at the horse's tail, letting out a gurgling sound like a dying wild animal.

He unfolded the newspaper silhouette.

Above is an old newspaper from thirty years ago, with the headline still faintly visible: "[The lead performer of the Forestry Art Troupe lost his voice while fighting a fire; the spirit of the erhu remains forever in the deep forest]".

Below the title, there is a line of annotations written in crooked pencil:

"We haven't lost our tune. I'm in the Taihang Mountains, and you're guarding the forest. We're even."

When Lao Linzi saw these words, he suddenly opened his mouth and silently laughed at the sky.

As he laughed, two streams of turbid tears ripped across his face, which was covered in icy shards, creating two deep furrows.

"He doesn't owe me anything... He owes me nothing in this lifetime..."

Old Linzi suddenly shouted, and the sound caused a snow avalanche from the treetops in the silent forest.

"He ruined his voice trying to save me! He's a principal singer! He was supposed to be performing in Beijing!"

Old Linzi's emotions completely erupted. He gripped Xu An's shoulders tightly with astonishing strength.

"How could he stay at the junkyard? How could he play the violin with a can of congee?!"

Xu An was gripped painfully, but he didn't flinch. He just stared at the old forest, his eyes as clear as a mirror.

"Uncle Ya said he was very satisfied."

He said the wind from the Taihang Mountains smells like soybeans, which is quite refreshing.

These two simple sentences struck Lao Linzi like a heavy hammer blow to the top of his head.

In the live stream, the netizens who were still discussing musical talent suddenly fell silent.

【ID Veteran's Successor】: Chief... Scrapyard... Putting these two words together makes my heart ache unbearably.

[ID Official Culture and Tourism]: We're checking the archives! We found it! In the forest fire thirty years ago, there was a person named Li Defa on the missing persons list. Was that Uncle Ya?

【ID Xujiacun Ershu】: Anzi, tell that old man that our mute uncle is the boss in the village, and no one dares to bully him!

Old Linzi let go of Xu An, who sat dejectedly on the snow, clutching the old ponytail tightly in his arms.

That was Uncle Ya's only dignity, and now he has returned it to the person who waited his whole life.

Just then, a row of bright lights suddenly appeared in the direction of the mailroom of Hongxing Forest Farm, not far away.

Several young men in winter coats rode up on heavy snowmobiles.

"Old Lin! What are you doing sitting here again? Do you want to freeze to death here?!"

The young man in the lead shouted, and then he saw Xu An and his SUV.

He cautiously stopped his motorcycle, still holding an electric baton he used to scare away wild boars.

"Who are you? This is a restricted area. Who gave you permission to enter?"

Xu An was startled by the sudden commotion and took a step back. His social anxiety instincts made him want to hide behind the car.

Xiaoyue quickly got out of the car, grabbed her documents, and ran over.

"We're here to deliver warmth! This is Teacher Xu An from Henan, entrusted by a veteran to deliver a letter!"

The young men were stunned for a moment. The one who was in the lead walked over, glanced at the envelope in Lao Lin's hand, and his eyes softened instantly.

"A messenger?"

"Delivering a message to this strange old man?"

The young man took off his helmet, revealing a face that was blue and purple from the cold, and let out a long sigh.

"Brother, you've made a huge mistake delivering this letter."

"Old Lin's lungs are completely rotten; the doctor says he won't make it through the winter."

"He waits here every night, saying his brother is coming to play one last song with him."

Upon hearing this, Xu An abruptly looked up at the old forest.

Old Linzi had calmed down by now, and he carefully wrapped the horsehair around his wrist.

Then he turned to look at Xu An, his eyes filled with an irresistible pleading.

"Anzi...is that what you call me?"

"The mute didn't come, but he sent you."

"Could you... play a tune for me?"

Xu An's mind went blank. He couldn't even read all the sheet music. Where was he supposed to play the violin?

But as he looked at Lao Linzi's eyes, which were about to go out, and at the expectations of two million netizens in the live broadcast room, he realized that...

He reached into the canvas bag as if possessed and pulled something out.

It was an extremely well-made...phone stand.

No, it was a high-sensitivity microphone that he had taped to the sleeve of his overcoat, capable of recording audio in real time.

"I can't poop."

Xu An told the truth, but then he immediately raised his phone.

"But I brought his voice with me."

He opened the video he had secretly recorded at the Xujiacun scrap yard, which showed the mute uncle playing "Horse Racing".

Although it was only a segment, although it was the background noise of a can of eight-treasure porridge, although it was a frequency two thousand miles away.

But the moment the piano music started playing in the video...

Old Linzi seemed to have been infused with a soul; he pulled out a worn-out erhu with a broken string from his pocket.

He quickly tied Uncle Ya's ponytail to the bridge of the piano.

In the frigid forest, the wind and snow stopped.

A symphony spanning thirty years, time, and even life and death, officially began with Xu An, the "human scaffold," as its witness.

Old Linzi's piano playing was strong and powerful, like an unyielding pine tree.

In the video, the mute uncle's piano playing is melodious and gentle, like the deep earth.

The two voices collided, intertwined, and rose in the sky above the Red Star Forest Farm.

In the live stream, countless people were moved to tears.

[ID Official]: Attention all units, please protect this recording. It is a once-in-a-lifetime event in the history of national forestry.

However, just as the music reached its climax...

From the depths of the distant forest, a desolate tiger's roar suddenly echoed.

That wasn't a recording; that was the real, fury of the king of the forest.

Xu An's hand trembled, and he almost dropped his phone in the snow.

The young men patrolling the forest paled and rushed into the old forest like madmen.

"Run! It's that one-eyed tiger with the missing toe! It's come down from the mountain seeking revenge!"

That roar of the tiger seemed to shatter the swirling snow into dust.

The piano music that was originally leaping across the snow was instantly shattered by this domineering sound wave.

"Quick! Teacher Xu, get in the car!"

The young patrolman leading the group turned pale. He grabbed Xu An's arm with such force that he almost tore Xu An's military overcoat in two.

Xu An was completely stunned. Not only did the "social" string in his brain break, but even the string of survival instinct was briefly short-circuited by the tiger's roar.

This is a real tiger.

It wasn't the mangy dog ​​in Xujia Village that could only make him climb trees, nor the big orange cat in the zoo that rolled its eyes at him through the steel and concrete.

That is the king of the forest.

In the live stream, the 1.8 million viewers were so shocked by that shout that they collectively fell silent for three seconds.

[ID: Forest Elder]: Oh no! It's that one-eyed monster! It holds a grudge; the forest farm chased it away last year, and it's come back because it smelled human scent!

[ID: Number One Coward on the Entire Internet]: Anzi! Run! You can throw your phone away, your life is more important!

[Island Public Security Bureau ID]: Attention all units near Hongxing Forest Farm! Reinforcements needed immediately! Reinforcements needed immediately!

Xu An's legs were shaking so badly it felt like he was fluffing cotton, but the phone with the microphone wrapped around it in his hand seemed to be welded to his sleeve.

Because in the video, the mute uncle's piano playing hadn't stopped.