Chapter 20 Fifty-fourth Night Stolen Life

Ji Yan's injury recovered very smoothly, which is naturally inseparable from the careful care of the two girls, but the good weather for several days has also played a big role, people's mind is cheerful, and the body naturally recovers quickly some.Li Zheng's leg injury will take some days, probably because of the bone injury.I just came to the hospital after finishing my work, but I saw Luo Lei and Li Duo concentrating on patting next to Ji Yan's bed. It turned out that he was telling a story again. Especially Li Duo, who parted his hair into two strands today, put his hands on his chin, and his silky hair on both sides fell on his ears, and looked at Ji Yan devoutly.I suddenly felt that she looked like the little pug I saw a few days ago, sleeping on the ground.

Of course, I'm just thinking about it in my heart, and I must not say it out loud, otherwise I'm afraid I'll have to ask for sick leave tomorrow. As usual, I exchanged some pleasantries, but didn't interrupt Ji Yan's story. Fortunately, not long after I started talking, I also sat aside and listened. "Among the funeral customs of the Han nationality, the most common thing is that people over the age of 70 die. Relatives and friends will "steal" the bowls and chopsticks of the mourning family. It may not sound like stealing, but in fact this is an old custom that has been passed down since ancient times. Liberation In the past, there was a custom in the south of the Yangtze River. Relatives and friends who participated in Tibetan ceremonies had eaten tofu rice. Before leaving, they would greet relatives and friends, some with bowls, and some with chopsticks. In the Zhuang area of ​​An Yao Autonomous County in Guangxi, when the 80-year-old elders passed away to mourn, people would also take away the bowls and chopsticks on the table. The local custom is called "taking the old birthday". It is not too much to say that robbing is not too much. Sometimes there are too many customers and few things, and it is the first to act first, so there is a scene of you robbing me. .

Most sects believe that birth, old age, sickness and death are unavoidable, and people’s life span has long been fixed. However, there are always some exceptions. Among them, there is a kind of people who specialize in stealing life for others. Although the price is extremely high, what else in the world is better than Life is more important?Wan Guan's family wealth will also be wiped out. There is a saying that "if the rope is broken, the dead will go", you can use money to buy life, no matter how much it is, it is definitely a business that only makes money but does not lose.

This kind of people is very mysterious, and most people can't know where they are. They behave very cautiously, because according to Buddhism, they will be punished if they break the balance, and they will be punished severely, because the so-called stealing life is also a kind of Grafting, to put it bluntly, is to transfer the lifespan of other strangers to others. In fact, it is also a very immoral spell, so it is not widely spread, but people die for money, no matter how dangerous and contrary to conscience. Someone will do it. However, I still heard about stealing life from an old man.

Winding autumn water surrounded by green forests is the best portrayal of that village from a distance. A village with mountains, forests and rivers is a symbol of prosperity. Longevity people. This man's name is Gu Qi, a very strange name, because no one here can pronounce his name, when he was picked up by someone on the river at the entrance of the village, there was only a note next to him, which said his surname was Gu, and he was ranked the seventh among the six. Character.The people in this village are very kind, and most of the families still have surplus food, but no one has the ability to support him at home for a long time, so Xiao Guqi has been drinking different milk since he was a child, and eating a bowl of rice saved from everyone's mouth Half a bowl of porridge grew up slowly, and the people in the village did not feel xenophobic, and Gu Qi was very smart since he was a child, and he knew everything at first glance, and he was fine in a while.He can do everything from farm work and housework to repairing the stove, to mending clothes and pants.

However, Gu Qi grew up day by day, his body became stronger and stronger, and his appearance became more and more outstanding.Everyone is thinking about a question, who will marry their daughter to him.Although Gu Qi liked several girls back and forth, and the girls also loved him, but when it came to marrying me, he backed down.There are several women who openly stand at the door of their house and accuse Gu Qi of seducing their daughters. Whenever such words as no father, no mother, and pauper are uttered, the face of Gu Qi, who is usually smiling, suddenly becomes ferocious. , and the man on the side, although he had been kind to Gu Qi before, at this time he just dragged his daughter and stopped talking to Gu Qi.

