Chapter 57 Chapter Fifty-Three

Dusan, the village head, died. This day is abnormal.The clouds are blue and red; the sky is very low, and the winter fog that lingers all day long wraps around his neck in threads.The wind is so hard that it blows blue and purple.The leather sellers had just set foot on the beam road at the head of the village, and the children hadn't even eaten the last bite of the jelly beans and sesame cakes that Sima Xiaoxiao gave out, when Sima's peach blossoms called out from the village. ──It’s not good──My father-in-law is dead── ──It’s not good──He said he’s going to die── ──He said that he would die when he died, but the men have not come back from selling their skins──

The jingling of the bullock wheels also accelerated, and the stretcher on the carriage was swaying. Sima smiled and got up from the stretcher, and asked Du Bo and Zhucui beside him, was it your mother's cry?Dubo said it was like miles.Sima's smiling face, which was green due to the cold, gradually disappeared, and became rosy, as if warmed by a hot towel, and the blood flowed on his body.The boys and girls sitting in the car who couldn't run could all hear the sound of warm blood flowing.Sima Lu said, Dad, your face is so red.Sima smiled and ignored the fifth child, turned around and said to Sen, Lin, and Mu who were following behind the car, run back to the village to see if the village chief is dead.

Sima Sen rolled towards the village like cobblestones down the mountain, and Du Yan and Zhu Cui also jumped out of the car and ran back. Sima Sen rolled back from the village like a cobblestone, stopped at the head of the village like a nail, stopped the ox cart and said, Dad, the village chief is really dead, my aunt is screaming and screaming in the village. Sima's smiling face shone brightly. He got off the bullock cart and held on to the rails. The cold wind blew his hair into a mess.The women of the village came along with Sima's peach blossoms. Meimei was pregnant with Lan Sanjiu, Du Ju was pregnant with Sima Hu, and several pregnant women came with their swollen bellies as if pushed by their hands. car.The dead village head was their elder brother, so the urgency on their faces turned yellow and snowy white, Hua Hua fell down one level, seeing Sima smiling and saying, it's bad, the sky is falling, the village head is dead, If you don't go back to the village, you won't be able to clean up.Sima smiled and asked, when did you die?Sima Taohua said, it was too cold, and I was afraid it would snow, and before thirty-ninth my family tank was frozen and cracked. He lay on the bed and said, rolling the grain tank by the bed into the kitchen to use as a water tank.I rolled the grain jar over there and fetched two loads of water from the Banpo Spring. When I went to the house, I saw that he was dead, his face was as blue as an apple.

Sima stared at Taohua's face with a smile, really dead? Sima Taohua said that his body was hard. Sima asked with a smile, why would you say that you will die if you die? His daughter-in-law Du Ju said that there must be a sign. Didn't Du Mei say that the cylinders were all cracked? Sima Taohua said that he drank a bowl of egg noodle soup in the morning and at noon, and asked why you leather sellers haven't returned to the village, but when the water tank in the kitchen cracked, the water flowed all over the place, and you He returned, and he died on the bed.Taohua spoke neither too fast nor too slowly, as if a villager came back, she explained the situation, and the matter passed. The pale panic and nervousness on her face just now faded away after seeing her brother Sima smiling.

Sima smiled and turned his legs, turned around and looked at the men who were walking back from the beam, called his sister aside, and said something, Sima Taohua's face turned pale and turned into a piece of frosted paper , but Sima smiled and said a few more words, and her frost slowly melted away, and her face was slightly red and handsome as before.At this time, the men behind the bullock carts came to the village. They took the children who were not in the carts. When they saw the women in a group, they said from afar that they should not come to pick them up. None of the village men got rich.

Sima laughed and said loudly, the village chief is dead. Lan Baisui and all the men poked down, who died The village head died, and Sima Xiaoxiao limped in front of the returning villagers, straightened his body upright with the ox cart, coughed, glanced first at the women on the left, then at the men in front of him, He said in a loud voice, I should have spent all the money on the sale of skins to the villagers this time, but everyone said that the village chief died and let me be the village chief. In this way, I will continue to be the village head to do things for everyone. If anyone does not listen to me and disagrees with Sima Xiaoxiao being the village head, he should stand up and make it clear as soon as possible.

