"Water! Hurry...quickly...keep pumping! Why is there no water? Hurry and pump!"
"Brother, the water is gone and all three wells have been drained..."
"This fire is so evil. It becomes more and more prosperous the more water is poured on it. It cannot be extinguished at all!"
"Our dad is still inside, put out the fire quickly and rescue dad..."
"No...the fire is too fierce...no one who goes in now can even hope to come out alive!"
"Then what's going on! Watching my father being burned to death? Brother, are you hoping that our father will die soon!"
"Fart! It's obvious to me that you don't want to support our father, tell me! How come dad's house caught fire!"
"Brother, second brother, what time is this? It's important to get dad out quickly. Stop arguing. There are so many people watching. Don't make people laugh!"
"Why don't you pretend to be a good person? Third brother, you are not a good person either. You are two-faced and sow discord all day long. Why are you so filial and pushing our father away? Why don't you take him home and raise him? Now I see our father is going to burn."
You're dead and you come out and make sarcastic remarks!"
"What the hell!"
"Ah...fuck you, you dare to hit me. Don't think that just because you are older, I have to give in to you. Now I will fight with you!"
"Don't let anyone think about it. Come on, beat me! Beat me! If you dare, beat me to death and throw me into the fire and burn me. It just so happens that I am walking with my father, and I have a companion on the road!"
"Anyway, our father can't be saved. No one will have to deal with him in the future. It's just as if he doesn't know him. We don't have brothers like you!"
The brothers who were putting out the fire in the yard seemed to have been holding grudges for too long. They rolled into a ball and struggled with each other. Several neighbors rushed over to start a fight.
A group of men and women gathered outside the courtyard to watch the excitement, and I also stood in the crowd.
I looked at the people around me and pointed, and intermittently listened to some general information. It turned out that the house where the fire broke out lived in an old man named Dong, and everyone called him Mr. Dong.
The old man was in his seventies. He fell ill last year and was paralyzed on the kang, unable to move. He was unable to take care of himself. He had three sons, but none of them wanted to take care of him.
None of the three daughters-in-law has a fuel-efficient lamp, and no one is willing to pay a penny for medical treatment for the old man, let alone feces and urine.
The three families fought back and forth and finally reached an agreement that each family would take turns taking care of the old man for a month.
I don’t know which family’s turn it is to take care of it today, and I don’t know why the fire broke out for no reason.
Suddenly, a whirlwind blew up out of thin air in the courtyard, swirling around the courtyard, bringing a scorching heat that was unbearable to the person. The whirlwind rolled back and forth and plunged into the burning house.
The wind helps the fire, and the fire borrows the power of the wind. In a blink of an eye, the wind and fire are entangled, forming a huge fire tornado!
The fire tornado spit out its long tongue of flames unscrupulously, wrapping the entire house in it and burning it mercilessly. From time to time, there were several "crack-crack-crack" sounds of the beams breaking. When it burned to the end, the beams could no longer withstand the tongues of fire.
"Boom" fell to the ground, and there was a deafening sound of collapse. The sea of fire suddenly splashed in all directions, bursting into waves of fire, baring its teeth and claws, and spewing out hot breath all over the sky.
I don’t know why, even though it’s a flame that brings strength and Yang, I feel an indescribable weird feeling. Could it be that I feel wrong?
The onlookers sighed and said that it was so painful that Old Dongtou was burned alive. It was equivalent to being cremated alive.
Others said that it was better now. The three sons were relieved and no longer had to fight to support the elderly.
Poor old Dongtou worked hard all his life to help his three sons grow up and start a family, but in the end he ended up like this.
Seeing the house burned down, almost everything that could be burned was also burned, and the fire gradually became smaller.
The three brothers were pulled apart without being beaten. They knew that their father could not be saved and that the fire could not be saved, so they simply turned around and left.
.
I glanced at the growing resentment in the sky above the courtyard. I always felt that something was wrong, but I couldn't tell what was wrong. I hope I was overthinking it.
Huang Yongyong urged me to go home quickly. He wanted to eat roast chicken. Bai Yingxue also urged me, saying that the TV series she was following these days was about to start, and asked me to rush home quickly so as not to miss it. When did I criticize them?
Only one can be like Brother Meng, who does nothing but practice all day long, but they are free and easy, saying that work and rest must be combined, and practice is predestined and cannot be forced.
