Chapter 17 Eighty-seventh night Lubai

Ji Yan almost kept the habit of writing a letter every week, and I gradually began to get used to it. Every time I got a letter, I knew I would see another strange and interesting story. (The following is Ji Yan’s letter.) From the north to the south, I was looking for news about that strange man along the way. Of course, what is more important is to see those strange things. Even I, there are too many things in this world that I cannot understand. The weather was suddenly cold, but because we were in the south of the Yangtze River, it was still warmer than in the north, but Li Duo didn't get used to it and caught a cold instead, so we had to stay in a small town.

This is a typical small county town in the south, with winding and uneven narrow alleys, with towering houses on both sides. Ink color is the unique standard color here. The rain is well set off together, just like a painting.Every morning, the white translucent mist and cooking smoke intertwine and overlap, and the unique water vapor in the south of the Yangtze River makes me feel very comfortable. Although the people in the town are not as enthusiastic and forthright as the big men in the north, they always keep a vague distance from others, but they are very friendly and live their own lives.

There are quite a few old people in the local area who are still in good spirits. They bowed their waists, and their crutches gently hit the stone roads that have been washed smooth by years of rain. With their longevity, although their mouths have no teeth, they can spit out many strange stories. Grandma Huang is one of them. Grandma Huang is over seventy years old, and she is the most respected person by everyone, because she has good medical skills, and she can treat headaches, fevers, and minor ailments. Everyone who mentions Grandma Huang gives her thumbs up and praises her. , but Grandma Huang just squinted her eyes and grinned.It happened that Li Duo had a cold, so we found her to see a doctor. Grandma told us very kindly that Li Duo was just suffering from the coldness of Jiangnan, so she gave her a massage, and then she warmly invited us to stay at her home.Li Duozheng and I were worried that there is no hotel in this small town, so naturally we happily agreed.

Grandma Huang lives alone at the east end of the small road in the town.The house is very big. It is said that when my grandmother was young, she was a lady from a rich family in the town. This distinctive house was left by her father. But from the narrow and dilapidated door outside, it's hard to imagine the spaciousness and magnificence inside.There is a patio in the middle of the yard, which is pentagonal and very old. It seems that it has not been used for a long time, and the well rope is also very old.There are two floors of wooden attics on both sides of the entrance. Each attic has two rooms. In the middle is the main hall with a height of more than four meters. When you enter through the patio, you can find that all the pillars and beams are made of high-quality mahogany. Has not faded yet.From the main hall to the attic, you have to go through a corridor. There are murals on both walls. Most of them are meticulous paintings of characters in the four famous novels. Although they have faded a lot due to the humidity in the south of the Yangtze River, the colors are still bright, and you can clearly see the fine details in the paintings. place.The floor of the house is very solid, and people walk on it and feel soft under their feet, and the yard is paved with very smooth stone slabs.

There are tables and chairs for meeting guests in the main hall. The overall layout is similar to that of the hometown, but it has more elegant and scholarly atmosphere.On both sides are the doors connecting the inner room. It's just a huge house, and Grandma Huang lives alone in it.Because of this, she warmly invited the two of us to live in. When it rains, the rainwater hangs under the eaves like strings of beads, like a glass curtain, which is really beautiful.At this time, Granny Huang usually sits on the chair with a teapot and tells us the strange stories she has experienced. This small town is not well-known, but there was a battle during the Anti-Japanese War. In fact, the battlefield was still some distance away from the small town. This place, which was almost forgotten by everyone, did not suffer much damage.

Grandma Huang's family seems to have come here to avoid something, that is to say, she is not an aborigine here.Her father built such a mansion in the local area with a huge sum of money, driving a car, and carrying a lot of luggage.It is said that some villagers said at that time that Mr. Huang not only brought a car full of money, but also a huge box. Grandma Huang said that she had never seen her mother since she was a child, and her father often sighed and would wake up suddenly in the middle of the night.On the night of her sixteenth birthday, her father said to go out to do some shopping, but he never came back.

