one The big white flowers on the mulberry tree were full of rainwater and became heavy, and after a while, one fell with a "click". All night long, Geng Shan Wu was dreaming in this annoying fragrance.There is a turbid smell in the fragrance, which reminds people of sewer water, and people who smell it will feel dizzy and think wildly.Geng Shanwu saw many red-faced women crowding their heads in through the window. Their necks were all extremely long and thin, and their heads drooped like a bunch of toadstools.During the day, my wife secretly made a hook and put it on a bamboo pole, hooked the flowers one by one, smashed them, and boiled them in vegetable soup.She was secretive, evasive, busy with her butt up, thinking that her actions were secret.As soon as my wife drank that strange soup, she would fart at night, one after another, endlessly.

"A thief is squatting in the corner!" He bluffed and turned on the electric light. Mulan sat up with a "huh", her head was disheveled, and she was looking for shoes with her feet under the bed. "I had a dream." He breathed a sigh of relief, with an elusive smile on his face. "Maybe something will happen today," he thought as he was about to go out, "and the rain has stopped, and the sun will come out soon. When the sun comes out, everything will be different. It will be like a new life, a new life." The beginning of a..." He searched for the exaggerated words in his head.

As soon as he opened the door, he was shocked: there were falling flowers all over the ground.The flowers that fell to the ground by the night rain still showed a lively and greedy look, as if they were sucking the rain on the ground, and they stood up one by one.Angrily, he stepped on a small, arrogant thing, dug a shallow hole in the ground with his toes, and buried the flower with mud.While he was "crackling" doing this, the thin face of a startled woman flickered between the window lattices of the next door to his house, and immediately retreated into the darkness of the room. "Xu Ruhua..." He thought blankly, and suddenly realized that his actions just now had been watched by that woman, and he felt uncomfortable all over. "The smell of falling flowers drives people crazy. I thought it was the smell of rotten cabbage!" he said loudly and defensively, tilting his neck, scraping the mud off the soles of his shoes with his feet on the steps.Mulan was tossing and turning restlessly on the bed, sighing, and murmured dimly: "Yes, what do you want these flowers for? My appetite came to me when I saw these ghost flowers. It didn't make sense. I ate and ate. I'm dizzy, now I don't know where I live, I always think I'm lying in a swamp, and the muddy water around me is bubbling..." There seemed to be a faint sound coming from the dark window next door. Panting, his face became hot, he lowered his head and staggered out, stepping on a fallen flower with each foot.He didn't dare to look back, and fled like a thief.A rat scuttled desperately into the gutter ahead of him.

He ran out into the street, panting, his eyes still fixed on his narrow back. "Peeper..." He cursed angrily. Seeing that there was no one around, he quickly threw a handful of snot on the side of the street, and wiped his thumb on the front of his shirt. "Who are you scolding?" A black-faced child stopped him, holding a handful of ashes in his hand. "Ah?!" The ashes hit his face, and his eyeballs hurt like they were cut. That morning, Xu Ruhua was also looking at the fallen flowers. Waking up in the middle of the night, she heard the sound of "boom boom boom boom" from her husband's mouth.

"Old Kuang, what are you doing!" She was a little surprised. "Eat broad beans." He smacked his lips and said, "The smell outside is very annoying. The rain has soaked the flowers on the trees. Don't you dream? The doctor said that dreaming before twelve o'clock hurts the nerves. I fired a day." Put the bag of broad beans on the bedside, ready to eat as soon as you wake up from a dream, and fall asleep after eating. I tried it for three days in a row, and the effect is very good." Sure enough, after a while, he pointed his back like a thick wall at her and started snoring loudly.During the interval of snoring, she heard the person on the next bed tossing and turning, being tormented by neurosis, making the bed boards creak and creak.There were many rats running around in the corner of the ceiling, and the ash pieces from their paws kept hitting the roof of the tent.Long, long ago, when she was a young girl, she also had the dream of being a mother.Since the mulberry tree at the door bears red berries, her body has gradually dried up.She would pat her belly from time to time and jokingly say, "There are some reed stalks growing here."

"At dawn, the flowers fell all over the ground." She shook the man awake vigorously, speaking loudly into his ear. "Flowers?" Lao Kuang replied in a daze, "The effect of broad beans is better than sleeping pills. You should try it too, huh? It's a miraculous effect..." "The petals of every flower are filled with rainwater," she said again, kicking the bed board with a "dong dong" sound, "so it fell so heavily, did you hear it?" The man was already snoring. There are many small worms wriggling in the chest.The black wind passed through the tree branches, turning into many small strands.That tree is the sieve of the wind.

At dawn, she opened the window and saw the white flowers on the ground, and sat down in front of the window in a daze. "The effect of broad beans is really amazing, I suggest you try it too." The man said behind her back, "I slept really deeply in the second half of the night, but when the day was about to dawn, I was always worried about thieves coming to steal things in my dreams. I just struggled to wake up." At this time, the long and narrow back of the man next door appeared, he was concentrating on poking a hole in the ground with his toes, and there was a tumor on one ear under the brim of his hat, shaking with his body.There is a big blank in Xu Ruhua's heart.

"Should I spray some insecticide? The scent of this flower is especially good at attracting bugs." Lao Kuang tapped the edge of the bed with his knuckles, belching out four or five overnight broad bean belches. In the evening, Xu Ruhua was bending over to sprinkle pesticides in the kitchen, when someone threw a small ball of paper through the window, opened it, and there were two unbelievable words written crookedly on it: Please refrain from prying into people's private life, because this is a kind of arrogant behavior, which is more overbearing than direct interference. She looked out the window and saw her mother-in-law walking towards their house bumping around the corner.

