Chapter 13 Chapter Thirteen Waiting For Someone

At that time, I was still very young, but since the Temple of the General, I have been in poor health. I had to go to the hospital every three days, but it didn't work.In the winter of that year, I got whooping cough, and the old people said that if the child continued to cough like this, he would be useless in the future.The IV was also suspended, and the injection was also given, but nothing improved. Later, my mother used home-made methods, such as loquat leaf stewed water and Houttuynia cordata stewed water, I drank them all. Anyway, what others said was useful, my mother tried to find a way to make them for me.

At that time, my grandfather was still there, and I didn’t know where to make an earthen recipe, saying that I had to eat the gall of sparrows.There is a saying, everyone knows-although a sparrow is small, it has all internal organs! This sparrow is really only a little bit big. At that time, my father went to catch the sparrow, and then made the guts inside for me to eat.I really ate a lot of weird things like this.The major hospitals are all year-round patients, and the doctors can't do anything about me. I cooperate with everything from taking medicine and injections. Anyway, no one can look good, either cough or fever.

At that time, my grandma was also anxious and wondered if it was time to find someone to take a look.At that time, Zha Wenbin and the others had already returned from Kunlun. During those six months, his door was almost closed. He locked himself in the room all day and didn't know what to do. Except for some special people who could go in occasionally, who else? I can't find them.Because there was a big man who was as fierce as a door god blocking the door of his house.I heard from people in their village that this killing god has a big dragon-shaped scar on his chest, which cannot be offended.

My father went there in person and was rejected twice, but then got anxious, and my mother took me to his house in person. My grandma is a rural woman with such a loud voice that half the village can hear her yelling.She stood at Zha Wenbin's door and shouted Zha Wenbin's name at the top of her voice. Only then did Zha Wenbin hear it, and when she came out, she saw that it was us, and quickly got someone to take her into the room. When my mother told him about my situation, he first criticized Dashan severely, and then quickly took me into a room inside. The room is lit with sandalwood, and there is a portrait of Sanqing hanging on the wall inside. There is a shrine in front, and there are some offerings and incense candles on the shrine, and two futons are placed on the ground.There is a little Eight Immortals table and a stool in the middle. On the table are messy thread-bound books, pens, inks, papers and inkstones. On the wall is my most greedy Seven Star Sword. Boys love to dance swords when they were young. Make a sword.

What makes me even more amusing is that there is a small goldfish bowl on the upper right corner of the table. This thing was a rare item at the time. It was made of jade. back. I was still very young and not tall enough, so when Zha Wenbin went to offer incense to Sanqing, I climbed up on his stool and saw that the fish tank was not filled with expensive fish. It's a golden tadpole.I thought it was fun, so I poked it with my finger. The guy was so clever that he couldn't hit it no matter what, so I just pinched it with my hand. "Xiao Yi, what are you doing? Hurry up and take out your hands!" Zha Wenbin's stern voice came from behind, I was so frightened that I almost slapped the Ming Dynasty jade fish tank to the ground in my panic.

Perhaps in my impression, the chances of Cha Wenbin getting angry are very rare, especially to me, but that time, I saw his stern gaze, and I had to lower my head, waiting to be criticized. Unexpectedly, after seeing the tadpoles in the vat, Cha Wenbin didn't blame me too much, but asked me to kneel on the futon first, and offer incense to the Sanqing on the wall. At that time, I collectively referred to these kinds of portraits as "Bodhisattvas", so I asked, "Who is this Bodhisattva?" Cha Wenbin patted my head and said with a smile: "This is not a Bodhisattva, this is the Patriarch of the Sanqing in the sky. You should pay your respects quickly."

I followed Zha Wenbin's wishes, and after kowtowing, Zha Wenbin inserted the incense in my hand, then carried me to the small stool and asked me: "Recently, have you been anywhere to play around?" ?” I shook my head. In fact, I have been very naughty since I was a child. The more adults forbid me to go, the more I like to go, such as hide and seek on the cemetery, dig bird nests in the willow forest, cover my head with a plastic bag on rainy days, etc. .I know that if I say any of these things, I will be beaten when I go back, so I refuse to say anything. Cha Wenbin still looked at me and said with a smile: "Speak, I promise not to tell your mother."

If there is any place to go for fun, the only place is the old ancestral hall at the entrance of the village.Before the founding of New China, this ancestral hall belonged to the family of a big landlord in our area. After the founding of New China, it became the collective property of the village. Some down-and-out households used to make do with it for a while, but without exception, a few lived there. After night, I would rather sleep on the road than go there to take shelter from the wind and rain, because they say it is haunted. The ancestral hall was not far from the elementary school where I was studying, only 500 meters away. At that time, I hadn't studied yet, but my cousins ​​often took me to play around the school, and there was the old ancestral hall among them.

