Chapter 8 second quarter

"Net, net, it's about to drop!" Zhijia's voice came from behind me, and I looked back while pedaling.The bug net sandwiched between the saddle and the rear wheel was askew and was literally about to fall.After I managed to straighten it with one hand, I turned my head and saw a large object entered the range of the headlights.I hurriedly lifted my butt from the seat, turned the bike 45 degrees, and tried my best to avoid it. "Zhijia, hurry up!" "what?" Zhijia seemed to have slammed on the brakes in a hurry.After the sharp sound, there was the sound of hitting a hard object with a bang.I hurriedly let the rear wheel slip and turn my head, and Zhijia and the car fell on the sidewalk by the side of the road.The rotation speed of the wheels gradually slowed down, which looked like a slow motion.

I got out of the car and ran to Zhijia, but fortunately she was not injured.The skirt rolled up revealing the panties underneath.A large truck roared past on the sidewalk. "what is that?" Pulling his leg out from under the bike, Zhijia stared at what tripped him. "Looks like the remains of an abandoned building." It was a triangular block of cement the size of my head, like a giant piece of firm tofu with one corner cut off. "Looks like it fell off a truck. Are the tires okay?" I checked the front tire and it doesn't appear to have a puncture.I helped Zhijia and her bicycle.Zhijia clapped her hands, then her buttocks and knees.Her face was illuminated by the taillights of passing cars, and for a split second she looked like another person.

"It's too dangerous, let's move it to the side." The cement blocks were so heavy that I couldn't move them without using all my strength.Zhijia also helped, and we finally moved it to the edge of the sidewalk. It's not far from the river.Ten meters ahead is the bridge across the river.Going down from the embankment is where we often go.We moved over to the railing and parked the bikes side by side.The clouds came out, and neither the stars nor the moon could be seen in the sky. "Brother, are you catching bugs today?" "Catch it." Zhijia went down the slope first, and finally jumped down with both feet together.

"Zhijia, take out the flashlight." I also went down the slope, with my back turned to Zhijia.Zhijia unzipped the backpack and took out the two flashlights.We turned on the flashlights and walked towards the grass.In an instant, a little black thing moved, low, then jumped up and disappeared into the grass.Probably crickets.It's still early, and I'm not too big, so I continue to step elsewhere.The insect net I brought was placed in front of the grass.Come to think of it, I've never used it here, we all catch bugs with our hands. "Brother, will there be oil gourds?"

Zhijia held up the flashlight and pricked up her ears as if sticking out her cheeks to the grass.It's not really bug hunting season, and the chirps are barely audible. "Oil gourds are very rare. If there are any, I will catch them, but it hurts to be bitten." I stepped on another clump of grass.A slightly vibrating thing jumped out of the aperture of the flashlight, and when I tried to trace its direction with my eyes, it was already out of sight. "what?" "Appeared, but was run away by it." The clouds moved, revealing the moon, and the moonlight shone on Zhijia's face.The breeze blew by, and the nearby leaves made a rustling sound, as if they were laughing.

At this moment, a sudden sadness welled up in my chest.That is the sadness that has been suppressed in my chest since I came back from school today. "I said Zhijia—" I put my hands down by my side, facing my sister. "You said that the lanterns on Qixi Festival can't be done well in school, right?" "Yes, it's not done well." Zhijia's expression seemed to say "what's the matter". "Have no friends to teach you how to do it?" Zhijia's face seemed to twitch after I asked the question that I hadn't been able to ask until now.

"There are people, Xiao Dun and so on, but I still don't quite understand." A stiff smile is the best evidence of a lie. I noticed Zhijia's bad relationship with her classmates at school a long time ago.Although I didn't spy on their classroom, and she didn't say anything, I still know everything.She won't be beaten, will she?Wouldn't someone take away your shoes, receive a harassing letter, or get graffiti and tentacles on your textbook?I would love to ask her.But he felt that he might offend her, so he couldn't ask. Zhijia's gaze turned to the right, and her face followed suit, her expression suddenly brightened.

"Brother, there are two people coming from the opposite side!" "real?" I also looked at the other bank—the other bank of the river that flowed like thick ink.Above the embankment, a small light can be seen, moving slightly as if blinking.Really, here we come.I felt a surge of heat in my chest. "Will you notice?" I raised the flashlight above my head and swung it from side to side, and the light on the other side did the same.Zhijia smiled at me. "What do you think the two people on the other side caught?" "I don't know, maybe it's the oil gourd."

