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 like a list of her lifelong cooking skills, and arranging them on the table like an opera singer, Jing Mo Chou.
Jiang Xueming unscrewed the liquor at hand, poured a glass for his old father, and showed no 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 slammed 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 roared 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 the chopsticks 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 gesture to grab the bowl and chopsticks, 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, took apart two pairs of bamboo chopsticks, and handed one pair to Brother Seven.
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 picked up the food for her husband, as if marking a territory on the dining table, and naturally stretched her chopsticks to the edge of Jiang Xueming's bowl.
Xueming picked up the bowl and chopsticks 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. 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 whose child was 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 surged from outside the door, and a dark wind filled the house.
The candles on the ancestral spirit tablets were also extinguished.
Only then did Xiao Qi feel that something was not right. Her inspiration was calling the police. The gazes of the two old men in front of her were like poisonous wasps 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 almost convulsed and looked further into the distance along the gap at the corner of the table. From the same angle, there were no shadows of the two old people...
Before she could say anything.
Mr. Xueming's tone was cold and he began to make up a story.
"Mom, stop calling her an outsider. 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 mortgages his house in the bank and does business for us. But I am useless and owe a lot of debt. After finally getting the money, I thought of sending 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?! Who among the more than two hundred households in the villages, towns and counties doesn'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 actual banknotes that her son had brought home. His eyelids twitched when he heard the debt, and he spoke slowly.
"My dear, we support whatever you do outside. As long as you bring back money, that's a good thing. As for how much debt you owe and who you owe it to - you must be careful and settle all the accounts clearly. , Society is very bad now, don’t think too well of some people, your parents will not harm you, we are all for your own good.”
Hearing these words, Xiao Qi's eyes were filled with fire. She felt that she couldn't finish the meal and that the show couldn't be right.
Jiang Xueming picked up the loudspeaker again and started making fun of the group, with a perfunctory meaning: "Thank you, parents, for caring!"
The volume of the speaker has been turned up to the maximum, with the chaotic sound of electricity dispersing the dark wind in the room. The incense on the ancestral spirit tablet was blown away, and the candles burned again, which was 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 like 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 surrender now?" Jiang Xueming said with a crooked smile: "You have to think about it, all you have in your hands now are stolen money."
Xiao Qi burst out laughing.
"What are you laughing at? You're wearing a mess, and you're going out to embarrass me." Old Man Jiang cursed in a low voice, and he was not as fierce as before: "You think you are 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 for low-income households to sign their names! My son only comes back once every few years, and he gets scolded when he comes home. After the scolding, they start quarreling! 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. After the old mother had poured out all the anger in her heart, the yelling and cursing in the room gradually subsided.
Old Man Jiang lowered his head in aggrieved manner 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 some gift money! We plan to leave it to you for your wedding!"
"You don't have to worry about it." Xueming said bluntly, speaking very fast, wanting to get away immediately: "I will take care of it. 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 and stood up suddenly to face 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 that 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, Xueming, no matter how Buddhist he is, should evolve into King Ming.
He picked up the horn.
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 understand it at all. Did this big speaker have any magical power? Fortunately, he was well prepared, otherwise 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 living people have become extravagant demands in this family.
Xueming really wants very little. He just wants to simply pay off his debts to his family.
He didn't want to hurt these two most familiar strangers who had the kindness to raise him, and he had to protect himself.
He is a very sincere person, and he never holds grudges outside. No emotion can knock him down, and no anger can prevent him from continuing to live with his sister.
But at this moment, he was shaking with anger. No matter how many troubles he encountered in his life, he had never been so angry.
The last time he was so angry was when he took Bai Lu away and flew away.
Xueming frowned, as if he was trying to solve the most difficult problem in the world: "How come you can decide my whole life just by opening and closing your mouths and speaking a few words lightly?"
The other three people in the room were silent.
Xiao Qi didn't dare to say anything. In those few seconds, she felt that Mr. Xueming beside her seemed to have changed.
It was as if the eternal ice had turned into scalding hot lava. Even the slightest touch would 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 run back to the station to hide.
"He's going to rebel... He's going to rebel..." Old Man Jiang muttered quietly, tugging at his wife's sleeves. "I told you, if he is not well-raised, he will be like a wolf cub in the mountains. Sooner or later, he will run away and eat us."
Mrs. Jiang lowered her head and sat back down timidly. Her eyes only looked frightened and she stopped talking.
"Did you buy me and Bai Lu?" Jiang Xueming took out the oilcloth bag from his travel bag. It was a gift that Mr. Chen from the paper shop asked him to bring to his parents.
He didn't plan to say anything more. Asking this question would only tear away the last bit of his face.
Old Man Jiang didn't dare to speak anymore, his last sound was strangled in his throat.
Mrs. Jiang's eyes flickered, and when she heard these words, her expression changed drastically as if she was struck by thunder.
"You're not going to say it, right? I don't care either...I'm leaving. This is what Mr. Chen asked me to bring you." Xueming tore open the oilcloth bag and his eyes became confused.
The oilcloth bag contained two wads of paper money, the ticket number of Tiandi Bank, and the emblem of the Jade Emperor.
At that moment——
——The moment the two old men saw the paper money, they were stunned as if they were under a calming 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 dishes and chopsticks quickly weathered and turned into dust like snow in spring. The same goes for the tables and chairs in the old house, which made a squeaking sound.
Xiao Qi 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.
Only the dim clear light and cold moon at the door shone on the big black dog, as if this guard dog had been guarding this weird and terrifying family.
Xiao Qi tugged on Mr. 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. For a long time."
Jiang Xueming had more doubts in her heart.
Mr. Chen from the paper shop asked him to bring this oilcloth bag just so that he could see his two elders for the last time? Come and 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.
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 Mr. 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 Mr. Xueming's emotions.
"I have known it for a long time, but there is no evidence." Jiang Xueming did not shy away. He 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: "Would you be sad?"
Seeing Mr. Xueming, he didn't show any expression.
Xiao Qi said viciously again: "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 comforted 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, Xiao Qi's nose became sore for no reason. She scratched her head and cried out.
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 her mother's 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 many cries would be able to deal with Daniel Wu? Do you know that you don't have that ability?"
Brother Qi suddenly slapped Mr. Xueming on the shoulder, as if slapping a disobedient 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.
"The dump truck Iaijutsu can be released thirty-one times with the current financial resources."
