one
That was in May.
The plum rain seemed to have arrived a month early, and it had been raining non-stop for several days. Even the lights on the slope seemed to be complaining that the guests were almost extinct, shining dimly in the rain.
Soon after entering May, the rain began to fall, and the vine flowers began to take on colors as if they were about to say goodbye to spring. As if the early rain was a bad omen, murders occurred one after another on the slope during the continuous rainy days.
One of them, I remember it was on the third day when it started to rain. The person who was killed was an old man about fifty years old.
The location is at the end of slope pier, old man
two
The dead branch-like body was half-buried in the sand next to a ruined ship.
There were scars on his chest from being stabbed with a dagger, and his head was smashed by a stone. It was such a cruel way to die.
Before this, in Huajie, it was not uncommon for young prostitutes to commit suicide because of debts, and bloody murders caused by the jealousy of gangsters were not uncommon either. However, cruel murders like this, It suddenly became a rumored incident on the whole street, and before the news calmed down, the next murder happened again!
This time, it was a young man in his thirties, whose body was found lying on a bridge over a river in the city center.
two
A knife in the chest, a smashed face, exactly the same.
It is said that the nearby weeping willow was "stroking" the man's bloody face with its leaves!
The police judged that it was a robber or a madman and conducted a search. However, not only did they not find the murderer, they could not even identify the person who was killed.
Because this is a port, there are many outsiders coming in and out, and the deceased was completely unrecognizable, and the murderer took everything from the deceased except clothes, so there are no clues to follow.
There was a commotion and tremor on the slope.
For example: A prison escapee sneaks into this town.
two
There are many rumors that the prostitute who died a few years ago is at work. The number of pilgrims on the slope had already been reduced due to the rain, and now they were even more extinct. In the deserted night rain, only the doorlight of the prostitute's house emitted a dim light. About half a month later, things finally passed peacefully. The day of the ceremony was approaching, and the incident lost some of the bloody smell. Occasionally, the sound of a three-stringed string instrument could be heard. At this moment, as if to strike a deep blow into the gap in people's hearts, a third case occurred.
This third incident, I heard from Ah Xiu.
It must have been seven days before the festival. The long rain that had kept the whole street wet for nearly a month finally stopped that morning.
two
The night before, I went back to my house in a neighboring town because of something. It was already past midnight when I came back, so I got up relatively late that morning.
I didn't notice Ah Xiu's movement, thinking that she had gone to the shrine on the slope to pay her respects as usual. I accidentally looked out, but unexpectedly, Ah Xiu's back was standing in the yard.
It was a small courtyard less than three square feet, but Ah Xiu, who loves beauty, had organized it very well. Different flowers in different seasons, with a hint of the softness of a woman's delicate fingers, all bloomed there.
The rain has stopped, but the sky is still dark gray, and the morning mist covers everything. Only some green leaves look particularly fresh after being washed by the long rain.
two
Gorgeous. The vine flowers that bloomed during the rain were knocked down in the previous shower, and the entire yard was covered with patches of white fallen flowers. Ah Suiyuan stood on the petals, staring at the leaves on the pergola.
"Axiu!"
I called out. Her neck exposed from the kimono shook and turned around.
"looking at what?"
Ah Sui did not answer immediately. After a while, he breathed a long sigh of relief and said with a smile: "Life."
Her voice seemed to disappear as soon as it came out.
two
Following the direction she pointed, I saw a bunch of unfaded white vine flowers hidden among the leaves.
"Wow! Such a stubborn flower, even after being exposed to the rain for so long, it still clung to life. It's amazing!"
I sighed. Ah Xiu was still smiling, staring intently at the bunch of flowers, and said questioningly:
"Sir, death is life, not dying is life, right?"
Ah Xiu's husband died a month ago.
That night when the news came from her hometown, she let me read the letter - oh, finally! We don’t have to ask you to chip in any more money from now on, sir, we’ll just use the remitted medicine money.
two
Let's open a snack bar - she said this without a trace of sadness on her face. She finally went back to attend the funeral, but she only stayed for one day and came back. Speaking of which, she has been running around for her husband's medical money since she was a girl, and has suffered a lot, but it is a blessing for a couple of days. When she saw that there was only a bunch of white vine flowers left, she I remembered that I was alone, alone and helpless. I am also a man whose wife died. When I think of being alone and without a trace at that time, I feel even more pitiable for Ah Xiu. However, at this moment, she suddenly changed the subject and said, "Sir, don't worry about this for now. Another life happened at Akama Shrine last night!"
I was almost startled.
"Sir, the police came here early this morning
two
I asked Mr. Scrivener about it. It sounds like the scrivener is a bit suspicious. "
"Which scrivener? Is it Mr. Kuhei from next door?"
I didn't even notice that the tobacco pipe fell off my hand, but my eyes were strangely attracted to the bunch of vine flowers.
Yes, yes, that May morning. Ah Xiu said that even if he did not die, he would be destined to be a string of flowers, like a white lamp, hazy, as if with a touch of sadness.