But how smart Gu Qi is, he also figured it out. After all, he has been raised in the village for so many years, and he has no father, mother, house, or land. Sing 'girl, I have nothing, when will you come with me. 'Let's not talk about his age, even some girls who grew up watching Qiong Yao's novels now have to think about love first, they can't be wandering in the rivers and lakes together. (Ji Yan's language) So, on the night of the eighteenth year when Gu Qi came to the village, he didn't leave anything behind. He just took away the swaddle and note that he came to the village, and left the village as if he had never been here before.The villagers sighed for a few days and blamed each other, but the matter came and went quickly, and the villagers gradually forgot about it.

Three years later, Gu Qi smashed into the peaceful village from the outside like a sharp-edged rock.With the arrival of Gu Qi, the villagers who seem to be content with their ways begin to reveal their inner madness.I remember that there is a good saying, the reason why there is no betrayal is because the price offered is not high enough. When the blind old man who narrated it to me reached this point, I saw his sluggish lime-gray eyeballs suddenly move. Before that, the eyes were as motionless as plastic ones.The old man was about eighty years old, and his bony hands suddenly grasped my palms tightly. I couldn't imagine that he had such great strength. His lavender dry lips trembled twice. I knew he was very excited, so I had to Use the other hand to lightly pat twice on the old man's bent, bone-protruding back. This is also the easiest and most effective way to relieve people's nervousness.Sure enough, the old man's breath calmed down a little, and he continued. However, he did not continue to talk about Gu Qi, but suddenly asked me if I felt any difference in the people in the village.

At this time, I raised my head in doubt. Sure enough, I was a little puzzled when I entered the village, because I also heard the legend about Gu Qi stealing life from the outside. After a long time, I also saw this old man. The rest of the people were all in their fifties, and they all shook their heads and said they didn't know about Gu Qi. "Because no one of my age is here anymore. Back then, the old men in the village were dying and fleeing. The village was almost destroyed." The old man suddenly grumbled and said something.I was surprised when I heard it, but it was inconvenient to ask more questions, and I waited for the old man to continue.

"I will never forget the day when Gu Qi returned to the village. He is no longer that rascal boy who ate a lot of food. He had a square shaved head, wore a blue-gray long coat, and held his hand in his left hand. This black flat leather box holds a black wide-brimmed hat with a wide brim in the right hand, which was only worn by people in the city at that time. It is full of energy, with bright eyes, and the standard Chinese characters on the face are still familiar, with a bit of mischievous expression. He smiles and walks like an official, steady. He greets everyone very friendly. Although he is a lot more elegant, he does appear to be very natural, not as casual and friendly as before. Relatives. Although Gu Qi only talked about the upbringing of the villagers back then, everyone looked ashamed and regretted why he didn’t put his daughter in a red dress and hijab and wrapped it up for Gu Qi. But carefully Think about it, maybe Gu Qi won't leave the village to venture out in this way, then Gu Qi will still be the old Gu Qi, the Gu Qi who has no father, no mother, no house and no land.

