Chapter 9 Nine

I hopped up the stairs, but when I opened the door curtain, it was dark inside, and Sister Yuqing ran off to nowhere.I went downstairs to search for a round but didn't see her. My mother and the others were chatting in the living room. At the door of the living room sat a little girl, Chun Xi, who was pouring tea, shaking her head and dozing off.I woke her up by shaking her, and asked her quietly if she saw Mrs. Yuqing. She said that she saw Mrs. Yuqing going to the back garden in a daze a while ago, and she probably went to relax. It's so dark outside and the wind is strong, I dare not go to the back garden alone at night.

Once, Qin Mazi, who was pouring dung, fell into the cesspit in the middle of the night. The fat lady said it was pushed by a ghost. Qin Mazi was so scared that he burned a lot of paper money, but I was in a hurry to find Yuqing's sister-in-law to get the money to recoup the book!I have to grab that little girl and go to the back garden with me, to be more courageous.In winter, all the grains in our garden were left with dry stalks, and the wind blew them away and they rustled. It hurt so much when I hit my face. We walked around the garden, and my throat was hoarse, and I didn’t even see ghosts. One.I was so anxious that I stomped my feet and muttered: "Sister Yuqing is really a person. I don't know where she went with her money!" When we walked around to the gate of the garden, I suddenly found that the bolt of the wooden gate was open. Yes, the door creaked and creaked in the wind, and my heart suddenly moved, and I immediately turned around and said to Chunxi, "Go back, I know what I know." As soon as Chunxi turned his back, I opened the garden gate. slipped out.

The alley outside was deserted, and everyone hid in the house to watch the new year.I was still hot in Lao Yuan's room and my forehead was sweating, but now I was eating the wind blowing in front of me, and my teeth chattered from the cold.The alley is always slippery and squeaky, I haven’t done it all year round, and when I run, I step on it and squat, I feel a little chilly in my heart, afraid that there is something behind me, I am so scared that I dare not even look back .When I turned around the entrance of an alley, there was a sound of "woo-wa--", probably a pair of cats were fighting on the wall, my hairs stood on end, and I ran quickly, finally ran into that dead alley , I stood outside the birthday window, I couldn't even breathe.Candle light could be seen faintly inside, I padded up my feet and wet a piece of tissue paper on the window, and poked a small hole, trying to see what kind of trouble Mrs. Yuqing was doing here behind my back, so that I could break in Go scare them.But when I squinted one eye and looked into the small hole, my heart beat faster than I ran just now, and it made my chest ache.My feet seemed to be rooted, and I couldn't move.

Inside, the candle on the table jumped into a tall flame, flickering. A pair of pine-green embroidered shoes and the birthday black cloth shoes were piled up in front of the bed.Yuqing's sister-in-law and Qingsheng were both lying on the head of the bed. Yuqing's sister-in-law was only wearing a small skirt, her bun was untied, and a large lock of black hair fell to her chest. She leaned back on the head of the bed, tightly Wrapping around Qingsheng's neck, Qingsheng's upper body was bare, revealing his pale and barren back. His two arms were so long and thin, they rested on Yuqing's sister-in-law's shoulders, and his head lay on Yuqing's sister-in-law's chest, his whole face was buried. into her thick hair.A raging brazier was burned by their bedside, the fire was dimly lit, but it made the walls of this small room dim red, and even the curtains reflected red light.

Yuqing's sister-in-law looks so frightening, her face is drunk red, her cheekbones are so oily that she is about to get angry, her forehead is full of sweat, soaking her hair, sticking strands of it, her eyes are half-opened , shining brightly, with his mouth slightly opened, murmuring some indistinct words.Suddenly, Yuqing's sister-in-law seemed to have gone crazy, she bit Qingsheng's shoulder and tore it back and forth, her long hair was beating.Her hands were like two eagle claws digging into Qingsheng Qingbai's back, pinching them deeply.After a while, she suddenly raised her head again, grabbed Qingsheng's hair with both hands, and pressed Qingsheng's head firmly to her chest, as if wishing to stuff Qingsheng's head into her heart. The slender arms kept trembling, like a severely injured rabbit, paralyzed on the ground, with four slender legs trembling, looking very weak and weak.When Mrs. Yuqing bit his shoulder again, he suddenly struggled desperately and rolled over, lay down in the middle of the bed, and moaned in a muffled voice. The corners of Mrs. Yuqing's mouth were stained with blood. There was also a streak of blood running down his left shoulder, dripping drop by drop on his pale ribs.

Suddenly, Yuqing's sister-in-law burst into tears.Immediately becoming infinitely gentle, she cautiously crawled to Qingsheng's side, and kept asking tremblingly: "What's the matter—?" "What's the matter—?" She nestled her cheek against his back, slowly Ironing it back and forth makes it extremely soft.After a long time, she kissed him lightly on his injured shoulder for a while, and then rubbed the wound with a finger a few times—so considerate, as if she was afraid of hurting him, she kept Weeping, the teardrops rolled down his back in strings shining with the candlelight.

I don’t know how long it took. My feet were numb and my head was so dizzy. After staying for a while, I turned around and ran back. I went upstairs and slept under the covers. That night I kept having strange dreams—I always dreamed of Qingsheng’s shoulder bleeding. "Can sisters and brothers sleep?" I pulled the fat lady aside when I was eating fried rice cakes in the kitchen the next day and asked her quietly.She pointed at me and smiled: "You're really talking nonsense! Wouldn't that be a wild mandarin duck?" Seeing that I couldn't understand my eyes, she bent down and whispered in my ear:

"Well, let's say your sister-in-law Yuqing goes out to sleep with someone, then she and her wild man are a pair of wild mandarin ducks, do you understand?" After she finished speaking, she laughed—it was so ugly, Hate!I just don't like to call Yuqing's sister-in-law and Qingsheng "wild mandarin ducks".But—oh!Why did Mrs. Yuqing bite Qingsheng's shoulder so fiercely?I always thought of the way Qingsheng's arms trembled, it was so pitiful.These two brothers and sisters are really weird, and they confuse me so much. The next day Yuqing's sister-in-law still put on her black jacket and became quiet and quiet. She helped take care of Yancha in the living room, and she still spoke in the same way—in a soft voice. Bite!But since that night, I feel more and more that there is something wrong with these two siblings.When the two of them were together, I actually felt like our Nanruntian in Guilin in July and August, so sweaty on my forehead.

