C2

This field of bracts was a huge well pit. This was what the villagers used in the era of the Great Leap Forward to lead water up the mountain to store water. In 1958, the three red flags of the "General Line, the Great Leap Forward and the People's Commune" rose in China. After this economic and political movement, a period of severe economic hardship followed. During this period, more than 30 million peasants died of hunger and hunger, double and half the number of people who died during the eight years of the War of Resistance Against Japan. In human history, this is probably the highest death toll from hunger in the short term.

At that time, the villagers either froze to death or starved to death, or left them near the pit.

Normally, without a coffin or shallow burial, it would be considered quite good to have a mat rolled up and thrown onto the ground. Many of them were simply unable to handle the aftermath. At that time, if a child caught a cold, they would most likely develop pneumonia, which meant they would definitely die, because there was a lack of doctors and medicine, and most importantly, the adults were so hungry that their eyes were blurry and their breath was gone, not caring about the sick child. If the child died of illness or starvation, roll it up with grain grass, tie it with two straw ropes, and throw it directly into the well. The dead children who had been thrown away could only see their heads and limbs the next day, and the rest had been eaten by some starving people. The meat of a child was softer than that of an adult, saving the firewood for cooking. The soup was tasty, but the key point was that a child's ability was not that great, so it wouldn't pose too much of a threat to people.

At that time there was an old bachelor in the village, Hunchback Zhang, who often did this. His eyes were red from eating and his words stank. After a long time, someone came to his house and found that the room was filled with people's bones. It was so horrifying that one couldn't help but admire their courage. However, he had a long lifespan, which forced him to think about the nutritional value of human flesh.

Hunchback Zhang was a household in the village. He did not participate in the production team's work. He would pick up land in the fall and firewood in the spring. It was now the year of famine. Every household in the village had to eat in the collective canteen, and every family was not allowed to raise the fire to cook. The food was handed over to the canteen and the production team was to distribute it evenly. After a short while, the dining hall was unable to continue on and could only be filled with wild vegetables and furs pressed into a pancake. Even this kind of food could not be adequately supplied. People were living in a state of cold hunger. However, there was also a benefit to eating the vegan cake. It was that no one needed to clean up the village's outdoor toilets. The moment the feces were finished, they would be blown away by the wind.

Hunchback Zhang, as an old light stick, felt extremely helpless in this difficult time. He was usually taciturn. He was aloof from the world as he watched everything from the sidelines. In order to survive, he would not let go of anything that could be eaten. In fact, a person's desire to survive became more intense as they reached the end of the road. In this very period of panic and self-doubt, the weaknesses of human nature were revealed everywhere. When the village began to starve to death, he wanted to eat human flesh. When most of the villagers became owl-like, his face lit up with oil. Thus, someone secretly went to his house to observe what he was secretly eating.

The people of that time had nothing of value in their homes, so when they went out, they never locked their doors and never closed their doors at night. One day, he saw Hunchback Zhang leave his house, and someone with good intentions entered his house. The farmhouse in the northeast was the kitchen as soon as they entered. He discovered that in Hunchback Zhang's kitchen, the most common food was not utensils nor food, but flies. The pots, dishes, firewood, and walls were densely packed. With a slight movement, the flies flew around the room. His gaze swept over to a corner of the room where some black bones were piled. He walked over to investigate. As he approached the bones, the black bones turned ashen, startling the flies that were resting on them. He picked up a bone and looked at it. Chicken bone? It didn't look like it. The chicken bones weren't that thick. The bones of a rabbit was different. Hunchback Zhang never hunted, so it was impossible to catch a rabbit. What bone would it be? Suddenly, he felt a shiver. Could it be a child's bone? He did not dare to think any further and quickly ran out of the house.

The famine continued, and the number of people who starved to death rose. People were used to being hungry, and they were used to seeing death. The members of the club were no longer making a fuss about the dead, they were numb to it. Among those who died, most were old people and children. Every morning before the cafeteria meal, the production team leader, Chen Maliu, would give a lecture to the members of the club. Chen Maleban's name was Chen Guoxi, and since he was a Marxist-Leninist every day, the members of the club called him Chen Malei.

In response to the increasing number of deaths, he said, "Comrades, although our village has lost people, most of them are old. Some of them are already sick and will die sooner or later. "In addition, people are always going to die. One dead person reduces the number of people who can eat, and a living person can eat more. This should be a good thing!"

The members of the society were not happy with the starvation of the children. "Comrades and comrades, I understand your feelings. There are dead children in the year of harvest. All dynasties have seen more children die, so the children's bodies are very weak to begin with," Chen said. "Who's going to die if they don't die?"

