The clear and cold moon shines through the quiet night sky outside the window.
Inside the window is an eerie and peaceful family of four.
In front of the ancestral tablet in the old house, candles and incense burners floated out.
The old mother gathered a few steamed dishes from the kitchen, arranging them one by one as if listing her lifelong cooking skills, and arranging them on the table like an opera singer.
Jiang Xueming unscrewed the liquor at hand and poured a glass for his old father, without any intention of passing another glass to him.
He usually doesn't smoke or drink, even when he returns home.
Seeing old man Jiang raising his eyebrows, he wanted to act like a monster again.
"Son, you drink with me."
Jiang Xueming: "I don't drink."
Old Man Jiang said again: "You stay with me."
Jiang Xueming: "I don't drink."
Old Man Jiang bulged his eyes, and the whites of his bloodshot eyes suddenly became filled with evil energy, and he suddenly slapped the table.
"I told you to drink! How dare you disobey me?!"
Xiao Qi didn't say anything, just watched.
Jiang Xueming immediately took out the speaker he had prepared in advance from his backpack.
He shouted calmly and loudly at his old father: "I won't drink."
The noise made Old Jiang turn pale, as if he was frightened. He finally picked up Kuai Zi obediently and did not mention the wine company.
"Your voice isn't as loud as his, and your strength isn't as strong as his." The old mother looked at her husband sadly and put some food for him: "You must be self-aware."
The atmosphere calmed down.
Xiao Qi was about to start cooking. As soon as he made a quick start to grab the bowl, he was stopped by Jiang Xueming.
She then saw Mr. Xueming put down the loudspeaker and took out two lunch boxes from his backpack, which contained meals that had been prepared long ago.
Xiaoqi remembered that Mr. Xueming made it himself, and understood what Mr. Xueming meant, and took the lunch box.
Brother Qi asked in a low voice: "You don't even dare to eat the food at home?"
Xueming didn't answer, silently opened the lunch box, opened two pairs of bamboo sticks, and handed one pair to Brother Qi.
This move made the old mother's face look ugly, but she didn't have the thunderous voice and power like Old Man Jiang.
The violent and resentful look in the old mother's eyes only lasted for a short moment and then disappeared.
Under the dim light of the electric lamp, she served her husband some food, as if demarcating territory on the dining table, and naturally stretched the tachyon to the side of Jiang Xueming's bowl.
Xueming picked up the bowl and stood up immediately: "No, I will just eat this."
The old mother said worriedly: "You can't do this. When you go home, don't you even want to eat the food at home? Do you know that we want to ask the TV station to find you through a family search program, and I also want to send messages online.
I need to find you, but..."
Xueming immediately interrupted and lied without blushing: "My wife made this for me, it can't be wasted."
"You would rather eat the food cooked by this outsider than the food cooked by my mother?" The old mother's eyes were full of frustration, like a victim who had her child taken away. "What kind of vixen is this woman? How dare you come to charm my precious cub.
?!"
At that moment, a cold and wet wind rushed in from outside the door, and the dark wind became strong inside the house.
The candles on the tablet of the ancestral spirit were also extinguished.
Only then did Xiao Qi feel that something was not right. Her inspiration was calling the police. The eyes of the two old men in front of her were like poisonous wasp tails, trying to poke her blind. Just looking at each other made her eyes feel dry and painful.
She turned her head and pulled Xueming's clothes, trying to remind Mr. Xueming.
Just this tilt of her head allowed her to see the shadows of herself and Mr. Xueming under the light.
She looked further into the distance along the gap at the corner of the table. From the same angle, there was no shadow of the two old people...
Before she could say anything.
Xueming's tone was cold and she began to make up a story.
"Mom, stop calling her a stranger. The dogs at home recognize her, but you don't.
Thanks to her in the past few years, my mother-in-law has not made things difficult for Bai Lu and me. My father-in-law is also willing to pay for our wedding. He also mortgaged his house in the bank and started business for us. But I was useless and owed a lot of debt. It was not easy to do it.
When I get the money, I want to send it back to you for your retirement."
When he heard about the wedding, Old Man Jiang immediately shouted: "Is your marriage also called a marriage?! There are more than two hundred households in the villages, towns and counties who don't know me? They don't recognize this woman, do you think you can get married? Do you think she can enter
My door?"
When Xiao Qi heard this sentence, she was completely stunned.
Now she doesn't care at all about the living conditions of the two elders. It doesn't matter whether they are living people or spirits.
She thought about the entry threshold for Jiang Xueming's family, and the piece of meat she had just brought to her mouth fell back into the bowl in shock.
The mother of the Jiang family glanced at the cash on the tea table. They were all real banknotes that her son had brought home. Her eyelids jumped when she heard the debt, and she spoke slowly.
"My dear, we support whatever you do outside. As long as you bring money back, that's a good thing. As for how much debt you owe and who you owe it to - you have to be careful and settle all the accounts clearly.
"Society is very bad now. Don't think too much of some people. Mom and dad will not harm you. We are all doing it for your own good."
Hearing these words, Xiao Qi's eyes were filled with fire, and she felt that she couldn't finish the meal, and that the show couldn't be right.
