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The fifteenth day of the first month, the Lantern Festival.

Spring has begun in Liangzhou, Longyou, and tonight we have the first spring rain after the new year, which is as heavy as a downpour.

There is a small town called "Yanguan" twenty miles east of Liangzhou City. The courtyards of hundreds of households are planned and built in a square shape. A low earthen wall surrounds the outer edge to form a neatly shaped courtyard. Small city.

In the first courtyard at the east entrance of the town, everything from the wall to the roof is patchwork and patchwork. It can be seen that the owner is very diligent but his family background is not good enough. It is about to leak from the wind and rain, and it is dilapidated.

At this time, a poor young man wearing poor clothes and soaking wet was squatting on the threshold of the main house in the courtyard. The room behind him was unlit and empty. He just hugged his knees with his arms and rested his chin on his knees. Go up, looking at the raindrops outside the eaves in a daze.

On this day every year, the young man would feel a little sad, and this year he felt extra sad, because about half a moment ago, a handsome young man came all the way here, jumped up on the wall of his house, and said with a smile the purpose of his trip. Just want to kill him!
……

The boy's surname is Chu and his name is Yuanxiao. He is an orphan. He is not very old. He will be considered to be thirteen after today. The child who was picked up does not know when he was born. If he was picked up on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, it will be considered the tenth day of the first lunar month. Five lifetimes old.

According to what the old drunkard who had been dead for seven years said during his lifetime, on the Lantern Festival 13 years ago, when he picked up the child in a mountain col outside Liangzhou City, he was still a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes. It can be seen that he was just born, crying intermittently, and he was lying in a pile of dead people when he was found.

No one knows why the no less than thirty people lying around the baby were intercepted and killed in the wilderness, and no one knows whether his parents were among the thirty corpses. In short, the old drunkard arrived at that place. At that time, except for the child in the package who was still half breathing, no one else was alive!

The old drunkard probably didn't think too much about it at the time. He just thought that the perpetrator didn't think that a newborn baby like him could survive, or maybe he didn't care whether he could survive or not. Anyway, in the end, he had such a hand. I'm so lucky that I didn't end up dead by the sword.

The winter was very long that year, and the spring started very late. It was freezing outside Liangzhou City and there was heavy snowfall. This child was considered lucky. He was not frozen to death when the old drunkard picked him up. It was really a blessing from God. mercy.

The old drunkard was originally an old lonely man with no relatives. He spent the first half of his life as a guard soldier in the Liangzhou border army. He had no ability and spent most of his life in the military camp. In the end, he didn't even save a few dollars for military pay.

Later, when he got old, he retired from the army. He left the military camp carrying his broken saber that had been gathering dust for many years at the bottom of the box, and finally settled down in Yanguan Town, not far from the city.

The old drunkard who happened to be in the city on business that day happened to encounter this incident, so he reported what happened in the mountain col to the officials, and then took the picked-up child back to this small shabby yard in Yanguan Town. He could only raise the child until he was six or seven years old with a mouthful of batter and a mouthful of water. The two men, one older and one younger, lived a tight life, barely making do.

When such a big murder happened, the news naturally spread like wildfire, and there were many speculations. The most reliable one was that they were unlucky and met a gangster trying to steal money. Death, after all, Liangzhou is a serious border area. Although there has been no war in recent years, it is indeed not too unusual for bandits with a gang to roam around.

For this matter, the Liangzhou border army sent a battalion of thousands of troops and horses to patrol and suppress bandits within hundreds of miles to ensure local peace, but in the end nothing was found.

……

Since then, seven years have passed.

The young man still remembers that he was seven years old when the old drunkard died, and that day was also the Lantern Festival.

The old man who went out early in the morning to earn a meal for his grandfather and grandson didn't come back until late at night. He was covered in wind and snow, seriously injured and dying. He didn't have time to wait for the seven-year-old baby who stumbled out to find a doctor. , he had already died on the bed.

The old man had a bad temper during his lifetime and loved to drink. His temper became even worse when he was drunk. In the huge Yanguan Town, there are hundreds of households with thousands of people. He has lived here for nearly 20 years and is even a friend. Nowhere.

So Chu Yuanxiao, who was only seven years old at the time, could only find a burial ground for the old man while she sat there all night and day after night. The family had no money and could not even afford a coffin.

It's snowing heavily, the cold wind is howling, and the biting ice is three inches into my heart. From the gate of the first courtyard at the east entrance of the town to the entrance of the town a few steps away, and then to the foot of the mountain called Zhelongbei three miles away. , the young man is no longer willing to remember how he carried and dragged the old man's body so far, nor is he willing to recall how many long footprints in the snow he left behind. long?

