On the border of Shanxi, 400 kilometers away from the capital, a young man dressed as a beggar squatted in front of the edge of a cliff, lowering his head to visually measure the height above the ground. He first dropped the wooden stick in his hand, then stood up and stretched his ankles a few times.
Without any hesitation, he jumped down the 3-meter-high slope.
"Dong...hiss..."
There was a dull sound of landing, followed by the sound of a gasp.
Zhou Wenzhong rubbed his heels, picked up the wooden stick he had dropped earlier, and began to pound it on the ground.
"Alas..." Zhou Wenzhong sighed in disappointment as he looked at the holes he had poked in the ground. This was the seventh cliff he had jumped off today.
He untied his shoelaces and poured out the sand in his shoes. He took off the sack pieces from his body and spread them on the ground. Then he took out the jewelry box of the deaf old lady in the space.
"Kacha... Kacha... Kaka..."
This small wooden box with Hainan huanghuali from the Qing Dynasty, which can be sold for 50,000 yuan in 2020, has landscape patterns with ghost eyes. It was kicked to pieces at this moment, ending its life.
Zhou Wenzhong feels that using precious wood to heat the fire will give him some great satisfaction from the depths of his soul. Another reason is that this small wooden box takes up too much storage space. It is only 1 cubic meter.
Small wooden boxes account for nearly 20%.
"Stab it..."
Zhou Wenzhong struck a match and lit the pile of wood in front of him. He took out steamed buns and tea from the space and started eating along the slope...
In the dark night in the wild, I don't know what kind of raptor makes the sound. It sounds like a sharp "chichi" sound, or a "gaha" sound, accompanied by a "coo-coo-coo" call.
This kind of night scene did not require a soundtrack in later horror movies, and it was also so noisy that Zhou Wenzhong couldn't sleep well all night.
It was around 6 o'clock in the morning the next day.
Zhou Wenzhong threw the wooden stick in his hand towards the cliff first, trotted to help, stepped on the stones on the left and right sides alternately with his feet, raised his hands to grab the exposed tree roots on the cliff, and Zhou Wenzhong struggled to get out of the pit.
Climbed out.
He picked up the wooden stick and walked towards another cliff in the distance. There are at least hundreds of cliffs with a height of about 3 meters like this in Tunjun Valley. Assuming that Zhou Wenzhong jumped off 20 times a day, it would be enough for him to jump off.
Broken leg.
Today, at the gate of the courtyard, several new faces in their 20s have appeared since early morning. They have been squatting or sitting on the steps opposite the gate of the courtyard all day.
The leader shouted: "Comrade! Please wait a moment."
After Silly Zhu heard the sound, he quickly wrapped the mesh bag containing the lunch box twice around his hand. At the same time, he also noticed that several people were wearing 80% new blue cotton coats. They didn't look like they were hungry and grabbing the lunch box. In my heart,
He immediately breathed a sigh of relief, and even the net rope in his hand became a little looser.
"What do you guys want from me?"
"Comrade, come and have a cigarette."
Silly Zhu raised his hand to block the cigarette offered by the other party and said, "No, if you have anything to do, just tell me."
"Comrade, I would like to ask, does Zhou Wenzhong live in this courtyard?"
"They live in the east wing of the front yard, but I haven't seen him for several days."
"Oh, thank you, comrade."
Silly Zhu looked at the people in front of him again, nodded, and without even saying "you're welcome", turned around and walked back to his home.
"I asked several people and they all said I haven't seen him. I think Zhou Wenzhong is really not at home. If not, let's just go back first. It's too cold today."
"Walk."
The leader who had just spoken to Shazhu waved his hand, and the other three people quickly followed, and the four of them walked out of the alley.
"Hey Zhuzhu is back from get off work."
"Hey, Auntie, have you eaten?"
"I've eaten. I've eaten. Just now, the old lady asked me to help you wash your clothes. Needless to say, you really need to change your clothes. I can smell this semen on you even 3 meters away from you.
Onion and ginger flavor.”
Silly Zhu smiled awkwardly, picked up the cotton-padded jacket on his chest and smelled it.
"No, why can't I hear it?"
"You've been dealing with aniseed all day long, what else can your nose smell? When you get back to the house later, take off your clothes and I'll wash them for you."
"No, I'll just let the rain wash me off later. See you later. I'll go back to the house and lie down for a while."
Silly Zhu didn't want to argue with the aunt anymore, so he left with his net bag. The aunt stood there and wiped her hands with her apron, turned around and returned to her home.
In the backyard, Liu Haizhong's family was preparing meals.
The second aunt put the plate of the signature dish [scrambled eggs] on the dining table and patted away the two pairs of chopsticks that were handed to her.
"Eat, eat, eat, just eat! If you are not afraid of your father beating you two, just eat!"
"Humph, go back to the house!"
Hearing what their father said, Liu Guangfu and Liu Guangtian held bowls and moved some shredded pickles on the table. Each of them took out 2 steamed buns of food substitute powder from the basket and returned to their rooms to eat.
.
"Dong dong..."
"Hurry up and open the door at home."
The second aunt opened the wooden door of the hall wide, and Xu Damao walked in with a smile on his face, pulled out a chair and sat down.