Joye Slope is a street that flows down like a river from a small hill. Akama Shrine is at the top of the slope, so you can have a clear view of the entire flower street. It is a very small shrine.
two
"I heard that after the priest of the shrine finished his morning speech, he looked out and saw a figure in the yard. The priest asked who it was, and the person ran away. The priest said that it seemed to be the scrivener. Then, The body was found." "There are no lights there at night, and it's a rainy day with no moonlight. How can we tell it's Mr. Scrivener?"
"I don't understand this. Miao Zhu has been to the next door a few times and asked Mr. Shu to write the sign for the ceremony. He is probably very familiar with it."
He clearly believed the policeman's statement and regarded Mr. Scrivener as the murderer. Isn't this a bit heartless?
If you are a neighbor, you should have the friendship of a neighbor. How can you doubt others casually? I wanted to say this to her, but asked first:
"Did the police ask you anything?" "Did anything unusual happen around eight o'clock last night?"
"How do you answer?"
"I said no, I really didn't feel anything."
"Did you ask anything else?"
"I also asked about Mr. Scrivener's origins and so on. But I didn't understand anything, so I said I didn't know."
"The others?"
"I also asked the people on the 5th and 9th of this month.
thing. "
"What happened to Number Five and Number Nine?"
"It must have been the day when people died at the pier and by the river. In your opinion, were those two crimes committed by the scrivener in the past?"
I was almost speechless, and an unknown anger came up.
"What did you do? It sounds like you must regard the scrivener as the murderer? Didn't you ask someone to write something for you for free? Hey, you are such a ruthless woman. It was the same when my husband died. You didn’t even shed a single tear, and you only followed me for money, right?”
I saw a trace of melancholy flash across Axiu's face, but I ignored it and yelled at her.
A meal.
"You don't have to say it so harshly.
ah. Ah Xiu paused for a moment before saying, "But,
I always think that person is a bit weird. When I ask him about his past, he always smiles but doesn't smile, which makes people's hearts go crazy. Sir, you like him, so you can speak for him, right?"
She was also very unhappy, and neither of them spoke again after that.
Yes, just like Ah Xiu said, since the method is the same, then the murderer may be the same person this time and the last two times!
The previous two times happened very close to each other, but this time they were almost twenty days apart. This is strange, but no matter what, I can't believe that the scrivener would do such a terrible thing.
That day, I felt like I could neither sit nor stand.
I was worried that the police would come to question me again, so I wanted to simply go to the police station and ask about the progress of the search. I was so anxious that I kept looking at the next door, but the glass door was always covered under the clouds and there was no sound.
I accidentally looked over to the alley and saw the ladies gathering there, talking in low voices. From time to time, someone would cast their eyes at the scrivener's door. It can be seen that the short stories and long stories have already spread.
I seemed to feel that I was also under suspicion, and became more and more uneasy.
After that, I didn't talk to Ah Xiu anymore. I felt that I spoke too harshly and shouldn't, but I didn't want to apologize to her, so I lay down on the tatami and slept. In the evening, Ah Xiu came in: "Sir..."
I'm still pretending to sleep.
"Sir, if it's important, could you please get up?"
"What for?"
"Sir, you believe that Mr. Scrivener is innocent, don't you?"
"Um."
"Then I believe you. I am Dou
He was a country bumpkin who couldn't read a few characters, so he believed what the police said. In fact, I am also confused. Since you believe in Mr. Scrivener, so do I. "
"so what?"
"I was thinking that if the police come again, I will tell him that I saw Mr. Scrivener next door at eight o'clock last night."
I stood up quickly.
"You were not at home last night, so I ate by myself. There was some food left, and I originally wanted to send it to Mr. Scrivener. Although I didn't go, I think it can be said that it was delivered at eight o'clock. From here to the shrine , it takes twenty minutes for a man to leave, so that people won’t doubt Mr. Scrivener."
two
"You, you're going to lie to the police?"
"But isn't Mr. Scrivener innocent? God won't punish you for telling a little lie. If you don't take care of it, Mr. Scrivener will definitely be arrested. I just heard someone say that at the fish seller , the police have determined that Mr. Scrivener is involved."
Only then did I remember what I said when I was angry before noon, which hurt her heart more than I expected.
There is no doubt that Ah Xiu said these words to prove to me that she is not that kind of heartless woman.
However, I also think that if Mr. Scrivener can be saved by Ah Xiu's words, that's not bad. So Ah Xiu and I discussed in detail
After some discussion, we rushed to the scrivener's house.
Except for a small space at the entrance, there is a small house with only two rooms inside.
As usual, Mr. Scrivener, with his back to the door, was sitting in the room near the door, working under a bare light bulb, casting a long shadow.
Sensing my arrival, he lowered his head slightly and took out the tea tray, just like usual.
I finally breathed a sigh of relief, a little at a loss for words, but the words came out easily.