From that day on, the child who was picked up became an orphan again.

……

In the yard of the young man's house, walk a few steps to the east from the gate and there is an old locust tree. The trunk is so thick that it requires several adults to hug it. On the crown of the tree, there is a thick trunk facing north. There is a large bronze bell that is quite old, with mottled marks and is crumbling.

It is said that this bronze bell was used to report messages and warnings from the entrance of the town to prevent horse bandits and bandits from looting. However, in recent years, the border area has been peaceful, and the border troops have been guarding the border well. In addition, the incident more than ten years ago A battalion of border troops turned the ground upside down for hundreds of miles around, so in the following years, no one rang the bell again. It was even unknown which prodigal son of a family hung the bell. The bell-ringing hammer inside was also stolen, so the old copper bell simply became an ornament with no use.

There was a shabby thatched hut on the other side of the town entrance across an official road from the old locust tree with the copper bell hanging on it. When the old drunkard just died, there was a man about the same age as the old drunkard living in this shabby thatched hut. An old watchman surnamed Liang was able to live on a meager salary from the Salt Official's Office by keeping watch in the town.

The old watchman surnamed Liang and the old drunkard surnamed Chu were neighbors, but they were always very difficult to deal with and never looked down upon each other when they met.

At that time, the old drunkard was newly mourned, and the seven-year-old baby suddenly lost his support. It became a problem for him to even eat a mouthful of food. He was always hungry and full after a meal. Many times he would sit hungry under the old locust tree. When I was so hungry that I felt dizzy, I looked up at the empty copper bell without the hammer, comforting myself that the bell was not hungry and I was not hungry either. I hoped that if I carried it for a while, I would not be so hungry anymore.

At this time, the old man Liang, who was responsible for the night watch, always sat in the hut, looking through the open door at the little baby sitting under the tree across the road.

The old man and the young man were silent across the road. The baby looked at the bell, and the old man looked at the baby.

About two or three months passed like this. The old man Liang, who was always fond of pulling a face, finally couldn't stand it anymore. He got up from the broken chair and walked out of the hut door, sitting under the tree again. The little baby, who was closer to the big copper bell, waved.

The young man remembered that it was the first time he walked in front of the old man Liang. The old man, who was not very good-tempered, only said one sentence: "Don't think about starving yourself to death if your life is bad! No matter what you do, Even if you die, you have to be worthy of the old ghost who took your life! You have to be conscientious as a person, and you can't just think about yourself!"

The seven-year-old baby was a little sad to be scolded, but he didn't refute. He looked at the indifferent old man and nodded.

So after that, he had an extra livelihood. He started to follow Old Man Liang on the streets and alleys every night to check the town. Every night when he went out for a walk and came back, Old Man Liang would give him a copper coin as food money. , that is, relying on the life-saving copper plate every day, this baby who does not know whether his life is good or bad has grown from seven to ten years old.He thought that he would follow the rickety old man through the streets and alleys in night cover every night until he became an adult, and then he would provide for the old man until he died, and repay the share that should have been given to the old drunkard to the old neighbor. .

But unfortunately, God doesn't follow people's wishes, and God always seems reluctant to let him have an easy time.

When I was ten years old, it was the Lantern Festival again.

That day, as usual, the ten-year-old boy was standing at the door of his house waiting for Old Man Liang to leave for his shift. After waiting for a long time, he didn't see the old man with a disgusting face opening the door of the hut and coming out.

He couldn't help feeling panicked, and finally took the initiative to push open the door of the shabby hut for the first time. What he saw was the old man who saved his life sitting on the bamboo chair where he always loved to sit, with tight eyes. He was closed, his expression was peaceful, but he had lost his vitality.

But this time is better than the last time. It can be seen that the popularity of Old Man Liang is better than that of the old drunkard. The neighbors nearby heard that Old Man Liang passed away during the night, and some people came over on their own initiative. help.

Several members of the family originally tried to collect a few thin wooden boards to build a coffin for the old man, but Old Liang died sitting on a chair and was discovered too late. His body was so stiff that he could not straighten it and put it into the coffin. In the end, There is no other option but to be cremated.

This burial method is actually not fashionable in Liangzhou, but there are occasionally one or two from all over the country. In addition, Old Liangtou is in such a special situation, so this is the only way to do it. The one that contains a handful of Old Liang’s ashes The clay pot was found by the young man from rummaging through boxes and cabinets in his own home. The place where the pot was buried was not far from the old drunkard's grave, separated by a hill.

