Chapter 2 Silent place (1)

We are a total of eight people, two cars, and three tents that have been set up. The last afterglow of the setting sun has disappeared. Although the sky has no rays of light, there is still a faint twilight of dove gray. The sad wasteland is beginning to blow a biting cold wind.The night did not melt away quickly, but the small forest behind him could no longer see clearly. In order to set up tents and move cooking utensils, no one appreciated the blurred desert dusk. This time, it was too late to set off in order to bring women and children.Manolin is meditating on the side, tall and tall, with a burnt beard that grows to his chest, wearing an old white shirt that remains the same, with a pair of knee-length shorts underneath, barefoot, and a statue that looks like a Jewish churchgoer on his head. The small hat at the time, the eyes are burning like fire, the legs are crossed, the hands are on the ground, the whole body is half hanging, like an Indian ascetic, and he is silent.

Miguel was wearing a plaid shirt, whitewashed clean jeans, thick eyebrows and big eyes, a fleshless nose, but matched with extremely sensual lips, a moderate build, and graceful hands, who kept fiddled with him That expensive camera. No matter how you look at it, Miguel can't fault it. It looks perfect like a Kodak color advertisement photo, but it can't blend into the surrounding scenery no matter what. At last he is a good partner, gregarious, cheerful, cheerful, without personality, talks a lot, and speaks very nicely, with him, it is impossible to quarrel, there is always something missing.

Ji Rui has always been shy. This robust young man from the Canary Islands is a fisherman's child. He is as simple as a piece of thick horse manure paper. His attitude is always reserved. He has never spoken to me directly.In the company, she is famous for being silent and honest, but she married a wife named Diao, who was as frightened as a deer. This wife who used to perm people in a beauty parlor married Ji Rui, so she reluctantly came to the desert. Don't talk to other men.At this moment, they were bored in their new tent, and the sound of baby Xia Wei babbling came from time to time.

Jose also wore a pair of grass-green shorts, a khaki shirt on top, high-cut blue sneakers, and a winter woolen flat-peaked cap on his head. He bent over to collect firewood, looking very old The suffering peasants in Russian novels always look like foreigners in Eastern Europe, and they have no taste of Spain at all.Jose is always the one who does the most work, he likes it. Idis sat gloomy and high on a boulder smoking a cigarette, his eyes were small and energetic, his almost fleshless face turned a metallic yellow in the twilight, his expression was always lazy and mocking; in the company, he and Europeans don't get along well, and they are impatient with their own people, but they are Jose's best friends. A big blue robe is dragged to the ground, letting the wind flap it.Looking closely at him, he is not like Shah Rawi, but a Tibetan, a product of the Himalayan plateau, always revealing such a trace of mystery.

I set off at noon in my bathing suit. Now I added a big Jose coat and a pair of knee-length white wool socks. Plate of eggs. Dio won’t come out, she’s afraid of everything in the desert, and she’s also afraid of Idis, she joined our lineup this time because her mother went back to Canary Island, Ji Rui is coming, so staying at home is also the reason Afraid, she just came here in such a miserable state, holding a three-month-old child in her arms, and looked pitiful, life in the desert was not meant for her. When Jose caught fire, I dropped the plate and ran into the distant woods. Idis, who didn't speak much, suddenly called out: "Where are you going?"

"Don't go into the woods!" He yelled from behind with the wind. "It's okay—it's—it's okay" or ran away in one breath. Rushed into the woods, turned around suddenly, those people were scattered on the sand like chess pieces, the strange thing is, just over there, the wind from the treetops rustled chaotically in the back of the tent, I felt close , It's far away. The forest is full of messy and intertwined trees. After waiting for a while, my eyes got used to the darkness. It turned out to be a pile of casuarinas, not pine branches. I ran inside and was buried deep in the shadows. , just under the bushes, before anyone was on guard, that thing jumped into the eyes.

