Chapter 16 Chapter 16 The Homeland of Tears

Three bayonets pierced the darkness, and water drops were pointed at the trembling Banzi villagers.They were so frightened that they forgot to scream. They just watched three guys with guns climb up the slope and stood in front of them like a ghost.After the donkey had finished humming, there was a sudden silence all around, the adults didn't dare to bray, the children didn't know what was in front of them, but they were curious, one about the same age as Yougen jumped out of his mother's arms, and hopped past.His mother cried and yelled and got up to chase the child, but she couldn't catch up with her frightened legs and feet. She just watched the child embrace a slender leg wrapped in cloth.The child looked up and was as happy as he saw his father.But the man was not annoyed, and lightly poked it back with his legs, like kicking a puppy that wanted food.Everyone panicked, guessing that this is a devil-like ghost who came up in the middle of the night, not knowing what to do.Tweety hugged Yougen tightly, and desperately lowered herself into the crowd.Like many women, she searched for Mr. Yuan Bai as if asking for help.Mr. Yuan Bai stood up early and raised his dry hands towards the starry sky.A gun was drawn by him and pointed directly at his head.

"Please don't shoot, these are ordinary people." Mr. Yuan Bai shook his hands, but the man didn't put down his gun and shouted at Mr. Yuan Bai.The voice was neither loud nor soft, and the meaning was unclear. Seeing that Mr. Yuan Bai did not respond, he yelled loudly again.The folks didn't know what the birdsong was, so they were certain that it was a devil, and they were too frightened to breathe out.But this devil was endless. He yelled over and over again, and he didn't care if no one understood. The other two big guns pointed at a few old men, and pointed at the turtle monster. The turtle monster also raised its hand, and the gun Immediately moved away, the dwarf was obviously not dangerous.A man stood up next to Mr. Yuan Bai, screaming, and all three guns were pointed at him.His shoulders were raised and lowered, his mouth was crooked and his eyes were slanted, and there was a bloody white cloth around his head. Tweety recognized him as a fool from Guo Liudan's family. His father tried to hold him back, but was pushed back with a bayonet knife.The devil grabbed Fool Guo and threw him out, pointing at his head and then his face. Mr. Yuan Bai didn't understand what the devil was going to do.The idiot was foolishly afraid at first, but then he became so happy that his shoulders were level with laughter.Seeing the shiny helmet of the devil, he reached out to touch it.The devil jumped back as if frightened, and the muzzle of the gun flashed suddenly.Tweety felt blind, what kind of light is this?Why is it so bright?It's fine, but the sound is still so loud?Something flew out from behind the fool, like a broken bat under the starlight.The fool lowered his head and touched his chest, looked at the palm of his hand and cried a few times, before falling down the hillside like a sack.His father also cried and rushed over, and the two plopped twice.The water under the hillside was very deep, but the devil seemed worried, so he fired two more shots down the hillside without hesitation.This time the sound was not so loud, because all the women and children on the hillside were crying.Guo Tietou fell into his mother's arms and was foaming at the mouth, his eyes were like a rooster's, this kid was pretending to be crazy again.Tweety'er saw that You Gen had tears all over her face, she didn't cry, but just blinked around with her bright black eyes, she knew that those tears were her own.

The devil standing in the middle put away his gun, stood firmly by his feet, and waved to Mr. Yuan Bai.Mr. Yuan Bai stopped raising his hand, and stood in front of him with staring eyes, fists clenched tightly. "Chinese soldiers... are there any?" Although the devil's voice was soft, he could understand it all. "No, they were all taken away by the government." Mr. Yuan Bai didn't blush because he was not lying. "If there are... kill them all." The devil gestured under his neck. "If you don't have one, don't kill any of them, these people..." Mr. Yuan Bai pointed back.

"Eat...is there?" The devil stopped talking about this topic, Tweety thought, this must be the survivor of the two cartloads of devils that were washed away by the water, no wonder they were not hungry after spending half the night in the water. Mr. Yuan Bai didn't speak for a long time, and the devil just stared at him and didn't speak.Cui'er heard Mr. Yuan Bai sigh, he turned around and said, "Who brought food, folks? The devil is hungry." It's like a discussion, and it's like an order, but Mr. Yuan Bai is not stupid, so he didn't know that everyone didn't have it, and they all ate pheasants.The villagers pouted and said nothing.Mr. Yuan Bai said again: "If you have any, take out some, even if you don't take it, they can still grab it."

