The empty shell

What caught my eye were some empty shells: cicada shells, snake molts, snails, spiders, grasshoppers, scorpions, lizards ....... These empty shells are not a lot, but here and there, scattered, looks very conspicuous. For example, the snake moult, although only an empty shell, but thin as cicada wings, transparent as paper, with exquisite lines and colorful patterns, although some broken holes, but the body is light and floating, can see through the network of patterns, the empty shell behind the branches, grass, buds, it seems that even the bones, muscles are clearly visible; and then the snail, although only an empty shell, but it seems to see the soft snail from the spiral pattern of the round shell The snails, for example, were only empty shells, but it seemed that the soft snails could be seen crawling out of their round spiral shells, looking around and probing. I think, these gorgeous and handsome empty shells, if worn on their owners, how magical and wonderful, and how much people like and excited. It's just that, because they are used to seeing human faces, the faces of these empty shells look strange and ugly. These empty shells, although hidden, or tree branches, or grass, or stone gaps, or poolside ....... But I found them, but where are the owners of these empty shells? Where did they go? Why do they molt? Is it to shed the old clothes and put on new ones, just like people?

Two

This is a rich and fertile hillside: green grass, blue trees, red flowers, streams, rocks, blue sky, white clouds, ponds, and wild hawthorn trees, wild grapes, wild mulberry trees, etc. Not far away, there is a small village surrounded by mountains and water. In fact, when I think about it, this hillside used to be my childhood paradise. Now, decades have passed, the hillside is still the same, the grass is still the same, the red flowers are still the same, but weeds, undercurrents, barren and depressed ---- village people, especially young people, the next generation of young people, the next generation of people, have gone to the city. Work to earn money, take a wife and children, buy a house and settle ...... become a new generation of urbanites; the village, in addition to some elderly people in their old age, almost became an empty shell; and the hillside, sheep do not come, cattle do not come, horses do not come, mowing children, long gone. Wind, rain and snow, cold and summer, for decades, the slope of the weeds grow wild, the human trail is increasingly rare, the flora and fauna sound and lush, latent growth, so that this side of the originally very quiet slope, more and more quiet and lonely.

Three

The empty shells in front of us are from this slope; and the original owners of the empty shells are none other than the worms. This rich and fertile slope not only provides a good living environment and a beautiful habitat for the worms, but also provides an inexhaustible source of food for the worms. Right now, human beings are suffering from the new crown virus and ravages, however, in this paradise like hillside, I do not know there is Han, regardless of Wei and Jin, fancy clothes and food, feast, perhaps, this is the worms every day carefree and happy life. But now, in addition to these empty shells, the original owner of the empty shells - where are the worms in the end? I wandered the hillside, looking carefully, and I really found it. It turns out that these bugs, after a gorgeous turn, will be long gone, only to molt down the shells and skins, thrown on the hillside, floating in the wind, and then gradually disappear in the long river of years. I am very impressed that these bugs, it seems, have mastered the magic of shedding their shells without training, skillfully shedding their shells and then growing new ones to undergo the weather and receive the searching eyes.

Four

Now, I am carefully watching a cicada shed its shell. Although last night's storm was already a memory, a brown cicada was choosing its own path in the morning light, clinging to a willow tree, trying to crawl upward, and when the first beam of sunlight hit its back, I saw, as if a sharp sword had pierced the cicada's shell, and the cicada's heart fluttered violently, as if a new feeling was sprouting, growing and spreading inside it. The cicada's heart trembled violently, as if a new feeling was sprouting, growing and spreading in its body, tantalizing it with restlessness, as if something was going to happen, it was tense with anticipation, its body was slowly expanding, as if countless hands were tearing and lifting it. Suddenly, a fresh and mysterious pain comes to it, and the cicada struggles to get rid of it and poke its head out. I heard the thin wings of the cicada rustling in the wind, and the whole world fell beneath it. I was so fascinated by it that I suddenly remembered something from my childhood. It turns out that the cicadas that shed their shells grow up and then mate and lay their eggs. And the eggs, after growing up, become worms, which we call robins. In other words, the robin is the larva of the cicada. At that time, we were too young to know how the larvae of cicadas came to be, except that in summer, at dusk, these larvae burst out of the ground and crawled to the nearby trees or the fence in the yard, and the next morning, after shedding a layer of skin, the larvae became cicadas. The larvae are characterized by their small, irregularly rounded mouths and thin edges, and the children are almost always masters at touching the larvae of the robin. Every day at dusk, we came to the tree early, as soon as we saw a newly dug hole under the tree, we used our fingers to probe into it, and the larvae's front claws would hook the person's fingers, and were then brought out. You can also go up the tree to touch it. When it is getting dark and the cicada insects have climbed up the tree but still stay at the roots of the tree, use your hand to touch them from around the tree. If you are lucky, you can touch many of them, and if you are unlucky, you will catch a scorpion and your finger will be stung severely. After catching the larvae of cicadas, you can go home and soak them in salt water and eat them, or you can fry them for a fresh and delicious taste.

