Chapter 24 Section ten

When the magpie finished dressing him, Baochen put the little thing on his back and went to the cemetery overnight for burial.His little head drooped on Baochen's neck, as if he was fast asleep.Baochen turned his head, kissed the little thing's face, and said to him: "Puji, grandpa will take you home right away." Hua Erniang and Granny Meng hugged each other in tears.Only the magpie didn't cry, she and the tiger followed, and they walked towards the cemetery.Along the way, he heard his father talking to the little thing constantly, and the sky was getting brighter little by little.

Baochen said, Puji, grandpa knows you like to sleep, so you should sleep well, and sleep as long as you like. Baochen said, Puji, your grandfather is such a useless person, he is not as good as a pig or a dog, Puji.Everyone in Puji scolded mother as a lunatic, and grandpa followed suit. Only Puji didn't scold her.Puji feels uncomfortable when he hears others scold him, doesn't he, Puji.When the officers and soldiers arrived, only Puji thought of reporting to his mother.After entering the monastery, bullets whizzed, but Puji was not afraid.Puji didn't hide or hide, so he wanted to report a letter to his mother.Puji, you are lying in the gutter, and your mother doesn't even look at you, but Puji still wants to report to her.

Baochen said, Puji, you can't blame grandpa, and don't hold grudges against grandpa.Chinese New Year is almost here, and tomorrow is New Year's Day.In the world of ice and snow, Baochen will not make a coffin for you.Even if I want to do it, I have no money. Our family is poor!Let's wrap it in a straw mat and take you home. Baochen said that the straw mat was new, it had just been laid in autumn, and it was woven with gentian grass, which was fragrant, and had never been used.The clothes you are wearing, including the padded jacket, shoes, socks, and gown, are all new and have never been worn once.Those gadgets that you usually like, iron rings, spinning tops, clay whistles, by the way, and that cicada, Granny Meng said it is still gold, bring them all for you, nothing is missing.It's just the most important thing. Grandpa didn't find that little photo of your mother that you usually love to see. Where did you hide it?

Baochen said, Puji, today no one will call out for you, so grandpa will call out for you.Grandpa shouts, and you agree. Puji -- Hey-- Puji -- Hey-- As long as you agree, Hun'er will come back. Baochen said, if you miss Grandpa, just dream about it.If you meet your grandma underground, you will say that Baochen is incompetent, that Baochen deserves to die, and that Baochen should be hacked to death... When it was time for the burial, Baochen put Pu Ji flat on the straw mat and rolled up the mat.As soon as he rolled the little thing tightly, the magpie came and opened it.He wrapped it three times in a row, and the magpie opened it three times in a row.She didn't cry or make noise, and didn't speak, just stared blankly at his face.In the end, Baochen became ruthless and asked Hua Erniang and Granny Meng to hug her, and then the little thing's body fell into the pit.

After the grave was ready, Baochen suddenly asked, "Can I kowtow to him?" Granny Meng said: "He will go first, and he is said to be older than you in the underworld. Besides, no matter how young he is, he is still a master..." Hearing what she said, Baochen respectfully kowtowed three times in front of the grave.Granny Meng and Erniang Hua also kowtowed after him.The magpie remained motionless, standing there as if thinking about something. "This child, Magpie, must have been frightened by what happened last night." Granny Meng said. When they left the cemetery and walked towards the village, the magpie stopped suddenly, turned around and looked behind her, her eyes seemed to be looking for something, after a while, she suddenly called out:

"Hey, where's the little thing?" Tiger and his father left Puji in April of this year.The willows are green, the spring grass is luxuriant, and the peach blossoms in the village are in full bloom.Baochen said that the bad luck of the Lu family began when Mr. Lu transplanted peach blossoms, and its color and fragrance had a demonic aura.Before and after Qingming, when the rain is floating and the tiles are floating, and the spiritual wind is breathing, even the well water has a sweet peach blossom smell. In the eyes of Da Jinya's blind old lady, Xiumi and Cuilian are both the reincarnation of Taomu souls who have practiced for thousands of years, but they just absorbed the spirit of demons.In those days, she had compiled all kinds of details of the school into the opera, accompanied by the accent of the lotus flower, and led two girls, walking around the village and alleys, singing and begging everywhere.