"The old people died because they were old and weak," Chen said. "It was just that they were dying because they had walked through their whole life in this famine and had taken the initiative to participate in the physical cycle of nature. As for the deaths of the children, they were the result of the natural law of survival of the fittest. "Therefore, in our village, those who truly starve to death, strictly speaking, do not even have a single one!"

"The cause of this famine, this drought, what can we do about it? There was nothing that could be done even if the American Imperialist Sky Drought came! Moreover, the Party and the state gave each member ten pounds of food per month, which was more than Lenin's rations during the October Revolution. We farmers need to feed and contribute to the country to support its construction. If the peasants wanted the state to feed them, what would they do? "Don't make a fuss if a few people die. China is a big country, so what if a few people die? Even if our village is wiped from the face of the earth, China cannot afford to lose its country!"

The further away history is from us, the clearer we will be. During the Great Leap Forward, boasting and communism prevailed, making the rice yield in the south tens of thousands of pounds per mu. There seems to be too much food in China for a while. In order to solve the problem of food oversupply, the Central Committee convened a special meeting to discuss the solution. Mao Zedong said that when there was more food, they could eat more. They could eat five meals a day and also support the American people in Africa. Peng Dewei didn't believe that the rice fields in the south would yield so much, so he planted his own experimental field. Many years ago, in the elementary school textbooks, there was this text about Peng Dehui's experimental fields. During the Lushan Conference in '58, Peng Dewai put forward his own opinion, and the result was criticized. As we all know, Mao Zedong was born in the countryside. He should know how much food he could get per mu of rice field. Mao Zedong also visited the farm regularly, when a song called "Chairman Mao Come to Our Farm" was sung, "Chairman Mao cared about us, asked about us, asked about us, asked about us, asked about everything in the house, and asked if the agricultural school was working." After a field trip, he still believed that rice produced more than 10,000 grains per mu. Mao Zedong was sixty-five years old at the time. Perhaps Chairman Mao himself did not necessarily believe that the rice would yield so much per mu, but when he said that the deer were horses, he could not make any unusual sounds. Everyone knew that the Emperor was wearing nothing to show off his new clothes, and only the childish child could tell the truth. Perhaps this is politics, these are the affairs of politicians, and we, the grassroots, have no way of knowing.

Hunger continued, and in the blink of an eye it was 1961. This year, the drought in northern China has abated. At the end of April, it rained a few times, and the soil moisture was very good, which brought favorable conditions for planting in the spring. The seeds that were sown soon began to sprout. Within half a month, the seedlings were bathed in sunlight. Since the beginning of summer, the crops had been flourishing, giving the hungry a glimmer of hope. At that moment, something extraordinary happened. The rice sprouted out of the bracts very quickly, and when the bracts became purple and black, the bracts already sprouted out. The tender bract rice particles, pinch straight up out of white pulp, a bite sweet silk. The production team leader asked the women to pull back some of the green bract rice sticks from the better bracts. He rubbed the unhardened bracts rice particles into a mashed shape and mixed them with vegetables to make the members of the club go home and eat. Everyone was quite satisfied with this method. At that moment, the manor was eaten. The people who watched the autumn night encountered several monsters that ate the crops.

In the night, the monster looked like a pig, but it was also bigger than a pig. After being frightened by the autumn man, the monster ran very fast. As it ran, it even let out a pig-like snort. Every time the monster fled, it would rush straight towards the cemetery on the eastern slope of the village. In the spring, when the wind was blowing, there were broken tiles and broken tiles, which meant that this was once a human settlement. At that time, the slope was clear water from the Nen River, and people had to run far away to carry water, which made life convenient for them. In the ancient times, living conveniently was considered a blessing, which was also what the ancients called feng shui. When the Nenjiang changed roads and moved west, people's residences also moved west. This became a place for the dead. There had been a lot of people dying of starvation in the past few years, and the new graves on the cemetery had been added one after another. During the day, this place was filled with a ghastly aura, so who would dare to come here at night?

After one instance of rain, people discovered that the footprints of the monsters on the ground were over a foot long, as if they had been stepped on by a human. When word of this spread, the entire village became terrified. Could it be a savage? However, since ancient times, there had never been a legend about savages. If that was the case, then it could be caused by hungry ghosts. With so many people starving to death these past few years, it was inevitable that they would turn into ghosts. This monster came out again and again to ruin the bracts. People who hadn't starved to death still wanted the bracts to live, so how could they continue to tolerate it? In the village, a dozen or so bold members were selected and set up ambush in the fields at night to wait for the monsters to appear so that they could be annihilated in one fell swoop.

