The highest peak of Jueshan is Zhanxiantai, on which there is a tree.

There is nothing strange about having trees on a mountain. But such a huge mountain with nothing but a half-dead old tree is extremely weird.

The villagers of Juefeng Village are accustomed to this, although twenty years ago this place was still full of lush greenery.

The old people sitting around in the village often say that this is called a fairy tree on a single mountain. The ancient tree has become a spirit and has ascended to immortality. Since it is a fairy tree, how can it coexist with ordinary grasses and trees? Naturally, it must occupy a mountain all to itself.

Speaking of the half-dead, nameless wilted tree being a fairy tree, there is a definite reason. Twenty years ago, many disciples from unnamed sects came to Jueshan to investigate.

I heard from the old people that they seemed to want to destroy the old tree, but unfortunately, several powerful men used the power of thunder to destroy the heaven and earth, and finally escaped with serious injuries. After that, no one dared to try to destroy the tree anymore.

From then on, the mountain seemed to be surrounded by a ghost wall. The mountain was shrouded in fog all day long. Villagers who occasionally went up the mountain would actually get lost in the barren mountain and would still be wandering around at the foot of the mountain for an hour or so.

Such an evil place makes people stay away.

However, there is a group of people who don't seem to give up. They come here once a year recently. Although they cannot go up the mountain, they will hire some villagers at the foot of the mountain to bury the black iron boxes they brought.

Those boxes were extremely strange, looking like iron but not iron, with their surfaces covered in sticky black sludge that was wriggling slightly, as if they would melt into a pool of black water in the next moment.

When the landfill was being built, the men in black prohibited the villagers from touching the boxes with their hands. They could only use special iron forks to push the boxes into the pit. Wu Laosan from the east of the village once accidentally touched the box with his hand, and his entire palm was corroded, and he became "Wu Yishou" from then on.

This job was full of danger, and the villagers were unwilling to do it even if the reward was generous.

But there are always some people who seem to be possessed, stupid and driven to the mountains.

The villagers suspected that they were possessed by ghosts. Whenever this happened, the villagers hid in their homes and dared not go to the fields to work, for fear of being captured and killed by these evil spirits.

But even so, there are still some unsuspecting outsiders who are forced to move boxes.

As a result, the reputation of the fairy tree was inevitably tarnished, and some people said that the tree was an ominous thing, causing Jueshan to become a place of evil.

If a child is disobedient, you can scare them by saying, "If you cry again, I will throw you into a secluded mountain!" Once this is said, even the naughtiest children will be so scared that they will hide under their quilts and shut their mouths.

Although the village was poor, everyone was strong and healthy, and there were many elderly people. In contrast, the sick girl from Carpenter Xue's family in the east of the village looked out of place compared to other children of the same age.

The Xue couple had been married for many years but had no children. They finally had a daughter fifteen years ago, but she was born sickly and her waist could be broken by a strong wind.

The couple loved their only daughter like the apple of their eye and were unwilling to let her go out easily.

Carpenter Xue's wife Qiao Lian was pickling sauerkraut. She looked up and saw her daughter Ran Ran standing on tiptoe and looking out the courtyard wall, as if she was looking at the group of crazy children. She walked over to support her and said, "My dear, there are a bunch of wild boys outside. They bumped into you. If you want to go out and play, ask your father to take you to the river to fish, okay?"

Xue Ranran reluctantly withdrew her gaze, swallowed silently, blinked her eyes as clear as autumn lakes, and said obediently: "Mother, I'm not a child anymore, I don't want to go out to play."

Qiao Lian looked over the low wall and discovered that the fat boy from the Ding family, who was leading the group, was holding a date flower pastry in his hand. She immediately understood what was going on.

Ranran in her family is well-behaved and obedient, but he is born with a gluttony and always wants to have some snacks to satisfy his hunger on weekdays. If he sees some fresh food, he will stare at it with his big eyes for half a day.

The fat boy brought some exquisite cakes that were only available in rich families, which made Ranran very greedy.

Qiao Lian was a little embarrassed when she saw this, so she could only say, "My dear, those cakes are only sold in the county town. When your father finishes his work for Mr. Ding and makes some money, he will buy them for you to eat."

Ran Ran had already sat back on the stool, scratched her newly combed bun, and said sensibly: "Mother, that's expensive, isn't it? I smelled it just now. It's red dates with cotton candy added, and then mixed with pig fat dough, and baked on a six-point stove. When the dates are harvested in the fall, mother can buy a small bag of cotton candy, and I can make it too."

Qiao Lian smiled and pinched her face: "Do you really have a puppy's nose? You can tell what it's made of just by smelling it? Who told you this method and you're using it to fool me?"

Ran Ran saw that her mother didn't believe her, so she stopped talking and went over to help her mother put the radishes into the pot. Then she pinched a piece of radish and said while biting it, "Didn't Dad cut a piece of basil duck yesterday? Let's eat radish stewed with basil duck tonight, right?"

Qiao Lian snatched the radish from her hand and said, "Don't be greedy and eat it raw. You have a weak stomach. If you upset your stomach, you won't be able to eat the duck stew tonight."

Everyone else wondered why the couple, who were both healthy, gave birth to a sick child. Only Qiaolian knew that Ranran was picked up by her under the dead tree in the mountain sixteen years ago.

She didn't know what happened that day. She took a nap and felt chest tightness when she got up. She went to walk up the mountain. In the mist, she unexpectedly reached the top of the mountain. She could hear the baby crying from far away.