Five

There is a natural pond on the hillside, which is filled with water when it rains, and even if it doesn't rain, the pond is still filled with water. When the breeze passed by, the waves glistened. Early that morning, after the rain, the sun was shining, I wandered around the pond and was surprised to find that there were snails here. Not one, but many, one, two, three. These snails, only the size of corn grains, after the sun and rain, the snails have long fled, leaving only these empty shells. These snail shells, empty, light, not a bit of life. And these empty shells, in the end is the snail shed, or snails left after death? Confused, but unexpectedly found that there are a few snail shells, not empty, but there are snails from the shell. I could barely see its real face, but there were only two small points. This snail, crawling out of its shell, seemed to be exploring the way forward, seemed to be sucking the moist breath from the land, and seemed to be sucking the crystal dew on the tip of the grass leaves in the morning, carrying their exquisite shells, a soft Boneless, wet and smooth look, seems to walk, seems to move, extremely slow movement, let people anxious. There was another snail, so small that it seemed to be able to fly a long way with just one breath. But the shell on the back of this snail, although light, but for it, is a heavy burden. Perhaps, because of the heavy burden, so it moves slowly. Another snail came into view. It was a snail in a hurry, and the shell on its back was now deeply brown, making me feel its long-established solidity. The late autumn rain had activated its vitality, and from time to time it crossed the ochre-red soil and the green grass, the rain-washed ground shining brightly, and it had come out of a long line. Or to visit friends? The world of snails, how can people know. However, there are always snails that suffer for no reason, and their hard shells cannot protect them, and a long journey may mean a quick slide to the end. Where it comes from, where it is going, survival or death, it does not seem to be concerned, but openly face, through the wind and rain, tenacious survival and reproduction, footprints at least across this slope, generations, living firmly in this colorful world. I know that in the world of insects, the snail is the most unsuitable for walking, it has no feet and no claws, but it is a determined trekker, even if the body instead of the foot, but also to come out of a road belonging to their own. The snail in front of me, it may be the older of the species, walking more slowly, but to support it, should be a devout heart. Perhaps, only the heart is sincere, and then a long way, it does not matter. Facing the snail, I thought of Lao Tzu, he never rejected the disadvantages, because he knew that humble actually can not hide the noble, low-lying may mean abundant. This snail, although it is slow, but the will is firm, do not retreat, firmly towards another piece of grass.

VI

Now, what came into my sight was an empty snake shed, locally called snake skin. In my mind, snakes have always been known for their evil, cursed by God and feared by man. The story in the Bible says that the snake instigated Mary to steal the forbidden fruit, so that people know the style of men and women, so God cursed the snake, so that the snake has no hands, no feet, can not take food, can not walk, only crawl with the abdomen against the ground. And in the countryside, there is traditionally "once bitten by a snake, ten years afraid of the well rope" saying. In detail, the reason why people are afraid of snakes, because snakes are cold-blooded animals, cold and ruthless, snakes bite people, never leave no mercy. And people, perhaps warm-blooded animals, it is not moving, passionate, passionate. Snakes and people, the contrast is strong, too big contrast. Therefore, people are afraid of snakes, snakes are also afraid of people. But because the snake has been cursed by God, so the snake's life, are living a lonely life of God. After the death of the snake, no one mourns, and shall not be buried, but can only be hidden in the snake cave. And the molted skin can only hang on the thin and bony date thorns, and then disappear like dung and air. The empty shell of the snake in front of me, although dry and thin, a little broken, but the pattern of fish scales, very clear. I know that there are no big snakes such as pythons in this place, and there are very few poisonous snakes, the most common are green snakes and flower snakes, which are not big and do not seem to be a threat to people, and they look very beautiful, even children are not afraid, adults are not afraid of snakes, the strange thing is that this seems to be a recently molted snake skin, why should it hang on the branch of the date spur? I think the reason why this snake skin, or snake shed, is hanging on the date thorn is perhaps because the snake, which is not large, wants to use the power of the date thorn to help it shed its skin. If that's the case, it seems that the snake molting is not an easy task, but a very painful one. In this way, my fear of snakes has shrunk a lot.