It was after midnight when the monster emerged from the cemetery on the east side of the hill. It looked around with a wary expression on its face. As they approached the bran field, the ambushing members shouted in unison, their murderous cries shaking the skies. Seeing that the situation was not looking good, the monster turned around and ran. The members of the guild, relying on their advantage in numbers, became bolder and chased relentlessly after it. As he was about to catch up, the monster suddenly stood up, turned around, raised its arms and roared. Unexpectedly, the pursuer was scared and began to flee in all directions.

Around the beginning of autumn, Chen Yulu, who had gone to join the army in the early days of the village, came back. Chen Yulu was the eldest son of Chen Maali. She was tall and strong, had a violent personality and was also very daring. When Chen Yu Lu was a teenager, the village's Zhang Dan made a bet with him: "Didn't you say you weren't afraid of ghosts? "In the shack under the east slope, there is a man who has starved to death while begging for food. Go and take off his clothes, bring them back for us to see." Chen Yulu said, "What's wrong with that? Isn't it just a person who starves to death?" With that, he set off. Zhang Badao added: "Wait a minute, I heard that people who starve to death become hungry ghosts and even ask for food in the middle of the night. I don't know if that's true, but you should bring a bowl of rice with you and feed it to see if you can eat it." Chen Yulu laughed. "He's actually talking nonsense. How could there be such a thing?!"

At night, the hazy moonlight covered the land. He wrapped a bowl of rice with a piece of rag and placed it on his waist. Then, he stepped on the moonlight and set off. The shack was at the bottom of the eastern hill, where they were going to pass by the graveyard on the eastern slope. He walked alone on the road. It was very quiet around him, with crickets chirping occasionally. He opened the dilapidated wooden door as he reached the shack. There was a damp and musty smell coming out of the shack. It was said that after death, a person's body would emit a special smell, which was also known as the burial Qi. This smell was very special, and was fishy, and spread far and wide, so that crows would always find corpses. In fact, even before one died, one could already smell it from within, but one could not feel it. Crows are scavenger birds, and their keen sense of smell will lead them to the house where the dead are going to die. The family would soon be dead, so people thought of crows as unlucky birds. Even the black feathers of crows reminded people of mourning.

Taking advantage of the moonlight shining in from outside the door, she began to strip the corpse of its clothes. Suddenly, she remembered that she had also brought a bowl of rice with her, so she hurriedly untied the rag and took it out. She picked up a handful of rice with her hand and stuffed it into the corpse's mouth, thinking, "It would be weird if you could eat it!" Unexpectedly, the corpse opened its mouth, slowly and with an 'eh' sound. Chen Yulu suspected that he was seeing things. Blinking with all his might, it really did open. His legs could not help but tremble. With trembling hands, he stuffed the rice into the mouth of the corpse. The corpse unexpectedly began to chew slowly. He was stunned, his scalp going numb. Seeing the dead body finish chewing the rice and swallow it down with a 'gulp' as if it was enjoying itself very much, and then open its mouth with a 'vegetable' sound, Chen Yulu was about to go crazy at this moment. "Fuck you, I'll give you food!" He directly smashed the rice bowl into the corpse's face. The corpse suddenly sat up and cried out. Chen Yulu quickly ran out and ran home like a wisp of smoke.

The next day, he found Bold Chang, who had been betting with him. A rag was wrapped around his forehead. He could not wait to tell Zhang Badao, "I really f * cking met a ghost, I really met a real one! I ate, and I even f * cking asked for food …" With a look of helplessness, Zhang Badao said: "You little rascal, you are really too fucking bold, you used a bowl to smash me up!

Actually, in this world, most of the people who could scare people were not ghosts, but people. In this world, most people who could scare people were not ghosts, but people. Most of the time, people were much more terrifying than ghosts!

Chen Yulu was famous for this matter. When a child in a village cried, lost his temper, and was difficult to discipline, the child's mother would tell the child, "If you don't listen, Chen Yulu will take you away." Of course, this was naturally a clumsy slander to Chen Yulu. Although he was very crude, but he was still warm-hearted in helping out anyone in the village. He also never scared the children. However, every time the children heard Chen Yulu's name, they would become more obedient. This warning from the children's mothers had always been a trial and error.

On the day that Chen Yulu returned to the village, she heard that there was a case of a hungry ghost ruining the crops, which she disapproved of very much. The next day, he borrowed the shotgun from the village hunter, Ox-Head Dalai Lama, boasting that he would capture the hungry ghosts alive. Chen Yulu asked the village members to come out together to support him.

The monster seemed to have a mind of its own and did not show itself for several days. After about half a month, he probably couldn't bear the hunger anymore and came out to look for food. Just like last time, the monster saw the situation and did the same trick again, trying to scare people off. However, Chen Yulu did not buy it. She fired a shot at the sky and loaded the bullet. Then, she pounced on the monster, who then hurriedly escaped towards the Mound of Graveyard.