(The following is the tone of Grandma Huang.) He was panicking that night, fidgeting all the time, like someone was urging him.My father told me where the family's money was kept, and left a medical book, explaining that it should be kept safe, and then hurried out.Just like that, the most important man in my life disappeared. One night two years later, a young man came to town.He was completely different from the others, tall and handsome, with a bookish face. At that time, suits and leather shoes were rare things, and no one in the town knew him.The young man came to me with a suitcase and a piece of paper.

Although, I fell in love with him at first sight, but when the young man told me that he was my fiancé, I was very surprised.But what was even more surprising was that he took out a letter. The letter is signed by my father and is also in his handwriting.In the letter, my father told me that the young man was his nephew, and he had negotiated the marriage with his parents outside, so he asked him to come here to marry me.The letter also told me that the young man had stayed abroad and studied Western medicine, and his name was Feng Xiao. You young people may find it incomprehensible, but I did believe that letter, and followed my father's arrangement to marry Feng Xiao.

The marriage is very simple, just invite everyone to have a meal at home.Feng Xiao's expression was always very serious, as if he never laughed, he just toasted as a routine, but he never drank.When I asked him later, he used the excuse that he was not used to drinking liquor. Life after marriage is very simple, but I am also very happy.Although Feng Xiao often reads books and doesn't talk to me much, I still feel lucky to have such a husband, and I also feel that my father's choice is not wrong. However, every night, I find that Feng Xiao likes to search for something in the room.I don't want to ask, because I know it's useless to ask. If he can't find it, he will come to me sooner or later.

Finally, he couldn't take it anymore. "Things, did your father hide anything?" He asked me in a low voice. Although he was not very enthusiastic towards me, he had always been polite and never used such an attitude. I could only answer that I didn't know, and I suddenly realized that I didn't know this man at all.Feng Xiao started to sneer after hearing this. "Both of you father and daughter are of the same class." I am angry, I can tolerate him talking about me, but not allowing him to insult my father.He beat me that night and moved into the attic. The next day, Feng Xiao suddenly asked my father if he had left anything for me. I had no choice but to give him the ordinary book that recorded some simple medical principles. He took it and hid in the house every day to read it. I didn't come out for a few days, and I sent the food in.He just opened a crack and put it outside the door after eating.In those days, he was like a lost soul, looking very sloppy, with bloodshot eyes.