Some of the villagers began to dig through the burdens and took out steamed buns of various shapes.What I ate just now belonged to everyone, but now to save my life, I can only take out my own.Yuan Bai, an old guy, has already seen through the minds of the women in Banzi Village. Tweety really didn't, seeing the Shanxi woman tremblingly took out a golden and plump cornbread from her arms, she was so shocked that she couldn't close her mouth from ear to ear.The woman said just now that she was busy walking, so she didn't bring anything to eat, so Cui'er gave her a chicken leg, and Yougen and herself ate a piece of chicken breast.Seeing Tweety staring at her, the woman from Shanxi had no fear, broke off the small half of the stuffing and gave it to Tweety, saying: "When I take it out, we can't share it... just leave it to us when we can't stand it... Hurry up." Hide it, don't let the devils take it all away..."

Tweety picked it up in a hurry, she was so angry that she wanted to accept this love, she was so aggrieved that she wanted to throw it into the water.But seeing You Gen's eyes staring at Wotou, he swallowed it and put it in his arms. Seeing that the devil didn't notice it, he let out a sigh of relief.The Shanxi woman held up the cornbread to Mr. Yuan Bai, but the devil didn't wait, went up and grabbed it, broke it into three parts, and shared it with the other two devils.Other women also handed over food.The devil was really hungry, and he never refused to come, he took a piece to eat, and even unscrewed the water bottle on his waist to drink.While eating and drinking, the tall devil gave the Shanxi woman a thumbs up and smiled strangely.Tweety looked at his face in fear, she is also a person who can eat, drink and laugh, so she loves killing so much?

The devil sat down after eating, presumably because he was afraid of the cold, and one of them lit the extinguished bonfire again.The pheasant ran away, and they threw the chicken bones into the fire angrily.The folks glanced at them, buttocks moved away quietly.Mr. Yuan Bai was so tired that he couldn't stand up anymore, he leaned on a big burden and closed his eyes to rest his mind. The women asked him every now and then, but he didn't answer. A devil suddenly sang, waving his arms while singing, that song...how can I say it?Like the sobbing of an old cat watching the tengu eat the moon on the roof, it does not come from the throat, but from the stomach.The voice was not pleasant, but it wasn't unpleasant, after all, it became a tune, but it made Tweety's hair stand on end, and rashes broke out all over her body.The murderer also sang, but his face was facing this way, and the gun with the bayonet unloaded was placed at his feet.What kind of night is this?Luckily escaped the flood, escaped two cars of devils, but sat with devils in the middle of the night?They killed fool Guo and his son in front of everyone, just like slaughtering two chickens.The corpse must have fallen into the water and drifted away to the old course of the Yellow River in the light of stars.Tweety hugged You Gen, who couldn't sleep, feeling cold in the dark, as if the day would never light up again.She looked at the women around her who were like her, at Mr. Yuan Bai who was sitting silently with his eyes closed, and at the turtle monster with his hands folded in his sleeves in a daze, but she couldn't find any support.This long night is like a bad omen. After Lao Dan's departure or just the beginning, the real suffering is about to come, and everything will reveal the truth at dawn.

Yougen stretched out his little hand, touched his mother's face, and Yiyi said something.Tweety hurriedly hugged him tightly, put her ear close to his, and only after listening to him a few times did she understand.You Gen said: "Where did Dad go? Why didn't you come back to play with me..." Tweety was warmed up by his words, and tears flowed from her heart. Only then did she realize that all hopes were in her arms and stomach.A shooting star flew across the sky, illuminating You Gen's stubborn little face, and she hurriedly looked up, but it had already disappeared.But this star lit her up, and her faith slowly rose from her sadness and helplessness.

"You have roots, your father has gone to find you a wife, and he will bring back a big wife." "What do you want a wife for?" "I want a wife to have a baby." "Why do you have a baby?" "When you give birth to a baby, you become a father." "What are you doing as a father?" "When you become a father, your father is your grandfather." You Gen wanted to ask something, but sleepiness overwhelmed him, and he fell asleep with his mouth open.Tweety smiled and kissed him, and found that her body was no longer shaking.She quietly turned her head to look at the devils, and saw that the devil who had been turning her head was also looking at her.Tweety smiled at him with great courage, and the devil nodded seriously, with unexpected kindness.