The monsters ran really fast. Even Chen Yulu, who had once been a strong soldier, couldn't catch up.

The cemetery was filled with shrubs and weeds, each as tall as a person. The monsters that entered them disappeared without a trace. Chen Yulu immediately led the club members to surround the cemetery, just as the villagers arrived. The shouts and cries shook the earth, and even after dawn, there were still no signs of the monster.

He searched the entire place, but he didn't find any monsters. At this time, Wang Mao Zi, who had participated in the War of Liberation and was also honorably wounded at the front, saw that there were many members of the club. He also became spirited and asked people to start searching for the cave, discovering that the cave entrance was just right there, lit up and smoked. At this moment, Wang Mao's waist seemed very excited, and the scar on his forehead became more distinct. Usually, he would use this scar to show off, saying that he was a contributor to the revolution and that he had bled for the liberation war. Actually, anyone who knew his background would know how he was injured. In the past, when he had just arrived at the front line of the attack on Siping, he had seen an army plane flying towards him at a very low altitude. He had been scared shitless and hurriedly slipped under a train that had been blown up, and because of his panic, his forehead hit the wheels of the train and blood came out all over his face. At this time, he helped Chen Yulu command the members of his club to smoke all the holes they could find, and a lot of yellow mice and wild badgers came out. As soon as these wild animals left the cave, they were beaten to death by the members of the society. The members of the club were also interested, because these wild animals were rare delicacies and could improve their food today. He had been busy for half a day, but nothing came of it. The sun was at its zenith, and everyone was tired. Some of them wanted to retreat. Wang, at his waist, encouraged everyone to say that if they kept going at once, they would be weakened again, and they would be exhausted at the end of their tether. If they persevered for a while longer, they would be victorious. The members of the club listened to his bullshit and moved on. Someone had found a hole in the side of a large grave, next to which grew a big mulberry tree. The hole was hidden by the branches of the mulberry tree, making it difficult to find it. After carefully observing the tomb, he saw that there were a few small trees growing on top of the tomb, and they had just grown a foot tall. Counting them, there were five big trees, three of them very close together, growing on the east side of the tomb, while the other two were slightly further away from the grave. He was sure that the owner of the tomb must have five children, three males and two females, because the east side was sunny, the owner of the tomb had three sons. He also discovered that it was a coffin, a burial that was unique to the region, and that was originally the Dulbert flag of the right wing of the Zerimu League in Inner Mongolia, which was transferred to Heilongjiang province only after the Republic of China. Because of the fact that the Mongolian people live in the Mongolian Han Dynasty, they are mostly affected by the Han nationality in the burial customs. The Mongolian people were buried in the sky, and then they are buried in the Chinese style, but it is different from the Han Chinese. The Mongols mostly believed in Buddhism, and the coffins they used were called coffins. The first floor of the coffin was like a chair, but when you entered the coffin, you would first wrap the dead body in a white cloth and put both hands together, then sit on the chair. Then you would place the second floor, and finally, you would cover the entire coffin, just like when the Han people used to sit on the bridal sedan chair when they were married. When a coffin is buried, it is not to be buried in the ground, but to be placed on a flat ground, surrounded by adobe, covered with a lid, and plastered with alkaline mud, and to be mopped once a year, as if the grave were filled. If it was a rich person, they would be surrounded by green bricks with a green brick roof, so there was no need for mud. "The tomb they discovered at the entrance to the cave had been built of blue brick. It seemed to be a very old one.

Chen Yu Lu stepped forward to carefully observe and found traces of climbing through the hole. She immediately organized the members to gather firewood and light the fire. Soon after, the sound of coughing could be heard from the entrance of the cave. The members of the club were all taken aback. Chen Yulu said, "It must be inside. Smoke it fiercely for me. I want to see if it's a human or a ghost!" After a while, a dark mass crawled out of the hole. Chen Yulu stepped forward and used her hands to pull the monster out. At this moment, everyone was shocked: they saw this monster, with a head full of tangled long hair and a full face full of whiskers. It was just like a legendary wild man. He was wearing a pair of tattered cotton pants. It was unknown how many years he had worn them for. He blinked his frightened eyes and let out a pitiful cry, as if he was saying something no one could understand. It was obvious that this monster, or rather this person, had been hiding in this graveyard for countless years and could no longer speak. After careful examination, the members of the club finally recognized who it was. It turned out that he was the one who had joined the volunteer army, and later became an unknown fugitive. If a person is isolated from the crowd and lives in seclusion, he will lose his speech function after a long time. This is aphasia. Later, Rong Chen recovered his language function, and it was only after he told his story that people understood the details of his hiding place in the cemetery.