"Brother Kuhei, do you know that another human life occurred at Akama Shrine?"
The other party nodded silently.
"Axiu said that a police officer came over early in the morning and asked her some questions, all about you." "I've been here too, and they think I'm involved. Maybe I won't be able to see you again."
"But, Brother Jiupei, you didn't do anything, right?"
He gave me a cold look before saying yes. .
"Then there's no need to say such things."
"But Miao Zhu insisted it was me."
"Were you at home when the accident happened?"
"Yes. But I didn't see anyone."
"That's it. If you are really innocent..."
I told Ah Xiu what he was thinking.
Mr. Scrivener listened silently, and finally lowered his head and said:
"thank you all."
I really couldn't tell what he meant by saying thank you. At this moment, the glass door was pushed open, and a girl of fifteen or sixteen years old poked her face out.
It was a prostitute from a prostitute house in Yejingtang in the middle part of the slope. Her name was Amin, and she was very familiar with me.
Amin lowered his lovely head to me and said to Mr. Scrivener:
"Mr. Scrivener, I have to ask you again." When business came, I had to say goodbye, but I gave Mr. Scrivener a wink and told him to come back later.
No, I didn't go back. I waited in the corner of the alley for Amin to come out.
This is because I want to know how people are communicating yesterday's events.
About ten minutes later, Amin came out holding a letter in his chest very preciously. "Did you ask Mr. Scrivener to write it for you?" "Yes. I sent a letter to my family last month, but there has been no reply. I feel relieved.
Not better, so I’ll write it again. "
Amin was going to the mailbox in front of the station to post something, so I walked side by side as if we had bumped into her by chance, and casually asked her about her voice. It turns out that the people on the slope seem to have regarded Mr. Scrivener as the murderer.
"But, I think there must be something wrong. That person is the nicest person. He knows that I am poor and never takes my money every time. Today he also said that what he wrote is the same as last time, so it is free. In fact, last time he Not confiscated either.”
I once heard that Amin was sold to this flower street from the countryside of Kyushu Island.
It is said that her father was an alcoholic and shortly after her mother died, he sold Amin, who was only ten years old. This kind of Amin didn't complain at all and still sent money back every month.
Thinking that her childish face would soon be covered with makeup, and her flower-bud-like body would become a plaything for men, I couldn't help feeling pity and stuffed a five-cent silver coin into her hand. at this time--
"It's so scary!
Amin yelled and hugged my waist.
At this time, she and I were walking on the path by the river. The weeping willows were fluttering in the wind, like a woman's messy hair.
Yes, yes, the first murder occurred under this willow tree. Amin must have remembered that case.
When the light from the bridge came over, a pale figure seemed to be hidden in the willow leaves, which made me feel horrified.
"three
Mr. Scrivener was arrested on the evening of the next day.
There is nothing we can do.
The first night, when I saw Amin off and returned to my original place, two men stood quietly in the corner of the alley where I was waiting for Amin.
It's the police.
I tried to trick their eyes and ears into contacting the scrivener, but failed.
Later I learned that the police had good reasons to suspect Mr. Scrivener.
After the incident, the police checked the hotel and found out that the person who was killed at Akama Shrine arrived by train at 6:30 that afternoon and stayed at the "Minatoya" hotel in front of the station.
This man left the hotel at seven o'clock and once asked the innkeeper: "Is there a scrivener in the town?"
The shopkeeper said: "If you want a ghostwriter, I can help you a little." The man said: "No, there is something else." It can be seen that this person had some special reason to find the ghostwriter.
The police also found a witness who said that around 7:30, the deceased asked him where his scrivener lived, and indeed went into his scrivener's house.
Not to mention this, even Ah Xiu said the following:
"Sir, I suddenly remembered that one time I happened to see Mr. Scrivener's hands covered with blood. He said he had accidentally cut himself and retracted his hand in a panic. Did that happen on the 5th? ?”
The police also found blood-stained clothes from Mr. Scrivener’s closet.
As dusk grew darker, there was a sudden commotion in the alley, and the carpenter's wife from across the street rushed in.
"It's terrible. Mr. Scrivener has been arrested by the police and is about to be taken away. Hurry, hurry!"
Ah Xiu and I didn't even have time to put on our clogs and ran away
Outside. I don’t know when they gathered, but the alley was crowded with people. The white uniform of the policeman and the familiar back of the scrivener disappeared in the dusk in the alley.
It happened in a split second, and there was no time to even be surprised. But that figure kept burning on my chest, which kept me from falling asleep for a long time after I went to bed.
"Sir, was it the scrivener who did it?"
I have no answer.
"Tomorrow, I'd better go to the police station for a run."
"What for?"
"Tell them that he is not the murderer, and that I saw him at eight o'clock."
I was startled and turned sideways.
"So, sir, please don't think that I'm with you just for money. You don't understand anything about my previous husband and me."
As she spoke, she reached out her hand and dragged me over.
"Ah Xiu, I just said it out of anger, don't take it to heart, and there's nothing we can do about the scrivener."