"If you don't mess with them, they won't kill people..." Tweety thought.The devil stopped singing, and all three fell silent.The fire was crackling and burning, and the three devils looked at the red flames, wondering what they were thinking... Tweety fell asleep.After an unknown amount of time, You Gen's little hand touched her face, and she woke up leisurely.After only being stunned for a moment, she turned her head in a panic, but the devil was gone.She stood up again to look, and sure enough, it was gone, the palm-sized hillside couldn't hide these guys.Looking at the folks again, most of them are still sleeping.The sun rose halfway up from the boundless yellow water, and the sky and the earth were all red, and Banzi Village, which was half soaked by water, looked bleak like never before.

Mr. Yuan Bai stood on the side of the slope, looking at the sun with his hands behind his back.The old man was as motionless as a pine tree.The turtle squatted at his feet like a strange dog, looking at the old man in a daze.The devil was gone, Tweety felt as if she had crawled out of a grave, and stood up easily.The water has receded a lot, and it is flowing southeast. There is no more running water, and it will be almost receded in two days. "Look at the flood, it's coming from the direction of Zhongmou. Zhongmou is two hundred miles away from here. We have muddy water two or three feet thick here. How can the people there live?" Mr. Yuan Bai murmured. The devil left before dawn.A boat came and took them away.They left without saying a word, leaving behind only a bundle containing round rice balls and strange biscuits.But no one dared to eat it. The woman from Shanxi said that it must have been poisoned and added Mihun powder; Falling into an oriental woman, falling into the trap of a devil.Mr. Yuan Bai bawled, saying it was just a bag of rice balls, how could he come up with so many dick things?Eat when you’re hungry, and don’t eat if you’re not hungry. The devils owe us something and don’t owe us anything. The devil still feels guilty?Tweety was astonished, but Mr. Yuan Bai waved his hand away from her to ask, and only said to the rising sun, "How can one know good or bad after a big flood?" Hearing what he said, the turtle stood up and asked this question What do you mean?Mr. Yuan Bai smiled and said that you don't have a wife now, but if you grew up to be normal, you would have been taken to the battlefield long ago. The rice balls given by the devil made the villagers stand up for another day.Cui'er felt fine after eating one, so she ate half of it for You Gen.When the rice balls were eaten, the water receded another foot, revealing the yellow mud under the water.The Daizi River stubbornly rushes out of its own channel, although it is weak, it can still gurgle forward.Mr. Yuan Bai and Guo Tietou went down to explore, and felt that it was time to leave, so they led everyone to the village.There are still things in some houses that have not collapsed, and some food can be picked out of the kang cave.Mr. Yuan Bai asked everyone to take the important things first. There is an old cemetery behind the mountain that has not been flooded, and the villagers can go there to rebuild their homes.Some people say that this is disrespect to the ancestors.Mr. Yuan Bai said that your ancestor was a ball?Those rotten cemeteries are not used at this time, and you will be buried in them next month.The ancestors knew that the big guy could use this old cemetery to continue his life, and it was too late to be happy.Besides, it's not like living for a lifetime, the water will dry out, and the village will be restored to its original appearance in half a year. Banzi Village is still Banzi Village, and Daizi River is still Daizi River.Whether there are devils, they are still them, and we are still us.If you don't want to die now, just follow me. The fastest runner was Guo Tietou.He jumped like a grasshopper in the muddy soup, wading out a muddy path.Mr. Yuan Bai leaned on a stick and went down too.Seeing this, the villagers rolled up their trouser legs and followed hand in hand.The children and old people stayed behind, as well as the hungry and fainted animals, wading through the sticky muddy water to the dilapidated Banzi Village.When Tweety walked to the door of her house, the fence fell down, the chicken coop became a mud cage, and the millstone was tilted in the yard.Others are missing.A mud wall of the side house collapsed, and half of the roof of the main house was lost—Tweety didn’t know how this happened, how did such shallow water blow up half of the roof, maybe it was the big water wind that the old people said, Take advantage of the waves to ride up.Looking around at the neighbors' houses, there are quite a few of them.The windows are gone, and the tables and chairs are scrambling to get stuck on them. The pots and pans are sunken in the fine sand, and the round edges of the rice vats can be vaguely seen.Tweety stepped in with difficulty and climbed onto the wet kang. The quilt was soaked, which was