Two old men who had been neighbors for more than ten years during their lifetime became neighbors again after their death.

Now the boy is 13 years old, and Lao Liangtou has been dead for three years. Now when he goes to visit graves during festivals, he will kowtow in front of both graves.

It is not easy for a living person to survive, and he is very grateful to the two old people who extended his life.

……

In the next three years, although the boy rarely interacted with other people, he was more or less aware of certain sayings that had been circulating in the small town, and in the past few years, he had never told anyone that he actually had some problems. Of course, no one can say who believes these rumors...

When the townspeople gossiped after dinner, they would often talk about the half-grown baby who lived at the east entrance of the town, saying that he was a lone evil star, and that anyone who got close to him would not end well in the end!

For example, the more than 30 people who went out with him were intercepted and killed in the wilderness outside Liangzhou City, and the old drunkard who picked him up, and the man who lived opposite him and gave him food out of charity. All the old watchmen, without exception, died happily in the end!

The evidence is conclusive!
In a rural place like this, most of the groundless and groundless things are true and false, whispered and whispered, and often come very easily. Few people really care about the truth or falsehood. If you have to care about it, you may not be able to find it. source.

Some people believe it and some don't, but this doesn't stop the young man from living alone. Few people have the courage to say a word to him. There are even some people who would hide aside when they see the young man, with weird eyes and pointing fingers. Point and point.

People don't like dogs, but this young man who really doesn't know whether he is a good fortune teller or not has grown up to where he is now.

……

After Lao Liang passed away, the person who took over his job was a slovenly middle-aged man. In fact, saying that this man was sloppy was a bit misleading. Since Chu Yuanxiao met him, it seemed that he had never seen him before. When I wash my face, my rags, which are worse than those of a teenager, are also covered in mud and dirt. The old cloth shoes on my feet whose original color cannot be seen clearly are always hanging down on my feet. The upper part of the shoe should be behind the heel. It has long been stained on the soles of shoes.

This slovenly and slovenly man is named Hou, but he also has a good name that doesn’t match his image, which is Hou Junchen.

This Hou Junchen was probably born to be informal. The day after Lao Liang's death three years ago, he took over the errand job from the Salt Official's Office and went directly to the shabby thatched hut at the east entrance of the town that day, regardless of his The predecessor, Lao Liangtou, was carried out of the hut just yesterday. He lay down on the broken bed in the hut and began to sleep with his head covered.

Although he no longer takes the boy on night watch, he is one of the few people in the town who is willing to say a few words to the kid opposite.

In the past three years, whenever the young man had time to sit under the old locust tree at the entrance of the town, he would move the old bamboo chair and sit outside the door of the hut opposite, with his chest and abdomen exposed, while raising his feet. Rubbing the dirt between his toes with his hands, he yelled at the boy opposite: "Does the boy named Chu bring anything to eat? Good things can only taste good if they are shared with others. Don't hide your secrets!"

……

Time just moved forward day by day, and finally it was the fifteenth day of the first lunar month of the year when the boy was 13 years old, and it was the Lantern Festival again.

When he came back from kowtow at the foot of Hidden Dragon Bei Mountain outside the town's east entrance, Hou Junchen was sitting at the door of the hut as usual, rubbing his toes and looking at the young man with a smile and said: "You said someone like you has a fate like a lone star in the sky?" , If you kowtow to the dead, will you kill those two old ghosts again?"

The young man who had just walked into the town was speechless. He glanced sideways at the middle-aged man and replied, "At least half of my breakfast, lunch, and dinner in the past three years have gone into your stomach. How come I didn't see you alive?" Returning to the West?"

The middle-aged man naturally waved his hands after hearing this, "That's because I have a strong yang energy, and even your evil energy is not enough to scratch my itch!"

The young man was too lazy to talk nonsense to this lazy man. He rolled his eyes and was about to open the courtyard door and go home. Then he heard the man's lazy voice behind him: "Remember to lock the door at night. If you let dirty things into your house, , your evil spirit can easily kill yourself!"

The young man didn't look back, he raised his hand and waved towards the man in response.

But he didn't expect that what he thought was a joke by that old bachelor Hou Junchen turned out to be true after dark, but it didn't seem to have much to do with whether he locked the door or not.

Jumping up the wall may be difficult for some people, but for others it is not a problem.

……