Children's curiosity is natural, and I don't know where they heard about the haunted place, so it became a holy place for exploration in the eyes of their group of guys, and I naturally followed. On Sundays, we often go there to play. In fact, a group of children scare themselves in the ancestral hall.For example, older children led us into an open room, then acted cautiously, and then suddenly yelled: "Oh my god, there is a ghost, run away!" They broke up, screaming, as if they had seen a ghost, and because I was the youngest, I was often the last one to run out. In fact, it was such a seemingly boring game. In that era, we never got tired of playing it.

But some of the doors were locked with the old bolted brass locks, and the doors were also tightly closed, and the windows were covered with old newspapers that had been seriously yellowed many years ago, layer after layer. It is such a big ancestral hall, we have all been able to enter it, and the straw scattered on the ground proves that it used to be a farmer's warehouse, and now it is a paradise for mice and our paradise. The buildings in the ancestral hall have the obvious color of the Qing Dynasty. The doors and windows are very elegantly carved. Many of the small black tiles were smashed with stones by troublemakers like us. Through this desolation, we can still see the What a beauty the owner of the ancestral hall is.

And I did see some unusual things in that ancestral hall, so I explained this to Cha Wenbin... The wild children in the countryside don't have much entertainment. Rivers, rice fields, hillsides and those abandoned houses are the places where we can have fun most. Some people may say, why do these strange things always appear in the countryside?That's because the city has a large population and strong yang energy.The city is brightly lit at night, as if it were daytime. Except for some special places, such as hospitals, cemeteries, and crematoria, those dirty things can't stay in other places. The rural area is completely opposite, the population distribution is scattered, there are a few families in the east and a few families in the west, this popularity cannot be gathered, and it is easy for those things to survive here.People in the village usually go to bed immediately after watching two episodes of TV series at night, because they have to go to the fields to do farm work the next day, so most adults do not let their children go out at night, and some timid women obediently shut the courtyard early Door. My dad had a shotgun at that time. He said it was a shotgun, but it was actually a soil gun. It was filled with black powder and fired steel balls. Except that the accuracy was not very high, it could be as small as a hare or as big as a wild boar. So when I was a child, I really liked these wild game I ate a lot. Abba's favorite hunting object is the yellow muntjac. This is a relatively small deer. The male has a pair of horns on his head. The big one weighs about 20 jin. It tastes very delicious.But this thing has a characteristic, that is, it is timid and very delicate. It will never appear in places where people are active. It has a very sensitive sense of smell, so it is very difficult to hit. At that time, there were many hunters in the village. People from the mountains, eight out of ten families had guns. Everyone knew that there was a place where there was a yellow deer, but no one shot it. That place was behind the ancestral hall. On the hillside. Why not fight?Because everyone said that this is a fine yellow deer, and the yellow deer seldom barks, because when it barks, it exposes its position, and it is easy for hunters with dogs to track it down.This yellow deer seldom calls, but when it calls, something will happen in the village. What happened?dead! It's really very effective.As soon as there is a yellow deer on that hillside, in a few days, someone in the village will have to hold a funeral, so often when the yellow deer on the hilltop calls, some elderly people in the village will never go out, for fear that the next one will die. It is oneself. Although some people also want to destroy it, but there is really no one who dares to do it. Which woman would like her man to mess with such an evil thing for a meal of yellow deer meat. That year, because my father wanted to return favors from others, he thought about giving him a yellow deer, but he couldn't find one after searching for a long time. It happened that the yellow deer on the hillside barked again. Confused, he stuffed an extra gunpowder into the gun.The gunpowder in our place is counted by sticks, that is, a small bamboo tube is used to measure the amount of gunpowder. One tube is a