Qingcao Town, Zhang Family.
Xiaojie pushed open the door of the wedding room, and was greeted by a strong smell of medicine, bitter and irritating.
In the dark room, the doors and windows were closed to keep warm, and a disgusting smell filled the air.
Mother Zhang stood by the bed, holding a medicine bowl in her hand. She turned around when she heard the movement behind her. When she saw it was Xiaojie, tears rolled down her eyes.
She held the bowl in one hand and covered her mouth with the other hand, sobbing: "Xiaojie, you are finally back. Zhang Ban has been waiting for you..."
Xiaojie staggered to the bed and saw the thin and completely shrunken body under the two or three layers of quilts. On the sallow face, the two eye sockets were sunken, and the eyeballs looked as if they had been gouged out. Such a person couldn't believe that this was Zhang Ban.
This is simply the appearance of the wandering beggar who died of illness, starvation and freezing that I saw under the sky in the cold winter last year!
"Zhang Ban, Zhang Ban..." Xiaojie leaned beside Zhang Ban's head and called softly, stroking his messy and dull hair with trembling fingers.
As soon as she touched it, a lot of hair fell out. Xiaojie looked at the hair tangled between her fingers and cried.
Zhang's mother stood aside, covering her mouth and crying.
"Zhang Ban really knows that he is wrong. He has been talking nonsense these days when he was ill. He kept saying the same thing over and over again, he is wrong, he is wrong..."
"Xiaojie, my good wife, Zhang Ban was really fascinated for a moment, but in the end he didn't do anything with that woman that crossed the boundary between men and women. It was the woman who admired his talent and shamelessly stuck to him. write a letter."
"Zhang Ban is a man and a scholar. Perhaps it was the vanity in his bones at that moment that caused him to date that woman twice and exchange several letters."
"But he never spent a penny on that woman. All the monthly money he earned in school was handed over to you without a penny. What he eats, drinks, wears, everything is decided by you. These things Son, you should be aware of this."
"Zhang Ban is about to die. His father went to the coffin shop to order a coffin for him. It's useless to talk about it now. You should stay with him. I'll go out first."
Xiaojie lay beside Zhang Ban's bed, sobbing so hard that she couldn't hear clearly what Zhang's mother said in the end.
Zhang's mother happened to meet Xiaojie's father at the door of the house. Zhang's mother shook her head towards Xiaojie's father and said, "In-laws, let's go to the front room to talk. We'll leave this place to the young couple."
Xiaojie's father glanced at the bed from a distance through the gap in the door, sighed, turned around and followed Zhang's mother to the front room with heavy steps.
Only Xiaojie and Zhang Ban were left in the room.
Xiaojie gently stroked Zhang Ban's face and looked carefully at the man she had really liked.
The young man with thick eyebrows and big eyes in the memory is now extremely ill. The circles under his eyes are black, his lips are black and blue, and the flesh on his cheeks seems to have been shaved off piece by piece. If this layer of skin is torn off, it will probably be a skull. .
Xiaojie was very scared, scared to death. No matter how she called in his ear, he didn't respond at all.
"Don't you want to explain to me? Now that I'm here, why don't you open your eyes and look at me? I want to hear you say I'm sorry again. You were wrong."
"Zhang Ban, open your eyes. As long as you open your eyes and say for yourself that you were wrong, I will forgive you immediately. Let's live a good life from now on and raise Yan'er together, okay?"
"Zhang Ban, you can't die. What will I do if you die? What will happen to Yan'er? I'm a woman with no abilities. I can't hold Yan'er back. If someone bullies her, I can't protect her..."
"Zhang Ban, you are the only son in the family. What will your parents do if you are gone?"
"Hold on, you must hold on, you can't die..."
Xiaojie lay beside Zhang Ban's bed, crying into tears and fainting several times.
After a long time, she suddenly remembered something.
That was the last time when she had just had an quarrel with Zhang Ban and returned to her parents' home. One time, she was upset and ran to the Yishu Taoist temple behind the village to burn incense and draw a marriage lottery.
When she went to find out the lottery for her, Daochang Yuan recognized her as Sister Qing'er's cousin and saw that she looked lonely. Daochang Yuan just glanced at the lottery and did not explain it to her. Instead, he gave her a red ribbon.
The ribbons were painted with patterns she couldn't understand, like charms.
She was in a mess at the time. She was so confused about what everyone around her said or did, that she had no intention of paying attention.
But before leaving, she still vaguely heard Taoist Yuan telling her: "This is a marriage belt. If you tie it on your body, it may help you at some point, but whether it will succeed in the end depends on fate and good fortune."
Xiaojie took out the marriage tie from her purse and held Zhang Ban's hand.
His hands were already as thin as withered, and his wrists were slender, with vitality flowing out bit by bit.
Xiaojie used the dead horse as a living horse doctor and tied one end of the marriage belt in her own hand, while the other end was lightly tied on Zhang Ban's wrist.
While tying the knot, she prayed over and over again in her heart, praying to all kinds of gods to appear, help her, and help her keep this man.
Hot tears fell on the marriage belt one by one, making the marriage belt wet.
Xiaojie held Zhang Ban's hand and stood guard by the bed, looking at him without blinking, unwilling to move away for a moment...
…
There was a green sun hanging in the sky, and a dark circle of light around it, making the dead grass all around us look even more bleak and dark.
Zhang Ban was floating in the middle of the road like a zombie, the wind blew by on both sides, and the vegetation was blown by.
He looked up at the sky and down at the road. The road ahead was endless, as if there was no end.
But the path behind him strangely disappeared into a thick fog.
who I am?
Why am I here?
This is where?
Where do I come from? Where will it go?
Zhang Ban just lingered on this road until the sound of rushing water came from ahead.
He followed the water flow to the end of the road. At the end was a river. There was a dock beside the river, and many people were queuing up to cross the river.
Boats came to the pier one after another. There was no boatman on each boat, but when someone got on the boat, the boat would automatically move forward.
Moreover, a boat carries one person, and there is an endless stream of people. There are green-faced and fanged officers beside them holding chains and hammers to maintain order. Therefore, even though there is a constant flow of people on the dock and in the river, order is still in order.
"Quick, quick, next, next."
The official shouted loudly, Zhang Ban was pushed forward by the crowd, and suddenly there was a commotion in front of him.
"If I don't get on the ship, I won't get on. I haven't lived enough. I don't want to die..."
The green-faced and fanged officer smashed the middle-aged man who was struggling not to get on the boat into a meat pie with a hammer, then directly picked up the meat pie and threw it onto the boat.