"Lao Liu, what do you want from me?"
Liu Haizhong's face drooped and he said, "What did you call me? Your father calls me that, which is pretty much it."
"Haha, in the factory I call you Master Liu, but in this courtyard I don't call you Lao Liu, so what should I call you? You are the second uncle in the courtyard, and I am the third uncle. Our shoulders are even on one side.
.”
Liu Haizhong was choked by Xu Damao's words. He stood up from the "small stove" position near the radio, picked up the wine bottle and a stack of sesame oil and radish shreds on the table, walked to the dining table and put them down.
In this era, men's status was high in the family, and the most common manifestation was that they did not eat at the same table with their wives and children. In most families, when men were eating and drinking at home, they would always sit alone at the table with the radio.
Xu Damao took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, took out one and lit it. He waited for Liu Haizhong to speak first.
"Um...I don't want to call you Third Uncle. I'll call you Xu Damao. Our two families have lived opposite each other for so many years, and you are not used to it when I call you Third Uncle out of the blue."
"Okay, Liu Haizhong."
"Ahem..."
At this moment, Liu Haizhong just wanted to take out his belt and throw it hard at Xu Damao's face.
"What brought you here to me?"
"I just want to ask you if you have any mission to go to the countryside on the 13th of this month? If you are free, can you come with me to the machinery factory in Changping?"
"What are we going there with you for?"
Liu Haizhong placed the wine glass in front of Xu Damao, picked up the bottle and poured him a glass of wine.
"What else can I do with you? Let's put on a movie, it's your old job."
Xu Damao pushed his wine glass aside.
"Oh. That's really unlucky. I just remembered that something happened that day."
"I won't let your help go in vain. I'll be waiting for you with good wine and food that day."
"Then let's wait and see. If I don't have anything important to do that day, I will ride with you. What day is the 13th?"
Liu Haizhong pulled the wine glass over again, and at the same time put a plate of scrambled eggs in front of Xu Damao.
"Sunday."
Xu Damao smoked a cigarette and said, "Okay, let's talk about this first. It's time for me to go home and eat."
"Don't mention me."
"You can eat at my house. The dishes have already been prepared. It just so happens that we both have two more drinks." Liu Haizhong put his left hand on Xu Damao's shoulder.
"This...that's okay."
Liu Haizhong picked up his wine glass and clinked it with Xu Damao, and the two had a heated discussion about which movie to show on the 13th.
After being brainwashed by the deaf old lady for so many days, Auntie's gaze gradually shifted from Jia Dongxu to Silly Zhu. This change in Auntie's attitude also had a subtle influence on Yi Zhonghai.
In the Yi Family Hall in the Central Courtyard, an aunt was sitting on a stool, mending her husband's sleeves. She kept scolding Yi Zhonghai for not caring about his clothes, and from time to time she would not forget to look through the glass towards the front yard.
"squeak…"
Hearing the sound of the wooden door opening, the aunt asked without raising her head: "Why did you come back so late today?"
"Is this my sister-in-law?"
"ah?"
When the aunt heard the deep voice of inquiry, she quickly put down her needlework and stood up from the stool. She ran to the dining table and poured water for the fifty or sixty year old man in front of her.
"No more trouble, no more trouble."
Yizhong Customs came to the door and introduced: "This is the Master Sun I often tell you about. You go and cut some devil's ginger and add more sesame oil into it. Master Sun and I will have a good drink today."
"No more trouble, no more trouble."
"Hey."
Auntie handed the enamel jar filled with boiling water to Yi Zhonghai, then turned around and went out to prepare the meal. Yi Zhonghai then handed the jar to Lao Sun.
"Sit, sit, sit, why are you so polite when you arrive at my house? I'll wash the butter off my hands first, so why don't you sit down!"
"No more trouble, no more trouble."
"I can't compare with you. You deal with water all day long. I deal with machine tools all day long."
"Master Yi, you are too polite."
Yi Zhonghai wiped the water off his hands and took out the bottle of Xiaoshao that Jia Dongxu had given him a few days ago from the chest of drawers. He bit off the bottle cap and poured Master Sun a glass of wine.
"No more trouble, no more trouble."
"Let's take a sip of wine to warm ourselves up. The food will have to wait a while."
"This...Master Yi, if you have anything to say, just say it directly. We don't have to go through so much trouble."
Yi Zhonghai took out a cigarette and handed it to Master Sun, struck a match and lit it for him. He sighed first, and then said: "You should be able to guess the reason why I'm looking for you."
"Um."
"Old Sun, just for the sake of our friendship over the years, give me a solid foundation. How much do you want?"
"This...this...I don't know either!"
Lao Sun rubbed his hands in embarrassment and moved the wine glass in front of him to the side.
"We brothers met on Qianmen Street, right? I was still working in Lou's factory at that time, and you were Xinyuan's little apprentice. I remember that you were spinning the towel board in your hand all day long, and you looked at me
My eyes are dazzled."
"Hahaha…"
Hearing Yi Zhonghai mention something about his youth, Old Sun's mind started to reminisce.
Yi Zhonghai listened to Lao Sun's laughter and knew in his heart that his memory killing had had an effect.