A quiet stone house, white, with a semi-dome, no windows, no door entrance, turned into a black hole, strangely quiet, mysteriously quiet, and like a monster hiding the breath of life. The wind rustled past, and then quietly blew back, and there were shadows all around, and the yin was oppressive. I swallowed unnaturally, stared at the small house and retreated, and quickly exited the woods. I pulled down a branch and chopped it in half. It seemed familiar, this scene was as familiar as in a dream, I stood there for a while, and then I felt someone moaning in the forest and sighed softly, my body suddenly became hairy, and I dragged the branches to escape. He rushed out of the woods, and the cold feeling behind him was still chasing people step by step. After running dozens of steps, the campfire in the distance of Jose popped out with a bang, as if he wanted to compete with the setting sun that had just gone down.

"I told you not to pour gasoline, pour it again!" When I ran to the fire out of breath, the fire was already burning to the sky. "Add the pine branches later, and add them after the fire goes down." "It's not pine, it's casuarina." I was still panting. "Just that one." "It's weird in there, go if you have the guts." I called out. "Bring the knife, I'll chop it." Manolin put down the yoga technique and took the big knife in my hand. "Don't go!" Idis said lazily again. "There's a small house inside, it's scary, go and have a look." Manolin went anyway, and after a while, he came back with a lot of branches.

"Hey, there's something wrong in there." Manolin also said when he came back. "The thorns in the field are enough to burn, so it doesn't matter if you don't go." Hexi accosted indifferently, and I looked up at Manolin, who was silently wiping his sweat in such a cold evening. "Migai, come and help skewer the meat." I squatted down, put out the barbecue spit, and looked back at Ji Rui's tent. The gas lamp was already lit, but there was no sound. After waiting for a while, all the food was ready, and then quietly picked up the enamel plate for beating eggs, walked around the road, bent over, and ran to the back of Ji Rui's tent. "Here comes the face!" suddenly shouted, knocking the fork on the plate. "Sanmao, don't be scary!" Dio screamed inside.

"Come out to eat, come, come out!" Opening the tent, Dio put on a coat and squatted, the baby Xia Wei was lying on the ground, and Jerry was filling the bottle. "No!" Dio shook her head. "It's getting late, and I can't see anything. It's not scary to be invisible. When you're not in the desert, come, come out!" She was still hesitating, so I called again: "Are you going to eat or not? You have to come out after eating." Dio reluctantly looked outside, her eyes were wide open. "There's fire, don't be afraid." Migai also shouted.