Seven

Of course, in addition to these empty shells on the hillside, there are many small creatures. They constitute a good original ecology of the hometown, making the hometown wilderness full of vitality. Although they are hiding in a hidden place, but still I saw, one of them is the dragonfly. Dragonflies have always been loved by people, especially those who dance and write. One example is Yang Wanli's poem "A dragonfly is standing on its head". The poet's descriptions of springs, shady trees, lotus flowers, and small ponds are a great expression of his love for natural scenery, and the handsome and playful image of dragonflies is even more striking. It can be said that the small can be seen in the big, both the form and the spirit. And this one dragonfly in my eyes, two big eyes, big and clear, head is tile blue tile blue, size is almost half finger head big, thick tail, bending due to fatigue, sometimes pointing water, sometimes flying -, because of this dragonfly, the mountains and fields become calm and beautiful. Another small flying creature is the moth, which we call "lamp moth." It is very easy to catch, put a kerosene lamp with a glass cover, people do not care, moths will automatically fly, towards the glass cover, and in a short time, there will be a pile of moths under the light, dense, shocking to the eye. I remember the idiom of "moths fluttering to the light, self-destruction", but what I remember more is that the moths are extinct, how can there be so many moths on this hillside? Perhaps, as long as it is summer night, as long as there are lights, or light, there will definitely be moths, "extinction" but not "death", moths, how to do it? And how can there be moths on this hillside, which is rarely visited? Is it the attraction of the moonlight? Is it the ripples of the water? It is really a mountain secret worthy of deep thought and exploration.

Eight

"The song of insects and birds is most relevant to the season." In just a few days after autumn, crickets are singing in the grass with their wings. In ancient times, crickets were called "weaving". The poem "Autumn Night" by Xie Gou, a poet of the Southern Dynasty, says: "In the autumn night, the crickets are singing, and the southern neighbors are pounding their clothes." When autumn comes, the weather is getting cooler every day, and the crickets are chirping on the day when they are weaving and sewing cold clothes quickly; the poem by Lu You of the Southern Song Dynasty makes it clearer: "Bugu Bugu can persuade plowing, and promote weaving can promote weaving." The cricket's crisp and pleasant chirping has always been a favorite. The old saying goes, "The birds are calling for their friends' voices." The male crickets sing their songs in search of a mate, while the female crickets, when they hear the sound, naturally sing and whisper, as if they were lovers' whispers. Crickets are also a good medicine. It is warm in nature, pungent and salty in taste. It has a beneficial effect on water and relieves fever. Mr. Lu Xun wrote in his article "Father's Disease": "My father was suffering from edema, and the doctor prescribed a pair of crickets, with the side note: the original pair, that is, the original in an arena. "The first thing you need to do is to get a good idea of what you are getting into. The tree, and a lizard lizard empty shell child. I used the method of following the vine, following the empty shell to find, not far away, indeed saw a lizard is crawling fast. The local people call it "scorpion tiger." The lizard behavior is stealthy, agile, long patterns, and a wary eye, but is a very good friend of mankind, I worked in the mountains during those years, thanks to the lizard, to help me reduce the bite of mosquitoes and insects, every night, when I ambled to the desk, inadvertently, will find the window glass, there is a lizard, is crawling on the glass window, sucking flies and other small insects. I never thought I would see a lizard on this remote hillside. It is said that the unique skill of the lizard is to grow again with broken limbs, which we have heard for a long time, I remember when I was cutting grass on the hillside when I caught the scorpion tiger, the scorpion tiger also desperately struggling to escape from the hands of people, not waiting for the children to cut their tails with a sickle, they will break off on their own, bite off the tail and escape, the children can only be greatly disappointed.

Nine

There is another kind of insect, black in color, called black insects, with a hard shell, with soft wings underneath, when the willows on the hillside just sprouted, these black insects, flying from nowhere, swarming on the willow branches, catching them is easy, as long as the trunk with a kick, they have fallen to the ground, do not move, very good at playing dead. Children scramble to put them into bottles and take them home to feed the chickens, rural children, experienced a lack of food and clothing years of hardship, even to catch bugs, but also often closely linked to food and clothing. There is another kind of bugs, called Lao Dao Er, when playing on the sandy land, you will see a lot of small wine-glass-like pits, which are smooth and neat, silent, and occasionally a grasshopper or flying insect will slide down into it, and soon there is no trace of it, while we recite the words: "Lao Dao Er, Lao Dao Er, I'm sending you meat to eat." While copying with the hand to the depths of the sand, the small wine goblet came to hand, the sand flowed away from the fingers, and finally left a small gray soft-bodied crawler in the palm of the hand, this bug is called Lao Daoer, also called Lao Lao backwards, because it always walk backwards, put it on the sand, it quickly backwards, and soon formed a nest, it also disappeared. Its head, there are two very hard pincers, other small insects fall into its trap, will inexplicably die, in fact, it is pulled into the soil and eaten.