"It's like a pigsty here." The mother-in-law stood stiffly in the middle of the room, her eyes rolling around cunningly, and she hummed in her nostrils. "Recently, I found another proven prescription for treating neurasthenia." Lao Kuang squeezed out a frightening smile, "Mom, I found that sky blue has an ideal curative effect." "How dare you turn on the radio in this kind of thunderstorm!" She clapped her hands and yelled, "I have a neighbor who turned on the radio during a thunderstorm, and it was split into two pieces by lightning! You have to do something wrong." Ordinary things to show off yourself!" After she finished speaking, she stepped over and turned off the radio with a "bang", spat vigorously and hatefully, and swayed out the door.

As soon as mother left, Kuang shouted happily: "Ruhua! Ruhua!" Xu Ruhua was spraying insecticide under the stove. "Why didn't you agree?" Lao Kuang had a sullen expression on his face. "Ah--" She woke up from the daze, with a trance smile on her face, "I didn't hear at all--are you calling me? I thought it was my mother-in-law shouting in the room! You sound so much like hers, I can't tell the difference." "Mom is always angry with us, and mother has left." He replied with a sad face, and his mood was so depressed all of a sudden. "She made perfect sense, we were so incapable of living on our own."

She is still talking in her sleep: "When you talk in the yard, I always think it's my mother-in-law coming... I'm afraid my ears are going to go wrong. For example, today, I didn't think you were in the house at all. I thought my mother-in-law was alone. People over there raised their voices and talked to themselves." "Osmanthus fragrans grew in the ears of the old cobbler on the street, and it smelled so sweet," he tried to cheer up again, "I saw people smashing his door when I came back from get off work." He stretched out his arms next to her. He stretched out an arm, making a gesture of wanting to hug her. "This insecticide is really powerful," she trembled, her teeth chattering, "I seem to be poisoned." He immediately retracted his arms, keeping a little distance from her as if afraid of contagion. "Your physique is too weak." He swallowed dryly. A large white flower fell on the window sill, trembling alive in the gloom. He picked up the little sparrow in the ditch.It seemed that it had just learned to fly and fell into a ditch.He put the wet little thing on the table, and his immature heart was still beating in his chest.He turned it over, poked it, tapped it absently, and watched it die. "It's serious!" I heard Mu Lan say behind her back. "It's serious!" said the fifteen-year-old daughter, probably pointing and poking with her bald nail biting fingers. "Some people really don't understand," Mulan said with a different tone, "Have you noticed? The next door built a shed at the back, probably for the purpose of growing flowers? It's so whimsical! I've been neighbors with them for eight years, why? I can't guess what they are thinking. I think that woman is very sinister. Every time she walks past our window, she always looks in a trance, and there is no sound of footsteps! How can people have no footsteps? What? If you are a person, you should have a certain weight, otherwise what is going on? I am really worried that she will suddenly rush into our room and commit murder. The fragrance of the mulberry tree makes people feel uneasy..." Geng Shanwu found a kraft paper envelope, put the dead bird in it, then stuck it firmly with two grains of rice, and slapped the opening a few times. "I'll go out for a while," he said aloud, putting the envelope with the dead bird in his pocket. He went around to the kitchen next door, squatted down, threw the letter bag containing the dead bird through the window, and then sneaked back to his home. The woman next door suddenly exclaimed "Oh--", as if she was talking to her man, the voice came through the cracks in the board wall, very erratic, very unreal: "...At that time we used to sit on the grass and play with handkerchiefs. The sun had just set, and the grass was still hot, and it happened that we could catch praying mantises. I often threw out a dead mouse by surprise! Last year there was a cricket in the bed on a hot day It screamed for three days and three nights, and I guess it must have died from physical and mental exhaustion..." A pair of women's eyes appeared in Geng Shanwu's mind, like dark green eyes in a deep pool of stagnant water.It was unbearable to think of his long and narrow back being stared at by these eyes. "The flowers on the mulberry tree have all fallen, and the turbid scent will disappear soon," she continued in a disproportionately sharp voice, "someone must have lost something, looking for it among the fallen flowers, I