The story of Lao Dongtou being burned to death quickly spread throughout the villages, and those who knew the details called the sons a bunch of bastards.
This incident went away as quickly as it came, and was quickly diluted by the increasingly strong flavor of the New Year. Every household was filled with the atmosphere of the New Year. Perhaps including the sons of Old Dongtou, they had already forgotten this incident.
Let's forget about it.
It's New Year's Eve in the blink of an eye, and my heart is also hanging with excitement. The master made an appointment with me before he left, and if nothing happens, he will be back before New Year's Eve, and today is already the last day of the appointment. I feel like I haven't seen him for a long time.
Now that the master is here, I really miss him.
I specifically asked my mother to cook a few more specialty dishes, which are all the master's favorite dishes. I waited and looked around, but there was no trace of the master until it got dark. I thought he might be on his way back.
But in a blink of an eye, it’s time to stay up late for the New Year’s Eve, and there is no sign of the master. I can’t help but worry about the master. I wonder if this bad old man has encountered something that has delayed him, but it’s best if nothing happens!
First grade, second grade, third grade...
Time passed day by day, and in a blink of an eye, it was the tenth day of the first lunar month. I was restless every day, wondering what happened to the master. He originally promised me to come back before the 30th of the new year, but why has it been more than ten days and there is still no sign of him!
I was sitting on the kang wondering where the master had gone, when suddenly I heard someone knocking on the door!
I jumped to the ground quickly, without even having time to pick up the uppers of my shoes. I grabbed my shoes and ran to open the door to see if the master was back.
As soon as I opened the door, I was greatly disappointed. The person who came was not a master, but a familiar face. I felt I had seen him somewhere and had some impression, but I couldn't remember who he was for the moment.
"Excuse me, is Master Bai here? I am Dong Laosan of Dongjiagou. I have something urgent to ask Master Bai for help!"
The visitor introduced himself, and I suddenly remembered that he was the third son of the old Dong who died in a house fire on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month. I remember that he had a fight with an unknown brother.
"May I ask which Master Bai you are looking for?"
My master and I are both surnamed Bai, and we both started out as Xianer. I don’t know if he wants to find the master or me.
"Well, it's that Master Bai who can see things. I was introduced by others. They said there is a Master Bai here who is very good at seeing things and can solve evil things." Dong Laosan lowered his voice and whispered, as if he was afraid of being criticized by others.
It sounded like he was nervous.
"Both my master and I are surnamed Bai, and we can both see things. If you come to see my master, I'm sorry he's not here, and I don't know when he will come back. If you come to me, you can talk to me now if you have anything to do!"
I was in a bad mood and didn't want to listen to his endless nagging, so I said it to him with a straight face.
"Well...Okay! Can we go into the house and talk? You see, I have a lot of things, and it's not convenient to carry them." Dong Laosan held up the large and small packages of gifts in his hands, hesitated for a moment, and said to me.
It's Chinese New Year, so I can't really let him stand outside the door and talk about things. It's not the way to treat guests. I suppressed my depression and let him into the house.
"Little master, this is what happened when I came..." Dong Laosan told me everything.
Sure enough, the resentment I saw that day when I opened my eyes finally caused trouble!
That day, after Dong Laosan waited for the fire in the house to be extinguished, he went with his two brothers again, hoping to pull out his father's bones and bury them.
But after searching and searching, they couldn't find his father's body. They all thought that the fire was too strong and burned his father out, so they had to bury him in a burial mound hastily.
Just when they thought their father was finally out of the way and their good days were coming, something happened!
On the night when his father had a headache, which was the eve of New Year's Eve, his eldest brother said he saw a vague shadow squatting under the wall of his yard. He didn't make a sound no matter how he shouted. His eldest brother thought it was a thief.
When I shined a flashlight on it, I saw a dark thing stumbling over the wall and running away. Even a young man with good physique couldn't even think of jumping over that big wall.
His eldest brother was in shock, so he dragged his wife and bravely walked over to take a look. As a result, he saw black scum on the ground where the black thing had squatted just now, as if something had been burnt.
It seemed like it was getting hot, and when I got closer, there was a strong smell of chewy meat, like burnt meat.
His eldest brother remembered that his father's body had not yet been found, and thought of the thing squatting under the wall. His hair suddenly stood up, and he was scared to death. He yelled "Wow" and ran away, even ignoring his wife...