The two people on the opposite side—that’s how we call them—refer to the two people on the opposite side who are also carrying flashlights and are also hunting insects. They are also elementary school students who are about the same age as us.But this is just my imagination, not proven.On the other side of the river that is smeared dark by night, you can always see the lonely flashlight light.It was Chika who first noticed the light and signaled it as before.The other party responds to us with the same signal.We were a little shy and pleasantly surprised to find out that someone else had the same key chain as us.Zhijia and I agreed that the two people on the opposite side were similar to our situation: a short brother like me who walked with his eyes down, and a younger sister like Zhijia who had a puffed face and a smile.Whenever we find the light on the other side, we send a signal, and the other side must respond to us.

The flashlight on the other side of the river flickered for a while, and finally disappeared. "They're going back." Zhijia, who has grown taller, has been squatting all the time, the top of the T-shirt is full of wrinkles, and the pattern of the cat on the stomach is crooked as if broken. That's when we noticed footsteps. A dark group approached from the grass.It was a man with long hair and a beard covering half of his face.Zhijia tensed up and leaned towards me, and I moved a little closer to her. There was a stench coming from the man. "What are you catching here?"

When the man spoke, he raised his voice at the last word, and his shaggy black beard moved in line with his slow speaking speed.We squeezed our mouths together in silence, and the man smiled, shaking his thin T-shirt with holes in it. "Surprised? No. While catching bugs, such an uncle came out." There is an accent in the laughter.The man folded his arms across his flat, scarecrow-like chest and looked up at the sky. "To tell you the truth, Qixi Festival should be about delivering worms, not about catching them." He turned his gaze back to us, squinting triumphantly, not looking like a bad guy.Zhijia relaxed his stiff body, and I finally breathed a sigh of relief amidst the stench and tension. "Can't you catch bugs?" After listening to my question, the uncle waved his hands vigorously like chasing flies.The palms and fingers are dirty. "It's not impossible, it's not impossible. It's just that in our rural areas, we have to send worms first on Qixi Festival." "Send worms..." I just muttered something, but the uncle seemed to be waiting for this sentence, and began to mutter with a strange rhythm. "Get out of — get out of — "The straw worm is going to cross-- "Singing like this, everyone went back and forth in the village to drive away the insects that eat the rice leaves. This is sending insects. If you don't send insects, the rice harvest will be affected. If the rice leaves are eaten, the rice will not grow well." Zhijia and I looked at each other with blank expressions.The uncle wrinkled his garlic-like nose and leaned over and whispered: "However, you are so stupid that you didn't catch any of them." The uncle asked us what we wanted to catch, and we replied that it was oil gourd. "Ah, there is a trick to catching oily gourds. Oily gourds don't drive them to a corner." I didn't understand and asked again.The uncle raised his chin and looked around, then asked an unexpected question: "How many do you want?" We never thought about the question of how many we want, so we could only answer "as many as we can catch", and the uncle laughed haha. "It's greedy, little boy. I don't care if the cage doesn't fit. It's not autumn yet, and there aren't any big ones yet, but the little ones add up." In any case, it is impossible for the cage to hold the oil gourd.Thinking of this, I looked sideways at the cage I brought. "Let's begin then." Uncle said. "Come here in no time, you boy, open the cage and shut your mouth. If the oil gourd flies in, although it is not poisonous, it is disgusting enough." "In the mouth..." I'm a little scared, but it shouldn't be true, uncle is just exaggerating. "I forced them to you, right here? Can you? That little girl, I will teach you how to force them. Oh, this little hand is not big enough." The uncle twisted his neck and took Zhijia away. "Little girl, can you clap your hands? Do you know what clapping is? It's the one you often do to big people, with hands like this..." The uncle's voice gradually faded away and disappeared into the darkness.From time to time, there were a few clapping sounds, which disappeared after a while.I squatted in the grass and opened the cage cover as my uncle said. ——I don’t care if the cage doesn’t fit—— Obvious lie. ——Come here in no time—— Not with a machine, but with two people.I don't know what method he used, but no matter how you think about it, it is impossible to gather so many oil gourds at once-I know it.Although I knew it, I still squatted in the grass.The lower body is gradually getting colder, the hand holding the cage is gradually exerting force, and the snorting is so heavy that even I can hear it.Still haven't started.Nothing happened.According to what the uncle said just now, what I was waiting for was the moment when I heard the clapping of the two of them.But there was no such sound at all.The heartbeat in the chest is gradually accelerating. ——Isn't this the beginning?Gradually clear premonition spread in my body.Didn't it mean that there will be a lot of oil gourds flying towards me soon? Fear spread little by little, and I stood up unintentionally.The moon was covered by clouds again, and