"Jiri—" Dio turned around and called her husband. Ji Rui picked up the child, hugged her, and said in a low voice, "Don't be afraid, let's go out." Just as she sat down, Dio cried out again. "What are you roasting, black, camel meat—ah—ah—." This made everyone laugh, except for Idis showing a slight hint of impatience. "Beef, with soy sauce added, don't be afraid, here, I'll give you the first skewer." Passed a skewer of meat, Mrs. Girardy took it. José set up the fire vigorously, and a small spread of mahogany sticks came out of the barbecue, otherwise his eyebrows would always be burnt. There was silence all around, only the sound of roasting meat dripping on the firewood. "Eat slowly, there are omelets." I beat the eggs again. "Sanmao is like this. He is generous. Every time he makes food, he always makes a hole full of people." He Xi said. "I don't like you starving, hehe!" "Do you want to eat onions?" I looked at Dio, and she shook her head quickly. "Okay, let's make one dish without onions, put all the onions in another dish." "It's really not too much trouble." Mi Gai sighed. "The fire is low in the middle of the night, and then bury it with a pile of sweet potatoes, don't you eat it every time?" "Don't you guys sleep?" Dio asked. "Whoever loves to sleep, and whoever doesn't, is free. Sleep and get up, sleep is amazing, and everyone is happy." I smiled and looked at her, and passed another skewer of barbecue over. "We're going to sleep." Dio said apologetically, but no one answered, it's free! After dinner, I was still packing up. Dio pulled Jerry to say good night and left. Almost out of the fire circle, on a whim, he yelled at Dio again: "Ah——Look at those big eyes behind you!" With this call, Dio squatted down without Ji Rui and Xia Wei. "Sanmao, tsk—" Manolin glared at me. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, it was intentional." I lay on my knees and laughed non-stop, being crazy like this is also a nerve. The night was cold, but the fire kept burning. Hexi sat with me for a while, and then went into his small tent. The two got into their sleeping bags and talked with their faces up. "What do you call this place?" I asked Jose. "Idis didn't make it clear." "Is there really a crystal stone?" "The piece was given to us last time. It is said that it was picked up here. There must be some." After a while of silence, He Xi turned over. "Sleeping?" "Ok!" "Call me tomorrow morning, don't forget, um!" I also turned over, turned my back to my back, and closed my eyes. After a while, Jose fell silent, presumably fell asleep, opened the side of the tent to see that the three people were still sitting by the fire, Migai was quietly talking to Idis about something. Lying down for a while, listening to the desert wind crying, it seemed to fly with wings, the nails were blown loose, and the canvas covered the face, feeling stuffy, so I just got up, put on long trousers and a thick coat, and climbed again. Passing Jose, dragged out his sleeping bag, gently opened the tent and walked outside. "Where are you going?" Jose asked in a low voice. "Outside." He also answered in a low voice. "anyone here?" "The three haven't slept yet!" "Sanmao—" "Ok?" "Don't scare Dio." "Understood, you sleep." I hugged my sleeping bag, ran barefoot, and quietly approached the fire, spread out the floor, and then got in to lie down, while the three of us were still talking in whispers. The sky was starless and moonless, the night was so dark that it froze, and the wind was blowing freely, only to hear the rustling of the woods behind him. "He always smokes marijuana, and what he says can't be counted." Miguel continued the topic I didn't hear, and said to Idis in a low voice. "I didn't smoke before, but I got infected later. I didn't know it. Look at his small shop, it's a mess." Idis said. I opened the sleeping bag that covered my eyes and glanced at them sideways. Idis' copper face showed no expression under the firelight. "You mean old man Hana?" I asked in a low voice. "You know him too?" Miguel said in surprise. "Why don't you know him? I begged him again and again, but I just ignored him. He's always like a big bird, squatting on the counter, in a daze, scattered the change all over the place, and even sold it for him. As for the two items, he doesn’t care about customers, he’s always traveling.” “Travel?” Miguel asked again. "San Mao means that it is floating in the ecstasy smoke." Manolin added. "One time, I went to ask him again, Hana, Hana, please draw the path of the whole face for us. He was not confused that day. When I asked him, he burst into tears—" I turned over, Lying in the sleeping bag, he said to them in a low voice. "Why did you choose Hana?" Idis said disapprovingly. "You don't know that when he was young, he kept his face on the tomb?" I asked him with wide eyes. "The people know the way too," Idis said again. "Others dare not take it, you, do you take it, Idis?" I said in a low voice again. He smiled ambiguously. "Hey, face, do you really believe it?" Miguel asked Idis softly. "Those who believe have it, and those who don't believe it have nothing." "What about you?" I raised my head and asked again. "Me? I don't quite believe it." "Believe it or not, tell me clearly." He smiled ambiguously again, and said, "You know, I—" "You still eat pork." I complimented him. "That's it." Odis spread his hands and smiled. "That time Hannah cried—" Manolin continued to ask what I hadn't finished speaking. "Just said he wanted him to lead the