tube, which can basically be used to shoot pheasants and hares; Usually used to fight wild boars. Dad used three sticks of gunpowder that day, pressed it firmly with cloth strips, and went there. Not long after going up the mountain, he really saw that the eyes of this beast would reflect light under the headlight at night.Hunters usually see two red eyeballs, which they call "fire".Dad saw two fires in the bushes behind the ancestral hall from a long distance away, and he touched them quietly with some excitement. In order to hit the gun accurately, it must be close. The accuracy of this thing is really beyond praise, and the basic effective range is best controlled within 30 meters. Strange to say, this yellow deer, which has always been known for its shrewdness and timidity, just stood there grazing like a wooden stake today, without noticing Dad's arrival at all.When Dad was about 20 meters away from the muntjac, Dad raised the gun, took aim, and pulled the trigger. After a slight "pop", Dad knew it was a misfire. The firing principle of this earthen gun is somewhat different from that of modern guns. It relies on the most primitive firing pin to fire a fuse, and then the fuse triggers the black powder in the chamber, and then the projectile is thrown out by the power of the black powder. The problem lies in this lead wire. This thing is basically made by hand. The mixture of sulfur and nitrate is put in a small iron sheet and pressed firmly to dry it. When the firing pin slams into the iron sheet, it will emit sparks and detonate. Gunpowder in the chamber.If this thing doesn't detonate, there will be a misfire. Seeing that the yellow deer was still there, Dad replaced it with a new lead wire. Aim, fire, "snap", and misfire again.Dad was a little anxious, so he changed it quickly, but until the dozen or so lead wires he was carrying were all tied, none of them caught. On the other hand, the yellow muntjac just didn't go away, just wandering in front of you, he hurried down the mountain quietly, ready to go home to get a new lead wire, and happened to meet a neighbor of mine on the side of the road when he came down. "What are you doing?" the neighbor asked my dad. My father said truthfully: "There is a muntjac on the mountain, and it has been shot for a dozen times, but none of them has fired. I'm not going back to get the lead wire." The man opened his mouth wide when he heard this, thinking that my dad is crazy, everyone in this place knows that they can't be beaten, so he said: "Didn't you say that this is a fine muntjac, so you can't beat it? " My dad has a good face, and when people say that, he won't leave, afraid that people will laugh at him for being timid, so he said: "Joke, I have eight if not ten deer. When will this thing come out?" It can also become refined, so go to my house to eat meat tomorrow." This neighbor is a greedy guy, when he heard that there was game to eat, he immediately said: "Well, you wait on the mountain, don't let it run away, I'll go back and ask Xiao Yi's mother to bring you a wire." My dad thought it was reasonable, so he went up to guard the deer again, and saw that this guy was still where he was, so he didn't pass by. Soon, my mother received the news. She was worried about leaving me alone at home in the middle of the night, so she found a box of lead wires, hugged me and went together with a flashlight. The hillside behind the ancestral hall is not very easy to walk, full of thorns, it is more and more inconvenient to take me.My mother explained to me, let me wait for her by the side of the road, and she will come down after she goes up to deliver something. At that time, there were no street lights on both sides of the road, and there was no one within 400 meters of this place. I was also good, so I squatted on the ground and watched my mother go up. I was standing at the gate of the ancestral hall. I don’t know which year someone took the gate home and burned it for firewood. I am familiar with this area. The moonlight was also bright that night, making the earth snow-white. Almost like daytime. My mother went up for a while, but didn't come down. In fact, I heard that even my mother was sweating from fright that night, because the re-brought lead wire didn't hit a single one, and it was like seeing a ghost. It seemed that the yellow deer just stuck there, and my dad almost shot it on the forehead with a gun, but the gun just wouldn't fire. This old ancestral hall is like a playground for me. Seeing that my mother didn't come down, I went in. Why?Because when we were playing marbles here a while ago, we lost several marbles and couldn't find them. I thought about going in and looking for them. At