Finally, when I found that no one had touched the food placed at the door, I realized that he had also disappeared.In this way, my husband also left the house strangely. I saw the medical book on his desk, so I had no choice but to put the book away and put it back in my room. On the desk, I saw a lot of words written by him, scattered on the ground one by one, all of which were names of Chinese medicines.There are also some very sloppy ones, most of which say "mine", "all mine" and the like. In this way, I still live alone. Ten years later, I still had not heard from these two men, and I gradually forgot about them, so I began to study the house. It was designed and built by my father himself. He was very busy in those days and almost never talked to me, so I wanted to be familiar with every part of this house, just as I was familiar with my father. In my father's study, I came across a welded seam on his bookcase. I asked someone to pry open the wooden wall and found a small dark room inside.I didn't want my father's secret to be revealed to the public. Fortunately, all the people I invited were foreigners. After I paid them their wages, I sent them away. That evening, I walked into the secret room alone with a candle. There is nothing in the secret room, only a coffin.The pitch-black coffin gleamed blackly in the candlelight. I carefully removed the lid of the coffin. I move the candle over.But I found a face I was familiar with. It belonged to Feng Xiao. At that time, I almost fainted from fright, but when I calmed down and took a closer look, the person was not Feng Xiao. Although very similar, it was not Feng Xiao. The person in the coffin was older than Feng Xiao, and he was wearing a mandarin jacket from the early years of the Republic of China. He was wearing a huge green finger ring, and the clothes looked very gorgeous.There was also a deep purple almost black bruise on the neck of the corpse. But who is this person, and how could his father hide this person's body in the secret room? The secret room should have been built when the house was built, and the corpse has been around for at least twenty years. Why it has not decomposed for such a long time is even more puzzling to me. This had no choice but to cover the coffin again and back out. Either I find my father or Feng Xiao, or I will never know what happened. So I decided to look for my father, and took the only photo left by Feng Xiao.If the father of the person in the coffin knew him, then Feng Xiao's appearance should be helpful in finding him. It's hard to find things, and it's even harder to find people, not to mention that I'm a girl, but I still found some of my father's friends back then. When they mentioned their father, they always looked disdainful, and told me that the person who looked like Feng Xiao or the corpse was named Feng Feng, who was a good friend of my father and a brother who was a doctor together. In fact, my father is just an ordinary doctor, but owns a large fortune, and I have always been puzzled by this.When I gradually understood the relationship between my father and Feng Feng, a very sad and frightening idea gradually formed, which appeared like a picture that was slowly drawn. At that time, my father and Feng Feng studied Chinese medicine from the same master. Their family backgrounds were very different. Feng Feng’s family was the richest man in the area, and Feng Feng was the only son. Father also thanked him very much. The two of them once followed their master to go to other places for medical treatment. As a result, Feng Feng's family had a sudden change. He had to go back to inherit the inheritance, so my father accompanied him back home. But Feng Feng's family told me that Feng Feng seemed to be a different person as soon as he came home, and he was with my father every day. Soon, he handed over all his property to my father, and then disappeared. Disappeared, disappeared again. The body of Feng Feng at home told me that my father must have done something.What did he do to Feng Bong?I didn't dare to think about it anymore, I couldn't accept that my father still had such a side. What did his father do to Feng Feng on the way back?I still couldn't figure it out, but I found something in the middle of the luggage brought by Feng Xiao. Those are scattered records. It's all about the wayfinder. "A person is about to die, but the qi is stored in the throat, soaked in medicine, and the qi is solidified, and it will not rot for half a month, and the face is like an ordinary person, and the conversation and food are the same. However, it is necessary to lead the way home, meet the family, tell the will, and die immediately. " And there are some appearances of guides. Yellow robe, high crown, head tied with white cloth, holding streamers, feet on seven stars, unrecognizable appearance, must be covered with lime mixed with tea and rice. The flag is the soul-inducing flag, and the seven stars are the seven-star black cloth shoes. It is said that the guide should not be seen by the dead, so lime is smeared on the face to ward off evil spirits, and the tea rice is glutinous rice. I just remembered that my father once mentioned to me that there is an ancient art handed down from generation to generation in the family.I also saw yellow robes in his study. It turned out that Feng Feng had died before arriving home, and his father brought him home with the ancient art of guiding the way, and controlled the corpse so that all the property of the Feng family became his. No