it was dark all around.Difficulty breathing.The surrounding air was like damp black oil.Uncle is gone.Zhijia is gone.Both were gone.Where did you go? "... Zhijia." I tried calling, but there was no answer. "... Zhijia?" Anxiety gradually took shape and enveloped my heart. I took a step in the grass and looked around.Another step.One more step.Subconsciously, the frequency of my feet accelerated, and when I came back to my senses, I was already running.Although there was no doubt that he was running, his lower body was as limp as cotton, and he felt nothing under his feet.I repeated Zhijia's name and ran out of the grass, letting the flashlight on my body knock and ring, and ran towards the direction where the two disappeared.not there.Zhijia is not there.When I ran across the concrete pier, my eyes suddenly opened up.Sandy ground.Dwarf weeds.Not a single person.Didn't come here?No, I should have been here.I turned around and looked behind me, when I heard a sound of heavy objects colliding from nowhere.Where is it?I immediately stopped and looked around.Grass.ground.embankment.piers. — pier. I pointed the light of my flashlight there.A circular aperture sweeps across the concrete surface.nothing.I went around to the inside again. --tent.The four-corner tent made of waste materials and canvas fell on the side of the bridge pier like spreading four claws.I approached the tent with a flashlight, and there was a curtain-like entrance in the front.I reached out and poked it away. "Didn't you fucking let you wait?!" Uncle's face emerged from the circular aperture of the flashlight.This face was distorted with half anger, half smile, half smile.In the tent, the uncle propped his knees on the tarpaulin on the ground, facing Zhijia, and turned his head to look at me with wide eyes. "I'm teaching her how to force the oil gourd to come out, you kid, go and stay over there, the place just now." The shadows of Uncle and Zhijia are magnified on the canvas behind. "Go and wait!" The canvas is wrinkled and looks like the shadows of two furry animals. "……Let's go back." My voice trembled.Zhijia stared and nodded lightly, then slowly took a step, and came to me as if passing by a big dog. "Where are you going? I haven't taught you yet." Zhijia stretched out her hand, and I held her hand, a cold hand. "Let's go back." With our backs to the uncle, we left the tent and could hear the click of tongues behind us.Our pace hasn't changed.Step by step, tentatively, and confirmed.I feel nothing under my feet.I told Zhijia to turn on the flashlight.The light of two flashlights illuminated the road under our feet, and we returned to the edge of the grass.We held hands, picked up the bug net we had been throwing there, and climbed up the embankment together.After climbing up the slope, I only turned my head once, but the uncle didn't seem to follow. We walked silently to the place where the bicycles were parked by the bridge, and inserted the bug net behind the seat, our hands still shaking. "Are you okay?" I also don't know what I want to confirm.Zhijia nodded slightly.I stepped on the bicycle, but Zhijia just pushed it, and didn't intend to ride it.I had no choice but to get out of the car, hold the handlebar and wait for Zhijia to approach.Zhijia's hand touched the root of her thigh through the skirt like a tickle. "Zhijia?" After I spoke, Zhijia, who had been lowering her head before, lowered her head even deeper as if trying to suppress something that was about to rush out of her throat.Tears glistened on his face illuminated by street lamps.Knowing that I was looking at her, she couldn't bear it anymore and cried out loudly.Tears flowed quietly like water leaking from a faucet that should have been turned off.Her little back was shaking.She tried so hard to hold back the sobs that her back shook even more.Before I knew it, I was on my knees.Rolling up Zhijia's skirt, she saw that the bottom of the white underwear was full of stains and mud-like marks.I think of the uncle's dirty hands.There was a trance in my mind.But I know very well that something in my nose is constantly swelling, and it seems to be about to explode.For some reason, I suddenly remembered the matter of picking persimmons for Zhijia a few years ago.Zhijia pointed to the persimmon tree protruding from the wall of the empty house, and instead of directly saying that he wanted it, he just kept looking at the persimmon tree with that finger in his mouth.I had no choice but to climb a wall as high as two of my own and pick off persimmons for her.The persimmons were not yet ripe, Zhijia burst into tears after taking a bite. We stood up and took a few steps.The cement block that he and Zhijia had just moved to the side of the road appeared in front of his eyes.I squatted down, opened my hands, held my breath and pushed up the cement block.The cement block moved slightly.Repeat, move again.At this moment the streetlights suddenly dimmed.Zhijia was standing next to me. Seeing that I didn't look up, she also squatted down, grabbed the cement block with both hands, and pushed in the same direction as me.We moved little by little along the railing with this cement block. When we got to the tent, we worked together to lift the concrete block.I also wonder why there is such a burst of strength.We didn't need to show each other, we just threw the cement block down.The moment we let go of our hands, we also adjusted the angle at which the cement blocks fell.It was so dark under the bridge that nothing could be seen clearly, only a heavy crash could be heard.

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