not a problem at first, and the cotton was not afraid of water, so it would be fine after drying, but it was covered with dozens of catties of sand, and I didn't know how to clean it. She sighed, pushed the mud off the kang, and struggled to lift off the kang mat and felt cloth.Pry open a brick made of wood.Below is a hole half a meter deep, and there is a sealed iron box, which is the most valuable piece of furniture in the family. After listening to Mr. Yuan Bai's persuasion, every family in Banzi Village bought such a box.When I opened it, there was no water. Tweety happily took out a bag of wheat, half a bag of various beans and rapeseeds, and at the bottom were a few silver dollars and flattened old bills, and a small wooden box, which contained the things brought by her mother's family. Fine jewelry.This last thing comforted her.She and Lao Dan smiled happily around this plump hole at night, and every time a small piece of something was put in, they felt at ease again.The grain is the latest, the seeds are full, and the silver dollars are polished by Tweety.She smiled in satisfaction, wrapped it all up in a bun, and put it deeply in her bosom.The son is still there, the donkey is still there, the hope in the kang cave is still there, half of the house is still there, and Lao Dan is still there—he must still be there, if they are all there, then everything is still here. The half-roofed house creaked in the sun, and Tweety knew it would not collapse. The foundation of the main house was made of bricks, and the windows were made of adobe. When Lao Dan built this house, it was thanks to his third uncle. suggestion.In the house she found a cradle with roots—it had been a clean dung basket.She put all the pots, pans, spoons and tattered clothes that were scattered all over the house, and then fumbled in the chicken coop for a long time, and found two intact eggs.When she was about to leave, she looked back with nostalgia. This was her home, and she would come back when the water receded. Clouds drifted over the dilapidated roof, and she saw the muddy kitten standing there looking at her pitifully.She called to it, teased it, raised the basket and let it jump down.The blue sky is very blue, like a kitten's eyes.Tweety called it patiently again.The kitten looked around with a sad face, shaking the loess from its beard, it finally made a decision, twisted its buttocks and let it go, and fell heavily into it.Tweety hugged the basket, feeling like she was hugging everything. One night in the cemetery was not as scary as many people said.The woman in Shanxi kept praying to Bodhisattva for fear that her father-in-law would come out and settle accounts with her.Cui'er slept next to Lao Dan's third uncle's grave, not only was she not afraid, but she felt kind and at ease.Mr. Yuan Bai said that he could go back to Banzi Village to dig and transport soil in ten days at most, but this is a huge project. How can the villagers with few men do such strenuous work?If the work is not done before the rain comes, the dried mud will turn into mud soup again after only one rain.Mr. Yuan Bai gave the strategy, but not the means.He only has a pair of big pants left at this time, can he have a ball?His small brick house stood firm, but the books and four treasures of the study in the room must be destroyed. Except for the house, all his belongings may be left with this shirtless turtle.It's hard for this three-inch man to get on a bench, so if he just squats there and worries about something, what else can he do for the old man? The old cemetery is more than a foot higher than Banzi Village, enough to accommodate these two hundred people.It's just that there is no shelter, no barriers, no food, no drink, many people don't have the vision of Lao Dan and Cui Er, and everything in the house is cleaned up, such as Guo Tietou, he has nothing but his mother.Mr. Yuan Bai is not a god, so he can't think of any other way. He just asks the villagers to dig holes in the cemetery and squeeze them inside to avoid the cool wind at night.Tweety and the villagers took out some grain and cooked porridge. If there was rice and beans, it was considered another night.Cui'er fed You Gen and became exhausted, only to realize that she had only slept a little for two days and nights.Sleepiness filled her like a dark night, and she only remembered that Root was touching her face mischievously, and her eyes were as bright as stars. It is not a day to dig a hole, and after another dawn, the villagers are a little anxious.Some people have nothing left, while others still have everything.The woman from Shanxi generously gave Cui'er half of the cornbread, saying that the food in your family needs to be shared by the two of us, and no one else can spy on it; it looks like we're going to starve, and probably starve to death, so I leave home This is what my hometown looked like when I was young.Tweety was startled by what she said, so she buried the remaining food and seeds in the pit overnight, but after dawn, seeing Mr. Yuan Bai holding