found countless footprints ...Did the flowers fall from the rain, or did they grow impatient? I walked around the room in the middle of the night, and saw the moon hanging on the treetops, just like a light yellow ball of yarn... ..." After a while, heavy footsteps sounded on the steps, it was her man who came back, and the woman's voice stopped abruptly.It turns out that the woman has been talking to the wooden wall in the house?Perhaps she was reading an endless letter? When eating lunch, he chewed hard on a piece of cartilage, making a "boom boom boom boom boom boom" sound. "Good! Good!" Mulan said appreciatively, her throat moved, and she swallowed a big mouthful of sour soup with a "gudong". The daughter also imitated their example, making a "boom boom boom boom" sound in her mouth, and her throat kept making "gudong" noises. After finishing eating, he stood up wiping the sour soup from the corners of his mouth, picking his teeth with his nails, and said to his wife or someone else: "The spider on the window sill has been catching mosquitoes for more than one o'clock. Where is it?" Got it!" "During the work break, old man Lin shit in his crotch." Mulan said, a stream of sour water came up with a belch, and she swallowed it back with a "gudong". "Today's ribs are not stewed." "You're eating tenderloin!" She gave him a surprised look. "I had tenderloin," he said, looking at the spider. "I mean ribs." "Ha!" Mulan made a grimace, "You're lying again." At night, in the last lingering fragrance of the flowers of the mulberry tree, Geng Zenwu and the woman next door had the same dream. In the dream, both of them saw a turtle with bulging eyes crawling towards their house.The yard in front of the door was turned into a quagmire by the torrential rain. It kept crawling along the edge of the quagmire, its paws were covered with mud, and it couldn't crawl.When the wind in the trees shattered the dream, both of them woke up sweating in their respective rooms. He graduated from the academy with a shaved head and a military duffel bag on his back.Sweat kept coming out of the armpits, and there was a sweet smell.At that time the sun was very bright, the sky was like a big glass cover, and he was always squinting to see things. "I fell into the quagmire at night." The woman next door was screaming again, "and I'm still sticky. When it was almost dawn, there was a click, and the wind snapped the branches." He was very puzzled: why is he the only one who can hear the crazy talk of the woman next door every time?Why can't Mulan hear?Is she pretending to be garlic? Mulan lowered her head and cut the nails on her short fingers without even raising her eyelids. "Did you hear something?" he asked tentatively. "I heard." She replied nonchalantly, still not looking up, "It's the wind that rustled the window paper next door. This family's house is in a dilapidated state, and the man actually put a glass jar behind it to raise the What about the two black goldfish? What a childish and ridiculous move! I have already hung a large mirror on the back wall, from which I can spy on their every move, which is very convenient. I am extremely disgusted with their way of raising goldfish. " The trampled flowers on the ground were all black. He opened the door, and what caught his eye was the head of the woman in the next window.She was also looking at the remaining flowers on the ground, her eyes gleamed greedily, her neck stretched out extremely long, as if she was about to jump out of the window. "The flower is dead." He said lightly in his unexpected voice. "It's over, this crazy season..." The woman's lips moved, and she could hardly tell she was speaking. "It's such a sleepwalker's life, nights and days...but it goes by so quickly. These disturbing flowers drive us all crazy these days, have you ever dreamed..." he went on Go down, but the woman has disappeared. Under the big glass cover, everything was a yellow oval, and the light from outside was so harsh that there was nowhere to shade it. Huajian's dreams are all lost. two When he hesitated to open the door, she was sitting at the table eating a small plate of pickles.On the table was a jar from which the cucumbers were taken.She chewed softly, moving her lips like a rabbit, barely making a sound.She didn't look at him, and after eating one, she went to pick up the second one, eyes lowered, savoring carefully.Cucumber juice flowed from the corner of her mouth twice, and she stuck out her tongue and licked it clean. "I'm here to talk about a thing, or rather, not a thing at all, just a symbol." He began in a strange, probing, and angry tone, "After all, you Have you seen it before? Or, do you have that premonition?" Xu Ruhua stared at him dumbfoundedly, but remained silent, still chewing her cucumber