Yin-Yang Judge of Hell - C90
“What are you talking about?” The old beggar awoke from his deep thoughts.
“Last night’s old man was from our second floor, so we didn’t have any conflicts. Why did he come over to blow candles? He almost scared me to death!”
When I heard about the second floor, my heart skipped a beat. I vaguely felt that something was up as I hurriedly asked, “Which room on the second floor?”
“It’s directly below my house, towards the stairs!”
“Does anyone still live here?”
“It’s gone now. He had already bought a new house, and after the old man died, he moved to the new district. Because of the demolition problem, he didn’t rent a house from the outside for half a year!”
As I expected, there was something wrong with the house. I said that the snoring sound last night was so strange that it made me flustered, as if I had stuck myself to the glass, and stopped after a few rings. I couldn’t help but shiver at the thought. Damn, luckily I didn’t know what had happened in that room, or else I would have been as scary as I thought. I just didn’t know why this old man only glanced at me after I scolded him.
“That old man must have been very thrifty when he was alive, so thrifty that it makes one’s hair stand on end, so he couldn’t bear to have people light a lamp in the middle of the night.” I said, smiling.
“Hahaha!” Leng Wuzui laughed twice, but he had to admit that it was an unpleasant laugh because of his duckling voice, “You guessed correctly, but the old man was originally deaf and dumb, and in his later years he was blind, yet he still ran around picking up drinks bottles and amassing for money. For this reason, everyone in the family was furious, because their family’s financial situation is very good. Only the old man came to a strange province, so what do you think he wants?! ”
“It’s possible that the old man is too poor, especially for those who have gone through tough times, you all know how to cherish them!”
Speaking of which, I think I found the reason why the old man blew the lamp. Death is not the beginning of reincarnation. I think everyone can accept that, but the existence of life has changed. But there is no change in the trajectory and appearance of life. The reason why the trajectory of life was still the same was on the basis of whether the poor died or the poor, the people who starved to death would still starve, and the people who owed them would still have to pay their debts, or to be more precise, they would stay in the same causal relationship after death, and this kind of imprint could not be erased. The reason why their appearance is the same is because they involve all kinds of ghosts in Chinese ghost culture. For example, the hungry ghosts are still as thin as firewood, for example, Old Lady Zhao, or the Hanged Ghost with his protruding tongue, for example, Xu Ling, or the two ghosts on the computer screen when I first met Leng Wujie, they must have died in an accident. I can also explain why the old man ignored me when I scolded him. He blew the lamp because he was thrifty and ignored me because he was deaf and dumb and his eyes were useless and he didn’t recognize me at all. Thinking about this, I could actually come to more conclusions, such as whether the ghost would die of old age, how the ghost would hook up with the ghost, and even the meaning of the note that the leopard cat gave me. But I had already reached my destination, and these conclusions could only be inferred later, so I decided to put them away later.
Leng Wuzui lived at the edge of a small town. This small town was actually where my grandfather and a villager sold their grains. Everyone might have forgotten that they met a ghost market when they went back. The town was not big, and it was truly a lonely town. In the center of the town, there was a north-south street, no more than two hundred meters, which could be considered a street. On both sides, there were two floors, one of which was a gate market, and the items sold were both more numerous and more mixed. The second floor was where the shopkeepers ate, with clothes draped over the balcony and a solar water heater on top of the roof. The car got off the highway and headed north along this street. Actually, I’ve been to this town before. Although it has been quite a while, it hasn’t changed much. Now was not the time to be at a fair. The streets were rather deserted and the shops on both sides of the street were open, but no one came to visit. Beans and corn were hanging in patches on the road. It was unknown who had spread them out here, but the sound of the traffic could be heard as the car passed by. As soon as the wind blew, the crushed bean curd powder hit him in the face, making the whole street look dirty and messy. I hurriedly closed the window and lamented, “Decades of unchanging backwardness, falling behind so many people that they took it for granted!”
Leng Wuzui smiled and said, “When we get home, if you meet my elder brother, don’t speak carelessly.”
“Why? You guys don’t agree? ”
“Don’t ask about this, which family doesn’t have a headache? If they say something unpleasant, don’t take it to heart. ”
I said don’t say that, it makes me feel pressured. I looked at the old beggar. His eyes were darting around, looking around. It seems that he didn’t have a care in the world towards Leng Jue’s words. I don’t know if he was too heartless, or if he didn’t hear me.
When they reached the north end of the street, they turned to head west. The road was harder and bumpier, but they passed a grocery store and a primary school. At this time, a person, an old man, in his seventies, with a round head and a round face, sparse hair but a particularly luxuriant beard, was walking towards them. He looked like he was wrapped in a flowery towel and dressed very decently. He held two jade balls that were the size of goose eggs in his hands and was rotating them while walking. This was called Coiled Jade, and it was a way to grow jade. It gave him a very energetic look.