Sima smiled and asked loudly, who doesn't agree with me being the village chief? The crowd suddenly became silent, and the sound of the tide and mist flowing was clearly discernible. Sima smiled and called out, whoever disagreed stood up and said.Explain that people don't do secret things, and if they don't stand up, they don't listen to my Sima Xiaoxiao's greeting, so I have to follow the rules of the village.Then he paused for a while, staring at Lan Changshou, and said Brother Changshou, do you agree?Lan Changshou said that you used the leather money on your body to redeem my child's silver-plated collar. Can I disagree with you being the village chief?

Sima looked at Yang Gen's father with a smile, how about you? Yang Genpai patted the coat on his body and said that this coat is made of new cloth and new flowers. It is either your coat or the coat of the shopkeeper of the restaurant. I should freeze to death in the past two days.Dusang is dead, only you are willing to think for the villagers, only you are suitable to pick up the village chief. Sima looked at Liu Gen's father with a smile, how about you? Father Liu Gen lifted the jacket on his body and agreed, and I agree with anyone who disagrees. Sima smiled and looked at the next person.

I agree, my child's jelly beans haven't been eaten yet, and no one in the village who sells skins is as willing to spend money for the villagers as you are. Sima smiled and looked back one more time. Brother Xiaoxiao, can I disagree with you being the village chief? Read on. Take it easy, no one can live past forty years old, isn't it just a handful of loess after death? In the end, he looked at Lan Baisui. Lan Baisui lightly slapped himself on the face, threw himself on his luggage like throwing a bag of mud, and said to himself, if only I sold the leather.Many years later, Lan Baisui is still repeating this sentence.

A sheep from the other side of the village was kicking towards here, the footsteps sounded like a drumstick, and suddenly there was an ice-coloured bleat, which was whipped tenaciously on the ears of the villagers.After following, the villagers heard the thorny cries of boys and girls, one by one, one by one, from the village head's house.When everyone turned their heads, they all saw the brothers and sisters Murasong and Zhucui huddled together in front of their house, weeping and trembling in the alley, like a pool of water that couldn't flow smoothly. Sima Taohua hurriedly ran towards his children.