"No, sir, no."
I don’t know why, but Ah Xiu needed me very strongly that night, and she even retorted this sentence several times with tears in her eyes.
In the end, Ah Xiu did not go to the police station.
There is nothing we can do.
On the night of his arrest, Mr. Dai Shu committed suicide by hanging himself from the iron grid in the detention center. There was a suicide note left, but it was not for anyone. In the suicide note, Mr. Scrivener confessed all the crimes.
——I am the real culprit of the serial murders on Changye Slope. The people who were killed were all the people I had been bullied by in the past and whom I had wanted to take revenge on for a long time.
Just a few simple lines.
When I went to the police station to express my desire to deal with the aftermath of the deceased person, he
They let me see it.
Come to think of it, that is exactly what the scrivener wrote, just like usual, with faint ink marks and handwriting like dead branches on the water.
This is not like a suicide note, but it seems to be quite suitable for him. But I always felt that it seemed a bit strange that he left a suicide note like this.
What should I say? I think that if he was the real murderer, it would be better to commit suicide without leaving a word. This would be more like the taciturn man's approach.
Maybe I should say it was intuition. I suddenly thought, could what was written in the suicide note be a lie? Are you covering up for someone? Of course, there is no basis for thinking about it.
I brought the body out and held a small funeral. Before nightfall, I hired a small boat from the end of the harbor to deliver the coffin to the island.
I plan to bury him on the island.
Because it was the murderer's funeral, some neighbors in the alley were unwilling to show their faces. But Amin, whom I met that night, and two or three girls who often went to write letters to the scrivener, were also sent to the beach. The boatman and I were still waving after the boat we were in had rowed far away.
When we went out to the sea, there was a sudden storm on the sea.
"Looking at it like this, it's probably okay to get to the island, but I'm afraid I won't be able to come back. It's better to go back."
The boatman was unwilling to move forward.
I suddenly had an idea: Since there are no relatives or deceased people, a burial at sea might be more effective for the deceased. Perhaps the boatman wanted to go home early, so he agreed immediately.
We hastily cut a few water-permeable holes in the coffin and threw it into the sea. The angry waves swallowed it up in a flash, but the coffin lid tied with a thick rope seemed not very secure, and the flowers in the coffin actually floated up one by one and spread out among the waves. But it was only for a moment and disappeared quickly.
I felt as if the scrivener's life had turned into those flowers and dispersed. I accidentally looked back at the shore. In the twilight, two rays of light were shooting upward.
Another flower street night is coming.
The lights of the hotels side by side at both ends of the slope stretch like beads on a string, stretching toward the sky. I feel like it is a bridge stretching from the sea to the sky.
"Four
the next day.
For some trivial matters, I returned to my hometown in a neighboring town, and then I understood the whole thing.
After I finished my work, I came out of the house and was walking. A woman came over to ask for directions, but she asked for "Tandakuya".
"Tazuru House? That's my house."
The woman then said:
"No, it's not Takuya, it's the family next door. I was asked to ask Takuya and I can find it." So that's it. I moved two or three steps and then suddenly thought of something.
No? This is also a good way to ask for directions!
Looking for a scrivener - didn't the man who was killed ask for a scrivener?
What if you are just asking for directions to the scrivener, but what you are actually looking for is the scrivener’s next door?
I hurried back up the slope and turned a corner in the alley. On both sides of the road are slender houses side by side.
On the night when the incident occurred, it was said that someone saw the man entering the scrivener's house from a corner of the alley.
However, when I looked from that corner again, at the doorway at the end of the alley, it was almost indistinguishable between the narrow scrivener’s house and the neighboring house.
What if the person who saw it mistook the person who entered the neighbor's house with the drooping leaves on the pergola for entering the scrivener's house?
Ah Xiu is not in the house.
I rushed in like a man possessed and searched everywhere.
If anyone came to see Ah Xiu, wouldn't it be her alone?
And that person is no longer alive. No, I haven't confirmed that this person is indeed dead. I just glanced at the letter Axiu received and heard her say "finally dead."
With great difficulty, I found it among the silk kimonos in the closet.
Thanks to you, I finally saved my life this time. Thinking of the hardships you endured, I feel it would be better to die then... I feel deeply sorry for you. But in half a month, I should be able to get up and walk around, and by then I should be able to figure out how to pay for the medicine...
Beautiful handwriting, really unlike a farmer.
I'm probably just learning Chinese characters to pass the time during my long illness.
No wonder Ah Xiu wanted to hide this letter so I wouldn't see it.
The fact is: Ah Xiu said that her husband was finally dead, but in fact he came back to life.
——Thanks to you, I finally saved my life this time.
Ah Xiu thought that he would not get better this time, but he received such a letter. She must have felt betrayed by her husband's new life. Ah Xiu is no longer young, and her husband is only by name. Not to mention that he has been sick for many years and cannot do anything. In order to pay for such a husband's medical expenses, she left Shenhua Street and worked hard for more than ten years. Originally, the years were running out, but now such sacrifices have to continue. Who can endure such a miserable situation?