Gu Qi brought very few things, everyone was a little disappointed, and even complained secretly, he seemed to have made a fortune, at least he was doing well, but he didn't bring any gifts, and no one was allowed to touch the suitcase . But a few days later, many well-dressed nobles came to the village one after another.They were male and female, in small groups, and alone.But when they came, they came to look for Gu Qi with big bags and many gifts that we had never seen before in our village.Everyone watched this with astonishment.But Gu Qi seemed to be very indifferent to them and didn't talk much, but these people were like hungry dogs waiting for Gu Qi to reward them with bones, begging for mercy one by one.Whenever Gu Qi pondered for a while and said, okay, go back and wait.They were very happy and went back happily, otherwise they cried and refused to leave.But this kind of person will soon be driven out by the latecomers. At that time, the villagers almost regarded Gu Qi as a god.Gu Qi also generously distributed the gifts to everyone.When the villagers are enjoying the good things that their ancestors have never seen or heard for eight generations, some people will murmur and question what Gu Qi does, but this voice is immediately suppressed by everyone.Gu Qi temporarily lived in the village, and lived in the village head's house, because everyone agreed that only the village head could barely accommodate Gu Qi, a nobleman. Until one time, a nosy young man who hated Gu Qi very much heard some news from a foreign visitor who came out of Gu Qi. No one can get all the praises. Gu Qi's ability and cold appearance naturally aroused the jealousy of the same kind. The young men in the village are more or less jealous of him, but at the same time, the envy and inferiority in their hearts are also increasing day by day, because they Being the same age as Gu Qi, he is often compared by people around him, parents, friends, and even his wife. Perhaps this is the tragedy of human beings, and it is also the reason why Mu Xiu and Lin Feng must be destroyed. Although the news that the young people inquired about was not much, it was undoubtedly very shocking to everyone. It turned out that Gu Qi was helping those people extend their lives, that is, stealing their lives. In the ancient language, the Big Dipper is responsible for death, and the Southern Dipper governs life.In the Three Kingdoms, Zhuge Liang was proficient in Qimen Dunjia, and he placed seven-star lanterns in Wuzhangyuan to prolong his life.But Gu Qi's method is not so troublesome, because Zhuge Liang is just borrowing his life from the sky, so naturally he has to look at the face of the sky.But Gu Qi directly borrows life from people, or steals life, and removes some people's lifespan as if distributing money, and adds it to others.Just think about it, people who know this kind of skill will of course have a lot of money. The matter spread, and the more it spread, the more mysterious it became. Many people surrounded Gu Qi, some were curious, some wanted to save their own lives, and even some who were dozens of years older than Gu Qi knelt on the ground to ask for a teacher.In short, the people in the village are crazy, and they no longer go to farm or work hard.The weeds in the fields are also growing, but everyone doesn't care, whoever learns one and a half tricks, eats and drinks without worrying, what kind of fields will they grow, what kind of hardships will they suffer, and what kind of God's face will they eat? But these people were reprimanded by Gu Qi.Everyone has never seen Gu Qisheng so generous, he is always smiling and kind in everyone's eyes.But this time it was uncharacteristically. "Are you crazy? This is also easy to learn? Enjoy the delicious and useful ones, don't dream." No matter how everyone begged, Gu Qi refused to say more. There are two chopsticks. They are very ordinary chopsticks, but they feel unusual, because the chopsticks glow coldly under the oil lamp, like metal. They are ordinary because they look dark and unremarkable on the outside, not eye-catching.But Gu Qi drove everyone out at once, and even the village head was not allowed to enter the house where he lived. Most of the villagers had resentful expressions on their faces, collectively criticizing Gu Qi.Complaining about this thing is similar to the plague, the more people there are, the faster it develops, and it will become more and more serious. Especially those who once gave Gu Qi alms, those women who fed him milk, said he was nothing and ungrateful.Of course, those young people who hated Gu Qi fanned the flames even more, suggesting that everyone should drive Gu Qi out. At this moment, people in the village were discussing whether to drive Gu Qi out.The young man who inquired about Gu Qi's magic spell died inexplicably.His body was found early in the morning, lying quietly in the backyard of the village chief's house. Have you ever seen a crushed toad? "The old man suddenly raised his head, his gray eyes stared at me as if he could see it. I said that I hadn't seen it, and the old man continued talking. "The young man's