The Sacred Burial Grounds - Chapter 7

Chapter 7 – Mutation

The fatty sure talked a lot, he kept talking all along the way, he was telling everybody about the time when he was studying in his school, something strange had happened back then and there had been a lot of rumours.

The field had so much legends and rumours, some of the stories spread out fast, and some only the locals knew, the stories were attractive and interesting though.

“Don’t listen to the myth, some of them have happened.” The fat man said very seriously.

The more he listened to him, the more he craved to hear his story.

“I even saw a Tibet mastiff puppy protecting an old dog that was almost dead in an old shrine, that puppy let out drops of golden tears.”

“Ssttt!”

Some of the people in the crowd made “ssttt” noises, they didn’t believe him, the story sounded too unreal.

“That was real, I experienced it for myself.” The fatty Zhou sounded serious, he sweared that all that he said was truthful.

“I even thought after that, maybe it’s eyes had been too bright so the tears reflected the colour of it’s golden eyes.” The fatty explained.

“If you really saw that Tibet mastiff puppy, why didn’t you approach it and hug it, and then adopt it? Now where is it?” A person asked and afterwards laughed.

“Ah, I really wanted to adopt it, but there was an old Lama (monk) in the shrine, he didn’t let me take the puppy.”

According to Zhou Quan, the shrine had been old, located in the depths of the field, the building had been almost collapsing.

The old Lama (monk) looked old and he had been a little deaf too, so it had been hard to communicate with him.

At the end, fatty Zhou had understood the Lama, the mastiff puppy hadn’t belonged to anyone and  the puppy could even chase away evil spirits.

“But that puppy’s strength sure was big, he bit my pants and also gave me a head bump.” Zhou Quan talked about his past, his face was full of curiosity.

The others didn’t believe him.

“When did this happen?” Chu Feng asked.

Because, the divine mastiff he had met in the Kun Lun mountain was fierce and also quite mysterious.

“It was about three years ago.” Zhou Quan said.

The train whistled, the view outside the window was passing fast and all the way into the east, at last they had left the highlands.

“You bought so many snacks?” Fatty Zhou didn’t think of himself as an outsider, so he even asked if Chu Feng  had any food to eat.

“These divine seeds taste good.” Chu Feng said.

“What?” Zhou Quan didn’t understand what he meant.

“Didn’t you say that some of the people back then would grow seeds like these, I guess these are one of those divine seeds.” Chu Feng said while pointing at the seeds that looked like Orchid beans.

Fatty Zhou was speechless, he kept putting food into his mouth and said: “The divine seeds taste good indeed.”

The people around them were laughing.

“Ouch!” Suddenly, Zhou Quan grinned and screamed, then he took out a small bean from his mouth.
“I say brother, where did you buy these Orchid beans, are these even edible?.” He was grimacing in pain.

He threw the seed onto the table and made a clang sound.

“God, did you see how hard it was to eat, what era is this, food safety problems still haven’t been solved yet!” Zhou Quan was angry and he was clutching his cheeks.

Chu Feng was startled, because those weren’t Orchid beans, those were yellowish and withered seeds.

He took the seeds out and he wanted to let all the people have a look at them, but he forgot and put them on the table.

“Oh God, look at that it’s not even beans, what is that?!” After Zhou Quan took a look at the shape, he felt slightly annoyed. It looked like he intended to remember the production factory of the beans, so he could sue them.

Chu Feng felt guilty, so he just told him the truth. He told him that the beans inside the box were all he brought form the highlands.

Fatty Zhou’s face went red, a painful look was displayed on his face.

The crowds went silent for a while, and then bursted out into boisterous laughter.

The fatty was angry for some time and said: “Hey bro, you should’ve paid attention earlier, you can’t put anything raw inside it allright? Where did you get these, they are not seeds, they are iron!”

Chu Feng laughed too, he carefully picked the other nuts for him to eat.

At the same time, he put three different types of seeds on the table, he let the crowd have a look, but he didn’t tell them the origin of the ancient seeds.

“This rounded one looks like a bean, but it doesn’t.”