wonder, he fled to such a sparsely populated ancient town as if he was avoiding something. When I was extremely depressed, my father appeared again. It's just that he's so much older that he's almost unrecognizable to me. That night, just as he left home, he came back here again, smelling of alcohol and disease. He didn't live for a few days, I understand, he knew he wouldn't live long, and wanted to die in the old house. I didn't ask him anything about the Feng family in those few days, but he didn't speak other than looking at me, and kept crying. On the night of his deathbed, the moon was very round. He finally spoke. "I was the one who killed Brother Feng Feng. I'm sorry for the Feng family. But I'm really poor. I passed down the ancestral precepts, and I have been a guide. If people are not prosperous, they will not enter the door. The longer I stay with him, the more he treats me." The better I am, the more I hate it. I hate why he is so much luckier than me. He supports me. It seems to outsiders that he is a brother and brother, but in fact he often bosses me around and laughs at me behind the scenes. When I was an apprentice, he asked me to do this and that, and I had to stay late at night every day to calm down and learn what the master taught during the day. This has been going on for a long time, and naturally it is not as good as it is. It seems to outsiders that we have a good relationship, but it is actually the opposite. That night , It was also the same night, I followed him on the way home, and along the way, he was in a hurry to go home, and his money was extremely generous, and he didn't want anyone to look for his money." "When you're away from home, you don't leave your goods behind, and your wealth doesn't show up. What is white? Silver is white, that is, don't be too ostentatious. I reminded him, but he didn't listen at all, and even humiliated me." "Sure enough, a group of thieves were after us. They ransacked Feng Feng and hung us both on a tree. I was more flexible than him. I untied the rope and fell down shortly after the thieves left. But Feng Feng was spoiled and spoiled." , the rope was originally tied to his body, but after struggling for a while, it retreated to his neck and got stuck." "He struggled desperately and called me to save him. I hesitated at that moment." ""Save me down, and I'll reward you when I go back, some money, aren't you short of money?Come on, don't you look like a fool when you look at Yinzi on weekdays? "Feng Feng spoke a little unclearly, but I heard it clearly in my ears." "I don't know what I did at that time, but I just walked over and tightened the rope around his neck. Feng Feng will not move in a moment." "At that time, I started to panic, but soon I found out that no one knew about this mountain and wasteland. Later, I thought that the corpse had just died, and I could use my family's ancient technique to lure him back to Feng's residence. The property of the Feng family is taken as their own." "I was very scared when I got the money, because I saw Feng Feng coming to me with his tongue out almost every day, so I buried him in the house. This house can actually calm the soul. First, I hope he will be reborn as soon as possible. Second, I came here to let him stop pestering me." "But I found it was useless. Almost every day I could hear Feng Feng shouting in my ear, "Give me back my money, give me back my money". I almost went crazy, so I escaped." "But I met Feng Feng's son, he seemed to know something, and asked me repeatedly where I took the Feng family's money, so I simply told him that as long as he married my daughter and treated you well, he would naturally Give him the silver. This kid doesn't even want to know how his father died. He actually said that even if I killed him, he has no money to avenge his father, and he has to pay for his life. It's not worth it. At this time I just remembered that Feng Feng has a son who was sent to other places to study a long time ago." "I don't know how Feng Xiao treats you. I just think that with that money hanging on him, he should treat you better. These years in other places, Feng Feng has been chasing me, so I had no choice but to escape again." "Actually, I cast all the silver that Feng Xiao found into big silver ingots, and I hid it, hid it in..." When I said this, I suddenly opened my eyes wide and stopped talking, and pointed behind me with trembling hands. "Brother Feng, are you here to pick me up?" Father suddenly laughed. I turned my head in horror, but there was nothing behind me.But when I turned around, my father's neck suddenly had traces of pressing down with both hands, and there was also a clear finger mark. Father's breathing became more and more rapid, and his speech began to knot up. "I won't tell you where the money is, haha, never, I will only leave that money to my daughter, neither you nor your son can find it!" The hand marks on his neck became heavier and heavier, and his father's laughter became smaller and smaller. Finally, he breathed his last. I cremated my father and Feng Feng's body together.Only that day, Feng Feng's body began to stink.I hope this will defuse the resentment between them. However, where is the father hiding those money that makes people fight, those unlucky money?I thought of that medical book.So I started looking carefully.I suddenly found that the last page was torn.This should be torn by Feng Xiao, I opened it immediately and found a few lines of writing in the interlayer. But what disappoints me is