"There were a lot of things at school, so I came back a little late."
Hao Ren explained, looking at these familiar faces in front of him, he felt strange for the first time.
"There must be something wrong."
Hao Ren was pulled by Hao Huai through the crowd and arrived outside the main hall of the ancestral hall.
Behind the door of the main hall of the ancestral hall is a Taoist platform with spiritual tablets and some sacrifices placed on it. Under the platform is an iron basin, and a relative wearing hemp and mourning is constantly adding yellow paper to the iron basin.
Behind the platform is an ice coffin covered by a white curtain. Several relatives, also wearing sackcloth and mourning, are gathering in front of the coffin to mourn.
And right above the platform hangs a black and white photo of the deceased, which shows a middle-aged man.
Hao Ren looked at the portrait on the platform and suddenly felt an inexplicable fear.
He seemed to have seen the people in the portrait, but he could never remember where he had seen them.
Hao Huai, who had already changed into white mourning clothes, patted the stunned Hao Ren, handed the mourning clothes to Hao Ren and said, "Why are you still standing there? Hurry up and change into the mourning clothes, go up and replace Uncle Hao. You are not afraid either. Tire your dad to death!"
"My head has been swollen these past two days. Now that you are back, I can take a rest."
"My Father?"
Hao Ren exclaimed, looking at the figure standing up slowly in front of the Taoist platform, and said angrily: "My father has died a long time ago. If you, Hao Huai, make fun of my father again, I will really fall out."
"I said you kid is not really stupid because of reading!"
Hao Huai looked at Hao Ren with a shit-eating expression, touched Hao Ren's forehead and said, "You don't have a fever either!"
"No son would curse me to death."
"Hao Huai, what's wrong?"
A strange voice came from the figure in front of the Taoist platform. As the figure slowly turned around, a strange middle-aged man's face appeared in Hao Ren's eyes.
"Uncle Hao, it's nothing. Hao Ren is back."
Hao Huai pushed Hao Ren from behind, and Hao Ren stumbled into the main hall of the ancestral hall. Suddenly, a strong smell of corpses hit his nostrils.
After all, it is still midsummer, and even if there is an ice coffin to refrigerate the corpse, you can still smell the strong corpse smell in a sealed ancestral hall.
In addition, whenever someone dies in the village, the body is always placed in the ancestral hall. Over the years, there is always a lingering stench in the ancestral hall.
"Hao Ren, why are you back?"
A crying voice of surprise came from behind the white curtain, and a middle-aged woman opened the curtain and walked out.
"Child, what's wrong with you?"
Seeing that Hao Ren was still in a daze, the woman came over and touched Hao Ren's cheek with some distress.
"There is temperature, is it a human? What happened?"
Hao Ren froze in place. He could feel the warmth coming from his face, and an uncontrollable fear began to permeate his body.
He could name every person and face here. He was obviously familiar with everyone, but why did he feel so strange.
Obviously my parents have passed away a long time ago, why are these two strange middle-aged men and women my parents? Why does everyone think this is a matter of course!
Could it be that I really remembered it wrong?
One person may remember it wrong, but will everyone remember it wrong?
Hao Ren's brain was a little down.
He began to doubt himself. Could it be that he was really wrong?
"Child, what's wrong?"
The man came over and hugged Hao Ren gently, and said lovingly: "Did you feel wronged outside?"
Hao Ren felt a sore nose and shook his head.
This seemed to be a warmth he had never felt before.
"If you feel wronged, tell your parents. If you are unhappy, come back."
Hao Ren nodded and said with some choking, "I understand."
It seemed that Hao Ren had accepted it all.
Accepting the parents that everyone knows are their parents.
…
Wait until it gets late.
Tonight is the first day of wake.
Two long candles, as thick as a baby's arms, emitted a huge flame, and the dim light could barely illuminate this small ancestral hall.
Fortunately, the iron basin under the altar was constantly adding ghost paper, which made the ancestral hall a little brighter.
Hao Ren wore mourning clothes and stood in front of the funeral. Hao Huai and several young people gathered around on a small square stool to fight with the landlord.
The reason why there is a group of juniors at the vigil tonight is because Hao Huai made his own decision. He said that he failed to fulfill his filial piety to the second uncle during his lifetime and that he would fulfill his filial piety after his death. He also took Hao Ren with him.
Unable to resist Hao Huai's persistence, even if Hao Ren's parents seemed to have something to say to Hao Ren, they could only leave Hao Ren to watch the funeral.
Hao Huai held a cigarette in his mouth, turned his head and looked at Hao Ren and said, "Hao Ren, do you want to play for a while."
Hao Ren shook his head. He never liked gambling.
"It's okay. If I lose, it's mine, if I win, it's yours." Hao Huai grinned, stood up, and held a cigarette in one hand.
"Come on, come on...it's a long night, you really have to stay up all night!"
After saying that, Hao Ren put his arm around Hao Ren and pulled him up.
"hehe……"
A burst of laughter came from his ears. Hao Ren frowned and asked, "Why are you laughing?"
"I'm not laughing!" Hao Huai looked confused. No one was laughing.
"Come on, my luck has been bad all night. I'll use my other hand to kill them without leaving any trace of them behind."
It's not that Hao Huai cares about winning or losing, it's just that he's afraid that Hao Ren's body won't be able to handle it all the time.
Hao Huai pulled Hao Ren to sit on the edge of the small square chair and asked the two young people to continue.
Hao Ren glanced at Hao Huai with some doubts, making sure that he didn't seem to be lying.
However, he clearly heard someone laughing.
who is it?
The breeze blew and the candlelight flickered.
Squeaking, the photo of the deceased on the altar was blown by the wind and turned slightly sideways. This angle happened to face the few people who were fighting the Landlord.
It seemed that the portrait's eyes happened to fall on Hao Ren again.
The night in the countryside is extremely quiet. The entire Hao family house is still lit with dim candlelight after leaving the ancestral hall at the end of the village. Other villagers have fallen asleep early.
"You're not good at this either. I could beat you in kindergarten at this level."
After a few rounds of poker, Hao Ren was stunned that he didn't win. He didn't know whether it was due to bad luck or because he really didn't know how to play. After just a few rounds, Hao Huai, who was watching on the sidelines, couldn't help but want to play again.
"I told you I couldn't do it, but you didn't believe it." Hao Ren curled his lips and gave up his seat.
"I'm going to walk around as I please. Just watch and don't let the fire in the basin go out."
"It's such a dark night, don't run around." Hao Huai responded, turned around and got stuck in the card game.
As several people talked and laughed, Hao Ren added some paper to the almost extinguished brazier, making the fire light up again.
With his hands in his pockets, Hao Ren was planning to go out for a walk. For some reason, Hao Ren always felt a little depressed.
It was as if he had forgotten something very important.
"this is."
Hao Ren took out a neatly folded piece of white paper from his pocket and spread it out in confusion.
It's a word circled with a red marker.
