C11 Snow
When I woke up the next day, it was already noon.
Strangely, I usually get up early. Ever since I can remember, I haven't been sleeping until noon. At the latest, eight o'clock has already passed, but today is the first time that I woke up so late.
It was unknown whether it was because he had slept too late last night, or because he had used that large bowl of yin and yang to look through the world.
Today, the house was abnormally quiet. It wasn't as bustling as yesterday, nor was it as usual, when my grandfather would occasionally make up bamboo — the land in the house had long been contracted out to other people. My grandfather and I had always lived on the rental of land and the money my grandfather earned from selling bamboo.
"Grandfather!" I called out from the doorway, and it took me a long time to get an answer before I was sure that my grandfather was not at home.
Furthermore, the iron cage in the courtyard that locked Sister Soo Juan was also gone.
"Where did grandfather go? Sister Xiujuan is also gone. "
At this moment, black smoke rose into the air not too far away. It might be someone else burning straws, but no one knew who it was. It was cut so early …
That's not right!
Right now, it was not the time to burn the stalks. Even if some families had collected them early, they shouldn't have done it so early. It simply didn't conform with the rules!
"It's Sister Xiu Juan!" Looking at the rising black smoke, an idea popped into my mind.
I couldn't stop my tears from streaming down. Especially after last night when I saw the same look on Sister Xiujuan's face as before, the sadness in my heart couldn't be suppressed any longer.
To me, it was the death of a sister, not the burning of a ghost.
However, thinking back to last night when Xiujuan's eyes were still calm, my heart didn't feel too sad anymore. It was a kind of calmness as well. Tears flowed down my face like the tears of a clumsy actor.
Perhaps death was a release for Sister Xiujuan.
Although it was often said that it was better to die than to live, but it was also said that grief was greater than the heart. Sister Xiujuan had lost her looks, her parents, and her originally blissful life … He even lost his identity as a person!
Is there anything more sad in this world? Maybe there were. After all, it was said on the news that foreigners were still living in deep waters.
However, to elder sister Xiujuan, this was enough. It was enough to make her unafraid of death!
I don't know if I'm right or not. I'm still a child after all, but whether I'm right or not, I don't want to think about it anymore.
After standing in the yard and looking at the black smoke for a while and crying, I ate some food and then headed for the black smoke.
I wanted to see, I wanted to see how Xiujuan's sister had been burned to death, I wanted to see how many people were crying for her now.
Not too far away from the door is Sister Xiujuan's old house, which was one of my favorite places to go before, but now it isn't.
It was Boss Gao who was living there right now, the person who had forced sister Xiu Juan's parents to death. Moreover, I don't know why, but looking at Boss Gao made me feel gloomy.
The black smoke was not far away, but by the time I got there it was almost gone and there was only a crackling sound in the white dust.
Everyone in the village was there, including Boss Gao and the others.
They surrounded the burned-out bonfire. Unlike what I imagined, everyone was shouting loudly. Everyone was sitting there alone, as if they were reminiscing about something. A few of them couldn't stop their tears from rolling down their faces.
Everyone was discussing:
"Old Li..." How pitiful. "
"That's right, I still remember Old Li saying he would let us drink until we fell down at Soo Juan's wedding." Little Fatso's father shook his head and sighed. "Life …" What the heck is this thing!? "
"What a pity, such a beautiful girl and her sweet mouth."
"What can we do? What can we do if we get infected by ghosts? "
"After all, they are three lives. Liu Pai, Wang Lao San and that young man, they are pitiful people."
"Wow!" It was unknown if she was thinking of her man again, "I don't blame you. Soo Juan, I really don't blame you at all. I know that it's not you, it's a ghost."
In the middle was the crackling fire, and all around it were weeping mourners, weeping or crying.
Those who didn't know the situation thought that some respected family's old man had been incinerated, and that the entire village was crying their hearts out for him.