In these plays, his son Da Jinya seems to be the incarnation of Zhong Kui who subdues demons and catches ghosts.Regardless of his own safety, he carried two pig-killing knives and entered the demon formation alone to persuade others to do good.Tasting his courage, he escaped death, but was finally taken away by the witch because he was outnumbered.It is the death before leaving the teacher, which often makes the old lady burst into tears.In her self-written play, Cuilian becomes a disaster like Baosi and Daji.She was the first to fornicate with Long Shou, lured and sold the Lu family's more than a hundred acres of land, and finally sold the owner for glory.The language is not funny, and the words are too many.However, from her singing, the tiger still knows the ins and outs of the whole incident to some extent.

Tiger still doesn't quite understand some other things.Since Xiumi had been on guard against Cuilian for a long time, why did she hold back and pretend not to see it?In addition, Cuilian and Xiumi asked Long Shoubei twice whether he is a pig, and why? Due to Long Qingtang's old relationship with Xiumi, and Ding Shu's joint letter of guarantee with more than 30 local scholars and squires, Xiumi was not executed immediately after being escorted to Meicheng, but was detained in a dungeon .It is said that Ding Shu put forward two reasons, one is Xiumi's madness, she did not know what she did; in addition, Xiumi had a four-month-old baby in her womb at that time.

The prefect gave special permission to execute the child after giving birth. Tiger already knew that it was Tan Si's child.Tan Si's father, Tan Shuijin, once asked people to search for the whereabouts of the child, hoping to redeem the child with his life's savings, so as to leave a line of incense for the Tan family who has been passed down from generation to generation.But in the end nothing happened.In those days, he heard Magpie and Baochen say that the child was born as a small thing. In August of the second year of Xuantong, after nine months of pregnancy, Xiumi gave birth to a child in prison. Before the full moon, the government stepped forward and let a jailer's nanny take him away.Just before Xiumi was about to be hanged, the Wuchang incident broke out, and the Revolution of 1911 broke out suddenly, and the local provinces heard the news and responded.Long Qingtang also killed more than 30 members of the magistrate's family on a stormy night in August, and immediately declared the independence of Meicheng.The wind and rain are like a chime, and I am shocked three times a day.Long Qingtang also traveled between Wuchang, Guangdong, and Beiping, exchanging voices with various tyrants.Xiumi, who was imprisoned in the deep dungeon, seemed to be completely forgotten.There is only one old official soldier who delivers food and water every day.

But that's all for later. Before Tiger left Puji, he and his father came to his wife's tomb to say goodbye.In Baochen's words, they will leave Puji forever.The magpie had nowhere to go, so he stayed to watch the house for now.In fact, until she finally died of old age, she never left this courtyard.Thirty-two years later, that is, in the late summer of 1943, when Tiger, as the leader of the advance squadron of the New Fourth Army, led his troops to Puji, Magpie was already an old man in her 60s. She had never married and her memory was not as good. In the past, when talking about the past with her, she would just shake her head slightly or nod her head and smile, with a great sense of detachment.A neem tree in front of Xiaoshi's grave has grown to the size of a bowl, and there are large patches of daylilies, which are still bright yellow.The tiger sat under the dense shade of the tree, reminiscing about the past, and sighed.The world is vicissitudes, the years go by, but only the little thing suddenly stops at the age of five.No matter what year and month I think of him, I am always five years old.

However, that is all for the future. After Tiger and his father returned to Qinggang, Baochen asked someone to clear it, bought the prison boss, and rushed to Meicheng Prison three times to visit Xiumi.The first two times, Xiumi avoided seeing her, and she didn't explain the reason.For the third time, Xiumi finally accepted the clothes that Baochen brought, but still failed to meet him, but asked someone to bring out a silk white handkerchief and wrote a few poems.The poem says: When Baochen saw it, he didn't know much about it.Afterwards, the news gradually disappeared, and Tiger never heard any news from her.

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