with lowered eyelids.She remembered that it was her neighbor, the sneaky man who was always doing tricks in the yard to block her view.When eating lunch, Lao Kuang saw her eating cucumbers, and was immediately horrified, saying that the sour food had ruined her nerves and she couldn't eat it.When he went to work, she would eat heartily by herself. "When I saw it in my dream, it seemed that someone was sitting behind the window. Now I remember who that person is... Tell me, how long has it been crawling in that quagmire?" He didn't give up, Gossiping on, "Is that quagmire in our yard?" "What's the matter with the dead sparrow?" She opened her mouth, still without looking at him, she took out a handkerchief and wiped her mouth, "I've sprayed insecticide in the house for the past few days." Her voice was so Calm down, his head seemed to be stuffed with stones, and there was a "crash, clatter". "It's just because I'm a little nervous." He admitted awkwardly. "You know, those flowers bloom in a panic. At one time, I was very good. I also worked in the geological team. The mountains are very high , the sun is so close that you can touch it with your hand...Of course, what's the point of saying this, we lived under the same roof for eight years, you see me every day, and when you see me, I will That's it. When the tortoise came at night, you were tossing and turning in this room. I heard the creaking of the bed boards, and I thought to myself, there is someone in that room who is suffering from nightmares just like me. Nightmare Raiding the hut, coming in through the window, pressing on you... When the red berries are on the tree, then the beetles will come, and we can sleep soundly, year after year. I At night, I like to use two bricks to press the pillow tightly, because it will suddenly bang and make you jump. You spray insecticide all day long, and the mosquitoes are poisoned. In the dark, when something Don’t you feel scared when it strikes? I like to have mosquitoes buzzing in my ears, as if it gives me courage..." He talked and talked, even he was taken aback, and he didn't know what he was talking about . "I'm going to spray some bug spray," she said, looking at him, and got up to get the canister.She walked a few steps, then turned her head and said, "I planted a pot of daphnia flowers in the back. They said that this kind of thing is very powerful, as long as eating more than two flowers can kill people. I like this kind of thing, It inspires wild dreams. Does your wife always peek at us in the mirror? If you want to talk about that thing in your heart, you can come and talk about it often, when I am in a good mood." He opened his mouth to say something, but she was already chirping the sprayer in the back room. Glancing in the mirror, she saw that the person inside seemed to be swimming in gas, and there were two big glistening oil stains on his chest, which she remembered absent-mindedly while drinking soup at noon.She suddenly felt ashamed, this is a strange emotion, why?Probably for a meaningless trifle, she couldn't remember.When the man next door was talking, she felt that she was talking, so she didn't feel weird at all, she just listened, listened to herself.She remembered those stormy nights, when the dark branches stretched out the window with claws and claws, and poked straight at her face. Why did the person next door resemble her so much?Maybe all people are so alike.For example, she always couldn't tell the difference between Lao Kuang and his mother.In her mind, she always saw them both as one person, and it was convenient that way.But whenever she expressed such intentions in her speech, Lao Kuang would always fidget, worry about her nerves, and persuade her to practice a kind of therapy and so on.The day before yesterday he was discussing furtively with his mother again, saying that he was going to trick her into going to the doctor, and that if he didn't, God knows what disaster would be upon him.The seriousness with which they spoke made her chuckle.Hearing the laughter, they realized that she was eavesdropping, and they both became angry at the same time, and rushed towards her, shaking her shoulders vigorously and asking her what was so funny. "If you go on like this, you will bear all the consequences." The mother-in-law said gloatingly, "We have fulfilled our responsibilities." Recently, the old man secretly sprinkled urine in the gutter behind him every day. He always thought she didn't know, and put The back door was closed tightly, and once it was over, it pretended to be indifferent.And she pretended not to know, and sprayed insecticide every day according to his instructions. When they first got married, he was a middle school teacher with a crew cut and shorts.At that time, he often brought back