Ten

In fact, there are many more insects on the hillside, and the ones that caught my eye were only a small part of them. For example, spiders. In late autumn, the spiders were frozen to death in their webs, dried out, their shells empty and transparent, and the robins and moths on their webs were eaten empty and blown back and forth by the wind. Then there are the ants. Not one, but thousands, in swarms. Black, tiny, behind the ants, are white eggs the size of grains of rice, one by one, basking together, no doubt, perhaps tomorrow, or the day after, these ant eggs, will stand out and become a real ant. And then there are the trees, where the birds have abandoned their nests, leaving only a large empty shell, and the birds have flown to nowhere! And earthworms. As long as you see a grain of wet soil on the ground, spiral-like twisted together, you know there must be earthworms working under the ground. Xunzi said, "The earthworm has no claws and teeth of the sharp, strong bones, up to eat the earth, down to drink the yellow spring, the intention of one." Meaning, with the dedicated drilling and deep plowing, will be able to achieve extraordinary achievements. Perhaps, the worms are with the spirit of earthworms to create a piece of their own world, write their own charming idyllic scenery. There is a stone by the pond, there is a scabby toad lying on the stone, or sunbathing, or closed eyes, or open a big eye squinted into a slit, "flutter", jumped into the water, then water droplets splashed, water waves shaking. Scabby toad look ugly, it is difficult to make people feel good, a green and yellow scabies full of venom, children do not dare to catch it, afraid of its body venom, which in turn has become a scabby toad to survive the magic. Although the toad does not have a shell, but it will be perverted, first a group of black tadpoles, small, wagging their tails in the pond, after a rain, after another rain, tadpoles out of the front legs, hind legs, fading tail, into a toad, staring at a pair of big watery eyes. At this point, I was amazed to find that the pond, which was empty, was full of little creatures out of thin air, life out of nothing. Something comes out of nothing. Perhaps the scabbard toad is an example.

Eleven

For many years, these small creatures have been tenaciously surviving here, although this place has been hit by fires, drought, floods, sandstorms, and even human destruction, but the bugs do not seem to care, I do my own thing, self-perpetuating, even if they make a person's shadow is not, they never feel desolate and lonely, but happy life, the magical existence, things to gather, things to compete, perhaps, this is the bug's The world of wonder. But these bugs, because they lack ornamental and economic value, are rarely noticed, but I have a great passion for them and a great respect for nature. The world of bugs is secretive and magical, and extremely large, and no one knows their past lives. For example, how many years have the snails survived on this hillside, a hundred years, a thousand years, or ten thousand years, and before that, whether there were humans first, or snails first, this hillside, is the original residence of the bugs, or migrated from somewhere else; these bugs, are independent, or pulling family, in the form of family or race... ...These are both unknown to humans and secret to worms. Some people say that worms are small and insignificant, seemingly smaller than a dewdrop or a wave, but I think that when millions of worms converge together, they can gather a majestic power. What the worms do is to eat and drink the dew, to be quiet and calm, to guide and exhale, and to prolong life. I would like to be a worm, in my lifetime, to contribute a little power, a little light, even if it is as insignificant as a worm, to the hillside and the land under my feet. Now, I have found the owners of these empty shells, but there are also some empty shells whose owners have not been found. I believe that on this quiet hillside, these bugs that have shed their outer clothing and become empty shells are small, but they are not in a hurry to grow up, perhaps they are already very old, no longer young and youthful, but still as big as a fingernail, and although no one is deliberately taking care of them, they are also surviving well, and for generations reproduce, live and die.

Twelve

There is a saying that the soul is out of the body. Perhaps, these insects will have their souls out of their bodies and become immortal. From this point of view: all those who have left are their intelligent and handsome souls; and those left behind are only these floating and empty shells. Originally thought that these empty shells are just empty shells, no use at all. I did not expect that these empty shells have their own use. In my memory, they are good herbs, such as the crickets that appeared in Mr. Lu Xun's writing; such as cicada shells, snake sheds, etc., are commonly used in herbal stores; even the scabby toad, people use the principle of attacking poison with poison to take its useful ingredients to cure people of difficult diseases. I did not expect that these seemingly empty shells, but it is with the world, and beneficial to people.