an empty pot, many people were dizzy with hunger, so they dug it out again.She knew that the food would not last for a few days, and she had to wait for Mr. Yuan Bai's solution.Mr. Yuan Bai asked her to hide those seeds, and said that as long as she was not starved to death, she should not take them out. These may be the last seeds in Banzi Village. Under the sun and in the breeze, the mud soup has become cracked land, the upper panel is clumped together, and the bottom is still thin mud, which is soft and swaying when stepped on, and the earth seems to be floating on water.The villagers were picking up all kinds of usable things on the yellow mud plain, and Tweety was not idle, and when she had the strength, she pulled Yougen to look around.You Gen found more than half a jade bracelet in the mud, Tweet picked up a copper teapot, a Shanxi woman picked up a sheepskin, and Turtle Monster got the most rewards, even picking up a complete coffin with a brand new shroud inside. .Turtle Monster and Guo Tietou carried back the coffin, Mr. Yuan Bai, who was as dirty as a mud monkey, put on a shroud full of money eyes, and his figure was just right.Yuan Bai said it was God's will, just because there was no more firewood.Xie Laosi's woman ran back screaming and asked everyone to see a place she found.It was a small depression full of mud, sand and vegetation, and there were hundreds of corpses scattered like corn stalks.They are like sculptures made of clay, some with their feet in the sky, and some with only half of their heads exposed. They are densely packed together and are gradually expanding in the increasingly intense sunlight.Tweety saw a woman whose face was covered by her hair. She was half sunk in the sticky soil, holding a baby who was no more than half a year old in her arms. A pair of small holes were left with blood.The villagers trembled in fright, but Mr. Yuan Bai asked the turtle monster and Guo Tietou to take off the dead people's clothes. He said that at this time everything is good and everything is precious, and there are probably such clothes for a hundred miles around. Situation, people in Banzi Village are lucky, but they still have to survive. The only food they had was going to be eaten up, and a few donkeys gnawed on the smelly hay in the valley every day.The villagers began to think about how to rebuild their homes in the old cemetery, or how to restore Banzi Village to its original state.But all of this could not be implemented in the end. They didn't even have tools, let alone wood and fodder. Even if they had tools, Mr. Yuan Bai estimated that it would take half a year to clean up the mud.The folks who didn't even have much strength left were desperate, and they wanted to live in the pit of this old cemetery, but even if they could live, where would the food come from?Some people have already discussed the way forward, especially the Shanxi women who have left their hometowns. If it is impossible, they will go south. It is better to be alive than to be a dead body in the old cemetery.Tweety heard it sad, but she didn't panic, she knew that the Shanxi woman was right.Her mother's house is thirty miles away from here, and the terrain is higher, so it may not be flooded, but as long as you walk a hundred miles to the south, you will be under the jurisdiction of the provincial capital.Some people also said that you can't go, what should you do if you encounter devils?Everyone was silent for a while, and Mr. Yuan Bai said: "If you encounter a devil, you should do whatever you want." When the sun first came up, a group of people came, some were devils and some were not. They didn't have guns, and they wore big sneakers that could walk on mud.They brought two bags of sorghum rice and a bag of radishes, and put them down solemnly.Their arrival disrupted the plans of the folks.A person inside recognized Mr. Yuan Bai, and he talked with him for a long time. Mr. Yuan Bai kept his head down and looked up at the villagers from time to time.Cui'er saw a few devils looking around Banzi Village, not knowing what to do.They poured oil on the pile of corpses in the col and burned them, and took out candy for the children to eat.Everyone didn't dare at first, but when one ate it, they gathered around to ask for it.The devils didn't look like ghosts at all, squatting on the ground like sugar vendors, and they happily patted the child's head.Yougen didn't like to join in the fun, seeing other babies like this, he just hid in his mother's arms drooling, smacking his fingers in his mouth.A devil with a birthmark on his face saw it and came smiling.Tweety stood there not knowing whether to run or laugh.The devil rummaged in his pocket for a long time, took out a handful of roasted chestnuts and stuffed them in.Tweety could only laugh a few times, she suddenly recognized that this was the devil who climbed up first that day, this face was washed clean, with a smile, it was no longer as scary as that night. "You... good!" the devil said to Tweety, and his face turned red after speaking.