I fell into the tiger's mouth

I heard him talk about my father's lifesaving grace to him, knowing he wouldn't throw me away to feed the wolves. I asked, "Why did they tie me up here?"

The bearded man said, "You're still a child, you don't know the evil of society. This is called kidnapping, tying up a broken child and asking for money from the master. When the money is in hand, the baby will be released. I didn't know they were kidnapping your father's baby, if I knew, I wouldn't kidnap you."

When I heard him say this, a heart that had been suspended for half a day finally fell down, thinking of the experience of this half day, I felt extremely wronged and cried. I said, "I want to go home, I want my father and my mother."

The bearded man said, "It's dark now, we've run into the wolf's den, and there are wolves under our feet. How dare we go out? Let's wait until dawn, when the wolves are gone, I'll take you home."

The Big Beard said, "It's dark now and we stumbled into a wolf den. We can't go out with the wolves underneath us. Let's wait until dawn, when the wolves leave, and I'll take you home."

I said, "I'm hungry, my stomach is empty."

Ragged Beard said, "Endure it, I have nothing to eat either."

That night, I spent in extreme fear and hunger. When dawn came, there was light in the cave, but the wolves still hadn't left. We were too scared to go down, so we had to keep walking through the small hole in the wall of the cave.

The small cave was very deep. I walked more than ten meters and I didn't dare to go any further because it was too dark ahead. In the depths of the cave, there was a cold wind blowing, making people shiver.

The Big Beard said, "Hold onto my clothes, this cave must be connected to the outside, there must be an exit for the wind to come in, and if there is an exit, we can get out." We groped our way forward for dozens of meters and my mood calmed down. Suddenly I remembered the huge monster I saw outside the cave last night, with its two front paws on the backs of two wolves. I asked Beard, "What animal is that? Why does it look so strange?"

The bearded said: "That's a fox, short front legs and long hind legs. Without the wolf, the fox can't walk fast, so it always stays with the wolf. It's the wolf-fox alliance that comes here."

I asked: "What does the wolf pack call the fox to do?" The bearded man said: "The fox is ten times more cunning than the wolf. When the wolf pack encounters a problem that can't be solved, it will ask the fox for advice."

I remembered the scene of the wolf urinating on the fire last night, I think this must be taught by the fox.

We walked a few dozen meters forward, and suddenly there was a roar like the sound of a mountain and sea wave in my ears. Because it was dark, I didn't know what it was. The bearded man pressed me to the ground and said: "Don't move, don't move."

The chaotic sound of Pu La La lasted for several minutes and then calmed down. The bearded man pulled me and continued to walk forward. I asked: "What was that just now?"

The bearded man said: "It's a bat."

I asked: "Why are there so many bats?"

The bearded man said: "The bats eat mosquitoes at night and sleep in the cave during the day... If there are bats, it means that the cave can be passed through."

Hearing that I could get out, I was also excited. The bearded man asked: "Did the bat bite you just now?"

I said: "No."

The beard said: "Okay, the bat has poison in his mouth, if he bites someone, he will die."

We walked forward a few dozen meters, and suddenly saw a bright light ahead, like a firefly star. The beard was very excited and said, "We are about to get out."

We kept walking, the light became bigger and bigger, more and more. Later, we walked into the sunshine, I squinted at the trees outside the cave, there was a feeling of life after robbery.

There was no one outside the cave, and the beard said, "Let's go, I'll take you to the crossroads, you can go back alone."

We walked down the hillside and into the grass, and a rabbit jumped up from beside me and shot forward like an arrow. I was hungry and thought to myself: how nice it would be if I could catch that rabbit and eat it.

At the foot of the mountain there was a road that had probably not been walked on for many years. The road was full of all kinds of wild grass, with purple flowers of cornflowers, pink flowers of convolvulus, and non-flowering dog's tail grass.

We didn't walk far along this ancient path, and suddenly a group of horsemen appeared ahead. The beard said, "There are people coming, I'll give you something to eat."

We walked towards the group of horsemen, and the horsemen ran quickly towards us. When they came to us, we saw that they were a group of soldiers, carrying long guns on their shoulders and sharp-edged pockets on their clothes.

The man riding in front asked, "What are you doing?"

The Big Beard said, "Boss, give us something to eat, the kid is too hungry to walk."

The rider didn't answer the beard's words. He turned back and shouted to the people behind him, "Take the big one away, leave the small one behind."