Plus now there is a person like me.
Ah Xiu likes me. She probably hopes to live a stable life with me for the rest of her life without being harassed by anyone...
Such expectations, turned around, turn out to be lies.
Thinking of this, I suddenly felt stunned. Looking back, Ah Xiu came in at some unknown time and was standing there. Her eyes were filled with sadness as she looked at the letter I was holding in my trembling hands.
"Axiu...your husband is not dead, right?"
The bag in Ah Xiu's hand fell off with a thud. "No, sir, no."
Ah Xiu rushed into my arms.
We both collapsed on the tatami in the growing dusk.
Yes, I did make a mistake. Ah Xiu's husband is indeed dead. Ah Xiu lied that her husband was dead, perhaps because she was determined to kill her husband. Ah Xiu made an excuse to call her husband to this residence, and then used another excuse to lure him to Akama Shrine to murder him.
Just because the husband asked where the scrivener was, there was a small misunderstanding, and the scrivener was arrested. In order to prove that Mr. Scrivener had been wronged, Ah Xiu proposed to commit perjury. Maybe Ah Xiu wanted to secretly prove that she was at home at that moment.
I still don't understand something. Why did the scrivener write that suicide note and bear the crime? What is the connection between the murder at Akama Shrine and the other two? Could it be that those two were just done by madmen, and Ah Xiu took advantage of them? This is probably why the last one was so far apart from the first two.
At night, Ah Xiu didn't say anything and just sat in silence. I ignored her and rushed to the store myself, selected a waiter and sent him to Ah Xiu's hometown.
The next day in the evening, the man came back. As expected, Ah Xiu's husband suddenly packed up and went out about a week ago and has not come back yet.
I gave the man some reward money and asked him to keep the secret strictly and come to Changye Slope before nightfall.
The night before yesterday, when I stood up to leave, Ah Sui grabbed my train and looked at me with tears in her eyes.
"Don't worry, I'll be back tomorrow." I said, brushing her hand away coldly. Her white hands fell like petals under the shadow of the lamp on the tatami.
Before I knew it, May had passed, and it was the festival on June 5th.
Summer is approaching, and the smell of tide in the night wind is much stronger, carrying the drumming sound from the coast, and fireworks are also scattering sparks in the night sky.
The slope was crowded with people.
I entered the alley listening to the high voices of the girls and the drunkards.
at this time--
The door of Azao's house was pushed open, and a figure flashed out. It seems to be Ah Xiu!
I hid in the corner by the door in a hurry. Yes, I think she looks unusual.
Ah Sui walked out of the door, looked around, hugged his chest with both hands as if to cover himself, and walked away without stopping.
She walked past me without noticing me, and I saw something like the hilt of a knife exposed between the chest she held in her hands.
Various figures came one after another on the slope. Ah Sui's body quickly melted into it, and I followed her secretly from behind.
In the middle of the slope, Ah Xiu suddenly turned into a small alley and walked up the slope from the dark path behind the prostitute's house with the same hurried pace.
I felt an ominous omen.
I remembered that today is the seventh day of the Akama Shrine murder case.
Did Azai choose such a day to kill herself at Akama Shrine? The white hands that grabbed my clothes last night, the words on that morning after the rain? She compared the remaining bunch of white vine flowers to A destiny of immortality. She saw her half-life destiny in that bunch of flowers. It is also the flower where Axiong buried his life.
The night and night we spent together in the corner of Flower Street passed through my mind like a revolving lantern. I don’t know why, but I feel as if I am desperately trying to catch something that is about to leave me, and chase it with the same quick steps.
Just as I expected.
Azui walked past the torii gate of Akama Shrine and disappeared into the courtyard of the shrine as if being sucked into the dark night.
I suppressed the pounding in my chest and intense breath, and hid under an almond tree to spy on Ah Xiu.
The night wind caressed the darkness under the forest, carrying the sound of drums and the noise of the people, and sparks burst out from time to time in the night sky.
Every time a spark explodes, it prints Ah Xiu’s shadow on the stone slab.
I couldn't figure out why Ah Xiu stopped, but the tension that something was about to happen gripped me firmly. I waited painfully.
It's been a long time.
I couldn't bear it any longer, so I quietly walked towards the shrine under the cover of night.
Ah Xiu noticed someone coming, and her shadow suddenly froze.
"Azai."
I whispered.
Just at this moment
Ah Sui's shadow flickered, and a flash of light shot straight towards me. I ducked.
The tip of the knife and Ah Xiu's hand thrust into the night sky. "Die, please die!"
The suppressed growls were repeated over and over again, and the knife struck again and again like crazy.
In the dark night, the sound of their clogs intertwined.
With great difficulty, I hugged her and held her wrist firmly.
With a clang, the knife fell on the stone slab. "Axiu!"
