On the twelfth day, Popi could no longer walk. His wounds had seriously worsened and it hurt whenever he exerted himself.
The middle-aged man and I carried him to the hunting house left by an unknown hunter in the woods.
Pipi told us, you go ahead, I will take a day off and catch up with you tomorrow.
We looked at each other, neither of us knew what to do.
In the end, Old Man Xu left all the wild vegetables and fruits we found to the gangsters. For this, his daughter had a quarrel with him.
In this way, we continued on the road, because we all knew that staying here would mean waiting for death, and there would be no way to survive if we didn't leave.
At the end of the day, we didn't find much to eat, and when night fell, everyone was hungry.
In the evening, my daughter had a fierce quarrel with Mr. Xu, saying that his head was rusty and he actually left food to a dead man.
It was rare that Mr. Xu, who was extremely doting on his daughter, slapped her and said some harsh words.
The daughter cried and yelled on the ground, saying that Old Man Xu should have strangled her to death, so that she would not have to suffer the consequences of being born.
Old Mrs. Xu protected her daughter and scolded Old Man Xu.
Old man Xu was sitting on the ground. He couldn't get angry and said: "Pamper her. Just pamper her. If she is like this, what will happen if you and I die?"
"What else can I do? Can I die too?" the daughter yelled, her sickly face full of ferocity.
I felt very scared. Old Man Xu's daughter was so thin that I could knock her down with just one punch, but seeing the crazy look on her face, I was just afraid of her.
On the fifteenth day, we were getting closer and closer to the Yangzhou boundary.
That night, I had a nightmare. I dreamed that we couldn’t find anything to eat and that Old Man Xu’s daughter wanted to eat me.
I ran and ran, but I couldn't escape, and then I woke up with a fright.
After I woke up, I found that the genius Meng Mengliang was not there, and the middle-aged man was not there. I don’t know where he went.
Before I could find him, the middle-aged man came back shouting: "Wake up, wake up, guess what I found!"
Everyone woke up one by one and looked at the middle-aged man intently.
The middle-aged man slapped his thigh excitedly and said loudly: "I found a nest of weasels, right in the crack of the rocks over there."
Hearing this, Old Man Xu was still frightened. Countryside people had dealt with monsters and ghosts a lot, and he firmly believed that some weasels were upright.
This Taoist practice implies becoming a spirit, so few people eat weasels, thinking that it will bring bad luck.
However, if a person is very hungry, he will eat tree bark, let alone a weasel.
Soon, we followed and saw nine weasels, two large and seven small, in the crevices of the rocks.
Looking at the weasel hiding in the cracks of the rocks, we swallowed secretly, our hungry eyes shining green.
The big weasel saw us coming, jumped up to the entrance of the cave and bowed repeatedly, as if begging us not to eat them.
The embroiderer couldn't bear it, Old Man Xu was frightened, and even I was a little at a loss.
But the middle-aged man didn't care. He held a wooden stick in his hand and said to us: "Everyone has been very hungry these two days, and there is no fat or water in our stomachs. If we don't eat them today, we will die tomorrow."
After saying this, the middle-aged man hit him with a wooden stick.
The big weasel slithered and ran into a crack in the rocks, picked up the cub and ran out.
After running a few steps, his feet stumbled and the cub in his mouth fell to the ground.
Seeing that the child had fallen, the weasel didn't even bother to run away. He lowered his head and wanted to grab it, but was hit on the head with a stick by the middle-aged man. He kicked his legs and made no move.
The middle-aged man laughed loudly, slapped a stick on the head of the big weasel, and then killed the cub.
In the crevices of the rocks, the female weasel did not run away, but looked at the middle-aged man with a hateful look that made his scalp numb.
The middle-aged man didn't care about this. He bucketed several weasels to death in the cave one by one, muttering in his mouth: "There is food, there is food, no need to starve to death."
Peel the skin, make a fire, and cook.
Weasels are so small that even two big ones are just like domestic cats.
This meal was very delicious for us. Two big ones and seven small ones, nine weasels fell into the stomachs of six people, and everyone was seven to eighty percent full.
After eating, we continued on our way.
On the way, we found some more wild fruits, and Old Man Xu also found some wild vegetables.
The middle-aged man said happily that with the food in our stomachs and these wild vegetables and fruits, we could last a few more days.