that time, I could only buy three marbles for ten cents. It's a treasure. After searching around, there was still no clue, and my mother didn't come down, so I simply played with myself.He took out two marbles from his pocket, and played them in the huge yard, talking to himself while playing, children like to entertain themselves like that. I threw one of the marbles vigorously, and Gululu got in through one of the closed doors. This is my baby, how can I be willing? This door is in the west wing. The door is tightly closed and locked on the top. There is a gap about two fingers wide below, through which the marbles rolled in. After pushing hard a few times, the door didn't budge, so I kicked it with my foot.A child's strength is too limited, and it is useless except to shake off some dust. I was a little out of breath, so I found a few fist-sized stones in the yard and smashed the window. The window is also made of wood. Although the wood is also high-quality, it has been in disrepair for a long time. After three stones passed, I really smashed a hole the size of a leather ball. I really wanted to know where my marbles were, so I found some broken boards in the yard to put up on them, and then I climbed up and tiptoed to look in through the hole. It was so dark inside that I couldn't see anything. When I was about to give up, I heard the laughter of a child inside. I thought to myself, someone must have taken my marbles inside, not only refused to return them to me, but actually locked the door, so I said in a childish voice: "Who stole my marbles?" Obviously, there will be no one here at all, because the lock is locked outside, so naturally no one will answer my question. But my ears clearly heard a child laughing happily inside, and there were one or two women's sneers, and more importantly, I heard the sound of my glass marbles rolling on the ground. I thought I was being bullied, and my precious marbles were taken away, so I cried and cursed on the spot: "You thieves, shameless, you stole my things, I want to tell my dad!" While crying, I walked outside the ancestral hall. Before I went outside, I heard a "bang" gunshot on the hillside above, and I immediately trembled in my heart: "Let you steal my things, my dad has a gun in his hand!" After a while, the two of them went down the mountain. They didn't carry the prey in their hands, but Dad looked depressed and kept repeating to my mother: "It's a hell tonight, it's a hell..." Dad's marksmanship is not very good, but he rarely hits empty-handed at a distance of 30 meters, and this time he still couldn't hit after finishing the lead wire brought by my mother. People would be very anxious in such a situation, and he was no exception. In his panic, his muzzle almost touched the top of the prey's head. It was at this distance that he struck a match. . I ignited the black powder in the barrel with a match as a fuse, and with a "bang", with the huge impact, the father who was holding the gun in one hand was immediately numb from the shock. It fell to the ground, and no one could stand still. Even so, he felt that his bullet had hit the prey, but the reality was cruel. At this distance, he fired an empty gun. The black powder filled the air with a pungent smell of gunpowder and vast smoke. When the smoke cleared, there was not even a hair on the ground, and Dad's back was soaked. Seeing me crying when I went down the hill, my mother quickly picked me up. She thought I was scared to cry by the dark environment. In fact, I was not afraid of the dark since I was a child. She hugged me tightly and wrapped me in a coat My body convulsed from crying.When I was a child, I had severe asthma. When I cried, I couldn't breathe, and I had to pat my back hard. I wanted to say something, but my throat was blocked, and I could only utter two words with difficulty: "Marbles." Of course they wouldn't think what would happen if a child's plaything was lost. At worst, it was just a child's unique sadness and sadness. At that time, their hearts were much more uncomfortable than mine.My mother just patted my back and walked back without saying a word. When I got home, maybe I was tired, but I just fell asleep on my mother's shoulder like that. "Little brother, can I play marbles with you?" I heard a little girl's voice, I opened my eyes in a daze, and found myself in that ancestral hall, the door that was usually locked It's on right now.A little girl wearing a red bellyband and a bow made of crepe paper stood in front of me. She held two marbles in her hand, and I recognized them as mine at a glance. I was a little angry, and seeing my things in her hands, I shouted: "You thief, give me back my things!" "I... I'm