I shouted louder and louder. At this time, singing sounded from the seaside below, and green sparks exploded across the sky in the sea breeze.
The sparks illuminated Ah Xiu's frozen pale face - yes, yes, Ah Xiu knew it was me at this moment.
"Sir...it's you."
Ah Sui struggled violently.
Her hair was disheveled, with two or three locks falling on her neck. One of them reflected silvery white in the pale firelight. Alas, Ah Xiu is getting old too.
"Azai, do you think I am your husband? Will he come to see you tonight?"
In the darkness covered by the pale firelight, I couldn't see clearly A'zuo's reaction after hearing my words, but the next moment, A'zuo screamed, hit his head in my arms and started crying. .
"Fool, didn't your husband come out of his hometown seven days ago and be killed here?"
——Yes, yes, when Ah Sui mistakenly thought I was her husband and raised a knife to chop at me, I finally understood everything.
The blood that Ah Xiu saw and the blood on the hands of the scrivener must have been shed by the scrivener himself.
In the Flower Street, every girl is bought at a low price from the countryside near or far. In order to help the family, she is willing to accept the shackles of one or two cents and let the heavy makeup dirty her body. On this street, the person who is most familiar with the other faces of these girls is the scrivener.
Using his own writing as a medium, from the words of those illiterate women asking him to write about their hometown, he understood their connection with their hometown, and also knew why they were sold, and who in the family made them have to live this kind of life of displacement and betrayal. Life - alcoholic father, gambling brother, husband who has been ill for many years.
Because of lung disease, Mr. Daishu knew that he would die soon, and he wanted to save some of them before he died.
It is impossible for ordinary people to call their family members to come to this town one by one. But Mr. Scrivener can do it easily. The women couldn't read a few words, so it wouldn't be difficult for him to distort what they wanted to write and call their family members. The women never dreamed of the murderous intention of the scrivener in the article, so they sent the letter back to their hometown.
The three people were attracted by the scrivener's words and ran to this town. Then they were killed by the scrivener at the designated time and place.
I don’t know who the victim chosen by Mr. Scrivener is.
Perhaps one of the two is A-min's father - yes, because A-min said her father didn't know where he had gone.
But I do know the third chosen victim. That's A'Xian's husband. Of course Ah Xiu wrote a reply to her husband's letter, and it goes without saying that it was also through the hand of the scrivener. Undoubtedly, she also asked a scrivener to help her keep the secret and not let me know that her husband was still alive.
It would be easiest to forge the content of Ah Xiu's letter, because Ah Xiu himself wanted to call her husband in the first place - as long as the date mentioned by Ah Xiu - that is, the day of the town's sacrifice - is advanced. One week is enough.
The letter contained the double murderous intention of Ah Xiu and Mr. Scrivener, and was sent to her husband in the neighboring county.
No, maybe the scrivener changed the Akama Shrine, the place specified by Azao, to his own home - this is my guess. Maybe in this third case, the agent deliberately used his own name. Maybe he hoped to be arrested after killing Ah Xiu's husband, and committing suicide in prison may also be part of his plan. There is also the suicide note. It was to prevent the woman and the police from finding out who the victim was - smashing the victim's face into pieces, probably as well.
Of course, this is all speculation. After returning from the shrine that night, Ah Xiu confided that he planned to kill her husband and then commit suicide. I didn't ask her how they could be in the same mood.
When Ah Xiu stabbed me with the knife, I realized that the heart of this woman, Ah Xiu, did not belong to me, but belonged to her husband who had been ill in a neighboring county for more than ten years.
soon. At the end of the Taisho era, the lights in Changyepo were extinguished. The next year, Axiang contracted an epidemic and died.
To this day, I still think of the lights on that flower street. Where the light flickers, it seems like there is a string of small vine lanterns swaying.
Both Ah Xiu and Mr. Scrivener rushed to Akama Shrine in the dark night in order to make the bunch of flowers wither.
No, after listening to Azai’s confession, I believed that the person killed at Akama Shrine was her husband. This is certain, but I never told the police.
Because I thought: If people's lives are to bury the bunch of flowers, if people use their backs to talk and pass each other, then Mr. Scrivener and Axiu want to use their backs to carry the message silently. The truth in the darkness on the road to Huangquan, I still use my back to tell the truth
Send them away!
Tong coffin
＞Four
At the end of November of the year when the Sino-Japanese Incident occurred, I killed a man. Not long after, I was dragged to fight. Although I also killed two people on the mainland, the blood that dyed my hands red on that first snowy night is still so vivid in my heart.
That thing was a mystery to me from beginning to end. However, what puzzles me the most is...why did I take that vote? I let my hands be dyed red, but I didn't know the meaning of the blood.
I was asked by a man to do it. It seemed that it was an order, just like charging forward on the battlefield under the command of a superior. I didn't even ask why, so I picked up the knife.
