a very dark dark guard

The guard Jia carried Tao Abao on his back, and I opened the way ahead. People in the county said that the villagers of Dashanren's Grave rarely went out of the mountains, and only one person was sent out a year to buy salt, needles and thread.People who go shopping in the county seem to be dumb. They buy things by pointing and gestures, and they don't bargain.

Therefore, the people in the county knew the village well, but they felt that the villagers were mysterious and very 'lonely'.

Such a hidden village is a good place to live in seclusion.

We climbed over mountains and ridges, and finally came to the Dashanren Tomb Village built in the valley.

The mountain road is steep and difficult, and it can be seen that no one usually walks.

I roughly counted the number of houses in the village on the hillside, and there are about thirty families.

Every family has a fenced yard, and free-range chickens wander in the village. Dogs bark from time to time, and the closer we get, the louder the barks become.

There are very few foreigners in the village. As soon as we arrived at the entrance of the village, two young people stepped forward and stopped us.

"Who are you?" The young man's dark skin glowed with oil, and he stared at us unkindly.

"Guests from afar, go to the village to find someone." The guard Jia replied, "Both brothers, do you know an old man named Tao Qing? Oh, maybe you call him Tao Baye."

"No such person."

"do not know."

The young man answered without thinking.

"He has crippled legs and is in his early sixties," I added.

"never seen it."

"do not know."

The two denied it in unison.

"Then... it's getting dark. We finally came here. It's too dangerous to turn back and go over the mountains in the dark. Is there any place in the village where we can stay? Don't worry, we will pay for food, drink and lodging." The guard Jia smiled and walked away. He took out a piece of broken silver from his pocket and handed it to the young man.

There was only one piece of silver, but there were two people in front of him. One of the young men remained unmoved, while the other reached out to take the piece of silver and said, "Come to my house."

His 'greedy' behavior earned him stares from his companions.

When the guard Jia saw a breakthrough, he immediately opened up the chatter box, and Tao Abao, who was behind him, said: "This is a poor baby. There is really no one in the family. His grandfather is Tao Baye's brother. If Baye doesn't care, then this baby I can only live on the streets and beg."

Poor children are easy to evoke people's sympathy. Tao Abao is young and cute. If he lives on the street begging, whether he is dead or alive, it will be embarrassing.

"Then who are you?" The young man led the way, while his companion kept watching us with vigilant eyes.

"A passing businessman, if you meet him, please help him. If you want to take in an orphan, but it's not that my young wife can't afford to feed him, but after all, blood is thicker than water. No matter how sympathetic an outsider is to him Wouldn't it be better to be close to your own elders?"

The young man nodded and hummed. He agreed with what the guard Jia said.

The guard Jia approached each other step by step, and when they reached the door of the young man's house, the atmosphere of chatting had eased.

The young man called 'Mother' outside the door, and a blind old woman walked out of the house holding the door frame.

"Ah Yi is back?" The old woman groped her way to the courtyard following the route she was familiar with.

The young man hurriedly opened the courtyard door and walked over to help the old woman, speaking in a much softer tone: "Grandma, there are two businessmen passing by and staying at our house tonight."

"Excuse me, old man!" The guard Jia also stepped forward, no matter whether the old man could see or not, he bowed his hands in salute.

"Don't bother, don't bother, please come in." The old woman asked the young man to pour two bowls of sugar water, expressing embarrassingly that their house has no tea to entertain guests, and asked us to drink some sugar water to rest our feet.

Interacting with people is often the specialty of the guard Jia. He put Tao Abao down, and when the young man went to pour water, he helped the old woman sit back on the bed.

There were only two rooms in their house, and there was a wooden single bed next to the old lady's bed.

Presumably the old woman was blind, and her grandson was afraid that it would be inconvenient for her to drink water at night, so he built a simple bed beside her bed.

The other room should be the place where the young man used to live. There was only an empty bed board and no bedding on the bed.

It can be seen that the life of the old and the young is very poor, and there is nothing in the house that is not worn out, and there are as many patches on the quilt as if there are hundreds of quilts.

One of the legs of the bench had been replaced with a thick branch, most of the wall covering had fallen off, and the water tank was missing a large opening.

A penny stumps a hero, no wonder the young man accepts the money from the guard Jia and becomes a 'traitor' in the eyes of his companions.

The young man who was walking behind us didn't follow into the courtyard. He went to the courtyard next door, which should be his own home.

The guard Jia didn't say a few words, and made the old lady laugh, and asked the grandson to entertain us with the best things.

Talking about good things, they are actually a few eggs. Presumably, the grandparents and grandchildren saved them for money or gifts.

After another meal, the guard Jia gained the trust of the old lady and recognized us as good people.

Of course, it is also due to Tao Abao, who politely called "Mother-in-law is good", and thanked the old man for letting us stay overnight.

The old lady thought that with such a cute and sensible child going out, we must not be bad people.

And Tao Abao is not like the two of us kidnapped here.

After the meal, Jia, the guard, helped clear the table while inquiring about Mr. Tao's news.

The old lady nodded and said, "Yes, there is a repairman surnamed Tao in the village, who has wooden feet on his legs."

The guard Jia told Tao Abao what had happened, and the old lady wiped away her tears, saying that the baby had suffered so much and was really pitiful.

She asked her grandson Yi to show me the way and lead me to a repairman named Tao.

A Yi led me to the door of a family. It was a bit dark at the moment, and there was a fire in the yard, and an old man was sitting by the fire, repairing a broken wooden barrel.

His feet are wooden feet carved from wood. The wooden feet only wear shoes but no socks, so they can be distinguished at a glance.

It is not uncommon for people who are good at magic to make things like mechanisms.

Some magicians also make puppets that look like real people.

"Baye Tao? My surname is An. Something happened to Fifth Master Tao. I will send his grandson, Abao, to visit his relatives." The gate of the courtyard was not closed, but I still stood outside the door, first reporting my family name and expressing my intention to come.

"How did you find this?" The old man didn't stop what he was doing, and he didn't even look up at me.

"A Bao's longevity lock was opened by someone, but I snatched it back first. The person didn't see the note hidden in the lock. The note said the grave of the great good man, so I took A Bao to find it."

"who are you?"

"A businessman who was planning to open a shop in Huacheng happened to pass by Taojia Village. He found that the Tao family was in distress and the village was slaughtered. Only Abao escaped and hid in the mud in the field. He was rescued by me and my followers. Only wearing the longevity lock."

"A businessman who knows martial arts?"

"I'm tired of fighting and killing, I'm just a quack who wants to abandon his military and go into business."