head seemed to be crushed by something, his eyes were squeezed out, his hands were curled up in the air, as if trying to grab something. Beside the corpse was a kitchen knife And that young man was the only son of the village chief. This incident was like water falling into a frying pan, and the village boiled.The village chief covered his eyes swollen from crying, and his mother-in-law covered her mouth and cried in a low voice—I had cried before, but was slapped by the village chief. The village chief slapped his wife's ears and cursed: "Cry! Cry! That little bastard must have killed my baby! I want him to die!" The people in the village were angry. They thought that Gu Qi was a plague god. Everyone took the farm tools and sickles and ran to the door of Gu Qi’s room. There were fewer people coming recently, and Gu Qi was also very leisurely. It was early summer, and Gu Qi was wearing a silk shirt. , carrying a jade teapot as a gift from someone else, actually sitting on a recliner outside with closed eyes and resting his mind.When he saw the angry people, he didn't show any surprise. 'You want to kill me?Why don't you ask who killed the village chief's son? 'Gu Qi suddenly smiled and looked at the crowd, and said slowly.Everyone suddenly looked at each other in blank dismay. Indeed, there is no evidence to prove that Gu Qi killed someone. 'I tell you, I killed it. ' Gu Qi still said slowly, as if he was talking about the life and death of an ant.The crowd fell silent for a while, but there was no sound. Everyone looked at Gu Qi, and suddenly felt fear. I was also in the crowd that time. Although it was morning and the sun was shining, I suddenly felt very cold. I have never felt so cold since I remembered the incident, as if it penetrated the bone marrow. In the end, the village chief forced his voice to ask why he wanted to kill his son. 'Because he broke the rules, I warned him many times, don't watch me cast spells, don't take my things, but he didn't listen, last night he put a knife on my neck and threatened me to teach him to steal my life. What a joke, I can steal someone else's life, but can't I steal his?I didn't want to kill him, he was making fun of himself, that's how it happened. 'Gu Qi stood up, everyone took a step back subconsciously, he smiled, and walked in with his hands behind his back. Everyone gradually dispersed, despite the shouts of the village chief, no one was willing or dared to fight against Gu Qi.The village chief and his mother-in-law started howling at the door of their house until their voices became hoarse. They left the next day. It is said that Gu Qi gave them both a large sum of money to buy the village head's house, and the matter was let go.But since then, the villagers saw that Gu Qidu was hiding far away, so they had to bow their heads and say hello in a hurry.Gu Qi didn't take it seriously, and continued to use other people's belongings to extend the lives of the rich or prominent dignitaries who came from far away, and then distributed the gifts to each household. Not long after, something even more strange happened. There were even a few Japanese people here. I didn’t know them at first, but later I heard Gu Qi say that they were Japanese, and what was even more strange was that Gu Qi knew their language. The two sides chattered for a long time, but it seemed that they couldn't get together. As a result, the Japanese left angrily. Before leaving, they pointed at Gu Qi and said something. Gu Qi's face was a little strange, and the corner of his mouth twitched. Turned around and entered the house. The people in the village talked about it for a while and didn't care, because after all, it's no surprise that everyone sees a lot. If it was before, they would still be excited for a while.But Gu Qi suddenly called everyone together, and warned everyone with a serious expression not to eat outside or pay attention to rodent control, and not to walk around casually.But everyone just took his words as rumors, and some people even muttered that Gu Qi regarded himself as the village head, and even the village head didn’t control the reason for everyone’s eating and drinking. Gu Qi explained it for a long time, until his voice Hoarse, he walked in.However, some people believed his words. There is a small river at the entrance of the village, and everyone used to get water or wash clothes from there.Gu Qi sealed off the river and told everyone to fetch water from far away places. Although there were many complaints, no one dared to object openly.But some young people in the village, including me, were very unconvinced, and everyone drank water from the river as usual. Because of the hot weather, these people took a long way to fetch water for their families, and the water was given to the elderly, women and children to drink. I was a little worried, because the river water was indeed a little different from before, and there were things like lime floating on it.So although I was thirsty, I didn't drink much. Sure enough, what Gu Qi warned came true. Those who drank the water developed symptoms of weakness and coughing up blood, and then