Jiang Xueming picked up the speaker again and started making fun of the group, with a perfunctory tone that was clear in words: "Thank you, parents, for caring!"
The volume of the loudspeaker has been turned up to the maximum, and the chaotic current sound has dispersed the dark wind in the room. The incense on the ancestral tablet has been blown away, and the candles have started to burn again, which is very strange.
"There are a few more things." Jiang Xueming put down the speaker, picked up the fake shoe box, and continued: "She and I are selling this thing, it's a fake."
Old Man Jiang looked at the banknotes, his throat swallowed as if he was greedy, and he cursed: "You committed adultery and committed a crime. You will not end well. No wonder you are in debt! You should have listened to me and gone back to work in the battery factory."
Mrs. Jiang came to her husband holding the banknotes, and the two of them secretly counted the money under the table. They didn't look good, but the corners of their mouths couldn't help but curl up.
"How about I turn myself in now?" Jiang Xueming said with a crooked smile: "You have to think carefully, what you have in your hands now is stolen money."
Xiao Qi burst out laughing.
"What are you laughing at? You're wearing a mess, and you're going out to throw me away." Old Man Jiang cursed in a low voice, not as fiercely as before: "You think you're powerful after you get some money? How dare you put this
If you tell the truth, I will be the first to beat you to death."
Before Jiang Xueming could answer——
——The old mother started to pull her wife's hair fiercely, "Why are you so cruel to him? What's going on in the nest?! You will never make so much money in your life! You don't even know a few words. I want you to go."
You can't handle the neighborhood committee's request to sign the subsistence allowance households! My son only comes back once every few years, and he gets scolded when he comes home. After the scolding, they start to quarrel! Does it still feel like a family?"
The scene was so chaotic that Xiao Qi had no eyes to see it. Just listening to a few more sentences made him feel his mental energy dropping, as if he had touched a switch - his whole body was numb.
Jiang Xueming remained silent, and as the old mother poured out all the anger in her heart, the yelling and cursing in the room gradually subsided.
Old Man Jiang lowered his head in frustration and kept drinking.
"I'll tell you the truth." Jiang Xueming felt like staying in this home was cooking every second. "Bai Lu was taken away while delivering goods at the warehouse and is still in the detention center. I'm very anxious. This
Things can’t be put off.”
Old Man Jiang suddenly became anxious: "Can it be done? She is going to get married!"
Mrs. Jiang was also very anxious: "Yes, there is also the gift money! We planned to leave it to you for your wedding. Now that you are married, you have to get this money back to your family."
"You don't have to worry about it." Xueming said bluntly, speaking very fast, wanting to get away immediately: "I will handle it, and I will leave tonight. There is no place for us to sleep here."
There was loneliness in Mrs. Jiang's eyes: "Aren't you going to stay overnight? Are you leaving in such a hurry?"
Old Man Jiang stopped drinking. He suddenly stood up and faced Xueming, but his eyes were fixed on Xiao Qi, "You are such a good mother-in-law? I'm not worried. There is a bunk bed in the big house, which can sleep four people."
, don’t even think about leaving.”
The profound meaning in this sentence made Xiao Qi's jaw almost drop to the ground.
Xiao Qi quickly asked: "One room? Four of us?"
After hearing these words, even if Xueming is a Buddhist, it is time for him to evolve into King Ming.
He picked up the trumpet.
The second elder quickly covered his ears, looking lonely and pitiful.
He put down the speaker.
The two elders returned to their aggressive demeanor.
Xueming couldn't figure it out, not at all. Does this big speaker have any magical power? Thanks to his careful preparation, who in the family would listen to him seriously?
Maybe only the nameless dog would be willing to listen to him bark a few times, right?
What to eat, what to wear, where to live.
What to love, what to hate, how to work.
The most basic demands of daily life have become extravagant demands in this family.
Xueming really wants very little. He just wants to simply pay off his debts to his family members.
He didn't want to hurt these two most familiar strangers who had been nurtured by him, and he had to protect himself.
He is a very sincere person, and he never holds grudges outside the home. No emotion can knock him down at once, and no anger can prevent him from continuing to live with his sister.
But at this moment, he was so angry that he was shaking all over. No matter how many troubles he encountered in his life, he had never been so angry.
The last time I was so angry was when I took Bai Lu away and flew away.
Xueming seemed to be solving the most difficult question in the world: "Why can you open and close your mouths and say a few words so easily that you can decide other people's lives?"
The other three people in the room didn't speak.
Xiao Qi didn't dare to say anything. In just a few seconds, she felt that Mr. Xueming beside her seemed to have changed.
It's like eternal ice turning into scalding hot lava. Even the slightest touch can cause third-degree burns.
Inspiration told her that now was not the time to speak.
For a moment, she even wanted to exit the door and immediately ran back to the station to hide.
"He's going to rebel... He's going to rebel..." Old Man Jiang muttered in a low voice, tugging on his wife's sleeves. "I told you, if he's not well-raised, he'll be like a wolf cub in the mountains. Sooner or later, one day
They want to run away and eat us."