Of course, I thought about it again and again. Why did that man want me to do it? No matter how hard I racked my brain, I still couldn't think of a reason. I am very familiar with that man, and I believe that I will not be mistaken about him, but no matter how I think about it, I still feel that under normal circumstances, there is no reason why he has to do what he does. Actually, that's just how I feel. Later I realized that there was a reason behind this that no one could imagine. Let’s start with the first time I met that man.
I would sometimes lick my pillow while sleeping, and whenever I did, I would be reminded of that night in my dreams.
In the haze, something white appeared. I dragged my paralyzed body with difficulty, trying desperately to get closer to the white thing. Later, someone told me that I was so drunk that night that I crawled on the ground, licking and licking like a hungry wild dog. Wearing the man's white socks.
I worked as an apprentice in an iron foundry for four years, but was fired after a minor fight. Then for two whole days, I didn't eat even a grain of rice and wandered around the streets in despair. Finally, I went to a hotel and drank a lot. Finally, I knocked down the policeman who came to stop me and fell down myself.
Suddenly, I burst into tears. It's not because people are nice to me. I have never had a good meal of white rice since I was a child, so when I saw a table full of exquisite food that I had never seen before, I felt that I was so miserable and miserable.
Yes, I was half starved, but I still tried my best to suppress the hand that was about to reach for the chopsticks and burst into tears.
"How old are you?"
"twenty one."
"I can't tell." The man said, throwing the matchbox towards me from the dishes on the table with his left hand.
He was wearing blue striped clothes. He was about thirty-two or thirty years old. His complexion was pale, his short hair reminded people of razor eyes, and his thin cheeks seemed to be casting shadows, exuding a kind of aura. It seemed to be exposed to the smell of corpse on the field. The man seemed to hide the smell from the open neckline, and his back was hug.
I didn't smoke, so I shook my head.
"No, I want to invite you to help me ignite."
He said, pulled out the right hand that was stuffed in the quilt and shaken.
"Look, there is only little finger, I will not draw matches."
I took one of the cigarette boxes printed with foreignwen and gave it to him. I did n’t expect that this was a ritual that I fell into that world, and I would not think that after half a year, I would make blood red my hands.
The man didn't hold it, but he took it with his lips, and then looked at me for a while, so he sprayed the smoke in his mouth on the little finger.
"What, do you want to be my hand?"
The voice contains an annoying taste.
Later I learned that the man -no, I should call him Guan Tian -at that time he seemed to think that my excessive pale, almost transparent fingers, a bit like himself a year ago due to an accident a year ago lost.
It was called "Xuanchang Group". The following street wood farms were the center, occupying a small underworld organization in the power circle.
In the back of the group, there is a clear and clear Fayin River, flowing through the stone wall and the middle of the warehouse, and a piece of wood often floats on the river. Whenever the guys in the group wear coat coats, they will emit the smell of wood from their bodies. Especially in the summer, as soon as the wind in the bay was blowing, it brought a smell of smell and shrouded the entire group.
It is said that until the end of the Dazheng, the group also controlled half of the entire Fa Yin River wood, which was extremely prosperous, but when I entered the group, although the young guys still handled the wood with a vibrant shout, it was the dark trend of the times, but the trend of the times was the trend of the times. It has gradually retreated the prosperity of the seaside as if blowing the garbage into a pile of.
Perhaps because of the incident and the vortex of the war, the group was dissolved, so it made people feel that the curtain of "Xuan" was printed on the door on the door on the door. Lost out of glory, hanging there with weakness.
That's why, on the one hand, because the boss Xuan Saichen was hid ten years ago, he was ill, and he almost did not report to Yan Wang, and then suffered from heart disease. On the other hand, he couldn't afford it; on the other hand The opponent's opponent Tangjin group since the previous generation -also one of the bosses of the wood farm -even hung up with the military, not only the market rose steeply, but also extended the power to the opposite side. The Huajie, which belonged to the Xuanchang Group, was called "Hua Wuling", which was all fell into Tangjin's hands at that time.
The boss has two or three months to go to Izu for two or three months to adopt the disease. During this period, a business called "Fan Dai" was all affairs.
Two years ago, Ya Yuan, who had been his boss's left and right hands, was killed unfortunately in a small conflict with the Tangtin group in one time, and later he replaced his position by this fan.
Brother Guan Tian and the late duck were considered their peers, so compared to Fan Dai, although it was a little lighter, it was also very large in the group. This is because the boss specially cares for the elder brother. The boss Xuan Saichen Tibet is currently named A Shen, who is older and daughter. The previous wife was called Xijiujiang, which harmed the lung disease. The boss of Xijiujiang raised a young son for the boss, that is, Master Chen Yi. Unfortunately, the young master died before the elder brother joined the group, and it was lung disease. I heard that the young master and elder brother, not only the same age and figure, even like learning, calligraphy and painting, and often silently walking on the river embankment and walking alone. They are very similar to the elder brother.
It is rumored that when the boss is unhappy, as long as the name of the elder brother, his fire will calm down.
Not only these! The elder brother can make him silently open like an umbrella in the night, covering his face, so no one can understand his details. This is why everyone had to be in awe.
