"Burned by fire?" I was stunned. I didn't expect that there was such a story in our village.
But I also have doubts in my heart. Logically speaking, these things are not big things. When the old people in the village are bored, they will tell stories to the children under the big trees. But I have never heard of this thing since I was a child.
.
The village chief nodded, then lit a cigarette and started puffing away.
"Then it was later found out who set the fire?" I asked curiously. You must know that even in today's society, the status of village chronicles in our village is quite high, let alone in ancient times.
Those who were guilty of burning down the Murakami Pavilion might just be dragged out to be soaked in a pig pen.
But the strange thing is that the village chief told me that the person has not been found.
"Actually, the villagers did want to find the murderer at that time, but..."
After the Cunzhi Pavilion caught fire, the people in the village were immediately in a panic. They rushed to put out the fire one by one. Although the fire was extinguished later, the fire in the hearts of the villagers burned brightly, and everyone shouted to find the person who set the fire.
The murderer wanted to kill that person to comfort his ancestors.
At that time, the mood of the villagers was suddenly pushed to its peak. The Village Chronicle Pavilion, which was regarded as a sacred place by the villagers, was burned down. How could they give up?
But the development of things exceeded everyone's imagination.
The village chronicle pavilion was burned down by fire, and all the village chronicles inside were also destroyed. At this time, little sparks appeared in the whole village, and the sparks rose up in an instant and turned into a continuous fire.
.
The fire spread rapidly as soon as it started. In less than two minutes, the fire covered most of the village.
At that time, our village had the largest population and the most prosperous existence among the ten miles and eight villages. In ancient times, our village was even called Shan'ao Town. It was said to be even worse than the town, and that
At that time, the fire suddenly covered half of the village. You can imagine how big the fire was at that time.
"Isn't it right? Half the village can be burned down in just one or two minutes?" After hearing the village chief's words, I suddenly had doubts in my heart. The village had a large population at that time, and half of the village could not be burned every ten minutes or so.
ah.
unless……
Seeing my suddenly enlightened expression, the village chief couldn't help but laugh and said: "You must have guessed it, right? Indeed, the fire was man-made. Okay, Xiaofan, please listen to me and continue."
At that time, when the fire started, people couldn't care less about looking for the murderer. If they didn't put out the fire, the entire village would have been completely destroyed.
The fire burned fiercely, lighting up almost half of the night sky. The fire lasted for more than an hour. Most of the village was completely destroyed, and many people died in the fire.
Under the influence of this fire, our village suddenly changed from a large village with a large population to a small and weak village.
But now that the fire has occurred, people have already done the follow-up work. A series of things such as rebuilding the village and burying the dead require the whole village to be busy.
During that time, everyone who passed by our village would see that every household was lit with candles and scraped with white silk, day or night, and the sound of crying came from the village all day and night.
And it was this time that completely dealt a blow to the luck of the entire village. Although our village has developed since then, it is no longer as grand as it was back then. And now these village records that the village chief showed me are
Since that incident, it has been recorded again by successive village chiefs.
"Actually, it's just like what you said. Even if it starts burning, the fire won't become so strong all of a sudden. In fact, someone is doing something secretly. After that, the murderer seems to have disappeared from the world and has never been found again.
Maybe the murderer is hiding among our villagers, maybe it's one of your uncles who has a good relationship with you. But if the murderer doesn't show up and doesn't admit it himself, then the villagers will never be able to find him out, and this matter has become a problem for us.
The village’s unsolved case.”
The village chief said so much in one breath, and then he kept smoking. He seemed to be enjoying the smoke while puffing away the smoke. There was also a confused look in his eyes, as if he was intoxicated by the past things.
And can't help myself.
"Until now, no one has found the murderer, but as time goes by, this matter has gradually faded out of people's sight. Until now, it is estimated that very few people know about this matter." The village chief sighed.
, but from his expression and tone, I didn’t feel any sadness at all, but instead felt a sense of gloating about his misfortune.
"Did anything else happen after that?" I asked curiously.
Although I don't know what happened after that, I always feel that the village chief's mood is wrong now, as if something unusual happened.
I have to say that my sixth sense is really very good.
What did happen later? It is said that starting from the second day after the fire, the village became unstable. At the beginning, some strange things happened at night. Some people walking on the road in the village at night would hear a series of roars.
The sound was like someone shouting in pain.
The sound came out of nowhere, and many people even looked for it, but could not see the source of the sound at all.
Later, some people would even meet some "old friends" in the village, but those people had all died in the fire.
As soon as the incident came out, some people said that the resentment and unwillingness of those who died manifested themselves in front of others, and that they needed to invite Taoist priests to perform rituals, resolve their resentments, and save the dead.
As a result, the Taoist priests came, and three groups came as soon as they arrived, but the first two groups didn't even enter the village. They were trembling all over just looking at the village from a distance, saying that things in the village were making too much noise, and they
They couldn't touch it and didn't dare to touch it, so they immediately turned around and left. No matter how much the villagers tried to persuade them, they even offered three times the original price, but they still couldn't keep them.
Originally, the mood of the villagers was already wrong at that time. They were all scared to death. It was rumored that some people were going to move out of the village at that time. Once this kind of thing sets a precedent, for Shan'ao Village, which has already experienced a sharp decline in population,
That would just add insult to injury.
The village chief at that time had no choice but to comfort the villagers while continuing to look for the Taoist priest.
Later, the third Taoist priest did come, and he did not run away immediately after seeing the village, but his request was a bit unacceptable to everyone.