way, but he shook his hands and said—madam, that's a forbidden place, and outsiders are not allowed to go there. Two years ago, I brought a reporter there, took pictures, and when I came back, the old woman died violently. She was punished in the face." Yes, the old woman lost her life for being greedy for such a small amount of money——After speaking, he suddenly burst into tears and clapped his hands and feet, I don’t think he smoked marijuana that day——” "I heard that when Hana's wife died, her whole body was black, and maggots came out of her nostrils immediately!" Migai said. "Add more firewood." I shrank into my sleeping bag and said nothing. The four of us faced each other quietly. Outside the circle of fire, we couldn't tell which was the sky and which was the ground. The wind tightened again, and wept. It was bleak like a ghost. After a while, Idis said again: "The ground is really cracked. It cracks every time." "Have you seen it?" Idis nodded gloomyly, looking out of the fire. "In the past, Hana always walked for several days and nights, and ran back to the town to report the news. Before the people entered the town, they shouted from afar—it’s cracked again! It’s cracked again—it’s terrible. Come on, the people in the clan are scared out of their wits, within a few days, they will die, sometimes more than one!" "It's always dead, right?" "That's right, but now, no one guards the tomb, and it's much better psychologically." "Still cracking?" Manolin asked. "Why doesn't it crack? If someone is dead and carried away, there is always that big hole waiting on the ground." "Coincidentally, the land is too dry!" I couldn't believe what I said. "The concrete floor is so sticky that it's cracked without an earthquake?" "Hey, you said you didn't believe it just now, why are you insisting on such a thing now?" "I've seen it with my own eyes many times." Idis said slowly. "God! Who is the burial for the face?" I asked him. "My wife—buried there too, she was fourteen years old and was pregnant when she died." Idis seemed to be talking about someone else. Everyone was startled and looked at him, not knowing what to say. "What are you talking about?" Jose also ran out quietly, and accidentally kicked a wooden board. "Shh, you're talking about shaming!" "That thing—oh—Migai, pass me the tea!" Under the firelight, there was silence again. "Idis—" I called from my sleeping bag. "Ok?" "Why is it called 'face'? What's the explanation?" "There used to be a lot of things like faces. They were a kind of ghosts living in the desert. They were also interpreted as 'souls' in Hasanian. They lived in the trees in the sandy oasis. Later, the oases became less and less. Faces Then it moved to the south. In the past few decades, the Spanish Sahara has only heard of one living place, that is, the cemetery of the Mude family. From now on, everyone will scream and scream, ghosts and cemeteries are used with the same name." "Isn't your surname also Mulder?" Jose said. "I told you just now, his wife is buried there, you didn't hear it." I whispered to He Xi. "Why did the Mude tribe choose that place?" "Accidentally, I buried seven of them at once. Later, I found out that there was a face living there, and he cracked the ground to announce the news of the death of the clansmen. No one dared to move again, and they sacrificed every year!" "I have seen the photos .” I said in a low voice. "Is there a photo of the face?" Miguel asked in shock. "That reporter took pictures before. It wasn't about ghosts. It was a cemetery. I didn't take pictures outside. I took a lot of pictures indoors. It's a small concrete floor covered with a thick cloth with red and black stripes. It doesn't make sense. There are no gaps in the ground, and names are written all over the walls." "Why is the cemetery in the house?" Jose asked. "I didn't build a house at first, but only surrounded it with stones. As a result, it always cracked on the top where the dead were buried. Later generations looked for it, but there was no bone in the ground, so another one was buried on the crack. It's almost a hundred years old. Even a small piece of land can never be fully buried, and the area of ​​the three-mao sleeping bag, which is not several times the size, actually buries the dead of the whole clan year after year." Odis used my sleeping bag as an example, which made me feel uncomfortable, put my back on the ground, and dared not move. "Didn't look carefully! I heard that most of the corpses in the desert are not rotten!" Migai said. "You have to dig very deep to bury someone. There is really nothing underneath." "Add more firewood, Manolin!" I shouted. "Later you built the house and laid the concrete floor. You always thought it would stop cracking, didn't you? Ha--" Jose actually laughed out loud, and splashed the tea on the fire.It's scary. "You don't believe me?" Manolin asked in a low voice. "People are always going to die, and the ground is always going to die, not to mention Mulder is a big family." "As long as your family has signs of shame, the two cemeteries near Sanmao's house don't have any." Mi Gai said softly. "Hey, don't talk nonsense, our place is quiet." "Shh, keep your voice down." He Xi patted me and stuffed my outstretched arm back into the pocket. "The people in the town are also strange, so they won't hang out with you." "People who are not from the Mude tribe will not be buried there, because Mude is always the one who sacrifices, so Yanyan only recognizes them and will not go there!"