Chapter 269 Chapter 35 Crawling on the Edge of the Bed

"Morning, Master Ma!" The umbrella in the rain was turned sideways, revealing a fat and oily round head. Grandpa put down the bowls and chopsticks in his hand, and went to the door to meet the visitor who came to disturb him early in the morning.Grandma saw the round head in the rain, and said with a smile: "Oh, Mr. Jin, why are you free to come to my house today? I thought your old man only counted money at home every day." Later, I learned from my grandma that this Uncle Jin’s son was studying and working abroad, and sent a lot of money back to Uncle Jin every year.But Uncle Jin is very stingy, and he is reluctant to use the money sent back by his son.Because the banking system was underdeveloped at that time, many people were not used to saving all their excess money, and even worried that credit unions would cheat them of their money.Uncle Jin is even more so.He locked the money in a box and got up at midnight to count it with his wife.Someone got up in the middle of the night to squat in the latrine, and heard the lights in Uncle Jin's house still on, and the sound of counting money "one hundred and fifty-five, one hundred and fifty-six, one hundred and fifty-seven..." , and every night.The man in the latrine thought that Uncle Jin's house was haunted at first, but later he realized that it was Uncle Jin who was counting the money sent back by his son.

Uncle Jin put away the umbrella at the door, shook his head covered with raindrops, and stomped his feet twice at the door to clean the muddy water on the rain boots.While doing these actions, Uncle Jin showed a concentrated expression.From that expression, one could guess how he counted money in the middle of the night.Then, Uncle Jin raised his head, gave Grandpa a flattering smile, and said, "Master Ma, I came to see you for something. Are you busy?" Grandpa handed him a cigarette, and said, "Don't be busy, don't be busy, it's raining outside, even if there is farm work, I can't do it now. Come, come, sit inside."

"Okay." Uncle Jin carefully placed his black oil-paper umbrella on the stone pier in front of the door, like a woman who just finished putting on her make-up puts her cosmetics back into her cosmetic box.I looked at the oil-paper umbrella, and there were several holes in the top. If you use this umbrella in the rain, it will definitely be "heavy rain outside, light rain inside".Such a rich man would not even be willing to change such a broken umbrella, and he was too careful when placing it on the stone pier, which shows how stingy he is. Grandma joked: "Uncle Jin, no one will steal your umbrella here. Besides, it has been broken into a funnel. If you want to steal it, go and steal your box full of money."

Uncle Jin immediately shook his head, and the two pieces of fat on his cheeks vibrated accordingly: "Where do I have money!" "If you don't have money, what do you count at night? Is it counting grains? Counting how many chickens are raised at home?" Grandma laughed.Grandpa and I laughed. "Are you still eating breakfast? Oh, then I'll come back after you finish eating." Uncle Jin saw several bowls in front of me and said hastily. "It's okay." Grandpa held a chair for him to sit down, "Let's talk while eating. By the way, have you eaten breakfast? If you haven't eaten, come to me and make a living?"

"No need. I've eaten. I came here to ask you something. I don't know if it's convenient to talk about it now." Uncle Jin sat down and immediately showed a sad expression.His face was originally oily and plump.As soon as this sadness came up, his face suddenly looked like a plump apple that had been placed for too long, and it was a little damp, and the apple skin was a little wrinkled and soft. I looked at his damp, apple-like face, waiting for him to say what he wanted to ask. Grandpa waved his hand and said, "What's the inconvenience! Just tell me directly. My nephew doesn't shy away from these things." I heard Grandpa mentioning me, and quickly nodded vigorously at the damp apple.

"Oh, that's good." Seeing me nodding, Uncle Jin began to talk about his troubles. "It happened last month. I thought it would be fine after a while. I didn't expect it to be the same until now. My wife and I haven't slept well for a month. Look at my face, I'm so sleepy now gone." I went to look at his face right away, but I didn't see a trace of fatigue, but there were some bloodshot eyes.Judging from his appearance, Uncle Jin's age should be about the same as his grandfather's, but Uncle Jin obviously takes care of his body, and with his chubby face, he looks younger than his grandfather.When he spoke, his mouth was a little crooked, which reminded me of the crooked Taoist next to the middle school.

Grandpa frowned and said, "Oh? You haven't slept well for a month? What's keeping you and your wife from falling asleep?" Uncle Jin sighed and said: "Hey, I don't know what's going on. Every night I feel something crawling around beside the bed, which makes me sleep unsteadily. At first I thought it was my own illusion, and then I asked My wife, she felt it too. She also thought she had heard it wrong, and it wasn't until I asked that there was something crawling beside the bed." Grandma jokingly said, "I'm afraid your house has as many rats as money. Next time when the peddler of rat poison passes by the house, you can buy a few packs with some money. It will be effective soon."

Uncle Jin shook his head and said, "It's not that I'm reluctant to part with the little money. I've bought it several times, but the noise by the bed has not disappeared. Besides, I don't think the noise is caused by a mouse. How can a mouse make such a big noise?" What happened?" Uncle Jin curled his lips. "What's the big commotion? How much commotion?" Grandpa asked. Uncle Jin seemed to be afraid of the cold, so he took a deep breath and said, "What about the movement?" He stretched out his hands and scratched the back of his neck while thinking about how to describe the movement he heard at night.

"Don't worry, don't worry, think about it carefully. Come on, smoke first." Grandpa bent over, lit a match to light his cigarette, and then lit one for himself when the match was about to go out.Smoking politely like this, I wouldn't say grandpa.But grandpa still looked at me with a guilty conscience, and seeing that I didn't speak, he finally breathed out a smoke ring with confidence. Uncle Jin took a puff of cigarette and exhaled slowly: "That movement is very strange. I still don't know what caused it. The sound is so thin that I can't hear it during the day, but it gets louder at night. It seemed that something was crawling on the edge of the bed, and more than one thing was crawling. Listening to the sound, there must be two crawling things! But I got up and circled the bed countless times, but I couldn’t find the source of the sound.”