Sima Xiaoxiao took his eyes back from the door of Du's house, looked at the village children who had been in and out of the car without making a sound, and said that I, Sima Xiaoxiao, would be the village head, every household, men, women and children, big and small, From now on, I have to listen to my Sima's laughing tongue. He limped towards the crowd, put his voice at its thickest, and yelled at me to say two things. The dead body was morgued in the village for a month, and the adults of each family had to lead boys and girls to guard the body overnight, not to guard the spirit of the old village chief, but to let the children practice their courage and let them know that the people in Sanwa Village died early , Knowing that death is lifeless, and there is nothing to be afraid of.The second is that every family grows rapeseed in the first spring of the new year. The long-lived old people I have met say that they eat rapeseed for generations. Maybe we can live forty or fifty if we eat rapeseed for a few years. , seventy and eighty. The dead body of the village head was put under the saponins tree in the center of the village, a thatched shed was built and surrounded by straw mats, as if a large thatched house was built at the crossroads in the middle of the village.A snow fell, and the mountains and plains were covered with white.The water tank was cracked by the freeze, and the washbasin was cracked by the freeze. The bowls washed last night were placed on the chopping board. When eating in the morning, the bowls were stuck together and could not be lifted.There is also the cow fed by Liu Gen's father, who was still eating hay in the second half of the night. When I went to the cow pen the next day, the cow died. so cold. A few sheep and pigs were also frozen to death. It's been really cold this year.The dead body of Du Sang, the village head of Guaizi, enjoyed the blessing of heaven. It was not rotten at all, and his hands were still cold, and his feet were still feet.Finally, every family led their children to sleep in the burial shed for the night. On the nineteenth day of the twelfth lunar month, every family was exhausted, and no one was willing to go there to catch the cold. Sima smiled and said, bury people tomorrow, tonight I watched the last night with the children. Lanterns were lit in the coffin, and besides the offerings frozen into ice, two piles of dry firewood were lit in front of the coffin.After supper, the idle villagers had no place to move around, so men and women went to the coffin shed to warm up and chat.The children all hid around the altar and the coffin, talking and laughing, and the joy spread from the altar to the surroundings of the night.In the middle of the night, the sleepiness came as expected, and the adults all left, and the children who were hiding and looking could not be called, so they were allowed to go. Sima Lan was originally playing a game of hide-and-seek with Sen, Lin, Mu, Zhucui, Forty, Liugen, and Yanggen outside the coffin shed. He knew that the adults were talking about the length of rapeseed by the fire in the coffin shed. When he went from outside the coffin to the coffin for the fifth time to search for the hidden child, he suddenly felt strange when he rushed in.The coffin lid that originally covered the coffin was lifted off by his father Sima Xiaoxiao, and he placed it by the fire. A flowered quilt was spread on the coffin lid, and his father and his forty-year-old mother, Meimei, sat on the coffin lid. Going up, covered their feet with a quilt, and stretched out their hands on the flames in front of them. They didn't know what they were talking about. When he came in, their words suddenly stopped. Both of their faces turned red, and they pulled their feet out of the quilt. up. Sima Lan froze in front of the coffin as if she had done something wrong. Forty Niang looked at Sima Lan and said, I'm here to find Sixty, Fifty, and Forty to go home and sleep, Lan, have you seen them? The father didn't explain anything, got up, put on his shoes and pulled up the forty mother on the coffin board, saying that he would let Lan Wa stay here for a while, and said that no matter what, the incense in front of the coffin could not be extinguished, so he took the forty mother's body. He walked towards the outside of the coffin. He saw that forty mother was unwilling to let father hold hands.But father could not help but drag her away. She walked out of the altar and looked back, saying that the sixties, fifties, and forties had returned, and asked them to wait for me under the altar. They left. Sima Lan was trapped in the spirit shed.He didn't know where his father and forty mother had gone.Only him and the coffin were left in the world at once.He and his buddies had already slept with the dead body all night.He said to himself, when a person is dead, he can't move anymore, he's frozen into ice, and he can't move even if he is asked to speak.But he was still a little flustered, a little thumping, and felt the blood on his body gradually cool down, and the flow slowed down, as if it had finally stopped and stagnated.In order to prove that he was not afraid of the dead body, he deliberately walked towards the coffin.The sound of the wind outside the coffin shed rang into the coffin shed, and the unmelted snow on the mountains outside the village was covered like a thick white mist frozen on the hillside.The