various small things such as pens and diaries from school, saying that they were confiscated from the students.Once he brought back two female student's flowered handkerchiefs and said, "It can still be used after washing."At first they both had hope, thinking that there would be a child, but later she gloated instead—their family (her, Lao Kuang, mother-in-law) always gloats when things happen.The idea that the furtive man next door should have a child surprised her.Children, you can't be as erratic as adults, right?Early this morning, she was walking around the room with her upper body naked, slapping her stomach incessantly. "What are you doing?" Lao Kuang said angrily. "Sometimes," she smiled teasingly at him, "I don't think it's a woman's belly at all, it's just a piece of skin and some dirty guts and god knows what." "You better Take a piece of Valium." Lao Kuang rushed past her, almost knocking her down. When she went to the back with the watering can to water the daphnia, she glanced at the goldfish bowl and was startled.Two goldfish were floating belly upside down on the surface of the water, the water was very cloudy and smelled of soap, she flicked it with her fingers, but the goldfish remained motionless.At that moment she caught a glimpse of the woman next door standing on tiptoe in front of the mirror, watching her.She slowly picked up the goldfish and threw it into the dustpan. The next time that man comes to talk about that matter again, she must tell him that she liked oleander.When the sun was near (within reach) and the phlox bloomed with a bitter scent, she ran like a rabbit under the tree!Thinking of this, she glanced at the woman's plump back again, feeling a vicious pleasure in her heart. "What are you doing behind?" Geng Shanwu quickly hid a pack of biscuits in his leather bag, snapped the button, and said loudly, "I'm going to work." Mulan came out from behind, with a dark face, and said absentmindedly: "I poured a basin of soapy water...I was thinking...how could I...I still owe last month's rent." "You've become sentimental." He sneered, and left.After crossing the street and turning a corner, he looked back, then reached into his purse to take out biscuits, and began to chew loudly. His daughter came out of the department store, her thinning head held high, and she walked proudly.He hurriedly hid behind the public toilet and watched her go to the side of the street before coming out. "She's turned the corner," someone whispered to him from behind.Looking back, it turned out to be the father-in-law.The old man had a sparse goatee with nasty wine stains on it. "Who are you talking about?" He asked fiercely with a straight face. "Mr. Feng, who else is there?" The father-in-law blinked one red eye funnyly, stretched out his long, bony arms to rest on his shoulders, and said cheerfully, "Come on, you pay, we go have a drink!" "Bah!" Genger shook off his arm without any distaste, only to hear the arm "creaking" for a while, which was the dry friction sound of the bones inside. "Hahaha! Peekaboo, eat bags! Hahaha..." The father-in-law danced happily and yelled. His face became hot, and he touched the leather bag subconsciously. There were still three biscuits in it. The father-in-law was also a nasty peeper.From the day he married his daughter, he has been secretly spying on him every day.Like a ghost, he always appeared in unexpected places and entered his soul.Once he was so angry that he rushed up and cut his arm backwards.That time his arm made a strange "creaking" sound like today, as if it was about to break, which made him frightened and let go unknowingly, so he jumped up like a grasshopper and ran away. While running, he also threatened, saying that "we will carry out deadly revenge in the future." "Hide and seek, eat bags..." the father-in-law was still shouting, with his arms outstretched, he threw himself on a dustbin, "giggle..." he couldn't stop laughing.After laughing, he rushed into the monastery.The monastery has been run down and no one has lived in it for a long time. My father-in-law often climbs to the attic and throws stones at passers-by through the small window. Laughed out loud. Ten years ago, he wore a khaki tunic to their home to propose.Mulan walked up and down the floor with heavy steps, looking rejuvenated.The mother-in-law let out a few indigestion farts sullenly, and said to the mossy brick wall in the courtyard: "It's my bad luck that I let you abduct my daughter." Three years later, she lay In the mortuary of the hospital, when he went to see her, she still had that funny look, with bulging eyes, as if she was going to eat him. After they got married, one day, the two of them were walking down the street. Mulan bought a lot of plums and threw them into her mouth as she