My work is the assistant of being a big brother. I lived in a house with about two hundred feet away from the group with him, living in one piece, helping him wear clothes, cigarette, and washed every piece of skin on him in the bathroom. But the words hidden in his widow, I really didn't understand it.
I feel that even Fan Dai seems to be afraid of him. Fan Dai shot his cunning eyes around at any time, and drank the little men with his thin lips, but when he met his elder brother, he would smile with a smile. Not only Fan Dai, but even the boss. I dare to bet. As soon as the boss spoke, it was "Guan Tian" and "Guan Tian". I believed in the elder brother, but the bones were also from the fear of the elder brother.
I was led by my elder brother to see the boss. It was the third morning after being collected by the elder brother. I remember the cherry blossoms that were still blooming with my elder brother at the beginning of the night. That day, it was rushed by the rain, and the tender leaves began to emit a scent of smoke.
I was sitting down on my brother's shoulders, but when I saw the boss who cast a glance, it was indeed a masculine perspective that dominated an organization. Then he wrapped the cold eyes with a smile on his face.
"It's a very good child!" The boss said to his elder brother almost charmingly. The wrinkled lips were slightly exposed to yellow -brown teeth.
The boss supported the upper body and put the thin pajamas on the thin body, which reminded me of the rotten waste wood roots. It seems that he has put half of his body into the coffin.
In fact, the back house in the group has already left a coffin, as if waiting for the boss's death.
It was ten years ago. When the boss killed a heart disease, when he was about to make a braid, he personally asked for the coffin shop. It is said that when the coffin is ready, when the people are about to come in, the man will improve miraculously. Not only is people stingy,
The boss, who is also short, is full of vanity, ordered a pair of coffin of Tongmu. At that time, it was the last year of Dazheng. When the Xuanchang team was in the middle of the day -then, ten years have passed, and the coffin seemed to be placed in the house. It was a wide room. The tatami was half -rot.
In the year I entered the group, the whole summer was in Izu. Seeing that there was no one in the house, the coffin seemed to emit a white flame under the burning of summer, and it could not help but imagine that it was shouting something desperately for the glory of the past.
I do n’t know how my elder brother feels. If I say me, I have to admit that I ca n’t like such a boss. The boss looked at the coffin with his family. It is rumored that there was a little sister who hurt it when he was cleaned, but he was cut off a finger. I always feel that the boss is relying on the coffin of the whole Tongmu to show the authority that has begun to tilt to his men. In fact, even when the boss was there, it also replaced the air in the group like a guest of the boss.
One day in this summer, something happened.
In order to avoid the sunshine of Yun Xia, everyone gathered in the porch, and the elder sister's head -the boss A Shen -the anxiety came out.
"Who placed a dead sparrow in the coffin of the boss? Blood penetrates into wood, what should I do? The boss saw it from Yidou from Yizhuo, how can you do it!"
Although the big sister's head is only the size of the boss's daughter, she can also support the weak boss from behind her. She is a persistent woman. At this time, I saw her Liu Mei said straightly:
"The sparrows are strangled, and there must be someone deliberately pranks. Who is it? You should know that the tightness of the coffin is tantamount to insulting the boss itself."
Everyone looked at each other, and no one could open it. Just here, someone stood up.
"it's me."
It is the calm voice of the elder brother. "A Zheng ... · ... Did you do it?"
"The sparrow came in, and I wanted to try the left hand tube regardless of it, so it was my negligence. I would thank the boss. Hey, Aci, you used to take the sparrow away!"
After I shrank on my brother's shoulder, after listening to this, I went in silence.
In the corner of the coffin, the sparrow was indeed dead with blood hanging on his mouth. The little mouth seemed to be crying.
"Fortunately, it's A Zheng!" The elder sister came in, "I am still worried that it will be upside down like the last time!
The elder sister pointed his head and pointed at a few black pollution scattered on the coffin.
"This is also a hand touching by Azheng with ink. It was a long time ago. At that time, the duck was still there. At that time, Azheng was like you now, and he always stuck behind the original -the boss also No one said. At the beginning, the boss looked at Azheng another look. "
The elder sister said, and she smiled intentionally.
I looked at those ink stains and thought: How can this be? It turned out that my elder brother knew it was that I did it. At that time, no one saw it. It was because there was no one, so I saw a sparrow when I saw the window ... ... ·..
listen
The elder brother did know, so after getting back, the elder brother glanced at me with his usual eyes and took out the cigarette from his cuffs. I know that although my elder brother is fine, he knows everything, and I don't feel scared at all.
I lowered my head, licked my lips very much, and put the match over.
"Um··……"
The elder brother made a little sound intentionally. I think it was my answer to me. Suddenly I thought that the original ink stain might also be intentionally made by the elder brother.
——Accover, the incident is under the relationship between my elder brother and me at the end of this year. But before entering this question, I had another thing to make it clear.
It's about that woman.