not a thief, I picked it up." The little girl argued anxiously, and a touch of red began to appear on her originally white face. Seeing that she didn't admit it, I went up to grab it, and I still said: "You are a thief, only I have this kind of marbles, where did you pick them up, shameless, you won't admit to stealing my things!" The little girl blushed and stared blankly at me. I grabbed the two marbles that belonged to me from her little hand without any politeness, and then walked down the steps quickly. I found an open space and continued to play with my marbles. Soon, the fun of marbles made me forget the little girl crying at the door, and I only had marbles and self-entertainment in my eyes. Suddenly, a dark blue cheongsam floated in front of me. I looked up and saw that it was a beautiful aunt.If there is a reason why I can remember her appearance at a glance, I am afraid that apart from her delicate face, what is more important is that there is a faint purple mark around her thin white neck. "Yu'er said she wanted to play with you, can you play with her for a while?" A faint voice came out of her mouth. "Who is Yu'er?" I put away the marbles and asked back. She pointed to the crying little girl and said, "Yu'er, come here and play with this little brother." The little girl wearing only a red belly walked over step by step, as if she was afraid that I would not agree, and kept tugging at the corner of her clothes. When I was young, I didn't like to have a role like a little sister, but the beautiful aunt spread her palms and said, "This is for you." I saw a novelty in her hand, a paper made of paper. This little doll is a bit like the kind of paper dolls we make now, made of red and blue white paper, and the pale face is dyed red with rouge. I have seen this kind of thing at the funeral of some old people in the village. For me at that age, everything is curious, and this kind of thing can only vaguely know that adults will not let me play. The more you play, the more curious you will feel. In this way, I took over the paper doll and became good friends with the little girl named Yu'er. Children are always particularly tired.Whenever I was tired from playing, I would fall asleep, and when I woke up, I would find myself on the bed at home. At that time, I had no idea about dreams. After I fell asleep more and more, I entered the ancestral hall, and Yu'er became a good little friend of me who lacked playmates in childhood. Yu'er is very beautiful, very much like her mother, but every time we play in the yard, I still don't know the world behind the unlocked door. That beautiful aunt is Yu'er's mother, and sometimes I can hear her sobbing from inside the room, and sometimes I can see her leaning on the threshold, with her chin propped on her hands, A sad look.Only when Yu'er was having fun, would she show a faint smile. The cheongsam with the typical atmosphere of the Republic of China perfectly set off her figure, and the butterfly button on the top was always fastened tightly. Occasionally, inadvertently, the circle of purple would still be exposed around the neck. Once, Yu'er was very happy, she said she would dance for me, and that time, the only time, I entered that door. That was Yu'er's "home". There was a hemp rope hanging from the beam in that "home". Under the hemp rope was a large unpainted coffin, which was covered. I am no stranger to this thing, and I am not even afraid, because in the era when cremation was not popular in the countryside, the most important thing for an elderly person at home was to prepare a coffin for himself.The wood and the thickness of the wood are the most important. Usually, when the person is still alive, the coffin is not painted. Only when the person is critically ill will the craftsman be called to paint. So this kind of unpainted white leather coffin is found in almost every household in the countryside. It is not surprising. In my eyes, it is the same as an ordinary piece of furniture.This thing often became our hide-and-seek hiding place when we were young, and even lay down to sleep when we were tired from playing. Yu'er climbed onto the white coffin so deftly, and then started her dance performance on top of the coffin.I vaguely remember that her movements were very weird, not the kind of dance we often see. She kept repeating a movement, that is, holding hollow fists with both hands, and then she put it on her neck as if holding something, and then Just rolled his eyes up and stuck his tongue out. I was amused by her funny dance, but I didn't expect that Yu'er's mother had already appeared in the southwest corner of the room. She scolded Yu'er severely, and Yu'er pouted