“Why does this old man look like a hooligan? Does he not look like a monk?” The old beggar pointed at the old man and said.
After hearing what the old beggar said, Leng Wuzui turned his head to look over. Unexpectedly, he took a look and hurriedly stopped his car. He then took his cigarette and walked out, full of smiles, “Boss, so it’s you!” As he spoke, he took out a cigarette.
That boss was really cocky. He took the cigarette and raised it high, saying in an unconcerned tone, “Old Third, why are you back!”
“Well, I haven’t been back for close to a month. I have to be free today, so I can come back and add more tombs to my mother’s grave.” “Thank you for your trouble last time!” Here to add to the grave is what we used to say about going to the grave, is to burn paper money for the dead relatives, to entrust sorrow.
The boss’ face suddenly changed when he heard Leng Chao’s words. However, in the blink of an eye, he regained his composure and said slowly, “Not bad, not bad at all. It’s not easy for a young person to be filial. Go.”
“Alright, nice to meet you, Elder!” As he spoke, he turned around and walked back.
“How did Ol ‘Three become a grandson?” The old beggar said. Ol ‘Three was called the Cold Exemplary by the boss.
I said don’t talk so much, be careful of others beating you to death, I can’t protect you.
“Who was that person just now? He’s very impressive!” I saw Leng Wuzui getting into the car and hurriedly asked.
“Boss, you have quite a high position here. Whichever family meets with trouble, ask him to take charge of the situation. No one has ever dared to be disrespectful to him. The last time my mom died, he was the one in charge! ”
“It sounds like it’s going to be a hot topic!”
“I know a lot of things, but there’s nothing I can do about it. Nowadays, no matter what profession society is in, understanding the essence is still a talent.”
I turned my head to look at the boss and realised that he was also looking in my direction. After staring for a long while, I turned around and left. At this time, the surrounding houses gradually underwent a change. They were no longer the small foreign buildings from before, but instead filled with red brick and blue tiles. Clearly, the economic gap had widened. The car passed through a large field. It was indeed quite dry this year, and all the farmers in the field were stumped. To the peasants, it was their first misfortune to rely on the heavens to feed themselves.
When we entered the village, there were still a lot of people watching from time to time. This was the same situation as when Glass and I first entered the village, which showed that these two areas of economic development were indeed well-balanced.
At this moment, Leng Wuzui slowed down his car and shouted to a person on the roadside, “Big Brother, I’m back!”
The old beggar and I hurriedly looked up. Because Leng Wuzui said that his elder brother was a little difficult to deal with, he paid special attention to him. He was in his forties and was slightly shorter, probably only about 1.65 meters. He said that he was not fat, that he was not thin, and that he was a little dark. He really didn’t know if he and Leng Wuzui were born of the same mother.
That person seemed to be arguing with someone on the roadside, and upon hearing Leng Wuzui’s shout, he turned around and ran over with a limp. This man wore light blue pants, like a worker’s uniform. He wore a pair of slippers from who knows where, but the pants were too long, and the legs of the pants were sticking out from the bottom. He wore a white vest, and his skin was dark. A standard peasant dress.
“Aiyo, Ol ‘Three, why did you come back?”
Leng Wuzui did not answer directly but used a question to cover his face, “Big Brother, what’s wrong with your leg!?”
“It’s nothing, it’s nothing. About that, your sister-in-law is sick. Go take a look later.”
“Alright, I’ll go see my dad first!”
His elder brother did not hear Leng Wuzui’s words because after he finished speaking, he ran back and continued arguing with the others.
“Your elder brother isn’t as good as you say, isn’t he? Other than his looks, what’s wrong with that?” “No,” I said.
Leng Wuzui chuckled but did not say anything. Then we drove on for five or six minutes and turned south into an alley, which was a dead end. The street was dirt, the drains were in front of every house, and the road itself was uneven, high and low, which almost made me and the old beggar puke. I felt like I was hanging around in the car until I got off a ramp and stopped.
“My god, this alley is so deep, my old bones were almost scattered in your car.” The old beggar let out a long breath and said.
“Disperse. I’ll help you pick them up one by one.”
The old beggar gave me a hard look and got out of the car.
The courtyard was surrounded by an earthen wall that looked quite large from the outside. The gate was to the west, and on top of the gate was a shelter made of straw, shaped like a three-prism roof. This place was called the Door Tower, and was used to shelter people from the rain and the sun.
After entering through the gate, the structure of the yard could be seen clearly. On the north side of the courtyard, three large brick houses stood side by side, opening to the south as if they had just been built. On the west side, there was a pressure well in front of a door, facing a ditch that ran through the yard and into the small garden that faced the gate. The garden was very big. It was surrounded by a few wooden sticks that were intertwined with each other against the east wall. There were a lot of shelves built with vegetables and the shelves were covered with dead vines.