Chapter 4 fourth quarter

Cuilian washes Xiumi's hair under the stove. The bean curd was obtained from a tofu shop in the morning, and it is already a bit rancid.Xiumi said that washing her hair with this bean foam is not as itchy and sticky as wolfberry leaves, with a musty smell of bean dregs.Cuilian said: "Where can I go to get wolfberry leaves for you now?" The two were talking, when they suddenly heard the noise of people outside the courtyard, walking in disorder. run.The sound of footsteps and noisy human voices was like a huge whirlpool, buzzing, gathering from all directions, and spreading out in circles.All the dogs in the village were barking.

"Not good! It seems that something happened." Cuilian said something, put aside Xiumi, and went to the window to peek outside. Xiumi's hair was wet.She could hear her hair dripping into the basin.After a while, I saw the magpie running to the kitchen door, sticking its head in, panting and saying, something happened! Cuilian asked her what happened, and the magpie said, dead!Cuilian asked her again who died.Then the magpie said: "It's Miss Sun, Miss Sun is dead." "She came to borrow the sieve this afternoon, talking and laughing, why did she die suddenly?" Cuilian said, she shook the water off her hand and ran out following the magpie.

The yard suddenly became silent.Xiumi has bean bubbles all over her head.The water bubbles on the hair fell into the basin, floated on the water surface, and then burst with a "poof".With her eyes closed, she reached out and groped for the water ladle on the stove. She wanted to scoop some water from the water tank and pour her head over.Just then, she heard the sound of footsteps.Someone is walking towards the kitchen.Her heart sank suddenly. "What happened outside?" Zhang Jiyuan asked while holding the door frame. Damn it!It really was him!She dared not turn her head to look at him.He faltered and murmured: "I heard that Miss Sun died..."

Zhang Jiyuan gave a soft "Oh", as if he had no interest in this matter.He's still standing there. Go away, go away, go away!Xiumi urged him to leave quickly in her heart.But Zhang Jiyuan not only didn't walk away, on the contrary, he stepped over the threshold and came into the kitchen. "Are you washing your hair?" Zhang Jiyuan asked knowingly. Xiumi was angry, and still said "um", quickly grabbed the water ladle, scooped water from the water tank, poured it on her head, and rubbed it carelessly.The water flowed down to the neck, it was cool. "do you need my help?"

"No, no, no need." Xiumi's heart beat even harder when she heard him say such words.It was the first time she spoke to him. "Don't you want to add some hot water?" Zhang Jiyuan asked again.His voice was dry and rough. Xiumi ignored him.She knew that Zhang Jiyuan was standing not far from her, because she saw the round shoes and white socks on his feet.Damn it!He was watching me wash my hair!It's abominable!Why did he stay here? After Xiumi washed her hair, she was looking for something to wipe it off, when Ji Yuan handed her the towel.Xiumi didn't pick it up.She saw a piece of apron on the stove, and didn't care about the greasyness, so she grabbed it and wiped it carelessly, then gathered her hair and wrapped it around the top of her head.She still turned her back to him, as if waiting for him to leave.

Finally, Zhang Jiyuan chuckled twice, dropped the towel in his hand, shook his head, and left. Xiumi let out a long breath of relief.She saw his slender shadow flitting across the patio wall, swaying on the porch, and then disappeared.She stood by the stove, shook her hair out, let the south wind blow it, her face was still hot.A crescent moon is reflected in the water tank, trembling slightly with the water ripples. Mother came back with Cuilian and the others.She said that they sat down at Granny Meng's house, and just after playing a round of cards, they heard that something had happened to Miss Sun, "That shameless Baochen cried out in front of so many people."

Xiumi asked her, how did Miss Sun die?The mother didn't answer her seriously, she just said that she would die anyway.Xiumi went to ask the magpie again, but when the magpie saw that her mother refused to speak, she faltered and murmured, just kept sighing, miserable, miserable, really miserable.Finally, Cuilian dragged her into her room, and whispered to her, "We all have to be careful in the future, there are bad people in Puji area." "Didn't she come to borrow the sieve in the afternoon?" Xiumi said, "How can you say that if you die, you will die?"