died quickly. The shadow surrounded the village. Both feel difficult to breathe.Since the accidents were all young people, some people who were not yet sick left the village in fright and took refuge in other places. The villagers finally became angry. They said that it was Gu Qi who stole everyone's life, and then added it to those who came to the village to continue their lives to make money for themselves. Otherwise, why did he treat everyone so well?Why give everyone their hard-earned finances? These words were quickly recognized by everyone, and the fear of the villagers reached its peak and turned into anger.Gu Qi grabbed it from his sleep and helped him onto the wooden stake.Everyone carried me who was already coughing up blood in bed to Gu Qi. Although I was delirious, I heard Gu Qi sigh heavily. "Let me down, you guys are going to kill me anyway, let me help him renew his life." Some people objected to his words, and some agreed. Finally, everyone saw that I started coughing up blood again, so they sent me and Gu Qi to the prison. room, and many people surrounded it outside. This is the first time I have had close contact with him, and I suddenly feel that he is actually very gentle to people. "Master told me that there will be such a day sooner or later, but it doesn't matter, it's enough to be proud in life." His voice was very deep, like the sound of a wooden barrel being thrown into a deep well, but it was full of pride that would not admit defeat . "I warned you not to touch the river, and it's my fault. No one pays attention to it. Forget it, maybe this is all arranged." Gu Qi's voice suddenly changed, with a bleak tone.I smiled wryly as a response to him.I struggled to prop myself up on my elbows, because even now I wanted to see how he managed to steal his life. Through the dim light, I saw Gu Qi take out two silver wine glasses, fill them with rice wine, and draw out the pair of chopsticks, which were placed on the wine glasses.He then took out a handful of glutinous rice and walked towards me. "Don't peek, or you will damage your eyes, remember!" Gu Qi said to me seriously.I obediently closed my eyes.I felt him covering my palm with glutinous rice, and then my palm tingled.I didn't listen to him and opened my eyes. Just for a moment, but I saw it. Gu Qi held a long and thin spike-like thing in his hand, which seemed to have blood stains on it, and then he dipped the long needle-like object into two wine glasses.Then he sprinkled another handful of glutinous rice on the chopsticks that were placed flat on the wine glass. Then my eyes went black, there was no pain, but I could no longer see.Then, I lost consciousness. When I wake up, send yourself healed, but blind.But I'm very lucky, after all, I got my name back. I was about to thank Gu Qi, but everyone stopped me. Everyone told me that they burned Gu Qi to death. I was shocked and asked why, but no one was willing to tell me.Later I asked the person in charge of the execution, and they said that Gu Qi's body burned very quickly, like dry firewood poured with shochu.After the fire was extinguished, high winds picked up and his ashes, mixed with sawdust, were blown into the river. Afterwards, those who drank the river water were all fine, and the village seemed to have regained its former tranquility, and those noble people disappeared, and they no longer came to this village. Originally, they came here for Gu Qi. I also became the only person of that generation who still stayed in the village. Although many people asked me about the life-stealing, I didn't tell them. "The old man suddenly touched my hand, very sad. I suddenly felt strange. "Then why did you tell me about this stranger?" I asked the old man.He smiled wryly. "Because if I don't say anything else, I'm going to take it into the coffin. It's better to tell you this outsider than to tell the people in this village, so that they can completely forget about that crazy thing. Forget about Gu Qi." After he finished speaking, he waved to me. He waved his hand, beckoning me to go. I left the village, looked back, the village was blowing again, the blind old man was sitting on the bamboo stool lonely, looking at the entrance of the village sadly. Although he can't see anything. When I left the village, I also looked at the river mentioned by the old man. It was very clear, and I drank it with my hand. It was very cold, but it had a slightly bitter taste. After Ji Yan finished speaking, a doctor came in at the door. "The one you mentioned seems to be a bacterium. Japan has released a lot of cholera, dengue fever and other bacteria in the rural areas and base areas of China." The young doctor explained. "But since you can say that you are so energetic, it seems that you are almost fine, and you are ready to go through the discharge procedures." He observed Ji Yan for a while, and walked out with his pockets in his pocket. Ji Yan smiled helplessly, Li Duo and Luo Lei also stood up. Is there really a continuation of life, I really want to ask Ji Yan, but maybe he doesn’t know, no one knows where Gu Qi learned it from, this secret is gone with his ashes.