“Why is there a flat one, it has been pushed down and flattened right?”

“This one is wizened, and the colour is all black, it is rare to find this.”

The people were all guessing, but there was nobody who could guess it right or even knew the name of the seeds. There was someone, however, who guessed those were the seeds from a mountain called Teng Wan.

“I really want to smash it all!” Zhou Quan tightened his cheeks while staring at one of the seeds.

“Don’t, these are rare seeds, I’m planning on planting them. Who knows a goddess might just grow.” Chu Feng laughed.

“According to Zhou Quan, we still don’t know for sure.” The others joined in laughing too.

“A goddess might grow? I say it will grow 3 old Lama, or maybe 3 old monks.” Zhou Qian said while still feeling the pain.

Time flied so fast.

Suddenly the train had been stopped at one station.

“What happened?”

It was stopped for a long time and most of the passengers felt it unbearable to sit for too long, so they were all begining to stand up.

Swiftly somebody told them that there had been an accident in the front lane and that it will be solved quickly, after which the train could proceed again.

The passengers sat down and patiently waited.

“Look, there has been another news, this time it is a big one, there is some kind of grass floating in the air, and some kind of trees too. Look at the photos, it looks real.”

Zhou Quan called Chu Feng to have him take a look at the news.

“This is really strange, all the things that have happened are so unreal, is this still the world I live in?” Some of the other people said.

Clearly, it isn’t only Zhou Quan that took notice of the news, the others noticed too as well.

Chu Feng looked at it carefully. The electronic photos looked genuinely real, it was like in space, there were several trees floating in the air.

The body of trees were somehow  of green colour, with some other colours like purple, brown and red mixed in too. It was really weird.

How could those trees even appear in space? Lots of questions were popping up.

At this moment, the train sounded very noisy, the passengers were all debating about the weird news, it seemed that they were quick to panic.

The crowd reeled in their voices after hearing the sound of the train starting up again.

“I am familiar with this lane, when I was in school in the west part, I used this lane so many times.” Zhou Quan said while he was introducing the city along the way .

About an hour later, the train stopped at one of the stations.

At the he same time, Zhou Quan looked at the window and mumbled: “It’s not right, this station had no big mountain around it.”

“Yeah, I’ve passed by this lane many times and there has never been a big mountain like that.” Another passenger suddenly spoke up.

“No, guys look, it’s……not a big mountain, but a giant tree!” Someone screamed.

After hearing that lots of the people ran towards the window to look outside.

Chu Feng was  stunned, he clearly knew what he saw. And that was definitely a giant tree, it was so huge it looked like a big mountain and it nearly touched the clouds.

“Are there any passengers coming up from this station, ask them, what is happening really!” Someone said.

For a short time, all the passengers were busy looking throughout the window.

That was a Ginkgo tree, it was so famous amongst the locals, it could live for hundreds of years.

The tree had grown in that place, so many people were shocked.

Currently the area was sealed off so no one could approach it.

“It really is true****some people saw the picture too, and then didn’t know how they delete it, and it really happened!” Somebody was shocked.

That kind of mysterious thing had happened, it was really hard to understand.

An ancient tree, though it could still grow more, it didn’t make sense for it to grow that tall in just these three days.

The time flowed, the train was still stopped. It’s been half an hour and they still were on that station.

Some of the passengers gave an explanation that there had been another accident up front.

The passengers on the train couldn’t calm themselves down, they were all talking about the ancient tree, and the floating trees in space, maybe there was some kind of connection?

Some people really couldn’t wait and  they got off the train to walk around.

Zhou Quan also got off the train, but then quickly came back again, his face was full of curiosity as he said: “Look at what I brought with me?”

There was some mud on top of his hand, which was gripping a wild grass that was commonly seen, but that day it was a little bit different, there was green on its leaf and the red colour of a fruit on it, spreading a refreshing aroma.

“This is a big discovery, a fruit grew on the wild grass, and the aroma is so thick!” Zhou Quan told him.

Chu Feng a chill on his spine, what was happening in this world for real? Maybe it really was mutating!