that there are only four plant names: Huang Tianzhu, Southern Suanzao, Fragrant Leaf, and June Dry. It seems nothing at all, but I found that their Chinese medicine names are related.Top Ten Contributions, five-eyed fruit, bay laurel, and prunella vulgaris. The combination of the first four characters is the next day of the fifteenth month (summer).So I stayed in the house, waiting patiently for the full fifteenth day of that month. The moon that day was the same as before, so I hadn’t noticed it all the time, and half of the moon happened to be projected in the courtyard at fifteen. That half of the white moon is as attractively white as an ingot of silver. I couldn't help but smiled wryly, but I couldn't go down the well to search alone, so I quickly called some people and planned to go down the well. The first person to go down the well screamed loudly, and he excitedly told everyone that the walls of the underwater well were actually sealed with a lot of silver, and everyone's eyes were straightened. But immediately there was a second scream, and this one was full of fear. Feng Xiao's body was found, and he was carrying a big bag full of silver dug out from the well wall. He must have found the secret in the book that night, so he went down to the well alone, but the silver was too heavy, and he was crushed in the well water. It was still winter, and he didn't dare to call me, and he couldn't climb up, so he froze to death. . No wonder, no wonder I felt the taste of the well water suddenly changed. Feng Xiao's body didn't decompose much. The climate here is colder, and the well water is cold, but it has the effect of antisepsis. I looked at him with some sadness, not because of his death, because I thought he was dead long ago, but because he was holding a white silver ingot tightly before he died. The silver looked even more lovely and alluring under the moonlight, exuding a gentle but icy white light. The expressions of those who salvaged the silver were a little dull. They had never seen so much silver taels in their entire lives. I had no choice but to announce loudly that the money had already been reported to the country. If there was any disturbance, the government would arrest people. After hearing this, they had no choice but to let it go. In fact, how did the country know that it was still busy with the civil war at that time, but I didn't donate the money, part of it was given to the descendants of the Feng family's orphans, it should have belonged to them, part of it repaired the town, the rest I Take it to systematically learn medical skills and buy medicines. I think this is the only way to atone for my father. Grandma Huang took a sip of tea, the rain stopped and the story was finished. It's just that Grandma Huang looked at the dark well and didn't speak.For a long time, she looked at us, and a stream of muddy tears leaked from the corner of her eyes. "Wealth is not in vain. What I'm afraid of losing is not money, but people's hearts." Grandma Huang rubbed her eyes with the corner of her black sleeve, and stopped talking. "I was the one who killed Brother Feng Feng. I'm sorry for the Feng family. But I'm really poor. I passed down the ancestral precepts, and I have been a guide. If people are not prosperous, they will not enter the door. The longer I stay with him, the more he treats me." The better I am, the more I hate it. I hate why he is so much luckier than me. He supports me. It seems to outsiders that he is a brother and brother, but in fact he often bosses me around and laughs at me behind the scenes. When I was an apprentice, he asked me to do this and that, and I had to stay late at night every day to calm down and learn what the master taught during the day. This has been going on for a long time, and naturally it is not as good as it is. It seems to outsiders that we have a good relationship, but it is actually the opposite. That night , It was also the same night, I followed him on the way home, and along the way, he was in a hurry to go home, and his money was extremely generous, and he didn't want anyone to look for his money." "When you're away from home, you don't leave your goods behind, and your wealth doesn't show up. What is white? Silver is white, that is, don't be too ostentatious. I reminded him, but he didn't listen at all, and even humiliated me." "Sure enough, a group of thieves were after us. They ransacked Feng Feng and hung us both on a tree. I was more flexible than him. I untied the rope and fell down shortly after the thieves left. But Feng Feng was spoiled and spoiled." , the rope was originally tied to his body, but after struggling for a while, it retreated to his neck and got stuck.” "He struggled desperately and called me to save him. I hesitated at that moment." ""Save me down, and I'll reward you when I go back, some money, aren't you short of money?Come on, don't you look like a fool when you look at Yinzi on weekdays? "Feng Feng spoke a little unclearly, but I heard it clearly in my ears." "I don't know what I did at that time, but I just walked over and tightened the rope around his neck. Feng Feng will not move in a moment." "At that time, I started to panic, but soon I found out that no one knew about this mountain and wasteland. Later, I thought that the corpse had just died, and I could use my family's ancient technique to lure him back to Feng's residence. The property of the Feng family is taken as their own." "I was very scared when I got the money, because I saw Feng Feng coming to me with