aggrievedly and said: "I'm just imitating my mother." Seeing that the situation was not good, I hurried out with Yu'er.Yu'er secretly told me that her mother told her not to bring me into that room again. It was also from that day that I started to have a low-grade fever, and the cough also started from that time. My mother also found it strange, because no matter how badly I coughed during the day, at night, I would not cough when I fell asleep. Even the fever would subside, and the cough would continue when I woke up. Day after day of seeking medical advice during the day and being normal at night finally made my mother almost collapse. The doctor could only prescribe some conventional medicines for examination, but they never worked. Cha Wenbin asked me: "Xiao Yi, do you still play with that little girl named Yu'er?" I shook my head and said, "No, since Yu'er was scolded by her mother that day, I have never seen her again." I just looked at the little golden tadpole, it looked very cute. "Xiao Yi, come here." At some point, Zha Wenbin got something extra in his hand: a small figure made of paper, similar to the one Yu'er and her mother gave me, but this one is uglier. To be honest, Zha Wenbin is obviously not good at making paper men. I am not interested in the thing in his hand, but he asked me to take it and hide it on my body. That night, Cha Wenbin went back to my house with us, and when I fell asleep, I saw Yu'er again. Yu'er's clothes seem to have never been changed for ten thousand years, she is still the same set, she also seems to never know the cold, two small arms like lotus roots are exposed outside, Yu'er is very happy for my arrival, she pulls my hand The clothes kept calling "brother". On the contrary, Yu'er's mother was a little surprised that I came, she only glanced at me in front of the door, and then returned to the room again. There was a slight sound of footsteps in the yard, which was the sound of friction between cloth shoes and straw, light and steady. I looked back and saw that it was Cha Wenbin who was just smiling at us not far away, no, to be precise, he was smiling at Yuer. Yu'er seemed a little cautious about this stranger's visit. She hid behind my back in a daze, and occasionally showed her small face to glance at Zha Wenbin. "Are you Yu'er?" Cha Wenbin asked with a smile, hands behind his back. Yu'er was less courageous than I thought, she didn't answer, but I answered for her: "Yes, Uncle Wen Bin, she is the Yu'er I told you about." At this time, Zha Wenbin came here wearing ordinary clothes. He didn't bring the Seven-Star Sword that made me most coveted, nor did he carry the dilapidated Qiankun bag, just a very ordinary appearance. Zha Wenbin came over, and he reached out to touch Yu'er's head, but Yu'er kept avoiding him.In the end, his other crooked hand took out something from behind and handed it to Yu'er. It was a girl doll made of paper, which was prettier than mine. "Take it and play." Cha Wenbin stuffed the paper doll into Yu'er's little hand. Taking this opportunity, he finally touched Yu'er's little head, and then said to me with a smile, "Xiao Yi, take her Go over there and play." What he said was the east side of the ancestral hall. Yu'er seems to like this gift very much. Her mother once gave me a boy doll, but I couldn't find it afterwards.I took out the paper doll Zha Wenbin gave me and Yu'er's and made a pair. The two soon entered the game they would play in childhood: play house. Cha Wenbin strolled in this ancestral hall with his hands behind his back, and soon his eyes stopped on the open door, and he stood outside the door, neither going in nor moving, just watching quietly. A graceful woman stood in front of the door with a hint of sadness. She looked up and down at this stranger. Also, no one has been here for many years. how come…… She sighed, originally she had planned to let the little boy who played with Yu'er go, but today came again, she knew that if this continues, this little boy will die soon. "Why don't you leave?" Zha Wenbin asked coldly, the smile on Yu'er was completely gone. How could that woman not understand what he was talking about, but she didn't know that the person in front of her only needed to move her hands, and she would be blown away. "Wait for someone." She wailed. Zha Wenbin is now different from the past. Although the "Ruyi Book" is still far from being able to penetrate, his Taoism is far superior to the past.With a flick of the finger, a piece of talisman has jumped out of the fingertips, and it will fly to the coffin in the house at any time: "If it weren't for the fact that you put away the doll, I am afraid that you two have no chance to stand here