Everyone was very happy, and with their joy, even the female weasel's malicious gaze was diluted.
At night, in my sleep, I heard the screams of a middle-aged man.
After waking up, I found the middle-aged man rolling on the floor, crying and shouting in pain.
Everyone got up and jointly restrained the middle-aged man and asked him what was wrong.
The middle-aged man closed his eyes tightly and resisted like a convulsion. Old Man Xu slapped him seven or eight times in a row until his face was swollen before he woke him up.
After waking up, I asked him what happened.
The middle-aged man said that he dreamed that weasels were looking for revenge on him. Many weasels hung on him, biting him, scratching him, and demanding his life.
After saying this, the middle-aged man took off his clothes and looked into his eyes. His whole body was covered with teeth marks and scratches. Looking at it, old man Xu muttered: "Retribution, retribution!"
The embroiderer was also very frightened and hid in Mrs. Xu's arms.
The middle-aged man didn't care, maybe he broke the jar, and said angrily: "You've eaten all the food, and you still dare to act like a monster. If you have the guts, take me away. You really think I'm afraid of you!"
Everyone was silent, and the middle-aged man's harsh words were hiding the fear in his heart.
It's a pity that everyone is helpless. Things like spirits and monsters can only be dealt with by literature, Taoism and Buddhism. How dare ordinary people dare to provoke them?
Keep on your way
From that day on, the middle-aged man stopped eating and vomited violently after eating. He also made trouble at night and always said that a weasel was biting him.
After three days, the middle-aged man became skinny and skinny. When he was on the road, he was always mumbling about something.
I listened closer and heard the middle-aged man seem to say again: "If you die, just die, I'm not afraid of you. If you die, just die, I'm not afraid of you."
On the twentieth day, the middle-aged man's nightmares became more and more serious. He couldn't sleep every night and would wake up after sleeping for a while.
I woke up from a nightmare again. The middle-aged man held my hand and said, "I'm afraid I can't survive. You must go to Yangzhou, otherwise I won't give in."
I said: "Don't think about it. You're fine. It's just that you've been under too much pressure these days. Have you thought about what will happen in the future? After you arrive in Yangzhou?"
"Yangzhou?"
The middle-aged man's eyes glowed with new brilliance and he whispered: "Actually, I am not a beggar. I am from Yangzhou. I live in Jinshan Prefecture, Liyang County, and Jiuquan Town. If you arrive in Yangzhou and have no other place to go,
Just go to Jiuquan Town in Liyang County, just say that you are Ning Daluo's son and find Ning Dachuan!"
It turned out that the middle-aged man's name was Ning Daluo, and he was from the Ning family in Jiuquan Town, Liyang County.
When the three Ning brothers were twenty years old, a middle-aged man took his younger brother to take a bath in the river to see who could dive longer. As a result, the younger brother drowned alive in the river.
I couldn't get over this hurdle in my heart, and I felt sorry for my parents, so I ran away from home alone.
After much wandering, I arrived at Daokou Village in Tongshan County. I saw the simple life of the people here, so I stayed.
That night, we chatted for a long time. The middle-aged man said that the thing he regretted most was running away from home and not being able to fulfill his filial piety in front of his parents.
I don’t know why at the time, but I was so obsessed with lard that I felt too shameless to stay, so I chose to leave.
They never expected that an old couple who had lost their second son would not be able to cope with their eldest son running away from home.
I asked, have you been back in recent years?
The middle-aged man shook his head and said that he had no shame in going back and could not go back.
The middle-aged man's eyes dimmed, he said to sleep, and lay aside without talking.
That night, before dawn, the middle-aged man had another nightmare.
After waking up in the night, he rushed into the woods brandishing a stick and never came out again.
We went to the woods to look for it for a long time. The woods were so big that it looked like a drop of water when we entered it. How could we find it?
The next day, we didn't rush, we planned to wait for the middle-aged man to come back.
We waited until the afternoon, but there was no trace of the middle-aged man. We knew that the middle-aged man would not come back.
Is he dead?
Thinking of that possibility, I don't know why, but I don't feel any sadness at all.
Perhaps, it would be good to die, because when you die, you don’t have to suffer anymore, and you don’t have to carry the burden anymore.