Two people jumped off the horse's back and pulled out a rope from the saddle. In three strokes and five divisions, the beard was tied up, struggling desperately. He begged for mercy and said, "Boss, I have a family and a mother and children, I can't go with you."

That horseman whipped the bearded face and blood splashed, then they rode away with the shambling bearded man bound in both hands.

I stood alone in the wilderness, not knowing where to go or where it was. Later, I stumbled and walked, knelt in the wilderness and cried loudly.

The sun was about to rise and after the strong hunger passed, I couldn't feel hungry anymore. There was no one in the wilderness, and I was afraid that a pack of wolves would come chasing after me, so I got up and kept walking.

A white road appeared in front of me. Because it had not rained for a long time, there was a few inches thick dust on the road surface. When I stepped on it, the dust was splashed and sucked into my nose, which made me sneeze several times.

I followed the road forward, thinking that there must be a house next to the road. My thoughts were right, but in that situation I couldn't walk along the road anyway because I was running away.

No, no, I took the wrong path, and I took the wrong steps afterwards. Although the road of life is long, there are only a few steps to take. If these steps are wrong, life will be changed.

In front of me appeared a carriage, without a canopy, with two people sitting on it, one facing forward driving the car, the other facing backward sitting in the carriage. Because there was no canopy, I walked up without any doubt.

Actually, I should have been suspicious at the time. There were no people or smoke in the wilderness here. Whose carriage would come here?

The carriage arrived in front of me, stopped, and I rushed up in excitement, without time to speak, the man in the carriage stood up. When I saw him, my whole body was paralyzed. He was the tall man who kidnapped me.

My heart told me: run, run. But my feet were like noodles, and I couldn't take a step.

The tall man got off the car, picked me up and threw me into the carriage.

I had just escaped from the wolf's den and fell into the tiger's mouth again.

The tall man asked me how I escaped, and I told him the thrilling experience of that night. The tall man slapped me in the face, he didn't believe me. The driver turned back and said, "It's probably true. He's just a kid, two adults are watching, how can he escape from the cave?"

The tall man stopped hitting me and said to the driver, "Forget it, let's go back."

The driver turned the car around and returned along the same route.

The carriage drove for an hour and arrived at a small village with only three households. The village was hidden in a valley and was surrounded by dense Ginkgo trees, covering the houses. Even if you walked past the village, you wouldn't notice it unless you paid attention.

I followed them into the house, where there were two women. One of them handed me a steamed bun. I held the bun and gobbled it up, even swallowing the last crumbs. Because I ate too fast, I hiccuped.

Later, after I had eaten and drunk enough, I fell asleep on the straw pile in the house. I slept very sweetly and didn't even dream.

When I woke up, I saw that the sun was about to set. There were still a few people in the room talking about me. I quickly closed my eyes and pretended to be asleep.

I heard them say that they asked my father, Wang Xigui, for one thousand dollars, but he refused. They changed it to five hundred dollars, then to one hundred dollars, but my father still refused. My father said that not a single dollar of his would leave him. Every dollar of his was sewn into his ribs, and taking his money was like taking his life. Every dollar of his was more important than his only son.

I was very sad. My father, Wang Xigui, only loved money, not me.

They were discussing what to do with me. Some said to kill me and dig a hole to bury me; some said to let me go and find my way home; and others said to sell me for whatever price they could get.

After a long discussion, they finally decided to sell me.

Then, someone came over and kicked me. I felt a piercing pain and opened my eyes.

The room had four people in it, including the tall one who had tricked me into getting onto the cart. I hadn't seen the other three before. The one who kicked me had a pair of bulging eyes and a funny expression on his face when he looked at you. When I saw his face, I wanted to laugh, but suddenly I thought about how long I had been away from home and that I might never be able to go back, so I didn't have the heart to laugh.

"Your father doesn't want you anymore," said Bulging Eyes. "You've become a burden."

When I thought of my father, Wang Xigui, I felt sad. I didn't know what his name was; all I knew was that people called him Wang Xigui and I had called him that for the rest of my life. I didn't know what my mother's name was, nor did I know the name of our village. For the next few decades, I tried hard to remember but I still couldn't. All I remembered was that there were two big stone lions at the entrance of our house, as tall as a person. But many wealthy families had two big stone lions at their entrances, so I couldn't find my house based on that.

Wang Xigui was my biological father, but he didn't save me even though it would have only cost him two hundred yuan. Perhaps in the world, there is only one such miserly father like him.