The snow-white little ball huddled under the tree, with tears in its half-closed eyes, crying out of grievance. Qiao Lian's heart was broken at that moment.

Who could be so cruel to leave such a cute baby under the fairy tree? However, Qiao Lian thought it was a favor from God, because he and his wife had been childless for many years, so he gave them a daughter.

Xue Liangui also thought his wife was right and was very happy about the baby girl his wife brought home. However, he later discovered that the baby was born with a weak constitution and would get sick every three to five days, or would be in a coma and unable to open her eyes. For this reason, the couple sought help from all the nearby doctors and spent a lot of money on medicine, but there was no improvement.

As time went by, the couple became more experienced and figured out a way to nurse the sick baby. Finally, they managed to raise the frail Miaomiao to this size.

When the baby was picked up, she had a red birthmark on the palm of her right hand. Carpenter Xue asked an old scholar in the village and learned that the mark looked like the Chinese character "Ran", so he simply named her Xue Ranran.

However, when Ranran was one year old, the birthmark on the palm of his hand gradually disappeared.

Many children's birthmarks will gradually fade as they grow up. The carpenter couple didn't care much about it. They just focused on making money to support their daughter. Their poor life was happy.

While the mother and the daughter were talking, someone called out from the low wall, "Auntie, I bought some cakes for you. Can you give one to Ranran?"

Qiao Lian turned around and saw that it was the brother of the fat boy eating the cake, Ding Jia Erlang.

The Ding family was a wealthy family in the village. Erlang was studying in the academy in the town and was about to pass the imperial examination. He had a bright future. He was engaged to the daughter of a rich man in the county, but he would come back to the village from time to time to flirt with her daughter, Ranran.

Qiao Lian knew that although her daughter was thin, she had a beautiful face, delicate eyebrows, and fair skin. She stood out among the fifteen or sixteen-year-old girls in the village.

Unfortunately, this kind of thin and frail body is not favored by the old farmers. If a farmer in the village is looking for a daughter-in-law, they may not be interested in Ranran's body that is unable to work.

However, Mr. Ding had read a few books, so his vision was naturally different from that of the farmer. Like a fly that could not be chased away, he kept a close eye on Ran Ran during the past year.

He also found a matchmaker in the village and told the woman that after the marriage, he would let Ranran marry in as a concubine.

Qiao Lian refused outright and asked her maid to tell Ding's second son that her daughter Ran Ran did not want to marry into a wealthy family, and asked him to choose another girl.

However, whenever Young Master Ding returned to the village, he would always tease Ranran with food.

Fortunately, although my daughter is greedy, she is not a short-sighted girl. When she saw the Erlang of the Ding family, she stayed away from him.

So when Mr. Ding shouted across the wall, he only got a roll of the eyes from Aunt Xue, and then he saw Qiao Lian taking Ran Ran back to the house to cook.

Mr. Ding was still a little disappointed, so he could only leave with the cake in his hand.

On this day, Xue, the carpenter who had been out making furniture for someone, came back very late. As soon as he entered the house, he nervously closed the gate and bolted it. Then he pulled Qiaolian, who had opened the door for him, into the house. After looking at his daughter sleeping in the small room, he pulled his wife into his own room and asked in a low voice, "Do you remember what day it was when you brought Ranran back?"

Qiao Lian blinked and said hesitantly, "You said at the time that you wanted to treat her as your own daughter. In order to prevent the villagers from gossiping and letting the child know her past and feel sad, you asked me to go back to my parents' home and pretend to be pregnant. Then, more than a year later, we brought our daughter back to the village. We subtracted a full year from the child's age, so Ranran's date... should be sixteen years and ten months before her birthday, which is the ninth day of the ninth month in the Qing Geng year."

Carpenter Xue slapped his thigh and lowered his voice, "I just vaguely felt that it should be this month... Do you know? The fierce and evil men in black robes came to the nearby villages and asked every household if anyone saw any children on Xiantai Mountain in September of the Qing Geng Year."

Qiao Lian was also stunned when she heard this. She was so anxious that she couldn't help but said, "This... Is it Ran Ran's parents who came to find her? They want to take the child away?"

Carpenter Xue was also worried about this, so he was doing carpentry work at Mr. Ding's house today. After hearing the news, he hurried back without even getting paid.

When it comes to children, mothers are more likely to make decisions.

Qiao Lian quickly calmed down and said firmly, "They are not cats or dogs. They can just abandon them and leave them whenever they want. How cold is it in the mountains in September! Such a small child doesn't even have a swaddling cloth, and they just threw him under the tree. I think only animals can do this! Although my family is not rich, I love my daughter like a treasure. She is my life! Anyone who wants her must kill me first!"

Carpenter Xue was originally confused, but as a kind-hearted person he was also thinking that if he didn't give it to Ranran's parents who really came to ask for it, wouldn't that cut off Ranran's connection with her relatives?

But now, after listening to his wife's words, he also felt that it made sense. They had worked hard for 16 years to raise their daughter, so how could they just give her away to others? Just thinking about his daughter getting married in two years, Carpenter Xue felt so sad that he wanted to cry!

After doing this, the couple returned to the cabin and looked at their daughter sleeping at the head of the bed.

In a few days, she will be seventeen. Her pretty face was sleeping soundly. I don’t know what she was dreaming about, but she was smiling with the corners of her mouth curled up...