C8

To the northwest of the village, there was a path through a forest that led to the village at the back. In the woods, there were many barren graves and many birds and beasts. It would have been better if he had passed by during the day, but if he had left at night, it would have been a very scary thing to do. Those who used to walk at night could always see the dead old man in the village, sitting on his grave with a kerosene lamp lit to catch lice. Once, when a man was passing by the graveyard during the day, he saw an old man and an old woman sitting on the grave holding hands and having a love affair, and a cloud came out of nowhere to cover the sun, and then it began to rain. The rain was not heavy, it was thin as a thread, and countless threads, woven into a misty yarn, were fluttering in front of his eyes. The things he had seen clearly suddenly became hazy, and he heard the old man say to the old lady emotionally, "I love you!" The old lady replied shyly, "I hate it!"

There was an old elm tree growing by the road that led through the woods. The old elm tree looked to be over a hundred years old, its bark was mottled, and there was a small hole in the middle of the tree where the owls lived. Every spring, a nest of little owls flies out of the hollow of the tree. At night, the family of owls would sing the spring hymn in the tree. It was spring that gave them a new life, and gave the little owls a vigorous life at the same time.

But then, a dead woman was hanged on this tree. One day many years ago, this woman came back from work in the fields and met the production team's accountant at the village entrance. The accountant was wearing a pair of glasses and looked very knowledgeable. Actually, some people knew that what he was wearing wasn't a close-ups at all, but a pair of reading glasses that his mother was wearing when she was holding the soles of her shoes. Wearing a pair of reading glasses shows that the eye is blurry, and the heart is blurry, because the eye is the window of the soul. This accountant was indeed a flowery person. When the accountant saw that there was no one around, he revealed a lewd smile. He wanted to use extra points to lure her, but she angrily refused. Thus, the accountant created rumors and made things difficult for her, slandering her for stealing the men. The villagers also believed it to be true, causing chaos throughout the city. She could not bear the pressure of the public opinion, so she hung up her own branch in the southeast for the rest of her life. After this woman hanged herself from the elm tree, it was a pity that the hundred years old elm tree had been invaded by the filth of the dead and had died with resentment. As the dead elm was nourished by the resentment, although it was still alive, although its bark was purplish black, its creases were crisscrossing like scales, its roots were thick, its branches were curved and twisted like horned dragons, so many yin qi had been gathering for a long time without dispersing, thousands of vengeful spirits were imprisoned here unable to escape!

Since then, very few people had dared to walk down that road, and those who walked along that road, as long as they walked past the old elm tree, could not help but untie their pants and hang them from their belts. People were poor, and the belts were made of a cloth belt or a rope, which was good for hanging. It was said that the wronged woman had come to collect the debt! For a long time, almost no one who passed by the dead elm tree on the wrong path was able to return alive.

Big Bag had been with the Shandong ladies for many years, and he had two children. The family ate a lot, and the burden of living was heavy. In addition to working in the production team, the big sack also took on some private work. Although the wages weren't too much, it could still be used to subsidize some families. It was a day when the sack gave furniture to a family in the village, and the son of the patron was in a hurry to get a new set of furniture for his wife, so he paid the sack ten dollars more and the sack worked until dark. The customer was kind and left him to eat when he was finished. He even filled a pint of white wine. After eating their fill, the large sack of food returned under the cover of the night. The night wind caressed his face, and he felt comfortable. Since he had drunk two more glasses of wine and eaten two more bowls of rice, he felt as if he were going to push the shit out of his mouth. He broke an artemisia stick and squatted down to defecate. At that time, people basically didn't use toilet paper to wipe their buttocks. Since they couldn't afford to use it, most of them could just break a piece of straw or a stick to wipe their butt. It was also easier to use and could be found everywhere. He looked up at the night sky, where the stars were twinkling, and the deep, deep sky was so beautiful that it was rare to see a comet suddenly pass through the sky, even if one was seventy or eighty years old, and not necessarily able to see it once. Big Pouch was very lucky, thinking: People say that comets are jinxes, that they bring disaster, and that the comet's tail does look like a broom, and it looks very beautiful, but how could such a beautiful star be a disaster? As he was painting on the ground with a stick, he suddenly thought of Fuxi, who one day had been shitting in the wild and was about to pull up a handful of grass to wipe his ass, but he noticed that there were a lot of small teeth on the edge of the grass, and that wiping his ass would draw blood from his own haemorrhoids, so he threw the grass away and broke a stick. Due to the fact that Fuxi's body was somewhat dry after having eaten fish in the past few days, he had grown much hotter. Thus, he patiently squatted down and began to draw on the ground with the wooden stick in his hand. He used a horizontal line to represent the Yang, and a broken horizontal line to represent the Yin. This action seemed simple, but in reality, it was an earth-shattering event in the history of mankind. It was called "One Painted Heaven Breaks the Heavens". Dividing nature into yin and yang and abstracting them into symbols is the beginning of man's thinking. After Fuxi used the stick to wipe the mess, he saw the earth shaking and the mountains shaking, and the ghosts crying in the night. Because this painting represented that mankind had ever been rid of ignorance and began to walk toward intelligence and civilization, becoming qualified to stand side by side with the heavens and the earth. Thus, nature began to fear humans. The sack also drew a few horizontal lines on the ground. There was no mountain shaking or moving, but with a "pfft" sound, he pulled down a large pile of feces. He instantly felt relaxed, pulled up his pants, and tied his belt before continuing on his way. When he passed under the dead elm tree, he was suddenly filled with grievances. Tears came to his eyes, and he remembered that he had lost his parents when he was very young, that he had led his younger brother around when he was an uncle and aunt, that he had experienced all the hardships of the world, that he had suffered all the humiliations of the human world, that he had married a wife or a niece. In this life, you would never know when she was looking at you, or when she was looking at someone else. Even such a daughter-in-law had fallen into the well and drowned, and she had ruthlessly crucified Old Zhu, who was on the verge of death. The more he thought about it, the narrower his heart became. The more he thought about it, the more hopeless he felt. The big sack looked at the dead elm tree and a gust of cold wind blew into the back of his neck. Then, he slowly untied his waistband, "It's too boring to live. Let's hang ourselves. Fine, let's hang ourselves!" The sack talked to himself as he tied the rope to the fork of the elm and tugged hard to make sure he didn't fall. After doing all of this, he even brought two large pieces of soil from the ground to place under his feet and stuck his head into the rope … Before he could hoist it up, an owl flew out of a hole in the elm's waist and let out a series of cries. It sounded like a laugh, but it was even more terrifying than a cry, and Big Pouch thought that even the owl was laughing at him. After a long while, Big Bag was still blinking his small eyes and didn't hang himself up. At this moment, a woman's voice came from an unknown place, "Big Bag, why aren't you hanging up yet? You're waiting for me!" The big sack was shocked, he took off the hemp rope and tied up his pants, then jumped down from the ground, spitting with all his might: "Damn you big pig, do you think I want to hang myself? "This daddy here is trying to experience what it feels like to be hanged." After cursing, he turned around and picked up his tools before walking up the small path in the forest.