Cuilian sighed, "She came to borrow the sieve to harvest rapeseed in the field. If she didn't harvest rapeseed, she wouldn't die." Cuilian said that Miss Sun was harvesting rapeseed in her own field behind the village, and she hadn't turned around when the lights were turned on. When Baochen went looking for her, she happened to meet her father looking for someone with a lantern.When the two of them arrived at the field together, they saw her dead body. Her clothes had been stripped off, and grass had been stuffed into her mouth. Even if she wanted to call out, she couldn't open her mouth.They stuffed her with too much grass, stuffing it up to her throat. Baochen picked her for a long time, but she couldn't clean it. There was no knife wound on her body, and a rope was tied behind her hands.One foot is still wearing shoes, the other foot is bare, the body is already cold, and the air in the nose is gone.Two legs kicked a hole in the ground.There was blood all over the thigh.Tang Liushi Langzhong came to perform an autopsy on her, but found no stab wounds.Granny Meng said, it doesn't look like someone from the village did it. This child usually attracts others in the village, and her father guards the door for her. If anyone wants to get on her body alone, he will hang her a few times. A small amount of money is enough, and credit can be accepted without giving money.They can't do it.Among the spectators there, there was a man named Da Jinya, a butcher from Puji Butcher's, who was a bit stupid, and when he heard Granny Meng's words, he answered in a daze, "That's not sure. "

Granny Meng said angrily, "Unless you did it." The big gold tooth smirked and said, "Maybe I really did it... Before he finished speaking, the blind old lady with big gold teeth gave him a slap and said, "If someone is dead, you still don't want to die." Just kidding here!" "Maybe Big Gold Tooth really did this?" Xiumi asked. "It's just a joke, you still take it seriously." Cuilian said. Xiumi asked Baochen again why he didn't come back, and Cuilian said, "He's helping old Suntou build a shed over there. Over the years, tilting his head on Miss Sun has cost a lot of money. When this fan dies, he will cry." It looks like a tearful person." Xiumi asked her again why she built the arbor, and Cuilian said: "According to the rules here in Puji, this person cannot enter the house when he dies outside, so he can only build a shed outside to store his body. On this day It was so hot that I had to find a carpenter to make the coffin overnight. It was enough for Baochen's dead dog to work for a while. But I feel sorry for that pink butterfly, who is dead, naked and let people play around. People are going crazy, they only say that the daughter is not married yet, don't let men see her dead body, stop this and then stop that, how can they stop, so they can only sit by the pond and cry."

Xiumi still remembered the pond her father had visited the day he left.It is surrounded by white honeysuckle, hanging on the water like a curtain.She still remembered the timid smile that Cuilian robbed when Miss Sun came to borrow the sieve in the afternoon. "We have to be careful in the future. I heard that there are bandits in Changzhou in the south of the Yangtze River. They just kidnapped two children a few days ago." Cuilian said. At Miss Sun's funeral, Soo-mi walks last.Granny Meng carried a basket filled with yellow silk flowers, and each person attending the funeral wore one flower on their chests.She walked up to Xiumi, just as the flowers in the basket had just been distributed.Granny Meng laughed and said:

"What a coincidence! You're the only one missing." Xiumi saw a group of court officers and soldiers marching far away on the side of the river embankment.The soldiers were listless and drowsy, and they walked very slowly under the scorching sun.The horseshoes kicked up dust all over the sky, and the red tassels of the horse team fluttered up and down.When they crossed the slopes, they meandered and floated, looking like a swimming black snake from a distance.But she couldn't hear the hooves. Xiumi looked left and right, but she couldn't see the shadows of Cuilian and Magpie.Ms. Sun's coffin seemed to have been built overnight, before it could be painted. It was made of white bark pine boards and covered with a brocade quilt.She could see the monk carrying the banner flowers, playing cymbals and drums, blowing and beating, but she couldn't hear any sound. strangeness!Why can't I hear a little sound? The funeral procession traveled east through the cotton fields outside the village.Just after leaving the entrance of the village, dark clouds rolled in the sky, the trees shook, and it rained suddenly.The raindrops fell silently in the thick dust.Falling in the river, a river of broken jade flowers bloomed.The rain was getting heavier and heavier, and she couldn't keep her eyes open. strangeness!Why can't you hear the sound of rain in such a heavy rain? The funeral crowd began to stir uneasyly. She saw several porters who carried the coffin stop the coffin on a stone bridge and ran to the bridge hole to shelter from the rain. The crowd dispersed like a tide.She saw Baochen and Laosun wearing sackcloth and filial piety, with mournful faces, trying to persuade them to come back. Xiumi started running towards the ruined temple in the east of the village.As she ran, she looked back.At first, she ran towards the temple with a group of people, but soon, she found herself running alone.When she ran to the gate of Zaolong Temple panting, Xiumi was surprised to find that, except for the coffin lying alone on the bridge, there was no one around, not even Baochen and Lao Suntou. Strange, why no one went to the temple to shelter from the rain. She ran to the eaves of the mountain gate in one breath, and saw Zhang Jiyuan smiling at her with a hemp rope in his hand. "Why are you here?" Xiumi was startled, covering her wet front with her hands, feeling her breasts swell and ache.It was early summer, and I tried on the unlined clothing for the first time, and it was raining, and it stuck tightly to my body.She felt naked on her body. "I'm here to listen to the lecture given by the abbot of the temple." Zhang Jiyuan whispered.His hair was also wet from the rain. "Why don't those mourners come to the temple to shelter from the rain?" Xiumi asked. "They can't come in." "why?" "The abbot won't let them in." Zhang Jiyuan looked out the door and whispered in her ear, "Because this temple was built just for you." "Who is the abbot?" Xiumi looked at the Heavenly King Hall in the temple. It was raining heavily and the tiles were floating, and a layer of water smoke had already formed on the corrugated roof. "Recite scriptures in the Dharma hall." Zhang Jiyuan said. "There have been no monks living in this ruined temple for many years. Where did the abbot come from?" "You come with me." Xiumi obediently followed Zhang Jiyuan, walked through the corridor on one side, and walked towards the Dharma hall.Along the way, she saw that the Hall of Heavenly Kings, Monk’s House, Patriarch’s Hall of Garan Hall, Pharmacist’s Hall, Guanyin Hall, Xiangji Kitchen, and Deacon’s Hall were all empty, while the Guanyin Hall and the Daxiong Hall had collapsed roofs, crooked wall foundations, and long piles of rubble. full of grass.Moss was everywhere on the wall, and small yellow flowers bloomed in the cracks. She could smell the smell of benzoin and canna, rain and dust, and of course, the faint smell of smoke emanating from Zhang Jiyuan's body. The Dharma Hall and the Sutra Pavilion are intact.When they came to the Dharma hall, the abbot was wearing a red and yellow cassock and was sitting cross-legged on the futon and chanting scriptures.Seeing them coming in, the abbot clasped his hands together and saluted, then stood up.Xiumi didn't know how to return the courtesy, she was in a panic when suddenly she heard the abbot say, "Is that her?" Zhang Jiyuan nodded: "Exactly." "Amitabha." Xiumi felt that she had seen this abbot somewhere before, but she couldn't remember it for a while.The abbot was slowly turning the rosary in his hand, chanting words, and looked up at her from time to time.Xiumi also stared at him blankly, not knowing what to do.Suddenly, she caught a glimpse of the abbot's left thumb with a limp thing, red like a boiled sausage, and she was frightened out of her wits.She opened her mouth to scream, but still couldn't make any sound.It turned out that the six-fingered man my cousin was looking for had been hiding in this dilapidated temple in the village! The abbot laughed twice—his face was swollen from laughing, and said: "Ji Yuan, since the man has been brought here, what are we waiting for?" "You guys, what do you want to do?" "Girl, don't be afraid." The abbot said, "Everyone came to this world for no reason, and they all came to fulfill an important mission." "What is my mission?" "You'll understand in a while." A sinister smile flashed across the abbot's face. Xiumi vaguely realized something, and the skin all over her body tightened suddenly.She ran around in the hall in vain for a while, and even knocked over a butter lamp in front of the incense table.Just couldn't find the door.The two people were not in a hurry, they just looked at her and smiled. "Tell me, where is the