Plague Doctor

In the desert city, rural areas are very sparsely populated, and most young people enter the city or work south, while the elderly still hold on to this ancestral land.

The village of Beidian, Yunlin Town, Marwan District, is such a village. The villagers settle along the river and cultivate a small amount of agricultural land. The rest of the land is almost entirely wasteland, some of which can grow a little weed, but most of it has been desertified for a long time, and the fields cannot be planted and pasture cannot be grazed.

But this is also the place where, over the decades, there have been some new landscape changes as a result of policy support.

If you look from the sky, you'll see a little bit of green in the wasteland outside the village, a forest planted with trees.

For others, tree planting festival is once a year, but for Wang Fuhou, aged 79, tree planting season is two times a year, and trees are handled every day.

Early in the morning, before dawn, Wang Fuhou woke up in the chirping sound of the birds. The couple lived in a small brick house in the woodland. He and his wife have been used to it since the first 50 acres of wasteland were contracted more than 30 years ago and now more than 200 acres of land have been planted.

“Honey, honey.” Wang Fuhou woke up and had a wife of 77 years old, Zhang Maidong, "woke up, we still have a busy day. ”

“Look at you stubborn old man, this old man is not tired...” Zhang Maidong seemed to complain, “I can't afford to...”

“Huh.” Wang Fu Hoole got up first, “we haven't read a book, but we also know the story of Dumb Mountain migration. This tree needs to be planted, otherwise the land will be deserted. What about future generations? We just want to live a few more years, a lot of trees. ”

“Well, the state praises you, I know.” Zhang Maidong takes pleasure in the road.

Wang Fuxiang's old face suddenly blossomed with laughter. The couple were recognized by the city for the tree-planting festival, which had just passed this year, and were interviewed in the news. It's said that planting trees is a hot spot in the country, one is the Sky Machinery Bureau and the other is planting trees to green the environment.

The planting of trees does not make much money, it takes a lot of people, sometimes it takes large machinery; the planting period is too short to do it on its own, so it has to hire people; there is also water pouring, repair, etc. to invest in costs, just breeding seedlings, dead leaves of dead branches, 30 mu speed to make some money, tens of thousands of yuan a year, the state subsidy point, can sustain life. All three of their children already had families, and grandchildren sometimes came and went, after all, young people did not want to face the wasteland all day long.

Said that it was impossible to think about livelihoods at all. Wang Fuhou was also thinking about making some money when he started this contract.

But one that's been planted for so many years, it's really getting emotional.

Wang Fuhou knew that his wife was just the mouth of a knife. The wasteland turned into woodland and planted trees for so many years. He wasn't the only one who ate it.

Thirty years ago, there was no electricity, no water, no roads, no nothing, just a wasteland. It was they who personally tidied the ground a little bit and planted the seedlings, pine trees, national acacia trees, sapling willow trees, quick-breed yang... watched the trees grow a little bit, watched this wasteland green oil oil.

“How many more acres shall we contract to plant trees? Next year the country will have to pay tribute to me. ”

“Oh, shit! Then you live a few more years, I live a few less years. ”

Having fun with his old wife again, Wang Fuhou put on his coat, put on his old man's hat and walked out of this little brick house.

The sky was bright and the cries of the birds in the woods were louder. Wang Fuhou stepped on a pile of land that had fallen leaves and walked slowly through the woods he had planted. On this Spring Festival, trees grow new branches, and those green colors make him look really refreshing.

“It's refreshing.” Wang Fuhou had never attended school or read a book, and he could say that he didn't know many words, but the reporter who came to interview him that day kept telling him that word, which was a good one. When I think of my age, I can be on the news all my life, can be praised by the state, and the smile of the elderly is even bigger.

My whole life, it's not as if I'm confused.

“No, I really have to contract dozens more acres.” Wang Fuxiao pondered, but the idea had just arisen, and he stepped on a dead branch and almost one twisted, and his legs felt painful. "This leg and leg were not angry.” The old man sighed distressingly, his leg was either sick or old.

“Alas!" he remembered that he was able to do all the heavy work himself and had no problem climbing trees to fix branches, and now walking was getting harder and harder.

People are getting older, but this tree is getting taller.

Wang Fuhou walked towards the "Fuhou Tree", one of the earliest trees they had planted, the acacia tree, and the thick trunk had made them unable to hold hands together. Every time Wang Fuhou walks in the morning, he goes over there to look at it and hug the tree, it's like one of their children.

“... where's the tree? ”

Now, however, Wang Fuhou's old face stood still, looking at the slightly sparse woods surrounding him. This part of the place he had walked hundreds of times was a bit strange.

He's too familiar with the road. This is the road he drove out of. He can walk anywhere with his eyes closed. But now he should have walked to Fu Hou Tree, but he seemed lost. He didn't see the heavenly pine tree, and some other trees were gone.

“This, where is this?” Wang Fuhou couldn't figure out for a moment that there was no place like this in his own 200 acres of woodland.

Incorrect tree distance. Incorrect tree distance! Why are there so many trees missing?

Stolen? Wang Fuhou flashed through this thought, suddenly a panic and anger, but the thought felt impossible, the tree cutting could not be quiet, if you want to rob so many trees overnight, it is even more unlikely that they will not be able to quarrel, and there are no traces on the ground and no tree stumps...

It's weird. It's weird.

Wang Fuxiao doubted that he had taken another journey forward, but blamed it on the fact that the forest ahead had not changed. He walked a further journey back to make sure that the 30-meter range of his Fuxiao tree had changed. He went back to that range and found that not only were the trees scarce, but there were also no young leaves in those trees.

All of these trees are dead, some of them even cracked, as if they were going to collapse at any moment.

And the land underfoot, it seems, is getting coarser and blacker than it was decades ago.

“What's going on...” Wang Fuhou muttered in front of another acacia tree, stretching out his right hand full of calluses to press the trunk cracked by the bark.

The old man's eyes suddenly widened, his old face full of wrinkles burst into fright, only to see his hands directly into the trunk of the tree, just as he penetrated the water, distorted water, but the old man immediately felt a great pain, his whole body seemed to be burning, about to explode, “Honey, honey...! ”