newly added locust wood on the fire exploded like New Year's firecrackers, and sparks flew to the coffin from time to time, and fell again with a thud.He went to the coffin and put in three new incense sticks, and then touched the head of the coffin to prove that he was really brave and not afraid of dead bodies, so he said to himself, Sima Lan, you are no longer afraid of dead bodies, you are not afraid of death I'm not afraid that if I don't live past forty, I'll get a throat problem. He stood up calmly, his heartbeat slowed down and his blood flow eased.He smiled triumphantly and said that I am not afraid of anything anymore, even if I don’t live past forty, it’s like I have crossed the threshold, I have passed the fear of being a child.The lanterns on the altar table were dimly lit, and the lamps swayed in the wind. The newly replaced three pillars of grass fragrance lingered endlessly in the quiet night. The filament-like fragrance of grass came and went in the black and cold smell of frozen dead bodies.He took a deep breath, and then another breath, and he smelled the black cold smell of the dead body, except for the smell of grass and ice.There is also the smell of straw that has slept with the corpse, the damp and warm smell of the quilts piled on the ground, and the smell of black paint on the coffin.He stood in the middle of the coffin, moved his nose to the top of the coffin, and smelled a light red smell of frozen meat coming from the innermost part of the coffin.He remembered the day when his five brothers and his father Sima Xiaoxiao came to accompany the corpse, and saw the frozen hands and face of the corpse were all black and purple. He thought that the thickest and thickest smell of the corpse must come from the coffin. The dark purple smell of frozen corpses.He thought, the corpse now must be different from his uncle's corpse at the beginning of the year, it must be covered in dark red like the enamel on the water tank, and it must feel like touching the frozen water tank, cold and hard However, if there is some water in the hand, the hand will be frozen to the dead body like it is frozen to the tank. He said, do you dare to put your hand into the coffin? Sima Lan said, I am not afraid of anything. He said, you stretch, Sima Lan really put his hand into the coffin.The firewood behind him was burning and extended towards the outside of the fire, and the flames spread and shrank.It was dark inside the coffin.When Sima Lan's hand touched the darkness, it was like reaching into a black hole to touch something, and the cold air wrapped around his neck like a snake.He trembled, and tried to relax his heart again, as if he put a lump of flesh lifted from his chest back into his chest. Sima Lan said, look at me putting my hand into the coffin. They said, do you dare to touch the shroud? He said, I dare. Sima Lan walked towards the foot of the coffin, so that her shoulders were higher than the coffin boards, then she bent down and grabbed the shroud with her hands.The shroud was the black silk cloth that the village head had prepared for himself when he left the village. It was the only black silk cloth worn by all the dead in the village.When Sima Lan grasped the shroud, it was like grasping the skin of a snake. It was cool and smooth, and the silk slipped from his hand like water when his fingers loosened. He didn't grab the shroud a second time.He felt a little tight in his heart, and he shrank together, but he said, I grabbed the shroud. The man said he caught you and then let go, if you have the guts to touch the feet of the dead body. Sima Lan fell silent. The man sneered and said, "I know you don't dare." Sima Lan stared at the man's face. The man said you dare to touch it, and Sima Lan's eyes were blazing with fire. The man sneered again, turned and walked away in disdain. Sima Lan said don't go, then suddenly took another step towards the small end of the coffin, stretched out her right arm, and grabbed the village chief's foot. The feet were a new pair of mille-soled shoes with white stitching on the soles that looked like rough sand.Sima Lan squeezed the toe of the shoe tightly, feeling the village head's middle toe arched against his hand.He thought that the village chief turned out to be a person whose middle toe was longer than the big toe, and thought that the village chief would move his feet if he wanted to scare me, but the village chief’s feet did not move like tree roots, so he stared at him So what if the person in front of me said that I grabbed the dead man's foot? The man fell silent. Sima Lan returned a cold smile to the man, and he heard his smile was like the foreign glass he saw for the first time in the Jiaohuo Academy a month ago. One piece.He wanted to leave the coffin and go out, but the man heard his smile and stared at him like a thief who wanted to escape. ──Do you dare to hold his hand? He moved his body towards the middle of the coffin suddenly, and grabbed the corpse's hand, the fingers were like five bent icicles. ──Do you dare to touch his face? He took another step towards the head of the coffin, stepped onto the top of the bench on which the coffin was placed, bent down and pressed down on the wide door of the dead body.A white handkerchief was placed on the village chief's face, and the handkerchief fell from under his hand to the base of the village chief's ear, and one end was still hanging on