now." , since you know that humans and ghosts have different paths, why should you be obsessed with it?" "I..." The woman knew that she had made a mistake, and she didn't dare to argue anymore.She gave me that paper doll so that I could be Yu'er's playmate, but how can people in the underworld take things from the underworld?After a long time, Yin Qi invades the human body, even if you don't get sick, you may suffer disaster. "I think Yu'er is so pitiful. She wants to have playmates. Every time she sees other children playing in this compound, she can only hide behind this window and watch secretly. She is innocent, please hold your hand high, sir." " After the woman finished speaking, she knelt down to Cha Wenbin. Zha Wenbin is not an unreasonable person. Although he is a Taoist priest, he will inevitably deal with these things, but there is one thing that people who learn Taoism are most taboo, that is, ghosts in the underworld must not have anything to do with people in the underworld. . Throughout the ages, many relationships between people and ghosts have failed to end well because of a separation: yin and yang! Cha Wenbin sighed and said: "Tomorrow evening, I will send you mother and daughter on the road, and find a good family in the next life." After finishing speaking, Cha Wenbin turned back and prepared to take me away. Unexpectedly, the woman sobbed and said: "Mr. Please let me survive on my own. If he doesn't come, I won't leave. I have been waiting for him for sixty years. He said he would come and take me away." There are infatuated people, and naturally there are infatuated ghosts. The existence of ghosts is because of a kind of obsession. If you don't let go, you will not be reincarnated.Resentment comes from the heart, and so does love. Cha Wenbin turned his back to the woman, and what he saw was the little girl named Yu'er playing wildly with me, and said: "Don't you want this poor child to walk in this world with dignity? ?” Under the moonlight, two children, a boy and a girl, were playing house on the ground. The shadow of the boy was stretched out, and behind the girl was only the snow-white earth illuminated by the moon. Cha Wenbin got up and picked me up, then gave the paper doll in my hand to Yu'er, touched her head and said: "Tomorrow, you will have more friends to play with. Xiao Yi, we are leaving." When Cha Wenbin stepped out of the ancestral hall, he paused and asked, "Who is he?" "His name is Chen Fang, and he is a servant of my family." The woman's voice was still choked with sobs. The next day, when I woke up, Cha Wenbin had already gone out with my dad, and the paper figure I hid beside the bed was gone. It's worse than before. Abba took Cha Wenbin to a dilapidated house at the head of the village.This house is really dilapidated, an adobe house with slate tiles on it, and it usually rains heavily outside and lightly rains inside.There lived an old man in this house who seldom went out, and I only saw it a few times. In the eyes of us children, this old man seemed to be a lunatic.He is dirty and has a lot of lice on his body. Even if he goes out to buy something occasionally, our children will avoid him when we meet, for fear that the legendary lice on his body will jump on us. Abba told Cha Wenbin that the old man was eighty-five years old. He was a "five-guarantee" household in the village. .It is said that he is one of the few old people in this village who has seen the world.When my dad was young, he would come to chat with grandpa. It is said that the old man was arrested by the Kuomintang when he was young and became a strong man. It was not until the founding of New China that he returned to the village by begging along the road, and he has been living in that house ever since. During the "Cultural Revolution", he was convicted of two major crimes: being a spy left behind by the Kuomintang reactionaries and seducing the daughter of a big landlord.In short, at that time, these two crimes almost killed him.Later, after the exercise ended, he seldom went out, and even when he went out, he would not talk to people. The village would send people to check on the situation during the Chinese New Year. The small courtyard was really dilapidated, even desolate. If it wasn't for his father's company, Cha Wenbin would definitely think it was a long-abandoned house. Pushing open the half-hidden door, an unpleasant musty smell came to his nostrils. Cha Wenbin frowned and wanted to fumble for the light switch, but his father said, "Don't look for it, almost no one sees this house." When it’s bright.” As he spoke, he turned on the flashlight, which allowed people to see the whole picture of the room more or less