Dead people in the village are hard to avoid, some old people died of old accidents, but no matter how or when they died, I have never seen so many people cry together.
"Who knows if we'll be next or not." The big bro had a cigarette in his mouth, he shook his head, "In the end, we still haven't found the person behind the scenes, who knows when he'll make a move?"
Brother Pi blew out a circle of smoke. This move was originally his most prized skill, but now when he blew out the smoke ring, there was only loneliness in it, "Although now that Xiujuan is burned up and the mastermind has lost an arm, we can't guarantee that he will stop after he killed someone, and the greater possibility is that he will continue to kill people!"
"I advise everyone to temporarily leave the village to avoid the limelight. It's still better than waiting for your death here. After all, no one can guarantee that they won't be the next one." He put out the cigarette in his hand and left along the edge of the field. "I'm leaving anyway. I'll take my family and temporarily stay in the city for a while."
As everyone watched the leaving silhouette of the Pangzi brother, whispers began to emerge from the crowd, and they were all discussing whether or not they should leave the village.
Although leaving the village sounded simple, it was definitely not as simple as it sounded.
At most, they would go to the city during the new year to buy some goods for the New Year. So when it came to temporary residences outside of the village, most people were in a dazed state. Furthermore, leaving the village might also be a huge expense, which was very difficult for people to bear.
Everyone was discussing in hushed tones, except for a few people — old people who were widowed or whose children had gone out to work. They were only the size of this village for their entire lives, so how could they leave the village?
There seemed to be a dark cloud hanging over the fiery land, and beneath it was a whole field of sorrow.
His grandfather was sitting there silently, smoking a pipe, staring at the ground in front of him with a pair of dark eyes. From time to time he would look at Boss Gao, and from time to time he would even look at his blind date.
The crowd dispersed in twos and threes, until at last only Grandpa and I were left.
"Grandfather, was Sister Xiujuan burnt?" I looked at my grandfather.
"Yes." His grandfather was puffing on his pipe as if he had not stopped smoking in the past two days.
"But, didn't you say that she didn't harm anyone? Why do you still want to burn her? " The others thought that Sister Xiujuan was a murderer and was possessed, but I knew that my grandfather knew that Sister Xiujuan was not a murderer and had retained her original consciousness. It was just that she had turned ugly and her identity had become a ghost.
I don't know what happened last night, but after a night of consideration, Pappy finally decided to burn sister Xiujuan.
Was it to reassure everyone? But to take Sister Xiujuan's life in order to make everyone feel at ease … this was too unfair.
If not, why did he burn Sister Xiujuan?
Perhaps elder sister Xiujuan no longer had the desire to live, and she herself had the will to die. However, she should not have died like this in the end.
I don't know, so I'm going to ask, "Didn't you know she didn't hurt anyone? Even if no one believes you, you can use the excuse you just said. Just say that Sister Soo Juan is the key to finding the mastermind behind all of this, isn't that fine? "
"Huaizu, do you still remember that news?" Grandfather looked at me and said, "That man-eating person."
"Yes." I nodded my head. I don't know why my grandfather suddenly mentioned that news. I still remember the entire village discussing about that person when that news was spread to the village, saying that he wasn't a human.
"Then tell me …" the man-eater, is he a human? " Pappy looked at me not as if I were a child, but as if I were someone of equal status.
I wanted to say no, but that person was a real person.
"Yes."
"That's right!" Even if a man eats a man, he is still a man. Even if a ghost doesn't do anything bad, he is still a ghost. As a yin yang master and a ghost catcher, isn't it perfectly justified for me to catch ghosts and kill monsters? "
Humans were humans, ghosts were ghosts!
Capture the Ghost Master, kill the demons and catch the monsters!
What grandfather said was not wrong, but I feel that something is amiss.
I don't like it. I don't like this kind of adjudication that is either black or white.
The wind blew past and lifted the ashes from the cigarette. It was like a heavy snow. However, the snow was mixed with black and white!