the village chief's frozen ear that fell off when he touched it.He wanted to put the handkerchief on the village chief's face again, and cover the village chief's stone tablet-like forehead, but the lips of the man in front of him moved again. ──Do you dare to touch the lips of the village chief? Sima Lan couldn't bear it any longer, poohed, spit out a mouthful of spittle in front of the man's feet, gave the man a supercilious look, and put her hand on the mouth of the dead body.The village chief is dead, but his mouth is still open, his lips are not soft at all, they are green and hard like the cold edge of the mouth of a water tank, his teeth are tightly clenched together, and he gnawed on a red copper.His hand knocked the copper coin off his teeth, and with a jingle, he thought the village chief would fold up and sit up, but the village chief didn't fold up and sit up after all.He thought that if he just snorted in the coffin, even if there was even a little hot air from his nose or mouth, he would scream and run out of the coffin.But the village chief didn't move, didn't exhale a trace of heat, lying in the coffin, like a bluestone tablet with clothes on, so he put his hand on his lips and didn't move.He felt the village chief's teeth sticking against his hand like he was stepping on corn kernels with his bare feet.He gently lifted his hand up from the seam, feeling the cold sweat on his hand freezing his palm on the village chief's yellow front teeth, and there was a creaking sound when they were separated, like a collar of grass frozen on the ground. Mats tied up.The sound made his heart rumble, and then it stopped immediately, and he calmed down again.He smiled at the man opposite him.He suddenly smiled softly and sweetly, as if he had finally crossed a single-plank bridge that no one can cross. He passed it first on a winter night when he was young, and the smile he made while sitting on the opposite bank would never be understood by anyone. of joy and comfort. At this time, the moon came out from the alleys of the village, reached the center of the village, and shone into the coffin shed from the entrance of the coffin shed. In addition to the unmelted snow on the houses, trees, walls, roads and mountains, the snow in the coffin shed Although the two fires were reduced to ashes, the coffin shed became even brighter, filled with soft and delicate light.The shadow of the coffin is like a piece of black gauze in the moonlight.The fragrance of the grass that is almost exhausted, the smell is faintly powdery, floating line by line under the cold moonlight.The snow-covered coldness, which flows into the village from outside the village, collides with the black and cool breath of dead bodies at the entrance of the coffin shed. Under the coffin shed, there is a mixed smell of half rotten and half ice, which is clearly black and white. The fresh smell of winter wheat, the smell of locust tree oil leached from the embers of locust trees, you can hear the collision sound of those smells coming together, you can hear the chirping sound of moonlight and snow light together, and there are wheat seedlings outside the village. The sound of relaxing muscles and bones under the snow. Sima Lan pulled his hand out of the coffin. He raised his head slowly. He saw more than a dozen people standing at the entrance of the mourning shed.The Forest, Forest, Wood, Forty, Fifty, Sixty, Du Zhuang, Du Zhu, Liu Gen, Yang Gen, Du Yan, and Zhu Cui that I was looking for in hide-and-seek just now stood dumbly in the moonlight in front of the altar, Looking at him inexplicably.He said that I dared to touch the village chief's feet, hands, and his mouth.He said that my hand was frozen on the village head's teeth just now, and when I took it off, it squeaked, which startled me, like pulling my hand off the river.He said that whoever dares to reach into the coffin like me and touch it will not be afraid of death or illness, and if you have a throat disease, just talk and laugh and it will pass. No one answered Sima Lan's words.Everyone stood silently at the head of the coffin. Really, Sima Lan said, my father said so.My father is the head of the village, don't you believe it? Still the moonlight is silent. Sima Lan said, Brother Sen, come and touch it. Sima Sen went over and put his arms into the coffin. Sima Sen pulled his arm back and said that I touched the village chief's ear, and the village chief's ear was as hard as a tile. Brother Lin, come here and touch it. Sima Lin stepped on the end of the bench at Coffin Village, touched the village chief's face like a crock pot. Brother Mu, touch it too. Sima Mu said that the village chief's nose was the same as a rock on the river beach. Du Bo, he is your grandfather, are you still afraid? Du Bo stretched his hand in and said Cui, if you touch it, it seems that Master's hand is still hot? Zhucui retracted her hand and said that it wasn't hot at all. Liu Gen said that it was not hot at all. Yang Gen said that it looked like the icicles under the eaves. . They all filed to touch it.Only Sima Lu stood beside the offering, weeping in fright.Liu Gen said that only your deer dare not touch it.Sen, Lin, and Mu said that he was only three years old.Sima Lan said, let him touch it when someone in the village dies next year, then he will be one year older, and the children graciously agreed.Sima Lu's tender cry ceased like running water.