his tongue out almost every day, so I buried him in the house. This house can actually calm the soul. First, I hope he will be reborn as soon as possible. Second, I came here to let him stop pestering me." "But I found it was useless. Almost every day I could hear Feng Feng shouting in my ear, "Give me back my money, give me back my money". I almost went crazy, so I escaped." "But I met Feng Feng's son, he seemed to know something, and asked me repeatedly where I took the Feng family's money, so I simply told him that as long as he married my daughter and treated you well, he would naturally Give him the silver. This kid doesn't even want to know how his father died. He actually said that even if I killed him, he has no money to avenge his father, and he has to pay for his life. It's not worth it. At this time I just remembered that Feng Feng has a son who was sent to other places to study a long time ago." "I don't know how Feng Xiao treats you. I just think that with that money hanging on him, he should treat you better. These years in other places, Feng Feng has been chasing me, so I had no choice but to escape again." "Actually, I cast all the silver that Feng Xiao found into big silver ingots, and I hid it, hid it in..." When I said this, I suddenly opened my eyes wide and stopped talking, and pointed behind me with trembling hands. "Brother Feng, are you here to pick me up?" Father suddenly laughed. I turned my head in horror, but there was nothing behind me.But when I turned around, my father's neck suddenly had traces of pressing down with both hands, and there was also a clear finger mark. Father's breathing became more and more rapid, and his speech began to knot up. "I won't tell you where the money is, haha, never, I will only leave that money to my daughter, neither you nor your son can find it!" The hand marks on his neck became heavier and heavier, and his father's laughter became smaller and smaller. Finally, he breathed his last. I cremated my father and Feng Feng's body together.Only that day, Feng Feng's body began to stink.I hope this will defuse the resentment between them. However, where is the father hiding those money that makes people fight, those unlucky money?I thought of that medical book.So I started looking carefully.I suddenly found that the last page was torn.This should be torn by Feng Xiao, I opened it immediately and found a few lines of writing in the interlayer. But what disappoints me is that there are only four plant names: Huang Tianzhu, Southern Suanzao, Fragrant Leaf, and June Dry. It seems nothing at all, but I found that their Chinese medicine names are related.Top Ten Contributions, five-eyed fruit, bay laurel, and prunella vulgaris. The combination of the first four characters is the next day of the fifteenth month (summer).So I stayed in the house, waiting patiently for the full fifteenth day of that month. The moon that day was the same as before, so I hadn’t noticed it all the time, and half of the moon happened to be projected in the courtyard at fifteen. That half of the white moon is as attractively white as an ingot of silver. I couldn't help but smiled wryly, but I couldn't go down the well to search alone, so I quickly called some people and planned to go down the well. The first person to go down the well screamed loudly, and he excitedly told everyone that the walls of the underwater well were actually sealed with a lot of silver, and everyone's eyes were straightened. But immediately there was a second scream, and this one was full of fear. Feng Xiao's body was found, and he was carrying a big bag full of silver dug out from the well wall. He must have found the secret in the book that night, so he went down to the well alone, but the silver was too heavy, and he was crushed in the well water. It was still winter, and he didn't dare to call me, and he couldn't climb up, so he froze to death. . No wonder, no wonder I felt the taste of the well water suddenly changed. Feng Xiao's body didn't decompose much. The climate here is colder, and the well water is cold, but it has the effect of antisepsis. I looked at him with some sadness, not because of his death, because I thought he was dead long ago, but because he was holding a white silver ingot tightly before he died. The silver looked even more lovely and alluring under the moonlight, exuding a gentle but icy white light. The expressions of those who salvaged the silver were a little dull. They had never seen so much silver taels in their entire lives. I had no choice but to announce loudly that the money had already been reported to the country. If there was any disturbance, the government would arrest people. After hearing this, they had no choice but to let it go. In fact, how did the country know that it was still busy with the civil war at that time, but I didn't donate the money, part of it was given to the descendants of the Feng family's orphans, it should have belonged to them, part of it repaired the town, the rest I Take it to systematically learn medical skills and buy medicines. I think this is the only way to atone for my father. Grandma Huang took a sip of tea, the rain stopped and the story was finished. It's just that Grandma Huang looked at the dark well and didn't speak.For a long time, she looked at us, and a stream of muddy tears leaked from the corner of her eyes. "Wealth is not in vain. What I'm afraid of losing is not money, but people's hearts." Grandma Huang rubbed her eyes with the corner of her black sleeve, and stopped talking.