clearly. The ground was potholed, and the beams of the house were covered with cobwebs.The main room was very empty, without any decorations, only a dilapidated Taishi chair, but it was also covered with a thick layer of dust. There is a pair of old-fashioned photo frames hanging on the innermost wall of the main room. There is a man and a woman in each photo frame, which are sketches drawn with pencils. Needless to say, this is a portrait. In the past when photography was still a luxury, most of the portraits were drawn with pencils by someone who could sketch. After the parents died, they were hung in the main room of their own house. This is also a kind of respect for the deceased. This family is really down and out, because Cha Wenbin did not see a shrine where incense can be offered, but there are two small broken bowls on the ground, and there are traces of candles on the bowls, which are made up by spider webs. It's been a long time since anyone came here to offer incense. At this time, there was a violent coughing sound in the room, and Abba whispered, "That should be the person you are looking for." Cha Wenbin pushed open the door, and the inside of the room was even worse than he had imagined. A door panel was placed on two long benches to form a bed. There was a person curled up in the blackened torn cotton on the bed. Coughing and shaking, this person is Chen Fang! Cha Wenbin looked around and found that there was an electric light in the house. He successfully found the switch controlled by a string, and with a "click", the light turned on. “呜……”床上的老人喉咙里似乎在发出惊恐的声音。 他们两人赶紧过去一看，这破棉絮上，到处都是斑斑血迹，老人的嘴角还残留着尚未凝固的鲜血。 虽然已是风烛残年，但查文斌依旧可以辨认出这位老人年轻时的风采。他抓起老人颤抖的双手，搭了下脉，过了一会儿便对我阿爸摇摇头道：“已经不行了。” 床上的老人挣扎着爬起来，查文斌帮着扶着一把问道：“您是陈放吗？” 老人有些艰难地点点头。 “可还记得村口的祠堂里有个人在等你。” 老人的眼睛顿时瞪得老大，一行浊泪划过苍老的皱纹。 陈放老人当时的情况已经不允许他说很多的话了，总之他还是说出了那个压在心头好久的秘密。 这是一个很俗却又很感人的故事。 他十六岁的时候，便去了我们村当时的地主老爷家里做了长工。陈放年轻的时候长得俊，为人又踏实，深得东家欢喜。 这位地主老爷家里有一个千金，名叫小蝶，比陈放小两岁。 这长工和小姐在当时完全是差了十万八千里的两个角色，何况这小蝶不仅是老爷的掌上明珠，更是标准的美人坯子。小蝶自幼饱读诗书，在乡间百里之内，那也是首屈一指的大家闺秀。 总之这两个相隔甚远，却又在同一座院子里生活的年轻人相爱了。 从一开始，这也便是一段悲剧，在那个讲究门当户对的年代，陈放是没有任何资格可以高攀这位金枝的。 于是，在中国的爱情里出现最多，也是最悲剧的那个词汇同样在他们身上出现了：私奔！ 私奔是一件成功率极低的事情，特别是在我们那个交通不便的地方，到处都是大山，能够走出的只有一条道，带着一位娇生惯养的小姐，陈放哪里能跑得快。 大批的家丁抓住哭得撕心裂肺的小蝶和瑟瑟发抖的陈放回了村子。为了颜面，老爷下令择日处死陈放。 说到底，这位小姐当真是个有情人，她用自己的首饰买通了看守的家丁，临行前遍体鳞伤的陈放答应这位哭成泪人的小姐，他日一定会将她明媒正娶！ 后来，陈放趁着夜色，逃到了外面的大世界，又阴差阳错地成了壮丁。这一隔便是多年之后再回村了，他看到的是被轰轰烈烈的革命运动推倒的地主阶级。人们告诉他，那位小姐早在几年前便过世了，从此陈放便心灰意冷地回到父母留给他的那个半边土坯房里独自苟活。 只是他从来不知道那位小姐是为何而死。 陈放走后不久，小蝶便发现自己怀了孕，这在那个年代是无法想象的事情。生病可以扛着，但是怀孕确是无法隐瞒的，肚子会一天比一天大。 出了这事后，这位地主老爷还曾经想把小蝶嫁给村中的一个富户，但小蝶誓死不从，老爷也只能软磨硬泡，可最终还是知道了原来自己女儿的肚中已有了那陈放的骨肉。 这对于老爷来说绝对是一个奇耻大辱，小蝶又不肯拿掉孩子，老爷为了掩人耳目，便寻了村中一光棍，准备将小蝶许配给他，以遮家中之丑。 小蝶哪里肯嫁人，老爷准备强行送人，却不料那小蝶生性极为刚烈，索性一根绳索吊死在了西边厢房里，最终落了个一尸两命。 为了不让这段丑闻泄露，老爷连夜把自己闺女放进了那口为自己准备的白皮棺材里，准备找个时间偷偷地葬了，过些日子再对外随便寻个理由，就说女儿远嫁他方。 可不巧的是，第二天，就有游击队打了过来，我们村顺利地被解放了。在家里的一干家丁被游击队打完之后，地主老爷带着剩余的家眷也不知最后去了哪里。在那个战乱的年代，活着才是最根本的。 后来，这座经过战火洗礼的老宅子，就成了人民的共同财产。刚开始的时候，村里也分配了几户人家进去住，所有的门都是打开的，唯独西边那厢房上挂着一把大铜锁。 有好事的人，砸了那锁，却见里头放了一口白皮大棺材，里面传来难闻的尸臭。棺材板板却已经被钉得死死的。 大伙儿也不知道这里头躺的到底是谁，便寻思着要不找个时间给埋了。 这人要铁了心不想走，就是死了，你也动不得。 棺材被抬起来的第一次，绳子就崩断了，压下来的棺材把村里一人的脚背给砸成了重伤。 棺材第二次要被抬起来的时候，那房间里突然冲进了一大群蝴蝶，翅膀上扇起的粉末一时间让所有人都迷住了眼睛，有几个差点因此永远失明。 再加上，住在里头的那几户人家夜夜都能听见西边那厢房里传来女子的啼哭声和孩子的哇哇声，于是也就没人敢在这儿继续住下去了。 搬离了这老宅子之后，村里倒也动过这块风水宝地的主意，想把它改造成办公地点，一来这宅子当年确实修得阔气，二来这地段那也是一等一的好啊。 但那一辈的人，或多或少都听过这宅子闹鬼的事，特别是那口白皮大棺材，于是村里的人也请了会做法事的人来了这儿。 那位做法事的人，陈放老人说出他的名字倒也让查文斌着实吓了一跳，叫马肃风，也就是查文斌的师父。 这位清风道人当年可不是整日醉醺醺的，据说跟现在的查文斌有几分相似，那是一派仙风道骨的模样。 那道士来了之后，点香查看，然后便告诉村里的人，这宅子最好这几年不住人，里面还有没走的客，若硬要撵人走不是不行，只是怕住进去以后也不会太平。所以最好的办法便是重新锁上那西厢房，等到哪一天门锁自动脱落之时，就是这宅子彻底干净之时。 查文斌听到这儿，倒是明白了七八分，师父这么做并非是收拾不干净，而是做道士有时候也得讲点情面。人有情，鬼又何尝不是，如此痴情之人，他又哪里下得去手？ 后来这宅子便一再荒废，最多也就是堆些稻草之类的无用物。时间久了，知道这宅子故事的人也就越来越少了。 陈放知道的只有这么多，他也从村里的传闻里听到过那个以前东家的宅子里闹鬼的事儿，只是他何曾想过那个鬼就是一直在苦等自己的小蝶？ 并不是他忘记了当初的约定，只是等他回来的时候，那座宅子里已经空无一人。得到的消息也是东家早已带着家眷远走他方，他知道老爷最疼的便是小蝶，心想着肯定也一起带走了，为此他还专门出去寻过，只是所有的消息都石沉大海了。 于是，回到村里的陈放，一心一意守着那座破房子，他想小蝶是不是会再寻回来，所以为了不让她寻错，他一辈子都没有再敢离开这个村子半步。 小蝶呢？她又何尝不是如此，她并不是存心阻挠，而是她怕别人占了这屋子，陈放便再也找不回来了。于是她就守着这厢房，一守便是几十年，连同那当初那还未出世的女儿一起等着那个男人。几十年如一日，她的鬼魂又何曾迈出过这间大宅半步，若不是为了雨儿，她只怕是连那厢房都不会走出。 可惜啊，两个相互等待了一辈子的人，近在咫尺，却无法相见。最近的距离，有的时候却也是最远的距离，天意就是如此，陈放曾经无数次路过那个村口的祠堂，但是他都收住了踏进去的脚步，小蝶又有多少个夜晚倚在门框上独自哭泣。 一条忘川河，阴阳两相隔，一等便是大半辈子。 等到查文斌说出那口白皮棺材里躺着的正是小蝶之时，陈放再也忍不住，号啕大哭出来，他的哭声是那样让人心碎。 她给他们的女儿取名叫雨儿，那是因为陈放逃出去的那一晚，下起了瓢泼大雨，这是小蝶对陈放的思念。 陈放一直到死都抓着查文斌的手，他恳求这位后生能够带自己再次踏进那座大门。 当阿爸找了村里的人们用门板抬着这位奄奄一息的老人到达那祠堂的大门口之时，他的手终于松开了，他终究是在临死前也没能活着再回去找小蝶。 按照农村的习俗，无论是死在哪儿的，出殡必须是在自家的堂屋里，可这一次，陈放的丧礼被放在了这座荒废了几十年的老宅子里。 老宅里已经搭起了简易的帐篷，工人们正忙着给一口白皮棺材刷上朱红色的漆，而跟白皮棺材并排的是一口村里人凑钱给买的新棺材。 因为陈放是一个“五保”户，家徒四壁，但是村里上了年纪的人也都隐约听说过他和这里那位小姐的故事。 虽然陈放无儿无女，但是他的葬礼却格外隆重，一来查文斌当时在我们那儿的名气是极为响亮的，二来这段人鬼情未了让农村里那帮子妇女都掉尽了眼泪。 所有的事情，村里出人出力出钱财一把包办，大家都希望这对阴阳相隔了几十年的人能够体面地走完人生的最后一段里程，这或许也是我们村里办事最为团结的一次。 查文斌答应过小蝶，今晚会让他们再见面，不仅是相见，他还要为这对苦命鸳鸯补上一次冥婚！