walked. The street seemed endless.Suddenly she leaned against him, closed her eyes, spat out a plum pip, and said, "Oh, I am so sad!" Why should she be sad?More goodness is still inexplicable to this day. Every time the father-in-law came to scout around their house, he would choose a favorable time to hide at the back door and gently and endlessly called Feng Jun to come out, and the grandpa and grandson stood under the eaves and started talking. .The sun slanted on his red nose, his face showed a look of resentment, his eyes kept glancing back and forth into the room, thinking secretly in his stomach.Finally, when he was leaving, he quickly ran into the house, picked up a small object and ran away.Then she heard footsteps, and Mulan came out angrily and asked her daughter, "Damn it, what did you take away?" After eating three biscuits, I happened to walk to the door of the institute.When he was working in the office yesterday, he was secretly feeding the sparrows on the platform with the dried steamed bread crumbs he had prepared in advance. Suddenly, Anguowei slapped his ass and asked him with triangular eyes: "What do you think?" What kind of conclusion has been drawn from the quagmire problem?" After speaking, he spat out the cigarette butt and sat on the edge of his desk with his legs crossed.He spent the whole day in anxiety, unable to figure out the meaning behind the kid's words.After returning home, he pretended to be sitting at the door trimming his beard, and looked at the back with a mirror, stealthily observed every move of the man next door, and made sure that there was nothing suspicious, so he calmed down a little.Maybe it was his bloody heartbeat that gave it away?During these days when the flowers of the mulberry tree disturbed people's hearts, his heart was beating so hard that when he put his palm on his chest, there was a "Boom! Boom! Boom!" inside, like a fish jumping.He felt that people must have heard this kind of voice, so everyone in the institute stared at him with meaningful eyes, and said hypocritically: "Ah--your face these days..." In order to prevent the heart from beating The voice was audible, and as soon as he got to work, he quickly got into his corner, turned his face out of the window for several hours, and took out the steamed bread crumbs he had prepared in advance from his bag to feed the sparrows.Today he stuck his head out, and found heads sticking out of the other two windows.Turning around to see, it turned out to be his colleague in the same room.They put their hands behind their backs and turned their faces out of the window, as if they were deep in thought.He sneaked into the corridor again with a ghost, and looked in through the cracks in the doors of other departments, and found that it was the same inside. There was a person with a serious expression standing at every window, and some people were pacing up and down, showing signs of death. Anxious shape.Later, the colleagues got into a commotion, and it turned out that a big butterfly staggered in, its bright black wings shone with purple light, and it circled around their heads majestically.Everyone jumped up like marbles.Those who closed the doors closed the windows, and those who closed the windows closed the windows. Two people were beating down with feather dusters, while the rest were screaming and jumping to cheer.Everyone's face was purple, and they were drunk like crazy.In order to cover up the ulterior secrets in his heart, Geng Shanwu also screamed and tried his best to look like everyone else, going crazy.After Hua Die jumped down, the two people who were originally standing at the window immediately recovered their serious expressions, turned their hands behind their backs and faced out of the window, falling into inscrutable reverie.It suddenly occurred to him that these two serious guys might be standing by the window like this every day, but he didn't notice it at ordinary times, and he didn't realize it until he was with them now.The three of them stood like wooden stakes until the bell rang before picking up their bags and going home.He noticed that the posture of the two people walking on the road was also so serious, with their heads lowered, their hands behind their backs, and their steps were slow and steady.The setting sun shone on their hunchbacks, and through the baggy trousers, he glimpsed a few hairy legs. "Today there are very badly stewed bones, you can suck up the bone marrow." Mulan said happily, licking the fat around her mouth. "I've always been terrified of ribs, they always make big blood blisters on my tongue." He fiddled with the cobwebs on the window with a small wooden stick, "Can't you think of something else to do?" ?" "I can't think of any tricks. The next door is cleaning again, and I saw