Mrs. Jiang lowered her head and sat back down in a timid manner, with only fear and fear in her eyes, and she stopped talking.
"Did you buy me and Bai Lu?" Jiang Xueming took out the oil paper bag from his travel bag. It was a gift that Mr. Chen from the paper shop asked him to bring to his parents. He left the things here and was ready to leave.
He didn't plan to say anything more, and by asking this question, he was just tearing away the last bit of his face.
Old Man Jiang did not dare to speak, and his last voice was strangled in his throat.
Mrs. Jiang's eyes flickered, and when she heard these words, her heart felt as if she was struck by thunder, and her expression changed dramatically.
"You're not going to say it, right? I don't care either... I'm leaving. These are the things Mr. Chen asked me to bring you." Xueming tore open the bag, her eyes becoming confused.
The oil-paper bag contained two wads of paper money, the ticket number of Tiandi Bank, and the Jade Emperor's emblem.
At that moment——
——The moment the two old men saw the paper money, they were stunned as if they were under a restraining spell.
They seemed to finally understand that they had been dead for a long time, but they still had the reluctance to let go, the unwillingness to be incomplete, and the strong desire to not get what they wanted remained in this old house.
The food on the table smelled and rotted in an instant, and the bowls quickly weathered into sand and dust like snow that had seen the spring light. The same goes for the tables and chairs in the old house, which made a squeaking sound.
Xiaoqi and Xueming immediately took a few steps back, but with each breath, the lights flickered on and off, and the old house suddenly became old and dilapidated, as if no one had lived in it for a long time.
The paper money from Tiandi Bank scattered with the cold wind, and the bodies of the two elders of the Jiang family were shattered into dust.
At that moment, Jiang Xueming could vaguely see the dull and calm look of the two elders.
After a long time, the room was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.
Jiang Xueming was finally convinced that his parents were actually dead long ago.
What I just saw was just a spiritual illusion.
Only the dim clear light at the door and the cold moon shone on the big black dog, as if this guard dog had been guarding this weird and terrifying family.
Xiao Qi tugged at Xueming's sleeve and said cautiously: "This is a spiritual disaster... It's the first time you've seen it. Just now I saw that the second elder had no shadow. He must have turned into a spirit for a long time.
Yes. That boss Chen in the papermaking shop should be a very capable person."
Jiang Xueming had more doubts in her heart.
Mr. Chen from the paper shop asked him to send this oil paper bag just to let him see the two elders for the last time? Did he come to send them on their way in person?
He frowned and squatted back in front of the threshold, wanting to pet the family dog.
But the black dog seemed to have completed its mission, and ran into the wilds without letting Jiang Xueming touch it. It barked at the old house a few times, and then ran back to the mountains as soon as it smoked.
The man did not stay long in the memories of the past. Without saying a word, he picked up the banknotes, packed his bags, and prepared to return to the hotel in Pingyang County for the night.
On the wooden stand in the mud flat, the dried radishes were riddled with bugs and turned into firewood that could be broken into pieces when pinched.
Xiao Qi followed Xueming on the way back.
The clear stars in the sky were still blinking at them.
"Xue Ming, were you and Bai Lu bought by them?" Brother Qi asked in a low voice, as if he was afraid of irritating Xueming's emotions.
"I have known it for a long time, but there is no evidence." Jiang Xueming did not shy away. He casually tore off the missing person notice from the telephone pole on the roadside and found something posted by the Jiang family among the layers of old posters and advertisements: "They used
There were many ways to come to me, including posting flyers, initiating relationships with relatives and friends, and finding ways to go to the TV station, but they didn’t call the police. That’s when I figured it out.”
Xiao Qi asked again: "Will you be sad?"
Seeing Xueming, he didn't say anything.
Xiao Qi said fiercely: "If you dare to buy a child sent by a trafficker, it is not a good thing! Damn it! Open the champagne!"
Jiang Xueming still didn't speak, just walking from one place to another.
Xiaoqi seemed to want to empathize with her and comfort Xueming: "That's right, after all, he is the one who raised you..."
"Didn't I tell you before?" Jiang Xueming replied seriously: "I don't care."
Suddenly, in just ten seconds.
Xiaoqi's nose felt sore for no reason, she scratched her head and just cried.
She leaned on Jiang Xueming's shoulder, not knowing where the grievances and sorrows in her heart came from. Her whole person was filled with the brilliance of motherhood, and there was nothing wrong with her except that maternal love had deteriorated a bit -
——She felt that this person was really strange.
Jiang Xueming tilted his head and glanced at Brother Seven, wondering where Brother Seven's sentimental mood came from.
"It's useless for you to cry. If you could cry about things like feelings, how many female fans would squat at Daniel Wu's door, and how could they get rid of him with their cries? Do you know that you don't have that ability?"
The seventh brother slapped Mr. Xueming on the shoulder, like slapping a disobedient naughty child, crying and laughing, "Naughty!"
Jiang Xueming didn't pay much attention. He opened his notebook and mobile phone and made an extra note on the statement, plus the 300,000 that was supposed to be given away.
"The dump truck Iaijutsu can be used thirty-one times with the current financial resources."