Chapter 39 Jingjie Melon

Speaking of Jing Street, many Maqiao people don't know it, and many people around Maqiao don't know it either—especially the young people. Bramble Street has been gone for years.From the county town to the east gate of the Sanhuali Road and cross Luoshui, you can see a piece of flat land, where cotton or sweet potatoes are grown. The north side is slightly elevated, with some rocks and weeds on it, and one or two thatched huts for night watchmen.If you look closer, you may see cow dung or a pheasant nest in the tall grass, or a broken straw sandal.This is Jingjie, and now people write it as Jingjie, Jingjie, or Jingjie Weizi.It is difficult for young people to know that this is actually a "street" with more than a hundred families, and there is a famous Confucian Temple.

Thorn Street has become a meaningless name and has been deserted. Thorn Street is only used in the story about Ma Wenjie, and it is an indispensable place name.Even so, it only postpones the inevitable desolation for some people for decades.The "persuading criminals" riot that year took place here.More than 50 defected bandit leaders of the "Advisement Association" were ordered to participate in labor and dig a pond during the final stage of intensive study.They were digging, carrying the load, sweating profusely for three days, and had just dug out the pond, when the machine gun hidden on the roof suddenly rang out—a sound that sounded very strange at first glance. , a very distant sound.The rain of bullets rolled up a whirlwind and roared towards it.They didn't feel the bullet passing through their flesh, but the muddy slope behind them was flying with dust and sand, and it was obvious that something exploded on the other side of their flesh, and at the same time, a series of flowers of dust and mist bloomed on this side of their flesh.They may begin to understand what metal is, what speed is, how smooth, how fast, and how imperceptible it is for a metal bullet to pass through the flesh.In the end, they fell one after another into the pits they had just dug.

It wasn't until after 1982, when the "Advisory Council riot" was declared by the government that it was a wrongful case caused by multiple complicated reasons, that people talked about this scene flickeringly, and only mentioned the strange name of Thorn Street again.Some old people said that after the burst of gunshots, Thorn Street was haunted by ghosts, and the houses of each family were always on fire for no reason. In less than two years, seven houses were burned down.The cubs there stayed too long after they were born, three of them stayed there in less than two years.Mr. Feng Shui said that there were officials and ghosts mobilizing there, and the live fish in the pond could not stop them. Of course, some houses had to be burned.As for the "official" ghost referring to official misfortune, or the homophonic coffin, which refers to the lingering spirit of the dead, Mr. Feng Shui made a vague sentence, and the people present did not hear it for sure.Someone immediately dug everywhere inside and outside the house, dug several feet, and removed all the wooden residues suspected to be rotten coffins underground.They also dug a new pond and planted thousands of fish fry in order to increase the water potential and use water to overcome fire.The strange thing is that the fish just couldn't keep alive in this pond, and they all turned white in less than a month.In the end, a fire broke out in an umbrella maker at the east end of the street, and people gradually lost confidence in the firefighting work, so they had to move to other places one after another, especially to the Huangwan area.

By the end of the 1950s, Thorn Street had been completely dismantled and turned into a wasteland. Even the wells had collapsed, and mosquitoes were overgrown. There turned out to be a good land, which is said to be very upright, especially willing to grow cotton and sweet potatoes, and a kind of muskmelon it produces is also very sweet, and it soon became famous.Hawkers in the county sometimes yell emphatically in order to attract customers: "Buy, buy, the Jingjie melon from Jingjieweizi—" Some people write this kind of melon as "Jinjie melon", which is written on the melon and fruit stand. on the signboard.