door?" Xiumi looked at her cousin with pleading eyes and begged. Zhang Jiyuan hugged her over.He groped along her thigh with his hand, put his mouth next to her ear and murmured, "Sister, the door is here. It's open." As he spoke, he wrapped the rope in his hand around her wrist superior.Seeing that her cousin was about to tie herself up, Xiumi shouted with all her strength, "Don't tie me up." This time she heard her own voice and heard the answer immediately. "Who is going to tie you up?" Xiumi opened her eyes.At first glance, she saw the quiet sunshine pouring down from the skylight, and then she saw the new mosquito net that had just been hung, exuding a faint fragrance of incense.Then she saw an oil lamp overturned on the ground.She also heard the sound of rattling, and she saw the magpie cleaning the glass on the ground.It turned out to be Nankeyimeng. "Who tied you up?" Magpie laughed, "I came to wake you up for breakfast, and I saw you knock over the oil lamp with a slap." Xiumi was still panting for breath.She saw that on the incense table beside the bed, a benzoin was almost burned out. "How did you have such a dream?" Xiumi said in shock, "It scared me to death..." Magpie just laughed.After a while, he said again: "Get up and eat quickly, and I will take you to Miss Sun's house to watch the water and land ceremony later." Xiumi asked about her mother and Cuilian, and Magpie said that they had already gone to watch the fun.She asked Zhang Jiyuan again.When she said the three words Zhang Jiyuan, she was startled suddenly.Magpie said, in the backyard, I don't know what he is doing.Xiumi stared at the roof of the tent obsessively, and it took a long time to tell the magpie that she didn't want to go to see any water and land ceremony, nor did she want to eat, and she wanted to be lazy on the bed for a while. Magpie put down the curtain for her and went downstairs. As soon as the magpie came downstairs, Xiumi heard someone selling gardenias in the alley downstairs.She suddenly became interested and wanted to buy one to wear, so she got up from the bed.But when she got dressed and went downstairs to the entrance of the alley, the florist was no longer there. She returned home, drew water by the well, washed her face, ate something casually, and wandered around in the yard.As soon as she walked to the well, she saw the magpie washing clothes there, so she walked over to talk to her, just after speaking a few words, she suddenly saw Zhang Jiyuan walking along the corridor, staggering towards this side.Xiumi's heart tightened, and she wanted to dodge in her heart, but that Zhang Jiyuan had already rushed to her in three steps at a time. "Hi," Zhang Jiyuan said excitedly, "the two vats of lotus in the backyard are all in bloom!" Magpie glanced at Xiumi, saw that she didn't answer, so he could only agree indiscriminately: "It's open? It's good, it's good." The idiot!There is nothing to be surprised about when the lotus blooms.Thinking of the dream just now, Xiumi felt angry.She dared not even look at him.Zhang Jiyuan smiled apologetically, and asked her if she wanted to go to the backyard with him.Look at your mother's head!Xiumi cursed in her heart.However, she still stopped, leaning against the wall by the stairs, and said: "Would my cousin also like those flowers and plants?" "That depends on what kind of flower it is." Zhang Jiyuan pondered for a moment, and answered her in this way, "Lansheng valley, chrysanthemum hidden deserted garden, Mei Ao Xueling, the only lotus that washes the mud without being stained. Its aspirations are noble, so Feel love and pity... make hibiscus for clothes, collect lotus for clothes." The last two sentences are from "Li Sao", but it's a pity that Zhang Jiyuan turned them upside down.However, Xiumi was too lazy to point him out. Seeing that Xiumi didn't intend to leave immediately, Zhang Jiyuan suddenly became interested and asked, "There is a line about lotus in Yuxi's raw poems, which is really wonderful, do you remember?" This is what Zhong Daiyu asked Xiangling.It seems that this mustache is still a little sour.Xiumi really didn't want to talk to him, so she lazily replied: "Could it be 'leave the lotus to listen to the sound of rain'?" Unexpectedly, Zhang Jiyuan shook his head and said with a smile, "You see me as sister Lin." "Which line does my cousin like?" "There is thunder outside Furong Pond." Zhang Jiyuan said. Hearing what he said, Xiumi suddenly remembered the scene when her father took her to dig lotus in the wild pond outside the village when she was a child, and her heart was suddenly filled with a sense of emptiness.Father Ailian became obsessed. In summer, there was always a small pot of lotus on his desk as a clean offering.She still vaguely remembered that the flowers were crimson, as bright as spring peaches, half shy and shy, and her father called it "a twist of red".Sometimes he also crushed the petals to make ink pads. Zhang Jiyuan asked her what flowers she likes. "Shaoyao." Xiumi blurted out without thinking. Zhang Jiyuan laughed, sighed, and said, "You are clearly driving me away." Xiumi thought to herself: Don't look at this idiot who is so godly and godlike all the time, and he has quite a bit of ink in his stomach, so it's hard for him.But his mouth was still relentless: "Why is this driving you away?" "My younger sister is well versed in literature and history, and she is very vigilant, so why bother to ask?" Zhang Jiyuan said, "Gu Wenfang's "Interpretation of Questions and Answers" said that peony, also known as Keli, can be left away, so I gave it as a farewell. However, I still I really have to go." After speaking, he tugged on his skirt, waved to Xiumi, and went out through the front door.