it in the mirror. Humph, spraying insecticide, cleaning, raising goldfish, it's just nervous! The woman has already found out that I am I looked at her in the mirror. Did you smell the smell of urine in the gutter behind? It’s really appalling. There are rumors about the secret recipe of drinking raw chicken blood, haven’t you heard? It’s said that you can live forever.” "You can live forever by eating badly stewed ribs." "You're lying again!" She twisted her face in horror. "I was about to tell you what I was thinking this morning, and you left before I finished listening. It's like this. I was sitting at this door when the wind blew It was pretty scary. I thought—yes, I thought about Fengjun. I think this kid looks promising. Yesterday I bought her a cheap plaid dress. Guess she What did you say? She said, "Thank you, I'm not like a beggar. I was thinking about what she meant, and I couldn't be happier. This girl is born with a good character of contentment and self-defense." "She's like her mother, and she's going to have an amazing future," he said sarcastically. Once he got home, the dream of the turtle haunted his mind again and upset him.He paced back and forth in the room, his footsteps were "Boom! Boom! Boom!", and the sunflowers that had been wilted by the scorching sun kept appearing in front of his eyes.The shrill voice of the woman next door came along a thin wind, dry and hot, and a little hoarse. "...Yes, the mud is as hot as boiled porridge, with air bubbles on it. When it crawled over, the soles of its feet were scalded with blisters, and its eyeballs seemed to burst out...the scent of oleander and mountain chrysanthemum What's the difference? Can you tell the difference? I dare not sleep, and as soon as I fall asleep, those branches are drawn on my face, and the pain is so mad. I often wonder, how did they come in through the window? Didn’t I already ask Lao Kuang to put iron bars on it? (I pretended to tell him that it was to prevent thieves.) I plan to make two more doors, which are also covered with iron bars, so that the house is like an iron cage. Maybe I can only sleep in the iron cage? I'm exhausted!" Mulan was pulling the ribs out of the casserole and tearing them with her teeth.Looking at her wide open mouth, Geng Zenwu was surprised and puzzled. "Something rattled..." he said hesitantly. "Rat. I shouldn't have taken the mousetrap out in the morning. It's over, those naive days of blooming...I thought you were up to something." "what?!" "I'm talking about flowers. Why do you stare at me so scary! Those days you always get up in the middle of the night and open the door creakingly. When you get up together, the cold wind will come in." "It turns out that she is also a voyeur..." he thought in a daze. Xu Ruhua leaned against the door and listened carefully.An airplane was flying in the sky, making a terrifying "buzzing buzzing".After the goldfish died, Lao Kuang kicked over the daphnia flowers she planted and nailed the back door dead. "There was a murderous atmosphere in the house," he told everyone he met with anxiety, "because of our inability to live independently." Now he became very irritable and suspicious, and he was always searching the house. Yes, worried about the murderer, he jumped up suddenly in the middle of the night, lit the flashlight, and lay under the bed for a long time.When my mother-in-law came, she always wore a straw hat with a rotten brim, a pair of long rainproof rubber shoes, and an iron rod in her hand.As soon as he came, he immediately searched the two rooms with his eyes, even carefully checking behind the door.After watching, stood nervously, cheeks twitching and a red rash showing on his neck.One day when she came home, she saw that the door was tightly shut. Even the curtains were lowered, and the door could not be opened even after calling for a long time.From the rolled-up corner of the curtains, she saw that the room was full of smoke, and the mother-in-law and the old man were gritting their teeth, wielding iron rods and doing that kind of "exorcism".There were whispering voices, but it was unclear whose voice it was.After waiting for a while, the door opened with a "squeak" and Lao Kuang helped her mother-in-law down the steps. They both hung their heads, as if they were asleep, and walked past her sleepwalking. After "expelling" the "evil", Lao Kuang installed a bell on the door, saying that in case someone came to murder and rob, the bell would ring.As a result, after waiting for a long time, the murderer did not come, but they themselves were startled by the ringing of the bell themselves.Every time guests came, Lao Kuang lowered his throat and told them: It was impossible to survive in this horrible atmosphere. He had already suffered from early myocardial infarction, and he might die in one of the frights.The mother-in-law never came to their house again after "driving out" the "evil".Just sending a note from one of her bald nieces every two or three days.The niece had been wearing a green cloth round cap for many years, had a weird hairstyle, and was always chewing something in her toothless mouth.