The air was so heavy that it made people gasp for breath. Sometimes I saw the two of them sitting opposite each other, not saying a word in silence. Aunt Yuqing's eyes kept falling on Qingsheng's face. He was so bloated that he couldn't breathe out, Qingsheng lowered his head, closed his mouth tightly, and kept scratching the table with his hands—creaking noises, as if the two of them would explode anytime, anywhere. It wasn't until the night of the Lantern Festival that I saw that the two of them really clashed.I was so scared that I didn't dare to go to Qingsheng's place with Mrs. Yuqing for a long time.

That night Yuqing's sister-in-law made glutinous rice balls for me for supper at the birthday celebration, and we went there not long after dinner.I don't know what happened, but the two of them talked very little that night. Yuqing's sister-in-law was making rice noodles and making stuffing for her birthday, while I was making little people to play with.Yuqing's sister-in-law's face was pale, and her hair was not well combed, it was a bit messy, and a few strands hung loosely around her ears.Under the candlelight, I saw that the wrinkles on Yuqing's sister-in-law's forehead turned into black shadows, deeply embedded in them.Her ten fingers moved quickly, and the glutinous rice dumpling was rubbed in her palm, rolling like a small ball. Qingsheng was sitting opposite her, holding a pair of bamboo chopsticks and vigorously stirring a pile of sugar paste in the basin.His eyelids are drooping low, two black eyelash shadows are reflected on his blue-white cheekbones, he bit his lower lip tightly, showing a row of white teeth, which set off the green mustache on his lips Hair is more obvious.

The two sat like this for a long time without speaking a word, and sometimes there was a burst of firecrackers outside, and the two of them raised their heads and looked out the window at the same time.When they looked away, Yuqing's sister-in-law immediately covered her eyes like an eagle, and Qingsheng couldn't dodge it, she ran around in a panic, turned her face away, and the veins on her neck burst out.Once when her eyes swept over again, Qingsheng's hand suddenly trembled, and a chopstick in his hand broke with a sound of "Bah!".He stood up suddenly and smashed the half of his hand on the table, and hurriedly turned to go to the kitchen. The broken chopsticks jumped up and landed on Yuqing's sister-in-law's chest. As soon as the glutinous rice dumpling in the bag loosened, it broke into two halves and rolled to the ground.Her gaze immediately followed Qingsheng's back. She didn't speak, but the corners of her mouth kept twitching. Qingsheng didn't eat glutinous rice balls, he said he couldn't eat them, Yuqing's sister-in-law only called him to see if he didn't eat them, so she started eating with me.Qingsheng was pacing up and down the room, keeping his hands in his trouser pockets. When we finished eating glutinous rice balls, the sound of firecrackers outside became more and more intense, and the lantern festival on the other side of Cross Street had probably already begun.I heard from Lao Zeng that all the actors in the Gaosheng Theater were dispatched, set up a lot of pavilions, and participated in the parade pretending to be a play.Ruyi Zhu played the role of spider spirit, and Jin Yanfei played the role of clam shell spirit. Qingsheng walked to the window and stood there, staring blankly at the red fire shining in the sky outside for a while.Yuqing's sister-in-law has been staring at his back without blinking, and she is also in a trance.Qingsheng turned around suddenly, and as soon as he met Mrs. Yuqing's eyes, blood slowly flooded his pale face, his forehead was glistening with sweat, his lips trembled for a long time, and finally he let out a loud voice Said hoarsely: "I'm going out for a while!" Yuqing's sister-in-law stared at him blankly, as if she didn't understand what he said, she stood up slowly after a while, and said in a low voice: "Don't go out." Her voice was cold and heavy, sounding scary. "I'm going!" Qing Sheng shouted tremblingly. "Don't—" Aunt Yuqing said slowly again, her voice getting colder and heavier. Qingsheng clenched his fists tightly, and the veins on the back of his hands were exposed. He hesitated for a long time, and beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.Suddenly he went to the wall and took off the padded jacket hanging on the bed wall, and hurriedly put it on. Yuqing's wife hurried over and grabbed Qingsheng's sleeve and asked: "Where are you going?" Her voice began to tremble. Qingsheng turned her head away, her mouth was tightly shut and she didn't make a sound, her ears were swollen and red. "No, no—you don't go out tonight anyway, listen to me, don't leave me, don't—" Yuqing's sister-in-law was panting and hadn't finished speaking, Qingsheng struggled hard, Yuqing's sister-in-law staggered, took two steps back, and let go.Qingsheng hurried out without looking back, Yuqing's sister-in-law stood by the door and stretched out her hand, her mouth was wide open, she kept panting, her face was paler than paper.After a long while, she turned around, went to the table and sat down blankly. I stood beside them and they were frightened. At this time, I walked over and pushed Aunt Yuqing's shoulder and asked her: : "What happened to you?" Yuqing's sister-in-law raised her head and looked at me with a forced smile: "I'm fine, young master, be good, let me have a rest, and I'll go home with you." There were shining teardrops in her eyes, and I saw her leaning on the table with her head supported, extremely haggard, as if she had aged a lot all of a sudden.