婆婆的字条上写着诸如此类的句子："要警惕周围的密探！""睡觉前别忘了：1洗冷水脸（并不包括脖子）。2在枕头底下放三块鹅卵石。""走路的姿势要正确，千万不要东张西望，尤其不能望左边。""每天睡觉前服用一颗消炎镇痛片（也可以用磺胺代替）。""望远可以消除下肢的疲劳。"等等。老况接到母亲的字条总要激动不安，身上奇痒难熬，东抓西抓，然后在椅子上扭过来扭过去地搞好半天，才勉强写好一张字条让那秃头的侄女带回去。他写字条的时候总用另外一只手死死遮住，生怕她偷看了去，只有一回她瞥见（不如说是猜出）字条上写的是："立即执行，前项已大见成效。"突然有一回秃头侄女不来了，老况心神恍惚地忍耐了好多天，夜里在床上翻来覆去，口中念念有词，人也消瘦了好多，吃饭的时候老是一惊，放下碗将耳朵贴在墙壁上，皱起眉头倾听什么声音。婆婆终于来将他接走了。那一天她站在屋角的阴影里，戴着大草帽，整个脸用一条其大无比的黑围巾包得严严实实，只留两只眼在外面，口中不停地念叨"晦气，晦气……"大声斥责磨磨蹭蹭的儿子。出门的时候，婆婆紧紧拽住老况多毛的手臂，生怕他丢失的样子，两人逃跑似的离去。她听见婆婆边走边说："重要的是走路的姿势，我不是已经告诫过你了吗？我看你是太麻痹大意了，你从小就是这么麻痹大意，不着边际。"后来老况从婆婆那里回来过一次。那一次她正在楮树下面看那些金龟子，他"嗨"的一声，用力拍了一下她枯瘦的背脊，然后一抬脚窜到屋里去了。听到他在屋里乒乒乓乓地翻箱倒柜，折腾了好久，然后他挽好两个巨大的包袱出来了。 "这阵子我的神经很振奋，"他用一方油腻腻的手帕抹着胡须上的汗珠子，"妈妈说得对，重要的问题在注意小节上面，首先要端正做人的态度……你对这个问题有什么感想？"他轻轻巧巧地提起包袱就走了。at night.她把钉满铁条的门关得紧紧的，还用箱子堵上了。黑暗中数不清的小东西在水泥地上穿梭，在天花板上穿梭，在她盖着的毯子上面穿梭。发胀的床脚下死力咬紧了牙关，身上的毯子轻飘飘的，不断地被风鼓起，又落下，用砖头压紧也无济于事。不知从哪里飞来的天牛"嗒！嗒！嗒……"地接二连三落在枕边，向她脸上爬来，害得她没个完的开灯，将它们拂去。 时常她用毯子蒙住头，还是听得见隔壁那个男人在床上扭来扭去，发出"格格"的、痛苦的磨牙声，其间又伴随着一种好似狼嗥的呼啸声，咬牙切齿的咒骂声。他提过泥潭的事，确实是这样。他提过的都是他梦里看见过的东西，是不是睡在同一个屋顶下的人都要做相同的梦呢？然而她自己逐日干涸下去了。她老是看见烈日、沙滩、滚烫的岩石，那些东西不断地煎熬着体内的水分。"虚脱产生的幻象。"老况从前总这样说。她每天早上汗水淋淋地爬起来，走到穿衣镜面前去，仔细打量着脸上的红晕。"你说，那件事究竟是不是幻象？"那声音停留在半空中。他终于又来了，他的长脖子从窗眼里伸进来，眼睛古怪地一闪一闪。原来他的脖子很红，上面有一层金黄色的汗毛。她正在吃老况扔下的半包蚕豆，蚕豆已经回了潮，软软的，有股霉味儿，嚼起来一点响声都没有。 "你吃不吃酸黄瓜？我还腌得有好多。飞机在头顶上叫了一上午了，我生怕我的脑袋会轰的一声炸成碎片。"她听出自己声音的急切，立刻像小姑娘那样涨红了脸，腋下的汗毛一炸一炸的，把腋窝弄得生痛。有一会儿他沉默着，于是她的声音也凝结在半空中，像一些印刷体的字。 他在屋里走来走去，到处都要嗅一嗅。他的动作很轻柔，扁平的身体如同在风中飘动的一块破布。最后他落在书桌上，两条瘦长的腿子差不多垂到了地上。书桌上有一层厚厚的白灰，他一坐上去，灰尘立刻向四处飞扬起来，钻进人的鼻孔里。"这屋里好久没洒过杀虫药了。"他肯定地说，"我听见夜里蚊虫猖狂得不得了。我还听见你把它们拍死在板壁上，这上面有好多血印。" "蚊虫倒不见得怎么样，身上盖的毯子却发了疯似的，老要从窗口飞出去。我每天夜里与这条毯子搏斗，弄得浑身是汗，像是掉进了泥潭。"她不知不觉诉起苦来了。她忽然觉得，这个男人，夜里"格格"地磨牙的人，她很需要和他讲些什么亲切的悄悄话。"屋角长着一枚怪蕈，像人头那么大。天花板上常常出其不意地伸出一只脚来，上面爬满了蜘蛛。你也在这个屋顶下面睡觉，相类似的事，你也该习惯了吧？" "对啦，相类似的事，我见得不少。"他忽然打了一个哈欠，显出睡意矇眬的样子来。 她立刻慌张起来，她莽撞地将赤裸的手臂伸到他的鼻子底下，指着上面隆起的血管，滔滔不绝地说："你看我有多么瘦，在那个时候，你有没有注意到夹竹桃？夹竹桃被热辣辣的阳光一晒，就有股苦涩味儿。我还当过短跑运动员呢，你看到我的时候，我就跟你一个样了。我们俩真像孪生姊妹，连讲起话来都差不多。我做了一个梦醒来，翻身的时候，听见你也在床上翻身，大概你也刚好做了一个梦醒来，说不定那个梦正好和我做的梦相同。今天早上你一来，提到那件事，我马上明白了你的意思，因为我也刚好正在想那件事。喂，你打起精神来呀。"她推他一把，那手就停留在他的背脊上了。"昨天在公园里，一棵枯树顶上长着人的头发……" 她来回地抚摸着他的背脊。 他缩起两条腿，像老猫一样弓着背，一动也不动。 "这些日子，我真累。"他的声音"嗡嗡"地从两个膝盖的缝里响起来，说着又打了一个哈欠，"到处都在窥视，逃也逃不开。" "真可怜。"她说，同时就想到了自己萎缩的肚子，"楮树上已经结果了，等果子一熟，你就会睡得很熟很熟，这话是你告诉我的。从前母亲老跟我说：别到雨里去，别打湿了鞋子。她是一个很厉害的女人，打起小孩来把棍子都打断了。她身上老长疮，就因为她脾气大。不过那个时候，我还是睡得很熟很熟，一个梦也没做。" "我到厕所去解手，就有人从裂开的门缝那里露出一只眼睛来。我在办公室里只好整天站着，把脸朝着窗外，一天下来，腿子像被人打断了似的。" "真可怜。"她重复说，将他的头贴着自己干瘪的肚子。那头发真扎人，像刷子一样根根竖起。 后来他从桌子上下来，她牵着他到墨黑的蚊帐里去。 她的胯骨在床头狠狠地撞了一下，痛得她弯下了腰。 床上的灰尘腾得满屋都是，她很懊丧，但愿他没看见就好。 她还躺在床上，盖着那条会飞的毯子，他已经回家去了。 他坐过的桌上留下一个半圆的屁股印。 在他来之前，她盼望他讲一讲地质队的事，然而他忘记了，她也忘记了。 很久没洒杀虫药，虫子在屋里不断地繁殖起来。近来，那些新长出来的蟋蟀又开始鸣叫了，断断续续的，很凄苦，很吃力，总是使她为它们在手心里捏一把汗。老况说这屋里是个"虫窝"，或许他就是因为害怕虫子才搬走的。三年前，婆婆在他们房里发现了第一只蟋蟀。从那天起，老况就遵从婆婆的嘱咐买回大量杀虫剂，要她每天按时喷洒两次。虽然喷了杀虫剂，蟋蟀还是长起来，然而都是病态的，叫声也很可怜。婆婆每回来他们家，只要听到蟋蟀叫，脸上就变了色，就要拿起一把扫帚，翘起屁股钻到床底下去，乱扑乱打一阵，将那些小东西们赶走，然后满面灰垢地爬出来，高声嚷嚷："岂有此理！"有时老况也帮着母亲赶，娘儿俩都往床底下钻，两个大屁股留在外面。完了老况总要发出这样的感叹："要是没有杀虫剂，这屋里真不知道成个什么体统！"今天早上从床上爬起来，听着蟋蟀的病吟，拍着干瘪的胸部和肚子，想起好久没洒杀虫剂了，不由得快意地冷笑起来。下一次老况来拿东西，她一定要叫他将后门也钉上铁条，另外还要叫他带两包蚕豆来（现在她夜里也嚼起蚕豆来了）。她又想另写一张字条叫人送去。她打开抽屉找笔，找了好久，怎么也找不到，只得放弃了这个想法。 结婚以后，她的母亲来看过她一次。那是她刚刚从一场肺炎里挣扎出来，脱离了危险期的那一天。母亲是穿着黑衣黑裤，包着黑头巾走来的，大概是打算赴丧的。她吃惊地看着恢复了神智的她，别扭地扯了扯嘴角，用两个指头捏了捏她苍白的手指尖，说道："这不是很好嘛，很好嘛。"然后气冲冲地扭转屁股回家去了。看她的神气很可能在懊悔白来了一趟。自从老况搬走之后，有一天，她又在屋子附近看到了母亲穿着黑衣黑裤的背影，她身上出着大汗，衣服粘在肥厚的背脊上。隔着老远，虚汝华都闻到了她身上透出的那股浴室的气味，一种熟悉而恶心的气味。为了避免和母亲打照面，她尽量少出门，每天下班回来都几乎是跑进屋里，一进屋就放下深棕色的窗帘。一天她撩起窗帘的一角，竟发现了树背后的黑影。果然，不久母亲就在她的门上贴了一张字条。上面写着很大的字：好逸恶劳、痴心妄想，必导致意志的衰退，成为社会上的垃圾！后来她又接连不断地写字条，有时用字条包着石头压在她的房门外面，有时又贴在楮树的树杆上。有一回她还躲在树背后，趁她一开门就将包着石头的字条扔进屋里，防也防不着。虚汝华总是看也不看就一脚将字条踢出老远，于是又听见她在树背后发出的切齿诅咒。楮树上飞来金龟子的那天夜里，她正在床上与毯子搏斗，满身虚汗，被灰呛得透不过气来，忽然她听到了窗外的脚步声："嗵！嗵！嗵……"阴森恐怖。她战栗着爬起来，用指头将窗帘拨出一条细缝，看见了从头到脚蒙黑的影子，影子摇曳着，像是在狞笑。虽然门窗钉满了铁条，她还是怕得不得了，也不敢开灯，隔一会就用手电照一照床底下，门背后，屋顶上，生怕她会意想不到地藏在那些地方。她在窗外"嗵！嗵！嗵！"地走过来，走过去，还恶作剧地不时咳嗽一下。一直闹到天明她拉开窗帘，才发现窗外并无一人。"也许只是一个幻影？"虚汝华惴惴地想。接下去又发生了没完没了的跟踪。当她暂时甩脱了身后的尾巴，精疲力竭地回到小屋里，轻轻地揉着肋间的排骨时，她感觉体内已经密密地长满了芦秆，一呼气就"轰轰"地响得吓人。昨天上午，母亲在她门上贴出了"最后通牒"。上面写着："如果一意孤行，夜里必有眼镜蛇前来复仇。"她还用红笔打了三个恶狠狠的惊叹号。当她揭下那张纸条时，她发现隔壁那女人正将颈脖伸得很长很长向这边看，她一转身，那女人连忙将颈脖一缩，自作聪明地装出呆板的神气，还假作正经地对着空中自言自语："这树叶响起来有种骚动不安的情绪。"后来她听见板壁那边在窃窃地讲话。 "我觉得悲哀透--了。"隔壁那女人拖长了声音。 "这件事搞得我就像热锅上的蚂蚁。"另一个陌生的声音说："人生莫测……请你把镜子移到外面来，就挂在树上也很方便，必须继续侦察，当心发生狗急跳墙。" 声音很怪异，使人汗毛竖起。 "我在这里踱来踱去，有个人正好也在我家的天井里兜圈子。周围黑得就像一桶漆……这已经有好几天了。"那个怪声音还在说。 门"吱呀"一响。她急忙撩开窗帘，看见母亲敏捷得像只黑山猫，一窜就不见了。原来是母亲在隔壁讲话！ "那母亲弄得心力衰竭了呢，真是不屈不挠呀。"慕兰用指头抹去嘴边的油脂，一边大嚼一边说："有人就是要弄得四邻不安，故作神秘，借此来标榜清高。其实仔细一想什么事也没有，不过就是精神空虚罢了。" "簸箕里的排骨渣子引来了蚂蚁，爬得满桌全是。"更善无溜了她一眼，聚精会神地用牙剔出排骨上的那点筋。"我的胃里面填满了这些烂烂渣渣的排骨，稍微一动就扎得痛。" "天热起来了。"慕兰擦了擦腋下流出来的汗，"我的头发只要隔一天不洗，就全馊了，我自己都不敢闻。"